Zuma Breaks Impasse In Zim's Fragile Govt

http://www.radiovop.com/

27/11/2010 18:53:00

HARARE, November 27, 2010- Mediator to the Zimbabwe crisis President Jacob
Zuma of South Africa says his meeting with the principals to the Global
Political Agreement (GPA) on Friday was very fruitful and succeeded in
breaking the impasse between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai.

Zuma had been asked to travel to Harare to ease tensions within the fragile
unity government.What spaked the latest cisis was Pesident Mugabe,s decision
to appoint 10 povincial govenors without consulting his coalition partners
in particular the Prime Minister.
Tsvangirai had taken Mugabe to court for making unilateral decisions in
coalition government.After a six-hour meeting with Mugabe and Tsvangirai,
who have not been on speaking terms for close to a month, Zuma announced
that he had managed to break the impasse between the two.
"We have met and we have had successful consultations on a number of
issues," Zuma told journalists. "They were small issues. There had been a
breakdown of communication with the leaders of the government which have
been resolved, and meetings will resume."
Zuma joked and smiled with journalists, but that was not the case with
Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who remained tense throughout the short press
briefing. They refused to talk to journalists as they separately left the
meetings.
"No comment. No comment. Talk to the mediator, President Zuma," Tsvangirai
told journalists about how his meeting with Zuma and Mugabe went. Mugabe
just waved to reporters before he jumped into his car.Zuma,who was appointed
by regional leaders to monitor Zimbabwe's fragile coalition government and
mediate said he would brief his counterparts in the 15-member Southern
African Development Community (SADC) about the tension in Zimbabwe.Mugabe
was ordered in August to reverse all unilateral decisions he had made bu
failed to do so forcing Zuma to travel to Harare o speak to the two
leaders.The impasse between the two had forced the Prime Minister to boycot
cabinet meetings.

No Marange breakthrough

http://www.zimonline.co.za/

by Own Correspondent     Saturday 27 November 2010

HARARE – Talks to break an international deadlock over Zimbabwe’s suspended
diamond exports ended in Belgium on Thursday without a deal as the market
was awash with rumours that Harare was courting buyers for stones from its
controversial fields to the east of the country.

Industry representatives failed to hammer a compromise deal after a special
meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP)’s Working Group on Monitoring (WGM)
ended in Brussels with no consensus on whether to allow rough diamond
exports from Zimbabwe.

The Brussels meeting followed a KP plenary session held earlier this month
in Israel which nearly reached an agreement after direct consultations
between the United States and Zimbabwe.

The agreement was widely accepted by KP members but was blocked by Canada
and Australia.

The Tel Aviv meetings ended with a decision to continue negotiations until a
unanimous agreement is reached.

Zimbabwe boycotted the WGM meeting although it was said to be liaising with
the working group via a delegation from neighbouring countries.

Harare has insisted that it would resume selling the gems “without any
conditions”.

Under a set of measures meant to bring Zimbabwe’s controversial diamond
industry in line with KP standards, the world diamond industry must monitor
production and sales of diamonds from Marange field where the army has been
accused of rights abuses against civilians.

International rights groups have been pushing for a world ban on Zimbabwe
diamonds until Harare acts to ensure mining at Marange also known as
Chiadzwa is in full compliance with KP standards.

Meanwhile, media reports said rough diamonds mined by Mbada and Canadile –
two joint venture companies partnering the government in mining the Marange
gems –are being offered to diamond buyers.

Diamond industry publication IDEX Online noted that while the export status
of the diamonds was unclear, Zimbabwe was reportedly “seeking bids for the
goods”.

“It’s not clear if the goods are among those that were KP certified earlier
this month by the KP monitor, Abbey Chikane,” the publication said.

Chikane sneaked into Harare this month and authorised the sale of Marange
diamonds without the consent of other KP members.

Zimbabwe's 2011 Budget Angers Labor Groups, Empowerment Advocates

http://www.voanews.com

Secretary- general Wellington Chibhebhe of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions said Biti’s adjustment of tax-free income thresholds will not benefit
workers.

Gibbs Dube | Washington 26 November 2010

Zimbabwe’s largest labor movement, economic empowerment advocates and civil
servants have reacted angrily to Finance Minister Tendai Biti’s 2011 budget
saying it does not meet their expectations.

Secretary- general Wellington Chibhebhe of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions said Biti’s adjustment of tax-free income thresholds will not benefit
workers.

Chibhebhe said the majority of workers are next year expected to be still
earning salaries that are far below the breadline.

Biti increased the tax-free income threshold from the current US$175 to
US$225 and revised upwards the tax-free bonus threshold from US$400 to
US$500.

He set aside US$1.4 billion for civil service remuneration, almost twice the
US$773 million allocated in this year’s budget.

Affirmative Action Group president Supa Mandiwanzira said the budget does
not cater for the nation’s indigenization program. “It is an insult for the
minister to allocate only US$5 million for the indigenization program.”

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira Zhou said
teachers, who are struggling to make ends meet, are angry that Biti’s budget
proposal does not spell out any salary increases for them.

However, his Movement for Democratic Change formation led by Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai said the minister showed unparalleled leadership in the
inclusive government with a presentation of a robust, well balanced and
professionally crafted national budget that captures the party’s values and
people-centered development thrust to pluck out Zimbabwe from three decades
of economic ruin and policy confusion.

“The national budget, a brain child of Biti and a result of extensive
consultations countrywide, reflects a radical departure of previous national
financial plans and projections in that it emphasizes measurable growth
targets, subjects itself to the needs of the poor, accepts and recognizes
the central role of civil servants and demonstrates the MDC’s solidarity
with the peasantry,” the party said.

It further said the minister "deserves national commendation for unbridled
sensitivity to all Zimbabweans for a good piece of work and for mitigating
the historical burden on a nation previously at the mercy of
hyper-inflation, social iniquity and general political wickedness.

Meanwhile, Biti said Thursday diamond production in 2011 is expected to
increase to 4 million carats compared to this year’s 2.7 million carats.

He said the first and second sales conducted in August and September 2010
generated gross proceeds of US$56.5 million and US$30 million respectively,
bringing the total to US$85.3 million.

He said of this amount, accruals to government were US$30 million and
US$11.9 million with the first tranche paid directly to central government
and indirectly through the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.

Biti said from the second sale, only US$8 million was remitted to government
as dividend payment.

He said: “I have therefore requested that from the second auction of
diamonds, payments of royalties, commission and value added tax on
commission made to the Minerals Marketing Authority of Zimbabwe should be
remitted to treasury”
.
He further said negative investor perceptions coupled with persistent
liquidity challenges continued to subdue trading on the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange (ZSE).

The daily average number of shares traded declined from 14.5 million in
January to 12.8 million shares by October 2010. The key industrial index
fell from 156.52 points in January 2010 to 137.04 by September while the
mining index dropped from 209.81 to 145.65.

However, Biti said, gains were realized in October when trading on the ZSE
picked up on the back of profit taking towards the end of the year and also
in response to better economic performance and positive outlook.

This saw industrials end October at 157.71 points while the mining index
rose to 217.07 due to firming world market metal prices.

Biti also said during the budget consultation process, a number of
stakeholders in the southern parts of the country raised concern over
exchange cross rates being applied by most retail shops, particularly
between the rand and the US dollar.

“In order to remove the rent seeking behavior by retailers, I am proposing
exchange regulations which will compel all authorized dealers, including
banks, shops 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.”

MDC officials arrested in Nkayi

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Nkululeko Sibanda
Saturday, 27 November 2010 17:38

NKAYI - About 17 Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) officials were
arrested Thursday by police in Nkayi for allegedly breaching sections of the
Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) lawyer, Lizwe Jamela told the Daily
News that the 17 were arrested at a private residence where they were
planning for a Christmas party to be held at a later date.

According to Jamela, the 17 were arrested for holding a meeting without
authority of the police.

The 17 include Sambulo Maphosa (Ward 25), Brenda Mpofu (ward 23, Thabani
Moyo (Ward 22), Senelani Gumbo(ward 30), Sicelo Mpofu (Ward 21), Maria
Ndlovu (Ward 20), Mpokseng Sibanda (Ward 19), Reuben Moyo (Ward 18), Mgijima
Dube (Ward 4), Nhlanhla Dube (Ward 26), Mbonisi Khumalo (Ward 11).

The other six MDC-T officials are yet to be identified.

“I am told the councilors were holding a meeting at a private residence when
the police arrived and accused them of holding a political meeting without
the authority of the police.

“The police claim this meeting contravened sections of the Public Order and
Security Act (POSA),” Jamela said.

He added that the seventeen could not appear in court today because there
was no prosecutor to handle the matter at the Nkayi district court.

“They are scheduled to appear in court tomorrow since their detention is
also still within the confines of the 48-hour period in which the police can
detain them at its holding cells. I hope that tomorrow, the court shall sit
and hear this matter,” he added.

However, information obtained by the Daily News suggests that the 17, who
include 11 councilors from Nkayi South and North constituencies, and the six
MDC-T officials, were holding a meeting where they had also planned to hand
in confirmation letters of their earlier decision to cross the floor from
the Arthur Mutambara led MDC formation to the mainstream MDC party led by
Morgan Tsvangirai.

It is understood that the councillors were part of the 23 councillors who
crossed the floor on June 3 last year to join the Tsvangirai-led formation.

Five of the councillors have since returned  to the MDC-M party.

However, the resignation letters of the 11 councillors were turned down by
the MDC-M secretary general, Welshman Ncube who ordered them to hand in
resignation letters individually.

It is these letters that the councillors intended to hand in and confirm
their resignation when they were arrested by the police.

Only 4% of industry viable

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Written by Vusimuzi Bhebhe
Saturday, 27 November 2010 12:19

HARARE – Only four percent of Zimbabwe’s manufacturing companies are
operating at full capacity while the majority are struggling to ramp up
operations to match at least half of their potential, according to an
industrial survey published last week.
The 2010 CZI Manufacturing Survey, conducted by the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries showed that policy pronouncements such as the
Indigenisation and Empowerment Act impacted on the performance of the sector
with some companies adopting a wait-and-see attitude. The CZI noted that
capacity utilization remained a key challenge in the manufacturing sector.
“Although a few firms are producing to their full capacity or close to 100%,
the majority claim under utilization,” the survey said. At least 55 percent
of manufacturing concerns are yet to reach 50 percent of their capacity
largely due to lack of working capital, low demand and antiquated equipment
which often results in high plant downtime.
Average capacity utilization at the end of the first half of 2010 stood at
43.7 percent compared to 32.3 percent at the end of the first half of 2009.
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.
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. Exports also remained depressed, with Zambia being the top export
destination. The survey also cited high wage bills as one of the constraints
affecting operations of most companies in the sector.
Workers continue to demand wage increments that are neither productivity
based or in line with inflation developments.
Average wage bills rose by 12% from the second half of 2009 to the first
half of this year. “As the confederation we believe that any wage
adjustments should be productive based, we need to realize the need to
contain unnecessary
inflationary pressures in the economy,” CZI said.
The majority of the manufacturers believe there are “minimal” chances of
positive growth for the sector until the right fundamentals are put in
place. They said the government has to seriously address the issue of
capital availability as well as power shortages which are hurting the
industry.

Libya to host EU-Africa summit

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/

By Shabtai Gold and Michael Logan Nov 27, 2010, 12:28 GMT

Berlin/Nairobi - The first summit of the European Union and Africa in three
years looks set to bring a couple of Africa's most notorious leaders face to
face with some of their fiercest Western critics.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are
expected to attend the EU-Africa Summit being hosted by Libyan leader
Moammer Gaddafi in Tripoli on Monday.

Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for
alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the western
Sudanese region of Darfur. He is the subject of an international arrest
warrant.

Meanwhile, Mugabe is still at daggers drawn with the international community
over gross rights abuses during the last decade of his party's solo rule
between 2000 and 2008.

His populist policies are blamed for the economic collapse of the southern
African country in 2008, before he was strong-armed by other African leaders
into sharing power with the pro-democracy opposition.

Since 2002, he and around 200 members of his inner circle have been the
subject of an EU travel ban and asset freeze. African leaders are calling
for the measures to be lifted now that a coalition government has been put
in place, but the EU is holding off until seeing more evidence of reforms.

The controversy surrounding al-Bashir and Mugabe - at a show being hosted by
the controversial Gaddafi - might serve to distract from the summit's
agenda.

The main topics up for discussion include trade between Africa and the
27-member EU, climate change, illegal migration from Africa to Europe and
human rights.

Africa is trying to secure better conditions in the EU for its exports.

Governments say they want to make sure new proposed trade deals with the EU
are fair and support the continent's long-term development goals.

Some countries, such as South Africa, are fiercely resisting the
introduction of the new Economic Partnership Agreements.

The EU insists that the agreements benefit Africa and is demanding the
liberalization of market access and reduction of import tariffs on EU goods
in return.

No substantive resolutions are expected at the summit, with the meeting
being billed more as an opportunity to generally improve relations between
two continents linked by a fraught colonial past rather than clinch a flurry
of accords.

Despite the growing number of well-run African democracies, from Ghana in
the west and Botswana and South Africa in the south, Africa still lags the
world in terms of development, governance and basic rights.

At the same time it is attracting intense interest as a investment
destination from China, Brazil and other resource-hungry emerging or
developed economies.

Europe has been caught napping as China ramps up its investment in Africa,
displacing Germany in 2009 to become the biggest trading partner of Africa's
largest economy, South Africa.

Beijing recently made a 1.3-million-dollar donation to international
peacekeepers in Somalia, a country with an Islamist insurgency and a piracy
problem.

Europe is keen to at least ensure the safety of its ships passing near the
troubled Horn of Africa country.

Diplomats face the chop

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/

Written by Vusimuzi Bhebhe
Saturday, 27 November 2010 13:37

HARARE – Zimbabwe is recalling some of its diplomats posted abroad as part
of austerity measures aimed at containing spiralling costs of running the
country’s bloated foreign missions, Finance Minister Tendai Biti announced
last week. (Pictured: Finance Minister Tendai Biti arriving at Parliament
last Thursday)
Biti said the current level of expenditure on Zimbabwe’s foreign missions
was unsustainable “and bold and decisive decisions need to be made and taken
to contain expenditures in this area.” The country’s embassies are chewing
US$4 million from the Treasury every month, before payment of arrears
accumulated over the past few years.
Biti said the government allocated US$21.7 million to the embassies for
operations and clearance of arrears during the first 10 months of 2010.
“Outside arrears, the monthly obligation to Foreign Missions is US$4
million, which is 2.7 percent of our expenditures,” Biti told Parliament
during the presentation of the 2011 national budget statement last Thursday.
The monthly cost of running missions is US$5 million, but the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs is currently getting US$4 million. Zimbabwe has 43
diplomatic missions around the world which have accumulated arrears
amounting to US$30 million.
“Pursuant to this, cost cutting measures, including recall of officers whose
term of duty has expired, are being instituted in order to contain further
accumulation of arrears at our foreign missions,” Biti said. He also blasted
government ministers and officials for excessive foreign travel, telling
Parliament that trips abroad remained unsustainably high relative to other
critical services. To October 2010, foreign travel expenditures amounted to
US$29.2 million, against an original budgetary provision of US$24.2 million,
representing three percent of total recurrent expenditure of US$1.2 billion
for the period to October. President Robert Mugabe is one of the culprits
with regards to foreign travel, often taking along with him bloated
delegations whenever he goes abroad.

University hostels to open next year

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Written by Gift Phiri
Saturday, 27 November 2010 13:30

HARARE - State University students hostels will reopen next year after a
US$30million cash injection to rehabilitate the Halls of Residence and ease
acute accommodation problems for undergraduates.  ?
Accommodation at the universities has been a major problem, with students
forced to seek lodgings where they have been forced to pay exorbitant
rentals, leaving them with little cash to buy books. At the University of
Zimbabwe, the country’s biggest high learning institution, residence halls
were closed in 2006 because of water shortages and breakdown of seer
systems.
The problems were compounded by hyperinflation. Finance minister Tendai
Biti, a former student leader, said in his 2011 budget that he was moving to
revive infrastructure at all institutions of higher learning. "The
infrastructure at our institutions of higher learning are in need of a major
facelift and additional facilities in order to create conducive conditions
and learning environment,” Biti said.
He added: "Therefore we are allocating US$48.8 million which is focusing on
the rehabilitation and construction of infrastructure at State Universities
and other tertiary institutions. We are also providing the sum of
US$30million towards construction of Halls of Residence for all the
country's State universities."
Biti said he was bankrolling the infrastructure revival project with surplus
cash from his 2010 US$2.2billion budget. "And this amount Hon Speaker will
actually be released this part of the year from our surplus of 2010. Work
can actually begin in the first half of the year ….. the construction of
these halls of residence."
Biti's intervention comes after a shocking report compiled by UZ’s Professor
Rudo Gaidzanwa and Dr Charity Manyeruke, and the Students Solidarity Trust
that says desperate female students have been forced into relationships of
convenience with gardeners in lieu of accommodation in the 'boys khaya'.
“Some of the students were unfortunate enough to be offered accommodation by
a gardener who often compelled them to have sex with him as payment for the
accommodation,” part of the report reads. ?Biti said the budget would revive
the collapsed under-funded State universities.
"Mr Speaker I have to say we will provide US$1million for the procurement of
furniture and laboratory equipment to our universities and an amount of US$2
million for the procurement of learning and teaching materials." Zimbabwe's
economic crisis took its toll on all state universities that have also
suffered because of a massive brain drain that has seen some of the country’s
best educationists leaving for better paying jobs abroad.

Ex-Zimbabwean airforce officer to head African airlines body

http://www.afriquejet.com

News - Africa news
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - The African Airlines Association's (AFRAA) top
decision-making body, the General Assembly, has appointed a former
Zimbabwean Air Force Group Captain, Dr. Elijah Chingosho, as its
Secretary-General, PANA reported Friday.

Africa's aviation chiefs, who wound up the organization's 42nd Annual
General Assembly meeting here Thursday, appointed Chingosho to head the
continental air transport organization effective 1 January, 2011.

He would replace Ethiopia's Tewodros Tamrat, who has been acting Secretary
General since June 2010.

The airlines' body has been undergoing an internal leadership crisis
following the forced resignation of aviation guru, Nick Fadugba of Nigeria,
who was forced out of office after an intense boardroom showdown.

'The new Secretary General is expected to steer the affairs of AFRAA and
reposition the organization as a premier continental air transport body of
repute,' said an AFRAA statement, announcing his appointment Friday.

The new AFRAA boss has been the Director of Safety, Technical and Training
for the past nine years. His key targets are to ensure that the organization
delivers quality service to members and effectively representing their
interests, the AFRAA statement added.

Chingosho has extensive and diverse professional expertise in aviation
industry. He has also authored some aviation and business books.

'His familiarity with the functioning of AFRAA and its diverse membership
interest will be extremely valuable in formulating strategies to reposition
the organization and achieve its goals,' the aviation body said.

The new Secretary-General has over 24 years aviation experience in technical
and general management, 17 of which has been at senior management level.

He started his aviation career in the Air Force of Zimbabwe, where he rose
to the position of Director of Engineering with the rank of Group Captain
before leaving to pursue other interests.

Chingosho had a stint with a private marketing company in Harare before
joining Air Zimbabwe as the General Manager, Engineering and Acting General
Manager in charge of Human Resources.

He holds three Masters Degrees in Aeronautical Engineering, Business
Administration and Transport Economics and a Doctorate in Business
Administration.

Addis Ababa - Pana 27/11/2010

Biti approaches US Federal Reserve for new notes, coins

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

26/11/2010 00:00:00
    by Gilbert Nyambabvu

FINANCE Minister Tendai Biti has said the government is engaged in talks
with the United States Federal Reserve over the possible provision of coins
and replacement of soiled notes to help ease the lack of change in the
country.

Zimbabwe ditched its virtually worthless dollar in 2009 opting for more
stable currencies such as the Botswana Pula, United States greenback, and
the South African Rand.

However slower than expected recovery of the country’s export sectors and
the reluctance of Western donors to provide meaningful support has led to
serious liquidity constraints.

The transacting public has had to cope with shortages of change resulting in
many being forced to make unplanned purchases while retailers took advantage
of the situation by rounding up prices to their advantage.

However, the Ministry of Finance announced in its 2011 budget that the
United States Federal Reserve was ready to provide coins and replace soiled
notes to help ease the crisis.

“I am pleased to advise on the fruitful interactions with the US Department
of the Treasury which stands ready to facilitate access to acquisition of
smaller denominated coins and replacement of soiled notes through the US
Federal Reserve and commercial banks.

“I will, therefore, be finalising on this in conjunction with the banking
system, that way resolving the matter of challenges with change and coins,”
Biti said.

Arrangements have also been made to improve the availability of lower
denomination Rand coins and notes since the South African currency, along
with the US dollar, are the most widely used currencies in the country.

“The availability of both US dollar and rand coins will do away with the
challenges posed by the current need to apply cross rates in giving change
in rand coins for transactions undertaken in US dollars,” Biti said.

Biti said electronic payments systems alone could not be expected to address
the problem because of the nature of the country’s economy.

“Whilst this problem should be alleviated by electronic payment systems, the
large size of the informal sector and the lack of infrastructure for
electronic payment systems in rural areas necessitate the availability of
large volumes of small denominations,” he said.

Telegraph Christmas Appeal: we must not forget Zimbabwe

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

 

ZANE is a charity dedicated to alleviating suffering. Graham Boynton explains why the country he loves needs its help so badly

Children in a Harare shanty town: once the breadbasket of central Africa, Zimbabwe now depends on food aid to feed its population  

9:39AM GMT 27 Nov 2010

I recently dug out from my attic a photograph taken in Rhodesia at the end of the 1960s. It was primarily a snap of my teenage self with a girlfriend at the Hillside dams, a popular picnic spot in the second city of Bulawayo. What was interesting about the photograph was not the grinning teenage couple but the fact that at this particular spot were families and groups of all races – white, African and Indian – enjoying a Sunday in the sunshine. There is a carefree multi-racialism about the scene.

Pre-Mugabe Rhodesia has mostly been portrayed as a period of evil, race-driven colonialism where the white minority firmly planted their boots on the throats of the black majority, oppressing and exploiting them until they were driven into a guerrilla war that was to rage for more than a decade. The photograph suggests that the truth about Rhodesia was a great deal more complicated, and race relations and the progress towards enfranchisement were far more nuanced, than the traditional viewpoint from this side of the fence.

While we Rhodesian whites certainly enjoyed a happy-go-lucky, privileged youth we were also aware that the future had to be shared with the black majority. We were proudly unlike South Africa where racial separation was written into the constitution and through the 1950s and 1960s was seeping into its population’s bloodstream. We were largely from British stock and, having hacked and hewn an impressively efficient and successful modern society out of raw bushveld in less than a century, Rhodesians were setting about modifying the social and political landscape to accommodate the indigenous people properly.

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The moderates on both sides were not quick enough. Unfortunately, the decision-making processes ended up in the hands of whites like Ian Smith, an arch-conservative with limited political skills, and blacks like Robert Mugabe, a ruthless enforcer even from his early days. (The idea that Mugabe “turned bad” at some stage during his despotic reign is unsupported by fact – he was always prepared to employ a scorched earth policy on his political enemies.)

Both men were creatures of their time. Smith was elected in 1963 only three years after white Belgian refugees had fled into Rhodesia from anarchy and bloodshed in the decolonised Congo. They had arrived with tales of whites being murdered in the streets and that sent reverberations through Rhodesia’s white minority at just the time that the West was demanding immediate handover of political power. Mugabe, meanwhile, was transforming himself from a clever Christian schoolboy to an uncompromising Marxist-Leninist, a perfect anti-Western front line activist for the Cold War ideologues in Moscow and Peking.

We – the grinning white teenagers in that fading photograph and the black families sitting around enjoying picnics on the same immaculately-tended lawns – were innocently enjoying the last days of relative peace. For soon, Rhodesia would be engulfed in an unwinnable civil war after which power would be transferred to the man whose name would become synonymous with despotic African rule. Despite Mugabe’s promises to Ian Smith at the time he took power that he would look after the country he had inherited from the conscientious and innovative colonials, in fact he has dismantled and destroyed the infrastructure with a cavalier disregard for his own people’s welfare.

As Mugabe and his cronies have gone about looting the country, they have also allowed to fall into disrepair, either wilfully or through blissful ignorance, the mechanisms that supported colonial Rhodesia’s phenomenal growth. Most notable of these mechanisms was an unideological civil service, which provided the glue that held the various functioning institutions together.

Whatever the private political views of these largely white civil servants – and many of them went home at night and supported Ian Smith – their sense of public duty, combined with their resourcefulness and diligence, were major contributors to the success of the colony and therefore the well-being of both its white and black citizens. The shabbiness and disorder today in the principal cities and the virtual absence of a properly functioning civil service are significant pointers to the shambles that is Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

Now, as Zimbabwe enters its second decade as a socially and economically failed state, the price is being paid by the ordinary people. Mugabe’s elite have barely noticed the calamitous decline, although they have been somewhat inconvenienced by the fact that their shopping trips to Bond Street and Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré have been disrupted by sanctions imposed on them by the EU.

However, that inner circle of politicians, cronies and relatives continue to live the high life while the majority of Zimbabweans struggle to feed themselves. Only last week, the wife of one of Mugabe’s ministers was overheard telling a companion that so much money was pouring into her family’s bank account “that we have to buy a new property every year”.

The plain facts of Zimbabwe’s fall tell the story. In 2000 the total output of the country’s agricultural industry was 4.3 million tonnes of products worth, at today’s prices, US$ 4.3 billion. By last year this had declined to 1.3 billion tonnes worth $1 billion, a fall of 70 per cent. More than half of the 4,000 white-owned farms taken by the Mugabe regime are now derelict. This forced displacement has resulted in loss of employment for at least 250,000 people and poverty for their 1.3 million dependants on commercial farms. From being a prosperous, self-sufficient country that was the breadbasket of Central Africa and a net exporter of agricultural product, Zimbabwe now depends on food aid to feed its population.

This has all been conducted in a cloud of anti-colonial rhetoric from Mugabe and his corrupt cronies who claim that their actions are readjusting the wrongs of the past. As the plain facts reveal, nothing could be further from the truth. The victims are the black majority and the remnants of the white community, in the latter case pensioners who have seen their savings destroyed by hyper-inflation. Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a food security monitoring group, has said in some years almost 6 million Zimbabweans would need food aid to avoid starvation.

It was the assault on the white farms that indirectly led to the formation of the charity ZANE (Zimbabwe a National Emergency). In 2002, ZANE’s founder, Tom Benyon, met Kathy Olds, a third generation Zimbabwean who had fled, destitute, to the UK with her two children after the murder of her husband Martin on their Matabeleland farm. “I raised money for Kathy and in the following year I visited Zimbabwe myself to confirm that the overall situation was utterly desperate.”

Since then ZANE has raised some £8 million for its beneficiaries who range from white pensioners barely able to afford a daily meal through to black Zimbabweans in the high density suburbs who require medical care in a country now ravaged by HIV Aids and with an all but dysfunctional medical system.

“The economic decline has been total ... it will take many years to rebuild the country into even a shadow of its former self,” says Benyon. “And the political rapprochement that has been much trumpeted over the last two years has made no difference to the man in the street. Mugabe and his cronies will not give up power. Tsvangirai and his colleagues are brave men but they’ve been forced to get into bed with the mafia. So nothing has changed for ordinary, struggling people.”

This beautiful country’s lurching journey from prosperous colony to multi-racial democracy to damaged African dictatorship has been a calamity for most of its citizens. At least three million Zimbabweans have fled to neighbouring South Africa and tens of thousands live in Britain. The white community that at its peak numbered almost 300,000 people is now estimated at fewer than 20,000, many of these elderly people who cannot afford to leave a country most were born in.

And while its political leaders strut about in Savile Row suits sipping malt whisky and negotiating their next property deals, charities such as ZANE are left caring for their most vulnerable citizens. It is the story of post-colonial Africa.

What do ordinary Zimbabweans want?

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

27/11/2010 00:00:00
    by Themba Munthali

WHY is every news media so obsessed with the thinking of the leaders of
different political parties in Zimbabwe? Political commentators, columnist
and every other person who has vested interest in Zimbabwe seems to be
expending their energies on what “the leadership” say and want.

I know I will sound cynical to some quarters, so be it; yes none of them
seems to be focusing on what the people of Zimbabwe want. Is this a not case
of the elected fighting over the cake while the electors grapple with the
crumbs resulting from that.

For goodness sake the country is trying to recover from a serious economic
disaster and there is no point in dwelling on the causes of that economic
down turn now. Pointing accusing fingers at anything that moves will not see
us through the recovery especially now that the whole world is at the brink
of economic protectionism. Let the country recover and then we can reflect
on the failure as a piece of some nasty historical experience which no one
wants to relive.

If the so-called political leaders have the people of Zimbabwe at heart why
do they not let Zimbabweans choose between; some expensive electoral process
that will gnaw dip into the fragile economy and only serves to satisfy the
egos of a few power obsessed individuals and allowing the country to recover
while under the current “steering committee” as I would like to call it.

Some politicians would like us to believe that nobody was given a full
mandate to represent the people in Zimbabwe while others want us to believe
that their side was victorious in the last polls.

Judging by the way things have been going on currently and how life has
partially returned to normality for a large part the population it surely is
common sense that this parliament is seen through in contravention of the
GPA (after all a number of the GPA terms have been contravened in one way or
the other to date anywhere-as we are led to believe) so that the economy
fully recovers.

Yes, the majority of the people are still having problems financially
because of the slow expansion in the employment sector resulting in fewer
people wilding the dollar purchasing ability. The intended recovery and
economic growth will not be realized in the long term if “this hot” air of
political bickering is allowed to prevail.

In my myopic opinion, the differences currently prevailing in Zimbabwe would
be quite healthy and progressive in a non-violent, threat-free environment
because no one individual would be the custodian of how the institutions of
the country ought to be run (I guess that is what “power sharing” is all
about, whatever that is).

I suppose that is a utopian thought. The world has changed and will carry on
progressively changing for better or for worse and one of the major changes
that ought to manifest is; the people ought to treat the politicians with
the contempt they deserve.

Politicians (servants of the people as they would like to call them selves)
should be stripped of all the powers they have bestowed upon themselves so
that they can revert to the role they were meant for in the first place,
that of being “people’s representatives”.

It is naïve and insulting for individuals to be elected as “people’s
representatives” to turn round and bite the hand that fed them in the first
place which is what politicians do world wide. We cannot all be
representatives; however this does not necessarily mean that those who have
not submitted their names for nomination are incapable.

Being a political representative is not a Divine bestowed role as some
people would like us to believe. A quick look into the so called governments
in a lot of countries shows that politics is turning out to be the preserve
of the elite who build castles of state machinery around them to shield them
against any challenges and to quash any voice of dissent – what a shame.

In some cases these roles are wrestled from the sitting candidates by
military means either to restore sanity or for the military’s own sinister
agendas. This however has been waning in the last decade or so because of
the changes in the way human beings now perceive the world around them and
obviously globalization has also played a significant role.

Let me not digress too far from the main point; let the people of Zimbabwe
say what they want at this moment in time, bearing in mind where we have
come from. We need to remind (lest we forget) ourselves that we have come
from a long and protracted struggle of trying to wrestle the country from
neo colonialist and a lot of blood has been spilled along the way.

We have even been at each other’s throats (God knows why) despite
successfully winning the political struggle; there has been so much
bloodletting which should not be allowed to carry on. We all know what is
best for the country but greed, egocentristic tendencies and other evil
“isms” tend to cloud our thinking thus killing off all the patriotism that
is inherent in every Zimbabwean. Long live our freedom particularly from
ourselves.