http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
News
ZANU PF cabinet ministers and other senior government officials, who are
multiple farm-owners, continue to defy President Robert Mugabe’s order to
surrender surplus landholdings in line with their party policy, as it
emerged this week many of them are still clinging onto more than two
farms.
Report by Elias Mambo
Following its defeat in a constitutional
referendum and in a bid to ward off
mounting political and social
discontent, Zanu PF launched a controversial
land reform programme beginning
2000 in which thousands of white commercial
farmers were violently evicted
from their farms in a programme Mugabe
claimed was aimed at resettling
landless people throughout the country.
However, most of the prime
land was taken by senior Zanu PF officials who
now own more than two farms
each but are failing to utilise the land which
in some cases has become
derelict or lies fallow.
Mugabe’s repeated calls for his party
officials to follow the
one-man-one-farm policy and limiting farm sizes
according to their
agro-ecological region have largely been ignored. His
lieutenants who
grabbed several thousands of hectares of properties are
still stubbornly
clinging to them.
The situation is complicated
by the fact that Mugabe’s family reportedly
owns many farms, some say over a
dozen, something which runs against the
grain of his party
policy.
As a result, Mugabe’s cronies have ignored his June 30 2011
deadline to hand
back extra farms to the state. Observers say this has
embarrassed Mugabe who
has staked his reputation and election victory on the
speedy transfer of
land to majority black Zimbabweans.
Mugabe and
his party are currently resisting a government land audit which
has been
agreed upon.
The Zimbabwe Independent has been carrying out a
verification process on who
owns what from the land reform programme and
information gathered shows
ministers, senior civil servants and top Zanu PF
officials are still
clinging onto the farms they grabbed through violence
and intimidation.
This comes as the Zanu PF politburo on Wednesday
condemned the recent
invasions of the Save conservancy in a heated meeting
in which Mugabe
lambasted “greedy” party officials who continue to hold on
to multiple
farms.
Top government officials have been fingered in
different official audits as
multiple farm-owners ignoring the one
-man-one-farm policy and restrictions
on farm sizes, a move which underlines
the failure of the land reform
programme.
According to
information gathered by the Independent, those who still own
multiple farms
include Senate president Edna Madzongwe with six farms, Local
Government
minister Ignatius Chombo (five), Home Affairs co-minister Kembo
Mohadi
(four), Mines minister Obert Mpofu (three), Information and Publicity
minister Webster Shamu (four) and Youth Development, Indigenisation and
Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere (two), among
others.
Madzongwe was given an offer letter for Stockdale farm (750
ha) but is said
to be the owner of Aitape farm (2000ha), Couburn Estate
(560ha) and Mpofu
farm (450ha), Bourne farm (445ha) and Reyden farm (1340)
dotted around the
country.
Chombo has five farms namely Allan
Grange (3000ha), Oldham (400ha), Maple
leaf, Glentwyn stand one, and
Shingwiri (1600ha) in Chegutu.
Other Zanu PF members who are clinging
to or had more than one farm include
the late Sabina Mugabe (three), Leo
Mugabe (three), Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa (two), Grace Mugabe’s
late brother Reward Marufu (two) and
retired Air Vice-Marshal Henry Muchena
(two).
Mugabe’s family, including close relatives, reportedly own
more than 12
farms. Since the controversial land reform programme commenced,
several land
audits were commissioned and on numerous occasions blocked by
Zanu PF
ministers and war veterans, arguing the process was a witch-hunt
targeting
senior party officials and other beneficiaries of the widely
criticised land
reform programme.
Early this year, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai urged government to carry
out the long-overdue land audit.
Tsvangirai and the MDC-T were reacting to
reports that the Zanu PF land
reform department led by Chombo and Lands
minister Herbert Murerwa wanted to
undertake a countrywide land audit,
notwithstanding the fact that Murerwa is
required to do the same process for
government.
Murerwa is still
to undertake a national land audit in terms of the Global
Political
Agreement (GPA). According to Article 5.9 of the GPA, government
should
conduct a comprehensive, transparent and non-partisan land audit, for
accountability and elimination of multiple farm ownership.
The
GPA also seeks to ensure Zimbabweans who are eligible to be allocated
land
and who apply are considered irrespective of race, gender, religion,
ethnicity or political affiliation.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
News
PARASTATALS continue to perform dismally with the majority of
state-controlled entities making losses amounting to millions of US dollars
in 2011 due to undercapitalisation, high overheads and lack of customer
confidence.
Report by Brian Chitemba
According to a report
presented to cabinet recently by State Enterprises and
Parastatals minister
Gorden Moyo, the companies were struggling to perform
because of cash-flow
problems, inability to attract investors and access
lines of credit due to
unattractive balance sheets.
Parastatals which recorded huge losses
include the National Railways of
Zimbabwe (NRZ), Grain Marketing Board
(GMB), Industrial Development
Corporation (IDC) and TelOne, while those
performing well only managed to
make marginal profits.
The report
showed the NRZ recorded revenue of US$91,6 million in 2011,
representing a
17% increase from US$78,4 million in 2010. But of the
revenue, more than
US$45 million was gobbled up by administrative and
general expenses while
finance costs were US$4,4 million.
NRZ, which requires over US$2
billion to resuscitate operations, recorded a
loss before tax of over US$60
million with low capacity utilisation, high
overheads and operational
inefficiencies cited for poor performance.
“The available number and state of
locomotives, wagons, coaches and other
critical equipment is insufficient to
meet the demands of the productive
sectors of the economy,” reads the
report.
The report revealed GMB has not posted a profit in the past
decade due to
sub-economic prices the company was charging which were not
supported by a
corresponding subsidy.
The parastatal’s 2010/11
first quarter management accounts show the value of
assets amounts to
US$150,7 million compared to total liabilities of US$19,9
million,
indicating the firm was technically solvent but sits on a huge
asset base
comprising properties, plant and equipment which cannot be
converted to
cash.
“Sub-economic prices charged by the GMB translated into
disinvestment
resulting in inadequate working capital. The introduction of
the
multi-currency system worsened the situation as no additional capital
was
injected into the GMB,” the report reads.
GMB’s poor
performance was attributed to undercapitalisation, lack of
logistics fleet
to collect grain and lack of lines of credit.
Although fixed
telephone operator, TelOne realised total revenue of US$158,9
million in
2011, the company still recorded a US$7,5 million loss.
The
company is failing to perform due to a US$285 million debt inherited
from
the disbanded Post and Telecommunications Corporation, while an
outdated
billing system compounded the situation. Some of the major problems
facing
TelOne are shortage of skilled human capital, particularly switching
technicians for both analogue and digital systems while power outages affect
the uptime of exchanges countrywide. Obsolete equipment is also a
problem.
IDC recorded US$153,3 million from the sale of group products while
gross
profit stood at US$32 million and after-tax losses were at US$10,9
million
in 2011.
Agribank struggled throughout 2011 due to lack
of liquidity to enable it to
underwrite meaningful business and generate
positive earnings.
The State Enterprises and Parastatals ministry
said recovery of parastatals
was premised on good corporate governance and
restructuring under the
framework adopted in 2010.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14,
2012 in News
ORDINARY Zimbabweans have been reduced to mere spectators in the
country’s
protracted constitution-making process as their input has been
virtually
ignored although they are the key stakeholder.
Report by
Staff Writer
The Copac draft is under dispute with Zanu PF demanding that its
266
proposed amendments be incorporated into the draft.
The MDC
formations insist only the Second All-Stakeholders Conference and
parliament
can amend the draft since all three parties participated in
producing
it.
The MDC-T has launched a “Yes Vote” campaign even before the draft is
debated by an all-stakeholders’ conference where the public’s views would be
heard through civil society and interest groups. The other MDC has also
launched a “Yes Vote” camp.
But Zimbabweans have not been afforded the
opportunity to see if their views
were properly captured and attempts to
persuade them to reject or accept
the draft suggest the process is
compromised by party political positions.
Development analyst
Maxwell Saungweme described the MDC-T’s “Yes Vote”
campaign as ill-advised
and premature saying it goes against principles and
dictates of public
participation in issues concerning the people.
“It’s really hard to imagine
that the MDC-T could rush into launching such a
campaign without first
taking the draft to their constituents and
stakeholders,” said
Saungweme.
“Even authoritative sources like Freedom House and Afrobarometer
in recent
surveys have clearly shown that the majority of Zimbabweans have
not yet
read this draft. There are areas of concern such as devolution which
a good
number of Zimbabweans are concerned about that are not addressed by
this
draft,” he said.
Governance analyst David Takawira said the move by
the MDC-T makes them
sitting ducks.
“We won’t move forward without the
three parties agreeing,” said Takawira.
“The strategy is not doing the
leader (Morgan Tsvangirai) any good given the
fact that tomorrow he would be
forced to make a major climb down from the
current position, which would
further put citizens into a frenzy of
confusion and his leadership and
judgment into question.”
The National Constitutional Assembly’s Blessing Vava
believes it was rather
ambitious for the MDC-T to launch a “Yes Vote”
campaign.
“The MDC parties never wanted participation of the people of
Zimbabwe in
writing the constitution and their “Yes Vote” campaign is a
declaration that
they are only concerned about themselves and not the
interests of all
Zimbabweans,” said Vava.
Saungweme concurred with Vava
saying the launch demonstrates how the MDC
parties’ leadership is obsessed
with dictating issues and policies to people
through “top-down” approaches
instead of going through the consultative
process.
Saungweme said this
move could prove costly to the parties because there are
many reasons why
people should vote “No” against the draft constitution as
it falls short of
the expectations of the majority.
He also said people wants to know how the
millions of dollars were used by
the political parties since they are still
bickering at the end of the
current phase.
According to estimates, US$50
million was spent on the process.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
News
CABINET has approved a raft of interventions aimed at easing Bulawayo’s
perennial water shortages where consumers currently go up to three days in a
week without water.
Report by Staff Writer
Water Resources
and Development minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo on Tuesday
tabled a report in
cabinet on the Bulawayo water situation, which the
municipality is pushing
to be declared a national disaster.
Nkomo said cabinet discussed
progress on the Mtshabezi-Umzingwane pipelink
which is a short-term solution
to the water woes.
The city’s supply dams are drying up while
Mtshabezi Dam is 100% full but
underutilised, and a pipeline link to
Umzingwane Dam would alleviate
Bulawayo’s water problems in the short
term.
The pipeline project has been on the cards for more than two
years but has
been delayed by lack of funding and political
bickering.
Nkomo said cabinet would push for the project to be
completed without
further delay.
He also proposed the
rehabilitation of 26 aquifers in Nyamandlovu as well
as 110 boreholes dotted
around Bulawayo. These can supply an additional 30
000 cubic metres of
water. The city consumes an average of 120 000 cubic
metres a day.
On
the declaration of Bulawayo as a disaster zone, Nkomo said the situation
was
not critical enough to warrant such a move. The Matabeleland Zambezi
Water
Project, on the cards for over 100 years, is touted as a permanent
solution
to the water challenges.
As the water crisis escalates, MDC-T’s top
brass in Matabeleland convened an
emergency meeting last Friday to craft
strategies to ease the shortage.
Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe
summoned Nkomo, State Enterprises and
Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo,
Agriculture deputy minister Seiso Moyo,
senators, MPs and councillors to
discuss the water problems which may worsen
the deindustrialisation of the
city.
Seiso Moyo tabled a report on the drought situation around the
country with
special focus on Matabeleland South where 300 000 cattle face
starvation due
to lack of pastures.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
News
ABOUT two million Zimbabweans will require food aid during the 2012/2013
agricultural season because of poor rainfall patterns and limited access to
farming inputs.
Report by Staff Writer
According to a recent
Zimbabwe 2012 Consolidated Appeal report compiled by
the World Food
Programme (WFP), the country’s food security remains unstable
as the
government has failed to subsidise indigenous farmers who benefited
from the
land reform programme, under which white-owned large scale
commercial farms
were expropriated for resettlement purposes.
As a result, poor
harvests have characterised every season since the chaotic
land reform
programme in 2000.
About 1,6 million people are receiving food aid in
the current season and
WFP country director Felix Bamezon said his
organisation was gearing up to
meet the rise in demand for food assistance
countrywide.“Our field staff is
already reporting signs of distress in rural
areas, including empty
granaries and farmers selling off their livestock to
make ends meet,” said
Bamezon. “To meet the increased needs, WFP and its
partners will undertake
food distributions with regionally procured cereals
as well as imported
vegetable oil and pulses.”
The food crisis
comes at a time the Meteorological Services Department has
predicted drought
during Zimbabwe’s traditional farming season from October
2012 to around
March 2013.
Meteorologist Barnabas Chipindu advised farmers last Thursday
to plant
drought-resistant crops to minimise the impact of poor rainfall as
another
severe drought looms.
Areas that would be severely
affected by the drought include Matabeleland
provinces, parts of Masvingo
and Manicaland, the meteorological department
said.
In an effort
to alleviate the food shortages, government has struck a deal
with northern
neighbour Zambia to import 300 000 tonnes of maize.
Ironically, the bulk of
the imported maize is being produced by former white
commercial farmers
evicted during the land invasions.
Mandivamba Rukuni, founder and
executive director of Wisdom Africa
Leadership Academy, has urged government
to invest in agriculture to
alleviate food insecurity.
“The
government has to invest much in this sector so that such a scenario
can
never be experienced,” Rukuni said. “Malawi is one of the poorest
countries
in Africa, but its government is investing 15% of its budget in
maize
production because it is a food security crop.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
News
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s failure to officially open the fifth and last
session of the current parliament before the next elections is seriously
affecting operations of the legislature which has only met for two days
since July.
Report by Paidamoyo Muzulu
The House was reconvened to
pass the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and
Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission
Bill. It also met last month to ratify the
US$150 million loan for upgrading
the Victoria Falls International Airport
in time for next year’s United
Nations World Tourism Organisation General
Assembly.
Senior
parliamentary officials confirmed they were in limbo as they expected
Mugabe
to gazette the official ending of the fourth session and the start of
the
last session.
Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma confirmed the
legislature was waiting for
Mugabe to issue the necessary
notices.
However, Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba refuted the
charge that
Mugabe was delaying the opening of the fifth
session.
“Mugabe can only open parliament at the invitation of the
House’s
administrative staff and they have not done that,” Charamba
said.
Section 62(1) of the constitution reads: “Subject to the
provisions of
subsection (2), the sessions of parliament shall be held in
such place and
shall begin at such time as the president may, by
proclamation in the
gazette, fix.”
Veritas, a lawyers’ grouping
that monitors parliament, says the delay by
Mugabe may be motivated by his
inclination to call for snap elections.
Mugabe is toying with the
idea of calling for early general elections after
the High Court gave him a
30-day extension from the end of August to gazette
dates for by-elections in
three constituencies which are subject to a legal
challenge.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
News
EUROPEAN Union countries are moving to normalise relations with Zimbabwe
as
the country’s political situation has improved under the current
coalition
government.
Report by Staff Writer
Zimbabwe suffered
diplomatic isolation and pariah status when the EU, United
States, Australia
and New Zealand imposed targeted sanctions against the
country’s political
leadership and businesses associated with Zanu PF in
2002 after violent and
disputed presidential elections.
Britain, Denmark, Switzerland and
Australia played leading roles in
isolating Zimbabwe and in the West’s
decision to cut millions of dollars in
donor support.
Denmark
closed its embassy in Harare and halted all aid to the country
through the
Danish International Development Agency, which had poured in
more than
US$750 million since 1995.The EU recently moved to lift the
restrictions
after the coalition government sent a bipartisan ministerial
re-engagement
committee to Brussels to mend fences.
The Danish government is now
seeking to improve diplomatic relations with
Zimbabwe and last week launched
a US$12 million Credit for Agricultural
Trade and Expansion fund in
partnership with UKaid.
The fund is aimed at facilitating the raising
of capital for lending to the
country’s agricultural
sector.
Denmark’s charge d’affaires Ketil Karlse told the Zimbabwe
independent his
country is also formulating a budget mission to provide
recommendations and
outline areas for a three-year continued programme
(2013-2015) for Danish
support to Zimbabwe in three components: private
sector development in
agriculture, rehabilitation of infrastructure and good
governance, and
democracy and human rights.
“Denmark has scaled up
support for Zimbabwe very dramatically in just a few
years and last year
alone, we committed around US$40 million to development
programmes and we
have seen tangible results,” said Karlse.
Switzerland, which had also cut
imports from Zimbabwe, mainly agricultural
products as well as exporting
machines and pharmaceutical to the country
through the Swiss Agency for
Development and Co-operation in 2002, has also
made a comeback.
The Swiss
government’s aid has risen significantly, especially in the health
care
sector through the provision of anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/Aids
patients,
as well as facilitating the training of public health workers in
the
country’s remote areas.
Australia became one of the first countries to commit
to rehabilitating
Zimbabwe’s water, sanitation and health infrastructure by
commissioning
US$10 million in aid after the formation of the coalition
government in
2009.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 13, 2012 in News
THE
current political trends obtaining in Matabeleland as well as calls for
different systems of governance and policies, including devolution of power,
should be understood as offshoots of a much more nuanced political
environment cultivated over the past 32 years, mainly because of
over-centralisation of power in Harare.
Report by Brilliant
Mhlanga
But how and why do the people of Matabeleland continue to find
themselves in
this political context?
Matabeleland now suffers
from a marked generational crisis. In order for us
to understand these
emerging generational differences there is a need for a
delineation of the
existing generational groups. These groups are many, but
only two key and
quite active generations emerge here: the generation of
“in-betweeners” and
the young generation.
The former is a generation that witnessed
Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle,
but was quite young to participate or was
simply not as politically
conscious so they chose to abscond, most of them
are now in their mid-40s to
around 55.
Then the younger
generation is composed of those who may have also witnessed
the liberation
struggle, but were very young and are in their early 40s or
below.
The in-betweeners is a group of non-achievers. Most of
them now believe it
is better to compromise with MDC-T, Zanu PF or Harare
just for them to eat.
But they use different political positions that never
get explained to the
extent of turning them into useless clichés. Their aim
is always to sound
quite complicated and complex with a view to confuse the
people. They are a
generation that sees the messianic opportunities out of
situations, possibly
because they are used to being beneficiaries of other
people’s toil.
They cannot build structures and run them because
they are divisive too and
they like power. Their approach is always
incremental and in some cases
quite residual too; they like benefiting and
continuing with inherited
structures.
But the tragedy of
generational crisis manifests itself in very different
ways.
One thing for sure is that the generation of
in-betweeners, which merely has
no history of fighting any cause, in reality
a generation of harvesters, is
also characterised by people who are
generally not achievers at personal
level. It is composed of people who are
used to vegetating.
Even the civil society movements they ever
associated with were
state-aligned. But they did not improve their
circumstances from thereon.
And their grievances are formally located in
their quest to exchange roles
of quarry and hunter with their oppressors.
This is neither a generation of
transformers nor that of change agents like
the current young generation,
which genuinely wants real
change.
The generation of in-betweeners is a generation of scavengers
— those
hunter-gatherers who are prepared at a moment’s notice to inherit a
dead
carcass.
So theirs is banal revolution. Even their
revolutionary discourse is merely
an echo, and laced with clichés. Nothing
more. They have since ceased to
live with principles and so they merely
exist. Even when the national
project took a knock, they never questioned
it. In fact, most of them did
not even notice the turn of events, as they
were busy enjoying their
unquestioning role of being passengers in a
national bus going nowhere.
Their failure was also caused by their
pre-occupation with the newly
attained middle-class status whose actual
meaning most of them had not yet
discovered, let alone grasped. This is a
generation that is so steeped in
the politics of labelling and mislabelling,
continuously accusing each other
of being agents of the oppressive system.
This political development shows
the extent of political warping and their
entrenched psychology of
oppression, which now is on
autopilot.
When you engage most of them on challenges of the national
project, the bad
birth-mark Zimbabwe was born with, their response is
usually that, “… the
people of Matabeleland lack a leader like Joshua Nkomo
or a mosaic leader
who would take them forward”, and yet fail to understand
that they are the
same people who should have taken the region forward a
long time ago.
And so by missing that opportunity it meant that they,
in their blindness,
helped the generation that had witnessed and fought the
liberation struggle
to turn into neo-colonial mode and to further entrench
itself in power and
interpellate the violence of the ejected coloniser,
thereby creating an
inevitable generational collision with the generation
that would follow
them — the young generation of real
change-makers.
Having said that, my analysis of the generation of
change-makers is quite
different. The generation of change-makers is very
well-informed, read,
daring, but sometimes irrational, as is the nature with
most young people.
However, this is a generation that is prepared to learn
and to take risks,
which is a hallmark of all revolutions and moments of
rupture.
A silent conflict has been raging between the generation of
change-makers
and that of in-betweeners as they contest for space and
relevance in the
politics of Matabeleland. But because their focus, causes
and ideological
outlooks are different, it is not easy for these two
generations to
complement each other. The generation of in-betweeners think
it is time for
them to eat before they fall by the wayside — thus
celebrating the
“castrated logic” of an MDC-T, Zanu PF or Harare-engineered
“messianic”
effect.
But as a group of scavengers, they can find a
meal in every carcass. So most
of them tend to publicly present very radical
discourses on Matabeleland
when in reality they do not even mean it.
Actually, in the event of a
genuine revolutionary crusade or real moment of
rupture, they would not even
be prepared to join because their limited scope
tells them that they have
more to lose. In fact, their thinking has been
that in the event of a
rupture they would assume political leadership
positions and roles while
consigning those they consider to be much younger
to the vagaries of the
battlefront.
But the young generation of
change-agents is quite revolutionary and very
much prepared to see the
struggle materialising into tangible emancipatory
projects. And so this
struggle will continue until the generation of real
change agents is able to
claim its space and mantle from the generation of
scavengers who are
prepared to compromise for food to be quickly placed in
their empty
stomachs.
So these emergent generational challenges can be likened to
some kind of
“puppetry politics” — all of it played for the good of Harare
and with the
aim of maintaining Zimbabwe in her current configurations; as a
state and
with the people of Matabeleland continuing to subsist as subjects
and second
class citizens.
Dr Mhlanga is a human
rights activist and an academic from the University of
Westminster,
London.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 8,
2012 in News
A SYNDICATED fund, led by private equity firm Global Emerging
Markets (GEM),
has put up US$1 billion to enable Zimbabwe’s government to
assume commercial
banks’ non-performing loans and rescue depositors in the
affected banks, the
Zimbabwe Independent can reveal.
Report by Our
Staff Writer
Presenting his state of the economy address yesterday, Finance
minister
Tendai Biti said his ministry was working with a foreign private
sector
partner to raise money to bankroll a 10-year bond issue, which will
enable
the government to clean the troubled banks’ balance sheets and pave
way for
the restoration of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s
(RBZ)lender-of-last-resort
function. The bond will most likely be issued by
Zimbabwe Resolution
Corporation (ZRC), an entity to be created for the
purpose.
Under the structure proposed by GEM, seen by the
Independent, banks would be
allowed to sell their non-performing loans
(NPLs) to the ZRC under
commercial terms, assigning collateral and all other
rights attached to the
loans.
In turn, ZRC would be funded
through the issuance of long-term tax-free
bonds, guaranteed unconditionally
by the Finance ministry. Government would
raise a levy of 2% of total risk
weighted banking assets, for a period of 10
years, to create a sinking fund
for ZRC. As banking industry assets
increase, the levy would be reduced over
time.
Although Biti would not be drawn into naming the foreign
partner who would
support the bond issue, authoritative sources disclosed
that GEM, the firm
that also underwrote mining company RioZim’s
capital-raising exercise
earlier this year, had put in place the US$1
billion syndicated facility.
Some of the targeted investors making up
the syndicate are Afreximbank,
pension managers PIC, the Development Bank of
Southern Africa, international
sovereign wealth funds, Nssa, domestic banks
and domestic depositors.
The sources say GEM submitted a proposal and
subsequently reached an
agreement with the Ministry of Finance to help in
reforming the banking
system, which faces systemic risk owing to the high
levels of non-performing
loans. Biti said the bond would be issued following
an Act of Parliament.
His ministry was in the process of crafting a draft
bill in consultation
with various stakeholders.
The ministry will
also set up a special purpose vehicle to take over debts
accumulated by the
RBZ since the days of hyperinflation, in line with
International Monetary
Fund recommendations.
Biti said bad loans accounted for as much as 80% of
some banks’ loan books.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September
14, 2012 in Politics
JUST when Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai thought he
had rode out of the
ferocious Lorcadia Karimatsenga Tembo storm after the
High Court gave him a
reprieve on Wednesday, yet another woman, Nosipho
Regina Shilubane
(pictured) from South Africa yesterday filed an urgent
application at the
Harare Magistrates’ Court in another bid to stop his
wedding to Elizabeth
Macheka tomorrow.
Report by Brian
Chitemba/Wongai Zhangazha
Judgment was reserved to today — just 24 hours
before the wedding — putting
Tsvangirai on tenterhooks. The premier has been
walking on a minefield,
getting caught up in a series of damaging sex
scandals with different women
locally and outside the
country.
Tsvangirai’s lawyer Innocent Chagonda could not immediately comment
on the
saga which has intelligence fingerprints and hallmarks of a sting
operation
all over it. Shilubane (35) through her lawyers Manase &
Manase Legal
Practitioners, yesterday pulled another shocker as she objected
to
Tsvangirai’s exchange of vows with Macheka, saying she was astounded to
learn about the union as the premier had also promised to walk with her
down the aisle.
In her court papers, Shilubane gave salacious details of
how she gallivanted
and romped with the Tsvangira in Zimbabwe, Botswana,
Seychelles and
Singapore.
For good measure, she also attached photos of
her in purported amorous
company of the prime minister, frolicking on
pleasant Seychelles beaches
with a relaxed Tsvangirai clad in blue shorts
with a matching beach shirt.
Shilubane said she was “very much” in love with
Tsvangirai and wanted him to
“finish issues with me, that is his proposal of
marriage”.
According to the papers, Shilubane was introduced to Tsvangirai on
September
5 2009 in Johannesburg at the Monte Casino shopping complex by her
pastor
Lazarus Muriritirwa from the Gospel Assembly Church.
“He said
there was a friend of his who wanted to meet me. I only got to know
it was
Tsvangirai when I went with his pastor to his hotel room in Pallazio
Hotel
in Fourways, in the Monte Casino Mall. When we were introduced at his
hotel
room, he asked his pastor and his son Edwin Tsvangirai who were
present on
the day to give us some privacy and we remained the two of us in
the hotel
room,” reads Shilubane’s affidavit.
Tsvangirai then allegedly told her he was
a widower looking for a new bride
to marry and had approached the pastor to
find a suitable woman for him,
triggering a chain of events and loves
scenes.
Shilubane’s claims add fuel to an already burning fire as Tsvangirai
has
been linked to a string of women since the death of his wife Susan in
March
2009, including Bulawayo businesswoman Aquillina Pamberi, Loretta
Nyathi,
US-based Zimbabwean doctor Arikana Chihombori and his late wife’s
sister
Leah Mhundwa, among others.
Shilubane said: “He told me that he
wanted to start a relationship with me
and that I could go home and think
about it and if I was willing and
interested I could return the next day and
we would talk. He said he had
other things to do since it was son’s birthday
and he was having a party for
him.”
Before he left, Tsvangirai gave her
his business card with his name and
details and “the number at the time was
0027718972979 although he
subsequently changed his numbers numerous times
thereafter, inclusive of the
following numbers 00263772383532 and
00263772383593,” she said.
According to Shilubane, Tsvangirai phoned the
following day and asked her if
she had been to Zimbabwe, to which he replied
she had only visited the
country for a church conference.
“He said he
wanted me to come to Zimbabwe. I agreed that I wanted to date
him and I
would like to see him and visit Zimbabwe. So he bought me an
aeroplane
ticket and that was on the September 18, 2009 via British
Airways.”
“I
stayed at my pastor’s house in Borrowdale and he would come after work to
see me. I stayed in Zimbabwe from September 18 2009 to September 20 2009. We
made love for the first time on Saturday September 19 2009 at the pastor’s
house in Borrowdale (and) I returned to South Africa on the September 20
2009,” she said.
Shilubane said after her first visit to Zimbabwe she
returned to South
Africa and Tsvangirai phoned her and asked her where she
was staying, to
which she told him Yeoville in Johannesburg, down the
notorious Hillbrow
full of Zimbabweans and other foreigners.
“He
expressed disgust and shock and he said: ‘How can you stay in that
hellhole;
you need to get a nicer place in a nice location where I can come
and see
you in uptown area. I looked for a place and I found a town house in
a place
called Buccleuch in Johannesburg North near Sandton at No 53
Northfields,
Fife Street Buccleuch.”
“R(rands) 13 000 were (sic) deposited into my
Standard Bank account No
026640473 by Morgan, I paid for the place and moved
into the new place at
the end of November 2009,” she said.
The romance
blossomed, Shilubane said, as they communicated daily on her
mobile
0027726854436 and in November of 2009 Tsvangirai told her that he
wanted to
go with her on a holiday.
She said the holiday was from December 28 2009 to
January 10 2010 during
which they could not take their hands off each other,
as “we were intimate
throughout the holiday period and we always had
unprotected sex all the
times as he had asked me to go on family planning
medication as he said he
did not want to have any more
children”.
Shilubane said she continued communicating with Tsvangirai after
the holiday
everyday and whenever he travelled aboard he would pass by South
Africa and
“I would go to whichever hotel he would be in and we would be
intimate and
make love two or three times on each occasion”.
On November
2010 she went on holiday to Gaborone, Botswana, with Tsvangirai
and on
December 27 2010 they went for another “love cruise” in Singapore for
two
weeks until early 2011. Shilubane attached photos of the holiday of the
two
on a boat called “Legend of the Seas”.
She also claims in January 2011
Tsvangirai said he wanted to be serious with
her and “throw me in the
kitchen” – local lingo for marrying – after which
she introduced him to his
two children as her boyfriend.
Tsvangirai would go see her on numerous
occasions with his motorcade and
sometimes he would even come with South
African Police Services motorcade
vehicles.
In February 2011, Tsvangirai
proposed to marry her, with the wedding
ceremony to be held in Zimbabwe, she
said.
“I accepted his marriage proposal and I told him he needed to pay
lobola as
per our Tsonga custom. He promised he would do that and he tasked
me to go
and speak to my family to arrange a date. Which I did and was set
for early
January 2012,” she said.
Shilubane said throughout 2011
Tsvangirai would go to South Africa and at
times she would see his friends
Ian Makone, and his aides Wallace and Edgar
Gobvu to whom she would be
introduced as his fiancée and future wife.
However, she says Tsvangirai
started “acting funny” at some point. “Morgan
started acting funny when
stories and issues of his numerous women started,
first there was a woman
called Loreta Nyathi, then Aquilline Pamberi and
then Locardia Tembo. Every
time I asked him about these stories he would
deny them and I always
believed his explanations as we were in love and I
never thought that Morgan
could have such a character as every time he
professed undying love for me
and he never seemed to be such a chauvinistic
man he poses himself to be,”
she said.
She said Tsvangirai did not turn up in January 2012 and gave the
excuse that
he was dealing with government business and reconvened the date
to end of
December 2012.
Sources told the Zimbabwe Independent this week
President Robert Mugabe on
Monday during a meeting advised Tsvangirai to
carefully handle his private
life amid the storm brewed by Karimatsenga.
Mugabe is said to have “given
notes” to Tsvangirai on how to manage his
marital life since he was a high
profile figure.
In a press statement
released last night by the Prime Minister’s
spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka,
Tsvangirai said the two interdicts to stop
his wedding were a clearly
“well-choreographed” move “replete with malice
and vindictiveness”.
He
said his lawyers had opposed both objections to his wedding to Macheka.
“The
latest claim, for example, has sought to wrongfully allege that the
complainant had engaged with Prime Minister Tsvangirai. This is false. Some
of the claims are part of a grand political scheme to besmirch, to malign
and to soil the image of the Prime Minister for political gain,” he
said.
“Today’s claim was lodged with the newspapers before it was served on
the PM’s
lawyers and with the magistrates’ court. There are those who have
obviously
sought to dip political fingers in a social pie.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Business
BUSINESS tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten has reportedly moved part
of his
stake in agro-industrial group CFI Holdings into a nominee
account.
Report by Our Staff Writer
Well-placed sources say Van
Hoogstraten, also a shareholder in Rainbow
Tourism Group and Hwange Colliery
Company, moved over 10% of his
shareholding to his EFE
nominees.
He owns just over 14% of the group through various
investment vehicles which
include Messina Investments and
Zimcor.
Although the change could be a temporary strategic move, the
market is rife
with speculation that the stake could have been off-loaded to
a high-profile
individual.
CFI continues to struggle,
particularly with regards to financing. The group’s
inability to attract
appropriate funding has hamstrung the company’s efforts
to re-tool its aged
plant and equipment in the poultry business, while
depressing capacity and
hence efficiencies and margins across the business.
CFI requires more
than US$20 million to recapitalise its operations. The
company has been
financing operations and new projects through disposal of
non-core assets
and loans secured primarily from PTA Bank.
To date, CFI has raised
about US$4,3 million from the sale of non-core
assets. It boasts a huge
asset base compared to other listed companies.
The company, currently
trading on a cautionary on the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange, has engaged
potential investors to take up a 48% stake in its
poultry business, Crest
Poultry, and an agreement is expected to be reached
before
year-end.
It is widely believed that a South African-based
businessman with old links
to CFI is the front-runner for the business. The
group said it had narrowed
potential funding and technical partners to
three.
The conglomerate is also talking to other strategic partners
about investing
in its retail arm, Farm & City and Victoria
Foods.
Analysts say that access to cheaper and more stable long-term
funding would
help the business take advantage of volume growth at Agrifoods
and Agrimix,
while a lasting solution is required to plug the gap created by
increased
power outages at the hatcheries.
Analysts say low
capacity utilisation at Crest and Suncrest leaves money on
the table, adding
rise to imports of poultry products into the
country.
Addressing the funding issue and balancing the
equation would leave Vetco in
better stead and also leave Farm & City
with improved performance since
funding would be available to develop the
supply chain and improve inventory
holding capacity.
The problems
in the flour milling unit at Victoria are largely exogenous
with the only
way management can reposition the business being importation
of cheap flour
rather than mill expensively.
Zimbabwe’s wheat growing industry has basically
gone to the dogs, taking the
milling industry with it.
CFI is
also disposing of its Beira Grain Terminal and its 14% stake in
Windmill.
CFI operates three divisions: poultry, specialised and
retail.
Poultry includes animal health unit Vetco, Agrifoods and
Agrimix and the
poultry businesses Hubbard Zimbabwe, Glenara Estates, Crest
Breeders and
Suncrest Chickens. Specialised comprises milling and snack
foods operation
by Victoria Foods. The group operates Farm & City with
branches around the
country.
In the six months to March, turnover
for the group was up 16% to US$55,4
million spurred by increased demand for
hardware and agro-inputs in the
retail division. Volumes in the poultry
division were unchanged and the
specialised division registered a decline in
volume.
In terms of contribution, poultry put in 50%, specialised 13%
and retail
37%.
The group reported a loss of US$1,24 million,
which was worse than US$486
901 in the comparable period and a reduction
from the US$4,51 million in
2011.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in Business
FINANCE minister Tendai Biti last week
presented the state of the economy
report for August, a review of the
performance of the economy so far in the
year. Unsurprisingly, the report
was essentially a confirmation of the bad
news the nation already expected;
unmet revenue targets, a widening trade
deficit, a disappointing
agricultural season and a financial sector
beleaguered with non-performing
loans. Below par revenue performance is
particularly worrying as the country
is faced with important projects like
the constitutional referendum which
will need funding.
Embarrassingly, the solution proffered involves taking a
begging bowl around
the region. Interesting as that is, what stuck out most
in the minister’s
address is the proposal for the resolution of the high
levels of
non-performing loans in the banking sector.
Alarmingly,
it was revealed that non-performing loans average 8% of deposits
for the
whole banking sector but are as high as 50% if the top four
international
banks are excluded.
Not only is this figure unacceptably high, but it
is way higher than what
banks reveal in their financial results. It is no
wonder authorities have
been spurred into action. If their figures are
correct then a banking crisis
is imminent.
Banking is a
confidence game and a run on banks will inevitably erupt if
depositors feel
their money is in danger. As a proactive response, the
Ministry of Finance
and alternative investment firm GEM Group, are mulling
the establishment of
a US$1 billion fund which will acquire the banking
industry’s non-performing
loans to protect depositors and restore
confidence.
This would be
done through the creation of the Zimbabwe Resolution
Corporation (ZRC) which
would be jointly owned by the ministry and GEM and
run by the latter. ZRC
would be funded through the issuance of a US$1
billion 10-year bond. Banks
would then sell their non-performing loans to
ZRC at commercial rates and
cede all rights attached including claims on
collateral.
The
establishment of ZRC is a noble cause and a timeous one given that there
is
a real risk of a banking sector crisis. However, there are certain
aspects
of the structure of the proposal which perhaps need further
scrutiny.
The first aspect which may need rethinking is that the
bond which will fund
ZRC will be guaranteed by the Ministry of Finance.
Given how strained
government finances are, it is highly unlikely that such
a guarantee will
instil confidence in potential investors and hence the bond
issue may have
no takers.
Government has been in arrears on
payments to international financiers for
years and is also failing to settle
local suppliers on time. At half-year
arrears due to local suppliers
reportedly stood at US$179 million.
Government cannot therefore fail
to settle that amount and be expected to
guarantee US$1 billion. They simply
do not have the financial muscle to back
it up.
When a similar
structure was put in place in Nigeria where they established
the Asset
Management Company of Nigeria, the Nigerian government had the
capacity to
pay. Even then there was a public outcry on why government was
bailing out
errant banks.
In Nigeria following the aforementioned public outcry,
a sinking fund funded
by the banks themselves was created to offset some of
the cost to the
government.
Similarly, a sinking fund will also
be established locally to offset the
cost to ZRC. This sinking fund will be
funded through a 2% levy on each bank’s
risk weighted assets. A negative
aspect of such a structure is that the levy
“punishes” those banks with more
assets and those with better quality
assets. Ironically, these are likely to
be the banks with less
non-performing loans and they will bear the cost of
their peers’ errant
ways.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle for the
proposed bond issue is the sheer quantum
of funds to be raised. In the
Zimbabwean context US$1 billion is a lot of
money. Put into perspective, it
would dwarf any single investment made into
the country in recent
times.
If investors were not willing to bring money into the country
to fund
business, will they now fall over each other to buy the lowest
quality
loans? One of the lead investors listed is
Afreximbank.
Afreximbank already has exposure to the Zimbabwean banking
sector and may
well be uninterested in further exposure. The proposal did
not mention
whether the potential investors had already been approached and
if so what
their response was.
Other target investors mentioned
include South Africa’s Public Investment
Corporation, Development Bank of
Southern Africa and National Social
Security Authority. Sovereign funds,
local banks and private sector
investors have also been listed as potential
investors.
A potential pitfall for ZRC is the possibility that if the
amount raised
falls short of the targeted US$1 billion, then there may be
favouritism in
the disbursement of the fund. The proposal which has been
distributed so far
does not yet give much detail on exactly how the funds
will be applied. If a
small amount is raised and distributed clandestinely
then the whole project
may fall into disarray.
ZRC is definitely
an ambitious project, perhaps bordering on the impossible.
Should the
project come to fruition, then it would be a good thing for the
sector and
the country as a whole. The involvement of GEM whose track record
in
Zimbabwe is soiled by their failure to deliver on promises to raise US$45
million for mining company Rio Zim certainly does little to instil
confidence. If they pull this one off, then certainly that will prove their
mettle.
Assuming ZRC is successful in cleaning up non-performing
loans in the
banking sector, the exercise should be followed up with an
exercise which
will rid the industry of the practices which are responsible
for the bad
loans to begin with.
In Nigeria this included
blacklisting some bank executives. The same may be
needed in our
market.
Whatever method is used, ultimately bankers’ behaviour needs
to be reformed.
Another poser is how banks, particularly the smaller ones
that cannot profit
much from non-interest income, will make profit in a
post-clean-up world.
Lending will have to be more prudent and perhaps
banks will be forced to
rationalise operations to remain profitable.
Ultimately banks will have to
fight for the few quality borrowers in the
market and the ensuing struggle
for survival may result in bank mergers and
Zimbabwe losing its “overbanked”
tag.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Opinion
THE debate over the Copac draft constitution has gone on for the past
few
weeks with the state media, both print and electronic, supporting the
unilateral amendments Zanu PF made to the agreed document now dividing the
public and coalition government.
Report by Gee WekuMazowe
Zanu PF
has justified these amendments, arguing the people’s views in the
national
report had been overlooked during the drafting process. However,
what was
captured in the so-called national report does not in any way
reflect the
views of the people during the outreach programme for a number
of
reasons.
The Copac outreach programme started in the rural areas,
with the intention
to end the exercise in urban areas. But after completing
the outreach
programme in the rural regions and upon moving into the urban
areas, the
exercise failed to take off smoothly amid political clashes and
disruptions,
mainly by Zanu PF hooligans who did not want the urbanites to
express their
views. As a result many people in urban areas were left out of
the loop.
More than 50% of the country’s population which is
dominated by young people
now generally resides in urban areas. Most of the
youths, the bulk of the
voters, who live in urban areas are important in
shaping the future of the
country. This is one reason why those who analysed
the collected data argued
they could not use quantitative analysis of the
data. To do so would have
meant giving the data collected from the rural
areas more weight than it
should have.
Secondly, in the run up to
the rural outreach programme, Zanu PF, which
right from the beginning wanted
to control the process, content and the
output, mobilised its structures,
war vets and youths to go around coaching
and intimidating people, telling
them what they should say during the
outreach programmes — rigging the
process.
A few individuals were selected and made to memorise what
they were going to
say during the outreach programme. Villagers were also
told the majority of
them would remain quiet during meetings as only a
selected few individuals
were supposed to contribute in the stage-managed
contributions. Anyone who
dared contribute when they had not been authorised
to do so would be
punished afterwards for expressing themselves without
permission.
In some areas the outreach programme continued for a
number of days but the
same people went around repeating the same things
they had been coached to
say. This cannot be said to have been a genuine
effort to capture the views
of the “people” as Zanu PF planted its Kariba
draft ideas and views that its
leader wanted reflected in the national
report and hence the new
constitution.
The two MDC formations
have argued that since Zanu PF claims it has
incorporated the people’s views
into its own draft, which it now wants the
three parties to adopt, why not
take both the Copac draft and the Zanu PF
draft to the referendum. Surely if
Zanu PF correctly incorporated people’s
views, voters will choose its
draft.
Zanu PF is opposed to this because it knows given a choice
people will not
vote for its draft. That is why those who are making so much
noise, claiming
Zanu PF has aligned the national and Copac report are
unwilling to subject
both drafts to the referendum and are in fact even
denying that their
wholesale changes amount to producing a different
draft.
Zanu PF’s fears are understandable: if people vote in secret
they will this
time get an opportunty to truly express their real position
on the new
constitution.
The problem is Zanu PF bigwigs seem to now
believe that they own the country
and can do whatever they want with it,
including imposing a constitution.
They even now call themselves
“revolutionary or liberation party”,
insinuating they are the only
legitimate embodiment and expression of the
people’s hopes and
aspirations.
Zanu PF needs to be reminded that Zimbabweans
collectively and in their
diversity fought for this country to ensure
democracy and one man-one vote.
So why should a small section of society be
allowed to take away the rights
of citizens, including their right to decide
what sort of a constitution
they would want and who should rule
them?
We also have a situation where war veterans think that since
they went to
war to liberate this country they are entitled to hold special
views and the
nation to ransom. They need to be reminded that there are
millions of
children, who have equal citizens’ rights like them, who were
born after
independence and who are now eligible to vote but might have
different views
to theirs.
War veterans should also be reminded
that they fought the war together with
the masses; if the people did not
support them by feeding, clothing and
giving them vital information and
protection they would not have won the
struggle that way.
Now the
same war veterans are taking those masses for granted by beating and
threatening them with death for merely expressing divergent views to theirs.
Is that the democracy which Zimbabweans fought for? Is that what people died
for during the liberation struggle?
It should also be made clear
that in drafting this current constitution, we
are looking at the future
rather than at the current situation. The
constitution-making process cannot
and should not be about protecting or
removing anybody from power. It should
not be about short-term and
electoral-driven interests, but national
interests — the future of the
country and its people.
The current
Copac process and the resultant draft are a result of
compromises between
the three political parties involved. That is common
cause. All contentious
issues were referred by the negotiators to their
parties for a position and
it is therefore puzzling why Zanu PF now disowns
what its team agreed on and
appended their signatures to. Should we conclude
Zanu PF Copac negotiators
did not consult their party on important issues to
get direction or they
consulted but ignored their principals?
A constitution is designed to
limit the exercise of state power and this is
what the Copac draft seeks to
do. Hiding behind the misleading national
report, which contains views of
one party that manipulated the outreach
programme, can hardly be the best
way to produce a well-thought-out and
durable constitution in a global and
changing environment, particularly
given the report is just a clear
sham.
WekuMazowe followed the Copac process closely. He
writes in his personal
capacity.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Opinion
FAMILIAR with the hustle, bustle and congestion of their city,
Harareans
travelling into the town centre were greeted by an eerie silence
on
Wednesday morning. The reason was simple: The police had marshalled their
resources to launch a ruthless, nay brutal operation aimed at ridding the
city of the menace of touts and rank marshals.
Report by Stewart
Chabwinja
The operation had magic bullet efficacy. Gone were the
all-too-familiar
“Mbare, Mbare, Mbare!” cries, or “DZ yese!, yese DZ!” from
touts who have
become an integral, if acutely annoying, part of life in the
city.
There were no customer wars in which touts literally fought
over, or dragged
commuters into their kombis; no “Formula One” driving
stunts. Ditto traffic
congestion –– at least for the most
part.
It was a job well done by the police on the surface of it ––
never mind how
long the sanity will last.
Yet the police’s action
raises pertinent questions, not least being to what
extent is their motto
“Pro lege, pro patria, pro populo” (for the law, the
nation, and the people)
still their guiding principle?
What is shocking about this sorry
affair is that it eventually took the
assault of soldiers by the touts who
had become a law unto themselves to
rouse the police from their
slumber.
The cops were content to fold their arms and watch despite a
deluge of
recent media reports suggesting thugs and their bosses, allegedly
aligned to
Zanu PF, had taken over the city’s taxi ranks and were living
large on the
proceeds of extortion –– illegally collecting protection fees
from kombi
operators.
The ZRP’s hands-off approach was epitomised
by Harare police spokesman Chief
Inspector James Sabau who had the gall to
declare the police would not
interfere because it was the bus operators who
initially invited the
marshals!
“They (kombi operators) should find a way
of dealing with their rank
marshals,” Sabau declared.
A wake-up
call indeed. To imagine all along the public thought the police
had a duty
to be proactive in the interests of their duty of maintaining law
and
order.
Two weeks ago a Zanu PF chairman was assaulted by touts for
confronting them
after they increased their illegal fees, and banned some
buses for leaking
information to the media.
A tout was even
quoted as saying: “We have more power than the police.”
Clearly the Zanu PF
thugs were becoming a Frankenstein monster, but police
remained largely
uninterested.
Sabau again: “We intend to meet all stakeholders this
week… come up with a
tangible solution… There is an outcry now because the
touts increased what
they charge hence (Kombi operators are) calling for our
help.”
Then last Friday rank marshals assaulted two soldiers in
uniform at a city
bus terminus after they tried to defend commuters. Come
Sunday, about 20
soldiers indiscriminately beat up touts, rank marshals and
the public at a
commuter omnibus rank in vengeance.
That finally
did it for the ZRP. After the soldiers were assaulted, the
police launched
its anti-tout operation, arresting 308 rank marshals and
touts in the
crackdown in the central business district.
Police spokesperson
Oliver Mandipaka sang a fresh tune: “The exercise is
simply to ensure that
there is no breakdown of law and order in the city. We
received numerous
complaints from commuters, shoppers and people doing
business in town to do
with the behaviour of the touts and that’s what
necessitated
this.”
So the police were acting in the public interest after all.
Then,
unwittingly, Mandipaka’s dead giveaway: “It’s uncalled for, for
members of
the public to attack uniformed forces,” he said. “It’s not
good.”
But did it have to take attacks on soldiers for police to do
their job?
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Opinion
“EVERY man got a right to decide his own destiny, and in this
judgment there
is no partiality. So arm-in-arm with arms we’ll fight this
little struggle,
cause that’s the only way we can overcome our little
trouble.
Report by Dingilizwe Ntuli
dntuli@zimind.co.zwBrother you’re
right, you’re right, we go fight, we’ll
have to fight, fight for your
rights. Natty dread it in a-Zimbabwe; set it
up in Zimbabwe; mash it up in
a-Zimbabwe; Africans a-liberate Zimbabwe.
Divide and rule could only tear us
apart. In every man chest there beats a
heart. So soon we’ll find out who is
the real revolutionaries. And I don’t
want my people to be tricked by
mercenaries.”
These are the unmistakable lyrics of the late great Bob
Marley from his song
Zimbabwe which he belted out on Independence Day on
April 18, 1980. When
Marley and the Wailers were invited to perform, it’s
said the first official
words uttered in Zimbabwe, following the raising of
our new nation’s flag
were, “Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Marley and the
Wailers”.
This tune had inspired the new country’s freedom fighters
during the
protracted bush war which led to Zimbabwe’s independence from
Britain on
April 18, 1980.
Marley considered himself a freedom
fighter through his revolutionary music.
Since that historic night at
Rufaro Stadium in Harare, a host of prominent
Jamaican reggae artists have
flocked to our country and the Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority even sponsored
popular dancehall artists like Sizzla and Cocoa Tea
to perform in Zimbabwe
in a bid to help spruce up the country’s image.
The musicians have
celebrated President Robert Mugabe as a principled and
courageous freedom
fighter.
Sizzla even said Mugabe was one of his “fathers from Africa”.
But
Sizzla’s “father from Africa” stoked a diplomatic tiff with Jamaicans
last
week when he stereotyped them as a country of drunkards perennially
hooked
on marijuana while giving a “distinguished lecture” at the Research
and
Intellectual Expo 2012 at the University of Zimbabwe.
“In Jamaica
they have freedom to smoke mbanje, varume vanogara vakadhakwa
(men are
always drunk) and universities are full of women. The men want to
sing and
do not go to colleges, vamwe vanobva vamonwa musoro (some are
dreadlocked).
Let us not go there,” said Mugabe, oblivious of the outrage
his sentiments
would provoke. Were Marley alive today, what would he be
saying?
Jamaican Foreign Affairs minister AJ Nicholson was
angered by Mugabe’s
statements and demanded an apology saying such comments
were inappropriate,
especially coming from a head of state, and even
suggested that Mugabe
return membership in the Order of Jamaica, which was
conferred on him during
a state visit in 1996 if he felt it was awarded to
him by drunkards.
Had it been the Jamaican Prime Minister who
branded Zimbabweans as lazy, the
island would have been accused of pandering
to Western stereotypes.
Do all Jamaican men smoke marijuana, spend the whole
day drinking alcohol or
prefer singing to working? Certainly not! While
there may be some
inconvenient truths about Mugabe’s observations, it is the
undiplomatic
manner he expressed his observations that seem to have angered
most
Jamaicans.
Jamaicans were quick to remind him that for a man
who has been in power for
32 years and ruined his country, he should shut
up. They reminded Mugabe
that their island has achieved more than Zimbabwe
in the international arena
considering its size.
Who can forget
the fastest man on earth, Usain Bolt ,being unleashed at the
Beijing Olympic
Games in 2008? Bolt shattered the 100m, 200m and 4X100m
relay world records
with lightning dominance and won the same events at this
year’s London
Games. Mugabe knows that Bolt is the only sprinter to retain
the three
Olympic sprints in succession.
They also reminded Mugabe that Jamaica
proudly upholds democracy and the
rule of law and while it might seem to
Mugabe that their men are lazy,
Jamaican women have actually advanced way
beyond the stage where they are
treated as second-class
citizens.
This is not the first time Mugabe has drawn such widespread
criticism for
reckless and unprovoked utterances. In 1992, he came under
fire from the
Jewish community for declaring that white farmers were so
“hard-hearted, you
would think they were Jews”.
He issued an
apology following an outcry and explained that he had used a
Shona
expression which when directly translated sounds offensive.
Mugabe
also made xenophobic and disparaging remarks about Mbare residents
branding
them “totemless” and elements of alien origin after they rejected
his Zanu
PF in the 2000 elections.
For a leader who always postures as the
legitimate voice of Africans at home
and the diaspora, Mugabe’s remarks
exposed his poor and reckless sense of
judgment and hypocrisy. He must
apologise to Jamaicans for hurting their
national pride.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Opinion
TOMORROW is supposed to be Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s biggest
day
since he lost his first wife Susan in a car accident in 2009, as he weds
new
spouse Elizabeth Macheka, but it now appears it might also be a day of
political reckoning.
Instead of it being a day of popping champagne
corks, celebrating life and
enjoying with family, friends and relatives, it
might prove to be a moment
when the consequences of the premier’s mistakes
or misdeeds catch up with
him politically.
After riding out a
disorienting storm prompted by his estranged “wife”
Locardia Karimatsenga
Tembo last week in her bid to stop his wedding to
Macheka, Tsvangirai
yesterday found himself in the middle of another sex
scandal.
A South African woman, Nosipho Regina Shilubane,
popped up from out of the
blue, claiming she had also been promised marriage
by the prime minister,
hence his wedding to Macheka must be stopped until
the air has been cleared.
Even without Tembo’s dramatic bid to stop
the marriage to Macheka,
Tsvangirai’s wedding was still going to be
scandal-ridden, given how he was
last year involved in a public row with the
woman he “married” for just
about a fortnight before dumping her, citing all
sorts of grounds including
shadowy interferences.
Quite apart
from that, Macheka is the daughter of Zanu PF central committee
member and
former Chitungwiza mayor Joseph Macheka.
This has provoked
controversy in certain circles.
Interestingly, Tembo was also coming
from a Zanu PF-linked family, amid
fears Tsvangirai would be compromised
politically, right from his bedroom to
the office where he is reportedly
swarmed by teeming state agents in one
form or another.
To
make matters worse, Tsvangirai has since the death of Susan been linked
to a
harem of other women, including Arikana Chihombori, Aquilina Kayidza
Pamberi, Leah Mhundwa and Loretta Nyathi, among others.
And all
of sudden Shilubane emerged from the woodwork yesterday –– just 48
hours
before the wedding!
There are many compelling issues of public
interest which arise out of this
saga: Tsvangirai’s personality, his
temperament and judgement; not to
mention his ability to organise himself
and run his life.
So who is behind this Hollywood-style drama?
There are also career-related
issues at stake, including public trust,
opinion, voters and elections, and
ultimately the question: is he fit to
govern?
It is quite possible –– in fact it is as clear as an azure
sky of deepest
summer –– that there are some dark forces behind this
spectacle. Spooky
forces are almost certainly pulling the strings behind
this tragi-comedy.
Intelligence services are almost unquestionably
involved. There is a script
behind the theatre. “Honey traps” and sting
operations have been used since
time immemorial by intelligence
operatives.
However, this argument is not sustainable because it
wholly ignores the
issue of Tsvangirai’s character and
judgement.
It also presupposes he was not an active participant
in all these affairs.
Yet it is clear he has been involved by
choice.
One is tempted to empathise with
Tsvangirai.
He is largely a good guy but has serious limitations
as a politician and
leader. Of course, politicians in general are associated
with dirty
politics: political scandals involving power, sex and money ––
and yes,
lies.
Sex scandals can be destructive. In some cases,
these scandals are so
damaging, they can destroy careers, or even bring down
governments.
They have brought down powerful politicians, movie
actors, football stars
and musicians all over the world. This is obviously
something of an
oversimplification: every politician’s scandal is different,
and no one
overarching theory can explain exactly how each plays
out.
Indeed, some politicians have had their careers ended by such
incidents as
Tsvangirai is facing, while others have survived, and even gone
on to become
more popular than before.
Some find that voters
are more forgiving than we expect, while others have
been able to convince
the public their accusers are politically motivated
and have sinister
agendas.
At the same time, some stories are simply too devastating to
survive. But
there are some contexts that determine whether a damaging event
becomes
politically fatal.
That said, the question here is:
Will Tsvangirai survive this series of
salacious sex scandals? If he does,
is he fit to govern?
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Opinion
BATTLE lines around the stormy debate focusing on the
constitution-making
process are clearly drawn as preparations for elections
next year gather
momentum.
Starting last week, the Zimbabwe
Independent began serialising articles
written by MDC-T secretary-general
and Finance minister Tendai Biti — who is
a lawyer by profession — on the
controversial constitution-making exercise.
Does it protect the
people against imperial power?
The Copac draft deals with imperial power in
four respects. The first is the
creation and definition of citizenship that
is broad and inclusive.
Citizenship is acquired through birth, descent and
registration.
The definition of citizenship by descent is wide
and more importantly all
citizens have equal rights. Another issue dealt
with decisively is the
question of citizenship in respect of third or fourth
generation Zimbabweans
born from great or grand parents that came from Sadc
countries as immigrant
workers, the so-called aliens from Nyasaland or
Blantyre. The Copac draft
now makes these so-called aliens citizens of
Zimbabwe by birth.
The second and more decisive issue is a
comprehensive Bill of Rights
providing for both first generation and
socio-economic rights. The Bill
provides for exciting rights such as the
right to personal security, the
right to life, equality and non
discrimination, the right to demonstrate and
petition. In Article 4.7 the
Bill provides for comprehensive rights for
arrested and detained persons
which are revolutionary in our law whilst in
Article 4.24 it bestows
comprehensive political rights on citizens.
With regards to
rights to education and health, the state is obliged to
provide a basic
state-funded education and access of basic health services
including
reproductive health services.
The third and most important manner in
which this constitution protects the
people is by creating a democratic and
accountable president. The mischief
that we have lived with as Zimbabweans
is that for the last 32 years this
country has been run by an imperial
president who has had more powers than
the philanderer Henry the VIII.
President Robert Mugabe has and still
exercises such autocratic de facto and
de jure powers that make many
imperial presidents envious. He makes laws,
appoints judges, appoints
government and its officials, dissolves parliament
willy-nilly and has
absolute control of the securocrats.
The
Copac draft creates an executive president who shares power with
cabinet,
who cannot make policy without cabinet, who does not substantively
appoint
judges, who cannot dissolve parliament, who cannot unilaterally
declare war
or a state of emergency. It creates a president that does not
have immunity
for any crimes or omissions committed during his or her term
of
office.
Furthermore, it creates a president and a cabinet that
can be recalled by
parliament.
This is a new concept for Zimbabwe
and for Zanu PF. This is why the biggest
cry from Zanu PF has been against
this new democratic president.
The fourth manner in which this
constitution protects the people is by
creating a security service that is
subordinate and subject to the
constitution, parliament and an elected
executive. That constitution even
creates a public complaints body against
the omissions and commissions of
the security services which include the
Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO). More importantly, security chiefs,
like the president, are now
subject to a limited tenure of office of two
five-year terms. There are
limited terms of offices for permanent
secretaries, heads of parastatals and
those heading government
bodies.
Does it establish and protect a clear separation of powers
and authority in
the state structures?
Indeed, the Copac draft creates
traditional organs of state power that is to
say judiciary, legislature and
executive.
However, unlike the current constitution, where one office
and one
individual totally subordinates the other chambers, the same is not
the
case. There is a judiciary consisting of a Constitutional Court, Supreme
Court, High Court and other courts. Judges are appointed nominally by the
president but only from a list provided by parliament following a process of
public interviews. There is a legislature consisting of a Senate and the
National Assembly.
Unlike the present position, the president
does not have the power of
unilaterally dissolving a parliament save when an
election is due. The
existence of executive commissions such a public
service, police and
correctional service commissions, which are more
structured than now also
reinforces this doctrine of separation of
powers.
Does it create independent institutions, particularly those
which create a
bulwark against power and big government?
Yes it
does. This constitution creates important institutions in our law
which
include an independent anti-corruption commission, auditor general,
gender
commission, human rights commission, media commission.
The most
important commission is arguably the National Prosecuting Authority
that is
created to ensure that the prosecution of criminal justice is
“de-Zanunised”
and depoliticised. This is an important break with the past.
It is thus not
surprising why Zanu PF is fighting against this clause.
Another
important commission is the National Peace and Reconciliation
Commission
which, among other things, will deal with our past and our future
given the
periods of hard and soft genocides we have seen in this country
from
Gukurahundi to the death of General Solomon Mujuru, just to mention a
few.
Again not surprisingly, Zanu PF does not want
this.
Does it articulate the developmental aspirations of the
people?
Yes. Firstly, one of the founding principles of this constitution is
that of
equality and inclusivity. A nation cannot develop when other
citizens are
innocent bystanders and onlookers. By creating strong and clear
provisions
dealing with the issue of gender equality, the Copac draft makes
women
central players in our discourse. The gender provisions in this
constitution
even go farther than those in the South African
constitution.
Secondly, by creating a devolved state, which now
operates through the
mediums of provincial and metropolitan councils, the
Copac draft is
recognising the right of communities to manage their affairs
and to further
their development.
— To be continued next
week.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Opinion
THE Jamaican community must be feeling somewhat aggrieved by
President
Robert Mugabe’s recent remarks pouring scorn on the role of
Jamaican
men.Report by MuckRaker
Giving a lecture in the capital Mugabe
showed no gratitude for the numerous
Jamaicans who have backed his
policies.
“In Jamaica they have freedom to smoke mbanje, men are
always drunk and
universities are full of women,” Mugabe said. “The men want
to sing and do
not go to college,”’ he was quoted as saying by the Daily
News.
“Some are dreadlocked, let’s not go there.”
Several
prominent dancehall artistes have been to Zimbabwe where they heaped
praise
on the Zimbabwean leader. Sizzla, Red Rat and Buju Banton are among
the
performers who have visited in recent years. But despite their support
for
the president, there is no reciprocity.
Rastafarians consider mbanje
the “wisdom weed”.
Does this mean Sizzla who was given a farm will be
a little wiser when
trotting out his “wise” opinions on Mugabe’s regime in
future?
The Jamaican press reports that Mugabe’s comments
provoked a storm with the
country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign
Trade Senator AJ Nicholson
saying: “We strongly reject the suggestions
contained in the news item.”
The Jamaica Observer quotes him saying:
“Jamaican men and women from all
walks of life have made valuable
contributions to national development and
have made their mark on the world
stage, be it in the field of politics,
diplomacy, medicine, science and
technology, or sports and culture, among
many others.”
The
minister said the country took “immense pride in the acknowledged
contribution that Jamaica has made to the liberation of southern Africa and
was gratified that nations such as South Africa and Zimbabwe enjoy the right
to choose their own destiny”.
“We need not remind that Jamaicans
such as Marcus Garvey, Michael Manley,
Bob Marley and Dudley Thompson have
advocated for and inspired generations
of our brothers and sisters both in
Africa and in the African diaspora. We
believe that our contribution to the
promotion of peace and social justice
is recognised and appreciated by all
well-thinking people across the globe,”
added
Nicholson.
Reggae artiste Cocoa Tea was also peeved by the
statements, reports the
Jamaica Star, saying he performed alongside fellow
artiste Fantan Mojah in
Zimbabwe last October.
“That statement is
not a true reflection of us as a people. Jamaicans are
way better than that
and we are leaders but everyone is entitled to their
own opinion. Sizzla is
an educated artiste who has his degree for example. I
don’t really know how
(Mugabe) came up with that conclusion,” he said.
Fellow artiste Tony
Rebel was more scathing: “That statement was meant to be
an insult but it’s
actually a compliment because the Jamaican culture is so
influential. Why he
found it necessary to include Jamaica in such a
distinguished lecture (I
don’t know). I wish him the best of health and hope
he is not getting senile
because he is over 80 years old and he needs to
find a
successor.”
There you have it!
Of late ZBC has been
giving Zimbabwe Development Party (ZDP) leader Kissnot
Mukwazhi generous
airplay. His party’s policies curiously echo those of Zanu
PF.
Mukwazhi has become a recognisable face on ZBC parroting Zanu
PF policies
and views despite masquerading as an “opposition” party
leader.
In February ZDP said it had suspended operations as a standalone
political
movement and would work closely with Zanu PF “after realising that
the
revolutionary party is the only movement with a developmental agenda for
Zimbabwe”.
With elections looming Mukwazhi has now emerged from
the woodwork to give
the impression opposition parties are in agreement to
Zanu PF’s ruinous
policies.
“Voices in opposition to the Copac
draft constitution continue to increase
from various interest groups and
political players within the country,”
crooned ZBC recently referring to
outfits like ZDP and their ilk.
Mukwazhi also lambasted Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for criticising the
bias of the state-controlled
media in Zanu PF’s favour, saying it
“demonstrates his ignorance on the role
and operations of the media”.
ZDP also bleated the Zanu PF mantra on
security sector reform saying they
were attempts by the MDC-T and its
handlers to weaken Zimbabwe and “effect
illegal regime
change”.
This week Mukwazhi was on television again saying he
concurred with Zanu PF
that elections should be held this year without a new
constitution.
Cde Kissnot is truly giving Zimbabweans a kiss of
death. No pun intended!
The Herald is rapidly running out of serious
commentators. Instead it
publishes silly articles by half-baked political
scientists who are nothing
more than camp followers of the Mugabe
regime.
On Tuesday the paper published something bizarre by Prof wa
Mutika who we
are told is a US-based Ugandan political
scientist.
He doesn’t appear to have benefited anything by living in
the States. His
article was a childish apologia for the regime. “President
Mugabe has
single-handedly raised the profile of the southern African
country,” he
declared.
Indeed he has. It is now a byword for
misrule. “He is no doubt a hero for
all rightful thinking Africans and any
sound-thinking African leader should
emulate his leadership
style.”
Perhaps he means Michael Sata, Yahya Jammeh or King
Mswati?
And who do all these pungent pundits love to hate? Raila
Odinga of course as
well as Morgan Tsvangirai. They are all
“stooges”.
Russia and China are described as “world political fair
players. Odinga is
described as “nothing other than preserving white
supremacy”.
Is this the best the Herald can do? And none of its
journalists seem to mind
working for a press that is a captive of a partisan
regime. No objection to
this crude propaganda and the complete abandonment
of professional
standards.
Meanwhile, Thabo Mbeki has been
complaining about Western intervention in
Libya. What he doesn’t say is
Western nations pleaded with the AU to do
something about Col Gaddafi’s
imminent attack on his own people. They only
acted when Africa failed to
take decisive measures to head off the carnage.
As we warned some
months ago, the lickspittle crusade is now on full
throttle mode with
elections looming on the horizon. Not to be left out was
Higher Education
minister Stan Mudenge furnishing President Mugabe with as
much adulation as
his vocabulary could muster.
Introducing Mugabe at the official
launch of the Research and Intellectual
Expo 2012 in Harare, Mudenge
described him as a “colossal figure, a fountain
of knowledge and wisdom, a
teacher, father, fearless and consistent
politician”.
Mudenge was not
done, further stating that, “He has been rated one of Africa’s
all-time
greatest men”.
Mugabe shook his head, NewsDay reports, while the
auditorium burst into
laughter.
‘Small houses” should have
been counted separately in the just-ended
population census since they might
not be that small after all, according to
President
Mugabe.
According to the Daily News Mugabe said: “Here in towns we
have the
so-called small houses. I do not know whether they are that
small.
“Perhaps during the census they should have asked (people)
whether you are a
small house or not… you would not have obtained the truth
I am sure.”
We remember not too long ago a “small house” which wound up in
State House.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, something Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai is finding out the hard
way.
Tsvangirai’s jilted lover Lorcadia Karimatsenga Tembo filed an
urgent
application in the High Court throwing the marriage slated for
tomorrow in
jeopardy. Although the judge gave him relief, it’s really not
yet over.
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka has been in
firefighting mode
accusing the Central Intelligence Organisation of trying
to destroy his boss’s
reputation ahead of elections next
year.
Whether the accusations are true or not Tsvangirai’s conduct
has been less
than exemplary.
Let’s hope the premier finally
settles down after a very adventurous
bachelorhood.
The
Herald reports that rank marshals known as “Mandimbandimba” last week
severely assaulted two soldiers in uniform at the Charge Office bus terminus
in Harare after they came to the rescue of commuters who were being
harassed.
One of the touts seized the soldier by the collar, while others
dragged him
by the hands.
“They then took him to a food court
across Angwa Street where nearly 20
touts head-butted, slapped, punched,
spat in his face and threw him to the
ground.”
The rank marshals
also assaulted Zanu PF chairman for Chadcombe-Msasa
district Itai Badze
after he confronted the touts for increasing the fees
they collect from
kombi crews.
Despite the rampant lawlessness perpetrated by the
touts, police
spokesperson Chief Inspector James Sabau could only say those
beaten up
should report to the nearest police station.
“People
who are assaulted have to report to the nearest police station or
police
officer. I would be able to comment if the soldiers had lodged their
complaints with the police.”
One member of the “Mandimbandimba”
is quoted by the Herald boasting that
they have more powers than the
police.
“He cannot do anything to us because even some kombis
belonging to senior
members in government are paying us. The people know
that we exist and they
do not have powers to chase us.”
The touts
have grown rich overnight building mansions in leafy suburbs of
Harare.
Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa has
called on his party’s
provincial administration to investigate the issue
since the touts are
aligned to Zanu PF, yet nothing is being
done.
Meanwhile, Zanu PF Harare province youth chairperson, Jim
Kunaka, who has
been linked to the Chipangano militia group denied any links
to the group
saying he was in fact a “victim” of political
violence.
In an interview with the Financial Gazette Kunaka, however,
threatened to
“baptise” those who did not support Zanu PF.
Taking
over where Mudenge left off, Kunaka said President Mugabe should die
in
office.
“He must stay on and never leave power. Even if he spends his
whole life in
power, it is okay …Even if he lives to be 150 or 200,” he
said.
The Standard reports that war veterans, led by Joseph
Chinotimba, last
Friday stormed Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry
Walter Mzembi’s
offices demanding an explanation as to why the recent
allocation of
conservancies to a few politicians was being
resisted.
Chinotimba is one of the 25 Zanu PF politicians who were
recently issued
with 25-year hunting permits despite owning another farm in
Mashonaland.
His sense of entitlement to the conservancy emanates from his
claim that
whites evicted his family from the Save Valley in the
1960s.
Meanwhile, the Financial Gazette stated that President Mugabe
has been
“shocked” by the extent of asset-grabbing in Masvingo by Zanu PF
heavyweights following complaints raised by traditional chiefs he met
recently.
We hope his “shock” will translate into
action.
Desperate times call for desperate measures so the saying
goes, something
former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema can attest
to. After being
the butt of internet jokes and parodies Malema has formally
taken ownership
of a parody Twitter account.
Malema in 2010
previously threatened to “shut down” the social network
following rampant
tweets from the many satirical Julius Malema Twitter
accounts.
The ANC youth league then issued a grammatically
bizarre statement calling
for the “closer” of Twitter.
“The ANC
Youth League has in [sic] more than one occasion reported these
impersonators and hackers, yet no action has been taken against them by the
Twitter administrators. We will now approach the relevant authorities to
report these hackers and call for the closer [sic] of Twitter,” ranted the
ANC youth league.
After being kicked out of the ANC and in the
political wilderness, Malema
has been forced to go to Twitter to seek an
audience.
Since taking over the @Julius_S_Malema feed, the account is
littered with
vitriol and typos.
One of his first tweets
declared: “No surrender! No retreat! #ASIJIKI and we
are not frightened by
threats of those who are loosing [sic] ground.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Opinion
LAST week the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti delivered a state of
the
economy report for July and August 2012 as an update on fiscal and other
macro-economic developments since his mid-year fiscal policy review two
months ago.
Report by Eric Bloch
Biti noted that “Zimbabwe’s
economy remains depressed, with funding
challenges for the private and
public sectors”, albeit there is a
“prevailing stable macroeconomic
environment and some output improvements in
sectors such as
mining”.
Apart from that reference to the improvement, he also cited
stability of
inflation, at approximately 4%, as a positive. In so doing he
did not
concede that the rate of inflation on certain absolute essentials
key to the
constrained expenditures of low income-earners is significantly
greater,
with attendant continuing hardships for many of Zimbabwe’s
economically
oppressed population. Biti justly voiced concern at continuing
public
finance challenges.
He disclosed that state revenue
inflows were US$257, 4 million in July,
against a target of US$271,2
million, and in August totalled US$269,2
compared to anticipated revenues of
US$280,7 million. Thus government
collected approximately US$25,3 million
less than it expected, adding to its
expenditure
constraints.
Also of major concern is that financial sector deposits
rose by a niggardly
US$0,05 billion in July to US$3,64, resulting in
continuing severe liquidity
constraints. He was also justly concerned that
that sector’s lending ability
remained minimal and generally of a very
short-term nature, while interest
rates continue to be exceptionally high —
in some instances 30%.
The minister recognised that ongoing primary
economic challenges include:
lContinuing revenue underperformance on the part
of the state, and
consequential underfunding of various urgent government
programmes
(including agriculture, infrastructure, census and other social
services);
Lack of liquidity constraining banks from adequately
funding productive
sectors;
Low foreign investment and
therefore low capacity utilisation, and high
levels of
unemployment;
Continuing high national debt overhang, a major
contributor to the inability
to source new financing.
Biti noted
that as at August 30 2012, tobacco sales amounted to 144 million
kg at an
average price of US$3,66 per kg, compared to sales in the same
period of
2011 of 131,9 million kg at an average price of US$2,74 per kg.
Total
tobacco sales revenues were at US$526,6 million, against US$360,9
million
last year.
By mid-August an estimated 304 112 tonnes of seed
cotton had been delivered,
being 9% greater than anticipated, and grain
deliveries were 63 278 tonnes,
of which 63 158 tonnes were maize, 80 tonnes
were wheat and 40 tonnes were
small grains. All these volumes were far
below national needs.
The mining sector has continued to be a
substantive performer, with gold
production for the seven months to July
2012 at 7 799,5 kgs, the performance
being enhanced by a significant rise in
international gold prices. In his
review, Biti did not address other areas
of mining sector production as he
was still awaiting the relevant
data.
The review further noted the ongoing decline in electricity
generation which
in July fell to 1 058MW, against 1 104MW in June.
Zimbabwe’s inadequate and
highly erratic energy generation continues to be a
major hindrance to
performance of almost all economic sectors, especially
for the
manufacturing, mining and agricultural sectors.
Reverting
to the subject of Zimbabwe’s exports which are critical to any
major revival
of the economy, Biti disclosed details of export performances
in the eight
months to August 2012, the greatest performer being the mining
sector which
generated US$1580,4 million, followed by exports of tobacco at
US$273,9
million, other agricultural exports of US$190,1 million and
manufacturing
exports of US$177,6 million. Total exports were at US$2,24
billion but
imports were more than US$5,1 billion.
As the minister was only
addressing Zimbabwe’s actual financial outturns in
the first eight months of
2012, his view did not address any policies to be
pursued to enhance the
economy in general, and the state’s financial
circumstances in particular,
and it must be anticipated that doing so will
be a key element of his 2013
budget statement due to be presented to
parliament in the next 10-12 weeks.
However, the economy is in such a
fragile state, with ongoing hardships and
suffering for a majority of the
populace. Government needs to pre-empt that
statement through diverse,
urgent actions
including:
Creation of a conducive environment for
Foreign Direct Investment thereby
creating employment opportunities,
enhanced exports, import substitution and
increased fiscal revenue inflows.
This requires considerable modification
of Zimbabwe’s indigenisation and
economic empowerment policies, political
stability, reconciliation with the
international community, fiscal probity,
and meaningful investment
incentives.
Privatisation of parastatals so that they reduce fiscal
outflows.
Heavy curtailment of unproductive state expenditure
including reduction of
travel costs, minimisation of bureaucracy and
corruption, and a substantial
reduction of the public
service.
Intensified efforts to obtain international debt
forgiveness.
Marked changes to import duties in order to protect
Zimbabwean enterprises
from competition from imported products caused by
excessive export subsidies
provided to many manufacturers in the Far
East.
Were these — in addition to various other new fiscal policies —
to be
effectively pursued, real economic upturn would be achieved.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Opinion
ALTHOUGH restrictions have traditionally been imposed on civil
servants
engaging in political activity to ensure public confidence in the
impartiality of the civil service, Zanu PF and the MDC-T are battling for
the heart and soul of the professional bureaucracy ahead of crucial
elections.
Report by Paidamoyo Muzulu
Zanu PF is fighting to
perpetuate the spurious claim that it is the
legitimate representative of
the poor, while MDC-T is trying to sustain its
own dubious assertions that
it is a workers’ party.
This has brought the issue of improving
civil servants’ salaries and working
conditions to the fore, with both
parties trying hard to endear themselves
to the workers despite clear
evidence that government has no resources to
adequately remunerate public
servants.
Even though there is no money to pay government workers,
the two parties
have been fighting to win over the support of the country’s
230 000-strong
public service, particularly after the formation of the
coalition government
in February 2009.
Initially, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, who is also MDC-T leader,
endeared himself to struggling
civil servants in his inaugural speech at the
Glamis Arena in Harare soon
after he became premier committing himself to
resume paying public workers’
salaries and benefits, which had fallen away
during the economic
meltdown.
Tsvangirai announced the voucher system of payment,
introduced by the Zanu
PF government to counter skyrocketing hyperinflation,
was being scrapped and
civil servants were going to be paid in cash
henceforth.
The restless civil servants and the security services in
particular, were
resultantly calmed down as the coalition government
promised to usher in a
new era of political and economic stability. Security
forces were on the
brink of rioting when the inclusive government was formed
due to government’s
failure to pay them. There had been disturbances, with
disgruntled soldiers
involved in riotous behaviour in central
Harare.
After initially accepting the resumption of paltry salaries
in 2009, civil
servants — the following year, June 2010 — started demanding
a pay rise, but
Treasury could not afford, let alone sustain
it.
The burden of explaining the lack of money fell on Finance
minister Tendai
Biti, also MDC-T secretary-general, and suddenly close
relations that had
been seemingly forged at the creation of the coalition
government began to
get uneasy and later sour.
Biti, realising
government could not afford salary increments, blamed the
opaqueness
surrounding diamond revenue inflows and the 75 000 ghost workers
on the
civil service payroll for affecting fair remuneration.
Relations between
government and civil servants slowly began to deteriorate
while restlessness
intensified. The MDC-T was on the back foot as it runs
both Treasury and the
public service portfolios.
President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF
quickly seized the opportunity, accusing
the MDC-T of blocking workers’
demands and of being anti-working class.
Mugabe publicly ordered Biti to
review civil servants’ salaries in a
populist bid to gain their support even
though he knew there was no money.
Biti initially resisted,
leading to clashes not just with Mugabe, but also
Tsvangirai who wanted to
be seen as sympathetic to workers.
Due to pressure from Mugabe, civil
servants’ salaries were eventually
improved from US$100 to an average US$250
a month in January 2010, leaving
the impression the MDC-T was against the
workers.
Mugabe and his party officials continued to demand further reviews
of civil
servants’ salaries, piling pressure on Biti.
However,
last week Biti, who continues to stick to his guns, found himself
with the
unenviable task of informing civil servants they might not receive
annual
bonuses because of scarce cash inflows.
The announcement triggered
fears of a strike by civil servants. The MDC-T
seems aware of Zanu PF’s role
in this issue and this week released a strong
statement urging government to
stop politicking and address the civil
servants issue.
“It is
disturbing Zanu PF continues to dabble in selfish politics by
blocking
minister Biti’s proposals to raise money from the diamonds proceeds
in order
to make a respectable salary package for the civil servants a
living
reality,” MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said.
In July, Biti
revised the country’s economic growth projection downwards and
warned that
revenue inflows were generally performing below target.
He said
Treasury had only collected targeted revenue in March and June
simply
because these are the months corporates paid their quarterly
taxes.
The minister continued to complain about lack of transparency
and
remittances of diamond revenues and government’s foreign
trips.
Political commentator Dewa Mavhinga said government should
stop playing to
the gallery, but concentrate on fixing the
economy.
“Political grandstanding on the issue of civil servants’
salaries is very
easy, but the central issue is that Zimbabwe’s economy is
not performing,”
said Mavhinga. “It is plagued by massive corruption and
leaks of its
precious resources like diamond revenues where there is little
or no
accountability to enable proper planning and distribution of resources
in a
way that benefits the nation.”
However, development
specialist Maxwell Saungweme said both parties should
just work on improving
the conditions of workers than blaming each other
since they are part of the
same government.
Saungweme said: “Zanu PF, together with its MDC
partners in the coalition
government, should take the blame for allowing
conditions of service for
civil servants to plummet under their watch while
they are part of a bloated
government with many useless ministries. It’s a
government that buys
expensive vehicles for ministers while its civil
servants don’t earn enough
money for bus fare for them to commute to work
every month.”
The politicisation of civil servants’ salary and
hijacking of trade unions
by political parties have created a situation in
which civil servants’
salary and working conditions issues have given
parties convenient political
campaign platforms, while workers continue to
suffer. Resultantly, civil
servants have become political pawns on the
electoral chessboard.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Opinion
THE Zimbabwe National Youth Services Graduates Association petitioned
the
High Court to compel President Robert Mugabe to proclaim dates for
by-elections in all the vacant parliamentary seats. This follows an
extension granted to Mugabe by the High Court to proclaim the dates for
by-elections in the three constituencies of Nkayi South, Lupane East and
Bulilima East by October 1.
Report by Phillan Zamchiya
What we
need to do here is to extend the nuance. What will Mugabe do or not
do? What
really is the politics at play here for the MDC-T, MDC and Zanu PF?
Strictly
speaking, Mugabe will not be in contempt of court if he announces
by-elections in the three constituencies as ruled by the Supreme Court, but
he is most likely not going to do that. This is because of the electoral
politics at play.
If by-elections are held in the three
Matabeleland constituencies, it is
definite that Zanu PF will be defeated.
Never mind the current Freedom House
and Afrobaromoter surveys showing an
increase in Zanu PF’s support base, the
margin is insignificant to translate
into winning the three seats. No doubt
Zanu PF obviously expects to lose in
these three constituencies, but the
party is not prepared to deal with the
defeat’s psychological impact a few
months before crucial general
elections.
Losing those three by-elections might have a significant
psychological
effect and bearing on voters’ choices and voting patterns in
the elections
next year, much to the detriment of Zanu PF, which is likely
to be on the
receiving end.
On one hand, the MDC parties would
not mind by-elections in just the three
constituencies. Why? First, this
will provide an opportunity to humiliate
Zanu PF. Second, there is so much
uncertainty as to who is who in
Matabeleland between the MDC-T and MDC with
both parties claiming popular
support. MDC-T won the most seats in the
region during the last elections
followed by MDC and Zanu PF although
margins between winners and losers were
often wafer-thin. Thus, by-elections
will be an important popularity
barometer for both political
parties.
Even though recent political surveys point to a massive
decline of support
for not only the MDC, but smaller parties in general,
there is no clarity in
recent surveys as to whether the outflow is leading
to an inflow to larger
parties. So by-elections provide a reality check as a
re-strategising
opportunity for all parties.
If Mugabe calls for
by-elections in all the vacant seats, this might work
for the image of Zanu
PF, but it will also work for the image of MDC-T. Only
MDC will be dented by
this move because it is still working to stretch its
national
reach.
For the two bigger parties, by-elections will have no serious
political
consequences. Why? Taking a micro-focus on the 16 vacant lower
house
parliamentary seats, the status quo in terms of balance of power in
parliament is not likely to change. The MDC-T loss of support indicated in
political surveys is not likely to affect the fortunes in
parliament.
In the same breadth, Zanu PF gain in support is
insufficient to wrest
parliamentary seats from MDC-T. Even if one is to go
by the Freedom House
report, which shows the most significant decline in
MDC-T support, the party
would still retain most of its parliamentary seats
if by-elections were to
be held.
Let me illustrate with the five
vacant seats in the lower parliamentary
house which were previously held by
the MDC-T. These are Makoni Central,
Mabvuku-Tafara, Matobo North, Gutu
South and Emakandeni-Entumbane
parliamentary seats. Even factoring in an 18%
loss of support for the MDC-T
and a 14% gain by Zanu PF as indicated on
average in the Freedom House
survey, the MDC-T remains certain to retain the
four constituencies and will
need a simple game-changer to maintain
all.
Of course, MDC-T would retain the four seats with a lower
margin, but it is
a first-past-the-post electoral system. For example, based
on the Freedom
House survey, in Makoni Central, MDC-T vote might decline
from 7 069 in
March 29 2008 to 5 789 while Zanu PF’s vote might rise
slightly from 4 035
to 4 600 which is not enough to wrest the seat. The same
trend applies to
all the other four constituencies.
However, in
Matobo North, Zanu PF might defeat MDC-T by a slight margin. The
loss of
support indicated by Freedom House would mean Zanu PF’s votes in
Matobo will
increase from 3 102 in March 29 2008 to 3 536 votes compared to
MDC-T’s
decline from 3 503 to 2 873 votes. The overarching message is that
MDC-T
will still win the majority of its seats in the by-elections because
loss of
support is insignificant to upset the balance.
On the other, given
that the Freedom House survey points to a rise in Zanu
PF support, the party
will thus retain eight of the vacant seats that
previously belonged to it.
These are Mutare North, Bindura North, Guruve
North, Mt Darwin East, Shamva
South, Marondera East, Mwenezi West and
Gokwe-Gumunyu.
In
summary, the by-elections will retain the hung parliament and will
provide
no solution to the coalition government arrangement. Politically,
holding
by-elections in just the three Matabeleland constituencies will
leave Zanu
PF badly bruised, whereas by-elections in the entire 28 vacant
seats will
demoralise MDC and as for MDC-T, either way things will remain
more of the
same. The by-elections will not deliver the psychological boost
Zanu PF
wants, but will be of no major harm either.
A possibility that could
flow from this logic is that Mugabe can resort to
risk-taking behaviour
synonymous with his rule to call for general elections
using the
by-elections as a justification.
However, this is unlikely to find
takers in Sadc and that is Zanu PF’s
headache.
Realistically, Mugabe
might then be forced to go back to court and argue
that general elections,
after all, are imminent within reasonable time, as a
way to put closure to
the by-elections issue. This is the most likely
scenario, although some in
Zanu PF clearly want Mugabe to call for general
elections using the
by-elections pretext.
Dr Zamchiya is Crisis Coalition
Regional Co-ordinator (South Africa). He
writes in his personal
capacity.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
September 14, 2012 in
Opinion
IN this seventh part of his article, Derek Matyszak looks at the
complexities of the contentious Zanu PF succession matrix and how it was
influenced by the now dissolved Disrict Co-ordinating Committees (DCCs). He
argues that the disbanding of the DCCs, still existing at law, poses a
conundrum for the party’s succession politics.
Report by Derek
Matyszak
If Zanu PF is to rely upon its electoral process for the replacement
of
President Robert Mugabe, as it seems it ought, certain practical
difficulties present themselves.
The electoral process requires
that all 10 PCCs (provincial coordinating
committees) submit nominees for
“election” to the presidium by congress. The
PCCs, as has been outlined, are
large and unwieldy bodies. They comprise the
provincial executive council
and provincial members of the central
committee, national consultative
assembly, executive committee of women’s
league, executive committee of the
youth league, MPs and, until recently,
chairpersons of district coordinating
committees (DCCs).
Many of these bodies are comprised of other
components of the party
structure. Annexure B expands each of these so that
the highly complex
nature of PCC is apparent. Each PCC thus usually
comprises as many as 100 to
110 members. In theory, the composition of the
PCCs makes them extremely
democratic bodies, and the large number of members
drawn from disparate
sectors of Zanu PF structures ought to make it
extremely difficult for any
individual to exert political pressure upon a
PCC in the selection of the
nominee for “election” as president by
congress.
However, this is both the forte and foible of the PCC. It
will require
particularly astute, efficient, and active political commissars
at of all
levels to ensure that delegates to the PCCs are properly
identified and
attend the special electoral conferences of the PCCs.
Furthermore, since the
PCC comprises elements of other party structures, it
is necessary that these
structures are in place and properly formed when it
becomes necessary to
convene each PCC as an electoral college. This is by no
means certain given
the current state of Zanu PF’s internal
politics.
The elections of the DCCs, for example, were particularly
fraught. Several
elections were annulled, or postponed as a result, and on
one occasion
police had to disperse rival supporters by firing shots into
the air.
The politburo specifically cited the “divisive” nature of
the DCC elections
as the reason for the dissolution of this component of the
Zanu PF
structure. It has been suggested that these elections were hotly
contested
and controversial because of the influence the DCCs have in the
PCCs which,
as the electoral college, are central to Zanu PF’s succession
politics.
However, as is seen here, the chairpersons of the DCCs did not
constitute a
large component of each PCC.
There was only an
average of nine DCCs in each province.
However, as the engine room of
Zanu PF’s organisational structure, the DCCs
wielded an influence far beyond
mere voting numbers. The DCCs played a key
role in subduing the rural
electorate prior to the presidential run-off
election of 2008. The
chairpersons of DCCs appear to have established
fiefdoms in the areas under
their control. The requirement that the PCCs
must ensure each administrative
district has at least one member appointed
to the central committee makes it
probable that the appointee was the DCC
chairman.
Control of
the DCCs was thus seen as the route to enormous political
influence within
Zanu PF.
The disbanding of DCCs poses a conundrum for Zanu PF
succession politics.
All DCC chairperson were part of the PCCs. If these
PCCs meet as an
electoral college to choose the nominee for president prior
to the
ratification of the dissolution of the DCCs by congress, the question
arises
as to whether the chairpersons of the DCCs should still be included
as part
of the PCCs.
The Achilles’ heel of any electoral process
which relies upon an internal
electoral college is that it is susceptible to
challenge on the grounds that
the college making the selection was not
properly constituted. Even prior to
the dissolution of DCCs, it is obvious
PCCs were particularly vulnerable to
such a charge. If DCC chairpersons are
excluded from PCCs prior to the
ratification of the necessary constitutional
amendment by congress, this
will provide a glaring opportunity to assert
that their exclusion
invalidates the proceedings of the electoral college.
In a contested
nomination process, an allegation that merely one of the PCCs
was not
properly convened, and its nomination thus invalid, is likely to
effect the
determination of who are the nominees with the highest votes for
purposes of
being reconsidered by the 10 PCCs as outlined
earlier.
The practical difficulties do not end there if the intention
is that the
selection of the nominee for Zanu PF president is to be put
forward as the
nominee “of” Zanu PF as state president under Section
28(3)(b) of the state
constitution.
The nominee who wins the
vote of six provinces must be elected by congress.
But extraordinary
sessions of congress may only be convened on 42 days (six
weeks) notice.
Furthermore, as noted earlier, it is unclear whether an
extraordinary
session of the National People’s Conference must be convened
to “declare”
the party president as the party candidate for state president
as required
by section 31(3) of the party constitution.
Recall that the
parliamentary electoral college must make its choice within
90 days of a
president’s demise, and that the Clerk of Parliament must call
for
nominations 14 days before the election. This means that the
parliamentary
electoral college may convene no sooner than 14 days, and no
later than 76
days, after the demise of a president.
Accordingly, within this
timeframe the PCCs must convene, submit their
nominations, and resolve
resubmit nominations in the event of a contested
process; the congress must
convene and “elect” the person so nominated — a
process which might be
protracted given the ambiguities as to the elective
power of congress in
this regard; and the national people’s conference may
need to convene to
declare the party president “elected by congress” as the
candidate for
national president.
It is thus unlikely that Zanu PF will be able to
select a candidate for the
parliamentary electoral college within the
requisite timeframe if this
process is followed, particularly if the Clerk
sets an early election date.
The role and power of the Clerk will thus be
extremely important and
possibly decisive. It is worth noting here that the
Electoral Act only
attends to a situation where there are competing
candidates or a single
candidate. It does not deal with a situation where no
nominee has been put
forward within the requisite timeframe.
If
Zanu PF’s constitution is followed, therefore, the selection of a single
candidate to replace Mugabe is likely to be difficult. The Supreme Court may
be extremely busy over this period.
Matyszak is a former
University of Zimbabwe law lecturer, constitutional
expert and researcher
with the Research and Advocacy Unit.