http://af.reuters.com
Thu Nov 5, 2009 8:30pm GMT
MAPUTO, Nov 5
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's MDC has ended its boycott of the new
unity government
but will give President Robert Mugabe a month to fully
implement a
power-sharing deal, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on
Thursday.
"We have suspended our disengagement from the GPA (Global
Political
Agreement) with immediate effect and we will give President Robert
Mugabe 30
days to implement the agreement on the pertinent issues we are
concerned
about," he told reporters after a regional summit.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
November
6, 2009
Jan Raath in Harare
The Kimberley Process, the body charged
with halting the trade in blood
diamonds, was criticised yesterday for
failing to add Zimbabwean gems to its
proscribed list.
At a meeting
in Namibia the diamond producers, governments and human rights
groups that
make up the process agreed instead on an "action plan" to
monitor stones
from the Marange field in eastern Zimbabwe.
The move came despite a
confidential report from the Kimberley Process
investigators which called
for Zimbabwe's suspension, claiming that the
Zimbabwean army "coordinated
and conducted an illegal mining and smuggling
operation", and that its
soldiers had murdered, raped and tortured, to force
illegal diggers there to
excavate stones for them.
The report said that Mr Mugabe's officials were
aware of the "extreme
violence" and smuggling and had lied to investigators
about the situation.
The plan of action "does not address the
militarisation of Marange", said
Annie Dunnebacke, a campaigner for Global
Witness, which has helped expose
the abuses there since 2008 when the
military took control.
http://www.radiovop.com/
Harare, November 5, 2009 - The Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC-T),
led by Morgan Tsvangirai, has made more demands
in the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) saying George Charamba, must be
fired as Permanent Secretary
in the Ministry of Information and Publicity,
Radio VOP can reveal.
The MDC-T has already said Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor,
Gideon Gono, and Attorney General, Johannes
Tomana, must also be fired from
their lucrative posts.
President
Robert Mugabe has, however, said none of that will ever
happen as long as he
is head of state in Zimbabwe.
Charamba is also spokesman for President
Robert Mugabe.
The MDC said Charamba was allowing "hate speech" into
newspapers such
as The Herald and The ZBC news.
The MDC-T says many
issues on the GPA have still not been met by Zanu
PF.
"The MDC has
also added Mugabe's motormouth spokesman, George Charamba
on the catalogue
of outstanding issues, saying he is communicating hate
speech and causing
hatred and discord on the GPA," an MDC official said.
The SADC Troika
meets Thursday to try and solve the outstanding issues
of the GPA as
demanded by the MDC-T.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Charles
Tembo Friday 06 November 2009
HARARE - A white
Zimbabwean farmer on Thursday asked the High Court to
convict one of the
country's top army brigadiers of contempt of court for
disobeying several
orders to let the farmer collect his property from a farm
the officer has
invaded.
Judge President Rita Makarau postponed the application by
farmer
Charles Lock to November 16 to allow Brigadier Justine Mujaji time to
file
opposing papers.
Mujaji several weeks ago invaded Lock's
Karori farm in the eastern
Manicaland province and deployed armed soldiers
at the farm who have
prevented Lock and court messengers from entering the
property to retrieve
crops and other personal belonging of the
farmer.
Lock's lawyer, Happias Zhou, told ZimOnline: "The judge
(Justice
Makarau) will hear oral evidence during the week beginning the 16th
of
November. We filed further affidavits to update the court as to what is
happening since our last appearances. The other side did not have time to
respond to our further affidavits.
"The judge was of the view
that it was not going to be easy to
determine the matter on the affidavits.
So she will need to hear oral
evidence. My client did not get access to all
the equipment and crops. So
the further affidavits are to show that contempt
is continuing."
Top security commanders and senior members of
President Robert Mugabe's
ZANU PF party have grabbed more land from whites
in recent months ignoring
pleas by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to stop
farm seizures.
A letter by Tsvangirai last month to Defence
Minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa to stop Mujaji - Zimbabwe Defence Forces
director general of
planning and programmes - from invading Lock's farm has
been ignored the
same way many other countless calls by the Premier for law
and order on
farms have gone unheeded.
Agricultural experts say
farm invasions coupled with serious shortages
of seed, fertilizer and other
key inputs will derail plans by the Harare
coalition government to increase
food output and end hunger in the country.
Meanwhile, a Harare
magistrate court will today make a ruling in the
case of a 79-year-old white
farmer, Hester Theron, who is accused of
disobeying a court order two weeks
ago to vacate her farm.
Hester - the mother of Commercial Farmers
Union president Deon
Theron - faces six months in prison if she fails to
leave the 2 000 hectare
Friedenthal farm, south of Harare where she has
lived since 1957.
Her son said: "I went to court with my mother but
we are going back at
1415hrs on Friday for sentencing.
"We have
asked that they postpone the eviction until she's been paid
something. She
is nearly 80 years old so we have said if government isn't in
a position to
compensate her now, maybe they should hold the eviction until
she has been
paid her money.
"We have always asked that the sentencing be done
by the High Court
because we feel the monetary value involved in the
compensation is beyond
magistrates jurisdiction." - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Hendricks Chizhanje
Friday 06 November 2009
HARARE - The Speaker of Parliament
Lovemore Moyo has submitted to President
Robert Mugabe names of 12
candidates shortlisted for appointment into the
Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC).
Mugabe is expected to appoint eight members from the
list submitted by the
standing rules and orders committee (SROC) of which
four people apart from
the chairperson should be women.
Mugabe will
also appoint a chairperson who must be a sitting or former judge
of the
Supreme Court or the High Court. The President can also pick any
person
qualified for appointment to the bench as chairman of the commission
after
consultation with the Judicial Service Commission and the SROC.
The 12
members whose names were submitted to Mugabe include Daniel Chigaru,
Lakayana Dube, Professor Geoff Feltoe, Theophilus Gambe and Joyce Kazembe
who once served in the last ZEC, Petty Makoni, Pahlani Mubonderi, Sibongile
Ndlovu, Bessie Nhandara, Dr Kalaya Njini, Mkhululi Nyathi and Reverend
Goodwill Shana.
Members of the ZEC will serve for a term of six years
and their appointment
may renewed for one further term only.
The
ZEC's functions will include preparing for, conduct and supervise
elections
for the office of President, Parliament, local council elections
and
referendums.
ZEC will also ensure that elections and referendums are
conducted
efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently and in accordance with
the law.
The electoral body will also supervise the registration of
voters, compile
the voters' rolls and registers.
Besides ZEC, Mugabe
is also expected to appoint members of the Zimbabwe
Media Commission (ZMC),
whose names have been submitted to him for
appointment, the Zimbabwe Human
Rights Commission and the Anti Corruption
Commission.
The appointment
of the four commissions that are being set up in terms of a
constitutional
amendment enacted earlier this year is part of significant
democratic
reforms in the country. - ZimOnline
http://www.inthenews.co.uk
Friday, 06, Nov 2009 12:23
By Nqobani
Ndlovu.
Zimbabwe's dollar, abandoned in March because of its
worthlessness, will be
back in circulation by year-end, Robert Mugabe has
said.
Harare abandoned its dollar six months again to curb galloping
inflation
which forced thrice-daily price increases, rendering the local
currency
unusable.
But Mugabe said multiple foreign currencies that
replaced the local dollar
were unavailable to Zimbabweans, thereby spiking
deep poverty.
"The use of multiple currencies is not helping our people
much as the money
is difficult to secure," Mugabe said.
The
85-year-old Zimbabwean leader, in power since 1980, was addressing
villagers
in Zhombe, the Midlands province.
He added: "We will be reintroducing our
own currency by end of the year.
People are failing to board buses. Some are
using goats to pay as bus fares.
"This needs to be redressed. I do not
hope to face similar problems next
year. We would have failed as leaders if
that is allowed to happen."
Finance minister Tendai Biti, from the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
has threatened to quit if forced to
bring back the local dollar.
At the height of the country's economic
crisis last year, mirrored by
galloping inflation, prices for basic
foodstuffs like bread were fetching
billions and trillions of Zimbabwe
dollars.
The MDC remains in a shaky coalition with Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party. Recent
terror charges for a former aide led to prime minister and MDC
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai briefly suspending cooperation between the two
parties.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare,
November 06, 2009 - Foreign owned businesses in Zimbabwe have
two months
from today (Friday) to cede 51 percent stake to locals under new
regulations
expected to be gazetted on Friday under the controversial
indigenisation law
that was approved by President Robert Mugabe prior to the
2008 harmonised
elections.
If any company fails to implement the 51 percent
shareholding
requirement, according to the regulations, it will be forced to
merge with
other businesses, unbundle, demerge or relinquish shares in a
move that is
likely to scare away current and potential
investors.
A draft Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
(General) Regulations,
2009 document, seen by Radio VOP on Thursday, and was
set to be gazetted
Friday, showed that all foreign owned businesses with an
asset value of or
above USD500 000 (Five hundred thousand United States
dollars) would have to
comply with the 51 percent (indigenous shareholders)
and 49 percent (other)
threshold.
The draft gazette says:
"Within sixty days from the date of
publication of these regulations, every
business in Zimbabwe with an asset
value of five hundred thousand United
States dollars and which has not
entered into any of the notifiable
transactions..shall have fifty-one
percentum of the shares or controlling
interest, as the case maybe, held by
indigenous Zimbabweans."
Any business that may not have complied with the fifty-one per centum
or
controlling interest requirement must show cause to the Minister why it
is
not possible for it to achieve the required indigenous threshold within
sixty days.
The draft gazette says any business that fails to
comply shall "within
the next thirty days submit a proposal within the next
six months from the
date of publication of these regulations on how it
intends to achieve
compliance with the Act".
The law is likely
to frustrate efforts by the nine-months old
government to lure foreign
direct investment into the country. Investors
have raised their displeasure
with the indigenisation law at several
investment conferences that have been
undertaken by the new government.
In June Movement for Democratic
Change leader and Prime Minister of
Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai said during
a visit in London, that the law
would be reversed "as a matter of urgency"
as it was scaring off potential
investors.
----
Comments
1
"Told ya!!" by Doris at Friday, 06 November 2009 03:40
See, I told you,
grabbing from the farmers was the first stage of the plan.
Now they are
working on foreign owned businesses - next will be private
businesses that
have managed, somehow, to survive.
The name of this game is "greed."
ZANU
PF are no longer able to put their fingers in the governments till, so
now
they have to find some other way of getting cash. Hell, don't you all
know
that they are very busy preparing for the next elections. Money is
desperately needed to fund the training of young thugs! How else will they
win?
2 "Mugabe Mhata" by george at Friday, 06 November 2009
05:50
Guys i have been telling you kuti these guys they cant wait to grab
what is
not theirs, now what all international companies will be going and
were will
Zimbabwe go, Mugabe beche ramaivako , mboko yemunhu, imbwa
isinamuswe,
kanyini kagrace kanemanyoka a Makamba, ko mapedza kurima
here.Mugabe uri
Mhata yemudhara ndaifunga kuti wakura izvo unofunga
nomukosho, imbwa
yemunhu, beche ramai vako, yes iwewe Robert Gabrial Mugabe,
Beche ramaivako
mwana wehure Matibhiri, imbwa
http://www.radiovop.com/
Harare, November 05, 2009 -
Misa Zimbabwe has sent a fresh alert to
Zimbabwean journalists reminding
them about the safety measures they need to
take as they go about their
duties.
This comes at a time when there are reports of
fresh political
violence in the country following the announcement by
Movement of Democratic
Change (MDC) that it was boycotting the inclusive
government by not engaging
with Zanu PF on all matters pertaining to the
Global Political Agreement
(PGA).
Misa-Zimbabwe said the news
editor should always be briefed
unstintingly on the dangers of a given
assignment and the journalist's
whereabouts should always be known to the
news editor or family members.
Journalists were urged to have their
cellphones at hand, if possible,
more than one, with lines from different
networks, as Zimbabwe had a
connectivity problem.
It also implored
the need to support each other, by rallying behind
one another in cases of
unlawful arrests, detention, assault and torture.
Journalists were also
dsicouraged to venture in hostile environments
or volatile political areas
alone and to always assess the risks before
hand.
They were also
discouraged to carry weapons.
Zimbabwe has in the past few years been
cited as a dangerous zone for
journalists.
The media fraternity is
anxiously waiting for the set up of the
Zimbabwe Media Commission which will
among others issue accreditation to
journalists and licences for print
media.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=24534
November 5, 2009
By Owen
Chikari
CHIREDZI - Digby Nesbit, a Chiredzi commercial farmer and
businessman, was
on Wednesday ordered to leave his farm by November 22 after
he was convicted
of failing to vacate his Crocodile Farm.
The farm
was acquired by the government for resettlement.
The farmer was also
ordered to pay a fine of US$200 or serve 10 days in
prison for the same
offence.
In a 150-page judgement, magistrate Enias Magate also advised
Nesbit to
remove his 8 000 crocodiles from the property by February
15.
Magate, who is a beneficiary of President Robert Mugabe's
controversial land
reform programme, said that the law was very clear on
government acquired
properties. He said that once a farm has been acquired
by government the
owner should leave the property to pave the way for the
new beneficiaries.
Nesbit was popular for assisting the local community
of Chiredzi, prompting
senior Zanu-PF officials, including politburo
members, to strongly oppose
his eviction.
During the three-month long
trial, Zanu-PF members openly told the court
that they were against the
farmers' eviction adding that as political
leaders they had agreed that
productive farmers such as Nesbit should be
spared from eviction.
One
of the witnesses, Selina Pote, a Zanu-PF politburo member, told the
court
that she was shocked to hear that anyone would want to evict Nesbit.
"We
agreed as political leaders that productive white farmers like Nesbit
should
stay put because they are of benefit to the nation", Pote told the
court
during trial.
Other Zanu-PF members who also testified in support of
Nesbit are former
governor Willard Chiwewe, and politburo member Dzikamai
Mavhaire.
Nesbit told the court during trial that he would only move out
of the farm
if he was paid compensation to the tune of US$20 million for the
developments he made on the property.
Crocodile Farm specializes in
sugar cane production in addition to a
thriving crocodile project from which
it derives its name.
The state, led by Tawanda Zvekare, argued that
Nesbit had no legal right to
remain on an acquired piece of land, hence he
should be evicted.
The state further argued that if Nesbit was allowed to
remain the whole land
reform programme would become chaotic as other farmers
would also want to
retain their properties.
Nesbit, who was
represented by Rodney Makausi of Chihambakwe and Makonese
legal
practitioners, did not appeal against both conviction and
sentence.
Nesbit joins several commercial farmers who were pushed off
their land by
government under a controversial land acquisition
programme.
Nesbit will give way to the officer commanding Matebeleland
North Province,
senior assistant commissioner Edmore Veterai who invaded the
property
despite being advised by Zanu-PF leaders in Masvingo not to do
so.
http://www.sowetan.co.za/
06
November 2009
Katlego Moeng and Lerato
Moche
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
BISHOP Paul Verryn of the Central Methodist Church will continue
helping
refugees - despite hanging up his bishop's robes at the end of this
month.
Verryn says that nothing, not even the
government, will stop him from
helping Zimbabwean refugees and other
destitute people living in
Johannesburg.
Bishop Peter Witbooi
will replace Verryn who has served his tenure of
10 years as
bishop.
"They may close this place down but we will not stop.
They can blame
me and justify it but I will not apologise," Verryn
said.
He was speaking to Sowetan after a "threatening" visit by
the Gauteng
health and social development portfolio committee chairperson
Molebatsi
Bopape last week.
Bopape said last Friday: "If I
could have it my way, I would close it
down today."
Verryn
said: "People are not like sacks of potatoes that can be moved
around at
will.
"It is about time the South African government
recognises that people
will keep coming into the country until the economic
and political problems
in Zimbabwe are recognised and dealt
with."
On the allegations of sexual abuse of women and children
at the
cathedral, he said the matter was being dealt with by the church - in
full
cooperation with the relevant law enforcement bodies.
"That was a rumour started by someone who had a vendetta against me
and I
have since kicked that person out of the building," the bishop
said.
He also said social workers who visited the church
refused to
communicate with him.
"I, as the person at the
head of all this, am in the dark. And Bopape's
office is still to
communicate with me.
"Local government officials are not telling me
anything on their
plans."
How the church is funded
ORGANISATIONS funding or helping the Central Methodist Church in
Johannesburg are:
* The United Methodist Committee on
Relief - R760889 a year for
utilities and R258665 for the church-run
school.
* South African Airways - R250000.
*
Dutch government: R250000.
* Unnamed individual gives Verryn
R15000 in cash regularly.
* Pick n Pay's Raymond Ackerman has
given R20000.
* SA Methodist Volunteers In Mission, Rhema, Jewish
Board of
Deputies, Media Works, Oxfam and Gift of the Givers have helped
with
clothing, blankets, food parcels, education and training for
residents.
* January to June the church spent R294928 on
electricity and water.
* R70000 on repairs.
*
Other costs: cleaning, insurance, telephone.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=24564
November 6, 2009
By Chenjerai
Hove
TRADITIONS and institutions are started in strange ways, some even
stranger
than fiction. Practices that start and continue over a period of
time become
institutionalized into traditions.
Footballers have the
tradition of shaking the hands of the officials before
the whistle blows for
the start of the march. At the opening of Parliament,
the President rides
his limousine behind white horses to open the
parliamentary proceedings of
the august house. The Speaker of Parliament and
judges wear some weird wigs
of no particular relevance to African tradition.
The pomp and ceremony are
'the tradition' of the opening Parliament that we
inherited from archaic
English traditions.
President Robert Mugabe has started a strange
tradition which no one in
their right mind would have dreamt of thirty years
ago.
Funeral rituals and routines at Heroes' Acre have become one of the
few but
painful Mugabe inventions alongside the institutionalization of
violence as
a political tool in Zimbabwean life and culture.
It is
now increasingly difficult to distinguish between a Heroes' Acre
funeral and
a mass political rally. At these funerals which are solely
presided over by
Mr Mugabe, not much is heard about the person being buried.
The corpse is
displayed out there, draped with flowers and other
decorations, maybe medals
and flags. But Mr Mugabe forgets the purpose of
the event.
As he sees
the crowd gathered, the President thinks less of the corpse and
more of the
political gain he can muscle out of the situation. The occasion
is rapidly
transformed into a political rally in which Mugabe attacks his
real and
perceived enemies ruthlessly.
In the normal tradition of funerals in
Zimbabwe, it is a disgrace if someone
uses the occasion to insult anyone.
Old men and women of tradition pay their
last respects to the dead and the
bereaved without foul and insulting
language. There are even humorous
stories and dances to celebrate the life
achievement and failures of the
dead person - all full of respect. No
insults. No provocations. Even the
suspected 'witch' allegedly responsible
for the death can attend the funeral
without fear of being attacked verbally
or physically. The focus is on a
decent burial without hurting the feelings
of anyone.
But it is not
so with President Mugabe. Instead of calling a press
conference to announce
his plans or policies, he waits for a funeral at
Heroes' Acre. It is as if
all along he is anxiously waiting for one of his
ailing 'heroes' to die so
he can have a go at his enemies, real or imagined.
The corpse is soon
forgotten about. The normal tradition of consoling the
bereaved is shelved.
A litany of insults ensues.
Nobody is spared, especially the political
enemies who are always
mysteriously inspired by some all-powerful foreign
forces to cause the decay
and corruption of the state.
During the
burial President Mugabe announces his domestic policies: how to
deal with
the exhausted land issue even though there are so few white
farmers left
that they do not even deserve a sentence in any serious speech.
The whites,
and their stooges and traitors (Mugabe's political opponents)
are castigated
as if they were responsible for the death of the Hero. His
army of
flatterers and sycophants takes copious notes from those rude
speeches about
who to attack next. More deaths of innocent people are thus
planted in the
hearts of the blood-thirsty militias and political soldiers.
Foreign
policy is also announced at these state funerals. The western
imperialists
are blamed for everything, including the death of the latest
hero. Was it
not at the funeral of Vice President Joseph Msika that Mugabe
blamed the
colonialists for Msika's death?
For goodness sake, when a man dies at the
age of 86, how can his long-gone
imprisonment of 30 years ago be responsible
for his death? For Mr Mugabe,
someone has to be blamed at these funerals
regardless of any relevance to
the sad occasion at hand. The imperialists
are lambasted, cursed, insulted
and called all sorts of names. The
opposition and political enemies become
the 'political witches' who deny
Mugabe's heroes the eternal life he would
have bestowed on them were it not
for their imperialistic machinations which
cause the death of Zimbabwe's
heroes.
If ever there were some kind of adviser to Mr Mugabe, that person
should
remind the President that funerals are not occasions for insulting
anyone or
creating hatred. Funerals are occasions for consoling the living
while
reminding us all that we are mere mortals obliged by nature to obey
the
cycle of life and death. They are also occasions to speak of the good
things
of life which the dead would have bestowed on the living in order for
us to
emulate the hero.
The problem with Mr Mugabe is that he is
unsure about what a hero is. Every
Zimbabwean knows that many of the people
buried at that Heroes' Acre do not
deserve to be anywhere near the place.
Some of them should have had shameful
funerals because they lived weird
lives torturing innocent citizens and
leaving a trail of misery, death and
sorrow wherever they went. Some of
those who brought the great joy to
Zimbabweans had to be buried in their
small villages without anthem or
parade. They did not meet Mugabe's criteria
for heroes.
We will
continue to ask simple questions about real heroes missing in that
place.
Where is Lookout Masuku buried? Where is Jairos Jiri buried?
Where is
Comrade Musa (the pauper) buried? Many heroes whose memories and
souls have
not been given the honour they deserve. Instead, we have some
rascals buried
there whose only inspiration is the violence they inflicted
on the citizenry
for the preservation of Mugabe's power.
And now the
poor great heroes of our true liberation are stuck with this new
hero about
whom everyone is asking: Who is this Chando man? What did he do
for the
liberation and dignity of our country? And rumours, in their
stubborn ways,
filter through the imagination of the people!
It might be a good idea for
Mr Mugabe to try and restore funerals to their
rightful place before he
leaves public office. If the tradition of cursing
and insulting opponents at
funerals continues, it would be a horrible and
painful inheritance for those
who will come after Mugabe.
Zimbabweans deserve dignified burials in
which death reminds us that it is
the occasion to us to come together and
share our sad memories as a
dignified people. The President should learn to
call regular press
conferences to announce his policies and ideas without
waiting for someone
to die so he can abuse the corpse. Zimbabweans are tired
of political
campaigns over dead bodies.
Men of tradition and culture
know how to make a funeral respectable.
President Mugabe has shown that he
possesses none of the qualities which can
make him a man of refined culture
and tradition. Someone should whisper to
him about the civilities of a
respectable funeral in order to stop him
exuding with foul language in front
of a corpse. Decency at a funeral is the
mark of a respectable, cultured man
envied by all the living and the dead.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=24560
November 6, 2009
John Robertson
IF YOU
are a manager, your management challenge is all about getting the
best
possible output from the resources under your charge. Good management
styles
can vary enormously, depending as they do on the particular skills of
the
managers as well as on their specific ranges of responsibility.
However,
good managers have several behavioural habits in common: attention
to detail
and swift reactions the moment something stops working properly.
On those
two measures, the absolute antithesis of a good manager might be
someone who
does not bother with the details and refuses to change anything
when things
start going wrong.
If those thoughts were considered a reasonable way to
separate good managers
from bad, how would Zimbabwe's seasoned political
managers stack up?
Let us start with the managers of the Land Reform
Programme. On the
proposition that the basic requirements for achieving good
harvests, the
land, labour, capital and technical know-how, used to be
working well enough
to ensure food security as well as export surpluses very
nearly every year,
we could argue that the managers of those resources also
used to function
quite well.
When we find now that most of the people
who lined up for free land are not
farming it, that huge amounts of money
paid out over the years to subsidise
inputs has vanished, that production
volumes have slumped and that half the
population now depends on food aid,
we might readily conclude that we are
now looking at a huge management
failure.
However, Zanu-PF claims that it has managed everything extremely
well.
They dismiss as beside the point the fact that the land is no
longer
productive. This is because, they say, they had a higher purpose - to
restore land to its "rightful owners". And this, they now claim, they have
done.
However, the claims as well as the logic are somewhat
flawed.
They demand that we accept without question Zanu-PF's decision to
use the
land resource to meet the party's political objectives, even if this
stopped
the land from meeting its former national economic objectives. And
we are
supposed to be pleased that the land is no longer sustaining the high
levels
of business activity that led to exports, jobs, industrial inputs,
food
security, increasing prosperity for the country and increasing tax
revenues
for government.
We are supposed to be pleased because
Zanu-PF is pleased. But Zanu-PF is
pleased because of the ways the changes
have weakened the civil rights and
powers of the electorate. So we are
supposed to be pleased with the results
of a process that weakened us as
individuals while it disabled the whole
economy.
And we are also
supposed to be too respectful and fearful to complain.
Zanu-PF's claims
of working to an "empowerment" objective do not mean that
they wanted to see
the empowerment of new independently successful business
groups, or even
independently successful individuals. Zanu-PF has never had
any intention of
empowering anyone other than themselves.
For these reasons they have
refused to permit ordinary individuals to become
the individual owners of
any of the reclaimed land. The last thing they want
to see is the
development of a newly empowered property owning group that
could claim the
protection of the rule of law if it chose to challenge a
party-political
decision.
So how well has Zanu-PF managed the changes? Having to drop the
assumption
that economic success was the management objective in the first
place, we
can no longer make anything of the fact that a substantial amount
of our
agricultural land has been unproductive since the fast track land
acquisition programme. The political purpose of the programme was to
dis-empower a formerly influential group, not to empower anyone else in its
place.
However, none of us can escape the practical consequences. We
are all
affected by the loss of production, the loss of export revenues, the
failing
infrastructure, the low incomes, the inadequate social services, the
loss of
skills, the forced emigration of family members and the endemic
corruption
that has enriched a few at enormous expense to the rest of
us.
When the management decisions were made with their hidden purposes,
other
casualties were our savings, our career development hopes and our
national
pride. But even these did not prompt mid-course corrections in the
management policies, simply because these values could be defined as
irrelevant by a political party that could define everyone as expendable if
they were not prepared to display undying devotion and loyalty.
But
whatever the claimed political objectives, practical consequences keep
on
coming. Right now Zimbabwe seems poised to enter its planting season with
the lowest levels of preparation yet seen through this entirely disgraceful
episode. Next year's harvests can almost be declared a failure already, and
even if the assistance being offered to 700 000 communal farmers becomes the
principal exception, the extent of its contribution seems unlikely to amount
to much more than one tenth of the country's needs.
Around the world,
people who can offer aid are fully aware that Zimbabwe has
everything it
needs to feed its own population. They are also fully aware
that the people
who have the management skills needed to do the job have
been prohibited
from working. On top of that, they know that even the
management systems
that worked before have been deliberately vandalised by
the same
authorities.
They cannot help asking whether Zimbabwe is trying to add
record-breaking
stupidity to its list of achievements.
The bottom
line is that they have become extremely impatient to see change
in Zimbabwe.
Will this be enough to prompt the people still wielding most of
the
authority to redefine their management objectives? The answer seems
likely
to be influenced more by the local and regional responses to Zanu-PF's
callous disregard for the welfare of Zimbabwe's population than by the
consistent and well-established depth of Zanu-PF's failures.
http://www.miningweekly.com
6th
November 2009
The ‘2009 Diamonds and Human Security’ yearly
review states that the
Kimberley Process (KP), which regulates the world
trade in rough diamonds
and is designed to halt and prevent the return of
conflict diamonds, is
failing.
The review identifies accountability
as the primary issue and states that
there is no KP Certification Scheme
(KPCS) central authority. ″As the
leadership position rotates yearly and
does not have many responsibilities
beyond a convening function and the KPCS
has no core body apart from its
yearly plenary meeting, no responsibility is
taken for action or inaction,
failure or success.
Ineffective Peer
Reviews
However, the KPCS does have a peer review mechanism, which reviews
each
member’s compliance roughly once every three years. The review points
out
that some peer reviews are thorough and recommendations are ′heeded, but
that recommendations are′ignored in many cases with little or no
′follow-up.
The review states that, in 2008, a nine-member KPCS team
visited Guinea, a
country beset by corruption, weak diamond controls and,
almost certainly,
smuggling. The team spent less than two hours outside the
capital and its
report remained unfinished for almost 11 months. Similarly,
another team
visited Venezuela in 2008, but its agenda and itinerary were
dictated
entirely by the Venezuelan government. Nongovernment organisations
(NGOs)
were barred from the KPCS’s proceedings and there were no visits to
mining
areas or border towns.
Zimbabwe, rife with smuggling and
diamond-related human rights abuses,
consumed months of ineffectual internal
KP debate. The review states that,
in the end, the KP agreed on a peer
review mission, but only after being
publicly shamed into action by NGOs and
media reports. The result is
continuing inaction.
Other cases of
flagrant noncompliance have been ignored until they become
media scandals,
such as fraud and corruption in Brazil, Ivorian conflict
diamonds smuggled
through neighbouring countries and all of Venezuela’s
diamonds smuggled out
of the country. ″It is further reported that in two of
Africa’s largest
diamond producers, Angola and the Democratic Republic of
Congo, ′internal
controls are so weak that nobody can be certain where
exported diamonds
′really come from.
No Central Authority
The report states that, in
most cases, problems are detected by NGOs or the
United Nations expert
panels because the KP has no central capacity for
study and research.
Procrastination is its default position.
The report adds that elaborate
measures were taken in 2008 to allow Venzuela
to ′remain a KP participant,
despite its flagrant noncompliance, on the
understanding that it would
suspend exports and imports until it had
regained control of its diamond
industry. This effectively endorsed a
situation in which all diamonds were
being smuggled out of the country.
A second Partnership Africa Canada
investigation, in May 2009, found that
Venezuelan diamonds are still being
openly mined and smuggled out of the
country. ″It is reported that the KP
continues, how-′ever, to accept the
official Venezuelan ′position. ″As a
result, for more than four years, the
KP has implicitly sanctioned
Venezuelan diamond smuggling.
The KP and the KPCS were created as
watchdogs to the diamond industry.
Instead, the KP has become a talk shop,
with civil society acting as
watchdog to the industry and the KP itself.
″Industry leaders are largely
supportive of positions taken by civil
society, and several governments are
as frustrated as NGOs with the lack of
gravitas and urgency in the KP. But
industry does not lead, and few
governments push hard for serious reform.
Positive Change Needed
The
report states that, before 2003, about 25% of the world’s diamond trade
was
in some way illicit. Diamonds, completely ′unregulated, were used for
money
laundering and tax evasion, for drug running and terrorist financing.
″Many
diamond producing countries earned no revenue from diamonds and, for
others,
diamonds were only a source of strife and ′war.
The KP was created to
change this and it has made a difference. The report
ventures that, today,
conflict diamonds represent a tiny part of world
trade. ″Up to now,
underground diamond economies have come into the light.
Sierra Leone, which
exported less than $2-million of diamonds legally in
2000, now exports
′between $100-million and $150-million ′yearly, earning
the concomitant tax
revenues.
All of this will quickly wither if the KPCS fails, says the
report. A return
to the freebooting diamond economy of the 1990s will reopen
the door to a
criminalised diamond trade and to conflict diamonds in the
same fragile
countries where they have already ′destroyed countless
lives.
The KPCS does not need to be redesigned, but its provisions need
to be
enforced. The ′report states that this requires an independent,
proactive,
effective and efficient core body of expertise that can analyse
problems and
act quickly to correct them, applying meaningful sanctions
where necessary.
Participants must be held accountable, and the KP must move
swiftly to deal
with cases of obvious noncompliance.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Andrew Moyo Friday 06
November 2009
HARARE - Zimbabwe's economy could grow at a
faster pace than the six percent
annual growth rate the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted for
the economy after 2009, Renaissance
Capital has said.
The Russian-headquartered fund, however, said it could
take up to 2016 for
Zimbabwe's gross domestic product (GDP) to reach its
1997 peak of US$9
billion. Zimbabwe's GDP is estimated at about US$3
billion.
The IMF said in February that Zimbabwe's economy - once one of
the most
vibrant in Africa - could possibly hit a sustained growth of six
percent
annually after 2009 following formation of a coalition government
between
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The Bretton Woods institution that has resumed technical
cooperation with
Harare since the coalition rule also predicted inflation to
average 6.9
percent in 2009.
But Renaissance Capital, which manages
millions of dollars worth of foreign
and local investments on the Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange, said in a third
quarter report to clients that a Short Term
Economic Recovery Programme
(STERP) adopted by the new unity government has
had positive impact on the
market.
Moves to improve fiscal
responsibility, competitiveness and efforts to
liberalise prices and
exchange restrictions pursued by Finance Minister
Tendai Biti all
contributed to the positive outlook.
"We cannot rule out an acceleration
of economic expansion in the coming
years, ahead of the IMF's long term
target," said the Fund that is marking
its footprint in emerging economies
across the world, including Africa.
"Zimbabwe's GDP peaked at US$9
billion and it may take until 2016 to reach
this threshold," Renaissance
said.
Renaissance's prediction of accelerated economic growth comes hard
on the
heels of a report by the country's largest business organisation, the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, that said capacity utilisation in the
key manufacturing sector jumped to 32 percent from about 10 percent in the
seven months since formation of the coalition government.
However
Renaissance said Mugabe and Tsvangirai must end incessant bickering
that is
threatening their coalition and that the government must tackle the
country's weak banking system in order to realise anticipated economic
expansion.
"The country's inclusive government continues to be
plagued by outstanding
issues associated with its founding agreement,
including leadership of the
central bank and the attorney general's office,
and the establishment of a
new constitution that will pave way for further
elections," Renaissance
said.
It added: "Although the political noise
surrounding these disagreements has
intensified in recent months, we do not
believe any break in the government
is imminent. In our view, the respective
parties are bound primarily by
their own self interest." - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Luke Tamborinyoka
Friday 06 November 2009
OPINION: In any functional democracy,
the electorate is supreme because it
is the same electorate's vote and voice
that confers legitimacy on any
government and any national
leadership.
The voting public is at the epicentre of any democracy. The
electorate,
through the process of an election, determines who should govern
them and
through a contract called a constitution, determine how, why and
when they
should be governed.
The very essence of the holding of
elections is either regime change or
regime continuity. Regime change
becomes the verdict of the electorate on a
regime that has performed in a
less than perfect fashion.
On the other hand, regime continuity becomes
the natural reward or
endorsement to a regime that has satisfied and pleased
the electorate.
But in Zimbabwe, since 1980, a negative counter-force of
the "selectorate
brigade" has emerged and nurtured at the expense of the
electorate.
The selectorate is a nefarious body of unelected powerful
individuals within
both the bureaucrats and the securocrats who have sought
to vanquish and
overthrow the sovereign wishes and unfettered will of the
electorate.
We have seen the jettisoning of the mandate and decay of the
will of the
electorate. We have seen the slow death of respect of the
electoral process.
We have also witnessed the vilification of the
electorate and the rise of a
"selectorate" which consists of a few selected
or appointed people who are
not accountable to anyone but who wield more
power than the voting public.
We have seen the punishing of the
electorate for passing a verdict.
Matabeleland in general, Chipinge and
Binga are underdeveloped because they
have perennially sought to exercise
their democratic right to vote for
political parties of their
choice.
We have equally had cases where the electorate has been rewarded
for passing
a favourable verdict and that is why there is developed
infrastructure in
places such as Chinhoyi and Chikomba.
Today, the
selectorate is a minute quasi-government entity planted in
various state
institutions which works day and night to frustrate the will
of the people
by fighting the inclusive government.
Certain elements in the securocracy
and bureaucracy are part of the
selectorate which has worked hard to plant
landmines in the collective
journey of hope that Zimbabweans embarked upon
at the formation of the
inclusive government in February 2009.
The
tentacles of Zimbabwe's selectorate spread from a few elements in the
state
machinery including the Attorney-General's Office and the Reserve Bank
of
Zimbabwe.
This dark list includes the new commissariat of ZANU PF, now
run by a senior
civil servant in the Ministry of Media, Information and
Publicity and his
retinue of side-kicks at The Herald and the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting
Corporation.
This selectorate is at the core of the
Zimbabwean crisis, the
non-implementation of the provisions of the Global
Political Agreement and
the perennial disappointment of the
electorate.
We have a sulking minority that now determines whether one is
arrested or
not. We have a scenario where a minute, partisan and selectoral
body can
decide whether you can be arrested or be buried at the National
Heroes Acre.
We have a selectorate which ran wild after March 29 last
year because it
believes power is derived through force and not through the
legitimacy of an
electoral process.
It believes an election is a
ritual; a calendar event which has no power to
shape and configure the power
dynamics in any country.
The selectorate consists of blood-hounds whose
sole agenda is to annihilate
and exterminate the electoral agenda by killing
both the electoral process
and the electorate itself.
Zimbabweans are
suffering the consequences of an arrested transition which
has arisen mainly
because of residual hardliners who are against the real
change
agenda.
Those who have arrested the transition and who are wielding the
handcuffs
and the leg-irons which have shackled the change agenda are in the
selectorate.
This group has undermined media and constitutional
reform. It has
criminalised "regime change" when it is obvious that any
election will yield
either regime change or regime retention.
The
selectorate has been at the centre of fighting the constitution-making
process because a new constitution will give birth to credible and strong
institutions that will undermine the power and influence of the same
selectorate.
Those who call for the adoption of the Kariba draft have
a selectorate
mindset which does not want a people-driven
constitution-making process.
The selectorate has been vocal in the
illegal attempt to grab IMF funds. It
has been vocal in vilifying and
maligning the MDC and its leadership in the
public media.
In short,
the selectorate has refused to adapt to the irreversible change
agenda which
this country has embarked upon. The major resistance to a new
dispensation
has been driven by the selectorate and its master; the one who
appoints or
disappoints.
In all democracies, the electorate calls the shots. In all
dictatorships and
quasi-dictatorships the selectorate is in charge. The
selectorate should
supposedly be subservient to the electorate but Zimbabwe
is a sad and
unfortunate case of the tail wagging the
dog.
Zimbabweans want real change. They want hope, security, dignity,
prosperity
and freedom.
They want credible national institutions and
independent commissions to
reassert the supremacy and legitimacy of the
electorate as the ultimate
umpire in national political dynamics.
The
major lesson after March 29 is that we cannot allow the selectorate to
assassinate the sanctity and supremacy of the electorate.
Never again
should a selected few be more powerful than the electing many.
Never again
should polls be a meaningless ritual. Never again should
national
institutions be a dark garden where the selectorate is planted to
ensure
that Zimbabweans do not get their rightful place in the sun!
We all yearn
for a return to democracy where the electorate drives the
political agenda;
where the people's unfettered will makes or unmakes
governments; where
voters determine and choose their own government without
any sneaking fear
that a minute selectorate will undo their vote and gag
their voice as
happened post-March 29.
We want an end to this quasi-dictatorship where
the selectorate has taken it
upon itself to dabble in the promotion and
demotion of interests; which in
essence is the definition of
politics.
When all is said and done, until we build strong institutions
to create
sustainable democracy and cause real change, the struggle for a
democratic
Zimbabwe will remain unfinished national business. -
ZimOnline
***Luke Tamborinyoka is the director of information and
publicity in the MDC
formation led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. He
can be contacted on
mhoful@yahoo.co.uk