Only 100 people will be selected to attend – application open to the public

More than just another talk-shop TEDxHarare will celebrate the transformative power of ideas that improving the way citizens of the world live, learn, work and play. The conference will honour African innovators whose passion, curiosity and dogged resolve is paving the way to a newer, brighter future for Zimbabwe and the continent. TEDxHarare will feature presentations by phenomenal professors, entrepreneurs, story tellers and remarkable artists who are contributing to the vast potential that is Africa’s future.  Confirmed speakers and presentations include Chris Kabwato, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Oswald Jumira, Marianne Knuth and Sarah Norman.

In order to create an intimate setting for more interaction, conversation and connection with the speakers, organisers of TEDxHarare have limited attendance to only 100 seats. The event is open to anyone who is passionate about spreading ideas in the spirit of TED. Interested attendees must apply to participate in the limited-space event.

To register either send a blank email to register [at] tedxharare [dot] com or visit the site at www.TEDxHarare.com and click on the ATTEND tab.

According to Julius Malema being poor means not being able to own means of production. He made these comments in an interview on SABC after a public outcry over the ANC Youth League President’s 16 million rand house he is building in Sandton, South Africa. Among Malema’s properties in South Africa includes a mansion in Limpopo province and he drives C63 Mercedes-Benz AMG. Not so bad for a poor man! Malema claims he has acquired these assets using his monthly salary from the ANC. And he is a representative of the poor people?

According to the Oxford dictionary poor means “lacking sufficient money to live at a standard considered comfortable or normal in a society” … so one wonders whether Julius’s society consider him to be poor with this kind of a lavish lifestyle. If Malema’s definition of poor is true then, for South Africans, what it means is that Mzansi has poor rich people living in mansions.

Here are some questions raised in Parliament recently:

HON. MUDIWA asks the Co-Ministers of Home Affairs if they are aware that the people in Mutsago, Mukwada and Chiadzwa are walking distances of 20km to get to and from their homes when travelling to and from Mutare because the police are denying public transport entrance into these areas.

HON. S.S. KHUMALO asks the Minister of Energy and Power Development to state: i) the Ministry’s position regarding ZESA’s actions in forcing un-metered clients to pay bills in full yet there would be receiving no electricity due to load shedding; and ii) the Ministry’s position on the high electricity tariff rates which are unaffordable to many Zimbabweans considering their meagre incomes.

HON.SARUWAKA asks the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development to explain to the House when the rockfall that covered the Jombe Road, in the second week of January 2011, is going to be cleared as the boulders still lie on more than one lane of the road which makes driving on the road a real hazard for cars , especially lorries and buses that ply this steep and winding route in the Mutasa Central Constituency and whether the Ministry was waiting for an accident to happen before responding to the numerous pleas that have been lodged with Provincial Offices in Mutare.

Excerpts from SOUTHERN AFRICAN PARLIAMENTARY SUPPORT TRUST (SAPST)

Reading through The Zimbabwean as part of my daily morning dosage, the story of the Buy Zimbabwe Campaign by Ngoni Chanakira caught my eye. A ‘”Chief Executive’s Walk” across Harare to Africa Unity Square’ … the campaign is meant to encourage Zimbabweans to buy local goods as opposed to the cheap imports that currently flood the market. A noble idea, right? But this is utter hogwash.

The stupidity manifests from two angles. First, is it really feasible at this point to ask a Zimbabwean to stop buying imports, and second, who is doing the campaign?

If there are executives in the campaign I hope there is no one coming from the retail industry because all of what they are selling is mostly, if not all, imported goods. I am not even sure if there is any sector that has recovered enough to supply the market with at least half their demands. I wonder which Zimbabwean goods they would encourage us to by?

If Zimbabwean goods can be found their cost is far higher than the average worker’s pocket can afford. Media has been running awash with debates of pay increases for civil servants, which is now more of a political issue than life and death. Assuming that Gibbs Dube report has some elements of truth, it emerges that civil servants have had their salaries increased by about $90 or lets say $100 dollars to be polite. Now they earn within the region of $300. Given the high costs of rentals, utilities and food, how much will be left for the worker to buy expensive imported products. Yes as a worker, I want to promote my country, but where are the goods? The few products on the market are just too expensive to afford. We buy Chinese products, Japanese second hand cars and the like. But everyone knows that the Chinese products on the market are not as durable as we want. We just buy them as a matter of convenience or to at least keep ourselves going. We are desperately waiting for that day when our businesses are back to full swing. Unfortunately the day is taking forever to come.

It would be absurd for one to waste time and effort to search for a Japanese car on the Internet if a new car was reasonably affordable at Willowvale. The losses that local companies are making are not because people are not buying their products as such but mainly because they are not manufacturing enough, or that the spirit of over pricing products is still haunting them. It is true that the cost of production could still be too high for now, but it would not be possible to buy a shoe that costs half my salary simply because it has been manufactured in Zimbabwe. Yet Mr Jiang has a weak Beijing brand of the same shoe costing $5. I better buy 13 pairs of his shoes. Perhaps they might even last longer.

When executives march to encourage people to buy local goods, it’s not bad if they too sell local goods at a price that we can afford, or at least with the payment conditions that are flexible enough for the poor worker.

That brings me to the second point. Today these executives are blaming the end consumer for being unpatriotic. Are they not the same executives who tasted prisons for what we called unethical business practices which fueled inflation? I even remember Econet selling its 0913 sim card for a $100, which was unjustified profiteering. They now sell this product for $2. Are they not the same business people who trebled their prices whenever the worker got an increment? What it points to is the fact that we do not trust the business people any more or at least we were made not to. They do not happen to have the very same patriotism, which they want customers to have when it comes to buying their goods, do they? History shows otherwise. Responding to their call is like a group of sheep that responds positively to a jackal’s call for a meeting.

I encourage Mr. Muyaradzi Hwengwere to go ahead and organise a meeting of executives on the 3rd of August. It is allowed for executives to walk together, share ideas, and even bask in the Africa Unity Square sun, enjoying the green lawn and that flamboyant fountain if it is still works. However making noise about that event, claiming to be having a purpose of making us buy their local goods is just a fallacy. Discouraging the buying of foreign goods is not bad for an economy with some threads to function on its own. Our dear country heavily relies on imported products both directly or indirectly. Stuff as basic as food, soap etc are all imports. Of late there have been talks to ban second hand car imports from Japan. Do we ever bother to know how much ZIMRA is making out of that process? The popular toll gates are all harvesting from the cheap cars around here, and the poor transport system is being supplemented, illegally though, by those cars.

The Buy Zimbabwe Campaign is a brilliant idea at the wrong time by the wrong people.

I read with some kind of disgust the other day a story about ZESA managers who were fuming because Energy Minister Elton Mangoma had ordered the slashing of their salaries. They actually told the minister it was not his business to question their salaries. I wondered rather blithely if they would have responded with such brashness if this had come from a Zanu PF minister! But then it has become the typical story here where parastatals and state enterprises senior officials have continued to command ridiculous salaries when there is virtually nothing to justify it.

We all know about the mismanagement of these big concerns over the years with accusations that officials were riding on the back of Zanu PF patronage, and where in fact keeping up with the party’s streak of looting state resources. It is here where consciences have been numbed as the plundering of resources has rendered these state utility providers a huge burden on tax and rate payers with no service provision to speak of. So a minister who comes through with a broom to sweep the rot naturally becomes the bad guy because the logic is simple: no one ever complained before, and simply because – as some have claimed – these officials have been political appointees.

We read each time how South African government ministers are ever vigilant cracking the whip on unnecessary perks for officials who appear to think working for government is a sure way to bleed the purse. What then is amiss with Mangoma putting caps on salaries, or at least demanding that they get performance-based salary increments? Makes sense to me. We heard even from Ignatius Chombo the other week when he demanded a salary cap for Town Clerks where in some cases these municipality CEOs are reported to be earning monthly salaries of up to USD15,000.

Surely these salaries must be justified, and for a long time these people have been getting absurd perks that are not even based on performance, which reminds one of those US CEOs who run loss-making corporations but at the end of the year award themselves multi-million dollar bonuses, of course much to the chagrin of shareholders. Indeed Zimbabwe is in dire need of ministers who will put a stop to this nonsense.

Electricity consumers may soon see a welcome credit to their accounts, following the resolution of an outstanding argument between consumers and ZESA dating back to 2009.

According to The Herald 13 July, “Zimbabwe Electricity Authority is now required to revert to the US$40 per month for consumers in low-density areas and US$30 per month for high-density consumers for the period between February 1 and November 30, 2009 as directed by Government.”

This was ordered by Justice Susan Mavangira at the High Court on Monday 11th July 2011. Since the change over of the currency to the US dollar people have complained over the manner in which ZESA was handling its billing for electricity usage. The Competition and Tariffs Commission conducted investigations based on these complains from the customers and filed an application.

All those customers who had paid for electricity usage in US dollars before February 2009 will have the amounts credited to their accounts.

But before I can start to celebrate over the recent High Court ruling on ZESA let me alert people to the mid year statement made by the Zimbabwe Power Company Chairman, which amongst other things warns the country about an upcoming tariff increase.