COMMENT - On a small note of disagreement, I don't agree with prof. Haabazoka about economic targets if that means 5 year plans, and I don't think PAYE is a great idea, however those are just two prescriptions that I think there are more modern variations to. It is unacceptable that the mines, for instance through the illegal practice of transfer pricing, declare a loss year in and year out, or that dividends are not paid to ZCCM-IH, which today is a holding company with a very conflicted board of directors. They also neglect to collect dividends from the mines. I completely agree that the mines should be state owned. And there should be cheap credit for small businesses, farmers, consumers - official lending rates are prohibitive and have been for decades.
1. CopperCoin
How about a local crypto currency backed by copper?
https://www.themastonline.com/2018/02/23/iran-russia-consider-own-cryptocurrencies-after-venezuela-success/
2. Drought proofing farmland
Which can probably be promoted under the banner of combating the effects of climate change. The army probably has enough equipment to train recruits, a skill that can carry over into civilian life. And prevent the yearly flooding by storing water in the soil.
https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/2016/11/27/brad-lancaster-with-warren-brush-co-water-for-every-farm-earthworks-for-resiliency-in-an-era-of-drought-april-5-8-2017-hyder-az/
Brad Lancaster learned a lot from the Zimbabwean dry land water pioneer Mr. Zepheniah Phiri Maseko.
https://permaculturenews.org/2016/07/28/evolutions-mr-phiris-water-harvesting-plantation-1995-2016/
There are a lot of things that can be done in agriculture, manufacturing and education.
3. Manufacturing from locally grown agricultural products
How to make a HQ handmade Cigar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohVnoo2DC0g
Notice the prices
https://www.jrcigars.com/
Turning maize surpluses into storeable and exportable distillates, which would also help create a permanent market for maize surpluses for local farmers:
How to
http://www.whiskeyprof.com/basic-distilling/
Bourbon sells for $4,000 to $15,000 per barrel
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmccarthy12/2017/04/04/how-to-buy-a-barrel-of-bourbon/2/#7f985b681bfb
4. Horticulture
There are crops that can be grown besides maize and that have a very high return or are labour intensive.
https://modernfarmer.com/2017/07/5-valuable-crops-can-grow-us-grow/
If a market for small to medium sized farms is created, there has to be technology developed to meet their needs, rather than technology for giant corporations. The universities can be of help here. For example:
Quick Cut Greens Harvester (Official)
Farmer’s Friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPIfw5_WoLU
5. Redistribute land
" The Northern Rhodesia (Native Trust Land) Orders-in-Council of 1947 created Trust Land as a result of pressure from the white settlers who demanded security on the land they occupied. Trust Land constituted about 58%. This was actually an extension of crown or state land to 64% while the reserve land for the local people was reduced to 36%. "
http://maravi.blogspot.com/2017/12/land-reform-in-zambia.html
6. Universal Basic Income
This is how you really stimulate the economy:
https://twitter.com/MrK00001/status/827872456035663872
There has to be a serious discussion about the end of 'jobs' which is universal, including in mining, a relentles tide caused by automation and innovation. People still need incomes, even without jobs. There has to be a concerted effort to eliminate poverty.
7. Democracy
The government has to do what the people want it to do. No more capture by the IMF, or corporations. Major decisions have to be put to a referendum - taking on debt, negotiating trade deals, going to war, etc. This is the only way to prevent rogue governments. It should be illegal for NGO's to take money from for instance Freedom House or the Open Society Foundations.
- MrK
Haabazoka calls for repossession of mines
By Chambwa Moonga on February 21, 2018
ECONOMIST Lubinda Haabazoka says Zambia’s mines ought to be under government ownership because the current model of private ownership is a failure.
And Dr Haabazoka, who is a University of Zambia (UNZA) lecturer, has noted that the current trend where Zambians are being over-taxed by authorities will not culminate into development for the country.
Speaking on The Assignment programme on Muvi TV on Sunday night, Dr Haabazoka inferred that mines under the current ownership model were not substantively contributing to Zambia’s economy.
“What we need to do [is that] the current model of mines being under private ownership is a failure. I don’t know how much taxes the mines are paying but when you look at ZCCM (Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines) in 1991, it made net profits of US$191 million. When you look at the mines from 1998 to today, all the taxes put together that they have paid are less than US$191 million! They (mine owners) are always saying ‘we are making losses’. So, they have failed. We need to get the mines under ZCCM again,”
Dr Haabazoka noted.
“Foreign investors can come and build malls, they can come and build factories – build motor vehicle manufacturing plants, we are not against that. But they should not run the mines! The mines should be under government. I’m a capitalist but also I’m for a mixed economy and I borrow from Russia… Look at our mines! Cobalt, I think, is selling over $40,000 per tonne. But where is that money going to? You cannot be running a shop for 15 years and continue making losses.”
He recalled that under ZCCM ownership, mines did more in terms of corporate social responsibility.
“When my father was a mine captain…my father just went up to equivalent of Grade seven. Our grandfathers and fathers took over the mines when the former president Kaunda was in charge. We didn’t have educated people but ZCCM built schools, roads, clinics and all the infrastructure that was on the Copperbelt,” Dr Haabazoka said.
“FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) for Zambia, for example, contributes huge amounts of foreign exchange inflows but unfortunately there are very few countries that have developed using FDIs. A foreigner cannot come and develop your country – they can bring in new technologies.”
And Dr Haabazoka pointed out that Zambia seemed not to know where it was going.
“You need to have targets which you need to reach and those targets are beyond single digit inflation, stable exchange rate. Those [targets] are basically that of revolutionalising the way you do things; major success stories of economic development, the South Korean example, the Japanese example, Singapore, even the Rwandan experience – those are things that basically you can see going on where everyone in the nation has put their hands together and are moving the country forward,” he said.
“At the moment, we don’t know what we want to achieve; do we want just to merely stabilise macro-economic indicators? Do we want to continue accumulating debt? Are we infrastructural wise? Where is our youth policy? Where are we going? What is happening to our manufacturing industry? What of our mineral wealth? How is economic development happening?”
Haabazoka added that from independence, Zambia’s government knew that it wanted massive investments and that it created its own manufacturing industry as well as enhancing infrastructural development.
“[But] from 1991 we lost it until 2001 when we stabilised the damage that was caused…by the huge debt that we had. Mwanawasa’s period was much more of a stabilising period, trying to get rid of the debt. In my opinion, now we should have that economic development that is aimed at trying to reduce…. We have gone back; from stabilising and reducing our debt to US$600 million, we started accumulating it after 2011 and now we are in massive debt. Now, we are supposed to start doing what we were doing from 2001 – stabilise issues so that in the future we start growing,” Dr Haabazoka said.
“As a country, we are hugely divided; the country basically is divided into red and green – tribal divisions! Everything that happens in the country people see it through political lenses, through surnames of individuals – there is a lot of disunity. People might disagree with me but basically that is what is obtaining.”
He also regretted that Zambians only spoke of economic diversification when copper prices were below $4,000 per tonne.
“When you look at economic diversification per se, you need both government and citizens to actively participate in it. First of all, you have to say what it is that we are dependent on. You are going to choose the mining industry. [But] can we use the mining industry to diversify our economy? Yes, we can!” Dr Haabazoka said.
He also observed that Zambians had fallen in love with money.
“I don’t know where that has come from. When you call a Zambian to come and do something, they are going to charge…. Some people even charge $500 per hour just to come and help solve the drainage…,” Dr Haabazoka observed.
Meanwhile, Dr Haabazoka noted that what was currently obtaining in the country’s economy could not propel Zambia to development.
“We cannot develop an economy on high taxes. There is no country in the world that has taxed its way into development. The current regime can change things, there is still time. They can actually do it within one or two years. But they have to do the following;
give a breather to citizens. There is no way you can be charging toll fees at K20 per motor vehicle. In a K20, a person on the street can buy pamela (rationed mealie-meal pack), eggs and make lunch for their family. Give a breather [because] there is no way you can tax your way into development,”
said Dr Haabazoka.
“The current Minister of Finance should bring back the Pay As You Earn to 35 per cent. Actually, 28 per cent is the best rate or most optimal tax for the current situation. You are going to see increased economy growth in the future. Those days if on a Saturday you went into a hardware shop, it will be packed. But nowadays you are just a few of you and it’s not because people don’t want to build; there is no disposable income [and] this is not politics. I’m just saying what is on the ground!”
Labels: DEBT, INFLATION, LUBINDA HAABAZOKA, NEOLIBERALISM
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This post is a response to the latest US ambassador to Zimbabwe, who seems to feel he is in a position to lecture the Zimbabwean government about 'fiscal responsiblity' and 'chasing away foreign investors', while being blissfully unaware of his own government's actions to destroy the Zimbabwean economy.
(NEWZIMBABWE) Pay your debts! US envoy tells Harare
By Anna Chibamu, UK Bureau
16/06/2016
THE economic crisis which has brought Zimbabwe to its knees has nothing to do with United States sanctions but the failure by President Robert Mugabe's government to pay the country’s debts.
Well no. This is my response:
So this is the latest fool they have sent down, to sell us their US state department garbage. Before him there was Ambassador Bruce, before him Charles Ray, before him Johnny Carson. Now it's ambassador Thomas. No relation to Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, I hope?
Let me help the ambassador out, because he is clearly out of his depth, wading into matters he does not understand.
1) We have the law
We don't need your ensurances about 'targeted sanctions'. We have the text of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, Section 4C, which specifically mentions "the Government of Zimbabwe", twice. So keep your lawyerly lies about 'targeted sanctions' to yourself.
2) This article tries to connect things that are not connected.
Debt default had ruined Harare’s credit worthiness even before the US passed its Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Reform Agenda (ZIDERA) of 2001, Washington’s new envoy said in the capital on Thursday.
Mugabe also conceded the bad debtor problem at a meeting with war veterans in April, saying: “We’ve a disease in Zimbabwe, that of receiving and forgetting that debt should be settled.”
Let me remind everyone of the irony, that the US government is reminding the Zimbabwean government to pay it's debt, when it was the US government under Reagan and the Thatcher government, which reneged on their obligation to pay their part in the Willing Buyer, Willing Seller landreform program, which eventually led to it's breakdown (made official by Clare Short in her Nov. 1997 letter), and the replacement of Willing Buyer, Willing Seller with the Fast Track landreform program, against which Rothschild/De Beers/US object so much. I'll leave historic debts alone for a while.
Poor creditworthiness may sound like a fitting insult, and also conveniently ignores the disastrous economic effects of the neoliberal ESAP from 1991 to 1996, however creditworthiness has nothing to do with the collapse of the Zimbabwe Dollar in the year 2002. Creditworthiness doesn't paint extra zeros on banknotes. Not even an IMF decreed currency devaluation does that. Only a country that from day one to day two no longer has access to lines of credit, and is forced to operate on a cash only basis, would do that.
Creditworthiness also has nothing to do with the creation of ZDERA in 2001. (Read it.) Section 4A mentions that the IDA (International Development Agency) has suspended loans to the government of Zimbabwe in previous years, however, this is stated as a finding, and is not given as the reason for ZDERA. It has nothing to do with 'creditworthiness', and you can read the reasons given in the law itself.
The fact is that they wanted landreform to fail, and they did not trust the program or country to fail on it's own. The fact is that they want to prevent landreform in South Africa, let alone Namibia, Botswana and Kenya, if not more countries.
An MDC MP called it "slashing an already deflated tire".
3) Years ago, the MDC admitted that they too, when they were in government (look that up, mr. Ambassador, there was an MDC government), could not "move" with ZDERA in place.
Listen to that interview with former Finance Minister Tendai Biti, mr. Ambassador, before addressing this forum about the effects of America's economic sanctions against ("the Government of") Zimbabwe.
Subsequently, in 2010, there was a law introduced by US Senator Jim Inhofe to remove ZDERA. Around the same time, then US Senator and ZDERA co-sponsor Russ Feingold lost his seat. He had been trying to continue the economic sanctions against Zimbabwe through his own Zimbabwe Transistion to Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2010 (ZTDERA).
4) If it was not ZDERA, what else happened in the year 2002, that made the Zimbabwe Dollar collapse against the US Dollar? Notice the rapid excelleration of the the fall of the exchange rate from 2002 onwards.
That's 2002, not 2001, 2003, 2004, etc. 2002 is the year ZDERA 2001 came into effect.
Just a reminder of what these economic sanctions were:
(c) MULTILATERAL FINANCING RESTRICTION- Until the President makes the certification described in subsection (d), and except as may be required to meet basic human needs or for good governance, the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against--
(1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or
(2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.
Now, do these sound like 'targeted sanctions' against individuals or individual corporations, or are these sanctions against "the Government of Zimbabwe", as mentioned twice?
5) What is the effect of economic sanctions worldwide?
Lest we think that economic sanctions only hurt Zimbabwe because 'somehow' the economy of Zimbabwe is exceptionally fragile, it would help to see what US economic sanctions have done to other economies around the world.
This was the effect of economic sanctions on the population of Iraq. BTW, Madeleine Albright is a business partner of Lord Jacob Rothschild, and George Soros, in Helios Towers Africa. It are the Rothschild Barons who funded De Beers, the world's largest diamond mining company, which is behind the propaganda against Zimbabwe. Also, Zimbabwe was formerly known as Rhodesia, named after Cecil Rhodes, the Founding Chairman of the board of directors of De Beers from 1888 until his death.
Were 500,000 dead Iraqi women and children "worth it" to weaken President Hussein? Was the destruction of the Zimbabwe Dollar through a credit freeze 'worth it', to dislodge President Mugabe and thwart landredistribution?
Labels: AMBASSADOR HENRY THOMAS JR, INFLATION, NEOCOLONIALISM, SANCTIONS, ZDERA
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COMMENT - Just reducing dollar dependency is not exactly what I had in mind when using metals reserve as the basis for Local Currencies, however the idea is applicable. What it should not become, is a plaything for the same individuals who dully maintained that debt at 40% of GDP is of 'internationally acceptable standards' and other such nonsense. If you have the choice between a Windfall Tax that is free of interest, and a Europbond of very high interest... the Finance Minister chooses the high interest rate option? What is going on?
Policy analyst calls on govt to establish metals reserve bureau
By Stuart Lisulo |
Updated: 24 Oct,2015 ,10:00:00
THE government should consult the IMF and World Bank to develop a metals reserve bureau that would help reduce dollar dependency and insulate Zambia against external shocks, says
Humphrey Mulemba.
And the
Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research says the government needs to act swiftly to manage the country’s public debt, which has doubled to over 40 per cent of GDP in five years.
Commenting on Zambia’s risk of falling into debt distress owing to the increasing public debt position as pointed out by the IMF, Mulemba, an independent policy analyst, stated that
the government needs to take an innovative approach in seeking external financing that would help
reduce US dollar dependency, currently hinged on copper exports, to repay the country’s mounting debt stock.
The government’s issuance of a US$1.25 billion Eurobond in July pushed the country’s external debt stock to over US$6 billion, shifting Zambia’s position closer to the suggested threshold of 40 per cent for developing countries.
“An innovative idea is to seek the Bretton Woods institutions’ help to develop a metals reserve bureau alongside the sinking fund proposed in the 2016 budget; this is to help Zambia reduce dollar dependency. The idea of the metals bureau is to ring fence the forex denominated debt only against the basket of metals as opposed to it being extended to the performance of the kwacha,” he stated in response to a press query. “The reason being that metals are dollar-based and hold more currency equivalent stability than the Zambian kwacha.”
Mulemba said the metals bureau could be developed through the IDC and ZCCM-IH, which would help in debt repayments and insulate against external shocks.
“The pool of metals chosen will be based on the comparative advantage of Zambia and can be achieved through the IDC in collaboration with ZCCM-IH. This will help cushion the current situation and further develop a rigorous system that will be able to sustain future shocks as experienced in the recent past,” he added.
And Mulemba, formerly a policy analyst for the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR), warned that the consequences of continued external borrowing amid a devalued kwacha would make repayments more expensive.
“With a depreciating kwacha, the payment rates in forex for international loans will become more and more expensive, potentially eroding the financial base of the country to fund development projects,” said Mulemba.
And ZIPAR executive director, Dr Pamela Nakamba-Kabaso, stated in a press statement that the government needed to urgently act to manage the country’s mounting public debt stock.
“The last 5 years have seen the debt-to-GDP ratio grow from 20 per cent to 41 per cent of GDP in 2015, which is just about the sustainable threshold of 40 per cent of the GDP,” stated Dr Nakamba-Kabaso in the local think-tank’s reaction to the 2016 national budget.
Labels: INFLATION, LOCAL CURRENCIES, METALS
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COMMENT - One of the consequences of loading the government up with debt, courtesy of the WB/IMF's Eurobonds, is that it devalues the currency. Which means that ordinary people are already paying for it. This is odious debt, and it has to be scrapped.
Kwacha fall frustrates shoppers in Lusaka
By Chambwa Moonga |
Updated: 15 Oct,2015 ,11:55:41
THE buying power of the kwacha has left most Lusaka residents frustrated. And the number of people, mostly women, who used to ‘overwhelm’ Pick n Pay outlet at Levy Shopping Mall in Lusaka to order bread, has severely dropped, owing to an increase in order prices of the commodity. Just this year alone, the troubled kwacha has tumbled by over 40 per cent against the US dollar, a trend that has triggered worrying price increments on several goods, especially imported products.
A check at Shoprite Manda Hill on Sunday showed that prices had been adjusted upwards on basic household commodities.
Five litres of Sun Soya cooking oil was found pegged at K114.99 while a 2.5 litres of the same commodity and brand was at K59. 99 from around K65 and K30 on average respectively a month ago.
A sack of onion cost K39. 99, a kilogramme of white refined sugar was fetching K11, 99 from K8, while two kilogrammes of sugar is now K18.29 from around K15. In the same store, baby cereal was pegged at K21. 99, with a 200 grammes of Johnson baby powder going at K29.99.
A loaf of white bread costs K4.99; two litres of Zambeef milk was going at K17. 99 from around K12, while a tray of 30 eggs was pegged at K29.99 from an average of K21. A 10kg bag of Mealile breakfast mealie meal was at K37.49 with roller meal of the same quantity pegged at K29.49. A 25kg bag of breakfast mealie meal from National Milling Company was going at K71.99.
Inside sources at the uptown store hinted that there has been a price increment of between K2 and K20 in recent months on most commodities, in response to the kwacha fall.
Most shoppers were seen pushing their quarter or half parked trolleys as others walked about with ‘lightly’ parked shopping paper bags.
Another check at Melissa Supermarket in Northmead area revealed that prices of essential goods are equally rising.
An anonymous source, when approached within Pick n Pay, said “Mitengo yama order banalundila; that’s why mwaona ati bo order lelo bachepa. Nima loss yekayeka apa manje (the order price for bread has been increased and that’s why you are only seeing a few people ordering today; selling bread is now a loss-making venture.”
The price of bread in most of Lusaka’s highly populated areas is now costing between K8 and K8.50.
Recently, PF secretary general Davies Chama said if Zambians buy expensive and luxurious bread and mealie-meal, they would think Zambia’s economy is bad when, in fact, such a phenomenon is only in their pocket.
“A lot of people have been speculating that bread is K8, K9, but go to Shoprite, you will find the price of bread at K4! But if you want to eat luxurious bread, it means you want to eat expensive bread; then it will be expensive. I was looking at the price of mealie-meal in a shop; it’s K70 per 50 kilogramme bag. I was looking at the price of Boom (washing paste), it’s K4.50. So, when people are saying the economy, the economy, some of the people it is the economy in their pockets. It’s not about the price index,” said Chama.
Labels: EUROBOND, INFLATION, KWACHA
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Economy: fresh capital needed, urgently
13/01/2014 00:00:00
by The Source
COMMENT - This is the price of low inflation before anything else. - MrK
THE country is sliding into deflation due to shrinking economic activity and urgently needs fresh foreign capital to stimulate growth, a senior banking official told Parliamentarians on Monday.
Inflation is expected to end the year at 1.5 percent but the rate is seen much lower after it fell to 0.54 percent in November against projections of five percent this year due to falling economic activity and tight liquidity which has seen industrial capacity utilisation drop to just over a third from 55 percent a year ago.
“We face quite some prolonged depression going forward in the economy and it can deepen,” Agribank director, Joseph Mverecha told Members of Parliament attending a post-budget seminar at a Harare hotel.
Over the past year, month on month inflation averaged zero and slipped into the negative in the last five months, he said.
“If you extrapolate going forward by February or March at the latest, the year on year inflation should be negative,” he said, adding that it would then be difficult for the country to come out of deflation, citing Japan which has been in depression for over 15 years despite advantages such as trade and current account surpluses which Zimbabwe does not have.
Mverecha said the country needed to deal with its external debt overhang to enable it to access fresh international capital.
“The first step we need to take is to address key challenges against the background of sanctions. We need a lot of fresh capital,” he said.
“We need to make a commitment to address the core structural challenges and not to deal with symptoms.”
Labels: DEFLATION, INFLATION
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Magande warns of price hikes
By Henry Sinyangwe
Thu 03 Oct. 2013, 14:01 CAT
ZAMBIANS should brace themselves for major hikes in prices of goods following wage increments in the public sector, says National Movement for Progress president Ng'andu Magande.
And Magande, who is also former finance minister, says he hopes President Michael Sata sorts out the PF wrangles as they are 'consuming' Zambia.
He said there would be major inflationary pressures, as observed by the Bank of Zambia, because most Zambians were also not employed.
"We expect some inflationary pressures because a lot of Zambians are not employed and those who are employed are in the civil service, so they are getting more money and they will be spending it in the same shops that the other people go to. So when that happens, it means the businessmen will increase the prices of goods. To them, they are seeing these people who are spending money, but they don't realise that these are very few people and it's not everybody," Magande said.
He said the move was suicidal on the part of the government.
"Advising when someone has already jumped 10 floors and has committed suicide is not very useful because when the government was negotiating, they did not widely consult. There is nothing that the consumer will do because the government negotiated with the civil servants, and they agreed. They didn't at any time ask to say 'what do you think?'. If they had asked, we would have said 'no, you request the civil servants that instead of getting this increment at one go perhaps let them stagger them over some months or so'," Magande said.
He said it would be difficult to bring the prices down once they shoot up.
"And once prices go up, it's very difficult to bring them down, so you find that the citizens will start feeling the high cost of living, and that is what governments are there to do, to control the cost of living for all the citizens," Magande said.
He said the unemployed and the lowly paid would be most affected by the wage increase for civil servants.
"The unemployed and those who are lowly paid. I don't know why they are saying the public service is not well paid. Against whom are they comparing? If you take the private sector and there is some small bank which just came into Zambia with 10 workers and they pay those 10 workers K10,000 each, you can't say 'because these people are getting K10,000, therefore they are better paid than the civil servants and I will increase for civil servant'; the civil servants are nearly 260,000. So if you increase for civil servants in competition with 10 people, you know what that will...," Magande said.
He said addressing issues affecting the PF and the nation would be a nice way of President Michael Sata celebrating his anniversary as he swore in his Cabinet in October.
"I am waiting for the President to arrive so that he can quench this fire going on because apart from consuming the PF, it is consuming Zambia…Even as I go to some of these functions, you see people singing the national anthem and the voices are low, but when it is PF they are able to go on a public road and close it shouting 'PF'," said Magande.
"No, this country is for all Zambians and once you are in government, you look after all citizens."
Labels: INFLATION, NG'ANDU MAGANDE
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JCTR calls on govt to curb cost of basic commodities
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Sat 13 July 2013, 14:00 CAT
THE Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection has urged the government to tackle the rising cost of basic commodities.
Releasing the Basic Needs Basket for the month of June, JCTR stated this was so in view of the fact that so far no well-articulated framework had been put in place to ensure that the poor do not suffer adverse shocks of price changes.
It stated that it was imperative that clear measures, such as zero rating some food products be put in place to mitigate the increasing cost of food items.
In May, the government sequentially scrapped fuel and maize subsidies contending that the measure would free resources for infrastructure development and poverty reduction among others.
This change in subsidies has generated a debate with various actors voicing varying views.
JCTR stated that at household level, the effects of the subsidies removal on prices of basic commodities were still being felt two months afterwards. According to Daniel Mutale, the social conditions programme manager, the effects of removal of subsidies on basic food items was deepening.' Mutale said this calls for an urgent response to address the rising food costs.
JCTR stated that the cost of living for the month of June as measured by the JCTR's Basic Needs Basket for an average family of five living in Lusaka stood at K3,684.46.
"The Basic Needs Basket total has increased by K59.26 compared to May 2013 when the basket was K3,625.20. Evidently this increase is almost double the Basic Needs Basket total increase from April to May which was K31.60. From the time the subsidies were removed in May, a cumulative increase in the Basic Needs Basket total of K90.86 has been seen. The total cost of essential food items contributed most to this increase by K41.78 while that of essential non food items increased by K17.48. Increases in unit price of food commodities such as mealie-meal, beans, dry fish and beef by K3.18, K1.49, K24.62 and K1.13 respectively, explain the increase," it stated.
Mutale stated that, "The fact that it is the basic food items whose prices are affected is worrisome as these are integral to the diet of the majority poor." JCTR stated that not only was the cost of basic food items such as mealie-meal, which on average costs K59.28, unaffordable but the price was steadily rising as evidenced by an increase of approximately K3 in the month of June.
It stated that data from the Satellite Home Survey carried out by the JCTR in some high density areas within Lusaka shows that a great number of families rely heavily on mealie-meal for their basic meals.
"Thus the current and potential future increase in its cost and those of other basic food items will both constrain the already struggling families and pose a threat to household food security," stated JCTR.
Labels: INFLATION, JCTR
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Inflation slows to 2.76 percent in March
15/04/2013 00:00:00
by Roman Moyo
ZIMBABWE’S National Statistics Agency (Zimstats) has announced that the inflation rate shed 0.22 percentage points on the February figure of 2.98 percent to 2.76 percent in March.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the drop was due to a decline in the value of South Africa's rand against the dollar, making Zimbabwe's imports from its giant neighbour much cheaper.
Zimbabwe uses a mixture of the dollar and rand, having scrapped its own currency in 2009 to end years of hyperinflation.
Zimstats said the year-on-year food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation prone to transitory shocks stood at 4.18 percent while the non-food inflation rate was 2.04 percent.
The monthly food and beverages rate of inflation for March 2013 stood at 0.32 percent, shedding 1.08 percentage points on the February rate of 1.40 percent.
Month-on-month non-food inflation was pegged at 0.15 percent, shedding 0.57 percentage points on the February rate of 0.72 percent.
The month-on-month inflation rate in March 2013 shed 0.74 percentage points from February’s figure of 0.95 percent to close at 0.21 percent.
This means prices, as measured by the all-items consumer price index, increased by an average of 2.76 percentage points between March 2012 and March 2013.
The consumer price index for the month ending March 2013 stood at 101.2 compared with 101.0 in February 2013 and 98.5 in March 2012.
"The implementation of COICOP classification is also part of the harmonisation project of consumer price indices in different regions, such as Sadc, as all member states are supposed to adopt the new procedure to enable inter-country comparisons of the Consumer Price Index and the rate of inflation," said ZimStat.
Labels: INFLATION, ZIMSTATS
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November inflation slows to 2, 99 percent
17/12/2012 00:00:00
by Roman Moyo
ZIMBABWE’s consumer inflation declined to 2, 99 percent in November, from 3, 38 percent the previous month, the statistics agency said Monday.
This means that prices as measured by the all items CPI increased by increased by an average of 2, 99 percentage points between November 2011 and November 2012.
“Year-on-year inflation, as measured by the all items Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 2,99 percent, shedding 0,39 percentage points on the October 2012 rate of 3,38 percent,” a statement by the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (Zimstat) said.
The figures show that Zimbabwe is on course to meeting its target of having inflation below 5 percent by December.
The direction of inflation decline is sustainable and should continue to trend downwards.
There were fears that inflationary pressures were likely to resurface in the last quarter due to the rising utility bills, educational fees as well as rising global fuel prices.
The year-on-year inflation rate is given by the percentage change in the index of the relevant month of the current year compared with the index of the same month in the previous year.
“The year-on-year food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation prone to transitory shocks stood at 3, 85 percent whilst non-food inflation stood at 2, 61 percent,” Zimstat added.
Month-on-month inflation was at 0, 13 percent from 0, 26 percent for the same period.
This means prices as measured by the all items CPI increased at average of 0.13 percent from October 2012 to November 2012.
The month-on-month inflation rate is given by the percentage change in the index of the relevant month of the current year compared with the index of the previous month in the current year.
The monthly food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation stood at 0, 18 percent in November 2012 rate of 0, 46 percent, shedding 0,006 percent points on the October 2012 rate of 0, 17 percent.
CPI for the month ending November 2012 stood at 102, 77 compared to 102, 63 in October 2012 and 99, 78 in November 2011.
Labels: INFLATION
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Tomato price skyrockets 100%
September 4, 2012 | Filed under: Business | Posted by: web editor
By NANCY MWAPE
THE price of tomatoes at Soweto City Market over the weekend went up by 100 percent from as low as K20, 000 per box to K50, 000. Ruth Phiri, a trader at Soweto City market, revealed that most traders had been forced to increase tomato prices.
According to a survey conducted by the Zambia Daily Mail at Lusaka’s major market for fresh vegetables and fruits yesterday, tomato prices range from K1, 000 to K2, 500 for a heap of four.
Mrs Phiri said major tomato suppliers at Soweto market are mostly farmers from Mumbwa and Mkushi districts but pointed that over the weekend, the Mumbwa farmers were the only suppliers.
Another trader, Gertrude Bwalya, said the price of tomatoes had only been increased this weekend and further expects the commodity to fetch as high as K150, 000 per box during the rainy season.
Mrs Bwalya said commodities that are costly at present include tomatoes, impwa and okra.
“My sister, are you a farmer or you want to start selling fresh vegetables? okra and impwa are fetching K150, 000 for a bag of 50 kg. If you are a farmer, you will make a fortune from impwa and okra,” she said.
She said last month, a lot of farmers were desperate to sell their tomatoes at very low prices for fear of the commodity going to waste.
According to Zambia National Farmers Union report, the worst tomato prices for farmers were again experienced in April 2007 and March 2008 when the commodity tumbled down to as low as K700 per kilogramme, which was attributed to supply outstripping demand.
The ZNFU report however notes that the prices for tomatoes have been fluctuating depending on seasons with most players coming on the market when the conditions are dry and hence flooding the market.
ZNFU says commercial farmers, especially those from Mkushi, have been producing tomatoes during the rainy season when most farmers shun planting the crop due to huge management overheads.
The report adds that the price of tomatoes this year reached its lowest levels in five years at the back of increased farm productivity of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Between January and February this year, the box of tomato was fetching around K75, 000 or K3, 750 per kilogramme.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, INFLATION
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BoZ expresses inflation fears
By Kabanda Chulu
Sat 01 Sep. 2012, 10:20 CAT
THE Bank of Zambia has warned that the proposed increase in electricity tariffs and rising mealie meal and meat prices are posing serious possible risks to inflation. And the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has maintained the policy rate at nine per cent for September 2012.
In a communiqué issued by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank yesterday, it was, however, noted that the possible risks to inflation are likely to be moderated by expected stability in the foreign exchange rates.
"We have noted upside risks to inflation in September 2012 to include the proposed adjustment in electricity tariffs and the rising mealie meal and meat prices," it stated. "These inflation risks are, however, likely to be moderated by the relative stability in the exchange rate as well as stable prices of fuel, fish and vegetables."
It stated that during the policy relevant period, inflation would be broadly in line with the end year target of seven percent.
"The Committee has weighed the inflation risks going forward and it has noted that during the policy relevant period, inflation will be broadly in line with the end-year target of seven per cent. Therefore, the committee decided to maintain the policy rate at nine percent," stated the communiqué.
Labels: BOZ, INFLATION
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Inflation rate records marginal increase
By Henry Sinyangwe
Fri 31 Aug. 2012, 14:20 CAT
ZAMBIA'S inflation rate for August has recorded a marginal increase, up from 6.2 per cent seen in July to 6.4 per cent this month.
During a monthly briefing to announce the country's inflation rate yesterday, Central Statistical Office (CSO) director of census and statistics John Kalumbi attributed the rise in inflation to increases in food prices.
"Between July and August 2012, the annual rate of inflation increased for food and non-alcoholic beverages; furnishings, household equipment and routine house maintenance, health, education, and miscellaneous goods and services, while the annual rate of inflation decreased for alcoholic beverages and tobacco; clothing and footwear; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels; recreation and culture; and restaurant and hotel," he said.
Kalumbi said the annual food inflation rate was recorded at 7.3 percent in August 2012 compared to 6.3 percent in July 2012 while the annual non-food inflation rate was recorded at 5.5 percent in August from 6.0 in July.
"This implies that there was a 1.0 percentage point increase in annual food while that of non food items decreased by 0.5 percentage points over the
previous month," he said. "A comparison of retail prices between July 2012 and August 2012 shows that the national average price of a 25 kilogrammes bag of breakfast mealie meal increased by 2.4 per cent from K42,074 to K43,119. The national average price of a 25 kilogramme bag of roller mealie meal increased by 2.0 per cent from K31,464 to K32,121..."
Meanwhile, Kalumbi said the enumeration phase of the economic census began this month and the CSO staff are currently in the field collecting data from about 12,000 enterprises and establishments for the financial year 2010.
Kalumbi also said Zambia has recorded a trade surplus valued at K383.2 billion in July 2012, the highest since January from K163.0 billion recorded in June 2012.
Labels: CSO, INFLATION
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Zimbabwe inflation slows to 3.97 pct
This article was written by Our reporter on 16 July, at 00 : 07 AM
Zimbabwe’s headline consumer inflation braked to 3.97 percent year-on-year in June from 4.02 percent in May, the statistics agency said on Friday.
However on a month-on-month basis Zimbabwe inflation quickened to 0.2 percent in June from 0.07 percent previously.
The slowdown was due to the easing of transport costs, the national statistics agency said Friday.
The country’s economy has stabilised over the last three years after a decade-long downturn which saw runaway annual inflation reaching an official peak of 231 million percent before the government stopped counting.
The acting minister of finance, Patrick Chinamasa dumped the Zimbabwean dollar in favour of the US dollar and other regional currencies during the height of the hyper-inflationary period.
Zimbabwe dollar 300x203 Zimbabwe inflation slows to 3.97 pct
Zimbabwe ditched the local currency in 2009 after inflation peaked at 231 million percent (AFP/File, Jekesai Njikizana)
Goods that were in short supply or unavailable returned to the shelves, but prices have continued to fluctuate according to the cost of importing.
Zimbabwe relies on imports mainly from neighbouring giant South Africa after the economic meltdown forced factories to downsize, close or relocate to neighbouring countries.
Labels: INFLATION
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(COMMENT) Interesting. The absence of the former Central Bank makes the money mass of Somali Shillings a finite commodity. Which then gives it it's value.
Somalia’s mighty shilling
Hard to kill
A currency issued in the name of a central bank that no longer exists
Mar 31st 2012
USE of a paper currency is normally taken to be an expression of faith in the government that issues it. Once the solvency of the issuer is in doubt, anyone holding its notes will quickly try to trade them in for dollars, jewellery or, failing that, some commodity with enduring value (when the rouble collapsed in 1998 some factory workers in Russia were paid in pickles). The Somali shilling, now entering its second decade with no real government or monetary authority to speak of, is a splendid exception to this rule.
Somalia’s long civil war has ripped apart what institutions it once had. In 2011 the country acquired a notional central bank under the remit of the Transitional Federal Government. But the government’s authority does not extend far beyond the capital, Mogadishu. The presence of the Shabab, a murderous fundamentalist militia, in the south and centre of the country, makes it unlikely that Somalia will become whole anytime soon. Meanwhile, 2.3m people are in need of edible aid. Why, then, are Somali shillings, issued in the name of a government that ceased to exist long ago and backed by no reserves of any kind, still in use?
One reason may be that the supply of shillings has remained fairly fixed. Rival warlords issued their own shillings for a while and there are a fair number of fakes in circulation. But the lack of an official printing press able to expand the money supply has given the pre-1992 shilling a certain cachet. Even the forgeries do it the honour of declaring they were printed before the central bank collapsed: implausibly crisp red 1,000-shilling notes, with their basket weavers on the front and orderly docks on the back, declare they were printed in the capital in 1990.
Abdirashid Duale, boss of Dahabshiil, the largest network of banks in Somalia, says that his staff are trained to distinguish good fakes from the real thing before exchanging them for dollars. Others accept the risk of holding a few fakes as a cost of doing business (shillings are often handed over in thick bundles of 100 notes). By this alchemy, an imitation of a thing which is already of notional value turns out to be worth something.
Shelling out shillings
A second reason for the shilling’s longevity is that it is too useful to do away with. Large transactions, such as the purchase of a house, a car, or even livestock are dollarised. But Somalis need small change with which to buy tea, sugar, qat (a herbal stimulant) and so on. Many staples are not produced domestically, making barter impractical. The shilling serves as well as shells or beads would as a medium of exchange. It also has a role as a secondary store of value. Once a year the economy gets an injection of dollars when goats are sold to Saudi Arabia to feed pilgrims undertaking the haj. Herders need to find ways to save money received then for spending over the next year. The shilling is one of them.
The shilling has a further source of strength. Since each party to a transaction is likely to be able to place the other within Somalia’s system of kinship, the shilling is underpinned by a strong social glue. Paper currencies always need tacit consent from their users that they will exchange bills for actual stuff. But in Somalia this pact is rather stronger: an individual who flouts the system risks jeopardising trust in both himself and his clan.
Having survived against great odds, the shilling now faces a serious challenge in the form of dollars transferred by mobile phone. Zaad, a mobile-money service, allows users to pay for goods by texting small amounts of money to a merchant’s account, and is proving popular in Mogadishu. But the shilling’s endurance suggests it should not be counted out. If it can survive without a government, it can probably brush off modern technology, too.
Labels: CURRENCY, INFLATION, NEOLIBERALISM, SOMALIA
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COMMENT - These two ancient rhodies couldn't think themselves out of a paper bag, or they're just lying. Only a fool would go to them for advice on anything. (Dumb***). The bumper harvest was bound to lower food prices. And by the way, John Robertson is not 'an independent economist based in Harare', he is part of The Economist Intelligence Unit. For a much better article, see:
Zimbabwe: Annual Inflation Slows to 4,3 Percent, by Tawanda Musarurwa (17 February 2012).
Zimbabwe's inflation figures don't add up
MATT QUIGLEY CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Mar 16 2012 14:40
Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate remained unchanged at 4.3% in February, according to official statistics released on Thursday. On a monthly basis, the rate of price rises facing Zimbabwean consumers edged up only slightly from 0.46% in January to 0.49% in February.
These official figures suggest that prices are rising at a slower annual rate in Zimbabwe than in neighbouring countries. Zambia reported a 6.0% annual inflation rate last month, for example, and South Africa most recently recorded a 6.3% inflation rate in January.
Tony Hawkins, an economist at the University of Zimbabwe and member of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's monetary policy committee, believes that "the figures don't stack up". They are "not realistic", he said in a telephone interview earlier on Friday.
[Project much, Tony? - MrK]
The consumer price index (CPI) data released by Zimbabwe's National Statistical Office -- Zimstat -- suggested that prices have increased at just over 1.0% in the three years since the country abandoned its local currency after a prolonged period of hyperinflation.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the only other country in the world to experience such a low rate of inflation over the same time period was Japan, a country which has long battled deflation or falling prices.
[Those two economies aren't even compatable. - MrK]
The IMF, according to Hawkins, "reckons Zimbabwe's inflation rate has been closer to 6%".
Hawkins believes that one of the reasons the numbers are so inaccurate is that Zimbabwe's consumer price index -- compiled based on the average prices of a fixed basket of consumer goods -- gives a 30% weighting to food prices. Most African countries weight food at around 50%, he says.
John Robertson, an independent economist based in Harare, agrees that something is amiss in the data.
"[CPI] numbers have not gone up in the last three months, very much against expectations," Robertson said, "Government increased import duties on food in January, but the food [price] index has yet to move."
Robertson argues that Zimbabwe's highly competitive retail environment may partially explain the situation. Zimbabwe has experienced a significant expansion in supermarket and other retail space since 2009's "dollarisation" (abandonment of the local currency primarily in favour of the US dollar and South African rand). And, more recently, retailers increased their stocks around the Christmas holidays.
Although reliable retail sales figures are not available in Zimbabwe, Robertson believes that retailers are experiencing a surplus of goods. As evidence, he cites the fact that retailers have yet to repay the banks for the borrowing they undertook late last year to stock up. As a result of this, and other factors, Zimbabwe's retailers have not been able to achieve price increases, keeping inflation in check.
"There is very little liquidity [in the country] and cash is just not available." As a result, he argued, "retail sales have suffered over the past few months".
Although the two economists cite different possible explanations for the data's unreliability, they both believe that the official statistics are painting a "more and more distorted picture", as Hawkins explained.
Robertson agrees. "I think there is a certain amount of political interference in the numbers."
Consumer price index (CPI) figures compiled and released by Zimstat are one of very few economic statistics regularly available in the troubled nation.
In South Africa, dozens of economic variables -- from inflation measures to tourism statistics -- are released -- predictably, regularly and reliably -- by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). This information, in aggregate, provides a useful snapshot of the country's economy to policymakers, economists, investors and businesses. Zimbabweans do not enjoy the same luxury.
An online visit to Zimstat on Friday morning resulted in a message informing visitors that the website is down. The same happens with a visit to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), which was hacked in August of last year and has been "under maintenance" ever since.
Labels: INFLATION, NEOLIBERALISM, TONY HAWKINS, ZIMBABWE
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Mealie meal prices in Mwansabombwe reduced by 35%
TIME PUBLISHED - Saturday, February 25, 2012, 4:44 pm
Mealie meal prices in Mwansabombwe palace of Mwata Kazembe and surrounding areas in Kawambwa district have been reduced by K25, 000.
A check by Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in Mwansabombwe yesterday discovered that a 25 kilogramme bag of breakfast meal from APG milling company which was previously selling at K70, 000 is now selling at K45,000
The check also revealed that a 25 kilogramme bag of roller meal is now costing K35, 000 from the previous K65, 000.
And Thomas Chingele who was found selling the commodity also told ZANIS a five kilogramme of breakfast and roller meal is selling at K6, 000.00 and K5, 000.00 respectively.
Mr Chingele said people in the area are happy at the drastic reduction of mealie meal prices attributing this to good governance of the Patriotic Front (PF) government.
He thanked the PF government for facilitating in the reduction of mealie meal prices saying this has enabled many people in the area afford thecommodity.
Mr Chingele said people in the area had suffered enough and the reduction in price could not come at a better time than now.
Mr Chingele however, could not give other reasons for the immediate reduction in price of the staple food but said the source also had a similar reduction hence the chain reaction to the benefit of consumers.
Efforts to get a comment from APG milling company failed as the contact phone number was not going through at press time.
ZANIS
Labels: INFLATION, KAWAMBWA DISTRICT, MEALIE-MEAL, MWANSABOMBE, MWATA KAZAMBE
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Full text: Mugabe's 88th birthday interview
21/02/2012 00:00:00
by Tazzen Mandizvidza I ZBC
President Robert Mugabe turned 88 on Tuesday. The following is the transcript of an interview with the state-run ZBC General Manager News and Current Affairs, Tazzen Mandizvidza, broadcast on Monday night:
TM: Your Excellency, thank you for being with us on this special programme.
President Mugabe: Thank you!
TM: Ndakamirira mhuri yeZBC ndingatange ndichiti makorokoto, amhlope, congratulations.
President Mugabe: Aiwa ndeedu tose. Kwete pamakore asi mufaro wacho.
TM: Your Excellency, one issue that has been talked about for quite sometime is the issue of the Constitution. It has taken longer than we all thought but are you really happy with the progress?
President Mugabe: Not really. It’s a process that is puzzling us now. When we begun we thought it was a matter of 18 months and we have an election. But as things look now, one doesn’t know what’s happening and one doesn’t know which way people would want us to go.
There is the dragging of feet, so much delay in the process. I don’t know what the real problem is but as others describe the problem, they think those who are charged with the task of putting ideas together, examining what the people said during the outreach programme are dragging their feet deliberately.
They want longer time, longer time because it means more money. They are given allowances. They are being paid and if the process comes to an end, so does naturally, the payment. It comes to an end.
I don’t know it, that is, the reason, whether it’s because the people who are at the top of it want a longer period to earn money or there are some problems.
But, I would want to believe that one problem is that some people or shall I say, one or two parties to the constitution-making process might now have discovered that this way of the constitution making is not in their favour and that the views that were obtained during the outreach programme are not in their favour.
They are not supportive of their parties and so they are dragging and dragging and dragging on, either to confound the process or to get the other side to tire and give up the exercise and the exercise doesn’t happen at all.
So one wonders why we abandoned, in the first place, the process that we had agreed on that this was going to be based on the Kariba Draft, which was all ready, all agreed and enunciating, you know, the process, which could have been completed in a short period. But we listened to our counterparties that it was better to listen to the people first.
To get a comprehensive view from our nation and on the basis of the views that would have been expressed, build a constitution.
But this is not proving to be a success at all.
TM: Your counterparts in the Global Political Agreement are actually accusing Zanu-PF. They say Zanu-PF is causing the delays because it’s afraid of elections.
President Mugabe: No! We want elections, we wanted them yesterday, we want them today, we want them any day, but others are saying no, no, no, we can’t have elections.
First, they were saying 2012, now they are saying in 2013. But perhaps when we get much further without elections they will say no elections at all; let us remain in power without elections.
TM: Your Excellency, looking at this scenario, when are we likely to have elections?
President Mugabe: Yes, sure; this year! We just must have elections. They just must take place with or without a new constitution.
And we will, on our side as a party, we have made a decision, last year at our conference that this year we definitely have an election exercise. If others don’t want to have an election then they are free not to participate.
Nobody is forced to go to an election but definitely I will exercise my presidential powers in accordance with the main principal law, the Constitution of our country and announce when the election will take place. And I will do this.
TM: But looking at the process that we have been going through with the help of our brothers from the Sadc region. If, for example, we have elections and the other parties boycott, what will likely be the result? How would Sadc react?
President Mugabe: Well, we will tell Sadc what the problem is and Sadc can’t compel us to continue an exercise which is futile and I am sure there is greater wisdom on the part of Sadc. And anyway, the GPA states that a party can resign, completely reject it and once a rejection takes place, we revert back to our Constitution, which all these years we have based ourselves and it becomes the basis of our election.
TM: Your Excellency, are you telling us that Zanu-PF is likely to withdraw from the GPA if this does come to an end?
President Mugabe: No, no, no! All I am saying is that Zanu-PF will withdraw from the GPA if others continue with these dirty tricks. We can’t have them anymore. We can’t put up with them anymore.
Anyway, what I should say is, last week, the principals — that is the other two and myself — Tsvangirai, Mutambara and myself decided that we be provided with the draft constitution, that the management should present that to us.
We got the draft (but) we haven’t looked at it yet and we would want to see what the draft says but I am told the draft is not yet reviewed by the management committee and so it’s a draft which we can’t base any definite views of our own.
The other part which should look at the draft hasn’t done so and hasn’t presented it to us as a reviewed draft. But it’s just a raw draft directly from the drafters. All we can do is just look at and perhaps see what the drafters have put together and give time to our management committee to look at it and present a reviewed version of it.
Now we had decided that once we have looked at the draft having been looked at, first, by the management committee, we will then decide on the road map. We the principals and I think none of us is for any undue postponement of elections. No!
TM: Your Excellency, what is this roadmap? What should the nation expect?
President Mugabe: They should expect a referendum, a referendum to get the people’s views, whether the people accept the draft constitution or not.
If they reject it then we revert to the old constitution, if they accept then the usual process takes place. Parliament must also endorse it and then it becomes a legal document after it has been passed by Parliament and we can go for an election. If it’s rejected then of course, announce the process that should take place.
TM: Your Excellency, talking of the draft constitution, there have been reports that there is a certain clause that has been put there in order to bar you from contesting as a presidential candidate by limiting terms of office.
President Mugabe: Cowards, cowards, cowards! Why are they afraid of me? Why should they ban anyone at all?
We haven’t come to a position where political tricks or legal tricks, for that matter are put in place to bar anyone, who normally has the right to participate in an election.
TM: Still on elections, is Zanu PF ready for elections? I am saying this in light of the factionalism we hear about. Are you prepared as a party?
President Mugabe: Well I don’t know anything about factionalism. You always get differences in a party. I suppose this makes the process. It’s always the fact of differences, we have contradictions. We must resolve these contradictions, move forward and you move forward, you will also encounter new contradictions, new differences and also have solutions and that’s how progress is made, isn’t it?
It always comes after such contradictions provided solutions do occur in regard to them. Yes, yes, yes the party is always ready, ever ready. This means we are always ready to fight.
TM: Your Excellency, what calibre of a leader would you want to succeed you and at the moment can you say you have found that successor?
President Mugabe: NO! The party will find a successor. It’s the people who can find a successor. I came from the people and the people in their wisdom, our members of the party, will certainly select someone once I say I am now retiring, but not yet.
At this age I can still go some distance, can’t I?
TM: Zanu-PF has been in power for the past 32 years, what do you offer the electorate?
President Mugabe: What do we offer the electorate? Goodness me! Independence gave us political freedom and we say that political freedom can not be complete unless we have sovereignty over our natural resources and we started by exercising the right, sovereign right, in acquiring our land and apportioning it to our people and so the first step was for us to feel that we are not just politically sovereign.
That we are also economically sovereign and the first step as I said was that of acquiring the ownership of our land and getting it from the British settlers and put it into the hands of Zimbabweans. That sovereignty over the land resources! But that’s not all. The land question is just one area. There are other areas which are economic. We must exercise our sovereignty also in regard to, you know, the economic sector.
And not that the agriculture sector is not part of the economic sector, it is!
But you have also mining, manufacturing sector. You have the infrastructure and that sovereignty has not yet based itself. Therefore, now with our law on indigenisation and empowerment, we will want to ensure that our people also have the ownership of the resources that lie underneath.
That way the mining sector is meaningful. It was not meaningful all along because there is a process where it is owned by outsiders but we want the resources to remain in our hands even though we are ready, we are prepared that those who will be partners with us should have a share of our resources, not ownership, but of the benefit that comes from our resources.
And that is why the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act was passed and this requires that whatever companies undertake mining in the country or any manufacturing exercise or any other socio-economic activity; if these companies are foreign, they must cede at least 51 percent.
This should belong to the people of Zimbabwe either to the Government and Government acting on behalf of the people and that’s part of indigenisation also and so this is an exercise we are working on now.
The land has come, now the minerals must also come and manufactured products must also belong to us and of course we have the infrastructure, we have the telecommunication and other communication activities.
The programmes that are due to take place, we want our people and all those to participate as owners and shareholders but particularly owners in that regard on their own.
Yes we will continue to produce people with skills in that they work, become workers, they become labourers in some cases but they must be owners of their own resources, owners of these enterprises. Be entrepreneurial, in attitude, in their disposition, generally not expect that outsiders will come into the country and develop the country for us and do it at our own expense.
When we get the benefit of being workers and nothing more than workers and then at the end of the day what comes to us is that which the State gets by way of taxation. That must stop now!
TM: Just out of curiosity, Your Excellency, draft constitution ikauya kwamuri mukaona ma issues amusingafarire, do you have the authority ekubvisa?
President Mugabe: Tinoramba. Ehe, tinobvisa. Ko togoregererei? Nhai, nhai, nhai! It’s a draft constitution and we will say this we do not want. If for example, you have in the constitution kuti ngavatemwe makumbo, vanenge vaba, ngavatemwe makumbo. Aiwa zve tinoramba. Kana homosexualism zvese tinobvisa.
TM: Let’s move away from elections and the party. Let’s look at the GPA. Are you happy with the progress that you have made?
President Mugabe: I am happy with the fact that it has managed to at least get us together with the other parties so they can participate in Government and have a feel of what Government is and also be exposed to the public. Now that the public knows what Zanu-PF stands for, MDC-T, M, N or whatever they call themselves; what these stand for.
I am sure no one can deceive the public anymore by hiding their own views and ideas because they have not yet entered the arena but they are now in the arena and the people can see who speaks sense and who speaks nonsense and who is better behaved. And who is guilty of misbehaviour and so on and so forth.
So we are there for the people. It has also enabled us, and it is one good thing it has done; the GPA enabled us to work together, know each other. We are parties and perhaps cease regarding ourselves as enemies but regard each other as opponents.
People, yes, with differences among themselves, ideological differences, political differences.
Differences in approach to definite issues and therefore people who can tolerate each other and at the end of the day we are Zimbabweans. All of us so that is very important and it’s important to our people that we may differ politically, religiously even ethnically. Differ in various other ways but we are all Zimbabweans and that is what counts much more than anything else.
It counts much more than your ethnicity, it counts much more than your political affinity and much more than any other — ism that you may have that you are a Zimbabwean national, Zimbabwean citizen, mwana wevhu; singing one national anthem and waving one flag. That is what must always guide us; that these differences are really artificial.
But one thing that we can never deny an individual, no matter what dress he is wearing, no matter what religion he belongs to, what tribe he belongs to, is the nationality.
The fact that he is a Zimbabwean. That is the son or daughter of the soil. So that is very important and that is also the source of the other principles that derive there; the fact that we are one.
Must we hate each other because we belong to different religions and bodies or because we are of different tribes or different parties? No!
But yes, we may oppose each other and oppose each other quite firmly. But must we unleash violence to each other? That must stop of course. No violence.
That is what the GPA has taught all of us and we are also very happy that our national healing exercise, as there is an organ which is led by Vice President John Nkomo, and each championing this, you know, campaign of getting people to understand each other, appreciate each, one another, sons and daughters of Zimbabwe.
But having said that, there are great differences between us and the other parties — Zanu-PF and the others. We believe ourselves in the people of Zimbabwe as a sovereign people. We believe that they are endowed by the Almighty with the right to sovereignty over their land. That no one from outside has the right, you know, to acquire a piece of land or any national resource without their permission.
In other words, the outsiders must be entertained by us, accommodated by us, must be permitted by us to live here and to make homes here, to enjoy themselves, to marry our beautiful girls and also to eat our beef; to kill our deer, antelope, go to Kariba and fish, catch our fish; in other words, to do things that we can do. Yes!
We accommodate people from outside, just as our people can be accommodated in other countries as well. But no, they should never, never, never attempt to impose their power over us. I am talking now of countries like Britain, of nationals like Britons who once upon a time said the sun never sets in the British Empire. Priding themselves on never, never, never being slaves; as they sang Britain, Britain, Britain will never be slaves.
They never sang Britain will never, never be slave masters. You see they will never be slaves but how about being slave masters? So there is the difference between us. They should never try to impose their culture on us and hence our abhorrence or feeling of abhorrence. The feeling that if we are to get aid from Britain we must first accept that man can marry man and woman can marry woman. That’s what David Cameron said. You don’t say those things to other nations. So there it is.
The GPA emphasises that, but we differ with the other parties. Zanu-PF is of the strong view that we are sovereign but we still have these other parties still going to the Europeans, you know, Europeans, when we have problems, Europeans.
They must get to Britain; they must go to France, German etc to get ideas. No! We have ideas here.
Fortunately, now we have well educated people. Very, very highly educated people and nobody can boss us intellectually.
TM: Yes, Your Excellency and we also read of alleged clashes between yourself and the Prime Minister. How do you describe your working relationship with the Prime Minister?
President Mugabe: I read of the clashes in the papers. In the Standard and what are the others? The little papers! (TM: Daily News?) Dustbin things, Yah!
This is where the fights are and I wonder where they get the information from.
But because they must create these fights it’s Tsvangirai going for Mugabe. So and so and I am always at the receiving end, you see. Even when people come to my State House where I am the resident, they have come to fight me. No, no, no!
It has always been very peaceful. We were very suspicious of each other at the beginning but as time went on, we got to know each other.
Now Tsvangirai can drink a cup of tea which I make and I have no objections drinking a cup of tea which he makes.
TM: Your Excellency, from what you have said this might become a tricky situation where it has been alleged that the Prime Minister was involved in some fraudulent activity which involves the purchase of the Prime Minister’s residence and it is said the police have done their work and are waiting for the go ahead to arrest him. Is he going to be arrested?
President Mugabe: I am not a policeman. The President is not a policeman. When crimes are committed, the police do not come to the President to ask permission to arrest an individual.
They just proceed on the basis that they derive their power from the law and arrest individuals.
I have read also in the papers that there has been some fraudulent behaviour but it if this is so, well, it’s the Prime Minister who should answer and if he does not get to you, you don’t have to get him to answer via the President.
If there is really a case that requires him to answer, I am sure he will be able to explain what happened, himself.
What we don’t want is people getting arrested on the basis of evidence which is not clear and on the basis of facts which have not been thoroughly investigated.
The police must investigate these cases thoroughly so that by the time they get to the stage of building a case and taking it to the court they are quite sure that they have a case against the particular individual to whom it relates. But just rushing to build a case against somebody doesn’t do us good at all.
If anything, it harms our reputation and I hope they have investigated the matter thoroughly not just rush to make up things against the Prime Minister.
TM: Your Excellency, from there we take you to the state of the economy. You spoke about mining, you spoke about indigenisation, are you happy with the contribution that mining has done to the economy in totality?
President Mugabe: There is mining taking place. Just now our eyes are fixed on diamond mining. Not much has come from that mining yet because the sales are not many and there are hindrances being put along the way.
Put in the way of selling and marketing diamonds by the United States. They go to our main markets, to main buyers of diamonds and threaten them. (The go) to ask them not to buy Zimbabwean diamonds. It is alleged that these are blood diamonds but I haven’t seen any blood flowing on the diamonds. I have visited Chiadzwa, I have done so twice, but they are very clean.
We know that the US, Britain and other Western countries do not want to see us succeed. They want their sanctions to pull us down and ruin us economically but we refuse to be ruined.
We are a resilient nation and we know what our rights are and we will not be subjugated by anyone. But they try their best and this is the reason why not much has come from the diamond sector. But with more companies being licenced, we hope that the State will get a greater benefit. I can assure you I have my eyes there.
We know of the talk about diamonds being smuggled, but no really, there is strict security; but it’s a case of selling the diamonds. The mining is taking place but the marketing is what is so limited when it takes place.
But other areas of the mining sector are also important. We have platinum, but there is very little contribution being made by platinum to our development.
If anything really, our platinum is developing other countries much more than it is developing Zimbabwe. Then there is gold, gold is the main, I would want to believe, the main mineral and you get it practically in every province in the country.
And you have small miners, makorokoza, vanamai nanababa, along the rivers, digging everywhere. We have nothing against them but we want them to be better organized, taught how to do their gold mining.
But they are making a contribution, where they are doing it properly; to the development of the country but these are areas that should be better organized. However, because of sanctions there has been a sagging of the sector and it needs to be revamped, needs quite some capital to go into it. You know, machinery wears out and there is need for some spare parts or new machinery. We need to see much more production.
Gold is fetching higher prices. US$1 755 per ounce, that’s the international price at the moment and it is lots of money and we need now to improve and get the process which will see our gold mining recover very much. So we want to get to about 30 tonnes that we used to produce in the past. About that and even exceed that.
Platinum also must be managed. I hope the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act will now enable us to get greater benefit from all this mining exercise which has been taking place in the past by doing so at our expense, national expense that is.
Now that we must go into all these companies with at least 51 percent, that is least, it can be more than that. Fifty-one percent shareholding in a company! The reward to Zimbabwe must be greater but what is required is revamping, improving the performance and greater productivity taking place in the mining sector.
Manufacturing also requires the same exercise; injecting more capital and I think companies, as you see, had actually gone down miserably to about 10 percent. And now we want to see this production capacity rise but we must inject more capital, more capital into them and this has been the problem.
TM: Do you have this capital?
President Mugabe: We thought we had SDRs. The IMF gave us but they were used otherwise. Yes, we create capital. We can borrow from international institutions but the World Bank and IMF must obey the dictates of the West and impose sanctions on us. Even if they don’t say so but in practice that is what happens and we can’t rely on those ones.
But we have the Afrrexim bank which has been there and the regional banks and reliance on the eastern bloc, China, India and their financial institutions.
We can borrow from them and use our resources as security and get loans.
They are prepared to give us loans. They are also prepared to bring their companies here and partner us and that way get us rejuvenated and increase the production of our companies.
TM: Your Excellency, you mention the issue of sanctions, how are you going to handle that within the GPA as your partners are constantly failing to sing from the same hymn book?
President Mugabe: That is what baffles us. Surely, if you are a Zimbabwean and Zimbabwe is being attacked by outsiders and it doesn’t matter what differences between the MDC and ourselves, when outsiders attack us, we must unite against the outsiders and try to drive the outsiders out of Zimbabwe, get his hand off us.
His intervention bids us to be together but, no, the MDC decides to side with the Americans, with the Europeans in supporting sanctions against its own people. We do not understand that. They fail to, they find it very difficult, to say sanctions are hurting us.
They try to avoid using the word sanctions; they want to call them restrictions. I do not understand, perhaps, it’s the lack of political consciousness, national consciousness, which characterize them. You see, they have not gone through the grill like us. But one doesn’t have to have been a member of the ANC, National Democratic Party, Zapu, Zanu in order to have national consciousness.
Just a feeling that Zimbabwe is your country and you will countenance, you will not accept any attack from outside, whether this attack is physical or it’s economic by way of sanctions.
That’s what a real party that stands for the people, that operates in the interest of the people, should do.
But if you are for the people, how can you then at the same time turn against the people by supporting sanctions, which hurt them.
TM: Pamunosangana hamumbobvunza here kuti zvii zvinorema?
President Mugabe: Vanoti tiritose asi kuti vaenda kunze uku vanoudza varungu vavo kuti ah, chimboregai ma sanctions aripo, vanhu vaye, vanaMugabe havasati vavakuda regime change, havasati vanzwa. Hatife takanzwa!
Imperialism is imperialism. An imperialist is just an imperialist. I often repeat the words of Nkurumah: Only a dead imperialist is a good one.
TM: One of the issues to do with the economy inyaya yemari. We have serious cash shortages. Are we likely to see the return of the Zimbabwean dollar? What solutions do you have as a Government to deal with the shortages seeing that the money we are using doesn’t come from Zimbabwe?
President Mugabe: I agree, the US dollars did help a bit but the dollars are not minted by us, we don’t manufacture them, we don’t print them. They are American. You can’t expect to develop an economy using foreign currency, American foreign currency. You got to have your own foreign currency.
Yes, sure, we had that inflation that rendered our Zim dollar worthless but these things happen to economies when they have the burden of sanctions, the burden of bearing lots of debts and so on and so forth.
We cannot improve the situation in the GPA very much. That’s why we would want to have an election and we know as Zanu-PF government we would certainly bring about a far, far much better situation to the economy in respect of getting capital injection into it.
We are persons who look east and at the moment if you look west, Europe and America are looking east, what you encounter are eyes that are looking east and your eye is looking west.
In other words, they have nothing to offer at all and it’s futile to hope that the West can redeem us.
Even if we were in good books with Europe, Europe will never ever help you to the extent of your being able to transform your economy from being, you know, a primary producer to being a producer of secondary products.
In other words, that adding of value to our raw products, qualitative improvement, which Europe did when they started industrializing as much as possible, moving dependence on agriculture to dependence of manufactured food.
That is yet to occur in Africa, in South Africa it is okay, here it had started okay a bit but we are now handicapped and that is what we must do, ensure that we raise the level of our economy. Take it from primary to secondary and that’s get it to the manufacturing stage where now you beneficiate your products.
And you produce products of greater value. Then, of course, you can have your own currency that is backed by an economy which is viable. We have gold, we have diamonds, we have platinum, valuable minerals and very precious minerals and these can back our economy.
But I believe that if we can go back to the use of gold as the basis of our currency, that will ensure that our currency will become viable and will not be doubted internationally at all.
And it cannot be assailed by the American dollar, which is just a paper and America has been printing and printing. Because then you can only print money if it’s based on the value of gold that you have. This is based on purely the effectiveness of your economy. How much level of volume of production of your GDP, Gross Domestic Product and then you print money according to the level of development in that regard.
So I believe personally that we have a very great future and thank God we still have lots of wealth underground. Thank God the British settlers did not scoop all and in some cases didn’t discover some of the minerals like platinum. But perhaps, diamonds for one reason they were discovered but they did not want to reveal to the world. De beers I understand were carrying; they said they were carrying out tests, year in, year out, getting lots of soil to South Africa.
Filling lorries from Chiadzwa there and when you ask they say we are still doing tests then we discovered later that, no, there were diamonds, ah, then they stopped; the tests didn’t continue.
And then we had that company called the ACR, born out of De Beers. They tried to put Africans, you know, into it. We resisted it, remember. We said no, and it was then that we took some action and said only the State can operate in that area.
[I did not know ACR was directly tied to De Beers. African Consolidated Resources, perhaps better called Andrew Cranswick Resources, was run by Andrew Cranswick, which is wanted in Zimbabwe for f
We were fencing it because we wanted time to arrange and gear ourselves and prepare ourselves for proper mining in the area. Well, I have great hope that, in the GPA, they will be real, real development in gallops rather than in slow strides as at present.
Well, we have done something with the GPA but very little. The companies are still down. Manufacturing factories, main factories in Bulawayo, down, down, down! And the mining ones too, even gold, some closed and we are having to open some of them now, you see, but we will do so with our friends.
They are not the Chinese only, there are lots of other friends in the East there who are prepared to partner us properly and not on a horse and rider partnership which was what (Roy) Wellensky and (Godfrey) Huggins during the Federation talked about that the partnership with an African was a horse and rider partnership.
And we asked who was the rider and who was the horse and they didn’t provide the answers. Then they talked about the two-pyramid system, that’s Huggins now, who became Lord Malvern later. Two pyramids, the European pyramid is up there, the African pyramid is down here. But when will it ever rise and grow in order to get their height.
But look at the strides we have made since independence, education and socially. Look at our people, we have almost eradicated illiteracy and almost everybody can read and write and this is it. And not the skills, we have now been able to export skills, you see, South Africa, most of our young people.
Even in Australia, Britain, they are proud to have young Zimbabweans with skills to operate in their factories or in their banks etc. That’s Zimbabwe.
But we put ourselves much more together; get our people in the Diaspora to come and join us and we sail together. Our young people must feel that they have a stake in their country and that’s very important because the future is more theirs than ours.
They are the ones we want to equip, they are the ones we feel must have the necessary skills, intellectually and physically, that will enable them now, to run the country and undertake the various operations that are necessary in order to bring about greater development and transformation of the socio-economic system.
TM: Thank you Your Excellency, let me take you to issues facing Africa as a continent. Recently you came back from the AU summit and you came back a disappointed man. Do you feel betrayed by your African brothers when it comes to decision-making; decisions that affect Africa?
President Mugabe: I think the crop of leaders we have now is quite different, quite different from the older crop, from their elders. Those of them who came together to form the Organisation of African Unity and vowed that Africa would be freed from imperialism and colonialism and you had them like Nkrumah, you know, pledging that Ghana would not regard itself as free if any part of Africa was still under the yoke of colonialism and imperialism.
Then they were bidding that Africa must unite and Nkrumah wrote a book to that effect.
You see, they formed the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 and formed also the liberation committee and taught us how to fight for our countries, organised us and showed us how unity could enable us to fight and fight successfully in redeeming our countries and liberating them.
TM: 88 years makore akawanda. Ndaapi mashoko amungape vechidiki kuti varame hupenyu hwakanaka?
President Mugabe: Life is what you make it, they say. But it’s not always what you make it. You have a part of it which is inherited. The physical entity which we are we inherit from our parents so the genetic system is inherited from what your parents gave you.
But there are things that you must do for yourself. Don’t drink. Ahhm or if you want to drink don’t drink too much but I would say don’t drink at all. Yeah, don’t smoke at all. When you smoke the nicotine goes to your lungs; it’s a sure case that your lungs are inhaling... Look after yourself...girlfriends...when you are young you want two or three girlfriends, but you finally make a choice...little houses, some little houses are dangerous these days.
And then nechirwere chedu ichi. I have seen youngsters in the extended families just going one after another. Kune vakasiiwa...We are having to look after them. Havasisina vanoriritira. And i have said to myself if this is what has happened around me, what about the extended family of Tazzen, my neighbour there?
This is what has happened to our nation, young people going in their 30s, 40s - so that is the part that we take care of. The other part we inherit from our parents.
Otherwise if you don’t take to drinking, take to smoking and exercising of course...
TM: You are still exercising?
President Mugabe: Every morning. I have my one hour and ensure I exercise. That’s the way we grow but some live longer than others. My brother Raphael I never saw him. He was born before me, 1922 and when he was six months, mother said he suffered from dysentery. But Michael, who was born before him ... takatamba tese naMichael. He was very bright, a footballer - everything, an athlete.
I wasn’t bright, I was much more conservative, much more inward thinking, but bookish... my mother at one time was worried kuti mwana wangu anogona kunyengawo asikana imi?
Mike was clever; he was also bright, perhaps much brighter than myself. Ah he was really bright, but poorly (in) 1934 he drank poison achibva afa aine 10 years. It was a sad sad death my father couldn’t take it vakati ah mwana wangu apuwa poison kwasekuru vachibva varamwa kuenda kuBulawayo from 1934 only to come back 1944 atova nemumwe mudzimai, 1945 achibva afa muna June, ini ndatova teacher zvangu.
Ndini ndakazodzidzisawo vakanditevedzera, so i was lucky that way. ndikazogona kunyenga ndikati amai ndauya nomuroora ndabva naye kuGhana.
So God looks after us but there is a portion we must play. You must eat well, you take some vegetables, don’t over-eat beef, it’s dangerous, eventually unoita gout. Taida kudya nyama zvakakomba tiri mafreedom fighters. Vose vatakadya navo vaida nyama ah, as for Joshua Nkomo ndiye aive mukuru weduzve, aida nyama maningi, Ndebele style. Kana tikapihwa chicken aitora yose, but then akazoita gout, then the doctor said no...Ah. VaMuzenda gout; VaMusika gout...
TM: Well thank you so much Your Excellency for giving us your time to talk to us about your family, the state of the economy and the country at large. We wish you many more.
President Mugabe: Thank you thank you, you are doing a good work, continue doing that good work. Most of you are on the younger side so we hope that you continue to be revolutionary, if you are, if you are not then read, read mabhuku avana Nkrumah, read a lot, even go out to read.
Labels: BOOKS, DEBEERS, GOLD, HOMOSEXUALITY, INFLATION, INTERVIEW, KARIBA DRAFT CONSTITUTION, MDC, MDC CORRUPTION, NEOCOLONIALISM, ROBERT MUGABE, SANCTIONS, ZDERA
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Full text: Mugabe's 88th birthday interview
21/02/2012 00:00:00
by Tazzen Mandizvidza I ZBC
President Robert Mugabe turned 88 on Tuesday. The following is the transcript of an interview with the state-run ZBC General Manager News and Current Affairs, Tazzen Mandizvidza, broadcast on Monday night:
TM: Your Excellency, thank you for being with us on this special programme.
President Mugabe: Thank you!
TM: Ndakamirira mhuri yeZBC ndingatange ndichiti makorokoto, amhlope, congratulations.
President Mugabe: Aiwa ndeedu tose. Kwete pamakore asi mufaro wacho.
TM: Your Excellency, one issue that has been talked about for quite sometime is the issue of the Constitution. It has taken longer than we all thought but are you really happy with the progress?
President Mugabe: Not really. It’s a process that is puzzling us now. When we begun we thought it was a matter of 18 months and we have an election. But as things look now, one doesn’t know what’s happening and one doesn’t know which way people would want us to go.
There is the dragging of feet, so much delay in the process. I don’t know what the real problem is but as others describe the problem, they think those who are charged with the task of putting ideas together, examining what the people said during the outreach programme are dragging their feet deliberately.
They want longer time, longer time because it means more money. They are given allowances. They are being paid and if the process comes to an end, so does naturally, the payment. It comes to an end.
I don’t know it, that is, the reason, whether it’s because the people who are at the top of it want a longer period to earn money or there are some problems.
But, I would want to believe that one problem is that some people or shall I say, one or two parties to the constitution-making process might now have discovered that this way of the constitution making is not in their favour and that the views that were obtained during the outreach programme are not in their favour.
They are not supportive of their parties and so they are dragging and dragging and dragging on, either to confound the process or to get the other side to tire and give up the exercise and the exercise doesn’t happen at all.
So one wonders why we abandoned, in the first place, the process that we had agreed on that this was going to be based on the Kariba Draft, which was all ready, all agreed and enunciating, you know, the process, which could have been completed in a short period. But we listened to our counterparties that it was better to listen to the people first.
To get a comprehensive view from our nation and on the basis of the views that would have been expressed, build a constitution.
But this is not proving to be a success at all.
TM: Your counterparts in the Global Political Agreement are actually accusing Zanu-PF. They say Zanu-PF is causing the delays because it’s afraid of elections.
President Mugabe: No! We want elections, we wanted them yesterday, we want them today, we want them any day, but others are saying no, no, no, we can’t have elections.
First, they were saying 2012, now they are saying in 2013. But perhaps when we get much further without elections they will say no elections at all; let us remain in power without elections.
TM: Your Excellency, looking at this scenario, when are we likely to have elections?
President Mugabe: Yes, sure; this year! We just must have elections. They just must take place with or without a new constitution.
And we will, on our side as a party, we have made a decision, last year at our conference that this year we definitely have an election exercise. If others don’t want to have an election then they are free not to participate.
Nobody is forced to go to an election but definitely I will exercise my presidential powers in accordance with the main principal law, the Constitution of our country and announce when the election will take place. And I will do this.
TM: But looking at the process that we have been going through with the help of our brothers from the Sadc region. If, for example, we have elections and the other parties boycott, what will likely be the result? How would Sadc react?
President Mugabe: Well, we will tell Sadc what the problem is and Sadc can’t compel us to continue an exercise which is futile and I am sure there is greater wisdom on the part of Sadc. And anyway, the GPA states that a party can resign, completely reject it and once a rejection takes place, we revert back to our Constitution, which all these years we have based ourselves and it becomes the basis of our election.
TM: Your Excellency, are you telling us that Zanu-PF is likely to withdraw from the GPA if this does come to an end?
President Mugabe: No, no, no! All I am saying is that Zanu-PF will withdraw from the GPA if others continue with these dirty tricks. We can’t have them anymore. We can’t put up with them anymore.
Anyway, what I should say is, last week, the principals — that is the other two and myself — Tsvangirai, Mutambara and myself decided that we be provided with the draft constitution, that the management should present that to us.
We got the draft (but) we haven’t looked at it yet and we would want to see what the draft says but I am told the draft is not yet reviewed by the management committee and so it’s a draft which we can’t base any definite views of our own.
The other part which should look at the draft hasn’t done so and hasn’t presented it to us as a reviewed draft. But it’s just a raw draft directly from the drafters. All we can do is just look at and perhaps see what the drafters have put together and give time to our management committee to look at it and present a reviewed version of it.
Now we had decided that once we have looked at the draft having been looked at, first, by the management committee, we will then decide on the road map. We the principals and I think none of us is for any undue postponement of elections. No!
TM: Your Excellency, what is this roadmap? What should the nation expect?
President Mugabe: They should expect a referendum, a referendum to get the people’s views, whether the people accept the draft constitution or not.
If they reject it then we revert to the old constitution, if they accept then the usual process takes place. Parliament must also endorse it and then it becomes a legal document after it has been passed by Parliament and we can go for an election. If it’s rejected then of course, announce the process that should take place.
TM: Your Excellency, talking of the draft constitution, there have been reports that there is a certain clause that has been put there in order to bar you from contesting as a presidential candidate by limiting terms of office.
President Mugabe: Cowards, cowards, cowards! Why are they afraid of me? Why should they ban anyone at all?
We haven’t come to a position where political tricks or legal tricks, for that matter are put in place to bar anyone, who normally has the right to participate in an election.
TM: Still on elections, is Zanu PF ready for elections? I am saying this in light of the factionalism we hear about. Are you prepared as a party?
President Mugabe: Well I don’t know anything about factionalism. You always get differences in a party. I suppose this makes the process. It’s always the fact of differences, we have contradictions. We must resolve these contradictions, move forward and you move forward, you will also encounter new contradictions, new differences and also have solutions and that’s how progress is made, isn’t it?
It always comes after such contradictions provided solutions do occur in regard to them. Yes, yes, yes the party is always ready, ever ready. This means we are always ready to fight.
TM: Your Excellency, what calibre of a leader would you want to succeed you and at the moment can you say you have found that successor?
President Mugabe: NO! The party will find a successor. It’s the people who can find a successor. I came from the people and the people in their wisdom, our members of the party, will certainly select someone once I say I am now retiring, but not yet.
At this age I can still go some distance, can’t I?
TM: Zanu-PF has been in power for the past 32 years, what do you offer the electorate?
President Mugabe: What do we offer the electorate? Goodness me! Independence gave us political freedom and we say that political freedom can not be complete unless we have sovereignty over our natural resources and we started by exercising the right, sovereign right, in acquiring our land and apportioning it to our people and so the first step was for us to feel that we are not just politically sovereign.
That we are also economically sovereign and the first step as I said was that of acquiring the ownership of our land and getting it from the British settlers and put it into the hands of Zimbabweans. That sovereignty over the land resources! But that’s not all. The land question is just one area. There are other areas which are economic. We must exercise our sovereignty also in regard to, you know, the economic sector.
And not that the agriculture sector is not part of the economic sector, it is!
But you have also mining, manufacturing sector. You have the infrastructure and that sovereignty has not yet based itself. Therefore, now with our law on indigenisation and empowerment, we will want to ensure that our people also have the ownership of the resources that lie underneath.
That way the mining sector is meaningful. It was not meaningful all along because there is a process where it is owned by outsiders but we want the resources to remain in our hands even though we are ready, we are prepared that those who will be partners with us should have a share of our resources, not ownership, but of the benefit that comes from our resources.
And that is why the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act was passed and this requires that whatever companies undertake mining in the country or any manufacturing exercise or any other socio-economic activity; if these companies are foreign, they must cede at least 51 percent.
This should belong to the people of Zimbabwe either to the Government and Government acting on behalf of the people and that’s part of indigenisation also and so this is an exercise we are working on now.
The land has come, now the minerals must also come and manufactured products must also belong to us and of course we have the infrastructure, we have the telecommunication and other communication activities.
The programmes that are due to take place, we want our people and all those to participate as owners and shareholders but particularly owners in that regard on their own.
Yes we will continue to produce people with skills in that they work, become workers, they become labourers in some cases but they must be owners of their own resources, owners of these enterprises. Be entrepreneurial, in attitude, in their disposition, generally not expect that outsiders will come into the country and develop the country for us and do it at our own expense.
When we get the benefit of being workers and nothing more than workers and then at the end of the day what comes to us is that which the State gets by way of taxation. That must stop now!
TM: Just out of curiosity, Your Excellency, draft constitution ikauya kwamuri mukaona ma issues amusingafarire, do you have the authority ekubvisa?
President Mugabe: Tinoramba. Ehe, tinobvisa. Ko togoregererei? Nhai, nhai, nhai! It’s a draft constitution and we will say this we do not want. If for example, you have in the constitution kuti ngavatemwe makumbo, vanenge vaba, ngavatemwe makumbo. Aiwa zve tinoramba. Kana homosexualism zvese tinobvisa.
TM: Let’s move away from elections and the party. Let’s look at the GPA. Are you happy with the progress that you have made?
President Mugabe: I am happy with the fact that it has managed to at least get us together with the other parties so they can participate in Government and have a feel of what Government is and also be exposed to the public. Now that the public knows what Zanu-PF stands for, MDC-T, M, N or whatever they call themselves; what these stand for.
I am sure no one can deceive the public anymore by hiding their own views and ideas because they have not yet entered the arena but they are now in the arena and the people can see who speaks sense and who speaks nonsense and who is better behaved. And who is guilty of misbehaviour and so on and so forth.
So we are there for the people. It has also enabled us, and it is one good thing it has done; the GPA enabled us to work together, know each other. We are parties and perhaps cease regarding ourselves as enemies but regard each other as opponents.
People, yes, with differences among themselves, ideological differences, political differences.
Differences in approach to definite issues and therefore people who can tolerate each other and at the end of the day we are Zimbabweans. All of us so that is very important and it’s important to our people that we may differ politically, religiously even ethnically. Differ in various other ways but we are all Zimbabweans and that is what counts much more than anything else.
It counts much more than your ethnicity, it counts much more than your political affinity and much more than any other — ism that you may have that you are a Zimbabwean national, Zimbabwean citizen, mwana wevhu; singing one national anthem and waving one flag. That is what must always guide us; that these differences are really artificial.
But one thing that we can never deny an individual, no matter what dress he is wearing, no matter what religion he belongs to, what tribe he belongs to, is the nationality.
The fact that he is a Zimbabwean. That is the son or daughter of the soil. So that is very important and that is also the source of the other principles that derive there; the fact that we are one.
Must we hate each other because we belong to different religions and bodies or because we are of different tribes or different parties? No!
But yes, we may oppose each other and oppose each other quite firmly. But must we unleash violence to each other? That must stop of course. No violence.
That is what the GPA has taught all of us and we are also very happy that our national healing exercise, as there is an organ which is led by Vice President John Nkomo, and each championing this, you know, campaign of getting people to understand each other, appreciate each, one another, sons and daughters of Zimbabwe.
But having said that, there are great differences between us and the other parties — Zanu-PF and the others. We believe ourselves in the people of Zimbabwe as a sovereign people. We believe that they are endowed by the Almighty with the right to sovereignty over their land. That no one from outside has the right, you know, to acquire a piece of land or any national resource without their permission.
In other words, the outsiders must be entertained by us, accommodated by us, must be permitted by us to live here and to make homes here, to enjoy themselves, to marry our beautiful girls and also to eat our beef; to kill our deer, antelope, go to Kariba and fish, catch our fish; in other words, to do things that we can do. Yes!
We accommodate people from outside, just as our people can be accommodated in other countries as well. But no, they should never, never, never attempt to impose their power over us. I am talking now of countries like Britain, of nationals like Britons who once upon a time said the sun never sets in the British Empire. Priding themselves on never, never, never being slaves; as they sang Britain, Britain, Britain will never be slaves.
They never sang Britain will never, never be slave masters. You see they will never be slaves but how about being slave masters? So there is the difference between us. They should never try to impose their culture on us and hence our abhorrence or feeling of abhorrence. The feeling that if we are to get aid from Britain we must first accept that man can marry man and woman can marry woman. That’s what David Cameron said. You don’t say those things to other nations. So there it is.
The GPA emphasises that, but we differ with the other parties. Zanu-PF is of the strong view that we are sovereign but we still have these other parties still going to the Europeans, you know, Europeans, when we have problems, Europeans.
They must get to Britain; they must go to France, German etc to get ideas. No! We have ideas here.
Fortunately, now we have well educated people. Very, very highly educated people and nobody can boss us intellectually.
TM: Yes, Your Excellency and we also read of alleged clashes between yourself and the Prime Minister. How do you describe your working relationship with the Prime Minister?
President Mugabe: I read of the clashes in the papers. In the Standard and what are the others? The little papers! (TM: Daily News?) Dustbin things, Yah!
This is where the fights are and I wonder where they get the information from.
But because they must create these fights it’s Tsvangirai going for Mugabe. So and so and I am always at the receiving end, you see. Even when people come to my State House where I am the resident, they have come to fight me. No, no, no!
It has always been very peaceful. We were very suspicious of each other at the beginning but as time went on, we got to know each other.
Now Tsvangirai can drink a cup of tea which I make and I have no objections drinking a cup of tea which he makes.
TM: Your Excellency, from what you have said this might become a tricky situation where it has been alleged that the Prime Minister was involved in some fraudulent activity which involves the purchase of the Prime Minister’s residence and it is said the police have done their work and are waiting for the go ahead to arrest him. Is he going to be arrested?
President Mugabe: I am not a policeman. The President is not a policeman. When crimes are committed, the police do not come to the President to ask permission to arrest an individual.
They just proceed on the basis that they derive their power from the law and arrest individuals.
I have read also in the papers that there has been some fraudulent behaviour but it if this is so, well, it’s the Prime Minister who should answer and if he does not get to you, you don’t have to get him to answer via the President.
If there is really a case that requires him to answer, I am sure he will be able to explain what happened, himself.
What we don’t want is people getting arrested on the basis of evidence which is not clear and on the basis of facts which have not been thoroughly investigated.
The police must investigate these cases thoroughly so that by the time they get to the stage of building a case and taking it to the court they are quite sure that they have a case against the particular individual to whom it relates. But just rushing to build a case against somebody doesn’t do us good at all.
If anything, it harms our reputation and I hope they have investigated the matter thoroughly not just rush to make up things against the Prime Minister.
TM: Your Excellency, from there we take you to the state of the economy. You spoke about mining, you spoke about indigenisation, are you happy with the contribution that mining has done to the economy in totality?
President Mugabe: There is mining taking place. Just now our eyes are fixed on diamond mining. Not much has come from that mining yet because the sales are not many and there are hindrances being put along the way.
Put in the way of selling and marketing diamonds by the United States. They go to our main markets, to main buyers of diamonds and threaten them. (The go) to ask them not to buy Zimbabwean diamonds. It is alleged that these are blood diamonds but I haven’t seen any blood flowing on the diamonds. I have visited Chiadzwa, I have done so twice, but they are very clean.
We know that the US, Britain and other Western countries do not want to see us succeed. They want their sanctions to pull us down and ruin us economically but we refuse to be ruined.
We are a resilient nation and we know what our rights are and we will not be subjugated by anyone. But they try their best and this is the reason why not much has come from the diamond sector. But with more companies being licenced, we hope that the State will get a greater benefit. I can assure you I have my eyes there.
We know of the talk about diamonds being smuggled, but no really, there is strict security; but it’s a case of selling the diamonds. The mining is taking place but the marketing is what is so limited when it takes place.
But other areas of the mining sector are also important. We have platinum, but there is very little contribution being made by platinum to our development.
If anything really, our platinum is developing other countries much more than it is developing Zimbabwe. Then there is gold, gold is the main, I would want to believe, the main mineral and you get it practically in every province in the country.
And you have small miners, makorokoza, vanamai nanababa, along the rivers, digging everywhere. We have nothing against them but we want them to be better organized, taught how to do their gold mining.
But they are making a contribution, where they are doing it properly; to the development of the country but these are areas that should be better organized. However, because of sanctions there has been a sagging of the sector and it needs to be revamped, needs quite some capital to go into it. You know, machinery wears out and there is need for some spare parts or new machinery. We need to see much more production.
Gold is fetching higher prices. US$1 755 per ounce, that’s the international price at the moment and it is lots of money and we need now to improve and get the process which will see our gold mining recover very much. So we want to get to about 30 tonnes that we used to produce in the past. About that and even exceed that.
Platinum also must be managed. I hope the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act will now enable us to get greater benefit from all this mining exercise which has been taking place in the past by doing so at our expense, national expense that is.
Now that we must go into all these companies with at least 51 percent, that is least, it can be more than that. Fifty-one percent shareholding in a company! The reward to Zimbabwe must be greater but what is required is revamping, improving the performance and greater productivity taking place in the mining sector.
Manufacturing also requires the same exercise; injecting more capital and I think companies, as you see, had actually gone down miserably to about 10 percent. And now we want to see this production capacity rise but we must inject more capital, more capital into them and this has been the problem.
TM: Do you have this capital?
President Mugabe: We thought we had SDRs. The IMF gave us but they were used otherwise. Yes, we create capital. We can borrow from international institutions but the World Bank and IMF must obey the dictates of the West and impose sanctions on us. Even if they don’t say so but in practice that is what happens and we can’t rely on those ones.
But we have the Afrrexim bank which has been there and the regional banks and reliance on the eastern bloc, China, India and their financial institutions.
We can borrow from them and use our resources as security and get loans.
They are prepared to give us loans. They are also prepared to bring their companies here and partner us and that way get us rejuvenated and increase the production of our companies.
TM: Your Excellency, you mention the issue of sanctions, how are you going to handle that within the GPA as your partners are constantly failing to sing from the same hymn book?
President Mugabe: That is what baffles us. Surely, if you are a Zimbabwean and Zimbabwe is being attacked by outsiders and it doesn’t matter what differences between the MDC and ourselves, when outsiders attack us, we must unite against the outsiders and try to drive the outsiders out of Zimbabwe, get his hand off us.
His intervention bids us to be together but, no, the MDC decides to side with the Americans, with the Europeans in supporting sanctions against its own people. We do not understand that. They fail to, they find it very difficult, to say sanctions are hurting us.
They try to avoid using the word sanctions; they want to call them restrictions. I do not understand, perhaps, it’s the lack of political consciousness, national consciousness, which characterize them. You see, they have not gone through the grill like us. But one doesn’t have to have been a member of the ANC, National Democratic Party, Zapu, Zanu in order to have national consciousness.
Just a feeling that Zimbabwe is your country and you will countenance, you will not accept any attack from outside, whether this attack is physical or it’s economic by way of sanctions.
That’s what a real party that stands for the people, that operates in the interest of the people, should do.
But if you are for the people, how can you then at the same time turn against the people by supporting sanctions, which hurt them.
TM: Pamunosangana hamumbobvunza here kuti zvii zvinorema?
President Mugabe: Vanoti tiritose asi kuti vaenda kunze uku vanoudza varungu vavo kuti ah, chimboregai ma sanctions aripo, vanhu vaye, vanaMugabe havasati vavakuda regime change, havasati vanzwa. Hatife takanzwa!
Imperialism is imperialism. An imperialist is just an imperialist. I often repeat the words of Nkurumah: Only a dead imperialist is a good one.
TM: One of the issues to do with the economy inyaya yemari. We have serious cash shortages. Are we likely to see the return of the Zimbabwean dollar? What solutions do you have as a Government to deal with the shortages seeing that the money we are using doesn’t come from Zimbabwe?
President Mugabe: I agree, the US dollars did help a bit but the dollars are not minted by us, we don’t manufacture them, we don’t print them. They are American. You can’t expect to develop an economy using foreign currency, American foreign currency. You got to have your own foreign currency.
Yes, sure, we had that inflation that rendered our Zim dollar worthless but these things happen to economies when they have the burden of sanctions, the burden of bearing lots of debts and so on and so forth.
We cannot improve the situation in the GPA very much. That’s why we would want to have an election and we know as Zanu-PF government we would certainly bring about a far, far much better situation to the economy in respect of getting capital injection into it.
We are persons who look east and at the moment if you look west, Europe and America are looking east, what you encounter are eyes that are looking east and your eye is looking west.
In other words, they have nothing to offer at all and it’s futile to hope that the West can redeem us.
Even if we were in good books with Europe, Europe will never ever help you to the extent of your being able to transform your economy from being, you know, a primary producer to being a producer of secondary products.
In other words, that adding of value to our raw products, qualitative improvement, which Europe did when they started industrializing as much as possible, moving dependence on agriculture to dependence of manufactured food.
That is yet to occur in Africa, in South Africa it is okay, here it had started okay a bit but we are now handicapped and that is what we must do, ensure that we raise the level of our economy. Take it from primary to secondary and that’s get it to the manufacturing stage where now you beneficiate your products.
And you produce products of greater value. Then, of course, you can have your own currency that is backed by an economy which is viable. We have gold, we have diamonds, we have platinum, valuable minerals and very precious minerals and these can back our economy.
But I believe that if we can go back to the use of gold as the basis of our currency, that will ensure that our currency will become viable and will not be doubted internationally at all.
And it cannot be assailed by the American dollar, which is just a paper and America has been printing and printing. Because then you can only print money if it’s based on the value of gold that you have. This is based on purely the effectiveness of your economy. How much level of volume of production of your GDP, Gross Domestic Product and then you print money according to the level of development in that regard.
So I believe personally that we have a very great future and thank God we still have lots of wealth underground. Thank God the British settlers did not scoop all and in some cases didn’t discover some of the minerals like platinum. But perhaps, diamonds for one reason they were discovered but they did not want to reveal to the world. De beers I understand were carrying; they said they were carrying out tests, year in, year out, getting lots of soil to South Africa.
Filling lorries from Chiadzwa there and when you ask they say we are still doing tests then we discovered later that, no, there were diamonds, ah, then they stopped; the tests didn’t continue.
And then we had that company called the ACR, born out of De Beers. They tried to put Africans, you know, into it. We resisted it, remember. We said no, and it was then that we took some action and said only the State can operate in that area.
[I did not know ACR was directly tied to De Beers. African Consolidated Resources, perhaps better called Andrew Cranswick Resources, was run by Andrew Cranswick, which is wanted in Zimbabwe for fraud -
We were fencing it because we wanted time to arrange and gear ourselves and prepare ourselves for proper mining in the area. Well, I have great hope that, in the GPA, they will be real, real development in gallops rather than in slow strides as at present.
Well, we have done something with the GPA but very little. The companies are still down. Manufacturing factories, main factories in Bulawayo, down, down, down! And the mining ones too, even gold, some closed and we are having to open some of them now, you see, but we will do so with our friends.
They are not the Chinese only, there are lots of other friends in the East there who are prepared to partner us properly and not on a horse and rider partnership which was what (Roy) Wellensky and (Godfrey) Huggins during the Federation talked about that the partnership with an African was a horse and rider partnership.
And we asked who was the rider and who was the horse and they didn’t provide the answers. Then they talked about the two-pyramid system, that’s Huggins now, who became Lord Malvern later. Two pyramids, the European pyramid is up there, the African pyramid is down here. But when will it ever rise and grow in order to get their height.
But look at the strides we have made since independence, education and socially. Look at our people, we have almost eradicated illiteracy and almost everybody can read and write and this is it. And not the skills, we have now been able to export skills, you see, South Africa, most of our young people.
Even in Australia, Britain, they are proud to have young Zimbabweans with skills to operate in their factories or in their banks etc. That’s Zimbabwe.
But we put ourselves much more together; get our people in the Diaspora to come and join us and we sail together. Our young people must feel that they have a stake in their country and that’s very important because the future is more theirs than ours.
They are the ones we want to equip, they are the ones we feel must have the necessary skills, intellectually and physically, that will enable them now, to run the country and undertake the various operations that are necessary in order to bring about greater development and transformation of the socio-economic system.
TM: Thank you Your Excellency, let me take you to issues facing Africa as a continent. Recently you came back from the AU summit and you came back a disappointed man. Do you feel betrayed by your African brothers when it comes to decision-making; decisions that affect Africa?
President Mugabe: I think the crop of leaders we have now is quite different, quite different from the older crop, from their elders. Those of them who came together to form the Organisation of African Unity and vowed that Africa would be freed from imperialism and colonialism and you had them like Nkrumah, you know, pledging that Ghana would not regard itself as free if any part of Africa was still under the yoke of colonialism and imperialism.
Then they were bidding that Africa must unite and Nkrumah wrote a book to that effect.
You see, they formed the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 and formed also the liberation committee and taught us how to fight for our countries, organised us and showed us how unity could enable us to fight and fight successfully in redeeming our countries and liberating them.
TM: 88 years makore akawanda. Ndaapi mashoko amungape vechidiki kuti varame hupenyu hwakanaka?
President Mugabe: Life is what you make it, they say. But it’s not always what you make it. You have a part of it which is inherited. The physical entity which we are we inherit from our parents so the genetic system is inherited from what your parents gave you.
But there are things that you must do for yourself. Don’t drink. Ahhm or if you want to drink don’t drink too much but I would say don’t drink at all. Yeah, don’t smoke at all. When you smoke the nicotine goes to your lungs; it’s a sure case that your lungs are inhaling... Look after yourself...girlfriends...when you are young you want two or three girlfriends, but you finally make a choice...little houses, some little houses are dangerous these days.
And then nechirwere chedu ichi. I have seen youngsters in the extended families just going one after another. Kune vakasiiwa...We are having to look after them. Havasisina vanoriritira. And i have said to myself if this is what has happened around me, what about the extended family of Tazzen, my neighbour there?
This is what has happened to our nation, young people going in their 30s, 40s - so that is the part that we take care of. The other part we inherit from our parents.
Otherwise if you don’t take to drinking, take to smoking and exercising of course...
TM: You are still exercising?
President Mugabe: Every morning. I have my one hour and ensure I exercise. That’s the way we grow but some live longer than others. My brother Raphael I never saw him. He was born before me, 1922 and when he was six months, mother said he suffered from dysentery. But Michael, who was born before him ... takatamba tese naMichael. He was very bright, a footballer - everything, an athlete.
I wasn’t bright, I was much more conservative, much more inward thinking, but bookish... my mother at one time was worried kuti mwana wangu anogona kunyengawo asikana imi?
Mike was clever; he was also bright, perhaps much brighter than myself. Ah he was really bright, but poorly (in) 1934 he drank poison achibva afa aine 10 years. It was a sad sad death my father couldn’t take it vakati ah mwana wangu apuwa poison kwasekuru vachibva varamwa kuenda kuBulawayo from 1934 only to come back 1944 atova nemumwe mudzimai, 1945 achibva afa muna June, ini ndatova teacher zvangu.
Ndini ndakazodzidzisawo vakanditevedzera, so i was lucky that way. ndikazogona kunyenga ndikati amai ndauya nomuroora ndabva naye kuGhana.
So God looks after us but there is a portion we must play. You must eat well, you take some vegetables, don’t over-eat beef, it’s dangerous, eventually unoita gout. Taida kudya nyama zvakakomba tiri mafreedom fighters. Vose vatakadya navo vaida nyama ah, as for Joshua Nkomo ndiye aive mukuru weduzve, aida nyama maningi, Ndebele style. Kana tikapihwa chicken aitora yose, but then akazoita gout, then the doctor said no...Ah. VaMuzenda gout; VaMusika gout...
TM: Well thank you so much Your Excellency for giving us your time to talk to us about your family, the state of the economy and the country at large. We wish you many more.
President Mugabe: Thank you thank you, you are doing a good work, continue doing that good work. Most of you are on the younger side so we hope that you continue to be revolutionary, if you are, if you are not then read, read mabhuku avana Nkrumah, read a lot, even go out to read.
Labels: DEBEERS, GOLD, HOMOSEXUALITY, INFLATION, INTERVIEW, KARIBA DRAFT CONSTITUTION, MDC, MDC CORRUPTION, NEOCOLONIALISM, ROBERT MUGABE, SANCTIONS, ZDERA
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