BY RUVIMBO MUCHENJE

The Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) has released a statement denouncing the recent arrests of participants that attended their workshop in Maldives recently.

George Makoni, Nyasha Frank Mpahlo, Tatenda Mombeyarara, Gamuchirai Mukura, Farirai Gumbonzvanda, Stabile Dewa, and Rita Nyampinga have been arrested on subversion charges after attending a training organised by CANVAS “to topple the incumbent government.”

In the statement, CANVAS decried the abuse of human rights saying the arrests are illegal.

“The Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) firmly condemns the illegal arrest of seven (7) Zimbabwean civil society activists on their way home from attending a training workshop organized by CANVAS in the Maldives from May 15 to 19, 2019,” they said.

The detainees have been denied bail so far with six remanded in prison and the seventh, Gamuchirai Mukura, remanded in a public hospital.

During the workshop, the State-controlled newspaper, The Herald, published an article that alleging the detainees of plotting to unseat the constitutionally government.

CANVAS denies the charges levelled against it of training the seven to topple theZANUPF government.

“CANVAS would like to inform Zimbabweans and the international community that the charges against these activists are blatantly false. The charges include: “subversion”, “counterintelligence”, and “being trained in use of small arms”. The activists could face up to twenty years in prison for these charges. The workshop focused on advocacy and civic engagement capacity building such as: Developing Shared Vision of Tomorrow; Civic Engagement; Effective Communications; Protecting Privacy and Security; and Organizational Planning,” they said.

The organisation is calling on the government to immediately release the seven activists.

“CANVAS calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to immediately and unconditionally release the seven (7) activists and follow the rule of law,” said CANVAS.

Get full statement here

ZIMBABWE does not need foreign aid to escape this economic malaise. Our leaders have been saying it so many times that the country’s hope lies on a bailout package; the quicker we get it, the better, but this is a misplaced sentiment. The country has lost so much time and resources hunting for bilateral aid, which is not necessary anyway, instead we should focus more on finding solutions to our current problems with what we already have.

Though developmental economist and prominent author, Jeffrey Sachs, vehemently argued that less developing nations are faced with what he termed poverty traps and need a bailout package in the form of official development assistance in order to escape extreme poverty but I, together with other economists like Dambisa Moyo and William Easterly, believe that developmental aid is the reason why we are poor today.

Internal efforts to alleviate poverty have been a failure for the past five decades despite the West’s effort, having spent more than $2,3 trillion, but still 1,1 billion people still live in extreme poverty.

Those countries that have rejected the aid route have prospered while countries like Zimbabwe have become aid-dependent and seen poverty increasing. Over-reliance on aid has trapped developing nations in a vicious cycle of aid dependency, corruption, market distortions and further poverty, leaving us with nothing, but the need for more aid.

Moyo argued that over the past 30 years, the most aid-dependent countries have exhibited growth rates averaging minus 0,2% and when aid flows were at their peak between 1970 and 1998, poverty in Africa rose to a staggering 66%.
Ovaska (2003) empirically demonstrated that decreasing the level of developmental aid may actually have a beneficial effect on growth. He found that a 1% rise in aid as a percentage of GDP decreases annual GDP per capita growth by 3,65%. Aid incentivises citizens of poor nations to be dependent and unproductive, which ultimately harms their economic progress.

Aid is corrosive, according to Moyo, in that it encourages exceptionally talented people to become unprincipled, putting their efforts into attracting and siphoning of aid rather than focussing on being good politicians or entrepreneurs. A foreign aid environment weakens social capital by thwarting accountability mechanisms, encouraging rent-seeking behaviour, siphoning of scarce talent from employment positions and removing pressures to reform inefficient policies and institutions.

Zimbabwe has been receiving aid and some form of bailout packages for the past 29 years, yet the economic situation is worsening, and poverty rates increasing. The failure of our country’s economy is not the lack of aid or of inadequate finance, but its more to do with its governance and institutions around. It’s about politics.
Poverty is not a technical problem, according to Easterly, it is a social problem that is caused by social causes of poverty, bad institutions, bad politics, misguided policies, trading networks that exclude the poor, high transaction costs in markets and ineffectual aid donors.

Caden (2009) wrote that economic development is an institutional rather than an infrastructural and technological problem. People respond to incentives, and institutions defining those incentives have fundamental implications.
The ideas to end poverty are better learnt from Adam Smith (1776). Nations become wealthy as the scope of the market expands and their citizens are increasingly able to take advantage of the division of labour and this points out to the fact that nations that lack proper property rights, which do not enforce contracts inhibit the creation of wealth, hence will remain poor, Zimbabwe being one of them.

The success stories of India, South Korea and China are not from these kinds of bailout packages that Zimbabwe is seeking for; they are from market liberalisation and entrepreneurship. Zimbabwe’s failure is not caused by lack of foreign aid, presence of sanctions, ignorance or lack of resources, but rather, it is a result of selfish interest of the dictators to amass wealth through extractive institutions at the expense of the majority. South Africa is doing well. Botswana is one of the growth miracle countries and these are all our neighbouring countries. So it is not like our leaders are ignorant and can’t see and copy from nearby, but the presence of corruption, absence of rule of law, misgovernance, no property rights and enforceable contracts would maximise the elite’s rent-seeking activities.

Those in this bad system or linked to it are benefiting and they do not dare complain. That is why you hear them justifying corrupt tendencies, luxurious and wasteful globe-trotting trips at the expense of drugless hospitals and protection of shortage-creating fuel cartels. There is liquidity crisis in Zimbabwe and most commercial banks stopped cash withdrawals a long time ago, but money changers are in the streets with thousands of this scarce and most hunted RTGS notes, then you wonder who their supplier is. Who are the major shareholders of all these remaining companies, mining firms, and owners of major gold claims, among others? Obviously, it’s not that poor peasant farmer of Uzumba, Buhera or Gokwe, it’s those same politicians.

So if you say an economic crisis is looming, there is extreme poverty in Zimbabwe, hospitals are now in a bad state, schools are now offering the worst kind of education ever due the lack of incentives and motivation to the facilitators, who cares, who hears? Their children learn abroad. If they fell ill, they are flown abroad to India to get the best medication and attention ever. They are equally more important and you are just inferior, no matter how you cry, talk or shout. The incentive or push to make things straight is none existent, because extreme poverty is in your homes, not in theirs.

Do they use public transport, RTGS dollars, earn peanuts like the majority of civil servants, or sleep in fuel queues? Do they do shopping here in Zimbabwe? No, they don’t. So why should they make the system straight if their problems are not the same as ours? Zimbabwe has all it needs to prosper; natural resources, human resources among others; bad institutions are the binding constraints, corruption, expropriation of property, misgovernace, absence of the rule of law, lack of contract enforcement, repressed markets and poor policies, just to mention a few. Zimbabwe does not need aid, it needs sanity!

 Blessing Machiva is a developmental economist and he writes in his personal capacity.

SIX lucky Zimbabweans are set for a life-time experience and could witness celebrated American hip-hop sensation, Austin Richard Post, known as Post Malone, perform live at the Ticket Pro Dome at this year’s edition of the Castle Lite Unlocks concert set for June 17 and 18 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

BY WINSTONE ANTONIO

The selected Zimbabweans will be flown to Mzansi on a VIP experience package courtesy of Delta Beverages through their Castle Lite brand for two nights of extra cold enjoyment.

Delta Beverages brand manager Kundai Mawema confirmed that six Zimbabweans would be part of this year’s edition of the concert, which she said would be a bigger and better two-day music experience.

“Dubbed as one of the continent’s most sought-after events, Unlocks, the brand’s ultimate music experience is back and this year it promises to be the coldest hip-hop experience to ever hit Africa,” she said.

“Castle Lite Zimbabwe fans were given the opportunity to be part of the Unlocks experience, as the brand hosted a series of three road to unlocks events in Gweru, Bulawayo and Harare in a quest to find six lucky winners of the all-expenses paid VIP experience to Unlocks, courtesy of Castle Lite Zimbabwe.”

Mawema said this year’s Unlocks concert would comprise of a one-day hip-hop conference.

“As this massive regional brand continues to grow and evolve, this year the brand unlocks a bigger and better experience for its loyal fans, as they will be immersed in all things hip-hop, culture, fashion and innovation in the ultimate two-day music experience,” she said.

“As we draw closer to the event, be sure to follow our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CastleLiteZimbabwe as we begin to unlock our six lucky winners. Watch their journey unfold as they build-up to an experience of a lifetime with the coldest, most premium and progressive brand around.”

THAT it is now more than one-and-a-half years since former Finance minister Ignatius Chombo was arrested in dramatic fashion at the height of a coup that toppled ex-President Robert Mugabe, speaks to the efficacy of Zimbabwe’s justice delivery system.

Newsday Comment

Because, at the time of his arrest, Chombo was painted as one of the many “criminals surrounding” the former President, the nation should have by now forgotten about him, having since been thrown behind bars for a long time.
But alas, Chombo is still among us; and as his case becomes stale, so has the essence of his arrest paled away into insignificance.

But his continued hogging of the limelight is beginning to raise eyebrows and inadvertently shining the spotlight on our Judiciary.

Chombo’s case is intriguing and an excellent case study for a doctoral thesis zeroing in on the functionality of our justice system.

November 14, 2017 is the exact date when Chombo was arrested by the military as Mugabe was placed under house arrest. Charges mainly centred on fraud dating back to 1997.

Despite successfully applying for bail on December 14, 2017 — exactly a month after his first arrest — Chombo was re-arrested. And the charge: Wearing Zanu PF regalia without authority.

The proper wording of the charge was “criminal nuisance”. This was after photographs of him and two other colleagues — who were also arrested in November 2017, went viral on social media.

In the photographs the accused were wearing caps emblazoned “ED” and “Kutonga Kwaro”. Late January this year, a warrant of arrest was issued on him after he failed to appear in court to answer to charges of “unlawfully” wearing the Zanu PF regalia.

And with the drama around Chombo showing no sign of abating, last month the former minister’s passport was theatrically seized by State security agents at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport as he was about to leave the country for a medical check-up in South Africa.

This is where we are now with the long-running and seemingly endless case of Chombo, now ailing. Despite having been given back his passport by the courts, it boggles the mind what exactly is happening with our justice system.

We now have a person who was charged, but never tried and is being denied the right to seek medical help abroad.

Why has Chombo’s case taken this long to be dealt with? Meanwhile, it is getting murkier as new dimensions keep popping up almost daily.

Is Chombo’s case still to do with justice or it is now a political game by some bent on settling political scores? We understand Chombo may have several properties dotted around the country. Can the State not seize them all if, as it fears, he does not return from his medical sojourn to South Africa?

If it’s about politics, then we are afraid to say that this case could end up damaging the reputation and general image of our court system.

Chombo’s case can easily dissuade some potential investors, who may end up questioning the efficacy of our Judiciary.

Added to this whole drama is the issue of human rights, which we have hardly scored well since independence. We sincerely believe that the merry-go-rounds on Chombo and his ilk are not helping us at all as a nation. The case is effectively destroying all the goodwill that may still be out there.

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday came face-to-face with Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Peter Mutasa, who faces a charge of trying to unseat the former through unconstitutional means.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

Mutasa is also threatening a fresh wave of demonstrations over the deteriorating economy.

Under fire from the failing local currency and an economy in a tailspin, Mnangagwa’s government is increasingly uneasy after Mutasa and the main opposition MDC have threatened to engage in peaceful demonstrations to force the government to act.

Mnangagwa, while officially launching the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) after signing the TNF Bill into law early Tuesday morning, told labour to shun stayaways.

“In the second republic, let us shun the culture of militancy, disharmony and demonstrations. We must develop greater understanding of each other’s perspectives,” he said .

Accused of repression to silence labour and civil society following the arrest and brutal assault of labour leaders, including Mutasa, Mnangagwa’s tone appeared conciliatory.

“Differing positions must be permissible within our country. However, these must never divide us or result in conflict. Violence must never be used as a tool to gain temporary advantage at the expense of the people we must serve and protect. That old and retrogressive culture will only serve to widen our fissures and exacerbate our socio-economic challenges and further delay the prosperity that our country so much needs and our people deserve,” he said.

In an effort to curb high prices and erosion of purchasing power, Mnangagwa said his government was looking at models which would lock value on workers’ salaries.

“(In relation) to the performance of the labour market and the current erosion of the value of salaries and wages by the unjustified price hikes, … (there is) need for more realistic and sustainable pricing models,” he said.
The ZCTU leader applauded the statements by Mnangagwa, saying the military and police should take heed to the calls by their leader.

“I think the President, when he said no to militancy, violence and disharmony, he was talking to the military and the police. It is them who have been bringing violence against labour and the people of Zimbabwe and it is our hope that they take heed to the calls to stop repression against the workers. We have no force and have no capacity to bring militancy to the government,” Mutasa said.

He said the suffering workers would now use the TNF to negotiate for currency reforms because salary negotiations were not yielding any results.

“If we negotiate and get say a 100% salary increase, prices of goods will go up. It is not salary negotiations that matter at this point. We now need currency reforms. So we are going to push through the convenor of the forum to meet the governor of the Reserve Bank (John Mangudya), the Minister of Finance (Mthuli Ncube), so that we have a currency reform agenda in play,” Mutasa said.

The ZCTU also insists that without a political solution, the economic crisis will continue, saying the TNF would raise those issues to ensure that the ruling Zanu PF party engages with the MDC, led by Nelson Chamisa, to bring an end to the economic malaise.

Mutasa said if negotiations failed or there was a deliberate attempt to slow down the process, workers retained their right to demonstrate, as enshrined in the Constitution.

TNF will allow government, labour and employers to sit on the same table and make binding legal agreements on social issues affecting production and labour.

ZIMBABWE and the European Union (EU) yesterday kicked off their first formal dialogue in 17 years, which Harare hopes will thaw frosty relations and lead to resumption of direct aid to its battered economy.

BY OBEY MANAYITI

But the southern African nation faces pressure to improve its human rights record and agree to critical political and economic reforms.

Zimbabwe has had a chequered history with the bloc under former President Robert Mugabe’s nearly four-decade rule.
The EU imposed sanctions on some of the country’s leaders and several State-owned firms over alleged human rights abuses.

Mugabe constantly denied the allegations and regularly referred to the EU as colonialists and opined that the sanctions were responsible for Zimbabwe’s economic collapse.

The EU now only maintains the sanctions on Mugabe, his wife Grace and the Zimbabwe Defence Industries, a State-owned arms manufacturer, but has not provided direct aid to Harare since 2002, preferring to channel the funds via local non-governmental organisations and United Nations agencies.

At the talks in Harare, Zimbabwe’s delegation is being led by Foreign Affairs permanent secretary James Manzou and the EU by its ambassador to Zimbabwe Timo Olkkonen.

Olkkonen said the discussion focused on investments, human rights, rule of law, democracy and development co-operation.

“Against this background, we are looking forward to discussing and exchanging views on a number of important issues of common interest, ranging from economic development, trade and investment, to climate change and its humanitarian impact, to human rights, democratisation, rule of law and good governance as well as development cooperation, migration and regional and international co-operation,” he said.

Olkkonen emphasised that the dialogue platform must be made on equal footing and discussions must be frank through free exchange of views.

“The government of Zimbabwe has been clear that significant political and economic reforms are necessary for the benefit of its people. The EU is there to support Zimbabwe move ahead with its reform agenda. In this, we want to be a constructive, credible and transparent partner,” he said.

Manzou said he was convinced that a strong foundation for frank discussions on all issues had been laid.
He added that in their closed-door engagements, they should never be afraid of tackling hard issues as they endeavour to build bridges and find a common ground on sticky matters.

“This event, that brings us together, marks another milestone in the government’s re-engagement efforts and, indeed, in the strengthening of relations between Zimbabwe and the European Union,” Manzou said.

“As you are all aware, re-engagement, and particularly re-engagement with the European Union, is one of the foreign policy priorities of the government of Zimbabwe.”

Manzou, who was accompanied by other permanent secretaries from various ministries such as Lands, Justice and Finance, said the country was already making strides on some of the issues of concern.

“As we will discuss today and in the future, the government is already making significant strides in political and economic reforms that are key to creating a conducive environment for business and more importantly to improving the lives of the people of Zimbabwe,” he said.

“Through this formal dialogue, we at the officials level have been given the task to come together as equal partners and jointly find ways of strengthening relations between Zimbabwe and the European Union.”

Various ambassadors from EU member countries, among them France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Belgium, are participating in the discussions.

Shunned by the West and international lenders, Zimbabwe is struggling to deal with its worst economic crisis in a decade.

The Bulawayo business community yesterday snubbed the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA) Bill public hearings, with less than 30 people attending.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

The Portfolio Committees on Industry and Commerce as well as Foreign Affairs International Trade were in Bulawayo yesterday, conducting public hearings on the ZIDA Bill, but only a handful of people was in attendance.

The Bill seeks to establish a one-stop shop for investors by repealing the Zimbabwe Investment Authority Act, the Special Economic Zones Act and house them under the ZIDA Act.

Committee chair Kindness Paradza expressed disappointment with the poor public turnout.

“We thought Bulawayo was going to be overwhelmed, and we thought the Large City Hall was going to be full. Also, considering that Bulawayo is the industrial hub of Zimbabwe and that it’s a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), we thought we were going to see a large number of people here, including the city council,” he said.

“We are disappointed that there are very few people here. We would have loved to see many people in Bulawayo.”

Bulawayo Polytechnic principal Gilbert Mabasa said: “It is unpardonable that the team that is coming to Bulawayo to get opinion is more than people who should give that opinion.”

Mabasa also blamed the event organisers for failing to advertise the event adequately.

Meanwhile, those who attended the hearings said different departments in the one-stop-shop should be empowered to issue out consolidated permits within a short period of time.

Others said the Bill should incorporate the tourism sector in Bulawayo under the SEZs.

The Bill should also ensure that all investments coming into the country would benefits the locals.

On SEZs, Bulawayo City Council’s economic development officer, Kholisani Moyo, said the Bill should look at two models — sector-specific and area-specific models.

Another participant, Calvin Manduna, said the Bill should make Zimbabwe more competitive compared to other countries.

Licensing arms of agencies, including the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, Environment Management Agency, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Companies Office; National Social Security Agency, Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and State Enterprises, including other ministry departments would be integrated under ZIDA.

TWO MDC activists were reportedly abducted by suspected State security agents in Gokwe early Tuesday morning and their whereabouts were still unknown last night.

BY BRENNA MATENDERE

MDC Midlands provincial spokesperson Takavafira Zhou confirmed the development and identified the missing activists as Prince Paradza and Edify Vushoma from Gokwe Central.

A missing persons report was made at Gokwe Police Station.

Sources told Southern Eye that last weekend, the two had an altercation with individuals suspected to be State operatives who accused them of pulling down President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s campaign poster during last year’s elections. The poster was pasted at Gokwe centre bus terminus.

“During the altercation by their tormentors, the two MDC activists were given four hours to either replace the poster or disappear. We strongly believe that the threat has been put into action,” said one source.
Zhou also concurred with the source.

“The duo was falsely accused of removing Mnangagwa’s poster and was given a four-hour ultimatum. However, they politely indicated that there were not the ones who had pulled it down and so they could not replace it,” he said.

The opposition spokesperson highlighted that the poster in question had, in fact, been pulled down by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission officers ahead of the 2018 elections since it was in the vicinity of a polling station.

“As a legitimate party that has chosen to change government through the ballot box, MDC is perturbed by the abduction and harassment of its members who are not in any way a security threat … our activists must be immediately released from unlawful detention and harassment,” said Zhou.

He also pointed out that human rights violations should be avoided at a time the government was trying to go back into the community of nations and emerge from economic doldrums.

“Zimbabwe, which is at crossroads at this critical juncture, does not need such unpalatable violations of rights of innocent citizens, but respect of the dignity and inalienable rights of law-abiding citizens. We appeal to the powers-that-be to reign in renegades masquerading as Central Intelligence Officers,” Zhou said.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said he was yet to get a briefing on the matter.

“I am not aware of the case, can you talk to Inspector Joel Goko the spokesperson for Midlands, he is on the ground perhaps he can shed more light,” he said.

However, Goko was unavailable for comment.