Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
THE Ziscosteel
scandal, which involves looting of public
resources by politicians and top
management of the company, deepened this
week as it became evident that a
number of ministers were involved.
Information gleaned from
various sources shows that
Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Samuel
Mumbengegwi, Science and
Technology minister Olivia Muchena and
Small-to-Medium Enterprises
Development minister Sithembiso Nyoni, among
others, had allowances and air
tickets paid for them by Zisco while on
missions that had nothing to do with
the parastatal.
Sources said Higher Education minister Stan Mudenge and the late
Zanu PF MP
Gibson Munyoro were hosted by Zisco subsidiaries in Botswana
under unclear
circumstances. Former Zanu PF MP Tirivanhu Mudariki is said to
have also
benefited through hotel bookings done for him using public
resources. No
comment could be obtained from the ministers.
However, a
letter obtained from Zisco shows Mumbengegwi - who
was at the time Industry
and International Trade minister in charge of
Zisco - was paid by the
state-owned steel giant's Botswana subsidiary a US$3
000 "allowance" while
he was attending a Sadc meeting in Gaborone on July 17
2003.
The letter, dated July 17 2002 and written by Zisco
finance
executive Ben Manyunyire to Tswana Iron & Steel MD James
Chininga, says:
"Please kindly make available to them (Mumbengegwi and his
team) US$3 000 or
equivalent in Botswana Pula and invoice Zisco through the
inter-company
balances."
Mumbengegwi was travelling with
a Ms FA Makombe and a Mrs
Nyagweta for a Sadc meeting from July 22-28. Prior
to that, two other
officials from Mumbengegwi's ministry, a Mr V Vengesa and
a J Chigwedere,
had on August 15 2002 been paid US$932 as "subsistence
allowances" while
visiting Ramotswa/Tswana. Ex-Zisco MD Gabriel Masanga
authorised the
payments.
Sources said that Zisco
subsidiaries also paid Botswana Pula 3
152, 80 for Mumbengegwi's hotel
bookings at Cresta Lodge on May 8 2004 on an
unexplained visit to that
country. He stayed in room number 9007 and his
invoice number was
76176.
More than P150 000 was spent on hotel bookings for top
government officials and Zisco managers, especially at the five-star Grand
Palm Hotel Casino & Convention Resort in Gaborone where they spent
public
funds on food and drink at the Kalahari Bar, often over
weekends.
Muchena, Nyoni and Mudariki had air tickets bought
for them by
Zisco's sister companies via Koy Tours and Travel on June 17
2004 for
dubious trips between Harare, Johannesburg and Gaborone. P16 625
was paid
for their tickets. Muchena's ticket was for the
Harare-Johannesburg-Gaborone-Johannesburg-Harare trip and its invoice number
was 764.
Nyoni and Mudariki's tickets had the same
details. Another
ticket was bought for Mudariki on May 24 2003. Altogether
P92 924,40 was
paid for the air tickets, including those of Zisco directors
who would
choose to meet in Gaborone even if they were all from
Zimbabwe.
Zisco directors were being paid up to P90 000 per
head annually
as sitting fees.
Sources said the
three-member NECI team which went to Botswana
was told that Mudenge and
Munyoro were also hosted there. The team got its
information from Chininga,
business manager Shelton Chivhere and accountants
William Oddoye and Benson
Mburu. Details on payments were not obtained.
Sources say
NECI was told there were several other ministers and
MPs involved in the
Zisco scandal, which government is trying to suppress
despite its
anti-corruption posture.
Zisco was heavily prejudiced through
the sale of steel billets
as scrap metal and manipulation of supply
contracts. The plunder was said to
have been rampant in all Zisco entities
in Redcliff, South Africa, Botswana,
Namibia and Zambia.
NECI has since recommended the prosecution of senior Zisco
managers,
including Masanga and marketing executive Rodwell Makuni, who were
central
to the issues. Government is said to be in possession of a lengthy
Zisco
document reacting to the scandal which authorities want to give
prominence
to.
Sources said there were many questionable payments that
Zisco
made to South African companies, including Ramotswa's controversial
R1,6
million payment to Macsteel in 2004 for "technical services". Zisco
also
paid Chartwell Capital Group more than R470 000 to restructure its
balance
sheet and debt profile.
Exchange control
regulations were said to have been breached on
occasion.
Between September 2001 and June last year Ramotswa paid the
Minerals
Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) US$5 million. It also paid
R6,4
million. Its total purchases from MMCZ between January 10 2003 and
September
30 2005 were US$7,3 million, as well as R45,6 million.
"The
problem with these payments is that necessary
reconciliations of Zisco/MMCZ
accounts were not being done for the company
to tie specific invoices to the
payments done for exports from Zimbabwe," a
source said.
"As a result as at June 31 2005 R39 218 444,43 and US$2 269
483,71 were
still outstanding in terms of un-acquitted DC1 forms. Chivhere
told NECI
that efforts were being made to pay but Zisco owed a lot of money
to its
subsidiaries who want a debt offset arrangement."
There were
a lot of other questionable payments made covering
airfares, hotel bookings,
purchases of goods, forex, PR and donations,
allowances, fees for directors,
management expenses and entertainment.
Ramotswa bought forex
from company officials despite having US
dollars and South African rand
foreign bank accounts. In 2003, for example,
it bought R43 992, US$10 548
and P87 575,13 from Chininga, business manager
Shelton Chivhere, Zisco
company secretary Teddy Mapenzauswa and board member
George Chikumbirike.
Chininga and Chivhere were singled out by NECI as
having been involved in a
"lot of financial abuse".
Last year Ramotswa again bought R24
866, US$3 595, P43 274,45
from company officials in violation of exchange
control regulations.
Suspicious donations gobbled P60 000, while P20 000 was
spent on goods for
Chivhere and others.
Entertainment
allowances took about P50 000 but NECI established
some were fake. For
instance, it found out that on May 8 2003 P300 was paid
to "NECI officials"
when in fact no one from the team was in Botswana at the
time.
"The question that quickly comes to mind is how
many such
payments were made to faceless people in the name of
entertainment," a
source said. "The evidence of massive corruption at Zisco
is overwhelming
and senior government officials were involved. Trying to
cover this up won't
work."
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
THE corruption
trial in which deputy Information minister Bright
Matonga is being jointly
charged with jailed former Zupco chairman Charles
Nherera opens on Monday
amid revelations that the state has accumulated
substantial evidence
including a taped conversation in which Matonga, who
was then Zupco CEO,
allegedly asked for a bribe.
Sources said the state intends
to produce three separate
transcripts of telephone conversations in which
Matonga is said to have
asked for a kickback from Jayesh Shah, whose
company, Gift Investments,
wanted to supply buses to Zupco without going
through tender procedures.
This comes amid information that
police have also launched a
probe into the alleged unprocedural conduct of
Shah in the importation of
buses four years ago.
Police
sources this week said senior officers in the Fraud Squad
who were handling
the investigations had been curiously transferred from
Harare and taken off
the case. One of the officers has been transferred to
Mutare. The police
investigating Shah were focusing on possible flouting of
customs procedures
in the importation of the buses.
The sources however said the
investigations were "not
progressing well" because of the immunity from
prosecution granted to Shah
by the Attorney-General's office. Shah was the
star state witness in Nherera's
first corruption case and is also key in the
prosecution of the second case
in which Matonga is the co-accused. Nherera
was three months ago jailed for
two years after being convicted of
soliciting US$85 000 from Shah.
The transcript to hand should
be used by the state as part of
its evidence in chief against Matonga, who
stands accused of corruption in
the purchase of buses from Shah. The state
will contend that Nherara and
Matonga asked Shah to pay them kickbacks
amounting to US$20 000 from Shah
before they agreed to buy his
buses.
The transcripts show that Matonga and Nherera wanted
Shah to pay
them so that they would not terminate his lease to a property he
was renting
from Zupco. The two also allegedly wanted bribes to extend
Shah's lease to
five years. In one of the three transcripts that are in the
possession of
this paper, Matonga tells Shah he wanted "20" but it is not
clear whether he
meant millions in the local currency or thousands in United
states dollars.
"I will have 20 and the other," said Matonga
to Shah. Shah
replied that saying $20 million was too much for
him.
"No, it is not. How much can you spare then?" asked
Matonga.
Matonga also promised to "arrange" that Shah be the main supplier
of spares
of Zupco if he gives him the money. Later Matonga then demands to
know when
he was going to get his money saying: "When am I going to get my
20M?"
In the second recording Matonga is heard negotiating
with Shah
for the payment terms to be been
made by putting a
mark up on the buses.
"At quarter past 8, quarter past.the
thing ready. 3500 (US) or
something, 20 million, 5,5,5.5," said
Shah.
Matonga replied saying, ".make 5.Yes, 5000." Then Shah
said:
"Let us just.yours is 20 million.20 million. .I think I will (sic) the
full
guarantee.push," said Shah.
Shah then said Matonga
should come to collect the money the next
morning.
In the
third transcript that the state will produce Matonga
allegedly tells Nherera
what they would get from Shah if they give him the
lease for the property he
was renting from Zupco.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
SENIOR
politicians are making clandestine efforts to buy
publicly-owned Zisco's
Botswana subsidiaries, Ramotswa/Tswana Steel & Iron
Co (Pvt) Ltd in a
shady US$3 million deal.
The move comes at a time when Zisco
is embroiled in a major
corruption scandal that has drawn in ministers and
top managers of the
company. Government is trying to keep a lid on the
boiling pot.
Sources said top politicians working with
Ramotswa/Tswana MD
James Chininga and his business manager Shelton Chivhere
were trying to
acquire the companies that have proved to be critical to
Zisco' operations.
The two subsidiaries are owed money by Zisco and have
made a lot of payments
on behalf of their parent company.
It is said National Economic Conduct Inspectorate (NECI)
investigators who
went to Botswana to investigate the Zisco corruption
discovered plans were
already underway to sell the two subsidiaries for US$3
million by repaying
their parent firm funds that were used to purchase them
in
2001.
Zisco was said to have overpaid by more than US$500 000
to
purchase Ramotswa. It was suspected to have been a way of transferring
money
to Botswana on the pretext of acquiring the company by Zisco
officials.
Chininga and Chivhere told NECI that it was their
initiative but
did not say why they thought it was necessary to take it.
Sources said
politicians were behind the move.
A letter
written by Chininga to former Zisco MD Gabriel Masanga
on June 13 last year
confirms plans to prise the Botswana subsidiaries from
their parent
company.
"We hereby confirm that we have paid Ziscosteel
US$62 500 being
loan repayment towards the US$3 million used on the
acquisition of
Tswana/Ramotswa Steel & Iron companies," Chininga
said.
"We envisage that, depending on raw material
availability, these
payments will continue on a monthly basis until the loan
is retired."
Sources said government would lose the two
steel-making
companies, located 30km outside Gaborone, which are actually
viable.
Ramotswa was involved in the payment of R1,7 million to South
Africa's
Macsteel in 2004.
"Chininga and Chivhere claim
it's their own initiative but one
wonders what is the ulterior motive for
this kind of decision," the sources
said. "Who is behind this? We hear there
are senior politicians
behind-the-scenes."
Zisco, the
largest public enterprise and only integrated
steelworks north of the
Limpopo, is registered as a private company which is
owned 91% by the
government. The other 9% is owned by six different
shareholders.
Its group of companies include Zisco
Distribution Centre which
sells its products, Lancashire Steel, that
produces items like brick force,
gates and galvanised wire, Zisco Mines
dealing in iron ore, Ramotswa/Tswana
Steel which manufactures steel products
and the Ziscosteel Agricultural
Manufacturing company that makes ox-drawn
ploughs, scotchcarts and hoes.
The steel giant also has
subsidiaries in South Africa, Namibia
and Zambia. Zisco owns these entities
100%.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
ZISCOSTEEL has
surrendered its mining concessions to KFW of
Germany after failing to repay
a US$17,6 million loan advanced for the
construction of its steel
plant.
This follows KFW's successful claim against Zisco at
the
International Court of Justice. Zisco finance executive Ben Manyunyire
told
the Foreign Affairs, Industry and International Trade Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee in August that the company was planning to give the
Germans mining concessions around Kwekwe after it lost the
case.
"On the externals (external debt), the major creditors
are KFW
of Germany which is almost their central bank which financed the
construction of the steel plant. We owe them $17,6 million through
Forestal," Manyunyire said.
"They have since taken us to
the International Court of Justice.
Discussions have been going on with the
Attorney-General's office and the
Ministry of Finance and Ministry of
Industry but they went ahead and as of
last week a default judgement had
been issued in their favour with which
they can proceed to attach
property."
Manyunyire said Zisco had to look for alternative
ways to ensure
that the Germans recovered their money.
"We tried to give them some mining concessions so that they can
recover
(their loan)," he said. "Whether that option is open, we are not
aware but
that includes gold mines around Kwekwe."
Other than the
Germans, Manyunyire said Zisco also owed the
Chinese for the construction of
blast furnace number four.
"In terms of China, there is the
China Exim Bank which is being
guaranteed by Sinosure Insurance Company," he
said.
"We owe US$4,71 million for the number four blast
furnace but
these ones we have been carrying on. By early this year, they
had come out
with a turnaround programme which was a short-term one to do
our mills
section for value addition so that we could quickly recover and
try to pay
them back. It is an amount of US$5,5 million. It was very modest.
We had
actually said US$300 000. We had paid them US$953 000 so that they
could do
number three furnace."
Manyunyire said locally
Zisco owed the National Railways of
Zimbabwe, Hwange and Zesa money on an
inter-parastatal arrangement.
"We owe NRZ $88 million and $10
million for Zesa but we can
supply these figures," he
said.
During the same tour Ziscosteel workers told the
portfolio
committee that they were exposed to poor working conditions
without basic
protective clothing.
"Management will tell
you to prioritise and they say we cannot
give you all safety clothing," one
worker identified as Mumbi said. "When
they say prioritise, they will be
saying clothe others and leave others. It
is now about five years. People
should be given respirators. If you look at
our shoes, they are torn and we
are told that there is no money."
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe's delinquent land reform programme has
started to eat into
government's thin foreign currency reserves as the
International Centre for
the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is
demanding US$150 000
advance payment for costs anticipated in a case
involving evicted Dutch
farmers.
In a letter to government, the ICSID said the
tribunal estimated
costs to be incurred during the arbitration due in the
next three months at
US$150 000.
"We have estimated,
after consultations with the president of
the tribunal, that an amount of
US$150 000 will be required to meet costs to
be incurred in the proceedings
during the next three to six months,
including costs related to the first
session of the tribunal," reads the
ICSID letter dated November 2, addressed
to the Ministry of Finance and
Virginia Mabiza, the acting director of the
Civil Division in the
Attorney-General's office.
"ICSID
Administrative and Financial Regulations 14 provides for
the periodic
advance payments to be made to the centre by parties to the
ICSID
arbitration proceedings in order to enable the centre to meet the
costs of
such proceedings, including the fees and expenses of arbitrators,"
the
letter says.
The letter was also copied to Simbi Veke Mubako,
the former
Zimbabwean Ambassador to the United States.
Mubako has since left the diplomatic service and is currently
dean of the
Law Faculty at the Midlands State University.
If Zimbabwe
loses the case it will be expected to pay in excess
of US$15 million as
compensation for improvements, land (title deed value)
and expropriated
moveable assets. The claim is currently accruing interest
backdated to the
time land was expropriated.
Zimbabwe was last year taken to
the international court by Dutch
farmers for deliberately violating
Bilateral Investment Promotion and
Protection Agreements (Bippas) signed
between the governments when it
embarked on its emotive land reform
programme.
Zim Independent
A BULAWAYO High Court judge has passed a default
judgement
against leader of the fractured Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), Morgan
Tsvangirai, in a case where he was being sued for a total of
$80 million by
four members of a rival group in the party over defamation
allegations.
The default judgement was passed two weeks ago
after Tsvangirai
failed to file opposing papers in the suit filed by his
former colleagues in
the united MDC last year.
High Court
judge, Justice Maphios Cheda, granted the default
judgement to Welshman
Ncube, Gibson Sibanda, Fletcher Dulini Ncube and Paul
Themba
Nyathi.
Each of the applicants is demanding $20 million from
Tsvangirai
in defamation charges.
Tsvangirai was taken to
court by the four following the
publication of a story in the Star, a South
African newspaper, where
Tsvangirai is alleged to have uttered statements
the plaintiffs say were
defamatory of them.
Gift
Chimanikire, who was one of the applicants in the case,
withdrew his claim
after he defected to the Tsvangirai camp.
Court papers say
Tsvangirai when addressing diplomats accredited
to Zimbabwe, after the split
in the main opposition party, alleged that the
five leaders of the
pro-senate faction were plotting with the Mugabe regime
to eliminate
him.
"A minority in leadership positions tired of the
democratic
struggle are ready to strike a diabolical deal with Zanu PF.
Mercenaries
peddling selfish interests," the court documents on Tsvangirai's
alleged
statements say.
"They wanted to weaken the MDC
and give themselves new
credentials to enhance their political understanding
with Zanu PF. They
participated in the senatorial elections in order to
please Zanu PF as their
partners.
"They were involved in
illegal activities trying to harm and
physically eliminate the defendant
(Tsvangirai)."
Tsvangirai was represented in the case by
Tendai Biti of Honey &
Blanckenberg. Contacted to comment on why his
team did not file opposing
papers on the matter, Biti said the problem arose
after their corresponding
lawyers in Bulawayo did not relay documents to
them on time.
"We are using corresponding lawyers in the case
and at one time
they did not send us some papers on time and that is the
reason we lost our
defence but we are negotiating with the other team so
that we can have our
defence back," Biti said.
The lawyer
representing the four pro-senate MDC leaders,
Nicholas Mathonsi of Coghlan
& Welsh legal practitioners confirmed that
Tsvangirai's team had not
filed opposing papers and said he was close to
wrapping up the
case.
"There is no way that Tsvangirai can successfully
appeal without
our co-operation. We are actually on the verge of winning
that case on a
technicality although there is still some ground to be
covered," said
Mathonsi.
A default judgement is passed
when one of the parties in a case
fails to appear in court or is served with
summons and fails to indicate
interest in defending the case within the
stipulated number of days.
If he or she indicates that he/she
is willing to defend and then
delays to give a detailed response then the
other party can apply for a
default judgement.
The case
will resume on Thursday and will proceed without
further notice to
Tsvangirai and his lawyers. - Staff Writer
Zim Independent
Itai Mushekwe
ZIMBABWE can only
fight the poverty stalking her people by
coming up with broad-based economic
policies that will stabilise the economy
to create a better life for all,
Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Sten
Rylander, has said.
Rylander made the remarks on Wednesday during a signing ceremony
for a SEK$3
million (approximately US$412 000) grant to the Macroeconomic
and Financial
Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI)
for its capacity
building projects in Zimbabwe and 12 other countries.
Rylander said President Robert Mugabe's government should take a
cue from
Tanzania whose economy was in a tailspin a decade ago, but had
since become
a successful model for many African nations due to sweeping
poverty
reduction reforms.
"Without a good macroeconomic framework,"
Rylander said, "you
will never succeed in economic management and be able to
fight poverty. That
is why some of us are praying for Zimbabwe to build
bridges with the
international community."
He said it was
not easy for regional oganisations such as MEFMI
to continue operating in
Zimbabwe under the current hyperinflationary
environment.
He said learning through active networking was almost always a
very powerful
instrument.
Zim Independent
THE Attorney-General's office has ordered the police to
investigate Zimpapers on allegations of gross corruption in the company's
vehicle purchasing system that has cost the company millions of
dollars.
Documents to hand show that acting Director of
Public
Prosecutions Joseph Jagada last month wrote to one Assistant
Commissioner
Nyathi at Harare Central instructing him to institute an
investigation into
allegations of corruption at
Zimpapers.
The AG's office was responding to a complaint from
senior
Zimpapers officials who claimed the company was being invoiced money
for new
vehicles when it was receiving second-hand cars.
"Can you please institute an investigation into the complaint
and if we can
also be updated on the progress of the investigation," reads
Jagada's letter
to Asst Commissioner Nyathi dated April 10.
Jagada also
ordered the police to investigate the reinstatement
of Adolf Majome -
Zimpapers' financial director - who was previously
arrested on allegations
of corruption but the company later withdrew the
charges.
"If it is correct that Mr Majome was reinstated as the chairman
of the
purchase committee, after his arrest on allegations of corruption
arising
from his functions in the same post, then this raises eyebrows and
is a
cause for concern. There is reasonable basis to warrant an
investigation,"
Jagada said in the letter.
Police spokesman Chief
Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka said he
was checking the details. "You can
phone me later after I have checked the
details," Mandipaka
said.
Sources in the police force said Zimpapers group chief
executive
Justin Mutasa was last week called in to record a statement on the
alleged
corruption.
The other high ranking official whose
statement was recorded
last week is group internal auditor Andrew Chinyama,
the sources said.
A source said the group's vehicle purchase
system was skewed
with the CEO and the financial director being the only
people to decide on
what to purchase, opening the system to
abuse.
"The corruption charges emerged from the purchase of a
Nissan
Hardbody 2.7D truck which was initially rejected by the group's
vehicle
maintenance department as too old," the source
said.
"The vehicle was taken back to the supplier,
reconditioned and
resold as new to Zimpapers," the source said. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
THE Harare
Commission will soon unveil a colossal 2007 budget
with a projected average
increase of 2 000% in rates and water charges for
residents beginning next
year.
However, the budget faces stiff resistance from
residents who
have already started mobilising for street demonstrations
against the
commission if the budget is approved without their consent as
happened with
the current one.
The 2006 budget of $33
trillion was foisted on residents despite
their overwhelming
objections.
Sources in the council's city treasury department
said
formulation figures show that next year's budget is likely to be
twenty-fold
last year's budget considering the ever rising prices of goods
owing to
galloping inflation in the country.
"We have
finished the formulation process and the proposals
would be tabled before a
full commission anytime soon," the source said.
"Proposed figures show that
it's a huge budget mainly due to expenses
required to finance the turnaround
programme as well as increases in prices
of raw materials and commodities
needed to improve service delivery," the
source said.
In
November last year Harare unbundled the city's operations,
transforming city
departments into 12 autonomous business utilities. The
units are owned by
council and run along commercial lines. The plan allows
business utilities
to enter joint ventures and smart partnerships,
technological transfers and
strategies alliances with the private sector
where
necessary.
The Reserve Bank had promised to provide $1,2
trillion (old
currency) to council to finance the unbundling process but
froze the
facility after council failed to provide financially sound
projects.
Zim Independent
THE Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has offered
to
formally buy out Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group CEO and editor-in-chief
Ibbo Mandaza from the company they wrested from him last
year.
The move revives the bitter contest between the CIO and
Mandaza
over the control of the media house. The fight for the papers has
been going
on since August last year. Although Mandaza won a court order
reversing his
illegal suspension and termination of benefits, he has not
worked at the
Mirror since October last year as he was blocked from doing
so.
In a new twist of events, Gula-Ndebele & Partners,
who represent
Unique Investments, a CIO shelf company which has a stake in
the Mirror,
wrote to Mandaza's attorneys Mandizha & Company on September
4 proposing an
out of court settlement.
"We write to you
at the instance (request) of our clients Unique
World Investments in their
capacity as one of the shareholders in the
Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers
Group," Gula-Ndebele & Partners said.
"Our clients
instruct us that they would want to engage your
client, Dr Ibbo Mandaza, and
all the interests in the Mirror he represents
with a view to negotiating an
out-of-court settlement on all matters that
are currently pending or
anticipated before the courts."
Gula-Ndebele & Partners
said there were specific issues that its
client wanted resolved. "More
specifically, our client wishes to make an
offer to your client with regards
to the following and other issues as may
be relevant," it said: "the
takeover of his shareholding; termination of his
directorship; termination
of his employment as CEO and termination of his
involvement in the group in
whatever capacity".
The lawyers said Unique was willing to
negotiate although
Mandaza should bear in mind the Mirror was in a perpetual
financial crisis.
"In this regard, our client wishes to
solicit your client's
attitude towards this proposal. Should your client be
amenable to the
proposal, it is our clients' view that both parties would
need to put
together their various positions and offers for further
consideration," they
said.
"In making this overture, our
clients implore your client to be
mindful of the dire financial straits the
group has always and continues to
be facing. It is also our clients'
expectation that should your client be
agreeable, it would be in the
interest of all parties to hold in abeyance
any court actions between them
in order to facilitate and create a conducive
environment for the intended
negotiations. We await your earliest
indications."
On
September 14, Mandaza's lawyers replied: "Our client's
position is that the
key to unlocking meaningful dialogue on the issues you
raised lies in your
clients. His position is that they have to demonstrate
their bona fides by
owning up and paying his contractual dues, to date. We
requested him to
compute them."
After Gula-Ndebele & Partners replied on
September 27 clarifying
the issue of payment, Mandizha & Co wrote again
on October 19, saying: "We
advise that our client has reason to believe your
clients are insincere.
Consequently, we have been mandated to inform you, as
we hereby do, that if
no concrete position is communicated to us by the 26th
instant, we will
revive litigation." - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
THE
government has failed to honour its obligation to provide
accommodation to
victims of Operation Murambatsvina more than a year after
launching a
campaign which a United Nations (UN) envoy said was carried out
with
"indifference to human suffering", a parliamentary committee has
said.
In its report presented in parliament on Tuesday, the
parliamentary portfolio committee on Local Government, chaired by Zanu PF
Mazowe West legislator Margaret Zinyemba, said government should build more
houses for the homeless bearing in mind that the demolition exercise "had
generated a lot of debate and criticism locally and
internationally".
Last year's report by UN envoy Anna
Tibaijuka said the
demolitions had left 700 000 Zimbabweans homeless and
destitute and affected
a further 2, 4 million.
In the
latest parliamentary report, the Local Government
committee said it had
"noted that the initially announced budget of $3
trillion was fairly
reasonable. However, government failed to honour its
obligation that would
see the project through to completion."
It added that the
housing project dubbed Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle was of critical
concern to it.
"In terms of project implementation, no
significant progress was
made, as funds provided were too little for any
meaningful development to
take place. In fact, the secretary for the
Ministry of Local Government
informed the committee during a briefing on the
project's progress that no
progress had been made on most
sites
visited by the committee during the previous session, " the
committee said.
It also said that the Regional, Town and
Country Planning Act
must be reviewed urgently as some of the problems
related to Operation
Murambatsvina were blamed on flaws cited in the
Act.
Zim Independent
Lucia Makamure
JEWS in the
ghettos used to pour honey on their children's books
to coax them to read
and learn.
If Zimbabwean parents were to prescribe as much as
double the
dose of honey, they would still grapple to sustain interest among
pupils and
students upset by incompetent examination boards that bungle the
administration of end of year tests with monotonous
regularity.
Gone are the days when Zimbabweans used to take
pride in their
academic qualifications. Then examinations were effectively
administered and
the education system was internationally
admired.
But writing examinations has become a nightmare in
Zimbabwe.
Inefficiency has gradually crept into the process of writing,
marking and
printing results.
Since the Zimbabwe Schools
Examination Council (Zimsec) took
over the administration of examinations in
1998 as government indigenised
the tests, standards have
plummeted.
A scandal involving the late Education minister
Edmund Garwe's
14-year old daughter appears to have presaged the slide in
the education
system, once touted as the pride of Africa.
Garwe resigned after his daughter leaked a Zimbabwe Junior
Certificate
examination paper to friends and schoolmates at a high school in
the capital
Harare.
This year primary school teachers in Kwekwe district
are said to
have improvised by transferring answers from ordinary sheets to
scanner
sheets for their students after there were delays in the delivery of
the
scanner answer sheets.
Although teachers'
representative unions say three Grade Seven
examinations were written before
the centres had received scanner sheets for
the respective exams, Zimsec
director Happy Ndanga confirmed that there were
delays but denied that
teachers transferred answers for their students.
"There were
indeed delays in the delivery of scanner sheets in
some areas, due to
logistical problems," Ndanga said.
"However, when that
happens there are contingency procedures
that are put in place to enable
candidates to use ordinary sheets, which
will be marked manually. Teachers
should never shade scanner sheets on
behalf of candidates, except in
completing candidates' personal details."
Progressive
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Raymond
Majongwe said what
happened was highly unacceptable and Zimsec should be
made accountable. He
said there was need for government to allocate more
money towards education
in the national budget.
"They have compromised the whole
education system," Majongwe
said.
He said it was
illogical to compel teachers to shade answers on
answer sheets for pupils on
multiple choice questionnaires, saying this
comprised the ethics of any
examination.
He said under normal circumstances the
examination body should
not wait for the last minute to deliver
stationery.
"Next time when the government plans its budget
more money
should be allocated to education instead of security and defence
as has
often happened in the past."
Papers have "leaked"
weeks before they are written, resulting in
the postponement of some
examinations.
In other instances, examination papers have
been mixed up.
Such nightmares replicate themselves come the
marking stage as
markers gripe over miserly allowances awarded by the
examinations board.
Teachers marking Grade Seven examinations
have already expressed
disgruntlement over the paltry allowances they are
getting from Zimsec.
Teachers who are getting $20 for a script marked have
complained that the
allowances are not worth the paper.
"I live in Chitungwiza and need about $1 000 in bus fare alone.
I also need
money for food and with the money they are giving us I do not
think it's
worth the effort for me to go for the marking," said one
teacher.
All this illustrates the degree to which the
examination board
has been losing its lustre. Zimsec has failed to live up
to the legacy
bequeathed by University of Cambridge Local Examinations
Syndicate.
Markers used to be housed either in hotels or at
centralised
colleges when marking examination papers. This minimised flaws
in
examination administration.
There have been incidents
where students have claimed their
scripts were not fairly marked, as some
teachers are believed to be marking
the exams under the influence of
alcohol. There have been cases when results
were mixed up, with some people
getting results for subjects they did not
write.
The
Higher Education Examinations Council (Hexco) is also slowly
losing favour
in the eyes of many Zimbabweans as it is also failing to
deliver quality
service.
Examinations at Hexco centres have for the past two
years been
characterised by confusion. Examinations are delayed, papers get
mixed up
and in some instances a subject ends up with two different test
papers
printed.
Recently at Harare Polytechnic, business
studies students had to
wait until after 8pm to write a paper that was
supposed to have been written
at 2pm. Science Department students have lost
22 papers, Mechanical
Engineering students have lost eight papers and Art
students have also lost
several papers.
Last year final
year Mass Communication students were given a
wrong reporting paper on
speech writing and had to wait for a whole week
until they could get a
replacement paper.
Similarly, a press conference paper had to
be postponed when the
invited guest failed to turn up. Library and
Information students for the
same year had the shock of their lives when
they were given two different
papers for the same subject. Harare
Polytechnic is receiving one copy of an
examination and then they fax the
paper to other centres which include
Bulawayo
Polytechnic.
Harare Polytechnic principal Steven Raza
declined to comment on
the issue but said examinations were
underway.
The University of Zimbabwe has also not been
spared, as the
college at the moment has no examination stationery.
Lecturers are left with
no option but to dictate the questions for their
students as happened
recently during a sociology multiple choice test
paper.
Zim Independent
Victoria Muringayi
THE National
Aids Council (NAC) has attributed the decline in
the Aids prevalence rate to
various projects such as the home-based care
system which deals with people
living with the HIV/Aids virus.
NAC board chairman, Reverend
Murombedzi Kuchera, said the
awareness campaigns being carried out by
various stakeholders nationwide
were helping reduce the prevalence
rate.
The prevalence rate for the HIV virus is now down at
18,1% from
the previous 20,1%, while projections point to a reduction to a
single digit
rate by 2010," he said.
"Home-based care is
one of the very important strategies in
national efforts to address
challenges faced by Aids victims at home."
Zimbabwe has over
300 000 people who require anti-retroviral
drugs, but only 42 000 of them
are receiving treatment. The remainder have
to be catered for through
home-based care initiatives.
The NAC said it was receiving
US$250 000 for anti-retroviral
drugs every month from the central bank to
cater for those who cannot
survive without the drugs.
"We
have anti-retroviral drugs that can cater for 42 000 people
who are on
treatment and need the drugs constantly," Kuchera said.
"We
are currently mobilising our resources so that we can source
funds for
patients on anti-retrovirals so that everyone infected with the
virus
receives the drugs."
Kuchera was speaking at a community
home-based care certificate
award ceremony held in Harare last Friday by a
non-governmental organisation
Jekesa Pfungwa/Vulingqondo.
Jekesa Pfungwa funnelled at least US$30 000 that it received
from Irish Aid
through Zimbabwe Aids Network to offer community home-based
care to 20
monitors and 10 field officers throughout the country.
The
money was used to buy bicycles, home-based care kits for the
monitors and
the field officers to improve efficiency in the programme.
Jekesa Pfungwa deputy director Mabel Moyo said the community
home-based care
course is the third that they have offered to the community
and the 20
monitor's role is to educate and give information to primary care
givers,
who are family members taking care for the terminally ill.
"The home-based care monitors and field officers have undergone
a refresher
training course which is a special programme, that was done
according to the
national standards as required by the Ministry of Health,"
said
Moyo.
Zim Independent
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has assented to the
Gazetted Land
(Consequential Provisions) Bill of 2006, which repeals the
Rural Land
Occupiers (Protection from Eviction) Act that shielded farm
invaders.
State-sponsored land invaders will now be exposed
to evictions
after they were used to campaign for Zanu PF in elections by
occupying
farms.
The enactment of the law means that it
is now punishable by law
to hold, use or occupy a piece of land that was
gazetted for resettlement
purposes without lawful authority in the form of
an offer letter from the
Minister of Lands.
Once a farmer
is served with an eviction notice he would be
prescribed 90 days to vacate
the land, failure to do which offenders will be
given a sentence not
exceeding a week and will be evicted from the farm.
Mugabe
announced this yesterday as he doled out long-term leases
of land which was
confiscated from white farmers. He warned former white
farm owners not to
expect compensation from the government. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
THE country's 15 stockbroking firms face
imminent closure
following High Court ruling dismissing the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange (ZSE)'s
appeal to have them exempted from paying Value Added Tax
(VAT) backdated to
January 2004.
Most firms will not
survive if the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority
(Zimra) forces them to pay the tax
backdated to two years ago. Brokers told
businessdigest yesterday the 15
owed Zimra a combined tax bill of $700
billion.
The
amount which includes interest and penalty would leave them
virtually
insolvent.
"Payments backdated to 2004 could lead to a spate
of company
closures, chase away investors and loss of confidence in the
local bourse,"
said head of a securities firm who declined be
named.
The 15 stockbrokers that face closure are Intermarket
Stockbrokers, FBC Securities (Pvt) Ltd, EFE Securities, Sagit Stockbrokers,
Imara Edwards Security, Renaissance Securities P/L, Fidelity Securities P/L,
M Lynton-Edwards Stockbrokers, Remo Investments Brokers P/L, Interfin
Securities P/L, Kingdom Stockbrokers P/L, Mast Stockbrokers, ABC
Stockbrokers P/L, New Africa Securities P/L and D Vrettos
Stockbrokers.
Imara Edwards Securities was asked to pay $49,3
billion in May
this year but the amount has increased drastically over the
past seven
months during which the brokers and Zimra were having court
battles.
On Wednesday High Court Judge President Rita Makarau
threw out
the stockbroker's appeal saying ZSE, their representative in the
case, did
not have a legal basis to bring the case before the
court.
Justice Makarau dismissed the case with cost,
something that
would further hurt the purse of the brokers. Justice Makarau
declined to
make a ruling on the merit of the case, saying she had to be
satisfied that
the case was properly before the court.
In
the case, the court had to determine whether the law exempted
stockbrokers
from paying VAT and had locus standi to bring the application
before the
higher court and whether the case was still pending before
another tribunal
of competent jurisdiction, the Fiscal Appeals Court.
Analysts
said there were now fears in the market that Zimra
might soon pounce on all
registered stockbrokers, individually ordering them
to pay VAT backdated to
January 2004. Some small firms might also not be
able to withstand the
financial pressure to fight Zimra in the court.
Metropolitan
Bank group economist, Brains Muchemwa said stock
broking firms would
collapse if they make a one-off payment. "The Zimra and
the firms should
reach a solution where payments can be made over a certain
period of time. A
once off payment would render them insolvent," Muchemwa
said.
Executives in the sector however told
businessdigest late last
night that the brokers were planning to appeal
against the decisions.
Although their lawyer Tendai Biti of Honey and
Blanckenburg could not be
reached for comment, information gathered
indicated that they would lodge an
appeal either today or early next
week.
If the stockbrokers eventually lose the case it would
mean that
investors who buy shares on the stock market would be taxed three
times in a
single transactions - through stamp duty, withholding tax and
VAT. This
three-tier tax system will also apply to small
investors.
A stockbroker with a commercial bank said brokers
were exempted
from paying this type of tax as per current VAT Act, Section
11 (a). The
Finance Act 2003 was amended, which effectively exempted all
stockbrokers
from paying VAT.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
WHILE the
market is still digesting its surprise swoop on CFX
Financial Services two
months ago the People's Own Savings Bank (POSB) has
pulled another shocker
by announcing that it now plans to list on the
Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange.
POSB chief executive, Admore Kandlela, said by 2008
POSB will be
listed on the stock exchange.
"When I joined
POSB bank I had a personal mandate that by 2008 I
should have the people's
bank listed on the market. I believe that target is
still achievable,"
Kandlela said.
Although he could not reveal the specific date
for the listing,
Kandlela said the mass market bank has already started
doing the groundwork.
"It is in fact one of our major aims that we have set
for ourselves and we
are working towards that goal."
There are indications that the bank which has three million
depositors has
already started working on the eventual listing with
information that that
the parastatal is making moves to acquire government's
stake in CFX.
Government owns 17% of CFX through Allied Financial Services
(AFS), a
company set up by the central bank as part of efforts to revive
troubled
banks. POSB is the second largest shareholder with a 14% stake it
got after
it underwrote CFX's rights issue two months ago. Kandlela said
that
top-level consultations have been made to discuss the issue but a
decision
is yet to be made. The deal would make POSB the largest shareholder
in CFX
with 31%-a situation which could create conditions for a reverse
listing for
POSB.
"Remember the government got into CFX by default. They
will not
be there forever. It's only logical that we take over," Kandlela
said.
Kandlela said consultation regarding the deal had
already
started but could not give the specific date of
completion.
"There is no way they can remain there for good
and we have been
bold enough to say it. We await their decision on that
matter. We hear they
are consulting."
The deal will
however not change much because government already
wholly owns POSB making
it just a lateral transfer of shares from one state
company to
another.
Analysts however say the acquisitions would enable
the bank to
go on the market through a reserve listing. POSB has a total
deposits of
$5,5 billion of which $4 billion is in savings. It shares in
Pelhams,
Zimsun, Delta, Dawn Properties and OK Zimbabwe.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
CALM returned
to the banking sector this week after the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
reversed its earlier directive forcing banks to
invest in Economic
Stabilisation Bonds that was threatening to plunge the
sector into
bankruptcies.
There has been uncertainty in the banking
sector for the past
two weeks following the RBZ's order forcing commercial
banks to invest 25%
of their balance sheet in five-year bonds and 20% in
seven-year bonds.
The decision would have seen banks having
45% of their balance
sheet locked in long-term papers - five and seven years
- making the banking
sector unviable.
The move sent shock
waves in the financial sector with other
banks fearing that they might be
forced into insolvency. Most banks had
already started feeling the pinch
after they invested 20% of their monies in
the five year
bonds.
Sources however told businessdigest that the central
bank
relented on Wednesday after strong representations from the banking
sector.
The central bank told bankers that it was no longer mandatory for
banks to
commit 20% of their balance sheet in the seven-year
bonds.
This means that banks are no longer under obligation
to buy the
bonds.
"The central bank representatives told
us that it was no longer
mandatory for us to invest in the seven-year
bonds," said a senior bank
executive who attended the meeting on
Wednesday.
"They have also removed the 5% that we were
supposed to invest
in five year bonds in addition to the 20% that we had
committed on those
bonds."
The reprieve will also apply
to asset managers who had also been
instructed to invest 17, 5% in five year
bonds and 12,5% in seven year
bonds. The decision was verbally communicated
to the banks and there was no
written statement.
Bankers
are however not celebrating as yet as they remain
cautious that the reprieve
might be changed when RBZ governor Gideon Gono
returns from outside the
country.
"We are happy that we have got the reprieve but we
remain
worried because anything might change when Gono returns. So we are
not sure
whether he will allow the decision to stand," said one
banker.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
THE Civil
Aviation Authority (CAAZ) this week said it has been
driven into insolvency
by ballooning foreign debts that chief executive
officer David Chaota blamed
on government's reluctance to settle.
At a pre-budget seminar
in Harare on Wednesday, Chaota said some
of the debt has accrued from the
1980s and was complicating operations due
to threats that CAAZ assets might
be confisticated by angry international
creditors.
He
pleaded with the Ministry of Finance to provide funds to pay
off the foreign
debt in the 2007 budget scheduled for end of November.
CAAZ
has been living under threats of international lawsuits and
has been
hesitant to open accounts with the International Air Transport
Association
(IATA) amid fears that the money could be garnished, Chaota
said.
"If you look at our balance sheet you will see that
we are
technically insolvent because of the debts," Chaota
said.
"We cannot open accounts with IATA because the money
would be
garnished. In 2004 we were sued by various international creditors
because
of these debts," Chaota said.
CAAZ, like many
other state enterprises, have been badly let
down by poor budgetary
allocations and the tendency by Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor
Gideon Gono to initiate expansion
projects that he later reneges
on, he said.
He chronicled how Gono recently released $630
million for one of
CAAZ's projects but immediately blocked access to the
funds without
explanations.
Buffalo Range Airport was
allocated $8 million in the 2006
budget for expansion when costs for plans
alone required $550 million.
CAAZ is carrying out
multibillion dollar expansion and
refurbishment programmes at Harare
International Airport, and Joshua Nkomo
and Victoria Falls International
Airports.
The projects have been delayed on several occasions
due to the
lack of funding.
Expansion of the Victoria
Falls International Airport, which was
originally scheduled to be completed
by the end of 2006, has just started.
Meanwhile tourism
industry players at the pre-budget seminar
expressed impatience at
government's delays in privatising parastatals that
have been feeding on
government subsidies for a long time.
Last year Finance
minister Herbert Murerwa promised to privatise
six parastatals to wean them
from state influence and return them to
viability but two months before the
end of 2007, none have been weaned off.
"It will be
embarrassing that the minister will come back to the
people with the 2007
budget without accomplishing the promises he made last
year," queried
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive officer Karikoga
Kaseke, but
Ministry of Finance officials present at the meeting boasted
that Murerwa
will not run short of words.
"He will not run short of words,
he will tell the nation
something else this time around," they said.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
THE National Oil Company of Zimbabwe
(Noczim) is reportedly
putting pressure on government to review the Noczim
debt redemption levy it
charges to private fuel companies to allow it to
increase its waning
revenues.
Private petroleum companies
are paying about $1 for every litre
purchased from Noczim or imported as
levy. Noczim, which has been battered
by a massive debt is arguing that the
review is necessary to help it pay its
foreign debt and monthly obligations
to the Bulawayo-Beitbridge Railway
(BBR) for using the railway
line.
It is understood that the government had initially
offered to
increase the levy to $25 per litre but sources this week said
Noczim was
pushing for a much higher increase.
The Noczim
debt redemption levy was introduced by the Finance
Act in 2003 to assist the
company amortise its accumulated foreign debt that
it has battled to settle
despite previously enjoying monopoly over fuel
trade.
If
effected, the higher levy would precipitate fuel prices hikes
in Zimbabwe as
petroleum companies would pass on the burden to end-users.
This means that
people will have to pay more for the fuel that they get
through the official
market.
There are indications that next year's budget
scheduled for the
end of November will announce an increase in fuel prices.
Private players
sell fuel at $1 600 per litre when Noczim's products are
sold at $335 per
litre as the company receives hefty government
subsidies.
Government this week gave Noczim chief executive
officer
Zvinechimwe Churu the greenlight to work on the computations for
consideration before the 2007 budget is crafted.
Noczim
is paying US$1,3 million in service charges per month
(about $267 million)
to BBR and intends to use private players'
contributions to help it settle
its own debts.
Most private players import fuel using road
tankers.
Churu said despite paying the high fees to BBR it
was collecting
less than $100 million per month through the
levy.
He demanded that whenever petroleum companies hiked
prices, the
levy should be adjusted and as exchange rates fluctuated, there
should be
corresponding upward adjustments.
"We have
accrued forex obligations in the national interest.
Noczim must be assisted
to liquidate the debts by increasing the levy to
enable them to pay BBR. We
rarely use that line," Churu told a pre-2007
budget seminar in Harare on
Tuesday.
Petroleum companies told businessdigest this week
that Noczim's
plans would cause viability problems as companies were already
paying
uneconomical amounts in levies to compensate for Noczim's
mismanagement.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
POOR management and
government bureaucratic interference are the
major causes of the crisis
obtaining at the National Railways of Zimbabwe
(NRZ), a recent, World Bank
report has said.
The report titled Zimbabwe Infrastructure
Assessment: Note for
Roads, Railways, and Water Sectors, said the NRZ
suffered an eight
million-tonne slide in freight traffic between 1990 and
2005 due to poor
management and government interference in its
operations.
It said NRZ's freight traffic declined from 14,4
million tonnes
in 1990 to 6 000 tonnes in 2005, precipitating massive losses
in revenue.
The decline is an indication of the dire state of
the parastatal
which has been haunted by financial problems and losses for
the past two
decades.
The World Bank attributed the
losses to "low revenue due to
carrying lower than freight traffic on offer,
a rigid and inefficient tariff
structure, excess staff levels and poor
utilisation of assets."
The NRZ was however confident that
its depleted fleet would move
nine million tonnes of cargo this year, the
report said warning that to
achieve increased margins, radical reforms and
prudent policies were
imperative to enable the NRZ to play its role in
national and regional
development.
"The NRZ is not free
to take action without government approval.
The problem would not be serious
if government agreed to compensate the NRZ
for losses incurred because of
being forced to operate loss-making
services," the report
said.
The Bretton Woods institution blamed the crisis on
failure by
government to compensate the NRZ for public service contracts
despite
provisions in the NRZ Act for compensation on such
services.
Since 2000 for instance, government has provided
low-cost
commuter services in Harare and Bulawayo, plunging the perennial
loss-maker
into cash-flow problems that precipitated a marginal revenue
increase of
375% in 2004 against expenditure increases of 1
017%.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's Project Sunrise
gobbled a massive
$8,6 billion ($8,6 trillion in old currency), deputy
Minister of Finance,
David Chapfika, said last week.
Responding to a question from Mberengwa West MP, Joram Gumbo,
during a
question and answer session in parliament on Thursday last week,
Chapfika
said the Reserve Bank had used $8,6 billion on the countrywide
operation which lasted for almost a month.
"The operation
cost $8,6 billion revalued, $4,6 billion of which
was for capital
expenditure and $4 billion for printing of new bearer
cheques and other
operational expenses," Chapfika said.
Chapika said at least
304 vehicles were acquired for the
programme.
Out of
about $45 trillion (old currency) that was in circulation
at the time of
launching Project Sunrise, a total of $35 trillion (old
currency) was
accounted for through re-banking withdrawals into the Reserve
Bank
coffers.
"As at August 22, 2006, which was the cut-off date
for the
change-over, at least $35,1 billion (revalued) had been collected
from the
public while at least $10,6 billion worth of old bearer cheques
could not be
accounted for various government ministries and departments,"
Chapfika said.
Chapfika said the Reserve Bank had
subsequently written off that
amount from its books, adding that it had the
technical effect of writing
off costs incurred during the
operation.
The period under review also netted a total of 9
320 cases with
a value of $1,4 trillion (old currency) whose owners were
said to have
failed to account for the money at the close of business on
August 21.
At the launch of Project Sunrise the Zimbabwe
dollar was
devalued against the US dollar by 60% from $101 to
$250.
On July 31 Reserve Bank governor said Project Sunrise
Two which
would include the introduction of a new currency replacing bearer
cheques
would be launched "soon".
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
ZIMBABWE'S
tobacco production is likely to slump further next
year on information that
the country has only managed to plant half the
hectarage that has been
targeted for the 2006-7 season.
The Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers
Association (ZTGA) said a total of
40 000 hectares of tobacco has been
planted out of the targeted 80 000
hectares due to the shortage of essential
inputs such as fertiliser and
diesel for tillage
equipment.
ZTGA president Julius Ngorima said the decline in
the amount of
hectarage planted would result in a sharp decline in tobacco
production next
year.
"A total of 80 000 hectares was
targeted to be put under tobacco
this year. 40 000 has been planted due to
the problems most farmers faced
such as lack of inputs and shortage of
diesel," he said.
Tobacco production in Zimbabwe has declined
by 170,63 million kg
from an all-time high of 236,13 million kg recorded in
2000 to 55,5 million
kg which went under the hammer this
year.
Ngorima said a significant number of farmers had
prepared seed
beds for transplanting, but the shortage of inputs and
financial resources
held them back.
He said it was highly
unlikely that a target of 70 million kg in
the next farming season will be
met.
"The regional cut-off date for this season's tobacco is
November
20. I do not think there would be a significant increase to the
amount of
hectarage between now and the deadline (cut-off date)," Ngorima
said.
Any tobacco that is planted after November 20 is
regarded a late
crop and is usually not ready for harvest during the next
selling season
which usually starts in April or May.
Due
to the shortage of inputs, an average of between 800 and 1
000 kg per
hectare was expected this season, down from the normal 2 000
kg.
Zimbabwe sold a total of 55,5 million kg of flue-cured
tobacco
worth US$110,7 million in the 2006 selling
season.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) this
week said
some 55 466 689 kg of tobacco went under the hammer at an average
price of
US$1,99 per kg.
The amount sold represents a
remarkable decline from the 73 376
990 kg of tobacco worth US$118 165 025
sold at an average price of US$1,61
during the same period last
year.
Tobacco production in Zimbabwe has been declining over
the years
from a peak of 236,13 million kg in 2000 to the current levels due
to
shortage of inputs and recurrent droughts among other
factors.
In 2001 about 202 million kg went under the hammer
while
165,84kg, 81,81kg and 69 million kg were sold in 2002, 2003 and 2004
respectively.
Zim Independent
OK Zimbabwe's
revenue rose by 1 180% to $22,382 billion for the
year ending September 30,
from $1,749 billion recorded during the same
period last year despite having
most of its products controlled against
rising input
costs.
During the period under review the retail giant
lamented the
manner in which price monitoring and controls of commodities
was carried
out.
"Price controls remained for three basic
products; namely
maize-meal, flour and bread while 16 other products
remained on monitored
list.
"However, in the latter part
of the period under review there
appeared to be confusion in the enforcement
of the law on controlled goods
as, on occasions, no distinction was made
between controlled, monitored and
uncontrolled products," said OK Zimbabwe
in a statement.
Operating profit stood at $2,045 billion from
$181 million
achieved last year.
In spite of negative
real returns rampant on the money market,
the group recorded a 2 020%
increase in net interest income to $1,346
billion.
Sales
growth of 1 261% was ahead of average official inflation
of 1 107% but below
average internal inflation of 1 670%.
Gross margins decreased
to 21,44% from 24,69% the prior year due
to the adopted sales mix and
managed approach to replacement pricing.
The company said an
operating income ratio of 9,73% was
consistent with the drop in gross
margins. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
GOVERNMENT is becoming increasingly
paranoid hence its intention
to introduce new communications regulations
that have been described as part
of a grand scheme to eavesdrop on private
correspondence and control the
flow of information.
Analysts said this week the measures were consistent with its
failed bid to
establish a one-party state and growing ties with China where
the Internet
is strictly monitored.
The introduction of the regulations
where state-owned Tel*One
will have a monopoly over all foreign currency to
the detriment of private
cellular firms Econet Wireless and Telecel further
confirms government's
desire to reap where it did not
sow.
This week the High Court suspended the operation of
Statutory
Instrument 70/06 that sought to stop a multiple gateway system
through
termination rates for international traffic favourable to Tel*One
pending
the outcome of a constitutional appeal to be lodged by Econet and
Telecel
within the next two weeks.
In the court case, the
Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz),
Transport and Communications minister
Christopher Mushohwe, and Tel*One are
the first, second and third
respondents, while Econet is the sole
applicant.
Telecel also went to court separately on the same
issue but is
expected to make a joint constitutional appeal with
Econet.
Analysts said this week the intention to ensure that
Tel*One
gets all the foreign currency falls in line with other similar
projects such
as the banning of 16 money transfer agencies last month by the
Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ). The RBZ excluded these institutions from
earning hard
currency being remitted home by Zimbabweans in the
diaspora.
A telecoms expert on Monday said the predominant
reason in
government wanting all communications to go through one gateway
was to spy
on private messages.
"They are ill-advised,"
he said. "They believe that if calls
come through one gateway operated by
Tel*One they could easily intercept
them. That is the predominant
reason."
The attempt to spy on messages comes at a time when
government
has withdrawn the Interception of Communications Bill and
replaced it with a
consolidated new version that has been referred to the
Parliamentary Legal
Committee (PLC) chaired by Welshman
Ncube.
The telecoms expert said even if the latest
regulations were to
come into effect, government would not have control of
all the messages
coming into or going out of the country as another network
called "packet
switched network" (PSN) or Internet protocol (IP) did not
need a gateway.
The PSN is used by Internet service providers
while cellular
firms use what is called a circuit
network.
The expert said one of the problems of routing all
communications through a gateway controlled by Net*One was that the
loss-making parastatal may default in paying international networks
resulting in Zimbabwe being cut off from the rest of the
world.
In September this year Net*One was disconnected from
the
international link, Intelsat, thereby affecting Internet services after
failing to pay a US$710 000 debt for both Internet and voice link for the
period April to end of June.
"The other reason for the
regulations is that they want to
protect the revenue base of Tel*One. They
want to get hold of all the
foreign currency," the expert
said.
In its court application that led to the suspension of
Statutory
Instrument 70, Econet exposed government's defiance of court
orders,
particularly a 1995 Supreme Court ruling which authorised the
company to
route traffic through its own international gateway after
breaking the
Tel*One's monopoly.
The court application
also brought to the fore government's
penchant for total control and
mistrust of free enterprise. Often,
government has resorted to the use of
"the element of surprise" to deal with
those concerned. Such a choking knack
for control flies in the face of
indigenisation and belies government's
commitment to black empowerment.
Econet CEO Douglas Mboweni
said his company was surprised to
receive a letter from Potraz advising them
of the coming on stream of
Statutory Instrument 70 that the mobile phone
operator was supposed to
implement even before consultations were
concluded.
Said Mboweni in response to the Potraz
instruction: "Applicant
is entitled to route its own traffic through its
international gateway. I
must point out that this was a compromise position
to the original court
order that granted the applicant unrestricted right to
'move traffic within,
into and from Zimbabwe'."
He said
government has over the years tried to usurp Econet's
right as guaranteed by
provisions of its licence.
Mboweni said three years ago
Potraz, Net*One and the police
attempted to shut down Econet's international
gateway without a court order
or warrant and the High Court in July 2003
offered Econet protection against
threats to withdraw its
licence.
"In January, 2004 the 1st and 2nd respondents
promulgated
Statutory Instrument 18 which sought to reintroduce the monopoly
that had
been struck down in December 1995 by the Supreme Court," Mboweni
added.
"This in effect amounted to an amendment of the
applicant's
licence provisions without due process and without following
proper licence
amendment procedures."
Political analyst
Eldred Masunungure drew parallels between the
regulations and the banning of
16 money transfer agencies last month by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe that
was done without prior notice.
Announcing the ban, central
bank governor Gideon Gono said:
"With immediate effect, all money transfer
agencies are cancelled. All local
accounts for these entities should be
closed." The government used the same
tactic when destroying people's homes
and informal businesses under its
internationally condemned Operation
Murambatsvina last year.
Masunungure said by coming up with
the regulations, government
was trying "to kill two birds with one stone":
reintroduce monopoly in the
telecoms sector and get all the foreign
currency.
"It is driven by the government's monopolistic
impulse. It is
more about consolidating its monopoly on the telecoms sector,
the forex
dimension is secondary," said Masunungure.
He
added: "If you do not have a competitive mind, it means that
those that are
efficient are a threat. It is consistent with the original
intention to
establish a one-party state. The idea is deeply ingrained in
government and
Zanu PF."
Zim Independent
By Trevor Grundy
FIFTY years
ago he was a deeply Christian young man and black
nationalist working
round-the-clock on a multi-racial farm that was famous
in liberation
circles, and beyond, and hated by Rhodesia's white minority
government.
He became a living legend among liberal
Christians by helping to
make Cold Comfort Farm into a first class
agricultural training ground and a
psychological liberation centre that was
an early staging post on the long
march from colonial oppression in Rhodesia
to majority rule in Zimbabwe.
"A man of high integrity and
Christian character," said Guy
Clutton-Brock, the Welsh-born champion of
black freedom who became Zimbabwe's
first and only official white hero when
President Robert Mugabe buried his
ashes at Harare's Heroes Acre in
1996.
"He never feared to speak his mind and he was always a
sensitive
leader, a man of vision, an optimist with a profound belief in his
fellow
man regardless of race, colour, creed."
The man of
whom Clutton-Brock spoke so highly now holds high
rank in the government of
President Mugabe. As minister of national security
and head of the secret
police, Didymus Mutasa is one of the most feared and
ruthless men in
Zimbabwe, second in power only to Mugabe.
Mutasa, praised by
the devout Clutton-Brock as a Christian of
integrity, sensitivity, vision
and love for all his fellow men, achieved
international notoriety in 2002
when he was asked how he felt about three
serious problems confronting
Zimbabwe.
The first question concerned the fear in that year
that severe
drought might result in the death of half of Zimbabwe's 12
million
population, many of them supporters of the then confident opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The second concerned the thousands of
Zimbabweans who die each week from Aids. And the third related to the mass
exodus from the country of skilled blacks and whites.
Mutasa replied: "We would be better off with only six million
people, with
our own (ruling party) people who supported the liberation
struggle. We
don't want all these extra people."
Thus spoke the man who
had once been a byword as the kind face
of the new society to come and who
was described by Diana Mitchell in her
book Nationalist Leaders in Zimbabwe
as "an essentially gentle and
infinitely reasonable man".
British overseas development minister at the time, Clare Short,
said: "To
welcome the death of nearly half the people in a country is
unforgivable. No
one should forgive him (Mutasa)."
And leading Danish academic
development expert Amanda Hammar
commented: "Mutasa's infamously stated
desire to discard surplus populations
has resonance with historic precedents
such as National Socialism in Germany
and its translation into routinised
governmental annihilation."
It is little wonder that many
Zimbabweans ask how the man their
history presented as a near-saint is now
at the centre of a web of state
violence and alleged corruption. Who, they
wonder, is the real Didymus Noel
Edwin Mutasa?
Back in
the 1960s and 1970s, Mutasa was the close friend of the
Anglican lay
missionary Clutton-Brock, hated with his wife Molly by the
white farming
community as "communist troublemakers". They worked together
at Cold Comfort
Farm, a multi-racial cooperative where farming skills were
learned and
political ideas discussed endlessly.
A young black
intellectual, Robert Mugabe, also became a close
friend of Clutton-Brock,
who was expelled from Rhodesia in 1971 for his
criticism of the country's de
facto racial apartheid. Hundreds of Africans,
including Mutasa, wept at the
airport as he left.
Supporters said of Clutton-Brock that his
only offence was to
turn "yes men slaves" into independent human beings.
When he died, Mugabe
attended the memorial service at the Church of St
Martin's in the Field in
London and was given Clutton-Brock's ashes to be
taken to Harare. With
Mutasa by his side, Mugabe supervised the burial of
the ashes at the North
Korean-built Heroes Acre. Clutton-Brock is the only
white person to have
been buried there.
Mutasa was born
in the eastern Zimbabwe town of Rusape in July
1935, the sixth child of a
devout Christian couple.
In her 1982 book, Diana Mitchell,
now living in Britain, said
Mutasa suffered as a young man because he was
appalled by the unfairness of
Rhodesia's land ownership system. "He
attempted to evade the worst effects
of the Land Apportionment Act and
African landlessness by starting up the
Cold Comfort Farm Society with the
patronage of white landowners," she
wrote.
Mitchell, a
campaigner for Rhodesia's short-lived multiracial
Centre Party, said Mutasa
was a beacon of hope half a century ago when he,
Clutton-Brock, Michael and
Eileen Haddon, white liberals who donated their
land for the creation of
Cold Comfort Farm, and two renowned blacks
nationalists, James Chikerema and
George Nyandoro, worked together to
improve African farming methods and then
form the African National Congress.
The ANC campaigned for an extension of
the franchise, but was banned within
two years of its
birth.
Mitchell said that in those days Mutasa was "a man of
gentle
demeanor, distinguished and fine-chiselled in appearance" who sank
his own
money into Cold Comfort Farm after receiving a "golden handshake"
when he
quit his job as a civil servant.
While working in
partnership with Clutton-Brock to teach black
people modern agricultural
techniques on small-scale farm units around Cold
Comfort Farm, Mutasa also
became deeply involved with the World Council of
Churches. His cleverness at
fund-raising was recognised by various of the
emerging post-ANC nationalist
parties.
In 1970, as racial tension grew and as the war
against white
rule began, the Cold Comfort Farm Society was disbanded by the
white
government. Mutasa was arrested and held for two years in solitary
confinement at Chinhoyi Prison before being transferred to Salisbury Remand
Prison where he rubbed shoulders with Mugabe and the fiery nationalist Edgar
Tekere.
After his release, Mutasa studied in the central
England city of
Birmingham on a British Council scholarship and in 1976
joined Mugabe and
Tekere as a member of the Zanu liberation forces based in
Mozambique.
He returned home shortly before Zimbabwe's
Independence in 1980
to organise the February elections, which saw Mugabe
come to power and
Mutasa's appointment as speaker in the new black-dominated
parliament.
Though most Zanu ideologues will no longer admit
it, Zionism
greatly influenced the nationalist movement during the 1960s and
1970s and
Israel provided the exiled Zanu with some
funding.
Between 1980 and 1990, Mutasa maintained his
reputation as a
fair man, full of charm and integrity as parliamentary
speaker.
A major transformation was apparent by 2000 when
Mugabe, furious
that white commercial farmers had funded the opposition MDC,
incited his
supporters to invade farms and drive off their owners,
triggering a
catastrophic and continuing economic
collapse.
In that same year, Mutasa was appointed
Anti-Corruption
minister. He stayed in the job for three years watching and
doing little as
a wave of alleged corruption swept higher and higher through
government and
the top reaches of the judiciary, defence forces, police and
civil service.
Once profitable commercial farms confiscated
from whites were
among the main prizes taken by the new elite. Mutasa
appropriated one of
these farms in eastern Zimbabwe for himself and
independent newspapers
documented extensively how he and other ministers
looted other farms of
billions of Zimbabwe dollars worth of expensive
equipment for resale or use
on their own properties.
In
May 2004, this once "kind and gentle" man kicked opposition
MP Roy Bennett
in parliament after Bennett was involved in a scuffle with
Justice minister
Patrick Chinamasa.
Bennett, who was loved by his black
constituents in the Eastern
Highlands town of Chimanimani in much the same
way as Clutton-Brock had been
loved half a century earlier, had seen workers
on his coffee estate killed
and raped by soldiers and by supporters of
Mugabe's ruling party.
He therefore became incensed when
Chinamasa called his forebears
"thieves and murderers" and rushed across the
floor of the house and knocked
the minister to the ground. The Zanu
PF-dominated parliament sentenced
Bennett to 15 months imprisonment in
prison, where he lost 27 kilogrammes in
weight before his eventual
release.
Mutasa went unpunished for his counter-assault and
less than a
year later he became the second most powerful man in the land
when Mugabe
appointed him Minister of National Security and Land Affairs,
positions that
made him chief of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
and gave him
responsibility for the country's controversial, chaotic and
violent land
reform programme.
In May 2005, in one of the
earliest exercises of his new powers,
Mutasa launched Operation
Murambatsvina, in which soldiers, police and
government militias used
extreme violence to destroy the homes of hundreds
of thousands of poor
people on the outer edges of the country's towns and
cities.
Mutasa presented Murambatsvina as a regeneration
and renewal
scheme to "clean up" urban areas. But most people who lost their
homes were
opposition supporters, and nearly a year-and-a-half later
virtually nothing
has been done to provide new homes for the estimated 700
000 to a million
people who watched their houses being bulldozed,
sledgehammered and set
ablaze.
Anna Tibaijuka, the
special envoy of United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, lambasted
Mutasa's operation as inhuman and a
breach of national and international
human rights laws.
Emboldened by the "success" of
Murambatsvina, Mutasa, with the
power of the much-feared and ubiquitous CIO
as his weapon, began threatening
to "physically eliminate" government
opponents. To this end, he was accused
by the remaining independent press in
Zimbabwe of slapping a police officer
in his home constituency of Rusape and
of assaulting a man who dared to
challenge his nomination as the Zanu
candidate for Rusape.
When Walter Marwizi, a reporter for the
independent weekly
Standard, investigated alleged corruption in the national
security minister's
home province, Manicaland, Mutasa threatened the
journalist: "I will deal
with you ruthlessly if you don't tell me your
source (of the corruption
story). Make no mistake. I am sending my
operatives and they will do a clean
job."
Quietly, in
recent weeks, Mutasa has relaunched Operation
Murambatsvina, with yet more
humble homes being torn down in urban suburbs
by powerful organs of
state.
Mutasa, who had once worked with Clutton-Brock, the
Haddons and
other devout white liberal Christians, to carve out an island of
tolerance
in a sea of bigotry and [ends here...]
Zim Independent
By Dele Olojede
I'VE told some parts of this story
before, but I feel it is
worth repeating and you will soon see why: a few
years ago Hugh Masekela was
at our dinner table in Johannesburg, having
called my wife to say he felt
like some eba and egusi soup, a reminder of
those days in the 70s when he
spent time hanging out with Fela Kuti at the
Africa Shrine in Lagos.
As the evening progressed and we all
drank perhaps a little bit
too enthusiastically, he told the story of his
encounter with Nigerian
police at a roadblock late one night on his way to a
gig at the Shrine.
Of course, in the mid-70s, police
routinely collected "toll" in
nighttime shakedowns of hapless drivers, and
they did the same to the
intrepid trumpeter and composer. He paid as a
matter of convenience, but on
his way back to his hotel at about 4am, the
same police made yet another
demand of him.
Bra Hugh
protested that this, in effect, amounted to double
jeopardy, to which the
police retorted: "Oga (Sir), that time, you dey go.
This time, you dey
come!"
A roar of laughter erupted around our table at this
very
Nigerian story. But recently, in the telling of Bra Hugh's story, I
began to
see the incident as an early indication of what Nigeria was to
become - a
poster child for corruption and mismanagement, stuck in a hole
from which it
is now attempting, with some vigour, to extricate
itself.
It is the seemingly little things - the brazen
shakedown at the
police roadblock; the easy justification of misconduct by
highly placed
officials; the speaker of South Africa's parliament
accompanying a convicted
felon to jail as a mark of solidarity - that often
foreshadow the calamities
to follow.
In the heady boom
times of the 70s, the Nigerian elite by and
large laughed off the indicators
of corruption then slowly gnawing away at
society.
After
all, literature flourished. The travelling theatre was in
full cry. Music
rang clear from the streets of Lagos and other cities.
Petrodollars gushed
so freely that the Nigerian government began paying the
bureaucrats of
cash-strapped Caribbean island nations.
But in time the
country wobbled dangerously and very nearly
collapsed under the weight of
institutionalised graft perfected by the
regime of General Ibrahim
Babangida, later followed by the depravity and
murder that characterised the
years of General Sani Abacha.
A proud, some might even say
arrogant, "giant of Africa" had
been brought to its knees, making the
country's current attempts to revive
itself an exceedingly difficult
undertaking.
In South Africa's highly charged political
environment, where
loyalty to a particular person leads grown men and women
to find a ready
excuse for despicable conduct, the lesson from Nigeria and
elsewhere is
simple: good countries don't magically stay that
way.
On the contrary, the evidence is overwhelming - in
Nigeria,
Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast or any number of countries in our corner of
the
Earth - that good countries often go bad when citizens fail to set high
standards for the conduct of public officials.
The
renewed attention to the global fight against corruption,
pushed in large
part by the World Bank under Paul Wolfowitz, is particularly
important for
Africa, where some studies suggest that about US$148 billion
is lost every
year, either directly to theft or indirectly through lost
investment. As
Kenya's former anti-corruption czar, John Githongo, said
recently at a forum
in Singapore, "corruption is the most efficient engine
for manufacturing
poverty".
No one needs be defensive about the focus on
corruption and its
devastating impact on Africa - it is not to single us
out, but only to focus
our minds on what ails us.
The
good news is that Africans are not culturally or genetically
predisposed to
tolerating corruption; the evidence to the contrary is pretty
much
incontrovertible, in the honour system that characterised daily
exchange
among ordinary people up and down the continent.
Another good
sign is that, in several African countries today,
the fight against
corruption is being waged internally by a new wave of
reformers, using
special law-enforcement tools such as that headed by
Githongo in Kenya, and
the Scorpions in South Africa.
In Nigeria, it is said that
"the fear of Nuhu is the beginning
of wisdom" - in reference to Nuhu Ribadu,
the courageous head of Nigeria's
equivalent of the Scorpions, who daily
confronts the country's
long-entrenched thieving classes.
The bad news is that our civic institutions are still weak and
our
politicians, by and large, remain rapacious. In fact, with a few notable
exceptions, including in South Africa and perhaps Botswana and a handful of
others, the government typically is the number one obstacle in the path of
most Africans in their daily struggle to secure a better life for themselves
and their children.
Continuous political reform is
crucial to reshape our government
into enablers of citizens, the makers and
enforcers of the law, the
guarantors of justice and equality - not our
nannies or the managers of our
football teams or sugar plantations or
airlines. The government must focus
on improving its capacity to make and
enforce the law and smooth the system's
inevitable
imbalances.
It is common cause that South Africa has one of
the world's most
enlightened constitutions, protecting every right
imaginable, and carefully
balanced to insure the interests of its citizens.
But even a fine
constitution is a piece of paper only, if important segments
of the young
nation's leadership exhibit worrying signs of poor judgement,
ethical lapses
and permissiveness. The polarising case of Jacob Zuma, who
remains the
deputy president of the ANC, is but one
example.
It would seem that the bar for acceptable conduct
nowadays is
being continually set low. In some self-respecting societies,
the mere
appearance of misconduct or poor judgement is enough to force the
resignation of a public official. In South Africa, the loudest voices are
insisting that only a criminal conviction is bad enough to warrant the
removal of a public official.
And, sometimes, not even
then.
Look at the South African parliament and the case of
its members
convicted of fraud.
This soft bigotry of low
expectations, to paraphrase a
not-very-popular occupant of the White House,
is the only rational
explanation why Baleka Mbete, the Speaker of
Parliament, chose to accompany
Tony Yengeni recently to the prison gates as
a mark of her solidarity.
In the increasingly anything-goes
environment that some desire
to foist upon us, this is deemed a minor issue.
But it is nothing short of
catastrophic, and not only
symbolically.
The sight of the country's chief lawmaker so
flagrantly
demonstrating her solidarity with a convicted felon - telling the
country,
in effect, that the conviction is immaterial - is a clear
demonstration of
the speaker's lack of understanding of her position, or the
central role in
South Africa's life represented by the country's most
important lawmaking
body, which she heads.
It also shows
a troubling lack of concern for either propriety
or common sense. After all,
Yengeni may be a nice man and a significant