COMMENT - Tony Reeler is a fool and a piece of slime. He thinks western corporations can just extract any amount of value out of Zimbabwe, no matter what the state of the Zimbabwean people. He says that companis don't own their own shares and therefore can't disburse their shares. This is nonsense. Companies are free to issue as many shares as they want. If a company has a million shares, they can issue another million shares and hand them over, resulting in a 50% ownership by Zimbabwean institutions. I remember that the RAU is associated with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
Biti, MDC-T aiding Kasukuwere extortion
29/01/2013 00:00:00
by Tony Reeler
A JANUARY 28
statement by the MDC-T quoting Tendai Biti’s criticism of the indigenisationprogramme is likely to draw snorts of derision from the companies affected by Indigenisation and Empowerment MinisterSaviourKasukuwere’s policies.
Kasukuwere demands that non-indigenous companies dispose of 51% of “their shares” to blackZimbabweans. This demand immediately appears to be nonsense to lawyers and those with anyaccounting or business skills. Companies do not own the shares – shareholders do.
One cannot legally compel companies to dispose of that which they do not own and over which they have no control. This is recognised by the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act which is only intended to apply to share transactions and provides that where shares change hands on account of mergers,demergers, and unbundling, the result transaction must leave 51% of the shares in the hands ofIndigenous Zimbabweans.
The Regulations are only in conformity with the Act where they provide for this. The remaining 80% of the Regulations are not permitted by the Act and invalid.
Yet, rather than stating as much, Biti picks on merely one of many invalid provisions of the Regulations – the Community Share Ownership Schemes – and points to the fact that these are not provided for in the Act. In so doing, Biti follows in the footsteps of the MDC-dominated Parliamentary Legal Committee, which, despite having been provided with cogent legal opinions on the matter to the contrary, has approved the broad tenor of Regulations as constitutional and in conformity with the Act, rather than rejecting them as they ought.
Even more astonishingly, Biti expresses wonderment that companies are parting with cash in order to deal with the stream of unlawful directives that emanate from Kasukuwere and the NIEEB. Yet the MDC-T is an active participant in this extortion.
[Extortion, no less. How would he describe the stealing of Zimbabwe's natural resources without compensation? Good business? - MrK]
Several government departments now demand compliance with these directives, and the invalid Regulations, before they will process paperwork for foreign and investor companies – for example, the Zimbabwe Investment Authority and the Immigration Department, to name but the first two which come to mind.
Companies wishing to renew their Investment Licences through the Zimbabwe Investment Authority are told by the Board to get clearance from Kasukuwere first.There is no law which requires this. This Board falls under an Act administered by the MDC-T Minister of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion. Yet it continues to enforce Kasukuwere’s unlawful directive in this regard without a murmur, let alone any action, from the MDC-T Minister Elton Mangoma.
Similarly, those seeking investor residence permits are required to gain clearance from Kasukuwere. The permits fall under the Immigration Act, co-administered by an MDC-T Minister, Theresa Makone, who likewise has done nothing to counteract this unlawful requirement.
So why is Biti surprised when companies find that the only way out is to make a donation which will assist Zanu PF in dispensing largesse prior to the elections?
What surprises the affected companies is that the MDC-T chooses to whinge about the indigenisation policies while simultaneously aiding and abetting the extortion, rather than doing that which is well within its power to bring it to an end.
Reeler is the director of the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU)
COMMENTS
Mai Jukwa
Tell them baas. Tell these MDC boys that they should do as they are told. Are they quickly forgetting where their bread gets its Rhodesian butter?
Tweeta @AmaiJukwa
*
Batanai
So now you want us to look to the BRICs, even as your party has been in the lead trying to chase the Chinese out of the country?!!
Your political positions are very nebulous, one time you are cheerleading western punishment on the country, the next you are blaming the nationalists for not distancing themselves enough from the West!
*
Elma Sabudo
I we Verenga unyatsonzwisisa manhi .Bugg@@ers who doesn't think get to my ti@@ts big time .
*
Elma Sabundo
Forgive this @ZuuluShaka aka Elma Sabudo buffoon.Haachaziva zvaanoda nekuReporter kuImmigration hehehekkkkkk
*
Batanai
Finally, we get to know who is behind this world quoted "Research and Advocacy Unit" that the western press always quotes on negative statistics about Zimbabwe's Indegenization program!
No wonder Zimbabwe's negative image persists, The Financial Times uses Tony Hawkins, who in turn quotes Reseach and advocacy Unit (Tony Reeler) or Eric Block and Robertson! Our whole economic image to the outside world is in the hands of Rhodies!
Not suprising that Biti worships to these "massers" rather than the average Zimbabwean whose vote he claims to represent!
*
Shayanewako
So ... Elton Mangoma, Tapuwa Mashakada and Tendai Mbiti are failing to safeguard the interests of the Shareholders of MDC-Theresa. This after having been provided with legal opinions by learned Rhodies, and the story appearing on the same day MDC-Theresa wishes to rejoin the Commonwealth - literally wealth in the same pot, the Shareholders'. Nxaaah!!!
*
Vitzdare
Vote for me President in 10 years time ini ndinobva ndabvisa 51% to 70%. kwete zveMD-Shi izvi.
Labels: INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), KONRAD ADENAUER STIFTUNG, RAU, TENDAI BITI, TONY REELER
Read more...
COMMENT - Just in case you're wondering, with the readers of Newzimbabwe.com, who the heck is Derek Matyszak of the
'Research and Advocacy Unit' in Harare. He has a South African accent, so I guess he is part of the MDC's (Anglo-American De Beers) machinery. (Also see: YOUTUBE -
Indigenisation of Zimbabwe with Derek Matyszak.)
He has
worked for/with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) (also
see here on the KAS website), an 'NGO' that receives
90% of it's funding from the German Government (think: Namibia) and is associated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Quote:
" The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, sometimes referred to as the German NED, is a non-profit foundation associated with the Christian Democratic Union. It receives over 90% of its funding from the German government. "
Is this where the shadowy RAU receives it's grants from?
Second unity government on the way?
22/12/2012 00:00:00
by Derek Matyszak
THE preamble to the resolutions which emerged from the recent Zanu PF conference noted that “the GPA and the Inclusive Government, legally and constitutionally, ought to have come to their end after the expiry of the two years reckoned from the inception of the Inclusive Government”.
This observation by the Conference is simply wrong. In fact, the GPA provides a start date only – the date of the signing of the agreement (September 15, 2008) – and has no end date. The existence of the GNU is specifically stated, in Schedule 8 to the Constitution, to be contingent upon the existence of the GPA. Thus, the GNU lasts for so long as the GPA is in existence.
The misconception that the GPA provided a two year life-span for the GNU arose from Article 6 of the GPA. Article 6 set out a specific 18 month timetable to be followed for the making of a new constitution for Zimbabwe. The process was to commence within two months of the inception of the GNU, and thus should have been concluded about two years after the signing of the GPA.
However, the GPA does not state that a general election must be held after a referendum on the new constitution. The GPA does not in fact mention the timing of the next general election at all. It is thus not a constitutional requirement that a referendum or a new constitution must take place before general elections can be held.
So when does the GPA, and consequently the GNU end, and when must elections be held?
The GNU will end if any party withdraws from the GPA, which may be done at any time. With the termination of the GPA (for whatever reason) Schedule 8 to the Constitution, and thus the GNU, fall away.
The obvious intention of the current Constitution is that presidential elections and parliamentary elections be held simultaneously. It is also clear that the life span of Parliament is generally five years, beginning on the day the President entered office following elections, on June 29, 2008. The Constitution, including Amendment 19, requires that elections must be held within four months of the dissolution of Parliament.
Furthermore, section 23A of the Constitution provides that, every Zimbabwean has the right free, fair and regular elections. A failure to hold elections after the dissolution of Parliament would contravene this provision. Schedule 8 to the Constitution, on the other hand, provides that the Office of President “shall continue to be occupied by President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.”
There is obviously no point in holding a presidential election if Mugabe is to continue in office notwithstanding any contrary result of that election. It must thus be assumed, even though the badly drafted GPA does not state as much, that the GPA and GNU will not continue after any election. But the precise date of its termination is not known. Should it end when Parliament is dissolved, or should it end once the results of the next election are announced?
At the latest, however, the GNU must, by implication, come to an end, with elections. The next question, then, is when must such elections take place, as a matter of law? We have seen that elections must take place within four months of the dissolution of Parliament. This may be the automatic dissolution after five years, or an earlier dissolution by the President, which must be with the consent of the Prime Minister, if the GPA is still in place.
However, the life of Parliament, the President’s term of office, and thus the GNU could be extended by a constitutional amendment. The amendment might, however, be subject to challenge on the basis that elections are a fundamental feature of Zimbabwe’s constitutional democracy and cannot be suspended by agreement between political parties. The extension of the life of Parliament in this way would clearly appear motivated by political self-interest and expediency and undemocratic.
However, the current constitution making process suggests some other means of continuing a unity government which avoids the disadvantages of that outlined above.
One way will be to make the necessary constitutional amendment as suggested above, to hold a referendum on the new constitution, and, assuming that the constitution is acceptable to the electorate, to use this time of continuance of the GPA/GNU to harmonise the relations between the new constitution and the existing laws, with all the implications for reform ahead of future elections. This, of course, could be an exceedingly lengthy process, and it will be crucial to decide, in the amendment to the Constitution, which will be the necessary reforms.
Alternatively, the parties involved in negotiating the provisions of the new constitution may announce that there is a deadlock, and they are unable to agree a final constitution for the country. Instead of a final constitution, the negotiating parties could then indicate that the solution is to agree an interim constitution.
This interim constitution would contain the provisions for a GNU II and contain clauses which create the conditions for free and fair elections within a stipulated time frame. The interim constitution could provide for the sharing of executive power and that all sitting legislators retain their seats until the elections. If the interim constitution were successfully put to a referendum, the arrangement could be held to have democratic legitimacy.
The key issue, in the interim before elections with either of the above two approaches, will be the reforms oft-mentioned by SADC, and, critically, which reforms will be necessary to providing the conditions for elections that will be acceptable to Zimbabweans, SADC, and the international community at large.
As has been argued before, there needs to be realism in what will constitute “minimum conditions”, for the reforms necessary for full democracy may not be essential to the holding of genuine elections. For example, Security Sector Reform is a considerably longer process than Security Sector Governance: ensuring that the security forces are wholly under civilian control is a much shorter process than trying to deal with the reform of the army, the police, and the intelligence services.
Again, ensuring the media are open is more easily done by through agreements about the governance of the state media and similar bodies than allowing the setting up of independent radio and television stations: hate speech and misinformation can be controlled more easily by regulation than by allowing competing sources of propaganda.
Thus, the key issue for short-term stability is the question of what will be the nature of the interim constitution, and here Zimbabwe might take a lesson from South Africa and the processes that led up the elections in 1994. The quality of the elections will depend on the quality of the transition rather than the obverse: bad processes rarely lead to good outcomes.
Derek Matyszak is a Senior Researcher with the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU)
From the RAU 'About US' page:
About Us
The Research and Advocacy Unit [RAU] is an independent, non-governmental organisation. Its Mission is to provide high-quality research for the purposes of relevant and current policy change. RAU is run by a Management Committee composed of experienced researchers and advocacy experts.
RAU’s work to date has focused on three major areas that are important in the current crisis in Zimbabwe: Women, Displacements, and Governance. RAU works with a wide variety of Zimbabwean, regional, and international partners in connection with the above areas. RAU also provides independent analyses of important current issues in Zimbabwe, ranging from elections, the Global Political Agreement, legal matters, etc.
Set up in 2006, RAU has produced over 100 reports and opinion pieces on a wide variety of topics. Some reports are issued in RAU’s own name, whilst others are issued in the name of our partner organisations. RAU is a member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and has a long-standing partnership with Idasa.
RAU also runs a programme for assisting victims of organised violence and torture, the Tree of Life [ToL]. The programme revolves around a victim-to-victim healing and empowerment process, and, to date, has assisted over 800 individuals, begun community assistance to four communities, provided training to 11 organizations, and trained 62 facilitators. ToL itself has directly assisted 289 survivors.
RAU, in pursuit of better advocacy, also produces documentary videos to compliment the reports that it produces. In partnership with New York-based WITNESS, RAU has produced two widely respected documentary films.
On their funding, they state rather briefly:
Funding
RAU’s funding comes from a variety of different sources, both from foreign aid sources and independent funding agencies.
Labels: DEBEERS, DEREK MATYSZAK, GNU, NGOs, RAU
Read more...
