Zim Online
Tuesday 21 November
2006
HARARE - The government's spy Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
has widened investigations into the
importation of unsuitable fertilizer
into the country to include Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) boss Samuel Muvuti
who the secret service believes
could have been bribed to distribute the
fertilizer.
The CIO
that reports directly to President Robert Mugabe is already
probing Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono and Agriculture
Minister Joseph Made
over allegations the two connived to import 70 000
tonnes of poor grade
Compound D fertilizer from a South African firm in
return for
kickbacks.
Gono and Made deny any impropriety in the importation of
the
fertilizer and at a press briefing in Harare last weekend the two said
only
800 tonnes of the imported fertilizer had been found to contain a lower
sulphur content making it unsuitable for Zimbabwean soils.
But
authoritative sources told ZimOnline that the CIO is pressing on
with the
probe and was now also targeting Muvuti after the GMB chief
executive
initially questioned the quality of the fertilizer only to
backtrack and
allow it to be distributed to unsuspecting farmers.
"Had he
maintained his stance, this whole issue would have been
uncovered and
stopped much earlier .. Muvuti has to explain why he changed
his mind," said
a senior CIO officer, adding that investigators suspected
Muvuti, a former
officer in the army, may have been bribed to allow
distribution of the
fertilizer.
Muvuti was not available to comment on the matter while
the CIO would
neither confirm nor deny it was probing the GMB boss saying it
never
discusses its work with the media as a matter of policy.
But correspondence between Gono, said to have been the major sponsor
of the
controversial fertilizer deal and Muvuti showed that the GMB chief
raised
alarm about the poor quality of the fertilizer supplied by South
Africa's
little Itshona firm and was sure to result in reduced yields this
farming
season.
In a letter to Gono dated July 12 and a copy of which was
shown to
ZimOnline, Muvuti wrote: "We write to bring to your attention the
inferior
Compound D (fertilizer) which was recently imported from RSA
(Republic of
South Africa).
"Our concern is that this product
bought using scarce foreign currency
will be distributed to our farmers yet
it is inferior. The impact of poor
quality fertilizer will be reduced
yields, thus impoverishing the farmers
further."
But Muvuti
relented later in August and agreed to distribute the
fertilizer through the
GMB's countrywide branches, which the CIO now
suspects was because he may
have been paid to co-operate.
Meanwhile, further correspondence
between key players in the
fertilizer scam made available this week appears
to suggest that Gono and
his staff at the central bank masterminded the
controversial deal.
In a letter to Millicent Mombeshora - a senior
aide to Gono at the
RBZ -- Ministry of Agriculture permanent secretary Simon
Pazvakavambwa
denies knowledge of the source of the fertilizer, saying all
information
about the supplier were known to the RBZ because it alone was
the one that
had selected the supplier and handled payments for the
fertilizer.
Pazvakavambwa, who was responding to a November 6
request by
Mombeshora for details of the supplier so the RBZ could claim for
a refund,
wrote: "Perhaps you know the source (of the fertilizer) as you are
the ones
contracting these suppliers.
"We have never been able
to discuss the whole fertilizer supply
situation except in a crisis like
now. This ministry believes that any
fertilizer imports should be conducted
with the involvement of the local
fertilizer industry that has the required
expertise. Right now we do not
know all your suppliers hence it is difficult
for us to point the source."
Gono - who is a blue-eyed boy of
Mugabe but is frequently accused by
top officials in the ruling ZANU PF
party and the government of behaving
like a prime minister - has denied
acting alone and maintains he consulted
all relevant government departments
before releasing funds to pay for the
fertilizer. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 21 November
2006
HARARE - A Russian power company,
TurboEngineering, says it will build
ten mini-hydro electricity generating
stations in Zimbabwe as part of an
investment deal signed with the Harare
authorities.
The Russians were in Zimbabwe last month for the
second time after
initially visiting the country last July to explore
investment opportunities
in the energy, mining and agricultural
sectors.
The two parties last October signed a memorandum of
understanding
allowing the Russians to proceed with their investment plans
in the southern
African country.
The power deal is different
from a highly publicized US$300 million
investment agreement signed between
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor
Gideon Gono and another Russian firm,
Rusaviatrade, that later turned out to
be bogus.
In
correspondence shown to ZimOnline between the Russians and the
Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), the east Europeans expressed
keen
interest in mini hydro-projects in Zimbabwe.
But before committing
substantial resources towards the building of
the power stations with a
combined output of 100 megawatts, Turboengineering
said it needed to first
receive a generation licence from the Zimbabwe
government.
"A
generation licence is an authorisation to construct, own, operate
and
maintain a generation station. We intend to build at least ten
stations,"
TurboEngineering said in the correspondence.
Sources at ZESA say
the Russians last month entered into a 50-50 joint
venture with the Zimbabwe
Power Company, a subsidiary of ZESA Holdings for
the construction of the
mini hydro power stations.
There were fears in July that the
Russians would not invest in
Zimbabwe's energy sector after officials from
the firm expressed
dissatisfaction over the country's single buyer model for
electricity and
erratic subsidies from the government.
Zimbabwe
has faced persistent power cuts over the past few years
because the
cash-strapped ZESA has failed to expand generation capacity at
existing
power stations or to build new ones.
Southern Africa is expecting
an acute energy deficit in about two
years time that will see neighbouring
countries that have provided 35
percent of Zimbabwe's power requirements
unable to do so because of rising
demand in their domestic markets. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 21 November
2006
HARARE - In normal times, the
traditional Christmas shopping season
should have been in full swing at this
time of the year in Harare.
The city would have been draped in
colourful decorations as shops
jostled to lure customers to part with their
13th cheques normally paid in
November.
Despite civil servants,
who make up the bulk of Zimbabwe's labour
force, having been paid their
bonuses last week, Harare is in a highly
disturbing mood.
There
is funereal mood gripping the city.
Ellina Chiwara, a civil
servant, told ZimOnline this week that the
grim atmosphere in Harare pointed
to yet another bleak Christmas for
Zimbabwe.
"I have just been
paid my bonus but this is no time to engage in
useless shopping
sprees.
"I have school fees to pay next year and my salary is not
even enough
to cover next year's first term fees," she said.
Chiwara, a mother of four from the poor suburb of Highfield in Harare,
says
apart from putting food on the table for her family, she has struggled
all
year to pay rent for her three-roomed apartment in Highfield.
"I
can't afford a lavish Christmas and I have told my children that
the
important thing is just to buy the basics. Luckily, they seem to
understand
the situation," she added.
The situation appears so tough that even
the cheap Chinese wares in
downtown Harare are not finding any
takers.
Tendai Chidori, a saleslady at one of the Chinese shops
said business
was very low as compared to previous years.
"The
civil servants' bonus used to signal the beginning of brisk
business for us
but things have changed. People are only concerned with
buying
food.
"These toys that we have here have not been bought for a long
time,
even after last week's pay day for the civil servants," she
said.
Indeed, the era of full trolleys in supermarket chains and
stampedes
at the food courts in the city is definitely over as Zimbabweans
are forced
literally "tighten their belts."
The majority appear
too busy chasing scarce commodities such as
cooking oil without giving any
attentions at beckoning mannequins in the
up-market departmental
stores.
Wilson Johwa, a Harare-based economist quipped: "You cannot
afford a
party and a carnival atmosphere in a ship that has hit an
iceberg.
"The grim atmosphere in Harare's CBD is a reflection of
the economic
situation on the ground. We are set for yet another tough
Christmas," he
said.
Zimbabwe is in its seventh year of a
bitter economic recession
described last year by the World Bank as
unprecedented for a country not at
war.
The southern African
country is grappling with the world's highest
inflation rate of over 1 000
percent, a collapsed health delivery system as
well as an acute shortage of
foreign currency for critical imports such as
fuel, food and essential
medicines.
Major Western governments and the main opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party blame the economic crisis on
mismanagement by
President Robert Mugabe, in power since the country's
independence from
Britain 26 years ago.
But Mugabe denies the
charge blaming the crisis on sabotage by Western
governments which he says
were unhappy over his policies.
Even with the bonuses, the workers
who earn average salaries of around
Z$35 000, say the money is still way off
the barest minimum they would need
to buy the most basic of
commodities.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says an average
family of five needs
Z$112 000 per month to survive.
"This is a
serious crisis and all indications point to the worst
Christmas ever this
year," said Wellington Chibebe, the secretary general of
the combative
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) which has been
fighting for
improved salaries for workers in the country.
"Previously, the 13th
cheque used to bolster people's incomes to
enable them to buy food during
the festive season but this time, even that
bonus pay is still far less than
the $112 000 that an average family needs
in order to survive," Chibhebhe
said.
"We are headed for tougher times," he says
ominously.
For Chiwara and many others around the country, it
appears the Mugabe
government is determined more than ever before to give
suffering Zimbabweans
yet another torrid Christmas season. -
ZimOnline
VOA
By
Patience Rusere
Washington
20 November
2006
Even as Air Zimbabwe has announced plans to add a second
weekly flight
between Harare and China, a parliamentary committee is
launching an
investigation into the operations of the long-troubled state
airline.
Chairman Leo Mugabe of the committee on transport and
communications said in
an interview that his panel wants to ''understand''
what is going on at Air
Zimbabwe. Mugabe, nephew of President Robert Mugabe,
declined to elaborate.
But another committee source said the
investigation was prompted by the
cancellation of flights to London recently
because of the airline's concern
that its craft were at risk of being seized
for nonpayment of debts. The
source said Air Zimbabwe management has been
given two weeks to prepare and
present a report to the committee.
Air
Zimbabwe regional manager Chris Kwenda was quoted in the
state-controlled
Herald newspaper on Monday as saying the airline would add
a second weekly
flight to China early next year, to the industrial and
technological hub of
Guangzhou.
Consultant Donald Schenk, president of New York-based Airline
Capital
Associates, told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe
that Air Zimbabwe's difficulties are likely to continue as long as
the
country itself remains in crisis.
Khaleej Times
(AFP)
20 November 2006
TEHERAN - Iran and
Zimbabwe vowed Monday to strengthen ties and press ahead
with resistance to
the United States, which has vilified the governments in
Teheran and Harare
as 'outposts of tyranny.'
'We do not accept US and British dominance
in the world. We will cooperate
to put an end to domination,' Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said,
welcoming Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe at the start of a four-day
visit to Iran.
'We find ourselves
against countries like the Unites States, which think the
world belongs to
them exclusively ... we have to put out defence,' Mugabe
said.
Zimbabwe and Iran have a common enemy in US Secretary of State
Condoleezza
Rice, who has branded Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea
and Zimbabwe
as 'outposts of tyranny.'
'Iran and Zimbabwe think alike
and have been described (as belonging) to the
'axis of evil', who are they
to judge us?' Mugabe said, in reference to US
President George W. Bush's
remarks on Iran, North Korea and Iraq after the
September 11 attacks on the
United States.
'Those countries that think alike should come together,'
Mugabe added.
Iran is one of the countries Mugabe has been warming to as
part of his
government's 'Look East' policy, partly forced by Zimbabwe's
isolation from
the West over controversial land reforms and allegedly
fraud-marred
elections in 2000 and 2002.
The United States' frosty
relations with Iran have soured further over
Teheran's nuclear programme.
Washington claims the Islamic republic's
uranium enrichment programme is
ultimately aimed at producing fissile
material for nuclear
weapons.
Iran insists it will use the enriched uranium only to fuel
nuclear power
stations, something it is permitted to do as a signatory to
the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Yahoo News
Mon Nov 20,
6:57 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's national carrier, Air Zimbabwe, is
to launch a
second regular flight to China as it hopes to cash in on
Harare's policy of
strengthening relations with Beijing, an official
said.
"The flight will come as a second frequency in our China
operation," Chris
Kwenda, Air Zimbabwe's regional manager for China was
quoted as saying in
the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
"We will
launch it mid-January. The plane will be flying to Guangzhou which
is of
high economic importance to China.
"Guangzhou is China's industrial hub
and it is the number one producing
region in terms of China's outbound
tourism and there is potential business
for Zimbabwe there."
The
southern city of Guangzhou, once known as Canton, lies next to the
former
British colony of Hong Kong and is regarded as the gateway to China
by
virtue of its location at the mouth of the Pearl river.
China is becoming
an increasingly important destination for Zimbabwe as a
result of burgeoning
economic ties between Harare and Beijing.
Air Zimbabwe launched its
maiden flight to Beijing nearly two years ago.
"So far we have witnessed
an increase in both passenger and cargo volumes,"
Kwenda was quoted as
saying on the sidelines of the China International
Travel Mart in
Shanghai.
Isolated by Western governments over the political crisis in
Zimbabwe,
President Robert Mugabe has looked to foster new relations with
Asian
countries such as China and Malaysia as part of a so-called "Look
East"
policy.
The government said in September that it had acquired
six more jet fighters
from China while Zimbabwe's national airliner took
delivery last year of
three MA60 passenger planes from the Chinese
state-owned AVIC aircraft
manufacturer.
Media
Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek)
PRESS RELEASE
November 20,
2006
Posted to the web November 20, 2006
MISA Zimbabwe highlights
continued suppression of freedoms in Zimbabwe to
the ACHPR
The
following is a statement by the Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA)
Zimbabwe to the 40th Ordinary Session of the African Commission for
Human
and Peoples' Rights, Banjul, The Gambia, presented by Wilbert
Pfungwadzashe
Mandinde (MISA-Zimbabwe Legal Officer) on November 15, 2006.
The Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Zimbabwe is grateful, once
again, for
this opportunity to address this Commission on the situation of
the
enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression in Zimbabwe.
Over the
past six months, Zimbabweans have continued to face various
challenges and
experience repression in terms of the enjoyment of the right
to freedom of
expression. The arrests of two journalists, Ndamu Sandu and
Godwin Mangudya,
in two separate incidents during the scope of their
employment was enough
demonstration of the police and state's intolerance of
media practitioners
generally and citizens' right to freedom of expression
in
particular.
On 13 September 2006, the police arrested members of the
Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions (ZCTU), a labour movement, as they
attempted to stage a
peaceful demonstration on poor working conditions and
to demand the
provision of anti-retroviral drugs to workers in need. In a
typical act of
barbarism, the police brutally and mercilessly assaulted
them. To date, most
of the demonstrators are still nursing serious and, for
some, permanent
injuries sustained on that day. As if that was not enough,
His Excellency,
the President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, castigated the
labour movement for
the planned demonstration and commended the police for
the brutal attack and
torture of the workers. We call upon the Commission to
urge the Zimbabwean
Government to allow workers the right to stage peaceful
demonstrations.
Collective bargaining without the right to demonstrate can
be equated to
collective begging.
In both the 39th session and this
one, the Zimbabwean Government announced
its intentions of setting up a
Human Rights Commission. However, the
continued suppression of peoples'
freedoms by the same government is a clear
indication of a lack of goodwill
by the government. More so, we believe that
a human rights commission cannot
be set and operate in an environment
replete with repressive legislation as
in Zimbabwe. We urge the Commission
to advise the Zimbabwe government to
repeal repressive legislation and come
up with conditions amenable to the
enjoyment of human rights by Zimbabweans
before coming up with a human
rights commission.
While we congratulate the Zimbabwean Government on its
submission of the
combined state party reports since 1998, we note that the
eight-year delay
is cause for concern. We call upon the Commission to urge
the Zimbabwe
government and other African States whose reports are
outstanding to remedy
the situation by submitting reports timely.
The
Parliament of Zimbabwe is currently discussing the Interception of
Communications Bill, a highly intrusive form of legislation that is vague,
lacks sound justification, invades the private lives of citizens, is
unreasonable in a democratic society and blatantly unconstitutional. The
Commission is requested to urge the government of Zimbabwe not to pass this
legislation, which violates both the Country's Constitution and the African
Charter.
The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA) remains one
of the major hindrances to the development of the media
in Zimbabwe. While
acknowledging the need for an access to information law
for the benefit of
citizens, MISA notes that in its current form, this law
is contrary to its
name and preamble. The shutting down of newspapers and
the arrests of
journalists is enough evidence that the law has nothing
positive to offer.
As part of its contribution to efforts to reform the
media sector in
Zimbabwe, MISA-Zimbabwe consulted widely with journalists,
lawyers and
members of civil society and consolidated their views and
concerns to come
up with a model Access to Information Law. The model has
since been
presented to the Parliament and two Ministries in Zimbabwe.
MISA-Zimbabwe
takes this opportunity to thank the two Ministries which
accepted the model
and is hopeful that such a process will help continue the
recently-started
culture of consultation between the government and the
Civic Society
Organisations.
November 20 2006 at
12:11PM
Harare - At least nine safari operators have been arrested
in Zimbabwe
for allegedly violating exchange control regulations for the
sale of hunting
trophies, the Herald newspaper said on Monday.
Three of those arrested, who include a retired army brigadier general,
Ben
Matiwaza of Lalapanzi Safaris, have already appeared in court in the
second
city of Bulawayo, said the state-controlled Herald.
The other six
unnamed operators are due to appear in court soon,
according to the
paper.
The report said that the operators allegedly made false
declarations
to the Zimbabwean authorities concerning the value of hunting
trophies
including lions and leopards sold to overseas
clients.
The excess payments were allegedly placed
in the operators' overseas
bank accounts.
Under local exchange
control laws, foreign currency earned for
services rendered inside the
country must be brought into Zimbabwe and
surrendered at the official
exchange rate.
Often, Zimbabweans with access to hard cash try to
keep it out of
official channels and change it on the lucrative parallel
market that offers
rates six or seven times higher than the official one of
just ZIM$250 (about
R7) to the US.
In a statement,
Anti-Corruption Minister Paul Mangwana said arrests in
the key hunting and
safari sector were set to intensify. Arrests and
prosecutions were going to
escalate and the (anti- corruption) taskforce
would leave no stone unturned,
he said in a statement.
The governments much-vaunted
anti-corruption drive was launched two
years ago, but so far mainly the
private sector has been targeted.
Although a major corruption
scandal was uncovered in September at the
state-owned iron and steel
company, there have been no arrests so far.
Government critics accuse the
authorities of a cover-up. - Sapa-dpa
By Tichaona
Sibanda
20 November 2006
A Zimbabwe National Army officer
who has been in detention for
allegedly aiding a plot to assassinate Robert
Mugabe has escaped from the
military barracks where he was being
held.
Captain Alfred Chiukira was due to appear before a military
court
martial last week, but the trial was postponed and the army never gave
any
reasons.
But the MDC MP for Mutare North Giles Mutsekwa,
said he finds it
difficult to believe that Army captain Alfred Chiukira
escaped from King
George VI barracks last week Friday.
Mutsekwa, a former Major in the army said Chiukira's 'escape' is hard
to
believe considering that he was being held inside a military fortress
which
is more secure than Chikurubi, the country's top security prison.
'The army should not lie that he escaped. They should tell us they
just let
him go. The man had no case to answer. This was a man facing
charges of
trying to kill the President. He was a priority prisoner, with
guards
watching him every minute and we are told he escaped. This is a story
made
up, I believe they just let him go,' Mutsekwa said.
The Zimbabwe
Standard reported that a soldier guarding Chiukira woke
up at King George V1
barracks on Saturday morning around 4.30 only to
discover the prisoner had
disappeared.
The paper added that Chiukira pretended he was taking
a late night
bath, turned on the shower and fled. When his guard woke up
hours later, the
shower had not been turned off. Chiukira had been
languishing in detention
incommunicado, for the last six months. His plight
came to light last week
when the Zimbabwe Standard made enquiries about his
continued detention
without trial.
He was detained in March
following accusations that he was an
informant of Peter Hitschmann, an
ex-Rhodesian soldier under trial for
allegedly masterminding a plot to
assassinate Mugabe during this year's 21st
February celebrations in Mutare.
It is alleged Hitschmann and his
co-conspirators intended to spill used oil
on the Christmas Pass section of
the Mutare highway to cause an accident
involving Mugabe's motorcade.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
By Violet
Gonda
20 November 2006
Zimbabwe has been breaking
international records - but all for the
wrong reasons.
The
country has the fastest shrinking economy in the world for a
country not at
war. It has the highest inflation at over 1000% . The United
Nations has
also just announced that Zimbabwe has the highest ratio of
orphans to
population of any country in the world. It's estimated that at
least 4 000
people die each week from HIV/AIDS related illness. And as if
this is not
enough the country has the lowest life expectancy in the world -
most women
won't make it past 34.
To compound all this, reports of the ruling
party politicising the
distribution of much needed food continue. This time
it's in Makoni East in
Manicaland province. Loveness Makaure, the Tsvangirai
MDC losing candidate
in the recent rural council polls, said scores of MDC
supporters were being
denied access to food by the winning ZANU PF
councillor Remias Muchineuta.
The MDC candidate who was allegedly
assaulted during the run up to the
elections by Muchineuta's supporters,
said the Councillor takes a list of
people to the Grain Marketing Board
(GMB) to source maize. She said once he
is given the bags and goes back to
the community the beneficiaries of this
staple food are ZANU PF supporters.
Those who are known to be MDC
supporters, even though they have the money to
pay for the food, are left
out.
Mrs Makaure said Ward 27 in
Makoni East has a small community
therefore it's not difficult to know who
supports which political party in
the area. She said at least 40 people came
knocking at her house Monday
morning with complaints that they were being
denied access to food.
We were not able to get a comment from ZANU
PF councillor Remias
Muchineuta.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
TEHRAN (Fars News
Agency)- Zimbabwe has requested Iran to build
a 1600 MW power plant on the
largest river of that country, Iranian Power
Minister Parviz Fattah
said.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with
Zimbabwean Energy Minister
Michael Nyambuya here on Monday, Fattah said that
Iran is also due to
construct a coal-burning 600 MW power plant for Zimbabwe
in the future.
He further pointed out that the two sides have
agreed on the
establishment of a branch of Iranian Transformer Manufacturing
Company 'Iran
Transfo' in Zimbabwe.
Fattah also pointed to the
training of Zimbabwean energy and power
experts by Iranian experts and
university professors as among other
agreements held concluded by the two
sides, reminding that Zimbabwe is one
of the countries which have always
accompanied Iran at the different
political scenes.
For his
part, Zimbabwean Energy Minister Michael Nyambuya voiced his
country's
enthusiasm for the boosting of cooperation with Iran, saying that
Zimbabwe
enjoys high potentials for the construction of hydroelectric power
plants,
considering its huge roaring rivers.
He also stated his country's
willingness for the planning and
implementation of new projects by Iran in
eastern parts of Zimbabwe.
Business Day
John
Legat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMAGINE
the huge economic benefits for southern Africa if oil-rich Nigeria
or one of
the Gulf states were magically to relocate to our region, with
petrodollars
to spend, sophisticated financial-service needs to meet and
contracts to
dole out to support mega-engineering and infrastructure
projects. Well,
something similar is under way already, although many
commentators and
investors have yet to notice. Impoverished, marginalised
and war-ravaged
Angola could have the makings of the Nigeria or Kuwait of
southern and
central Africa.
The possibilities are only just being explored, but huge
strategic benefits
are already on the horizon; not only for Angola but for
the neighbours,
including SA with its advanced financial systems,
engineering expertise and
well-developed manufacturing
base.
International investors - including the Botswana- and
Zimbabwe-based Imara
African Opportunities Fund - are beginning to look at
the strategic
potential should Angola emerge as "the next
Kuwait".
Angola is going on to the "watch list" while investors catch
up with the
pace of events in this fascinating country.
It was only
in 2002 that a peace agreement ended 27 years of civil war.
However, the
track record of the ruling MPLA, led by Jose dos Santos, is
much longer than
that. President dos Santos has been in power longer than
Zimbabwe's Robert
Mugabe.
Recent statistics coming out of Angola are
awesome.
Currently, 1,5-million barrels of oil are produced a day,
rising to
2-million by next year. Even higher volumes are forecast after
that. This
places Angola on a par with Kuwait.
Reserves are huge;
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates them at
45-billion
barrels.
Angola is now the largest supplier of crude to China. It's
no surprise then
that China is throwing money at Angola, building
infrastructure and
providing export-import bank financing to the tune of
$14bn. That's 35% of
gross domestic product (GDP)!
Angola has
also become the seventh-largest oil supplier to the US, which
explains the
CIA interest.
As world concerns mount about continued tensions in the
Middle East, it's a
fair bet the Americans and Europeans will cherish a
source of supply on the
Atlantic seaboard in a region with less
volatility.
In addition to oil, Angola has large reserves of gas,
diamonds and other
minerals. The population is about 13-million, most
crammed into Luanda to
escape the civil war. Two-thirds of the people live
below the dollar-a-day
poverty line.
Though life remains hard for
most Angolans, the economy as a whole is
buoyant. This $40bn economy enjoys
double-digit growth; a situation that is
expected to persist until the end
of the decade.
The fiscal surplus is about 5% of GDP while the current
account surplus sits
at about 12% of GDP. External debt is about a third of
GDP, with Paris Club
debt under negotiation. In African investment terms,
Angola is destined to
become an important market. The view from a regional
investment player is
that the economic and political dispensation could
evolve into scenarios
resembling Indonesia or Nigeria.
Several
factors support this view:
?The economy's most significant feature is
the lack of an effective banking
system. This is a dollarised, cash economy
much like Nigeria's. There are no
credit cards. In December 2002, Dos Santos
appointed an economic team to
oversee home-grown reform; one outcome was a
"strong kwanza" policy linking
the currency to the US dollar. Inflation is
down to 15% as a result.
?State control is strong. One diplomat has
described Angola as a "Portuguese
fascist bureaucracy on top of a Cuban
Marxist bureaucracy". Corruption is a
major challenge.
?With
roughly 95% of the nation's wealth concentrated among the top 5% of
the
population, Angola has strong echoes of Indonesia. The diamond industry,
for
example, is in the gift of the president. The biggest cellular company
is a
family concern, as are some of the largest banks; a cement company is
now
planned.
?A powerful military is in place and an all-pervasive state
oil company
(Sonangol) owns a swathe of the oil- and nonoil economy - all
under
presidential control.
Going on the Indonesian precedent
under former President Suharto, we suspect
an equity market will provide the
exit strategy for many of these industrial
assets. A stock exchange is
planned.
Some observers may have doubts about Nigeria or Indonesia as
role models.
However, investors could well take a more pragmatic approach.
High returns
can be achieved when countries go from anarchy to stability and
from bad to
less bad. Pragmatism is also expected to shape the regional
response. After
all, having a gushing oil spigot next door means positive
spin-off for the
neighbours.
Legat is CEO of Imara Asset
Management, a member of the Imara financial
services group with offices and
affiliates in Gaborone, Johannesburg,
Harare, London, Blantyre, Windhoek and
Lusaka. In addition to asset
management, group activities include investment
banking, advisory services
and stock broking.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 20th November
2006
Breaking Records
I spotted a short statement from
the UN this morning. It said
"Zimbabwe has the highest ratio of orphans to
population of any country in
the world." We seem to be making a habit of
this just now - breaking all
sorts of records in the realm of development
economics.
Just the other day I heard we had the lowest life
expectancy in the
world. I knew it was low and still falling, but I did not
know we were the
worst in the whole world! Then I listened to a speech at a
conference and
heard for the first time that we have been officially
classified as a
"failed State".
We already knew that our economy is
the fastest shrinking in the world
and that we have the highest inflation -
to this we must now add the
accolade that we are in that exclusive group of
less than 10 countries who
are regarded as being in such a shambles that
they are classified as "failed
states".
This week we have seen
several detailed international media reports on
the Zimbabwe crisis. The
Independent in the UK carried a blazing headline -
"Dead at 34" - not the
latest casualty in Iraq but the epitaph on the grave
of a young women in
Bulawayo. The story went on to detail a social and
economic crisis that has
decimated the lives of millions of people. The
shortages and the cost of all
basic foods, the collapse of the health
system, the impact of unemployment
and high inflation and the lingering
affects of urban slum clearance
campaigns that have destroyed the
livelihoods of millions and the homes of
hundreds of thousands, are all
contributory factors.
Diseases
that were once considered no longer significant are back and
killing tens of
thousands of people every month. The mortality figures for
this country -
above those that we would have regarded as "normal" just 20
years ago,
exceed the combined death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Zanu
PF regime
here is killing thousands of people every week - it is not
shooting them or
blowing them up in front of roving TV cameras but it is
killing them just as
emphatically as the Jangaweed in the Sudan or the car
bombers of
Baghdad.
I had always imagined that the leaders of the world would
sit up and
take notice when a crisis of these proportions occurs. They do
not have the
luxury of not having information or not fully understanding
what is going
on - they do know. But somehow it is only when the images come
up on that
little screen and CNN or the BBC capture the stark reality on
electronic
disc that leaders suddenly take notice and seek
action.
Just look at the disproportionate effort being made in the
Darfur
region of the Sudan -
Population affected Darfur - two
million, Zimbabwe - ten million.
Physically displaced Darfur - 200 000
people, Zimbabwe - 2,4 million
internally displaced people and at least
3 million externally
displaced refugees.
Deaths Darfur - 20 000
people in 3 years, Zimbabwe - 550 000 deaths in
three
years.
The response by the UN - direct intervention by the Security
Council,
the Secretary General takes personal charge of negotiations. The AU
sends in
7000 troops and the global community demands that this be
strengthened with
thousands of UN troops and peacekeepers. The media
exposure is daily -
graphic pictures of sprawling camps and men in uniform
on camels and pick up
trucks. The response to the crisis in Zimbabwe, a one
hour talk with Mugabe
on the sidelines of the AU summit and a half hearted
effort to appoint an
ineffective mediator in the form of Mkapa. The response
of the AU and the
SADC - silence.
As we slide towards the abyss
several things come to mind. Could P W
Botha and Ian Smith have got away
with this in their lifetime? Why the
difference in response just because
those doing the killing and abusing our
rights are black? Or does Mugabe
have some sort of Juju that makes him
invisible - just like the original
rebel groups in the Congo?
We are told by all our critics that
Zimbabweans must change things
themselves - on their own. Would the ANC,
Zanu and Zapu have ever argued
that in their day in opposition to a grossly
unjust and tyrannical regime?
The answer of course is never - they
asked for, nay demanded, full
international support and solidarity and got
it - in big measure. UN
resolutions, global mandatory sanctions, the threat
of force and finally
political and economic threats that crushed the
remaining sources of
resistance to change in South Africa and
Zimbabwe.
The final outcome - negotiated assumption of democratic,
social and
economic reforms that brought the majority to the ballot box and
peace to
the streets.
When I hear the deputy Foreign Minister
of South Africa (who seems to
have a special mandate to deal with Zimbabwean
issues) pontificate on the
situation in Zimbabwe I just cringe. He has said
repeatedly that this is a
crisis - but one that must be resolved by
Zimbabweans. He wrings his hands
and says, "What do you want us to do? Send
in the troops?" as if there were
no alternatives to physical intervention.
Just recently he was quoted as
saying that South Africa was aware of the
nature and extent of the crisis in
Zimbabwe and was concerned - but that the
matter was now in the hands of the
SADC troika - I assume he was referring
to the group made up of former
Chairmen of the SADC who head up the SADC
Organ on Security and Politics.
Any Chief Executive of a major
Corporation, who ignored a threat of
the magnitude that is represented by
the crisis in Zimbabwe to the region as
a whole, would soon find himself
looking for another job. Unfortunately the
same rules do not apply in
politics.
So here we are - at the start of a new wet season, facing
a continuing
crisis that threatens the stability of the State and the region
as a whole.
Zanu PF is disintegrating and there are now so many leaks
of sensitive
information that it is clear that the sailors on this
particular ship no
longer have any faith in the Captain. No life rafts or
boats on this
vessel - if you want to get off you have to leave the ship at
the next port
or not at all. But then at least we will still be breaking
records - the
wrong sort, but still world records, we will be remembered for
some of the
things we did - even if it was always the wrong thing.
UNESCO
Editorial Contact: Roni Amelan, Press Relations
Section, tel +33
(0)1 45 68 16 50
20-11-2006 4:30
pm UNESCO and Hewlett-Packard have launched a
joint project to help reduce
brain drain in Africa by providing grid
computing* technology to
universities in Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal
and Zimbabwe. I.S.G.
Mudenge, Zimbabwe's Minister of Higher and Tertiary
Education, took part in
the launch of the "Piloting Solutions for Reversing
Brain Drain into Brain
Gain for Africa" project, at UNESCO Headquarters on
20 November. The
representatives of Senegal and Ghana to UNESCO, as well as
Peter Smith,
Assistant UNESCO Director-General for Education, and Bernard
Meric, Senior
Vice President of Hewlett Packard for Europe, Middle East and
Africa, took
part in the launch (9.30 a.m. - 12 noon, Room VIII) of the
project to
provide university laboratories and research centres with systems
of
interconnections that will enable students and faculty to work with
researchers and professionals around the world.
The
project aims to establish links between researchers who have
stayed in their
countries and those that have left, connecting scientists to
international
colleagues, research networks and potential funding
organizations. Faculties
and students at beneficiary universities will also
be able to work on major
collaborative research projects with other
institutions around the
world.
"This project harnesses the enormous potential of the
information and communication technologies to bring people together and to
spread the benefits of research and development across the north south
divide," said the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura. "We trust
that such projects and such partnerships will enable us to reduce
significantly the devastating effects of brain drain on some of the weakest
societies in the world," he concluded.
"HP has a unique,
long-standing relationship with UNESCO, and
the two organizations have
worked jointly on several projects in different
countries. This new African
project builds on the success of a similar
UNESCO-HP initiative launched in
2003 in South East Europe to alleviate
brain drain in the region that now
includes eight countries," said Bernard
Meric, Senior Vice President
External Affairs, HP EMEA.
The African project was developed
by UNESCO's Education Sector
in response to requests by Member States. Over
the past decades, African
countries have suffered greatly from the
emigration of skilled
professionals, scientists, academics and researchers
who are estimated to be
leaving the continent at the rate of 20,000 a year.
After its first two-year
implementation phase, the project may well be
extended to cover other
countries.
The Education
Ministries of the countries involved, along with
UNESCO, will choose the
universities that will benefit from the project.
Preference will be given to
university departments with important
information technology components. HP
will provide equipment - including
servers and grid-enabling technologies -
and local human resources to the
universities, as well as training and
support, until the projects become
self-sustainable. It will also donate PCs
and monitors and fund research
visits abroad and meetings between
beneficiary universities. UNESCO will be
in charge of overall coordination
and monitoring of activities, as well as
administrative management;
evaluation and promotion of results.
This new project in
Africa follows the successful joint
HP-UNESCO "Piloting Solutions for
Alleviating Brain Drain in South East
Europe" project, launched in 2003 to
support faculties and students in
harnessing the power of grid computing.
Three years after its launch, the
project has resulted in the development of
websites, databases and new
research projects at several of the universities
involved. Academics and
students from across South East Europe have
collaborated with international
colleagues, improved research capacities and
shared scientific knowledge,
encouraging scientists to remain in the region.
Four universities
(University of Split in Croatia, University of Montenegro,
East Sarajevo
University and the University of Sarajevo) have become
self-sustainable in
the use of grid technology and the project continues in
three other
universities (University of Belgrade, University of Skopje and
the
University of Tirana).
* Grid computing is a hardware
and software infrastructure that
clusters and integrates high-end computer
networks, databases and scientific
instruments from multiple sources to form
a virtual environment in which
users can work collaboratively. The grid
concept was developed in the
mid-1990s as a shared computing approach that
coordinates decentralised
resources and uses open, general-purpose protocols
and interfaces to deliver
high-quality service levels.
International Business Times
By Isabel Goncalves
Posted 20 November 2006 @ 01:29 pm EST
(International Business Times) - The Common Market for Eastern and
Southern
Africa, or Comesa, agreed to eliminate non-tariff barriers and end
conflicts
that weaken trade within the 21-member grouping, a statement
issued at the
close of a two-day summit of member countries said Monday.
Leaders met in Djibouti, Nigeria from November 15-16 for the 11th
annual
Comesa Summit where members were urged to form a common customs
market by
the end of next year.
Recommendations were made to create a tax
band on imported products
into the trade bloc. Comesa will also work towards
speeding up a regional
payment and compensation scheme before the end
2007.
"The bloc urges member states to speedily draw a road map to
eliminate
non-tariff barriers. In addition, members should formulate a
strategy for
regional industrialization...and for the promotion of
cooperation between
them," said a statement by participants of the
summit.
Comesa is the largest African economic bloc, grouping
Angola, Burundi,
Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda,
Seychelles, Swaziland,
Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It has a total
population of about 374
million and a total GDP of $203 billion. Kenya will
host next year's summit.
By Tichaona
Sibanda
20 November 2006
As many as 20 Zimbabwean refugees
evicted from the Methodist church in
Braamfontein last week are now camped
outside the church premises.
Solomon Chikohwero, vice chairman of
the Zimbabwe civic society
organisation, said he saw women with little
babies sleeping by the road side
outside the church.
To make
matters worse he said it was raining heavily on Monday and the
evicted
refugees were using cardboard boxes to cover themselves from the
downpour.
The mayor of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo, last week gave the
refugees a
24-hour ultimatum to leave the church. Most of them had been
sheltered in
the church for more than a year.
'This is an urgent issue which
needs a solution quickly because we
have women who are breastfeeding,
sleeping with their babies out in the
cold. When I visited the refugees they
told me they had nowhere to go,' said
Chikohwero.
He said he
would try to convene an urgent meeting of CSO's in
Johannesburg to work out
a plan of addressing the situation. The refugees
were part of a large group
that was asked to leave following several clashes
with the church
community.
The issue came to a boiling point last week Sunday when
church elders
threatened to cut the power supply, water and other essential
services to
the building after accusing the refugees of being disobedient
and violent.
There were other allegations that there was prostitution going
on at the
church, claims that were vehemently dismissed by the refugees as
baseless
and unfounded.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news