The Zimbabwe Situation

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

08/06/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE is not contemptuous of SADC and its facilitation team but President
Robert Mugabe is too busy with pressing domestic commitments to attend
meetings of the regional grouping, his spokesman said Sunday.

SADC had scheduled an extra-ordinary summit to discuss Zimbabwe in Maputo,
Mozambique on Sunday but the meeting was called off after it emerged Mugabe,
who was away in Japan for an Africa development summit, would not be able to
attend.

The Maputo meeting was expected to see SADC facilitator and South Africa
President Jacob Zuma (who also attended the Japan meeting along with most of
the regional leaders) present his latest report.

SADC officials said the meeting, which would also have discussed the timing
and funding of the country’s elections, would be rescheduled but no date has
been agreed.

Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, said Zimbabwe was not contemptuous of
SADC and its Zuma-led facilitation team.

“Zimbabwe is neither contemptuous of SADC nor resisting the facilitation
process,” Charamba told the Sunday Mail.
“Quite to the contrary, Zimbabwe is conscious that there should not be any
contradiction between the SADC-led facilitation process on one hand and the
national laws and legal processes on the other.

“A key requirement of holding elections in SADC or in any country for that
matter is that elections must be governed by the national constitution and
national laws. It is important for the President to manage all these
processes to avoid needless conflict.

“Whilst facilitation under SADC proceeds by negotiation, it is not possible
to negotiate with a constitution. A constitution is a set reality, it is
complexly inflexible and a straitjacket to which we all must trim our
behaviours in order to fit.”

The SADC meeting comes after the Constitutional Court ordered Mugabe to hold
elections before July 31, a decision that has riled MDC-T leader and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who wants the vote delayed to allow more reforms.

The elections would end the uneasy coalition between Mugabe and Tsvangirai
which was formed after disputed polls in 2008.
Speaking in Bulawayo Tsvangirai described the court’s ruling as “political
activism” but said he was confident SADC would help ensure elections are
only held when conditions are in place for a credible ballot.

“We are not going to legitimize what is illegitimate. To SADC we are going
to say Robert Mugabe has refused to honour any agreement,” Tsvangirai was
quoted as saying in a party statement.

“SADC as a stakeholder will be there until a proper election is held. Why
did you invite SA. Why did you invite SADC? It is because you wanted them to
rescue our situation and so we cannot blame them for that.”

Meanwhile, Charamba said Mugabe would not be able to attend any SADC
meetings this week due to pressing government and party business.

“There are pressing constitutional duties which the President has to fulfil
during this very crucial week … he has to do three critical things,” said
Charamba.

“He has to chair a Cabinet meeting during which amendments to the Electoral
Act will be tabled and hopefully adopted by Cabinet. The amendments have
already been digested by the Cabinet committee on legislation which draws
its membership from the three political parties.

“Thereafter, the Minister of Justice will have to decide on the most
efficacious route to take in view of the time constraints in order to make
these proposals take legal effect. Attached to that are those legal rituals
which the Minister of Justice has to fulfil to ensure adoption of the
proposals.

“I am also aware that the party will seek to finalise the rules and
guidelines governing (Zanu PF) primary elections. This has become even more
urgent in view of the Constitutional Court judgment.

“Thirdly, it should not be forgotten that what got one of our citizens to
approach the Constitutional Court was the issue of proclamation of the
election date. That’s a key stage which the President has to fulfil somehow
bearing in mind the time-line provided for under the Constitution.

“These are very key matters which cannot be postponed if we are to fulfil
requirements of the rule of law.”

Zim breaks Sadc rules

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

Sunday, 09 June 2013 16:34
MAPUTO - Mozambique civil society groups have said Zimbabwe could be
breaking Sadc protocols on elections if the country runs elections by July
31 as ruled by the Constitutional Court.

They said if the country manages to achieve such a feat, she will enter the
Guinness Book of Records for preparing polls in two months.

Mozambique has been preparing for their November local government polls for
the past 12 months, and civil society groups meeting here ahead of the
special Sadc summit on Zimbabwe (which has been moved from Maputo to South
Africa next week), said it was imperative that the Zimbabwe poll complies
with the Grand Baiee protocol — a set of minimum electoral standards agreed
to by the regional bloc in the Mauritius capital in 2004.

“As it is, Zimbabwe is in violation of Sadc protocols,” said Senor Rozario
of Joint, a Mozambican pro-democracy group.

Bishop Daniel Matsola, the immediate past secretary general of the
Mozambique Council of Churches said the heads of State meeting in South
Africa next week must impress on the Zimbabwe leadership the need to
create conditions for a credible poll before releasing money to the country
for the poll.

“We recognise Zimbabwe as a sovereign state, it belongs to Sadc but the
problems that Zimbabwe is facing is a concern for the entire region and
Africa as a whole,” Majola said at a joint meeting of Zimbabwean and
Mozambican civil society groups on Thursday night.

“It means that there is a need for us to play a role in trying to influence
positive things so that we can have elections in accordance with Sadc
standards, African Union and international standards.

“But the main issue is that where there is intimidation, it means that there
is no exercise of freedom of association, expression and willingness to open
space for equal footing of all actors to participate. So what will be the
way forward?

The elections are there. The president has taken a decision that there must
be an election. There is no honey without money. Are we going to have
elections without resources?”

He said: “Zimbabwe cannot say we just have to have an election because we
have to have an election.”

Dzimbambwe Chimbgwa, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights programmes manager,
lamented the closing of space for NGOs wishing to do voter and civic
education ahead of the polls.

He said there was “criminalisation” of NGOs dealing with human rights.

“We have seen in the recent past almost every organisation here has either
had their offices raided or officers arrested,”he,” he said.

“And the strategy is obviously to create a cloth of illegitimacy around the
organisations and therefore stop the work that they are doing. So instead of
having rule of law, we have what we call rule by law as the law is used to
thwart activities of organisations.”

He said the Zimbabwean state was stepping up its crackdown on NGOs.

“We have seen a strategy of surveillance, illegal searches, interception and
frequent visits by the security sector on premises of organisations carrying
out human rights work,”Chimbgwa said. “And because of this, most
organisations doing human rights work, do their work in fear; they don’t
know what is going to happen on a daily basis.”

He said there was also infiltration of NGOs by the security sector.

Because of that, we have seen a lot of information and strategies being
leaked to the state machinery who then use it to frame trumped up charges
against the organisation itself. There is no enemy who is more dangerous
than the enemy within,” Chimbgwa said.

There was also escalating of demonisation of human rights organisation in
the media and other outlets.
“So this again is done to whip political emotion and antagonise people
against the organisations that work in human rights,” he said.

“So you see in the state-controlled media, (human rights) organisations
called names like ‘appendanges of the opposition, proxies of the west,
regime change agents’and such like terms.

“This is the environment that human rights organisations in Zimbabwe have to
operate under. We therefore come to you to ask for support and solidarity
for the organisations that carry out their work under difficult
circumstances.” - Gift Phiri in Mozambique

Tsvangirai defends mediation role of South Africa

http://za.news.yahoo.com/

By Ray Ndlovu | BD Live – 6 hours ago

PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has defended the mediation role of South
African President Jacob Zuma and the Southern African Development Community
(Sadc) in Zimbabwe’s drawn out political crisis

Zimbawean President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu (PF) party want Mr
Zuma and Sadc to recognise a Constitutional Court judgement compelling Mr
Mugabe to hold elections before July 31 at an upcoming Sadc summit.

The special Sadc summit to discuss Zimbabwe was initially set for Sunday but
was cancelled after Mr Mugabe said he was unavailable to attend. Sadc is
still yet to announce a new date but strong political speculation in Harare
is that the summit will be held this week.

Mr Mugabe is downplaying adherence to a roadmap set out by Sadc, which
upholds reforms in the security and media sectors and an overhaul of the
voter's roll.

Party hawks in Zanu (PF) have now been on a concerted push to drive the
point home that the Constitutional Court ruling cannot be ignored; both by
Mr Zuma and the Sadc.

Party strategists in Zanu (PF), led by Jonathan Moyo, argue that allowing Mr
Zuma and Sadc to override the court ruling would be equal to handing over
the country’s sovereignty to foreign elements. Terrence Hussein, Mr Mugabe’s
lawyer echoed a similar position against Mr Zuma and Sadc: "The highest
court has made a determination. The only way to overturn that decision is by
having an Act of Parliament nullify that decision. No other authority, even
Sadc, can do anything about it", said Mr Hussein.

Mr Tsvangirai told Business Day on the sidelines of a meeting with civic
society groups at the weekend that Zimbabwe had surrendered a part of its
"sovereignty" the moment Zanu (PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) accepted Mr Zuma, Sadc and the African Union to be the guarantors of
the Global Political Agreement signed in September 2008. "We surrendered to
SA to be the managers of this political process, so to stand up and say
South Africa has no right to interfere — that is not interference as we
invited them to be the facilitator.

"Sadc is an important stakeholder in this process in as much as Zimbabweans
and no amount of shouting is going to make them bystanders," said Mr
Tsvangirai.

Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai are set to face off in their third election
encounter, after the hotly disputed outcome of the March 2008 election. Mr
Tsvangirai said he held high hopes that the regional bloc would back his
Movement for Democratic Change party’s position of reforms before an
election. "The best case scenario is for Sadc to insist on reforms ... a
worst case would be for divisions to emerge from the regional bloc," said Mr
Tsvangirai.

Sadc is fractured along support for Mr Mugabe from Zambia, Angola,
Mozambique and Malawi. Mr Zuma has led the hardliners position in Sadc.
Trevor Maisiri, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group said on
Sunday by asking for a postponement of the Sadc summit, Mr Mugabe was trying
to weigh the impact the ruling would have on Zanu (PF)’s internal
preparations for the polls.

Zanu (PF) is yet to hold primary elections to pick candidates to stand in
the elections as parliamentary candidates. "Of 10 provinces, Zanu (PF) has
serious problems in seven of them. So Mr Mugabe is not likely to resist a
pushback on the July 31 deadline at the Sadc meeting this week", said Mr
Maisiri.

"Mr Mugabe knows just how much pressure has mounted and he will likely pull
a surprise by climbing down on the July 31 without resistance. He knows well
that Sadc still lacks the implementation mechanisms to ensure there are
reforms even if elections are postponed to a future date".

EU sanctions do not affect business: Envoy

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

Sunday, 09 June 2013 16:51

HARARE - The European Union-imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe do not affect
trade between the country and the trading bloc, Ambassador Aldo Dell’
Ariccia has said.

“If the sanctions were affecting Zimbabwe then trade between EU and Zimbabwe
would not have doubled since 2009,” he said adding that Europe is currently
working on ensuring that Zimbabwe’s economy fully recovers.

Trade between the country and the EU amounted to $860 million last year with
a positive trade balance of $171 million in favour of Zimbabwe.

Dell’ Ariccia said the EU this week held an export seminar to help
Zimbabwean companies to access the European market.

“European consumers are interested in Zimbabwean products and Zimbabwean
businesses are interested in selling to the EU market. For that reason, we
are promoting local companies to have unhindered access to Europe,” he said.

The target-based sanctions, imposed on Zimbabwe by the West at the height of
the land reform in the early 2000s, were mainly placed on President Robert
Mugabe’s cronies and their businesses.

Over the years, since the signing of the Global Political Agreement in 2009,
they have been eased and relaxed gradually with the western nations
reviewing whether to lift the sanctions annually.

In March, the EU suspended travel bans and asset freezes on a number of
Zimbabwean firms and people on its sanctions list after the country approved
a new Constitution in a referendum.

The European trade block did not however, remove sanctions on the Zimbabwe
Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), keeping those measures at least until
the conclusion of the upcoming elections.

Political commentators however, said the keeping of the sanctions on ZMDC is
a welcome measure considering that the company is responsible for funding
Zanu PF in all its endeavours, including State-sponsored violence against
members of the former opposition, the MDCs.

The lifting of the ban on ZMDC was requested by Belgium, where Antwerp, the
world’s biggest diamond trading centre, is based, who pushed for it to be
freed from the sanctions ban.

ZMDC was given a grace period of at least a month after the elections to see
whether it can be fully rid of the sanctions by the EU. - John Kachembere

RBZ 'not worried by court order'

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

Sunday, 09 June 2013 16:51

HARARE - Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono says they are
not panicking over a High Court decision ordering the central bank to
reimburse millions of dollars it withdrew from a local company at the height
of the country’s economic meltdown in 2007.

Last week, the High Court ordered the central bank return to Trojan Nickel
Mine Limited (Trojan) bank account, over $1 million it owes the mining
giant.

But Gono insists all is in order.

“We are not losing sleep over the matter. The funds were not used by the
central bank, but it was something that we had to do to keep the country
going,” Gono told the Daily News on Sunday last week on the sidelines of an
International Monetary Fund (IMF) function.

The seizure of the funds followed a monetary policy statement issued by the
RBZ in October 2007 centralising all foreign currency accounts and directing
the lodgement, at its doorsteps within 24 hours, of all corporate foreign
currency balances held by authorised dealers.

This was part of efforts to stem the imminent collapse of the economy, which
had suffered from years of economic misuse and bad policies by the then Zanu
PF-led government. The centralised order saw authorised dealers of foreign
currency being forced to hand over their clients’ money to the RBZ.

While the RBZ insisted that it had no legal relationship with corporates and
individuals who remitted their money to the central bank, from which
liability could arise, the High Court last Thursday ruled in favour of the
mining firm.

Gono said the central bank will soon be issuing a comprehensive response to
the High Court ruling.

Economist Christopher Mugaga said the apex bank — which has been trying to
distance itself from the claims, arguing that it had no legal relationship
with either companies or individuals who unwittingly funded Zanu PF during
that time — has no capacity to pay back.

“Remember about 95 percent of domestic debt originated from RBZ’s activities
prior to dollarisation and the ruling is simply null and void considering
the bank’s failure even to pay its former employees their retrenchment
packages,” he said.

Mugaga said it will be difficult for other companies, which are owed by the
financial institution, to fight it “considering the apex bank has unfettered
control over exchange control regulations which will make doing business
difficult for the aggrieved firm”.

Another economist John Robertson concurred with Mugaga.

“The amounts seized by the RBZ total more than a billion dollars, and a
great many of the other companies and individuals are going to lodge a claim
with the precedent of this case being used. It will lead to more anxiety and
frustration rather than settlements.

“There will be a great many people still waiting for settlement in six
months’ time,” Robertson said.

Other political analysts however, contend that Gono’s confidence stems from
the fact that Treasury and RBZ have agreed on a draft bill that will enable
government to take over the Central Bank’s $1,1 billion debt.

The takeover of the debt is the last leg of reforms at RBZ that began in
2009, when it was ordered to stop engaging in quasi-fiscal activities blamed
for quickening Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation.

Finance minister, Tendai Biti recently said he would soon take the draft
Debt Assumption Bill to Cabinet.

“The bill creates a Special Purpose Vehicle, where the RBZ debt will be
housed,” Biti said.

RBZ owes $80,2 million in central bank lines of credit, has a non-resident
sovereign debt of $452,6 million, non-resident institutional debt $110
million and domestic debt (bank/deposits) of $439 million.

The RBZ contends that it is also owed $1,5 billion by government, when it
engaged in quasi-fiscal activities to finance critical needs such as funding
elections, sustaining parastatals and financing the farm mechanisation
exercise, among others.

The assumption of the RBZ debt is a recommendation by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), which argued that the bank’s balance sheet needed to be
freed of debt.

In the Article IV consultation report last year, IMF said the debt was
constraining the bank’s ability to undertake liquidity provision and
distracts it from focusing on its core functions.

“Proposed modifications to the RBZ debt relief bill will focus on
transferring the liabilities from RBZ’s balance sheet to a fund managed by
the Finance ministry,” IMF said.

“While this is a less balanced approach than the comprehensive balance sheet
bifurcation [splitting] recommended by Fund TA (Technical Assistance)
missions, it remains consistent with the objective of restructuring the RBZ
balance sheet.”

The central bank has also proposed to dispose of its non-core assets to help
clear some of its debts.

However, the process has moved at a snail’s pace, two years after the RBZ
invited bids for the non-core assets.

In 2010, government had to invoke the Presidential Powers (Temporary
Measures) Act, to protect the RBZ’s assets from being attached by various
creditors after obtaining writs of executions.

The creditors included those that supplied implements for the farm
mechanisation programme. - John Kachembere

Madhuku escalates attacks on the MDC-T

http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/

Staff Reporter 7 hours 16 minutes ago

HARARE - The un-elected bitter National Constitutional Assembly chairperson
and President Mugabe's ally Professor Lovemore Madhuku has described Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, as a “narrow-minded” leader while tearing apart
the party’s secretary-general, Mr Tendai Biti, as an “arrogant politician
whose political ambitions are destroying the MDC-T from within.”

The beleaguered sex-scandals ravaged Prof Madhuku last week disclosed that
members from both MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and secretary-general Mr
Tendai Biti’s factions have been making a beeline to his offices.

The outspoken one-man organisation NCA leader said that his meetings with
the disgruntled MDC-T members have left him convinced that Mr Biti has
ambitions to succeed Mr Tsvangirai as party leader in 2016.

The National Constitutional Assembly chairman Professor Lovemore Madhuku who
is facing possible ex-communication from the United Church of Christ in
Zimbabwe (UCCZ) after he allegedly impregnated his wife’s young sister in a
case that has left his marriage on the rocks.

Prof Madhuku is a moderator, the third most influential position in the
conservative church that does not condone polygamy and vehemently
discourages promiscuity.

Church members interviewed confirmed the development, saying the Madhuku
issue had divided the congregation.

One side is recommending that Prof Madhuku be suspended while the other is
pushing for his outright expulsion.

While MDC-T officials vehemently deny that the party is riddled with
factionalism and that Mr Biti is leading what has since been dubbed “Project
2016”, Prof Madhuku makes interesting revelations.

He claims that some members of Mr Biti’s faction are mulling the idea of
extinguishing the little hopes that Mr Tsvangirai has of winning the
presidency in the forthcoming general elections so as to facilitate Mr Biti’s
ascendancy.

“I have come to know that Biti is leading a faction within MDC-T and he is
working with people like Eddie Cross.

“If the MDC-T loses this election, they have to blame Biti and no one else
because he is not advancing Tsvangirai’s interests,” he said.
Prof Madhuku said Mr Biti has proven to be an arrogant politician whose
political ambitions are destroying the MDC-T from within.

“Biti is intolerant to divergent views and he can do anything to silence
dissenting voices. I think he must form his political party that will push
the line that investors are more important than the electorate,” he said.

Prof Madhuku said Mr Tsvangirai is no saint either, describing the MDC-T
leader as a “narrow-minded leader” who has not transformed from his days as
a trade unionist.

He said the policies being pursued by the MDC-T are empty and aimed at
continuously making Zimbabweans hewers of wood and not masters of their own
destiny.

“The policies such as Juice are a clear sign that this guy (Mr Tsvangirai)
is narrow-minded and sees everything through the eyes of a trade unionist.

“How else can one explain his devotion to taking everyone to the factory?

“Some in his party are still mentally colonised because they are saying we
should not own our resources but concentrate on attracting Foreign Direct
Investment.

“(President) Mugabe is right when he says those who colonised us are still
interested in colonising us.

“Their intention is to colonise us through their companies,” said Prof
Madhuku.

MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora described reports of factionalism in
his party as fictitious while Mr Biti refused to entertain any questions
from the media.

Meanwhile, UCCZ cHURCH president Reverend Edward Matuvhunye would not be
drawn into divulging more details about Madhuku's sex scandals, saying it
was “a family matter”.
“That is a family matter. Unfortunately, I am not a spokesperson for the
family but the church. It would be unfair for me to comment,” he said.

“You had better talk to Professor Madhuku himself because I am on my way to
Chipinge for an ordination ceremony.”

A senior church member — who declined to be identified — confirmed that the
church was divided over the case involving Prof Madhuku and his
sister-in-law, Miss Sibonile Sithole Mukonzi.

“It is true that Professor Madhuku impregnated his wife’s sister. The matter
has divided the church in that some members of the congregation want him to
be excommunicated.

“Others, however, feel that it is unnecessary to suspend him because his
tenure ends in April this year. So, it would be better to allow him to
complete his term."

Another member of the congregation said: "I think this is the worst
abomination that has been committed in the history of the church.
"I don't think a synod officer has ever committed such a sin in the history
of the church."

A close family source said Prof Madhuku's wife, Ms Mercy Sithole Mukonzi,
temporarily left the matrimonial home after the shenanigans came to light.

"The pregnancy resulted in Mercy leaving her matrimonial home for a while.
She only returned in December," said the source.

"We understand the adulterous affair started some time in 2008."

Church members said the young sister gave birth in hiding. UCCZ is a
conservative church with about 40 000 members countrywide. One of its
well-known members was the late nationalist Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole.

The unelected NCA leader has in the past declared that he will not
relinquish his post until a referendum to Zimbabwe’s constitution-making
process is complete. Since he uttered those words, he has clung-on to NCA
leadership for more than eight years without elections.

“There would be no change of leadership until after referendum. It will be
only after referendum that I will handover power to another person and that
is unanimous within the NCA,” he declared.

However, some disgruntled NCA members have accused Prof Madhuku of trying to
make a repeat of a 2005 congress where he allegedly manipulated the
organisation’s constitution by “secretly” amending it to extend his stay at
the helm.

They accused Prof Madhuku of clinging to power after he added another term.
Prof Madhuku has since served the mandatory two-year terms twice.

University of Zimbabwe political scientist whose name cannot be mentioned,
slammed Prof Madhuku.

“No Zimbabwean is indispensable as what he seems to be suggesting,” he said.

“He should allow change to occur and instruct the next chair to do even
better than him.”

Another political analyst Eldred Masunungure also rapped Prof Madhuku for
allegedly showing poor leadership qualities.

“That’s very unfortunate because it will discredit the quality of leadership
that had developed during his tenure. A good leader should nurture his
followers or subordinates to take over from him any time, you cannot be
someone who cannot be substituted,” he said.

Another political analyst said the NCA has discredited itself because of
people like Prof Madhuku who cling to power unconstitutionally.

“For a person who has called for democracy, clamouring for transparency, it
is quite surprising,” he said.

He noted that Prof Madhuku seeks to use the same “chicanery” tactics he
employed at the 2005 congress.

Zanu-Ndonga spokesperson Mr Reketayi Semwayo has castigated Prof Madhuku for
failing to practice what he preaches. “That is wrong. He should give way to
others,” he said.

Prof Madhuku amended the constitution in 2005 by extending the two-year
terms to five years.

Madhuku, has said Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was liable to contempt
charges after accusing the country’s top court of overstepping its mandate
when laying down a timeframe for new elections.

Tsvangirai – who has been pushing for new elections to be delayed to
September – slammed the Constitutional Court when it ruled Friday that the
new polls must be held by July 31.

“(The) ruling by the Supreme Court setting an election date is evidence that
the court has overstepped its mandate,” Tsvangirai said immediately after
the ruling was handed down.

“The Supreme Court has no power whatsoever to set an election date. In the
true spirit of separation of powers, an election date remains a political
process in which the executive has a role to play.”

But Madhuku said Tsvangirai’s remarks showed the MDC-T leader and his party
were “ignorant of the law.”
“It is clear that what the Prime Minister has done is contempt of court.
There is no doubt about that. He now wants to be seen as being above the
law,” Madhuku said in an interview with the Herald Newspaper

“These people (Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party) are just ignorant of the law.
They can destroy anything that stands in their way of political ambition. If
it is the Supreme Court they will throw it away. If it’s ruling without
Parliament they can do that.

“This is a very dangerous attitude for the country. They must know that
constitutionalism is to have a good constitution in place which you must
follow. Decisions relating to legal disputes are resolved by the Courts and
Courts alone.”

Harare lawyer Terrence Hussein, who represented Mugabe in the case added:
“The suggestion that the court overstepped its mandate is absolute nonsense.

“If there is anyone overstepping their mandate, it is the Prime Minister who
should know better than to challenge the legal authority of a constitutional
body. The court has the authority to act in the manner it did.

“The highest court has made a determination. The only way to overturn that
decision is by having an Act of Parliament nullifying that decision. No
other authority, even SADC, can do anything about it.”

Tsvangirai, who had opposed plans by Mugabe for an early election, recently
toured the region to urge SADC leaders to press his rival over the
implementation of further reforms before the polls can be held.

Big bucks in Zimbabwe for brave investors

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

BY TINA WEAVIND, JUNE 09 2013, 09:35

“ZIMBABWE will see an economic recovery within months.” A pipe dream?
Possibly not.

Ian Saunders, CEO of junior gold miner New Dawn, is one of many business
people who last week expressed versions of this view. At a conference held
by sub-Sahara-focussed asset managers Imara, the consensus was that after
the election — due to be held before the end of July — business would get
back on track, no matter who wins.

Growth in Zimbabwe took off after the adoption of the US dollar in June 2009
ended hyperinflation and a rate of 7.7% was recorded in 2010. Investors
expected big things from Zimbabwe, especially off such a low base, but
momentum has dropped. Last year, for example, growth barely breached 4.4%.

Election fever is blamed for the current investment torpor and slowed
consumer spending but the biggest impediment to business in the past two
years has undoubtedly been the vacillation around indigenisation.

Zimplats, part of the world’s second-biggest platinum miner Impala, was in
January forced to hand over 51% of its shares — a total of R8.3bn — to a
community trust, an employee-ownership trust and the National Indigenisation
and Economic Empowerment Fund. Though Implats billed it as a “sale”,
President Robert Mugabe urged his ministers to renegotiate the deal so no
money changed hands.

The country had “lost a year” because of the lack of clarity around the
indigenisation process, said Mr Saunders. Expansion at New Dawn is hanging
in the balance, and the requisite funding is unlikely to be forthcoming
until there is clarity about the policy and its implementation.

Yet despite this, money is flooding into Zimbabwe. The stock exchange has
grown 59% in the past five months, according to Imara, as share prices soar
at large companies like Delta and Innscor. Last year it grew a paltry 4.48%.

It is a significant trajectory, even if the volumes are a fraction of that
of Wall Street or even the JSE. The manually operated stock exchange trades
once a day for about an hour, turning over about $2m.

But there is no doubt foreign money is interested, albeit cautiously, in
Zimbabwe. A number of South African fund managers, including Investec, have
begun to take advantage of the bargain-basement stocks with great upside
potential.

Investec investment principal Richard Honey described Zimbabwe as an
“exciting country in a transitional phase offering great opportunities”.

More than 140 investors came to Imara’s four-day show-and-tell, which
included trips to factories and mines as well as power-point presentations
on the financials of local operations. Repeated reference was made to the
vast unexplored mineral wealth, the established infrastructure and the
young, educated population.

While the indigenisation requirements are broadly defined, platitudes like
“the door is open, come let’s talk” have shaken investor confidence. “It
doesn’t matter what the policies are,” said a US-based fund manager. “If we
know what we’re dealing with, we can work around it. As it stands now it’s a
moving target.”

The issue is particularly onerous for banks, which are required to keep
$100m of ready cash with the central bank. Without significant foreign
investment, this is a virtually impossible ask. But in this issue as well,
the rules are vague.

The deadline for compliance was initially June 2014 but was later relaxed to
2015. Then the banks were asked to submit a road map on how and when they
would comply with the thresholds, implying the rules could be tailored.
Rumours have since surfaced that the time line would be extended to 2020.

Anton Schaad, a Swiss investor managing a UBS-backed sub-Saharan equity
fund, described Zimbabwe as an “interesting destination”. He said he was
considering a small stake, of about 5% to 10% of his $15m fund.

Another US-based investor, Ailsa Carpenter of Galadriel Capital, was
optimistic about the medium-term prospects for the local bourse. “There is a
massive output gap between the size of Zimbabwe’s economy and its productive
potential,” she said.

But other than a few tailor-made funds and private investors with deep
pockets, a well-honed sense of adventure and willingness to stay put for the
long haul, it was clear most wallets were going to remain shut tight until
the indigenisation framework became clearer.

Meddling by ministers and spurious efforts by some local companies to derail
competitors was another theme at the talks.

Innscor, a conglomerate with a major stake in food retailer Spar — among
other industries — was recently charged by the Competition and Tariff
Commission for not giving notice of its intent to acquire a majority stake
in food retailer National Foods.

The inquiry had led to a slew of negative press and turned out to be
unfounded — John Koumides, Innscor CEO, said the commission had been
notified and once signed and accepted documentation was produced the
accusations and mud-slinging quietly went away.

Another CEO said he had been called late at night more than once to attend
meetings with government ministers interested in getting a piece of the
company action.

But the expectation of improvement is tangible. A rumour repeated by several
Zimbabwean business people was that some of the more progressive MPs had
told them — in confidence, naturally — that indigenisation was going to get
a radical makeover and the country would adopt a much more business-friendly
approach. Some said they had it on good authority Mr Mugabe was going to
step down.

But nothing was going to happen until after the July 31 line clearly drawn
in the sand.

...

Recovery factors in place

Zimbabwe's established infrastructure is one of the biggest selling points
for potential investors.

The country also has a highly literate population, a road and rail network
and power.

These touches give the country a shine that is lacking in the likes of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, another country emerging from a slump.

Starting a project in Zimbabwe, even in remote parts of the country, becomes
infinitely more possible because of these factors.

The problem is that Zimbabwe’s infrastructure has barely been maintained in
more than a decade.

Upgrades are desperately needed.

The National Railways of Zimbabwe is deep in debt and in dire need of
extensive rehabilitation. The government is reportedly negotiating with a
local company to carry out the work at an estimated cost of $340m but the
money still needs to be found.

Analysts Frost & Sullivan said in February that a full revamp of the
network, excluding locomotives and trucks, would cost $4.5bn.

Freight that can’t be moved by rail is transported by road, which has left
much of the 88000km network in a parlous state. About $35m was allocated to
road maintenance in 2012 — an earlier estimate put the requirement at $200m.

Just $209m was last year set aside for a $2bn rehabilitation programme.

Electricity is in short supply or delivered erratically.

In March last year, power from Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa dam was cut off due
to a $75m unpaid electricity bill. The country needs more than 2200MW at
peak times but produces about 1300MW — the rest must be imported.

Yet the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority owes about $1bn in electricity
imports, loans and outstanding contributions to a joint power project with
neighbouring Zambia.

One solution would be for private power producers to come into the market,
but concerns around indigenisation have put the brakes on that.

As Zimbabwe becomes increasingly less of an economic basket case, investors’
interest in infrastructure projects is being piqued. Scraps of information
about new infrastructure projects are turning up in reports overseas. Right
now, most projects are in the negotiation phase, but there is little doubt
that there will be more movement once uncertainty around policies and
processes — especially indigenisation — has been cleared up.

• This article was first published in Sunday Times: Business Times

Salah hat-trick ends Zimbabwe dream

Zanu PF at crossroads

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

Sunday, 09 June 2013 16:51

HARARE - Despite its feigned bravado about preparedness for crunch elections
this year, President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF is in a serious predicament
about the party’s prospects in pulling off the election by July 31, analysts
say.

Zanu PF spent the better part of the year claiming that elections would be
held by June 29, a propaganda line which has dramatically and embarrassingly
collapsed. To date, Zanu PF has completely failed to hold primary elections
which are likely to be messy given the intense rivalry among camps angling
to succeed the 89-year-old Mugabe.

Apart from being financially bankrupt, the former ruling party is also
riddled with factionalism which has literally destroyed party structures in
seven of the 10 provinces with party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo yesterday
admitting that there are some areas which need “readjusting.”

“The money will be found. Do you honestly think we will go for elections
without money?” Gumbo said without revealing the source.

With less than a month to go before the July 31, deadline, the ex-majority
party is yet to hold primary elections to select candidates as rivals who
include young Turks, party bigwigs and the Women’s League slug it out for
positions.

The politburo — Zanu PF’s highest decision making body — has been forced to
shelve primary election guidelines for over a year now because rivals cannot
agree on the rules and regulations.Analysts say with Zanu PF in such a mess,
its prospects of winning the forthcoming elections are narrow and only a
miracle will save the stuttering party.

“We are ready for elections. Don’t worry about the fact that we have not
held primary elections. The politburo will be meeting on Wednesday to
discuss the matter,” Gumbo said.

However, insiders say Zanu PF is at its weakest and dismissed Gumbo’s
assertions that this week’s politburo meeting will find a solution.

Zanu PF has been unable to deal with the sticking issues regarding the rules
governing the elections but Gumbo insisted the party has agreed on 95
percent over the issues.

Fronted by Oppah Muchinguri, women in Zanu PF are demanding a quota —
something that is also provided for in the new Constitution but being
strenuously resisted by party hardliners who expect to be rewarded with
seats for their loyalty.

According to the new Constitution, a total of 60 seats are reserved for
women in the House of Assembly, a matter which will also be addressed in the
Electoral Act which is due for amendment before elections.

Political analyst Pedzisai Ruhanya says if Mugabe is serious about holding
elections by July 31, he should go ahead and proclaim the date.

“If Zanu PF is seriously ready for election, let Mugabe call for elections
before the amendment of the Electoral Act.

“It is now a week after the courts made their decision. Why has he not
proclaimed election dates if he is serious?”, Ruhanya queried.

Schedule 6 of the new Constitution states that there should be an amendment
of the Electoral Act before election dates can be announced.

With barely a month before the lapse of the Constitutional Court deadline,
Parliament is in a race against time to amend existing legislations to
conform to the new Constitution. Ruhanya, who is also the director of
political think tank, the Zimbabwe Institute of Democracy, added: “We all
know Mugabe is not a product of an election, we need to know what they are
up to that is convincing them that they are ready for an election.”

Dewa Mavhinga, a senior researcher with the Africa Division of Human Rights
Watch said Zanu PF believes it is ready because they think reforms are not
necessary.

He said the former ruling party might be sincere about its readiness and
willingness to abide by the court ruling in the comfort of their support
from the military and also a skewed State-controlled media.

“Zanu PF’s insistence that they are ready for elections when all indicators
are that they are not helps divert attention from important reforms on the
grounds that there is no time to have the reforms.

“Zanu PF has been saying they are ready for elections since December 2010
while taking little action to pave way for elections that are genuinely free
and fair,” Mavhinga said.

With Zanu PF bullish and adamant that polls will be held this July without
reforms, the two MDC formations and other opposition parties have taken a
stand saying they will not go for polls without reforms.

Sadc, guarantors of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) will soon hold a
summit to deliberate the Zimbabwe election crisis including poll funding and
also the implementation of an election roadmap. - Thelma Chikwanha, Features
Editor

Water: A precious, scarce commodity in Chitungwiza

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

By Fungai Kwaramba, Staff Writer
Sunday, 09 June 2013 16:31
HARARE - Residents of Chitungwiza might have survived the cholera outbreak
but there is no time to rest, as many now sleep in queues waiting patiently
to get water from the few boreholes that still spew the precious liquid.

Now that it is winter time, shallow wells, that had been a fall-back for
many, have dried up and without water sources of their own, Chitungwiza
residents live on the goodwill of the City of Harare, which unfortunately is
overwhelmed by demand from a population boom triggered by rapid
urbanisation.

An assurance by Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda, that the capital will never
cut water supplies to its bustling dormitory town brings little joy for
residents in Chitungwiza who receive water at most once a week.

Thus, for this town of over a million people, the clock is ruthlessly being
turned back to the 2008 dark days when a cholera outbreak killed at least 4
000 people and affected thousands more.

For people like Emily Mazvombe who lives in Chitungwiza’s Zengeza 2 suburb,
it is not the cholera outbreak though that is depressing but the sad reality
of fetching water even in the wee hours when sleep is sweetest.

“There is no water here and every day you have to queue at the few remaining
boreholes in order to get water.

“Sometimes we wake up at 3am in order to get water and the authorities seem
not to care,” said Mazvombe.
Another resident blasted the current crop of councillors, who were expelled
from the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC, for failing to prioritise
service delivery.

“Our councillors are non-existent and they have done nothing since they were
elected in 2008 other than stealing.

“We hope this time around credible people will be elected to positions of
authority,” said Martha Moyo.

Collin Gwiyo the sitting MP for Zengeza East failed to get nomination in the
ongoing MDC primary elections and residents say he was visible.

“Our MPs should explain what he did with the Constituency Development Fund
(CDF) because the boreholes we have were drilled by Unicef.

The MP should come clean and tell us how he used the money,” said another
resident Gerald Chari.

Efforts to speak to Gwiyo were fruitless as he was not picking up his cell
phone.

After the cholera outbreak of 2008 and 2009, Unicef drilled boreholes in
most high density suburbs around the country, while water harvesters were
also put in place to collect water during the rainy season.

But its winter and there is no rainfall to collect, while the Unicef-drilled
boreholes cannot match demand resulting in residents queuing for long hours
to fetch water, a basic commodity.

The fate of MPs in Chitungwiza is entwined with the water crisis and service
delivery.

Of the five sitting MPs only one Alexio Musundire, survived the MDC primary
elections with the rest, who include former mayor Misheck Shoko and
government minister Fedelis Mhashu, having been floored.

Philemon Chipiyo, who is the mayor of the sprawling town, says the council
is at its wits end as it neither has the money to settle its debt with
Harare nor a dam to provide is plus one million residents with water.

“We have applied to the government to get Prince Edward Dam but the
government too has not been forthcoming.”

Rivulets of sewage are for the residents of Chitungwiza stark reminders of
the gloomy days of 2008.

Even Chipiyo is concerned by the threat of cholera but is just as confused
as the residents on the solution to the perennial water woes that now forces
people to sleep in borehole water queues in order to get the number one
household sought commodity.

“The threat of cholera is real because we do not have water. But there is
nothing we can do about it because we do not have the means to deal with the
issue,” said Chipiyo.

Making a Business Out of Water Rationing

http://www.ipsnews.net/

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE, Jun 9 2013 (IPS) - For 61-year-old Sarah Chikwanha from
water-starved Chitungwiza, a town about 25 kilometres outside Harare,
Zimbabwe, there is no choice. She must buy her water from illegal water
traders, whose businesses have sprung up across the country.

“We only have water once weekly in Chitungwiza, and so I have no choice but
to buy from dealers at 95 dollars for a 2,500-litre tank,” Chikwanha told
IPS.

These new, illegal businesses are the result of the dire need for water, as
rationing in towns and cities continues because of shortages of water
treatment chemicals in this southern African nation.

Harare’s mayor, Muchadeyi Masunda, has gone on record saying that the
council needs three million dollars a month for water treatment chemicals, a
challenge compounded by the city’s obligation to supply water to
neighbouring towns like Chitungwiza, Norton, and Ruwa.

Statistics from the Harare Residents Trust (HRT), an advocacy group,
indicate that only 192,000 households in Harare are connected to the water
system, while the rest depend on boreholes or rainwater.

Harare needs 1,300 megalitres of water daily, but the current supply ranges
from 600 to 700 megalitres.

Councillors from Chitungwiza, where Chikwanha lives, told IPS that the
council there failed to pay for water supplied by Harare’s Lake Chivero,
thus intensifying water rationing in a town of nearly two million people.
People have now turned to wells, streams and inadequate boreholes, as well
as illegal traders, for their water.

“Water shortages have been going on for over a decade now, dating back to
the beginning of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis around 2000, when revenue
collection dwindled after commercial farmers who used to contribute
faithfully to paying water bills were evicted from their farms,” a top
council official in Harare told IPS on condition of anonymity.

Panganayi Charumbira, a councillor from Harare’s Budiriro low-income suburb,
told IPS that both Zimbabwe’s urban and rural areas were affected. “The
water crisis is getting worse in towns, but it’s even worse in the
countryside,” Charumbira said.

But the water traders say that despite the worsening water woes, they find
it hard for their operations to be regularised. “We sell water illegally
here because council authorities are not willing to licence us, accusing us
of trading in contaminated water,” Delisono Jamela, a water trader in Harare
who runs an unregistered water-selling company called Jame-Waters, told IPS.

Donemore Siwela, who runs Sycamore-Oasis, another unregistered water-selling
company, acknowledged that he pilfers tap water from strategic places that
are not experiencing water rationing.

“My company is well connected to hospitals and politically-influential
authorities here housed at government buildings, from which I draw water.
Nothing happens to me even if I’m caught,” Siwela told IPS.

But according to Zimbabwe’s Water Bill of 1998, a licence to use water is
issued by a responsible local authority, to which a prospective user must
apply. The Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) in November 2012
intensified the monitoring of water-selling companies amid revelations that
other water dealers were not meeting required standards, according to SAZ
director general Eve Gadzikwa.

“We engaged the regulator, who in this case is the Food Standards Advisory
Board (FSAB), for updates on water quality,” Gadzikwa told IPS. FSAB is the
regulatory board tasked with making random checks on the quality and safety
of water for domestic and commercial use in Zimbabwe.

Harare City Council spokesperson Lesley Gwindi accused water traders of
jeopardising public health. “Water traders are fuelling the spread of
waterborne diseases by selling untreated water, and as council, we are doing
everything within our capacity to ensure that everyone gets a fair share of
clean water,” Gwindi told IPS.

However, Dr. Portia Manangazira, director of the Ministry of Health and
Child Welfare’s Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, told IPS
that cases of waterborne diseases were isolated nationwide.

“Cases of waterborne diseases like typhoid and diarrhoea are, for now,
isolated here,” Manangazira said. But more than 4,200 Zimbabweans succumbed
to cholera from August 2008 to mid 2009 as contaminated water supplies
spread the disease amid the country’s failing health care systems.

Some dealers told IPS that they sourced water from local lakes like Lake
Chivero, and they claimed they purified it on their own before selling it to
water-starved residents.

“We draw water to sell straight from Lake Chivero, normally at night because
we are deemed water poachers by council cops here,” a water dealer said.

Harare’s urbanites like 46-year-old Tracey Mangena, a single mother of five,
find the water and tanks purchased from dealers unaffordable. “The tanks
cost 750 dollars each before filling them with 2,500 litres of water at 95
dollars, and for me, I can’t afford it as I’m jobless,” she told IPS.

Many other urban dwellers here, dogged by the water crisis, have drilled
their own boreholes. And others, like 56-year-old widow Miriam Saungweme
from Harare’s Mufakose low-income suburb, have dug unprotected wells. “Poor
people like me have had no choice in the face of mounting water woes except
to dig wells from which to draw water,” she told IPS.

Meanwhile, the Rooftop Rainwater Harvest, a project established in 2009 by
International Relief and Development, a non-governmental organisation, in
partnership with the United States Agency for International Development to
assist underprivileged people with clean and safe water, has been a source
of relief to many during the rainy seasons.

“We enjoy a temporary reprieve from water woes with the help of this rooftop
water-harvesting initiative, but with the rainy season over, several of us
here have since fallen back to a water crisis, and we are scavenging for the
precious liquid from unprotected sources or buying from dealers at four
dollars per 20-litre container,” 34-year-old Agnes Mhasi from Harare told
IPS.

HOT SEAT transcript: Harare mayor and residents rep. in heated debate over water crisis

http://www.swradioafrica.com

Muchadeyi Masunda and Precious Shumba

Violet’s guests on the Hot Seat programme are Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda andPrecious Shumba, representing disgruntled residents in the capital. They debate the serious water crisis in the city which has seem the central business district going without water for days, forcing some employers to send their workers home. As usual many residential areas have been without water for months. Why does Shumba say the ‘know it all attitude’ of the Mayor is hindering progress and why decisions being made by Masunda will leave residents exposed to huge Chinese debts?

BROADCAST: 06 June 2013

Listen here

VIOLET GONDA: There are fears of another disease outbreak as Harare is yet again gripped by serious water shortages prompting some companies in the CBD to send their employees home. To discuss this worsening crisis is Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda and Precious Shumba from the Harare Residents Trust. I started by asking Shumba to give us an update of the water situation in the capital.

PRECIOUS SHUMBA: From the reports that we have received today and two days ago, many suburbs have not had water for the last seven days. In areas like Highfields, some households in Old Highfields have not had water in the past nine days and it’s getting to two weeks now without the situation being addressed. In the eastern suburbs the situation is still the same – they are not getting consistent water supplies; they say they are getting water maybe once or twice a month. And in the northern suburbs most people do not receive municipal water from the City of Harare.

GONDA: Mayor Masunda, what can you say about this and also the Herald said that some employees had to give their workers time off as the water shortages continue in the CBD.

MASUNDA: I will be the first to admit that we have had more than our usual fair share of problems with regard to the production and distribution of water. The production has plummeted from the normal of between 620 to 640 megalitres for two reasons. One we ran, not completely out of stock, of aluminum sulphate but the stocks were at unacceptably low levels and one of the basic things that we simply cannot do is to pump water into the system if it has not been treated. So the aluminum sulphate is supplied by Zimphos, Zimbabwe Phosphate Industry; they had a bit of a problem I am told in terms of the bauxite that they import from Mocambique but that situation I am told as of the 3^rd of June has since been rectified.

The other problem that we have had for quite a while now is the unacceptably high amount of water that we are losing through leakages – between 40 and 50% of treated water. And we’ve been talking to government, as one of our major debtors, to do everything humanly possible to clear their arrears that we are owed. The amount that we are owed by government ministries and departments is now in excess of $130 million and out of that we’ve just been asking for at least $20 million; $2 million of which we are going to spend on procuring these pressure reducing valves, PRVs, in order to reduce the leakages that I’ve mentioned. And then the $40 million we are going to spend on procuring pipes because a lot of pipes, especially in the high-density areas, are long overdue for replacement and we have an order for piping equivalent to 150 kilometres so that we can do something similar to what we did in the CBD way back in 2009.

GONDA: I understand that the Finance Minister pledged to give the Council $120 million for the upgrade of the water infrastructure in Harare so what has happened to that money?

MASUNDA: That $144 million which our minister of Finance was talking about I think a week or so ago, is actually the money that we ourselves negotiated successfully from the Chinese Export and Import Bank. That money is going to go towards the rehabilitation of the sewerage infrastructure and we will see a recovery of anything between 20 and 40 megalitres of water from our wastewater and that water is going to be pumped back into the system and enhance the production. So it’s not new money.

GONDA: But Precious Shumba… (interrupted)

MASUNDA: It is not new money and I think you must understand that. Government still owes us in excess of 130 million. All that’s happened, I think a week or so ago, is that our Minister of Finance went to China to consummate the loan facility that we had successfully negotiated with those Chinese financial institutions.

GONDA: So Precious Shumba what do you make of these statements by the Mayor? Are you reassured?

SHUMBA: The Mayor being the head of the Harare Municipality has a responsibility to respond to all enquiries concerning what they are doing and he can’t say ‘we are doing nothing’. We have been hearing about the $144 million loan facility from the Chinese Export and the Import Bank and this loan facility will be repaid by the residents of Harare. What is happening to the water revenue being generated by the City of Harare? To what extent are they directing that money towards maintenance, plugging the leakages along the distribution network and ensuring that citizens at least have water in their households?

What we are hearing from the Mayor are promises and pledges by the Chinese and it’s not cheap money that he’s talking about. Who was part of the discussion to say yes? The councilors might have authorized the Town Clerk, the Mayor and others to negotiate for this loan but at what percentage to the ratepayer? And these guys will be leaving council soon and obviously the people who will come will also be handling it in another way. We would prefer a situation where the current revenue being generated from the water services and sewerage services that they charge to residents is ploughed back into the maintenance and probably replacement done in a phased-system approach – rather than to say we are going to do 150 kilometres. That is a long-term project if you ask me. It needs a phased approach where they will use currently available resources than to go on the market to get expensive money that will be paid over a long period of time, probably in 25 years and the residents are not getting what they deserve.

The City is failing to prioritise on what they need to do on the water crisis. They are not sitting down in council and coming up with a consolidated resolution on how to approach external stakeholders like the International, the Unicef that was previously there, the government. Instead they are approaching the ministries, that is not the stakeholder approach we are expecting because residents as we speak do not have water and do not have to wait for the approval of the Chinese loan where the minister went there a fortnight ago but still residents are not getting water bowsers in their communities – kuti vakwanise kumwa mvura everyday pavanonga vachidira (to drink water everyday and anytime they want), because now the new constitution recognizes this right to water to every citizen.

GONDA: Precious Shumba raises some very important points here – in this day and age and in the capital city of all places, residents should not be going without water for days and in this case, some have gone without water for months. The situation is really bad and many people are worried that there will be major outbreaks of waterborne diseases again in the city. So one of the questions that Precious Shumba has asked is what is happening to the revenue coming from the residents? Why is that money not being put into repairing the infrastructure?

MASUNDA: Can I assure everybody, the listeners, Precious Shumba included that the little money that we’ve been able to collect, all of it has been ploughed back into rehabilitating the infrastructure. On water and sanitation alone, since we came into office on the 1^st of July we have spent over 20 million dollars rehabilitating the sewerage infrastructure, which was completely dysfunctional when we came into office in July 2008. And what I think needs to be borne in mind is that there is no big brother behind the City of Harare – in terms of a ‘big brother has got very deep pockets’.

We generate our own revenue, which we plough back into the system. We are not a profit-making organization but we should not be a loss-making organization either. Residents that Precious Shumba’s organization together with CHRA, Combined Harare Residents Association, represent, they themselves owe us a substantial sum of money, which is in excess of 70 million. So the amounts owed to the City are creeping closer to 400million; almost 150million owed by government, another over 100 owed by the corporate entities and even local authorities like Chitungwiza owe us almost 50 million dollars.

So people there has to be a mind set, a paradigm shift, and this is where I need the collaboration of Precious Shumba and Simbarashe Moyo because they are the ones who are heading up two of what I would say are the largest stakeholder organizations (Harare residents associations), and we need to be putting our heads together and addressing the issues that need to be addressed and not playing the blame game.

The issue that Precious raised about this loan facility that we managed to put together from China – as it is, there are no lines of credit which most international financial institutions are prepared to make available to Zimbabwe. And sitting where I sit – the hottest seat in Zimbabwe, I don’t care about the colour of the cash and so that is how we managed to negotiate this loan facility on a arms length basis and the interest rates are not as extortionate as portrayed by Precious Shumba… (interrupted)

SHUMBA: So what is the percentage?

MASUNDA: … the comforting thing is that all this was done on an arms length basis and the lenders of the money are assured of the integrity of our assets and the capacity to repay the loan.

GONDA: What are the interest rates?

MASUNDA: The interest rates are not as extortionate as I said…

GONDA: Yes but how much are they?

MASUNDA: The international norm is around between six and eight per cent per annum and we managed to get a concessionary and favourable rate. I can’t tell you off hand I haven’t got the documents in front of me but we are not fools you know.

SHUMBA: (LAUGHS)

MASUNDA: We are not fools and we will not have agreed and signed up for that loan facility if we were going to be charged the sort of rates we were seeing during the hyperinflation environment.

GONDA: But surely Mr Masunda if you know the amount that you have been given and on such an important issue like this, you should know what the interest rate is.

MASUNDA: Yes that is between six and eight per cent; that is the norm in… (interrupted)

SHUMBA: But what is…

GONDA: Precious, Precious we will come to you.

MASUNDA: Precious Shumba I didn’t interrupt you when you were speaking and so please be courteous enough to let me respond without interrupting! But we are satisfied and we checked with our financial advisers, the City Treasurer and we’re happy.

Precious Shumba raised a very pertinent point earlier when he said we have been hearing about this loan from China for quite a while, how come the dispersement has taken this long to start happening.After we had successfully concluded the loan facility the Chinese Exim Bank shifted the goal posts and all of a sudden out of the blue we were being asked as City of Harare to fulfill obligations that the government of Zimbabwe had incurred in respect of loans to ZISCO, amongst others, and all those things have zero to do with the City of Harare. And it took a trip that the Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai undertook to China around September last year, to convince the Chinese government and the financial institutions concerned that the City of Harare is an autonomous entity. We don’t get any funding from government. So the Chinese operate on the basis that everything that happens in China, it doesn’t matter whether it’s in Beijing, Shanghai or wherever, is funded by government. So it’s up until recently that the Chinese authorities accepted that that situation is possible but even then they insisted that we had to pay $40 million dollars before we could start drilling down on this $144.

GONDA: Precious Shumba?

SHUMBA: Our major concern is the opaque manner in which they are handling public affairs. For example the Mayor is going on the standard or the international norm of six to eight percent but he is not being specific, he is not being exact, meaning to say we can even speculate that the interest rate could be as high as 15% as we have been hearing from some of the council employees. We are concerned that some of the decisions being made are leaving residents exposed to huge debts from the Chinese bank. While we applaud the Mayor and his team for taking this initiative to raise funds we would prefer that the residents that we met in Mabvuku yesterday and that we met today as the leadership of the residents council of the Harare Residents Trust are determined to ensure that the City of Harare declares that water is a crisis on our hands requiring a stakeholder meeting to discuss this and hear alternative approaches to raising funds and dealing with this water crisis. The long term approach of the City of Harare that we have we need Kunzvi Dam is a non-starter because we have heard presentations from experts in the City of Harare that Harare does not need Kunzvi Dam but it needs to refocus its priorities and fully utilize available resources and make water available.

Alternatively the City of Harare must be making available water bowsers in some of the areas that were hardest hit during the cholera outbreak of 2008 to early 2009 like Budiriro, like Kuwadzana, like Dzivarasekwa, where residents have a water reservoir that has remained dysfunctional for a very long time despite repeated promises from the municipality.

MASUNDA: Precious Shumba waxes lyrical about water bowsers but where would those water bowsers come from? Using what capital? And if only Precious Shumba and Simbarashe Moyo were to prevail upon the people that they purport to represent to prioritise the payment of their bills, give the same priority that they give to their cell phone bills and DSTV licences because the residents themselves, or as I indicated earlier, owe close to $80 million.

It’s all very well for Precious Shumba to talk about water bowsers – procured with what? Where’s the money going to come from to procure those water bowsers? Right now on Friday for instance, we will be unveiling a fleet of 27 refuse compactors, there are a total of 32 that we have procured using money that we borrowed from bank ADC.

I now have a situation where each of the 46 wards in Harare is going to have a dedicated refuse removal truck. And if you go to any of these high-density areas you’ll see the work that we’ve done clearing illegal dumps and doing all sorts of things. We have a budget, a revenues/expenditure budget in excess of $600 million dollars. It needs $67 million to do the road network, we need another 50 to address all these water blues that we are talking about and we’ve done a magnificent job.

We’ve also completed the clinic at Kuwadzana, we’ve completed the clinic at Budiwiro; we have a total of 14 polyclinics that double up as maternity centres. We are delivering over 2 200 babies a month. You know it is a huge undertaking and we employ 9 500 people and it used to 11 887 when we started. It’s a huge undertaking. This is not for the faint hearted, armchair warriors like Precious Shumba and Simbarashe Moyo.

GONDA: Precious Shumba the mayor raises an important question because you actually asked what is happening to the revenue coming from the residents and according to Mr Masunda your organization and also the Combined Harare Residents Association are among the groups or organizations including government departments that have not been paying their bills to the council. So what can you say about this?

SHUMBA: The Mayor is exaggerating the success of the City of Harare in dealing with service delivery issues. Let’s talk about the availability of water and what the City has done. We have been talking to officers in the City Treasury; of the around 58 million that they collected between March, April and May, they have used nearly 52% of that amount towards payment of salaries and allowances for their senior managers. And the Mayor needs also to be cognizant of the fact that residents are struggling to even raise money for their own rentals in their houses. They are refusing to separate the rates from the water bills so that people are able to tell how much they owe in terms of water. They are simply bunching everything to say it’s because people are not paying for water.

The City of Harare has been requested to separate the bills, as was the case before, where residents would pay for their water bills but the City of Harare would not deliver water and would not collect rates – yet for two years they were collecting money for refuse. Residents that the Mayor claims owe the City of Harare; for example if you go to Glen Lorne, Borrowdale, Mount Pleasant, Greendale, Highlands, Mabvuku and Tafara, talking of those it’s not in an eastern suburb, residents have not received consistent water supplies in a whole year. Some people have had tap water maybe for only 12 days yet they have been charged fixed water supplies amounting to 11 dollars in the northern suburbs and around $6.50 for those in the high density areas, or five dollars.

We are expecting the Mayor to talk about what that amount has been used for and why they have diverted nearly 52% of the generated revenue between March, April and May where they have been unable to communicate effectively what is happening. Where they hide the information, residents have a legitimate right to raise these issues because we don’t get what is happening. He talks about the issues where they have borrowed money from bank ADB – but all that money would need to be repaid. It’s not like they’ve been given cheap money. At what interest are they bonding the City of Harare, the city residents?

We are concerned that the Mayor is being academic, and he is being retrogressive by trying to undermine the significant role that resident associations play in building community interest in what the City is doing.

GONDA: Granted Precious, but what about the question that I asked you that why are you yourselves not paying your bills?

SHUMBA: I think you would need to appreciate that at the coming in of the inclusive government in February 2009, most residents were using the useless money or bearer cheques that were produced by the RBZ and were paying in advance because they couldn’t get change so they would pay ten trillion dollars into the City account.

MASUNDA: … sighs

SHUMBA: … And when the US multi currency regime was introduced in February, the City, the expectations of most citizens is that the City was supposed to start at zero zero for every household. Unfortunately they used I think a black market rate to convert the owings of residents. You would realize that if you go to Majubheki right now, most of them have February 2009 bills that indicated that they owed the City of Harare around 53 US dollars. That to us is the ripping of residents and coupled with their initial interest that they charged residents they were using around 51% that they have charged on the Zim dollar, they still continued until around July 2009 they were still charging that as interest. Instead of being per annum, they were doing it per month, meaning to say residents were saddled with huge debts that were not cleared.

The huge amounts that residents allegedly owe are based on those, say water, estimates because they were not even sending council workers to read their water meters. But that is not justification enough. Residents are not paying because most of them don’t have that money.

The City of Harare is also not addressing its billing system, which keeps recording that B.I.Q system, which is ripping off residents because they charge for a zone but when people pay, the money does not reduce in the resident’s accounts.

GONDA: Mr Masunda you don’t sound convinced by Precious Shumba’s explanation. I heard you laughing in the background. Can you tell us why?

MASUNDA: It’s a complete fallacy, in fact it’s a lie that we converted the Zim dollars to US dollars using some black market rate following the advent of the dollarization in our economy. Like everyone else we wrote off all the Zim dollar denominated balances… (interrupted)

SHUMBA: That’s not true, that’s not true, that’s not true.

MASUNDA: … all that has happened is that the constituency that is served by HRT and CHRA is that they have failed or either deliberately or for reasons Shumba has stated, have failed to pay the bills that were presented to them upon the advent of dollarization because at that time in February 2009 the US dollar was scarce, it was impossible especially for the poorer members of the community to access US dollars, I accept that. But over time, as the situation improved somewhat they should have prioritized the payment of those bills in the same way that they give priority to their cell phone bills and DSTV bills.

But secondly Precious Shumba has a point about the B.I.Q billing system which was not producing the kind of results that we would have liked but we have since, with the assistance of Munich and the Federal Ministry of International Cooperation and Development in Germany, had two ICT experts, Shepherd Mushayavanhu who lives in Hamburg and who has done so for about 30 years and Suzanne Smit. They are paid for by the City of Munich and the German government, they’ve been with us for the last three years revamping our billing system. So we produce composite bills, which is what the people said they wanted, they didn’t want to be presented with two bills – one for water, one for rates and in the case of high-density areas, supplementary charges as we call them.

So now if it is indeed the wishes of the people that Precious Shumba and Simbarashe Moyo represent that we revert to the system where we present separate bills for water and rates and supplementary charges, we’d be more than happy to do that if that is the general consensus. But our information is that people prefer getting a composite bill.

Now Rome wasn’t rebuilt in a day, if we were to all continue in that frame of mind as portrayed by Precious Shumba of wanting to play blame games then we’re not going to get anywhere. The 11 dollars that he mentions goes towards infrastructure development. In a normal situation, these infrastructure projects are not funded by borrowed monies; Precious has got a point because that borrowed money is comparatively more expensive than the money that is usually used traditionally. We use capital markets, we float municipal bonds and government bonds but because of the mess in which our economy is, you know because it was a politically induced socio-economic meltdown we have not seen any thriving capital markets in the manner that we used to see them in the past.

GONDA: You mentioned that government departments also owe the City a lot of money so what measures are you taking to ensure that… (interrupted)?

MASUNDA: There are a whole raft of measures.

GONDA: A lot of residents are also complaining that they get their supplies disconnected and yet you have individuals in government who owe money to the City.

MASUNDA: … individuals within government are not treated as sacred cows. It’s government departments and ministries, which we have to negotiate payment terms and for instance we are introducing all sorts of things obviously with the cooperation and assistance of the Minster of Finance with regards to setoff. Most ministers of finance don’t like setoff for obvious reasons because they have to collect all the revenue that is due and pay out what is owed. And we have a situation for instance to answer your question more specifically, where the Chitungwiza Town Council owes the City of Harare close to 50 million dollars and I’m under the cosh, pressure from the councilors and the workers. The workers are saying Mayor we’d rather go and collect the money from the residents in Chitungwiza ourselves because the Chitungwiza Town Council officials are collecting the money but they are not remitting it to us – and the councilors are saying no they are not paying, cut them off. University of Zimbabwe owes us about $5 million… they cannot pay.

So as long as I’m Mayor of this city we are not going to cut of Chitungwiza because we have people that live in that dormitory town of Harare – more people live in Chitungwiza than the whole of Botswana or Namibia we would have a major catastrophe on our hands if we were to switch off Chitungwiza. So cantonments, schools, universities, Cranborne Barracks, KGVI and Thompson Depot, those will never get cut off. So we just have to keep talking and talking until money becomes available.

GONDA: Precious Shumba final word?

SHUMBA: The City of Harare must begin to engage residents in a constructive manner rather than their approach where the know-it-all attitude of the Mayor is hindering progressive engagement to discuss progress and development with regards to making water available to every citizen. It’s a stakeholder matter that requires central government, local government and the local stakeholders including residents but the City of Harare must first admit that they have failed rather than the hide and seek where the Mayor is trying to evade issues. He must begin to be accountable as someone who is sitting in that seat on behalf of the residents of Harare.

GONDA: Mr Mayor when are you going to engage the residents and do you admit that you have failed on these issues?

MASUNDA: Well that is Precious’ view and he is perfectly entitled to it but all I can say as a parting shot is that we’ve got an open door policy; anybody who has got a constructive input to make towards making our city work and once we get our city to work, we’ll have got the country working, they are at liberty to come to Town House and we talk turkey.

GONDA: And when are we going to see an end to the water woes?

MASUNDA: Once all the stakeholders who owe money…

SHUMBA: (laughs)

MASUNDA: … ranging from residents, business people, government, the local authorities, once they start paying their bills and prioritizing payment of their bills in the same way as they do with their cell phones and DSTV, we’ll see a considerable improvement of the situation.

GONDA: Harare Mayor Much Masunda and Harare Residents Trust director Precious Shumba thank you very much for talking to us on the programme Hot Seat.

MASUNDA: Thank you Violet, take care.

SHUMBA: Thank you.

Nyoka and Kunyepa - Aliens

Time to be serious – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary: 8th June 2013

The Zimbabwean diaspora in the UK looks forward to the upcoming contest. We won’t be able to avoid the massive media coverage. After all, the Wimbledon tennis championships attract world-wide interest. We will no doubt hear former champion John McEnroe, now a television tennis commentator. His famous complaint to the umpire ‘you can’t be serious’ makes us think of the ruling by the constitutional court.

We disenfranchised Zimbabweans think that Zanu PF spokesman Gumbo can’t be serious in describing President Zuma’s advisor Lindiwe Zulu as ‘a mad woman’ for insisting on the promised reforms before elections. ‘She doesn’t know what she is doing’, says Dumbo (see: Sadc wasting time: Zanu PF – https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/jun8_2013.html#Z5).

Gumboat diplomacy is unlikely to endear Zanu PF to Zuma and the Vigil hopes that the South African President will dismiss the decision of the aptly-named ‘con’court to order elections by the end of next month. No doubt the ‘mad woman’ will have informed him of the opinion of Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba that the ruling ‘defied logic’. The Mail and Guardian quoted her as saying that her boss and SADC leaders want free and fair elections in Zimbabwe ‘with or without the court ruling’ (see: Zimbabwe puts SADC to the test – https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/jun8_2013.html#Z4). A SADC ambassador based in Harare is quoted in the same article as saying that the postponed summit will be the most important since the GPA was signed in 2008. The ambassador said the court’s judgment ‘will be followed to the extent that it is feasible to do so and this means that people have got to be rational and flexible in dealing with these issues’. The Vigil found these comments reassuring in the light of the sombre observation by Human Rights Watch that ‘as things stand, the chances of having free, fair and credible elections are slim, particularly given the stalled security sector reforms and reforms in other sectors’ (see: https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/jun8a_2013.html#Z5 – Security reforms: Elephant in the room).

Zimbabweans in the UK, reduced to watching the tennis, will be asking SADC the question ‘Are you serious?’

Other points

· One of the reasons given by Mugabe for asking for the postponement of the SADC meeting was his trip to Japan along with 50+ flunkeys. The Japanese surprised everyone with big financial and aid plans for Africa but, despite Mugabe’s enormous retinue, Zimbabwe was represented by only one person at the trade fair there (see: Zimbabwe exhibits at Ticad – https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/jun8a_2013.html#Z17).

· During the day we saw cyclists in all guises. Some 50 or so naked cyclists passed through the area in a summer demonstration but we had a better view of several clothed cyclists on penny-farthings and unicycles.

· Thanks to Wendy Ziyambi, Rose Maponga and Peter Sidindi who arrived early to help set up. Thanks also to Tino Mashonganyika and Michael Sirewu for their help putting up the high banners.

· The Zimbabwe Association (ZA) has asked us to publicise their ‘Culture without Borders’ project. Vigil people are invited to attend the events. For further details see our ‘Events and Notices’ Section.

For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website – they cannot be downloaded from the slideshow on the front page of the Zimvigil website.

FOR THE RECORD: 31 signed the register.

EVENTS AND NOTICES:

• ROHR Midlands Region Fundraising. Saturday 15^th June from 2 pm – 2 am. Venue: Malaika House, 81 George Street, Lozells, Birmingham B19 1NS. Food (BBQ) and Drinks, Music and Dance, Raffle etc. Contact: Zenzile Chabuka 07951418577, JaneMary Mapfumo 07412310429, Tafadzwa Mushakwe 07551873256, Enniah Dube 07403439707, Elector Zvorwadza 07905831330, Tecla Bandawe 07450507650, Pedzisai James 07428180518, Petronella Mapara 07903644612 and Anne Chikumba 07857528546.

• Screening of ‘Beatrice Mtetwa and the rule of law’. Tuesday 18^th June at 7.45 pm. Venue: London School of Economics, New Theatre, East Building, Houghton Street WC2A 2AE. There will be a question and answer session with Beatrice and the event is free. For the film trailer, check: http://vimeo.com/58496261, For more information, check: http://www.ibanet.org/mtetwafilm.aspx and to register for tickets email: mtetwafilm@int-bar.org. There is another screening of the film on Wednesday 19^th June at 8.30 pm. at the Lexi Cinema, 194b Chamberlayne Road, Kensal Rise, London NW10 3JU. Discounted £5 tickets (quote discount code: Zimbabwe) can be purchased at the box office 0871 7042069 or by visiting: http://bit.ly/15CCCLd.

• Zimbabwe Action Forum (ZAF). Saturday 22^nd June from 6.30 – 9.30 pm – PLEASE NOTE: change of date for this forum. Venue: Strand Continental Hotel (first floor lounge), 143 Strand, London WC2R 1JA. The Strand is the same road as the Vigil. From the Vigil it’s about a 10 minute walk, in the direction away from Trafalgar Square. The Strand Continental is situated on the south side of the Strand between Somerset House and the turn off onto Waterloo Bridge. The entrance is marked by a big sign high above and a sign for its famous Indian restaurant at street level. It's next to a newsagent. Nearest underground: Temple (District and Circle lines) and Holborn.

• Culture without Borders. Tuesday 25^th June onwards. For more information contact Wiz Bishop at the Zimbabwe Association 020 7739 8226, wiz@zimbabweassociation.org.uk, www.zimbabweassociation.org.uk:

- Storytelling with Chenjerai Hove. Tuesday 25^th June from 11 am – 2 pm. Venue: Spitalfields City Farm Yurt, Buxton St, London E1 5AR

- Solidarity with Zimbabwean victims of torture. Wednesday 26^th June from 11.30 am – 2.30 pm. Venue: Oxford House Theatre Oxford House, Derbyshire St, Bethnal Green, London E2 6HG.

- Chenjerai Hove in Birmingham. Thursday 27^th June from 6 – 9.30 pm. Hosted by the ZA regional Drop-in Centre at Carrs Lane Church, Birmingham B4 7SX.

- Arts and Culture Consultation with the Zimbabwean diaspora. Friday 28^th June from 10.30 am – 5 pm. Venue: Oxford House Theatre, Oxford House, Derbyshire St, Bethnal Green, London E2 6HG. ZA is collaborating with the Culture Cluster of the Commonwealth Organisations Committee on Zimbabwe (COCZ) on this event.

• Zimbabwe Vigil Highlights 2012 can be viewed on this link: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/the-vigil-diary/467-vigil-highlights-2012. Links to previous years’ highlights are listed on 2012 Highlights page.

• The Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s partner organization based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil to have an organization on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way represents the views and opinions of ROHR.

• Facebook pages:

- Vigil: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8157345519&ref=ts

- ZAF: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zimbabwe-Action-Forum-ZAF/490257051027515

- ROHR: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ROHR-Zimbabwe-Restoration-of-Human-Rights/301811392835

• Vigil Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/zimbabwevigil.

• Useful websites: www.zanupfcrime.com which reports on Zanu PF abuses and www.ipaidabribe.org.zw where people can report corruption in Zimbabwe.

Vigil co-ordinators

The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.

Voter information

Mugabe busy, denies SADC contempt