COMMENT - On the one hand, I am against government involvement in people's private lives, as long as it concerns a) consenting b) adults. On the other hand... these gay activist groups seem to be a heaven send for the ZANU-PF, whose policies I support. Especially with an upcoming election, they are driving any undecided people toward the party that is not connected to gay issues. The problem with these organisations is that they are not willing to sow where they are going to reap. They are not willing to do the work and sway the people to them, and want policies to be imposed from the top down. Of course they would be up against 100 years of Christian indoctrination... And then there is the issue of power relations and vulnerable children, which the Peter Roebuck affair only underscores. This agenda is not driven by local organisations, and is driven from abroad. Which is not very democratic.
Gay group donation triggers Byo storm
07/12/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
RESDENTS and civic organisations have blasted Bulawayo Mayor, Thaba Moyo (MDC-T) for accepting a donation of litter bins from a local gay and lesbian pressure group. Councillor Moyo received the pink rubbish bins from the Sexual Rights Centre during a brief function at the Large City Hall on Tuesday.
Bulawayo United Residents Association secretary-general, Samuel Moyo said the local authority should have consulted residents.
“The issue of gays and lesbians is a very controversial national problem and council was therefore supposed to consult the people as accepting the donation could be misconstrued to mean the local authority subscribes to gay rights,” Moyo told The Chronicle.
“The gesture in itself is noble but the decision to accept or reject the bins should have come from the people not councilors.”
But Cllr Moyo defended the donation and warned against vandalism of the bins.
"We are a council (for) all (residents) despite race, colour or creed, and our donors are Bulawayo citizens and they reserve the right to donate to whoever they want to and we have also a right to accept donations from whoever we want," he said.
"(And) let me say whoever vandalises those bins will be made to pay."
MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai has also been under-fire for backing gay rights in a recent interview.
President Robert Mugabe says gays and lesbians are worse than “pigs and dogs” and insists including gay rights into the country’s constitution is out of the question.
"That issue is not debatable, it's not up for discussion," Mugabe said in a recent interview.
"It is just madness, insanity. The ancestors will turn in their graves should we allow this to happen."
Tsvangirai initially backed the Zanu PF leader, remarking: “I fully support the President…. Women make up 52 percent of the population... There are more women than men, so why should men be proposing to men?"
However, he spectacularly backtracked during an interview with the BBC.
"It's a very controversial subject in my part of the world. My attitude is that I hope the constitution will come out with freedom of sexual orientation, for as long as it does not interfere with anybody. To me, it's a human right," he said.
Meanwhile, the MDC-Ncube faction said it was not surprised Cllr Moyo chose to accept the pink litter bins.
“To us this is not a surprise. Tsvangirai and his people have been advocating for gays and lesbians rights hence they accepted this donation with open hands,” organising secretary, Qhubani Moyo said.
“However, Tsvangirai and his party should not bring gays to Bulawayo. If they want to do it, they should go and do it at Harvest House (MDC-T headquarters), not here.”
Labels: BULAWAYO, HOMOSEXUALITY
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COMMENT - Former finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane is an extremely corrupt individual. As a non-executive director at ZCCM-IH, he oversaw the non-payment of dividends to ZCCM-IH and never raised any objection or concern. He was caught telling a very different story to the IMF than he did to parliament. He was behind the abolition of the Windfall Tax, which has cost the Zambian taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars in uncollected taxes. He was found with over 1200 bicycles at his residency, a leftover from the MMD's corrupt election campaign.
Musokotwane insults Sata
By Bright Mukwasa
Wed 07 Dec. 2011, 14:59 CAT
FORMER finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane yesterday reacted angrily and insultingly to President Michael Sata's charge that the MMD government had printed money just before the elections.
Dismissing President Sata's allegations on Monday that the MMD printed money illegally from two companies which it is now using to disturb the PF government's performance, Dr Musokotwane poured scorn on the head of state accusing him of being careless with his statements and not being serious with national issues.
Dr Musokotwane, who is facing investigations over his acquisition of over 1200 bicycles that were seized from his residence, attacked Sata an embarrassment to the outside world because of his ‘wild' statements.
He wondered if President Sata had advisors and ministers he could still freely peddle falsehoods and make careless statements.
Dr Musokotwane likened President Sata to the boy who cried wolf and used to alarm the village with falsehoods and could not be believed on the actual day the wolf came.
"In short what I am saying is that when the President makes a serious allegation, he needs to get it investigated, study it and verify it otherwise there is a danger that the day he is going to say something serious because its genuine, people will say that's the way it is, that's the way he is, don't take him serious. The country gets invaded, he will say our country is being invaded, people will say don't mind him. That's the way he normally talks," he said.
Dr Musokotwane pleaded with President Sata to be serious with national issues.
"He is no longer in opposition. The Zambian people are more listening to him on how he is going to fulfill the campaign promises that he made. They want to know from him the jobs he is going to give to all the youths that he promised in 90 days," he said.
Dr Musokotwane wondered how President Sata could run a country with fake money.
"We find it extremely shameful and very embarrassing that the whole Head of State can make such disparaging remarks about his own currency. When he says that BoZ printed fake money, when he says its fake money that is circulating, money that is illegal, it is the money that you put on colour printer and print it both sides that is fake money," he said.
[Actually even if they used official paper and ink, it is still illegal and inflationary to print money, presumably for party purposes. - MrK]
Dr Musokotwane said fake money was identified by the fact that it did not pass security.
He said money that was issued had security features and specifications.
"How does the whole Head of State embarrass the nation by telling the outside world that the money that is circulating in my country produced by the Central Bank is fake money? Can you imagine the President of South Africa talking like that about his currency? Can you imagine the President who was visiting us George Bush, when he was President without any proof announcing to the outside world that the money circulating in America is fake when in actual fact is not. So I find this extremely shameful, very embarrassing to us as a country that the President can make such a careless statement about our currency," he said.
"Because with that statement if the public are told this money is fake when it's not fake, you will have legitimate reasons to go to the banks and dump the money and say this is fake money. What does that do to the economy? So let the President help us by giving all of us pride by avoiding making such careless statements such as this one. He is a leader of our country," said Musokotwane.
"He is in charge of our currency so how does he denounce this currency to the outside world that this is fake money when in fact this is false? So this is very shameful indeed. The behaviour by the President of making all these dramatic statements and so-called revelations which turn out to be false, again we are getting embarrassed. The outside world will be asking questions - does the President have advisors? Does the President have ministers? If so why does he make all these allegations that turn out to be false?"
Dr Musokotwane said youths and everyone were waiting for more money in their pockets which Sata promised in 90 days.
He said even the Barotseland agreement which President Sata said he would restore was being awaited for.
Dr Musokotwane said other leaders had carefully handled the Barotse issue but President Sata was careless with the matter and people of Western Province were waiting for him to honour his restoration promise.
"These are the more serious issues that he should focus on. Address these issues not making dramatic revelations that end up to be nothing as in this case. If he doesn't do that we can only conclude that the President is not focused. He does not know how to address the promises that he made," he said.
Dr Musokotwane said President Sata should focus on substantive issues that he promised the people and not make wild allegations by saying that his own currency, issued by his Central Bank where he had appointed his own people was printing fake money.
Dr Musokotwane questioned President Sata's honesty over his claims that the MMD had printed money illegally.
Dr Musokotwane challenged President Sata to establish a commission of inquiry to back his claims.
He called on the Bank of Zambia to state whether the MMD government forced the bank to print fake money.
"The allegation is false. The money that's in circulation is genuine money. There maybe fake money around there but that's not even one per cent," he said.
Dr Musokotwane said the Central Bank did not inform him about the change of company to print the notes in circulation.
"No, I was never informed. I was deputy governor at some point, whenever we are printing money, the only time we ever informed government was when there was change in the actual prints. In other words, this print is different from this one, that's when you go and tell Cabinet. But when you're printing new notes, replacing the old ones, we never informed anyone and in this particular case, I was not informed. And I don't complain because it was not necessary," Dr Musokotwane said.
"As long as the Bank of Zambia complied with the tender procedures, which I am sure they did, that's fine and the company that's mentioned there De La Rue was the one printing according to the story and then they moved over to Giesecke and Devrient. And because I was deputy governor I know both companies are reputable international printing companies, no question about it. So if in the tender process one company was preferred over the other, I am sure there must be a reason for that."
[Actually, if the MMD had money printed up for their election campaign, that is not 'fine'. - MrK]
But State House yesterday stated that Dr Musokotwane and his colleagues must not panic and resort to half-truths but instead wait for the due process of the law to take its course.
Special assistant to the President for press and public relations George Chellah said it was not so surprising, that Dr Musokotwane had gone further to describe the facts laid bare by President Sata as "false, shameful and embarrassing."
"These are very serious charges from a man whose locus standi on this matter and many other oversights unearthed concerning the previous administration, is extremely hard to comprehend," said Chellah in a statement.
He said Dr. Musokotwane seemed to be acting like a very useful, but out of control spokesperson of a troubled group seeking to confuse the due process of the law with politics.
"Nevertheless, his incessant outbursts provide helpful pointers especially to the investigators pursuing the many leads into the wrong-doing that went on under the previous regime. It shall soon dawn on him that there is nothing to defend about the many excesses of the past regime's unpatriotic conduct," he said.
Chellah said the biggest and most serious challenge facing Zambia today was excessive greedy and corruption.
"No reasonable person privy to the rot that went on under the immediate-past leadership can ignore the deplorable state of affairs under which the MMD left this country. Dr Musokotwane and his colleagues must just own up instead of trivialising the otherwise serious irregularities the new administration continues to encounter as it cleans up government," he said.
Labels: CORRUPTION, GEORGE CHELLAH, MICHAEL SATA, MMD, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE
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COMMENT - For more on regime change artists like David Moyse and VOA, read Stephen Gowans' article
Zimbabwe At War, from 2008.
US deplores media harassment
07/12/2011 00:00:00
by AFP
THE United States on Wednesday deplored the harassment of journalists and civil society activists in Zimbabwe after the arrest of two journalists and three media observers in the past month.
"The embassy of the United States of America in Zimbabwe notes with regret and concern the increased frequency of arrests and detention of media workers and civil society activists throughout 2011," a statement said.
Three workers of the watchdog organisation Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) were arrested in Gwanda, 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of the capital Harare on Monday.
They were charged under the repressive Public Order and Security Act (POSA) for holding an unauthorised meeting and for participating in a gathering to promote public violence.
Police on Tuesday questioned MMPZ head Andy Moyse for hours in Harare before he was released.
Authorities also raided the organisation's offices and seized DVDs which they alleged contained subversive content.
The United States embassy called for the parties to the unity agreement to "implement their written commitments to a free and unfettered media and civil society."
Last month Zimbabwe police arrested the editor of The Standard newspaper, Nevanji Madanhire and reporter Nqaba Matshazi on defamation charges over a story on a health insurance company owned by a senior central bank official.
The two are out on bail of $100.
Several other journalists were either arrested or held overnight by police in Zimbabwe this year.
Media in Zimbabwe have operated under strict rules for the last decade, with several newspapers forced to shut down while local journalists and foreign correspondents have been deported and harassed by police.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a long-time rival of President Robert Mugabe, has vowed to abolish the country's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which bans foreign journalists from working permanently in the country.
Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS (ZIMBABWE), CHARLES RAY, NEOCOLONIALISM
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COMMENT - More on Moyse, Violet Gonda, and the regime change NGOs and 'independent media', in Stephen Gowans 2008 article,
Zimbabwe at War.
Police detain media watchdog boss
07/12/2011 00:00:00
by ReutersI VOA
POLICE detained a leading media rights activist on Tuesday in what analysts said was a new crackdown on critics of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party before a possible general election next year. The Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) said its director, Andy Moyse, was arrested at his Harare office on charges of distributing subversive material.
On Monday two other MMPZ staffers were detained in Gwanda under tough security laws.
MMPZ said later that Moyse was released after questioning and was not charged.
The group said police seized DVDs calling on the media to contribute to peaceful elections through fair, accurate and balanced coverage of campaigns by political parties.
Moyse told VOA’s violet Gonda that police questioned him about 127 digital video disks his organisation had produced, mainly to promote a more tolerant media.
The Police said they were looking for material related to the 1980s Gukurahundi conflict in the Matebeleland and Midlands regions.
But Moyse said the DVDs produced by his group contained no information the emotive subject and, instead, upon the media to contribute to peaceful elections through fair, accurate and balanced coverage of election campaigns by the media.
"The message urges the people to encourage the media to practice political tolerance, restraint and particularly to condemn violence especially during election period,” he said.
ZRP spokesperson, Wayne Bvudzijena police were still studying the material
"We had information that they had some CDs and DVDs which we believe contain material which could be used to incite members of the public," he said.
"We have seized a substantial number (of CDs and DVDs) which we are studying. These are only preliminary investigations."
Labels: MEDIA, PROPAGANDA, VIOLET GONDA, VOA
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Ex-ruling party illegally printed dud money, reveals Sata
SATA_ANNOYED2
By DEAN MWAANGA
THE ‘sins’ of the past seem to be catching up with the MMD while in government with revelations that former President Rupiah Banda’s administration illegally printed money using two unnamed printers apart from the official Thomas De La Rue.
President Sata revealed yesterday that the illegal money is in circulation and is also
being used to antagonise and dilute the effect of the Patriotic Front (PF) government.He expressed disappointment with Secretary to the Cabinet Joshua Kanganja and his deputy Evans Chibiliti for not informing the new government about the printing of new Kwacha notes.
“Mr Chibiliti worked at the Bank of Zambia and we have been in government for more than two months. Mr Chibiliti and his Secretary to the Cabinet have not been kind enough to let us know that the previous government illegally printed money from two other printers apart from De La Rue and this money is circulating,” Mr Sata said as the seemingly bemused pair of Dr Kanganja and Mr Chibiliti looked at each other.
Mr Sata made the revelation during a swearing-in ceremony for three deputy ministers and three other members of the technical committee set up to draft a new constitution.
Efforts to get a comment from former Bank of Zambia governor Caleb Fundanga and former Finance and national Planning minister Situmbeko Musokotwane failed.
Last week, the Bank of Zambia issued a statement in which it confirmed that it offered a contract to a German firm, Giesecke and Devrient GmbH (G and D), to print the Kwacha for 2010- 2012.
There is also Sabn printing Kwacha notes in Zambia.
Premier Consult executive director Oliver Saasa said governments can inappropriately print money through deficit financing but said the exercise can be costly to the economy if the money is left to circulate for a long time.
Professor Saasa said more money in circulation triggers inflation.
He said the money in circulation should be equivalent to gold and diamond in reserve at the Bank of Zambia.
“If you leave it longer in circulation it triggers inflation because it disturbs the equilibrium of money in supply,” Prof Saasa said.
He said countries like Argentina and Brazil ended up with crises 20 years ago because of over-printing money in an economy.
Prof Saasa said in Africa, Uganda experienced a similar problem because of the problem caused by having more money chasing few goods.
The deputy ministers sworn in are for Agriculture, Brigadier-General Benson Kapaya, David Mabumba for Education and Dr Mutaba Mwali for Transport, Works, Supply and Communication.
Dr Rodger Chongwe, Council of Churches in Zambia secretary-general Reverend Suzanne Matale and Father Ivis Chituba were sworn in as members of the technical committee set up to draft the new republican Constitution.
The President accused his predecessor of appointing a committee of three chiefs who are going round the country to “antagonise and dilute the effects of the PF government using the fake money.”
Mr Sata, who did not name the chiefs, said Government is aware of their activities and where they are.
“We don’t want to make noise because we are following them; wherever they are, we are also there. We know what they are doing,” the President said.
Mr Sata said instead of going round to look at the benefits of traditional leaders, the three chiefs are trying to disturb the works of Government and warned that they risk contravening the Chiefs Act.
“What they should do is to hire privately Rodger Chongwe to assist them understand what the law concerning the Chiefs Act says and what they are risking. I congratulate them for being appointed and using fake money.
“We know where they are, we know the chiefs they have met and we know who they are meeting today. And those chiefs they have met are coming to tell us,” he said.
House of Chiefs chairperson, Chief Madzimawe wondered why former President Banda would appoint a committee to go round the country and destabilise Government.
“He had his time (and) now it’s Mr Sata’s time to govern,” he said.
Chief Madzimawe denied involvement in any scheme to discredit the PF government, saying all well-meaning chiefs would not want to antagonise a serving Government.
He called for an investigation so that those involved are exposed.
At the time of the interview, Chief Madzimawe said he was in Nyimba on his way to Chipata from Lusaka where he attended an HIV and AIDS workplace policy organised by the International Labour Organisation.
Chief Madzimawe said President Sata should have named the chiefs involved.
And Mr Sata said his appointment of committees is backed by law which empowers him to do so.
He told the deputy ministers who were sworn in to respect their ministers, warning that the PF will go to their constituencies and discredit them if they fail to heed his advice.
“If you don’t respect the ministers you are working with, then you don’t respect your constituencies and if you don’t respect your constituencies, we are going to storm your constituency and disown you,” he warned.
Labels: CORRUPTION, EVANS CHIBILITI, JOSHUA KANGANJA, MICHAEL SATA, MMD
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Own up, State House tells Musokotwane
By Times Reporter
STATE House has advised former Finance minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane and ‘his colleagues’ to
own up and stop trivialising the serious and glaring illegalities that the MMD government perpetrated.Meanwhile, Speaker of the National Assembly, Patrick Matibini, has directed Minister of Finance and National Planning, Alexander Chikwanda, to
issue a statement in the House on reports that the previous regime illegally printed money using two printers other than the country’s officially approved printers.
In taking a swipe at Dr Musokotwane, special assistant to the president for Press and public relations, George Chellah said it would soon dawn on the former Finance minister that there was nothing to defend about the “many excesses of the past regime’s unpatriotic conduct”.
He said it was not surprising that Dr Musokotwane had disputed a factual account that the previous regime illegitimately printed money.
“Not so surprising, Dr Musokotwane has gone further to describe the facts laid bare by this office as “false, shameful and embarrassing.
”
“These are very serious charges from a man whose locus standi on this matter and many other oversights unearthed concerning the previous administration, is extremely hard to comprehend,” Mr Chellah said.
He said the former minister seemed to be acting like a useful, but out-of-control spokesperson of a troubled group seeking to confuse the due process of law with politics.
Mr Chellah said Dr Musokotwane’s incessant outbursts provided helpful pointers, especially to the investigators pursuing the many leads into the wrong-doing that went on under the previous regime.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to make it abundantly clear that the biggest and most serious challenge facing Zambia today, whether Dr Musokotwane and his colleagues agree or not, is excessive greed and corruption, he said.
Mr Chellah said under the previous administration which Dr Musokotwane served with pride, corruption assumed endemic proportions as authorities turned a blind eye to it for obvious reasons.
He said no reasonable person privy to the rot that went on under the immediate past leadership could ignore the deplorable state of affairs under which the MMD left Zambia.
“Dr Musokotwane and his colleagues must not panic and resort to half-truths but instead wait for the due process of the law to take its course.
“The Republican President, His Excellency Mr Michael Chilufya Sata has repeatedly stated that this is not a witch-hunt but a legitimate search for the truth. Let it be known that the president would definitely be the happiest to see that our former leaders are cleared of possible wrong-doing by law-enforcement agencies,” Mr Chellah said.
On the ministerial statement, Dr Matibini issued the directive following a point of order raised by Monze Central Member of Parliament Jack Mwiimbu (UPND) in Parliament yesterday.
Mr Mwiimbu said pursuant to Article 51 of the Constitution of Zambia, he wanted to find out from the vice-president whether the Government was in order to remain quiet over a serious issue that had been made public by President Sata on illegal currency that was in circulation in the country.
He said the issue had raised a lot of anxiety among the people of Zambia, especially in Monze Central Constituency.
“I have in possession a K50,000 note which was not printed by the official Government money printer, Thomas De La Rue, which I got as an allowance from the National Assembly. Is Government in order to raise anxiety like this,” Mr Mwiimbu asked.
He later laid the K50,000 in question on the table of the House.
Earlier in the day, Dr Musokotwane, at a Press briefing in Lusaka yesterday, denied that the MMD Government illegally printed money using two other printing companies instead of Zambia’s official printers, Thomas De La Rue.
He was reacting to President Sata’s revelations on Monday that the MMD illegally printed money which it was now using to destabilise the Patriotic Front (PF) Government.
Dr Musokotwane challenged President Sata to constitute a commission of inquiry to substantiate his assertions that the MMD illegally printed money.
He advised that Mr Sata should stop making wild allegations, which may be misconstrued by the outside world.
Dr Musokotwane said issues to do with the country’s currency were a serious matter.
He challenged Mr Sata and BoZ staff to come out in
the open and tell the nation about what could have transpired.
He said BoZ should have printed the said money following the needs and tender procedures at the time and that the MMD government had nothing to do with it.
Dr Musokotwane said during his tenure as deputy BoZ governor, he knew the other two companies that were believed to have printed the money as reputable.
Labels: CORRUPTION, GEORGE CHELLAH, KWACHA, MMD, PATRICK MATIBINI, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE
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MMD under Rupiah Banda externalised K50bn — Mahtani?
TIME PUBLISHED - Wednesday, December 7, 2011, 9:15 am
FINANCE Bank Zambia (FBZ) Limited chairperson, Rajan Mahtani, has alleged that the former regime under president Rupiah Banda, externalised over K50 billion to the United Kingdom and South Africa at the time the bank was under seizure. Mr Mahtani claimed that a total of K52 billion was externalised through the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) to named UK and South African-based companies.
He made the allegations at a media briefing in Lusaka yesterday, saying the previous regime separately externalised K17 billion to a London-based company and US$7 million (about K35 billion) to South Africa.
Mr Mahtani alleged that the K17 billion was transmitted to a company in London that was contracted to audit the bank shortly after it was repossessed while a named forensics company from South Africa was specifically contracted to investigate Dr Mahtani and was paid an equivalent of K35 billion ($7 million).
The FBZ chairperson said steps had been taken to ensure that the bank recovered the money because the fees were unjustifiably too high.?
Dr Mathani displays stitches from his open heart operation in South Africa recently. This was during a press briefing in Lusaka.
Mr Mahtani said what was even more worrying was that the audit was undertaken after the bank obtained a court order to restrain the company from going ahead.?
Dr Mahtani also said the decision by the previous government to repossess and sell the bank was ill-conceived and was done to punish him because of the long-standing differences the bank had with a former government official before he joined the government.?
He alleged that the official borrowed a substantial amount of money from the bank to purchase a house and never paid back until the board decided to grab a house situated in Lusaka’s Kabulonga area.?
On the audit, Dr Mahtani said there had been no firm which had ever charged K17 billion for such services and wondered why the BoZ did not engage a local international audit firm.
He said as board chairperson, he was not involved in the whole transaction about the Kabulonga house and there was nothing legally wrong with the decision by the FBZ.
Dr Mahtani claimed that the sale of the bank to First National Bank at K27 billion was purely a political decision and that within the few months it operated under its original shareholders, the bank had made K60 billion profit.?
According to Dr Mahtani, FBZ made minor mistakes because the officials were human beings but such did not warrant the closure of a viable business.?
He said FBZ shareholders, Credit Suisse have resolved to fund the 500 million Euro bonds the Government intended to float and hoped to act as an agent to resell the bonds as a way of showing appreciation to the Zambian Government which had reversed the transaction.?
Dr Mahtani also said FBZ planned to commence the process of listing on the Lusaka, London and Johannesburg stock exchanges and that 40 per cent shares would be off-loaded by 2014.
He said he faced hardships to seek medical treatment when he was operated on at Milpark Clinic in South Africa while officials from the Drug-Enforcement Commission (DEC) followed him without good reasons.
Dr Mahtani said the bank was expected to pay K20 billion in taxes by the end of the year while the number of workers would rise to around 1,000 before the end of next year.?
Meanwhile, FBZ has, with immediate effect, increased salaries for its 734 workers by K2 million across the board with the lowest paid getting at least K4.5 million per month.
[Times of Zambia]
Labels: CORRUPTION, FINANCE BANK, MMD, RAJAN MAHTANI
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Have You Heard About The 16 Trillion Dollar Bailout The Federal Reserve Handed To The Too Big To Fail Banks?
Global Research, December 2, 2011
The Economic Collapse
What you are about to read should absolutely astound you. During the last financial crisis, the Federal Reserve secretly conducted the biggest bailout in the history of the world, and the Fed fought in court for several years to keep it a secret.
Do you remember the TARP bailout? The American people were absolutely outraged that the federal government spent 700 billion dollars bailing out the "too big to fail" banks. Well, that bailout was pocket change compared to what the Federal Reserve did.
As you will see documented below, the Federal Reserve actually handed more than 16 trillion dollars in nearly interest-free money to the "too big to fail" banks between 2007 and 2010. So have you heard about this on the nightly news? Probably not. Lately Bloomberg has been reporting on some of this, but even they are not giving people the whole picture. The American people need to be told about this 16 trillion dollar bailout, because it is a perfect example of why the Federal Reserve needs to be shut down. The Federal Reserve has been actively picking "winners" and "losers" in the financial system, and it turns out that the "friends" of the Fed always get bailed out and always end up among the "winners". This is not how a free market system is supposed to work.
According to the limited GAO audit of the Federal Reserve that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the grand total of all the secret bailouts conducted by the Federal Reserve during the last financial crisis comes to a whopping $16.1 trillion.
That is an astonishing amount of money.
Keep in mind that the GDP of the United States for the entire year of 2010 was only 14.58 trillion dollars.
The total U.S. national debt is only a bit above 15 trillion dollars right now.
So 16 trillion dollars is an almost inconceivable amount of money.
But some other dollar figures have been thrown around lately regarding these secret Federal Reserve bailouts. Let's take a look at them and see what they mean.
$1.2 Trillion
A recent Bloomberg article made the following statement....
The $1.2 trillion peak on Dec. 5, 2008 -- the combined outstanding balance under the seven programs tallied by Bloomberg -- was almost three times the size of the U.S. federal budget deficit that year and more than the total earnings of all federally insured banks in the U.S. for the decade through 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The $1.2 trillion figure represents the peak outstanding balance on these loans, not the total amount of all the loans. On December 5, 2008 the "too big to fail" banks owed this much money to the Federal Reserve. Many of them could not pay these short-term loans back right away and had to keep rolling them over time after time. Each time a short-term loan got rolled over that represented a new loan.
$7.7 Trillion
Bloomberg is reporting that the Federal Reserve had made a total of $7.77 trillion in financial commitments to the big banks by the end of March 2009....
Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.
But as mentioned above, a one-time limited GAO audit of the Federal Reserve that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act covered an even broader time period and revealed even more bailout loans.
According to the GAO audit, $16.1 trillion in secret loans were made by the Federal Reserve between December 1, 2007 and July 21, 2010. The following list of firms and the amount of money that they received was taken directly from page 131 of the GAO audit report....
Citigroup - $2.513 trillion
Morgan Stanley - $2.041 trillion
Merrill Lynch - $1.949 trillion
Bank of America - $1.344 trillion
Barclays PLC - $868 billion
Bear Sterns - $853 billion
Goldman Sachs - $814 billion
Royal Bank of Scotland - $541 billion
JP Morgan Chase - $391 billion
Deutsche Bank - $354 billion
UBS - $287 billion
Credit Suisse - $262 billion
Lehman Brothers - $183 billion
Bank of Scotland - $181 billion
BNP Paribas - $175 billion
Wells Fargo - $159 billion
Dexia - $159 billion
Wachovia - $142 billion
Dresdner Bank - $135 billion
Societe Generale - $124 billion
"All Other Borrowers" - $2.639 trillion
This report was made available to all the members of Congress, but most of them have been totally silent about it. One of the only members of Congress that has said something has been U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.
The following is an excerpt from a statement about this audit that was taken from the official website of Senator Sanders....
"As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world"
So where is everyone else?
Why aren't leading Republicans and leading Democrats crying bloody murder over this report?
This scandal should have been front page news for months when it was revealed.
But it wasn't.
And Guess what?
Not only did the Federal Reserve give 16.1 trillion dollars in nearly interest-free loans to the "too big to fail" banks, the Fed also paid them over 600 million dollars to help run the emergency lending program. According to the GAO, the Federal Reserve shelled out an astounding $659.4 million in "fees" to the very financial institutions which caused the financial crisis in the first place.
In addition, it turns out that trillions of dollars of this bailout money actually went overseas. According to the GAO audit, approximately $3.08 trillion went to foreign banks in Europe and in Asia.
So why were our dollars being used to bail out foreign banks while tens of millions of American families were deeply suffering?
That is a very good question.
Also, it is important to remember that many of these bailout loans were made at below market interest rates, and this enabled many of these financial institutions to rake in huge profits.
According to a recent Bloomberg article, the big banks brought in an estimated $13 billion by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates....
While the Fed’s last-resort lending programs generally charge above-market interest rates to deter routine borrowing, that practice sometimes flipped during the crisis. On Oct. 20, 2008, for example, the central bank agreed to make $113.3 billion of 28-day loans through its Term Auction Facility at a rate of 1.1 percent, according to a press release at the time.
The rate was less than a third of the 3.8 percent that banks were charging each other to make one-month loans on that day. Bank of America and Wachovia Corp. each got $15 billion of the 1.1 percent TAF loans, followed by Royal Bank of Scotland’s RBS Citizens NA unit with $10 billion, Fed data show.
So once the financial crisis was over, were adjustments made to the financial system to make sure that this type of thing would never happen again?
Of course not.
Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.
So now they are more "too big to fail" than ever.
But this is what happens when we allow unelected central bank bureaucrats to run our financial system.
Most Americans do not realize this, but the truth is that the Federal Reserve is not part of the government. In fact, it is about as "federal" as Federal Express is. The Federal Reserve has admitted that they are a privately owned institution in court many times, and you can see video of a Federal Reserve employee admitting that the Federal Reserve is privately owned right here.
The Federal Reserve is an out of control monster that is throwing around trillions of dollars whenever it wants to. Nobody should be allowed to do this. Nobody should be allowed to give bailouts to banks and corporations without the express permission of the U.S. Congress and the president of the United States.
This is a point that I made in my article yesterday. The Federal Reserve decided this week that it is going to provide "liquidity support" to Europe. If the American people do not like this move, that is just too bad. We do not get a say in the matter.
Are you starting to understand why I keep pushing the idea that it is time to shut down the Federal Reserve?
Please share this information about the secret 16 trillion dollar Federal Reserve bailout with your family and your friends.
If we can get enough people to wake up, perhaps there is still time to change the direction that this country is headed.
Labels: BANKING, GREAT DEPRESSION II
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COMMENT - The Egyptian Uprising 2.0.
Three cheers for the second Egyptian uprising
Brendan O’Neill
Thursday 24 November 2011
Those confused by the return of the masses in Cairo have failed to learn a key lesson of history: democratic protesters are not easily placated.
It isn’t only Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and the rest of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Armed Forces who threaten to get swept aside by the return of the Egyptian people to the streets. So too do the Western prejudices and paternalistic attitudes towards Egyptians, which frothed to the top of public debate when Tahrir Square Take #1 took place in February.
First there was the idea that in ousting Hosni Mubarak, their much-hated, undemocratic president, the Egyptian people had neatly executed a ‘revolution’ and should now return home, like good little girls and boys. Egyptians were patted on the back by Western officials and op-ed writers, with even Baroness Ashton, the EU oligarchy’s unelected High Representative for Foreign Affairs, saying: ‘We pay tribute to the Egyptian people for the manner in which these events have unfolded.’
That is: well done, you got shot of Mubarak, now calm down. Yet the Egyptian people are clearly aware that what took place in February was a palace coup, not a revolution; it was the reordering of the Mubarak regime by one-time Mubarakans under pressure from the Egyptian masses. The latest uprising confirms that it is the Egyptian people, not baronesses or liberal leader-writers, who will decide when a ‘revolution’ has occurred.
The second delusion shot down by the new democratic surge is the notion that the original uprising would give birth to an Islamic theocracy. No sooner had these brown people in jeans taken to the streets than observers were fretting about the emergence of ‘another Iran’.
Proving they’ve never got over the shock of ’79, many worried out loud if Tahrir Square was not so much a ‘cradle of democracy’ as a ‘cradle of theocracy’, overseen by the crazies of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Yet the latest uprising is a massive kick in the eye to the Brotherhood, which was expecting to do well in next week’s parliamentary elections. The Brotherhood has condemned the fresh outbreak of democratic agitation, because where it wants simply to win bits of power from the military regime, the protesters are demanding the complete dismantling of the military regime before the elections.
The notion that the original Tahrir Squarers were the unwitting dupes of Islamic overlords spoke to the prejudices of Western observers who freak out whenever people ‘over there’ make a stab for mass democracy. The latest uprising proves that Egyptians are as happy to piss off cautious clerics as they are powerful presidents.
And third, there was the idea that Egyptians needed the assistance, even the say-so, of the Twitterati before they dared to launch their original uprising. Back then, amongst radicals and incontinent Wikileakers, it was fashionable to claim that it was thanks to the brave revelations of public figures like Julian Assange, and to the 140-character tweets of Troubled of Tunbridge Wells, that Egyptians got both the info and the cojones they needed to take on Mubarak.
As Assange said, Wikileaks helped Egypt by ‘creating an attitude towards freedom of expression’. Yet the new uprising shows that Egyptians don’t need their ‘attitudes’ carved or massaged by caring outsiders, by those London- or New York-based bearers of the White Tweeters’ Burden.
Indeed, far from aping their alleged Western patrons, Egyptians are now opting to do something quite different: as Western radicals make themselves voluntarily homeless by camping in public squares, and refusing ‘on principle’ to say what their principles are, Egyptians are taking a more confrontational approach with a pretty clear aim: to get rid of the military council.
So it isn’t only Egypt’s military council which should be trembling in its boots at the reappearance of the Egyptian masses in public life. So should those Westerners who tried either to patronise the Egyptian uprising out of existence, by shouting ‘Well done! Back to normality now!’, or who sought to scaremonger it into submission by saying ‘Islamist hotheads are behind the whole thing! Let’s be careful!’
Indeed, so uncomfortable are many observers with the return of the throng in Cairo and elsewhere that they are now implicitly backing the unelected military council over the democracy-demanding protesters. A Daily Mail commentator argues that although ‘there is no doubt that Egypt’s military regime has behaved, and will continue to behave, with great brutality… as bad as the military regime may be, the most likely alternative of a Muslim Brotherhood regime would be worse’.
In short, it would be better to keep the military in place rather than a) give in to the protesters’ insistence that it be swept aside, and b) allow elections in which Islamists would probably win a lot seats. For some desperate Western observers, the military council is a useful check on the Egyptian hordes’ distasteful political desires.
All these onlookers who are taken aback by Tahrir Square Take #2 – whether it’s EU officials who thought the whole thing was over with the exit of Mubarak or radical leftists who are can’t understand why Egyptians started a new uprising when the word ‘Egypt’ wasn’t even trending on Twitter – have simply failed to learn one of the key lessons of history.
Which is that when groups of protesting people get a sense of their own power, of their ability to shape events and make history, they are likely to continue pushing further and harder and to try to go beyond their initially fairly limited demands.
Having relatively easily elbowed aside Mubarak, a man who had ruled Egypt for so long (30 years) that many youth had never known anything different, Egyptians now fancy that they can probably get rid of a military council, too. The grovelling apologies issued by the council for the violence it visited upon the second uprising will further convince protesters that this regime is weak and can be done away with.
Democratic uprisings are rarely satisfied by being offered ‘a bit of democracy’ (which is a contradiction in terms, anyway). Rather, the protesters will increasingly feel that they want the whole thing, and not next week, with parliamentary elections organised by a military council, but right now.
Yet despite recent events, one Western delusion persists: the idea, amongst more radical commentators, that the reason the original uprising didn’t go very far is because it was ruthlessly squished by Arab authoritarians and external interference.
According to one Guardian columnist, the failure of the first Tahrir Square movement can be put down to ‘savage repression, foreign intervention, counter-revolution and the return of the old guard’. Sadly, things are far more complicated than such a simplistic appraisal would have us believe. One of the key – if not the key – reasons that the first uprising fizzled out is because the Egyptian protesters eschewed leadership and ideology in favour of making a public spectacle of their understandable angst.
Foreshadowing the Indignados movement in Spain and the even more decrepit Occupy movement in New York and London, the first Egyptian uprising self-consciously disavowed leadership structures and any programme of ideas or demands, so that, in the words of one Egyptian writer, there was ‘a complete absence of ideological rhetoric’ in Tahrir Square in February.
This failure to lead and elucidate, the inability to put forward and pursue clear demands and ideas, needs to be seen within a new global context of an unwillingness to clarify political problems.
From Egypt to Greece to New York, protesters now self-consciously refuse to engage in anything resembling a process of political clarification in favour of simply making an emotional statement – whether it’s indignation in Spain or victimhood in NYC. The tragic consequences of disavowing politics in this way can best be seen in the Arab Spring, where the old regimes, despite being rotten, unpopular and illegitimate, have been given great leeway to reorganise themselves courtesy of the failure of the protesters to make a final push for power. That is what happened in Egypt, as elsewhere in the Arab world: the uprisings put questions of power and authority on the table, but were unable to resolve them in any meaningful way. Let’s hope that the second Egyptian uprising will go some way towards clarifying the enormity of what is at stake here, and the importance of the Egyptian people moving from Tahrir Square into the heart of power itself.
Brendan O’Neill is editor of spiked. Visit his personal website here.
Labels: EGYPT
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'Far-fetched' dream to save SA economy slammed
NICKOLAUS BAUER - Dec 06 2011 07:22
South Africa's private sector and government must enter into more partnerships in 2012 if the country is to experience meaningful economic growth, Business Unity South Africa (Busa) said on Monday.
But the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and a leading economic analyst say the group's enthusiasm for such partnerships is sorely misplaced, emphasising instead the need for state-led and small business drives, respectively, to boost job creation and economic development.
Delivering Busa's economic outlook document for 2012, deputy CEO Raymond Parsons pointed to public-private partnerships (PPPs) as being a suitable vehicle to improve service delivery and drive economic growth.
"There is a universal concern about the challenge of delivery in the public sector and this is relevant to the R802-billion allocated to infrastructure over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.
The business community remains concerned that the state is still lacking the capacity to deal with its basic responsibilities or to implement many of its policy commitments. Major service delivery backlogs at local government level -- combined with inefficient and costly state-owned enterprises -- are significant growth constraints that impact on job creation. It's a case of too much money and too little capacity in government," he said.
Left behind on the world stage
Busa indicated South Africa spent only 0.6% of annual GDP on PPPs in the past 15 years, while other countries with superior economic growth such as India spent up to 1.1%.
Busa believes the business community at large has already shown an interest in deepening PPP relations with government.
"There is real interest from the private sector in more PPPs and a strong official commitment in this regard would therefore be welcome. We believe that strengthening the flow and predictability would further improve this interest in assisting with, for instance, the expeditious roll-out of quality infrastructure," Parsons said.
Parsons also pointed to the successful hosting of the 2010 Fifa world cup as a prime example of how PPPs are beneficial.
"We must remember the 2010 World Cup was a PPP and look how successful that was -- we need to work together. We must be prepared to think outside the box to ensure we get the most out of our PPPs in order to drive collaborative growth," he said.
Hold your horses...
Cosatu sharply criticised Busa's suggestion of PPP expansion, describing it as a "far-fetched dream.
"PPPs won't help South Africa -- full stop," Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini told the Mail & Guardian. "The state must first and foremost take the lead in promoting economic activity and at most the private sector must play a capacity role that will help achieve that agenda. If the private sector is an economic partner with government, it will disable the drive of the developmental state and be counter-poroductive."
The labour federation found an unlikely ally in economist Chris Hart of Investment Solutions, who also discounted the feasibility of PPPs as an economic panacea.
"You can look at PPPs to supplement what government does but there is no model in the world where solely these partnerships provide meaningful economic growth," Hart said.
"Furthermore, PPPs are not sustainable in the long run. The real solution to creating jobs in South Africa is to utilise the small business sector by assisting entrepreneurs and getting them to bring people into employment, which will have a knock-on effect of economic growth."
Labels: COSATU, PPPs
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COMMENT - Former Finance Minister Musokotwane has always *at least* looked the other way from corruption, even when he was a non-executive director at ZCCM-IH, which neglected to insiste on the collection of hundreds of millions of dollars a year in dividend payments. He then went on to abolish the Windfall Tax, again costing the Zambian taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars. Then, he was found with well over 1000 bicycles at his own residence, which can only have been intended for party political purposes.
State house comments on Former Finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane
TIME PUBLISHED - Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 4:31 pm
Issued by George Chellah( special assistant to the President on press and public relations)
Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane, the former Minister of Finance under the MMD government has disputed our factual account that the previous regime illegitimately printed money.
Not so surprising, Dr Musokotwane has gone further to describe the facts laid bare by this office as “false, shameful and embarrassing.”
These are very serious charges from a man whose locus standi on this matter and many other oversights unearthed concerning the previous administration, is extremely hard to comprehend.
Dr. Musokotwane seems to be acting like a very useful, but out of control spokesperson of a troubled group seeking to confuse the due process of law with politics.
Nevertheless, his incessant outbursts provide helpful pointers especially to the investigators pursuing the many leads into the wrong-doing that went on under the previous regime. It shall soon dawn on him that there is nothing to defend about the many excesses of the past regime’s unpatriotic conduct.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to make it abundantly clear that the biggest and most serious challenge facing Zambia today, whether Dr Musokotwane and his colleagues agree or not, is excessive greedy and corruption.
Under the previous administration which Dr. Musokotwane served with pride, this scourge assumed endemic proportions as authorities turned a blind eye to it for obvious reasons.
No reasonable person privy to the rot that went on under the immediate-past leadership can ignore the deplorable state of affairs under which the MMD left this country. Dr Musokotwane and his colleagues must just own up instead of trivializing the otherwise serious irregularities the new administration continues to encounter as it cleans up Government.
Dr Musokotwane and his colleagues must not panic and resort to half-truths but instead wait for the due process of the law to take its course.
The Republican President, His Excellency Mr Michael Chilufya Sata has repeatedly stated that “this is not a witch-hunt but a legitimate search for the truth.” Let it be known that the President would definitely be the happiest to see that our former leaders are cleared of possible wrong-doing by law enforcement agencies.
Former Finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane is said to have advised President Sata to stop making careless statement on the Kwacha that could jeopardise Zambia’s international position.
Dr. Musokotane said Sata is lying as all the currency which the MMD left in circulation is genuine and he wondered whether Sata would create another unnecessary Commissions of Inquiry for this matter.
Musokotwane challenged the Bank of Zambia to publicly state its position on this matter and say whether the MMD government ever forced the Central Bank to print money.
Labels: CORRUPTION, GEORGE CHELLAH, MMD, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE
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Copperbelt illegal miners give Government a 7 days ultimatum to legalise their business
TIME PUBLISHED - Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 12:57 pm
THE Small-Scale Miners Association of Zambia (SMAZ) has given the Government a seven-day ultimatum in which to address the plight of illegal miners on the Copperbelt.
The association wants Government to legalise their activities and allocate some of the dump sites in Kitwe and Chingola to illegal miners. But Minister of Mines Wilbur Simuusa said Government will soon hold discussions with small-scale miners to try and address some of their problems.
SMAZ president Simon Njovu said, at a press briefing in Kitwe yesterday, that the association is giving Government seven days in which to address the problems the association is facing in its operations.
Mr Njovu said the association wants Government to legalise small-scale mining activities which are a source of income to the unemployed youth.
He said the association has 4,319 members and that the youth are the majority due to the high unemployment levels in the country.
“As an association, we are giving the Government seven days in which to address our problems. We want the Government to legalise illegal miningactivities and to give us some of the dump sites in the province,” Mr Njovu said.
He said illegal miners risk their lives as they dig copper ore in various dump sites at awkward hours for fear of being attacked by the mine police officers.
Mr Njovu said the association has so far lost 231 members who have been buried alive while digging copper core.
He said the association wants Government to give them the dump sites at Mopani Copper Mines in Kitwe and those in Chingola so that they can start mining on a large scale basis.
He said the association wants Government to give them the dump sites at Mopani Copper Mines in Kitwe and those in Chingola so that they can start mining on a large scale basis.
Mr Njovu said once the association is empowered with the dumpsites, more employment opportunities can be created for the youth.
“If today Government gives us the dump site, we can utilise all the materials there. We can even start making pan bricks and contribute to the construction industry,” he said.
Mr Njovu also appealed to President Sata to arrange for a meeting with small-scale miners because there are many clandestine issues in the mining sector which Mr Sata needs to be aware of as head of State.
But Mr Simuusa said Government is working on modalities to try and address the problems that illegal miners face in the country.
Mr Simuusa said Government is waiting for SMAZ to elect a new executive before holding discussions with them on what should be done to improve the operations of the association.
“I’m surprised to hear that SMAZ had a press briefing to air their grievances when I’m waiting for them to usher in a new executive to address their problems. However, we are working on modalities to bring sanity and order to the small-scale mining industry,” he said.
He said Government wants to offer technical advice to illegal miners and capitalise the small-scale mining industry before the dump sites can be given out.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Labels: MINING, WYLBUR SIMUUSA
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COMMENT - All entrance exams should be abolished, and education should be universal again, which is what gave Zimbabwe the 92% literacy rate in the 1980s. It was the WB and IMF that insisted on user fees and other devices that bleed money from the middle and working class and ordinary businesses. This started under ESAP. So let's return to what works - universal healthcare and education. Paid for by the mining industry, which is only there to mine the resources that belong to the people of Zimbabwe to begin with. Mind you that it is the MDC that is the neoliberal, pro user fee party in government.
Govt should ban Form 1 entrance tests
Friday, 02 December 2011 00:00
Fortious Nhambura Features Writer
As cries over continued ripping off of parents and guardians seeking their children to write examination fees at the country's boarding and private secondary school grow, its high time Government moves to ban the examinations.
The Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture should now move to make sure secondary schools all first year secondary school entries are determined by Grade Seven public examination results and not local exams that are now being used to rip prospective students.
A decision to use only public examinations for entrance into Form 1 would ensure that pupils and guardians are not stripped off their hard-earned cash in the name of these numerous examinations.
Time and again the boarding schools have cashed in on the plight of students who are usually in short of time to secure places before the beginning of the first term in January. This has seen the growing need to attend entrance examination and payment of these high fees unavoidable.
Continued increases in the number of prospective students versus a near stagnant growth in mission and boarding number have pushed demand up, a situation that has been exploited by unscrupulous school authorities to milk parents of their hard earned cash.
Form 1 entrance examination fees have been rising and now range anything between US$30 and US$60 depending on the school. To this effect the education authorities have been forced to year in year out issue warnings against unjustified increase in entrance exam fees but to no avail.
The schools have continued defy the Government directives with impunity.
This has shown that warnings alone can not help in bringing order into the school enrollment systems but decisive action that include the action that include policy change examination policy change.
Parents and guardians feel that pitching exorbitant entrance test fees is being pushed by the need to fundraise than offer a service.
This they say is directly schools behind the jump to over US$50 per pupil from US$20 of form one entrance fees since August this year. Only last year most school were charging far less than US$20 per pupil but the cost continues to spiral despite that fact that nothing much has charged on the economic front.
The fees are being pushed by a scramble for form one places at boarding schools as most parents are seeking to secure vacancies before mid December.
It has taken long for schools to see sense that it does not make sense to continue to appeal for reason to take precedence in the country education system.
Parents and guardians are agreed that the responsible ministry should ensure Grade Seven examinations are taken earlier and that results are released in mid or late October to give schools enough time to enroll students and for parents to seek places for their children.
The ministry would then enact a law requiring all secondary school first year entries to be based on Grade Seven results with those flouting the policy prosecuted. This is the only way out if Government is going to bring sanity in form enrollment in the country. The system of using entrance examination is now archaic and breeds corruption that has now become the order of the day in most schools, and even at education offices, as parents seek to secure places at so called good schools for their children.
Analysts argue that the increase in such corrupt tendencies were a reflection of the rot that is the Ministry requiring urgent corrective attention.
To increase their earnings school authorities are cashing in on desperation of parents by inviting hundreds of pupils for interviews against limited places available.
The ministry has, however, not made the situation easy by holding examinations later in the year and Zimsec releasing outcomes in December.
The timetable has given school the reason to seek fill their enrollment through the entrance exams. Although entrance examinations have been used for sometime, the mercenary attitude among most school authorities requires a shift in policy.
It is critical to note that there is a general demand for places at boarding schools and that has not necessarily been driven by the search for better school results hence no justification for high fees.
Most of the schools are riding in yesteryear glory and no longer have facilities and results to match their name. As Government weighs the option of moving examination to August or early September, Government can set out amounts that can be charged as entrance fees and limit on the number of students a school can invite for the examinations.
As rightly put by Education Minister David Coltart, "Why does a school have to call 2 000 pupils for interviews yet they only have space for just 100?
While schools are justified in charging fees to cover administrative costs, the charges should be reasonable and not bent on milking prospective students when they are aware they can not cater for even half of the invited pupils.
Labels: EDUCATION, NEOLIBERALISM, SCHOOL FEES, USER FEES
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Cuban agriculture for better quality seeds
Tuesday, 06 December 2011 00:00
Havana. - Obtaining more high-quality seeds to meet the demand from those who work the land is a priority for the seed-producing and commercialising company of the Cuban Agriculture Ministry (Minag).
Its director, Manuel Rodriguez, said they have achieved a significant reduction in the volumes of seeds with low genetic quality, and now most of the seeds have a high germination percentage of more than 90 percent.
Rodriguez told reporters that this year's production plan of 4 800 tonnes of seeds is at 95 percent.
The plan includes 38 species of seeds, including grains, vegetables and oleaginous plants.
Cuba has the capacity to obtain 40 million plants in vitro by means of biotechnological methods, as the result of joint work by 11 factories in Cuba.
Rodriguez accompanied reporters on a tour of several units, and explained that seed production is being carried out this way, and also in the traditional manner.
Nearly 3 000 workers are labouring in the sector, including those working in state and private farms.
Rodriguez said the Cuban productive scenario has changed since the adoption of Decree-Law 259 several years ago, by virtue of which land was handed over in usufruct to people who want to work in the field.
Thousands came to work, and now the demand and need for seeds is larger. Among the measures taken by the enterprise to facilitate access to producers is the inauguration of five stores. The company now reinforces the links with those who work in the sector, including the research institutes, which also contribute to increasing seed production. - Prensa Latina.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, CUBA, SEED
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Sata was never invited: Zanu-PF
Tuesday, 06 December 2011 00:00
Herald Reporters
ZAMBIAN President and Patriotic Front leader Mr Michael Sata was never invited to attend Zanu-PF's 12th Annual National People's Conference which begins in Bulawayo on Thursday.
Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo yesterday
dismissed as inaccurate and unfounded reports in the private media suggesting President Sata snubbed the event. "President Sata was never invited, but
his party was invited and is coming to our
conference," he said.
Cde Gumbo said apart from President Sata's Patriotic Front, several other regional political parties that shared the same ideology with Zanu-PF were invited.
"Cde Stan Mudenge who is the secretary for international affairs in the party invited all political parties in the region to atte- nd the conference and the response is positive.
"Some political parties are coming and will participate at the conference," he said.
Cde Gumbo said it was the duty of President Mugabe to invite a Head of State to such an occasion and not Zanu-PF.
"The President did not do that (invite President Sata)," added Cde Gumbo.
Delegates to the Zanu-PF 12th Annual People's Conference are expected in Bulawayo tomorrow.
On arrival day, Cde Gumbo said President Mugabe will plant a tree at Milton High School.
The President plants a tree as part of commemorating the National Tree Planting Day every December.
Cde Gumbo said the main business of the conference starts on Thursday when President Mugabe officially opens the conference.
After the official opening, Cde Gumbo said the conference will break into committees discussing various issues.
Top on the agenda will be indigenisation and agriculture.
"Three days of the conference will be dedicated to dist new members into the Central Committee.cuss various issues among them is the state of the party, indigenisation, agriculture," he said.
Cde Gumbo said the party will also discuss regional and international geo-political developments and the state of the economy.
Deliberations will also touch on culture and special services.
On the last day, Cde Gumbo said, the President will co-op
On the issue of vacant posts in the Politburo, Cde Gumbo said: "That is for the Presidium to decide but we do not have that item on our programme."
He said the meeting of Sadc liberation movements that was supposed to be held on the sidelines of the conference was cancelled because of other commitments.
About 3 000 party delegates are expected to attend the conference, which will be held under the theme "Defend National Sovereignty, Consolidate indigenisation and Economic Empowerment.''
Sources say Zanu-PF will launch its election campaign for general elections set for next year at the conference.
The party's 10 provinces are expected to endorse President Mugabe's candidature for next year's general elections at the conference.
President Mugabe has indicated that elections should be held in the first quarter of next year.
He said the Bulawayo conference was the party's last crucial meeting before the elections.
General elections were supposed to be held this year, but were postponed after Copac failed to complete the crafting of the new constitution.
Parties in the inclusive Government agreed that new elections should be held after the new constitution was in place.
Meanwhile, our Bulawayo Bureau reports that there will be an exhibition at the Zimbabwe International Trade Company grounds, the venue of the conference by some companies looking for business from delegates.
Labels: MICHAEL SATA, RUGARE GUMBO, ZANU-PF
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Mpundu Trust Account
TIME PUBLISHED - Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 8:32 am
President Michael Sata has instructed the law enforcement agencies to thoroughly investigate the US$ 1 million held in Mpundu Trust Account. The directive comes in the wake of revelations that Mpundu Trust has unexplained funds in one of the banks in the country.
“Information we have received is that Mpundu Trust is holding over US$1 million with one of our local banks. Considering the colossal amounts involved in this bank transaction, I strongly believe that it’s only fair and prudent for the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), in liaison with other law enforcement agencies to professionally and systematically investigate this matter,” President Sata said.
“Let it be known from the onset that the decision to probe Mpundu Trust is without malice or ill-motive but to simply set the record straight by ensuring that the due process of the law applies. We promised the Zambian people that accountability, transparency and fairness before the law will be the bedrock of our administration, this is what we are doing.”
In another related development, President Sata has directed the Minister of Finance, Hon. Alexander Chikwanda to ensure that billions of Government revenue which is lying idle in one of the local bank is reclaimed by the Ministry of Finance.
“There is a balance of K12.2 billion GRZ funds that must be moved to the Ministry of Finance Treasury Accounts and I want this to be done as soon as possible,” says the President.
Meanwhile, President Sata has expressed deep regret and sorrow at the death of Zambia’s Ambassador to Japan Dr. Mbikusita Wamundila Lewanika.
“Our dear brother, Dr Lewanika served this country diligently and devotedly in various government portfolios and this loss will definitely be felt by many,” the President said.
“Kindly convey on behalf of the People and Government of Zambia and indeed on my own behalf, our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the deceased’s family and friends.”
The President has authorised Her Excellency Dr. Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika, Zambia’s Ambassador to Brussels, who is also the deceased’s elder sister to travel to Tokyo on government expense to help with arrangements to repatriate the remains of the late diplomat.
Dr Lewanika died yesterday at 01:00 PM Tokyo time
Labels: AMBASSADOR, INONGE MBIKUSITA-LEWANIKA, JAPAN, MICHAEL SATA
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Demystifying Venezuela’s Inflation: The Opposition’s Red Herring
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By Tamara Pearson - Venezuelanalysis.com, September 30th 2011
My communal council had organised a Mercal (government sale of subsidised foods) for our community for Saturday to start at 9am. I got there at 9.05, and already there were about a hundred people in the queue. Then it started to rain, but despite the fact that few people had umbrellas, no one budged. The queue moved slowly, people chatted to each other and got wet, and by the time I reached the food tables, a lot of the food had run out.
Still, I got 3 kilos of pasta, at 2bs/kilo (normal price, 6-12Bs/kilo), milk for 12bs (normal price 20bs, when you can find it), hot chocolate for 6bs (normal price about 25-35Bs), margarine for 2bs (normal price 6bs) and a few other things. When you consider that the vast majority of Venezuelans spend 50-90% of their income on food (depending on if they rent - the other big expense), you can understand why we bared the rain, and why food prices and inflation are hot topics of conversation here.
“Chocolate is 22bs now, can you believe it? It was 12bs in January!”
“I don’t buy tuna anymore, it’s 35bs for a large can now.”
“X shop is selling noodles, but they’re 9bs now, they used to be 5”. And so on. Not to mention the mass rushes to the supermarkets when, after six months without it, they suddenly have a supply of cooking oil or powdered milk.
In local opposition and international mass media, inflation is the buzzword, and if it has increased, the country is clearly a mess, life is hopeless, and the government has got to go. Yet is inflation really the big evil it’s made out to be? How much does it impact on the lives of Venezuelans? How much worse is it, really, under Chavez, and what is the government trying to do about it and the food situation?
Before Chavez, “sardines were our meat”.
“Before [the Chavez government] there was a greater variety of food on the shelves, but few could afford it. Now we can afford the food we need, but there’s a little less variety,” my partner, Luis Diaz, told me.
Things got worse when President Carlos Andres Perez implemented an IMF promoted “economic package” which caused massive increases in food and petrol prices and transport costs, leading to the popular revolt known as the Caracazo, in 1989. At that time, inflation also spiralled, causing a reluctance to invest.
“There has always been milk scarcity, and it was bought on the black market. Most of it came from New Zealand [where as today, most milk is locally produced], and there was often meat and egg scarcity, a lot of contraband food from Colombia and Ecuador. It was very expensive and the prices in the supermarkets were so high, we were pretty screwed,” Diaz continued.
“Those who could, the upper classes, solved the scarcity problems buying on the black market, meanwhile babies in poor families were fed on spaghetti water,” he remembered.
“There was this publicity campaign [by a Sardine company] in the nineties that was ‘Eat sardiiiiines’ because being able to buy meat was like playing the lottery,” he said. “It’s not like that at all now.”
Diaz’s mum said the “Adecos” (opposition party Democratic Action, or AD) used to run food “operatives”, selling food in plazas and community centres in a similar way that the Mercal does now, “but it was much less regular then, and only those who had an AD membership card could buy the food,” she said, adding that those operatives were “shit”, as she reminisced about how expensive contraband milk used to be.
Now, there is still some corruption, and some people working for Mercal manage to sell its cooking oil to shops at above the regulated price, but among a range of other government policies, the existence of Mercal, of regulated prices for some goods, of school food programs and government dining halls, means that basic food needs are now met. According to Venezuela’s Nutrition Institute average daily consumption increased from 2,200 calories in 1998 to over 2,700 calories in 2008, exceeding than the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization recommendation of 2,300 calories per day, and malnutrition dropped from 21% in 1998 to 6% in 2007.
The real inflation situation
Nevertheless, inflation still means that the prices for other consumer goods and services, such as non basic food goods, clothes, toiletries, monthly rent, taxi prices, toys, books, stationary, and so on, go up on a monthly to six monthly basis.
Inflation rates in Venezuela have been steadily increasing since the 1950s, where, under dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez, they sat at around 0.75%, under Romulo Betancourt they rose to 1.5%, then to 3.63% the first time Rafael Caldera was president, then an average of 9.86% under Carlos Andres Perez his first time, 16.7% under the next president, then 34.1% under the next, until it spiralled at 104.5% and then 194.3% under the second terms of Carlos Andres Perez and Rafael Caldera. These figures are based on accumulated inflation - where each year’s inflation affects the previous, but nevertheless the overall trend, of increasing inflation, is clear.
Only Chavez has managed to turn this trend around. While under Caldera, yearly inflation was 70.8 % in 1994, 56.6% in 1995, 103.2% in 1996, 37.6% in 1997 and 30% in 1998, under Chavez, it was 13.4% in 2000 and 12.3% in 2001. Then came the coup d’état and the opposition sabotage of the petroleum industry, when they also hoarded a lot of food so that it was either unavailable or sold at highly inflated prices, bought massive amounts of dollars, and launched an international campaign to discourage foreign investment. That year, inflation was 31.2%, and 27% the next year, and has tended to average around 25% per year since then, with a record low in May 2006 at 10.4%.
Apart from the charming contributions by the opposition to inflation (hoarding continues), inflation in Venezuela is, to some extent, inevitable, because of the large money supply as a result of its large oil income, and its high government spending.
Also, among a range of other causes, adjusting for inflation has become part of Venezuelan culture and habits. While state owned communications company Movilnet hasn’t increased its phone rates in four years, private small and large businesses regularly increase prices in the lead up to the Christmas, Easter, and mid-year holidays (when spending naturally increases). Everyone else who buys from them such as landlords, restaurants, and hotels, follow suit in order to cope.
One of the most serious consequences of the high inflation rates in Venezuela, in terms of their impact on Venezuelan people, is that the devaluing of the bolivar over the years combined with fixed exchange rates means that imports are artificially cheap and non oil exports are too expensive, making it difficult for Venezuela to diversify its production.
People are also more likely to consume than save, since the value of their savings decreases at the rate of inflation. Also, hoarding is both a cause and an effect of inflation, as people are likely to buy more than they need of a product to avoid the higher price later.
Another issue that has come up is budgeting. The government decided that the allowance per student per day in the school eating program was 5.7bs, but because it didn’t update this for a few years, food providers eventually found it hard to cater the food at that price, and stopped providing it. Or, the government might assign a certain amount of funding to a communal council for it to solve a local problem, but by the time the financing actually arrives, the costs have gone up. However, problems like these would be easily overcome if inflation were more often factored into the budgeting, and adjustments made more frequently.
Inflation isn’t the big deal it’s made out to be
However, one area where inflation is less important, in terms of actual impact on people’s lives, is food and other product prices. This is because the government regularly (once or twice a year) increases the minimum wage to match inflation levels, or higher than them, and the informal sector increases its prices to match inflation as well.
People’s purchasing power has actually increased significantly under the current government.
Venezuela’s GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), according to IMF statistics, went from 82.8 in 1980 and 136.7 in 1990 to 204.2 in 1998 just before Chavez came into office, to 346.9 last year. If you look at the graph in the previous link, you can see a significantly bigger slope over the last ten years (with, as usual, a small dip during the coup and petroleum strike of 2002-2003).
Also, according to the Venezuelan National Statistic Institute, purchasing power increased by 18% between 1999 and 2009, and the head of the institute, Elias Eljuri, said that in the decade preceding Chavez there was a 49% decrease in worker remunerations. Venezuelans now have the highest minimum wage in Latin America, not including other benefits such as food tickets and free health and education.
Further, some economists (coming from a capitalist perspective) argue that inflation is in fact a good thing as it keeps wages down, and therefore unemployment down. While I can’t agree that keeping wages down is ever good, the point is it’s a misguided belief that high inflation equals tragedy. The Austrian School simply defines inflation as an increase in the money supply - a definition with less negative connotations.
Moderate inflation better than IMF “economic packages” any day
While private media here and outside of Venezuela create the impression that inflation (and the government) is to blame for apparently high goods prices in Venezuela, there are actually much more serious and significant factors to take into account, most of which the opposition here would rather we didn’t focus on - namely, capitalism. Or, more specifically, demand (which has increased dramatically over the last ten years to match the increased purchasing power), production (private companies which under produce and over charge), the private industry’s prioritisation of profits over satisfying need, land use, or lack thereof by wealthy large land owners, and the global context that Venezuela exists in, such as global warming provoked droughts and floods, the global food crisis in 2008, and the maintained increase in food prices since then which have disproportionately affected ‘third world’ countries.
Whereas in Venezuela in 2008, and since then, there has been the occasional sugar, oil, milk, or coffee shortage, and imported foods like peanut butter and salmon are extremely expensive, in 2008 in Thailand, the price of rice increased from US$100 per tonne to US$780 in a matter of months, and food riots spread across Africa. A leaflet in Egypt said “we are dying while queuing up for bread”, and it’s no secret that food prices were one of the catalysts of the Arab Spring revolution late last year and early this year, when many of the rioters and protestors in those countries blamed the IMF “structural adjustment policies” for continuous exorbitant price increases.
Currently, the United Nations reports that 37 countries face a food crisis and world prices for basic food commodities such as corn, sugar and beef have all spiked in the past 12 months.
The UN warned this month that 750,000 people could die from the famine in Somalia (while on the African continent as a whole, only 4% of agricultural land is irrigated- not due to water shortages, but because World Bank and IMF policies support big agro-business and prevent nationwide investments of the kind the Venezuelan government is attempting with its agriculture mission) and many Haitians, even before the earthquake, are eating mud pies, largely because the US and other international financial bodies destroyed Haitian rice production to pave the way for subsidised US rice.
The current Venezuelan government would never allow such a thing (while the opposition here would likely be completely in favour, as they demonstrated in 1989). The Venezuelan ambassador to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Gladys Urbaneja, pointed out in 2008 the role that “free trade” treaties and the flooding of markets by US produce have had in the rise in food prices, as well as the principal problem, that food has “been turned into yet another object of market speculation”.
The government is fighting for accessibility to goods and services on a number of fronts
In terms of guaranteeing a good supply of essential foods, the current Venezuelan government has implemented a number of important measures, such as nationalising food producers who hoarded or speculated including the supermarket chain Exito, creating government food distributors PDVAL and Mercal, significant land reform to, among other things, activate unused land in order increase production of goods such as rice, soya, and meat, and has created the Mission Agro Venezuela to encourage and support farmers and cooperative farms. The government also regularly distributes other products at subsidised prices, such as through its “Mi casa bien equipada” – my well equipped house - with subsidised household appliances, or its “school fairs” with stationary and other school products at roughly half the commercial prices.
Trying to break away from the damage and insecurity caused by “free” trade it has also pushed for a Bank of the South, for a regional currency, the Sucre, in order to not depend on the US dollar, and for regional cooperation through organisations such as ALBA, UNASUR, and CELAC.
These measures are the most significant in terms of tackling the access-to-basic-products problem at its roots, but the government also considers combating inflation important. In March 2007, after a record low inflation of 0.7%, mainly because of a reduction in the Value-Added Tax, Chavez said it was a “triumph for everyone” since “inflation is a problem for everyone, for those of us in the government, and also for the communities and for the private sector.”
Most likely inflation is an important issue to the government because of the media coverage the issue gets and therefore the general opinion of the population that it’s important, because of the real effect it has in terms of “faith” in the economy and business investment, and because the government’s analysis of the economy is often an interesting mixture of socialist and capitalist or reformist. It recognises the importance of worker or state control of production, for example, but also refers to GDP - a more capitalist measure of economic well-being.
Nevertheless, in 2008 the government said its plan to fight inflation should be fought by stimulating production and moderating consumption (basically - decreasing prices with higher availability and less demand). At the time, the finance minister explained that the food sector is where the “gap between national consumption and production in general” has been the largest, because “consumption has been very stimulated by a progressive distribution of oil revenue.” This approach is reasonable, and the government at the time rejected the “neo-liberal” approach, which advocates reducing demand through “harsh impoverishment”, that is, reducing government spending to reduce the money supply, something the Venezuelan government has refused to do, even during the world economic crisis, while other countries have embraced it.
A fixed exchange rate is another traditional measure for combating inflation, something the government has applied since 2003, but with mixed results. Real currency value continues to be reflected in the black market rate, which, despite trying, the government has not been able to curb. When the government adjusts the fixed rate to closer to the more realistic value of the bolivar, as it did in January 2010, working people’s savings were halved in value. The adjustment also meant oil dollars were worth more, and there was more money supply, and therefore more inflation, if the government spent it. To somewhat curb the money supply the government does sell oil bonds, but ultimately, to spend less without affecting social needs, the government would have to buy overseas, which would lower inflation but not help with local job creation. In many ways, one could argue the inflation is worth it.
The opposition and international mainstream press use inflation as a political red herring
No doubt big business, with the opposition as its spokespeople, is one of the main causes of food problems and of inflation, by hoarding, underpaying, importing at the fixed exchange rate but pricing as if they had imported on the more expensive parallel rate, currency speculation, encouraging consumerism, supporting privatisation, and so on. It’s therefore in the interest of the opposition (local, and international) to use Venezuela’s moderately high inflation as a red herring from the real causes of economic stress to the people, and to create a climate of uncertainty and discontent with the Bolivarian government.
Not only does the private media here and overseas focus more on inflation than other economic issues, but by repeatedly harping on about the issue, the private media affects Venezuelans’ perception of how inflation actually affects them. Most Venezuelans equate price increases exclusively with inflation, and see inflation as one of the country’s largest problems (along with crime, another real, but exaggerated problem by the opposition). And the cause of inflation? Chavez. Just like Chavez causes droughts and climate change, not to mention police corruption in states controlled by opposition governors, inflation is also clearly his fault.
“Venezuelans struggle to cope with soaring food prices, inflation tops Latin America,” headlined the Washington post, accompanying its article with photos of ranchos and bowls of chicken feet. In this article, one Venezuelan said she felt “strangled by the prices”.
“Venezuela among the countries with the highest inflation in the world” headlined Noticias24, a Venezuelan internet news site, quoting an IMF report. And in this article, titled “Who Generates Inflation” Tal Cual, also Venezuelan, blamed the government for “provoking” inflation with its “undisciplined fiscal policy”.
The opposition press ignores context and cause, and creates the impression that if coco pops were on the shelf all the time, everything would be okay, playing into the capitalist belief that defines happiness and wel-being along consumerist lines. Opposition press, and overseas mass media like Fox, CNN, and the BBC, never mention the subsidised goods, nor Venezuela’s healthcare and education programs, whose prices experience 0% inflation because they are free.
Health and education are more important than nutella and Mars bars
The Venezuelan finance minister Ali Rodriguez, speaking in 2008, was right when he said, “As state capitalism [enters] a process of transition, we have to change the mentality of the Venezuelan from a profit-driven culture to a productive culture. This implies generating a new ethic.”
When wage increases match (or surpass) inflation, inflation isn’t necessarily a bad thing for working people or the majority of Venezuelans. What is important is the overall context and structure of the economy, and who (which classes) it’s ultimately geared towards serving. That is, it is better to have high inflation (remember, it’s not hyperinflation, which is different) and universal healthcare (as is the case in Venezuela), than privatised health care, but low inflation - as is the case in many other countries.
In the long term, the real solution to food insecurity and unreliable access to goods and services is democratically organised production done according to need, with prices set jointly by the state, organised communities and workers. There are isolated examples here and there in Venezuela of parts of that process – communal councils expressing what they need, worker controlled factories, etc, but we’re a long way from there. In the mean time, we need to be clear about what real quality of life is, and it’s not low priced Nutella.
Labels: INFLATION, NEOCOLONIALISM, VENEZUELA
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COMMENT - More neoliberal nonsense about 'job creation' through creating a little employment in mining,instead of job creation through creating a lot of jobs through collection of taxes from the mines and investing that money in infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing.
Indigenisation won’t create jobs: PM
05/12/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
PRIME Minister and MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai has blasted the indigenisation programme insisting the policy will not solve the country's unemployment crisis. Foreign companies are now required by law to localise control of at least 51 percent of their operations in a move President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF argues will help economically empower the country’s historically disadvantaged black majority.
But the programme has divided the country’s coalition government with
Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party coming on the side of critics who say the policy will
drive away much-needed investment.
Tsvangirai told supporters at a rally in Bulilima East, Plumtree over the weekend that his party differed with Zanu PF on the issue, saying the model being pushed by Mugabe would not create jobs.
“How are jobs created? Jobs are created by ensuring that you increase the size of the cake not shrinking the small cake,” he said.
“Jobs are not created by forcibly taking over part of established companies, but by ensuring that there are more companies opening. That’s where we differ with Zanu PF on indigenisation.
“Most of our young people have crossed the borders to get jobs, yet Zanu PF is destroying industries.”
Tsvangirai also said his party was ready for elections expected next year once the ‘right’ conditions were put in place.
“We won the mandate of the people before, we are not afraid of elections. We only want the elections to be conducted in a free and fair manner,” he said.
Mugabe wants fresh polls early next year, insisting the coalition government had become unworkable.
But Tsvangirai said the unity deal had helped turn-around the country’s economy and revive collapsed social services.
“Our country now has one of the lowest inflation in the world and a growth rate of 9.4 % is expected in the next year which is a significant improvement as compared to no progress at all,” he said.
“In the social services sector, people now go to the hospitals and are getting treatment. In the education sector, for the first time we have printed 13 million text books so that every primary school child has four textbooks of elementary education. We are working to ensure that the same happens to our secondary school children.”
Labels: INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NEOLIBERALISM
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