Manheru: Anti-Sanctions Campaign: The day the lion knew how to draw
Friday, 04 March 2011 20:39
Was it Caesar Zvayi who once accused Zanu-PF and Government of not doing enough to roll back sanctions? I furtively agreed with him, arguing quietly that Zanu-PF risked cutting heroism for the most flowery description of how hurtful sanctions have been, are, to Zimbabweans, indeed that Zanu-PF risked winning a trophy for the sharpest squeak of pain, whether felt or vicarious, from sanctions.
Until now, Zanu-PF has been a whining party. Today, we can now say the lion has wrestled pen and paper from the hunter and, what a drawing!
Only Marx was the only Marxist!
Yet by definition, sanctions are meant to transfer hurt and damage to their targets.
They would not be sanctions if they didn't.
Ask the Rhodesians. Similarly, a basic rule of physics tells you that to every action there is and should be equal and opposite reaction. Maybe that is where Karl Marx developed the theory of dialectics.
I am not sure though about the "equal" dimension to this great rule of physics.
The reaction is sure to be opposite. That I do not doubt. But need it be equal?
That cannot be a part of the rule, surely? Reactions can be quite hefty and overwhelming than actions that provoke them.
Or they can be far less, far too feeble and mediocre, when measured against the original action. Both dimensions to the rule of action and reaction are borne out by history, including our very own.
I hope I am not about to join the group of bogus Marxists of yore, so bitterly accused of vulgarising Marxism. I could be charged with vulgarising the notion of historical materialism, itself Marx's way of applying the theory of dialectics to human history.
But such is how human knowledge grows and multiplies, that is, through thoughtful disputations.
In my defence, I will just quote the President.
Fed up with the question from the Western media on whether or not he was following the tenets of Karl Marx in running Independent Zimbabwe, he retorted: "After all, Karl Marx was the only Marxist!"
Colonial Action and Reaction
I am driving at a very simple point.
The Rhodesians eyed this country, invading it subsequently. That was in 1890.
We all became subjects of the British Queen, willy-nilly or by conquest.
This generation was born into that situation, which is what made servitude appear like a rule of birth - a birthright to most Africans.
Conquest had taken place well before our time, and we were born into servitude which we mistook for a way of African life in a racially structured and fractured settler society.
But across generations and cumulatively, we reacted, maybe not so heroically for a start, but the issue is we reacted to settler conquest action.
Arguably, even time recognised the action/reaction dialectical logic, which is why 1980 is 1890 dialectically tilted. 1980 thus marked the crescendo of that reaction, our reaction to colonialism as an occupied African people.
Unequal reaction to colonial action
That 1980 was opposite to 1890 seems to have little doubt politically.
That it was equal or matching to what had happened to us between 1890 and 1979, I can't say at all.
If it was, the Third Chimurenga would have been superfluous, would it not be?
If it was, indigenisation and empowerment we talk about to date would have been needless.
The reaction created a deficit, when measured against the offending action, which is why we are still in struggle, why we are still trying to muster a reaction that shall be equal to the damage we suffered by way of colonial white actions here and elsewhere on this our once colonised continent of Africa.
This deficit creates the paradox of Africa, namely of a liberated continent ever in chain.
This deficit is what makes our Independence micky-mouse, as Lucky Dube would say, makes it taste and smell more sour and acrid than stale milk.
Reaction to a reaction
Something else has happened.
Beyond colonial action, colonial forces have followed though with many other actions - or are they reactions to our comparatively mediocre reactions? - to recover lost ground of original pre-eminence.
Today, we have the MDC formations as part of that follow-up action, do we not?
It is a settler colonial project, is it not?
An attempt at reconstructing our Independence reaction, by moulding something we call neo-colonialism. Let me not stretch polemics, cease forthwith this abstract schema.
We have real history, real issues to deal with, which is why the real dead cobra must measured, never estimated by a rope as if it can ever roar back to menacing life.
Undying settler anger over land
The British acted to take our land.
They acted to disinherit us. The subsequent land acquisition programme was our reaction to that action. It hurt whites, itself a second hurt after the liberation struggle which handed down defeat to the settlers.
Judging by the copious writings by displaced white farmers, you get the sense that this lost tribe of Britain has writhed more from its land losses than from pain it ever endured in the war, even when their two Viscounts were brought down.
One affected settler - a well-known tobacco magnate and leading sanctions buster of Rhodesian - wrote a mournful book simply titled "All for Nothing?"
The book carries the outpourings of a soul in deep agony, poses questions besieging a befuddled white who cannot believe that his investments on Zimbabwean land are all gone.
The searing pain is understandable, including its comparative magnitude.
In both Viscounts, Rhodesia lost lives; through the Land Reform Programme, Rhodesia lost its only livelihood, the only one possible in this world.
The Rhodesians have tried to go to Mozambique, Zambia, Angola and even as far afield as Kwara State in Nigeria, still they tell you it's never the same. They are a bitter lot, very bitter. They would kill if they could.
One angry Charlotte Reid-Rowland
Let us sample a bit of that bitterness, arguably the latest. You can get it from the collating website called "Zimbabwe Situation", itself a globalised electronic expression of landed settler white grief, as it had sobbed and scattered since 2000.
That site published a letter dated 2nd March, 2011.
That means the letter expressed a fresh impulse, a fresh hurt only three or so days old from this article. It is a white impulse, a white emotion captured in burning agony and bitterness.
The letter is signed "Faithfully, Charlotte Reid-Rowland," itself the name of a 25-year old Rhodesian lady who immigrated to the UK only eight years ago.
It is addressed to Mr Cameron, the British Prime Minister.
That makes the letter an open petition by a young settler Rhodesian woman to the British Prime Minister.
Why not bomb Mugabe?
It begins quite simply and straightforwardly thus: "I am a 25-year-old former Zimbabwean citizen living in England, and have been for almost eight years now.
"It has long been a source of frustration that the British government has done so little to help ease the situation in Zimbabwe, but this frustration has increased a thousand fold of late."
At 25, Charlotte would have been born about four or five years after Independence.
By time, she must be a new woman, a new human, away and above fractured Rhodesia and its warped and polarised racial (in)sensibility.
Let us test this expectation.
Her letter conveys admiration for the courageous citizenry of Egypt and Tunisia in its fight for freedom and human rights, with "very little support...offered by the British government."
These two situations she contrasts with that of Libya where the British government now appears roused from its democracy stupor.
The lady pins down David Cameron by quoting verbatim the British Prime Minister's outrage at what is happening in Libya.
In particular, she quotes that crucial point in Cameron's speech where he says: "In that context I have asked the Ministry of Defence and the Chief of the Defence Staff to work with our allies on plans for a military no-fly zone."
Mr Cameron, please?
Wasting no time, she cuts in: "This is a commendable statement, and one which I fully
support.
"It is completely unacceptable for any government to use force of any kind to oppress the people's rights to protest that which they feel is unjust, particularly where these protests are peaceful and undisruptive.
"The burning question in my mind, is why then has nothing been done about Mugabe's regime?
"Mugabe has used military force on the people of Zimbabwe since the early 80's, when he ordered the Gukurahundi massacres, not long after the British government facilitated his rise to presidency.
"He has also sanctioned the forceful removal of hundreds of farmers from their own lands, which resulted in several farmers dying horrible deaths at the hands of so called ‘war veterans', many of whom were no older than I, and not even born during the war."
Are Zimbabweans less human?
She buttresses her point by a reference to Marange diamonds fields where she says helicopter gun-ships were used against the people.
She continues: "Meanwhile, these diamonds are being sold onto the open market, making Mugabe and his cronies wealthier by the day while the majority of his people cannot even afford to feed themselves."
Turning to Britain, she sorely adds: "Over the last few years, there has been a lot of talk that the Iraq invasion only took place because of the oil reserves there.
"I was reluctant to believe that, and hoped that the British government at least, was better than that, and cared more about human lives than about natural resources.
"Now, faced with dictatorial leaders falling left and right, the only situation that has sparked any interest from the British government is that in Libya, the richest of them all in terms of oil.
"So the question I wish for you to answer is why, if not for oil, has Britain condemned Gaddafi's actions, but quite happily ignoring the exact same behaviours in many other countries, including Zimbabwe?
"Why is military action against the Libyan people unacceptable, yet against Zimbabweans it is ignored and brushed under the carpet?
"Are the people of Zimbabwe any less human?"
And she closes with a mighty threat: "I have circulated copies of this letter to a number of newspapers including the BBC, a number of independent Zimbabwean news sources and human rights activists in South Africa, and I know we are all eager to hear your response."
Beautiful ones will never be born
Gentle reader, I don't know what you make of this short letter from the young lady. I will tell you my reading of it. It marks settler anger renewed across gender and generations.
Institutionalised anger which proves quite clearly that on this one matter, the beautiful ones may never be born.
On both sides, I can assure you.
Placed in similar circumstances, an African girl would just be as bitter, of course without the privilege of writing a British Prime Minister.
He would most probably find her own kith and kin.
Land is a core asset and identity of a people. It does not quite matter whether it is rightfully yours or wrongfully acquired.
It seeps into your very blood and psyche, making you part of it.
This is where the discourse gets a bit unfriendly.
Taking back the land was a very bold decision by us, a very painful decision for those on the receiving end of it.
The bitterness of the latter would be as sharp as our collective happiness as the former, something akin to the action and reaction nexus.
Why did we ever think Britain, Europe and America would react through polite sanctions?
Why?
Unprepared Zanu-PF
It boggles the mind why we took so long to inventory the reaction from the white world.
It ruptures thought why beyond acquisition, we took so long to plan for a comprehensive countervailing strategy.
They almost got us, in 2008 - almost - but fluffed a chance which, like death, only visits once.
We almost jeopardised the Republic, indeed could have squandered freedom so dearly purchased.
From 2001 - in the case of America - and from 2002, in the case of Europe, the fangs of sanctions sank deep, deeper, into the entrails of our hapless people.
Out of desperation, in 2007/8, they almost acted against themselves, against their own interests.
It was as if we never read Cabral who teaches that a people pushed to desperation, can act against their own best interests, fling their best men and women overboard, to the sharks.
The revolution, counseled Cabral, should always defend the people, augment their survival options, so their commitment and loyalty to the struggle is not over-taxed.
The threshold of their welfare must remain assured.
We forgot all that.
Instead of leading the people in generating solutions to challenges of sanctions, we joined them in bemoaning the ravages of these sanctions.
Until your people pelt you ...
After all Robin Cook, late British Foreign Secretary, had plainly told Stan Mudenge, then our Foreign Minister, in Egypt that through sanctions, Britain, Europe and America would drive Zimbabweans against their leaders, squeeze them until insurrection.
Stan, clinched Cook, by keeping Mugabe in power and proceeding to take land from white farmers, your economy shall scream and your people shall pelt you in the streets.
It was more than a chilling message; it was a timely warning we should have taken to heart.
After all, the Americans had served Chile's Allende with more or less the same dessert, and worse things happened to him and his people, for well over two decades.
Why were we complacent?
Focusing the nation
But better late than never.
Zanu-PF has acted at last and hey, what an impact! The anti-sanctions petition launch has rattled the whole white empire.
The MDC formations, the empire's Trojan Horses, are at a loss on how to react.
First the content.
Firstly, the event marked the beginning of a drive to gather two million signatures against sanctions.
This is a prodigious goal, but one whose political value is just as immense.
Correctly stretched over time and space, skillfully choreographed over communities and classes, this could very easily build on the gains Zanu-PF has already notched through the constitution-making exercise.
The campaign keeps the nation engaged, keeps it focused on a potential election agenda item, indeed keeps the nation thinking within a Zanu-PF framework.
Who is with the people?
You ask yourself, does Tsvangirai have advisors?
Does he have intelligence? Why would anyone in their rightful mind counsel against his participation?
After Wikileaks, after the constitutional process, ahead of the referendum, ahead of elections?
MDC-T may have lost an opportunity for attempting to puncture Zanu-PF's campaign balloon.
Tsvangirai's posture would only have made sense if the turnout was going to be low.
As fate would have it, the turnout was massive.
Stupid arguments that Zanu-PF bused people are just that, stupid.
Why would it not?
The event was dubbed national. Anyway, is not the issue that Zanu-PF has people to bus?
The same bused people will still vote.
Is the issue not that MDC-T's attempts at intimidating people away from attending, attempts most visible in Chitungwiza, failed?
Is the issue not that by coming in such staggering numbers, the people have proved the credence of Zanu-PF messages on sanctions, indeed disproved and disapproved MDC formations' claims that there are no sanctions, let alone hurtful ones?
Can the MDC formations comfortably claim to be able read the public mood anymore?
Cricket or millipede?
Welshman, Oh Welshman!
Much like the proverbial cricket, he continues to kick off his hind legs, forgetting he is not a millipede endowed with a million legs.
He forgets he still has to cross the vlei, to reach the next village.
Obviously, he is an angry customer to Zanu-PF.
The President should have dropped Mutambara as a principal, should have brought him in as a new principal, Ncube bitterly opines.
His actions and those of his traditionally suave and mature Priscilla, smack of bitter self-hurt.
Far more than all, Welshman was most strident against sanctions in the negotiations that gave rise to the GPA, that yielded its fraught anti-sanctions clause.
Far more than all, Priscilla raised needling questions to Europe and America, each time the Cabinet Committee engaged delegations of those power blocs.
Both stances gave MDC some stature, national in scope in my view.
Against both developments, the MDC boycott of the Wednesday petition sticks out as out of character.
It smacked of a perverse hope to revenge on the President and Zanu-PF on the non-inclusion of Welshman as a principal.
But they should have thought through their actions, should have picked on a better moment.
Sanctions do define the politics of this country, for now and for the foreseeable future.
Soko Mufakwose!
I thought Mutambara played it quite skillfully.
He did not attend the launch. No one begrudged him, if you ask me.
But before long, in fact a day later, he pronounced himself unequivocally in support of the removal of sanctions, well away from a function cast as having partisan trappings.
Had he gone to the launch, he would have given Ncube easy victory.
"Ahaa," Welshman would have said, "you see your Zanu-PF man!"
He didn't, which is why vaNcube vakaita mufakwose!
Much worse, at the late Lesabe's funeral, Ncube gave away enough indications of where he is headed politically.
Why would any party worry to court a political minor who is about to be swallowed by another?
It is clear Dabengwa is the man to talk to.
Before long, Welshman will wiggle in Dabengwa's belly, like the biblical Jonah who chose a different city to one preferred by the Almighty.
Farai Mutsaka and Peter Wonacott quote Ncube as not sure what to tell investors when they ask him if President Mugabe plans to seize their companies.
"I can't give them any firm assurances."
I hope he is not about to fail too as a Minister of Government.
Surely if these are investors from those countries in the West which have imposed sanctions, the answer is straightforward: he cannot assure them, naturally, the same way he himself cannot be assured by as to when sanctions will be lifted.
The men who authored Zidera
Welshman has two problems on this one matter.
Alongside Biti and Coltart, he was part of the team that authored sanctions. As contradictions sharpen, he finds himself in a bind, a worse one for him since at some point, he appeared to have renounced those same sanctions.
Secondly, he believes, alongside many in the MDC formations, that investors only come from the West.
It is a belief against reason, experience and world trends.
Surely the two years he has been sitting in that grand office have shown him the colour of the investor who is bringing in money, or the obverse, the colour of the investor who will not come to Zimbabwe, who is taking away money from us?
His latest deal on Zisco is with Indians.
That suggests that the question that nags him is coming from the West, itself his party's source market for political capital, literally.
But Welshman will not like this one: asked whether Welshman or Arthur has approached him for advice, Tsvangirai responded by a devastating analogy.
Noting that Arthur would come; that Welshman would never come, he added in respect of the latter: "Nyakudya zvitorobho nhasi wadzipwa neganda remhuru!"
Roughly translated it means the tough one who brags of chewing tough hide, today lies sprawled and gasping, choked by mere veal.
Tsvangirai things the haughty man has met his comeuppance and asks the world as to who divided the MDC in 2004/5.
And MDC's drift towards Zapu simply consolidates Tsvangirai and Dell's view of Welshman.
Divided advice
I said Tsvangirai has no advisors.
More correctly put, he has, only poor and disagreeing ones.
On boycotting the event, Biti took the lead, including selling the idea of a Press conference after the launch, at which Tsvangirai was made to mumble incoherences.
Senior media advisors were opposed to the approach which made the MDC-T leader look more foolish, more treacherous.
But the dilemma for Tsvangirai was real.
Coming would have meant fitting within a campaign frame of Zanu-PF.
Not coming, as he did, means he is not just the source of sanctions, but the reason for their continuation in the present and future.
He validated WikiLeaks and worse things we have always heard attributed to him.
Indeed, by not attending, he has pitted himself and his party against the millions who came and could have come, the two millions who shall sign the petition.
For a Europe which is now half-hearted about sanctions; for an America whose men here are busy searching for an honourable way out, he took a gamble against common sense.
He also lost an opportunity to de-escalate interest in the petition campaign, as was sure to happen if MDC-T had laid claim to the whole thing by attending.
Now that he did not - and I am very happy - that means the issue becomes more alive, well into the next elections.
I cannot wait.
It was far easier to deal with charges that he fitted into a Zanu-PF programme that charges that he acted treacherously.
After all, the GPA concerns itself with sanctions, a good defence to any such charges.
Assuaging British discomfort
For me, reaction from the West is what I just found both riveting and hilariously absurd.
First, the British, themselves the real culprits on sanctions.
On the same day of the anti-sanctions launch, Mark Canning, the UK Ambassador here, waxed lyrical about a statement from his International Development Minister, one Andrew Mitchell, promising a 15 percent increase in British government "bilateral aid programme" in Zimbabwe.
How little monies to non-State actors become bilateral, only the British can say.
Millions of pounds were quoted and a high purpose ornately affixed to them.
"This is great news for ordinary Zimbabweans.... Amidst so much political propaganda around the issue of so-called sanctions, this demonstrates yet again that the United Kingdom is firmly committed to supporting Zimbabwe and improving the lives of the most disadvantaged," cooed Mr Cunning!
But he was not cunning enough to tighten his back.
The UK's DFID is floating some dubious tender worth 3,5 million pounds on what it terms strengthening government accountability and civic action in Zimbabwe.
What's that, Mr Cu(a)nning?
Stepping up covert funding in the year of elections, uu-uh?
And you unleash devastating sanctions against a people, a country all along with its own means, all to create a new situation of desperate need so you can parade your generous pity, if pity it is?
Who gets the money you speak about?
Crown Agents?
Let us be serious, Mr Ambassador. The point to underline is that the effort so put in deflecting the anti-sanctions launch, however duplicitous, was emphatic feedback we all need to take to heart.
How about the Europeans? Well, strange things do happen.
The European Union bought two full pages, hopefully to match the Zanu-PF advertisement, all to prove to suffering Zimbabweans that illegal sanctions do not exist, do not hurt, and, what is more, that the European Union is a superlative good!
The first advertorial which was all an entombing grey, gave a bit of skewed historical background to the sanctions before admitting that indeed, the sanctions were broader than measures against individuals.
They included "suspension of government-to-government co-operation", itself a massive admission that indeed the people of Zimbabwe are under sanctions.
Expectedly, the second page waxes figures of European Union benevolence between 2009 and 2010, set against sanctions that started in 2002!
The thing smacked of a hurried response by the unsuspecting, the unprepared.
In all that grey, no one at the EU pauses to answer a very simple question: why has this so-called aid become necessary in a country that had dashing trends on all human indices before 2002, the year Europe imposed its sanctions?
Do you show kind-heartedness by feting the child of a man you killed?
What kind of compassion is that?
And of course the EU narrative makes no reference to an EU study that clearly admitted the EU was in too much of a British hurry to get to Article 96 before allowing for dialogue as required by the Cotonou Agreement.
Of course the narrative conveniently overlooks the fact that the EU has too many conscientious objector states to present a decisional monolith on this one matter.
But that is to miss the main point.
The quiet victim has stirred and the villain has noticed.
Brother man America!
Brother-man America? Oh mai, oh mai!
The American ambassador was hard at work up to yesterday, both at home and away.
At home, his response came by way of an angry letter to The Herald.
He made issue with the fact that a Zanu-PF advertisement ran by The Herald had a Government court of arms.
What a point to make Mr American Ambassador!
Does this man know what an advertisement is in the publishing business?
Can a publisher alter it without bringing risks upon himself?
I thought America is where the science of paid communication achieved excellence?
Or is the man being willfully ignorant?
Or suggesting The Herald must depart with publishing conventions to please him?
More fundamentally, why is he threatened by two logos which are laid out coextensively?
How does that pose "a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the interests of the United States of America"?
I mean the short man stretches his bottled length to make such a puny, uninformed point?
What has that to do with representing America in Zimbabwe?
Supposing Zanu-PF sponsors a Government or GPA position to ventilate it, what is wrong with that?
Why is this man threatened by greater knowledge of the Zimbabwean public?
"This is a political messaging campaign pure and simple," bellows the ambassador.
Yes it is, Mr Ambassador. Where is the problem?
Sham points from a tall man
The ambassador tries to make three points all of which scream lame.
Surely if indebtedness was the basis for being made ineligible for fresh loans, America would be in serious trouble presently, with its anaemic economy?
If all that stopped Zimbabwe from getting loans was its default, so why have Zidera, let alone write into it that US representatives on international financial institutions must oppose the granting of fresh loans to Zimbabwe or the rescheduling of her debts?
Why, Mr Ambassador?
How many states in Europe are getting loans after defaulting?
How many countries - including dictatorships - have benefited from American generosity against defaults and poor human rights record, since 2001?
Why make duplicitous arguments, Sir?
And then his groaning point on why Zimbabwe should not retaliate through western companies here.
No, Zimbabwe should not because these companies "are responsible to their shareholders", says the ambassadors.
By which he implies those companies which the US Government blacklisted had no shareholders?
Did his Government consult the shareholders?
Why would a black man who does not have a single company to his name rehearse such a stupid argument for the edification of a white man, a white government?
I hope above his servile outlook vis-à-vis white interests, he still recalls we are a sovereign state which enjoys the same rights as the American one, to take measures in defending our interests.
Unless he thinks we do not have such comparable rights?
In which case we will impolitely ask him who he is to us at all.
The big lessons from Wednesday
The upshot?
Well, to stress that the launch has shown the immense potential of the campaign to cause mayhem in the sanctions camp.
The US Ambassador went as far as blaming the EU for delaying the decision on sanctions.
That was in Mutare.
Clearly, he finds arguments for the defence of sanctions wearing thin and threadbare.
So also does the morality of the whole matter.
Secondly, we are beginning to reach real pressure points which are set to yield the desired results.
European and American enterprises must begin to be affected, both by present operations and by prospects.
Western countries will do nothing about it, I can assure you.
It is like an owner of a twist of mbanje (marijuana).
When he loses it to a fellow consumer, he cannot raise the matter with the police, can he?
Third, the agenda for 2011 elections is now well set.
With this massive show of support for the campaign, only a fool can continue telling mhomho yeZimbabwe that there are no sanctions and therefore that the Zimbabwean people are not being hurt.
You buy space in local papers, secure space in letter pages to tell people made so distraught by sanctions that sanctions do not exist? It is madness, pure and simple.
America loses information war, again
One last word for Ambassador Ray.
With this level of duplicitous communication, Mr Ambassador, it hardly comes as a surprise that your State Department boss has now admitted that America is losing the information war.
No one believes America's yarns anymore.
You can get billions and billions more by way of funding but small, insistent truths will always find interstices past your dragnet of lies, only to bubble up.
It could be by way of RT, CCTV, Press TV or ZBC.
In the final analysis, the truth will out. I promise you and my readers a more considered response to this whole issue of information and American hegemony in my next installment.
Icho!
Labels: CHARLES RAY, RHODESIANS, SANCTIONS, ZDERA
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Sanctions: Retaliatory legislation on cards
Monday, 07 March 2011 20:25
Business Reporter
THE State has finished compiling the list of foreign companies whose home governments imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe and will soon enact legislation to deal with them in retaliation, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empo-werment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere yesterday said the appropriate legislation would be announced soon, but would not give further details.
He said these companies should serve the interests of Zimbabweans instead of countries that were making the local economy scream.
At last December's Zanu-PF Annual People's Conference, President Mugabe said the Government should take action against such firms.
He recently repeated his warning against the firms and pointed out that the 400 or so British companies in Zimbabwe should start playing their part in fighting sanctions.
Yesterday, Minister Kasukuwere said: "We have to send a strong message . . . If they are in Zimbabwe, they have to operate according to the laws of the land and we will make sure that legislation is in place.
"We have the legal authority to tackle all these companies and what we have done is to craft the appropriate legislation which is in the national interest.
"It is worrying to note that these companies have become an extension of the illegal sanctions policy."
Speaking at the launch of the National Anti-Sanctions Petition Campaign in Harare last week, President Mugabe said Government would take drastic measures against companies whose home governments imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. He said the ongoing indigenisation programme would prioritise such firms.
Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered Bank are among British companies operating in the country, alongside miners Anglo America and Rio Tinto.
The banks have been accused of sitting on large sums of depositors' money and lending out very little in percentage terms.
Speaking in Shona, President Mugabe said: "I told Cde Kasukewere that the empowerment programme should start with these companies . . . we must take them over."
The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces also called on people to boycott these entities' products and services.
The recently launched National Anti-Sanctions Petition Campaign seeks more than two million signatures from Zimbabweans opposed to the widely-discredited embargo.
The campaign will be conducted at district and provincial level while an Internet-based offensive to incorporate Zimbabweans living abroad will also be rolled out.
Britain and its allies imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe after Government embarked on compulsory acquisition of land owned by a few white commercial farmers and redistributed it to some 300 000 black families.
Labels: SANCTIONS, ZDERA
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Nationalise Anglo American: Malema
by AFP
07/03/2011 00:00:00
JULIUS Malema, the fiery leader of the Youth League of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, said his organisation wants to nationalise a 60 percent share of mining giant Anglo American, a media report said Sunday.
Malema, who is pushing the ANC to adopt mine nationalisation as official policy, said Anglo American should "share that delicious piece of cake", the City Press newspaper reported on its web site.
"We just want a fair share. If we don't do it (nationalisation), we'll always stay poor," Malema told attendees at a gala dinner in the northeastern city of Nelspruit.
"We only want 60 percent of Anglo American's money," he added.
"What Anglo does with the other 40 percent is their business."
The ANC has repeatedly said nationalisation is not its policy, but Malema has helped push the politically divisive issue onto the national agenda.
The ruling party agreed last year to research nationalisation ahead of its national conference in 2012, when it will select its candidate for the 2014 presidential elections.
Anglo American's chief executive drew the ire of Malema's organisation last month by calling nationalisation "the road to ruin".
"Mining companies simply will not invest if they cannot be assured that the assets they create will be secure," Cynthia Carroll said at a mining conference in Cape Town.
"In ignoring this truth the false prophets who argue for nationalisation are advocating the road to ruin, a path we must not follow."
In a statement, the ANC Youth League referred to her comments as "the ranting of capitalists".
South Africa is among the world's largest producers of gold, platinum and chromium. The mining industry brought in 241.3 billion rand ($35 billion, 25 billion euros) in 2009 and is the country's largest export sector.
Anglo American, a London-based firm with key mining operations in South Africa, last year nearly tripled net profits to $6.54 billion, boosted by soaring commodity prices and emerging markets demand.
Labels: ANC, ANGLO-AMERICAN, JULIUS MALEMA, NATIONALISATION
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Namibia to launch anti sanctions campaign
By: TH-TZG
Posted: Monday, March 7, 2011 10:15 am
NAMIBIA, in solidarity with Zimbabwe, is going to launch an Anti-Sanctions Campaign.
In his solidarity message at the launch of the National Anti-Sanctions Petition Campaign in Harare last Wednesday,
Namibian Minister of Regional and Local Development Jerry Ekandjo said the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe were hurting ordinary people and should be lifted forthwith.
"Sanctions have embedded on the generality of the people of Zimbabwe.
"We condemn them and we add our voice to the unconditional lifting of the sanctions.
"We are going to launch an Anti-Sanctions Campaign in Namibia in solidarity with our comrades in Zimbabwe the same way we are calling for the release of the Cuban Five," he said.
The "Cuban Five" are patriots from the Caribbean island who for years have been held in detention in the US on trumped up charges and against international opinion.
Minister Ekandjo said Zimbabwe was being punished for repossessing its stolen land.
He said Western imperialists had regrouped and regional independence was again under threat.
"Western imperialists are in full force and they want to destroy all liberation movements and Africa must not forget that," he said.
Minister Ekandjo said Africa should take a firm position against Western countries that disregard the sovereignty of other states.
He said the West depended on Africa's resources for survival and Africa was capable of imposing sanctions on them.
Labels: NAMIBIA, SANCTIONS, ZDERA
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32 percent jump in vehicle imports
by Lunga Sibanda
07/03/2011 00:00:00
THE month of January saw a 32 percent jump in vehicle imports compared to the same time last year, officials said, crediting a reduction in import duty. At least 3,150 vehicles were processed at the Beitbridge border with South Africa in January, 1,000 more than at the same time last year.
“Vehicle imports are up significantly mainly due to the fact that many importers delayed the delivery of vehicles they bought last year to this year so as to benefit from the new rates of duty effective from January 1, 2011,” said Florence Jambwa, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority’s commissioner for legal and corporate affairs.
Jambwa says they expect the numbers to stay consistent as more Zimbabweans import second-hand vehicles to beat a June government ban on importing vehicles older than five years.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti announced in his 2011 budget last November that excise duty for vehicles with an engine capacity of between 1,000cc and 1,500cc would be 25 percent this year, down from 40 percent.
The duty for vehicles with engine capacities exceeding 1,500cc was reduced to 40 percent from 60 percent.
Although some vehicles are imported through the smaller border posts in Kariba, Chirundu and Nyamapanda, the country’s most active port remains Beitbridge.
Officials say the main source countries of the vehicles being cleared there are South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Labels: CARS, USED CARS
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Economist urges high revenue collection from mines
By Kombe Chimpinde
Mon 07 Mar. 2011, 05:00 CAT
A UNIVERSITY of Zambia lecturer of economics says the government is not maximising its revenue from copper. Professor Venkatesh Seshamani said Zambians still needed clarity on why the country decided to maintain a low tax rate compared to the average 47 per cent rate in the southern region.
Prof Seshamani said the issue of the windfall tax was now immaterial and the government should adopt a preferred system that would still maximise revenue collection from the country’s core natural resource.
Prof Seshamani made the remarks when he featured on ZNBC’s Frank Talk programme last week.
“I don’t care whether you have a windfall tax or some other tax. Call it whatever you want. What is important is that they should be able to maximise revenue from the investments, production and sale of copper,” he said. “That’s the most important thing now. If you look into the Ministry of Finance, the revenues accruing to the country were only 33 per cent and according to the finance minister, that now it is going to 47 per cent, which is quite respectable in the region. Now the question is whether with the introduction of the windfall tax we could really get more than 47 per cent.”
Prof Seshamani said much as the government was trying to create a conduce environment for investment through creation of incentives, which was vital, it needed to hike its rates because they were currently low compared to other states in the region.
“What is of concern again is what the Minister of Finance announced in Parliament that they are providing a long-term fiscal regime to the mining companies of 10 years. What this means is, quite alright, they will pay more, but it will still be low in terms of the rates. My concern is probably if you look at the tax rates, they seem to be eventually low compared to the SADC low average,” said Prof Seshamani.
“For example, you have raised royalty tax from 0.6 to three per cent but the SADC average is about six per cent. For instance, if you take the corporate tax it’s about 35 per cent. Angola, Namibia, Tanzania and others it’s 45 per cent or even more. Maybe I missed. You know these are issues that government must come out clear on and explain,” Prof Seshamani said.
Labels: VENKATESH SESHAMANI, WINDFALL TAX
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NAPSA $15m deal is shrouded in corruption, says Chongwe
By Patson Chilemba
Mon 07 Mar. 2011, 04:01 CAT
THE NAPSA land deal from Meanwood is shrouded in corruption, says Dr Rodger Chongwe. Commenting on the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) claim that President Rupiah Banda did not influence the sale of 1,500 acres of land at an exorbitant price of US$15 million (about K75 billion) from Meanwood Properties Development Limited without following tender procedures, Dr Chongwe, who is a Lusaka-based lawyer, said that was insulting the intelligence of Zambians.
He said the same land could have been bought at a reasonable price from the Ministry of Local Government and Housing and the Ministry of Lands.
Dr Chongwe said there was no need to blame The Post for revealing the scam because the newspaper was only performing its duties.
He said the NAPSA board was subservient to the appointing authority and initiated what they were instructed.
“We know the legal procedures which are supposed to be followed by government, by parastatals, and that procedure was not followed. And therefore the whole process is marred in corruption,” he said.
Dr Chongwe said the shoddy deals were symptomatic of a failed state where state institutions did not function according to the law.
He said Zambians were literally running their own affairs because of the failed state and that the country was now on auto-pilot.
He said Zambians should go for the officials at NAPSA since the Republican Constitution exonerated the President from criminal prosecution.
“But those who act under his orders are not immune. We can go for them. Yes, we know who runs NAPSA. Let people like Hichilema Hakainde and Michael Chilufya Sata deal with Mr Banda at the highest political order,” said Dr Chongwe. “But at the level of Zambia let us go for those people, NAPSA and Meanwood.”
Some senior MMD officials recently expressed concern over the “scandalous” transaction at NAPSA, which President Banda is using to raise campaign funds for the MMD.
Labels: CAMPAIGN FINANCE, CORRUPTION, NAPSA, ROGER CHONGWE
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Mporokoso poll outcome has shaken Zambia, says Sata
By By George Chellah in Mbala
Mon 07 Mar. 2011, 04:01 CAT
PF leader Michael Sata says the outcome of the just-ended Mporokoso parliamentary by-election has shaken the entire country. And Sata urged the people of Mbala to challenge President Rupiah Banda to show them the development he has taken to the area when he goes for campaigns.
Addressing a public rally at Mbala’s presidential square on Saturday, Sata, who was flanked by party secretary general Wynter Kabimba, Emmanuel Chenda, Willie Nsanda, Charles Banda and other senior PF officials, urged the people of Mbala to emulate their colleagues in Mporokoso by rejecting the MMD.
“They MMD used to cheat us in the past but the situation is no longer the same here. The people of Mporokoso have changed,” Sata said. “And the change that has taken place in Mporokoso has shaken the entire country.”
He told the crowd that the underdevelopment they were experiencing was a result of selfish representatives they had elected.
“Kapembwa Simbao health minister, your own son from here, is letting you down. Gaston Sichilima home affairs deputy minister has even failed to take a road to chief Zombe’s palace,” Sata said.
“The decision is yours. It’s up to you because your own brothers and sisters Sichilima, Simbao and Catherine Namugala tourism minister have betrayed you.”
He said all the MMD members of parliament from Northern Province were benefiting at the expense of the electorate.
“Namugala is now looking like she baths in milk. If it’s Simbao, he is eating so well such that he is even failing to walk properly,” he said.
Sata said there was need to put in place a government that would provide affordable education.
He urged people to secure a vibrant future for their children by changing the government.
He said lack of education and jobs among youths was causing juvenile delinquency.
Sata also said President Banda’s government respects thieves more than citizens.
He urged PF members not to be hostile towards MMD members.
“Don’t fight with MMD members; just talk to them. Even MMD members are suffering like you,” Sata said. “Wake up, let’s work together, let’s work hard. When the MMD brings you gifts during the elections, just get and eat because the MMD are now confused.”
Sata urged people to challenge President Banda about the so-called development the government had taken to the area.
“You should ask your leaders when they come: ‘what have you done here?’ You should even ask Rupiah Banda when he comes,” he said.
He stressed the need for President Banda to distribute development equitably countrywide.
“Rupiah Banda is taking electricity to Kasaba Bay instead of bringing electricity here. He is also doing roads in Eastern Province, what about you?” he said.
Sata told the crowd that now was the time for self-liberation.
“When you look in the Bible, when women went crying to Jesus, Jesus said to them ‘do not cry for me; cry for yourselves and your children’,” said Sata.
Labels: BY-ELECTIONS, MICHAEL SATA
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We must stop police killings
By The Post
Mon 07 Mar. 2011, 04:00 CAT [37 Reads, 0 Comment(s)]
The two youths in Mazabuka did not deserve to die from police bullets. Similarly, the two young people who died in Mongu the other month did not deserve to die from police gunshots.
But it seems something is seriously wrong with our police and its general orientation. It is said that it’s better for a hundred criminals to go scot-free than for one innocent person to be killed.
For this reason, it was shocking to hear George Kunda attempt to justify police killings in Mongu.
And it was even more sad to hear the Human Rights Commission chairperson Pixie Yangailo attacking the victims of police brutality in Mongu and defending the criminal and barbaric acts of the killers in uniform.
We wondered and questioned what things had come to when those who were supposed to be defending human rights were now defending the criminal acts of the agents of those in power.
Our police service was not established for the purpose of killing citizens.
Our police officers were supposed to be trained in shooting to disable their human targets, not to kill.
They need to be trained or retrained in how to disable and not to kill.
Using arms and live ammunition on unarmed citizens as a method of keeping them in line with the law needs to be properly looked at again by the government.
The use of live ammunition by police is not and cannot be the dominant method of dealing with lawlessness by unarmed citizens.
From all indications, it seems this method is increasingly becoming the only approach to policing to which Zambians are exposed.
The use of live ammunition against unarmed persons cannot be acceptable or justified in any civilised society.
Lawless citizens are human beings whose lives deserve protection and respect; they are not wild animals which deserve to be killed if they run amok.
Police officers are paid to protect life and not to destroy it.
Even an invading foreign army, by all standards of military ethics and rules of engagement, will not fire live ammunition at unarmed Zambians in a war situation.
There is urgent need for us as a nation to put an end to these police killings and all other forms of brutality.
We need to reorient the psyche of our police officers to put an all-time stop to these killings.
Innocent young lives are being cruelly terminated.
The use of lethal methods in checking unarmed lawlessness is totally barbaric and unacceptable in a country that calls itself a Christian nation.
Live ammunition in the context of limited force is applicable in uncontrollable riot situations where the rioting persons are themselves armed and engaged in indiscriminate shooting.
The police should only use live ammunition in encounters with armed robbers and not on unarmed lawless citizens.
This over-dependence on live ammunition is alienating the police from our people because of the unnecessary deaths that accompany it.
And in this way, our police officers are increasingly being seen as being anti-people.
Our police service is not expected to be an anti-people institution that interacts routinely by violence with the people.
This psychology needs a total change. Well-trained police officers should be able to maintain law and order among unarmed people without the use of lethal ammunition.
We need to review and re-design the training programme for our police officers.
The psychology of the colonial anti-people police whereby the people were seen as unruly gangs of anti-government rioters, should by now be confined to the dustbin of colonial history, which ended over 46 years ago.
The duty of our police officers is to stop citizens from committing crimes and arrest them so that they are prosecuted for the crimes they have committed and not thoughtless decimation of the lawless citizen.
Thugs, people with no or low sense of humanity, should not be recruited and trained as police officers.
It does no good for our country and our people for those who are required to prevent and control crime to be no different from the criminals.
We need emotionally stable and psychologically balanced citizens to become police officers.
And only those who continue to be emotionally stable and psychologically balanced should remain in our police service.
Any signs of emotional or psychological imbalance should move the authorities to exclude such officers from our police service.
Those who have acquired emotional instability or psychological disruption should be routinely weeded out of the police service.
The lethal weapons and ammunition given to our police officers are never meant to be turned on unarmed citizens.
Such lethal weapons and ammunition are meant for armed criminals who cannot be easily incapacitated so that they are arrested and prosecuted.
Our police officers should not, and are not, trained to kill. But they are killing, killing our young men and women.
And we must stop them. These killings can’t go on forever.
And the only way to stop them is to stop the political practices that allow them to kill.
The police killed in Mongu, used live bullets and excessive force on unarmed citizens because the political authorities wanted them to behave in that way; they encouraged this criminal behaviour.
And this can be seen in the way Rupiah Banda and his government have been defending and justifying the killings in Mongu.
This can also be seen by the criminal complicity of the Human Rights Commission in justifying the Mongu killings.
There was political interest that allowed those young people to be killed with impunity in Mongu.
Look at the difference in treatment over the police officers who killed young people in Mazabuka.
And because there is no strong political interest in the Mazabuka unrest, police officers who were involved in these deaths are said to be facing disciplinary action or have been arrested to be prosecuted.
And even the Human Rights Commission are coming out strongly to condemn the behaviour of the police in Mazabuka, a thing they had serious difficulties doing in Mongu.
The use of live ammunition in checking minor infractions or unarmed protests is totally barbaric and in violation of human rights.
Labels: LAZ, MAZABUKA DISTRICT, POLICE BRUTALITY
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LAZ deems Mazabuka killings criminal
By Bright Mukwasa
Mon 07 Mar. 2011, 04:00 CAT
THE shooting of Mazabuka residents is criminal and borders on recklessness, according to the Law Association of Zambia. In a statement, association convenor of the human rights committee Bob Musenga condemned the use of live ammunition.
“The continued use of live ammunition on unarmed members of the public is a very worrisome development and we call upon the political leadership to unequivocally condemn the continued loss of lives at the hands of the police service whose constitutional mandate is to protect the same lives,” Musenga said.
LAZ recommended that the government must ensure that all police officers undergo training in human rights.
Musenga said the government must also ensure that the law took its course on erring officers.
“We therefore urge the government to immediately take corrective measures and ensure that the police operate within the law so as to restore the confidence of the public and international community,” Musenga said.
Labels: LAZ, MAZABUKA DISTRICT, POLICE BRUTALITY
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Mulongoti questions his suspension
By Patson Chilemba
Mon 07 Mar. 2011, 04:02 CAT
MIKE Mulongoti has wondered why President Rupiah Banda and the MMD leadership are in a hurry to stop him from attending the MMD national convention.
In an exculpatory letter obtained from MMD insiders at the party secretariat dated March 1, 2011 addressed to acting MMD national secretary Chembe Nyangu and copied to President Banda and party national chairman Michael Mabenga, Mulongoti, who is MMD vice-presidential aspirant, pointed out legal flaws in his suspension from the MMD for three-months.
“1] Section 19 of the constitution was not intended to be used in isolation but in relation to other provisions of the constitution. The meeting held at Mulungushi was not summoned by the secretariat as per subsection (P). appendice A-disciplinary regulations 1991-disciplinary organs 4 (b) is clear on how a NEC member can be disciplined,” Mulongoti stated. “disciplinary procedure (8) (1) - The following procedure shall be adhered to step by step by all disciplinary organs in the party (no exception).”
Mulongoti stated that the letter of suspension stated that National Executive Committee (NEC) sat at Mulungushi and deliberated over issues relating to his conduct.
“This presupposes or pre-empts the fact that the NEC sat to hear a case over the alleged offence of conduct likely to bring the party's name into contempt, ridicule or disrepute under regulations 7 (a) of 1993,” Mulongoti stated. “Notably, there was no notice given to me of the said deliberations, neither did they charge me nor give me an opportunity to exculpate or vindicate myself, contrary to the rules of natural justice which are enshrined in the MMD constitution itself.”
Mulongoti stated that under article 52 (3) of the MMD constitution, as well as regulation 6 of 1993 disciplinary regulations, the national secretary's powers appeared to be limited towards directing a separate concerned organ of the party to initiate disciplinary action against any erring party member.
“This has not been done in my case. It appears the NEC on its own volition initiated and concluded the purported disciplinary action against myself contrary to the provisions of the constitution,” Mulongoti stated. “Notably also, the suspension letter to me appears to be a final penalty slapped on me under the provisions of regulation 8 (3) of 1993 regulations. However as noted before, the above penalty can only be leveled against an erring member who has been found wanting by a properly constituted organ and disciplinary hearing.”
Mulongoti stated that in regulation 9 of the disciplinary regulations provided for an elaborate disciplinary procedure which was not followed.
He stated that he was not served with a written statement of the charge made against him, nor was he given an opportunity to exculpate himself, nor a right to cross-examine people who made alleged submissions at Mulungushi.
Mulongoti stated that the suspension slapped on him was arbitrary and could only have been validly done after hearing him on the allegations.
“I was not given the right to appeal contrary to the provisions of regulation 9,” he stated.
Mulongoti stated that from the foregoing it was evident that the actions were intended to disadvantage and deprive him of his rights in the constitution.
He stated that “double jeopardy” was evident in that President Banda removed him from Cabinet and also from Parliament.
Mulongoti wondered why the same reasons were used for suspending him from the party and recommend his expulsion.
“I am therefore demanding the following to enable me to pursue my rights:- a) The list of NEC members who attended the NEC meeting at Mulungushi; b) Evidence submitted against me and by who; c) Resolutions of the meeting as I am entitled as a member of NEC;” stated Mulongoti. “d) Above details urgently needed to enable me to pursue other avenues because the avenue taken is devoid of natural justice. Why the hurry to stop me from attending the convention?”
Earlier on February 21, 2011, Nyangu wrote to Mulongoti, stating that under article 19(n) of the party constitution, NEC met on February 19 at Mulungushi Conference Centre where submissions relating to his recent conduct as a member of the party were tabled and debated at length.
He stated that NEC was unanimous in its conviction that Mulongoti's unjustifiable utterance and conduct brought the party and its leadership into ridicule following his conduct and unbearable utterances made both in the print and electronic media, particularly The Post Newspaper of February 19, 2011.
“Consequently, NEC has resolved to suspend you from the party for three months with immediate effect in accordance with disciplinary regulation number 8(4) of 1993,” stated Nyangu.
Labels: MIKE MULONGOTI, MMD
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Traditional leaders urged to aid women’s land rights
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Mon 07 Mar. 2011, 04:00 CAT
ACCESS to land remains an enormous challenge for women who reside in customary holdings, says Action Aid Zambia.
In a message to mark the International Women’s Day which falls tomorrow, Action Aid country representative Pamela Chisanga said such women faced difficulties because tradition only allowed them to have land as appendages of their male relatives and spouses.
Chisanga said at national level, statistics showed that the 30 per cent gender proportion had not been realised.
She said the deep-rooted cultural practices that impeded women from owning and controlling customary land had worsened their socio-economic situation.
“This vulnerability shall continue if traditional leaders do not embrace measures which can promote and protect women’s rights to land in Zambia. Government equally needs to review the national gender policy and ensure that the 30 per cent threshold is upheld by agencies of the Ministry of Lands,” she said.
Chisanga said women were still being marginalised and no meaningful development could occur without the full involvement and equal participation of women.
She said in the education field, there was almost gender parity in primary schools enrollment levels of girls and boys and the implementation of the re-entry policy had been a positive step forward.
However, Chisanga said there was a huge difference between the number of boys and girls that were proceeding to higher classes despite the parity at grade one.
Chisanga said although Zambia had signed a number of declarations, among them the Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and SADC gender Protocol, it had failed to domesticate these and translate them into national law, policy and action.
She called on the government to take its commitments at regional and international fora with the seriousness they deserved.
Chisanga said the gender-based violence legislation had been discussed for the past four years and needed to be taken to Parliament this year.
“We call on the members of parliament to vote for this important piece of legislation in their numbers. It would have been a perfect way to celebrate IWD by having a law in place that would guarantee the safety of women in their homes, in schools and in churches,” said Chisanga.
Labels: LAND RIGHTS, WOMEN
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The MMD would kill to stay in power - Panji
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Mon 07 Mar. 2011, 04:00 CAT
THE MMD would go to any lengthy including killing people to stay in power, says Col Panji Kaunda. Commenting on reactions that his proposal to unite the opposition under one umbrella to form government has received, Col Panji said the MMD was panicking.
Col Panji said the MMD had tried very hard to destabilize the PF-UPND pact.
“In a way, they have managed to destabilise the Pact because by now it could have been working as one but they are still facing leadership problems. What people are looking for is to see the two parties in the Pact be working together in the interest of the people of Zambia. Unless we put our personal preferences aside, the Pact as it is today will not work,” Col Panji said.
He said he came up with the idea of organising the people of Zambia to be above party politics.
“We are not doing this because if we choose PF then we like PF or we choose UPND we like UPND, no. We wanted this because it is the only way that this country can move forward. We have had 20 years of MMD and the results are there for all of us to see, total failure. We have thieves being paraded as superstars. Corruption has now become normal in our livelihood and greed for power is the order of the day,” Col Panji said.
He said once the government of all opposition parties was formed, the first thing would be to come up with a new constitution without forming expensive constitutional review commissions and that the new government could come up with a good constitution within 100 days.
“Our only answer to all these problems is for all the opposition political parties' even one-man political parties as long as they are not MMD they must come together and campaign together, fight together and win together,” Col Panji said.
He said the new constitution should consider the 50 per cent plus one for both president and the members of parliament.
Col Panji said the pact which was being formed does not mean the PF-UPND pact would be disbanded.
He said the new pact should look at who was going to produce the majority in Parliament and not necessarily to look at names.
Col Panji said he first tried the Pact in 2001 but could not work properly because of selfishness.
“In my view, unless we do this, if we don't, we are going to gift the MMD another term of office and once we do that, it will be a total disaster. This country will go down to the dogs because it will be so rotten, so corrupt people will be selling their principles for money,” Col Panji said.
On public media's articles linking him to PF shadow cabinet, Col Panji said the allegations were unfounded.
He said even after the death of Shati Banda (former Chadiza MP) he did not want to run for MP but that he was merely grabbed into the seat.
“Late Mwanawasa, may his soul rest in peace, Rupiah Banda is his number two choice, I was the one who was approached first. He sent his emissaries when I was on a trip to Mwinilunga. When I went to Lusaka I was told the President wanted me to join MMD and that I was going to be made trustee of MMD. That thereafter I was going to be vice-president of the party. I told my president through his messengers that ‘Mr President, I swore a lot of allegiance to Zambia, I would serve in any position that you need me but to ask me to leave my party and join MMD is beyond thinking,” Col Panji said.
He said he politely turned down the offer by late president Mwanawasa.
“If I was a man who was greedy for positions, I was going to jump on it and grab the seat and today I would have been President maybe. But that's not the aim; it's not about power, it's about your principles and your conviction. I have been approached by three parties in the past, UPND, PF and even MMD. They approached me to stand in Vubwi but I said, no, my job is not to stand, there are a lot of young men around here,” Col Panji said. “No matter what propaganda the MMD are going to put up about what we are doing, they are not going to succeed because some of us are not interested in positions. As I keep telling the nation, my father was in power for 27 years and I would have gotten any job I wanted. Even under Rupiah Banda if I wanted a job I would have gotten it but I would rather be poor and keep my principles. All I am doing is to safeguard our grandchildren, to safeguard those who are unable to voice out.”
He said the allegations that he was challenging PF president Michael Sata for the position of president was not true.
Col Panji also reminded President Banda, who recently referred him as Mr that retired officer, that he should not refer to him as Mr.
He urged President Banda never to call him Mr Kaunda again because he would also call him what he wanted to call him.
Col Panji congratulated PF for scooping Mporokoso parliamentary seat
Labels: MMD, PANJI KAUNDA, POLITICAL VIOLENCE
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Council recovers River Nile land from investor
By Abubaker Kirunda (email the author)
Posted Sunday, March 6 2011 at 00:00
Jinja Municipal Council has recovered part of the source of the Nile land that had allegedly been sold to an investor. The land, measuring seven acres near the golf course on Bridge Street, had been allocated to Black Eagles Investment by the district land board in 2008 amidst protest by the municipal council, which was the sitting tenant.
The municipal council authorities argued that as the sitting tenants, the land board was to consult them prior to giving out the land which they had already gazetted as a leisure park in the town plan.
The leisure park called Chairman’s Park was given to the investor at a premium of Shs80 million which was paid to the municipal treasury. On realising that the council was denied this land, it sought intervention from the Ministry of Lands which ordered them to refund the premium to the investor who unfortunately had no physical address.
Land title given
However, during a council meeting on Thursday, the acting Jinja town clerk, Mr Jeforum Waidhuba, said the Ministry of Lands has issued a land title for this land in the names of Jinja Municipal Council.
“I would like to announce that the land title for Jinja Central Market and the Chairman’s Park land at the source of the Nile have been given to us therefore any developments we make on them is secure,” Mr Waidhuba said.
He said an application has also been made by the municipal council to cancel the land title which had been issued in the name of Black Eagles. He also said council would within two weeks start re-locating vendors in Jinja Central Market to create room for the start of its re-construction.
Labels: FDI, LAND, UGANDA
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Museveni: Let Africans resolve the Libyan crisis
By Tabu Butagira (email the author)
Posted Saturday, March 5 2011 at 00:00
The exploding unrest in Libya fanned by demonstrators bidding to oust President Muammar Gaddafi should be left to Africans to handle, State House in Kampala said on Thursday. “President Museveni believes Africans understand African problems more than anybody else,” Presidential Spokesman Mirundi Tamale said.
He was responding to our question whether President Museveni had telephoned his in-trouble friend, Col. Gaddafi, who buoyed the 1981-6 National Resistance Army guerilla war with weapons supply, energising the rebels to capture power.
Mr Tamale said whereas Uganda appreciates Col. Gaddafi’s assistance during the NRA bush days, it does not “make Museveni a co-President of Libya to be telephoning or advising him all the time”.
The presidential aide would, however, not directly say if Mr Museveni had contacted his Libyan counterpart to commiserate with or encourage him, or advise otherwise. “Friendship, yes... Libya helped NRA, yes, but it does not mean that Uganda or President Museveni cannot pursue an independent foreign policy,” Mr Tamale said.
Citing resolution of the protracted Burundi conflict, he added: “My President believes it is only through regional African blocs or continental bodies - supplemented by efforts of the UN or international community - that true solutions can be found to African problems.”
Changing tide
Libya has been in the spotlight in the past fortnight after civilians, who appeared initially satisfied with the regime, suddenly erupted against Col. Gaddafi in power since 1969. Reports of government-sanctioned airstrikes against protesting civilians drew the ire of international actors, forcing the UN to unanimously pass a resolution condemning the bloodbath. The US and European Union responded by freezing the wealth of Gaddafi and his family members stacked in capitals of their countries.
Washington is moving a warship closer to the Libyan border after President Obama said all options, including military strikes, is on the table to tackle the crisis raging in mainly east of the country. British Prime Minister David Cameron proposed a ‘no-fly’ zone over Libya but China and Russia, both UN Security Council permanent members, oppose its enforcement.
Col. Gaddafi said he is no killer, and that al Qeada terrorist group is arming local surrogates masquerading as demonstrators, to stir violence and ruin the economy of a prosperous Libya. He, plus two sons have since gone on the media offensive to charm critics, mostly in the West, including opening the door for independent investigation of the reported killings over which the country has been stripped of the UN Human Rights Council representation in Geneva.
The African Union, which the Libyan leader is understood to have plotted to head, weighed in on February 23, condemning what it called “indiscriminate and excessive use of force and lethal weapons against peaceful protestors”.
AU’s Peace and Security Council, in a communiqué issued at its 261st meeting, resolved to send an ad hoc fact-finding mission to Libya amid reports some 1, 000 people have perished in the unrest, majority reportedly from gunshots or ripped apart by explosions. AU is calling on Gaddafi’s government to guarantee the safety of citizens.
The continental body said it “underscores that the aspirations of the people of Libya for democracy, political reform, justice and socio-economic development are legitimate and urges that they be respected”.
Gaddafi’s denials
Col. Gaddafi has in three different addresses, two of them televised, but all targeting the West, rejected allegations government forces are killing civilians and said he is going nowhere and will die fighting in Libya. He has rallied his supporters to take on the demonstrators he belittles as “rats”
Mr Tamale told this newspaper that President Museveni has “a position” he will likely make public at regional or AU summit.
Labels: LIBYA, MUAMMAR AL-GADDAFI, YOWERI MUSEVENI
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Kenya and DRC in deal to fight illegal gold trade
By AFRICAREVIEW.COM and PPS in Nairobi
Posted Thursday, March 3 2011 at 14:21
The governments of Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have established a joint team to investigate alleged trade in illegal gold. The team will work closely with the others in the two countries that area already involved in investigations on alleged illicit trade.
The move follows a meeting between Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki and his DRC counterpart Joseph Kabila at the former's Harambee House office in Nairobi. During Thursday’s meeting, the two leaders also discussed ways of enhancing trade between their nations.
Their discussions also centred on regional and sub-regional issues, including security and bilateral cooperation.
The two presidents also discussed how to cooperate and curb illegal exploitation of minerals in the Great Lakes region.
Suspected smugglers
President Kabila was in Nairobi for talks with President Kibaki over a gold smuggling syndicate involving the two countries.
Kenya's police top brass was summoned to give an update of their ongoing investigations on the matter.
Investigators say the precious metal is stolen from DRC and smuggled to overseas markets through Kenya.
Already, the mineral-rich DRC has requested Interpol to track suspected smugglers and seize any consignments on transit in Kenya.
In the latest incident, some 2.5 tonnes of the mineral, with an estimated value of $113 million, was stolen from Eastern Congo last month.
It is suspected that the consignment was headed for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
The DRC officials requested Kenyan authorities to arrest the culprits, intercept the haul and surrender it to Kinshasa.
Labels: DRC, GOLD, JOSEPH KABILA, YOWERI MUSEVENI
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Airtime must be provided on ZNBC for presidential candidates to discuss their manifestos - Nawakwi
By Kombe Chimpinde
Sun 06 Mar. 2011, 04:01 CAT
EDITH Nawakwi says airtime must be provided on state television for presidential candidates to discuss their manifestos because President Rupiah Banda has been clearly articulating the MMD manifesto in his campaign adverts. Nawakwi's remarks come in the wake of President Banda's adverts, which have been running on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation.
In an interview, Nawakwi, who is the FDD president, said
it was amazing for President Banda to rush into preaching free and fair elections and inviting international election monitors and yet he was busy creating an advantage for himself.
Nawakwi said a free and fair election entailed openness and fairness among players coupled with proper electoral laws.
“We have already seen the slow issuance of NRCs because of lack of funding and that is where elections start being unfair because people are automatically disefranchised. The President is already campaigning on a daily basis on national TV to our exclusion,” Nawakwi said.
“He is not talking about government programmes in those adverts, those are political adverts while the ECZ Electoral Commission of Zambia is sitting and allowing one person to benefit. Those adverts are paid for by we the taxpayers because we contribute levy.”
Nawakwi said statements uttered by President Banda in his campaigns were sheer politicking as opposed to stating government programmes.
She said free and fair elections were a function of a proper and transparent electoral process and not observers and mere rhetoric.
“We cannot rely on people who will only be invited to observe elections for a day or two and at the end they leave the country. Free and fair elections are a function of the electoral process which starts from registration to the actual day the poll is cast and votes counted,” Nawakwi said.
She said a free and fair election would not be attainable if the advantage of incumbency was used to monopolise the process leading to elections even with international observers.
“We have pending issues of electoral reforms. There are still a lot of loose ends,” she said.
Nawakwi said there was need to resolve pending issues as opposed to rushing to invite election monitors.
Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, EDITH NAWAKWI, POLITICS
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‘Actions speak louder than words’
By The Post
Sun 06 Mar. 2011, 04:00 CAT
A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not. And a leader’s competence should go beyond words. On Wednesday, Rupiah Banda said very good things, albeit sometimes contradictory, in Mporokoso: “Politicians must not bad-mouth their opponents during campaigns.
Politicians must focus on things that they would do as opposed to speaking ill or inciting violence against their opponents. Everyone who wants to be a leader has a duty to tell the truth about what he intended to do and not talking about opponents.
Even a man, if he is proposing a girl and he wants her to accept him, he must not brag that ‘I will buy you a car or I will take you out of poverty.’ Similarly, all our leaders when they come to stand before you, they must talk positively about what they intend to do and not tell you that ‘we will be better, we are going to do this and that.’ Voters should listen to all politicians, even those they dislike, soliciting for their votes but must make a wise choice as to who they would want to be their leader.”
And in a more or less contradictory manner, Rupiah went on to say that his first responsibility would be to build a road from Kasama to Mporokoso, then Mporokoso to Kaputa and Mporokoso to Kawambwa districts to open up the areas to development such as mining, agriculture and other sectors. He assured chief Mumpolokoso that he would try to find mining investors to come and explore mineral deposits in his area.
Truly, leadership goes beyond words. And as Jose Marti once observed, “Doing is the best way of saying.” For politicians, example is the best way of leading. Truly, anyone can say that they will turn your night into day. This is very easy to say. But what matters is what they do. People can promise heaven but fail to even deliver purgatory.
Today Rupiah is saying all these sweet things. But just the other day, he was saying almost the opposite. He was calling Michael Sata a bad-hearted person with an ugly face, “Kuipa mutima ngati kumenso kwake mambala.” This is Rupiah’s deed, the other are Rupiah’s words. So if we really want to judge the true character of Rupiah and what he truly believes in, we have to follow what he does, his deeds. We say this because good words without equally good deeds are worthless. And as we have stated before, a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. Rupiah, by his words, seems to know the way and is showing us the way but he is not going the way. Rupiah is not leading by example. He says one thing and does exactly the opposite. Rupiah calls for decency but goes on to demean, belittle, insult and mock his political opponents. Rupiah calls for peace but at the same time he goes on to promote injustice, to defend wrongdoing and wrongdoers. We all know that injustice is not a recipe for peace but for the destruction of peace. Look at the unjust way Rupiah deals with those who oppose him: his government kills, maims, humiliates political opponents. And there are many examples of these. Rupiah says politicians must not bad-mouth their opponents during campaigns. But listen to what he says about Michael and others, how he disparages them, insults them, attempts to humiliate them. This is totally the opposite of what Rupiah is saying politicians should not do.
Rupiah says politicians must focus on things that they would do as opposed to speaking ill or inciting violence against their opponents. Rupiah speaks ill of his opponents. He also incites violence against them. We don’t need to go far in looking for examples of how Rupiah incites violence against those who detests because we are the example of that. Rupiah has incited MMD cadres to harass, humiliate and beat up our reporters. And he justified violence of his cadres against us. His justification was that we insult him and his supporters have every reason to be angry with us and defend him. Rupiah has gone as far as accusing us of having pocketed US $30 million from state institutions using Zambian Airways. And to this day, neither him, his police, Anti Corruption Commission or Drug Enforcement Commission officers have been able to produce any evidence of us having stolen US $30 million or a cent from any state institutions or indeed any other person. Rupiah has accused us of being queer, morbid and all sorts of things – things he has no evidence of, things he cannot in any way prove. But nevertheless, he has done it to humiliate us. And yet today, the same man is talking against such practices. The truth is Rupiah has a bad mouth, bad-mouths other people, insults others, accuses his opponents of wrongs they have not done and that he has no evidence of. It is alright for him to do so to others but it’s not okay for others to do the same to him. So when Rupiah says politicians must not bad-mouth their opponents during campaigns, what he means is that they should not bad-mouth him – he can bad-mouth them, but they shouldn’t do the same to him.
Rupiah says voters should listen to all politicians, even those they dislike, soliciting for their votes but must make a wise choice as to whom they would want to be their leader. This is the right approach to politics. And no one can take issues with this position of Rupiah. But the issue comes in on practice. Rupiah does not practice what he preaches. Today he is telling voters to listen to all politicians, but in 2008, this same Rupiah, this same man saying these things, was telling the people of Eastern Province to chase away presidential candidates who hail from other regions of our country and tell them to go and campaign where they come from. How can people listen to someone they are told to chase away?
Rupiah uses a very inappropriate example of a man proposing a girl to teach our politicians how to campaign. He says they shouldn’t be bragging about what they will do for the voters. But he goes on to start promising the people of Mporokoso what he will do for them; that he will build roads for them and open up their area to development. What do these contradictions of Rupiah amount to? The only simple explanation is that the man is saying things he doesn’t mean, he is engaging in sweet nothings and as a result, he is creating a series of contradictions for himself. As we have stated before, example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing – follow the grain in your own wood.
It is not fair for Rupiah to ask of others what he himself is unwilling to do. The good things he is talking about, the good political practices he is advocating must begin with him as President of the Republic and leader of the ruling political party. Rupiah must set the example. It is said that leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and actions. Clearly, leadership is the ability of a single individual through his actions to motivate or inspire others to higher levels of decency. They say ‘actions speak louder than words’.
Labels: RUPIAH BANDA
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PF prefers united opposition - Sata
By George Chellah in Mbala
Sun 06 Mar. 2011, 04:02 CAT
MICHAEL Sata says PF remains open to dialogue with other opposition political parties for the sake of national unity. And Sata urged PF members to intensify their campaigns and mount a drive to get people registered as voters.
Opening the Northern Province party conference yesterday, Sata said the PF leadership would prefer to have a united opposition in the country.
“I want to repeat my message to all our fellow citizens in the opposition, that while we are ready to fight on without other opposition parties, it is more desirable, for national unity's sake and as insurance for success, for us to work together,” Sata said.
“So I extend my invitation to the other opposition political parties to reconsider their current positions. Further, we in PF are ready to discuss the expectations of other opposition political parties and come to a position that will be a 'win win' for the people of our great country once again.”
He said the people of Northern Province should not underestimate themselves regarding this mission.
“In spite of the great political contribution and sacrifices that the Northern Province has made to the development of Zambian politics and support rendered to succeeding parties which formed government and support to their presidents, the province remains underdeveloped. Apart from the work that Kenneth Kaunda did under the UNIP administration that is where we saw some major development,” Sata said.
“As for the performance of the second Republic, its pre-occupation was to enrich the leader through stealing of public resources and enabled himself to buy 300 pairs of shoes, more than 150 pairs of suits, countless shirts. What he could not keep, he passed on to his girlfriend, all this from your tax.”
He said the second Republic built nothing except to sell companies that Kaunda's government created.
“Today, the former leader has been recruited by President Rupiah Banda to come and show how to dribble your vote again as he did in 2001,” Sata said. “President Mwanawasa was a well-meaning president. At least he tried to fight the crimes of high level corruption which the second Republic leader introduced during his tenure.”
He said President Banda's tenure since 2008 had been to betray Mwanawasa's fight against corruption and the stealing of public monies.
“He has reversed all the gains Mwanawasa had made in his fight against corruption. He has made a complete turnabout against Mwanawasa's efforts to develop the country,” Sata said.
“Banda has gone on to recruit thieves as his political advisors. So you the citizens of this country can clearly see how much of a failure Banda's government is.”
Sata said the road network in the province was in a deplorable state.
“Should you people truly accept this kind of fate, when the properties that the second Republic leader bought with citizens' stolen money, stolen from your taxes are being returned to him and he goes scot-free?” Sata asked.
“For your own sake and that of your children and grandchildren and all those who come after you, reject this government of Rupiah Banda and its failures.”
He said the provincial conference and this year's general elections should be a turning point.
He said the PF's focus for the province once in power would be infrastructure development, improving the road network, extending the railway line to Mbala and Mpulungu, expanding the hydro-power stations, rehabilitating Mbala airport for both commercial and military purposes and encouraging agriculture and aquaculture.
He said PF hoped to economically empower the Zambian citizens and not through corruption and blatant theft like the former leader and Banda's gang.
“As you know, there is no honour between thieves, soon they tell on each other, bazaulula,” he said.
Sata encouraged the delegates to forewarn all party members to be alert as MMD might try to rig the elections like they had done in the past.
Labels: MICHAEL SATA, NORTHERN PROVINCE, PF
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Mongu-Kalabo road: an economic analysis
By Robert Sanyikosa
Sun 06 Mar. 2011, 04:01 CAT
Economic infrastructure such as roads, harbours, dams, airports and railways have been important catalysts for accelerated economic development everywhere; and much of the underdevelopment, poverty and backwardness in Zambia can directly be linked to the country’s failure over the years to realise this.
If Zambia did realise and the country was able to get from its natural resources sensible revenues, much like other resource-endowed countries like South Africa, Botswana, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and with its small population of only 13 million (2010); and invested this money in infrastructure, instead of borrowing, the country would well be taking its seat among these emerging economies.
But of course, Zambia gets peanuts for her resources and must borrow for any infrastructure investments, rather ironic and certainly nothing can be worse and more embarrassing than this. Needless to say, Zambians seem quite happy day in and day out to sign loans - which I suspect pretty soon will start choking this country and negatively affect economic development with the possibility of the country seeking a second HIPC – while they see their resources literally fly away.
But the fact that Zambia must borrow for most of the infrastructure projects requires that there must be prudence in the application of these loans because loans have a huge opportunity cost. In other words, each loan obtained for a given purpose has use in an alternative area. If you borrow for a stadium, you forego a university, for instance; because you cannot have both. The choice therefore, is to apply the loan in the area in which it will derive the highest possible net benefits to the economy, both in the short and in the long terms.
Optimal choice is also important because, as I suspect most Zambians do not know, each and every loan obtained on their behalf by the government must be repaid with interest and this is done solely through taxes to be paid by every Zambian, whether they even know about the project or not, whether they live in a rural area or not, whether they will directly benefit or not.
Each person and those children unborn must pay taxes to repay the loan. Taxes are what each Zambian pays through VAT on almost everything: excise duty on beer (except diplomats, by international convention; the military, because they protect us; and Members of Parliament at their Motel, they make the tax laws), PAYE on salaries, corporate tax, import duties, road tax, ZNBC TV levy (for better TV!), fuel levy, carbon levy, various fees for government services.
So even a person in rural who does not know about the PSCAP project at Cabinet Office for which government has borrowed money, will end up paying for that loan, if not in his time, his children and grand children will surely be made to pay. It is as simple as that, as day follows night. He will pay whenever he buys salt, cooking oil, school uniforms and gets on a bus! This is the reason why firstly, money obtained through loans must be used prudently and secondly why every Zambian must decide to show interest in every loan transaction that government enters into, without exception. In any case, why should anyone be made to pay for things they do not know?
But economics is this and more when it comes to choices that a country makes. As a matter of fact, the choices a country makes on investments, the type of investments, dictate and set the pace for its economic growth. This is all based on the principle of opportunity cost; like I stated already, ensuring that resources are directed in areas with the highest net benefits to the economy, compared to their alternative use.
While this is critical to the job of an economist and an important cornerstone of economic way of thinking and economic theory, unfortunately in Zambia, there is no evidence of such realisation in the various ministries and government agencies responsible for making these choices. Things are done and choices made pretty much on instinct and often for political expediency; without any semblance of economic analysis being applied.
I would be quite happy to be shown an economic analysis comparing alternative investment areas before a choice was made. Simply, choices are made without any comparison with other investment options. Therefore, feasibility studies only look at technology choice. In other words, economic theory and economic analysis play no part and have been thrown to the wind.
A cursory look at the so-called Vision 2030 (which aims in twenty years to bring Zambia to what it was forty years ago – a Middle Income Country!) and even the recently launched Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) confirms the lack of application of economic analysis and more. It is difficult to see what government economists spend their time doing. This is part of the reason why investments made in Zambia have not been of greater impact on the economy, and why still the country is one of the poorest in SADC, in spite of never experiencing natural or man-made calamities.
Economic analysis also allows the maximization of benefits and minimisation of costs, both tangible and intangible. With proper economic analysis, Zambia would have electrified the railway from Chingola to Livingstone because more hydro power is being produced, it is renewable and cheaper, rolling stock ensures higher economies of scale, reduces substantially wear and tear of roads as more copper (from which we gain nothing) is produced, hence less taxes to be paid by ordinary Zambians to subsidise the mining companies using the roads, ordinary Zambians and tourists would travel and transport their goods faster and cheaper by rail! The net benefits to the economy both in the short and long run from electrifying the railway is far higher than, borrowing for a stadium, for instance.
The Mongu-Kalabo road is one such investment that I can use to illustrate deficiencies in the use of economics to make optimal investment choices. The choice of Mongu-Kalabo road has been made because of my knowledge of the project, having been part of a team of consultants, from Rhodes University in South Africa, which undertook the Environmental Impact Assessment study (EIA) and I was the economist on the team.
Zambia has secured a loan (to be repaid with interest) of about K1.3 trillion (US$350 million), approximately 4 per cent of the national budget, for the construction of the approximately 74 km road about 50 km of which passes through the Barotse Flood Plains to connect Mongu to Kalabo.
The road has already cost Zambia more; on two occasions initial parts of the road have been washed away and money gone down the drain (loans). There has been no functional road between the two towns and consequently it takes four or more hours of rugged 4x4 driving on some of the worst possible terrain in the dry season (May-November) while during the rainy season (December-March) the plains flood and it becomes impassable to vehicles except boats while people shift up lands.
What are the benefits? Certainly reduction in time of travel from Mongu to Kalabo to about 40 minutes all year round. However, travellers on the stretch of 50 km through the plains, only for the dry season, as the floods cannot allow stop-overs along villages, people will have shifted! Therefore, for half the year, the tarred road is only useful to direct travellers between the two towns and nothing in between (certainly no schools can be built in the flood plains just because there is a tarred road). Safe and pleasant travel will ensure.
Most importantly, Kalabo will have access to more goods and services, cheaper due to reduced transport costs, from Lusaka, the Copperbelt and the rest of Zambia through Mongu; even though those goods and travel to Livingstone, Southern Province and to Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, will still use the Kalabo-Senenga road (130 km) to Sesheke. In a significant way, the road will have important multiplier effects. In economics, the multiplier of a direct investment like road construction is high and its effect immediate. It is also assumed that the road will employ local people and they will supply food to construction workers.
There are some assumptions that Kalabo has potential for mineral wealth and the road will allow explorations and mining of, some say, diamonds. There are also benefits that allude to opening up of Zambia to Angola for trade through Kalabo. All these seem on face value plausible arguments. But in the former case, if there is potential for mineral wealth, which I have no reason to doubt, then the owners of those mines who stand to benefit, should build the supporting infrastructure, should they find it critical to their making profits.
This is what is happening in Canada, where mining companies are building road and railway infrastructure in mineral rich North Canada, instead of putting the burden on Canadian taxpayers. And the Canadian government can well afford to build with its own money if it so wished, why should Zambia borrow to subsidies foreign mine owners?
The best example of a good investment is what Mr. Enoch Kavindele is doing in North-Western Province where he plans to open up a huge copper mine and he is building a railway line to support that. And recently I read, an iron ore firm in Mumbwa is planning to build a railroad from Mumbwa to Lusaka to transport its ore. These railways, which I hope will be electrified, will transport more than minerals, they will transport ordinary people and their goods cheaper, faster and safer. Beyond anything else, these are the spill over benefits that come with sensible investments, a country benefits. As a matter of course, Zambia must insist on mining firms to build railways on which to transport their minerals; after all, they own the mines and reap all the profits, makes economic sense. This can even make up for their apparent tax evasions and transfer pricing as well the destruction of Zambia’s environment well into the future, long after they have abandoned the mines, due to low prices, new technology or having exhausted our resources.
With regard to the latter, opening up to Angola, it seems to me to be a long term option. Much of that part of Angola is yet of any use, abandoned after the war, far away from the major cities and really of less significant economic value to Zambia, yet. In any case, the Kalabo-Senenga Road still opens up to Angola. If it is about oil, this is uncertain and no studies have been conducted to know the economic feasibility of oil imports from Angola, so it is a wild cat. Certainly not a basis to build a road.
But what are costs to the economy arising from this rather unique road in the sense that it passes through the flood plains. It is important here to acknowledge that a similar road the Serenje-Mansa Road has similar features, passing through rather plainy areas. But the difference ends there. The socio-economic livelihoods of the whole of the Western Province revolves around the Barotse Flood Plains and have been so for generations. The Plains are the epicenter of culture, language, traditions (including the famous Kuomboka Ceremony), and hold huge fish and animal resources that have sustained the economy for centuries. The potential for the economic contribution by the Plains has not been fully realized or exploited.
For instance, the potential for modern and functional harbours to support tourism and even water transport. The most important cost is the real risk that the Barotse Flood Plains will never be the same again after the road is built; that the Plains will lose its innocence and with it its culture, traditions and economic livelihoods for nothing much in return except savings in travel time. This much we established during the EIA. In other words, when benefits are compared to costs, there will be a net loss to the economy in Western Province and on a larger scale to Zambia as a whole. In addition, these costs are irreversible and permanent. What value do you place on the loss of culture and traditions, these are priceless.
Firstly, the ecosystem in the plains is extremely delicate, with humans and nature depending on each other for sustenance. A slight interruption in this balance will disrupt all this. It will be appreciated that sometimes even in normal years, the Kuomboka has failed to take place due to the over flooding. Imposing an artificial structure in the plains is likely to disturb the eco balance. And even here I am not sure there has been any model built with computer simulations on how the flow of water will shift with the road construction. The road, which will have to have huge embankments, will have the immediate effect on the flow of water across it. The change in speed of the flow of water will affect the breeding pattern of fish; the grazing pattern of animals up lands; result in causing swampy environment for the breeding of mosquitoes and has the potential to disrupt the holding of the Kuomboka Ceremony. These are all permanent and irreversible changes in the ecosystem. I was surprised when I read the recent (2009) EIA by the Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ) to notice such important omissions like these in the study, which I think was done specifically to justify the project but professionally not up to scratch. These costs extend to everything in Western Province. But this is only at the micro economic level.
At the macroeconomic level, the national level, it is important to look at the opportunity cost of the borrowed K1.3 trillion. And in doing so, to bear in mind what I stated already, the lack of economic analysis in the choice of investment projects in Zambia. Western Province like all provinces in Zambia are low on development, even the highly subsidised maize is only supported by good rainfall not by efficient production systems. Therefore, the needs are immense in both the social and economic sectors and it is all so apparent when recently I visited Luapula and North-Western provinces. So I would imagine what can be done with K1.3 trillion in the Western Province; and from the view point of economics, what would be the benefits to Western Province and to Zambia arising from K1.3 trillion loan in its alternative use? This is what I came up with.
Kalabo can still be connected to Mongu (and not all parts of Western Province by the way) by two undertakings, none of them mutually exclusive. The first is to build modern harbours (like Cape Town, why not?) in Mongu and Kalabo to allow more use of the water transport for people goods and tourists. A fibre glass boat making project can also be set up in Kalabo or Mongu to make and repair passenger and cargo boats. This would allow easy flow of people and goods between and along the two towns safely and pleasantly through the rainy season. At the same time, tar the 130 km Kalabo-Senenga road, (a distance of Kabwe to Lusaka) so it connects 100 km to Mongu, an already tarred road. This will also open up for human settlement and commercial activities along the Kalabo Senenga Road, much more than along the Kalabo-Mungu road through the seasonally useful plains. Zambia can still have its passage to Angola through Kalabo (it has not got to only pass through Mongu). People in Kalabo can have more access to more towns (Senenga, Sesheke through to south) than just Mongu and Kaoma. There will certainly be more distance to cover than if it were direct, but there is always minimum distance to cover, anyway. But all of these firstly, without destroying the ecosystem and the environment, therefore ensuring the culture and the traditions remain pretty much intact; only with increased benefits. In economics, when an action results in benefits for one without making the other person worse off, it is an efficient system. So there will be nothing lost, but everything gained.
And in my estimate, using regional costs for road construction rather than the highly exaggerated and economically not justifiable costs in Zambia, at about US$200,000 per km of tarred road, Mongu and Kalabo can be connected for US$ 26 million (K130 billion). Recently Egyptians confirmed road construction costs about US$180,000 per km of tarred in Egypt and my analysis is that Ethiopia, with the same cost structures as Zambia and also landlocked, spends only US$ 200,000 per km and so do countries in Southern Africa. I hereby challenge the National Council for Construction (NCC) and the Engineering Institution of Zambia (EIZ) to demonstrate how a tarred road in Zambia must cost upwards of US$700,000 to now, the unimaginable and incredibly out of this world, US$1 million per km. I also request the Zambia Competition Commission (ZCC) to investigate apparent explicit collusion among contractors in Zambia in obtaining government contracts in road construction; because certainly no private individual can part away with such ridiculously exorbitant money except government. In any case where would a poor country like Zambia with so many poor people get such money? I think it is important for Zambians to be more patriotic about their country and not allow greed to impair their sense of fairness.
The modern harbours on both sides can be estimated to cost K80 billion. The fibre glass factory can be estimated at US$ 2 million (K10 billion). Big boats can even start sailing all the way along the Zambezi both down and upstream. These two undertakings will still add up to a paltry K220 billion from the K1.3 trillion loan.
When I heard that the new Lusaka General Hospital cost K3.6 billion, I figured that if it were to be completed, with modern equipment fitted, doctors and nurses houses and other facilities, I would estimate the total cost to about K10 billion. Zambia could then decide to have a hospital of that nature in each of the seven districts of Western Province and it would cost only K70 billion. With more money left, Zambia could construct boarding high schools like Kabulonga Boys (not the so-called Basic Schools), and equip them with modern laboratories and teachers houses and sporting facilities for an estimated K25 billion each one each of the seven districts of Western Province and this will set back the country only K170 billion. And the big one, Zambia can build her second purpose-built public university in Western Province, complete with all the faculties, student hostels and laboratories and equipment for K400 billion. And for the ordinary people, to take them out of their poverty, which I believe is a result of lack of knowledge, implement a solar electrification programme to allow hundreds of thousands of villagers in Western Province access electricity immediately (not the piece meal of Rural Electrification Programme or ZESCO), so that their children will read at night, they can watch TV and see how the other world lives, they can use fridges and cook without destroying forests. This will also have the effect of increasing demand for goods and services and support production. The solar project can cost K150 billion. Zambia can also buy lap tops for K50 billion to connect all the school going children in Western Province to the internet, and to tele-education. Then Zambia can several modern kindergartens for each public primary school in Western Province for K50 billion. The total of all these would come to K1.11 billion, still under K1.3 trillion! Many of the feeder rural roads can be rehabilitated with the remaining K190 billion.
This is the opportunity cost of K1.3 trillion in its alternative use. It does not take an economist to see that clearly the net benefits to the economy are higher in its alternative use than in constructing the road through the plains. And I am certain many Zambians will be happy to foot the bill by borrowing for this kind of investment in the Western Province. And economics is as simple as this. The choices are not complex, it is the knowledge to know and the will to do so.
The author is an economist and may be reached . Email: rsanyikosa@hotmail.com)
Labels: ROADS, WINDFALL TAX
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