Is it just me, or do other people read the MDC’s recent press statement entitled “MDC condemns grab of Meikles assets”, with deep cynicism?

Peta Thornycroft, writing for IOL said:

Zimbabwe’s government has effectively expropriated the country’s largest public company, Kingdom Meikles Africa Ltd, under a much criticised so-called anti-corruption law.

Kingdom Meikles was “specified” last Friday in the Government Gazette under the “Prevention of Corruption Act”

This means the company, also listed in London, and all its subsidiaries cannot make any transactions without the approval of an investigator appointed by the government to examine allegations of corruption.

The group represents hundreds of indigenous investors and employs thousands of Zimbabweans.

The specification law was established by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF administration, but the action against the Kingdom Meikles group was, surprisingly, endorsed by the Movement for Democratic Change’s co-minister of home affairs, Giles Mutsekwa.

The “specification” order in the Government Gazette was signed by the two ministers, Zanu-PF’s Kembo Mohadi and Mutsekwa.

The MDC’s press statement, in response to this action says:

The MDC condemns the inclusive government’s mafia-style grab of the assets of the Stock Exchange-listed Kingdom Meikles Limited group of companies.

We urge the inclusive government to be serious in creating an atmosphere of confidence, investment and goodwill. No serious investor will pour in their money in an economy where a government can grab their assets in the wink of an eye. Seizing people’s assets is inimical to investment, economic growth and development.

The co-Ministers of Home Affairs Hon Kembo Mohadi and Hon Giles Mutsekwa have more pressing issues to attend to than seizing the assets of private companies. Zimbabweans want to see a professional police force that enforces the rule of law without fear or favour. They want to see perpetrators of violence brought to book. They want to see a corrupt-free police force which professionally discharges its duties. These are the issues that must grab the attention of the ministers rather than the unbridled pursuit of private property.

The MDC is a party of excellence. We believe in delivering real change to the people of Zimbabwe. We believe in restoring people’s dignity, security, prosperity and basic freedoms. We want to give the nation hope for a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning.

The MDC make it sound like:
a) they’re not a major partner in the inclusive government
b) Giles Mutsekwa doesn’t hold a senior position – Secretary for Security & Intelligence – within their party

Come on! They are and he is.

One of the major problems with this inclusive government is a complete lack of transparency. What are we to make of politicians who earlier criticized the perks of the political elite, only to grab them for themselves at the first opportunity offered? Politicians who beat each other up at election time then go drinking and making business deals together in between elections.

The MDC can’t have it both ways. Either they are part of this stillborn beast called the inclusive government – and accept responsibility for its actions – or they are not, and they extricate themselves from it before it consumes them boots and all.

Here I am in Doha, Qatar with my jacket on inside a spectacular building on the Carnegie Mellon campus. I’m seated amongst hundreds of others listening to elevator music whilst we wait for Bill Gates to give his keynote address to the ICTD 2009 participants.

This gathering has brought academics, inventors, practitioners, entrepreneurs, media, local business and royalty together to talk tech and development. Thanks to contributions from a variety of sponsors including IDRC, Qatar Telecom, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, IBM and the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science a large number of us have had travel and accommodation costs paid to facilitate our attendance.

Freedom Fone has been allocated a demo space at the venue which has been a great opportunity to share our ideas, motivation and passion for do it yourself interactive voice response deployment with visitors and participants to the conference. Although still in its alpha version, our demo software provides a useful visual and audio experience to help people understand what we’re doing and where we’re headed.

Freedom Fone demo ICTD009, Doha

Postscript: Bill Gates was scheduled to visit the demo stands after his address but was sadly whisked away behind the scenes by the royal queen sitting in the front row!

Elenah died from an AIDS related illness in about June 2008, leaving her young son an orphan in Harare. Estranged from her family Elenah had survived for many years on handouts from people  – I was one of them.

Elenah was infuriating. She refused to seek assistance from her extended family and told countless lies in an effort to get money from me. Her son was a quick study.

Regardless, I was sad to hear that Elenah had died and was concerned about what would become of her son. It wasn’t long before a young, ragged uncle arrived at my door with Joseph, hoping to pick up where Elenah had left off. I was having none of it and decided to dig a little deeper to find out what alternatives there were for the little guy.

With a little help from a social worker affiliated with SOS Children’s Village I eventually tracked down Freddy – Elenah’s half-brother and a thoroughly decent man.

Freddy and his wife agreed to take their half-nephew into their family in spite of their own financial challenges and limited ‘floor-space’.

Over these months I’ve done my best to help Freddy with some of the expenses involved in caring for another child. 2008 and 2009 will surely go down as the most expensive and challenging years in a long time in Zimbabwe. Freddy and his wife have clearly battled to keep food on the table and the wolf (and cholera) from the door.

Late last week I met with Freddy to discuss costs and, as can be expected, he tried a couple of tacks to see if I was good for any additional assistance.  I was unable to help with a couple of his requests but it was his last that had potential. Freddy is a diesel plant mechanic so you will possibly understand why I wasn’t prepared for what followed. In spite of all the inherent hardships involved in his life, Freddy has time to write music and lead a jazz band!

He invited me to join his band and help him with its costs. Very creative – only problem is I’m musically challenged unlike other members of my family.

He owns his guitar but needs money to hire and transport equipment to a venue to practise with his band. He would like to own normal band stuff – instruments, amplifier etc. And of course, he would like to be recorded.

What we’ve agreed is that Freddy will spend the next month practising with his band in preparation for an informal recording by my colleagues at Kubatana in early April. We’ll record them in action in Mufakose and hope that they’re good so that we can put together a demo CD to launch them!

I have to agree with Bev. Mugabe’s motorcade and aggressive outriders have been more than an irritant in our lives all these years. To consider yet another motorcade for another chef is a dreadful thought.

We expect the MDC to come up with creative solutions to address the havoc wrought on our nation by years of unrestrained Zanu(PF) excess – not a tit for tat wrestling for privileges.

Tendai Biti should have used this very sad incident to highlight the need to: rehabilitate our roads; reform, retrain and properly remunerate the police force; restore law and order to our country and a sense of community and social responsibility in all of us.

Susan’s death is a tragedy – but no more or less of a tragedy than those lives lost prematurely in other accidents on the roads this year.

Come on MDC, step up to the challenge and show us how different you can be from Zanu(PF).

No fire at this address

So where’s the fire? That’s what I was asking myself as I passed a fire engine backed up at 76 Alfred Road in Greendale, Harare. No fire fighters in sight – no curious by-standers. Just two weary soldiers directing the fire engine’s hoses into some army chef’s home.

Other residents in the same road can be seen shifting water containers back to their homes daily by wheel barrow or on their heads.

How does an army chef get to commandeer a fire engine as his personal water bowser?

It reminds me of an incident years ago when a senior administrator at Parirenyatwa Hospital commandeered an ambulance to chase after a bus he’d missed. He was, appropriately, dismissed. Fat chance we’ll see this bloke suffer a similar fate.

As basic utilities become ever scarcer, senior staffers in the government, civil service, politics and business are finding new ways to make themselves comfortable whilst others around them suffer. They jump the queue at the bank, dine at posh restaurants, drive air-conditioned cars, procure cheap fuel, medicate and educate their families outside the country. In this way they tolerate the intolerable.

Is this what Mugabe meant by 100% total empowerment in his re-election campaigning in the June presidential run-off?

My brother phoned me last night to find out if there was dancing in the streets in Harare following the agreement signed yesterday between Zanu (PF) and the two MDC formations. I was taken aback to realise that I hadn’t given any thought to celebrating the deal. I am an avowed optimist, but celebrating now just seems premature.

Having had a chance to look through the agreement I’ll readily concede that it lays the ground for exciting and positive change. The trouble is that very few of us trust ANY of the signatories or political parties involved. Civil society has been excluded from the process and we have good reason to worry about the ability of the political formations to co-operate. I’m also concerned that they will collude to keep themselves safe from public scrutiny by leaving obnoxious legislation intact.

For any of this ‘inclusive governance’ to impact and be measured on the ground, we need to mobilise around the country to make sure that EVERYONE understands the letter of this agreement. People have experienced so much brutalisation at the hands of petty partisan enforcers and this has to stop.

Since politicians are notoriously self-serving, we need to keep them all honest from the start. If development aid starts to flow back into Zimbabwe we want to deal swiftly with corruption and make sure that the population at large benefits ahead of well-connected politicians and business people.

What measures do you think should be taken to ensure Zimbabweans around the country benefit from the agreement’s contents?