Change is in the air

Now that we own our derelict farms this Government must pay us US$80 allowances because the Land is the economy and the economy is the land. Zimbabwe will never be a colony again! The land or the US$ what say you CDE?

The buoyant spirit of hope brought about by the ascendancy of Morgan Tsvangirai to the Premiership of the country and the wrestling of 16 Cabinet portfolios from the Gargoylic clutches of Zanu PF by the vibrant MDC is refusing be dampened by numerous attempts of the disgruntled and deposed Junta acolytes to scuttle the Inclusive Government initiative now obtaining in Zimbabwe.

The Inclusive Government initiative is showing tremendous resilience in the face of the pockets of adversity from the disgruntled.

Liberation War Veterans capitulate to monetary recolonisation

What with the rag-tag War Veterans shifting their position from the misinformed;
“Zimbabwe will never be a colony again and we are prepared to go back to the bush to fight if Tsvangirai rules this country” to:

“The government must consider paying us our pensions in United States dollars amounting to at least US$80 per month.”

It is a major scoop for Tsvangirai’s leadership of the current government that the War Veterans leadership which led the thunderous applause that greeted Mugabe’s Zanu PF boast that he had made them instant ZW$ millionaires through the chaotic land grabs is now prepared to forego their ZW$ quadrilionaires status for the humble US$ tens status.

That is some submission to monetary colonisation of sorts.

The land is no longer everything they fought for neither is it the economy any longer. US dollars are the real representative of wealth not the quadrillions of worthless Zimbabwe currency in their fat bank accounts that purchase nothing.

Learning is surely a hard job for the mental retards cocooned in the pre-medieval age thinking that violence resolves all human problems. It does not.

Velaphi Ncube, the Bulawayo war veterans’ association spokesperson, was reported by The Standard as having pleaded with the Tsvangirai led Inclusive Government in the following terms;

“Deepening poverty had forced the ex-combatants to ask government to consider converting their allowances to more stable foreign currencies.

“War veterans made a lot of sacrifice during the liberation war,” Ncube said. “The government should keep its promises of taking care of war veterans who are suffering because of dollarization.”

“The monthly allowances we earn in local currency are now worthless since the local currency is being discarded,”

“After consultations with colleagues, we feel that the government should pay us at least US$80 a month in pensions.”

“Yes we have a new government, but it should continue with the programmes started by the previous government that used to assist us,” he added.

“There is no reason why the new government should not pay us allowances in foreign currency and we are prepared for street protests to press for the consideration of our demands.”

Indeed the War Veterans have every right to claim value from their War efforts and are free to protest their demands as they best know how to. But before they do so they must take stock of where that value is located. It is in the very massive tracts of arable land they have viciously expropriated from commercial farmers. Now that they have left the arable lands derelict the country’s currency has become as worthless as the farms they hold onto and continue to eye for expropriation if they see any form of production on the farms.

We are sure that the new government and in particular the Prime Minister is very empathetic with the plight of our Liberation War heroes and will go out of his way to beg for US$’s for their pensions.

However as Zimbabweans we know that such borrowings are stop gap measures that must eventually be replaced by the country earning US$’s from exporting agricultural produce and minerals deposited on land allocated to these War veterans.

The sooner they focus on earning from the farms rather than paltry government pensions of US$80 per month the better for the country’s future economic stability and avoidance of recolonisation by dollarization.

When Accommodation supplies outstrip demand

An article by Garikai Mazara in the State owned Sunday Mail titled “Plenty of houses now available to let,” discloses that many of the unproductive and lazy parasites who were living in grandeur and splendour from proceeds of institutionalised corruption created by successive Zanu PF Junta regimes are finding it difficult to sponsor their glittering lifestyles in the new order.

They are vacating the plush apartments and houses they were leasing because the Black Market from which they were obtaining obscene profits has been buried in an avalanche of prudent financial management by the Inclusive Government which has introduced policies aimed at rewarding enterprise and hard work as opposed to corruption.

That is what was always lacking in successive Zanu Pf Governments. Their aim was to create a government that controls every facet of enterprise and kill entrepreneurship so that all and sundry would depend on it for survival.

Because the reckless spenders are on a leash the houses and apartments that were yielding obscene profits for landlords are getting more and more difficult to lease at the distorted rentals they were being offered to the market at.

Rentals have started falling drastically and accommodation for the deserving productive hard workers is becoming that much easier to secure.

The distorted pricing structure that the immediate past Junta regime mobilised and deployed the entire Police Force and Army to fight as well as a stupendous National P and Incomes Commission to bring under control is being effectively managed by attacking the source rather than the symptoms of the problem.

Teachers used to the benefits of corruption are still reportedly receiving sidekicks from impoverished parents to perform the tasks of their occupation for which we must admit they were required by the junta regime to provide for a pittance.

The reported demands for daily subscriptions of US$1 per child for teachers’ transport are obscene and criminal and must be stopped forthwith.

It is not unusual for a parent in Zimbabwe to have 3 or four children attending school simultaneously in various grades. For State and privately employed teachers to draw salaries from their employers and stipends from parents is an outrage given that teacher’s salaries are paid from the taxes collected from the same parents by the State.

More tellingly it is repugnant to expect a parent earning a US$100 stipend to sponsor a teacher earning the same stipend to the tune of US$5 per week per child. If the parent has four children in school where on earth is such a parent expected to find the US$20 per week and still manage to feed kit them out for school and clothe them?

In any event it is a Public service employment contractual obligation that public servants may not accept ex-gratia payments above a certain amount without the approval of their employer. The permanent Secretary for Education has never been known to have done anything positive for the country’s education. Stopping this malpractice would be a good starting point for Mahere.

The Sunday mail reporter also questioned the levels of remuneration employers are prepared to pay to workers. He disclosed many are paying as little as US$40 per month despite racking in thousands from customers.

This coming from the same paper that has been at the forefront of promoting worker destitution by actively promoting the price wars that left retail outlets emptied by Black Market barons and industry incapacitated to produce anything is a bit difficult to easily accept as a genuine desire to see improvement in worker incomes.

But we must agree that US$40 for a month’s work is far too low a level of remuneration from entrepreneurs charging for products and services in that currency.

We however caution the government and employers to proceed with extreme caution on the question of wages in forex to avoid them igniting inflation on a currency the supply of which is at present in critical short supply.

The value of a wage or salary to an employee is measured in the quantity of goods and services that can be bought by the wage. In Zimbabwe where a culture of bankrupt millionaires has been entrenched in the minds of people earning tens of any currency may sound outrageously inadequate but the workers are certainly better off with a US$ in their pockets than a quadrillion of ZW$’s in their banks.

If only the Sunday Mal had been this liberal in criticising the past policies of the government we would not be in the current conundrum would we? Except that now the criticism is aimed at tarnishing a two week old government, which is hardly surprising, they tend to overdo things at the Sunday Mail don’t they.

There is no room for fanatical eroticism in promoting a cause in efforts to turn around Zimbabwe’s from the damage it has taken from past maladministration that the Sunday Mail has celebrated without restraint in the past.

Not to be outdone Augustine Moyo from the same stable chose to attack the cost of a passport in Zimbabwe compared to its cost and processing turnaround times elsewhere.
The passport prices in Zimbabwe were pegged at their current level in October 2007 by the deposed Junta regime.

We do not ever recall the Sunday Mail questioning the pricing structure then. Does that mean they were afraid of questioning the extortionate pricing then and the Inclusive Government has freed them from the shackles of parrot reporting?

If that is the case we must salute the Government and not the Sunday Mail which kept muted silence when the people who sponsor its recapitalisation were being fleeced by the Junta.

For the record it is not only passport fees that are unjustifiably priced in Zimbabwe. All tariffs charged for State services are out of this world.

Water, Electricity, Rates, Import duties for classified luxuries, Fuel duties, Stamp duties, taxation bands etal are all fixed in percentages that applied to the worthless ZW$ and outrageous.

How does a second hand car bought and shipped to the country at a total cost of US$$2800 end up fetching US$3600 for the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority before it can be released to its owner.

What sort of punitive duties are these in a country where public transport is nonexistent and the car manufacturing industry is unable to supply vehicles within the reach of 90% of the populace?

Worse the same Industry can only meet 5% of the vehicle demands of the rich customers meaning the other 95% of the privileged 10% that can afford the cost of a privately assembled Zimbabwean new car have to outbid each other to secure the scarce utility.

Instead of agitating for piecemeal review approach to the skewed pricing policies inherited by the Inclusive Government from the obnoxious Junta regime the Sunday Mail could do all Zimbabweans a favour by slamming the decomposed thinking in remnants of its leadership in the Inclusive Government and urge them to support the proposed review of the current budget before Parliament by the new Finance Minister that has landed the support of the Deputy PM and invited the rabid wrath of Gideon Gono and President Mugabe.

There is an apparent and compelling and imperative need for such a holistic review of pricing policies as a budgetary review because the budgeted cost of government services directly impacts on income expectations of the general workforce.

If not balanced either productivity will take a heavy knock as employees withhold their labour to force employers to increase their incomes and if they get their way a push will be exerted on inflation that will return us to the regime of worthless zeroes in front of our currency and prices.

Indeed the cost of Zimbabwe’s passport cannot be justified by even an extraterrestrial economist or accountant but the problem is much deeper than what meets the eye.

The price was fixed by the rule of thumb suck as has been the case with many estimates in the current budget. There is need for those demanding such funding from the fiscus to be asked to justify where they will buy such expensive goods and services which can be sourced globally at less than a tenth of their retail levels in the country.

Darlington Musarurwa from the same stable in his instalment titled “Free market economy not a straight jacket” attempted to show the extent of the problem but fell short of advocating for the holistic approach support by those ensconced in powerful Inclusive government positions exhibiting the proverbial old dogs that cannot be taught new tricks easily syndrome.

All the same it is commendable that the hitherto virulent Sunday Mail and War Veterans are beginning to exhibit signs of enlightenment devolving from the welcome changed political social and economic winds blowing across Zimbabwe. It can only be better for the country.

The under siege Commercial Farmers

Not that their courage and resilience against adversity was ever been in doubt but the decision to sit out the current wave of misguided invasion of their properties deserves commendation.

Not because of the colour of their skin or because of the race so often used to put across their plight but because of their human instinct to defend rights to ownership and patriotism to serve the country they are truly Zimbabwean and deserve solidarity from all well meaning Zimbabweans.

Media scribes that have a keen interest in this segment of our political economy must also take on board changes that are emerging around them.

Continuous reference to these under siege property barons as White Farmers is not helpful to their cause.

They are simply Zimbabwean commercial farmers that are being racially abused and it would help if there is a paradigm shift in reporting their plight from referring to them as White Commercial Farmers and just calling them by their names and or profession which is Commercial Farming without reference to race or skin pigmentation.