Author: TSA Press

* Data indicate the average attorney salary has doubled over the last 20 years. Adjusted for inflation though that’s about a 25 percent bump. Meanwhile, if law school tuition over that period only increased 25 percent, schools would be $40K cheaper now. [Law.com]

* Predictably, a staffing shortage is being blamed for Epstein’s death so everyone can start the push to hire a ton more guards rather than revisit overcrowding or reforming fundamental incarceration policies. [Huffington Post]

* Trump goes to war with the bald eagle. Finally, his revenge is complete. [NY Daily News]

* California and New York ban discrimination based on hairstyle almost 30 years after the Paulette Caldwell article pointing out exactly how messed up this practice is. [Law360]

* Biglaw shows up in force to help Burford fight back against short seller. [American Lawyer]

* ‘Space Law and Poop’ is coming to a 3L seminar near you. [Live Science]

* Ninth Circuit shuts down another attempt to get college football players a cut of the money they earn. [Courthouse News Service]

Vesta says it saddens her to see husband Teddie sitting in the same place “from morning to night”

Retired couple Teddie and Vesta always imagined they would live out their golden years with dignity.

He is 85, and served one company for 46 years as a cleaner, eventually rising to become a receptionist. Vesta says that increasing inflation has robbed them both of a comfortable retirement.

A year ago Teddie’s monthly pension was worth $80 (£66), it’s now worth $10.

“I am saddened when I see my beloved sitting in that corner from morning to night,” Vesta tells the BBC.

“I would love to give him a banana, an orange or a cool drink. But we can’t afford it. A banana costs $0.40.”

The signs of a failing economy are everywhere. Supermarket trolleys are hardly ever full these days and shoppers linger, contemplating their purchases.

The prices of basics like sugar and cooking oil jumped by 200% in the 12 months to June, according to official statistics. So did the price of healthcare.

Meanwhile the cost of bread has gone up fivefold since April.

As of June 2019, inflation had already hit 98%. In July, the local currency, the Zimbabwe dollar, was reintroduced after a decade of using the US dollar and other international currencies. Annual inflation then soared to 176%.

The local currency’s value has continued to drop but the government has now suspended the publication of inflation statistics, citing the change of currency.

The latest economic crisis comes as Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa marks his first anniversary as an elected leader.

Robert Mugabe was ousted when his long-time ally-turned-rival swept to power with the military’s help in November 2017. Elections were held on 30 July the following year.

President Mnangagwa has dubbed this era the “second republic” – one based on recovery, entrenching democracy and reversing decades of ruinous policies under his predecessor.

Initially many Zimbabweans believed him.

Zimbabweans were initially hopeful that the ousting of Robert Mugabe would persuade investors to return, bringing much-needed cash injections to local businesses.

But hope has faded and old ghosts have returned.

Fuel is in short supply. The government says it doesn’t have enough foreign currency to buy it. Rolling power blackouts are also back.

Authorities blame ageing power plants, low electricity tariffs as well as the worst drought in 40 years which threatens to shut down the main hydro-electric plant at Kariba.

A constant hum has returned to the city – the sound of generators – as boutiques, restaurants, supermarkets try to stay in business. With a sevenfold increase in fuel costs since January, this too will force prices of goods up and further fuel inflation.

‘No quick fix’

Business representatives say power cuts, sometimes lasting up to 18 hours a day, have cost the country $200m (£165m) in lost revenue.

AFP

Newly appointed Energy Minister Fortune Chasi believes there is no quick fix.

Despite a recent 300% tariff hike, electricity is still heavily subsidised by the state. Zesa, the state power firm, is virtually broke.

“The anger and frustration is understandable and should translate into creating a viable entity,” Mr Chasi tells the BBC.

“Our tariff is still below cost-effectiveness and we have a delicate commodity. That is why I keep saying people should pay their bills: Zesa is owed $1.2bn.

“Everyone from every sector owes money.”

Economists say inflation is likely to continue to surge. Local production remains low, causing an over-reliance on imports and a shortage of foreign currency.

Government spending, meanwhile, remains excessive and investor confidence low.

President Mnangagwa, seen here lighting a torch on independence day, says he wants to deepen democracy in Zimbabwe

The authorities have introduced austerity measures – these lowered subsidies on fuel, power and healthcare and drove up prices for Zimbabweans. President Mnangagwa believes this is essential to boost production.

“It hasn’t been easy. Good ground worth celebrating has been covered with your help,” the president said in a televised address to the nation, marking a year since his election victory.

“A solid foundation has been laid for more and greater gains in the future,” he continued, “and while the beginning may be painful, the middle- to long-run will deliver more jobs, economic stability, growth and development.”

Austerity bites

Critics of President Mnangagwa say he is flying blind, and rashly implementing ill-considered policies without consultation. They believe he is leading Zimbabwe back to 2008.

That was the year Zimbabwe hit the record books. Inflation peaked at 500bn%. Bank notes from that time, including one for 100 trillion, are now collectors’ items.

Economist Godfrey Kanyenze says the country could be on the brink of hyperinflation.

“Hyperinflation is when month-on-month inflation rises above 50%,” he explains. “In June it was at 39%. We are currently 11% short of hyperinflation, so this is chronic high inflation.”

He doesn’t believe Zimbabwe’s government has a workable, long-term plan for recovery.

“Most developed countries undertake social impact analysis. Before you implement a policy, you project its likely social impact, then you prepare for it,” Mr Kanyenze says.

“But there wasn’t that preparation, especially in the area of salaries.”

One new measure however has succeeded in cushioning Zimbabweans against rising costs. Public transport subsidies now mean commuters pay about a quarter of what private sector operators charge for the same journeys.

Mr Mnangagwa’s supporters argue that it was always unrealistic to expect a quick fix to dampen a crisis that has been decades in the making.

There is some light, though. Zimbabwe says it has paid some its debt to South Africa’s state-owned power utility, Eskom, paving the way for some imported power.

Meanwhile the government has warned that the economy will contract this year. This is hardly good news for pensioners like Teddie and Vesta.

They don’t want to hear that before things get better for Zimbabweans, they are likely to get worse.

Post published in: Business

First published by ISS Today

A year ago on 1 August 2018, Zimbabwean soldiers killed six civilians on the streets of Harare. The date also marks the moment President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s carefully laid plans started to unravel.

To encourage investment, Mnangagwa had intended to show a commitment to democracy through an election in July 2018 which would pass as halfway respectable. He almost succeeded, until violent protesters took to the streets of Harare demanding the immediate release of the election results.

Under the command of Brigadier-General Anselem Sanyatwe, soldiers were deployed to contain the situation. They did so by firing live ammunition at fleeing and terrified civilians who happened to be in the city centre at the time. When the smoke cleared, the six dead lay in pools of blood before the cameras of the international media who had gathered to report on the polls.

Everyone wanted to know who was to blame for the deployment of armed soldiers against civilians, presenting the administration with a dilemma. If government admitted that this was the decision of defence minister and former Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantino Chiwenga, who had led the November 2017 “coup” that brought Mnangagwa to power, this would be to throw an important ally under the bus.

Under Zimbabwe’s new constitution, the military can only be deployed for public order purposes with the authority of the president. Without such authority, Chiwenga’s decision would have been unlawful. If presidential authority had been given, the blood of the six was on Mnangagwa’s hands.

Mnangagwa remained silent on the question of authorisation, avoiding such awkward questions by moving quickly to establish a commission of inquiry. He appointed seven commissioners who would be required, in part, to investigate his own conduct. To give the commission a veneer of respectability, four of the seven were from outside Zimbabwe.

The commission was headed by former South African president Kgalema Motlanthe. That the commission’s task was damage control was made apparent by the inclusion among the commissioners of well-known Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front apologist Charity Manyeruke, and by the fact that one of the terms of reference of the commission was to determine what “necessitated” the deployment of soldiers thus foreclosing inquiry into a crucial aspect of the events.

The result was a report tailor-made to Mnangagwa’s requirements. The report commences by contrasting Mnangagwa’s calls for peace before the elections, with what is called ‘overwhelming video evidence’ of Movement for Democratic Change-Alliance (MDC-A) leader Nelson Chamisa inciting violence.

As an example, the report references a video of a rural rally addressed by Chamisa and, presumably, this video was selected as being the most illustrative. Clicking on the link given in the pdf of the report takes one back to the report online and not to the expected video clip.

A video of the entire rally is, however, available on YouTube. Chamisa speaks entirely in Shona, so only the three Zimbabwean commissioners could have understood what he said. Chamisa does not say the words ‘quoted’ in the report or anything even remotely similar.

Other video evidence in this regard referred to by the commissioners is similarly defective. Yet this “evidence” clearly informed the finding by the commission that the MDC-A was responsible for the violent demonstration and that it was pre-planned.

This isn’t the only key finding based on patently fabricated evidence. The commission found that the troops had been deployed in accordance with constitutional requirements. For this, they accepted a paper trail supplied by the government.

This comprised a letter by the district police chief on the ground to the provincial police chief; a letter from the commissioner-general of police to the home affairs minister; and then a letter from the home affairs minister to Chiwenga as the defence minister. These letters all followed the procedure set out in a section of Zimbabwe’s public order legislation – a section rendered void by the later constitutional requirement that presidential authority was necessary.

The government dealt with that problem by adding three more letters: one from Chiwenga to the president seeking the necessary authority; a second from Chiwenga to the commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces stating that he had obtained the necessary presidential authority, copied to the home affairs minister; and a third from the latter to the police chief advising of the authorisation. Note the gap in the paper trail at this point.

There is no letter from the president, so we just have Chiwenga’s word for the authorisation, leaving it open to Mnangagwa to deny this if necessary. The troops were deployed at 2.30pm. The request for deployment was made at 1pm. So the commissioners were asked to believe that all six letters were written, printed and hand-delivered in the space of 90 minutes.

That is 15 minutes per letter, with the letters containing citations of the relevant sections of the law and constitution and setting out the events of the morning. Three of the four letters requesting deployment contain the same grammatical error. They were obviously generated ex post facto and, it seems likely, on the advice of the attorney-general.

The recommendations of the commission are no less disingenuous. They include that the perpetrators of crimes on 1 August be prosecuted. In the context of the report, this refers to the demonstrators who destroyed property. And the soldiers who killed people? They are to be regarded as in “breach of discipline”, to be identified by ‘internal military processes’ and “sanctioned”. Even this much has not happened.

Before 1 August 2018, such was the eagerness of the western international community to see an end to the Zimbabwe crisis that it appeared prepared to accept cosmetic changes intended to signal a move towards reform. No more. The United States has ignored the commission’s actual recommendations, and demanded implementation of the report through the criminal prosecution of the soldiers responsible for the killing.

To mark the anniversary, and in the absence of any action by the Government of Zimbabwe, they have slapped a travel ban on Sanyatwe who commanded the soldiers. The commissioners should be marking the anniversary by hanging their heads in shame. DM3

Derek Matyszak is a senior researcher; Peace Operations and Peacebuilding, ISS

Post published in: Featured

“I am not a street kid. I come here to sell my things, go home and use the money to buy food,” said Tanyaradzwa, who did not give his last name to protect his privacy.

With power cuts lasting 19 hours per day, debilitating water shortages, inflation at 175 percent and many basic items in scarce supply, Zimbabwe’s children are the silent victims of the once-prosperous southern African country’s debilitating economic downfall.

For his family of six to eat, Tanyaradzwa must hang around the bar at the popular Elizabeth Hotel in hopes of cashing in on afternoon drinkers and passers-by who want to buy cigarettes, he said.
His parents run a small vegetable stall in Glen View, a working class residential area, but what they make is hardly enough to pay the bills, let alone buy food, he said.
Many people can no longer afford to put food on the table without the help of their children — no matter how young.

Children are forced to juggle between school demands and supplementing the family income through street vending or selling at small stalls.
“These holidays just mean more work. There is no break, because I now have no excuse not to work every day,” said Tanyaradzwa.

On the adjacent, busy street named after former longtime ruler Robert Mugabe, children joined elders pushing fruit and vegetable carts. Some kids held cardboard boxes selling items ranging from cigarettes, cell phone airtime, sweets and clothing.

According to Mercy Mpata, a teachers’ representative, the demands are taking many children’s focus away from school.

“There is a lot of absenteeism because the children have a lot on their plate,” said Mpata, the spokeswoman for the Association of Rural Teachers of Zimbabwe.

“Even if they come (to school), they are either sleepy or, instead of concentrating on school work they are busy thinking ‘Where will we get the next meal if I don’t sell enough items after school today?’“
Teachers have their own grievances. They are paid the equivalent of about $50 a month and, like the rest of the civil service, say they cannot live on those wages, which they call “slave salaries.”

“We live in the community. We interact with these children and their parents. They are like family. That’s why we always try to give it our all … but hungry teachers teaching hungry children, that’s tough,” said Mpata.
The food situation is dire in Zimbabwe, with about a third of the country’s 17 million people being food insecure due to drought and the worsening economy, according to a report released this month by UN agencies, international aid organizations and the government.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the drought a national disaster on Tuesday. On the same day, the UN launched a $331 million appeal to mitigate the unfolding disaster. Children, according to the appeal, are some of the hardest hit. Close to 160,000 children and adolescents will need welfare and child protection services, according to the UN.

“There is a risk that children and adolescents will increasingly experience psychosocial distress as some are likely to drop out of school, pushed away from home to seek employment,” said the UN in its appeal for funds.
Expectations were high that Zimbabwe’s economy would grow following Mugabe’s departure at the end of 2017. But the economy did not take off and will contract 3 percent this year, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, said this month.
After inflation reached a decade-high of 175.6 percent last month, Ncube suspended the country’s monthly inflation reports, saying that last year’s prices were in US dollars and now they are in Zimbabwe’s currency, introduced in June, so they are not comparable.

However, that has not stopped schools from feeling the pinch of rising prices and eroding incomes. For the coming school term, some boarding schools are asking parents to provide food instead of paying school fee increases.
But that’s just for the fortunate children who still have parents and guardians able to afford such boarding facilities.

For many children such as Tanyaradzwa, juggling between school and eking out a living takes a toll, even as they desperately hold on to bouts of hope.

“I have dreams, big ones,” he said, smiling. “I want to be a lawyer.”
To achieve that dream, he is sacrificing much of his childhood.
“There is no time to play with friends,” he said. “The work, the school, it takes all of my time.”

The government announced that the finance minister had concluded the loan agreements in the last few months, the paper says.

But the $23m and $19.5m loans obtained from the Export-Import Bank of India are unlikely to immediately ease rolling blackouts.

The paper says the loans are for upgrading power plants in Bulawayo and Hwange.

Since May, power has only been available in Zimbabwe for seven hours each day, coming on late at night.

Business representatives believe the blackouts have cost the country $200m in lost revenue.

The government has blamed a drought that has led to low water levels at the major hydro-electric dam, Kariba.

It also has little financial capacity to import all its power needs.

Post published in: Business

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