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Wednesday 29 April 2009

Magora’s imaginary Zanu PF whimsical laughter in corridors of power turning to misery

Zimbabwe Premier Morgan Tsvangirai ensuring GPA agreements are honoured by Coalition principals

At the start of the month Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD) spokesman Denford Magora whose Zimbabwe Blogspot claims pole position in Zimbabwe and is rated in the top 100000 worldwide readership proudly published the scoop that President Mugabe had disembowelled the Information Communication Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa’s by reconfiguring the Ministry and parcelling it out to his confidante Nicholas Goche in a new Ministry christened Transport Communication and Infrastructure development leaving the MDC appointed Minister a shell Ministry responsible for communications hardware and software only.

The clearly ecstatic MKD spokesman went further to allude to numerous other scoops he had broken claiming the MDC-T was nowhere near Executive Power levers in the coalition government and was there simply to nursemaid Mugabe and Zanu PF’s who is doing all in his power to cut Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to size at every turn possible..
With explosive disclosures like these how can the blog not catapult to poll position in readership in Zimbabwe which is anxious to see the Global Political Agreement (GPA) implementation proceed without the numerous glitches dogging the process.

Alarmists like Magora who breakout sensationalised variances to the GPA that suggest that the most popular leader in Zimbabwe at present is being used as swipe cloth to clean the Zanu PF mess without any real power devolving to him are bound to attract the attention of the multitudes that have banked trust in the Premier.

“Which means that Nelson Chamisa is now a minister in charge of shops that sell cellphones, phone shops and computer shops. Even the matter of the Internet has now been taken out of his hands. Mugabe was never going to allow the instruments of eavesdropping, wiretapping and spying fall into the hands of the MDC. They are a junior partner and had to be put in place,” Magora disclosed with the authority of a president.

After warning him to take it easy and report his scoops factually rather than the fiction that portrayed him as the know-all about the MDC-T goings on when he knew nothing about inside workings in the party Magora turned onto Zanu PF and in unbelievable fashion tried to sanitise his alarmist statements by claiming he had unearthed new evidence showing the Premier and his party had outflanked Mugabe and refused to be trapped by the octogenarian leaders procrastinations on the Reserve Bank Governor’s unprocedural re-appointment for a second term.

In the warning I made it clear all outstanding issues at variance with the GPA litter and spirit were still very much up for discussion and resolution by the principals and were scheduled to be resolved by the end of April at the latest.

In the event that materialised I reminded Magora that i would not miss the opportunity to rub it in him for his misguided ecstasy.

At the centre of his ecstasy was the fact that MDC-T and in particular Premier Tsvangirai had been silenced over complaints about unprocedural appointments of Provincial Governors, Reserve bank Governor, Attorney General, Permanent Secretaries, swearing in of Roy Bennett, and now the stripping of the ICT responsibilities from MDC-T’s Chamisa in favour of Zanu PF’s Nicholas Goche at Transport and Infrastructure Development.

No sooner had he admitted lying than he was at it again claiming MDC was playing second fiddle to Zanu PF and had only one use for Mugabe that is to get sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leadership lifted.

The vocal MKD spokesperson is not amused that several MDC functionaries masquerading as online news sites quote him in a manner he believes is tantamount to plagiarism of his scoops and has threatened to be nasty with the publications and bloggers who as he put it are “online thieves of his intellectual property.”

But as a prospective political party spokesman whose blog acts as the MKD website he has to learn that whatever he says regardless of whether it is said in his individual capacity or on behalf of the movement he belongs to attracts analysis and citation by any sell respecting analyst of the political events unfolding in the country. His comments cannot be divorced from MKD politicking against other parties he writes scoops about which scoops are their intellectual property as well.

But back to the real deal in his recent instalment Magora bragged that he has no time for these online thieves “(a group of only twenty or so blinkered Tsvangirai fanatics)” as he calls them.

Theirs is according to Magora “a forlorn and lonely battle to salvage the reputation of the Prime Minister and his MDC who are now so firmly in the pocket of Robert Mugabe that they are now the dictator’s currency, with which he pays to get out of the isolation the world had imposed upon him.”

With such provocation I will excuse whoever Magora has in mind in this attack if they quote him verbatim as I have done to get back at him.

There is no sacred cow in politics that can distort facts with loaded and inaccurate personal and group political beliefs and thought and expect to be left to carry out such demoniac work on political opponents’ unopposed while he paints his movement as the saintly saviour for Zimbabwean political dilemmas.

In the same instalment Magora claims he has only authorised reproduction of his articles by the Zimbabwe Mail and on an ad hoc basis by TalkZimbabwe.

“I myself never read any of the online stuff, except for SW Radio, Nehanda Radio, VOP, the Zimbabwe Mail, the Zimbabwe Times, the Zimbabwe Metro and the recently added Mukoma .com plus foreign publications,” Magora lied.

Unless the listed are the 20 or so online thieves reproducing his works without permission we can safely conclude that he must have read them elsewhere.

But since he saluted the professionalism at SW Radio it is evident he has no qualms about that publication thus leaving the others he said he reads if that can be believed.
But the real story is Magora must be shell shocked with confirmation coming from SW Radio that the issues he said were water under the bridge after Mugabe unilaterally disposed of them have been negotiated and produced the following results;

The Provincial governors will be allotted 5:4:1to MDC-T yes the impotent and junior partner in the coalition government MDC-T, Zanu PF and MDC-M respectively.

Roy Bennett will be sworn in as Deputy Minister of Agriculture subject to him being cleared of banditry charges hanging over his head subject to agreement by the principals.

Nelson Chamisa will retain charge of the Ministry of Information Communication Technology in its original format except that the snooping and eavesdropping function will be assigned to Nicholas Goche subject to approval of the principals.

Only 13 of the current 34 Permanent Secretaries Dr Misheck Sibanda had announced Mugabe had unilaterally appointed to head Ministries will be assured of their jobs and the rest will have to wait ongoing deliberations between the principals.

Appointment of Ambassadors and the sharing of the 25 remaining Permanent secretaries together with the thorny issue of continued farm invasions will be dealt with on Monday or Tuesday4-5 May 2009 to dispose of the contentious issues that were amusing the misinformed MKD spokesman.

These are the reports emanating from his reputed professionals at SW Radio and they seem at variance with what his so called scoops were telling us.

Just wondering how the blog that thrives on lies will react to these emerging revelations.

We are sure Magora will be professional enough to admit his scoops were speculative as opposed to being factual in content.

RBZ fiasco replay of FML saga Dr Gono will lose



Centre Dr Gono cursed to suffer the same fate that befell FML's Norman Sachikonye Right and Douglas Hoto for abuse of power at the central bank

History has a tendency of repeating itself. The setting may be different but there is a striking resemblance of events unfolding at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to events at insurance giant First Mutual Life (FML) in 1998.

On 10 November 1998 the nation woke up to a front page splash by the Herald revealing juicy news of fiduciary impropriety that had taken place at FML that involved policy holder investments in Econet Wireless and Kumusha farm in Shamva.

The story was packed with incidences of the FML management involvement in improper investment of policyholder funds and receiving kickbacks for their corrupt activities at the same time the organisation had fired scores of employees who had gone on strike over refusal by the organisation’s management to allow them to form a Managerial Workers Committee (MWC) and grand them reasonable cost of living adjustments of salaries preferring rather to embark on a restructuring exercise that was intended to silence leadership of the MWC.

FML had allegedly invested policyholder funds amounting to a then staggering ZW$125 million in Pre-listing private placement arrangements with Econet Wireless broken down into ZW$90 million for preferential debentures and ZW$30 million for Econet shares.

The dismissed employees blew the whistle on the company and went further to cause the company’s management a host of other problems not least of them at the 1999 Annual General Meeting when armed with proxies from sympathetic policyholders they forced deferment of a resolutions reappointing directors and their remuneration only for the board to survive because government failed to act in favour of the employees who had clearly established a case for its removal.

The Mawere Commission appointed by the State to investigate FML unearthed numerous cases of fiduciary impropriety and outright theft in the Society.

Among the victims of the investigation were Board Members, Fund Managers and Corporate Executives Richard Chitumba, Neil Teneiuoth, Nicholas Goche Jr and Antony Light (Fund Managers forced to resign over unprocedural investments and receiving of bribes. Antony Light is still being hunted by the Police for the crimes.

This was to be followed by Phil Thompson (Chairman; disqualified not policy holder) Elias Ngugama (Vice Chairman; resigned in protest to worker grievance mishandling) Phil Jumbe (Chairman; resigned in protest to mishandling of corporate governance) William Nyemba: resigned due to conflict of interests over Trust Bank/FML dealings, Nigel Chanakira (Board member; resigned due to FML/Kingdom Bank and Econet Wireless conflict of interests.

Next to go were John Smith ( Actuary and deputy CEO; denied work permit after dismissed employees protested extension that was working against Douglas Hoto’s prospects) Don Edgerton (CEO retired to pave way for demutualisation) Nigel Hodder (Corporate Secretary forced to resign due to demutualisation)
FML was then demutualised with Norman Sachikonye at its helm as CEO.

The company was to be suspended from trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange over the dramatic collapse of its Asset management subsidiary the dismissed employees had long fingered was the conduit of management malfeasance with investor funds.

This was to trigger Norman Sachikonye (CEO’s ; forced to resignation over demutualisation disputes and collapse of FML Asset Management Company) Douglas Hoto (CEO; forced to resign over demutualisation shares expropriated by senior management) Theodore Moyo (Human Resources Manager forced to resign after FML control was wrestled from management owned shelf company Capital Alliance by Renaissance Asset Management fronting Strive Masiyiwa) Shireen Ormashar Legal Advisor (forced to resign by Renaissance hostile takeover) Godfrey Jowah (Head of Asset Management; forced to resign by hostile renaissance asset management takeover) Jacqueline Sibanda (Public Relations Manager) together with David Murangari, Long, MD Frudd (Board Chairman and members; forced to resign by Renaissance Asset Management.

These men and women executives were all victims of an ill advised vindictive agenda against innocent employees and junior managers that went awry when the junior staff refused to be dismissed without a fight.

Sadly due to poor financial resources and lack of support from the State of the 17 employees and Assistant Managers FML dismissed in 1998 only one has managed to successfully defend his case through the Courts.

In 1998 alone FML spent a staggering ZW$18 in Public relations advertisements and Legal costs concerned with its pursuit for the employees dismissal and to gain policyholder and investor confidence in the institution to no avail.

The former Assistant manager is currently engaged in a crucial fight to be paid salary and benefits as well as damages awarded to him by the Labour Court in 2004 and approved by the Supreme Court.

The quantification process in the matter Jackson Muzivi vs First Mutual life case No 2LC/H/217/99 shows that the former FML Assistant Manager is battling to recover back pay awarded to him for the period 1September 1998 to 30 April 2004 when due the Court ordered his reinstatement without loss of salary and benefits.

Among the more critical benefits awarded to Muzivi but still to be quantified are a motor vehicle, house to replace the one FML illegally sold when it terminated his contract illegally, two years salaries as damages and nearly 10000 FML shares.

Similar events are unfolding at the RBZ. Governor Gono is engaged in a lethal fight for continuation as the Governor of the Central Bank with the new minister of Finance Tendai Biti.

At the centre of the dispute is the quasi fiscal activities the Central bank governor embarked on during his first term in office which the Minister with concurrence from National and International financial experts allege contributed to the dramatic collapse of the country’s economy.

Gono has secured backing from his Principal Robert Mugabe who appointed him for a further 5 year term after his initial term expired in September 2008 notwithstanding that his appointment had not been approved by Coalition Partners in the new order in charge of the country.

The appointment has become a political watershed for the coalition government principals threatening the very existence of the coalition.

Gono has been forced out of quasi fiscal engagements by the political reality obtaining in the country but is trying to find ways to remain politically prominent by trying to use residues from quasi fiscal activities of the central bank to curry favours with influential governmental and political players.

The public relations offensive he has mounted of purchasing scores of pages of advertisement space in State Controlled media supplements is no different from the campaign FML mounted when it was exposed by the disgruntled workers it had fired costing it ZW$18 million in the first year in 1998.

Sadly the central Governor like FML is using other people’s money to defend the indefensible.

The money Gono is using in the advertisements to explain his misdeeds can be better utilised on employee salaries at the central bank where worker morale has hit rock bottom over unpaid salaries for nearly three months.

Instead the Governor is working on a restructuring exercise poised to lay off thousands of workers and repossessing car benefits that would automatically form part of the employee’s severance packages ahead of the retrenchment exercise being formalised at the central bank.

The repossessed cars have been unprocedurally offered for the free use of newly elected legislators creating political discord in Parliament and government.

While the dispute over the car lending by the bank to legislator rages on the Governor has now offered winter wheat farmers fertiliser to offset amounts he raided from them and used to finance Zanu PF political campaigns.

The source of the fertiliser on offer from the RBZ governor remains undisclosed and appears to be stocks imported from SADC donations for the past summer agricultural season that were strategically withheld for purposes of political initiatives hinged on land and agricultural support themes of Zanu PF.

FML used similar diversionary tactics to mislead and pacify restless policyholders with offers of 3000 free shares on demutualisation and got the support they yearned.

Immediately thereafter the management team that crafted the demutualisation initiative fell victim of the project they had crafted to benefit themselves with 25% ownership of the company without paying a cent for such a substantial stake.

Most of the greedy senior managers were forced out of the organisation and lost the shares to Renaissance Asset Management a subsidiary of the company they had contracted to manage the demutualisation process.

In a case reminiscent of the greedy dog tail that barked at its reflection from water under the bridge it was crossing thereby losing the borne it was biting the senior managers of FML not only lost lucrative jobs but also the shares they had clandestinely parcelled each other.

FML is today a pale shadow of the insurance giant it had grown to be in 1998. New major shareholders have stripped its assets and transferred them to Afre. The company’s reputation is in tatters and several rebranding exercises have failed to restore its past glamour which saw it build the most trendy headquarters and business parks throughout the country.

Most experienced managers have left the company in disgrace and its service levels have been negatively affected.

No matter how long Gideon Gono holds onto his job against the wishes of the taxpayers he will eventually face an inglorious exit from the organisation.

Not many will shed a tear for him.

Saturday 25 April 2009

Zuma dispatched Rev Chikane for crucial Coalition Government talks

Rev Frank Chikane

South African National Congress chairman and thus uncontestable President designate Jacob Zuma, allegedly despatched Rev Frank Chikane of the SADC mediation team headed by former president Thabo Mbeki to ensure the Harare dialogue between coalition government principals does not implode and give him a baptism of fire as soon as he is sworn in as the President.

And President Mugabe whose leadership credentials the next South African leader respects without equivocation but whose intolerance and superiority complex Zuma abhors to the extreme could not prevent the impromptu visit.

Despite requesting Premier Tsvangirai to allay any fears of a deadlock on issues threatening the coalition union now in charge of Zimbabwe by SADC and AU imposition Jacob Zuma could not be persuaded to leave anything concerning Zimbabwe to chance and promptly despatched his trusted emissary.

The lame excuse that Reverend Chikane was in the country on private business that coincided with the crucial meeting of coalition government principals was meant for the gullible followers of the politics unfolding in the country which events on the ground do not support.

Zuma is reputed for brooking no nonsense from anyone in politics friend or foe it matters not. He is so liberated he is not afraid to call a spade a spade and prevaricate depending on prevailing circumstances and how they will impact on his position.

The unfortunate part for Zimbabwe’s rigid president is that Zuma has an ear for advice from reputed Mugabe critic and ANC Secretary General Gwede Mentashe who at one instance Mugabe slapped with a prohibited immigrant order and bundled back in a flight to South Africa after he attempted to lead a fact finding mission of the powerful Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) after Mugabe had instituted a brutal repression initiative against Zimbabwe congress of trade Unions (ZCTU) leadership in Zimbabwe in 2006.

The Zimbabwe top six meeting to address the outstanding and new threats to the Coalition Government in the country that President in waiting Zuma had so much input in coercing and will not take kindly to its being forced to fail commenced at 14.00 hours and was scheduled to deliberate on threats that include;
1. Unexplained delayed in swearing in of MDC-T nominee for Deputy Minister of Agriculture Roy Bennett.
2. The stagnant reconfiguration of provincial Governors allotment between coalition Parties
3. The disputed appointment of Reserve bank Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana both of which were done by president Mugabe from his Zanu PF stable without consultation and consensus between the coalition principals.
4. The sporadic upsurge of violence and disruptions on commercial farms
5. The stalled lifting of travel sanctions after the formation of the coalition government
6. The disputed unilateral appointment of permanent Secretaries by President Mugabe
7. The contested reconfiguration of the ICT and Transport and Infrastructure ministries by President Mugabe that reduced the ICT ministry to a shell and overloaded the Transport and Infrastructure Development Ministry with communication responsibilities removed from ICT.
8. Continued persecution of MDC-T and Civic Society Activists by the Attorney General
9. The muted silence on Ambassadorial appointments, and the
10. Squabbling in the Finance Ministry between the Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Tendai Biti that has now been expanded to cover beneficiaries of the Central Bank’s quasi-fiscal initiatives and Legislators’ vehicle procurement scheme.

The Global Political Agreement implementation stage exceptions are threatening the coalition government’s continued existence and are wasting too much of the government’s limited time resources that could be well spent in turning around the country’s battered economy.

Zuma wants to start his term as president of South Africa with these distracting issues in neighbourly Zimbabwe clearly defined in his mind to allow him adequate time to plan for their disposal and leave him ample time to focus on critical South African concerns not least of them the 2010 FIFA World Cup preparations.

He does not want a situation to arise where he will be pressured to announce a dramatic policy shift on foreign relations with Zimbabwe as such a development could create divisions within the ANC that has just been galvanised by the electoral victory recently scored.

There is a lasting bond between Zanu PF and the ANC that is premised on the Liberation struggle history shared by the two parties in their respective countries.

Although President Mugabe was more comfortable with the PAC wing of the South African liberation movements he nonetheless cultivated strong links with ANC leadership and gave the liberation struggle great momentum by hosting its leaders who were in foreign refuge much closer to the South African border.

Whereas Mugabe is pedantic and rigid in pursuing realisation of his beliefs right or wrong, the next South African president is reputed as firm and ruthless in pursuing his objectives but also attentive and accommodative of dissenting views which he exploits at very short notice and makes his own surprising many of his opponents.

He is simply unpredictable.

Views that his ascendancy to power could spell disaster for Mugabe and Zanu PF are ill premised.

Zuma will take some convincing by the MDC to advance its cause. The only advantage the MC can exploit is its close ties with the COSATU which is a key constituency in the ANC whose views about Mugabe and Zanu PF misrule were being drowned by academics fencing former president Thabo Mbeki.

Zuma will still have these advisors around him but will certainly increase attention paid to the labour advisors from COSATU.

Mugabe will have to learn to content with being in the company of a powerful political broker with academic qualifications that are even more inferior to those held by his ignoramus Premier. Jacob Zuma only attended school up to standard 3 (now called grade 5) and did not receive any formal schooling after primary level education.

Mugabe has never hidden his admiration for academics as he deliberately appointed to his successive Cabinets an impressive lineup of Doctors and Professors in all fields of academic excellence.

They however failed to deliver as they were detached from the generality in the population they worked and there were broken links between what government leaders wanted in life and what the generality people aspired for.

Unless Mugabe and his elitists learn how to connect with grassroots which Zuma is perfectly comfortable with, he will be in trouble in dealings with a Jacob Zuma led South Africa.

Any hint that he despises the new South African President either directly or indirectly by labeling Tsvangirai an ignoramus as he has done in the past will trigger South African reactions that Mugabe and Zanu PF will not be able to contain.

The intermarriage relationship between Professor Welshman Ncube and Jacob Zuma seen as a crucial factor in Zimbabwe/South Africa political relations will not have much significance and may actually work in favour of Mugabe and Zanu PF.

Professor Ncube does not have the political clout and acumen he is credited with in the public domain. He commands no following detrimental to political configurations in Zimbabwe and is more detached from the grassroots than Mugabe.

Sure the South African President may go along with Professor Ncube’s MDC faction for a while but that will not change political configurations in Zimbabwe in any significant way other than that Professor Ncube will be guaranteed a visible political role whichever way he decides to go politically.

What is evident is that Jacob Zuma is aware of the political dynamics in Zimbabwe and will use that knowledge to deal decisively with the outstanding Zimbabwe issues.

That is why despite the claim that Reverend Chikane was on a private business mission to the country he was granted meetings with top MDC and Zanu PF leaders to inform them of what is likely to happen if the issues remain unresolved and the new South African President is required to intervene.

Friday 24 April 2009

Zanu PF media double standards



Information and Publicity Secretary George Charamba and Attorney General Johannes Tomana unashamed to give interviews to media houses they banished into exile.

When it comes to media paranoia Zanu PF is probably unmatched by any other organised political entity other than those in China and the Democratic Republic of Korea.

Since coming to power President Mugabe has banished foreign based reporters from reporting from the country that includes the BBC, ABC, CNN and many others too numerous to enumerate.

Within the country the former ruling party has waged a relentless and vicious fight with media personnel and media houses outside its sphere of editorial control.

Joy TV, The Daily News, The Daily Mirror, SW Radio Africa, VOA News to mention but a few prominent local media houses the Zanu PF regime has banished from its airwaves have all attempted to infiltrate Zimbabwe airwaves and dilute State propaganda churned through the State controlled Zimpapers and Zimbabwe Broadcasting holdings media house and fallen prey of the vicious campaign against their existence by the Zanu PF mismanaged State.

Scores of qualified Zimbabwean Journalists have been arrested and charged under the notorious AIPPA legislation crafted by former Information and Publicity Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo who now ranks among the most loathed Zimbabwean politicians of all time along with President Mugabe, Professor Welshman Ncube, Professor Arthur Mutambara and lately Dr Simba Makoni.

Many have sought and secured refuge throughout the diaspora to escape the relentless persecution from successive Zanu PF regimes since 1980.

Zanu PF intolerance of media that allows airing of multiplicity of political social and economic reviews that are at variance with its own views degenerated into paranoia as it attracted more and more dissention from Zimbabweans negatively affected by the economic malaise caused by a combination of corrupt governance, misguided military and political arrogance and disrespect of national and international covenants on human rights and good governance.

By the time negotiations were undertaken to mitigate the vacuum caused by a failed electoral process the media double standards by Zanu PF had sunk so low that they were considered important enough to warrant special attention in clauses to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that yielded the current coalition government now at the helm of the country’s management.

Although it was agreed between the parties in the GPA that government should free the media industry to free competition and encourage exiled media houses to return to the country through setting up a media friendly environment that encourages freedom of expression in the country, it is taking longer than expected by the restive population in the country and abroad.

While the venom that was being spewed by the monopolistic State owned and controlled media has been drastically toned down the monopoly still remains intact and the institutional framework to spearhead implementation of the desired competitive environment remains elusive and is generating intense and worrisome conflict.

Meanwhile the media houses that Zanu PF zealots once so hated as to bomb and banish into exile have become the most useful defence tools at the disposal of the truant Zanu PF leaders now under the microscope over past political and leadership misconduct.

Under fire Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono is not just relying on State controlled media to promote his cause in the struggle to retain a position he said he did not need in August 2008 and would only keep for no longer than a minute if his principal was not happy.

Having splashed millions in bribes to State media scribes and buying up media houses weakened by the relentless State onslaught privately owned media houses, to project him favourably as a side project of the quasi-fiscal approach to economic management that allowed him to create parallel government structures at the Central bank’s establishment, your Governor also planted substantial amounts in online publications.

New Zimbabwe .com and Talkzimbawe.com websites received substantial working capital from the governor whose source of income is so vast he afforded to work at the central bank for nearly two years without drawing a single cent of his hefty salary from the institution.

It turns out he was helping himself to institutional and individual forex deposits in Banks he raided and doled out like confetti to anyone who was willing to sing Gono psalms.

The only local privately owned stable that survived the State repression was the Trevor Ncube weeklies the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard.

The reason for survival was a combination of the owner being largely resident in neighbouring South Africa and yes you guessed right your Governor dishing out BACCOSI forex loans to the media house and later following the loaned funds through the backdoor as dividends on “his invested loans.”

Now that your Governor as Gono prefers to call himself is in deep mud it is payback time from those that are in the information and publicity sector whom he lavishly sponsored when his stars at the central bank were shinning.

Pity his chief beneficiary was kicked out of Al-Jazeera foreign correspondence team in Zimbabwe after filing biased reports in favour of Mugabe during the vicious runoff campaign and was replaced by the more sober Haru Mutasa and at Talkzimbabwe the editor in Chief jumped off the ship after he was exposed for biased reportage that qualified him for travel sanctions from the UK government where he was spewing propaganda from.

But still there are strategic implants at The Independent, The Herald, The Chronicle, The Manica Post and the Financial Gazette he owns to do his bidding against all odds.

Then there is Zanu PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo who is a fixed correspondent at the banished VOA News Studio 7 radio News broadcast at 19.00 hrs GMT.

He is not even ashamed that it was his party that exiled the radio station to the USA that he is now exploiting to explain ZANU PF political mischief to the world.

And former Information and Publicity Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo who masterminded the demise of the popular Daily News publication and the banishment of its editor in Chief Geoff Nyarota as well as The Zimbabwean Editor in Chief Wilf Mbanga has been distributing numerous articles for publication in the online media whose owners are frightened stiff at the prospect of returning to Zimbabwe before the AIPPA and POSA legislation he proudly spearheaded legislation of are repealed or amended.

Now that MDC and Zanu PF are in a coalition Government that is overlooking his reputed talent in the communication and media field he has found solace in drowning his sorrows by publishing unedited drivel against the coalition government and instituting legal proceedings against anyone who appears to be gaining political mileage from the coalition.

Sadly he has very few believers if any at all but he is widely read as people do not want to miss reading into his agony and political loneliness.

The irony of it all is that Professor Moyo does not realise that private media offering him acres of space to expose his lack of principle have long concluded that he is a harmless demagogue with little if anything constructive to offer the nation.

The question is why do the Zanu PF architects fail to see the irony between banishing media experts to hostile countries and then following them up to react to damaging reports they are now publishing without fear of repression from the security functionaries in Zimbabwe?

Take for instance the interview Attorney General gave to VOA News recently wherein he boasted he had instructed prosecutors country wide to prosecute and evict White Commercial Farmers refusing to vacate farms they not only bought but have a SADC Court order in their favour to retain and farm on without hindrance from anyone including the arrogant Attorney General and his prosecutors.

It automatically placed him in the same ignorance bracket with Bright Matonga, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Jonathan Moyo, George Charamba, Patrick Chinamasa, Didymus Mutasa and yes Tofataona Mahoso.

Let not the academic certificates they hold fool anyone, Joseph Chinotimba’s interview on the same station made more sense than what these deluded Zanu PF academics said given similar opportunities to explain themselves and their party agenda for the country.

But it is George Charamba’s interview with Violet Gonda that wins the trophy for Zanu PF media double standards in Zimbabwe.

It will take some doing to beat in the future.

Wednesday 22 April 2009

A little bit of honesty won’t harm you Professor Ncube

JOMIC co-chairman Professor Welshman Ncube has lost his bearings a long time ago
When the MDC-M reincarnated from the graveyard of the 2008 harmonised elections also runs to become a critical factor in shaping our country’s misgivings I wrote expressing misgivings at Thabo Mbeki’s decision to invite electoral rejects from the faction to determine the fate of the vote of the electorate that had rejected the same people.

Then I argued as I still do now, that it rendered electoral democracy a meaningless concept and empowered the rejects to thumb their noses at a hapless electorate confused why their hard won one man one vote is no longer a means for them to exercise power to determine their destinies.

I further advanced that Zimbabweans will hold SADC and Thabo Mbeki in particular accountable for negative outcomes likely to come out of the flawed process he had instituted in Zimbabwe unless the outcomes of the mediation process met or exceeded national expectations.
The minimum national expectation was and still is that Zanu PF political hegemony and impunity had to be ended forthwith and the restoration of the impartial rule of law that upholds fundamental Human Rights enshrined in our laws and respected individual property rights would be vigorously pursued and applied by the government that would be agreed upon in tandem with the people’s wishes as epitomised by the March electoral outcomes.

The outcome of mediated political settlement is now in place and the verdict is unanimous that it falls way short of ordinary electorate expectations at the same time it is an improvement on the political status quo that preceded the settlement.
President Mugabe, Premier Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Tsvangirai are unanimous that they appended their signatures on a flawed political settlement but are still committed to panel beat it and make it workable.

The general populace concurs and has been patient with the government as it struggles to find its feet in the pitfall infested political environment the government is operating.

Saddled with a bankrupted fiscus, dilapidated economic and social infrastructure, a human resource that has lost the work ethic, a discontented and militarised industrial and public service, a pervasive terminally corrupt system of doing business, a sceptical international community and economically handicapped sympathetic and empathetic SADC neighbourhood, the government is struggling to meet heightened expectations in the country.

Numerous breaches of implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) have not worked in favour of the noble cause of the coalition government principals to transform imperfections in the agreement into benefits for the Nation.

The 10 Provincial Governors appointed by President Mugabe from his Zanu PF Party to boost his chances of winning the Senate Presidential elections which were delicately poised after his party had “won” equal seats to those won by his opponents in Senatorial elections remain defacto in office despite the matter having been deferred to JOMIC for finalisation as a precondition for consummation of the coalition government on 13 February 2008.

JOMIC is yet to disclose its resolution on the matter to the Nation.

Cabinet initially agreed to be limited to 31 Ministries and 10 Provincial Governorships has been dramatically expanded to 38 Ministers and 10 Provincial Governors without explanation from the internal implementation watchdog of the GPA Joint Implementation Committee (JOMIC) that has three month to month rotational co-chairmen.

The initially agreed 15 Deputy Ministerial positions have suddenly increased to 19 again without explanation from JOMIC.

A Deputy Minister nominee from the MDC-T party remains the only party nominee to have been refused and or deferred swearing in by President Mugabe without explanation from JOMIC.

The agreed land audit to address suspected multiple farm ownerships by a few elite beneficiaries and stop commercial farming disruptions and reversal of the land reforms that had taken place prior to the signing of the GPA is yet to commence.

Meanwhile there are sporadic eruptions of commercial farm invasions by people claiming to have been allocated the farms some 2 to 4 years before the GPA was signed but had not taken occupation for one reason and another and no action has been taken by JOMIC to ensure these disruptions, justified or not, are stopped pending findings of the agreed land audit.

Political and Civic activists who were abducted and detained incommunicado for months after the signing of the GPA on allegations of committing acts of banditry and or recruitment of bandits are still being prosecuted notwithstanding cessation of political hostilities implied in Article VII of the GPA to allow for National healing and JOMIC has not ruled on the legality or otherwise of such persecutions.

President Mugabe has unilaterally renewed and extended the employment contract of discredited Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono and promoted self confessed Zanu PF member Johannes Tomana to the vacant position of Attorney general that has been vacant for over two years.

JOMIC has not commented on the legality or otherwise of such actions by a party to the GPA which clearly stipulates that appointments in this category must be made after consultations have taken place between the coalition government principals.

In tandem with that development the President has unilaterally announced the appointment and reassignment of Permanent Secretaries to head the coalition Ministries all of them with links to Zanu PF and the Premier has in all instances denied ever being consulted on the appointments yet JOMIC has not moved in to make peace and define the power limitations on principals of the coalition government in regard to appointments of Senior Civil Servants.

Three months after the consummation of the coalition government not a single one of its Ambassadors has been recalled for debriefing on the new order at the country’s affairs to find out their suitability in representing the new government and its image given their past association with a discredited regime. JOMIC has not moved in to force principals to cascade inclusivity to these levels of governance in compliance with the GPA provisions.

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development has been unilaterally reconfigured by President Mugabe to become the Ministry of Transport Communication and Infrastructure Development.

The GPA has agreed upon a Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development, a Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity and a Ministry Information Communication Technology.

It was tacitly agreed to share these Ministries between the MDC and Zanu PF in the coalition government with the first and second being headed by Ministers nominated by Zanu PF and the third by an MDC-T Minister.

It is this third Ministry’s Communications responsibility that President Mugabe raided and reassigned to a Minister nominated by his party without explanation.

JOMIC has not found it proper to comment on the legality or otherwise of the Presidential move to reconfigure Ministries outside of agreed parameters in the GPA.

The reasoning appears to be that government business must be dealt with in government offices and the public need not be informed of what is going on in those offices.

But those offices are public offices and the GPA is a political settlement that supplanted electoral settlements. Whenever there are variations to the original agreement they should be made transparently and officially available to the general populace and there is no institution better placed and officially mandated to do so than JOMIC.

Instead we have a JOMIC co-chairmen abdicating this responsibility and informing us that sanctions must be lifted as a precondition to the government delivering on its mandate.

“Absolutely. As an inclusive government we are unequivocal and we agreed to it in the Global Agreement that the sanctions will be lifted as soon as an inclusive government is in place. It is in place and in our view yes, there are issues, there are issues on human rights, there are issues on governance but you will not help the inclusive government address those issues, work together with speed to correct those anomalies, to have a greater respect for human rights, get greater respect for the rule of law, to be effective in stopping farm invasions, a government which has no resources to actually get the police to move around.

A government with no resources to monitor the Ministry of Lands, to monitor what is happening, is unable at the end of the day to deliver on the promises of the GPA. Which is why we are saying yes these things are there but let us work together - with the international community assisting us to address them. Without that assistance it will be that much more difficult to address those issues,”JOMIC co-chairmen Ncube declared the institution’s conviction that sanctions lifting was a precondition to government with the issues.

But it is the same government without resources that has police officers and Lands officers leading hooligans invading commercial farms throughout the country and abducting and driving their abductees to every nook and cradle of the country in torture missions that says it has no resources to stop the malpractices reported countrywide.

It is the same government that has issued each of the 48 Ministers brand new top of the range Mercedes Benz vehicles costing approximately US$78000 each enough to buy 4 top of the range Nissan Note vehicles at US$17000 each.

Imagine what the government could have done with savings of 75% on Ministerial cars. It could have secured the brand new cars for the MP’s and still remained with enough change to buy at least a truck for each district Police Station.

So Professor Moyo a little self introspection will help you become a bit honest with yourself and the electorate you have imposed yourself to serve.

You asked how on earth you can; “restore the rule of law when you need the police to restore the rule of law and they’ve no capacity to go to the farms to see what is happening?

How do you restore the rule of law if the Minister of Lands is unable to get to the farms to determine what is happening?” and further went on to say that, “I absolutely agree with you that if there are farm invasions then they must stop. But I do not think, I do not think that it is right for those who it is within their power to assist us to ask us to do things which if we have no assistance we cannot do. It is pretty much like a sponsor in a soccer match saying I want you to go and play; I want you to be in the top of your log before I sponsor you.

So you have a team without a uniform, without soccer boots, who have no capacity to train and say they must first win the soccer league before you can sponsor them. It just does not make sense.”

Surely you cannot have been trapped in power to this extent.

The responsibility for law and order and the safety and security of the Nation is a function the State cannot outsource to anyone let alone foreign sponsors.

While we agree with you that you may have inherited a culture of impunity from your predecessors we cannot exonerate you for failing to stop the culture without lumping you with those you accuse of having nurtured the culture.

The reason why people voted as they did in March 2008 was because they had become fed up of lame excuses of the nature you are now regurgitating without shame.

Did you get on board to stop the impunity using donor funds or available resources? Is the impunity externally sponsored or is it internally motivated?

We are convinced that the problems are internally motivated and sponsored by people you know and are afraid to confront and chide.

Personally I believe that the reason why you imposed yourself in Government was to open doors for foreign aid to flow to your control and share in the gravy train.

Stop the impunity, restore human rights and dignity, tolerate opposing views and uphold democratic principles of governance that have zero tolerance on corruption and is totally committed to upholding individual property rights and you will not spend a cent more than you are spending in programmes to consolidate power through borrowed funds that are not forthcoming anywhere.

Those we elected know why we elected them and it was certainly not to have sanctions lifted but rather to restore our equality and dignity before the law.

Those like you who feel they can only deliver that if they are sponsored with lavish donations from whoever have no place in our leadership.

There is no difference between what you are now doing and what Dr Gono did to our currency and fiscus.

HOT SEAT transcript: Welshman Ncube part 2

Professor Welshman Ncube 3rd JOMIC co-chairman trapped in power dynamics?

HOT SEAT (PART 2): Journalist Violet Gonda brings you part 2 of an interview with Professor Welshman Ncube, the Minister of Industry and Commerce and co-chair of JOMIC. He talks about the problems he has inherited in his new ministry and what measures he is taking to try to make it viable. How is he dealing with the ongoing chaos at Beitbridge border post and the corruption around the duty charged on imported items? And how is he dealing with corruption at parastatals, like ZISCO Steel?
Broadcast 17 April 2009


VIOLET GONDA: We bring you part two of the interview with Professor Welshman Ncube, the MDC Minister of Industry and Commerce and one of the chairpersons of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee. In part one he spoke on the inner workings of JOMIC and in part two I first asked him to tell us what sort of challenges he is facing in his new ministry.
WELSHMAN NCUBE: Well of course there are general challenges we face which all the ministries will face which the whole government faces. Where your revenue base is so narrow, that you do not have enough resources to pay meaningful salaries, you have everybody from the President to the general hand being given an allowance of a US$100 every month - that is unsustainable.
You have very little money once you have paid those allowances to in fact then run the rest of the activities of government, get fuel for cars, get cars serviced, to buy stationary, to subscribe to the internet – all the basic things which anywhere else would be regarded as normal. We struggle around these and my ministry, just like all the other ministries faces these challenges.
Then in respect of our mandate and under the State programme it is our responsibility as the ministry to ensure that we assist, in particular the manufacturing sector to be able to raise capacity utilisation from an average of about 10% at the moment to an average of around 60 to 70% by the end of the year. You know that over the last years because of a variety of bad policy choices were made – price controls, surrender requirements - a whole plethora of problems – industry was unable to recapitalise; industry was unable to do ordinary ongoing routine maintenance of equipment; industry was unable to source raw materials; industry was often forced to sell commodities they produced at well below cost. And the industry - where those who were exporters and earned foreign currency, put it in their foreign currency account, this money was sterilised by the Reserve Bank and is not there at the moment. So now you then have the complete collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar, the introduction of the multiple currency system which means that everything that people have accumulated over the years, you suddenly are at zero debt. Whether you are a hundred year old company or a two day old company you change currency you immediately are at zero debt -beyond the equipment, the machinery and the capital items you own. In terms of a cash flow you are all suddenly at zero, which basically then means you have literally no money for working capital, let alone money for refurbishment and for retooling. And this is the challenge.
In addition to all of that in the ordinary production work cycle - you have the manufacturer who manufactures, invoices the retailer and pay in 30 days – the retailer takes the goods, puts them up in their retail shop and after the 30 days they pay. In the meantime also the banking sector would have advanced credit to the manufacturer and sometimes the retailer - ‘here is credit and pay us within 30 days to 90 days’. You have money, you buy your raw materials, you produce, you sell, and by the time you sell you now can pay back your bank.
The financial institutions are not operating in the usual way, they have no money because also of the changes of currency. It means credit is not available to the production sector. And to add to that the production sector is operating at such low capacity it is unable to employ significant numbers of people and those it employs pay very low wages. It means therefore the buying power of the people in Zimbabwe is also extremely low. So that even those who are able to import goods into the retail sector find themselves unable to move those goods because the consumer is buying only the basic necessities; and without credit - the furniture shops, the clothing shops cannot run. So you have this cycle of production which has been severely disrupted and this is what we are trying to fix and these are the challenges that industry is facing:
Absence of lines of credit, no money to recapitalise, no money for working capital and this is why you have seen us going to SADC, going to South Africa trying to negotiate lines of credit so that we can revive the production sector.
GONDA: That is what I was going to ask – what measures are you going to put to ensure that industry becomes viable now and what possible options of accessing capital are you exploring yourself?
NCUBE: Violet the key is being able to first do two things: To get the internal financial system working so that it can lend the money to the productive sector; two - organise external money to come into our productive sector in the form of lines of credit. Organise external investors with money to come in and invest into the productive sector in Zimbabwe. So that’s the challenge and that is what we need to do, that is what we are doing.
I’m aware that the Minister of Finance is working round the clock in trying to fix the financial sector. I know that collectively, government has been working to ensure that we negotiate with the external financial sectors with donors, lines of credit for our companies. This is what we were doing at the SADC summit in Swaziland, we are talking to COMESA, the PTA bank, and we are talking to the Africa Development Bank.
We are talking to other banks and financial institutions across the world – in India, in China and Russia – those who have not imposed any sanctions on Zimbabwe, who can immediately move to extending resources, financial resources and credit lines. And in this instance, we do not want grants. We are not saying give us money, we are saying let’s do business. Lend money to us in the normal commercial way, give us an opportunity to produce and we will pay you back.
So these are the things we are doing so we have been to India, the Minister for Regional Integration, International Cooperation has been to India to negotiate this; we have been to the SADC countries we are negotiating this. We are in communication with and at the moment prioritising the countries which don’t have sanctions - and the banks and institutions that have not imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. So that’s our first priority of what we are trying to do.
GONDA: And the second priority?
NCUBE: Well then the second priority is to engage the rest of the international community. We all know that the deep pockets with real money, you’ll find it in Europe, in the United States, in Canada or in what is normally referred to as the white Commonwealth. That’s where the deep pockets are. But there are issues, there are governance issues, some of the issues we talked about earlier in this programme, the outstanding GPA issues, farm invasions and so forth and so on which are affecting our ability to move with speed to restore relations and to restore normalcy with that part of international community.
But we have agreed that we will reengage with them, we will commit ourselves to doing certain things around the issues which they are concerned about. So we will be talking to them but we realise that it will take time. Which is why also SADC agreed that as SADC they were setting up a committee to engage these countries and to try and persuade them - which is why SADC in its communiqué from Swaziland instructed that all the embassies of SADC countries all over the world, wherever there are sanctions against Zimbabwe, they should work round the clock to lobby for the lifting of these sanctions and in those countries where there are no sanctions they should work to help Zimbabwe access financial assistance in terms of budgetary support as well as in terms of lines of credit.
GONDA: So do you think the sanctions should be removed even though the conditions that originally necessitated the placing of the sanctions have not changed?
NCUBE: Absolutely. As an inclusive government we are unequivocal and we agreed to it in the Global Agreement that the sanctions will be lifted as soon as an inclusive government is in place. It is in place and in our view yes, there are issues, there are issues on human rights, there are issues on governance but you will not help the inclusive government address those issues, work together with speed to correct those anomalies, to have a greater respect for human rights, get greater respect for the rule of law, to be effective in stopping farm invasions, a government which has no resources to actually get the police to move around. A government with no resources to monitor the Ministry of Lands, to monitor what is happening, is unable at the end of the day to deliver on the promises of the GPA. Which is why we are saying yes these things are there but let us work together - with the international community assisting us to address them. Without that assistance it will be that much more difficult to address those issues.
GONDA: But then you see, others will say if the authorities in the inclusive government, namely Zanu-PF, if they were really serious and really wanted help shouldn’t they at least abide by the provisions of the Global Political Agreement and actually restore the rule of law? If they desperately want the money, if they know that this is… (interrupted)
NCUBE: How do you restore the rule of law when you need the police to restore the rule of law and they’ve no capacity to go to the farms to see what is happening? How do you restore the rule of law if the Minister of Lands is unable to get to the farms to determine what is happening? Which is why we are saying, if you have a bankrupt government how does it do anything, how does it do anything? Because it’s not just that you have people who breach the rule of law, the farm invasions are sponsored by the State – it’s not necessarily true. It is that the people at the community level sometimes also resort to self-help. When they do resort to self-help the State must be sufficiently strong to intervene but if you have a weak State which is bankrupt which is unable to intervene, then you cannot correct those anomalies.
GONDA: How would answer people who say that there are still three people who are still held on ridiculous charges, instituted by a corrupt and inept Justice Ministry, there are still seven people missing and there are farmers being hounded so why should anyone invest or give money to Zimbabwe when Zanu-PF are harassing or stopping production of agricultural products. How would you respond to that?
NCUBE: Well on the first part, let’s deal with the technical part. There are no charges instituted by a corrupt Justice ministry. The charges are first instituted by the police and then the Attorney General - who is not Justice Ministry, takes them up through his prosecutors. That’s one. On the question of whether or not these people should be prosecuted, the point Violet is that if you are true believers in the rule of law, if you are true believers and you are not hypocrites, you must accept that the rule of law must take its course, regardless of who the accused person is. And you cannot have people tried, convicted, tried, and acquitted in the court of public opinion. It does not work like that. And if we want to get this thing right we cannot start by doing public trials in the court of public opinion. So let’s subject everyone to the rule of law if the police authorities say they have evidence let us check the accused persons humanely, let us expeditiously bring them to court, let the court of law determine the question.
Then secondly, on the farm invasions I absolutely agree with you that if there are farm invasions then they must stop. But I do not think, I do not think that it is right for those who it is within their power to assist us to ask us to do things which if we have no assistance we cannot do. It is pretty much like a sponsor in a soccer match saying I want you to go and play; I want you to be in the top of your log before I sponsor you. So you have a team without a uniform, without soccer boots, who have no capacity to train and say they must first win the soccer league before you can sponsor them. It just does not make sense.
GONDA: But surely is it too much to ask, to say ‘please restore the rule of law, stop the violence’, is that too much to ask from the international communities point of view?
NCUBE: It is not too much to ask, it is not too much to ask but it is not a matter, if we have had the rule of law being violated, if we have a culture of violence which is not necessarily always orchestrated by the State but can be orchestrated at the community level by people who are used to a particular way of doing things and you are asking us as the new political leadership to intervene to bring it to an end when we are clearly without the resources to do so. It is not a self-executing thing to enforce the rule of law. You need resources to enforce the rule of law. So which is why I am saying you cannot deny us the ability, the capacity to do it and then say we must still do.
GONDA: You know, we can go round and round on this one, so going back to your ministry, what about the chaos at Beitbridge border post and the duty which is holding up investment and preventing people importing equipment which is not available in Zimbabwe, is this not affecting your ministry?
NCUBE: Well there are problems at Beitbridge border post, we are painfully aware of them. When we have been talking to the South Africans to say come and invest in Zimbabwe, we have been talking to Zimbabwe businessmen who are in South Africa, they have raised the issues about the delays at Beitbridge border post, sometimes there are commercial trucks waiting there to be cleared for two weeks.
And we have decided as the government that we will try to work on an urgent basis with our colleagues in South Africa to convert Beitbridge border post into what we are calling a one-stop border post. So if you are cleared on the Zimbabwean side that’s it, you shall be cleared throughout and if you are cleared on the South African side, that’s it, you are cleared. And we are trying to work on this. There are issues about the compatibility of the two systems but it is something we have prioritised, it is something we are raising within the South Africa/Zimbabwe joint commission.
And there are issues of the bridge itself, there are issues of capacity there and indeed even as we talked with stakeholders in Victoria Falls, the Minister for Tourism was raising some of these issues; ‘as a country do we really want to say the first person who interfaces with tourists and our are visitors is the revenue authority? Are they the best people to be necessarily in charge at the border post and so forth’, so all these things are work in progress that we need to address as a matter of urgency.
GONDA: And of course many people have been asking how you are going to stop the horrendous bribes going on at Beitbridge. What can you say about that?
NCUBE: Well we are told that a lot of bribery is rife there but as a new inclusive government we have zero tolerance for that and we have no doubt that we will be moving with speed to investigate what is happening there and to bring it to, if indeed there is bribery and corruption, to bring it to a swift end.
GONDA: And you know ZISCO Steel has been resuscitated over and over again but there have been reports about layers and layers of corruption and even Minister Obert Mpofu said this in parliament a few years ago. So what are you going to do about ZISCO Steel in particular and the issue of corruption?
NCUBE: Well we are five weeks or six weeks in the job. There are problems at ZISCO, we know that. In fact ZISCO hasn’t produced steel since January 2008 so for all practical purposes it is a white elephant. They are surviving on selling scrap steel accumulated over years. We are also aware that part of the problem with the previous management was externalisation of money through the subsidiaries they have in Zambia and they have in Botswana, we are aware of that.
And we have said we need to commercialise ZISCO. We have put in place a new management there, or at least a new managing director and a new board put late last year - with a mandate to ensure that the new managing director there is able to deal with issues of the other senior managers working with the board at ZISCO. So that we have a team which can deliver on what we want and indeed if they are unable to deliver we will intervene and make sure we put in place a team which delivers and make no mistake about that.
But the most important thing at ZISCO is to be able to introduce equity and to be able to introduce new money. To be able therefore to recapitalise it, to refurbish blast furnace number four, revive blast furnace number three and go back to full production. And there are lots of things which are required here: You need to acquire and have locomotives, you need coaches to ferry the iron ore, the limestone, you then also need to fix the question of the supply of coal from Hwange. At the moment you get two hundred tons delivered in a month when you actually need more than 20 000tons in a month. Which basically means you can’t fire up your batteries; you can’t start any operation at ZISCO.
And so we need to fix the enablers - water, coal and electricity, so that when we have fixed the internal issues we can be able to be up and running at ZISCO. But the most critical, the most urgent thing is to be able to introduce equity there and we are in the process of processing applications for investors to come into ZISCO and hopefully we will move with speed and hopefully we will have the luck and the wisdom to find the best investors there to partner us in getting ZISCO on its feet again.
GONDA: What about parliament? When is the parliament going to get down to business and actually change some laws like the Gold Act, like AIPPA or even when are the portfolio committees going to be constituted?
NCUBE: Well it’s not in the first instance a function of parliament to get this legislation in place. The Executive must first of all get the legislation in place. The policy changes have been agreed through STERP, the line ministries must now review the relevant legislation as soon as possible. There is that instruction to make sure that all the legislation, part of why we were in Vic Falls was to be able to draw up those 100 day plans, which should include the processing of the requisite legislation to implement the agreed policies. And once the Executive has processed and the bills are ready they will be taken to parliament and they will be debated by parliament and hopefully those portfolio committees will be in place, they’ll look at the legislation, parliament in its fullest sense will also look at it and we can get it over with sooner rather than later.
GONDA: Do you still think it was a good idea challenging Lovemore Moyo’s appointment as Speaker of parliament - as the Mutambara MDC?
NCUBE: The applicant in the case is Professor Jonathan Moyo, that’s my understanding. Some of our members of parliament provided supporting evidence of what they witnessed during the voting in terms of what was complained of. That is what I am aware of and my understanding, I’ve not read the court papers and so I cannot vouch for this, but my understanding related to the manner in which the voting was conducted in a manner which contradicted the rules and procedures of parliament.
Whether or not it is right to strictly enforce the rules of parliament at a particular historical moment or not is another question, but as a general proposition, when we are insisting on the rule of law - we spend much of today talking about the rule of law, that rule of law in my view must apply everywhere, inside parliament, inside the courts, outside parliament, outside the courts and we cannot cherry pick. Therefore if there are individuals who think that the rule of law has not been observed in parliament, surely we must agree that there is a right to test their claim whether or not it has been observed.
GONDA: And finally, I know you are not the relevant minister for constitutional issues but you are a key member of the National Constitutional Assembly and the GPA says there will be a new constitutional process using the Kariba Document as the basis. Now how do you reconcile this position and the calls for a people-driven constitution by the civil society in Zimbabwe?
NCUBE: I always say Violet in respect of the constitutional process we should not allow the ideal (inaudible), to be an enemy of the good and the possible. The fundamentalist position of some people is that; unless you do something exactly my way, unless you do something exactly my way, it can’t be done! We will then never have a new constitution as a country. What is in the Global Political Agreement is an attempt to find a compromise between two opposed views of the world. Our colleagues in Zanu-PF held the view that the processes and procedures of making a constitution must be the preserve of those whom people have elected in an election. In other words parliament as constituted at any one time. That is one world view which they have. The old opposition in the MDC and civil society collectively held the view that let us go through a transparent open process, which is not based in parliament, which is based outside parliament. You needed to reconcile this view.
You could not do it the Zanu way or the Zanu-PF way to the (inaudible) in parliament. Zanu-PF on the other hand will not accept a situation where you exclude totally the elected representatives and say those who have constituted themselves as the civil society have greater right to represent people.
So what we then did in the Global Political Agreement was to seek to reconcile this position, and therefore we brought an amalgam and said let parliament run with the process but let that process be mitigated by open transparent public consultation procedures. Have an all-stakeholders conference at the beginning where you bring stakeholders, you bring civil society into your thematic committee. You then go to the public and consult the public. You take the Kariba document, not as a Bible but as a starting point and say the three political parties sat and thought this was a fair compromise. Where do you disagree with it, what are the changes you want to be made to the Kariba document? And the public comments on it. It is a guide, it is a starting point where you carry that Kariba Document and you put it to the people. Part One says do you have problems with it? No, this can pass. Part Two no, no, no it is wrong, what should happening is this and this. That is what is in the Agreement.
GONDA: Well the NCA is rejecting this…
NCUBE: Well we cannot hold the nation to be hostages of egos of individuals who say unless something is done absolutely and totally in accordance with my way - and let us not forget when we say the people - you are including the people in civil society, you are including the people in the two MDC formations and you are including the people in Zanu-PF. And by definition if you are therefore saying the people in Zanu-PF are no longer a people, their world view doesn’t matter. It means from the beginning therefore your process is not a people driven process – you have excluded some people who disagree with you.

ENDS.

Tuesday 21 April 2009

New Zimbabwe.com site dangerous for your computer

On Sunday 19 April 2009 I wrote the editor of the above site advising him that his public website poses great danger to unsuspecting users that need to be attended to without delay and received the usual pre-written acknowledgement of my e-mail which promises further follow up at a later stage.

I have just visited the site and found that no action has been taken to rectify the threats i brought to the attention of the editor.

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Location: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/blog/?tag=global-political-agreement

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And here is the rest of it.

Gideon Gono a blown fuse in the circuit

Under siege Reserve Bank Governor fighting tooth and knail to keep a job he said he was not in need of not so long ago
There is a Shona adage that says when the African drum produces the best sounds it is about to rupture.

Nothing exemplifies the meaning of the adage than the recent outbursts by unprocedurally appointed Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono over his unprocedural release of Central bank motor vehicles for use by Members of Parliament (MP’s).

The Zimbabwe Government is structured into the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature as an internal control mechanism for power counter balancing in State administration necessary to minimise State excesses.

The Executive Secretariat is provided by Permanent Functional Heads of its diverse Business Units which are called Ministries while the Legislature has its own secretariat led by the Clerk of parliament and the Judiciary’s secretariat is provided by the Secretary of Justice.

Each government Ministry is structured in a manner that is deemed most appropriate to deliver its mandate and in many instances the Ministries are divided into Strategic Business Units headed by semi autonomous Business Unit Managers.

The Reserve Bank is one such Strategic Business Unit under the critical ministry of Finance charged with specific responsibilities to manage national fiscal policies and provide Statutory banking services for Government Departments as well as act as bank of last resort in the country and thus supervisory authority in the financial services industry.

The bank came into existence as a result of an Act of parliament and is a critical business unit in the management of public funds under the control of the government.

Before the coalition government took over the mandate to govern the country key Functional and Divisional heads were appointed to head the Strategic Business Units of the State on recommendations to the President by the government Human Resources Consultancy called the Ministry of Public Service which has an expert HR department headed by Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwah called the Public Service Commission in respect of Senior Executive Appointments, the Judicial Service Commission in respect of Senior Judicial Appointments and other commissions to deal with senior Military, Prisons, Parastatals and the Police as well as Special commissions.

After the GPA President Mugabe is now required to discuss these recommendations with Premier Morgan Tsvangirai and the Deputy Premiers as well as the Vice presidents and reach a consensus with them before effecting them.

What that means is that all coalition government strategic appointments must be vetted and accepted by the Presidium and the Premiership before they can be effected.

This is causing President Mugabe sleepless nights because it is such a departure from the custom and practice where he had frozen out other interest groups from having a say in key statutory appointments and built a loyalist club around the key HR function who always presented him with Zanu PF loyalists for confirmation of appointment in the key positions.

Although the same people are still around and doing all in their power to give him the names he wants to hear about and appoint the problem now is that the Minister of the Public service is no longer from his Zanu PF political formation and he can no longer rely on him for advice as to the political suitability of the people recommended to him for appointment.

Further and more pertinently the entire premiership has names of equally competent and in many instances better qualified and untarnished possible appointees whom they argue have more to give to the nation than the tried and tested but failed names recommended by the HR Commissions whose impartiality is questionable anyhow given their self confessed and or reputed links with Zanu PF.

If all names on the recommended list can be linked in one way or another to Zanu PF, which has not been that difficult for the Premiership to expose, the Presidium finds itself in the unenviable task of dismissing allegation of the proposed appointments being persuaded more by political affiliation than by qualification and expertise held by the candidates.

That is the reason why the Premiership took the trouble of requesting the foresight of the CV’s of the Permanent Secretaries, Ambassadors, Heads of Parastatals, Heads of National Commissions, Military Commanders, The Reserve Bank Governor and the Attorney General before rushing to meet Mugabe over inclusivity at Strategic Business Unit level in the coalition government.

In all instances of reviews of the CV’s linked current and proposed incumbents of the posts to Zanu PF and they were matched with other CV’s from applicants without Zanu PF links and the stage is now set for President to justify the appointments in place or proposed within the spirit and letter of inclusivity and meritocracy given the overlooked alternatives the MDC has matched to current and proposed candidates.

In the case of Gono and Tomana no less than three better qualified professionals whose political affiliations are not disclosed have been matched with current incumbents and President Mugabe is finding great difficulty in explaining why the incumbents were preferable other than for their loyalty to Zanu PF as not only are their qualifications inferior but their past performance has achieved negative outcomes.

The militarisation of Parastatals management has seen some of the poorest qualified appointments being confirmed to head the critical State Companies and their ultimate collapse under the stewardship of retired Army Colonels, Brigadiers and Majors as well as Senior Assistant Police Commissioners most of whom have the slightest idea of modern management theory and practice nor experience in successfully managing civilian operatives.

The impressive business track record successes and academic achievements of names counter proposed by the Premiership to be considered alongside those recommended by the Public service Commission in respect of all the key positions in dispute has been presented to President Mugabe who in turn has tasked his technocrat confidantes George Charamba, Dr Misheck Sibanda and Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwah to give him the substance to use in dismissing challengers proposed by the Premiership.

The trio has tried its best but in several instances has conceded that the Premiership proposals were unmatched by anyone from their contingent.

That sadly was the case in the RBZ and Attorney general contest to name the most topical of the contests.

Word has filtered to Gono that his backers in the contest have carved in and it is now his revered friend and Principal President Mugabe to save him if he can.

Gono who has used his first tenure of office at the central bank to bribe anyone he got into contact with, with generous donations of cash, vehicles, tractors, harrows, hoes, chains you name it was not at all amused.

Like the brat he has always been he has decided it is time to get back at those that benefited from his quasi-fiscal misdemeanours using State funds who are no longer openly supporting him now that he is under fire.

After being told by Minister of Finance at Vitoria Falls government bonding retreat to stop distributing RBZ vehicles to MP’s who are not in any way staff of the Central Bank where he is the Functional Head and ignored he was surprised with a written demand from the minister to recall unprocedurally distributed Bank vehicles he had donated to MP’s no more than two weeks after the Minister had publicly dismissed the rift between him and the Minister as a creation of the Media which was without basis.

Instead of pausing to digest the implications of the ministerial order, the Reserve Bank Chief reacted in the amateurish manner of the spoilt brat he has been ever since he was elevated to lead the Jewel Bank and later on the Reserve Bank.

He chose to extend the order to recall the irregularly issued vehicles to imply the recall of all the goodies he doled out in the quasi-fiscal operations he solely initiated and executed over 5 years.

His childish motive being that by expanding the dispute to cover other beneficiaries of his illegal actions he will have the muscle to silence the finance minister and his detractors.

Legislator Makosini Hlongwane, himself a beneficiary of the quasi-fiscal activities of the central bank quickly formed a Legislative Workers’ Committee to declare that the Finance Minister will get his way if he first manages to reverse the various donations that the Bank has doled out in the past.

Alluding to the stock accounting principle of first in first out Hlongwane believes he can intimidate the minister with the prospect of confronting chaotic land reforms that have damaged our economy.

Little does he know that it is Gideon Gono who must account for the donations he made without parliamentary approval and he should be leading that cause in the national interest which he was elected to defend?

Hlongwane and his backers in parliament must be made aware that the money Gono used was not his but the taxpayers’. As the people’s watchdog the legislature must play the role of ensuring the State accounts for expenditures from the fiscus in an open and transparent manner and get irritated when Legislators stoop to the level of defenders of unprocedural spending by the State.

Now that Gono has a reliable ally in Hlongwane’s Legislators Workers Committee we must of necessity fall back on the safety net of the principled Minister of Finance and implore him to set up a Parliamentary select Committee to investigate the disclosures Gono made in his angry reaction to the recall of vehicles issued to Legislators by the Central Bank and without treasury authority.

The terms of reference for such a committee must be to establish by what authority the Reserve Bank head authorised the theft of forex from individual and foreign accounts held in private banking institutions.

Further the amount stolen and what it was used for and by whom.

In addition to that the Committee must investigate how much was loaned to whom through the people’s shops and the farm mechanisation projects including how much of the Taxpayer’s funds were used in these initiatives’ administration expenses and the profits they generated for the State.

The committee should also investigate how much of the loans the Governor claims to have advanced have been refunded and to what extent the recovery complies with the lending terms.

More importantly the Committee must be mandated to establish the legality of the expenditures the Central Bank incurred over the past 5 years and make recommendations as to the suitability of Dr Gono being allowed to hold a function as critical as he does now.

That is how working democracies deal with alleged non compliance with laid down policies and procedures.

In Gono’s case he has tacitly pleaded guilty and all that remains is to establish the extent of his guilt and the possible benefits that motivated him to breach standing rules and treasury instructions.

We will not be surprised to see the names of the same MP’s now declaring they will not abide by rules consistently featuring in such an investigation.

Sunday 19 April 2009

What goes around comes around

We have seen enough of your joint public appearances what is lacking is common purpose action Mr President and Mr Premier

After two months and one week of ducking and dodging critical issues needing resolution by president Mugabe and his Zanu PF party during which time he has been extensively consulting with his handlers in the defunct Joint Operations Command (JOC) this week opens with a crucial meeting scheduled between the principal subscribers to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that ushered the insipid coalition government on 13 February 2009.

The less than satisfactory government arrangement now at the helm of the country’s management has been moving in fits and starts over the period while trying to negotiate its way past a cluster of hurdles thrown in its way by disgruntled opponents who hitherto were immensely benefiting from the status quo that existed before the coalition took to the controls.

The push start from SADC that rolled the coalition government into motion left a few spanners in the works after an imperfect repair job of a government administration that had not been serviced for nearly 3 decades.

The thinking was that after servicing the rusted engine of governance it required a running in period to establish the loose ends that required tightening and the mixture of the retrained and recently qualified governance technicians’ in the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) needed unsupervised opportunity to practice their newly acquired skills assured of rearguard support of SADC expertise whenever they met serious obstacles.

President Mugabe who missed many of the tutorials given by the SADC mediation team because he believed he had seen it all and was a qualified instructor in governance found that many of the beliefs he held were at variance with management skills required for successful governance in the modern world.

SADC mediators were in a hurry to get the stalled government in the country in motion to avert a looming humanitarian catastrophe that was threatening to implode as Civil Strife between competing political parties in the country whose power bases had been divided into mass approval for the MDC versus military approval for Zanu PF.

In that haste mediators relegated crucial lubrication and functional hygiene matters necessary for the smooth operation of the coalition government to the attention of JOMIC in the misguided belief that the issues were relatively easy and within the capability of the qualified apprentices to resolve.

Having motivated and secured inter party agreement to principles of power distribution at the top of the government and Cabinet level the belief was that the principles learned would be applied to fix power distribution at the Provincial Governorship level.

But President Mugabe had complicated matters at this level by unilaterally appointing loyalists from his party to the crucial grassroots political mobilisation positions ahead of the formation of the coalition Government.

The deliberate and purposeful move by the Zanu PF leader was out of knowledge of the role such positions had played to maintain his party’s grip on power in the past three decades and the potential consequences of loosing that vantage point to political opponents who were ever corroding into his powerbase even without those positions.

After the coalition government was consummated the outstanding allotment of Provincial Governorships was to become the first central point of contest between the coalition partners as expected.

JOMIC drew from its experience before SADC mediation and within a week of the matter being referred to it had agreed and unanimously recommended that the 10 positions in question should be apportioned between the parties to the GPA in tandem with the voting patterns in each of the 10 provinces of the country.

Applying that formula meant MDC-T which had won Parliamentary majorities in 5 of the Provinces would be entitled to appoint 5 Governors and the smaller faction of the Party led by Professor Mutambara would appoint one Provincial Governor for the single Province that gave it its 10 Legislators and the remaining 4 would be appointed by Zanu PF.

President was faced with a major accommodation crisis as he had appointed an elected legislator from Masvingo Province as a Governor thereby making him relinquish his Parliamentary seat as Governors are Senators.

In addition to that President Mugabe had also accommodated key Party members who had lost in Parliamentary elections to the MDC in Manicaland, Harare, Bulawayo, Matabeleland South, Matabeleland North and the Midlands as Provincial Governors and to comply with the JOMIC ruling had to disappoint these and replace them with MDC nominees.

It was no mean task because not only would it expose Mugabe’s weakened power to the nation he dearly wants to remain believing only his Zanu PF party and himself are in charge of but such a move has great potential of alienating him with the disappointed Governors he will have to stand down.

It thus became necessary for him to buy time and find the best way of getting around the problem arising from the JOMIC interpretation of the GPA.

To do so was not easy given the national sentiment and expectation of action on the issue of Governors.

To divert attention President Mugabe extended the contract of discredited Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono by a further 5 years and elevated another self confessed Zanu PF apologist Johannes Tomana to the critical position of Attorney General just in time to beat the imminent consummation of the coalition government.

The political strategy is to load disputed power points such that when Principals eventually get down to discuss the contested implementation issues president Mugabe will appear as having sacrificed some of his confidants and thus compromised when infact he will have given in an inch.

Nothing demonstrates that strategy more than the purported unilateral appointments of Permanent Secretaries and the muted silence on Ambassadorial postings as if there has been no change in government in the country.

That was loaded with the purported stripping of the powers and responsibilities of the ICT Minister nominated by the MDC-T and their relocation in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure development headed by a trusted Presidential ally Nicholas Goche notwithstanding that there was never agreement between the coalition partners to create a Ministry of Transport, Communication and Infrastructure Development which President Mugabe has unilaterally decreed in utter disregard of the GPA and constitution of the country.

The other side show created in the Zanu PF was the upsurge in commercial farm invasions at the same time the MDC was preoccupied with attempts to get political detainees who included key party activists and Civic Society allies freed from prisons throughout the country.

National attention was focussed on the illegal abductions and detentions of Jestina Mukoko and 14 others when Deputy Agriculture Minister Designate was added to the casualty list at the same time Manacho Mutezo was prosecuting Kurenyi for electoral fraud in a Mutare Magistrate court instead of the Electoral court.

As if that was not enough trouble for the MDC to be concerned with MDC vice President Thokozani Khupe was involved in a Road Traffic Accident enroute to her daughter’s swearing in ceremony as Deputy Premier and later died from injuries sustained in the yet to be explained accident.

This was to be followed by another accident involving MDC leader and current Premier Morgan Tsvangirai wherein his wife was killed resulting in him taking compassionate leave for 3 weeks.

As soon as he returned to work his grandson drowned in a swimming pool at the Premier’s residence and he had to be away from duty for another week.

There were other non fatal accidents involving MDC Legislators Sipepa Nkomo, Gordon Moyo and Giles Mutseyekwa which most believe are coordinated within known cabals of disgruntled opponents of the coalition government that have explicit or implied Presidential approval to buy him time to consolidate his weakened position in the imminent negotiations over GPA implementation oversights on his part.

Most Zimbabweans are disturbed about these delays and in particular those in the diaspora are desperate to see signs of real change on the part of Zanu PF or alternatively a pull out by the MDC from the coalition in protest to the breaches which to them reflect the MDC as a junior partner to Zanu PF in the coalition despite it securing electoral victories over Zanu PF in the 2008 harmonised elections and meriting leading the government.

If the MDC was to take the advice of its diaspora critics and pull out of the government, it would be sweet music for Zanu PF and the pockets of resistance cabals to the coalition governance.

It appears that the farm invasions have been dealt a major blow by the surprise Premiership fact finding visits to affected commercial farms in Chegutu and will henceforth be on the decline as perpetrators risk immediate arrest.

President Mugabe appears ready to confront the MDC on the disputed implementation areas of the GPA after realising that there is substantial aid in the offing if he complies with some key demands on him to show commitment to the GPA.

This week there will be some real movement in some areas of concern but not all are likely to be resolved as some appear will require SADC mediation to be ironed out with finality.

It is possible President Mugabe is holding out for the planned sixth month review of the co-Ministering of Home Affairs compromise to extract further concessions from the MDC over some disputed aspects of the GPA implementation.

Whatever will happen he will carve in on some of the main concerns by the end of the week or by the end of the month at the latest.

Kufamba NaJesu