http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Cuthbert Nzou Friday 09
October 2009
HARARE - The European Commission (EC) is ready
to fund an audit of President
Robert Mugabe's chaotic and often violent land
reform programme that is a
key step to resolving Zimbabwe's thorny land
dispute, a top EC official said
Thursday.
Head of the EC delegation
to Zimbabwe Xavier Marchal said: "We are ready to
assist the government to
implement an inclusive, transparent, and
comprehensive land audit . . .
which should be aimed at resolving the land
issue. This is the bigger
picture, which cannot be ignored if Zimbabwe's
agriculture is to become
highly successful again."
Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farmland for
redistribution to landless
blacks is among key issues that have soured
relations with Brussels and seen
European Union member-countries cut direct
support to Harare while imposing
visa and financial bans on the Zimbabwean
leader and his top allies.
A coalition government formed by Mugabe and
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
seven months ago has promised to undertake
a comprehensive land audit that
should set the stage for an orderly and
equitable agrarian reform programme.
But the administration has shelved the
audit because of lack of resources.
Lands minister Herbert Murerwa last
month said the government needed US$30
million to carry out the land audit,
but money which Harare does not have.
While promising to help, Marchal
also called on the Zimbabwean government to
take responsibility for the mess
in the agricultural sector triggered by
Mugabe's land reforms.
He
said: "Government has to take its responsibilities. The decline in the
agricultural production is indeed related to failing government polices
associated to issues relating to the way the land and agrarian reform
programme has been conducted. These need to be addressed by
government."
Mugabe, who seized white farm without paying saying the land
was stolen from
blacks in the first place, denies his land reforms ruined
agriculture and
instead blames poor weather and Western sanctions that he
says crippled the
economy's capacity to produce fertilizer and other
agricultural inputs.
But critics blame Mugabe's land reforms for plunging
Zimbabwe into food
shortages after he failed to support black villagers
resettled on former
white farms to maintain production. In addition, critics
say Mugabe's
cronies - and not ordinary peasants - benefited the most from
farm seizures
with some of them ending up with as many as six farms each
against the
government's stated one-man-one-farm policy.
Meanwhile
Marchal, who was addressing an EU food facility stakeholders
meeting in
Harare, said the EC will provide 25 percent of Zimbabwe's
fertiliser needs
this agricultural season as part of efforts to lift output
and ensure food
security.
He said through the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO),
Zimbabwe would
receive Euro 15 million for fertiliser
requirements.
"This year, EC on behalf of EU, will provide around 25
percent of all
fertilisers needs for smallholder farmers. Most of this is
done through
FAO," Marchal said.
He explained that the farm support
programme was part of a wider programme
to moving Zimbabwe from dependency
on "food aid to food security" while
building self-reliance at small holder
farmer level. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Hendricks
Chizhanje Friday 09 October 2009
HARARE - Britain will only
consider lifting targeted sanctions against
Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe and his ZANU PF party top brass after
Harare implements significant
reforms to genuinely share power with Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC
party, an embassy spokesperson has said.
President Robert Mugabe, in an
address to Parliament on Tuesday, toned down
his rhetoric against Western
governments whom he blames for orchestrating
the country's demise and
implored them to remove the "illegal sanctions",
which he said were hurting
the people and the country's economy.
Mugabe said Zimbabwe was ready to
begin on a new chapter of "friendly
relations" with Western countries and
move away from hostilities of the past
decade.
But Keith Scott,
spokesperson for the British embassy in Harare said on
Thursday while his
country welcomes Mugabe's commitment to re-engage Western
governments the
decision to lift sanctions will be influenced by reforms
undertaken in the
country and the full implementation of the Global
Political Agreement (GPA)
that gave birth to the February unity government.
"We welcome President
Mugabe's commitment to re-engage the West and the
commitment by all of
Zimbabwe's leaders to implement the reforms they agreed
to in the Global
Political Agreement and to deliver basic services to
Zimbabwe's people . . .
The extent of Britain's future support will depend
on progress by the
inclusive government in implementing the Global Political
Agreement . . .
Our position on the targeted measures will only be
influenced by evidence of
real reform on the ground," Scott told ZimOnline.
Scott disputed Mugabe's
claims that the targeted sanctions were hurting
ordinary Zimbabweans and the
economy.
"The United Kingdom has no unilateral or economic sanctions
against
Zimbabwe. The current range of European Union targeted measures is
directed
against those 203 individuals and 40 organisations in Zimbabwe
responsible
for human rights abuses, corruption and undermining the rule of
law. The
measures have no adverse effect on ordinary people or humanitarian
assistance to Zimbabwe," he said.
On Wednesday, the United States
(US) reacted coolly to Mugabe's overture for
better ties, saying he should
end political arrests and media censorship and
honour the GPA.
The US
also urged Mugabe to end "politicised arrests and prosecutions and
often
violent land seizures" as well as to replace what it described as
Zimbabwe's
"corrupt attorney general and reserve bank governor".
Several Western
nations including the European Union (EU), the United States
(US) and Canada
imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his ZANU PF party inner
circle in 2002
protesting against alleged human rights abuses by Harare.
Mugabe and
Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing government to end a political
stalemate
after inconclusive elections last year and pledged to work
together to
revive the economy that had been in decline for the past decade.
The
unity government has undertaken to end the country's international
isolation
and repair ties with Western countries including the EU, the
Commonwealth
grouping of former British colonies, International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and
the World Bank for possible resumption of financial
support. - ZimOnline
http://www.voanews.com/
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
08 October 2009
A
magistrate in Zimbabwe's Mashonaland West province capital of Chinhoyi has
issued an arrest warrant against Didymus Mutasa, minister of state for
security in President Robert Mugabe's office, who failed to heed a subpoena
to testify in a land-related case.
Mutasa, formerly Minister of Land,
was called by a defense lawyer to testify
in the case of a white commercial
farmer charged with refusing to vacate
state land. Mutasa was called upon to
testify Tuesday, but instead sent
lawyer Itai Ndudzo to say he would not
come.
Commercial farmer Robert Mckersie has refused to leave Chipungu
farm in
Manghura to make way for a newly resettled farmer under the
decade-old land
reform program.
Mckersie's lawyer, Thabani Mpofu,
successfully sought a warrant for the
arrest of Mutasa for the minister's
failure to respond to the subpoena. But
Harare lawyers said there is nothing
the police can do as there is no rule
of law and Mutasa in effect enjoys
impunity.
Mutasa, explaining his decision to reporter Blessing Zulu of
VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe, said the judicial system has been compromised
by enemies of
the state.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=23667
October 9, 2009
HARARE-
Didymus Mutasa, has said a Chinhoyi magistrate was 'very stupid' to
issue
him with a warrant of arrest after the minister failed to appear in
court to
testify in a case involving a Mhangura commercial farmer.
Magistrate
Ngoni Nduna issued the warrant after Mutasa, the Minister of
State for
Presidential Affairs, failed to appear in court to testify as a
defence
witness in the trial of the farmer, Robert Mckersie.
Mutasa had been a
subpoenaed to give evidence in defence of Mckersie on
Tuesday. Instead, he
sent his lawyer, Itai Ndudzo of Mutamangira and
Associates, to inform the
court that he could not attend.
Mutasa said: "They want me to and give
evidence against myself because, as
you know, I was the minister of lands
before. I am no longer minister of
lands, and they are accusing me of
refusing to give someone an offer letter.
"But my argument is how can I
do that or how could I do that when in fact I
was getting land away from
that person."
Advocate Thabani Mpofu, the defence lawyer, applied for the
minister to be
issued with a warrant of arrest after he failed to appear in
court.
Mpofu insisted Mutasa he had no plausible reason to miss the hearing
as he
had been properly served with the subpoena. He argued that Mutasa was
simply
disobeying it.
Mutasa is one of the staunchest supporters of
President Robert Mugabe Herald
Matura, the prosecutor, argued that lawyer
Ndudzo should be heard on behalf
of the minister.
But the court ruled
that Ndudzo had no right to be heard in the proceedings.
Magistrate Nduna
issued the warrant of arrest. By all indications, the
warrant was not
executed.
Mutasa said he would go to court and argue that he could not
testify against
himself.
"We are going to Chinhoyi to the same court
tomorrow," he said, "and that
position will be communicated, and I hope we
will be able to tell the
magistrate that he was very stupid."
http://www.voanews.com/
By Sandra Nyaira
Washington
08 October
2009
Hopes for media reform in Zimbabwe ran high in February with the
installation of a national unity government, prompting donors such as the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or Unesco
to sponsor a forum to promote discussion by editors of state-run and
independent print, broadcast and Web media outlets.
That
Unesco-sponsored conference opened this week - but amidst a furor over
Information Minister Webster Shamu's unilateral announcement late last week
of appointments to six media boards which included a number of former senior
military officers.
Media observers said the appointments boded ill
for reform in the sector, in
particular that of Tafataona Mahoso, former
chairman of the Media and
Information Commission, responsible for the 2003
closure of the Daily News,
to head the Broadcasting Authority.
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai declared the appointments "irregular,"
saying
Shamu had exceeded his authority. But the minister insisted they fell
within
his mandate.
Opening the Unesco meeting Tuesday, George Charamba,
Information Ministry
permanent secretary and a key advisor to President
Robert Mugabe, saying the
media environment has become highly politicized,
threatened to arrest the
publisher of the Zimbabwe Independent and its staff
if they proceeded with
plans to launch a new daily paper called
Newsday.
Former Daily NewsEditor Geoff Nyarota, now publisher of the
U.S.-based
online Zimbabwe Times, returned to Zimbabwe after five years
exile to attend
the Unesco event. He was one of several exiled Zimbabwean
invited to attend
a conference session on "Building Bridges and Closing Gaps
- An Editors'
Dialogue Towards Common Ground."
For perspective on
Zimbabwean media reform, seemingly stalled, reporter
Sandra Nyaira of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe turned to Zimbabwe Independent
Special Projects Editor
Iden Wetherell and Bright Matonga, a former deputy
minister of
information.
Wetherell said the current media environment disheartening
as there has been
little real sign of commitment to reform from the
uncomfortable unity
government combining President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF
with the Movement for
Democratic Change formations of Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and Deputy
Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
http://www.voanews.com
By James
Butty
09 October 2009
Former Zimbabwe Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo, architect of the
country's harsh media laws, has
said if given another chance as a public
official he would have done certain
things differently and even better.
But he defended the controversial
media laws, saying they were created and
remain on the books because they
are good for Zimbabwe.
"Clearly, there are things I would have done
differently or even better, but
as to the laws, we are a democracy. Whatever
the detractors say, it's not
possible in a democracy for one individual to
write any laws. Secondly,
those laws.are still on our books some five years
after I left government.
Surely. they are there because they are good for
Zimbabwe," he said.
Moyo said criticism of the media laws he helped enact
has nothing to do with
their substance but rather based on hatred for
him.
"If I were to propose love as the law of Zimbabwe, those detractors
would
find something wrong. Even if I gave them the Bible and said the
entire
Bible is now going to be the law, as long as that proposal will be
coming
from me, those particular detractors will think the Bible is a
devil's
document," he said.
Moyo, who resigned from Robert Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party five years ago was
accepted back into the party last
week.
He said while he might have left ZANU-PF in flesh, he never left in
spirit.
"One gets associated with a political party at the level of
ideology and
principle, and my ideological affiliation with ZANU-PF has not
changed, but
there had been some misunderstandings on issues of strategy,
tactics and
personality. And I had been considered to have expelled myself.
So there has
never been really a formal process of the party expelling me,"
he said.
Moyo is the only independent member in Zimbabwe's 210-seat
parliament where
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has a slim one
seat majority.
But he denied he was invited back to give ZANU-PF an
additional
parliamentary seat.
"The fact of the matter is that this
is an expression of my freedom of
association which has nothing to do with
the numbers in parliament. I must
say though it's not true that the MDC has
a majority in parliament. There
are three political parties that make up the
government of national unity in
Zimbabwe. None of them has a majority," Moyo
said.
Moyo called for support for Zimbabwe's unity
government.
"Clearly, there has been a dramatic reduction of political
tension in our
country.The fact that we have a government of national unity,
which by and
large has shown the capacity and willingness for Zimbabweans to
work
together means that everyone else who really means well and wishes our
country well should support it," Moyo said.
He said while
"considerable effort and achievement" have been made, those
efforts and
achievement continue to be undermined by what Moyo called
"illegal
sanctions" by Western countries.
http://www.miningweekly.com/
By: Barnabas
Thondhlana
9th October 2009
Zimbabwe is conducting an audit of
the mining industry with a view to
repossessing all mining claims that are
being held for speculative purposes,
reports Mines and Mining Development
Minister Obert Mpofu.
He says his Ministry has discovered that some big
mines have liter- ally
surrendered their claims to panners and are assisting
in the smuggling of
minerals out of the country.
"I know of some big
mines that are in the habit of allowing panners to do
the mining on their
claims," he says. "We are saying that should end. Those
who hold claims
should use them or risk losing them to government and people
who are serious
about mining.
"It is true that government may be losing money to these
unscrupulous mines
and we are going to carry out an audit that will
determine and reflect the
true picture of who is doing what, where and how.
Those who are allowing
panners to mine on their claims are not only causing
environmental
degradation but also loss of revenue to the
State."
Mpofu adds that investigations have revealed that big mining
companies in
the Midlands province, including some listed on the Zim- babwe
Stock
Exchange, are holding onto mining claims for speculative
purposes.
More than 300 illegal gold panners are said to be mining gold
in the
Shurugwi area, in the Midlands.
Most of Zimbabwe's gold mines
suspended operations last 2008, owing to the
serious economic challenges
facing the country, including the world's
highest inflation rate and
shortages of foreign currency, capital inputs and
consumables.
Most
of the mines have restarted operations, but some say they will only
resume
operations after receiving outstanding payments from the Reserve Bank
of
Zimbabwe.
The central bank owes mining houses more than US$30-million for
gold
delivered to its subsidiary, Fidelity Refiners & Printers.
http://www.timeslive.co.za
Food
crisis looming
Oct 8, 2009 11:31 PM | By
Moses
Mudzwiti
Zimbabwe's
farmers' union warned yesterday that violent land invasions have
plunged the
country into a food crisis.
Charles Taffs, vice-president of the
Commercial Farmers' Union, said:
"Zimbabwe is facing a crisis. The only
people that do not understand it are
the government."
He said land
invasions had brought farming to a halt. Even commercial
farmers with title
deeds to properties were reluctant to plant crops.
Spurred by the lack of
real resistance, invaders were brazenly scouring
areas in search of farms.
Armed with sticks and stones and carrying "offer
letters", the mobs had
intensified their land grabs.
Taffs said the farm of Kevin du Boil, who
appeared in a news report on Sky
television yesterday, had since been
looted. The brigadier who had forcibly
occupied the farm was using soldiers
to "loot" crops.
Taffs said Du Boil had called the police, but the
soldiers had simply
ignored them.
About 4000 white commercial farmers
have been driven off their land and the
remaining few hundred are under
siege. More than 300000 farm workers have
lost their jobs and
homes.
Taffs said the government should "sort out the problem" or
Zimbabweans would
"starve to death".
In addition to land invasions, a
lack of funding had stifled agriculture, he
said.
New black farmers
who have benefited from President Robert Mugabe's chaotic
land reform have
also hit a brick wall. With the government unable to raise
money for seeds
and fertilizers, their farming efforts have failed dismally.
"There is no
funding," said Taffs. "They do not have collateral."
Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara said on the BBC's HardTalk yesterday
that the land
invasions "must stop".
http://www.herald.co.zw
Friday,
October 09, 2009
By Felex Share and Fortious
Nhambura
Zimbabwe School Examinations Council workers yesterday went on
strike
demanding that the lowest paid emplo-yee's salary be increased from
US$115
to US$400.
Zimsec public relations manager Mr Ezekiel
Pasipamire yesterday confirmed
the work stoppage.
Zimsec was making a
passionate plea to the Government to address the workers'
concerns in view
of the impending public examinations.
"It is true that Zimsec workers
went on strike yesterday demanding a review
of their salaries. They are
waiting for a response from the Ministry (of
Education, Sport, Arts and
Culture) after submitting the request. If these
exams are to start any time
soon, this must be treated as a matter of
urgency," said Mr
Pasipamire.
However, highly-placed sources at Zimsec and the Ministry of
Education,
Sport, Arts and Culture yesterday revealed that some officials
wanted to
keep the strike under wraps as they intended to use it as a tool
to force
the Government to submit given that public examinations were about
to start.
The strike comes amid reports that most schools were still to
begin
registering prospective Ordinary and Advanced Level students under the
recently launched Government loan scheme to assist underprivileged
families.
However, the Zimsec officials claimed they were yet to be told
how to
register the students.
The 120 Zimsec workers insisted they
would not resume normal duties,
demanding a review of their salaries as they
accused the Government of
reneging on earlier pledges.
Although the
workers' representatives refused to speak to the Press
yesterday, some of
the workers who spoke on condition of anonymity,
confirmed that they were on
strike.
"This is the time these workers' services are needed most. They
are the ones
who process the examination materials and without them, the
examinations
will not be written," said a worker who declined to be
identified.
Deputy Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Lazarus
Dokora
yesterday said his ministry had received the salary proposal from
Zimsec.
He, however, said he was not aware of the strike.
"We
received their letter recently requesting a review of their salary, but
as
far as we are concerned, all is well within the examinations body," he
said.
The strike is likely to paralyse the examination administration
system after
thousands of prospective students failed to register, as their
parents could
not afford the fees.
Yesterday, school authorities were
still insisting that candidates pay US$10
and US$20 per subject for the
November examinations.
Parents and guardians interviewed yesterday said
they had only heard of the
facilities through the media, but school
authorities were not registering
saying they were waiting for official
communication from education offices.
"Schools are not registering
prospective students at the moment saying they
are waiting for communication
from their superiors on the procedures to be
followed during the
registration," said Mrs Elina Chitongo of Highfield.
Under the
arrangement, the students were required to register by Friday
October 16 and
arrange to pay the examination fees by January.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own
Correspondent Friday 09 October 2009
JOHANNESBURG - United
Kingdom-based mining firm African Consolidated
Resources Plc (ACR) had begun
work to set up a commercial mining venture at
Zimbabwe's controversial
Chiadzwa diamond field when President Robert Mugabe's
government seized the
field, the company has said.
ACR - whose right to the Chiadzwa claims was
two weeks ago confirmed by a
Harare High Court judge - spoke as Mugabe
announced on Tuesday that the
government has identified two foreign firms to
mine diamonds at Chiadzwa
that is also known as Marange diamond
field.
The government says it is appealing the High Court ruling in
favour of ACR.
Senior government officials have on various occasions
sought to create the
impression that ACR took too long to mine the Chiadzwa
diamonds
necessitating the need for the authorities to seize in October 2006
the
diamond field and allocate the claim to state-owned Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation.
But ACR chief executive Andrew Cranswick
said in a statement to ZimOnline
that the company's progress of work at
Chiadzwa was in keeping with industry
standards.
Cranswick said: "ACR
acquired the mineral rights over a 1 800-hectare area
over a period
stretching from early April 2006 to early June 2006. The cycle
of
exploration to discovery stage can take 1 month to 5 years.
"ACR took 5
months to discovery (of) gem quality diamonds and immediately
announced the
find to the London Stock Exchange (where the company is
listed) and to the
Zimbabwe government as required by law.
"The typical cycle of discovery
from exploration to discovery is production
is 1 to 10 years and requires
detailed feasibility studies and business
plans.
"ACR had commenced
this exercise in Sept 2006 but was forcibly and illegally
evicted in October
2006, just weeks after discovery. Under no circumstance
would any company
have undertaken production in such a short time in a
geological anomaly that
was barely understood."
Interestingly, while statements by government
officials have implied that
ACR overly delayed beginning mining operations
at Chiadzwa - a position that
to varying degrees has been repeated many
times by various publications
including ZimOnline - the state did not
mention this in court as the reason
it seized the diamond
field.
Harare sent the army to Chiadzwa after thousands of illegal miners
descended
on the diamond field, following the controversial ejection of
ACR.
A team from the Kimberley Process Certification System (KPCS) - the
world
diamond industry watchdog group - that visited Zimbabwe last June
issued an
interim report calling for a temporary ban on trade in diamonds
from
Chiadzwa after unearthing gross human rights violations and other
illegal
activities at the diamond field allegedly committed by the
army.
Human rights groups say police and soldiers sent to guard the
diamond field
used excessive and brutal force to take control of the diamond
field and
later began forcing villagers to illegally mine the diamonds for
sale on the
black market for precious minerals.
The army and police
have refused to leave Chiadzwa while Harare denies
allegations of human
rights abuses and says calls to ban diamonds from the
controversial diamond
field were unjustified because Zimbabwe was not
involved in a war or armed
conflict. - ZimOnline
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October 2009
22:07
THE Zanu PF succession race to replace the late Vice-President
Joseph
Msika and possibly fill the position of party chairman if it becomes
vacant
intensified this week, as infighting in Mashonaland West and Harare
further
heightened ahead of the party's congress in December.
The escalation of power struggles within Zanu PF deepened internal
strife in
a party already battling to prevent almost inevitable defeat by
the MDC wing
led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Zanu PF is also struggling to
maintain political cohesion and avoid
the threat of disintegration after
President Robert Mugabe's departure.
The scramble for power
shifted to Matabeleland this week after the
party's politburo last week gave
the region up to next Wednesday to select a
candidate to replace
Msika.
Official meetings and behind-the-scenes gatherings
to nominate a
candidate for vice-president have been taking place since last
Sunday and
were due to continue today.
The process to find
a candidate to replace Msika has fuelled a wave of
battles for power in the
party, guaranteeing incessant bickering in the
run-up to congress. The
infighting is expected to reach its climax in the
two months ahead, Zanu PF
insiders say.
The battle to replace Msika came as the political
situation was
rapidly deteriorating in Mashonaland West where politburo
members including
Ignatius Chombo and Webster Shamu are battling it out for
control with the
provincial executive council led by John Mafa who was this
week openly
threatened by a rival faction for refusing to bow to pressure
from politburo
members who want to wrest control of the
province.
Senior Zanu PF politburo members including party
chairman John Nkomo,
Didymus Mutasa, Nicholas Goche, Richard Ndlovu and
Absalom Sikhosana met
with provincial leaders at the party headquarters on
Wednesday to discuss
factionalism in Mashonaland West and
Harare.
The Mashonaland West provincial executive meets
this morning to
further review the crisis caused by clashes between
provincial politburo
members and the provincial executive. Chombo wrote to
Mafa on Tuesday asking
for a meeting on Sunday to tackle the problems but no
agreement had been
reached by yesterday on when to meet.
Warring Harare Zanu PF leaders are also meeting continuously to sort
out the
situation. The province has no substantive provincial executive due
to
factionalism.
After the politburo meeting on Thursday last
week, Zanu PF Bulawayo
provincial politburo and central committee members
met last Sunday on their
own and chose Nkomo as their candidate. On the same
day they also met with
the provincial coordinating committee members to
officially endorse Nkomo -
who was recently severely damaged by sodomy
allegations - as their nominee.
The provincial coordinating
committees - which act as election
directorates for provinces - comprise
provincial executive councils, central
committee, National Consultative
Assembly, Women's League and Youth League
members, as well as chairpersons
of district coordinating committees from
the relevant
province.
Bulawayo politburo member Sikhanyiso Ndlovu confirmed
Nkomo's
nomination but said consultations with other provinces were still
ongoing.
"We met as Bulawayo province on Sunday and came up with Nkomo as
our
candidate, but we are still waiting for the other provinces to finish
their
processes. After that we will continue to consult and lobby so that we
can
have one candidate," Ndlovu said.
"We are also
consulting other provinces outside Matabeleland for input
and advice even
though the position is reserved for Zapu because we want to
be national in
our outlook and inclusive."
Sources said while Nkomo sailed
through in Bulawayo, he was struggling
to jump hurdles to secure support in
Matabeleland North and Matabeleland
South. This has created a cutthroat
political contest in which the winner
will come out
bruised.
Sources said Nkomo was struggling in his home
Matabeleland North
province because Bulawayo governor Cain Mathema and
politburo member Obert
Mpofu - who are long shots - were jockeying for the
same position.
The sources said while Nkomo has an edge because he
is already in the
Zanu PF presidium, he is also helped by the fact that
Mathema is battling to
overcome a compromising political past of deadly
clashes with former Zipra
commanders in Zambia during the liberation
struggle.
Nkomo's cause is aided by the fact that Mpofu is seen as
an outsider
because he crossed the political floor to Zanu early and was not
a senior
Zapu official after all.
Sources said despite
these drawbacks, Mathema and Mpofu were still
soldiering
on.
In Matabeleland South, Nkomo is facing stiff competition
from former
PF Zapu chair Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu and Simon Khaya
Moyo.
Political trouble is expected to grow in Matabeleland
because if Nkomo
succeeds in getting nominated by all provinces - which is
still most likely
despite his battered reputation - there would also be
battles over the
position of chairman.
Naison Ndlovu and
Moyo are hoping that if they fail to beat Nkomo,
they could still squeeze
into the Zanu PF presidium as chairman. However,
Kembo Mohadi is also a
major contender for the position.
In terms of an internal Zanu
PF arrangement ensuing from the 1987
Unity Accord, Msika's position and the
chairmanship are only open to those
from PF Zapu.
This is
because Zapu and Zanu agreed to share the top four positions -
president,
two vice-presidents and chairman - equally although there was a
failed bid
in 1999 by politburo heavyweight Emmerson Mnangagwa to upset the
pecking
order.
Dumisani Muleya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October
2009 21:52
GOVERNMENT has threatened to shut down NewsDay, sister
publication to
the Zimbabwe Independent, if it hits the streets without
registration,
despite lack of clarity and controversy over the current
licensing
procedure.
George Charamba (pictured), Media,
Information and publicity permanent
secretary, this week told editors during
a Unesco-sponsored dialogue that
the state would stop new players from
publishing until ongoing media reforms
are completed.
Charamba said the High Court ruling nullifying the existence of the
Media
and Information Commission does not preclude the ministry from
demanding
licences from new players.
"What that judgment cannot do is to
stop the ministry from visiting a
publication that is on the street to ask
it to produce its licence," said
Charamba. "That we will do without fear or
favour - get it from me because
you will be breaking the law. That we will
definitely do.
"If you find yourself on the street without
proper registration, ahh,
you are inviting us and we will react
instantly."
He added: "We have a very funny situation where
Barnabas (Thondhlana -
editor- designate of NewsDay) should be editing a
paper but can't do it
because there is no registering authority. And
certainly he knows that if he
goes on the street asina (without)
registration, Charamba will be on him."
He said the creation of
ZMC "implies an enabling law which is not yet
in place". He said new titles
could still publish before the enactment of
the law but not before the
issuance of licences.
"Barnabas, if you start publishing
without a registration, you will be
in breach of the law," he said. "What we
will do is to go to the police and
say there is a foreigner on the street,
can you get his credentials and they
will come to you and ask you 'where is
your registration'? If it is nowhere
to be found, naturally the police will
take up the matter and ask the AG to
prosecute."
Following
the formation of an inclusive government between President
Robert Mugabe,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Arthur
Mutambara, publishers
were hopeful that new publications would be
established against a backdrop
of restrictive media laws.
But since the proposed plans to open
media space, only the
government-controlled Zimpapers group has been
granted a licence to run a
new daily, the H-Metro.
Referring to
a High Court order that nullified the existence of the
Media and Information
Commission, Charamba said the ministry would continue
to monitor the
press.
"All the pieces of law that were made by way of amending
the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act and creating
constitutional
amendment Number 19 did not kill off the Media and
Information Commission.
The only one that came close to killing off MIC was
constitutional amendment
No 19 which meant essentially MIC was there,"
Charamba said.
Charamba said the current transitional period of
shifting the
registration mandate from the MIC to the soon-to-be established
Zimbabwe
Media Commission had created a "funny situation".
"We have a very funny situation where Barnabas (Thondhlana) should be
editing a paper but can't do it because there is no registering authority.
Again you have another problem Barnabas, ZMC implies an enabling law which
is not yet in place."
He said the ZMC will come into being
together with three other
constitutional commissions - Zimbabwe Human Rights
Commission, Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission and Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption
Commission - are put in
place.
The Ministry of Media,
Charamba claimed, "checked" with the
Attorney-General's Office whether there
were any "loopholes" that could
expedite the publication of new newspapers
but the government legal advisor
dismissed that possibility. His ministry,
he said, was "uncomfortable" with
the present situation.
Despite this development, Charamba said he was not "hopeless" that the
new
publication would hit the street given the "quick march" in establishing
the
media commission.
"It won't be long before you get your
registration", he said.
Charamba's remarks have however
attracted a flurry of reactions from
within government.
Deputy Media, Information and Publicity minister Jameson Timba said:
"Zimbabwe is not a police state. It is not the policy of this government
that its employees go around threatening citizens with arrest for imagined
crimes.
"The alleged remarks and threats by Secretary
Charamba to cause the
arrest of Editors of NewsDay are not only unfortunate
and regrettable but
do not represent government policy and are not in
keeping with the Zimbabwe
the three political parties in government have
committed to create."
Meanwhile, DPM Athur Mutambara has said
the appointments of boards
under the Media, Information and Publicity
ministry by Minister Webster
Shamu would be reversed because they were
irregular and unprocedural.
"Those appointments are null and
void," Mutambara said in an interview
on BBC's Hardtalk yesterday. "The
cabinet was not consulted, the prime
minister was not consulted. We are
going to reverse them."
Zimbabwe Journalists for Human Rights
have also slammed Shamu for
appointing retired army officers. To date Shamu
has appointed two retired
brigadier-generals and one retired major-general
to the ZBH board and at
least another two retired senior army officers to
other boards.
"Why should the military and war veterans be
entrusted with the
national media?" reads a statement issued by the
ZJHR.
"Surely the country is not at war with anybody that
government sees it
fit to militarise civil organisations. Instead of
bringing guns and bayonets
to the media, the government should be allowing
closed newspapers to open
and independent television stations and radios to
open. The government
should be busy promoting freedom of the press by
allowing new players to
come in."
The pressure group also
threatened legal action against "illegalities
associated with the running of
the Zimpapers newspaper group".
"It is also the view of ZJHR
that media hangman, Tafataona Mahoso, who
presided over the closure of at
least five newspapers and who denied
licences to more media houses, is not
fit to head the Broadcasting Authority
of Zimbabwe Board (BAZ). His
appointment is an indication that the
government is not interested in the
democratisation and opening up of the
airwaves."-Staff Writer
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October 2009
21:48
THE MDC has dropped from its constitution a clause limiting the
party
president's terms in office, thus extending Morgan Tsvangirai's
possible
tenure to beyond 2011. In what sources in the party said was an
unconstitutional move, the MDC removed clause 6.1.3, which said the
president shall serve for a maximum of two terms.
The
sources said no amendment was brought before the party's last
congress in
2006 to remove the limit.
Also missing from the constitution is
clause 6.2.2, which also limited
the terms of the vice-presidents.
According to the MDC constitution, any amendment to the constitution
requires approval by at least two-thirds of delegates present and voting at
congress.
The Zimbabwe Independent is in possession of the
two versions of the
constitution, the 2000 one and the other printed in May
this year, which is
being distributed to party organs.
According to the 2000 constitution, Tsvangirai was supposed to step
down in
2011, paving way for his successor to take over.
What the new
amendment means is that Tsvangirai will decide when he
wants to step
down.
Constitutional lawyer, who was co-author of the 2000 MDC
constitution,
and a close MDC ally, Lovemore Madhuku, said Tsvangirai would
remain in
office until he chooses to step down.
"There is
no chance of Morgan Tsvangirai being replaced in the MDC
unless he steps
down. Don't expect anyone in the MDC to challenge him,"
Madhuku
said.
"The MDC will not have a change of leadership any time soon.
We will
have no leadership change in Zanu PF and no leadership change in
MDC, but
might have a scenario of disillusioned members from both forming
their own
party."
While Madhuku was criticised for
extending his term as chairperson of
the National Constitutional Assembly by
amending the assembly's
constitution, he said at least it was done before
their congress not like
what happened in the MDC which never brought it
before the people.
An MDC top official, who preferred not to be
named, confirmed that the
amendment was not brought before the 2006
congress.
He said some people proposed at an executive council
meeting before
the congress that the clause be brought before the people for
amendment but
Tsvangirai said it should be left as is.
"Tsvangirai didn't want to come out as if he is trying to hold on to
power.
Bringing it before the congress would have raised a lot of debate and
they
were worried that it might attract negative debate," the official said.
"However, the president now no longer has terms. It was not amended by the
congress. This is complete thuggery. There is a current constitution which
they are distributing and that clause was simply left out. It was simply
chopped off - it was a matter of 'highlighting, copying and deleting' the
clause. Unless you have a copy of the 2000 constitution with the clause
6.1.3 stating that the president shall serve for a maximum two terms, it's
as if it never existed."
The sources alleged that MDC
secretary general Tendai Biti printed the
current constitution "under
duress".
Biti and party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa could not
be reached for
comment last night as they were out of the country on
government business.
The MDC has been hit by reports of
infighting with some alleging that
Biti is trying to upstage
Tsvangirai.
The source said Biti and his people want Tsvangirai to take
them into
government first and then take over from him as head of a party in
power.
The sources said a recent document on the party's
positions on the
constitution-making was also doctored after a
pro-Tsvangirai camp in the MDC
executive rejected a proposal by Biti that
the state president should be
elected by parliament. This, the sources said,
was changed to say the state
president should be in office through popular
vote.
The document was circulated to MDC MPs a fortnight ago
who fumed and
questioned who the author was because they were not consulted
to make their
submissions.
While Chamisa admitted to an
online publication recently that the
president's term was no longer limited,
he seemed to contradict himself.
He said the constitution
speaks of two-five-year terms without
necessarily speaking of limiting
people in terms of their offices.
"We insist that the terms of
office in the party are supposed to be
five years, then you go back to
elections. But in terms of government, we
have said those who should serve
government, they should serve a maximum of
two terms," Chamisa was quoted as
saying. "Meaning to say that if someone
gets into office as president, like
President Tsvangirai, he will serve a
maximum of two five year-terms each to
have the 10 years as president. It's
the same thing for all cadres. That is
the position that is clear in the
constitution of the MDC."
At the second MDC congress in 2006, Tsvangirai promised to hand over
power
once Zimbabwe was restored to full democracy.
"It has never
been my intention to hold on to power after the people
liberated themselves
from this dictatorship. My contract with the people
does not extend beyond a
certain time-frame," said Tsvangirai. "A new
Zimbabwe, a new beginning has
no room for life presidents. My wish is to
execute our mandate in an honest
and vigorous manner: preside over a
transition to full democracy and pass on
the baton to another Zimbabwean. I
believe there must be an exciting life
for a pensioner - whether that
pensioner is a peasant, former factory
cleaner or a former president. I
pledge to honour my word."
Faith Zaba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October 2009
21:40
A NON-PARTISIAN attitude characterised the opening of the second
session of the seventh parliament this week. Unlike the usual jeering and
interjections by MDC MPs when President Robert Mugabe last addressed
parliament, this time they behaved honourably as described by the president
at a luncheon held after the opening.
One would have
thought that there was one political party in the
House.
Political analysts have attributed such behaviour to the "fatherly
manner"
in which Mugabe presented his speech, something they said he has not
done in
a decade.
Describing the atmosphere in parliament during his
speech, Mugabe
said: "There was discipline in parliament. Last year MPs were
still raw,
they are polished now, they are dignified and they can be called
honourable.
Last year they were dishonourable."
However
some say there was nothing new in Mugabe's speech, but that it
instead
managed to attract praise singing from the MDC formations, which if
not
careful could lead to the parties being sucked into Mugabe's
system.
Political analyst Eldred Masunungure said he was
impressed that Mugabe
was able to deliver his speech without arousing anger
and that he had
finally managed to be a true statesman.
Masungure said: "It was the demeanour and the tone Mugabe carried as
he
delivered his speech. I assessed it as statesman-like and this is
something
he has not done for a long time - more than a decade since this
political
crisis started.
"His speech was well balanced, level headed and
concurrent not only
with the letter of the Global Political Agreement (GPA)
but with the GPA
spirit and the inclusive government."
Masunungure said even some MDC parliamentarians that he spoke to were
equally surprised.
"I was impressed that he was able to
deliver something without
arousing anger like what happened in the first
session of the parliament and
when he finished his speech he actually
greeted some MP's across the
divide."
"I talked to one or
two MDC-T MPs and they were pleasantly surprised.
In a way they were
disarmed, it's like going into a battle and find that
after carrying weapons
your enemy does not have any."
"Mugabe delivered his speech in
a fatherly manner. It was a
nation-building message. The three titles that
always append to his name
(head of state and government, commander in chief
of Zimbabwe Defence
Forces) are national institutions so he should be a
national figure. After a
long time, he has found his national voice and this
is something that has to
be praised for even if you don't agree with Zanu
PF."
As the tradition, Mugabe and the First Lady, Grace drove
to the House
in an open Rolls Royce, accompanied by mounted
police.
A small crowd of party supporters, frantically shouted
"Gushungo,
Gushungo" as the car drew close to Parliament
Building.
When Mugabe got into the House, unlike at the first
opening session
when MDC MPs did not stand up, they all stood
up.
Last year during the first session halfway through his
speech when he
praised former South African president Thabo Mbeki for
facilitating dialogue
with the MDC and also when he attacked rampant
inflation, Mugabe was jeered
and interjected by MDC MPs.
MDC MPs shouted things like "You killed people, we know that."
When he talked about sanctions and the issue of the economic crisis,
MDC MPs
shouted "Zanu-PF is rotting." and "We are together in the struggle,
no
amount of beatings and killings will deter us".
On Tuesday it
was the opposite. They all sat in silence as Mugabe
delivered his speech.
Mugabe said Zimbabwe was ready to engage the West with
a view to normalising
relations. He, however, stressed that re-engagement
should lead to the
removal of sanctions.
Mugabe said: "Our country remains in a
positive stance to enter into
fresh, friendly and co-operative relations
with all those countries that
have been hostile to us in the
past.
"We will also continue to engage our international
partners on a
bilateral level through Joint Commissions of Co-operation and
other
treaties, in order to drum up support for our economic recovery
programme.
"Following the launch of the Zimbabwe-European Union
dialogue in
Brussels early this year, our re-engagement with the European
bloc is
gathering momentum. However, as our inclusive government re-engages
the
Western countries, we expect those countries that have imposed illegal
sanctions which have hurt and continue to hurt our economy and the
generality of the people to remove them."
He urged
Zimbabweans to unite for economic turnaround, saying national
development
was a collective responsibility.
"Together, let us build the
bridges of amity, forgiveness, trust and
togetherness," he
said.
"Let us be the Zimbabwe united in body, mind and spirit.
Only that way
can we really succeed."
However National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairman Lovemore
Madhuku said it would be a
lie to say Mugabe's speech was different saying
for the past years he has
never used the opening of parliament to do
anything other than that. Madhuku
said: "To say Mugabe's speech was balanced
and mature is nonsense. Those are
just partisan comments. There is
absolutely nothing new about what Mugabe
did."
He said during the opening of the first session the jeers
and heckling
were a result of what had taken place and the "one man race" in
which Mugabe
won the elections after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
decided to pull out
due to violence.
"The jeers of the last
session were not based on content. They were
based on the mere fact that
Mugabe was opening parliament following the
flawed elections," he
said.
A number of Bills would be tabled before the second
session.
Among the Bills are the Human Rights Commission Bill
to regulate
matters related to the establishment of the commission, Public
Finance
Management Bill to spearhead economic recovery, Audit Office Bill,
Mines and
Minerals Amendment Bill, Energy Regulatory Bill, Small and Medium
enterprises bill to improve SME's operating environment, amendment to the
Education Act to address methods of payment of fees and levies, amendments
to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act and amendments to the Railways Act to
provide for more deterrent penalties for the theft and vandalism of
infrastructure.
The first session was criticised for
closing without any significant
discussion.
What promised
to be healthy debates, however, turned out to be
insignificant.
For instance, there was a motion moved by
MDC-T Masvingo Urban MP
Tongai Matutu calling upon parliament to set up a
committee to probe
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana on allegations of
selective prosecutions.
Matutu accused Tomana of targeting MDC
lawmakers for prosecution.
Zanu PF leader in parliament
Emmerson Mnangagwa has since written to
House of Assembly Speaker Lovemore
Moyo saying the adoption of Matutu's
motion would create a constitutional
crisis as the motion infringed on the
doctrine of separation of powers. Moyo
said he would seek legal opinion on
the matter.
MPs also
spent much time debating trivial issues outside parliament
such as whether
or not to surrender vehicles as ordered by Finance Minister
Tendai Biti that
had been loaned to them by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Masunungure said the first session of the parliament was not
robust.
"They did not meet for a long time and they would break
for a long
time. The parliamentarians did not do anything about the GPA.
They slept on
their jobs," he said.
"Hope in this second
session is that they are going to be more awake
as there is a lot to
discuss. We can only hope, trust and pray that they
will be more active and
also hope that they will be the watchdog of the
executive because that is
their job."
Madhuku said that there was nothing much to expect
from the second
session "except the beginning of praise songs for Mugabe as
shown by the
parliamentarians' behaviour.
"Parliament will
not have any meaningful discourse in this inclusive
government because it is
dominated by one group. Parliament without
opposition will not have a
meaningful discussion. In this second session we
expect more and more
speeches that give praise to the president. It will be
the beginning of
praise songs in parliament, something that we had forgotten
about."
Wongai Zhangazha
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08
October 2009 21:31
MEDIA, Information and Publicity minister Webster
Shamu last week
"unilaterally" made appointments to six media institutions
which fall under
the ministry.
The appointments were roundly
condemned by media organisations and the
Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC. Our
political editor Faith Zaba interviewed Shamu's
deputy Jameson Timba on the
issue, in which he dismissed the appointments as
illegal. Below are excerpts
of the interview.
Zaba: Last week, you said the
appointment of the Zimpapers board was
unlawful and that of the Broadcasting
Authority of Zimbabwe (Baz) was
unprocedural and invalid. Dr Paul Chimedza,
the acting chairman of
Zimpapers, responded in a story in the Herald on
Tuesday saying the
appointments were procedural because they were filling
vacancies.
Permanent secretary in your ministry George Charamba in the
same
Herald story seems to have apologised to you for having erroneously
included
the Zimpapers Board list among the list of other parastatal boards
under the
ministry announced last week. What is your comment on these
issues?
Timba: Firstly, the explanations given are the biggest
joke in the
corporate history of Zimbabwe. It's like a young boy who has
been caught by
his mother stealing sugar and his lips are covered all over
with the
sweetener, but still says I didn't do it mum. Charamba should
apologise, not
to me for his acts of omission or commission regarding
Zimpapers, but to the
generality of the people of Zimbabwe who through the
Mass Media Trust of
Zimbabwe are the legitimate co-owners of Zimpapers. I am
just an elected
people's representative who will not shy away from defending
the interests
of Zimbabweans when they are being short
changed.
Zaba: What is your position regarding the legality of
the board?
Timba: That board is as unlawful as it was before
Chimedza and
Charamba spoke and more so after they have spoken. Firstly, how
does
Chimedza become an acting chairman of a board that he is no longer a
member
of? The chairperson as announced is Dr (Charles) Utete. Secondly, at
what
stage did he and others fill the vacancies? Was it after they had
resigned
their own positions or before? What was announced was a completely
new board
which excludes him and two others who were in the previous board.
Thirdly,
assuming that Chimedza and three others were filling casual
vacancies which
are disputed, do they have the legitimate authority to do so
when their own
original appointment was unlawful?
Zaba:
What do you mean by saying the appointment of Chimedza and three
others were
unlawful?
Timba: They were not elected by the shareholders of
the company so
whose financial interests do they represent? They were
initially unlawfully
appointed by the previous Information and Publicity
minister. So an
illegitimate board cannot create a legitimate one by filling
vacancies.
Zaba: What is then the way forward?
Timba: A return to the rule of law is the way forward and if any of
the
people who were unlawfully appointed to this board are self-respecting
then
they should distance themselves from this illegality. In addition, it
is up
to the shareholders of the company to regularise their board otherwise
they
will face serious problems in future if that board makes decisions that
affect their interests. The decisions of an unlawful board are a nullity and
since the members of that board do not have the protection of the law and
corporate veil because they were not properly appointed, then they run the
risk of being liable personally for any decisions they make which affect the
legitimate interests of others. As a government we should operationalise the
Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust so that it can assume its rightful place as one of
the major legitimate shareholders of Zimpapers.
Zaba: Why
then has an impression been created, including in the
Herald and other
publications, that Zimpapers was owned by government and
controlled by it
through the Information ministry.
Timba: You see, the
government of Zimbabwe has never been an owner of
the Zimpapers group. The
owners have been the generality of the people of
Zimbabwe through a public
trust irrespective of the government of the day or
political affiliation.
What has been happening is that over the years each
subsequent Information
minister has been abusing these papers and using them
as a private army to
fight real or perceived enemies within their own party
or outside
it.
Zaba: What is the position on Baz?
Timba:
Before we get to Baz. Let me also tell you that the
appointments of the
boards of New Ziana (Pvt) Ltd and Kingstons Holdings
Limited are also
unlawful. Those two companies are not owned by the
government of Zimbabwe.
They are owned by the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust. The
trust deed of Mass
Media Trust does not empower the Minister of Media to act
on its behalf
under any circumstances. Only the trustees can act on behalf
of the trust.
So, let's wait and hear whether officers in our ministry also
included these
two boards on the published list in error.
Zaba: And
Baz?
Timba: That Board is unlawful and cannot legally act on
behalf of that
authority. There are two procedural and legal issues that
must be satisfied.
Firstly, all board appointments which the president must
make on
recommendation from either a minister or parliament to a state
enterprise or
parastatal, service commission or constitutional commission
can only be
valid if the appointments are done in consultation with the
prime minister.
This means that the president and prime minister must agree
on each
individual before the president formalises an appointment.
Article 20.1.3(p) of the 8th schedule of the constitution is clear
and it
states that the president "in consultation with the Prime Minister,
makes
key appointments the President is required to make under and in terms
of the
constitution and any Act of Parliament''.
If that is not done then that
board or commission is invalid.
Secondly, with respect to Baz, after the
president and prime minister have
agreed on all the members of the board the
office of the president must then
seek the views of the Standing Rules &
Orders Committee of Parliament (SROC)
with respect to nine of the members
although not bound by its
recommendations whilst they are bound to appoint
at least three from six
nominations made by the SROC.
Zaba:
From what you are saying it seems of the six boards announced,
only two are
legitimate, that is the ZBH and the Transmedia boards.
Timba:
To some extent there are problems with those two too. You see
government is
an animal of rules. If you sidestep them you create anarchy.
In addition to
the procedures listed above it is also a cabinet procedural
requirement that
you cannot proceed to recommend the appointment of a board
of a state
enterprise without consulting and in fact without showing
evidence of having
consulted the State Enterprises and Parastatals ministry.
Zaba:
What are your views about the individuals appointed to these
boards?
Timba: I am not at this juncture concerned about
individuals but
processes and procedures. Individuals are a function of
process and
procedures. If the correct procedure is followed then some of
the
individuals will not be there. Most of the board members appointed
through
the flawed process are either friends or colleagues of the
recommending
authority and not necessarily the best Zimbabweans for the
job.
Zaba: Have you raised any of these issues with your
colleagues in the
ministry?
Timba: I do not have a platform
to do so. The minister and the
secretary (Charamba) hold management meetings
to which they do not invite
me. They make most of their decisions and I see
them in the newspaper like
every other Zimbabwean. Unless we are forced to
meet because there is a
requirement to do so from another office then I am
excluded. I am supposed
to be the deputy spokesperson of this inclusive
government but, I am
excluded in its processes including not being given
information on
government decisions which if the minister is not reachable I
am supposed to
communicate.
Zaba: Independent lawmaker
Jonathan Moyo in an article published in
the Sunday Mail recently said you
are part of a nexus that includes Jessie
Majome, Eddie Cross and Roy Bennett
that ensures that Andrew Chadwick of the
Prime Minister's office is paid.
What is your comment to that?
Timba: My Friend Jonathan Moyo is
a seasonal rather than a serious
politician. No serious person takes him
seriously in this country except
maybe those who took seriously a n'anga who
says you can extract pure diesel
from a rock. Firstly, I am not part to any
nexus neither is there a parallel
government in the Prime Minister's Office.
Secondly, it is preposterous to
suggest that MDC is pursuing a regime change
agenda.
If he says the MDC is pursuing democratic change within the
inclusive
government he will be correct. Equally he will be correct to say
we will
enter the next electoral race in order to win. Thirdly, I have no
time to
engage Moyo on trivia such as whether Andrew Chadwick is able to pay
his
bills or not. If he cannot, I will gladly pay them from my own pocket.
The
only crime committed by Andrew Chadwick, according to Moyo and those who
think like him, is that he happened to be born white.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October
2009 19:28
A DRIVE around the countryside brings a sickening feeling of
despair.
There is very little land preparation for the 2009-2010 farming
season on
the farms, particularly the large-scale farming areas. Normally by
now,
tilling of land would be underway.
When the Zimbabwe
Independent, drove along the Harare-Shamva Road, an
area with some of the
best soils in the country, tilling of most farms had
not even started, yet
this area is considered to be one of the country's
prime farming
areas.
So what exactly is the problem?
Government does not seem to learn from past mistakes. Once again,
preparations for the next agricultural season are off the rails as the
country faces serious financial problems for farming
activities.
With poor planning, the country faces another poor
harvest even if it
receives good rains this season.
In what
appears like deja vu, there are hazy preparations for the
agricultural
season which could lead to massive shortages.
Zimbabwe is
targeting around 65 000 hectares of land under tobacco,
2,4 million tonnes
of maize and about 150 000 hectares under cotton.
These figures
appear modest when compared to what was achieved when
the country's
agriculture sector was at its peak, and it is slowly becoming
clear that
efforts to revive the sector are a mirage.
Analysts in the
agriculture sector said more than US$2,5 billion is
needed to ensure a
successful season, but what has been raised so far is an
insignificant
US$280 million.
Of the US$280 million available for the 2009-10
agriculture season,
US$210 million is meant for commercial farmers and would
be administered
through banks while the other US$70 million was mobilised by
non-governmental organisations for communal farmers.
Farmers' organisations said preparations were still hazy.
They
said chaotic preparations for the agriculture season are a threat
to the
country's food security as well as efforts to revive industry which
is
stuttering at around 30% of capacity.
By now, preparations for
the production of both food and cash crops
should have been concluded but it
appears set targets might not be met
unless there is a sharp change in
policy and coordination of efforts to
revive industry.
Paul
Zacharia, director of the Zimbabwe Farmers' Union, said: "There
is nothing
clear yet and what we thought was going to the communal farmer
has been
diverted and is now available to the commercial farmers through the
Grain
Marketing Board. Commercial farmers should have gotten loans from
banks.
"Communal farmers need up to US$800 million to meet
their needs during
the year yet we have had promises of US$70 million and
this is far short of
what is needed."
Worsening an already
dire situation is the fact that there is
confusion over who should play what
role to stimulate the sector which
drives the entire
economy.
It appears that policy makers have not learnt anything
from the
failure of the last season, which was largely due to poor
preparations.
There is not much in terms of land preparations
at most large scale
farms as farmers who had enjoyed subsidies from
government are still
grappling with the reality that they now have to
finance their farming
activities.
While commercial farmers
appear to have been catered for through the
US$210 million loan facility,
there are problems with accessing the finance.
Bankers said
they have to follow a meticulous process of identifying
farmers who would be
able to repay.As such, there is need to have collateral
which is a problem
since farmers cannot borrow against their 99-year leases.
President of the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe John Mangudya said
this is
the month when land preparation should be completed and they were
looking
for the best way forward.
"The best way forward is that each
farmer approaches the bank and an
assessment to check if the farmer would be
able to pay is done.
"Once the loan application has been
approved by the bank, the farmer
takes a bank cheque to the GMB for the
purpose of payment of inputs," said
Mangudya.
Farmers are
then expected to repay the loans after nine months.
While it
would take farmers nine months to repay the loans, the banks
are expected to
have repaid the loans they have received through lines of
credit by March
next year, thus there is need for bridging finance.
It is
therefore imperative that banks recover their loans after
farmers have
harvested. The banks also have a duty to ensure farmers deliver
their crops
to the GMB.
"We are expecting minimum security so that the
farmers would be able
to secure the loans and we are looking at asset-based
lending where the
farmers can borrow against the crop which was realised
last year, or against
their livestock," said Mangudya.
"We
are also lending against some of the equipment that the farmers
received
last year and it would be a pity if the farmers refused this.
Farmers with
first class properties may also be able to borrow against
these."
These loans are specifically for inputs, meaning
farmers have to
source finance for fuel, power, wages and other
necessities.
This presents a problem as banks are not in a
position to give much
since they are also caught in a liquidity crunch and
at the same time the
farmers do not have the collateral that is
needed.
Speaking at a media briefing that was called by the
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe and attended by several executives of banks, ZB
Financial Holdings
chief executive Elisha Mushayakarara said it was a pity
that not much
progress had been made.
"It is a pity that we
are already in October but we are not agreed on
where we are really
going.
"It is not easy but the agricultural season is upon us,
the rains will
come and again they will be gone and next year we will sit
here again with
nothing to eat," said Mushayakarara.
He
urged the banking sector to work together for the success of the
coming
season.
A failure to produce enough food would see the country
importing food
once again and this would put pressure on the financial
resources which the
state is struggling to mobilise.
This
would be made worse if the country fails to produce cash crops
such as
tobacco which contribute significantly towards Zimbabwe's export
receipts.
In a good season, agriculture accounts for 18% of the country's
gross
domestic product and 41% of Zimbabwe's export receipts.
Zimbabwe's agriculture industry also accounts for around 15% of formal
employment.
Leonard Makombe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October 2009 21:18
THE Reserve Bank has reportedly frozen Nestlé Zimbabwe's bank accounts
and
ordered a forensic audit into its dealings, amid reports that government
was
hitting back on the firm after its decision to stop buying milk from a
farm
owned by the first lady Grace Mugabe.
Central bank governor Gideon
Gono last night confirmed the bank was
probing the company on "two
transactions".
There were two or so transactions which were made which
we thought
were irregular," said Gono. "These have been explained and things
are back
to normal. We have to be on the look out for any irregular
transactions."
Gono said the probe had nothing to do with the Nestlé's
decision to
stop buying milk from Mugabe's farm.
"It (the probe)
has nothing to do with anything. We do that all the
time where we think that
there are irregularities," he said.
However sources at Nestlé Zimbabwe
told businessdigest last night that
two of their five banks had confirmed
receiving directives from the central
bank to freeze the accounts pending
forensic audits.
The company, the sources said, had been under pressure
from various
quarters since its announcement last week that it had stopped
buying milk
from Arda Gushungo - a farm owned by Grace.
"We use
five banks and we were today (yesterday) informed by two of
them that our
accounts had been frozen on the instructions of the Reserve
Bank of
Zimbabwe," a senior official at Nestlé Zimbabwe said. "We understand
the
bank intends to carry out forensic audits. The bank is yet to inform us
on
their decision to freeze our accounts and the nature of the probe they
intend to undertake."
The sources said a senior government official
(name supplied) on
Monday phoned the company and told the firm that its
decision to stop buying
milk from Grace's farm was an "extension of European
Union and the United
States sanctions on the first family".
The
suspension of the company's accounts, the sources said, would lead
to a
delay in payment for milk deliveries and it also means that the firm
will
not be able to use the money in their accounts without the approval of
the
central bank.
This would cripple the operations of the
company.
"The decision to stop accepting milk from Arda Gushungo has
been
viewed by certain individuals as an extension of sanctions to the first
family and they may now want to get angry on behalf of the first family,"
another source said. "We are sure that this is aimed at crippling the
operations of the milk processing company."
A number of accusations
have been made against the company including
allegations that it was only
accepting milk from white farmers and shunning
new black farmers.
However, it is reported that the company's largest supplier of milk is
Lovemore Mugabe, a black Wedza farmer who is not related to the president
though.
Nestlé Zimbabwe accepted milk from a sizeable number of
farmers last
year after other players in the sector had failed to pay for
milk delivered
which posed a threat to the survival of the milk sector in
the country.
Their acceptance of milk from these farmers was done to
save the
industry and it was not a permanent arrangement.
While the
issue may have started as a political one, there are likely
to be economic
interests from certain individuals who may be seeing an
opportunity pounce
on the company.
This is a company that won the 2009 Confederation of
Zimbabwe
Industries exporter of the year award and there are suspicions that
monetary
authorities may want to look at loopholes pertaining to remission
of foreign
currency.
Nestlé Zimbabwe is a wholly owned subsidiary
of Nestlé which is
headquartered in Switzerland.
The Swiss
Confederation on the behalf of the milk processing company
13 years ago
entered into a bilateral agreement with the government of
Zimbabwe.
Leonard Makombe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October 2009
21:17
NEW Dawn Mining, the owner of Turk and Angelus, has dumped its
South
African venture to focus on operations in Zimbabwe. This is in "light
of
substantial opportunities now present in Zimbabwe".
In a
statement on Wednesday, the company said: "New Dawn intends to
focus
exclusively on expanding output at its Turk and Angelus Mines in
Zimbabwe,
furthering exploration on its options claims in Zimbabwe, and
pursuing
acquisition opportunities in Zimbabwe that are value accretive.
"In
pursuing its Zimbabwe focused growth strategy, management has
determined
that its Blue Dot Mine Development Project in South Africa is no
longer a
part of the company's corporate focus.
"As such, New Dawn has shut down
the Blue Dot Mine Development
project, and has decided to place Blue Dot
into provisional liquidation, a
legal process under South African law that
provides for an orderly sale,
liquidation or winding up of the
business."
A provisional liquidation would allow New Dawn to
effectively manage
the disposal of the asset.
Turk mine has been
enjoying the improved environment and has seen gold
output steadily
increasing since May this year.
This followed the reopening of the mine
in the first quarter of the
year after most mines closed last year as a
result of viability problems.
In commenting on its South African
Project, New Dawn said the Blue Dot
Project had not generated any revenue
from gold sales that were sold to them
from the two Zimbabwean
entities.
"As such, New Dawn confirms that gold sales and production
figures as
generated from its Turk Mine in Zimbabwe will not be affected in
any way as
a result of the Blue Dot closure," Ian Saunders, president and
chief
executive officer of New Dawn, said. "We have a producing mine in
Zimbabwe
in which output has increased for five consecutive months and we
are well on
our way to increasing output and continuing to examine other
value accretive
opportunities in a country where our expertise lies and
significant
opportunity is present in an ever-improving political and
economic
environment."
New Dawn is a Zimbabwe-focused junior gold
company which is currently
involved in gold production at its Turk and
Angelus Mines.
It also explores for gold, identifies and pursues other
development
projects, as well as actively assessing opportunities in
Zimbabwe.
New Dawn owns the mines in the upper southwest area of
Zimbabwe that
has the potential to produce an estimated 35 000 to 50 000
ounces of gold
per annum. - Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October 2009 21:09
AN international foundation on governance has ranked Zimbabwe as one
of the
black sheep of the Southern African region and the continent during
the past
year ahead of strife-torn Somalia and Chad.
According to the Mo Ibrahim
Index of African Governance released on
Monday, Zimbabwe was placed 51 out
of the 53 African countries judged for
their commitment to four pillars of
governance - safety and rule of law;
participation and human rights;
sustainable economic opportunity and human
development.
The latest
index became the first since its introduction in 2007 to
include 53 African
countries following previous criticisms over its
exclusion of North African
nations.
Zimbabwe had an overall score of 33,3 out 100. In the region
Zimbabwe
was ranked the worst performer.
The index also measures
the delivery of public goods and services by
government and non-state
actors.
"Eighty-four indicators are used making the Ibrahim index the
most
comprehensive collection of qualitative and quantitative data that
accesses
governance in Africa," the foundation said.
Simply put
"governance" means: the process of decision-making
and the process by
which decisions are implemented (or not
implemented).
Mauritius was
ranked the top performer with an overall score of 82,8
out of 100. Cape
Verde was second with 78, while Seychelles was third with
77,1. Fourth and
fifth positions went to Botswana (73,6) and South Africa
(69,4).
Somalia was ranked the worst performer at number 53 with a score of
15,2.
Chad was number 52 with a score of 29.
Recently the terms "governance"
and "good governance" are being
increasingly used in development literature.
Bad governance is being
increasingly regarded as one of the root causes of
all evil within
societies.
Major donors and international financial
institutions are increasingly
basing their aid and loans on the condition
that reforms that ensure "good
governance" are undertaken. Zimbabwe's
governance has over the past 10 year
been classified as "bad" due to the
unstable economic environment which has
been breeding ground for corruption
unaccountability and ineffectiveness.
Universally good governance has
eight major
characteristics -participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable,
transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive
and follows the rule of law.
It assures that corruption is
minimised, the views of minorities are
taken into account and that the
voices of the most vulnerable in society are
heard in decision-making. It is
also responsive to the present and future
needs of society.
Mo
Ibrahim is the founder of Celtel International and one of Africa's
most
successful business leaders. Originally from Sudan, Ibrahim is a global
expert in mobile communications with a distinguished academic and business
career.
The foundation traditionally confers an annual US$5million
African
leadership award to former prime ministers and presidents.
The prize committee, chaired by former United Nations secretary
general Kofi
Annan, will later this month award the US$5 million to a
president or
premier who demonstrated excellence in leadership during their
time in
office.
The prize winner will in addition receive US$200 000 annually
for life
thereafter.
Former Botswana president, Festus Mogae won
the record award last year
while Mozambique's second post conflict leader
Joaquim Chissano became a
laureate in 2007.
"The prize money is
designed to work in conjunction with billions of
dollars of development
spending, foreign investment and national resources.
If a country is well
governed this means there will be a significant
increase in the
effectiveness and impact of all funds in the country," the
foundation
said.
Paul Nyakazeya/Bernard Mpofu
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
| Thursday, 08 October 2009 21:27 |
|
THE Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Youth Committee would like to respond to an article written by Jonathan Moyo, independent MP for Tsholotsho North in the Zimbabwe Independent of September 25 where he castigated the coalition for not respecting his rights to free association. Firstly, it should be noted that the coalition is not an appendage of the Movement for Democratic Change, rather it is an amalgam of over 45 civic organisations formed in August 2001 in response to the serious political, economic, and social crisis and human rights violations that engulfed the country from 1998. It is a serious misconception that any civic society organisation in Zimbabwe that finds itself in congruence with the MDC is vilified as a regime change agent, a lapdog of the West and a formation of the USAid or any other such international agencies.
Unless Jonathan Moyo would like to mislead Zimbabweans by arguing that it is illegal, and unwarranted for the coalition to carry out such noble causes. Moreover, just as much as the honourable MP has a right to associate with any political party of his choice, the coalition also has a right to freely express its views and opinions about political activities of public office bearers such as Moyo.
In fact, this is what the coalition stands for in terms of its work –– promoting and respecting other people’s views and enhancing tolerance in Zimbabwe. However, The coalition’s youth committee is convinced that it has every right to ask public officials such as MPs critical questions of accountability particularly when Zimbabweans are under siege from serious propaganda from political turncoats like Moyo.
It is an act of serious treachery and betrayal to the masses from Tsholotsho who endured brazen violence from Zanu PF supporters and state security agents in 2008 for him to suddenly change track and turn back to Zanu PF.
Arnold Chamunogwa |
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October
2009 19:58
'Namibia is a land of the brave," former president Sam
Nujoma said
recently, "but not for jokes and laughter". That's because
there's only one
joke in Nambia and it's Nujoma. In fact Namibia is a
one-joke state.
The Herald last month carried a statement by Nujoma
attacking whites
in the vitriolic language of Mugabe. The US and Britain
imposed sanctions on
Zimbabwe because people demanded their land back, he
claimed. It is because
of the Western powers that opposition parties were
formed in Africa, he
said. Nothing of course to do with the incompetence and
avarice of those in
office!
New Era, the fawning Namibian newspaper
that is as bad as the Herald,
published these remarks by Nujoma made at a
Swapo rally. They mostly
concerned a black mamba.
"Whites are
dangerous, just like a black mamba," he declared. "If they
oust Mugabe, they
will oust another president." Can you imagine a Western
leader getting away
with such crude racism? The world would be on his case
in no time.
What New Era didn't tell us, and of course nor did the Herald, was
that
Nujoma tried to hang on to office for a third term but was told by his
party
to go.
Then he became something of an embarrassment by remaining as
party
chairman and interfering wherever he could. In the end the Namibian
political leadership devised an inspired solution. Nujoma, not known for his
incisive intellect, was sent back to school. Here, it was hoped, he might
discover something of life beyond the struggle and present a more
sophisticated impression to Namibia's friends and neighbours.
Despite this sensible move, he continues to give Namibia a bad name
with
demagoguery of the sort reported in New Era. Namibia has been out of
step
with its Sadc neighbours by backing Mugabe's continuation in office and
his
assault on civil society - when they weren't prepared to keep their own
leader in power when younger and more able men such as Hifikepunye Pohamba
wanted to take over the reins.
Like President Mugabe, New Era
slavishly wrote, "Cde Nujoma is also a
veteran of the struggle who comes
from the same revolutionary school."
Really? Did he also have trouble
getting into the training camps? The
only difference is that Namibians
didn't allow their leader to mess things
up before getting rid of him. They
got him before he could get them!
Which reminds us of the old joke.
"Are you ready to say goodbye to the
people of Zimbabwe?" Mugabe was asked.
"Why, where are they going?" he
replies.
Muckraker was
interested to note the views of new South African Chief
Justice Sandile
Ngcobo. He was sworn in last week. In an address to a
conference of judges a
couple of years ago, the Sunday Times reminds us,
Justice Ngcobo argued that
the exercise of judicial power included not only
management of cases but
also giving judges control of the budgets of courts.
"Independent court
administration underpins the independence of the
judiciary and reduces the
potential to interfere with the functioning of the
courts," Ngcobo said. "It
is for this reason I would put court
administration on top of the agenda for
change."
We wonder if members of our own bench, beneficiaries of farms
and
flat-screen TVs, read those remarks.
Our only point of
departure with the Sunday Times report came when it
said Justice minister
Jeff Radebe "could not conceal his glee" at the
meeting of the Judicial
Service Commission where Ngcobo was interviewed.
Judges should beware
when ministers can't "conceal their glee" at
their appointment!
Zimbabwe's editors made a rod for their backs this week. Minister
Webster
Shamu had been due to open a Unesco-sponsored round-table meeting
but he
suddenly remembered it was the opening of parliament that day. So
perm sec
George Charamba had to step in.
Charamba admitted he was "hired by
politicians to make them look
pretty". But he was clearly unimpressed by the
GNU.
"I'm in the kitchen, there's lots of smoke but hardly much cooking
going on," he said.
He spoke of "unproductive divisions" in the
media, "barren antagonism,
extreme unreasonableness often translating into
ruinous camps".
The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe in particular
came in for a
good sticking. Charamba spoke of "fundamentalism in the media"
which came
with "sickening name-calling". Muckraker's ears were
burning!
"You have been polarised by politics not because you are
victims of
politicians but because you have become political yourselves," he
fulminated.
He also scorned the media's pretensions to what he
called
"a-politicalness".
What he didn't mention were his own
pretensions to being apolitical.
It will be recalled that at the
outset of the GNU there was agreement
by all parties that permanent
secretaries should stay at their posts because
they were seen as
"professional and apolitical".
The naïve MDC was left to rue that
decision as Charamba has on
numerous occasions demonstrated just how
partisan it is possible for a
permanent secretary to be. Here is somebody
speaking for a leader who was
decisively rejected by voters last year -
together with his discredited
mantras - but who nevertheless lectures the
media on what their role should
be.
Meanwhile, while his bosses
talk up investment opportunities in the
country, Charamba detects foreign
conspiracies everywhere. "The public media
has kept jobs, sustained
families," he boasts.
Its political masters have also presided over the
closure of private
papers and the emigration of a whole generation of
journalists.
We should thank Charamba for reminding us that it is the
function of
newspapers in a democratic society to ensure powerful public
servants do not
exceed their role as advisors to ministers. Above all they
are required to
exercise an independent and professional mind. That means
discarding those
outfits adorned with Mugabe's portrait at Zanu PF
rallies and also
discarding the shibboleths that go with them.
By the way, whose fault was it that the names of those Zimpapers board
members were released together with the names of board members for
parastatals?
The government has been pretending that Zimpapers is
not a parastatal
of late so this was a particularly embarrassing gaffe. But
the perm sec, in
an agile demonstration of the buck not stopping here,
blamed his officers.
The Zimpapers list got mixed up with those from
"different
parastatals" which the ministry was also processing, we were
told.
An enlightening episode!
Meanwhile Muckraker is getting
word that the malevolent Mahoso is
about to be moved again following strong
objections to his appointment as
chair of BAZ by GNU partners.
This
is not altogether good news. If he is evicted from BAZ because he
knows
nothing about broadcasting, he could end up on the ZMC! Come to think
of it,
what does he know about the media?
Finally, our congratulations to
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono on
the award of the prestigious Ig Nobel
prize for Mathematics. The award,
announced during a ceremony at Harvard
University, lauded Gono, according to
the Sunday Times, "for giving people a
simple everyday way to cope with a
wide range of numbers, from very small to
very big, by having his bank print
notes with denominations ranging from one
cent to one hundred trillion
dollars."
Gono was unable to attend
the ceremony.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October 2009
19:56
ALTHOUGH not publicly released, a comprehensive assessment of
Zimbabwe's
considerable debts, and possible ways of addressing them, has
apparently
been prepared by the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, according
to various
authoritative sources. Last week's issue of the Independent
reported that
the minister's detailed evaluation of Zimbabwe's backbreaking
debt burden,
and of ways of reducing it, is presently under governmental
consideration.
However, indications suggest a massive divide in the
political
hierarchy as to the pursuit or otherwise of minister Biti's
recommendations,
and that (as is unfortunately usually the case in Zimbabwe)
the divide is
fuelled by self-interest on the part of some politicians,
instead of the
best interests of the Zimbabwean people.
Zimbabwe's accumulated debt approximates US$5, 7 billion, of which
US$5, 2
billion is foreign debt.
Of Zimbabwe's external liabilities, US$3,
6 billion is considerably
overdue for settlement, and Zimbabwe's coffers are
presently so barren that
there are no prospects of Zimbabwe remedying its
payment defaults in the
foreseeable future. Commendably, the minister is
very concerned at this
distressing circumstance, and is cognisant of the
need to resolve Zimbabwe's
arrear status as rapidly and effectively as
possible. To that end, if the
"informed leaks" have substance, he has
identified four alternative
strategies, being:
Applying
government's revenue receipts, to a material extent, towards
progressive
reduction of its debts. However, he is very conscious of the
relatively
minimal extent of revenue inflows, which do not suffice to meet
the ongoing
costs of government.
Concurrently, the state cannot even fund full
payment of public
service salaries, let alone the costs attendant to
provision of the people
of Zimbabwe with education, healthcare and social
welfare, to ongoing
administration costs and innumerable other governmental
costs.
Resource-based debt restructuring: Regrettably, this
strategy cannot
readily and expeditiously be implemented as, on the one
hand, all resources
are desperately needed as vehicles for the
critically-needed economic
recovery and, therefore, diverting them to
support debt-restructuring would
be an impediment to achieving that
recovery.
On the other hand, any negotiations for such
restructuring of debt
would inevitably be very protracted, and yet the debt
arrear issue needs
resolution as rapidly as possible, in order that Zimbabwe
regain an
internationally acceptable credit rating, attain international
support and
be accepted as a desirable investment
destination.
Debt rescheduling, negotiated via the Paris Club.
The world's major
creditor nations constitute the Paris Club, and have aided
various heavily
indebted nations by restructuring and rescheduling
debt.
However, with the magnitude of the political differences that
continue
to characterise those in authority in Zimbabwe, there is no
certainty that
the Paris Club would agree a programme of Zimbabwean
debt-rescheduling,
especially so as the international community justifiably
remains uneasy at
the pronounced disregard for law and order, and for human
and property
rights in Zimbabwe.
There is also the continuing
defaults in honouring Bilateral
Investment Protection and Promotion
Agreements (Bippas). In addition, the
Paris Club negotiations would, in all
probability, be extended, whereas
Zimbabwe urgently requires resolution of
its debt crises.
Recourse to the Heavily Indebted Poor Country
initiative (HIPC),
whereby the major lender states could, if applied for and
satisfactorily
negotiated, effect very considerable debt-forgiveness, which
could reduce
Zimbabwe's total external debt by up to 90%. To date at least
35 of the
world's heavily indebted countries have substantially benefited
under HIPC.
It is widely reported that minister Biti strongly
contends that HIPC
is the best option for Zimbabwe, stating that the
alternatives do not accord
Zimbabwe a "holistic and viable approach to its
debt and arrears problems".
In this contention minister Biti deserves
unequivocal support.
He rightly emphasises that HIPC debt relief
would yield a "holistic
and viable approach" to Zimbabwe's debt
circumstances, significantly
diminishing the extensive current restraints
upon economic growth and
poverty reduction. Adding to this, he rightly
contends that following upon
debt forgiveness, Zimbabwe's sovereign risk
profile would be greatly
improved, resulting in Zimbabwe becoming
creditworthy and able to attract
investment.
Acknowledging
realities, he said that it would be immoral to use
Zimbabwe's limited
resources to pay its debts, "largely caused by
mismanagement, corruption and
theft when our schools, hospitals and roads
are in a bad
state".
Despite the irrefutable substance and merit of the
minister's
recommendation, various Zanu PF ministers are reported to be
determinedly
opposed to it, on grounds that doing so would "open the
floodgates to
foreign interference", not just in Zimbabwe's economic affairs
but also in
its politics. They contend that an HIPC initiative would "be
used by
Western countries as an instrument of regime
change".
With that contention they demonstrate yet again their
extreme paranoia
and, even more so, their intractable determination to
remain in power,
irrespective of the negative consequences upon the country
and its populace
of not pursuing the only practical way of dealing with the
country's
crippling burden of debt.
They are once again proving
that they are readily willing to sacrifice
the best interests of the nation
to protect their own desires and wishes.
Concurrently, they do not even
suggest any practical alternative paths to be
followed to deal with the
gargantuan debt arrears that they caused Zimbabwe
to
accumulate.
And undoubtedly they have decided - consciously or
unconsciously -
that as the economic recovery is hindered by the country's
ongoing
debt-servicing default, they will attribute all culpability to the
international community. They will deliberately contend that the tardiness
of economic recovery is partially attributable to the continuing huge debt
arrears, and will strive to deflect any suggestions of their being even
remotely responsible for continuing national poverty and
suffering.
Presumably, it is mainly this circumstance which
provokes minister
Biti to reject proposals of the African Export Import Bank
(Afreximbank) for
Zimbabwean settlement, over a two year period, of arrears
of US$55,95
million, notwithstanding that if such proposals were accepted,
Afreximbank
would immediately advance US$300 million as a strategic sector
facility.
The minister's reluctance is understandable, for he
recognises the
immorality of Zimbabwe once again making debt-settlement
commitments which,
based upon past performance, it may not be able to
honour.
And yet it is also tragic, for the offered new loan is
desperately
necessary as one of the fuellants of Zimbabwe's accelerated
economic
recovery.
Were the minister not confronted by the Zanu
PF destructionism to his
proposed pursuit of an HIPC debt-forgiveness
initiative, he could in good
faith agree to Afreximbank's proposals, and
combined, such initiative and
proposals would be major contributors to the
long-awaited, intensified
economic recovery.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08
October 2009 19:25
ON September 28 the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe
confirmed what many with
the exception of a few in Zimbabwe have come to
accept - that the state has
been transformed into an instrument of injustice
and intimidation. The
court ordered a permanent stay in Jestina Mukoko's
prosecution. This no
doubt brought to a partial end her ordeal that began on
December 3 2008 when
her freedom was temporarily taken away by the state
-without any involvement
of the courts - on allegations of
terrorism.
Only a few believed she was so dangerous to the
state as to warrant
the kind of action that was taken. She was taken at
daybreak by armed state
actors who held her in secret locations where she
was tortured in an attempt
to force her to confirm that she was a danger to
society.
Her persecutors knew as they have done before that the
framing of her
alleged misdeeds had to fit into what they believe their
principal,
President Robert Mugabe, needed to hear.
All
that is and was required is to frame one as an economic or
political
saboteur to justify the activation of the state machinery to
deprive one of
freedom or rights enshrined in the constitution.
As expected,
Mukoko was accused of being involved in a plot to topple
Mugabe and such an
allegation need not be investigated in contemporary
Zimbabwe before the
accused is arrested.
More importantly, such allegations need
not be tested before an
independent tribunal as required under the
constitution of Zimbabwe.
She is one in many who have faced
similar accusations. In fact, Deputy
Agriculture minister-designate Roy
Bennett faces similar allegations and
notwithstanding the ruling of the
Supreme Court, it is unlikely that the
state, albeit in the framework of an
inclusive government, will be persuaded
to change its way of doing
business.
When, for example, James Makamba was accused of
externalisation, the
laws were changed to deal with his unique circumstances
where the state
rushed to arrest him before even completing
investigations.
Under the new law passed using
state-of-emergency powers, popularly
known as the Makamba Law, the state
could detain suspects for extended
periods without charging them before a
court of law.
Makamba, Muderedi, Kuruneri and others were kept
on remand for more
than 48 hours.
In the case of Makamba,
in order to justify the temporary deprivation
of freedom the state had to
reconstruct normal exchange control violations
into serious economic crimes.
This was evidently necessary to convince not
only Mugabe that Zimbabwe's
crisis was a direct consequence of the
indiscipline and alleged corruption
in the private sector.
As a result, all that was required was
to point a finger at a suspect
and the state machinery could be used to
demonstrate that draconian and
unorthodox measures were what the country
needed to lift itself up.
The Prevention of Corruption Act was
accordingly amended to achieve
that which was not intended by the
constitution. The state could and can
use this instrument to deprive
temporarily and even permanently the rights,
title and interest of citizens
to property let alone freedom.
Once a person has been
identified by the state with no assistance of
the judiciary as culpable, the
state has given its actors powers that can
only be valid and enforced in an
undemocratic constitutional order.
Mukoko, like many before her
endured at a high emotional, physical and
financial cost until the highest
court in the land pronounced its opinion on
a case that never
was.
The mere fact that the executive branch of the state felt
confident
that their actions were justified must be a cause for
concern.
No lower court could see through this abuse let alone
the Attorney
General's office. To the extent that state actors
enthusiastically
prosecuted Mukoko using illegal methods to extract
confessions, one can
safely conclude that the system has been sufficiently
compromised to accept
and condone state abuse of citizens in the name of
protecting a misplaced
sense of sovereignty.
The lower
courts could not come to the assistance of Mukoko as they
have failed to do
so in other cases of human rights abuses. What does this
say about the
health of Zimbabwe's constitutional democracy?
It would be
naïve for one to conclude that the end is near just
because of the ruling.
Nothing can be done to restore Mukoko to the position
that she was in on the
morning of December 3 last year. To the extent that
her freedom was
temporarily taken away as a consequence of an act of state,
who should make
good on the injury to Mukoko?
One would have expected the
President to take action to restore the
confidence of citizens in the state.
Appointing a commission of inquiry to
look at all cases of state abuses
could be a good starting point. I do not
believe that the judiciary is
sufficiently equipped to handle these kinds of
cases that clearly involve
political meddling.
The complicity of the lower courts in
giving life to the kind of abuse
that has become customary in contemporary
Zimbabwe is also an area that
needs investigations because it should not be
acceptable for one to be
exposed to the treatment that Mukoko and others
have been subjected to in
the name of protecting national interest and
sovereignty.
Makamba, like Kuruneri, languished in remand
prison until the courts
acquitted him. The journey to freedom was long and
tortuous. Bennett is on
the same journey, as are many
others.
At least Mukoko's journey is complete but the scars
will remain
forever and no doubt legitimate questions would need to be
answered for her
to get some closure to this. Who was behind her ordeal? How
far up the state
ladder was this action conceived and
executed?
It may very well be the case that Mugabe is not fully
in control of
the state, suggesting that there may be a few in the system
who know what
their boss wants to hear.
After 29 years in
power, Mugabe is yet to be convinced that he has
acted improperly let alone
that the state has failed its citizens. He has,
as would be expected after
that length of stay in office, been transformed
into a
prisoner.
There is no doubt that Mugabe was told that the MDC
was up to mischief
and the temporary stay of Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai in Botswana after
the elections was aimed at consolidating a
regime change strategy and plan.
Notwithstanding the inclusive
government, Mugabe has been convinced
that Zimbabwe is just too important to
the West hence the media coverage and
the regime change allegations are just
too real. - ZimOnline.
Mawere is a Zimbabwean-born South African
businessman.
By Mutumwa Mawere
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
| Thursday, 08 October 2009 19:18 |
|
The article “Biti: Stop asking for sympathy from the devil” published in the Sunday Mail of September 20 by Professor Jonathan Moyo was disgusting to say the least. While the article discussed what he chose to term “three alarming developments”, it is his reckless spewing of venom on the proposed External Debt Clearance strategy by the Minister of Finance (Tendai Biti) that smacks of someone who is benefiting from the current sorry state of the country, and wishes to defend the status quo even if it means doing so at the expense of the majority. Or is it because he had to criticise anything that the Finance minister does to appease his erstwhile club members and build his credentials prior to submission of his application letter for readmission into Zanu PF? Whatever the reason, we are now sure it was not for the benefit of the majority and I will explain why.
I wonder whether Zimbabwe is not already humiliated by, for the past 10 years, defaulting on its external obligations. Rather than viewing it as an instrument to humiliate the country, the HIPC initiative will instead extricate the country from membership of the undesirable axis of defaulters, a grouping that also have war-torn Sudan and Somalia as members. His ranting goes on to allege that Biti’s motives smack of a person facilitating the takeover of day-to-day administration of Zimbabwe by the US and Britain through IMF and World Bank “as their control-instrument of choice”. Uganda and Tanzania, our fellow African brothers (even Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique) went through the whole HIPC process and had a substantial chunk of their debts cancelled but have retained their sovereignty. Their economies are doing well and they can afford to spend more on poverty reduction programmes.
The initiative gave (and still gives) countries with high debt burdens a platform to engage their major international creditors and lobby for reduction (or cancellation) of their debt stocks and flows to sustainable levels. Central to this initiative is the theme “no poor country should face a debt burden it cannot manage”. A country with a high debt burden spends a large portion of its hard-earned annual income on servicing these debts as they fall due. The result is that very little, if anything, of the country’s annual income goes towards investment in social services like health and education, with the attendant social effects of unemployment, HIV and Aids, hunger and destitution getting worse.
Once a country has met or made sufficient progress in meeting the above criteria, IMF and World Bank formally declare the country’s eligibility for debt relief, and other creditors make commitments to reducing debt to a level that is considered sustainable. Debt is considered sustainable if it can be serviced inter-temporally without compromising the future social and economic development path of a country. This first stage under the HIPC initiative is referred to as the decision point. Once a country reaches the decision point, it may start to receive interim relief on obligations falling due.
The completion point is triggered by progress (measurable indeed) made on the implementation of the PRSP (for at least a year) together with continued track record of satisfactory performance on an IMF program. Some triggers relate to progress in social areas such as health and education, while others may relate to fighting corruption to give donors sufficient confidence that debt relief assistance is spent on programmes that benefit the poor. So far, 24 countries have reached the completion point: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Remember nation building does not happen haphazardly hence as a nation we need to have carefully formulated, time consistent and credible development plans. That is what the IMF and World Bank programmes stand for, not regime change. Rather, the upfront and irrevocable cancellation of eligible debt stock under the HIPC and MDRI enables the country to graduate from the economic supervision of the IMF and World Bank. This may result not only in enhanced domestic fiscal space but also in the expansion of national policy space to enable our beloved country to design appropriate development strategies for economic growth and poverty reduction.
Not only is the country incapable of clearing its huge debt arrears of US$3,1 billion but is also struggling to pay salaries for its civil servants who are currently subsisting on less than US$5 per day (even senior RBZ employees’ pittance salaries are paid in envelopes and they are not given payslips, neither do they have bank accounts). As Zimbabweans, it is incumbent upon us to say no to those that wish the perpetuation of the status quo, where 95% of the population remains poor while they accumulate more wealth. Otherwise we risk being judged harshly by future generations for having allowed those individuals to push us into abyss poverty.
Tivy Chinyange |
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08
October 2009 20:50
ADDRESS to Unesco Seminar for Editors: Building
Bridges and Closing
the Gaps -- An Editors Dialogue Towards Common Ground at
St Lucia Park,
Harare, on Tuesday.
AS I sat down to put together a
few points for this event, my mind
never stopped wondering why Unesco did
not think of a peace-keeping force
between the Ministry of Media,
Information and Publicity and the media,
principally the private media. We
need to regain our peace, don't we, dear
editors?
And which
organisation other than a UN agency to do peace enforcement
and then keeping
ensuring that our mutual egos are satisfied that indeed
ours has been a
cosmic conflict threatening international peace and
security! For the truth
of the matter, Sir, is that you are dealing with two
professions where high
egos drive and consume matters. Politics is a big-ego
field. So is
journalism. As a student of the media, I often wonder whether
these two
species realise how much they look alike, warts and all. Their
deformities
are remarkably shared. So is the damage they wreak on mankind,
whether in
partnership or as soon-to-reconcile contrarieties. If truth be
told, in our
highly mediased world, politics plays out through the media.
This is why I
am here as your permanent secretary. I was hired by politics
to make them
pretty. I am politics' technician. I need you. Often, I demand
you.
In our highly politicised environment, the media is politics, raw
politics,
which is why you are here as little, imperfect shadows of
bickering
politicians, hoping -- thanks to Unesco -- to broker your own GPA
as titles,
as editors. However the talks go, please never create an
inclusive
government! I am in the kitchen. There is lots of smoke but hardly
much
cooking going on! Like me you have been hired by political publishers
to
become their technicians to either defend and deepen the status quo or to
challenge and change it. You need me, the only difference being that some
need me alive while others need me in a coffin. Whether as a competent
communicator or a cold cadaver, you have me here and now.
Unesco
has put together this roundtable to deal with the problem of a
polarised
media. It is not an imaginary problem. It is real. Let us
acknowledge it. We
in the ministry have acknowledged it. In fact the thesis
of a polarised
media came from the ministry when all of you in the media
were still
wondering what it was that afflicted you. But acknowledging a
problem is not
accepting it. I take it this gathering is your statement of
rejecting
continued polarisation. Your ministry has already rejected that
polarisation
by way of the media indaba we held in Kariba and to which
Unesco was
invited. This was our first tentative step towards rebuilding an
inclusive
media industry in the country.
We intend to consolidate on the spirit
of Kariba.
But let us be clear on what ailment we intend to cure. The
problem is
polarisation which to me suggests unproductive divisions, barren
antagonism
and extreme unreasonableness often translating into mutually
ruinous camps.
My paper, my reporter, my story, my source, my editor, my
publisher, my
principal/donor right or wrong: that attitude is what is wrong
and
polarising.
A problem of fundamentalism in the media; that to
us in the ministry
is the problem. What is worse, it is given to sickening
name-calling,
vicious "othering" or profiling.
It is the bane of
unthinking egocentrism. Interestingly, Zimbabwean
editors have not lost one
another over professional questions. The fury has
not been over training,
remuneration, ethics, escalating input costs,
distribution, advertisers, tax
regime, media financing, market depth and
efficiencies, or the ever-growing
threat of an all-flattening Western global
media network. No! All these
matters have been shunted aside, real and
pressing though they are. The fury
has been over who makes a better prince
of power Robert Mugabe or Morgan
Tsvangirai; over what makes a better party
Zanu PF or MDC-T. You have been
polarised by politics, not by journalism.
Let that truth be acknowledged so
we all know where and when the rain began
to beat us.
You have been
polarised by politics not because you are victims of
politicians, but
because you have become political yourselves. The
phenomenon of
pressman-turned-political activist hit our newsrooms about the
same time of
land reforms, itself another political milestone, not a
journalistic one.
And when you bring in a dry log full of ants, expect a
visit from the
lizard, Chinua Achebe reminded us.
My first postulate was that politics
have become highly mediased and
that the media have become highly
politicised. When you attempt to re-draw
the chasm that divides you, you
discover it neatly coincides with the chasm
that splits the politics of the
country. That tells you how political your
newsrooms are, or the obverse,
how much of an enormous lie your pretensions
to apoliticalness is. The
trouble in joining the political fray instead of
reporting it as you should
comes particularly when the bickering politicians
begin to like or even love
each other. You risk getting trampled upon as the
game of mad love begins.
In Kariba my minister posed a question which he
never meant to be
rhetorical. He asked: "If yesterday you differed over us
politicians, who
are you still differing over, now that we politicians have
joined hands in
the inclusive government? Whose army are you? Where is your
general? This
question appears more poignant with each day that passes. When
Prime
Minister Tsvangirai says 98% of the issues under GPA have been
overcome, how
come only 2% have been overcome in the media? Is polarisation
a domestic
question or an external one? What is the role of the persistently
unresolved
EU/America--Zimbabwe dynamic in stoking the fires that burn
bridges? What is
the role of foreign media donors typified by OSISA and its
various localised
vehicles here in stiffening polarisation?
Why is a country so dubbed an
investment black-hole such a roaring
attraction for the usually fastidious
and choosy media funders and
investors? Let us not forget this very
important foreign factor in our
search for solutions.
I place
another dynamic on the table. Is partisanship the same as
polarisation? Is
partisanship a problem for journalism? Is it desirable even
for all media to
be pro-one thing? A campaign to get the Herald to become
the Independent or
the Independent to become the Herald cannot be
media-related. It can only be
political, bad politics at that. A sound
body-politic always has fissures
and fissures come from institutions of
dissent, institutions that dare go
against the spirit of the age. Whichever
part of the world you turn to, the
media are organised along partisan lines.
Just last week, Rupert Murdoch's
Sun decided it will shine on the
Conservatives. I was there in the UK as a
student when the same Murdoch
decided way back in 1996/97 that the same Sun
shines on Tony Blair and his
New Labour. As Murdoch flips to this party,
flops to that other party, the
firmament of the British media industry does
not fail! Quite the contrary
the industry remains both strong and
united.
More important, as the Sun takes a political position, the
editor and
his staff do not begin to overrun facts, create them even. The
trouble
begins when you are in the habit of damning facts to damn
politicians. There
is no necessary conflict between partisanship and
professionalism, no
necessary link between partisanship and polarisation.
Let the Herald remain
the Herald, the Financial Gazette the Financial
Gazette, each marked off
against the other simply by contrasting
perspectives. If that fundamental
position is granted by you here, your
publishers will forthwith cease to
chase unattainable goals such as wishing
or hoping for the destruction of
the other in the hope of editorial plenty.
After all its Swiftian wisdom
that nothing is great or small except by
comparison. Let us move away from
quality-implying name calling such as
"government controlled" this or that.
Surely reverse logic will then demand
that you match this by saying
"Trevor-controlled, Wilson-controlled,
Curling-controlled, OSISA-funded.?"
Editorial differences need not polarise
us.
It is a prerogative of an employed editor to wonder why this or
that
organisation is in the media, or has grown into a behemoth. To an
unemployed
media graduand, the cat catches the mouse. And as it turns out,
the public
media has kept jobs, sustained families. Let us not create false
issues.
With the changes in the media and laws governing the media, the only
factor
which most likely will attract new investments in the media will be
the
unresolved question between us and the British over land. Once that gets
resolved, the false effervescence in the media will die down. The public
media has been the source of stability and the growth there has been in the
industry. These are bare facts.
Going by a dominating ethic
certainly does. We have witnessed, often
with alarm, bodies which are
created in the name of the media by interests
and even personnel with
nothing or little to do with the media.
There are councils, there are
forums, which are just an obscenity by
founding, funding, goal and
composition. You guys have tended to be
organised by money, never by
promptings of your own minds, to adapt a
Shakespearian saying. The Voluntary
Media Council will never come right
until and unless it abolishes itself, to
again found itself as a genuine
media effort.
As if you have
nothing to fear! The recent changes to the constitution
are ominous to the
media and should have, one would have thought, galvanised
the industry into
creating genuine, consensual bodies reflecting your will,
never of the
external other. It scares me stiff when violent opposition to
the Media and
Information Commission (MIC) is cured by a poor recreation of
the same MIC
with greater powers implied by the aura of constitutionalism.
The raw
message coming through the constitutional Zimbabwe Media Commission
(ZMC) is
that better be misgoverned by gods than by mere mortals! That
bizarre logic
prevailed because you were divided and were giving negotiating
politicians
conflicting positions. You were unclear about what you did not
like,
woefully even less clear about what you liked. I hope you are now
clearer
about the media you want, lest you again miss the
constitution-making window
to right things.
Greater fear for you must come from the inclusive
government.
It gets worrisome when brand new ministers lean heavily on
the
ministry to do "something" to the public media each time the news from
there
is not quite flattering. It gets scaring when you editors echo the
same
desire against your own simply because it is the Herald, the Sunday
Mail,
etc. From my little stay in the house of politicians, no politician
fears
the people. Politicians fear whoever it is that puts thoughts into the
mind
of the people. With the inclusive government in place, there is a real
risk
of consensual misgovernance, which is why you need to see and operate
beyond
false boundaries.
But I have also said the inclusive
government has done one thing which
is wonderful. It has clarified matters.
In a situation where Zanu PF and MDC
formations are now in government, it
means issues are no longer simplified
to this party's position or that
party's position. Never has there been a
time in the history of this country
that it has been possible to identify
and quantify the national interest
which to me is what should be uppermost
in your minds. Increasingly hitherto
warring politicians will have to share
glory, endure same blame. You as
editors can only do so from a vantage point
which lies outside Zanu PF or
MDC formations. That position can only be a
national one.
Lastly,
the operating environment has been a very harsh one. Vital
inputs like
newsprint have been hard to come by, harder to pay for. Printing
costs have
been escalating. Distribution costs have been rising all the
time. Training
costs have followed the same upward trend. Meanwhile the
reader had become
more and more of a reluctant client much as we remain a
voraciously reading
society.
Sooner than later, your publishers have to jump the chasm to
share
these costs by building economies of scale. As your secretary, I
cannot wait
for that time in the evolution of the media when I begin to
tackle with you
these dangerously underestimated factors which to my mind
have claimed more
media jobs than Aippa and Posa multiplied by a factor of
10.
Let me conclude by making a point or two on media legislation. I
making the point, I am fully conscious of incongruities I am creating for
myself. After the constitution of ZMC, and with the announcement of the new
board for Baz recently, the ministry will have little to do in respect of
enforcing rules of the media game. If anything, its role will trim down to
making policy, itself a residual role. What will enlarge is its role as a
media proprietor, which is why I deserve a seat on this table! We have
already accepted the Kariba recommendation to split Aippa into two laws
dealing with access issues and regulatory issues. From the tenor of
discussion and issues raised at Kariba, I do not anticipate a legislative
seismic shift. The shift will come from implementation and of course the
coming on stream of new actors. Had it not been for the freezing interim
judgment in the High Court, this programme of more voices would have already
started.
There are two matters I do not agree to which have been
done by the
inclusive government, specifically by the Finance ministry
without any
consultation. I do not agree that Wilf Mbanga's Zimbabwean or
the South
African-published Sunday Times must come into this market free of
charge.
Meanwhile newsprint imported from South Africa is made to pay duty.
Mbanga
pays nothing except what it takes to ship in his product. Trevor
(Ncube)
pays all-round: from rates to NSSA, only to meet a footloose Mbanga
at the
stalls. Ncube creates jobs here. Mbanga takes them to England. He
does the
same with his sales. Let's not build market chasms. The practise of
cover
tax is worldwide. It is meant to encourage growth and diversity in the
home
market. Similarly, you cannot start piling dollars and concessions on
cell-phones while starving organs of mass communication such as the radio.
After twiddling with your blackberry, you still need to know how the world
has been beyond the internet. Personalised ICT builds on working platforms
of mass communication. The two measures are not developmental and we will
definitely be engaging Finance on these two measures. Had it not been for
our inventiveness, ZBC signal would have shrunk to well under 20% reach. How
do you talk about constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression when you
cannot impart of receive information simply because platforms have decayed
or gone obsolete through non-investment?
Charamba is
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information
and
Publicity.
George Charamba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08
October 2009 20:46
THERE were two significant events on Tuesday: the
opening of
parliament by President Robert Mugabe and an address to editors
by his
spokesman George Charamba. In parliament on Tuesday morning, Mugabe
sought
to paint a picture of partners in the inclusive government working
well
together. He spoke of the need to build bridges to the West saying the
"re-engagement with the European bloc was gathering
momentum".
"Together let us build bridges of amity,
forgiveness, trust and
togetherness," he said.
Across the
city at St Lucia Park in Marlborough Charamba, who stood in
for Media
minister Webster Shamu, told editors that the inclusive government
was not
working.
"I am in the kitchen," said Charamba. "There is lots
of smoke but
hardly much cooking going on."
Charamba, who
described editors present as "imperfect shadows of
bickering politicians",
and later on as media "fundamentalists",
extinguished all government
pretensions to media reform when he threatened
with arrest editors of new
media titles which want to come onto the market
without registration. He
acknowledged that there was no authority at the
moment to register media
outlets but then added chillingly: "If you find
yourself on the street
without proper registration, you are inviting us to
act. and that we will
do."
This would result in the police being sent to close the
paper and
prosecuting reporters and proprietors.
This kind of
thinking must be condemned as it belongs to the old order
of repression and
crass intolerance. It has nothing to do with government
policy as expounded
in the Global Political Agreement.
In this vein, it must be argued
that the role of the Information
ministry should be to facilitate the
opening of media space by actively
championing the revision and repeal of
media laws which have abridged media
workers' ability to operate freely
thereby stifling investment in the
sector.
We believe that
the role of Charamba as a senior official of
government should be to advise
his minister and government on how to promote
media plurality and remove
obstacles to media reform by ensuring laws such
as Aippa, Posa and the
egregiously unconstitutional sections of the Criminal
Law (Codification and
Reform) Act are excised from the statute books.
But in his
current form, we wonder what advice Charamba is proffering
to government
with regards to media reform. Is it to close newspapers, to
stifle the
coming on stream of new publications or crudely frustrating the
reform
agenda for political expediency?
In light of his statements
this week, we cannot trust Charamba as the
accounting officer in the
Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity to
superintend the
transformation of media in this country. His were the sort
of utterances
that relegate Zimbabwe to the league of international bad boys
and, with it,
a threat to any attempts at international re-engagement.
More
strikingly, Charamba appears to have all the answers and excuses
on why new
players cannot join the fray. There is no licensing authority in
place is
the common one. On Tuesday he said "had it not been for the
freezing interim
judgement in the High Court (declaring the old MIC
redundant) this programme
of more voices would have already started." How
convenient!
So Charamba, in the absence of a licensing authority, sees his
ministry
taking the enforcer role to ensure new players are killed off. That
enforcer
role did not appear to apply to Zimpapers - in which government has
a
controlling stake - publishing a new title in an environment where there
is
no licensing authority! Charamba's excuse this time - that H-Metro had an
old licence issued by the MIC even if it was not utilised before the
six-month expiry period. He again had an excuse for this aberration:
Zimpapers took advantage of the absence of the MIC to publish because there
is no authority to enforce the law.
This is Charamba's own
interpretation of the law. He wants us to
believe that this is the only
correct explication. He wants to use his
influence to apply this
interpretation as an edict from a deity and use the
police to enforce it and
fight off any contestation. Is this not the stuff
that nourishes
dictatorships? And what is a senior public servant doing
pursuing media
policies at variance with declarations made in the GPA, the
Kariba
conference, the Victoria Falls ministerial retreat, and numerous
investment
meetings?
A government which wants to be seen to be opening
media space does not
find excuses at every turn to stifle privately-owned
media while allowing
pliant titles to circumvent a captive bureaucracy. What
is more striking
about it all is that the same government playing the role
of enforcer is
also a media proprietor seeking to expand its space. It is
doing this by
putting roadblocks in the path of private
players.
This cannot be allowed to carry on. This country
deserves better
leadership and not crocodilian bureaucrats with parochial
agendas conducting
rear-guard operations against agreed government
policy.
We want to hear from partners in the inclusive government
whether it
is a shared view that government will use strong-arm tactics to
close new
titles which come on board without licences. We also want to know
from
President Mugabe if the inclusive government has become an impediment
to
media freedom or if individual officers are tree stumps on the road to
reform? Is this the amity and togetherness we aspire to as a nation?
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 October 2009
20:06
AFTER carrying a front-page story in our last edition about power
struggles and tribalism in Zanu PF, some angered politicians from the party
complained bitterly about the charges of ethnicity levelled against them by
their own colleagues. Fearing they would be stigmatised as reactionary and
divisive because of promoting ethnic divisions in this day and age instead
of seeking a new form on inclusive and nationalist politics, the politicians
made feeble protests about the report in a bid to distance themselves from
the problem.
The story was basically that Mashonaland West
Zanu PF politburo
members who are mostly Zezuru have launched a campaign to
weed out Karanga
politicians who are mainly from Masvingo province. The
article was based on
a string of sources, including minutes of a Zanu PF
Mashonaland West
provincial executive meeting held on September
28.
The official minutes of the meeting indicated that there
were
politburo members in Mashonaland West - President Robert Mugabe's home
region - who are pushing an agenda of political ethnic purges in their areas
to restore Zezuru influence and dominance.
The minutes said
there were in particular two politburo members who
have openly said "they
dislike the Karangas and the Ndebeles" and as a
result they must be hounded
out of the province. The minutes also said
recent suspensions of some senior
members of the provincial executive were
based on tribal
considerations.
While we accept that those named in the report
were not found to give
comment on the allegations and that they have a right
to complain, we do not
accept the attempt to obfuscate issues and intimidate
journalists from doing
their work. The main point of the story was that
there are complaints,
including in official party meetings, of tribalism
within Zanu PF,
especially ahead of the party's congress in
December.
Just like race issues, it is difficult and sometimes
painful to
discuss tribal issues due to the emotions and reactions they
often trigger.
Debate around these issues is usually seen as
divisive and even
dangerous to the survival of a stable political order, but
the reality is
that tribalism and other forms of prejudices including racism
and gender
discrimination exist within our midst.
Some would
prefer to suppress the problems, while other would want to
confront them
head on. However, it is always better to have careful and
measured debate to
ensure progressive engagement.
Tribalism south of the Sahara
remains the dominant political force,
and with it poverty, exploitation by
internal and external players and
genocide, still hold back the region's
development.
The history of the problem can be traced back to
ancient tribal
societies and colonial manipulation of those structures and
rivalries.
Politicians have become the main agents of tribalism in modern
African
politics.
Tribal grievances in Zanu PF are not new.
There have been several
cases of tribal political contestations in
Mashonaland West province in the
recent past. The case of Paul Mangwana who
was allegedly chased out of the
province because he is Karanga is a telling
example.
Of course, tribalism is not an exclusive Zanu PF
enterprise and
monopoly. It exists in other political parties in Zimbabwe.
It is common
cause that the main political parties in this country reflect
certain ethnic
biases and influences which aggravate rather than tone down
the problem.
Zanu PF has always been bedevilled by ethnic
tensions and tribal
conflicts, especially during the liberation struggle. A
number of
high-profile nationalist leaders and fighters died in tribal
conflicts.
Writers like the late Masiphula Sithole in his book,
Struggle within
the Struggle, and Ibbo Mandaza in his introduction to
Tekere's
autobiography, A Lifetime of Struggle, wrote about the history,
dynamics and
experiences of Zanu PF's parochial nationalism which was tinged
with tribal
bigotry and ethnic infighting.
Despite Zanu PF
being founded on the basis of nationalism and the need
to liberate the
country from colonial rule and engage in serious nation
building, ethnicity
has however remained entrenched within its structures.
After
Independence in 1980, it soon became clear that Zanu PF, like
many other
African nationalist movements, was largely shaped ideologically
by the basic
anti-colonial sentiments with little substantive philosophical
content
relevant to the day-to-day life of ordinary Zimbabweans in the
post-colonial
state.
Zanu PF simply failed to provide the country with a
compelling
intellectual, social, and political vision to ensure
socio-economic
prosperity. Once in power and following extended years of
leadership and
policy failures which led to economic collapse, Zanu PF's
continued
anti-colonial discourse became irrelevant.
Its
undeveloped ideological vision and shallow nationalism were
exposed as its
government rapidly degenerated into an authoritarian regime
characterised by
political repression and manipulation of the institutions
to serve the
interests of the ruling political elite and their cronies.
A
ruthless consolidation of power by tribal cliques within Zanu PF
also
followed after Independence, while tribalism was institutionalised.
Political dissent, sometimes defined by ethnicity due to tribal frameworks
of governance, was brutally suppressed.
Much state activity
was devoted to the pursuit of variously defined
forms of "economic
development", but such development proved elusive and the
much-desired
economic fruits of Independence generally failed to ripen. That
growth which
did occur was usually to the benefit of the dominant political
class and
possessed little popular appeal.
So it is unhelpful for Zanu PF
politicians to try to intimidate
journalists when they raise these issues.
What they should be doing is to
tackle the problem, together with racism and
other forms of discrimination,
to cleanse their party and state institutions
of these reactionary
prejudices.
Just as Kwame Nkrumah,
Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda and Nelson
Mandela fought ethnicity within
their movements and countries, with varying
degrees of success, Zanu PF
leaders must rise to the occasion and fight
tribalism in their party, state
institutions and anywhere else it is found
in Zimbabwe.
Dumisani Muleya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Local Potato Prices a rip off
Thursday, 08 October 2009
20:25
POTATOES are to me what mealie meal is to most Zimbabweans --
staple
food. When I was last in Messina a 10 kg pocket of potatoes cost
20 rand
which at the time equated to US$2. They were sold in Harare at
approximately US$10, the same price as locally grown ones. Importation of
potatoes is no longer permitted by the government, obviously in order to
protect local farmers.
So what do they do? They escalate the
price by some 50% to US$15,50 a
pocket or US$ 1,95 a kg for inferior quality
produce covered in mud, often
"green" and chopped by
badzas.
Talk about exploitation of the gullible public! I for
one will let
them rot in the supermarkets and hope the growers go
bust.
Spud,
Harare.
---------
Passport
Office Must be Business-minded
Thursday, 08 October 2009
20:18
IN any economy and business "cash is king" and so is the
customer.
This appears not to be the case at the passport office. The long
snaking
queues have started again especially for the US$143 two-week
passport.
The natural response of any business or government to
such a welcome
upsurge in business is to increase resources especially on
the payments
counter.
I have been to the passport office at
least twice with the intention
of submitting my own applications for a cool
$286, but gave up as the queues
hardly move.
It is as if
the passports are for free or Zimbabwe dollars yet people
are paying
hard-to-find United States dollars which the very same government
claims to
be bankrupt of.
It should not cost too much to have five
payments cashiers clearing
those queues.
To make matters
worse the payments collections office closes early,
turning back people with
greenbacks home.
I would estimate the amount of cash that the
passport office fails to
collect daily could be in excess of US$10
000.
The current scenario at the passport office is fertile for
rent-seeking behaviour from government officials that see an opportunity to
line their pockets.
The amount of time those at work or
business will lose to get in a
passport application is immeasurable on an
economy we are trying to get back
on its feet.
We are
paying real money and the passport office is not doing us a
favour. We
deserve service.
Sober Capitalist,
Harare.
-----------
Teachers Need to be
Appreciated
Thursday, 08 October 2009 20:16
MONDAY October
5 was World Teachers' Day. It is a day when we
appreciate the role played
by teachers in the development of the world, and
in our case, in the
development of Zimbabwe. Teachers played a key role in
the liberation
struggle for Zimbabwe. Both Zanu and Zapu, the two
liberation movements of
the 1960s and 1970s, placed great emphasis on
education, and ran schools in
Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.
Tens of thousands of young people
attained their primary and secondary
education whilst they were refugees in
these countries. Thousands of
freedom fighters were also able to improve
their education whilst they were
in base camps in these countries. The two
liberation movements sent
thousands of young people to university, mainly in
African countries, such
as Botswana, Lesotho, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania,
Algeria and Libya amongst
many. Teachers played a noble role in the
intellectual liberation of the
country.
After Independence,
teachers again came to the fore. With only a
third of children able to
obtain primary education and a mere four percent
able to obtain secondary
education before Independence, teachers played a
monumental role in bringing
about primary education for all in the 1980s and
1990s. They provided good
quality secondary education under very difficult
conditions. It is through
their dedication that Zimbabweans today are able
to find jobs all over the
world.
More recently teachers in Zimbabwe became victims of political
violence. Things became even worse by mid-2008, when education was almost
totally disrupted, as Zanu PF youths took over schools, and in the process
stopped educational activities from being carried out effectively.
Teachers'
houses were torched, and many teachers were forced to flee from
the rural
areas. How did the teachers who fought for the liberation of
Zimbabwe and
built up the education system become the victims of the very
youth they were
supposed to educate?
The answer can be found in
what has happened in Zimbabwe over the past
decade and a half. Having
achieved a high level of education for the
majority in the 1980s up until
the mid-1990s, things began to deteriorate.
By 2000, 196 000 children who
had enrolled in grade one eight years earlier,
had dropped out of school.
That is a lot of drop outs, and without
secondary education these young
people have little hope of a good future.
There are few jobs in Zimbabwe for
them, and they will not be able to find
good jobs in the Diaspora without
secondary and tertiary education.
Tragically these young people, who have
been forced to leave school through
lack of fees and through the
deterioration of the education system, have
been victimised. They have been
misled to vent their anger on teachers.
They have utilised violence,
including rape, on so-called "sell outs", many
of whom were teachers.
Teachers were blamed for the large voter turnout for
the two MDCs and
Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD), against Zanu PF. In actual
fact, teachers had
little to do with the results of the March 2008
Elections. People,
especially those in former Zanu PF strongholds, such as
Mashonaland Central,
Mashonaland East and Mashonaland West, who were
specially targeted for
violence, were actually organised by their leaders
within Zanu PF to vote
for the Zanu PF parliamentary and senate candidates,
but not for President
Robert Mugabe. This strategy of theirs was known as
"kicking the ball out
of the football grounds". How can teachers be blamed
for a strategy which
came from the divided Zanu PF itself??
Meanwhile the rapid devaluation
of the Zimbabwe dollar pauperised
almost the whole population, in particular
teachers who did not have land to
grow their own food. By the end of 2008
teachers were being paid the
equivalent of US$2 per month. In the rural
areas, parents had to provide
food for their teachers. By September 2008
teachers had gone on strike,
protesting against the fact that they could not
feed themselves or their
families.
On World Teachers' Day, it is
incumbent on all Zimbabweans to focus on
what is good for the nation as a
whole, rather than what is good for a small
privileged group who are
prepared to exploit and criminalise unemployed
youths to further their
corrupt hold on power. Teachers should concentrate
on their key role of
building a better Zimbabwe through education. They
must ensure that the 196
000 dropouts a year are not forgotten, but can
catch up educationally. They
must also help in the education of the
communities they live in. The nation
as a whole should concentrate too on
building a better Zimbabwe, and
supporting our teachers who are aiming at
the same goal.
Fayking Chung,
faykingchung@yahoo.com This e-mail
address is being protected from
spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to
view it
-----------------
Zou Tuition Fees
Exorbitant
Thursday, 08 October 2009 20:10
I AM not a
regular letter writer but I have been prompted to write by
the shocking
tuition fees being demanded by the Zimbabwe Open University
(Zou). I
appreciate that tertiary education should not be cheap but I think
this time
they have gone too far. In our department we are being expected to
pay US$90
per subject and in my case I am supposed to pay for three. Add to
this since
I am supposed to pay off my research project which is another
US$90.
According to Zou I can pay 60% of these amounts this
month which
roughly amounts to US$200 and still this amount is highly
prohibitive.
I am a civil servant and my net salary does not
even reach the amounts
I have stated above and it will require a miracle for
me to be able to
register this semester.
I am therefore
appealing to the responsible authorities, particularly
the Education
minister, to reduce the fees to manageable amounts so that we
can finish our
programmes.
Government needs to come in and subsidise Zou so
that we may continue
learning. I am sure I speak for many who will be able
to register this
semester because of the fees.
Shepherd
Makoni,
Harare.
-------------
SMS The Zimbabwe
Independent
Thursday, 08 October 2009 20:09
I AM quite amazed
by the ignorant ministers who refuse to accept that
Zimbabwe is already a
desperate basket case. They continue to live in luxury
while the rest live
in extreme poverty. They run around in their expensive
cars and then pretend
to understand the needs of the people on the ground
foraging for the next
meal. Tendai Biti should keep pushing for these
changes and I hope by some
miracle they get through.
Zviko Chigumba.
THOSE opposed to
the HIPC are burying their heads in the sand and
misunderstanding the state
the country is in. If Zimbabwe can persuade our
debtors to cancel our debts
that is what we should do with vigour. This
schizophrenia that the West is
out to get Zimbabwe is a minority view held
by the very people who destroyed
the economy in the first place. The country
needs to restore basic services,
like education and infrastructure.
Banzure.
THE MDC has
managed to bring about economic stability in six months,
something Zanu PF
had failed to achieve in a quarter of a century.
Observer.
HOW sad that a political party as big as Zanu PF has failed to replace
their
octogenarian leader. Does that mean that there is none that can
replace
Robert Mugabe? I wonder what will happen if he were to die.
Royal
Ruuku, Banket.
SECURITY chiefs are becoming too big for their own
boots. They think
that they can hold the nation to ransom with their
partisan stance. In
future they will stand to regret their actions.
Highfield.
THE land allocation process is full of surprises. Five
to 10 offer
letters are given for one farm or plot coming from the same
office
allocating the land. There should not be any confusion in that
process and
all Zimbabweans regardless of race must benefit.
T
Munyanyi.
ZANU PF and their sidekicks are the worst hypocrites.
They harass,
torture and maim political opponents and activists such as
Jestina Mukoko
on spurious charges. After they are cleared by the courts,
the perpetrators
are the first to announce to the whole world that there is
rule of law in
Zimbabwe.
Chibox, Marondera.
WHY are we
being asked to top up for passports we applied for in 2006
in
Bulawayo?
Irate.
POLITICIANS should not be allowed to get away
with silly statements.
Whilst Jonathan Moyo is free to rejoin Zanu PF, he
should not patronise the
nation by saying that the facts have changed. He
also displays a lot of
arrogance in implying that those who do not agree
with his opinions need to
see a psychiatrist.
Analyst.
JONATHAN Moyo is a sickening example of how low politicians can go to
get
back on the gravy train. How dare he speak of democracy and the freedom
to
associate in justifying his misdeeds?
Justice.
I BELIEVE
the people of Tsholotsho North deserve more than just an
apology from
Jonathan Moyo. They voted for an independent candidate, not a
Zanu PF one
and like the other constituents who were represented by the
dismissed MDC
MPs, they should have a right to choose another candidate of
their choice.
Moyo can re-enter the elections as a Zanu PF candidate and we
will see how
he fares.
Tike.
EVERY Zimbabwean residing in any part of
the world should not be
denied the right to vote and I hope that the
constitution has this sacred
provision.
Alexander.
WOMEN from Mupedzanhamo flea market are allowed to demonstrate and
even
given police escort yet Woza members were thoroughly beaten for doing
the
same in Bulawayo. It seems some animals are more equal than others!
Nyamasvisva.
CONSTANTINE Chimakure's article calling for
transparency in the Prime
Minister's Office made me love the Independent. I
have become sick and tired
of MDC-T praise singing much like what the Herald
does where Zanu PF is
concerned.
Baba Chemwandoita.
FAITH Zaba's Editor's Memo made a very important observation; David
Coltart
is not an educationist and should consult widely with those who know
better
in the field. We are fed up with his confusion.
Frustrated
teacher.
WHY are teachers' associations deducting money from
teachers' salaries
without informing us first?
Teacher
Kybee.
WHO is going to take Zesa to task over their extremely high
tariffs?
We wait to see the one who will stand for the poor and the
vulnerable.
Herbert Mugwagwa.
BILL WATCH
SPECIAL
[8th October
2009]
Reserve
Bank of
This Bill
was agreed to in Cabinet and was gazetted on the 14th August. It could be
introduced into Parliament at any time after the Houses resume on the 20th
October. [Electronic
version of Bill available on request – also copy of Reserve Bank of
Outline of the
Bill
According to
the Bill’s explanatory memorandum, the Bill seeks to bring the powers of the
Governor of the Reserve Bank under the control of the Bank’s Board, to clarify
the Bank’s functions and to increase the Bank’s reserves. These objectives are
to be achieved in the following ways:
A. The Bank’s
powers and functions will be limited by:
1.
divesting the Bank of the function of furthering the
Government’s economic policies [clause
2];
2.
restricting the Bank’s power to deal in gold and
precious metals. It will be allowed to do so “only to the extent strictly
necessary to comply with its international obligations” [clause 3] [but does the Bank — as opposed to the State — have
any such obligations?];
3.
preventing the Bank from opening credits and giving
guarantees [clause 3] [this will be a considerable reduction in its
powers];
4.
preventing the Bank from borrowing foreign currency on
its own behalf; it will be able to do so only on the State’s behalf and only to
the extent that its reserves are not adversely affected [clause 3];
5.
restricting the Bank’s power to lend money [clause 5]. In this
regard:
a.
it will be allowed to lend money to the State and
parastatals only if:
§
the loan [presumably this is the total of all loans — the Bill
is not clear] does not exceed 20 per cent of the State’s revenues in
the previous financial year;
§
the loan is denominated in Zimbabwean currency
[it is not clear how this applies in the
present multi-currency situation];
§
the loan is repayable within, at most, two
years;
§
in the case of a loan to a parastatal, the loan has
been approved by the Minister of Finance and is either repayable within a year
or converted into State-backed securities;
b.
the Bank’s function of lender of last resort to
banking institutions will be limited to three-month loans given with the
approval of the Minister of Finance to support banks’ daily lending business
[It is not clear if these limitations will
override the Bank’s lending powers under the Banking Act
– this Act available on
request];
c.
the Bank’s power to lend money to its employees will
be limited to loans that are commensurate with those given by commercial banks
to their employees;
6.
divesting the Bank’s Board of power to determine
Zimbabwe’s monetary policy, to ensure price stability and to fix interest
rates; those powers will be transferred to a Monetary Policy Committee
consisting of the Governor and his deputies, and other members appointed by the
President after consultation with the Minister of Finance [clause 13];
7.
requiring the Bank to maintain reserves to cover all
its liabilities to the public in
8.
requiring the Bank to give the Minister quarterly
statements showing the state of its reserves, and obliging the Minister to table
the statements in the House of Assembly [clause
17];
9.
divesting the Bank of all the subsidiary companies
through which it carried out its “quasi-fiscal activities”. The only companies
it will retain are the two that print currency notes and deal in
gold.
The
Bank’s shares in all the other companies are to be transferred to the State,
apparently without compensation [clause
19].
B. The Bank’s
internal procedures will be improved
The Bank will be obliged to establish
an audit committee [clause
13].
C. The powers of
the Minister of Finance over the Bank and its officers will be enhanced
by:
1.
obliging the Bank to follow the Minister’s
instructions when representing
2.
ensuring that any instructions given to the Bank by
“the State” are conveyed to it through the Minister [clause 4] [so the President will not officially have
independent access to the Bank and its
Governor];
3.
requiring the Board to consult the Minister before
appointing an acting Governor if the Governor’s office falls vacant [clause 6] [currently the President appoints an acting Governor
in such circumstances];
4.
making the Minister’s permanent secretary a non-voting
member of the Bank’s Board [clause
8];
5.
obliging the Bank’s Board to send the Minister copies
of minutes of all its meetings [clause
11];
6.
setting up an oversight committee consisting of the
Minister’s permanent secretary and all other Board members to conduct a
twice-yearly review of the Bank’s performance [clause 13];
7.
most importantly, empowering the Minister to give
general policy directives to the Bank’s Board, which the Board will have to
carry out “with all due expedition” [clause
18].
D. The Governor’s
powers will be limited:
1.
the Governor will no longer be able to appoint a
deputy to act for him in his absence; this power will go to the Board [clause 6] — though, somewhat
contradictorily, the President rather than the Board will appoint a deputy
chairperson to chair its meetings in the Governor’s absence [clause 10];
2.
the Governor’s wide power to delegate functions to
officials in the Bank will have to be exercised subject to the Board’s
directives [clause 7].
E. Board members
to disclose assets
The Bill will oblige all members of
the Bank’s Board to disclose their assets to the President within a month after
the Bill becomes law [clause 19].
[Regrettably, there is no provision requiring the President to publish the lists
of assets so disclosed.]
Merits and
Demerits of the Bill
The Bill has been criticised in
the Press on the grounds that it reduces the Bank’s independence and, while
limiting the Governor’s powers, gives excessive powers of oversight to the
Minister of Finance. In particular, the proposal to allow the Minister to give
directives as to the policies the Bank must pursue is criticised as being
contrary to international best practice, which requires central banks to be
independent. And finally, the Governor of the Bank is reported to have
protested at the State’s acquisition of the Bank’s shares in its subsidiary
companies, on the ground that depositors’ money was used to acquire the shares
and the acquisition amounts to an expropriation of that money. There is
substance in some of these criticisms.
A.
It seems to be generally
accepted that central banks should be given a large measure of operational
independence. The draft SADC Model Central Bank Law, for example, seeks to
enshrine the principle that central banks in the region should “act
independently and without fear, favour or prejudice or direction from any
authority or institution”. Internationally, the more effective central banks
are those with the greatest independence: the U.S. Federal Reserve, for
example, and the European Central Bank. The powers that the Bill will give the
Minister, in particular the power to give policy directives to the Bank, will
make it impossible to say that the Bank is truly independent. It may be in
practice, of course, because the Minister may choose not to control the Bank.
But potentially he will be able to do so, which means the Bank will be subject
to direction and control by the Government. And experience has shown that
Ministers who are given powers tend to exercise
them.
B. Bank’s
functions
In clarifying and reducing the
Bank’s functions, the Bill is sound. The scope for engaging in “quasi-fiscal
activities” will be greatly reduced, and the Bank will be confined to its core
functions: setting monetary policy and ensuring price stability. The Governor
is reported to have welcomed the clarification, saying that it is noble for RBZ
to focus on its core business.
C.
Reserves
Similarly, the statutory
controls which the Bill will impose on the reserves kept by the Bank can only
benefit the country. The Bank will no longer be able to run down the reserves
to nugatory levels. It should be remembered that they are not the Bank’s
reserves: they are the country’s reserves and the country, represented by the
Government, must have a say in how they are
maintained.
D.
Reduction of the Governor’s powers
The Governor’s powers will
undoubtedly be reduced by the Bill. He will no longer be able to delegate
powers to subordinates without the Board’s permission, and he, like the Board,
will have to obey the Minister’s directives. This reduction in the Governor’s
powers is no bad thing. While one may accept that the Bank itself should be
independent, that is no reason for giving its chief executive officer
overreaching powers within the Bank’s
structure.
E.
Corporate Governance
Some of the changes to the
Bank’s corporate structure will be beneficial – that the Bank will be required
to establish an audit committee is in line with international best practice; and
the provisions that the Board should send its minutes to the Minister, to keep
him or her abreast of what the Bank is doing, and that the Bank’s quarterly
statements are presented to Parliament will increase transparency. On the other
hand, the establishment of a committee to formulate the country’s monetary
policy, to ensure price stability and to set interest rates, seems to leave the
Board of the Bank with little to do. The committee’s three functions comprise
the main functions of any central bank. If those functions are to be handed
over to a committee, what role is the Board to perform? Similarly, the new
oversight committee — which is really the Board chaired by the Minister’s
permanent secretary — is unnecessary. Why should the Board have to reconvene
itself into a committee, with a new chairperson, to consider reports from the
Bank’s audit committee?
F. Seizure
of shares
It is doubtful if the
Government’s proposed expropriation of the Bank’s shares in subsidiary companies
is constitutional. This clause may, therefore, attract an adverse report from
the Parliamentary Legal Committee. It would have been better if the Bill had
simply required the Bank to divest itself of the shares. [The clause’s unconstitutionality lies in the fact it
makes no provision for compensation, or for notice to be given, or for an appeal
to the Administrative Court, or for any of the other procedures required by
section 16 of the Constitution. The proposed expropriation of shares would be
permissible only if they were “held by a body corporate established directly by
law for a public purpose in which no moneys have been invested other than moneys
provided from public funds” [section 16(9)(b) of the Constitution]. The Bank is
certainly a body corporate established directly by law for a public purpose, but
according to the Governor it has been engaging in “retail banking”, accepting
deposits from embassies, NGOs and parastatals, etc., and some of their money was
used to purchase the shares. Whether the Bank was entitled to engage in such
banking business is itself doubtful [the Reserve Bank of
Conclusion
The Bill will undoubtedly
improve the internal workings of the Reserve Bank. It will make the Bank more
open and more accountable, and will restrict the Bank to its core functions.
But it will also reduce the Bank’s independence. However, those who oppose the
Bill on this ground have to face that independence can lead to the Bank and its
officials becoming less accountable to the people, whom they are appointed to
serve and that independence does not guarantee that the Bank will perform its
functions competently. While the Bank was independent, its Governor and Board
permitted Zimbabweans to suffer the highest level of hyper-inflation seen in
modern times, and permitted the value of the Zimbabwean dollar to collapse to
nothing. If Government oversight is the price we must pay for accountability
and competence, it may be a price worth paying. The ideal would be to achieve a
balance between independence and accountability.
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