THE breakaway opposition party MDC-T Vice-President Obert Gutu may not have joined the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) for tea and biscuits, but Polad still spends taxpayer’s money to do work that should be done by existing government structures.

By Kennedy Kaitano, Our Reader

Is Gutu seriously telling us that a department that will be created by the useless Polad to manage its communication will be made up of unpaid volunteers?

Is Gutu telling the world that the members of Polad have used their personal resources to travel out of Harare to attend workshops?

Can he honestly say there have been no allowances paid to the participants of these workshops?
Can Gutu prove to us that Polad has not been allocated money from the 2020 budget?

And Polad, from what has been said, is made up of the losing presidential candidates and I wonder why it has now been expanded to accommodate other officials from the parties which sponsored a presidential candidate like Gutu, who was not a presidential candidate? This is the confusion behind the Polad concept, and how corruption is at play to then include persons who were not Presidential elections candidates.

It is clear Gutu wants to mislead the world that people outside Polad only want to complain, but does not proffer solutions to the problems, as if Polad is the only group which has suggested solutions.

Many organisations and individuals have suggested solutions and it could be government which has selectively considered such suggestions.

Polad is unconstitutional, unnecessarily duplicates the work being done by other arms of government and a waste of tax payers’ money.

Lillian Timveous (MDC Midlands Senator) referring to January human rights abuses

“Will the rule of law ever be restored in the country because we see people getting beaten before they get arrested and women are raped? A lot of lawlessness is going on in the country, especially at the moment.”

January 31, 2019

Tichinani Mavetera (MDC Masvingo senator) on police brutality

“We have videos going all over of police brutality with pictures of people that can be identified in police uniform perpetrating heinous crimes against the citizenry. For citizens to have confidence in our law enforcement agents we should have pointers from government on what has been done to bring the culprits to book.”

January 31, 2019

Chegutu West MP Dextor Nduna (Zanu PF) threatening Norton MP Themba Mliswa (Independent) during sitting of the Mines Portfolio Committee

“Don’t call me a thief, I am saying this for the last time, don’t call me a thief, I have people who I killed who I don’t even know.”

February 12, 2019

Nduna apologises for his behaviour

“I want to profusely apologise for the words I uttered and say that I did not mean anything that I said and I take back my words and want to apologise so that the decorum of Parliament can be appraised. I apologise to the Speaker as chairperson of the Standing Rules and Orders Committee, the institution of Parliament, MPs and my party Zanu PF for the fracas which had unintended effect.”

March 5, 2019

Mliswa accuses Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda of corruption

“This institution (Parliament) is faced with losing its credibility. It might as well be a Zanu PF Parliament. Even the decisions made by Mudenda – we are starting to doubt them because we are talking of an institution with high morals, but why bring in a person implicated in $11 million bribe scandal to chair the Transport Portfolio Committee? (referring to Nduna).”

February 11, 2019

Mliswa apologising to Mudenda for labelling him corrupt

“During the debacle, I inadvertently included the name of the Speaker in the furore, mistakenly linking him with the nefarious actions attributed to Nduna. The erroneous accusation was premised on misinformation emanating from Nduna who fabricated a false association with Mudenda in an attempt to shield and seek protection from the underhand dealings he was associated with to make them appear above board.”

March 5, 2019

Job Sikhala (Zengeza West MP MDC) shouting at Mudenda

“Having shown that you do not want to hold this institution as a democracy – you have reduced this Parliament to a kangaroo Parliament. I and my MPs tried to raise a point of order on the constitutionality of your ruling, but you have denied us. As a result, I withdraw my sympathy for you for what happened to you when you were eating ice-cream (in Serbia). You are turning this institution into a dictatorial institution. You are torturing our MPs on a daily basis. It is not allowed. Why are you abusing us – we are not kids.

“I used to have huge respect for you, but today that honour has reduced to a quarter. You have disappointed me, Mr Speaker.”

Mudenda responded:

“I cannot accept to be challenged by an MP. I ask you to leave the House.”

October 23, 2019

Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga (MDC-T) on mandatory sentencing of rapists

“Some of us (legislators) are about to leave Parliament and if the issue of mandatory sentences for rape is imposed that will be part of our legacy if this is our last term because we have been advocating for that for a long time. We have been waiting for this for years and nothing was happening. We proposed the issue of mandatory sentences for rapists during the late former President Robert Mugabe’s time and the law never saw the light of the day given the male dominated systems of Parliament.”

October 2, 2019

Edwin Mushoriwa (Dzivarasekwa MP MDC) criticising Finance minister Mthuli Ncube for erroneous figures in 2020 budget statement

“The credibility of the 2020 budget statement has been brought into disrepute by the fact that China and the US yesterday (Tuesday) disputed the figures in the budget statement and as MPs we are now questioning whether all the figures said by the minister are authentic.”

December 4, 2019

Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi (Zanu PF) responding to a question by Mavetera on doctors’ strike

“I fully submit that he has been misled by the doctors on the issues of tools of trade. If you are employed at a road construction site and you are not provided with shovels, you do not run away from your work place because there are no shovels. There is a very clear order of the court that gave a roadmap of what needs to be done and doctors decided to clearly ignore that order. It is wrong for the senator to say that the dispute was about tools of trade.”

December 5, 2019

Barbara Rwodzi (Chirumanzu MP Zanu PF) complaining about gender-based violence (GBV) in Parliament

“As women MPs, we join the nation and the rest of the world to commemorate the 16 Days of activism against gender-based violence (GBV) and on behalf of female MPs, I rise to seek protection against verbal GBV abuse in this House.

Women in this Parliament are now becoming unproductive due to GBV suffered here and as such we ask your office Madam Speaker (Tsitsi Gezi) to protect us and take stern measures against all male MPs that use verbal GBV against us.”

December 6, 2019

Jasmine Toffa (MDC PR) speaking on GBV in Parliament

“For example, there is an incident happening to myself whereby last week in the presence of the Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi an MP abused me and he shouted alleging that my man was snatched from me by (Joanna) Mamombe. As I speak, I am actually looking at those MPs. It ends up attacking the confidence of female MPs.”

December 6, 2019

Buhera South MP Joseph Chinotimba (Zanu PF) suggesting that Parliament must craft a law to jail those that call for sanctions

“This country is now in tatters because of people that are senior politicians that go to Britain, Germany and the United States to tie things so that there is no development in this country. I suggest that now we must craft a law to ensure that such people are jailed with stiff penalties.”

December 17, 2019

Nkulumane MP Kucaca Phulu (MDC) accusing the Speaker of favouring Zanu PF

“As an MP and over the past few weeks, I have been constrained in my privileges and rights and my observation is that the rulings emanating from the chair (Speaker) on many a matter have been totally biased in favour of the other side of the House (Zanu PF).”

December 18, 2019

Mutare Central MP Innocent Gonese (MDC) also accusing the Speaker of bias

“I will refer to Parliament conventions, practices and procedures that when a person occupies the office of Chair, Speaker or President, that person – for the duration or period they are in occupation of that office is supposed to be impartial. I am making this point as I feel that my rights are infringed in the manner that the Chair has been responding to issues with bias.”

December 18, 2019

Mudenda responding to Kucaca Phulu and Innocent Gonese’s accusations that he is biased

“Let me remind you that I and my team of presiding officers have to observe balance in this House where the ratio is 3:1. On a more serious note we need to observe that ratio. You must understand the numerical ratios. You must know that when you have four wives there is a senior wife and three others. Polygamy is a problem.”

THE Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) says the lower energy density of blended fuel is compensated for in the price.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

This comes as Zimbabwe’s motorists have long complained that the current blending ratio of 20% is causing damage to motor vehicles.

“Zimbabwe has blended petrol with ethanol since colonial days and only stopped in 1992 due to a severe drought then. Blending was resumed in 2013 and has been implemented continuously since then,” Zera acting chief executive officer Eddington Mazambani told NewsDay Business in emailed responses.

“There has been a perception of lower fuel economy of E20 blend by some motorists. The fact is the slightly lower energy density of blended petrol is compensated for in the blend fuel price.”

Since earlier last year, motorists have complained that petrol which is being disbursed at the pump stations was finishing faster and at the same time damaging their vehicles leading many to believe that higher blending ratios were being used.

These fears were stoked by Zera, who announced on December 5, 2019 that the ethanol blending ratios had been reduced to 10% only to revert to 20%.

In May 2019, the ethanol blending ratio was 10%.

“The Minister of Energy and Power Development may from time to time grant an exception from blending unleaded petrol in exceptional circumstances. Some of these circumstances include production and availability of ethanol for blending,” Mazambani said.

“The Petroleum (Mandatory Blending of Anhydrous Ethanol with Unleaded Petrol) Regulations, 2013 (SI 147A) stipulates that from 31 March 2014, no fuel procurement licensee, wholesale licensee or retail licensee shall sell unleaded petrol to end users unless that petrol has been blended with 20% locally produced anhydrous ethanol being E20.”

In May 2019, the then Energy minister, Joram Gumbo stated that the National Oil Infrastructure Company (NOIC) did the blending of petrol before it was distributed to fuel operators.

At the time, he explained that when NOIC did its blending it alerted fuel companies on how much blending was being done. This would suggest that if blending ratios are being diluted it would be happening after the fuel is distributed to fuel operators.

According to a May 2009 paper by an American activist group called the Environmental Working Group (EWG), it found out that a blending ratio of E15 or 15% was particularly disastrous to old vehicles.

“Optimal vehicle performance, durability, and emissions require an effective match among engine design, vehicle emission controls and cleaner-burning fuels. Technological breakthroughs achieved in the last decade brought to the market a new generation of low-emission vehicles able to adapt to a wide-range of fuels. But older, legacy vehicles constitute a significant portion of the current fleet (in America at the time),” reads part of the paper.

“These legacy vehicles cannot adjust to operating conditions to accommodate a wide-range of fuels, which leaves their engines and emission systems at risk from ethanol fuel blends. Early catalyst burnout and material damage from incompatibility with ethanol fuels would likely lead to increased vehicle and non-road engine emissions and worsening air quality.”

With most of the estimated 1,4 million to 1,5 million vehicles in Zimbabwe being ex-Japanese cars due to their affordability, higher ethanol blending could damage most of these vehicles.

EWG specialises in research and advocacy in the areas of agricultural subsidies, toxic chemicals, drinking water pollutants, and corporate accountability.

Listed brewer, Delta Corporation Limited (Delta) says its production and distribution operations were disturbed by the dearth of electricity, fuel and foreign currency.

BY MISHMA CHAKANYUKA

Delta is the largest company listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalisation.

“Our production and distribution operations were disrupted by the shortages of electricity and fuel, which in themselves are a manifestation of the limited availability of foreign currency. The sourcing of imported goods and services remains constrained by the shortages of foreign currency, particularly in view of the backlog in settling past due obligations,” said Delta chairman, Canaan Dube in a statement accompanying the group’s financial results for the period ended September 30, 2019.

“Zimbabwe shifted from the multi-currency trading and reverted to the Zimbabwe Dollar (ZWL) as the sole trading currency at the end of June 2019. The policy changes have led to a surge in inflation and a fast depreciating exchange rate. Consumer spending remains low as incomes have lagged the escalation in prices of goods and services.”

Dube added: “The company has been adversely impacted by shortages of potable water, electricity and fuel. Volume performance is thus constrained and significantly below last year across our product offering”.

As such, Delta’s lager beer volumes declined 48% compared to the same period last year, sorghum beer volumes declined 15% while sparkling beverages volumes were down 56%.

The volume performance at the National Breweries PLC in Zambia, where Delta owns a controlling stake, was also down 20% for the period.

“Volume was 20% down on last year which is partly due to higher pricing on the back of a steep increase in maize prices and the depreciation of the Kwacha. Consumer acceptance of the recently launched returnable pack has been encouraging,” Dube said.

“Product supply is constrained by capacity and power supply disruptions. Chibuku Super and Shake Shake were the dominant packs.”

The performance of the local African Distillers where Delta has a 50,1% stake was also down 41%, due to limitations in accessing and the high cost of foreign currency.

These decreased volumes saw Delta register a 2% decline in total revenue to $1,53 billion in the period under review from a 2018 comparative of $1,57 billion.

Despite the decline in volumes, Delta registered earnings before interest and tax of ZWL$464 million during the period which was 53% above prior year driven by replacement cost pricing in response to inflationary pressures.

This saw profit after tax increasing by about 45% to $382,42 million for the period under review from a comparative 2018 figure of $262,93. Also adding to this was the group earning an additional $731,66 million in other comprehensive income for the period under review.

Earnings per share rose 35% to 28,69 cents during the period under review from 21,30 cents over a similar period in 2018.

Assets grew 25% to $4,68 billion in the period under review from a 2018 comparative of $3,75 billion. This was largely due to the company rebasing its assets in Zimbabwe dollars.

“The implied average fair market exchange rate for the period of ZWL10 to US$1 has been applied to uplift the values of its property, plant and equipment and other long-term assets while foreign liabilities are recorded at the closing exchange rate,” Dube said.

Going forward, the company will manage the emerging risks while striving to capture all available opportunities.

AS the year 2019 ended yesterday, the creative industry had no kind words for the Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation minister Kirsty Coventry who they say has failed to live up to expectation — transforming the arts and culture sector robustly.

BY WINSTONE ANTONIO

In separate interviews with NewsDay Life & Style yesterday, some creatives labelled Coventry the worst sector’s minister, who has failed to show them that she has an understanding of the arts and culture sector.

Blessing Vava

“The arts industry is facing funding challenges, issues of intellectual property, royalties and piracy just to name but a few and I think these are some of the immediate issues that she has failed to address or even attempted to deal with,” he said.

Joe Njagu

“As filmmakers we have not had the privilege to meet or engage her. For me, it’s sad how they don’t realise the power that film has to propel agendas forward from tourism to selling the image of this country,” he said.

“The rule of filmmaking is ‘show it don’t tell it’, so they could take advantage of our trade and instead of saying most stuff they could just show it using film. Imagine a live story movie set in Victoria Falls or an epic movie set at Great Zimbabwe. We are all afraid of America as a super power because we have all seen Arnold Schwarzenegger going to Colombia on his own to kill the whole army, or Bruce Willis saving the whole world in Armageddon. Anyway, one day they will know.”

Plot Mhako

“I am one of the people who celebrated the appointment of Coventry, but I am not convinced by her performance since she took office. There has been a lot of the usual talk and less action on the artistic and cultural part. A lot of what needs to be done does not require money, but new imagination and innovation supported by a huge diaspora artistic community,” he said.

“She is in charge of possibly the most important ministry in the country, a ministry that deals with the Youths, Sports and Culture and the youth constitute the bigger population and equally possess untapped creative potential that could help create jobs, transform the national narrative, foster a new sense of pride, provoke new imagination and enhance tourism, but sadly the creative sector is struggling.

Nigel Nyamutumbu

“It seems that the Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation minister Kirsty Coventry either has misplaced priorities or is completely clueless on the needs of the arts industry. Her ministry has not made any meaningful attempt to engage with stakeholders in the industry to at least establish a common vision or policy thrust,” he said.

“Countries that have thriving cultural industries to the extent of successfully exporting their art bank a lot on the government support. Our artists lack that support and are subjected to a toxic operating environment and the minister seems to be blind to this reality,” he said.

Tinashe Muchuri

“If I were to rate performances of the ministry, I would go for the departments which were in touch with artists’ challenges not the minister who is only less than a year and half working with the art sector,” he said.

“The other issue to consider is to look at the arts department budget allocation. Artists’ needs are catered for by different ministries for example Home Affairs has the censorship board and the monuments, film is under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services were also musicians face censorship under Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe. It is, therefore, not easy to rate Coventry under these circumstances.”

Benjamin Nyandoro

“It is a very difficult call, given that I can’t feel what she is doing. Maybe, it is just a poor communication system at the ministry that is not sharing the good work she has done.”

Eddie Ndlovu

“I admire her (Kirsty) since the days of her swimming career, but personally I feel as the film industry we have been neglected. I do believe we fall under the arts banner, but our voices deserve to be heard by such offices,” he said.

“I would rate her five out of 10, but if she plays her role well as the Arts minister (not only focusing on athletics) she can do wonders.”

Edith WeUtonga

“Considering she (Kirsty) has been an athlete, we expected that she would know the behind the scenes of the arts and culture sector and be quick to act on matters affecting us in the sector, but we were wrong,” she said.
Diana Samkange

“As an advocate of gender balance, I am quite pleased with her (Kirsty) inclusion in the Cabinet. I applaud her for all she has done so far in terms of bettering the arts industry, however, my plea to her is to maintain that and go the extra mile once again in implementing working policies in the arts sector for the betterment of the arts industry.”

Cde Fatso

“After joining President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government, her (Kirsty) silence when our artists are attacked by the State is unacceptable. Why was she silent about the abduction of Gonyeti (female comedian) and Platinum Prince (dancehall singer)? What action has she demanded to find the perpetrators?”

HAPPY New Year Zimbabwe, I say this as a compliment that is expected of all men of goodwill, but the chaos on the horizon means the country has to hold candid talks between and among its citizens on how the economic malaise should be addressed.

Zimbabwe over the past two years has been toying with the idea of a corporatist State, a classic textbook implementation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic structural programmes. IMF policies are generally broken down into three main issues – privatisation, stabilisation and liberalisation – euphemisms for State leaving issues to private players and markets (capital).

The IMF has since 1970 dumped the currency/economic stabilisation function that it was created to perform at the end of World War 2. The institution has been stealthily taken over by the Chicago Boys – former Chicago School of Economics students – a group that was trained by Milton Friedman a neo-liberal economist who believes in deregulated economies and free market economics.

In other words, the IMF dumped the Keynesian mixed economics that left room for States to control certain sectors of the economy to protect vulnerable groups that capital has no regard for except chasing profits.

To understand how the IMF has changed one can get a lot of insight from Naomi Klein book: The Shock Doctrine, the Rise of Disaster Capitalism. This is a book that dissects how the IMF since the 1970s under control of the Chicago Boys has moved from Keynesian economics (pro-development) to unpopular free-market economics using the shock doctrine – a combination of military force or currency destabilisation – leaving the population in a state of shock and resigned to fate.

The shock doctrine has been implemented with disastrous consequences in South America – Chile, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentine, in Asia – Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea during the 1998 financial crises, China after the Tianmen Square massacre, Poland in 1989, Russia under Boris Yelstin, United States after September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and Iraq in 2003.

All these countries taking the IMF medication – privatisation, stabilisation and liberalisation – have spawned hundreds of billionaires who bought privatised State enterprises, driving most of the middle class into poverty and leaving their economies vulnerable to the whims of capitalists who could move their money across borders without any regulations.

Since President Emmerson Mnangagwa assumed power via a November 2017 coup and appointed Mthuli Ncube as Treasury boss, Zimbabwe has undergone some form of shock doctrine and structural adjustment without resistance from a shocked country. Following the July 30, 2018 elections, the military went onto the streets to quell protests by mainly opposition supporters demanding the early release of presidential vote results. Six people were killed in cold blood and as soon as the Cabinet was announced Ncube did not miss the opportunity to unleash austerity to a shocked people.

People lost their savings after Ncube floated the bond note and separated the nostro-accounts from general savings accounts, igniting hyperinflation and stagnant incomes. The citizens tried to come out in January 2019 after a 150% fuel increase and a more brutal treatment awaited them, 17 lost their lives, hundreds were left maimed and women raped.

Zimbabweans were thrown into deep shock. They have no will to resist. The currency change went ahead and privatisation of State-owned enterprises was hastened. The unions are weak, civil society and opposition are emasculated and cannot organise protests against their own impoverishment.

The capitalist vultures are circling, like in South Korea then, to get bargains in the energy, transport and communication sectors. With a falling Zimdollar against the greenback and further limited fiscal space the family silver would be sold for a song, creating a new breed of billionaires feeding on State-owned companies.

This would not be the end, like in Asia, Europe and United States after the 2008 global recession due to deregulation and capital’s unrestrained power – Zimbabwe would remain in peril despite some temporary respite as the country would be powerless in driving the economy. It will be at the mess of capital.

It is time that Zimbabweans robustly discuss the economic future of the country. Should it be left to the Washington Consensus (Chicago Boys) or we can go back to Keynesian developmental economics? Or alternatively try the Chinese or Malaysian model where the State keep certain sectors under its control despite pressure from the IMF. A laissez faire approach to economics does not work and will not work as has been exposed by past IMF interventions across the world.

Zimbabwe needs new leadership, but the old is refusing to die and the new to be born.

A leadership that cares about the working class and the poor, a leadership that does not worship capital and knows that the State needs to have control of important sectors like energy, transport, health, water and education.

Probably it is time to show the Chicago Boys the exit door.

Paidamoyo Muzulu is a journalist and writes here in his personal capacity. He can be contacted on muzulu.p@gmail.com

THE Emmerson Mnangagwa administration is facing challenges, fuel shortages, an unprecedented price hikes of basic commodities, forex scarcity, and drug outages, doctors’ strike, which it has so far failed to deal with.

NewsDay Comment

It is over two years since Mnangagwa grabbed power from the late Robert Mugabe in a military coup. He was initially celebrated for ending the 38 years of a brutal regime which ruthlessly silenced all opposition and muted any divergent views.

But the ululations are slowly being replaced by wailings which grow louder as the Zanu PF government blunders and fumbles for solutions to the biting economic crisis.

The praises are turning to ash as it becomes more apparent that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Most companies have shut down and the manufacturing industry on which our hope was premised is not opening any time soon.

As the country sinks into the doldrums, the mantra ‘Zimbabwe is open for business” is now a mockery in the face of so much suffering. What sort of leader presides over a country which does not have a single functional public hospital?

While in Zambia, Edgar Lungu is now aiming for worldclass medical facilities with state-of-the-art equipment, our own hospitals are struggling to remain open.

We pile the blame on the leader, who has not only failed the country, but refuses to acknowledge the people’s suffering. It is quite obvious now that his team is as clueless as their President and the honourable thing would have been to step aside or allow for meaningful talks and not the charade dubbed Polad.

As we go into 2020, parents are seized with extortionate school fees, exorbitantly priced uniforms and rentals in United States dollars.

The festive season was subdued as many could not afford even a decent meal. Many will remember Mnangagwa for all the bad things that are happening.

Families of those who were shot on August 1 have no kind words for the government which allowed soldiers to open fire on civilians. They repeated the trick in January, killing 23 people and injuring others. What an affront to human rights and freedom of expression and human decency.

What makes it all sadder is that the government is not paying heed to what the international community is saying or even the regional watchdogs.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission in its report for 2019 strongly condemned the use of live ammunition and excessive force against unarmed protesters. But those concerned do not care and it will become one of the reports from “detractors”.

Surely all this overwhelming narration of failures warrants action, but are there any more tricks in Mnangagwa’s bag or we are dealing with a tired system that is comfortable regurgitating yesteryear solutions that never worked.