When the AU was formed in 2002 as a successor of the OAU, one of its main objectives was to achieve peace and security in Africa and to promote democratic institutions, good governance and human rights. It was also going to promote and defend common African positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples.

The Zimbabwe crisis is just the latest indication of why we must place no confidence in the ability of either the AU or its young brother SADC to handle regional problems as well as sail this continent onto the path of development. Their inaction on Zimbabwe is shocking and appalling to say the least and it smacks of both lack of will and incompetence.

Mugabe derives his spunk from the indifference and silent support of his peers. Ejecting him from the AU and verbally condemning his actions would probably have made some difference in his behavior or at least lessened his confidence. But only a few leaders like the late Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa, Botswana’s new President, Seretse Khama Ian Khama and lately, Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Odinga have dared to be vocal about Mugabe’s self-imposed government and have even called for his and Zimbabwe’s suspension from the AU. The rest of the whiteheads especially in SADC have been inexplicably maintaining what Odinga calls a “diabolical conspiracy of silence bound by personal misdeeds and complicity in refusing to condemn their neighbors,” especially Mugabe. The same culture of impunity is what nurtured the excesses of the continent’s infamous dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko of the DRC and Uganda’s heartless Idi Amin under the banner of predecessor OAU’s founding principle of respect for national sovereignty.

In trying to understand why the AU and the SADC are toothless bulldogs barking endlessly from the periphery, Odinga postulates that African leaders are an old dictators’ club that have an inherent fear of criticizing each other. This is because, as Mugabe so rightly put it at the Sharm el Shaik, Egypt AU summit, they too have skeletons rattling in their closets.

It is thus not surprising that the AU has failed to put the people of Zimbabwe first and to stand up for democracy. In an ironic joint statement, the AU/SADC pledged “As guarantors of the implementation of the agreement, both AU and SADC will spare no effort in supporting its full and effective implementation.” What have these two organs done in the face of Mugabe’s latest unilateral declaration of cabinet? Again, as was the case in Kenya, the party that should have rightly taken over power is being forced by regional pressure to concede to an increasingly unworkable compromise deal and endless mediation processes by an inefficient go-between who insists on a concept of quiet diplomacy that only he understands. Recently, in response to a legal application filed against it by the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum two months ago, SADC has for the first time acknowledged that Mugabe should not be recognized as a legitimate head of state. But the organization rejected the demand to refuse to allow Mugabe and his government to participate in future SADC activities. Its excuse was that former South African President Thabo Mbeki, the SADC appointed mediator, was able to facilitate a power sharing deal to end Zimbabwe’s political crisis.

What ‘African’ common position are the AU/SADC defending when they fail to condemn errant dictators who hold whole starving nations to ransom in order to protect selfish interests?

In its thirty-nine year history, the OAU could only be judged as an abysmal failure. It failed to challenge any major dictator on the continent and stood idle while civil wars, ethnic conflicts, poverty and disease ravaged ordinary Africans. Its only success was in preserving the notion of sovereign borders in Africa. Wole Soyinka once described it as a “collaborative club of perpetual self-preservation.” The AU is the new OAU under a different name: its membership is the same and there are no new institutions to suggest that it will be any more effective or less selfish than its predecessor.

As a pan-African organization, the AU must be willing to stand up to African dictators and military rulers that have been the real causes of bloodshed and poverty on the continent. So far the AU has failed in this mission: Mugabe is still a revered charter member of the AU and it has failed to recognize Morgan Tsvangirai as the country’s rightful elected leader. If we start to question the complacency of the AU, we start to ask, why was it tolerable that a tyrant lost an election, imprisoned, killed and molested those who dared oppose him, then proceeded to reelect himself to the presidium, and no action was taken?

The AU has failed the people of Zimbabwe by its unwillingness to deal effectively with the political crisis that was single-handedly constructed by one dictator. For months they have insisted on mediation and dialogue when decisive action has been called for. The AU has failed too often or remained inert when it should have acted, and its internal procedures are often agonizingly inadequate for the challenges it faces in problem countries. For far too long, and with immensely destructive consequences, the AU has downplayed the dimensions of crises in various African countries and the urgency of large-scale humanitarian intervention. This is particularly true of the situation in Africa’s largest country, Sudan with the longstanding and ongoing conflict in Darfur that stretches as far back as 2003. Look also how dictators recently bulldozed their way into leadership in Kenya.

The AU has only been good at issuing statements. The AU’s fine words at the moment are little consolation to Zimbabwe’s hungry, oppressed people. Once more, like its predecessor, the AU is set to fail the people of Africa.

Along with roughly 500 others, I attended the SAfAIDS/ZAN meeting at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC). The regional meeting provided feedback form the International AIDS Conference held in Mexico in August 2008. In addition to 14 plenary speakers and a poster exhibition at HICC, there were six thematic breakaway sessions (children; women and gender; clinical research; PLHIV; youth; faith-based responses; workplace programmes). Across the breakaway sessions, 23 individual presentations were on the agenda, and as I understand it, each was a repeat performance of a presentation given in Mexico. I’m not sure what to make of the notion that at least 23 Zimbabweans were in Mexico – Is that excessive? Is that insufficient? I don’t know.

In any event, I attended the women and gender session and was intrigued by a comment regarding a non-Zimbabwean paper presented in Mexico which compared adult HIV prevalence data with gender gap data. Intrigued by what comparing the data reveals, and perhaps more intrigued by the way the comment seemed to encourage the audience to feel threatened by the comparison. Read more

Over the weekend I waltzed into some of Gono’s FOLIWARS (Foreign Exchange Licensed Warehouses and Retail Shops) at Fife Avenue. It was a sight I had not seen for close to a year. Shelves were overflowing with goods. Cooking oil sat gracefully among other basic commodities that have been scarce and the shops were brimming with cheery shoppers. There was also the unmistakable smell of freshly baked confectionery wafting in the air from laden breadbaskets, an unusual occurrence. All looked rosy until I reached the back of one supermarket where there were lots of empty or near empty shelves. This was the Zimbabwean dollar section and it hardly had any basic commodities one needs to purchase for a household. There was a lot of cleaning things, overpriced chocolates and kapenta, all locally manufactured. One of the conditions for operating a FOLIWAR is to sell all locally manufactured goods in Zimbabwean dollars. This in principle is meant to cushion ‘vulnerable’ members of society to enable them to access basic commodities.

Already one particular supermarket at this shopping center was flouting the regulations. Mazoe orange crush, famously manufactured in Zimbabwe and widely exported to neighboring countries, was being sold for US$2,50.

FOLIWARS have achieved the desired effect, i.e ostensibly to help improve availability of goods on the market. However, there are some flaws in this latest policy that have seen the central bank once again fail to protect the consumer.

It seems most retailers suffer from the overcharging syndrome. Used to working with billions and trillions, they are overcharging the goods being sold in US dollars. Most of them are too expensive even by American standards. You find something you’d expect to cost less than a dollar pegged at thrice the price simply because the price looks or sounds too little, even if it is not in exchange rate terms.

The NIPC Chairman, Mr Goodwills Masimirembwa attempted to excuse this problem saying that unlike other countries, Zimbabwe is not manufacturing the goods hence it is inevitable for them to be more expensive, especially when transport costs and other mark-ups have been factored in. True, but how does he explain the locally manufactured orange crush being sold in US dollars?

On the other hand, under Gono’s system, some goods will perpetually be in short supply as there will be no incentive for people to make them available for purchase in the increasingly depreciating Zimbabwean dollar. Artificial shortages will continue, while the locally manufactured goods will be widely available on the black-market for purchase in the Rand or USD. It will also mean FOLIWARS will shun local goods in favor of imports in order to get around the regulations of charging in Zimbabwean dollars. This probably explains why the Zimbabwean dollar sections of most supermarkets have next to nothing on the shelves. The few goods found on these shelves are obviously at the RTGS cost, despite the fact that Gono scrapped that system. Else, how is it possible to explain a piece of chocolate that costs half a million revalued Zimbabwean dollars?

The empty Zim dollar shelves will mean that the street corner vegetable vendor or the grandmother from Dotito who has never seen the US dollar in her entire life will continue to struggle to purchase basic goods available on the black-market at prohibitive costs in Zimbabwean dollars.

Then there is the issue of change. If there is anyone paying a higher price for this dollarization, it is the tellers operating the forex tills in the supermarkets. Somebody purchases a product for $4,75. They demand their 25 cents change, even if they themselves have never seen what 25US cents look like. As a result the teller embarks on the grueling task of haggling with the customer. Often, the customer settles for a compromise seeing them either leave their change behind or purchasing something else they didn’t even want. As a result the ‘forex’ queues, though short take longer to move as the tellers haggle over change with each customer for at least five minutes. Most rude customers do not spare a thought for the poor exhausted teller who is underpaid in Zim dollars anyway. At the end of the day one wonders, why don’t they just round of the prices? I mean, if customers are still going to leave their few precious cents, why not save everyone the hassle? Obviously retailers have ways of reaching a final price for a product, but the mere fact that they are now charging in USD reflects an abnormal situation, they may as well employ the Mickey Mouse economics we are used to and just round off prices of goods. Some FOLIWARS have resorted to putting up notices informing customers that they can only purchase goods for $50 and above. Unfair but it works.

Another thing is that the forex craze has silently sanctioned the use of foreign currency in many quarters of the economy. Landlords are now unashamedly and openly demanding rentals in forex, and those who initially did not charge their tenants as such have joined the bandwagon. Dollarization has set a bad precedent and everyone will soon be demanding payment in that form in whatever transaction.

At the advent of the FOLIWARS, the RBZ governor was widely criticized and in several places, calls were made that civil servants must therefore be remunerated in foreign currency. Most were sure the policy would not be sustainable, given that most people do not earn their salaries in forex. However, despite earlier skepticism, ‘forex shops’ like Shoppa Stoppa are suddenly attracting so many customers that by 6pm, long queues are still outside their walls. It is surprising how a lot of ordinary folk actually possess US dollars. As much as one US dollar is not little money in exchange rate terms, many shoppers are hoarding whatever goods they can lay their hands on. The panic buyer mentality has not dissipated a bit even with the reassurance that products are bound to be widely available now that a more stable currency is in use.

It will be a long time yet before Zimbabweans have faith in this economy and its ability to meet the entire consumer’s needs.

Since the signing of the historic power sharing deal between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations, most Zimbabweans have been waiting for the unknown and uncertain like a pregnant woman. A pregnant woman is under constant worry about whether or not she will deliver a normal healthy baby. She is also concerned with the risks of miscarriage and still births both which are probable dangers during pregnancy.  Zimbabweans have grown to be anxious about whether the deal will work or not and most of them have been cautious of the deal.

When looking at the whole gestation period, that is the negotiation process, one realises that the period has been a painful, tiring and difficult one. The way the negotiation process has been progressing can be compared to a pregnant woman suffering serious complications due to the pregnancy. The complications surrounding the negotiations can be seen as a cue of the struggles and challenges people of Zimbabwe are likely to face as a result of the signed agreement. There have been a couple of deadlocks recently on the allocation of ministries and Mugabe is not yielding on the governors and nothing has been said on the allocation of ambassadorial posts.  There is still no common ground from the party leaders and one is left to wonder how the government of national unity is going to function. There are serious ideological differences between the two parties which makes it practically impossible to believe in the capacity of the GNU to deliver people of Zimbabwe from the mire that they are in. Tsvangirai who won the 2008 March harmonised elections is still Mugabe’s junior partner or a junior brother, he still reports to Mugabe and Mugabe does not necessarily report to anyone. He still enjoys a high degree of autonomy.

The pregnant Zimbabwe will give birth to a Down syndrome baby, a baby without the capability to function or do anything for itself. . All the expectations and hope will be replaced by disillusionment, misery and pain and the people of Zimbabwe will continue to live in dire straits.

The Olympics this year opened to a salubrious and illustrious Beijing on the 8th of August. No one would have guessed that under all that glitz China had earlier cordoned off all slum areas and dwellings of the poor by erecting great colorful walls to hide the eyesores. Undesirables in the form of migrant workers were given forced leave and Beijing’s Olympic chief ordered a “social cleansing” operation to clear the city of beggars, hawkers and prostitutes before the arrival of Olympic tourists. If this was the best way of dealing with the ‘undesirables’ for China, then it is no wonder that President Hu is one of Mugabe’s best friends. They have a lot in common.

This time four years ago in 2005, over 700 thousand people lost what they called home to bulldozers under Mugabe’s directive to ‘drive out filth’ and pull down all illegal structures. Among them were mostly women and children who had to bear the brunt of the cold at the onset of winter. Four years later, despite the government’s cursory attempt to provide new accommodation for them, a majority still do not have a decent roof over their heads in comparison to what they had before the government waged a war on them. The concept behind Murambatsvina was to stop disorderly urbanization in the form of shacks and other structures that were being constructed illegally all over the country.  Madam Tibaijuka’s controversial report revealed that most of the unsightly ‘shacks’ were actually brick and cement extensions that were quite neat and actually habitable. If deemed illegal they should have just attracted some sort of fine rather than being pulled them down rendering poor citizens homeless.

The late Hon Chen Chimutengwende, then Minister of State and Interactive Affairs in the Office of the President and Cabinet said in an August 2005 press statement: “Indeed some people were pained by Operation Murambatsvina.  It must also be noted that change and development is usually a painful process.  But happily for them, Murambatsvina is turning to be a blessing in disguise.  It is linked to Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle which will provide houses, vendor marts and factory shells.”

Indeed some funny little houses were built in segregated areas around Hatcliff and towards the airport in Harare, as well as Killarney and Cowdray Park in Bulawayo. It is no secret that these small houses are not enough to cater for all the victims of the ‘tsunami’ of 2005. Needless to say, there haven’t been any new vendor marts constructed, and the streets of Harare are littered with hawkers peddling their wares across the ankles of pedestrians on the pavements. The truth is they are an even worse off now compared to when they used to operate from places like the charge office and other centralized venues.

Early this year, following the March harmonized election, militias terrorized citizens especially in the rural areas in order to cow them into voting for Zanu PF in the run-off. Homes of perceived and genuine ‘opposition’ supporters were razed as a form of punishment for ‘voting wrongly’ in the previous election. Most of the victims were forcibly displaced or killed.

The theme of World Habitat Day this year is Harmonious Cities. The theme seeks to remind people that a world that urbanizes cannot claim to be harmonious while others remain impoverished and marginalized. In Zimbabwe this day will be commemorated while we remember the plight of internally displaced people who lost their homes in the wakes of both Murambatsvina and the post election violence after the March and June elections this year.

Is there any hope of living in a harmonized city when one’s house risks being torched for one’s divergent political inclination or for simply not fitting into the image that government seeks?

One of the many challenges for the interim government to address is an audit of the allocation of land as well as the compensation for those affected by Murambatsvina and post 2008 election violence. They must also ensure efficient water reticulation in the face of the cholera outbreak as well as improved general local service delivery before we can begin to talk of harmonized cities in Zimbabwe.

Well, I do not know about you, but I have almost completely moved outside the Zanu PF economy. Of course, there is no point being in it. I cannot make it work, it does not work for me (nor anyone else it seems), nor does it even work for Zanu PF. And it is like voting. A bit of ‘voting with your feet,’ but I can do it without leaving. I can select the regime I want to be in, and I want to be in one that works.

And it is no longer foreign currency – it is now a local currency for working markets. The US dollar economy is the one that seems to work. You can sell goods and services in it, and buy goods and services in it. Work on a budget. Save. All those things we used to do, before they destroyed our medium of exchange by printing.

From the most basic economy, a barter economy, – you swap this or that you do not need for that which you do. Next step up, the introduction of a ‘medium of exchange’. You can then swap what you do not need for this currency device, and use this currency device to swap for stuff you do need later. The medium of exchange still has enough value, and retains it’s value for long enough, to make the bigger deal (what you did not need, for what you do need) viable after more than five hours. This ‘medium of exchange’, the Zanu PF dollar, is no longer that instrument. However, the USD is – or Rands will work too, or Yuan, Yen, Metcais, Pula, Kwacha, Pounds etc, just the USD we all know. And know it’s value.

So Zanu PF is now trying to control this economy. Despite our ‘sovereignty’. They are licensing US$ shops. (They even tried to license power generators in US$.) And of course they have to control it. The whole point of power, (which they are clinging to tenaciously) is to make money. So what is the point of controlling the counter, when everything happens under the counter? Moreover, a government must live in a budget. It collects revenue, from its citizens (tax) and in exchange provides them with services. The City government collects rates and takes away our refuse and provides roads with no potholes. A national government collects taxes (income, corporate, VAT, etc) and provides security (cross border – the ZNA, internal, the ZRP), water, education, health, passports etc. However, this local national government has destroyed the economy, therefore they have no tax base, therefore they provide no services.

Specifically, they cannot pay the Army. So they do it by printing more money, convincing the soldiers that it is a ‘medium of exchange’, so the guys with guns do not use them against their employers. Simple. However, it cannot last forever. The bubble will burst. The soldiers will realize that they are not really getting paid, but are working as Zanu PF volunteers.

However, for the rest of us (who do not have civil service jobs), the USD economy works. The main problem being cash. (Sounds like the Zanu PF one!) Getting enough cash for day-to-day transactions. Small bills for making change. Etc. But everyone has it. Gardeners and maids are getting paid in it (and very happy to be too). You can buy vegetables from the street vendors with it. Telephone top up cards. Everything you need to buy: meat, drinks, bread, milk, pet food, fuel, dinning out, movies, club subscriptions, books, paintings, etc is done in real money. A real medium of exchange.

You cannot put USD in a bank (for safe keeping) but then the bank is just a black hole anyway. I think I have about three accounts with there different institutions but there is nothing really there. Just Zanu PF money, and the figures are meaningless. 19 trillion times 57 billion at a rate of 63 gadzillion to 100 times nothing is 145 billion, million, trillion nothings.