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Source: Mnangagwa vows to crush demos | Newsday (News)

By BLESSED MHLANGA

GOVERNMENT is mulling new laws to crush demonstrations before they turn violent, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said yesterday.

Addressing the 111th Zanu PF central committee meeting in Harare yesterday, Mnangagwa said his government was gearing to ensure that protests which rocked the country in mid-January would never happen again.

“I am assuring the party that government is putting in place measures to ensure that the illegal, criminal and divisive elements of January 14 to 16 disguised as protesters will never happen again,” he declared.

“Government will take stern measures against any violence in this country. We will not tolerate any violence at all. Those who want to demonstrate must do it peacefully and that is allowed by the Constitution.”

Mnangagwa’s chilling statement comes just a month after he warned the opposition, labour movements and civil society that his government would not hesitate to send in soldiers to thwart any future demonstrations against his government. He told the meeting that his team was efficient in dealing with dissenting voices.

“Those who become violent and destructive, destroying property and the lives of our people, government says no and it is no and we know how to implement no,” Mnangagwa said.

The European Union, Britain and the United States, among other countries, have condemned Mnangagwa’s regime for deploying the military, which killed 17 unarmed protesters in cold blood, according to human rights groups.

The West decried the violence and said Mnangagwa’s efforts to promote investment and to deepen international partnerships could only be successful if his administration pursued reforms that included “freedom of assembly, association and expression”.

The EU ambassador to Zimbabwe, Timo Olkkonen, on Monday said the bloc would not ignore the human rights violations and warned that further violations were destroying goodwill and a setback to the country’s recovery efforts. Early this month, the United States extended sanctions against Zimbabwe by a year.

A defiant Mnangagwa said his actions were in line with the law, which provides for the protection of property and rights of Zimbabweans.

“My government remains committed to guaranteeing the safety of all its citizens and ensuring that any democratic rights are enjoyed within the strict confines of the law. That’s why there is a government in the country. That’s why there are laws in the country,” he said.

“Laws must be enforced. Law and order must be enforced so that our government will not fall short in making sure the country lives in peace. Individuals should enjoy their democratic rights of association, of movement and of information.”

Mnangagwa noted that his party members could have unleashed chaos and massive damage if they had reacted to the violence.

“I commend the party members for showing sober restraint against immense provocation and attack during that unfortunate incident,” he said.

“We showed maturity as Zanu PF because had we reacted violently, because we are the majority, we could have wreaked havoc in the entire country. But we said no, if other people have chosen to be terrorists and vandals, we cannot imitate them. We should remain civilised and in peace and peaceful and ask them to emulate us.”

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POLICE have approved an anti-sanctions demonstration by war-veterans scheduled for Saturday. The former liberation war fighters notified the police early this month, of their intention to petition the US embassy in Harare, demanding that its government removes sanctions imposed on leading figures in the Zanu PF administration. “We have no objection to your holding an […]

Source: No foreign mediation in ED-led talks | Newsday (News)

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

A SPIRITED effort by smaller opposition parties which joined Zanu PF and President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s political dialogue to rope in a foreign and neutral mediator hit a brick wall after their principals reportedly agreed to settle for a local intermediator.

The representatives of the 18 political parties, who are part of the dialogue, had failed to agree on a convener for the dialogue, with most pushing to rope in neutral persons, preferably from the Sadc region, but Zanu PF resisted in favour of local mediation.

Mnangagwa said after the party negotiators failed to agree on the convenor, party presidents met and agreed to appoint the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission chairperson Sello Masole Nare, and the Gender Commission chairperson, Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe, to co-chair the
process.

“There was a disagreement in one of the committees over who will be the convenor of the political dialogue. So, we met as principals of the political parties so that we agree on who will be the mediator,” Mnangagwa said.

“We took time discussing this issue until we agreed to have the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission chairperson Sello Masole Nare, and the Gender Commission chairperson Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe. They will co-chair the process.”

He said the talks were headed in the right direction, dismissing those who have spurned his invitation to the talks as non-progressive.

“We met as presidents of political parties, each party with its own president and four representatives. I was there with mine. We now have 18 political parties, there are two or three more who left when they saw we were progressing. So we only have progressive parties still in the dialogue, Zanu PF is one of those progressive political parties,” Mnangagwa said.

The dialogue will now be launched during the first week of May, according to Mnangagwa.

Main opposition party MDC and its leader Nelson Chamisa, Joice Mujuru of the National People’s Party, Noah Manyika (Build Zimbabwe Alliance) and Daniel Shumba (United
Democratic Alliance) have all refused to be part of the dialogue, saying it lacked sincerity and neutrality.

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Source: Manicaland faces food deficit after drought, Cyclone Idai | The Herald March 29, 2019

Dr Gwaradzimba

Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau
Manicaland Province has sent out an SOS for food assistance for its people following a poor cropping season which was exacerbated by Cyclone Idai-induced rains that destroyed the remaining crop.

The greater part of the province was affected by a long dry spell, with some parts of Buhera and Chipinge receiving very little to no rainfall prior to the flooding that occurred two weeks ago.

Manicaland Provincial Affairs Minister Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba said the province needed to urgently come up with strategies to feed its people until the end of next season.

“We had a bad agricultural season and it has been worsened by the cyclone which flattened the crops in the field,” she said.

“We expect the yields to be poor in some areas while in others they will not harvest anything.

“Manicaland needs a huge rescue package in terms of food. We will still need to assist people with food until the next season.”

Dr Gwaradzimba said there was need to ensure that victims of the cyclone were equipped with means to become self-sufficient again.

“We are also looking at the issue of sustainability,” she said. “We don’t want our people to be dependent forever. We want to empower them by giving them fishing rods so that they can fish and not just wait for handouts.”

Last month, Agritex estimated that the province was likely to produce only 25 percent of the expected maize yield from the 230 000 hectares planted in the 2018/2019 season due to the El Nino-induced drought that was being experienced.

The majority of the crop had already reached wilting stage in ares falling under Natural Region 4 and 5 that include Buhera, Bocha, some parts of Nyanga and Chipinge.

Agritex head for Manicaland Mrs Phillipa Rwambiwa early this week said about 80 percent of the crop that had survived the dry spell was destroyed, leaving the province with a deficit in terms of food supply.

Chimanimani and Chipinge districts were the most affected areas but Mutasa, Buhera and parts of Makoni districts also recorded losses.

There is speculation that more than 1 300 livestock was also swept away by Cyclone Idai floods.

Meanwhile, Government has plans to rehabilitate Chipinge and Chimanimani hospitals to improve the provision of primary health care in the province.

Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo, who toured the two facilities after the province was hit by Cyclone Idai two weeks ago, said it was imperative for all health facilities to be able to cope in the event of a disaster.

“We want to make sure we revamp the health care centres here. All the clinics must be spruced up,” he said. “I toured Chipinge Hospital, and I saw that it needs a lot of revamping.

“We will send a team of our infrastructure guys who will make an assessment of this whole area in terms of rehabilitation.”

Dr Moyo said the rehabilitation of health facilities was part of the new dispensation’s vision to provide health care to all citizens.

“The new dispensation wants to see a primary health care system that is well supported from the village facilities, to the districts and up to provincial level, with everybody accessing health services without any problems,” he said.

Dr Moyo said Chimanimani Rural Hospital was ill-prepared to cater for emergency situations when the cyclone hit the district because it had limited capacity.

The hospital attended to more than 150 cases, but had to refer the majority of them to Chipinge and Mutare as it had little capacity to attend to all cases.

“I know you did the best you could under the circumstances,” said Dr Moyo. “I want to applaud the good work that you all did with limited equipment and personnel. It is good that I have seen this facility and its need for rehabilitation.

“We want to improve it so that we can have better buildings. The next time I come here, you should be having a working X-ray machine, modern beds, proper shelves in the pharmacy and eventually a new pharmacy.”

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Source: So far, no pay-off for Zimbabwe – Business Live

Zimbabweans have not yet seen the full benefit of the new currency introduced earlier this year. The parallel forex market, on the other hand, seems to be thriving

A man holds the new one dollar bond coin in Harare, Zimbabwe. Picture: EPA/AARON UFUMELI

Much optimism greeted Zimbabwe Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya’s announcement last month that the bank would be abandoning its fixed exchange rate and policy of parity between the local currency and the US dollar. Instead, it would move to a managed interbank floating system on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis.

The move was hailed as a step in the right direction for the beleaguered economy. Immediately after Mangudya’s announcement Harare-based economist Ashok Chakravarti praised the governor and predicted the imminent demise of the parallel foreign exchange market.

But a month on, Mangudya’s move has yet to yield any meaningful benefits, and the optimism has faded. If anything, it has become clear that the central bank is reluctant to really free the exchange rate. And there are fears that the bank will again arbitrarily raid foreign exchange accounts to pay for imports (it admitted to taking millions of dollars from foreign currency accounts prior to the adoption of the dollar in 2009). Such a move would further worsen the currency situation.

Already, a businessman, speaking on condition of anonymity, says he’s been hit with unusually stringent requirements when trying to withdraw money from his foreign currency account.

In the past month, the official exchange rate has barely moved on the interbank market, despite total forex receipts amounting to about $600m in January. And, problematically, it is still miles from the parallel-market rate. As a result, trades on the official forex market have been limited, with exporters holding on to their hard currency.

Contrary to Chakravarti’s forecast, the parallel market is still going strong. As of last week, the official rate between the US dollar and the real time gross settlement (RTGS) dollar — the currency Mangudya introduced last month — was $1:RTGS$2.5; on the parallel market it was $1:RTGS$3.5.

The central bank itself has not been too thrilled by recent developments. Two weeks ago Mangudya said exporters risk losing their forex if they do not utilise the currency within a month. It was a marked departure from the willing-buyer, willing-seller policy he punted just a few weeks earlier. If exporters fail to sell their currency within 30 days, they will be paid out in local currency at a rate not reflective of the fair value of the unit.

According to bankers, it is the forex supply side that is proving problematic. ZB Financial Holdings CEO Ron Mutandagayi says that though appetite is strong for buying, it is limited on the sell side. “We expect the sell side to pick up once exporters begin to surrender their proceeds after the expiration of the 30-day period,” he says.

This could trigger a rush to use foreign exchange balances to avoid selling at below-market rates, analysts say.

Bankers say the central bank has to allow the market to decide the exchange rate, given that it is reluctant to go for a wholesale devaluation of the currency. At present the central bank plays a major role in determining the rate. While it wants to devalue the currency and undermine the parallel market, it seems hesitant for fear of unintended consequences, such as a return to unrest.

“It’s a big headache for the central bank. The question is whether to devalue the exchange rate in line with the parallel market and how soon [the bank] can do it. It would like to do it in phases before getting to the parallel market rates,” a banker told the FMlast week, on condition of anonymity. “These decisions are mostly 60% political and 40% economic.”

The exchange-rate problem is not the central bank’s only major headache: inflation is proving as big a challenge.

Annual inflation to February was up 2.49% to 59.39%, while inflation for food and nonalcoholic beverages, which is prone to transitory shocks, was at 69.84%. Month-on-month inflation tumbled to 1.7%, from 10.8% in January. But no-one is celebrating that slowdown: there are concerns the government could be tweaking the numbers, after finance minister Mthuli Ncube said last month that Zimstat, the government-run statistics body, was using the wrong basket for its consumer price index (CPI) calculations. It’s not clear whether Zimstat has changed its CPI sample basket at the behest of the minister and whether this accounts for the drop-off in inflation.

WHAT IT MEANS

The central bank is struggling to manage a forex shortage and rising inflation

Either way, workers are bearing the brunt of the poor economic climate. A weakening local currency and a glut of electronic money has triggered inflation, which has largely been in check since Zimbabwe adopted the US dollar in 2009. This has eroded workers’ purchasing power at an alarming rate.

The country’s low manufacturing capacity also means the bulk of goods are imported, a situation that has occasioned a wave of price increases as retailers pass costs on to consumers or risk stock-outs.

Ezra Ngirazi, a general hand in Harare, complains that his income has not kept pace with the soaring prices of goods. “My salary has remained stagnant at RTGS$150 [about $40 a month] and prices are rising. I continue to work notwithstanding,” he says.

Ngirazi is far from alone in his plight — more and more, workers are demanding higher salaries. But as the economy struggles to pull back from the brink, employers themselves are mostly not in a position to accommodate these demands.

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