BakerHostetler Was Ordered By The Court To Stop Working On This Matter… It Looks Like They Ignored That

A few years back, the Second Circuit told BakerHostetler that, no, they can’t represent an alleged fraudster when they’d previously been representing the victim. It seemed straightforward enough and frankly it was a little shocking that the firm thought they could get away with it. But not as shocking as new emails out there suggesting that after being ordered off the case, BakerHostetler continued acting as shadow counsel for Prevezon, a company at the heart of the Russian influence campaign that ensnared the Trump campaign.

It was the brouhaha over the Magnitsky Act that brought Natalia Veselnitskaya to Trump Tower during the campaign. That law was named after Sergei Magnitsky, the attorney who inspired U.S. sanctions on Russia after dying in Russian custody for exposing… the fraud Prevezon was charged with.

After the courts benchslapped BakerHostetler for trying to perform an endrun around basic professional responsibility, it seemed as though this was over. But new documents acquired by the Dossier Center and reported by the Daily Beast indicate that BakerHostetler took this order and promptly wiped its proverbial ass with it.

Emails apparently sent to and from lawyers at BakerHostetler, however, suggest that the law firm continued to serve Prevezon as a kind of shadow counsel even after the disqualification.

Once that ruling had been handed down, leaked emails indicate that in November 2016 Cymrot at BakerHostetler suggested an alternative lawyer who could be hired by Veselnitskaya to work for Prevezon. In an email sent five months later, Cymrot said BakerHostetler had still discussed the case “on a regular basis” and would continue to hold “team” meetings with the new counsel.

Despite being disqualified from taking part in the case, the emails suggest BakerHostetler helped draft the settlement with the U.S. government in May 2017 and even acted as a go-between, passing on messages and an invoice from the new lawyer, Mike Hess. Hess did not respond to questions from The Daily Beast. BakerHostetler was asked about this and other allegations, but did not respond.

Oh, and the documents say that Faith Gay, then of Quinn Emanuel and now of Selendy & Gay, was also publicly representing Prevezon while coordinating with BakerHostetler behind the scenes. Apparently there’s an email from a Quinn associate in 2017 flagging the “question” that could be raised if people learned that BakerHostetler was still working on the case.

If you’re thinking that the work BakerHostetler was doing for Prevezon sounds like the sort of work Skadden was doing in Ukraine — work that probably should have triggered registering as a foreign lobbyist — well, that’s an issue too!

At the end of April 2016, emails suggest a BakerHostetler invoice addressed to HRAGIF described professional services at a cost of $111,387.45, including issues relating to the Magnitsky list, which named the sanctioned individuals, for “review and markup materials regarding issues with Magnitsky Act” and “materials for Congressional committee.” It also included numerous line items on time spent discussing “lobbying registration requirements” and “review of… FARA requirements,” as well as drafting the “certificate of incorporation” to set up HRAGIF in the first place.

According to a leaked email dated July 14, 2016, [Mark] Cymrot wrote to Veselnitskaya to explain the invoices. “Natalia: I am attaching the HRAGIF and Prevezon matter,” the email says. “It now contains 5 months of Baker time, which is largely support for the public relations effort.”

“It seems that the purpose in creating this nonprofit was to avoid registration under FARA, and they would not be the first law firm to try and use that tactic to avoid registration,” Fischer, from the Campaign Legal Center, told The Daily Beast. “That’s what Manafort did on behalf of the Ukrainian political party and it’s also what helped lead to the charges against him because the evidence showed—and he knew—that the beneficiary of his activities was actually the Ukrainian political party not this innocuously named sham nonprofit.”

The Daily Beast quotes former prosecutor Cristy Phillips delivering the best summary of what BakerHostetler’s actions mean if all of this turns out to be true:

“The integrity of our judicial system depends on lawyers upholding their obligations as officers of the court. Most fundamentally, if a court issues an order, lawyers have to follow it and make sure that others on their side follow it. There were numerous senior lawyers on these emails and they all clearly violated a Second Circuit court order. And these were not inexperienced lawyers, several of them are former Department of Justice attorneys,” she told The Daily Beast.

“We’re talking about a case where witnesses had died and other witnesses’ lives and safety had been threatened. These were not low-stakes decisions.”

Email Leak Exposes Trump Tower Russian’s Dirty Lobbying Operations [Daily Beast]


HeadshotJoe 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.

Having A Supreme Court Clerkship On Your Résumé Might Be Overrated

Listen, we all know the Supreme Court clerkship club is one of, if not the, most exclusive clubs in the entirety of the legal profession. And Above the Law has certainly done our part in perpetuating that belief, what with breathlessly reporting on each hiring decision. But what if maybe, just maybe, Supreme Court clerkships weren’t the gold seal of excellence in the legal profession many believe it to be?

Cue the chant.

At an event last week hosted by the National Constitution Center marking 100 years of clerkships on the Supreme Court, former SCOTUS clerks appearing on the panel thought there was too much importance placed on the job. As reported by Big Law Business:

“Do I think Supreme Court clerks are untalented? No. I think that hiring somebody who has worked at the court does give you an inside perspective,” said Rory Little, a visiting professor at Yale Law School. Little is an experienced high court clerk who worked for Justices William Brennan, John Paul Stevens, and Potter Stewart.

“But there is certainly a ton of people who are amazingly talented at whatever they’re doing who didn’t clerk there,” said Little

Little went on to note that the emphasis Biglaw firms place on their SCOTUS clerk hires in their pitch materials to clients is overblown. And Little wasn’t alone in his assessment of clerkships as the golden ticket of lawyering:

John Elwood, head of the appellate and Supreme Court practice at Arnold & Porter in Washington and a clerk for former Justice Anthony Kennedy, agreed.

“I know Supreme Court clerks who are not very good lawyers and who are not very good writers,” Elwood said. “And I know people who have never clerked on the Supreme Court who are vastly more talented.”

So remember, while having a clerkship on your résumé might be a nice feather in your cap, it is far from the only thing that makes a great lawyer.


Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

First Monday Musings by Dean Vik Amar: Some Preliminary Thoughts On 2019 Bar-Pass Rates

(Image via Getty)

As has been reported in a number of venues (including on ATL last week by Kathryn Rubino), bar-passage rates in many states are looking better this fall than last fall.  Although large jurisdictions like California, New York, and Texas have yet to report their results, an aggregate national improvement in passage rates this year is likely given that we already know that 2019 average national performance on the multistate, multiple-choice component of the bar exam (a component which is used across the country and which in many states also serves as the baseline to which the essay or performance-exam scores are scaled) improved compared to 2018.  And results so far from large states — small states with a fewer takers are less likely to representative of national trends — like Illinois and Florida seem to bear out these expectations.

Indeed, in some ways, the bar-passage percentages being reported by states so far this year may actually understate the true improvement in bar outcomes, since in the 30 or so states that have adopted the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) a taker is reported as having failed if his score doesn’t meet the passing threshold in the state in which he physically took the UBE, even if he plans to and does successfully transfer his UBE score to another state with a lower UBE-passing threshold.

For example, if someone sits for the UBE in Illinois and gets a 263, she is listed by Illinois as having failed because Illinois’ UBE cut score is 266, even if her plan had all along been to use her UBE score to be admitted in Minnesota, where the cut score is 260, and she took the UBE in Chicago rather than Minneapolis simply for reasons of convenience.  Indeed, because it should not matter where one takes the UBE — that’s the whole point of the UBE — the ABA reports on bar passage at each school, the data for which is not collected until February of the next year (by which time we can know if someone actually did transfer a UBE score to a state other than the one where the UBE was taken), should list such a person as having passed rather than failed.  This is especially true now (since this summer) that the ABA’s bar-passage standard for law school accreditation does not look to “first-time” success at all, but rather to “ultimate” success (that is, passage within two years of law school graduation).  First-time pass numbers have no regulatory relevance, but are publicly reported simply for consumer benefit.  And since where people take the UBE may be irrelevant to where they seek to practice, consumers may be misled rather than informed if the hypothetical Chicago UBE taker described above is listed as having failed rather than passed.  Since I’m talking about the May 2019 changes in ABA bar-passage standards, let me mention another underdiscussed aspect — the apparent requirement that law schools disclose bar-passage statistics by race, ethnicity, and gender as well as in the aggregate.  Some states have historically made public bar-pass rata on an ethnicity-by-ethnicity basis statewide, but not for each law school.  In interpreting such school-specific data, consumers should be careful to realize that at some law schools, the number of exam takers in some underrepresented ethnic or racial groups may be too small over a one- or two-year period to generate any statistically significant inferences.

Even though results at the national level this year will be better than for the July 2018 exam, I would not go so far as Ms. Rubino did when she wrote that this year’s results so far “actually look impressive.”  July 2018 results were abysmal, and July 2019 results may take us back, roughly speaking, to where we were nationally in 2017, which itself was quite a poor year by historical standards.  I am speaking here in broad generalities — many law schools have had bar pass rates that have held up quite well; indeed, at the University of Illinois, we have been lucky enough over the past four years to see pass rates higher than our (already strong) historical averages.  But if we are looking at all law schools throughout the country, and if the baseline is not 2018, but rather 2012 or 2013, then we are still far away from “normalcy.”

Still, any improvement is to be welcomed, and it behooves us to think about what accounts for (what I hope is the beginning of a sustained) national improvement in pass rates.  A number of factors might be responsible for this year’s uptick.  First, the reduction in law school class size might mean fewer people are graduating law schools who lack the academic skills to pass a bar exam.  Certainly a decrease in the size of graduating law school classes seems to be the biggest factor driving the improved job placement statistics we have seen for the classes graduating in 2017 and 2018.  (Again, I am speaking in the national aggregate here; a particular law school’s dramatic improvement or small decline in placement success might be attributed to school-specific factors.)  That is to say, a right-sizing between supply and demand for new lawyers has helped boost employment rates.

With regard to bar passage, it might be that law schools (for better or worse) are taking fewer chances on admitting people who might lack the academic preparation for law school and bar passage success (or perhaps schools are more actively ushering such students out after the 1L year so that these students never graduate.)  It is hard to know how powerful this explanation is, since even if we can observe that law schools have improved the LSAT scores and college GPAs recorded at the 25th percentile of their entering classes (and students with scores and grades in the bottom quartile are thought to be most academically at risk within any law school), the 25th percentile numbers don’t tell us what the distributional tail — that is, the makeup of the people within the bottom quartile — looks like.

A second explanation is that law schools are doing a better job, whether by tweaking their first-year curricula, adding remedial classes for students most at risk of bar failure, or (even more simply) by incorporating more multiple-choice or closed-book (or both) components into their assessment practices.

My guess is that both of these factors are playing a role.  But it might also be that the lion’s share of the credit goes to the 2019 graduates themselves, and the seriousness with which they studied for the bar exam.  While law school grades can be a significant predictor of bar success at many law schools, even people who did not fare well on law school exams can very often study hard for and succeed on the bar exam itself.  Indeed, my anecdotal sense is that, for many good law schools at least, bar-prep ethic more than any other single variable might help explain who happens to fail the exam.

Let’s hope the improvement trend around the country continues in 2020 and a year from now we are trying to figure out what explains the upswing rather than trying to understand any backslide.


Vikram David Amar Vik AmarVikram Amar is the Dean of the University of Illinois College of Law, where he also serves the Iwan Foundation Professor of Law. His primary fields of teaching and study are constitutional law, federal courts, and civil and criminal procedure. A fuller bio and CV can be found at https://www.law.illinois.edu/faculty/profile/VikramAmar, and he can be reached at amar@illinois.edu.

Zimbabwe quintet to perform only Georgia show at Emma Kelly in Statesboro – The Zimbabwean

The ensemble’s concerts are performed with pure voices, augmented by minimalistic percussion, traditional instruments such as the Mbira (thumb piano) and organic, authentic dance movements.

The group will perform its only concert in Georgia on the Jan Brown Anderson stage of the Emma Kelly Theater on Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. This one-of-a-kind opportunity is sponsored by Bulloch Broadband, Kids World and Summertime Enterprises Inc.

Reserved seat tickets are $22 for adults and $10 for students and can be purchased by visiting the Averitt Center’s main gallery, open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Saturday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., and  by calling 912-212-2787 or online at averittcenterforthearts.org/performances-events. If you’re a fan of Ladysmith Black Mambazo or Sweet Honey in the Rock, you definitely want to check-out this ensemble of young African female performers who celebrate and preserve their culture through innovative music, cleverly mixing past and present.

Nobuntu was nominated for “Best Musician of the Year” at the Zimbabwe International Women Awards in London in 2015 and is currently a two-time winner for the “Best Imbube Group” at the Bulawayo Arts Awards 2017 and 2019.  In the last few seasons, the quintet has performed at festivals and concert halls in Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic and throughout the African continent. The ensemble was a huge critical success at “Trans-Vocal” in Frankfurt and “Voice Mania” in Vienna. Their first tour to Canada, in 2016, included performances in Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Victoria.

The word Nobuntu is an African concept that values humbleness, love, purpose, unity and family from a woman’s perspective. The ensemble represents a new generation of young African women singers who celebrate and preserve their culture, beauty and heritage through art.

The ensemble’s mission is the belief that music can be an important vehicle for change, one that transcends racial, tribal, religious, gender and economic boundaries.

Back at home, Nobuntu holds a number of community initiatives, one of which is The Nobuntu Pad Bank where they gather sanitary pads for young women in the arts in underprivileged communities.

Nobuntu has released three recordings: “Thina” in 2013, “Ekhaya” in 2016 and “Obabes beMbube” in 2018. The group has made numerous television and radio appearances throughout Africa and Europe promoting these recordings and the culture of their homeland.

Layoffs Watch ’19: Lazard Asset Management

The index funds have come for a few dozen of your jobs.

UK matches Zimbabwe landmine fund after Prince Harry tour – The Zimbabwean

Prince Harry: “Landmines are an unhealed scar of war”

The UK will give Zimbabwe up to £2 million to help remove landmines after the Duke of Sussex backed the cause on his recent tour of Africa.

The government said it would match public donations to the Halo Trust’s Zimbabwe appeal.

Prince Harry followed his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, by wearing body armour and a protective visor on a visit to a minefield in Angola.

The Zimbabwe appeal aims to help 3,000 people get access to safe land.

Prince Harry’s visit, which was part of a tour of southern Africa with his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, highlighted the ongoing threat of land munitions.

Princess Diana's visit to Angola in 1997REUTERS Diana’s visit to Angola in 1997 provided an iconic image of the campaigning princess

Last month, he visited the same place in Angola as his mother Diana, whose trip in 1997 helped focus calls on world leaders to ban the weapons.

“Landmines are an unhealed scar of war. By clearing the landmines we can help this community find peace and with peace comes opportunity,” he said.

Prince Harry in AngolaThe Duke of Sussex sits beneath the Diana tree in Huambo, Angola

International Development Secretary Alok Sharma said: “Landmines are indiscriminate weapons of war that maim and kill innocent men, women and children.

“Their devastation lasts long after conflict has ended.”

The Halo Trust aims to clear 105,600 square metres of land in Zimbabwe in a year which, the charity said, will help more than 3,000 people get access to safe land which is vital for producing food and creating jobs.

Some 1,600 have lost their lives due to landmines since the war in the region ended in the 1980s, the government said.

James Cowan, of Halo, added: “We will clear twice as many minefields and help twice as many people thanks to this new support.”

AU must act on Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary

Post published in: Featured

Morning Docket: 10.07.19

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

* It’s back to work for the justices of the Supreme Court as the October Term 2019 gets started today, with major cases on LGBTQ rights, immigration, abortion, guns, and religion scheduled to be heard over the course of this year. Here’s a good summary of five cases to watch. [New York Times]

* Are appellate advocates ready for a kinder, gentler experience before the Supreme Court? They’ll now receive two minutes of uninterrupted time at the beginning of oral arguments. This is a “dramatic change” of pace for the high court. [National Law Journal]

* According to Mark Zaid, the lawyer for whistleblower #1, there are now two whistleblowers on President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, and the second one reportedly has firsthand knowledge of some of the allegations detailed in the original complaint. [ABC News]

* “All of you know your Constitution. The way that impeachment stops is a Senate majority with me as majority leader.“ Sen. Mitch McConnell is promising to end the impeachment proceedings against Trump in his latest campaign ads. [Louisville Courier Journal]

* Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes hasn’t paid her lawyers in more than a year, and now they’ve asked a judge to let them off her case. “It is unfair and unreasonable to require Cooley to continue representing Ms. Holmes in this action,” her disgruntled attorneys wrote in their motion. [Mercury News]

* “[If] I cannot keep my oath of office, I’d rather die than live without honor.” A judge in Thailand shot himself in court in an apparent attempt to take his own life after acquitting men of murder charges whom he’d reportedly been pressured to convict. [The Guardian]


Staci ZaretskyStaci 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.

AU must act on Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary – The Zimbabwean

https://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/48849150892/sizes/m/

The MDC says that the African Union must take action before the situation in Zimbabwe spirals out of control. It urges the organisation to exercise the UN recognised ‘right to protect’.

The party’s deputy spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said the situation provided a test for Africa. ‘Our brothers and sisters on the continent cannot just watch while citizens are brutalised and harassed by their own government when they have adequate legal safeguards to take action.’

In a letter to the African Union, the MDC says that, under the AU’s own constitution, it has the right to intervene in a member state in grave circumstances.

‘Grave circumstances are an apt summation of the situation in Zimbabwe. It is our humble submission that there are crimes against humanity being committed by the State in Zimbabwe, given the abduction of innocent citizens, the proscription of the right to demonstrate and the callous murder by State security agents of over 20 citizens on August 1, 2018 and in January 2019,’ the MDC said.

For his part, a US spokesman has repeated American concerns over the Zimbabwe situation. He said: ‘We have great concerns over the space that’s available for democracy and governance in Zimbabwe. We have been alarmed at how the government has treated its own citizens.’

If, as suggested, Zimbabwean bank notes are introduced next month they will soon show the real rate of inflation. The Vigil remembers that its barely a decade ago when wheelbarrows were used to go shopping – not to bring back goods but to carry the bank notes. The wizards at the finance ministry and the reserve bank must explain how you can import if you don’t export, except with the money we in the diaspora send home or foreign aid and loans.

Among those feeling the pinch is former Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko who has gone to the High Court seeking payment of his pension. Mphoko, who was in office for three years until last year, said that so far he hadn’t received a cent in pension and was now owed US$308,000. We hope he doesn’t get a bean because some time ago one of our activists said he was a family friend but had raped her.

Other points

  • Next week marks the 17th anniversary of the Vigil – 17 years outside the Embassy every Saturday . . . and the situation at home gets ever worse.
  • Special thanks to Rosemary Maponga and Heather Makawa who brought a brilliant new banner which reads: To save Zimbabwe, Zanu PF must go. No to Zanu PF – no to abductions and torture.’
  • Thanks to those who helped set up the front table and put up the banners today: Jonathan Kariwo, Patricia Masamba, Tarisai Matambanadzo, Joyce Mbairatsunga, Washington Mugari, Tsitsi Nyirongo, Hazvinei Saili and Rudo Takiya. Thanks to Hazvinei and Tsitsi for looking after the front table, to Tarisai and Patience Chimba for handing out flyers, to Delice Gavazah and Rangarirai Chivariro for drumming and to Patricia and Jonathan for photos.
  • For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimb88abwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website.

FOR THE RECORD: 25 signed the register.

 

EVENTS AND NOTICES:

  • The Zimbabwe Vigil’s 17th Anniversary. Saturday 12th October from 2 – 5 pm outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, London. The Zimbabwe Vigil started on 12th October 2002 so this will be 17 years to the day that the Vigil has protested against human rights abuses and for democracy in Zimbabwe. Please join us for this auspicious anniversary.
  • ROHR general members’ meeting. Saturday 12th October from 11.30 am. Venue: Royal Festival Hall, South Bank Centre, Belvedere Road SE1 8XX. Contact: Ephraim Tapa 07940793090, Patricia Masamba 07708116625, Esther Munyira 07492058109.
  • ROHR fundraising dinner dance. Saturday 2nd November from 6 pm till late. Venue tba. ROHR is hosting a dinner dance to raise funds for a Zimbabwe peace building initiative. Tickets £25. Contact: Esther Munyira 07492058109, Hazvinei Saili 07857602830, Margaret Munenge 07384300283, Pamela Chirimuta 07762737339.
  • The Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s partner organization based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil to have an organization on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way represents us.
  • The Vigil’s book ‘Zimbabwe Emergency’ is based on our weekly diaries. It records how events in Zimbabwe have unfolded as seen by the diaspora in the UK. It chronicles the economic disintegration, violence, growing oppression and political manoeuvring – and the tragic human cost involved. It is available at the Vigil. All proceeds go to the Vigil and our sister organisation the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe’s work in Zimbabwe. The book is also available from Amazon.
  • Facebook pages:
    Vigil: https://www.facebook.com/zimbabwevigi
    ROHR: https://www.facebook.com/Restoration-of-Human-Rights-ROHR-Zimbabwe-International-370825706588551/
    ZAF: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zimbabwe-Action-Forum-ZAF/490257051027515
Livelihoods assets: differentiated development in Zimbabwe

Post published in: Featured

Livelihoods assets: differentiated development in Zimbabwe – The Zimbabwean

This week’s blog continues the series with a look at the distribution of assets people have and their importance in building livelihoods.

Our four communal area sites across Masvingo province each have highly differentiated populations. We undertook a ‘success ranking’ in each, where local informants allocated each of the 608 households in our sample to a group (doing well, doing OK and failing), and explained the reasons behind their choice. In each case there was a majority in the bottom two categories, with relatively few in the top success group.

What were the criteria they used? These varied between sites. In the dryland areas of the Lowveld, cattle ownership was the key, alongside off-farm work, reflecting the importance of migration to South Africa in household economies. In the Gutu sites, crop production became more of an indicator, alongside remittances and formal jobs. In all sites ‘a good home’ (usually meaning a brick house, with a tin roof) was an important criterion.

What then are the characteristics of the households in our four sites? The table below offers some basic information.

  Mwenezi Chivi Gutu West Gutu North
Sample size (N) 150 251 97 110
Since 2011, % left and abandoned farms 6.3 13.4 14.9 9.8
Average household size 8.0 (4 under 16) 6.2 (3.1 under 16) 6 (2.3) 6.1 (2.3)
Female headed households (%) 23 27 36 34
Households w members who went to resettlement areas post 2000 (%) 11.3 1.9 3.1 3.6
Households with someone working elsewhere 55 25 45 21
Households with children aged 21-30 working elsewhere 63% (half in SA) 27% (inc. 13 working abroad) 27% (only 5 away from area) 41 (8 away, mostly SA)
Lead women in household with access to land (%) 48 43 48 21
Average age of household head 41-50 41-50 41-50 41-50
Household heads attending school above Form 2 (%) 29 26 32 37
Master Famer certificate (%) 14 13 27 26

Since our original studies, there has been a turnover in households, with 11.2% of our cases (N=77) from our original sample of 685 households having left over six years, with no one replacing them. Various reasons for exit were recorded. In rank order these were: death, moving to live in town, moving to other communal areas, moving to South Africa, abandonment and moving to a resettlement area. Ageing communal area populations are not necessarily being replaced on death, as the younger generation does not take up the homestead or plot, and the land remains abandoned. Due to old age, some parents, especially if one has passed on, will go and live with children in town or the new resettlements. Younger inhabitants may also abandon plots too, finding better alternatives, for example with work in South Africa or in town, or through the allocation of a resettlement plot. The highest rate of exit was seen in Gutu West, followed by Chivi, Gutu North and Mwenezi. In Mwenezi, some maintain two homes and fields in the communal and resettlement areas, which is reflected in a lower exit rate.

For those remaining, the data show a pattern evident in many communal areas. Household heads have a mix of ages, with an average in the mid-late 40s. Quite a few household heads have passed on since we last visited in 2011-12; although some farms have been abandoned, others have been replaced by younger people through inheritance or reallocation. 23-36% of the households are recorded as female-headed, where husbands have died or are absent for long periods. Outside Gutu North, where land is especially constrained, 43-48% of women, either because they are in charge or through the marriage contract, have access to their own land.

As is the case throughout Zimbabwe, and especially for those who benefited from the post-1980 educational provision, schooling is on average quite advanced, more so in the mission influenced areas such as Gutu, where 32-37% of household heads attended secondary school. Master Farmer certificates are indicators or engagement with agricultural extension training provided by the state, particularly in the past, and 13-27% of households have a certificate, with more in the higher potential Gutu areas. As discussed in a later blog in this series, engagement with projects – by NGOs or donors or the state – is patchy, with intensive activity in some areas, but almost complete absence elsewhere. These data show that external interventions overall are limited, and very few people indeed benefited from the Presidential inputs scheme or ‘command agriculture’ in this period.

Asset poor, but differentiation

Across our communal area sites in Masvingo province, there is a broad similarity in average levels of average household asset ownership, as the table below shows. Not surprisingly, livestock ownership is highest in the drier areas, as is investment in well digging. Within the sites there are large variations, with asset ownership patterns being highly correlated with the success ranks discussed above. Some assets are widely owned, such as a brick house with a tin roof, as well as ploughs, cell phones and bicycles. Others differentiate the group more, including cattle, tractor and car ownership.

  Mwenezi Chivi Gutu West Gutu North
Land owned (ha) 6.5 2.1 1.6 1.4
% households dug well in last 5 years 14 2 2 8
Cattle owned (nos) 7.6 4.0 3.1 3.7
Households with brick/tin roof house (%) 89 80 69 86
Plough ownership (%) 52 45 30 37
Harrows (%) 10 34 22 65
Cultivators 12 23 26 16
Cart ownership (%) 50 21 10 24
Wheelbarrow owned 41 50 21 25
Car ownership (%) 13 5 10 8
Tractor ownership (%) 13 0 0 0
Bicycle ownership (%) 45 32 36 43
Solar panel ownership (%) 75 57 69 47
Cell phone ownership (%) 87 92 89 91
TVs owned (%) 23 25 44 30
Pumps owned (%) 5 1 2 2
Spray equipment owned (%) 22 35 21 15

Levels of asset ownership are lower on average in the communal areas compared to the nearby A1 schemes, although there are exceptions in both directions. The key difference of course in the A1 schemes is land ownership, where households cultivate 4.0-6.6 ha of land in the sites nearby, and there is much more extensive grazing. This is associated with accumulation from crop and livestock production and so investment in other productive and service assets. Again, this is not universal, but whereas perhaps 5-10% of households in the communal areas (the top of our success group 1) are able to accumulate from local production, this increases to 30-40% in the A1 areas next door.

People’s capacities are broadly similar (A1 resettlement area populations are on average slightly younger and a bit more educated), but it’s access to assets that make the difference. Land redistribution in particular has made a big difference for many. While in the communal areas there is a long tail of asset and income poor households in need of external support, through remittances, off-farm work and state/donor aid, with only a few able to accumulate through farm-based production, in the A1 resettlements this pattern is reversed and there is much more development potential driven by ‘accumulation from below’ for at least a third of households. For them, a positive upward cycle is generated, as agricultural surpluses allow reinvestment in productive assets, and so potentials for greater accumulation, while others aspire to create such opportunities.

As discussed in later blogs, this has important implications for rural development options, with investment in productive, agriculture-based development possible in the resettlements (focused on ‘stepping up’ livelihoods), but much less so in the communal areas, where a focus on exit to non-farm livelihoods (‘stepping out’) and social protection (‘hanging in’) must dominate.

This post is the second in a series of nine and was written by Ian Scoones and first appeared on Zimbabweland.

This field research was led by Felix Murimbarimba and Jacob Mahenehene. Data entry was undertaken by Tafadzwa Mavedzenge

AU must act on Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary
The Water Crisis Fact Sheet No. 2, 2019

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The Water Crisis Fact Sheet No. 2, 2019 – The Zimbabwean

1 Lack of key water treatment chemicals forced Harare’s water treatment plant Morton Jaffray to halt production on 23 September 2019, leaving over one million people without running water. 2 Harare City Council (HCC) cited foreign currency shortages as the reason for the shutdown. Deputy Mayor, Enock Mupamawonde urged government to declare the water situation a national disaster, enlisting that the local authority needs at least 40 million Zimbabwe Dollars (US$2.7 million) a month for water chemicals, against revenue of 15 million Zimbabwe dollars they collect per month. The World Health Organisation (WHO) stipulates that ideally, every person should access between 50 and 100 litres of water per day to ensure the most basic needs are met and the outbreak of disease is prevented.4 With the serious shortages of this precious and life- saving liquid many citizens in Zimbabwe fall far short of this standard. Citizens need clean water for drinking, personal sanitation, washing of clothes, food preparation and personal and household hygiene.

Sustainable Development Goal 6 urges duty bearers to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. In the current situation this goal remains a pipe dream unless there is more commitment and political will on the part of local and central government to improve the situation.

Even at the continental level, Africa is also concerned by the water deficits most citizens face on the continent and the N’gor Declaration by Africa Water ministers is hinged on highlighting the importance of accessibility of clean and affordable water.

Some residents have resorted to drilling boreholes to access clean water, however, these boreholes require electricity to pump water, something which is a challenge considering the constant power cuts lasting up to 18 hours daily. Generally, many local authorities throughout the country cannot pump running water to residents due to power cuts.5 Those with water tanks on their properties rely on individuals or privately-owned water companies to pump water into the tanks at a considerable cost often pegged in USD.

Residents are mostly dependent on city or donor-drilled boreholes. These water sources are sometimes unclean due to poor sanitation as evidenced by the September 2018 cholera outbreak which resulted in over 30 deaths.6 These boreholes have been monopolised by some unscrupulous individuals who are extorting residents in order for them to get water. In Chitungwiza in Zengeza 4 (Zengeza West constituency) ZPP recorded a truck selling a bucket of water at $1.50 ZWL. Desperate residents are left with no option but to purchase the water.7 In Epworth Constituency, Ward 2, three youths are manning a borehole and forcing residents to purchase two buckets of water at $1.50 ZWL.8 Women and children especially young girls bear the brunt of the water crisis. This group spends most of their days looking for water and there have been unconfirmed reports of men soliciting sexual favours from women so that they easily access water at boreholes. School children spend long hours in water queues resulting in them getting to school tired as they at times queue up to the early hours of the morning.

Without water, the chances of them attending school and learning productively are compromised. The water and sanitation crisis places millions of residents at risk of contracting waterborne diseases. Residents have often resorted to drinking water from shallow, unprotected wells that are contaminated. The crisis has brought about issues of extortion, exploitation and school absenteeism. ZPP is also concerned about the conflicts that erupt at the watering holes as citizens jostle to get their buckets ahead of the many hoping to get the precious liquid ahead of everyone else.

ZPP calls upon government and local authorities to ensure the right to water is protected and upheld. Every citizen must enjoy the right to clean and safe water. Law enforcement agents should bring to book those responsible for the extortion of citizens, particularly the exploitation of women and children especially young girls. The peace and security of women and young girls who spend countless hours waiting in long queues to draw water is unfortunately not guaranteed. ZPP also calls on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission to seriously investigate the acute shortages of water faced by citizens in most urban centres.

Compiled and published by the Zimbabwe Peace Project

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