I drove past a Herald newspaper billboard today. The headline was something like “Prisoners gobble $1.7 a month”. Well first off the majority of Zimbabwean prisoners are starving. They don’t even get to gobble fresh air. Then there’s the issue that the reason why a great many of our prisoners are incarcerated, is because our economy has been so trashed by the political hierarchy, that stealing has become the one of the most common forms of “employment”. And then there’s our failed judicial system that keeps people in prison for much longer that they need to be because of the lack of capacity to take them to trial, on time. Never mind our prison population is really large so if you actually divide the $1.7 over the number of prisoners it would come as no surprise that this amount is no where near what’s needed to keep people from becoming ill or starving. Meanwhile a few ministers get $20 million to purchase luxury vehicles. Now that’s gobbling.

Here’s a pertinent piece from the ‘rebel journalist’ Tabani Moyo. Aren’t the MDC ministers having a swell time …

Luxurygate and the MDC’s false sense of ‘arrival’

By Tabani Moyo

The dust of the government’s hollywood lifestyle is refusing to settle down. It cannot settle down especially when the people are living in such a sea of poverty. However, the development has shown beyond reasonable doubt that the MDCs are stuck in an omnibus syndrome to governance. The mimicry politics have taken over the voice of reason as the so called ‘democratic change merchants’ stampede for the gravy train.

I happened to bump into three ministers one from the MDC and two from the MDC-T riding in their new filthy lucre. The windows where lowered, music loud as if to attract attention from the public in the exhibition of a newly acquired status. The status of a polished league of gentlemen/women I guess. I said god forbid. These are not business people who have the leeway to do whatever they want with their profits, but public officials ridding on the poor taxpayers’ hard earned income. What happened to the so called paragons of virtue, those who saw everything wrong about public officials abusing state funds on luxuries? The virtue seems to have sublimated during the ‘opposition’ times, as the train gets more gravy laced, the elements of virtue are crucified on the altar of public suffrage. As we stand no single minister has declined the offer of these fuel guzzlers, their consciences are clean and their declaration of intent manifest that they are still in a struggle for a better Zimbabwe!

Personally, I don’t have a problem with ZANU PF being implicated in this bangle, we as a people know of its heinous deeds. That’s why the people of Zimbabwe risked limb and life in forming and supporting an alternative vehicle to rid the rot in ZANU PF. It becomes confusing when the line between ZANU PF’s actions and those of the MDCs becomes blurred.

20 million on luxuries!

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) is set to increase the utility cost of delivering energy. The public hospitals have collapsed, children this summer shall die of mosquito bites, the industry performing below 30%, women failing access basic sanitary facilities and our education system turning into an elitist platform among other things.

With the above cacophony of problems, we have learnt that ZANU PF and the MDCs can actually unite in ‘looting’ from the poor. The current blame shifts between Minister of Transport, Infrastructure Development and Communication Nicholas Goche and the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti should not be tolerated to continue stealing our intellectual space in the papers.  The decision to purchase the goodies is a collective one from the cabinet which the three parties are represented.

In this process there is no room for afterthought. The three parties could not agree at cabinet level on the need to increase civil servants salaries but unanimously agreed to squeeze harder the drying pockets of the taxpayers.

As I stated before such are the pitfalls of proximity to state power it exposes the cravings which were going to manifest themselves soon after the ‘opposition’ takes total control of state power. We are better off with some of these happenings are unfolding at this juncture of our cultivation as a people. The MDCs only got into office two years ago; they are already leaving the lives of movie stars or the English premier soccer stars.

One can only remind the MDCs of the calamity of approaching this ‘struggle’ with omnibus gloves. It gives the impression of a false sense of ‘arrival’, a false sense of destiny. The ministers believe, their yearnings have been achieved, hence the need to amass as much as they can before sporadic cabinet reshuffles. These state trappings are dangerous for the same people who came up with these platforms or movements can still do the same and push aside primitive ‘accumulativists’ into political dustbins.

Tabani Moyo can be contacted at rebeljournalist [at] yahoo [dot] com

First stunning thing this week. Information that the Zimbabwe government may deport the Libyan Ambassador for flying the rebel flag.

Stunning!

I mean, denial is a wonderful place. I go there often. ‘In denial’ is usually the note that goes with my blank stare and far away look. However, I think this really takes the cake for life with your head up your ass! They are almost as ‘lost in space’ as Gadaffi himself, the man of the HUGE floor mural that people are now pissing on in Tripoli! And who issues radio statements that he is going to fight to the last against the cockroaches, and die in Libya, and … he is nowhere to be found. Even the cockroaches do not know where he is. But he is defiant! From some safe hole where he is doing his Saddam/Gbago impersonation. While he lets others die for him. And it appears he let others kill, (in great numbers) for him too.

Now there is a real man for you!

And the second stunning bit from that same information. The GNU has ‘unified’ and come to a decision to deport someone! This must be a first – a government decision! But I suspect someone gave out the wrong information. Who actually said this? I really do not think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the Prime Minister, (the government) made any statement. Some ignorant hack in the President’s office (living in denial, and in the past, with his head up his ass), or some other executive type person (army or police), may have said something, but not ‘the government’.

First off, the government is the majority party in parliament, headed by the Prime Minister. They make the laws of Zimbabwe. And I suspect they made no law about deporting ambassadors. The President is the head of the Executive, the chief civil servant. And the Executive is the body of people that implement, or carry out, the laws of Zimbabwe. They do not make them. They are bound by them, and must do what the Government tells them to do. They must enforce the law. (Or be lawless, undisciplined, warlords.) And they do not make policy. Let alone ‘deport’ other people’s ambassador’s.

Then, more stunning (but ‘slow burn’) information. 100 prominent South Africans sign some letter protesting NATO’s bombing of Libyan killers (tanks, and other mechanisms of ‘civilian’ control). Why? Who are they (and don’t tell me the names, I can find that myself)? They cannot sign any letter 10 years ago to say, “please help the people suffering under this evil murdering dictator most foul”. But now they can sign a letter against the ‘will bomb for oil’ boys. So who are these people who can only see what they want to see? But seem quite incapable of looking around and calling out evil wherever they see it. The can only look around and call out evil when it suits them. So who are they, and why should we listen to them? Seems their ‘values’ are a bit suspect.

And the Africa Union (that organisation founded and consisting of Heads of State and Government) wonders why it has been ‘marginalised’? Well, what did happen to the peer review mechanism? Are you also unable to see and deal with evil? Except when it suits you. Or are you really only a body to represent African heads of State, and have nothing to do with African people.

Dear AU. You are marginalised because you only deal with marginal issues, and even then, at the margins. If you took a stance, had some values, and pursued them, you would not be a marginal (holiday trip) body.

On doublespeak, I hear on the BBC, interviews with foreigners in Libya and Tripoli, wanting to get out. Why? The new power in Libya is killing Africans (or might kill) people who are suspected as being Gadaffi mercenaries. But hang on, Libyans are Africans! After all, Libya is in Africa, and Gadaffi is one of the main founders/movers of the African Union. Oh, does the BBC mean ‘blacks’? It seems quite clear that all blacks are not Africans, and all Africans are not black. So why can we not speak properly?

And Zapiro’s cartoon also had me laughing and smiling for some time. His, “Signs of Libya”. NATO planes over head with banners, ‘Will bomb for oil concessions’. His Zuma character on the street corner with the sign, ‘No coherent foreign policy, Please help’, and the wall poster behind him ‘lost, road map’ and to contact the AU.

And now, big (but not really) scandal on Shell Oil spills in the Niger delta. Over the past 20 years, or more. Compare this to the small spill, over months, in the Gulf of Mexico. I have no desire to go back to my earlier blog on the USA, their gross oil over consumption, and how their backyard contrasts with our backyard. And the one response I got, “fuck you”. But I would like to ask, “was I right?”, or “was I right?”. The ‘will bomb for oil boys’ are, without doubt, a bad bunch. But where does the buck stop? At producers, or consumers? They will bomb for oil, and poison whole nations of people, but not in their back yard.

It was always going to be difficult to run with the hares and hunt with the dogs, and the indigenisation drive is just one of those things that show how this has become more than real if this metaphor is to be located in the country’s body politic. The fact that “a moderate” like Gono has attempted to steer Minister Kasukuwere away from a bank takeover drive that is a patently kamikaze-inspired policy but has still met the very obduracy that has landed the country in this mess ought to tell us something about the extent the Prime Minister’s MDC is emasculated.

We read the other day that Minister Biti was to meet Minister Kasukuwere over this bank takeover after some tough talk from Gono who himself has never found favour with Biti. It becomes a convoluted matrix of politics meets economics, and we can be sure that these power games have no ordinary Zimbabwean at the centre of indigenisation or economic reconstruction. It is dumb even to imagine that Gono would agree on anything with the MDC based on what we already know, and just what is it that can be read in the public spat with Kasukuwere? Are we seeing an overt emergence of moderates who have no place in the Zanu PF scheme of radicalism?

Zimbabweans have long been conditioned to read developments here in very emotive binaries because of the polarised politics of our post-independence history, and it will take some leap of faith for anyone to believe that “God’s banker” is reading from the same hymn sheet with men who have labelled him a terrorist. So are we now expected to see Gono and Biti punching from the same corner and cheer that indeed we have made that turn for the common good, or just dismiss this as another episode of the protracted battle for the control of the country’s resources by a group of people who still have to prove themselves that it is the Zimbabwean people who matter?  You just have to have your ear on the streets to understand how Zimbabweans think.

Everyday I have a fight. Everyday I exchange words with some man. Not my own man, just some random guy I won’t remember seeing soon after I’ve finished biting his head off. It’s not my fault though they make me do it. They enrage me! In fact they enrage the entire city.

I’m talking of course about combi drivers and/or hwindis. These men have us up in arms over a few small pieces of silver. Fighting our way to and from home, EVERYDAY! They almost always act surprised when you ask them for your change. Before you get into a combi, they treat you so well; asking you if you want to go where they are going, and even helping you carry any luggage you might have. But once you’re in, they reveal their true selves, demanding payment for the trip, with change of course, even before you’ve safely taken a “seat”.

All combi users dread/loath the days when they have no coins or tickets for the journey ahead, because we all know that we will most likely  have to put up a fight for change. Often passengers are given their change, combined with someone else’s (dollar for 2 or kuchatiswa) and left to somehow split this money on their own.

We are faced with such tremendous inconveniences for what should be a purely mundane activity – taking the bus. As passengers, we have had to sometimes become excessively aggressive, even towards each other, in order to walk out of combis with change that rightfully belongs to us. In many instances, these daily battles are fruitless, leaving us frustrated.

I have now taken to praying for peaceful and uneventful trips, because I know that with my terribly short temper, I will NEVER hesitate to lock horns with any hwindi. My anger in these situations usually overrides logic, reason, fear and especially my better judgement. I don’t suffer fools easily, and why should anyone, for that matter.

I thought that the purpose of a hwindi is to collect money from passengers and then sort out the change. Now, if we have to sort out our own change, what then is the point of having a hwindi who takes up valuable space in the combis, adding to our discomfort? I hear that combi drivers in South Africa go it alone. There is no such thing as a hwindi there. Lucky them!

Something needs to be done about this change issue! Below is my personal (and I’m sure, shared) plea to hwindis, combi drivers and owners alike, all over Harare:

Dear combi-people

I’m sure that by now you are aware of the change problem in your industry. What are you doing in order to alleviate some of the stress this is causing us, your ‘valued’ customers, and even yourselves? Aren’t you tired of fighting with us all day, everyday, about the same thing? It’s now time for you all to put your hands together and come up with a convenient and lasting solution to this madness.

I would like to commend the owners and operators for Westgate, Ashdown Park, Mabelreign etc. for managing to organize an official, nearly trouble-free ticketing system for their routes. Why don’t the rest of you follow their example? In fact, why is there not an official, cashable (possibly pre-paid), acceptable ticket for the whole of Harare? Surely that is possible?

Yours truly,
Enraged Passenger

Let’s hear it for Ocean Marambanyika. Writing for The Standard Ocean suggests that well-managed diamonds can make a difference – to the lives of the citizens of Zimbabwe. It really is time for Zimbabweans to reject nontransparent and unaccountable political leadership.

Well-managed diamonds can make a difference

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Sunday, 21 August 2011 14:36

The discovery of the Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe should be a milestone in the history of the nation. The discovery should NOT be a catastrophe.

Various media reports point out that the Marange diamonds might be roughly
20% of all global diamond deposits. If this is true, then it is a God-given chance to turn around the fortunes of the country, especially considering that the global economic crisis favours minerals such as gold and diamonds.

The Earth Times reported that, “The hugely prolific Chiadzwa fields are regarded as the world’s biggest diamond find in more than a century”. The New York Times quoted a United Nations-related expert Mark Van Bockstael as saying: “This (Marange) is a world-class deposit, no doubt about it.” He added, “The deposit is a freak of nature.”

If this is true, then imagine how wonderful it would be if the diamonds were properly managed and put to good and transparent use. Maybe Zimbabweans can learn from how other nations managed their precious resource finds. There are many examples that we could learn from. We could take for instance the discovery of oil in Norway and how the Norwegian government managed its oil resources.

Oil has netted in billions of dollars for Norway and as the United Nation index says, Norway is rated as the country with the best living standards in the world. This is mainly due to its oil and gas revenues.

Zimbabwe does not need to waste time thinking about how to manage the diamonds and the gold for the benefit of its citizenry.  It can simply learn from examples such as Norway. The lesson is that Zimbabwe should have ownership of its strategic resources. By Zimbabwean ownership, it is meant a transparent, democratic system accepted by and accountable to the citizens of the country through constitutionally recognisable provisions.  Below are some quotes on how the oil structure works and benefits Norway.

In 2009, Norway’s petroleum sector accounted for 21% of value creation in the country. This is three times the value creation of the manufacturing industry and around 22 times the total value creation of the primary industries.

By revenue, Norway’s oil utility Statoil was last year ranked by Fortune Magazine as the world’s 13th largest oil and gas company, and the largest company in the Nordic region by reveue, profit, and market capitalisation.

From oil history and oil management in Norway, people can learn that significant resources like diamonds and gold must be state-owned in partnership with private investors who have the expertise. Success depends on transparency and accountability and the ability of the majority of the citizens to accept the laws governing the natural resource industry. It is critical that laws governing significant natural resources like oil, gold and diamonds are seen as moral and beneficial by the majority of a country’s citizens.

It is rare for citizens to reject government control of a country’s natural resources as long as the citizens feel that they are benefitting through infrastructural developments, improved standards of living, better salaries, better education, health and liberty, among other things. Foreign control of significant and strategic assets like oil, gold and diamonds will rarely develop a nation. Local ownership is a preferred model only when it benefits all its citizens and not a select few. All hopes are that Zimbabwe will strive to exploit the diamonds to uplift the standards of people’s lives in rural areas as well as urban areas.

About the Author Ocean Marambanyika writes from the University of Oslo, Norway.