Isn’t that what the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Regulations are supposed to do? Give back the means of production the dispossessed and economically disempowered to its rightful owners? So why does this Act sound like a fraud? In a recent article Dr Alex Magaisa points out the fallacies of this Bill.

Much like the Land Redistribution Programme which after ten years of inane political rhetoric and ‘bumper’ harvests that left supermarket shelves empty, I predict this bill will fall into that pile of so-so ideas that are poorly executed. Or rather bad ideas that only benefit the politically powerful/able/active. While this Bill follows after the fashion of the Foreign Equity policies used in Asia; it falls short of the checks and balances used to encourage foreign investment while at the same time following their principle of indigenisation. This Bill is nothing more than a myopic ‘Look East’ policy. It will not change the lot of the ordinary man on the street. As it is, all three parties constituting the Government of National Unity have failed to correctly administer the resources that we do have. We even have Ministers who are not ashamed enough to at least loot those resources in secret.

Moreover, why plunder the few companies remaining that are gingerly limping towards recovery? Why not ease the current draconian legislation? and, in the event that our Legislature is feeling particularly energetic, why not create laws that encourage innovation and the creation of new businesses and industries in Zimbabwe if for no other reason than to have a bigger pool of companies to steal from…I mean regulate. I’m no economist but it seems to me that if there are more businesses to tax, there will be more revenue collected by Zimra. Then our politicians can make their money the old fashioned way, by looting Government coffers.

Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) have just released a report on the state of democracy in Zimbabwe one year after formation of GNU.  Below are the main findings of the report, the full text of which can be found on www.wozazimbabwe.org

- The belief that the power-sharing government has decreased democratic space in Zimbabwe.

- There has been some change for those who are rich but for the poor nothing has changed. It has remained survival of the fittest. The dollarisation of the economy stabilised prices and the economy in general but the gap between rich and poor widened.

- Many expressed no confidence in an election before the constitutional process is complete.

- People want to give their views and write their own constitution but worry that the current consultation process has too many loopholes that can be manipulated to change their views into those wanted by politicians.

- Most agree that they believe that public funds should go through the Ministry of Finance but the Minister must also be transparent about what he does with it.

- The personal security situation for ordinary people is still very insecure.

- Most people polled believe that the rule of law in the country has worsened.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a cartoonist like Zapiro in Zimbabwe, a newspaper like the Mail & Guardian and a media environment similar to South Africa where people can shout it out like it is.  If Zuma’s got that shower head, I’d like to see caricatures of our chef politicians walking around with diamonds for balls.

Greenwood Park is just a stone’s throw away from State House where Mugabe lavishly welcomes an array of visiting dignitaries, albeit a dwindling one and most often the usual suspects. For many years Greenwood Park represented respite for kids and adults living in Harare’s central Avenues district where living a life in apartment buildings can bring on claustrophobic misery. I know this because I spent most of my adolescence growing up in a flat on Montague Avenue, which later became Josiah Chinamano.

Lately I’ve been spending some time in the Avenues again. The gorgeous, sequined skirted commercial sex workers that trawl the Avenues at night brighten up the place and provide a welcome distraction to the piles of garbage mounting in alleyways, street corners and even in some of the front gardens of apartment buildings. A small exaggeration perhaps, but thinking of the “dinosaur” sized shark that recently made short work of the Zimbabwean in the sea in Cape Town, last night I saw a dog sized rat sprint across the road in front of my car.

I don’t brake for rats.

My tour of the Avenues has also taken in Greenwood Park. The other day I included it on a run I was doing. The grass is knee high, rubbish litters the place, the swings and other pieces of playground equipment are broken. But still, irrepressibly playful kids try and find some fun messing around on what’s left. There are still a few worse for wear park benches around and about but their occupants are a mixture of the unemployed, the hungry, the  sad and those that are just plain scary. How safe are these kids I wonder?

Mugabe’s motorcade regularly sweeps by this playground whipping up very little dust in its wake because 7th Street is one of the few well maintained and groomed streets in our capital. Go figure – it leads to the little man’s mansion. Mugabe would do well to ask the battalion of street sweepers who keep his immediate periphery neat and tidy to expand their mandate and make good this park that was meant to provide a safe solace for the people of the Avenues.

But the majority of Zimbabweans, myself included, don’t expect much from Mugabe besides more misery while he and his cabal of chefs continue to look the other way.

Presidential Motorcade

Masi, Jamu and I
wave our hands to the President.
The windows of his limo are tinted
and are always closed.
The motorcade travels fast
but Masi and Jamu say
the President waves back.

We wave our hands
every time the motorcade passes
in the hope it will stop
to drop a coin.

But we hear
the chauffeur does not know
the ‘Give-way’ sign
nor the ‘Stop’ sign.

- Julius Chingono, Zimbabwean poet

So the Government of National Unity can’t pay Zimbabwe’s teachers and other civil servants decently but they can pay those who guard the elite quite lavishly. Enough!

Members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIO) team assigned to Mugabe during a visit to an international telecommunications summit last October were each paid a total of US$50 000 (US$5 000 a day) over Mugabe’s 10-day stay. On another trip to Rome in November, his security detail was paid the same. In Zimbabwe, most of the population lives on less than US$1 per day. – Published on the Zimbabwe Democracy Now web site

Also, on the same web site

The Zimbabwe government spent nearly R86m (US$11.6m) in one year in fees for children and relatives of mostly top Zanu PF officials who are studying in South African universities while local universities struggle to function.

When any section of the Zimbabwe civil service goes on strike, the usual retort from the long-suffering public is:  “How do you tell the difference?” A year after the heady inauguration of the country’s power-sharing government between autocratic President Robert Mugabe, 85, and his former opposition opponent, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabweans want to know: “How do you tell the difference? (between this government and Mugabe’s previous regime).” – Comment from Sapa