Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
BISHOP Trevor
Manhanga, who led a team of clerics to State House
last month to meet
President Mugabe, yesterday made telling disclosures of
what transpired at
the meeting whose details have been largely kept under
wraps.
At a meeting with Bulawayo church leaders in the
city yesterday,
Manhanga was pressed to reveal details of the meeting with
Mugabe after the
churchmen accused his team of being manipulated by the Zanu
PF government.
Manhanga's delegation of clergymen was in
Bulawayo to drum up
support for their initiative to promote dialogue with
Mugabe.
At the meeting the church leaders voiced their
concerns over the
process by which members were consulted before the meeting
with President
Mugabe. They warned that the church should guard against
being used by the
ruling Zanu PF.
But Manhanga, who is
head of the Evangelical Fellowship of
Zimbabwe, defended the initiative and
in the process narrated issues he
discussed with Mugabe.
"It was a frank discussion contrary to what some people are
saying,"
Manhanga said. "The first issue raised by Pastor Gatsi at the
meeting was
that President Mugabe was surrounded by useless people."
Mugabe admitted that there were some useless people in his
cabinet, he
said.
"Do you think anyone would have said that at State
House (if
they had been manipulated)?" he asked.
Manhanga
also revealed that the clerics raised the issue of
Operation Murambatsvina
with Mugabe. He said the president concurred that
the manner in which the
exercise was carried out was flawed.
"We raised our concerns
about Operation Murambatsvina and
President Mugabe said he realised that the
way the exercise was carried out
was wrong," Manhanga
said.
He said Mugabe admitted government should have
consulted the
church before Murambatsvina.
Manhanga said
the church leaders told Mugabe that internal
dialogue should take priority
over attempts to build bridges with the
British.
He said
the other issues discussed at the meeting included
corruption, inflation and
the need for constitutional reform.
Manhanga said Justice
minister Patrick Chinamasa and State
Security minister Didymus Mutasa
attended the meeting but did not make any
contributions.
He told the Bulawayo clergymen that the reason he called for
talks with MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai was not to implore the West to lift
sanctions as
reported. He said there were no sanctions against Zimbabwe but
targeted
sanctions against Zanu PF officials.
"Tsvangirai did not call
for sanctions in the first place and he
does not have the power to say drop
sanctions," he said.
The church leaders also raised the issue
of Matabeleland
atrocities. A local pastor, Lucky Moyo, said clerics should
not be
manipulated.
"As members of the church, we should
be wary of being used and
manipulated by politicians," he
said.
Zim Independent
RESERVE Bank governor Gideon Gono has come under renewed fire
from former
Barbican Bank CEO Mthuli Ncube for cancelling his bank's
licence.
Ncube, a professor of finance and a director for
executive
education at the Graduate School of Business Administration,
University of
the Witwatersrand, South Africa, accused Gono of pursuing a
vindictive
agenda against him by withdrawing Barbican's bank licence. He
also made
allegations of ethnicity by Gono against him and accused him of
destroying
the economy.
Ncube slammed Agribank CEO Sam
Malaba and former Barbican
employee Simon Nyarota for allegedly
collaborating in the "grand plan" to
seize his bank's
assets.
Ncube said he was shocked to receive a letter from
the curator
of Barbican on June 21 saying his bank licence would soon be
cancelled. In a
letter to Finance minister Herbert Murerwa dated June 26,
Ncube lashed out
at Gono, accusing him of pursuing personal vendettas and
ethnic agendas.
"I have received a copy of a letter dated 21
June 2006, from one
Mr TM Matavire, an employee of KPMG, who says he is a
Curator of Barbican
Bank, notifying the directors of the bank that Mr Gideon
Gono, Governor of
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, intends to cancel the
licence for Barbican
Bank on 30 June 2006," Ncube said.
"The letter mentions that a shareholder of Barbican Bank can
appeal to the
Minister of Finance against the cancellation of the licence.
As a
shareholder in Barbican Bank, I write to you appealing against the
decision
of cancellation of the licence."
Ncube said the reasons for
closure cited in the letter "are not
only false and fraudulent, but are
misleading and without basis." He said
Barbican's assets were "illegally
transferred" by the curator to "Gono's
ZABG project". ZABG was formed from
an amalgamation of Trust, Royal and
Barbican banks. Shareholders of the
banks are contesting the merger on the
basis of a Supreme Court ruling which
said their assets were unlawfully sold
although Gono set up a commission
which found nothing wrong with it.
"The facts are that Gono
has been implementing a systematic
strategy of targeted ethnic-cleansing
against me personally, victimising me
on purely ethnic grounds, through
fraudulent expropriation in disregard of
well-understood principles of
property rights and rule of law," he said.
"The reasons cited in their
letter are a mere cover-up designed to cover any
tracks of their real
intentions." Efforts to get comment from Gono yesterday
were
unsuccessful.
Ncube left Zimbabwe last year at the height of
turmoil in the
banking sector and now lives in South Africa. His bank was
closed amid
numerous claims of financial abuse, externalisation, and
insolvency by the
central bank. But former Barbican directors have denied
the allegations.
Ncube's attacks against Gono come at a time
when the central
bank boss is coming under intensified pressure in the
ruling Zanu PF and
business circles where his opponents are baying for his
blood. Politicians
and bankers accuse Gono of destroying their businesses
through his monetary
policy measures.
Gono has said he
was not targeting anyone in his job as his
adversaries
say.
But sources said politicians from the ruling-party
faction led
by retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru are going after
Gono. It is
understood that his rivals are pressing for his removal from the
Reserve
Bank, two and a half years before his term expires. Gono, accused of
being
connected to the Zanu PF camp led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, has openly
clashed
with Murerwa over his monetary policies. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
HARARE
commission chairperson Sekesai Makwavarara's future at
Town House has sucked
in Zanu PF's supreme body, the politburo, as Local
Government minister
Ignatius Chombo and Zanu PF Harare province bare their
knuckles over the
matter.
Zanu PF secretary for Information Nathan Shamuyarira
yesterday
said the politburo would discuss with concerned parties their
seemingly
intractable differences to coordinate its position before it can
issue a
statement.
"We are going to talk to Harare
province and understand their
position, then coordinate our position on the
matter," Shamuyarira said.
"Phone me on Monday and I will give you the
party's position."
Apparently the mayoral issue has divided
Zanu PF loyalists who
are beginning to question Makwavarara's party
credentials, particularly for
someone who abandoned it to join the
opposition nearly six years ago.
Zanu PF Women's League
spokesperson, Nyasha Chikwinya, referred
all questions about the party
women's position on the matter to Oppah
Muchunguri who was said to be out of
town for the rest of the week.
"It's beyond me, I am too
junior for that. Let the seniors like
Muchinguri make comments," Chikwinya
said.
Rifts in Zanu PF have been deepening in recent weeks
over the
extension of the profligate Harare mayoress' tenure, prompting Zanu
PF
Harare provincial executive to pass a vote of no confidence in her.
Makwavarara's tenure has been extended for the fourth time after it expired
on June 9.
The vote put Chombo's decision to extend
Makwavarara's tenure by
another six months as head of the commission running
the affairs of Harare
under the spotlight.
The spectre of
a divisive showdown pitting Chombo against
members of the Zanu PF Harare
province became inevitable forcing the
politburo to
intervene.
Zanu PF Harare province is seeking to oust
Makwavarara, alleging
that she had no capacity to lead the
city.
In an interview with the Independent on Wednesday, Zanu
PF
Harare provincial spokesman, William Nhara, said Makwavarara was
unsuitable
to continue leading the city since she lacked the professional
and
leadership skills to deliver to ratepayers'
expectations.
"Service delivery situation is not improving,
contrary to
minister Chombo's claims," Nhara said.
"We
want to be educated on where there are improvements. Maybe
the minister is
measuring the city's improvements using growth-point
standards."
He alleges that Makwavara has a tendency of
making arbitrary
decisions without consulting other members of the
commission.
"As stakeholders in Harare, we no longer have
confidence in
Makwavarara," Nhara said. "We would not provide her with any
support and we
hope other stakeholders would join in."
Nhara said Zanu PF Harare province has reached that position
after realising
that service delivery in the city was deteriorating under
Makwavarara's
leadership.
He said the situation on the ground shows that
basic service
delivery is not being carried out, characterised with potholed
roads,
crumbling infrastructure not being fixed, uncollected refuse, erratic
water
supplies and burst sewage pipes becoming a perennial
problem.
Nhara said Makwavarara was not suitable to spearhead
the
turnaround of fortunes at Town House because of her lack of professional
qualifications.
"We want people who can turn around the
fortunes of Harare, able
to deliver and with necessary credentials," Nhara
said.
"There are certain prerequisites for each job, at least
demonstrable deliverable even through experience. Makwavarara doesn't have
any professional qualifications. She has undermined and demeaned the
position of the party in Harare and not being a member of the party herself
cannot expect any further cooperation from the residents and the party in
Harare."
Nhara said Zanu PF Harare branch had
communicated its position
to the central government and were waiting for an
explanation on Makwavarara's
fate.
Makwavarara was
appointed chairperson of the Harare commission
more than two years ago,
after the government sacked the elected MDC mayor
Elias
Mudzuri.
She was elected to council on an MDC ticket and to
deputy mayor
before turning her back on the opposition to join Zanu PF. By
virtue of her
about-turn she should have started in the lower party ranks
according to the
ruling party regulations.
Zim Independent
TANZANIAN President Jakaya Kikwete is recalling veteran
ambassador to Zimbabwe, Brigadier-General Hashim Mbita, widely seen as close
to Zanu PF, in a move thought to be part of Dar-es-Salaam's strategy to
crack the Zimbabwean problem.
Diplomatic sources said
Kikwete - who has already made
appointments of new ambassadors to four
countries - would soon be
withdrawing Mbita from Harare in a bid to
re-energise his country's
initiative to resolve the Zimbabwean
crisis.
Tanzania, will supported Zimbabwe's liberation
struggle during
the 1970s, has now taken centre stage to deal with the local
crisis again.
Mbita would be replaced by Adadi Mohamed Rajab,
former Director
of Criminal Investigations in the Tanzanian police force.
Sources said that
Kikwete had finalised the issue which was part of other
appointments to the
United Kingdom, China and Germany.
Rajab, who is a lawyer by profession, is said to be a forthright
diplomat
who will tell it like it is on the Zimbabwe political and economic
crisis.
While Mbita's recalling, sources said, was part
of Tanzania's
diplomatic policy shift towards Zimbabwe, it was explained in
official
language that his "contract has come to an end".
Sources said even though Kikwete, a former foreign and finance
minister with
a strong military background, remains a steadfast nationalist
leader, he was
modern and dynamic in his outlook.
"This is why he has
difficulties with old-school leaders like
Mugabe," a source said. "He wants
to see a new generation of leaders in
Africa."
Although
Mbita, together with the late Information minister
Tichaona Jokonya, was
central in the appointment of Mkapa as mediator in the
Zimbabwean situation,
sources said Dar-es-Salaam now wanted a
straight-talking envoy to tackle the
issue. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
A MASSIVE purging of staff is going on at
the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) in a bid to clean up what are seen
as
undesirable elements.
Sources say a senior army
officer will be appointed to take over
as chief executive of the troubled
national broadcaster under a new
structure announced three weeks ago by the
late Information minister
Tichaona Jokonya.
The names of
Brigadier-General Sibusiso Moyo and current
managing director of the
National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), Air Commodore
Michael Karakadzai, are
being touted as possible candidates for the CEO's
post.
Retired and serving army officers are already running
parastatals, other
government-owned companies and state departments as part
of President Robert
Mugabe's militarisation of public institutions.
Observers have said
militarisation comes about as government paranoia
increases due to national
discontent over the country's governance.
The new chief
executive is expected to be announced next week to
coincide with the
appointment of a new board of directors. Sources say the
new board is likely
to be chaired by current Zimpapers chief executive
Justin Mutasa who was
vice chairman of the board dissolved by Jokonya.
Already
there was involvement of the army through Major-General
Engelbert Rugeje who
was chairman of Radio Zimbabwe under the ZBH board
dissolved by Jokonya two
weeks ago.
"It is part of the militarisation which has been
going on but
the other main reason is that under Rino Zhuwarara's tenure as
chairman
there was chaos," said a source. "Zhuwarara did not have the
respect of his
managers.
"There were cases of sabotage,
sexual harassment and
insubordination. Even now there is
confusion."
The source said the nine chief executives of the
nine companies
that came out of the unbundled ZBC during the controversial
restructuring
under former Information minister Jonathan Moyo have been told
to either
resign or reapply.
Others have been offered
jobs at the Ministry of Information and
Publicity.
Christopher Chivinge and Tazzen Mandizvidza who currently occupy
the same
position of editor-in-chief of Newsnet are among the heads that are
understood to have been offered posts in the Information
ministry.
There is currently confusion as to who is in charge
at Newsnet
between Chivinge and Mandizvidza.
Sources said
former broadcasters who left ZBC during the 2003
restructuring and
retrenchments altogether would replace those either posted
to the ministry
or forced to resign.
A source said ministry officials have
since approached former
broadcaster Happison Muchechetere, retrenched three
years ago, to head the
troubled ZTV which is currently in the red and
failing to pay its employees.
Zim Independent
A TOTAL of 110 people have succumbed to
malnutrition-related
diseases in Bulawayo since the beginning of the year,
reflecting the
deepening economic crisis that has left many families failing
to fend for
themselves, a report compiled by the city's health department
has revealed.
The report which was discussed during a full
council meeting two
weeks ago indicates that the deaths were recorded in the
first three months
of the year.
Bulawayo executive mayor,
Japhet Ndabeni Ncube, this week
confirmed the latest figures and said they
were worrying. He said that
council was doing everything in its powers to
keep supplementary feeding
programmes it is running in the city going
on.
"The malnutrition figures are still bad but these
statistics
will help us plan for the supplementary feeding programmes we are
running in
council schools and clinics," Ndabeni-Ncube
said.
The city's health department report indicates that in
the month
of March alone a total of 33 people including 28 children under
the age of
four succumbed to malnutrition-related diseases in
Bulawayo.
The figures add to the 77 people who died of
malnutrition-related diseases in January and February this
year.
The figures for January and February also indicate that
the
majority of the deaths were recorded in the under-four age
group.
Of the 43 people who died in February, 31 were
children under
the age of four while 29 children in the same age group died
in January
where a total of 34 other people died.
The
latest malnutrition figures are certain to rile President
Robert Mugabe's
government that has insisted that no one will die of hunger
in Zimbabwe. -
Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Reagan Mashavave
THE Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) is failing to provide adequate
maize supplies to
millers for maize meal production, raising fears that the
country might face
grain shortages before the next agricultural season.
Agriculture minister Joseph Made's predictions of a bumper maize
harvest
remain a farce as the GMB silos are still empty with very little
maize being
delivered.
National Foods Ltd says it has been receiving
small maize
allocations from the GMB over the past several
weeks.
"Bulawayo regularly receives small maize allocations
from the
Grain Marketing Board. Harare, Mutare and Masvingo depots have had
very
little maize allocated to them over the past several weeks," said Linda
Musesengwa, public relations consultant for National Foods
Ltd.
National Foods also said the small maize allocation from
the GMB
had affected the marketing of the company's maize
products.
"Maize allocations permitting, the company also
markets granular
and mealie rice," Musesengwa said.
Lately there has been a proliferation of small-sized millers
that are being
allocated maize at the GMB ahead of large millers.
A source
privy to what is happening at the GMB revealed that
small-scale millers that
are closely connected to the ruling Zanu PF are
considered ahead of larger
millers in the allocation of maize.
This year there were
reports in the media that maize dealers
were buying maize imported by the
GMB for the purposes of reselling it to
the parastatal at a higher price or
for resale to neighbouring countries.
Farmers have expressed
displeasure at the money GMB is offering,
resulting in them selling the bulk
of their maize harvest to private buyers.
GMB buys a tonne of
maize at $31 million with the farmer paying
transport costs to the GMB
depots while some private buyers are said to pay
up to $37 million a tonne
and provide transportation. GMB chief executive
officer retired colonel,
Samuel Muvuti refused to talk to this reporter
saying he doesn't talk to
journalists from the Zimbabwe Independent.
"Handitauri
nemareporters eku-Independent, takarimirana kudhara
(I don't talk to
reporters from the Independent, we are enemies)," said
Muvuti before hanging
up.
Zim Independent
By Richard Beeston/Jan
Raath
AS she lay in a Harare hospital recovering from
severe head
injuries and surgery on a broken arm, Trudy Stevenson was still
amazed that
she had lived to tell her story.
"They were
calling my name: 'Trudy! Trudy! Get out (of the
car)," she told The Times
from her bed. "They wanted me. They wanted to kill
me."
The veteran opposition MP is no stranger to the sharp end of
African
politics. She has survived repeated intimidation at the hands of
President
Robert Mugabe's regime and in the 1970s had to flee Idi Amin's
murderous
rule in Uganda.
But what makes her closest brush with death
so extraordinary is
that the assailants were members of her own Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) - once the unified opposition in Zimbabwe, but today
a badly divided
party in the process of imploding.
Stevenson's troubles began last year when she and several
colleagues split
from the MDC, in part over the violent behaviour of some
supporters of
Morgan Tsvangirai, its founder and leader.
On Sunday afternoon,
after she had attended a small political
meeting in Mabvuku, her colleagues
saw a dozen Tsvangirai supporters.
"They approached us in a
threatening way. Most people just ran.
I had a car and tried to get in and
drive away. But I was not fast enough,"
said the 61-year-old American-born
politician, recalling her ordeal.
Stones the size of
footballs rained down on her car, she was hit
by a panga on the back of the
head and her attackers tried to drag her out
of the vehicle with such force
that they broke two bones in an arm.
"I knew I would be in
greater danger if I got out of the car. I
knew they wanted to kill me. They
kept trying to drag me out. They kept
hitting my head with rocks. I could
feel the blood running down my neck."
But before the
assailants, some of whom were identified as MDC
activists, were able to
complete the attack they fled, leaving five former
colleagues bleeding and
beaten.
Stevenson insisted this week that she would not be
intimidated
and vowed to remain to serve her constituency in the
capital.
Despite appeals from her family to move to Britain,
she refused
to leave her adopted home. To prevent further violence her son
confronted
Tsvangirai and demanded an explanation.
The
former union leader apologised for the "barbaric" attack,
which he
condemned, adding that if any of his supporters were responsible
they would
be expelled from the party. But his assurances did little to
reassure his
former supporters that the movement, once regarded as a symbol
for peaceful,
democratic opposition in Africa, can be resurrected.
The
unravelling of the pro-democracy movement and champion of
Harare's urban
poor began in October when Tsvangirai refused to accept a
national executive
vote to participate in elections for a new senate.
He claimed
to have won support to boycott the election.
Stevenson then joined the
breakaway faction opposed to Tsvangirai.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya/Ray Matikinye
THE
Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group, which is owned by the
Central Intelligence
Organisaion (CIO), is in an "extremely precarious"
financial position as it
owes creditors almost $160 billion due to poor
advertising and circulation,
minutes of a recent board meeting reveal.
This comes as the
Daily Mirror has hired a new editor, Dr Joseph
Kurebwa, from the University
of Zimbabwe to take over the editorial
department of the paper which the CIO
has wrested control of. Kurebwa's
employment, which has divided the Mirror
board, was part of a rescue package
promised to the company by its
"shareholder", minutes of a board meeting
held on June 23
disclose.
Kurebwa last year predicted in a survey that Zanu
PF would win
72 seats in the general election and the party won 78 seats. He
also
forecast the MDC would win 45 seats and it won 41.
The meeting was attended by board chairman Jonathan Kadzura, his
deputy John
Marangwanda, Charm Makuwane, Alexander Kanengoni and acting CEO
Tichaona
Chifamba. Board member Thomas Meke was absent. The current board
largely
represents the CIO interest in the Mirror.
The minutes
obtained by the Zimbabwe Independent show that the
company, whose titles
include the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror, is in
deep financial trouble
and is saddled with a staggering debt profile that
threatens its
survival.
The minutes say the Mirror group has been
performing poorly as a
result of "low circulation and low advertising". The
company owes $108
billion to its bankers and $50 billion to
creditors.
Kadzura told the June meeting that the company was
in dire
straits and an urgent rescue plan was needed. He suggested that the
best way
forward would be for the company to buy its own printing press and
image
setter. The cost was US$1 million for the printing press and US$48 000
for
the image setter, the minutes say.
"He said members
had appreciated this, but no capital had been
injected into the project. In
the meantime, the company owes the bank $108
billion, and another $50
billion to other creditors."
The minutes say the Mirror was
only able to get a bail-out
package if it accepted Kurebwa's hiring because
"there is a strong
correlation between the appointment of the editor of the
Daily Mirror and
the release of funds".
Kurebwa's
appointment by the "shareholder" has divided the board
and the owners of the
papers. Marangwanda expressed his displeasure at
Kurebwa's appointment by
the shareholder saying this should have been the
responsibility of the
board. He queried what value Kurebwa would add to the
company.
"He said he was against the idea of
rubber-stamping decisions
arrived at by other parties. His sentiments were
echoed by Mr Mukuwane, who
said the appointment of an editor would
complicate matters given the
prevailing situation where the company was
involved in a legal wrangle with
Dr (Ibbo) Mandaza.
"He
also said the mandate of the board should be clearly
explained. The chairman
pointed out that Dr Mandaza was editor-in-chief, and
therefore Dr Kurebwa's
position would not be in breach of the current
structure."
But Kanengoni chipped in with a different
view to break the
impasse at the board meeting.
"Mr
Kanengoni said if bringing in Dr Kurebwa would result in the
release of
funds, then the appointment should be effected. However, the
board had to
register its displeasure with the way the shareholder had
conducted
himself," the minutes said.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
THE Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) this week further reduced
statutory reserve
thresholds as it reacted to the threat of a financial
sector crisis first
reported by the Zimbabwe Independent in May.
The reduction in
statutory reserve ratios was aimed at
precluding a top banking institution
from releasing a profit warning that
might have served as an indictment to a
raft of central bank policies which
banking sector executives feel have
significantly undermined their banks'
profitability.
Sources said this week that Barclays Bank (Zimbabwe), the third
largest bank
by assets, had indicated that it would issue a profit warning
to
shareholders after the central bank failed to address concerns raised by
the
top five commercial banks that costly treasury bill (TB) portfolios
accumulated under the central bank's tight monetary policy were wiping out
accumulated capital.
The Independent reported in May that
the country's financial
sector was on the brink of bank failures, with five
key banking institutions
reportedly sitting on costly TB portfolios that
could wipe out accumulated
capital.
The situation at the
top five banks - Standard Chartered,
Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ),
Barclays, Stanbic and Zimbabwe Banking
Corporation (Zimbank) - had been
compounded by the high statutory reserve
requirements for commercial banks
which have shifted huge amounts of
deposits from the banking system,
transferring them to the RBZ.
The commercial banks are
holding huge TBs in their portfolios,
most of which had yields averaging
around 300%.
However, the banks are financing their positions
at rates in
excess of 850% through the overnight accommodation facility of
the central
bank, creating huge gaps between their financing costs and the
cost of their
TB assets.
The TBs are difficult to redeem
for cash until maturity, and
this had forced banking institutions to seek
recourse from the central bank
through the overnight accommodation window to
fund short positions.
Documents seen in May indicated that
the big financial
institutions were each picking up debts as high as $1
trillion daily through
borrowings from the RBZ, with daily interest charges
in excess of $500
billion daily.
A memorandum from the
Bankers' Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ) had
warned that developments from the
RBZ's monetary policies were "a major
concern to the industry and will, if
not addressed urgently, precipitate
bank failures" before the end of
June.
The high statutory reserve ratios had meant that
commercial
banks were effectively paying out 58% of all their deposits to
the RBZ at no
interest.
Of the balance from the deposits,
76% has been locked up in TBs,
leaving the commercial banks in the
lurch.
The central bank on Monday reduced statutory reserve
ratios for
commercial and merchant banks from 50% on demand or call deposits
to 47,5%
and from 40% on savings or time deposits to
37,5%.
This was after the RBZ had made a similar reduction in
statutory
reserve ratios from 60% for call or demand deposits to 50% and
from 45% on
time or savings deposits to 40% on June 19.
In his latest announcement to banking sector chief executives on
June 29,
RBZ governor Gideon Gono said the central bank was "making these
progressive
reductions in the spirit of releasing more financial resources
on banks'
funding positions so as to enable the industry to increase its
contribution
to the economic turnaround programme".
He had also indicated
in his earlier notice to bankers that the
reduction in statutory reserves
was meant "to reduce the cost of funding for
banks".
Sources indicated that the central bank had made the decision to
lower
statutory reserve ratios after Barclays Bank had indicated it would
take the
unusual step of issuing a cautionary that would give details of the
impact
of the central bank's policies on its margins.
Gono also
discontinued the two-year special TBs into which banks
were forced if they
remained with surplus cash by end of business as part of
measures to restore
viability in the banking sector.
Under the new measure,
surpluses will now be accommodated in
30-day non-negotiable certificates of
deposits (NNCDs) at zero interest.
To further enhance
viability of the commercial banks and
curtails bank failures, Gono has
increased returns on all outstanding
two-year TBs, making them more
marketable and tradable on the secondary
market. The interest rate on all
outstanding two-year TBs has been adjusted
upwards to 375%, from levels of
200%.
A central bank official had written to bankers on June
21
informing them that the effective date for the new interest rate of 375%
on
outstanding two-year TBs would be April.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
RESERVE Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono is expected
to revise his inflation
target during his half-year monetary policy review
due this
month.
Sources said Gono is expected to announce a new
inflation target
of around 500%, up from an initial year-end target of
between 220% and 230%
that he had projected in his January monetary policy
statement.
Analysts said excessive growth in money supply at
590,6% for
April, rising fuel prices and foreign currency shortages are some
of the
issues that the governor should address if inflation is to be
controlled.
Analysts who spoke to businessdigest this week
said Gono would
be forced to revise his targets. They said money supply
growth and excessive
government spending had mitigated against his ambitious
inflation forecasts.
Finhold group economist, Best Doroh,
told businessdigest
inflation was likely to soar to 2 000% by
year-end.
"The bank should look at factors that have been
driving
inflation upwards and adopt solid long-term measures to stop such
developments," Doroh said
"What has been pushing
inflation upwards is fuel increases. The
effects of recent increases would
be felt in the short-term," Doroh said.
The weakening of the
local currency during the first half of the
year has increased the local
cost of imports, a situation that will add to
inflationary
pressures.
Andy Hodges, an economist with the Zimbabwe Allied
Banking
Group, said there was need for broad-based measures involving all
major
sectors of the economy if inflation was to be
defeated.
"Fighting inflation should be set as a long-term
goal, rather
than a reactionary measure to negative developments in the
economy," Hodges
said.
"All sectors must have learnt from
last year and should start
making long-term and timely plans now," he
said.
The country's inflation rate for January was 613,2%.
The figure
rose to 782%, 913% and 1 092% in February, March and April
respectively.
It is currently at 1 194% year-on-year for
May.
In his monetary policy statement for 2006, Gono said he
expected
the combined effects of tight monetary policy, fiscal restraint and
the
expected improvement in food security this year to suppress inflationary
pressure, predicting that inflation would end the year at "230%, before
declining to lower double digit by mid-2007".
Last year
the Reserve Bank failed to meet its inflation target
of between 50% and 80%
by year-end.
The bank had initially projected inflation to
fall to between
20% and 35% but subsequently revised the target upwards due
to sustained
inflationary pressure in the economy.
The
inflation figure for December was 585,8%.
Independent
economist consultant John Robertson said the most
hopeful figure the Reserve
Bank could aim to achieve was 800% by year-end.
"There are a
lot of inflationary pressures at the moment and no
measures have been put in
place yet to control inflation," Roberson said.
Robertson
said he was not prepared to forecast a figure by
year-end because of the
chaotic nature of Zimbabwe's statistics, some of
which have been disputed by
independent observers.
"It would be difficult to rein in
inflation at the moment as
most commodities are being pegged on parallel
market rates," said Robertson.
Zim Independent
Eric Chiriga
GOVERNMENT was
$1,6 trillion in the red in February after its
revenue sources failed to
meet targets, latest statistics from the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) have
revealed.
While government's cumulative revenue for the month
of January
totalled $5,8 trillion, its total expenditure and net lending
including
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) grants was $7,3
trillion.
"The revenue and expenditure developments resulted
in a budget
deficit of $1,58 trillion for the month under review," said the
central bank
in the monthly review for February.
"Major
revenue heads performed below target," added the RBZ.
The
February deficit is understood to represent a growing
deficit problem faced
by government due to dwindling revenue streams due to
a contracting
economy.
Income and profit tax contributed $2,97 trillion,
Value Added
Tax (Vat) $1,76 trillion, customs duty $1,45 trillion and excise
duty $0,3
billion.
On the other hand, government's
expenditure included salaries
and wages of $4,1 trillion, transfer payments
of $1,45 trillion and interest
payments of $0,5 billion.
These developments come against the backdrop of a growing
domestic debt now
close to $42 trillion.
Foreign debt is close to US$$4
billion.
According to an RBZ monthly review for January,
government
closed the year 2005 with a total external debt outstanding of
US$3,9
billion, equivalent to $402 trillion using the interbank rate of
US$1:$101
195.
The country managed to scrape a paltry
US$1,7 billion from
exports.
Government recorded a
revenue of only $33,4 trillion during the
period.
Out of
the revenue, income and profit tax contributed $16,33
trillion, Vat ($10,55
trillion), customs duties tax ($3,86 trillion) and
excise duty income was
$1,06 trillion.
The RBZ said at the close of 2005 bilateral
and multilateral
creditors were US$1,44 billion and US$1,46 billion
respectively.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
THE Chamber of
Mines has appealed to the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) for an urgent
review of the gold price in a bid to save the
sector currently facing
viability problems.
The Chamber, which represents the mining
industry in Zimbabwe,
last week wrote to the central bank requesting the
gold price to be
increased to $6,8 million from the current $2,5 million per
gramme.
The Chamber said an urgent price review was required
to cushion
the mines from the increased production costs.
The appeal comes barely a fortnight after businessdigest
reported that gold
mining firm, Falcon Gold, had threatened to shut down if
problems related to
the gold price were not addressed.
David Murangari, the
Chamber's managing director, wrote to Gono
after several representations
from other gold mining firms.
The letter, a copy of which was
seen by businessdigest, is dated
June 26, 2006. Murangari, in his plea on
behalf of the gold mining
companies, urged the central bank to review the
gold price quarterly to
enable mining companies to meet increasing
production costs.
Murangari suggested that the central bank
should consider the
sector's cost structure when reviewing the gold
price.
Businessdigest is informed that labour accounts for
35% of a
gold mining company's costs, while spares account for 38%,
electricity 7%
and other expenses, 20%.
Input costs,
which include salaries and wages (238%),
electricity (280%) spares and
machinery (350%) and services (148%) have been
rising significantly over the
past few months due to increased inflationary
pressures in the economy,
Murangari highlighted in his letter to Gono.
The letter said
production costs had gone up by 265,8% during
the first half of the
year.
In January, the Reserve Bank increased gold prices from
$1,2
million per gramme to $2,5 million in a bid to boost production after
official deliveries to Fidelity Printer, a gold-buying subsidiary of the
central bank, plunged by 40% last year.
Gold is a key
foreign currency earner and accounts for about 52%
of total mineral
production and a third of export earnings.
The sector has
however been hit by mine closures in the last
eight years as operating costs
soared on the back of foreign currency and
fuel
shortages.
Gold deliveries fell to 13 000 kg last year from
21 300 kg the
previous year.
The central bank has accused
gold miners of smuggling the
precious mineral to neighbouring
countries.
Zim Independent
Pindai Dube
ZIMBABWE'S timber
industry is under threat from resettled
farmers causing fires in woodlands
or illegally cutting down timber from
plantations, the Timber Producers
Federation (TPF) said this week.
TPF chairman, Joseph
Kanyekanye, said the resettled farmers were
illegally harvesting timber and
destroying trees through fires in timber
plantations when clearing land for
farming activities, leading to the
collapse of the
industry.
Kanyekanye said last year alone, resettled farmers
cost the
nation above $1,5 trillion worth of Timber through illegal harvests
or
fires.
"An unprecedented 252 fires occurred and in the
inflammable
conditions rapidly spread through the plantations, damaging and
destroying
10 000 hectares," said Kanyekanye in a
statement.
"The fires destroyed timber with an estimated
mature standing
value of $1,5 trillion. The national forest resource was
diminished by 10%,"
Kanyekanye said.
Kanyekanye said due
to the fires, "resulting from arson attacks
or land clearing activities by
unauthorised settlers in the
plantations.trees of all ages have been
destroyed and consequently log
shortages will occur for many
years".
Added to that, the TPF chairman alleged that the new
farmers
were preventing foresters' from replanting in the fire-damaged
areas.
Forestry Commission managing director, Darlington
Duwa, said the
new farmers had caused serious damage to their plantations
resulting in the
company posting financial losses.
"Illegal settlers have really affected our operations. We are
trying to
liaise with the government to speed up drafting a land policy
document which
I think will protect us," Duwa said.
Zim Independent
Dumisani
Ndlela
FUNGAI Mutseyekwa, the general manager of St Lucia
Park, a
training and conference centre, works around a very serene
environment: lush
green gardens about magnificent brick under thatch
buildings that provide a
scenic view from the office.
And
the air is refreshing.
St Lucia Park, sitting at the heart of
Marlborough just off
Harare Drive, is outside the hussle and bustle of
Harare's fast and noisy
central business district.
An
environment for clear thinking, one would imagine, and may be
the ideal
place for the new Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (Haz)
president to
ponder clearly over how to tackle problems troubling a
once-promising
hospitality sector now haunted by negative perceptions and a
six-year
economic crisis.
Mutseyekwa, who served as the deputy of two
previous Haz
presidents before his election as president at a recent annual
general
meeting (AGM), is very clear about what needs to be done to turn
around the
ailing tourism sector.
"We need to be honest;
we have a situation that needs to be
resolved (and) tinkering on the
periphery of the problem will not help,"
says Mutseyekwa.
He maintains: "We cannot resolve the problem (affecting the
tourism
industry) by doing what we've always done."
In other words,
government should adopt policy measures that
encourage investment in the
sector and attract visitors from key source
markets who have shunned the
country because of concerns like fuel shortages
and a breakdown of the rule
of law in the country precipitated by agrarian
reforms and electoral
disputes that have left a trail of deaths behind them.
He has
a very simple prescription: the government should know
what it is supposed
to do, and so should Haz and other stakeholders "so
there's accountability,"
he says.
At its AGM, Haz appointed Vice-President Joice
Mujuru patron of
the tourism sector.
Mutseyekwa says this
has opened doors to the Presidium and
tourism players can now easily
approach Mujuru on issues they feel should be
urgently dealt with to improve
the country's image.
Already, Mutseyekwa says, Haz has pushed
for a complete
transformation of the country's borders to improve services
and eliminate
unnecessary delays that had become a major frustration to
tourists visiting
the country.
Mujuru has already taken a
leading role on pushing for the
transformations, Mutseyekwa says, and there
is a lot more the industry
believes it could gain through her role as the
sector's patron.
"I'm encouraged by her attitude," Mutseyekwa
says, shrugging off
a pessimistic question from this reporter. "She's
passionate about wanting
to see things turn around," he says, trying to sway
opinion.
But his opinion of the tourism industry is,
nonetheless,
critical.
"The industry is crawling because
of negative perceptions," says
Mutseyekwa, "Volumes are down and the
hyperinflationary environment has made
our human resources vulnerable and
they expect solutions from employers.
Their motivation has been affected and
that impacts on service levels."
"We need various
stakeholders to work together to get the
tourism sector back on a growth
path," he says, sounding a little
disappointed by previous efforts by both
government and tourism sector
players which looked
disjointed.
Industry players, Mutseyekwa says, had undertaken
their own
efforts apart from government's own initiatives to revive the
tourism
sector.
This did not work, Mutseyekwa says, and
at times, industry had
overstepped its own mandate, encroaching into what
government perceived to
be its territory.
"We have been a
little controversial in trying to find due
solutions to the crisis," says
Mutseyekwa.
"I'm passionate about branding Zimbabwe but it's
the mandate of
the Zimbabwe Tourism Association (ZTA). We'll support them in
their efforts.
We have to work together, we have to sing from the same hymn
book," says
Mutseyekwa, talking about combined efforts between stakeholders
to tackle
problems besetting the sector.
The ZTA is a
quasi-government institution whose role is to
promote Zimbabwe
internationally as a tourism destination.
Last year, Zimbabwe
suffered a 16% decline in tourist arrivals
against those recorded the
previous year.
Over the six-year economic crisis, the country
has experienced a
decline in tourist arrivals of well over
50%.
But Mutseyekwa is not about to throw in the
towel.
"I have a vision, and it needs commitment. I predict
that in the
next three years, we'll see a lot of transformation," says
Mutseyekwa.
Mutseyekwa graduated from the School of
Hospitality and Tourism
at the Bulawayo Polytechnical College in 1994,
before joining the Rainbow
Tourism Group (RTG), now led by the affable CEO
Chipo Mtasa, whom he reckons
will be part of a renaissance of the tourism
sector together with the ZimSun
Leisure group CEO, the astute Shingi
Mutasa.
Mutseyekwa started as an assistant food and beverages
manager at
RTG's Rainbow Hotel in Victoria Falls before becoming general
manager of RTG's
various hotels around the country.
He
moved to St Lucia Park in 2001.
"I believe I am called to
hospitality; it's what I enjoy," says
Mutseyekwa, who had a brief work
experience at a UK hotel.
During his term as Haz president,
he intends to grow the
organisation's membership and make Haz a
self-sustaining organisation.
Mutseyekwa says the tourism
industry has lost significant skills
to the brain drain experienced in the
country because of the economic crisis
and deaths of professionals from
HIV/Aids.
Therefore, he would want to push for an increase in
the output
of relevant skills from colleges.
"The
deficiency manifests itself through service levels," says
Mutseyekwa,
somberly.
Mutseyekwa says consultations are currently
underway to address
the issues of negative perception.
He
says the groundwork had been laid through the appointment of
Mujuru as
tourism sector patron.
The industry would embark on various
campaigns to address issues
raised by countries that have issued travel
warnings on Zimbabwe.
Zim Independent
Eric Chiriga
CONSTRUCTION costs continue to soar due to galloping inflation,
making it
very difficult to build residential properties to meet growing
demand, a
property consultancy said in its quarterly report.
CB Richard
Ellis said in its report for the first quarter of
2006 that the cost of
building a house in the high density suburbs now stood
at between $50
million and $65 million per square metre.
The report said the
cost of building a house in the medium
density areas is now ranged from $90
million to $110 million per square
metre while constructing a house in the
low density suburbs now costs
between $125 million and $130 million per
square metre.
"The fact that there are only a few residential
developments is
largely due to the ever increasing costs of construction,"
the report said.
It said investment activity in the office
market had been
stagnant throughout the year 2005 due to the high
costs.
Building costs for properties in the office market
continued to
escalate rapidly, rising from $17,5 million per square metre in
January 2005
to between $70 million and $100 million per square metre as by
December
2005.
The report added that it was becoming
increasingly difficult for
property owners in the property market to
maintain properties as the total
cost of acquiring lifts for a ten storey
building currently stands at around
$18 billion to $20
billion.
The report said although real estate performed
satisfactorily in
the current economic crisis, significant investors
remained reluctant to
venture into the property industry.
It said in the short to medium term there is likely to be very
few, if any,
new developments in the industry due to the harsh
macro-economic
environment.
The prevailing economic environment,
characterised by high
inflation, high interest rates, acute foreign currency
shortages and a
distorted exchange rate had resulted in reluctance by
institutional
investors and other property developers to carry out any
commercial or
industrial developments.
"The prevailing
economic environment has resulted in the
escalation of operational costs of
buildings," CB Richard Ellis said in the
report.
The
report said that the operational costs shot up by over 1
100% last year, far
higher than the average rental increase of 400%.
"Although
most leases are based on the net leasing concept,
where the tenant pays for
all the operational costs, property owners have
not been able to increase
rentals at the same pace as that of inflation,"
said the
report.
The government is planning to introduce a policy that
will
exempt new property investors from rent control by the Rent Board for
the
first ten years, in a bid to lure investors into the sluggish property
industry.
The government-appointed Rent Board has become
the major
obstacle to investment in the property sector, as it imposes
rentals barely
enough for the investors to realise meaningful returns on
their investments.
"Building costs are rising faster than the
income being received
by institutional investors," the report
said.
"It has become too risky for the institutions to
undertake new
building projects." the report further
stated.
It said loan qualifications had significantly
diminished
especially for individual borrowers due to high prices of house,
high
construction costs, high cost of borrowing and high costs of
living.
If an individual intends to buy a middle income house
worth $10
billion at an interest of 150%, they would have to earn a salary
of $5
billion in order to make a monthly mortgage repayment of $1,25
billion.Mortgage rates have been volatile since last year, adjusting in
response to the bank lending rates.
The report revealed
that the three mortgage lenders namely Cabs,
FBC and Beverly last year
advanced a total of around $476 billion to a total
of 1 275 residential
property applicants.
However, the report revealed that the
galloping inflation,
currently at 1 193%, had reduced the effective demand
for mortgage loans.
Zim Independent
By Eric Chiriga
THE Cold Storage Company (CSC) could be
forced to dissolve its
pension fund due to serious financial problems,
businessdigest has
established.
Confidential documents
seen by businessdigest reveal that the
administrators of the fund, Marsh
Insurance Brokers wanted the fund to be
dissolved.
The
move will affect hundreds of employees at the parastatal,
which has been in
the red for the past decade.
In a memorandum to all branch
managers, directors and workers'
representatives, CSC human resources
director Moses Mrewa announced the
possible termination of the pension
scheme.
"The financial challenges that the company is facing
have
resulted in the company's failure to remit pension contributions to
Marsh,"
Mrewa said.
"In view of this, Marsh has proposed
that the pension fund be
converted to a paid-up status, which effectively
means the cessation of the
pension scheme."
Mrewa further
said that if the proposal is adopted, both
employer and employee
contributions will cease and the fund's assets
including contribution
arrears and loss of return on the outstanding
contributions will be
evaluated to determine each member's share of assets.
However, the members' share will be payable on attainment of
retirement
age.
If the pension scheme is dissolved, CSC will only be
required to
continue contributing to the National Social Security
Fund.
Mrewa however said management was confident that the
company's
fortunes would have significantly improved by mid
next-year.
"Riding on this confidence and the need to
safeguard members'
interests, management is of the view that the pension
fund remains active,"
said Mrewa.
He said the
contribution arrears should be amortised and cleared
over a reasonable
period of time starting mid next year when they expect
their turnaround
strategies to start bearing fruit.
He said the principal
officer of the fund will call for a
meeting of the board of trustees whose
outcome would be presented to the
Commissioner of Insurance and Pension
Funds.
CSC has been struggling to operate viably for the past
three
years due to huge debts.
CSC has been failing to
remit pension contributions to Marsh due
to cashflow
problems.
Marsh refused to comment on when contacted this
week.
"Marsh cannot disclose any information without consent
of the
principal officer," said a Marsh official responsible for the CSC
account.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
BURLEY tobacco
auction floors remained closed despite an earlier
agreement for trade to
resume on Thursday last week after a brief agreement
between farmers and
merchants on a favourable price.
However, merchants later on
rescinded on the agreement, forcing
farmers to withdraw from participating
in the burley tobacco auction.
Farmers were demanding that
merchants pay them in foreign
currency or the local currency at a rate above
the official exchange rate.
Businessdigest understands that
it was mainly the local
merchants who refused to buy the tobacco in foreign
currency or at an
exchange rate higher than that offered on the official
foreign currency
market.
Zimbabwe Farmers' Union (ZFU)
deputy president Edward Raradza
said the tobacco selling season, which was
temporarily suspended early last
month, failed to resume as had been agreed
after the two parties failed to
agree on the selling
price.
"Local merchants are against the buying of tobacco in
foreign
currency, arguing that they did not see the point in buying the crop
in
foreign currency when they want to use it locally," Raradza
said.
He said farmers were calling for a better price in
local
currency.
A farmer who spoke to businessdigest said
while they saw nothing
wrong with selling their crop in local currency, they
were not willing to
sell it at the current interbank rate of $101 195
against the US dollar.
"Considering the costs of inputs, an
exchange rate above the
current interbank would be the starting point.
Unattractive prices are a
hindrance to the production of the crop next
season," the farmer said.
On the parallel market the US
dollar is trading at $450 000
while the British pound is at $750
000.
Raradza could not be drawn into revealing the minimum
price the
farmers were demanding, insisting that farmers wanted an
attractive price.
When the 2006 burley tobacco selling season
was suspended early
last month, farmers expressed displeasure at the selling
prices of between
US$0,30 and US$0,40. Last year's selling prices averaged
US$1,90 per kg.
Raradza said last week an agreement had been reached between
farmers,
merchants and the Reserve Bank which would allow the crop to be
sold in
local currency at rates which are attractive.
Raradza could however not give a specific date when the selling
season would
resume after the latest dispute.
"At present I cannot say
when the selling season would resume,
but as an association we hope it would
be soon," Raradza said.
The delays in the opening of this
years' burley tobacco selling
season have already negatively affected most
farmers whose earnings from the
crop have been eroded by inflation and
rising input costs.
Last week Raradza said it was important
for government to
intervene in the selling of the crop to enable farmers to
recover their
expenses and remain viable.
He said the RBZ
had to offer viable prices for tobacco as the
crop was capable of generating
enough foreign currency for the country.
There are three main
types of tobacco grown in Zimbabwe -
flue-cured, burley and oriental
tobacco.
Zimbabwe is the largest producer of tobacco leaf in
Africa and
the world's fourth-largest producer of flue-cured tobacco after
China,
Brazil and the United States.
Zim Independent
THE following is a letter written by the late
Vice-President
Joshua Nkomo to President Robert Mugabe on June 7 1983
condemning the way
the then prime minister had treated him after
"discovering" arms that saw
the government unleashing the Korean-trained
Fifth Brigade on the
Matabeleland and Midlands provinces and leaving 20 000
people dead.
2 Stevenage Road
East Ham
E6 2WL
London E6 2WL
United
Kingdom
7th June, 1983
INFORMATIVE LETTER
TO PRIME MINISTER MUGABE
Dear
Robert,
I write to you as a citizen of Zimbabwe and one
of the leaders
of our country, to you not just as one of the leaders of
Zimbabwe but, above
all, as Prime Minister of the government of Zimbabwe as
provided for by the
constitution that you and me as well as other leaders
signed in December
1979.
I write because I feel that our
country is in danger of complete
disintegration, to the detriment of all its
citizens now living and of
generations to come.
Not
least, I write to you because I am convinced that you
believe I am the main
contributory factor to this dangerous situation.
You have
stated publicly on several occasions that I have
plotted, and continue to
plot, to overthrow you and your government, that I
have conspired, and
continue to conspire, with South Africa to do that, that
I have organised
and continue to organise dissident groups for the purpose
of destabilising
the country and finally to overthrow you.
You now say I have
run to Britain, ostensibly because I thought
my life was or is in danger,
but that I have done so for the purpose of
recruiting mercenaries and/or
assassins to wrest power from you.
I also know that you and
your party believe that because Zapu
lost in the last election we feel
wounded, and therefore plan to wrest power
from you by any means, fair or
foul.
You say we did all I have stated above despite the fact
that we
agreed to take part in your government when you, as Prime Minister,
invited
us to.
This whole series of accusations against
me and Zapu, which are
false and without any foundation whatsoever, started
on the 6th February,
1982 when caches of arms were discovered at Escort Farm
and later at Hampton
Farm, both of which were owned by Nitram, a private
company I assisted
former Zipra combatants to form for occupation and use by
those of them who
were not incorporated into the Zimbabwe National Army and
the Zimbabwe
Republic Police.
The discovery of arms on
the 6th February was followed by a
number of categoric and definitive
statements, by yourself, to the effect
that arms were discovered in Nkomo-
and Zapu-owned properties and that the
cache of arms were part of a plot to
overthrow you and your government; and
that all those properties were being
used for subversive purposes. You said
in Marondera on the 14th February,
1982: "Zapu had bought more than 25 farms
and more than 30 business
enterprises throughout the country. We have now
established they were not
genuine business enterprises, but places of hiding
military weapons to start
another war at an appropriate time." You added:
"Dr Nkomo was trying to
overthrow my government. Zapu and its leader, Dr
Joshua Nkomo, were like a
cobra in a house. The only way to deal effectively
with a snake is to strike
and destroy its head."
You will remember that you met me and
three of my colleagues at
your official residence on the 5th February to
discuss a number of issues,
and at the end of that meeting I mentioned to
you that I had received a
telephone message from Bulawayo to the effect that
two Nitram Farms, Ascot
and Woody Glen Farm, had been invaded by the police
the previous night and
you said you had also got information and you would
inform me later what it
was all about.
That evening I
travelled with two of your ministers on a plane
to Bulawayo, Emmerson
Mnangagwa and Sydney Sekeramai. Little did I know that
you had sent these
two men to Bulawayo to display to the press arms
allegedly unearthed in one
of those farms, namely Ascot Farm.
I would have expected that
as minister under you, you would,
after finding arms in Nitram-owned
properties, to have summoned me to your
office to find out from me as to
whether I knew anything about the arms.
I would have
expected, further, that you would have instructed
me to have joined
Mnangagwa and Sekeramai in an attempt to uncover
information about those
arms. I am sure you realise how important it was for
me to have physically
seen the location, the quantity and nature of the arms
that were discovered,
especially at a time when I was still minister. While
I do not dispute that
arms were found on these farms, how else would I have
been expected to
believe the quantity, and nature of the arms unearthed and
displayed to the
press were authentic?
As it is now, I cannot be made to
believe that the quantities,
quality and nature of arms presented to the
press were in fact all unearthed
just in those two farms. It is quite clear
for the discovery to make an
impact on the people of Zimbabwe and the world
in general, it was necessary
for those who assisted you to ferry arms from
elsewhere so as to make this
accusation of a plot to overthrow the
government to appear real.
To quote a statement made at a
press briefing at Brady Barracks
on the 8th February 1982: "Arms and
ammunitions so far recovered in the
joint police and army search operation
in Matebeleland are sufficient to
equip a force of 5 000 men." Note, in
"Matebeleland" and not in Ascot and
Hampton Farms. However, this is neither
here nor there.
By Monday the 15th February 1982, the two
properties owned by
Nitram, the only properties on which arms were found,
together with
properties owned by Zapu and those owned by companies whose
members were
Zapu, including properties owned by me and my family, were
confiscated under
the notorious Unlawful Organisations Act, which was
enacted by settler
regimes to suppress liberation
organisations.
I would like to emphasise that no other
property, even those
others owned by Nitram, which were all confiscated, had
any arms found on
them.
Having reminded you that arms
were discovered in only two
Nitram-owned farms, Ascot Farm near Bulawayo and
Hampton Farm near Gweru,
let me further remind you that in the course of
your marathon speeches round
the country, telling the story of having found
caches of arms meant to
perpetrate a plot to overthrow you and your
government, you said among other
things: "If all arms cached by Zipra were
found in or near assembly camps
only, my government and I would not have
minded.
"But that," you continued, "a large quantity of arms
was found
in Zapu-owned properties, it is clear they were intended for use
against my
government." You said this because you knew that Zanla had cached
a lot of
arms in and near their former assembly camps, and there was the
question of
a trainload of arms that had disappeared between the
(Mozambican) border and
Mutare.
It appears to me you have
conveniently forgotten that Ntumbane
in Bulawayo, was in fact an assembly
point for both Zipra and Zanla, that
after the first Ntumbane disturbances
every type of weapon not allowed
there, was found in that assembly point.
The same happened after the second
disturbances there; heavy weapons were
found in both Zipra and Zanla camps
in Ntumbane. Why then did you find it
surprising to have found arms at Ascot
Farm which is hardly seven miles from
Ntumbane assembly point?
The same applies to Hampton Farm
which is not far from Connemara
Barracks where there were disturbances at
the same time as there were
disturbances in Ntumbane the second time. As a
matter of fact, Comrade
Munangagwa on 26th February said: "Four caches of
arms including 600 G3
rifles stolen during the mutiny in Connemara more than
a year ago were
discovered on a farm near Gweru."
Over
and above what I have stated regarding arms caches I quote
a statement by PF
Zapu Central Committee held in Bulawayo on the 15
February, 1982: "The
Central Committee is dismayed at the deliberate attempt
to build a case on
an issue whose background the Prime Minister very well
knows emanates from a
war situation. The Central Committee denies the
allegation that Zapu had any
prior knowledge of the arms caches anywhere.
"The
administration of the army and all military issues,
including former
combatants' assembly camps, were placed under the
responsibility of the
Joint Military Command, thus removing Zapu and Zanu of
responsibility over
military affairs. We wish to categorically deny the
allegation of a plot to
overthrow the government. On the contrary, PF Zapu
did everything, and still
does for the consolidation and success of our
independence."
(Herald.)
On Thursday, February 17, you announced at a press
conference
that I and three of my colleagues, JM Chinamano, JW Msika and JG
Ntuta, were
dismissed from your government. You made your announcement at a
press
conference and we learnt of our dismissal from your government by
press,
television and radio.
was completely flabbergasted
and astounded by your accusations,
your actions and the manner in which they
were made. What stunned and
bemused me even more is that I was convinced
that you knew in your heart of
hearts that all accusations were
false.
I was also convinced that you could not have been
unaware of the
repercussions of your statements and actions on former Zanla
and Zipra
combatants in the national army and in the police, and the
feelings of
divisiveness and hostility they would arouse.
You must know that it was soon after your initial statements and
actions
that there was talk of polarisation of Zanla and Zipra former
combatants
within the national army. Mutual suspicion and mistrust was
maximised, and
clashes between the two groups became commonplace.
Meanwhile,
former Zipra commanders were summoned by the army
command, at your
instruction, for questioning and investigation. This was
done, it is said,
by the military police and/or the CIO. Later, ordinary
former Zipra men,
irrespective of rank, were also taken for investigation.
Information has it that during these investigations there was a
lot of
beatings and torture of all types that a number of these young people
were
killed and others maimed.
These actions were followed by
desertions and defections from
the national army not only by former Zipra
combatants, but also by former
Zanla.
It was then that we
learnt from your public speeches, and those
of your ministers, that a number
of armed robbers and bandits in the country
was growing, especially in the
western province of Matebeleland.
Later your public
statements and those of your ministers began
to stress that these armed
bandits were in fact politically inspired
dissidents.
Information has it also that some 300 or so Zipra combatants and
a few Zanla
who were arrested after the troubles in a battalion camp near
Karoi were
detained secretly somewhere near Harare and are taken in small
batches to be
court-martialled and executed, with no right of appeal and
without informing
their next of kin. It is further known that the last of
these executions
that has come to light took place on February 14, 1983.
It
was when in your parliamentary speech you openly and
blatantly accused me
personally and Zapu as a party of organising,
maintaining and directing such
armed dissident activities that I met you,
and after thorough discussion,
that I thought you accepted our position that
we were not in any manner
connected with these elements.
I found it necessary to meet
you because despite the fact that I
had continuously and persistently
denounced and condemned the activities of
these dissidents and had demanded
that you appoint a Parliamentary Select
Committee, without success, to
investigate who these dissidents are and who
succours them, instead you
found it necessary to accuse us in parliament the
way you
did.
During December, overtures on unity between Zapu and
Zanu were
made to me by your emissaries in the persons of President Canaan
Banana and
Minister Enos Nkala. After two meetings with them I thought we
had made
progress and suggested to them that the next meeting should be with
yourself.
* To be continued next
week.
Zim Independent
By Jonathan Moyo
IF there is
one major outcome of last week's eagerly anticipated
Banjul meeting between
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and
President Robert Mugabe that
has gone unnoticed yet it has far reaching
implications, it is that Mugabe's
quest for self-preservation has now taken
him back to the colonial trappings
of the 1979 Lancaster Talks.
This is because the mediation
between Zimbabwe and Britain by
former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa,
which has since been endorsed by
Annan, smacks of colonial history repeating
itself - but now as farce.
Apparently, Mugabe hopes to use
Mkapa's mediation to initiate
direct settlement talks with Britain as
Zimbabwe's former colonial power;
and this after 26 years of the much-touted
sovereignty and
self-determination during which Zanu PF has been rallying
the nation to
become "our own liberators".
Yet the Banjul
meeting had a decidedly colonial outcome in that
Mugabe used it to reveal
his yearning for a British solution to the
Zimbabwean crisis. He now wants
the world to believe his Zanu PF propaganda
that the cause of the Zimbabwean
crisis is a bilateral dispute between
Zimbabwe and Britain that started
after the land reform programme in 2000.
But to accept this
propaganda one would have to conclude that
Mugabe's legendary posturing
about sovereignty is deliberately deceitful.
Maybe this is indeed the case.
And maybe this is what has been missed about
Mugabe, namely, that he is
principally a colonial politician steeped in an
outdated nationalistic
outlook.
African leaders with this mendacious nationalistic
outlook
always blame their former colonial powers for every major ill in
their
national politics or economy while accepting no responsibility
whatsoever
for their own policies or lack thereof. That is why such leaders
come across
as opposition politicians when they are actually in
power.
Listening to Mugabe rant and rave while punching the
air and
pounding the podium always leaves the impression of a powerless and
frustrated opposition politician.
This perhaps explains
why Mugabe has remained incorrigibly
unable to understand that the cause of
the Zimbabwean crisis is deeply
national and urgently requires a national
solution from and by Zimbabweans
supported by the international
community.
Otherwise the mediation by Mkapa is bound to fail
if it is
guided by Mugabe's claim that the crisis is mainly due to a
bilateral
dispute with Britain. Mkapa needs to understand that Mugabe's
claim is
equivalent to the quandary of a drunkard who loses his car keys on
the dark
side of the street without lights only to look for them on the side
with
lights in the real but vain hope of finding them
there.
But not everything about the Banjul outcome is
negative. The
fact that Mugabe has for the first time accepted mediation is
very positive.
It suggests that he now feels cornered and wants some
breathing space if not
a face-saving way out altogether.
That space should be positively exploited to get Mugabe to
realise that he
should provide the solution to the Zimbabwean crisis by
accepting that he
has become the historical, institutional and
constitutional personification
of the crisis.
In this regard, Annan demonstrated that he is
indeed a suave
international diplomat by endorsing Mkapa's mediation and
offering UN
support. Mugabe must have been surprised by this because he had
expected
Annan to insist on coming to Harare on the back of lingering
humanitarian
questions around the horrible effects of Operation
Murambatsvina.
But Annan appears to have understood that the
best way of
addressing the evil that was Operation Murambatsvina is by
resolving the
Zimbabwean crisis itself. If Mkapa's mediation can achieve
that, then Annan
would have succeeded.
Besides, while
Mugabe described Mkapa as "the appointed
mediator", he did not say who made
the appointment. This alone leaves Mkapa's
mandate open for the taking
because there can be no mediation without
resources to underwrite the cost
of logistics, travel and expertise. Even
though Mugabe has unilaterally said
Mkapa will work within Sadc, indications
are that the mediation is likely to
be funded by the UN thus effectively
making it the key
facilitator.
This would explain why Annan endorsed Mkapa's
mediation. It is
better and strategic for the UN to facilitate than mediate.
He who pays the
piper has the comparative advantage to name the
tune.
Another positive outcome of the Banjul meeting is that
Mugabe
formalised Mkapa's mediation without insisting on the precondition
that
British, American and European Union targeted sanctions must first be
removed. So far Mugabe has been using these controversial sanctions as
propaganda to inoculate himself as the cause of the Zimbabwean
crisis.
If Annan had sought to be the mediator as initially
expected,
Mugabe would have predictably insisted on the sanctions
precondition. Those
who have claimed that Mugabe outfoxed Annan in Banjul
have missed the finer
points.
While no terms of reference
or timeframe for the mediation were
announced, one does not have to be a
rocket scientist to realise that the
widening and deepening economic
meltdown in Zimbabwe will itself impose
inevitable terms of reference and
provide an urgent timeframe.
In the circumstances, Mkapa has
only two choices. Either he will
work faster than the widening and deepening
crisis he seeks to resolve or he
will run a high risk of being overtaken by
the momentous events on the
ground. The latter would render his mediation
useless.
One thing for sure is that as soon as Mkapa gets
down to work,
he will discover that the real critical issue is not about the
alleged
bilateral dispute between Zimbabwe and Britain but about the failure
of
governance, policies and leadership since 1980.
Mkapa
will come to understand that the more things have changed
in Zimbabwe
following Independence in 1980, the more they have remained the
same. He
will recall that the core of the 1979 mediation at Lancaster
revolved around
three fundamental issues:
* a new democratic
constitution;
* a new national economy;
and
* a new accountable nationalist
leadership.
But he will be shocked to observe that,
ironically 26 years
later, Zimbabwe is back to square one facing the very
same three fundamental
issues which were at the core of the Rhodesian crisis
in 1979. He will see
that, objectively speaking outside Zanu PF propaganda,
no serious person can
deny that 15 years of Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front rule
in Rhodesia and 26
years of Mugabe's Zanu PF rule in Zimbabwe have produced
a structurally
similar crisis. This is why history is now repeating itself
as farce.
Yet there is a qualitative and important difference
between then
and now. It is that unlike the Rhodesian crisis which required
a British
solution, the Zimbabwean crisis today does not require a British
solution
whether through mediation or whatever.
When
Mugabe says the crisis started in 2000 due to the rejection
of the land
reform programme by Britain and its allies he is not telling the
truth. Many
in his government and party know that the crisis started on
August 16 1997
when the compensation for veterans of the liberation war
became an economic
albatross to the fiscus.
It is also a widely known fact that
the demands for a new
democratic constitution started well before 2000.
Indeed, the MDC itself was
formed before 2000.
If the
truth be told, the 2000 land reform programme was itself
a hasty, brutal and
chaotic response to serious national problems that were
already present. It
was not a sustainable policy action. That brutal and
chaotic response was
more about Mugabe's political survival than about
redressing historical
injustice.
While there can be no doubt about the historic
necessity of land
reform in Zimbabwe and about the social justice of that
necessity, the fact
is that the brutal and chaotic response in 2000
necessarily led to serious
mistakes being made. Those mistakes need to be
corrected without making a
bad situation worse or falsifying history through
Mkapa's mediation.
* Professor Jonathan Moyo is independent
MP for Tsholotsho and
former Information minister.
Zim Independent
By Eliphas Mukonoweshuro
THE MDC
has followed closely developments at the seventh African
Union summit held
in Banjul, Gambia, over the weekend.
The MDC notes with
concern the acceptance by the United Nations
secretary-general Mr Kofi Annan
of former Tanzanian president, Benjamin
Mkapa, as mediator in the conflict
"between Zimbabwe and Britain".
In our view, there is a
serious structural crisis in Zimbabwe,
but it has to be located correctly.
The crisis in Zimbabwe is one of
governance. It is a crisis of a weak and
usurped constitution, a crisis of a
privatised and militarised state that
has failed.
In our view therefore, incorrectly identifying
the crisis
necessarily predicates an incorrect solution.
The mediation that is required urgently is between the stubborn
dictatorial
Mugabe regime and the brutalised people of Zimbabwe. The
Zimbabwean crisis
will not go away unless the dictatorship is totally rooted
out of the
country's political culture.
More importantly, since this is
a regional crisis, it will be
wise for the Sadc region to come up with its
own point persons and
intercessors.
The region, through
Sadc, must accept and recognise that the
Zimbabwean crisis is having a
pervasive and negative multiplier effect in
the entire region. That being
so, Zimbabweans and the region itself, must be
at the core of any process
and roadmap connected with resolving the crisis.
The African
Union too must recognise that this is an African
crisis and like Sadc, it
must not pass the baton to the UN. Understandably,
the region and Africa are
arrested by fatigue and frustration vis a vis
their failure to rein in the
dictatorship in Zimbabwe. However, Africa must
recall its recent united
front against the apartheid regime when everyone
played their
role.
Of further concern to us is the ability and capacity of
President Mugabe in appointing a mediator in a situation where he is a major
actor. Principles of natural justice and common sense dictate that one
cannot be an umpire and wicketkeeper in the same game.
Clearly in our view, if the UN accepts the need and obligation
of a point
person, then it must appoint its own mediator. In addition, it is
our
experience from the past that appointing point persons with ambiguous
and
ill-defined terms of reference, is a disaster.
The whole
process can become a smokescreen for averting,
delaying and postponing the
urgent action that is required in respect of the
crippling crisis in
Zimbabwe.
To us, there can be no solution to the Zimbabwean
crisis unless
Zimbabweans are allowed the opportunity of writing a new,
democratic,
people-driven constitution for.
Once this
constitution is accepted in a referendum, clearly,
free and fair elections
under international supervision must be held.
* Professor
Eliphas Mukonoweshuro is MDC secretary for
international relations.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
By
Vincent Kahiya
A MARTIN Luther King commandment says "refrain from
violence of the fist,
tongue and heart".
Most people can stop
themselves from hitting others out of fear of arrest
and can bite their
tongue to refrain from saying something mean, but
violence of the heart is
challenging. Following this rule is imperative
because things we think about,
sooner or later, are going to come out in our
actions.
Violent conduct
in an individual comes from the heart. It controls the fist
and the tongue.
No wonder fists are raised menacingly when rulers proclaim
"degrees in
violence" or when they implore supporters "to strike fear in the
heart of the
white man". The next time they stand up to preach peace,
tolerance and
co-existence the violent heart will still be beating.
In political
parties violence is rarely regarded as a virtue. It is quickly
denied and
condemned even when it is at the heart of a party's activities.
But as long
as violence has an imprint in the heart of the party no amount
of cover-up
and denial can hide its ugly face. Sooner or later it will come
out in
actions such as physical assaults, verbal attacks and other
subtle
threats.
The assault on Harare North MP Trudy Stevenson this
week by youths allegedly
aligned to the Tsvangirai-led MDC provides useful
insight into intra-party
violence and useful lessons of what happens when
violence of the heart is
not dealt with expressly.
Tsvangirai's camp
has denied culpability in the assault on the feisty but
small and frail
woman. Stevenson's camp has fingered Tsvangirai's supporters
for the
violence.
Tsvangirai's secretary-general Tendai Biti in a statement
denounced the
assault on Stevenson. He said his faction did not support
violence and
wished Trudy a speedy recovery.
Also this week, Linos
Mushonga, who was also at the receiving end in the
attack, was on the Voice
of America denouncing the Tsvangirai faction for
the violence that left him
with two broken fingers.
Remember this Mutambara quote at the beginning
of the year: "How do we talk
about a regime which is criminal and violent
when you yourself are carrying
out violent acts and violating your own party
rules? We won't be qualified
to fight Mugabe if we are little
Mugabes."
This of course has been denied. It would be stretching honesty
to breaking
point for any party to confess violence and own up. It is not
surprising
therefore when Biti's statement fingered Zanu PF for the violence.
He said
the "barbaric act of attacking political opponents has always
been
synonymous with Zanu PF and not the MDC".
In another statement
announcing the formation of a commission to investigate
the violence he laid
the blame on the CIO for being "at the centre of
manufacturing evidence and
issues in a bid to implicate the
opposition...these old-fashioned
divide-and-rule tactics will not fool us".
But isn't it that leaders of
the two factions have fooled themselves into
believing that the opposition
movement would be stronger as a divided
entity. Biti's conspiracy theory of
CIO involvement cannot be dismissed
completely but the intelligence service
will always find it easy to
stage-manage a war between two already-fighting
parties. And what better way
to use violence to divide a party that split
partly because of unresolved
intra-party violence.
t is
encouraging to note that a commission of enquiry has been formed to
probe the
assault on Stevenson and her colleagues. This is how past
incidents of
violent clashes should have been handled but they were not.
Evidence was
suppressed.
Recent revelations in this paper by Bulawayo South MP David
Coltart on the
failure of party leaders to mete out punishment to those
accused of trying
to murder party director for security, Peter Guhu, in
September 2004 at
Harvest House and the rehiring of youths accused of
violence should be
sobering to Tsvangirai's henchmen who have told us that
the party does not
condone violence.
The probe should not just be
fashioned to flush out the culprits but to put
in place systems that send a
clear message that violence will not be
tolerated. That includes publicising
results of probes and ensuring that
senior party officials are not seen in
the company of the criminal elements.
This observation by Coltart is
important: "Young men often have a
predisposition towards violence; that
happens the world over and Zimbabwe is
no different. What controls that
predisposition is the manner in which it is
handled by leaders. If it is not
dealt with, a culture of impunity develops
and violence perpetuates
itself."
It stays in the heart.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
WE were interested to note recent
statements by South African
and Namibian ministers on land reform in those
countries. This followed
recent claims in the Zimbabwean official media that
Zimbabwe's example of
arbitrary seizures had set a paradigm for Africa. In
fact it has been a
lesson in how not to proceed judging by recent statements
from South African
and Namibian officials.
First we had
South Africa's newly appointed Minister of
Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu
Xingwana saying: "We have learned from the
Zimbabwean situation that force
does not work. You've got to have the buy-in
of all the people
involved."
Farmers' leaders agreed.
Then
Namibia said last week it will not abandon a market-driven
approach to land
redistribution by going the route of Zimbabwe.
This clarification
followed recent remarks by a Namibian junior
minister praising Zimbabwe's
land programme which led to fears that Namibia's
economy could be similarly
sabotaged by fast-track seizures.
A government statement last
Wednesday in Windhoek distanced
itself from those
comments.
"There has been a total misunderstanding on the
statements made
by the Deputy Minister of Lands and Resettlement, Isak
Katali, during his
recent visit to Zimbabwe," the statement issued by the
Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting said. It set out Namibia's
commitment to a
market-driven approach that observed constitutional
provisions.
It is useful to have these corrections. It is
widely understood
in southern Africa that Zimbabwe has created a major
threat to regional
investment and productivity. Usually regional governments
have been
reluctant to say so. But now they are doing so, making the point
loud and
clear that Zimbabwe's way is not Africa's.
We were also pleased to note an incisive comment by respected
South African
politician Frederick van Zyl Slabbert which applies as much to
Zimbabwe's
leaders as it does to South Africa's.
"If you make yourself a
hostage to a racist past you can plan on
a racist future," he told a trade
union forum in Pretoria.
Zimbabwe provides ample evidence of
that. But another point
about Zimbabwe's anarchic land reform process needs
to be made here. Where
the rule of law is ignored and law enforcement
agencies suborned, powerful
political thieves will fight with each other
over the loot. Isn't that what
we are seeing now with Zanu PF fat-cats at
each other's throats?
It is tempting to derive some
satisfaction from this inevitable
descent into anarchy on the farms. But the
country is the loser in the final
analysis.
The IMF
says Zimbabwe's GDP will contract by nearly 5% this
year. This contradicts
rosy predictions of recovery by ministers. It will
compound six years of
steady contraction under a government clearly bereft
of policies. With
unemployment at 80%, inflation at over 1 000% and
businesses going to the
wall on a weekly basis the country's supreme
ayatollah appears
unmoved.
Rescue? Who needs rescuing, he wants to know. "You
would think
we were about to perish as a nation."
At last
he's got it, you may conclude. But actually he hasn't.
He simply can't
recognise the appalling reality around him. People who claim
we need
rescuing are mistaken, he suggests.
Benjamin Mkapa's mission
is evidently headed for the rocks
before it has even cast
off!
The official condition is called cognitive dissonance.
Cocooned
in a comfort zone of official deceit and surrounded by a coterie of
hard-line nationalists from the Stone Age plus a handful of opportunists,
our leader has decided we don't need help.
Of course he
will take the food aid from our "enemies" which is
keeping the nation fed.
But there will be no change, no reform, and
therefore no recovery so long as
he is master of all he surveys.
Thabo Mbeki has given up
trying to be of help, and so it seems
has Kofi Annan and Joachim Chissano.
No statesman in his right mind wants to
be forever indelibly stained by the
brush of Zimbabwe's toxic politics.
It will be interesting to
see how long it takes Mkapa to wake up
to the immovable object that blights
Zimbabwe's present and steals its
future.
Friends and
former colleagues of onetime Herald editor and now
Olympic official Tommy
Sithole will be delighted to hear of his latest
achievement which we share
with readers.
"I have over the past one year been arranging
to enroll for a
sports management science doctoral programme at the world's
leading sports
university, the United States Sports Academy in
Alabama.
"However, last week, the president of the college
called to tell
me that the board had decided to confer on me an honorary
doctorate due to
my experience in sports management, journalism and
aviation. Phew! That
saves me, my sponsors and the Sithole clan almost $40
000 in tuition, travel
and other fees . . . and two years of burning the
midnight candle.
"I wanted to share with you my friends this
piece of good news
and to thank you for your support over the years. I do
hundreds of
presentations for the IOC on what we call Olympic Values. We
talk a lot
about sport being the 'school of life'.
"My
sporting career has no doubt been my school of life. So has
it been in
business, journalism and aviation. From my days in Tanzania to
that
particular day you gave me a great bash on my departure, the support of
all
the people around me has been absolutely wonderful. Difficult sometimes
but
wonderful all the same in the end."
Victoria Ruzvidzo,
writing in the Business Herald, had a go last
week at those Zimbabweans who
were "in the forefront of tarnishing their
country's image by exaggerating
the state of affairs here, be it on the
political, economic of social
front".
The result, she said, was "the creation of a bad
Zimbabwe that
no one should do business with". Their stories are easily
believed by their
target audiences, she said. "Who would doubt a story on
Zimbabwe coming from
a Zimbabwean?" she asked. "And yet most of the stuff is
mere fabrication."
Really Victoria? Chefs fighting over
farms; mere fabrication?
Properties under Bilateral Protection and Promotion
Agreements overrun; mere
fabrication? Lowveld sugar estates and conservation
areas parcelled out;
mere fabrication?
And what of the
hostile business climate that makes it
impossible for any company to do
business here? All attributable to
sanctions no doubt.
We
understand that our colleagues in the state media are
required to pretend
that the situation is normal; that our rulers have only
the welfare of the
people at heart. But when they attack other journalists
for telling it like
it is, we have to ask questions about their motives.
Did they
choose journalism in order to see nothing, hear nothing
and say nothing? Are
they content to be the ruling party's public relations
officers?
If so, they should stop calling themselves
journalists. Anybody
can be a government PR agent although admittedly it
must take some
resourcefulness to defend Air Zimbabwe as Victoria was trying
to do last
week!
Muckraker was amazed at how some
ministers and politicians take
the electorate for
granted.
Addressing a housing co-operative formed by domestic
workers,
Zanu PF information secretary Nathan Shamuyarira last week
stretched the
truth beyond its trading limits by raising the hopes of the
poor workers
that they will own homes of their own in urban
centres.
Shamuyarira chose to ignore the fact that a brick
now costs $45
000 each and what that meant to a domestic worker taking home
$3 million
gazetted by the government. It will take two generations for a
domestic
worker to lay a foundation at today's building
costs.
Why raise their hopes needlessly?
If local authorities with all the billions they generate in
revenue have not
been able to build rent-to-buy units over the past two
decades, what chances
does a domestic worker have?
Chombo this week featured in the
same pantomime with his wishful
thinking when he told local authorities to
release stands to the homeless so
as to clear the housing backlog in two
years' time.
What happened to our Housing for All by the year
2000 promise?
No one would think we have dented the housing
backlog one bit
despite all the posturing. The slogan fits well and sounds
more prescient
running in the vein of mansions for all chefs by the year
2000. The mansions
are of course those that the chefs wrested away from
commercial farmers.
Does the minister know how much it costs
to build a modest
house, not the "jathropha" Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai
units?
"Development must focus on houses for the poor
emanating from
deliberate central and local government policies of social
inclusion,"
Chombo enthused.
When did Chombo wise up to
the nostrum by Abraham Lincoln who
said: "The strength of a nation lies in
the homes of its people."
Muckraker was stunned by
President Mugabe's dog-in-the-manger
view of the disaster government
invented on commercial farms since 2000.
When Gideon Gono
flays robber barons that turned productive
farmland into "weekend braai
spots" Mugabe brazenly dares critics not to
talk of the rot on the
farms.
"Ndimo matiri. Kana tikada kuita Jerusarema zvinenge
zvineyi
nani? (This is where we are. If we decide to be idle and dance no
one should
bother us, what has that to do with them?)" Mugabe blustered in
jingoistic
reference to criticism of the failed land reform
scheme.
Up till now we least suspected that land
beneficiaries are
allowed to perform that hip-jigging and raunchy dance made
popular by
Murehwa villagers instead of putting their nose to the wheel and
growing
crops as long as they did that in the name of Zanu
PF.
Reading between the lines of UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan's
speech at the AU summit gives the impression that he had one
country in mind
when he spoke about the three waves in the lifespan on an
African nation.
Annan said the first wave was decolonisation,
the second
was the struggle against apartheid and first attempts
at
nation-building.
The third wave, Annan said, was a
disappointing one marked by
civil wars (we had our own during Gukurahundi),
the tyranny of military or
one-party rule, economic stagnation as a result
of corruption, weak
governance, inadequate regulatory systems and
state-sanctioned theft. Sound
familiar?
There has
been some predictable satisfaction in Zanu PF ranks
over the assault on MP
Trudy Stevenson. This just goes to show what a
violent party the MDC really
is, the ruling party sanctimoniously tell us.
But there is a
difference of course. The MDC will have the
incident investigated by a
credible team and its findings will hopefully be
published.
Then we can see how Morgan Tsvangirai acts to
deal with the
perpetrators. It will be a litmus test of his
leadership.
But how many investigations has Zanu PF carried
out into
documented cases of torture? What has been their response to
abductions and
beatings? They are the last people who should be commenting
on this episode.
Let civil society judge the MDC once it has the evidence.
And if they let
Tsvangirai's tsotsis get away with violence we will be the
first to cry
foul.
Anyone following Bishop Trevor
Manhanga's drift to the
government side of the fence in recent negotiations
will have had their
fears confirmed by his warm welcome to "Comrade" Kangai
at the US embassy's
Independence Day celebrations this week. Manhanga is an
impressive public
speaker who in his address made some telling points about
the right to
"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as the bedrock of
a successful
society. But if Kangai is his comrade, we will need to question
his
judgement.
We still haven't heard from Manhanga or
the ZCC what values they
think government should embody or what steps it
needs to take in resolving
the current crisis. Why are they so silent on
issues of Christian principle
and social justice. Why have they not said a
word about Operation
Murambatsvina? Curious isn't it?
It is good to know that some of our neighbours don't carry
around the
baggage of colonial hang-ups. One forthright African diplomat was
very clear
which team she would be supporting on Tuesday night. "Germany,"
she said
without hesitation.
Sadly, it turned out to be a case of Viva
Italia!
Zim Independent
By Eric
Bloch
THE Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) held
its annual
congress last week, and while there were inevitably some facets
of
disappointment, there were several very positive ones.
First and foremost was that, despite the very immense hardships
confronting
most of Zimbabwe's business community, nevertheless there were
about 180
participants - albeit that a small portion of that number were
from the
government in general and the Central Intelligence Organisation in
particular.
The second, very major, positive that
evidenced itself at the
congress was the immense extent to which the private
sector participants
were willing to voice their concerns at the distressed
state of the economy,
at the extent that the causes of the economic malaise
is attributable to the
government's rigid and obdurate adherence to failed
policies, and at its
dogmatic disregard for economic
fundamentals.
But equally positive was that the delegates did
not only
castigate the government for its near-destruction of the economy
and its
false attribution of blame to third parties. They also sought to
suggest
constructive solutions to the economic crises, and not to succumb to
near-justifiable despondency, but to have a determination to persevere until
the very long-awaited economic turnaround eventually
happens.
An equally important positive was that the
government was in
attendance, albeit that unforeseen circumstances
(including the death of the
Information and Publicity minister) did reduce
the numbers of ministers and
their deputies from the very significant number
that had originally
intimated that they would be attending. Those who were
present laid very
great emphasis upon the government's desire for private
sector input in
general, and on the National Economic Development Priority
Programme in
particular.
However, despite their
protestations of intense desire for
substantive consultation by the
government with the private sector, many of
the political hierarchy present
showed very little ability to modify
pre-determined conceptions and
policies. Many of the delegates were left
with the impression that, in
reality, as distinct from its contentions, the
government only welcomes
advice when it accords with what the government
wishes, and that the
consultation process is naught but the state being able
to claim that
policies are formulated on the basis of wide-ranging private
sector
consultations.
To a major extent the impression given to the
private sector is
that the government pretends at consultation so that, if
and when things go
wrong, it can disclaim culpability, and can attribute the
fault to the
private sector. Whether that impression is well-founded, or
misguided, will
evidence itself over the next few months, including in the
forthcoming
mid-year fiscal review statement.
As has been
the case for an extended period of time, the
government does not only blame
the private sector, and acts of nature, for
the Zimbabwean economic morass.
It has long contended that fault very
extensively lies at the feet of the
European Union (EU) in general, and the
United Kingdom in particular, as
also USA and most Commonwealth countries
outside of the continent of Africa.
In order to deflect blame from itself,
the government will blame whomsoever
else it can, even if devoid of
substance.
It was in this
context that, yet again, ministers were
scathingly bitter in their
continuing, ill-based claims that much of
Zimbabwe's economic woes are due
to economic sanctions imposed by Western
countries. Although the facts
conclusively belie the allegation, the
government persists in it, and the
ministers present at the congress
outspokenly argued that economic sanctions
do exist, and are a very major
fuellant of the abysmal state of the
economy.
As previously stated in this column, and
emphatically addressed
in recent months by the EU ambassador to Zimbabwe,
Xavier Marchall, Swedish
ambassador Sten Rylander and many other diplomats,
only targeted sanctions
against less than 100 of the upper echelon of Zanu
PF and its supporters
have been applied. Those targeted sanctions restrict
the travel of the
targeted persons, and their possession of assets in the
countries imposing
the sanctions, but they are not applied against the
populace in general, or
against Zimbabwean economy.
However, because the ministers are the targets, they are
resentful, and
therefore misrepresent the actualities, while also using the
allegation of
economic sanctions to conceal the real causes of the endless
governmental
mismanagement of the economy.
The facts speak for themselves,
but the government does not hear
them, for there are none so deaf as those
who will not hear! In 2005 the EU
imported Zimbabwean products to a value of
391 million euro, and sold to
Zimbabwe goods to a value of 130 million euro,
resulting in a net favourable
trade surplus in Zimbabwe's favour of 261
million euro.
Zimbabwe exported goods to the USA in 2005 to
the value of
US$94,3 million, being an increase of 24% over the exports to
the USA in
2004, and approximately 95% of those goods entered the USA free
of any
import duties. Zimbabwe's imports from the USA in 2005 amounted to
US$44,7
million, according Zimbabwe a net trade surplus of US$49,6
million.
In addition, both the EU and the USA continued to
provide
Zimbabwe with very substantial humanitarian aid, with especial
reference to
food supply, healthcare and education.
If
all this constitutes economic sanctions, then clearly
economic sanctions are
beneficial to the Zimbabwean economy, in
contradistinction to causing
collapse. But, no matter how greatly the
government may contend the
contrary, there are no economic sanctions, as
irrefutably demonstrated by
those facts.
However, some of Zimbabwe's political leaders
are not prepared
to accept these facts, and this was very apparent at the
ZNCC congress. One
deputy minister cited the USA's Zimbabwe Democracy and
Economic Recovery Act
as evidence that economic sanctions exist, but did not
explain how the USA's
continued willingness to trade with Zimbabwe, to an
extent as accords
Zimbabwe a substantial trade surplus, is a result of
economic sanctions!
Another minister sought to prove the
existence of economic
sanctions by contending that the EU and the USA
caution their citizens
against investment in Zimbabwe. But is it not the
obligation of any country
to protect its citizens by advising them if
legitimate doubts exist as to
investment security?
And,
in the case of Zimbabwe, such doubts must exist. For five
years Zimbabwe has
rigidly denied liability under Bilateral Investment
Protection and Promotion
Agreements that it had entered into. Zimbabwe had
allowed such a breach of
agreements to destroy investor confidence.
Recently it
compounded that erosion of investor confidence with
statements by ministers
and the president of imminent mandatory governmental
and/or other indigenous
participation in the mining sector, without
assurance of equitable
compensation. The resultant perception of
international investors was:
"First they took the farms, now they're taking
the mines. Next they'll take
the industries, then the hotels, then the
banks, and all
else."
In such circumstances, other countries would be remiss
in caring
for their nationals if they did not highlight possible risks of
investment
in Zimbabwe, exacerbated by the absence of market-force economic
influences.
But they have not legislated against investment in Zimbabwe.
They have only
advised their exercise of caution.
That,
Mr Minister, is not economic sanctions!
Zim Independent
Comment
CONFIRMATION of the appointment of former
Tanzanian president
Benjamin Mkapa at the just-ended African Union summit in
Banjul as mediator
in the protracted Zimbabwean crisis was an encouraging,
yet at the same time
disturbing, development.
While the
initiative undoubtedly shows that President Robert
Mugabe now accepts
mediation - which he has been resisting - it is worrying
that Mkapa's terms
of reference and mandate are vague.
Firstly, it is not clear
who appointed him. While the British
have welcomed his assignment (he sat on
Tony Blair's Africa Commission) his
mission does not originate in Whitehall
and there is privately much
scepticism about his
prospects.
Several questions arise: What sort of mediator is
he going to
be? Between whom is he mediating? It is also not clear what his
objectives
are or who will underwrite his mission.
We are
told this is a regional initiative. What consultations
with other parties
were undertaken? Kofi Annan has said the UN will provide
the necessary space
and time. Words have also been put into his mouth by
Zimbabwe's official
media on the lifting of sanctions.
If the process leading to
Mkapa's appointment was flawed, so
will be the outcome. There is simply no
way his mission will succeed if it
is going to be guided by undeclared
agendas and interests.
Mugabe claims Mkapa will be mediating
in an alleged "bilateral
dispute" between Zimbabwe and Britain arising from
the disastrous land
reform programme. This is not a view accepted by the
European Union, the
United States, Canada or Australia. They see the root
problem as Mugabe's
misrule.
Mugabe also claims Annan has
agreed with him that targeted
sanctions against him and his cronies were the
problem.
In Mugabe's logic, this means Mkapa will be working
to convince
the EU and US to lift the sanctions imposed on him and others
for misrule
and human rights abuses associated with the land issue and
elections.
From that faulty premise, Annan and Mkapa will
overlook urgent
issues of political and economic reform. In other words they
will have to
ignore the prevailing political impasse created by disputed
elections, human
rights abuses - dramatised by Operation Murambatsvina and
the humanitarian
crisis that followed - and a plethora of man-made
socio-economic problems
wreaking havoc on the nation such as inflation (1
193%), unemployment and
poverty, HIV/Aids, capital flight,
de-industrialisation, emigration and the
general collapse of the social
service delivery system.
In brief, Mkapa will not be
interested in the institutional
breakdown, the constitutional impasse, or
policy and leadership failures. He
will be required to ignore structural
issues and instead put on a normal
footing Mugabe's relations with Blair and
secure the removal of sanctions.
Mkapa and Annan are being portrayed in
Harare as Mugabe's envoys, not
mediators.
But Mugabe's
story is full of contradictions.
He says Zimbabwe's economic
problems were caused by sanctions -
imposed in 2002 - but everybody knows
that problems such as the shortages of
foreign currency, fuel, exchange rate
crash and balance-of-payments
disequilibrium were there before the land
reform programme and sanctions.
Mugabe last week also exposed
himself when he claimed Western
countries that want to rescue Zimbabwe from
its crisis "depend on us", yet
at the same time they were the ones
undermining our economy.
How does that
happen?
He also says he does not want a foreign solution to
the Zimbabwe
question but insists on negotiating with a foreign power over
what are
essentially domestic problems.
Is this not the
same Mugabe who used to ride in the Queen of
England's carriage and received
an honorary knighthood from the former
colonial power? Does this explain his
insistence on talking to Blair and not
to Zimbabweans?
What kind of bridges does Mugabe want to build with Blair which
he can't
build with the local opposition leaders like Morgan Tsvangirai and
Arthur
Mutambara?
Why does he want a summit with the British instead
of an
all-stakeholders conference - Codesa-style - with
Zimbabweans?
This sort of posturing is damaging to Zimbabwe's
national
interest. It exposes the sovereignty lie which Zanu PF seeks to
market to
its gullible supporters and offers no light at the end of the long
dark
tunnel of the ruling party's misrule.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
By Ray Matikinye
SIGNS
this week that mandarins in the ruling Zanu PF are
realising rather
belatedly the folly of their actions and that the agrarian
revolution they
engineered had long ago lost its way are encouraging.
The
frank admissions from various politicians point to the fact
that belatedly
recognising their mistakes has come before their sense of
reality becomes
unhinged.
When criticism of the land debacle comes from the
second most
powerful man in the land, it leaves no lingering doubts how the
ruling party
has wrecked a once thriving industry and sacrificed the
agricultural sector
on the altar of political expediency.
Vice-President Joseph Msika hit the nail on the head with his
frank
assessment of the ill-conceived land redistribution
programme.
Msika condemned the way land had been taken and
given to
"anybody" who wanted it. "We have not sat down to ask, really:
'Does this
person to whom we are giving land have an aptitude for farming,
is he a
farmer? Is he going to develop the land?'" Msika said in remarks
broadcast
on national television. He said the programme had not achieved its
intended
results due to lack of planning.
Yes, land
needed to be redistributed to remedy ownership
imbalances. But going about
it in a manner devoid of any rationale pulled
the rug from under the noble
revolution. The misleading notion that it would
destroy the last vestiges of
colonialism without due and diligent regard to
the consequences is a wrong
way of doing the right thing.
Most disconcerting is the fact
that while the programme profited
only a few thousand, the agrarian
revolution impoverished millions. The
consequences of doing the right thing
the wrong way have created downstream
problems such as inflation, foreign
currency shortages and a shrinking
industrial base.
Zimbabweans continue to be tormented by the ruling elite's
innumerable
delusions. And some of the more sinister of these delusions have
yet to
impinge on the leaders' conscience
For the past six years or
so the state has tried to fan huge
smokescreens to mask obvious failures
that presented themselves for all to
see. Our rulers stuck their heads
firmly in the sand in an act of collective
deception.
Slowly the ruling elite is beginning to awake from this slumber.
They are
starting to appreciate, albeit belatedly, the vanity of taking God
for an
idiot who could create 13,5 million competent farmers and exclusively
place
them in a country called Zimbabwe.
Politicians misjudged and
indulged in arrant deception hoping
that by some miraculous streak the
reform programme would pan out right and
confound well-meaning
critics.
Sober-thinking Zimbabweans saw it
coming.
The late maverick politician, Edison Zvobgo, had
foreseen the
dangers and pitfalls ahead when he protested about "turning a
noble land
revolution into a racist enterprise".
Deputy
agriculture minister, Sylvester Mguni, broke ranks and
admitted the looming
failure in the agrarian reforms just as much as the
former president of the
Chiefs Council Chief Jonathan Mangwende remarked:
"Pamunofunga kuti mapedza
nyaya ye land reform muchazoona kuti hamusati
matombotanga nepadiki pose."
(When you consider the land reform complete,
you will be surprised that you
have not even started).
Why government did not pay heed no
one knows for certain. For
Msika, this is not the first time that he has
noticed how skewed the land
revolution had become. A few months ago he spoke
strongly against people who
invaded farms driven by racism. The invaders'
racism has caused such
criminal acts to bounce off their
conscience.
"What they are doing is to go into the houses
where whites were
living and they want land, they just plough a small
hectarage, and they are
saying that's enough. We have taken this land, and
using it for political
gains other than the development of the agricultural
industry."
Msika must have realised that admitting one's
mistakes is a
strength rather than a weakness.
Msika
promises pales into insignificance if the countermand by
President Mugabe is
anything to go by.
Mugabe does not want anyone to criticise
the
decline and near-collapse that the agricultural sector is
experiencing due to ill-conceived land reform. He remains tethered by years
of habit to opportunistic behaviour that has demolished the private
sector.
All has been sacrificed to champion his son-of-the-soil
slogan.
Productivity on the farms plays second fiddle to the
political
demagoguery of being a son of the soil.
Perhaps
he needs to revisit the "land is the economy and the
economy is land"
nostrum unblinkered by racial bigotry so the nation can
benefit from such a
natural resource.
Church should have censured government
WE wish to
congratulate the church and government for joining
hands and working
together and believe it will leave an indelible mark in
the history of the
country.
Thumbs up for the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC)
and their
representative our Honourable Apostle EN Guti for the historic
initiative.
We also understand and appreciate that the
government and the
church are important structures in a state and should,
more importantly,
complement each other.
We believe from
the onset the parameters of such covenant
relationships should be clarified.
Without taking much from the just-ended
National Day of Prayer, the church
should have first educated its followers
on the purpose and objectives of
such an initiative.
Now that the day has come and gone,
should we expect a change of
attitude by these rulers? Should we expect the
end of misrule and
mismanagement? An end to joblessness, hunger, selective
application of the
law, rape, killing of innocent souls, torture,
etc?
It is the role of the church to offer moral guidance to
those
who govern the nation.
It is in this context that
the church should have openly
denounced the evil that is being exercised and
perpetuated upon the innocent
and disadvantaged majority.
As it is said charity begins at home.
I believe justice and
moral righteousness should first be
championed from the church. The church
should thus first unite before trying
to unite the
nations.
Not long ago a similar group of churches organised a
day to
commemorate Operation Murambatsvina and console the victims. Was it
not a
good opportunity for the ZCC, or of us the Zaogeans under the
leadership of
Eunor Guti to take a stand and tell the government its evils
like what the
prophet Nathan did to King David?
Why is it
that Christians are quick to provide food, blankets,
shelter etc to victims
of man-made atrocities, but at the same time fail to
tell the perpetrators
to stop it.
The church, especially leaders as moral
torch-bearers, voice of
the voiceless need not stand aside and watch some
inhumane policies being
implemented only for them to come later and organise
a Day of National
Prayer, especially after an innocent infant died of cold
weather, millions
of people were made jobless, homeless, foodless and
destitute in their own
motherland.
Is it not an insult to
the Almighty to organise and pray for the
healing of our nation when the
perpetrators of the evil do not want to
confess their sins? Please Mai Guti,
lead us not into temptation but deliver
us from evil.
Even after the implementation of such policies, it is incumbent
upon the
church to denounce them and call the parties involved to repentance
(Inga
Jeremiah akatambudzikira kutaura chokwadi wani, Eriah akatandaniswa
naAhab).
The question still stands, has the church
denounced the
government for its wrongs before being married into this
relationship?
Church leaders should not entertain, dine and
wine with evil for
their gain at the expense and in the name of the Lord
God. They should
emulate prophets of the Old Testament in standing and
advocating for
justice.
The church should be bold enough
to denounce the government for
its evil dealings as Nathan denounced King
David for killing Urriah for
Bathsheba (2 Sam 12 vs 7-9 and John the Baptist
spoke against Herod for
unlawfully taking the wife of his brother Philip
(Matt 14 vs 1-11).
We are not saying the church, or leaders
in particular, should
not be for nor against the government, but should
speak the truth for only
the truth shall set the people
free.
Let evil be castigated as evil and good be complemented
as good.
As Christians we believe we are Ambassadors of Christ, the light of
the
world and sherpherds of justice. What then is the image of Christ we are
portraying to the heathen and the world at large?
By
wining and dining with evil as the church is doing, it is
actually
perpetuating evil because the only thing necessary for evil to
prosper is
for good men to do nothing.
Concerned Zaoga
members,
Hatcliffe Assembly.
-------------
Serves him right
THE
melodramatic story of the city of Harare has reached
its peak with the
recent suspension of town clerk Nomutsa Chideya.
Ratepayers and workers of the municipality can now heave a
sigh of relief
over how the mighty have fallen.
After being supported
by the same hand that looked
lethargic over the years, the minister can no
longer be a pillion passenger
on Mr Chideya's motorbike of
mismanagement.
It is soothing that the town clerk, who
until now regarded
himself as an untouchable, has had his fair share of sad
moments.
It is not a surprise that the mudslinging at
Town House
has reached a crescendo, this time with Chombo's endorsement of
the
suspension serving as a post-script to both the commission and council
executive that the honeymoon is over.
The minister
has been dithering on what course of action
to take, but finally arrived at
it with the help of commission chairperson
Sekesai
Makwavarara.
Makwavarara should however, be reminded
that Mr Chideya is
a survivor, to him this is just deja-vu, since he has
been suspended by all
city mayors and commissions from the day he occupied
Town House, only to
bounce back courtesy of the same
minister.
Authorities may have been impressed by the
strength of his
CV as he was previously town clerk of Marondera, where he
was also fired.
We can only hope that this time,
whatever tricks he might
have in his bag to return to his most prized job
have deserted him.
Chideya embodies characteristics of
all things that have
gone wrong in the municipality and will not be missed
by any progressive
city worker.
During his tenure
of office he has presided over the
collapse of service delivery because of
his obsession with luxury vehicles,
our refuse bins went uncollected and raw
sewage spilled into the streets
while the CBD was deprived of street
lighting.
He cared less for the image of our city. The
man deserves
censure of the highest order.
This is
the only council with more than five suspended
heads of department enjoying
full pay and benefits for more than three years
yet the town clerk would not
resolve their issues because he suspects they
know something shady about
him. The man has been forced to taste his own
medicine.
This detour taken by the minister and
commission is
soothing and has left us hoping that sanity will be restored
at Town House.
How the mighty have
fallen!
The Vulcan,
Harare.
--------------
Show us you have a
heart minister
I AM a teacher who bought a stand in
Bindura under the
Chipindura Park Housing Scheme in
2000.
The project which belongs to a government
minister under
the guise of Manyati Company was supposed to be completed in
June 2000.
We were promised by the company that the
stands would be
fully serviced with water and sewer connections.
Surprisingly, up to now
there has been no
development.
If we contact an official at Manyati, we
are promised that
they are looking into the matter. Further investigations
we have conducted
have revealed that the minister is just collecting money
from people without
doing anything on the stands subdivided on his former
farm which is assumed
to be under Bindura
Municipality.
More than 1 000 people who bought the
stands are failing
to build on the stands because of this
drawback.
This is probably one of the reasons why
Mashonaland
Central is one of the least-developed provinces in the country.
If one
complains he is labelled unpatriotic or an MDC
member.
As I am write, officials from Manyati are busy
collecting
money from unsuspecting clients for Chipindura Phase II Housing
Scheme
despite the fact that nothing is going on in Phase
I.
We are willing to develop our stands but there is no
water
or sewer facilities in place. Manyati must attend to this as a matter
of
urgency and at least show that the company has a
heart.
In pain,
Mt
Darwin.
---------
Spare the elderly's
homes
AS an inmate of a retirement home in Wessex
Drive,
Mabelreign, I write in the hope that someone at Zesa might read this
letter
and perhaps avoid power cuts for Old People's
Homes.
We are cut off for hours at a time, sometimes as
much as
three times a day, although mostly twice a
day.
Zesa has spent millions of dollars on notices in
the
media, advising consumers when to expect cuts, but doesn't stick to its
own
schedules.
One cannot help but wonder why we
endure power cuts when
so many street lights are left on during the
day.
I plead with Zesa to please attempt to avoid
cutting off
power to the homes for the elderly, which is so harassing for
them, both
physically and mentally.
PDS,
Harare.
----------
A warning to ATM
users
THIS is a warning to all ATM
users.
I was using the CBZ's Makoni branch ATM machine
when I
espied a camera attached to one corner of the ATM above my left
shoulder,
pointing directly at the ATM keypads.
I
do not remember the CBZ or the RBZ announcing this new
system of technology
to the public.
In these days of government paranoia,
there's every reason
to believe that the cameras could be taking down
customers' personal details
for forwarding to some government
agency.
The cameras are not put there for security
purposes
because every bank has a security guard close to these
ATMS.
It is obvious that the cameras are there to take
down what
ATM computers cannot.
I therefore urge
ATM users to block their ATM transactions
from the cameras when they enter
their Pins.
I have a hunch these cameras are illegal.
Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights, please take note of these violations of
our privacy.
Tony Namate,
Chitungwiza.
---------
Heed the Highway
Code
IT appears that users of Borrowdale Road are
of the
opinion that they have the sole right to proceed when traffic lights
are not
working.
With the relentless power cuts
being experienced these
days, this has become a frequent
occurrence.
May I remind them of the law which states
that "traffic on
the road to the right" has right of
way.
Inbound traffic on Borrowdale Road always ignore
this rule
at the Churchill Avenue intersection.
If
there is no outbound traffic on Borrowdale Road as
happened on a recent
morning then I, on Churchill Avenue, have the right to
proceed and I will
continue to blast my hooter and insist on my right.
Irate female,
Harare.