FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Political
Editor
Opposition leader gives his side of the story
FACING the strongest
internal challenge in years and with more questions
being asked about his
leadership style, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
faction leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has come out all guns blazing, insisting he
is still in full
control and has his eyes set firmly on next year's
elections.
The
backlash from Tsvangirai's sacking of Lucia Matibenga as head of the
party's
Women's Assembly, and her subsequent replacement by Theresa Makone,
the wife
of one of his top advisers, has caused alarm among opposition
supporters and
key allies in civic society.
The controversy has sparked intra-party violence
and raised the spectre of
new divisions in the opposition, already severely
crippled by the October
2005 split that has minimized the MDC's chances of
dislodging ZANU PF from
government.
Tsvangirai's decision, which ignored
recommendations made after an internal
inquiry and the advice of the
national executive council, has once again
exposed his leadership to intense
scrutiny.
But in an exclusive interview with The Financial Gazette this week,
Tsvangirai was defiant, saying he would not allow what he called "the
Matibenga sideshow" to distract him from "the main goal" of fighting
President Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF in polls scheduled for March next
year.
The MDC's participation in the elections is however,
conditional.
Speaking on the row for the first time, days after surviving a
threatened
rebellion by senior lieutenants irked by his decision to ignore
their advice
not to oust Matibenga, the MDC leader shrugged off criticism
that he had
become increasingly autocratic and that his style of leadership
had reduced
the opposition party to its weakest point since its formation
eight years
ago.
"Far from it, the MDC is as united as it can ever be,"
Tsvangirai insisted,
when asked to respond to suggestions that power was
slipping from his grip.
"Our leadership, based on the principle of collective
responsibility, is
firmly in charge. Any suggestions to the contrary are the
figment of the
imaginations of those bent on destroying the people's project
towards a new
Zimbabwe. What you see is vibrant intra-party democracy, which
tolerates
divergent views on those matters affecting the
party."
Officials have reported that at last Saturday's national executive
meeting,
held at a private venue and not the party headquarters at Harvest
House as
usual, Tsvangirai was humiliated after being forced to climb down
on the
Matibenga issue.
The MDC leader, however, insisted the reports
were a "gross exaggeration" by
the media.
He maintained that the MDC
national standing committee did not violate the
party's constitution when it
dissolved the women's assembly headed by
Matibenga.
The former trade
unionist alleged that people on the payroll of state
security agents and
ZANU PF were "peddling falsehoods" to ruin his
reputation ahead of the
elections.
"The problem is that, suddenly, so many people have become MDC
constitutional experts," he said. "The majority of them have never read the
MDC constitution. You see, if the national council, through the national
standing committee had, as suggested, blatantly violated the constitution in
the dissolution of the assembly, then the High Court would obviously have
set aside the decision and interdicted the congress. But it didn't. The fact
of the matter is that the national council resolved that at the conclusion
of the inquiry (into the affairs of the women's wing), the leadership must
make a decision."
That inquiry, as reported by The Financial Gazette, in
fact recommended that
the party's leadership must "change its attitude
towards the assembly, be
accommodative, and resource it accordingly."
On
his backing of Theresa Makone, Tsvangirai said in terms of the
constitution
of his party, the national executive or the National Council
did not have
the powers to either endorse or reject elected officers of
Women's and Youth
Assemblies.
While acknowledging that the meeting was highly charged, he
however, said
the national executive resolved that any further discussion of
the
extraordinary congress of the Women's Assembly would take place when the
faction's chairman, Lovemore Moyo presents his report on what
transpired.
In his report, Moyo backs Tsvangirai's decision, and says that at
three
meetings of the national council and the women's wing held since July,
members, including Matibenga herself, had conceded that the Women's Assembly
"was largely dysfunctional due to bad relations between the members of the
leadership."
Under party rules, Moyo's report, says, Tsvangirai was
entitled to take
action.
Tsvangirai maintained that Makone and the 19-
member executive, consisting
of eight officers directly elected at the
Bulawayo congress and the 11
provincial chairpersons, were the bona fide
leaders of the Women's Assembly
"until removed by the women themselves
during an ordinary or extraordinary
congress."
He denied that his support
for Makone was based on her close friendship with
his wife, Susan, or
because Theresa is the wife of his close associate and
elections director,
Ian Makone.
Critics say Makone is part of a "kitchen cabinet" Tsvangirai has
increasingly tended to depend on for key policy decisions, thus sidelining
formal party structures.
But he said: "Firstly, you need to understand
that the issue, from the point
of view of the party, is not about Lucia
Matibenga or Theresa Makone. We do
not manage the party with the objective
of either pleasing or hurting
individuals, but in the best interests of the
party as a whole. The party is
bigger than any individual, and that includes
myself. It is about the
performance of an organ of a party or its officers
as we prepare for the
2008 elections, subject of course to a free and fair
environment. Matibenga
is a respected member of the party, and she will
remain so."
He said the MDC, which had procured more than 40 new Isuzu
vehicles in
preparation for the elections, was "ready for an election
tomorrow".
"The level of suffering of the majority of our people cannot be
extended by
any day longer. People have no food, jobs, transport, drugs,
water and
power. The list is endless. We need to resolve the national crisis
now,
rather than later. This can only be done by creating the necessary
environment for a free and fair election where Zimbabweans can freely choose
a government of their choice, which can then immediately resolve the myriad
economic problems besetting the country," he said.
But his bullish
remarks about the election are clouded by suggestions that
his faction's
participation would be conditional.
Before any elections, and after the
conclusion of negotiations being
brokered by Thabo Mbeki, the South African
president, there would be need
for "a healing period during, which an
agreement on the electoral
environment arising out of the Southern African
Development Community
facilitated talks would be put to a practical test, a
test that ZANU PF must
pass", he said.
"We need to rebuild the shattered
confidence of our people, confidence that
it is still possible to effect
democratic change through a secure ballot."
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
ATTORNEY General (AG) Sobusa Gula-Ndebele's world collapsed
around him on
Tuesday after he was arrested on allegations of abusing his
office by not
prosecuting former NMBZ Holdings deputy managing director
James Mushore who
fled the country in 2004.
Police spokesperson Wayne
Bvudzijena yesterday confirmed Gula-Ndebele's
arrest saying it was in
connection with assuring Mushore, whom he met at a
Harare restaurant in
September, that he would not be prosecuted if he
returned
home.
Gula-Ndebele, an ex-officio member of Cabinet, is alleged to have met
Mushore, who is currently in remand prison facing several counts of
externalising foreign currency and one of violating the Immigration Act,
knowing fully well that the police had issued a warrant of arrest against
the top banker.
The AG is being charged under the Criminal Law
(Codification Reform) Act for
what police sources say was the criminal abuse
of office.
Police on Tuesday recorded a warned and cautioned statement from
the AG
before releasing him.
"The Attorney General Mr Sobusa Gula Ndebele
was charged yesterday (November
6, 2007) for contravening section 174 (1) of
the Criminal Law (Cordification
and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 for doing
'anything contrary to or inconsistent
with a duty as a Public Officer' A
warned and cautioned statement has since
been recorded from him.On September
19 2007 Mr Mushore flew into the country
from the United Kingdom. During his
stay Mr Mushore met and discussed with
Mr Gula Ndebele at a restaurant in
Harare. At this meeting it is alleged
that Mr Gula-Ndebele gave Mr Mushore
the assurance that he would not be
prosecuted if he returns home. On October
5 2007 Mr Mushore flew back to the
United Kingdom. Mr Gula Ndebele was aware
at the material time that Mr
Mushore was on a warrant of apprehension when
he discussed with him,"
Bvudzijena said.
Sources yesterday said the
police are also keen on unpacking the nature of
the relationship between
Gula-Ndebele and Mushore who skipped the country in
2004 through an
undesignated point.
Mushore is facing six counts of contravening Exchange
Control Regulations
and one of violating the Immigration Act.
Since 2004,
police have been hunting for Mushore and three other NMBZ
executives -
Francis Zimuto, Otto Chekeche and Julius Makoni - who also
allegedly fled to
the UK.
Mushore's car, a Mercedes-Benz, was found parked in Kariba when he
allegedly
escaped in April 2004 through Zambia, en route to the
UK.
Police alleged that Mushore, Makoni, Zimuto and Chekeche had set up a
money
transfer office under the name LTB Money Transfers, which was manned
by NMBZ
Bank employees in the British capital, London, without a licence
from the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
It is also alleged that LTB Finance
House was set up for the personal
benefit of the former NMBZ top
brass.
The foursome allegedly used the money transfer office to mop up
foreign
currency from Zimbabweans working in the UK. About £3 million and
US$2
million was allegedly siphoned from Zimbabweans living abroad with
their
relatives at home getting the equivalent in Zimbabwean dollars at
illegal
parallel market exchange rates.
Mushore appeared in court for his
first remand days after his arrest.
Sources said the AG's office had
declined to prosecute Mushore after a
standoff with the arresting officers,
hence the delay.
Gula-Ndebele is a retired army colonel who was among the
country's feared
military intelligence supremos in the 1980s.
After
independence, he practiced as a lawyer, establishing the law firm
Gula-Ndebele and Partners Legal Practitioners.
He is a former chairman of
the Electoral Supervisory Commission.
Of late, press reports suggested frosty
relations between Gula-Ndebele and
his boss, Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick
Chinamasa. The two clashed after the
AG's office authorised the minister's
prosecution last year on charges of
attempting to defeat the course of
justice.
It has also been reported
that there are plans by the Justice Ministry to
dilute the powers of the AG
and bring some of the function of the department
under the control of the
Justice Minister.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
A SENIOR government official has revealed why government
officials ignored
advice that a rock could not produce refined
diesel.
A strong belief in spirit mediums convinced top officials,
including members
of the Presidium to authorise expenditure of $5 billion in
taxpayers' money
on a woman who claimed to have powers to cause diesel to
flow from a rock.
The advice was given by a number of people, including
Cabinet ministers, who
had expressed scepticism over Nomatter Tagarira's
claims, that she could
induce diesel from a rock at Muningwa hills in
Chinhoyi by pointing her
"sacred stick" at it.
The Financial Gazette
established this week that police have recovered $3
billion of the $5
billion that government paid to Tagarira alias Mavhunga
alias Sekuru
Dombo.
In an interview yesterday, Mashonaland West governor Nelson Samkange,
who is
believed to have been one of a group of senior officials involved in
selling
the diesel story to President Robert Mugabe, confirmed that advice
for the
government to proceed with caution were ignored.
"There are
reasons (why the advice was ignored). The government and the
President
believe in African culture, we believe in spirit mediums.
"She said the
diesel was coming from our ancestors, so we had to pursue it,"
said
Samkange.
"The second reason is the current fuel problems. If we had not
pursued it,
she was going to blame the government."
The other reason was
that in the initial stages, those who were sent to
collect samples from
Tagarira came back with "pure diesel", but it later
turned out that the fuel
was not coming from the rock.
Instead, it emerged that diesel bought from
truck drivers was poured into a
tank rigged with pipes, from which Tagarira
drew the fuel, thus duping
government officials into believing that it
flowed from a sacred rock.
Samkange said if prosecutors asked him to be a
state witness in Tagarira's
trial, he would be keen to testify against her
as she had taken the
government for a ride.
In addition to the $5 billion
the government also gave Tagarira a farm, a
farmhouse and food among other
rewards.
Court documents seen by The Financial Gazette this week show that
police had
recovered $3 billion of the amount showered on the n'anga,
On
Tuesday, Tagarira appeared at Chinhoyi magistrates court and was remanded
in
custody.
Resplendent in new prison garb - distinguishing her from other
detainees -
she seemed crippled with fear as she walked into court.
She
faces charges under the Criminal Law (Codification Reform) Act for fraud
or
alternatively, for being a "criminal nuisance."
The state says in court
papers that as a result of the misrepresentation by
the accused, national
interests were compromised, resulting in human and
material resources being
wasted.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
Magistrates'
strike spreads
THE wheels of justice have ground to a halt as a strike by
magistrates and
other judiciary officers to press for better remuneration
and conditions of
service spreads countrywide.
The strike, which
began last week when magistrates boycotted the courts, has
spread after
other judiciary staff joined the industrial action.
Government's offer of a
basic monthly salary of $141 million for regional
magistrates and $29
million for provincial magistrates has been rejected.
As a result of the work
stoppage, suspects are being held in police cells
for long periods, a lawyer
at the Rotten Row Magistrates' Courts said
yesterday.
At the Harare High
Court, only civil cases were being handled, officials
said.
Beatrice
Mtetwa, president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, which represents
lawyers
in private practice, said the society's members had been seriously
affected
by the strike.
"It is proving costly for clients as lawyers are spending
precious time in
the courts where nobody is attending to them," said
Mtetwa.
"Our members were caught unawares, but when we embarked on our public
demonstrations a few months ago, we had the courtesy to inform government
workers of our impending action. It is creating a serious backlog in a
situation where there is already a long-standing backlog."
The opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) echoed the concerns over
the crippling
strike, calling on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Patrick
Chinamasa to address the grievances of the striking
magistrates, prosecutors
and support staff.
"Those already in prison cannot be released and trials
have had to be
postponed," said Innocent Gonese, legal secretary in the
Morgan Tsvangirai
camp of the MDC.
"Justice delayed is justice denied and
the people who will suffer the most
are accused persons who are presumed
innocent until proven guilty."
Chinamasa could not immediately comment
yesterday.
FinGaz
Clemence
Manyukwe Staff Reporter
ALBERT Matapo, the alleged ringleader of a group
accused of plotting a coup
against President Robert Mugabe's government,
will testify for the first
time in court tomorrow.
Matapo is expected
to give evidence on his travels to the United Kingdom
(UK), which the state
alleges were undertaken in contravention of Zimbabwean
Immigration
laws.
In June, President Mugabe alleged that the British government was
behind a
plot to overthrow his government.
Matapo and six others deny
treason charges arising from allegations that
they plotted to depose the
President from power and replace him with Rural
Housing and Social Amenities
Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Police have since conceded they have no evidence
of Mnangagwa's involvement
in the alleged coup.
Matapo's lawyer, Charles
Warara, confirmed yesterday that his client would
testify tomorrow.
"The
state is alleging that he travelled without any documentation. Beyond
that,
they are not saying anything," he said.
Warara said his client went to the UK
to promote the government's Homelink
programme. meant to mobilise foreign
currency from Zimbabweans in the
diaspora to ease a biting foreign currency
crisis in the country.
Last week, the alleged coup plotters failed to appear
in court due to a
strike by magistrates and prosecutors. Staff at the Master
of the High Court
and clerks of court countrywide have also joined the
strike. It is feared
the strike could delay Matapo's testimony.
The seven
suspects allege that they were seized by state agents at a
building in
Harare's central business district while planning to form a
political
party.
Proceedings related to the case have previously been held in camera
after
the state said prominent individuals would be named.
The state also
said police would make more arrests, but no more suspects
have been arrested
so far.
A deadline to come up with a trial date by October - when the state
expected
police investigations to have been completed - has since lapsed.
FinGaz
Charles Rukuni
Bureau Chief
BULAWYO - A faction of ZANU-PF in Bulawayo led by mostly war
veterans has
threatened that there will be chaos at the party's special
congress in
Harare next month if the issue of elections in the province is
not resolved
before then.
The faction, known as Ghodhi, said the
elections that were allegedly held in
the city were a sham as they involved
only one faction called Petition,
which is loyal to local members of the
ZANU PF politburo.
"The national political commissar Cde Elliot Manyika is
going to be
embarrassed if he endorses the election results because we are
going to
attend the congress and show the party who has the support of the
people," a
spokesman for the Ghodhi faction said.
Manyika could not be
reached for comment.
Provincial elections for Bulawayo were originally
scheduled for April 29 but
they had to be cancelled after it emerged that
there were two factions
within the province, one of which had been locked
out of Davis Hall where
the elections were to be conducted.
Manyika
called off the elections and a taskforce, led by his deputy Richard
Ndlovu,
was set up to restructure the party.
Interim executive spokesman Effort Nkomo
said the restructuring exercise had
been completed and elections had already
been conducted at branch and
district levels.
He said those who were
crying foul had "excluded themselves" from the
process.
Ndlovu had
repeatedly refused to comment on the restructuring exercise
saying he wanted
to brief his bosses first.
Members of the Ghodhi faction said they would
contest the results because
the elections had not been conducted according
to the party constitution.
They said Ndlovu had failed to unite the two
factions and had instead
aligned himself with the Petition faction.
"As
far as we are concerned the last democratic elections in the province
were
held in July 2004. Themba Ncube was elected provincial chairman but was
suspended after the Dinyane meeting.
"Two factions attended the 2004
party congress, one led by George Mlala who
was interim provincial chairman
and another led by Isaac Dakamela who had
been appointed by members of the
politburo from the province. Delegates from
both factions were properly
accredited. How? We don't know. So it has been
an open secret that Bulawayo
has two feuding factions," the spokesman said.
Six provincial chairmen were
suspended from the party following the Dinyane
meeting, which was allegedly
organised to oppose the appointment of Joice
Mujuru as vice-President. The
meeting also allegedly sought to remove Joseph
Msika and John Nkomo from the
presidency and replace them with Emmerson
Mnangagwa and Patrick
Chinamasa.
The spokesman for the Ghodhi faction challenged the interim
executive
currently running Bulawayo province to produce minutes showing
that
elections had indeed been conducted because as far as they were
concerned
the Petition faction did not have enough members to set up
electoral
colleges.
"According to the party constitution, you have to
establish an electoral
college before any elections. You need an executive
of at least 21 people at
cell level. You need not less than 50 people to
elect the cell executive.
"After that you need not less than 300 people to
elect 102 members of the
branch, and not less than 600 members to elect the
executive of a district.
The Petition faction does not have enough members
at these levels to form an
electoral college. So, how did they elect
executives?"
The spokesman said the elections had been bulldozed by members
of the
politburo from Bulawayo who included Dumiso Dabengwa, John Nkomo and
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu because they wanted to protect their
positions.
"All along they thought that the central committee was going
to be dissolved
at the special congress, so they wanted members who could
vote them back
into office," the spokesman said. "But now there is only one
item on the
agenda, to endorse President Robert Mugabe as the party
candidate."
He, however, said the situation was very dicey because the entire
central
committee could still be dissolved if any member called for the
dissolution
and this was supported by more than six party provinces.
This
was quite possible as some people felt that President Mugabe should
step
down at the congress and make way for a new leadership.
The Petition faction
supports those that want President Mugabe to step down
while the Ghodhi
faction is spearheading President Mugabe's re-election
campaign.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
Nearly half of 18-to-20 year olds not registered to vote
IT is
often said that youths are the leaders of tomorrow. But as urban
youths grow
increasingly disillusioned with the status quo in Zimbabwe, it
has become
difficult to apply this sweeping dictum.
Youths, especially in urban
areas, have been reluctant to register as
voters, suggesting an increasing
loss of confidence in existing political
processes as an avenue through
which to resolve the economic and political
crisis that has left many of
them unemployed.
Yet, because youths have been reduced to depending on the
state, they are
vulnerable to exploitation by powerful politicians who use
them in election
campaigns.
There are too many youth organisations in the
country. On one side are
social clubs that steer clear of politics, while on
the other are youth
organisations mainly geared to give their leaders a way
to earn a living
through a variety of causes that attracts financial
support.
Speaking at a national youth meeting in August, deputy Youth and
Employment
Creation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said youths must be partners
in nation
building.
"The youths are an important stakeholder in nation
building," said
Kasukuwere. "Our aim is to see that every youth in Zimbabwe
has an equal
opportunity and equal access to socio-political and economic
empowerment, as
you are aware that the government is a signatory to many
conventions, which
seek to protect the child at all levels of our society,"
he added.
But this does not seem to be the case.
Many young people are
more interested in getting a decent job than being
involved in
politics.
As the economic crisis escalates, the priority for many youths is
to queue
outside the Registrar General's offices - not to register as
voters, but to
obtain passports and join the exodus to greener
pastures.
There is a strong feeling among youths that they have no future in
a country
that no longer rewards academic achievement and has deliberately
decimated
the middle class. It pays more for the youths to peddle drugs and
dabble in
parallel market activities that have become the major source of
foreign
currency, fuel and other basic commodities than to be employed full
time.
Today's youths, according to Thabani Moyo of Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition
(CZC), are a "lost generation".
"There is voter apathy among
the youth who are regarded as the lost
generation. They are preoccupied with
issues of unemployment and see the
political process as a dirty way of
expressing themselves," said Moyo, the
CZC spokesperson, which has launched
a campaign targeting young voters.
"The campaign is an alternative way of
spreading the messages about voting.
It is targeting the youth and rural
voters who are traditionally seen as
detached from the political
processes."
The coalition uses music, dance and poetry to attract the
attention of the
young.
A voter survey conducted in 2001 by Target
Research, an independent polling
agency operating in southern Africa, found
out that youths between the ages
of 18 and 20 were not enthusiastic about
voting, contrasting with strong
interest among voters aged 31 and
above.
The survey, which sampled 3 013 nationally representative potential
voters,
was commissioned by The Financial Gazette ahead of the 2002
presidential
election.
The survey report said: "The age groups who
exhibited the greatest interest
in exercising their vote were those aged 31
to 35 (93 percent) and those
between the ages 21 to 25 and 36 to 40 (91
percent of each group).
"People aged 18 to 20 years and those over 60 yeas
were the most likely age
groups to be unsure of whether they will vote or
not. Forty-two percent of
the 18-20-year-olds who intend to vote in the 2008
elections will not do so
because they are not registered."
No
corroborating data was available from the Registrar-General's office.
The
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), which conducts voter
education,
says it has not been able to get such statistics.
"Attempts to get statistics
by age groups have not been successful. We have
only those, which have been
made public," said Tsungai Kokerai, ZESN
programmes manager.
She conceded
ZESN did not have youth-specific programmes.
An economic crisis, coupled with
growing disillusionment with both ZANU PF
and the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), have made it impossible to
sustain the same level of interest
in politics among youths, as was evident
in 2000 when the MDC almost pulled
a surprise against ZANU PF in the general
elections.
Malcolm X once
stated that any one who wants to know the future of any
nation should look
at the character of its youths.
Several initiatives designed to guide youths
in nation building have turned
out to be programmes of indoctrination aiming
to promote particular
political agendas.
One such programme is the
national youth service programme, under which
youths undertaking the
training ended up being abused.
A parliamentary report released in May,
detailed how youths and soldiers
fought for food and how female trainees
lived in constant fear of being
sexually abused by instructors.
FinGaz
Shame Makoshori Shame
Makoshori
A NASTY incident occurred at Chivakanenyama Business Centre,
about 40
kilometres west of Magunje Growth Point in Hurungwe last
Saturday.
A poisonous snake bit 26-year-old Tinashe Chaparadza, one of
the
hunger-stricken villagers who slept at the centre waiting for
electricity to
mill their staple grain.
A victim of chronic fuel and
power crisis gripping the country, Chaparadza
could not receive medical
attention until late Sunday because there was no
fuel to take him to
hospital in time.
Chaparadza is one of the many victims of the escalating
fuel crisis, which
has had far-reaching implications on all sectors of the
economy.
Rural communities have been cut off the mainstream economic system
owing to
inadequate electricity and fuel, blamed on foreign currency
shortages.
The effects of the erratic energy supplies have been catastrophic
across the
mining, tourism and manufacturing sectors. The rural transport
system has
been paralysed as well, leaving commuters stranded.
Commercial
cargo carriers, for example, have replaced conventional buses on
the
204-kilometre stretch between Harare and Karoi. It is the same story
along
other major highways.
Only recently, a commercial transport vehicle ferrying
fuel caught fire
along the Harare-Mutare Road, burning passengers on board
beyond
recognition.
Farmers are also among the worst-hit. Fuel for
farmers during the 2007/2008
agricultural season was promised under various
facilities but farmers say
they are still to receive the precious
liquid.
Industrialists have advised government that the solution to the fuel
crisis
lies in respecting the principles of supply and demand, letting fuel
prices
to adjust according to available demand.
But the Energy Ministry,
headed by retired army general Mike Nyambuya, has
been hesitant in lifting
the cap on fuel prices fearing it would stoke the
inflation fires.
But
despite controlling the pump prices, motorists are buying petrol and
diesel
for as much as $1 million per litre on the parallel market, far more
than
the gazetted $60,000.
Zimbabwe uses between 3 million and 3,5 million litres
of fuel a day to
power its ailing industries.
At current international
petroleum prices, this translates to about US$300
million per month, but the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe has failed to
generate the foreign currency
required because it has kept prices stagnant
amid rising oil prices on the
international market, which hit US$90 per
barrel last week.
A retailer at
one of the country's rural business centres Thomas Mamombe
said following
government's U-turn on price controls, companies had battled
to restock
because they could not afford the high transport costs, or their
capital has
been rendered inadequate by the wave of price increments
effected by
producers.
"If you purchase one tonne of sugar the profit is swallowed by
high
transport costs," Mamombe said. "In the end you find that it is better
not
to restock than drive yourself into losses."
Basic commodities such
as sugar, cooking oil, salt, matches, paraffin, soap,
meat, farming
implements and spares and agricultural chemicals have vanished
from rural
markets.
Previously a perennial breadbasket of the region with bustling
retail and
beer outlets, consumers now brave the heat, rib cages threatening
to spill
out of their chests to endure the long walk to rural shopping
centres
hunting for the critical commodities to save their families from
malnutrition.
Their broad smiles expose the yellowish teeth affected by
the shortage of
toothpaste, and men and women say life is tough.
"There
is no salt in the shops," a woman told The Financial Gazette last
Sunday.
"If it was a shortage of sugar we would not care. But life is
unbearable
without salt. Retailers tell us that goods are not delivered
because
suppliers have no fuel, or they cannot afford the high cost of
transport to
go and purchase their stocks," she said.
During the conversation, her
malnourished three months old baby, Chipo
cries, apparently in protest of
the harsh conditions she has been exposed to
in the mid afternoon heat, her
bruised face affected by the corrosive
effects of malnutrition.
Her
mother notices how startled this reporter is and was quick to intervene.
"We
do not like this life," she said, pointing to the child.
"But what do you do
when grinding mills cannot run because there is no fuel,
or the electricity
powered mills are down because power comes for two hours
every
night?
"The children will not eat. You see the effects for yourself," she
added.
With inflation fast approaching the 8 000 percent mark and a family of
six
people now requiring at least $21 million per month, goods have become
unaffordable and the middle class has also succumbed to the skyrocketing
crisis.
Last month, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono
unveiled a
financial package under the Basic Commodities Supply-Side
Intervention
Facility to promote a quick return to normalcy in the supply
side of
essential goods.
The funding will be administered by commercial
banks at an all inclusive
interest rate of 25 percent per annum but did not
address the high costs of
transporting goods from major cities.
Some
goods are slowly returning onto supermarket shelves in metropolitan
centres,
but word has not reached rural businesses, more than one month
after the
facility was launched.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
AGRICULTURAL Minister Rugare Gumbo says the government will next
week
announce substantive heads to lead the embattled Agricultural and Rural
Development Authority (ARDA) and the Grain Marketing Board
(GMB).
Gumbo told The Financial Gazette yesterday that the government had
finalized
the selection of the two new chief executive officers (CEOs) who
will be
announced next week.
The new CEO for ARDA will replace former
authority boss Joseph Matowanyika
who was fired by Gumbo three months ago
after reports that he had failed to
save the collapse of the parastatal's
Chisumbanje sugar estates where 1 000
hectares of sugar cane had been
written off due to severe moisture stress
and weeds.
The substantive CEO
for grain parastatal GMB will succeed Samuel Muvhuti,
who has led the GMB in
an acting capacity since the suspension of Martin
Muchero on allegations of
misconduct. Muvhuti has also applied for the post.
Gumbo, who is reported to
have effected radical changes at the Ministry of
Agriculture since taking
over from Joseph Made in February, said the
government had identified the
suitable replacements, which the boards of the
respective parastatals would
announce.
"We should, together with the board, be announcing the new CEO for
ARDA
before the end of next week," Gumbo told The Financial Gazette on the
sidelines of a media briefing on the country's preparations for the
2007/2008 agricultural seasons.
"We will also announce a substantive
chief executive for the GMB," he said.
Turning to the preparations, Gumbo
said government was fighting to bridge a
20 000 tonne deficit of seed maize,
which could affect farmers.
The government had been under pressure from seed
maize producers who have
shunned producing enough seed due to low incentives
and protracted
negotiations over the pricing issue.
But Gumbo yesterday
undertook to double the price of the seed maize to
encourage more farmers to
produce enough and beat high demand.
During the 2007/2008 agricultural
season, Zimbabwe had budgeted that farmers
required at least 50 000 tonnes
of seed maize but figures provided by the
ministry indicated that only 30
000 tonnes were in stock yesterday, leaving
a shortfall of about 20
000.
"Seed maize farmers want viable prices. We want to formulate a policy
where
the price of maize seed is probably double the price of commercial
maize,"
Gumbo said.
"Seed maize producers should go ahead (with planting)
as we work out the
price," he added.
Producers were this year paid $26
million per tonne by seed houses, which
sold to distributors at $65 million
per tonne while the retail price of seed
maize had been $78 million per
tonne, the statistics showed.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
As violence flares up at Watermount Estates
A MHANGURA farmer
has been granted a peace order against Member of
Parliament (MP) for Makonde
and President Robert Mugabe's nephew, Leo
Mugabe, who is alleged to have
made threats against her and interfered with
her farm
operations.
Nomhle Mliswa, a sister to fitness trainer and Saltlakes
Holdings group
chief executive officer Themba Mliswa, had applied for an
order seeking to
interdict Mugabe in his personal capacity to stop
interfering with
operations at Summerhill Farm in Mhangura where she is
settled.
A Chinhoyi Magistrate identified in court documents as T Katehwe
granted
Mliswa an order interdicting Mugabe and his accomplices to stop
interfering
with operations at Summerhill farm.
"The applicant has on the
balance of probabilities, successfully proved that
the respondents have
conducted themselves in a manner that has breached her
peace. The
application is granted.
"The respondents are interdicted personally or
through agents or employees
from threatening, harassing or interfering with
the applicant or her
employees or anyone else acting through subdivision 2,
Summerhill farm,
Mhangura," said the magistrate.
Myles Hall, a commercial
farmer, was cited as the first respondent while the
legislator for Makonde
was cited as the second respondent with the officer
in charge of Mhangura
Police Station Inspector Mushonga Chiware listed as
the third
respondent.
Mliswa had filed an application seeking to interdict the
respondents and
their employees and anyone else claiming ownership of
Summerhill farm
through them from harassing, damaging and generally,
interfering in any way
with the applicant, her employees and anyone else
acting through her at the
disputed farm.
Mliswa stated in her application
that due to the utterances of the second
respondent, she had received
several death threats. Mugabe is said to have
declared that he had certain
privileges to exercise certain powers in terms
of the law of Zimbabwe in his
official capacity as an MP.
In making the ruling, the magistrate took into
consideration the fact that
the applicant holds an offer letter in respect
of Subdivision 2 of
Summerhill in Makonde.
In his opposing papers,
Mugabe, said Mliswa's offer letter lacks
credibility.
"The problem with
applicant's offer letter is one of legitimacy. Its
validity is
disputable."
Meanwhile, there were violent clashes on Monday at Watermount
Estates, along
the Harare-Mutoko highway.
Charles Mukwamba, who is
believed to be a senior Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) officer,
invaded the farm under the stewardship of an
association fronted by Antony
Parehwa.
According to Parehwa, Mukwamba invaded the farm on Monday with the
help of
about 50 youths brandishing pellet guns.
"I am told they scaled
the farm perimeter fence. Mukwamba had two pistols
while his boys had pellet
guns. They started stoning the farm manager's
house before our workers
managed to escape. Most of them are being treated
for injuries sustained
during the attack," said Parehwa.
"Mukwamba is said to have flashed cards
boasting that he was a CIO operative
and no one could stop him. But I got
this land in 1997 under the willing
buyer willing seller
arrangement."
The farm grows soyabeans, sorghum and maize.
Mukwamba,
however, said he has an offer letter.
He said: "I have an offer letter and
all I will do is to wait for those who
will come to attack me and my workers
as they did with the help of some
hired people from Mabvuku on Monday," said
Mukwamba.
Mukwamba is said to be working in cahoots with Petronella Kogonye,
a chief
lands officer in the Lands Ministry, who threatened to take over the
farm
last year.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Kumbirai
Mafunda
NMBZ Holdings Limited is the subject of a hostile takeover after
British
tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten disposed of his remaining
shareholding in
the commercial bank and speculation grew of a new investor
bidding for
control of the institution.
Van Hoogstraten has confirmed
selling eight percent of his shareholding in
NMBZ, made up of 120 million
shares valued at $2.3 trillion in a transaction
brokered last Friday by
Lynton-Edwards Stockbrokers.
The brokerage itself is said to be the target of
Russia and
Africa-specialist Renaissance Capital. But director Murray Lynton
Edwards
could neither deny nor confirm the reports when reached for
comment.
Van Hoogstraten now controls about two percent of NMBZ after selling
the
eight percent at a special bargain price of $19 000 per share. The price
was
at a $2 000 premium on the counter's closing price for the day.
"I am
reducing my holding in NMBZ to nil because the bank doesn't need my
assistance anymore; plus the price (share price) had become ridiculous," Van
Hoogstraten told The Financial Gazette on Tuesday.
The British tycoon
disclosed that he would completely dispose of his
remaining shareholding in
NMBZ before the end of the year.
"I will be selling the remaining two percent
in the next three to four
weeks," said Van Hoogstraten.
Van Hoogstraten
failed in a previous attempt to take control of the bank.
But earlier this
year, he told this paper that a smaller stake in the bank
helped him "sleep
easier".
While Van Hoogstraten would not reveal the identity of the buyer,
fmi
Holdings, owned by TA Holdings chairman Shingai Mutasa, is being named
as
the most likely suitor. Reports say fmi is in fact buying more NMBZ
stock.
The Financial Gazette reported two weeks ago that NMBZ shareholder
Yusuf
Ahmid, who, through his Palisades and Kurper investment vehicles,
controls a
large interest in NMBZ after underwriting the bank's last rights
issue,
could have held talks over a possible share swap deal with Mutasa and
a
group of private investors.
fmi is an investment company involved in
the construction of Joina Centre in
Harare.
Market watchers say fmi's
involvement might signal the entry of TA into
NMBZ. Mutasa has significant
interests in both TA and fmi.
TA is invested mainly in hotels and insurance.
But an investment in the
banking sector has looked likely for TA as it
restructures its investment
portfolio.
TA recently divested from Econet,
an investment that had accounted for 9
percent of its quoted investments,
and bought into the Cotton Company of
Zimbabwe.
NMBZ has always been the
subject of takeover speculation since its four
founding directors - Julius
Makoni, Otto Chekeche, Francis Zimuto and James
Mushore - fled the country
in 2004 over foreign exchange allegations.
Mushore returned home last month
only to be arrested on charges of violating
the Immigration Act and exchange
control regulations. Mushore is currently
on bail awaiting trial.
The
directors are said to collectively own over 35 percent of NMBZ through
family trusts, and formed an alliance with Ahmid in 2005 to block a van
Hoogstraten takeover bid.
Early this year, NMBZ lost about US$7 million
through a fraudulent
transaction resulting in the central bank canceling its
authorised foreign
currency dealership licence.
Subsequent to that, its
managing director, David Hatendi, who was left to
hold fort following the
departure of the four directors, tendered his
resignation - creating a
leadership vacuum at the apex of NMBZ.
NMBZ traded $11000 weaker yesterday,
having risen $8000 to $39 000 on
Tuesday on the speculation.
TA, which
rose $1.65 million to $2.65 million on Tuesday, eased to $2.5
million per
share yesterday.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
Even when he can't be seen, Emmerson Mnangangwa is in the water,
somewhere
EMMERSON Mnangagwa, the former ZANU PF secretary for administration
who
rarely came out to speak on party business after the eventful ruling
party
congress of 2004, which saw the ascendancy of Vice-President Joice
Mujuru
and the suspension of six provincial chairmen who backed his failed
bid for
the vice-presidency, has suddenly emerged as one of the most visible
backers
of President Robert Mugabe's re-election.
The Rural Housing
Minister, whose name keeps propping up in the race to
succeed President
Mugabe, has risen from obscurity to kill the confusion in
the run up to next
month's ZANU PF extraordinary congress, which had
generated expectations of
a probable palace coup.
After the marches by the war veterans in support of
President Mugabe had
failed to quell the jockeying for the top position in
the party, the former
Speaker of Parliament who doubles up as ZANU PF's
legal secretary intervened
to set the record straight.
He said: "We had a
congress in 2004, and our next congress was supposed to
be in 2009, but in
between the congresses, we have this extraordinary
congress, which is
necessary in order to declare the President of the party
elected at the last
congress as the party's candidate. That candidate will
be endorsed in
December."
Critics however, said Mnangagwa's role in silencing undeclared
Presidential
ambitions that were simmering in the party, laid bare the
existence of
factional fights within the ruling party.
They argued
Mnangagwa, a lawyer by training, had technically pre-empted a
bid to
challenge President Mugabe at the extraordinary congress linked to a
camp
aligned to retired army general Solomon Mujuru.
There has been no love lost
between Mujuru and Mnangagwa, those familiar
with the intrigues in ZANU PF
say.
The duo is linked to factions waiting in the wings to succeed President
Mugabe, who at one point invited members of his party to debate the issue
openly only to have a change of heart after the jostling for the highest
position in the land had threatened to tear apart the party.
In 1997,
President Mugabe appointed Mnangagwa to head a team negotiating the
intended
sale by the Zimbabwe Iron and Smelting Company's then shareholders
of the
ferrochrome producer to government.
The negotiations were, however, disrupted
by an unexpected announcement by
Mujuru that he and a consortium of local
businessmen known as Nyika
Investments had acquired a 27 percent stake in
the company, ahead of
government.
This angered the President, who
nullified the deal.
Since that bitter episode, Mujuru and Mnangagwa have
appeared to always work
from opposing sides.
In 2004, although Mnangagwa
had shrewdly secured the support of the majority
of provinces to land the
post of vice president, he lost the position to
Joice Mujuru, wife of the
retired army general, after President Mugabe
virtually blocked him after
linking him to what was then described as the
Tsholotsho Declaration.
It
was alleged the parties to the arrangement plotted to stage a palace coup
against the President.
This year, Mnangagwa has once again found himself
at opposing ends with
Mujuru, aligning himself with the President in the
face of an apparent push
for a new leader.
The question many now ask is
whether Mnangagwa's own leadership ambitions
can be advanced through his
strategy of forging what three years ago would
have been an unlikely
alliance with President Mugabe.
Jabulani Sibanda, an ally whose disputed
status in ZANU PF Mnangagwa has
defended in an interview with The Financial
Gazette, has campaigned
stridently for President Mugabe and more importantly
for Mnangagwa's own
ambitions, has stalled the momentum Joice Mujuru had
built after 2004.
By delaying President Mugabe's departure, Mnangagwa can
regroup after the
bitter setbacks of the past three years, and prepare his
backers for a
long-term challenge.
But Edgar Tekere, former ZANU PF
secretary general, believes Mnangagwa's
strategy will not
work.
"Mnangagwa should just forget it. On his own, he will not achieve
anything,"
Tekere said this week.
He points out how President Mugabe has
raised Mnangagwa's hopes previously,
only to disappoint him.
However,
political analyst Eldred Masunungure disagrees.
It is more likely, he says,
that President Mugabe will reward Mnangagwa this
time around for backing him
in the face of both internal and foreign
pressure to relinquish
power.
Critics say after losing to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)'s
Blessing Chebundo in both the 2000 and 2005 general elections in Kwekwe,
Mnangagwa's only hope for saving his career was to align himself with the
President.
After all, his critics are quick to point out; it was
President Mugabe who
appointed Mnangagwa a non-constituency Member of
Parliament and Rural
Housing Minister in 2005, when his political star
seemed to be on the wane.
"After defeat in 2000 and 2005 in the same
constituency, it showed that he
had a narrow independent political base. He
had little room to manoeuvre. It
is the most prudent action he could have
taken under the circumstances,"
Masunungure said.
"In 2004, he got burnt
and got demoted in both the politburo and Cabinet.
Last time he was
punished, but this time he expects to be rewarded. I have
little doubt he is
positive about a reward."
Both his losses were not without incident. In 2000,
Chebundo claimed he
barely escaped death after ZANU PF supporters abducted
him, doused him with
petrol, but failed to light a match.
His staunchest
supporters always read more into his setbacks than others do.
After his 2005
defeat at the polls, a letter to President Mugabe from an
election
campaigner, Pedzisai Mafuke, which went unreported, sensationally
claimed
the election had been rigged by senior army and police officials
opposed to
Mnangagwa.
The letter bitterly protested at how the Delimitation Commission
controversially shunted large numbers of peri-urban voters who would have
voted for Mnangagwa, into the neighbouring Silobela constituency, just three
days before polls.
The letter claimed a senior police official had openly
spoken against
Mnangagwa during a visit to Kwekwe, because he had "not
forgiven Mnangagwa
for the Vashandi-Wampua episode in Mozambique".
"I can
say that Kwekwe was lost to the MDC because some very senior people
within
the party sponsored and manipulated the situation in favour of the
MDC to
score points in their vendetta against Mnangagwa."
The Mujurus had "retired
to bed in a celebratory mood once they had heard
that
Mnangagwa had
lost", the writer said.
There are divergent views on what a Mnangagwa
presidency would look like.
His critics harp on his record in the 1980s,
saying his role during the
dissident crackdown proves his "hard man"
reputation.
One critic this week cited a statement attributed to Mnangagwa in
1983, when
tensions were building between the government and Joshua Nkomo's
PF ZAPU:
"Blessed are they who will follow the path of government law, for
their days
on earth shall be increased. But woe to those who will choose the
path of
collaboration with the dissidents for we will certainly shorten
their stay
on earth."
Mnangagwa denies playing any role during the
crackdown, and has described
himself as being "as soft as wool."
Others
delve into his commercial interests for clues as to what he stands
for.
Mnangagwa was described as "the architect of the commercial activities
of
ZANU PF" in a United Nations report in 2001 on the operations of the army
and businessmen in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
An internal ZANU PF
probe into its financial affairs in 2005 was said to
target Mnangagwa
unfairly, but he emerged unscathed.
His rivals play up his reported links to
Billy Rautenbach and John
Bredenkamp, the "Two Dutchmen", rival businessmen
many say have vied to have
Mnangagwa's ear over the years.
Mnangagwa was
instrumental in facilitating Bredenkamp's return to Zimbabwe
in 1982, but
The Financial Gazette has exclusively reported how Bredenkamp
blamed
Mnangagwa for his legal troubles last year.
A strong bond had been forged
when Mnangagwa helped Bredenkamp to gain
access to the lucrative DRC mining
industry after Rautenbach fell out with
Laurent Kabila. But after the
Congolese leader's January 2001 assassination,
Mnangagwa helped Rautenbach
regain favour with the new government in
Kinshasa.
Mnangagwa was
apparently angered by Bredenkamp's overtures to the Mujuru
camp, it is
alleged.
Yet, others note his impressive record as Speaker - he led
progressive
reforms of the archaic institutions of Parliament and made it
more open - as
a sign he would back democratic reforms.
Mnangagwa was
born in 1945 in Mnangagwa village, Zvishavane. He was only a
teenager when,
as part of a group called the "Crocodile Gang" - comprising
William
Ndangana, Victor Mlambo, James Dhlamini and Master Tresha - he
executed a
string of daring attacks against the Rhodesian regime.
His association with
the group earned him his current nickname, "Ngwena".
The attack he is most
famed for is the blowing up of a locomotive in
Masvingo.
James Dhlamini
and Victor Mlambo were later to be hanged for the killing of
a white farmer,
Peter Obeholzar, at Nyanyadzi in Chimanimani.
In January 1965, Mnangagwa was
captured by Police Inspectors Beans, Bradshaw
and Smith while at Michael
Mawema's house in Highfield. He confessed to the
bombing of the locomotive
after being tortured and was convicted under the
Law and Order Maintenance
Act.
According to one account, "he was tortured severely, resulting in him
losing
his sense of hearing in one ear. Some of the torture techniques
involved
being made to dangle head down from the ceiling.
The severity of
the torture made him unconscious for days."
Mnangagwa was represented at the
trial by JJ Horn of Scanlen and Holderness,
who successfully pleaded against
an execution on the grounds that his client
was under age. After medical
tests confirmed he was under 21, he was
sentenced to 10 years
imprisonment.
He served the first year at Harare Prison and was later
transferred to Grey
and Khami Prisons in Bulawayo.
He was then deported
into the custody of his parents in Zambia.
At the 1977 Chimoio Congress, he
was elected special assistant to the
president and member of the ZANU
national executive.
This meant that he was head of both the civil and
military divisions of
ZANU. His number two was Fox Gava (now retired general
Vitalis Zvinavashe)
who was head of security in the Military High Command
but was his deputy in
the Central Committee's security department.
FinGaz
Mavis Makuni, Own
Correspondent
Senegal's president, Abdoulaye Wade, is an unusual African
politician in a
number of respects.
He came to power late in his life
and won presidential elections in his
country in 2000 at the age of 74. At
the beginning of this year, at the ripe
old age of 81, he began his second
and final term after being re-elected
with an increased majority. Senegal's
constitution limits presidential
tenures to two terms.
The Senegalese
constitution also guarantees media freedom and this is
evident through the
lack of censorship and thriving media diversity. The
country, which has a
population of 11 million has 20 daily newspapers and
foreign publications
circulate freely.
Senegal, a former French colony, is regarded as one of
Africa's model
democracies, although poverty is still widespread and
unemployment is high.
Wade is a staunch advocate of democratisation and
supporter of the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
He has
crusaded vigorously against corruption in the public sector and
warned upon
his re- election in February this year that culprits would be
brought to
book. Shortly after Wade came into power in 2000, he received a
baptism of
fire when a Senegalese vessel, the Joala, capsized off the coast
of Gambia,
Killing 2 000 passengers. But despite such crises, the head of
state has
remained focused and humane.
An almost-hard-to-believe story about Wade was
published in the press at the
weekend. It was about the Senegalese
president's pledge to reduce the number
of ministers in his cabinet and
slash government salaries, including his
own. He was taking this rare move
in solidarity with ordinary Senegalese who
are struggling with high food and
energy prices. In a televised national
address, Wade announced his
government's plans to table an emergency bill in
parliament authorising the
salary reductions in a bid to lessen suffering
among the poor.
He was
quoted as saying: "At a time when important fringes of our population
are
suffering in their daily life from the negative effects of the rise in
world
oil prices on their households, I have decided as president to set an
example." It is almost unheard of for an African government to be so
responsive to the plight of the people when it has not been responsible for
bringing about the dire conditions causing the hardships. What is more
common is for corrupt governments whose bad policies have brought once
thriving countries to their knees to thumb their noses at the impoverished
and starving populace.
Instead of showing any solidarity with the
suffering masses as Wade's
government has pledged to do, regimes that are
impervious to the plight of
the people tend to commit more abuses and
excesses to exacerbate human
suffering. It is at such dire times that such
governments maintain bloated
cabinets and bureaucracies as more relatives
and cronies are brought to the
feeding trough. The gap between the rich and
poor widens and ostentatious
consumption among the ruling elites becomes
more pronounced.
Could the clue to Wade's more humane approach be the fact
that he attained
power late in life when he had mellowed and was wiser? Wade
was a veteran of
opposition politics when he became his country's head of
state in 2000. He
first contested a presidential election in 1978 and stood
in four subsequent
polls in which he lost, only winning at the fifth
attempt.
He denounced the Socialist Party, which had been in power since
independence
in 1960 as being riddled with corruption and cronyism. "The
first great
objective of my political life was to get rid of a system in
Senegal.
Midnight has struck, the system is dead", he declared upon his
election as
president. Wade had a chequered political career before
attaining power. He
was imprisoned for political reasons and served a number
of times in a
coalition government. During one of these stints in the 1990s,
Wade reported
directly to his political rival and predecessor, Abdou Diouf,
an experience
that no doubt taught him to subordinate personal sentiment to
national
interests.
In response to an interactive BBC World Service
programme shortly after Wade's
election in 2000, Cisman Mohamud, who
described himself as a Somali living
in Finland said: "The fact that Abdou
Diouf accepted defeat knowing that he
could, like many African leaders do,
cheat and stay in power was a watershed
in African politics. To me, whether
the new president is better than Diouf
is not the point. The point is: power
can still change hands at the ballot
box. Presidents accepting defeat and
handing over power to opposition
leaders is a rarity in Africa." It is even
more of a rarity for the
in-coming head of state to make gesture such as the
one Wade has made.
FinGaz
Comment
ZANU
PF might laugh all the way to the polling stations come March next
year,
should the blundering Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) continue to
trip
itself at each and every political turn.
After its inception in September
1999, the MDC cut the image of the biblical
Moses on a mission to deliver
the millions of desperate Zimbabweans from
ZANU PF's vice-like grip on power
to a new political dispensation where all
the tenets of freedom are
guaranteed.
Events of recent weeks have changed all that.
Very few people
still believe the fractured opposition party has what it
takes to wrest
power from the arrogant ruling party in spite of the
overwhelming evidence
of ZANU PF's misrule and failure to deliver on its
promises.
All the
examples touted by ZANU PF as its post independence successes have
ricocheted into signposts of bad governance. For instance, the critical
skills nurtured after independence in 1980 are deserting the country in huge
numbers, with the education and health sectors, which are on the brink of
collapse, being the worst hit.
Budget deficits are widening with each
passing year, exports are drying up
while capacity utilisation in industry
has declined to below 15 percent.
The country now has the dubious distinction
of having the highest inflation
in the world at nearly 8000 percent with
poverty and unemployment estimated
in the region of 80 percent.
Yet the
government continues to hide behind a finger, blaming everything on
sanctions, drought et-al.
But not even the diehard backers of its
patronage system still have
confidence in what remains of the health and
education systems as evidenced
by the inexorable rise in the number of
officials seeking treatment outside
the country and those whose children are
enrolled at foreign institutions
for their education.
Instead of taking
advantage of a well of disenchantment right across the
country, the MDC has
become its own worst enemy. By splitting right through
the middle in October
2005 and entangling itself in endless in-house
squabbles, the opposition
will count itself lucky to avoid total humiliation
at next year's harmonised
polls in its current state.
Its endorsement of the controversial 18th
Constitutional Amendment - a plan
by ZANU PF meant to clear the way for
President Robert Mugabe's safe exit -
has also shaken the opposition's
alliance with civic society, which was one
of its building blocks at
formation.
More recently, the Morgan Tsvangirai faction of the MDC has been
mired in
fresh controversy over its undemocratic decision to dissolve Lucia
Matibenga's
executive of the Women's Assembly and parachuting a pliant one
headed by
Theresa Makone, wife of the former trade unionist's adviser and
close
friend.
Surely, the MDC does not need all this controversy if it is
to entertain any
hopes of eclipsing ZANU PF in the forthcoming
elections.
Should the MDC fail to find common ground within the remaining few
months,
voter apathy might turn out to be the only real opposition against
ZANU PF.
The MDC might want us to believe it has fallen victim to the
divisive
machinations of state security agents, which is true to some
extent, but
such has been the political terrain for opposition parties in
Africa where
incumbents hold on to power at all costs.
At the end of the
day, it is the political astuteness of opposition leaders,
which
distinguishes successful opposition parties from pushovers.
As it is,
Tsvangirai has not given any plausible reason as to why his
faction could
not embrace the Arthur Mutambara camp. The only excuses given
so far betray
his leadership as selfish and non-strategic.
The MDC is also still to state
its position on whether it will participate
in next year's elections. In the
previous plebiscite, the party left it
until it was too late to launch a
meaningful campaign, something that
contributed to its poor showing.
It
has also struggled to regroup after the October 2005 split, a situation
that, if it continues, will split the opposition vote at a time when it
really needs to confront ZANU PF as a united force.
In view of this
disarray, it is not surprising that there are calls for a
Third Force, in
itself an admission that the MDC has failed.
But again, a third force for the
sake of a third force, which is not bound
by a clear ideology, will not help
matters.
Had it remained intact, the main opposition party could have had
ZANU PF on
the ropes, but its chances of making it next year are now remote
as the MDC's
centre cannot hold anymore.
While the MDC's strength lies in
having sharp legal minds, this has become
its major weakness as well. There
does not appear to be a meeting of minds
in the interpretation of the
party's policies and constitution.
FinGaz
Property
Reporter
SHOCK swept through the real estate market last week after an
estate agent
owned by prominent lawyer and businessman Honour Mkushi hiked
rentals by a
hefty 7 000 percent this month, despite a government moratorium
on price
increases, which also affected property rentals.
Players in
the real estate industry said the move by Mkushi, former Zimbabwe
Newspapers
chairman, had surprised players and shocked tenants.
"We're waiting to see
how the government will react to this, in view of the
central bank's
onslaught against inflation," a furious businessman told The
Financial
Gazette.
Tenants saw the rental hikes as an attempt to sabotage government's
efforts
to fight inflation.
Most said they had not been increasing prices
due to the government ban on
price hikes and were only reviewing prices in
line with approvals by the
National Incomes and Pricing Commission.
"They
(Mkushi's property companies) are renting offices in town and demanded
Richard Ellis to reduce rentals in July in line with the government's price
blitz but have not done the same for their tenants, despite appeals. In
fact, they tell us to go wherever we want and indeed the Rent Board refused
to act on our issue last time we raised a complaint," a tenant at one of
Mkushi's properties said.
A manager at Richard Ellis, a property
evaluator and estate agent, confirmed
having reduced rentals for the 11th
floor of Social Security Centre, the
office premises rented by Mkushi's law
firm, Sawyer & Mkushi Legal
Practitioners, and housing his property
companies.
But he refused to discuss details.
Rentals for eight shops at
Strathaven Shopping Centre went up from $9.2
million per month per shop,
effected in July despite the government ban, to
$650 million per month per
shop with effect from Thursday last week.
Properties at the same center
managed by Richard Ellis with the same sizes
as those owned by Mkushi are
attracting rentals lower than $9.2 million per
month.
Mkushi also owns a
block of flats, Sao Paulo in the Avenues area, which are
used as offices, as
well as in Greendale and Norton, some 25 kilometres
outside the
capital.
The letters announcing the rent hikes were served on the tenants on
Tuesday
last week.
Mkushi was unavailable for a comment when contacted at
his offices.
His personal assistant said he would return calls after his
scheduled trip
to the USA.
FinGaz
Matters Legal with
Vote Muza
This week I begin the discussion by tendering an apology for
having
incorrectly advised in last week's article that the Indigenisation
and
Empowerment Act does not provide for a right of appeal.
Section
20, short as it is, lays down the steps that an aggrieved person can
take in
pursuit of recourse. Thus, within 30 days from the date one gets
notified of
the Minister's disapproval of a deal, one may lodge an appeal
with the
Administrative court. Such noting of an appeal shall not, pending
determination of the appeal, suspend the decision appealed
against.
Circumstances giving rise to an appeal needs to be further unpacked.
First,
an appeal can only occur pursuant to a Ministerial disapproval of a
deal.
Secondly, an aggrieved party can only be a foreign owned business or
an
indigenous person or organisation. What can the Minister say no to? An
empowerment deal can be disapproved if it is phoney, deceitful or not in
compliance with a maximum percentage of equity required by law. Further, a
deal can be turned down merely on the basis that the Minister is unhappy
with the indigenous partner settled for by a foreign business. The appeal
process therefore facilitates in reversing biased or corrupt Ministerial
decisions.
Section 7 of the Act establishes the National Indigenisation
and Economic
Empowerment Board. Five functions are there to be served by
this Board and
these are;
u to advise the Minister on indigenisation
strategies.
u to advise the Minister on measures for implementation of the
objectives of
the Act
u to administer the empowerment fund
u to
oversee compliance with the empowerment charter.
The first two functions are
materially similar and I am clueless as to why
Parliament saw it necessary
to spend taxpayer's money on an organisation
with such narrow functions.
This Board shall be made up of seven members and
it has power to appoint a
Chief Executive Officer. As is the case with many
local statutes, the
Minister is empowered to appoint "after consultation
with the President"
members of this board. One sees here, an opportunity
created for the
Minister to reward praise singers, cronies, patronage
seeking deadwood,
relatives and other beneficiaries of tribalism and
nepotism.
Because
affirmative action is a national project that is meant to benefit
everyone
without regard to gender, tribe or political affiliation, a
representative
body like this one must be constituted by people from all
political
persuasions. It would therefore have been ideal for these Board
members to
be appointed by the Minister in consultation with Parliament and
not the
President. Such a process would ensure transparency and avoid the
usual
"jobs for friends" that has become the hallmark of government and the
ruling
party in recent years.
One major aspect of the Act is found under Section 12
and this is the
National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
Fund.
The major purposes of this fund are to finance share acquisitions, as
well
as to assist employees to get into share schemes. Various methods are
provided for to boost this fund's coffers. For example, an Act of Parliament
may provide that money shall be appropriated from treasury for purposes of
the fund. Donations, loans and other forms of financial assistance may also
be offered to this body. The most notable and controversial form of fund
raising is that of levies, provided under Section 14 (c).
A Statutory
Instrument may be created to provide for matters of relating to
the levy,
and such matters involve, the persons responsible for payment, and
for
collection, the manner and times at which the levy shall be paid,
collected
and remitted, the period the levy shall be imposed and imposition
of
interest or surcharges for late payments. Payments of levies shall only
be
restricted to businesses and not natural individuals. Worth to note is
that
this special statutory instrument shall be presented before and
approved by
a resolution of Parliament.
Whether this fund will be put to good use that
benefits our national economy
remains to be seen? In order to put the
affairs of this fund under constant
check, the Act should have provided that
regular reports be presented to
Parliament, and not to the Minister. The
cases of the National Social
Security Fund, as well as the National Aids
Council, that administer the
Aids levy, and where funds have only benefited
top management make me have
doubts about whether this empowerment fund shall
serve any meaningful
purpose other than to fatten the pockets of those
running it.
I also note that several businesses that shall be required to
comply with
the Act are registered in foreign lands. It follows therefore
that any
changes in shareholding and any consequent payment for shares shall
have to
be in the form of foreign currency. Since the Act is silent on the
issue of
foreign currency, and importantly how the fund shall raise it, I am
again
clueless as to how locals shall be expected to raise millions in
foreign
currency to purchase stakes?
It is my considered view that since
foreign currency is a central issue in
many acquisitions of foreign
businesses, it is imperative that pragmatic
mechanisms are put in place to
ensure that locals intending to partner
foreigners have easy access to hard
currency. Since our economy is presently
in the doldrums and unable to
generate much needed foreign currency, I doubt
that many empowerment deals
shall easily succeed.
muzalaw@yahoo.co.uk
Financial Gazette
(Harare)
8 November 2007
Posted to the web 8 November
2007
Shame Makoshori
Harare
STATE-RUN National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe (Noczim) has tightened the screws
on leakages in the petroleum
industry that have led to exhorbitant fuel
price on the parallel market by
introducing a new arrangement, which will
put all fuel payments under the
microscope.
Details of the new arrangement sent to 49 oil companies by
Noczim chief
executive officer Zvinechimwe Churu suggest a marked departure
from the
laisez-faire manner in which the sector had previously operated to
a tighter
regime in which the parastatal will poke its nose into the banking
details
of industry players.
Churu informed the oil companies
that Noczim had reached an agreement with
Stanbic Bank, a subsidiary of
Standard Bank of South Africa, for them to
operate special Foreign Currency
Accounts (FCAs) that would be administered
by the state-run
parastatal.
Each company will administer its own account and provide
weekly schedules to
Noczim showing the product and volumes required paid for
by their respective
customers.
The oil companies will look for
suppliers of fuel while Stanbic would effect
payments to the suppliers upon
instruction by Noczim.
Companies purchasing fuel will deposit the total
foreign currency price into
the oil importer's FCA and after making their
reconciliations, the suppliers
would be required to deliver the fuel. Noczim
would be advised of the
quantities of the product required and the total
amount transferred into the
FCA.
In a letter addressed to the 49
companies on September 5, Noczim boss Churu
said companies had to comply
with the arrangements to increase oil supplies
and save the failing
economy.
"Please may you ensure that you comply with this arrangement and
ensure the
nation gets the much needed fuel," Churu said.
Among the
companies that have signed the Stanbic deal include Bioil,
BP/Shell
Marketing, Comoil, Cost Oil, Duze Oil, Nerryy Investments, Paroan
Trucking,
Warengate, Country Petroleum, Power Fuels and Total Zimbabwe.
While the
new arrangement looks good on paper, it means that industry
players would
have to walk a straight corporate governance line.
Most oil companies had
become dependent on the illegal foreign currency
market and the so-called
free funds to keep their customers going. A heavy
lid had always been kept
on these transactions, which will now be lifted
once Noczim starts to comb
through their FCAs.
Analysts fear that unless Noczim facilitates the
sourcing of foreign
currency at the official price, some oil companies might
fall by the
wayside, worsening the chronic petrol and diesel shortages in
the country.
The new arrangement, they said, has all the ingredients of
strenuous
monitoring and proper administration although it lacks details on
how fuel
imports would be financed.
Captains of the industry told The
Financial Gazette this week that they were
sourcing their fuel requirements
from the parallel market.
"We are buying from the open market at the
ruling price of $1 million per
litre," Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
president Callisto Jokonya
said. "I do not want to call it a parallel market
(but) we need to behave
correctly if we are to get fuel because at
government's prices we will not
get anything. We need to appreciate the
tools of demand and supply," he
added.
International oil prices where
rampaging last week, reaching US$96 per
barrel at a period when Zimbabwe is
battling with acute shortages of foreign
currency.
Most oil companies
had not been purchasing new stocks due to biting foreign
currency
shortages.
They would certainly require substantial aid to kick-start
operations.
Reports of MDC divisions exaggerrated
EDITOR-The worsening
economic crisis and its effect on the ordinary
Zimbabwean was the major
issue that came up for discussion at the MDC
national executive meeting on
Saturday.
Contrary to wishful media reports of a fall-out within the ranks of
the MDC,
there was consensus on all the matters that were up for discussion,
including the issue of the Women's Assembly. The MDC national executive set
aside discussion on this matter until the national chairman gives a
comprehensive report on what transpired at the extra-ordinary Women's
Congress in Bulawayo. Media reports of cracks within the MDC represent the
fanciful delusions of the regime and its surrogates who are working overtime
to plot and sponsor confusion within the democratic movement. We note with
concern the deliberate efforts to tarnish, to malign and to soil the image
of President Morgan Tsvangirai and other leaders in the party. The MDC shall
not be swayed into an unnecessary side-show, which is intended to divert
attention from the real issues affecting the ordinary man and woman.
The
MDC has never preoccupied itself with individuals but with issues. We
are a
united family of democrats and we have openly debated our issues. This
frankness and open debate has kept alive the internal democracy that we will
continue to nurture and protect.
On Saturday, the national executive
members expressed their concern over the
plight of the ordinary Zimbabwean
in light of the worsening economic crisis.
The national executive spent time
deliberating on the crisis facing the
country as well as the continued
violence against the MDC and the civic
movement, which continued to work
against the spirit of the dialogue
currently taking place in South
Africa.
The MDC remains resolute and firm on its founding principles of open
debate
and dialogue. We remain alive to our national obligation to be the
midwives
in delivering a new Zimbabwe with jobs, food, health and education.
We are
pre-occupied with pressing national issues and our responsibility to
deliver
a new Zimbabwe.
It is against this background that the national
executive immediately went
into a retreat to debate and polish up the
party's policies and programmes.
Our policies are a clear testimony that we
have solutions to the current
crisis. The MDC's policies provide the answers
to key challenges in the
economy, in health, in mining and in education. We
have workable policies
and programmes that can rescue the economy and
restore our lost dignity as a
nation and as a people.
We have to recover
the lost years and usher in a new era of tolerance and
hope. We have to
start afresh as a nation. We have to rebuild the economy
and bring back the
lost glory and pride of being a Zimbabwean.
We call upon Zimbabweans to watch
out for false reports that are intended to
derail the party and the
democratic movement. The machinations of those who
have a death-wish for the
MDC and its leaders will continue to fail. The MDC
remains a united family
of committed people who want to see meaningful
change in this country. The
nation should be wary of the invisible external
hand that will always seek
to sow confusion among us.
A New Zimbabwe, a new beginning. Now is the
time!!
Nelson Chamisa,
MP (MDC)
Harare
----------
MDC can
still redeem its lost dignity
EDITOR-The MDC - even though it
has made a serious error in dining with the
treacherous ZANU PF - can still
redeem its lost dignity by pulling out of
the talks with ZANU PF.
The
previous several fatal and near fatal attacks on its members can be used
as
reasonable grounds for withdrawal from the talks. Zimbabwe does not owe
its
allegiance to anyone - including the SA despot Mbeki [Read the Sunday
Times
(SA) for any information regarding this wannabe-never be Madiba].
We know how
Mbeki has failed to follow in the footsteps of our black hero
Madiba by
wanting to silence the media.
In this respect, I agree with a Fingaz writer
who questioned the
practicality of being umpired by a biased referee.
Mbeki's credibility has
become highly questionable. It's like appointing a
schizophrenic person as
mediator. After all, anyone who appoints a drunkard
to his or her cabinet
should seek psychiatric help.
The suggested
abolition of executive mayoral posts by ZANU PF is a new
strategy to counter
the fact that they will lose mayoral polls to the MDC.
The opposition should
not take part in those talks because they are giving
everything but
receiving nothing. They should also beware of ZANU PF trying
to tie those
amendments to something all democratic forces want such as
media laws
amendment. The fact that up to now there is only one TV channel
and one
daily newspaper churning out ZANU PF propaganda is another aspect,
which
should be used to justify the MDC's withdrawal from the talks.
If they decide
to open up the media towards elections then it will be too
late because
justice delayed is justice denied. Morgan Tsvangirai should
call a press
conference this week and announce the withdrawal from the talks
because we
are not gaining anything.
On another note I hope too that as the MDC name
implies there should not be
an imposition of leaders in the party. Matibenga
should be given a chance to
be elected or rejected via a democratic process,
and not be sidelined by
bedroom politics.
The fact that people support
someone does not mean that we also share the
same political views with their
wife.
Tariro
Harare
---------------
Urban Councils Act needs
overhaul
EDITOR-The Minister of Local Government, Public
Works and Urban Development
Ignatius Chombo has announced governments' plans
to amend the Urban Councils
Act (UCA) Chapter 29:15 and remove the post of
Executive Mayors. The plan
has also been endorsed by the ZANU PF central
committee recently.
Presenting his report to Parliament Minister Chombo
argued that there was no
tangible evidence to show an improvement in the
quality of service delivery
offered by local authorities since the Mayors
came into being.
The post of Executive Mayor was created in 1995 following a
repeal of the
act that established the UCA 29:15. The government argued then
it was
creating the post of the executive mayor in response to the continued
deterioration of service delivery in local urban councils. The mayor was
supposed to be the point person in the management of services for local
authorities. He/she would manage the urban council and would shoulder the
responsibility of making sure that quality services are provided. Sadly,
local authorities have not been left to operate and independently implement
programmes without interference from central government.
The Ministry of
Local Government has continued to meddle in the affairs of
local
authorities. The MDC controlled 12 mayoral posts by 2002 but it now
has
eight. Three from Harare, Chitungwiza and Mutare were unlawfully
dismissed
on charges of incompetence. The other post was lost in a
by-election. The
government had earlier targeted to control urban voters
through mayors and
to consolidate its hold on power but as the influence of
the opposition grew
so did its interference. Local authorities thus failed
to perform their
duties owing to failure to implement development
programmes.
The Combined
Harare Residents Association (CHRA) thus views the move to
change the Urban
Council's Act 29:15 to scrap mayoral posts as lacking
strategy. The removal
of mayoral posts will not improve service delivery in
Harare or any other
local authority. The Association is also against the
repeal and continued
piecemeal amendments of UCA 29:15.
In view of the continued downward trend in
the quality of municipal services
CHRA recommends a holistic overhaul of the
Urban Councils Act (Chapter
29:15) as opposed to piecemeal amendments. The
act in its current form has a
lot of structural defects and weaknesses. It
gives the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and Urban Development
sweeping powers to interfere
with local authorities. It leaves room for
manipulation to feed into party
political interests.
The association is
committed to the reform of local governance in Zimbabwe.
This shall be done
through advocacy directed at the Parliament of Zimbabwe,
the Ministerial
Cabinet and various stakeholders interested in the
development of local
governance. CHRA will continue mobilizing residents and
conscientising them
on their civic rights and how to demand them. CHRA
continues to advocate for
enhanced civic participation in matters of local
governance.
Farai
Barnabas Mangodza
Chief Executive Officer,
Combined Harare Residents
Association
-------------
Parks and Wild
fines!
Editor-The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority's
fishing permit charges
during the past month were $200 000 per day, $1 500
000 per week and $4 000
000 per month.
It deliberately disregards the
charges laid down in its own regulations
(Statutory Instrument 94 of 2007)
which are only $10 000 per day, $50 000
per week and $150 000 per
month.
It is plainly guilty of illegal profiteering. As a result thousands of
ordinary people in the rural areas are being deprived of the chance to
supplement their meagre diets through fishing. The Authority even imposes
illegal fines over and above these illegal permit charges, on
fishermen.
The responsible officials should be ashamed of
themselves.
M. Nicholas
HARARE