http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 20:52
SOUTH African President Jacob
Zuma is expected in Harare on Tuesday in yet
another attempt to break the
deadlock between Zanu PF and the two MDC
formations.
Marathon
meetings involving the negotiating teams, Zuma's facilitation team
and the
three principals in the unity government will be held between today
and
tomorrow to prepare for Zuma's visit on Tuesday. Zuma's spokesperson,
Vincent Magwenya yesterday told The Standard that the facilitation team of
former ministers Charles Nqakula, Mac Maharaj and Zuma's international
relations advisor Lindiwe Zulu would jet into Harare today "to prepare for
President Zuma's arrival on Tuesday".
"The facilitation team will
arrive in Harare tomorrow (today) to continue
with the facilitation work
they have been doing with the parties and to
prepare for President Zuma's
visit on Tuesday," said Magwenya.
"He (Zuma) will hold meetings with
the three principals in the global
political agreement - President Robert
Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara. He will meet them
individually and as a group. It is part of the
ongoing facilitation work."
Magwenya would not confirm whether or not
Zuma would insist on his "park and
proceed" proposal for the holding of new
elections.
"That is a matter that lies entirely upon the Zimbabwean
parties. He is
coming to understand and get a briefing on the latest
developments and
facilitate discussions that will unblock whatever areas of
discussion that
are in dispute," added Magwenya.
Responding to
claims that the MDC-T recently wrote to Zuma informing him
that there was a
political logjam, Magwenya said he was "not at liberty to
discuss deadlocks
and who has declared what".
"In terms of moving forward, the parties
need each other. Our interest is
not in whether there is a deadlock or not,
but encouraging the parties to
implement the agreement and move faster with
the entire process so that the
situation on the ground
improves."
MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti said they "have not been
advised" of the
team and President Zuma's visit.
"We do not know,
but that strong rumour is there. We have not been advised
officially," said
Biti.
But his principal, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai confirmed
last week that
he would meet with President Robert Mugabe tomorrow to
discuss the stripping
of powers of his ministers by the 86-year-old leader
as tension in the unity
government intensifies.
Tsvangirai has
already declared the changes as "null and void" because he
was never
consulted as required by the Global Political Agreement (GPA).
"On
Monday, we will be dealing with assignments of Acts of ministers," said
Tsvangirai. "There is an opportunity to reverse these
things."
Mugabe 10 days ago stripped Information Communication
Technology Minister
Nelson Chamisa of his powers, expanding the ministry of
Transport and
Infrastructure Development to also include the department of
Communications
which was under Chamisa's portfolio.
The new
portfolio is called Transport, Communications and Infrastructural
Development and is held by Nicholas Goche, a close Mugabe
ally.
Other ministers affected by Mugabe's unilateralism are Regional
Integration
and International Co-operation Minister, Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga,
State Enterprises and Parastatals Minister, Gabuza
Joel Gabbuza, Science and
Technology Development Minister, Heneri
Dzinotyiweyi.
All the ministers are from the MDC formations and have
been left with no
Acts of Parliament to administer.
This week's
trip is Zuma's first since he took over the mediation from his
predecessor,
Thabo Mbeki in November 2009.
The trip also comes hard on the heels
of Zuma's trip to the United Kingdom,
where he reportedly called for
international support for the troubled
coalition.
The
MDC-T has already declared a deadlock on all the outstanding GPA issues
and
wants them referred back to Zuma.
On the other hand, President Mugabe
and his Zanu PF say the talks should be
given time, but have also taken a
rigid position not to compromise on
anything that is against the resolutions
of their December 2009 congress.
The South African leader has made it
clear that he wants the parties to
"park" the contentious issues around key
government appointments, sanctions
imposed by western countries, and of
late, the stripping of powers of MDC
ministers.
In an earlier
interview, Biti said the "the issue of allocation of mandates
is not
somebody's unilateral right".
"It is an executive process whose
matrix is shared between the President and
Prime Minister. This business of
castrating other ministers cannot happen,"
said Biti.
Chamisa said he
would not accept Mugabe's move to make him "a minister in
name without any
responsibilities".
Zuma was tasked to mediate in the Zimbabwean
crisis by Sadc after MDC-T
temporarily pulled out of the unity government
last year as frustration
intensified over Mugabe's refusal to fully
implement the GPA.
But his intervention has not lived up to
expectations with analysts saying
he has taken his feet off the
pedal.
BY VUSUMUZI SIFILE AND CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 20:48
A government audit of the
Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Councils (Zimsec)
has cast doubts on the
integrity and credibility of last year's examinations
in what could be the
final straw for the beleaguered institution.
Zimsec last week
released the November O'level results amid reports that
reputable
institutions were rejecting prospective A'level students who
passed the
local exams with flying colours in favour of those who wrote
those
administered by Cambridge University Overseas Exmination Board.
Zimbabwe
localised its examinations in 2002 but critics say the move was
ill-timed as
the country was already in the middle of an unprecedented
economic
crisis.
The fears about Zimsec's credibility have been
confirmed by the audit
jointly carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor
General and Ernst & Young
whose final report was obtained by The
Standard last week.
The report titled Zimsec Capacity Assessment:
November 2009 paints a gloomy
picture on the future for local examinations
and also raises issues of
mismanagement.
The investigation
carried out in November last year revealed that no one at
Zimsec was
prepared to confirm that the Grade VII, O'level and A'level
examinations,
already undermined by persistent strikes by teachers and late
registrations,
would pass the litmus test.
"Up to the time of writing this report,
Zimsec management could not give
assurance that the 2009 examinations would
have the acceptable levels of
integrity and credibility," the report
concluded.
"Injection of funding alone at this time will not do much
to remedy the 2009
issues, but we will go a long way towards attainment of
the long-term
vision."
The auditors expressed serious doubts on
the quality of people responsible
for the setting and administration of the
examinations.
"The skills base has been depleted by brain drain; item
writers should have
qualifications and experience above that of the ordinary
teacher and
examiners," the 83 paged report says.
"They should
have knowledge of other sectors of the economy yet many of them
are teachers
with limited experience."
But in the same breadth the auditors
concede that restoration of the
integrity and credibility of Zimsec
operations would not be a stroll in the
park because the systems had nearly
collapsed.
The auditors believe Zimsec needs a complete overhaul and
in their report
they identify many legal loopholes and possible cases of
abuse of authority.
Zimsec last had a board meeting in May 2008 and
terms of office for 10
non-executive board members out of 14 have expired,
meaning that the
examinations body is operating without a
board.
"There is no independent oversight of the operations of the
Zimsec and this
allows decisions that may not be good for the Zimsec to be
taken as long as
they are favourable to the director (Happy Ndanga), who is
the only
remaining board member," the report says.
"The
performance of the director is not monitored and errant decisions may
be
made."
Two years ago the board wrote to the Ministry of Education,
Arts, Sports and
Culture proposing that its term should be extended by
another five years but
the government is yet to respond.
The
report also notes that Zimbabweans have lost confidence in the
examinations
process and "the results released thereafter."
Zimsec has also been
failing to manage its finances properly, the auditors
confirmed.
"It was noted that there is a culture of recycling
budgets from year to year
with minimal changes being made to reflect the
current operating
environment," the report added.
There were also
questions about Zimsec's procurement process. The
examinations body does not
have an annual procurement plan.
In 2008, the body bought printing
equipment and there is no documentation
for the purchase.
The
auditors discovered that there were instances where caterings services
were
provided without any contractual documents in place between Zimsec and
the
caterer.
The arrangement for the provision of food to markers was
also not sanctioned
by the state procurement board.
Zimsec might
also be evicted from its head office anytime because it does
not own the
building.
The examinations body does not have any agreements with the
owners of the
building, the Ministry of Public Works.
"This is a
risk, since Zimsec can be given a short notice period to vacate
the premises
as the case in Masvingo where they have been asked to vacate
the premises by
31 December 2009," the auditors said.
"Zimsec is renting offices in
Midlands, Masvingo and Mashonaland West. At
these sites, Zimsec is not able
to improve the security features at the
buildings."
It also risks
losing stands in Norton, Masvingo, Gwanda, Gweru and Chinhoyi
if it does not
develop them within five years since there are no title
deeds.
The body might also lose four vehicles donated by the
Reserve Bank because
it does not have their registration books. The cars are
not insured.
Staff morale is at its lowest ebb with employees
reportedly not getting
salary advice slips.
Minister of
Education, Sport and Culture, David Coltart said he was in a
meeting when he
was contacted for comment yesterday.
BY KHOLWANI NYATHI
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 20:35
RUTENDO Munengani,
wife of MDC-T legislator for Glen View North Fani
Munengami, says she will
never forgive President Robert Mugabe after she was
raped by a soldier while
her nine-month old son watched in horror. Mugabe,
who is the
commander-in-chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF), has
always used the
security services whenever he feels cornered in his
three-decade-long
rule.
In an emotion filled testimony at the launch of a report, Cries
from
Goromonzi: Inside Zimbabwe’s Torture Chambers by Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition on Thursday, Munengami said she was still traumatised by the
brutal rape in 2003 at their lodgings in Harare’s Glen View
suburb.
She said at least 10 soldiers clad in military gear forced
their way into
her bedroom, beating her up and demanding to know where her
husband was.
When they failed to locate the husband one of the
soldiers turned on her.
“He went ahead to ask ‘sei wakashamira mutengesi?”
(why are you dressed in
skimpy clothes for a sellout.),” she narrated with
tears flowing down her
cheeks.
“He walked towards me and lifted
my nightdress and raped me once in front of
my nine-month old son.”
After
the ordeal, Munengami said, she was force-marched outside and
positively
identified the late Zanu PF political commissar Elliot Manyika
who was
seated in one of the cars.
She sustained broken hands and fingers.
One of her fingers is now
dysfunctional.
Due to the rape and
torture, Munengami was hospitalised for several weeks at
a private clinic in
Harare. She was tested for HIV/Aids and luckily for her,
the results were
negative.
When she was discharged from the clinic, she found out her
children had been
neglected as there was no one to look after them because
her husband had
fled to Botswana.
“Upon my release, I discovered
that my two children were suffering from
kwashiorkor and this further
traumatised me because I was not there to look
after them,” she
said.
As if the rape was not enough, Munengami was evicted from her
lodgings
because the landlord feared that the soldiers would come for her
again. Even
her own relatives could not accommodate
her.
Munengami’s marriage nearly collapsed after relatives heard
about the rape.
Even her husband had a hard time accepting her back,
she said.
“My marriage was affected as it took my husband time to get
over the rape
ordeal,” said Munengami, who is now expecting her third
child.
Although the courts ordered the army to compensate her,
nothing has
materialised.
Efforts to get a comment from the
Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) spokesperson
Colonel Overson Mugwizi were
fruitless.
Another female victim, Rosy Mupfawa of Mutoko in
Mashonaland East province
said she was in June 2008 force-marched to a
“base” manned by Zanu PF
militia where she was severely
tortured.
Her assailants tore her clothes off including underwear,
touching her
private parts and teasing her that she was MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai’s
“prostitute”.
“One of the men started beating me
again with planks and just when I thought
the worst was over, he stuck a
thick tree stump into my vagina tearing off
part of my ‘vaginal
bean’(clitoris),” said Mupfawa in the report.
“At that moment, I
collapsed and when I awoke, I found myself at a grave
site near the
base.
“I am sure these barbarians dumped me there thinking that I was
dead.”
Mupfawa was a member of the MDC-T electoral team during the
2008 general
elections.
Munengami said the national healing
process by the unity government was
problematic because it does not address
the issue of compensation.
“Some women who were, like me, raped are
now HIV positive, others lost their
husbands, yet the government has done
nothing to assist us,” she complained.
The 83-page report details
accounts of 23 people who were allegedly tortured
in detention camps by
state agents and Zanu PF members.
The launch of the report coincided
with the third anniversary of the March
11 2007 arrest, assault and torture
of civil society activists and then
opposition leaders on their way to a
Save Zimbabwe Campaign Rally in
Highfield.
Those arrested and
tortured included Tsvangirai and national Constitutional
Assembly (NCA)
chairman Lovemore Madhuku.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 20:18
ZIMSEC has
launched an internal investigation following indications that a
November
2009 O’Level Maths paper was leaked. Insiders revealed that results
released
last week show that an unusually high pass rate was recorded in the
subject.
Zimsec says it is still assessing the performance of
students in the
examinations marred by long-running strikes by teachers and
chaotic
preparations.
“The investigation is being led by one of
the directors,” said the source.
“But there is concern that the
investigation is not being given the
seriousness it deserves because it
might touch some big fish.”
The sources revealed Grade VII pupils
were also prejudiced after a section
containing diagrams was pulled out of
the General Paper question paper
before it went to the
printers.
“People used the examination to fix each other,” said
another source. “There
was a fight between a head of division and
confidential secretary and there
is strong suspicion that they used the
paper to fight their wars.
“A paper containing diagrams was pulled
out and this inconvenienced a lot
students especially in Mashonaland
West.”
Esau Nhandara, the Zimsec assistant director who was said to
be in charge of
the investigation said he was on leave and could not comment
on the matter.
A Zimsec official also said there were suspicions that
some employees were
selling examination papers before they were
written.
An audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General and
Ernst & Young
also raises questions about security in the marking
process.
“This production of results has both manual and automated
processes and
there is a high risk of error especially in the manual
keying-in of marks,”
said the report of the audit carried out in November
last year.
“The issue of storage has been another challenge in this
process as the
storage of results slips at the head office is not
secure.
The back up of soft copies of the results of previous years
is also kept
within the Zimsec premises and this is
risky.”
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 19:41
A Zimbabwean lawyer
and writer, Nyaradzai Gumbonzwanda has been appointed
into a United Nations
advisory team on ways to better protect women in
conflict situations.
Gumbonzwanda who is also the general secretary of the
Zimbabwean chapter of
the World Young Women's Christian Association (World
YWCA), will with 13
other experts from other countries advise the UN
High-Level Steering
Committee on ways to ensure that women's voices are
heard in peace
processes.
The advisory team was constituted in line with the UN's
Security Council
resolution 1325 on the role of women in peace and security
which marks its
10th anniversary this year.
Resolution 1325 was
adopted by the Council in 2000.
It stresses the importance of giving
women equal participation and full
involvement in peace and security matters
and the need to increase their
role in decision-making.
The team
will advise on the organisation of a ministerial-level meeting of
the
Security Council later this year on the issue and provide policy advice
on
ways to accelerate implementation of the resolution.
Gumbonzwanda has
over 10 years' experience with the UN, where she served as
Regional Director
for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem)
in eastern
Africa. She also served as human rights officer with Unicef as
well as
national child rights advisor in Liberia and Zimbabwe
respectively.
For many years, she has worked in the women's rights
movement on issues of
constitutionalism, inheritance, property and land
rights.
She also served as interim coordinator for the Zimbabwe Women
Lawyers
Association during its formative stage and in the Ministry of
Justice and
Constitutional Affairs as a law officer.
Her
impressive CV also includes working on the integration of gender
equality
issues in the peace processes for the Sudan, Somalia and Northern
Uganda.
She played a leading role in the International Conference on
the Great Lakes
Region that resulted in the adoption of the Protocol on
Sexual and Gender
Based Violence as well as property rights for
returnees.
She has also worked for years on issues of gender and HIV and
Aids and was a
resource person for the International Women's Summit on HIV
and Aids hosted
by the World YWCA in 2007.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 19:09
THEY are
small-scale vendors whose sole source of income is the buying and
selling of
eggs, vegetables, fruits, sweets and biscuits among other small
items.
But their overheads are "heavier" than those of many in
their line of
business.
Vendors in Mbare say their overheads are
unique and saddening.
Among others, they pay rent, rates, buy wares
and bribe their way around the
business almost every now and
then.
"We are suffering", says 46-year- old Nomuhle Mpehla. "Life is
so difficult
in this country.
"The police are giving us a hard
time; we do not know why the government
cannot pay them enough so they can
leave us alone and reduce our burdens."
Mpehla, who sells boiled eggs
and salted nuts at Mbare long-distance bus
terminus said her typical day was
mostly characterised by playing
hide-and-seek with law enforcement
agents.
"Neighbourhood watch committee members, municipal and
Zimbabwe Republic
Police officers are always prowling around here so one has
to do all they
can to minimise contact with them or unotonyoreswa (you will
be made to pay
a bribe) every second," she said.
An average
"vending fee", which always goes into the officers' pockets, is
pegged at $5
though it can be negotiated downwards depending of the level of
the
officer's greed.
The vendors wish they were "as lucky" as motorists
who, after bribing
traffic police, get receipts which they then use as
passports at other
roadblocks.
"They do not give us any
receipts," Mpehla said. "On a single day one can
meet up to six groups of
officers each asking for a bribe.
"You either pay or they take away
your wares and you never recover them or
the money you used to buy
them."
Some of the officers even follow the vendors to their places
of residence
and without warrants, search these and confiscate whatever they
suspect is
for sale.
Charity Sengwe (38) stopped selling sadza
last week after municipal police
pounced on her friend's house where she was
preparing meals for sale and
confiscated all cooking utensils and
ingredients including pots, plates,
mealie-meal and
relish.
Sengwe is one of those people who have been found guilty of
misusing council
property by cooking large quantities of food for sale in
their houses
instead of doing that from a canteen or getting a licence for
it.
"I tried to get a place at a canteen towards last Christmas but I
could not
afford the $200 rent," she said.
"I also do not have
money to buy a fridge, a warmer and all those other
things required in a
canteen.
"I then went to council offices where I was advised to look
for a place
where I could sell my wares from.
"I identified a place
here in Mbare but when I went back to council, I was
told that all vending
places were fully occupied and that the place I had
identified was not for
vending activities."
Zodwa Gwanzura who sells soft drinks from her
house is among other vendors
terrorised by neighbourhood watch committee
members in Mbare National.
"What we know is that neighbourhood watch
committee members must be from the
surrounding community but we do not know
where these ones are from. We don't
recognise them at all.
"They
break into various groups such that you can meet one on your way home,
another waiting for you by the gate and still have another coming to search
your house and all the time you will be paying a bribe of between $5 and
$10."
Gwanzura said at one time, men in plain clothes claiming to
belong to the
neighbourhood watch committee searched her house and on
finding soft drinks,
sat down and began drinking to their
fill.
Another group is alleged to have recently confiscated beer from
a shebeen in
the area so it could throw a party at a nearby
house.
A similar group reportedly "arrests" people found walking on
the streets
after dusk and charges them $10 spot fines for
"loitering".
Finess Aaron (68) who used to sell tomatoes, vegetables,
sweets and biscuits
by her house's gate was recently forced to close shop
following the
harassment.
Mary Jelemu's (35) two children dropped
out of secondary school as the
police forced her out of business.
The
same applies to Constance Malaya's (59) five orphaned
grandchildren.
Both Jelemu and Malaya are unmarried, unemployed and
have no other source of
income.
Their families are now living in
abject poverty since last December
following the departure of a donor
organisation which used to give them food
aid.
Vendors from
Majubeki's Tsiga Grounds, a squatter camp which is home to
mostly
Murambatsvina victims, said apart from the police, a brutal political
movement, Chipangano, adds to their worries.
They said the
movement, which consists of youths and women with Zanu PF
links, also
demands money from them and threatens all those who do not want
to pay with
death and torching down of their plastic shacks.
The police, they
said, visit them at the shacks at night and demand
$2-rentals per household
shack.
In all this, the vendors are worried that various officers
involved are not
doing anything to curb theft, regular murders and other
crimes happening in
the suburb.
Vendors from Tsiga Grounds have
since formed Harare Homeless Movement where
they contribute money with the
hope of one day buying stands where they can
build decent homes for
themselves.
"All we need is a little help," Mpehla said. "We have
been living in the
open for too long and we ask the government to provide us
with decent
shelter.
"We sell wares to eke out a living like
everyone else but we have other
people depriving us of our
livelihoods."
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said vendors
should report to the
police if anyone fails to give them a receipt after
demanding a vending fee
as that was illegal.
He said he was not
aware of Chipangano's activities in Mbare, adding that
all he knew was that
most vendors voluntarily join some associations that
represent their
cause.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 18:49
AS
she left office 209 at Sarum House in Harare on Tuesday afternoon, Anne*
had
every reason to celebrate as she had passed six subjects, with English
Language and Mathematics being on the list. Surprisingly, she wasn't jovial
at all.
Despite faring much better than a number of her
classmates, Anne appeared
unhappy with her long-awaited Ordinary Level
results.
With tears streaming from her eyes, she explained how she
had been disturbed
by recent reports that last year's qualifications from
the Zimbabwe School
Examinations Council (Zimsec) would not be recognised by
employers and
education institutions.
A number of people in the
queue waiting to collect their results from
Herentals College appeared to
share her concern.
"My colleagues who wrote their examinations under
Cambridge (International
Examinations Board) have already been admitted for
A Level at top of the
range schools.
"My father had promised that
if I pass, he would take me to one of the best
schools, but I doubt if such
schools will admit me, since I have a Zimsec
qualification."
Zimsec last week released results for last
November's O Level Examinations.
Officials said an assessment of the
results is currently underway, but there
is already a cloud of uncertainty
that some institutions may not recognise
the results.
The
examinations were written at a time when teachers were on a warpath
against
the government demanding a revision of their salaries, pegged at
slightly
more than $100 per month.
Most teachers boycotted the marking
process, sparking rumours that scripts
were marked by unqualified
staff.
In commuter omnibuses and many public places, the general
feeling is that
the failure rate this year was very high, fuelling
suspicions that Zimsec
may have tightened the marking scales to prove to
critics that there is
still a level of credibility in their
systems.
"My daughter passed seven subjects with good grades during
the mid-year
examinations, but her dismal performance this time around does
not match at
all with our expectations," said Andrew Maphosa who lives in
Mabelreign, in
the capital.
"It is clear to us that the markers
and Zimsec did not at all consider that
these are students who spent most of
their time last year not attending
lessons as teachers were on
strike.
"The authorities were supposed to consider the unique and
difficult
circumstances under which the examinations were
written."
Education Minister David Coltart said he did "not have the
assessment yet",
and referred questions to Zimsec.
Ezekiel
Pasipamire, the spokesperson for the examinations body requested
that
questions be faxed to his office, but later refused to comment.
But
Zimsec director, Happy Ndanga said an assessment was still underway, but
conceded that they have already received "queries from all
corners".
"It will take us some days to come out with a clear
picture, right now the
picture is quite distorted.
"Generally, it
seems the pass rate is more or less the same with previous
years," said
Ndanga.
The Zimsec chief added that "the trend has not been very
good", and
attributed this to perennial strikes by teachers and textbook
shortages at
schools.
During a field day near Guruve on Friday, a
discussion ensued among a small
group of parents over the
results.
The general feeling was that the markers were too harsh on
the pupils who
spent the better part of the last two years out of school
because of the
teachers' strikes, political violence and economic
problems.
Ndanga said while it is true that children's performance in
the examinations
had been greatly affected by the industrial action by
teachers, adjusting
the scales because of that could be
tricky.
Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (Zimta) chief executive,
Sifiso Ndlovu said
they were still receiving feedback from schools, but
preliminary indications
were that there had been a decline in the pass
rate.
"The indication from the few headmasters I have spoken to is
that there has
been a decline," said Ndlovu.
"You find that at some
schools that usually have the best student scoring 8
As, the best student
scored only 4 As. This is a disturbing development."
Ndlovu admitted
that strikes and sit-ins had cost pupils a lot of time,
saying the
government should have come up with "an intensified programme to
correct the
setbacks caused by the industrial conflict".
Raymond Majongwe, of the
Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said
they were also still
assessing the results before they make objective
conclusions.
At
some point, the PTUZ was at the forefront of a campaign to have 2008 and
2009 scrapped from the academic calendar, saying there was not much activity
at schools because of a prolonged strike by teachers.
Over the
last few years, Zimsec has come under fire from educationists,
parents and
students for glaring loopholes in the administration of public
examinations.
Last year, Ordinary Level and Advanced Level
examinations results were
postponed numerous times.
*Not her real
name
BY VUSUMUZI SIFILE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 18:46
SHE built her
reputation as an innovative and hard-working businesswoman and
was widely
viewed as determined to pluck other women from abject poverty.
Having carved
her name in the clothing industry in the early 1980s, Jane
Mutasa was the
brains behind the formation of the Indigenous Business Women's
Organisation
(IBWO) in 1994 to help local women start businesses as well as
offering
advice to existing ones.
But that reputation, which Mutasa built over
years, is fast fading because
of her frequent brushes with the law and
allegations that she used IBWO to
enrich herself at the expense of the women
she purported to assist.
Mutasa, who is a Telecel board member, is
currently facing nine counts of
fraud involving the illegal sale of seed
packs and recharge cards worth over
US$750 000.
The businesswoman
is out of remand prison on a US$2 000 bail.
Observers say her
incarceration - whether guilty or innocent - provides a
sneak preview into
how Zimbabwe's so-called proponents of indigenisation
built their
empires.
A few days before her arrest, Mutasa was vocal, supporting
the controversial
empowerment law that requires foreign firms to cede 51% of
their
shareholding to locals, which many believe could be used by Zanu PF
officials to line their pockets.
This is not the first time that
the businesswoman has had an encounter with
the law. In 2004 Mutasa was
convicted and fined Z$8,5 million for illegally
dealing in foreign currency
amounting to US$10 400.
She was the first person to be convicted
under a section of the Exchange
Control Act which had just been enacted.
Only last year Mutasa hogged the
limelight again after she was robbed of her
Mercedes Benz S350 and US$20 000
at gunpoint.
Many people
wondered where she got the cash at a time when even the richest
businessperson in the country was battling to access foreign
currency.
Her critics accuse Mutasa of using IBWO to enrich herself
and her colleagues
in Zanu PF at the expense of ordinary
businesswomen.
Women who spoke to The Standard last week accused her
of "jumping on any
government project not necessarily to help disadvantaged
women but to build
her own empire".
They claimed IBWO had become
"a one-woman organisation" as she has
personalised
everything.
"From the beginning IBWO has been Mutasa and up to now it
still is," said
one of the women, who did not last a year in the
organisation.
But Zimbabwe Broadlands Ltd chairman Chemist Siziba
said Mutasa was already
"a successful businesswoman with an impressive
clientele" when they met in
1991 to form the Indigenous Business Development
Centre (IBDC), a black
empowerment vehicle.
The businesswoman was
running a clothing manufacturing company - Super
Quality Manufacturers -
which she had established a decade earlier.
She was already exporting
her products to several countries in the region,
he said. "We invited her to
join IBDC because we had seen her potential,"
said Siziba, who was then IBDC
president.
"She became a board member and that was when she decided
to form IBWO."
Siziba said Mutasa greatly benefited from the
government's empowerment
programme although he did not know whether other
women also benefited or
whether she abused her position as
alleged.
When exiled businessman James Makamba formed Telecel
Zimbabwe, said Siziba,
he organised some indigenous groups which included
IBWO, war veterans and
others to acquire shares.
Mutasa was
appointed to the Telecel board. "Generally, she is temperamental
and
forthright in expressing her views," said Siziba.
"She leaves you
with no doubt about her mind and she fights to achieve what
she
wants."
However, a close friend of hers who requested anonymity said
Mutasa is good
at using her business and political connections in Zanu PF to
grow her
businesses.
"Jane Mutasa is the kind of a person who
would use her connections to the
maximum," she said.
"This is how
she got into Telecel."
Mutasa said on Saturday she had been
instructed by her lawyer not to talk
to the press.
However, a
close relative scoffed at accusations that the businesswoman had
used IBWO
and political connections to further her business ambitions.
The
relative said Mutasa never benefited from IBWO, but actually helped
hundreds
of women start up their own businesses.
"Right now women across the
country are accessing loans from two financial
houses to start their
businesses," said the relative. "Can you say she is
not assisting women when
she is doing that?"
The relative said Mutasa had her own shares in
Telecel, separate from those
belonging to IBWO. She is also a tobacco
merchant, she revealed.
"Mutasa bought Telecel shares a long time
ago," she said. "You should also
know that Telecel rented her workshop for
more than three years."
By the time Mutasa joined Telecel, according
to the relative, she had
already made her money from a booming clothing
business.
Not much is known about Mutasa's other businesses. But her
close friends say
she put sons and daughters as directors of her other
companies.
The relative claimed her arrest was linked to boardroom
squabbles that have
become common at the telecommunications
company.
All is not well at Telecel Zimbabwe at the
moment.
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority
(Potraz) is
threatening to cancel the firm's licence after it failed to
bring its
shareholding structure in line with legislation barring foreigners
from
owning in excess of 50% of any local communications
firm.
Telecel International owns 60% of Telecel Zimbabwe while the
other 40% is in
the hands of Empowerment Corporation, a consortium of black
businesspeople.
Very little is known about Mutasa's educational
background except that the
mother of four was given a doctorate by the
Solusi University in Bulawayo
for her outstanding contribution to the
empowerment of women in the country.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 18:06
ZANU
PF is printing over 1,6 million party membership cards to sell to its
supporters countrywide in a move widely seen as an ambitious recruiting and
fund-raising project. But analysts say the former ruling party may have to
employ its trademark tactics of coercion and partisan food distribution to
sell the cards to people who no longer support it.
Support for
the party has been shrinking since the formation of its main
political foe,
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), just over a decade
ago.
At least 528 000 cards have already been printed by Zanu
PF's printing and
publishing arm, Jongwe Printers and will be distributed to
the country's 10
provinces soon, authoritative sources said
recently.
"It is an ambitious project," said one of the sources
adding, "All in all
they intend to print 1 670 000 party cards. They have
already printed over
500 000.
"The problem is the party does not
have that much support on the ground."
It is feared that Zanu PF
would use its old tactics of mass intimidation,
gross violence and coercion
to force people, especially those in the rural
areas, to buy party
cards.
Each card would cost US$2 but a party member would also pay an
extra US$2
subscription fee for eight months.
Monthly
subscription is 25 cents.
"If this goes according to plan the party
will raise at least US$6,4 million
in just a few months and this would go a
long way in funding the
revitalisation of the party," said the
source.
He said the money would be used to restructure the former
ruling party,
accused of destroying the country's economy and impoverishing
its citizens,
ahead of next year's general elections.
A senior
official with Jongwe Printers confirmed last week that the cards
were being
printed.
Zanu PF secretary for finance David Karimanzira also
confirmed the printing
of the cards but denied that it was a fund-raising
exercise.
"We have been doing that all along," said Karimanzira.
"It's only membership
cards.
"You cannot be a member without a
party card, so that's not a
funding-raising project."
He referred
further questions to the party's commissariat.
Newly appointed Zanu
PF political commissar Webster Shamu, the man in charge
of restructuring and
rejuvenating the collapsing former liberation movement
ahead general
elections likely to be held next year, was reluctant to
comment about how
the party intends to revive its membership.
"Who told you we are
printing party cards?" questioned Shamu.
When told that Karimanzira
had already confirmed he said: "Phone me after an
hour." But Shamu, who is
also Minister of Media, Information and Publicity,
did not answer his mobile
phone after the hour.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo also refused
to comment saying the issue
of party cards fell under the
commissariat.
Analysts said it will be an uphill task for Zanu PF to
sell all the cards
without coercion and intimidation or the use of food as
bait.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010
18:04
GOVERNMENT is taking up to five years to register non-governmental
organisations, forcing many organisations keen on assisting people living
with HIV/Aids to operate outside the law. The Private Voluntary Organisation
(PVO) Act stipulates that organisations seeking to engage in community
projects must register with the government first.
It also gives
the authorities the powers to stop or discourage operations of
non-governmental organisations.
One of the organisations whose
operations have been hampered by the law is
New Dawn of Hope, which assists
349 people living with HIV and Aids in
Harare's Mufakose high-density
suburb.
Reward Muziri, the New Dawn of Hope programme officer says it
took them five
years for the PVO board to okay their
operations.
This made it extremely difficult for the organisation to
get assistance from
donors.
"The PVO board took up to two years
without sitting and this has slowed down
the process of registration,"
Muziri revealed at a recent National Aids
Council (NAC) media tour of Aids
projects in Harare province.
"The problem we faced was that NGOs
refused to work with non-registered
organisations so we could not access
donor funds."
Veronica Kwati, the director and founder of Tamuka
Foundation in Kuwadzana
said the cumbersome registration process had made it
difficult for her to
get a bigger piece of land to build shelter for 27
children affected by HIV
and Aids.
The children are currently
crammed in a five-roomed house.
Tamuka Foundation was started in 2001
by Kwati and gives shelter to children
affected by HIV and Aids and also
supports people with personal problems.
"We need to register with the
PVO board first in order to obtain a bigger
place because each day our
numbers are increasing yet we do not get much
help from NGOs because we are
not registered," she said.
"We help everyone in the community even
those who are HIV negative but just
need help."
Some NGOs have
registered as trusts through the High Court as a way of
avoiding the
"draconian" piece of legislation, she said.
Fambai Ngirande, the
former spokesperson of National Associations for
Non-Governmental
Organisations now at Inter-Churches Organisations for
Development said: "The
law is nothing but just a way by the state to monitor
operations of
NGOs.
"There should be a law that protects the interests of the
country, the
government and the NGOs as a whole."
Most
organisations said they had resorted to community projects in order to
get
funds for the fees and treatment for people living with HIV/Aids as they
had
lost hope of getting donor support.
Ministry of Public Service and
Social Welfare officials referred questions
to the permanent secretary,
Lancaster Museka, who was said to be out of the
country.
Paurina
Mupariwa, the Minister of Public Service and Social Welfare was also
not
available for comment last week.
BY PERPERTUA
CHIKOLOLERE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010
18:01
DOVES Funeral Services no longer cares. That is the verdict of
relatives of
deceased people who had paid-up policies with the company,
which prides its
service as "over a century of caring".
The
funeral company is facing charges of reneging on agreements to provide
full
burial services once a policy holder dies.
Angry relatives who spoke
to The Standard last week said the country's
largest funeral home was taking
advantage of the transition from the
Zimbabwean dollar regime to the
multi-currency system to renege on the
agreement to offer burial cover to
all paid-up policy holders.
Some relatives said Doves was arguing
that the monies that policy holders
contributed over the years were gobbled
up by inflation.
One of the affected people, Chipo Karoro said her
family had a hard time
when her brother James Tichasara Mashura (policy
number 127930), passed on
in January.
She said they had to foot
most of the expenses after Doves refused to cover
all burial costs although
he was a paid-up member.
Doves only dressed the body and offered
transport from Parirenyatwa Hospital
into the city centre, a distance of
less than five kilometres, she said.
"My brother was a fully paid-up
member having been contributing for more
than 10 years but when he died,
Doves refused to provide full burial
services," said
Karoro.
Three weeks after Mashura's death, Doves Funeral Services
published a list
of policy holders who were supposed to get full services
without paying
extra money in the press.
A total of 4 420 people
were on the list that was widely publicised on
February
24.
Mashura's name was among them.
This prompted relatives
to go back to Doves to claim money they had used at
the
funeral.
They were shocked when the funeral home said it could only
pay US$100 to
cover transport and for the coffin.
In a letter
dated February 17, addressed to Mashura, Doves managing
director, Talent
Mazibisa said: "The funds will be available from the 3rd of
March and please
note that your policy is now fully active and you don't
need to make further
payment."
But Karoro is fuming.
"They want to give us
US$100 and yet when we tried to hire transport from
them (Doves) to Chihota
in Seke, they charged us US$275," said Mrs Karoro.
"The disparities
in figures show that Doves is not sincere when dealing with
its customers.
How do they expect us to cover the deficit?"
Another relative who
requested anonymity said Doves declined to pay even a
single cent when his
brother-in-law died late last year saying his
contribution had been gobbled
up by inflation.
Family members had to contribute to ensure a decent
burial although he was a
paid-up Doves policy holder, he
claimed.
"It pains us that we had to foot the bill although our
relative had been
contributing for several years," he said.
He
claimed there were several other deceased people whose policies were not
being honoured by the funeral home.
Apart from that, some names
of fully paid up members are also missing from
the list published by
Doves.
An official at Doves said the company had been inundated with
complaints
from policy holders whose names were not on the
list.
Doves chief executive officer Chabvemhiri Shaka said the
company made an
undertaking to pay full services to its clients on February
26 and before
that they were only providing "critical
services".
He said they were paying US$100 to every member who had
only been offered
the "critical service" as an ex-gracious
payment.
"This money will be reviewed as we go on," said Shaka, who
however had
difficulties explaining why Doves was offering only US$100. He
also
confirmed that there were fully paid up members whose names did not
appear
on the published list and urged policy holders "to visit our offices
to
correct the anomalies."
A few years ago, Doves cancelled
policies that attracted low premiums citing
viability problems caused mainly
by inflation.
Some of the affected subscribers have lost their jobs
or are old and on
retirement with low pension payments, while others are
low-income earners,
making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to
review their monthly
premiums upwards.
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010
17:59
FROM outside, it is clearly inscribed on the perimeter wall that
the
property on 52 McChlery Avenue in Eastlea, Harare, houses an
establishment
called the Samaritans. There is even an arrow directing
visitors to the
“Reception”.
But behind the perimeter wall it is
a completely different story. The door
that is supposed to be the entrance
to the reception is locked, and it has
evidently been like this for a
while.
One has no choice but to use the other entrance, at the back
of the
building.
Plates and food remains are scattered all
over.
A handful of kids play outside. There is no sign of any office
work.
The music in the “reception” is just too loud for any
office.
When this reporter arrived at the place, two young men were
packaging
vegetables. They said they were for sale at their small stall
outside the
entrance to the premises.
Samaritans chairperson,
Peter Manjoro last week confirmed that the
organisation was evicted from the
premises over a year ago by people who
claimed to be Zanu PF
supporters.
This is easily confirmed by the Zanu PF posters plastered
all over the walls
inside the kitchen.
Their repeated attempts to
reason with the settlers that they were just but
a group of volunteers with
no sinister agenda have fallen on deaf ears.
“They just came and
set-up base at the office. We were shocked to find all
our stuff had been
removed and thrown out, and some people were already
living at the house,”
said Manjoro.
He said they had raised the matter with the district
administrator, Alfred
Tome, but he had not done much to assist
them.
In an interview, Tome said he was aware of the problem, but
said the
Samaritans were forced out of the office because of some
clandestine
activities they were allegedly involved in.
“It is
not good to have such clandestine activities at a place so close to
State
House and other key places like the Police General Headquarters. It is
very
close, anything can happen there. It is not good for state security,”
said
Tome.
Last year, the Samaritans, through their director Alfred
Mutamba petitioned
Tome to help them evict the invaders.
“We, the
Harare Samaritans are appealing to your office for assistance in
removing
all the people at 52 McChlery Avenue.
“These include Mrs Bare and her
family (occupying the main house), the two
youths (occupying rooms in the
main house), Mr Kaseke (occupying the
converted garage), and Florence
(occupying the outside room).
“We are also appealing for your
assistance in recovering assets taken from
the centre by some individuals
known to the people at the centre,” reads the
letter.
But Tome
said while he was working towards removing the settlers at the
centre, there
was no way he could allow the Samaritans to continue operating
from there as
he was suspicious of their activities.
He said the equipment which
was confiscated included syringes and other
medical equipment which did not
have much to do with what the Samaritans
ought to be doing — counselling
people who are inclined to commit suicide.
“They had too many syringes and
other medical equipment whose purpose we
could not understand. I became
very suspicious and alerted the police.”
The Samaritans are an
international group of volunteers who specialise in
fighting suicide through
telephones, emails and face-to-face counselling
sessions.
In
Zimbabwe they have offices in Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare.
Occupants
of the house refused to open up, saying only their leader,
identified only
as Mrs Bare, could speak for them.
BY VUSUMUZI SIFILE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010
17:56
PLUMTREE - The majority of Zimbabweans in the diaspora might be
excluded
from the constitution-making process due to lack of funds, Edward
Mkhosi, a
co-chairperson of the parliamentary select committee leading the
initiative
said last week. About three million skilled and unskilled
Zimbabweans have
fled to neighbouring countries like South Africa and
Botswana and overseas
over the years in search of better paying jobs and
living conditions.
Mkhosi revealed in an interview after a public
meeting in the border town on
Thursday that Copac had no budget for outreach
programmes outside the
country.
"Diasporans cannot be ignored but
in as much as we would want to gather
their views, the fact is that there is
no money to do that. We do not have
funds, for example, to visit Zimbabweans
in neighbouring South Africa and
Botswana," Mkhosi said.
Copac is
leading the process to create the country's first post independence
constitution.
Currently the country relies on the 1979 Lancaster
House constitution that
gave birth to independence in 1980 and has been
amended a record 19 times.
"They (diasporans) are difficult to reach
out to, how do we reach out to
people in the diaspora when we are failing to
reach out to Zimbabweans here
due to lack of funds," Mkhosi
lamented.
Under a power-sharing deal signed last year between
President Robert Mugabe
and the former opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai the country is supposed to have a new
constitution in the
next two years to pave way for new
elections.
However, the process is already behind schedule by several
months due to a
shortage of funds.
But Mkhosi said international
donors have poured in funds to pave way for
the gathering of views of
Zimbabweans on the long-awaited constitution.
The process will begin
in the first week of April despite the low enthusiasm
from Zimbabweans who
are now fed up with the delays.
"According to our survey, the
enthusiasm that people had about the
constitution-making process has been
tampered with by the continued delays
due to funding
constraints.
"There is no enthusiasm any more because of
that.
"Otherwise, we are confident that the process will begin in the
first week
of April since donors have pledged about US$21 million for the
process," he
said.
Differences between political parties and
civil society over approach to the
constitution-making process have also
been cited as one of the reasons
behind the delays.
"We are no
longer stuck in a framework (2011), we have said as a committee
that we
cannot be confined to it because of the problems associated with the
process," Mkhosi said.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010
16:46
IN what appears to be a direct challenge to government policy, top
Zanu PF
officials last week tried to incite members of the Johanne Marange
Apostolic
Faith sect in Manicaland to resist the child immunisation
programme. A
measles outbreak has hit 28 of the country's 62 districts and
is still
spreading, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
But
efforts to vaccinate the most vulnerable children have been hampered by
the
resistance by members of the sect who do not seek medical attention for
religious reasons.
Health and Child Welfare Minister Henry Madzorera of
MDC-T has warned in the
past that members of the sect who prevent their
children from being
immunised would be prosecuted.
However the Johanne
Marange sect has been a major catchment area for Zanu PF
since the days of
its late political commissar, Border Gezi.
Last week, Zanu PF politburo
members Webster Shamu, Ephraim Masawi, Oppah
Muchinguri, Saviour Kasukuwere
and other senior party members attended the
sect's gathering in Mutasa
where the matter came under discussion.
"You should not be forced to do what
you don't want," said Shamu, the new
Zanu PF political commissar.
"Your
principles of advocating for peace throughout Africa are similar to
the
principles of Africa's founding fathers.
"Your prayers helped to liberate our
country and we will continue to support
all your programmes."
Muchinguri
said: "I am happy that you have been resolute in your religious
beliefs
despite the barrage of attacks from some members of the public who
are
claiming you are violating women and children's rights. We are behind
you in
everything that you are doing".
She said the government recognised polygamous
marriages and people should
not despise them for having many wives.
Noah
Taguta, the leader of the Johanne Marange sect was also part of the
gathering.
Church members in districts such as Buhera and Makoni
reportedly locked up
their children after the government embarked on the
door-to-door
immunisation programme.
Reports say more than 3 500 members
of the church and non-members were
immunised in the area against the killer
disease during the programme in
Manicaland.
According to the WHO, measles
is a highly contagious disease affecting
mostly children, which can be
effectively prevented by immunisation.
In Zimbabwe, children receive a first
vaccination against measles at the age
of nine months and second
immunisation at 18 months.
BY JOHN MAKURA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 16:44
MBERENGWA - At
least 24 children from Chegato Mission are suspected to have
contracted
bilharzia after they used raw water from a nearby dam for
bathing.
Authorities now fear the disease outbreak could spread at the
school because
of a perennial water problems.
Most of the school children who sought
treatment at Musume Hospital in the
Midlands province said they began
showing symptoms of the disease about a
week ago.
The children
said they suspected they had contracted the water-borne disease
a few weeks
ago when the school experienced power cuts, which made it
difficult for them
to draw water from a borehole at the institution.
The little water
that was being drawn from the borehole was used for
drinking and cooking
purposes.
"I first realised that I had bilharzia when I noticed blood
in my urine,"
said one of the affected pupils.
"I immediately
knew there was something wrong and I went to the sick bay to
notify the
boarding master.
"When I got there I heard that many of my colleagues
had also reported with
the same symptoms.
"The headmaster then
convened an emergency assembly meeting calling on
everyone with the disease
to report to the school nurse."
The Chegato Mission headmaster who
refused to reveal his identity
accompanied the children to the
hospital.
But he refused to comment referring all questions to the
Minister of
Education, Sports and Culture, David Coltart who could not be
reached.
However, some officials from the school speaking on
condition of anonymity
said bilharzia was a very common disease in the area
because most water
sources were contaminated.
They said constant
power cuts also made it difficult for locals and the
school to draw water
from boreholes and they appealed to the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply
Authority (ZESA) to minimise power cuts at schools.
"Every day we get
electricity cuts lasting more than four hours," complained
one
official.
"When the children ended up going to the dam to fetch water
for bathing it
was because we had spent more than four days without
electricity.
"I don't know what kind of load shedding this is. . .
The children have to
study by candlelight on most days and this is not good
for their eyesight."
A doctor at Musume Mission, Ngaavongwe Manyere
also confirmed that bilharzia
was a common illness in the
area.
But she was hesistant to confirm that all cases from Chegato
were bilharzia
saying while the children would be treated for clinical
symptons of
bilharzia the hospital would wait for laboratory
results.
Bilharzia is caused by a parasite known as fluke water
larvae, released into
the water by freshwater snails.
Symptoms
include muscle pain, headache, diarrhoea, fever, vomiting,
coughing, a
burning sensation when passing urine, passing urine more
frequently than
usual and blood in the urine.
BY BERTHA SHOKO
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 15:38
THE Competition and Tariff
Commission is investigating allegations that
Total Zimbabwe, a French
registered oil company, is refusing to sell some of
its assets to local
businesspeople. The commission last Friday conducted
hearings into Total's
compliance with its directive that it should dispose
of excess
assets.
The directive is one of the conditions the commission gave to
Total when it
approved its merger with Mobil Zimbabwe in
2006.
Players in the fuel industry alleged that they have made
several attempts to
negotiate for some of Total's assets without
success.
"Total still has two or more depots co-existing in Harare,
Bulawayo,
Masvingo and Gweru among other areas and this translates to
excess",
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) marketing and
distribution
director Chrispen Mashange said.
"We also have cases
whereby Total Service stations are found 500m apart and
that too translates
to excess.
"We think that Total should have disposed of some of the
sites that co-exist
as holding on to them is blocking
competition."
In its presentation, the Indigenous Petroleum Group of
Zimbabwe (IPGZ)
alleged that some Total depots were being underutilised in
Bulawayo, Gweru,
Chiredzi, Kariba and Mutare.
IPGZ said despite
the commission's directive four years ago, Total was yet
to put the assets
on a public offer, adding that selling them to other
players would be of
benefit to the economy at large as they were most likely
to be fully
utilised by the new owners.
Others alleged that Total was demanding
"reckless and outrageous" prices for
the assets which are now too old to be
sold at high prices, with one
alleging that in one instance, Total was
charging US$35 000 for a tank
installed more than 15 years ago. A similar
brand new tank costs US$7 000 in
South Africa, they said.
Another
oil industry representative complained that in 2008, Total Mutare
was being
priced at US$10 million, an amount he said was too high given the
depot's
small size.
There were allegations that Total is not considering the
age, obsolete state
and outdated technology of some of its
assets.
"The problem is that the commission left it in Total's
discretion to decide
on what to dispose of and also how to evaluate whatever
it is disposing of
hence all these problems", Sakunda Energy managing
director Kuda Tagwirei
said.
"We are not being given a fair value
and we need an independent evaluator
who will act as a referee and give us a
fair value of the assets we want to
buy. We have been failing to do so
because of disagreements over the value.
"The values that Total has
been pushing for in some cases are three to four
times values of new assets
in South Africa."
It was also alleged that Total lied to the
commission that some players had
benefited from its assets disposal, with
Martin Mataranyika from Falcon
Motors and Constance Shamu from Lake Service
Station saying they were
shocked to hear that Total had cited their
companies as beneficiaries.
"We leased a Mobil Service Station and
invested a lot of money in rebranding
it," Mataranyika
said.
"Before we started operations, we got a call from one of our
men on site
telling us that Total had come and removed all the
equipment.
"We are a very young indigenous company and we had put in
a lot in that
project in an attempt to contribute to this
economy."
Shamu said her company's case proves that Total is doing
all it can to
ensure that local people do not buy its assets saying she was
charged an
"outrageous figure for very old pipes".
The players
said they wanted to buy Total's assets because they cannot get
land to build
as municipalities across the country are saying that there are
too many
service stations in the country.
Total strategy director Stanley
Hatendi told the commission that his company
had identified the excess
assets as per agreement and was only asking for a
value they felt was fair
to the company's shareholders.
He added that the value was determined
by the company's professional
evaluators.
Hatendi also said some
depots were still flying Total colours although their
ownership had since
been changed.
Government officials at the hearing urged Total to
comply with the
directive, with others reminding the company that the
Indigenisation Act was
"now operational and Total is expected to comply like
all other companies".
Commission chairperson Dumisani Sibanda advised
Total to furnish the
commission with its valuation methodology and list of
beneficiaries by
Friday.
He also asked other stakeholders to make
submissions identifying areas where
Total assets are located.
The
submissions will inform the commission's way forward, he said.
BY
JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 15:33
BULAWAYO
- Government will soon gazette parastatals earmarked for
privatisation amid
expectations that it is finally moving away from previous
rhetoric. The
privatisation of loss-making parastatals is one of the major
priorities of
the inclusive government as it seeks to revive an economy
battered by almost
a decade of retrogressive policies.
Some of the struggling state
companies that have been earmarked for whole
sale privatisation are the
Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco),
Agricultural and Rural Development
Authority (Arda), Cold Storage Company
(CSC) and Air
Zimbabwe.
Industry and Commerce minister, Welshman Ncube said the
ministerial
committee that was tasked with reviewing the state of the
companies had
prepared a report setting the privatisation framework that
will be tabled in
cabinet anytime soon.
"The question at hand is
that of the government privatising those
parastatals that belong to the
private sector," Ncube said in an interview
on Friday.
"This is
aimed at making sure that government retains its role of providing
policy
framework.
"A cabinet committee on this has completed its work to
categorize
parastatals into their respective groups."
He said the
government companies had been classified into three groups,
which determine
whether they would be commercialised, restructured or sold
outright.
Added Ncube: "Once cabinet has accepted our
recommendations as a committee,
the privatisation agenda would move ahead
and this time around, it will have
more steam. This whole process will, in a
way, help the government to raise
some money for its
business.
"Also, it will stop the draining of public funds to support
the parastatals
that are not making money under government
supervision."
The majority of parastatals are not able to generate
enough money to sustain
their operations and always look to government for
cash handouts.
Several foreign investors have expressed an interest
in Zisco but there are
fears they would be discouraged by the recently
passed Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment (General) Regulations:
2010
The regulations that seek to operationalise the Indigenisation
and
Empowerment Act crafted by the previous Zanu PF administration stipulate
foreign owned firms must cede 51% of their shareholding to
locals.
Meanwhile, plans to restructure Zimbabwe's parastatals have
gathered pace
amid revelations that the struggling entities have the
potential to
contribute around 40 percent of the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP).
Nearly all the parastatals which could be the engines for
economic growth,
have over the past years not only declined in terms of
financial performance
but have also gained notoriety for poor service
delivery.
Topping the list of these notorious entities is ZESA
Holdings which has
shown no mercy when disconnecting power to consumers
saddled with huge bills
each month.
Some of the bills for people
in the dark for the whole month, have reached
the US$800
mark.
Determined to find a solution to these problems, board members
and heads of
parastatals met in Harare last week to strategise on how they
could turn
around the perennial loss makers.
Vice-President John
Nkomo, who officiated at the event, stressed the need to
revamp the State
Enterprises and Parastatals (SEPs) in order to spur an
economic
turnaround.
He said the parastatals that survive on handouts from the
fiscus, have been
choked by poor corporate governance and lack of a
well-defined performance
monitoring mechanism, among other
things.
"It is against this background that the Ministry of State
Enterprises and
Parastatals is playing a very crucial role in addressing the
issues of
corporate governance inadequacies within SEPs," he
said.
"To this effect, I am pleased to advise you that a draft
Corporate
Governance Framework is now in place and would be operationalised
in the
last quarter of the year."
The framework seeks to force
boards and the managers to adhere to good
governance practices in their
respective organisations.
Joel Gabbuza, the Minister of State
Enterprises and Parastatals said lack of
the framework "created a huge gap
that left the control and administration
of these entities subjected to
individual and personal preferences at the
expense of broad socio-economic
objectives."
BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010
15:28
THE Grain Marketing Board has suspended three workers in the
logistics
department at its head office after 120 tonnes of rice and 30
tonnes of
maize disappeared from the Aspindale depot in Harare. The Standard
is
reliably informed that on Friday last week all workers in the logistics
department were suspended to facilitate investigations.
"This
scandal was unearthed sometime last month when some GMB workers were
caught
forging papers and allocating themselves tonnes of either rice or
maize from
the Aspindale depot," said a source.
The workers, the sources alleged
were writing fake haulage vehicle
registration numbers of small vehicles
like Mazda 323s and fake stand
addresses.
Grain Marketing Board
public relations officer Joseph Katete last week
confirmed that there was
such an investigation and three officials had been
suspended.
Katete said: "I can confirm that such a case has been
reported at GMB."
He refused to comment further.
The
matter has been reported to the ZRP Serious Fraud Unit.
Meanwhile
farmers in Chegutu are fuming at the GMB for failing to pay for
their
deliveries after more than $35 000 disappeared at the depot.
A GMB
Chegutu depot administration clerk Pianos Ganyawu has been arrested
and has
appeared before Chegutu Magistrate Judith Taruvinga on allegations
of
theft.
Ganyawu represented by Tinashe Matiyashe of Mangwana and
Partners was denied
bail and the matter would be heard on March
16.
The state represented by Allen Chifokoyo alleges that on February
23 this
year Ganyawu was given US$85 000 by assistant depot manager Samson
Kachepe
to pay farmers.
Ganyawu paid the farmers from February 24
to March 5, but later claimed that
there had been a break-in at his office
and that US$35 930 had been stolen
from a locked trunk.
The state
alleges that the break in was fake.
Our Staff
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 15:26
BERLIN -
Zimbabwe will become the third fastest growing country on its
travel and
tourism economy's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) buoyed by a stable
political
environment and the spin-offs from the World Cup, according to a
report
released on Thursday last week. The Travel & Tourism Economic Impact
report for 2010 released by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC),
says
Zimbabwe will grow by 9,4% this year behind Qatar (13,1) and Lebanon
(10,5%).
From 2011-2020, Zimbabwe would record annual growth
rates of 8,7% trailing
China as the fastest growing tourism
economy.
The report was done by WTTC in conjunction with Oxford
Economics, a leading
economic forecasting consultancy
firm.
Adrian Cooper, Oxford Economic MD told Standardbusiness the
forecast growth
is premised on the normalisation of the environment which
allows business to
grow.
Since the formation of the inclusive
government last year, the business
environment has improved
significantly.
Cooper said the spin-offs from the World Cup in South
Africa will impact
significantly on the travel and tourism economy component
of the GDP.
The soccer World Cup will be hosted on the African
continent for the first
time in the tournament's 80-year
history.
Neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe will benefit by
hosting teams en
route to the finals thus improving on the branding of a
destination.
Using the rotation system the next World Cup will come
to Africa in 2034.
The WTTC report said Zimbabwe would be the third
fastest growing country on
travel and tourism capital investment from
2010-2020.
At an annual growth rate of 10,7%, Zimbabwe will trail Sao
Tome and Principe
(22,9%) and Angola (13,7%).
Zimbabwe's tourism
industry is coming from a low base as the country's
economic problems took a
toll on investment.
A liquidity crunch on the financial sector has
left the sector looking for
long-term credit across the borders to revive
the tourism product.
The WTTC report estimates that the world's
investment in the travel and
tourism sector is expected to hit US$2,7
trillion in 2020 representing 9,4%
of total investment.
In 2010,
the report forecasts that investment in the sector would be US$1,2
trillion
(9,2% of total investment).
BY NDAMU SANDU
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 15:23
GWERU
- Industry and Commerce Minister, Welshman Ncube says an immediate
economic
turnaround will be difficult before the crippling electricity
shortages are
addressed. Zimbabwe's electricity woes worsened last month
after most
generators at the Hwange thermal power station were
decommissioned.
Zesa
is now toying around with plans to decommission the stations altogether
and
this could plunge the country into a far- reaching energy crisis.
Ncube told
the Gweru business community at a consultative meeting on
Thursday that the
high tariffs and the inconsistency in the supply of
electricity had hampered
efforts to increase industry's capacity
utilisation.
"Government is aware
that all our efforts to turnaround our industries will
be futile unless we
turnaround the energy supply," he said.
Ncube said government had since set
up a committee chaired by Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara to
investigate utilities charging tariffs that did
not match their service
provision.
Zesa is being investigated by the Competition and Tariff
Commission over its
tendency to issue excessive bills despite the fact that
most of the time
Zimbabweans have no electricity.
Ncube said the problem
was peculiar with other utilities and municipalities
whose charges were
stifling industrial growth.
"There is need for self-introspection by these
service providers," he said.
"Imagine for a example a council where 90% of
the revenue goes to salaries
and only 10% to service delivery.
"If you do
not do things properly, you invite the government to intervene
and most of
the times the government intervenes wrongly."
Ncube said capacity utilisation
in most companies had gone up from 10% at
the formation of the inclusive
government last year to 35%.
He attributed the slow improvement to the
liquidity crunch and warned that
the situation would not improve unless
external investors come in.
But the minister conceded that investors would
not be encouraged by the
recently gazetted empowerment regulations that seek
to force foreign firms
to cede 51% of their shareholding to
locals.
Business leaders told the minister the regulations were ill-
timed.
Alex Marufu, the Midlands chairperson of the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries also urged the government to have a re-look at its "Look East"
policy saying cheap imports from Asia were threatening industry's
viability.
"It costs us $1,50 to make a pair of pata-pata (flip-flops) yet in
some
shops you get them at one dollar for two pairs," said Joseph Ndlela, a
human
resources officer at Bata.
"We just can't compete despite that we
have good quality."
Anchor Yeast chief operations officer, Roderick Musiiwa
also challenged the
government to tighten its anti-dumping regulations to
protect local
manufacturers from cheap imports.
BY RUTENDO
MAWERE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010 18:30
LIVING in the low-income suburb
of Mabvuku has never been for the
faint-hearted. This was graphically put to
the nation years ago when it was
reported a woman had died at Hunters' Bar
in the suburb while dancing to the
song Amadamara by South African artiste
Fred Gwala.
I have never found out what the word Amadamara means but the
woman had been
dancing all day to the tune on the juke box.
A
friend of mine said we should go to Mabvuku and try to find the woman's
story as we thought it might make fascinating reading.
I was driving
a Morris 1100 then which, because it was shaped like a hyena,
we fondly
called Bere; my enemies though called it the Contraption behind my
back.
As it turned out we never got the woman's story, for Bere
hit a pothole,
veered off the road and fell into a ditch just as we entered
the suburb.
We just left it there (it had really become a contraption)
and hiked back to
town and bought another car.
I never went back to
Mabvuku to reclaim the Contraption. As they say, a fool
and his money are
soon parted.
This is the reason why I am editing this publication instead
of playing golf
three times a week and fishing the rest of the time. This is
a true story; I
still have the registration book to prove
it.
That was in the mid-1990s and I have never had any reason to go
back to
Mabvuku.
Now I hear that the citizens of this
god-forsaken suburb are eating and
drinking their own faeces!
This is not
a laughing matter.
There has been an outbreak of typhoid in the
township; so far 45 people have
contracted it and six have
died.
In ancient times when people just threw their waste matter out
of the
window, as the Romans did, it was understandable that there were
occasional
outbreaks of typhoid.
Not in a modern suburb or city! But
then there is nothing modern about
Mabvuku and come to think of it Harare -
one need only see the millions of
rats that have infested the metropolis
once known as the Sunshine City.
There has been a serious water
crisis in Mabvuku over the past 10 years.
About 200 houses built by the
Kugarika Kushinga Housing Cooperative (New
Mabvuku) near Circle Cement never
had a drop of water since they were built
over five years ago.
There
are government flats in Old Tafara built in the late 1990s which are
yet to
be occupied because of the water woes.
The water situation has resulted
in residents digging up wells in their
backyards and some using water from
unprotected sources.
The first reported cholera outbreak in 2008 was in
Mabvuku and it claimed 10
people within a week. After the outbreak, Unicef
drilled boreholes
throughout Tafara and Mabvuku, but they were vandalised.
Unicef
intermittently brings into the suburbs water tanks for use by the
residents.
Water started coming out of taps three weeks ago, mainly
in Old and New
Mabvuku, but residents only use it for washing. Most houses
in Tafara do not
have portable water.
Besides the water woes,
some sewerage pipes have blocked resulting in the
flow of sewage into the
streets which seeps into the soil and contaminates
water from wells, which
largely provide water for domestic use.
This has thrown Mabvuku not
only back into the Dark Ages but to pre-Roman
Empire times. The Romans were
renowned for their sanitation system.
Mabvuku is a microcosm of what
has happened to our country. If one were to
ask the powers that be what has
caused this they will obviously point to the
"illegal sanctions that Britain
and its Western allies have imposed upon the
country."
But that
is simply not true!
Social services in the country began to
deteriorate well before the
emergence of serious opposition politics at the
turn of the millennium.
Money supposed to be used to develop the country
whose population was
expanding at high rate was diverted to other uses so
that social services
such as water and sewer reticulation systems could not
be maintained and
expanded.
People might be interested to know
that Zimbabwe is about the only country
in southern Africa which has been
continually at war for 30 years.
After the 1970s war of liberation, the
country was thrown into a
debilitating civil war, Gukurahundi, aimed at
establishing a one-party state
which cost a fortune.
In the 1980s
too, much money was spent in fighting the Mozambique National
Resistance.
Before we had forgotten that war we were plunged into the DRC
civil war to
prop the corrupt regime of Laurent Kabila.
The effects of that war are
still being felt and nothing was gained from it.
In the new millennium, the
country has once again been at war with itself,
with the Zanu PF government
expending innumerable resources to fight
democracy.
This has been a
war of attrition which has seen the destruction of
commercial farming which
was the envy of the world. It also saw the
de-industrialisation of the
country and also very painfully the displacement
of a huge chunk of our
population that sought refuge in the Diaspora.
Only a concerted
effort to restore social services round the country will
restore Zimbabwe to
its former glory but this requires solid political will.
BY
NEVANJI MADANHIRE
Editor
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 March 2010
18:15
SPENDING three hours with President Robert Mugabe will always be an
eye-opener because very few people have had an opportunity to get inside the
mind of a man considered to be one of Africa’s worst dictators. It was at
the rare meeting with editors from all media houses in the country that
Mugabe revealed that he had once assured a hesitant Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai at one of their meetings during the arduous negotiations that led
to the formation of the unity government a year ago that “I also eat what
you eat.”
For a lot of people, Mugabe’s ideological rigidity and
his penchant to
resort to violence when his authority is challenged meant he
was less human
and those who trusted him did so at their own
peril.
Most journalists who trooped to Zimbabwe House on March 6 had
wanted to
confirm their worst fears — most of them fuelled by a detached
understanding
of the reclusive Mugabe — that the coalition government was
dead because the
“Great Leader” is impervious to calls for
reform.
They expected the 86-year-old president to confirm that he is
not happy with
the pace of reforms and is in favour of a reduction in
speed.
But having attended at least two previous meetings where I had
the chance to
hear what Mugabe does not often share with ordinary
Zimbabweans in my almost
a decade in journalism, I strongly believed he was
not the real problem.
The problem is his hangers on who think Mugabe
must be shielded from the
realities of his disastrous 30 years in power at
all costs.
South African journalist, Heidi Holland, in her
psycho-biography Dinner with
Mugabe makes the interesting observation that
the main reason behind the
veteran ruler’s spectacular failure to lead is
that he is often misled by
officials too desperate to impress
him.
They often feed him with the wrong information and therefore his
sense of
reality is always at variance with the situation on the
ground.
There were two incidents that helped re-inforce this school
of thought at
his first meeting with journalists from diverse media houses
in a decade.
First it was his spokesperson and well-known opponent of
media plurality,
George Charamba who tried to prevent the editors from
recording or taking
notes of their once in a lifetime conversation with
President Mugabe.
Charamba made strange claims that Mugabe might not
open up if he sees
journalists sharpening their swords against
him.
In the end, common sense prevailed after Mugabe overruled his
overprotective
spokesperson.
However, the most revealing incident
was when a journalist asked Mugabe why
it has taken the newly constituted
Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) so long
to start its
work.
Charamba said his ministry’s understanding was that Mugabe had
to swear in
the nine commissioners before they can start their
work.
The cat had been let out of the bag!
It became clear
to everyone that some people have been withholding from the
president
crucial advice for their selfish ends.
Mugabe appeared equally
shocked that people who were appointed almost a
month ago still awaited his
blessings to start their work.
It is almost a month since the ZMC was
formally appointed but Zimbabweans
are still in the dark about what its
intentions are.
The deafening silence by the ZMC commissioners since
their appointment was
first announced on December 19, has cast serious
doubts about their
readiness to carry out the enormous work that awaits
them.
The onus is now on the distinguished journalists and media
trainers who make
up the ZMC to prove this assessment
wrong.
We do not have too much faith in those who owe their
appointment to the
commission to their strident support of Zanu PF’s fascist
media policies.
Media reform is a key result area for this faltering
unity government.
I am convinced the men and women of high standing
that have been chosen to
lead this process would not want to be remembered
for having done nothing
when duty called.
They should not be
intimidated by what Tsvangirai often refers to as the
residues of resistance
so well personified by Charamba and the media
hangman, Tafataona
Mahoso.
The life of this inclusive government is too short for the
commissioners to
be prevaricating.
By now ZMC chair, Godfrey
Majonga and his colleagues should have organised a
press conference or
issued statements to state how they intend to exercise
this important
mandate bestowed on them by a nation long on expectations.
Publishers
who have been waiting on the wings since the formation of the
unity
government want to know where to submit their applications for
licenses.
They want to know how long it would take them to start
giving Zimbabweans an
alternative voice they have been so cruelly deprived
of since the previous
Zanu PF administration introduced the notorious Access
to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act in 2002.
The success
of the commissioners would be measured by the degree to which
they helped
Zimbabwe’s transition to democracy by a world that has invested
so much hope
in this country despite attempts by few Zanu PF adherents to
resist
reform.
The commissioners must be able to tell Zimbabweans if anyone
is hindering
their work so that they are judged accordingly.
A
few in Zanu PF badly want to see the status quo to prevail because they
know
that if Zimbabweans get to know their inadequacies and corrupt
tendencies
they would become unelectable.
This means that the work of the ZMC
would never be a stroll in the park and
it would require people of principle
and whose commitment to duty is beyond
reproach.
Mugabe is
without doubt at his weakest and desperately wants the unity
government to
succeed.
He has given the commissioners the green light to get on
with their work and
they should seize this opportunity to change the media
landscape.
Zimbabwe does not deserve another Media and Information
Commission, which
became too drunk with Zanu PF ideology and became so
instrumental in the
destruction of this once promising
country.
BY KHOLWANI NYATHI
News Editor
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 13 March
2010 18:12
JOSEPH Chinotimba caused a stir at our offices a little while
ago when he
arrived unannounced demanding to see the Editor of The Standard.
Understandably, the security guard at the reception was apprehensive about
allowing the war veterans' leader into the premises because of his fierce
reputation as the self-appointed commander of farm
invasions.
Fortunately for The Standard, it soon dawned that Chinotimba
had not come to
"invade" the paper, but merely to deliver a letter to the
Editor complaining
of an sms message we published criticising the manner in
which the land
reform programme was undertaken.
Chinotimba has
been fighting tooth and nail to prove that he is not the
illiterate buffoon
the local media makes him out to be.
His letter to the editor, although
containing a few embarrassing literal
errors, was reasonably well written
for someone of his academic level,
suggesting that the war veterans' leader
had either undergone a dramatic
metamorphosis in his literacy status or
obtained substantial assistance from
someone slightly better than himself.
The latter seemed more likely.
Chinotimba may still be a little rough
on the edges in terms of education
and general academic knowledge, but he is
no fool. He knows that being
slavishly loyal to Zanu PF and President Robert
Mugabe is all one needs to
become economically "empowered" in
Zimbabwe.
From a lowly paid job as municipal security guard,
Chinotimba has risen
meteorically to own his own security company, a farm
and built himself a
posh house in the middle-income suburb of
Mabelreign.
The location of the house, on land apparently designated for
churches and
recreation facilities raised eyebrows in the neighbourhood but
the Harare
City Council, evidently intimidated by Chinotimba's political
clout, has
done nothing about it.
Chinotimba is a typical example
of what is patently wrong about the country's
indigenisation
policies.
Saviour Kasukuwere, The Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and
Empowerment,
speaking in defence of the new empowerment regulations, stated
that if
journalists wrote in support of the new legislation, they too would
be
empowered. He declared that there was no way the journalists would be
"empowered" after demonising the empowerment programme on Internet websites
and local private media.
What Kasukuwere was effectively
suggesting is that you miss the Zanu PF
patronage gravy train, then you have
only yourself to blame when it leaves
you behind.
There is no
doubt that the indigenisation programme, as orchestrated by,
firstly the
moribund Indigenous Business Development Centre (IBDC) then led
by transport
operator Ben Mucheche and the Phillip Chiyangwa hybrid,
Affirmative Action
Group (AAG), has done wonders for a handful of well
connected black
Zimbabweans.
Coming immediately to mind are the likes of former fitness
trainer, Themba
Mliswa, Former TV presenter turned business mogul, Supa
Mandiwanzira, Jane
Mutasa among scores of others whose rags-to-riches
stories are a marvel to
behold.
But what remains unconvincing is
whether all these new business wonders owe
their success to entrepreneurial
acumen rather than their vociferous defence
of Zanu PF and its populist
policies.
There is a fundamental assumption in the empowerment doctrine
that the mere
wish to be a businessman backed by a law that catapults one
into a business
environment, regardless of the absence of any business
experience or
knowledge, is enough for one to succeed.
Yet it is no
secret that successful businesses are founded on
resourcefulness, extensive
understanding of one's market and more
importantly, adequate investment
capital. Anyone lacking these essential
requisites has no business being in
business
Indeed, many Zimbabweans have built successful business
empires from a
scratch without the assistance of regulations that allow them
to muscle into
already established enterprises to become majority
shareholders.
Many built their businesses portfolios through prudent and
meticulous
investment on the stock market and have reaped the
rewards.
Investors, foreign or otherwise, have every reason to be
suspicious of
regulations that force them to give away 51% of their
shareholding to people
whose entrepreneurial credentials are an unknown
quantity.
In terms of the new empowerment regulations, the minister will
maintain a
register of "eligible" shareholders who will be allocated
specific
companies.
Given the experience of the allocation of farms
under the widely-discredited
land reform programme, what guarantees are
there that such a list will not
comprise mostly of the likes of the
Chinotimbas, Mandiwanziras and Mliswas,
whose only claim to fame can be
traced no further than blind loyalty to
Mugabe and Zanu PF.
It is
important to point out that no Zimbabwean worth his salt, black or
white,
should be opposed to indigenous participation in the mainstream
economy of
the country.
What most people find objectionable is the methodology and
the timing at
this juncture when the country is desperately crying for
foreign direct
investment.
While it is a historical reality that
racial discrimination and economic
marginalisation during the colonial
period disadvantaged many blacks, there
is a tendency to blame poverty among
blacks, some of it owing to lack of
foresight or initiative, laziness and
general lethargy towards
self-development on racial
discrimination.
Thirty years into our independence, surely this sort of
victim mentality can
no longer be a valid excuse for failure when there are
abundant examples of
scores of enterprising Zimbabweans that have
independently found their niche
in a competitive business
world.
BY DESMOND KUMBUKA
Chief Sub Editor
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 13 March 2010
18:10
President Robert Mugabe has said that the government will not
tolerate the
illegal leasing of land to former white commercial farmers and
warned that
those involved in the practice would be punished. He has said he
was aware
that the practice was widespread and involved high-ranking
government
officials and senior members of his Zanu PF party. One of the
resolutions of
his party's congress last December was that leasing of farms
to former white
commercial farmers would not be permitted.
When
he reiterated this point to the media two weeks ago we knew action
would
come fast - and it has, but only against the small fish.
Mashonaland
Central governor Martin Dinha has shamelessly named a handful of
chiefs as
the culprits. According to reports these chiefs have already been
dispossessed of their farms.
Dinha named Chief Makope of Mvurwi as
one of the wrongdoers and told the
state-run Sunday Mail that a probe was
under way in his province that would
expose several more chiefs involved in
the practice.
He should hang his head in shame.
He never referred
to the land audit done in his province which fingered
powerful Zanu PF
oligarchs as the chief offenders.
It was reported last month that the
audit had revealed that Local Government
minister Ignatious Chombo and
Information and Publicity minister Webster
Shamu were the chief offenders in
the case.
He ignored, completely, recent reports that top military
officers in
Mashonaland West were leasing their farms to former commercial
farmers
because they themselves did not have the capacity to farm
them.
There are reports galore that the practice is prevalent in all
provinces.
From a strictly rational point of view the arrangement is not
evil per se.
It ensures that the farms are utilised and the country
fed.
It benefits the new farmer who lacks the capacity to farm and also
benefits
the country that is in dire need of food. In the face of the
vandalism that
accompanied land reform, leasing to those with the
wherewithal to use the
farms productively also ensures that the farms are
re-mechanised.
It is only when we look at the practice from the
romantic revolutionary
perspective that it becomes wicked.
President
Robert Mugabe has pinned his legacy on the land reform programme
which he
has dubbed the Third Chimurenga - a racist enterprise that has
endeared him
to super patriots around the African continent, but
impoverished his own
people.
Indeed he has preached ad nauseum the success of the land
programme at every
possible forum without mentioning, even once, its
downside, such as the
inability of the new farmers to practise the business
of commercial farming.
He would not want to admit that his land
revolution has gone desperately
awry. The leasing of the farms back to their
former owners, who are white,
becomes a great humiliation to
Mugabe.
It constitutes a victory for the white farmers who have all the
right now to
point at him and say, "We told you so."
The world at
large would also be vindicated in their argument that the whole
land reform
exercise was a vindictive backlash against white Zimbabweans for
supporting
the MDC.
In all the multitude of scandals that have erupted in the
country since
Independence in 1980 it has turned out that only the very
small fish have
been netted while the big fish get away scot free.
It
was never in the nation's wildest imagination that the action against
those
who lease out farms would touch the big fish who are also the multiple
farm
owners.
But what the people hate is the open deceit displayed by
functionaries such
as Dinha that the government is doing something about
people who break the
rules when everyone knows this to be a lie.