Author: TSA Press

The month-long initiative, running under the theme Homecoming, will hold events in Harare, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls, Chimanimani, Nyanga and Kariba, among other destinations, from 1-30 April.

The move is part of strategic efforts for the diaspora to collaborate with Zimbabwean artists, entertainers, businesses and community organisations, as well as to attract more tourists to the country for a month of family-friendly, music, sports, arts, business, fashion and cultural events.

Started in 2017 by USA based Mildred Mujanganja and Mike Tashaya, who resides in the United Kingdom, the platform has been established to bring Zimbabweans who live in various countries around the world together, and encourage them to gather in the southern African country at the same time, with the aim of reinforcing unity, building new and old friendships, and creating a stronger and self-sufficient nation.

Mildred said: “We are less than six months away and the team has been working closely with our partners and key stakeholders to populate an exciting and inclusive calendar of events that allows families and friends to come together and create long lasting memories.”

She added: “Many of us left Zimbabwe many years ago and in some cases, have not been back for years. At a time when Zimbabwe is going through a critical transition, we need to unite and work together to put our country back on the map, and this is just the start of engaging a global presence to be part of something bigger than them.”

The Zimbabwe Achievers Awards (ZAA) announced their homecoming campaign at an event held at the Zimbabwean Embassy in London. The organisation, which is present in five countries, will celebrate its 10^th anniversary next year. The awards ceremony will take place at the picturesque Elephant Hills resort in Victoria Falls on 10 April 2020.

Other events scheduled to take place in April include, the Vic Falls Carnival, which is coming on board with a dynamic festival over the Easter weekend. The International CEO Eatout, Zimbabwe Unplugged Festival, EnjoyMoreGolf festival, KitesForPeace family fun day, Harare Restaurant Week, Chimanimani Festival and Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), are just some of the events taking place.

There will also be a variety of workshops, business, dance and fashion masterclasses run by some of the world’s leading experts and professionals.

All schools, colleges and universities encouraged to participate

The ZimThrive organisers have also launched a school reunion initiative and are calling all education institutions in Zimbabwe to come on board and host reunions at their respective schools.

The campaign is a wider public initiative to encourage both local and international alumni to work closely with their former schools, and to help boost engagement across the board. This includes creating international programmes that afford students the opportunity to travel abroad on placements and learn from alumni through workshops, seminars, and other integrated schemes.

Mike said: “This is a chance for all schools and former students, to work in partnership to create ongoing dialogue that will benefit current and future pupils, apprentices and graduates.

He added: “It is also an  opportunity to create universal ventures that open intercontinental dialogue, so that a wide range of students in Zimbabwe are afforded the opportunity to study overseas, or go on exchange programmes that could open doors for them in the future.”

Zimbabwe Foreign Office backing

The Zimbabwean Foreign Office has recognised the initiative and will be running a campaign concurrently over the next four months as it enters the final phase.

Earlier in the year, the  Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, along with the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality, endorsed the project and embarked on a series of roadshows in the UK in line with their campaign, to engage the diaspora and encourage diasporans to invest in the country. They commended the apolitical organisation for creating a platform that encourages further engagement and that promotes Zimbabwe as a tourist destination

Last year saw a positive rise for the tourism industry in Zimbabwe, with the sector recording growth of 6% from 2, 422 930 in 2017 to 2, 579 974 in 2018, grossing close to US$1, 4 billion.

Sponsorship opportunities are available and details of the packages can be found on the ZimThrive website. Travel packages, which will include discounted flight deals and accommodation packages, will be released in the coming weeks. Members of the public who are interested in the initiative and would like to get involved, host an event, or keep up to date with the organisations activity can register their interest at www.zimthrive.com or email [email protected]

For all calendar events visit https://zimthrive.com/events-calendar /

Post published in: Featured

More than two years after California’s surprise-billing law took effect, there’s one thing on which consumer advocates, doctors and insurers all agree: The law has been effective at protecting many people from bills they might have been saddled with from doctors who aren’t in their insurance network.

But the consensus stops there.

“In general, the law is working as intended,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a patient advocacy group that pushed for the measure, AB-72. “Patients are protected and the providers are getting paid.”

Physicians beg to differ. They say the law’s constraints on what insurers now pay has given the companies an unfair advantage in negotiations with doctors, which is leading to major changes in the industry that may affect patients.

Recent analyses by some researchers, however, cast doubt on some of the doctors’ dire warnings.

“The problem is that AB-72 is creating imbalances in the health care marketplace that are decreasing access to care,” said Dr. Antonio Hernandez Conte, an anesthesiologist whose specialty is among those most affected by the law.

The California law, which took effect in July 2017, protects consumers who use an in-network hospital or other facility from being hit with surprise bills when cared for by a doctor who has not contracted with their insurer. If that happens, consumers are responsible only for the copayment or other cost sharing that they would have owed if they had been seen by an in-network doctor.

Federal lawmakers are eyeing the California law as a possible model as they debate legislative proposals that would address surprise billing at the national level.

The California law applies to nonemergency services, since most state consumers were already protected for emergency care through an earlier court ruling.

It’s not unusual for patients who visit a hospital or ambulatory surgical center that is covered by their insurance to encounter specialists who aren’t, even in nonemergency situations.

For example, someone who has knee replacement surgery with an in-network surgeon at an in-network hospital may not realize that the anesthesiologist and assistant surgeon also scrubbing in on the operation are not.

Or a couple may be surprised to learn that the neonatologist caring for their baby in intensive care is outside their insurance network, even though the hospital where they gave birth is inside it. Diagnostic specialists like radiologists and pathologists whom patients rarely see may be out-of-network at an in-network hospital as well.

Under the California law, the doctor’s payment from an insurer in those situations is based on either the average contracted rate for similar services in the area or 125% of what Medicare would have paid, whichever is greater.

In a California Medical Association online survey released last month in which 855 physician practices responded, nearly 90% of the doctors said that the law allowed insurers to shrink physician networks, thus limiting patients’ access to in-network doctors. Physicians blame the new law’s reimbursement rates for surprise out-of-network care. The payment standard made insurers less inclined to negotiate payments and reduced doctors’ bargaining power, the physicians say.

Those surveyed said they faced insurer payment rate cuts, refusal to renew their contracts and contract termination, among other problems.

This has led some physicians to try to gain leverage by consolidating practices, a move that can drive up health care costs significantly, the doctors warn.

The medical association did not respond to calls for comment on the survey.

Hernandez Conte, who chairs the legislative and practice affairs division of the California Society of Anesthesiologists, also pointed to data from the California Department of Managed Health Care showing that consumer complaints about access to care have risen from 415 in 2016 to 614 in 2018, a 48% jump.

Those complaints represent a minuscule number of consumers in the context of the more than 30 million Californians covered by commercial insurance or Medi-Cal, said Loren Adler, associate director at the University of Southern California-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy. Adler noted that there’s no way to know if the complaints had anything to do with the surprise-billing law.

Hernandez Conte also pointed to a study published in August by the research firm Rand Corp. that he said showed the law is eroding doctors’ leverage with insurers.

But that study, a series of 28 interviews with doctors and others about their experiences in the first year after the law took effect, wasn’t definitive, said author Erin Duffy, an adjunct policy researcher at Rand and postdoctoral fellow at the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC.

“It’s more a reflection of what are some of the potential things we should look at down the road,” she said.

Aside from individual examples of contracting problems cited by the physician group, researchers cite little evidence that patients are losing access to doctors who accept their insurance because of dwindling insurance networks.

The opposite appears to be true. USC-Brookings researchers published an analysis in September examining more than 17 million specialty claims by California physicians affected by the law. They found the share of services that specialty physicians delivered out-of-network at hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers declined by 17% after the law took effect.

When the law went into effect, there was a “precipitous” movement by affected physicians into insurance networks, said Adler, a co-author of the study.

Similarly, when the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans surveyed 11 large California health insurers about in-network providers during the two years after the law took effect, it found that the numbers grew or remained flat across specialties. There was a 16% increase in the number of in-network physicians overall, including a 26% rise in diagnostic radiologists and an 18% bump in anesthesiologists.

The plight of consumers who go to an in-network facility and, unbeknownst to them, receive treatment from out-of-network doctors has garnered plenty of attention in recent months.

In a typical scenario, the doctor charges the insurance company for services, then turns around and bills the patient for whatever amount the insurance company doesn’t pay, a practice called balance billing. With no contract between the insurer and the doctor to set payment rates, the amounts billed by physicians are often higher than market rates, and the balance bills that patients face are many times higher than the regular copayment they would owe for in-network care.

Federal lawmakers are debating a number of measures that would address the issues at the federal level. The leading House and Senate bills would set minimum payment standards based on insurers’ median in-network rate for a service for applicable out-of-network care, similar to the California law.

A federal law is key to broadening the surprise-billing protections provided by California’s law, Wright said.

More than half of states now provide some level of consumer protection against surprise bills, and the efforts vary. But state surprise-billing laws protect only people insured by state-regulated plans. In California, that means 5.5 million consumers whose employers self-fund workers’ health claims directly, rather than through an insurance plan, aren’t covered by the law.

Since AB-72 was implemented, the Department of Managed Health Care hasn’t taken any enforcement actions against physicians for balance-billing patients in nonemergency situations, according to agency spokeswoman Rachel Arrezola. It has pursued a handful of cases against doctors for out-of-network balance billing in emergency situations, however.

As doctors and patient advocates wrangle over AB-72, lawmakers are pressing new protections for consumers. A state law recently barred balance billing by air ambulance services.

Starting in January, California consumers who are airlifted by an out-of-network air ambulance won’t be responsible for any more than their regular cost sharing for in-network providers.

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Photo: cat-scape, Getty Images

Even in the annals of judges behaving badly, a complaint like this stands out. Kentucky Family Court Judge Dawn Gentry was rung up by the Judicial Conduct Commission on nine charges. It’s not that offering appointments in a pay-to-play scheme and then retaliating against attorneys and other officials for not donating to a judge’s campaign aren’t serious charges, but you’ll forgive everyone for glossing right over that to the parts of the complaint about the rock band sex stuff.

Judge Gentry, who is also a bassist in a band called South of Cincy apparently, allegedly asked her case management specialist to resign so she could hire the band’s guitarist, former pastor Stephen Penrose. The allegations include inappropriate delegation of judiciary duties to Penrose too but, again, those serious allegations will have to wait because the investigators believe all of this was a cover for her to have a little in camera review of that dick.

The judge is also accused of approving false time sheets for her secretary, Laura Aubrey, but that dire allegation is also going to be totally ignored here because the investigators say Gentry, Penrose, and Aubrey were having threesomes during work hours. It reminds me of that joke, “a judge, a pastor, and a secretary walk into an office… yadda yadda yadda the Judicial Conduct Commission brings charges.”

This is the part of the “Behind the Music: South of Cincy” where they tell us “the band was living large, but storm clouds were gathering.”

If you’re wondering where the judge’s husband is in all of this, that involves telling the story of a government panel designed to help abused children that Judge Gentry appointed members to:

Katherine Schulz reportedly quit a panel the judge appointed her to after the judge flirted with her via Snapchat, pressured her to seduce the judge’s husband and asked her to join the judge and a former church pastor in a threesome.

Damn, South of Cincy makes Mötley Crüe look tame. Gentry is now divorced.

Frankly, the allegations of keeping and drinking liquor in the office barely even register in this thing.

For her part, Judge Gentry has denied the charges except for an allegation that she let Penrose jam on his six sting in his courthouse office which we’re pretty sure she doesn’t mean as a euphemism. She’ll face a hearing in the next few months.

Check out the whole complaint on the next page.

Judge Dawn Gentry faces misconduct charges. Here’s what happened and what happens next.
Kentucky judge accused of frat-house antics, threesomes with staffers [NY Post]

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Thanks to a bonanza of bonus news, the holiday season is off to a great start. Milbank was very merry this year, stuffing associates’ stockings with good cheer and wads of cash. The law firm holiday parties are about to start kicking into gear, but the parties and paychecks pale in comparison to what’s about to get underway: Above the Law’s eleventh annual holiday card contest. We’ve already received several emails asking about when this year’s contest would start. The answer: It starts today.

We are a legal website, so of course there are some rules to follow:

1. Because we are committed to the environment here at Breaking Media, we will consider ONLY E-CARDS. You can certainly send us paper holiday cards via snail mail — our address is Above the Law / Breaking Media, 611 Broadway, Suite 907D, New York, NY 10012 — but they won’t be considered for this contest.

2. To submit an e-card, please email either a link to the card or the card itself (as an attachment) — but note that WE PREFER LINKS, if available — to tips@abovethelaw.com, subject line: “Holiday Card Contest.” The subject line is very important because it’s how we will comb through our inbox to collect the entries when picking finalists. If you don’t use the correct subject line, expect a lump of coal in your stocking.

3. Please limit submissions to holiday / Christmas cards that you view as WORTHY CONTENDERS. We’re looking for cards that are unusually clever, funny, or cool; we’re not interested in cards that are safe or boring (e.g., a beautiful winter landscape, a “Happy Holidays 2019,” and the law firm name). We’re seeking cards with some attitude, with that extra je ne sais quoi. If you send us a banal card, don’t be surprised if we make fun of it.

4. In your email, please include a BRIEF EXPLANATION of why this card is compelling — an explanation that we MIGHT QUOTE FROM if your nominee makes the finals (if you want to be anonymous, let us know). If you can’t offer an explanation, please rethink whether the card is a worthy contender (see rule #3, supra).

5. The deadline for submissions is about two weeks from today: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, at 11:59 p.m. (New York time). No exceptions. If you’re reading this post after the deadline, then you don’t read Above the Law frequently enough.

We look forward to your submissions. Thank you, and happy holidays!

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

She is making a second check on three emaciated cows, two of which are pregnant.

Moyo, 59, is relieved to see them still standing. She and her husband, Daniel sometimes have to lift the weakened animals back to their feet three times a day in a frantic bid to keep them alive.

As another drought ravages Zimbabwe, farmers in livestock-rich Matabeleland, in the country’s west, are again counting their losses as animals die from thirst and lack of food.

Zimbabwean farmers, hit by more frequent droughts as climate change takes hold, have made efforts to change livestock practices to better cope with dry times – but not all of the new adaptation strategies are holding up, they say.

As a result, in a region where livestock is a store of wealth for most families, drought is again drying up income and reducing savings, farmers say.

“The cattle are our bank,” Siphiwe Moyo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, as her cows – two of them pregnant – stood in the shade.

If the cows die, “we will lose five animals in one go”, she said.

DYING CATTLE

In September and October, Matabeleland North reported losses of nearly 2,600 cattle as drought dried water supplies and pastures, said Polex Moyo, an officer for the province’s department of veterinary services.

He believes the losses will be even higher, with many livestock “in very poor condition”, he said.

A year ago, by comparison, 766 cattle were lost over the same period, he said.

Cattle are dying in part because cash-strapped farmers can’t afford to buy the supplementary feed their animals need, particularly with the price surging as demand soars, said Kenneth Nyoni, a trader in agricultural inputs.

A 50-kilo (110 lb) bag of commercial cattle feed is now selling for a third more than a year ago, he said.

Daniel Moyo said his family has already sold three goats to buy cattle feed in an effort to keep the three emaciated cows alive, and he expects to sell more goats.

But the struggling cows also are eating some of the family’s own maize meal – a staple food – mixed with salt and maize stalks saved from a 2017 harvest, he said.

“We have never lost animals to drought before because the situation was never this bad,” he said. Another 20 cattle the family owns “are at risk too unless we get rains soon and they have water and grass”, Moyo said.

Moyo’s neighbours in other villages in Nkayi District are already seeing their animals die.

In Tshutshu, village head Mbulawa Sibanda says he has seen 15 cattle lost to drought in the last few weeks.

The bush is filling with rotting animals, and more will die even if rains come, he said, as pastures take time to recover.

Ngwiza Khumalo, the headman of nearby Mhlabuyatshisa village said his community had lost 18 cattle in the last three weeks.

The deaths come as most rivers in the district have dried up and livestock need to travel ever-longer distances in search of water, Moyo said.

Farmers started reducing their herds as the drought-hit, he said, but many took action too late.

STRUGGLING FEEDLOTS

A project in Nesigwe village, to put cattle into feeding pens during droughts – a move that cut losses in a previous drought – also has struggled in recent years, said Moyo, who chairs the effort.

When the project was first established in 2015, farmers fed animals in the pens with commercial feed, with the cost offset by the much higher price the fat cattle brought at the market in a year when supplies of them were low.

The cash earned from sales then helped feed other animals, keeping more of them alive.

But a devaluation of Zimbabwe’s currency in late 2016 led to the collapse of the project, as the currency farmers brought in from cattle sales couldn’t buy enough feed to keep other animals alive, said Muhle Masuku, a farmer who helped launch the project.

In September, the International Monetary Fund warned that Zimbabwe’s economy was likely to shrink in 2019 as inflation soared to 300%, the highest rate in the world after Venezuela.

A shortage of foreign currency, water and electricity, combined with rising inflation, have sent the costs of goods and services surging in the country, which declared a drought disaster in August.

Reason Ndebele, a farmer in the village of Mtshengiswa, said saving cattle during drought often required hard work as well as cash.

He has hand-dug a well deep into the dry bed of the Tshangani River to provide water for his 25 cattle and pulls up 30 20-litre buckets of water each day for them.

He sold some animals to pay for supplementary feed for the rest – something not everyone is willing to do, he said.

“Many farmers are not even keen to sell one animal to buy livestock feed and save 20 animals,” he said.

Farmers – many of whom grow crops as well as raise cattle – also are struggling to afford quality seeds and fertiliser this year, local officials said.

“While farmers are losing cattle in Nkayi, many families are also going for days without food and cannot afford to buy inputs to prepare for farming this year,” said Kufakwezwe Ncube, a councillor in Nkayi Urban Ward 29 and former chairman of the Nkayi Rural District Council.

He called for urgent government help to supply food aid.

Post published in: Featured

At this time of year, our social media feeds, emails, and screens are filled with opportunities for giving. Black Friday and Cyber Monday speak to the idea of giving to family and friends. Giving Tuesday highlights organizations and charities that solicit money contributions. Many nonprofits still send solicitations via mail, some even with complimentary holiday-themed address labels or greeting cards. Sometimes, you can even score a calendar.

The idea of giving is what sets apart the practice of trusts and estates from other areas of law. In the first year of law school, the students learn a lot about contracts and property and consider the idea of “consideration” — the benefit which is bargained for between the parties in a contract. Simply, one consideration is exchanged for another. Gifting or donating, either during someone’s lifetime or after, via a testamentary vehicle, does not deal with the concept of consideration. One individual makes a transfer to another, with nothing received in return. As such, choosing whom to gift items or money to during one’s lifetime, or after, should be taken seriously.

When consulting with clients, after discussing their family structures and general wishes for the disposition of their assets, I raise the issue of bequests to charities or organizations outside the family. Younger families tend to defer this issue until they are older, more established, and their children do not have as many needs. Older people, especially those without close family, sometimes choose this as an option in their last wills, either entirely or in part.

One client, when asked, once quickly responded: “Charity begins at home.” When we discussed this further, it seemed that the client understood the old proverb to mean that his estate would be reserved for his family — specifically, his children — and not any organization. The intimation was that his gifts, during and after his life, constituted charity as his family members, he deemed, needed the assets or deserved them more than other institutions did.

Whether my client correctly used the proverb is questionable. The idea of charity and what it means varies according to cultural, religious, and philosophical views. John Marston’s 1610 play “Histrio-Mastix,” mentions the idea of giving to others in your own home. Sir Thomas Browne echoed that sentiment in his 1642 text, “Religio Medici.” Some cite the Christian Bible as a basis for the idea that charity begins in the home

But is this what the proverb means? Or does “Charity begins in the home” refer to actions inside the home? In other words, do our children learn to be charitable by the way we act in our own personal lives? Further, what constitutes a home? Is a home the community where you reside? Does such a proverb mean to give to organizations in your community, but not afar?

Choosing whether to give to organizations outside of the family is a personal preference, and, if you elect to, it is important to make certain to do so effectively. There are many ways to donate to a cause before or after death. Direct donations are likely the easiest and, in the online age, tapping in a credit card number for a friend’s fundraiser or to make a quick donation is no bother. For larger gifts, you may choose to meet with the development office in the chosen organization to discuss where the monies should be directed and how the payments will be made. For significant gifts, establishing a charitable trust may be chosen so that other income and tax benefits may be achieved. Tax considerations are a significant component of gifting, and the ramifications change depending on whether a nonprofit organization or an individual is the recipient.

Should you wish to include a charity in a last will and testament, it is important to record its legal name and address and to be precise in what is to be given. For instance, you may choose to give an unrestricted gift to be used for general purposes or may want the funds to be used only for a specific project. For certain significant bequests, notifying the charity in advance is a prudent way to ensure that your final wishes are carried out. This is especially the case when a charity, instead of family members, may be chosen as a beneficiary. When the charity knows that it is included in a last will and testament, it will inquire upon someone’s death as to the status of the last will, to confirm that the bequest still exists.

Whether charity begins or ends in the home, it is important to properly express your wishes in a last will and testament. If you’re especially giving, the recording of gifts throughout your lifetime, to family, friends, or institutions demonstrates intent and makes for a better understanding among family and friends when you pass away. Moreover, a giving individual’s legacy far surpasses any amount of money, in or outside of the home.

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Cori A. Robinson is a solo practitioner having founded Cori A. Robinson PLLC, a New York and New Jersey law firm, in 2017. For more than a decade Cori has focused her law practice on trusts and estates and elder law including estate and Medicaid planning, probate and administration, estate litigation, and guardianships. She can be reached at cori@robinsonestatelaw.com. 

* Amy Schumer’s lawyers apparently sent a cease and desist letter to her trainer because of overly harsh workout sessions. There are definitely cheaper ways to avoid hitting the gym… [Good Morning America]

* The New York Attorney General is alleging that a town in Orange County, NY tried to prevent Jewish families from moving to the area. [Hill].

* A lawsuit against NBA coach Luke Walton over sexual assault allegations has been dropped by the plaintiff. [New York Times]

* The lawyers for the estate of Jeffrey Epstein have wasted no time in trying to dismiss the cases of victims of the alleged late sexual predator. [Daily Beast]

* Elon Musk reportedly cried broke at the trial over his infamous “pedo guy” tweet. If Elon Musk is poor, not sure what that makes the rest of us. [New York Post].

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

Irish humanitarian aid agency, GOAL, is planning to double its food distribution targets in Zimbabwe as the UN warns that half the population now faces severe food shortages and hunger.

GOAL intends to increase the number of people it is reaching with food and cash transfers from 200,000 a month to almost half a million from early January in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts in Manicaland province.

As part of its upscaling GOAL is hoping to expand to new districts, partnering with the World Food Programme (WFP).

GOAL Zimbabwe Country Director, Gabriella Prandini, said today: “The situation is now critical in Zimbabwe, due to the impact of Cyclone Idai compounded by a crashing economy and drought. I have never experienced this level of food insecurity and we expect malnutrition rates to rapidly rise in the country.”

She said the crisis is being exacerbated by ongoing drought with poor rains forecast yet again in the run-up to the main harvest next April. The situation has been worsened by the consistent increase of prices of basic commodities.

“I recently witnessed parents in rural areas being forced to send their children hungry to school,” she said.

This week the UN revealed that approximately one-quarter of Zimbabwe’s population will receive food aid through the World Food Programme from January to avert the hunger crisis. WFP will provide 4.1 million Zimbabweans with cereal, pulses and vegetable oil and a protective nutrition ration for children under five years of age.

It predicts that around half of the country’s population is facing hunger with 7.7 million reported to be experiencing severe hunger.

To implement the response plan at the revised level and reach 4.1 million people at the peak of the lean season, WFP requires an additional USD173.1million -which is the funding gap.

WFP has appealed to donors for contributions to help it reach the most food-insecure households with food assistance in a timely manner.

Post published in: Featured

The collapse of the Zimbabwean economy is primarily a consequence of the failure of the country’s politics. Former president Thabo Mbeki, described by his US counterpart George Bush in 2003 as a “point man” in resolving the Zimbabwean crisis, was very consistent in saying Zimbabweans ought to solve their problems.

It was a line Mbeki maintained to reject attempts by powerful countries to intervene militarily or impose a solution on Zimbabwe. To many observers, Mbeki’s stance amounted to abdication. Of course, military intervention would have been completely wrong. But sterner efforts in dealing with an otherwise very stubborn President Robert Mugabe, who had begun to dismantle the economy and, in the process, transform himself from a liberation hero to a villain, would more likely have yielded better results.

Alas, the situation reached a point where a World Bank paper described Zimbabwe as having been stuck in a double trap of bad governance and low income. These were underpinned by pervasive corruption, gross economic mismanagement and political instability. By 2008, Zimbabwe’s inflation had reached… listen carefully… 231 million percent!

This is because the government was trying to patch up the budget deficits by printing the Zimbabwean dollar and adding too many zeros on the notes until there was no more space left. Mugabe rejected the advice of monetary experts at the central bank who had warned against printing money, describing them as being too steeped in what he termed “bookish norms”. Zimbabwe is teaching us a lesson: never let politicians a centimetre closer to the central bank’s printing presses.

Anyway, we are all familiar with the disaster that befell Zimbabwe. You need not visit Zimbabwe to appreciate the decimation of their economy. You only have to look at the Zimbabweans clogging the borders into South Africa and contributing to an already congested labour market characterised by almost 30% unemployment.

Zimbabweans have no choice. Unable to remove Zanu-PF from power due to its enduring struggle credentials, ability to rig elections and unwavering backing by an army that keeps an eye on internal party dynamics, Zimbabweans are all over South Africa to eke out a living.

Some South Africans simplistically think you can shut down borders, problem solved. They are wrong. Even the apartheid government’s electric fence between South African and Mozambique could not stop Mozambicans from escaping civil war. Zimbabwe has almost arrived at a stage where the consequences of human suffering equal that which is typical in war zones.

But the former point man has long vacated public office. The autocratic Mugabe has departed the land of the living. Now presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Emmerson Mnangagwa must jointly lead efforts to revive the Zimbabwean economy.

We know that it’s not enough to say Zimbabweans must solve their problems. Theirs are our problems too. There is no need to obfuscate matters. To a large extent, one of the reasons South Africa’s economy is weak is that it has lost a strong trading partner next door.

No country in the southern African region has replaced Zimbabwe’s value to South Africa when it was still a viable economy. When trade and investment flows were at the peak in value between the two countries, the South African rand would react to economic and political developments in Zimbabwe. There was a time when the rand was so sensitive that the South African government would explain to international investors that South Africa was not Zimbabwe. That has changed. The rand hardly reacts to developments in Zimbabwe these days. It is almost as if Zimbabwe no longer exists.

Such is the extent to which the Zimbabwean economy has become minuscule in relation to South Africa’s even as the latter has its own difficulties lately. South Africa has effectively lost a lot from a trade ally that used to add value to our economy.

The Afrikaner industrialist Anton Rupert, whose son Johann is now a poster boy of so-called white monopoly capital, many years ago referred to the need to help develop the economies of neighbouring countries “because you can’t trade with a poor neighbour”. Today, the reality is that it’s not a matter exclusively for the Zimbabweans to resolve their problems. They need help.

South Africa has a vested interest in getting the economy of Zimbabwe going again. Ramaphosa has made statements about the need for the US to lift targeted sanctions. Beyond this call, he has not done anything tangible to show that Zimbabwe is his top foreign policy priority. Nor has he shown he has ideas about the Zimbabwean challenge. He must make it a top foreign policy priority. A lot can be done, notwithstanding the sanctions that only are directed at a few high-ranking individuals.

Zimbabwe is on its knees. It should not be allowed to reach a point where it lies flat on its belly before we act. Instead of exchanging Twitter pleasantries about birthdays and the like, Ramaphosa and Mnangagwa, working with genuine South African investors who can mobilise capital, must draft and immediately implement an investment plan to help Zimbabwe’s economy to get back on track.

South Africa can achieve a lot for itself by reinvigorating Zimbabwe’s economy while nudging its leaders to respect human rights. Not only would we re-fertilise a market for our goods by revamping the capacity of the Zimbabwean economy, we will also profit immensely by helping to instil positive investor sentiments in the region. International investors considering to set up in Zimbabwe typically watch the behaviour of investors next door. So, if there is a fellow African leader Ramaphosa should talk to regularly about serious issues, it is Mnangagwa.

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