http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=12882
March 5, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Government on Thursday announced new foreign
currency denominated
fees for Zimbabwe's public schools, while completely
scrapping tuition fees
for all pupils attending rural primary
schools.
Education, Arts, Sports and Culture Minister, David Coltart,
unveiled a
tuition fee regime in which both urban and rural schools will
demand
different amounts from their students.
Foreign students will
pay far more than their Zimbabwean counterparts.
According to the new fee
structure, Zimbabwean pupils attending government
schools located in low
density urban areas will now pay US$150 per term,
while foreign pupils in
the same schools will be required to pay US$300.
Pupils attending primary
schools in high density areas will be required to
pay US$20 in tuition fees
per term while foreign will pay US$300.
The third category of Zimbabwean
pupils involves pupils attending rural
schools who will now be entitled to
free primary education. However, foreign
pupils attending the same schools
will still be required to pay US$300.
Turning to secondary schools,
Coltart said Forms One to Four pupils
attending schools located in low
density areas would be charged US$200 per
term while Forms Five and Six
would pay US$280.
Foreign pupils attending the same schools will pay
US$600.
Forms One to Four pupils attending high density suburb schools
will pay
US$100 while Advanced Level students will be charged US$180 per
term.
Foreign pupils will pay US$400 in tuition fees.
Secondary
school pupils in the rural areas will be required to pay US$50 for
attending
Forms One to Four while Advanced Level students are required to
pay US$80,
with foreign students paying US$200.
While the new fees only apply to the
first and second terms, examination
fees announced will apply to the whole
of 2009.
This year's Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) fees
for Grade 7
exams will be pegged at US$15 per subject for low density area
schools.
But high density urban and rural schools will not be charged
anything for
Grade 7 examinations.
The basic fees for Ordinary Level
subjects will be pegged at US$15 each
while for orals fees will be pegged at
US$10 with Science and practical
subjects also demanding US$10
each.
Advanced Level pupils will pay US$30 per subject, with US$15 for
orals as
well as for science papers and practicals.
There were mixed
feelings among parents some of whom felt the fees were
still too steep for
them.
"Considering that we are still earning far less than my monthly
needs, I
feel both the fees and the examination fees are still very
unaffordable,"
said one Harare parent who said he was forced to withdraw his
Form three
child from a Harare school last month because he could not afford
both the
transport fares and school fees.
Some parents welcomed the
policy clarity that has now been exhibited by
government following the huge
inconsistencies in the charging of fees by
most schools.
A large
number of children were forced to drop out of school this year
because of
the steep tuition fees charged by schools.
In many cases classes enrolled
as few as a third of their complement.
http://www.thestar.co.za
March 06, 2009 Edition 2
Stanley
Gama
three white farmers and businessmen who were arrested early this
year and
charged with training bandits to topple President Robert Mugabe,
were freed
by a Harare court yesterday after a magistrate ruled they had no
case to
answer.
John Vigo Naested, Bryan Michael Baxter and Angus
John Thompson, who own
adjourning plots in Ruwa, just outside Harare, were
arrested on January 6 at
the instigation of former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) chief security
officer, Joshua Banda, who went on to invade Baxter's
property.
After representations yesterday, Harare magistrate Gloria
Takundwa ruled in
favour of the three. The state did not appeal and the
three were expected to
be released late yesterday evening.
The
defence successfully discredited Banda, saying he had long held
ambitions of
taking over the property of Baxter. Banda took advantage of the
fact that
Naested trained boy scouts at his farm and misrepresented to
police that the
facility was used for training of bandits to overthrow
Mugabe.
"The
chief source of information leading to the arrest of the applicants is
one
Joseph Banda who, in very simple and unwavering terms, wants to take
over
the second applicant's farm (Baxter), but has been met with obvious
resistance," said their lawyer, Maxwell Mavhunga.
"It is shocking and
disturbing that state resources, including this
honourable court have been
used and abused to advance personal interests and
resolve deep rooted
vendettas. It is a case of a person who took advantage
of the political
situation and proceeded to manipulate it to his advantage
in a savage and
ruthless manner culminating in the incarceration of totally
innocent and
apolitical elderly citizens of the country," he continued.
The
investigating officer, Chief Superintendent Ngirishi, argued that he had
strong evidence but failed to produce it in court.
Mavhunga said
their next step would be to ensure that Banda was removed from
Baxter's
property.
* Movement for Democratic Change treasurer and deputy
minister of
agriculture designate, Roy Bennett, will remain behind bars
after the
Zimbabwe Supreme Court yesterday granted state prosecutors the
right to
appeal against a High Court ruling granting him bail.
The court
said Bennett would remain in custody until a date for a hearing
was set.
Bennett's arrest has heightened tensions between Prime Minister
Tsvangirai
and President Robert Mugabe. - Independent Foreign Service
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Chris McGreal in
Harare
The Guardian, Friday 6 March 2009
Ben Hlatshwayo's mistake was
not in using his power as a Zimbabwe high court
judge to steal a farm from
one of his white compatriots. His error was in
proving to be a decent enough
farmer to catch the rapacious eye of the
president's wife.
It doesn't
do to have anything worth taking in Zimbabwe these days,
particularly prime
farmland with a crop nearly ready for harvest. But Mr
Justice Hlatshwayo, a
veteran of the liberation war against white rule who
was promoted from
obscurity to the high court by President Robert Mugabe to
give legal
authority to the expropriation of thousands of white-owned farms,
no doubt
felt protected by his status.
He was rewarded with his own land, taken
six years ago when he arrived at
Vernon Nicolle's 580 hectares in Banket,
snatched the keys from the maid and
declared the place his. The takeover was
in breach of an order from
Hlatshwayo's own court but those were rough days,
with white farmers being
beaten and murdered, and there was little Nicolle
could do. Zimbabwe's
assistant police commissioner, Wayne Bvudzijena, seized
the neighbouring
farm from Nicolle's son.
But now Hlatshwayo has
discovered there is someone higher up the pecking
order of plunder. After
Grace Mugabe's gaze fell upon his farm, a clique of
cabinet ministers was
assembled to tell the judge to hand it over and
Hlatshwayo has been left
bleating in court papers that "there is clearly no
lawful basis" for seizing
the land and accusing a holding company owned by
Mugabe of "unlawful
conduct".
According to court papers, Hlatshwayo accuses the Mugabe family
of being
multiple farm owners but still wanting the one the judge took from
Nicolle.
The affidavit says Hlatshwayo was summoned to a meeting with
three of
Mugabe's then cabinet ministers - security minister Didymus Mutasa,
justice
minister Patrick Chinamasa and agricultural mechanisation minister
Joseph
Made - where he was told the president's wife needed his farm. The
Zimbabwe
press reported that she wants to give it to her son from her first
marriage
as a birthday gift.
Hlatshwayo then complains that "there is
clearly no lawful basis" for
seizing his land and accuses the holding
company, Gushungo - named after
Robert Mugabe's family totem - of being
"intent upon imposing its will
regardless of observing due process of the
law".
Mutasa responded by saying that Hlatshwayo has been given
alternative land
near Mutare in the east of the country.
His is not
the first farm the president's wife has targeted. She first took
Iron Mask
estate in Mazowe in 2003 from a couple in their 70s. Then she
grabbed Foyle
farm, one of the biggest dairy operations in the country.
Production halved
within months of the seizure.
Hlatshwayo's problems might have been
avoided if he had not proved to be a
fairly useful farmer. Most of the
Zanu-PF elite plundered farms for what
could be sold for a quick profit and
then let the land lie fallow, sometimes
using it as collateral for loans to
buy luxury cars and houses in plush
Harare suburbs. The judge, on the other
hand, produced a regular crop of
maize, soya and sorghum.
Whatever
the legal merits or otherwise of Hlatshwayo's case against the
Mugabes, he
faces another problem of his own making. The courts are now so
terrified of
Mugabe and his cronies that no judge will agree to hear
Hlatshwayo's
case.
http://www.globalpost.com/
Aid organization says
mounting cholera death toll is just one sign of a
collapsed health care
system.
By Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne - GlobalPost
Published:
March 5, 2009 21:01 ET
BOSTON - As Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic spins "out
of control," the group
Doctors Without Borders took the unprecedented step
of of criticizing
President Robert Mugabe's government.
The group's
president Christoph Fournier, who recently returned from
Zimbabwe, urged the
government to provide "unrestricted access" for aid
organizations to carry
out their work.
Zimbabwe's health system has collapsed with government
hospitals and clinics
closing despite people's urgent need for care. Doctors
Without Borders (also
known as Medecins Sans Frontieres) and other groups
have stepped in to help
people cope with the emergency.
But Zimbabwe
is restricting international aid, according to Doctors Without
Borders. The
World Health Organization estimates that more than 87,000
people have been
infected with cholera and nearly 4,000 have died.
"The Zimbabwean
government must respect independent assessments of needs,
guarantee that aid
agencies can work wherever needs are identified, and ease
bureaucratic
obstacles so that programs can be staffed properly and drugs
and other
urgent medical supplies can be imported quickly," Fournier said
speaking to
GlobalPost.
The doctors' group has treated more than 75 percent of the
cases in
Zimbabwe. Fournier complained that the Zimbabwean government has
imposed
bureaucratic restrictions that have prevented the group from setting
up more
treatment centers for suspected cholera cases.
Doctors
Without Borders has called on the international aid community to
recognize
that Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic is only the most visible sign of
a health
system that has collapsed.
"Zimbabwe is a country literally falling apart
at the seams," Fournier
said.
In addition to waiting three to six
months to get a work permit, Doctors
Without Borders physicians and nurses
are required by Zimbabwean law to do a
three to six month residency in the
country before doing any clinic work.
"They have to do this training for
three months with a senior doctor, a
supervisor, in a hospital, which
becomes a joke when you think that many
hospitals are closed and that senior
doctors are usually not there anymore,"
said Manuel Lopez, head of Doctors
Without Borders' Zimbabwe mission.
Beyond cholera, the health situation
in Zimbabwe is increasingly desperate.
Clinics are often closed, medical
staff have stopped showing up for work,
and medicine and supplies are
becoming harder to obtain. Pregnant women,
according to Doctors Without
Borders, are often forced to bring their own
drinking water and gloves in
order to deliver in clinics, since these items
are not
available.
Where medical treatment is still available, patients must pay
in foreign
currency, as the country's hyperinflation of 231 million percent
has
rendered its currency effectively useless. Paying these fees for health
care
is beyond the reach of most Zimbabweans.
"Many of them stay at
home or die at home. So that's the way it is. It gets
as bad as that," Lopez
said.
http://www.voanews.com
By Patience
Rusere
Washington
05 March 2009
Interview With Dennis
Nikisi and Fambai Ngirande - Download (MP3)
Interview With Dennis Nikisi and
Fambai Ngirande - Listen (MP3)
The food crisis in Zimbabwe continues
although aid groups are now providing
rations to some 7 million people and
increased commercial and private
imports of food are helping bring down
prices as the U.S.-based Famine Early
Warning Systems Network recently
reported.
Sources at the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe said there is
plenty of food on
grocery shelves but many people lack the foreign currency
needed to purchase
such essentials.
And non-governmental
organizations say the number of those needing aid keeps
rising.
For
perspective on conditions in Zimbabwean food markets and food assistance
programs VOA reporter Patience Rusere turned to Dennis Nikisi, director of
the University of Zimbabwe Graduate School of Management and spokesman
Fambai Ngirande of the National Association of Non-Governmental
Organizations.
Ngirande said food is widely available but accessible
only to those who can
afford it.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=12878
March 5, 2009
By Raymond
Maingire
HARARE - Former Guruve North legislator David Butau appeared at
the Harare
magistrates' court on Thursday to face charges of
fraud.
The former legislator, appearing for this first time since his
arrest, is
fighting for his release from custody through bail.
Harare
magistrate Archie Wochiunga is on Friday afternoon expected to decide
whether he should grant the incarcerated legislator his application for
bail.
Butau, who was chief executive officer of Dande Holdings, which
has
significant interests in agriculture, faces one count of fraud involving
US$215 000, another count of attempted fraud and one more count of violating
the Exchange Control Act as read with the Exchange Control
regulations.
The alleged offences, which he denies, are said to have been
committed in
2007.
Butau was arrested by detectives from the Criminal
Investigations Department
(CID)'s serious frauds section on Monday evening
as he arrived from abroad
where he had sought refugee for over a
year.
Butau, who is being represented by Harare lawyer Charles Chinyama,
has
pleaded with the courts to grant him bail saying he had voluntarily
surrendered himself to police as he arrived from his sanctuary in South
Africa.
He escaped from Zimbabwe on December 27, 2007, and flew to
the United
Kingdom. He later relocated to South Africa where he was holed up
for almost
11 months.
The former legislator argues that if he had any
intention of continuing to
evade the law, he would not have returned to
Zimbabwe in the first place.
The court heard that Butau had bargained for
his freedom days before he flew
back home on Monday.
The state,
represented by Michael Mugabe, argues on the other hand, that
Butau is still
not a suitable candidate for bail despite his claim to have
surrendered
himself to police.
He dismisses Butau's suggestions that he had handed
himself to police,
saying this should be viewed with suspicion.
Butau
was forced to skip the country when it emerged that the police wanted
to
arrest him on alleged violations of the country's Exchange Control
Act.
The first signs of Butau's imminent arrest emerged when central bank
governor, Gideon Gono publicly accused some Zanu-PF and government officials
of creating artificial shortages of the local currency through hoarding cash
for speculative purposes.
The utterances by Gono were seen as an
indication President Robert Mugabe
wanted to suppress what had been an
emerging dominance of a powerful faction
within his Zanu-PF faction led by
retired army commander Solomon Mujuru at
the expense of his preferred
successor Emmerson Mnangagwa's faction. Mujuru
is the wealthy husband of
Vice President Joice Mujuru. Mnangagwa is wealthy
in his own
right.
Following the utterances by Gono, Butau was summoned by the police
who made
repeated announcements through the press that they wanted to
question him on
alleged violations of the Exchange Control Act.
Butau
later told the government-controlled press from the safety of the
United
Kingdom that he would return home as soon as documents and details
absolving
him of any wrongdoing were forwarded to the relevant authorities.
He said
he had fled Zimbabwe as he believed he would not get a fair
treatment from
what he saw as a politically motivated attempt to prosecute
him.
Source: Save the Children
Alliance
Date: 02 Mar 2009
Most of their mothers won't even
live to half the president's age.
"There's nothing for children to
celebrate in Zimbabwe. As thousands of
dollars are spent on birthday food
and drink, millions of children struggle
to survive on basic food aid
rations, often with no way of getting clean
water." says Save the
Children.
"The birthday wish for many children here is to get their
education, but
with most schools closed and fewer than one and ten children
now in class,
there's faint chance of that. Doctors want to save the lives
of newborn
children, but with little electricity or decent equipment, they
can't keep
child vaccines cold, nor undertake life-saving
operations.
"Babies and young children are dying in Zimbabwe. Every
single one should be
able to celebrate their fifth birthday".
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Friday, 06 March 2009 00:36
THERE was a
dramatic showdown in cabinet on Tuesday when Finance
minister Tendai Biti
demanded that Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono should
go.
The
clash raised political temperatures between the two main political
parties
in the new government, Zanu PF and the MDC faction headed by Morgan
Tsvangirai.
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Tsvangirai have been
engaged in a fierce battle for control behind the
scenes since the formation
of the inclusive government.
Informed sources in Zanu PF and the MDC said this week Biti - fired up
after
recently meeting regional finance ministers in Cape Town where the
Gono
issue was discussed on the sidelines of the gathering - shocked the
cabinet
when he openly demanded that Gono must be dropped immediately.
Sadc ministers had met to discuss a $2 billion rescue package for
Zimbabwe.
A regional summit will be held soon to discuss the bailout. Biti
did not
invite Gono on his recent visit to South Africa to look for
money.
The MDC is arguing that donor nations, especially the
United States
and European Union states, including Britain, would not give
Zimbabwe money
while Gono is still in charge at the central bank, which
controls the
financial levers of the state. Zanu PF rejects this, saying the
problem is
not Gono but sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.
Without mentioning Gono by name, Britain's Minister for Africa, Lord
(Mark)
Malloch-Brown, this week said his government would not bankroll
Zimbabwe's
economic recovery until there were reforms at the central bank.
"Yes we are holding back from general budget support to the government
because we just don't have the confidence that the people who write the
cheques and control the central bank are honest people who we could safely
trust with British taxpayers' money," he said on Sunday.
The European Union, according to diplomats, supported Biti's
appointment to
deal with Gono.
The sources said Biti in cabinet cited the
Sadc communiqué issued in
January after inter-party talks between Zanu PF
and the MDC formations in
Pretoria which said the Gono issue, among others,
would be dealt with by the
inclusive government.
They said Biti
told cabinet it was high time Gono was fired. Biti
promised MDC supporters
at Glamis Stadium in Harare on February 11, the day
Tsvangirai was sworn-in,
that they would deal with the governor's issue once
in
government.
However, sources said Zanu PF ministers countered
Biti, saying the
Gono issue had been dealt with after government explained
to the MDC how he
was reappointed for a second five-year term.
The sources said Vice-President Joseph Msika was among those who were
vocal
in Gono's defence.
Msika argued that Gono engaged in quasi-fiscal
activities - that the
MDC say ruined the economy and fuelled hyperinflation
- to deal with the
sanctions called for by the MDC. Biti rejected
this.
The confrontation, sources said, must have reminded
Mugabe and
Tsvangirai that the power struggle within the government had only
just
begun.
Zanu PF and MDC ministers yesterday continued
to stoke fires over the
issue.
"Gono must go now and very
fast, otherwise Biti won't be able to run
his ministry which is the most
important in government," one MDC minister
said.
However, a
Zanu PF minister countered: "The MDC people are wasting
their time, Gono is
going nowhere, he is there to stay."
Gono and Biti were
unavailable for comment yesterday.
Biti has described Gono as
an "Al-Qaeda" deserving to be put before a
firing squad for his activities
as central bank governor. Gono has not
publicly reacted to Bitis
attacks.
Sadc leaders said in January the Gono issue, together
with matters
relating to the appointment of the Attorney-General Johannes
Tomana,
permanent secretaries, provincial governors and detainees, would be
dealt
with by the new government.
Mugabe last week
appointed permanent secretaries without the necessary
consultations,
triggering a fierce backlash by Tsvangirai. Mugabe and
Tsvangirai met on
Monday to sort out the issue and it was apparently
resolved that the
permanent secretaries would be reappointed after necessary
consultations as
stipulated in the political agreement which led to the
inclusive
government.
This amounted to an admission by Mugabe that he had
not acted in terms
of section 20.1.7 of the constitution as changed by
Amendment (No 19) which
says "senior government appointments" would be made
by "the leadership in
government".
"The parties agree that
with respect to occupants of senior government
positions, such as permanent
secretaries and ambassadors, the leadership in
government, the president,
the vice-presidents, the prime minister and
deputy prime ministers, will
consult and agree on such prior to their
appointment," the section
says.
BY DUMISANI MULEYA AND CONSTANINE CHIMAKURE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Friday, 06 March 2009
00:29
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s political loyalists are fighting to
seize
the main functions of the Ministry of Information and Communication
Technology under Minister Nelson Chamisa to exercise a free rein in snooping
on people’s communications.
Last week Media, Information and
Publicity minister Webster Shamu
tried to invade Chamisa’s ministry by
visiting state entities under his
control, leading to a clash between the
two. It is understood the main issue
is spying on citizens with the help of
TelOne and cellular phone networks.
Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
have resolved the issue, although
Mugabe’s loyalists want to make yet
another back-door bid to control the
flow of information arising from the
Interception of Communications Act.
The Act establishes an
interception of communications monitoring
centre to intercept calls and
messages during the course of their
transmission through a
telecommunication, postal or any other related
service
system.
Those authorised to make applications for interception
of
communications include the Chief of Defence Intelligence, the
Director-General of the President’s department of national security (CIO),
the Police Commissioner-General and the Commissioner-General of the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority.
The minister — in this case Chamisa — is
authorised to issue an
interception warrant to authorised persons where
there are reasonable
grounds for the minister to believe (among
otherΩthings) that a serious
offence has been or is being or will probably
be committed or that there is
threat to the safety or national security of
the country.
The warrant issued by the minister is valid for a
period not exceeding
three months and must specify the name and address of
an interception
target. No court shall accept as evidence where such
evidence has been
obtained by means of any interception committed in
contravention of the Act.
Telecommunication service providers are
required to install hardware
and software facilities and devices to enable
interception of
communications.
The telecommunications
services, connected to the monitoring centre,
can store information or be
re-routed to the monitoring centre.
The telecommunications
service providers are paid for helping
government spy on their customers.
But they must not disclose that they have
been approached.
This means that the fixed network TelOne and cellular phone companies,
NetOne, Econet and Telecel — who survive on income from customers — are
being remunerated for aiding and abetting spying on the same
customers.
The Act also deals with the application procedure
for the detention of
any “suspicious postal article”. An authorised person
may apply to the
minister for an order to detain and examine the postal
article where the
authorised person has reasonable grounds to suspect that
the postal article
contains anything in respect of which an offence or
attempted offence is
being committed.
Authorised persons
are required to destroy as soon as possible after
use any intercepted
material. Those aggrieved by a warrant, directive or
order by spying agents
may appeal to the Administrative Court which can
confirm, vary or set aside
challenged warrants. The Attorney-General has
powers to examine how the
minister is exercising his authority. — Staff
Writer.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Friday, 06 March 2009
00:20
HARARE South MP Herbert Nyanhongo has denied media reports that
he is
the chairman of the Zanu PF Harare province.
In a letter
to the Zimbabwe Independent this week, Nyanhongo said
contrary to earlier
reports, he was not the chairman of the Zanu PF Harare
province. He said
results of elections held last December in which he was
elected chairman
were nullified.
"The fact of the matter is that I am not the
chairman of Zanu PF
Harare province. The results of the provincial elections
held on December 14
were nullified," Nyanhogo said.
He said
Zanu PF national chairman John Nkomo was currently leading the
restructuring
of party organs in Harare in preparation for fresh elections
and denied ever
accusing him of fanning factionalism in the party.
He said: "At
no time have I accused the national chairman of fanning
factionalism in Zanu
PF. To the contrary, I respect and hold in high esteem
John
Nkomo."
The Zanu PF legislator also denied that there was a
"Nyanhongo" camp
in the Zanu PF Harare province.
"For the record
there is no Nyanhongo camp in Zanu PF Harare province.
There is no Nyanhongo
official," Nyanhongo said.
"I am a loyal, dedicated Zanu PF
cadre who respects the authority of
his superiors. I am actively
participating in the restructuring of party
organs being spearheaded by the
national chairman John Nkomo," said
Nyanhongo. - Staff
Writer.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Friday, 06 March
2009 00:16
THE appointment of 10 additional ministers by President
Robert Mugabe
after consulting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy
Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara violated the Global Political Agreement
(GPA) and was
unconstitutional, lawyers said this week.
They
said if the appointments were to stand, there was need for
another
constitutional amendment or the re-enactment of Constitutional
Amendment
No19 to accommodate the ministers.
Mugabe has appointed 41
ministers and 20 deputy ministers from the
three parties in the transitional
authority in what constitutional lawyers
said was a violation of the GPA and
the constitution.
Under the GPA, signed last September and
Constitutional Amendment
No19, signed into law by Mugabe last month, the
inclusive government should
have 31 ministers, 15 nominated by Zanu PF, 13
by MDC-T and three by MDC.
The constitution also states that
there should have been 15 deputy
ministers with eight nominated by Zanu PF,
six by MDC-T and one by MDC.
The bloated cabinet announced by
Mugabe, according to analysts, would
burden the country's flagging
economy.
"As both the GPA and the constitution say there shall
be 31 ministers,
it is implicit that there must not be more than 31
ministers in cabinet," a
group of lawyers calling themselves Veritas said.
"As 41 have been
appointed, this makes 10 appointees unconstitutional,
although which 10 may
be difficult to ascertain."
The
lawyers said the move by Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara to flout
the
constitutional provision after agreeing to increase the size of cabinet
to
accommodate party interests was against established tenets of
constitutional
democracy.
"This lays the actions of the inflated government
open to challenge in
the High Court or Supreme Court," Veritas
said.
National Constitutional Assembly chairperson and
constitutional expert
Lovemore Madhuku said the appointment of extra
ministers was illegal and
could be challenged in the
courts.
"Legally they have to introduce Constitutional
Amendment Number 20 to
give legal effect to the appointments, or
Constitutional Amendment Number 19
could be re-enacted in parliament to
cover the new appointments," Madhuku
said.
He said the
ministerial appointments could be nullified if citizens or
any organisation
challenged them in court.
"The appointments can be successfully
contested in a court of law and
they can be nullified since they are
unconstitutional," Madhuku said.
"Mugabe and the other principals made the
appointments hoping that no one
will challenge the appointments. They are
illegal."
Another legal expert with a non-governmental
organisation who
requested anonymity said civil society organisations should
challenge the
unconstitutional appointments.
"The civil
society in this country is letting people down," he said.
"There is no basis
for everyone in the civil society to look the other way
when politicians are
violating the same constitution that they are supposed
to
uphold."
He said it was highly likely that Zanu PF and the two
MDC formations
would re-enact Constitutional Number 19 as the process of
bringing in a new
amendment was cumbersome.
Efforts to get
a comment from Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs
minister Eric
Matinenga were in vain yesterday.
The inflated cabinet was
appointed at a time when the country is beset
by numerous problems,
including collapsed health and educational sectors and
a cholera epidemic
that has left over 4 000 people dead and 80 000 infected
by the waterborne
disease since its outbreak last August.
Official vehicles,
residences, staff and offices as well as the huge
wage bill to accommodate
this arrangement would gobble up a large chunk of
scarce foreign currency
that could go a long way in addressing some of the
problems afflicting the
country, critics say.
According to political analysts, the
bloated government was a damning
indictment of the MDC-T formation which
based its 2008 election campaign on
the promise of a trimmed
cabinet.
The big government, the analysts added, would make it
difficult for
the government to get crucial international funding needed to
kickstart the
economy.
Finance minister Tendai Biti will
have to revise the budget to
accommodate the swollen cabinet.
Sources at parliament told the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday that
because
of the increase in the number of ministers, there were no seats for
them in
the House.
So large is the new cabinet that observers noted
that if it was in
1980 when parliament had 80 elected MPs, almost everyone
would have been a
minister.
The observers said before last
year's expansion of the members of the
House of Assembly from 150 to 210,
close to half of the last parliament's
lawmakers would have made it into the
inclusive government's cabinet.
Meanwhile, sources said one of
the ministers appointed by Mugabe from
the MDC, Gibson Sibanda, would have
to find a constituency in the next three
months if he is to remain in the
cabinet.
Sibanda was appointed a Minister of State in
Mutambara's office.
In terms of the constitution, a minister
should have a seat or should
be a non-constituency senator.
The
sources said Mutambara had already appointed Welshman Ncube and
Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga as his two non-constituency senators ahead
of
Sibanda.
"Sibanda has three months to find a constituency
either in the House
of Assembly or Senate," one of the sources said. "If he
fails to get a
constituency, he will be forced to step down."
BY LOUGHTY DUBE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Friday, 06 March 2009
00:12
THE deal between the Attorney-General (AG)'s office and defence
lawyers for political detainees to drop cases against the state in exchange
for bail will not stop the accused from suing the government or the people
responsible for their abductions and torture, legal experts said
yesterday.
The pact, which saw the release of several human rights
and MDC
activists, among them Zimbabwe Peace Project director Jestina
Mukoko, was
made at a meeting held last Friday between senior officials from
the AG's
office and defence lawyers representing the activists.
According to Veritas, a group of lawyers, the state's condition for
withdrawal of all defence applications currently pending in the High Court
and the Supreme Court was a limited one.
The lawyers said:
"It does not prevent future legal action by the
abductees against the state
and the state agents responsible for their
abduction, unlawful detention and
torture."
Veritas said the condition still does not stop the
detainees from
pressing for the prosecution of those individual state agents
responsible
for their torture.
Charles Kwaramba, a lawyer
representing some of the detainees, said
while defence lawyers would
withdraw some of the court challenges, they will
press ahead with
constitutional challenges against the state on the
abduction and illegal
detention of their clients.
"We are going to withdraw some of
the cases but we are proceeding with
cases dealing with issues of the
legality of the abduction, torture and
forced disappearance of our clients,"
Kwaramba said.
He said they wanted the Supreme Court to decide
on the legality of the
behaviour of the police and state agents in the
abduction, detention and
torture of their clients.
Otto
Saki, a lawyer with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said there
would be
no withdrawal of cases.
"We can't really say there was a deal
on the withdrawal of cases
against the state in exchange for bail as not all
the detainees had cases
against the state and there is going to be no
withdrawal of any case,"Saki
said.
The state had last week
suggested that the bail figure be put at US$2
000 per person, separate
surety of US$60 000 per person, surrendering travel
documents and title
deeds to property worth at least US$20 000 and reporting
twice weekly to the
police.
However, the defence lawyers argued that the amounts
were too high and
that not everyone had travel documents or title
deeds.
Magistrates who granted the detainees bail eventually
dropped the
demand for surety and set bail at US$600 each plus the surrender
of travel
documents, if any, security or title deeds of at least US$20 000
value, and
reporting to police on Monday and Friday.
The
issue of 19 missing persons from the list of 42 people who were
abducted and
detained by alleged state agents since last October was also
discussed at
the Friday meeting and the state indicated that it was willing
to release
the missing persons.
The state insisted that defence lawyers
should drop cases against the
state.
BY LUCIA MAKAMURE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Friday, 06 March 2009
00:08
MEALTIME has finally come for the visibly starving elderly woman
standing in the queue with five people in front of her.
Her
dusty cracked feet and haggard face depict a lifetime of suffering
and toil.
It is apparent she has come a long way in the hope that she could
partake in
the fiesta, thanks to "Comrade President Robert Mugabe."
As the
woman waits for her turn to be served, a man of about 25 years
attempts to
jump the queue, much to the annoyance of a soldier who lunges at
him
immediately.
In a bid to shield himself from the charging
soldier, the man leans
back with force and in the process falls on to the
elderly woman. She lands
on the dusty concrete verandah with a thud leaving
dozens of dry-mouthed
people in the queue confused and fearful. Still in
anguish she dusts off her
Zanu PF regalia before the lad
flees.
The woman is part of the multitude who raced from the
Chinhoyi
University grounds to the dining hall hoping to be an early bird
after
Mugabe and his entourage left the grounds where he delivered a long
speech
to mark his 85th birthday.
Her plight typifies that
of thousands of Zanu PF supporters who
celebrated the octogenarian leader's
birthday by consent or coercion.
Like a pack of hungry hyenas
being relentlessly restrained by a lone
lion, such was the enormous task
that was before the young soldier who
single-handedly used brute force to
control Zanu PF supporters from
rampaging into the Chinhoyi Public Service
Training Centre dining hall.
Laughter would have been brighter
if the food was in abundance,
notwithstanding how appetising it
was.
But sheer determination to join the lucky few outweighed
the fear that
confronted the hunger-stricken supporters. Inside the hall,
supporters
swallowed large morsels of sadza and stew that was at times
served on
newspapers and plastic plates.
They had endured the
sweltering heat patiently waiting in anticipation
of Mugabe and his
long-time rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
A handful
brought their own cutlery to the party but they were not
spared from the
desperation that marked the day. Owing to dry taps at the
training centre,
some washed their plates using water dripping from gutters
mounted on
buildings before sharing plates among themselves.
A temporary
reprieve only arrived late when a tractor carrying a large
tank full of
water was availed to the party supporters well after pots had
been emptied.
Only schoolchildren who were lucky to receive a few slices of
bread accessed
this water.
Across the fence, Mugabe and his henchman were
banqueting at the
Chinhoyi University Hotel - a conferencing facility that
was recently
established to equip students undertaking hospitality
studies.
Unlike the training centre, every tap was running and no
meandering
queues could be seen outside the complex. But a car park full of
luxury
vehicles joined Mugabe's entourage as the veteran leader and his
coterie
gorged themselves.
Unlike the ordinary party
supporters who jostled for sadza, boiled
cabbage and stew, invited guests
were treated lavishly with salads, rice,
and beef or chicken. Fizzy drinks
were also served to cool down the flock
and other invited
dignitaries.
Placards laden with less-than-subtle messages were
displayed at
Chinhoyi University sports field during the North Korean-styled
festivity,
which celebrated the life of the Zanu PF leader.
"There is no manna from the West," read one of the placards seemingly
undermining the opposition leader's efforts to engage the European Union.
Another one announced: "It's the sanctions, stupid."
Mugabe
was showered with praise hailing his legacy. He was described
as a "true son
of the soil".
Clearly referring to Mugabe's octogenarian status,
another placard
boldly declared: "Age ain't nothing but a
number."
School children bussed to the venue also sang, "Kuti
unzi president,
zvinoda wakadzidza (It calls for great intellectual capacity
to become
president)," hailing Mugabe's controversial
reign.
On arrival, Mugabe, his wife and two sons Robert Jnr and
Belarmine
endured a 15-minute Hollywood style photo shoot with school
children who
were jostling to pose for snaps with the first
family.
This was followed by series of glorifying speeches, which
carried one
theme - that Mugabe is an indispensable "visionary"
leader.
So boring were some of the speeches and announcements
that often
Mugabe seemed tired, only to be "awakened" at the voice of a Zanu
PF youth
member who lively mimicked his public speeches.
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information who also
doubles as
Mugabe's speechwriter, George Charamba, seated next to the
presidential
chief of protocol Munyaradzi Kajese, could not help but laugh
as the young
man eloquently recited a "medley" of Mugabe's rhetoric
flourishes.
Prisoners serving at Chinhoyi Prison also drew
Mugabe's attention when
they passionately appealed for presidential clemency
in a song titled
Ndiregererei ndakatadza (I am sorry I offended) before the
master of
ceremonies echoed the same plea. But Mugabe remained
mum.
Clad in a striped greyish suit and red scarf, Mugabe
finished his
imported Ceres fruit juice in two gulps before proceeding to
deliver his
speech to a seemingly uninspired audience yawned more than in
applaude. His
wife Grace and other "VVIPs" seated in the front row also
sipped imported
drinks before other dignitaries were
served.
Mugabe took the stage just after lunchtime where he
threatened to
seize more farms from white commercial
farmers.
He said: "Again I want to say, the farmers who owned
these farms,
which now have been designated and offered to new owners, must
respect that
law. They must vacate those farms, they must vacate those
farms, they must
vacate those farms.
"Some farmers went to
the Sadc Tribunal in Namibia, but that's
nonsense, absolute nonsense, no one
will follow that. We have courts here in
this country that can determine the
rights of people. Our land issues are
not subject to the Sadc
Tribunal."
Security details and party marshals had to restrain
schoolchildren who
tried to leave the grounds after Mugabe's seemingly
unending speech.
Event coordinator Patrick Zhuwao - Mugabe's
nephew - described the
US$250 000 as better than that of 2008 in
Beitbridge.
About 4 000 people attended Mugabe's birthday in
Chinhoyi, compared to
about 10 000 who attended the Beitbridge
bash.
BY BERNARD MPOFU
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March 2009
22:52
GOVERNMENT last year refused three airlines permission to fly
into
Zimbabwe in what aviation experts said was a move to protect the
national
airline from competition and loss of revenue, it was revealed this
week.
Speaking to tourism players to formally introduce the
Minister of
Tourism and Hospitality Walter Mzembi to them, Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority
(ZTA) chief executive Karikoga Kaseke said three airlines,
Nationwide from
South Africa, Malaysian, and Emirates from the United Arab
Emirates, had
expressed a desire to fly to Zimbabwe but were not allowed to,
as
authorities said they wanted to protect Air Zimbabwe.
"The
benefit the airlines could have brought to the economy in terms
of traffic,
revenue and tourists telling the true Zimbabwean story could
have been very
significant," said Kaseke.
"Reasons such as 'we are protecting
our airlines were cited. What are
we protecting it (Air Zimbabwe) from? They
should learn to compete with
other airlines. That is the only way they can
remain competitive," said
Kaseke.
Kaseke said it was not
wise to treat the national airline as if it
started operating last year when
it has been in existence for a long period.
"Tourism
ambassadors go out to market Zimbabwe. For example, in China
they cannot
come by rail or road. The presence of many airlines in the
country also
increases the amount of traffic, revenue and flexibility as to
when one
wants to fly to Zimbabwe," said Kaseke.
Kaseke said tourism was
a sensitive and fragile sector and "once we
(tourism industry) lose we would
have lost. It is easy to lose many tourists
than to convince a few to fly to
a destination which has been receiving
negative publicity. With the World
Cup in South Africa next year, the
decision did not make sense," said
Kaseke.
Air Zimbabwe currently has four planes flying - two
Modern Ark (MA)
60s, Boeing 737 and a long haul 767.
A total of 18
international airlines have left the country since the
economic crisis and
negative publicity about Zimbabwe started 10 years ago.
These
include Lufthansa, Qantas, Austrian Airlines, Swissair, Air
India, Air
France and TAP Air Portugal.
African airlines that are no longer
fly into Harare include Egyptair,
Air Mauritius, Linhas Aereas de
Mocambique, Air Namibia, Royal Swazi
Airlines and Air Seychelles. Air
Tanzania, Ghana Airways, Air Uganda and Air
Cameroon have also pulled out of
the route.
Kaseke said the tourism sector had the potential to
be among the
leading foreign currency earners in the
country.
He said every Zimbabwean had a duty to market and tell
the "real
Zimbabwean story, not painting a wrong picture about the country
which is
always negative".
"Areas that need urgent
attention in the industry are its pricing
structure. We are the most
expensive in the region. Destinations compete and
we could lose out in this
regard," said Kaseke.
Kaseke said 2008 was one of the worst
years in the history of the
tourism industry in Zimbabwe and "preliminary
results so far are not
pleasing".
"Events after the March
elections and the cholera outbreak were some
of the major contributors to
the setbacks. A total of 17 conferences were
cancelled last year alone
including the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa (Comesa)
summit," said Kaseke.
Mzembi said the formation of a Government
of National Unity should
usher a new era and "the industry should ensure
that tourist packages are
priced within regional and international
comparatives".
"I must consider myself very lucky because I
will be working under a
different political dispensation where the Global
Political Agreement (GPA)
brings a new culture of inclusivity," he
said.
"We must open up our media space so that we market our
country,
telling the truth without exaggerating. The international media
should come
in and report factually, objectively, without fear or favour,"
Mzembi said.
"The excitement, the enthusiasm and the drive that
is there to
kickstart the (tourism) industry is amazing," said
Mzembi.
"Even as the world glides over the global recession,
tourism is the
only sector that has been projected to register growth," said
Mzembi.
Mzembi said tourism must be affordable for the local
consumer and that
the sector should be innovative in structuring their
packages and prices.
"My thrust is to come up with
interventions, programmes and strategies
for the development of tourism so
that we put the industry back where it
should be in the context of its
contributions to the GDP," said Mzembi.
Tourism currently
contributes about 4% to GDP.
Mzembi said the industry should be
contributing between 15 to 18% to
the GDP by the end of 2011 largely because
of the World Cup in South Africa.
Speaking to businessdigest
about the impact of GPA with regards to
tourism, African Sun chief executive
Shingi Munyeza said any businessman who
was not positioning themselves
around it were pursing a lost cause.
"We were swept into a
nine-year abyss from February 2000 after the
land reform programme. Debates
that emerged around this development
contributed to the negative publicity
the country was receiving," said
Munyeza.
Munyeza said
tourism was affected most because it was a sensitive
area.
"Before then (February 2000) about 60-70% of tourism in Zimbabwe
depended on
arrivals from outside. That was always a wrong position,"
Munyeza
said.
"We went for the low volume high yield tourism. But in
developing
markets you will find that those markets are dependent on their
own local
tourists before leaning on foreign tourists. Our failure to
promote local
tourism impacted negatively on the industry," he
said.
Munyeza said he had faith in the industry which had the
potential to
be one of the major foreign currency earners in the
country.
"In Europe with 50 pounds, one can visit more than one
country but in
Zimbabwe the same amount cannot cross the border," he
said.
"In England one can think of going to Manchester from
London. It's
just a thought. But in Zimbabwe for one to go to Kariba it is a
week's plan.
That should be a thing of the past," said
Munyeza.
Munyeza said after the nine years of isolation, the
industry depended
on local tourists who could not afford most destinations,
food and hotel
bills.
He said this was despite the fact
that locals paid about 10% of what
international tourists were paying. Now
they are paying at least about 30%
of what foreigners are
paying.
"Price distortions should be a thing of the past as we
improve our
infrastructure and make our destinations affordable," Munyeza
said.
BY PAUL NYAKAZEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March
2009 22:48
THE stock market is back after almost three months without
trading.
Momentum is gradually picking up.
However those who
had hoped its resumption would end their cash woes
must be disappointed by
its performance to date.
The bourse has lost a cumulative 42% and
still counting. The really
touching story is that of some investors who,
during the euphoria of
'kuburner mari', liquidated huge sums of US dollars
to buy shares.
Today with no record inflation gains to mask their
wounds, they stand
glaring at massive losses of five to 10 times their
principal values.
Economists and analysts on the other hand so
far appear vindicated as
it is turning out that after all fundamentals,
which they so religiously
believe in, don't lie. When the market was on a
rampage, they attributed the
rally to too much money in
circulation.
Today with the market now foreign currency
denominated, there are very
few greenbacks floating around, at least
formally, the market is net sellers
and prices are
tumbling.
Meanwhile the global financial crisis rages on with
big economies now
swimming deep in recession. What started as bad mortgage
lending has spread
very far and wide hurting everyone along the
way.
There is a complete freeze in credit markets as banks are
unwilling to
lend due to a high risk of default. In fact, write offs
constitute a huge
chunk of the losses being reported. The cancer appears to
be a complete loss
of confidence in the financial systems.
In all of this however, one is tempted to conclude that there is a
lesson to
be learnt for application in our own financial system.
If anything,
one is reminded of the importance of a sound financial
system to an economy.
It is folly to envision a turnaround without healthy
and stable financial
institutions. Hearty calls for financial assistance are
being made every day
in the local media from farmers and industry. Coming
from a decade of decay,
injections are needed to recapitalise and kick-start
production.
Local banks are facing a multitude of
challenges that are threatening
their future and that of
the other
sectors which depend on credit lines from them. Ideally, the
basic role of
banks is that of facilitating the movement of funds from those
who hold
excess to those who need it for various activities.
In Zimbabwe,
however, this function has been mutilated.
As is the case
globally, the public has completely lost confidence in
the financial system.
Memories are still fresh on what happened in 2003.
People watched helplessly
as some banks were bundled down, taking with them
their hard earned cash.
Over the years inflation and very low deposit rates
have reduced their
account balances to nothing.
Recently cash shortages provided the
final nail in the coffin: with
hyperinflation raging, unable to withdraw
their funds, people watched in
horror as they were wiped
out.
The sector has also experienced heavy regulation, close
monitoring and
shifting policies - a development that has seen the public
viewing the
authorities with suspicion and mistrust. Policies have been
abruptly changed
with painful consequences on depositors. The exchange
control framework has
been one such policy.
At one time
depositors were required to prove the source of their
funds while disposing
45% of gross sales at the inter-bank rate. One fatal
consequence of this
policy is the closure of mining houses after failing to
access their FCA's
deposits.
The recent monetary policy has tried to address this but
the
requirement to surrender 7.5% or 5% of gross earnings remains very
punitive.
It being a given that we are currently operating a cash economy,
the
situation does very little to convince people to bank their
cash.
Salaries and any deposits are likely going to be withdrawn
while
producers and exporters have an incentive to under-invoice
transactions,
while hiding the bulk of their receipts. Some companies are
finding it
better off to deposit funds outside the country in pursuit of
lower costs
and a trusted service.
The hastily crafted
dollarisation has left the central bank in a
position where it cannot act as
the lender of last resort. Financial
institutions are now forced to
outsource services expensively.
For instance, a telegraphic
transfer costs US$60 and takes four days
to clear because it passes through
multiple accounts. If the same
transactions had been done through RTGS it
would only take 24 hours and at a
lower cost.
Cash is also
being imported at a cost from regional banks
notwithstanding the limitations
on the possible amounts they can withdraw
and the impact of the time lag on
cash management. This also implies a
possibility of failure to meet
withdrawals. The costs are being passed on to
the local consumers in the
form of high service charges, making it even more
unattractive to use
banks.
While there is a huge demand for credit to boost
production, banks
will be unable to mobilise substantial deposits to meet
this, especially
with the inconsistencies and a lack of clarity such as the
conflicting
statements from the various authorities.
Already
individuals who have substantial cash reserves under their
pillows are
making a killing from desperate borrowers. Indeed the days of
chimbadzo
(loan sharks) are back again, the reapers are charging as high as
25% for
loans granted. Unless measures are taken to restore confidence, the
road
ahead looks bumpy for us all; the challenges bedevilling financial
services
will have ripple effects across all sectors.
BY RONALD
NYAWERA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March 2009
22:45
MOST companies that are scheduled to release their financial
results
for the year ending December 31 2008 have said that they will not
include
figures for 2007 as they were reduced to "zero" after the last
revaluation.
According to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, more than
80% of the listed
counters are expected to announce their December 31
year-end financial
results between now and the end of April.
The Reserve Bank on February 2 revalued the currency, removing 13
zeros.
This, according to economists, has resulted in
companies only
announcing figures for the period under review without
comparing them to the
previous year.
"Most companies will
only give an overview of the financial results,
outlook and notices to
shareholders. Zimbabwe dollar figures do not reflect
a reliable picture of a
company's performance, 2007 figures fell over after
the revaluation," said
an official from the stock market.
The local currency has been
revalued three times with a total of 25
zeroes removed inside two
years.
Cafca became the first company to officially announce that it
would
not compare the December 2008 figures with prior year
figures.
"Due to the current revaluation, comparative figures
for 2007 were
reduced to nil and therefore not disclosed," said Cafca in a
statement
accompanying its financial results.
Cafca,
however concentrated more on percentages revealing that its
sales volumes
declined by 54% against last year with domestic volumes
declining 7% and
export volumes declining by 78% due to reduction of export
toll
orders.
In real terms the company's turnover declined by
25%.
"Operating expenses declined in real terms by 16% from
last year due
to cost cutting initiatives as the business rationalised
activities in
response to the harsh macro-economic environment," said
Cafca.
Powerspeed yesterday said figures in the local currency
the previous
year no longer made sense.
"During the year,
the Zimbabwe dollar, the only legal tender, became
increasingly valueless
and measuring performance in this currency became
progressively more
meaningless. Accordingly the accounts presented must be
considered in this
light," said the company in a statement.
Meanwhile, the
industrial index traded mixed during the week as
punters continued to
purchase quality counters at prevailing bargains. Of
the 70 counters that
traded on Wednesday 14 gained while eight recoded
losses, as five traded
unchanged.
The bourse this week announced that it had reverted
to its traditional
seven-day settlement period following government's
decision two weeks ago
allowing it to trade in US dollars.
The settlement period had been reduced to +/-three days as the stock
market
reacted to the effects of hyperinflation which had caused investments
to
lose value during the seven-day settlement window.
Shares with
a value of US$161 826 traded compared to Tuesday's US$63
998. On Monday
values valued at US$36 166,30 changed hands.
Old Mutual was
quoted US3c, 8% weaker at US34c on the local bourse
compared to US53, 44c in
Johannesburg and US53, 35c in London. Old Mutual
released its interim
financial results in London on Wednesday.
Old Mutual's profit
plunged by 55% to 441 million pounds. Other
notable trades on the bourse
included investment company TA Holdings down
US35c (70%) to US 15c. TA is
the major shareholder in Hotelier Cresta
Hospitality. Cresta is widely
expected to report room occupancies below 30%
in its Zimbabwean hotels and
lodges.
Shares to trade on the upward included African Sun
which was quoted
US2c, 67% firmer at US5c.
Management at
the hospitality industry powerhouse will in two weeks be
updating
shareholders on progress registered thus far in renovating existing
facilities in Zimbabwe and southern Africa ahead of the 2010 World
Cup.
Shares expected to gain this in the short term are Econet
which is
expected to announce and ambitious plan to increase network
coverage when it
releases its financial results soon, although its network
is said to have
not improved despite dollarisation.
BY PAUL
NYAKAZEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March 2009
22:40
BANKS have redeemed Zimbabwe dollar treasury bills from the
Reserve
Bank as it became apparent that the local unit has lost relevance as
a
medium of trade following the dollarisation of the economy.
Last week most banks cashed in the financial instruments disregarding
the
central bank as the lender of last resort owing to the multi-currencying
of
the economy.
The lender of last resort protects individuals who
have deposited
funds and prevents panic withdrawals from banks which have
temporary limited
liquidity.
But due to multi-currencying
of the economy, which has curtailed the
central bank's role, commercial
banks would need to rely on external sources
of funds until other
instruments of financial intermediation become more
active.
Bankers Association president John Mangudya yesterday confirmed that
banks
were liquidating treasury bills and other instruments denominated in
the
local currency although he insisted that Zimbabwe dollar was still legal
tender.
"Most institutions still need the Zimbabwe dollar
to meet other
obligations such as corporate tax for last year," Mangudya
said.
Asked how banks continue to survive on the back of
subdued banking
activity, the CBZ Bank boss said they were driven by the
hope of economic
recovery.
"The future of the local
currency is anchored on boosting production
and refraining from unjustified
price increases," he said.
Multi-currencying of the economy has
seen banks responding by
formulating packages to attract scarce foreign
exchange into the formal
sector.
A survey by Businessdigest
this week showed that banks were coming up
with attractive interest rates
for depositors in an effort to restore
economic activity in the banking
sector.
The RBZ has however said banks should "ensure that most
of their loan
advances are biased towards the productive sector to
reinvigorate the supply
side of the economy".
A treasury
employee at Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group said the bank was
now offering a
5% interest rate per annum for foreign currency invested on
the money market
while Kingdom Bank offered 0,42% for a minimum period of
three
months.
Apart from investments on the money market, banks are
raising foreign
currency inflows by levying bank charges for foreign
currency accounts.
Analysts contend that the decision to allow
the use of foreign
currencies has virtually paralysed the local unit despite
government's
position of maintaining it as a legal tender.
"The Zimbabwe dollar as a currency of national payment is no longer
of major
significance. It is impossible right now to restore its value.
Confidence
has been lost due to inflation," said ZB Bank group economist
Best
Doroh.
"Government is speaking in contradictory tongues," said
economic
expert Daniel Ndlela. "It has dollarised the economy and I do not
see why it
talks of a domestic currency when local authorities and public
utilities are
charging in foreign exchange."
BY BERNARD
MPOFU
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March
2009 22:36
THE Central Statistical Office's (CSO) failure to announce
inflation
figures for the seven months will affect listed companies that are
expected
to announce their year end financial results by end of next
month.
The failure by CSO to announce the figures has also affected
companies'
future planning as many unofficial figures have been announced
since July
last year.
CSO last announced the inflation figure
at 231 million percent for
July last year. Their official excuse has been
that there were no products
to measure inflation.
Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange (ZSE) chief executive Emmanuel Munyukwi is on
record
confirming the potential crisis that existed when companies work on
their
financial results in the absence of an official inflation
figure.
"We remain hopeful that the inflation figures will be
released,"
Munyukwi said. "We will see what action we will have to take when
the time
comes and the deadlines lapse."
ZSE regulations
require listed companies to publish audited financial
statements which
should be adjusted for inflation in line with International
Accounting
Standard (IAS) 29 and released within three months of financial
year endings
unless a prior agreement was made between the local bourse and
the
firm.
IAS 29 recommends inflation-adjusted accounts for
hyper-inflationary
economies when a population prefers to keep its wealth in
non-monetary
assets or stable foreign currency and when amounts of local
currency are
only held for immediate usage.
Institute of
Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) told
businessdigest early
this year that the delays in releasing official
inflation figures posed a
real challenge to listed companies.
Government has made it
illegal to use any figures which are not
CSO-generated.
Listed companies have been lobbying government to allow them to
publish
their audited financial statements in US dollars by amending the
Companies
Act.
However, this option suffered serious setbacks before the
country was
dollarised. Financial results for the interim period ending June
30 2009 are
however expected to be in US dollars.
BY PAUL
NYAKAZEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March 2009 22:30
THE property market has been at a standstill over the past five years
as the
skyrocketing of residential prices, high interest rates and drought
in the
mortgage market significantly reduced the number of homes changing
hands and
buildings being constructed.
Prospects of recovery remain weak on
the back of increasing
inflationary pressures expected to prevail in the
long-term.
The property market has played second fiddle to other
investment
vehicles such as the money, equities and parallel markets. Should
these
vehicles' returns remain firm, funds would be kept away from brick and
mortar industry.
Residential properties remain priced
beyond the reach of many
potential buyers while rentals are ridiculously
high. This week,
businessdigest's Paul Nyakazeya (PN) spoke to Oswald
Nyakunika (ON),
Chairman of the Estate Agents Council of Zimbabwe, about
what has been
happening on the property market.
(PN) While
prices of most goods and services are declining in US
dollar terms, the same
can not be said about the property market. How would
you explain
this?
(ON) I agree property does hold value, it always does in
turbulent
times. It's a good hedge against inflation. However this is
relative and its
not exactly true that it is not affected completely.Actual
sales indicate
values have stabilised and are unlikely to improve in the
short to medium
term. The lack of mortgage finance/lending in US dollars has
affected prices
realised. We are beginning to see a return of deed of sale
or purchase by
installments.
(PN) What would you say is the
standard or reasonable price (selling)
and rentals for a standard house
(three bed roomed house) in the low
density, medium and high
density?
(ON) There is no such thing as standard price or
standard rentals. It
depends on negotiations/agreement between the parties.
Most agents were only
licenced to lease and sale in foreign currency this
January.
We now have plenty rental evidence but few sales evidence.
What we
have noticed is that most rentals are being concluded at the
following
rates:
(PN) How would you describe the property
sector over the past five
years?
(ON) There has been very
little development due to ever increasing
building costs and shortage of
building materials. The rent
regulations/legislation have also impacted
negatively and made returns in
the sector very
unattractive.
(PN) What do you think is needed for the property
market to be at the
1998 levels?
(ON) The economic
fundamentals must improve to where we were in 1998.
If you notice the
economy started sliding down as from that year.
(PN) How is the
property market reacting to the new inclusive
government?
(ON) It's too early to say.
(PN) Do you work with the
ministries of Public Works and Local
Government? If yes, what are your
short-term plans?
(ON) There has been many contacts with the
ministry as regards
residential Rent Boards and rent regulations (which fall
under the same
Local Government ministry). I think what we are looking
forward to is
deregulation of the industry in terms of rentals.
I
have also advocated for a revision of our building standards. It
does not
make sense when a developed country like United States with 1%
homeless can
build houses out of timber and ourselves with 40% homeless
insisting on
bricks and mortar. Yet in the past mud houses have been allowed
(in Queens
Park -Bulawayo) and in actual fact exist in most rural areas. We
cannot be
slaves to bricks and mortar when most of our people are homeless
or crowded
in tiny rooms as lodgers. We also need to look at infrastructure
development
such as sewerage.
(PN) There is so much price distortion on the
property market what
would you attribute this to?
(ON)
Price distortions are a product of poor information
dissemination. There are
no price survey done or published and if they are
they only circulate to few
people.
(PN) If you were to be asked by the President and Prime
Minister to
come up with a plan to revive the property sector, what are the
first three
things you would do?
(ON) I will deregulate the
industry, improve sewerage infrastructure,
and revisit building material
standards.
(PN) How would you compare Zimbabwe's property sector and
that of the
region?
(ON) We are a little England when it
comes to building material
standards coming second only to South Africa. Our
town planning is the best
in the region. Our rentals are the lowest which is
largely attributable to
rent regulations. The latter has severely and
negatively affected our
development/building.
If you visit South
Africa you will see building/development
everywhere. This is the end product
of a liberal economic regime.
(PN) Would you say estate agents
are relevant under such an economic
environment and are they carrying out
their core business?
(ON) Estate agents do not only, value,
sale, or lease properties but
also carry out development appraisals and
project management.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March 2009 22:26
ACCORDING to the United Nations working papers, Zimbabwe's
unemployment rate
has breached the unprecedented 94% level.
This is only natural
given that production capacity in the industry
has continued to plummet with
the manufacturing sector recording18, 3%
capacity in 2007 but estimated to
be below 10% towards end of 2008.
For the economy to recover there is
therefore need for the government
to come up with a stimulus package that
will drive the supply side and
increase economic activity in the country.
This paper seeks to assess the
recent Budget and see how far it goes as a
stimulus for growth.
There is serious justification and indeed
need for the government to
show initiative in creating jobs and encouraging
growth through productive
employment. Full employment (or reduced
unemployment) is a goal any serious
and modern government must aim to
achieve.
The intellectual justification for gearing government
budgetary and
monetary policies towards fine-tuning the economy (and, in
particular,
towards generating more employment) was provided by John Maynard
Keynes
(1936) in The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and
Money.
Any level of unemployment beyond the natural rate is most
likely due
to insufficient demand in the overall economy. During a
recession, aggregate
expenditure is deficient, causing the underutilisation
of inputs (including
labour).
Aggregate expenditure can be
increased, according to Keynes, by
increasing consumption spending,
investment spending and government
spending, or increasing the net of
exports minus imports.
The trick, wherein government deliverers
growth, is not new. After
World War II Italy went on to pave its streets and
parks in cobblestones as
a way of introducing growth. In the 1950s President
Eisenhower embarked on
the massive building of interstate roads and bridges
to create employment.
Thanks to this initiative, most of the big
roads in the USA can be
traced back to this era even today. More recently,
in fact as I write,
President Barack Obama is trying to kick-start the
economy through a
trillion-dollar injection with a significant portion going
towards
infrastructure development.
Infrastructure
development has an amazing leverage effect on the
economy over recurrent
expenditure. For starters, employment levels are
immediately improved. This
reduces idleness and hence crime.
The multiplier effect on the
economy is also quite exciting. As more
people work, they now have more
capacity to consume which also then raises
demand, which in turn creates a
pull effect on the manufacturing sector to
supply and so
on.
What is also undeniable is the fact that as we invest more
into
infrastructure such as our roads and communication, we actually fasten
the
speed of economic activity which enhances chances for even more
growth.
There is a catch though in the government-led demand
stimulus. For it
to be useful, it is important that it be productive! Any
expenditure which
does not result in improved production of goods is lost.
On budgeting, there
is therefore need for a bias towards creation of
productive jobs.
Private sector stimulus
In
addition to the government directly contracting and building roads,
it can
also create innovative funding structures that encourage long-term
savers
such as pension funds and insurance companies to channel money
towards
infrastructure.
This can be achieved by way of according tax
rebates for this purpose
or giving prescribed status to developments that
will deliver national
long-term assets for public use.
Unfortunately with recurrent expenditure of 76% against only 24% in
capital
expenditure, the budget can be considered to be more consumptive. We
cannot
therefore expect to consume where there is no production.
There is
need over time to swap these ratios around such that more
money goes towards
capital expenditure and hence employment creation.
As we
collectively rebuild the country, the government needs to be
biased towards
infrastructure development so as to create more jobs
immediately, but also
to set the stage for faster recovery in the long term.
With
innovative taxation policies and creative financing structures,
the good
thing is government may not even need to use its own money. With
the right
returns and creative structuring, there are enough resources
locally and
globally such that the government does not even have to use its
own
resources!
There is need to realise that infrastructure
investment should be more
about creating future growth as opposed to being a
result of growth. Such
creative investment is the father to growth, not its
offspring.
=Kenias Mafukidze is chief execuive officer of KM Financial
Solutions
and former president of the Zimbabwe Economic Society. Email:
keniasm@mweb.co.zw
BY KENIAS MAFUKIDZE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Friday, 06 March 2009
00:04
ZIMBABWE is currently much in the news again with its newly
minted
unity government.
It remains to be seen whether it will
cohere and drive a concerted
reconstruction process. Within this
reconstruction, Zimbabwe's future
monetary policy is of enormous importance
owing to the country's infamous
inflation rate.
Three monetary
reform scenarios are being discussed: an ordinary or
crawling peg to a
basket of currencies; "randisation" (adopting the rand);
and a currency
board - that is, a domestic currency with the money base 100%
backed by
foreign reserves.
The latter two would entail Zimbabwe
surrendering monetary policy
sovereignty -- an issue attracting
considerable controversy.
The currency board or "dollarisation"
option is associated with United
States scholar Professor Steve Hanke. He
refers approvingly to the currency
board Southern Rhodesia operated in the
1940s.
However, the preconditions were very dissimilar to Zimbabwe
today.
Regardless of Rhodesian governments' other failings, their
administrative
capacity, and therefore the credibility of any new
institutions, was far
more developed, while trade and capital markets were
far less integrated
than today.
President Robert Mugabe not
only destroyed the economy, thereby
bringing hyperinflation, poverty and
starvation, but he also eradicated a
workable administration.
The latest manifestation is the cholera crisis, now reportedly
affecting 80
000 people and spreading rapidly into neighbouring countries.
Critically,
all kinds of economic institutions necessary for a country to
develop are
now lacking.
This does not imply that monetary reforms cannot
take place. It can,
however, make clear that a currency board or
dollarisation may be difficult
to implement.
Both regimes
necessitate meeting a number of institutional
preconditions, particularly
fiscal stability, openness to trade and capital
flows, and market
flexibility.
Another basic condition is trust in markets and in
state agencies. If
the central bank is not to be trusted, why should the
ordinary Zimbabwean
citizen trust a currency board (unless it is located out
of the country)?
Further, a currency board would require the
Zimbabwean government to
possess sufficient foreign exchange to finance the
monetary base. In
January, the latest data available, the Zimbabwean central
bank's foreign
assets accounted for about 0,1% of the monetary
base.
Clearly reserves are too small to finance the monetary base
in a
currency board without recourse to huge foreign capital injections from
the
donor community. But those are only likely to be forthcoming once Mugabe
and
his securocrats have decisively left the scene - a prospect we find
rather
bullish under current political circumstances.
Over
time a currency board system requires the ability to earn the
necessary
money growth on global markets. Zimbabwe does not have the
production
structure (even before the meltdown) to generate the exports
required; the
human resource capacity to sustain such a high rate of
exchange (that is,
the US dollar) through rapid productivity growth; and the
high rate of
exchange would encourage imports (no bad thing if you have the
foreign
exchange, but Zimbabwe won't) while discouraging exports.
Hence
Hanke's advice could penalise Zimbabwe's recovery for a long
time. Finally,
it is not obvious that the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank should lose
its
competencies, as the currency board solution would require.
Those
advocating this path argue that the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank has
become so
politicised (correct) that it is beyond redemption (debatable).
However, the
same argument applies to other state institutions used as Zanu
PF's piggy
bank.
Overall, a currency board may be the least attractive
alternative.
What about the second one, namely adopting the rand, as
recently suggested
by President Kgalema Motlanthe, and rejected by Mugabe?
For each South
African citizen R1 000 are circulating; adopting the same
ratio in Zimbabwe
means R11 billion would be needed. The total cash
circulation in SA is about
R73 billion. A further R11 billion would add 15%
- a substantial increase.
This solution requires dismantling
the central bank's money-issuing
function. Politically this may be easier
than having a crippled central
bank. Political pressure would be less than
that upon a currency board as
money issuance would require South African
approval. Politically this would
be very tricky.
On the other
hand, Zimbabwe would gain the reputation of the rand
without requiring the
backup of foreign reserves.
However, South Africa's partners in
the Common Monetary Area (CMA),
Namibia, Lesotho, and Swaziland, may not
support this path. Also, unless SA
imposes stringent conditions on the
reconstruction loans it will undoubtedly
extend to Zimbabwe, the latter's
temptation to deviate from the CMA's
strictures using fiscal policy, thereby
destabilising regional currency
arrangements, will be huge - especially in
the likely absence of major donor
funding.
What about the
third alternative put forward by Finance minister
Tendai Biti, a simple (or
crawling) peg to a basket of currencies including
the rand? This scenario,
coupled with a Zimbabwe Reserve Bank and Finance
ministry with new
leadership seems possible and politically most feasible.
It
requires less ambitious reforms in other areas and does not require
huge
foreign reserves to sustain it. The question is whether Zimbabwean
institutions would have the confidence of their people and foreign investors
to sustain the peg.
As with the other two scenarios it is
unthinkable without a ban on
government borrowing at the central bank. This
condition must be highlighted
as it is the sine qua non of any sensible
monetary reform.
If the government can keep away from the money
press, both the peg and
the circulation of the rand are sustainable.
Overall, it is not clear to us
which is more desirable. On political grounds
the peg is more feasible, but
if the economy is to be brought back on track,
inflation has to be reduced
quickly and randisation proffers that
possibility.
The really interesting question, if Zimbabwe did
opt for randisation,
is whether SA will step up to the plate? It has the
institutions to do so: a
mostly independent central bank; strong development
finance institutions;
and Zimbabwe could join a reformed Southern African
Customs Union to gain
access to revenue - although we would worry about the
effect on Zimbabwe's
trade policy.
Unfortunately South
Africa's record on Zimbabwe policy to date is not
encouraging, and with its
rising budget deficit, pressing social problems,
and escalating debate over
the future of domestic monetary policy,
Zimbabwean policy makers should
exercise caution.
Draper is Trade Project head, South African
Institute of
International Affairs. Freytag is Professor of Economics,
Friederich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany.
BY PETER DRAPER
AND ANDREAS FREYTAG
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March
2009 23:20
A WEEK or so ago, Professor Welshman Ncube, a government
minister, in
his capacity as a member of the Joint Implementation and
Monitoring
Committee (JOMIC) was quoted by the Herald newspaper (February
25, 2009) as
having said that the "no" vote result at the constitutional
referendum of
February 2000 was, in his words, "a mistake".
He
further explained that, as a member of the National Constitutional
Assembly
(NCA) taskforce, he was of the view that "we lost".
Perhaps an
alternative view is in need of explanation. Having also
served on the
national taskforce of the NCA at the time of the historic "no"
vote in 2000,
it would be necessary to actually be more honest about the
significance of
the result of the 2000 referendum.
As it is, the NCA never
sought to achieve perfection in a
constitutional reform process. It sought
primarily the direct participation
of the Zimbabwean public in the
beginning, middle and end of the
constitution making agenda.
This is to say, far from expecting that the Zimbabwean people would
have
views similar to those of the NCA at the end of a constitutional reform
process, the national task force at that time emphatically supported the
issue of "people driven" processes as key to the end product.
As it was, the outreach programmes of both the NCA and the Chidyausiku
Commission may have produced in part similar reports about what the people
said, but the latter then chose, in its plenary sessions to not encompass
the views of the people on a number of issues in its final draft
constitution.
When people were informed by the NCA about
both the flaws in the
process of the collation of their views as well as the
final proposed draft
constitution, they resolved, as the referendum results
showed, to reject it.
And this was one of the less violent elections held in
Zimbabwe since
Independence.
Add to this the ostensible fact
that the NCA received minimal coverage
on state television and radio against
the immense propaganda machinery of
the commission led by the acerbic
Professor Jonathan Moyo as indicative of a
clear determination by the people
of Zimbabwe to vote the way they chose to
vote.
To now want
to label this decision by the majority of Zimbabweans who
bothered to vote
in the referendum a "mistake" is to be dishonest to the
democratic
process.
And to move away from the blame the people approach of the
learned
professor, it is important that the true democratic significance of
the 2000
referendum result can be explained within three
contexts.
The initial and significance is that for the first
time since 1980,
the Zanu PF de facto one party state, with all its
resources, was defeated
in a national plebiscite on as important an issue as
the national
constitution.
Without a doubt, this first national
defeat of Zanu PF played a
significant role in assisting the people of
Zimbabwe to dispel the myth of
the invincibility of Zanu PF in
elections.
It also made the people of Zimbabwe have greater
confidence in
elections or electoral processes as the only source of
political change in
Zimbabwe, as opposed to violent means.
This
is evidenced by the fact that even after the Joseph Chinotimbas
and
Chenjerai Hunzvis had been unleashed on the innocent; the MDC (united)
was
to establish a significant presence in parliament, one that surpassed
that
of the legendary PF Zapu after independence.
The referendum victory
indicated the beginning of the still ongoing
non-violent revolution against
the dictatorship that still attempts to cling
to power
today.
The second placement of the significance of the
referendum no vote of
2000, is in its unique ability to remove
constitutionalism and issues of
constitutional reform primarily from the
hands of politicians on their own
as well as legal experts working in tandem
with political parties.
For the first time after our national
independence, the people made a
national decision on what was not an
election for a president or a prime
minister but something that affected
every aspect of the polity that we call
Zimbabwe, the
constitution.
Agreed, there was civic education and the like but
the end result was
reflective of the people's unfettered will. No one from
the NCA went into
the ballot booths to put an 'X' on the no section for
anyone. People made
their decisions and the people's verdict must be
respected not attacked with
the benefit of dishonest politicised
hindsight.
The third factor in recognising the positive
significance of the 'no'
vote of 2000 is that unless any constitutional
reform process is rooted in
the Zimbabwean people, it shall always be
lacking in national legitimacy and
subject to abuse by the occasional
politician.
This is evidenced by the fact that nine years after the
2000
referendum some politicians find the wherewithal to attack the people's
verdict as 'a mistake' with a casualness that makes one wonder if they are
truly committed to the national democratisation of
Zimbabwe.
Further, to seek a top down approach in
constitutional reform is to
miss a fundamental point about the nature of the
Zimbabwean political,
socio-economic crisis.
This being that
this country as a political entity is a state that is
in thorough need of
the re-legitimisation of its institutions as well as
public confidence in
its ability to provide, as the Americans have, "life,
liberty and the
pursuit of happiness".
In order to avoid continued evasion of the
state and its institutions,
there is need to re-engage, publicly and
transparently the people of
Zimbabwe on the meaning of the same through the
unique process of democratic
constitutional reform.
This is
because this is not merely an amendment, but a wholesale
change to key
structures of the state, and nowhere in the annals of
democratic governance
is it permitted to do so without thorough consultation
with the
people.
Where respected politicians like Professor Ncube demean
the expression
of the people's will, it borders on a lack of understanding
as to the nature
and depth of the Zimbabwean crises.
We are
where we are not because the people of Zimbabwe do not have the
knowledge or
interest of how to interpret what politicians bring before
them, but because
of politicians who increasingly treat constitutional
reform with a
casualness that is a veneer for unbridled pursuit of power
games as opposed
to allowing true democratisation of Zimbabwe's polity.
So to
conclude, it is imperative that those that are responsible for
Article 6 in
the Global Political Agreement come to the simple reality that
there is an
inherent danger in ignoring the will of the people in the manner
that was
done in 2000.
And this is not because the NCA or civil society
seeks to
self-righteously claim to represent the people, but because
history, in
instances such as these tends to repeat itself.
The
people do make their own judgements as they did in 2000 after
broadly
participating in both the Constitutional Commission and the NCA
processes,
not because they are instructed by an individual leader or
organisation to
act in a specific way.
Zimbabweans are very cognisant of history,
and it must be said, will
not easily forget principles of constitutional
reform, especially after
having undergone such processes since 1972 with the
Pearce Commission, 1989
with the proposals for the one party state and in
2000, with the
constitutional referendum, all in which, government proposals
were turned
down, save for the year of our national
independence.
As part of the way forward, there should be a
departure point that
does not seek to blame the people for having made a
mistake or to accuse
others for being "puritanists" simply because they have
a different view on
the same issue.
Instead it should be to
galvanise both the government, national
parliament, civil society
organisations in a manner that inspires public
confidence as well as being
continually cognisant of the historical
processes that have informed
constitutional reform in Zimbabwe.
The 'no' vote, was not and
should never be considered a mistake
because explaining it as such implies
the people of Zimbabwe are not
intelligent enough to decide on as important
an issue as their very own
constitution.
It is our hope, my
hope, that the government will realise this sooner
rather than later that
because of the important lessons to be drawn from the
2000 'no' vote, the
people's will should be allowed to triumph.
Takura Zhangazha is
the National Director for MISA Zimbabwe, he writes
here in his personal
capacity.
BY TAKURA ZHANGAZHA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March 2009
23:05
MANY Zimbabweans and the world were bewildered, amazed and left
in awe
at the enormity of the infamous birthday bash of President Robert
Mugabe
held in Chinhoyi last weekend.
The bash, which
reportedly cost US$250 000 displays in clear detail
the dichotomy between
the Zimbabwean leadership and the suffering masses.
A simple
enumeration of the problems facing the masses shows why the
bash was
something done at the wrong time, moreso by a leadership that
claims to have
the interests of the people at heart.
Over 83 000 Zimbabweans
have been affected by cholera.
This number is a reflection of those
that international NGOs and UN
agencies have managed to record.
Thousands more, I believe, are still left out of this figure and
thousands
more have died, their deaths unrecorded, their names unknown.
Millions are
without food, many suffering from hunger-induced illnesses.
Many schools remain closed, hospitals are not working, many suburbs
are
without water and electricity, roads are in a state of disrepair.
Zimbabweans are psychologically tortured and have lost hope.
A
bash of that magnitude is in sharp contrast to the desperate
situation in
Zimbabwe. The speed with which the US$250 000 was mobilised is
a further
testimony of how a few who have benefited from the godfather would
want to
maintain the status quo.
This bash, we were told by the
President's nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, was
to honour the sacrifices the
president has made for this country. Many would
have wondered what
sacrifices the president bore on his own while others
watched.
The liberation struggle was a collective effort
that cost lives of the
poor and vulnerable more than any other
group.
The purpose, ethos and spirit that drove the liberation
struggle has
been betrayed by the same grouping. The land reform has been
chaotic and
benefited a few, as a result up to now Zimbabwe is a basket
case,
notwithstanding the grandstanding and rhetoric on the land
redistribution
programme.
Hiding behind a finger on sanctions
is no longer a plausible argument
as those sanctions are about them (the
mob) being stopped from their
international jamboree of shopping
sprees.
Even if, for argument's sake, we are to agree that we
are under
sanctions, countries such as Cuba and Iran have been under serious
and real
economic sanctions for far longer than us but their people have not
suffered
as we have.
Cuba has managed to develop one of the
best health and education
systems in under more than four decades of
sanctions. Iran has even sent a
spacecraft into space, under sanctions, and
is increasingly becoming a
player on the world political stage
notwithstanding whether this is for good
or bad reasons.
We
ask now, what has Zanu PF done under sanctions? The problem is not
sanctions, it is a dearth of leadership, and nothing best illustrates this
than a leadership that surrounds itself with champagne, cognac, lobster,
caviar and duck at a time when the majority are eating leaves, wild roots
and wild fruits.
The Zanu PF leadership and the so called
friends of President Mugabe
who paid for this, including its young
leadership who should know better -
the likes of Zhuwao - have lost their
moral compass.
They see Zimbabwe as far as their shadows can go.
They see Zimbabwe
from the lenses of what they can get from it and not what
they can put in
it.
The hunger and deprivation in Zimbabwe,
the suffering of the people of
Zimbabwe should have driven these people to
realise that a birthday bash of
such a magnitude by a leadership that says
it cares for the people is a
non-starter, and a shame.
Zimbabweans and the world are in no doubt of the leadership vacuum
that this
country faces. The US$250 000 could, and should have gone some
way in
alleviating the suffering of the cholera victims.
The US$250 000
could have been an addition to the US$2 billion we are
asking other
nationals to pay for our own mistakes. This money could have
paid for the
US$38 000 that Prime Minister Tsvangirai says Harare Hospital
needs for its
intensive care unit to reopen.
Pictures of the tattered linen at
Harare Hospital, broken water and
sewage pipes, should awaken the Zanu PF
leadership to its years of
destructive policies, even as they fly to
Millpark Hospital in Johannesburg
when they have flu.
This
situation should be a moral awakening of some sorts. No
sustainable or
reasonable argument can be made for the birthday bash in such
an environment
of want, deprivation and despair. This kind of insensitivity,
famous with
absolute monarchs in bygone Europe, is shameless, more so in the
21st
century and in a country as poor as ours.
One wonders what it
will take for the Zanu PF leadership to realise
its mistakes. This lack of
sensitivity is demonstrated by denials and
failure by President Mugabe to
distinguish between proper criminal and legal
processes and ones based on
abductions, harassment and torture.
Zanu PF is better advised to
stop the orgy of personal glorification
which has been permitted to sweep
the country. One wonders how then the
unity government, expected to be a
turning point in the fortunes of
Zimbabwe, can survive with such different
leadership philosophies and no
leadership at all.
A certain
newspaper once described its leader as "the great leader",
"father of the
people", "the great helmsman", "the genius of our epoch", and
"titan of our
revolution". That all sounds too familiar in Zimbabwe today.
The
newspaper was the Soviet Union's Pravda in 1934. The leader was
Josef
Stalin. He left his country in ruins, millions dead, many thousands in
exile
and today he is reviled as one of the worst dictators of all time.
His country is still nursing the wounds of his reign. The factory-
based
towns he built in a quest to rapidly industrialise and modernise the
Soviet
Union are the worst hit by the current global economic crisis - some
recording close to 100% unemployment in the past few
months.
His reign demonstrates how a whole country can be
caught up and
destroyed by a hollow personality cult.
So much
for history informing and guiding the future. Zimbabweans can
take comfort
in the fact that history also records without fail the rise and
fall of men
like Stalin and indeed many others like him in the past, in our
time and in
the future. If we are wrong we await the impeccable judgement of
posterity.
Rashweat Mukundu is a programme specialist for Media
Freedom
Monitoring, Misa regional secretariat, Windhoek.
BY
RASHWEAT MUKUNDU
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March 2009
23:58
THE new government is now firmly in place and seems raring to go.
As
it swings into action and rolls out its political and economic reform
agenda
which is part of the broad reconstruction effort, we must as a nation
put
media reform high on our priority list.
No doubt there are
a lot of other urgent economic and social issues
that need to be addressed,
but there is also a compelling case and terrific
opportunity for media
reform.
There is something terribly wrong with a country in this
day and age
which only has government dominating the newspaper space and
airwaves. In an
era of growing democratisation and open markets, why should
a government be
the major player either in the media or any other sector for
that matter,
except in social welfare areas where it is needed
most?
We need new private commercial and community radio
stations, TV
channels and more newspapers and magazines. Only then can the
public make
informed political choices.
To spearhead media
reform, we need an organised and coordinated
movement -- and I suggest we
have something like the Zimbabwe Movement for
Media Reform (ZMMR) -- to fix
our badly broken media system. We certainly
need a sea change in the media
landscape. Decisions taken now could resonate
for decades to
come.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was spot on when he
called for urgent
media reforms during his maiden address to parliament on
Wednesday. Now we
want action.
There is need for a brave
reform agenda that will repeal or
drastically amend repressive laws such as
Aippa, Baz, the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act, Posa, the
Official Secrets Act and many other
statutes.
Of course, there have
been attempts to amend some of these laws, but
frankly speaking those
efforts have been piecemeal.
Zimbabwe has no doubt been one of
the most vicious outposts of media
tyranny. Newspapers have been closed down
amid bomb attacks on offices and
printing presses, forcing a lot of
journalists out of employment and to flee
the country. Journalists have been
arrested mainly on unjustifiable and
false charges by a government which has
an armoury of repressive laws.
President Robert Mugabe's
overzealous thought police have been busy in
the past 10 years in the media
field, picking up, detaining and in some
cases beating up journalists but
consistently failing to sustain their
mostly dubious
charges.
The small but vibrant local private media sector has
mostly been on
the receiving end. The public media has been affected
differently.
The international media was banned from operating
in the country in a
bid to impose an iron curtain around the unfolding
political and economic
crisis. International correspondents were arrested,
roughed up and thrown
out, while some were barred from coming
in.
The public media -- not government-owned -- have also been
subjected
to a different form of restriction: direct censorship. The
government and
its hacks brazenly interfered, forcing a systematic
publication of
flat-earth news (false stories). Distortion, falsehoods and
propaganda
became the staple diet of the public media.
For
the record, Zimpapers is not government-owned. The group, which
was bought
from Argus with US$5 million donated by Nigeria, is owned by the
public via
the Mass Media Trust, a buffer created to prevent any overt or
covert
interference by intruders in newsrooms.
There is a pervasive
public perception that the Herald, Chronicle,
Sunday Mail and Sunday News,
among other papers in the group, are owned by
government. That is simply not
true. The fact is those outlets are public
property. They don't belong to
the government or Zanu PF for that matter.
They are owned by Zimbabweans
collectively.
The same applies to ZBC. So any claim that
government owns these
outlets only helps to reinforce Zanu PF's illegal
control over them.
These experiences must inform and guide the
media reform agenda in the
context of the broad campaign for
change.
The ZMMR platform should bring together organisations
like ZUJ, Misa,
Ijaz, editors' forums, women's media groups, advocates of
statutory and
voluntary media councils, civil society and other stakeholders
to spearhead
sustained public media policy and reform
debates.
It is very clear media reform will not happen in
Zimbabwe without all
of us now getting active and applying renewed passion
and commitment to
building a structure that will genuinely serve the public
interest and
democracy, not just the political and business
elite.
A healthy and vibrant democracy cannot exist without a
free media and
an informed public.
The objective of ZMMR
should be opening up the media environment to
allow new investment and
technology in the sector. This would include
dealing with the laws governing
media ownership and registration, content
and practice. It should also deal
with media ethics and professionalism.
In the end, ZMMR should
strive to deliver a healthy media sector
characterised by diversity,
pluralism and professionalism.
For its part, the media must not
tolerate dishonest journalists and
hacks who bring the profession into
disrepute and open up gaps for the
agents of repression to intimidate and
harass honest and hardworking
scribes.
There is an
opportunity for change. It is not going to be a simple
task given this
government's pathological fear of a free media and residual
resistance to
change, but it can be done with strong organisation and
commitment.
Candid Comment With Dumisani Muleya
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 05 March 2009 23:54
WE
welcome the release of Jestina Mukoko from custody this week
together with
other civic and MDC activists last week after enduring more
than three
months of inhuman treatment at the hands of the state.
In
welcoming the release of Mukoko and other activists we must not
lose sight
of the fact that the saga is emblematic of everything that has
gone wrong
with governance in this society.
For extended periods into the
crisis that has befallen this country,
state institutions have developed a
culture of impunity in which human
dignity has been relegated to a footnote
on government's manual of how to
treat suspects.
The state has
denied in affidavits deposed to the courts that the
activists were tortured.
In fact the state has presented justifications at
every turn for the
apparent violation of the activists' rights. But medical
records have
revealed otherwise hence the need to have the detainees treated
at a
hospital.
The case of Mukoko and others is an illustration of
our rulers'
cruelty and in a number of respects brazen advertisement to the
world that
the state is prepared to subvert human rights in the name of
safeguarding
national stability.
The Mukoko saga is
therefore an opportunity for the nation to reflect
on some of the ills still
bedevilling us notwithstanding the formation of
the GNU.
However egregious their supposed crimes -- and let's not forget
Botswana and
South Africa have rejected the charges of militia training as
ludicrous and
self-serving -- the activists did not deserve to be abducted,
tortured,
beaten on the soles of their feet and denied medical attention.
Then there has been the abuse of Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure
and
Evidence Act to deny suspects release on bail even when the High Court
had
granted them bail.
The section provides prosecutors with the
opportunity to file a notice
of intention to appeal against a bail
ruling.
By noting an intention to appeal, a magistrate's order to
release a
suspect is immediately suspended, giving the prosecution seven
days to
prepare an appeal, during which time the accused must remain in
police
custody. This law has been employed selectively in political cases
and has
no place in a democratic society.
MDC treasurer Roy
Bennett who was granted bail by the High Court has
also been a victim of
this cynical manoeuvre by the state. He was granted
bail by the High Court
last week and the state immediately invoked Section
121 to keep him behind
bars.
Now the state has appealed to the Supreme Court to reverse
the
decision of the High Court. That is political punishment writ
large.
The Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act has become the
state's latest
political weapon in subverting suspects' rights. It is being
challenged in
the Supreme Court with the activists' lawyers arguing that the
statute is
being abused by the state to undermine the rights of
litigants.
We are now not sure whether the constitutional
challenge to Section
121 will continue in the courts after the murky deal
struck between the
state and defence lawyers. The state agreed to grant the
accused bail on
condition they dropped the challenge to Section
121.
The accused activists were also urged to drop court
proceedings to
have state institutions, and the police in particular,
investigated over
allegations of abduction and torture.
The
state has said it was prepared to release MDC activists who have
not been
brought to court on condition that their lawyers withdraw court
applications
seeking to compel the police to say where the detainees had
been held and by
whom.
The deal between the state and the defence lawyers
resulted in the
release of the political detainees but unfortunately it has
in the short
term airbrushed a good opportunity for the merits of the law to
be
challenged in court. As long as the piece of legislation remains on our
statute books the government will always find a convenient opportunity to
use it.
This manoeuvre by the state should not be allowed
to prevail over the
quest to identify those responsible for authorising and
administering
torture. As indicated by lawyers this week it should not
prevent future
legal action by the abductees against the state and the state
agents
responsible for their abduction, unlawful detention and
torture.
The new Zimbabwe which the unity government envisages
can only subsist
in an environment where the tools of yesteryear are
dismantled. As we said,
Mukoko's case is emblematic. She has been abducted,
abused and beaten. Even
in the Avenues Clinic she was shackled to her bed.
Court orders to relieve
her plight were ignored.
At least
the world has now seen the face of the beast that the
democratic movement is
up against. This week Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa was claiming that
Zimbabwe's human rights record was no worse than
that of other states. In
fact it couldn't be worse. It is incumbent upon
the GNU to demonstrate real
change really quickly so we are no longer
contaminated by this
horror.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 05 March 2009
23:32
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in his inaugural address to
parliament on Wednesday appealed to MPs to actively participate in
parliament's question time to enhance openness and transparency of the
inclusive government.
Tsvangirai added that the government
cannot fulfill its mandate
without "respect and a spirit of cooperation"
between ministers and
parliament.
"Also in the spirit of
openness, today we are launching the Prime
Minister's website that will not
only serve to keep the people informed
about the activities of our
government, but will also provide an interactive
forum for the people to
participate and contribute to the affairs of
government," Tsvangirai told
parliament.
The prime minister's call is laudable as
transparency and
accountability should be the most important priorities of
the transitional
government.
To increase accountability,
government should re-introduce the Prime
Minister's Question Time in
parliament.
Zimbabweans may recall that between 1980 and 1987,
before the
introduction of the all powerful executive presidency, the leader
of
government (the Prime Minister) was an MP who would routinely have to
answer
questions in the august House.
That facility, which
helps in building a culture of accountability,
was lost in 1987 with the
Unity Accord that brought the merger of Zanu PF
and PF Zapu and the new
executive presidency whereby President Robert Mugabe
simply gave what the
British call the "speech from the throne" and left MPs
to debate its
contents for months thereafter.
Mugabe is not answerable to
parliament on a regular basis and MPs knew
there would be no response to
their protests.
It is therefore of vital importance that the
Prime Minister's Question
Time be reinstated. It would also be an
affirmation by Tsvangirai and the
MDC that they not only want to see
democracy developing but are actually
doing something positive to build that
culture and to subject themselves to
scrutiny.
The problem
is that we may effectively have a de facto one-party
system in the current
House as the parties are likely to whip their members
into line to support
executive decisions reached via compromise and
consensus.
The chances of the same MPs asking critical questions of their
superiors may
therefore be limited.
Nevertheless, the lawmakers can still take
their role seriously
regardless of party affiliation -- especially if they
are educated on their
responsibilities and expectations of their
constituents who are,
effectively, their principals.
In
most countries where the Prime Minister's Question Time is in
place, robust
debates are the hallmark of parliament.
In the United Kingdom,
the Prime Minister's Question Time is a
convention where every Wednesday
when the House of Commons is sitting, the
prime minister spends 30 minutes
answering questions from legislators. Other
countries with the same facility
include Canada, Australia, New Zealand and
Northern
Ireland.
In Israel, it has been recently suggested that such
practice should
commence in the Knesset twice a year.
Sweden's
prime minister also answers direct questions from parliament
every Thursday
and in 2008, United States Senator John McCain pledged to
institute an
American equivalent of question time if he had been elected
president.
Besides the Prime Minister's Question Time, the
inclusive government
may innovate and give the floor to other interest
groups, such as civil
society groups and others, to air their views and
present questions to the
leadership.
This could be done easily
using the media platform -- television,
radio and newspapers where different
politicians and civil society leaders
"face the music" and answer questions
on a regular basis.
These programmes could be done in different
locations across the
country.
Not only does it make the
government and civil society leaders
responsive to people's enquiries, it
also makes citizens active participants
in the process of
governance.
It does not happen overnight but all these initiatives
incrementally
help to build the culture of accountability -- where
politicians know that
they have to account to the people and people know
that they have the right
to ask challenging questions.
Editor
Memo with Constantine Chimakure
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 05 March 2009 23:25
AN obvious contradiction rose to greet us
in the pages of the state
press this week. First we had President Mugabe
declaring last weekend that
the ruling of the Sadc Tribunal, defending the
property rights of white
farmers, was "nonsense" and would be ignored. Then
we had a report that Sadc
was attempting to mobilise funds for Zimbabwe's
economic recovery.
So Zimbabwe will be happy to accept money from
donors mobilised by
Sadc while refusing to accept the rulings of Sadc's
judicial institutions
because they are inconvenient
politically.
Zimbabwe is a party to the instrument setting up the
Sadc Tribunal.
But it will now pick and choose which aspects of Sadc
membership suit its
immediate needs.
There is also of
course the other dimension to presidential posturing
we drew attention to
last week. The UN is asking the international community
to support relief
efforts in the country while the government is busy
promoting land seizures
that are calculated to further sabotage agricultural
output.
So now the international community will
understandably resist Mugabe's
blandishments because they prevent the new
government from undertaking
economic recovery.
Add to this,
poisonous remarks targeted at elderly whites whose only
crime is to have
grown old in the toxic climate Zanu PF has generated and
you can understand
why donors feel they have solid grounds for not lifting a
finger to assist
the present regime until it stops causing havoc and harm.
UN
humanitarian affairs chief Catherine Bragg says there was need to
ensure
farmers have sufficient resources to promote national food
security.
"If we do not act now we could end up next year with
a situation
similar to what we have today," she said.
Indeed. But she seems to have missed the central point that so long as
Mugabe's cronies continue to seize farms and harass their occupants there
will be zero productivity.
Policy
Zanu PF
continues to advertise itself as a racist project. It is happy
to be seen as
incorrigibly bad. That may play well in Chinhoyi but see what
the response
is in Washington or anywhere else the begging bowl is being
held
out.
As for sanctions, Mugabe has ensured with his remarks last
weekend
that there will be no change there. But who benefits from a policy
of
defying the West? Nobody except his small coterie of admirers who want to
see deepening economic misery. They are the beneficiaries of Zanu PF's
misrule and they will ensure there is no recovery.
Another
reminder would be useful here. In 1974 Mugabe and other
political prisoners
were released from their places of detention at the
urging of South African
and Zambian leaders. It was called détente but was
no different from the
initiative Sadc has been engaged in over the past two
years. That is,
creating a climate conducive to goodwill and negotiation.
But
there is no appreciation of that policy today. The beneficiaries
of that
gesture 39 years ago have decided upon a policy of mean-spirited
political
revenge that ensures the prison gates remain firmly closed for
many despite
this week's releases.
Detainees
Meanwhile, contrary to
all precepts of natural justice, Section 121 of
the Criminal Law and
Procedure Act affords the state an opportunity to block
the release on bail
of political detainees despite judicial rulings. Some
are held in dire
circumstances.
Undertakings were given regarding their release
during the Pretoria
Sadc summit. Those undertakings have been honoured only
in part.
The MDC, enjoying the perks of office, has been
unforgivably quiet on
this issue. We can understand the need for caution now
Morgan Tsvangirai is
in government. But why not publish what was agreed in
South Africa so the
country can see which side has not kept its
word.
And what can we say of a "public" media that declines to
publish
remarks made at a press conference by the prime minister? Why are
the public
being denied the right to know what is happening regarding the
progress of
the unity government? And can you imagine a constitution-making
process in
which the public are prevented by the so-called public media from
hearing
contesting arguments?
Birthday
At least we
are clear on the issue of President Mugabe's birthday
bash. At first we were
led to believe this was a national occasion. But
thankfully George Charamba
told the press that "on realising that the
occasion was a Zanu PF event,
Prime Minister Tsvangirai wrote to President
Mugabe indicating he would not
be able to attend as initially planned".
"Prime minister
Tsvangirai wrote to the president last evening
(Friday) expressing himself
on today's event upon realising it is a party
programme. It is not a snub,"
Charamba said.
Have you noticed the widespread use of the verb
"to realise", not just
here but everywhere? People "realise" something that
is as clear as day to
the rest of us. How long did it take for Tsvangirai
and his staff to
"realise" this was a party event? Those little red scarves
should have
provided a clue!
Did Muckraker detect a heresy in
the Herald on Monday? It looked very
much as if political editor Mabasa Sasa
was calling for "a new flag that we
can all be proud of as Zimbabweans". But
in fairness, he could have been
talking about the condition of a particular
flag, the one in front of Herald
House.
The current flag
looked as if it had just seen a hurricane, Sasa
observed.
Rather like the country in other words! But not content with this
mini-revolution outside Herald House, Sasa suggested digging up the whole of
Africa Unity Square so as to purge it of its Union Jack
design.
Sasa is perhaps planning to plant his mealies there.
Herald House
staff will then move in and occupy his plot in a patriotic
demonstration of
land reform.
But the Herald must be
congratulated for suggesting ways in which the
Registrar-General's Office
could improve its service to the public, in
particular passport
applications. The Herald's editor offered sensible
proposals regarded as
routine procedures elsewhere such as downloading
application forms from the
Internet.
Let's see if those recommendations are acted upon and
if not, why not?
Tobaiwa Mudede is typical of a Mugabe-era
mandarin blocking change and
running a less-than-efficient operation. How
much did he cost the state in
pursuing a losing battle over Trevor Ncube's
passport?
Let's see if Giles Mutsekwa can light a fire under
him.
On the subject of Mugabe's mandarins, what exactly is the
status of
Tafataona Mahoso who poses on ZTV as an
"analyst"?
We know he writes a long boring column in the Sunday
Mail, the
contents of which belong to the Jurassic era. But what is his role
at the
Media and Information Commission and will he be translated to the new
outfit
which the state is proposing to set up in authority over
us?
A colleague went to have his accreditation renewed last
month and was
told by a woman lying on a couch in the foyer that "we are
resting".
It was during the lunchbreak and Muckraker's
colleague was asked if
staff at the Independent weren't also resting. She
couldn't understand that
somebody could actually be working between 1pm and
2pm.
This is the culture fostered at the MIC which the media is
made to pay
for despite the fact that it is an entirely unnecessary and
unwanted agency.
Let's hope that no self-respecting journalists
agree to sit on the new
body which is about to be imposed on
us.
A reader has sent us a statement by Emmerson Mnangagwa made in
February 1999 in response to a petition to the president by three Supreme
Court and one High Court judge following the alleged abduction and torture
of two journalists at the Standard.
The judges had asked
for assurances that the law would be upheld
following a statement from the
secretary for Defence that he didn't care
about High Court
orders.
"The petitioners' concern over the concept of the rule
of law is
rather misplaced," Mnangagwa, then Minister of Justice, replied,
"as the
executive has always upheld it." He said it was "commonsense" that
all
arrests must be lawful.
"I am totally dumbfounded by
the petitioners' perception that the
government is not committed to the rule
of law," Mnangagwa declared. "It
bothers me that some judges of the Supreme
Court would hold government in
such contempt and low
esteem."
We wonder if he believes now that the executive has
"always" upheld
the rule of law? A Supreme Court order directing an
investigation into the
abduction of the two Standard journalists has still
not been concluded 10
years later!
The Sunday News carried a
lickspittle editorial last weekend
suggesting we should all emulate
President Mugabe.
"Decades spent in Rhodesian jails did not
deter him from furthering
his education and acquiring several degrees which
laid the foundation for
his future leadership role as founding father and
head of state," the editor
opined. Notice how Joshua Nkomo has been
displaced.
But who would today be able to acquire such
qualifications from a
Zimbabwean jail? Who would even be given the paper to
write on let alone a
desk and chair?
And by the way it was
one decade, not "decades".
We noted Mugabe's remark in his birthday
interview that he would
assist in evacuating elderly British
citizens.
"I don't see any reason why anyone would want old
people."
Indeed Mr President, indeed!
But most
old folk we love. It's only a few stubborn ones who are a
problem.
Muckraker was intrigued this week to see city workmen
filling in the
ditch at the intersection of Prince Edward and Samora
Machel.
The Marianas Trench, as we named it after the deepest
point in the
Pacific Ocean, has sunk many an unsuspecting motorist in recent
weeks as
water from a burst mains pipe disguised its length and
depth.
Last week a motorist phoned in to say he'd seen Zim 1
heading down
Prince Edward at some speed together with its escorts towards
the Zanu PF
headquarters. A hunched figure could be imagined in the back
reading his
copy of the Herald.
Then Ka-boom! Zim 1's
armour-plated undercarriage came into contact
with the trench. The report of
sparks flying in all directions could, we
suspect, be a subsequent media
concoction. But whatever the case, there had
to be consequences, we thought.
This was certainly more than a bump!
And sure enough on
Wednesday the road gang appeared. The Marianas
Trench is now a landfill we
are happy to report.
Finally, we are deeply unimpressed with the
City of Harare's attempt
to bill ratepayers for refuse
collection.
When did the city last send a refuse truck your way? On
the rare
occasions they make an appearance their accompanying staff demand
money from
residents for removing their rubbish.
Many residents
have been obliged to resort to private firms for refuse
collection. Now the
city has the cheek to charge the public for a service
they do not provide.
Ratepayers should refuse - no pun intended - to pay for
this highway
robbery.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 26 February 2009
19:54
WHAT is a spaghetti mix?
It is the description MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai gave to the nascent
Movement for Democratic Change
in 2000.
He said in an interview with journalist and academic
Patrick Bond: "We
are social democrats. The MDC can never be pure,
ideologically, because of
our broad orientation. Besides, social democracy
is a halfway house, a
spaghetti mix. In our case, the main characteristic is
that we are driven by
working class interests, with the poor having more
space to play a role than
they do now. But one of the components is an
element of participation by
business, which is just not able to develop
under present conditions."
Here Tsvangirai did not just liken
his movement to that pasta dish
from the tin, but also used another allegory
-- a halfway house -- to
describe his party.
Ordinarily, the
purpose of a halfway house is to allow people to begin
the process of
reintegration with society, while still providing monitoring
and support;
this is generally believed to reduce the risk of recidivism or
relapse when
compared to a release directly into society.
Some halfway houses
are meant solely for reintegration of persons, who
have been recently
released from prison, but many are recovery houses or
"sober" houses where
residents are asked to remain sober and comply with a
recovery
programme.
In some instances a halfway house usually refers to
a place where
people with mental disorders, victims of child abuse, orphans
or teenage
runaways can stay.
Perhaps a more apt illustration
of the MDC today than the spaghetti
mix which by now is way past its "best
before" date!
A decade after its formation, not much appears to
have changed in
terms of the MDC's composition and focus.
It
has remained a potpourri of competing interests which recently
manifested in
the appointment of cabinet and deputy ministers.
The end result was
a mélange of labour, big business, farmers, civic
society, youths, the
Matabeleland lobby and lawyers.
They have all come together in
Tsvangirai's "halfway house" to sober
up and lead the process of change,
albeit with no clear political ideology
to direct their
intentions.
Secretary-general and Finance minister Tendai Biti
at a party function
last week confirmed the obvious.
He said
the MDC was not a political party but a movement and it
remained as
such.
This, I believe, worked when the party was in opposition
because the
guiding light then was the raw hatred of Mugabe and the ruling
establishment.
But as part of a unity government, the MDC
requires an identity that
sets it apart from the Zanu PF project that on
paper preaches pro-poor
policies yet in essence has created a super rich
aristocracy.
The party identity is crucial today. What is the
MDC? A labour party?
Is it pro-capital or is it a people's party
ready to deliver free
education and health? (We have not forgotten
Tsvangirai's promise at Sakubva
Stadium last year of free education for
all).
The MDC would like to be seen as a modern, moderate
reformist entity,
capable of restoring investor confidence while at the same
time satisfying
the poor.
The danger is for the MDC to
repeat the dismal experience of Zambia
where Frederick Chiluba's
multi-formed alliance won an election in 1991 and
quickly applied
neo-liberal economic policy with even worse results than his
predecessor.
Chiluba had full control of government and
Tsvangirai does not,
although he has been entrusted with the tool box to fix
our problems. In
doing so, he runs the risk of being forced to implement an
unfocused project
dictated by the conflicting interests in the "halfway
house".
There is going to be enormous pressure from those holding
the purse to
force reform. For example, we are keen to know what the MDC's
position is on
funding from the World Bank.
In the Patrick Bond
interview alluded to earlier Tsvangirai had this
to say about the
international financiers: "They have put us into a serious
debt trap. We may
have to negotiate with the IMF to get out of that.
What is
important, down the line, is for Zimbabwe to work itself out
of the IMF and
World Bank's grip. In the short-term, we have to distinguish
between
financial support that serves Mugabe versus that which serves the
country."
That distinction today could be a bit
blurred.
Tsvangirai would like any assistance that would strengthen
the
position of the MDC in the unity government while weakening Mugabe's
resolve
to rehabilitate his Zanu PF.
To be really cynical, how
will the MDC respond to dictates of the
World Bank to cut social spending in
health, education and farm subsidies?
Will the MDC be amenable to
reducing the size of the civil service?
How will its government spread the
dollar so that it satisfies capital and
expensive social programmes? A
sobering thought for the inmates in the
halfway house.
BY
VINCENT KAHIYA