Messages From Zimbabwe

It is a prerequisite of the Zimbabwean government to skew any story to reflect badly on the West.

Of course Chiramba is going to state something that makes the Zimbabwean government is the injured party.

Isn’t it striking that Chiramba should mention Australia, the US and New Zealand in connection with this case (and they have had nothing to do with it!) and immediately attempt to throw muck at the relevant governments…

It is sad when a country like Zimbabwe deems it necessary to play out their domestic problems on the international stage.

“President Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson has accused former colonial power Britain and other Western countries of sabotaging Zimbabwe’s efforts to turn around its economy by offering a safe haven to criminals. The comments came after an MP from Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party, David Butau, fled to Britain last week. Police in Zimbabwe had placed Butau on a wanted list for alleged foreign-exchange violations. “The criminals follow the sponsor. It’s becoming apparent that we are no longer talking about mere economic crime, we are talking about economic subversion that has the blessings of foreign interests,” George Charamba was quoted as telling the official Herald newspaper on Monday. “When you follow the footsteps of criminals and indicted persons, this suggests a new geography of crime, which connects Zimbabwe to Britain, Australia, the US and New Zealand.”

He said these were the same countries that took a negative stance against the country’s controversial seizure of white-owned farms. Butau heads a parliamentary committee on budget and finance. It was not immediately clear if he was on a list of dozens of ruling-party officials banned from travelling to Britain over alleged rights abuses. Britain has become a destination of choice for a handful of Zimbabwean businessmen escaping the Southern African country after the central bank began a crackdown on so-called economic saboteurs in 2004. Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said the police would continue to pursue the MP. “The arm of the law is quite long and it will soon be catching up with him,” Bvudzijena told the Herald.

Last week central bank Governor Gideon Gono accused the parliamentary committee headed by Butau of shying away from their responsibility after it turned down the Reserve Bank chief’s offer to name senior government officials engaging in shady deals and hoarding cash. In a telephone interview from Britain, Butau told a state newspaper on Sunday that he was being victimised by Gono. “We received information that Governor Gideon Gono was amongst those sabotaging the economy and when we confronted him with that he acted fast on me and passed on information to the police about my purported exchange control violations,” he told the Sunday Mail. The fugitive MP said he would only come back to Zimbabwe once his name was cleared.”

(Source)

A legislator in Zimbabwe’s ruling party has fled to Britain, fearing arrest in a police probe of foreign-currency payments he made last month, official media reported on Sunday. The state-owned Sunday Mail quoted unnamed sources as saying police wanted to interview David Butau, the Zanu PF MP for a northern constituency, about a $1,07-million payment made for tractors from an offshore account in the Channel Islands. Butau was unavailable for comment, but the Sunday Mail quoted him, speaking from Britain, as denying any wrongdoing and accusing Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono of instigating the police investigation against him. “He [Gono] had the state machinery at his disposal and I had to flee the country. But I can assure you that when authorities get the documents absolving me, I will definitely come back,” he told the paper.

Police say they have been trying to interview Butau for the past two weeks. Chief police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told Reuters Butau was still on the police wanted list but would not confirm that he had left the country. “We have not had any luck with David Butau because he has not reported to any police station in the country. We are still working to establish his whereabouts,” Bvudzijena said. Butau chairs a budget and finance parliamentary committee that has had a shaky relationship with Gono. The committee has previously questioned Gono’s monetary policies. Zimbabwe has battled severe foreign currency shortages since 2000, resulting in a thriving currency black market. In 2005 several bank executives fled the country when Gono cracked down on banks accused of illegally trading foreign currency.

(Source)

Businessman Mr Jonathan Kadzura gave Dorothy Primrose Mutekede - originally arrested as a “cash baroness” - $10 billion in brand-new $500000 bearer cheques in exchange for US$4900, Mutekede said after being convicted of illegally dealing in foreign currency. Mutekede appeared before a Harare magistrate on Monday night and pleaded guilty to breaching Exchange Control Regulations. She was remanded in custody until today for sentencing but before she was taken away by prison officers she asked to be allowed to name the source of the $10 billion and implicated Mr Kadzura, who also sits on the advisory panel of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Mutekede - who was arrested on Saturday night in possession of new $500000 bearer cheques totalling $10 billion still wrapped in their RBZ sleeves - was brought to court after sunset.

Clerks, interpreters and other staff who had knocked off for the Christmas break had to be recalled to attend to the case. Only area prosecutor Mr Tawanda Zvekare and provincial magistrate Mr Mishrod Guvamombe were still at the courts. Mr Guvamombe ordered the State to bring Mr Kadzura to testify in court today before sentence is passed on Mutekede. Mutekede mentioned two other businessmen she identified only as Ramadan and Mohamed in connection with the money. Mr Guvamombe said Mr Kadzura should testify to help the court assess Mutekede’s blameworthiness and pass an appropriate sentence. Mutekede was convicted of exchanging US$4900 for Z$10 billion at Cresta Lodge in Harare with two men she did not identify in the statement of agreed facts. On being told she was being remanded in custody, she named Mr Kadzura and even requested Mr Guvamombe to read text messages on her mobile phone purportedly from Mr Kadzura asking her not to mention his name in court.

She insisted on handing over the phone to the court but Mr Guvamombe declined insisting it was premature to do so at that juncture. Mutekede admitted to being an illegal foreign currency dealer and pleaded for a lighter sentence saying she committed the offence to fend for her two-year-old child. She said she operated at Roadport along Fifth Street and had more than 100 colleagues at the regional bus terminus. Mutekede (24) of Chinamano Heights in Harare was not represented by a lawyer. Agreed facts were that on December 22 at around 5:30pm, Mutekede was informed by a fellow dealer that “their usual buyer” required US$5000 and was waiting for her at Cresta Lodge near the intersection of Samora Machel Avenue and Robert Mugabe Road. Mutekede drove to the hotel an hour later, but the buyer was nowhere in sight. She decided to wait.

When the buyer eventually arrived, they agreed on an exchange rate of US$1 to Z$2050000. Mutekede gave the buyer US$4900 and he, in turn, handed over Z$10 billion in the new bearer cheques plus an extra Z$45 million. After the transaction, Mutekede drove towards the city centre but noticed a car trailing her. Fearing the car’s occupants might be robbers, she diverted to Roadport hoping to get assistance from her colleagues. But the men following her identified themselves as detectives and arrested her at the terminus and seized the cash as an exhibit. The detectives later said that they only decided to follow her because she was driving at above normal speed. At the time of her arrest, the question uppermost in people’s minds was how Mutekede had managed to get hold of such a large amount of cash less than 36 hours after the new bearer cheques were unveiled. Maximum daily withdrawals are pegged at $50 million a day for individuals and $750 million for companies.

(Source)

As we record the eighth Christmas after the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change in 1999, I wish to recognise our collective determination and resolve to transform the political face of our motherland against heavy odds.

We are pioneers among Africans: the first nation to confront an African dictator through democratic means, and the first post-colonial formation arising from the social movement to claim an extension of freedom and the realisation of the noble ideals of the liberation struggle. Unlike the situation in the rest of Africa, we remained steadfast in our refrain to resort to armed violence in order to be heard.

I am happy to note that we pinned our colours to a set of ideals that bind our nation and continued to address seemingly intractable political and democratic deficits perpetuated by Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF. We stretched ourselves, set the national agenda and celebrated the possible in a negative African political climate that initially scorned at our peaceful efforts and wrote us off as vassals of external hate and foreign manipulation.

Today Africa is with us: our SADC neighbours understand us and they are helping us to manage a messy political transition at the successful conclusion of our national project, our democratic struggle. We have won this struggle.

We now face a delicate process of transferring power to the people, rekindling hope and setting up institutions and a government over which the people have control and input.

For 27 years, Zimbabweans believed government was something that happens to them. The people ceded decisions and the essence of life to a criminal cabal, a criminal state. Trust, confidence and faith in an orderly system tumbled along, giving way to the emergence of a plethora of single issue protest groups within the broader democratic movement.

As we enter the New Year the people are poised to eject the status quo and to re-engage with the democratic process to complete the change into a New Zimbabwe. But given the delicacy of the transition, we need all voices on the table. Let us unite for the purposes of crossing this sensitive footbridge to a genuinely free and fair election whose outcome shall discourage further political disputes.

We have limited options. With millions away from home and a deepening humanitarian crisis and a debilitating national food shortage, Zimbabwe can ill-afford to delay the resolution of the national crisis, a day longer. We are at a crucial stage of our nation’s development.

Christmas offers us a superb occasion to put our differences aside, meet family and friends and to share our thoughts and scarce resources freely as a people. Christmas creates a period of giving, a period of empathy and a period of solidarity.

Christmas unites all. I wish to take this opportunity to appeal to the Church to pray for our nation at this time of greatest need; to pray for an orderly transition; and to pray for a Zimbabwe that emerges out of this dirty political envelop without life-threatening bruises. Across the political divide, we have a duty and a responsibility to guide ourselves and cross over into a new dispensation.

We have an enormous task ahead: we must rebuild the family; we must bequeath a normal birthright to our children; we must embark on a mammoth reconciliation and reconstruction programme to put our country back on the rails; and we must exercise extreme care and caution in order to rejoin the international community.

Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF rely on force and coercion to achieve their objectives. We have been through all that. Mugabe and ZANU PF believe in violence as a means to an end. We have sufficient experience to deal with that. Mugabe and ZANU PF understand deceit and insincerity. We must stop them in order to move forward as a nation.

The New Zimbabwe in our dreams requires a concerted national effort to effect a generational change-over of our national political leadership. The New Zimbabwe in our vision is premised on honesty and tolerance in our diversity. The respect we expect from the international community should be a mirror image of the accolades and acceptance we enjoy at home. Any attempt to derail the current transition shall drive us to the edge of a precipice and delay an evolutionary process into a new era.

I call upon SADC, as underwriters to the current negotiations between ZANU PF and the MDC, to invest further political capital into our transition. It is important that SADC sees the process right to the end. SADC institutions must move into Zimbabwe quickly to oversee the transition, help us raise hope and assist ordinary people to restrain our rogue regime from an impulsive, negative reaction at a time when Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF are certainly losing power and control.

Our main focus rests on a free and fair election. The conditions for such a plebiscite must satisfy all stakeholders. The conditions must pass a SADC and a universal test. There is no need for us to rush through a transition and end up with a flawed process, a flawed outcome and a future doubted at home and abroad. Arrogance is negative. Arrogance dampens confidence. Zimbabwe deserves better.

Our elections in 2000 resulted in 37 legal challenges. Mugabe and ZANU PF usurped the judiciary and the bulk of these challenges were never heard. The few that came under judicial scrutiny proved that the Movement for Democratic Change won that election. But we were, nevertheless, denied access to power.

The Presidential election in 2002 suffered the same fate. To this day, and a few months to another major election, the legal challenge to the process and the result in the 2002 election is still locked up in the courts, partly heard. A repeat of this backward way of life would finish us off all as a nation. Let us avoid falling into the same trap.

For participants in a national plane to derive meaning from their routine interaction, from their conversations and from democracy, there is a need for an environment secured by our diversity, the rule of law, a solid human rights culture, respect for private property rights and an embrace of universal norms and standards of behaviour. None of that obtains in the Zimbabwe we live in today. This transition is designed to lead to a complete reversal of the status quo. Let us all work hard to achieve that.

Together we can get out of the complicated political stalemate whose weight is evident everywhere. The stalemate has cost us our basic sustenance, our food reserves and our friends. The stalemate affects our relations with the international community.

Our neighbours are as concerned as ourselves with the absence of a political will, on the part of the Mugabe dictatorship, to accept a smooth transition to a new Zimbabwe. Without sufficient safeguards, insured by an amicable agreement and sound political will, we risk driving the nation - once again - into a cul-de-sac. We remain concerned about the insincerity of Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF in this transitional process. ZANU PF’s insincerity and behaviour on the ground are causing immense anxiety and, in some cases, total uncertainty.

As individuals, as families, as communities and in our different capacities, we shall meet, pray, dialogue and dine with ZANU PF functionaries during this Christmas and New Year period. Let us implore on them to see the bigger picture, the national imperative and the national interest. Let us reason with them as kith and kin to accept that Zimbabwe is the subject, not their personal fears and trappings. Let us all put our heads together and ensure that Zimbabwe experiences a free and fair election next year.

May I wish you a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. It is my sincere hope and conviction that Zimbabwe shall be a different place in 2008.

Morgan Tsvangirai

President.

Harare, Zimbabwe

(This article was emailed to me and I am unable to find a web source for it as yet…)

Bill gazetted

The Local Government Laws Amendment Bill was gazetted today [see under Status of Bills]

Bills passed this week and now awaiting Presidential assent and gazetting

One-Stop Border Posts Control Bill

Appropriation (2008) Bill

Finance (No. 2) Bill

Electoral Laws Amendment Bill [with amendments made by the House of Assembly] [Electronic version of updated Bill available]

Public Order and Security Amendment Bill*

Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill*

Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Bill*

* Fast-tracked – gazetted on 14th December, passed through House of Assembly on 18th December, and Senate on 19th December. There were no amendments to these three Bills so the Act will be the same as the Bills.

Update on Acts

We can now offer electronic versions of the Electricity Amendment Act [No. 12/2007] and the Warehouse Receipt Act [No. 13/2007], gazetted on 14th December. [If you want either Bill, please request]

The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill has still not yet been gazetted as an Act. Note: Section 51(2) of the Constitution states that when a Bill is presented to the President for his assent he has 21 days within which to either assent or withhold assent to it. It probably went to the President’s office about three weeks ago. Once the President has signed it there could still be a delay gazetting it.

Update on currency changes

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in his address of 19th December launched Operation Sunrise II – including the withdrawal of the current $200 000 bearer cheque at the end of December; issue of three new bearer cheques in denominations of $250 000, $500 000 and $750 000; postponement of the expiry of other bearer cheques until 31st July 2008. [Electronic version of full text of the Governor’s address available]

SI 204/2007, gazetted in a Government Gazette Extraordinary dated 19th December, provides for the measures above [Electronic version available].

SADC Tribunal interim ruling in Zimbabwe land acquisition case

On 13th December in Windhoek, Namibia, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal accepted jurisdiction and granted interim relief in the case in which a Zimbabwean farmer has challenged the acquisition by the Government of his farm in the Chegutu district. The Tribunal’s order states that pending the determination of the main case the Republic of Zimbabwe shall take no steps, or permit no steps to be taken, directly or indirectly, whether by its agents or by orders, to evict, or interfere with the peaceful residence on and beneficial use of the farm by, the farmer, his family, his employees and the families of his employees. [The Tribunal’s ruling is available in electronic form. Please request if you want it.] [Also available is the Protocol establishing the SADC Tribunal]

EU-Africa Summit - Lisbon Declaration of 9th December 2007

The declaration adopted by participants, including Zimbabwe, at the conclusion of the recent EU-Africa Summit includes commitments to inter alia: the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals; the establishment of a robust peace and security architecture in Africa; the strengthening of investment, growth and prosperity through regional integration and closer economic ties; and the promotion of good governance and human rights. [Full text of declaration available in electronic form]

Status of Bills as at 21st December 2007

Senate

None

House of Assembly

Engineering Council Bill [H.B. 9, 2007] Gazetted 21st September 2007 [Electronic version available]

Ministry: Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development

PPC: Local Government

Stage: Awaiting Second Reading [having received a non-adverse report from the Parliamentary Legal Committee[PLC] on 28th November]. The Minister has given notice that he will propose amendments to the Bill during the Committee Stage.

Summary: The Bill provides for the establishment of an Engineering Council of Zimbabwe. The Council will be responsible for the registration of all engineers and engineering technicians and the regulation of their practice in Zimbabwe. Practice by unregistered persons will be prohibited. The existing Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers (Private) Act will be amended.

Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill [H.B. 14, 2007] Gazetted 16th November 2007 [Electronic version available]

Ministry: Mines and Mining Development

PPC: Mines, Energy, Environment and Tourism [Clerk: Ms Dube]

Stage: Awaiting report from PLC [Bill introduced and referred to PLC on 29th November]

Summary: This Bill amends the Mines and Minerals Act to make provision for [1] the indigenisation and localisation of the mining industry and [2] the first major overhaul and modernisation of mining law for over thirty years. For a fuller summary see Bill Watch Special of 22nd November.

Bill awaiting introduction

Local Government Laws Amendment Bill [H.B.15, 2007] Gazetted 21st December 2007 [Electronic version available]

Ministry: Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development

PPC: Local Government [Clerk: Mrs Nyawo]

Stage: Awaiting introduction. In view of the fast-track treatment given this week to the other Bills in the package agreed on between ZANU-PF and the MDC factions, it is likely that this Bill will be fast-tracked through both Houses when they resume sitting in mid-January.

Summary: Not yet available. The Bill is consequential to the harmonisation of Presidential, Parliamentary and local authority elections required by Constitution Amendment No. 18.

Bills passed but not yet gazetted as Acts

Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill, H.B. 6A, 2007 [final reading 02.10.2007]

One-Stop Border Posts Control Bill [final reading 18.12.2007]

Appropriation (2008) Bill [final reading 18.12.2007]

Finance (No. 2) Bill [final reading 18.12.2007]

Electoral Laws Amendment Bill [final reading 19.12.2007]

Public Order and Security Amendment Bill [final reading 19.12.2007]

Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill [final reading 19.12.2007]

Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Bill [final reading 19.12.2007]

Where this posting says “electronic version available”, please email egcross@africaonline.co.zw…

Cash is the simplest method of payment and means of settlement for virtually any type of transaction. There is no latent risk associated with a cash transaction unlike other forms of payment such as cheques, electronic transfers and many other information technology-backed systems that can go wrong. Most forms of payment disadvantage either party in a transaction as goods are sometimes released after the seller confirms credit of funds in their bank account or sometimes goods are released without confirmation of payment having gone through the account. Such an arrangement requires a certain level of trust as one party in the transaction has the upper hand over the other. It is clear why cash is a favoured method of settlement especially in developing countries facing financial challenges in rolling-out costly IT infrastructure to support cashless transactions.

In Zimbabwe like any other country, cash is used on a daily basis albeit in higher proportions because of the effects of the hyper-inflationary environment that has eroded the purchasing power of the Zimbabwe dollar because of the economic recession. This could justify the running of the printing press now and again by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to compensate for eroded buying power of money in circulation. Although the hyper-inflationary environment as indicated by the October inflation rate of 14 840%, can in part explain the high demand for cash, the informalisation of the Zimbabwean economy ushered in by the economic recession pursuant to the shutdown and scaling down of operations by many multi-national companies (MNCs) has had a hand in the shift in modus operandi of the whole economy resulting in the high usage of cash.

MNCs and large local corporate entities dominated the commercial trading environment. MNCs were well organised and set a strict corporate culture based on transacting with bona-fide banking institutions that partnered them in their long-term growth strategies. Consequently all financial transactions were handled by their personal bankers to facilitate servicing of loans and to maintain a banking track-record for future loan appraisals. In addition, banking institutions had access to foreign currency and well developed International lines of credit, encouraging MNCs to bank all their sales revenues to access the foreign currency. The era of the economic recession heralded the shut-down and scaling down of operations by most MNCs ushering in the era of the informalisation of the Zimbabwean economy.

The informal sector was characterised by small business operations, the main objective of which was to fill the gap left by the closure of MNCs. For Zimbabwe, the informal sector was the only viable option as MNCs and foreign direct investment was not forthcoming due to negative international perception. Unfortunately the informalisation era brought with it new complications associated with the fact that most of the new entrepreneurs did not have adequate capital to effectively replace MNCs. The corporate culture of yester-year broke down with the informalisation of the economy as most of the entrepreneurs tried to make ends meet with little working capital and with virtually no access to the privileged personalised banking MNCs used to have. Most people in the informal sector do not have business accounts with commercial banks or deliberately operate out of the banking system to evade the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority tax net.

Those who had business accounts maintained them for the sole purpose of clearing the odd cheque received once in a while. Consequently, the corporate culture of yester-year has transformed to that of fragmented entities more inclined to use cash in their daily dealings because of the lack of access to the total banking package. There is no need to deposit sales revenues because the informal sector has no loans to service and no hope of accessing other investment banking services offered by financial institutions. The privilege previously enjoyed by MNCs through personalised banking has become a pipe-dream for the informal sector, resulting in many financial transactions being undertaken outside the banking system. The prohibitively low withdrawal limits imposed by the RBZ further exacerbated the need to keep cash outside the banking system. Many people knew that if they deposited cash, difficulties would be experienced in withdrawing it because of the unworkable daily limits placed on withdrawals and yet the cash was needed on a daily basis to purchase foreign currency that had found its way to the parallel market.

Press reports indicating that $65 trillion is missing from the banking system came as no surprise. The informalised Zimbabwe does not need to deposit cash because it simply circulates outside the banking system to buy foreign currency used in the importation of trading stock and thereafter, the stock in trade is sold for cash to the public. It is a vicious cycle that operates efficiently outside the banking system. If foreign currency was available in the banking system, there could be a motive to deposit all savings as part of the effort of accessing foreign currency. As it stands, foreign currency is in the illegal parallel market, outside the banking system and the Zimdollar, which is the primary agent used to buy hard currency, once withdrawn from the banking system will keep circulating outside the banking system chasing dwindling foreign currency inflows. The amount of local dollars needed to purchase hard currency will keep increasing in line with the depreciation of the Zimbabwe dollar on the parallel market, further putting pressure on the RBZ governor to print more cash.

Plans by the RBZ governor, Gono, to initiate the second phase of slashing zeros and subsequently introducing new bearer cheques through operation Sunrise 2 will not stop the vicious cycle. Cash barons will slowly build up their cash piles outside the banking system through their various business empires and get back to business as usual. This has become a business culture in the informalised Zimbabwe. The wait-and-see attitude adopted by the RBZ governor to the current cash crisis only serves to strengthen people’s resolve to remove money from the banking system and keep it in their homes. Zimbabwe has fundamentally changed since the onset of the economic recession and will only normalise once foreign currency becomes available through the formal banking system. Even the introduction of higher denominations will not help the situations. It seems that barons are here to stay unless and until Zimbabwe sorts out its economic mess.

(Source)

President Robert Mugabe has once again unleashed CIO terror squads to “crush and completely destroy” dissenting voices ahead of next year’s elections.

According to a CIO memorandum from Director-General, Happyton Bonyongwe, Mugabe has given instructions that strict surveillance missions be carried out on leaders of the opposition, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA).

Bonyongwe describes these four as hostile organisations that should be crushed before elections, now seemingly scheduled for March next year.

“Zim 1 has now directed that all suspended missions be resumed immediately. However, renewed efforts are to be channelled towards MDC, NCA, Crisis in Zim and WOZA. Strict surveillance missions to be maintained on leaders of these and usual corrective methods employed”.

CIO sources also told The Zimbabwean that the “usual corrective methods” being referred to in the memorandum are arrests, abductions, torture and even executions, which are now synonymous with the CIO, Mugabe’s most feared terror squads.

“Executive Instruction is that these hostile organisations should be crushed and completely destroyed before elections next year,” reads part of the memorandum, whose reference number is DGRO93/07.

Dated 12/1/7, it is addressed to the agency’s Director Internal and copied to Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of State Security, Deputy Directors and Provincial Intelligence Officers.

The agency has already received more than Z$5 trillion meant for the “first phase” of the terror campaign, dubbed “Operation 2008″ and most “field agents” have already been deployed in their strategic positions, said the sources.

Mutasa refused to talk to me on the matter. “Hey, I do not want to talk to you. Leave me alone, I am very busy,” he said over his mobile phone.

(Source)

I have undergone a traumatic and most unusual journalistic experience over the past week.

I spent the afternoon and early evening of Sunday, December 2, in the company of one of Zimbabwe’s most controversial and most sought-after politicians right in my own home here in Massachusetts. I must confess I have since become guilty of a rather shameful failure. I did not write a single word about my three and half hours in the enlightened company of a political figure who most politically astute Zimbabweans must be dying to read about since what appears to be his apparent withdrawal recently from the limelight.

My family’s honoured visitor had intended to stay only two hours as our guest for late lunch. Very unlike a politician, he arrived on schedule at 3.30 pm. By the time he eventually departed at 7.00 pm he was already an hour and a half late for his next appointment about 10 miles away. Such was the excitement of the meeting.

As the tail-lights of the car bearing our distinguished visitor disappeared into the night the group of Zimbabweans, who had travelled from various parts of Massachusetts to meet and exchange ideas with him about the future of Zimbabwe, looked at each other and shook their heads in bewilderment, bordering on shock. They discussed far into the night about the celebrity they had the rare occasion to meet and to interact with.

Professor Arthur Mutambara, had come to lunch, met 20 fellow Zimbabweans and had, it was so apparent, left them in a state of greater confusion about both the state of affairs back in the motherland and about his own plans and political projections for the future. With landmark presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled to take place, possibly within the next four months, their state of puzzlement was understandable.

I had first learnt through the Diaspora grapevine from an informant in London that the president of the breakaway faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, was at Harvard, a stone’s throw away from me. It turned out that Mutambara was attending a two-week programme at the Kennedy School of Government at the university.

My last encounter with the learned Professor had been less than cordial. I will skip the details of that meeting at a conference up in the Rockies, at Aspen in Colorado. I immediately decided I should make up for the less than complimentary article that I crafted after Mutambara avoided me like a leper at the conference. I had mistakenly assumed then that common sense would dictate that, as Zimbabwean compatriots meeting in the wilderness, we should honour our cultural custom by sitting down together, at least once, to ask of each other’s health.

Last week, determined that the two of us should not miss the God-sent opportunity to make amends provided by our juxtaposition in Massachusetts, I promptly dispatched an email message to invite him to lunch in our home away from home.

The following correspondence exchanged between the MDC factional president and me over the past two weeks is a veritable tale of subterfuge on his part and frustration on mine. The correspondence is printed here in the public interest as a prelude to a more comprehensive article on one of the men vying to be President of troubled Zimbabwe.

The article will be published tomorrow, Friday, December 14.

Nyarota, Thursday, November 29: I understand that you are currently in Massachusetts while attending a programme at Harvard. I would deem it an honour to break bread with you during your stay, while discussing many issues of mutual and national interest.

I would be failing in my responsibilities if I did not request an interview with you on the vexing crisis currently bedevilling our nation. We could perhaps do a Q&A, either through my submission of written questions or through a live interview, which ever is more convenient to you.

Very kind regards and welcome.

Mutambara, Thursday, November 29: Thanks for the note. We should definitely catch up. I am in sessions most of the time but I am on cell number… I should be free on Sunday.

Nyarota, Friday, November 30: Your compatriots in this part of the Diaspora are, presumably, keen to meet you as well. If this meets with your approval we will proceed to invite Zimbabweans in the area who might be interested in meeting one who is campaigning to become President of their country. I am sure you too would be delighted to seize on this opportunity to make or renew acquaintances with them.

This would be a very informal gathering of compatriots. But you should, of course, expect questions on the burning issues of our country. This would be a God-sent opportunity for you to interact with your countrymen so that they hear an account of the current situation in Zimbabwe right from the horse’s mouth. I believe we can expect an optimistic figure of around 30 people to come around and listen to you at short notice.

I would still expect you and me to deal with the separate issue of a Q&A for publication in The Zimbabwe Times.

Nyarota, Monday, December 3 after Sunday meeting: I remain mindful of the point which you made during yesterday’s meeting about the role allegedly played by the media in aggravating our current crisis through a failure to report adequately or accurately on the important events unfolding. In that regard, as agreed, I am finalising the list of questions that we agreed after the meeting that I should submit to you in the interests of wider dissemination of the important views that you expressed yesterday.

Nyarota, Monday, December 3: Please find attached the list of (14) questions that I have compiled for your urgent attention. I would be most grateful if you can let me have your responses by Thursday morning, December 6, at the latest.

Nyarota, Wednesday, December 5: Sorry to overload you, but just another two more mportant questions:

1. What, briefly, is you vision of a future Zimbabwe? (Don’t feel too constrained. We can serialise, within limits, of course, if necessary.)

2. What is your view on the vexing issue of the granting of amnesty to President Robert Mugabe?

3. Any other important issue you feel compelled to raise?

Nyarota, Sunday, December 9: I am still anxiously waiting for your response to the questions that I submitted to you last week in terms of the arrangement agreed upon before our meeting on Sunday, October 2. I appreciate you must have been busy while preparing for your departure last week, but I am sure you will also appreciate the need for my assignment to be completed within reasonable time.

I am now extending our deadline to Tuesday, December 11. If I have not heard from you by the end of that day I will assume you have decided not to co-operate after all. I will then proceed on the basis of the questions submitted to you in writing and my own recollection of the many interesting statements you made during Sunday’s meeting.

Incidentally, I have just two more questions to add to those already submitted.

1. Is it true that you left Standard Bank in Johannesburg under a dark cloud?

2. Is it true that a few days before your return to Zimbabwe from South Africa in February 2006 you dispatched Mrs Mutambara off to Atlanta in the US, there to deliver a baby?

Mutambara, Monday, December 10: Thank you very much for the meeting we had at your house. It was great meeting with you all. Thanks for your note attached below. As discussed at the meeting, everything was off the record. It was a friendly discussion among Zimbabweans. The negotiations in Zimbabwe have reached a delicate stage, consequently I will not be able to do a proper Q and A. Once again thanks a lot or your hospitality. Let’s keep in touch.

Nyarota, Tuesday, December 11: I think you misunderstand me. Apart from the first three questions, the focus of my interview is you, not the ongoing talks about Zimbabwe. It appears you want to have it both ways - have your cake and eat it. I stated right at the beginning that there were questions that I wanted to put to you for your attention. We agreed the meeting on Sunday December 2 would be off the record on the understanding that there would be a comprehensive Q&A subsequently. It appears you now seek to avoid both, which is clearly unacceptable.

I have put to you a number of very pertinent questions, honest answers to which could actually affect the course of the talks you refer to, if published. It is only fair that you respond to these questions as fully as possible or I will resort to the course of action outlined in my last message to you.

These questions are being put to you in the public interest. Not only are you are a public figure, you actually seek to be our country’s next President. Surely, you should be delighted to sit down for interviews and to answer questions about yourself and your plans for us, the citizens, in the public interest. You cannot make your way to State House through some secret strategy.

I have just one last question. It is said that when you returned to Zimbabwe in February 2006, after spending many years abroad, you were met at the airport by a vehicle from the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper. It is said further that your first port of call in Harare was the office of the publisher of that paper, Mr Trevor Ncube, who apparently had flown to Harare just ahead of you from Johannesburg. It is alleged that you spent roughly two hours in a meeting with the said publisher. After this you then proceeded to Bulawayo where you were publicly proclaimed as the leader of the newly formed other MDC party.

Is this an accurate presentation of events and their sequence?

I look forward to hearing from you by the end of the day.

Mutambara, Tuesday, December 12: There will be no Q and A from me at the moment. Our discussions at your house were an off the record friendly talk among Zimbabweans.

At this point I decided that Professor Mutambara was clearly attempting to take me for a ride when I was going out of my way to accommodate an important and very newsworthy politician. Apart from suddenly withdrawing from the public arena, he has a number of legitimate questions to answer in the public interest as Zimbabwe approaches the country’s first combined parliamentary and presidential elections. He will most likely stand as a presidential candidate, unless as he disclosed during the meeting on Sunday, December 2, he now fully endorses MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai’s candidature against President Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF.

While journalists have an obligation to protect their confidential sources of information, politicians on the election campaign trail are not, by any stretch of the imagination, confidential sources of information when they express their political views and aspirations or when they address questions asked by members of the public..

Tomorrow the list of questions that Prof Mutambara seems to have difficulty in addressing will be published on this website, to be accompanied by the fascinating highlights of his encounter with a group of Zimbabweans based in Massachusetts.

(Source)

Police in Zimbabwe have arrested two more white farmers for defying government eviction orders, news reports said on Wednesday.

Johannes Fick and Gideon Theron, both farmers in the tobacco-growing Beatrice district south of the capital, appeared in court on Tuesday, said the official Herald newspaper.

“It is alleged the two extended their occupation without government authority,” said the Herald.

The two will stand trial in January next year.

More than a dozen white farmers have been arrested since the authorities started enforcing eviction orders in October. Until then, only 400 or so white farmers were still left on their farms after President Robert Mugabe launched his controversial programme of white land seizures in 2000.

The government had given some of the white farmers until the end of September to leave. Some of those who have been arrested want to challenge the country’s land laws that they say violate their constitutional rights.

Zimbabwe, once a renowned farming country, has suffered declining harvests since land reforms were launched. Mugabe blames the drop in production on repeated drought.

(Source)

Dear Governor

I write this open letter to you with a lot of grief. My wife suddenly fell ill in the early hours of December 3 and needed immediate specialist attention. A well-wisher rushed us to Harare Central hospital. After four hours of waiting for the doctor, my brother offered to foot the bills for a private doctor. He rushed into town, collected bank details from a well-known private clinic and made a bee line for the bank to make an RTGS as the cut-off time drew nearer.

Getting cash was out of the question. You are well aware of the severe cash shortage in the country. The private clinic insisted that no payment, no treatment. There was a winding queue at the bank for RTGS transactions. Just after 1200, my brother phoned to say he couldn’t beat the RTGS cut-off time. I could feel tears swelling in my eyes as I watched my deaf wife writhing in pain, with my four-year-old son looking at her confused at why nobody was interested in assisting her.

I prayed that at least the doctor at the general hospital would turn up. He finally did and I was relieved. But it was short-lived. He looked at my wife and wrote a couple of tests that were required urgently to diagonise the cause of the illness. None of these tests could be carried out at the hospital because the machinery was not working. He recommended Paracetamol to reduce the pain.

That day was the longest in my life. The following day, we were at the bank by 0330hrs but already there was a queue. When the bank opened its doors five hours later, pandemonium ensued and the queue became useless. My brother did however manage to submit the RTGS on time but I couldn’t get cash, so we left the bank and rushed to the private clinic. If we thought our misery was coming to an end, we were wrong! The clinic told us they would only attend to my wife after the RTGS had cleared - their contention being that some RTGS transactions were taking as much as 72 hours. My wife died the following day without receiving medical attention!

Burying my wife was not easy either. The funeral parlour also insisted on the RTGS clearing first. We couldn’t buy enough food for the mourners as the vendors at Mbare musika do not accept RTGS.

When I was browsing the internet this week, I saw an intriguing Poll on ZBC’s NEWSNET website (www.newsnet.co.zw), “Who do you blame for the cash shortages?” The answers: RBZ - 73.95%, Banks - 3.54%, and Forex Dealers - 22.51%. This actually provoked me to write this open letter to you.

I would be naive to blame you for everything that befell my dear wife. She died mainly because the National Payment System has collapsed. Nobody has faith in it anymore. That is why everyone wanted to see money in their account before assisting. We couldn’t get cash. The facilities to take care of my wife’s illness were there, and money was there from relatives, but it was locked up in the banks!

It is extremely naive for RBZ to blame parallel market activities for the shortage of cash and the collapse of the national payment system. Zimbabweans are not that stupid. It is a shame that you, as governor, have decided to behave like opposition politicians, who oppose everything for the sake of opposing, no matter how good it is. Everyone thinks RBZ should have acted long ago, but you, because “they” said it first, will not act, otherwise people will think you are dancing to their tune!!! SHAME!!

You blame parallel market activities for the cash shortages! Z$58 trillion in circulation only translates to an average of less than ZW$6m per individual, enough for transport fares for one week only, lunch excluded! How many items can you buy with ZW$6m? The majority of business in Zimbabwe is from informal traders. Do you really expect these people to use plastic money? Have you ever tried to install a ZIMSwitch POS at Mbare Musika?? Does it not make sense to you that since more than 80% of Zimbabweans are not in formal employment, it means the majority of this 80% is involved in informal trade. This translates to more than 50% of the cash outside the formal banking system because there are no banking facilities customised for informal traders.

Are parallel market activities responsible for the near-total collapse of the Zimswitch? The more than 72 hours needed for RTGS?

You always hide behind the so-called “barons” that only exist in your hallucinations! Ghosts that invade your dreams because of the subconscious realisations that you are traumatising the innocent man on the street. Once again, let me reiterate that Zimbabweans are not that stupid. Take them for granted at your own peril.

In our neighbouring countries (Zambia and Malawi), reports say currency in circulation is the equivalent of more than US$200-300 million (using an open exchange rate used in their country).

I once admired you, “our Governor”, for your rare courage to speak out against corruption. You really used to “take the bull by the horns”! But your biggest weakness is that you sometimes become hysterical, loose focus, lock your logic inside a safe and like a charging bull, trample on the defenceless!

Yours in grief,

TN

(Source)