MDC-T a violent party: Nguni
Friday, 27 May 2011 22:33
Herald Reporter
MDC-T is bent on perpetrating violence against Zimbabweans, ZIMBABWE Today publisher and political analyst Mr Goodson Nguni has said.
Speaking at the launch of a monthly magazine portraying MDC-T political violence activities on Thursday, Mr Nguni said MDC-T had former Rhodesian elements who schooled them on violence against their own people.
The magazine titled: "Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T): The Culture of Violence", has pictures and stories duplicated from both public and private newspapers on MDC-T violence.
About 150 000 copies of the magazines have been printed and would be distributed for free.
Fifty thousand are in English, 50 000 in French and another 50 000 in Portuguese.
Mr Nguni said they wanted to distribute the magazines throughout Africa, including French and Portuguese-speaking countries.
Mr Nguni accused the MDC-T of deceiving the world saying Zanu-PF was violent when in actual fact it is them "hence the need to set the record straight".
"We have decided to document the stories that have been written and pictures taken on MDC-T violent actions in order to set the record straight.
"They have been going around telling the world that Zanu-PF was responsible for political violence when in actually fact it is them.
"We felt there was a need to answer some of the things they have been saying about Zanu-PF.
"They have been saying the war veterans are raping women and to me that is declaring war against the war veterans who brought them independence," Mr Nguni said.
Labels: GOODSON NGUNI, MDC VIOLENCE, WAR VETERANS
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May 25: Africa's denouement or upward dash?
Friday, 27 May 2011 22:15
THIS week - the week of Africa - saw the MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, paying a visit to an unusual quarter, Gabon.
For those of us not too familiar with maps and places, Gabon is a beautiful coastal central African state abutting the Atlantic, and standing between the two Congos and the aforesaid ocean.
Apart from being an African country, there has not been much traffic between Gabon and Zimbabwe, although there was quite some warmth between its long long-serving President, one Omar Bongo, now late, and President Mugabe.
The late Omar Bongo was succeeded by his son, Ali Bongo, in August 2009, getting formally sworn in on October 16 after resolution to disputed elections. Until now, the last contact between Zimbabwe and Gabon was in 2007 in Portugal, in the context of the EU-Africa Summit when the late President sought Zimbabwe's support for the candidature of Jean Ping as Chairman of the African Union Commission.
In February 2008, Ping succeeded Alpha Konare as AU Commission Chairman, with the support of Zimbabwe.
The irony of representation
Apart from producing a high-ranking official for the African Union, Gabon, alongside South Africa and Nigeria, represents the African sub-continent in the United Nations Security Council.
Both Gabon and Nigeria won the right to represent Africa in the powerful world body when Libya was President of the General Assembly. Read against the subsequent decision by these three African countries - Gabon and Nigeria included - to support Resolution 1973 which legitimised the Nato assault on Libya, nothing could be more ironic.
Important, classified!
As should be apparent already, there is little connecting Zimbabwe and Gabon, which is what made the MDC-T leader's visit there quite curious. Importantly, the visit evolved after it became clear Tsvangirai was not going to be invited to the Windhoek Sadc Summit held last week, towards which his party had invested and deployed heavily. The information that Tsvangirai would not be invited to Windhoek, reached him while in South Africa, which is where he then picked a private jet to get to Gabon. That leg of his private jetted itinerary kept him away from the all-important Tuesday Cabinet meeting. That suggests whatever he was transacting in Gabon must have been important, very important.
Back home that same Tuesday, Tsvangirai never shared with the media what it is that had taken him to this striking destination. To this day, he has not done so. That, too, suggests that whatever it is he transacted in Gabon must have been classified, very classified. I will come back to both points.
Africa Day
I called this week Africa Week. The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was launched on May 25, 1963 in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Then on, May 25 became an important day for the continent.
We call it the Africa Day and all countries endeavour to mark it variously as the continent's birthday.
Zimbabwe did no less this year and heartily, one notes that the national media went out of the way to educate the public on the importance of the day.
When the burkhah ornaments someone's war
But what marks off this particular commemorative day from preceding ones is that it found a part of the continent under armed attack from Nato countries, led principally by the United States of America, France, Britain and Italy, apart from smaller states from the enlarged EU, including one or two from the Nordic.
I am referring to the UN-sanctioned attack on Libya by Western countries, which is thinly legitimised by the participation of little Arab states of Jordan, UAE and Qatar. Turkey, a big Muslim country, is proving a difficult customer, but has, nevertheless been used to sell the invasion.
It has refused to lift any of its fighter planes, battle ships, to drop any of its ordinances, against Libya, even though it stands with the invaders, Jordan, Qatar and UAE have made a combioned contribution of 125 soldiers in a campaign whose personnel strength is 12 909; contributed 32 fighter crafts to a combined total of 309; have not made made a single sortie between them since the beginning of hostilities, as against 5 857 done until May 5.
Headache on creation day
Read all this against 8 507 US servicemen, 1 300 British military personnel, 800 Frenchmen, 560 Canadian, 500 Spaniards, 170 Belgians and 120 Danes, and then you know whose war this is.
Read all this against 153 American warplanes which have done combined 2 000 sorties; 28 British warplanes accounting for 1 300 sorties; 29 French crafts with 1 200 sorties and Italy's 12 crafts with their 600 sorties, and you have an idea who is incinerating that portion of the continent.
US' 12 battleships, France's 6, Italy's 4 and UK's 3 have lobbed 246 missiles to reduce Libya to a finer, well-scorched desert. This is the little homework that the West has served Africa on the eve of its creation day.
The Obama of Mayflower roots
The beauty of the cynicism does not end there. On Africa day, Obama and Cameron paid more tribute to Africa by announcing they would ratchet up pressure against Gaddafi who must be found and killed, in the name of founding and launching a new Libya.
Attack helicopter gunships would now be dispatched to engage units of Libyan Government troops while insurgents of the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council (TNC) would be trained and equipped by Nato, so as to tilt the balance towards a "democratic outcome".
With costs surpassing the 100m-pound mark, Libya is beginning to play home for Cameron whose generals and admirals are getting agitated by a Muammar Gaddafi who won't fall quickly. They want the UN mandate expanded to allow boots on Libyan soil, which means boots on African soil.
Obama, our Obama, is an aggressive part of the piece, the most aggressive part in fact. You would think his grandparents stepped out of Mayflower, this first black President of America, roots well bedecked by lumpy nodes of Kenyan soil. What a way to mark Africa day!
Did this column not make the point in that speculative phase of Obama's presidency? That America had given itself an Afro-Arab president so it can assault both peoples without the charge of racism? How sad it is to be vindicated! Any cynicism, good Lord!
All those buzzing fighter planes are enforcing a no-fly zone threatened by a Libya that has not a single plane in the air, that cannot have a single plane in the air without being foolhardy and quixotic!
And, civilians are protected by massive bombs and eyeless missiles lobbied on Tripoli from the sea! A brave new world indeed!
A French president for Africa
The preceding would make Africans, any thinking African, hopelessly existential. Misanthropic even. You cannot celebrate your being this way without feeling your own humanity collapsing.
Few weeks back, the continent faced another bout of humiliation in Ivory Coast when another war, little this time, was settled by France's Force Republic, bearing UN helmets and epaulettes.
I don't care what you think about Gbagbo, but no one - no one - has the right to be put in an African office by volleys from the same guns that colonised us. Ouattara can win many times, become Ivorian a thousand times but the fact is he is France's president for Ivory Coast whom Sarkozy picked in neighboring Burkina Faso, gave over to the IMF for training, before foisting him on Ivorians through force of French arms.
Ecowas acquiesced, Africa acquiesced. Both were unclear that far, far worse than an undemocratic Africa is an enslaved neo-colonial Africa. So overall, there was lots of food for thought for Africa on it's creation day, but hardly any for its stomach, to adapt words of a well-known Nigerian writer.
When misanthropy does not make history
As Africans, we must resist pessimism or misanthropy. Both sentiments do not make history. After all, Africa today cannot be worse than Africa of the 1960s when most of it was under colonialism and when all seemed bleak.
Someone surmounted that engulfing bleakness to see the hope beyond. Almost 40 years later, Africa became politically free, creating the new situation we now have today. It was precisely those stolid challenges in the 1960s which defined struggles for the founding fathers of the continent.
Similarly, it is the challenges of today - Libya included - which must define present struggles. And these struggles are being fought gallantly, with real victories registering.
The only difference is that these fights are still incipient and isolated, vis-a-vis the scope of the problem, and the extent of the continent.
The week preceding Africa's week, and the African week itself saw two major breakthroughs which are indicative of brighter things to come, against the backdrop of the seeming bleakness.
Dismantling the UK Tribunal in Sadc
The recent Sadc Extraordinary Summit held in Windhoek, Namibia took a far-reaching decision regarding Southern Africa's restitution programme, especially as this relates to the land question.
Simply, it dismantled the so-called Sadc Tribunal, which in its working reality had become UK or White Colonial Farmer Tribunal, reinforced of course by German and Afrikaner landed interests.
As always, we stumble and stagger our way to correctness. Having been tasked to re-examine the role of the Tribunal and its judgments, ministers of Justice and the region's Attorneys General inexplicably decided to farm out this most sensitive assignment to a white Briton - as a consultant - regardless of all considerations of history and ethnicity, sorry, of kith and kin. I had forgotten children of the Missis have no ethnicity. Only natives do! As expected, the report and its recommendations were just outrageously offensive, but helpfully defined how-not-to-do-it for the Grouping. After all it takes an ugly girl to appreciate a village beauty! That bad report stirred regional nationalist feelings which guided Sadc to the correct decision.
Wholly British funded
A Tribunal which had no law to guide it, had catapulted itself to transnational, trans-justice status that made it a court of first and last instance. Before its ethereal stool, all Chief Justices and all Supreme Courts in the region had become mere groveling mortals, mere buildings respectively. For here was one Court, wholly British funded, wholly white in legal sensibility, wholly anti-liberation in politics, perched at the helm. Its jurisdiction would be as expansive as God's, all not just in current and forward time, but also in time past. This explained why its judgments on Zimbabwe challenged the goals of our founding process, the liberation struggle, to three cheers from Rhodesians first, and Afrikaners and Germans who saw whirlpool events in Zimbabwe as a terrible augury of things to come.
It did not need to be deterred by the region's multiple legal traditions: Roman Dutch, French, Portuguese. It did not need to be detained by the question of which body of law, which tenets from these diverse legal traditions it was going to rely on for adjudication. But on that ordinary Friday in Windhoek, Sadc took a decision for Africa and its founding goals.
When democracy is a sovereign challenge
The following week on a Wednesday, itself Africa Day, Africa convened in Addis Ababa. More history was made and we must take note. I isolate three decisions and the accompanying sentiments.
The Western assault on Libya, much like the British consultant's report, got Africa to examine its values, instruments, accession and membership to international treaties and bodies respectively.
Africa grappled with the issue of democracy, arguably for the first time deeply from the perspective of her own interests, as opposed to the interests of prescriptive, overweening imperialists.
Examples were summoned: Uganda under Idi Amin; South Africa under apartheid; and, Ethiopia itself under Mengistu. In all these situations and many more, democracy came from internal forces in struggle. It never dropped from Nato fighter crafts, rained on democracy-starved climes like missiles off the Mediterranean, as is the case presently in Libya.
That kind of democracy, underlined President Zenawi, himself a symbol of post-independence armed democratic struggles, is simply bogus. He went further: the achievement of democracy in a country is the sovereign right and challenge for those who belong to it.
If they want it now, well and good; if they want it much later in generations to come, tough luck. But no country, great or small, neighbouing or faraway, friendly or hostile, has a right, any right, to demand, struggle for, or impose democracy on another.
The Constitutive Act, our Koran as the AU, shall be revisited to clinch that principle which is consistent with the UN principle of non-interference. Anyway, Africa had the same principle before the ill-wind of donors blew it away.
Protests of insurrections
Balancing off that major point of principle, was a recognition that a people to whom avenues to peaceful protest, assembly and expression are closed, reserve the right to take up arms against an unjust, oppressive system.
But Africa drew a clear distinction between bona fide protests - themselves legitimate avenues in a democratic society - and armed insurrections, as happened in Libya.
Attacking army barracks and aligning oneself with foreign forces amount to a new situation which the AU cannot condone in the name of democracy or that of ousting a dictatorship.
Africa is opposed to coups; Africa is opposed to invasions. This could not have come any clearer than it did in Addis.
Challenging Africa's geography
Foreign interference in the affairs of Africa was roundly decried, with the Summit lamenting the sidelining of Africa in the resolution of the Libyan situation. A few days before, security councils of both Africa and EU had met in the same city. It became very clear Europe had little respect for the natives whom it collectively and contemptuously regarded as "its natives".
Challenged on the sidelining of Africa on the issue of Libya, the Europeans stated bellicosely that Libya was no just African; it was Mediterranean and Arab also. It then became clear to sleepy Africa why Sarkozy was pushing for an association of Mediterranean states a few years back. It also became clear why the resolution of the Arab League was pushed for by Europe in the run-up to aggression against Libya.
In that meeting, Europe challenged Africa's view of its own geography, of Africa, the extent of its territorial claims and integrity. Besides, Nato had also stopped an AU ad-hoc committee from reaching Libya, just a day or so before the attack on Libya.
French Ambassador to Mauritania, itself leader of the AU Committee, told African leaders they could no longer reach Libya as hostilities would commence shortly. In other words, the AU could not reach a part of Africa without a say-so from Nato!
The fools who rushed
But that is not the issue, painful though that is. The issue is Africa took a decision to forcefully oppose what is happening in Libya, including forcing a review action in the United Nations.
Africa showed the courage to confront its past naivety when it shared signatures with imperialism, all against itself and its well-being. It also emerged from that meeting that countries who committed Africa to UN Resolution 1973 are now regretful of their actions, more or less the same way the three countries which had ratified the Sadc Tribunal regretted and recanted positions in Windhoek.
As the Mauritian leader said in Windhoek, like a fool, Africa was now paying the price of treading where angels fear to!
ICC, another string on an unholy bow
Matters went much further. As if pulverising Libya was not bad enough, the assaulting nations also deployed the International Criminal Court against Gaddafi, to make sure if he is not killed in action, he is put out of circulation through phony legal processes.
It has become clear to Africa that apart from soldiers, guns, warplanes, battleships, helicopters and missiles, ICC is another string on the western bow. Its history, its victims, does illustratively tell the sorry story. Africa is contemplating a drastic and dramatic one against this western kangaroo court.
Africa needs courage and the intervening months will definitely show and test Africa's resolve to be anything but an underdog.
Endnote and our Prime Minister
Back to our Prime Minister and his Gabonese peregrinations. What is the man up to? What is he looking for in the beautiful marshes of Gabon? To answer this, you have to know why the two MDCs and their Western handlers hailed their preferred reading of the Troika Summit held in Livngstone. Britain, helped by France and the US, badly needs and is frantically cultivating a rupture between Zimbabwe and Sadc in a way reminiscent of a similar one between Ivory Coast and Ecowas, or Libya, the Arab League and, cirumstantially, Africa.
Divest of its regional cover, any country becomes vulnerable, although not necessarily conquerable. The latter depends on its resources, on its defences. France is or has taken over the presidency of the UN Security Council. It thinks it can return the British favor on Ivory Coast and on Libya. Sarkozy has already given Zimbabwe notice. But, these countries need the UN in the Zimbabwe situation, if not by way of peacekeepers and election supervisors, certainly by way of a resolution, preferably under Chapter VII.
South Africa, Nigeria and Gabon become key. In the case of Gabon, it is doubly key in that it delivers a UN vote and a Jean Ping. A second Libya on the continent needs a fumbling AU. The hope is that Gabon becomes another Burkina Faso in the 2008 attempt to put Zimbabwe before the UN Security Council, an attempt which collapsed so spectacularly, but without foreclosing any such attempts in future.
The dangerous blunder-and-regret approach of our southern neighbor means Zimbabwe's eggs need a wider African basket, need a wider world basket than it needed under Thabo's South Africa.
After all, as became very clear in the case of Libya, Resolution 1973 could have been defeated with better African judgment, coupled with a more progressive Libyan policy than that of futilely seeking to appease the West.
There was enough goodwill and readiness to vote against or veto 1973. What lacked was Afro-Arab leadership, and better diplomacy from Libya. What also lacks now is creative national defence strategies on the part of Libya. As for our Prime Minister, well, well, well! He has no blood on his clean hands, has he?
Icho!
nathaniel.manheru@zimpapers.co.zw
Labels: FRANCE, LIBYA, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Tsvangirai’s secret UN plan unveiled
Posted by By Brett Mashingaidze at 28 May, at 02 : 26 AM Print
MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, this week made a secret visit to the central African state of Gabon. Tsvangirai’s visit, which was not state-sanctioned, was aboard a private jet last week.
There is no active diplomatic connection between Gabon and Zimbabwe, despite the fact that long-serving Gabonese President Omar Bongo, enjoyed cordial relations with President Mugabe – as members of the African Union.
Omar Bongo was succeeded by his son, Ali Bongo, in August 2009, getting formally sworn in on October 16 after resolution to disputed elections. Until now, the last contact between Zimbabwe and Gabon was in 2007 in Portugal, in the context of the EU-Africa Summit when the late President sought Zimbabwe’s support for the candidature of Jean Ping as Chairman of the African Union Commission.
In February 2008, Ping succeeded Alpha Konare as AU Commission Chairman, with the support of Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai’s visit attracted suspicion as he did not report the outcome of that meeting or its details to Cabinet, but there is speculation that he is trying to ‘buy’ the influence of that country at the UN Security Council.
Gabon, alongside South Africa and Nigeria, represents the African sub-continent in the United Nations Security Council.
Both Gabon and Nigeria won the right to represent Africa in the powerful world body when Libya was President of the General Assembly, but they went on to support Resolution 1973 which legitimised the Nato assault on Libya.
Against this background, the MDC-T leader’s visit there attracted suspicion and concern in Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai never shared with the media, Cabinet or the Council of Ministers what he visit was for.
That suggests that whatever it is he transacted in Gabon must have been very classified.
GABON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
Tsvangirai’s visit has to be read on the backdrop of Gabon’s membership at the UN Security Council and France’s presidency of that UN body.
France, which is said to be leading the “recolonisation” of Africa, assumed the presidency of the UN Security Council, taking over from Colombia. This presidency lasts one month.
President Nicholas Sarkozy, it has been suggested in Zanu-PF quarters in Zimbabwe, will try and push a UN resolution on sending UN observers and possibly peace-keepers to Zimbabwe at the next elections before that country’s presidency at the UN Security Council is over.
Elections are likely to be held at the end of this year.
A UN Security Council resolution will require the support of non-permanent members, Gabon, Nigeria and South Africa; among others.
Tsvangirai flew from South Africa to Gabon. There is speculation that his next destination will be Nigeria at some point in the coming weeks to lobby this country to support a resolution on the country.
Tsvangira’s offensive in Sadc failed to materialise so he is looking to the UN Security Council for support.
Sadc failed to send him an invite at the last Summit in Windhoek, and all hopes that the Sadc region would censure Zimbabwe crumbled.
Labels: GABON, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NEOCOLONIALISM, SECURITY COUNCIL, UN
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SA outing an eye-opener, says Paul da Prince
By Felix Kashweka
Fri 27 May 2011, 09:08 CAT
YOUTH artiste Paul Munanjala otherwise known as Paul Da Prince has described his performances in South Africa to promote his recently released mixtape as an eye-opener.
In an interview with the Weekend Post, Paul, 19 talked about the tour which he undertook to Johannesburg last month.
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He added that besides performing, he also met other artistes.
“I also found myself dancing with a crew from Monash University called the Rejects. We performed at Monash Beer fest on Thursday April 21. Cabo Snoop (a kuduro artist from Angola) was part of the event which was covered by MTV Base.
"While in South Africa, I met a new producer who will send me instrumentals that I will work on with 'house' which is a popular genre in South Africa,"said Paul.
"I made a lot of contacts in South Africa and I plan on going back there to collaborate with many other artistes,"he said.
He said he hopes to release his debut album by December.
"My album will be released before the end of the year because the mixtape I have released is basically just giving people what they expect in my album and will feature artistes like Tsouya, B-Flow and Slap-D,"he said.
Paul featured in the song Boss Lady done by Ruff Kid.
Labels: DANCE HALL, ENTERTAINMENT, HIP-HOP, SOUTH AFRICA
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Who is Rupiah serving? asks Kabimba
By Patson Chilemba
Sat 28 May 2011, 04:01 CAT
THOSE saying Rupiah Banda is benefiting from the US$98 million dollars NAPSA deal are justified, says Wynter Kabimba. Commenting on Pres-ident Banda’s justification of the deal, Lusaka lawyer Kabimba, who is also PF secretary general and spokesperson, wondered why President Banda was insistent on describing the deal as a good project.
He said the fact that President Banda was patronising the NAPSA and Zambia National Building Society (ZNBS) directors that they should focus on pushing the deal despite criticism from the public, meant that he realised that the criticism was justified.
Kabimba said the role of social security schemes in the past was to give loans to local authorities in order to build houses, such as the ones seen in Libala and Chilenje.
He said that was the role of the security schemes because the money belonged to the workers, so it went back to them by way of social development in form of low-cost housing.
Kabimba said the ordinary people today could not afford to purchase the houses from National Housing Authority because the cost usually ranged between K500 million to K1 billion.
He said any responsible government would have been urging NAPSA and other pension schemes to be investing in low-cost houses so that the people could have decent homes.
“To go and try to promote that project between NAPSA, ZNBS against the general welfare of the ordinary person is not only irresponsible by any government, but it’s working against the interests of the ordinary persons,” Kabimba said.
“We in PF would not support such projects because... you tell me how refurbishing of Zambia National Building Society improves the lives of people in Matero. How does it deliver water to the people in Chawama?”
Kabimba said US$98 million would go a long way towards improving the welfare of people in squalid settlement such as Kanyama which had no drainage system since the MMD came into office, and floods were the order of the day every rainy season.
He said President Banda found it wise to spend billions on a building when people could not afford health services, saying he wondered how many people from Matero would ever enter the ZNBS building.
“So the question is who is Mr Rupiah Banda serving? Certainly it can’t be the interest of the ordinary person…and Mr Rupiah Banda says that this is a good project, good for who? It’s a good project for himself, his government and the elite, and we cannot support that as PF,” Kabimba said.
“When you look at that principle, that’s why people are saying that there must be something for him. Otherwise, how does he just work against the interests of the people? Those reasoning like that would not be wrong.”
Kabimba said it was out-right strange that it had to take the head of state to go and officiate at the NAPSA-ZNBS ceremony.
He said the President even went out of his way to declare the deal, which he said had been criticised not only by The Post but the general citizenry.
“Without The Post in this country, these guys would have run the coffers of this country, bankrupt. Zambia would be bankrupt without The Post.
These guys are bitter not that there is something wrong that The Post has done but because it’s protecting the interests of the citizens. They have their dirty hands in the national till and when The Post screams, they withdraw their dirty hands from there,” said Kabimba.
During the launch of the Zambia National Building Society House redevelopment and Central Arcade development on Thursday, President Banda justified the deal, saying he was happy that the pension authority had not been detracted by “the best newspaper, The Post”.
The deal has attracted questions from several members of the public over the manner the transaction was handled. Sources disclosed that State House has been instrumental in ensuring the deal go through.
Labels: CORRUPTION, NAPSA, PENSIONERS, RUPIAH BANDA, WYNTER KABIMBA
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COMMENT - Finance Minister Musokotwane is a nominated MP with no constituency to represent? I did not know that. Maybe that is why he is so dismissive of the electorate.
Musokotwane has started campaigning, Ndalamei reveals
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Sat 28 May 2011, 04:01 CAT
FINANCE minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane is busy campaigning in his ‘constituency’ for this year’s polls, says secretary to the Treasury Likolo Ndalamei. Officiating at the official launch of Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) call centre yesterday, Ndalamei said ministers were currently in the field campaigning.
“I am here to read the speech on behalf of the Minister of Finance and National Planning because as you know most politicians are busy campaigning in their constituencies, so, we civil servants have to stand in for them,” Ndalamei said.
Dr Musokotwane is a nominated member of parliament with no constituency to represent.
Recently, the government dispatched ministers to all provinces to explain developmental programmes being implemented by MMD government.
Sources in Western Province indicated that Dr Musokotwane is campaigning in Liuwa Constituency.
And Ndalamei said the launch of ZRA call centre, which could be accessed on all networks by dialing 5972, would help to ease the cost of doing business in the country.
ZRA call centre facility and customer service line provides an effective tool for bridging communication gap between ZRA and the taxpayers and for assessing feedback from customers on various tax matters.
And board chairman Christopher Mundia said modernising operations of ZRA would help to widen the tax base.
Mundia, in a speech read for him by board member Mwangala Zaloumis, said the new system being introduced at ZRA included facilities for electronic commerce by providing interfaces for electronic filling and electronic payments.
“It is envisaged that such a platform will greatly improve ZRA’s service delivery to taxpayers,” said Mundia.
“While the majority of our potential taxpayers fall outside the formal sector, the new changes currently going on at ZRA through modernisation programme are meant to bring the informal sector on board.”
Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, CHRISTOPHER MUNDIA, LIKOLO NDALAMEI, MWANGALA ZALOUMIS, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE, ZRA
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Africa should take stock of its achievements - Mayaki
By Florence Bupe
Sat 28 May 2011, 03:59 CAT
AFRICA should take stock of its achievements and refocus its energies on addressing the political and economic challenges facing the continent, says NEPAD chief executive officer Dr Ibrahim Mayaki.
In his message to commemorate Africa Freedom Day, Dr Mayaki said African governments needed to critically assess their achievements and failures for an improved future.
“In thinking about Africa (Freedom) Day and the theme for this year, it is clear that we should all use this day to take stock of our achievements and to genuinely refocus our energies on addressing the challenges that we are faced with as Africans,” said Dr Mayaki on Wednesday.
This year’s Africa Freedom Day was commemorated under the theme ‘Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development’.
Dr Mayaki said the recent uprisings in some parts of the continent were a reminder for African governments to assess their governance systems and find ways of averting possible conflicts in future by creating a spirit of contentment among the people.
He urged African governments to embrace the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) planning and coordinating agency as a vehicle for domestic and external resource mobilisation for the development of the continent.
“The myriad of crises, particularly the escalating oil prices, the high food prices and subsidy distortions in the global market, may make it look as if things are beyond our control.
However, as we celebrate Africa Freedom Day, I would like to call upon all Africans to remember that through NEPAD we have frameworks which possess practical solutions and corrective policies that can be used to address some of these challenges and bring about genuine socio-economic transformation,” said Dr Mayaki.
Labels: NEPAD
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Sichinga calls on MPs to address people’s concerns
By Florence Bupe
Sat 28 May 2011, 03:59 CAT
MEMBERS of parliament should use the opportunity during the next parliamentary sitting to table fundamental issues relevant to the country’s social and economic development, says Bob Sichinga.
In an interview, Sichinga, who is former Kafue member of parliament, said the electorate had high expectations which MPs should aspire to fulfil in their deliberations.
“As Parliament resumes, parliamentarians need to address key issues raised by the electorate, such as poverty reduction and issues of the Electoral Act,” he said.
Parliament is expected to resume sittings on May 31, 2011 for the final time before dissolution in readiness for this year’s general elections.
Sichinga said it was unfortunate that by law, the draft constitution could only be tabled before the House six months from the time of its last presentation, and subsequent failure.
He said the Constitution should have been on top of parliamentary business as the country prepares to go to the polls later this year.
However, Sichinga said there were many other issues that the parliamentarians should focus on, such as pressing government to decentralise power and allow local authorities to be key partners in decision making.
He said the concentration of power within central government had hindered the participation of other stakeholders at lower levels in key developmental issues.
Sichinga also said the subject of accountability should not be sent to sleep and called on the electorate to continue exerting pressure on government to ensure accountability and transparency in the use of resources.
On the electoral Act, Sichinga called for the enforcement of the Act.
He said this could be achieved through the clear definition of roles for the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and law enforcement agencies such as the police service.
Sichinga reiterated the need to have an autonomous electoral body in which the President does not appoint the commissioners.
“In the past we have seen a massive breach of the electoral Act. Amending the Act is not enough, we need to enforce it,” he said.
And Sichinga said parallel vote tabulation (PVT) should be a must in this year’s elections, and warned the ruling MMD against creating falsehoods on the legality of the system when they (MMD) intend to execute it for their benefit.
Labels: MPs, ROBERT SICHINGA
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We need good brains to run the country - chief Tembwe
By Christopher Miti in Chama
Sat 28 May 2011, 03:59 CAT
WE need good brains for this country to develop, says chief Tembwe of the Senga people of Chama district. Speaking when a PF delegation led by Dr Guy Scott, paid a courtesy call on him at his palace on Tuesday, chief Tembwe said people could not reject fellow human beings in life. He said the country could not have “one people” to rule all the time.
“The government normally gives out money but others do not share this money properly. The democracy that started a long time ago should continue because people cannot reject fellow people,” chief Tembwe said.
He also complained that he had been living in a grass-thatched house since 2002 when he was enthroned.
“We admire our friends like paramount chief Mpezeni in Chipata; they have better facilities and better houses. Surely from the time we created this Zambia, it is unbelievable that we should be facing problems of water,” chief Tembwe said.
He said leaders who forget people who vote for them were not good leaders.
He said he was happy that he had known the PF officials and they had known him too.
Chief Tembwe said he could not mention all the challenges that his area was facing to PF leaders saying he could only do that when the opposition takes over government.
The chief who kept referring to Dr Scott as his ‘boy’ even sent his retainer to call his first wife to come and see a white man.
Dr Scott said the PF manifesto had a very strong policy on chiefs.
He said PF would empwer chiefs cpuntrywide.
Scott said the PF was in Tembwe to solicit for votes ahead of the forthcoming tripartite elections.
Provincial chairperson Lucas Phiri said the PF was determined to improve the living standards of the people unlike the MMD which was full of unfulfilled promises.
And headman Phwati said the main problem that the people of Tembwe were facing was the human/animal conflict.
He said it was clear that the government had not helped the local people on the matter.
“This is the biggest cry of the people here. We have always been facing food shortages because our crops are always eaten by wild animals but when we complain we are not listened to by the government,” headman Phwati said.
Some PF members in the area said chief Tembwe did not present the main problems that his chiefdom was facing because he was scared of the MMD members who had earlier asked him to chase the PF delegation in his area.
Dr Scott and his delegation also toured Tembwe rural health centre which had two nurses.
Labels: CHIEFS, GUY SCOTT, PF, WILDLIFE, ZAWA
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It’s illegal to use public funds for campaigns - Chitala
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sat 28 May 2011, 04:01 CAT
RUPIAH Banda and the MMD’s use of public resources and chiefs to campaign for their re-election will not work, says Mbita Chitala. Commenting on ministers’ 21-day countrywide campaign trail under the pretext that they are touring government projects, Chitala, a former deputy minister of finance and one-time ambassador to Libya, said use of public resources for political campaigns was illegal.
“Abuse of public resources is not only unlawful, it is also immoral and should be condemned by all democracy loving people,” Chitala said.
He said the Electoral Code of Conduct prohibited chiefs from taking partisan positions.
Chitala said use of public resources and chiefs’ involvement in partisan politics was punishable.
“The country has gone back to the authoritarian system of the one party state of UNIP,” Chitala said.
He said President Banda’s MMD had eroded all the gains from the reintroduction of multiparty democracy attained in 1991.
“Chiefs are traditional leaders for all of us, be it in opposition or ruling party, so they should show that leadership by being above politics. Chiefs are too senior to be intertwined in politics. They should be fair to all of us as their children,” Chitala said.
“It is not good for chiefs to be partisan. Chiefs that are partisan will not have respect from their subjects.”
The MMD has been parading chiefs on the state-run Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) TV to endorse the re-election bid of President Banda.
Labels: CAMPAIGN FINANCE, CHIEFS, CORRUPTION, MBITA CHITALA, SEPARATION OF POWERS
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Context of corruption
By Felix Tembo
Fri 20 May 2011, 23:00 CAT
Editor,
Democracy, when properly followed and implemented in its real context, can be very progressive and developmental. However, in Africa and Zambia in particular, we seem to have our own version of democracy which is synonymous with corruption.
This country seems to have gone further by having its own definition of corruption. We have seen politicians distributing chitenge material, foodstuffs such as sugar in Eastern province and they have called that campaigning. No one is free from corruption in this country but the level at which some people are doing it is alarming.
Imagine, some Good Samaritan organisations have revealed to us that some multinational companies are evading paying tax to the government and yet our leaders are shielding them. Our own mines minister even went on air trying to justify this wrong. What is wrong with me, with you and with us Zambians? In the region, we have the most expensive fuel, more expensive than even Congo DR.
Our roads cost over K1billion just to tar a kilometre. Some people have minted in such dubious contracts and we are just watching them.
The level of corruption that we have reached cannot sustain development in this country. We need a leader determined to reduce if not weed out this scourge from our country.
Just look at how our ministers were before getting into government; some of them were even failing to buy mealie-meal for their families but today they drive the most posh vehicles around, they wear the most expensive designer clothes that not even Obama wears.
This year, we want change even if it means voting in a ‘mad’ person, let’s just do it. After all, development is not synonymous with just one group of people, what if they all decide to relocate, who is going to finish the developmental projects they claim to have initiated?
It’s the main reason we want to change.
The person that will be lucky to be made President should not segregate who to prosecute like some were spared in the last fight – kaofela! We know how worth most of these that have acquired temporal pot-bellies were before the NCC.
The fight should start with a messenger and end at State House, and please take the fight even to the private companies and parastatals like NAPSA, and so on.
Labels: CORRUPTION, MINING, TAX EVASION, WINDFALL TAX
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COMMENT - Interesting for it's admission on where the MDC went wrong. It is an example of what Nathaniel Manheru called the schizophrenia inherent to the MDC. It is also an admission of the uneasiness of the MDC/mining capital/estate owner alliance. My question to Courage Shumba is - why don't you join the ZANU-PF, and if you believe that there were errors made in the land reform program, change it from within the ZANU-PF? Also, the article has two authors, Courage Shumba and Esther Gomo? One (Courage Shumba) to write it, one to edit it for NehandaRadio, perhaps? :)
MDC manifesto should neutralise Zanu PF
Opinion — By Esther Gomo on February 9, 2011 2:00 am
By Courage Shumba
Whilst the MDC continues to play the political prodigal squandering the opportunity for radical change by remaining on the periphery of the main liberation argument it becomes difficult to stop the Zanu PF propaganda machinery from abusing the electorate and national institutions in the name of the liberation struggle.
There is a somewhat irritation caused by the failure of the MDC to deliver a manifesto that neutralises the Zanu PF fable that only through itself can Zimbabwe truly be emancipated from the tentacles of colonial political and economic patronage.
It appears that the MDC lacks the courage to state openly and without ambiguity that the issues of indigenisation, the empowerment of the majority black people, the sovereignty of Zimbabwe and the total emancipation of the Zimbabwean black are issues beyond the control and radar of western influence and opinion.
By refusing to solidly identify with the radical agenda of the liberation struggle the M.D.C positions itself in the most awkward and vulnerable of postures leaving Zanu PF to assume centre stage in campaigning on the basis of being the champions in orchestrating programmes that challenge directly the root causes of poverty in Africa, Zimbabwe in our case, the inequalities and legacy of colonial, racist and supremacist settler ideology.
An antagonistic attitude against the liberation of black Africans from being kitchen boys, teachers, police officers and clerks to being self-dependent florists and horticulturists creates and allows the argument that we are ignorant sell outs to prevail. Indeed we must be up in arms advancing our case for a Zimbabwe in which the owners of industry and bourgeoisie are men and women of our own colour after so many years of settler injustice. We must be proud to fight for the limelight when it comes to promoting the economic ideals of the liberation struggle in as much as we spearhead the case for democratic governance and human rights.
The land reform programme was at one point so demonised that even to support it in principle became difficult even if it was as clear as a blue sky that there were barking inequalities about how white farmers controlled vast tracts of land whilst the blacks remained where they had been forced to under draconian settler legislation such as the Land Appropriation Act. Others even argued that the black majority had no experience in farming operations and so they should leave the whole exercise to their white counterparts.
What was incredible about this argument was that the African indigenous had been moved to a level of so much despair, hopelessness and self-hatred that he had accepted to connive with the residue of the principles of colonialism so much he had begun to fight against himself running away from opportunities in the name of incompetence for a trade he was notoriously and mischievously blocked from through colonial racial policy. Melancholically the African indigenous had been mentally poisoned to the extent he begun to accept and see the sense behind his own oppression.
Even then we are yet to recover from the deep seated effects of colonial psychology and its devastation. Many of us want us to be the custodians of White Africa a hunting ground, exploration zone and dump site for the western world. Many of us still think the white man is superior and that from him we must take orders. Colonialism was a witchcraft that robbed us of our self-worth and identity and the panacea rests nowhere else except in reclaiming our resources for our own profit and gain by any means we can.
Truly the land issue could not have been solved through a normal court with a caucus of rich white untouchables who were rightly convinced and had connived that no other trade in the world could give them the riches and wealth farming offered them. Truthfully, why would anybody for that matter sell a farm? Who in his right mind would sell a farm merely to satisfy some gestures of racial equality at the cost of leaving such a priceless possession to his own future generation.
That such a political and emotive issue would be solved through a court was reckless undermining of the sacrifices of the fallen heroes. Already the concession to let the farmers consolidate their grip from 1980 to 1990 had allowed them to mutate into a political formation that was capable of all manner of evil if they had a reason for wanting to arm twist politicians and dictate events in the country.
And they often did. They controlled the wheat which made bread, the meat which made dinner, the maize which made sadza, the sugar which made breakfast, the timber which made roofs, paper, books, the oranges which made juice, the apples, the milk you name it. In short they had all our dinner tables in their hands whilst we still ran amok pursuing the legacy of pen pushing as teachers and clerks itself the mould and scope and limit of bottleneck education itself a policy of colonial Rhodesia.
In short it is unwise for the MDC to sing the chorus of human rights in the context of freedom of speech and assembly only as if it does not care about the inequality caused by settler policy when it is common knowledge that these settlers deliberately frog marched Africans from rich fertile soils to become squatters in their own country and further strangled them through racist laws that made them less human than their white counter-parts. Through such policy a lot of indigenous people were squeezed out of the race for equal opportunity and that cannot be allowed to go on let alone stand.
It is important for the M.D.C to understand this argument that as movement that seeks to finish the execution of the liberation agenda its chorus must go beyond simplistic demands for Mugabe to go without detail and definition of the presence of continuity processes to accomplish the struggle in which Mugabe should have contributed through transparent and credible land reform .He failed. His reign of course has been a messy ridicule of the same people he was supposed to liberate.
Mugabe’s ridicule of the people who trusted him to deliver change in a post-colonial Zimbabwe is the reason why the M.D.C must adopt the language and behaviour of a revolutionary party that has the temerity to wrestle this agenda from Zanu PF and re-deliver the promise of the liberation struggle along with more practical economic benefits such as farms and preferential treatment over foreign investment. In some sense that is what gives the 51%indeginasation legislation sense yet of course we are aware that those who authored it did not have the majority of us in mind.
The land reform which resulted from the chaotic land grabbing spree weakened the incontestability of the cause for a just system of land ownership. I have, personally, nothing against the invasions but I am completely opposed to the idea that what was a genuine need for redress of colonial imbalances was hijacked to feed a bloated and well-connected political elite, its children, cousins and friends without minute justice to the many other Zimbabweans who remain landless and stark where they were forced to live through land dispossession in colonial times in the 1930’s.
[Land has been redistributed to over 350,000 families (over 1.2 million people). The charge of 'perfect elite capture' is a hollow one. First there is the evidence of the government itself. Second, there is the survey done by prof. Ian Scoones of Sussex University in Masvingo Province, which shows that only 3% of recipients are directly connected 'friends and cronies'. - MrK]
By absconding the argument for ownership reform that is radical and robust the MDC can now only watch the aftermath of a mayhem that has created further inequalities now between top politicians and the common man. It is a disaster. Zimbabwe is now faced with shameless daylight robbers who steal and loot in the name of the liberation struggle except that this group robs to feed just its small circle. Someone has to stop them in their tracks. Ahoy!
[I think this is an example of Nathaniel Manheru's observance of the MDC's schizophrenia. On the one hand they cannot help be behind comprehensive land redistribution. On the other hand, they cannot back it because ZANU-PF did it. They might as well dissolve the MDC and join ZANU if they did. So their 'out' is - ZANU-PF did it 'the wrong way'. - MrK]
What we have now in this Animal Farm scenario is the pigs now living in the main house and walking on two legs. We are for all purposes back in Rhodesia faced with an elite Rhodesian mafia to whom Zimbabwe is a shadow and figment of playful minds which will never happen in a 1000 years. We are back to Ian Smith.
We are back to U.D.I seeing how Zimbabwe flees the commonwealth, blocks foreign election observers, and ignores the reports and findings of United Nations and African union on Zimbabwe. Typical U.D.I how the regime ignores the courts and tribunals of regional blocs to which it has obligations as a member. Mugabe, whilst flying the Zimbabwean national flag, has remained in Rhodesia, a Rhodesian, a settler whose political conduct has undermined the economic emancipation and democratic development of the indigenous Zimbabwean.
[And on and on. All of which is disputable, from the SADC court in Namibia, to the ample presence of foreign election observers in ALL of Zimbabwe's elections. Even if they were true, and they are not, they are side issues to who owns the land and the diamonds. - MrK]
Mugabe who was supposed to the custodian and strongman of creating a legacy of economic freedom has thrown it all away to enrich his few friends and puppets around him. If there was a chance of a vibrant political movement that is not choked and paralyzed by vindictive ex Rhodesians, a party that believes that indeed the land reform cannot be reversed but can surely and definitely be audited for the purposes of fair play.
[I guess that is what it takes to get published at NehandaRadio.com. - MrK]
If only the party could rightly insist that the duty to pay for compensation of white farmers rests with Britain as agreed at Lancaster, if only we had a party that had the bravado to realise that the national find at Marange is for every household to shine, if only we could have three or four Lovemore Madhuku’s men guided by nothing else beyond liberation of their kind our country would be free within a few months.
We need people that are strong and resolute. We need people who are aware that we cannot forge fragile friendships with the West before we address the wrongs they committed against us in years past. We need people that are able to realise that farms and mines should be utilised to produce an economic powerhouse that is strong and self-sufficient, sanctions or no sanctions. We need leadership that is able to appreciate the causes and sacrifice of the liberation struggle and pursue those ideals against any resentment and as an equal among other nations with a right to determine its own destination.
From Zanu PF we have seen corruption, violence, kidnappings, torture, mismanagement, murder and a raft of other social and political wickedness we associate with tyrannical despotic regimes. Zanu PF has remained in the bush ambushing and stealing from the people it had a duty to serve and protect. Mugabe allowed the people around him to become corrupt and amass staggering wealth through corruption.
The M.D.C has remained tied down to the ugly image of being a white led but black headed movement with no control over its policy. The failure of the M.D.C to articulate clearly the past injustices and the way forward as of today has rubbed in the impression that this party is only a cowboy assembly of faces with no soul. The M.D.C has a duty to come out and speak clearly that Zanu PF has no veteran status when it comes to the unfinished business of the liberation struggle.
The M.D.C has to say it loud that Zanu PF has sold out and that itself, if it does, as a party embraces the liberation agenda beyond the right to move without a pass, the right to drink clear beer, walk around about in Harare Botanical Gardens, take your wife with you to Harare, and marry a white woman if you want without breaking the law..
MDC must enter and fight for this country conscious of the fact that by absconding the sensitive political ground on economic rights they leave Zanu PF to run unchecked manipulating any gullible they find along the way. If the M.D.C fails to deliver this time because it has refused to steal the nationalist argument from Zanu PF sell outs and criminals it will not be forgiven and other alternatives may have to be found to man the continuing struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe.
We want our own free Zimbabwe and the demand for that must always awaken us to the variety of roots through which such a dream can be achieved.
Let’s keep fighting. Together we can.
Courage Shumba is a former Student Leader and currently a human rights activist
[COMMENTS TO THIS ARTICLE AT NEHANDARADIO - MrK]
Bernard kaitano [Moderator] 02/09/2011 03:46 AM
I see that you would have ZANU PF dictate the rules of battle. You have a clear stated argument but you are not considering the fact that over the past few elections the MDC has been doing well without chanting ZANU PF sloguns. To me the way foward rest in the ability of the MDC in repairing its weakened structure cleaning up its minute divisions and also in proving in a show of power that they are an equal power to ZANU PF in the Unity government. ZANU sings the liberation song over and over again because it knows no other song, thinking that the MDC should sing the same song just makes the MDC look like disgruntled employees of ZANU PF. Where are the white people? I dont see them on the streets, running industry or ploughng or land. Zimbabwe is already free to decide its own destination but the problem that is there is that the people driving the bus would rather have the popular masses push the bus and save the fuel for their own use. To the common mans simple views upon observation is that the MDC is now the conducter (Windi).
Kufatichitonga [Moderator] 02/10/2011 11:22 AM
The autthor of the article on the need for the MDC's manifesto to neutralise ZANU PF is actually a Zanu Pf member who did not get a piece of land.However ZANU PF wants to exercise fairness in the distribution of land,there will still be quite a number among its members who still would fail to get the land. No government the world over has satisfied everybody down to the unborn or new born. Practically this is not possible.
What Zimbabweans needed to do is to share ideas on how to bring uncompromised fair distribution of the country's wealth without trying to create an unnecessary distabilising political party.The moment we divide ourselves on political lines, the more we give chance to the erstwhile colonial masters to drive a wedge between us. The west and its allies will continue to flourish whilst we fight amongst ourselves but we are kith and kin. No household does not experience challenges but tearing apart the business of the household is no solution. This is exactly what Zimbabweans are doing.
The land question and the indigenisation Act are facts that seek to redress the social, political and the economic incongruencies that existed under colonialism. Africa is for Africans and in particular, Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans. Why has the whole western world gone amok about forign affairs that have nothing to do with them. Any relationship,be it socio-economic, socio-political or geo-political, should yield mutual benefit between ourselves and the outsiders,that is, the west.
We have known that class struggles have come about as a result of scarce resources but it makes good reason to acquire the resources through fair and orthodox means. The west and whosoever believes in the forced plunder of riches of other nations should know that continued repression of a people breeds revolutionary tendencies. Once this happens, there would not be peace in the world. We have of late witnessed the cold war between the Arabs in the east and the Americans in the west and given this annotation, there shall come a time where the world shall be ruled through cold war where there would not be a clear victor or beneficiary. Genuine trade to acquire resources that are not found in one's territory should be through orthodox transactions which result in mutual benefit. Why should certain nations believe that might, duress, imperialism and all the other terms connected with unethical approaches will bring good social, political and economic world order ? This should be filthy, particularly when it is coming from nations considered to be civilised and developed. Many tacts taht have been or are used by the west are synonymous with an adage of a whole human-bieng trying to hide behind a single finger. African or otherwise, we all have the internal eyes (brains) to see clearly the machinations of the developed world which has tended to impose itself as the world's police for the simple reason of unjust enrichment through the bully boy antics to plunder the resources of poor and weak nations. This is quite shameful and unacceptable.
gazza [Moderator] 02/10/2011 09:25 PM
Unfortunely both authors of the last articles have argued along party lines and no solution in sight. Africas problem politics for riches as opposed to politics for democracy and emancipation.sitting governments and governments in waiting are full of politicians with kleptomaniac tendencies they wanna accumulate as much wealth as possible at the shortest convenience at the expense of the electorate.futhermore it is the only continent with career politicians.if these politicians care as they,let the follow the will of the people.if people say run,sprint;if they say GO,wave them bye bye and disappear.
Labels: COLONIALISM, LAND REFORM, MDC, NEOCOLONIALISM, NEOLIBERALISM, RHODESIA, ZANU-PF
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Lawmakers urge EU to halt funding Mopani
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Fri 27 May 2011, 07:00 CAT
FIFTY members of the European Parliament have called for a halt on EU public financing for mining projects like Mopani Copper Mines until adequate standards and regulations are in place. They said there was need for strong standards on mining firms to ensure communities where they operated benefitted from their resources.
The lawmakers were drawn from four different political parties including Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, European United Left–Nordic Green Left, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and the Greens–European Free Alliance.
“The added value of mining projects for development is highly debatable,” said Thijs Berman (S&D) who presented the letter in the European Parliament last Tuesday. “Due to favourable tax regimes, low labour standards and a significant environmental impact, it is rarely the hosting country or its population benefiting from these mining projects.
It is rather the international mining companies that make the profit and I don’t see why they would need public financial support for that. At least not until standards and regulations are in place, that can guarantee a positive outcome for those who need it: poor countries and their population.”
The letter refers to previous successful processes in other sectors such as the World Commission on Dams or the World Bank’s Extractive Industries Review as worth following.
Recently, a consortium of Zambian and European-based NGOs petitioned EU to halt funding to Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) after a pilot audit revealed glaring irregularities and inconsistency in production and revenue figures that it submitted to Zambia Revenue Authority for tax administration, most of which hinge on its links to Glencore AG.
MCM had also been accused of polluting Mufulira by releasing sulphur emissions from its heavy emission copper smelter beyond international standards.
According to the European Parliamentarians, their initiative came as a result of gross pollution by Mopani, a consortium that is mining copper and cobalt in Kitwe and Mufulira.
And Centre for Trade Policy and Development (CTPD) director Savior Mwamba said by financially supporting companies like MCM, the European Investment Bank was doing more harm than good.
“These companies bring little social or economic benefits to our country. To the contrary, they are depriving the people of Zambia of their right to social and economic benefit,” said Mwamba.
Labels: EU, MOPANI, TAX EVASION, WINDFALL TAX
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Rupiah justifies $98m NAPSA deal
By Bright Mukwasa
Fri 27 May 2011, 04:00 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has justified the US$98 million NAPSA deal, saying he was happy that the pension authority has not been detracted by the best newspaper The Post. And labour minister Austin Liato said the allegations by The Post that President Banda influenced the deal were misplaced.
During the launch of the Zambia National Building Society House re-development and Central Arcade development yesterday, President Banda said despite a lot of talk surrounding the project he was glad NAPSA and Zambian National Building society had remained focused.
“I know that a lot has been said especially by our best newspaper The Post that there’s something fishy about this.
It’s only human that when you are trying to change something, when you’re trying to transform something or yourself, you will always meet with opposition and so I am happy that the board of directors of the NAPSA as well as Zambia National Building Society (ZNBS) have remained focused in their desire to change this business district as well as to transform this area into a modern city,” President Banda said.
He said he liked the project because it could be seen even from afar where the opposition was.
President Banda urged people not to listen to those who told them that his government could not attain development.
And President Banda said the project heralds the urban and the central business district renewal programme and believed that it would at its completion become an example that other cities could emulate.
“The project is viable in technical, social and economic terms. It will create employment both at construction stage and user stage, serving as a perpetual earner of revenues for the two organisations (NAPSA and ZNBS). The end benefit will accrue to the people of Zambia,” he said.
He said the ZNBS and NAPSA had a mandate to empower Zambians to own housing through well-priced housing finance and ensure social security funds were invested prudently for retired populations.
“The rewards of this investment can only reinforce the mandates of these institutions and enable them to better serve their esteemed clientele,” President Banda said. “This project is in line with my government’s policy on public-private partnerships, marking my government’s participation in the development and expansion of infrastructure in the capital city.”
President Banda said the dilapidated state of properties such as Central Arcade had raised questions among the public and in Parliament pertaining to any plans to revamp the social, economic and viability of the properties.
He said the vision behind the project was to turn Central Arcade into an ultra-modern structure that would have Zambia’s first automated car park with a capacity of 1,068 vehicles.
President Banda said he was certain the face of Lusaka was changing for the better and dreamt that change would spill over to other towns and cities.
He also urged NAPSA and ZNBS to explore ways of obtaining reasonably-priced financing for mortgages which could be given for medium and long-term periods at affordable interest rates.
“Home ownership must be encouraged, and on that note, I want to see the building society reinvigorating its core business and be seen to reach out to greater numbers of our people,” he said.
President Banda said the project had its specifications and time line and called on the project implementers to ensure that all standards and expectations were met if its value was to be realised.
He called on Zambians to support the project.
“It has been planned for and it will add to the fulfilment of the vision 2030 deal, in which Zambia will be by that year a middle-income country.”
And Liato said the allegations by The Post that President Banda influenced the deal were misplaced.
“The allegations coming from the private media, from The Post that there was a Kenyan investor brought in are misplaced. The allegations that President Banda was involved in the deal are again misplaced and politically motivated. But this kind of politics will not do,” Liato said as President Banda flanked by Vice-President George Kunda nodded his head.
Liato said as a politician, he felt he needed to clarify the matter.
Later, the master of ceremonies at the function, Augustine Seyuba, raised some people who were said to be officials from both local and international firms of the various partners involved in the project.
The event was also attended by scores of MMD cadres who were chanting party slogans.
The ZNBS-NAPSA deal has raised questions from several members of the public over the manner the transaction was handled. Sources disclosed that State House has been instrumental in ensuring the deal goes through.
This is the second major deal that has been linked to State House involving NAPSA, with the earlier one having involved the purchase of land from Meanwood.
Labels: CORRUPTION, NAPSA, RUPIAH BANDA
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Barotse activists also have human rights which deserve respect, protection
By The Post
Fri 27 May 2011, 04:00 CAT
The human rights of Barotse activists were violated in so many ways. And those who violated their rights and committed crimes against them have been allowed to go scot-free.
Abraham Mwansa, a legal practitioner, is right when he says that it’s unfortunate that the people accused of being responsible for the Mongu fracas are being prosecuted but no action is being taken against the trigger-happy cops who killed some of these totally unarmed and defenceless people.
Truly, as Mwansa correctly observes, “life cannot be taken away arbitrarily. If one’s life is take away, government as a protector of our rights should be concerned; it should take the necessary steps to avoid the vulnerability of citizens”.
It cannot be denied that police unjustifiably used live ammunition on unarmed people in Mongu. And this is why Rupiah Banda later made a directive for the police not to use live ammunition in dealing with crowd control. But after this directive, we have seen the police use live ammunition on unarmed people, simple looters in Mansa.
A man should not lose his life for trying to run away with a fridge looted from a shop. A fridge, a bicycle, a mattress or any other good from a shop is not worth the life of any individual. And to our knowledge, no single police officer has been arrested for the police killings in Mongu, Mansa and Mazabuka. Why?
And to make matters worse, we have a human rights commission that defends police killings and attacks victims of police brutality and violations of human rights.
We know that our Human Rights Commission is not an independent one.
It is a commission run by political appointees of those in power. And obviously, these are elements who have been determined to be user-friendly to those in power.
The violations we are talking about are indirectly committed by those in power. And there is no way their appointees at our Human Rights Commission can go for them, can start attacking those who appointed them and who hold the power to remove them at any time.
If our Human Rights Commission has to function in the interest of protecting human rights, the way people are appointed to and removed from this commission needs to change. And the financing arrangements for the Human Rights Commission also have to change.
It is embarrassing to see an institution that was established to promote and defend human rights defend clear violations of such rights.
There is need to stop impunity, especially where human life is concerned.
Those who kill need to be made to account for their actions. There was no police officer whose life was threatened in Mongu to justify the killing of anyone.
If this was the case, let them be arrested and be prosecuted so that they can defend themselves and their actions before a court of law. If these police officers were indeed innocent and what they did was justifiable as George Kunda had told Parliament, then a fair court of law will accordingly acquit them.
But we know that those who commit crimes on behalf of those in power get away with it. The police officers were taken to Mongu with the full knowledge of Rupiah, George, the Minister of Home Affairs and the Inspector General of Police. All these people knew what the mission of the police in Mongu was because they determined it.
The police officers who went to Mongu were not equipped for crowd control, they were equipped for war and to kill. And we know what happens in war. They confused the control of a riotous crowd with a battlefield where the aim is to destroy, to kill.
In this sense, they are part of the police action in Mongu. This is why this government is defending and justifying the killings in Mongu. Look at the charges they gave those rioters in Mongu! Treason! Trying to remove a lawful government by violent means! These are the charges George and his Director of Public Prosecutions Chalwe Mchenga had framed against those Barotse activists they had arrested, detained and brought to Lusaka and paraded before a magistrates’ court.
Later on, they came to their senses and realised that their charges were senseless, ridiculous and indeed stupid and dropped them. They replaced them with rioting ones and so on and so forth.
From the treason charges, it’s clear that Rupiah’s government treated those Mongu protestors as serious and dangerous enemies of the state.
But surely, how can they be such serious and dangerous enemies of the state when none of them was found with a gun, a bullet or anything of that sort? Dangerous enemies of the state are usually dealt with by law enforcement agencies in the most ruthless of ways. Those Barotse activists were subjected to torture.
Again, this government may deny this and accuse us of exaggerating matters. But what is torture? Everyone has the right to liberty. And no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrests, detentions or exile. This is what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in article 3 and article 9 says. We cannot turn a blind eye to our people’s experience of unfairness and injustice.
“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, this is what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says in article 5. Such treatment does not accord with the dignity of the human person. The gravest form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment is torture.
One commits the crime of torture when one deliberately inflicts severe pain or suffering on another person with such a purpose as to obtain information or confession, to punish, to intimidate, to coerce or for any other reason based on discrimination. The pain or suffering constituting torture can be physical or mental.
Look at the way they treated that old man, that 92-year-old former Ngambela of Baroseland, Maxwell Mututwa. That old man was subjected to dehumanising and degrading treatment. Each person has a right to moral integrity. One may not be subjected to humiliating treatment. Mututwa was humiliated.
We know all these crimes are today being defended because those activists threatened their hold on power. The thirst for power is the root cause of all these violations. Therefore, there is need for us to be wary and take a very critical view of the blind thirst for political power.
There is need to demand the prosecution of all the police officers who were involved in the killing of innocent people, unarmed people in Mongu, Mansa and Mazabuka. Human life cannot be taken away arbitrarily and with impunity.
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT
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Rupiah running Zambia like his farm - Kapatiso
By Roy Habaalu
Thu 26 May 2011, 04:01 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda is running the country like his farm, says a Barotse activist. Eugine Kapatiso, who was recently released on a nolle prosequi for allegedly causing riots in Mongu, said President Banda was the worst dictator who would kill to remain in power.
“Bo Rupiah should tell me what offence I committed for police to break my bones like this. Releasing us is not enough. We want the nation to know that we were persecuted for nothing. He hates Lozis and this year we’re mobilising ourselves to kick him out,” Kapatiso said.
“Why did he release us on a nolle at night in the cells? (Inspector General of police) Kabonde and Rupiah should bring back my money his police officers stole when I was in detention. This killer government has not given me anything apart from making me poorer and torturing my family.”
He said he lost US $2,000 dollars and K350,000 when the police forced their way into his house.
Kapatiso said armed police officers beat up his pregnant wife and children for saying that he was not involved in the Mongu riots.
“When they brought us to Lusaka Central Prison, Akushanga police officer told me that he knows my home, children and wife because he beat them to reveal where I was. On May 6th, 2011 the officer-in-charge for Mumbwa prison came into the cell and told us that she was instructed to release us on a nolle prosequi without providing transport and accommodation,” he said.
Kapatiso said President Banda was treating Lozis like wild animals.
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, POLICE BRUTALITY, RUPIAH BANDA
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Outcry for DPP to go well-founded - Chongwe
By Patson Chilemba
Fri 27 May 2011, 04:01 CAT
THE outcry from the Zambian people for DPP Chalwe Mchenga to go is well-founded following the conviction of Anuj Kumar Rathi, says Dr Rodger Chongwe. And Dr Chongwe said it was stupid for those in government, like finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane to criticise PF leader Michael Sata for saying he would restore the Barotseland Agreement when they had failed to do so themselves.
Commenting on the Lusaka High Court’s decision to uphold the four-year jail term slapped on Seymon Holdings proprietor Rathi by the Lusaka magistrates’ court in 2009 for corruption, Dr Chongwe said Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mchenga wanted to save Rathi because he was in good standing with the MMD government.
“The DPP said he did not support the conviction. And the outcry by the people of Zambia, even by the Law Association of Zambia against the continuation of Mr Mchenga occupying his position as DPP is well founded,” Dr Chongwe said.
“And it’s there for all to see that Mr Mchenga has ceased to apply his personal judgement as the public prosecutor. He is instead getting his instructions from people who are unqualified lawyers, members of the executive of Mr Rupiah Banda.”
Dr Chongwe said such a situation should not be allowed to continue.
“That is why we are calling upon the people of Zambia that the MMD has been in power for far too long, and the time is ripe for them to leave office, together with those professionals who take orders from them, because we don’t want them to be used by the new government in doing the same thing that the current government is doing,” he said.
Dr Chongwe said Mchenga’s behaviour on Rathi was not different to how he behaved on former president Frederick Chiluba and his wife Regina.
He said Mchenga even went against the decision by the person they appointed to prosecute the case, by withdrawing an appeal on Chiluba’s acquittal from the High Court.
“And you remember in the case of Chiluba’s wife, when it came before the appeal the state said it won’t support the conviction and yet they prosecuted that woman and the court convicted her,” Dr Chongwe said.
“But because she is Mrs Chiluba they didn’t want to proceed against her and in this case obviously because it’s Mr Rathi who is in good standing with the government.”
He said at the Ministry of Justice for instance; all the positions from the minister to the Attorney General were dysfunctional.
“We need a new government to rebuild the institutions of government in this country,” Dr Chongwe said.
And commenting on Dr Situmbeko’s remarks that Sata was lying to the people of Western Province for promising that he would restore the Barotseland Agreement, Dr Chongwe said instead of condemning Sata, Dr Musokotwane and his colleagues in government should do something about it since they held the instruments of power and had the majority in Parliament.
“But to say someone who is in opposition if he came into power he wont’ do it, ‘he is telling lies’, I think that is stupid type of politics. It is illogical because if the opposition is promising the people of the Western Province that they are going to restore the Barotseland Agreement then the government if they want can actually restore it tomorrow,” he said.
Dr Chongwe said the people of Western Province felt cheated, saying when they requested the MMD government to look at the Agreement, they were shown bullets.
Dr Chongwe said he agreed with former Ngambela Mututwa Mututwa, that Sata was now the messenger for the Barotse Agreement.
“MMD has only itself to blame because they would have done what the people of Barotse land want. They want devolution of power so that their province has some political power to better the life of the people at the local level,” said Dr Chongwe.
On Monday, the Lusaka High Court upheld Rathi’s four-year jail term slapped on him by the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court two years ago.
When sentencing Rathi on November 3, 2009, magistrate Charles Kafunda, who is now High Court deputy director for court operations, said it was clear that Funjika manipulated the award of a tender to Seymon Holdings and his two children were given 7,500 pounds each which was also to his benefit.
He said the prosecution proved that Rathi gave the 15,000 pounds to Funjika who was a public officer so that he could manipulate the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA), which was a public institution.
Magistrate Kafunda also ordered that the 342,000 pounds, which Rathi gained from the corruption act be forfeited to the state.
When delivering the appeal judgment, judge Nigel Mutuna sitting with judge Patrick Matibini ordered that Rathi serves the remainder of his four year sentence after they dismissed his 17 grounds of appeal saying they lacked merit and legal backing.
The High Court also revoked Rathi’s bail but said he had the right to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Rathi has already served 12 months of his sentence.
In December last year, Rathi won a bid to dine with President Rupiah Banda after he pledged K260 million to the MMD but the party president, who had earlier accepted the bid, rescinded his decision following public outcry.
And during the same appeal in January this year, the state submitted that there was no overwhelming circumstantial evidence to prove beyond doubt that Rathi was guilty of corruption as charged.
In their final submissions the state said the evidence before court did not show what criminal action Rathi did to prove an omission on his part that led to the crime.
Labels: CHALWE MCHENGA, DPP, ROGER CHONGWE
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Rupiah has abused people’s sympathy, says Chumbwe
By Bright Mukwasa
Fri 27 May 2011, 04:01 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has heavily abused the sympathy vote he was given in 2008, says Geoffrey Chumbwe. And Chumbwe says it is immoral for President Banda to play around with the health of the people of Chongwe district who were admitted to the newly built hospital for “show” during the launch of the mobile hospitals.
In an interview, Chumbwe said people that voted for President Banda hoped he would continue and commit to late president Levy Mwanawasa’s vision and dream. Chumbwe said President Banda’s move to divert from those promises made him unworthy of another mandate.
“President Banda has already used the sympathy vote and heavily abused it; he has wasted it. He's going in this election. And we’re going into this election head-on,” Chumbwe said.
He said this year the MMD would not even get the rural vote.
He said the U-turn on many of Mwanawasa's promises, had spoiled many chances of the MMD to gain votes in this year's election.
Chumbwe also accused President Banda of being insensitive to the health of the people of Chongwe district.
He alleged that during commissioning of mobile hospitals in Chongwe recently, President Banda's government organised sick people from surrounding health centres to pose in the hospital just to show that his regime was working.
“Patients were brought here and put in wards, but the moment he left, the people were removed. Mobile hospitals also left just the moment he left,” said Chumbwe.
He said the MMD's desperation to win votes was reaching dangerous levels as it had resorted to playing with people's lives.
''It's unbelievable that President Banda is playing with people's lives. We can't have a liar for a President. It's really painful you know,” said Chumbwe during a visit at the hospital.
And a check at Chongwe district health centre found patients crowded and some of them sleeping on the floor while relatives waiting for expectant mothers spent nights in an open shelter.
The newly built hospital had no staff manning it and at the time of the check it remained closed.
And speaking when he donated bicycles to PF party members in Chongwe last weekend, Chumbwe urged the beneficiaries to intensify their recruitment of members in the interior of the district.
He urged his party members to use the bicycles for mobilisation.
Labels: GEOFFREY CHUMBWE, MOBILE HOSPITALS, RUPIAH BANDA
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Rupiah has abused people’s sympathy, says Chumbwe
By Bright Mukwasa
Fri 27 May 2011, 04:01 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has heavily abused the sympathy vote he was given in 2008, says Geoffrey Chumbwe. And Chumbwe says it is immoral for President Banda to play around with the health of the people of Chongwe district who were admitted to the newly built hospital for “show” during the launch of the mobile hospitals.
In an interview, Chumbwe said people that voted for President Banda hoped he would continue and commit to late president Levy Mwanawasa’s vision and dream.
Chumbwe said President Banda’s move to divert from those promises made him unworthy of another mandate.
“President Banda has already used the sympathy vote and heavily abused it; he has wasted it. He's going in this election. And we’re going into this election head-on,” Chumbwe said.
He said this year the MMD would not even get the rural vote.
He said the U-turn on many of Mwanawasa's promises, had spoiled many chances of the MMD to gain votes in this year's election.
Chumbwe also accused President Banda of being insensitive to the health of the people of Chongwe district.
He alleged that during commissioning of mobile hospitals in Chongwe recently, President Banda's government organised sick people from surrounding health centres to pose in the hospital just to show that his regime was working.
“Patients were brought here and put in wards, but the moment he left, the people were removed. Mobile hospitals also left just the moment he left,” said Chumbwe.
He said the MMD's desperation to win votes was reaching dangerous levels as it had resorted to playing with people's lives.
''It's unbelievable that President Banda is playing with people's lives. We can't have a liar for a President. It's really painful you know,” said Chumbwe during a visit at the hospital.
And a check at Chongwe district health centre found patients crowded and some of them sleeping on the floor while relatives waiting for expectant mothers spent nights in an open shelter.
The newly built hospital had no staff manning it and at the time of the check it remained closed.
And speaking when he donated bicycles to PF party members in Chongwe last weekend, Chumbwe urged the beneficiaries to intensify their recruitment of members in the interior of the district.
He urged his party members to use the bicycles for mobilisation.
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Pres Mugabe in Addis Ababa for AU summit
Posted by By Brett Mashingaidze at 24 May, at 17 : 29 PM Print
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has left the country for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend an African Union Extra-ordinary Summit which is expected to discuss the situation in Libya as well as the peace and security situation on the continent.
African Heads of State and Government at the summit will discuss the relentless bombardment of Libya by American and NATO forces.
The extraordinary summit marks the first major step by the pan-Africanist body towards resolving the crisis in the oil rich North African country.
It will provide an opportunity to review the situation in Libya on the basis of the work being carried out by the AU high level ad hoc committee on Libya.
The summit is expected to challenge the rationale behind the American and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which has been blatantly abused to bombard Libya by the US and NATO forces.
Although the western-sponsored resolution had provided for a no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians, it did not recognise the efforts that were being carried out by the African Union, which sought to tackle the upheaval in the North African country as an African problem.
Over the years, Libya has been an active member of the African Union.
In the early stages of the conflict, the AU Peace and Security Council had assessed the situation and resolved to back Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s clampdown on the insurgents who were threatening the stability of Libya.
As part of its ongoing efforts to find a lasting solution to the problem, the AU in April dispatched an ad hoc high level committee on Libya to meet the warring parties.
The committee visited Tripoli where it met Libyan leader, Col Gaddafi and later held a meeting with rebel leaders in Benghazi.
Labels: AU, LIBYA, MUAMMAR AL-GADDAFI, ROBERT MUGABE
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LonZim well-placed for recovery
Posted by By Brett Mashingaidze at 24 May, at 17 : 59 PM Print
Zimbabwe-focused investment company LonZim said its five core businesses are well placed for economic recovery in the country after the firm revealed increase revenues and a reduced operating loss in its interim results.
During the six months to 28 February, LonZim’s revenues improved 14.4 per cent to £3.1 million while its operating loss reduced to £2.5 million. The company reported that its Leopard Rock Hotel had completed the refurbishment it has undergone since LonZim acquired it in April 2009.
Although occupancy rates at the hotel currently remain low generally, with occasionally short periods of full occupancy driven by specific events such as weddings and conferences, LonZim believes its refurbishment has made it ready to be an integral part of the rebuilding of the Zimbabwean tourist industry.
LonZim’s wholly-owned Paynet business continues to provide electronic funds transfers (EFT) systems to the majority of banks in Zimbabwe as well as microfinance through its Tradanet platform, the company reported.
Paynet saw an increase in EFT business during the period, while Tradanet saw a significant increase in the number of microfinance loans in the market and has benefited from increased confidence returning to the economy. Paynet is seeking increased access to capital to be able to meet the growing demand for loans via Tradanat.
Celsys – in which LonZim has a 60 per cent holding – has centred its operations around security and general printing, as well as the distribution and lease of ATMs and point of sale (POS) equipment. LonZim believes that printing remains an important industry sector where volumes will increase as the economy recovers.
LonZim’s Gardoserve chemicals blending and importation business, which it owns outright, is beginning to see growth as a result of the improving industrial and mining sectors of the economy.
ForgetMeNot Africa, in which LonZim has a 51 per cent holding, has successfully rolled out its FMNA platform for instant messaging and other message platforms with several networks across Africa.
In Zimbabwe the launch of FMNA with Econet has begun with encouraging uptake. LonZim added that initial results indicate this will be FMNA’s strongest market to date.
Elsewhere, there has been little further progress at LonZim’s development site at Beira in Mozambique nor at Sol Aviation (90 per cent-owned by LonZim), where the roll out of its Fly540 Zimbabwe regional airline operation remains on hold until the demand and market dynamics of operating in the Zimbabwean aviation market become clearer.
LonZim has withdrawn from the Zimbabwean pharmaceutical products market, where its Panafmed subsidiary had been operating.
“LonZim has seen progress during the period, and the economic situation in Zimbabwe continues to improve, albeit from a very low starting point.
“There is relative stability in the commercial environment that is allowing businesses to manage their operations in a normalised environment, a great improvement from the recent hyperinflationary economic conditions,” said David Lenigas, LonZim’s executive chairman.
After December’s share placing, which raised around £5 million with institutions, LonZim had cash of £2.6 million on its balance sheet at the end of February.
LonZim’s share price was up 4.2% at 25 pence at 8:15am.
Labels: LONZIM
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Load-shedding to continue — Zesa
Saturday, 21 May 2011 22:45 Top Stories
Sunday Mail Reporter
POWER outages will continue countrywide as the power stations in Hwange and Kariba are not able to meet the demand for electricity, an official has said.
Zesa Holdings spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira said power generation was so low at Hwange Thermal Power Station that it was failing to complement Kariba. This means that even though care and maintenance work was successfully carried out at Kariba Hydroelectric Power Station, the electricity situation would remain dire.
Mr Gwasira said the situation was worsened by the fact that the power utility was prioritising wheat farmers, who were consuming a lot of power.
“We are unable to import power from the region as there is very little in terms of power in the Sadc region,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Mr Justin Mupamhanga, said the Government had no alternative to load-shedding.
He said they would continue to rehabilitate power stations to maintain generation capacity.
“Apart from the rehabilitation and processes of expansion of the power stations, the truth about the situation is that there is no excess power,” said Mr Mupamhanga.
“We cannot import power from the region and remember, we are many in the region and the demand is high.”
Despite the power outages Zesa has come under fire from consumers over “inflated bills”.
But Mr Gwasira said they were no longer experiencing challenges with bills.
“What appears on the bill is what one would have consumed. There are some customers who think their bills are not correct, but they are correct. If anyone has a problem with the bills they should approach our offices,” he said.
Meanwhile, Harare Residents’ Trust Co-ordinator Mr Precious Shumba said there was widespread concern among consumers over Zesa’s failure to communicate with them pertaining to the load-shedding schedules.
“As the Harare Residents’ Trust, we have received serious concerns from residents as Zesa is failing to communicate with the people on load-shedding schedules,” he said.-The Sunday MAil
Labels: ENERGY, KARIBA DAM, ZESA
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