Category: News Feeds

ZANU-PF versus MDC-A : Chairing of Parliamentary Committees

Neither House has been sitting since the Budget was presented on Thursday the 14th, but MPs had a full programme of post-Budget meetings for last week.  The post-Budget Seminar was on Monday 18th November and for the rest of the week there were Portfolio Committee meetings.  These were for post-Budget consultations with relevant Ministries and stakeholders in preparation for the debate on the 2020 National Budget, which is due to resume in the National Assembly on Tuesday 26th November.

The scheduled Portfolio Committee meetings were, however, interrupted by further moves in the ZANU PF campaign against MDC-A MPs in retaliation for absenting themselves from Parliamentary events at which the President was present – such as the opening of Parliament and the Budget Speech.

As noted in Bill Watch 62/2019 [link], after the Budget presentation in the National Assembly on 14th November, a resolution was passed in the absence of MDC-A members, to establish a Committee of Privileges to look into alleged contempt of Parliament by MDC-A MPs.

The next day, ZANU PF committee members forced the abandonment of an important Public Accounts Committee  [PAC] meeting because they objected to the PAC chairperson, MDC-A MP Tendai Biti.

ZANU PF Chief Whip Pupurai Togarepi was later reported as warning that what happened at the PAC meeting was “just a teaser to what they should expect, I can guarantee you that no committee which is being chaired by an MDC-A member will proceed until they recognize President Mnangagwa”.

Targeting of MDC-A Committee Chairpersons is Continuing

Last week the same tactics were employed by ZANU PF committee members against MDC-A committee chairpersons, not always successfully.

On 20th November, in the Environment and Tourism Portfolio Committee meeting, ZANU PF members objected to MDC-A Consilia Chinanzvavana presiding and voted for Robson Mavenyengwa of ZANU PF to preside in her stead; MDC-A committee members present were outvoted 15-3.

Also on the 20th, in the Health and Child Care Portfolio Committee meeting, ZANU PF committee members objected to MDC-A’s Dr Ruth Labode chairing the meeting, but were outvoted by MDC-A members.

On Friday 22nd November a PAC meeting was hearing evidence from Mr Morland, head of Fertiliser, Seed and Grain Ltd, on payments for the Command Agriculture Programme when two ZANU-PF MPs Hon Nduna and Zhou, arriving late, caused such a disturbance that the committee was unable to proceed with its hearing.

Can a Committee Remove its Chairperson? – No

After her ouster from the chair of her committee, Hon Chinanzvavana commented that her ouster had been unconstitutional, not procedural and contrary to Parliament’s Standing Rules and Orders.

Hon Chinanzvavana was correct.

Section 139 of the Constitution states that Parliamentary proceedings must be regulated by Standing Rules and Orders which are drawn up by the Houses on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders [CSRO].

According to the National Assembly’s Standing Rules and Orders, the chairpersons of all Portfolio Committees must be appointed by the CSRO – Standing Order 18.  The chairing and composition of Committees must take into account the number of MPS from each party in Parliament and also gender representation.

It is only if no chairperson has been appointed [which is not applicable in present circumstances] or if the appointed chairperson is absent, that committee members may elect a temporary chairperson for themselves [Select Committee Rules, rule 8].

It follows that only the appointing authority [the CSRO] may remove a chairperson from office, whether temporarily or permanently.

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.

Post published in: Featured

A resolution at the recent SADC Summit chose October 25 as the day for regional governments to articulate and mobilise support for the sanctions imposed two decades ago on Zimbabwe to be lifted.

SADC has claimed that sanctions against Zimbabwe have ultimately been damaging to the region’s economy. The direct link between sanctions and Zimbabwe’s economic crisis has not, however, been made.

October 20 was declared a national holiday in Zimbabwe to encourage citizens to protest against the continued imposition of sanctions, although only 3000 turned out at the national march and the stadium was not even half full.

While the lifting of sanctions would certainly provide economic relief to targeted individuals and entities, they certainly will not serve as a panacea to Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s claim that “sanctions are slowing down our progress, inhibiting our economic recovery and punishing the most vulnerable”, is not borne out by expert research.

Neither is the assertion of the government of Zimbabwe that sanctions have caused untold misery to ordinary Zimbabweans.

Sanctions seem to be used by politicians as a scapegoat for Zimbabwe’s economic decline that is largely the result of years of economic mismanagement, pilfering of state resources, endemic corruption, entrenched state capture, and poor governance.

The fact that basic services are not available to many Zimbabweans, and the cost of essential goods and staple food items are beyond the reach of millions, cannot be blamed primarily on targeted sanctions.

Political instability has also been a factor in Zimbabwe’s poor economic performance.

As Minister for International Relations Naledi Pandor said in her opening remarks at a symposium on Zimbabwe in Pretoria this week: “The political dynamics are inextricably linked to the economic and thus should be confronted simultaneously.”

Pandor also acknowledged an inescapable truth about discussions on the situation in Zimbabwe: “We have all become very competent at addressing and adopting resolutions, yet far too inadequate in informed reflection on what solutions or approaches may be practicable.”

A good starting point is to understand exactly what sanctions have been imposed on Zimbabwe, what economic effect they have had, and whether they remain relevant after two decades.

The newly arrived US Ambassador to South Africa, Lanna Marks, told the press on her first official day in the job last week that the only sanctions being maintained by the US on Zimbabwe were against Grace Mugabe, as well as an arms embargo.

But the US is still maintaining targeted sanctions on 83 individuals who face financial and travel restrictions.

There is some confusion around the exact figures as some individuals are listed a number of times under different aliases, such as Chinese businessman Sam Pa.

The US list of specially designated individuals on the Zimbabwe sanctions list is particularly problematic as it has little relevance 20 years on, and has not been updated. Some of those listed are now deceased, and others no longer have political relevance.

New names have been added, however. For example, after the October 20 march against sanctions, the US slapped sanctions on Zimbabwe’s State Security Minister Owen Ncube for alleged gross human rights violations, such as the torture of civil society activists, and the recent spate of abductions.

The US is maintaining sanctions against 53 large companies and organisations, which can specifically be broken down into 21 farm enterprises and 32 other business entities.

Of the 32 entities listed, 17 are linked to businessman John Bredenkamp as a result of his alleged involvement in mining deals in the DRC and arms dealing. Some of those are also on the list for having been implicated in the exploitation of the Marange diamonds.

Two Zanu-PF party companies are on the list.

In addition to the US targeted sanctions, the US has imposed a ban on arms exports to Zimbabwe.

As for the EU, it imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2002 due to the escalation of violence and intimidation of political opponents and the harassment of the independent press.

The sanctions comprised an arms embargo as well as an asset freeze and travel ban on targeted individuals and entities.

In 2008 there were 200 individuals and 40 entities on the list, but by 2016 only then-president Robert Mugabe and his wife remained on the list, as well as Zimbabwe Defence Industries.

The list of targeted individuals has since been updated and currently only former first lady Grace Mugabe remains on the list. While the Commanders of the Defence Force are on the updated list, they have been suspended. There remains a ban on the export of military equipment to Zimbabwe as well as technical military assistance.

As far as the effect of EU sanctions goes, it can hardly be argued that an asset freeze and travel ban directed at Grace Mugabe, and a ban on exporting military equipment to Zimbabwe have caused “untold misery to ordinary Zimbabweans”.

US sanctions against Zimbabwe, which are more comprehensive and also outdated, have had greater indirect economic ramifications for the country. The reason being that as a result of US sanctions, companies find it difficult to move US dollars into Zimbabwe as banks can be fined for dealing with sanctioned countries.

Just as companies have shied away from investing in other countries under US sanctions (Iran, for example), it is also true that companies have shied away from investing in Zimbabwe.

The state of the Zimbabwean economy with runaway inflation at 97.9% in June, and other factors such as entrenched corruption, political instability, poor governance and weak export competitiveness are real impediments to Zimbabwe becoming an attractive investment destination.

It is also important to note that it is not as a result of sanctions that Zimbabwe has failed to access lines of credit from international financial institutions.

This is because the international financial institutions (IFI) require Zimbabwe to repay prior loans before accessing further funding. Zimbabwe is indebted to all IFIs except for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is why it has not been eligible for loans in the past two decades.

In 2016 Zimbabwe cleared its debt to the IMF, although it still has an outstanding debt of US$2.3billion (R33.8bn) to the World Bank, US$680m to the African Development Bank, and US$308m to the European Investment Bank.

While it is true that the lifting of US sanctions may assist Zimbabwe in attracting some forms of investment, and may make it easier for companies to transfer US dollars to Zimbabwe, it will not serve as the solution to Zimbabwe’s massive economic challenges or lead to the recovery of the agriculture, health and education sectors.

What Zimbabwe most needs at this juncture to improve its economic outlook is political stability and transparency, an end to the impunity of the security forces for human rights abuses, measures to stamp out corruption at all levels, consistent economic policies, a cash injection of hard currency into the economy, restructured debt with the IFIs, and ultimately debt relief.

It is a catch-22 situation, however, as the US is likely to vote against any new lines of credit or debt relief from the IFI’s for Zimbabwe unless reforms are undertaken.

* Shannon Ebrahim is Independent Media’s foreign editor.

Addressing a press conference, the minister acknowledged that de-dollarizing was not an easy task, but vowed that enforcement and compliance will be pursued to ensure no use of the U.S. dollar for unauthorized transactions.

The Zimbabwe government abandoned the hyperinflation-ravaged national currency in 2009 in favor of multiple currencies that included the U.S. dollar, British Pound, Euro, Australian dollar, Chinese Yuan and Japanese Yen.

However, of all the foreign currencies, the U.S. dollar became the dominant currency of trade and transacting in the country.

But in June this year, government suddenly re-introduced the Zimbabwe dollar as part of currency reforms.

The local currency is currently made up of electronic money known as Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), bond notes and coins and new dollar notes that were introduced last week.

But as the new notes remain in short supply and continue to depreciate against the U.S. dollar, most businesses are reportedly continuing to charge their goods and services in the U.S. dollar.

Ncube said Zimbabweans had become used to the green back such that it will not be easy for them to quickly forget it.

“It is not correct that the local currency has been rejected. People are desperately looking for the money. It’s not also easy to de-dollarize. There are too few cases around the world where they have de-dollarized successfully,” Ncube said.

Meanwhile, deputy minister of finance Clemence Chiduwa told the same press conference that the government was considering coming up with tight measures to deal with the thriving black market for foreign currency.

He said one such measure would be designating a few commercial banks that allow depositors to freely withdraw their money from Nostro foreign currency accounts to purchase goods abroad.

But upon return, the individuals would be requested to declare the source of foreign currency and if it’s not from official sources, such goods would be forfeited to the State.

He lamented the current scenario where businesses are now indexing the price of goods and services against movements of the exchange rate on the parallel market.

“Our inflation rate at the moment is now being driven by expected movements in the parallel market rate.

“What is just needed is to ensure that all the laws that are supposed to guide the operations of economic agents are in place. What is needed on our part is compliance and enforcement,” he added.

Post published in: Business

Chiwenga, the 63-year-old former general who led a coup against the late Robert Mugabe two years ago, has spent a large part of the year away from work, also receiving treatment in South Africa and India.

His health is of great interest to Zimbabweans as he is widely seen as the driving force behind the country’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the front-runner to succeed him. His absence from public duties had stoked speculation about the gravity of his illness, which authorities have sought to play down.

The Herald, a government-owned newspaper, showed images of Chiwenga arriving at Harare’s airport in the early hours of Saturday, looking healthier than when he was last seen in public in June. He was welcomed by relatives and China’s deputy ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhao Baogang, the newspaper said.

Local private media have reported that Chiwenga’s health deteriorated in July and that he underwent two operations following a suspected poisoning.

Chiwenga and government officials were not available to comment on Saturday.

Government officials in Zimbabwe routinely seek medical treatment abroad while the country’s public health system has collapsed and hospitals struggle to provide medicines to patients.

Many Zimbabweans are angry that top government officials continue to travel abroad for treatment while state hospitals are turning away patients because doctors have been on a pay strike since September.

The government has so far fired 435 doctors for participating in the strike.

Post published in: Featured

HARARE — The European Union is concerned that the democratic space in Zimbabwe has deteriorated since it opened talks with Harare in June for the first time since 2001 in a bid to turn the page on years of hostile relations.

An EU memo prepared for its diplomats ahead of talks in Harare on Thursday said the arrests and abductions of several political activists had “reinforced the impression that the democratic space is being curtained again”.

The memo, seen by Reuters, also said the EU was worried by Harare’s slow pace of political reforms, including the alignment of laws to the constitution that was adopted in 2013.

The EU withdrew budget support to Zimbabwe in 2002 when it imposed sanctions on the late Robert Mugabe’s government over charges of political violence, human rights abuses, vote rigging and violent seizures of white-owned farms.

Post published in: Featured

China to keep up Africa infrastructure loans despite debt-trap claims

Will China ever tire of Zimbabwe’s corruption and bad debt?