http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Clara Smith Friday 30 July
2010
HARARE - Economic inducements and threats of physical harm have
kept
Zimbabwe's judiciary beholden to President Robert Mugabe with the new
coalition government doing nothing to re-establish the integrity of the
compromised bench, international lawyers' groups have said.
The
groups said because of a compromised judiciary coupled with a culture of
impunity among state security agents and inadequate training of judicial
officers the rule of law situation in Zimbabwe remains precarious, 16 months
after Mugabe and former foe Morgan Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing
government.
The unity government that came into office in February
2009 with promises to
fix the economy, uphold democracy and the rule of law
has achieved some
success on the economy. But it has struggled to implement
democratic reforms
and failed to stop lawlessness in the farming sector or
eradicate political
violence that is resurgent in many parts of the
country.
The report released at the weekend but made available to
ZimOnline yesterday
said: "By far the majority of the senior judiciary
remains fundamentally
compromised by state patronage, grants of land and
other gifts given to them
by the former government.
"The present
government has not sought to claw-back such inducements from
the senior
judiciary nor has there been any policy initiative directed at
re-establishing the integrity of the senior judiciary in the eyes of the
public."
The report, titled "A place in the sun; A report on the
state of the rule of
law in Zimbabwe after the Global Political Agreement"
was co-authored by
lawyers' associations and bars from several countries
that toured Zimbabwe
from 24 October to 4 November 2009, the same period
Harare deported United
Nations Special?Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred
Nowak.
Nowak had attempted to visit Zimbabwe to probe the country's jails
where
inmates have died of hunger and opposition politicians have been
tortured.
He was barred from entering Zimbabwe on arrival at Harare
International
Airport.
Some of the more prominent names that were on
the lawyers' mission to
Zimbabwe were General Council of the Bar of England
and Wales chairman
Desmond Browne, Commonwealth Lawyers Association
president Mohamed Husain,
Avocats Sans?Frontières representative Lara
Deramaix.
Other team members were Hans Gaasbeek, the chairman of the Bar
Human Rights
Committee and the bar's project coordinator, Mark Muller.
Jacqueline?Macalesher, and Ijeoma Omambala and Andrew Moran of the English
Bar also visited Zimbabwe.?
To help protect the rights of the public,
the lawyers report called for
increased support for local organisations such
as the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights and the Legal Resources Foundation
that have over the years
defended poorer members of society who would
otherwise not afford legal
representation in the absence of meaningful legal
aid schemes in the
country. ?
The report also acknowledges the role
played by magistrates in defending
basic freedoms and rights of citizens,
noting that many magistrates are
subject to threats, intimidation, arrest
and prosecution when they displease
the authorities.
It cited as an
example the case of a magistrate who was prosecuted for
lawfully granting
bail to Roy Bennett, former white commercial farmer who is
a top ally of
Tsvangirai.
"One interviewee described the magistracy as the unsung
heroes of recent
years," the report said.
Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa was not immediately available for comment
on the report. But
Chinamasa, who is seen as among the hawks in Mugabe's
ZANU PF party, has
previously rejected reports criticising Zimbabwe's human
rights and judicial
record as part of a Western-orchestrated attempt to
tarnish the Zimbabwean
leader's name.
The report's recommendations in brief:
(i) The
culture of impunity on the part of the police and state security
forces
should be ended forthwith. Those suspected of having committed
criminal
offences should be investigated and if appropriate prosecuted
regardless of
their political affiliation?
(ii) The Attorney General and his
representatives should discharge their
duties fairly and impartially and in
the interests of justice. In
particular, the practice of automatic
opposition to bail so as to secure a
further seven days' detention under
section 121 of the Criminal Procedure
and Evidence Act should be
ended.
(iii) A Judicial Services Commission should be formed with a
membership
comprising, inter alia, retired Justices of the Supreme Court and
senior
lawyers. The Commission should be entirely independent of the
executive as
to both its membership and its financing. A
transparent?nominations process
should promote judicial appointments against
agreed criteria based on merit.
(iv) A code of conduct for Judges should
be introduced providing for, ?inter
alia, full and frank disclosure of the
assets of the judges of the High
Court and the Supreme Court over a certain
value (to be set in consultation
with the Judicial Services Commission).
Judges having received property of
any nature from the Government should be
required to return that property
forthwith.
(v) Responsibility for
enforcing the code of conduct for judges should be
vested in the Judicial
Services Commission which should have the power to
discipline judges
including by suspension from office or dismissal in
extreme cases such as
serious misconduct or incapacity.
(vi) The current remuneration of judges
and magistrates should be reviewed
to ensure that salary and benefits are
commensurate with the status and
responsibility of their
office.
(vii) Lawyers should be permitted to practise their profession
without?hindrance, harassment or intimidation.
(viii) The Government
should comply with its obligations under the
SADC?Treaty and accept the
jurisdiction of the SADC Tribunal and give full
faith and credit to
decisions of that Tribunal. If necessary, domestic
legislation should be
brought forward to ensure that decisions of the? SADC
Tribunal are
enforceable directly in Zimbabwe. -- ZimOnline.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Caroline Mvundura Friday 30 July
2010
HARARE - Zimbabwe's main labour union on Thursday said political
meddling
has delayed the naming of a foreign investor needed to help
resuscitate the
state controlled Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO
STEEL).
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) accused the
government of
playing politics while workers who could have benefited from a
quick revival
of the virtually collapsed giant steelmaker needlessly
suffer.
"There is need for potential investors to be viewed as such and
not through
political eyes, we say no to political interference in the
operations of
ZISCO," ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe said as
reports indicated
yesterday that a final foreign bidder for ZISCO stake
could only be
announced in the last quarter of the year.
"Zisco and
its workers have continued to suffer while political fat cats
line their
pockets. The ZCTU demands that government speeds up the processes
of bidding
so that production is restored at ZISCO and the morale of workers
lifted."
Once the region's biggest integrated steelworks outside
South Africa, ZISCO
is tottering on the blink of total collapse due to
mismanagement and
excessive government interference.
A drive by
management to woo a foreign technical partner with muscle to
recapitalise
ZISCO appeared to bear fruit when the world's biggest
steelmaker
AccelorMittal bidded for stake in the Zimbabwean firm.
The bid was turned
down by the Zimbabwean presidency, unhappy at the level
of commitment a deal
with AccelorMittal would mean for the smaller ZISCO.
But the ZCTU said
the government was not acting with urgency required to get
a new investor
who could bankroll ZISCO and save jobs.
The union also criticised
corruption at ZISCO that is seen as the chief
cause of the steel firm's
virtual collapse.
"Thousands of jobs are on the line and the town of
Redcliff (where ZISCO is
based) is slowly dying while the government
dithers.
"It is shocking for the Minister of Industry and Commerce to
reveal that
government is still discussing whom to invite and not to invite
for the
bids. More time will be wasted when the 'selected' bidders are
referred to
the three principals purportedly for approval," said the ZCTU. -
ZimOnline.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Caroline Mvundura Thursday 29 July
2010
HARARE - The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
said on
Wednesday that it was working with local communities in Zimbabwe to
combat
HIV/AIDS in the southern African country.
Zimbabwe is among a
few sub-Saharan countries to bring down HIV infection
rates from more than
25 percent four years ago to 13.75 percent of the
population, according to
the latest available figures released last
December.
But the pandemic
remains a major killer in a country where the public health
sector and the
economy are still struggling to shake off the effects of a
decade of
recession and political strife.
Speaking from the remote north-western
Binga rural district where the CDC
was holding workshops for community
volunteers providing HIV/AIDS support
services, the organisation's deputy
director for Zimbabwe, Gretchen Cowman,
said the workshops were meant to
help villagers cope with the disease.
"Our support aims to build capacity
of provincial implementing partners who
are themselves community AIDS
service organisations and People Living with
HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) support
groups in the delivery of HIV related services
and initiatives, to
strengthen appropriate coping mechanisms among
vulnerable groups," Cowman
said.
The workshops in Binga and Victoria Falls targeted 30 home based
caregivers
and peer educators based in the Matabeleland North
province.
The CDC working with local partners has also held similar
training workshops
in the provinces of Manicaland, Masvingo, Mashonaland
East, Midlands and in
Harare.
During the Binga workshop training,
participants went through sessions on
understanding HIV and AIDS,
counselling, nutrition guidelines, treatment
issues, and handling
disclosure. They discussed cultural issues affecting
the prevention of the
spread of HIV.
James Munkuli, a home based caregiver based in Kariangwe,
80 km south of
Binga rural business centre, said in his village there was
still a lot of
stigma attached to HIV/AIDS, adding that local cultural
practices and
prejudices continued to present immense challenges to efforts
to raise
awareness and prevent the spread of the disease.
"Early
marriages, wife inheritance (by male relatives of a man who dies
living
behind a wife), and resistance to the use of condoms are still
challenges in
the prevention of HIV in my district, but our peer education
programs are
beginning to bear fruit," said Munkuli, who heads a home based
care group in
Kariangwe.
Munkuli said he hoped to train 18 other caregivers from his
area.
Munkuli and 80 other volunteers in Zimbabwe's six provinces will
undergo
similar training in the future until they attain level three
training
certification.
At this stage, he and the trainers will be
able to implement a holistic HIV
management methodology that entails
nutrition counseling, psychosocial
support through counseling, stress
management, ART adherence, and
alternative therapies. - ZimOnline.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
30 July, 2010 03:52:00 Alexander
Chigumira
A State witness in fresh charges of assault brought against
embattled
businessman Temba Mliswa said he withdrew his case against him and
was
surprised to have been summoned to court said he withdrew his case
against
him and was surprised to have been summoned to court.
This came
out at the Karoi Magistrates' Courts where Mliswa appeared to
answer to
eight counts of assault and one of pointing a firearm at someone.
Mliswa
was yesterday expected to appear before a Harare magistrate for his
bail
ruling in a case in which, he is facing fraud charges involving US$3,5
million that was allegedly extended to him in a loan facility by the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe.
However, the ruling was deferred because he had to
appear before Karoi
magistrate Mr Elisha Singano for what should be a
fast-track trial.
Mr Singano remanded him in custody to today for
continuation of trial and is
locked up at Karoi Police
Station.
Prosecutor Mr Simon Tapiwa alleges that sometime in March 2007,
Mliswa
assaulted his farm workers over missing property.
He is also
alleged to have pointed a firearm at a witness who threatened to
report the
matter.
State witness Tawanda Kamuna, a former security guard at Mliswa's
farm, said
the businessman assaulted him and his colleagues on the buttocks
and he
sustained serious injuries requiring an operation.
During
cross-examination by defence counsel Mr Charles Chinyama, Kamuna
conceded
that he had withdrawn the matter after coming to an agreement with
Mliswa.
"I later agreed with the accused that he was going to pay for
my hospital
bills and I withdrew the charges," he said.
Asked how the
matter came to court when he had withdrawn it, he said: "I was
approached by
two policemen whom I don't know from here, but they came with
summons for me
to come to court."
He said he had made his report at Karoi Police Station
and he had withdrawn
the matter at the same station after deposing an
affidavit. He identified
two detectives based in Harare in the gallery after
he was asked if he still
knew the policemen who served him with
summons.
Mliswa is also facing charges of extortion at the same court
after he
allegedly approached the owner of Magororo Mine claiming that he
was an
aspiring legislator for that area. He allegedly demanded US$3 000 and
use of
a truck to "protect" the mine.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Robert Mugabe's
younger sister and close political ally has died following a
long battle
with an undisclosed illness.
By Aislinn Laing and Peta Thornycroft in
Johannesburg
Published: 9:41PM BST 29 Jul 2010
The 76-year-old
former politician, Sabina, was the closest to Mugabe of his
three surviving
siblings and her death will come as a major blow to the
president, who is
known to have few close friends.
A former seamstress with little formal
education, she was according to those
who knew her, proof of how Mugabe
looked after his own after he took control
of the newly-independent Zimbabwe
in 1980.
She became a Zanu-PF MP shortly after he was elected, and is
said to have
benefitted personally from his land reforms which saw hundreds
of white
farmers killed, beaten and forced off their land by so-called war
veterans.
She was known for driving around the countryside in an official
black
Mercedes Benz limousine exhorting black squatters to grab white
farmland for
themselves and was implicated in the seizure of 55-year-old
Terry Ford's
farm in Norton, around 25 miles southwest of Harare.
Mr
Ford was beaten and shot dead in 2002 - his aged Jack Russell Squeak's
refusal to move from his body added a poignant detail that saw the case make
international headlines.
According to Mr Ford's cousin, Miss Mugabe
had told him she wanted him to
sign over to her a cottage on his land,
adding: "My brother's the President
and if you don't do it then heads will
roll'."
Miss Mugabe's sons have also benefited from their uncle's long
reign. Leo
Mugabe served as a Zanu-PF MP and chairman of the Zimbabwe
Football
Association while Patrick Zhuwao was a controversial Zanu PF youth
director
and MP.
She suffered a stroke in 2007 - the same year that
her brother Donato died
from heart problems, diabetes and hypertension - and
retired from politics
in 2008. She was admitted to hospital five days ago
but the nature of her
illness has not been disclosed.
Heidi Holland,
a journalist and author of *Dinner with Mugabe*, said Sabina
had been taken
in by the Silveira House Catholic seminary when her brother
was fighting
former Rhodesian leader Ian Smith's forces from his base in
Mozambique.
"She had, compared to him, virtually no education and she
worked as a
seamstress for them, helping to run classes," she
said.
"She was quite a humble woman and easy to chat to, albeit not very
articulate. People who had known her well during that time said that when
Mugabe came to power she seemed to become a rather different
person.
"She was certainly proof that Mugabe looked after his own when it
came to
the distribution of assets. They were very very close - he will be
distraught about this."
Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said Sabina
Mugabe will be buried at Heroes
Acre, a national shrine for loyalist
politicians and fallen guerrillas from
the liberation war.
Mugabe was
expected to address mourners at his sister's home in Harare
yesterday
evening.
http://www1.voanews.com/
Joshua
Nkomo's family and former liberation comrades say putting his statue
at the
Karigamombe Center - the Shona phrase means 'he who fells the bull by
its
horns,' - is insulting because the symbol of his ZAPU party was a
bull
Blessing Zulu & Patience Rusere 29 July 2010
The family
of the late Zimbabwean Vice President Joshua Nkomo and ZANU-PF
are at
loggerheads over a proposal to raise a statue of the national
liberation
leader at a colonial-era building in central Harare.
The politburo of
President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF told the Harare City
Council to erect the
Nkomo statue at the Karigamombe Center, a
pre-liberation structure
previously called the Piccadilly Building.
But Nkomo's first daughter
Thandiwe Nkomo-Ebrahim told the Newsday daily
newspaper that the family is
unhappy with the location. The Nkomo family and
members of the Zimbabwe
African People's Union or ZAPU party Nkomo led until
its merger with ZANU in
1987, forming ZANU-PF, say putting the statue at
Karigamombe, a Shona phrase
that means "he who fells the bull by its horns,"
is insulting because the
bull was ZAPU's symbol.
Critics say that is a thinly veiled reference to
ZANU's domination of ZAPU
following the so-called Gukurahundi internal
conflict of the 1980s in which
ZAPU and ZANU elements battled each other
after black majority rule was
established in 1980 and colonial Rhodesia
became the independent Republic of
Zimbabwe.
Nkomo loyalists say it
is additionally insulting that the statue was made in
North Korea, which
trained the infamous Five Brigade which rampaged through
Matabeleland in the
1980s as the Gukurahundi - "the early rain which washes
away the chaff
before the spring rains" - unfolded and thousands of
civilians were
massacred.
Meanwhile, the building's owner, the Mining Industry Pension
Fund, has taken
the city council to court to oppose the taking of the space
for the statue,
saying it had planned to build a food court on the
location.
Spokesman Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change
headed by
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told VOA Studio 7 reporter
Blessing Zulu
his party was never consulted about the statue or its
location.
ZANU-PF politburo member Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, a former minister
of
information, declined to comment.
ZAPU Chairman Dumiso Dabengwa, a
former close aide to Nkomo as intelligence
chief of the ZIPRA armed wing of
ZAPU, said he did not know where the idea
of putting up the statue of Nkomo
came from.
Observers said the controversy shows that the rivalries and
tensions between
ZANU and ZAPU did not end with the signature of the 1987
unity accord that
ended the Gukurahundi fighting. Recent years have seen a
revival of ZAPU
with numerous defections from ZANU-PF and an upsurge in
regional aspirations
within Matabeleland.
So it did not take much to
spark angry exchanges over an unfortunate
municipal siting
decision.
For perspective on the ZANU-ZAPU war of words, VOA reporter
Patience Rusere
turned to Gordon Chavhunduka, former vice chancellor of the
university of
Zimbabwe and president of the Zimbabwe National Traditional
Healers
Association, and Thamsaqa Zhou, secretary of the ZAPU branch in the
United
Kingdom.
Chavhunduka said the word "Karigamombe" evokes
President Mugabe's triumph
over Nkomo in the 1980s. Zhou said the proposed
location opened many old
wounds among former ZAPU members.
http://www1.voanews.com/
Health Minister Henry Madzorera said the idea of eliminating
maternal care
fees was reinforced at the recent African Union summit in
Uganda where
leaders pledged a sharper focus on maternal and infant
health
Sandra Nyaira | Washington 29 July 2010
The Zimbabwean
Ministry of Health has announced that it plans to do away
with hospital and
clinic fees for pregnant women in a bid to reduce maternal
deaths,
particularly in rural communities, and has also resolved to
establish
maternity waiting homes, again emphasizing improved maternal
health care in
the countryside.
The ministry will look to international donors to help
fund such new
policies and amenities for expectant mothers.
Health
Minister Henry Madzorera said the idea of eliminating maternal care
fees was
reinforced at the recent African Union summit in Uganda where
leaders
pledged a sharper focus on maternal, newborn and child health by
committing
15 percent of the national budgets to health while exploring
public private
partnerships to bolster care.
African leaders at the summit said the
continent will not be able to meet
the Millennium Development Goal on infant
and maternal health if increased
financial resources are not made
available.
The AU appealed to donors who will gather in October at the
annual meeting
of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to
extend the
fund's support to child and maternal health.
The
additional money would be spent on strengthening public health systems
with
a focus on primary health care, family planning, improved
infrastructure and
the training of additional community health workers.
http://www1.voanews.com
Tobacco production and sales went into a slide after President
Robert Mugabe
launched fast-track land reform in 2000 through the often
violent seizure of
white-owned commercial farms
Gibbs Dube |
Washington 29 July 2010
Tobacco sales in Zimbabwe so far this year have
reached 100 million
kilograms, beating the official target of 77 million
kilograms set before
the selling season opened, and could mount to 120
million kilograms,
industry sources said.
Tobacco Industry and
Marketing Board Chief Executive Njodzi Machirori said
sales of tobacco leaf
have brought in US$297 million, nearly double sales in
2009 when the sector
was reeling from a decade of land reform.
Machirori told VOA Studio 7
reporter Gibbs Dube that while Zimbabwe is still
far from the record 236
million kilograms sold in 2000, there are signs that
sales of tobacco will
advance further in 2011.
"We are currently receiving one million
kilograms of tobacco a day from
farmers and indications are that the next
season will surpass this year's
targets," said Machirori. He attributed the
high output to high tobacco
prices, early marketing of the national crop and
stabilization of the
economy by the unity government in place since February
2009.
Tobacco has traditionally been a major source of hard currency
earnings for
Zimbabwe.
Tobacco production and sales went into a slide
after President Robert Mugabe
launched fast-track land reform in 2000
through the often violent seizure of
white-owned commercial farms by
liberation war veterans.
Many so-called new farmers have turned from
maize and other cereals to
tobacco for the hard currency income - but the
widespread use of charcoal
for tobacco drying has devastated many wooded
areas in the country.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 20:54
POLITICAL principals
of the inclusive government have cleared many of the
outstanding issues -
except three which include the swearing-in of Roy
Bennett and the
controversial appointments of Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono and
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana - in an unexpected move towards
the
resolution of the current inter-party negotiations deadlock.
Informed
sources said after their meeting on June 8, President Robert
Mugabe, Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara wrote
to South African President Jacob Zuma, the Sadc facilitator
on inter-party
negotiations, outlining areas of agreement and disagreement.
While
the parties themselves initially claimed the principals made no
progress in
their discussion of the negotiators' report, it has now emerged
that the
leaders actually took dramatic steps forward by agreeing on a raft
of issues
on the talks agenda which had remained unresolved.
Mutambara, leader of
MDC-M, last night confirmed that the principals wrote a
letter to Zuma, but
refused to discuss the contents of the document.
"I can confirm we wrote to
President Zuma on June 10 but as you know I
cannot discuss the contents and
details of that communication with the
media," Mutambara said. "Those
communications are confidential and we cannot
talk about them in public or
in the media."
Zuma this week sent his special envoy Mac Maharaj to
Harare to meet with
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara in a bid to finalise
the remaining
issues ahead of the Sadc summit in Windhoek on August 16-17.
Maharaj met the
three principals on Wednesday. Zuma himself may come to
Harare before the
Sadc meeting to make a final push.
There was a long
list of items on the agenda of the last round of talks. The
issues included
the swearing-in of Roy Bennett, appointment of provincial
governors,
appointment of Johannes Tomana as Attorney-General and Gideon
Gono as
Reserve Bank governor, sanctions, media subjects on "pirate" radio
stations,
hate speech and bias, rule of law, review of ministerial
allocations, land
matters to do with auditing of the reform programme,
tenure systems and
compensation, electoral vacancies, chairing of cabinet
and council of
ministers, ministerial mandates, transport arrangements for
principals,
staff and security for principals, vote and budget,
communication among
principals, security for deputy prime ministers,
security for ministers,
parallel government, external interference, national
economic council,
constitutional commissions, national heroes, national
security issues,
security sector reform, compliance with the National
Security Council Act,
respect for national institutions and events, role and
reform of the public
and private media, role of and position of the
Permanent Secretary in the
Ministry of Media and Information, constitutional
amendment No 19,
allocation of ambassadors, interference in the freedoms of
assembly and
association, role and funding of NGOs, multi-trust donor fund,
politicisation of humanitarian assistance, selective funding of
elements/ministries by donors and amendments to the Electoral
Act.
After negotiators finished their talks in April, which had started
in
November last year, principals met in June and agreed on a series of
issues
except for three.
Dumisani Muleya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 20:50
A
POLITICAL storm is gathering over the Southern African Development
Community
(Sadc) on whether Zimbabwe should be on the agenda of the regional
bloc's
forthcoming summit in Windhoek, Namibia, next month.
Diplomatic sources
said this week the potential row pits President Robert
Mugabe's Sadc allies
against those who support Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Mugabe
usually resists having Zimbabwe on the agenda of such meetings, while
Tsvangirai wants it to be discussed.
A similar battle erupted last year
just before the Sadc summit in Kinshasa
on September
7-8.
Mugabe is said to have an edge on the issue as the incoming
Sadc chair,
Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, is his ally just like
current chair,
DRC President Joseph Kabila. Throughout his one-year tenure,
Kabila did not
significantly step up efforts to resolve the Zimbabwe
situation. He was not
even there at the extraordinary summit of the Sadc
organ on politics,
defence and security in Maputo on November 5 last year
although he later
attended the double troika of Sadc heads of state and
government in Maputo
on January 14. Madagascar and Zimbabwe were discussed
at that summit.
Kabila only sent his special envoy for Sadc affairs Leon
Jean Ilunga Ngandu
to Harare.
Zimbabwe has moved into the Sadc spotlight
and up the agenda ahead of the
bloc's summit in Windhoek from August 16-17
because of the endless power
struggles within the inclusive government and
its failure to fulfil the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) which led to the
formation of the coalition
regime last year in February.
Ministers
connected to the directorate of the organ on politics, defence and
security
meet in Maputo from August 3-6 to discuss the regional situation
and prepare
for the Sadc summit. Zimbabwe could use that platform to ensure
nothing is
discussed about Harare affairs in Windhoek.
To show that he was no longer
under regional pressure, a top Sadc diplomat
said Mugabe was actually
pushing to either go into the troika of the organ
on politics, defence and
security or the troika of the summit which would
then allow him to host the
next Sadc meeting.
Mugabe was humiliated in 2002 after a disputed
presidential election when
Sadc leaders refused to allow him to host their
summit due to the political
and economic crisis engulfing the country.
Tanzania stepped in and hosted
the summit in 2003.
Sources said
Zimbabwe could be removed from the Sadc summit agenda which
includes
Madagascar and Lesotho. The Democratic Republic of Congo situation
is also
on the Sadc radar.
"There is an attempt by Mugabe and his allies to
ensure Zimbabwe is not on
the Sadc summit agenda," a top Sadc diplomat said.
"The pretext being used
is that the economic and political situation has now
stabilised.
"The other excuse is that the political principals of the
inclusive
government resolved a number of outstanding issues last month.
However, the
problem is now the issue of the appointment of new
ambassadors."
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara last month
discussed the report of their political party
negotiators and compiled their
own report outlining areas of agreement and
disagreement. The report, sent
to Zuma, indicated that most of the
outstanding issues had been dealt with
except three - the swearing-in of Roy
Bennett and the appointment of Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono and
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana.
However, just as progress was being
made, Mugabe pulled a shocker last week
when he re-assigned diplomats at the
country's foreign missions in different
countries without consulting
Tsvangirai as required by the GPA. This
followed a similar appointment of
judges without consultation.
Mugabe made at least seven diplomatic
appointments without consulting
Tsvangirai despite the fact that the
constitution now requires him to make
"key appointments" in terms of the
constitution and any Act of Parliament
"in consultation with" the prime
minister.
The issue of whether Zimbabwe would be on the agenda in
Windhoek would be a
test of diplomatic savvy between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai.
Mugabe and his allies last year succeeded in getting Zimbabwe off
the
official agenda in Kinshasa although South African President Jacob Zuma,
as
Sadc chairperson, raised the issue in his official opening address behind
closed doors and in a briefing with journalists at his presidential guest
house quarters after the meeting.
Zuma's push led to the holding of
an extraordinary Sadc troika of the organ
on politics defence and security
meeting in Maputo on November 5 last year
to discuss the Zimbabwe issue. The
meeting saved the inclusive government
from collapse after the MDC-T had
withdrawn from government, citing Mugabe's
refusal to address outstanding
GPA issues.
The need to finalise the remaining issues and the appointment
of ambassadors
prompted Zuma to dispatch his special envoy, Mac Maharaj, to
Harare this
week to meet Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara to try to resolve
the disputed
issues.
Maharaj met the principals on Wednesday.
Tsvangirai's spokesman James
Maridadi confirmed the meeting.
Mutambara
was unable to comment yesterday as he was in a meeting. Mugabe's
spokesman
George Charamba yesterday said he was unable to comment because he
has been
away at a funeral. Yesterday he was at another funeral, that of
Mugabe's
sister, Sabina who died early yesterday morning.
Sources said because the
Zimbabwe issue is looming large before the Sadc
summit, Zuma himself could
visit Harare unless Maharaj brought back positive
news.
Zuma was
expected to return to Harare to finalise the remaining issues after
the
African Union summit in Kampala, Uganda, this week.
Zuma was in Harare two
weeks ago to pay his condolences to his in-laws, the
family of one of the
negotiators, Professor Welshman Ncube, who recently
lost his father. Zuma's
daughter is married to Ncube's son.
During his visit Zuma also paid a
courtesy call on Mugabe where he
apparently indicated he might come back for
business before the Sadc
summit. - Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010
19:48
ZIMBABWE'S cotton players have taken steps to stop a Chinese firm
from using
political muscle to clandestinely purchase cotton from farmers
contracted by
local industry.
In court papers lodged with the High
Court, the Cotton Ginners Association
of Zimbabwe (CGAZ) accused
Sino-Zimbabwe Holdings of using "political
gurus" - including Zanu PF
ministers and party youths - to buy the crop
from farmers contracted with
members of the CGAZ.
The CGAZ represents the interests of local companies
involved in the
production and buying of seed cotton as well as the ginning
and marketing of
the crop.
Sino-Zimbabwe rejects the claims that it
is using political influence to
hijack local firms' investments with farmers
as misleading the court.
Sino-Zimbabwe is accused of working with politicians
to reap "where it did
not sow", by inducing farmers to ditch CGAZ members
who paid for inputs for
farmers under special contracts.
The
company's actions are allegedly in violation of statutory instruments
gazetted last year to regulate trading of the crop.
CGAZ made an urgent
application on July 16 to the High Court to stop
Sino-Zimbabwe from using
what the organisation said amounted to unfair
business practice.
High
Court judge Lavender Makoni, however, on Wednesday dismissed the CGAZ
application as not urgent.
In his founding affidavit, CGAZ
director-general Godfrey Burumbo-Buka
represented by Scanlen &
Holderness law firm accused Sino-Zimbabwe Holdings
of buying cotton at
inflated prices from growers who signed contracts with
CGAZ members
throughout the country.
The organisation, which includes firms such as
Cotton Company of Zimbabwe
and Quton, say because of the political
interference, the police had become
"hopeless" and could not be relied upon
to take action.
Among those named in the CGAZ court papers are Minister
of Indigenisation
Saviour Kasukuwere, Minister of Infrastructure and
Transport Nicholas Goche,
Zanu PF Mashonaland Central provincial chairman
and MP for Mt Darwin North
Dickson Mafios, and Police Assistant Commissioner
Martin Kwainona.
They are accused of spearheading Sino-Zimbabwe
operations.
Buka said Sino-Zimbabwe Holdings was operating in Gokwe,
Kadoma, Mhangura,
Mount Darwin, Bindura, Guruve, Mutoko and
Raffingora.
An annexure to CGAZ court papers alleges that Sino-Zimbabwe
Holdings
"invaded" Cotton Company of Zimbabwe's Bindura business unit on
July 4 with
the help of politicians.
"These include Honourable
Kasukuwere who had a meeting at Tabex in early
July updating the farmers of
the coming in of a better paying company. This
was followed with a series of
meetings from Mr Goche at Madziva, MP Mafios
at Mukumbura (Kamutsenzere
area) and Kwainona at Bveke," read the court
papers.
"The permanent
presence of Mr Kwainona (Presidential bodyguard) at Bveke
resulted in it
being the epicentre of the resistance and spilled into all
other areas in Mt
Darwin and Rushinga."
CGAZ alleged that the situation was worsening in
Raffingora and Guruve.
"The community and the party (Zanu PF) have taken
charge of the cotton
business. They continue to operate away from the common
buying points and
their points are a no go area as they are guarded by
youths. The police are
hopeless as they are literally seen moving in
Sino-Zimbabwe trucks.
Police claim they cannot do anything as they are still
waiting to be advised
of a way forward from the top.
"In supporting
the farmers, members (of CGAZ) have spent considerable
financial and
technical resources as part of an investment in the industry.
In return the
applicant's members are contractually and legally entitled to
purchase the
cotton seed from the farmers," argued Buka.
He said that the contracted
growers were obliged to sell their cotton seed
to the company that supported
them in terms of the contracts and in terms of
Section 14 of Statutory
Instrument 142 of 2009.
Members of CGAZ are all signed up as contractors
and buyers with the Cotton
Marketing Technical Committee in terms of the
law.
The provisions of the law state that seed cotton produced by a grower in
terms of a contract with a company can only be sold to the contracted
company.
"Respondent is blatantly violating the law and
inducing the
contracted growers to breach their contracts with
applicant's
members. It is openly buying cotton seed from contracted
growers
who have contracts with applicant's members," reads the court
papers.
"It is clear from the reports that respondent is
violating the
law by buying cotton seed from contracted farmers,
emptying seed
packs provided by applicant's members, and not grading
the cotton
seed being purchased."
Buka said attempts by the Cotton
Marketing Technical Committee, which wrote
a letter to Sino-Zimbabwe on July
7 and conducted a hearing with Sino
Zimbabwe on July 9 "to stop its illegal
acts" have been unsuccessful.
Sino Zimbabwe Holdings, however, rubbished
CGAZ's accusations, arguing in an
opposing affidavit that the applicant "is
scared of competition" and was
abusing the courts.
Director Jimmy
Zerenie said Sino-Zimbabwe Holdings had "not induced anyone"
to do business
with it and had not purchased any contracted cotton.
"The applicant has
various other remedies available to it which includes but
not limited to
suing for breach of contract if there is such a breach
between applicant and
its contracted farmers."
"The First respondent has not induced any
contracted growers to breach the
law. If anything, the first respondent has
complied with the law and has
operated in a very transparent way," read
Zerenie's affidavit.
He said the application was misleading the court and
that there was no
evidence placed before the court to substantiate the
allegations of
political interference.
"The respondent has not
committed any criminal offence, hence the police
have not acted on the
report," said Zerenie who is represented by Chinamasa,
Mudimu & Dondo
legal practitioners.
Wongai Zhangazha
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:48
A
GOVERNMENT decision to police non-governmental organisations working in
Zimbabwe threatens future support from Western countries whose funds have
been critical in curbing humanitarian disasters, a top diplomat has
said.
Regional Integration and International Cooperation minister
Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said the government last week told donors
and
ambassadors from donor countries that they should inform government of
their
activities, total funding into the country and the non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) that they were working with.
But the United
States (US), which is one of Zimbabwe's biggest donors,
warned yesterday
that such a move would be disastrous, mainly because it was
not practical to
make such demands when donors were doing their best under
the current
environment where their options were limited due to restrictions
levelled
against some people in the inclusive government.
However,
Misihairabwi-Mushonga insisted that donors and NGOs should abide by
the
rules and regulations government has set out for donor
funding.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, who chairs the recently set up Government
Development
Forum in which 10 ministers sit with donors and ambassadors to
discuss
policy and problematic issues regarding donor funding, said
government
should be the dominant player in aid co-ordination and
aid-distribution.
She said she would soon be compiling a database of the
total number of
donors and the NGOs in the country, programmes that they
finance, size and
quantity of funding and the criteria they use to select
their beneficiaries.
"It is the government that defines where aid should
go. We now require
everyone in the country to inform us about their aid
work, how much they are
spending and which areas they are working on. Right
now we don't know and
are not sure who is doing what or working with whom
and through which NGOs,"
said Misihairabwi-Mushonga.
However, US
Ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray told the Zimbabwe Independent
yesterday
that he did not believe in a government dictating rules on how
they should
operate, adding that what worked at the moment, because of the
restrictions
on Zimbabwe, was to channel aid through NGOs or directly to
communities.
"We try to put aid where it's most effective, and I
don't believe having a
rule that says everything must be one way or another.
As it stands right now
the bulk of our aid goes directly to communities and
goes through NGOs," he
said.
"The essential philosophy of US aid and
the way I influence wherever I work
is. I refuse to have someone write a set
of rules and tell me that I must
follow those rules, I look for what
works."
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said what they are doing is the accepted
norm in any
country in the world.
"They have to know that they are
dealing with a country which has a
government and they will have to follow
certain rules. They can't just
operate in this country the way they
want.
Faith Zaba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:45
DELAYS
in conducting constitution-making process outreach programmes in
Harare have
heightened tension between supporters of rival political
parties, a local
peace advocacy group has warned.
In its latest report on human rights
violations, Zimbabwe Peace Project
(ZPP) said President Robert Mugabe's Zanu
PF and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's MDC parties have increased
campaigns, resulting in a tense
situation.
"Despite the fact that
Copac (Constitutional Parliamentary Committee) has
suspended outreach
meetings in Harare and Bulawayo, politically motivated
violations were
recorded in many constituencies around the capital city,"
read the ZPP
report for June released this week. "The delays by Copac in
rolling out the
outreach programme for Harare have resulted in more tensions
between
political party supporters over the constitution-making process."
The
report noted that supporters from both Zanu PF and the MDC had been
named as
perpetrators, although the MDC provided a higher number of victims.
ZPP,
which employs observers countrywide to record cases of human rights
violations, said Zanu PF youths, liberation war veterans still loyal to
Mugabe and security agents were allegedly behind a wave of violence and
rights violations in Mashonaland Central, Midlands, Masvingo, Manicaland and
Mashonaland East provinces.
In June alone ZPP recorded 1 174 victims
of human rights violations. Most of
the violations, ZPP said, were directly
linked to the constitution-making
process outreach programme.
The
report stated that violations by party affiliation showed that MDC-T
supporters had their rights violated more, representing 53% of the
victims.
"Most of the violations that were recorded during the month under
review
happened during the outreach meetings. The violations have been
mainly
before the outreach meetings where villagers would be told to support
certain positions and coached on what to say when the Copac teams arrive,"
reads the ZPP report. "ZPP reports from monitors also point to retributive
violations where people are interrogated and harassed for not heeding the
calls to support certain political party positions at the outreach
meetings."
Zanu PF, the ZPP report noted, had set up campaign camps
manned by
liberation war veterans in areas such as Mugadza in Headlands and
Matezwa
village in Chipinge.
This has raised fears that violence on
the magnitude of the 2008 turmoil
that Tsvangirai says killed
200 of his
supporters could be organised from these camps.
"Cases of arson and
malicious injury to property were also reported in
Hwedza and Murehwa. Most
of the violations that were recorded have been
concentrated in the areas of
Chikomba, Marondera, Goromonzi, Mudzi, Hwedza
and Murehwa," said ZPP.
"Violations related to revenge and retributive
violence for disturbances
that were recorded during the 2008 election
continues to be recorded in many
districts of Masvingo and the most affected
areas are Zaka, Bikita,
Chiredzi, Chibi, Gutu and Mwenezi."
Southern provinces of Bulawayo and
Matabeleland North and South were calm
during the month under review with
very few violations recorded, noted ZPP.
The organisation said cases of
politically-motivated violations were
recorded in Harare and Bulawayo even
though the outreach programme was yet
to start in the two main
cities.
It said since 2008, 43 933 human rights violations have been
recorded while
the cumulative toll of violations on the distribution of food
and other
forms of aid since January 2008 has risen to 10 986.
Cases
of rights violations continued to increase because of political
leaders'
lack of will to encourage peace among their grassroots supporters,
the
report said.
MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa's mobile phone went
unanswered yesterday
while Zanu PF secretary for information and publicity
Rugare Gumbo could not
comment, saying he was in a meeting at the time of
going to press
yesterday.- Staff writer
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:45
MDC-T
president Morgan Tsvangirai is expected in Matabeleland this weekend
to deal
with feuds that threaten his party's ability to defend its
stronghold in the
region.
Party officials from Matabeleland invited Tsvangirai after
failing to solve
differences among themselves, according to information
gathered by the
Zimbabwe Independent.
Matabeleland North provincial
director of elections David Nyathi confirmed
that Tsvangirai was scheduled
for an urgent provincial council meeting
tomorrow.
He, however,
denied the special caucus was called to iron out thorny issues
affecting the
party.
"It's a routine meeting. It's more of a mobilisation meeting. It
has nothing
to do with problems in MDC," said Nyathi.
But party sources
from the region said the battle for control of party
structures pitting
MDC-T organising secretary Elias Mudzuri and his deputy
Morgan Komichi had
spilled over to Matabeleland.
Sources said the MDC-T was on a
restructuring exercise starting from
district to provincial level ahead of
the party's elective congress next
year.
Sources in Matabeleland North
told the Independent this week that Tsvangirai
would meet members of the
provincial council on Saturday to find a lasting
solution to the problems
bedevilling the party.
The provincial council meeting, sources said,
would focus on building
bridges between camps aligned to Komichi and Mudzuri
in the region.
Komichi, who used to live in Hwange, but is now based at MDC-T
headquarters
in Harare, allegedly engineered the election of Sengezo
Tshabangu as
Matabeleland North chairman after ousting Charles
Ncube.
MDC-T insiders said Komichi blocked Ncube from being chairman in
May last
year allegedly in revenge for Ncube's role in barring the deputy
organising
secretary from contesting the 2008 elections as Hwange Central
Member of the
House of Assembly.
"The faction linked to Mudzuri has
on five different occasions tried to push
Tshabangu out but they failed,"
one of the sources said. "Komichi is
vindictive against Ncube because he
accuses him of bringing Brian Tshuma to
stand for Hwange Central in the 2008
March elections. Officials in Hwange
are particular about the influence of
locals; Nambians. They don't want
other tribes to take up influential
positions."
Matabeleland North treasurer Richard Lowe and information
secretary
Marguirite Varlley, who are said to be behind the party's
fundraising in the
province, are aligned to Mudzuri, according to the
sources.
The sources said Tsvangirai was invited to deal with the
problems in
Matabeleland North to allow for a smooth restructuring
exercise.
The MDC-T leader, the sources said, was also expected to visit
Midlands
South and Matabeleland South in an effort to fight factionalism
that has
rocked the party.
"The party national chairman Lovemore Moyo
came to Matabeleland North in
April, but failed to solve the dispute. Our
hope is in Tsvangirai to bring
sanity in party structures," said another
source.
Komichi denied that there was bad blood between him and
Mudzuri.
"I am not aware of that. In fact it's not true," he said this
week.
Mudzuri also dismissed the reports, saying he was focusing more on
building
the party than entertaining conflicts.
The former Energy
minister said: "That's not true. My purpose is to build
the party and we are
not intending to have certain provincial chairpersons
or any official to be
fired from the party.
"I would not call what we intend to do as
restructuring, but its
confirmation of structures. We will be auditing the
structures and make sure
party members are active," he said.
Asked
about the Saturday meeting on Wednesday, party's spokesperson Nelson
Chamisa
said he was not at liberty to discuss "internal issues".
Brian Chitemba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:35
TOP female
politicians from Zanu PF and the two MDC formations have put
their
differences aside to set up a women's investment trust fund aimed at
economically empowering women.
The trust will see disenfranchised
women buying into the investment trust
fund through broad-based
shareholding.
Regional Integration and International Cooperation minister
Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga (MDC-M), Co-Home Affairs minister Theresa
Makone
(MDC-T) and Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development
minister
Olivia Muchena (Zanu PF) will form the board of trustees and they
plan to
launch in two to three weeks.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga told
Zimbabwe Independent this week that the trust
fund would portray the
inclusivity in government.
"Women will buy into the trust fund and this is in
line with the
indigenisation theme. As women we don't have resources and we
never
participate in the economy as individuals, so we will pool our money
together and buy into it," she said.
"If government decides to
privatise or commercialise, then we can say we
want to buy a stake in those
companies. We then go and buy shares. We can
buy into areas that are
pro-women and we would want to end up going into
real estate or any other
area."
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said the trust would be run like the Women's
Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold), which is an investment and
operating group owned by black women in South Africa.
Wiphold was
established in 1995 with seed capital of R500 000 and in 1999
became the
first women's group to be listed on the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange. It
de-listed in 2003 in order to increase the economic ownership
of black women
in the company.
From a boutique investment fund, Wiphold quickly
established itself as one
the key drivers of economic empowerment and one of
the movers and shakers in
the South African financial services
sector.
The trustees, she said, were talking to big banks like the
African
Development Bank asking them to match dollar for dollar of whatever
amount
the trust fund would have raised.
"We as trustees won't touch
the money, but will help with where to invest
the money or where investment
opportunities exist," Misihairabwi-Mushonga
said.
Faith Zaba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:32
WITHOUT a clue
of what is on for supper, 16-year old Trevor Chipinda sits on
the
collapsing verandah of the home he inherited from his late parents in
Masvingo's low-income suburb of Mucheke.
When some of his age-mates
are probably busy with schoolwork, or nagging
their parents for new
clothes and gadgets, Trevor has to contend with
playing parent to his
brother Henry and niece Pamela Motsi, both 15.
His parents died within
three years of each other, forcing him to abandon a
promising academic
career because not only did school fees become
unaffordable, but a
responsibility to work for the family came calling.
Passing time on
little-paying odd jobs, Trevor is only too grateful for the
regular donation
of sugar beans handed out to orphans and vulnerable groups
such as his
family and the elderly by an international aid organisation
working in the
area.
Sixteen months after the formation of the coalition government with
so much
promise, Zimbabwe's children - in many instances forced by
circumstances to
play adult - provide one of the clearest examples of
President Robert Mugabe
and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's
failures.
As the two long-time rivals and now partners in an uncomfortable
and tense
coalition government wrangle over how to share power, children
have been
left vulnerable to the administration's failure to deliver on
social
services.
"I am the one who leads the family and we largely
survive on handouts from
NGO's and church," he says shyly. "My father died
in 2008. My mother passed
away in 2005. It was very difficult to adjust to
the situation. I knew that
life was never going to be the same again as I
was left with a big
responsibility."
Trevor's case is only one in
Zimbabwe's growing phenomenon of child-headed
families.
According to
Unicef, there are over 50 000 child-headed families in
Zimbabwe.
Tsitsi Singizi, Unicef communications officer for Zimbabwe,
says an average
of 100 000 children are living without parental care and
supervision.
"Without a doubt most of the child-headed households are a
consequence of
HIV and Aids," she said. "The loss of a parent has serious
consequences for
a child's access to basic necessities. Often in these
households food
shortages are chronic, clothing is a luxury and basic health
and education
are severely limited, as these children struggle for
survival."
Unicef has been central in capacitating and rehabilitating
children ravaged
by Zimbabwe's debilitating decade-long economic and
political crisis that
most critics blame on mismanagement during Mugabe's
three-decade rule.
Singizi said her organisation had noted that children
in child-headed
households were marginalised, often living in rural and
farming areas. Few
are in towns and cities.
"For those children
already traumatised, the psychological consequences of
this invisibility and
powerlessness can be devastating. Yet both groups are
hardly recognised by
their communities," she said.
As in Trevor's case, even central
government has failed to capacitate
talented, but disadvantaged ones,
creating a lost generation
Trevor only managed to write and pass eight
ordinary level subjects last
year through the help of his church, the United
Methodist.
He wanted to pursue a career in accounting, but his
benefactors could no
longer afford to pay even for the cheapest government
school for him to take
up advanced level classes, he says.
A
try-anything-that-can-come along approach has not yielded fruits.
"I tried
applying for a nursing diploma, but I was unlucky. I tried
temporary
teaching and they said I didn't meet the conditions," he adds.
Attempts at
getting assistance through the government's national programme
to help
orphans into school, the Basic Education Assistance Module, were
unsuccessful, he says.
Apart from dealing with his dilemma, Trevor
has to counsel his traumatised
brother.
"Henry found it difficult to
accept that our parents were dead. He wanted to
drop out of school as he had
lost all hope. I had to explain to him the
importance of education and I am
happy he understood and changed his mind,"
said Trevor, who counts
inadequate food as his biggest problem.
Schools are recording cases of hungry
pupils failing to concentrate and in
some instances fainting in class in
Bikita, a lithium rich district 80 km
east of Masvingo.
Bikita is one
of the areas hardest hit by food shortages following poor
rains last
year.
Guardians, especially the elderly, struggle to keep children left in
their
custody in school.
Fifty-seven-year-old Mbuya Mapurazi who looks
after three grandchildren
between the ages of six to 13 said she could not
afford to feed the
children, let alone pay for their education.
She
relies mostly on BEAM which she said gave her US$2 only for each child
as
school fees for the whole term.
The situation is in contrast with United
Nations Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), which Zimbabwe is a signatory
to, that seeks to eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger by half by
2015.
The prevalence of chronic malnutrition is now 33.8 % and, according
to World
Health Organisation (WHO) standards, this means one in every three
children
is chronically malnourished - a significant public health
threat.
More than a third of children under the age of five are
chronically
malnourished, according to a January 2010 national nutrition
survey
conducted by the government and UN agencies.
Eighteen-year-old
Tapiwa Dhliwayo says he goes to school without eating most
of the
days.
"Once in a while I eat porridge. I always sleep in class and
teachers
punish me," said Tapiwa, a form two student at Chimimba Secondary
School.
He stays with his 60-year-old grandmother at Chirima township in
Bikita
after his father died in 2006.
Orphans like Trevor and Tapuwa
are lucky to still have a roof over their
heads after the death of their
parents.
Many orphans are resorting to begging, prostitution and crime
because greedy
relatives usually grab all the property, leaving the children
stranded. In
such cases, the orphaned children cannot attend school, even
where a good
Samaritan exists because they have no-one to help them get
necessary
documentation.
In Chemhou village under Chief Fortune
Charumbira, for example, more than 50
orphaned and vulnerable children
between the ages one and five years are
without birth certificates,
resulting in many of them failing to write grade
seven examinations, a
mandatory step to secondary education.
Statistics provided by Unicef show
that national possession of birth
certificates for children stands at 37%,
with rural children being the most
affected. Such cases highlight how
Zimbabwe, like most African countries, is
far from achieving the
MDGs.
With only five years left to achieve the MDGs, United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in April announced a joint action plan to
intensify the global effort to improve the health of women and
children.
The action plan will propose accountability to ensure that
African
governments' commitments are honoured.
UN agencies and child
rights groups have often cited lack of political will,
as is the case with
Zimbabwe, for African governments' failure to deliver on
critical social
services such as education and health, resulting in a
widening gap between
the rich and the poor.
Wongai Zhangazha
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010
19:30
AT least 22 000 victims of the 2008 political violence have so far
sought
treatment for injuries and trauma at a counselling and rehabilitation
centre
in Harare, which says it is still recording fresh cases.
The
centre, an organisation with some of Zimbabwe's most experienced medical
doctors and psychologists, said of the 22 193 recorded cases, only 10 200
received "proper physical and psychological treatment".
The other 11
993 did not follow up on treatment because of issues such as
intimidation
and lack of resources to continue attending sessions, according
to the
group, which only released the figures after assurances that its name
would
not be published for its safety and that of its patients, the majority
of
whose cases are political.
"Due to issues of transport and safety, the
majority of clients who receive
counselling services are able to attend a
single session only," an official
from the centre told the Zimbabwe
Independent this week.
The official said some of the victims were
affected by multiple trauma, as
they were forced to live in rural areas
after the government's 2005
destruction of urban homes, deemed illegal under
Operation Murambatsvina.
The United Nations says the operation, carried
out by the police with
brutality in the middle of winter, left over 700 000
people homeless.
The continued stream of political violence victims to health
and counselling
centres make the coalition government's national healing and
reconciliation
efforts a mockery.
"A significant fact to note which
has a bearing on healing is that the
majority of the victims have had
multiple trauma," the official said. "Many
of the victims, because of their
activism, have been tortured and assaulted
many times in successive
elections over the years."
"The same victims also suffered the trauma of
HIV and Aids. They have borne
the trauma of loss in Operation Murambatsvina.
This cumulative trauma has a
significant impact on coping and
healing."
A profile of people visiting the treatment centre shows that
poor people
were most vulnerable to political violence, the official
said.
The official added: "The poor who make the biggest share of the
population
of victims and who solely depended on peasant subsistence
agriculture as a
source of livelihood suffered permanent physical
disabilities in the form of
broken limbs and back complications which now
render the performance of
necessary economic activity very difficult if not
impossible."
High levels of severe injuries were recorded in Uzumba
Maramba Pfungwe,
Seke, Muzarabani, Mutoko, Mutare, Murehwa, Mt Darwin,
Harare, Gutu, Epworth
and Buhera, according to the official.
The
official said the few remaining Zanu PF strongholds in Mashonaland
provinces
"remain very tense and almost like war zones and movement is
restricted and
closely monitored so clients still live in extreme fear and
do not trust
anyone".
Some victims who have received treatment at the centre say they
are still
battling with the trauma of the 2008 political
violence.
Fifty-six-year-old Morris Chabvondeka from Muzarabani South says he
will
never forget May 13 2008 when his two sons were murdered and dumped in
a
field.
"I can never forgive and forget when I see the perpetrators
walking freely
and continue to harass me and my family. I expect them to be
brought before
the courts before any form of apology or confessions,"
Chabvondeka told the
Independent.
Tavengwa Chokuda, an MDC activist
in Gokwe, has refused to bury his son
Moses, 17 months after he was murdered
by alleged Zanu PF youths.
"It is now a year and five months my son is still
lying at Gokwe hospital
mortuary. He is still in the police's metal coffin.
I tried to facilitate a
dialogue with those who killed my son but it never
happened. It's very
painful for me that justice is very slow," he said on
Wednesday when the
Independent checked on the status of the
dispute.
Wongai Zhangazha
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:21
HUNGER and disease
continued stalking Zimbabwe's jails, leaving thousands of
prisoners at risk
of joining the statistics of inmates who have succumbed to
these death
traps.
Prisoners this week narrated to newly-appointed Justice deputy
minister
Obert Gutu how grave their conditions were despite several promises
by the
coalition government to improve the situation.
Clad in
tattered prison garb, and many of them skin and bone due to
malnutrition,
the prisoners told Gutu how what were supposed to be
correctional services
have turned into horror chambers where inmates,
irrespective of their
sentence, face death daily.
Inmates living with HIV and Aids are failing
to access life-prolonging
antiretroviral drugs as well as a supplementary
diet recommended by doctors
for such patients. To worsen matters, they are
exposed to harsh weather
conditions, especially during winter because the
Zimbabwe Prison Service
(ZPS) cannot afford blankets or warm clothing for
inmates.
"Poor diet in the prisons is fast-tracking people living with
HIV and Aids
to death," Daniel Dombwe, an inmate at Harare Central Prison
who has served
10 of his 16-year sentence for armed robbery, told
Gutu.
He said disease was spreading faster in prisons because of dire
drug
shortages and a poor diet.
"Prison pharmacies are empty. We have
the worst health conditions in jails.
Most of the inmates are HIV positive,
but they don't have a supplementary
diet," Gutu lamented. "There is no
standard dietary scale and we are
starving. Can government be serious about
prisoners?"
Frail inmates walking almost naked at Harare and Chikurubi
prisons are a
common sight, despite repeated calls, including one by Supreme
Court judge
Rita Makarau for government to turn jails into adequately
resourced
correctional and rehabilitation centres.
At Chikurubi, two
youthful inmates, Tinashe Songora and Munyaradzi Shavi,
who had their full
sight when they were jailed, went blind after being
attacked by pellagra, a
vitamin deficiency disease, in 2008.
Gutu's familiarisation tour of
Harare and Chikurubi prisons lay bare the
coalition government's failure to
improve service delivery 16 months after
its much hyped formation. He saw
first hand how torn blankets and linen are
used as desperate substitutes for
toilet paper.
The deputy minister, whose visit to the prisons was not
the first by a top
official following similar tours by his predecessor
Jessie Majome this year,
witnessed raw sewerage flowing at Chikurubi, which
is holding 1 568
prisoners against a capacity of 1 360.
"We don't
want prisons to harden criminals. Prisoners should be transformed
into
useful members of the society," Gutu told the prisoners, the majority
of
whom have heard similar promises from officials who visited them before.
"Even if someone is a prisoner, there are United Nations, Sadc and African
Union charters that govern that there should be minimum dietary
requirements. The government will look at food requirements for
prisoners."
A decision by the ZPS to ban relatives from supplying food to
prisoners has
worsened the situation.
"In 2008, we survived while
hundreds died like flies in prisons. The secret
behind our survival was that
relatives brought us food on a daily basis,"
Nkululeko Mawila, who is
serving life for murder, said. "Why should ZPS ban
food supplies yet they
can't feed us properly? We foresee people dying again
at Chikurubi and at
any other prison."
Prison officers told Gutu the ZPS relied on erratic
donations for sanitary
ware, forcing some female inmates to resort to torn
pieces of blankets.
Pregnant female inmates and babies incarcerated with
their mothers or born
in prisons are in a worse situation.
"There are
no vehicles to take the sick and pregnant mothers to Parirenyatwa
hospital,"
said Betty Chibwe, an inmate at Chikurubi female prison. "The
babies, aged
between zero and four, share food rations with their mothers.
It's so bad to
be locked in jail and we are begging to be released under the
Presidential
Amnesty."
Ministry of justice and some prison officials openly wept as a
group of
women knelt before Gutu crying for amnesty.
ZPS Mashonaland
commander senior assistant commissioner Wonder Chisora cited
poor funding as
the major cause of the conditions prevailing in prisons.
"The story in
prisons is disease and suffering," is how murder convict,
Mike Matanga, who
is languishing at the notorious Chikurubi prison, summed
up the
situation.
Brian Chitemba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010
19:13
NEWLY-appointed Economic Planning and Investment minister Tapiwa
Mashakada
has hit the ground running, promising new investor-friendly
policies and
regulations that will unlock opportunities for this once pariah
country.
Mashakada, who entered government for the first time as a
cabinet minister
last month, said his ministry was proposing an Investment
Promotion and
Protection Act that would take into account concerns raised by
stakeholders.
He said a National Investment Policy would address problems
that have
affected the 16-month-old coalition government's bid to woo
investment.
The government desperately needs foreign money to rebuild an
economy that
critics say was shattered by a decade of international
isolation, plunder of
national resources and economic
mismanagement.
"There are three imperatives," Mashakada said. "Firstly,
we have to
establish a one-stop shop for investors - Zimbabwe's gateway for
investors.
Secondly, we have to come up with legislative reforms around
investment - an
investment regulation. And thirdly, we should come up with
investment road
shows that showcase our investment
opportunities."
Investment analysts, however, warned this week that
Mashakada's planned
blueprint could fall flat because wider political and
economic conditions
were likely to remain hostile to foreign investment due
to coalition
government partners' diverging objectives.
Political and
economic uncertainty, policy inconsistencies and an
inhospitable regulatory
environment are some of the obstacles Mashakada will
have to overcome, the
analysts say.
Fear of expropriation, heightened by the vague
implementation of the
indigenisation law and the country's record in
shredding property rights
will make Mashakada's bid to successfully sell an
investment blueprint to a
sceptical world a Herculean task, analysts told
the Zimbabwe Independent
this week.
While opportunities in Zimbabwe are
abundant in agriculture, mining, tourism
and manufacturing, investors fear
sinking their money in unstable economies
such as Zimbabwe, and often adopt
a wait-and see attitude.
A Harare-based economic and accounting
consultant, Sonny Mabheju cited poor
infrastructure, corruption and weak
governance structures as some of the
hindrances to Zimbabwe's investment
drive.
"We need comprehensive as opposed to selective policy reforms if
we are to
attract investment as a country," said Mabheju
Lance
Mambondiani, an analyst with Coronation Investments, a UK-registered
international financial advisory services firm, said the country needed an
investment policy that guaranteed present and future investors' interests
and safety.
"In generic terms, investors are normally worried about
investment promotion
(bilaterally and multilaterally), and expropriation.
They also get concerned
about incentives and issues relating to flexibility
in licensing and
registration, among a host of other best practices," said
Mambondiani, whose
firm focuses on investments in Zimbabwe, South Africa and
Botswana.
Economic commentator John Robertson said the country's
perception as a
lawless society was a major stumbling bloc, overshadowing
some good policies
that could have enhanced investment.
He said most
investors were concerned about the Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment
Act which did not guarantee safety for foreign investment. The
indigenisation Act compels all firms with a net capitalisation of at least
US$500 000 to dispose of a majority shareholding to locals.
"The extent
of the Zimbabwe government's obsessive preoccupation with
politics totally
prohibits sensible discussion on its economic needs. Of
late this has become
very much more obvious with the proposed Indigenisation
and Economic
Empowerment regulations," said Robertson.
He said recent actions such as
invasions of farms protected by bilateral
trade agreements could be taken as
evidence that some government officials
were still intent on using political
muscle to strip the assets of private
players.
"Their approach seems
to be that, as they have the authority to pass Acts of
Parliament that
formalise their claims to these powers, they have every
right to use this
authority to re-arrange the economic landscape to suit
their needs," said
Robertson. "They obviously feel that acquiring productive
assets that way is
much easier than working for them, but more to the point,
they feel they are
properly responding to their conviction that they are in
power to exercise
power, not to share power with markets," he said.
Political risk remains
one of the major deterrent factors to foreign
investors interested in buying
stakes in local companies looking for
possible suitors.
Faced with
liquidity problems and low productive capacity, local companies
have been
looking for salvation beyond the country's borders to improve
capacity.
However, several such negotiations have stalled because of
uncertainty.
Three of the most high profile deals which surfaced last
year but failed to
conclude include the 167 million South African rand worth
of stake that
South Africa's Shoprite wanted in OK, the proposed sale of
Ariston by Delta
and the upping of investment levels in TM Supermarkets by
Pick n Pay.
Economist David Mupamhadzi said factors which have negatively
affected the
ability of the country to attract investment have been high
country risk,
largely associated with an unstable political environment,
lack of property
rights, and rule of law.
Economist Brains Muchemwa
said the successive downgrading of the
country-risk status since 2002 by
credit rating agencies and the subsequent
withdrawal of IMF and World-Bank
funding programmes upheld Zimbabwe's grade
as a poor investment
destination.
"The situation was not made easier by the free-fall of the
exchange rate,
rigid price and exchange controls, policy inconsistencies and
hyper-inflation," he said.
Muchemwa said Zimbabwe should not lure
foreign investors "blindly just for
the sake of it", otherwise all the
valuable assets would be snapped up by
foreigners without material benefits
accruing to the country.
"Zimbabweans will need to have reasonable say in
some strategic sectors and
the policy has to be specific about maximum
allowable shareholding in
certain industries, taxes to be levied, minimum
and maximum investment
thresholds," said Muchemwa.
Paul Nyakazeya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010
18:56
THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) has asked government to back down
on
indigenisation regulations compelling foreign-owned companies that
include
listed concerns to dispose of a controlling interest to
cash-strapped local
investors.
This comes after the ZSE - an
erstwhile vehicle for mobilising national
savings from surplus sectors of
the economy and foreign investors to finance
the country's economic
development - shed significant volumes after
empowerment regulations came
into force early this year.
Informed sources said equities market players
on Tuesday advised Youth
Development, Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment minister Saviour
Kasukuwere to spare publicly-owned companies
from the controversial
empowerment regulations. The exchange, however, said
government should
review the exemptions periodically to avoid abuse by
listed companies.
Kasukuwere declined to comment on the issue.
Tuesday's
meeting came on the back of a prolonged retreat of the exchange
that saw the
industrial and mining indices plummeting because of the
regulations that
came into force in March.
Kasukuwere on Wednesday declined to comment on
the meeting.
"The ZSE approached minister Kasukuwere proposing that the
exchange be
spared from the indigenisation law," said a source. "Market
players are also
pushing government to privatise parastatals through
listings on the
exchange."
The move to wean off most loss-making
government entities was put on ice
after the state became sceptical that
most of these companies would be sold
for a song. The ZSE, according to
sources, advised Kasukuwere and Finance
minister Tendai Biti to embark on
broad-based empowerment programmes by
privatising financially-beleaguered
parastatals that include power utility
Zesa, the Grain Marketing Board,
National Railways of Zimbabwe, unreliable
public transporter Zupco, national
carrier Air Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Iron and
Steel Company, Minerals Marketing
Corporation of Zimbabwe and
telecommunications companies.
"A properly
functioning and active exchange plays a major role in mobilising
national
savings and hence capital for the economy and it is of paramount
importance
to note that any policies that affect the functioning of the
exchange can
only hinder the development of the economy in general," the
source
said.
Biti, during his Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review blamed the
empowerment
regulations for scaring away foreign investors' contribution to
market
turnover which dropped to a monthly average of 20% from
50%.
"The poor performance is as a result of investors pulling out their
investments reflecting depressed investors' sentiment over perceived
financial risks, especially following gazetting of the Indigenisation
Regulations on March 1," Biti said.
The proposed measures, according
to the source, also seek an upward revision
of the aggregate threshold for
foreign investors' interests in listed
companies. Should the proposals get
approval, foreign investors who before
the empowerment regulations were
actively involved on the exchange would be
allowed to own 49% shareholding
in listed companies, contrary to the
mandatory 40% threshold currently in
place.
The ZSE, the source said, is also pushing for a policy that makes
it
mandatory for telecommunication and mining companies to list on the
exchange. Currently ZSE blue chip stock Econet is the only listed company
while rival companies Telecel and government owned NetOne remain
tight-lipped on going public.
With liquidity problems still affecting
the exchange, the ZSE said promoting
dual listings could be used to improve
market activity and money exchanging
hands on the market.
"The
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange is yet to fully realise its potential in
moblising
and allocating resources for the country's economic development.
The
potential in moblising and allocating resources for the country's
economic
development.
This potential can only be realised through sound and
sustainable
macroeconomic policies, enabling legislation that support
investment, sound
infrastructure and a business-friendly economic
environment."
Since dollarisation last year, nine companies raised funds
on the market
through rights issues and private placements for working
capital, while
banks used the funds to comply with prescribed capital
levels.
Bernard Mpofu
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010
18:49
ZIMBABWE will need about US$264 million to import about 800 000
tonnes of
maize and 339 000 tonnes of wheat to meet the annual national
requirement, a
union representing commercial farmers said on
Wednesday.
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) president Deon Theron says
preliminary
figures show Zimbabwe will have to import about 800 000 tonnes
of maize to
meet national demand.
“About 800 000 tonnes of maize is
needed for consumption. Maize is being
imported at between US$160 and US$180
per tonne,” Theron said.
The national maize consumption requirement stands at
two million tonnes per
annum but Theron sees maize output this year at 1,3
million tonnes, a
deficit of about 800 000 tonnes.
Wheat is
Zimbabwe’s second staple grain, after maize but the country has
failed to
meet its annual consumption requirements of between 350 000
tonnes.
This year’s national wheat target was set at 60 000 hectares
but farmers
planted only 11 000 hectares. Theron said Zimbabwe needed to
import wheat
worth over US$128,8 million to meet an expected shortfall of
339 000 tonnes,
which could cripple operations.
Farmers, hamstrung by
lack of capital, high costs of inputs and continued
land ownership wrangles,
expect to produce 11 000 tonnes of winter wheat
planted on 3 100 hectares
this year.
This is against a national annual demand of 350 000 tonnes,
said CFU
President Deon Theron.
“We (Zimbabwe) will have to import the
wheat at an import price of US$380
per tonne and this translates to US$128
820 000, given our shortfall,” said
Theron.
This would be the ninth
consecutive year that the country would be importing
maize and
wheat.
“Regarding loans, most farmers do not have anything to offer as
security and
this is worsened by the liquidity problems affecting the
country in
general,” said Theron.
Most resettled farmers who
previously benefitted from subsidised inputs have
failed to raise money to
buy essentials such as seed, fertiliser, chemicals
and fuel to power
generators in the face of crippling electricity cuts by
power company, Zesa
Holdings
The United Nations on Tuesday said Zimbabwe’s food production
rose from 1,2
million tonnes to 1,3 million tonnes.
Jacopo D’Amelio, a
regional information co-ordinator with the UN Food and
Agriculture
Organisation, said: “There is also a feeling that the food
security
situation is improving from what it was in 2008, when the country
had
probably its worst output.”
Relief agencies say combined donor support to
small farmers accounted for up
to 20% of Zimbabwe’s maize output of
1,3-million tonnes in the 2009-10
season.
Separately, the US Agency
for International Development’s famine
early-warning systems network
cautioned in a recent report that Zimbabwe’s
dry regions would need food
toward the end of this year.
“Although Zimbabwe’s 2010 maize harvest is
likely to fall short of 2009
output, the country is more secure in its food
supplies than it was last
year due to a stirring economy and grain market
liberalization,” fewsnet
said.
The fewsnet report said maize and
other staple foods were readily available
and maize prices had come down
from last year, particularly in areas that
had good harvests and due to the
emergence of a free cereals market under
the country’s unity
government.
In his mid- term fiscal policy announced two weeks ago,
Finance minister
Tendai Biti, said agricultural growth of 18,8% in 2010, up
on last year’s
14,9% was expected.
“This is mainly driven by tobacco,
up 67,3% from 55,6 million kgs in 2009 to
93 million kgs; maize, up 3% from
1,24 million tonnes to 1,33 million
tonnes; and beef up 2% from 93 000
tonnes to 95 000 tonnes,” he said.
Paul Nyakazeya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 18:45
AT A
Securities Commission of Zimbabwe (SEC) workshop in the capital a week
ago,
CEO Alban Chirume had a few surprises for the market -- new fees and a
hell
of a lot of new changes.
That was expected for a new regulator. The logic
is simple; a new
organisation, particularly of SEC's significance, has to be
seen doing
something.
No one had anticipated a series of surprises the
commission boss had for
everyone.
Asset management companies must be
regulated by SEC and they cannot wait for
this transition, he said. Surprise
number one. Financial journalists are
investment advisors and should pay two
grand and become financial advisors,
he announced. SEC should train that
nosy bunch, he added.
But judging by SEC's swift arrival that saw the
commission revoking ISB
Securities licence and fighting the administration
of investor protection
levy from the ZSE, the market should have anticipated
a coterie of measures
from the regulator in retrospect.
Even ZSE
Committee chairman Ndodana Mguquka is a little worried. He says
(see
businessdigest 7) SEC is coming up with a lot of rules folks do not
get.
Instead, Mguquka says the rules relating to financial journalists
should
apply to CEOs.
Mguquka said: "We have a feeling that they (SEC) are
coming up with a lot of
rules that people do not understand. For example,
them (SEC) trying to
licence financial journalists is something that is
unheard of. Those kinds
of things should apply to CEOs of listed
companies."
A week after that surprise, SEC placed an advertisement in a
local daily
inviting financial writers, editors and analysts to another
workshop. But
the invite was not accepted with financial journalists
shunning the event.
Like, Mguquka, analysts feel that SEC's mandate and
job description should
be well spelt out.
This is a departure from its
key mandate. Elsewhere, the US Securities and
Exchange Commission (also
abbreviated SEC) is a federal agency whose primary
responsibility is
enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the
securities
industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other
electronic
securities markets.
In addition to the 1934 Act that created it, the US
SEC enforces the
Securities Act of 1933, the Trust Indenture Act of 1939,
the Investment
Company Act of 1940, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the
Sarbanes-Oxley
Act of 2002 and other statutes. The SEC was created by
Section 4 of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (now codified as 15 USC §
78d and commonly
referred to as the 1934 Act).
Unlike its US
counterparts, our SEC has not contributed to meaningful pieces
of
legislation. Even its authority has been questioned more than once.
TNFH went
ahead with an Extraordinary General Meeting to allow directors who
had
committed funds to meet statutory capital requirements. TNFH
shareholders
provided about US$6 million and got preference shares in TN
Bank that
shareholders wanted to convert to ordinary shares through a rights
issue.
SEC was unhappy with rights issue price, which they felt was
at a premium to
the market price.
After shutting down ISB Securities last
year, the firm's owners dragged SEC
to court.
Following an urgent
High Court application by ISB Securities challenging
allegations by SEC of
non-compliance to the commission's requirements on
submission of returns and
for allegedly refusing the commission to carry out
investigations, the
company got its licence back.
Unlike its US counterparts, SEC claims
ownership of a statutory instrument
that restricts chairing of multiple
boards.
Apart from this instrument, SEC has not contributed anything
meaningful to
the regulation of financial markets in the country.
Like
its US counterpart, SEC is supposed to be an independent,
quasi-judicial
regulatory body driven by the need to regulate the stock
market and prevent
corporate abuses relating to the offering and sale of
securities and
corporate reporting.
In the states, SEC also works with criminal law
enforcement agencies to
prosecute individuals and companies alike for
offences which include a
criminal violation.
To achieve its mandate,
SEC enforces the statutory requirements that public
companies submit
quarterly and annual reports, as well as other periodic
reports.
Back
home, SEC and the ZSE have not compelled companies to produce quarterly
financials and trade updates, a requirement listed companies do not
follow.
Companies come to the market with financials only twice - interim
and full
year financials. Some companies don't have analysts briefings, a
culture
inculcated in the US and other developed markets.
The US SEC
maintains an online database called Edgar (the Electronic Data
Gathering,
Analysis and Retrieval system) from which investors can access
information
filed with the agency. This is something SEC does not have.
Developed
markets also have rules of disclosure. The local market is as
secretive as
North Korea. For instance, there is no mandatory disclosure of
executive
remuneration. Who gets what in share options is a closely guarded
secret.
Against such a background, investors and the market have no
idea of what
happens in companies or whether there is abuse.
The US SEC
makes reports available to the public via the Edgar system. SEC
also offers
publications on investment-related topics for public education.
The same
online system also takes tips and complaints from investors to help
the SEC
track down violators of the securities laws.
Chris Muronzi
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010
19:31
FOR successfully hosting the Fifa World Cup, South Africa
effectively
banished Africa's reputation for inefficiency and slackness. The
tournament,
regarded around the world as an outstanding success showcasing
Africa's
potential for investment and growth, has demonstrated the keen
attitude
which all Africans display towards innovation, commitment and
co-operation.
However, it seems that this attitude towards co-operation
and mutuality has
not carried across the Limpopo River. Zimbabwe's own
Ministry of Agriculture
has displayed that stereotypical lackadaisical
attitude (which this
celebration of the beautiful game had sought to banish)
towards the
taxpayers of this country, in its refusal to co-operate with
South African
manufacturers and their Zimbabwean representatives over the
importation of
key household goods into Zimbabwe due to the supposed threat
of Rift Valley
Fever (RVF).
The scaremongering of the ministry has
left angry Zimbabwean consumers short
of key kitchen essentials such as
chicken, beef, pork and long-life UHT
milk, and has sent prices soaring
across Harare for the past three months
due to the shortages on the
market.
The ministry claims the basis of these restrictions lies with the
threat to
the consumer of Rift Valley Fever, a disease first discovered in
Kenya in
the early 20th Century. It is a livestock disease which can pass to
humans
who handle the untreated carcasses of infected animals, and its risk
is
nullified by effective treatment of the infected animals and a strict
adherence to hygiene. It was reported in a few remote farms in South Africa
several months ago, and has been stringently monitored by South Africa's own
agricultural department since.
While the ministry's vigilance is
admirable, as its first priority should be
consumer safety, its lack of
consumer awareness and its blunt refusal to
cooperate with both its South
African counterparts and with local suppliers
of South African produce, is
most certainly not. Despite constant appeals
made by all affected parties to
the ministry since April, which have cited
both the safety of the goods
destined for the Zimbabwean market and the
consistently high standards to
which they have been produced, ministry
officials still refuse to issue the
necessary importation permits to keep
the market sufficiently
supplied.
This has affected Zimbabweans from all walks of life. The lack
of imported
chicken is perhaps the most noticeable, with prices across the
country
rising as the protein shortage has kicked in. A Mrs Chitaro, a
customer in a
supermarket last week, said: "It is just like the Zimbabwe of
two years
ago - no produce on the shelves, and if there is, the price just
keeps
rising. I thought this had all changed with the US dollar."
The
shortage of South African dairy produce has also been felt, with butter
and
cheese missing from many stores nationwide.
And while local manufacturers may
have benefited from this, they cannot
consistently keep up with the demand.
To South African manufacturers, the
impression of Zimbabwe adopting a veiled
form of protectionism is not being
ruled out, and has left many in
agriculture and industry south of the border
seething at lost sales to one
of the region's biggest markets for their
consumer goods.
However, it
is not just Zimbabwean families which are being deprived of key
items in
their shopping basket, but their pets too. The ministry's
restrictions have
carried across to all imported pet food from South Africa,
depriving the
nation's dogs and cats of their best source of nutrition.
Brands such as
Pedigree, Alpo, Dogmor and Whiskas, and Iams, the best
selling products in
the country in the dog and cat food market, and
formulated by world experts
in animal nutrition, are now barred from
importation. This is in spite of
evidence given to the Veterinary department
of the Ministry of Agriculture
which has demonstrated the absolute safety of
these products in the way they
are treated to eliminate any risk of
livestock diseases such as
RVF.
Furthermore, the ministry has coupled its blatant lethargy with
galling
inconsistency. The restriction on the importation of live horses has
been
lifted, and South African UHT milk is also now permitted into the
country
under ministerial guidelines.
To make matters even more
clear, not a single tourist of the million-plus
visitors to South Africa
during the course of the World Cup came down with
the disease. The wonderful
example set by South Africa to the rest of the
world of a continent willing
to engage in mutual trade and development to
drive investment and growth is
being undermined by the Jurassic attitude
demonstrated by our Ministry of
Agriculture.
By Own Correspondent
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010
19:17
THE causes of Zimbabwe’s ongoing economic morass for most of the
past 30
years have been manifold, the principal common denominator being
disastrous
policies pursued by government since the country gained
Independence in
1980.
Throughout the last three decades, Zimbabwe has
had great potential to
develop an economy which would be one of the foremost
in Africa, and which
would readily support the entire population. Instead,
the economy has been
progressively decimated, inflicting ever-greater
hardships and suffering
upon a vast majority of the
population.
Foremost amongst the abysmal government policies that have
caused the
progressive emaciation of the economy, and have prevented
Zimbabwe from
attaining the economic wellbeing so readily available to it,
has been (and
continues to be) a psychotic fixation that “the land belongs
to the people”.
And for the people to own the land, all such land must be
held by and
controlled by government.
That such fixation exists is
unsurprising, it in part being influenced by
the communistic philosophies of
Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, Mao-Tse-Tung, and
others who were so intensively
revered by those who struggled to bring about
Zimbabwe’s Independence, and
were massively aided in that struggle by the
pronouncedly socialist states
of Russia, China, Cuba and others.
Another major contributory factor to
that psychotic fixation was that for
more than 70 years of the
pre-Independence period, non-whites were subjected
to abominable and
inhumane prohibition from ownership of land. That
disgraceful and abhorrent
racial discrimination was undoubtedly a major
influence in the development
of the post-Independence, rigidly-pursued
policy that all rural land
ownership must, for all time vest in the state,
to be used by those
non-whites as the state deems fit, for such purposes as
the state approves,
and subject to continual overriding state control.
Pursuant to
government’s fanatical land concepts, in 1991 it enacted the
original Land
Acquisition Act, concurrently falsely alleging that the former
colonial
power had failed to honour its obligations under the 1979 Lancaster
House
Agreement to fund post-Independence land acquisition. Despite that
legislative enactment, almost 10 years elapsed before objectives and intents
were pursued. In late 1999 a Constitution Commission of almost 400
representatives of all sectors of Zimbabwean Society formulated a proposed
new national constitution.
After months of intense work in devising a
constitution which would be just,
fair and viable for all Zimbabweans, in
the last few days of the commission’s
operations government hijacked and
modified the proposed constitution,
forcing inclusion of land policies
pronouncedly at variance with the
commission’s findings and recommendations,
and then bulldozed the adoption
of that modified constitution through a
national referendum, allegedly the
subject of a free and fair vote, but
there being manifold doubts as to the
genuineness of the referendum’s
conduct and results.
The next step in government’s pursuit (whether
intended or otherwise) of
economic destruction was the implementation of the
new constitution’s
provisions, vesting absolute control over all rural lands
in the state. All
previously pertaining right and title to land became null
and void, all
ownership of the land by any in the populace being rendered
terminated. From
then onwards, none could own the land, and only those
accorded leases by
government would have any rights of occupancy and usage
of the land.
Moreover, such leases would only be accorded to non-white
Zimbabweans, and
those deprived of that which had been theirs being told
that they did not
even have rights of compensation against the state, but
should look to the
former colonial power for such compensation. And this was
with contemptuous
disregard for the extent that the United Kingdom had
provided funding for
land acquisition post-Independence, and similarly
disregarding that much of
the land had been acquired post-Independence, by
whites, under Certificates
of No Interest issued by government, effectively
indicating governmental
consent to such acquisition.
The consequences
were economically and humanistically cataclysmic.
Agriculture had been the
solid foundation of the economy, yielding more that
a third of gross
Domestic Product (GDP), and generating employment for over
300 000, thereby
yielding a livelihood for nearly two million people.
Progressively, since
the millennium, agricultural production declined, save
for a very modest
recovery in the 2009/10 season. Numbers employed have
become minuscule,
rural poverty has intensified, foreign exchange generation
contracted
intensely, and the economy continuously declined until 2009.
Concurrently,
investor confidence was almost totally destroyed, fears being
that the
horrendous government policies in the agricultural sector would in
due
course be emulated in respect of other economic sectors.
Compounding the
economic ills, new farmers have been unable to access the
capital resources
needed to work the lands. Not only did they not have
lawful title to the
lands “leased” to them, which deprived them of
collateral security to source
funding, but they did not even have assured
continuancy of land
occupancy.
In theory, they were accorded 99-year leases but, in reality
of nearly 4 000
new farmers, as yet only 128 leases have been issued.
Moreover, those leases
can be terminated by government on three months’
notice! As if this did not
suffice to devastate viability prospects for the
new farmers, government has
now decreed that it is unlawful for the new
farmers to sub-lease their farms
to others (which others could have the
sadly lacking capital resources), and
that they may not engage in contract
farming without government’s consent.
These new constraints can only
worsen further the circumstances of
agriculture, and therefore of the
economy as a whole. Government is
becoming an ever-greater land control
freak, myopically disregarding the
realities of the catastrophic harm that
it is inflicting upon the economy,
and upon the populace.
The new
control measures can do naught but reverse even the very slight
upturn which
materialised in the last season, and can only intensify
government’s
economic suicide.
By Eric Bloch
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:13
Dear
Sir,
AS you already know, the just passed cold month of June is when
Africa and
the world remembered those brave young people who were murdered
in Soweto in
1976 by a despicable unit of military misfits under the command
of an
oppressive South African government.
I would also like to
kindly bring to your attention a similar situation that
prevailed in
Zimbabwe in the 1980s when a despicable unit of military
misfits operating
under the name Gukurahundi, under the command of a
one-party government you
controlled murdered more than 20 000 people in
Matabeleland and the
Midlands.
Your politburo and both elements of MDC’s national executive
committees have
just met to seek reconciliation, but you are yet to explain
and ask
Zimbabweans to forgive you for the transgressions of the renegade
Fifth
Brigade that was under your command.
South African Mail &
Guardian blogger Israel Rafalovich, a journalist and
analyst based at The
Hague, The Netherlands, says of such a situation:
“Forgiveness has a
spiritual component and involves acknowledgment,
contrition and forgiveness.
It cannot be imposed and depends on our
acknowledgment of the power and
depth of God’s love.”
He continues: “Forgiveness is an important factor
if we want to achieve a
lasting peace. Otherwise, we will hear only the
voices of scepticism. The
readiness to forgive will create possibilities for
truth-telling and the
courage to take political responsibility.”
I
am one of those voices of Zimbabwean scepticism at home and abroad who
strongly believe that you, Perence Shiri, Constantine Chiwenga, Emmerson
Mnangagwa and, Enos Nkala, owe Zimbabweans an urgent, overdue apology. Is
this asking for too much? Why is it that Gibson Sibanda and John Nkomo –
both of Ndebele origin, victims for that matter – can be given an unenviable
task to wring out contrition from citizens when those who were responsible
for sowing the seed of hatred have not acknowledged their transgression? Why
is it that 25 years on, Mr Mugabe, you have yet to convene a press
conference or appear on television explaining the punishable acts of
Gukurahundi? Or perhaps I should venture to put words into your mouth for
such public disclosure:
“People of Zimbabwe, children of
Matabeleland, as president of this
inclusive government, I am aware that
efforts are underway to fulfil
obligations impressed upon us by the 15
September 2008 agreement. One such
obligation is for the people of this
country to seek reconciliation and
lasting peace for our divided nation. In
pursuit of this noble cause, I
would like to concur with those that point
out the need to acknowledge
events in history as a basis for sustainable
future relationships. In the
1980s, those of us in power then strongly felt
that our legitimacy was under
threat from unruly and remnant elements of our
partners in the struggle for
independence. We therefore sought to utilise
the authority bestowed upon us
by the constitution to subdue these
undesirable elements.
“But as you may agree, even in our own families,
brothers and sisters argue
and fight, at times resulting in tragic loss of
precious lives. When
commonsense once more prevails, family members unite in
search of peace,
like we are doing now. In retrospect, we could have sought
advice and wisdom
from friends to settle our disputes, but opted for
hard-headedness,
resulting in needless loss of precious lives. We in
Zimbabwe have now
entered a new era of brotherhood, never mind the other
forgettable events of
the last decade. The deployment of the Fifth Brigade
was inspired by a
desire to protect what was ours, but perhaps those of us
in charge threw
caution to the wind and lost control. Even if those few
troublesome elements
were vanquished, the innocent thousands needlessly
perished. Some were
accounted for, others not. Those who were at the
epicentre of conflict have
sour memories, generations still afflicted with
pain and anguish.
“So even if the late Joshua Nkomo and I agreed to
cooperate in December
1987, there are still those who feel more needs to be
done. It is for this
reason that today I present myself to the world,
Africa, Zimbabwe and
particularly the citizens of Matabeleland and the
Midlands as one who truly
regrets those fateful events of the 1980s. My
colleagues in Zanu PF,
particularly Perence Shiri, Constantine Chiwenga,
and Emmerson Mnangagwa,
share with me this agony of truth. Our commitment
is now to take full
responsibility so that survivors and the affected are
accorded due
recognition, compensation and lasting respect. I thank
you.”
To conclude my proposition, Mr Mugabe, I have to admit that it is
generally
difficult, especially for African leaders, to show remorse when
they
strongly feel their action is supported by national constitutions.
However,
I should be quick to add that matters of forgiveness are driven by
good
moral judgement in pursuit of enhanced social relationships. Such an
attitude demands humility, sophistication, wisdom and commonsense. The
intelligent Jewish prophet called Jesus of Nazareth, labelled forgiveness as
an entity that can be quantified. Whether or not you are endowed with these
rare characteristics I will leave judgement to the victims of
Gukurahundi.
In the meantime, it is critical to save the credibility of
the Organ for
National Healing, which is grappling with the dichotomy of
peace in the face
of vengeance, forgiveness where confession does not exist
and forgetfulness
where nightmares poison our dreams. My take, Mr Mugabe, is
that only one man
can redeem this unsavoury situation with a few words. You
are that man.
Faithfully yours,
Rejoice Ngwenya.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:08
THE
dissipating importance of the Zimbabwean political standoff at the
African
Union must be music to Zanu PF's ears. For the MDCs it is probably
something
they wish could be conveniently swept under the carpet or ignored
altogether.
Pundits will argue that Zimbabwe could not have been on
the agenda of the
recently held AU summit because President Zuma of South
Africa has not yet
tabled a report on Zimbabwe before Sadc, which in turn
reports to the AU.
This would be fair enough but for the fact that it
betrays an increasing
lack of urgency both at Sadc and the AU about the
GPA.
It would seem, on the face of it, the AU and Sadc are satisfied with
the
manner in which the power-sharing arrangement in Zimbabwe has turned
out.
They seem content that they have fulfilled their political mantra of
Africans solving African problems and with this, have almost literally moved
on, at least at the AU level. At Sadc, the mediators' report is essentially
a formality which will result in the acclamation that it is up to the
Zimbabweans to solve their own problems from the full Sadc summit scheduled
for August. Where any outstanding issues are raised, they will be determined
to be work in progress by the mediator seeing as so much is going on in
Zimbabwe at the moment.
They will argue that there is governmental
consensus on the issue of the
constitutional reform process, diamonds, the
fiscal policy review and last
but not least on national healing and
reconciliation. In short, it would be
somewhat misplaced to hope that the
Sadc summit will make any particular
progress on issues concerning the
GPA.
But this does not mean there will be a lack of actors that will try
and
change this predictable outcome. The MDCs or, in particular, the MDC-T,
will
try and re-table the issues that have been in vogue since they became
part
of government. Issues of governors, ambassadors, judges and the media
will
again be given emphasis. Some regional and domestic civil society
organisations will weigh in with the issue of diamonds and the KP process as
well as the Sadc tribunal rulings on land. All issues which will be referred
back to the Zimbabweans via the principals of the GPA with a vague time
table for implementation and or report back.
This sort of prediction
I have outlined means that there has to be a new
approach to Sadc and the AU
by Zimbabwean actors. The first must be a key
understanding of the fact that
it is not the business of Sadc to literally
run Zimbabwe. And because they
have the impression that there are limits to
which they can intervene, they
will no longer take up complaints at face
value. They will only take them up
after they have gone through some Sadc
due process, either through their
sub-committees or at least through the
Sadc Council of
Ministers.
Secondly, the regional solidarity of the heads of state and
government
instead of being weakened has been fortified by the myriad of
regional
issues that included the hosting of the World Cup, the new regional
and
continental excitement over the discovery of oil in central Africa as
well
as the issue of resistance to the Africa Command, the American-backed
standby military force. This solidarity has meant that every time the
Zimbabwean GPA has come up for discussion and review, it has become more and
more subservient to the above-mentioned issues.
Thirdly, the nature
of regional solidarity between civil society
organisations has focused more
on issues such as indicting heads of states
and rebel groups for either war
crimes or crimes against humanity. This has
meant that more of the regional
solidarity between non state actors has
sought more to find itself in sync
with liberal interventionism based on
international human rights instruments
that are not necessarily legally or,
as in the case of Omar Al Bashir,
politically enforceable in either the AU
or Sadc. What is then missed is the
necessity of prioritising
people-to-people solidarity which would bring to
account the formal
inter-state organisations that are in
question.
This would mean a revisiting of the founding premise of some
regional civil
society organisations such as the Southern African Peoples
Solidarity
Network or the NGO Forums that turn up a week before either a
Sadc or AU
summit in a host country.
By Takura Zhangazha
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010
19:28
INDIGENISATION and Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere was in a
combative mood last week, threatening to shut down 9 000 companies for
failing to submit their indigenisation plans in line with the law.
It
was reported in The Sunday Mail that only 480 out of 9 557 companies had
bothered to submit their empowerment proposals to Kasukuwere's
ministry.
Among the companies accused are mines; and as has become the
norm, they were
accused of dragging their heels to buy time and at the same
time sabotaging
the empowerment drive.
What was astounding was
Kasukuwere's summersault. He had for many weeks told
those who cared to
listen that the empowerment drive had received
overwhelming support from the
same firms he is now threatening with closure.
Was it a dissembling act
under the guise of social engineering to hoodwink
the nation?
It is
common cause that our empowerment regulations have been widely
condemned as
racism in reverse and have caused serious ructions in the
fragile inclusive
government.
Under intense pressure, characterised by a bearish run on the
local bourse,
would-be investors' concerns and opposition in cabinet,
government
(especially the Zanu PF component) capitulated and unwillingly
agreed to
review the noxious indigenous regulations with a view to come up
with
acceptable rules to, among other things, balance indigenisation and
foreign
investment.
Even the embattled central bank governor Gideon
Gono made a clarion call as
early as October 2007 that a "fine balance
should be struck between the
objectives of indigenisation and the need to
attract foreign capital",
advice which was sacrificed on the altar of
political expediency.
Opponents of the regulations argued that we could not
have a
one-size-fits-all indigenisation policy and that the drive should not
be
rushed to avoid consequences like those which followed the chaotic land
reform programme of 2000.
While government should be applauded that
it has agreed that indigenisation
thresholds should be sector-specific, it
is disturbing that before those
thresholds have been agreed to, Kasukuwere
is stampeding companies to submit
their empowerment plans.
Issuing
threats does not move the empowerment drive forward and Kasukuwere
should
know better! If 9 000 companies are shut by the stroke of a pen, what
will
remain of our economy, which over the past year has been limping out of
its
vegetative state? Where will that leave our unemployment rate and
poverty?
Retrogressive thinking has been a major obstacle to this
country's
prosperity.
Kasukuwere should abandon his gunboat diplomacy
and engage the companies. We
need a win-win situation and we should not
hurry this process if empowerment
is to emerge victorious. His zero-sum
approach, no matter from where you
look, will have far-reaching social,
political and economic effects which
most of us would shudder to think of as
the memories of the chaos caused by
price slash in 2007 and hyper-inflation
are still fresh in our minds.
Every sane Zimbabwean supports economic
indigenisation, but not a drive
calculated to kill industry and commerce as
happened to agriculture.
Constantine Chimakure
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:26
LAST month
JSE CEO Russell Loubser had a few words of advice for authorities
here;
investors have a choice. This is a message the Zimbabwean government
has
possibly forgotten.
For a government that should be aware that the
performance of stock
exchanges elsewhere often gauge an economy's health,
little has been done to
encourage investment in this country. Only Finance
minister Tendai Biti, a
lone voice of reason in government on economic
matters, seems to be in the
know.
In his 2010 fiscal policy
presentation last year, he educated his fellow
legislators on the importance
of the ZSE and gave them a crash course on its
inner workings. Biti, like
progressive bureaucrats around the world,
realises that stock exchanges are
barometers of economic performance. But
developments on the market since the
beginning of this year paint a picture
of an economy in trouble. Market
capitalisation has fallen from US$3,9
billion in December to last week's
US$3 billion, a value decline of US$900
million. This came after government
gazetted Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Regulations compelling
foreigners to "cede" controlling stakes
to "indigenous"
Zimbabweans.
The announcement could not have come at a worse moment;
about 40% of trades
were linked to foreign fund managers. Despite the mayhem
caused by these
regulations since the end of January, government continues
to watch with no
resolution. In fact, government through its empowerment
minister is adding
salt to injury. Last week, Saviour Kasukuwere threatened
to close 9 000
companies that had not complied with empowerment
regulations.
Efforts to revise words such as "cede" have given little
cheer to already
apprehensive investors. This week the ZSE asked government
to give listed
companies an exemption. In essence, what the ZSE wants is a
break for listed
companies. This, the bourse reasons, can still attract rare
investment into
the country while government pursues its empowerment policy,
a meaningful
offer in a country governed by individuals bent on ensuring
that no foreign
direct investment comes in.
This could be a practical
way of enticing investors back to the market.
But judging from government's
attitude towards foreign investors and the
wall it has erected on the
investment front, this proposal, like many
others, will be ignored. Over the
years it has become apparent that there
are individuals in the past and
present government intent on ensuring that
the economy suffers for reasons
better known to themselves.
Mines have made proposals that government has
either ignored or
disrespected, opting to pursue combative approaches to
empowerment instead.
Ask Zimplats and Anglo platinum. Their offers to swap
mineral resources for
empowerment credits have been ignored. With such
tendencies and apparent
arrogance, it is little wonder Zimbabwe is ranked
lowly on the investment
front.
Even Uganda, once an outpost of
tyranny during Idi Amini's time, has come
around to becoming one of the
largest recipients of foreign direct
investment. Uganda, according to the
World Investment Report, was the best
investment destination in East Africa.
Zimbabwe, with its vast resources
that President Mugabe brags about at any
given opportunity, got a paltry
US$60 million last year.
In the
absence of meaningful and sound economic policies that not only
encourage
growth but also attract investment, investors will simply go where
they see
value.
Biti, during his Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review, blamed the
empowerment
regulations for scaring away foreign investors' contribution to
market
turnover which dropped to a monthly average of 20% from
50%.
"The poor performance is a result of investors pulling out their
investment,
reflecting depressed investor sentiment over perceived financial
risks,
especially following gazetting of the Indigenisation Regulations on
March
1," Biti said.
Unless and until the government as a whole
provides a friendlier investment
climate we will continue to experience an
under-performing economy.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 29 July 2010
19:26
ONE of the most useful things that Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara
did last weekend was to assure Zimbabweans living in the diaspora
that the
government valued their contribution to national
development.
Mutambara suggested the creation of a ministry to cater for
their needs, but
did not say how this ministry would operate without
duplicating the roles of
other arms of government such as embassies and
existing ministries.
Mutambara was quoted in London as saying:
"Zimbabweans must serve the
national interest wherever they are; they must
strive to build the country
from their foreign bases."
As many as
four million Zimbabweans are thought to be living in foreign
countries. One
would have expected Mutambara to take the opportunity to
solicit ideas on
how his audience wanted to contribute to national
development.
Other
countries that faced flight of human capital to the extent that
Zimbabwe
has, have crafted policies that have reaped dividends. These
countries
include Ethiopia, Armenia and South Korea. In Armenia, the country's
5,5
million plus diaspora has excelled in generating international political
support in the funding and implementation of humanitarian aid programmes as
well as mobilising private transfers. In South Korea, its six million-plus
diaspora have increased exports by 16% and imports by 14% as well as
increase trade between the USA and Korea by between 14% and
20%.
Ethiopia lost 76,6% of its human capital between 1980 and 1991 but
the human
capital is being turned into a resource for the development of the
country.
It is important that the government drafts a policy on how the
country can
benefit from Zimbabweans in the diaspora. The policies do not
need the
creation of a specific ministry. However, that policy should take
into
account the fact that it is not all diasporans who are useful.
According to
Professor Berhanu Nega, writing on the Ethiopian experience,
there are six
broad groups of diasporans. The first two groups are not
helpful as they
include many who live a lavish life that fritters away
outrageous amounts of
money by spending beyond their limit, often depleting
their savings without
planning for their financial future.
The first
group suffers from lack of knowledge about how to use money
profitably. The
second group presumes that their full access to political or
certain
professional power is the only solution to the country's economic
stagnation. This group also discourages others from helping the nation. They
equate any type of positive contribution to direct support for the
government. The third group includes expatriates who have accumulated work
and education experience. Prof Nega believes this group is an untapped
positive force that could improve economic conditions. Prof Nega suggests
that this group exchanges ideas and experiences with non-governmental
organisations through voluntarism or joint ventures.
The fourth group
lives in Europe. Anti-immigration laws in several European
countries offer
them a once-off payment if they agree to return home for
good. This group
could take advantage of the money and invest it in the
country. They could
also bring their strong work ethics to Zimbabwe.
The fifth group, the
Zimbabwean business community around the world, is
great asset for economic
progress. Prof Nega draws lessons from developing
countries such as Vietnam,
China and India. These countries used their
expatriates as an instrument for
an economic leap forward. According to Prof
Nega, entrepreneurs abroad could
be a bridge between domestic and foreign
businesses. The government has been
searching for foreign investors for
years with little success yet the
diaspora have the contacts and know how to
bring investors to the
country.
The sixth group includes expatriates with a strong affinity
towards the
country, which creates a desire in them to return during
retirement or
earlier. Unfortunately, Professor Mutambara missed an
opportunity to engage
the diaspora on how they could collectively build
their country.
Already, there are many Zimbabweans who hold influential
positions
throughout the world, but are not able to contribute to the
country because
of the polarisation of the political environment where you
either have to be
Zanu PF or MDC, notwithstanding the unity government.
Zimbabwe cannot expect
its children to make partisan contributions to the
country's recovery. The
country's leadership needs to realise this and
change their attitude.
Edwin Dube
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:19
The
Herald on Monday carried an editorial which challenged the two MDC
formations "to respect the letter and spirit of the GPA in toto by stopping
their dalliance with the pirate radio stations that beam divisive messages
into the country on a daily basis".
"We are aware that there are
many, particularly in the West, who are not
amused by the prevailing peace
and badly need violence and division to
justify claims that the inclusive
government will abort."
Can you believe that in a week when ZBC has
persisted in playing its puerile
and divisive "jingles", in defiance of a
cabinet ruling, another state organ
can in all seriousness call on the MDC
to stop its "dalliance" with the
"pirate" radio stations?
The
"pirate" radio stations, as we said last week, command such a large
following precisely because the listening public are sick of ZBC's moronic
songs and dishonest claims. Here we have a "public" broadcaster which is
openly contemptuous of the public it is supposed to serve and which is
devoid of even a hint of professionalism.
Anybody who witnessed
Happison Muchechetere's brain-dead tirade last week
will have immediately
understood where the problem lies.
Muchechetere wants us to believe the Zanu
PF jingles they continue to
defiantly play are popular with the generality
of Zimbabweans.
Muchechetere said the jingles were now a permanent
feature on radio and
television and were being played frequently to respond
to "demand".
Who is demanding to have the jingles played every 30 minutes on
radio and
TV? Other than Jonathan Moyo, Webster Shamu and George Charamba
we do not
know of any other Zimbabwean who is clamouring for the jingles to
be played.
If the jingles are as popular as Muchechetere wants us to
believe why are
Zimbabweans not requesting them on programmes such as
Kwaziso
/Ukubingelelana on Radio Zimbabwe or the other phone-in request
shows?
We salute our brave colleagues in the diaspora, who were forced
into exile
when their radio stations were raided here.
So long as ZBC
churns out its turgid message of hate and false heroism, our
colleagues
broadcasting from outside the country need to keep up the good
work. This is
especially the case when the MDC formations are unable or
unwilling to
uphold the torch of freedom because they are too busy feeding
at the
national trough.
As for the West not being amused by the "prevailing
peace", this is
obviously a reference to the countries that feed our poor
and starving
masses. They have made it abundantly clear that so long as Zanu
PF persists
with its campaign of calumny and abuse there will be no transfer
of funds.
Why should the public of Europe and the United States underwrite a
delinquent regime that continues to seize productive farms, poisons the
political well with its asinine messages, and refuses to meet its
obligations under the GPA?
"Let's all walk the talk," the Herald
sanctimoniously proclaimed after the
meeting of the three parties to press
for healing.
They don't seem to understand that healing will only come with
disclosure
and honesty. That requires full confession.
We don't need any
lectures from a state media that is part of the rot. As
they helpfully
reminded us this week, a fish rots from the head!
The People's Voice, by
the way, says the jingles are "music produced by Zanu
PF stalwarts who came
up with an amiable blend of music that arouses a
nostalgic reverie of the
fight against the white oppressor".
Does the MDC not have its own music,
the paper asked?
Yes it does. But it is excluded from the
airwaves.
"The celebratory music produced by the highly talented choir is
simply a
sneak preview to the run-up to the 2011 elections where Zanu PF has
already
braced for a landslide victory," the People's Voice tells
us.
So Zanu PF knows the date and the outcome already! Why should they
want to
"brace" for victory? And how can the music be a "sneak preview" when
it is
broadcast every 30 minutes?
We were amused by remarks made by
President Mugabe last week when receiving
the new French ambassador,
Francois Ponge. He said he hoped the ambassador
would help restore bilateral
ties which have deteriorated since President
Nicolas Sarkozy took
over.
Mugabe said relations had been more cordial when Jacques Chirac was
in
office.
Monsieur Ponge was much too polite to mention that Chirac has
been
experiencing a little local difficulty in the courts which made it
problematic for him to go on being so generous to African leaders. It has
something to do with his tenure as mayor of Paris.
He did invite
Mugabe to the Elysée once, in 2003, but we all recall that
stiff and distant
handshake!
France found it prudent from then on to adhere to Europe's "common
position"
on Zimbabwe. It left them less exposed to their troublesome allies
on
foreign policy.
Mugabe apparently gave Ponge one of his little
lectures that he likes to do
on these occasions, this time on how Tony Blair
internationalised the
dispute with Britain.
The president's advisors
should understand that ambassadors presenting their
credentials are usually
very well briefed on recent events and are unlikely
to swallow these little
homilies.
We had the self-exiled columnist Reason Wafawarova taking pot
shots at our
journalists last week.
It did not make any sense for
Zimbabweans to be in the forefront of blocking
trade in Zimbabwe's diamonds,
he opined.
"Neither does it make any sense that Zimbabwean journalists at the
Standard
newspaper and its sister papers, the Zimbabwe Independent and
NewsDay are
paid for fronting the voice of white supremacists of Rhodesian
background."
Are they really Reason? And what about you? What are you
doing in Australia
when you could be fighting the good fight with your
dead-beat friends in
Zanu PF?
Isn't it about time you came home as
you suggest in your slogan, "It is
homeland or death"?
We would hate
to think you are firing broadsides from the safety of your
Australian
homeland while your compatriots struggle to survive here because
of the
policies you propagate. But don't worry, we all understand the
message about
looking the other way while post-liberation rulers get fat on
the country's
natural resources.
Tafataona Mahoso has been preaching that gospel for
years and look where it's
got us!
The Manica Post continues to gun
for the loudest praise-singers of President
Mugabe award. After Mugabe's
meeting with members of the Johanne Marange
Sect at Mafararikwa, Marange,
the paper led with a story headlined
"President meets largest crowd in
history"
It forgot to mention it was a captive audience.
"On March 27,
1980 President Mugabe addressed arguably the largest rally in
the history of
Zimbabwe when about 200 000 people thronged the Zimbabwe
Grounds in
Highfield to welcome him back from the liberation struggle," read
the Manica
Post story.
"But the crowd did not come anywhere near the pilgrims of St
Johanne Marange
Apostolic Church he addressed last Saturday."
The paper
told us around 250 000 members of the church gathered to listen to
Mugabe's
address.
What we find curious is that the paper found news value in the
large
attendance of the Vapositori instead of what the president actually
said
there.
And why were we not told why the president was surprised by
the large
gathering which he admitted he had never addressed in his
lifetime?
"I asked Mutumwa (High Priest Noah Taguta) how he manages to
address and
look after a multitude of this nature," Mugabe said. "I am told
that some
people are not even in attendance and I have never addressed a
crowd of this
magnitude. Opportunities to address a large crowd of this
nature are rare to
come by," he went on.
Clearly, he has not managed
to look after the crowd that thronged Zimbabwe
Grounds to welcome him in
1980. Highfield voted MDC in 2000 and has never
looked back. And this was
his own constituency!
The meeting in Marange could have reminded him of
the large gatherings that
used to voluntarily attend his rallies across the
country.
And why was there a contradiction in the figures of the Vapositori
who
thronged Mafararikwa? While the Manica Post put the figure at 250 000,
Nathaniel Manheru, who operates from Munhumutapa Building, said it was a
"150 000-strong congregation".
Let's get the spin right.
We read
with interest in the Sunday Mail the large number of companies that
have
declined to sign up with Saviour Kasukuwere's fatal empowerment
project.
They seem to be staying away in droves.
But only a few weeks ago the same
paper ran a front-page story on how all
these companies were
enthusiastically joining up. Now Kasukuwere is
threatening dire punishment
for those who don't obey his injunction.
Difficult to get at the truth
when reading between the lines in Izvestia.
But one thing's for sure. The
empowerment regulations have done untold
damage to investment and recovery
prospects. But in Zanu PF destruction of
the economy has always been
rewarded with promotion. Ask Joseph Made!
What is going on in Rwanda?
Reports suggest as elections draw closer,
repression of opposition activism
is also gaining momentum.
An opposition leader was found dead, decapitated,
an independent journalist
gunned down outside his home in Kigali, an exiled
general shot and is lucky
to be alive.
Leading opposition figure,
Victoire Ingabire, is under house arrest,
dissenting voices are being
silenced. Two popular vernacular newspapers have
been closed.
In
recent months, opposition party leaders in Rwanda have been arrested and
charged with denying the genocide.
Human rights campaigners have said
Rwandans are streaming out of the country
because of the hostile political
environment.
We were interested to note that Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic
Front uses a
clenched fist as its party symbol.
We wonder what our
own rulers think of Kagame now Rwanda has joined the
Commonwealth and gone
Anglophone. He was seen as an upstart in Harare a few
years ago. And that
was a view shared in Paris.
President Sarkozy was furious, we hear, when
he made a speech in Kigali in
French last year and Kagame replied in English
despite being fluent in
French!
Kagame's party has not forgiven the
French for their support of the
genocidal Hutu regime in 1994.
Then there
were the rather inexperienced American visitors to Kigali who
said they were
mobilising support for unity between "the Tutsis and the
Hutsis"!
Finally, we were amused by Iranian vice-president Mahmoud
Baghaei's
(pronounced Bug-Eye) ridiculous remarks about events in Zimbabwe.
Addressing
a Zimbabwean delegation in Tehran which included the
ever-gullible Isdore
Guvamombe, Baghaei said if President Mugabe had not got
into power in
Zimbabwe it was going to be difficult for South Africa to have
its own
Independence (sic).
"Mandela was influenced by what he saw
President Mugabe doing in Zimbabwe."
Indeed he was. That is why he did things
very differently there. He favoured
a non-racial inclusivist and
constitution-based society where everybody had
rights, as distinct from the
narrow exclusivist regime to the north where
government took arbitrary
decisions and disregarded the rule of law.
Then of course there was
Zimbabwe's Congo intervention which Mandela
publicly opposed.
We are
grateful to Vice-President Bug-Eye for bringing these stark contrasts
to our
attention.
Meanwhile, we would be keen to know if Guvamombe endorses the
Iranian custom
of stoning errant women to death!