In politics it is what you do rather than what you say that people normally watch and comment on.
Action really speaks louder than words in the world of politics.
In the same vein,Zimbabweans,of late,have put the actions of leading politicians under the microscope particularly in view of the recent disturbing events in the country.
The Global Political Agreement(GPA) was signed on September 11,2008 in Harare and subsequently solemnised(not without some controversy regarding some unilaterally altered phrases) on September 15,2008 amidst much pomp and ceremony.
Thus,from the date that the three political principals signed the GPA,we all expected that our principals will slavishly adher to the terms and conditions of their political agreement.
Unfortunately,the GPA has not been wholly respected and to this date,there are several sticky outstanding issues that severely threaten the very survival of the inclusive government that was formed on February 11,2009.
We are acutely aware of the fact that the issue concerning the appointment of permanent secretaries,senior diplomats,provincial governors as well as the Reserve Bank governor and the Attorney-General is still sticking out like a sore thumb.
The events on the ground point to a situation where,at the very least,one of the political principals doesnot seem very keen to fully consumate the marriage that was solemnized in Harare on September 15,2009.
This apparent reluctance to fully consumate the marriage is indeed,a sure recipe for the irretrievable breakdown of the political union that was entered into on September 15,2009.
The political position was not made any better when,some few weeks ago,Minister Chamisa was virtually demoted when a crucial chunk of his ministerial portifolio and responsibilites were taken away from him,unilaterally.
It is not a secret that the other two political principals were neither consulted nor advised in advance that Minister Chamisa was about to be demoted.
And it is this type of unilateral and extremely provocative conduct that will shake any marriage to its very foundation.
A political marriage,just like a normal marital union between consenting adults,can only survive on utmost good faith,mutual trust and love.
If any of these ingredients are missing in any union,then the divorce lawyers should be ready to receive a brief.
Let the readers misconstrue my submission;I am not by any stretch of the imagination suggesting that the inclusive government is about to collapse.
All I am stating is that the continued and deliberate failure to fully consumate the GPA is an inevitablle recipe for its breakdown.
In making these comments,I am fully alive to the recent attempts by the political principals to hold meetings aimed at conclusively resolving the afore-mentioned outstanding issues.
But then in normal life,be it in business or politics,people can not negotiate forever.
There has to be a cut off point.
The people are watching;closely.
And it will be foolhardy for any one to take the people's patience for granted.
Although no precise official confirmation has been given as to when exactly the outstanding issues will be resolved,my gut feeling is that we are still very far off from fully consumating the GPA.
The inclusive government was formed on February 11,2009; almost three months ago.
I am completely at a loss to understand why the three political principals would require three months to fully consumate the political marriage.
One senses that there is strong resistance,from at least one partner,to fully consumate the marriage.
And how then can children be borne of a marriage that is yet to be fully consumated.
Do we expect the children to come out of artificial insemnation?
My argument is that the inclusive government cannot be expected to produce any meaningfull and tangible results when the political principals are still hussling to fully consumate their marriage.
A lot of energy and resources are being spent on attempts to fully consumate the union.
Surely,if all that energy and resources will be channelled to efforts aimed at reviving Zimbabwe's comatose economy,then we would have made significant progress since February 11,2009.
We also have the issue of Senator Roy Bennett who is yet to be sworn in as the country's Deputy Minister of Agriculture.
The reasons being given for his not being sworn in are ridiculous to say the least.
There is no lawfull impediment to Senator Bennett being sworn in as a Deputy Minister.Period.
If we are going to allow one political principal to literally dictate the pace in everything that is being done concerning the GPA,then we are heading for doomsday.
There is absolutely no doubt about that.Zimbabwe is not going to benefit anything from this incessant and endless political bickering and procastination.
As a country,we ought to have a road map leading to exactly where want Zimbabwe to go.
We cannot continue to hold endless meetings relating to the consumation of the GPA whilst the country burns.
The people will very soon start asking some very tough questions.
They will start to loudly wonder whether we are coming or going.
As I write this article,I am visiting the state of Florida in the United States; where I came to attend my daughter's graduation at the Florida International University on Tuesday,April 28,2009.
May the readers kindly permit me to pay tribute to Enia Lorna Gutu who graduated,Magna Cum Laude,with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Landon Undergraduate School of Business at FIU.
Whilst here,I have learnt that the Obama administration completed its first 100 days in office on Wednesday, April 29,2009.
And the people here are being asked by major television networks such as CNN and Fox News,to rate President Obama's performance thus far.
The inclusive government in Zimbabwe should also be aware that at its recent retreat at Victoria Falls,it gave itself a 100 day program of action.
The people are closely watching and come the expiry of the 100 days,an assessment will definately be done.
I have aready stated that we are not guaranteed of the people's support,forever.
The people will assess our performance in government and thereafter,make a decision about whether or not they should continue giving us their support.
Politics is indeed a fickle game;with no known rules nor formula.
We should always watch our back.
The GPA should be promptly followed to the letter if we are serious about turning around Zimbabwe's political and socio-economic fortunes.
If we fail to fully consumate the GPA,then the consequences are too ghastly to contemplate.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Zimbabwe prisons a death trap
HUNGER and disease continued stalking Zimbabwe’s jails, leaving thousands of prisoners at risk of joining the statistics of inmates who have succumbed to these death traps.
Prisoners this week narrated to newly-appointed Justice deputy minister Obert Gutu how grave their conditions were despite several promises by the coalition government to improve the situation.
Clad in tattered prison garb, and many of them skin and bone due to malnutrition, the prisoners told Gutu how what were supposed to be correctional services have turned into horror chambers where inmates, irrespective of their sentence, face death daily.
Inmates living with HIV and Aids are failing to access life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs as well as a supplementary diet recommended by doctors for such patients. To worsen matters, they are exposed to harsh weather conditions, especially during winter because the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) cannot afford blankets or warm clothing for inmates.
“Poor diet in the prisons is fast-tracking people living with HIV and Aids to death,” Daniel Dombwe, an inmate at Harare Central Prison who has served 10 of his 16-year sentence for armed robbery, told Gutu.
He said disease was spreading faster in prisons because of dire drug shortages and a poor diet.
“Prison pharmacies are empty. We have the worst health conditions in jails. Most of the inmates are HIV positive, but they don’t have a supplementary diet,” Gutu lamented. “There is no standard dietary scale and we are starving. Can government be serious about prisoners?”
Frail inmates walking almost naked at Harare and Chikurubi prisons are a common sight, despite repeated calls, including one by Supreme Court judge Rita Makarau for government to turn jails into adequately resourced correctional and rehabilitation centres.
At Chikurubi, two youthful inmates, Tinashe Songora and Munyaradzi Shavi, who had their full sight when they were jailed, went blind after being attacked by pellagra, a vitamin deficiency disease, in 2008.
Gutu’s familiarisation tour of Harare and Chikurubi prisons lay bare the coalition government’s failure to improve service delivery 16 months after its much hyped formation. He saw first hand how torn blankets and linen are used as desperate substitutes for toilet paper.
The deputy minister, whose visit to the prisons was not the first by a top official following similar tours by his predecessor Jessie Majome this year, witnessed raw sewerage flowing at Chikurubi, which is holding 1 568 prisoners against a capacity of 1 360.
“We don’t want prisons to harden criminals. Prisoners should be transformed into useful members of the society,” Gutu told the prisoners, the majority of whom have heard similar promises from officials who visited them before. “Even if someone is a prisoner, there are United Nations, Sadc and African Union charters that govern that there should be minimum dietary requirements. The government will look at food requirements for prisoners.”
A decision by the ZPS to ban relatives from supplying food to prisoners has worsened the situation.
“In 2008, we survived while hundreds died like flies in prisons. The secret behind our survival was that relatives brought us food on a daily basis,” Nkululeko Mawila, who is serving life for murder, said. “Why should ZPS ban food supplies yet they can’t feed us properly? We foresee people dying again at Chikurubi and at any other prison.”
Prison officers told Gutu the ZPS relied on erratic donations for sanitary ware, forcing some female inmates to resort to torn pieces of blankets.
Pregnant female inmates and babies incarcerated with their mothers or born in prisons are in a worse situation.
“There are no vehicles to take the sick and pregnant mothers to Parirenyatwa hospital,” said Betty Chibwe, an inmate at Chikurubi female prison. “The babies, aged between zero and four, share food rations with their mothers. It’s so bad to be locked in jail and we are begging to be released under the Presidential Amnesty.”
Ministry of justice and some prison officials openly wept as a group of women knelt before Gutu crying for amnesty.
ZPS Mashonaland commander senior assistant commissioner Wonder Chisora cited poor funding as the major cause of the conditions prevailing in prisons.
“The story in prisons is disease and suffering,” is how murder convict, Mike Matanga, who is languishing at the notorious Chikurubi prison, summed up the situation.
Brian Chitemba
Prisoners this week narrated to newly-appointed Justice deputy minister Obert Gutu how grave their conditions were despite several promises by the coalition government to improve the situation.
Clad in tattered prison garb, and many of them skin and bone due to malnutrition, the prisoners told Gutu how what were supposed to be correctional services have turned into horror chambers where inmates, irrespective of their sentence, face death daily.
Inmates living with HIV and Aids are failing to access life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs as well as a supplementary diet recommended by doctors for such patients. To worsen matters, they are exposed to harsh weather conditions, especially during winter because the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) cannot afford blankets or warm clothing for inmates.
“Poor diet in the prisons is fast-tracking people living with HIV and Aids to death,” Daniel Dombwe, an inmate at Harare Central Prison who has served 10 of his 16-year sentence for armed robbery, told Gutu.
He said disease was spreading faster in prisons because of dire drug shortages and a poor diet.
“Prison pharmacies are empty. We have the worst health conditions in jails. Most of the inmates are HIV positive, but they don’t have a supplementary diet,” Gutu lamented. “There is no standard dietary scale and we are starving. Can government be serious about prisoners?”
Frail inmates walking almost naked at Harare and Chikurubi prisons are a common sight, despite repeated calls, including one by Supreme Court judge Rita Makarau for government to turn jails into adequately resourced correctional and rehabilitation centres.
At Chikurubi, two youthful inmates, Tinashe Songora and Munyaradzi Shavi, who had their full sight when they were jailed, went blind after being attacked by pellagra, a vitamin deficiency disease, in 2008.
Gutu’s familiarisation tour of Harare and Chikurubi prisons lay bare the coalition government’s failure to improve service delivery 16 months after its much hyped formation. He saw first hand how torn blankets and linen are used as desperate substitutes for toilet paper.
The deputy minister, whose visit to the prisons was not the first by a top official following similar tours by his predecessor Jessie Majome this year, witnessed raw sewerage flowing at Chikurubi, which is holding 1 568 prisoners against a capacity of 1 360.
“We don’t want prisons to harden criminals. Prisoners should be transformed into useful members of the society,” Gutu told the prisoners, the majority of whom have heard similar promises from officials who visited them before. “Even if someone is a prisoner, there are United Nations, Sadc and African Union charters that govern that there should be minimum dietary requirements. The government will look at food requirements for prisoners.”
A decision by the ZPS to ban relatives from supplying food to prisoners has worsened the situation.
“In 2008, we survived while hundreds died like flies in prisons. The secret behind our survival was that relatives brought us food on a daily basis,” Nkululeko Mawila, who is serving life for murder, said. “Why should ZPS ban food supplies yet they can’t feed us properly? We foresee people dying again at Chikurubi and at any other prison.”
Prison officers told Gutu the ZPS relied on erratic donations for sanitary ware, forcing some female inmates to resort to torn pieces of blankets.
Pregnant female inmates and babies incarcerated with their mothers or born in prisons are in a worse situation.
“There are no vehicles to take the sick and pregnant mothers to Parirenyatwa hospital,” said Betty Chibwe, an inmate at Chikurubi female prison. “The babies, aged between zero and four, share food rations with their mothers. It’s so bad to be locked in jail and we are begging to be released under the Presidential Amnesty.”
Ministry of justice and some prison officials openly wept as a group of women knelt before Gutu crying for amnesty.
ZPS Mashonaland commander senior assistant commissioner Wonder Chisora cited poor funding as the major cause of the conditions prevailing in prisons.
“The story in prisons is disease and suffering,” is how murder convict, Mike Matanga, who is languishing at the notorious Chikurubi prison, summed up the situation.
Brian Chitemba
Heroism should be earned, not bestowed
18 August 2009
The concept of heroism is as old as humanity itself. Throughout the history of the human race, particular men and women have distinguished themselves in fields of endeavour such as sport, art, politics, business etc.
These distinguished members of the human race include, such luminaries as Joshua Nkomo, Nelson Mandela, Jesse Owens, Martin Luther King Jr, Mbuya Nehanda, Lobengula, Sekuru Kaguvi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Thomas Mapfumo, Strive Masiyiwa, Warren Buffett and many others.
Thus, heroism cannot and indeed, should not be a straight-jacketed concept that is solely determined by the whims and fantasies of a small political grouping that nurses purely parochial and exclusionist nationalistic proclivities. Heroism should be celebrated as the ultimate human achievement cutting across all political, racial, ethnic and religious divides.
To be more succinct, heroism should be earned and not bestowed like an honorary degree.
Recent events in Zimbabwe have placed into focus the need to de-politicise the conferring of hero status on departed luminaries. By it's very nature, politics is a subjective and emotive subject. It is, therefore, impossible to obtain absolute political unanimity on any subject even within the same political party. Such is the nature of politics that some people refer to it as a dirty game. It is a game with no defined rules and regulations.
Since independence in 1980,the conferment of national and even provincial hero status in Zimbabwe has been the sole preserve of only one political party; ZANU(PF).Over the years, it has been established that one can never be declared a national hero if one is not in good books with ZANU(PF).
This is the reason why pioneering political luminaries such as James Chikerema, Ndabaningi Sithole, Chris Mandizvidza, Patrick Kombayi and Henry Hamadziripi are not interred at the National Heroes' Acre in Harare. According to the narrow, subjective and parochial criteria laid down by ZANU(PF),these distinguished political operators didn’t deserve to be considered as national heroes.
However, one doesn’t have to be a specialist history student to appreciate the fact that Ndabaningi Sithole and James Chikerema were locked up in the colonial prisons alongside Joshua Nkomo and Joseph Musikavanhu, when some of today's latter day heroes were pursuing purely private and personal agendas.
Every decent nation should and indeed, must honour its heroes and heroines. Heroism should never be packaged solely as the ultimate political achievement as dictated by the ethos and standards of one political grouping. Under such a criteria, heroism is inevitably bastardised and you end up having thoroughly discredited and
outrageous characters sneaking into the National and Provincial Heroes' Acres through the back door.
This is an insult to the memory of those, otherwise, exemplary men and women whose remains lie interred at the various national shrines. Furthermore, one doesn’t have to be a politician to be a hero. Zimbabwe’s Jairos Jiri, a great philathropist who pioneered proper care and education for disabled, dumb and deaf people, was and not a politician. Can any right-thinking Zimbabwean deny the fact that Jiri is a national hero and that he deserves a grand reburial at the National Heroes' Acre?
The formation of the inclusive government in February 2009 should necessarily give impetus to the need to completely overhaul the system of declaring national and provincial heroes in Zimbabwe. We should, going forward, begin to establish a new, dynamic, non-partisan and all-embracing concept of coming up with a list of our heroes and heroines. Political considerations should be completely exorcised from the conferment of hero status.
The Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has come out very clearly on what should be done when it comes to the conferment of hero status in Zimbabwe. The MDC advocates a non-partisan method of conferring hero status on departed deserving Zimbabweans. In this regard, therefore, the MDC envisages the establishment of a National Heroes Board or Commission that will be
mandated with the task of establishing who should be and who shouldn't be declared a national hero when they pass on.
I would further suggest that the new constitution should specifically provide for the establishment of a constitutional body called the National Heroes Commission. This body will then be responsible for all matters and issues relating to the conferment of national, provincial and district hero and heroine status. That way we would have managed to remove this very sensitive aspect of our lives from manipulation by politicians and political parties.
Infact, the proposed National Heroes' Commission should also go further and establish, going back to our pre-colonial history, who should be and who shouldn't have been declared a national hero. Should it become necessary, the remains of some undeserving characters would have to be removed from our sacred national shrine; the National Heroes' Acre in Harare. And those luminaries who were unjustifiably denied national hero status would be reburied at the national shrine if their families
consent with this arrangement.
For a start, why not name one of our major roads, Oliver Mtukudzi highway – in recognition of Mtukudzi’s contribution to the world of music? And why not rename the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Jairos Jiri University of Science and Technology? We need to demonstrate our pride in the achievements of our great sons and daughters. That is how great nations are moulded.
Our heroes and heroines should be celebrated all the time. Once we successfully de-politicise the conferment of hero status, a lot of things will fall into place. All Zimbabweans will, once again, have a sense of pride and attachment to their heroes and heroines. Brand Zimbabwe can be the global talk sooner rather than later. But then, we should sort out our politics first.
*Senator Obert Gutu is the MDC Senator for Chisipite. He is a Lawyer, member of the MDC National Legal Committee as well as the MDC National Information Committee.
The concept of heroism is as old as humanity itself. Throughout the history of the human race, particular men and women have distinguished themselves in fields of endeavour such as sport, art, politics, business etc.
These distinguished members of the human race include, such luminaries as Joshua Nkomo, Nelson Mandela, Jesse Owens, Martin Luther King Jr, Mbuya Nehanda, Lobengula, Sekuru Kaguvi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Thomas Mapfumo, Strive Masiyiwa, Warren Buffett and many others.
Thus, heroism cannot and indeed, should not be a straight-jacketed concept that is solely determined by the whims and fantasies of a small political grouping that nurses purely parochial and exclusionist nationalistic proclivities. Heroism should be celebrated as the ultimate human achievement cutting across all political, racial, ethnic and religious divides.
To be more succinct, heroism should be earned and not bestowed like an honorary degree.
Recent events in Zimbabwe have placed into focus the need to de-politicise the conferring of hero status on departed luminaries. By it's very nature, politics is a subjective and emotive subject. It is, therefore, impossible to obtain absolute political unanimity on any subject even within the same political party. Such is the nature of politics that some people refer to it as a dirty game. It is a game with no defined rules and regulations.
Since independence in 1980,the conferment of national and even provincial hero status in Zimbabwe has been the sole preserve of only one political party; ZANU(PF).Over the years, it has been established that one can never be declared a national hero if one is not in good books with ZANU(PF).
This is the reason why pioneering political luminaries such as James Chikerema, Ndabaningi Sithole, Chris Mandizvidza, Patrick Kombayi and Henry Hamadziripi are not interred at the National Heroes' Acre in Harare. According to the narrow, subjective and parochial criteria laid down by ZANU(PF),these distinguished political operators didn’t deserve to be considered as national heroes.
However, one doesn’t have to be a specialist history student to appreciate the fact that Ndabaningi Sithole and James Chikerema were locked up in the colonial prisons alongside Joshua Nkomo and Joseph Musikavanhu, when some of today's latter day heroes were pursuing purely private and personal agendas.
Every decent nation should and indeed, must honour its heroes and heroines. Heroism should never be packaged solely as the ultimate political achievement as dictated by the ethos and standards of one political grouping. Under such a criteria, heroism is inevitably bastardised and you end up having thoroughly discredited and
outrageous characters sneaking into the National and Provincial Heroes' Acres through the back door.
This is an insult to the memory of those, otherwise, exemplary men and women whose remains lie interred at the various national shrines. Furthermore, one doesn’t have to be a politician to be a hero. Zimbabwe’s Jairos Jiri, a great philathropist who pioneered proper care and education for disabled, dumb and deaf people, was and not a politician. Can any right-thinking Zimbabwean deny the fact that Jiri is a national hero and that he deserves a grand reburial at the National Heroes' Acre?
The formation of the inclusive government in February 2009 should necessarily give impetus to the need to completely overhaul the system of declaring national and provincial heroes in Zimbabwe. We should, going forward, begin to establish a new, dynamic, non-partisan and all-embracing concept of coming up with a list of our heroes and heroines. Political considerations should be completely exorcised from the conferment of hero status.
The Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has come out very clearly on what should be done when it comes to the conferment of hero status in Zimbabwe. The MDC advocates a non-partisan method of conferring hero status on departed deserving Zimbabweans. In this regard, therefore, the MDC envisages the establishment of a National Heroes Board or Commission that will be
mandated with the task of establishing who should be and who shouldn't be declared a national hero when they pass on.
I would further suggest that the new constitution should specifically provide for the establishment of a constitutional body called the National Heroes Commission. This body will then be responsible for all matters and issues relating to the conferment of national, provincial and district hero and heroine status. That way we would have managed to remove this very sensitive aspect of our lives from manipulation by politicians and political parties.
Infact, the proposed National Heroes' Commission should also go further and establish, going back to our pre-colonial history, who should be and who shouldn't have been declared a national hero. Should it become necessary, the remains of some undeserving characters would have to be removed from our sacred national shrine; the National Heroes' Acre in Harare. And those luminaries who were unjustifiably denied national hero status would be reburied at the national shrine if their families
consent with this arrangement.
For a start, why not name one of our major roads, Oliver Mtukudzi highway – in recognition of Mtukudzi’s contribution to the world of music? And why not rename the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Jairos Jiri University of Science and Technology? We need to demonstrate our pride in the achievements of our great sons and daughters. That is how great nations are moulded.
Our heroes and heroines should be celebrated all the time. Once we successfully de-politicise the conferment of hero status, a lot of things will fall into place. All Zimbabweans will, once again, have a sense of pride and attachment to their heroes and heroines. Brand Zimbabwe can be the global talk sooner rather than later. But then, we should sort out our politics first.
*Senator Obert Gutu is the MDC Senator for Chisipite. He is a Lawyer, member of the MDC National Legal Committee as well as the MDC National Information Committee.
GNU must adopt responsible borrowing policy
Fifteen months after the formation of the inclusive government, Zimbabwe has still not devised and adopted a strategic policy to deal with the debt crisis in which the country finds itself trapped. (Pictured: A mother and her child outside their shack dwelling -- More than 70 percent of Zimbabweans live in abject poverty.)
It is particularly sad to note that the country's debt obligation, to both bilateral and multi-lateral financial institutions, is still hovering in the region of around USD7 billion. One does not have to be a financial genius to appreciate that Zimbabwe is facing a debilitating debt crisis that urgently demands the attention of the inclusive government.
The authorities at the Ministry of Finance are no doubt seized with this matter concerning the debt trap. Recent pronouncements by the Finance Ministry have convinced some of us that the debt problem is indeed a matter of grave concern to our Treasury.
Indeed, every Zimbabwean should be seriously concerned with this debt crisis because whether we like it or not, the debt problem negatively impacts on the country's development trajectory. Put simply, the debt burden of USD7 billion in an economy that is still battling to find its feet is like the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of each and every Zimbabwean.
More than 70 percent of Zimbabweans live in abject poverty. This means that the majority of Zimbabweans live on less than USD2 a day. Surely, for a country endowed with so many natural resources like Zimbabwe, all of us should be terribly ashamed of these startling statistics.
Why so long?
All Zimbabweans, without exception, should enjoy basic rights such as the right to food, housing, clothing, employment, education, health services and a healthy environment.
Indeed, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000 of 1982 recognises that these rights cannot be subordinated to the implementation of structural adjustment programmes and economic reforms arising from debt.
How can the inclusive government dream of providing basic services to the people when the country is sitting on a debt time bomb of almost USD7 billion?
Why is it taking so long for the government to debate, design and adopt a strategic and progressive debt management policy that will extricate Zimbabwe from this debt trap?
In previous articles concerning the issue of debt, I have strongly advocated for the cancellation of all odious debts that Zimbabwe has incurred. I have called for the adoption of a rigorous debt audit mechanism that will enable us to determine which debts are legitimate and which ones are not. I still associate myself with these sentiments.
Debt cancellation
Odious debts should not be honoured. It is as simple as that. Whilst I have no problems with activists who agitate for the wholesale cancellation of all developing countries' debt to enable these countries to jump-start their moribund economies; I am strongly convinced that there should be no blanket cancellation of developing countries' debts before a holistic and comprehensive debt audit has been undertaken.
Firstly, we should locate the main reasons behind the massive accumulation of the debt portfolio in most developing countries. We should also interrogate the role of lending countries and the international financial institutions( IFIs), such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, in loan contraction in the developing world.
More particularly, we should seek to ascertain whether the IFIs have adopted responsible lending practices or whether they are, in fact, the catalyst to the pauperisation of the developing world by promoting irresponsible and inherently corrupt lending practices. Put simply, there should be no sacred cows in this crucial exercise of liberating developing countries from this enslaving cycle of debt and poverty.
The inclusive government is hereby encouraged to design and urgently adopt its own context-specific standards, benchmarks and indicators to deal with Zimbabwe's debt crisis. There is no use in pontificating and somehow, relegating the debt crisis to less important items on the agenda of government business.
The debt crisis is glaring us in the face and no amount of political bravado can idly relegate it to a non-issue unless and until we tackle the crisis head on. There is no use in adopting a policy of see-no-evil and hear-no-evil in as far as the debt crisis is concerned. We cannot even talk about the rule of law and the democratisation agenda as long as we continue to fail to effectively deal with the debt crisis in our country.
The government should urgently highlight necessary steps towards realising economic reforms and foreign debt management, consistent with human rights principles. Zimbabwe needs a new debt sustainability framework that should take into account the impact of debt service on the country's ability to fulfill its obligations under international human rights law.
Millennium Development Goals
We cannot even talk of achieving the millennium development goals( MDGs) if we fail to adopt a new and effective debt sustainability framework. This world is globalising; whether we like it or not. The objectives and conditionality attached to granting debt relief should be in line with human rights objectives. Both the borrower and the lender share a common responsibility on illegitimate debt and its cancellation.
Going forward, Zimbabwe should ensure that before new loan agreements are signed, borrowers and creditors should assess and consider the economic and social impact of debt service obligations. At all times, we should make sure that obligations arising from new loan agreements should not impair the institutional and financial capacity of Zimbabwe to fulfill economic, social and cultural rights, I including response to any disasters or crises.
In April 2004,the UN Commission on Human Rights sought to draft general guidelines to be followed by states and by private and public, national and international financial institutions in decision-making and execution of debt repayments and structural reform programs, to ensure that compliance with the commitments derived from foreign debt will not undermine the obligations for the realisation of fundamental economic, social and cultural rights.
An independent expert, Dr. Cephas Lumina, has been appointed by the UN to work on these guidelines and the writer is privileged to be working as one of Dr. Lumina's resource persons.
I am of the firm view that both the negotiations and implementation of loan agreements should be transparent and open to public scrutiny. There is no need for secretive loan contraction.
Indeed, Parliament should be allowed to play a more meaningful role in loan contraction rather than to simply ratify loan agreements that would have been secretly negotiated by the executive arm of the state. It is only in this way that the phenomenon of odious and illegitimate debts can be eliminated.
Zimbabwe is too rich to be poor!
It is particularly sad to note that the country's debt obligation, to both bilateral and multi-lateral financial institutions, is still hovering in the region of around USD7 billion. One does not have to be a financial genius to appreciate that Zimbabwe is facing a debilitating debt crisis that urgently demands the attention of the inclusive government.
The authorities at the Ministry of Finance are no doubt seized with this matter concerning the debt trap. Recent pronouncements by the Finance Ministry have convinced some of us that the debt problem is indeed a matter of grave concern to our Treasury.
Indeed, every Zimbabwean should be seriously concerned with this debt crisis because whether we like it or not, the debt problem negatively impacts on the country's development trajectory. Put simply, the debt burden of USD7 billion in an economy that is still battling to find its feet is like the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of each and every Zimbabwean.
More than 70 percent of Zimbabweans live in abject poverty. This means that the majority of Zimbabweans live on less than USD2 a day. Surely, for a country endowed with so many natural resources like Zimbabwe, all of us should be terribly ashamed of these startling statistics.
Why so long?
All Zimbabweans, without exception, should enjoy basic rights such as the right to food, housing, clothing, employment, education, health services and a healthy environment.
Indeed, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000 of 1982 recognises that these rights cannot be subordinated to the implementation of structural adjustment programmes and economic reforms arising from debt.
How can the inclusive government dream of providing basic services to the people when the country is sitting on a debt time bomb of almost USD7 billion?
Why is it taking so long for the government to debate, design and adopt a strategic and progressive debt management policy that will extricate Zimbabwe from this debt trap?
In previous articles concerning the issue of debt, I have strongly advocated for the cancellation of all odious debts that Zimbabwe has incurred. I have called for the adoption of a rigorous debt audit mechanism that will enable us to determine which debts are legitimate and which ones are not. I still associate myself with these sentiments.
Debt cancellation
Odious debts should not be honoured. It is as simple as that. Whilst I have no problems with activists who agitate for the wholesale cancellation of all developing countries' debt to enable these countries to jump-start their moribund economies; I am strongly convinced that there should be no blanket cancellation of developing countries' debts before a holistic and comprehensive debt audit has been undertaken.
Firstly, we should locate the main reasons behind the massive accumulation of the debt portfolio in most developing countries. We should also interrogate the role of lending countries and the international financial institutions( IFIs), such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, in loan contraction in the developing world.
More particularly, we should seek to ascertain whether the IFIs have adopted responsible lending practices or whether they are, in fact, the catalyst to the pauperisation of the developing world by promoting irresponsible and inherently corrupt lending practices. Put simply, there should be no sacred cows in this crucial exercise of liberating developing countries from this enslaving cycle of debt and poverty.
The inclusive government is hereby encouraged to design and urgently adopt its own context-specific standards, benchmarks and indicators to deal with Zimbabwe's debt crisis. There is no use in pontificating and somehow, relegating the debt crisis to less important items on the agenda of government business.
The debt crisis is glaring us in the face and no amount of political bravado can idly relegate it to a non-issue unless and until we tackle the crisis head on. There is no use in adopting a policy of see-no-evil and hear-no-evil in as far as the debt crisis is concerned. We cannot even talk about the rule of law and the democratisation agenda as long as we continue to fail to effectively deal with the debt crisis in our country.
The government should urgently highlight necessary steps towards realising economic reforms and foreign debt management, consistent with human rights principles. Zimbabwe needs a new debt sustainability framework that should take into account the impact of debt service on the country's ability to fulfill its obligations under international human rights law.
Millennium Development Goals
We cannot even talk of achieving the millennium development goals( MDGs) if we fail to adopt a new and effective debt sustainability framework. This world is globalising; whether we like it or not. The objectives and conditionality attached to granting debt relief should be in line with human rights objectives. Both the borrower and the lender share a common responsibility on illegitimate debt and its cancellation.
Going forward, Zimbabwe should ensure that before new loan agreements are signed, borrowers and creditors should assess and consider the economic and social impact of debt service obligations. At all times, we should make sure that obligations arising from new loan agreements should not impair the institutional and financial capacity of Zimbabwe to fulfill economic, social and cultural rights, I including response to any disasters or crises.
In April 2004,the UN Commission on Human Rights sought to draft general guidelines to be followed by states and by private and public, national and international financial institutions in decision-making and execution of debt repayments and structural reform programs, to ensure that compliance with the commitments derived from foreign debt will not undermine the obligations for the realisation of fundamental economic, social and cultural rights.
An independent expert, Dr. Cephas Lumina, has been appointed by the UN to work on these guidelines and the writer is privileged to be working as one of Dr. Lumina's resource persons.
I am of the firm view that both the negotiations and implementation of loan agreements should be transparent and open to public scrutiny. There is no need for secretive loan contraction.
Indeed, Parliament should be allowed to play a more meaningful role in loan contraction rather than to simply ratify loan agreements that would have been secretly negotiated by the executive arm of the state. It is only in this way that the phenomenon of odious and illegitimate debts can be eliminated.
Zimbabwe is too rich to be poor!
Independence, Elections Do Not Make Us Free
"THE hardest lesson of my life has come to me late. It is that a nation can win freedom without its people becoming free. I am a Zimbabwean patriot and an African patriot too. I refuse to accept that we cannot do better than we have so far done, or to reach for the easy excuse that all our mistakes are simply a colonial inheritance that can conveniently be blamed on the invaders."
I have quoted these words from The Story Of My Life, by Joshua Nkomo, simply to illustrate that true freedom as envisaged by the founding mothers and fathers of this great nation called Zimbabwe still has to be accomplished.
Freedom is not simply about holding regular elections no matter how uneven and biased the political playing field is.
A nation cannot be free when the majority of its inhabitants live in debilitating poverty, fear and repression.
It is a complete negation of freedom to have a set-up where might is right and where those who possess and control the coercive power of the state ride roughshod over the basic and fundamental human rights of the weak and poor majority.
It is a fact that since 1980, elections have been regularly held in Zimbabwe.
It is equally true that the majority, if not all of these electoral contests, have been marred by violence, intimidation, thuggery and outright vote rigging.
Invariably, most electoral results in Zimbabwe have been contested mainly because the process that gave rise to these elections was fundamentally flawed and consequently the results of these elections were always a fertile ground for contestation.
The problem we have in this country is that our politics, since the attainment of Independence on April 18 1980, have always been the politics of power retention at whatever cost.
What has always mattered is whether the political establishment, as ushered in at Independence, had been preserved and retained intact, political power, economic privileges and all.
Everything else was subordinated to this primary instinct of power retention. As a result, the dominant political players, during every electoral contest, would throw all caution to the wind and go for the jugular to ensure that, ultimately, they always retained political power and hence their privileged economic status as well. This is where we got it all wrong.
In a democracy, elections should give the voters an opportunity to freely decide who should be entrusted with the duty of running matters of the state. Put alternatively, any election that fails to accord the voters an opportunity to freely choose their political leaders is but a sham election.
Do I hear someone talking about the farcical June 27 2008 presidential election run-off in Zimbabwe? That internationally discredited sham of an election is an unmitigated example of how not to run a free and fair election.
My main fear is that I always see the ghost of June 27 2008. If not thoroughly exorcised, this ghost will come back to haunt us come the next elections in Zimbabwe. Just mark my words.
The situation on the ground in Zimbabwe today, in my humble view, is still far from being suitable for the holding of a free and fair election any time soon. Whilst we now have a semblance of political stability and some measure of tranquillity, I actually view this as a false dawn.
Beneath this facade of peace and tranquillity lies the lethal ghost of political intolerance and deeply entrenched mistrust and bitterness. We seem to be living in a fool's paradise where, unfortunately, some of us have chosen to bury their heads in the sand, ostrich style, and somehow hope that our politics will just get themselves right without any deliberate and conscious effort to heal the nation. Sometimes, I wonder what has happened to the Organ on National Healing and Integration. Can somebody please tell me whether or not this organ is still in existence and functional?
The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai is arguably the most popular political party in Zimbabwe at this juncture. This fact has been proven by various scientific surveys.
Tsvangirai and the MDC are poised to win, any free and fair election held in Zimbabwe today, tomorrow or at any time in the near future. What is in serious doubt is whether power will be transferred to Tsvangirai and the MDC if they win an election.
I wish to be uncharacteristically defeatist and openly declare that even if Tsvangirai and the MDC were to win the next elections, it would be a real nightmare for them to obtain total transfer of power from the remnants of the securocrats who still retain a tenacious hold on the coercive instruments of State power today.
That is the real tragedy we have in Zimbabwe at this juncture in our political history. We have never experienced a situation where power has been transferred from one political party to another after the holding of elections.
We are just used to the holding of generally discredited, violent and rigged elections where the result is manipulated and the people's voice is cheated. If this cancerous political disease is not completely cured, Zimbabwe will always be mired in debilitating political problems which will continue to adversely impact on the economic turnaround that all of us are so keen to embark upon.
The instruments of terror and repression are still intact throughout Zimbabwe. Those militias and other state actors who violated and tormented the nation between March and June 2008 are still roaming free. What guarantee is there that these merchants of terror will not be let loose again in the event that another election is called for today?
Obert Gutu is senator for the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC.
I have quoted these words from The Story Of My Life, by Joshua Nkomo, simply to illustrate that true freedom as envisaged by the founding mothers and fathers of this great nation called Zimbabwe still has to be accomplished.
Freedom is not simply about holding regular elections no matter how uneven and biased the political playing field is.
A nation cannot be free when the majority of its inhabitants live in debilitating poverty, fear and repression.
It is a complete negation of freedom to have a set-up where might is right and where those who possess and control the coercive power of the state ride roughshod over the basic and fundamental human rights of the weak and poor majority.
It is a fact that since 1980, elections have been regularly held in Zimbabwe.
It is equally true that the majority, if not all of these electoral contests, have been marred by violence, intimidation, thuggery and outright vote rigging.
Invariably, most electoral results in Zimbabwe have been contested mainly because the process that gave rise to these elections was fundamentally flawed and consequently the results of these elections were always a fertile ground for contestation.
The problem we have in this country is that our politics, since the attainment of Independence on April 18 1980, have always been the politics of power retention at whatever cost.
What has always mattered is whether the political establishment, as ushered in at Independence, had been preserved and retained intact, political power, economic privileges and all.
Everything else was subordinated to this primary instinct of power retention. As a result, the dominant political players, during every electoral contest, would throw all caution to the wind and go for the jugular to ensure that, ultimately, they always retained political power and hence their privileged economic status as well. This is where we got it all wrong.
In a democracy, elections should give the voters an opportunity to freely decide who should be entrusted with the duty of running matters of the state. Put alternatively, any election that fails to accord the voters an opportunity to freely choose their political leaders is but a sham election.
Do I hear someone talking about the farcical June 27 2008 presidential election run-off in Zimbabwe? That internationally discredited sham of an election is an unmitigated example of how not to run a free and fair election.
My main fear is that I always see the ghost of June 27 2008. If not thoroughly exorcised, this ghost will come back to haunt us come the next elections in Zimbabwe. Just mark my words.
The situation on the ground in Zimbabwe today, in my humble view, is still far from being suitable for the holding of a free and fair election any time soon. Whilst we now have a semblance of political stability and some measure of tranquillity, I actually view this as a false dawn.
Beneath this facade of peace and tranquillity lies the lethal ghost of political intolerance and deeply entrenched mistrust and bitterness. We seem to be living in a fool's paradise where, unfortunately, some of us have chosen to bury their heads in the sand, ostrich style, and somehow hope that our politics will just get themselves right without any deliberate and conscious effort to heal the nation. Sometimes, I wonder what has happened to the Organ on National Healing and Integration. Can somebody please tell me whether or not this organ is still in existence and functional?
The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai is arguably the most popular political party in Zimbabwe at this juncture. This fact has been proven by various scientific surveys.
Tsvangirai and the MDC are poised to win, any free and fair election held in Zimbabwe today, tomorrow or at any time in the near future. What is in serious doubt is whether power will be transferred to Tsvangirai and the MDC if they win an election.
I wish to be uncharacteristically defeatist and openly declare that even if Tsvangirai and the MDC were to win the next elections, it would be a real nightmare for them to obtain total transfer of power from the remnants of the securocrats who still retain a tenacious hold on the coercive instruments of State power today.
That is the real tragedy we have in Zimbabwe at this juncture in our political history. We have never experienced a situation where power has been transferred from one political party to another after the holding of elections.
We are just used to the holding of generally discredited, violent and rigged elections where the result is manipulated and the people's voice is cheated. If this cancerous political disease is not completely cured, Zimbabwe will always be mired in debilitating political problems which will continue to adversely impact on the economic turnaround that all of us are so keen to embark upon.
The instruments of terror and repression are still intact throughout Zimbabwe. Those militias and other state actors who violated and tormented the nation between March and June 2008 are still roaming free. What guarantee is there that these merchants of terror will not be let loose again in the event that another election is called for today?
Obert Gutu is senator for the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC.
MDC holds key to Zimbabwe’s Economic revival
The MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is on a roll.Whilst some moribund and hitherto nationalist political parties are still trying to acquaint themselves with the rigours and challenges that confront political organisations in the new millennium,the MDC has re-positioned itself as the only political party that can genuinely and effectively drive the agenda of meaningfull economic empowerment of the previously disadvantaged people of Zimbabwe.
As a party whose bedrock is social democracy,the MDC easily identifies with the wishes and aspirations of the majority of all progressive Zimbabweans living within the country and in the Diaspora.As a party with a focussed leadership and openly democratic credentials,the MDC has developed a certain level of irresistable charm and attraction ever since it was formed a short ten years ago.
It is amazing really! A visitor to Zimbabwe today might easily be convinced that the MDC is a very old and established party because of its resilience against all odds.This party is a revelation and a shining example to all social democratic parties in the developing world; particularly in Africa.This is a party that has proved to the entire world that democratic change in Africa can be painstakingly achieved through a peaceful democratic struggle rather than through violence and bloodshed.
At a time when a tired and hopelessly faction-ridden party like ZANU (PF) is pre-occupied with the politics of kleptocracy, autocracy and gerontocracy, the MDC is busy mobilising its massive support base countrywide for peacefull democratic change.Whilst ZANU (PF) preaches the ” gospel” of racial hatred,tribalism,homophobia and generalised thuggery,the MDC is siezed with the more serious business of extricating Zimbabwe from the depths of mass poverty and socio-economic trepidation brought about by years of ZANU (PF) misgovernance and corruption.Zimbabwe became a pariah state wholly because of unprecedented misgovernance and massive looting of State resources by ZANU (PF) functionaries.These are people who perfected the ” art” of looting public assets from ZUPCO, the GMB, the NRZ and now to the diamond fields of Chiadzwa.
All state-owned companies were mercilessly stripped of their assets to such an extent that a parastatal like ZUPCO, which was very organised and as efficient as any other public transport operator in the developed world at independence in 1980; is now just a shell with a few ramshackle buses operated by a thoroughly demotivated staff. This is the legacy of ZANU (PF); a hitherto revolutionary party that failed to manage success and to adjust to the compelling need for periodic leadership renewal in order to sustain generational longevity and relevance.A political party that finds wisdom in being led by a man who is about to become a nonagenarian surely belongs to the dustbin of history.The story of the dinosaur becomes apt.The dinosaur stubbornly refused to positively adjust to the changing environment and we all know what became of it.I will bet my bottom dollar that ZANU (PF) is following the dinosaur route; to total oblivion.
Zimbabweans do not eat propaganda.The people of this great and majestic country are not as naive and docile as some latter-day ZANU (PF) propagandists and political turncoats seem to believe.Tafataona Mahoso and Jonathan Moyo can write acres of rabid propaganda pieces in the ZANU (PF)-controlled media such as the Herald and the Sunday Mail newspapers but they can be assured that their toxic and hate-filled propaganda will only serve the purpose of galvanising the masses against ZANU (PF) thuggery and autocracy.The people know who exactly authored the unprecedented hyper-inflation that pauperised more than 90% of the population.
The people know who was responsible for non-stop printing of worthless Zimbabwe dollars when basic economic fundamentals show that no country in this world has ever managed to solve its economic policies by massive printing of money.If ZANU(PF) failed to learn from the economic history of such countries like Germany and Equador then what guarantee is there that they will learn from anything? At any rate, it will take a miracle for such a faction-ridden party to rejuvinate itself.If a party rigs its own internal provincial elections in Harare,then one would be a fool to trust such a party with the management of the country’s economy.The good thing is that the majority of the people have peacefully decided to dissociate themseleves from ZANU(PF).
The overwhelming crowds that attended the MDC consultative rallies and meetings throughout Zimbabwe during the past few months is clear testimony of the fact that the Movement’s message resonates with the people.The people of Zimbabwe are aware of the lack of genuine power-sharing in the inclusive givernment but they know that this is just but a transitional phase.The people of Zimbabwe want real change and they know that only the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai can deliver real change to their lives.
Zimbabwe is at the crossroads.The people will never accept their vote to be stolen again.Losers of elections should never dream of clinging to power against the wishes of the people.And the wilful and flagrant violation of the terms and conditions of the global political agreement (GPA) will be harshly punished by the people come next election.
The MDC is acutely aware of the desperate attempt by some failed politicians in both ZANU(PF) and its sidekick led by Mutambara to drive a wedge across its leadership.These attempts will never see the light of day.Morgan Tsvangirai is the popular and undisputed leader of the Movement and all party cadres are aware of this.Tsvangirai is the face of the people’s struggle against ZANU (PF) tyranny and thuggocracy.
Those opportunists who rebelled against the Movement on October 12, 2005 are free to wine and dine with ZANU(PF).We know that they are greedy losers who will clutch at anything in order to fatten their pockets.Their political lives will be as short as the duration of the inclusive government.Thereafter,these opportunists and chancers will be relegated to the trash can of Zimbabwe’s political history where they properly belong.
With an unemployment rate of about 90%, Zimbabwe is a sad story within the SADC region and indeed, in Africa as a whole.We are poor but we are rich.Why? Ask ZANU(PF) and they will tell you that we are in this pathetic state because of so-called ” illegal” sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Britain and her Western allies in response to the ” successfull land reform program”.What errant nonsense!
We are in this state of poverty and socio-economic trepidation wholly because of ZANU (PF) misgovernance and poor governance; a system of government that rewards mediocrity and incompetence.A system of government where looting of public resources is celebrated as the hallmark of indigenisation and black economic ” empowerment”. What a shame,really!
The country needs a Messiah to enable it to reclaim its rightfull position amongst other prosperous nations of the world.And this Messiah cannot be a man who is fast approaching the age of 90.The people’s salvation is to be located in the MDC; a social democratic party that does not believe in the personalisation of political power.Zimbabwe needs a new style of leadership and governance such as the one exemplified by the MDC.
ZANU (PF) is yesterday’s party.It has had its time.It has dismally failed to liberate the people from poverty and destitution.If anything ,ZANU (PF) has acted as a catalyst to the mass pauperisation of the people.Little wonder,therefore, that ZANU (PF) can never again win a free and fair election in Zimbabwe.
As a party whose bedrock is social democracy,the MDC easily identifies with the wishes and aspirations of the majority of all progressive Zimbabweans living within the country and in the Diaspora.As a party with a focussed leadership and openly democratic credentials,the MDC has developed a certain level of irresistable charm and attraction ever since it was formed a short ten years ago.
It is amazing really! A visitor to Zimbabwe today might easily be convinced that the MDC is a very old and established party because of its resilience against all odds.This party is a revelation and a shining example to all social democratic parties in the developing world; particularly in Africa.This is a party that has proved to the entire world that democratic change in Africa can be painstakingly achieved through a peaceful democratic struggle rather than through violence and bloodshed.
At a time when a tired and hopelessly faction-ridden party like ZANU (PF) is pre-occupied with the politics of kleptocracy, autocracy and gerontocracy, the MDC is busy mobilising its massive support base countrywide for peacefull democratic change.Whilst ZANU (PF) preaches the ” gospel” of racial hatred,tribalism,homophobia and generalised thuggery,the MDC is siezed with the more serious business of extricating Zimbabwe from the depths of mass poverty and socio-economic trepidation brought about by years of ZANU (PF) misgovernance and corruption.Zimbabwe became a pariah state wholly because of unprecedented misgovernance and massive looting of State resources by ZANU (PF) functionaries.These are people who perfected the ” art” of looting public assets from ZUPCO, the GMB, the NRZ and now to the diamond fields of Chiadzwa.
All state-owned companies were mercilessly stripped of their assets to such an extent that a parastatal like ZUPCO, which was very organised and as efficient as any other public transport operator in the developed world at independence in 1980; is now just a shell with a few ramshackle buses operated by a thoroughly demotivated staff. This is the legacy of ZANU (PF); a hitherto revolutionary party that failed to manage success and to adjust to the compelling need for periodic leadership renewal in order to sustain generational longevity and relevance.A political party that finds wisdom in being led by a man who is about to become a nonagenarian surely belongs to the dustbin of history.The story of the dinosaur becomes apt.The dinosaur stubbornly refused to positively adjust to the changing environment and we all know what became of it.I will bet my bottom dollar that ZANU (PF) is following the dinosaur route; to total oblivion.
Zimbabweans do not eat propaganda.The people of this great and majestic country are not as naive and docile as some latter-day ZANU (PF) propagandists and political turncoats seem to believe.Tafataona Mahoso and Jonathan Moyo can write acres of rabid propaganda pieces in the ZANU (PF)-controlled media such as the Herald and the Sunday Mail newspapers but they can be assured that their toxic and hate-filled propaganda will only serve the purpose of galvanising the masses against ZANU (PF) thuggery and autocracy.The people know who exactly authored the unprecedented hyper-inflation that pauperised more than 90% of the population.
The people know who was responsible for non-stop printing of worthless Zimbabwe dollars when basic economic fundamentals show that no country in this world has ever managed to solve its economic policies by massive printing of money.If ZANU(PF) failed to learn from the economic history of such countries like Germany and Equador then what guarantee is there that they will learn from anything? At any rate, it will take a miracle for such a faction-ridden party to rejuvinate itself.If a party rigs its own internal provincial elections in Harare,then one would be a fool to trust such a party with the management of the country’s economy.The good thing is that the majority of the people have peacefully decided to dissociate themseleves from ZANU(PF).
The overwhelming crowds that attended the MDC consultative rallies and meetings throughout Zimbabwe during the past few months is clear testimony of the fact that the Movement’s message resonates with the people.The people of Zimbabwe are aware of the lack of genuine power-sharing in the inclusive givernment but they know that this is just but a transitional phase.The people of Zimbabwe want real change and they know that only the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai can deliver real change to their lives.
Zimbabwe is at the crossroads.The people will never accept their vote to be stolen again.Losers of elections should never dream of clinging to power against the wishes of the people.And the wilful and flagrant violation of the terms and conditions of the global political agreement (GPA) will be harshly punished by the people come next election.
The MDC is acutely aware of the desperate attempt by some failed politicians in both ZANU(PF) and its sidekick led by Mutambara to drive a wedge across its leadership.These attempts will never see the light of day.Morgan Tsvangirai is the popular and undisputed leader of the Movement and all party cadres are aware of this.Tsvangirai is the face of the people’s struggle against ZANU (PF) tyranny and thuggocracy.
Those opportunists who rebelled against the Movement on October 12, 2005 are free to wine and dine with ZANU(PF).We know that they are greedy losers who will clutch at anything in order to fatten their pockets.Their political lives will be as short as the duration of the inclusive government.Thereafter,these opportunists and chancers will be relegated to the trash can of Zimbabwe’s political history where they properly belong.
With an unemployment rate of about 90%, Zimbabwe is a sad story within the SADC region and indeed, in Africa as a whole.We are poor but we are rich.Why? Ask ZANU(PF) and they will tell you that we are in this pathetic state because of so-called ” illegal” sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Britain and her Western allies in response to the ” successfull land reform program”.What errant nonsense!
We are in this state of poverty and socio-economic trepidation wholly because of ZANU (PF) misgovernance and poor governance; a system of government that rewards mediocrity and incompetence.A system of government where looting of public resources is celebrated as the hallmark of indigenisation and black economic ” empowerment”. What a shame,really!
The country needs a Messiah to enable it to reclaim its rightfull position amongst other prosperous nations of the world.And this Messiah cannot be a man who is fast approaching the age of 90.The people’s salvation is to be located in the MDC; a social democratic party that does not believe in the personalisation of political power.Zimbabwe needs a new style of leadership and governance such as the one exemplified by the MDC.
ZANU (PF) is yesterday’s party.It has had its time.It has dismally failed to liberate the people from poverty and destitution.If anything ,ZANU (PF) has acted as a catalyst to the mass pauperisation of the people.Little wonder,therefore, that ZANU (PF) can never again win a free and fair election in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe: the case for a debt audit
The unpalatable fact is that the Republic of Zimbabwe is virtually bankrupt. As at December 1 2008, Zimbabwe’s external debt stood at US$5, 255 billion, with a current account balance of US$597 million.
As at May 31 2009, Zimbabwe owed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) US$138 million and the World Bank US$676 million. As at April 30, 2009, Zimbabwe owed the African Development Bank US$438 million.
These statistics are startling thus there is an urgent need to interrogate Zimbabwe’s debt crisis to ascertain how such a colossal debt was incurred, and then strategise how this debt crisis is to be resolved.
Put alternatively, the legitimacy, or lack of it, of Zimbabwe’s debt has to be placed under the microscope if our country is to avoid being perpetually placed under a debt trap. The main thrust of this article is therefore to attempt to provide an objective analysis of Zimbabwe’s debt situation and then to propagate the need to have an apolitical, scientific and objective debt audit as a way of charting a new dispensation.
Odious debts are defined as those debts incurred by the state which are not for the needs or interest of the state but merely to strengthen the state’s despotic power as well as to repress the population that fights against despotism.
The legal doctrine of odious debts is essentially derived from the writings of Alexander Nahum Sack, the world’s pre-eminent legal scholar on public debts. Sack authored two major works on the obligations of successor states: The Effects Of State Transformations On Their Public Debts And Other Financial Obligations, and The Succession Of The Public Debts Of The State.
The doctrine of odious debts is not per se favourable to the interests of emerging economies and also to the developing countries. This is so because the doctrine was created to further the interests of international finance by limiting the ability of governments to repudiate debts. Under this doctrine, three conditions must be present before a state can repudiate a debt:
* The debt must have been incurred without the consent of the people of the State;
* The debt cannot have benefited the public in that State and;
* The tenderer must have been aware of these two conditions.
The overwhelming majority of the developing world’s foreign debts are odious in law. Being part of the developing world, Zimbabwe is thus inevitably caught up in this odious debts fiasco.
Zimbabwe is bankrupt because it has no capacity to service the afore-mentioned debt. At its formation in February, the inclusive government inherited approximately US$4,7 billion external debts owed to bilateral, multilateral and commercial creditors.
By the time the inclusive government was formed, Zimbabwe was virtually a failed state. Zimbabwe’s economic collapse is not to be solely located in and restricted to the ineptitude, corruption and misgovernance of the previous government coupled with the chaotic and violent "land reform" programme that began in February 2000.
The general assumption that the land distribution programme is the sole reason for the country’s economic decline and food insecurity is flatly inaccurate.
In a Congressional Testimony to the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health on May 7 submitted by Nicole C Lee, Esq, the executive director of the Trans Africa Forum, many political economists identify Zimbabwe’s unresolved structural weaknesses and systematic inequality built into the apartheid-like system constructed by the Rhodesian settlers as the primary root cause.
A South African-based scholar, Patrick Bond, points to the related crises of Rhodesia’s "over-consumption" of the early 1970s. Analysts agree that at the time of Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980,the country’s economy was skewed, for example:
lThe entire national economy was designed to support the maintenance and enrichment of a small white minority. At independence in 1980, fewer than 7 000 white farmers each owned, on average, more than 100 times the land available to the average African peasant;
lIndustry, mining and the manufacturing sector were in the hands of multinational corporations and the white settler economy.
Zimbabwe’s economic distortions continue. Mining, manufacturing and most industry remain in the hands of external corporations, the white minority and a small clique of black indigenous Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe is burdened by both short and long-term external debts that inevitably militate against the inclusive government’s concerted efforts to jump-start the economy.
The inclusive government should join the global voice that seeks the establishment of an international debt arbitration mechanism.
It should promptly utilise the doctrine of odious debts by establishing a judicial debt arbitration panel, preferably composed of respected and eminent Zimbabwean and international jurists.
This panel would then invite creditors to submit claims, including documentation that the loans were indeed used in the interests of the Zimbabwean people and, not, in the words of the US Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolforito, "to buy weapons and to build palaces and to build instruments of repression".
Recent news reports suggest that France is mulling the possibility of cancelling Zimbabwe’s debt which is in the region of 400 million euros. This is a very encouraging starting point.
The World Bank’s article of agreement imposes a fiduciary duty on the bank to ensure that the proceeds of any loan are used only for the purposes for which the loan is granted. If the World Bank breaches this fiduciary duty it should be held liable and the debtor nation must be entitled to challenge the odious debt at international law.
In his paper, Criminal Debt In The Indonesia Context, Northwestern University Professor Jeffrey Winters provides shocking insight into the World Bank’s weak supervisory practices. Winters presents evidence that the World Bank breached its fiduciary duty to Indonesia by granting loans which it knew would be used for corrupt purposes. As a result, Indonesian legislators have since asked the IMF to write off the country’s foreign debts, including those to other donors recommended by the IMF.
The hurdle to be encountered by the inclusive government in Zimbabwe is to prove that the lending institutions knew or ought to have known that the funds would not be used in the interest of the people, but solely for the benefit of the ruling regime’s members in their personal capacities.
Another case involves an action by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal to strike out a lawsuit against the Kenyan government over a contract after it discovered that the contract had been secured illegally through a US$2 million bribe paid to the former President Daniel arap Moi.
Although the complainant alleges that the payment was a "personal donation" made to Moi for public purposes, the ICSID tribunal ruled that this constituted a breach of international public policy as well as both English and Kenyan public policy. The tribunal ruled that "claims based on contracts of corruption or on contracts obtained by corruption cannot be upheld by this arbitral tribunal."
As aptly noted by Jeffy King of the Canadian Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, the tribunal’s ruling is an important one for the global campaign and "adds to precedent such as the Tinoco Arbitration (1924) and numerous international conventions in clarifying that contracts for personal enrichment, or those procured by bribery, are against international public policy and are thus, unenforceable".
It is therefore imperative for the government in Zimbabwe to institute a debt audit. Zimbabwe should not honour any debts that have not been properly audited and proved to be lawful and legitimate.
This paper was presented by Senator Obert Gutu at the "Economy In Transition Dialogue Conference: Towards A Sustainable Public Debt For Zimbabwe" in Harare on Tuesday.
As at May 31 2009, Zimbabwe owed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) US$138 million and the World Bank US$676 million. As at April 30, 2009, Zimbabwe owed the African Development Bank US$438 million.
These statistics are startling thus there is an urgent need to interrogate Zimbabwe’s debt crisis to ascertain how such a colossal debt was incurred, and then strategise how this debt crisis is to be resolved.
Put alternatively, the legitimacy, or lack of it, of Zimbabwe’s debt has to be placed under the microscope if our country is to avoid being perpetually placed under a debt trap. The main thrust of this article is therefore to attempt to provide an objective analysis of Zimbabwe’s debt situation and then to propagate the need to have an apolitical, scientific and objective debt audit as a way of charting a new dispensation.
Odious debts are defined as those debts incurred by the state which are not for the needs or interest of the state but merely to strengthen the state’s despotic power as well as to repress the population that fights against despotism.
The legal doctrine of odious debts is essentially derived from the writings of Alexander Nahum Sack, the world’s pre-eminent legal scholar on public debts. Sack authored two major works on the obligations of successor states: The Effects Of State Transformations On Their Public Debts And Other Financial Obligations, and The Succession Of The Public Debts Of The State.
The doctrine of odious debts is not per se favourable to the interests of emerging economies and also to the developing countries. This is so because the doctrine was created to further the interests of international finance by limiting the ability of governments to repudiate debts. Under this doctrine, three conditions must be present before a state can repudiate a debt:
* The debt must have been incurred without the consent of the people of the State;
* The debt cannot have benefited the public in that State and;
* The tenderer must have been aware of these two conditions.
The overwhelming majority of the developing world’s foreign debts are odious in law. Being part of the developing world, Zimbabwe is thus inevitably caught up in this odious debts fiasco.
Zimbabwe is bankrupt because it has no capacity to service the afore-mentioned debt. At its formation in February, the inclusive government inherited approximately US$4,7 billion external debts owed to bilateral, multilateral and commercial creditors.
By the time the inclusive government was formed, Zimbabwe was virtually a failed state. Zimbabwe’s economic collapse is not to be solely located in and restricted to the ineptitude, corruption and misgovernance of the previous government coupled with the chaotic and violent "land reform" programme that began in February 2000.
The general assumption that the land distribution programme is the sole reason for the country’s economic decline and food insecurity is flatly inaccurate.
In a Congressional Testimony to the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health on May 7 submitted by Nicole C Lee, Esq, the executive director of the Trans Africa Forum, many political economists identify Zimbabwe’s unresolved structural weaknesses and systematic inequality built into the apartheid-like system constructed by the Rhodesian settlers as the primary root cause.
A South African-based scholar, Patrick Bond, points to the related crises of Rhodesia’s "over-consumption" of the early 1970s. Analysts agree that at the time of Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980,the country’s economy was skewed, for example:
lThe entire national economy was designed to support the maintenance and enrichment of a small white minority. At independence in 1980, fewer than 7 000 white farmers each owned, on average, more than 100 times the land available to the average African peasant;
lIndustry, mining and the manufacturing sector were in the hands of multinational corporations and the white settler economy.
Zimbabwe’s economic distortions continue. Mining, manufacturing and most industry remain in the hands of external corporations, the white minority and a small clique of black indigenous Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe is burdened by both short and long-term external debts that inevitably militate against the inclusive government’s concerted efforts to jump-start the economy.
The inclusive government should join the global voice that seeks the establishment of an international debt arbitration mechanism.
It should promptly utilise the doctrine of odious debts by establishing a judicial debt arbitration panel, preferably composed of respected and eminent Zimbabwean and international jurists.
This panel would then invite creditors to submit claims, including documentation that the loans were indeed used in the interests of the Zimbabwean people and, not, in the words of the US Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolforito, "to buy weapons and to build palaces and to build instruments of repression".
Recent news reports suggest that France is mulling the possibility of cancelling Zimbabwe’s debt which is in the region of 400 million euros. This is a very encouraging starting point.
The World Bank’s article of agreement imposes a fiduciary duty on the bank to ensure that the proceeds of any loan are used only for the purposes for which the loan is granted. If the World Bank breaches this fiduciary duty it should be held liable and the debtor nation must be entitled to challenge the odious debt at international law.
In his paper, Criminal Debt In The Indonesia Context, Northwestern University Professor Jeffrey Winters provides shocking insight into the World Bank’s weak supervisory practices. Winters presents evidence that the World Bank breached its fiduciary duty to Indonesia by granting loans which it knew would be used for corrupt purposes. As a result, Indonesian legislators have since asked the IMF to write off the country’s foreign debts, including those to other donors recommended by the IMF.
The hurdle to be encountered by the inclusive government in Zimbabwe is to prove that the lending institutions knew or ought to have known that the funds would not be used in the interest of the people, but solely for the benefit of the ruling regime’s members in their personal capacities.
Another case involves an action by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal to strike out a lawsuit against the Kenyan government over a contract after it discovered that the contract had been secured illegally through a US$2 million bribe paid to the former President Daniel arap Moi.
Although the complainant alleges that the payment was a "personal donation" made to Moi for public purposes, the ICSID tribunal ruled that this constituted a breach of international public policy as well as both English and Kenyan public policy. The tribunal ruled that "claims based on contracts of corruption or on contracts obtained by corruption cannot be upheld by this arbitral tribunal."
As aptly noted by Jeffy King of the Canadian Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, the tribunal’s ruling is an important one for the global campaign and "adds to precedent such as the Tinoco Arbitration (1924) and numerous international conventions in clarifying that contracts for personal enrichment, or those procured by bribery, are against international public policy and are thus, unenforceable".
It is therefore imperative for the government in Zimbabwe to institute a debt audit. Zimbabwe should not honour any debts that have not been properly audited and proved to be lawful and legitimate.
This paper was presented by Senator Obert Gutu at the "Economy In Transition Dialogue Conference: Towards A Sustainable Public Debt For Zimbabwe" in Harare on Tuesday.
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