Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Source: Corruption still rife in Zim: US report – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 19, 2019

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

CORRUPTION remains a major problem in Zimbabwe despite government pronouncements to fight the rot, a report by the United States has revealed.

According to a 2018 Human Rights Report prepared by the US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, “police frequently arrested citizens for low-level corruption while ignoring reports implicating high-level businesspersons and politicians”.

The country continued to experience both petty and grand corruption, defined respectively by Transparency International Zimbabwe as an “everyday abuse of entrusted power by low- to mid-level public officials” and “an abuse of high-level power by political elites”.

The report also pointed to the fact that government had not enforced its policy requiring public officials to declare their assets and disclose interests in transactions that form part of their public mandate.

“In February, President Emmerson Mnangagwa ordered a mandatory declaration of assets by senior officials. Arrests of senior government officials followed; however, most were Mnangagwa’s political opponents or supporters of former First Lady Grace Mugabe’s Generation 40 (G-40) faction,” the report read.

“In May, Mnangagwa created an anti-corruption body within the Office of the President to carry out investigations, by-passing the constitutionally-mandated Zimbabwe Anti-corruption Commission. The administration has since recorded one conviction related to corruption while most of those arrested were released on relaxed bail conditions.”

In terms of payrolls, the report found that despite plans to remove unqualified persons, they still remained on the Public Service Commission, with the majority serving as youth and gender officers in various ministries and other public entities.

“According to the most recent audit, illicit salary payments were made to large numbers of persons who were retired, deceased, or otherwise absent from their place of employment. Duplicate personally identifiable information in files indicated some persons received multiple salaries.”

In 2018, Zimbabwe dropped three places to rank 160 out of 180 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.

The report also revealed that the redistribution of expropriated white-owned commercial farms often favoured the Zanu PF elite and continued to lack transparency.

“High-level Zanu PF officials selected numerous farms and registered them in the names of family members to evade the government’s policy of one farm per official. The government continued to allow individuals aligned with top officials to seize land not designated for acquisition,” the report added.

“The government began the mandated comprehensive land audit in October to reflect land ownership accurately. Land owners connected to Zanu PF routinely sold land to citizens but refused to transfer ownership officially or to develop the land as agreed upon in contracts.”

A separate Global Financial Integrity report states that the country lost an estimated US$12 billion to corruption involving smuggling and illicit financial outflows between 1980 and 2010.

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Source: Rescue mission reaches parts of cyclone-ravaged Chimanimani | The Herald March 19, 2019

Cletus Mushanawani in Chimanimani
THE Cyclone Idai rescue mission has finally reached some parts of Chimanimani where some of the marooned people were rescued, while 1 000 refugees from Tongogara Refugee Camp in Chipinge South were evacuated to a farm in Middle Sabi.

The laborious mission has been met with many challenges as some sections of the roads are continuously giving in, making all the efforts precarious.

Some of the people are enduring distances of about 20km to reach accessible areas.

Roman Catholic Church’s Mutare Diocese education secretary Mr Lawrence Chibvuri said all the learners at St Charles Lwanga Secondary School were rescued by Zimbabwe National Army details from Skyline where they had managed to walk to.

The learners had been marooned at the school since Friday night after a landslide destroyed a dining room and dormitory, resulting in the death of three people.

“We want to thank the ZNA for rescuing the children as well as carrying the bodies to Chipinge District Hospital mortuary.

“One of the late learners is from Marondera and will be buried there tomorrow (today).

“As the responsible authority, we are meeting the funeral expenses.

“We dispatched buses from sister schools to help ferry the children from Chipinge where they had been temporarily housed.

“We have also urged the school authorities to alert the learners’ parents through social media for them to collect their children in Rusape, Marondera and Harare,” he said.

Mr Chibvuri said they expect the school to be opened in May and efforts were being made to repair the damaged infrastructure.

Some parents of the affected children hailed the ZNA for bringing their children to safety.

“We are here to receive our children. We went through a traumatising ordeal since Saturday as we were not sure about the safety of children.

“We want to thank the ZNA, Roman Catholic Church as well as teachers at the school for going out of their way to ensure the safety of our children,” said Mr Ronald Makeleni who has been in Mutare since Saturday morning.

Another parent, Mrs Tariro Mucharambeyi, said: “My child is asthmatic and I feared the worst, but thanks to the caring staff members at the school, I am now being reunited with him.”

In Chipinge, district administrator Mr William Mashava said the water levels in most rivers was subsidising.

He said power supplies had been restored in some areas of the district.

“We deployed teams in various parts of the district for assessment.

“Most of the houses that were destroyed were in upper Chipinge. The most affected had poor workmanship, while some of the six recorded deaths were avoidable as some people tried to cross flooded rivers. This is despite awareness campaigns where people are discouraged from crossing flooded rivers,” he said.

Mr Mashava said Ndunduma area was still cut off from the rest of the district after the recently commissioned Bakate Bridge was swept away by the floods.

He called for caution among all road users, saying some of the areas were still risky to venture into.

The post Rescue mission reaches parts of cyclone-ravaged Chimanimani  appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Mnangagwa calls Chamisa a rebel – The Zimbabwean

Mnangagwa calls Chamisa a rebel

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Paul Bogaert

The post Mnangagwa calls Chamisa a rebel appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: ‘Interbank market won’t be manipulated’ | The Herald March 19, 2019

Prof Ncube

Tawanda Musarurwa and Golden Sibanda
Mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that the foreign currency interbank market will not be manipulated, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has said.

This comes as the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) says it is too early to judge the success or failure of the foreign exchange market, which the industrial lobby body argues is still battling some foreign currency liquidity issues, as it needs time to gain the confidence of users.

Updating the nation on progress made on economic reforms, the Finance Minister said the inter-bank has been allowed to determine the “real value” of the RTGS dollar.

“The implementation (of the liberalisation of foreign currency trading) is already underway and Government has won praise internationally for truly allowing the market to determine the value of RTGS dollar.

“Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is strengthening this arrangement by focusing on containing money supply growth, while it has also put in place monitoring mechanisms to ensure that the interbank foreign exchange market is not manipulated,” said Minister Ncube.

Among some of the key measures that will curb manipulation of the system include daily publication of the previous day’s rates, and banks are required to report activities of the interbank foreign currency market to the central bank that shall closely monitor the foreign currency trades on a daily basis using the form and format stipulated by the RBZ.

Bureaux de change and their agents are also required to report their activities of the inter-bank on a daily basis to the central bank.

The RBZ has since said it has arranged sufficient lines of credit to enable it to maintain adequate foreign currency to underpin the exchange market, which is critical in restoring the purchasing power of RTGS balances through safeguarding price stability emanating from the pass – through effects of exchange rate movements.

Central bank governor last week also highlighted that there was no manipulation of the official exchange rate, which was initially pegged at 1:2,5 as a guidance rate.

Apex bank Dr John Mangudya said the rate will likely “reach equilibrium in the next couple of months”.

Meanwhile, the Finance Minister says Government’s efforts to constrain both the fiscal and trade deficits was yielding results, adding that Zimbabweans needed to be patient with regards to the economic reforms.

“These measures have combined to have a major impact on our nation’s finances. The monthly budget deficit declined from RTGS$242 million in November to a surplus of RTGS$733 million in December, and a provisional surplus of RTGS$113 million for January, an impressive turnaround in such a short time,” said the minister.

“I am aware that there are those who are disappointed by the pace of change, and who expected progress to be faster. Unfortunately, this was never going to be the case.

“Reforming, restructuring and rebuilding our economy was always going to take time, and attempts to prematurely accelerate the process are liable to cause greater upheaval and suffering. A sober, strategic and step-by-step process remains the best way to achieve our goal.”

Commenting on the interbank rate, CZI president Sifelani Jabangwe said the system required more time to earn the confidence of users and find an equilibrium rate between the RTGS dollar and the US dollar, which satisfies both sellers and buyers of currency.

Mr Jabangwe said the market was still struggling with issues of liquidity amid revelations that some exporters were holding on to their hard currency because they believe that at 2,5 RTGS dollars to the greenback, the interbank market rate was too low. The interbank rate between the RTGS dollar and the US dollar closed at 2,7590 on Friday.

However, the CZI president expressed hope that the start of the tobacco marketing season this week would increase liquidity on the market and give confidence to traders on the functionality of the interbank market to meet their needs.

The RBZ introduced the interbank foreign exchange market on the 20th of last month and provided the seed funding. The bank also saw the market take off from an RBZ set rate of 2,5 RTGS dollars to 1 US dollar.

Under the interbank system bona fide importers bring evidence of external payment requirements and the bank facilitates payment by selling the forex on behalf of foreign currency holders.

Economist John Robertson last week the interbank market had brought about exchange rate stability, key to keeping prices in check. Previously, currency premiums of the US dollar from rampaging parallel market rates sparked wild run of prices, which quickened the inflation rate.

While Dr Mangudya recently told a parliamentary committee that some importers needing forex did not have local funds to purchase hard currency at 2,5 to the US dollar, Mr Jabangwe said industry was facing challenges getting foreign currency due to liquidity challenges.

“There has not been much change (in terms access to and availability of forex), but I think it is too early to judge the system, there still are teething issues and confidence needs to build in the system. And people need to use it (more) and see that it works that where we are getting a challenge. I know the RBZ does not want the rate to go beyond 2,5 RTGS dollars to 1 US dollar and those with currency feel that the rate is too.

“Those are the challenges. More liquidity is likely to come in with the opening of the opening of the auction floors this week this should then means the 2,5 (RTGS to 1 USD) rate starts making sense,” Mr Jabangwe said.

Central bank chief, Dr Mangudya is on record saying the apex bank will intervene in the market to keep the rate within acceptable bands, buying forex when the rate falls and selling when it keeps creeping up.

There has also been reservations from observers who feel the central bank has set the start rate too low, at 2,5 to 1 US dollar given that the parallel market rate averaged 3,6 to the greenback.

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