VOA
By Arthur
Chigoriwo
Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe
20 October
2005
Movement for Democratic Change President Morgan Tsvangirai
appears to be
gaining the upper hand over other top officials of the
Zimbabwean opposition
party who have broken with him over whether to contest
or boycott a November
26 senate election.
Mr. Tsvangirai seemed to
have been put on the defensive on Wednesday when
MDC Vice President Gibson
Sibanda issued a a statement accusing his party
chief of having "willfully
violated" the party constitution. Mr. Tsvangirai
on Oct. 12 overrode a vote
by the MDC National Council in favor of fielding
candidates in the senate
poll.
But over the following 24 hours, Mr. Sibanda and four other top
officials
lined up against Mr. Tsvangirai, including MDC Secretary General
Welshman
Ncube, have maintained public silence, though party sources
confirmed that
its members had sought a meeting Thursday with Mr.
Tsvangirai, which he
declined.
Mr. Tsvangirai told VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe he is prepared to meet the
members of the opposing faction on
Friday, potentially setting up a
confrontation between the leadership
factions or, more favorably, a
resolution of their
disagreement.
Meanwhile, Mr. Tsvangirai has been building his support
among MDC provincial
offices. On Wednesday he had the backing of eight out
of 12 provinces, and
by late Thursday he had brought the Midlands North
province on board and was
believed to have claimed Matabaleleland North,
which would make 10 of 12
provinces.
Should Matabeleland North fall
into line, that would leave only Matabeleland
South and Bulawayo provinces
on the outs with the former trade union leader.
MDC grass roots opinion
seems strongly behind Mr. Tsvangirai's position that
the party must boycott
elections for the senate. The upper house was
re-instituted by the ruling
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
via constitutional
amendments that it rammed through parliament in August
using its two-thirds
lower house majority.
E-mails received by VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
have been overwhelmingly
opposed to participation in the senate election and
in support of Mr.
Tsvangirai.
"I write to urge MDC supporters not to
be hoodwinked into participating in
the forthcoming senatorial elections,"
wrote one listener. "Those in the MDC
who are agitating for participation
know that these elections are
meaningless."
In Mashonaland West, one
of the provinces to rally around Mr. Tsvangirai,
local leaders suspended two
officials for insubordination - both aligned
with those pushing for the
party to field senate candidates. The local party
leader ordered members not
to submit any candidate names to the nomination
court meeting next
week.
Correspondent Arthur Chigoriwo filed a report from Chinhoyi,
Mashonaland
West.
Two of the three MDC provincial offices in
Matabeleland continued to oppose
Mr. Tsvangirai: Matabeleland South and
Bulawayo.
In Bulawayo, the capital of Matabeleland, party officials said
they have the
funds to contest the senate elections without help from party
headquarters.
Bulawayo province spokesman Victor Moyo told reporter Chris
Gande of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the provincial branch will hold
primary elections
next week.
Despite the intensification of the party
schism, those opposing Mr.
Tsvangirai even late Wednesday were positioning
themselves to strike a
compromise with him.
Studio 7 reporter
Blessing Zulu spoke with Percy Makombe, a political
analyst based at
Leicester university in Britain, about the upheaval within
Zimbabwe's
opposition.
Other political analysts say the wrangle has distracted the
party from the
real issues associated with the re-institution of the
senate.
University of Zimbabwe senior lecturer John Makumbe said the MDC
has been
playing into the ruling party's hands by giving the senate race
attention it
does not deserve.
Reporter Carole Gombakomba spoke with
Dr. Makumbe and Dr. Lovemore Madhuku,
chairman of the National
Constitutional Assembly, who said the fact that Mr.
Sibanda did not
personally sign his Wednesday broadside should not obscure
the issues.
Zim Online
Thur 20 October 2005
HARARE - Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
governor Gideon Gono on Thursday
relaxed foreign exchange controls by
re-introducing the interbank market for
foreign currency in a bid to improve
official foreign currency inflows and
end a thriving black
market.
Gono said with immediate effect, exporters would now
surrender 70
percent of their proceeds onto the interbank market, and would
have up to 30
days to hold on to the foreign currency after which it would
be sold on the
prevailing interbank rate.
He however maintained
that the central bank managed auctions, which
have failed to end persistent
foreign currency shortages, would continue to
operate, with exporters
selling 30 percent of their earnings on that market.
Foreign
currency shortages highlight Zimbabwe's worst economic crisis
since
independence in 1980, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), once
a key
lender to Harare, says the country's economy is now the worst
performing in
the world.
"Through authorised dealers, exporters can sell their
foreign exchange
in FCA balances, at a market-determined rate on the
interbank market," Gono
said in a televised speech during a monetary policy
review presentation.
Individual foreign currency
holders, non-governmental organisations,
embassies and Zimbabweans abroad
will also sell their foreign currency on
the interbank market.
The bold move by Gono seemed to have been driven by pressure from the
IMF
and local industry, which have called on the government to ease its
exchange
controls.
Foreign exchange shortages have fuelled a thriving black
market where
the local currency is trading at three times the official rate.
The Zimbabwe
dollar was trading at 26 004 to one greenback at the auctions
on Thursday
compared to around 90 000 on the black market.
Gono
predicted that the auction rate would converge with the market
determined
interbank rate in December 2006.
He however said export earnings
were expected to decline by 6.4
percent to $1.58 billion this year saying a
resurgence in inflation had
undermined exporter viability.
The
RBZ chief revised the target for annual inflation, which the
government has
declared number one enemy, to between 280 and 300 percent
from a previous
target forecast of 50 and 80 percent.
Gono cited excessive money
supply due to high government borrowing,
sharp price hikes and black market
trading in commodities and foreign
exchange for fuelling
inflation.
He said he would continue to review interest rates to
curb speculative
borrowing and inflation. The rate at which banks borrow
from the central
bank was hiked to 415 percent from 405
percent.
Inflation hit a record 624 percent last year in January
and although
private economists say it could creep back to that peak soon,
Gono said the
central bank would bring down inflation to single digit
figures by March
2007.
Gono said the country's external debt
was up 0.8 percent to $4.1
billion in the first nine months of 2005 as
Zimbabwe battles with foreign
currency shortages.
The shortages
worsened after international donors, led by the IMF,
withheld balance of
payment support in 1999 over policy differences with
Zimbabwe, such as the
seizure of white-owned farms to resettle blacks.
Government debt
accounted for 76 percent of the country's total debt,
with public
enterprises accounting for 21 percent and the private sector
making up the
remainder.
Zimbabwe last month averted expulsion from the IMF after
a surprise
last minute $120 million payment earned the country a six-month
reprieve but
critics have queried the source of the funds, forcing the IMF
to announce
that it would send a team to verify the source of the
funds.
Gono's speech was however silent on how the government plans
to end
the current fuel crisis. - ZimOnline
Reuters
Thu
Oct 20, 2005 2:14 PM BST
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe is to remove 700
families who settled illegally
near Gonarezhou National Park, the country's
second largest game reserve, to
make way for a planned transfrontier
regional park.
The official Herald newspaper said on Thursday the
families were among 5,000
people "irregularly settled" on farms throughout
southern Masvingo province,
including hundreds of families living on
wildlife conservancies.
The families moved into the area about five years
ago at the height of
illegal land invasions during the government's forcible
redistribution of
white-owned farms to blacks.
"About 700 families
illegally settled on a swathe of land adjacent to the
Gonarezhou National
Park ... will soon be relocated ... to pave way for the
planned Great
Limpopo Transfrontier Park," the Herald said.
It did not say where or
when they would be moved, and government and
wildlife officials were not
immediately reachable for comment.
Gonarezhou National Park in
southeastern Zimbabwe is expected to soon merge
with Limpopo National Park
in Mozambique and South Africa's Kruger National
Park to form a large
transfrontier park in a bid to attract more foreign
tourists.
Gonarezhou, perched on Zimbabwe's southeast border with
Mozambique, is home
to elephants, lions, giraffes, zebras, buffaloes and the
Nyala antelope.
International Herald Tribune
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2005
President Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe went to Rome for the meeting of
the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization this week. As he usually does
whenever he manages to elude
sanctions that restrict his travels to Europe
and America, he let loose at
George W. Bush and Tony Blair, likening them to
Hitler and Mussolini and
blaming them for all of Zimbabwe's woes.
While he spoke, armed
bandits back in Zimbabwe were raiding potato
farms, and opposition leaders
were drumming up support for a boycott of
Senate elections next month. In
addition, aid agencies say 4 million of
Zimbabwe's 11.5 million people are
facing famine.
Mugabe's response has been to raze squatter camps
around Harare,
driving hundreds of thousands of the destitute into greater
misery. The
United Nations has called that a "catastrophic injustice."
Mugabe has called
criticism of the destruction "blatant interference."
Zimbabweans are not
hungry, he said - they just can't eat their favorite
foods.
Clearly, the Food and Agriculture Organization can allow
anyone it
wants to attend its World Food Day ceremony in Rome. The United
Nations and
its agencies must remain ecumenical and open. And the occasional
appearance
by Mugabe does help remind the world that the 81-year-old tyrant
is still
around, still blaming colonialists, neocolonialists, racists and
everybody
else for his country's suffering, still fixing elections and
hounding his
opponents.
There was a time when Mugabe's
credentials as a fighter against
white-minority rule earned him respect.
That time is long gone. He is a
millstone around the neck of one of Africa's
best endowed lands. Who says
so? The South African archbishop Desmond Tutu,
who has said Mugabe is a
"caricature of an African dictator"; Kenneth Kaunda
of Zambia, who has
called on Mugabe to stop "fighting colonialist ghosts";
the
Nobel-Prize-winning writer Wole Soyinka, who has labeled Mugabe's regime
"a
disgrace to the continent."
Mugabe has run Zimbabwe for a
quarter of a century, crushing every
attempt to dislodge him, so there's
little point in urging him to heed his
fellow Africans. But there is every
reason to support the opposition in its
brave efforts to oust Mugabe's
clique, and to assure the suffering people of
Zimbabwe that the world has
not forgotten them.
News24
20/10/2005 18:09 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe will have a new currency next year, the
central bank
governor announced on Thursday.
In a statement broadcast
live on state radio, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Governor Gideon Gono said the
new currency would be unveiled in 2006 "at a
date to be
announced".
He called on members of the public to "hold cash sparingly"
so as not to be
caught out by authorities when the new notes are
introduced.
Zimbabwe currently uses a temporary currency called bearer
cheques - high
denomination notes introduced two years ago to ease chronic
cash shortages.
The notes bear an expiry date of December 31
2005.
However, even the highest denomination bearer cheques of Zim$20 000
(US76c)
are struggling to keep up with spiralling price increases. Annual
inflation
is running close to 360%.
Sapa-dpa
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily Mirror
Reporter
issue date :2005-Oct-21
HARARE is operating with only a third
of the required fleet to collect
refuse, resulting in some areas going for
two months without garbage being
collected, because council coffers are
dry.
City of Harare spokesperson Leslie Gwindi told The Daily Mirror that the
municipality had just about 24 refuse vehicles working, instead of at least
70 to efficiently collect rubbish on time.
Harare's finances are in the
red; a situation that militated against
provision of essential services to
ratepayers, in addition to failing to
acquire adequate vehicles and spare
parts.
He said: "As we have said before, there are about 24 refuse collection
vehicles that are functional at the moment instead of at least 70 needed for
things to be normal. The fuel problems have also worsened the
situation."
In a related development, Gwindi said council had since started
clearing
rubble and refuse in Mbare high-density suburb as part of efforts
to
clean-up one of Zimbabwe's oldest residential areas
"We have started
removing all the pile of garbage and rubble in Mbare. We
would soon be
moving to other areas," he said.
On the issue of the capital's 2006 budget,
Gwindi said consultations among
departmental heads were still going
on.
But he could not commit himself to whether council would be able to meet
the
October 31 deadline set by government for local authorities to have
submitted their budgets.
"The various heads are still making
consultations and we will also have to
consult residents afterwards," he
said.
"I am not sure whether we will be able to meet the deadline although
everything possible is being done." Last week, council approved a
supplementary budget for 2005 precipitated by a sharp increase in inflation,
now pegged at 365 percent.
Council has also proposed to increase tariffs
quarterly, given the
prevailing hyperinflation in the country.
FinGaz
Nelson Banya
Ten provinces resolve
to boycott Senate elections
SA, European powers sucked into plot to oust
Tsvangirai. MOVEMENT for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai
yesterday appeared to
regain control of the party after last week's serious
fallout over the
forthcoming senatorial elections, with 10 provinces now
expected to boycott
next month's poll.
Four provinces that had last
week resolved to participate in the November 26
election, yesterday turned
around and aligned themselves with Tsvangirai,
whose decision to override
last Wednesday's national council vote to
participate in the poll sparked
the worst crisis to hit the six-year-old
party. Matabeleland North, Midlands
North and South as well as Manicaland -
the scene of violent intra-party
clashes this week - now look set to join
Harare, Chitungwiza, Mashonaland
Central, East and West and Masvingo in
boycotting the election and are
unlikely to send any candidates to Monday's
decisive nomination
proceedings.
Although most provincial leaders interviewed last night
declined to commit
themselves on the contentious issue, indications were
that most were
buckling under pressure from the districts, which were
backing Tsvangirai's
decision to boycott the polls.
Patrick Kombayi,
publicity secretary in the Midlands South province, last
night said the
province's eight districts had resolved to rescind the
decision made by
their chairman Lyson Mlambo at the council meeting.
"The MDC Midlands
South province with its eigth districts unanimously agreed
and resolved that
we will not take part in the senatorial elections. It was
also resolved that
the province is solidly behind president Morgan
Tsvangirai," Kombayi
said.
The MDC's key ally, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
yesterday
threw its weight behind Tsvangirai, with labour leader Lovemore
Matombo
saying the congress did "not support the Senate
elections."
"As the ZCTU leadership, we agreed that there is no genuine
desire by the
current establishment to create a beneficial Senate," Matombo
said.
As indications increased that its rebellion was crumbling, a faction
led by
party vice president Gibson Sibanda and secretary general Welshman
Ncube,
which is agitating for the MDC's participation, yesterday issued a
stinging
statement accusing Tsvangirai of "willfully violating the MDC
constitution."
The faction, which had scheduled a mid-morning press
conference at a city
hotel yesterday, was forced to retreat after Tsvangirai
summoned Sibanda for
an emergency meeting.
Although Sibanda, who
briefly addressed journalists in the company of party
spokesperson Paul
Themba Nyathi, said the party would call another press
conference after a
meeting of the management committee, the meeting never
took place.
"The
president called and we discussed the crisis that the party is facing
and
after outlining the issues, we agreed to meet as elected officers of
congress. We will meet this afternoon," Sibanda said.
As it emerged
that the meeting was unlikely to take place, Nyathi told The
Financial
Gazette that it was still scheduled.
"They are still waiting for others who
aren't here, but it will take place,"
Nyathi said.
Ncube, on the other
hand, said he had "absolutely no idea" if the meeting
was to take place,
referring questions to Sibanda. "The vice president is
coordinating
that."
However, the meeting did not take place, with Sibanda reportedly
telling
Tsvangirai that he could not locate two members of the management
committee - deputy secretary general Gift Chimanikire and treasurer-general
Fletcher Dulini-Ncube. Although the two were reported to have left town
early in the afternoon, Dulini-Ncube was spotted in the company of Sibanda,
Ncube and Pumula-Luveve MP Esaph Mdlongwa at another city hotel.
A
statement issued last night by the MDC information department and bore
Sibanda's name said the current crisis in the MDC was "the culmination of
sad events in the party since the beginning of the year."
"The first
incident occurred when a certain section of the party sponsored
some unruly
youths to engage in violent activities against senior national
and
provincial executive members of the party.
"An inquiry was conducted and it
revealed the close involvement of the
president's office, culminating in
national council taking a resolution to
expel these youths from the party.
The national council also resolved to
dismiss Washington Gaga and Nhamo
Musekiwa, who were working as bodyguards
in the president's office, after
they were found to have been responsible
for coordinating the violent
activities of these two officers."
The statement further stated that
officers in Tsvangirai's office who had
been implicated in the violent
activities "seem to have been protected by
the president.
Although
the statement fell short of making a declaration, it accused
Tsvangirai of
going back on his word that he and everyone else should
respect the outcome
of the voting process in council. It also accused
Tsvangirai of
misrepresenting the outcome of the council meeting violating
the party's
constitution, which he was supposed to uphold and defend.
"The MDC was
founded on principles which include democracy, freedom,
transparency and
justice. The party is determined to uphold these principles
and values and
will not allow one person or a group of persons to destroy
them," Sibanda
said.
However, Tsvangirai's office dismissed the allegations contained in
the
statement as false.
"Mr. Tsvangirai suspects that the document in
circulation is a fraud. The
vice president was in town and met the
president. They discussed many things
and no mention was made by the vice
president of the contents of the said
document. What makes the document more
suspicious is that it is signed by
another person other than Mr. Sibanda
himself. The president believes there
are some people in the party and
elsewhere who are up to mischief,
generating various documents purporting to
amplify a position made in good
faith by senior members of the party in
favour of participating in the
senate elections. These were divergent views
which do not, in any way, mean
that the party is in danger," Tsvangirai's
spokesperson William Bango said.
However, MDC insiders this week drew a
trail of events that suggested the
existence of bad blood between
Tsvangirai, on the one hand, and the rest of
the management committee, on
the other.
"Was the senate election really the issue? Is there more to
this debacle
than what is on the surface? A pattern of developments in the
party since
his (Tsvangirai's) arrest for treason in 2002 shows a clear
determination to
undermine him and make him irrelevant to the political
process.
"You remember Ncube and Sibanda moving the main communications
center for
the 2005 election to Bulawayo without his (Tsvangirai's)
knowledge? Before
then, the argument that the party election campaign should
be launched in
Bulawayo.
Tsvangirai put his foot down and insisted on
Masvingo for the launch. He was
punished for it. The treasury refused to
release the money, about $200
million. Tsvangirai had to find money and the
launch went ahead. You
remember Gibson and Gonese going to State House
without his knowledge? You
remember David Coltart putting in a draft
constitution, which only Gibson,
Welshman, Gonese and a few others had seen,
when Amendment Number 17 was put
in Parliament without Tsvangirai's
knowledge. Tsvangirai ordered that the
draft be withdrawn and that was done,
but enough damage had already been
made", said a party insider.
Other
sources within the beleaguered party said this was nothing more than a
power
game as the draft had a clause which stated that a President should
have an
earned university degree, not an honorary. Tsvangirai was the target
they
said adding that some in the leadership wanted to test Tsvangirai's
"power
and resolve, in a dry ruin just before congress. The senate nonsense
just
became the setting".
They blamed this on a plot allegedly hatched with
the connivance of "some
western governments, the South Africans and
influential players in business
and the NGO community", to sideline
Tsvangirai and create a coalition of
those considered reasonable between
some senior MDC officials and a
progressive wing in ZANU PF.
"There
is a ZANU PF dimension to what is going on. Both factions in ZANU PF
hate
Tsvangirai with a passion, he seems to be a stumbling block to a number
of
things. The group in the MDC wants to work with either faction in ZANU PF
but find Tsvangirai as a problem because he pursues a simple political
philosophy that shuns the boardroom and promotes a mass-line approach. His
popularity has to do with that approach, which tends to put ordinary people
at the forefront", another source said.
According to the sources the
ZANU PF dimension was interesting in other
respects. It sucked in foreign
governments and key players in the business
and NGO community. Way back in
2002, they said, there were concerted efforts
and funding for an alternative
leadership of the MDC. The argument then was
that a solution was not
possible in Zimbabwe because (President Robert)
Mugabe and Tsvangirai could
never be brought together. The best way out was
therefore to find a
coalition of the reasonable from both ZANU PF and the
MDC and create an
acceptable regime. The MDC would be the junior partner in
that arrangement,
holding the office of the prime minister.
"Those for this argument caused
Tsvangirai, at the middle of his trial, to
allow Welshman Ncube to talk to
(Justice Minister Patrick) Chinamasa as
suggested by South Africa with the
blessing of (President) Mugabe. Mugabe
even praised Ncube as a reasonable
man in one of his speeches, compared to
Tsvangirai," the source
said.
Ncube and Chinamasa went on to agree and sign a document proposing
constitutional changes in which the post of prime minister was one.
Tsvangirai is understood to have taken Ncube to task over why he had already
signed an agreement with Chinamasa without putting it either to the national
executive, the national council or himself first.
The agreement had other
contentious issues, which Tsvangirai felt were not
well thought out and
could plunge the party and Zimbabwe into problems.
"In addition, there
were forays by (ZANU PF stalwart Emmerson) Mnangagwa and
(retired general
Vitalis) Zvinavashe, using colonel Lionel Dyke, but what is
of interest is
that the South Africans, the British and some European
countries were keen
to see this coalition of the reasonable taking over
power, with a sanitised
ZANU PF party largely in charge."
FinGaz
Charles Rukuni
BULAWAYO -
The rift within the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
continued to widen
this week with the three Matabeleland provinces vowing to
contest the Senate
elections scheduled for November 26.
Bulawayo province said it would not
meet party president Morgan Tsvangirai,
who is on a countrywide tour to
persuade his followers to boycott the
elections, unless he came with an open
mind.
It has also emerged that the rift is not just over the Senate
elections, but
is really about who controls the party, as it prepares for
its congress
scheduled for January or February next year.
The party's
national council last week voted 33 for and 31 against
participating in the
elections, but Tsvangirai said the party had voted
50-50 and he had cast his
vote against participation in what party officials
say is a
sham.
Those against participating in the elections argue that the
elections are an
unnecessary expense, which the country cannot afford and
say the money being
spent on the elections could be better utilised to buy
food or to increase
the salaries of civil servants.
Those who want to
participate say the decision of the national council is
binding so they have
to contest the elections. They also argue that they do
not want to concede
any ground to the ruling party in their strongholds.
"We do not want to
give ZANU PF any ground where we feel we will win,"
Victor Moyo, publicity
secretary for Bulawayo Province, said.
"There is a 90 percent chance that
we will win elections in Matabeleland
provinces, so we do not want to give
ZANU PF any foothold in our
strongholds. They will start making inroads once
we allow them in."
Sources, however, said the rift within the MDC was not
just about the Senate
elections.
"There is really a bigger issue," a
party insider said. "The party congress
is coming up so people are trying to
see who has the support and who is
going to be the leader of the
party."
The congress is scheduled for January or February next year.
Sources,
however, say under the party constitution there must be three
months notice
before the congress, which rules out
January.
Tsvangirai's future is therefore, uncertain because if his
boycott call
fails, it shows he is no longer in control of the party. But at
the same
time, party leaders from Matabeleland were also aware that a leader
could
not come from the region if they wanted to maintain their national
identity.
Political observers also said the rift within the MDC was a
blessing for
ZANU PF, which is fanning the division through the
state-controlled media,
as any split in the MDC would rob the country of its
most formidable
opposition group.
Monday, October 24, is therefore
D-day for the MDC, as it will determine who
rules the roost in the party, as
it is nomination day for the Senate seats.
FinGaz
Njabulo
Ncube
AS confusion and turmoil raged within Harvest House this week
without any
signs of a compromise position regarding the senatorial
elections, attention
shifted swiftly to the leadership qualities of Morgan
Tsvangirai, the man at
the helm of the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
Analysts this week rounded on Tsvangirai, a
former trade union leader hailed
as an intrepid champion of democracy when
he dared to challenge President
Robert Mugabe, "for flagrantly violating the
MDC constitution" in a manner
akin to his opposite number in ZANU
PF.
The MDC leader, who this week was said to be fretting over
indications the
party which he helped to form in 1999 was on the verge of a
major split or
outright collapse, defied a national executive council
decision by
announcing a boycott of the senatorial polls.
This was
contrary to the voting patterns at a stormy meeting where
councillors voted
33 for and 31 against participating in the elections, set
for 26
November.
Analysts said disregarding the wishes of the national executive
and storming
out of the meeting to hastily convene a press conference to
push his views
on the Senate raised questions about Tsvangirai's claim to
democratic
principles as well as his respect for the MDC
constitution.
"If we ride this storm we will certainly emerge stronger
and capable of
dealing with such similar challenges, but what guarantee do
we have that he
(Tsvangirai) will not tinker with the constitution in the
event that he is
finally elected President of the country?" said a party
insider who spoke to
The Financial Gazette on condition of anonymity.
"I
have worked with him, he is a charismatic leader but for him to
flagrantly
disregard the voting procedure because it was against his views
casts a bad
light on his character and leadership qualities," added the
insider, warning
the MDC leader to be wary of splitting the party.
There was general
consensus among the political analysts that Tsvangirai
should not have put
the issue to the vote if he, as president, felt strongly
about the issue,
which he describes as a "ZANU PF Senate project."
Lovemore Madhuku, the
chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA), said putting the
issue to the vote and then defying the majority and
prevailing vote of the
national council of the MDC did not augur well for
Tsvangirai's
leadership.
"While the NCA is happy that he has finally seen the light
that
participating in any election with the present constitution in place
serves
no purposes, he (Tsvangirai) should have issued a directive to save
himself
the present embarrassing political fall-out. The differences are so
sharp
that they could split the MDC for good," said
Madhuku.
Political commentator Heneri Dzinotyiwei blamed the sharp
differences in the
MDC national executive on poor communication strategies
within the party.
Dzinotiweyi, however, dismissed suggestions that the
differences would
result in the collapse or eventual split of the
MDC.
"What's puzzling are the grounds for simmering divisions. I don't
think the
differences on the Senate elections are so serious as to warrant a
split,"
said Dzinotyiwei. "If the MDC splits, I think it will be due to
other
reasons that we don't know. The Senate to me is an issue that can't
split
the party. I think what is playing out can be blamed on poor
communication
systems and I think they will be addressing that," he
added.
Augustine Timbe, a pro-ZANU PF analyst, said while he was against
Tsvangirai's
decision, he was aware some contestants in the MDC were driven
by
opportunistic motives.
"It's no longer about Tsvangirai's survival
but the MDC's continued
existence as a political force in the local body
politic," Timbe.
Tapiwa Mashakada, the MDC legislator for Hatfield who
doubles up as the vice
chairman of Harare province and party spokesperson
for economic affairs,
came out with guns blazing in full support of his
party leader, calling the
senatorial elections a mere circus.
He said
the Harare province was fully behind Tsvangirai. "Those who do not
fathom a
ZANU PF senator in their territories must realise that in the first
place
those places have got ZANU PF governors. So the difference is the
same. For
us this is mere rhetoric. Those who think that the decision of the
national
council was unconstitutional, we need to explain that the 33 yes
vote
against a 31 no vote with two spoiled ballots is a mere simple
majority,
which cannot galvanise the party to participate. The yes vote was
a
politically and ideologically incorrect vote. It was a narrow majority
largely comprising senatorial candidates who had personal interest. They
should have recused themselves."
Madhuku added: "It will be
unfortunate for Tsvangirai to wake up tomorrow
and call for participation in
future elections. He should now work towards
complete withdrawal of the
party from Parliament," said the outspoken NCA
leader who has in the past
clashed with the MDC leader over participating in
any elections in Zimbabwe
with the Lancaster House constitution still in
place as the country's
fundamental law.
"As the NCA, we have always said it is crazy for
Tsvangirai and the MDC to
participate in any elections, be it mayoral,
council or general. We are
happy Tsvangirai has seen the light."
The
NCA leader said it would be useful if the MDC settled their differences,
which he described as very serious. He said although he differed with the
Welshman Ncube camp which was clamouring for participation, the camp had
been consistent because it had all along believed in gradual
transformation.
"The MDC should not pretend there are no serious damaging
differences. They
should solve the issue amicably. Those that feel they
cannot compromise
should say so and not pretend.
"It will be
dangerous for Tsvangirai to believe that he can sweep the
differences under
the carpet and just wish them away. They will resurface
sooner or later over
another issue because the MDC is made up of groups of
divergent
views.
"Unless all parties involved solve their differences amicably, I am
afraid
the MDC might be heading for a major split," added
Madhuku.
Elizabeth Marunda, a spokesperson for the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition, said
her organisation had been taken aback by the fact that the
government wanted
to fork out more than $80 billion on the Senate yet
teachers earned $3
million a month against a monthly poverty line of $6.5
million.
"From this analysis, we conclude that the government is no
longer concerned
about Zimbabwe's future but merely the survival of ZANU PF,
hence the
patronising gratuities and Senate seats," said Marunda.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi
RESERVE
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono will effect a delayed
devaluation and downgrade his inflation forecasts when he presents his
monetary policy statement today, analysts say.
But his biggest
challenge today will be to regain the confidence of
disillusioned
Zimbabweans, facing rising prices, factory closures and
massive job cuts
despite earlier hopes of recovery.
With September inflation figures
having come in much weaker than
anticipated, rising 94 percentage points to
360 percent year-on-year, Gono
is under extreme pressure to lay out a
cocktail of tough new measures that
would slow inflation, increase foreign
currency inflows and save industries
from closure.
The central bank did
not devalue the Zimbabwe dollar at its weekly auction
last week after the
release of inflation figures, as per tradition. The RBZ
has made a pledge to
industry that the official exchange rate would track
the rate of inflation.
This was not effected after last Monday's release of
inflation numbers, and
many expect a decision to be taken in today's
statement.
A depressing
report on the state of the economy by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF)
has piled increased pressure on Gono, and he will today
be forced to once
again try and convince the increasingly impatient fund
that Zimbabwe remains
committed to reforms, despite a series of moves and
statements from
government that appear to indicate otherwise.
The IMF expects inflation
to end 2005 at 400 percent, a figure that now
seems conservative after
September's figures. Month-on-month inflation came
in at 33.3 percent in
September, and is expected to run even faster over the
remainder of the last
quarter year.
Economists' forecasts for month-on-month inflation over the
remainder of the
year range between 15 percent and 25 percent, which would
mean inflation
ending the year at 629 percent at the top end of those
forecasts, beating
the January 2004 high of 623 percent.
In his last
policy statement, made on July 20, Gono had predicted inflation
to continue
rising over the third quarter, before slowing down sharply to 80
percent by
year-end.
But with inflation still heating up even after a battery of
rate hikes, cuts
on cheap funding and subsidies to state enterprises and
producers, Gono is
expected to revise his year-end target upwards.
Gono
will present his policy statement with one eye on the March review of
Zimbabwe's IMF membership. He is expected to try and convince the IMF that
Zimbabwe intends to adopt the "comprehensive package of macroeconomic
policies and structural reform" that the fund demanded in its annual report
on Zimbabwe earlier this month.
But he is expected to resist demands by
the fund to float the currency,
given strong government opposition to any
attempts to remove the currency
peg.
According to the IMF, "the
tender rate remains overvalued, as indicated by
the substantial parallel
market premium". The US dollar stands at $26 000 on
the RBZ auction, but is
quoted at up to $85 000 on the informal market.
FinGaz
Felix Njini
ZIMBABWE
is scoring high on the corruption charts despite spirited attempts
by Harare
to root out the scourge, which is now pervasive in both private
and public
sectors.
Out of the 158 countries rated on the Corruption Perceptions
Index (CPI),
Zimbabwe - now in the midst of fighting graft through a
state-funded
commission, was ranked 107th.
The country slipped 39 points
from its previous position.
Zimbabwe was rated on 2.6 points on the CPI
score, which relates to the
degree of corruption as seen by business people
and risk analysts.
The scorecard ranges from 10 (highly clean) to zero
(highly corrupt) and
puts the country in the same league with highly corrupt
states such as
Zambia, Vietnam, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Belarus and
Eritrea.
Chad and Bangladesh, with a CPI score of 1.7 rank as the world's
most
corrupt nations, Transparency International (TI) said.
In the
last few months, the Zimbabwean government has launched a blitz
against
corruption. Several high-ranking executives have skipped the country
to
escape the anti-corruption dragnet, which netted former Finance Minister
Christopher Kuruneri last year.
"Corruption is a major cause of
poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming
it," TI chairman Peter Eigen
said.
"The two scourges feed off each other, locking their populations in a
cycle
of misery. Corruption must be vigorously addressed is aid is to make a
real
differences in freeing people from poverty," he added.
Analysts
said Zimbabwe could be moving up the corruption barometer due to
rampant
corruption and massive illegal deals, which have become the way of
doing
business in the country.
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze
THE future of the
Sekesai Makwavarara-led commission was left hanging by a
thread yesterday
after High Court Judge Rita Makarau ruled in another case
that the extension
of a commission's mandate beyond six months is illegal.
Legal experts
said the ruling set a precedent for all such commissions
including the one
headed by Makwavarara, which has been in office for the
past 10
months.
In a case between former director of works Christopher
Magwenzi-Zvobgo
versus the Harare City Council (HCC) and commissioner
Dominic Muzawazi,
Justice Makarau said the extension of the Elijah Chanakira
commission's term
beyond six months as promulgated in the Urban and Councils
Act was invalid.
A team led by the former diplomat came into Town House
in March 1999 after
the government dismissed the entire council headed by
the late first
executive mayor, Solomon Tawengwa of ZANU PF.
Because of
its illegality, the court declared null and void the proceedings
of a
special committee set up by the Chanakira commission in October 1999 to
inquire into alleged acts of misconduct by Zvobgo. She said the committee
came into being after the expiry of the commission's six-month
lifespan.
The local government ministry has twice bulldozed its way into the
affairs
of HCC and imposed commissions whose terms of office have been
extended
indefinitely.
After appointing the Chanakira-led commission
in 1999, the ministry came
back to haunt opposition Movement for Democratic
Change executive mayor
Elias Mudzuri, who has since been replaced by the
ZANU PF-aligned commission
headed by political turncoat
Makwavarara.
Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo mandated the
Makwavarara
commission to run the affairs of Harare for 24 months.
Harare
lawyer Tendai Biti, representing HCC in the matter, said the ruling
by
Makarau should set a precedent for other commissions.
In the case between
Zvobgo and the HCC, Makarau argued that there had been
no changes to the
Constitution of Zimbabwe with regards the Urban Councils
Act and as a result
the Act remains "valid and in force."
"A Commission was allowed to remain
in office past its legal mandate,
thereby creating the fictional vacuum. It
is my view that to legitimise the
clearly illegal in the circumstances of
this matter would be to offend
against the clear letter of the law as
contained in the Urban Councils Act
and to usurp the functions of Parliament
and to seek to legislate from the
bench by excusing which parliament has
decreed illegal," Makarau said.
Under the Act, a commission's tenure of
office is stipulated for six months
after which succeeding general elections
are held.
If the six-month period expires without such elections, the
minister may
reappoint the commission or the commission will push for the
holding of an
election.
"While it is conceded that the illegal
commission transacted business for
and on behalf of the City of Harare under
the genuine but mistaken belief
that it had a lawful mandate to do so, the
mistaken belief on the part of
the commissioners is in my view no basis in
law for this court to usurp the
functions of parliament and validate that
which Parliament has expressly
decreed to be illegal," Makarau
said.
Justices Wilson Sandura and Hungwe have in previous cases also ruled
that
Chombo cannot lawfully reappoint commissioners for an indefinite period
FinGaz
Comment
EARLY this year we
warned that expecting a new generation of public services
under the Sekesai
Makwavarara regime at the Harare City Council would be
hopefulness bereft of
realism. And not without reason.
First, we felt then as we do now that
Makwavarara, a beneficiary of ZANU
PF's deeply rooted politics of patronage,
is the least suitable person to
spearhead the turnaround of the collapsing
city. Roped in at the height of
what is now widely seen as the bonfire of
political madness when popularly
elected Mayor Elias Mudzuri was hounded out
of office, Makwavarara lacks the
imagination, depth and vision required for
such a mammoth task, if the
accelerating deterioration in Harare's service
delivery is anything to go
by. She is overwhelmed. It is too big a job for
her. Much like Peter
Tatchell of the queer rights group Outrage marrying
Dolly Parton!
Secondly, the route that was proposed to turn the city's
structures into
autonomous strategic business units did not inspire
confidence at all. It
has led to a cul-de-sac at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings, which has
since relapsed into the depths of political
partisanship, mismanagement and
inefficiency. Moreover, we knew that there
would be very little room to
manoeuvre given ZANU PF's well documented
obsession with exerting its
influence on the city of Harare as can be seen
through the planting of
ruling party charlatans at the municipality. We
observed that Makwavarara
would inevitably strain at the rigid political
leash and partisan
obligations to please her masters.
And we hate to say
we told you so because what is happening in Harare right
now reads more like
a chronicle of a catastrophe foretold. The
government-ordered chaos at the
Harare City Council touched off by extensive
and ruinous political
interference by Minister Ignatius Chombo - known for
his obsession with
scheming for political survival - shows no signs of
abating.
The
erstwhile sunshine city has plunged into probably its worst crisis in
recent
history.
Health-wise, it is a ticking time bomb threatening its citizens.
Suburbs in
the city have been known to go for weeks on end without water.
Mountains of
uncollected refuse, raw sewage flowing in high-density suburbs,
collapsing
infrastructure, poor roads and lighting among others, are now a
common
feature in the city. The situation is extremely dangerous and to say
that
Harare residents are sitting on a powder keg would be an understatement
of
significant proportions. Of course Makwavarara promised a turnaround
quicker
than anyone could say Sekesai. But the people of Harare who wear the
shoe
and therefore know how and where it pinches, now understand that a
turnaround will probably not come any time sooner than the end of the third
millennium.
There is no wondering how the situation will develop from
here. For the
people of Harare who have been forced to embrace mediocrity
and put up with
failure - by a minister who only sees mostly imagined fierce
political
struggles - there is no relief in sight. This is because those
running the
affairs of the city have become part of the problem besetting
Harare. They
don't know what to do although they privately admit the
situation is nothing
short of dire. Even with a ready-made turnaround
programme, they don't know
how to implement it. They want to appoint
somebody to do it for them. Talk
of appointing a coordinator of a
coordinating committee! So what are they
doing at Town House? Where is their
conscience? Little wonder it is said
politics has no soul.
Nothing
testifies to the circus at Town House more than the conflicting
statements
made to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government
by the
commissioners running the affairs of the capital city last week. The
apparent contradictions in the commissioners' statements, which to an extent
betrayed contempt and disdain for the residents, underline the fact that
those who are supposed to return the city to its former glory are stymied by
the mess emanating from years of inefficiency, corruption, cronyism and
government's costly populist decisions for political capital. All it means
is that unless Makwavarara and company are allowed to fall by the wayside
and let the chips fall where they may, there is no hope for
Harare.
Admittedly, Zimbabwe has a poisoned political atmosphere and ZANU PF
continues to be arrogant enough to think that it is the only capable
political force in the country. But continuously blaming the opposition
Movement For Democratic Change (MDC) for the cancerous rot at Town House
does not cut it anymore. For all we know, it started during the mayorship of
ZANU PF's Solomon Tawengwa. The MDC-dominated council led by Mudzuri was
never allowed to breathe freely. It was a target of systematic bullying by
the government during its wave-like tenure. And to think that somebody is
advocating yet another government-appointed commission to run Bulawayo? The
mind indeed boggles.
FinGaz
MATABELELAND remains
one of the poorest regions in the country though it is
the heartland of the
country when it comes to power-generation and tourism.
And things could
become worse following the announcement by the central bank
that it was
freezing further disbursement of money meant for the region's
turnaround
under the parastatals and local authorities reform programme.
The central
bank had planned sink a total of $50.5 billion into the
Matabelelend Zambezi
Water Project, the region's hope of turning it into a
greenbelt. It also
planned to allocate $14 billion to the rural district
councils in
Matabeleland North, $400 billion to bail out Hwange Colliery
Company and
$120 billion to upgrade border posts in Mata-beleland North
among other
projects.
Matabeleland hosts the country's major tourist resort Victoria
Falls and has
large mineral deposits as well as timber plantations. It also
hosts the
country's largest thermal power station and vast resources of
methane gas
which can be used for heating and fuel.
Most of the
projects have been on the cards for decades. The Bulawayo City
Council has
had to impose water rationing yet it was one of the initiators
of the
Zambezi Water Project in the hope that it would provide a permanent
solution
to the city's water woes.
Though the people of the region, mostly from
the ruling ZANU PF, had formed
the Matabeleland Development Asso-ciation to
spearhead development in the
region, the organisation has failed to make any
meaningful impact and has
virtually collapsed.
Most politicians from
the region have been accused of letting their people
down. Notable
exceptions have been former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo
who poured
vast resources into his constituency Tsholotsho as well as Insiza
legislator
Andrew Langa.
The region's capital, Bulawayo, is also under severe
stress. The country's
largest tyre manufacturer Dunlop has been forced to
temporarily shut down
because of lack of raw materials and there are fears
that more companies
could follow suit.
FinGaz
Felix Njini
Serious tyre
shortage looms
A SERIOUS tyre shortage is looming as Dunlop Tyres, Zimbabwe's
sole tyre
manufacturing firm, fails to re-open three weeks following the
shock closure
of its factories due to foreign currency
shortages.
Dunlop halted operations three weeks ago citing shortages of
foreign
currency to import key raw materials.
The firm has also laid
off about 820 workers while about 30 000 workers in
the tyre retreading
industry are also faced with loss of employment.
But analysts said the
closure could result in the country importing tyres,
which is more expensive
and costly to the foreign currency-starved economy.
Industry players said
the looming tyre shortage could impact heavily on the
transport industry,
which is already reeling from shortages of spare parts.
Dunlop managing
director Phil Whitehead told The Financial Gazette that the
firm was
battling to re-open its factories.
He said marathon meetings between the
firm's management, government and the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
officials have failed to yield anything with
the monetary authorities "only
promising to come back to us".
"We have not yet resumed operations. We
had dialogue with government and the
RBZ and they said they were going to
come back to us but nothing has
happened yet," said Whitehead.
There
have also been reports that government, desperate to halt the economic
meltdown, intends to force the firm to re-open its plants.
Sources
said government had been angered that Dunlop management had taken
the
decision to shut down its factories without giving it due notice.
"They do
not have to force us. We are keen to re-open but our problem is we
do not
have foreign currency. We need to pay for raw materials," said
Whitehead.
Dunlop's closure, a reflection of the rapid disintegration
of the Zimbabwean
economy, was also followed last week by National Foods'
closure of flour
milling plants because of wheat shortages.
National
Foods shut down its Harare and Bulawayo flour milling after it ran
out of
wheat stocks.
Sources at the giant milling firm, which controls close to 70
percent of the
country's flour milling industry said the plants are still
closed.
"There has not been an indication from the Grain Marketing Board
as to when
we are getting the wheat and even when we get it, it will not be
enough to
fire all our plants," said a National Foods senior
official.
Dunlop requires US$50 000 to manufacture tyres on a daily
basis. Whitehead
said it costs double when the tyres are being
imported.
"The implications are high on the rest of the economy. You can
not run an
economy with no tyres," said Whitehead.
He said the
closure had also resulted in the firm failing to meet orders
from the
Zimbabwe National Army, Central Mechanical Equipment Depart-ment
and the
Zimbabwe Republic Police.
"Imagine the police and the army with no tyres.
This is a huge disaster,"
Whitehead said.
The firm is also a major
supplier to car manufacturer, Willo-wvale Mazda
Motor
Industries.
Analysts said tyres shortages could hit the agricultural sector
hard.
FinGaz
Rangarirai
Mberi
HOW many more rate hikes can the central bank make before the bank
itself
becomes fatigued? Not too many, analysts say.
Inflation
remains stubborn even after attempts to slow it down with a string
of rate
hikes. As banks and factories feel the heat of high rates, the
Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is under increasing pressure to look beyond
the rate hike
for new ways of regaining ground lost to inflation.
The RBZ last
Wednesday raised rates by 125 percentage points to 405 percent,
two days
after September inflation came in 94 percentage points higher at
360
percent.
Month-on-month inflation rose 33.3 percent, data from the
Central
Statistical Office showed.
Despite the big hike, RBZ delayed a
move on its key Treasury Bill (TB) rate.
As the rate hike found the market
in surplus, there was no pressure on the
RBZ to raise the TB
rate.
But many ignore this explanation, and are debating whether the RBZ
itself
now feels it has stretched the rate hike to its limit.
The RBZ
has been looking to offer positive real returns on the money
market - rates
above inflation - in order to beat the speculative borrowing
it blames for
feeding inflation. But at 360 percent, the new inflation
figure might get
the authorities pondering over their rate policy, analysts
say.
Over
the past year, the RBZ's reaction to the monthly release of inflation
figures has been an immediate move to raise the accommodation rate. At one
point, central bank raised rates twice inside a single day. The RBZ had
already increased rates a day before the July inflation figure came in much
higher than expected, forcing authorities to make another hike.
The
surplus conditions that greeted last week's rate hike appeared to be
lost
this week as the money market slipped back into deficit, increasing the
pressure on the RBZ to make a move on investment rates. Rates on the
indicative 91-day TB have stood at 265 percent for the past
month.
"The lack of change on the TB rate appears to have been
interpreted as a
sign that the RBZ is no longer able to keep on hiking
rates, hence the
renewed interest in equities. The foreign currency auction
has also not
responded to inflation, another sign of fatigue on the
authorities' part,"
analysts at Adway Financial Services said earlier this
week.
If the RBZ continues on its path of rate hikes, the biggest
casualty would
be government. Because government remains the single largest
borrower on the
market, higher TB rates mean its interest bill would
continue to swell.
Government domestic debt, which has peaked at $16
trillion, stood at $13.5
trillion last Friday, according to RBZ
figures.
Critics insist that raising interest rates while government
turns down pleas
for spending cuts will not have the desired impact on
inflation. If
government cannot pull its own weight, economists say, the RBZ
is left with
very few useful options to fight inflation, causing the bank to
continue its
over-reliance on the rate hike.
"Rate hikes are
essentially a monetarist approach based on the premise that
there is need to
reduce lending and therefore money supply growth. But there
are other
factors that have been driving inflation. Food inflation has been
rising,
and will continue to rise over the coming months until the next
harvest in
March - that's assuming, of course, that we have a good harvest,"
a leading
economist with a local bank told The Financial Gazette.
Economists
believe further rate hikes are unlikely to slow inflation.
Elsewhere,
central banks raise rates in anticipation of future inflation,
and not in
reaction to the inflation that has already shown through, as is
the case in
Zimbabwe.
Although it has not raised rates recently, the South Africa
Reserve Bank has
taken a hawkish monetary policy stance going forward,
hoping to guard
against the inflationary pressures from the anticipated
surge in demand as
the economy chases growth rates of six percent.
FinGaz
Nelson Banya
Blow by blow account
of what took place in that fateful meeting
AS DELEGATES to last week's
momentous Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
national executive council
meeting were trooping into the boardroom at
Harvest House, the more
observant claim to have espied staff in secretary
general Welshman Ncube's
office preparing some ballot papers.
This, they say, signalled that the
meeting was not going to be like any the
party's supreme decision making
body - between congress - had held before.
However, few, if any, would have
predicted the fall-out that would ensue
after party president Morgan
Tsvangirai moved to overrule the decision to
have the MDC participating in
next month's Senatorial elections.
In the biggest challenge the
six-year-old party has faced yet, senior
politicos in the party - deputy
president Gibson Sibanda, secretary general
Ncube, national chairman Isaac
Matongo, treasurer-general Fletcher Dulini
Ncube, deputy secretary general
Gift Chimanikire and party spokesperson Paul
Themba Nyathi - broke ranks
with Tsvangirai and openly defied his decision
to have the MDC boycott the
November 26 poll.
Below is a blow-by-blow account of what transpired at
the eventful meeting
last Wednesday, as related by sources who participated
in the deliberations:
The meeting began with reports from the provinces
on the results of the
consultative process the party had undertaken
countrywide. Six provinces
stated their desire to field candidates in the
election, while four were
against and two were not committed.
However,
reports from Mashonaland East, Matabeleland North, Midlands South,
Midlands
North and Manicaland raised a lot of debate on the procedure used
to come up
with the positions taken by their leaders.
In one case, involving
Mashonaland East, chairman Alois Mudzingwa recanted
when challenged by a
fellow delegate, who produced a written resolution
showing a contrary
position to the one he had reported to council. In
Manicaland, leaders from
six constituencies, protested that they were never
consulted and disowned
the provincial leader's report. Lyson Mlambo,
Midlands South provincial
chairman, also faced similar challenges from his
camp, but said he had
merely "checked the sentiment in the province
informally, asking for
ordinary people's views."
Similar weaknesses in the consultative process
were revealed in the
remainder of the provinces that were pushing for
participation.
Tsvangirai then put it to council that the national crisis
was deepening and
the senate wouldn't resolve that. The MDC, he said, had
argued strongly
against the constitutional amendment that gave birth to the
Senate, so what
justification was there for the party to turn around and
contest?
Those arguing for participation interjected, saying the party should
just
"get in", whereupon Tsvangirai raised the danger of getting into an
election
when half the provinces were against participation, using the
metaphor of a
general who goes to war with half the troops unwilling. He
recommended that
it was necessary for him to retreat, regroup and agree on
an absolute
position before going into the Senate elections, but his
interlocutors
cautioned that there was no time for that. Tsvangirai asked if
the views of
the party's youth and women's wings and those of the MDC's
civic society
partners were inconsequential, but was told that the party was
an autonomous
political formation with its independence and civil society
groups should
not interfere in its decisions.
After three hours of
inconclusive debate, former Chimanimani legislator Roy
Bennet suggested that
the management committee (Top Six) should retreat and
deliberate on a common
position which would guide council. The top six -
Tsvangirai, his deputy
Gibson Sibanda, Ncube, national chairman Isaac
Matongo, treasurer general
Fletcher Dulini Ncube and deputy secretary
general Gift Chimanikire- duly
retreated and, after further inconclusive
debate, Tsvangirai asked each one
of the five to make their personal
positions known to the rest. To a man,
they all stated their support for the
MDC's participation.
When the
management committee broke its retreat and rejoined council, Mutare
North MP
and party chief whip Innocent Gonese promptly moved that the matter
be put
to the vote and this was seconded.
Tsvangirai rose to caution against the
dangers of the vote, asking since
when council voted through secret ballot,
especially if the views carried by
delegates were representative of the
sentiment on the ground. He was heckled
by delegates shouting: "Dictator!
Allow the vote, the vote is a fundamental
right."
Tsvangirai
perservered, asking: "How can you vote when you wish to become
candidates
yourselves?" He expressly asked Mudzingwa how he would reconcile
his
personal wish and his province's contrary position, to which the
Mashonaland
East chairman said once he cast the vote in favour and on behalf
of Mash
East, the people would "fall in line and follow him."
An increasingly
agitated Tsvangirai then asked why some delegates were flown
into Harare and
housed at the Holiday Inn and Quality International hotels
while others had
to put up with relatives or were booked at lodges in the
city. He further
asked why there was intense lobbying of individuals ahead
of the meeting if
the meeting was to provide a platform for reports from the
provinces. The
questions were ignored, amid cries that council should
conduct a
one-person-one-vote election to decide the issue.
Tsvangirai reiterated
his fear that a vote of this nature on such an
evidently contentious issue
would be divisive. He further stated that
whatever the result of the vote,
his reading of the mood in the party and
elsewhere was that the MDC should
not participate in the Senate elections.
He told council that consultation
was not decision-making, although this was
important. He further said that
as party leader, he carried the burden of
charting the course for the party
and that, at the end of the day, the court
of public opinion would judge him
in accordance with his actions. Tsvangirai
said he had gone through three
rigged elections and each time he faced the
music alone as council members
would have vanished soon after the electoral
theft. However, calls for the
vote grew louder.
At that point, Tsvangirai put on his jacket and started
packing his papers.
The vote went ahead and the returns showed 33 delegates
in favour of
participation against 31 who were opposed, while two ballot
papers were
spoilt. Tsvangirai told council that the results of the vote
showed that
significant divisions on the issue still existed and, as
president, he was
not prepared to lead the party into an election. As
president, with the
powers conferred on him by congress, he had decided that
the MDC would stay
out. If anyone disagreed with that position, they could
take him on at
congress in two months time. He further said that the spirit
of congress in
coming up with a council was to get senior party officials to
assist the
president to run the party in between congresses, not to censure,
humiliate,
sabotage or punish him. If the council was unhappy with the
performance of a
president, the least it could do is call for an
extraordinary congress and
let that body deal with the errant
president.
Tsvangirai then left for his Strathaven home where, flanked by
Hatfield
legislator Tapiwa Mashakada and Chitungwiza MP Fidelis Mhashu, he
told
journalists that he had used his casting vote to override a council
vote
that had sought to take the MDC into the November 26 Senate
elections.
After Tsvangirai left in a huff, the remaining five management
committee
members then sent Matongo and Chimanikire to Tsvangirai's home.
Tsvangirai
never spoke to them. Later that day, party spokesman Paul Themba
Nyathi
issued a statement saying, based on the council resolution, the MDC
would
participate in the poll.
The following day, Sibanda, Matongo,
Ncube, Chimanikire and Dulini Ncube met
at the Holiday Inn in Sibanda's
room, where it was decided to disregard
Tsvangirai's position and instruct
the provinces to start mobilising for the
elections. Matongo and Chimanikire
are assigned to instruct the provinces to
proceed with
nominations.
Chimanikire proceeds to send circulars to the provinces,
instructing party
structures to come up with senatorial
candidates.
Tsvangirai, who was reported to be out of town as a
full-scale rebellion
erupted, returns around lunch-time on Thursday but was
not informed of any
management meeting at the Holiday Inn.
Ncube
arrives at Tsvangirai's home around 4pm Thursday, with a plane ticket
which
he dropped at the gate. Ncube left a message that Tsvangirai should
fly to
Cape Town the following day. Although Tsvangirai was at home, the two
did
not meet.
lOn Friday, Tsvangirai sent circulars to the provinces, instructing
them to
ignore Chimanikire's earlier circular.