http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 07:53
Dumisani Muleya/Faith
Zaba
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has uncharacteristically balked at taking
action
against senior Zanu PF officials exposed in secret United States
diplomatic
cables released by WikiLeaks as clandestinely campaigning to
remove him due
to leadership failures, old age and ill-health.
A
number of top government officials — including Mugabe’s potential
successors
Vice-President Joice Mujuru and Defence Minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa — met US
diplomats, considered enemies of the state in Zanu PF
circles, to discuss
Zimbabwe’s political and security situation. American
envoys also met
ministers, Zanu PF politburo members and army commanders.
Mugabe’s
back-off is apparently seen within as a sign of political weakness
on his
part as his grip on the party falters, while he grows frail due to
age and
health failures.
Mugabe is said to be suffering from prostate cancer
which has metastasised,
spreading to other parts of the
body.
Briefings of the Zimbabwe Independent this week by officials
close to Mugabe
show the veteran ruler thought better of the idea of taking
action against
those named as his internal rivals who want him to go. It was
said Mugabe
reached the decision before he left for the United Nations
General Assembly
in New York last week.
“The president took a
decision before travelling to the UN General Assembly
that there would be no
action at the government or party level against those
involved in secret
meetings with US diplomats to discuss local issues, some
of which were very
sensitive,” a senior official close to Mugabe’s office
said.
“So there
will be no measures taken against anybody in the party. If at all,
the
president will only act strategically and structurally during the course
of
time.”
This came as a relief to those who feared a fierce backlash.
Government
insiders say Mugabe discussed the issue with his advisors, mainly
in the
state security structures, and found it prudent to let the issue
pass, at
least for now. They said Mugabe did not want to destabilise Zanu PF
and
undermine himself before the next elections which he still hopes to
contest
despite mounting pressure for him to retire.
Most Zanu PF
officials want Mugabe to quit before the next polls,
particularly if the
elections are held in 2013 when it would be considered
irrational or
impractical to field him as a candidate at 89. There is also
widespread
regional pressure for Mugabe to retire. Even Mugabe’s own doctors
want him
to be pensioned off.
Sources said Mugabe had to plot a course of
backing away from confronting
his internal rivals and critics because he
feared that taking action would
unravel his grip on power because of the
high profile nature of those
involved and the scale of the problem. State
security hardliners, already
acting within their own domains, were
reportedly not happy with that.
“After carefully assessing the
situation he felt it would be wise to manage
the situation by doing nothing,
even at the risk of him appearing as if he
was being managed by events
instead of him managing them,” another official
said. “It’s a better way of
dealing with a crisis situation like this than
adopting a kneejerk
reaction.”
After WikiLeaks released secret US cables, Mugabe endured
extraordinarily
miserable weeks, cutting a lonely and isolated figure on the
political
landscape, while senior Zanu PF officials scurried for cover amid
pressure
from party old- timers like Didymus Mutasa, secretary for
administration,
and Rugare Gumbo, spokesman, for them to be
punished.
However, after Mugabe’s consultations, internal pressure to
discipline those
involved in the WikiLeaks disclosures was stymied. This was
actually proved
by the failure of the Zanu PF politburo last week to discuss
the issue. The
matter has mainly been discussed within the corridors of
power than in
formal meetings.
Sources said Mugabe’s public
explanation for not acting would be that he was
aware of those meetings
anyway. Efforts to get comment from Mugabe’s
spokesman George Charamba this
week failed as he was said to be in New York.
However, Charamba in
his weekly column in the state-run Herald, Nathaniel
Manheru, which he
writes under a pseudonym, apparently based on information
gleaned from his
interaction with his boss and other senior officials, tried
to advance that
argument – that he knew anyway.
“There is hardly anything new to
emerge from WikiLeaks,” we are told.
“Details may be there. Nuances and
brilliant quotes probably. But generally
who was doing what with the
Americans, all that was quite known,” he said in
a move which seemed
calculated to answer questions about where the
intelligence services were
when all this was happening and also justify
Mugabe’s failure to
act.
“And such contacts were beyond Americans, to encompass many
other Western
embassies. (Julian) Assange (WikiLeaks founder) just happens
to have caught
up with the blunderous. They are not the only ones; not even
the worst.
By way of actual substance itself, there was no news
in the fact that some
Zanu PF elements had a hand in the formation of the
MDC, let alone in the
subsequent fall-out between the MDC leadership and
those elements in Zanu
PF. There was no enigma in the formation of Mavambo,
or those inside Zanu PF
who were behind it. What was rather surprising was
why this element in Zanu
PF balked from the ultimate, namely excising
themselves from the main body
to join their project.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011
05:26
Paidamoyo Muzulu
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has dug in on his
call for early elections even
before full implementation of the Global
Political Agreement (GPA). Mugabe
made it clear at the official opening of
parliament two weeks ago that Zanu
PF was not prepared to make any more
concessions to the two MDC formations.
In a 30-minute speech, Mugabe
said parliament should prioritise the tabling
of amendments closely related
to paving the way for the holding of fresh
elections as mandated by the 2008
Sadc-facilitated GPA.
Mugabe’s position had earlier been endorsed at
the Zanu PF National
Consultative Assembly which called for an end to the
“untenable” life of the
inclusive government.
Mugabe ignored legislative
changes demanded by his MDC partners in the
coalition government. The
demands include media reforms, security sector
reforms, re-composition of
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission secretariat,
and the amendment or
repealing of the Public Order and Security Act.
True to Zanu PF’s
wishes, Mugabe tabled the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and
the Referendum
Bill as a top priority in the fourth session of the
legislature. Mugabe
outfoxed the MDC formations by putting across the
election issue, including
the timelines, as a position the GPA partners had
agreed to.
“As
part of preparations for the elections to be held thereafter, the
Referendum
Bill together with the amendments to the Electoral Act agreed to
by the
negotiating teams from the three political parties in the GPA, and
adopted
by cabinet, will be tabled before this parliament,” said Mugabe.
He
attempted to reach out to the opposition by condemning political violence
and promising a review of the discredited National Youth Service. He also
avoided divisive language and lashing out at the “imperialist West”, which
had become the hallmark of his speeches in the last
decade.
Mugabe’s legislative agenda comes hard on the heels of Zanu
PF blocking
passage of the Posa amendment in the senate and an attempt to
sneak its own
version of the Human Rights Commission Bill into
parliament.
The proposed Human Rights Commission Bill contained
clauses barring the
commission from investigating any human rights abuses
committed before
February 13, 2009.
These two pieces of
legislation have the potential to change the political
landscape. Posa
amendments would strip police of their arbitrary powers to
stop public
gatherings and the Human Rights Bill would allow for the
prosecution of
state agents who abuse human rights in the course of their
duties.
Since 2001, the police have systematically used Posa to
deny MDC formations
opportunities to hold public rallies on flimsy security
grounds.
The police, army and intelligence services have also in the
past been
accused of wanton human rights abuses against opposition political
activists
and leadership. Most of the top MDC leadership and civil society
leaders
have been beaten or tortured by state agents, especially after
2000.
Rhodes University media scholar Admire Mare said Mugabe’s
omission of Posa
and other democratisation legislation confirmed Zanu PF’s
undemocratic
tendencies.
“For me, it is clear that those
important pieces of legislation and items on
the agenda of the government of
national unity tells us Zanu PF is not ready
to embrace democratisation and
levelling of the playing field,” said Mare.
Mare said the legislative
agenda tabled by Mugabe proved that the strange
bedfellows in the inclusive
government were still miles apart on how to
democraticise the
country.
“It is clear that parties in the inclusive government are
still anchored in
their trenches with competing discourses throwing spanners
in our effort to
build democratic institutions,” Mare
said.
Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe programmes manager and human
rights activist
Pedzisayi Ruhanya agreed with Mare said Mugabe was not
prepared to initiate
democratic reforms.
“It is clear that Mugabe
is anti-reform and what the public needs is an
urgent address to such
legislative oppression,” said Ruhanya.
“Mugabe has always used
violence through the law and patronage to entrench
his power. Laws such as
Posa, Aippa and the Criminal Law (Codification and
Reform) Act have been
used to curtail people’s freedoms while his cabinet is
rewarded with
expensive cars,” Ruhanya said.
The analysts said parliament should be
more proactive and treat the issue of
democratisation with the urgency it
deserves.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights director Irene Petras
said: “Posa is
already before parliament and MPs should treat the matter
with the urgency
it deserves. The other reforms should find their way into
the House through
proactive legislators.”
What remains to be seen
is whether parliament is capable of handling all the
17 bills Mugabe
proposed in a calendar likely to be truncated with elections
looming large
on the horizon. The House only managed to pass seven laws.
The House
is often divided and it would be interesting to see if it is able
to deliver
on the agenda tabled. For once, the MDC legislators gave Mugabe a
standing
ovation when he denounced political violence.
One wonders if this was
an indication of how the new session would be
conducted.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 08:02
Dingilizwe
Ntuli
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe faced intensifying outrage against his rule
from
African leaders and came under unprecedented pressure to quit from
different
quarters over the past 11 years.
According to
diplomatic cables released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks,
African
governments began to increasingly view the aging leader with
trepidation.
Condemned by the West for his human rights record,
fiery rhetoric and
refusal to restore the rule of law, Mugabe received
public backing from Sadc
and the African Union but nothing was going well
for him behind the veil.
So reviled was Mugabe by some of his African
counterparts that even veteran
dictators, such as Gabon’s long time ruler
the late Omar Bongo, refused to
be associated with the only leader
independent Zimbabwe has ever known.
According to a cable dispatched
to Washington by the US embassy’s chargé d’affaires
in Harare Richard Roth
on August 31 2001, Bongo made a last minute
cancellation of his trip to
Zimbabwe where he was scheduled to open the
Harare Agricultural
Show.
The show was officially opened by DRC President Joseph Kabila
and Mugabe’s
spokesman George Charamba said Bongo, who ruled Gabon for 41
years, had
cancelled his participation “at the last minute because he was
committed
elsewhere”.
However, Henry Mukonoweshuro, a diplomat in
the Foreign Affairs ministry’s
Americas office, told the US embassy
political section chief Matt Harrington
that Bongo had never committed to
attending the fair and had in a written
response declined the invitation
citing prior commitments he had been
unaware of.
“We suspect that
Bongo, who is reportedly sensitive about his stature as an
African statesman
and mediator, may want to keep some distance between
himself and Mugabe,
whose image continues to decline on the international
stage,” reads the
cable.
Roth believed that Bongo’s “prior commitment” may well have
been his own
image.
The cables also revealed how irritated
neighbouring Botswana President
Festus Mogae was with Mugabe and Zimbabwe’s
collapse in the face of violence
and hyperinflation.
US
ambassador to Botswana John Lange sent a cable from Gaborone in 2001 in
which he quoted Mogae saying he believed there was no chance of influencing
Mugabe to hold free and fair elections the next year.
The cable
says Mogae described Mugabe as acting like a “wounded buffalo” and
called
for elections to be held sooner to lessen the harm being done to the
country.
Lange had raised the Zimbabwe issue with Mogae during a
dinner at which the
Botswana leader was bestowed with the 2001 Aids
Leadership Award.
Mogae reportedly told Lange that Mugabe did not care what
any outsiders
thought and would stay in power “by hook or
crook”.
In response to whether there would be further Sadc engagement
with Mugabe
and his government prior to the 2002 presidential elections,
Mogae said
there probably would be meetings, but he saw no chance of
success.
Mogae jokingly told the US ambassador that “the only way to
remove Mugabe
from power would be to attack militarily and remove him
forcefully”.
The ambassador described a scenario in which Mugabe and
Zanu PF were so
unpopular that they would actually lose the elections
despite the violence
and intimidation advance.
“Mogae responded
that Mugabe is very smart and is already working to prevent
that
possibility, including through his latest effort to disenfranchise
those
Zimbabweans living abroad,” reads the cable.
In 2002, Nigeria’s
national security advisor Aliyu Mohammed was quoted
expressing strong
concern about Zimbabwe by the US ambassador to Nigeria
Howard
Jeter.
In a cable from the US embassy in Abuja, Mohammed reportedly
revealed how
former president Olusegun Obasanjo had host MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai for
two days in Abuja prior to his visit to
Harare.
“When President Obasanjo met with Mugabe, according to the
NSA (national
security advisor), Obasanjo recommended that Mugabe consider
retirement.
However, Mugabe responded that he was committed to run, having
passed the
point of no return with regard to keeping his word to his
followers. Mugabe
said he could only consider retiring after winning the
election,” the cable
reads.
Mohammed said Mugabe was old and that
a part of him wanted to leave
politics, but the other part feared his
vulnerability to prosecution by his
opponents should he leave the
presidency.
Moreover, Mohammed said Mugabe and his henchmen were
profiting from trade in
Congolese diamonds due to his close relationship
with Kabila. He said this
lucrative interest would only likely die once
Mugabe left office.
While eventually Mugabe must go, Mohammed
wondered how the MDC could govern
if it came to power in the short term
because “all of the government
structures in Zimbabwe, including the police
and security services were
‘100%’ Zanu PF”.
Ghana’s
well-connected High Commissioner to Zimbabwe Kwasi Baah-Boakye
relayed to
the US ambassador in Harare in July 2002 that Mugabe wanted to
step
down.
Baah-Boakye told the US embassy that Ghanaians linked to the
First Family
through Mugabe’s first wife Sally had told him that Mugabe was
beginning to
explore the possibility of stepping down.
“According
to Baah-Boakye, Mugabe is concerned about finding a successor who
can
effectively protect him and his financial assets. Baah-Boakye’s source
said
Speaker of Parliament ad Zanu PF secretary for administration Emmerson
Mnangagwa would be Mugabe’s preferred candidate, and that Mugabe is
determined to engineer a succession scenario which preserves the ruling
party’s hold on power,” reads the cable.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011
07:58
THE military is deeply divided over what action to take against the
two army
generals who criticised their commander, General Constantine
Chiwenga,
describing him as a “political general” with “little practical
military
experience or expertise”.
Several meetings have been
held at Zimbabwe Defence House and other places,
with top army officials
expressing different views on how the military
should deal with
Brigadier-Generals Herbert Chingono and Fidelis Satuku, who
are currently
under investigation for sneering at their boss at secret
meetings with top
United States diplomats.
According to leaked cables, Chingono and
Satuku spoke to US Ambassador
Charles Ray last year about Chiwenga’s
political ambitions, different views
and opinions within the army,
conditions of service, sanctions and politics.
Whereas the cables refer to
Satuku as “Major-General”, the Zimbabwe
Independent this week verified that
he is actually a Brigadier-General.
Although it is generally accepted
among the commanders that it was wrong for
Satuku and Chingono to meet with
US diplomats, whom Mugabe considers enemies
of the state, the two have the
backing of some senior army officers who
think the issue must be allowed to
pass.
Top military sources said while some army commanders like
Chiwenga and his
clique want action against Chingono and Satuku, there were
others who were
strongly opposed to that, preferring to be
cautious.
Those opposed argue the army must follow President Robert
Mugabe’s lead on
the issue. Mugabe has reportedly chosen not to act on
senior party officials
implicated in the WikiLeaks
disclosures.
Besides the sympathisers in the military, Chingono and
Satuku also have
backers in the Zanu PF politburo who strongly believe that
they should not
be punished for meeting with the diplomats.
A top
politburo member questioned why Chiwenga was so quick to institute an
investigation when his boss had decided to ignore the cables.
“Why are
they investigating the two? We in the party are not doing anything
about it
and I don’t expect us to discuss the cables in future meetings,”
the
politburo member said.
“The president is not going to deal with the
matter, so why should he? He
should leave them alone.”
These
views have also been expressed by some commanders at their meetings
who have
said the military should take a cue from the president so that they
are not
at variance with politicians.
Sources told the Independent that
officials opposed to court-martialling the
two generals have pointed out
that it was unwise to act now when they did
not know to what the extent of
the WikiLeaks impact was on the military,
their veracity and who else might
be implicated.
If after investigation Chingono and Satuku have a case
to answer, according
to the Defence Act, they will be court-martialled and
could face
imprisonment if convicted or even a death sentence, although that
is
unlikely.
Army spokesperson Colonel Overson Mugwizi confirmed
last week that the two
army generals were currently under investigation.
Military sources said
Chingono and Satuku could be charged with “treason or
subversion” for
secretly meeting Ray in January last year to discuss
Zimbabwe’s “sensitive
military issues” and politics in contravention of the
Defence Forces Act,
their code of conduct and ethics.
In 1999,
Chingono, an artillery officer, was the last Zimbabwe National Army
commander to train at the United States National Defence University under
the International Military Education and Training programme, while Satuku
received his military training in Britain.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011
08:04
Paidamoyo Muzulu
THE MDC-T and Zanu PF are set for a major
showdown in parliament after Zanu
PF declared Mbizo MP Settlement
Chikwinya’s move on Tuesday to resuscitate
his controversial motion
condemning political statements uttered by serving
service chiefs as
unconstitutional and anti-national healing.
The motion sought to
condemn and compel service chiefs to restate their
commitment to their oath
of office to honour and uphold the Constitution of
Zimbabwe in their conduct
and utterances. Chikwinya moved the emotive motion
after Brigadier-General
Douglas Nyikayaramba had called for elections in
2011 and declaring that he
would not salute any other president besides
Robert
Mugabe.
Nyikayaramba’s comments bolstered the MDC formations’ call
for urgent
security sector reforms before the holding of any elections as
stipulated in
the Sadc-facilitated Global Political
Agreement.
The highly emotive motion divided the House in the last
session with MPs
calling each other names. Mugabe further stoked the flames
when he said
parliament should leave his generals alone while addressing a
Zanu PF
central committee meeting in July.
Zanu PF House of
Assembly chief whip Joram Gumbo said his party would not
support or
participate in debates that divide the country and increase
acrimony as was
evidenced by the tone of debates in the last session of the
House.
“Zanu PF agreed at its caucus that MPs should desist from
motions that
likely lead to utterances of hate speech and cause disunity,”
said Gumbo.
“For that reason, we do not subscribe and support such
motions.”
Gumbo said the introduction of emotional motions was cheap
grandstanding and
counterproductive since any party could sponsor its own
motions of similar
nature.
“It’s easy to say something negative
about someone. We could also move
motions about violence as it happens
across political party lines. However,
we do not want to engage in such
political immaturity,” said Gumbo.
However, the MDC-T argues that it
is good for the country to examine the
conduct of service chiefs and ask
them to remain apolitical and professional
in their duties as per their
constitutional mandate.
Chikwinya told the House that service chiefs
should act within the confines
of the law, such as the Police Act, Defence
Forces Act and the Prisons
Services Act, which regulate the conduct of
personnel in the uniformed
services.
Zanu PF has raised a red
flag against any security sector reforms before
elections.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 08:05
THE late former army
commander General Solomon Mujuru who died in a
mysterious fire at his
Beatrice Farm in August returned to haunt Zanu PF in
parliament when the
party was forced to conduct a witch-hunt to flush out
MPs who sabotaged
Kudakwashe Bhasikiti’s condolence motion.
Bhasikiti’s motion lapsed
when the House failed to constitute a quorum
during the debate on Wednesday
afternoon. The House automatically adjourned
in conformity with the Standing
Orders when members in the chamber dropped
below the statutory 25 forming a
quorum.
Zanu PF Guruve MP Paul Mazikana committed a tactical blunder
by alerting the
Speaker that the House had no quorum soon after the MDC-T’s
Settlement
Chikwinya had started contributing to the
debate.
Bhasikiti was left seething after debate on his motion was
adjourned twice
because the House lacked a quorum leaving the Speaker with
no option but to
adjourn the House and allowing the motion to lapse. There
were 21 members in
the chamber, 13 from Zanu PF and the remainder from the
MDC-T. There were no
chief whips on either side of the
benches.
Bhasikiti accused senior backbenchers of sabotaging the
motion which had
initially been accepted. “The party should hold an
investigation on what
really transpired in the House,” said Bhasikiti. “I am
shocked the party
chief whip (Joram Gumbo) was not in the chamber. It’s
unacceptable when we
are debating such an important
motion.”
Speculation was high in parliament that Zanu PF MPs aligned
to Defence
minister Emmerson Mnanagagwa’s faction had sabotaged the motion
by walking
out when Bhasikiti was moving his motion.
Some Zanu PF
MPs accused Bhasikiti of seeking personal glory by moving the
motion when he
did not even know the late Mujuru. “There was no caucusing on
the motion,”
said one MP. “Bhasikiti just jumped to move the motion without
consulting
fellow party members. To make matters worse he made a long
winding dry
speech forcing MPs to walk out.”
Gumbo said MPs had left to attend to
other pressing issues.“The motion will
be resuscitated, but it is important
to mention that MPs had left to attend
to Copac business,” said
Gumbo.
It remains to be seen if the tainted motion would excite
debate when
Bhasikiti resuscitates the motion.
— Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 08:06
ZANU PF
heavyweights are said to have been behind the bloody 2008
presidential
election runoff which the MDC claimed resulted in the death of
more than
200 of its supporters.
According to US embassy cables released by
WikiLeaks, former Gender and
Women’s Affairs minister Oppah Muchinguri, air
force commander Perrence
Shiri, and State Security minister Didymus Mutasa
as well as former cabinet
minister Kumbirai Kangai incited some of the worst
violence.
The cable dated April 10 2008 says that Zanu PF central
committee member
Manatsa Mutasa, who was described as “disillusioned”, told
ambassador James
McGee that Zanu PF had been disturbed by MDC-T leader
Morgan Tsvangirai’s
victory in the March 2008 election and had hatched a
plan to intimidate MDC
leaders and supporters.
Mutasa told the US
embassy that bases and command centres were set up in the
bush and manned by
“off duty soldiers”.
“Disillusioned central committee member Manatsa
Mutasa told us that the
politburo recognised MDC (Morgan) Tsvangirai had won
48% of the presidential
vote against Mugabe’s 43%,” read the
cable.
“Consequently, the ruling party had begun a campaign of
violence,
spearheaded by minister Oppah Muchinguri, Deputy Speaker of
Parliament
Kumbirai Kangai, Air Marshall Perrence Shiri and minister Didymus
Mutasa to
intimidate the population and MDC leaders.”
Manatsa
Mutasa further projected that Zanu PF would petrol bomb its own
offices and
blame the MDC, therefore opening space for President Robert
Mugabe to
declare a state of emergency and cancel the run-off.
He also
separately related an election incident of a customs official
tipping off
the police about stuffed ballot boxes coming across the border
and their
subsequent seizure by the police.
“Mutasa told us today that
politburo representatives on April 4 had informed
the Manicaland members of
the Zanu PF central committee, including himself,
that MDC-T had won 48%of
the presidential vote and Robert Mugabe 43%,” the
cable
reads.
According to the cable, Manatsa Mutasa was so convinced there
would be no
election run-off as and even with rigging and intimidation, the
ruling party
could not guarantee a Mugabe victory.
He said from
the politburo level down, Zanu PF was now preparing for war and
those bases
and command centres were being set up in the bush as “centres of
torture and
even killing”.
“They were designed to intimidate people and “drive
MDC kingpins to run
away.” Manatsa Mutasa also said the politburo had
given the green light
for the invasion of all remaining white-owned
farms.
He revealed that violence spread so much and his own shop and
office in
Watsomba in Mutasa Central had been ransacked and
looted.
“Several of them had been dragged from their homes in the
night and beaten.
Lists of targeted persons were being drawn up at a
provincial Zanu PF
meeting yesterday before Mutasa was expelled from the
meeting, although he
said in the provincial Zanu PF structure he outranked
all others present.”
Asked why Zanu PF had not protected Muchinguri
from her humiliating defeat
in Mutasa Central, Manatsa Mutasa said rigging
had most likely been planned,
but a customs official had tipped off the
police that nine stuffed ballot
boxes had crossed from the nearby Mozambique
border and police had
intercepted them on the road to Mutasa
Central.
Although McGee described Manatsa Mutasa as disillusioned, he
saw his fear as
real since his version of violence and intimidation
corresponded with other
referenced reports the embassy had
received.
— Staff writer
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 08:08
Nqobile
Bhebhe
THE Zanu PF leadership in Bulawayo has formally resolved to
compile a
comprehensive list of all unoccupied buildings in the city with a
view to
engaging owners for their takeover.
The resolution was
taken at a stormy meeting in the city last Friday and
this has intensified
panic among property owners who are now scared that
their buildings would be
appropriated under the guise of indigenisation.
Zanu PF national
chairman Simon Khaya Moyo (pictured above), national
commissar Webster Shamu
and secretary for indigenisation and economic
empowerment Saviour Kasukuwere
attended the meeting which resolved that the
list would incorporate closed
companies.
The three politburo members gave the Bulawayo leadership
six days to draw up
the list and report back to them when they return to the
city in two weeks
time.
Shamu told the meeting that the buildings issue
had the potential of
destroying the faction-ridden province adding that Zanu
PF needed aggressive
programmes to re-open closed firms in the
city.
Nearly 60 buildings are on a list earmarked for takeover. The
list was shown
to the Zimbabwe Independent in August.
Provincial
party chairman Isaac Dakamela said no firm timeframe had been
set. “We did
resolve to come up with a list of all unoccupied buildings and
shut
companies in the city,” said Dakamela.
“Our motive is to peacefully
engage the owners, and therefore that list has
to be in place within two
weeks,” he said. Zanu PF youths in the city have
clashed with Dakamela for
condemning their illegal invasion of buildings.
War veterans in the
city have accused some provincial leaders of “double
dealing” with whites
and Indians who own the unoccupied buildings.
Bulawayo provincial war
veterans’ leader Themba Ncube told the Zanu
leadership to stop protecting
Indians and whites. He said they should not
toy around issues that greatly
affected the masses.
The party’s youths have threatened to remove
Dakamela from office, accusing
him of being a stumbling block to black
empowerment in the city.
In the last few months, several Indian
businesspeople have been disposing of
their unoccupied properties.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 08:22
Brian
Chitemba
GENDER advocates are vigorously campaigning for the new
constitution to
reserve quotas for women in government and all public
institutions as a way
of promoting women’s participation in decision
making.
The gender activists are demanding a 50-50 women
representation in all
public institutions ranging from parliament to
cabinet. Deputy Prime
Minister Thokozani Khupe has even threatened to
campaign for a NO vote in
the constitutional referendum if the 50% quota
for women was not included
in the new governance charter.
She
argues that women’s quotas must be guaranteed through legislation to
enable
more women secure seats in parliament, cabinet, councils as well as
the
private sector.
In Africa, only Rwanda has managed to reserve a 30%
quota for women in the
constitution resulting in them securing 45 out of 80
parliamentary seats,
which represents 56%.
The Rwandan parliament
is the first in the world to have women as the
majority in parliamentary
representation despite the 1994 genocide which
left 800 000
dead.
The Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in
1995, decided
on a 30% quota for women in governments, but this seems to
have been largely
ignored by the world’s male-dominated
governments.
Zanu PF has set a 30% quota for women but this has never
been implemented.
The two MDC formations are also male dominated with women
at the periphery.
This anomaly is highly reflected in the coalition
government which only has
seven women in cabinet out of 41 ministers while
two deputy ministers are
women from a total of 19.
There are a
total of 32 female MPs elected in 2008 out of the 210 seats and
of the 92
senators, only 22 are women. There are 338 women councillors out
of the
country’s sum of 1 058.
Again, women cabinet ministers hold remotely
peripheral portfolios, with the
exception of Home Affairs, which is,
however, shared. Theresa Makone shares
the Home Affairs portfolio with Kembo
Mohadi.
The others are Women’s Affairs minister Olivia Muchena, Small
to Medium
Enterprises minister Sithembiso Nyoni, Labour and Social Services
minister
Paurina Mpariwa and Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga of Regional
Integration
and International Trade. Vice President Joice Mujuru and Khupe
complete the
line-up of top government female officials who are widely
viewed as
political appointees to balance gender
disparities.
However, feminine groups want the numbers changed to
reflect an equitable
distribution of parliament and government posts. But
will the women stomach
political violence and meet expectations linked to
challenging ministries
such as Defence, Finance and Foreign
Affairs?
It is more of an issue of competence rather than mere
clamouring for
equality. Of the female ministers in post-independent
Zimbabwe, only former
Education minister Fay Chung distinguished herself as
a powerful minister.
Women’s Affairs deputy minister Jessie Majome
said based on the Sadc
Protocol on gender and development Article 12, women
are supposed to enjoy
50% representation by 2015.
“We are not
fighting men but we are hungry for equality,” said Majome. “We
are fighting
for democracy as we seek to harmonise relations between men and
women. Women
don’t want to undermine men in any way,” she said.
Parliamentary
Women’s Caucus chairperson Beatrice Nyamupinga bemoaned the
small
representation of women in parliament saying the electoral system
should
favour women in the forthcoming elections expected next year.
“Let’s
not politicise the 50-50 campaign because it doesn’t matter whether
you are
from MDC or Zanu PF; the issue is about women’s empowerment,” said
Nyamupinga.
But even if the gender advocates are lobbying for
equal representation, they
acknowledged that it would not be easy to achieve
the target. In Kenya, the
coalition government is now contemplating
scrapping the constitutional quota
that women should make up a third of MPs.
The Kenyan government says the
requirement would be technically impossible
given that polls are due next
year.
The same scenario is likely
to occur in Zimbabwe where the elections are due
next
year.
Observers say the patriarchal Zimbabwean socio-political and
economic system
was largely expected to resist the 50%quota for
women.
Women in Politics Support Unit head Fanny Chirisa said they would
engage
ministers, MPs and Copac, among other groups, to attain the 50-50
representation.
She argued that women made up 52% of the
population but represented a small
fraction in decision making
positions.
Matabeleland Constitutional Reform Agenda director Effie
Ncube said women
had the capacity to take up challenging portfolios but
those serving in
government could be weaker because they were chosen by men
who wanted to
maintain dominance.
Ncube said the 50-50
representation would add value to the social system and
reform institutions
dominated by men, some of whom were highly incompetent.
“Women must
be accepted as decision makers because we have been governed by
men since
time immemorial,” said Ncube. “The problem is that men have been
deploying
women who are not so brilliant to avoid being challenged. But
there are a
lot of capable women who deserve better opportunities in
government and
business,” he said.
Women have been their own worst enemy because
they support more male
politicians than their counterparts. In Zanu PF,
women are always donning
regalia emblazoned with President Robert Mugabe’s
picture.
The situation is the same in the MDC-T where women revere
Tsvangirai more
than Khupe.
Khupe said in the forthcoming
elections, women should nominate female
candidates starting from party
primary elections. But the quest for equality
between men and women is
highly unlikely in the 2012 elections considering
that the male politicians
would not easily give up their careers to please
women.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 08:24
Chris
Muronzi
INDIGENOUS banks owed by RioZim Ltd are set to take over control
of the
mining group after it emerged this week that the financial
institutions will
convert debt into equity, businessdigest has
established.
Sources close to the development this week said banks
exposed to RioZim’s
US$3 million debt are now converting the debt into
equity.
The sources say the debt-to-equity conversion would see
massive dilution of
existing shareholders with the banks emerging with over
51% equity in
RioZim.
A BancAbc team is leading the debt
rescheduling exercise. This comes after
RioZim’s loans failed to perform,
forcing banks to roll over them.
According to sources, the debt
conversion will see banks underwriting RioZim’s
rights issue. Should
shareholders fail to follow their rights as widely
expected, banks will take
up equity pro-rata to the debt.
“It’s really an issue of coming up
with a win-win situation for all the
parties. But an announcement from
RioZim will come to the market in the next
two weeks,” a source
said.
This, sources say, will see financial institutions taking over
controlling
shareholding or near control equity, depending on the level of
subscription.
But given tight liquidity conditions on the market and
subscription results
of other companies that have gone for rights issues,
RioZim underwriters
could end up with a sizeable chunk in undersubscribed
stock.
Subscription rates have varied for companies which have come
to the market
and the lowest was 21,9% for ART Holdings, which left the
underwriters with
the burden of providing cash equivalent to the
unsubscribed shares.
ART sought to raise US$4,6 million but its
shareholders managed to raise
slightly more than US$1 million leaving CBZ
and Interfin, the two
underwriters, with US$3,5 million worth of
shares.
OK Zimbabwe’s rights issue got a 70,4% subscription. Nicoz
Diamond
shareholders subscribed for 67% of shares floated.
Trust
Banking Corporation advanced US$3,4 million to RioZim. Most of the
loans
were due in April and early May while others are due later this month.
Tetrad also advanced a series of loan facilities amounting to US$4,8
million.
Some of the loans were due in April while others were
due in June. According
to documents, Tetrad was forced to revolve RioZim’s
Bankers Acceptance (BA).
BA is a short-term credit investment created by a
non-financial firm and
guaranteed by a bank.
Kingdom Bank was
exposed to the tune of US$7,5 million to RioZim as of May.
ZB Bank was also
exposed to the tune of US$5, 9 million. The ZB loan
facilities were due
early May forcing the bank to roll over the facility.
Premier Banking
Corporation was exposed to the tune of US$2,4 million.
BancAbc was exposed
to the tune of US$3 million. RioZim failed to settle the
loans in April
forcing management to roll over the facility. Africa Bank
Corporation
Botswana was also exposed to the tune of US$5 million. Interfin
Bank was
owed US$1,5 million by the company.
Other financial institutions that
wereowed funds by the mining group are
IDBZ – US$2,3 million, Metropolitan
Bank - US$1,3 million, Imara Corporate
Finance – US$1,5 million but their
loans are now due.
African Export and Import Bank was owed some US$8
million which has been due
since December last year. Renaissance Merchant
Bank was also exposed to the
tune of US$2,9 million.
RioZim MD
Josh Sachikonye last month hinted to the market last month that
the company
would offer banks an exit instrument. RioZim’s financials to
December 2010
show that finance costs rose from US$4,3 million to US$10,2
million, a
figure representing 137% rise in finance charges.
Some of the
company’s debt attracts interest as high as 30% annually, the
documents
show. Finance costs at US$10,2 million swallowed the group’s
US$9,3 million
operating profit resulting in US$570 000 loss before tax in
the full year to
December 2010.
This comes after RioZim’s bid to raise US$40 million
through a rights issue
fell through in May after the would be underwriter
–– Essar Africa
Holdings –– pulled out of the deal.
Essar is said
to have pulled the plug on the RioZim deal after a due
diligence examination
found the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed company was
heavily geared and had
a sizeable short-term debt.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 08:10
Brian
Chitemba
THE cabinet task-force on the revival of Bulawayo industries
has
recommended an immediate injection of the US$40 million Distressed and
Marginalised Areas Fund to resuscitate ailing and closed companies in the
city.
Industry and Commerce minister Professor Welshman Ncube,
who chairs the
cabinet ministerial team, told participants at the
Independent Dialogue
organised by the Zimbabwe Independent and Radio
Dialogue in Bulawayo on
Wednesday that recommendations would be tabled at
the next cabinet meeting
on Tuesday.
The dialogue was held under
the theme “Matabeleland’s contribution towards
the national
fiscus”.
If approved, the US$40 million would be released to
resuscitate 85 companies
which closed last year. However, the cabinet
taskforce’s findings indicated
that US$50 million was needed for the
successful revival of industries in
Bulawayo.
The cabinet
taskforce comprises key ministers who include Ncube, Finance
minister Tendai
Biti, Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
minister Saviour
Kasukuwere, Agriculture and Farm Mechanisation minister
Joseph Made, Labour
and Social Welfare minister Paurina Mpariwa and Economic
Planning minister
Tapiwa Mashakada.
The team has met business and various stakeholders
in Bulawayo since May to
get first hand information on reasons behind the
closure of companies.
It has been revealed that some large companies had
obsolete equipment
purchased in the 1970s and required about US$20 million
to kick-start
business.
The taskforce would also request the
Economic Planning ministry to grant
Bulawayo a special status as the
industrial hub of Zimbabwe and come up with
incentives for potential
investors to inject capital in the country’s second
largest
city.
Ncube said of the 85 that had shutdown, 63 were from the
motoring sector, 19
were clothing companies and three were from the
construction industry.
About five of the 19 clothing companies were
presently under judicial
management. He said the closure of the 85 companies
had resulted in 20 000
workers becoming redundant.
Ncube told
guests that besides the US$40 million Distressed and Marginalised
Areas
Fund, his team would also push for the decentralisation of decision
making
from Harare to cascade to Bulawayo and other provinces.
Plans were
also underway to engage the banking sector to offer long-term
financial aid
to business. Business emphasised to the cabinet taskforce
that lack of
affordable lines of credit had forced ailing firms to shut
down.
Banks were mainly giving short term loans which were
expensive to repay.
Some companies under judicial management were even
failing to repay the
short term loans.
Companies in Bulawayo also
complained to the taskforce about tariff
discrepancies, saying local firms
were charged higher than those in Gweru
and Harare.
As an
example, Ncube said Pretoria Portland Cement in Bulawayo was charged
13
cents per kilowatt while other companies in Gweru paid 7 cents per
kilowatt
in electricity tariffs.
He said the taskforce’s recommendations were
for the correction of tariff
discrepancies and also for the review of the
public procurement policy to
allow Bulawayo companies, including those
headquartered in Harare, to be
able to procure goods and services without
always having to seek approval
from head office.
The cabinet
report would also focus on the need to scrap duty on imported
raw materials
for the manufacturing sector to enable locally produced goods
compete with
imported finished products.
Ncube said investigations had also
revealed that there was rampant
corruption at the country’s border posts,
resulting in high smuggling of
goods. The smuggled goods are sold cheaply
compared to local products.
“There is also need for labour
legislation review on retrenchment
procedures, which favours closure of
companies instead of favouring
companies to survive,” said
Ncube.
Contributing to the same dialogue, Habakkuk Trust chief
executive Dumisani
Nkomo said Bulawayo contributed 25% towards the Gross
Domestic Product when
it was the country’s industrial hub.
Nkomo
said Bulawayo’s industrial sector had grown tremendously between 1894
and
1954. But the Gukurahundi disturbances of the 1980s had delayed progress
and
investment in the Matabeleland region. The region also experienced a
stagnation during the tumultuous years from 2000 to 2008 when political
turmoil engulfed the country.
Nkomo said the allocation of
national resources, such as the tollgate funds,
was unfair since the
Transport minister’s home province received US$2,5
million, compared to a
paltry US$300 000 allocated to Matabeleland North.
He said there was
need for more investment in water projects in the arid
Matabeleland
provinces as well as completion of several unfinished projects
such as the
Joshua Nkomo Airport and the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road.
“We need to groom
leadership in business and development but there is also
need for serious
investment in water so that the region attracts private
capital and ensure
development in provinces,” said Nkomo.
Parastatals and State
Enterprises minister Gorden Moyo said devolution of
power was the panacea
for Matabeleland challenges. He said in the last 30
years, the region had
not experienced any meaningful development.
Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries Matabeleland Chapter president Ruth
Labode said: “Our system of
governance was highly centralised and we want
devolution like yesterday,”
said Labode. “Matabeleland is marginalised and
deliberate policies to stir
development must be implemented,” she said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 08:27
Paul
Nyakazeya
AFRE Corporation says it will go ahead with its planned Annual
General
Meeting (AGM) and Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) scheduled for
today
despite the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) concerns that the meeting
should
not proceed.
The ZSE feels irregularities unearthed by a
forensic audit at the financial
services group have material impact on
policyholders and minorities.
But Afre chairman Tawanda Nyambirai says the
meetings were “validly called.”
ZSE CEO Emmanuel Munyukwi on
September 9 wrote a letter to the Afre chairman
saying the planned meeting
should not go ahead, citing alleged
irregularities that could have an impact
on policyholders and minority
shareholders.
According to the
letter, a forensic audit conducted by BCA Forensic Audit
Services found that
there were some irregularities that needed to be
addressed before
shareholders met.
Afre responded in a letter dated September 14,
saying the AGM and EGM were
“validly called” and would go ahead. Nyambirai
could not discuss the
contents of the letters citing confidentiality, ethics
and professionalism
issues to all parties involved.
“The
shareholders have rights to assemble and determine the future of their
company. To seek to delay the exercise of those rights is a gross violation
of company law and corporate governance,” said Nyambirai in response to
questions from businessdigest on Tuesday.
“Why are people afraid of a
shareholder meeting?”
The meetings will seek shareholders’ nod for a
US$15 million rights issue to
recapitalise the group. On September 5,
Nyambirai wrote to the ZSE
articulating the urgent need for Afre to raise
capital in order to address
the solvency requirements of the company’s
operating subsidiaries, procure
an ICT system to enhance internal controls
and settlement of inter-company
investments.
“We accept and
appreciate the company’s requirement to raise the capital.
There are,
however, certain concerns raised by the regulators which could
have an
impact on policyholders and minority shareholders,” Munyukwi
said.
Analysts said because of Afre’s US$6,4 million exposure to
Renaissance
Financial Holdings and its founder Patterson Timba, restoring
confidence in
the group was of paramount importance.
Munyukwi
said Afre Corporation Ltd engaged BCA Forensic Audit Services (Pvt)
Ltd to
conduct a forensic audit.
“We understand that the forensic audit
unraveled, among other things,
glaring corporate governance shortcomings
which are detrimental to
policyholders and pension fund members,” he
said.
Some of the shortcomings allegedly include domineering of the
company by
Timba, his influence on Afre management and board even after his
ouster, as
well as weak and dysfunctional subsidiary boards which allowed
most of the
critical issues affecting the subsidiaries to be decided at
group level.
Munyukwi said it was the regulator’s view that KPMG’s
investigations, which
are still underway, be finalised to enable
consideration of the issues that
may be raised as they could have an impact
on policyholders and pension fund
members.
“The regulators are
also concerned that Afre was run in the interests of
RFHL and Econet, in
view of the return agreement between the two parties,
and this interest
could compromise the interest of other stakeholders,
particularly
policyholders and pension fund members,” reads the letter.
He said
the forensic audit report’s findings have implicated some board
members and
management, rendering them not fit and proper to continue
overseeing the
operations of the group.
“Some of the board members are seeking
re-election at the annual general
meeting. It is the regulator’s view that
the recommendations from the said
report be implemented in full for the good
of policyholders and pension fund
members,” Munyukwi said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 08:01
THE board of Afre
Corporation yesterday called off a planned Annual General
Meeting (AGM) and
Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) that would have given
the company the
green light to float additional shares through a rights
issue.
This comes after Afre chairman Tawanda Nyambirai had
insisted on Wednesday
that the meetings were “validly called” and would
proceed as planned despite
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange’s orders to cancel
them.
“The Board of Afre wish to announce that the AGM and EGM
scheduled for
Friday at 10am and 14:00pm have been cancelled at the instance
of ZSE,
Commissioner of Insurance and SEC,” the board said in a statement
last night
without giving details on the sudden change of its earlier
position.
The Afre board wanted the nod for the company to raise
US$15 million through
a rights issue but ZSE CEO Emmanuel Munyukwi wrote a
letter saying the
meeting should not go as planned, saying the move posed
potential prejudice
to policy holders and minority
shareholders.
The Zimbawe Independent in its business section ––
businessdigest that goes
to bed on Wednesday –– had reported that the
meeting would proceed as
planned. –– Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011
06:14
THE ever-inventive Sunday Mail this week led with the story “PM’s
Chicago
boob” in which it claimed that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s
trip to
Chicago had been “a flop” –– one of the state media’s favourite
words.
“Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was embarrassed last week in
Chicago after
top United States government officials declined to entertain
him or to
acknowledge his presence as he had travelled to the American city
at the
invitation of a bogus business networking
organisation.”
The Sunday Mail would have us believe that Tsvangirai
and his entourage
“later learnt that an organisation run by exiled
Zimbabweans had invited
them for a dubious event dubbed the Zimbabwe Trade
and Cultural Expo, which
the Americans did not recognise”. The implication
being that they did not
know what they had gone to Chicago
for.
“Mr Tsvangirai,” the Sunday Mail added, “who had hoped to meet
top US
officials including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State
Hilary
Clinton, had to change his itinerary after it became evident that he
had
been snubbed.”
Sunday Mail “sources” in Chicago said
Tsvangirai’s trip turned out to be an
“unmitigated failure after US
government officials indicated that they would
not meet him as Washington
put in motion efforts to dump the MDC-T leader”.
This is news to us!
We didn’t know that Obama and Clinton reside in Chicago.
Tsvangirai is
said to have later entertained businesspeople at a meeting
organised to
“denounce Zimbabwe’s indigenisation exercise”.
As if the story was not
ludicrous enough, the Sunday Mail went on to claim
that a number of
residents in Chicago were “angered by the PM’s failure to
instead denounce
the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West”.
One of the aggrieved
was Nate Clay, the head of a US pressure group called
the Coalition to End
Sanctions on Zimbabwe. According to Clay, the PM’s
visit was an
embarrassment from the outset as no US government official
turned up at the
airport in Chicago (O’Hare) to welcome him.
The Sunday Mail further
claimed that US civil rights activist Reverend Jesse
Jackson was “making
efforts to get Tsvangirai to hold a Press conference
denouncing
sanctions”.
Jackson however instead demanded a violence-free
election, saying “we say no
to violence and yes to a peaceful
Zimbabwe”.
The only sanctions Jackson talked about were those imposed by Zanu
PF on the
Zimbabwean people.
Meanwhile, ZBC reports that Zanu
PF had exposed British, American and their
Western allies’ plans to
infiltrate strategic institutions by holding
dubious meetings on the pretext
of mending bilateral ties with Zimbabwe.
According to Zanu PF
Information and Publicity secretary, Rugare Gumbo, they
had unearthed a plot
whereby imperialist forces are to secretly “invade” the
party and government
structures.
Under the alleged plot, Western imperialist forces are
pretending to be
willing to re-engage on socio-economic and political
challenges yet their
hidden agenda is to “cause confusion”.
We
have often pointed out that “causing confusion” among the comrades is a
serious offence because they get confused so easily. “This appears to be the
new thrust after realising that the initiative to use the MDC-T to effect
regime change has failed,” ZBC observed.
Muckraker was left at a
loss on whether the West was planning an “invasion”
of Shake-Shake or
Munhumutapa Building. We would think that the West wouldn’t
need to invade
Zanu PF considering that they have “useful messengers” to do
that for
them.
On the subject of which, we are enjoying Jonathan Moyo’s
public squirming as
he attempts to explain why it was okay for some people
–– like himself –– to
hold secret meetings with American diplomats on
delicate issues such as
President Mugabe’s departure from office, but not
for others such as Morgan
Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai’s discussion was
“treachery” we were told!
What we are witnessing in fact are Moyo’s
attempts to publicly exonerate
himself for his duplicity. He then invites
the nation to support his dubious
explanations as if they are guilty as
well!
“The compelling fact is that none of these very interesting
comments or
sentiments can be said to be policy beyond everyday politics,”
Moyo claimed
last Sunday in his on-going apologia.
“What people
have thought or said about President Mugabe at various times to
various
audiences whether in the media or as revealed by WikiLeaks through
US
diplomatic cables is ultimately irrelevant because President Mugabe’s
leadership of Zanu PF and our country has always been resolved by election,”
he claimed.
He has obviously forgotten evidence to the contrary
in his detailed account
of electoral management, Voting for Democracy. Our
question is: Did
President Mugabe approve of these liaisons with the enemy?
Did he know?
As Stephen Mpofu pointed out in the Herald on
Tuesday, “one would expect
that Zanu PF had in place an ethical code, silent
or otherwise, which
required that any rank-and-file member would require
authority to engage any
foreigner, particularly representing a country that
regards itself as
Zimbabwe’s sworn enemy …
“Zanu has said it would
investigate the top leaders’ cloak-and-dagger
meetings with the American
diplomats,” Mpofu says, “a clear indication that
the contacts were not
sanctioned by the party.
“Now when a party that liberated this
country from oppressive rule and touts
itself as revolutionary harbours
leaders who behave like unguided missiles
in dealing with the former and
continuing enemy, Zimbabwe’s independence and
sovereignty are put at risk of
reversal.”
There is another point here. If these contacts are all
so innocent and
irrelevant, why is Moyo hurling abuse at those papers that
have exposed his
double standards? He evidently doesn’t consider it
irrelevant judging by the
forest acres he has occupied to tell us why he
needed to call the Americans
every time a tasty morsel of political gossip
came his way!
Indeed, the US embassy came to regard him as a “useful
messenger”, something
he omitted to mention in his latest diatribe. Mpofu
makes a further point.
“If the party, angry as it appears to be at what
happened, fails to take
decisive disciplinary action against these leaders
who have clearly put its
image into disrepute, the voters who stand to bear
the brunt of unwarranted
dealings with the enemy should take care of those
unguided elements come
election time.”
But not everything in his
dialogue with the Americans was necessarily
sinister. Moyo’s suggestion that
the nation, which had only recently been
demanding that Mugabe should go,
was now pleading with him to stay, was
simply laughable.
Has
anybody ever heard of people going around saying “Mugabe must stay”?
Doesn’t
the whole significance of the WikiLeaks lie in the chorus of Mugabe’s
allies
saying he should go?
Meanwhile, the Sunday Mail has been seeking
to divert attention from Zanu PF’s
WikiLeaks-difficulties by reporting on
Morgan Tsvangirai’s visit to Chicago,
as reported above.
First of
all, it was quite right for Tsvangirai’s critics to deride the
suggestion
that this was a state visit. Only heads of state can make state
visits. This
is a point which the South African press has been slow to pick
up on. Any
visit anywhere by Jacob Zuma is reported as a state visit when
more often
than not it is simply an official visit. State visits require red
carpets,
21-gun salutes, overnight stays, a state banquet, and a visit to a
centre
other than the capital.
The MDC should also note that Barack Obama is
not addressed as “Your
Excellency”. He is plain “Mr President”. This refers
to the letter to Obama
regarding his support for Zuma’s efforts which seem
to have annoyed the
authorities in Harare.
Back home, how do we
explain President Mugabe’s alacrity in agreeing to meet
US ambassador
Charles Ray? After all, the US is hardly beloved of our
leaders at the
present time.
One of Muckraker’s associates had a ready answer.
Mugabe is very partial to
the music of an earlier era and was led to believe
it was a Ray Charles
concert he was being invited to
attend.
We were hardly surprised to read that nobody turned up
for Air Zimbabwe’s
flights last Friday. Passengers want to know when their
flights are likely
to depart. It will take six months to restore customer
confidence, we are
told. Our sister paper, NewsDay, has pointed out that in
1980 Air Zimbabwe
had 15 planes, all in good working order. Now it has five.
So what happened?
Zanu PF got hold of it, that’s what! And the
airline’s board chairman pens
odes of praise to Mugabe in his
ever-increasing spare time! In fairness, it
should be mentioned that the
airline tried to retrench 475 workers in
accordance with a strategic plan
but government told them to keep them on.
Another 300 that were due to go
couldn’t be removed because the 475 were
still
there.
“Surprisingly the shareholder (government) grew cold feet and
shied away,”
outgoing board chairman Jonathan Kadzura told the Saturday
Herald. But he
had some good advice for his successor: “You need people who
can bring value
to the organisation,” he said. “What is it that they have
done in their
lives should be an important question? You do not want to have
people who
see the appointment as an opportunity to increase their
wealth.”
Try telling that to cabinet Dr Kadzura. Meanwhile we were
intrigued to know
who Webster Shamu was trying to protect in his outburst
against the
independent media last week. Normally outgoing and friendly to
the media, we
couldn’t understand what had stung him. Of course the
so-called “first
family” may have recently felt under siege by the
independent press but they
don’t hesitate to attack their
opponents.
No, Shamu’s vitriolic defence of certain personalities was
more likely
concerned with a political heavyweight who had been making a
nuisance of
himself with a female colleague. She had said no but is now
paying the price
of her defiance.
We were sent the following
by someone previously active in the Anglican
church: The devil was a-sitting
on his satanic perch Figuring where next to
attack the church When along the
way he espied Kunonga “Wait up”, he yelled,
“and tarry a bit
longer!”
“Give me your soul”, the devil said “And of the whole
CPCA I’ll make you
head I’ll give you the power and all the prestige And
even the president
will call you ‘my liege’”
In a flash
Kunonga made the loathsome trade Said the devil to himself, “what
a bargain
I’ve made!” And the good people asked “what happened here? He’s a
bishop of
the church but God he doesn’t fear”
But the Lord He knows what
Kunonga’s done. And the plight of His people. He
does not shun And though
for a time it seems evil has won It’s just that the
day of the Lord hasn’t
come
For God is the judge of the living and the dead. He
remembers all that we’ve
done or said. And the Day of Judgment like the
Great Flood. Will consume
all not covered by Jesus’ blood
So
take heart my friends and stand ye fast. The oppressors’ schemes will not
always last. For the Lord’s our shepherd, our mighty shield. And with Him
beside us we’ll never yield.
Finally Zifa told us it paid the
police $25 000 for security during the
Cosafa women's tournament in July. We
expect that Zimbabwe Cricket paid
something similar for recent matches. We
hope it was worth it. During the
opening match in Harare a spectator had his
new Nokia stolen from his
girlfriend’s handbag. He reported the theft to the
nearest policeman who
couldn’t help because, as he explained: “I am watching
the cricket.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 06:08
MAXIMISING tax compliance
by the population in general, and by businesses in
particular, is very
necessary for any government. Non-compliance is markedly
prejudicial not
only to the governments, which require revenue flows to fund
their
operations, to maintain and enhance infrastructure, and to fulfill
their
obligations to the populace.
Those who evade their lawful
taxation responsibilities do so to the major
disadvantage of those who are
compliant. This is so because when the state
is deprived of revenues due,
it has to source its fiscal needs from those
who responsibly are compliant,
by increasing or imposing other taxation
measures.
Zimbabwe’s
fiscal authorities are desperate to enhance the revenue inflows
to the
fiscus. For years expenditures have considerably exceeded revenues,
resulting in an immense accumulation of long overdue debt. For the current
year expenditures are projected to exceed revenues by more than US$700
million!
In consequence, government is unable to fund its
commitments to, and the
reasonable expectations of, the populace. It cannot
pay civil servants
fair, market-related salaries. It is unable to maintain
existing
infrastructure, let alone effect very much needed, long-overdue,
enhancement
of the infrastructure (including schools, hospitals, roads,
water resources,
energy-generation, telecommunications, rail and air
services, and much
else.)
It is unsurprising therefore, that the
Ministry of Finance, and its
underlying revenue collection Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority (Zimra) constantly
seek and pursue techniques to intensify
compliance with Zimbabwe’s taxation
laws, and to enforce that
compliance.
In so doing, they are very aware that a significant
area of leakage in tax
revenue is the collection of Value Added Tax (Vat),
with many enterprises
deviously applying diverse methods of evading the
payment of such tax.
With that in mind, Government has prescribed
that all businesses that are
registered Vat operators under category “C” (as
defined in Vat legislation)
whose annual value of taxable supplies exceeds
US$240 000, are required to
record transactions electronically with effect
from October 1 2011.
(Initially, such requirement was to have
been effective from the beginning
of 2011, but following very extensive
representations from commerce and
industry and numerous representative
bodies of various economic sectors, the
effective date was extended several
times, albeit very reluctantly and
inadequately).
To give effect
to this legislated requirement, all eligible registered Vat
operators are
obliged to install and use fiscalised devices, being
electronic gadgets
which contain a “fiscal memory”, which is a special read
only memory which
is permanently built into a fiscalised device to store tax
information at
the time of sales. There are three such devices; fiscalised
electronic
registers, fiscalised printers, and electronic signature
devices.
These electronic resources are required to be directly
linked on-line to
Zimra and must be supported by facilities assuring
uninterrupted energy
supplies. As an enforcement measure, failure to comply
constitutes an
offence which can render the operator liable to substantial
fines, or to
imprisonment, or both.
Various countries have very
successfully imposed like compliance obligations
upon businesses, with
significant enhancement of the Vat revenue flows to
the
fiscus.
None can credibly contend that Zimbabwe should not do
likewise, for ensuring
wide-ranging tax compliance and stringently
containing tax evasion is
indisputably in the best interests of the country
and its people as a whole.
Doing so achieves markedly greater revenue
inflows to the fiscus, thereby
enabling government more to fully address
national needs.
The Minister of Finance Tendai Biti has estimated
that the enforcement of
fiscalisation will enhance Zimra’s collections of
Vat by at least 20%.
None other than those who will be precluded from
continuing evasion of Vat,
and from deliberately understating their sales
revenues in order to minimise
their declared taxable income, can credibly be
opposed to the introduction
of fiscalisation in
principle.
Nevertheless, there is every justification for opposition
to such
introduction being effected at the present time. Despite the
perceived
immediate fiscal benefits, the detrimental side-effects upon the
economy are
immense, and a by-product of those adverse repercussions will
inevitably be
a diminution in revenue flows to the fiscus by way of various
taxes.
Although in the medium to long-term fiscalisation will be
taxation
beneficial to government, in the immediate short-term the measure
is highly
counterproductive.
The harsh reality of the current
circumstances of business is that almost
all businesses are grievously
undercapitalised. The consequences of the
runaway hyperinflation sustained
in Zimbabwe in 2008 include that, almost
without exception, virtually every
enterprise is gravely undercapitalised.
The extent of working capital
funding necessary for continuing viable
business operations rose
exponentially as a result of that hyperinflation,
with very few having
access to the requisite new capital resources.
Moreover, most could
not resort to the banking sector to raise their working
capital
requirements, partially because of the pronounced illiquidity that
has
prevailed in that sector for more than three years, and partially
because
such limited funding as has been available has been at untenably
high cost
and for inadequate, very curtailed periods of time.
These financial
constraints have very severely impaired the operational
viability of
innumerable enterprises. Despite the financial traumas
jeopardising the very
considerable numbers of businesses that are barely
surviving (including the
closure of 87 major enterprises in Bulawayo during
the past year, in
addition to very many elsewhere in Zimbabwe), government
is now unreasonably
and irrationally compounding those traumas by
prescribing fiscalisation at
this time.
Innumerable enterprises do not have the resources to fund
the acquisition of
the fiscal devices, let alone to purchase energy
generators or similar
equipment to assure uninterrupted power supplies to
the devices. Such
generators and equipment are essential for so long as no
reliance can be
placed upon having continuous supplies from the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply
Authority (Zesa).
As a result, even more
businesses are faced with the possibility of having
to discontinue or
contract all operations. This will result in
intensification of the already
very immense unemployment, in diminution of
volumes of trade, and as a
result, in a marked reduction of inflows to the
fiscus of direct and
indirect taxation.
The economy as a whole will suffer, as too will
the government’s revenue
inflows. As desirable and necessary as the
fiscalisation measures are,
their introduction is incontrovertibly
premature, and should only be pursued
when national economic stability and
viability is assured and ongoing. At
the very least, implementation of the
fiscalisation measure should have
been, and still should be, deferred until
January 1 2013.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011
06:01
The following is an edited version of Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s
speech at Gwanzura Stadium, Harare, during the 12th
Anniversary of the
Movement for Democratic Change.
THREE
years ago on September 15 2008, this great movement whose 12th
birthday we
celebrate signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA) with two
other parties
we had defeated in an election which led to the eventual
formation of the
inclusive government in February 2009.
We accepted this painful
compromise because we were guided by the righteous
and noble objective of
stabilising the economy and rescuing the people from
the precipice of
poverty, uncertainty, starvation and indignity wrought by
three decades of
corruption and misgovernance.
We celebrate our 12th anniversary
as state actors, well aware of the value
we have brought into government and
the role we have played in stopping the
bleeding and making sure that
Zimbabweans have every reason to hope again.
We are not there yet
and I have no doubt about the huge task that lies ahead
in returning the
country to normalcy and in laying the foundation for a
great future for our
children.
But over the past two-and-half years, we in the MDC
have shown that it is
possible to turn over a new leaf, to have some
semblance of functionality in
government and to bring Zimbabwe back to its
years of glory.
Yes, we are proud of our record.
It is
true that the MDC has added value to this government.
It is true that we
have pulled this nation from the brink of collapse to a
new potential of
hope.
It is true that we have averted an inevitable plunge into the abyss
to set
the country back on the rails; on a new path towards stability,
development
and growth.
It is true that we are the people’s
conscience in this government and we
have alleviated the excesses of
entitlement and corruption and kept in check
a stubborn political partner
who has shunned the new culture of inclusivity.
And indeed, the MDC has
shown what a determined people can do, even in the
face of open provocation,
violence and intransigence.
It is also true that we have
weathered and survived dark and sinister plots
to undermine the collective
government work programme and to waylay the
people’s hopes and
aspirations.
And yes, we have remained resolute, in the full
knowledge that we are the
true people’s representatives because of the clear
mandate given to us in a
legitimate election on March 29,
2008.
As I take stock of the past few years, especially since the
formation of the
inclusive government, I am humbled by some notable
achievements driven by
our members in government but at the same time aware
of the great strides we
would have made were it not for the unstable and
volatile nature of this
coalition government.
Our positive impact is
a matter of public record.
We have brought down inflation to
levels that are no longer a cause for
national embarrassment. At least there
is food on the shelves, our schools
have opened and hospitals have begun
functioning again.
We are equally proud of the one-stop shop that
will enable prospective
investors to have their papers processed under one
roof in less than 48
hours so that we create jobs and expand our
economy.
Last year, with the support of the United Nations and other
donors, I
commissioned 13 million textbooks to all the 5 575 primary schools
in the
country.
This was the largest single investment in the
education sector since
Independence and it ensured that every primary school
child will have access
to textbooks.
I have commissioned new medical
equipment at several hospitals across the
country and Zimbabweans can be
guaranteed of at least some decent service in
our health
institutions.
I am aware that more needs to be done to realise
our full potential in
bringing hospitals and schools to their former glory
and in ensuring there
is noise in our silent factories once
again.
I know how easy it is for all of us to forget that only
three years ago,
this country was on its knees and we were competing for
wild fruits with
animals in our forests as hunger and starvation exposed the
incompetence and
ineptitude of the previous government to respond to
national challenges.
But we are proud that we have made our
positive contribution and this
country has begun a slow but sure march from
a dark past of uncertainty to a
future full of hope and
progress.
However we have been frustrated by the intransigence of
our partners and
their reluctance to obey their
signatures.
We are five days away from the third anniversary of
the signing of the GPA
and yet we are still talking about outstanding
issues.
We must be ashamed as political parties that even the things
we have agreed
on have become outstanding issues because of
non-implementation.
Partisan policing, a biased justice system
and violence remain rooted in our
culture to the extent that rogue elements
can beat up elected MPs in the
parliament chambers and escape
unpunished.
As we trudge from the discredited non-event of June
2008 towards yet another
election, the onus falls on all of us, Sadc, Africa
and the broader
international community to stand by the people of Zimbabwe
to ensure that
their security, their freedoms and their vote is
protected.
I am glad that Sadc and the facilitator, President
Jacob Zuma of South
Africa, have exerted their energies to ensuring that the
parties in Zimbabwe
come up with a roadmap to a free and fair
election.
In the modern world of regional groupings and
interconnected economies, it
is necessary for peace to prevail even in the
homes of our neighbours.
That is why we are heartened by the
unstinting effort of our colleagues in
Sadc in helping us craft a roadmap
that will ensure a credible election, an
undisputed result and a legitimate
government.
A time-bound roadmap, with clear milestones and
signposts to ensure the
people of Zimbabwe cast their votes in peace, with
neither fear nor
coercion. A roadmap that will ensure that the outcome of
that election is
respected and that the people’s will is
protected.
I urge everyone in Sadc, in Africa and the broader
international community
to be global citizens; to be responsible citizens of
the world who will
fight for freedom and democracy anywhere in the world,
including Zimbabwe.
I call upon everyone to support the people of
Zimbabwe as they navigate
through this delicate transition into a new
country, with new values and a
new ethos. In 2008, the people spoke in an
election that they wanted a new
culture and a new beginning.But their vote
did not count.
Those who lost the election were smuggled into an
inclusive government that
is now dysfunctional due to their intransigence
and lack of a common vision.
The challenge before us is to make
sure that this does not happen again. The
challenge for us and the rest of
the world is to vaccinate against yet
another stolen election in Zimbabwe
and to ensure the implementation of a
roadmap to a free and fair
election.
A roadmap characterised by security sector realignment,
a credible and
neutral secretariat of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, a
new voters’
roll, extensive electoral and media reforms and a new
constitution, coupled
with a foolproof mechanisms to ensure security of the
person and security of
the vote.
So the date for our next
election is going to be defined by a process and
not by the whims of
individuals who feels they can dream a date and impose
it on the people.
Only after the full roadmap has been agreed and concluded
to our
satisfaction will President Mugabe and I agree on the date for the
next
polls.
And I want to make it clear today that the MDC is ready
for an election
anytime and anywhere. The MDC are ready for an election
tomorrow, as long as
all the benchmarks have been met to ensure the security
of the people’s
vote.
But we have agreed, with the backing of
Sadc, that we will abide by a
process characterised by clear benchmarks so
that we do not repeat the
charade of 2008 when one presidential candidate
contested an election
against himself and proudly declared himself a
winner.
So I want to send a message today that we won the last
election and we are
ready for you! We will defeat
you-again!
Only a legitimately elected government can develop and
implement a common
vision and programmes that will deal with the massive
unemployment and
poverty that we currently face.
The major
lesson we have learnt is that there are serious limitations to
what a
coalition government can do because there is no shared vision and
shared
values. The world must stand by us as we try to agree and implement a
roadmap to a free and fair poll.
So I call for global support
to the people of Zimbabwe as we walk through
this difficult transition; as
we wage this protracted struggle to bring back
our dignity and to become
part of the global family of nations once again.
I want to say
today on our 12th birthday that I am certain that we will
succeed in our
struggle for a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning. A new
Zimbabwe for which we
have sweated, toiled and even lost some of our
comrades not only in the last
12 years, but the since the liberation
struggle.
A new
Zimbabwe where political differences are not an excuse for violence
and
unnecessary conflict; where state institutions promote peace and unity —
not
war and violence against defenceless people.
Which brings me to
the issue of national security institutions. My concerns
about the security
services are well-known but often misrepresented. When I
talk of the need
for change I mean that the security sector must be
politically neutral —
which is, of course, exactly what is provided for in
Article 13 of the
GPA.
The present position is that a few security chiefs see
themselves as an
extension of Zanu PF. The Zimbabwe security services are
the best trained in
Africa.
We all know from our contacts
with members of the security services that
they join the military or the
police so that they can protect the people of
Zimbabwe, not to threaten and
abuse them.
There are therefore a few individuals bent on
tarnishing the image of our
professional security
services.
My pledge to the security services is that under an MDC
government they
would be properly paid, properly equipped and properly
respected. They would
be trained to the highest standards and promoted
entirely on merit.
The challenge for us as the new crop of
African leaders is to kill the
culture of violence against defenceless
citizens so that governments
concentrate on pressing national issues such as
eradicating poverty,
creating jobs, growing the economy and delivering
quality and affordable
services to the people.
And I want to
add that the future we envision as the MDC is a future where
women are
stakeholders. A cursory look at those people who have cast a
shadow over
Africa and brutalised their people, from Idi Amin and Mobutu
Sese Seko to
Gaddafi and Mubarak; the architects of racism in South Africa
and Rhodesia;
the instigators of genocide in Rwanda and Gukurahundi; they
all had one
thing in common. There were all men.
We all know women leaders
would never have allowed such suffering to take
place. As a party and a
country we must do more to promote the interests of
women and the girl
child.
We need more women to enter politics and to take up
positions of influence.
One in three households is headed by a woman and the
appalling figures of
women dying during childbirth as well as the statistics
of violence against
women shame our nation.
For business, we
promise a conducive environment with policy consistency and
predictability
to enable companies to thrive so that they improve our
economy and create
jobs for ourselves and our children.
For the youth, this is your
country. I pledge to bring the noise back in our
factories not only to
create employment for young people, but to create a
sound base to nurture
our own business tycoons. We are ready to give you
your space so that you
are not only the leaders of tomorrow, but even the
leaders of
today.
The youth, women and the business community can only
invest in the future
MDC government because of the reckless behaviour of
some of our colleagues
in the current coalition
government.
Of course, it is important that indigenous
Zimbabweans should be able to
become investors in their own country but this
should not be an excuse for
well-connected individuals to loot and frighten
investors for their own
selfish ends in the name of the ordinary
people.
All that prevents major, reputable investment in Zimbabwe
is a complete lack
of respect for the rule of law and what some Zimbabweans
have called the
outrageous and frankly illegal behaviour of the minister
charged with the
responsibility for indigenisation.
They now
regard him as the Minister for Youth, Unemployment and Economic
Destruction.
An MDC government would put great effort into pro-investment
policies that
balance the need to empower the ordinary man and woman and the
interests of
the investor so that we are able to create jobs and widen our
tax
base.
I may be standing before you as leader of Zimbabwe’s
largest political
party. But the struggle facing the country goes beyond the
person of Morgan
Tsvangirai or the party I lead.
It has
always been an ordinary people’s struggle; a collective struggle of a
determined people across the political divide fighting for a new Zimbabwe
and a new beginning; a struggle by ordinary people in the villages, in the
urban townships, in the mines and in the diaspora to bring back their
dignity and to be allowed to express themselves in a free and fair
election.
And I promise you that the new Zimbabwe we have all
struggled for in the
past 12 years is possible in our lifetime. I assure you
that we are in the
last mile. The signs are there for all to see that this
society is pregnant
with a new one.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011 08:20
GIVEN the current
political and economic environment, Zanu PF, currently in
a precarious state
of flux, must use its forthcoming annual conference in
Bulawayo to trigger a
serious process to resolve its drawn-out succession
crisis and other
internal problems which threaten to destabilise not just
the party itself,
but also the nation at large.
The Zanu PF conference from December
6-10 will come against a backdrop of
political uncertainty about the future
of the country and stuttering
economic recovery, as well as social
volatility. The situation is still far
from steady and certain. This is
worsened by the spectre of elections
expected next year or in
2013.
Internally, Zanu PF, which has been thoroughly eroded
ideologically and
organisationally, lacks cohesion largely due to exhausted
vision and tired
leadership. President Robert Mugabe’s leadership is now
being questioned
openly, particularly in the wake of WikiLeaks disclosures
which proved the
party’s vanguard has long deserted him and, now in fact,
wants him to go.
Unless radical and sweeping renewal measures are
undertaken, the party may
soon lurch from the political twilight zone it is
in towards complete
darkness and obscurity, as the sun rapidly sets on its
fairly long history.
This gloomy picture of the situation is
increasingly becoming a reality as
the party now finds itself battling for
political survival in the midst of a
divisive and debilitating power
struggle, at a time when Mugabe, at the helm
for 34 years, is facing the
exit due to old age and health problems.
Dogged by an explosive and
crippling succession crisis, internal strife and
a battered reputation due
to leadership and policy failures, as well as an
awful record of violence,
brutality, human rights abuses and corruption,
Zanu PF now faces the fate
other former liberation movements, particularly
Unip in Zambia and Kanu in
Kenya.
The WikiLeaks revelations, which of course merely confirmed
what party
insiders already knew — that senior Zanu PF leaders across the
factional
divide want Mugabe to go because he has overstayed — and other
internal
events, including the death of the party’s “kingmaker”, retired
army
commander Solomon Mujuru, should act as catalysts for the resolution of
the
succession issue.
The problem lies within the party itself.
WikiLeaks disclosures reflect a
lack of internal democratic culture and
space for debate on important issues
within Zanu PF. They also show a
dysfunctional foreign policy approach based
on suppression of free
engagement and interaction.
It may be too late, but if senior Zanu PF
officials use the opportunity
presented by the Bulawayo conference to
confront Mugabe and tell him to
retire, instead of giving him a ringing
endorsement to be their party’s
presidential election candidate, there might
be a chance to salvage what
remains of the party.
For Zanu PF to
stand a chance of survival, it would need to do certain
things and do them
urgently. For it to live to tell the tale beyond Mugabe
and possible defeat
at the elections it must urgently resolve the succession
issue. We have been
raising this issue under a succession of editors over
the years. Iden
Wetherell is quoted as raising it way back in a 2001
WikiLeaks
cable.
This implies a radical and sweeping leadership renewal plan
which could be
implemented gradually but embarked on straight away.
Although Zanu PF
conferences do not deal with leadership issues, the
Bulawayo gathering would
be a good platform to launch the process of
leadership renewal and change.
After coming up with a new and
hopefully young leadership, Zanu PF, if it is
to remain relevant, would need
to rework its tired vision in line with
current local and global realities.
It also needs to rebrand and realign its
policies to recapture the public
imagination of the voters.
In short, Zanu PF must urgently reform,
change and adapt or die. If it fails
to do that now it will inevitably
suffer the fate of other former liberation
movements. Mugabe must start
packing his bags, preparing himself to quit
after Bulawayo for Zanu PF to
survive and for his and the nation’s sake.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23 September 2011
08:12
THE unabated increase in incidents of violence — perpetrated by
Zanu PF
elements — make a mockery of President Robert Mugabe’s clarion call
for
peace. They bring back memories of the unrest that rocked the country
after
the veteran leader was outpolled in the March 2008 presidential
election by
the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mugabe made a passionate
plea for an end to politically-motivated violence
when he opened parliament
over a fortnight ago. But as was he was calling
for peace, Zanu PF
supporters were beating up those perceived to be MDC
sympathisers, including
councillor Victor Chifodya, outside parliament as
police officers stood idly
by.
Since then there have been incidents of violence in Highfield,
where no
arrests were made, as well as by a Zanu PF militia group,
Chipangano, just
outside Harare Central Police Station.
In June,
Zanu PF supporters beat up MPs and journalists at a hearing
organised by the
Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs,
Constitutional and
Parliamentary Affairs and the Thematic Committee on Human
Rights on the
Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill. Despite overwhelming
evidence
pointing to the identity of the perpetrators, not a single arrest
was
made.
In fact Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa vowed to
defend the
perpetrators and secure a lawyer to defend them if they were
prosecuted.
South African President and Sadc facilitator to the Global
Political
Agreement Jacob Zuma called the disruptions: “One of the most
unfortunate
incidents in recent times.”
These developments beg a
lot of questions, like is Mugabe sincere when he
calls for peace? And if he
is, has he lost control of his party’s and
government structures to end the
violence?
Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri should also
shoulder the blame
for failing to apprehend the perpetrators. His actions,
or lack thereof,
give credence to accusations that he is biased in favour of
Zanu PF. How can
we take seriously a police force that idly looks on while
members of the
public and elected officials are assaulted in broad
daylight?
That Mutasa can even try to justify the madness at
parliament and not be
censured by the police is an indication of a force
that has lost its sense
of public duty. The police force can’t deny
accusations that it has been
turned into Zanu PF’s instruments of
repression.
This is worsened by Chihuri’s pledge of allegiance not to
the country, but
to Zanu PF and branding the MDC-T as puppets. Chihuri
should quit the police
force and join mainstream politics than continue to
superintend over the
partisan application of the law.
There is
also a worrying trend that is now developing within the MDC-T. At
the
party’s 12th anniversary celebrations, co-Home Affairs minister Theresa
Makone said women in the party were prepared to defend themselves with
“pots and pans” from Zanu PF violence.
At the burial of one of
its founding members Diamond Karanda on Wednesday,
party vice chairperson
Morgan Komichi called for reprisals.
Remarks by Komichi and Makone
can only make a bad situation worse. As much
as they might feel aggrieved
about the attacks on their members and
selective application of the law by
police, there is no justification to
call for retaliation as this will
inevitably lead to civil strife.
There is need to nip violence and
impunity in the bud before it gets out of
hand and turns into a bloodbath.
Mugabe and Chihuri should take decisive
action to end violence and the MDC
should avoid inciting further unrest with
provocative
statements.
It’s their duty after all.
By Constantine
Chimakure
cchimakure@zimind.co.zw
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 23
September 2011 08:17
NOT so long ago RBZ governor Gideon Gono appeared to
be appealing to the
nation to build confidence in the banking sector and
seemed vindicated by
the rise in deposits then to about US$3
billion.
Lest we forget, it’s the governor himself who had
presided over the lack of
confidence in the banking sector in the first
place! In his heyday, people
would wake up only to be told that new limits
had been placed on how much
they could withdraw, how much they could RTGS,
that their bank had been
closed etc.
In fact the banking
sector was heavily regulated and with it, the general
public.Those were the
days of classic Confucianism where people are supposed
to be kept so busy
with menial tasks they have no time for revolutionary
ideas.
And it worked for the powers that be for a while;
weren’t we all kept busy
in fuel queues, food queues, bank queues, the lot?
Those are days that are
better forgotten for all of us. They were the days
of the STI (State
Transmitted Inertia),
In the medical version,
healing can only be achieved by heavy antibiotics
that must eliminate the
bacteria that cause the disease. In our economic
parallel however, the
disease was not eliminated (doctor’s orders) but was
quarantined, hence its
tendency for recurrent bouts as demonstrated
recently.
The
disease had this time infected the property market, threatening its
viability. Willing buyers and willing sellers were now being told that they
should pay each other in four tranches over one year, obviously to the
detriment of the seller. Fortunately there has been a policy reversal,
albeit temporary. Policy somersaults are commonplace in Zimbabwe, such that
circus performers ought to come and be trained here. We’d make a
fortune.
Someone ought to help the governor read the tea leaves more
clearly. The
days of market over-regulation are over. We are headed for more
free
markets, that is where the train is going.
The minute we
embarked on the unity government train that’s where we have
been headed. The
train from which we disembarked was headed for the
precipice, or more
precisely, it had fallen off the precipice and a heavy
crane called the GPA
rescued it, put it on the correct track and replaced
the old locomotive with
a GNU locomotive.
Unfortunately, the old train crew insisted on
remaining in the driving seat
and now have to be helped to navigate the new
route by those who know where
the train should be going; a destination
called economic prosperity.
Of course the hardest thing in life is to
admit failure and it is
understandable why vast space was taken up in a
local newspaper where the
property policy was explained away. Its authors
were trying to reassure us
that it was not detrimental to the
market.
Their explanation was equivalent to a police officer
telling one that they
are not arresting them, they are merely placing
handcuffs around their
wrists, accompanying them to the nearest police
station and providing them
accommodation for the next two nights in a police
cell, where the court may
disrupt that hospitality.
Those in the
property market say the policy had indeed affected activity and
the market
responded positively to the reversal. The RBZ statement claimed
allowing
property sellers to repatriate their funds in one tranche was
tantamount to
liberalisation of the capital account. Whatever, the point is
there is more
capital that is willing to come into the country.
PRESS RELEASE FROM
THE ZIMBABWE WE CAN MOVEMENT
22nd
September 2011
Following the
historic Huddersfield UK Conference of 27-29 May 2011 at which Zimbabweans from
all walks of life met to create a platform that seeks to unite Zimbabweans in
their quest for a lasting solution to the Zimbabwe question, the Zimbabwe We Can
Movement was born. Since then the interim leadership had been working hard to
constitute the Movement. The Wolverhampton meeting of 17th September
at which the Movement’s foundation instruments were finalised and adopted marked
the beginning of a new chapter in the Zimbabwe struggle for freedom, democracy,
justice and peace. Amid a show of great passion, patriotism and determination,
the interim leader Mr Ephraim Tapa declared the Zimbabwe We Can Movement
arisen.
The Movement
reiterated their view that Zimbabwe was constituted of a broken nation and a
dysfunctional governance system for which no leader or political party was
prepared to take responsibility. In unity, the leadership declared their vision
to develop a national identity and foster a national perspective towards the
Zimbabwe problem definition and its probable solutions. To that end, the
Zimbabwe We Can Movement called upon all peace-loving and patriotic Zimbabweans
at home or abroad to take responsibility for the Zimbabwe Crisis and rise again
in their masses for REAL CHANGE.
The next few days,
weeks and months should see a ground swelling of organisation, of voluntary
involvement, of passion outpoured, an uprising aimed at bringing an end to this
self-imposed state of paralysis and regression. We encourage Zimbabweans and
friends of Zimbabwe wherever you are, to take charge and get involved in the
struggle to bring our beloved nation back from abyss. Our outreach programme,
which encourages people (wherever they are and from which ever group or
political party) to come together and take responsibility over Zimbabwe, is now
underway. We urge all not to wait, but to just do it for the love of our
motherland!
Zimbabwe We Can is a
people driven movement which believes that:
·
The
solution to Zimbabwe’s problems lies with the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is
where it is today because we allowed it and hence we should all bear
responsibility in fixing whatever is wrong with our Nation.
·
Much as
they may try, the three so-called principles are only fallible humans who are
often tempted to pursue individual, party line or other agendas at the expense
of Zimbabwe, hence the need for the PEOPLE’s involvement.
·
Together,
we CAN say NO to continued abuse, divisions, corruption, plunder of our national
heritage and the selected application of law which continues under the watch of
the Inclusive Government.
·
It is the
people of Zimbabwe who CAN end this suffering.
·
It is the
people of Zimbabwe who CAN end the lack of sincerity on the part of the
Inclusive Government in bringing about a genuinely people-driven
constitution.
·
It is the
people of Zimbabwe who CAN end the continued plundering of resources and
corporate terrorism with the acquiescence of all in the Inclusive
Government.
·
It is the
people of Zimbabwe who CAN bring about REAL and SUSTAINABLE CHANGE which has so
far eluded the 3-year rule of the Inclusive Government.
Zimbabwe We Can,
Ilizwe Ngabantu, Nyika Vanhu.
For more information,
contact:
Ephraim Tapa,
President – 07940 793 090
Everisto Kamera,
General Secretary – 07833 338 942
Isaiah Bizabani,
Information and Publicity Secretary – 07427 496 737
Also keep an eye on:
http://www.zimbabwewecan.org.
This website is in the process of being developed.
Zimbabwe Vigil
Co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside
the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The
Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
22 September 2011
Dear Fellow Farmers and
Friends,
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in this newsletter are not
necessarily those of SACFA.
We welcome comments and contributions from our
readers so keep in touch.
Anything of interest to our farmers you think
should be more widely known
can be emailed to SACFA. We are an organisation
aiming to keep all farmers
in the SADC region abreast of current agricultural
and related affairs in
Zimbabwe.
SACFA'S ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
We are
to hold our AGM at 9.30 am on Friday 14 October 2011 in the
Bulawayo
Agricultural Society Hall. Only paid up members in good standing
may vote.
Could we please impose on the ladies to provide a plate of
snacks for the
tea? The hall's stock of teacups we are told has been reduced
to 20 so we
could do with borrowing some more mugs from long suffering ladies
too!
SOUTHERN AFRICAN COMMERCIAL FARMERS ALLIANCE -
ZIMBABWE
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING WILL BE
HELD ON
FRIDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER 2011 AT 9.30 AM AT THE BULAWAYO AGRICULTURAL
SOCIETY
HALL IN THE
SHOWGROUNDS.
AGENDA
1. OPENING
2. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS A.G.M.
3. MATTERS
ARISING
4. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
5. FINANCIAL REPORT
6.
ELECTION OF OFFICE BEARERS.
CHAIRMAN
VICE
CHAIRMAN
SECRETARY
TREASURER
7. ANY OTHER
BUSINESS
SECRETARY
J DOMAN
The Chairman has done his two year
stint and it is thus time for new blood.
He wishes to step down and would
appreciate your considering suitable
candidates to propose.
MEMBERSHIP
SUBS
Anyone with subs to pay we ask to please go and see Mac Crawford at
his
offices in Cardiff Road. Before driving out there it may be as well
to
telephone him on 889606 to see that he is present. The subs are R100
per
member. There will be a table at the AGM where members who have not
yet
paid their subs may do so.
EMASCULATION OF SADC TRIBUNAL - THE
SORRY, DECEITFUL STORY OF HOW IT WAS
DONE
The long last newsletter
ended its chapter on the subject by saying that the
"Tribunal is not in the
sick bay, it is actually in the gymnasium building
up some serious muscles."
Indeed it did. The consensus was that we needed
an authoritative and
powerful Court which could deal with excesses
perpetrated by rogue regimes in
the SADC Region. This was too much for our
leaders to handle, so rather than
contemplate any contest on the legal
playing fields with such a frightening
adversary, they in their inimitable
way just closed it down!
To
refresh your memories: -
On 28 November 2008 the Tribunal handed down
judgement in the Mike Campbell
case. Mike won on every count.
At the
end of July 2009 Justice Minister Chinamasa told a meeting of SADC
Ministers
of Justice and Attorneys-General that his government had suddenly
but most
fortuitously realised that the SADC Tribunal had not been set up
correctly.
Thus the Zimbabwe government could not be bound by the
Tribunal's main ruling
in favour of Campbell and his interveners, nor were
they therefore twice in
contempt of it as that Court had ruled. This bit of
warped logic somehow
made shoddy and despicable behaviour acceptable and
gave the Zimbabwe
government the pretext to hold its head up amongst their
peers without even
faint embarrassment.
To confirm his stand point, early in August
Chinamasa wrote to the Tribunal
Registrar amplifying this new found logic.
The Registrar refused to accept
such bizarre reasoning and on 15 September
2009 he replied stating flatly
that Zimbabwe was a member of SADC and under
the Treaty was bound by the
rulings of the Tribunal.
Zimbabwe had in
fact defended itself in front of the Tribunal on numerous
occasions, and
their Advocate Prince Machaya, who back home serves as
Deputy
Attorney-General Civil, had in Court twice acknowledged the SADC
Tribunal's
jurisdiction. Zimbabwe had even gone so far as to appoint one of
this
country's judges as a Founder Member (Judge) of the Tribunal. But in
order
to wriggle out of their particularly nasty rulings the Tribunal had to
have
somehow lost its legal standing. Jeremy Gauntlett and practically
every
lawyers' grouping in Africa were of the opinion that Chinamasa's
position
was wrong and quite untenable, but our Minister of Justice continued
to push
and stand by it.
Perhaps to play Chinamasa at his own game and
so to demolish it decisively;
or maybe just to play for time; the Summit in
August 2010 decided to stop
the Tribunal hearing new cases for six months
whilst a consultant was
engaged to review the "role, functions and terms of
reference of the SADC
Tribunal." Cases already pending before the Tribunal
would still be heard.
These pending cases - and our compensation hearing to
establish exactly what
categories of damages were due to farmers whose
property had been seized was
just one of them - were in fact never heard.
The Secretariat in Gaborone
slyly ensured they were not heard by the simple
expedient of denying the
funds to enable the Bench's five widely scattered
judges to travel to and be
accommodated in Windhoek.
The SADC
Secretariat duly advertised on their web site for aspiring
consultants to
apply to carry out the review, and they set a closing date of
30 September
for applications. That was when our determined Justice
Minister put out his
own advertisement for consultants in the Independent
Newspaper of 8 to 14
October 2010 but with a delayed closing date for
submissions. SACFA was of
the opinion this advertisement was a strategy to
try and inveigle a compliant
and partisan ally into the consulting job and
we did what we could to make
our point of view known.
Whether our efforts had any effect or not, the
SADC Secretariat went ahead
and appointed WTI Advisors based in Switzerland
as Consultants. This move
incensed Chinamasa who wrote a bitter letter of
complaint to the SADC
Secretary General. Somehow this letter was leaked to
the Sunday Times. WTI
Advisers appointed Dr. Lorand Bartels of Cambridge
University and Mr. Hilton
Zunckel of Trade Law Chambers, Cape Town, to carry
out the review. These
two compiled a questionnaire which found its way to
Jeremy Gauntlett,
Jeffrey Jowell and Frank Pelser amongst
others.
Shortly thereafter in December 2010 up popped a legal opinion,
all 44 pages
of it, by one Tawandwa Hondora which argued at length that
Chinamasa's
stance was the correct one. Hondora is not registered as a
legal
practitioner with the Law Society in Zimbabwe and several lawyers
we
approached had never heard of him. In his opinion the footnotes state
he
has a Bachelor's, a Master's and a Doctorate in law. Hondora criticised
the
opinion Gauntlett and Pelser had given for the CFU. These two very
capable
lawyers had made clear that Chinamasa's position was untenable; and
in their
response to the WTI questionnaire the two wrote a withering critique
of
Hondora's opinion. Watching Jeremy Gauntlett and Frank Pelser in action
in
Court is fun, especially when they are demolishing a silly argument
put
forward by those opposing them. Hondora if he saw their responses in
the
questionnaire would have had his sense of humour sorely
tested.
When the six month period of the Tribunal's suspension was up,
and still
there was no sign of any Tribunal life visible from Windhoek, a
legal
challenge to the suspension of it was put in place at the end of March
2011.
To cut a long story short this application sought to confirm that the
Summit
had no Legal Authority to tamper with the Tribunal; that it was clear
the
decision was taken for an Improper Purpose; that it was taken in Bad
Faith;
that the decision was Arbitrary and Irrational; that the Treaty's
guarantee
of Access to Justice was violated; and that the decision did not
follow
proper Procedure. SACFA sent out a Press Release making this
challenge
known. There is an amusing anecdote that when notice of the
application
made its way into the Attorney-General's offices, one senior
official is
alleged to have exclaimed "This is going to make some people very
angry."
Indeed it did!
Shortly after the Press Release was issued, we
learnt of a similar challenge
which had already been lodged on 25 January
2011 with the Tribunal
registrar. This application was lodged by one Josias
van Zyl and his group
of companies and trusts. Mr. van Zyl had a claim
against the Lesotho
government who apparently had cancelled his diamond
mining leases in the
Lesotho mountains. These properties were to be
submerged by the Lesotho
Highlands Water Project the dams of which were to
supply water to the
Witwatersrand and there was a substantial dispute
concerning unpaid
compensation.
About the same time there were also
suggestions or rumours that African
Consolidated Resources, the company who
held and had had seized their
diamond mining rights at Marange, was likely to
put in a claim against the
Zimbabwe government for the the loss of their
properties. One press report
in UK's Daily Mail stated that the value of the
lost mining concession was
in the region of 800 billion pounds
sterling.
It is clear therefore that there were huge amounts riding on
Tribunal
rulings. In the first place, the farmers of Zimbabwe had a ruling
stating
the FTLRP was illegal. It required too that the Zimbabwe government
pay
colossal compensation for seized properties, including the land
which
Zimbabwe maintained was the compensation obligation of the
British
government.
Secondly, the Government of Lesotho had failed to
file their defences on
time and Van Zyl had brought an application for a
default decision. This
galvanised Lesotho into action and they asked for
condonation of late
submission which was granted, but they were to file by 16
August 2010 the
first day of the Summit at which it was decided to "suspend"
the Tribunal.
Thirdly, there was the possibility of Marange also putting
their colossal
claim for damages into the stewpot. Van Zyl's claim held
perhaps some
contingent liability due by the South African government as
apparently they
were to bear some or all of the costs of compensation for
those displaced by
the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. There were
compelling reasons to
demolish the Tribunal.
On 25 February 2010
Campbell's Tribunal ruling of 28 November 2008 was
registered in the North
Gauteng High Court together with one of June 2009
for contempt which ruling
also carried an order for costs. As a result
houses in Cape Town belonging
to Zimbabwe were attached. Zimbabwe
challenged this registration and lost.
Then they challenged the attachment
of the houses, and it was ruled that one
had lost its diplomatic immunity
and could be sold. Zimbabwe wished to
challenge this decision too, and
initially leave to appeal was refused.
Lately it has been allowed so we
will in due course have the Appeal Court in
Bloemfontein's views on the down
stream ramifications of Tribunal
rulings.
On 20 April 2011 we were sent a copy of the Draft Report of the
Consultants.
It was dated 14 February 2011 and was a delight to read. The
Report said
everything that Chinamasa and Hondora hoped it would not. It
went even
further by suggesting that the rulings of the Tribunal should
be
strengthened and automatically be made enforceable throughout the
SADC
Region. It found there were no grounds to criticise the Tribunal at
all,
and the consultants emphasised that the Tribunal had acted
impeccably
throughout.
Now we get to the background and will show how
dirty and devious was the
Summit's decision to render impotent the
Tribunal.
Both before and again after the Draft Report of the Consultants
had been
released on 14 February, all relevant stakeholders including
Tribunal judges
and Senior Legal Officials had discussed the document,
amended it and
settled on final recommendations. Then in Swakopmund yet
again these
recommendations were examined anew by the same coterie of legal
experts and
again amended. The document was unanimously approved by this
group of
experts in April 2011.
Then, and this is the core of the
deceit practised by what we suppose are
our squeaky clean overseers of
justice, there was a further get together in
April in Swakopmund this time
comprising the SADC Ministers of Justice and
Attorneys-General. They too
unanimously approved the Consultant's report
and recommendations and
acknowledged the Tribunal had been properly
constituted.
Yet
unbelievably at their meeting on 19 May 2011 the Council of Ministers of
the
Southern African Development Community decided to : -
(1) not reappoint
members (judges) of the SADC Tribunal whose term of
office expired on August
31, 2010;
(2) not replace members (judges) of the Tribunal whose term of
office was
to expire on October 31, 2011;
(3) dissolve the Tribunal in
its present form which expressly barred it
from hearing any new or the
pending cases; and
(4) establish a new Tribunal with a different jurisdiction
and a new
membership (judges) after the Ministers of Justice and
Attorneys-General had
amended the relevant SADC legal instruments e.g. the
SADC Treaty and the
Protocol on Tribunal, and submitted a progress report to
Summit in August
2012.
These recommendations are diametrically opposed
to what had been agreed by
everyone who mattered, including themselves; yet
in cahoots with and in
concert with this deception, the SADC Summit which is
comprised of all the
SADC Region's Heads of State and Government endorsed
this astonishing about
face at their Extraordinary Meeting on 20 May 2011 in
Windhoek, Namibia.
The independent review by the consultants and subsequent
discussions and
input by all concerned was a complete waste of time and
money. We are to
have a new Tribunal to be crafted by our Justice Minister
Chinamasa and
Attorney-General Tomana and their SADC counterparts. Oh joy, oh
rapture; oh
human rights horror!
Sadly there is a precedent to this
self-serving behaviour by politicians.
Regional and Sub-Regional Courts in
Africa are the following: the African
Court on Human and Peoples Rights;
then down a step are the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
Court of Justice; the East African
Community (EAC) Court of Justice; and the
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) Tribunal. The Tribunal's fate
was sealed in November 2008
when it ruled decisively against Zimbabwe's land
grab. In 2006 the EAC
Court of Justice ruled that nine Kenyans could not be
sworn in as members of
the EAC Legislative Assembly as they had been
appointed, not elected as
prescribed by the Treaty. In a similar way to what
happened later in the
SADC Tribunal, the politicians did not uphold the
ruling and require Kenya
to stick to the terms of the Treaty. The EAC
legislators instead amended
the Treaty and extended the grounds for the
removal of judges.
Zimbabwe years ago systematically corrupted their
domestic courts and, by
destroying their independence, turned them into arms
of the executive. This
lack of access to proper justice enabled Campbell to
move up a rung and in
this way he arrived at the Tribunal in Windhoek. Now
that devious leaders
in the SADC Region have decided the Tribunal should
similarly be corrupted
the challenge on the shutting down of the Tribunal has
been taken up another
rung, this time to the African Court on Human and
Peoples Rights based in
Banjul, The Gambia. Apparently they sit twice a
year, in April and October,
but as yet there is no firm set down date. Will
this Court dispense
Justice, or is it too to be subject to the potions yet to
spill from the
witches' cauldron?
The Tribunal Judges who learnt
through the back door that their jobs had
been scrapped via the SADC
Communiqué issued after the Extraordinary Meeting
of the Summit on 20 May
2011 are understandably annoyed and are demanding
damages for the shabby way
in which they were treated. Ex Tribunal Judge
President Pillay amplified the
deceitful way the Summit had dealt with the
Tribunal at a speech held in
public on 11 July 2011 in Johannesburg. The
entire legal fraternity is
dismayed by this dissolution of what was a very
effective Regional
Court.
In turn, Mr. van Zyl is claiming damages from both the SADC
Secretariat and
the SADC Heads of State for the legal costs he incurred to
bring his cases
before the Tribunal. He is also in the process of taking his
case before
the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
THE DAFT ZIMBABWEAN
WORLD IN WHICH WE NOW LIVE
Part of the reason you have not had a
newsletter over the past several
months has to do with the scribe realising
that by spending too much time on
the farming community he was jeopardising
his own wellbeing. Reluctantly,
penalties on overdue returns, interest on
unpaid rates and dramatics with
the labour department demanded some sort of
attention. The other reason,
maybe that of greater import was that there was
nothing other than lunacy to
report. In theory these newsletters are
intended to give some hope to
exiled farmers and others far away that things
are improving back home.
Sadly they are not, and the disease is spreading to
South Africa.
The scribe is not talking about real mental illness, he is
concerned with
officially generated and induced madness amongst the general
population
which us old timers have yet to recognise. It is so easy to
remember how
things should be, but we forget that the shambles has persisted
for so long
that the vast majority of this country's population know nothing
else.
The problem is this. We know we are in dire trouble and yet we
continue to
do the same old lunatic things hoping desperately that the
outcome will be
different. Consider that an umfaan of a mere 50 years cannot
even remember
the days when the road network was expanded, when proper
maintenance was
done; when hospitals actually had an interest in and the
wherewithal to fix
your broken body; there was fuel at the pumps; locally
produced cooking oil
made out of locally grown crops was available in the
shops; mealie meal and
stock feed was produced locally; you could employ
people without having to
marry them and their workers committee in a
one-sided unfettered Community
of Property relationship; locally produced
fertiliser was available and
within the reach of growers; and Single Super
Phosphate was so cheap the
Conex manuals almost disregarded its cost in the
crop growing feasibility!
We have a daunting problem in that probably 75%
of the country's locally
resident population have no clue as to how a
properly run country operates!
To the vast majority normal is stinking sewage
in water courses; regular
electricity and water cuts; potholed roads; traffic
lights with no light
bulbs in them; unroadworthy vehicles; partisan law and
order and justice;
bribes and deceit. But hold on, and thank heavens for
border jumpers who
are many and widely scattered! They understand that
upholding the rule of
law (which obviously includes respect of property
rights) makes for an
environment where you can make an honest living and
prosper, save pension
money which will not be stolen by the Reserve Bank,
sleep comfortably,
educate your children and get sick without having to die!
These people will
return and show the rest of us what is and is not
acceptable.
Back home the lunacy continues: entrepreneurs, especially
those with foreign
ties, be they miners, bankers, industrialists or financial
service providers
are targeted. Malema now sings the same grasping song as
Kasukuwere.
Nationalise the mines and seize farmland without
compensation.
Now enter a new plan to steal what little you have left!
If you sell your
house, even though the price is pitched in US$ and you are
paid in that
currency, the proceeds are not actually yours! You are only
entitled to a
bite of US$50 000 in the outcome, the balance you are required
to lend to
that icon of probity the Reserve Bank at supposedly 10% interest
who will
repay you (maybe?) over one year..... Are you to believe that the
present
Reserve Bank who destroyed the Zimbabwe dollar; who stole from
Foreign
Currency Accounts umpteen times; the Reserve Bank that bought gold
with
promissory notes that were never honoured; the Reserve Bank which
bought
tractors, combines and agricultural implements on credit and never
settled
its indebtedness; the Reserve Bank which under Gideon Gono's
direction ran
up a colossal debt of about US$1.5 billion that the Zimbabwe
taxpayer has
been left to settle; are you to believe that same Reserve Bank
has now
become honourable and is going to give you the proceeds of your
house? Of
course not! Lunacy most confounded has struck again!
The
country is desperately short of cash, the grease that keeps the wheels
of
industry and commerce sliding along, is clear. This shortage means that
the
chefs are finding it more and more difficult to maintain their standards
of
living. The days of preferential Zimbabwe dollar exchange rates via
the
Reserve Bank have long gone and diamonds are not shared evenly
amongst
thieves. It is not just the Reserve Bank which is illiquid. Rumours
abound
that some of our 17 banking institutions too are in trouble and
the
accounting fraternity we are told have taken some defensive steps and
moved
their assets. They are not alone - Europe now seems to fancy using
Swiss
Francs in preference to any other currency.
We seem to have two
separate Ministries of Finance. When Biti said there
was no money to fund
pay increases of civil servants the ZMDC popped US$27
million into the kitty
and the increases were paid. They do not seem to
have produced any more
money thereafter, and the civil servants will be
annoyed if their pay reverts
to what it was, or the money for wages runs out
altogether.
There is a
strange arrangement between CSC and Botswana. Apparently the EU
insisted
that Botswana deal decisively with the endemic foot and mouth
disease along
its border with Matabeleland South. A decision was taken we
hear to
vaccinate 200 000 head along a 40 kilometre wide corridor inside
Zimbabwe
adjacent the border. At the same time 45 000 head resident inside
a 40
kilometre corridor on the Botswana side were to be culled and the
carcasses
burnt. Apparently this started, and then it was decided to sell
these
animals instead to CSC for we hear 500 Pula each plus transport.
This
initially collapsed cattle prices so the communal areas stopped selling
and
prices recovered. Now we hear CSC has increased their meat selling
prices
and the effects are minimal.
Most of ZISCO has been bought,
complete with its debt, for US$700 million by
Indian steel maker Essar. They
at the same time took over huge iron ore and
limestone deposits. At the
televised opening ceremony there was a troop of
baboons shown wandering
around some very derelict looking steel works. This
symbolises what official
policies have thrust upon us all.
Armed robberies by a gang in
Matabeleland have spiked. The police poster
showed pictures of the three
wanted men and stated they were then wanted for
22 robberies.
We have
advanced so far down the lunacy pathway that Wikileaks tells us that
David
Irvine in 2008 seemingly unembarrassed confirmed to the American
Ambassador
how he was part of the collaborator's consortium. He bragged to
the US
Ambassador how he was able to keep his business afloat by buying
subsidised
maize for his chickens and how with his contacts he organized
official
increases of egg prices. He described Godwills Masimirembwa, the
head of the
National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC), who failed as a
lawyer being
struck off the roll for un-lawyerly conduct, as "a half-baked
chicken
farmer". After forcing the likes of Makro to sell their stock below
cost
which in concert with Gono's hyper-inflation effectively bankrupted
these
outlets, Masimirembwa was promoted to be the boss of the Zimbabwe
Mining
Development Corporation which happens to be in partnership with Mbada
diamond
mining at Marange. When you listen to Tendai Biti it seems Mr.
Masimirembwa
from the government's point of view is not very effective in
that post
either.
We have such stupid labour laws that if you teach your marginally
schooled
and totally unskilled gardener how to cut and glue plastic
irrigation pipes
then he can go on strike claiming plumber's pay. Then off
to the ZFTU to
get assistance with his claim under our cracked Labour Act,
and the Labour
Department actually takes this fabrication seriously! Then we
all wonder
why there is such high unemployment. Should we not instead be
wondering why
there is any employment at all? On the road between Cape Town
and their
airport there is a huge billboard. It says words to the effect "If
you want
increased employment, change your labour laws!"
There are
indications that the mental malaise begun in Zimbabwe spreads
insidiously
into South Africa. That government tries desperately to hide
the Khampepe -
Moseneke report on Zimbabwe elections which is being sought
by the Mail &
Guardian. This matter has gone all the way to the
Constitutional Court. Who
knows what will happen when they next demand the
release of the General's
report on violence at election time. Then we have
the strange outrage at the
judgement given in the hate speech case of Julius
Malema. AfriForum objected
to the words of the song "dubul 'iBhunu" which
exhorts listeners to kill
Afrikaans speaking farmers (iBhunu). The whole of
the ANC appears to be up
in arms on the grounds that the song was sung in
the past during the struggle
for freedom from apartheid and you cannot
change history. Granted that
history cannot be changed, but that does not
make the wording any less
objectionable. Germany goes to great lengths to
ensure that parts of their
Nazi history are not propagated but that sensible
point of view does not
apply in SA. The ruling is being challenged by the
ANC. Remember when our
commercial farmers were classified as enemies of the
state? Remember when
Tutsis were classified as cockroaches?
Then we have the debacle of
Zimbabwe expelling the Libyan Ambassador
ostensibly because the government
rather illogically did not recognise the
National Transitional Council even
though they controlled the whole country
bar three small urban areas. South
Africa too went along with this line of
reasoning, even to the irrational
extent of demanding an all inclusive
government a la Zimbabwe with he who had
stated he was going to flush his
non-supporters out of their Benghazi
cupboards and kill them. Later
disclosures were made of Libyan suitcases of
cash making their way around
the African continent. Did these have any
influence on loyalties? Did
African cash going the other way influence
French Presidential elections?
Has Zimbabwe forgotten that they owe Libya
hundreds of millions of US$ for
unpaid fuel?
We have an
Attorney-General who gets all righteous, stands up on his high
horse and
demands of the European Union the lifting of sanctions on the
basis that
sanctions violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This Declaration
states amongst other things that no one should be
arbitrarily deprived of his
or her property! Then he hounds Prosecutors
throughout the country to harass
farmers by continuing to do just that.
Whilst everything falls apart our
government borrows close to $100 million
not to fix anything productive but
to build a new Military College. The
loan is guaranteed by diamond
output.
We are rated in the CIA World Factbook as the 224th poorest
country out of
227 countries, yet still our government (and this sadly
includes an MDC
seemingly terminally infected by the deadly Mercedes Benz
snout in the
trough virus) cannot see that they are doing anything wrong. We
have MDC
MPs and Senators who will go to great lengths to tell us that things
have
improved greatly since they legitimised a decidedly questionable
election.
They refuse to speak out on the continuing land grab on the grounds
that if
they do things will get worse. Have they forgotten Edmund Burke who
said
that all it needs for evil to prosper was for good men to stay
silent?
Harare was rated the worst city to live in out of 140.
We
have had a little while past unpleasant images of bodies in various
stages of
decay being recovered from a mine shaft near Mount Darwin. This
recovery
process took place publicly and in front of the local populace,
including
school children. It was supposed to reflect badly on long gone
Rhodesians.
ZAPU obtained a High Court order for the disinterments to be
stopped as they
felt these may have been the remains of their members who
disappeared around
the time of Independence. As is usual, this order
was
disregarded.
However, some bodies emerged dripping body fluids
which everyone believed
showed they were of a much more recent demise. Then,
apparently, some of
them even had Gono's bearer cheques in their possession.
Since then all has
gone quiet, but much evidence as to who the perpetrators
were has doubtless
been lost.
Some more idiocy with which we have to
live is that of ghost workers in the
civil service. It is not quite clear as
to how many there are, how many
have been wrongly employed without proper
qualifications, but the numbers
are colossal. Figures of up to 75 000 out of
265 000 have been bandied
about, others say 75 000 out of 165 000. These
disclosures were made over a
year ago but the ghosts still regularly draw
their pay and the Ministry of
Finance reckons we are to run a deficit of
US$800 million this financial
year. The scribe is a bit confused: if you
cannot print money, nor borrow
from a bankrupt Reserve Bank, then how do you
get to run up a deficit like
that? Is it perhaps by stealing proceeds from
the sale of houses?
The IMF says to get rid of the fiscal financing gap
we need to remove ghost
workers from the payroll, control employment levels
and stop funding
parastatals. So what do we do? We leave the ghosts in
place and sink
another US$2.8 million into staff wages at Air Zimbabwe so
that they can go
back to work and fly a single passenger on the plane back
from Vic Falls!
There is a forceful argument to be made that the changes
we have seen only
came about as a result of the death of the Zimbabwe
dollar. It was Acting
Finance Minister Chinamasa in his budget speech of
November 2008 who paved
the way for the use of foreign currency. Like the
wording of the SADC
Treaty, he could not get his mind around the gazillions
and
duodecamamillions with which he had to deal so he used US dollars
instead.
MDC had nothing to do with the destruction of the local currency -
that was
a ZPF sanctioned achievement of Gono and his printing
presses.
We have a government that instead of dealing with real issues
spends time,
we kid you not, on prolonged debate amongst Parliamentarians as
to why MP's
should be circumcised to prevent Aids. It is now three years
since the
Global Political Agreement was signed and fully three quarters of
its
provisions have not been implemented. Not one word of the new
Constitution
has as yet been written we are told. No Sir, the MDC has
achieved
incredibly little and the man in the street is getting thoroughly
fed up
with this new MDC crowd of self seekers seemingly cloned in the ZPF
mould.
In truth, nothing has changed.
Finally we have a snippet for
you: Chief Cleopas Suku of Bulilima at a
meeting in Nata demanded that
everyone vote for ZPF. The reason he gave was
that he did not want to lose
his truck and monthly allowances. Now, doesn't
that say it
all?
ILLEGAL GOLD MINING - THE RAPE OF THE UMZINGWANE
We have just
been told of a Chinese mining outfit which is destroying the
Umzingwane river
bed. Just down stream of where the Balla Balla road to
Masvingo crosses the
river over a distance of at least ten kilometres this
outfit has employed two
bulldozers to extract the contents of the river bed,
together with the banks
and riverside vegetation. This material is dropped
by front end loader every
three minutes into a washing plant after which the
washed material is run
over a large type of James table. The people
downstream have mud to drink
and who knows what will happen with silting of
dams downstream. Those who
saw this environmental catastrophe were told
that when the Environmental
Management Authority went to the site they were
shown a letter from
government which forbade them from insisting that this
devastation cease.
Clearly this exercise is going to have environmental
repercussions for years,
long after the Chinese and their backers have
departed.
ECONOMIC
OUTLOOK
In May this year the scribe had the pleasure of attending one of
John
Robertson's updates on the economy. These are sponsored by CABS and
most
interesting they are too. There is not much economic which escapes the
wily
Robertson and he has built up a depth of knowledge, supported by graphs
and
other visuals over the years which show where we were when things
were
working, progressing onwards with irrefutable facts to where we are
now.
As we all (but not the joint government) know, every sector of the
economy
bar two is in trouble and gets a poor report. The two exceptions
are
platinum mining and tobacco production. Tobacco looks like its
upward
momentum is about to be reversed. Many of the small scale tobacco
growers
produced poor quality tobacco and received correspondingly poor
prices as a
result. They have been blown away. Not all the commercial
growers who are
funded by the big tobacco companies and grow the crop on
seized farms, some
with the blessings of the owners, some without, featured
profitably. There
are rumours being bandied about that the funding tobacco
companies are
setting about selling the equipment of those who could not
repay their
borrowings. Of course they cannot recover their loans by selling
the
growers' land as that presently belongs to no one.
There is also a
report that the bankers of Heinz canning factory Bonzim in
Chegutu have sold
up the enterprise. This is another casualty of the land
grab together with
the jobs it created.
In May Gono was reported to be trying hard to get
backing to bring back the
Zimbabwe dollar. This time he wanted it to be
backed by gold. He did not
say whether the gold too should be under his
dubious control.
As far as platinum goes, the future is rosy bar for a
fellow by name of
Kasukuwere who keeps threatening to shut the industry
down. In similar vein
to the land grab, but refined somewhat, Kasukuwere
wants 51% for nothing.
The mines (all of them, not just platinum) are
expected to shoulder the
risk, and provide the skills, management and finance
for the 49% with which
they are left. Kasukuwere took over UTC a few years
ago and some months
back his Vic Falls staff attached the company's assets to
force payment of
their unpaid wages. Perhaps he should have spent more time
learning to run
the business or settled for only 51% of it and tried to
retain some of the
skills of the previous owners to keep it profitable.
Somehow none of these
politicians can see that entrepreneurs start a new
venture for themselves,
not to make someone politically well connected rich.
If the rules in
Zimbabwe dictate you must take all the risks and provide the
finance so a
politician can have a free majority share, then of course you
exercise your
freedom of choice and go and start up
elsewhere.
ELECTRICITY
There have been periods when load shedding
is very limited. Some weeks
there was no load shedding at all, but now we
are back to our daily
schedule. As from 1 September 2011 ZESA increased
electricity prices by
31%.
ONGOING LAND SEIZURES
Let no one out
there believe the land seizures have ended. Throughout the
country the
harassment continues. It comes in three forms. One is outright
theft where
a beneficiary brings his gang along and they simply expel the
owner, usually
violently and with official backing. Another way is for the
government to
prosecute the owner for being in unlawful occupation of State
Land without an
"offer letter, permit or lease". These prosecutions are
ongoing, last for
years, cost huge amounts in legal fees and ultimately find
you a criminal
with accompanying eviction order. The prosecutions are made
under the
Gazetted Lands (Consequential Provisions) Act which owes its
existence to
Constitutional Amendment 17. This Amendment you may recall is
the one which
the SADC Tribunal threw out as being in violation of
Zimbabwe's obligations
under the SADC Treaty. It still violates the Treaty
in spite of Chinamasa
and his compatriot Hondora's viewpoint on the Tribunal
and the decision to
shut it down. The Treaty remains the same and history
cannot be
changed.....
Subsequent to the CFU opening the way in the Supreme Court,
Chief Justice
Chidyausiku ruled that the FTLRP was all in order. He went
further and
pointed out that farm owners were getting in the way of the
rights of those
who had been given "Offer Letters". So now we have the third
way owners
lose their farms - civil cases where beneficiaries claim their
"rights" by
means of civil suits. So if you are really unlucky you get a
double whammy
of legal fees having to fight both civil and criminal
cases.
COMPENSATION
There have been about 11 farmers paid some
"compensation" for their
properties. The facts as far as we can gather are
these: Biti set aside
US$8 500 000 in the 2009/2010 budget for Land Reform
or something similar.
Some of this money was not used. CFU and some others
had put in a case
claiming that they needed to be paid compensation in terms
of the Land
Acquisition Act. This case culminated in negotiations with the
government
valuer and presumably some of the applicants settled for the
pittance
offered. Then there were other farmers who were supposedly
destitute and
very elderly and they were approached and offered some money by
government
as long as they invested it locally. There was also another gent
on the
sidelines who was looking to buy title deeds as a "spes" (a "hope"
that one
day these deeds would have their validity recognised).
In all
cases the recipients had to part with their Title Deeds. Valcon have
made
reference to these deals in a couple of their newsletters as did CFU
who said
government had "recently compensated a few farmers albeit at a
deflated
value". The true value of the farms involved we know not, nor the
amounts
paid, and the compensation accepted as a percentage of true value is
for this
reason unknown. By all estimates it was pitiful but was accepted
on the
basis that half a loaf is better than nothing at all, or the owners
were so
destitute they had no choice other than to take it.
Should any of the
beneficiaries wish to ascertain the true position, Henry
Scotcher of Mills
Fitchet has offered to do a valuation as long as the
owners can provide the
details of situation and improvements. They can
contact us should they wish
to depress themselves with his free offer....
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR
THE SETTLEMENT OF INVESTMENT DISPUTES
We have picked up little snippets
of what lies in store for Zimbabwe in
ICSID, the World Bank offshoot which
handles Bilateral Investment Treaty
disputes. We first heard of this outfit
when the Dutch Farmers made their
claims for compensation under their BIPPA
at this venue in Paris. Since
that time claimants have become very much more
switched on and what is
coming the Zimbabwe government's way looks likely to
be much more difficult
to dispute and likely to be much more
expensive.
Our government has always belittled the SADC Tribunal but, as
far as we are
aware, never the World Bank's ICSID. This is no doubt because
no award made
by ICSID has remained unsettled - except that of the Dutch
Farmers - so far!
CRAWFORD VON ABO
Mr. von Abo had his entire
farming empire in Zimbabwe seized and like the
rest of us remained without
compensation. He had appealed to the SA Embassy
for help and received none.
He had also appealed to the SA department of
Foreign Affairs and drew a blank
there. In the end he sued the SA
government for compensation on the grounds
they had not given him the
support he was due as a South African Citizen. He
won his case and it only
remained for the amount of damages to be
argued.
Then the SA government appealed, and the Appeal Court reversed
the ruling.
This Court in Bloemfontein acknowledged that Mr. von Abo had been
treated
very shabbily by a whole range of South African civil servants, but
that did
not make their employer liable for the damages wilfully incurred by
another
sovereign country. As the Tribunal ruled, it was Zimbabwe that
seized our
properties, and it is Zimbabwe who is liable to pay the
damages.
MIKE CAMPBELL
Mike died at 2.15 pm on 6 April 2011. He
had never recovered from the
beating he received the previous June, slowly
deteriorating from then on.
He was buried on a farm not too far from his own
property in the Chegutu
district.
