Riot police quell protest in Harare suburb Thu 12 May
2005
HARARE - Armed police yesterday beat up and forcibly dispersed
residents of Harare's low income suburb of Mabvuku who had taken to the
streets after going for three days without water.
Member of
Parliament for Mabvuku, Timothy Mubhau, told ZimOnline that three people had
been arrested by the police for demonstrating against the severe water
shortage and that the police were still questioning more residents over the
matter yesterday.
"Police came in six vehicles and there was
pandemonium as people fled in all directions . . . three have been arrested
and several residents are being interrogated by the police," Mubhau
said.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena could however not confirm
the Mabvuku arrests saying he had still not been briefed about the morning
protests in the suburb.
Harare is grappling severe water
shortages because there is no foreign currency for spares for broken down
water pumps and also to pay for water treatment chemicals.
But
Mabvuku has been the worst hit by the water shortage with residents there
forced to drink sewer and refuse contaminated water from a stream flowing
near the suburb.
Mubhau, who won the Mabvuku
parliamentary seat on an opposition Movement for Democratic Change party
ticket, warned of more possible protests in the poor suburb saying residents
there were still seething with anger after yesterday's clashes with the
police.
He said: "People demonstrated in the morning because they
have gone for some days without water . . . the protests were quelled by
anti-riot police but the anger is still mounting among the people because
there is still no water."
The shortage of water in Harare is
only one in a long list of basic survival commodities increasingly difficult
to find in Zimbabwe since President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF
party wrapped a landslide victory in a controversial poll last
March.
Fuel, electricity, food and essential medicines have all
become scarcer in Zimbabwe chiefly because there is no hard cash to pay
foreign suppliers. - ZimOnline
Manufacturing sector on verge of total collapse Thur 12 May
2005 HARARE - Zimbabwe's manufacturing sector is on the verge of total
collapse with several firms having already drastically reduced working
hours, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has said.
The CZI - which is regarded as the voice of the country's business community
- said stringent state price controls, worsening foreign currency shortages,
collapsing infrastructure, water and power shortages particularly in Harare,
were throttling a manufacturing sector already struggling after five years
of economic recession.
"Some have resorted to shorter working days,
others have resorted to a shorter working week . . . we have gone off
track," CZI president Pattison Sithole told a meeting of business leaders
and newly appointed Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu in
Harare yesterday.
Sithole said lethargy by the government in
implementing its own economic turn-around programme plus the ineffectiveness
of a foreign currency auction system introduced last year to raise forex
have only aided a crisis that grew more vicious days after President Robert
Mugabe and his ZANU PF party's controversial victory in last March's general
election.
Narrating problems bedevilling industry, Sithole said:
"The auction rate has not responded to rising costs and market fundamentals.
The current auction rate is not attractive for exporters and is considered
cheap by importers encouraging unnecessary use of foreign
exchange
"Infrastructure issues remain a major problem, water in
Harare is a particularly serious problem. (The) Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority has urgent need of additional generating capacity.
"The road network is deteriorating partly as a result of National Railways
of Zimbabwe's failure, putting more pressure on the road system . . .
despite ongoing consultations between Government and the private sector,
policy response to the problem on the ground has been too
slow."
Mpofu acknowledged the problems threatening the viability of
industry and said the government was cobbling up a "new national export
strategy", whose details he did not close. But the government official
claimed the export strategy would effectively address the problems
afflicting industry.
The Trade Minister also called on
manufacturers not to unilaterally increase prices of basic commodities but
to engage the government in dialogue over the sticky matter.
Most basic commodities vanished from shop shelves days after Mugabe and ZANU
PF won a landslide victory against the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change party in the March 31 ballot.
In the few shops that still
had basic goods in stock, prices went up by more than 100 percent forcing
the government to viciously clamp down on businesses, arresting and fining
company officials for charging prices above those set by the
state.
Now goods such as milk, cooking oil and other basics are no
longer readily available in shops but on the black market where prices are
three times more than those gazetted by the government. - ZimOnline
Police threaten to ban launch of protest music album Thur
12 May 2005 HARARE - Zimbabwe police have threatened to stop the launch and
distribution of a music album produced by local civic society groups calling
for democratic and constitutional reforms in the country.
The
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), bringing together churches, labour
unions, political parties and civic rights groups, said the police's law and
order section has demanded to listen to the album first and promised to
prevent its release if they deem its content "anti-government."
NCA
spokeswoman Jessie Manjome yesterday told ZimOnline that police officials
told the civic coalition that they were worried music on the album might be
used to rally Zimbabweans to rise against the government particularly as
emotions are still high in the country after last March's disputed
election.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena could not be reached
for comment on the matter.
But Majome, a lawyer, vowed that the
NCA will press ahead with the launch of the album because the organisation
does not require police permission to do so.
She said: "The
police have no power to stop the launch and distribution of the album. We
informed them as a matter of courtesy and we were inviting them the same way
we have invited other people to the album launch. There is no need for
police permission and we will not ask for it."
Majome said in
addition to music calling for constitutional reforms, the NCA has also
included on the album protest songs against police brutality and President
Robert Mugabe's dictatorial excesses.
She said: "We are using music
to protest against police brutality, the use of dictatorial methods to quash
forces of democratic reform and the fact that after 25 years of alleged
democracy, we still don't have a democratic, people oriented
constitution."
Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party have ruthlessly
clamped down on divergent views and dissension as their hold on power has
come under increasing challenge from the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change party in the last five years.
Several songs
by national music icon Thomas Mapfumo and a host of other artists remain
banned from national radio and television after government officials deemed
them too critical of the state.
Four newspapers, including the
country's largest non-government-owned daily, the Daily News, remain off the
newsstands after they were banned by the government in the last two years. -
ZimOnline
Sixty men
linked to an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea are due to be deported
from Zimbabwe to South Africa after more than a year in custody.
Defence lawyer Alwyn Griebenow said they would be taken by bus from Harare
to Beit Bridge border crossing, where immigration officials will meet
them.
They are in good health apart from one with tuberculosis,
he added.
Coup charges against the men were not proven, but they
were convicted of breaking Zimbabwe's immigration laws.
They
will be reunited with their families before facing possible charges in South
Africa, their lawyer said.
The alleged ring-leader of the plot,
Briton Simon Mann, and the two pilots of the plane, remain in prison in
Zimbabwe on longer sentences.
Weapons question
The men
being released had been travelling on South African passports when they were
arrested in March 2004 after their chartered plane touched down at Harare
airport to pick up weapons.
Zimbabwean prosecutors said they
had been en-route to Equatorial Guinea to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang
Nguema Mbasogo in the oil-rich country.
The men said the
weapons were to be used for guarding diamond mines in Democratic Republic of
Congo.
In Equatorial Guinea, 14 other people have been found guilty
of charges linked to the coup plot, including plot leader Nick du Toit who
received 34 years.
Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former UK
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was given a suspended jail term in South
Africa and fined after agreeing a plea bargain to help
investigators.
Previous reports said that there were 62 prisoners
due for release but latest reports refer to 60.
Under South
African law, they could be charged with engaging in military activities
abroad without official permission.
Zimbabwe paying Eskom bills with gold - claim
May 12, 2005
By Basildon Peta
Johannesburg: Zimbabwe,
reeling under acute foreign currency shortages, has been settling its
electricity account with South Africa with gold because it has no hard
currency.
In the face of denials by Eskom, well-placed sources at
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
said yesterday that after persistent hard currency shortages, which had led
Zimbabwe to default on its power debt, an arrangement had been made for its
reserve bank to transfer gold bars across the border to South Africa to
settle some of its Eskom debt.
The arrangement followed a major
crackdown on small- and medium-scale miners in Zimbabwe who had been accused
of smuggling gold out of the country instead of selling it to the reserve
bank as required by law.
The crackdown helped the reserve bank to
increase its gold intake last year as miners, fearing the cancellation of
their licences, opted to surrender their gold to the central
bank.
It is understood that through the arrangement with the
bank, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority reduced its debt to Eskom
from more than US$25 million to less than US$7m.
"Although this
is not conventional practice, we had to find a way of settling the debt,
otherwise it would have kept on accumulating because there is simply no
foreign currency here," said a central bank official who asked not to be
named.
Officials said the arrangement had the blessing of all "who
should be in the know", including Eskom's bankers.
Eskom
spokesman Fani Zulu denied the arrangement, saying the Zimbabwean authority
was paying in US dollars.
After ten years of trying the Black
Rhino Breeding Program at Western Plains Zoo seems to be succeeding more
often.
The program has been running for 10 years now and boasts ten
babies, most of them born in the last few years.
The experts are
still trying to iron out a few bugs as they learn more about these amazing
creatures. For example, it seems that captive breeding of Black Rhinos tends
to produce mostly male offspring so work is being undertaken to find out
why.
There's further good news for the Rhino in the wild. While the
Zimbabwe Rhinos are still facing significant losses from poachers, the rest
of Africa is actually seeing numbers increase as conservation efforts take
hold.
Ten years ago the Black Rhino was all but written off in the wild
but things are starting to turn around for one of natures most incredible
animals.
Roger Brogan is a Keeper/Supervisor at the African
Section of Western Plains Zoo...
UN: World's Worst Humanitarian Crises Are in Africa By
Peter Heinlein United Nations 11 May 2005
The
top U.N. emergency relief official says all the world's greatest
humanitarian crises are in Africa. The official charges rich countries with
discriminating against Africa in aid donations, leaving many to
die.
U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland calls Africa 'the
challenge of our generation." Then, with a shake of his head, he adds "we're
not responding to it".
Mr. Egeland told the Security Council that of
14 humanitarian appeals for Africa this year, eight have received less than
20 percent of the amount requested. Only one, a small flash appeal for
Angola, has reached the 40 percent funding level.
Mr. Egeland says
when it comes to Africa, where the need is greatest, donor nations seem
least generous.
"There is an in-built discrimination in this sense that,
if we all agree a human life has the same value wherever he or she is born,
there should be the same attention to northern Uganda as to northern Iraq,
the same attention to the Congo as there was to Kosovo, and that is not the
case today," he noted.
Mr. Egeland says Africa cannot continue on as
it is because new crises are springing up faster than old ones are being
solved. As examples, he pointed to Togo, where the refugee population has
gone from zero to 20,000 in a matter of days, and to Chad.
Mr.
Egeland expressed special concern about northern Uganda, where nearly two
million people are displaced by an uprising by a rebel group called the
Lord's Resistance Army. He told of atrocious massacres in the past few
weeks, and said there is an urgent need to protect children who are abducted
and forced into slavery as rebel soldiers.
"The Lord's Resistance
Army is world's most brutal insurgency group and it is very difficult to
handle that kind of systematic abduction of children, and then making these
abducted children into killing machines against their own people," he
said.
Mr. Egeland singled out Zimbabwe as perhaps the worst of the
southern African states hit by a "triple threat" of AIDS, food shortages and
bad governance.
He noted that foreign donors are so discouraged by
the government of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe that the country has
attracted only $4 in assistance for every AIDS victim. That compares to a
regional average of $74, and $319 per victim in Uganda.
Mr. Egeland
said the people of Zimbabwe are suffering from what he called a "lack of
dialogue and a lack of good governance".
"Zimbabwe has gone from being a
breadbasket of the region to have an enormous deficit," he said. "And what I
ask for is a better cooperation between aid organizations and the government
to help in addressing the chronic deficiency of food in
Zimbabwe."
After hearing Mr. Egeland's briefing, the Security Council
President, Danish Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Loj, expressed concern at
humanitarian conditions in Africa and calling on the Lord's Resistance Army
in Uganda to return to peace talks.
But her statement was silent on
Zimbabwe. European diplomats said Council members China and Algeria had
objected to any mention of Zimbabwe, saying issues of bad governance should
not be the concern of the Council.
Alleged mercenaries to be charged on their return : NPA
May
12, 2005, 09:00
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has confirmed
the 62 alleged mercenaries being held in Zimbabwe will be charged with
breaching the Foreign Military Assistance Act when they return to South
Africa.
Makhosini Nkosi, the NPA spokesperson, says the law is a way to
make sure that South Africa is not used as a base for mercenary
activities.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean immigration officials will hold an
urgent meeting this morning with lawyers of the men to discuss their
release. The alleged mercenaries completed their 12 month sentences in a
Harare prison this week for activities linked to a coup plot in Equatorial
Guinea.
Africa once carried
a world of hope on broad continental shoulders that stretch from Casablanca
to Suez. But a continent of promise quickly became a zone of failure and
despair. Today Africa struggles to escape back to the future it left
behind.
The brutal tragedies of Sudan and Zimbabwe underline the enormous
challenges Africans confront in this task. But now there are also
perceptible stirrings of change that suggest Africa's fate is not immutably
fixed as one of ruin and tyranny.
In Kenya, for example, the
democratically elected government that ended the corrupt rule of Daniel arap
Moi in 2002 is writing a new constitution that will have significant input
from the wananchi, or the people -- if the determined Kenyan woman who won
the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize has her way, which I gather she usually
does.
"The people are learning that you cannot leave decisions only to
leaders," says environmentalist Wangari Maathai, whose Green Belt Movement
was creatively recognized by the Nobel jury for contributing to world peace.
"Local groups have to create the political will for change, rather than
waiting for others to do things for them. That is where positive, and
sustainable, change begins."
Maathai was in Washington this week to
address the Women's Edge Coalition, an advocacy group that concentrates on
economic issues. On the day we talked, a very different kind of event was
occurring in South Africa to turn the clock -- or at least the mind -- back
to what might have been.
It was the announcement of the biggest foreign
investment yet made in South Africa under the post-apartheid African
National Congress government -- a $5.5 billion vote of confidence in that
country by Barclays Bank of Britain.
Barclays is not just any old company
in the South African context. The bank thrived under the white minority
regime until investor boycotts and political instability in South Africa
forced Barclays to close operations there in 1986. Now it has come back to
buy a 60 percent stake in the country's largest retail bank, Absa Group,
while agreeing to emphasize black empowerment in the
workplace.
Barclays officials emphasize that they have returned because
they have been impressed by how well governments headed by Nelson Mandela
and his successor, Thabo Mbeki, have managed the economy. The bankers add
that Barclays intends to expand its banking network throughout Africa from
its southern base.
These are not woolly-headed idealists talking. But
it takes business and civic visionaries to look beyond the ruins left by
Moi, Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko, Jean-Bedel Bokassa and the other corrupt
and tyrannical African rulers who exploited and betrayed the unrealistic
hopes of the late 1950s and early '60s. In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe continues
the tradition with, alas, Mbeki's complicity.
But new hope is
generated by a spreading revulsion among Africans themselves at the excesses
visited upon them. That reaction is reflected in the Nigerian government's
reform efforts under Olusegun Obasanjo and by the rise in Kenya of a leader
such as Maathai. She is a consensus-minded, highly articulate community
organizer who has gone from being jailed and beaten by the old regime for
her dissent to being a member of the present cabinet.
When I asked her
about the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, Maathai argued that it is not
only possible for Africans to take the lead in resolving that humanitarian
crisis but essential for them to do so.
"Darfur is an example of a
situation where a dire scarcity of natural resources is manipulated by
politicians for their own ambition. To outsiders, the conflict is seen as
tribal warfare. At its roots, though, it is a struggle over controlling an
environment that can no longer support all the people who must live on it,"
Maathai said.
"You must not deal only with the symptoms. You have to get
to the root causes by promoting environmental rehabilitation and empowering
people to do things for themselves. What is done for the people without
involving them cannot be sustained."
Maathai's Green Belt Movement
has organized the reforestation of areas in Kenya that had been stripped of
trees by commercial farming, population pressures, drought, and unwise
policies of land ownership and management.
"We are very fond of blaming
the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful,
including governments, that are responsible," said Maathai, who studied
biological sciences in the United States, Germany and Kenya.
Africa's
false start punished those who expected too much from it. But it would be
unworthy to compound that error now by expecting too little.
HARDLINERS within ZANU
PF are demanding that Sekesai Makwavarara, the beleaguered chairperson of
the commission running Harare resign or be fired amid frantic eleventh-hour
efforts to save the city from imminent collapse.
Impeccable ZANU PF
sources said pressure was building inside the ruling party -known for its
obsession with exerting its influence in the city - for the dismissal of the
former Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) councillor. This comes just
weeks ahead of the expiry of her term of office on June 9. The move is
widely seen as a vote of no-confidence in her ability to turnaround the
city's operations. The sources said it was felt that Makwavarara did
not have what it takes to turn around the city and that a new person at the
helm could do better than the incumbent. It was believed within the ruling
party that her ouster would also be sending a signal that the era of
politics of patronage was over. According to the sources, senior
ruling party officials, increasingly getting impatient with Makwavarara's
failure to restore order and a new generation of services in Harare, were
leaning heavily on Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo not to give the
commission another term in office. The Harare City Council (HCC) commission
boss - under whose stewardship service delivery in the capital city has
virtually collapsed - has of late come under intense pressure from residents
who accuse her of plunging the city into an unprecedented crisis.
Although there is a Supreme Court precedence that a commission should only
be appointed for a single term, Chombo is said to have indicated that he
would renew Makwavarara's term of office. ZANU PF deputy secretary for
information and publicity Ephraim Masawi was quoted after last Friday's
Politburo meeting as saying that the meeting had discussed grievances that
urban voters had against ZANU PF, which won only a single urban constituency
at the March 31 election. The Financial Gazette has heard that senior
Politburo members had insisted at the meeting that opposition to ruling
party had remained firm, particularly in Harare, largely due to an evident
decline in service delivery under a Commission appointed by the ZANU PF
government. "There is a strong feeling that Makwavarara has failed,
although there are some who are already rushing to her defence," a senior
ZANU PF official said this week. However, Chombo has remained a
strong supporter of Makwavarara even in the face of growing opposition to
her reappointment from within ZANU PF. Chombo was yesterday unavailable for
comment. The government this week announced it had relieved
Makwavarara's commission of the duty of managing Harare's bulk water system,
handing that responsibility to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority
(ZINWA). The move has been seen as a sign of waning To Page
30 patience within government over the Commission, and a no-confidence
vote for Makwavarara despite her latest promises to restructure the
commission and enhance efficiency. A meeting has been scheduled for
next week between Chombo and Munacho Mutezo, the new minister of Water
Resources and Infrastructural Development, under whose ministry ZINWA falls.
According to council sources, the meeting will discuss the transfer of all
council staff and assets involved in water supply to ZINWA. The transfer
will be at no costs to ZINWA, but the authority urgently needs $350 billion
to normalise water supplies in the immediate term. The Combined
Harare Residents Association (CHRA) has said it will lodge a legal challenge
against Chombo's if he follows through on his intention to extend
Makwavarara's stay at Town House. CHRA chairman Mike Davies said the
association, which has petitioned council to reverse massive rate hikes of
up to 2000 percent, would also call for a full-scale rate boycott if
Makwavarara were allowed to stay. Makwavarara last week announced a
plan to end worsening operational inefficiency at Town House by splitting
the Harare City Council into seven independent strategic business units,
saying "we must transform or we perish". The proposed divisions
are Harare Roads and Street Lighting, Harare Waste Management,
Communication, Finance, Harare Public Transport and Harare Water and
Sanitation. However, Government, in another show of frustration at
Makwavarara's administration, announced it was restructuring the Commission
by appointing several more officials to Council "to help the city implement
its turnaround strategy". Makwavarara has presided over a sharp
deterioration in the standards of service delivery since she was appointed
to replace Elias Mudzuri, who was elected in 2002, but sacked a year later
by Chombo on charges of incompetence and, oddly, "interfering in the
management of city affairs". Makwavarara was Mudzuri's deputy in the
MDC-controlled council, but she defected to ZANU PF upon her appointment as
acting mayor. She has since been rewarded with a farm in Chombo's
Mashonaland West province. Since her appointment, Makwavarara has
failed to produce audited accounts, involved herself in petty staff wars
over office space, and presided over acute water shortages and poor refuse
collection.
THE deepening economic
crisis looks set to spawn a fresh round of company closures, the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) warned government
yesterday.
CZI president Patterson Sithole told government
officials from the line economic ministries at a meeting in Harare yesterday
that most firms were in distress, adding that most of them could close shop
if the government did not move urgently to restore viability. "We
are in danger of losing the gains that we made in 2004. Most of our
companies are in distress. "Many businesses are on the verge of closing
down because of the unavailability of foreign currency. Companies are
running at well below capacity and the foreign currency shortage is causing
supply disruptions which, in turn, are fueling inflationary pressures, as
businesses have to recover overheads from the little volumes they are
generating," Sithole said. Yesterday's meeting was attended by
Obert Mpofu, Rugare Gumbo, Webster Shamu and Sithembiso Nyoni - ministers of
Industry and International Trade, Economic Development, Policy
Implementation and Small to medium Enterprise Development ministers,
respectively. Mpofu's deputy, Phineas Chihota and Samuel Undenge,
Gumbo's deputy at the newly created Economic Development ministry were also
in attendance, along with some senior government officials. In a
poignant presentation that illustrated the dire situation that faces
industry, Sithole said the exchange rate and price controls were major
concerns for businesses, as these two critical issues were overdue for
review. "It would appear that price controls are now being extended
to all products, which was never government's intention. There is a de facto
price freeze. "The foreign currency auctions, which brought much
stability at the beginning of 2004, has stopped working. We need to make the
exchange rate more viable because, at current rates, no exporter is
exporting viably. We urge government to respond to these issues rapidly.
Last year showed that this economy can be turned around, we do not want to
go back to 2003," Sithole said. The CZI, Sithole said, was
proposing a two-tier exchange rate regime that would see the country's
essential imports being covered by the 30 percent component of foreign
currency earnings surrendered by exporters. "The first should be a
controlled tier for essential needs such as maize imports and electricity as
well as debt servicing. This should be funded from the 30 percent surrender
money, but this tier should be set at realistic levels. "The second
would be the market tier, fully determined by the market, for the remaining
70 percent and that should also be the official exchange rate. I know there
are fears that the exchange rate could run away, but experiences in
countries such as Kenya have shown that if you control money supply, the
rate will not run away," Sithole said. Mpofu, who replaced the
combative Samuel Mumbengegwi whose relationship with industry was anything
but warm, hinted that government would soon come up with an announcement on
price controls. Speculation is that more goods could be brought under price
controls, a situation which has unsettled industry players.
"Government maintains price controls on essential goods such as maize,
wheat, flour and bread, whose producers enjoy direct subsidies, but price
controls should not be at the expense of industry," Mpofu said.
Goods such as sugar- which has disappeared off supermarket shelves-beef,
salt, cooking oil, milk agricultural chemicals and implements as well as
cement and tyres, fall under the price monitoring category, with producers
required to approach government with "clear justifications for
increases." Sithole said while industry saw little hope of having a
major policy shift on price controls, the CZI proposed a trigger mechanism
for price adjustments. "There is an urgent need to review price
controls and as for price monitored products, we recommend increase of 90
percent of the previous quarters' official inflation figures, approved
automatically." He urged the government to urgently address investor
concerns, in order to get foreign investment, not just from the East,
flowing into the country. "We support the government's 'look East'
policy, but a businesspeople, we want to look everywhere. East, West,
Centre.everywhere," Sithole said.
Nelson
Banya and Felix Njini 5/12/2005 8:09:18 AM (GMT +2)
SENIOR
ruling party politicians are reportedly pressing for changes at the
state-controlled Zimbabwe Newspapers stable, despite recent assurances to
the contrary from new Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya, The Financial
Gazette has established.
The ruling party stalwarts, sources said,
are eager to reassert their influence at Zimpapers, having lost control of
the powerful information outlet to former minister of state information and
publicity, Jonathan Moyo. Jokonya and his deputy, Bright Matonga, have
given conciliatory signals and allayed fears of wholesale changes to
editorial teams that had given their allegiance to Moyo over the past five
years. Sources said some officials at ZANU PF headquarters were wary
that Moyo, ousted from government after defying the ruling party and
standing as an independent candidate in the March elections, could retain
his influence within the stable. Zimpapers board chairman Herbert
Nkala, group chief executive officer Justin Mutasa and Pikirayi Deketeke,
editor of the flagship daily Herald are reported to be targeted should the
ZANU PF gurus have their way. The Financial Gazette is reliably told
that ZANU PF wants Nkala, Mutasa and Deketeke to leave the group and has
tasked Jokonya to find a workable way of getting rid of the trio.
Government owns 51 percent of Zimpapers, which has eight titles under its
stable, namely The Herald, The Sunday Mail, Kwayedza, The New Farmer, Trends
magazine, Chronicle, The Sunday News and The Manica Post. Nkala and
Deketeke are accused of being close confidantes of the fired minister,
Moyo. Mutasa, who is also deputy chairman of public transporter
Zimbabwe Passenger United Company (ZUPCO), is reported to have been
entangled in Matonga's inauspicious exit from the bus company, where he was
chief executive. The same sources said Nathan Shamuyarira, the ZANU
PF information supremo, summoned Jokonya to the party headquarters last week
where he told him the party's desire to relieve the trio of their
duties. Zimpapers in March fired Chronicle editor Stephen Ndlovu, a
fierce Moyo loyalist who stood by his patron even as the former minister's
fall became inevitable. Ndlovu's dismissal raised the spectre of
more sackings at the company's titles in Harare and Bulawayo as the party
moves to sterilise Moyo's influence. Shamuyarira, however, denied
meeting Jokonya over the issue: "I don't know anything about that. I have no
powers to summon a minister. You just want to create confusion."
Government spokesperson George Charamba could not be drawn into discussing
the fate of Nkala, Mutasa and Deketeke, saying appointments at Zimpapers
were a matter of implementing the ruling party's policies. He, however,
confirmed Jokonya's meeting with Shamuyarira. "Last week Jokonya paid a
courtesy call on Shamuyarira and discussed policy issues not personalities,"
Charamba said. Charamba said the ministry implements what would have
been recommended by the Politburo. "The party hired a dog and the
dog must do the barking. If the minister finds anything broken, he will fix
it," Charamba said. ZANU PF insiders told The Financial Gazette that
the party had taken "a hard look at the structure and operations of the
public mass media and found that a single person has influenced all
appointments of board, management and editorials (sic) in public media with
just one thing in mind - loyalty to the person in charge himself.
"The influence of that one person runs deeper than anyone could ever
imagine. Thus, although a purge would be necessary to start getting things
back on track, it is important to reflect on the damage this would do in
terms of the operations of the media, the massive financial outlay that the
companies would require in order to meet the massive retrenchment bills,"
reads part of a brief circulated within the party. However, the
brief goes on to suggest the dismissal of the board, the "managing director
and at least one editor" whose alleged "zealous defence of someone" bordered
on perjury. It has become something of a ZANU PF tradition for any new
information minister to appoint his favoured gatekeepers to man critical
Zimpapers titles and the public broadcaster, which still enjoys a
monopoly.
THE UK government
is refusing to release information about cabinet deliberations and
directives issued to Lord Carrington during the Lancaster House talks that
brought independence to Zimbabwe in 1980.
In February The Financial
Gazette, seeking to ascertain exactly what was agreed on especially as
regards the emotive land reform programme, used the Freedom of Information
Act seeking the release of cabinet minutes for the period June 1979 to April
1980 specifically those that mention deliberations about the Lancaster House
Talks on Zimbabwe. The paper had also sought the release of directives
issued to Lord Carrington, who chaired the talks, by the government of
Margaret Thatcher in relation to how he should handle the talks.
The land issue has been at the centre of the prolonged diplomatic rift
between Whitehall and Harare, with the latter accusing the British
government of interfering in the domestic politics of a sovereign state
through its perceived support of the opposition in the country and ducking
its responsibility to finance land redistribution as a former colonial
master. The diplomatic row has led to the international isolation of
Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe government, a target of bitter attacks from
the UK and its allies over allegations of human rights abuses and stifling
democratic space, has always insisted that it was agreed at the Lancaster
House talks that the former colonial master would provide funds for the land
redistribution exercise. As a result Zimbabwe has refused to
compensate white commercial farmers for land acquired by the government for
redistribution to black people. It says the farmers would only be
compensated for developments on the farms. In an interview with The
Financial Gazette last year, Tony Blair's government, which claimed that it
pumped in 44 million pounds to finance land redistribution, however,
maintained that the full requirements of the land reform programme were
beyond the capacity of any single country. Releasing the documents on
the Lancaster House deliberations could help unravel the controversy and
explain why diplomatic fences have irretrievably broken down between
Zimbabwe and Britain over the land issue. To date no full disclosure of what
transpired at the talks has been made although information has filtered to
the public through autobiographies written by politicians who attended the
talks. And the British government has slammed its doors on any disclosure of
the details. "Inappropriate disclosure has the potential to limit the
full and frank discussion of policy by ministers," Kevin Nichols of the
Histories, Openness and Records Unit said in a written response to The
Financial Gazette application. Nichols added: "This information is
being withheld as it falls under the exemption in section 35(1)(a) of the
Freedom of Information Act." Section 35(1)(a) states that information held
by a government department can be withheld for the purposes of formulation
or development of government policy. The Freedom of Information Act
which became law in January this year gives the public, from anywhere in the
world, the right to access information held by 100 000 public bodies. The
Act also allows some 50 000 government files in the national archives to be
made public. Among some of the information that the UK government tried
to prevent disclosure of was the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's legal
advice on the war on Iraq. The British government finally published it after
it was leaked to the press just before the election. "We have
concluded, for these reasons, that the public interest in withholding this
information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it," Nichols
said. The Financial Gazette is in the process of appealing for an
internal review of this decision and if this fails it will apply to the
Information Commissioner for a disclosure.
Malawi bans sterilised milk from Dairibord
Zimbabwe
Chiza Ngwira 5/12/2005 8:12:23 AM (GMT
+2)
MALAWI last week banned the importation, distribution and
selling of Dairibord Zimbabwe's Steri milk, a move some Malawian analysts
say is a "technical barrier aimed at protecting the country's local
industry."
In a statement, Charles Malata Chirwa, acting
director general of Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS), said his organisation
had noted that most of the imported Steri-milk of Dairibord Zimbabwe goes
bad before reaching the sell-by date indicated on the products.
"This situation no doubt poses unknown health risks to the consumers of the
product. "The general public is therefore informed that the MBS has
impounded more than 40 metric tonnes of the product," Chirwa said. The
consignment was later offloaded at a dumpsite with locals scrambling for
"Manna from Heaven". The ban would be lifted only after Dairibord
Zimbabwe satisfied the MBS that they have rectified the problem affecting
the quality of its milk products, he added. Dairibord Zimbabwe is a
majority shareholder in Dairibord Malawi and last month the Malawi
subsidiary introduced several products on the market imported from its
parent company in Zimbabwe. Chirwa issued a stern warning to the public
traders and importers that 'no person shall import, sell or distribute
Dairibord Zimbabwe Steri milk until further notice," However, he
said, "the ban shall be reviewed and lifted as soon as the product quality
has been brought under normalcy and assurance of the product consistency
re-established by Dairibord Zimbabwe," "Any breach of the ban is a
serious punishable offence and shall be dealt with according to the MBS Act
Chapter 51; 02 of the law of Malawi," warned Chirwa. Malawi Bureau
of Standards Certification officer Lovemore Malunga, said his organisation
had been forced to ban the sterilised milk because it was landing in Malawi
in bad state and posed a health hazard to consumers. "When the
manufacturers have come up in the open that they have rectified the problem
and upon satisfaction of the Bureau, we may lift the ban," he said.
Dairiboard Zimbabwe Limited (DZL) relies on export markets and the move by
Malawi is viewed in many quarters in this country as aimed at protecting its
fragile milk industry. DZL spokesperson Busi Chindove confirmed that
Malawian authorities had slammed a ban on its product but said:
"Following as meeting held today between Dairibord Malawi and the MBS, the
ban has been lifted with effect from tomorrow (today). We are advised that a
statement to that effect will be issued by MBS tomorrow and therefore
exports of Steri milk will resume. DZL has met all the requirements as
requested by MBS," Chindove said.
THE Southern African
Development Community (SADC), accused of not being assertive in dealing with
Zimbabwe's nagging political impasse, this week appeared to act, with its
chairman, Paul Berenger, inviting Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to Mauritius for a
tete-a-tete.
Sources at Harvest House, the headquarters of the
main opposition party, said yesterday Tsvangirai, accompanied by his deputy
Gibson Sibanda and deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikiri and other
support staff, arrived in Port Louis on Tuesday and were scheduled to meet
Berenger, the Mauritian President, later yesterday. Welshman Ncube,
the MDC secretary-general, together with other senior members of the
opposition party, could not immediately comment yesterday on the latest
development as they were said to be attending the funeral of one of its
senior officials in Matabeleland South. Ncube, however, confirmed to a
South African-based website that Tsvangirai was in Mauritius to meet
Berenger on the continuing crisis in Zimbabwe. The meeting between
the MDC and Berenger comes in the wake of allegations of irregularities in
Zimbabwe's March parliamentary polls after SADC had tried to put in place
regionally acceptable mechanisms to thwart any electoral fraud. "He
(Tsvangirai) will tell Berenger of how SADC has let the opposition down,
especially South Africa's chameleon attitude," said a party official close
to the MDC leader. "He is going to give reasons why the party severed
ties with Pretoria and then go on to chronicle why the MDC disputes the
election results. He is also going to mention the retribution against MDC
supporters in perceived ZANU PF strongholds, and how SADC was hoodwinked
into believing Zimbabwe was adhering to the principles and guidelines agreed
to in Berenger's backyard," added the source. The insiders said the
MDC delegation left with dossiers chronicling how President Robert Mugabe's
ruling ZANU PF allegedly stole the March 31 parliamentary polls in which the
opposition won 41 seats against 78 for the ruling party. Soon after
the announcement of the outcome of the disputed polls, the MDC moved with
speed to cobble up a 56-page dossier entitled Stolen: How the Elections were
rigged. In the document, a copy of which is in the possession of The
Financial Gazette, apart from alleged stuffing of ballot boxes by a
"partisan" Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the MDC cites political violence
and intimidation, the politicisation of law enforcement agencies,
manipulation of food aid, andthe role of traditional leaders in allegedly
coercing the electorate to vote for ZANU PF as some of the major reasons for
refusing to endorse the elections as free and fair. Tsvangirai's
meeting with the SADC chairman is the first such engagement between the main
opposition party and any SADC head of state or government since the MDC
resolved on April 4 this year to pull out of any South Africa-driven
initiatives to find a solution to the Harare crisis.
PRESIDENT Robert
Mugabe's bloated Cabinet is posing serious administrative problems to
planners, racing against time to secure elusive office space for the newly
created ministries.
Four ministries were added to President
Mugabe's old Cabinet, bringing to 59 the total number of ministers in the
revamped line-up, including 18 deputy ministers and 10 provincial
governors. The local government ministry is struggling to find
accommodation for the contingent and scores of civil servants likely to be
recruited by the new ministries, nearly a month after the appointment of the
"development Cabinet". News of the headaches about space comes amid
revelations that recruitment of staff for the newly created ministries,
which analysts say is set to significantly swell the government's
expenditure, has not yet started. Government spokesperson George
Charamba said the new ministers were temporarily housed at Munhumutapa
Building, while Ignatius Chombo's Local Government Ministry was still
looking for office space. "Recruitment of staff has not yet started.
The ministers are working on the structures of their ministries while the
Public Service Commission is working on the recruitment. But they cannot
recruit now because there are no offices," Charamba said. "There
were some government properties which were offloaded and this has left a
gap, but there is a number of structures being put in place . . . government
is at work," he said. The affected ministries include the Ministry of
Economic Development headed by Rugare Gumbo, the Rural Housing and Social
Amenities Ministry headed by Emmerson Mnangagwa, and the Ministry of State
for Public and Interactive Affairs headed by Chen Chimutengwende.
I MUST confess that I
am a doubting Thomas who is still aghast and incredulous over the vote of
confidence expressed in Agriculture Minister Joseph Made through his
re-appointment to President Robert Mugabe's reshuffled "development
Cabinet".
It is nothing personal, but over the last five years that
he has headed one of the country's most strategic ministries, Made has
become a butt of ridicule and sarcastic jokes because of his bumbling
performance and inept handling of important issues. It does not
help that the minister is not blessed with the gift of eloquence to enable
him to articulate his ministry's policies and actions convincingly.
To be brutally blunt, Made is not the sort of person who would inspire
confidence even at the best of times, let alone amid the relentless struggle
to keep body and soul together that the majority of Zimbabweans are engaged
in. As a result, I am certain that I am not the only person who is
often left with a nagging sense of doubt as to whether he knows what he is
talking about each time Made opens his mouth. I know it is
uncharitable to keep dredging up Made's most damaging and inexcusable faux
pas when, with his head literally in the clouds after enjoying a helicopter
jaunt over some farms, he misled the nation into believing that a bumper
harvest was in the offing for the 2002/2003 agricultural season.
Made's cloud-cuckoo-land maize yield projections resulted in the nation
being caught flat-footed when, instead of a bumper harvest, a serious
deficit of the staple grain soon became apparent. With mealie meal
as scarce as gold in the shops, people had to scrounge for any grain they
could lay their hands on and have it ground at hammer mills. Long,
winding queues became a familiar and disturbing sight outside supermarkets
that received meagre deliveries or were rumoured to be expecting
consignments of the precious commodity. Bearing in mind that a hungry
man is an angry man, this was a tense situation that could have degenerated
into civil unrest reminiscent of the 2000 food riots. But despite
coming so close to the abyss, no lessons seem to have been learnt,
especially by the minister responsible for the country's food
security. Every crop planting season since this disastrous episode
has been characterised by an appalling lack of strategic thinking and
forward planning on the minister's part. As a result, farmers have
felt frustrated and helpless each time planting deadlines have elapsed
before they could lay their hands on inputs such as fertiliser and
seed. Now, with the winter wheat planting season upon us, the familiar
refrain of farmers' complaints about being unable to access the necessary
inputs or funds to buy them has already reached a crescendo. According to
press reports, the farmers are blaming the Grain Marketing Board, Arex and
Agribank for the delays. However, regardless of the reasons for
these institutions' failure to move timeously to avail farmers of those
inputs they are responsible for, the fact remains that overall
responsibility for overseeing and facilitating a successful crop season
rests with their parent ministry, which is headed by Made. Since
the logistical problems pertaining to the distribution of inputs have become
a seasonal occurrence, the question that begs an answer is why Made's
ministry has not been proactive. Why does the ministry always assure the
public that things are under control when the same problems recur every
season? It is only by anticipating some of these problems that the
ministry can make contingency plans and actively assist the relevant
parastatals and departments to execute them. A crisis is supposed
to be a temporary situation. But in the case of the agricultural sector, it
seems to have become the norm. Is the minister out of his depth or does he
lack the gumption to step in and provide the leadership needed to break this
vicious cycle of snags that are nevertheless not insurmountable?
When Made was first appointed Minister of Lands, Agriculture and
Resettlement in 2000, he was described as a land expert and shrewd
strategist. He told an interviewer: "When policy pronouncements are matched
with policy implementation then public confidence zooms."
Regrettably, public confidence has sagged as the minister seems to have
chosen to hide his light under a bushel.
THE cosmopolitan city of Harare, now a pale shadow of its
former self, has plunged into a deep hole, posing a great danger to its
inhabitants as years of corporate governance breaches take their toll on the
capital city.
The state of affairs at Town House, the
administrative centre for Harare now turned into a political turf, has
deteriorated into a full-blown crisis that no amount of public relations can
gloss over. While it has taken just two decades to bring the city down
to its knees, it is quite clear that it would cost the hardened ratepayer a
fortune to bring Harare back to its former status. But again, that is if the
city fathers are given the autonomy to run the affairs of the city.
Despite collecting $30 billion in revenue every month, the council can
hardly afford to pay its 8 000 workers, currently fighting for a 161 percent
salary rise, on time, let alone providing a second-best service to its
residents. "Clearly things have gone wrong and should be corrected.
There is need to get things right in the city. Its (Harare) value is going
up in terms of assets and the revenue should be equally high. There is a
mismatch somewhere," remarked David Samudzimu, a former representative of
the Harare residents. Harare is grappling with a severe refuse
problem, with litter going for several months without being collected in
some areas, a situation likely to deteriorate because of the resurfacing of
fuel shortages. Residents have been forced to dump litter in open
spaces, posing a serious health hazard that had been boiling underneath as a
result of the population explosion and the mushrooming of squatter shacks,
now home to over 500 000 people. Raw sewage is also flowing in some
suburbs, while potholes have made some areas inaccessible in what could have
inspired the lavish spending on luxury 4X4 vehicles by officials at Town
House. Water supplies to swathes of Harare have largely been erratic
with the eastern suburbs of Mabvuku, Tafara, Msasa Park and Greendale being
the worst affected. Although officials, known to fault everyone else except
themselves, blame the inconsistent water supplies on thinning foreign
currency inflows, there is no denying that the situation could have been
better had they sought alternative water supplies. Plans to
construct Kunzvi Dam as an alternative water source to the heavily polluted
Lake Chivero are stuck in red tape four years after the idea was
mooted. Analysts said while the sorry state of affairs was no different
from that obtaining in other municipalities, it is the accelerated rate of
decay that is alarming even those that had been benefiting from the
decadence. Gabriel Chaibva, the former Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) shadow minister for local government, believes Local Government
Minister Ignatius Chombo got it wrong when he used trumped up charges to
dismiss sitting mayor Elias Mudzuri, who had secured the position on an MDC
ticket. Mudzuri had replaced the ruling ZANU PF's Solomon Tavengwa, who
was sacked in 1991, alongside the entire council on allegations of
corruption and mismanagement. In between Mudzuri and Tavengwa's terms, a
commission headed by Elijah Chanakira had run the city. Mudzuri,
however, became a victim of political interference, leading to his
suspension and later sacking from council in September 2003 for alleged
mismanagement, flouting of tender procedures and anti-government political
activity. Prior to his sacking Mudzuri, who denied the charges, also had his
powers curtailed after the government appointed governors to oversee the
running of two MDC-led councils - Harare and Bulawayo. Another
commission, led by political turncoat Sekesai Makwavarara, formerly of the
MDC before crossing the floor to join ZANU PF, is currently running
Harare. Makwavarara's team has since mulled unbundling the current city
structures into strategic business units namely Harare Water and Sanitation,
Harare Roads and Street Lighting, Harare Waste Management, Communication,
Harare Public Transport and Administration and Finance in a desperate bid to
improve efficiency and service delivery. The unbundling could
remain on paper as the commission, which has since been restructured with
the appointment of two more deputy chairpersons, is racing against time
given that its mandate is due to expire on June 9. Chaibva said
there was clear contempt of the people's right to choose their own leaders,
all with the aim of keeping a stranglehold on the city. "The primary
motivating factor is not to do with the politics, but the cash that comes
with controlling the council's affairs. Mudzuri should be reinstated
unconditionally or the government should call for fresh elections to choose
a democratically elected mayor who will be accountable to the people," said
the former MDC legislator. Analysts said Harare has found itself in its
current position owing to political interference by the local government
ministry and populist policies, where council has been forced to charge
uneconomic tariffs. It is only now that the Makwavarara-led commission
has been allowed to raise rates, tariffs and supplementary charges by
between 60 and 2000 percent with effect from July, a decision that is being
resisted by the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA).
"Council has been reported bankrupt on two occasions over the period
Makwavarara has been acting mayor because residents have been refusing to
recognise her, thereby holding back payment of rates, council's main source
of revenue," a local weekly quoted a CHRA official saying.
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe
is heading for an economic catastrophe and only divine wisdom among its
leaders can save the country from total collapse, a leading businessman
says.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Luxon Zembe
said if the leaders persisted with their current policies, the little gains
that the country had so far achieved in its turnaround programme would be
wiped out and the country would head for a real collapse.
Bulawayo-based business consultant Eric Bloch, one of the 60 or so advisers
to central bank governor Gideon Gono, said things are likely to get worse if
the government continues with its current policies that are undermining all
the gains made by the central bank. "Gono is trying to keep the ship
afloat but the government is drilling holes in that ship," he said.
The country was heading for collapse in 2003 when it was rescued by the
central bank which introduced tight monetary policies that saw inflation
decline from over 600 percent to just over 120 percent. Fuel
suppliers almost returned to normal. Commodities that had disappeared from
supermarket shelves and were only available on the black market were back.
Even the black market in foreign currency disappeared - at least during the
first quarter of last year. But all this has been reversed.
Bloch said the economy was collapsing because the government was not
prepared to modify its policies to match the monetary policy of the central
bank. "As long as we continue to pursue policies that alienate
investment, both local and international, there is no possibility of a
turnaround," Bloch said. He attributed the present stalemate to
three key issues - the collapse of agriculture, the negative image of the
country and government's constant intervention in prices.
"Agriculture is the foundation of the economy but there had been near total
collapse of agriculture with current output now 35-40 percent of what it was
in 2000," Bloch said. The government has accused the international
community of punishing the country for its agrarian reform programme which
saw white farmers lose their land to new settlers. Zembe said the
government had pumped a lot of resources into agriculture last year but at
the wrong time because the country had been hit by a drought. "We
had been warned about the pending drought by the SADC early warning unit but
we ignored the warning, and now we have been hit hard," he said. He
said the problems the country was currently facing were all linked to supply
and demand. The country was not generating enough foreign currency because
the exchange rate was not competitive. "As long as the gap between the
official rate and the parallel market rate remains wide, there is no way
people will offload their money onto the formal market," Zembe said. "That
is a natural phenomenon. People with money will capitalise on that gap
because the benefit is worth the risk." Zembe said there was also too
much reliance for foreign currency on the central bank. It could not
accommodate everyone. "We need to open up relations with the
international community," he said. "Let's not be arrogant about that. Yes,
China has come in but we need more friends and not just one. We need money
to come in through credit lines so that we can relieve pressure on the RBZ
(Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe)." Bloch said it would be difficult for
Zimbabwe to attract any foreign currency apart from humanitarian aid as long
as it continued to project the wrong image. Even tourism, which was about to
surpass tobacco as the country's major foreign exchange earner before the
present crisis, would not improve because Zimbabwe continued to be perceived
as a country with a totalitarian and dictatorial government which had no
respect for the rule of law. On price controls, Zembe said this was
a war the government would never win. It had been tried before and had
failed dismally. He said with unemployment at around 70 percent and the
current drought, people were finding survival strategies. "We have
created a breed of speculators who are relying on shortages. Price controls
will therefore not solve anything. In fact they can create a political
crisis if the government continues to harass those trading on the black
market without creating jobs for them. We have to create jobs and we can
only do that by creating a vibrant and dynamic economy," Zembe said. He
said government was also not paying enough attention to the productive
sector. Rentals, for example, had gone up by over 1 000 percent over the
past year, rates had gone up by over 500 percent, wages by an average of 300
percent and there is pressure to increase electricity by between 150 and 400
percent. "The government cannot therefore insist on price controls
because pricing depends on how much you get your inputs for," Zembe
said. Bloch said most of the current shortages, such as those of fuel
and sugar, were due to the government's price controls. He said fuel
companies were currently selling it at less than the landed cost and the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, which gets the bulk of the foreign
currency allocation for fuel, was incurring huge losses. He said for fuel
companies to be viable they had to sell the commodity for not less than $7
500 a litre. The government's pricing policy is also full of
contradictions. Observers said this will not solve the current problems but
will worsen the situation. The government, for example, recently
increased the producer price of maize to over $2.2 million a tonne but said
the Grain Marketing Board's (GMB's) selling price to millers would remain at
$600 000 a tonne. Its Macro-Economic Policy Framework for 2005-2006,
released in November last year, clearly states that: "To strengthen the
capacity of the GMB to support farmers, both at the production and marketing
stage, government will ensure that GMB selling prices take account of its
purchasing price as well as its handling costs. "Failure to do this
in the past has left the GMB facing accumulated losses and debts, estimated
at $147.79 billion and $155.5 billion, respectively, in 2003." One
observer noted that this skewed policy opened doors for corruption.
"Under such circumstances," the observer, a former staunch supporter of the
ruling ZANU-PF, said, "a miller makes more money by buying maize from the
GMB, repackaging it and selling it back to the GMB than milling it."
This might appear far-fetched but it happened during the 2002 drought and is
already happening with fuel where taxi and commuter operators are making
more money from selling fuel on the black market than transporting
people.
DO you know any human beings? No, really. Do you? This question
is especially relevant today when Zimbabwe is abuzz with such phrases as
"human rights" and "human dignity".
It leads me to ask the
question: should we be demanding "human rights" when we are not living,
behaving and acting like human beings? A true human being is one who
does not inflict harm on other human beings unless they pose an imminent and
mortal danger to him. A true human being is one who recognises that being
human is not a matter of what you look like but how you behave. A true human
being recognises that humans are not a race, but a society.
Consequently, a human being knows that for any society to function, all its
members must pull their weight. A human being also knows that for humans to
be humans, they should respect the ideals that separate us from wild beasts
and domesticated animals. More importantly for Zimbabwe, though, a
human being knows that the "each man for himself" dictat is alien to human
society. This dictat is a fundamental betrayal of what it is to be human.
What happens to protecting the economically, socially and physically
weak? So then, when Zimbabweans walk by as a human being is screaming
for help while under attack from thugs, when they seek to ensure their own
comfort at the expense of the comfort of other humans, when they only seek
to understand "what is in it for me" when called upon to improve the lot of
their fellow Zimbabweans, are they still human? Bankers,
businessmen, politicians and speculators from either side of the political
divide have all displayed a frightening contempt for that which makes us
human. There is blatant theft of money entrusted to bankers, there is
shameless collection of revenue by authorities without putting the revenue
to the use it is intended. There are abitrary increases in prices of goods
and services when being human calls for the need to cut margins to make life
meaningful for fellow humans. There is greed, murder. intransigence,
speculation that has rendered innocent Zimbabweans homeless and foodless.
There is rape of toddlers. There is also corrupution that has directly
impoverished Zimbabweans from all walks of life. Efforts to turn things
around by such dedicated human beings as Dr Gideon Gono are nakedly
assaulted by inhuman beings who want to pursue bumper harvests where they
did not sow. All these are driven, not by the need for self-preservation,
which is human, but by a need to "beat the system", which, in effect, means
beating other human beings, ensuring that they stay down so that you can
rise. I put it to you therefore, that Zimbabweans, by their actions and
their mentality, have demonstrated that they are not human. By failing to
live out the essence of being human, they have also given up their right to
be treated as human beings. Just as a criminal can not demand the right to
be free, so those who betray what it is to be human should not be mounting
the pulpit to demand human rights. For, indeed, if these rights are
god-given, so are the responsibilities that come with the rights. Chief
among these responsibilities is the responsibility to be human. To act and
think human. To be, in other words, humane. Emotional cruelty, financial
cruelty and moral cruelty should automatically disqualify a person from
being considered a human being. Then there is the reponsibility to
other humans. To be human, one needs to be conscious of the impact their
actions will have on other people. If the impact is lkely to be negative,
being human means doing everything possible to mitigate against that
suffering, even if it means changing one's plans. But, in Zimbabwe, it is
now a case of "I'm alright Jack" and everyone else can go and fry at the end
of Satan's pitchfork. Instead of measuring their own worth as a human
being against their own goals and aspirations, Zimbabweans are more likely
to measure their worth against the suffering of other Zimbabweans. Their
success will not satisfy them unless they can see someone worse off than
they are. If the whole nation is worse off than them, then that would
be even better. It is the reason we have the most rabid and unconscionable
speculators on the whole of the African continent and perhaps even beyond.
These are people willing to reduce a country to ashes as long as they are
OK. They are quite willing to enrich themselves while impoverishing the
nation. It is not a year yet since there was a correction on the
housing market, with rentals and house prices being realistic. We all
remember the laughable situation we had back then when landlords and home
sellers, in a huff, let it be known that they would "withdraw" their
properties from the market. My way or the highway. And the rest of the
country can go and jump. That was the essence of their inhuman and laughable
stance. They soon realised their folly however and the country plodded on.
Yet this example is a stark illustration of the moral bankruptcy that
afflicts most of our people. I was surprised the other day to hear
a man selling firewood telling me that the price of firewood had gone up
ten-fold. Naturally, I asked why. The answer? Foreign currency. I kid you
not. He told me in Shona, "Ha-a, mudhara, forex irikunetsa". This
"each man for himself" mentality is also responsible for the state that this
country is in today. Zimbabwe is no longer a society. Where we previously
had teamwork, now individuality rules. Where we previously watched each
other's backs, we now happily the plunge knives into each others backs.
Zimbabweans can not even come together to support efforts to revive the
economy. Some are afraid that if the economy starts working as it should,
all their avenues of amassing wealth overnight will evaporate. I am for
human rights. I am also very firmly for human responsibilities. Which is why
I feel that, until Zimbabweans start behaving like human beings. Until
Zimbabweans start respecting the dignity of fellow Zimbabweans in their day
to day lives, then they do not deserve to be called human. Which also means
that we can not even begin to talk about human rights until there is
evidence of human life in Zimbabwe.
AT the risk of being dismissed as
being too impatient, we find ourselves with no choice but to repeat some of
the sentiments expressed in our editorial comment of December 2,
2004.
These were that the economic blizzard makes the Finance
Minister Dr Herbert Murerwa identify more with Robert Browning's The Lost
Leader because this period seems more and more like "never glad confident
morning again". What else can we say given the minister's deafening
silence against a backcloth of a sickly economy that has, for want of a
better expression, collapsed into a recessionary heap. There is no escaping
the unpleasant truth that the economic crisis is deepening. Admittedly the
previously galloping inflation has to some extent been tamed although
inflationary pressures are intensifying. But the lengthy depressing economic
crisis continues unabated. Industrial production, which was by and large
static, is now falling; joblessness is on the increase, not to mention the
acute shortage of food and fuel. While it is said that silence is
golden, sometimes it can simply be yellow especially against a background of
such prolonged negative growth and suffering of the people. It was therefore
high time the honourable minister made a statement that makes clear how
government hopes to achieve the all-elusive long-run growth of output and
income - the ultimate goal of macroeconomic policy. Indeed
industry, commerce and the generality of the country's citizens who have
suffered under the initially slow-motion but now accelerating collapse of
the economy want to know how the government plans to soothe the economy's
running sore to achieve the highest possible levels of productivity, real
incomes and living standards. What boggles the mind though is that
despite growing concerns over the state of the erstwhile reassuringly
resilient economy and the urgency of the matter, the minister seems to be in
no hurry to deal with the depressing situation or at least to say something
about the way forward. Yet even the government itself has since admitted
that the economic decline has reached alarming levels and therefore needs to
be arrested. Apart from being puzzling and curious, the minister's
silence has done very little, if anything, to assuage the general perception
that the economic outlook remains very much uncertain and that he does not
have what it takes to turn around the economy. As we have often
said, a lot is said by the unsaid. The minister's silence therefore seems to
suggest a couple of disturbing facts. It is either that Dr Murerwa, under
whose stewardship of the Ministry of Finance, Zimbabwe has experienced the
costly stop-go implementation of economic reforms that have seen the economy
on the road to nowhere other than to rack and ruin, does not have the ideas
and surgical skills so badly needed to put a fresh heart into the enfeebled
economy. Or if he has workable solutions to the country's economic
woes, to give him the benefit of the doubt, then they have remained nothing
but paper reforms because rigid influence-peddling ruling ZANU PF
politicians who object to ideas only when other people have them are at
their usual game again - preventing the minister from vigorously acting upon
what he fervently believes in. These politicians have always come out with
some ritualistic nonsense about "the need for consultative meetings on how
to reverse the flagging fortunes of the economy" when it is clear that those
meetings are nothing but expensive and meaningless talk-shows. It is no less
foolish than discussing fire prevention when a house is already engulfed in
a ball of fire. The politicians, for whom everything should be done
for political expediency and bloated self-interests, could be blocking him
from implementing belt-tightening economic reform measures for fear of some
imagined political backlash. It goes without saying that the devil in the
economic austerity measures is usually in the implementation process mainly
because of the hardships and deprivations they would inevitably spawn in the
short-term. But we feel that this should be the least of the
politicians' concerns because any tough choices made, especially austerity
measures as being advocated for here - are bound to spark off criticism. It
will come thick and fast. That is however neither here nor there because as
we have said before, any criticism that comes largely as a result of an
unwavering desire to achieve greater good should be a leader's litmus test
for maturity, conviction and commitment to his vision. But if the
reasons for Murerwa's failure or reluctance to act on the economy have
nothing to do with him but with frustrations resulting from interference by
leading hawks in the party, then the best way to protest this is to throw in
the towel. Unless it is true that supping with ZANU PF is like riding on the
back of a lion which will devour you immediately after you alight, which we
find hard to believe.
Zimbos are a
blessed lot. A really blessed lot because God and the gods gave them a
leadership that is not only wise but exceedingly caring as
well.
Whatever they want - whatever it is - the government is
there to do it or give it to them. Anything . . . because this government is
so passionate about its role as the provider of first resort. And
only this week this good government of ours said, through the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority, that it is henceforth taking over the supply of
water to the capital city. What a relief to opposition supporters in the
capital who have endured swinging water shortages for close to a decade
now! This is just but one of the many things that we should be grateful
to our government for. The same government is providing its people with
almost anything they would want for next to nothing. Yes, our
government, because it cares a lot, is willing to buy maize from farmers at
this price and then sell it to millers at half that price. It spends
sleepless nights worrying about where the next fuel consignment will come
from, only to give it away at sub-economic prices. It struggles to import
electric power with the little foreign currency it has, only to re-sell that
power for next to nothing, simply because it is so caring. The
government does almost anything - provides near-free transport through the
National Railways of Zimbabwe, Zhupco (and shortly Air Zhimbabwe), it
provides near-free "loans" to perennially new farmers, it is involved in
mining, farming, construction, banking . . . anything! It is also in
the business of controlling news for its beloved people through Zimpapers
and the so-called Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings. From the look of
things, very soon we will start seeing it doing much more. Remember it
recently indicated that it could soon be making bread for us through the
Grain Marketing Board. You never know. Very soon our government could
even get itself into the business of making babies! Ours is a
typically interventionist government - it is always trying to over-extend
itself into almost anything in its heady quest to endear itself to the
people. You all know governments that have some communist backgrounds!
They cannot bear seeing any person other than themselves doing anything that
might be beneficial to the people . . . they want all credit to
themselves. The world over, the trend is to focus on "core business",
and that means dropping one or two extra duties that distract one from
focusing on what is most expected of them. But in the case of our
government, its "core business" is to do everything - even those things it
is clearly ill-qualified to do. In an ideal set-up, the core
business of the state is protecting life, liberty and property.
Period! Then it should provide an environment where it is possible for
citizens to have the maximum freedom compatible with the rights of others,
as well as exercising a commensurately wide range of responsibilities for
the betterment of their lives and social progress. We know
governments should provide security, education and health services to their
people.But when a government makes it its business to run a whole fleet on
buses the way ours does, then something is terribly out of kilter!
Instead of making available conditions conducive to job creation, our
government thinks it is its business to create jobs itself. How can a
government seriously want to be the largest investor in the country . . .
and at the same time expect to facilitate local and foreign
investment? Surely, how can a serious investor be keen to invest in a
country where the government is not a mere referee, but an active competitor
in the same ball game? Investors naturally feel crowded out because
there in no way a serious business can thrive in an environment in which the
government deliberately distorts everything for its own political
expediency. Price controls, false exchange rate, subsidies, etc,
etc. While in theory the government has embarked on a privatisation
path, in reality the same government has added more businesses to its
portfolio and is not showing any signs of divesting anytime from those areas
it clearly cannot perform. Surely, is it government business to sell
stationery and own music labels? This is the problem of a
government which does not have a clear vision about what it seeks to
achieve. A government which focuses its energies on its core functions
is more likely to perform those functions much better than one that is
always busy over-extending itself. Our government is not performing because
of over-extension. What triggers this interventionist behaviour is
a siege mentality, and it is not surprising that citizens have had to be
made to forego some few of their rights and freedoms because someone in this
government thinks a jackboot can bring about perfection in human beings. The
freedom to sell my maize to whosoever I want, the freedom to associate with
whosoever I please, the freedom to sell my forex to the highest bidder, the
freedom, free will and ability to imagine, reason and create. It,
however, should be noted that man is not, and will never be, perfect, but he
would rather be free and imperfect than have his freedom sacrificed so that
he can be made to pretend he is perfect. In real fact, neither men nor
society need to be perfect. It is the right of the state to protect my
rights and freedoms from invasion by others, just as I must be prevented
from violating other people's rights. But what about when the state makes it
its right to violate my rights?
Movie
WE are made
to believe that sometime in December we will have in our movie houses a
movie on former Namibian president Sam Nujoma . . . a movie called Where
Others Wavered. CZ cannot wait until 2008 when - God and the gods
willing - we might have a blockbuster movie on the life of the Great Uncle.
We can call it anything - Never, Ever, or Never a Colony Again! And
what is this that we hear that our newly acquired planes are going to be
reconfigured so that they can carry a lot more passengers . . . like our
freedom trains? This is CZ's Notebook. Extra care!
TO raise or
not to raise interest rates: that is not even the question. The question,
though, is how much more rumour over the size of the rate hike the market
can take.
There is a lot of bet taking, with every other punter
sure that their information is "more inside" than everybody else's. Many got
it wrong in December 2003, when the central bank shut the door on cheap
lending to banks, resulting in a sharp rise in interest rates, a lot of
burnt fingers and many bruised egos. However, this time, the market
reckons it has it all figured out. Take, for instance, one banker The
Financial Gazette spoke to this week. According to him, the tone of Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) boss Gideon Gono's April 15 statements to bankers was
telling. There was simply too much non-productive money being made on
the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) and some knuckles had to be rapped, Gono
is said to have warned. Of course, according the banker,
confirmation that a big rate hike was on the way could hardly have come any
clearer than this. The rumour sparked a huge stock market sell-off, wiping
17 percent off ZSE investors' wealth inside four days. But a recent
commentary by Kingdom Stockbrokers took a more defiant tone on the rumour,
doubting there could be a rise big enough to sink the stock market.
"Crushing the equity market using interest rates basically implies the
re-establishment of positive real interest rates. If this is not done, there
is no way the governor can successfully crush the equity market as arbitrage
opportunities will continue, with investors borrowing cheaply on the money
market to finance their speculative activities," Kingdom argued.
But just as investors are known yellow-bellies that hide at the slightest
tinge of danger, they also behave like cows; just one cow decides to get up
out of the shade and get back to the grazing, and the rest follow. So,
having sold their heads off on rate hike rumours, when one brokerage
reminded investors that Zimbabwe has not known real interest rates for five
years - and that this was unlikely to happen any time soon - investors
trooped back in, chasing after the very same stocks they had initially sold,
at times at dirt cheap prices. Forecasts gathered by The Financial
Gazette on the rate hike over the past three weeks cross a wide range. Last
week, one economist had heard of a 45 percentage point rise in the
accommodation rate - the central bank's key policy rate - to 140 percent.
This rise, he said, would see minimum lending rates turning higher to
between 155 and 160 percent. "That's the minimum level that is needed to
give real returns and to start fighting speculative borrowing." But
other rumour-mongers have better information. There is talk, obviously from
people who had "people inside" last week's ZANU PF politburo meeting, that
the government opposes a large rate rise. Zimbabwe needs some $5 trillion to
import grain and, for lack of foreign friends, the government has to borrow
locally to raise that cash. It won't want to borrow at anything over 100
percent and dig itself deeper into debt, this quarter says. So, at
least according to this rumour, no rate hike is coming. But if at all it
comes, they say, it will not be broad enough to eclipse the ZSE. "There
is a strong, but dangerous, belief that if a hike does come, it will not be
significant," cautioned leading analyst Nyasha Chasakara last week.
There are also rumour-mongers that "know" of increases on a string of fees,
duties and taxes. The increases are supposedly designed to make it more
expensive to trade on the ZSE, driving investors to the money market.
Then come rumours, obviously from people with green notes stashed under the
mattress, that there will be a massive devaluation. But, according to more
informed people, the ZANU PF politburo will hear none of it.