Zim Independent
PROFESSOR Arthur Mutambara, the recently elected leader of one
of the rival
factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), this week
gave an
exclusive interview - his first locally - to the Zimbabwe
Independent. The
Independent also wanted to interview founding MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai,
who now leads the other faction, but he said he would
only be able to do so
after his congress this weekend. News editor Dumisani
Muleya (DM) spoke to
Mutambara (AM) on Tuesday on a wide range of issues
just before he flew to
South Africa.
DM: Since you now lead one of the MDC factions
and you have been
in charge for slightly more than two weeks, can you tell
us in detail what
your political agenda is?
AM: Let me
start by making preface remarks. First of all, we
need to resolve the debate
around the issue of reuniting the MDC. We need to
resolve the issue of how
to reposition and refocus the party. Above all we
should not lose sight of
the agenda: that is fighting Zanu PF and its
political
culture.
We have to fight this culture of dictatorship,
intolerance, and
develop and build a new value-system, democratic
institutions both in
government and in civil society. To do this we need to
have a democratic
constitution first.
DM: How are you
going to do that?
AM: We must always maintain the moral high
ground that we are
occupying now. To do that it means we must ourselves be
democratic. That's
why we are opposed to people who don't respect collective
decision-making
and believe in violating constitutions and then use violence
as a means of
settling disputes.
DM: How about the issue
of re-establishing cohesion in the MDC?
AM: The first prize
is unity. If that can't happen then we can
go for amicable divorce, resolve
the issue of the name and allocation of
assets. We should do it in a manner
that allows us to preserve our MPs and
democratic space.
The third option if we can't agree is to go to court, the Zanu
PF courts.
From there we can build a new party relevant to the generality of
Zimbabweans.
DM: Going back to the need to refocus the
MDC, what will this
entail?
AM: We need a patriotic and
nationalistic opposition coming in
the tradition of our history, culture and
the liberation struggle. Zanu PF
at the moment is a negation of the values
of the liberation struggle.
(President Robert) Mugabe and Zanu PF do not
represent what the heroes of
the struggle fought for.
DM:
How are you going to tackle all these problems facing
Zimbabwe at the
moment?
AM: Let me finalise my point on what we represent.
Our foreign
policy is rooted in the national context and experiences of our
people. It
is also based on notions of regional and continental integration.
We also
want to define sovereignty in the national, regional and African
context. At
the moment Zanu PF, for all its pretences, is the greatest
threat to our
national sovereignty. By subjecting citizens to repression and
poverty and
going about picking fights with everybody and presenting itself
as fighting
against the world, Zanu PF poses a threat to the country, region
and even
Africa. We believe in the territorial integrity of all
countries.
Lastly, we will distinguish political allies and
strategic
partners. In this era of globalisation, you can't survive without
strategic
partners in the international community and global
institutions.
Our political allies are parties which
represent the interests
of the people, like the ANC in South Africa, and
other parties in the region
and beyond.
DM: You are now
on the political scene, so what? What's new
under the
sun?
AM: Our idea is to build a strong political party which
has
capacity - intellectually, structurally and practically - to deliver. We
need to re-brand and refocus. We also need to debate and ultimately address
the substance and content of the change we need.
The MDC
also needs new strategies. We can't afford to go to
elections without Plan
B. Not only should we have Plan B, but also Plan C, D
and E. I hope those
responsible for rigging elections are listening
carefully. It's not going to
be business as usual. We have the capacity to
outgun Zanu PF intellectually,
outflank them strategically and outrun them
in the streets. We will
outmanoeuvre them in every arena of political
combat.
DM:
Some of your critics say you have been out of the country
for too long and
thus are out of touch with Zimbabwe's political dynamics
and realities. What
do you have to say to this?
AM: To begin with, I must say I'm
not more qualified to lead
than other Zimbabweans. I have only stepped
forward and I want to make a
contribution. I went out of the country to
learn and I hope my education and
experiences will add value to the
struggle.
It's a myth that I'm out of touch. When I was out
of the
country, especially in South Africa, I always came home. I was a
consultant
for many local companies and I addressed numerous meetings
here.
In my own home area - Mutambara village in Manicaland -
I
helped, working with others, to develop our area. I have also been working
with civil society and political groups albeit at a lower level. So I'm very
clued-up about what's going on.
DM: Other people say
coming from the ivory tower as you do, you
are out of sync with grassroots
politics and cannot mobilise a critical
mass. What do you have to
say?
AM: Those who say that don't know Mutambara. I'm a
street
fighter. As university students we fought in the streets, not just
for
payouts, but for democracy and against misrule and
corruption.
What we were saying 16 years ago is exactly the
kind of problems
we are confronted with now, if not worse. The only
difference is that the
problems have now become a national crisis. We
started fighting for
democracy and political and civil liberties while we
were students when some
of our critics today were still members of Zanu PF
and in its Youth League.
DM: There are suggestions that you
haven't graduated from
student politics and that you need to be taken to a
finishing school. What's
your comment?
AM: I accept
criticism and I hope to learn and thrive to be a
good leader from it. I have
strengths and weaknesses, just like everybody
else, but that's why I work
with a team. They will teach me some things and
I will do the
same.
DM: Your assumption of leadership has caused a stir.
Some say
you were brought in because your faction needed a Shona politician
for an
ethnic balancing act. Are you a token leader?
AM:
Mutambara a token Shona leader to help revive the fortunes
of a dying
Ndebele faction? What a travesty of justice! What a misnomer!
What raw
tribalism! I'm my own man.
Those who know me know I can't be
a token. The barrage of
attacks I have been enduring in the state media show
that I'm not a token. A
token which causes so much interest in politics must
be interesting indeed!
I reject lock, stock and barrel such
tribal interpretation of
politics. It's part of the Zanu PF culture which we
need to destroy. I came
in on the basis of my leadership qualities and
credentials, not because I'm
Shona.
I'm not a tribal
populist and I don't follow the wind. I follow
reason and principle. A
leader is there to make unpopular decisions popular.
I also chose the side I
did on the basis of principles - my stance against
violence, respect for
collective decision-making and party constitution.
DM: Let's
move on to the economy. How are you going to fix this
virtually collapsed
economy if you were to end up in government?
AM: Firstly,
let's accept the gravity of the crisis. The
economy, as every one says, is
in intensive care unit. Let's acknowledge the
problem before we can start
searching for a solution. Then we can talk about
the economic model and
stabilisation we need for this economy. We can then
also talk about the role
of strategic partners in all this.
In the next two weeks we
are going to release a two-pager of our
economic blueprint. Later we will
have a comprehensive macroeconomic
blueprint. It will be a holistic
multi-variable mathematical economic model.
It will be followed by a
stabilisation programme. After that we can
introduce a plan of growth and
how to sustain it.
Going forward, we will move to a
knowledge-based and
technology-driven economy. There are cheaper and
suitable technologies we
can use, for instance WiFi and WiMax, to develop
our economy.
We charge Mugabe's regime with appalling
economic ignorance.
They are in denial and seem to believe in an atomic or
single-variable
approach to economic analysis. That's ignorance of the
highest order. You
can't say inflation is our number one enemy as if
inflation works
independently of other variables.
DM: But
for all this to work, after dealing with the
superstructure, you need to
address agriculture which underpins the economic
base. How are you going to
deal with that?
AM: We believe in land reform and we will
move swiftly to clear
the chaos on the farms, audit land allocations and
have a rationalisation
programme. Then we will address security of tenure
and funding. Tenure can
take the form of title or 99-year leases which allow
people to plan and
invest in long-term projets.
This will
then address issues like food security, foreign
currency shortages (we need
to work with strategic partners), fuel, power,
all these
things.
DM: How about the issue of sanctions which Zanu PF
has been
talking about? What will you about it?
AM: If
there are any such sanctions, you can't call for their
lifting before you
lift internal ones. Zanu PF must first of all lift the
sanctions it has
imposed on Zimbabweans via misrule, mismanagement,
corruption and
repression. That has to be addressed before we can talk about
external
sanctions. We have never believed in the imposition of sanctions on
our
country. That is Zanu PF propaganda.
DM: Lastly, is it true
you are married to former Secretary to
the President and Cabinet, Dr Charles
Utete's daughter? If so, won't this
compromise you
politically?
AM: This is a malicious rumour and an untruth.
For the record, I'm
married to Dr Jacqueline Sekesai Mutambara (nee
Chimhanzi) and we have two
children.
Zim Independent
Eric Chiriga
FOOD processor,
National Foods Holdings Ltd (Natfoods), has
temporarily ceased production of
edible oils which contributed 20% to the
group's total
revenue.
The group said the stoppage had been caused by lack
of raw
materials.
Production of the oils is expected to
resume in May when it is
anticipated that key raw materials which include
soya beans and cotton seed
would be available.
"The
Harare manufacturing plant of National Foods has run out of
raw materials
and is, at the moment, not producing any edible oils," said
Natfoods
spokesperson, Linda Musesengwa, in response to questions from
businessdigest.
"Oils sales contribute approximately 20%
of the group's total
revenue," Musesengwa said.
Natfoods
said the raw material shortage had been largely due to
lack of foreign
currency.
"We import our raw materials, foreign currency
permitting, from
the most cost-effective sources at any given time, which
can meet our
quality specifications," Musesengwa said.
She said crude oil was normally imported throughout the year to
augment
local raw material supplies which do not fully meet local
demand.
"Unfortunately, the shortage of foreign currency has
hindered
the import of normal requirement of crude oil; it is this challenge
which
has resulted in the closure of our plants until the coming oil seed
harvest," she said.
She added that the non-availability
of soya beans for oil
production was also likely to affect the production of
stock feed.
In its financial results for the year ended
December 31, 2005,
Natfoods warned that operations would be affected by lack
of raw materials,
a view analysts viewed as a profit
warning.
The company said the Grain Marketing Board (GMB),
the key
supplier of raw materials, had significantly cut supplies, leaving
the food
processor in the lurch.
"We expect the first
quarter of 2006 to be extremely difficult,"
said Natfoods' board in a
statement accompanying the group's financial
results.
"GMB has significantly reduced our wheat allocation and we have
no other
source of raw materials as the availability of foreign currency is
very
limited," the board said.
The board added that supplies of
stock feeds had been limited
because critical raw materials like soya cake
and maize were in short
supply.
The Natfoods board said
the flour division had performed well in
the first half of the period under
review, and this had been due to 4 000
tonnes of wheat procured under a
Memorandum of Understanding with the GMB
for allocations over and above
those stipulated by the parastatal.
"In the second half of
the year the division survived solely on
GMB wheat allocations and flour
rationing had to be enforced," the board
said.
The group
made a profit after tax of $701,7 billion in the
period under review and
declared a final dividend of $600 per share payable
on April 28, after
having paid an interim dividend of $250 per share.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
THE property market
is expected to experience increased activity
during the first half of the
year, spurred by investors seeking to hedge
against rising
inflation.
Inflation surged to 782% for the month of February, up
168,8
percentage points on the January figure of 613,2%.
Ideal Properties director, Gary Shilton, told businessdigest
this week that
the recent inflation figure would inevitably push property
prices upwards
and might force owners to hold on to their assets as a cover
against
inflation.
Those seeking to hedge themselves against spiraling
inflation
will push demand for properties.
"Properties have
become the safest form of investment as a hedge
against inflation in
Zimbabwe. As such property prices will continue to be
pegged in line with
the prevailing inflation rate," said Shilton.
"The recent
increase will soon translate into property prices,"
he said.
"Over the past six months we have seen property prices
increasing four
times. The increases witnessed were not due to an increase
in demand over
supply in the market but due to sellers increasing the
selling prices in
line with inflation to ensure that they are not losing in
real terms," said
Shilton.
He said since the beginning of the year, property owners
have
ensured that they maintain the value of their properties in line with
inflation.
Shilton said that going forward, prices would
continue to firm
if the local dollar continues to lose value against major
currencies in a
hyperinflation environment.
The residential
market is also expected to improve compared to
the last quarter of 2005 as
potential buyers are beginning to adjust to the
massive increases of prices
being implemented.
Zim Independent
By Michael Mtungwa
ONE of the
nightmares I experienced as a youth growing up in
Bulawayo in the early
1980s - that is in between trying to find employment
and escape the ravages
of Gukurahundi - was the failure to get a newspaper
that could express the
tribulations and despair of my fellow youths and the
generality of the
population in that city and region as a whole.
Depending on
the Herald and the Chronicle in the whole country
meant a horrible genocide
that left 20 000 dead was virtually uncovered and
remains a myth to the
majority of the population in Zimbabwe today. The 20
000 is almost the same
number as the losses suffered by Zimbabwe as a whole
in the liberation
war.
It was therefore with a heavy heart that I read Geoffrey
Nyarota's
long, patronising article in the Financial Gazette of March 9,
partly
because I learnt later that Nyarota was one of the editors of the
newspaper
I resented during Gukurahundi. I suppose what made it worse is
that the
article came out a few days before March 13, the day 23 years ago
that
Joshua Nkomo fled Zimbabwe for the United Kingdom after enduring
various
forms of humiliation by the Zanu PF government.
In seeking to promote Morgan Tsvangirai - against whom I have
nothing - and
to portray Welshman Ncube as the leader of an ethnic club,
Nyarota also
sought to justify the senseless mass murders committed by
Robert Mugabe's
government. I could not help but feel mad at his comparison
of an act of
lunacy that was ignored by the whole world to what he called
"the predatory
raids" on Mashonaland by the Ndebeles' "forefathers". A
number of Zanu PF
politicians have used the same comparison when cornered to
explain the
genocide, notably ex-Zapu vice-president Joseph Msika, who has
been accused
of failing to control his tongue in his old age.
Not
surprisingly, Nyarota believes the only development to read
from Nkomo's
capitulation to Zanu PF is the creation of a one-party state
and the demise
of Zapu, which he accuses of having had a "largely ethnic
following". He
makes the same accusation of regional focus against Zapu
2000, but
astonishingly leaves out the ZUD, a Harare-based grouping that
never made
any pretensions to being national. No thought is given to the
thousands of
lives that were saved in both Matabeleland and the Midlands and
in Zimbabwe
as a whole by Nkomo's humiliating submission to a party he knew
had no
vision for the country, and whose bankruptcy of ideas is plain to
everyone
today.
The portrayal of Nkomo as a traitor for embracing the
Unity
Accord by comparing that act to Ncube's alleged involvement in a plot
to
push for a government of national unity has been a common feature in the
utterances of both Tsvangirai and senior members of his party, and shows how
little our progressive leaders care about the plight of Gukurahundi
victims.
Apart from steering away from the common reasons
that led to the
split in MDC, such as Tsvangirai's rebellion against his
national council,
and indeed the obstinate resolve by Ncube and his
colleagues to stick to a
white elephant, Nyarota strives to show that there
have been bad Ndebele
leaders in Zanu PF as well, notably Jonathan Moyo and
Enos Nkala, just as
there have been Shona victims to Mugabe's rule - 300 he
says, insinuating
this should make the Ndebele stop what he portrays as
playing the victim.
I will not seek to justify the loss of
any human life, as
Nyarota does, but comparing genocide to the killings that
have taken place
since the formation of the MDC is to express that you do
not empathise with
the hurt felt by the survivors of the
genocide.
Nyarota also emphasises the ethnic angle to the
split in the
MDC, simply because Ndebele leaders Gibson Sibanda and Ncube
led it.
Notably, while the import of his argument is that ethnicity is
behind much
of the problems afflicting the MDC today, he places the blame on
the leaders
of one camp and leaves the "mainstream" MDC, as he calls it,
untouched.
Where he criticises the "mainstream" MDC, it is to advise it on
how to
proceed in future, such as whom a government it forms must work
with.
What also baffles my mind is Nyarota's eagerness to
embrace Zanu
PF leaders and sympathisers who have been complicit in the
destruction of
the country either as protagonists or cheerleaders while he
trashes
opposition leaders who have stood up to both Mugabe and opposition
leader
Tsvangirai.
Gideon Gono, Mutumwa Mawere, Oppah
Muchinguri and Dumiso
Dabengwa are therefore praised as progressive leaders
alongside MDC members
from Matabeleland who support or are perceived to
support Tsvangirai, and
these are the people he suggests Tsvangirai should
work with. Arthur
Mutambara is flogged for being an opportunist who joined a
tribal band, and
is advised to stay away from politics because he has been
away for too long
and has a PhD in robotics anyway. To bolster a perfect
argument, Nyarota
deliberately removes the context of Mutambara's praise of
Tsvangirai - and
Mugabe by the way - and his anti-senate
position.
However, what frightens me and indeed most of the
victims of
Mugabe's rule since 1980 is that Nyarota's views mirror the
opinions of many
people in civic society and among intellectuals in Zimbabwe
today, some of
whom he mentions by name. Like Nyarota, many of these leaders
care little
about whether Tsvangirai is right or wrong. Many of them waited
until they
realised he still has support, and then attacked his opponents
using the
same views expressed by Nyarota. In his lengthy essay, Nyarota
also leaves
out the violence perpetrated by Tsvangirai against members of
his party last
year, which was probably his way of fighting the plot Nyarota
is alleging.
Not even one of our boisterous civic groups condemned that
orgy, because
doing so would have cast aspersions on the moral authority of
Tsvangirai.
If you ask me, I would say Zimbabweans want a
president who will
steer this country from the economic and political mess
it is in, restore
confidence in the population and re-establish meaningful
relations with the
international community, but beneath this lies the fact
that Zanu PF
poisoned our society to believe ruling is a preserve of the
majority ethnic
group, and this has been supported, both implicitly and
explicitly, in
business, politics and even in civic society and even by some
of the most
"progressive" people in this country. To deny the xenophobia
that exists
between Shona and Ndebele in Zimbabwe and attack those who state
the obvious
is simply hypocritical. And hiding behind one's tribal bigotry
by pointing
fingers at others and dodging pertinent issues is hardly the way
to address
the crisis in Zimbabwe now.
For all the talk
about a united front and Zanu PF abuses since
2000, none of the leaders in
the civil society groups, most of whom are
based in Harare, have mentioned
that by far the biggest crime Zanu PF has
committed since Independence is
the Gukurahundi atrocities. Some of these
leaders still prefer the safety of
referring to these as "disturbances". At
the same time, it is the common
language of the Zimbabwean press that the
MDC is Zanu PF's biggest challenge
since Independence? Really? A challenge
that cost 20 000 lives to put down
and became a lost cause because of
xenophobic politics is relegated simply
because those who coin our language
are now feeling the pinch as
well.
The disappointing thing for one who lived through the
horrors of
Gukurahundi is that little has changed. Many of these academics
and civil
society leaders either cheered Mugabe on or happily looked away
when the 5th
Brigade rampaged through Bulawayo and Matabeleland. Many of
them would also
accuse Ndebele victims of Mugabe's brutality of thinking all
the Shona are
guilty of the atrocities. Not that they think this is the
situation, but
because by so doing, they think they exorcise the part they
played during
that time, for not only Mugabe and Zanu PF will be charged
with genocide
should that time come, but also the various editors and
opinion leaders who
helped him cover up the crimes from the
world.
It is also depressing that many of these opinion
leaders, just
like Mugabe, have not changed. Mugabe committed crimes against
humanity in
the 1980s because of the support he received when he made
inflammatory
speeches and accused his opponents of being tribalists and
traitors simply
because many among their leaders belonged to a different
ethnic group and
rejected his one-party state notion.
Like Mugabe, Tsvangirai too can become a despot after being
encouraged to
disregard internal democracy in his own party, and after
seeing that even
sinking to the violence he condemns in Zanu PF will not
earn him any
reprimand, so long as he chooses his victims carefully.
It
was admirable for Tsvangirai to state that the senate, just
like parliament
by the way, will not change the suffering Zimbabweans are
going through, but
this self-serving stance cannot be used to cover up the
dark side he has
exhibited through all this.
* Michael Mtungwa is a Zimbabwean
writing from South Africa.
Zim Independent
By Prof Jonathan Moyo
IF there is
one thing that no responsible Zimbabwean can deny
today, it is that our
country is in the throes of a devastating economic
meltdown coupled with the
collapse of key national institutions, especially
those charged with the
delivery of essential services to ordinary people
such as jobs, health,
education, housing, transport and food.
Despite this
self-evident fact, it is shocking that opinion and
policy-makers across the
political divide remain preoccupied with
self-indulgent agendas at the
expense of the resolution of the clear
economic meltdown and the decay of
critical public institutions that have
brought unprecedented suffering among
Zimbabweans.
The economy has become the main opposition to
Zanu PF rule and
President Robert Mugabe and his cronies have no solution to
this opposition
outside the brutality of a knee-jerk law and order response
of ruling by
terror. In the circumstances, Zimbabweans at home and in the
diaspora,
including the ancestral spirits, are crying out for a new vision
and the
emergence of those capable of fashioning that
vision.
This is why Zimbabwe today is haunted by the
perennial wisdom
that where there is no vision the people
perish.
If nothing is done to intervene as a matter of
national urgency,
more people will perish as some already
have.
It is against this backdrop that the welcome entry (or
is it
re-entry) of Arthur Mutambara into national politics has been received
with
mixed reactions by vision-hungry Zimbabweans.
While
appreciating Mutambara's call for a broad-based united
nationalist and
democratic front against the ruling Zanu PF clique, neutral
Zimbabweans have
been surprised if not disappointed by his decision to join
and lead one of
the feuding and arguably weaker MDC factions when he had a
golden
opportunity to work on reuniting the two factions under a new
nationalist
and democratic vision that could also rope in many disgruntled
Zanu PF
members and supporters who can clearly see that Zanu PF has become a
shelf
political party with no democratic ideology nor vibrant
policies.
Joining either of the MDC factions as its leader
was not a
viable premise for unity or political growth for Mutambara by any
stretch of
imagination from the standpoint of visionary
politics.
Neither of the MDC factions needed a leader because
they both
clearly have plenty of leaders some of whom engineered and
spearheaded the
split whose only purpose, intended or not, is to give Zanu
PF a false sense
of comfort while the country is fatally
bleeding.
What the two factions needed, and still need, as do
the ranks of
opposition politics in the country in general, is a visionary
political
broker, not leader, and Mutambara could have been that and
more.
He still can be but the task would now be much harder
and much
more complicated yet still worthy of trying given that politics by
its very
dynamic nature is forever full of endless possibilities with twists
and
turns in which nothing is ever ruled out.
Up to now,
opposition politics in Zimbabwe have been doomed by
two major drawbacks.
The one is the mindless preoccupation with
personalities at the expense of
ideology and policies and the other is the
failure to understand that no
opposition will ever rule this country without
attracting significant
membership and support from Zanu PF's rank and file.
Before
splitting into the two currently warring factions, the
MDC had reached its
limit in crafting an opposition propaganda based on the
hatred of not just
Zanu PF but also of people linked to or associated with
Zanu
PF.
The effect of this MDC propaganda of needless hatred
combined
with the violent reaction to it by Zanu PF ensured that there could
not be
an exodus of Zanu PF members and supporters crossing over to the
MDC.
The situation is now worse with the factionalisation of
the MDC:
it would be foolhardy for anyone to expect hordes of Zanu PF rank
and file
to flock to either of the MDC factions.
Meanwhile, the vision problem is much more serious in
officialdom which has
run out of all steam and is now out of its depth when
it comes to dealing
with the ongoing economic meltdown and collapse of
public institutions. The
popular line in officialdom has been to confuse
symptoms with causes and to
foolishly declare inflation and corruption as
the country's alternating
number one enemies.
While it is true that corruption is rife
in Zimbabwe and that
runaway inflation - which was 782% last month and is
set to hit four digits
this month - is making the lives of consumers and
businesses hell, the truth
is that both unbridled corruption and
hyperinflation are symptoms and not
causes of the economic
meltdown.
The cause is to be found in the political system
that is
dominated by people without a vision.
President
Mugabe and other Zanu PF leaders who imitate him have
claimed that the
economic meltdown has been caused by alleged enemies whose
Zanu PF inventory
includes Tony Blair, George W Bush, the International
Monetary Fund, World
Bank, unnamed neo-colonialists and imperialists, the
West, Rhodies and their
presumed local puppets.
What is most unfortunate about the
Zanu PF identification of the
causes of the current suffering gripping the
nation is not only that it is
devoid of visionary thinking but also that it
is so demagogic as to
guarantee a zero policy response.
While Zanu PF leaders have a lot to chant when it comes to
slogans about
"looking east" and dogmas against neo-colonialists and
imperialists and
their regime change agendas, they notably have between
little and nothing to
say about what should be done technically from an
action-based policy point
of view. If Tony Blair is the cause of the
suffering that all Zimbabweans
are now experiencing, what should Zimbabweans
do to or about him in order to
alleviate or eliminate their suffering?
In September 2005,
President Mugabe told Zanu PF supporters who
had gathered outside his party
headquarters to complain about the biting
effects of fuel shortages that the
"fuel situation would start improving in
two weeks".
But
six months later the fuel situation has not improved in the
country but has
in fact gotten chronically worse.
The only action that Zanu
PF leaders have been able to implement
thus far is a crude law-and-order
approach in which the ruling clique
connives with some ambitious elements
within state security organs to visit
terror on perceived enemies under the
guise of fighting alleged economic
crimes which happen to be the norm among
the power elite.
A case in point is the selective arrest and
prosecution of
individuals accused of abusing fuel facilities when the abuse
is not only
palpably rampant within Zanu PF and officialdom but is also but
only one
symptom of the economic meltdown.
Whether Mugabe
and his ruling colleagues like it or not, and
whether Zanu PF media
mouthpieces can see or report it or not, the one fact
that all Zimbabweans
and the whole world can see is that Zanu PF's Waterloo
is the ongoing
economic meltdown. The economy has become the real
opposition to Zanu PF
and the ruling party has no response because it cannot
have any as the
lunatics have already bolted out of the asylum.
This is why
everyone else who was making a lot of noise about
the situation in Zimbabwe
over the last five or so years, including Tony
Blair, is now playing quiet
diplomacy like Thabo Mbeki. There is no
initiative on Zimbabwe in Sadc, none
in the African Union, none in the
European Union and none at the United
Nations. By the time Kofi Annan is
ready to visit Zimbabwe in a few months
time, Mugabe might also be ready for
an exit deal due to the fires of the
economic meltdown.
The initiative is now in Zimbabwe and in
the economy. Zanu PF
must now come to terms with the dictates of the
economy and simply claiming
as usual that there are economic saboteurs in
our midst will not do with
galloping inflation in the 1 000% range,
unemployment over 90%, poverty over
95% while businesses are closing down,
property rights are unsettled as
education, health, housing and public
transport fall apart.
No democratic government anywhere in
the world has ever survived
three digit inflation let alone four digit
inflation now on the horizon in
this country and it would be folly of the
highest order for anyone in the
Zanu PF leadership to dream that they will
survive the ongoing onslaught
from the economy.
Short of
ruling through terror, which would quicken his
downfall, there is just
nothing that President Mugabe can now do to turn
around the economy besides
stepping down and allowing for structural reform
of national politics in
constitutional terms before the holding of
harmonised presidential and
legislative elections before or by 2008 when his
tenure is due to
expire.
If he does not allow this, he and his securocrats who
are
currently causing confusion in the newspapers they own or control such
as
the Financial Gazette and the Mirror, should be assured that Zimbabwe
will
go up in smoke whatever they do.
Experience from
around the world, including in countries that
are not democratic, has shown
that when the economy becomes the main
opposition, the game is over for the
ruling elite and it's time for everyone
else, including members and
supporters of the ruling party, to close ranks
and forge a common and united
nationalist and democratic front under
visionary leadership in the national
interest.
* Prof Moyo is an independent MP for
Tsholotsho.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment with Joram Nyathi
LAST week I wrote about
Zimbabwe's dubious distinction in
winning an award for agricultural
production. There has since been a
consolidation of that record with the
country setting an unassailable lead
in the inflation
stakes.
The latest figure from the Central Statistical Office
released
on Friday was a mind-numbing 782%.
I don't know
if it is necessary for me to say what I would do if
I were Finance minister
Herbert Murerwa. On Wednesday he had attended a
meeting in Washington of the
IMF board with RBZ governor Gideon Gono where
they were told "well done for
clearing your country's arrears under the
General Resources account, but
sorry, there won't be any money coming your
way anytime
soon".
It doesn't matter how nicely it was
expressed.
We had a serious discussion about Gono's
appointment as Reserve
Bank governor in 2003. The general line of discussion
was whether he would
be able to change the course of the collapsing economy.
My argument was that
he should have been given carte blanche to do what ever
was necessary to
reverse the decline otherwise why would he want to sully
his reputation. He
was hailed in the media as a turnaround strategist after
he turned the CBZ
into a blue-chip bank in record time.
President Mugabe reputedly slammed the previous RBZ governor
Leonard Tsumba
for relying on textbook concepts when what was needed were
home-grown
solutions.
It's turning out that Gono is no different from
his predecessors
except that he has been allowed to commit the sin that
others were condemned
for - to devalue the currency to a worthless piece of
paper. Former Finance
minister Simba Makoni was labelled an economic
saboteur for proposing the
same. But the politics haven't changed a
bit.
I have never believed in the efficacy of devaluation
unless you
really have something big to export. The decimation of Zimbabwe's
agriculture has seriously undercut industrial and commercial production to a
point where there is very little business to justify random
devaluation.
The inflows from the diaspora don't justify the
pain we are
being subjected to. When do you stop once you succumb to the
speculative
demands of the few people in the diaspora who promise to fill
the country's
foreign currency reserves if there is sufficient
devaluation?
Part of Gono's undoing is that Mugabe's verbal
support is not
backed by concrete policies on the political
front.
Witness how much he is fighting to restore relations
with the
international community while Mugabe attacks the same countries
that want to
help us. How do you hope to get balance-of-payments support
from the IMF
when your government attacks the same institution as enemies of
Zimbabwe?
How do you achieve macroeconomic stability when government is
obsessed with
having its finger in every piece of the
pie?
After destroying agriculture and rendering land almost
valueless
through nationalisation, government has now set its sights on
mining where
it is demanding a free shareholding of up to 51% for certain
minerals. Given
the cost of mining investment, that ill-advised policy can
only be a huge
turn-off for potential investors.
Friday's
inflation data set a record for the country since Gono
assumed control at
the RBZ. For once his forecast of 800% was nearly
correct. Our nearest
competitor in the inflation stakes is Iraq with 40%.
That is a country at
war in which on average 10 people are blown to
smithereens by bombs in
Baghdad every day.
Our closest rivals on the African
continent are fellow
basket-cases like Angola and Zambia. But they are very
poor competition at
17,7% and 19% respectively. We all know that Angola has
just emerged from a
long civil war while in terms of resources Zambia has
never significantly
recovered since the collapse of copper prices in the
1970s. But at least
they are looking up.
Zimbabwe has
enjoyed relative peace for all the 26 years of
Independence until government
itself declared war against commercial farming
in 1999. It is no consolation
that at one point countries like Yugoslavia or
Bolivia had inflation going
up by 1 000% every day. The issue is that we
should never have got to where
we are if we were pursuing modestly prudent
economic policies. It is as if
we were trying to reinvent the wheel merely
to prove that we are a sovereign
state.
That experiment has reportedly taken the country's GDP
back to
1953 levels. As if to crown our wonderful achievement, the country's
name is
not only the last in the alphabet but we also sit snugly at the very
bottom
of the inflation heap at number 223. That puts our nearest rival,
war-wrecked Iraq 742 percentage points away.
Our nemesis
that we are always eager to challenge to a duel, the
United Kingdom and the
European Union, have an inflation average of 2,2%.
That's how badly
different we are and there is definitely no economic
turnaround in sight. We
can only hope that Gono will achieve his target of
200% inflation by
year-end. It is a huge leap of faith even for the most
optimistic patriot
given the state of agriculture and our limited foreign
currency generation
capacity.
So long as Gono cannot convince his principals to
change their
politics, we are doomed. What is needed is a whole new culture
of doing
business and the harnessing of all available resources to move
forward. Gono's
piece-meal selection of variable symptoms as "enemies" is at
worst an excuse
for doing nothing and at best an alibi for
failure.
His advisors should tell him these elementary
truths.
Zim Independent
By John Robertson
AS Zimbabwe's
remarkably good 2005/6 rainy season moves into its
final phases, evidence is
growing that food production will yet again fall
well below the volumes
needed.
Bruce Gemmill's ("Waiting to reclaim my land",
Zimbabwe
Independent, February 24), description of the lands he used to farm
as
silent, empty and resembling a graveyard can be applied to almost all the
land that used to produce Zimbabwe's food surpluses.
The
various efforts that have been made to persuade Zimbabweans
in particular,
and the world in general, that our land reform has been a
resounding success
have sounded more absurd with each passing year.
Of course,
the definition of the word "success" can be carefully
altered to fit in with
the ruling party's claim that ownership of the land
has been restored to
indigenous Zimbabweans and that is the "success" that
was wanted, but even
that claim is stretching credulity. What value is such
ownership when even
the farmers who have been resettled on the land can be
evicted on the whim
of a party heavyweight?
As Gemmill points out in his
excellent article, what matters
most is production, and apart from modest
crops for the growers' own
consumption, that is not happening. Much higher
levels of commitment and
experience are needed to produce large-scale crops
for competitive markets,
but these will never be forthcoming from people who
have no security of
tenure and therefore no confidence that only they will
reap what they have
sown.
Apart from property rights,
other components of the system that
used to work for commercial farmers, and
therefore for the country, were the
market for land, which permitted a
market price and collateral value to be
established, and the transferability
of ownership rights through the market.
These attributes permitted the land
to be used as security for bank loans,
while the security of tenure the
owners believed they had permitted
long-term planning.
These, in turn, supported the investment process that allowed
the farmers to
turn land into productive and sustainable farms.
By
comparison, today's farmers are seriously disabled. Far from
empowering them
by giving them free land, the policy-makers have
disempowered them by taking
away every one of the components of a
well-proven system that delivered
excellent results.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
GOVERNMENT last
week kept its finger firmly pressed on the
self-destruct button by
announcing plans to amend mining laws to allow the
state to take over mines,
a plan experts say sounds the death knell for the
sector.
If the plan is translated into action, analysts say, it will
lead to the
collapse of the mining industry with investors fleeing with
their investment
capital.
They say the proposal aggravates Zimbabwe's battered
reputation
wrought by its chaotic land reform, lawlessness and attack on the
opposition
and independent media.
Analysts said the move
would worsen Zimbabwe's tumbling ranking
as an investment destination and
prolong its isolation from the rest of the
world.
In what
experts liken to nationalisation of the sector, Mines
minister Amos Midzi
said the amendment would allow government to take a 51%
shareholding in
strategic foreign-owned mines.
He said mining companies would
cede 25% to the state for free
and give the other 26% to empowerment groups
that would pay for the stake
over a five-year period.
Midzi told the Chamber of Mines on the amendments: "Government
has made two
giant steps: to be an active player in the mining business and
to indigenise
51% in some instances of all foreign owned companies."
He
said government would hold controlling shares in companies
mining energy
minerals like coal, uranium and methane gas. Government will
have 51% in
platinum, diamond and gold mines "In gold government shall
participate in
big mines," Midzi said.
The announcement immediately made a
negative impact on the
international scene with sources saying the issue
could have played a major
part in scuttling Zimbabwe's attempt to get the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF)'s executive board to re-open financial
assistance lines.
The board made a big issue out of the
proposal that was a clear
departure from the government's promises to
protect private investment,
property rights and fair business
dealings.
The IMF has told Harare since 1999 to respect
property rights
and come up with a clear investment policy that ensures
confidence and
security.
At national level the impact of
the proposal was dramatic with
foreign mining companies openly expressing
their fear and reservations about
the plan.
Implats, a
major shareholder which owns 86,7% stake in Zimplats,
which operates
Zimbabwe's biggest platinum mine in the Selous area, said the
proposal would
affect its operations.
Chief executive officer David Brown
was cautious but warned that
the plan would render expansion at existing
mines "uneconomic".
The world's biggest platinum miner, South
Africa's Anglo
Platinum, currently developing Unki platinum project, said it
was concerned
with Zimbabwe's proposal.
Other players
were "disturbed" by the proposal which they say
smacks of an attempt to
nationalise mines the same way it nationalised land.
Midzi
for his part did not explain why government would need to
grab mines save to
say "there was need to benefit the majority of the
disadvantaged
people".
Analysts believe the move would sink the industry
which,
ironically, is the only sector registering some modest
growth.
The mining sector grew by 7% last year making it the
only
industry to register growth over the past three years.
It contributes 4% to GDP and 25% to the country's foreign
currency
earnings.
With agriculture having collapsed and other
industries in dire
straits, the mining sector has become one of the biggest
employers in the
country.
The proposal therefore poses a
serious threat to foreign mining
companies that are already hard pressed
because of Zimbabwe's heavy handed
foreign currency
regime.
Economic consultant Daniel Ndlela said if government
carries out
its threats the sector would follow
agriculture.
"It's a greed policy that will bring the mining
sector to a halt
just like what happened to agriculture when they invaded
farms and
nationalised land," Ndlela warned.
He said the
nationalisation of companies was a 1970s policy that
is no longer
fashionable in the new global village.
"That policy ceased to
be fashionable more than 30 year ago,"
Ndlela said.
"What's fashionable now is sustained growth, reduction of
poverty and
partnership with investors and the private sector."
The
proposal could cause massive capital flight as investors
fear losing their
property, he said.
Analysts say it would also strangle the
little capital that has
been trickling into Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is in its
ninth year of
disinvestment.
Analysts wonder why
government wants to grab more mines when it
has not been able to run its
owns.
State mining concern Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation
(ZMDC) has failed to resuscitate closed
mines.
It has a trail of collapsed ventures since 1980. It
closed its
biggest gold producer, Sabi, in 2002. ZMDC also left thousands of
people
jobless when it closed its copper smelter in Mhangura. Mhangura is
now a
ghost town.
While government has made public
commitments to reopen the
mines, there has been very little progress on the
ground.
According to unconfirmed reports, more than 4 000
small mining
companies have closed down since Zimbabwe's financial crisis
started in
1999. More than 10 other big mines have been shut down since
2000.
Falcon Gold, owners of Dalny (Chakari) and Venice
Mines, both
near Kadoma, is threatening to shut down because of huge losses
caused by
the foreign currency problems.
Experts also
warn that the plan could degenerate into a
diplomatic crisis with South
Africa.
Harare's attempt to muscle into South African
companies is bound
to irk Pretoria, they said.
Over the
past five years South African companies have invested
heavily in Zimbabwean
mines on the basis of protection offers under the
Bilateral Investment and
Property Protection Agreements (Bippas).
Midzi's proposal
would affect two SA companies, Shaft Sinkers
and Mmakau Mining, that
recently opened Eureka Mine which had been closed
for the past five
years.
The move is likely to affect SA's Metallon Gold Mine
that
operates five local mines and produces more than a third of Zimbabwe's
gold.
Owned by black entrepreneur, Mzi Khumalo, Metallon is
currently
embroiled in a fight with indigenous empowerment groups over a 30%
stake
which was initially reserved for local business
people.
Stanmarker, led by Lloyd Hove, is suing Metallon for
breach of
contract while the Manyame Consortium which includes John Mkushi,
Albert
Nhau and banker Mthuli Ncube is yet to pay for its
stake.
If the government becomes a shareholder it would need
to pump
out huge amounts of foreign currency for expansion
programmes.
"Government does not have local money, worse
still hard
currency," said an independent economist, Blessing
Sakupwanya.
Armed with the new law, government is likely to
muscle into
Metallon which owns Arcturus Mines, Shamva Mine, Mazowe, How
Mines and
Penalonga.
The five mines have an annual gold
production of 180 000 ounces,
employs 10 000 people and sustains 500 000
more.
"The closure of such mines would affect thousands of people
in
both the sector and supporting industries," Sakupwanya
said.
Implats' Mimosa Mines will also be
affected.
Other analysts detect a measure of guilt atonement
in Midzi's
proposal saying it could have been triggered by President
Mugabe's criticism
of non-performing ministers during his birthday
interview.
They say he is trying to over-compensate for his
inadequacies
and the policy risks dying a natural death.
Zim Independent
Comment
NO matter how much the Zanu PF government tries to
deny its
egregious human rights record, it is nevertheless working
feverishly to
demonstrate that it can attack civic liberties with
impunity.
The events of the past two weeks following the
arrest of
opposition MP Giles Mutsekwa and other members of the MDC on
charges of
conspiring to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, amply
demonstrate the
extent to which government is prepared to subvert
fundamental human
liberties using methods, including arbitrary arrest, which
have no place in
a democracy.
The state case collapsed on
Wednesday with charges being dropped
against the accused.
What has emerged from the state's latest debacle is that the
world has seen
all too clearly that Zimbabwe is not a democracy and security
agents, which
include the Central Intelligence Organisation and the police,
do not respect
basic human rights or legal due process.
It is also crystal
clear that the government is prepared to
cause alarm and despondency to
fulfil a political agenda set by the ruling
party. This is not the first
time the country has been made to endure
immense anxiety and tension because
of state-authoured dramas designed to
portray President Mugabe and his
government as victims of Western
conspirators.
But such
was the clumsy amateurism of this latest episode that
the state case quickly
collapsed. On Tuesday evening High Court judge,
Justice Charles Hungwe,
ruled the continued detention of the accused and the
confiscation of their
property unlawful. The judgement should be hailed as a
bold illustration of
judicial activism which has been lacking of late among
some of his
colleagues on the bench. He said the illegal detention and the
refusal by
police to allow lawyers to access the accused "deserved the
highest possible
censure".
"It cannot be justified in a democratic society,"
said the
judge. "One cannot simply condone such a blatant refusal of access
by the
police. This is the type of conduct that brings the administration of
justice into disrepute."
Court documents state that the
accused were abused and tortured
while in custody. Even after they had been
remanded in custody by a court,
the police and the CIO still continued to
detain them when they should have
been transferred to remand
prison.
The documents detail the ZRP's disrespect for lawyers
and the
legal process and a culture of obduracy designed to subvert
individual
rights.
Such was the conduct of the police and
the CIO that even
prosecutors, who are state lawyers and should be on the
same side as law
enforcers, were victims of harassment and
intimidation.
State counsel who had travelled from Harare to
bolster the state
case had to leave Mutare unceremoniously after threats
from the police and
the CIO, it is reported. The area prosecutor had to
abandon his home and
find alternative accommodation after the police and the
CIO accused him of
siding with the defence.
Justice
Hungwe rightly describes this behaviour by the police
and the CIO as "a
shocking development". The pattern of partisan behaviour
by state agents is
evident from the Gukurahundi era in the early 1980s, to
the arraignment of
Zanu Ndonga leader Ndabaningi Sithole on treason charges,
through to the
Cain Nkala murder case and the Ari Ben-Menashe saga.
This
unprofessional behaviour has not been missed by alert
judges. Justice Sandra
Mungwira captured this well in her ruling in the
Nkala
case.
"The (police) witnesses conducted themselves in a
shameless
fashion and displayed utter contempt for the due administration of
justice
to the extent that they were prepared to indulge in what can only be
described as works of fiction ..."
Repeated claims by
police commissioner Augustine Chihuri that
Zimbabwe has a professional
police force as demonstrated by assignment to
United Nations duty abroad
cannot stand the test of sincerity in the face of
the shocking conduct of
the police in dealing with the Mutare case. With
equal measure claims by
State Security minister Didymus Mutasa that Zimbabwe
has a competent
intelligence apparatus which managed to save the nation from
a terrorist
plot is simply laughable. There was no plot other than that
concocted in the
minds of ministers and partisan security officials.
Whenever
charges of human rights abuse are raised against
Zimbabwe, our rulers have
been quick to accuse the media of painting a
negative image of the country.
We have even been accused by our colleagues
in the state media of lying. But
it is clear this week who has been wielding
the brush to tar the image of
the country.
Can Chihuri or Mutasa dispute Justice Hungwe's
summation that
the Mutare incident was "the type of conduct that brings the
administration
of justice into disrepute"? The Commissioner of Police and
Minister for
State Security should be held accountable for this disgraceful
episode.
Zim Independent
The Eric Bloch Column
WHEN Mines and Mining
Development minister Amos Midzi announced
a fortnight ago that government
had approved amendments to the proposed
Mines and Minerals Bill, the
inevitable reaction was that no government
could be so vested with a
national death wish.
Those amendments are tantamount to a
gargantuan nationalisation
of the mining sector.
As the
minister outlined the proposals, any rational listener
could only assume
that government was dismayed in the extreme that, despite
its vigorous
efforts to that end, it has still not totally destroyed the
Zimbabwean
economy notwithstanding more than a quarter-century's endeavours
to do
so.
So potentially disastrous are the new intents that one
must
presume that government might have been in a state of great distress,
saying: "Although we did our very best to destroy the Zimbabwean economy by
collapsing agriculture, which was its foundation, through an ill-conceived,
unjust, immoral programme of land acquisition, implemented even more
devastatingly than its conception, the economy is still not completely
destroyed.
"Although we tried very intensively to
reinforce the economic
collapse by alienating the international community,
by contempt for law and
order, matched only by like contempt for human
rights and for democracy, by
allowing corruption to prevail unabated as an
ever greater pervading cancer,
and by gross fiscal mismanagement, the
economy still lingers on, even if in
a very debilitated
state.
"Where did we go wrong? How did all these actions
only bring
the economy to its knees, not to total destruction? What can we
do?"
Undoubtedly the worthy ministers and their multitudes of
advisors pondered and pondered on not only how their strategies could have
failed, but also on what now to do. And, eventually, one of them will have
said:
"Now that agriculture is almost extinct, and as we
do not
recognise the informal sector as a genuine element of the economy
(and we
failed to kill it with Operation Murambatsvina), the strongest
remaining
element, and that with the greatest potential as catalyst for
economic
upturn, is the mining sector. So let us destroy it, and how better
to do so
than by nationalising it."
His colleagues will
have stared at him with amazement, never
having being aware of such
deep-seated brilliance! In fact, they had been so
unaware of such profound
intellect among them that, after some reflection,
they probably wondered
whether they had missed some key point that would
negate the whole
scheme.
"How," they will have asked, "will our taking
ownership of the
mining sector complete the destruction of the economy? How
will that bring
about the long-awaited economic
Armageddon?"
The fount of inspiration will have leaned back,
savouring the
moment of supremacy and undivided attention, and then surely
will have
explained: "If we dictate that the state must own 51% of all
shares in
mines producing energy minerals, platinum and diamonds, and that
the state
and appropriately approved indigenous companies own a like
proportion in
large gold mines, we will ring the death knell of mining and,
thereby, of
what little else remains in the economy.
"On
the one hand investors, the world over - foreign and
domestic investors
alike - will never again want to invest in Zimbabwe, for
they will say:
'First they took the land, now they take the mines, then they'll
take the
factories, then the hotels, then the banks, and then anything else
that is
left.' And, what is even more, all those already involved in mining
will be
demoralised in the extreme, losing any and all interest in their
operations."
To ensure that demoralisation and complete
loss of interest
occurs, the state proposes that all existing platinum,
diamond and energy
mineral mines - coal, natural and coal-bed methane gas
and uranium - must
cede to the state 25% of all shares immediately following
upon the enactment
of the intended laws, no payment whatsoever being given
for those shares. A
further 26% must then be transferred to the state over
the following five
years - with no indication, at present, whether there
will be any payment
for those shares and, if so, the fairness of valuation
and the terms of
payment.
The demonic brilliance of the
economy-destroying proposals is
underscored by the fact that, in addition to
the gross inequity of
expropriation and deprivation of property rights,
government's track-record
of mismanagement of almost every parastatal, and
of virtually every economic
venture that it has ever been involved with,
virtually assures that even the
most viable of mines will lose all viability
once government is in control.
Soon those mines will have
performance records commensurate with
those of Ziscosteel, Zesa, the
National Railways of Zimbabwe, the Grain
Marketing Board, the National Oil
Company of Zimbabwe and the majority of
the other state-controlled economic
enterprises.
In the case of the non-energy minerals -
platinum, diamond and
large gold mines - the proposals are marginally less
oppressive, but only
very marginally so! All existing mines will have to
cede to government, or
to approved Zimbabwean indigenous companies, 10% of
all shares within two
years, a further 30% within the next following three
years, and another 10%
within two years thereafter, so that within seven
years the state and
Zimbabwean ownership will be at least
50%.
No details are released as to the values to be placed on
the
shares, but clearly government intends that the sellers will effectively
pay
themselves, without government putting up even one brass farthing, for
it is
intended that the incoming legislation will also introduce an
obligation
upon mines to pay royalties to the state (over and above existing
liability
to income tax and a milliard of indirect taxes). So the generous
state will
take from one pocket of the mining industry in order to place a
little in
the other pocket, creating the impression that the enforced
disinvestment is
pursued with equity.
Yet to be disclosed
is how government will determine which
Zimbabweans, and which Zimbabwean
companies, will be approved as
co-shareholders with non-Zimbabweans, but if
the past is anything of a
guideline, the fundamental criteria will
undoubtedly be the extent of
nepotistic association, approved political
activity and influence-wielding
ability of those who will be given the
accolades of investment approval,
supported by state
funding.
In like manner, can it now be assumed that in order
to pretend
that there is still wide-ranging international investor interest
in the
mining sector, Zimbabweans will shortly be recipients of yet another
deluge
of state propaganda as to the merits and magnificent successes of its
"Look
East" policies - which have yielded a cement factory, brickfields, a
glass
factory, and management of a coal-starved iron and steel producer, a
flood
of eastern-produced commuter omnibuses, nine aircraft (still being
paid for)
and comparatively little else!
In his
statement, Midzi made no reference to the Bilateral
Investment Protection
Agreements to which Zimbabwe is party, and the impact
that they should have
upon the proposed legalised "theft" of the mining
industry by government.
However, as government has had almost total
disregard for those agreements
in pursuing its land acquisition,
resettlement and redistribution programme,
it is too much to expect that it
will give them more than even the slightest
glance, as it embarks upon its
buccaneering intents upon
mining.
The one and only redeeming feature of the minister's
statement
was his acknowledgement that he has met with some "stakeholders in
the
mining industry to brief them on the government position", and they had
indicated "they need to make further consultations, and would respond in a
few weeks' time". Although probably a vain one, one must hope that -
although improbable - government will heed the responses when they are
forthcoming, and will markedly reconsider its cataclysmic intent of
completing the implosion of the economy.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
IT is sometimes impossible to imagine that
a former editor of a
national newspaper can turn bootlicker just because he
cannot think beyond a
tribal laager.
Last week we had
more than a surfeit of it when a former Daily
News editor filled a whole
page in the Financial Gazette with drivel of
ethnic
politics.
It was evident in the article that there is no love
lost between
Geoffrey Nyarota and Welshman Ncube while his admiration for
Morgan
Tsvangirai blinds him to obvious realities.
So
every political movement led by somebody from Matabeleland is
ethnic-based?
Even Joshua Nkomo's Zapu is described derisively as having a
largely "ethnic
following".
Those who broke away to form Zanu in 1963
evidently don't have
ethnic origins. They are born nationalists. Ncube was
accused of leading a
"rebel faction".
We never heard much
of ethnicity when Edgar Tekere left Zanu PF
to form ZUM or when the feisty
Margaret Dongo formed ZUD or Enock
Dumbutshena formed the Forum
Party.
Remember there was also NAGG before its leader Shake
Maya was
catapulted to the echelons of the MDC without questions asked. Now
Arthur
Mutambara is being accused of "strategic miscalculation" by accepting
"leadership of an irrelevant ethnic-based clique".
Why
irrelevant and ethnic you might ask? Because they dared
challenge Tsvangirai
for leadership after he failed to win the presidency in
2002. Just why he
should not be challenged is not explained.
All that is
emphasised is the myth of Tsvangirai's "bedrock of
support" which he has
never been able to demonstrate. Is Nyarota so shallow
he subscribes to the
myth of a majority tribe in Zimbabwe? Where is it
based?
It is of course pertinent that Nyarota is eager to remind
readers of his
stay in Bulawayo. He was working for the Chronicle when the
Zanu PF genocide
occurred. We would love to read a single story he wrote in
support of
democracy. He should never pretend that his legacy and his
backing for the
atrocities of the 1980s are not known.
We also liked his advice
to his idol Tsvangirai: "If there is
sufficient evidence to suggest that,
notwithstanding his grassroots support,
he has become a liability to the
struggle then he must prescribe an
appropriate medicine, cognisant of the
fact that it takes a great man to
sacrifice self for
nation."
Is it possible that this kind of drivel comes from
the spirit of
a man? Is this not the same dross we heard from Mugabe saying
he would tell
his supporters when he was ready to leave
power?
Needless to say these are the same idol-worshippers
who created
god Mugabe whom they now pretend to revile with a passion.
Nothing has been
learnt. And how does one who has become a liability to a
cause sacrifice
himself Geoff?
Still pushing his ethnic
line to ridiculous depths, Nyarota said
Mutambara's camp lost two ward
elections in Bulawayo because people don't
support ethnic initiatives. But
he didn't say why the same logic doesn't
apply to the Tsvangirai group's
loss of a ward election in Chitungwiza and
the more important mayoral poll
in Chegutu. It is a serious indictment of
our body politic that such
primitive thinking finds buyers in Zimbabwe.
Haven't we heard
all this before somewhere? Law enforcement
officers "unearth" an arms cache.
Information is then leaked to the official
media suggesting this is all part
of a wider plot against the government.
President Mugabe and other
luminaries denounce the opposition. Arrests are
made of suspects. They are
often abused. And then, many months later, when
the accused are brought to
court, the state's case collapses when the
"evidence" proves to be not only
unsatisfactory but in many cases
manufactured.
We all
recall the arms "discovered" on Nest Egg farm and other
Zapu-owned
properties in 1982. That led to the arrest of Dumiso Dabengwa and
Lookout
Masuku on charges of treason. They were acquitted in court but
detained
under the Emergency Powers. Masuku was allowed out to die.
Then there was a "plot" by the Rev Ndabaningi Sithole in 1995 to
overthrow
the government. Documents linking the Zanu leader to the shadowy
Chimwenje
movement were widely circulated but although he was convicted in
the High
Court, he was still appealing the case at the time of his
death.
Then there were the three Americans who were arrested
with
weapons of war in 1999. They had a map of State House, we were told.
Strangely, it was never produced at their trial. Their lawyers argued that
the three had been tortured while in custody.
Perhaps
most seriously in this litany of political arrests and
trial-by-media, we
had the case of Cain Nkala in 2001 where opposition MPs
were condemned to
languish in prison before a judge brave enough to expose
the state's
evidence as a complete fabrication could be found to release
them.
In this latest case, we have the familiar pattern
of leaks from
the investigations mixed with speculation by the Herald's
reporters, not to
mention a line-up of useful idiots to comment on
ZTV.
Police reservist Peter Hitschmann "is believed to have
recruited
ex-members of the Rhodesian army as well as the police force, some
of whom
are senior members of the MDC and former legislators, to work
towards the
opposition party's agenda for illegal regime change in
Zimbabwe", the Herald
breathlessly told us.
But where was
this information coming from, couched in the
language of Zanu PF? Then Peter
Tatchell's laughable Zimbabwe Freedom
Movement was drawn into the plot as if
to confirm the whole thing!
The Herald cannot understand why
the British authorities did not
arrest the balaclava-clad members of the ZFM
who appeared at a London press
conference. Somebody should explain to our
colleagues in the state media
that not every government arrests those
engaging in amateur theatrics,
especially when prosecutors are likely to be
laughed out of court!
"The cabal is alleged to have come up
with a list of targeted
individuals whom it wanted to eliminate and
consequently cause confusion and
mayhem in the country," read a story under
Caesar Zvayi's byline and those
of other gullible Herald
reporters.
What's the betting that list will never be
produced in court?
And since when has "causing confusion" been a criminal
offence?
"Police suspect that the so-called ZFM intended to
target for
elimination the remaining white farmers, top Zanu PF and
government
officials and business leaders to lend credence to opposition
claims that
Zimbabwe was a failed state where anarchy reigned supreme in the
hope of
bringing about foreign intervention and consequent illegal regime
change,"
the Herald told us.
Wasn't it Didymus Mutasa who
was talking about eliminating
people? He evidently thinks it's okay to say
so. As for Zimbabwe being a
failed state, it does not take the invisible ZFM
to provide evidence of
that, or that "anarchy reigns supreme" on the
farms.
"Police suspect that the group had planned to justify
its
existence to the donor community by destabilising the 21st February
Movement
celebrations held in Mutare's Sakubva stadium on February 25 by
throwing
teargas canisters and grenades into the venue," Zvayi and his
colleagues
informed readers.
It will be interesting to
see what evidence - if any - emerges
from this cloud of partisan
speculation. Over the weekend it was reported
that Hitschmann was a licensed
arms dealer and hunter. In other words he was
entitled to have the weapons
at his home. Did the police not know that? They
could have saved the Herald
considerable embarrassment by telling them!
Then, on Wednesday the state's
case began to unravel as key "suspects" had
their cases withdrawn before
plea.
What is curious in all this is that Hitschmann was widely
seen
in the 1980s and 90s as friendly to a number of state agendas,
particularly
on the wildlife front. We all recall the role Ari Ben-Menashe
played in
state machinations to entrap Tsvangirai just ahead of the 2002
election; and
how the state media swallowed everything they were told in
that case which
quickly fell apart. Events seem to be taking a familiar
pattern ahead of the
MDC congress.
Also of interest is
that remarks about "shadowy groups" causing
chaos attributed to the police
in Herald reports last week turned up in the
Sunday Mirror as attributed to
"security and intelligence agencies".
These same informants -
not a thousand miles from the Mirror's
newsroom we can safely assume - have
inventively managed to introduce the
Taiwanese into the picture thus giving
the whole bizarre conspiracy theory
an international twist. Actually, more
Jackie Chan! Then of course there are
the Italians! And who is it, by the
way, that has been trying to get the few
remaining white farmers to flee the
country? Certainly not Tatchell's
amateur performers.
Talking of amateur performers, we were interested to read claims
by George
Charamba's lawyer that recent articles published by the Zimbabwe
Independent
suggest his client is "incompetent.crooked and unprofessional".
We don't recall anyone saying that. But if Charamba's lawyer
insists, so be
it.
Meanwhile, could all journalists who believe Charamba has
been
less-than-professional in his dealings with them in the past,
particularly
in his replies to requests for comment on reports involving
President Mugabe
or the government, please contact us. We need to
demonstrate just how
professional he is!
In particular,
Charamba resents the suggestion that he "aligned
himself with political
factions at the expense of his national duty, which
he is very much aware
of".
Reports that he attended a rally for the Zanu PF mayoral
candidate in the recent Chegutu election must therefore be false and will
need to be retracted.
Confirming the public impression
that you have to be completely
delusional to serve in government nowadays,
we enjoyed the remarks by
Secretary for Environment and Tourism Margaret
Sangarwe that tourism since
1980 had "grown from strength to strength and
has seen the number of players
grow constantly over the years in
correspondence to the growing visitor
traffic".
She made
the remarks at the Silver Jubilee Tourism Awards where
the Minister of
Transport and Communications, Chris Mushohwe, presented an
award to Tourism
minister Francis Nhema for his "invaluable contribution to
domestic tourism"
while Mashonaland West governor Nelson Samkange looked on.
A case of one
minister rewarding another! Have things got that bad?
Nhema
has done his best in a losing battle with his cabinet
colleagues who have
contributed to the headlong decline of tourism by their
maladroit public
remarks. They should have been there to receive their
wooden spoons.
Meanwhile, we would be fascinated to know what Samkange has
done for
domestic tourism!
We were intrigued by a story by Munyaradzi
Huni on Sunday
entitled "Zim respects private property". It was essentially
a lecture by
Gideon Gono who had been quizzed on government's mining
proposals at his
recent meeting with the IMF executive board in Washington.
It was a "hot
issue", he disclosed. The Reserve Bank condemned any form of
expropriation,
Gono remarked, clearly having experienced some embarrassment
at the meeting.
Huni talked about the requirement that mining
companies should
cede 25% of their shares when the new legislation is
enacted. There will be
no compensation for this initial transfer. Apparently
Huni was unable to
grasp that this was in all probability what Gono was
talking about.
So the governor spelt it out. The RBZ supports
indigenisation,
he said. "However, for the betterment of the national
economy as well as
sustainable integration of Zimbabwe into the competitive
global space for
investment attraction, the process has to be done in
accordance with strict
observance and respect for private property rights as
well as through
market-friendly principles of fair value
exchange."
In other words not the approach taken by Midzi and
cabinet!
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Vincent Kahiya
UNITED
Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan still has plans to
visit Zimbabwe even
though he did not find it necessary to pass through
Harare during his tour
of southern Africa this week.
The government, which last year
told us Annan would come to
Zimbabwe in March, was on Wednesday quick to
tell us that the UN boss still
had plans to visit on a "date convenient to
him".
Zimbabwe was not on the menu during the current
trip.
In South Africa, Annan made vague disclosures about his
desire
to visit Zimbabwe, not on his current trip, but on a special visit,
to
"discuss issues" with the Zimbabwean authorities.
South African media quoted him as saying; "The situation in
Zimbabwe is
extremely difficult. It's difficult for the Zimbabweans, it's
difficult for
the region and it's difficult for the world."
The situation
is so untenable that it calls for a separate trip
to southern Africa! Taken
in this context, the impending visit elevates the
Zimbabwean crisis to that
of Darfur in Sudan or Ivory Coast which have
warranted special visits by the
secretary-general.
President Robert Mugabe had invited Annan
to come to Zimbabwe to
see for himself the "great" work that has been done
under Operation Garikai
and that the orgy of destruction under Operation
Murambatsvina had not
caused any humanitarian crisis.
So
the feverish activity under Operation Garikai was designed to
prove to Annan
that his special envoy Anna Tibaijuka's report on the
humanitarian crisis
caused by Operation Murambatsvina, was "one-sided" as
Zimbabweans were happy
with the destruction of their homes and sources of
livelihood!
But the government would like to use the
visit as a publicity
stunt. I am sure our rulers can already visualise Annan
cutting the ribbon
to hand over completed houses at White Cliff in Harare or
Cowdray Park in
Bulawayo.
Annan would commend Zimbabwe's
valiant fight to end housing
shortages while Mugabe nods approvingly by his
side. Dream on.
As we said mid-last year following
publication of the Tibaijuka
report, the government was pushing the
frontiers of wishful-thinking too far
by expecting Annan to second guess his
envoy and commend, instead of
condemning, Zimbabwe.
The
follow-up visit by Jan Egeland confirmed the Tibaijuka
findings and exposed
the inadequacies of Operation Garikai.
When President Mugabe
virulently attacked Egeland at the Zanu PF
conference in December in
Esigodini, and when the party declared that
Zimbabwe would not welcome any
more envoys from the UN, the government
already knew Annan would not be
setting foot in Harare. This took the shine
out of Operation Garikai as
Annan was not coming to cut the ribbon soon.
Activity around the
construction projects has slowed down. People are being
allocated incomplete
houses with no running water or sewerage system.
Meanwhile,
at Hopley Farm victims of Murambatsvina are still
sheltered under plastic
shacks waiting for proper accommodation. They stand
very little chance of
being allocated the few houses that have been built
because the match box
structures have either been hijacked by politicians or
are being allocated
to Zanu PF supporters.
This is true even if Local Government
minister, Ignatious
Chombo, tried to deny it in January. This is what he
told the state media
then: "The allocation of houses built under Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle
is going on very well and the houses have been
benefiting the intended
beneficiaries, those who were affected by the
clean-up campaign.
"We have made sure that those who
benefited from the programme
did not have houses elsewhere and we have a
database where information about
those who have houses is kept and if an
individual cheated his way to get a
house, then we will get
him."
But this week he had jumped on the anti-corruption
bandwagon,
singing a completely different song.
"We
already have problems in Beitbridge, Bulawayo, Gwanda and
other areas where
undeserving people have been allocated houses." Chombo
disclosed.
"Therefore, councils should remove the names
of their
(government officials, their relatives, MPs, politicians) relatives
from the
operation's waiting list," he was quoted as saying in the Herald on
Tuesday.
And then in an explicit summation of the state of
government's
housing delivery programme, Chombo in the same article, said
Garikai houses
were for people who say unondiwana pamusika (you will find me
at the market)
when asked about their residential addresses. What a shame
for a government
which claimed Operation Murambatsvina had not created a
major humanitarian
crisis. Do we need Annan here to get decent
accommodation?
Don't be
parochial!
COLUMNIST Eric Bloch should stop being parochial
and see the
bigger picture.
Is it because he sits on
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's
advisory board that he is unable to be
objective?
He knows the evils of inflation, no, hyperinflation,
and yet he
still supports the printing of money.
The
simple fact is that if the RBZ had not printed more money,
the FX (free
funds) from NGOs, among others, would have been lapped up by
money already
in circulation from industry and going to productive use.
He
implies that NGOs do not use, or use little of their money
for consumables.
What percentage of their funds are used for salaries alone?
And believe me, those close to 80 Samora Machel Avenue say the
rate used was
well above the mid-rate.
Presumably Bloch went on to justify
these schoolboy arguments
later in the column, but after just two columns I
did not have the stomach
to carry on reading.
Apologists
of this kind do not help the cause of the independent
press. At least a
disclaimer at the end of the article stating that he sits
on the RBZ board
(if in fact he does) would help readers realise that they
should take his
writings with a huge dollop of salt!
TCM,
Harare.
---------------
Why twist what I
said Chido?
WHILST I do not appreciate the
condescending and
castigatory tone of Chido Makunike's response "Confounded
by White African",
(Zimbabwe Independent, March 10), to my rebuttal of his
article on whites
securing a place in Africa, I nevertheless deem it worthy
of a reply.
He is probably right when he says that I
responded too
emotionally, but in my defence, who isn't getting emotional
about the prison
conditions we have to live under these days? It may be
alright for him in
Senegal, but as we all know it's a different story
here.
Nevertheless, if Makunike is serious about being
"used to
robustly debating issues on their merits" and if he is seriously
concerned
about his own adopted subject of white Africans securing a place
in Africa,
he should refrain from twisting what he reads to suit his own
views, thereby
distorting the truth.
For instance,
I made no suggestion of being "terribly
offended at the idea of whites
integrating fully into the black African
lifestyle". These are his words,
not mine. I actually believe that such
decisions are the legitimate right of
any individual to make.
What I do rebut is the idea
that as a group we should do
so or risk being shunned. Makunike has no right
to suggest that. It is a
black nationalist idea derived from black racism
and as such, should be
given no credence.
Mutual
respect, politeness, courtesy and good
neighbourliness have always been
enough for people of different races and
tribes to live in harmony until
some freak comes along and starts putting
wicked ideas into people's heads,
as we have discovered here.
If Makunike wants to
believe that I am "one reason why
racial harmony in southern Africa will
remain a mirage for some time to
come", he is entitled to that opinion, but
he should not twist what I said
to give credence to his
viewpoint.
I hope we now understand each other, because
I really
appreciate his obvious disenchantment with the Jonathan Moyos and
Tafataona
Mahosos of this world.
However, I still
make the point that African nationalism
far outweighs the reason he cites
and apologise profusely if he feels
offended because he thinks I am "denying
him the right to think for himself
and trying to put thoughts into his mind"
in the vein of a true- blue
colonialist.
White
African,
Bulawayo.
----------
Mutambara still to
deliver
MOST people, myself included, were relieved by
Professor
Arthur Mutambara's acceptance speech in which he said his mission
was to
reunite the MDC.
Most of us were wondering
how he was going to achieve
this, considering that he had already taken
sides by accepting the
presidency of the pro-senate
group.
Even within the pro-senate group itself,
Mutambara's
decision to accept the post did not go down well with others,
among them
Gift Chimanikire, who could have been promised the
presidency.
He did acknowledge MDC president, Morgan
Tsvangirai, as a
hero and spoke strongly about the need to forget the past
and move forward.
A week or so later, Mutambara was
quoted in the media
saying: "How do we talk about a regime which is criminal
and violent when we
ourselves are carrying out violent acts and violating
our own party rules?
We won't be qualified to fight Mugabe if we are little
Mugabes."
His statements were obviously aimed at
Tsvangirai.
Mutambara has obviously not had time to do
a careful
analysis of the situation, and must have relied more on
information supplied
to him by officials of the pro-senate
faction.
He obviously has not heard about the acts of
violence
committed by members of his own faction against members of the
other
faction.
He should certainly have heard about
people who lost their
eyes and teeth at the hands of activists from the
faction that he leads.
I personally do not condone
violence - whether committed
by Zanu PF, the MDC or the faction led by
Mutambara, who should refrain from
laying accusations before verifying his
facts.
Mutambara clearly stated his position on the
senate and
other government institutions, saying: "My position was that the
MDC should
have boycotted those senate elections. Not only that, I was for
the total
withdrawal from parliament and all the other election-based
institutions."
The hope of many Zimbabweans was that he
would quickly
consult with his colleagues with a view of persuading them to
pull out of
the senate, parliament and all other offices obtained through
dubious
elections.
However, a few weeks down the
line, Mutambara talks of
preparations for elections: "Even if we have to
fight elections under the
current constitution, we will build an opposition
so strong and formidable
that if Mugabe tries to rig elections, it will be
impossible for him to get
away with it."
Has
Mutambara already been convinced that his party will
contest any future
elections, even if Mugabe calls for an election for a
toilet
care-taker?
Some will argue that Mutambara needs more
time to put his
house in order, but so far, he has not yet lived up to his
acceptance
speech.
The best is for us to watch and
see.
Benjamin Chitate,
MDC
activist,
New Zealand.
----------
Fee hikes simply absurd
I PERSONALLY find it absurd that state universities have
hiked fees by more
than 10 times what the government support fund caters
for.
Many people working in industry earn far below
the poverty
datum line wage of $21,8 million, yet they expect ordinary
students emerging
from high school to pay as much as $50 million per
academic year.
Where do the relevant authorities
honestly think we
(students) will get such huge sums of
money?
I thought that university education was supposed
to be
free to all citizens with the relevant
qualifications.
This is pushing people more and more
into abject poverty.
Why should we suffer and yet other countries are
offering better educational
conditions? Honestly, how are we expected to
survive? Someone is definitely
behind all this rot which must stop right
away.
I think it is high time we woke up from this deep
slumber.
How can the economy improve when future
leaders are
indirectly denied their basic tertiary educational
rights?
Failure to attain tertiary education will have
a deeper,
negative economic impact on the ordinary
Zimbabweans.
This country has certainly gone to the
dogs.
Angry Nust Student,
Bulawayo.
---------
Wake up
industry!
READING the latest batch of quoted company
results, one is
struck by the various chairmen's sheep-like use of the word
"challenges".
How sad they prostitute honesty and
integrity by failing
to call the situation what it
is.
To add insult to injury, they try and make excuses,
no
doubt to "stay in government's good books" by attributing the
"challenges"
to a poor agricultural season. In fact, viable farms, mostly
with
facilities to overcome droughts, were
destroyed.
Successful civilisations and economies have
been built on
certain truths and values. It is high time the captains of
commerce and
industry found the guts to set an
example.
JK Morris,
Harare.
---------
A carer's ordeal at the
hands of social welfare department
Editor - EXTREME
frustration is being experienced through
the utter incompetence of certain
sections of the Department of Social
Welfare due to their apparent inability
to provide the public with the
necessary forms at the opening of the New
Year.
Is this the usual civil service's lack of care,
or just
incompetence?
Obviously the department does
not consider that some
people could die or lose jobs due to their clerks'
inability to properly
execute their duties.
A lady
I know is taking care of an Aids orphan, thrown out
by his elder brothers
at the age of six.
He is now 11 years old and going to
school, but needs
special care to overcome the trauma and infection wrought
by parental
irresponsibility.
On February 4, his
carer went to Parirenyatwa Hospital to
get a repeat prescription for drugs
which he had been on for several months,
and are considered necessary for
him to live.
A clerk noticed that the department had
registered the
child in Chitungwiza and the result - no pills because of the
wrong form! Do
they not have telephones or know how to use
them?
The carer had to incur additional expenses on
transport to
Chitungwiza. All necessary forms - birth certificate, letters
etc, were
produced for the welfare officer but they had no forms, some
several weeks
into the New Year, effectively meaning there was to be no
pills.
How many more innocent souls are to suffer
through
clerical incompetence?
On February 28, some
three weeks after spending more money
on transport, losing working time and
getting even more frustration, forms
were finally obtained. This was,
however, not the end to the tale of woe.
On leaving
work at 10am the following day for Parirenyatwa
to collect the drugs, she
was told that the forms, consultation and
admission were for free, save for
the drugs for out-patients.
I was left wondering why
people are tossed from one queue
to another, as a process which should have
taken an hour at the most, took
an entire working
day.
The carer finally paid $209 000 for the drugs
which she
could ill-afford as she is raising and educating this child on a
domestic
worker's wage.
This ordeal raises plenty
of concerns:
* Why do we pay an Aids
levy?
* When are African women going to be considered
as part of
the workforce, whose time is valuable and should not be
wasted?
* Offices should have clear signs directing
patients/clients to the proper places for their desired
services;
* Why bother to go to doctors who prescribe
drugs which
obviously do not get to the public sector hospitals, but find
their way to
the private sector?
* How are these
medicines being distributed and by whom?
Are the Government Medical Stores
involved in distribution, and can they
account for the drugs they issue?
and
* Who else supplies Aids drugs and why are they so
expensive?
DJ Barker,
Harare.
People's Daily
More Zimbabwean vendors are flocking to Lusaka to
do business, Zambia
Daily Mail reported Thursday.
Zambia's
immigration department public relations officer Mulako
Bangweta also
confirmed the increased number of Zimbabweans entering his
country on
business visits.
"We are aware of the influx of the Zimbabwean
travelers entering the
country on 30 day business visits," Bangweta
said.
But when asked on whether the department is aware that the
neighboring
nationals are vending in Zambia, she said it is up to the
relevant local
authorities to check on the matter and report to the
Immigration Department.
The cross border traders association (CBTA)
at Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has urged the
Zimbabweans to sell their
products at markets rather than vending on the
streets in Lusaka.
CBTA Chairman Greenwell Shimukonka attributed
the influx of cross
border traders to Zambia's economic growth and the
problems in Zimbabwe.
Lusaka Mayor Mike Mposha threatened last
Sunday to arrest people
buying from street vendors to check the widespread
cholera.
Over 100 people have been killed since cholera broke out
in the
southern African country in August 2005. It is partly blamed on the
street
vendors.
Source: Xinhua
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
16 March
2006
Agents of Zimbabwe's feared Central Intelligence
Organization forced
suspects in the alleged presidential assassination plot
in the eastern city
of Mutare to sign documents corroborating a 12-page
confession by the
accused ringleader that implicated the political
opposition, according to
sources well informed about the case.
These
sources, speaking on condition they not be named, said two lawyers
attached
to attorney general's office, Florence Ziyambi and Joseph Jagada,
fled
Monday night from Mutare back to Harare after coming under heavy
pressure by
CIO operatives to use the confession of Michael Peter Hitschmann
to connect
the alleged conspiracy to assassinate President Robert Mugabe to
the
Movement for Democratic Change.
A Mutare police source said there was a
"drama" at the Mutare Central Police
Station as five CIO agents accused the
two state lawyers of supporting the
opposition MDC when they questioned the
affidavits signed by the accused
under duress.
At another point, the
lawyers insisted that the agents suspend interrogation
and leave the room
where the suspects were held so they could talk to their
lawyers.
Sources said CIO agents and police later threatened to
arrest state
attorneys when they refused to surrender the affidavits, which
were said to
have been "doctored." The assistant prosecutors later used the
affidavits to
convince Attorney General Sobhuza Gula Ndebele that there was
not enough
evidence to pursue the case against the members of the
opposition, who
included one sitting member of parliament.
Prosecutor
Levison Chikafu is said to have sought clearance from Harare to
release some
of the suspects on bail, though the Mutare high court
subsequently dismissed
charges against MDC parliamentarian Giles Mutsekwa
and two other men. A
fourth opposition official had been released without
charges earlier in the
week.
The former suspects declined to comment on the allegations about
the CIO's
role.
Reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe asked lawyer
advocate Eric Matinenga, who has handled high-profile
cases including the
2004 treason trial of MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai
(in which he was
acquitted), about the involvement of the security service
in the judicial
process.
MDC Youth Chairman for Manicaland Knowledge
Nyamuka, released with Mutseka
on Wednesday, said he and fellow activist
Thando Sibanda were tortured by
soldiers into admitting the opposition
joined in a plot to assassinate
President Mugabe.
Zim Daily
Friday, March 17 2006 @ 12:05 AM GMT
Contributed by:
correspondent
Our Congress celebrates six years of the
people's sacrifice and
commitment to our common vision of a new Zimbabwe and
a new beginning. It
will also look at how we can retain the confidence of
millions of
Zimbabweans who see us as their only source of hope. Six years
ago, the
people laid the foundation for the struggle against tyranny; the
struggle
for good governance; the struggle for a better life for all
Zimbabweans.
This week, we take stock of how far we have
traveled towards
fulfilling that vision. We take stock of the challenges and
lessons drawn
from our experiences in the past six years. And the lessons we
have derived
will help shape and determine our programmes in fighting this
dictatorship.
We all bear witness to the visible signs of collapse and ruin
around us. The
Congress will look at how as a party we respond to all those
issues. Going
back to the people is not a charade.
It is
a culture that we have entrenched so that we continually
subject ourselves
to the people to determine whether we still remain the
embodiments of their
dreams and their vision. Once again, as leaders, we go
back to the people
who gave us the mandate; the people who bestowed upon us
the responsibility
of saving our nation from a corrupt and inept government.
Once again, we
present ourselves to the people's court where the party
leadership, the
party programmes and party policies come up for scrutiny by
the real owners
of the party.
The Congress will culminate in elections where
delegates are
expected to give a fresh mandate to a new leadership that will
have the onus
of making sure we achieve our vision of a new Zimbabwe. The
second national
Congress therefore provides a window for leadership renewal
and rebirth; a
new and committed leadership that realizes and cherishes the
importance of
carrying the nation's hope on its shoulders. The delegates
will also discuss
amendments to the party's constitution as well as
proposals for
institutional reform.
The party needs to be
rebuilt and reorganized to reflect our
experiences and the new thinking that
we must have as a political formation
that is at a crucial stage in the
struggle. New policy proposals will also
be debated and refined so that we
march bravely into the future with
programmes that reflect a new thinking
derived from our experiences since
2000. We will also take a crucial
decision on whether it makes sense to
continue participating in elections
whose results are pre-determined.
The Congress will take a
position on whether the electoral route
under the current electoral
management system remains viable. Or whether we
should widen our options to
include using people power to put pressure on
this regime that has reduced
us to paupers and beggars in our own
motherland. We realize there is
strength in unity. Together, we shall win.
Zim Daily
Friday, March 17 2006 @ 12:04 AM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
The embattled dissident MDC faction
led by robotics Professor
Arthur Mutambara has written to Information
minister Tichaona Jokonya
pleading for coverage in the public media. The
faction, fast losing its grip
on the electorate, said it was baffled by the
turn of events after its
February 25 congress that endorsed Mutambara as the
faction leader. The
faction's deputy Information chief one M.M.M Changamire
alleged in a letter
leaked to Zimdaily that there has been an edict to
impose a blanket news
embargo on the faction.
"We are
reliably informed by sources at the ZBC and Zimpapers
that the Permanent
Secretary in your Ministry has imposed news embargo on
the MDC led by Prof.
Mutambara," Changamire said in his letter, a copy of
which is in possession
of Zimdaily. "Public media are under instruction not
to say anything about
us except when one of us is dead or arrested. This
embargo is supported by
the 'deafening' silence the public media have given
to our
activities."
In his letter of protest, Changamire said
despite attending the
activities, public media workers have not reported on
"Prof Mutambara's
acceptance speech at the 2nd MDC Congress of the 25th
February 2006. the
Press Conference held soon after the congress on the 26th
of February 2006
and Prof Mutambara's meeting with MDC structures in
Chitungwiza on Sunday
the 12th of March 2006." The embattled faction said
prior to their congress,
the "public media were awash with stories about
us."
"We believe it was meant to fan and perpetuate division
in the
MDC," the letter said. "Cde Minister, we are a party committed to
freedom of
information and expression and we expect your Ministry to enhance
and
complement our efforts to build a democratic Zimbabwe. Your Permanent
Secretary's unwarranted interference with information dissemination will
further damage the already battered image of our country." The letter urged
Jokonya to "investigate and take the necessary corrective measures." Efforts
to obtain comment from Jokonya were futile.
New Zimbabwe
By Staff
Reporter
Last updated: 03/17/2006 11:51:58
ZIMBABWE'S veteran opposition
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, could see his
position seriously undermined in a
leadership race at the weekend that is
expected to deepen the split within
his party.
Tsvangirai, the most formidable opposition leader since
Zimbabwe's
independence 26 years ago, faced for the first time several
challengers for
the presidency of a faction of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
Once posing the biggest challenge to President Robert
Mugabe's rule, the MDC
split late last year after Tsvangirai's decision to
boycott senate elections
and the gap between the rival camps showed no sign
of being bridged.
During a three-day MDC congress opening in Harare on
Friday, Tsvangirai
would square off against Roy Bennett, a white former MDC
MP, lawyer Tendai
Biti, former Harare mayor Elias Mudzuri, academician
Elphus Mukonoweshuro
and economist Tapiwa Mashakada.
While Tsvangirai
was expected to win the presidency, analysts agreed that
his leadership
would be weakened after facing challenges from within his own
supporters and
from rival Arthur Mutambara, who was elected MDC leader by
another camp
three weeks ago.
Mutambara, who returned to Zimbabwe after spending 15
years abroad, was a
respected former student leader who had said he wanted
to reconcile the MDC,
but his appeals had so far fallen on deaf
ears.
A media consultant and political commentator Bill Saidi said:
"There is no
chance of them getting back together becoming the MDC of the
old.
"The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front
(Zanu-PF)
party will exploit the division as much as
possible."
University of Zimbabwe political analyst Heneri Dzinotyiwei
said: "By
holding separate congresses, the two groups are underscoring the
split, and
showing they are irreconcilable."
A former trade union
leader, Tsvangirai, fought unsuccessfully in court to
throw out Mugabe's
2002 election victory, alleging vote-rigging in the polls
that he claimed to
have won.
University of Zimbabwe political scientist Joseph Kurebga said:
"One sure
effect of the split is to dilute the strength that Morgan
Tsvangirai had as
an opposition leader over the past six
years.
"There is no question about the negative impact the split has had
for both
groups. Tsvangirai may command the support of his admirers from his
trade
union days, but he will lose a significant number of those who have
jumped
ship."
Independent analyst Augustine Timbe said Tsvangirai
would "emerge from the
congress weaker as he will be leading a faction, as
opposed to an entire
opposition movement, which once dared to challenge the
ruling party".
But, Nelson Chamisa, the spokesperson for the faction led
by Tsvangirai said
the party was "poised for its greatest times".
He
said: "The congress is like a blast furnace from where we will emerge
stronger." - AFP
Sur, newspaper for Southern Spain
Annastazia Ndlovu Women's feature Service
Are
you looking to ensure that the love of your life stays by your side
forever?
That is exactly what the umuthi - magical herbs believed to be
"love
potions" - promise. Needless to say, the fabled umuthi is not easy to
come
by. Not only are there doubts as to whether these herbs really exist,
they
have also hastened the end of some relationships.
Take the case of Barbara
Rusere. Married to a Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority manager, she
reportedly wrapped his underwear in umuthi and placed
it in the glove
compartment of her car. The two had been married for 12
years and were going
through a rough patch, no longer sharing the same
bedroom. Her husband,
Raphael Rusere, explained to the magistrate, before
whom he was brought on
charges of violent attack on his wife, that he found
his underwear in his
wife's car when he was looking for his own car keys.
He confronted her
and she denied that they belonged to him. Raphael turned
violent and struck
Barbara with a stone, hurting her left ankle. The
magistrate would hear none
of it, however, and sentenced him to 15 months in
jail, nine of which were
suspended conditionally and six of which he had to
make up for by doing 210
hours of community service at Pararenyatwa Hospital
in
Harare.
Debate
While Raphael has appealed against the conviction
and sentence, Zimbabweans
in general are debating the value of love potions.
Ukudlisa (Zulu for
secretly administering a love potion to a spouse) is a
highly controversial
subject. Debate usually centres on whether or not these
potions even exist.
Some say it is a myth and an invention of jealous people
bent on destroying
other people's relationships. The relatives of a man, on
the other hand, are
usually quick to accuse his wife of using love potions
to ensure that their
son listens to her and no other person in the
family.
Says President of the Harare-based Zimbabwe National Traditional
Healers
Association, Gordon Chavunduka, "It is not true that only women are
involved
in ukudlisa. Men also use love potions to get women to fall in love
with
them."
Love potions come in various forms, including tree roots,
and concoctions.
Some potions are believed to help a man successfully
propose to women. "The
men put the herbs under their tongues so that they
can talk their partner or
girlfriend into doing whatever they want", says
Chavunduka. Some men
dissolve a mixture of herbs in water and gurgle with
it. As they spit out
the mixture, they say aloud all their wishes and plans
for the object of
their love. Others have talismans that they keep in their
pockets so that
any woman they meet and fancy falls in love with them. "With
others, it is
inborn, and women dream about such men and just fall in love
even when the
man makes no effort", Chavunduka added.
But for those
who must work hard to get noticed, Chavunduka and company have
a variety of
ingredients for zany concoctions that can be secretly slipped
into food and
offered to lovers. Scraps of flesh from a blind puppy will
make a woman
blindly do whatever a man wants. A lizard's tail will tie a
woman to the
house when she has finished her duties at home instead of going
out to look
fo