BY RUTENDO MATANHIKE

HOME Affairs minister Cain Mathema says approximately 100 000 passport applicants should have their documents by year-end.

Addressing journalists in Harare yesterday, Mathema said increased passport production hinged on his ministry being able to settle debts and ensure supplies of consumables for passports production.

“I would like now to advise that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, on a monthly basis, has allocated resources to retire the outstanding debts in relation to technical expertise and supplies of consumables and paper. At this rate, we expect that by April 2020, significant progress would have been made to resolve that matter,” Mathema said.

“While the impact of the measures taken so far is considerable, in that, about 100 000 people who applied for passports will take delivery of such documents by end of December, with the arrival of additional material at the end of November 2019 or early December 2019, we expect to double the number of those getting passports within two months of taking delivery.”

Passport production in the country has been lagging behind, with a staggering backlog of about 370 000 booklets, some of the applications dating back to 2018.

Production had recently been limited to 750 passports per day for emergency situations.

He also said his ministry, in collaboration with Foreign Affairs and International Trade ministry, had agreed to create a platform for Zimbabweans in the diaspora to apply and pay for passports without necessarily having to travel back home.

“On a more permanent basis, we have agreed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade that the ministry should regularise the movement of the diplomatic bags to allow people in the diaspora to apply and pay for passports at the embassies closer to them,” he said.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA / RUVIMBO MUCHENJE

A GROUP of war veterans yesterday formed a splinter group, accusing Zanu PF, President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) of failing the country through corruption and fanning political violence.

The war veterans, led by Wilbert Sadomba, a former Christopher Mutsvangwa-led ZNLWVA secretary for education, said they had now formed a new apolitical war veterans association, the Zimbabwe Liberation Platform (ZLP).

The original ZLP was the brainchid of the late liberation war stalwart, Wilfred Mhanda, whose Chimurenga name was Dzinashe Machingura.

“This is what we have realised that as long as we remain subservient to a political party, it has got its own ideologies, its own leadership that if we try to be critical, it has to take the practices and culture of that political party and we won’t be able to actually play our role as an overseer of the liberation objectives,” Sadomba said.

He was accompanied by Abraham Tsikwa, Karen Kazingizi, Patrick Makombe and Abel Marimo.

The war veterans, most of them who played a huge role under the ZNLWVA in the ouster of the late former President Robert Mugabe to pave way for Mnangagwa, also accused the incumbent of monopolising the liberation war into a party project for personal gain.

They argued that the liberation struggle did not belong to Zanu PF and, therefore, it was wrong for ZNLWVA to be an arm of a political party.

The new outfit said Zanu PF had been hijacked by people who don’t understand the ethos of the liberation struggle, a group of people who are in their posts because of Mugabe’s political gamesmanship to retain power.

They also cast aspersions on Mnangagwa’s liberation war credentials, claiming that when he was released from jail, he went straight to study law, and not joint the liberation struggle.

He was brought back into the fold by Mugabe, the ex-fighters claimed.

Sadomba said it was time for the nation to be brave and speak out against corruption and challenge bad things regardless of who was behind them, saying Mutsvangwa’s ZNLWVA had failed.

“We did not fight the war so that we can have political violence or corruption. We fought for democracy and to get out of oppression in the hands of Ian Smith, but not to continue under the same in a Zanu PF government. The Zanu PF we knew during the war is not the same we know now,” he said.

Sadomba added that war veterans operating under the confines of Zanu PF cannot stand up against the rot that has rocked the revolutionary party, referring to the alleged missing of US$15 billion diamond revenue and US$3 million Command Agriculture funds.

Kazingizi said real war veterans had been sidelined and replaced by opportunists.

She also lifted the lid on Mnangagwa’s liberation war credentials.

“Cde Emmerson was taken out of jail, according to the history I know, and when he left prison, he did not go to the war. He went to study law. After finishing law, he was taken by Mugabe after the former President had removed all the real comrades. The people who had chosen Mugabe to lead the war at the Mgagao declaration, he had finished them all, and replaced them with newcomers,” Kazingizi said.

In 2008, war veterans led a violent and bloody Zanu PF campaign against the opposition MDC after the late MDC leader and presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai had won the first round of presidential elections.

Kazingizi said they now wanted to exorcise the ghost of violence by stepping out of Zanu PF.

“If a true war veteran did that (beat up people in violent election campaigns), they must come forward and confess, because during the war, we saw them being shot if they killed unarmed civilians,” she said.

The war veterans said they were working to rebrand themselves.

The ZLP leaders said political violence and corruption have become so entrenched under the watch of Zanu PF, in the process dividing the nation and leaving a trail of poverty and empty national coffers, which are being looted by a few.

Finance minister Mthuli Ncube

By Tafadzwa Mhlanga

THE government is leaning towards pegging the Zimbabwe dollar currency to the South African rand, with Finance minister Mthuli Ncube saying this would make the local currency more competitive in the region.

Ncube made the disclosure to NewsDay on the sidelines of the anti-sanctions march at the National Sports Stadium on Friday, while responding to a question on whether the loss of confidence in the Zimbabwe dollar was behind skyrocketing prices.

“As of now, the Zimdollar is trading 1:1 with the South African rand, so the Zimdollar is competitive in the international market and other currencies in the region like the Botswana pula, Namibian dollar and Mozambique metical,” Ncube said.

The southern African nation merged its electronic dollars and surrogate bond notes into a transitional currency called the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) dollar in February, and also scrapped the highly controversial 1:1 peg to the United States dollar.

In June, it then made the RTGS currency the country’s sole legal tender and renamed it the Zimbabwe dollar, ending a decade of dollarisation.

Government is currently printing new notes for the new currency, which it hopes to have by end of the year.

But the local currency has seen its value sliding against the greenback, from 2,5 to the dollar on the official interbank market when it was introduced on February 22 this year to 15,59 yesterday.

On the black market yesterday, it traded at 22 to the US dollar, while the Old Mutual Implied Rate, used by international companies, was at 24,01.

Ncube said he was more concerned with stabilising the local currency so that it maintains parity with the rand and other currencies in the region.

“What we need to do now is to stabilise it to a level where it is competitive with other currencies in the region,” he said.

“To maintain the value of the new currency as government, we make sure that the budget deficit is under control because if we lose control, we end up printing more money to fund government activities.

“We also have to make sure that money supply is kept under control to make sure that it does not rise. We should raise productivity to improve on exports to gain more foreign currency.”

Ncube did not say if government was considering joining the Common Monetary Area (CMA), which links South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) into a monetary union anchored by the rand.

The rand is legal tender in all the four countries, although Namibia, Eswatini and Lesotho have their own currencies.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa early this year said Zimbabwe had in 2008 failed to meet conditions for admission into the CMA.

In September, after a massive sell-off of the local Zimbabwe dollar that saw the exchange rate fall from 11 to 23 to the US dollar on the black market, and the interbank market desperately trying to catch up, the central bank swiftly abandoned the idea of letting the market determine the exchange rate on September 27 through exchange control directive RU131/2019, adopting, instead, a managed floating exchange rate.

It has maintained the exchange rate between 15,3 and 15,59 to the US dollar since then, tracing the rand’s performance against the greenback.

Despite the lack of confidence in the local currency, which has seen businesses pegging prices in US dollars, Ncube was adamant that Zimbabwe needed its own currency to revive its economy.

“There is no country that can develop using other countries’ money without its own currency and that is why we have decided to have our own currency. We should all support it because it is very important. As citizens, you should trust us on this,” he said.

“The point is to bring more cash through the new notes. It is not really new currency because we already have a currency, it is just cash that we are bringing about to solve the cash crisis. We are just going to convert the RTGS into cash so that the money supply does not rise.”

Zimbabwe abandoned its local currency after inflation topped 500 billion percent in December 2008, and adopted a basket of foreign currencies anchored by the United States dollar in February 2009.

The country then briefly enjoyed economic stability, characterised by stable prices and deflation.

But since 2016, the country has suffered shortages of cash, and the reintroduction of a local currency has led to fears of a return to the hyperinflation era, with inflation at 353,32% last month.

BY PATRICIA SIBANDADARLINGTON MWASHITA

THE Revelation Church of God on Saturday said, unlike other modern churches, it was working well with traditional healers.

The church made the revelations at its health walk and family day at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo in a bid to promote healthy living, Africanism and family unity.

The church, founded by South African Samuel Radebe, is an indigenous church based on African spirituality and is structured to restore and recall indigenous people to their spiritual roots.

One of the leaders, “Mholi” Nkululeko Zondo said the church taught congregrants the importance of ubuntu and not to abandon their African spiritual identities.

“We are urging congregants to look back where they came from in terms of African traditional religion as many have totally deserted their cultural backgrounds,” Zondo said.

He added that they worked hand in hand with African traditional healers to balance African and Christian religions.

“Our church is open to anyone, be it from Zion or Apostolic churches. We do not discriminate. Our doctrine is that we are not here to judge anyone, hence you will find that we also worship together with sangomas and traditional healers,” he said.

He said it was key that people retain their African heritage and identity.

“The roots of a black person are not white, they are black…there is no nation with no religion or culture, hence we should not put more focus on Christian religion only,” Zondo said.

He said many people were now Eurocentric at the expense of African traditions and religion.

“You will find out that most countries in Africa are called Christian countries because we practise Christianity which is a colonial religion. We need to be selective of what we adopt from the West as Christianity came with missionaries to replace African religion and culture,” Zondo said.

“We do not need only politicians to build Africa, we need all the spiritual guidance that we can to lead. Politicians need to work with spiritual guidance to lead Africa,” he said.

Zimbabwe International Traditional Healers Association leader David Mabhiyani Ngwenya said he appreciated Radebe’s efforts to bring traditional healers into the church.

“I am very thankful that Radebe has recognised us and we are very happy that we are given the platform to perform during church services,” Ngwenya said.

BY RICHARD MUPONDE

OVER 800 Binga residents who had no birth certificates and national identity cards were documented by the registry department on Friday last week.

Hundreds of villagers thronged Tyunga and Luunga wards in Binga North constituency for registration which was done under the theme Sport for Registration.

The mobile registration exercise was facilitated by a Binga non-governmental organisation Basilwizi Trust working in conjunction with the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation.

Tyunga and Luunga wards are in the remotest parts of Binga which do not have telephone or mobile network and has a bad road network which contributed to a higher number of undocumented villagers as transport to either Binga which is 160km away or Siabuwa is expensive.

Speaking at the occasion, Basilwizi Trust director Christopher Mweembe said it was good that traditional leaders were at the forefront of mobilising their subjects to come for the exercise.

“It’s very encouraging that traditional leaders were at the forefront in mobilsing people to come for this exercise so that they get documentation. We are happy that they know the importance of documentation to their subjects,” Mweembe said.

Chief Sinakatenge also said as traditional leaders they were happy about the programme which made it easy for their subjects to be documented.

“We are happy for the efforts and as traditional leaders it’s a cause for concern to lead a community whose identity is unknown,” Chief Sinakatenge said.

The exercise comes after Basilwizi Trust recently helped 300 villagers in other wards who had never obtained birth certificates since birth to get them from the registry offices, with the eldest being over 60 years.

The project was held under the theme The Citizens Campaign for Birth Identity Documents.

BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE

BULAWAYO City Council has extended its water rationing period beyond the published schedule in some parts of the city due to reduced electricity supply to the pump stations.

Town clerk Christopher Dube, said the local authority yesterday started closing water supplies to areas supplied by Magwegwe, Criterion and Tuli reservoirs outside the normal water rationing programme in a bid to normalise the reservoirs

“The City of Bulawayo would like to advice stakeholders and the residents that water supplies have been closed for areas supplied by the Magwegwe, Criterion and Tuli reservoirs outside the normal water rationing programme in a bid to normalise the reservoirs,” Dube said.

“The reservoirs have depleted beyond the critical level due to high consumption levels in the city, pumping challenges as a result of Zesa load-shedding and high temperatures affecting delivery of raw water to the city.”

Last week, Bulawayo mayor Solomon Mguni indicated that raw water buffer level continued to decrease and that power supply challenges and pump breakdowns at Inyankuni and Umzingwane dams were exacerbating water problems.

Mguni said to mitigate the challenges being experienced with regards to water provision, council was engaging Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company for a solution.
Council advised residents that water rationing remained in force and encouraged them to adhere to stipulated limits to avoid penalties.

“The city is in the process of rehabilitating all broken down boreholes (38) citywide and the contractor is on the ground as of today. The boreholes are expected to assist in augmenting water supply for the residents during this period,” Mguni said.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

GOVERNMENT has not yet formally communicated to the Diaspora Infrastructure Development Group (DIDG) concerning the termination of the US$400 million deal meant to revive the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), an official has said.

Government recently cancelled the US$400 million deal with DIDG-Transnet consortium, claiming the group had failed to comply with contractual timelines as well as to show it had the financial backing to complete the project.

But two weeks since the deal was cancelled, government is yet to inform the affected parties, according to DIDG director of corporate affairs Vimbayi Kanyonganise.

“We have not received any formal communication at all,” Kanyonganise told NewsDay in emailed responses.

The DIDG/Transnet consortium won a bid to partner NRZ in the US$400 million recapitalisation project in August 2017.

The deal involved the rehabilitation and renewal of plant, equipment, rolling stock, signalling and telecommunications infrastructure and the supporting information technology systems.

It also targeted to repair and rehabilitate infrastructure and equipment such as locomotives, wagons and coaches, as well as phased modernisation of train control systems.

Asked how much the company had incurred since negotiations started, Kanyonganise said: “Yes, we have incurred a lot of costs over the past two years, as expected when executing a transaction, but the issue here for us is not about costs incurred but about seeing the project through.”

Commenting on Zimbabwe’s open for business mantra, she said “we are Zimbabweans first, so at the end of the day Zimbabwe will always be open for business for us. It’s important that we can operate in our home country as we only have one.”

Efforts to get a comment from the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services hit a snag as both the minister Monica Mutsvangwa, her deputy Energy Mutodi as well as permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana did not answer their phones.

DIDG hinted that it could take legal action to challenge the cancellation of the deal.

Learnmore Zuze

ThE late former President Robert Mugabe may long have gone, but the man left a lot of pragmatic lessons for politicians and would-be politicians in Zimbabwe.

An intimate look at Mugabe’s brand of politics and the ramifications thereof can patently leave any politician wiser.

Mugabe took over a country that functioned efficiently with an enviable health delivery system, a vibrant education sector and robust agricultural activity that even had Zimbabwe being declared the breadbasket of Africa.

For a time, Mugabe rode on the wave of already set-up systems without many people detecting that something was going wrong. It was at the turn of the century that things really began to show.

Of the things left by the white man, infrastructure included, very little was done to upgrade or at least maintain them. Probably, the best allegory that captures the Zimbabwean story would be that of a man who inherits a brand new spanking Mercedes Benz vehicle. The man starts driving the car as usual, simply ensuring he fuels the car. However, as years go by, the man, whether by default or by design does not find it necessary to take the pricey vehicle for regular maintenance. He neither changes oil filters or anything, but just drives the vehicle until it’s a ramshackle, drawing people’s laughter everywhere it goes.

Tyres haven’t been changed since inheriting the vehicle and the oil becomes supremely dirty, yet somehow the man insisted on running the vehicle, essentially declaring that his ramshackle was gold and some other people want to steal it from him.

For the better part of his rule, Mugabe had utterly failed economically. Failing to give sensible answers to serious questions at the time the man shifted to a default gear, where he cast blame on the European Union and the United States, blaming sanctions for his failures. It became Mugabe’s favourite pastime each time he took to the podium locally or internationally.

Just like what happens even at a personal level, when someone denies responsibility for their problems in life, things do not get any better. Mugabe became probably the most hated man in Zimbabwe’s history when he waged his senseless verbal jousts against America and London.

The man would insult and throw vitriol at these countries at the time, but that did not carry the day for him.

Back home, resentment for him was growing. He even splurged on a “One million-man march” denouncing the British and the Americans and the sanctions, but the unpalatable truth remained that failure to manage the economy was his and not the West’s.

Shifting focus to an external force is a clear signal of haplessness in leadership. Mugabe refused to take responsibility to the end, that he was bailed out by none other than his nemesis, opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) president Morgan Tsvangirai at the formation of the Government of National Unity.

All the kicking and screaming he did at international fora did not yield any change, but brought shame upon his rule. It is definitely a wrong turn once one starts to abdicate responsibility, choosing instead to blame a mythical force for their demise.

The current administration in Zimbabwe ought to learn from Mugabe; the lessons are quite fundamental. Decrying sanctions has never been and will never be a panacea to the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe gained international notoriety for human rights abuses, torture, harassment and intimidation of government critics.

It was precisely those actions that stoked the fires of global resentment against his rule. Of course, he would clutch at straws and hide behind the land reform façade.

To him, he was being persecuted for taking land from the whites, but this was far from reality. A country gravitates towards being a rogue State the moment it suppresses dissent and victimises opposing views, the very elements that made the DNA of Mugabe’s reign.

The emergence of the MDC was not in itself the cause of Zimbabwe’s troubles, but rather a response to the free-fall of the economy and national disaster that was occurring while people watched.

Like Tsvangirai captures in his autobiography, at first, he thought little of getting into politics, but was indeed thrown into the deep end. The art of shifting blame has never helped humanity from time immemorial.

After making Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, Ian Smith was hit by sanctions; it is even more ironical that the nationalists then, Eddison Zvobgo, as spokesperson in particular, continued to call for sanctions against the Smith regime as it upped its oppression of the locals.

Today, the opposition is denounced left, right and centre for calling for sanctions, the very thing which liberators did against an oppressive government. The Smith story is curious in that, the man managed to hold things together in the face of sanctions. The health systems never took a tumble as we see it today. Roads did not become craters, neither did civil servants lose their sense of worth as we live with today.

The sanctions charade represents chaos and cluelessness. No nation ever progressed while shifting blame on another. Address the atrocious human rights record!

by sport reporter

Tokyo — Eddie Jones has responded in typically sharp fashion after Wales coach Warren Gatland questioned whether England had played their World Cup final a week early with a stunning victory over champions New Zealand.

Gatland was speaking after Wales had been edged out 19-16 in the second semi-final by South Africa, who will now face England in Yokohama on Saturday in a repeat of the 2007 final.

The Welsh play the All Blacks in the bronze final 24 hours earlier, with Gatland’s last match after 12 years in charge coming against his native New Zealand.

“Well, guys, can you just send my best wishes to Warren to make sure he enjoys the third and fourth place playoff,” England coach Jones told reporters when Gatland’s comments were put to him on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Australian, in charge of the Wallabies side that lost to England in the 2003 World Cup final, delivered a boost to Red Rose hopes of a second global crown by declaring Jonny May had recovered well from the dead leg the wing suffered in a superb 19-7 semi-final win over New Zealand.

The Leicester flyer had been a doubt coming into the All Blacks match because of a hamstring injury and played 45 minutes before leaving the field with a fresh fitness problem.

But a smiling Jones insisted on Monday: “We had a walk-through this morning and we had to tell Jonny to slow down a bit.

“He’s probably in better condition than he was last week at this stage.”

England captain Owen Farrell also suffered a dead leg during an impressive win but finished the game, albeit his injury saw George Ford took over the goal-kicking duties.

“Owen’s a bit sore, but he’ll be fine,” said Jones. “We’ve got a few others carrying bumps and bruises because it was a tough old game.”

Meanwhile, Jones said England could continue to lift the mood of the nation by taking attention away from Brexit with a win over the Springboks.

“It’s great — you give the country something to cheer about and with Brexit at the moment they probably need something to cheer about,” Jones said.

“It’s the job of a team to make the country happy and we’ve made the country happy. Not as happy as they can be because there is still a game to go as we’ve said.”

Meanwhile Jones paid tribute to Willi Heinz after the back-up scrumhalf saw his dreams of playing in a World Cup final crushed by a tournament-ending hamstring injury suffered against New Zealand.

Jones picked just two specialist scrumhalves in his 31-man squad for Japan.
— AFP