http://www.voanews.com
By Ntungamili
Nkomo
Washington
03 November 2008
A
senior official of the Southern African Development Community said Monday
that the regional organization has not yet set a date for a summit that will
attempt to resolve the differences between Zimbabwe's reluctant
power-sharing partners allowing the formation of a national unity government
capable of tackling multiple crises.
But SADC Executive Secretary
Tomaz Salomao said the organization has
narrowed the venue down to South
Africa, which currently holds the SADC
chair, or Swaziland, which is
chairing SADC's troika or committee on
politics, defense and security - the
SADC body which failed last week to
bring about a compromise agreement in
Harare.
The Movement for Democratic Change party founded by prime
minister-designate
Morgan Tsvangirai has said SADC should lose no time
holding the summit, but
Salomao told reporter Ntungamili Nkomo of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
scheduling a summit is a complicated matter
involving the schedules of 15
heads of state.
Chief power-sharing
negotiator Welshman Ncube of the MDC formation led by
Arthur Mutambara said
concerned parties should not wait for SADC to come to
Zimbabwe's rescue but
should move ahead and take action on their own.
National Executive member
Sam Sipepa Nkomo of the Tsvangirai MDC formation
said SADC's delay convening
the summit is exacerbating the humanitarian
crisis.
http://www.voanews.com
By
Patience Rusere
Washington
03 November
2008
With power-sharing talks in Zimbabwe deadlocked and
unlikely to be restarted
soon with a regional summit on the matter not even
scheduled, the National
Constitutional Assembly is urging the formation of a
transitional government
to address the humanitarian crisis.
The group
announced in a news conference Monday that it is launching a
series of
protests that will begin next Tuesday in larger cities to pressure
politicians for action.
NCA National Director Earnest Mudzengi told
reporter Patience Rusere of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that his group's
three-point plan includes the
transitional government, a new constitution,
and free and fair elections to
be internationally monitored.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=6724
November 3, 2008
By our
Correspondent
HARARE - Welshman Ncube, the secretary general of an MDC
faction, has
confirmed that the power-sharing agreement signed on September
15 was,
indeed, doctored.
He denies, however that he was in any way
involved. Instead so he told
reporter Violet Gonda of SWRadio Africa
yesterday, it was Patrick Chinamasa
the former Minister of Justice and
Zanu-PF's chief delegate at the long
drawn-out negotiations, who was behind
the subterfuge.
He described as "malicious agenda and a creation of
fiction" reports
alleging he was involved in the doctoring of the
controversial power-sharing
deal.
A news report by another SWRadio
Africa reporter Lance Guma last Friday made
the allegation that Ncube,
Chinamasa, as well as Thabo Mbeki's own
representative, Mujanku Gumbi, had
conspired to doctor the document, which
was signed by President Robert
Mugabe, mainstream MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai and the leader of Ncube's
breakaway faction, Arthur Mutambara.
In an interview with Gonda Monday
Ncube said: "It can only be the product of
people who are extremely
malicious, who have no journalistic ethics who run
with a stupid false story
without even the decency of talking to the people
who are accused of the
fraudulent alteration of the document."
Ncube added: "I did not take part
or participate in any alteration of any
agreement at all."
Friday's
report on SWRadio Africa which attributed the revelation to Tomaz
Salomao
was published on the Zimbabwe Times website on Monday. Yesterday
Guma told
the Zimbabwe Times that the report had initially appeared in
Business Day,
the highly respected Johannesburg business newspaper.
Meanwhile Ncube
told Gonda yesterday that there were alterations to the
document and that
two paragraphs were missing from the final agreement
signed by the
principals on September 15. Ncube said Chinamasa had admitted
to altering
one of the paragraphs and to "accidentally" deleting two of the
other
clauses.
There is no record that Ncube, the chief negotiator of the
Mutambara
faction, or his party had taken any appropriate action when he
became privy
to what amounts to fraudulent activity by the Zanu-PF main
negotiator.
Questions sent to Ncube yesterday to ask what action he had
taken upon
coming across this information were not responded to by late
Monday night.
Ncube disclosed to Gonda that there were, in fact, three
sets of documents
in existence.
The first set of documents
represented the agenda items discussed and agreed
upon by the six
negotiators, representing Zanu-PF and the two MDC
formations. Ncube said all
six negotiators had initialled the agenda items
and each representative had
a copy.
"It is not possible for anyone to tamper with this document
because we
signed every agenda item and we can verify each clause," he
pointed out.
The second set of documents was the Global Political
Agreement signed by the
principals on Thursday, September 11, when they
finally reached an
agreement. This was then followed by the third document
that was signed at
the formal ceremony on September 15.
Ncube said
the differences which exist were in the document that was finally
signed by
the principals on September 11. He said after they had signed the
hard copy,
the document was put on a computer disc and given to Zanu-PF's
chief
representative, Chinamasa, by the South Africa officials, to prepare a
legal
document.
The first clause that was altered by Chinamasa was on the issue
of senate
seats. Ncube said Zanu-PF already had five non-constituency seats.
So it had
been agreed that an additional six senators would be appointed.
Out of the
six, four would be from the mainstream MDC of Tsvangirai while
two would
come from the Mutambara faction. However that paragraph had been
completely
changed and Chinamasa had inserted a clause saying there would be
nine new
senate seats, to be shared equally between the three contesting
parties.
Ncube said Chinamasa had admitted that he was the one who had
inserted that
particular clause, claiming he had been told by his principal,
Mugabe, that
all three leaders had agreed to this. But Ncube said his own
principal,
Mutambara, had denied ever agreeing to increasing the senate
seats to nine.
It is not clear what action, if any, Mutambara and Ncube took
to counter
this development
The second alteration was a paragraph
that was completely missing from the
final document. The missing paragraph
says anyone appointed to the position
of Deputy Prime Minister and Vice
President would automatically be a Member
of Parliament. If that person was
already an MP his/her party will appoint a
non-constituency MP.
Ncube
says Chinamasa claims the missing paragraph was "deleted by
accident".
The third alteration was in the form of another missing
paragraph in the
final document. It was stated in the missing paragraph that
the Prime
Minister and Deputy Prime Minister as well as the President and
his Vice
Presidents would sit together to make appointments of senior
government
employees like Ambassadors and Permanent
Secretaries.
Ncube says the former Justice Minister had claimed the
paragraph had been
accidentally deleted. Again the Mutambara camp had
apparently decided to let
sleeping dogs lie - that was until yesterday when
Ncube was linked to the
fraud by The Zimbabwe Times.
It appears Ncube
did not respond when the story initially appeared on the
SWRadio Africa
website last week and in Business Day before that.
Ncube said; "It is
pure nonsense for anyone to suggest that I would have
participated in the
alteration of a document in a manner which prejudices my
party. You need to
be a fool to actually believe such nonsense."
Ncube also exonerated the
South Africans, saying they were not involved in
the alteration of the
document.
The Tsvangirai MDC initially raised concerns in early October,
complaining
that the agreement had been altered.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=6744
November 3, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has introduced new $1
million, $500
000 and $100 000 banknotes in a desperate bid to ease the
recurrent cash
shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy.
The
bills will officially come into circulation on Friday, although they
were
already on the foreign currency dealers market today.
As high as they
are, though, the highest bill can only buy eight loaves of
bread. The
highest new note is equal to just US$6.
The new notes with be the 22nd,
23rd and 24th notes introduced by the
Reserve Bank this year alone. The
central bank also said it will review cash
withdrawal limits to compensate
for ever-accelerating inflation.
The withdrawal limit for individuals is
still $50 000 a day while that for
companies is $10 000.
In a
statement last night, the central bank said: "In a market that has
become
predominantly speculative, most providers of goods and services are
demanding cash as the only acceptable means of payment, penalising those
that could otherwise be willing and able to use cheques for transaction
purposes.
"In the measures underway, the Reserve Bank plans to
introduce a number of
new, higher denominations, review the cash withdrawal
limits as well as
commence aggressive campaigns for increased usage of other
alternative means
of payment."
"The RBZ is fighting a losing battle,"
economist John Robertson said in
Harare.
"As long as the inflation
remains high, cash shortages will persist. There
is need to address the
inflation by increasing production so that too goods
do not (cost) a lot of
money."
Signs of a severe cash shortage are showing across the country as
citizens
are currently struggling to access cash from their various bank and
financial institutions' accounts.
A serious cash shortage has
persisted since October 2007. The latest
negative developments follow the
move by German firm, Giesecke and Devrient,
to half money paper supplies to
Zimbabwe.
Long bank queues are once again part of everyday life in which
the maximum
withdrawal limit, which people say is too little, forces them to
come back
to the bank virtually daily. Bank sources hint the cash situation
is poised
to deteriorate further in the coming weeks.
"Right now, we
have a situation whereby the country has no paper coming in,
so the money
that is currently circulating was printed some time back."
"Due to the
hyper-inflationary environment, there is an urgent need for more
new notes,
and this is the problem faced by the RBZ," said an economist with
a local
bank.
The Munich-based firm, which supplied the RBZ with paper for bearer
cheques,
was asked by the German government to halt business with Zimbabwe
because of
concerns it was helping prop up Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe.
In the capital city of Harare, long queues are a daily feature at
every
bank, but the longest queues can be seen at CABS, Beverley and the
POSB.
People wake up to join queues as early as 5am, as long queues can
be seen by
6am.
http://www.hararetribune.com
Monday, 03 November 2008
21:53
Eight people - among them a three year-old girl - succumbed to
hunger-related diseases and passed away in the past two months, Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party legislator for Gutu North constituency, Edmore
Hamandishe, revealed.
Although he could not release the names
of the deceased due to what he said
were ethical considerations, Hamandishe
said he had attended the funeral
wakes of all the victims, with the lattest
one being the death of a 50-year
old man from Makumbe village under Chief
Gadzingo last Thursday.
"I have attended the funeral wakes of all
these people as the MP for that
area, and I can testify that even in the
courts. I cannot however release
the names of the deceased, but I can assure
you that it was a serious food
deficit that led them to succumb to
malnutrition and kwashiokar," said
Hamandishe.
Masvingo Province is a
drought prone even during years of bumper harvests,
villagers to fill
bushels to last them through the dry season.
The MDC Member of Parliament
(MP), who trounced ZANU PF''s Frank Machinya,
said the girl- who was an
orphan under the care of her ageing grandmother,
died of kwashiokar last
month.
"I felt so bad when I learnt of the death of the three year old,
who was
under the custodisnship of her grandmother, who is also a potential
candidate for food aid. If only I knew of her predicament, I could have
helped with food for the orphan," Hamandishe said.
While government
officials admitted that the food situation in the rurals
areas is so dire,
they however denied that some people had either succumbed
to hunger related
disease, or starved to death.
"It is true that there is a food deficit in
the district, but to say that
the hunger has caused some deaths would be an
overstatement. I am yet to
learn of such deaths," said Gutu District
Administrator, Evyline Muzenda.
More than two million people in the
province are seriously in need of food
aid following six consecutive years
of food shortages owing to bad
agricultural policies, poor rains and lack of
farming inputs.
The Red Cross, another humanitarian organisation, is
currently giving food
handouts to 1 400 HIV positive people under its
Home-Based Care (HBC), amid
reports that some HIV negative urbanites are
faking to be HIV positive in
order to be eligible for the
program.
Zimbabweans eat twenty times less than they need following acute
food
shortages that have ravaged most parts of the country, leaving many in
the
rural areas who are on the brink of starvation scrounging for wild
fruits
at night in a bid to wad off competition from wild animals.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own
Correspondent Tuesday 04 November 2008
HARARE - Zimbabwean
gold miners on Monday accused the country's central bank
of "bringing the
sector down to its knees" by refusing to pay mining firms
more than US$30
million for gold delivered.
The Chamber of Mines said the sector, which
was one of the biggest gold
producers in Africa less than 10 years ago, was
on the brink of collapse
with several mines unable to sustain operations,
pay wages and salaries due
to lack of cash because the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) had not paid
them.
Under Zimbabwean law, all gold
producers are required to sell ore to the
central bank.
"It is not
understandable that at a time when the country requires as much
foreign
currency as possible, the gold sector, which can generate foreign
currency,
has deliberately been brought to its knees," said the Chamber in
tough-worded statement.
The Chamber, which labelled the RBZ's
non-payment for gold a "travesty of
justice", said exploration work had
completely ceased while most underground
mines had flooded, because they
cannot pump out water seeping from shafts.
"This has been happening
because the RBZ has failed for pay for gold
delivered, resulting in all the
mines being unable to sustain production,"
said the Chamber that is regarded
the voice of the mining industry in the
country.
Some gold firms had
not been paid a single cent for deliveries for a whole
year, according to
the mines body.
There was no immediate reaction from RBZ governor Gideon
Gono on the charges
by the Chamber.
The RBZ pays for 75 percent of
total value of gold delivered in United
States dollars directly to the
producers' foreign currency account with the
balance of 25 percent being
paid in local currency as determined by the
central bank.
But the for
the past two years the RBZ has been falling behind on payments
to gold
miners as it struggles for hard cash to import food and other basic
commodities in short supply in the country.
As the gold sector was
starved of cash, production has plummeted to record
lows with a paltry three
tonnes expected to be produced this year down from
30 tonnes that Zimbabwe
produced in 1999.
Zimbabwe has the second largest platinum reserves in
the world after South
Africa and large gold, nickel and coal deposits but
mines have found it
difficult to expand in the face of a worsening economic
crisis. - ZimOnline
http://www.voanews.com
By Jonga
Kandemiiri
Washington
03 November
2008
While Zimbabwe's political opposition is demanding
accountability for the
perpetrators of political violence in months past,
church leaders are
working with non-governmental groups in an effort to heal
divisions and
wounds from the traumatic post-election period.
The
Christian Alliance said a foundation is required for transitional
justice to
take place if and when the proposed national unity government is
formed.
Christian Alliance National Coordinator Useni Sibanda told
reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the effort
will focus not
only on counseling victims but on reaching out to those
accused of
committing political violence.
Amnesty International has
estimated that some 180 people died in the wave of
political violence that
swept the country following March elections.
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
3rd
Nov 2008 19:40 GMT
By Chenjerai
Chitsaru
GIDEON GONO has a fantastic talent.
He can simplify
complex monetary matters into language instantly understood
by market
vendors of modest education at Mbare musika.
He parlayed this talent in
his early days as governor of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe to great
effect.
He is also something of a showman, disguising himself as a
foreign currency
dealer to gain first-hand information on the
racket.
Then, it all seemed to desert him, to evaporate like dew in the
morning sun.
Instead, he seemed to develop another talent: for
bungling.
Over the years, his earlier reputation has been dragged through
the mud at
the vast marketplace.
Few of the vendors at the biggest
bus terminal and vegetable marketplace
complex in the country have had
complimentary comments to make on his
performance, for a very long
while.
The primary cause of this decline can be traced back to the
disastrous
effects of his policies on the livelihood of ordinary people,
which declined
in almost the same measure as his reputation...
Today,
the more sophisticated among his critics describe him as being "too
clever
by half". This may not be fair.
He is a man of some intelligence, not as
considerable as Albert Einstein's
or Pythagoras'.
But the Z$64
trillion question to be asked must be whether he is man of good
character
where money is concerned.
A central bank governor who can justify the
reckless
printing of money, unsupported by solid hard currency reserves,
may be
accused of playing with fire - or toying with ordinary people's
emotions, or
even their lives...
Gono has been the highest profile
central bank governor in Zimbabwe since
Kombo Moyana and Leonard Tsumba. His
record has been tarnished to the extent
some in the opposition are calling
for either of these men to replace him.
There was always the suspicion
they fell out with the politicians because
they refused to play political
footsie with monetary policy.
As they stuck to the tried and tested
formula of separating politics from
the guardianship of the country's purse
strings, they incurred the wrath of
the politicians.
In his defence,
Gono could speak of his desire to infuse a political
rationale into the
monetary policies. But he could not justify this, for
instance, with
strategies which raised our inflation rate to the highest in
the world: a
trillion percent..
As with most sectors crucial to the political survival
of Robert Mugabe as
president, the RBZ, under Gono, was tailored to prolong
Zanu PF's grip on
power.
Gono has spoken famously of his humble
beginnings into the world of high
finance - from a "teaboy" in a bank to the
chief executive of a bank.
In colonial parlance, the teaboy made tea for
the bosses.
Presumably, by reading voluminously on finance and banking -
by candlelight,
in his dingy, humble, one-room, lodgings in Mbare,
Highfield, Mufakose or
|Mabvuku or Epworth - he managed to excite enough
interest to seek a formal
introduction into that fascinating
world.
Last week, The Herald announced he would be stepping down after
the end of
his tenure as governor. There was no categorical statement
detailing the
exact date of his departure. Gono is not above introducing
melodrama into
his job. He seems to love to build up the tension, before
going for the
jugular.
As the guardian of the tattered monetary
policies of the government, he
bears much responsibility for the parlous
state of the economy. Critics have
attacked him severely for politicising
the post. He has denied the
accusation.
He was always close to
Mugabe, even as chief executive officer of the partly
government- owned
Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ).
It was inevitable that questions would
be raised about his independence from
the president when he became RBZ
governor. How far would he obey his master's
voice without
question?
There was suspicion among cabinet ministers that he could be
classified as a
"senior cabinet minister". His responsibilities, they
alleged, seemed to
include the supervision of all ministries.
Some
hoped fervently he would slip on a huge banana skin, the way another
young,
ambitious politician did a few years earlier.
Jonathan Moyo was the
minister of state for information when the government
introduced the
heinously anti-democratic Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy
Act (AIPPA).
He left the government in a thick cloud of acrimony after
allegations
surfaced he had tried to plot a "smart" coup against
Mugabe.
Yet in his early days as RBZ governor, Gono seemed ready to chart
a path
towards conventional monetary policies. He was not as unilaterally
opposed
to devaluation as he later turned out to be.
Initially, he
seemed ready to continue where his predecessor, Tsumba, had
left
off.
Later, he embraced Mugabe's acceptance of quackish, unorthodox
policies,
including the random printing of currency and the amazing addition
of zeros,
seemingly at the drop of the slightest hint of a "problem" from
Mugabe.
It is by no means certain that the economic crisis which has
terrorized the
country since 2000 was not triggered by the virtual halt of
agricultural
production, but by Gono's love-hate relationship with the
zeros.
There were always rumours of Gono preparing for a political sunny
day for
himself. These included more luxury houses and cars than he
apparently could
afford on his salary, even as high as it was said to
be.
No, it turned out, he didn't own a Mercedes Benz Brabus monster, one
of the
most powerful and expensive cars in the world.
Yes, he did own
a V12 engine vehicle from the same German stable.. It was
one of only three
or four in Zimbabwe . It was a luxury car, but not a
Brabus.
Gono
made many enemies, a few of them driven by envy and jealousy. Many
others
doubted that he was capable, mentally, of tackling the country's
monetary
crisis, apart from stop-gap measures and an open pandering to the
political
whims of Zanu PF.
Most experts who rate hero status after people depart
from their jobs praise
them for leaving the place "better than they found
it".
Few will be persuaded to pay Gono that glowing tribute after he has
departed, whenever that may be.
Among African central bank governors,
only South Africa 's Tito Mboweni can
equal Gono in familiarity among
ordinary African newspaper readers, radio
listeners and TV
viewers.
Nigerians probably know more about Gono than they do about their
own federal
central bank chief.
Some of his most implacable critics
allege Gono set out to achieve maximum
publicity for the sole purpose of
advancing his political career. To those
claiming to know his personality
inside-out, this is a weird theory.
He may, occasionally, display all the
signs of craving .a Hollywood film
star image, but there is said to be a
deep-seated shyness in him, probably
buried deep in his
childhood.
But does a bashful person find the possession of a V12 engine
vehicle
consistent with his pint-size ego?
Gono has always seemed to
find some of the causes for his unpopularity
unjustified. For instance, he
has said his wealth is not something that
people should be amazed at. He was
paid handsomely as head of CBZ. Then,
there were the perks, which included a
luxury car of his own choice.
Similarly, his CEO houses could not have
been your garden-variety
three-bedroom dormitories. His qualifications and
experience will always
call for a high salary undreamed of
perks.
Unfortunately for him, he was sucked into a system, created by
Zanu PF,
which decrees that the achievement of power must be rewarded
lavishly. The
reward does not necessarily have to match
the
performance. Zanu PF scoffs at the entire concept of
performance-related
rewards, although one cabinet minister spoke of this as
a glowing example to
be emulated by all.
In the March elections,
which both Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF lost
resoundingly, it was the
performance of the contestants which determined the
outcome.
People,
long fed falsehoods by the state media, woke up to the reality of
their
miserable status as victims of one of the most wicked confidence
tricks in
the world.
A government, a party and the whole paraphernalia of the
state, including
the state economic sector, had for years underperformed,
giving the people
only half-baked products for their hard-earned taxpayers'
cash.
At the election, the people rejected the whole mess, but were paid
back in
death and threats of destruction. But the change must be made,
regardless of
all this.
Those underperformers must know that this
time around they will not get away
with anything they didn't work hard
for.
Gono must know it is time to leave and let someone with somewhat
modest
tastes try their luck.
http://www.hararetribune.com
Monday, 03 November 2008 21:02
Gilbert Muponda
There is a causal link between Zimbabwe's economic
melt-down and the
breakdown of the rule of law .The Ministry of Home Affairs
has to be under
untainted hands if the economy is to attract investors and
increase
production. ZANU-PF maintains that the real cause of the economic
meltdown
is the sanctions regime under which the country has been left with
no choice
but to resort to unorthodox economic and political methods.
It
is my contention that a link clearly exist between economic performance
and
the respect of the rule of law. The imposition of the will of the former
ruling party on the country has taken many forms including the passage of
laws that promote and entrench partisanship and the use of state power to
interfere with the bill of rights enshrined in the constitution of the
country. This has resulted in widespread violation of private property
rights which is the cornerstone of any market based economy. Through-out
human history there has never been a lawless society that has economically
succeeded. Its unlikely Zimbabwe will be the first one to succeed in an
environment characterized by property and human rights being non-existent
.Lawlessness breeds poverty and unstable economic environment.
The
separation of powers doctrine, a fundamental requirement in any
constitutional democracy, is no longer applied in contemporary Zimbabwe. The
selective use of the law to punish and reward targeted persons undermines
the rule of law, which reduces investment in the economy. The shocking
breakdown of the rule of law has had its own adverse effects on economic
performance.
The break down of the rule of law was particularly
apparent in the
destruction of the Agricultural sector which led to Wide
spread disruptions
on Agricultural production. Whilst land reform was
absolutely necessary its
implementation accompanied by law breaking and
court orders being ignored
and the Ministry of Home affairs mostly doing
nothing exacerbated the
economic decline. Confidence building critical to
attract investment and
restore Economic growth .There is need for new
investment to increase
production and tame Zimbabwe's record setting
hyper-inflation.
Law and order is a basic requirement of any functioning
modern society.
Unfortunately, the Ministry of Home affairs which has the
responsibility of
maintaining law and order has done such a bad job that the
former ruling
party cannot and should not be entrusted with this critical
ministry if
Zimbabwe is going to re-join the international community and
regain lost
glory due to the reputation acquired by due to the failure of
this ministry
to uphold the law.
From around year 2000, Economic
slide was accompanied by the break down of
the rule of law starting with
invading productive farms most of which had
not even been gazzetted .And
during that period Company invasions increased.
During that period Company
invasions increased this led to the resignation
of the then Minister of
Industry and Commerce Dr Nkosana Moyo It was clear
then that without rule of
law there won't be any economic prosperity and
it's clear now that the
Ministry needs fresh ideas and focus and direction
and it has to be made
aware of the critical role it will play in Zimbabwe's
Economic recovery by
creating conducive business environment by fair
application of the rule of
law.
Foreign Direct investment will not increase if there is no rule of
law.Foreign aid which has been critical in various sectors is unlikely to
come if there is no culture reform and a serious attempt to rebuild
confidence in the law enforcement agencies which are part of the Ministry of
Home Affairs.
Brain drain has resulted in massive loss of skill and
experience .Its
unlikely this will be reversed if the conditions that have
been allowed to
make Zimbabwe very hostile to skilled and experienced
employees are not
addressed.
Capital flight will continue as long as
there is perception of lawlessness
and selective application of the law.
This means the Ministry of home
affairs needs a culture change and has to be
under a different party to
manage that change and improve perception that
the law will be applied
uniformly.
During the stage managed
anti-graft campaign of 2003-4, the Ministry of Home
affairs through the
Zimbabwe Republic Police (an institution whose
credibility is in tatters)
facilitated and enabled a massive wealth transfer
with several business
people either arrested, threatened with arrest or
haunted out of the country
.Whilst this was hailed at the time it had a
negative impact on the Economy,
investor confidence and caused brain drain
and partially reversed economic
gains.
The ministry of Home affairs through ZRP instead of investigating
first,
they proceeded to arrest so as to investigate .Whilst these arrests
were
going on a record number of businesses changed hands under
controversial
circumstances .Such events affect investor sentiment and
confidence .Below
is the partial list of the Businesses that changed hands
courtesy of the
Ministry of Home affairs.
1- Royal BANK from
J.Muzwimbi to Government of Zimbabwe
2 - Barbican Bank Dr M.Ncube to
Government of Zimbabwe
3 - Trust Bank
4 - Shabanie Mashaba Mines from ARL
to Government of Zimbabwe
5 -Kondozi Farm
6- Century Bank Holdings from
ENG Capital to RBZ Governor, Dr Gono
and Mr. Sean Maloney
7 -First Mutual
Life
8 - CFI Holdings
9 - Intermarket Holdings from Transnational Holdings
to Government
owned ZB Holdings
10 - Zimre Holdings
This made
global news headlines, whilst it seemed normal, it wasn't in that
it
highlighted the lack of uniformity in application of the law.This
generally
fed into the perception that it's risky to invest in Zimbabwe
because there
is no rule of law. And to change this perception it's
imperative that the
law enforcement function be reformed and be under an
untainted
custodian.
++Gilbert Muponda is a Zimbabwe-born entrepreneur. This
article appears
courtesy of GMRI Capital. He can be contacted at gilbert@gmricapital.comThis
e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled
to view it . More articles at www.gmricapital.com
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
By Mutumwa D.
Mawere
(www.mmawere.com)
Posted to
the web: 04/11/2008 01:47:22
AS WE search for the causes of Africa's present
condition, we have to accept
that the complex interplay between ideology,
populist and antagonistic
politics, bad economics, corruption; knowledge,
capital and execution gaps
have all contributed to place the continent at
the bottom of the human
development ladder.
Land ownership is an
issue of burning concern to many Africans. The issue is
not only emotional
but has been opportunistically used by politicians to
cling to power. The
colonial experience has regrettably shaped and largely
distorted issues
related to land ownership to the extent that post-colonial
Africa is
incapable of looking forward and investing in a land tenure system
that can
facilitate production efficiency and effectiveness.
Who does the land in
Africa belong to? How should the land be owned? What
rights to land should
be conferred on the holder? Should land be treated
like other assets in
terms of negotiability and transferability?
There are many people
irrespective of their station in life or education who
subscribe to the
proposition that land in Africa should be reserved to black
people
notwithstanding the implications on land value in a market that is
structured on racial and not economic grounds.
To the extent that the
colonial state appropriated land on racial grounds,
it has not been possible
in post-colonial Africa to escape from dealing with
land reform outside the
prism of race. The argument used during the colonial
era, which has been
inherited with minor variations, is that blacks by
nature and practice are
subsistence farmers and, therefore, could not have
been prejudiced by the
transfer of land to settlers who were predominantly
commercial
farmers.
After all, it is then asserted that the land so appropriated was
not being
used for economic purposes. Accordingly, using this line of
thinking it
could not argued rationally that the emergence of white
commercial farming
impacted negatively on black farm
output.
Generally a commercial farmer has a different relationship to
land than a
subsistence farmer. In approaching the politically-charged issue
of land
reform, the majority of African elites that took over control of the
post-colonial state have taken a view that the nationalisation of land and
its subsequent transfer to landless peasants will in and out of itself lead
to economic progress.
The colonial state was framed as a capitalist
business model under which
race became the first qualification for full
market participation. With
capitalism in retreat following the global
financial crisis and socialism
having been discredited as an ideology that
can advance human progress, we
should all be searching for a new kind of
ideology that can help address
African issues.
Against a backdrop of
global system in turmoil, it would be convenient for
African leaders to
ignore the communiqué entitled: "Decision on Major Issues
Concerning the
Advancement of Rural Reform and Development" released by the
Central
Committee of China's ruling Communist party on October 19, 2008.
This
landmark decision comes 30 years after the launch of economic reforms
that
have dramatically changed the condition of China. In December 1978,
under
the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese people invested in change
and
accepted that socialism had failed to deliver on the promise.
China
experimented with communism and the results were not encouraging. For
many
Africans, the Chinese case study is more relevant, least because it has
been
traditional for African leaders in post-colonial Africa to flirt with
socialism, in the search of a viable and appropriate economic
model.
The recent reforms are meant to usher China into the next stage of
its
evolution into a fully functioning capitalist system. Thirty years ago,
the
Communist party liberated peasant farmers from collectivised farming
imposed
by Chairman Mao Zedong's administration by allowing them to farm
their plots
for a profit.
However, the land remained under the
ownership of the state with farmers
being entitled to 30-year renewable
leases. Like many African leaders, the
Communist party under Chairman Mao
was afraid of giving freehold title to
citizens and trusted the state as a
custodian of land.
After 30 years of experimenting with Adam Smith's
principles, the reforms
have produced largely urban-based millionaires while
condemning the rural
folk to poverty. The obstacles preventing farmers from
exchanging their land
and building through consolidation viable land units
for enhanced production
have now been accepted as being responsible for
suppressing productivity,
incomes, and social mobility in the rural
areas.
Even the Chinese communist party has now accepted that removing
the
obstacles would be a huge boost to the economy. At a time when the
global
capitalist financial architecture is being attacked, the Chinese have
no
intention of reversing the gains of economic reform and realise that
introducing a proper market in agricultural land would go a long way towards
reducing one of the remaining sources of social tensions and insecurity in
the country.
Any system that captures the human spirit is likely to
succeed. In the urban
areas, the Chinese leaders understood that without
conferring a bundle of
property rights in relation to housing to citizens,
it was unlikely that
industrial development could have taken place. A decade
ago, the housing
market was privatised notwithstanding the fact that
ownership of urban land
is vested in the state. Citizens are permitted to
trade on long leases.
The new Chinese plan will allow farmers to lease
their contracted farmland
or transfer their land use rights. There is also
discussion of increasing
the lease period beyond the current 30
years.
The discovery from experience by the Chinese leadership that there
is a
direct link between land tenure system and farm efficiency and
productivity
was inevitable but what is regrettable is that it has taken 30
years for it
to be implemented, albeit, on a limited basis as farmers are
still not
allowed to mortgage their houses and land.
Will Africa
learn from the Chinese experiences and avoid the costly mistakes
of
experimenting with ideologies that fail to capture the human
spirit?
Mutumwa Mawere's weekly column is published on New Zimbabwe.com
every
Monday. You can contact him at: mmawere@global.co.za
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=6740
November 3, 2008
I HAVE
never believed the GNU accord could take our country from the
precipice, and
it's even clear the pact precariously rests on political
quicksand. But even
if the political hurdles we face today were to be
overcome, do we have the
knack to bring life back to our depleted economy?
The concoction of
reckless measures applied for years by the scavengers who
have stripped our
nation of its economic flesh to the skeleton that it is
now, are just not a
panacea. They only serve to worsen it further into a
quagmire. A financial
system that is in a hyper-inflationary climate like
ours badly needs shock
therapy. Where is free enterprise when business
owners are hunted down like
snakes and arm-twisted to roll back prices to
previous levels and trade at a
loss? Our finance ministers had constantly
rumbled about economic
turnaround.
How do you achieve such a feat where even the supply side is
hardly active?
If it were not for the ill-planned and disastrous agrarian
reforms,
production on farms would have kept factories running and export
earnings
would have provided the hard currency needed for massive inputs.
There is
rare emphasis on economic stimulus packages and efforts to bolster
economic
growth. It never ceases to amaze when bad policies are created to
promote
black market arbitrage then all of a sudden the shortage of fuel,
household
goods and other vital commodities is blamed on 'economic
saboteurs'. It's
the usual half truths, nonsense!
I don't see any
wisdom in fanning hatred for international donors and
investors, which rabid
Zanu-PF pit bulls continue at their own careless
volition. Does anyone in
Mugabe's camp understand that economics and
politics are not mutually
exclusive? Zimbabwe frantically needs to be a
magnet for foreign financiers
for it to recapture its former status of being
the bread basket of the
region and stand proud on the world arena of
interconnected
economies
Our monetary authority too strangely believes in playing poker
with the
financial system. Gideon "Mickey Mouse" Gono would simply wave his
magic
wand to mop up the ever swelling zero digits on our worthless money as
a
tool to fight the world record inflation. My heavens! When there happens
to
be cash shortages he would just point fingers at the cash barons and
disloyal business people who are externalizing hard cash.
But are
these mysterious cash hoarders not his Zanu-PF associates? One would
not be
wrong to think that Gono is actually the linchpin in this whole
circus about
our paltry foreign reserves being unscrupulously carted away
and stashed to
accumulate in Swiss banks.
So the record speaks for itself. Such an
ostrich-type of approach to the
economy is complete buffoonery. Our country
has ample potential to regain
life. We have enough resources. What we lack
though is a responsible and
accountable administration, not shady unity
political treaties. Unlike
Zanu-PF, a new regime ought to be realistic on
policy; there is no magic
bullet, it's a no-brainer!
Justice
Zhou,
Johannesburg
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Cathy Buckle - Of sausage flies and absurdity, 1st November 2008
Dear
JAG,
Watching the tragic events in the Congo over the last few days and
seeing
diplomats flying in from all over the world to try and help, makes me
feel
ashamed to be a Zimbabwean. When all of Africa's attention should be
focused
on the DRC, here were are messing around in Zimbabwe still calling on
SADC
to convene special meetings which may, or (more likely) may not, force
the
winner of Zimbabwe's March elections to share power with the
loser.
Another week has brought another stalemate for Zimbabwe - no
relief for
ordinary people, no political progress, no change. The SADC Troika
learnt,
and apparently admitted, that the power sharing agreement of
September 15th
had been tampered with and was different from the one
initially signed on
September 11. Why it's taken six weeks for this
information to be exposed
and confirmed by SADC is a mystery but it does not
bode well for Zimbabwe.
Then, instead of throwing out the whole process and
demanding that the
people's voice of March 29th be respected, the SADC Troika
told us that a
full SADC meeting is to be held to talk about what to do next.
It's all
become so absurd that it's embarrassing to have to keep writing
about it.
Everything about life in Zimbabwe has been reduced to the most
absurd
levels. Imagine having to queue for up to 5 hours to withdraw your own
money
out of the bank. Imagine arriving at the bank queue, as in my home town
this
week, to find that there are two queues, one for Police, Army and
Youth
Militia, and one for everyone else. Imagine having to queue for two
days to
draw out enough money to buy just one single loaf of bread. Imagine a
young,
single mother being unable to get enough of her own money out of the
bank to
buy milk and eggs for her sick baby who desperately needs high
protein food.
Imagine people in rural villages being forced to eat
beetles and leaves -
not by choice but to stay alive. Imagine having just
days left in which to
get a life saving crop planted in the ground but still
they talk and don't
act. These are all the tragic, absurd realities of
everyday life in Zimbabwe
but there are a couple of beautiful ones
too.
Imagine a 46 cm high Purple Crested Lourie with magnificent crimson
wings
bathing in 5 cm of water in a hot Zimbabwe birdbath. Imagine an insect
being
called a Sausage Fly! It's that time of year when these big headed,
fat
bodied, shiny brown ants fly in clumsy, dizzying circles to the lights
at
night. The story goes that when you see a Sausage Fly the rain is three
days
away. It's not coming true this year as still the rain hasn't come and
the
sun burns down upon us. One day this week it was 32 degrees Centigrade
in
the house at midday and 56 in the sun outside - almost too absurd to
be
true.
One last absurd thought comes to mind this week. You have to
wonder what
would happen if Barack Obama and John McCain were told they had
to share
power? Until next week, thanks for reading and thanks to my
webmaster for
taking over the burden of sending out of this
letter.
With love,
cathy.
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2.
Eddie Cross - Fiddling while Rome Burns
Dear JAG,
In the past two
weeks the Zimbabwe economy has seen two really significant
developments. The
first is the total collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar and the
second is the
sharp deterioration in basic food supplies.
On Tuesday a local banker
told me that the cost of money transactions in
Zimbabwe dollars now exceeded
the value of their transactions. Simply put
that means if you are trading or
shifting money in the form of the Zimbabwe
domestic currency, you will be
losing money even if you are charging
interest and other charges related to
the transactions that are involved.
So business here is now only possible
if you work in a hard currency the
Rand or the US Dollar. This creates two
other problems how to obtain the
hard currency in the first place and then,
once you have the money, to use
it without breaking the law which still
prohibits such transactions.
For a small fortune you can secure a license
to operate in hard currency but
even then the operating conditions are nearly
impossible. So the reality is
that most businesses have closed their doors or
are now operating on a care
and maintenance basis until better days whenever
that will be.
In the rural areas the position is even worse and people
are now operating a
barter economy or relying on the small remittances that
come in from
relatives in the Diaspora. If you cannot use either system, you
are facing
starvation.
Humanitarian agencies have full warehouses but
cannot get the food to the
people who need it. The reasons are that the
agencies cannot access cash for
their operations hard currency transactions
are still illegal and the cash
withdrawal limits and other restrictions
imposed by the Reserve Bank are
making local payments impossible they cannot
pay for hotels or staff
salaries and cannot pay transporters to take the food
to where it is needed.
But it goes beyond this, at the start of the year
it was estimated that we
needed 1,8 million tonnes of maize. Of this total
the humanitarian agencies
said they would try to supply 400 000 tonnes. The
Zimbabwe government
estimated maize production at 600 000 tonnes and that
left a shortfall of
800 000 tonnes for importation.
So far all we can
find evidence of are contracts for a total of 175 000
tonnes and even this
meagre import programme seems to have spluttered to a
halt. That leaves a
total shortfall of 625 000 tonnes possibly 800 000
tonnes because it is most
unlikely that local production was 600 000 tonnes
most commentators say 425
000 tonnes.
This means that the shortfall is still probably 50 per cent
of consumption
and we still have 5 months to go to the end of the forecast
supply period
(April 2008 to March 2009). In October the donors fed 2 million
people at
the level of 15 kilograms of cereals a month per capita. In
November they
expect to go to 3,5 million people at a reduced rate of 10
kilos of cereals
per capita. They plan to go to 5,5 million in January 2009
but at present
they do not have the money or the supplies for that
programme.
Remember that this is just the donor community completing what
they
committed themselves to at the start of the year and does not in any
way
alleviate the shortage in commercial supplies from the GMB. Therefore we
can
deduct from this in the absence of any information from official
sources
that food supplies are now down to critical levels.
If this is
not addressed and soon, widespread starvation and deaths are
now
inevitable.
Perhaps the worst aspect of this is that the State has
not admitted there is
a problem and that they need help. No appeal has been
made for help and no
response is forthcoming from the authorities who have
been approached to
help rectify the problems with payments and the need to
appeal for resources
to help meet the needs in early 2009.
But the
crisis goes beyond these basic problems there is growing evidence
that the
Reserve Bank has used its power to loot the hard currency accounts
in the
banking system for its own purposes. This includes the accounts of
the UN
system and has led to a suspension of future transfers that will
affect the
tens of thousands of people with HIV/Aids who are on UN
funded
ARV¹s.
If that was not bad enough, the Junta is running a
programme called
³Champion Farmers². These are all those individuals in Zanu
PF who have
access to farming property, to draw on State funded inputs (fuel,
seed,
fertilizer and chemicals as well as farm equipment) to grow crops
this
summer. In a rush to take advantage of these offers (partially funded by
a
grant of R300 million from the South African government) Zanu PF thugs
are
harassing remaining commercial farmers and driving them off the
land.
This whole programme is illegal and has been the subject of a
lengthy appeal
to the SADC Tribunal in Windhoek. The Tribunal has already
ruled in favour
of the farmers and is expected to knock the whole land reform
exercise down
at the end of November. That does not make any impression on
these thugs and
criminals.
This exercise includes a deputy Governor of
the Reserve Bank and the
Commissioner of Police. They are taking over farms
where the commercial
farmers have prepared land and secured some inputs and
the new occupiers are
then simply picking up where they left off and planting
crops on land that
does not belong to them using equipment looted from their
owners.
All stocks of seed and fertilizer and all agricultural fuel is
going to this
programme leaving small scale farmers and 700 000 peasant
farmers without
these essential supplies. The result, tobacco plantings are
down 50 per cent
and cereal production is likely to fall below the level
achieved last year.
So the suffering of the majority continues ordinary
men and women, children
and the elderly without food and opportunity (95 per
cent of teachers are
not at work) and more particularly, without hope. The
region has not even
announced the date of the SADC/AU summit due in less than
10 days.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 1st November
2008
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
Mark Milbank
Dear JAG,
Many years ago in Kenya, my great uncle
fell out with his farming partner.
They called in a mutual friend to decide
how the farm, that they jointly
owned, should be split.
The friend
decreed that one partner should draw a line on the map of the
farm dividing
it roughly in two and the other partner would then have the
right to choose
which half he wanted. It worked.
Could not the current deadlock between
ZANU [PF] and MDC be sorted out in a
similar fashion? Mugabe could divide
the ministries up as to what he thinks
would be a fair distribution and
Tsvangarai chooses which division he
wants. Or the other way round.
Perhaps you could suggest it to them!
Mark
Milbank
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.
Stu Taylor
Dear JAG,
Without an effective government since around
the year 2000 and having NO
government since March, I think the people of
Zimbabwe are doing pretty well
at trying to sort themselves out on their
own.
For those companies entitled to "dollarise" - I mean NOT
Zimkwacha-dollars,
but the genuine Western green stuff - they've shown a
certain amount of
innovativeness; some have done their homework, yet others,
in a passion of
greed, have gone totally overboard with their pricing and
will not stay
afloat for very long, as they seem to be out to just make a
quick buck.
I priced a non-return valve in Harare, for instance, at 31
proper dollars -
in my rural village (it USED to be a town) the same thing
was 13. Where do
these guys draw the line?
While we're on about it,
the incoming minister of finance may be interested
to know that the people
could show him/her a thing or two about the
business!
The sooner
Mugabe is out of the loop, the closer we will be to taking our
rightful place
in the world - doesn't he KNOW that he lost an election, so
is not really
entitled to call any shots?
Be good - Stu
Taylor.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.
Ommoder
Dear JAG,
I read that about 3500 security forces
especially junior officers have left
their jobs since August 08. If they all
did that the woes in Zimbabwe would
be over within one week. Because the
junta could not threaten, any longer,
people with taking over for good. I
wonder what the still obeying
forces have to lose: Bad work conditions? Bad
payment? Bad conscious? Bad
state of health? Senior officers who live on
their expenses? Lust of doing
crimes? Neglecting their duties, for which
they have engaged themselves
once? The shortest life experience in the world?
They all are fathers,
brothers, sons and spouses of suffering Zimbabweans.
How are they looking
into the eyes of their own people? How do they answer
questions about what
they are doing? How do they sleep at night? What are
they expecting from the
future? Are their children going to schools, when
teachers are on strike for
their dear lives? Are their relatives finding food
in the shops? Do they not
queue before the bank tellers? Do they feel good
beating and abusing
innocent people? Where is their human dignity?
All
change for the better could be in their hands, they just have to leave
a
workplace which is not worthwhile. They could be the heroes of their
people.
The ones who have left already will be the first to be hired again
in
future, when the big change comes about, not the stubborn fulfillers to
the
dire
end.
Ommoder
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.
Munyaradzi Chingosho
Dear JAG,
I have been following the Zim news
with a heavy heart. Every day it seems we
are sinking lower and lower. In
rural areas people are eating roots and
leaves to survive, people are going
without a proper meal for days. In urban
areas people are being beaten up and
arrested everyday. People are
disappearing and being killed. People are
earning salaries not enough to buy
a bottle of cooking oil. White people are
being persecuted on their farms.
Whilst I believe the land imbalances need to
be redressed, it's not right to
evict someone because of their skin colour.
They are humans just like us.
There is enough land for everyone; after all we
are all Zimbabweans. People
are dying everyday because there is no medicine
in hospitals. The list is
endless. In simple words Zimbabweans are
suffering!! When I really think
about it, it really hurts me to core when i
recall how Zimbabwe was like
before 2000.
For how long should this
madness continue? For how long is the ordinary man
going to suffer whilst
ZANU refuses to let go of power? For how long is
Zimbabwe going to keep
collapsing? Very soon we will be poor like
Burkina
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.
Andrew Quick
Dear JAG,
I read with interest the letters and
article that appear on the Zimbabwe
News sites. I follow the developments
there daily, and am fascinated with
the rapidity of the decline of the Zim
dollar. I thought the following
calculation may add a touch of dark humour
to things. Apologies in advance
for any miscalculations, and hope that there
is space to add it to your
publications.
The web placed the current
value of the Zim dollar at 5 billion to the US
(bank rate). Considering that
the currency has been revalued twice, you
have to add 13 zero's after this.
That is a staggering 50 to the power of
21, or 50 sextillion dollars to the
US dollar, in "old" currency. The
average thickness of a bank note is
approximately 0.1 mm thick. The
question is then, how high would the stack
of notes be to buy one US dollar?
If you used 50 dollar notes (the most
common of the larger denominations in
stable economies), then the stack would
be 1 to the power of twenty mm high.
Convert that to kilometers, then the
stack would be one to the power of 14
km high, or 100 trillion kilometers
high!! Considering that the sun is
approximately 153 million km from Earth,
the stack of 50 dollar bills would
reach the sun and back 700 000 times!!
Eish!
Andrew Quick
New
Zealand.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.
Eli Nleya
Dear JAG,
I total agree with The imp letter no.8
{28/10/2008]. As of today the R100
goes for 300billion !!!!!!!!!.
By
now weighing less by
40kgs.
Eli
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All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------