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Biti sets up fund for 2011 elections

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 22:10

FINANCE minister Tendai Biti yesterday deftly tucked under Treasury a US$50
million unallocated contingency fund –– which was not announced to the
public during his national budget presentation in parliament –– to cater for
fresh elections whenever they are held.

Biti also dropped clear hints that elections were looming after he set aside
US$30 million for the referendum and US$20 million for other electoral
matters.
This came as South African President Jacob Zuma, Sadc facilitator in
Zimbabwe, was due to arrive in Harare today in a bid to sort out numerous
problems threatening the existence of the inclusive government and clarify
the issue of elections. Although Zuma discussed the issue of polls with
Zimbabwean political leaders in Gaborone last week, his visit was likely to
take the country a step further towards elections despite growing demands
for a clear-cut road map to polls free of manipulation, violence and
intimidation.

Biti allocated US$30 for the referendum on the new constitution which is
likely to take place during the first quarter of next year ahead of
elections in June. He also set aside US$20 million for by-elections, voters’
roll, delimitation of constituencies and infrastructure for the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC).

Informed government sources said while the minister did not specifically
budget for elections and make it public, there was an unallocated US$50
million reserve fund under the Finance ministry which could be used to
bankroll elections likely to be held by June next year.

“If the referendum costs US$30 million, then it is likely that the elections
would also cost around US$30 million,” a senior government official said.
“However, the referendum and other election-related issues (which need US$20
million) would altogether cost US$50 million. As a result of this there are
some unallocated reserves of at least US$50 million which have been set
aside and that’s your contingency fund for elections.”

While the election funding issue appeared touch-and-go, Biti warned that a
dark cloud of political uncertainty was hanging over the country as bitter
wrangling within the unstable inclusive government intensifies. The
infighting is endangering economic recovery and prospects of a swift return
to normalcy.

Biti made the remarks while presenting his US$3,2 billion national budget in
parliament. He said the government of national unity (GNU) was reeling from
a series of problems, including political bickering over hotly-contested
lingering Global Political Agreement (GPA) issues. Some of the contentious
issues include appointments of provincial governors, ambassadors and judges,
as well central bank governor and attorney-general.

“The problems are huge and structural and will require unrelenting effort to
resolve. They can be divided into political, social, institutional and
economic categories as I see them,” Biti said.

The minister listed “political challenges around GNU; discord in the GNU;
lack of certainty on the tenure of the GNU; GPA contestation and outstanding
issues; democracy and rule of law deficit; cyclical and turbulent nature of
the country’s politics; lack of finality on the land reform programme; lack
of definition of a clear land tenure system; Zimbabwe’s isolation and lack
of integration” as some of the most serious troubles besetting government.

Zuma is expected to hold crucial talks with the country’s top political
leadership, President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, over the problematic residual GPA
issues and elections next year. This followed an abortive meeting of the
Sadc organ on politics, defence and security in Gaborone, Botswana last
week.

“Zuma is coming tomorrow and he wants Zimbabwean leaders to be serious about
issues,” a senior Sadc diplomat said yesterday. “His position is that they
must implement what they agreed upon and agree on a road map to elections.
Sadc leaders are increasingly getting fed up with this drawn-out political
stalemate and never-ending bickering in Zimbabwe. They want a resolution of
this standoff.”

The diplomat said Sadc leaders now firmly believe free and fair elections
are the only effective way to end Zimbabwe’s decade-long political crisis
which wrecked the economy and left the country in ruins.

While there were indications that elections could be coming, questions were
being raised as to why the issue of the funding of elections was not dealt
with forthrightly. Mugabe is feverishly pushing for elections by June next
year, but is facing stiff resistance from his MPs who are opposed to the
polls.

Tsvangirai is cautiously saying he wants elections but under conditions free
of political violence and intimidation. Zimbabwe’s elections have often been
characterised by brutality and coercion.

Despite opposition to the polls by MPs, Zanu PF is due to endorse the call
for elections by June next year and Mugabe as the party’s presidential
election candidate at its forthcoming annual conference in Mutare next
month. The party’s politburo on Wednesday endorsed the issue, starting a
process of getting it approved through party structures. Mugabe said he was
disinclined to proceed with the inclusive government beyond February next
year.

Biti said, apart from political troubles, the coalition government was also
dogged by a series of problems, including social and economic ones,
something which paints a gloomy picture of situation ahead.

Dumisani Muleya


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…as Finance minister presents US$3,2 billion budget

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 22:06

FINANCE Minister Tendai Biti yesterday presented a US$3,2 billion national
budget for 2011 projecting that the economy would grow by a further 9,3%
during the year, mainly spurred by expansion in mining and agriculture.

Biti said Zimbabwe would rely largely on domestic revenue to fund its budget
as donors continued to hold back aid.

The greater part of the 2011 budget –– US$2,7 billion (compared to US$2,2
billion in 2010) –– would be financed domestically as Biti had maintained
cooperating-partner support for the vote of credit at no more than US$500
million.

Biti said the bulk of the developing-partner aid would not be channelled
through the fiscus.

“Zimbabwe is relying on its own investments, not much external funds are
coming in…We are surviving on a cash budget and want to move away from a
cash economy in 2011,” Biti said.

The US$500 million vote of credit is a significant drop on the US$800
million anticipated this year with only US$300 million finding its way into
the fiscus.

“Indications are that developing-partner support in 2011 will largely be
channelled outside the government budget system,” said Biti. “While the
Multi Donor Trust Fund, the Zim-Fund, has been successfully activated, with
confirmed contributions by donors standing at about US$70 million, this is
being administered outside the fiscus as well.”

Biti said the bids submitted by various departments for the 2011 budget were
at US$11,3 billion with recurrent expenditure accounting for US$3,8 billion,
but it had to be rationalised to US$2,7 billion.

“Mr Speaker Sir, of the proposed 2011 budget of US$2,7 billion, I propose
applying US$2,2 billion or 80% towards recurrent expenditures,” said Biti.

“Of this amount, the amount required for the wage bill places a big
challenge when looked at against all the other requirements, including
support to health and education delivery services, agricultural services,
social protection, payment of service providers and maintenance of
infrastructure.”
Only US$550 million of the revenues would go towards capital expenditure.

“In 2011 we anticipate that GDP will grow by 9,3% to $8 billion.

“Our initial projections were that our GDP would be $5,9 billion in 2011 ...
we are ahead of schedule,” said Biti.
He said the country is currently facing economic, political and
institutional problems.

Leonard Makombe


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Parastatals must perform — Mugabe

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 22:04

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday said government is now tired of rescuing
underperforming state enterprises and parastatals (SEPs), adding it is time
they  became self-sufficient.
He said most SEPs were performing dismally necessitating government
intervention yearly. Mugabe made the remarks at the official launch of the
Corporate Governance Framework (CGF) for State Enterprises and Parastatals.

The launch was also attended by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy
Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.

Mugabe said: “We have the story (of SEPs) of deficits, deficits and
deficits, failure, failure and failure, loss, loss and loss and appeals to
government to salvage situations.

“In some situations government would not be able to salvage you (SEPs) and
in most cases government has come with assistance. It has come with some
help but that cannot be expected. So we say let us inject into ourselves
that discipline.”

Some of the government state enterprises and parastatals that have been
under intense public scrutiny for performing dismally are Ziscosteel, Cold
Storage Company, Noczim, Telone, National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), Zesa
Holdings, Air Zimbabwe, Grain Marketing Board, Netone and Agribank.

The framework signed by the three GPA principals hopes to bring sanity in
most SEPs by providing guidelines to transparency, accountability,
efficiency, risk management and effectiveness.

Mugabe said: “It is common knowledge that most state enterprises and
parastatals have not met the standards expected of them in delivering
service. This is attributed to various reasons, the most important being
weak corporate governance as well as poor ethical practice guidelines.

“The unfavourable co-operational environment that characterised our economy
owing mainly to illegal sanctions imposed by some Western countries severely
contributed to the poor performance of the SEPs at a great cost to the
nation.”

Mugabe expressed disappointment at the continued inconsistencies that
“dogged” the SEPs. He said the adoption of the CGF was fundamental and
timely and made it essential for company officers, directors and senior
managers to understand their responsibilities and legal obligations that are
cognisant of the changing socio-economic environment.

Mugabe said failure for the SEPs to adhere to the stipulated guidelines in
the CGF was punishable and hoped the adoption of the framework would reduce
dependence on the fiscus and enhance their contribution to economic
turnaround.

Tsvangirai said the main issue that the government had to deal with was the
conflict between the Ministry of State Enterprises and Parastatals and line
ministries.

“If we are able to define the key roles of this ministry setting out
standards of how parastatals work and there is no conflict in that ministry
we would have achieved a lot. There are some state enterprises and
parastatals that need to be rationalised and others that need to be
nationalised,” he said.

Mutambara was of the view that SEPs have the potential to contribute about
40% to the GDP but were compromised by “role ambiguity, ineffective boards,
ineffective management systems and non adherence to statutes which has
contributed to poor performance by some SEPs rendering them a drain on the
fiscus”.

Wongai Zhangazha


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Economy set to grow by 9,3%

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 22:03

FINANCE minister Tendai Biti yesterday said the economy will next year grow
by 9,3% as the country slowly recovers from a decade-long economic meltdown.
In his 2011 National Budget presentation in parliament, the minister said
gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 8,1% this year, compared with 5,7%
in 2009, as a result of increased mineral earnings.
Inflation is expected to be at 4,8% by year end.
The economic recovery started when President Robert Mugabe agreed to share
power with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in 2009.
The minister warned about the government’s high debt level. The country’s
foreign debt is estimated at US$6 billion.
The minister said he expected government to generate US$2,7 billion in
revenue in 2011 against a projected US$2,25 billion in 2010.
Biti said mineral earnings shot up 47% in 2010, most of it from platinum,
ferrochrome and gold. Diamonds made up only 9% of mineral earnings,
including US$85 million from the Marange diamond fields.
“The economy is set to grow by 8,1% this year, compared to 5,7% in 2009 on
the back of growth in mining by 47% and agriculture at 33%. Projections for
the year 2011 are of real GDP growth of 9,3%, underpinned by further
recovery in mining production with output rising by a strong 44%.”
Biti says the growth will also be “complemented” by normal rainfall in the
2010-2011 season which should see agriculture growing by 19,3% buoyed by
improved viability of farmers benefiting from the multi-currency regime as
well as the liberalised marketing environment. Biti projected a 5,75%
manufacturing growth for 2011 underpinned by improvements in capacity
utilisation.
Government says it will increase royalties on diamond sales to 15% from 10%,
while gold and platinum royalties would rise 4,5% and 5%, respectively, from
4%.
“Despite the increase in international metal prices, royalties collected
from precious metals amounted to a paltry US$20,7 million from sales of
US$593,8 million during the period January to September 2010,” Biti said.
The minister says government would spend US$135 million to raise its power
generation capacity to 1 650 MW in 2011 from current supply of around 1 000
MW.
“It is our intention to raise power generation in 2011 to 1,650 megawatts by
prioritising the rehabilitation of the Kariba and Hwange stations as well as
the small thermal stations in Bulawayo, Harare and Munyati,” he said
The budget comes against a background of a myriad of problems such as
limited vote of credit support and low liquidity.
Biti said government will introduce new exchange control regulations to
replace and consolidate the existing regulations.
The new regulations, he said, will put in place a legal framework within
which the multi-currency system and the liberalisation of current account
transactions can operate.
Treasury will also come up with exchange control regulations to compel all
authorised dealers, including banks, shops, petroleum undertaking and any
commercial enterprise to display the daily applicable international cross
rates for all prescribed currencies in a manner that is “conspicuous” to the
public.
Biti said government will provide US$9 million worth of coins on the market
after talks with the US Department of the Treasury for acquisition and
access to smaller denominated coins and replacement of soiled notes through
the US Federal Reserve and commercial banks.
The minister said bank deposits were increasing by an average US$82 million
monthly, adding that money transfer agencies would next year conduct capital
transfers originating from Zimbabwe.
Government, Biti said, would re-introduce an agricultural Commodities
Exchange to facilitate the trade of agricultural commodities produced in the
country.
Biti increased the tax free threshold on salaries from US$175 to US$225 and
also awarded a US$500 tax free bonus for this year.
Civil servants’ salaries would in January go up by 80%.
Biti allocated a US$50 facility in conjunction with Afrexibank for industry
to support the acquisition of equipment, purchase of raw materials, as well
as spare parts, with interested companies applying through their banks.
“I have already written inviting Afreximbank to join us in this endeavour by
considering providing additional lines of credit to complement the US$50
million the budget is providing,” the minister said.
Lovemore Matombo, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president, had a mixed
view on the budget. Firstly he expressed his displeasure on the proposed tax
free threshold and secondly he “praised” the minister for allocating the
lion’s share of the budget to education.
“We are greatly disappointed by the proposed US$225 monthly tax free
threshold announced by the minister. We expected him to announce a figure
close to the current poverty datum line currently standing at US$487. We
have argued that as long as workers have more disposable income, it also
increases aggregate demand.”
On education he said: “For the first time in nearly 30 years, education has
received the highest chunk of the budget. That is the principle we have been
looking for quite some time. We praise him for the brave stance he has
taken.”

Chris Muronzi


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Sibanda threatens multiple farm-owners

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:40

A STORM is brewing in Zanu PF after war veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda
threatened to forcibly repossess land from multiple farm-owners across the
country whom he accused of having abused the controversial land reform
programme.
There are reports that many senior Zanu PF officials own more than one farm.
In an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent on Wednesday, Sibanda said
owning multiple farms was “illegal” and “counter-revolutionary”.
Sibanda, who is being accused of terrorising villagers in Masvingo Province,
said his association was going to be very hard on multiple farm-owners whom
he regarded as selfish and non-productive.
“There are some things that we said as war veterans we will not tolerate
like those with multiple farms but not doing anything productive regardless
of their positions. They are criminals, a person who has more than one farm
through the land reform is a criminal,” said Sibanda without naming the
multiple farm-owners.
On local and international media reports alleging that the war veterans’
leader was forcing villagers and civil servants to his meetings and
threatening them with violence, Sibanda dismissed this arguing that the war
veterans were having normal meetings with their “stakeholders, peasants”.
MDC-T information and publicity secretary for Masvingo province Dusty
Zivhavhe claimed that Sibanda told a meeting in Chiredzi last week that even
if Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai won the election he would not rule the
country because it came through blood.
Zivhavhe also alleged that the war veterans’ leader told villagers that the
election would be about people choosing if they wanted a war or not.
On Wednesday, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) released a statement in which
it alleged that Sibanda, with other members from his association coerced
traditional leaders from Masvingo to tell their subjects to support only
Zanu PF.
“The Zimbabwe Peace Project has noted that the current political environment
does not guarantee a free and fair election in the near future since all the
institutions of violence are still intact. It remains very worrying that all
local governance structures in rural Zimbabwe have been politicised that
they clearly and effectively serve the interests of Zanu PF,” said ZPP.
Sibanda described as “nonsense” allegations by Zivhavhe and the ZPP, saying
the meetings were held to explain to the people how the MDC was committing a
“crime against humanity through sanctions”.
“People are making a lot of silly allegations that I cancelled a Copac
meeting and I am threatening villagers in Bikita, Zaka and Chiredzi.  Copac
found us already on the ground and we didn’t disrupt any meeting. The
allegations are stupid,” he said.
“The meeting is just a simple meeting of the war veterans going to meet the
people and other freedom fighters. War veterans belong almost everywhere in
the country,” Sibanda pointed out.
He said allegations that he has been campaigning for Mugabe in MDC-T-
dominated areas ahead of the elections next year were “stupid”.
Sibanda said: “That is just speculation which is very stupid. Which MDC-T
dominated areas that they claim to dominate and control? The people of
Zimbabwe fought for self-rule.
“What is so special about what we are doing now?” adding that it was not the
first time they have had such meetings”.

Wongai Zhangazha


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‘Zim humanitarian situation still fragile’

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:40

THE United Nations has warned that Zimbabwe’s humanitarian situation is
still fragile and could explode if funds are not provided to contain the
situation.
In its October monthly report, the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there is need for “a massive financial
investment” to control the situation before it becomes a humanitarian
emergency.
“Unless these are addressed, the country will remain vulnerable while its
ability to respond to shocks remains compromised,” read the report released
this week.
The report cited “the unexpected influenza A H1N1 outbreak in October,
coupled with the ongoing cholera and measles epidemics reflect the fragile
humanitarian situation” as indicators that the situation could explode.
An outbreak of the influenza A H1N1 was recorded in Tsholotsho District in
Matabeleland North province on October 15.
Over 2 600 cases had been reported by end of the week ending October 17. The
outbreak affected mostly children particularly of school going-age and those
under five years.
The report said this, and the reported measles and cholera outbreaks,
exposed the fragility of the health sector.
“Ordinarily, such outbreaks would be easily controlled in a functional
health system. The continued need for agricultural input support, food aid
and income- generating projects also testify of the same,” said the report.
It said efforts to contain the situation were being hampered by limited
inflows of both humanitarian and development funding.
“Health partners, continue to support government efforts to contain disease
outbreaks. However, this requires a massive financial investment,
particularly in strengthening the infrastructure,” reads the report.
“Zimbabwe’s chronic vulnerability is largely a consequence of the
degradation in social services infrastructure.”
OCHA said there was a cholera outbreak in the last two months in Manicaland,
with Buhera, Chimanimani, Chipinge, Mutare urban and Nyanga districts
reporting cases.
“By end of October 2010, a cumulative 20 deaths and 774 cumulative cholera
cases, including 91 laboratory confirmed cases, had been reported in an
outbreak that started in February 2010 and has spread to 18 of the country’s
62 districts,” the report reads.
OCHA said reports of measles were still being received in parts of the
country, however, at a lower rate than in the period before the nationwide
immunisation campaign from May to June 2.
“In the period July 5 to October 17 altogether 114 deaths and 1 128
suspected measles cases were reported, of which 69 were confirmed. Twelve
districts reported confirmed measles outbreaks, although there were no
confirmed outbreaks in the last 30 days. The attack rate of suspected cases
is nine per 100 000,” reads the report.
Food shortages are also compounding the situation. According to the report,
World Food Programme’s monthly Food Security Monitoring System indicated
that the majority of households in rural wards had exhausted their harvested
stocks by the end of September and beginning of October 2010.
“Although maize meal is readily available in urban areas, availability in
rural areas is low due to liquidity challenges and preference for maize
grain,” the report  added. –– Staff Writer.


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Mugabe orders acceleration of constitution process

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:38

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has ordered the Constitution Parliamentary Select
Committee (Copac) to accelerate the constitution-making exercise, as seven
Zanu PF provinces have endorsed an early election which the president wants
by mid-next year.
Sources said Mugabe told Copac co-chairman Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana during a
politburo meeting on Wednesday that the exercise should gather pace to
ensure Zimbabweans go to elections to end the inclusive government which his
party formed with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T and the MDC-M.
Mangwana had initially told the politburo that the writing of the new
constitution was facing serious financial constraints and could be further
delayed.
Mugabe, sources said, expressed disappointment over the constitution-making
exercise’s snail’s pace.
Earlier this year, Mugabe ordered Finance minister Tendai Biti to budget
$200 million for the referendum and elections.
The constitution-making process was marred by violence and intimidation for
which MDC-T blames Zanu PF.
The principals, Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara, agreed under the 2008 Global Political Agreement that a new
constitution is required before fresh elections. A new constitution will
replace the 1979 Lancaster House constitution.
A senior Zanu PF member said Mugabe was clear that Zimbabweans would go for
elections next year soon after the writing of a new governance charter.
According to Mugabe, a referendum should be held in March followed by
elections in June, although critics say democratic reforms should precede
polls. On the other hand Mugabe argues he does not want a prolonged
extension of the inclusive government.
The senior Zanu PF member said: “The president (Mugabe) was disappointed
over the delays in the Copac programmes. The delay in the
constitution-making process means delayed elections and Mugabe doesn’t want
that.”
The source said despite earlier differences over the elections among
politburo members, there was consensus at the Wednesday meeting that Zanu PF
should push for elections because they believe MDC-T’s fortunes were waning.
“People should stop doubting that elections are there next year. Mugabe
wants the elections and everyone in Zanu PF is now committed to make sure
that the party wins. It’s highly likely that we are voting in 2011,” said
the senior Zanu PF member.
Meanwhile, Zanu PF chairman Simon Khaya Moyo told the Zimbabwe Independent
yesterday that seven of the 10 Zanu PF provinces had endorsed 2011 polls,
while more endorsements were expected from the remaining three which are
still to hold their provincial conferences.
“Provinces have been endorsing that as you have been aware - a number of
provinces except three that are still to go for their conferences. The rest
have all endorsed that position in terms of their resolutions as provinces
and actually it is expected that the conference itself will endorse what the
provinces want,” he said.
“The logic of it al is that we are in an inclusive government and this
inclusive government is as a result of the GPA which has a limited lifespan,
actually of two years and in these two years it is anticipated that a new
constitution will have been in place followed by elections. We cannot
violate it. I hope by the expiry we shall also be concluding the provision
of the GPA and go for elections.”
Asked if senior members opposed to early election had expressed their views,
Moyo said they had not formally done so.
“Not formally, nobody has ever said this formally at any meeting. People
might be having their own inner feelings but have never heard any formal
pronouncements by anybody over this matter,” he said.
Asked if the reason could be because they were afraid to publicly oppose the
president, Moyo questioned why they should oppose something sensible.
“If the president speaks sense which he does all the time, surely I don’t
know why one should go against sense and logic and if that is what people
say, so be it. In the politburo, central committee and conference, people
are free to express themselves. People are saying we want elections next
year, the GPA is spending time quarrelling,” he said.
About legislators concerns that they wanted a guarantee that no primary
elections would be held in their constituencies, Moyo said primary elections
would be held as in prescribed in the Zanu PF constitution.
“They have not brought that to us. The party constitution provides that
there must be primary elections for everybody unless the constitution is
amended, which I don’t see happening at all,” he said.
On violence and intimidation, Moyo urged all parties not to engage in
violence and told the police to arrest anyone involved irrespective of their
political party.
“There must be no violence. This country has law enforcement agents and
really they have a duty to protect citizens and if there is anybody that is
involved in violence –– it is not one sided –– this must be stopped, we can’t
allow it. We can’t allow people to be muzzled by whomever. The police must
apply law to its fullest,’ he said.
Asked war veterans leaders is being allowed to harass villagers, Moyo said:
“We don’t know what he has done. He has denied everything. We have not heard
of any specific case he has done to warrant any action against him.”
He also denied that soldiers were being deployed countrywide to campaign for
Zanu PF and also said there was no militarisation of the party.
“I saw it in the private paper; I don’t know what that is (boys on leave).
We have never discussed it as a party –– I only see it in the media, it has
never been brought to our attention. We are all war vets, we are all
military people. I was part of those that liberated this country and now I
must not participate in the running of the country, why?” he said.
He referred questions related to Air Vice Marshal Henry Muchena and former
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) director-internal, Sydney Nyanhongo
working full time in the party’s department of commissariat to national
commissar Webster Shamu.

See full interview with Moyo in next week’s edition.


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Diamonds not benefiting Zim people –– Canning

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:37

BRITISH Ambassador Mark Canning this week expressed concern over Zimbabwe’s
handling of rough diamonds mined at Marange and the timing of elections
which President Robert Mugabe wants mid-next year.
Canning told journalists that the proceeds realised so far from the sale of
Marange diamonds were not benefiting ordinary Zimbabweans.
He said Britain would continue to oppose the export of the Marange diamonds
until there is evidence that they are benefiting Zimbabweans.
“Diamonds –– what is happening in Marange is very wrong. The benefits from
Marange diamonds are not used for the benefit of this country,” he said.
“What we see here is that a resource is being exploited not for the benefit
of Zimbabweans, you know what is happening.”
The Kimberley Process earlier this month failed to reach an agreement
authorising future diamond exports from Marange. An agreement was widely
accepted at the KP plenary in Jerusalem in Israel but was blocked by Canada
and Australia. The plenary meeting ended with a decision to continue
negotiation until a unanimous agreement is reached.
To broker a resolution on the exports of the diamonds, the KP’s Working
Group on Monitoring met this week in Brussels. But Zimbabwe boycotted the
meeting and has since written to the KP chairman saying the ban was invalid.
Zimbabwe accused KP chairman Boaz Hirsch of not dealing with it honourably
and with integrity and for yielding to what it described as “political
schemes devised by NGOs and participants opposed to the diamond exports”.
The Brussels meeting was attended by the United States, South Africa,
Israel, the European Union, the World Diamond Council, Global Witness and
Partnership Africa Canada (PAC).
Exports from Marange are subject to restrictions imposed by KP rough diamond
certification scheme because of concerns regarding human rights abuses and
military involvement in diamond mining and smuggling in the region.
On elections, Canning said the environment was not conducive to a free and
fair elections. He said Zimbabwe has to ensure that the constitutional
process was completed in an orderly and well-paced way.
“The draft constitution –– all this takes months. It’s hard to see how this
could be done sooner,” he said.
President Robert Mugabe has said there is no need to extend the unity
government by six months after its expiry in February next year. He said the
constitution-making process should be fast-tracked so that a referendum is
held early next year and an election mid-next year.
In addition to a smooth and orderly constitution-making process, Canning
said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and others like the Zimbabwe Human
Rights Commission should be capacitated, while technical changes should be
made to the voters roll and electoral laws before an election is held.
Canning said thorough and comprehensive monitoring arrangements should also
be put in place prior to a credible, free and fair election.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has insisted that electoral, media and
security reforms should be implemented before an election. He wants Sadc,
the African Union and international observers and monitors to be stationed
in the country six months before and after the election.
“Obviously, it is for the parties to the GPA to decide when the next
election should be held,” Canning said. “However, it’s important to note
that an election that is held too soon is likely to be much like the last
one in 2008,” Canning said. “If a poll was held prematurely, it would be
most unlikely to be either free or fair. I sympathise with people’s views
that elections are the last thing on their mind. It is inconceivable that it
will be a successful election if it is done too early.”
Turning to sanctions, the British ambassador was non-committal on the
argument, advanced by Presidents Jacob Zuma and Seretse Khama, on whether it
would be politically prudent to remove sanctions and see how Zanu PF reacts
on fully implementing the Global Political Agreement.
Journalists in the briefing raised the issue of Zanu PF’s refusal to
implement the 24 agreed issues and make concessions on the other three
issues involving the appointments of Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana until sanctions are removed.
Just last month, Mugabe re-appointed provincial governors after Zanu PF
argued that the appointments using the agreed formula of five MDC-T, four
Zanu PF and one MDC-M could only be done simultaneously with the removal of
sanctions.
One journalist asked if it would not be wise to remove the restrictions,
which Canning said only affected one in every 70 000 of Zimbabwe’s
population and 35 companies, as this would test Zanu PF’s commitment to
fully implement the necessary and essential reforms agreed on in the GPA.
The reporter then suggested that if Zanu PF failed to comply, then the EU
could still re-impose the sanctions.
“We will not seek to argue that particular elements in the GPA should hold
up other areas of progress. There should be a difference between economic
sanctions and restrictive sanctions,” Canning said.
The EU is meeting in February to discuss the renewal of sanctions.

Faith Zaba


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Zim has failed to normalise relations with West

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:37

THE MINISTRIES of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and International
Cooperation admitted this week that they had failed to increase business
confidence and investment levels with the West, which were some of their set
targets for 2010.
The ministries’ permanent secretaries told the parliamentary portfolio
committee on Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade
that they had also failed to normalise relations with the United States (US)
and the European Union (EU) and to re-engage international financial
institutions for financial assistance.
The EU and the US imposed travel restrictions on President Robert Mugabe and
his cronies and 35 local companies accused of funding Zanu PF. The measures
come up for renewal in February and discussions among the 27 members are
expected to start soon. The decision to remove or renew the sanctions will
depend on the status of the Global Political Agreement.
Foreign Affairs acting permanent secretary Ambassador Ngoni Sengwe said:
“Most of the ministry’s set targets were not met. These include desired
outcomes like noticeable increase in business confidence and investment
levels with the West, normalisation of relations with the West and the
repeal of Zidera (Zimbabwe Development and Economic Recovery Act passed by
the US congress).”
He added that the country failed to re-engage the international financial
institutions for financial assistance.
“Relations with Western countries and major financial institutions like the
World Bank, International Monetary Fund have yet to thaw,” Sengwe added.
However, he said his ministry had scored some success in the region and
Africa.
“The country scored major successes in that both Sadc and the AU now speak
with one voice especially on the issue of the removal of sanctions and on
the call for the support of the Inclusive Government,” he added.
Ministry of Regional Integration and International Cooperation permanent
secretary Tadeous Chifamba lamented the EU’s lack of movement on sanctions
until the full implementation of the GPA by all parties in the Inclusive
Government.
“Negotiations with the EU and US on sanctions have yielded very little. They
said normalisation of relations will only take place when Zimbabwe is
perceived to have implemented the GPA in full.
“We are urging them to take corresponding measures to help healing in the
country in relation to the number of issues implemented in the GPA so far,”
Chifamba said.
He added that the EU had shifted a little on the sanctions by delisting some
companies from the sanctions list.
“The last EU/Zimbabwe reengagement dialogue managed to produce some shifting
of stances by the EU. They delisted a number of companies from the sanctions
list. A lot still has to be done. The ultimate aim is to have the sanctions
removed,” added Chifamba.
Both ministries lamented limited funding they were receiving from the
Treasury and restated that re-engagement and normalisation of relations with
the EU and the US remained their major priority in 2011.
Sengwe said: “Ministry of Foreign Affairs will in 2011 pursue normalisation
of relations with Western countries and international financial
institutions. In that regard the re-engagement will involve hosting meetings
and receptions at home and abroad.”
On the other hand, Chifamba said Zimbabwe needed to get its priorities
right.
“We need to have an agenda. We need to be clear on our strategic objectives
at every forum we attend be it, Sadc, EU or AU. We should stop sending mixed
signals. Thus far we will try to harmonise the objectives of different
ministries and package them for presentation,” he said.
Both ministries are bidding for allocations double the amounts they received
in the current year. Foreign Affairs wants $124 million while Regional
Integration and International Cooperation is bidding for $15 million.

Paidamoyo Muzulu


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Dialogue displays wide GNU ideological chasm

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:36

YOUTH Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Saviour
Kasukuwere and Economic Planning and Investment Promotion minister Tapiwa
Mashakada this week displayed a wide ideological chasm between partners in
the coalition government running Zimbabwe’s affairs.
The two ministers, together with prominent businessmen, on Wednesday faced
each other during a Zimbabwe Independent-sponsored “Independent Dialogue”
meeting — a forum which engages business, academia and policymakers on key
issues affecting the country.
Guided by a theme, “Doing Business in Zimbabwe: Who is welcome?” Kasukuwere,
quite predictably made the provocative remark that British investors were
unwelcome to do business in the country. This was when it was badly in need
of foreign direct investment and currently at the tail end of global
competitiveness.
His vitriol towards the former colonial master could leave British
billionaire Richard Branson reconsidering his recent positive remarks on
Zimbabwe.
Branson was in September quoted by wire services as saying : “Zimbabwe, of
all the African countries, it’s got the best chance of getting back ... it
just needs a bit of help getting kick-started.  Only time will tell.”
Seemingly guided by the “Look East Policy”— a desperate investment bid
undertaken by the Zanu PF-led government to bust Zimbabwe’s economic
isolation from the Western bloc — Kasukuwere said the Brits could eat
Zimbabwe’s cake last.
As the tiff within the inclusive government escalates, capital remains
scarce and a huge proportion of Zimbabwe’s “bellwether friends” from the
East are rolling up their sleeves to compete for relatively low-income
investments  with locals.
Said Kasukuwere in the presence of British ambassador Mark Canning: “Any
investment that will be coming from Britain will be looked at very
negatively. If you want to invest in this country, fine. But with British
investment, I would use the Malaysian parlance, “Buy British Last.” He
omitted to mention the quote came from Mugabe’s old friend Mahathir, long
since out of office.
“You ask me why?” he said. “They come here to invest and put you under
sanctions again.”
Foreign Direct Investment, which at the peak of Zimbabwe’s economic fortunes
in the mid-90s averaged 20% now stands at 5% as investors look elsewhere in
the region.
The government, especially Zanu PF politicians, blame controversial
sanctions imposed on President Mugabe and his inner circle.
That the inclusive government represented by the main political parties —
Zanu PF and the two MDC formations — is engaged in frantic diplomatic
efforts to warm frosty relations between Harare and the European Union — was
not enough to stop the Zanu PF minister from making maladroit remarks that
are likely to scupper British investment of any kind.
Kasukuwere’s position on British investors vindicates the International
Finance Corporation (IFC), a private sector lender of the World Bank which
ranked Zimbabwe among the worst investment destinations in the world.
The current IFC Doing Business Report showed that Zimbabwe slipped one
position to 157 out of the 183 countries surveyed owing to its reported
limited commitment to enforce contracts.
Zimbabwe should play its political cards right before investment comes,
business leaders said in response to Kasukuwere’s remarks.
Fred Mutanda, chairman of the American Business Association of Zimbabwe,
said the politicisation of corporates by the government was enough to scare
away investors. He said the country needs economic empowerment policies that
will survive politics to attract capital inflows.
Mutanda said: “Government should allay concerns about political risk
regarding expropriation. This applies to local investors, especially if one
looks at the seizure of black-owned farms, 2004 bank closures, the Shabanie
Mashaba Mines-Mutumwa Mawere matter and how the Kingdom Meikles issue was
made political.”
Mutanda has business interests in the motor industry, finance,
pharmaceuticals and real estate.
“The bone of contention with the indigenisation regulations is that it
becomes a deterrent to new investment,” he said. “It is difficult to find a
local partner with the capacity to start new projects. The policy should
allow an initial 100% ownership and then a gradual reduction to 49% through
an initial public offering to encourage broader empowerment. The
introduction of the multicurrency system has seen Zimbabweans unable to
access capital and therefore can easily partner with foreign investors,” he
added.
In his bid to curry the controversial empowerment regulations which came to
force in March this year, Kasukuwere cited OK Zimbabwe and NMB whose
ownership structures were altered during capital-raising initiatives as
examples of how government can be “flexible” on the prescribed
indigenisation threshold that tallies with the “national interest”.
He however reiterated that government would not budge on the mining sector.
“We need indigenisation because how can a company export minerals worth over
US$1 billion and only remit US$44 million to the state. Let’s stop living in
dreamland,” Kasukuwere said.
Mashakada said Zimbabwe should remove the bad-boy tag attached to it by
investors owing to dirty politics.
In a veiled attack on Zanu PF politicians, Mashakada, the deputy
secretary-general of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC, said no political party
should claim ownership of the indigenisation exercise which came after
parliament passed the empowerment bill three years ago.
Zanu PF has since announced that it will use indigenisation as an election
trump card in polls President Robert Mugabe wants held by June next year.
“As politicians we tend to politicise an otherwise necessary piece of
legislation. Those who are politicking the indigenisation law are saboteurs
because they are vulgarising the law,” Mashakada said. “That is cannibalism.
The most important issue is the sovereign risk of the country — that is in
the realm of politics. People haven’t forgotten the land reform exercise
that is perceived as expropriation and grabbing.”
At the turn of the millennium, the Zanu PF-led government embarked on an
arbitrary land exercise that resulted in white commercial farmers owning
vast tracts of land losing farms to what critics say were
politically-connected black Zimbabweans.
The two ministers, however, found common ground on mining. Like Kasukuwere,
Mashakada admitted that mining companies were not significantly contributing
to the fiscus.
“The largest influx of investors are Chinese but their interest is
extraction of raw materials. They are extracting chrome, they are in Marange
(diamond fields) but we are saying they should add value,” Mashakada said.
Statistics from the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe, project that chrome mining
will outgrow other mining sectors after projecting a 147,6% growth.
Gold was ranked second with a 62% growth forecast. On the downside the
chamber expects a contraction of -21% in black diamonds output. Judging by
projections, financing the empowerment policy in the mining sector could be
a herculean task for the cash-strapped government, currently struggling to
pay the civil service modest incomes.
The CMZ says the mining industry requires up to US$5 billion in the next
five years to recapitalise local mines.
On the contrary, mining companies operating in the country argue that the
country’s perennial energy crisis and unsustainable costs of alternative
energy stifle their efforts to beneficiate minerals.
As the two ministers critiqued each other and emotions flared, businessman
Pattison Sithole frankly discouraged the apparent incoherence between the
two bureaucrats.
“We have a problem in this country. We have so much emphasis on political
positions and in trying to outdo one another at the expense of business. To
me it’s wrong, I think we should really spell out as a country what we need
to do. We need to put the economy first ahead of political interests.”
Kasukuwere however in response to politicisation of economic policies said:
“I am a political animal and I need votes. So I feel that indigenisation
will bring votes, I will discuss it at rallies.”
British ambassador Mark Canning was clearly dismayed with Kasukuwere’s
disrespect for British investors.
“Indigenisation should be the rule of law. I can only express my
disappointment at what I heard. I have worked to have British companies come
to Zimbabwe,” Canning said.

Bernard Mpofu


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General Laws Bill ‘inimical to democracy’

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:35

ZIMBABWEANS’ right to freely access and disseminate public information will
be further curtailed if the proposed General Laws Amendment Bill goes
through the Parliamentary Legal Committee without amendments.
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa steered the Bill through its first
reading two weeks ago.
The General Laws Amendment Bill, among other issues, seeks to amend the
Copyright and Neighbouring Act by giving copyright protection to
legislation, notices and other material in the Government Gazette, court
judgments and certain public registers.
Copyright in all these documents will vest in government.  Government, as
copyright holder, will have complete discretion in deciding whether or not
the documents should be published and disseminated, after their initial
publication in the Gazette; and government will be able to dictate the terms
and conditions under which the documents are published and disseminated.
Local human rights and legal rights organisations have condemned the
development saying it is retrogressive and unconstitutional in a democratic
state.
Veritas, a local lawyers grouping, blasted the changes as inimical to
democracy.
“The amendment proposed by clause 16 of the Bill will violate Section 20 of
the Constitution, will be inimical to transparent government, human rights
and the rule of law, and will be contrary to best practice in the southern
African region,” Veritas said.
“Amending the Copyright and Neighbouring Act has serious implications for
the rights of citizens to freely access and distribute legislation, notices
and other material in the Government Gazette, court judgments and certain
public registers. It is important that such information should remain in the
public domain.”
Section 10 of the current Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act does not
subject certain public documents to copyright such as official texts or
statutes; official texts of judicial proceedings and decisions (judgments);
notices and material published in the Government Gazette and the contents of
official registers.
Pedzisai Ruhanya, Crisis Coalition programmes manager, echoed the same
sentiments as Veritas saying the development was uncalled for.
He said: “It is uncalled for. The system that was there before should be
observed. Public documents are in the public interest. I believe people
moving for the changes do not understand how democracy works. What do they
want to hide from the public?”
Takura Zhangazha, a civic activist, concurred saying the Bill wanted to
curtail the influence of non-governmental organisations and other
pro-democracy groups from disseminating information which government may
deem sensitive.
“The intention of the Bill is political rather than administrative. They are
seeking to control the flow of information. This should also be read in the
context of electoral language as Zanu PF braces for elections next year.
They are trying to manage the flow of information and this is contrary to
democratic principles,” Zhangazha said.
The activists said if government was granted copyright in statutes and
judgments, then the state would control how they are disseminated.
Human rights and legal activists believe that the amendments in clause 16
are a great departure from other jurisdictions in the region citing examples
from South Africa, Zambia and Botswana. In all three countries no copyright
subsists in official texts of a legislative, administrative or legal nature.
Statutes and judgments are not subject to copyright.
The amendment will have profound effects on private organisations that would
like to publicise electoral laws prior to an election as they will have to
seek government permission first, in addition to any permission they may
require from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
Human rights orgainsations that want to disseminate a court judgment would
have to get permission from the Minister of Justice while organisations that
want to print and issue a statutory form enabling women to apply for
maintenance will have to get permission too and may also have to pay a
royalty to government  for each form printed and distributed.

Paidamoyo Muzulu


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The GPA Principals and history’s departure point lost

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:26

ACCORDING to media reports, in the aftermath of the Sadc ceremony to open
that organisation’s new headquarters in mid-November, the assumption that
there would be a side meeting of the regional body’s Troika to directly
address the Zimbabwean crisis turned out not to be true.
What has since emerged is that President Jacob Zuma is due in Zimbabwe by
the weekend beginning Friday November 26 according to Reuters News Agency.
Whether his meetings with the three political principals will be as brief as
the last time he visited, it is hard to tell, but what is clear is that no
matter the duration of his visit, this time Zuma has to ensure that there is
progress or at least clarity on the way forward vis-à-vis the GPA. But
because Zuma is not a Zimbabwean leader, one cannot expect too much from him
and our focus must no longer be on measuring his ability to deliver our
country to a political Canaan.
Instead our focus at this critical juncture must be firmly set on how
President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara demonstrate a full appreciation of the gravity of
the issues at hand in the country. Especially when they meet Zuma.
In direct relation to the political stalemate in the country at present, the
three leaders have neither demonstrated nor indicated a clear understanding
of how with each passing day their differences real or perceived are now
patently symptomatic of how the GPA has become a political ceasefire
arrangement.
This, in a fashion similar to the much written temporary World War 1
Christmas Day ceasefire, where warring troops suspended fighting for a day
and continued with killing each other on Boxing Day. In other words, nothing
in relation to their political attitude to each other or to the country has
changed.
The three leaders have failed to utilise time to depart from the past.
Instead they have used it to restock on ammunition in order to fight another
day in similar fashion to all the fights of the last 10 years.
This also essentially means that they have failed even in their endeavour to
seek incremental change in the country, and that perhaps all they sought
from each other was temporary respite, or to live to fight another day. And
it is this attitude which neither puts the country first nor inspires
confidence in the leadership capabilities of all of the three leaders.
But the country and its citizens have to face up to the reality of the
tragic nature of the leadership of the inclusive government, and once again
decry what has come to be called “African politics”. And where this
statement is made, this article may be considered naïve or simplistic.
The truth of the matter is that the political reality of our country
standing as always on the precipice of disaster and doom because one party
has done one thing or the other is setting the base for a banana republic
where it is individuals and their increasingly personalised political
parties that hold sway over the nation. Simply put, all of the three
political parties made the GPA their bed and they must lie in it, albeit
with all its discomforts.
And for these discomforts all of the three leaders are to blame. Perhaps one
more than the others, but when the final analysis is made, the GPA is the
responsibility of all of them. Mugabe must be informed that political
brinkmanship is neither helpful to the country’s present nor its future.
Seeking, as evidenced by his publicly recorded statements, to have an
“arithmetic” condign election and attempt to get rid of the MDCs in
government is neither realistic nor possible.
This is because even if he seeks to ram an election down our throats, the
political psyche of the country will not digest it and he together with Zanu
PF will be dogged by legitimacy problems nationally and in the international
community. Such a development would only serve to increase the number of
people seeking to leave the country, compound the economic crisis further
and make this state a very unstable one.
Tsvangirai on the other hand cannot skirt his responsibilities in the GPA
and the matter of how his political conduct is potentially negatively viewed
by its guarantor, Sadc. Where he makes public statements, they should be
consistent both with his party’s principles as well as with the mantra of
“necessary compromises” he has insisted on since September 2008. This
together with a deliberate tackling of the perception that the MDC-T is
working too closely with the West and a reduction of MDC-T policy ambiguity
on the issue of sanctions would serve our country better.
Mutambara for all his attempts at bridging the political gap between his two
more powerful colleagues, must function with a greater understanding of
collective responsibility with his party as well as the inclusive
government.

By Takura Zhangazha


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‘Ndlovu’s detention meant to intimidate media’

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:25

THE arrest and continued detention of Standard reporter Nqobani Ndlovu,
Zimbabwean journalists believe, is a clear indication of President Robert
Mugabe’s plan to silence the media ahead of possible elections next year.
Ndlovu was arrested on Wednesday last week and was charged under Section 96
of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for defaming the police
over a story alleging police scrapped exams to promote officers and were
roping in war veterans and retired officers to fill senior posts.
He was brought to court on Monday where a Bulawayo magistrate granted him
$100 bail but the state invoked Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and
Evidence Act to bar him from enjoying his freedom.
But journalists’ organisations believe Ndlovu’s detention at the notorious
Khami Maximum Security Prison just outside Bulawayo is meant to intimidate
media practitioners from reporting ills in government departments,
especially those controlled by Zanu PF appointees.
Even the magistrate Sibongile Msipa said the state’s denial for Ndlovu’s
release was not justified, arguing that the state failed to give convincing
reasons in opposing the journalist’s bail.
“The state has failed to give enough reasons why the accused should be
denied bail,” she said in her bail ruling on Monday. “The other issue raised
by the state that he was facing a serious offence; that alone could not be
good enough to warrant denying accused bail without being accompanied by
other cogent reasons.”
Journalists said the state’s invoking of Section 121 of the Criminal
Procedure and Evidence Act showed that the state was out to “fix” reporters
particularly from the private media.
There are reporters from the state media who are facing criminal defamation
charges but they were never incarcerated, suggesting that the state was
determined to silence investigative journalists from the private media, said
the journalists.
International journalists’ organisations have also demanded the release of
Ndlovu and the need to guarantee press freedom. The Norwegian Journalists
Association (NUJ) petitioned Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to
order Ndlovu’s immediate release.
Zimbabwe Union of Journalists president Dumisani Sibanda said the union was
dismayed by the attempt to muzzle the press by the state.
He said the arrest of the Standard journalist when Mugabe has indicated that
he wants elections by mid next year was testimony that the 86 year old
leader was determined to silence the private media.
Sibanda said the criminal defamation charges were archaic and primitive,
adding that the pieces of legislation should be repealed to promote media
freedom in Zimbabwe.
“The laws are contrary to the basic tenets of democracy. We fear that the
arrest is meant to intimidate investigative journalists; it’s absurd,” he
said.
He said Mugabe and his security chiefs claimed that there was democracy in
Zimbabwe but the arrest and prolonged incarceration indicated that a lot was
needed to achieve press freedom.
Sibanda said the police, like any other government workers, were civil
servants who survive from taxpayers’ money and were, therefore, should not
be spared public scrutiny.
“We wonder why and how a government department can be defamed when the
public officials are supposed to be accountable to the general citizenry.
Ndlovu’s detention typifies the highest level of dictatorship by those that
don’t want press freedom,” he said.
ZUJ is planning a demonstration in Bulawayo on Monday against Ndlovu’s
detention but the police are reluctant to grant permission to journalists to
march through the streets.
Police told ZUJ, according to Sibanda, that they do not have manpower to
escort journalists during the march.
Sibanda, however, said the arrest of Ndlovu strengthened reporters from the
private media to continue exposing the ills of the society.
“Journalists will not be moved by police intimidation. We shall remain bold
and unflinching because we are the watchdogs of the society,” said the ZUJ
president.
From 2000, several journalists labelled as the so-called “enemies of the
state” have been arrested and detained. The arrests, analysts said, were a
violation of promotion of press freedom in a country purported to be
enjoying democracy as a result of the liberation struggle.
Media watchdog, Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) also condemned the
arrest of Ndlovu, saying the state was making an example in an attempt to
instill fear among journalists in the face of 2011 elections.
Misa Zimbabwe chairman Loughty Dube said the state must stop criminalising
the journalism profession.
“Ndlovu reported the story within his professional mandate. When the state
starts arresting reporters, then it’s crystal clear that they want to stifle
press freedom,” he said.
“We are sure that the arrest at a time when there is election talk is meant
to force journalists from being sceptical about certain stories. This is
travesty of justice and unacceptable.”
Legal experts say it was legally impossible for a state organ like the
police to be defamed.
From 2000, critics accused Mugabe’s regime of stifling media freedom by
using draconian pieces of legislation such as the defamation laws and Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa) to silence journalists.
Under the inclusive government, the parties which are signatory to the
Global Political Agreement, prioritised media reforms.
London-based journalist, Gilbert Nyambabvu said the potential effect of what
is being done to Ndlovu and investigative journalism in general ahead of a
crucial election was a shame.
He said: “The fact is journalists working in the privately-owned media will
rightly see their options as coming down to the question of whether they
want to be ‘free’ cowards or incarcerated ‘heroes’.”
“It is difficult to argue an abuse of process in this case because our
convoluted legal system does provide for the sort of appeal such as the
state has filed and the accused is obliged to remain in custody until the
said appeal is heard.”

Brian Chitemba


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‘Dearth of economic statistics retarding growth’

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 18:34

THE absence of statistics has resulted in government and companies failing
to make long-term plans which could speed economic recovery, says CBZ Bank
MD John Mangudya.
Speaking at the 2010 Manufacturing Sector Survey carried out by the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) and launched on Wednesday,
Mangudya said statistics provide tools that are needed to react
intelligently, read the situation and make informed decisions and policies.
“Statistics in Zimbabwe leave a lot to be desired,” he said. “Without them
one cannot make meaningful decisions. You cannot run a country or company
without them.”
Mangudya said the country should take a cue from countries such as China
that have statistics on all sectors as recent as a week or two ago.
Mangudya said governments and companies use statistics to measure key
economic indicators that affect business and industry.
He said keeping track of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) enables government
to determine whether expenditures in business and various industries is
increasing or decreasing per given period.
“We just hear that tourism has grown, but by how much no one knows. It is
only tobacco where statistics are readily available and we are constantly
updated. Statistics help the government determine if there is an impending
recession on the horizon; or if economic conditions are improving,” Mangudya
said.
“It appears as a country we do not know the importance of making policies
based on correct statistics. I for one am a person who does not entertain
serious corporate matters with someone who cannot furnish me with figures.”
He said accurate and up-to-date statistics help banks to channel funds to
sectors that government priorities.
“Once you have been advanced the loan, please re-pay on the agreed time.
Zimbabweans have developed a culture of not paying loans,” he said. “What is
worrying is that some people have the ability and resources to pay but just
do not want to pay.”
He said the results of the 2010 manufacturing survey were an examination of
the industry that should help policy formulation.
Mangudya said confidence building was important in the country to attract
lines of credit and long-term investments to increase capacity utilisation
in companies.
According to the 2010 manufacturing survey, CZI said capacity utilisation
has remained a key challenge within the manufacturing sector.
The survey said although a few firms were producing to their full capacity
or close to 100%, the majority claim under utilisation.
“From the survey, average capacity utilisation has continued to improve,
albeit, at a much slower rate than expected. Average capacity utilisation as
at the end of the first half of 2010, stood at 43,7%, compared to 32,3% at
the end of the first half of 2009,” said the CZI.
The CZI said this has been largely due to the stable environment which has
allowed companies to plan and budget.
“The manufacturing sector is yet to experience the big leap to high
sustainable growth that had been projected by government. On interrogation,
it was observed that the major constraints to capacity remain largely
unchanged with government having failed to address the fundamentals required
to attract the much needed investment,” said CZI.
The three major capacity constraints have been attributed to lack of working
capital; antiquated plant machinery, which has resulted in loss of time due
to machinery breakdowns or plant and machinery refurbishment; and low
demand.
“Levels of exports remain depressed; in terms of export markets Zambia
continues to be the leading export destination. Interesting to note is the
drop in market share of South Africa, and a considerable increase in market
share to Mozambique, from 5% in 2009 to 11% in 2010,” the CZI said.

Paul Nyakazeya


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Retail, manufacturing sectors fail to take off

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 18:32

THE limited liquidity prevailing on the market since the adoption of
multiple currencies last year affected retailers and manufacturers who have
failed to take off from the deep recession which has resulted in listed
companies posting unexciting results during the current reporting period.
Results released in the latest reporting period showed that companies have
largely failed to emerge from the deep recession, which saw capacity
utilisation dropping to 10%, with other companies closing shop.
Apart from the limited liquidity, the cost of doing business in the country
has continued to rise, a development that has dented prospects for recovery.
Analysts have attributed the costs spike to the intermittent power cuts,
high borrowing costs and expensive cost of utilities.
Mike Mashiri, an economic analyst, said the issue of power cuts had weighed
heavily on companies in the manufacturing sector as most of them use heavy
machinery which would take time to reboot once they have been cut off.
“They cannot use generators to power such machinery,” said Mashiri. “It
takes time to restart the machinery and this translates to hours lost.”
Mashiri said low capacity utilisation made local manufacturers uncompetitive
as they have to meet fixed costs which do not change no matter how much a
company could be producing.
“Generally, companies are at 30% capacity and it is a challenge as they have
to meet the fixed costs,” said Mashiri. “These costs will be factored in the
price of the commodities which would make the local products uncompetitive.”
Mashiri said the technological lag, where the country lost close to a decade
ago in terms of renewing machinery, was also denting profit levels as the
equipment used was “obsolete” and has seen manufacturers being less
efficient compared to regional competitors who have been constantly renewing
equipment.
While results released recently have confirmed the obvious problems faced by
both the manufacturing and retailing sectors, there were certain issues
which have become particular to the latter.
In a statement attached to its results last week, OK Zimbabwe, the second
largest retailer in the country, summed up the situation in the sector when
the company bemoaned the effects of shrinkage –– loss of products to theft.
The retailer has engaged a private security firm to assist fight shrinkage —
a retailer’s word for theft –– and this had a bearing on the company’s cost
structure as it added to overhead expenses together with expenditure such as
replacement of aging refrigeration plants, closed circuit television and
generators.
Overhead expenses during the financial year to September increased 63% to
US$18 million, said OK.
OK Zimbabwe’s revenue during the 12 months to September was US$116 million
while  pretax profit stood at US$614 941.
This, analysts say, shows that the margins in the retail sector were very
narrow during the year under review as it literally meant that they retained
less than one cent for every dollar they produced.
Profit margins were, however, slightly higher in agro-processing and
agriculture companies such as Ariston and Hippo Valley which is around 10
cents retention for revenue realised.
Aico Africa Limited, a diversified entity which has interests in cotton
processing and growing, fast moving consumer goods and spinning, was hit by
the harsh operating environment and posted US$11.7 million pretax loss.
“Group performance has been disappointing with losses forecast in Cottco,
Olivine and Scottco,” Aico group secretary Pious Manamike said. “An
injection of capital is critical to the future success of the group.”
Both OK Zimbabwe and Aico concurred that the low liquidity had impacted on
sales as consumer demands remained subdued.

Leonard Makombe


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‘Dragline pit coal reserves to run out by 2012’

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 18:31

COAL reserves at Hwange’s dragline pit, which supplies the country’s largest
thermal power station, will run out by 2012, a development that may force
government to import the commodity to avert a worsening power crisis.
Responding to questions from businessdigest, Hwange Colliery Company Ltd CEO
Fred Moyo said coal reserves at the dragline pit would been depleted within
the next two years while those at Chaba and 3 Main Underground will last for
the next 17 years.
“In general terms the said figures are reasonably accurate, but impact will
depend with type of mining methods applied at the end of the day,” Moyo
said. “The depletion of coal reserves at the JKL pit is a cause for concern
to the organisation as far as utilisation of the dragline is concerned. The
dragline will not have future coking coal reserves to mine after JKL.”
Hwange Colliery Company has three operational mines namely JKL Opencast
(widely known as the dragline pit), Chaba Opencast and 3 Main underground.
An expert report said reserves at Chaba and 3 Main mines, which produce
industrial coal used in metallurgical industries, were projected to last
until 2020.
But Hwange says resources will be depleted by 2027.
The depletion of the reserves will leave the colliery company facing
survival challenges.
Commenting on the performance of the three mines, Moyo said: “JKL has
started recovering after repairs to the dragline. However, recovery is
rather slow due to shortage of dragline support equipment.”
He said this was the main source of coking coal and contributes 40% of the
company’s output.
“The 3 Main Underground Mine has experienced major equipment challenges and
its contribution is 10% of total output. Chaba Opencast has worked well
contributing 50% of total volumes. In terms of capacity JKL -40%, Chaba -
50% and 3 Main -10%,” Moyo said.
This month Hwange Colliery Company Ltd announced that it was disposing its
non-core businesses to cut costs.
The disposed units would be leased out to small to medium enterprises. The
non-core businesses include liquor outlet, social clubs, retail outlets,
fuel stations and garages, schools, medical centres, recreation facilities
and horticultural projects.
Most of these businesses will be leased out to small to medium enterprises
in line with government’s indigenisation and empowerment initiative.
First preference will, however, be given to local entrepreneurs. Engagements
with local SMEs to this effect is said to have already started.
Hwange will, however, keep some of the key social clubs and shops to
guarantee traditional standards for the interests of its employees and the
surrounding community.
Departments such as hospitals have already been partially commercialised.
One of the hospitals is already being run by Premier Medical Aid Society.
Tenders have also been floated for the maintenance of the golf course,
canteens and Coronation Island, among others.
For the interim period ending June 30 2010, Hwange recorded a significant
increase in industrial coal sales by three-fold to nearly 320 000 tonnes
compared to the just over 100 000 tonnes sold the previous year.

Paul Nyakazeya


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Muckraker: Poor planning from a Planning minister!

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:24

MUCKRAKER finds it difficult to feel any sorrow for deputy Economic Planning
minister Samuel Undenge who failed to plan for the upkeep of his children.
The Harare civil court has issued a garnishee order on the minister which
will, he says, make a big dent in his income.
The order to pay $300 for his two children with ex-wife Angeline Munyeza
means he is now maintaining four children at a cost of US$450.
He was already paying $150 for the upkeep of two children from another
marriage, the Herald tells us.
This looks very much like poor planning from the Planning minister!
Munyeza had approached the courts accusing Undenge of neglecting his
children and having last bought school uniforms for them in 2005. He had
last contributed to the children’s upkeep in 2006 and their daughter had
been turned away from school because of unpaid fees.
Undenge denied that he was running a profitable farm in Chimanimani, as
claimed by his ex-wife. The farm was being sustained by bank loans he said.
We know ministers can rarely be accused of running profitable farms. But the
farm in this case was almost certainly profitable when the minister acquired
it. We recall Undenge spouting Zanu PF mantras when he was seeking
preferment some years ago. He evidently thought that was the way to go. But
what exactly has he produced over the past five or six years except a batch
of progeny he is unable to sustain?

Meanwhile we had SK Moyo complaining about farm equipment lying idle at the
RBZ warehouse for three years. Some of the implements had been vandalised he
told the party faithful in Bulawayo.
Strange isn’t it that nobody in Zanu PF noticed the implements lying around
at the warehouse until President Mugabe mentioned an election.
We liked Morgan Tsvangirai’s comparison of Chombo and the baboon. Why does
he need all those vehicles, Tsvangirai wanted to know? It was like the
baboon picking up mealie cobs in the field, one under each arm and others in
his hands. But then he would see another cob and drop his current bundle to
pick up the new one.

Under the heading “Zim, Zambia call for stronger ties”, the Herald on Monday
carried a report on a meeting of the Zimbabwe-Zambia Joint Permanent
Commission on Defence and Security.
“The commission observed that some externally funded non-governmental
organisations were working against the governments of the two sister
republics as well as governments of other countries in the region,” the
commission said. Opening the meeting, National Security minister Sydney
Sekeramayi said the two countries had been the victims of colonialism and
“continue to be at the mercy of neo-colonial machinations by the former
colonial masters”.
In fact both countries have witnessed the steady sabotage of their economies
by their own governments. Zambia’s nationalisation of the copper mines and
other institutions in the 1970s led to the collapse of its economy from
which it is only now recovering. Here, Zanu PF is performing the same sort
of national hara kiri which has seen the departure of investors and dramatic
destruction of commercial agriculture.

Levy Mwanawasa’s wisdom is sorely missed. He rarely engaged in the sort of
nonsense emanating from the joint commission and its foolish fantasies about
NGOs. Many of the NGOs supposedly plotting against Zambia and Zimbabwe were
in the forefront of rescuing our people from starvation in 2008 and continue
to work for the provision of clean water and hospital equipment.
NGOs played a key role in providing transparency in the 2008 electoral
process and thereby prevented the cheating that has come to be associated
with Zimbabwean elections. No wonder they are hated in Harare!
Sekeramayi said the two countries should continue to fight neo-colonialism.
In fact they should continue to fight ministerial foolishness that has
reduced once prosperous states to basket cases.
The commission did call on Sadc and the AU to support the forthcoming
elections within the framework of the Sadc principles and guidelines
governing democratic elections.
That presumably includes acceptance of the outcome?

Emmerson Mnangagwa was quoted in NewsDay on Monday saying Zanu PF would
continue to rule whatever the outcome.
Speaking in Kwekwe, he said: “In the last elections you voted for the wrong
party but today I am pleased to see all of you here and I assume you are
here because you support the revolutionary party and what (Owen) Mudha
stands for.
“If you disagree with what is being said here, then there is nothing I can
do about it, and if you don’t vote for us in the next election –– this
country is huge –– we will rule even if you don’t want.”
So there you have democracy Zanu PF-style. Good to have it on the record.
Mnangagwa by the way, despite having got religion, is a serial loser. We
recall his failed bid to become party national chairman in 1999. Then we
remember him losing his Kwekwe seat in 2000 to a MDC candidate in hiding. In
the end, after yet another defeat in 2005 he had to be rescued from
humiliation by President Mugabe who gave him the Rural Housing ministry.
Now he has managed to claw his way back up the ladder to the Defence
portfolio. Not a very impressive performance! And do we really want another
national leader who doesn’t give a damn what the electorate says?
In this connection, has anybody heard President Mugabe admonishing those of
his adherents who want him to rule forever?
Has anybody heard him say that such a post is inappropriate in a democracy;
that such talk is to be discouraged in Zanu PF because it sends the wrong
signal to the country?
How is Kamuzu Banda remembered today? As a devoted ruler of his people? Or a
sad case of not knowing when to call it quits.

Please tell us it isn’t true: The government regularly doctors weather
forecast data, especially information relating to rainfall and droughts,
according to a report in a local newspaper.
Climate Change director Washington Zhakata told journalists at a climate
change workshop in Harare last week that weather information required
“moderation” prior to transmission.
You see, the public are not thought to be ready for bad weather!
Zhakata was asked why the Met office had every year over the past decade
consistently predicted normal to above normal rainfall only for the country
to experience droughts.
The Met office apparently gives daily updates to government officials before
such sensitive information is put out.
Muckraker is shocked by this disclosure. And what about those days when the
Herald fails to carry a weather report? Does that mean there will be no
weather that day?

Who advised Happison Muchechetere to sue the Standard? The paper was guilty
of portraying the broadcaster as a Zanu PF propaganda tool, trying to make
viewers and customers shun the broadcaster, an indignant letter from the CEO
said. He demanded $10 million in damages.
We are not sure whether to laugh or cry. Of course we think ZBC is a Zanu PF
propaganda tool. Doesn’t everybody? Despite being publicly owned, it fails
to provide a platform to parties other than Zanu PF and speaks in demeaning
terms of Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC-T. It has never once been critical of
President Mugabe even though he determines national policy. Instead it is
slavishly loyal to the party that lost the last election.
Of course we are not going to contribute to Muchechetere’s handsome income
by paying him large amounts of money. He doesn’t deserve it.
Instead we shall take great pleasure in getting the Media Monitoring Project
of Zimbabwe to check their records and tell us which item they think is the
most egregious example of partisan and unprofessional conduct by ZBC.
It will be a tight choice!

Muchechetere encourages his managers to take individual legal action against
the Standard if they like.
That single act demonstrates that his loyalty is with the cabal that abuses
power by refusing to open up the airwaves. And we are very doubtful that our
colleagues at ZBC will take him up on his spiteful offer.
We recall a minister encouraging officials at the 1999 constitutional
commission to sue the Standard. “Come and feed at this trough,” he said
after the paper carried a story on the commission which it didn’t like.
He lost the case on appeal.
Another minister tried to get Air Zimbabwe to sue the Zimbabwe Independent.
The Independent is still here. The airline’s managers involved in that case
aren’t. In fact they didn’t survive more than a few  months.
The problem is it is very difficult in law to defame the state or state
organs. They are considered to be subject to public scrutiny and critical
comment even where that comment may be hostile. Read PTC vs Modus.
But whatever the case, Happison should not be such a crybaby. ZBC fires
hostile broadsides at the independent press and civil society on a regular
basis, then it hides when the heat in the kitchen gets too much. How
pathetic!

Also the recipient of poor advice, Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe
should reflect on whether speculation about a prominent person’s possible
pregnancy can possibly be defamatory. Is it defamatory to be pregnant? This
looks like another MDC miscalculation. Declaring war on the  press is never
a good idea. Ask Obert Mpofu.

Morgan Tsvangirai was complaining the other day that he couldn’t raise the
funds needed to compensate white farmers.
He didn’t seem to recall the visits to farms under siege which he and other
MDC luminaries undertook soon after the GNU came into office.
Did he think it was OK to ignore the violence and greed that took place on
those farms and that Western states would be pleased to give him lots of
money –– $6 billion he wants –– even though he didn’t do anything about it?
And how about these thoughtful words from Tendai Biti to the same CZI
audience.
“We have a very difficult situation that we have to handle. I say it is
difficult because we are faced with a serious lobby  by the international
community to compensate our former farmers that were dispossessed of their
land.
“Should we fail to do that, it means we are placing ourselves at the mercy
of these farmers for they can do anything to ensure that they are
compensated.”
Great stuff Tendai. Really enlightening!

Jonathan Moyo never ceases to amaze. His exploits as a political turncoat
are well documented and need no further elaboration. Muckraker thinks if the
professor had his way he would delete from the archives the vociferous
articles he wrote during his wilderness years –– against President Mugabe
and Zanu PF.
They seem to pop up now and again and will surely dent his attempts to
ingratiate himself with the party faithful.
He always seems to find new lows in his articles, even if you think he has
gone as low as one can get. Most will concur that his ability to twist and
fabricate facts with a metaphorical straight face are second to none and his
recent article in the Sunday Mail is certainly no exception.
He brazenly states that “the dubious political success of Tsvangirai’s MDC
at the polls has always been synonymous with and only possible through chaos
as borne out by what happened in the 2000 and 2008 general elections.
“The MDC-T’s only election strategy is to be destructive by, for example,
heightening political tension in the country which attracts negative
international media coverage and generally promoting dysfunctional politics
whose aim is to dispirit and disenchant Zimbabweans by doing and saying
destabilising things that leave them alarmed and despondent.”
Laughter would be an appropriate reaction to such drivel if one didn’t know
the author. To accuse the MDC of heightening political tension when they
were on the receiving end of the violence that accompanied the elections
from 2000 up to 2008 is insulting to any reader’s intelligence.


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Eric Bloch: It’s the politics, not sanctions!

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:21

SPEAKING at the Midlands State University last week, former Mozambican
President, Joaquim Chissano, demonstrated his renowned perspicacity and
tendency towards recognising  reality and the facts as they are. He
unreservedly showed that he did not concur with the endless attribution by
President Robert Mugabe and his political echelons of “illegal sanctions” as
the cause of Zimbabwe’s intense economic ills and woes.  He stated
categorically, and very correctly, that it is the “politics, not sanctions,
sinking Zimbabwe”, and that it was the “political crisis of the last 10
years “which wrought ravages to the Zimbabwean economy”.
From the mid-1980s onwards, with a few brief positive interludes, the
Zimbabwean economy has contracted and become more and more decimated.  The
shining prospects so bright and pronounced upon Zimbabwe attaining its
independence in 1980 were progressively eroded and dissipated from 1985
onwards, save for a limited extent during the years 1994 to 1997.  As
Zimbabwe increasingly failed to realise its very immense economic potential,
and as the exchequer became more and more bankrupt, the early 1980s’
advances in education and health services were reversed. The pre-GNU
government strove evermore vigorously to deny culpability for the
intensifying ills seeking for scapegoats to whom it could attribute them.
First and foremost, for over two decades, the government strenuously
asserted that the economic ills confronting Zimbabwe were a result of the
Machiavellian stratagems of the former colonial powers to recolonise
Zimbabwe. The plan, they said, was to denude Zimbabwe of its resources and,
to all intents and purposes, to enslave Zimbabweans.  Occasionally they
varied their theme song, by also ascribing the ills to negative climatic
circumstances and other “acts of God”.  On rare occasions, the latter
contention had some limited credibility, whilst the primary claims of
recolonisation intents were blatantly devoid of any substance.
As the Zimbabwean populace progressively recognised that not only were the
stated causes of Zimbabwean ills wholly without foundation, but also that
the actuality was a combination of intense economic mismanagement and of
even more intense profligacy and actions of self-enrichment and
engrandisement. So the politicians had to find other explanations for the
ills.  They needed desperately to prevent the electorate from recognising
the real causes, which would endanger their retention of power.
Although with the best of intents and motivations, many of the international
community then played straight into the hands of the Zimbabwean politicians.
Having previously imposed selective sanctions upon named Zimbabwean
political leaders, and their families, in 2002 they extended the sanctions.
Initially, the sanctions precluded those leaders and their families from
travel to the imposing countries, and from investing therein, but in no
manner were those sanctions directed at the economy, or at the populace as a
whole.  However, the extension of the sanctions created barriers upon any
economic interactions with the Zimbabwean government, its parastatals and
other entities owned or controlled by government.  Foremost amongst the
instruments of sanctions imposition was the Zimbabwean Democracy Act of the
United States of America, and very similar measures were pursued by the
European Union and various of the member states of the Commonwealth.
But none of the increased sanctions were targeted at the Zimbabwean economy
per se.  Zimbabwean private sector enterprise was not barred from exporting
to the US, to Europe, or elsewhere and similarly remained enabled to source
any goods or services they required from those countries.  Admittedly, the
US legislation prescribed that country from supporting funding to Zimbabwe
by the Bretton Woods’ institutions (the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank), but this was only notional in  effect, as Zimbabwe’s debt
servicing defaults in any event barred it from accessing such funding.
Furthermore, government and its puppet media vehicles endlessly alleged (as
they still do) that the sanctions were “illegal”.  That allegation is
spurious and specious in the extreme, devoid of any credibility, for none of
the countries were in breach of their own laws, or of international law, by
constricting economic interactions with the government and its underlying
entities.
It is the absolute right of any country to determine which countries it will
interact economically with, and the nature and extent of such interactions.
Therefore, the never-ending description of the sanctions as being illegal is
only a political stratagem to mislead the Zimbabwean people. As stated
courageously and authoritatively by former President Joaquim Chissano, the
reality of Zimbabwe’s tragic economic circumstances has been, and is,
nothing but politics. No country that pretends to be a democracy, but in
practice is driven by non-democratic, authoritarian rule, can have a viable
economy.  A country that has contemptuous disregard for property and human
rights, rule of law and for Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection
Agreements cannot have a virile economy.  Endless, oppressive economic
regulation rings the death-knell for an economy.  Pronounced governmental
profligacy, far beyond national means, not only does not provide a
foundation for economic development and growth, but guarantees an economy’s
decline and collapse.
All of these, and many other, negative political actions and inactions have
been the cause of the cataclysmic contraction of the Zimbabwean economy.
They fuelled the greatest hyperinflation ever experienced anywhere in the
world.  They destroyed much of Zimbabwean agricultural productivity, which
was the foundation of the economy.  They grievously eroded business
confidence, which is a prerequisite for economic growth.  They deterred
much-needed foreign and domestic investment, essential for the creation of
employment, the generation of foreign exchange, the access to
state-of-the-art technologies, enhancement of inflows to the Fiscus, and
much else.   They undermined confidence and trust in the banking system and
in the financial sector as a whole.  The Zimbabwean economy has overwhelming
potential, and great opportunity for the populace, but only when politicians
put the country and its people ahead of their own interests, when they
govern the country consistently with internationally accepted norms, when
they govern according to national needs, instead of their own, and when the
politicians have the courage to recognise and acknowledge facts, instead of
allowing megalomania and paranoia to drive them and to ascribe all ills to
the actions and deeds of others.


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‘Military should serve the state, not the party’

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:21

CIVIL-military relations are a problem in post-colonial Africa and in
Zimbabwe soldiers play a very active role during elections leaving many
questioning the implications for the outcome.
While in certain African countries, especially those in the western parts of
the continent, military personnel have left barracks to carry out coups, in
Zimbabwe they prop up the incumbent president.
Soldiers have been accused of playing a partisan role in elections, with an
unambiguous support for Zanu PF which goes against the Defence Act, the law
that provides for the administration, duties and training of the armed
forces.
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces’ mission and vision clearly spells out what the
army and other armed forces seek to achieve. This includes ensuring the
protection and security of Zimbabwe’s territorial integrity and
independence.
Another objective of the ZDF is to provide military aid to civil power and
civil authorities in Zimbabwe as well as support and promote Zimbabwe’s
economic, political and social interests.
ZDF also seeks to fulfill international obligations and responsibilities
with regard to international treaties with other states in the field of
support operations, collective security, confidence and security building
measures and humanitarian relief activities.
There is no mention of partisan participation in elections and other
political processes in either the Defence Act or the ZDF vision and mission
statements.
However, while on paper there is no room for the military in the elections,
the reality is that they have been playing an active role.
Soldiers’ participation in elections, especially after 2000, has seen
political parties attempting to reform the security sector but this has so
far been a mirage and the possibility of another plebiscite mid-next year
reopens the debate on what role the armed men and women play in our
stuttering democracy.
University of Zimbabwe political science professor Eldred Masunungure said
the participation of the soldiers in elections was improper and highly
irregular in a Western liberal democratic sense.
“The presence of the military is a common occurrence in the former Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics, China and Cuba,” Masunugure said. “It is
inconsistent with liberal democratic systems where there is a clear
separation of the military and the civilian authority.”
He added that: “While the military itself is a political institution, they
should not be involved in partisan politics but should be subordinate to the
civilian authority that comes into power as a result of the electoral
process.”
Masunungure said the genesis of the problem in Zimbabwe was that the country
used a hybrid system that blended the British heritage and the Chinese model
(where the military plays a role).
“In the latter model, the army, state and partisan politics are one and the
same thing,” Masunungure added. “Our situation is also a result of the
legacy of the liberation struggle where the military and the political wing
were one and the same thing especially in Dare reChimurenga (war council).”
During the liberation war, the military/ political dichotomy was very
blurred as the logic of the situation required a merging of both for the
effective execution of the war.
Military personnel in the then Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army
(Zanla) were unambiguous in their mobilisation of the people as there was a
political commissar responsible for keeping the morale of the fighters high
as well as political orientation of the “masses”, deployed at every level.
Zanla combatants were deployed in sections (8-10 fighters), platoons (up to
30 guerillas), companies (about 100 soldiers) and detachments (comprising 3
companies) and there was a political commissar at each of these levels.
Political commissars were men and women who had received basic military
training before specialising in political orientation and this method of
mobilisation could have been continued in post-colonial Zimbabwe. Another
analyst and University of Zimbabwe researcher Sibanengi Ncube said the laws
were clear that it was the police force which was supposed to play an active
part and not any other security department.
“While the police force can seek assistance from the military in serious
situations, I do not think there has been a need to have the military
personnel in elections,” said Ncube.
Whereas there have been cases of violence in elections, it has been argued
that the state played a very significant part and soldiers have been accused
of terrorising people in high density suburbs.
One way of ensuring that the military men and women remained within the
barracks was the stalled security sector reforms. However, in the absence of
these reforms, there has to be reorganisation of the forces.
An analyst based in South Africa, Sabelo Gatsheni-Ndlovu said the ZDF must
remain non-partisan and professional.
“This means that as an organised force it must not favour or support any
political party,” said Gatsheni -Ndlovu.  “Election time is a sensitive
moment and the military must only be on guard to defend the state and the
people during this time without necessarily embroiling themselves in running
of elections and prescribing who should run the country.”
Gatsheni–Ndlovu said the main problem was that the top brass of our military
remained in the hands of ex-guerrillas “who throughout the liberation
struggle were organised as armed mini-politicians who organised pungwes
(night vigils) and mobilised people on behalf of Zapu and Zanu.”
He added that the mere fact that post-colonial Zimbabwe saw a brigade
deployed to quell dissident activities ending up killing civilians was a
sign that the military played a very significant role.
“Those forces were eventually absorbed into our military sector, giving it a
very bad taste,” said Gatsheni-Ndlovu. “The other reason is that since 2000,
Zimbabwe found itself in an interregnum, where there was no real legitimate
government.”
“During this interval the securocrats moved in to occupy a problematic
position in our body politic through the secretive but vicious Joint
Operations Command (JOC),” he said adding that: “They became the monsters
who rule a country at a time when the old are taking time to die and the new
are taking time to be born. “
An attempt to dismantle JOC through the creation of a National Security
Council has largely has failed as it continues to play a  central role in
the country’s, political, security,  and economic affairs.

Leonard Makombe


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Elections in Africa: A terrifying prospect

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:20

THERE is no political event more dangerous than a general election. Even in
what are called the “mature democracies”, elections bring out hidden
weaknesses in a nation’s structure that can be stretched to breaking point,
and if wise counsel does not prevail, no one can predict what might happen.
The best example of this sort of situation is the US presidential election
of November 2000. The result was extremely close –– George W Bush, the
Republican candidate, beat his Democratic opponent, Al Gore, by only 0,5% of
the votes –– 48,4 against 47,9%. Such a close vote always brings allegations
of hanky-panky.
Speculation became rife over what might have been, had it not been for… What
follows the “for” is anybody’s game. In the US election under question,
there were reports about votes disallowed because of “hanging chads” and
“pregnant chads” caused by faulty voting machines. There were also
allegations of fraudulent counting, and many other misdeeds amounting to
electoral fraud.
So emotionally charged became the atmosphere that even when the matter
reached the US Supreme Court, not everyone was prepared to accept the Court’s
judgement –– predictably given in favour of George W Bush –– as a genuine
judgment based on legal argument, rather than as a partisan judgement
rendered by the court in line with the known political leanings of Supreme
Court members.
The US is one of the few democracies in which judges are openly branded as
“conservative” or “liberal”, and where these judges almost invariably
satisfy the cynics by voting in precisely the fashion that it has been
predicted they will vote!
Fortunately for the US (and this is why it is called a “mature democracy’)
at the point where the very existence of the Supreme Court became threatened
because of the tension created by what many considered to be the usurpation
of the American people’s democratically-delivered verdict by the court –– or
more exactly, the conservative members of the court who voted in favour of a
Bush victory –– the person who stood most to gain from an opposite decision
by the Court, Al Gore, called off further challenges of the alleged
electoral verdict.
What could have happened if Gore had gone on with more legal and political
challenges?
In an “immature democracy”, Kenya, on the other hand, a “minor” civil war
did occur, when, in December 2007, election results were declared in a
manner that the populace clearly thought was manipulated to favour the tribe
of the incumbent president, [the Kikuyu] Mwai Kibaki, who was seeking
re-election.
Several thousand people were killed in inter-ethnic fighting that arose out
of the dissatisfaction with the election’s results as declared.
Thousands more were chased out of their homes, and for a while, it looked as
if Kenya would be permanently divided along ethnic lines –– just because of
dissatisfaction with the way a single election had been conducted. Certain
areas became de facto no-go areas to certain ethnic groups.
The bitterness caused by the few months following the election, will remain
a psychological scar on the entire populace for at least a generation, as
ethnic oral history is recounted ad nauseam by those who lost relatives, or
were themselves injured, during the post-election maelstrom.
The Kenya situation was repeated in Zimbabwe in March and June 2008, and
nearly replayed in Ghana in December 2008. Zimbabwe emerged from the
near-civil-war of the election’s aftermath with an uneasy coalition that
looks as if it may not take the country into the next election.
And in Ghana, what saved the situation, after an extremely close runoff
between two candidates, Professor John Evans Mills and Nana Addo Danquah
Akufo-Addo was that the outgoing president, John Kufuor, had the prescience
to conclude from what he was hearing on the ground that any prolongation of
the tension created by the electoral result pull-and-stretch, might toss the
nation/baby out with the presidential seat/bath altogether –– so to speak.
What would the anxious crowds all over Ghana who were cursing the Electoral
Commission for delaying the results have done, if it had known then, what
had happened in South Africa’s election of 1994, when a computer hacker
managed to alter the results of the election and add millions of votes to
the numbers cast for three parties of the hacker’s choice?
The near-disaster that would have blown up in South Africa had the hacking
not been detected and corrected has just been revealed in a report published
in the Johannesburg Sunday Times of October 24 2010.
The report tells the world for the first time that the much-hailed general
election in South Africa in May 1994 –– in which the African majority formed
beautiful, peaceful queues to joyfully cast their votes for the very first
time ever –– was nearly ruined when a racist computer hacker was able to
change the results of three of the minority parties that contested the
election against the African National Congress (ANC)!
If the hacked results had stood, the power of the ANC in parliament would
have been considerably reduced, and the ANC would have found it extremely
difficult to rule the country, if not impossible altogether.
Aptly headed “Plot to steal freedom”, the Sunday Times account says: “In
this edited extract from his ground-breaking book, Birth: The Conspiracy to
Stop the ’94 Election, Peter Harris recalls the tension that followed the
discovery of … an elaborate attempt to inflate the votes of the National
Party, the Freedom Front and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), [in order] to
steal the country’s first democratic elections through computer hacking.”
Computer hacking in South Africa, the most technologically-advanced nation
on the African continent? If election results could be hacked in a South
Africa on which the eyes of the entire world were riveted at that particular
time, then what chance does the rest of Africa have, with its cheap systems
(sometimes donated from discarded stock by foreign governments and therefore
relatively primitive)?
It turns out that the changes upward are between 2,5% and 4% for the Freedom
Front, approximately 3% for the National Party and between 4 and 5% for the
Inkatha Freedom Party.
Where have we heard that before? It is up to African electoral commissions
to get in touch with their South African counterparts and attach their own
IT staff to the improved system in South Africa, so that they can be certain
that in their next elections, everything will go well.
For we have seen through blood on the streets that African elections are too
important to be left to chance. If African governments do nothing and we
continue to see bloodshed at election times –– when the technology exists to
put an end to speculation about declared or undeclared results –– they will
be cursed by generations unborn.
l Duodu is a journalist, writer and commentator. — Pambazuka News.


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Is BEE creating criminals?

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:07

ONE of the purposes of black empowerment is “to ensure broader and
meaningful participation in the economy by black people to achieve
sustainable development and prosperity”.
The above passage is from the South Africa Black Economic Empowerment (BEE)
Commission report produced by the commission, established under the auspices
of the Black Business Council, an umbrella body representing about 11 black
business organisations. The establishment of the council was one of the
primary and significant events that led to the promulgation and eventual
passing of the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act.
None other than Cyril Ramaphosa, one of the foremost black business leaders,
led the commission. With the risk of being accused of heaping praise on
Ramaphosa, he has emerged as one of the very few black business leaders who
had a complete understanding of the purpose of black empowerment: that is,
ensuring meaningful participation of blacks in the economy and most
importantly creating sustainable business, development and prosperity.
For the past few weeks those of us who aspire to and subscribe to the
original tenets of black economic empowerment have endured loads of
embarrassment, shame and disgrace with several cases of black economic
(mis)empowerment.
It is not the purpose of this article to discuss, at length, the merits
and/or demerits of the clearly undesirable conduct giving BEE the bad name
that it has today. Rather than the “usual” criticism of the behaviour of the
so-called BEE entrepreneurs the spotlight for me shifts to government.
The successive governments of the African National Congress (of which I am a
member) have wittingly and unwittingly created a fertile ground for making
criminals of law abiding black business people and civil servants (most of
whom are prominent and senior members of the organisation).
Undisputedly government procurement has been the root cause of many of the
troubles besetting the so-called tenderpreneurs. Party loyalty, cronyism and
sycophancy has all but taken government procurement from legitimate black
business people –– and potentially long term sustainable black business ––
to speculators, brokers and other overnight “millionaires”.
Today you do not need the guts, resilience, informed risk taking and
calculation to make it in business. All you need is a membership card of the
African National Congress, its youth league, women’s league and the like to
access lucrative government procurement contracts. Forget knowledge of the
industry, skills, experience and business acumen because they surely will
not assist your cause unless you know a comrade in high places who will, for
a cut of the loot, deliver the tender to you.
This system is all but destroying legitimate black business run by people
who are entrepreneurs and who are concerned about sustainability of their
businesses which, in turn, contribute to the economy in the form of
sustainable employment and taxes (the source of the loot in the first
place). The former aspect of the contribution, employment, should in all
likelihood be welcomed by a government beset with a huge unemployment
problem amongst the very same black people it originally sought to empower
by BEE.
The South African government seems to be oblivious to the damage it is doing
in this regard and also the opportunities it is losing by it. Firstly, by
sidelining credible entrepreneurs in favour of the so called BEE’s it is
effectively sabotaging its own policies especially with regard to the long
term sustainability of black business, and reversing the economic disparity
between the previously advantaged and the previously disadvantaged,
Secondly, the South African government is missing a massive opportunity to
rope in whoever benefits from its BEE policies (including the self-same
so-called BEE’s) in its fight against unemployment. Government should be
using the so-called BEE scorecards not only to force white business to do a
box ticking exercise, including instances of fronting, but also to hold
black business accountable.
I find it a very serious problem that black business, more particularly the
so called BEE’s or tenderpreneurs, are just handed huge amounts of monies in
the form of procurement and other opportunities without being held
accountable in assisting national projects, including the reduction of
unemployment.
Since most of the so called BEE beneficiaries are either members or
supporters of the African National Congress I am sure they would not mind if
government were to insist for example that, they employ other people, with a
minimum number prescribed for companies bidding for state tenders and
opportunities above a particular threshold; that sustainability of the
bidding entity be one of the primary requirements for securing certain state
tenders and opportunities; and that companies who are bidding for certain
state tenders and opportunities be required to adopt projects in rural and
poor communities including bursary funds, contributing to community
development initiatives etc.
The above, are but some of the suggestions that could be incorporated into
the BEE requirements for black-owned businesses seeking to benefit from
state opportunities. Not only will this help reduce unemployment and reduce
poverty but it will assist in creating sustainable and vision inspired black
enterprises that would, in the long run, rival white companies. The system
as it is today is promoting corruption, fraud, conspicuous and vile
consumerism as evidenced by the past week’s headline grabbing stories.
The concept of cadre deployment is noble and essential, especially at this
juncture of the development of South Africa and its economy. It is a fallacy
and disingenuous for the opposition and other pundits to cry foul over the
policy. In fact every political party in South Africa is doing it including
the Democratic Alliance, which has come out as its fiercest critic.
The ANC has every right to deploy its cadres in senior government positions
and other strategic places. In fact it would be suicidal for it to do
otherwise. The biggest problem is not cadre deployment but rather what I
prefer to call “cadre misdeployment”. Cadre misdeployment is when you take a
clueless, skill-less, inexperienced and at times semi-literate person party
member, who is close to the guys in the organisation calling the shots, and
place them in a position where he is or will be clearly out of his depth.
There are many examples in state-owned enterprises and their boards of
directors, senior management in government, municipalities and even in South
African Parliament. The result has been system failures, wasted state
resources, tenders allocated to the “masters” who deployed the cadres,
outright theft, shady golden handshakes, corruption, fraud and all other
shenanigans that have only served to embarrass the ANC and make a case for
criticism of cadre deployment.
The factional nature of the politics in the ANC are chiefly responsible.
Capable and educated (not necessarily academically certificated –– although
academic certification is crucial) cadres of the ANC who would on merit
deserve deployment are sidelined and overlooked for incompetent cronies, who
in turn embarrass the party when they steal or cannot deliver.
Cadre deployment could be a powerful weapon on the part of the ANC
government to deliver on its electoral promises if it deployed capable
cadres and not cronies and/or sycophants.

The one aspect which is a potentially self-sabotaging weapon of mass
destruction for the ANC government is the way it has been treating the youth
and more particularly members of its youth wing, of which I am a member, as
well as their cronies and hanger ons.
Not only is the current leadership of the ANC helping in the destruction of
future black leaders by allowing for an environment where black youth are
having millions of rands thrown at them to insult fellow leaders and
opposition party leaders, but they are also effectively encouraging
semi-literacy and corner cutting.
The phenomenon has effectively overrun the current ANC leadership: no one is
willing, able or even capable of reining in the youth.
They are equals, they know all and cannot be taught because the lesson being
taught in the organisation is to chase as much money (read tenders) as you
can and show a middle finger to education, respect and values.
They are effectively being taught that having money (irrespective of the
nefarious means through which you may have acquired it) beat respecting your
elders and getting an education.
When statistics are realised about the high dropout rate of black students
only financial exclusion is cited. Other conventional reasons, including
tenderpreneurship, are not mentioned despite the fact that they also
contribute.
The logic is: go to an institution of higher learning, join the ANC Youth
League, lead strikes and inform the management.
Then a senior comrade in government will hear of you and recruit you to
“empower” you or you will be awarded a position in one of the state agencies
or entities after which you will “go into business”.
As things currently stand we have a lot of youth tenderpreneurs who have
replaced proper role models and are nothing but glorified state parasites.
The time has arrived for the ANC government to go back to the drawing board
and demand its socio-economic pound of flesh from the so-called BEE’s and
tenderpreneurs “to ensure broader and meaningful participation in the
economy by black people to achieve sustainable development and prosperity”.

Nkhwashu is a member of South Africa’s African National Congress and its
youth wing and CEO of Empowerment Dynamics Consulting based in Pretoria. ––
www.politicsweb.co.za


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Candid Comment: Indigenisation hijacked by rent-seeking politics

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:33

THE Zimbabwe Independent on Wednesday held its second discussion series with
business billed “Independent Dialogue”.
The idea is to facilitate an exchange of ideas between policy-makers and
business executives.
The panel of discussants featured ministers Saviour Kasukuwere and Tapiwa
Mashakada, as well as prominent businessman Frederick Mutanda, who is
chairman of the American Business Association of Zimbabwe.
Mutanda kicked off the discussion saying the current indigenisation laws
were not workable given the state of the economy, lack of capital and the
need for economic recovery. He said government should allow foreign
investors to own 100% of their businesses and then reduce that gradually.
Mashakada said while he supported indigenisation he did not agree with
partisan politicisation of the issue and its manipulation for electioneering
purposes. He said capital is very fickle and could take flight anytime to
safer destinations where there is rule of law and property rights. The
minister said sustainable capital inflows into an economy largely depend on
the investment climate and perception about the country.
Kasukuwere said indigenisaition was a key national objective logically
flowing from the history of the liberation struggle. Quoting a UN resolution
of 1952, he said every country has a right to assert “sovereignty over its
resources” and use that to fight poverty. He said indigenisation was
imperative because Zimbabwe was still dominated by Rhodesian economic
ownership patterns. He said “tough luck” to those who did not support the
current indigenisation policy or its implementation matrix.
Then the floor was opened for debate.
British ambassador Mark Canning fired the first broadside against
Kasukuwere. He accused the minister of indulging in “crude populism”, noting
his presentation was a disappointment.
“Everything that the minister said this morning will send shivers down the
spines of investors,” Canning said. “It’s crude populism. I can only express
my disappointment at what I heard.” The ambassador left soon after his
comments.
The indigensation debate has poisoned national economic discourse.
It must be said the objective of indigenisation is good, but the policy
process, the policy choice and implementation are problematic, even
potentially disastrous.
Government, just like everybody, knows that indigenisation is necessary but
wants to use gung-ho methods (bordering on seizure or grabbing) instead of
equitable ones to achieve that.
The other trouble is that indigenisation is now used as an electioneering
tool, not to further the economic transformation agenda but help the
political elite to hang onto power and amass wealth.
The danger is that the process would eventually become hostage to narrow and
partisan political agendas. Instead of pursuing this issue from an economic
transformation and development platform, it is being executed from a
patronage perspective.
Therein lies the problem. Indigenisation has been hijacked by the politics
of rent-seeking.
The motives of those currently behind indigenisation are clear, no matter
how hard they try to disguise them. It’s about electioneering and primitive
accumulation.
There is nothing wrong with anyone using indigenisation to secure votes as
long as the policy achieves the desired national objective but there is a
problem with partisan politicisation of the issue to ensure
self-aggrandisement under the pretext of economic empowerment.
What is happening now is that politicians and their cronies have positioned
themselves to extract maximum rents from the indigenisation process (we know
of ministers running collapsing businesses now trying to use indigenisation
to revive their shell companies). Besides, it’s only those who have
privileged access to credit, information and contacts with foreign business
who will be able to buy large blocks of shares for themselves.
Already there is corruption, bribery and fronting for foreign businesses
going on.
At this rate, the policy may well fail and the whole process could end up
being like suicidal ideation. It may lead to economic suicide like the land
reform programme.

Dumisani Muleya


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Editor's Memo: We can’t be stampeded into election

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:32

ZANU PF spin-doctors rallying behind President Robert Mugabe’s pointless
quest for elections next year ahead of national healing, political and
economic stability have become victims of the fallacy of electoralism.

They have persisted with the illogical and unreasonable assertion that
Mugabe’s call for the elections has nothing to do with his insatiable desire
to die in office, but to resolve the current contestation for power in the
inclusive government between the ageing leader and MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai.
They further argue that by allowing the holding of elections, Mugabe cannot
be said to be yearning for a life presidency as he risks losing the poll.
The spin-doctors attempt to pitch Mugabe as a democrat when the opposite is
true and to them democracy is reflected in the holding of elections
frequently despite them not being free and fair — a pure fallacy of
electoralism. This is because in this system they want to pass for
democracy, the dominant position of the incumbent regime is retained and
thus there is no true democracy.
Despite Nathaniel Manheru pontificating from his ivory tower at Munhumutapa
Building, the prevailing view in Zanu PF and in the country is that Mugabe’s
call for elections next year is ill-advised and a true manifestation of a
desperate leader who intends to cling to power by hook or by crook in his
own interest.
The argument is simply that the environment is not yet conducive for any
election, either economically or socially. Again the nation is still highly
polarised; and the three political parties in the inclusive government are
yet to fully consummate the Global Political Agreement (GPA), which is the
roadmap to free and fair elections.
This country needs national healing and a sustained period of peace and
stability before an election can be held.
Besides serving the interests of Mugabe and a few hardliners in Zanu PF,
whose interests will the elections serve when it is now clear that they will
not be free and fair given reports from across the country of violence and
intimidation? They will only plunge the nation back into the dark era
epitomised in June 2008 when Zanu PF unleashed an orgy of violence which
took the country back to the Dark Ages. People in the rural areas still bear
the scars of that madness and will understandably not be supportive of an
early election.
Those who witnessed and were victims of this barbarism oppose elections and
the message to Manheru and his ilk should be clear that the majority of
Zimbabweans don’t want elections next year merely to secure Mugabe’s future.
Law, Politics and Zimbabwe’s Unity Government, a recently published book,
describes our country as being characterised by both “dominant power
politics” and “electoral authoritarianism”.
“Both characteristics of the state allow minimal open civic space within a
largely authoritarian regime and undertake elections that pretend to conform
to democratic electoral standards but are actually a sham and result in
international disapproval,” the author writes.
We cannot afford to be stampeded into an election no matter the amount of
vitriol Manheru or any other apologist will spew against those who hold
contrary views.

Constantine Chimakure


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Comment: Sadc should engage Zim political leadership

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

Thursday, 25 November 2010 19:30

POLITICAL developments in Zimbabwe over the last few months threaten the
continuity of the Government of National Unity (GNU) which, though not a
perfect arrangement, has arrested the rapid economic and social decline the
country experienced between 2005 and 2008.

The political arrangement, which was wobbly from birth, should be saved if
anarchy is not to be loosed upon the country as was the case two years ago.
As such, Sadc, not only as a regional bloc that is seriously affected by
Zimbabwe’s political and economic problems, but as the guarantor of the
Global Political Agreement (GPA), should play a decisive role that would
save the political arrangement.
What is very clear, no matter where one stands, is that the death of the GPA
could cause a rapid reversal of the few gains which were registered under
this arrangement drowning the country and the entire region in the mire.
It is thus important that Sadc should immediately engage the political
leadership in Zimbabwe, especially President Robert Mugabe, and tell him the
consequences of not fully implementing the GPA, which is one of the reasons
why there has been so much unhelpful contestation in the GNU.
It has to be brought to the attention of Mugabe et al that one by-product of
the GPA has been to give them legitimacy especially after the 2008
presidential runoff. However, it is not only the need for legitimacy which
requires Sadc to intervene. It has to be reckoned that with deepening
integration within the bloc, symbiotic relations have become more pronounced
and deterioration in one country upsets the whole region.
It is thus important for Sadc not to sever the umbilical cord that connects
Zimbabwe with the region as this would suffocate the country politically and
economically. Sadc’s evolution from the Frontline States through the
Southern Africa Development Coordinating Conference to the current structure
was mainly a response to political and economic developments in the region
and what is happening in Zimbabwe now requires its active intervention.
The formation of the Sadc troika was itself another response to the dynamics
within the region and its failure to convene last week to resolve the
current Zimbabwe crisis, for whatever reason, was an abdication of its
duties. The Sadc Protocol on Politics, Security and Defence signed in 2001
gave a legal framework to the organ whose objective is to promote peace and
security in the region. What is happening in Zimbabwe at the moment could
translate to a threat to peace and security in the short term thus the organ
should intervene. What is clear is that the troika still holds leverage in
all political processes in the region and particularly Zimbabwe and the
lackadaisical approach shown last week smacks of a backwardness that has no
place in resolving regional problems.
The Sadc troika was very active during the genesis of the GNU, intervening
every time there were problems and one can argue that the organ is now
needed more than ever since the institution of the inclusive government in
February 2009.
It would, however, be very naïve to expect the troika to hold the magical
formula that would ensure the continued existence of the GNU, especially at
a time when local political actors have adopted an arrogant and self-serving
stance.
Mugabe, for example, has set his eyes on elections at any cost but the
question is whether this is out of the need to serve the country or his own
narrow political interests. The political crisis which has enveloped the
country in the last few weeks has created a Machiavellian moment where
political actors maximise power at the expense of national development.
The death knells of the GNU have grown louder with each day and the question
is what will occupy the space where this stuttering political arrangement
now stands. What guarantees do we have that the next election, presumably
the logical successor to the collapse of the GNU, would be free and fair?
Are we not laying the foundation for GPA/GNU Part Two? How will the GPA 2
work, especially now that the political players have realised that they
cannot trust each other?

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