BY CHARLES LAITON

MDC vice-president Tendai Biti has rekindled his $15 million retirement claim against First Mutual Holdings Limited (FMH) after the insurance company said it would only pay him less than what was agreed upon reaching the retirement age of 60.

Initially, Biti dragged FMH to court over the same issue in August this year, but the matter was not pursued further culminating in the present lawsuit.In summons filed at the High Court this week, the Harare East opposition MP said in 1993 while he was a partner with Honey and Blanckenberg, his pension contributions were with his consent converted by FMH into an annuity policy.

“The annuitisation phase commenced with a payment of $15 648,04 and the written projection given by defendant (FMH) was that upon attaining the retirement age of 60, plaintiff would be paid a capital value of $4 133 593 and an annual pension of $782 066,47 giving a total assured sum of $15 000 000,” he said.

“In breach of the agreement between the parties and taking advantage of the changes in currency that occurred in 2009, defendant has unilaterally claimed that as at March 2009, the value of plaintiff’s policy was US$196,76 and US$327,28 as at December 31, 2015.”

The MDC deputy president said FMH’s unilateral position means that it will, upon his retirement at the age of 60, pay less than the agreed value of the annuity policy.

“In terms of the purchasing power parity theory, which constitutes an integral tacit term of the insurance relationship between the parties, plaintiff (Biti) is entitled to a payment which preserves and reflects the total value by which he was insured,” he said.

Biti further said despite this being the agreement between the parties, FMH has refused, even in the light of the findings made by a presidential commission of inquiry, to take a position which recognises and upholds the essence of what was agreed to rendering it necessary for the court to declare the correct position to guide the parties. The matter is pending.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

GARMENT maker Paramount Garments says the interbank market, which was introduced to ease foreign currency shortages, has not been useful to it as the firm has failed to access forex through the system due to unclear allocation criteria.

The government launched the platform in February this year in an effort to curb a booming parallel market for foreign currency.Paramount Garments managing director Jeremy Youmans told NewsDay in an e-mailed response that the platform was yet to gain traction as they were failing to access forex.

“The interbank market has not been of use to us. The principle set up by the RBZ [Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe] was that there would be priorities on allocation of the funds. It is difficult to get to the bottom of who is doing the allocating as each party blames the other,” he said.

“We are a significant exporter but we are still a net importer ie we import more than we export. This is because the raw materials we need to manufacture garments for the local market have to be imported,” Youmans said.

By doing the value addition of garments in Zimbabwe, Youmans said they were employing large numbers of people and earning the country large amounts of forex. He said they were also manufacturing for the local market.

“We create a significant amount of import substitution, as the finished garments would require vastly more foreign currency than the raw materials do. All other clothing companies I am aware of have the same issue. This is stunting our ability to grow, employ and realise the industrialisation we are all trying to achieve,” he said.

As a way forward, Youmans said the criteria for allocation needed to be revisited and enforced.“This is not an onerous task. Now that electricity and fuel are no longer being subsidised, more forex should be available to support the manufacturing sector to import those raw materials not manufactured locally and capital equipment to upgrade our operations,” he said.

BY FIDELITY MHLANGA

STATE-OWNED entities, Zimbabwe Special Economic Zones Authority (Zimseza), Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR) are embroiled in a messy car import scam after details emerged that they took delivery of luxury vehicles supplied by local car dealer, Solutions Motors which illicitly imported the vehicles without paying customs duty.

Sources told NewsDay that both Zimseza and FPR were supplied with Toyota Hilux vehicles by the car dealer who contravened the Customs and Excise Act by not paying duty at the border post.

The shenanigans came to light after a blitz by Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) unearthed the manipulation of customs clearance certificates in a dragnet that has already claimed the scalps of several customs officials.

NewsDay Business is reliably informed that the police commercial crime division is investigating the matter under case number 726/11/19.

Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi could neither confirm nor deny when contacted for comment.” My guys are checking on the issue. They will call you,” he said curtly.

Zimseza CEO Edwin Kondo admitted the company took delivery of fraudulently imported vehicles from Solutions Motors.“However, please note that Zimseza is co-operating fully with Zimra and the ZRP. You can call them to verify. Further, the importer of the vehicles was our local supplier, Solutions Motors. We were clear that we were buying cars from them as a local supplier and the process of getting them in the country, including payment of duty, is with them,” Kondo said.

“Kindly call Solutions Motors for detailed responses on the way they handled the transactions. On our part, we are pressing the supplier to honour the laws of the country and honour whatever statutory payments that need to be done. We understand some duty payments have already been done. We are innocent victims in the whole case, as we need the vehicles for operational purposes. As Zimseza, we fully abide by the laws of the country on a strict basis.”

Solutions Motors managing director Patrick Siyawamwaya was not reachable for comment. He did not respond to text messages sent to him.FPR chief executive Fredrick Kunaka was evasive when reached for comment.

“I will not be able to say you are correct because ordinarily if a vehicle is registered. I wouldn’t tell if duty was paid or not. That I wouldn’t be aware, I would not be able to say whether what you saying is correct,” he said.

The car import scandal has prejudiced Zimra of millions of dollars in potential revenue as car dealers, individuals, corporates worked in cahoots with the tax authority officials to illicitly import luxury vehicles that include Toyota Fortuners, Land Cruisers, Mercedes Benz, Ford Rangers and Toyota Corollas.

The syndicate, which includes Zimra officers, was taking advantage of the taxman’s manual system to manipulate the customs clearance certificate to under-declare vehicles at all the country’s ports of entry.

Zimra over the weekend released a list of 433 vehicles detailing registration numbers, chassis numbers, vehicle type and owner’s name in a vehicle verification exercise on cars suspected to have been smuggled.

“The commissioner-general of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority is hereby notifying the owners of vehicles listed below to visit Zimra loss control offices at ZB Centre in Harare for a vehicle registration verification. The vehicle owners are instructed to bring all customs clearance documents pertaining to their vehicles not later than November 23, 2019,” Zimra said in a notice.

Efforts to get a comment from Zimra were fruitless at the time of going to print.

Paidamoyo Muzulu

IN the aftermath of Finance minister Mthuli Ncube’s budget that sounded more like was crafted in some Western world capital and delivered in Harare, many people may have missed the assault on our parliamentary democracy by Zanu PF.

First, a cursory look at the 2020 budget statement; Ncube had no qualms to once again nail his colours to the mast as a neo-liberalist, a belief that capital and markets would haul Zimbabwe out of the rut.

Without serious consideration, Ncube removed subsidies on grain — maize — and for the first time in this hyperinflationary environment, millions in urban areas will be queueing for food handouts from donor agencies as their incomes will fall far short to buy basics.

Neo-liberalism has been ditched and exposed as a great fraud even by former kingpins at Brettonwoods institutions such as economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Stiglitz in a recent opinion titled The end of neo-liberalism and the rebirth of history, wrote: “The credibility of neo-liberalism’s faith in unfettered markets as the surest road to shared prosperity is on life-support these days. And well it should be. The simultaneous waning of confidence in neo-liberalism and in democracy is no coincidence or mere correlation.

Neo-liberalism has undermined democracy for 40 years.”He continued: “In rich and poor countries alike, elites promised that neo-liberal policies would lead to faster economic growth, and that the benefits would trickle down so that everyone, including the poorest, would be better off. To get there, though, workers would have to accept lower wages, and all citizens would have to accept cutbacks in important government programmes.”

As we grapple with this, Zanu PF threw the cat among the pigeons when on Friday its MPs refused to participate in the Public Accounts Parliamentary Committee (PAC) enquiry into Sakunda Holdings. It may look like a stupid retaliatory move to the MDC MPs’ snubbing of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presence every time he steps into Parliament, but there seems to be some method and strategy in the madness.

It is a public secret that Kudakwashe Tagwirei, the owner of Sakunda, is a Zanu PF benefactor. Not only has he pumped money into the party during the 2018 election, but was also rewarded by a seat at the high table as one of Mnangagwa’s chief advisers.

Making Tagwirei speak under oath is akin to having Mnangagwa himself in the dock. My hunch, without evidence, is that the party mandarins whispered the instruction: Zanu PF MPs must not participate in the public lynching of Mnangagwa’s associate, use every trick in the book to make sure the hearings don’t take place. They won the first round easily and most likely that is the end of investigations into Sakunda’s role in the Command Agriculture programme.

This could be linked to Ncube’s Financial Adjustment Bill that seeks to have Parliament condone the Executive’s unexplained expenditure of US$10,6 billion borrowed between 2015 and 2018. Leaving MDC’s Tendai Biti unrattled was not an option. This was part of the strategy where Zanu PF would circumvent PAC and have the issue dealt within the House where the party has a super-majority. In other words, MDC’s boycott of the sitting would be irrelevant as Zanu PF has four-times the required quorum for the House to sit.

However, it has to be noted here and now that Zanu PF MPs and Ncube are behaving like rogues and getting away with it.MPs in their oath of office as prescribed in the Constitution promise to: “Be faithful to Zimbabwe, that I will uphold the Constitution and all other laws of Zimbabwe, and that I will perform my duties as a Senator/Member of the National Assembly faithfully and to the best of my ability. So help me God.”

Zanu PF MPs through ignorance or impunity by their very action breached one of their core roles in Parliament section 299(1) of the Constitution which reads: “Parliament must monitor and oversee expenditure by the State and all commissions and institutions and agencies of government at every level, including statutory bodies, government-controlled entities, provincial and metropolitan councils and local authorities, in order to ensure that — all revenue is accounted for, all expenditure has been properly incurred; and; any limits and conditions on appropriations have been observed.”

Ncube cannot be absolved of breaching the Constitution as he is ordered by the supreme law to report twice annually to Parliament on debts contracted by the State or guaranteed by it.
Section 300(4) of the Constitution reads: “The minister responsible for finance must — (a) at least twice a year, report to Parliament on the performance of — (i) loans raised by the State; and (ii) loans guaranteed by the State.”

Mthuli since his appointment has avoided doing what the law requires of him and all of a sudden he brings a condonation Bill to the House.How long can good citizens allow Zanu PF to breach the Constitution and get away with it because it has a super majority in the House? Can Zanu PF MPs be men and women of integrity and follow the law and their conscience in their duties at Parliament? This may be asking too much from a party that behaves on herd-mentality.

BY MISHMA CHAKANYUKA

ASBESTOS products manufacturer Turnall Holdings posted a 31% decline in sales volumes in the third quarter ended September 30, 2019 owing to subdued demand for the company’s products. In a trading update, the chairperson, Rita Likukuma, said year to date sales volumes were 28% below the same period last year.

“The group’s sales volumes for the quarter were 31% below the prior year comparative quarter while the year to date sales volumes was 28% below the previous year comparative period. The business was adequately stocked during the period under review; hence the decline in volumes was attributed to low aggregate demand,” Likukuma said.

She said the group adopted a regional export strategy to generate foreign currency and reduce the impact of declining sales volumes in the local economy.“Export sales volumes for the quarter contributed 2,8% of sales volumes compared to 0,2% in the previous year comparative quarter. Export sales volumes for the nine months period contributed 2,5% of sales volumes compared to 0,1% in the previous year comparative period,” Likukuma added.

The group acquired adequate raw materials to meet production requirements up to the end of the year and will continue to focus on cost reducing strategies and improving profitability.

“Despite the challenges, Turnall remains focused on its strategy of reducing costs, improving profitability and strengthening its statement of financial position. Unaudited management accounts for the nine months to September 30 on a historic cost basis indicate profits significantly higher than the comparable period of 2018 while total net borrowings have been reduced to below 10% of capital employed.”

Meanwhile, Proplastics also recorded a decline in its sales volumes during the same period due to subdued product demand. “Demand for the group’s products continues to be subdued, as was the case at half year, and the total sales volumes for the third quarter declined by 50% compared to a similar period last year. Cumulatively, the tonnage for the nine months is 37% below prior year,” the company’s board chairperson Gregory Sebborn said in the company’s trading update.

The group expects demand for their products to remain subdued in the short term due to the current economic environment and expects it to improve in the medium to long term given the need to rehabilitate the water and sewage infrastructure as well as irrigation resuscitation initiatives.

Sebborn said electricity supply remained a challenge during the period and the group relied on using the generator, leading to an increase in production costs. On the other hand the group also faced access to water challenges and it relied on purchasing bulk water for normal consumption and process cooling.

Proplastics’ position of the foreign currency liabilities and assets remained manageable at US$414 000 while borrowings also stood at manageable levels.Sebborn said the group is looking forward to the removal of duty on certain raw materials and that the general import permit requirement be maintained.

“We also look forward to our call for the removal of duty on imported raw materials being considered favourably by the authorities. Further, we recommend that the general import permit requirement be maintained for the products that are manufactured locally as this will reduce outward flow of foreign currency.”

LILONGWE, MALAWI – The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Malawi has donated 350 three-tier bunk beds, 1050 mattresses and three soil rippers to support crop production and enable inmates to sleep in dignity in one of Malawi’s most congested prisons.

Signe Rotberga, UNODC Regional Coordinator for Southern Africa and Steinar Hagen, the Royal Norwegian Ambassador to Malawi, whose embassy provided money to procure the beds, jointly presented the beds and soil rippers to Malawi’s Minister of Homeland Security, Mr. Nicholas Dausi, here on Thursday.

Rotberga stressed that donating beds was a short term solution to mitigate the impact of overcrowding. This would be followed by improvement of ventilation, access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.

She said other long-term interventions would include simplifying and speeding up the criminal justice process, improving access to legal aid, taking measures to reduce pre-trial detention and introducing the use of alternatives to imprisonment. Support would be rendered, also, to revising the legislative framework, which may include decriminalization of certain offences, reduction of sentence lengths and increasing the age of criminal responsibility.

This year UNODC trained almost 200 magistrates from the Southern, Eastern, Central and Northern regions of Malawi to increase awareness on alternative sentencing and strengthen their professional capacity to apply non- custodial measures to deserving persons.

Additionally, UNODC has provided technical assistance revise Malawi’s Prison Act and Sentencing Guidelines. The new Prison Act would allow the use of parole and community work. UNODC is urging Malawi to adopt it as soon as possible.

The beds will benefit inmates at Maula Prison, one of the harshest and most overcrowded prisons in the country. Congestion is linked to adverse health outcomes. Experts agree that it creates an environment for disease-causing organisms to thrive.

Target 3.3 of Sustainable Development Goal Number 3 calls on member states to by the year 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases while combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases.

Most prisons in Malawi receive very little funding. This makes it difficult for them to adequately meet prisoners’ nutrition, fresh air and other needs. Malawi prisons are either heavily or lightly congested. This calls for improvement in the classification of prisoners and other measures.

Although prisoners bear the brunt of overcrowding and poor nutrition, there are many players and factors within the criminal justice system that contribute to overcrowding. One of them is knee-jerk use of custodial sentences, sometimes with scant or no regard at all to the age of offenders or the nature of their crimes.

Hagen also expressed concern over overcrowding in the approximately 30 Malawi prisons.

Steinar Hagen, the Royal Norwegian Ambassador to Malawi and Malawi’s Minister of Homeland Security, Mr. Nicholas Dausi walk out of a cell at Maula Prison where the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Malawi donated 350 three-tier bunk beds, 1050 mattresses and three soil rippers on Thursday.

“The holding capacity of Malawi’s prison system is an estimated 6,220 individuals. With a current population of about 14,200 inmates held across its various institutions with varying population distribution, the Malawi prison system is operating at over double its designed holding capacity,” he said.

He said the dignity of inmates should be upheld at all costs.

“Prisoners are human beings like all of us. They have the same rights as all other persons as far as the law can allow. They have lost their liberty whilst in the prison, but they should not be deprived of their human dignity or their right to equality before the law. Prisoners should not be subject to extra punishment while in prison in addition to their sentencing,” Hagen said.

Describing the situation in Malawi prisons as “worrying”, Hagen called for alignment of Malawi’s national laws and practices with international human rights standards and principles such as the Nelson Mandela Rules.

“To effect sustainable change, development assistance efforts must help Malawi build capacities for fundamental criminal justice reform,” he said.

Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights exhorts member states to ensure that all people deprived of their liberty be treated humanely.

“It is below human dignity to sleep in cold shacks without a mattress or a blanket, to have limited shelter from cold or heat, to eat poor food, not to be able to cook when it rains and to lack proper sanitation,” he said.

With a current prison population throughout the country, the Malawi Prison Service would require 3 000 triple deck bunk beds to provide all its inmates decent sleeping space, according to Henry Ndindi, a medical doctor and Country Coordinator for UNODC in Malawi. An assessment done by UNODC established that even if they were to be procured, 3000 bunk beds would not fit into the existing prison space.

A man walks past one of 350 three-tier bunk beds and 1050 mattresses that United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Malawi donated on Thursday at Maula Prison on Thursday.

Accordingly, UNODC advocates for reducing the prison population. To achieve this, UNODC is creating awareness among stakeholders within the criminal justice system on the benefits of alternative sentencing.

Yet another challenge affecting the MPS is providing ablution facilities: toilets, showers, hand washing taps and basins in the correct ratio. The toilet prison ratio is 1 toilet to 25 prisoners, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In Malawi, UNODC has established that while some prisons may have the appropriate toilet to prisoner ratio, the quality of the toilets leaves a lot to be desired.

In some prisons, there are still not enough toilets and showers due to congestion. The current UNODC Project in Malawi is, therefore, focusing on the most affected prisons to improve the prisoner toilet ratio and introduce water points so that prisoners can wash their hands and drink water.

In many prisons, inmates still use the bucket system to relieve themselves at night which does not comply with internationally agreed upon sanitary conditions. Changing this situation would involve renovating the prisons. With respect to ventilation, some cells are seriously compromised while the standards of wash facilities are low in terms of quantity and quality.

UNODC and the Royal Norwegian Embassy donated, also, three soil ripping machines for use in crop production at three prisons: Kasungu, Zomba and Chitedze.

Chief Commissioner Wandika Phiri, the Commissioner General of the Malawi Prison Service, welcomed to the donation.

Chief Commissioner Wandika Phiri, the Commissioner General of the Malawi Prison Service, Malawi’s Minister of Homeland Security, Mr. Nicholas Dausi, Signe Rotberga, UNODC Regional Coordinator for Southern Africa and Steinar Hagen, the Royal Norwegian Ambassador to Malawi pose in front of bunk beds and soil rippers donated to Maula Prison on Thursday.

“These bunk beds will improve prisoners’ accommodation while not suffocating the already limited space. The soil rippers will improve crop production. Our farm land is overused and has since lost its fertility,” she said.

Phiri thanked UNODC for supporting MPS projects related to health, agriculture and infrastructure development. Minister Dausi acknowledged that overcrowding was a challenge in Malawi prisons but expressed optimism that the many magistrates that UNODC has trained in alternative sentencing would help resolve the problem.

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnagagwa was on Saturday left a relieved man after thousands of people from Mashonaland East province thronged Mahusekwa Growth Point where he addressed a rally that coincided with the official opening of Mahusekwa District Hospital.

In the recent past, Mnangagwa had been forced to address a handful of people, with MDC feasting on the development which they claimed showed that he lacked legitimacy.

But, at the weekend, an estimated 6 000 people attended Mnangagwa’s rally, prompting the Zanu PF leader, who is facing a growing internal dissent to his rule, to grovel over the respectable attendance.

“I came here for the official opening of this hospital at the invitation of (Health) minister Obadiah Moyo, but was told that the Zanu PF family wants to meet me. I want to thank you for the love you have exhibited. I also want to thank you for the massive numbers here,” Mnangagwa said.

Last month, Mnangagwa was forced to abandon addressing a rally in Bindura after a handful of people showed up.

He proceeded to officiate at a graduation ceremony at Bindura University of Science Education after State security details pulled down a podium mounted for him at the flopped rally. This was a month after the same Mashonaland Central snubbed his wife, First Lady Auxilia’s family fun day at Chipadze Stadium.

On October 25, the Zanu PF leader failed to attract masses to fill the giant 60 000-seater National Sports Stadium (NSS) for a march against sanctions imposed on the country by the West.

Only about 7 000 people attended the anti-sanctions march despite bountiful of buses and trains having been lined up to ferry people from across the country. The NSS attendance was ironically almost the same number of people the Zanu PF leader addressed in Mahusekwa. Zanu PF Mashonaland East youth league led by Kelvin Mutsvairo and political commissar Lincoln Matare were involved in mobilising party supporters to travel to Mahusekwa to meet Mnnagagwa.

BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA

THE trial of former Tourism minister Priscah Mupfumira, who is facing corruption allegations involving US$95 million, has been postponed to December 9.

Mupfumira yesterday appeared before Harare magistrate Hosea Mujaya who postponed the trial proceedings.

The former minister and Zanu PF politburo member was arrested on July 25, 2019 by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, becoming the first sitting minister under President Emmerson Mnangagwa to be arrested for graft.

She is being jointly charged with Ngoni Masoka, the former permanent secretary in the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare ministry.

Another charge, which is also before the trial court, emanated from an incident where she allegedly used money from the ministry to sponsor people who attended her daughter’s wedding in Cape Town, South Africa.

Meanwhile, the unavailability of witnesses who were supposed to testify during the trial of flamboyant businessman Wicknell Chivayo forced provincial magistrate Francis Mapfumo to defer the trial to December 10.

Chivayo is facing bribery charges after his company, Intratrek, transferred $10 000 to former Zimbabwe Power Company board chairperson Stanley Kazhanje’s personal bank account to ostensibly influence the outcome of a tender process.

The court heard that the trial was supposed to commence, but an application for postponement was submitted because the witnesses in this case were not around.