http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 21:10
Dumisani
Muleya
ENERGY and Power Development minister Elton Mangoma Friday
blamed President
Robert Mugabe (pictured) for his arrest on corruption
allegations involving
a fuel supply tender, saying he was shocked that after
clearing the air with
the president two weeks ago he was still
arraigned.
This came as state security agencies were plotting fresh
charges against
Mangoma to re-arrest him. Dossiers, leaked to state media,
have already been
prepared and the minister could soon find himself in
trouble again.
In his first interview since he was released
by High Court judge Samuel
Kudya on US$5 000 bail on Tuesday, Mangoma told
the Zimbabwe Independent his
arrest was malicious because he had explained
the issue in cabinet on March
1 and to Mugabe on March 3 to everyone’s
satisfaction.
Mangoma insisted he had acted in the “national interest” in
an emergency
situation, only to be rewarded with arrest and detention for
five days.
“I don’t know who exactly was behind it (his arrest) but
what I do know is
that it’s Zanu PF officials responsible. He (Mugabe) is
involved in it. This
issue was discussed in cabinet recently and the matter
was cleared before
him,” Mangoma said.
“Further to the cabinet
meeting, I met him (Mugabe) the Thursday before I
was arrested (March 3) and
we discussed the issue extensively. I briefed him
on the factual position
and gave him the details. As far as I was concerned
the issue was resolved
and the case closed because he was now fully aware of
the
facts.”
Mangoma said the US$6 million fuel deal between South African
fuel
suppliers, Mohwelere and NOOA, was necessitated by a national emergency
as
there was a shortage of supplies in the country.
Justice Kudya
on Tuesday said the case against Mangoma was based on “scant
facts” and had
very little prospect of success. He said Mangoma might have
done the wrong
thing while genuinely pursuing a noble cause as there was a
national
crisis.
Mangoma will, however, stand trial at the High Court on March
28. The state
claims Mangoma violated tender procedures in awarding a
five-million litres
fuel supply contract to Mohwelere and NOOA. Six
witnesses, including his
permanent secretary Justin Mupamhanga, have been
lined up to testify against
Mangoma.
Mangoma’s arrest has further
divided the already fractured inclusive
government as Zanu PF officials and
ministers blame each other for the
indictment whose basis virtually
collapsed in court this week.
Mangoma’s arraignment shed light on
behind-the-scenes infighting within Zanu
PF which is mainly influenced by
the festering power struggle in the party
over Mugabe’s
succession.
The Zanu PF succession battle is also now reflecting itself
even in the
fight of who the next Speaker of parliament would be after the
ousting of
Lovemore Moyo last week.
Informed sources said
Mangoma’s arrest was discussed during acting President
John Nkomo’s meeting
with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday last
week and on Monday
during Mugabe’s encounter with the premier. Prior to the
Monday meeting,
Tsvangirai had raised the issue with diplomats during his
briefing on Friday
last week.
The matter was also hotly debated in cabinet on Tuesday,
further piling
pressure on Mugabe. Sources said divisions over Mangoma’s
arrest surfaced
when Nkomo met with Tsvangirai last
Thursday.
“Tsvangirai went to see Nkomo fuming last week on Thursday
over Mangoma’s
arrest. Nkomo distanced himself from the arrest. It emerged
in that meeting
that the Mnangagwa faction was behind the move,” a source
said.
“Mugabe apparently thinks the arrest was wrongly executed. The
president
openly distanced himself from the issue on Monday and even told
the premier
Mangoma should be out the following day
(Tuesday).”
Mangoma was released by the High Court on bail on
Tuesday. Kudya virtually
dismantled the case ahead of trial on March 28,
leaving those behind his
arrest with an uphill task to secure a
conviction.
However, the source said Mugabe’s dissociation from the
issue appeared to
have been “damage limitation” because before a cabinet
minister is arrested
his approval has to be sought.
Zanu PF
hardliners aligned to Defence minister Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF camp and
their
allies within state security structures, the ministry, and government’s
legal department, working with MDC-T disgruntled collaborators, were behind
the Mangoma arrest, it was said.
Mnangagwa yesterday declined to
comment on the allegations. Mangoma said he
did not know if Mnangagwa was
involved but indicated he knew the minister
for a long time.
Mangoma,
however, dismissed claims by some senior Zanu PF officials linked
to
Mnangagwa that he was related to the defence boss. “I’m not related to
him
although I know him for a long time, in fact since 1982,” Mangoma said.
“We
worked together in the past.”
Tsvangirai has been raising the Mangoma
saga in the region where he is
currently updating the regional leaders on
the crisis in the inclusive
government, according to his close
aides.
The unity government’s top six leaders comprising Mugabe,
co-vice-presidents
Nkomo and Joice Mujuru, as well as Tsvangirai and his two
deputies,
Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara, were expected to meet this
week to
deal with problems in the coalition arrangement, including Mangoma’s
arrest.
An extraordinary cabinet meeting is also expected soon to
discuss problems
in the inclusive government.
South African President
Jacob Zuma, Sadc facilitator in Zimbabwe, this week
dispatched his special
envoy Mac Maharaj in a bid to contain and manage the
inclusive government
crisis.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011
21:06
Faith Zaba/Paidamoyo Muzulu
ZANU PF is deeply
divided along factional lines over the parliamentary
Speaker’s job, with at
least seven names being thrown into the hat to
contend with the MDC-T’s
Lovemore Moyo and Paul Themba Nyathi of the smaller
MDC faction.
Top Zanu
PF sources yesterday told the Zimbabwe Independent that at least
two lists
had emerged, as groups aligned to long-time rivals and politburo
heavyweights Emmerson Mnangagwa and General Solomon Mujuru, intensify their
power struggle to secure the powerful Speaker’s post.
The battle
between the two factions mirrors the ongoing struggle to succeed
President
Robert Mugabe.
The MDC-T wants to retain Moyo for the post he lost
following a Supreme
Court ruling nullifying his election over electoral
irregularities, while
the faction led by Welshman Ncube, which holds the
balance of power in the
hung parliament, is hoping to convince Zanu PF to
buy Nyathi once again.
The smaller MDC is likely to use the impending
election as a bargaining chip
to push either Mugabe or MDC-T leader Morgan
Tsvangirai to recognise Ncube
as one of the three
principals.
Moyo, who is the MDC-T’s national chairman, narrowly beat
Nyathi by 110
votes to 98 to assume the Speaker’s post in 2008. Zanu PF did
not contest
the job.
These elections are crucial to Moyo as he is
also facing stiff competition
for his party position in the upcoming MDC-T
congress.
Zanu PF sources said Vice President Joice Mujuru met the
party’s chairman
Simon Khaya Moyo this week to discuss his possible
candidacy.
In addition to Moyo, the Mujuru faction is also said to be
pushing for
Goromonzi MP Biata Nyamupinga and Mwenezi East MP Kudakwashe
Bhasikiti as
its second and third choices.
Other names being
tossed around the Mujuru camp are Guruve North MP Edward
Chindori-Chininga
and Goromonzi North MP Paddy Zhanda.
Sources from the Mujuru camp
feel that Moyo, who was Zimbabwe’s Ambassador
to South Africa for 10 years,
might not garner enough support to win the
vote.
“The general
feeling among MPs is that anyone outside parliament might not
be able to
convince other legislators from the other MDCs to vote for them.
So we
believe that even though SK Moyo is the most senior member, he might
not be
able to win that election,” said the source.
On the other hand, the
Mnangagwa group has proposed that Mugabe appoints SK
Moyo a non-constituent
MP in order for him to replace Vice President John
Nkomo as minister of
national healing.
The group wants the Speaker job to be reserved for
a female candidate and
has suggested that Women’s League boss Oppah
Muchinguri contests on a Zanu
PF ticket.
Zanu PF chief whip and
Mberengwa West MP Joram Gumbo is their second choice.
“We want to use
the gender ticket so we are proposing Muchinguri,” said
another source. “She
has the right standing for that post. Gumbo has been
the chief whip for
about 18 years and we feel that he could easily win the
election because he
gets along with everyone across the political divide. We
feel more names
should be put forward to choose from.”
The election of a new Speaker
comes against the backdrop of vicious
wrangling between the two bitter
factions characterised by behind-the-scenes
lobbying and alliance
formations.
The sources said discussions were under way between Zanu
PF and Ncube’s MDC
to support their candidate.
“We are talking to
the other MDC and we have told them that since we
supported their candidate
in the last election, they should now support
ours. They would be returning
the favour. We understand that they are
consulting each other over that
issue,” said the source.
However, MDC deputy president Edwin
Mushoriwa said his party would use its
unique position to win the seat or
use its numbers as a bargaining chip to
have Ncube declared one of the
principals.
“We consider fielding our 2008 candidate Paul Themba
Nyathi again. This
position is informed by recent Zanu PF and MDC-T ganging
up to block Ncube’s
ascendancy to deputy premier after our congress in
January,” said Mushoriwa.
MDC-N accuses Mugabe of deliberately
protecting Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara as one of the principals
of the GPA despite Ncube’s assuming the
party’s
presidency.
Tsvangirai refused to take sides saying the matter was an
internal
disagreement.
MDC-T is steadfast that it will win the
Speaker’s post on the strength of
its numbers in the House and support from
dissident MPs belonging to the
other two parties.
MDC-T chief
whip Innocent Gonese said: “The party has not changed its
position. We will
field Moyo and hope that we will get support from across
the political
divide just like in 2008.”
However, Ncube’s MDC still remains the
power broker with its eight votes
being crucial in who wins the post. MDC-T
has 97 MPs, including Moyo while
Zanu PF has 96.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011
21:04
Paidamoyo Muzulu
TELECEL Zimbabwe acting chairman Jane
Mutasa has accused her company’s
majority shareholder Telecel International
of breaching the country’s laws
by continuing to consult exiled businessman
James Makamba on its local
operations despite boardroom changes.
Mutasa
complained to the Media and Communication Portfolio Committee of
parliament
yesterday that the Telecel board merely used her to rubber-stamp
decisions
they would have made in consultation with Makamba in South
Africa.
Mutasa leads local consortium Empowerment Corporation, which
owns 40% of
Telecel Zimbabwe, which is the country’s second largest mobile
phone
operator.
“Egyptians and Kestrel Corporation (Makamba’s
investment vehicle) hold
meetings in South Africa. My bone of contention is
that they want me to
endorse decisions made in my absence,” said
Mutasa.
She said her opposition to foreigners being hired as senior
managers ahead
of locals was central to Telecel International sidelining her
in making
critical decisions.
“The board has hired foreigners to
fill all executive positions against
indigenisation policy and these guys
are not answerable to me,” Mutasa
complained.
The managing
director, finance director, technical director and commercial
roll-out
manager of Telecel Zimbabwe are all foreigners.
She further alleged
that Telecel’s audited results were being kept away from
her by the managing
director and financial director.
The government withdrew Telecel’s
operating licence last year until it
regularised its shareholding structure
in accordance with Zimbabwe’s
indigenisation policy.
This
requires that locals own 51% or more of any business valued above
US$500
000.
Telecel International owns 60% of Telecel Zimbabwe. Asked to reveal
her
company’s shareholding, Mutasa said Empowerment Corporation comprised
Cellphone Investments (21,7%), Indigenous Women Business Organisation
(0,0023%), Small Scale Miners (8%) and Kestrel Corporation (Makamba’s
investment vehicle) (70%).
Other founding shareholders, such as
the Affirmative Action Group, War
Veterans Association, Integrated
Engineering Group and Zimbabwe Farmers
Union, all disposed of their
stakes.
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http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 21:01
Bernard
Mpofu
POLICE in Harare have banned MDC-T rallies scheduled for this
weekend,
saying Zanu PF had either booked the venues or was holding its own
rallies
in close proximity to where the MDC-T wanted to assemble.
Officer
commanding Harare Central District, Chief Superintendent Garikai
Gwangwava,
advised MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti that his party’s
“Peace Rally”
set for Glamis Arena at the Harare Show Grounds could not be
sanctioned
because it coincided with a Zanu PF rally at the open space
between the
Rainbow Towers and Interpol offices less than 500m from the
Glamis
Arena.
“My office regrets to advise you that your intended place of
rally’s
proximity and timings coincide with that of Zanu PF which is also
holding a
rally on the same date at the open space between the Rainbow
Towers and
Interpol Offices, which is less than 500 metres from your
intended venue.
Please also take note that the roads that lead to your
intended venue are
the same that lead to Zanu PF’s venue and there is a
likelihood of clashes
between supporters which might lead to violence,”
Gwangwava wrote to Biti.
The other rally banned by the police for the
same reason was to be held at
the Zimbabwe Grounds in
Highfield.
However, Biti dismissed the police stance, vowing that his
party would go
ahead with the weekend rallies. He said they would challenge
the bans in the
courts.
“Pursuant to my letter dated the 14th of
March 2011, I wish to confirm that
we are proceeding with our Peace Rally on
Saturday the 19th of March 2011,”
Biti wrote in response to
Gwangwava.
Letters in the possession of the Zimbabwe Independent show
that the latest
ban is the third this month.
Last Saturday, the
officer commanding Harare South District, Chief
Superintendent TA
Chagwedera, banned a planned MDC rally set for Zimbabwe
Grounds in Highfield
saying the venue had been booked by “some other players
for the 19th and
20th of March 2011”.
Another planned rally at the open space between
Harare’s Exhibition Park and
Rotten Row Magistrates Courts was again banned
after police said an unnamed
organisation would be using the
venue.
“My office regrets to advise you that your intended place of
rally and
timings coincide with that of another organisation, which my
office has
since sanctioned,” wrote Gwangwava in another letter to Biti,
dated March
14.The MDC-T said recent bans on the party’s gatherings were
meant to deny
the party the right to associate with its
constituencies.
The party said police had no power to outlaw
political gatherings.
The Public Order and Security Act, a
controversial piece of legislation
regulating gatherings, merely stipulates
that organisations should inform
police before holding an
event.
“We refer to our letter dated 9th of March 2011, in respect of
which we gave
notice to hold a rally at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield on the
13th of March
2011, a notification which you unlawfully turned down on the
basis that Zanu
PF had booked the venue for the year,” Biti
wrote.
“We, by copy of this letter, wish to place it on record that
we have serious
reservations on your actions which are clearly meant to deny
us our right to
associate and also to indicate that as a party, we reserve
our right to
freedom of association in Zimbabwe within the confines of the
law.”
Morgan Tsvangirai told business leaders in Harare last week
that police bans
ahead of an elective congress in May were part of Zanu PF’s
ploy to weaken
his party ahead of its congress. He described the confusion
on who had
imposed the ban as a “circus” in the coalition after President
Robert Mugabe
professed ignorance on the action.
He said the
co-Home Affairs ministers had limited control over the police.
“Your
co-ministers of Home Affairs have no power and control over the
Commissioner-General. If they want to give an instruction to the
Commissioner-General, they have to do it in writing, but the
Commissioner-General reports directly to the president and the president can
give instructions to the Commissioner-General verbally,” said
Tsvangirai.
“Even if you give your written instructions, they may be
overturned by a
verbal instruction. That is the complexity of the
arrangement.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011
18:33
Bernard Mpofu
AN Anti-Corruption Commission investigator is
facing disciplinary action
for instituting a probe against former ZBC
finance director Oniyas Gumbo
without the commission’s approval.
Courage
Nyamajiwa is scheduled to appear before the commission’s
disciplinary
committee next Wednesday facing five counts of allegedly
executing his
duties without the commission’s consent.
Gumbo is alleged to have
forged documents of real estate firm Assetfin and
an investigation into him
was instituted after Assetfin director Anthony
Parehwa reported Gumbo to the
Anti-Corruption Commission.
Gumbo is accused of forging the documents to
assume 100% ownership of the
company.
Gumbo is making
counter-allegations over these accusations.
“Firstly you are being
charged with contravening Section 4(a) of the Labour
(National Employment
Code of Conduct) Regulations, 2006 in that you acted
inconsistently with the
fulfilment of the express or implied conditions of
your contract of
employment in that you investigated a fraud case involving
Anthony Parehwa
as the complainant (representing Assetfin) and Oniyas Gumbo
as the accused
person without authority from the General Manager
Investigations,” reads
part of the charges preferred against Nyamajiwa by
the
commission.
“Secondly, you are facing allegations of contravening
Section 4(a) of the
Labour (National Employment Code of Conduct)
Regulations, 2006 in that you
acted inconsistently with the fulfillment of
the express or implied
conditions of your contract of employment by
releasing a witness statement
to Anthony Parehwa dated 30 March 2010 without
authority from the General
Manager, Investigations Division.”
As
a result of these allegations, Nyamajiwa has been removed from the
investigators‘ pool and reassigned to the administration division with no
particular duty.
Nyamajiwa’s lawyers, Chadyiwa & Associates,
have challenged the decision to
transfer their client to an administrative
role saying it constituted
wrongful infringements of his rights, was illegal
and amounted to unfair
labour practice.
The lawyers also took
issue with the alleged harassment, intimidation,
victimisation and
confrontation of Nyamajiwa by his superiors. Assetfin’s
Parehwa accuses
Nyamajiwa’s superiors of siding with Gumbo.
“This is to thus demand
that unless the acts of intimidation, demotion and
or irregular transfer,
harassment, confrontation, and other unfair labour
practices highlighted
above are stopped forthwith, then our client shall be
left with no option
but to institute actions aimed at bringing to an end the
unlawful
infringement aforesaid,” reads Nyamajiwa’s lawyers’ letter to the
Anti-Corruption Commission.
Assetfin claimed in the High Court
last month that some anti-graft officers
were offered residential stands to
block a criminal probe against Gumbo.
Assetfin wants the court to compel the
Anti-Corruption Commission to
investigate Gumbo.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 18:32
Paidamoyo
Muzulu
RESERVE Bank Governor Gideon Gono has confirmed the long-held
suspicion that
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa selectively used the State
Indebted and
Reconstruction Act to legally expropriate Mutumwa Mawere’s
assets owned
through Shabanie & Mashaba Mines Holdings (SMMH).
Gono
made the startling revelation when he appeared before the Mines and
Energy
Portfolio Committee on Monday to give evidence on the status of
Shabanie and
Mashaba Mines.
The mines have since collapsed under State-appointed
administrator Arafas
Gwaradzimba.
SMMH was put under
reconstruction in 2004 when Mawere was specified on
charges ranging from
externalisation of funds to maladministration.
The central bank
governor made the remarks in response to a question by
committee chairman
Edward Chindori-Chininga on whether SMMH was selectively
targeted by the
minister for reconstruction since it was not the only
company which owed
money to the Reserve Bank under the Public Sector Fund.
Gono
responded: “I don’t know whether I should make a comment after a stated
fact.”
The RBZ chief said he hoped the SMMH saga could have been
handled
differently had people taken a national economic picture into
perspective
before placing the company under reconstruction.
“I
was of the view that some matters should be handled administratively and
not
criminally. If the nation is looking for angels and saints in the last
12
years, it would be hard pressed to find one. We should come up with an
amnesty that deals with economic crimes. One cannot find a St John or St
Luke in terms of commission or omission in this country,” Gono
said.
Gono advised the committee that parliament should use its
powers to review
laws which caused anxiety to investors and retarded the
rebuilding of the
economy.
“Parliament has a role to play since
it can create and uncreate laws. Let
everyone say I am not an angel.
Whatever I did, I did with good intentions,
whether it be Chinamasa or
Gwaradzimba.”
He told the committee that the SMMH saga could still be
resolved amicably if
Chinamasa and Mawere stopped washing their dirty linen
in the courts and
sought advice to bring an end to the
matter.
“We will be happy to assist when called to assist. There
should be no
counter claims, counter accusations and no circus in the
papers. We are a
technical institution, reservoir of knowledge and
advice.
Let’s come together and work out a solution and have the
mines operational
under an agreed ownership structure,” said
Gono.
He cited the central bank’s intervention in resuscitating
collapsed banks,
such as Royal, Trust and Time, after they had wound down
due to alleged
criminal charges against their senior managers and
directors.
The SMMH saga has dragged on in the courts for years and
has a record 25
applications and counter applications to resolve the
company’s ownership.
The legal battles have been fought primarily in
Zimbabwe, the United
Kingdom, South Africa and Zambia.
Ownership
of shares in SMMH remains unresolved and Gono told the committee
that
despite the payment of US$2 million to a UK firm, Turner & Newell, the
RBZ had still not seen the share certificates.
The committee has
so far heard evidence from all the central players in the
SMMH saga,
including Mawere, Gwaradzimba, Chinamasa and Ministry of Home
Affairs
officials who handled Mawere’s specification and despecification.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 18:26
Wongai
Zhangazha
NEWS that cabinet ministers quietly awarded themselves a salary
increment of
200% will obviously anger struggling civil servants who have to
contend with
measly salaries of about US$200 per
month.
Government health workers, especially doctors, will be even
more peeved by
the government’s insincerity.
Just a month
ago junior doctors at Harare Hospital went on strike demanding
a salary
increase, but their calls were ignored by the government arguing
that it did
not have the money to pay them.
The doctors were demanding an increase of
their hourly rate from a meagre
33cents to at least US$10.
One
wonders how parties in the inclusive government, particularly the MDC,
which
claims to have been founded by workers, would ignore the plight of
such a
critical component of its workforce and decide to give priority to
raising
the salaries of ministers, their deputies and members of parliament
and the
senate.
While there have been modest improvements in the health
delivery system
since the consummation of the GNU, the brain drain in the
health sector has
not stopped and those that have remained have had to cope
with heavy
workloads.
On average one or two doctors at
Parirenyatwa, the country’s major referral
hospital, can see up to 300
patients daily at the casualty section.
The 2010 Government Work
Programme (GWP) review acknowledges that the major
challenges for the
Ministry of Health is a serious shortage of human
resources.
“The
shortage of human resources remains a major challenge with the vacancy
levels standing at 67% for specialist’s doctors, 57% environmental health
technicians, 77% midwives, 44% nursing tutors, 59% pharmacy personnel and
59% radiography and laboratory personnel,” reads the GWP
report.
The staff retention scheme for health personnel introduced in
2009 resulted
in some modicum of improvement in staffing but only for lower
levels.
The 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) status report on
Zimbabwe
launched last week also cited the shortage of human resources as a
major
challenge and that this would affect the attainment of the MDGs in
three
areas by 2015.
These are combating HIV and Aids,
tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases,
and improvement in maternal health
and reduction of child mortality rate.
“The major challenge is the
unstable human resource base, arising from high
staff attrition,” reads the
MDG report.
While the country has battled to combat the prevalence of
HIV/Aids, Zimbabwe
is also ranked 17th out of the world’s 22 high-burden TB
countries,
according to government statistics.
TB rates stood at
782 per 100 000 people in 2007, up from 411 per 100 000
people in 2004.The
report said it was likely that the country would not meet
the maternal
mortality ratio (MMR) that stood at 725 per 100 000 live births
in 2007
“because the capacity of the healthcare system has deteriorated
significantly and the MMR has increased”.
Unfortunately, such
alarming figures have not been taken seriously by the
government since it
has failed to come up with a comprehensive health policy
to deal with the
attrition of key personnel.
Government has argued that there is no
money and workers have had to grapple
with poor working conditions, which
include low salaries, heavy workloads,
shortage of drugs and equipment,
among other perennial problems.
What this development has indicated
is that the coalition government has not
seriously considered what the
priorities for the country are.
The parties in the inclusive
government have spent much of their time
fighting over distribution of power
and trading accusations of who has
perpetrated more violence than the
other.
The political gladiators have acknowledged this problem but do not
seem to
have a practical solution to it.
At the launch of the
2011 GWP, Zanu PF senator Guy Georgias said the problem
in achieving targets
set by government ministries was caused by political
parties in the
inclusive government, who spent more time fighting each
other.
“People spend time strategising on how to pull each other
down. If there is
no respect for each other in the GNU, then we will get
nowhere,” Georgias
said.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai added
his voice saying in order to
implement the set targets, there was need for a
discussion of the various
fault lines in the GPA.
“We need a
special focus on how to minimise competition and maximise
collaboration so
that we have one policy. Sometimes we mix what our
political parties are
doing and then when it comes to government we take
different positions,” he
said.
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara put the blame on
politics which he
said took precedence over implementation.
“Our
challenges are around our politics. GPA issues, constitutional matters,
the
elections, the seven matters of reform - constitution, national healing,
media, electoral, political, economic and security reforms,” Mutambara
said.
He criticised the percentage achievements saying some of the
numbers were
not encouraging.
He suggested that ministers who failed to
achieve their targets and fulfill
their promises should be “punished
vigorously”.
Unfortunately such political talk will not stem the tide
of healthcare
deterioration.
Shortage of essential medicine and
equipment for high level quality care
continues to be a big challenge in
attaining the MDGs.
In the 2010 GWP achievements, the Ministry of
Health said it managed to
reduce the overall unavailability of medicines
from 52% to 43% in June last
year while shortfalls in vital drugs have been
reduced from 57% to 52%, and
essential drugs were reduced from 36% to
28%.
Chairman of the social cluster Ignatius Chombo said the aim for
2011 was to
increase vital medicines availability from 40% in 2010 to 60% by
end of the
year, as far as health was concerned.
The other target
is to ensure that servicing and procurement of equipment
should be
undertaken so that at least 20 hospitals in the country meet
minimum
standards of bio-medical equipment.
Government should also find a way
of addressing the concerns of the health
sector. Until that is solved the
health sector will deteriorate at alarming
rates.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011
18:24
Paidamoyo Muzulu
LOVEMORE Moyo made history by becoming
independent Zimbabwe’s first
opposition lawmaker to be elected Speaker of
the House of Assembly in August
2008. He also made history when he became
the first Speaker of the House not
to complete his term.
Moyo, who is the
MDC-T’s national chairman, narrowly beat Paul Themba Nyathi
of the smaller
MDC faction by 110 votes to 98 to assume the fourth most
powerful post in
Zimbabwe.
Moyo also became the first House of Assembly Speaker in a
parliament with no
official opposition since the three main political
parties had agreed to
form an inclusive government to end months of
bloodletting and intimidation.
His victory was made sweeter by
defeating Zanu PF and the smaller MDC
twice — first for the Matobo North
parliamentary seat in Matabeleland South
and then for the Speaker’s post in
the legislature. Zanu PF did not field a
candidate for the post but instead
backed Nyathi.
Boosted by this historic feat, Moyo savoured his
elevation by confidently
declaring that for the first time since
Independence the Zimbabwean
parliament would cease to be a “rubber-stamping
house” and ensure that
progressive laws were passed.
After all,
rubber-stamping had become the hallmark of Zimbabwe’s parliament.
All
legislation was drafted and endorsed by the Zanu PF politburo before
being
forwarded to parliament for routine approval.
Moyo’s term, however,
began on the wrong footing as he struggled to control
his MDC-T colleagues
from booing and heckling President Robert Mugabe when
he officially opened
the Seventh Parliament.
But unbeknown to him, Zanu PF’s hatchet men
started plotting his ouster from
the day he was sworn in, and last week the
Supreme Court dealt him the final
blow when it ruled that Moyo’s election
was fraught with irregularities and
set aside his election, leaving the
august House without a Speaker.
The Supreme Court ruled that Moyo’s
historic election was irregular in terms
of the constitution and
parliamentary standing rules and orders.
Under his stewardship,
parliament only handled six Bills in its first
session. Among those agreed
in the first year of Moyo’s tenure were the
Constitution Amendment No 19,
which created an office of the prime minister
and two deputy prime ministers
in the coalition government under the Global
Political
Agreement.
Under that piece of legislation, Morgan Tsvangirai became the
prime minister
while Arthur Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe were made deputy
prime ministers.
Debates were rather guarded during Moyo’s tenure
with certain motions being
clearly avoided to prevent unnecessary tensions
within the loose coalition.
Motions such as that on the 2008 election
violence were quickly thwarted.
One of the major highlights of Moyo’s
tenure as Speaker was the sailing
through of the Public Order and Security
Act Amendment Bill, despite fierce
bickering between the warring political
parties.
Parliamentary portfolio committees have been given sharper
teeth as chairmen
of these committees jostle to score political points for
their respective
parties.
Ministers, senior civil servants and
other relevant public office holders
have been vigorously grilled by the
committees to the delight of political
parties, depending on who the
chairperson is.
Moyo said: “Our portfolio committee system is now
working and sometimes we
have had cabinet ministers screaming when the
committees demand
accountability.”
His party believes that his
professional conduct was beyond reproach and
brought respectability to the
august House, and will forward his candidature
when parliament elects a new
Speaker next week.
This sentiment was echoed by one Zanu PF MP who
asked for anonymity who
added that Moyo: “had the guts to overrule
legislators if he had to” and
that he was “fair in the conduct of his
office”.
However,what some say was Moyo's outsize ego probably led
to his downfall.
At one point, Moyo ordered that every parliamentary office
carry his
portrait alongside that of President Robert
Mugabe.
Mugabe’s portraits hang in every public building in Zimbabwe.
Clerk of
Parliament Austin Zvoma intervened to stop the hanging of portraits
that had
already been framed for all parliamentary offices.
Moyo
is a man with expensive taste. His first six months as Speaker were
spent at
the five-star Meikles Hotel while “suitable” accommodation was
being sought
for him. He eventually moved to parliament-rented accommodation
in the plush
Gunhill suburb where he has lived since being given up to the
end of this
month to vacate.
His expensive tastes are not limited to homes but
extends to being well
groomed and wearing designer suits. He wears a
customised beard and
trimmed moustache.
The MDC-T does not seem to
have problems with Moyo’s lavish tastes which is
an error it needs to
correct because it has nominated him to resume the same
position.
Moyo was once fined for operating a liquor outlet
without a licence. He
promised to return and only time will tell the radius
of his candle’s light.
In a few days time the country will know
whether Moyo’s ego trip will
continue at Parliament House and if he returns
to the Gunhill mansion he is
now accustomed to calling home.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011
15:29
Paidamoyo Muzulu
SINCE the formation of the MDC in 1999 by a
loose coalition of civic, trade
union, NGO and student organisations, the
party has issued repeated threats
to boycott or pull out of an agreement or
ongoing process whenever a storm
brews in Zimbabwe’s volatile political
landscape.
Over the years, the MDC-T has besieged us with threats of
pulling out of
elections or negotiations whenever Zanu PF ambushes them with
its many
provocations including flagrant disregard of the
law.
However, at the last minute, the MDC-T almost always
walks back from the
brink and decides to participate. One would have hoped
that the about-turn
signals a growing understanding that election boycotts
rarely succeed when
you don’t have a Plan B, especially when Zanu PF are
your opponents.
The MDC-T should know this better, having been forced
into a power sharing
compromise with Zanu PF despite winning the 2008
elections. The MDC-T’s
continued issuance of threats should now be viewed as
one of the great
strategic blunders since it always emerges
weakened.
Just last week Prime Minister and MDC-T leader Morgan
Tsvangirai threatened
to collapse the inclusive government by walking out
because of what he
termed arbitrary arrests of his legislators, police
partisanship,
unfavourable court decisions and the flouting of the Global
Political
Agreement by Mugabe and his Zanu PF.
Tsvangirai said:
“We have reached a moment where we are saying let us agree
that this
coalition is not working. It’s dysfunctional.”
The prime-minister’s
threat was loaded in a scathing attack against the
judiciary and police
after Speaker Lovemore Moyo lost his position when the
Supreme Court ruled
that his election flouted the country’s electoral laws.
On the same day
police arrested Power and Energy minister Elton Mangoma on
charges of public
abuse of office.
Douglas Mwonzora, Rodgers Tazviona, Shepherd
Mushonga and Costin Muguti are
some of the MDC-T legislators that have been
arrested over the past six
weeks on charges mainly related to political
violence.
Whereas Tsvangirai’s threats were bold, he was silent on the way
forward
leaving analysts to dismiss them as just one more in a series of
threats by
the MDC-T signifying nothing.
National Constitutional
Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku said Tsvangirai
did not have the moral
courage to walk out of the inclusive government.
“MDC-T cannot walk
away from Zanu PF after the brief union they had. The
party lacks the
strategic leadership to carry out its programme of action
and most of the
utterances are knee-jerk reaction,” said Madhuku.
Madhuku’s comments
reinforce former US ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher
Dell’s alleged
WikiLeaks comment that the MDC-T lacked leadership and that
Tsvangirai
needed a lot of hand holding by America if he was to be
successful.
This is not the first threat the party has issued in
two years of the
inclusive government. Twice the party boycotted cabinet
sessions but did not
completely pull out. It termed its actions
“disengagement”.
However, it should be noted that the disengagement
did not produce the
results needed. Roy Bennett was not sworn in as deputy
Agriculture minister,
the appointments of the Reserve Bank Governor,
Attorney-General and
provincial governors was not
revisited.
MDC-T re-engaged with the partners in government and was
soon singing
praises of the good working relations between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai.
Oxford researcher and historian Blessing Miles Tendi termed the
MDC-T’s
action as “protest and capitulation”.
He argues that
because of a variety of weaknesses, the MDC-T can only
protest to show its
unhappiness in the goings on of the inclusive government
but could not walk
away.
MDC-T has failed in its international lobbying for its cause
and on more
than one occasion failed to get the support of the Sadc or the
African
Union. These bodies collectively view Zanu PF as a revolutionary
party that
resonates with the people’s wishes.
Tendi said walking
out of government was not likely to receive sympathy from
South Africa, Sadc
and the AU.
“But the MDC is aware too that breaking the government
would turn its
relations with Sadc sour,” Tendi argued.
MDC-T’s
ineffectiveness is worsened by the little authority they wield in
the
government, particularly in the security cluster. The situation makes
them
junior partners in a government where they should have been equals or
leaders because they actually won elections.
University of
Zimbabwe Constitutional Law lecturer Creg Linnington argues
that the MDC-T
had no real power in the inclusive government but token
positions.
“Does MDC-T have power in the government? No. They
don’t,” said Linnington.
The inclusive government in Zimbabwe can be
seen as a continuation of
politics of the past. Nothing has really
changed.
Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe programmes manager Pedzisai
Ruhanya said fresh
elections were the solution to political squabbles within
the inclusive
government but reforms contained in the GPA should precede
them.
Ruhanya said: “Zanu PF should no longer hold back reforms in
the security
sector, electoral reforms and complete the constitutional
review programme
urgently.”
Political strife in Ivory Coast and
most of North Africa has shifted
attention away from the Zimbabwean issue
that has been dragging on for over
a decade now.
MDC-T spokesman
Nelson Chamisa expressed frustration at South Africa and
Sadc’s slow pace of
resolving the Zimbabwe crisis.
“Guarantors have done a lot. We,
however, feel there is capacity to do more.
They have the leverage to help
the matters solved and they can also flex
their muscles a little bit to make
the issues move forward,” Chamisa said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 15:09
Paidamoyo
Muzulu
LAWYERS have slated the General Laws Amendment (GLA) Bill that
seeks to give
immunity to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe property from execution
for the $1,2
billion debt the bank largely accrued during its quasi-fiscal
activities
between 2003 and 2008.
Clause 13 of the Bill seeks to give
protection to the central bank’s movable
assets, which could be attached to
offset the mammoth debt. This is the same
privilege enjoyed by state
property under the State Liabilities Act.
Scanlen and Holderness
senior partner, Sternford Moyo, said the proposed law
would be an affront to
the rights of individuals and companies seeking legal
redress for unpaid
debts owed them by the central bank.
Moyo said: “Immunity from
execution is contrary to fundamental values which
are enshrined in our
Constitution, namely: equality before the law and the
right to access to
justice.”
The Bill proposes that the State Liabilities Act [Chapter
22:13] applies,
with necessary changes to address legal proceedings against
the bank,
including the substitution of references therein to a minister by
references
to the (Reserve Bank) Governor.
Dube, Manikai and
Hwacha Legal Practitioners senior partner, Selby Hwacha,
concurred with Moyo
that the legislation was bad for business. He said the
proposed law would
make the business operating environment unfriendly and
people will fear
entering into commercial transactions with the central bank
in
future.
Already, minerals auditing firm, Alex Stewart International
(ASI), is suing
the central bank for US$34,99 million over unpaid fees for
services rendered
between 2007 and 2009.
If the Bill goes through
in its current form, this may mean the company may
never be paid, a
precedent that will prevent such well respected
international firms from
doing business with Zimbabwe, or to demand upfront
payments or high
deposits, something that the country can ill afford.
The Bill is
currently before the Parliamentary Legal Committee for scrutiny
to check if
it conforms to the Constitution before its second reading that
could be
anytime, once the committee gives it the green light.
The lawyers
argue that State Liabilities Act was a remnant of the time when
kings ruled
their realms with iron fists and were considered infallible and
hence could
not be sued. The notion is inherently inconsistent with the
modern principle
of equality before the law, which requires that every
person, including the
State, is equally subject to the law.
“Access to justice is rendered
nugatory if the court order obtained cannot
be enforced against the State or
central bank,” Moyo pointed out.
The Bill was introduced to stop
execution of court judgments against the
bank. Among the creditors who had
taken the bank to the courts was Farmtech,
owed US$2,1 million for providing
tractors for the state’s land reform
programme.
The central bank
owes creditors a combined sum of nearly $1,2 billion, with
the majority of
debts incurred during the era the bank was involved in
quasi-fiscal
activities. Most of the money was used for farm mechanisation,
irrigation
infrastructure and vehicle procurement for the state.
In a similar
case, the South African Constitutional Court in 2007, in
Dingaan Hendriek
Nyathi vs Member of the Executive Council for the
Department of Health,
Gauteng and Minister of Justice and Constitutional
Development and Others,
case CCT 19/07, found State immunity from execution
to be
unconstitutional.
Finance minister Tendai Biti last month told Parliament the
government had
started the process of restructuring the Reserve Bank,
including its
liabilities.
“We are looking at creating a special
purpose vehicle to house the bank’s
debts. This will entail disposal of all
businesses linked to the bank’s
quasi-fiscal operations and creditors will
be paid a dividend per dollar
owed,” Biti said.
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http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011
14:25
Tatenda Macheka
ZIMBABWE’s mobile phone networks are mooting
sharing infrastructure,
particularly in rural areas so as to expand mobile
telephony in those areas.
This will be the first time the companies will have
gone into co-opetition
with each other in a market that has been
characterised by rivalry in which
Econet Wireless has been the dominant
force.
“If the services providers came together they might exploit
the rural
markets more easily,” Econet CEO Douglas Mboweni told the Zimbabwe
Independent. The proposal is to share infrastructure such as towers,
shelters and even generators.
While Econet, the largest network
s, accounting for three quarters of the
mobile phone subscribers in
Zimbabwe, appears keen to share resources, its
traditional rival, Net One
seems lukewarm, perhaps in the light of its own
possible merger with an
international network envisaged by year end.
“We can only share
passive infrastructure which are towers and shelters but
it is impossible to
share active infrastructure such as switches because
they are from different
suppliers and we use different bands,” Net One CEO
Reward Kangai said at the
recently concluded Euromoney conference. Although
he poured cold water on
it, speculation is that his company is to conclude a
merger with South
African network, MTN.
However, Telecel, which has the second largest
number of mobile phone
subscribers in Zimbabwe, has congruent ideas with
Econet on co-opetition.
Telecel feels the company that’s not keen to play
ball is Net One.“The
spirit of co-operation is not there and sharing has
proved to be difficult
because others feels that it takes away their
competitive advantage,” said
Telecel CEO Aimable Mpore in apparent
reference to Net One.
He mentions that the government owned Net One
once dismantled his company’s
equipment from shared towers. This was in
spite of approval by the Postal
and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority
of Zimbabwe (Potraz) on the
sharing of towers.
If the plan goes
ahead, Telecel may be the biggest beneficiary in terms of
accessing the
rural areas. The company admits to having a low capital base
that is
limiting it from penetrating the rural market.
On the other hand,
Econet Wireless, while capable of going it alone, is keen
on rationalising
costs on infrastructure. One of the biggest savings would
be on the use of
generators, which are critical to keep the mobile networks
going, in light
of persistent power cuts by Zesa. Econet CEO Mboweni said
having several
generators might put energy to waste.However, sharing is
emphasised when it
comes to reaching the rural areas.
“The rural folk are now critical
and must not be looked down upon since most
of the population in Zimbabwe
lives in the rural areas,” said Econet’s
Mboweni, estimating that up to
three quarters of Zimbabweans live in the
rural areas. He describes the
rural market as untapped and a force to reckon
with.
Yet it is
not calls that are initiated by the rural folk that Econet is
targeting.
On the contrary, the company expects to reap from calls
that are made by the
urban dwellers to their relatives in the rural areas.
Many Zimbabweans still
have strong ties with their rural folk, many being
their own parents.
The growth in demand for mobile phones in the
rural areas was being aided by
the increasing availability of affordable
handsets.
Mboweni sees the incursion of mobile telephony into the rural
areas as a
major step towards bring that section of population up to speed
in terms of
Information and Telecommunication Technologies.
It will
also improve service delivery by schools, clinics and hospitals.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 14:14
THE
Indigenisation and empowerment regulations compelling foreign-owned
companies to dispose 51% interest to black Zimbabweans have generated
immense debate both within and outside government. This controversial
national policy has resulted in the proliferation of lobby groups that
include Upfumi Kuvadiki, an organisation believed to be linked to the Zanu
PF youth league. This week Zimbabwe Independent Senior Business Reporter,
Bernard Mpofu spoke to Norest Marara, the executive chairman of the newly
formed Broad-based Economic Empowerment Group (Beeg), a trust registered
last November with a view to push equitable redistribution of wealth.
Marara is also the national secretary of the Indigenous, Freight and
Shipping Agencies Association of Zimbabwe.
Below are excerpts of
the interview.
Mpofu: What inspired you to come up with this
concept?
Marara: What we realised is that after the government came
up with the Act
and the subsequent indigenisation and empowerment
regulations, a lot of
debate was generated. So this being a law, we felt
that there was need to
support the law. Secondly, there were quite a lot of
things that were
happening, which motivated us into joining the debate. For
example, the
issue of shareholding thresholds that were in the regulations
generated a
lot of interest. We also looked at the history of this country
to see how
the blacks were treated by the white minority government, how
they were
participating in the economy and what our government did after
independence.
The most important thing was the history of lobby or
fundamental pressure
groups that were advocating for economic empowerment.
Most, if not all of
them, were looking at the narrow picture. They were
making noise without
advocating for the empowerment of everyone who was
interested or who should
benefit economically. In our view, broad-based
economic empowerment should
benefit people in all sectors of the economy. It
seems only leaders of these
organisations have benefited from the advocacy
activities.
Mpofu: Debate on indigenisation and empowerment in
Zimbabwe seems to be
evolving around political positions. As Beeg, where do
you stand in this
whole debate?
Marara: Ours is a purely business
perspective. We do not stand anywhere when
it comes to politics. Our
organisation should cover all Zimbabweans
regardless of their political
affiliations. We also think that the
government of the day should treat
indigenisation and empowerment as a
national policy and not as a political
exercise.
Mpofu: If you were to meet the Youth Development,
Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment minister, what’s one message
relating to this policy
you would relay to him?
Marara: For
starters, we would commend him for pushing this policy. We think
he has done
a good job in bringing this subject to the fore. We would want
to seek
clarification from the minister on the misunderstanding and
confusion
surrounding the implementation of the empowerment regulations.
This, in our
view, has left some youths and would-be business people feeling
that
indigenisation is about taking over what already exists.
Mpofu: In
your view, what section of the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act
do you
feel should be revisited or amended?
Marara: We feel that there is
nothing very bad about the law but the problem
is on implementation. Again
it is our view that the 51% threshold across all
sectors is very high. I
would want to believe that not all information
gathered from sectoral
committees set up by government to advise on these
regulations agreed on the
same threshold. We are not sure how far they have
gone but as far as we know
most of them have completed that task but we are
yet to get the findings
from these committees. We feel that what is
important is to have a good
working environment for business to thrive in.
We also believe that a
blanket approach to all sectors is not sustainable.
Mpofu: How does
one subscribe to your group?
Marara: What we have agreed as a trust
is that for one to be our member,
they have to pay a nominal fee and regular
subscriptions. The fees are yet
to be agreed upon but whatever fee is going
to be charged, it has to be
nominal because we are talking about upcoming
businesspersons, people with
the desire to run their own companies. If it’s
a business we expect that
business to pay some form of subscription that
will not be punitive
considering that our economy has been struggling for a
very long time.
Mpofu: Do you see yourself meeting your outreach
targets with such nominal
fees that you have alluded to? Who else is funding
you?
Marara: We will need to approach the relevant ministries — the
Ministry of
Finance and the Youth Development, Indigenisation and
Empowerment ministry.
We know there is an empowerment fund that was set up
by government and it is
our hope that part of this fund would be set aside
to organisations such as
ours.
Mpofu: How many people or
organisations have subscribed to your group?
Marara: We registered
this trust on November 12 2010, so we are still
setting up our systems. We
are in the process of setting up our structures
and approaching various
groups that we intend to be working with. It is work
in progress and we will
be advising in due course.
Mpofu: One of the biggest criticisms of
indigenisation in Zimbabwe is
funding. So would you see government funding
an exercise that would lobby
against its policy?
Marara: To
correctly answer your question, the Broad-based Economic
Empowerment Group
is there to complement and support government in its
endeavor to empower
citizens. So we don’t think government will dent our
efforts because we are
going to be speaking maybe quite unfavourably
towards their policies. We
understand that US$5 million was set aside for
indigenisation in the last
budget. We also hope to get support from business
because they may immensely
benefit from our activities.
Mpofu: What are your top priorities
over the next six months?
Marara: Firstly, we need to have our
secretariat up and running because we
have come a long way in trying to
register this trust. We also need to
approach government, business and all
the other groups that we feel we need
to work with to ensure success of our
cause.
Mpofu: Are there any laws or structures in place that you feel inhibit
locally-owned freight and shipping companies from
growing?
Marara: Most barriers have been broken as seen by an
increase in our
membership. We have, over the years, engaged the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority
because we had problems. They did not know who we were at
first. They
understood us and they said we need competition in this
industry. We also
want to push for the participation of local shipping
companies in doing
bigger government jobs. We also want to push government
to put in place laws
which grant a quota of all government tenders to
indigenous shipping
companies.
Mpofu: Who is Norest
Marara?
Marara: I was born and bred in the rural areas. The late
Peter Pamire, who
is one of the pioneers of indigenisation in this country,
is my role model
because as I grew up he would visit our rural home because
we hail from the
same village. I always had this feeling that one day I
would be like him.
After completing my secondary education I was employed in
the shipping and
customs clearance industry where I worked for a couple of
years. We then
found out that we could start up our own companies after
realising
opportunities in this sector.
We registered our company in 2000
when the economy began to show signs of
contraction and things were not
rosy.
Things were bad, really bad but I did not lose hope. We started again
and
since then business has been on an upward trend. The formation of the
inclusive government has also seen our business maintaining this upward
trend.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 15:36
By Jonathan
Moyo
WILL the nation leave Gideon Gono, the governor of the Reserve Bank,
alone?
When President Robert Mugabe last week (May 2006) publicly made a call
for
people to “leave Gono alone” many besides those who know themselves to
be
the guilty were left wondering what he meant.
But after Gono’s
wide-ranging and far-reaching mid-term monetary policy
statement this week,
one need not guess he meant that the Zanu PF
government, including Mugabe
himself, should “leave everything to Gono”.
That is why Gono’s
monetary statement dealt with everything and everyone in
concrete
ways.
The national breadth, depth and consequences of Gono’s monetary
statement
stand in sharp contrast to the dire poverty of Mugabe’s speech at
the
opening of the second session of the sixth parliament last
week.
The speech was full of propaganda platitudes and bereft of
policy responses
to the economic meltdown that is ravaging the country. In
fact, so empty was
Mugabe’s address that nobody remembers what he
said.
The same goes for Finance minister Herbert Murerwa’s fiscal
policy statement
that ended up being a boring presentation of a scandalous
$327, 2 trillion
(now $327, 2 billion) supplementary budget whose
catastrophic impact in the
present hyperinflationary environment is
self-evident.
Where Mugabe failed to outline the necessary vision and
political direction
for the nation in his speech, Murerwa failed to proffer
the necessary policy
blueprint to deal with the economic meltdown. The two
statements did not
have a common thread.
In effect the policy
poverty of the parliamentary addresses by Mugabe and
Murerwa last week
demonstrated that the Zanu PF leadership is now brain
dead, hence its policy
delinquency.
For example, Mugabe claimed, as part of his new propaganda
line, that the
economic suffering in the country is being caused by
so-called illegal
economic sanctions imposed by the European Union, the
United States and some
white members of the Commonwealth.
But to
show that this claim is just propaganda, Murerwa’s fiscal policy
statement
did not address the so-called illegal sanctions at all.
This is odd.
When, as the head of state, Mugabe identifies a particular
issue as the
cause of the country’s economic woes, it stands to reason that
his Finance
minister should prioritise and systematically address that
issue.
Given that Murerwa did not tackle the so-called illegal
sanctions as a
priority of economic policy in his fiscal statement last
week, this means
one of two possibilities applies.
Either Mugabe’s
claim that the economic meltdown has been caused by those
sanctions is false
and therefore mere propaganda or Murerwa is incompetent
and thus not up to
the task at hand.
Yet on this one Murerwa at least has appreciated
that the so-called illegal
sanctions are not the real reason behind
inflation and corruption which have
been cited by the government as the
country’s top two enemies.
Also, Murerwa seems to appreciate that the
economic sanctions in question,
however unpalatable or unacceptable they may
be, cannot be said to be
illegal.
This is because he should know
that sovereign countries have a right to take
policy measures and enact laws
such as those contained in the sanctions
targeted at some individuals in
this country including this writer, as long
as those measures are lawful in
the countries imposing them.
The same would apply to the provisions
of the objectionable so-called
Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act
in the United States that
require US representatives to multilateral
financial institutions such as
the World Bank, the International Monetary
Fund and even the African
Development Bank, to oppose any assistance to
Zimbabwe.
Those provisions are objectionable indeed but they cannot be
said to be
illegal either in terms of United States law or international
law.
If there was any illegality in terms of international law, the
government of
Zimbabwe would have by now taken the matter up with the
appropriate
international bodies with the relevant jurisdiction.
The
fact that no such thing has happened or will happen shows that the mumbo
jumbo from the Zanu PF government about the so-called illegal sanctions is
cheap propaganda.
Ironically, when Mugabe and his propagandists
claim that the economic
meltdown and the resultant suffering are caused by
illegal economic
sanctions, they unwittingly remind many of the fact that
the strong
Rhodesian economy inherited in 1980 and now destroyed was built
on the back
of international sanctions backed by the United Nations and
virtually all
other key financial multilateral organisations.
Yes,
those sanctions were breached by some countries such as apartheid South
Africa and even Britain but they were there and very effective
indeed.
The Rhodesian lesson is that an economy under sanctions can
develop through
a range of policy initiatives including viable import
substitution. In
Zimbabwe’s case, the targeted sanctions should be less
effective given that,
unlike in Rhodesian days, the same sanctions are not
supported by any of the
neighbouring countries and in view of the “Look
East” policy which is
focused on some of the world’s leading emerging
economies such as China and
India.
Otherwise, despite spirited
attempts to attribute the present economic
turmoil to the so-called illegal
sanctions, all available indications
suggest that the sanctions issue is
indeed nothing but propaganda. That is
why there is no response to it either
in the fiscal or monetary policy.
Since Mugabe has called on truthfulness
in government policy, this matter
needs to be corrected and put in its
proper perspective.
Parenthetically, propaganda is also to be found
in the countries that have
imposed the so-called targeted sanctions on
Zimbabwe for purposes of
appeasing some voting and media
constituencies.
This point was not lost to the Zimbabwean government
which initially reacted
to these sanctions by dismissing them as irrelevant
and ineffectual Western
propaganda in so far as they were aimed at
individuals and in so far as they
involved actions of imperialist financial
institutions such as the IMF whose
support is not wanted.
The
propaganda tune has now changed from dismissing the sanctions to
claiming
that they are causing the suffering of ordinary people.
That is why
observers have been wondering how sanctions which were initially
described
as useless and irrelevant can now be said to be responsible for
causing the
suffering of ordinary people.
Yet Mugabe and Murerwa understand that
the sanctions talk is pure Zanu PF
propaganda for mobilising political
support from the masses by seeking to
make them believe that their suffering
is due to economic sanctions imposed
by imperialist foreigners and not a
result of the failure of their
government.
But because neither
Mugabe nor Murerwa has any practical policy to deal with
the economic
meltdown, and because they do not want to pay any political
price for this,
they have very conveniently but scandalously decided to
literally leave
everything to Gono.
During his fiscal policy statement in parliament
Murerwa, who apparently
seemed to have forgotten his widely publicised
complaints earlier this year
that the Reserve Bank had improperly taken on
quasi-fiscal responsibilities
from his ministry, specifically deferred to
Gono a raft of policy measures
on many occasions during his
presentation.
Meanwhile Gono has taken on the challenge like a
possessed man determined to
perform miracles in an assignment in which he
risks being damned by some
Zanu PF politicians if he succeeds and damned by
the same politicians if he
fails.
The RBZ governor is now facing
this fate, in which he is now between a rock
and a hard place, because the
political leadership through Mugabe and
policymakers through Murerwa have
abdicated their responsibility and they
have left everything to Gono whom
Mugabe says must be left alone.
But surely, while the would-be Zanu
PF assassins should indeed leave Gono
alone, it is utter political nonsense
to expect that the nation should or
will leave alone the one person who is
visibly doing everything affecting
everyone everywhere in the country when
those who should take primary
responsibility are playing truant through
cheap propaganda such as the
sanctions talk.
The notion that Gono
alone should make heroes from zeros through bearer
cheques, and that this
will constitute a new sunrise, is a hard sell and in
fact a non-starter.
Gono desperately needs real help from Mugabe and Murerwa
in the political
and policy arenas because the fundamental problem facing
Zimbabwe is not
just economic stupid but also fundamentally leadership
stupid.
* Moyo is former Information minister and MP for
Tsholotsho North. This
article was published in the May 9 2006 edition of
the Zimbabwe Independent.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011
15:36
IT WAS good to see veteran South African journalist Thami Mazwai
raising his
voice in BusinessDay in criticism of the African Union’s vapid
posture on
the various conflicts currently taking place on the
continent.
“African solutions for African problems, just what does it mean?”
he asks.
Referring to events in the Ivory Coast and Libya, Mazwai says “the
phrase is
being repeated all too often as Africa drags its feet in dealing
with crises
on the continent.
“We are back in the days of the OAU when
African leaders would ignore the
slaughter of people by Idi Amin, Jean Bedel
Bokassa, Daniel arap Moi, or
Mobutu Sese Seko.
“When will human life be
sacrosanct in Africa?”he asks.
“We know that one of the problems in the AU is
that its chairman, Equatorial
Guinea President Teodoro Obiang wrested power
in 1979 in a bloody coup and
has been in power ever since. He will not see
anything wrong with Gaddafi
clinging to power or murdering
civilians.”
Mazwai praises President Jacob Zuma for his “firm and moral
stand” against
the Gaddafi tyranny. “Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, by contrast,
stands solidly
behind Gaddafi who has been a staunch supporter of the despot
north of our
border.”
More outspoken in his criticism of the Zuma
administration is Archbishop
Desmond Tutu who, in his ecumenical lecture at
the University of the Western
Cape recently, described Zuma as “affable and
warm”. But, he said, “I do
believe it would have been better for him to have
been pronounced innocent
by a court of law weighing the evidence rather than
through a dubious
administrative act”.
He described Zuma’s relationship
with the Gupta family as “worrisome”. And
referring to the president’s
advisor, Shabir Shaik, who was released on
parole not long after his
conviction, said “it must raise eyebrows when
someone who was said to be at
death’s door is shown to be playing golf.”
Tutu warned that corruption was
dragging South Africa “backwards and
downwards, and in some cases is quite
blatant”.
Which opens a door for Muckraker to comment that corruption in
South Africa
far exceeds in depth and scope anything our post-liberation
aristocrats were
able to “achieve” in their first 17 years of
incumbency.
Tutu makes the familiar point that advancement under the ANC
government is
not on merit, again something we know about here.
“We have
many very competent people in this country,” he said, “people of
all races
people who today are being sidelined because the first
qualification is not
ability, nor calibre but political affiliation.”
Talking of the
beneficiaries of power, have you noticed the squawking going
on by the new
landowners who claim they cannot fulfil their historic mandate
because of
“sanctions”.
We can see a pattern here. Any sort of failure by the
land-grabbers will be
put down to sanctions ahead of elections. It’s an
all-purpose, all-weather
excuse that will be trundled out to do service
whenever Zanu PF needs it.
Emilia Zindi, who invariably forgets to declare an
interest, was showing us
how it’s done in the Sunday Mail last
weekend.
She quoted Alexander Kanengoni as saying that “as long as the
sanctions
continue there is no way we can expect farmers to perform
miracles. In fact
it is unfair to assess the productivity of farmers under
the illegal
sanctions…”
So there you have it. The excuse precedes the
deed. The banks are acting on
the instructions of their masters, Kanengoni
bleats. No mention here of
non-performers failing to farm because they
haven’t got a clue what to do
and combine farming with other activities such
as journalism! Many farmers
were “failing to utilise the land”, Kanengoni,
who is billed as a “political
analyst”, declared, “because the conditions
under which the sector is
operating are not favourable.”
Like seizure of
land and equipment!
What happened to all that Kondozi property we wonder?
Where did that go?
Wasn’t one of the key requirements of the GPA an audit of
the land
programme?
Why are its advocates, who speak glowingly of the
“Third Chimurenga”, so
scared of assessing its impact? What do they have to
hide?
It is intriguing to see how anybody who contributes to the state
media is
obliged to say that all the country’s woes are caused by sanctions.
Then
civic activists and MPs are arrested and locked up on spurious charges
but
the anti-sanctions crowd can’t see the connection!
Or if they can
they don’t care. So they will go on locking up their
opponents, thus
inviting retaliation by “Zimbabwe’s detractors” who can see
democracy is
still a long way off and the economy will continue to sink.
Everybody can
see why except the anti-sanctions lobby who think that if they
add “illegal”
to their campaign label the international community will
excuse them! They
won’t.
Meanwhile, those who declared, at the time of the GPA’s negotiation,
that
permanent secretaries should be regarded as professional and
non-partisan,
will have got a rude shock from Indigenisation and Empowerment
permanent
secretary Prince Mupazviriho who said the government would read
the riot act
to those companies that had not complied with the empowerment
regulations.
His language was that of Zanu PF, redolent with threats and
fist-waving.
“We have now reached the process,” he said, “of deregistering
defiant
companies and anytime from now some companies will be closed for
defying
indigenisation law.”
It is inevitable that many companies will
want to test the legality of the
regulations and understandably see no
reason why they should be dictated to
by a government ministry.
But the
point we would make in all this is that Zanu PF ministers seem not
to give a
damn how many people are thrown on to the streets because their
employers
are being targeted by ministers. What this whole indigenisation
debacle has
done is to discourage investment, accelerate unemployment and
discredit the
country.
Ask any South African businessman where they are inclined to put
their money
and they will say anywhere except Zimbabwe. Saviour Kasukuwere
and his
friends are either unaware of the damage they are doing to the
economy or
simply don’t care.
But that is generally the case of Zanu PF.
They have sabotaged commercial
agriculture and will now do the same to
commerce and industry. Zimbabwe used
to be a country of some weight in the
region. Now it has been overtaken by
its ally Namibia, Mozambique, Botswana
and soon Zambia. Sad isn’t it? Even
Tanzania is performing
better.
Luke Tamborinyoka needs to be a little less emphatic in his
statements
denying stories about his boss Morgan Tsvangirai –– at least
until he has
checked them out.
Tamborinyoka has recently issued a couple
of statements flatly denying
reports carried in the Standard and elsewhere
that Tsvangirai has been
having an affair with a Bulawayo woman, Loreta
Nyathi (23), resulting in her
falling pregnant.
The Bulawayo woman’s dad
at first shot down the report threatening to sue
any paper that carried it.
But then the woman told her dad to pipe down ––
it was true and she wants
her maintenance money. That’s all.
Tamborinyoka however was defiant. “We are
sick and tired of these stories,”
he declared. “The PM is worried about
pressing national issues like
violence, the issue of civil servants’
salaries and the roadmap to
elections.”
Our question is, can the PM walk
and chew gum? It appears not. He is working
on important national issues but
can’t find the time to mobilise funds for
somebody he was obviously close
to. Their child is now three months old.
If he has been caught with his pants
down then he needs to make a clean
breast of it. But he has not been helped
by Luke’s denials which show a
marked disregard for the feelings of the
young lady at the centre of the
story. How can he get away with such an
uncaring attitude? Perhaps the PM is
in need of a more accomplished
spokesman. At least one who puts the record
straight!
Meanwhile, if
the MDC-T is to have any hope of winning an election this year
they need to
register their supporters as voters. That is not happening
right now.
Zimbabweans in their multitudes are looking for a way to express
their
disgust with Zanu PF’s tyranny but don’t seem to realise they can do
so by
voting. Is the MDC spelling this out to the “Born Frees” who have not
bought
Mugabe’s mantras and will never freely vote for those who have
wrecked their
prospects of employment and growth. A whole generation wants a
chance to
secure something better, not the unscrupulous gang that is
desperately
clinging to power.
In Zanu PF’s propaganda material there is the preposterous
claim that
sanctions are designed to make Zimbabweans suffer and “turn
against their
leadership, become unpatriotic and cause instability in the
country”.
This is self-deception at its worst. Zanu PF may have its own
leadership but
that is certainly not the leadership the country wants as the
2008 election
proved. So they must stop foisting their delinquent leadership
on the
country and pretending it is some sort of national project.
It
isn’t. As we say above, given a free choice the people of Zimbabwe would
choose another leadership. One that responds to their needs and gets the
country working again. If the ruling elite wants sanctions lifted they
should stop doing the things that got them imposed in the first place ––
like political coercion. Isn’t that obvious?
Finally, it is
interesting how Zanu PF-controlled media have gone to town in
accusing
Energy minister Elton Mangoma of abusing his office in the
procurement of
fuel when the same media did not call for the arrest of
government officials
when they were sent on a wild goose chase by “diesel n’anga”,
Rotina
Mavhunga.
Mavhunga convinced the officials in 2007 that she had been
possessed by
ancestral spirits who were keen to aid the nation’s battle with
the fuel
shortages. The taskforce included among others State Security
minister
Didymus Mutasa, Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi, and Home
Affairs
minister Kembo Mohadi. The team was duped into believing that there
was
indeed diesel in the rocks at Maningwa Hills near Chinhoyi when in
reality
Mavhunga bought diesel from neighbouring Zambia and piped it into
the rocks.
Mavhunga reportedly took large sums of money (Z$5 billion), a car
and a
piece of land from the officials, promising in return to use spells to
produce diesel from Maningwa Hills.
At the time Mugabe claimed that
Mavhunga’s beauty had blinded his ministers.
Just like Mangoma these
officials should also have been arrested for
“criminal abuse of duty” as
public officers and “contravening procurement
regulations”.
On both
accounts we concur with High Court judge Justice Samuel Kudya who on
Tuesday
said: “As minister responsible for energy, all Zimbabweans looked up
to him
to provide a quick solution to the problem. His well-meaning response
to a
national emergency may prove highly mitigatory. Courts do accept that
at
times paths to hell are often paved by good intentions. Those good
intentions may prove highly mitigatory.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011
15:31
By Eric Bloch
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe may soon have
to declare a national day of mourning,
in memory of the economy which he,
abetted by Ministers Saviour Kasukuwere,
Obert Mpofu and others, have
massacred. The economy has been gravely
afflicted for more than a decade,
allegedly (although without any
significant foundation and substance), by
so-called “illegal” sanctions
imposed by various Western countries, by other
uncontrollable factors such
as climatic conditions, and other factors
claimed to be beyond the
governmental purview.
In the last two years
“Nhanga” Biti and colleagues progressively achieved
much reversal of the
diverse economic ills, and slowly, indications became
increasingly
pronounced that the Zimbabwean economy was set for considerable
recovery.
That recovery would, over time, eradicate the horrendous poverty,
suffering
and distress sustained by more than eight million of the shrunk
population.
An absolutely fundamental key element for economic
recovery is that there
be major investment in the economy. Investment is a
prerequisite for
employment generation, for foreign exchange earnings
sufficient to fund the
country’s import needs, for downstream economic
development, for fiscal
inflows, and for a progressive reduction of the
country’s immense national
debt.
The opportunities for investment
were and continue to be vast, to such an
extent that Zimbabwe could, over a
period of time, be the fifth largest
economy on the continent of Africa,
ahead of 48 other countries.
However, with very rare exceptions,
Zimbabweans are devoid of the resources
needed to fund the investment which
would trigger economic recovery, growth
and wellbeing.If extensive
investments were to be forthcoming, it would have
to emanate primarily from
international investors.
And there was a bountiful number of well-endowed
potential international
investors interested in the opportunities offered by
Zimbabwe. Recognition
of Zimbabwe’s enormous and very diversified
investment opportunities was
great. Those opportunities include, amongst
many others:
* Mining, for Zimbabwe has a gargantuan wealth of very
varied resources
of minerals and precious stones, ranging from gold to
platinum, diamonds,
chrome, nickel, lithium, tantalite, coal, methane gas,
and much more;
* Manufacturing, with special emphasis on
value-addition to the myriad
of primary agricultural and mineral products,
and on a combination of
import-substitution goods and exports to the many
neighbouring countries,
comprising more than four hundred and twenty million
consumers, and further
afield;
* Tourism, exploiting the
wealth of very varied tourist attractions,
inclusive of the spectacular
Victoria Falls, the finest assortment of
wildlife resources on the
continent, the mystique of Great Zimbabwe, the
grandeur of the Matopos, the
beauty of the eastern highlands (Nyanga, Bvumba
and Chimanimani), the
splendour of Lake Kariba, and much, much else;
* Information
Communication Technology (ICT) and the provision of
numerous other
services;
* Regeneration of the viability and effective
service of Zimbabwe’s
innumerable debilitated parastatals which, if
partially privatised under
Public/Private Sector Partnerships (PPPs), could
be restored to viability,
and could belatedly once again effectively service
the needs of the
Zimbabwean economy and of its people;
*
Agriculture is also another area of investment. Zimbabwe has fertile
and
productive land if properly and constructively used.
Despite the
magnitude of Zimbabwe’s investment opportunities, potential
foreign
investors have long been hesitant to exploit those opportunities due
to
security concerns.
Zimbabwe’s government have long provoked great fears
as to such security.
The arbitrary expropriation of farms since 2000, in
contemptuous disregard
for property rights, and much of that expropriation
being associated with
intense violence and misappropriation of farm
equipment, livestock, crops,
and other possessions, inevitably fuelled great
investor concerns and
reticence. Their investment fears have intensified as
Zimbabwe has, for
over 10 years, ignored its obligations under Bilateral
Investment Promotion
and ProtectionAgreements (Bippas).
With the
first steps towards economic turnaround and investor motivation
over the
last few years, following the establishment of the Government of
National
Unity (GNU), investor interest began to resurrect and increase,
albeit with
hesitation and reservation.
This has evidenced itself emphatically by the
flow of investors into the
country to assess the investment opportunities,
and the numbers attending
recent investment promotion conferences, such as
last week’s Euromoney
Investor Conference.
Tragically, the resumed
investor interest has been shortlived. Several
times in the last few weeks,
and in particular on the day before the
Euromoney conference, President
Mugabe saw fit to rile the 500 or more
foreign-owned companies which have
their roots in Britain, the USA or other
countries which placed targetted
sanctions on the country’s leadership,
stating emphatically that all those
companies would be “taken over”.
Embittered, he attacked Nestlé, on the
grounds that that company
discontinued purchasing milk from
Mugabe-family-owned farms. He also lashed
out against Rio Tinto and other UK
based mining, manufacturing, and
financial services
companies.
Concomitantly, Minister Kasukuwere, reinforced by Minister
Mpofu, stated
that forthwith regulations would be gazetted for the state’s
“theft” of
controlling interests in all mining enterprises.
To add
insult to injury, it is intended to establish a so-called Sovereign
Wealth
Fund to finance the acquisition of foreign interests. That Fund is
to be
capitalised by imposition of levies upon businesses. In other words,
the
private sector is to provide the funding for its own demise!
As a result
of the presidential and ministerial statements, the regenerated
investor-interest has been pronouncedly decimated, with almost all that were
considering Zimbabwean investment placing the considerations, once again, on
hold!
The consequence is unavoidable, being the further, potentially
absolute
demise of the economy; hence the need for a presidential decree of
a day (or
even months) of National Mourning. The death of the economy will
inevitably
herald the death of numerous Zimbabweans.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 15:25
Alex
Magaisa
A NUMBER of issues have been raised in the wake of the Supreme
Court of
Zimbabwe’s judgment last week declaring the election of the Speaker
of the
House of Assmbly in 2008 irregular and invalid. The immediate effect
of the
judgement is to make the position of Speaker
vacant.
First, it is important that a new election be held as soon as
possible
otherwise the business of parliament will be derailed. Section 39
of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe which requires the election of a Speaker of
the
House of Assembly makes it clear that this legislative chamber “shall
not
transact any other business until a person to fill that office has been
elected”.
Parliament is a critical arm of government and it is
important to ensure
that it continues to conduct its business.
The
constitutional reform process is taking place within the structures of
parliament. Constitution-making, therefore, is parliament’s business and it
would be unfortunate and wrong if this were to be derailed on this
account.
Second, an issue that has been raised concerns the seat
(Matobo South) held
by the erstwhile Speaker, Lovemore Moyo, before he was
elected to the
position that he has now lost.
What is the legal
position in respect of this seat? Can Moyo reclaim his
seat in these
circumstances? The apparent simplicity of the matter is quite
deceptive.
In accordance with Section 41(1) (g) of the
Constitution, a person ceases to
be an MP once he is elected to the position
of Speaker. Under normal
circumstances, once a person who is an MP has been
elected Speaker, a
by-election should be held in accordance with the
electoral laws. As
presiding officer, the Speaker is required to perform his
role free of
partisanship.
To ensure that the constituency that
had elected him retains proper
representation, it is entitled to elect a new
MP. The problem is that
Zimbabwe’s circumstances are not quite normal — or
at least they haven’t
been for a number of years.
Hence, there
has been no by-election since the 2008 parliamentary election,
although I
understand this is currently being challenged by some former MPs
in the MDC
formation led by Welshman Ncube. They lost their seats after they
were
expelled by their party.
The key point for present purposes is that there
was no by-election in
Matobo South constituency to replace Moyo after his
election to the Speaker’s
seat, which the court has now declared to have
been null and void.
Now that Moyo’s election has been declared
invalid, the critical question is
whether at this point he would be entitled
to revert back to his position as
MP — which would entitle him to also vote
for the Speaker in a new election?
We will get back to this question but
first let us clarify whether it is
possible, as MP or not, that Moyo would
still be eligible to contest for the
Speaker’s post again.
In
terms of the Constitution, Moyo can still stand as a candidate for the
Speaker’s post even if he is not regarded as an MP. Section 39(2) provides
for the election of a Speaker according to Parliamentary Standing Orders of
persons “who are or have been members of the House of Assembly and who are
not members of the cabinet, ministers or deputy ministers”. Where he is not
an MP, he must be “qualified according to Schedule 3 for election to the
House of Assembly”.
Moyo has been a member of the House before
and there is nothing to indicate
that he is not qualified for election
according to Schedule 3 of the
Constitution. Therefore, the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led MDC (MDC-T) is perfectly
entitled to make him their candidate
again.
But assuming that he does not run for the Speaker’s post, we
revert to the
critical question, academic though it might appear, given that
the MDC-T has
already indicated that Moyo will remain their candidate for
the Speaker’s
post: Would, having been deposed by virtue of a judgment
declaring the
Speaker’s election invalid, a person who was an MP be able to
reclaim his
seat?
In other words, did he lose his seat when he
became Speaker by virtue of an
invalid election or does he revert to his
position as an MP now that the
Supreme Court says he was never properly
elected in the first place?
It would be odd if a person in Moyo’s
position were to suffer what would in
effect be double-jeopardy on account
of a flawed election that was not his
fault. If a court of law finds that
the election was irregular and invalid,
it is tantamount to saying there was
never an election in the first place.
To my mind, the loss of an MP’s
seat that is provided for under Section 41
(1) (g) is predicated on the
validity of his election to the position of
Speaker. If it is invalid he
cannot be lawfully regarded as having been duly
elected.
The
effect of the Supreme Court’s decision is not only that he is no longer
Speaker, but that he never was on account of a flawed election. It would be
unfair and ridiculous in my opinion if a person who obeyed the command of
his fellow MPs were to lose out (on both the Speakership and his
parliamentary seat) simply because the election, which he had no control
over, is later found to have been flawed.
I should point out, of
course, that the matter would be more complicated if
a by-election had been
held in Matobo South and an MP had been elected to
replace Moyo upon his
election as Speaker.
The complications would be greater if in a
parliament where numbers are
finely balanced that by-election had produced a
winner from a different
political party. But that matter does not arise and
so it is not necessary
to address it in the present
circumstances.
The fact of the matter is that Matobo South
constituency has had no
substantive MP since Moyo’s elevation to the
position of Speaker and now
that his election has been found to have been no
election at all, then
surely it follows that he reverts to the position that
he occupied prior to
the flawed election. It was never an election at all
and therefore
requirements under Section 41 (1 (g) which would necessitate
the loss of his
seat were not fulfilled.
Overall, this is not a
matter that the Constitution deals with in a manner
that is clear and
satisfactory. But as the current events demonstrate, it is
one that requires
clarification.
These are matters that even last year’s constitutional
outreach process
might not have uncovered at all and will therefore need
close attention at
the drafting stage of the new constitution. One hopes
it’s a matter that
will not escape the attention of the
draftspersons.
* Magaisa is based at Kent Law School,
University of Kent at Canterbury,
UK. Email: waMagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 15:17
By
Pedzisai Ruhanya
FROM the Nuremburg and Tokyo trials after World War II,
the International
Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia, the Truth
Commission Hearings in
South Africa to the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda, human rights
trials have been the major policy innovation for
more than half a century
designed to halt immense human rights violations by
dictators.
In the case of Zimbabwe, particularly in this transitional period,
the main
justification for such trials is that punishment is necessary to
deter human
rights violations as the country grapples with a violent past
and the urgent
need to transit to a democratic society by organising a
violence-free
electoral process and outcome.
Given the history of
successful human rights trials in post-war Germany,
Europe and elsewhere,
human rights trials during and after the transition in
Zimbabwe will lead to
improvements in the observance and protection of human
rights.
Human rights trials are rarely merely retributive, as
some have argued. The
purpose is not only to punish perpetrators but to use
this punishment to
deter future violations.
Human rights trials
are required in Zimbabwe because war veterans and
members of their militias
are encouraged to believe they are immune from
legal responsibility for
their actions.
They are fortified in this belief by amnesties granted to
them by the
government, in particular an amnesty granted in October 2000
which pardoned
all politically-motivated crimes committed in the run-up to
that year’s
elections, except crimes of murder, rape and
fraud.
This was a retrogressive policy by the Zanu PF government
because it
encouraged impunity and denied justice to the victims of human
rights
violations.
Impunity is the failure in law and practice of
holding perpetrators of
violations accountable mainly through the justice
system. Zimbabweans,
especially those belonging to opposition parties, have
been victims of both
de facto and de jure impunity, which has led to
egregious human rights
violations beginning with the Matabeleland and
Midlands massacres in the
1980s, to the 1985, 1990 elections, 1995, 2000,
2002 and 2005 polls, and the
repression associated with the land reform
programme.
The failure to prosecute Zanu PF activists and members of the
securocracy
for these gross violations encourages these elements to commit
crimes in
future. Resultantly, this has led citizens to lose faith in the
security
forces and the criminal justice system, especially after the
purging of the
bench by the Zanu PF government.
The perpetrators
in the eras mentioned enjoyed de facto immunity from
prosecution since more
often than not the police turned a blind eye to their
activities. This has
happened each time Zimbabwe goes for national elections
or when the
opposition and civic society protest against perceived bad
governance.
This is precisely what happened after the violent June
2008 presidential
election run-off where more than 200 opposition supporters
were allegedly
murdered while hundreds were abducted and tortured, or abused
in various
ways.
The situation in Zimbabwe is worsened by de jure
impunity, where laws or
regulations providing impunity strengthen the impact
of de facto impunity by
making it difficult or impossible to bring to the
justice system
perpetrators of human rights violations.
Articles
7 and 18 of the Global Political Agreement, which deal with
restorative and
retributive transitional justice respectively, have proved
to be
impotent.
To compound matters, the police and the Attorney General (AG)’s
Office
continue to be accused of selectively applying the law against
members of
Zanu PF’s oppositionand civic society.
This follows the
arrest of MPs from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s-led
MDC.
Energy minister and MP for Makoni Central Elton Mangoma,
Copac
co-chairperson and MP for Nyanga North Douglas Mwonzora, Mazowe MP
Shepherd
Mushonga and Roger Tazviona (Zhombe MP), have been arrested on
suspiciously
trumped-up charges.
As a result, law enforcement
agents are seen as increasingly partisan to the
extent that Zanu PF’s
opponents expect almost no protection from the law. A
case in point is the
disruption of the All Stakeholders Constitutional
Conference by Zanu PF
supporters and war veterans in Harare in the presence
of the police in July
2009, and the violent beatings of opposition
supporters and disruptions of
Copac meetings in Harare in August 2010.
Prior to the formation of
the GNU, police officers who tried to carry out
their duties professionally
were forced to resign or were transferred.
The perpetrators of
violent activities were encouraged by leading members of
the then ruling
Zanu PF party, who repeatedly claimed that the MDC would
never be allowed to
come to power in Zimbabwe and that a war would be waged
against
it.
Thus in December 2000 President Robert Mugabe told a Zanu PF congress
that
commercial farmers had “declared war” on the people of Zimbabwe, that
the
white man was “not indigenous” to Africa and was part of an “evil
alliances”.
“We must continue to strike fear into the heart of the
white man, our real
enemy,” he said.
These sentiments were echoed
by other prominent members of the ruling party.
This is the legacy of
impunity that the GNU must address in order to foster
justice in the
country.
The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights places the
obligation on
states to ensure protection of the rights enunciated in the
charter and for
individuals to have human rights violations against them
presided over by
competent national institutions such as the
courts.
Equally, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR),
to which Zimbabwe is signatory, requires that states adopt
measures,
including the legal route, to protect the fundamental rights of
citizens.
The UN Human Rights Committee, an independent body made up of
experts whose
role is to monitor compliance with the ICCPR, has observed
that a state’s
failure to investigate and bring perpetrators to justice,
especially with
respect to crimes such as killings, torture and
ill-treatment, is a
violation of the ICCPR.
Zimbabwe has violated
its state obligations under international human rights
laws and it is the
role of civic society organisations that have an observer
status in Geneva
to report on Zimbabwe’s violations.
The other way of combating
impunity in Zimbabwe is to have criminal
prosecutions of human rights
violators to deter them from committing those
crimes again.
The
United Nations Security Council could be lobbied to refer the Zimbabwean
case to the International Criminal Court for criminal
prosecution.
This requires the identification of the perpetrators of
human rights
violations and submission of their names to The
Hague.
This is how Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his
cronies are being
investigated. It is a method worth pursuing in order to
halt egregious human
rights violations as the country prepares for
elections.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17
March 2011 18:22
By Itai Masuku
SO we understand our
friends from the east will be paying us a visit next
week to, among other
things, strengthen bilateral co-operation. The keyword
here is bilateral,
which means two-way. Let’s hope this is the case because
so far we’ve only
seen movement in one direction, in favour of China.
Let’s hope our
government is not giving our so-called friends a carte
blanche to acquire
all our resources, minerals and land included.
We want a partnership with
them that will also benefit us in terms of real
access to their markets,
real investment in this country, not tied loans,
and transfer of knowledge
and technology.
One is worried that these orientals are touted as our
friends. Mmmm ... I
think that needs caution. Let’s not hurry to sign away
our future under the
guise of friendship.
If we look east, and by
that I mean all the way east until we get to the
United States, we’ll
realise from those wise men of the east that there are
no permanent friends
in this world, just permanent interests.
And they’ll quote one elderly
by the name of Bil Clinton, whose sagacious
saying when asked what the key
issue was in his election campaign replied:
“It’s the economy,
stupid.”
The Chinese know this. It’s not about friendship, it’s the
economy, stupid,
and the Chinese economy at that.
As the saying goes,
one of the most important things in life is not only to
know who your
friends are or who your enemies are, but more importantly who
your
frienemies are.
In short frienemies are friend-like enemies. They smile
at you when they’re
stabbing you in the back. We urge caution on the liberal
use of the word
friend when referring to anyone with whom we’re merely
getting into a
commercial relationship.
Granted, China provided
military training to our freedom fighters during our
liberation struggle,
sold us arms etc. Without wanting to look a gift horse
in the mouth, we must
recall that AK 47s were being produced at less than 50
US cents at the
time.
But above all, we must consider the context under which the Chinese
supported us. It was during the struggle between communism and capitalism
and alignment took place according to who was the perceived enemy.
At
that time it was Western capitalism. Let’s not kid ourselves; there were
also very heavy overtones of the enemy being white. So, agreed, our common
enemy was the white man and his capitalism.
We grew up chanting,
more or less like the Animal Farm characters; “White
man bad, capitalism
bad.”
However, our Chinese friends had changed that chant even before we
got our
Independence for which they were still supporting us. By 1979, Deng
Xiaoping had gotten the inner circles of the Chinese Communist Party to sing
“White man bad, (but note) capitalism good.”
While we were still
singing anti- imperialist chants and we still do up to
today, our so-called
friends had jumped ship without telling us.
They then watched us run
the road to ruin with our communist experiments
which they knew very well
had not worked for them. In the meantime they had
accelerated their
capitalist mode of production to which they owe their
economic success
today. Having done that, they now began their own
rendition of the Scramble
for Africa.
We need not remind you how our friends have offered to
help us out of our
economic quagmire by availing a US$3 billion loan, in
exchange for
concessions to our platinum deposits estimated at US$40
billion.
We need not remind you either of how they have taken over chrome
production
in this country, preferring to export it raw without adding value
to it,
unlike the British and Americans who at least set up factories here,
added
value and created employment.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 18:20
By
Constantine Chimakure
THE independence of the judiciary is a fundamental
hallmark in any democracy
and that is why we condemn Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s acerbic attack
on Supreme Court judges last week after
nullifying the election of MDC-T
chairman Lovemore Moyo to the House of
Assembly speakership in August 2008.
Neither can we also condone Moyo’s
reaction to the judgment.
Obviously angered by these developments,
Tsvangirai said: “Dubious and
pro-executive decisions have been made in this
era. We will not accept the
decisions of some Zanu PF politicians
masquerading as judges. Zanu PF is
trying to use the courts to subvert and
regain what it lost in an election.”
Moyo weighed in claiming that:
“We are aware that the majority of our
people, learned men and women on the
bench, owe it to the (Robert) Mugabe
regime, and obviously it is a given
that when it comes to a call when they
have to make decisions, crucial
decisions for that matter, they have to pay
back the master. In this case,
do things in favour of Zanu PF.
“So I was not shocked because I knew
that 99% they would certainly favour
their master.”
The needless
attack on the judiciary makes the MDC-T no different from Zanu
PF, a party
they have countless times accused of interfering with the
judiciary and with
no respect for the rule of law. What makes it worse is
that on that same
day, last Thursday, the same Supreme Court upheld the
acquittal of MDC-T
treasurer Roy Bennett by the High Court — striking
Tsvangirai and Moyo’s
claims.
They selected, by their comments, to ignore several rulings
made by the same
judges in favour of the MDC-T to score cheap political
points.
It is the same Justice Paddington Garwe who acquitted Tsvangirai
in 2004
during his infamous treason trial and who last week agreed with
Chief
Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku and Justice Vernanda Ziyambi to nullify
Moyo’s
election.
Why Tsvangirai and Moyo can now label Garwe a Zanu
PF functionary is anyone’s
guess.
The MDC-T should avoid
brinkmanship and reckless statements that flout the
very tenets of democracy
they claim to be fighting for.
Conversely, calls for their arrest by
Zanu PF zealots are mischievous and
reek of hypocrisy. What is laughable is
that those at the forefront of
making such calls include former Information
minister Jonathan Moyo.
Moyo, who was in the habit of castigating
judges when he was minister, this
week said: “The rule of law he
(Tsvangirai) preaches also means accepting
that judges have a responsibility
to interpret the law, no-one else can
claim to have authority in
interpreting the law except the courts.”
Then Information minister,
Moyo, in October 2000 criticised Justice Esmael
Chatikobo after he granted
an urgently sought interdict to Capital Radio
against government’s intention
to seize the station’s equipment. The
interdict was granted after hours and
was made at a time when the case was
pending in court. Moyo castigated
Chatikobo calling him a “night judge,
dispensing night
justice”.
Moyo was at it again in 2002 attacking Justice Fergus
Blackie’s contempt
charges against Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa. Moyo
said in his rebuke
that the judge “who has a history of kangaroo courts” had
taken the matter
into “a personal crusade and has done that in a manner that
will erode
public confidence in the justice system”, and further that “there
is no
doubt that fair- minded and law abiding citizens will see this
judgment for
what it is: outrageous, sinister, highly personalised crusade
made by
someone who should be packing his bags”.
Moyo is not the
only one in Zanu PF guilty of contempt against judges
without being
prosecuted.
Chinamasa not only criticised Justice Nicholas McNally,
but ordered him to
leave office saying that they could not guarantee his
safety if he continued
to carry out his duties.
Then there were
the war veterans’ threats against Chief Justice Antony
Gubbay when they
invaded his chambers.
With the above precedents, to call for the
arrest of Tsvangirai and Moyo is
hypocritical and deceitful. Let’s have no
more of this from either side.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 17:47
THE Global
Political Agreement (GPA) and Government of National Unity (GNU)
were once
again shaken to their foundations after last week’s dramatic
events which
appeared choreographed by Zanu PF’s forces of darkness pursuing
a sinister
political agenda. First, we had the arrest of Energy and Power
Development
Minister Elton Mangoma for allegedly violating tender procedures
in awarding
a US$6 million fuel supply to two South African companies,
Mohwelere and
NOOA.
Justice Samuel Kudya practically quashed the threadbare allegations
at the
bail hearing on Tuesday.
Then on the same day when Mangoma
was arrested the Supreme Court nullified
Speaker of Parliament Lovemore
Moyo’s election.
Concurrently, as if to mitigate the political fallout
from the ousting of
Moyo, exiled MDC-T treasurer Roy Bennett won his case
against
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana in the Supreme Court.
Now
the question is, is President Robert Mugabe going to swear him in as
deputy
Agriculture minister?
As this was happening Mugabe was on his way to
the African Union meeting in
Ethiopia. It was as if the timing was designed
to dissociate Mugabe from
these events.
In a quick succession of
episodes, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who had
earlier the same day
(last Thursday) indicated he was frustrated by the
power struggles in the
GNU but would nevertheless stick in there, called a
press conference to
react to the Mangoma and the Moyo incidents. After
attacking Zanu PF and
judges, Tsvangirai threatened to quit the GNU.
At that point the GPA
and GNU appeared on the brink. Tsvangirai seemed on
the verge of falling
into Zanu PF’s trap. MDC-T secretary-general Tendai
Biti heightened
political temperatures by saying — again on the same day —
his party was
ready for “divorce” in the GPA and GNU political union.
That path, being
paved by Zanu PF hawks who are laying lethal political
landmines for
Tsvangirai, can only lead the country to destination hell.
The plot
is clear. An evil cabal of Zanu PF fascists (those pursuing a
radical,
authoritarian nationalist ideology) around Mugabe are planning to
collapse
the GPA and GNU and stampede the country into early elections with
a
predetermined outcome.
Violence and intimidation, mixed with electoral
manipulation and fraud,
would be the decisive factors.
This is the
sort of election that Mugabe and his diehards want.
But then the
question is: If Mugabe and his bloc succeed in driving the
country in that
direction, what next? Where does the country go after that?
Put
differently, what can Mugabe and his cronies do which they failed to do
in
30 years?
Mugabe and his hangers-on have no alternative plan except
taking the country
back to an era of political repression and command
economics. If they
crumble the GNU, what do they propose to do
afterwards?
The same question can be proposed to Tsvangirai. If he
walks out of GNU then
what? We are not saying the GPA or GNU is the ultimate
political model for
Zimbabwe, but as things stand the agreement — flawed as
it is — offers the
best chance of a rebound for the country. Until somebody
comes up with
something more viable, we don’t see any
alternative.
The GPA and GNU, products of negotiations following
disputed elections, are
meant to provide a transitional mechanism to ensure
the country prepares
itself for genuinely free and fair elections where
violence and
intimidation, as well as electoral theft, have no
place.
If Mugabe and his party win free and fair elections, then that’s
fine, they
can rule.
After all people get a leader and government
they deserve. But why are they
afraid of genuine and credible elections?
Since 1980 Mugabe and his party
have always won through violence and
intimidation even when they were still
popular.
Zimbabweans,
including Tsvangirai and MDC-T officials, must learn to
properly explain the
Zimbabwean story. It has many narratives but one thing
is clear: Mugabe and
Zanu PF have never been interested in free and fair
elections.
They
resent democracy, good governance and human rights. They fear
accountability
and transparency.
Let’s not forget these are the same people who
firmly believed in a
one-party state and a president for life, hence the
cult of personality
around Mugabe.
They believed in command
economics.
They wanted to turn Zimbabwe into an Orwellian Animal Farm —
where leaders
assume the role of masters, complete with all of the
oppressive posturing
that goes with an authoritarian regime. That’s Mugabe
and Zanu PF. And it
spells doom for Zimbabwe.