(NEWZIMBABWE, VOA) Interview: Biti on land and election coalition
28/05/2013 00:00:00
by Violet Gonda
In this, the final part of Violet Gonda’s interview with Finance Minister Tendai Biti on SW Radio Africa, the MDC-T Secretary General explains his party’s land policy and how and MDC-T government would deal with multiple farm owners. Biti also discusses how his party would address problems at the Marange diamond mines where billions are reportedly being diverted away from the government and responds to concerns that the MDC-T has been damaged by individuals who have been seduced by the trappings of power. Biti also says contacts are ongoing between the leaders of various parties over the possibility of establishing a broad coalition to fight elections expected later this year.
VIOLET GONDA: Welcome to the final segment of the two-part interview with Finance Minister Tendai Biti, where the MDC-T Secretary General continues to detail his party’s policies ahead of elections, including their land policy. The MDC-T also alleges that billions of dollars have been stolen from the diamond sector. So I started by asking Biti to explain how his party will deal with the powerful individuals who they say continue to siphon off the money from the country’s minerals.
TENDAI BITI: First let’s be very clear, it would be foolhardy for any government, the MDC or any government, to anchor a policy based on vindictiveness and retribution. ART and JUICE are not based on vindictiveness and retribution. So we are not going to set up a ministry to arrest people, prosecute people, it doesn’t work. The first thing you have to do is to make sure that you stop the hemorrhage. If people are stealing diamonds - how and why - and you stop that so that; it doesn’t happen again and you offer incentives so that people don’t steal.
So pay people decently, have accountability, create incentives so that people can invest in that new society through trust, which is why we are saying the key issues that the MDC will do together with the new constitution is the restoration of the social contracts in Zimbabwe - the building of a new society based on inclusivity and virtual cycles of growth not vicious cycles of predatoriness. That’s number one Violet you want to move forward.
Secondly the thing about money and so forth, everything to do with an audit trial, they don’t go away, they don’t go away. If you steal you are committing an offence and pachiShona tinoti mhosva haiwori - that’s also true in English as well - crimes don’t go away. There are laws that are there, the new constitution has created an independent national prosecuting authority.
It will be the job and duty of whosoever is the director of prosecutions, the director of the independent prosecuting authority to make sure that justice is done but the focus of government must be to ensure that there is food on the table, there are jobs, industries are working, there’s power in the country, there’re roads in the country, the maternal mortality rate has been brought down, the infant mortality has been brought down. So we want to uplift our people, we want to uplift the generality of Zimbabweans and ART does that, JUICE does that and that’s the future.
GONDA: I’m asking what incentives will you offer to the people currently controlling the diamond sector?
BITI: It’s very easy to do – the law must be respected. If anyone doesn’t respect the law, he must be prosecuted. No-one should be above the law, the constitution is speaking to that. So stop the leakages, stop the hemorrhages, that’s number one, that’s how you control order.
Number two - you as a government must be fair, you must treat everyone equally. Three - you as a government must consult. That’s why one of the cornerstones of ART is the social dialogue that is codified along the lines of NEDLAC in South Africa. The government must be able to listen to itself.
Number four - the government itself must be very clear on anti corruption which is why one of the things that we are saying in ART is that all public officials must declare their assets every year: Guys I have four underwear. Guys I’ve got four vests. Guys I’ve got four bras – size 46B. That must happen at the beginning of every year. Those are the incentives that we find in every other modern democratic state and we are going to do that.
GONDA: And what exactly is your policy on the security sector?
BITI: A lot of the work has actually been done and is in the new constitution. The new constitution is very clear that security forces are subject to the constitution, the president and to parliament. That is very clear, Violet. In other words, security forces must salute whatever president is there, that is a key important.
Number two - the new constitution makes it very clear that in the implementation of their job, in the implementation of their task, the security forces are subject to the constitution, in particular to the Bill of Rights – that’s very important, that’s key. Number three - is the issue that if the public has got any complaints against the security forces, there’s that Complaints Commission which we have created in the constitution.
Number four - no member of the security forces should be an active member of a political party. Now this is the biggest mischief in Zimbabwe - that a small section of our security forces are an extension of a certain political party. That’s not good but the constitution has outlawed that.
Number five - is the issue, which is so important - that all leaders of the security forces are subject to term limits, that is critical. Then the other things, which you need now are: one - to make sure that the security forces stay in barracks; two – that security forces, their conditions of service are looked after because sometimes what causes some of these things, is bad conditions of service and three - is the total demilitarisation of Zimbabwe.
So those are some of the few things that are already covered by the constitution which need to be done. The constitution itself also has to make it very clear, and we said it in the GPA, that the syllabus, the curriculum of, the training of our security forces must have a human rights bias and a constitutional knowledge bias. That’s important. So these are some of the things that have to be done under security sector reform.
GONDA: You heard army general Constantine Chiwenga recently said he will not work with puppets of the west, meaning your party, and he’s on record together with several other service chiefs saying that they will not salute Prime Minister Tsvangirai. So what process are you going to use to isolate parties or individuals who do not want this concept of realignment or …. (interrupted)
BITI: Violet, there is no-one on earth who is higher than the people. If the people of Zimbabwe say they want Morgan Richard Tsvangirai there, they have spoken. So if you are a functionary when Morgan Tsvangirai is president, you resign, it’s a constitutional right to resign.
So for me it is not an issue that I will ever lose sleep over. People will speak and what the people have said, we live in a democracy, what the people have said is a democracy and if you don’t agree with that, then resign and go and farm. What we will not accept is a coup or some other destabilization. Zimbabwe doesn’t need further blood to be spilled in the name of politics.
GONDA: Well some people say that the law has always been there but it would appear that certain elements in society are above the law and even your party said in 2008 that the people spoke and voted for you but that Zanu PF refused to recognize this and that is why you had the GNU. And even the army generals have been consistent since day one saying that they will not recognize what they describe as MDC puppets. So I’m asking what is your party going to do to ensure that there is no repeat of 2008?
BITI: I’ve answered that question very clearly. There is no-one in Zimbabwe, there is no-one anywhere in the world who will be able to reverse what the people have said, there is no-one in Zimbabwe. Morgan Tsvangirai is the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe for Christ’s sake. I don’t think they wanted that, I don’t think they wanted that. Lovemore Moyo is the Speaker of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, I don’t think they wanted that. I’m the Finance Minister of Zimbabwe, I don’t think they wanted that. So they couldn’t stop that. So, once the people have spoken, they have spoken, no-one will disobey that.
GONDA: And if they do? Because many skeptics are saying it is going to happen again.
BITI: It doesn’t happen and it has never happened anywhere, Violet. It doesn’t happen and it has never happened anywhere.
GONDA: But Mr. Biti, you said you won in the last elections but Zanu PF refused to relinquish power so how are you going to ensure that those things don’t happen again?
BITI: On the 8th of March 2012 we published a document called “The Conditions for Sustainable Elections in Zimbabwe”, Violet. That document answers the question you are asking me. When we go to an election, when we go to this election, there are going to be three things guaranteed. Three things, and we’re going to make sure they are there through international law, through SADC, through the African Union.
Those three things are the integrity of the vote; those three things are the integrity of the voter; the third thing is the security of the people’s will, the people will must be respected. And if you look at what we have been doing in SADC, we are doing those things to ensure that the people’s will be respected in this country.
So we have answered that question over and over and over and over again. The one thing that I will tell you we will not do – we will not take up arms. We are a peaceful constitutional party, that is what we will not do but the people are there, the people will speak and there is nowhere in history where the people’s will has been subverted, it doesn’t happen Violet.
GONDA: So Zimbabwe is not heading for a second GNU?
BITI: The worst thing that can happen to Zimbabwe is another GNU. The coalition such as the one we have had is painful, is frustrating, is killing because things don’t move but what I can accept, that which must happen is that we must have a national government. Some kind of inclusive government, representative government but what is key is that we must have one leader in respect of whom the buck stops with but another coalition government such as the GNU – ah my friend – it’s not on, it will kill the country.
GONDA: I was actually going to ask you that – what has the MDC learnt from the experience of trying to share power?
BITI: You know a coalition government is like a marriage so if you are in a marriage you have got a faithful partner who loves you and looks after you, it will be a happy coalition which is why, I was just speaking to some European parliamentarians the other day and I was saying coalitions are ugly. They looked shocked because in their countries they’ve got coalitions just because the social contract is there, they can trust each other but that is not the experience, which we have here. We’ve had an unfaithful partner. We’ve had an unfaithful partner in the form of Zanu PF, a dishonest partner in the form of Zanu PF, an abusive partner in the form of Zanu Pf, a wife-bashing partner in the form of Zanu PF. So this marriage has been a nightmare Violet.
GONDA: So why did the MDC go all over the world campaigning for the removal of sanctions if it’s been a nightmare, being in this GNU?
BITI: Ah you see you mix issues. We have gone out in the country to say Zimbabwe must be integrated! Zimbabwe can’t be isolated. That has nothing to do with Zanu PF. It is important because we are looking after the people of Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe matter. The people of Zimbabwe suffer because we are being isolated. It pains me as Minister of Finance that four billion dollars, seven billion dollars of investment is going to Tete and we can’t even get a billion dollars. Integration is important so don’t mix issues.
GONDA: So how do you respond to people who ask you if the sanctions have done much damage to Zimbabwe as the people in Zimbabwe who have stolen diamonds in the country?
BITI: This conversation is about our programme. In ART the MDC want to have, to be fully integrated. Zimbabwe wants to be a full member of the international community, the African Union, SADC, the UN, the African Development Bank, the Commonwealth – we want to be a full member of the international community that is what we say in ART.
GONDA: So since you want Zimbabwe to be a full member of the international community, what about the way the MDC is being viewed by the international community? A lot has also been written about the MDC becoming Zanu PF-like or adopting this culture of chef mentality, with some newspapers, international newspapers such as the Guardian, the UK Guardian or even recently the New York Times wrote an article saying that the MDC seems to be enjoying the trappings of power. What’s your reaction to this?
BITI: We’re a people’s project Violet, we are accountable to the people; this is a party that was formed into, you know, 13 years ago so it can’t suddenly mutate into a sobriquet that was formed more than 40 years ago that is used to predatoriness and violence. So that’s crazy, you can’t compare Zanu PF and us. We are not Zanu PF - that’s why I am having this conversation with you, which you will never have with a Zanu PF person.
GONDA: I’m sure you will have seen the reports… (Interrupted)
BITI: I have answered your question! Yes I’ve seen the Guardian, I’ve seen the New York Times, I’ve seen opinion polls, I’ve seen everything.
GONDA: Is the MDC building its entire fortune round the brand which is Morgan Tsvangirai in the same way that Zanu PF did to Mugabe?
BITI: Morgan Tsvangirai is the undisputed leader of the MDC. Morgan Tsvangirai is the face of change in this country. He is a simple man who grew up in a village in Humanikwa and had the guts, despite all other Zimbabweans with their degrees, who had the guts of standing up to a dictator. He did not blink. He has been beaten up, tortured, he has lost his wife. So, to suddenly say Morgan Tsvangirai this, Morgan is that is ahistorical. We have got a bridge to cross and we are going to cross it and, mark my words, that same Morgan Tsvangirai is going to win this election by 78%. Mark my words.
GONDA: So what about criticisms that Morgan Tsvangirai is morally and organisationally weak? How would you respond as a party?
BITI: I’m, you know, I’m discussing the MDC’s policies and ART and JUICE. Morgan Tsvangirai is the undisputed leader of our party and Morgan Tsvangirai is going to be the next president of Zimbabwe. The people of Zimbabwe will speak, the election is here and very soon the people of Zimbabwe will speak.
He has led us all through these years you know in the deep end against all odds and these things that you are saying are not new. We have been accused in the past of violence, of breaching our constitutions and so forth. Everyone has said all kinds of things against us; we are stupid, we are indecisive, we are disunited. The only thing we haven’t been accused of is incest with our sisters or our mothers. That’s the only thing.
So all these things that you are saying are not new and once again we’ll prove the critics as we did yesterday, we’ll prove them today, we will prove them tomorrow, prove them wrong. This was the people’s project, it was not formed in a hotel. The people’s project; owned by the people, accountable to the people with the durability of the fact that it was fueled by the people. So it is lasting and it will last.
GONDA: How do you respond to people who say there is serious infighting or factionalism in the MDC-T?
BITI: They have been saying this for years. They’ve been saying this for years. They said this when we went to our congress – ah the MDC is going to split. They said it at our congress, we remained standing. They said it when we went into government, they won’t last. They said it when we went to our congress in 2006, these people won’t last particularly after Welshman (Ncube) and others had left but we are still there, stronger than ever, united than ever.
GONDA: There are reports saying that there are sharp differences between yourself and Prime Minister Tsvangirai and also sharp differences between you and Nelson Chamisa. Are these just differences amongst friends or is there more to it?
BITI: That’s foolish, that’s foolish. These are things that you’ve been writing for years, for years. We’ve had one leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the deputy Thokozani Khupe. So if you ask me about the issue of succession, we’ve got a number two – Thokozani Khupe. These things are clear and straightforward, read our constitution. Let me state again – this is a people’s project, this is a people’s project and that’s why this we’ll be celebrating our policies, we’ll be celebrating the Agenda for Real Transformation and we’ll be celebrating JUICE. No other party in Zimbabwe has got a single paper of its policies - a single paper, certainly not Zanu PF.
GONDA: I understand that there are at least 29 political parties that are going to participate in the forthcoming elections so as MDC what do you make of this?
BITI: What’s new Violet? Every time we have an election, everyone comes out of the woodwork and says I’m a political party. When we have to go to an election everyone comes out of the woodwork and says we’ve got this party - me and my wife are now this party - so there’s nothing new. I’m actually surprised that there’s 28, I thought there would be 128.
GONDA: Some observers say you should form a political pact or an election pact with some of the smaller political parties. What’s your reaction to this?
BITI: We are very clear – all democrats must work together. It’s important, we don’t dismiss that.
GONDA: Is there any movement towards that?
BITI: Ahhh, I know that there are various levels of dialogue taking place, remember there are so many political parties – Dumiso Dabengwa and so forth. I know that the parties are talking to each other. I know that. Whether they are talking to each other in terms of a concrete agenda, I’m not sure about that. But the bottom line is that the principals of the parties are talking to each other and working with each other on a broad popular front, no-one can (inaudible) that.
GONDA: Land is one of the issues that many people have been talking about and they want to know what the MDC policy is on this.
BITI: Yes. Look we are the ones who said in April 2000 - and I’m the one who actually wrote that policy, that we want to take eight million hectares of land from the 15 million hectares of land being held by members of the Commercial Farmers Union. Five million will be used to resettle agricultural people, three million will be used to deal with urban houses. Zanu PF, from 1980 to 1990, over 20 years, they’d only taken 3.2million hectares. So they only latched onto the land because they were defeated in the referendum and then they pretended to be revolutionaries when they were not revolutionaries.
Incidentally I was reading minutes of the Lancaster House constitution, not on a single day do you see them raising the issue of land at Lancaster and so it’s shocking. So this issue about Zanu being a party of the land is nonsensical. But anyway to answer your question specifically, this is what we propose to do with the land question; the first thing - the acquisitions of land that took place between 2000 and now, no-one can reverse them, they are irreversible.
But number two - you need to democratise that and you will democratise that by the following: a) de-racialise land ownership so every Zimbabwean, black, blue, white, green and yellow must have the right to own land in Zimbabwe. Fortunately Chapter 16 of the constitution, which we have signed, does that. Number three – give title, give title to everyone who owns land right now. Zanu PF is refusing to give title even long leases because it is using land as a political field. Once you have left and you belong to another party, they will take away that land. So we are saying everyone who is on land must have security of tenure.
Number four – restore the market for land. There is no market in Zimbabwe for land at the present moment. Land is a dead asset just with use value but with non-exchange value. Let land be hypothecated. Let land be used as security in the banks. By 1999 74% of bank lending went into agriculture, went into farms. Now it is not there, 19% of bank lending is going into flat-screened televisions and other things like that. We need to restore land market in Zimbabwe, that’s so critical, that’s very, very critical.
And number five – let us have security of tenure. Any person who is on land must be secure. People are not secure right now – look at what is happening in the Save Conservancy and so forth. Number six – let us have adequate compensation for the former landowners. At the present moment Zanu is saying we pay them for improvements; the MDC’s policy is that there must be full compensation including even where there is arable land that is not being used by anyone.
If a former white farmer says - look, I know you are not using this land, give me as compensation, there’s nothing wrong with that. So let’s have full and adequate compensation. Number six – land that was covered by BIPPAs should not have been subject of the land reform programme, the issue of BIPPAs. So that’s only land as the political question.
Then I want to come to agriculture. On agriculture there are a number of things that we must do. The first one is yield management. This current situation where the average yield in the communal lands for maize is now 77 kilograms when it used to be four tons per hectare, seven tons per hectare is not on. So let’s have yield management so that we can have yields of something like 12 to 15 tons of maize per hectare.
Number two is the research and technology. We are being affected by global warming but there are no monies that are being put into research and technology. Zanu PF is not interested in research and technology; Zanu PF is not interested in GMOs for instance - everyone is feeding on GMOs. We need new breeds of seeds for instance. When I grew up planting seeds started in October, now it’s not the case so let’s have research, research, research.
Number three is extension services. Our extension services have become dilapidated so let’s deal with the issue of extension services. Number four is the issue of financing. This government is too small to adequately finance agriculture. So what can substantially finance agriculture is the commercial sector, is banks. So let’s be clear on that. Agriculture is a business. So let’s have a business model in our farming not this issue of seeing that even twenty years after the land reform programme people are still called new farmers and they look to government for subsidies. It’s not on.
Number seven – let’s define clearly the government subsidy policy. It’s important for the poor and vulnerable sectors – are we subsidizing at input level or are we subsidizing at market level, that must be made clear. So let’s have a clear subsidy policy. Number eight is marketing. This issue that we have GMB as the buyer of first resort is not on. Let’s have commodity exchanges where a person will know that I’m going to sell my potatoes, my mbambaira – it’s very critical.
Nine is value addition. It pains me that we are exporting out our tobacco, we’re exporting out our cotton. I live along Enterprise Road and I see women from Mutoko everyday carrying tomatoes and vegetables – they are poor. Let’s have a Budya Factory that will make tomato ketchup in Mutoko. Value addition is very important.
Number ten – let’s have dams, let’s make agriculture a 365 business. This business of agriculture that is seasonal, that depends on the rains alone is not sustainable. So let’s have a 365, so let the infrastructure of agriculture must be revolutionized. Electricity, roads because they facilitate access to markets, those things are clear. Then let’s have a fertilizer policy, let’s have a fertilizer policy.
GONDA: What happens to multiple farm owners?
BITI: Oh no, no, no, no. The MDC policy is very clear. There should be number maximum sizes of farms per region and one farm for every household. That is very clear and part of that is that the MDC will introduce a land tax, which will discourage people from hoarding land. We’re very clear on that.
GONDA: So you will take away the farms from people who took multiple farms?
BITI: That’s very clear. We said that as way back as 2004 when we launched our Restart, that land must be distributed on the basis of need and ability. Do you need the land and can you farm it - and not the current situation where it’s accumulation for the sake of accumulating and some people that I know have got four farms and they are not using them.
I went to Kariba on Sunday and all the way to Kariba I hardly saw any meaningful farming activity on any farm. That’s not on, that’s not on. So it’s from need to ability - it’s very clear. Even the new constitution speaks to the issue of one household for one farm and the issue of maximum sizes of land per region, that’s key.
GONDA: And what about on the issue of land audit – is the MDC going to embark on a land audit?
BITI: That is clear. Even the new constitution speaks of that. Even the GPA speaks of on the issue of an audit. You need an audit to rationalize as how else are you going to know who is a multiple owner other than through an audit? How else are you going to know how many women own land because genderising land is also important unless through an audit? So an audit is inevitable as inevitable as it is desirable.
GONDA: Because the Lands Minister Herbert Murerwa recently told a committee in the senate that the government will not conduct a comprehensive land audit but that there will now be a land use audit.
BITI: That’s a different view of Zanu PF and MDC. Zanu PF want to protect the chefs who are holding onto land, which they are not using. I know of one particular chef with eight farms, some in Mashonaland Central, some in Mashonaland West so it’s not on.
GONDA: That was the MDC-T Secretary General and Finance Minister Tendai Biti. Thank you very much for speaking to us on the programme Hot Seat.
BITI: Alright, thank you.
To contact this reporter email violet@swradioafrica.com or follow on Twitter
Labels: TENDAI BITI, VIOLET GONDA, VOA
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US State Department-Funded BBC World Service "Jammed" in China
West feigns indignation as China allegedly shuts down US State Dept-funded BBC propaganda.
February 26, 2013 (AltThaiNews-Tony Cartalucci) - Headlines across the Western corporate-media read, "BBC says 'extensive, coordinated efforts' to jam world service frequencies in China" (Fox News), "BBC blocked in China just days after reporting on Chinese hackers" (Washington Post), and "BBC "strongly condemns" China's attempts to jam World Service broadcasts" (Radio Times), before weaving a lofty narrative of a "repressive regime" trying to gag freedom of the press.
In reality,
BBC's World Service is directly funded by the US State Department and is insidious propaganda admittedly designed to politically subvert not only China, but Iran, Russia, and many other nations perceived by Wall Street and London as intolerable competition. In March of 2011, the London Guardian in its report, "BBC World Service to sign funding deal with US state department," stated explicitly:
The BBC World Service is to receive a "significant" sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China.
In what the BBC said is the first deal of its kind, an agreement is expected to be signed later this month that will see US state department money – understood to be a low six-figure sum – given to the World Service to invest in developing anti-jamming technology and software.
The funding is also expected to be used to educate people in countries with state censorship in how to circumnavigate the blocking of internet and TV services.
It is understood the US government has decided the reach of the World Service is such that it makes investment worthwhile.
Of course, "blocked" content translates to US State Department and other Western interests' propaganda in the form of the openly US State Department-run "Voice of America," and a myriad of faux-NGO's funded directly by the US government's National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In China particularly, NED has been cultivating a troupe of misfit "activists" and faux-fronts with names ranging from the cartoonish - the "Blind Activist" aka the "Barefoot Lawyer," to the very ironic - "China Labor Watch, Inc," which we must assume "watches" on, as exploited children and adults labor for WalMart and Apple.
RT would also report in 2011, in their report "BBC World Service and US State Department: new partners, new bias?," that:
This would not be the first time the BBC has accepted money from organizations with their own agendas. In 2008, the corporation faced accusations of pro-Europe bias after it was revealed it had taken out US $230 million in loans from the EU. The loans were given by the European Investment Bank, which strives to promote EU policies.
Member of European Parliament Gerard Batten has a long-running beef with the BBC.
"It is institutionally politically biased, certainly in favour of things like the European Union, mass immigration, and a whole other host of ‘politically correct’ ideas that I think it peddles to the public,” he told RT.
Batten says taking this money would expose the hypocrisy at the heart of the BBC.
"The EU bans sponsorship of any news and current affairs TV programs across the EU,” Batten said. “Now it would appear then, that if the US State Department is going to fund BBC that would appear to be in breach of the directive."
Biased, politically motivated enterprises like BBC's World Service in fact represent a breach of journalistic ethics, and not only was Beijing's decision to shut down World Services highly appropriate (if they in fact have done so), but so too would an investigation in both the US and the UK seeking to ascertain why in an economic crisis, money is being spent to sow political subversion overseas for the sake of corporate special interests, when people at home direly need assistance.
The BBC is an organization mired in controversy, and repeatedly exposed as exploiting people's trust in their reputation to push the agenda of well-paying special interests. The coordinated effort by the Western media to spin the BBC's latest confrontation from a well equipped nation-state who has decided to pull the plug, is indicative that the rot that has infected BBC, has spread far and wide across the West indeed.
Labels: BBC, CHINA, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY, PROPAGANDA, VOA
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UNDP in Zimbabwe poll funding pledge
12/02/2013 00:00:00
by Violet Gonda I SW Radio Africa
THE United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has approved a request by the cash strapped Zimbabwe government to fund elections this year, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Tuesday. Biti and Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa had written to the UNDP asking for an estimated US$250 million for the purposes of administering the constitutional referendum and general election, scheduled for this year.
The Finance Minister said they had received "a very favorable response and we are now acting on the things that they have requested". Biti said he could not publicly divulge what has been requested or how much money Zimbabwe will receive. But he revealed that the Zimbabwe Election Commission had put forward budgets that were unrealistic, with the original budget in excess of US$500 million and the second one over $300 million.
He said experts from the two ministries were now in the process of reconciling the figures with ZEC, “to come up with a credible and legitimate budget that is sellable to everyone, to the Ministry of Finance, to parliament and to the international community.” Biti said various people who will work in the election process were asking huge per diem rates. Some were asking to be paid as much as $70 per day.
“Another request of concern was the request from the Zimbabwe Republic Police. In the original budget, it was so clear that the police were now intending to capitalise on this, which is not proper,” Biti added.
“So what Minister Chinamasa and I have chosen to do is to micro-analyse and micro-audit the budgets that are coming from the Zimbabwe Election Commission with a view of coming up with a reasonable and legitimate figure.”
The police alone were asking for $180 million. Some media reports say that ZEC requests included $1 million for indelible ink and at least $11 million for voter education, adding to suspicions that the figures were highly inflated.
Sources say the UNDP does not actually have the money but will coordinate the donor community to pledge money to sponsor the Zimbabwe polls. The donors, who include the United States and the European Union, have made certain conditions for funding the elections, such as allowing EU observers.
The sources said if the donors put money, it will be for the referendum first and then they will consider funding the general elections if Zimbabwe implements the election roadmap and there is an end to human rights abuses.
Ordinarily Zanu PF would not agree to any conditions, but it is believed that President Robert Mugabe and his party will probably agree to some demands as some observers say they are ‘desperate’ to have the elections before the United Nations World Tourism Organisation conference in August.
Labels: 2013 ELECTIONS (ZW), TENDAI BITI, UNDP, VIOLET GONDA, VOA
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UNDP in Zimbabwe poll funding pledge
12/02/2013 00:00:00
by Violet Gonda I SW Radio Africa
THE United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has approved a request by the cash strapped Zimbabwe government to fund elections this year, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Tuesday. Biti and Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa had written to the UNDP asking for an estimated US$250 million for the purposes of administering the constitutional referendum and general election, scheduled for this year.
The Finance Minister said they had received "a very favorable response and we are now acting on the things that they have requested". Biti said he could not publicly divulge what has been requested or how much money Zimbabwe will receive. But he revealed that the Zimbabwe Election Commission had put forward budgets that were unrealistic, with the original budget in excess of US$500 million and the second one over $300 million.
He said experts from the two ministries were now in the process of reconciling the figures with ZEC, “to come up with a credible and legitimate budget that is sellable to everyone, to the Ministry of Finance, to parliament and to the international community.” Biti said various people who will work in the election process were asking huge per diem rates. Some were asking to be paid as much as $70 per day.
“Another request of concern was the request from the Zimbabwe Republic Police. In the original budget, it was so clear that the police were now intending to capitalise on this, which is not proper,” Biti added.
“So what Minister Chinamasa and I have chosen to do is to micro-analyse and micro-audit the budgets that are coming from the Zimbabwe Election Commission with a view of coming up with a reasonable and legitimate figure.”
The police alone were asking for $180 million. Some media reports say that ZEC requests included $1 million for indelible ink and at least $11 million for voter education, adding to suspicions that the figures were highly inflated.
Sources say the UNDP does not actually have the money but will coordinate the donor community to pledge money to sponsor the Zimbabwe polls. The donors, who include the United States and the European Union, have made certain conditions for funding the elections, such as allowing EU observers.
The sources said if the donors put money, it will be for the referendum first and then they will consider funding the general elections if Zimbabwe implements the election roadmap and there is an end to human rights abuses.
Ordinarily Zanu PF would not agree to any conditions, but it is believed that President Robert Mugabe and his party will probably agree to some demands as some observers say they are ‘desperate’ to have the elections before the United Nations World Tourism Organisation conference in August.
Labels: 2013 ELECTIONS (ZW), TENDAI BITI, UNDP, VIOLET GONDA, VOA
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UNDP in Zimbabwe poll funding pledge
12/02/2013 00:00:00
by Violet Gonda I SW Radio Africa
THE United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has approved a request by the cash strapped Zimbabwe government to fund elections this year, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Tuesday. Biti and Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa had written to the UNDP asking for an estimated US$250 million for the purposes of administering the constitutional referendum and general election, scheduled for this year.
The Finance Minister said they had received "a very favorable response and we are now acting on the things that they have requested". Biti said he could not publicly divulge what has been requested or how much money Zimbabwe will receive. But he revealed that the Zimbabwe Election Commission had put forward budgets that were unrealistic, with the original budget in excess of US$500 million and the second one over $300 million.
He said experts from the two ministries were now in the process of reconciling the figures with ZEC, “to come up with a credible and legitimate budget that is sellable to everyone, to the Ministry of Finance, to parliament and to the international community.” Biti said various people who will work in the election process were asking huge per diem rates. Some were asking to be paid as much as $70 per day.
“Another request of concern was the request from the Zimbabwe Republic Police. In the original budget, it was so clear that the police were now intending to capitalise on this, which is not proper,” Biti added.
“So what Minister Chinamasa and I have chosen to do is to micro-analyse and micro-audit the budgets that are coming from the Zimbabwe Election Commission with a view of coming up with a reasonable and legitimate figure.”
The police alone were asking for $180 million. Some media reports say that ZEC requests included $1 million for indelible ink and at least $11 million for voter education, adding to suspicions that the figures were highly inflated.
Sources say the UNDP does not actually have the money but will coordinate the donor community to pledge money to sponsor the Zimbabwe polls. The donors, who include the United States and the European Union, have made certain conditions for funding the elections, such as allowing EU observers.
The sources said if the donors put money, it will be for the referendum first and then they will consider funding the general elections if Zimbabwe implements the election roadmap and there is an end to human rights abuses.
Ordinarily Zanu PF would not agree to any conditions, but it is believed that President Robert Mugabe and his party will probably agree to some demands as some observers say they are ‘desperate’ to have the elections before the United Nations World Tourism Organisation conference in August.
Labels: 2013 ELECTIONS (ZW), TENDAI BITI, UNDP, VIOLET GONDA, VOA
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New interview: Morgan Tsvangirai in US
11/09/2012 00:00:00
by Violet Gonda I
VOA Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai - recently in North Carolina, USA, to attend the Democratic National Convention - sat down for a wide-ranging interview with the Voice of America's Violet Gonda. Here is the transcript of their discussion:
MORGAN TSVANGIRAI: I was invited to participate in the National Democratic Convention as part of the International leadership forum organized by National Democratic Institute (NDI) - so I’m part of the over 300 international leaders of various levels of government who are participating in this convention.
VIOLET GONDA: I understand that you were the highest ranking African leader to be invited by the Democratic Party to attend this convention.
TSVANGIRAI: It’s true and I am humbled by the fact that I have that recognition but I don’t think that it’s something that is significant. I’m sure that in any of their conventions they do identify which leader to come and grace their occasion.
GONDA: So what lessons did you learn from the US process?
TSVANGIRAI: Work, process and substance. Process wise, I think that there is a lot that we can learn. You know democracy is not an event. These are institutional developments that have been here for the last 200 years. So our democratic development is a baby, so there is a lot that we can learn in terms of process. How do we ensure that people are participating, how do we formulate policy, how do we increase debate because really it’s about issues it’s not about individuals, so on substance, I think one of the things that you sort of observe is the extent of ideological and policy difference between the two major parties in the United States and the way people try to convince the rest of the population to support them.
GONDA: I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to read the newspapers or what’s been said about your visit to America in the state controlled media, for example, the Zanu PF party said you abandoned a critical principles meeting to attend this convention and presidential spokesman George Charamba said that this is a clear example that shows you favour foreign interests ahead of national issues. What can you say about this?
TSVANGIRAI: Well, I don’t like to be personal to George; he has chosen to make my role in the country personal and to portray an image which has nothing to do with my objective in government, my objective in the politics of the country. Firstly the question of abandoning, well, if the same accusation were to apply, President Mugabe left for the Non Aligned Movement a week ago when the draft constitution was out and he did not even explain when we were going to meet because I told him I’ll be away for a week, he was going to be away for a week - so who has abandoned what?
As far as the second part about ‘serving foreign interests’, it will be in the same equal measure that President Mugabe in attending the Non-Aligned Movement, is he serving foreign interests? Let’s abandon that. We are all patriots, we are all trying to do our best under very difficult circumstances to push our country forward in spite of the frustrating experiences, the lack of implementation of a GPA, the lack of implementation of those reforms that are necessary and the intransigencies on the part of Zanu PF to reverse a constitutional process that they have endorsed.
GONDA: Considering that the US is in election mode, some say that this is showing allegiance and you should have stayed away because this would potentially affect relations if the Republicans were to win for example. What’s your comment on this?
TSVANGIRAI: That’s totally out. I did not come here to endorse the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. I came out here to an international forum, as invited, to experience the American political system at a convention. I have not been given a platform where I have said I’m endorsing the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, we work with both.
GONDA: How do you respond to critics who say you have managed to build some credibility by focusing your advocacy in Africa? But that by you coming to the US you are now providing ammunition to propagandists who would say this is evidence of you being a puppet of the West like what has been said by Mr. Charamba?
TSVANGIRAI: To be honest, I’ve long since taken a position that what George says does not change the direction and destiny of the country either way, it’s his personal view, he can shout and do whatever he wants, I will not even give him a moment of thought. The position is this, we as MDC would like to engage the international community and the international community includes first and foremost Africa, Europe, America, Eastern Europe, Chinese, everyone. And I’ve demonstrated over the last year the diplomatic in-roads we have made even with some of the people who thought we were enemies, we have engaged them. The idea is that Zimbabwe is not an island and that what we are attempting to do is that Zimbabwe should be part of the family of nations. What we are trying to do is to promote the best interests of Zimbabwe and if anyone would come and say that you are undermining the best interests of Zimbabwe, perhaps that would be basis for argument, but the real basis that Zimbabwe needs to be part of family of nations and that’s my objective.
GONDA: You still have others who are saying there is too much globetrotting by government leaders and couldn’t you send some of your deputies, for example, especially as there are pressing matters back home such as the constitutional crisis?
TSVANGIRAI: There’s no constitutional crisis, there is a constitutional impasse which is not the creation of the MDC. Well, every mission has got an appropriate level of delegation and I don’t go to every opportunity that arises. I go strategically to engage at the level that I think is going to be in the long term interest of the country. As for a crisis like the constitution, it will be resolved one way or the other.
GONDA: Let’s talk about this stalemate on the constitution-making-process; do you honestly think President Jacob Zuma’s mediation will work, considering he is only a facilitator?
TSVANGIRAI: At the end of the day, if the three parties agree and have endorsed a certain position, and have signed to a certain position, why should the whole country be held to ransom by one party, and I don’t think it’s fair. It’s acting in bad faith; it’s acting in the partisan interest and not in the national interest. Above all, a constitution is a national document of governance and as far as I’m concerned if there is consensus among the main actors, that should be the basis of moving forward.
GONDA: Many people believe that Zanu PF will not yield to settling with the final draft, so what are the possible scenarios here?
TSVANGIRAI: Well, the possible scenario is that… but of course you have to take into consideration that SADC will not allow a stalemate, SADC will find a way of resolving this impasse - but above all, it would have been better for Zimbabweans to find common cause which we thought we had arrived at when we signed the document after a very painstaking three and a half years of work and after so much resources were put in this exercise.
GONDA: Your party has said you will not dialogue any more on the final draft constitution, and you have stated your position. So what other options are there besides waiting for SADC or external countries?
TSVANGIRAI: Well, we have not met at principles, we want to hear what justification President Mugabe has for his party to go and overhaul the whole constitutional process that he had signed to and until such a time that he is clear about it and we have made our position clear, one cannot talk of an end. I’m sure that down the line the constitution will go to the people. They are the final arbiters on the constitution. They are the ones that made the input and they are the ones who will have the final say.
GONDA: Are you in a catch 22 situation here because, doesn’t the Global Political Agreement (GPA) say that in the event that you fail to agree on anything, either party can call an election?
TSVANGIRAI: No, there is no such thing, you have read our GPA very well, there is no clause like that. There is no clause first of all on any party to exercise veto power and secondly there is no clause in the GPA which allows a party to take unilateral action against another party. So no party has got the right to call an election, no party has got the right to single-handedly determine anything, that’s why the principles have to meet to decide the next step. If that was the case, the whole constitutional edifice upon which this GPA was built would collapse.
GONDA: You said the principles have to meet and decide on the next step, but you have been meeting for a very long time and it seems that there is no solution to this problem. Surely you… (interrupted)
TSVANGIRAI: That’s why even the disagreements, the implementation deficits that are there, we have noted them, we have brought them to the attention of SADC, and SADC has said we need full implementation. Obviously there is no way that anyone can have the leverage to force a political party to do 1,2,3 things. But as long as we are part of the GPA, we are bound by the 19th Amendment of the constitution which is the basis upon which this GPA is build, so the government has to be managed.
GONDA: Yes, but how Prime Minister? What options do you have as a party? Surely your own party should have a position on this. What is your party’s position?
TSVANGIRAI: Our position is that if there is a consensus to disagree we will disagree and then we will advise SADC on the next steps. If it means that we need now to go to say - an election - then the conditions for elections will now be the next subject of discussion but at the moment we are not talking about elections we are talking about the constitutional process, and until that deadlock is arrived at, I cannot talk of a further step beyond the current constitutional debate.
GONDA: Yes, but the emails we’re getting, the responses we’re getting from our listeners are that people are getting fed up with this long negotiation process.
TSVANGIRAI: They’ll have to be patient. Rome was not built in a day. Remember the position we are coming from, the acrimony, the polarisation and I think that the transition has helped to break down those barriers of suspicion in terms of what the national interests are and pushing forward those things. I’m quite conscious of the fact that people want to go to elections, and we’ll go to an election if that is what it takes for the final resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis so let it be. But it cannot just be a thumb sucking exercise.
GONDA: So will you go to elections without reforms?
TSVANGIRAI: No we can’t! We are saying there are steps and benchmarks that need to be put in place before that election is conducted, or else we’ll reproduce 2008.
GONDA: At the end of the day, isn’t it a fact that reforms are not the problem here and those reforms will only remain on paper and not implemented even if you are to have the reforms.
TSVANGIRAI: No, we have implemented some of them, not all, we have agreed on the Electoral Act, we have agreed on the Human Rights Act, we have put in commission, that’s all part of the reform that are comprehensively going to help create an environment for free and fair elections.
GONDA: Isn’t there an assumption that our problems in Zimbabwe are only about policies and strengthening institutions and reforms - but isn’t it more about our political culture, that as long as there is no shift in political culture, nothing will change?
TSVANGIRAI: Well the transition was intended to achieve that, it was intended to soft line the crisis so that we have a different political culture. Now, having said that, have we achieved a totally different political culture? Certainly it is a process that is going to take time but at least we have set ourselves on a direction in which the democratic credentials of the country will be the basis upon which the future political interaction will be set.
GONDA: Let’s talk about the Freedom House survey. It indicated that public trust in the Prime Minister’s office has considerably gone down. What is your reaction to this?
TSVANGIRAI: I cannot discuss the validity or otherwise of the survey and make it the subject of discussion. I take note of the observations that they’ve made but also I take note of some of the gaps in the survey like for instance, how do you say Zimbabweans now listen to the ZBC more than any other source? How do you now say The Herald is now the most popular newspaper when we know the truth? So all I can say is that yes, we take note of some of the observations. If there is any validity, then it’s up to the MDC to take into consideration and take the corrective measures. We are not dismissing any survey that is covered by anyone, but the real survey Violet, is the people themselves when they go to a vote. You should not be scared of a sample; you should be scared about the outcome of the real national vote, that’s where it counts.
GONDA: But on this survey, if this is what people are saying, has there been a reflection in your party to see what the cause is, because it seems people are …(interrupted)
TSVANGIRAI: … If people just say your support has declined without giving reasons of which area, why and how. We, of course as a party from time to time we reflect on these issues - where is our weaknesses, we always take a strategic review of our situation. We don’t do it because there is a survey; we do it as a regular assessment of the performance of the party outside government, the performance of the party in government, in local authorities. All these matters are matters we regularly check and especially after the survey, we have to say how far true is it. We have to self-introspect and correct it.
GONDA: You say they didn’t give any examples but there are actually quite a few examples that were in this report including widespread corruption by some of your officials - as some of the issues that people had problems with.
TSVANGIRAI: But who is not corrupt? Corruption is something that has been set by Zanu PF and they have not done anything to arrest corruption. We have done something. We have gone in and fired a whole City Council in Chitungwiza; we have done an assessment of all our local authorities because we know. Our people are telling us that these issues need to be addressed so we do an evaluation of delivery in local authorities - and what we have done is to deal with those that have been identified as corrupt. The issue is not that there will be no corruption, even in the United States, anywhere in the world there will be corruption but what we need is - what are you doing about it. That is the real issue.
GONDA: So would you consider leading your party to a lifestyle audit where individuals holding public office are actually assessed in terms of what they earn and the lifestyle that they are living?
TSVANGIRAI: What lifestyle?
GONDA: The other day I interviewed your secretary for local government Sesal Zvidzai and he gave an example of the Mayor of Gweru - who you fired recently - and Mr. Zvidzai gave an example saying that a person who was like a street kid just the other day was now a Mayor, and amassed a lot of wealth including several cars, fancy houses and.. (Interrupted)
TSVANGIRAI: … that’s why we dealt with him.
GONDA: … so this is what I’m saying, that as Prime Minister are you willing to lead an audit to see who has what?
TSVANGIRAI: We are willing to evaluate the performance of ministers and everyone to ensure that we stay within the principles of the party, but we are not going to be on a witch-hunt because a witch-hunt sometimes goes into a subjective area. But as I said the issue is that where we have evaluated and we found that someone is not acting in the best interest, values and principles of the party we deal with that.
GONDA: Well, you mentioned witch-hunt and it seems that some of the people that have been fired by the party are saying that’s exactly what happened. They say they were never called to a disciplinary hearing and that they were not even consulted or interviewed by the committee that investigated the allegations.
TSVANGIRAI: No, no, no. It’s not a question of a disciplinary hearing; we do have our own internal measures. You can’t have a disciplinary hearing in the face of evidence that is overwhelming, you wait until you have a disciplinary hearing to establish what when the facts have been properly established and the men and women themselves have admitted to that indiscretion. What disciplinary hearing, except to make it a bureaucratic delay? We need action and we need to send a clear message that the party will not tolerate that.
GONDA: Another issue that has come up is the quality of some of your public officials, and as I mentioned, one of your deputy ministers described one of the people that was fired as someone who was a street kid before he became a councillor. So what does that say about the quality of some of your officials?
TSVANGIRAI: Look, look, look. We are a young party - popularity sometimes is not a measure of capacity. We have had to revise our standards of selection of Mayors, councillors, MP’s. We have just adopted a new principle out of experience and out of abundance of caution that we would not allow people who by chance just happen to use the popularity and ride on the popularity of the party - just to get to an office without the responsibility to discharge that responsibility. So we have set a new standard and it’s an experience. We have for the first time controlled all the 32 town councils throughout the country and the level of delivery is different from city to city and we have learned that you need to put certain standards that will allow for maturity and for responsibility to apply.
GONDA: The survey was very clear that … (interrupted)
TSVANGIRAI: … please don’t ask me about that survey…
GONDA: … I am not asking about the survey but it was saying your appetite for change in Zimbabwe, as a party, has dissipated - what do you make of that? That public confidence has eroded?
TSVANGIRAI: Let me tell you - the MDC and the people of Zimbabwe are together in a project and we have a clear road map to achieve that project. In 2006 we set out to say we will act to put pressure on Mugabe to come to the negotiating table and we have done that. We will have a transitional government, we have set that up. We will have a new constitution, that’s what we have just concluded. We will have free and fair elections. We will have a referendum. So as far as the defined strategy of the MDC, we are on course, so for people to conclude that we no longer have the appetite, when we are on course, how else can we define the path to that change? And I want to tell you one thing, the people of Zimbabwe are resilient, they want change, they have not withdrawn from that particular objective and the MDC is the party for change.
GONDA: Some observers are saying that the tragic thing is that you took all of your lieutenants into the inclusive government and the party has now suffered because all the ‘drivers of the movement’ are now consumed in doing government business instead of doing party business.
TSVANGIRAI: Well what is government business? Government business is about delivering to the people. It’s another arena of struggle. If you say you should all confine yourselves in throwing stones without necessarily taking those strategic positions to influence policy to understand how the government works, and to help the people deliver on their needs, then I don’t know what kind of leadership that is. I did not take everyone into government, there are people who are out there who have not been a part of the government - and I want to say that for the MDC, it has been a very good learning experience which we’ll find very handy in the future. And also people must not just conclude or expect the MDC to be the only instrument of struggle, there’s the civic society. There are all these people who want change, and all we need is a strong alliance to continue to push that agenda.
GONDA: So do think that perhaps people expect too much from you and that you have too much on your plate?
TSVANGIRAI: Ohh there is even no distinction. The expectation was that MDC was going to create jobs in the coalition, MDC was going to do 1, 2, 3 things - and you know the limitation of a coalition? There’s no consensus on policy, sometimes there is policy discord, sometimes there’s sabotage of things - but let’s measure those things that the coalition government has achieved in terms of stabilizing the economy, in terms of health delivery, education, water, and in terms of general peace in the country. Yes, we may not have delivered jobs because jobs are not created like manna from heaven. Jobs are dependent on what investment you put in place, and what measures you put in place to attract foreign direct investment. So those are measures that would need even further debate.
GONDA: We received complaints, and there are some reports from such publications such as The Daily News saying that the Prime Minister himself seems to be less and less accessible to the local media and we have also been trying to get in touch with you but ever since you became Prime Minister, it’s been difficult.
TSVANGIRAI: Violet, Violet, but you are talking to me, how do you complain that I’m actually excluding you from the interview?
GONDA: But Prime Minister…
TSVANGIRAI: …at home…
GONDA: … can I answer that question because this is something that is of concern to some of us?
TSVANGIRAI: yes…
GONDA: … yes you’re talking to me now but since you became Prime Minister three or four years ago, this is the first time that I’ve actually had a chance to interview you.
TSVANGIRAI: No, no, no. Let’s be honest. You were studying therefore you were not accessible. At home I have a monthly press briefing. Studio 7 is there at all those monthly briefings.
GONDA: But that is not the same Prime Minister, because even here The Daily News is complaining about this lack of access. Journalists are complaining about this.
TSVANGIRAI: No, no, no…
GONDA: You’ve complained that ZBC does not cover you, for example, and yet the private media is willing to give you space but we are not getting that space. That’s basically what people are complaining about.
TSVANGIRAI: I have never refused anyone an interview and that’s the truth. I’m very accessible, if there are any gatekeepers who prevent me from accessing the media, I’m hearing it for the first time. I think that to a large extend I’m out there in the field with the people, the media is there - and justifiably, I had a reason to raise that about the media and that’s the truth.
I am the Prime Minister of the country and for the three and a half years I’ve never appeared on ZBC and that’s the truth. So these matters as far as access Violet, I think what we need is to follow-up and have proper arrangements - but I can tell you, and I want to assure you that I’m very accessible, and Luke my spokesman does everything to make sure we have these monthly briefings, and weekly briefings for ministers, if the ministers do not attend, it’s not the Prime Minister to blame.
GONDA: With all due respect Prime Minister yes, we understand that you hold these monthly press briefings but it’s not enough especially as they can be seen as stage managed. There are very little one to one interviews with you and this is what many journalists are complaining about.
TSVANGIRAI: Well if they are complaining about it, let me go and investigate. I would not deliberately prevent anyone from having access to me. I’m the most accessible person and that you know.
GONDA: Moving on, still on the issue of access. It’s not just people in the media who have complaining about this, one of the emails we received said: “This increasingly reclusive behaviour by the Prime Minister does not make him a man of the people and he needs to be seen more regularly and speaking of the injustices that so badly afflict the nation and the communities.” Do you think this is fair?
TSVANGIRAI: I can understand the anger but I’m not the spokesman. A Prime Minister who speaks every day is a megaphone. I have spokespersons, I have ministers and of course, where matters affect the national interests and habits of the people, I will speak.
GONDA: I guess some people, especially those who are affected, expect more. For example, I was taking to one of the family members of the group of 29 people from Glenview, who are still in custody and she was saying her daughter is still in custody and yet they don’t hear anything from the Prime Minister talking about these injustices
TSVANGIRAI: No, no, no you can’t be talking about that - you take measures. The group of 29 is an issue we are grappling with as a party. The party has spoken, the party is doing the welfare, interventions but the difficult position we face is that this is not a political detention - although we know there are political motives - it’s a criminal. And when you go to a criminal court the abuse of the criminal justice system becomes even more evident, that’s why we want to amend the Criminal Code and Evidence Act which prevents…, and we didn’t even know that there is actually a rule which says that if something happens to the police it will not even allow any bail application. That’s why the matter is before the Supreme Court. So we are doing everything, we know the plight of these 29 and unfortunately we are trapped in this legal process that we need to address. But yes, we do understand, we are intervening as a party, we are responsible for the welfare of the families but we are trapped with this legal hindrance hurdle that we need to overcome.
GONDA: Don’t you think you’ll go to another GNU, and if so, where do you stand on this?
TSVANGIRAI: There is no reason for having another GNU, there is no reason whatsoever if an election is conducted and it’s free and fair. It should produce a legitimate government which should take the country forward, whether it is MDC or Zanu PF. If it’s conducted in a free and fair manner there should be one clear winner who should be able to address the destiny of the country, address the vision of the country address the needs of the country, the future. And there is so much that needs to be done, so I don’t foresee a situation where we have another GNU, for what?
GONDA: We did talk briefly about the issue of policies but how do you respond to people who say they don’t hear any clear expressed policies from the MDC beyond their mantra of ‘democratic change’ and ‘change for better’ and that … (interrupted)
TSVANGIRAI:… oh come on, come on…
GONDA: … they say that Zanu PF is clear on some of these issues like land, indigenisation policies but the MDC is not. How do you respond to this?
TSVANGIRAI: The problem is how do you form a party which is 13 or 14 years old without a vision, without a policy? Do you think it’s just a matter of being anti-Mugabe? No, no, no. People must go to our documentation and must be able to distinct which party policy the party is pursuing. What does it mean when they say they are not hearing? An individual stands up, I was in Japan the other day and a girl stood up and said ‘we are not hearing about your land policy’, and I said have you looked at the policies of the MDC, they are there. You decide yourselves to say there is no policy on land, but I can articulate those policies clearly because I know they are there.
GONDA: But how would you tell that to a family in the rural areas with no access … to read the policy documents online?
TSVANGIRAI: I can understand that but it also means that we go out to the people and explain our land policy to the people, explain what the party stands for, everything. It’s only those people who want to come so we tell them the policies of the MDC in the offices. We have our policies on the website and when we go out to the rural areas we explain our policies clearly. That’s why people have been with us all these years.
GONDA: Can you explain your policy on land for example?
TSVANGIRAI: We believe that land must go to the people and not the politicians. Land must go to the people who need it. We believe that land is a finite resource, then it must be used productively and in order to do that you need to entitle the land so that people can invest in the land. All that is there!
GONDA: And on indigenisation?
TSVANGIRAI: Indigenisation is a Zanu PF policy, it’s not an MDC policy, but we believe in broad based empowerment. We don’t believe in individuals – the Kasukuweres accessing all the resources of the country for themselves and their party. We believe there is a basis for a broad based empowerment policy for Zimbabweans, whether it is in business, whether it is on education, whether it is on land, we believe in a broad based theme. It is Zanu PF which is pursuing the selfish, predatory elitist positions that are not in best interests of the broad mass of Zimbabwe.
GONDA: So how does the MDC plan to address these very real issues?
TSVANGIRAI: They are not real issues unless they are raised by the Zanu PF, hey? They become real issues when they are abused by Zanu-PF for partisan political objectives and not for national interest. If we wanted to have a proper empowerment policy, we should go to the Parliament table, a green paper, people discuss it and then it is implemented by government, but if it becomes a partisan political objective of a few who just want to benefit as if mashuku ari kungo gumwa achi donha pamuti, it’s not the best way to go. So you cannot ask me to articulate a Zanu PF policy. I can only articulate what I believe is the best way to empower people in a broad way and not just an elite group.
GONDA: And what is the MDC’s position on gay rights?
TSVANGIRAI: Look, the question of gay marriages is Zanu PF propaganda, it has nothing to do with MDC. We have said that the question of sexual orientation has nothing to do with everybody. Sexual orientation is for the individual behind their closed doors – it’s got nothing to do with everybody. And if you are talking about human rights, it then becomes an infringement on somebody’s private life and that’s not upholding human rights.
GONDA: But rights’ activists say this final draft that your party has endorsed does not actually protect their rights?
TSVANGIRAI: No, it does, it says freedom of sexual orientation is an individual rights so how else do you want it to be captured?
GONDA: And before we go Mr. Tsvangirai, your wedding is in a few days so I’d like to take this time to congratulate you, Makorokoto.
TSVANGIRAI: Thank you, I thought that is what you should have started with.(laugh)
GONDA: I thought we should end on a good note. (laughs)
TSVANGIRAI: Munoita chivanhu vanhu, munoita majerasi. (laughs)
GONDA: So what have learned, reflecting on the journey you have travelled in your personal life? What are some of the things you would want to share with your supporters in your being able to select a partner for yourself?
TSVANGIRAI: No. no, no these are personal matters, but I just want to say look, I’ve had the misfortune of losing a wife in very sad circumstances and after three years I’ve found somebody I want to marry and I’m in love with and I’m happy with and I’m moving on, on that basis. I’m not the first man to go through that experience, and that’s what I’m looking forward to - to a happy marriage again.
GONDA: What can you say to your supporters who are disappointed that you married the daughter of a man who is accused of brutalising your supporters in Chitungwiza?
TSVANGIRAI: You know, I cannot answer for aMacheka’s actions, and let me tell you one thing, when you’re going out to look for a woman, you don’t ask for a political card or you don’t ask for their parents - you look at the woman and say I love this woman. The children cannot be answerable for their parents’ sins.
GONDA: I understand some of your supporters especially from Chitungwiza actually approached the party to talk about their concerns on this matter and that’s why I’m asking for your reaction.
TSVANGIRAI: Let me tell you one thing, I don’t answer for Mr. Macheka’s misdemeanors. I don’t answer for whatever he has done, it is not justified. Whatever he has done, if people are not happy with it, then they should judge Mr. Macheka and not me. I have met my future wife in totally different circumstances and I’m happy with her. How she’s going to deal with the people of Chitungwiza who are not happy with her father, that’s a different issue. But as far as I’m concerned we have people from different political affiliations who have married across the political divide - and I can tell you the Speaker of the House his wife is the daughter of Zanu PF’s Nyoni, and we can have so many of these. These are personal matters and I’m not accountable, of course, I’m sensitive to my supporters concerns but I cannot stand and start defending something I do not know about. All I know is that I’ve met a woman, I love her and I’m moving forward. If people want to make a judgement of my leadership on that basis then we certainly cannot have that as a yard stick for measuring my leadership on that.
GONDA: You have an option of answering this question because it is your personal life as you said, but I have a duty to ask you as your public figure - given a chance to do this again or a second chance, are there things you would do differently in terms of identifying a partner and what would you avoid?
TSVANGIRAI: It doesn’t arise. I’ve found a partner. The fact that what mistakes I’ve done, whatever, life is about experience. If you were to repeat it, this is even a hypothetical question, if you were to re-live your life, there are certain things that you’d say I made a mistake here and there and you would correct - but unfortunately in life you don’t repeat life.
GONDA: Prime Minister Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai, thank you for taking time to talk to Voice of America Studio 7.
TSVANGIRAI: Alright, you’re welcome.
Feedback can be sent to vgonda@voanews.com of follow her on twitter: #violetgonda. VOA’s Studio 7: http://www.voazimbabwe.com
Labels: FREEDOM HOUSE, INTERVIEW, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, VIOLET GONDA, VOA
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MDC-T, Zanu PF trade accusations over survey
27/08/2012 00:00:00
by Violet Gonda
AN opinion poll indicating a sharp decline in support for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change formation has sparked a heated debate between the party and Zanu PF, which the survey says has gained support.
The report by Harare think-tank, the Mass Public Opinion Institute, titled Change and New Politics in Zimbabwe, shows that support for the MDC-T dropped from 38 percent in 2010 to 20 percent this year while Zanu PF’s base grew from 17 percent to 31 percent over the same period. According to the report, 47 percent of the respondents said they would not vote in the next elections or refused to indicate who they would vote for.
Voice of America’s Violet Gonda spoke to a Zanu PF Central Committee member and former Ambassador to China Chris Mutsvangwa and MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora for their perspectives on the survey findings. Gonda started by asking Ambassador Mutsvangwa for his reaction.
Mutsvangwa: Freedom House is an organization, which I have worked with for many years. I actually used to be a neighbor of them in New York. Whilst I may not agree with many of their views but they have strived to be a scientific and objective organisation with a wealth of experience.
Historically of course it used to put positions which were supportive of the MDC and the MDC used to embrace them as an objective organization. Now that the news is no longer what the MDC is expecting of them it is beginning to show their sliding popularity with the people of Zimbabwe - now they are beginning to denounce it.
It’s really a question of a boomerang effect on the MDC, which has proved to be incompetent, corrupt and generally directionless in the government of Zimbabwe. It’s a party, which has thrived on bad news. The feel bad factor is beginning to affect the MDC because it is not a party of hope it’s a party of desperation.
Gonda: Mr. Mwonzora can you come in?
Mwonzora: At no point did the MDC attack the credibility of the Freedom House. The MDC acknowledges that Freedom House is a professional body. What the MDC … (interrupted).
Mutsvangwa: … thank you. On that good note you must acknowledge the professional results Mr. Mwonzora.
Gonda: So let him finish please.
Mwonzora: Let Cde Mutsvangwa not disturb me please. What I was saying is that we have never questioned the integrity and the competence of the Freedom House. What we are saying is that the data that was gathered by Freedom House, as currently presented, does not show us whether this party is popular or not popular. This is because according to the report itself there has been massive intimidation and massive violence directed against the people of Zimbabwe.
According to the same report, of the people who were interviewed, almost half of them refused to disclose their political affiliation. Those people who refused did that for a reason and the reason is that they have been intimidated by Zanu PF. So you cannot celebrate where you are relying on the information of only half of the people that were interviewed. The report… (interrupted)
Mutsvangwa: …but with due respect Mr. Mwonzora, this study is not by Zanu PF! With due respect …
Mwonzora: Can I finish?
Gonda: Let him finish this last point and I will come to you Mr. Mutsvangwa ...
Mutsvangwa: No, because he has been speaking for a long time.
Mwonzora: I have the floor and I want to finish.
Mutsvangwa: No but you can’t be on the floor forever. You should give others a chance!
Gonda: Can you finish please Mr. Mwonzora …
Mwonzora: The second issue is that besides the number of people who did not choose their political affiliation is the fact that the people who were questioned - the report does not distinguish between rural areas and commercial farming areas… (interrupted).
Mutsvangwa: How many more seconds?
Mwonzora: … We all know that commercial farming areas are areas only Zanu PF people were resettled. So we refuse (to accept) the results coming out.
Gonda: Let me go to Mr. Mutsvangwa …
Mutsvangwa: No, No, No…
Gonda: Mr Mutsvangwa please let’s not do that handiti?
Mutsvangwa: Alright.
Mwonzora: Yes, we don’t want lawlessness on the radio please. Our people deserve better. Maku invade radio futi?
Gonda: Can I ask a question please gentlemen? Can we just calm down please?
Mutsvangwa: The lawlessness person you can hear him.
Mwonzora: (laughs)
Gonda: So Mr. Mutsvangwa the MDC is saying the survey is unreliable and that a lot of people refused to disclose their political preferences for fear of intimidation. What can you say about this?
Mutsvangwa: No I have nothing to say about that. I believe in the integrity of Freedom House. They cannot put views, which are contrary to their professionalism and basically that is what Mwonzora is trying to do. You cannot believe in Jesus and then you don’t want his gospel. So this splitting of hairs by Mr. Mwonzora is a lot of nonsense.
The real truth is that the people Zimbabwe are rapidly deserting a party, which has built its political career on Afro-pessimism - that Africans are incompetent, Africans can’t do anything, Africans need the West, Africans need God. That thing has been rejected because the people of Zimbabwe have taken a path of hope.
The Pan-Africanist ideology of Zanu PF where there say we have diamonds in Chiadzwa which we can use to pay our civil servants; the MDC says no we can rely on loans from the IMF. Now things have rebounded on them. There is electoral disaster facing this party.
Gonda: Mr. Mwonzora can you respond to this and also to criticism from other people who say that the MDC has lost touch with grassroots constituencies?
Mwonzora: People like Mutsvangwa must really be worried that there are people who refused to disclose their political affiliation. 47 percent refused to disclose their political affiliation. Why did they do that? Because of intimidation!
Those people who refused to speak because of intimidation are not your supporters. The other thing is that those people who were doing research needed first to get clearance from the president’s office in the districts. Some of them were arrested during the research, some of them were asked to submit their questionnaires …(interrupted)
Mutsvangwa: …arghh this is an attack on Freedom House! This is not… (interrupted)
Mwonzora: … the MDC is saying if Zanu PF … (interrupted)
Mutsvangwa: … I am sorry I have to defend the integrity and professionalism of Freedom House …
Mwonzora: ... If Zanu PF thinks that it is popular let’s call for free and fair elections so that the people of Zimbabwe can decide. If Zanu PF is so popular it must agree that the constitution be sent to the referendum. Right now they are disturbing the constitution. They don’t want to be subjected to the referendum because they know how the people of Zimbabwe will vote.
The people of Zimbabwe know that after the MDC entered the government their lives changed. The meaningless money that they used to have is no longer there. The people of Zimbabwe now know what is called ‘dollar for two’. It came as a result of the entry of the MDC into this government.
Gonda: Mr. Mutsvangwa what can you say though about this challenge from the MDC? They say if you are really more popular let the parties go to a referendum with this new constitution and see what the people decide?
Mutsvangwa: No! This is coming from a spineless and dishonest person who has represented very negative tendencies during the whole process of constitution making. Ask that gentleman why did they not publish the national report about their outreach program?
They went all over the country and wasted millions - but the national report, when it came out, it was contrary to the views which they thought Zimbabweans held about their party. He has refused that man. He takes a democratic initiative, takes it to the people and refuses to give people the result of that democratic initiative.
Then a coterie of them, educated by ex-Rhodesians from the (University of Zimbabwe) law faculty Mwonzora, (Eric) Matinenga (MDC), (Paul) Mangwana (Zanu PF) and a whole bunch of them write a constitution out of their own head which has nothing to do with what the people said during the outreach program and that is what they want to foist on the people of Zimbabwe. No! The constitution making process is still on, the principal parties are involved.
He is only an agent of the principals – that young man called Mwonzora – but he is now speaking like a political warlord. That is political overreaching of the worst type from a man who is very preposterous in his posturing about the constitution. Let’s not divert issues, let’s concentrate on the report of the Freedom House, an international organization which has given an objective study and for him to criticize it is being disingenuous.
GONDA: If we are to concentrate on this report what about the fear factor that has been raised in this report? The survey says many people continue to be fearful that the new elections could result in heightened levels of political violence. So this is a serious problem, so what can you say about this?
Mutsvangwa: The GNU has been good. Zimbabweans have been coming together. That Mwonzora has even been working with my wife - who is the vice co-chairperson. The Parliament people have been working together. The tension in Zimbabwe is much, much reduced. Zimbabweans are beginning to find each other so let’s continue on that constructive path.
GONDA: Yes, but you as political leaders might be doing this but it would appear that this is not the case on the ground with ordinary Zimbabweans.
Mutsvangwa: To the contrary, the political atmosphere has always been improving. There is a new sense of camaraderie among the people of Zimbabwe - even relations with traditional western powers are increasing. This is a new mood in Zimbabwe and this is the mood which is washing away the MDC to the dustbin of political history in Zimbabwe.
GONDA: Mr. Mwonzora do you agree that there is a path of optimism in the country?
Mwonzora: The report itself, which vaMutsvangwa surprisingly is marveling at, clearly tells that 47 percent of the people were afraid to disclose their political affiliation. It also says that the people of Zimbabwe are living under fear.
What we are saying as the MDC is very simple - let the people of Zimbabwe decide especially on the issue of the constitution. If we did not write what the people of Zimbabwe want it’s not for Zanu PF to speak for them.
Mutsvangwa: … So you are coming from God? Mwonzora you are coming from God, you are not coming from a political party? You are coming from God to write a constitution?
Mwonzora: … Soldiers were intimidating people who were conducting the survey. CIOs were intimidating people conducting the research. So if Zanu PF thinks it is popular let’s agree to a free and fair election in terms of the new constitution and we see what happens.
GONDA: Mr. Mwonzora how do you respond to people who say stop being defensive and instead look at the reasons why this report is saying your support is declining and work on that?
Mwonzora: We have not condemned the survey what we have simply said is that we must put sufficient weight to the fact that the people of Zimbabwe are afraid to disclose their political affiliations. That is … (interrupted)
Gonda: So if people …
Mwonzora: That is fundamental…
Gonda: Mr. Mwonzora so if you know as a party that this is the situation, that the people are afraid, this could be the situation at elections, so what is your party’s plan B?
Mwonzora: Well, firstly the fact that 47 percent of the people refused to talk should make the international community, especially SADC, very worried about the situation in Zimbabwe. But more importantly this is not a call for Zanu PF to start gloating and saying that it has got support. People who are quiet are not necessarily supporting you.
Regarding the strategies that the MDC is going to employ, you will see, come free and fair elections. MDC is simply saying its decision time for the people of Zimbabwe to decide their future in a free and fair election.
It is not true that the people of Zimbabwe favor the ZBC at the expense of radio stations like Studio 7. Almost every person in the rural areas is listening to this radio and Zanu PF spokespersons make use of Studio 7. Now all of a sudden how can ZBC be the most popular than Studio 7? How can (Attorney General) Johannes Tomana now be called a very popular and trustworthy person in Zimbabwe? That is obviously false and Zanu PF must be worried about that.
Gonda: Mr. Mutsvangwa 47 percent is a huge figure. Does this not concern you as Zanu PF?
Mutsvangwa: We are reading the report and the question of people being afraid you know that is what Freedom House (is saying) but it still has not impinged on the integrity of their findings that is why they were able to publish the report…. (interrupted)
Gonda: But I am asking you as Zanu PF. What is your party’s response to this?
Mutsvangwa: We are a scientific party. We have always done things in a scientific manner. We are very people-oriented, that is why we managed to rescue the vote away from the Rhodesians so that Mwonzora can become an MP, so that Morgan Tsvangirai can form a party called MDC…
Gonda: … Mr. Mutsvangwa I asked you a question about the 47 percent. Can you respond?
Mutsvangwa: ... Whatever positives, which are in the report, we will study them and we will use them to address the issues which are in Zimbabwe. We are never an ostrich-in-the-sand, party. We are objective. So we take note of whatever needs to be approved upon which Freedom House has said.
Gonda: How does Zanu PF hope to regain the confidence of those who are doubters or are afraid – especially the 47 percent?
Mutsvangwa: We will make sure that we will go out to the people to make them feel good about them being Zimbabwean. They are free to express themselves. We will go to look for this vote; we fought hard and died for it. They should not feel intimidated about anything.
Even in our own party-elections we are saying that there is no central imposition of leadership from the core. A political party is always evolving, what we don’t do is to reject things, which are scientific, things which are objective.
Mwonzora: The Freedom House report is confirmation of the terrorism of Zanu PF, the terrorism they have subjected the people of Zimbabwe to and we need to save the people of Zimbabwe from the Zanu PF terrorism.
For feedback e-mail Violet: violet@voanews.com or follow her on Twitter: @violetgonda
***
SOME READER'S COMMENTS:
TLN Economics Int.
The people of Zimbabwe know that after the MDC entered the government their lives changed. The meaningless money that they used to have is no longer there. The people of Zimbabwe now know what is called ‘dollar for two’. It came as a result of the entry of the MDC into this government. THESE ARE PROPER LIES, MWONZORA. FIRSTLY, YOU ARE PERFECTLY AWARE OF ZIDERA ACT 2001 (ECONOMIC SANCTIONS THAT CAUSED ECONOMIC MELTDOWN IN ZIM, SANCTIONS MWONZORA AND CO. AUTHORED AND RECOMMENDED TO THEIR WESTERN PARTNERS TO IMPLEMENT AGAINST THE WHOLE PEOPLE OF ZIM. SECONDLY, DOLLARISATION REGIME WAS MUTED BY ZANU PF JUST PRIOR TO GNU IN 2009. DOLLARISATION POLICY ADOPTED TO MITIGATE THE RUTHLESS EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC SANCTIONS. AND YOU KNOW MWONZORA, "THE BEAUTY OF TIME AND TRUTH", RINE MANYANGA HARIPUTIRWI, WIKILEAKS AND EVEN MORGAN AS WELL AS BITI, HAVE CATEGORICALLY CONFIRMED THE EXISTENCE OF ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AND THIS IS THE MAIN REASON WHY ELECTORATE SUPPORT HAS FUNDAMENTALLY DIMINISHED FROM 38% TO 20%, THE TRUTH HAS AND STILL COMING OUT ABOUT THE CALLOUSNESS OF MDC TO THE PEOPLE OF ZIM. THE PPLE OF ZIM SUFFERED IMMENSELY AS A RESULT OF EXISTENCE OF MDC AND THE PPLE ARE DESSERTING. FREEDOM HOUSE.
Zimbolove
The report is on the internet for all to read. MDC is lying, period. There is no where in the report where fear is a factor in the 47% not voting. I quote from page 5 of the report :"It is essential to bear in mind that a total of 47% of the respondents did not declare their voting intention in this 2012 survey. The percentage includes those who declared their vote to be their secret. Analyses in the rest of the report show that this undeclared category does not veil a systematic party orientation. Rather, should these persons vote in a next election, their support is likely to be diffused across party categories"
Further, it should be noted that the survey as you read through the report was checking for pulse between MDC and ZanuPF only. The other choices that existed include, All Others and My vote is my secret. the poll further observes that "The 47 strong grouping of undeclared support, specifically those who say ‘my vote is mysecret’, is a demographic hybrid of the characteristics of the MDC-T and ZANU-PF. Theundeclareds there do not systematically resemble a specific party." So no, the MDC cannot claim the 47% as theirs. They could easily belong to NewDawn Mavambo, MDC-N, MDC-99 or simply voter apathy. No party can lay claim to the 47%. So MDC better get off their high horse and face reality. They should stop thinking they are as popular as in 1999.
The 47 strong grouping of undeclared support, specifically those who say ‘my vote is my secret’, is a demographic hybrid of the characteristics of the MDC-T and ZANU-PF. The undeclareds there do not systematically resemble a specific party." So no, the MDC cannot claim the 47% as theirs. They could easily belong to NewDawn Mavambo, MDC-N, MDC-99 or simply voter apathy. No party can lay claim to the 47%. So MDC better get off their high horse and face reality. They should stop thinking they are as popular as in 1999.
RudeChikala
The independent media report that MDC officials revealed to them that Mdc leadership held an emergency meeting to discuss the The Freedom House survey findings & party leader Tsvangirai was not amused by the party’s information chiefs who ran into denying the genuineness of the report instead of spinning the contents of the outcome to the party’s advantage.
“Tsvangirai took Mwonzora to task for opposing the contents of the report when in the past the party has never had problems with reports by the same institution which came in the party’s favour. Tsvangirai feels Mwonzora ran into shooting the messenger who was delivering bad news to the party,” said the source in reference to the survey.
It is therefore very easy to see how Mwonzora is attempting to follow the new instruction that he should spin the contents of the outcome to the party’s advantage.
However, the report emphasizes the 37% to 20% drop in numbers supporting the Mdc.
This is totally very different to the 47% sample he is choosing to bark about.
If we take away the 47% & just focus on his party's 17% drop in support during the same period ZanuPF gained 18%, you then begin to see the spin in Dougy's nonsense..
A 17% drop in his party's popularity has absolutely nothing to do with the 47% of people who kept silent.
Only an idiot will not see this **And i must admit that Chris Mutsvangwa was foolish in failing to notice this straight forward & simple fact & in turn wasted an opportunity to highlight it in this silly interview!!
Labels: CHRIS MUTSVANGA, DOUGLAS MWONZORA, FREEDOM HOUSE, VIOLET GONDA, VOA
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Tracy Mutinhiri joins MDC-T
09/05/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
THE former Labour and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Tracy Mutinhiri has joined the MDC-T following her expulsion from Zanu PF and later government in September last year. Mutinhiri announced on Wednesday she had joined the MDC-T, citing
a “calling to work for my country”.“Yes it is true that I have now officially joined the MDC-T. People are born with gifts and one of my gifts is a calling to work for my country, and when I was in Zanu PF I was doing it with all my heart and unfortunately they decided to expel me,” Mutinhiri said.
“That calling is still in me and I decided to move on to another progressive party to do my work that I am called to do and that is to work for my country.”
Mutinhiri had her Marondera East parliamentary whip withdrawn following her expulsion on charges, ironically, that she was working with the MDC-T and undermining her party’s programmes.
Tracy, the ex-wife of Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri and mother to Big Brother star Vimbai, insists that the expulsion was unwarranted.
“I was in an inclusive government, and I was working as a professional. Working as a professional is to work with everybody and on that point I was misunderstood,” she told the Voice of America’s Studio 7.
Labels: MDC, VOA
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COMMENT - I guess Violet Gonda of the VOA (CIA) isn't allowed to do a positive interview with anyone from the ZANU-PF. So much for the 'free press'.
MDC-T denies corruption, defends record
12/02/2012 00:00:00
by Violet Gonda I VOA
TENSIONS are mounting between the Minister of Local Government, Ignatius Chombo, and councils controlled by the Movement for Democratic Change over local authority management as delivery of key services slumps nationwide. Deteriorating infrastructure, disintegrating roads and broken-down water and sewer systems have hampered normal municipal operations.
The MDC formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai has accused Chombo of meddling in council business in many municipalities, and of attempting to sack and replace councilors with Zanu PF officials under the guise of special interests.
Chombo says he is doing his job by firing errant councilors from the former opposition MDC, citing poor performance and corruption. He suspended scores of councilors last year including the mayors of Bindura and Chinhoyi. In January he suspended one of his most outspoken adversaries, Mutare mayor Brain James, alleging misconduct, an accusation James rejects.
In parliament, a motion has been tabled proposing to amend the Urban Councils Act to reduce the powers of the controversial minister.
For perspective on this widespread dispute, Voice of America reporter Violet Gonda spoke with deputy local government minister Cecil Zvidzai of the MDC and Former president Gerry Gotora of the Association of Rural District Councils of Zimbabwe:
Zvidzai: There is no disaster in this country at local government level. Services are forever improving and the councils have done so well in terms of improving the delivery of portable water, in terms of improving refuse management, in terms of solid waste management. All that has improved, and the index to measure that is around the cholera pandemic. In 2008-9 we lost lives due to cholera and this is associated with poor water and sanitation.
Our local authorities have improved significantly. You have not seen any major strike in the local authorities because they are very consultative, they involve the people and the people are generally happy with the ever-improving levels of services they enjoy, which are improving with the emerging economy.
The problem we have got is political. The problem is serious interference, the abuse of the law by the minister to score a few political points – as a result of a disappointment that they lost at the plebiscite in 2008. Zanu PF lost all urban local authorities. But the minister wants to reverse the desires of the people through the use of administrative powers to remove MDC councilors and replace them with Zanu PF functionaries.
GONDA: Mr. Gotora is this a correct assessment of the local government?
GOTORA: It is not a fair assessment particularly when it is coming from a former mayor of a city (Gweru) that was very well planned and that was very clean at some stage – which today looks like it has never been cleaned at all. The problem in local government right now is that people politicize refuse removal; people politicize water delivery just because my political party has won therefore nobody should touch them.
Let me take you to the beginning – all new councilors require training and it not the responsibility only of government to train people in local government. The association, which I led for more than 20 years, was doing fantastic training and that is no longer there because the association appears to have no leadership at all because they are politicizing it.
Furthermore, the issue of non-demonstrations in urban areas does not mean that people are satisfied. Zimbabweans are civilized people.
It’s unfortunate that the deputy minister is speaking like he is speaking from a political party office. The removal of solid waste in the country at the moment is probably at its worst. There are dumps and dumps of rubbish – even in First Street in Harare, which you never used to see. If you go to the mayor’s office- right in from of the mayor’s office in Gweru – which Mr. Zvidzai was proud of he cannot tell me the current mayor is proud of that.
The councilors need training, the councilors need guidance, the councilors need financing – this is what Mr. Zvidzai should be talking about, that we need to finance these councilors so that they perform better.
Corruption is at its highest because I know of some deputy mayor who had no house in Zimbabwe but now he is living in a double story mansion in a very expensive suburb in Harare. Where did he suddenly get the money? Some of the councilors didn’t even have an Anglia car but now they are moving in Range Rovers and 4x4s - and people say there is no corruption?
I was in local government for more than 40 years but I don’t have anything to show for it. I don’t even have a stand in rural township because councilors then were clean, they were not power hungry and they were not there to deliver benefits to themselves but to deliver services to the people.
Any mayor or councilor worth his salt should not suddenly become a billionaire in terms of acquiring properties. No that’s wrong.
GONDA: Let me get a response from Mr. Zvidzai. Mr. Gotora says - the situation is deteriorating and corruption is rife. What does it say about the MDC operations when all the councilors are from the MDC?
ZVIDZAI: Well I don’t know where my colleague is living. If he lives in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare or Gweru he should be the first one to admit that the emerging economy has with it carried an improvement in services. With respect to corruption, let me say that from a statistical point of view, from a study of these numbers and the behavior of people - there is what is called the Pareto Principal – 20 percent of any normal population is abnormal.
So what I am saying is that 20 percent of randomly elected councilors may be corrupt –maybe out of the normal – so it’s fairly normal if it is about 20 percent. In our case, the Minister of Local Government uses the sternest test, the un-fairest measures against these councilors and to date he has suspended 12 councilors out of a total of 800 councilors.
When these councilors challenged the minister’s decision in the High Court, six were found not guilty at all, which means six out of 800 is less than two percent. So it’s not numbers that you have to write to the moon about to say Zimbabwe is decaying under corruption. They are simply being tested very un-fairly and the propaganda machinery has been set in motion in the strongest way to rubbish the MDC rather than to tell the truth – but the truth of the matter is that services are improving, corruption is not that high compared to the past but it’s just the measurements that are unfair.
GONDA: Mr. Gotora what can you say … (interrupted)
GOTORA: If I happened to be Minister of Local Government tomorrow I would dissolve most of the councils. Our current Vice President when he was Minister of Local Government he dissolved 12 local authorities in the country – that’s 12. There was no opposition councilor, it was coming from the same party but he dissolved them because of poor performance.
Minister Chombo has been very lenient with these councilors because he is afraid of being labeled anti a particular political party. If I were the minister, I’d dissolve them all because they have performed poorly!
If he says it is normal to have 20 percent of corrupt people I don’t know which world he lives in. As Zimbabweans we don’t entertain even 0.02 percent of corrupt practices. Yes corruption is there and we must get rid of it. Minister Chombo has actually been slow in nipping this cancer in its bud. The councilors who are there today are the worst crop of councilors because I am an experienced councilor, I am a leader of local government, I am practitioner by profession not by politics, not by election but by profession. These people have failed and they must go like yesterday!
GONDA: But Mr. Gotora is it really only about poor performance by the councilors or it’s also about serious interference by the minister?
GOTORA: The law as it stands today, when I was in local government and when I was a leader of the local authorities in this country I suggested that either we have 46 amendments to the local government laws, and Mr. Zvidzai supported me at that time, but since he has been in government he has not said a word about those changes.
The current parliament which is almost more MDC than ZANU PF no one has said a word about coming up with a new local government law or the 46 amendments which I suggested some seven years ago. For them to start blaming Minister Chombo when he is using the law as it is obtaining today that’s unfair.
So it is the parliamentarians who are wrong, they must change the law not a single minister. We have what are called ‘members amendments’ or ‘members motions’ in parliament but I have not heard a members motion talking about introducing the local government law or talking about amending certain sections of the law, but when the minister uses law people say he is wrong and if he doesn’t use the law people say there is no rule of law. I don’t know what kind of world we are living in.
GONDA: Mr. Zvidzai what can you say about this?
ZVIDZAI: I can see that my eminent colleague who I largely agreed with so much with respect to law reform is a little bit outdated. At the moment if he goes to the government gazette he will see that a bill has been gazetted to reduce the powers of the minister and strengthen the powers of councils because the biggest problem - the abuse of a law that is already bad is what’s happening. The minister… (interrupted)
GOTORA: If there is an amendment let there be an amendment but for now he must be allowed to use the law as it obtains.
GONDA: Mr. Gotora please let the deputy minister finish.
ZVIDZAI: The portfolio committee on local government, which comprises Zanu PF and the MDC, has agreed that the biggest problem is the abuse of the law and they want to tighten it so that the minister cannot abuse it for his political ends. This is why this law has been gazetted and it has actually been promoted by the local government portfolio committee not even MDC – we are all, as a nation, agreed that this law is being abused.
GONDA: What about the issues Mr. Gotora raised that the minister has been very lenient with the MDC councilors who he says were dismissed because of poor performance.
ZVIDZAI: Well I have suffered at the hands of the minister when I was Mayor of Gweru. I was investigated once every year for four years although the minister knew there was nothing I was doing wrong. Similarly at the moment he is busy harassing these mayors and he is busy rescinding resolutions, he is busy stopping them from making decisions effectively to deliver to the people. Minister Chombo is on an agenda to cause the councils to fail so that he can point at these councilors and say they are not educated, they are from the MDC.
When the truth of the matter is that he is just being political. It’s not coincidental that he has upped the tempo during an election year. Recent dismals include the Mayor of Chinhoyi, the Mayor of Mutare and the Chairman of Zvishavane. It’s not coincidental it’s about election thinking, it’s not about the people it’s about power, power, power – that’s the paradigm.
Labels: IGNATIUS CHOMBO, MDC CORRUPTION, VIOLET GONDA, VOA
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