Daily News online edition
Zanu PF thugs beat up
prosecutor
Date:16-Sep, 2004
FIVE Zanu PF
militants in Rusape belonging to a radical group beat up
Tirivanhu
Mutyasira, a court
prosecutor stationed at the Rusape Magistrates
Court for allegedly
making submissions against the group members who face
public violence,
malicious injury to property and grievous bodily harm (GBH)
charges.
The militants were part of the 31 that were arrested by
the police
last month for attacking and severely injuring supporters of a
rival Zanu PF
cadre who challenged Didymus Mutasa in the forthcoming Zanu PF
primary
elections set for next month.
They faced new charges of
violating their bail conditions by engaging
in more public violence
and
assaulting the court official and other witnesses.
Mutasa is the Member of Parliament for Makoni North, the Zanu PF
secretary
for external affairs and also the Minister of Anti-Corruption and
Anti-Monopolies.
Mutyasira did not deny the reports but
insisted he was safer without
saying anything concerning the
matter.
"I do not think it is appropriate to discuss the issue in
the press,"
Mutyasira said. "Talk to the police for details."
Rusape police spokesman only identified as Assistant Inspector Nyazema
was
not available for comment. Mutyasira was assaulted by the Zanu PF
militants
commonly identified as the "Chinyavada" group who are loyal to
Mutasa.
According to court officials at the Rusape Magistrates'
Court, a
policeman submitted before
magistrate Mark Dzira that
the Zanu PF militants had assaulted the
prosecutor and pleaded with
the
magistrate to tighten their bail conditions for the safety of
witnesses.
Thirty-one members of the militant group appeared
before magistrate
Dzira on Friday for a remand hearing into their political
violence case.
Allegations against the 31 ruling party supporters
are that on August
21 and 22, while in Makoni North, the group, acting in
common purpose
attacked other Zanu PF supporters loyal to retired Major
James Kaunye in
Mayo, Headlands and Rusape in Makoni East to try to force
them to stop
giving their support to Kaunye.
It is further
alleged that the militants injured Lucia Chitura, the
Zanu PF district
co-ordinator for Makoni District, Kaunye, the aspiring Zanu
PF candidate for
Makoni North, George Ngirazi, a war veteran loyal to
Kaunye, Florence
Mhiripiri, the wife of aspiring Makoni East MP Nathaniel
Punish Mhiripiri
and several other people numbering to about 70.
Violence broke out
in Rusape, Mayo and Headlands when Mutasa, Shadreck
Chipanga, the MP for
Makoni East, Zanu PF deputy chairman for Manicaland
Province who is also the
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs led a five-truck
convoy on a looting spree
that left several people injured.
Chipanga faces Mhiripiri in the
ruling party's primary elections.
Mutasa paid a total of $7, 8
million in bail for his supporters. Dzira
granted them bail on condition
that they did not commit similar offences,
not to interfere with state
witnesses and to report twice at Rusape and
Headlands Police Stations
depending on where one lived.
But five of them defied the court
conditions and proceeded to unleash
a fresh terror campaign against the
victims of their initial violence
including the attack on the court
official, leading to their re-arrest by
the police.
They were
detained for three days and were only released on Friday on
similar bail but
changed
conditions. The five now have to report three days at the
nearest
police station and might be remanded in custody if they continued
causing
terror in the Manicaland district. They will re-appear in court on
Friday.
Among the 31 Zanu PF militants arrested were national army
deserter
Maxwell Chinzambwa, a war veteran, Everisto Bosha, a businessman
who runs
Chovhakaira Bookshop in the town, Kudzi Chipanga, the son of
Chipanga's
brother, Albert Nyakuedza, the chairman of the Makoni Rural
District
Council, the Zanu PF District Coordinating Committee (DCC) chairman
for
Makoni District and also the regional manager for the Grain Marketing
Board
(GMB) in Rusape.
Zim online
TEACHERS THREATEN TO STRIKE
Thurs 16 September
2004
HARARE - Zimbabwe's teachers are threatening to go on strike
to press
the government to increase their salaries by 1 000
percent.
In a memo to its more than 150 000 members, the Zimbabwe
Teachers'
Association told teachers to brace up for action after the
government
ignored a September 15 deadline to review salaries.
"All teachers should brace up for any eventuality as the government
has
failed to heed our demand for a 1 000 percent salary increase," the
union's
memo read in part. The union is the biggest representative body for
teachers
in Zimbabwe.
Union officials yesterday refused to say when exactly
they were
planning to call the strike only saying they were going to make a
public
announcement in due course.
Individual teachers
interviewed by ZimOnline said they expected their
leaders to call the strike
within the next three weeks.
"We will definitely be going on strike
in the next two or three weeks.
These people are not taking us seriously and
we will resort to the only
language they have understood over the years,"
said a teacher at one Harare
high school, who did not want to be
named.
Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere could not be reached
for comment
on the issue.
Strikes by the country's teachers for
more pay and better working
conditions have become almost an annual
ritual.
Teachers take home between Z$450 000 and Z$800 000 per
month.
According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, an average family of
five
needs Z$1.4 million a month to survive.
A strike by
teachers would throw into chaos public school examinations
set to be begin
in a fortnight. ZimOnline
Zim online
Red Cross told to cut food aid quantities to orphans
Thurs
16 September 2004
BULAWAYO - The Zimbabwe government is understood
to have asked the Red
Cross to reduce the quantity of food aid distributed
to orphans and people
living with HIV/AIDS in the country's Matabeleland
North and South
provinces.
The Red Cross, one of the few
Non-Governmental Organisations still
allowed by Harare to feed hungry people
in the region, was handing out a
nutritional package of 50 kilogrammes of
the staple mealie-meal and other
foodstuffs per month to deserving
families.
Sources told ZimOnline the organisation was now
distributing only 10kg
of mealie-meal per month to the families following
the government's
instruction to reduce quantities.
Public
relations officer for the organisation Varaidzo Dongozi
yesterday could
neither confirm nor deny that the organisation had reduced
aid to HIV/AIDS
patients and orphans on government orders. She would only
say: "We reduced
the package for some factors that affected our operations.
I cannot tell you
the reasons now."
Labour and Social Welfare Minister Paul Mangwana
who authorises the
Non-Governmental Organisations that feed hungry
Zimbabweans could not be
reached for comment on the matter.
Matabeleland South Governor Angeline Masuku said there were many
families in
the province without adequate food but said the government was
working out
ways of feeding them.
She said: "We are looking into ways by which
we can help them as
government. Most of these NGOs are just going to town
with these claims
because they have been stopped after meddling in
politics."
Some of the families now receiving reduced food aid from
the Red Cross
said they were finding it difficult to survive as they
harvested little or
nothing last season and were dependent on his
organisation for food.
55-year old Njabulo Moyo of Mtshabezi
village in Matabeleland
province, said: "We did not harvest anything from
our fields due to low
rainfall last year, how then can we manage to live on
only 10kg of
mealie-meal without relish? As for me, I have six grandchildren
orphaned by
Aids who need nutritious food."
Another villager
Ndumiso Dube said he hoped the government would
"change its stance" and
allow more food to be given to hungry people in his
Halale village in Matobo
district, about 60 kilometres south-west of
Zimbabwe's second largest city
of Bulawayo.
Mugabe and his government have told international food
aid groups to
take their help elsewhere because Zimbabwe harvested enough
food last season
to feed itself.
The government estimates that
the country harvested 2.4 million tonnes
of the staple maize last season.
But the United Nations and other
independent food experts say the government
at most reaped one million
tonnes of maize, which is 800 000 tonnes less
than the 1.8 million tonnes
required to see the country through to the next
harvest. ZimOnline
Business Day
New body dodges Harare
minefield
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAN
AFRICAN PARLIAMENT'S INAUGURAL THREE-WEEK SESSION GETS UNDER WAY IN
MIDRAND
TODAY
International Affairs Editor
ZIMBABWE will not be on the agenda
at the Pan African Parliament's first
session that gets under way in Midrand
today. Nor is the country likely to
be discussed much before the session
ends.
During its three-week session the parliament will mostly discuss
rules and
procedures.
The body's recently elected president,
Tanzanian Gertrude Mongella, believes
the parliament is part of a "new era"
for the continent, "which shows a
maturity in the democratic
process".
Mongella's priorities for the parliament are greater African
integration,
gender issues, and dealing with Africa's wars and conflicts,
excluding
Zimbabwe.
She does believe that the Darfur crisis in Sudan
has to be a priority but
says, "there is no room for failure on
Darfur".
The parliament will only have consultative powers. After five
years heads of
state will define its legislative powers. The aim, according
to the
parliament's protocol, is for the body to have full legislative
powers and
to be elected by universal adult suffrage.
The five-year
period should give African leaders enough time to consider the
work of the
parliament before making any commitments about its powers.
The absence of
legislative powers does not trouble Mongella, who has been an
MP since 1980.
She has also been a teacher, cabinet minister and diplomat.
Mongella says
most legislatures spend a great deal of time on such matters
as supervision
and attempts to make governments accountable. "The overall
oversight role is
most crucial and this is what we want to build on," she
says. "For me the
making of laws can come later."
Where that oversight role will begin and
end is not clear. The parliament
could well exercise oversight on African
Union (AU) institutions, but doing
so over countries could be more
difficult.
Mongella wants a parliament that is not afraid to represent
the views of the
people. But this could be difficult . Only 14 of Africa's
53 countries are
democracies and not all Pan African Parliament delegations
are fully
representative of their country's political
diversity.
Whether or not the parliament represents the popular political
views across
the continent, it is likely to emerge as a lobbying focus for
causes across
Africa.
It is a natural point at which political,
development, human rights and
other groups can direct their lobbying efforts
for the continent. This will
probably mean many non-government organisations
will increase their staffs
and open new offices in Johannesburg and
Pretoria.
Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic
Change, is
planning to deliver a petition at the opening today to ask the
parliament to
help bring about free and fair elections in
Zimbabwe.
But Zimbabwe is not a high priority issue for Mongella. Her
position echoes
that of leaders of the AU's southern African region on
Zimbabwe.
"The problem of every country will be solved by its own people
first," she
says.
And the problem of Zimbabwe, she says, is bound up
in the colonial land
dispensation. The opposition in the country stresses
that the real problem
lies in the elections of recent years . As interest in
Zimbabwe "has been
raised more outside the continent" than within, Mongella
says it is not
among her priorities for discussion in the new
parliament.
The Pan-African Parliament's first sitting will open this
morning at
Gallagher Estate in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, when
drumming, dancing,
singing, praying and many speeches will be seen and
heard.
The opening session will cost South African taxpayers R7,3m, while
the
administrative and rental costs are estimated at about
R61m.
These items are to be included in next year's national
budget.
Sep 16 2004 07:33:04:000AM Jonathan Katzenellenbogen Business
Day 1st
Edition
Business Day
Mugabe eyes manufacturing
sector
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HARARE
- Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe Wednesday said his government
will soon
move on to control the manufacturing sector a day after announcing
the state
would demand half-ownership of the country's mines.
"We want to control the
mining sector, we want to control the manufacturing
sector," Mugabe was
quoted as saying by state television.
Zimbabwe's manufacturing sector,
which had previously contributed
significantly to the gross national output,
export earnings and employment,
has in recent years shrunk due to galloping
inflation, shortages foreign
exchange, electricity and at times
fuel.
The manufacturing sector has recorded falling turnovers alongside
the mining
and agriculture sectors.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe
industries reported last year that in real
terms investment in the sector
had dropped by more than half in 2002
compared to the previous year, with
several firms closing shop and many jobs
lost.
Mugabe, whose
government has controversially taken over thousands of
white-owned farms in
the past four years for redistribution to new black
farmers, on Monday said
Zimbabweans did not yet enjoy "absolute ownership"
of natural
resources.
"We are going to demand that government be given 50% shares in
the mines,"
he was quoted by a state daily.
AFP
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 14 September
Roaming the country
of their birth
Godwin Gandu
About 100 families have been
evicted from Porta Farm, 25km south of the
Zimbabwean capital Harare, and
their houses have been razed in defiance of a
high court order. The farm is
located in President Robert Mugabe's
constituency of Zvimba. The evictees
claim they are paying the price for
pressing their parliamentarian -
Mugabe's sister Sabina - to build a proper
settlement with running water,
boreholes and schools. The Mail & Guardian
witnessed three truckloads of
families being ferried to a location 65km
away, where there is no shelter or
water. Community leader Khumbulani
Khumalo said he doesn't know "what wrong
they have done", but many of the
evictees believe they have been removed
from Zvimba because they are
unlikely to vote for Sabina Mugabe. The
settlement was established as a
"transit camp" after police rounded up
vagrants and squatters ahead of the
Commonwealth Heads of State meeting in
Harare in 1991. The city had to be
"clean" for the visiting officials.
During the land invasions that preceded
the 2000 elections, farm workers
fleeing the war veterans and youth militia
also settled on Porta
Farm.
Richard Banda is one of those who sought refuge here. He said
hundreds of
other displaced farm workers fled to rural areas while others
tried to
survive in Harare. "Some have become thieves, others are genuinely
still
seeking employment, but the majority has become squatters in Harare."
A
report released by Refugees International (RI) last month said:
"Zimbabwe's
land reform programme and [its accompanying] intimidation and
harassment
have created an internally displaced population of more than 150
000 former
farm workers and have also caused thousands to flee their
country". It
added: "To further compound the issue, authorities have
increasingly
restricted access to farming areas ... making it difficult for
the displaced
and other vulnerable groups to access humanitarian assistance.
"Many have no
access to water, shelter, food, medical care, sanitation
services and
education ... Authorities are actively closing down any avenues
of access
[to humanitarian assistance]."
The RI report found that
the land reform process has also negatively
impacted on the livelihood of
some of the beneficiaries, formerly landless
people or the so-called "new
settlers". They have been unable to fully use
their land owing to a lack of
essential agricultural inputs such as draught
power, quality seeds and
fertilizer and funds to pay for labour. They are
unable to retain the
necessary working force of farm workers, the RI report
said. Only a few farm
workers have continued to work on a permanent basis,
usually on reduced
wages. Many workers have stayed on the farms because they
have no
alternatives. "When the new settlers came, they threatened to evict
us if we
complained about conditions," one farm worker told RI. Another
said: "Our
relations with the new settlers are not good." NGOs have been
prevented from
providing food assistance. "If we have food aid, they tell us
we must leave
the farm. They know we will not work for them if we are not
starving," an
"internally trapped" worker told RI.
Female workers are at more risk.
Many men left the farms in search of work,
leaving their families behind.
Women left without income have resorted to
sex work or relationships with
the new foremen and settlers to guarantee
food for their children. Many
former farm workers have turned to short-term
or seasonal contracts,
piecework on other farms or activities such as gold
panning and hunting of
game for commercial sales. Many skilled farm foremen
have followed
commercial farmers to their new farms in neighbouring
countries. About
one-fifth of the former farm workers were descendants of
migrant workers
from neighbouring Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi. They have
no identity
documents. They have nowhere to go and to compound their
situation they are
denied humanitarian and food aid in Zimbabwe. According
to RI: "The
government refuses to acknowledge that people are being forcibly
displaced,
claiming that they had a choice to leave or not." The government
defines
them as "mobile vulnerable populations". The nature of forced
displacement
in Zimbabwe, according to RI, "corresponds with the
internationally
recognised legal definition of internal displacement".
News24
Zim harvests 'going well'
16/09/2004 09:25 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe has well under half of the more than two
million tonnes of
grain predicted by the government for the season as it
passed the halfway
mark for harvests, the country's sole grain managing
agency said on
Wednesday.
The southern African country told
international donors in May it would not
need emergency food aid this year
because it expected a bumper harvest of
2.4 million tonnes of maize under
its controversial four-year land reform
programme.
"Currently we have
298,000 tonnes. This is the maize we are holding in our
depots," Colonel
Samuel Muvuti, chief executive officer at the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB)
told a parliamentary committee.
He said a total of 750 000 tonnes were
expected to be collected by the
season's end in March next year, adding that
the rest of produce would be
retained by farmers for their own
consumption.
Safe position
Muvuti did not explain the deficit or
whether the country would import grain
to make up the predicted
numbers.
"It might be too early for me to say there is need to import,
and how much,"
said Muvhuti in response to questions from
lawmakers.
"I am not saying there would not be any need for importation,
but ...we can
say we are in a relatively safe position," he
added.
President Robert Mugabe insisted in a television interview in May
that his
country's citizens were not hungry.
"Why foist this food
upon us? We don't want to be choked," he said.
The 2.4 million tonnes
predicted for the harvest, which surpasses the
national annual requirement
of two million tonnes, has been described by the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) as "absurd" and meant to win
votes ahead of next
year's parliamentary elections.
'Same as last year'
An aid agency
official said the food "situation is more or less going to be
as it was last
year, but perhaps worse because of inflation. Many people
will not afford to
buy maize".
Asked by members of parliament if GMB had checked on media
reports that
people have died of hunger in the country's second largest
city, Bulawayo,
Muvhuti dismissed the claims, saying the city had "more
grain stocks than
any other town in the country."
He said police had
investigated the deaths and concluded that no one had
died of starvation in
Bulawayo. He tried to shift blame on any food
shortages to distribution
problems.
New Zimbabwe
Zim scrambles to clarify Mugabe mine-grab
policy
By Agencies
Last updated: 09/16/2004 10:51:53
REPORTS of
statements by Zimbabwe's president in the government's Herald
newspaper were
misquotes according to a senior government official.
On Monday the
government controlled daily Herald, quoted Zimbabwean
president Robert
Mugabe as saying: "We are going to demand that government
be given 50
percent shares in the mines."
Tinaye Chigudu, the permanent secretary of
mines and mines development in
Zimbabwe, told Mineweb the newspaper was
"twisting words to sell more
copies". "I have not known a situation where
government policy is announced
by one individual," says Chigudu.
The
secretary says he had not got hold of the president's office as yet, but
said he believes Mugabe was talking about "idle land" and prospecting order
rights. "These people own the rights to this land and are doing nothing on
it," he said, "It is something we have been talking about."
Although
the ministry feels more ownership should be acquired on this land,
he said
no official ownership stake has been decided on yet.
"We have sent a
dummy bill to all the stakeholders in the industry, they
have three weeks to
reply with their proposals," says Chigudu.
Earlier this year, a draft
bill was leaked to the public. If that draft were
to have been ratified by
parliament, 49 percent ownership in the country's
minesould have to be
transferred into the hands of Zimbabweans. Chigudu says
this bill was
drafted by the previous secretary and was thrown out by
parliament -
Mineweb.com
SOKWANELE
Enough is Enough
Zimbabwe
PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY
We have a fundamental right to freedom of
expression!
Sokwanele
Comment
15 September 2004
The capital city finds
itself woefully short of water again with little hope of an early end to the
suffering of the residents. The state
media conveyed the unwelcome news to the nation on Friday (10th
September). The City Council – or what
is left of a city authority following the protest withdrawal of MDC Councilors –
has decided to introduce swingeing water cuts on a regular basis to northern and
southern suburbs. Suburbs from Gunhill
to Waterfalls, from Chisipite to Ruwa, will be restricted to a 6 hour supply
each day. Water will be disconnected
from 3.00 pm. to 8.30 a.m. the following day.
The immediate cause of the water
cuts is the low level of the city’s reservoirs which simply cannot keep up with
the steadily rising demand. However
shortages have become an increasing problem in recent years due to the aging
water reticulation equipment at the Morton Jaffray Water Works, and the lack of
foreign exchange to purchase replacement equipment or even the chemicals used in
water treatment. This was a looming
problem to which the formerly MDC-administered Council repeatedly drew the
government’s attention, but instead of helping, the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and National Housing, Dr Ignatius Chombo, chose to
obstruct all the Council’s efforts to deal with the problem. As Harare residents
know well, to their cost, Chombo’s real agenda was to bring to naught the
Council’s efforts in this and every other well-meaning endeavour, in order to
demonstrate the ZANU PF myth that an MDC administration could not succeed, and
to justify any subsequent strong-arm intervention. It was in protest against these bullying
tactics that the MDC Councilors resigned en masse last month.
In the result Harare’s
water woes continue unabated. The city’s
public relations manager, Mr Leslie Gwindi, did his best to put a positive gloss
on the harsh new measures, saying he hoped the new system would ease the
problems currently being experienced by residents. This was apparently a reference to the random
cuts of 24 hours and more in the water supplies to which residents had become
accustomed. But small comfort for those
hundreds of thousands of working residents who are away from their homes during
the 6 hour period when supplies are supposed to be available, that is between 9
in the morning and 3 in the afternoon.
One wonders when they will be able to take a shower, have a bath or even
flush the toilet. Perhaps Zimbabwe’s
capital city will soon be acquiring a reputation, not for a particular style or
ambience so much as for a distinctive pong.
And so much for what was once called “Sunshine City”, capital of the
“Jewel of Africa”.
Ah well. Harare residents should not complain. After
all they had the temerity to vote overwhelmingly for the MDC both in the
parliamentary and local government elections ! That kind of treasonous activity
cannot go unpunished.
Visit:
www.sokwanele.com
WOMEN OF ZIMBABWE ARISE (WOZA) Email: woza@mango.zw or
wozazimbabwe@yahoo.com
Write: Box
FM701, Famona, Bulawayo Ph: 011-213-885 / 091 300456 Fax 09-72546
(Photo -
WOZA women show their LOVE sign - most of the women in the picture
will
participate in the walk)
Press Statement 15 September 2004
Women of
Zimbabwe Arise, a community based civic movement for Zimbabwean
women,
announce that final preparations are underway to conduct a 439
kilometer
sponsored walk to raise a welfare fund for activists. WOZA along
with the
community activists are facing an uncertain future if the NGO Bill
goes
through parliament on 5 October 2004.
Final meetings have been held in
secret in Bulawayo and Harare to confirm
participants and the starting date.
44 participants have committed to
attempt the full walk whilst 180 others
will undertake at least 60 km over 2
day slots. We are in a position to
announce that by next week this time the
march will be well underway and
public statements will be issued at this
time.
Some family members of
WOZA women in the Police and Youth Militia have asked
us to TIP TOE through
certain areas so they can avoid seeing us. WOZA Women,
their mothers, sisters
and grandmothers have called on the Zimbabwe Republic
Police to demonstrate
that they too can show compassion and allow the fund
raising venture to go
ahead unhindered and even to sponsor participants.
Over 300 WOZA women have
been arrested for trivial issues like handing out
red roses, making tea,
calling for a lowering of food prices and on 19 June
over 72 women were
arrested on World Refugee Day. It is therefore a strategy
to ensure the walk
gets underway before an repressive behaviour from the
regime can be played
out.
Several Civic and Church partners have confirmed their support
and
participation of this initiative.
There is a Zulu saying - Uthinte
Umfazi Uthinte Imbokodo - 'You strike a
woman and you have struck a rock'! We
regard the NGO Bill in its current
format, as an attempt to strike women
through WOZA. The women of WOZA are
saying we will not be struck in this
way!
Since WOZA began in 2002, women have spoken out and participated,
they have
had a taste of the freedom of expression and assembly. The leaders
and
activists have had their appetites whetted and they want more not
less
communication and action. WOZA cannot let the Bill kill our spirit
of
resistance.
As it is drafted now, this Bill will kill instead of
bringing us more LIFE.
It affects the caring people who help us with food
when we are hungry,
medicine when we are sick, development, which gives us
opportunities. Civic
Society organisations give us knowledge. KNOWLEDGE is
POWER so the Bill
wants to make us powerless.
The Bill is due to
become a law in October and over 200 community activists
will loose a source
of income. Their families and the orphans they care for
will suffer hardship.
After consulting with members, Mother WOZA has decided
to conduct a sponsored
walk to raise money for the welfare of activists and
put across our message
of protest. Over 200 volunteers have stepped forward
to each walk 60
kilometers, with some wanting to walk all the way to Harare,
439 kilometers.
The walk will be conducted with 6 teams of 30 with each team
doing 2
days.
Background : WOZA means 'Come forward'. By women for women and
with women,
across race, colour, creed, class or political persuasion.
Empowering women
to be courageous, caring, committed and in communication
with their
communities.
Contact
Jenni Williams Mobile (+263) 91 300
456 or 11 213 885 Or Fax (+2639) 72546
Magodonga Mahlangu Mobile (+263) 91
362 668
Donations in kind to 8A Jason Moyo Street Between Connaught Ave/
M. Ndlovu
Street Bulawayo (please help, we still need food items, walking
shoes sizes
5 to 8 (even 2nd hand), sleeping bags, Diesel, Buddie Cards
(airtimes can be
bought and the secret number sent to any of the WOZA
numbers, Small Buckets,
Torches , Sugar/Tea Leaves/ Powder Milk, Super cools,
Cooking Oil, Mealie
Meal and Rice , Three legged Cooking Pots, Firewood /
Gas/ Cooler Boxes.
Donations to Zimbabwean Bank Accounts:
WOMEN OF
ZIMBABWE ARISE TRUST : Kingdom Bank Bulawayo Branch 12324
Account
24092402
WOMEN OF ZIMBABWE ARISE : Central African Building
Society Account
9030748955
Please email us woza@mango.zw to confirm deposit and contact
details in
order to confirm and thank you!
Crisis coalition South African
Office have also indicated their willingness
to receive donations, please
email Dolly - dolly@crisiszimbabwe.org
for
details
-------------------------------SPONSORSHIP
FORM------------------------------------------
WOMEN
OF ZIMBABWE ARISE - WOZA (A registered Trust) P.O. Box FM 701 Famona
Bulawayo
Mobile 011 213 885
The NGO Bill is due to become a law in October and
over 200 community
activists will loose a source of income. Their families
and the orphans they
care for will suffer hardship. WOZA is conducting a
sponsored walk to raise
money for the welfare of activists. Members will each
walk 60 kilometers,
with some attempting to walk all the way. Please donate
or sponsor us to
help lessen the suffering caused by this unjust law. As it
is drafted now,
this Bill will KILL instead of bringing us more LIFE. IT
affects us, and the
caring people who help us with food when we are hungry,
medicine when we are
sick, development, which gives us opportunities. NGO's
and Civic Society
organisations give us knowledge. KNOWLEDGE is POWER so the
Bill wants to
make us powerless.
Your NAME
Your
ADDRESS
DONATION/ AMOUNT SPONSORED
Name of Member you would like to
sponsor....................
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------
The
names of those willing to attempt the whole 439 km Walk to Harare -
other
names of those doing 60 km are not given:
Berita 40 yrs / Siphethangani 30
yrs / Phanankosi 25 yrs / Susan 32 yrs /
Karen 20 yrs / Clerah 40 yrs /
Enemiah 58 yrs / Violet 45 yrs / Sipho 34 yrs
/ Sehliselo 30 yrs / Musole 38
yrs /
Ester 60 yrs / Juliet 40 yrs / Thobekile 24 yrs / Eneles 43 yrs /Thoko
36
yrs /Shingirai 43 yrs / Maria 35 yrs / Patricia 32 yrs / Letisiwe 34 yrs
/
Zuzile 34 yrs /Silingiwe 26 yrs /Perpetua 37 yrs / Anastazia 47 yrs
/
Thalita 60 yrs /Donanary 41 yrs /Elizabeth 49 yrs /Mavis 50 yrs /
Regina
54 yrs /Shyline 30 yrs /Norah 47 yrs /Nolwandle 21 yrs /Sibusisiwe 28
yrs
/Ellen 43 yrs
Lucky 37 yrs /Rosemary 40 yrs /Rejoice 38 yrs /Sinini 33 yrs
/Siphiwe 33 yrs
/Selina 45 yrs /
Magodonga 31 yrs /Jennifer 42 yrs
/Rebecca /Precious /Mrs P Ndlovu 49 yrs
Those people wishing to deposit
donations directly can do so to the
following Zimbabwean Bank
Accounts:
WOMEN OF ZIMBABWE ARISE TRUST : Kingdom Bank Bulawayo Branch 12324
Account
24092402
WOMEN OF ZIMBABWE ARISE : Central African Building
Society Account
9030748955
Please email us woza@mango.zw to confirm deposit and contact
details in
order to confirm and thank you!
FinGaz
MDC turns on the heat
Njabulo Ncube
9/16/2004 7:02:04 AM (GMT +2)
THE Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), which considers
government-mooted electoral law reforms as nothing
but a camouflage, has
reportedly embarked on an intensive lobbying of
regional leaders to
ratchet-up pressure on President Robert Mugabe to
expedite political reforms
in the country.
It emerged this week
that the opposition party, which has since
suspended participation in any
future elections until government adopts
regional guidelines and principles
on free and fair elections, will soon
embark on a regional sojourn to
explain its reasons for boycotting elections
to Southern African Development
Community (SADC) leaders.
Impeccable party insiders said the MDC,
which has flatly refused to be
taken in by the proposed electoral reforms,
describing them as piecemeal,
would soon be dispatching delegations to all
the SADC members to debunk
ruling ZANU PF "posturing" that the government
was genuinely reforming the
country's electoral laws.
The MDC,
which is led by former trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai,
claims that the
electoral reforms so far suggested by government are nothing
more than a
window-dressing exercise to deceive the regional leaders.
The
sources said the MDC, which has maintained that Zimbabweans have
not been
allowed to freely organise on the basis of their political
convictions,
would then use the opportunity to stir up feelings over the
issue hoping
that pressure would inexorably rise on the government, which
stands accused
of digging in its heels on political reform.
They said the MDC,
which has kept the nation guessing about its
participation in the crucial
parliamentary polls slated for March next year,
believes that the SADC
leaders could prevail over President Mugabe, whose
hatred for alleged
European and western interference is well documented.
There is no
love lost between the Zimbabwean government and the United
Kingdom and its
western allies. Since allegations of a violence tainted
election campaign in
the 2000 parliamentary poll and the presidential
election of 2002, the
West's instinct had been to work against the
government of President Mugabe,
which they accuse of now having a democratic
deficit. The government however
maintains that it is the West's political
yardstick and not its stance which
has changed.
"This is why the MDC is intensifying its campaign in
SADC, and not the
UK or the United States of America to explain its reasons
for threatening to
stay away from the 2005 plebiscite, which should be held
in line with
guidelines and principles governing democratic elections
adopted by SADC
member states in Mauritius last month," said a party
insider.
The tour in and around SADC comes amid revelations that
Pretoria has
expressed its disappointment at the latest turn of events in
Zimbabwe's
political sphere when the regional grouping had agreed in
Mauritius for the
full participation of opposition parties in
elections.
Observers in South Africa said President Thabo Mbeki had
hoped Harare
would be reined in by the enforcement of the SADC guidelines
and principles
on elections.
Mbeki has acted as broker in the
delicate five-year political impasse
in Harare, pitting President Mugabe's
ZANU PF and the MDC, but his
widely-criticised "quiet diplomacy" has come to
naught.
Paul Themba Nyathi, the MDC spokesman, confirmed his
party's envisaged
SADC mission. He said: "We want to make the regional
leaders understand our
stance and the real situation on the ground so that
the leaders are not
hoodwinked by the Mugabe regime. ZANU PF wants regional
leaders to believe
that Mugabe is reforming, which is entirely not
true."
The MDC's decision to boycott all future elections in the
country
unless the government implemented the norms and standards agreed at
Mauritius has drawn mixed reactions from within and outside Zimbabwe's
borders.
The opposition is adamant that there would never be
any free and fair
elections in Zimbabwe with repressive legislation such as
the Public Order
and Security Act and the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act
still in the statute books. The SADC Protocol,
among other requirements,
calls for equal access to the public media and
freedom for all political
parties to campaign freely.
The
government has gazetted the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Bill and
plans to
push it through Parliament next month without consultation with the
MDC.
Analysts said bulldozing the electoral reforms without
consulting
other participants, in this case the main opposition MDC,
violated the
spirit of the SADC principles and guidelines on staging of
democratic
elections.
"The party leadership has fully briefed
diplomats. What is left and is
being finalised is to tour the SADC region
and inform the leaders and civic
groups there about these perceived reforms
meant to mislead regional leaders
into believing that the Mugabe regime is
reforming," added the MDC insider
FinGaz
$200bln windfall for ex-political prisoners
Njabulo Ncube
9/16/2004 7:02:30 AM (GMT +2)
THE government
could soon lavish a $200 billion compensation windfall
on former political
prisoners, detainees and restrictees who participated in
the 1970s
liberation war, seven years after a similar award to former
combatants
wreaked havoc on the fiscus.
A Bill paving the way for the
compensation of ex-political prisoners,
restrictees and detainees of
Zimbabwe's war of liberation is likely to be
gazetted next Friday, amid
revelations the government could fork out $10
million each to a 20
000-strong group of former war victims, among other
perks.
Impeccable government sources told The Financial Gazette yesterday
that the
law authorising the payment of gratuities to the ex-political
prisoners,
restrictees and detainees would certainly be enacted when
Zimbabwe's
Parliament resumes sitting next month.
Parliament officials
indicated that the proofs for the Ex-Political
Prisoners, Detainees and
Restrictees Bill were at the Government Printers
while independent sources
said the Bill would be gazetted next Friday.
Paul Mangwana, the
Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social
Welfare, also confirmed to
this newspaper yesterday that the law was in the
offing, adding that the
draft Bill had long been considered by the
government.
Mangwana
said through the law, government would award a monthly
pension, education
and medical allowances. The education and medical
allowances would also be
availed to dependants of the former political
prisoners, restrictees and
detainees.
Mangwana, however, declined to discuss the financial
implications of
doling out unbudgeted funds to the former prisoners,
restrictees and
detainees, a rag-tag grouping considered by President Robert
Mugabe's
critics as part of the government's shock-troops in the same league
with the
war veterans.
"Government is giving them (ex-political
prisoners, restrictees and
detainees) compensation through an Act of
Parliament. The Bill should be
passed into law when Parliament gets back to
business as from October 5,
2004," said Mangwana.
"It is not a
matter of demands, we are giving them benefits and those
that we feel are
entitled to gratuities will get them. I cannot give you any
figures on the
amount of gratuities to be paid because the Act does not
provide figures,"
he said.
However, representatives of the Zimbabwe Ex-Political
Prisoners,
Restrictees and Detainees Association (ZEPPREDA) disclosed that
they had
demanded a one-off payment of $10 million each, a monthly pension
of $5
million each, free education for children, burial assistance and
land.
They said although between 5 000 and 6 000 members had been
vetted,
the total figure of likely beneficiaries hovered around 20 000
people that
had been registered through out the country's 10 political
provinces.
They added that the government had indicated it would
meet most of
their demands, especially the financial aspects.
The group contends it played a key role in the country's liberation,
complementing combatants, and has long complained of being disregarded by
government in terms of compensation.
Zimbabwe's war veterans,
led by the late Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi,
arm-twisted the government in 1997
until the state pumped out about $2.7
billion as compensation.
Sources also said payments for those already vetted were likely to be
effected before Christmas, barring any complications in the vetting of
would-be recipients.
"We expect the Bill from the Government
Printers anytime. There is a
likelihood that it will be gazetted next Friday
unless there are delays
being experienced at the printers," said a
government source.
Vetting of the ex-political prisoners,
restrictees and detainees is
being done through prison records.
The sources said it was likely the government would agree to the
demands of
the grouping, which is a key political organ in the ZANU PF
scheme of
things, considering that parliamentary elections were less than
seven months
away.
FinGaz
Embattled Mawere finds refuge in the US
Felix
Njini
9/16/2004 7:02:57 AM (GMT +2)
FUGITIVE maverick
businessman Mutumwa Mawere, on the run from
Zimbabwean authorities who are
after his scalp for violating the country's
exchange control regulations, is
understood to have slipped through the
United States of America's so-called
targeted sanctions net and sought
sanctuary in that country.
Mawere, a former officer with the Washington-based International
Finance
Corporation, is wanted by the Zimbabwean authorities to answer
charges of
externalising more than Z$300 billion in hard currency.
Highly
placed sources said the defiant Johannesburg-based businessman
who also
holds South African citizenship, is now based in the US despite
sanctions
slapped on him in 2002.
That year the US government, which has not
made secret its dislike for
President Robert Mugabe, imposed a travel ban on
senior members of the
government and those closely associated with them. On
February 22 2002,
President George Bush signed the proclamation suspending
the entry into the
US "as immigrants or non-immigrants those persons who
America deemed to be
threatening Zimbabwe's democratic institutions". Mawere
was barred from
entering the US because of his suspected ZANU PF
connections.
Sources said Mawere was spotted "having a good time"
this week at a
dinner in New York in the presence of his Zimbabwean friends.
Mawere, whose
erstwhile colleagues in ZANU PF accuse of hunting with the
hounds and
running with the hares, refused to discuss this latest
development.
"Mawere was in New York this week. He used his
connections to get
sanctuary in the US. His fallout with ZANU PF and the
Zimbabwean government
appears to have worked to his advantage," said a
source, adding that Mawere
had pleaded persecution from the ZANU PF-led
Zimbabwean government to US
authorities.
News of his entry into
the US comes after Mawere successfully fought
against extradition from South
Africa to Zimbabwe where he is facing charges
of foreign currency
externalisation.
Prior to becoming chairman of Virgin
Islands-domiciled Africa
Resources Limited (ARL), Mawere has worked for the
World Bank in various
capacities.
When contacted this week for
comment, a close business associate of
Mawere said: "Why should Zimbabwean
papers be interested in his whereabouts
when he doesn't belong here? He is
where he should be."
The controversial businessman came into the
limelight in the mid-90s
when he became the first black businessman to
acquire a mining empire.
Mawere, through ARL, bought Africa Associated
Mines, the holding company for
Shabanie Mashava Mines. Through ARL, Mawere
had established a diversified
group of companies involved not only in mining
but also in the industrial,
construction materials, agricultural and
financial services sectors.
Critics do not however credit the
phenomenal growth of his empire to
any exceptional business acumen. They
instead attribute Mawere's perceived
success in business to sufficient
backing from an influential politician.
The government, whose
anti-graft crusade has seen many Zimbabwean
business executives fleeing the
country, has said it is taking over the
ostracised business mogul's business
empire.
FinGaz
New law shocks business sector
Nelson
Banya
9/16/2004 7:03:24 AM (GMT +2)
ZIMBABWE'S most recent
legal contrivance, the Presidential Powers
(Temporary Measures)
(Reconstruction of State-indebted Insolvent Companies)
Regulations of 2004,
is not just a mouthful, but, according to analysts,
could prove to be a
handful too.
The regulations, which, like their anti-corruption
forerunners, have
caused no small degree of consternation among the ranks of
captains of
industry and commerce, have already been effectively used
against businesses
linked to embattled empowerment proponent Mutumwa
Mawere.
However, analysts and observers have cautioned that this
could
culminate in Zimbabwe having another "anti-business" law on its
statute
books.
The temporary presidential measures, which have
a six-month life,
normally evolve into law to enforce regulations that would
have been hastily
put together by the executive.
Tony Hawkins,
a professor at the University of Zimbabwe's Graduate
School of Management,
said the regulations were just the latest addition to
a litany of bad
laws.
"There are many laws, not just this, that are inimical to
investment.
This issue, though, as it relates to Mutumwa Mawere, is a
complicated one.
"It's not just that the firms are indebted to the
state, but are being
said to have broken the law. In normal circumstances,
they (the state)
should go to court for recourse," Hawkins
said.
The presidential measures on state-indebted insolvent firms
have seen
SMM Holdings, the parent company of most of Mawere's business
interests,
being slapped with a reconstruction order, which, according to
the novel
regulations, entails the appointment by the justice minister of
administrators who would assume all executive authority of the firm while
the management structures become redundant.
Mawere's FSI
Agricom Holdings Limited, which has extensive interests
in the agricultural
secotr, has also been put under reconstruction.
The regulations
also give the administrator, who is answerable to the
justice minister,
powers, among others, to issue shares to the state or
divide them, as well
as to cancel any shares currently held by any member of
the firm under
reconstruction.
Section 21 of the measures makes provision for the
nomination, by the
minister, of persons to hold shares in reconstructed
companies on behalf of
the state, while sub-section 3 refers to the disposal
of the shares held by
the state in the reconstructed firms.
Persons deemed culpable in the circumstances leading to the insolvency
of
the firm will also forfeit all shares, rights and interests in, or claim
upon, the company under reconstruction.
Apart from heightened
political risk emanating from a deepening
political and economic crisis,
Zimbabwe's laws have been widely seen to be
unfriendly to new, particularly
foreign, investment.
The controversial land redistribution, which
the government embarked
on in 2000, coupled with sporadic violent political
clashes, particularly at
election time, have earned the country, once a
great African hope, a
negative investment profile.
According to
a World Bank report on Doing Business (2004), it takes an
average 96 days to
launch a business in Zimbabwe, going through a 10-step
process, against a
regional average of 64 days, with an 11-step procedure.
The
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
countries'
average is a six-step process taking 25 days.
The OECD bloc is made
up of most of the industrialised countries of
Europe and North
America.
It costs new businesses the equivalent of 304.7 percent of
gross
national income (GNI) per capita to start up in Zimbabwe, against a
regional
average of 223.8 percent and eight percent for OECD
countries.
However, Zimbabwe's minimum capital requirements (53
percent of GNI
per capita) are more in line with OECD levels (44.1 percent
of GNI per
capita) against a regional average of 254.1 percent.
On the human resources front, Zimbabwe has the least rigid hiring
conditions, working hours, firing conditions and costs, compared to the
region and the OECD countries.
Questions have also been raised
over the ability of the government to
oversee the revival of the troubled
firms, a responsibility the new
regulations thrust upon it, given the
government's woeful record with state
enterprises.
FinGaz
Matonga under threat
Staff Reporter
9/16/2004 7:03:56 AM (GMT +2)
BRIGHT Matonga's continued reign at
the Zimbabwe United Passenger
Company (ZUPCO) is in jeopardy as it has
emerged that a clique of ZANU PF
heavyweights is baying for his blood after
he announced his candidature in
the forthcoming ruling party primaries for
Kadoma East.
The race for the Kadoma East constituency has spilled
over to the
beleaguered public transport utility, which is wholly owned by
the
government.
Sources said prominent ZANU PF bigwigs were
determined to eject
Matonga from the hot seat because they suspect that
Matonga could use ZUPCO
to gain poltical mileage in the constituency, which
is experiencing
transport problems.
They said political tension
between Matonga and the ZANU PF officials
was also working against the
operations of ZUPCO, whose operations have been
pathetic over the
years.
ZUPCO deputy chairman, Justin Mutasa said Matonga, a virtual
political
novice, had not formally communicated to the board that he wanted
to contest
in Kadoma East.
"We have had the information through
rumours. As the board we would
expect him to communicate to us formally. If
we receive that official
communication we will then act accordingly," said
Mutasa.
Matonga, who yesterday refused to comment on his political
ambitions,
will battle it out for the constituency against the Minister of
Labour,
Public Service and Social Welfare, Paul Mangwana.
A
former sports reporter for the British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC)
appointed to head ZUPCO, Matonga has publicly stated his intentions to
wrestle the constituency from Mangwana, a lawyer for the past 19
years.
But pressure is mounting on Matonga to "forget" the Kadoma
East seat
to give Mangwana a soft landing pad in the forthcoming ZANU PF
primaries to
be held in October.
FinGaz
Inflation downward spiral continues
Staff
Reporter
9/16/2004 7:04:19 AM (GMT +2)
THE annualised rate
of inflation has continued to abate and stood at
314.4 percent in August,
down by 48.5 percentage points from 362.9 percent
recorded in July,
according to latest official figures released by the
Central Statistical
Office (CSO).
Month on month inflation, which has been ticking up
in recent months,
also slowed down significantly, from 9.5 percent in July,
to 5.3 percent
last month.
The decline has been attributed to a
slowdown in both food and
non-food inflation.
Food inflation,
which accounted for 120.6 percentage points to the
annualised figure, stood
at 320.4 percent, 58 percentage points less than in
July.
Non-food inflation also declined by 42.7 percentage points, to 310.8
percent.
Economic analysts have noted, however, that the recent
fuel price
increases, which were not factored into the August data, have bid
up
inflationary pressures in September.
"The trend is still
downwards, showing it is sustainable. However, the
figures did not factor in
the fuel and general price increases which came
towards the end of the
month.
"However, all in all, the target is achievable," Best Doroh,
principal
economist at financial group Finhold, said.
The
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has targeted a year end rate of
inflation of
between 170 percent and 200 percent, which analysts now agree
is well in
sight.
The central bank is also projecting a double-digit inflation
figure by
the end of 2005 and a return to single digit inflation
thereafter.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono, who was appointed in December
2003, has
religiously pursued a tight monetary policy while gradually
slackening
exchange control restrictions, a measure which has seen the
dollar
stabilising against major currencies, whose inflow have also improved
markedly.
Gono introduced a foreign currency auction system in
January and this
has had the effect of allowing more hard currencies to flow
into the formal,
as opposed to the grey, economy while the dollar, which was
in free-fall
last year, has stabilised somewhat.
The local unit
is currently trading at just over $5 600 to the
greenback, having traded at
about $7 000 to the United States dollar last
year, at the peak of parallel
market activity.
However, developments in the crucial petroleum
industry, where
intermittent supply threatens the return to near optimal
levels of
production, could derail the central bank's anti-inflation
crusade.
Fuel shortages, a major bane of the Zimbabwean economy
since the
economic recession set in five years ago, have re-emerged in
recent weeks,
coinciding with oil pump price hikes whose impact will be
reflected in the
September inflation data.
FinGaz
30 000 jobs at risk. . . . as Asians flood market with cheap
goods
Charles Rukuni
9/16/2004 7:07:09 AM (GMT
+2)
The advert was crude. The government probably thought it was in
bad
taste. But workers in the clothing, leather and textile industries must
have
welcomed it as appropriate.
The advert, which appeared in
The Chronicle of July 27, read: "Nxa
ugqoke'zako zhing-zhong unjengo muntu
ongagqo-kanga. Unqunu!"
Loosely translated, this meant: "When you
are wearing zhing-zhong, you
are like a person who is naked."
The full-colour advert, placed by the leading cash chain of a Zimbabwe
Stock
Exchange-listed retail group, showed a man smartly dressed in a blue
shirt
and brown trousers accompanied by a woman in a smart red dress
laughing at a
naked couple.
It must have upset some authorities because, on July
29, it was
replaced by a more "acceptable" advert. The new advert showed a
happy family
of five, the average Zimbabwean family, of father mother and
three children,
one boy and two girls.
The message was more
subtle: "With us you are number 1. Quality
fashion, quality service, quality
prices. No wonder our customers feel on
top of the world. Shop at Number 1
Stores and you could soon be on top."
Though the initial advert
appeared to be a slap in the face of the
government's "Look-East" policy,
most workers in the clothing, leather and
textile industries probably agreed
with it because cheap, and usually poor
quality, Asian products that are
flooding the market are putting up to 30
000 jobs at risk.
The
workers are so incensed that they are organising a fashion contest
to raise
$9 million to launch a "Buy Zimbabwe Campaign" aimed at not only
urging
Zimbabweans to buy local products, but to keep the Zimbabwean
clothing
industry alive and save jobs.
The contest will be staged in the
capital next month.
Fred Mpofu, general secretary of the National
Union of the Clothing
Industry, said his union was so worried about the
future of the clothing
industry that it had approached the National
Employment Council for the
Clothing Industry to lobby the government to
protect the industry.
"Right now, competition from Asian products,
especially those from
China, is grossly unfair," Mpofu said. "If you go to
Sokusile in Nkulumane,
you can buy a Chinese shirt for $14 000. You can
hardly get a locally
manufactured shirt for less than $100 000.
"With the present economic hardships people are facing, they have very
little choice. The clothes are very colourful, and even if they don't last,
they help one fill in the gap."
Mpofu said a number of clothing
factories in Bulawayo, such as Ascot
and Label, were already feeling the
pinch. They were either retrenching
workers or had gone on three-day working
weeks.
He said, however, it was not only the clothing industry that
had been
adversely affected. The textile and leather industries were equally
in
trouble.
Albert Gwala, vice-president of the Zimbabwe
Textile and Allied
Workers Union, said there was no way Zimbabwean companies
could match
competition from the Asian products.
"China has
several advantages over us. It has easy access to cheap raw
materials, it
enjoys cheap labour and has modern technology. We cannot
compete against
them," he said.
"We are not saying they should not trade with us,
but if they want to
help us, they should not supply the same products that
we are able to
supply. They should supply us with raw materials so that we
can in turn
manufacture cheaper products. Or they could export products that
we are not
able to produce locally, like they did with the natural hair
factory."
Gwala said the future of thousands of workers was at
stake because the
cheap Asian goods flooding the market affected the weaving
industry, the
spinning industry, the clothing industry, shoe manufacturers,
producers of
leather goods such as handbags and travel goods.
"We are talking about approximately 30 000 jobs. With our extended
family
support system, this means over a hundred thousand people could be
affected," Gwala said.
There is a growing feeling that while
"communist" China was reputed
for teaching people how to fish, "capitalist"
China is now supplying the
fish. But it does not seem to be content with
this. It now wants to take
over the market.
A joke doing the
rounds in Bulawayo says the Chinese policy is now:
"Zhanga zhii zhako zhaa
zhangu." (What was yours is now mine).
But some people feel that
Asian countries, and China in particular,
are not to blame. Zimbabwe
National Chamber of Commerce president Luxon
Zembe said the Zimbabwean
government was squarely to blame because it had
the onus to protect its
people, local industry and jobs.
He said the government should not
be looking at things from a
short-term point of view because the future of
the nation was at stake.
"We are not saying to hell with China, but
we are saying let us have
fair competition."
Zembe said the
government had a moral obligation to protect local
industry and had to make
sure that its people were not prejudiced by
whatever competition it exposed
them to.
"The government must put the country first. It should look
at the
impact of imported goods on the economy of the country. It should
look at
whether it is offering fair competition to its industry. It should
also look
at whether it is offering its people fair value for their
money.
"When people are desperate, as they are at the moment, they
will go
for whatever they can get with the little they have," Zembe
said.
"But while the goods they buy might appear cheap, they will
be very
costly at the end of the day.
"Firstly, they don't
last, which means people have to replace them
more frequently. Secondly,
people in local industry lose their jobs, so they
will not have that little
they had at the end of the day. When people lose
their jobs, you create
social problems, and social problems lead to unrest."
Zembe said
the government should consider introducing targeted tariffs
to protect local
industry and save jobs, adding that organisations like the
Consumer Council
of Zimbabwe should launch "Buy Zimbabwe Campaigns" to
encourage people to
buy local products because they were of better quality
and to educate them
that the so-called cheap goods were expensive at the end
of the
day.
"People must look at quality and value for money. You can buy
a cheap
shirt but it will only last you two months, but a quality local
product will
last you three years. So, at the end of the day, you lose money
by buying
cheap products."
Gwala said the government should
seriously consider protecting local
industry because there was a danger of
turning the country into a nation of
consumers.
"Just look at
our neighbour, South Africa . . . they are protecting
their industry to the
hilt. Why can't we do the same?"
FinGaz
The rise, escape and fall of Mawere
Hama
Saburi
9/16/2004 7:07:41 AM (GMT +2)
THE belief that it is
a curse for any businessman to be associated
with politicians rings true of
Mutumwa Mawere, whose businesses are fast
collapsing around
him.
The sudden demise of Mawere's vast business interests,
stretching
across all the major sectors of the economy, has baffled many
people who
closely followed the meteoric rise of the former International
Finance
Corporation employee.
Right from the start, Mawere
appeared to have struck the right chord,
as his empire grew in leaps and
bounds without raising much sweat.
It had always been suspected,
but denied, that Mawere leveraged his
success on influence-peddling ZANU PF
bigwigs who have since abandoned him
in his hour of need.
What
with the unusual US$60 million government guarantee doled out in
1998 to
facilitate the purchase of his Shabanie Mashaba Mines (SMM) and the
seven-year privilege to market asbestos fibre, which was however, cancelled
in March this year under unclear circumstances?
Observes say it
was only in May this year that it became apparent the
maverick businessman's
fine run had come to an end. It all started with
Mawere's arrest in South
Africa at the request of the Zimbabwean
authorities, who are still keen to
quiz the Africa Resources Limited (ARL)
chairman on allegations of
prejudicing the state of more than $300 billion.
While Mawere
successfully challenged a request to have him extradited
to Zimbabwe at a
Randburg magistrate's court, that could not stop the
onslaught on his
troubled empire, which is fast collapsing like a deck of
cards.
Two months later, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa specified Mawere
along
with three NMBZ Holdings directors Julius Makoni, James Mushore and
Francis
Zimuto who fled Zimbabwe in March after the police indicated they
wanted to
question them in connection with allegations of externalising the
equivalent
of $30 billion in foreign currency.
And this month, the government
took over the running of SMM in terms
of the recently gazetted Presidential
Powers (Temporary Measures)
(Reconstruction of State-Indebted Insolvent
Companies) Regulations 2004
under the guise of preventing its collapse and
saving jobs.
Since then, the fortunes of Mawere's businesses have
been hanging by
the thread with stocks in which the businessman has some
interests dropping
sharply on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
The
demise of Mawere's empire is arguably the second high profile
disintegration
in post-independent Zimbabwe after the Roger Boka debacle,
way back in
1998.
Boka, a fearless and sometimes controversial luminary in
black
economic empowerment issues, caused tremors in the banking sector
after the
collapse of his United Merchant Bank, which suffered serious
financial
stress.
The late Boka, was however worth a fraction
of Mawere's troubled
empire, that has grown to become the bedrock of the
Zimbabwean economy
through its vast interests in banking, insurance, mining,
agriculture,
manufacturing and engineering sectors.
It is the
expansive nature of Mawere's tentacles that may continue to
reverberate long
after the state has seized some of his businesses.
But who is
Mawere and where did he go wrong?
Way back in March 1996, an
article headlined "Black businessman buys
mining empire" appeared in The
Financial Gazette. The expose, ironically
authored by the embattled
legislator for Makonde, Kindness Paradza, who ran
into problems after
purchasing the weekly Tribune from Mawere and is now
clutching at the straws
of political survival, marked Mawere's entry into
the
limelight.
Paradza wrote then: "An unknown Zimbabwean businessman,
Mutumwa
Mawere, has secured more than half a billion dollars to buy four
local
mining and construction subsidiaries of a British-based international
automotive components and engineering conglomerate."
Mawere
first came to prominence when he acquired SMM in a
headline-grabbing deal.
His hitherto unknown deal-making and negotiating
prowess saw him take over
Zimbabwe's sole asbestos producer without paying a
dime.
His
deal-making dexterity saw Mawere acquiring a significant stake in
high-flying assets such as Schweppes Limited, CFI Holdings, and ZimRe
Holdings. He is also a major investor in General Beltings, Steelnet,
Turnall, Fidelity Life, NicozDiamond, First Banking Corporation, Ukubambana
Kubatana Investments, FSI Holdings, Tube and Pipe, Textbook Sales, Firstel
and Hastt Zimbabwe.
Observes say the ease with which the
business magnate got favours from
government could have rang some bells for
Mawere.
It would appear, they say, there were some powerful
politicians that
had doled out government facilities to Mawere hoping they
had him on a
leash.
But alas, Mawere thought he was clever,
they said and decided to go it
alone, hence the retribution from his
"godfathers" who have since waged a
war of attrition.
Others
suspect Mawere could have pressed the self-destruct button by
refusing to
dine with ZANU PF bigwigs when he rejected his appointment in
absentia as
the ruling party provincial secretary for Masvingo last year.
He
was quoted as saying: "I did not know anything about those
elections. Why
should a person be elected to a post without his or her
knowledge?
"The decision to give me the post without even
consulting me only
succeeded in throwing me into speculative limelight, and
this cannot be
fair."
Mawere opted to play it safe, and
declined interest in politics
insisting he was merely a businessman with no
allegiance to any political
party.
Yet others see the
government move as a blessing in disguise. They
said the unparalleled growth
enjoyed by Mawere over the years had to stop
somewhere for it was being
financed by cash from sister companies in the
group.
Hence,
when interest rates started creeping up, Mawere's empire ran
into liquidity
problems, with some of the companies caught up in a web of
expensive
loans.
Ideally, observers say, Mawere wanted to control major
players in the
financial services sector namely the Financial Holdings
Limited (Finhold),
which owns the Zimbabwe Banking Corporation and Scotfin
Limited, as well as
First Banking Corporation (FBC) to carry the
cash-starved business through.
The monetary authorities, however,
moved at a much faster pace than he
had anticipated resulting in an
excessive interest bill that drove his
empire against the wall.
In the meantime, his attempts to wrestle control at FBC and at Finhold
failed and that saw him failing to commandeer resources into his
companies.
Yet others argue that Mawere had created more enemies
than friends,
because of his insatiable appetite for empire
building.
They said he had done very little to empower his
directors, let alone
the workers, who were virtually getting tired of his
empty promises. His
fallout with long-time allies namely John Mkushi,
Godfrey Gomwe, Hillary
Munyati and Edwin Manikai worsened his
situation.
Mawere has also had his fair share of
controversy.
For instance in 2001 he fought the state-run Zimbabwe
Broadcasting
Corporation after the national broadcaster breached its
contract by taking
his programme, Talk to the Nation, off the air without
notice.
Earlier in 2002, Mawere had taken the government-owed
Privatisation
Agency of Zimbabwe to court after it had reversed the decision
to spin off
two Astra Industries subsidiaries.
But despite his
differences with the establishment, the outside world
always took him to be
part and parcel of Zimbabwe's ruling elite.
In 2002, Mawere joined
the list of ZANU PF members and government who
were slapped with targeted
sanctions by the European Union after being
accused of crimes against
humanity.
FinGaz
Controversy-courting cleric
Mavis
Makuni
9/16/2004 7:08:24 AM (GMT +2)
In a recent interview
on the BBC programme HARDTalk, Archbishop Pius
Ncube was asked whether he
did not consider himself a voice in the
wilderness in view of the fact that
he seemed to be the only Roman Catholic
cleric who regularly speaks out
against the government of President Robert
Mugabe.
The
archbishop replied that different people adopted different
approaches to
solving problems and he had chosen to speak up as long as the
political
crisis in Zimbabwe remained unresolved.
"I will not shut up," he
declared.
Ncube's determination to speak his mind has made him one
of the most
controversial figures in Zimbabwe today. He has been engaged in
a
long-running verbal feud with the head of state, President Mugabe, and the
government in general.
He has been branded a puppet of the
British and Americans and accused
of trying to reverse the gains made since
Zimbabwe attained independence in
1980.
Hardly a month goes by
without brickbats being flung at the churchman.
In July, ZANU PF
secretary for information and publicity Nathan
Shamuyarira described the
archbishop as "an obnoxious liar and propagandist
paid by racist
imperialists".
This was after the cleric had claimed while
addressing journalists in
Johannesburg that next year's parliamentary
elections would not be free and
fair. Ncube alleged that the government
would use food to buy votes.
"We have a dictator who does not care
about his own people and who
tells lies and twists things
. . .
There will be no free and fair elections in Zimbabwe as long as
the present
conditions persist," he was quoted as saying
Ironically, most of
the archbishop's passionate statements about the
situation in Zimbabwe are
in turn dismissed as falsehoods by the government.
He has been
accused of fabricating a story to the effect that 10 000
supporters of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change in Matabeleland
had been
deliberately starved to death by the ruling party. He has been
challenged to
produce evidence to prove his claim.
Last month, President Mugabe
upped the tempo against Ncube when he
gave the church leader a
tongue-lashing during the funeral of former
Matabeleland South provincial
governor Mark Dube at the National Heroes
Acre.
Eulogising Dube
as a hero who had made sacrifices to liberate Zimbabwe
from colonial rule,
President Mugabe warned Zimbabweans to be on the lookout
for traitors "who
sup and dine with the devil".
Delivering a familiar punch line, the
President said Dube would never
have gone "to invite Blair to please come
and invade his motherland, the
same satanic way Archbishop Pius Ncube and
his opposition colleagues do
repeatedly".
A fortnight later the
sparks were flying again, this time at the
installation of the new
Archbishop of Harare, the Right Reverend Robert
Chris Ndlovu.
On that occasion the President slammed the behaviour of clergymen who
embarked on anti-Zimbabwe crusades in Britain and the United
States.
Ncube, who was in attendance, visited the United Kingdom in
July. He
claimed during that trip that political repression and economic
hardships
had reached such high proportions that they could spark civil
strife. He was
also accused of exaggerating Zimbabwe's inflation rate to 1
000 percent
during an interview with Sky News. Inflation peaked at 623
percent in
January this year and has been easing since then.
The rift between the head of state and head of the Catholic Church in
Matabeleland is the more intriguing given the fact that the two men belong
to the same church. Indeed, relations were once so warm that the President
officiated at the archbishop's installation six years ago.
It
seems hard to believe now, but at that time President Mugabe
described the
churchman as "this son of the soil who has distinguished
himself". These
days, the President has no such kind words
The church leader first
stirred a hornet's nest about a year after he
took over as archbishop. This
was in July 1999 when the Pastoral Council of
the Catholic Church, of which
he was president, passed a resolution to use
Ndebele as the main language
during services.
This move was widely seen as being tribalistic and
discriminatory
against Shona and English speakers, a charge vigorously
denied by the
archbishop.
His first major clash with the
government surfaced shortly before the
2002 presidential elections when,
while addressing a campaign rally in
Lupane, President Mugabe called on the
archbishop to step down.
This was after the head of state had
accused the cleric of frustrating
government efforts to upgrade St Luke's
Hospital, a Roman Catholic health
facility in the district, into a
provincial hospital.
"We don't want to create trouble with men of
God but I think
Archbishop Ncube has gone too far," the President
said.
He challenged the cleric, who he accused of supporting the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, to come out in the open and
declare his
political affiliation.
Since then, it has been rare
for a month to go by without "the man of
God" being blasted or ridiculed in
a blaze of headlines in the official
media. He has been accused of joining
forces with the Roman Catholic Church
in South Africa and the South African
Council of Churches in campaigning for
sanctions to be imposed against
Zimbabwe.
In January last year the archbishop irked government
officials by
allegedly helping the British Broadcasting Corporation to
clandestinely film
a documentary about the politicisation of food
aid.
The BBC, which is banned from reporting from Zimbabwe, was
said to
have sent "undercover agents" posing as tourists to collect evidence
to
prove that the government had allowed genocide to be committed in
Matabeleland during disturbances in the 1980s.
Ncube has also
provoked government's wrath over his involvement in the
setting up of "safe
houses" to cater for victims of political violence in
Zimbabwe and his
opposition to the national youth training programme.
A notable
aspect of this war of words between the head of the Catholic
Church in
Matabeleland and the state is that no matter how ferocious the
verbal attack
may be, the cleric rarely bothers to issue statements refuting
the charges
levelled against him.
But who is this outspoken man who
consistently raises the hackles of
many in government every time he opens
his mouth in public?
Pius Alick Mvundla Ncube was born in Filabusi,
Matabeleland South, 58
years ago. He grew up herding cattle like all other
boys from peasant
families.
He attended a Presbyterian primary
school in the Mbogwane area near
Bulawayo to which his family relocated
while he was still a child. He
completed his upper primary schooling at St
Patrick's primary school in
Makokoba in 1962.
Ncube proceeded
to Chikwingizha secondary school in Gweru in 1963.
After completing his
secondary education he studied theology and philosophy
at Chishawasha
seminary near Harare. He earned his Licentiate at the Vatican
in Rome in
1973.
He served as a priest at St Joseph's Mission in Kezi,
Empandeni and
Embakwe missions in Plumtree and in various capacities in
Bulawayo until his
appointment as archbishop.
It seems that
right from the word go, the archbishop had definite
views vis-a-vis the
church and politics. He told a newspaper interviewer two
weeks before his
installation that he believed "religion has a strong claim
in politics".
FinGaz
NSSA cooking the books?
Nelson Banya
9/16/2004 7:06:26 AM (GMT +2)
IS the National Social Security
Authority (NSSA) cooking the books and
shading the truth?
That
is the question after the Comptroller and Auditor General's
office has, for
the second time in as many years, withheld its opinion on
the authority's
books, citing material misstatements.
The controversy-dogged NSSA
runs the government's compulsory
pay-as-you-go pension scheme which came on
stream in the last half of 1994
amid stiff resistance from industry and
commerce.
New auditor-general Mildred Chiri, who succeeded the
long-serving Eric
Harid in February, qualified the statutory body's
financial statements for
the year 2002, citing the same reasons Harid was
not satisfied with the
accounts for the period between 1998 and
2001.
"I conducted my audit in accordance with International
Standards on
Accounting. Those standards require that I plan and perform the
audit to
obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial statements are
free of
material misstatements.
"Contribution income is
apportioned on an arbitrary basis of 75
percent for the Pension and Other
Benefits Scheme and 25 percent for the
Workers Compensation Insurance Fund.
This apportionment is in contravention
of section 28 of the National Social
Security Act, Chapter 17.04, which
stipulates that all contributions should
be paid to the Scheme and all
premiums to the Fund," Chiri stated in her
report, dated April 26.
She added that contribution income was
being accounted for on a cash
basis, resulting in the scheme not accounting
for contribution debtors as it
only recognised contributions
received.
"Claims costs recognised in the financial statement are
only those
reported and actually incurred. This policy distorts the claims
amount as
claims incurred but not reported are not taken cognisance of by
way of, for
example, setting up provision for claims incurred but nor
reported based on
the Scheme's experience of the levels of such
claims.
"Because of the significance of the matters discussed
above, I do not
express any opinion on the financial statements," Chiri
stated.
In 2002, contributions towards the National Pensions Scheme
amounted
to $3.81 billion, while premium income stood at $1.07
billion.
NSSA's investments amounted to $19 billion at the close of
the
financial year.
Financial analysts have long expressed
concern on the lack of proper
information systems at NSSA, whose effect has
filtered through to affect the
statutory pensions body's
accounts.
Lloyd Kazunga, a Harare-based financial analyst, said the
fact that
auditors had qualified NSSA's accounts in successive years without
the
authority doing anything to rectify the problem showed the lack of
accountability plaguing the country's biggest pensions body.
"The board was supposed to rectify the problems highlighted by the
auditors
and revamp the accounting system.
"NSSA is the biggest pensions
institution in the country, taking
contributions from across the spectrum,
so it has to be accountable. The
public's interests have to be protected
here, more than in some of the
private institutions where we have seen the
authorities rightly stepping in
to ensure that public funds are accounted
for.
"NSSA is paying measly pensions because of some
underperforming
investments. No one has really benefited from NSSA," Kazunga
said.
NSSA board chairman Edwin Manikai said his board took note of
the
auditor-general's qualification of the 2002 accounts, but stressed that
the
arbitrary apportionments would continue.
"The arbitrary
apportionment of 75 percent to the Pension and Other
Benefits Scheme and 25
percent to the Workers Compensation Insurance Fund
will continue to be a
qualification until such time as we have commissioned
a new IT (information
technology) system which will be able to allocate
money between schemes as
provided for by law.
"We expect the system to be in place by end of
2005," Manikai said.
Acting NSSA general manager Amod Takawira said
lack of an efficient
information system remained one of the authority's
major weaknesses.
"This area, as last year, remains a major
challenge to the authority.
After the termination of the IT design contract,
the authority could not
find any local company to complete the claims
processing project.
"However, on the recommendation of the ILO
(International Labour
Organisation) expert on social security
administration, the authority
abandoned the project as there was evidence
that the system was not
compatible with other hardware servers," Takawira
said.
With regards to NSSA's debtors, Manikai said it was virtually
impossible to come up with a comprehensive list of debtors, despite the
deployment of compliance inspectors by the authority, as there was no single
source of employer data in the country.
"Employers on our
database are those who willingly registered or were
registered following
investigations by our compliance inspectors. We do not
have inspectors to
cover the whole country (and) therefore we cannot confirm
at any one time
that all employers in Zimbabwe have been registered. This is
a problem area
not only for NSSA, but for all statutory bodies that require
contributions
from or through employers," Manikai said.
He, however, said the
authority would, starting with the 2003
financial statements, make
provisions for unpaid claims.
NSSA is notorious for producing its
accounts long after its financial
year has elapsed, in contravention of the
governing Act, which states that
the board should submit the statements
within six months of the June 30
year-end.
FinGaz
Comment
Made bungles
9/16/2004
7:41:06 AM (GMT +2)
DESPITE the unpredictable rainfall pattern and
intermittent droughts,
Zimbabwe was for years known as the regional
breadbasket. It had a robust
agricultural sector, which anchored a
reassuringly resilient and stable
economy that stood in stark contrast with
the stagnation and misery in its
northern and eastern neighbours and indeed
most of the so-called Third World
countries.
Sadly though,
the country now cuts a different image. It has been
reduced to a basket case
characterised by a swift contagion of uncertainty.
This can be explained in
terms of the current state of the agricultural
sector, which leaves a
painful impression. Indeed the shrunken state of the
economy is a mirror
reflection of the collapse of the agricultural sector.
Most frightening
though is that the situation could just get worse if the
uncertainty
surrounding the availability of seed is not urgently resolved.
We
are quite aware that those who, not without reason, have in the
past warned
of chaos in the agricultural sector have predictably drawn sharp
attacks as
saboteurs bent on causing alarm and despondency from all-knowing
government
apologists who not only exhibit arrogance and self-conceit but
are also
known for their endless swirl of polemics. They paint a
rosier-than-real
picture of the situation in agriculture by engaging in an
orgy of
self-congratulation about the supposed success of the most radical
change in
land ownership on the African continent.
We however have to
categorically state here that we are not
questioning the rationale nor the
need to address historical injustices and
inequality through land reform
which the government itself admits has been
fraught with abuse, especially
by politicians with bloated self-interests.
But we are afraid the
back-to-the-land idealism could, given the setbacks
such as biting shortages
of key inputs, fail to provide the optimum
opportunity to achieve its
objectives - guaranteed food security and
economic empowerment.
In fact the economic fallout of the chaos and confusion concerning
seed
prices at this late hour wrought by upside-down priorities and lack of
forward planning on the part of the responsible government arms could be,
for want of a better word, incalculable. That key stakeholders are still
haggling over prices and retailers do not have the seed on their shelves as
yet is cause for great concern. It could spell absolute disaster for
Zimbabwe's agriculture.
The gravity of the situation is
demonstrated by the eleventh hour
appointment of a Cabinet Task Force to
oversee preparations for the coming
agricultural season which unfortunately
is coming into being when it could
just be too little too late. Was it
necessary to appoint the task force,
which itself is fraught with conflict
of interest as some of the ministers
are seed growers who might be part of
those who were last year implicated in
side-marketing? Isn't this emblematic
of everything wrong with the way
government has been handling some critical
national issues? What has the
responsible ministry been doing for this to be
left until so late? Indeed
the mind boggles especially given that
agricultural input shortages have
spilled over from previous
years.
How in God's name is the government failing to realise that,
fed up
with its strong-arm tactics of forcing seed houses to sell their
products at
uneconomic prices, the seed producers have scaled back on their
production
in Zimbabwe and instead bolstered production at their operations
dotted
around the region, beats us. All this means is that Zimbabwe could be
left
with very little choice if any, but to import seed. Hence the general
consensus that government should have made long term contingency plans for
the production of seed by institutions such as ARDA. Otherwise, if local
production of seed is not guaranteed then the land reform is doomed and the
economy which depended on agriculture will continue to lurch from one crisis
to another. Yet it was hoped that a turnaround in agriculture, which
previously had the single biggest sectoral contribution to the country's
gross domestic product, could soothe the economy's running
sore.
This situation, which could have been avoided, should be
blamed
squarely on shoddy planning by the relevant government departments,
especially the blundering Ministry of Agriculture headed by Joseph Made. The
sad story of the erstwhile self-sufficient country's agriculture proves that
no plan is worth the paper it is written on until it starts you doing
something, that is if the ministry had a plan at all.
Indeed
Made's ministry seems bereft of the vision, capacity, nay
willpower and zeal
to demystify the neo-colonial notion that foresight,
planning and execution
of modern and scientific agricultural practice was a
preserve of farmers
drawing and hailing only from the old order. As such the
new farmers are
left devastated with a psychology of impotence and pessimism
against a
background of empty sloganeering and administrative blundering.
And
naturally we face today, the spectre of new farmers of little means
holding
on to large tracts of land they are unable to use but would
inevitably
destroy through deforestration and environmental degradation.
This will
provide a perfect backdrop to a tragic and disastrous failure of
small-scale
commercial agriculture in this country, with devastating
consequences on
local economic pride and promise.
As it is, with very little
productivity taking place, land reform is
neither improving the economic
standing of most of the beneficiaries nor is
it adding value to the national
economy, despite its potential. That is why
we said in our editorial of May
22 2003 that given the teething but
avoidable problems besetting the
agrarian reforms, for now, it would seem
like the farmers were given cheques
they cannot cash.
This will unfortunately do little to demystify
the terrible aura
surrounding the emotive land issue. Not to mention its net
effect on the
intended guaranteed food security, the reformation and revival
of the
economy and the democratic renewal of the country through the
restoration of
honour and dignity to those who were historically
marginalised.
This is why we feel that the all-important
Agriculture Ministry should
be run by authoritative and trusted visionaries
who will not only be able to
find a modus vivendi with key stakeholders but
also clearly outline measures
for the improvement of agriculture and for the
social protection of farmers.
This is moreso especially at this time when
Zimbabwe is hoping for a new
generation of public services.
FinGaz
...and now to the
Notebook
9/16/2004 7:43:17 AM (GMT
+2)
SO our ambitious microscopic opposition party, ZANU
(Ndonga), has joined the national galamania? We are made to understand that
they are threatening to throw a good one shortly in memory of their late
leader, The Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole.
Not
surprising at all considering that this gala thing is
a brainchild of one
person whose history dates back to the days when Sithole
sold out the
liberation struggle. Ever heard that this person used to help
in the
propaganda department of the late politician's party? So can it be
surprising at all that this party also has a taste for
galas?
AND there is this one. Last week one Zim company
made its
mid-year results announcement. And it called for an analysts
briefing. Also
attending the event were business and financial journos and
other
hangers-on.
One sports journalist called
"Mhofu" (ex-ZBC), now working
for a foreign radio station, decided that
there was no harm in inviting
himself there in order to have one or two free
beers.
Come question and answer time after the
presentation of
the results, vaMhofu boldly asked: "I understand you last
month listed on
the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, has that brought any
dividends to you?"
The other journalists could not find
anywhere to hide as
they cringed in embarrassment for every person who cares
to know elementary
financial and economic journalism will tell you that a
company doesn't get
dividends from being listed . . . and it is not the
company that gets
dividends . . . there is a word called shareholder . . .
there is a lot
involved.
And what made the
embarrassment even worse is that our
clever sports journalist was politely
told that the company in question has
been listed on three bourses - JSE,
ZSE and London Stock Exchange - for more
than 20 years! We wonder where
vaMhofu had done his research! Isn't it
always good to confine ourselves to
areas we know better than to advertise
the thickness of our ignorance trying
to portray ourselves as know-alls?
IT appears like
it will be a long time before the
popularity of our golden girl, Kirsty
Coventry, dies down. Sure, because
from the look of things, Zimbabweans are
just crazy about the proud
achievements of the Athens triple medallist and
they are now suggesting that
since our galamanic nation has failed to hold a
musical gala in her honour,
something else should be
done.
And this is the suggestion from one of Kirsty's
fans. He
says the only way to honour the golden girl is to have as many TV
programmes
on swimming as possible so as to inspire the youths to take up
the sport.
And the suggestion is this: ZBC, or whatever
it wants to
be called these days, as a public broadcaster should start
having programmes
such as: Talking Swimming with Supa, Around the Pool,
Swimming Pool Watch
and Behind the Pool with Tazzen Mandizvidza, Face the
Pool with Masimba
Musariri and our lovely Patricia Mabviko-Musanhu will also
give us Breaking
New Swimming Records!
With Charles
Mabika out of the picture, maybe on Wednesday
nights someone may try to
present another programme - This is Swimming!
Doesn't
this sound like a patriotic suggestion?
CZ hopes
that his colleagues at the state-controlled media
learnt something from the
recent incident involving veteran sports
commentator Charles Mabika - that
the regime, like America, has no permanent
friends, but interests . . . one
can be used and, like a condom, disposed of
so cheaply
anytime.
If someone can be cashiered on unpatriotic
grounds for
innocently commentating on exactly what is happening in a soccer
match, then
we wonder what could happen if one is found out to be stringing
for VOA's
Studio 7.
And no matter how hard you
work, if someone thinks they
have used you enough, you will still go . . .
they should all know it . . .
including those ones being posted to
Windhoek!
THE Daily Mirror (September 6 2004)
carried a story in
which it reported that two accomplices "stole a sheep,
slaughtered and
shared the pork (sic) meat amongst
themselves".
And to think that all along we have been
made to believe
that meat from sheep is called mutton. Could this be a
harbinger that some
local farmers have made inroads in genetic engineering?
Moreover, I was
under the impression that you slaughtered an animal and not
the meat.
Talk about putting your foot in your mouth,
or subs
sleeping on the job.
cznotebook@yahoo.co.uk
FinGaz
'Look-east' policy fails to bear fruit
Felix
Njini
9/16/2004 7:12:06 AM (GMT +2)
BITING sanctions and
economic stagnation caused by sharp falls in
foreign direct investment (FDI)
from the West saw Zimbabwe adopting a
"look-east" policy but, four years on,
the much-vaunted investment from
"friendlier" Asia has failed to go beyond
rhetoric.
Meaningful trade between Zimbabwe and Malaysia, China,
Indonesia,
Libya and Iran among others has failed to bolster the country's
frail
economy, a state which government critics blame on official corruption
and
mismanagement.
Trade deals, always announced amid pomp and
fanfare, with some
"friendlier" nations have floundered. Analysts attribute
this to Zimbabwe's
incapability to meet contractual obligations. The
government has remained
tight-lipped on trade statistics with
Asia.
Zimbabwe's economy requires a long time to dismantle trade
links
established with some western economies, analysts noted.
Economists said that the government's "look-east" policy was a
charade, a
damp squib, and a face-saver adopted in the midst of a maelstrom
induced by
a series of ruinous economic policies.
Real trade remains with the
European Union (EU) and the United States,
analysts say.
China,
the 21st century's fastest growing economic powerhouse, was
still a long way
off to substitute the maligned west as Zimbabwe's major
trading partner, the
analysts pointed out.
"Traditional markets still account for
virtually all of Zimbabwe's
trade. We need to redirect our efforts to Asia
but we have not been able to
do that," said a local economist.
Statistics from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) indicate that
Zimbabwe's total trade, excluding the sale of gold, grew eight-fold from
$8.2 billion to $62.4 billion between1990 and 1997.
This
represented an annual growth rate of 33.7 percent. Including gold
sales, the
rise in the level of trade was from $8.8 billion to $66.8
billion.
Analysts attributed the eight-fold increase to trade
liberalisation
policies under the structural adjustment programmes launched
in 1991 after a
decade of state-led development initiatives.
The growth trend has gone down as the anticipated Asian-Zimbabwe trade
boom
failed to materialise.
"If this economic growth trend had
continued, the economy would be
better off," said the
economist.
In 1990, the exchange rate was Z$0.38 to the United
States dollar. It
fell to Z$5.05 in 1991 and by 1997, it stood at Z$18.6 to
the greenback.
As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP),
exports rose from 20
to 30 percent, imports from 21 to 33 percent and the
trade deficit from 1.4
to 6.4 percent, the CSO said.
"At the
moment there are no bilateral trade agreements with Asia.
Business needs to
have quotas, firm product supply arrangements and
predictable markets," said
the economist.
Zimbabwe's total exports rose from $3.6 billion in
1990 to $56 billion
in 1997.
Exports to the EU accounted for
$9.3 billion, United Kingdom $2.8
billion, Germany $1.9 billion, US $1.4
billion, Japan $1.5 billion.
Regional trading partner South Africa,
which has maintained solid ties
with the Zimbabwean economy, accounted for
$3.2 billion.
Zimbabwe had a combined import bill of nearly $17
billion with the EU,
UK, Germany and the US.
"The Zimbabwean
economy was structurally designed to link with
European economies. The
equipment, spare parts, the technology bears a link
to Western
manufacturers. That is a factor which is being overlooked in the
Asian
thrust," said the economist.
During the seven-year period from
1990, Zimbabwe's exports to China
rose from $62.9 million to $215 million,
Malaysia from $2 million to $213
million, Indonesia from $16 million to $298
million, Singapore $11.5 million
to $141.1 million and Libya from $1.1
million to $13.4 million
"This was the time when Zimbabwe was
supposed to have made headway
with the countries which played a role during
the war. That never happened.
The solution does not lie in running away from
our markets but in
diversifying to new ones while consolidating our presence
in the traditional
ones," the economist said.
Government has
tried to play down its isolation.
Billions of dollars have been
gobbled up in numerous trips to Asia to
try and get market access to no
avail.
Like a cornered animal, the Zimbabwe government has reacted
venomously
to suggestions of resuming normal ties with the Western
world.
"We need to try and develop trade in all corners. Attempts
into
Malaysia, Libya, Indonesia have failed mostly because of the failure to
pay," said economic commentator Eric Bloch.
"There has been a
tremendous drop in business with Iran, Kuwait,
Libya, Malaysia and North
Korea. Trade dwindled because these countries
failed to find any benefit in
continuing business with Zimbabwe," Bloch
said.
Statistics
indicate that FDI has declined by 95 percent from US$98
million in 1995 to
US$4.5 million in 2003.
Portfolio investment has also shrunk by 83
percent from US$64 million
in 1995 to US$10.8 million in 2003.
Grants have also shrivelled by 78 percent from US$167 million in 1995
to
only US$36.1 million last year.
Zimbabwe's exports have continued
to decline and lag behind imports
since 2001, when Zimbabwe's isolation from
the international community
started.
Exports declined by 38.6
percent from US$2.2 billion in 2000 to US$1.4
billion in 2003.
To compound this, Zimbabwe's import bill has increased by 10 percent
from
US$1.9 billion in 2000 to US$2.1 billion in 2003.
Zimbabwe's trade
deficit has shot up by 72 percent from a negative
US$218 million in 2001 to
a negative US$768 million last year.
Against clear evidence of
continued stagnation, President Robert
Mugabe has maintained that there is
an "ongoing socio-economic turnaround"
and an "evident revival of the
economy".
Government ministers have also parroted President
Mugabe's calls to
end "neo-colonial dependence syndrome" by cutting ties
with businesses from
Britain, the EU and US.
President Mugabe
believes there is better business in the burgeoning
Third World
regions.
"This neo-colonial dependence syndrome has been our
repeated ruin.
Traditional business enterprises, which have shaped and
defined our thrust
are, in the majority of cases, unambitious subsidiaries
of major companies
in South Africa, Britain and America, caught in a time
warp and hopelessly
hidebound," President Mugabe is on record as
saying.
Analysts dismiss this as sheer arrogance from a leader
whose economy
has benefited immensely from the same Western
countries.
Economists said there was a need for Zimbabwean business
to grab the
pickings in the traditional markets while there are still
pickings to be
had.
"China is promising to be one of the
world's biggest economies. There
is likelihood that in five years it would
have overtaken the US. However
there is no trade between Zimbabwe and China,
what is there is akin to
dumping. It amounts to Chinese products prejudicing
local manufacturers. In
the end China is likely to be disillusioned," Bloch
said.
He blamed Zimbabwe for looking for deals where only itself
would
benefit.
"That is not trade, it has to be two way. We
benefited from Malaysia
but Malaysia did not benefit," Bloch
said.
"Let us open up the economy to the whole world. Let us stop
pretending
we do not need the international community," Bloch [ends
here...]
FinGaz
'Zim has potential to show its farming prowess'
Zitha Dube
9/16/2004 7:27:16 AM (GMT +2)
ZIMBABWE'S
agricultural industry needs to come up with practical
measures to fully
utilise its potential, it has been noted.
Delegates to a recent
workshop on sustainability of agricultural banks
who comprised a
representative of the Bank of Zambia, Francis Muma, said
Zimbabwe had the
potential to show its agricultural prowess.
Of concern to the
visiting team from across the continent was that
although Zimbabwe craves to
enhance its agricultural base, it does not have
the money to fully fund
agriculture.
Therefore, this has caused a decline in
production.
Muma said there was need for governments, farmers and
other
stakeholders to come together and devise methods of funding
agricultural
projects.
This, he said, would go a long way in
building a strong agricultural
industry as cheap money would be made
available.
"However, follow-ups should be made to ensure the money
is put to good
use and repaid accordingly," said Mumba.
The
chief executive officer of Agricultural Development Bank of
Zimbabwe
(Agribank), Sam Malaba, said the country required more than a
trillion
Zimbabwean dollars to fully fund all agricultural projects.
"Government and the RBZ, through Agribank, gave farmers concessionary
loans.
"Now, together with a couple of other banks we are
raising money for
tobacco farmers. Our target is $250 billion by
November."
However, the money that has since been received from
government and
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is not enough for a single
crop.
In October 2003, the RBZ made available $60 million to lend
to farmers
at 15 percent per annum while in January the government injected
$150
billion into Agribank to lend to farmers at 30 percent per
annum.
The three-day workshop, meant to come up with measures to
sustain the
agricultural industry, was organised by African Rural and Credit
Association
(AFRACA), the central bank and Agribank.
FinGaz
Minister Made determined to blunder on
9/16/2004 7:43:58 AM (GMT +2)
HERE we go again. As was the case
last year, farmers once again face
an imminent agricultural planting season
without access to the most
important input - seed.
I was
flabbergasted to read in the press last week that the Minister
of
Agriculture and Rural Development, Joseph Made, was, at this late hour,
yet
to reach an agreement with seed producers on a pricing structure.
"The season is here and there is every reason for farmers to be
worried
because of the unavailability of seed. We will announce the outcome
of the
meeting in due course," Made was quoted as saying. Is this man
serious? Is
this now familiar cop-out of a statement supposed to be the
minister's way
of inspiring new farmers to work hard this season?
What is the
minister doing holding last-ditch talks at the last minute
when he should
have been in constant contact and dialogue with seed
producers throughout
the past year?
I find it hard to believe that after experiencing a
similarly chaotic
and uncertain situation with regard to inputs last season,
the minister did
not make contingency plans for the current planting season.
Does the
minister never learn any lessons about making plans ahead for
eventualities?
It would seem that the only contingency plan that
was in place to
ensure the delivery on time of seed maize and other crop
varieties to
farmers was to resort to strong-arm tactics to whip the
commodity producers
into line.
But not surprisingly, the
government's order that seed producers who
were seeking increases should
revert to old prices did not do the trick.
It, in fact, backfired
when the concerned establishments withdrew
their stocks. They argued,
reasonably by any yardstick, that selling their
products at the old prices
did not make business sense because they would be
doing so at a loss. And so
we are back to square one.
Hopefully, Made and his ministry will
learn an important lesson from
this. Arbitrary government decrees have no
place in a free market economy
and should not be regarded as an acceptable
substitute for proper planning
and consultation with stakeholders. I am not
an economic expert but I think
it is a perversity for any entrepreneur to be
in business to make a loss. I
admire those service providers who have been
honest enough to point out that
they are not charitable organisations when
pressured by one or other arm of
government to undermine their prospects for
running profitable enterprises.
God help us as a country if the
government succeeds in inculcating a
loss-making culture in our business
people by imposing operating conditions
that are only convenient and
beneficial to the state.
The government is not helpless. How can it
justify resorting to
forcing private enterprises to shoulder the burden of
what should really be
government subsidies for agricultural
inputs?
In the case at hand, if the government believes that new
farmers
cannot afford the market prices of agricultural inputs, why does it
not
intervene to help by introducing a subsidy?
While I am
aware of the argument that the government alone cannot do
everything, I can
also identify a million non-productive initiatives in
which the state could
make cutbacks. Funds released from these non-priority
areas could then be
re-channelled towards vital sectors such as agriculture.
Some time
ago, I read in a weekly newspaper, a story to the effect
that the government
was to spend $500 million on the refurbishment of youth
militia training
camps.
The National Youth Service Training programme is a
controversial
scheme perceived by many Zimbabweans as not bringing about any
positive
national benefits but only grief and anguish.
Does it
make sense therefore, to pour millions into such a non-starter
at the
expense of agriculture, which the government itself says is the
backbone of
this country's economy?
It is even more bewildering for the
government to splurge hundreds of
millions of dollars on a new publishing
venture to 'counter' propaganda
supposedly emanating from South Africa. It
leaves me in the depths of total
despair to realise that all this is being
done because an alert South
African Sunday newspaper has published well
researched and irrefutable
reports about the conspicuous consumption of some
government ministers.
These are individuals who were either caught on
extravagant fly-by-night
shopping sprees in South Africa or building opulent
mansions in the same
country.
The concerned individuals felt
particularly embarrassed and chastened
by these stories because they exposed
the hypocrisy of their preaching
sacrifice and austerity for the rest of us
while they themselves drowned in
wealth and luxury. Why should national
priorities be subordinated to the
vanities of such individuals?
The Agriculture and Rural Development Minister is, on his part, well
known
for his wide-off-the-mark crop forecasts and the amateurish methods he
uses
to make these fictitious projections. But despite all the fun that has
been
poked at this ineptitude, Made seems determined to continue plodding
along
as before. This means that as long the minister is un-bothered by his
inability to undertake serious strategic thinking and planning, agricultural
planting seasons will continue to be characterised by chaos, panic and
confusion.
Unfortunately the minister's bungling will continue
to have a ripple
effect throughout the agricultural industry.
FinGaz
RBZ decision gave birth to Homelink
9/16/2004 7:38:45 AM (GMT +2)
This is a new weekly column in which
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
explains what Homelink is all about, tries to
correct any misunderstandings
there may be about it and answers questions,
that may arise in relation to
it.
IT was the decision by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to put in place a
money transfer system to enable
Zimbabweans living abroad to send money home
safely, reliably, quickly and
conveniently that gave birth to
Homelink-Kumusha-Ekhaya.
Homelink-Kumusha-Ekhaya is a concept or slogan that has been used to
make
people aware of the new money transfer system. It has become a brand
name
used to popularise this system that helps link Zimbabweans abroad with
their
families at home by providing them with a safe means of sending money
home.
The Homelink system links Zimbabweans abroad not only
with their
families but with their country. It can be used to invest money
in property
or interest-bearing instruments, such as the new Diaspora
Bonds.
It also enables Zimbabweans abroad to contribute to their
country's
economic turnaround and economic development at the same time as
they are
sending money to their families or for their own investment
purposes.
The money they send home through a money transfer agency
that is part
of the Homelink system is paid out to the recipients in
Zimbabwe dollars.
The foreign currency equivalent is made available to the
foreign currency
auction. It becomes part of the foreign currency which
companies and
individuals bid for, the bulk of which goes to companies that
require it for
productive purposes and essential imports.
When
the system was introduced payment was allowed in either foreign
or local
currency. However, abuse of this privilege by some people who asked
for
payment in foreign currency and then sold it on the black market,
resulted
in this privilege being withdrawn.
Prior to the introduction of the
Homelink money transfer system
Zimbabweans were sending money home chiefly
through various illegal
channels. Some were defrauded in the process.
Sometimes the money took weeks
to reach home. Sometimes only part of it
arrived home. Sometimes none of it
reached the intended
recipients.
Often the foreign currency never left the country from
which it was
sent. It was banked in somebody's foreign account and the
Zimbabwean
recipients were paid out in Zimbabwean dollars out of funds
already in
Zimbabwe. The country was thus deprived of the foreign currency
that could
have helped pay for essential imports.
The foreign
currency went instead to help enrich those who had foreign
accounts, who
effectively externalised their funds by paying the
beneficiaries of these
illegal money transfers out of their Zimbabwean funds
in return for foreign
currency being paid into their foreign account abroad.
The new
money transfer system established by the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe and
popularised under the Homelink brand name is designed to
guarantee safe,
reliable, fast and convenient money transfers and to ensure
that the foreign
currency does reach Zimbabwe and becomes available for sale
on the foreign
currency auction.
To guarantee this, the Reserve Bank has insisted
on certain conditions
that money transfer agencies registered with it have
to abide by. These
include insurance to cover money transferred through
them, partnerships with
reputable international money transfer organisations
and ensuring they
always have sufficient cash on hand to be able to pay the
equivalent in
Zimbabwe dollars of the money sent electronically to
them.
The conversion rate used in calculating the Zimbabwe
equivalent of the
money sent is the auction rate or the new diaspora floor
price of Z$5 600 to
the US dollar, whichever is higher. At present the
diaspora rate is higher
than the auction rate.
No commission is
charged by money transfer agencies in Zimbabwe on
money sent through them.
There is no tax or any other charge payable either.
Those sending
the money will, however, be charged commission by the
agencies in their
country of residence through which they send the money.
The commission
varies according to the charges established by different
money transfer
organisations, making it worth shopping around for a
competitive commission
rate.
By asking their relatives abroad to send them money through a
money
transfer agency which has an agreement with a licensed money transfer
agency
in Zimbabwe, people can be sure of the money reaching them swiftly
and
safely and at the same time help the country's economy, as the foreign
currency involved will become available to the foreign currency
auction.
This is also a lawful means of transferring money home,
kumusha,
ekhaya. The risks of being caught dealing on the black market or
externalising funds is therefore avoided.
In this weekly column
it is hoped to respond to questions and queries
that people have. Anyone who
has questions they would like to see dealt with
in this column can send them
by e-mail to mhpr@mhpr.co.zw or by post to
Homelink Column, Box MP97, Mount Pleasant, Harare.
