http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 29 June 2012 08:47
Faith
Zaba
AS the Zanu PF central committee meets today to discuss issues
affecting the
party, President Robert Mugabe and his politburo have all but
made a
dramatic climb down on their demands for elections this year
following a
watershed Sadc summit in Luanda which blocked their plans,
leaving them in
disarray. The Zanu PF politburo met on Wednesday and failed
to stick to
resolutions on elections it has been making since beginning of
year. Mugabe
also failed to carry out his threats to announce the elections
trajectory by
last month before he was forced to retreat in
Luanda.
Sadc leaders in Luanda told Zimbabwean leaders and their
parties to go back
home and implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA)
and follow the
elections roadmap to prepare for free and after elections
after 12 months
from the beginning of this month.
Senior Zanu PF
politburo members yesterday said Mugabe and his loyalists
failed to “stay
course” on elections during the Wednesday meeting. Sources
said the main
resolution of the meeting was the nullification of the
hotly-disputed
district coordinating committee (DCC) elections whose chaotic
fallout was
first reported in the Zimbabwe Independent recently.
“We are going to
have a central committee meeting tomorrow (today) but the
issue of elections
is no longer urgent because even in the politburo meeting
on Wednesday it
wasn’t really discussed, although there were references to
it,” a senior
politburo member said. “The issue of district elections was
prominent.”
The nullification of district elections results,
marred by allegations of
intimidation, vote-buying and ballot-rigging, was a
further indication
Mugabe and his party were no longer scrambling for
elections this year.
Further signs Zanu PF has now backed down on its
clamour for early polls,
with or without a new constitution, came as MDC
leader Welshman Ncube said
yesterday elections were likely to be held by
September next year after the
expiry of the lifespan on the coalition
government in June. The current
constitution puts the ceiling for elections
as October month-end next year.
Ncube told the Zimbabwe National
Chamber of Commerce annual congress in
Victoria Falls that polls were
practically still a long way off.
“We will have an election by
September next year one way or the other,” he
said. “After Luanda, there is
some steady progress in that direction.
Virtually all the issues in deadlock
had been resolved as of yesterday
(Wednesday). What remains is editorial
work of the drafters.”
Copac has reportedly managed to resolve all
issues in dispute, paving way
for Sadc facilitator, South African President
Jacob Zuma’s long-awaited
visit. Zuma wanted to visit Harare on Monday but
principals and negotiators
said they were not ready to receive him. Zuma is
expected to pressure
principals to implement the GPA and roadmap as directed
by Sadc leaders and
raise regional concerns about military interference in
politics and
elections following threats by army commanders to block winners
from taking
over.
Ncube said the challenge now was to have
credible elections which would not
undo what has been achieved under the
inclusive government.
A series of recent events at home and in the
region have conspired to thwart
Mugabe’s election plans. After most
politburo meetings held since January
this year, some Zanu PF officials have
been demanding elections this year,
citing claims of a dysfunctional
coalition government. Zanu PF officials
have also been claiming it was in
the national interest to hold elections
this year, not next year as that
would polarise society during United
Nations World Tourism Organisation
general assembly to be held in Victoria
Falls in August. They also been
saying the GPA has expired and that the
lifespan of the government ends in
March next year, pretexts rejected by
Sadc leaders. Now some Zanu PF
hardliners have invented a new excuse that it
is not possible to hold the
elections under a new constitution as the
remaining before polls by June
next year is not enough to accommodate that.
However, at the Wednesday
meeting Zanu PF’s approach and focus was
remarkably different, sources
said.
Absent from the Wednesday meeting was the usual fiery rhetoric
demanding
elections this year without fail; issuing of ultimatums to Copac
to hand
over the draft constitution to the principals; urging of Zanu PF
officials
to prepare for elections this year and the urgent need to end the
“dysfunctional” coalition government whose lifespan has allegedly
expired.
Instead, the politburo virtually admitted elections were not
coming this
year when it nullified all DCC election results countrywide,
irrespective of
whether they were in dispute or not.
A party insider
said: “All DCC election results have been nullified. People
felt the
elections were divisive and fuelled factionalism ahead of
elections.”
The DCC elections had become the battleground for
Zanu PF factions tussling
to wrestle control of strategic party structures
in the battle to eventually
produce a successor to Mugabe, now reeling from
old age and frailty.
Infighting rocked DCC elections in Masvingo,
Manicaland, Mashonaland East,
Bulawayo and Matabeleland North and South
provinces, as the factions led by
Vice-President Joice Mujuru and Defence
minister Emmerson Mnangagwa fought
for control of the
provinces.
The divisions which have been ripping the party aparthave
been complicated
by the emergence of a strong security establishment-based
group rooting for
Mugabe to stay on.
Internal strife has been so
pronounced that it forced Mugabe to publicly
denounce factions and their
leaders, saying they were destroying the party.
Zanu PF spokesperson
Rugare Gumbo said yesterday: “DCC elections were
discussed but a report will
be produced in due course.” However, senior
party officials say the results
were nullified. In the last politburo
meeting before Wednesday senior party
leaders clashed along factional lines
mainly due to the elections
fallout.
However, party insiders told Independent yesterday
hardliners pushing for
elections this year, with the support of securocrats,
still want polls the
current constitution, not new one. They are now arguing
it would not be
possible to hold produce a new constitution in 12 months and
hold elections
under it.
Senior Zanu PF politburo member
JonathanMoyo, a Mugabe loyalist identified
with party hardliners who all
along was vowing polls would be held this
year, wrote in the current edition
of a state-controlled weekly “it would be
impossible for the processes, laws
and institutions enabled by the new
constitution to be enacted and
implemented within the constitutionally
available time in the next 11 months
before the next general election”.
“In other words… it is now
practically impossible for the elections to be
held under any new
constitution,” he said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012
18:38
Nqobile Bhebhe
ZANU PF is scrambling for a clause in the
draft constitution which will
require 80% approval in a referendum to amend
the constitution in reference
to land issues, a move widely seen as an
attempt to protect its senior
officials and supporters who grabbed farms
during the chaotic land reform
exercise.
The proposal is among the 200
recommendations Zanu PF made on the draft
constitution currently under
discussion.
Most of the Zanu PF demands — which seek to fundamentally
change the draft
constitution — are geared towards preserving the current
imperial presidency
and institutional arrangements. But a compromise has
been reached on most of
the issues, according to the Independent’s briefings
with negotiators.
Some of Zanu PF’s demands include that the
military should be allowed to
play an active part in national politics; the
president should appoint
commissions without parliamentary approval; there
should be no
constitutional court as demanded by the people but a “division”
of the
Supreme Court; there should not be devolution of power to the
provinces;
executive authority must only vest in the president and the
president shall
not be answerable to parliament on deploying troops, among
other things.
Zanu PF also wanted the registrar-general Tobaiwa
Mudede to remain in charge
of voter registration with the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, whose staff it
is refusing to change, only “supervising the
process”. The party also wanted
the Attorney-General to retain his
prosecuting powers but not sit in cabinet
and parliament.
It was
also demanding the maintaining of the two vice-presidents, although
the idea
of a running mate, who automatically becomes the first
vice-president, is
being discussed. Seats in parliament will also be
increased by 60 reserved
for woman despite that the method of distribution
is still in
dispute.
On land, Zanu PF wanted Section 7.2 (a) of the draft to
include it was
“resolved to include the Land section 4.24, which requires
80% approval in
referendum when amending the constitution in section
18.12”.
This is widely seen as an attempt to make land issues
irreversible under
the new constitution. President Robert Mugabe and senior
Zanu PF officials,
including ministers, seized vast tracts of land from
displaced commercial
farmers.
On devolution, Zanu PF wants it to
be called “decentralisation” and be left
to an Act of Parliament to deal
with under the principles and tiers of
government, although the issue has
not been resolved.
Under the deal agreed by the parties last week,
the country’s 10 provinces
will each have a provincial assembly made up of
MPs and senators from that
region, representatives of local authorities and
10 individuals elected by
proportional representation as well as a
provincial governor.
“When it comes to the issue of governor, the
provincial assembly will
nominate two candidates for the post and forward
the names to the president
who will then formally appoint one of those,” one
negotiator said.
Under the current constitution, the president
appoints governors invariably
from his party which lost the last
election.
Zanu PF was also demanding that the proposed constitutional
court must be
deleted from the draft and replaced with “constitutional
division of the
Supreme Court”. The issue is one of the most contested
matters as Zanu PF
seems afraid of having different judges other than the
current Supreme Court
bench presiding over constitutional matters. Most of
the current judges were
elevated after the party had purged the bench of
“undesirable elements” at
the height of the land reform programme and
political repression after 2000.
On the election of the president,
Zanu PF wanted the 50 plus one concept,
which is in the Electoral Act, to be
revisited and embedded in the
constitution. The party is also insisting on a
clause which says the
“president takes precedence over all persons in
Zimbabwe” after the draft
discarded this.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012 18:35
Elias
Mambo
FINANCE minister Tendai Biti has slammed the coalition government’s
continued haggling over economic policies, warning the long-running row
could soon stall Zimbabwe’s steady recovery.
Biti told the Zimbabwe
Independent at the weekend policy differences
continued to widen structural
fissures within government, tearing apart the
Global Political Agreement
(GPA).
“There is no collective responsibility in government because
some people
continue to be partisan on measures adopted to arrest collapse
of government
operations,” said Biti.
Last week Biti faced a
barrage of criticism after his presentation on a
catalogue of measures aimed
at solving financial problems dogging
government.
Biti’s
proposals called for sweeping cuts in foreign travel which gobbled
US$45
million last year, freezing of civil servants’ salaries, disposing of
loss-making government entities and ensuring mining companies in Marange
diamond fields remitted revenues to Treasury.
Biti has repeatedly
lamented low revenues from diamond, something which has
forced him to revise
downwards his budget projections.
The minister has also accused Zanu
PF of running parallel government
directly financing certain state
activities with proceeds from diamond
sales.
Both President
Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have been
accused of
prioritising foreign travel at the expense of funding basic
social services.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 29 June 2012 08:41
Chris
Muronzi
ZIMBABWE’S financial sector is still vulnerable and needs
continued
vigilance, especially given the country’s “destabilising”
indigenisation
policy and collapse of banks such as Interfin Banking
Corporation and the
closure of Genesis Investment Bank, a report by the
visiting International
Monetary Fund team has disclosed.
The IMF team is
deeply concerned about the destabilising effect Zimbabwe’s
controversial
Indigenisation policy could have on the country’s banking
sector and on
investment.
An IMF report seen by the Zimbabwe Independent
shows that the fund sees
policy risk stemming from heightened government
calls to indigenise the
banking sector.
The IMF team headed by
Alfredo Cuevas and comprising Murna Morgan, Christian
Henn, Eliza Lis and
Futoshi Narita was in Harare between June 13-27 to
conduct Article IV
consultations with the country’s authorities.
The team met officials
from government, the Reserve Bank (RBZ) and other
stakeholders.
“A policy risk relates to the potentially
destabilising effects of
indigenisation policy on the banking system, as
well as its chilling effect
on investment more broadly,” the report
reads.
“Other risks stem from fiscal slippages and financial sector
instability,
including liquidity constraints and questions over the quality
of governance
in small banks.”
The IMF commended efforts to
enhance regulatory framework on the part of the
central bank, pointing to
the order forcing undercapitalised banks to meet
minimum capital
requirements by the end of March 2012 or merge with stronger
banks.
The fund said 12 banks were either below or just above
minimum capital
requirement levels as at December 31 2012.
After
the collapse of Interfin from non-performing insider loans and its
subsequent placement under curatorship, and Genesis surrendering its
banking licence after failing to meet minimum capital requirements, the IMF
still feels the country’s financial sector remains
vulnerable.
“As noted, a number of banks remain barely capitalised,
and while several
weak banks have met the minimum capital requirement
following capital
injections, credit risks remain high, particularly for
smaller banks that
have low capital buffers,” the report
says.
The report also notes that asset qualities deteriorated in the
last year and
a half — a development the fund says reflects unsound lending
practices and
poor risk management. Non-performing loans were at 9% in March
2012, up from
4% in the same period last year with wide variations across
the banks.
The IMF report says loan origination from weak banks
remained strong, funded
by unstable short-term deposits.
“The
serious improprieties uncovered at Interfin would seem to confirm
persistent
concerns over the quality of corporate governance in some of the
smaller
banks, underscoring the need for active supervision,” the report
says.
While the liquidity situation in the banking sector
improved, there was
uneven distribution, the IMF said.
The IMF
says rapid credit growth last year saw loans-to-deposit ratios of
banks
rising sharply, and a liquidity ratio of 27% at the end of December
2011,
with 15 banks below 25% of the prudential liquidity ratio.
The report
lauds the central bank’s move to have banks remit offshore funds
held in
Nostro accounts, saying the move lifted the prudential liquidity
ratio from
25% to 30% towards the end of this month.
“The government issued
bonds in March 2012 to reimburse the commercial banks
for the US$83 million
of statutory reserves blocked at the RBZ.
Nevertheless, while the bonds are
nominally tradable, their durations (2-4
years) and sub-market interests (3
%) means that banks are holding on to
these bonds, preventing their use as
collateral to foster reestablishment of
the Interbank market,” the report
says.
The report says there is a need to amend the Banking Act to
strengthen the
Troubled and Insolvent Bank Resolution Framework to
incorporate swift
corrective actions, and deal with corporate governance
deficiencies.
According to the report, an amended Banking Act would
be presented to
cabinet by August 2012.
The IMF added that there
should a debate on the need to consolidate the
small and weaker banks going
forward.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 29 June 2012
08:36
Staff Writer
ZIMBABWE is thrashing out a “resources for
arms” deal with Russia which may
see the country being supplied with
military helicopters and other hardware
in exchange for platinum. A report
carried by Russia’s Kommersant business
daily and online publications
yesterday said officials from the former
superpower who were in the country
in April all but secured an
inter-governmental agreement on stimulating
investment and defence, under
which a state corporation, Russian
Technologies, would supply military
helicopters in exchange for mineral
rights to platinum deposits in
Darwendale.
However, checks
yesterday by the Zimbabwe Independent with Russian diplomats
in Harare
indicated the military helicopters in question may actually be old
ones
which had been taken for repairs in the world’s largest country in
terms of
surface area.
“The helicopters in question are not new but old ones
which had been taken
to Russia for repairs,” one diplomat said last night.
“Probably that’s what
they are referring to.”
Reports say the
Darwendale mining area which has attracted the Russians’
interest in the
mineral-rich Great Dyke has platinum reserves as well as
other valuable
metals such as gold, nickel, copper and palladium, among
others.
A senior mining executive confirmed to the Independent
yesterday Russians
were in the country in April and, apart from meeting
government and military
officials, they also met players in the mining
sector to glean information.
“Yes, discussions are taking place and
in fact I met the visitors referred
to in April,” the mining executive
said.
“They did not disclose how they proposed to pay for the
(platinum) deposits
but were certainly holding discussions and asked to meet
with me to talk
about the area in question.”
The executive said
the major sticking point could however be differences in
valuation of the
resource between government and the Russians.
He said the Russians
wanted government to take into consideration
investment, financing and
operating costs to extract and process the mineral
in evaluating the
deal.
“There will be a gap in expectation on the part of our
government which
clings to the belief that minerals in the ground are valued
at the selling
price of estimated metal content,” the executive
said.
“This ignores investment, financing and operating costs to
extract and
process the minerals. So if government expects to receive
billions worth of
military equipment in exchange for bare ground, it’s not
going to happen!”
It is understood Russchrome and RusszimMining,
which have links to the army,
are part of the deal. ZDF spokesperson Colonel
Overson Mugwisi said he was
unaware of the deal.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 29 June 2012 08:29
Brian
Chitemba
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has summoned MDC-T heavyweights
in Bulawayo
to quiz them over the recent defections of 84 party members in
Makokoba.
Makokoba is represented by Tsvangirai’s deputy, Thokozani Khupe,
in
parliament.
The 84 members are believed to have dumped the
MDC-T to join the Welshman
Ncube-led MDC after accusing Khupe of “abusing
them and working with Zanu
PF”.
Tsvangirai is currently in
Bulawayo and sources said he is determined to get
to the bottom of the
matter and determine why the supporters have ditched
his
party.
Tsvangirai is expected to chair a no-holds-barred meeting with
his party’s
Bulawayo provincial executive committee led by chairman and
State
Enterprises and Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo, in which the
defections
issue would take centre stage along with the state of the party
in Bulawayo.
Sources said Tsvangirai was also expected to meet some
of the defectors at
the MDC-T Bulawayo provincial offices as part of his
mission to lure them
back to the party.
Khupe has vehemently
denied that the “defectors” were members of the MDC-T
and labelled the
reports as part of Ncube’s propaganda war to wrest the seat
from her in the
next election.
Ncube lost the same seat to Khupe in the 2008
elections, but has been taking
advantage of the internal squabbling plaguing
the MDC-T in Bulawayo.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012
18:34
Paidamoyo Muzulu
MDC-T MPs Eddie Cross and Anadi Sululu have
vowed to press ahead with their
motion calling for the censure of ministers
who skip parliament to avoid
scheduled question-and-answer sessions by
backbenchers.
MDC-T heavyweights have ordered the duo to withdraw the motion,
calling for
accountability by members of the executive, fearing it may
expose the party
ahead of elections, but Cross said they would disregard the
directive
because most ministers in the coalition government think they are
beyond
criticim.
Cross said in an interview some of his party
leaders were informally
lobbying him and Sululu to withdraw the
motion.
“Some ministers, even in our party, are offended by the
motion and have
informally been sending overtures to us to drop the motion,”
said Cross.
“However, Sululu and I are equally determined to move the motion
since it
will improve transparency in government.”
Cross said the
days for the executive to use parliament as a rubber stamp
and treat it as a
doormat are over.
“We will not allow ourselves again to be used as
doormats. Finance minister
Tendai Biti now knows it after we threatened to
block his 2012 budget,”
Cross said.
Cross singled out Tourism
minister Walter Mzembi as the only member of the
executive who has treated
parliament with respect since 2009.
Those with outstanding questions
on the order paper include Justice minister
Patrick Chinamasa, State
Security minister Sydney Sekeramayi, Local
Government minister Ignatius
Chombo, Industry and Commerce minister Welshman
Ncube, Transport and
Infrastructure minister Nicholas Goche, Youth and
Indigenisation minister
Saviour Kasukuwere, State Enterprises and
Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo
and Home Affairs co-ministers Kembo Mohadi
and Theresa
Makone.
The MDC-T move to thwart the motion comes hard on the heels
of Zanu PF’s
whipping of Goromonzi North MP Paddy Zhanda into line after he
recently
tried to push for an investigation into allegations of corruption
and
mismanagement at the Reserve Bank.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012 18:33
Clive
Mphambela
BANKERS have urged the Reserve Bank to mint coins to alleviate
the problem
of unavailability of change in small denominations in the
economy.
Documents in possession of the Zimbabwe Independent show the Bankers
Association of Zimbabwe (Baz) recently made a proposal to government for the
central bank to be allowed to mint coins to facilitate smooth
transactions.
According to the proposal, the coins could be exchanged
on a
dollar-for-dollar basis enabling people to redeem coins for notes
should
they accumulate large amounts of coins.
“This in our view
will bring a lot of convenience to the public and make
pricing simpler,” Baz
president George Guvamatanga says in a letter, dated
May 14 2012, to Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono. “This will reduce the
unnecessary price increases
that have been attributed to the absence of
coins.”
The bankers
suggested a directive be issued encouraging operators to provide
change to
the public. Their letter also says the cost of importing coins has
been an
inhibiting factor in efforts made so far in making coins
available.
Following adoption of multi-currency use, bankers imported
several million
rand worth of coins from South Africa but these were
re-exported after
bankers failed to agree on an uptake rate with
retailers.
In the 2011 budget statement, Finance minister Tendai Biti
said government
had engaged the United States Federal Reserve over possible
provision of
coins and replacement of soiled notes to ease small change
problems in the
country.
Biti said he was working with the
banking sector to import US coins to
resolve the problem posed by the
current challenge of applying cross rates
in giving change in rand coins for
transactions made in US dollars.
However, Baz has nowr shelved plans
citing the huge costs of importing the
coins. It said importing US$5 million
worth of coins in various
denominations required another US$5 million to pay
for them.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012
18:31
PLOTS by Joint Operations Command chiefs and intelligence services
to smear
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s image ahead of the next
elections through
allegations of corruption and sexual indiscretions,
amongst other things,
seem to be falling apart, especially after the
Highlands housing scandal
failed to stick.
This comes amid
allegations in a Global Witness report released this week
that the Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has received about US$100
million in
off-budget financing from a Hong Kong businessman, Sam Pa. Some
of the funds
were allegedly targeted towards an operation codenamed
“Spiderweb” – a
covert manoeuvre designed to discredit senior MDC officials.
There
has been no public denial of the allegations by the CIO. Senior
members of
the MDC-T, particularly secretary-general Tendai Biti, as well as
MDC leader
Welshman Ncube are to be also targeted by intelligence agents in
their
operation.
The smear campaign is aimed at damaging the profiles of
President Robert
Mugabe’s opponents ahead of the next
elections.
Top on its list was the alleged housing scandal in which
Tsvangirai was
accused of misappropriating US$1,5 million he received from
the Reserve Bank
in 2009 to buy a house in Harare’s upmarket Highlands
suburb. He was
allocated a further US$1 million by Treasury for the same
project hence
allegations of double-dipping and fraud, but investigations
into the case
seem to have collapsed after Mugabe, who approved the deal,
urged caution on
the issue.
Biti, who is also Finance minister,
was also being investigated over the
issue. Sources say the murky campaign,
whose dirt has failed to stick, was
far from over with more “sexual
scandals” likely to be exposed ahead of
polls. The issues came under the
spotlight again after the alleged US$100
million CIO slush fund
report.
“More scandals will be revealed in the run up to elections.
The CIO has been
trailing Tsvangirai, Biti, Ncube and other officials for a
long time. They
have much on them including sex tapes, so it will not come
as a surprise if
we have Pius Ncube-kind of exposures again,” said a
source.
Tsvangirai, who recently married Elizabeth Macheka Guma,
after the Locardia
Karimatsenga fiasco, has also been linked to several
other women. This
week's reports say he was paying US$1 400 a month in
maintenance for his
19-month-old baby with a Bulawayo woman, Loreta
Nyathi.
Biti is also reportedly under probe over US$20 million drawn
from the
International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights (SDR). The money
is said
to have mysteriously “disappeared” from the coffers of the troubled
Interfin
Bank now under curatorship. Biti has however explained how he used
the SDR
funds.
Last year, police probed Biti’s ministry officials
for alleged corruption.
One of those arrested in the ministry was Petronella
Chishawa, who was later
embroiled in an alleged sex scandal with Biti which
was splashed on the
front pages of state newspapers, which will be the main
platform for
discrediting MDC officials ahead of elections. However, most of
these
exposures have failed to work.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012 18:27
Elias
Mambo/PaidamoyoMuzulu
THE ongoing murder trial at the Mutare High Court
involving a Chiadzwa
villager has brought police brutality and impunity
during investigations and
in dealing with civilians to the spotlight once
again.
Police officers in Mutare have fingered their superior Chief
Superintendent
Joseph Chani as being responsible for the death of Tsorosai
Kusena –– a
suspected diamond dealer –– who died after alleged torture while
in police
custody. The three officers reportedly said their boss approved
the use of
torture during Kusena’s interrogation, which led to his
death.
Although this has outraged his family and the community, the
claims are
hardly surprising since the police have for a long time been
accused of,
among other things, using violent methods, torture and other
extra-judicial
measures when dealing with suspects, be it in political,
criminal or civil
matters.
In March this year all hell broke
loose in the small mining town of Shamva
when police rounded up Ashley Mine
residents and severely assaulted them
over a case involving the
officer-in-charge’s wife, resulting in the death
of Luxmore
Chivambo.
The officer-in-charge Inspector Aspias Shumba was later
arrested but is out
on US$100 bail, while his six subordinates are out on
US$50 bail each.
By contrast, 29 Glen View residents facing charges
of murdering a police
officer last year continue to languish in remand after
being denied bail.
Police are pulling out all the stops to secure
convictions, while they
ignore many murders of civilians.
The
case is as much about the murder of a policeman as it is about police
brutality.
Police ruthlessness is rampant. In 2006 police
allegedly picked up and
savagely beat up organisers of a demonstration for
better living conditions
who included former ZCTU secretary-general
Wellington Chibebe and his
president Lovemore Matombo.
In 2007,
police allegedly shot dead in cold blood a National Constitutional
Assembly
activist Gift Tandare during a Save Zimbabwe Campaign peace rally
in
Highfield, but there were no arrests made.
During the same year,
police severely assaulted then opposition MDC-T leader
Morgan Tsvangirai,
now prime minister, over a public meeting which they
claimed was unlawful.
Tsvangirai sustained severe injuries, including a
broken skull, triggering
global outrage and condemnation.
Concerned Zimbabweans have expressed
horror at police barbarity and
impunity, calling for security forces to be
held accountable for their
brutality.
Human rights activists have
condemned police violence, including their
approach of arresting in order to
investigate. Police often lose cases in
court due to lack of evidence.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 29 June 2012 08:34
Staff
writer
MYSTERY surrounding the identity of the owner of the US$5,5
million
luxurious yacht imported from Italy has deepened with the country’s
security
services sniffing around to unmask the individual. The yacht has
drawn as
much attention while moored off Lake Kariba’s waterfront this week
as when
it crossed the Beitbridge border post last week on Wednesday, but
until now
the ownership of the two Cummins 5HP diesel engine vessel remains
shrouded
in secrecy.
Zimbabwean clearance documents list the
luxury boat as belonging to James
Moyo of a known Chisipite address, while
South African sources say he is
merely a front for a very senior Zanu PF
official.
Following an article in last week’s Zimbabwe Independent,
people have come
forward offering information and linking more names of Zanu
PF bigwigs to
the vessel, including a rich minister and a top military
commander.
The Independent is still reconciling the different names
to the ownership of
the boat.
But whoever the lucky owner is,
they sure have very deep pockets.
The vessel was built by Azimut
Yachts of Italy and has fully air-conditioned
six-sleeper berths and three
lounges with a 32" flat-screen television and a
refrigerator.
It
also has top and bottom steering wheels which allow the driver to steer
the
boat from either inside or outside.
According to sources in South
Africa, the boat was fully paid for at
Broderick Marine in Vanderbiljpark,
southern Johannesburg, which ordered it
from Italy on behalf of the
owner.
It crossed the border on Wednesday last week and was cleared
by Group Air’s
GA Freight, a Harare-based clearing agency, which said it
could not discuss
personal clients due to strict confidentiality agreements.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 29 June 2012 08:32
Staff
Writer
ZANU PF secretary for indigenisation and economic empowerment
Saviour
Kasukuwere has declared there will be no going back on
indigenisation of
the banking sector saying financial institutions which do
not serve
aspirations of ordinary people have no place in Zimbabwe. Speaking
at the
Zanu PF Economic Cluster Department workshop in Harare yesterday,
Kasukuwere, who is also the Indigenisation minister, lashed out at the
banking sector accusing it of having a mentality that “is very much in the
colonial days”.
He said the time had come for the country to move
the indigenisation
rhetoric to economic empowerment. Kasukuwere said
government would today
publish a statutory instrument that would legislate
the 51% threshold for
ownership under the country’s indigenisation laws. He
revealed that his
ministry was in advanced discussions with Standard
Chartered Bank, Barclays
Bank and StanbicBank regarding their empowerment
programmes.
He expressed disappointment at the hospitality sector
saying Zimbabweans had
not been empowered and indicated that “we cannot
continue with a situation
where we have foreigners showcasing our animals
when the locals are there.
“I am, however, pleased that there has
been a lot of compliance by our
mining sector with the major platinum and
gold producers having submitted
acceptable empowerment plans”, Kasukuwere
said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012 18:30
Nqobile
Bhebhe
INDUSTRY and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube has blamed Mines
minister
Obert Mpofu for stalling implementation of the multi-million Essar
deal by
routinely defying cabinet decisions, forcing the Indian company to
mull
pulling out.
Without mentioning Mpofu by name but in apparent
reference to him, Ncube
told the Independent this week the situation at
NewZim Steel Ltd is
frustrating because “a former Industry and Commerce
minister” is ruining the
US$750 million deal. Mpofu was Industry and Trade
minister when Ziscosteel
collapsed.
“We have a former minister in
charge of industries who says he will not
comply with decisions of cabinet
which is supposed to be the highest
executive authority in the country,”
said Ncube.
“The situation at NewZim is frustrating to the extent
that management and
workers held a day of prayer last week. Since last year,
the new investor
has injected more than US$50 million in a bid to assist us
but we seem not
to want to be assisted. One person is a stumbling block to
the deal,” Ncube
said.
He said even if his officials and those
from the Mines ministry and NewZim
agree on something, “that very person
turns down everything”. “We take
issues to cabinet and agree, but again this
very person who was minister in
charge of industries when Zisco closed
vetoes everything,” Ncube said.
Mpofu has said Ncube signed the deal
without his Mines ministry’s input and
wants the deal
reviewed.
Essar controls 54% of NewZim Steel, while the government
and minority
shareholders control the remaining stake. The company also
holds 80% of the
resources through its stake in NewZim Minerals, formerly
Buchwa Iron Mining
Company (Bimco).
Bimco held the rights to iron
ore claims for feedstock into Ziscosteel
operations.
However,
Essar has failed to kick-start operations because the Ministry of
Mines has
refused to give it mineral rights to Mwanezi iron reserves,
arguing it does
not know the quantity and value of the deposits.
The ministry has
even claimed there are 30 billion tonnes of high-grade iron
ore reserves and
Zimbabwe could lose billions of dollars if Essar was given
unlimited rights
to mine. President Robert Mugabe and cabinet have
instructed Mpofu and Ncube
to speedily resolve the issue but the problem
remains unsettled.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012
18:29
Herbert Moyo
GOVERNMENT is stepping up efforts to
resuscitate ailing parastatals by
seeking partnerships with leading South
African state-owned enterprises
following four-day inter-governmental
meetings in Pretoria last week.
State Enterprises and Parastatals minister
Gorden Moyo, who headed the
Zimbabwean delegation, told the Zimbabwe
Independent government indicated it
wanted joint ventures with Transnet,
South African Airways (SAA) and Eskom
during meetings with South African
Public Enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba
and his
officials.
Transnet operates and controls major transport
infrastructure in SA which
include the National Ports Authority, Transnet
Rail Engineering, Transnet
Pipelines and Transnet Freight Rail. Eskom is the
South African power
utility company.
Transnet is embarking on a
massive R300 billion infrastructural development
programme aimed at
assisting the South African industrial sector to increase
exports to the
rest of the world and grow the economy.
“South African state
enterprises are interested in investing in Zimbabwe and
we have singled out
Eskom, SAA and Transnet for joint ventures with their
Zimbabwean
counterparts because they are key levers in the South African
economy,” said
Moyo.
Moyo’s delegation toured SAA offices and facilities at OR Tambo
International Airport in Johannesburg on the second day of their visit and
also held meetings with the airline’s top management.
Moyo said
they had also explored areas of mutual co-operation in the areas
of
privatisation, restructuring and management of state enterprises. His
ministry has produced a manual to serve as a guide for line ministries in
re-structuring of state enterpries.
Transnet is earmarked to
partner with the National Railways of Zimbabwe in
reviving the rail
infrastructure while SAA and Eskom would partner with Air
Zimbabwe and Zesa,
respectively.
“We are working together with the relevant ministries
and when our South
African counterparts come, their officials will also meet
with the line
ministries responsible for the relevant state enterprises,”
Moyo said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012 18:21
Ray
Chipendo
NOT only in Zimbabwe is the phrase “profitable airline”
oxymoronic, but
across the world the airline industry is known to be dogged
by hopeless
economics which accommodate only the very large and efficient
airlines.
While there are no permanent darlings in this industry, the ugly
child “Air
Zimbabwe” exemplifies a perfect case study on “how not to run an
airline”.
Air Zimbabwe owes its creditors, including staff a whooping
US$150m,
approximately 3% of the GDP of Zimbabwe.
Transport
minister Nicholas Goche has admitted that Air Zimbabwe is a
chronic loss-
making entity that has toiled in the red for several years. As
expected he
has promised a restructuring exercise, but what he can perhaps
learn from
other such exercises is that a mere change in company structure
and its
roles barely cuts it in this ruthless industry.
Case for
consolidation
For flag carriers belonging to relatively small
countries such as Zimbabwe,
continuous restructuring with no lasting
solution is the order of day.
Unless fundamental shifts in the areas of
ownership and scale are effected,
governments will continue to waste
taxpayers’ money into these bleeding
entities.
Despite
overprotection of skies and incessant subsidies, smaller airlines
such as
Air Zimbabwe, Air Botswana and Air Malawi will always struggle to
cover
their operating costs. Their stark choice is either to consolidate or
eventually face the auction block. This unfortunate and harsh reality calls
for an industry evolvement, which in this case refers to consolidation and
privatisation of national airlines.
Economies of
scale
The airline industry is confronted by fundamental issues driven
by
globalisation, which include scale and ownership, role of national
identity,
competitive pressures and consolidation.
Because the
marginal cost of an extra passenger is almost negligible, the
industry has
been reduced to a numbers’ game. Therefore, airlines which can
put more and
bigger planes in the sky, and fly more often, are able to bring
down their
per-passenger cost dramatically. With more occupied seats, large
airlines
are able to cover the industry’s notoriously high fixed overheads
which
include aircraft maintenance and leasing. Such costs are the reason
there
are small airlines compromising on safety and incurring losses year
after
year, despite government assistance.
Because of economies of scale
gained from large markets, big airlines can
price their tickets generously,
drawing more passengers and making more
revenue. It then follows that by
allowing mergers and alliances in the
African airline industry prices are
likely to come down, operators are
likely to make profits and more people
will be able to fly.
In our case, Air Zimbabwe’s extensive cost
structure which includes a staff
complement of an estimated 1 360 workers,
training school and office
infrastructure is probably too large to be
supported by the revenue
generated from the number of passengers the carrier
shuttles. With a bit of
sprucing up the once respected engineering and
maintenance unit (Air
Zimbabwe Technical) could support more regional
airlines at once without
drastic increases to
costs.
Over-protection of national skies and regulatory constraints
among countries
are preventing the regional airline industry from achieving
the efficiency
and performance levels reached in other parts of the world. A
central
recommendation is a merger or an alliance which brings several flag
carriers
together to form a much bigger and stronger regional airline taking
the
shape and identity of the region, perhaps with cross border-equity
ownership.
Sadc’s ailing flag carriers
Performances of
regional flag carriers confirm that small and state-owned
airlines have a
difficult time, owing to their ownership structure and small
markets.
At the beginning of the year Air Malawi was reported to
have incurred a loss
of about US$7,1m in the 2010-2011 financial period and
US$8,3m the year
before. Early this year the Nyasa Times, a Malawian paper,
reported the
airline was in K7bn (US$26,2m) debt. Air Botswana has not been
spared
either. The airline lost an estimated P54m (US$6,8m) for the
2010-2011
financial year end period and P45m (US$5,7m) the previous year.
LAM, the
Mozambique flag carrier, has done worse. Apart from loss-making,
the airline
was banned from flying into Europe a few weeks ago on safety
grounds.
Continental giant South African Airways (SAA) has been
posting losses for
three consecutive years (2007-2009) and is expected to
incur another loss in
the current financial period. For the majority of the
African airlines,
profits are tighter than leg room in the economy
class.
The cited cases bring out the argument that while Air
Zimbabwe’s problems
may largely be the result of internal issues, the common
thread among
loss-making flag carriers is ownership structure and most
importantly, scale
which is often worsened by overprotection of national
skies.
The problem of limited scale is rooted in how fractured the
African
continent is, with 54 nations, each government determined to have
its own
national flag carrier.
Consolidation in
Europe
Consolidation is not a new phenomenon in the airline industry.
Both North
America and European markets have experienced several cases of
mergers and
acquisitions in recent years.
For Europe, even the
big four large flag carriers Air France, Lufthansa,
British Airways and KLM
had to adjust to the industry’s evolvement. In 2004,
flag carrier Air France
merged with its Dutch counterpart KLM. Coming from
difficult backgrounds
the merged entity realised an increase in operating
profits by 32,5% on a
7,6% increase in revenues. In a 2005 merger of
Lufthansa (Germany) and
Switzerland flag carrier, Swiss, the combined
company reaped US$530m from
the financial synergies created by the deal.
The momentum of consolidation
has gathered pace in recent years, resulting
in Iberia, the Spanish flag
carrier, merging with British Airways in 2011.
Closer home, Kenya
Airways, third largest airline in Africa and one of the
very few profitable
ones, is a privatised entity with the largest
shareholder (KLM-Air France)
owning approximately 26% of the carrier.
Earlier this month, Kenyan
Transport minister Chirau Ali Mwakere indicated
that plans to merge or
cooperate were underway among the three East African
countries of Kenya,
Uganda and Tanzania.
These chronicled mergers and consolidations show
that it is possible for
countries to merge their flag carriers with the good
intent of saving and
making air transport affordable to its citizens. This
is a reasonable
proposition for African governments — particularly those in
Sadc — to
consider a regional carrier.
Benefits of regional
airline
Apart from gaining economies of scale and subsequently
charging lower fares
and keeping in the black, a consolidated industry will
promote regional
economic integration, trade and tourism. With reliable,
cheaper and frequent
flights there will be greater volumes of passengers and
goods moved.
Conclusion
In a recent article, the Global
Aviator reported that about 15 African
airlines have been banned by the EU
from flying into Europe on safety
grounds. African airlines cannot expect to
compete against continental
giants such as British Airways, Lufthansa and
Emirates without working
together. A regional airline is the way
forward.
With a combined population of 280 million people, Sadc
should consider
integrating its flag carriers to not more than three major
airlines to
become competitive. For Zimbabwe, a trip down memory lane tells
of the
existence of “Central African Airways”, a joint airline which brought
together Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland in the 1940s.
Given this collective predicament it is worth revisiting that
model.
Ray Chipendo is a management consultant at a
Johannesburg-based firm, as
well as managing partner for Emergent Capital
Management, a niche
investment management company on the ZSE and JSE
markets. E-mail:
rayc@emergentcapital.co.za
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012
18:05
Herbert Moyo
NEGOTIATIONS can be a useful tool of resolving
conflicts or disputes,
depending on the issues at stake. Problems like
constitution-making
contests, labour disputes or company acquisitions can be
resolved through
negotiations.
However, when the issues at stake are
fundamental, affecting human rights or
the future of a country, negotiations
may not provide the most ideal way of
reaching a mutually satisfactory
settlement as compromise on some basic
issues could prove to be difficult or
impossible.
Negotiations, of course, may not be an option at all in
some situations.
After Zimbabwe went through a decade of political
stalemate and conflict
since 2000, mainly due to disputed elections which
fuelled an economic
meltdown and hyperinflation, Zanu PF and the two MDC
parties resolved after
the June 2008 presidential election runoff bloodbath
the only way out was
through negotiations.
Although the country
had come through negotiations in the past, including
the Lancaster House
Conference in 1979 which ushered Independence in 1980
and the talks between
Zanu and Zapu during the civil strife in the
mid-1980s, the 2008 dialogue
was different. The circumstances, issues and
dynamics had
changed.
However, one of the most difficult questions to answer
during the 2008 talks
was the issue of power relations. Who held the balance
of forces and how was
the situation going to pan out during the Global
Political Agreement (GPA)
negotiations and after?
During the GPA
talks, under the facilitation of former South African
president Thabo Mbeki,
it was not clear who was stronger in the power
relations, especially after
President Robert Mugabe had lost the first round
of polls in March and
resorted to violence to retain power, while Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
was at the height of his popularity and held sway
on the moral high ground.
There were questions and prognoses of what would
happen during the talks and
what next after that.
The majority of long-suffering Zimbabweans
pinned their hopes for change on
the GPA which led to the current unity
government, as it spelt out sweeping
reforms, including a new constitution
as part of attempts to open up the
country’s democratic space and create
favourable conditions for free and
fair elections.
Zanu PF’s
opponents, who have consistently accused the party of rigging
elections and
brutalising opponents to maintain its grip on power, were
optimistic the
party which was part of the liberation movement that led the
country to
Independence was finally on its way out.
However, the expectations
based on the GPA dispensation have proved rather
naïve as Zanu PF has used
the respite of relative peace and stability to
close ranks and rejuvenate
itself. Now most of them the time Mugabe and Zanu
PF prevail when there are
disputes.
Whenever there is a deadlock, Mugabe has simply gone
ahead to impose his
will. Typifying the power Mugabe still wields in the
coalition has been his
decision to unilaterally appoint governors,
ambassadors, judges and renew
the contracts of security service chiefs
despite in violation of the GPA,
showing Zanu PF is still very much in
control.
In the regard, the jury is now surely out on who is in
charge, Mugabe or
Tsvangirai.
Mugabe still holds the balance of
power using his positional and coercive
capacity, mainly the control of
state institutions, particularly the
security forces.Tsvangirai mainly has
moral power or the force of
persuasion — soft power — while Mugabe has the
hard power.
One of the most important lessons to emerge from the
negotiations leading to
the GPA is how negotiations
work.
Negotiations do not mean that the parties in the talks sit down
together on
a basis of equality and negotiate and resolve the differences
that produced
the conflict between them. Two facts must be remembered.
First, in
negotiations it is not the relative justice of the conflicting
views and
objectives that determines the content of a negotiated agreement.
Second,
the content of a negotiated agreement is largely determined by the
power
capacity of each side.
The most important issue is
leverage. What can each side do to secure its
objectives if the other side
fails to come to an agreement at the
negotiating table? What can each side
do after an agreement is reached if
the other side breaks its word and
refuses to meet its side of the bargain?
Using the power of
incumbency, even if it was shaky at the time, Mugabe and
Zanu PF were in a
relatively stronger position, hence the outcome which
largely favoured them.
Zanu PF set the ground rules for negotiations,
dictating that some issues
like Mugabe’s position were out of bounds. During
negotiations on the
roadmap last year, Zanu PF also refused to talk about
such issues as
security sector reforms.
By contrast, the MDC parties have conceded
much ground on issues such as
sanctions removal, provincial governors,
ambassadors, judges, Reserve Bank
Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney-general
Johannes Tomana.
Political analyst Charles Mangongera said although
the current deadlock in
the negotiations had shown Zanu PF was not as
powerful as it used to be, it
nevertheless proved it still had the edge over
the MDC formations.
“The MDC parties are negotiating with (politburo
members Patrick) Chinamasa
and (Nicholas) Goche but the real Zanu PF has
become a complex mix of
civilian hardliners, securocrats, clergy and crony
capitalists whose
collective weight has made the party’s position stronger,”
he said.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition director McDonald Lewanika said
the MDC groups
have been frustrated by informal power structures propping up
Mugabe and
Zanu PF. “The failure to engage in meaningful national debate on
realignment
of the security sector means there will always be an outside
force that can
frustrate formal efforts because the formal structures
themselves are not
where power and control lie,” said
Lewanika.
“Outside the formal arrangements, you have informal or
parallel structures
especially made up of securocrats who refuse to subject
themselves to
civilian oversight and control. You can have discussions as
Copac, or the
management committee or as principals, for instance, but these
engagements
and agreements can be vetoed by JOC (Joint Operations Command)
or the Zanu
PF hardliners.”
Lewanika said Tsvangirai got the
illusion of power because despite chairing
the Council of Ministers,
government business virtually grinds to a halt
whenever Mugabe is out of the
country. Besides, Zanu PF ministers
deliberately defy his directives,
showing where power lies.
Information minister Webster Shamu and his
Indigenisation counterpart
Saviour Kasukuwere are among Zanu PF ministers
who have refused to accept
Tsvangirai’s authority.
The current
constitution-making process also shows who controls the levers
of
power.
However, Education minister and MDC senator David Coltart said
the problem
was some parties were negotiating in bad faith, hence the long
drawn out
talks and failure to implement agreed issues. “The problem here is
that some
people have been negotiating in bad faith because of their selfish
political
motives and consequently delayed the process,” he
said.
National Constitutional Assembly chairperson Lovemore Madhuku
said GPA was a
“hoax” right from the beginning as the parties, particularly
Zanu PF and
MDC-T, did not intend to fulfil some of the agreed issues,
especially
producing a new constitution.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 29 June 2012 08:26
Faith
Zaba/Tendai Marima
AN intricate web of Chinese and Zimbabwean military
networks control the
country’s biggest diamond mining company, Anjin
Investments (Pvt) Ltd
through front or nominee companies designed to
camouflage the involvement of
security forces, investigations by the
Zimbabwe Independent have
established.
While most cabinet ministers and
others in government may not have been
informed about the organisational
and ownership structures of Anjin,
investigations show the firm is
controlled by the Chinese and Zimbabwean
military establishments mining
diamonds under disguise in Marange.
Anjin is a joint venture
between a Chinese firm, the Anhui Foreign Economic
Construction (Group) Co.
Ltd, a large construction company, which sources
say is connected to the
military-industrial complex in China, and Matt
Bronze Enterprises, whose
company directors were people selling shelf
companies.
While it
was clear who Anhui, which had embarked on major construction
projects in
Africa, including military complexes in countries such as Ghana
and Zimbabwe
was, the biggest question has been, who is Matt Bronze and who
are its
directors and ultimate beneficiaries?
According to the latest
Kimberley Process Certification (KPCS) Compliance
Verification Report on
Anjin conducted in November 2011, Matt Bronze was
registered on December 24
2009. KPCS failed to nail down who Matt Bronze is.
However,
investigations by the Independent show it is a front company for
the
military. Records at the Registrar of Companies show Matt Bronze was
incorporated on April 24 2008 and is housed on the 9th floor, Travel Centre
Corner, 3rd and Jason Moyo Avenue, Harare.
According to official
records, Anjin is a 50-50 joint venture between Anhui
and Matt
Bronze.
A visit to the Registrar of Companies showed the directors of
Matt Bronze
listed as Shelton Wandai Kativhu and Pennelope Rujeko Kativhu.
However, the
beneficial owners of Matt Bronze are not
known.
Investigations show Matt Bronze was formed by the Ministry of
Defence/Zimbabwe Defence Forces and the Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation through a vehicle called Glass Finish (Pvt) Ltd.
The
military has 80% in Glass Finish, while ZMDC has 20%. Records also show
Glass Finish’s directors as Prudentius Kativhu and Tinashe Kunze. The link
at the Registrar of Companies between Matt Bronze and Glass Finish is the
address listed in the records.
When the Independent visited their
offices at the Travel Centre, it
discovered the 9th floor was occupied by
the Zimbabwe Tourism Council, which
sublets some of its
offices.
Prudentius Kativhu, working with Kunze for a company called Prudent
Financial Services, used to occupy one of the offices. Prudent Financial
Services’ core business was selling shelf companies but it has since vacated
the premises and Kativhu is said to be now operating from home, while Kunze
is at Pockets Building along Jason Moyo Avenue.
The Independent yesterday
tracked down Kunze, who appeared to be in his 20s
and looked nothing like an
expected millionaire co-owner of one of Zimbabwe’s
biggest diamond mining
companies, Anjin.
Kunze was shocked when asked about his connection
to Anjin through Glass
Finish and Matt Bronze but explained what actually
happened for their names
to end up listed as those of the company’s
directors.
“We sold those shelf companies in 2009 or 2010 to a Tarumbwa, who
at that
time bought a lot of shelf companies from us,” he said. He said
after that
they did not know what happened although the shelf companies bore
their
names.
According to Global Witness, which monitors natural
resource-related
conflict and corruption, Brigadier-General Charles Tarumbwa
holds a third of
Anjin shares on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
Anjin
directors are listed as Chinese nationals Jiang Zhaoyao, who is the
general
manager, Chen Qing, Peng Zheng, Li Zhongiqi, Huang Xianjue and
Tarumbwa, the
only Zimbabwean director listed, as the company secretary and
principal
officer. Tarumbwa was in 2006 listed by the United Nations as a
Judge
Advocate General at the Ministry of Defence and was on the EU
sanctions
list.
An affidavit obtained by Global Witness shows the agreement to form a
joint
venture was signed by Tarumbwa for Matt Bronze and Peng Zheng on
behalf
Anhui.
The company register also states Anjin’s share
capital is US$2 000, made up
of 2 000 ordinary shares of one US dollar each,
shared equally between
Tarumbwa and Zheng.
Kunze said: “Are you
telling me that he didn’t change the directors? I was
actually shocked two
weeks ago when I received a call from DHL telling me
that they had a parcel
for Matt Bronze, which I should collect. I told them
it was no longer our
company.”
Information obtained also showed Anjin’s Zimbabwean
directors are drawn from
the military and police. They include Ministry of
Defence permanent
secretary Martin Rushwaya, senior assistant police
commissioner Oliver
Chibage, Munyaradzi Machacha who used to work in Zanu
PF’s commissariat
department, director of Marange Resources, Mabasa Temba
Hawadii and
assistant police commissioner Nonkosi
Ncube.
Non-executive board members are retired army officer Morris
Masunungure and
retired colonel Romeo Mutsvunguma.
Anhui has done
many projects across Africa, including army and police
barracks in Ghana. In
Zimbabwe, it is building a new National Defence
College along Mazowe/Bindura
highway. The deal is financed from a
controversal US$98 million loan from
the Chinese state-owned Eximbank.
A letter signed by the acting
secretary for the Mines ministry, a V. Vera,
to Anjin dated February 2, 2010
reads: “We are pleased to confirm that
cession of part of Special Grant 4765
measuring 3 731 hectares from ZMDC to
Anjin Investment giving exploration,
prospecting and mining rights, has been
approved by the secretary for the
ministry of Mines.”
The letter said Matt Bronze is the company which ZMDC
used to cooperate and
sign agreements with Anhui.
Matt Bronze
contributed the special grant for mining as its investment, and
the Chinese
firm injected capital.
According to the KP report, Anhui claimed it
had invested US$380 million as
at November 5, 2011 in developing the mine
and in relocating the villagers
to Arda Transau estate.
Mines
minister Obert Mpofu yesterday referred questions on Anjin’s ownership
to
Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.“Talk to the owners of Anjin, talk to
Mnangagwa,” he said adding there was nothing wrong in the military’s
involvement in mining.
However, Anjin has denied it is partly
owned by the Zimbabwean military and
police.“Anjin Investments has never
been controlled by Zimbabwean military
or police. It is Anhui and Matt
Bronze that benefits from Anjin
Investments,” the company said. “As for how
the government-related company
Matt Bronze distributes its benefits, the
Chinese side knows nothing at
all.”
However, evidence clearly
shows it is owned by the Chinese and Zimbabwean
security
establishment.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012 17:49
YOUTH
Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Saviour
Kasukuwere was
still a significant shareholder in the ill-fated Genesis
Investment Bank
shortly before its demise three weeks ago, despite his
earlier claims he had
exited the bank way before its closure, businessdigest
can
reveal.
Documents seen by businessdigest show that Kasukuwere owned 13,88% in
Genesis through various investment vehicles as recently as May 8, barely
three weeks before the bank was forced to surrender its licence after
failing to meet the US$10 million minimum capital requirement set for
merchant banks by the Reserve Bank.
The documents show that
Kasukuwere’s shareholding was spread through various
nominee companies,
including Tabco Investments (4,25%), Larium Investments
(1,8%), Shearox
Investments (1,8%), Vilkriss Investments (1,67%), Designated
Investments
(2,81%), Harnicot Investments (1,55%), Continental Securities
(1,55%) Rentus
Enterprises (Pokestow) (1,02%) and Vilcerst Investments
(0,75%).
The shareholding structure, compiled as at 31 March
2012, had not changed
as at 8 May 2012, documents show. Genesis is the only
bank to have failed to
raise additional capital, after having tried to court
more than 20 potential
investment partners. Analysts say Kasukuwere’s
presence in the bank may have
been a big liability towards trying to lure
potential investors. Kasukuwere
has been on a rampage, forcing foreign
companies, including banks, to
surrender 51% of their equity to local
investors.
However, when contacted for comment last week, he claimed
he no longer had
anything to do with the closed bank.
“As a
matter of fact, I sold out my shareholding in the bank a long time
ago. I am
no longer a shareholder and if you check the Genesis board I have
no
representation,” Kasukuwere said.
However, documents show Kasukuwere
was a shareholder just before Genesis,
controlled by ZimRe Holdings which
had 69,41%, was closed.
His known investment vehicle, Migdale
Investments, is listed as beneficial
shareholder for the various stakes,
amounting to 13,88%.
Kasukuwere, one of President Robert Mugabe’s
point men in the heightening
threats to seize foreign-owned banks under the
pretext of indigenisation, is
leading failed bankers who want a chance to
revive their fortunes through
expropriation.
Kasukuwere’s right
hand man David Chapfika, National Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment
Board (NIEEB) chair, also presided over the collapse of
a bank. Wilson
Gwatiringa, NIEEB also has a chequered banking past. He was a
top executive
at the defunct Universal Merchant Bank where Chapfika was. —
Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012
18:03
By Lennox Mhlanga
IN 1989, the late prominent Nigerian
multi-instrumentalist musician and
human rights activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti
and his band Egypt 80 released an
anti-apartheid album, Beasts of No Nation
which depicted on its cover the
then US president Ronald Reagan, UK premier
Margaret Thatcher and South
African president PW Botha.
At the height of
the anti-apartheid struggle and civil disobedience in SA in
the mid-1980s,
the now late Botha, after rejecting the liberation movement’s
growing
demands for freedom, including the release of Nelson Mandela,
fuelling
unrest and upheaval, famously remarked angrily that, “This uprising
will
bring out the beast in us”.
Fela then later stretched Botha’s
menacing retort to encompass other
notorious African dictators who seemed to
swear by this haunting mantra.
Stretching it further, one is tempted, nay,
forced to apply the same to the
current Zimbabwean situation. It is a
glaring fact elections in this country
bring out the “beast” in our leaders
and their followers.
As a result the mere mention of elections sends
chills down the spines of
many. But why is this so? It is partly because
political violence and
impunity have become so synonymous with polls; it has
become the norm rather
than the exception that bones of voters will be
broken, their backsides
roasted or lives lost.
Zimbabweans have
allowed the culture of violence to permeate their electoral
processes to the
extent that this menace is now the norm rather than the
exception. It is
always looming. It has become so perverse that people
discuss it as if it
were normal for political militants and activists to
bash the heads of those
who do not agree with them.
Violence as a political tool has real and
sometimes unintended consequences.
It is also a political diversion from
genuine and pressing issues. That is
why it is important to implement
security reforms to ensure the security
services are professional and help
to stem, instead of participating in, the
perpetration of violence. This is
an important precondition for free and
fair elections. It is not
interference, as some claim, but a compelling case
for
reform.
There are still outstanding political, legislative and media
reforms which
are a necessary to level the playing field before campaigning
starts in the
run up to elections. There is too much partisan control over
state
institutions and pillars of democracy such that they tend to be abused
to
the advantage of one party at the expense of the other participants in
the
electoral race. Political violence then tends to fall in between the
cracks
of such a compromised political setting. But violence begets violence
and
the cycle has no end.
There are some among those who wield
political power who do not have any
respect for human life. Perhaps it is
this “war thing” we are told we do not
understand. Evidently, when some came
out of the bush, the bush never came
out of them. But does the revolution
have to eat its own children in order
to survive?
Blatant threats
against those perceived to be traitors who dare vote for the
opposition are
bandied about even on public forums. Others even have the
temerity to boast
they are above the law.
During elections, villagers are cowed into
involuntary silence because the
nature of retribution is usually too ghastly
to contemplate. People are made
an example of, in the same way as during the
liberation struggle. Who from
those dark days does not remember people being
forced to lie on the ground
while someone pounded their backs to
pulp?
Fast forward to 2008 and those labelled sellouts were singled
out for the
most heinous crimes imaginable, with the intention of
permanently etching
images of brutality in the victims'
minds.
The situation is worsened by the paralysis or refusal of the
security forces
to act decisively in curbing political violence. In fact,
such deliberate
inaction is directly responsible for encouraging impunity on
the part of the
perpetrators. They deem themselves untouchable and this adds
to the dilemma
faced by victims on how and where to report their cases. To
top it all ,
there is the continued presence of extra-judicial militias at
the beck and
call of certain sections of known political parties and
actors.
The Sadc principles and guidelines governing democratic
elections have not
been implemented in letter and spirit. Human rights
activists have for a
long time lamented the fact that the heads of state in
the region have paid
lip-service to these principles which lack a clear
implementation mechanism.
Certain players on the Zimbabwean political
arena are insisting on internal
processes which are supposed to ensure free
and fair elections without
outside “interference”. This only serves to muddy
the waters in which the
big fish prey on the small ones. Such implementation
mechanisms are supposed
to be driven by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission,
the organ for National
Healing and Reconciliation and the Global Political
Agreement itself but
these are all ineffective. These institutions and
processes are paralysed by
the toxic nature of our national
politics.
What should it take for genuine free and fair elections to
be held in
Zimbabwe?
We need a process whose conduct would be
above reproach and transparency to
ensure results are not contested or even
rejected altogether. Stolen
elections have a tendency of leaving a bitter
aftermath.
Though the situation is complex, the solution is simple.
In a situation
where Zimbabweans and internal institutions have been found
wanting outside
scrutiny and in the absence of guarantees, the
responsibility falls on the
citizens themselves to grab the opportunity
presented by elections to be
proactive and daring. They should troop to the
polling stations in their
millions and thumb their noses at the merchants of
death. They should grab
the chance to choose the government and leaders they
want with both hands.
The sanctity of the ballot should not only be
protected, but it should be
guaranteed by the democratic institutions and
security forces whose
constitutional obligation is to protect every citizen
of Zimbabwe without
fear or favour. No Zimbabwean is above the
law.
Zimbabweans should be brave enough to expose those who promote
blatant
violations of the constitution and smooth conduct of elections. How
many
times should people be reminded that the war is over? It is high time
we
left the trenches and caves of a liberation war that ended generations
ago
and for liberators and victims alike to enjoy the true fruits of
freedom?
The time to break free from the dark past lies with every
Zimbabwean and in
that move, lies our fate. After the elections, will it be
another five years
of bitterness and regret or five years of hope, peace and
prosperity? Let
the elections come. Whether black or blue every countryman
should be true to
the motto that says: “See you at the ballot
box!”
Mhlanga is a former journalist, columnist and blogger.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012
17:58
Tafirenyika Makunike
REALITY teaches us that it is really
inappropriate to talk about financial
planning to someone existing just at
the edge of the food chain as Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs kicks in. Their
fundamental question is where or whether
they will work tomorrow, whether
they will eat, whether they will wear and
where they will
sleep.
Unfortunately, many people in Zimbabwean fit this description. I
believe
the fortunes of Zimbabwe can improve by embracing an entrepreneurial
culture
and mindset.
With our so-called “Look East” policy, there
are lessons we can pick from
Singapore.
Earlier this month, I had
the opportunity to meet an agent from Singapore in
SA. His agency —
International Enterprise Singapore — is an economic body
under the Ministry
of Trade and Industry in Singapore, spearheading that
country’s efforts to
develop its external economic wing by providing market
information, and
assisting enterprises in building up their business
capabilities and finding
overseas partners.
For the second year running, they are organising
the Africa-Singapore
Business Forum which is a platform for exchanging
insights and promoting
collaboration between Africa and Singapore. The forum
which meets at the end
of August will bring together business and government
leaders seeking to
identify opportunities of achieving sustainable growth in
their economies.
Singapore-Africa trade exceeds US$7 billion and
Singapore companies have
investments and projects across the continent,
spanning industries such as
agriculture, infrastructure, urban solutions,
transport and logistics. The
city-state has formalised agreements with
Egypt, SA and Kenya.
Singapore considers itself a hi-tech and wealthy
country, home to more US
dollar millionaire households per capita than any
other country — a “city of
opportunities” with entrepreneurial tendencies.
It is not endowed with
natural resources like Zimbabwe, but owes much of its
prosperity to trade
and the knowledge economy.
The port of
Singapore is considered one of the five busiest ports in the
world.
According to the World Bank, Singapore is the easiest place in the
world to
do business. It is considered as “hybrid regime” by the Economist,
which is
probably a euphemism for a democracy with some dictatorial
traits.
Singapore government agencies achieve good scores for
pro-enterprise
performance in the surveys on the pro-enterprise orientation
commissioned by
the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE). The
Enterprise Challenge
provides funding and test-beds to experiments with
risky and unproven ideas
and foster pioneering breakthroughs that can create
quantum leap improvement
in the delivery of
service.
Entrepreneurial culture is not just relevant to business and
technical
students contemplating starting their own businesses, but can be
extended to
people who intend to seek employment with large companies, enter
public
service, non-governmental organisations, hospitals, universities,
public
school administration and all facets of life. Being an entrepreneur
is more
about attitude than aptitude and it is being an architect of your
future.
An empirical study, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
(GEM), an annual
assessment of the national level of entrepreneurial
activity, concluded that
entrepreneurial spirit was lacking in Singapore way
back in 2000. GEM is a
global study, which was first conducted in 1997, now
on regular one-year
basis, which measures differences in the level of
entrepreneurial activity
among countries.
It listed Singapore
very low in the total entrepreneurial activity by
country category. But the
government and business sector then set out to
remove impediments to
entrepreneurship as a way to maintain its national
competitiveness.
Unfortunately, Zimbabwe has generally been
excluded while countries like
Uganda have been included.
One key
aspect for fostering an entrepreneurial culture is the removal of
all
barriers, particularly those created by government or within its power
to
change, that block or discourage people’s entrepreneurship.
The core
variables include those initially put in the model as success
factors of
entrepreneurial culture, like country orientation towards
entrepreneurship,
social networks, role models, entrepreneurial education,
economic enablers,
specific legislation, supporting facilities, technology
transfer offices and
funding.
Programmes Singapore has encouraged include
Technopreneurship 21, which was
designed to develop entrepreneurship
involving technology and innovation
and, SME21 which seeks to stimulate
high-tech small and medium enterprises
(SMEs), moving away from the earlier
focus on multinationals and larger
corporations.
While Singapore
had a pro-business environment, no protection was accorded
to SMEs, which
naturally could not compete with larger and well-established
corporations.
ACE is used by Singapore in building a more
pro-enterprise environment
through facilitating discussion and debate on the
regulatory framework,
changing culture and mindset, improving access to
finance, and facilitating
networking and learning.
In Singapore,
universities and technical colleges now have entrepreneurship
programmes,
and incubators. There is therefore a growing eco-system to
support
entrepreneurship in Singapore, given its hub position in the
region.
Entrepreneurs are pro-active, disciplined self-starters with
a drive to
succeed, ability to organise and are open to any new ideas which
cross their
path. They are able to organise various factors effectively and
understand
key aspects of their business
environment.
Entrepreneurial success involves being innovative,
blazing new trails, and
creating amazing results. All entrepreneurs have a
passionate desire to do
things better and to improve their products or
services.
Zimbabwe has indicated its intentions to develop clusters,
although
practically nothing much has been done. A cluster is a geographical
concentration of actors in vertical and horizontal relationships, showing a
clear tendency of co-operating and of sharing their competencies, all
involved in a localised infrastructure of support. The advantages of
clustering include productivity due to the use of better as well as cheaper
specialised inputs and innovation, where proximity between customers and
suppliers facilitates the transfer of tacit knowledge.
We can
learn from Singapore how to embrace an entrepreneurial culture and
apply
best practices that have been developed by other nations to our own
geographical reality. It is not enough to boast about natural resources.
Knowledge has to be applied to beneficiate those resources into value-added
products to accrue significant benefits for economic
development.
Tafirenyika Makunike is the chairman and founder of
Nepachem cc
(www.nepachem.co.za), an
enterprise development and consulting company. He
writes in his personal
capacity.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 28 June 2012 18:14
TALK
Radio is not so talkative it would seem. In fact apart from the music
it is
distinctly quiet for a supposedly “talk” station –– to the extent that
the
station’s name has been changed to Star FM.
This week they have been
congratulating themselves on “moving forward with
the opening of the
airwaves”.
“We are finally here and at Zimpapers history has been
made,” board chairman
Dr Paul Chimedza proclaimed. This was “another feather
to our nest”, he
said. That we presume is similar to having a feather in
your cap!
But amidst the back-patting, things are less bright-eyed
and bushy-tailed
out there. The Zimbabwean public is proving a tad shy about
calling in. It
is obvious the station can’t sustain the claim to talk radio.
Perhaps people
don’t trust the rhetoric of diversity emerging from its
studios. Who can
blame them. What happens to people in Zimbabwe who are too
outspoken?
“The Zimpapers Talk Radio project was born out of the
realisation that
Zimbabwe was moving forward with the opening up of the
airwaves and
embracing all players to participate in this space,” Chimedza
declared.
What space? Talk Radio was the only station licensed. Other
applicants were
told they shouldn’t bother.
Exactly how much
freedom will be accorded to Star FM callers and presenters
we
wonder?
Chimedza said “the purpose of Star FM was to reignite the
Zimbabwean spirit
that has seen Zimbabwe championing education, agriculture,
and sport among
other achievements”.
So this is just the first
week and the propaganda has started already. What
about the decline of
schools, the collapse of agricultural production, and
the silencing of
dissentient voices? What about Operation Murambatsvina and
its trail of
human misery? We hope callers will remind their audience that
Star FM was a
charade from the very outset.
We enjoyed
Munyaradzi Huni’s interview with Julius Malema. The interview was
conducted
at Malema’s luxury town house in Sandton. So it didn’t take much
to “track
him down”.
Huni asked about the two nations of Thabo Mbeki’s 1998
speech. Did Malema
see these two nations as surviving in parallel for
ever?
There was no meeting point, Malema replied. The point that
Mbeki was
emphasising was that there were two economies in South
Africa.
“I am here in Sandton but just across the road there is
Alexandra,” he said.
“It’s as if we are not in one country. Visible poverty,
unemployment ––
people without hope, children heading families because their
parents have
died because of other killer diseases…And when you cross the
road you’ve
got the rich, very wealthy people who own more than 2 000sq
metres of land.”
That includes Malema. But the fact that he is one of
these very rich people
is lost on him. How did he get so rich so
quickly?
He thinks he can trot out his populist mantras while remaining on
the rich
side of the street.
“I got myself accommodation here in
Sandton because I was creditworthy,” he
claimed, “and what made me
creditworthy is because I earned a salary.”
He was prepared to be exploited
by the banks, he said. In fact he earned
more than he disclosed, he
confessed. Now he wants somebody to define for
him what a luxurious life is
so it doesn’t look quite so contrasting. Again,
he’s living a luxurious
lifestyle but doesn’t acknowledge it.
His
role models are Peter Mukaba (sic), Winnie Mandela, and Fidel Castro.
Not
the sort of people you would most like to be stuck in an elevator with!
Be
very careful if Winnie gets out her box of matches.
Huni asked some
pertinent questions in the course of his interview. But just
for the record,
Mbeki borrowed his reference to the two nations –– the rich
and the poor
––from Benjamin Disraeli’s Sybil.
Malema and Huni share the populist
mantra that the South African judiciary
and media are run by whites. That
may have been true 10 years ago but is
manifestly not true now. Has Huni
heard of the new chief justice and his
recent pronouncements? Is he aware of
who owns Avusa (The Sunday Times, The
Sowetan and other titles in the
group)?
It’s a pity that Huni did not
report Kgalema Motlanthe’s outstanding speech
at the Harold Wolpe memorial
dinner. It was a searing critique of President
Jacob Zuma’s South
Africa.
And on the subject of a non-racial society which Motlanthe
bravely upholds,
has Malema discovered yet where Kliptown is? It’s certainly
nowhere near
Cape Town! If he has no idea where the Freedom Charter was
drawn up it might
explain why he is so ignorant about Joe Slovo’s role in
the struggle. Does
he really not know what happened to Slovo’s
wife?
The blind leading the blind would be a good heading for this
particular
interview.
Malema also
accused Zuma of not being a neutral facilitator in the
Zimbabwean crisis
saying he has “very strong views” about President Mugabe
and Zanu
PF.
“All you see is very pretentious and it’s not helpful at all. I
don’t think
Zanu PF should buy into that,” Malema charged.
We
were then perplexed by Malema’s equally pretentious claim that he had
never
been critical of President Mugabe.
“I have never been critical of
President Mugabe. I said that President
Mugabe has been president for a long
time, but despite it all he has never
succumbed to the pressure of the
imperialists. He is exemplary, the
leadership we need in Africa,” fawned
Malema.
In 2010, at an ANC Youth League annual convention, Malema
lambasted Mugabe
and ageing ANC leaders for clinging on to power warning
they could be
removed at any time.
“Inasmuch as we support the
revolutionary programme in Zimbabwe, President
Mugabe must hand over to
those young chaps so that we engage with (them) on
the same level. We will
never agree with permanent leadership,” Malema said.
“Permanent
leaders or old horses refusing to leave are not welcome,” Malema
declared.
This is clearly an inconvenient episode in Cde Malema’s
illustrious career
which would be best ignored.
We hope Zanu PF will also
not buy into such a ruse.
Much has been
said of late about the need for Bippas (Bilateral Promotion
and Protection
Agreements) to be negotiated to encourage investment.
But the
decision this week to evict Chiredzi-based Mauritian farmer Marie
Joseph
Benoit Liagasse in terms of the Land Acquisition Act should send a
loud and
clear message to anybody thinking of bringing capital into
Zimbabwe. The
Land Acquisition Act superseded all bilateral agreements
signed between
Mauritius and Zimbabwe, he was told. His main failure, it
would appear, was
not to be in possession of an offer letter from the
minister.
“Bilateral treaties are prerogatives of the executive”,
NewsDay reported the
court as ruling. “A treaty does not make part of
domestic law except by
virtue of an enabling legislation.”
So
what is the point then of having a Bippa with Mauritius if its citizens
have
no protection from arbitrary confiscation of their property? This is
precisely the sort of thing Sadc sought to have Zimbabwe avoid so the region
could prosper. Not much chance of
that!
ZBC reports that Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara has told the
European Union (EU) to respect the
African Union (AU) by channelling their
views on Zimbabwe through the
continental body whose position on “illegal”
sanctions is
known.
Mutambara said this while lecturing the outgoing Swedish
Ambassador to
Zimbabwe, Anders Liden, who had made an ill-fated courtesy
call to bid
farewell after serving for two years.
“It’s time
Europe, the European Union change their focus and emphasis on
Zimbabwe from
political diplomacy to combining political and economic
diplomacy resulting
in commercial diplomacy where European companies can
invest in Zimbabwe on a
win situation. Sanctions have to go first because
they are hurting the
ordinary Zimbabwe,” Mutambara said.
He said the Western countries who
imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, including
Sweden, should take into account
the AU’s position which calls for the
immediate removal of sanctions which
are hurting the economy and ordinary
people.
Mutambara has
conveniently ignored EU ambassador to Zimbabwe, Aldo Dell’Ariccia’s
assertion that they would only lift the sanctions if electoral reforms
agreed to under the GPA were implemented and non-violent elections were
held.
Liden was “evasive in his answers and could not be drawn
into saying more on
the issue of illegal sanctions,” avers ZBC.
How clear
can the EU get, we wonder?
Meanwhile ZRP
Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri has castigated
politicians whom he
says are bent on “tarnishing” the image of the police
through “false”
allegations.
He criticised politicians for issuing “reckless and
false” statements
blaming the police, describing such people as political
failures who want to
make the ZRP a scapegoat. Chihuri then called on local
politicians to desist
from venting their frustrations on law
enforcers.
“Our loyalty to serve the people is mistaken as partisan by a
section of
politicians who make police punch bags for their failures and
undermine our
authority,” said Chihuri.
The only punch bags are
peace-loving Zimbabweans exercising their right to
assembly and association.
As for “tarnishing” the image of the police
Chihuri and company are quite
good at doing that without any assistance.
In 2007 Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai was beaten to within an inch of his
life while activist,
Gift Tandare, was shot dead by police after attending a
rally under the
auspices of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign.
As if to add salt to the
wound, the police in April denied Tsvangirai and
members of the Save
Zimbabwe Campaign permission to commemorate Tandare’s
death claiming they
would be busy with Independence Day celebrations.
How
ironic!
As for the number of times the
police have denied political parties
permission to hold rallies, we have
lost count. The usual pretext for
denying them being that Zanu PF had either
booked the venues or was holding
its own rallies in close proximity to where
parties wanted to assemble.
The police always seem to run out of
manpower as soon as they are notified
of the holding of a rally by any party
which is not Zanu PF. Strangely they
seem to be able to marshal this
“manpower” for disrupting the rallies.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 29 June 2012 08:21
THIS week two
radio stations, controversially awarded broadcasting licences
by the
Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, chaired by Tafataona Mahoso, were
frantically trying to roll out their operations in the market under a cloud
of scepticism.
Government-controlled Zimpapers’ talk radio Star FM, went
on air on Monday.
The radio station, staffed with former ZBC employees, has
been trying its
best to allay public fears it will just be “Zimpapers on
air” or another
propaganda platform for Zanu PF and other dubious outfits
connected to the
party.
The station has actually invited editors from
different media groups —
including the private press — to participate in its
first programme, Editors’
Forum, on July 1 to discuss editorial policies and
other related issues.
Supa Mandiwanzira’s ZiFM Stereo, which describes
itself as “Zimbabwe’s first
privately-owned national radio station”,
announced it has acquired
state-of-the-art transmission and studio equipment
from Italian company DB
Elettronica Telecomunicazioni. The deal was sealed
at the just-ended
National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas,
Nevada, US.
The moves by the two radio stations were greeted with
mixed feelings. Some
say the two broadcasters, especially Star FM, would not
add value in terms
of pluralism and diversity in the broadcasting arena
because of their
partisan ownership structures linked to Zanu
PF.
Star FM, in particular, bears the burden of proof. It has to show
cause why
listeners, tired of state broadcasting, must trust it or think it
would be
any different from Zimpapers or even ZBC stations in terms of
editorial
policy and content.
However, some observers are willing
to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Misa-Zimbabwe said it “welcomed the
end of ZBC’s broadcasting monopoly as
the newly licensed Zimpapers’ talk
radio’s Star FM went on air on June 25
2012”. It claimed this represented “a
landmark development” in the country’s
broadcasting sector “shackled by
tight political controls” since colonial
times.
It further
described the arrival of Star FM as an “historic development”,
although, it
also noted the controversial way in which it got its licence
and the issue
of its ownership by Zimpapers.
Nonetheless, Misa said it was “too
early to pass judgment” before adding
“the ball is now in Star FM’s court to
confound its sceptics by eschewing
the partisan slant of its owner,
Zimpapers”.
Zimpapers officials have been waxing lyrical about their
dubious project.
But one thing they did not do was to promise anyone an
editorial policy
shift.
It’s all well and good to say we
should celebrate the arrival of Star FM and
ZiFM but what is important is:
What are they offering to the public?
While it is good to always give
them the benefit of the doubt, no serious
observers of the media can really
expect the two stations to provide a
diversity of news and opinions, given
their ownership structures.
How on earth can anyone really expect
Star FM to have an editorial policy
different from its owners, Zimpapers,
which operates as a propaganda
platform for Zanu PF and sections of
government? So far, Star FM is just
regurgitating Zimpapers news on
airwaves, no different from taking the group
online.
However,
more worrying is the fear Star FM will just reinforce ZBC
propaganda and
expand state media structures by default. Of course, on paper
Zimpapers is a
listed public company, but in reality operates like a party
organ and the
last thing it can plausibly claim is that it operates in the
public
interest. For that reason, if no other, Star FM will try but
eventually fail
to distinguish itself from Zimpapers.
A smoke-and-mirrors approach is
not sustainable. At some point the mask will
fall irretrievably. The same
applies to ZiFM even though its ownership is
different.
In the
meantime, it must be clear to all the issuing of these two licences
is just
consolidation of Zanu PF’s grip on the airwaves. One Zanu PF
minister
jokingly said to us this week: “Look, we own the airwaves!” Who can
doubt
that? To us it’s clear we still need to reassess the situation and
democratically open up the airwaves instead of just waving the green flag
for those connected to Zanu PF.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 29 June 2012
08:19
Brian Mangwende
SYRIA has recently become one of the hottest
spots on earth and a centre of
world attention for its protracted unrest
that has degenerated into civil
war. Armed conflict, costing more lives with
each passing day, has not
subsided since March 2011 and on Tuesday a
pro-government television station
was attacked by suspected “armed terrorist
groups”.
Syria is not the first country to witness a wave of mass
uprisings as
protests first swept Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain —
a phenomenon
dubbed “the Arab Spring”.
In all countries, “the
Spring” began in much the same manner, with
large-scale protests in the
streets signifying the people’s dissatisfaction
with autocratic regimes.
This begs the question: How was it possible to get
the support of so many
people in countries where there was strict state
control over mass media;
and what lessons can Zimbabwe draw ahead of the
next polls?
In
today’s world where the Internet is no longer a privilege and is
affordable
to most, a new powerful tool for influencing the population has
since
arrived: social media networks.
The term “tweeter revolutions” has
been coined. Now, when the audience of
Facebook and Twitter networks account
for 800 million people, it has become
convenient to use this channel to
spread democratic views and organise mass
rallies. While communicating in
social networks, people often fondly think
of the information and any rumour
instantly acquires details and spreads
among users as an undeniable
fact.
In essence, each user becomes a participant in “cyber
warfare”.
Since the advent of social media, the usage of Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn,
etc has significantly increased in Zimbabwe, especially
among the youths who
constitute a large part of the voting
populace.
The media landscape has experienced sea changes which are
beyond the reach
and capacity of repressive state machinery, such as that
still existing in
Zimbabwe in the form of Aippa and Posa. For instance,
people do not need to
notify the police that they intend to hold a political
gathering; they can
simply communicate using Facebook. There can thus be
rapid information
transfer and exchanges, much to the chagrin of regimes
that seek to control
masses by feeding them with fibs, partisan dosages of
poisonous information
and propaganda through state-controlled
media.
What’s more, distance is not a factor as people can
communicate. Social
media provide proximity.
The results of
elections since 2000 in Zimbabwe have adequately demonstrated
people can no
longer be starved of information as technology has pushed back
the
restrictive boundaries. Information and its communication is now
available
in real time.
Within seconds, electoral results can now be circulated
throughout the
country and the world, thereby increasing transparency and
exposing
electoral fraud, if any.
It therefore goes without
saying that whoever adapts better to social media
between the two major
political parties, Zanu PF and the MDC-T, will enjoy a
major head-start and
advantage because the majority of Zimbabweans are
exposed to smart gadgets
that enable real-time mass communication.
The same gadgets have
played a pivotal role in the US and elsewhere where
the incumbents have
taken full advantage of them.
However, it so far seems the MDC-T
is ahead of Zanu PF regarding the use of
social media.
The cyber
highway has penetrated even the rural areas and information can
now be
gleaned readily in Zimbabwe with almost two million of the six
million
mobile phone users enjoying such access.
The Arab Spring started in
Tunisia where Arab youths posted anti-government
slogans on Facebook and
Twitter. Co-ordinated protests followed, resulting
in President Zine
el-Abidine Ben Ali being ejected from the country.
The rest, as they
say, is history.
It has become increasingly evident that concerned
youths the world over now
protest using social media and Zimbabwe will be no
exception as it heads for
crucial elections — for the first time with a
significant portion of the
population using various platforms independent of
the state to receive and
get their message out.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 29 June 2012
08:16
Itai Masuku
IF you try to look up the word indigenisation in
the online version of the
Cambridge dictionary, the entry is not found.
Instead, the search engine
will ask if you meant indigestion, indignation,
disorganisation or
indentation, among others.
Well, in this country, it’s
a bit of all the above. Zimbabwe’s
indigenisation programme has drawn much
indignation internationally,
especially because of its disorganisation.
Because of the haphazard manner
in which it has been conducted, it has
resulted in serious economic
indigestion that has caused more than just mere
indentation of the pockets
of many a Zimbabwean
citizen.
Again, for the record, we have never been against
indigenisation, only its
modus operandi. A proper indigenisation programme
must benefit as wide a
section of our population as possible, not just a
small clique. However,
perhaps we need to clear much of the confusion
surrounding indigenisation,
starting with the very words used to describe
it. We want “to call things by
their name”, to quote Pluto, the mythical
Greek god of the underworld when
he was being charged of abducting Jupiter,
the god of sky and thunder’s
daughter Proserpina, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
an anthology by the
celebrated icon of Latin literature.
The
names that have interchangeably been used to describe the aspiration of
the
black majority to have more meaningful participation in the economy are
indigenisation, affirmative action and economic empowerment. And yet these
three are quite distinct and apart from each other. This explains why we’ve
had the Indigenous Business Development Centre, the Affirmative Action Group
(AAG) and the empowerment aspect in the National Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Board.
Fortunately, the Oxford English Dictionary
(OED) does have an entry for
indigenisation and describes this as “bring
(something) under the control,
dominance, or influence of indigenous or
local people”. This is what largely
is the object of the 51% equity model
which has been zealously pursued by
minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
However,
there seems to have been more concentration on indigenisation, the
equity
model, and not much on the other part, empowerment, but we shall come
to
that later. Affirmative action, first championed by Phillip Chiyangwa and
the late Peter Pamire as of the late 1990s, is not one of Kasukuwere’s
portfolios and yet this could be his best foot forward.
But the
AAG appears to have also concentrated on indigenisation. Again,
according to
the OED, affirmative action refers to action favouring those
who tend to
suffer from discrimination. It is also known as positive
discrimination.
This fits in more to Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono’s
supply chain
model, although he refers to it as an indigenisation model.
Under
this model, the formerly disadvantaged indigenous people are given
opportunity to supply goods and services to existing business. Here, there
is positive discrimination in their favour where, for instance, it can be
made compulsory that all institutions, government and private, must source
say, 51% of their goods and services from indigenous
businesses.
Both indigenisation and empowerment have been tried to
some extent. However,
the reason they haven’t worked is because the
beneficiaries have not been
empowered to take advantage of the opportunities
availed to them. This is
why empowerment ought to have been the first
step.
The OED defines empowerment as: [with object] make (someone)
stronger and
more confident, especially in controlling their life and
claiming their
rights. In short, you are enabling someone. How do you enable
someone? By
first providing them with the technical, financial and general
business
skills so that they can run their businesses
successfully.
Then you go into affirmative action as they can now
properly take advantage
of the supply chain advocated by Gono. Thereafter,
indigenisation becomes
easier because the new entrepreneurs can now pay for
equity in companies,
doing away all this disquiet.
