WEEKLY DIGEST SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

 Sony Music Entertainment Africa MD Sean  Lady Chevron win UAE Quadrangular series
Watson. . .Page 22 24

US$1 Wednesday September 14-20, 2022

.Shaking up gold mining
sector in Bulawayo
. “Hotels have stolen
our business”: Zim
crafts vendors fear
loss of lifeline

CAN A CURRENCY BOARD STOP
THE ZIMDOLLAR FROM TANKING?

AFRICA IN BRIEF September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 2

Ten dead in second day of air
raids in Ethiopia’s Tigray region

Armed al-Shabab fighters patrol Bakara market in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Monday, June 29, 2009 4 At least 10 people have gery”, he said on Twitter.
been killed in a second On Tuesday, Kibrom had told
cIonuSrtosmwailniam, aolr-eShcoabnvaebr’sts day of air raids on Me-
kelle, the capital of Ethio- Reuters news agency that a wit-
pia’s northern Tigray region, a hos- ness arrived at the facility with a
pital official said, in attacks that wounded man after an air raid.
came after authorities there ex- There was no immediate comment
pressed readiness for a ceasefire. on this week’s bombings by Ethi-
Twin drone attacks hit a residen- opia’s federal government, which
tial neighbourhood, killing 10 peo- has been fighting Tigray’s regional
ple and injuring others, said Kibrom government since November 2020.
Gebreselassie, the CEO of Ayder
Referral Hospital, on Wednesday. Kibrom said the hospital was
Five of the victims died en route struggling to save the wound-
to the hospital, Kibrom said, citing ed because of supply shortages
the city’s emergency coordinator, caused by nearly two years of war.
while the others died at the scene
of the drone attack in the Midre “There is no oxygen for the op-
Genet neighbourhood. eration. I don’t know what to do.
Fasika Amdeslasie, a surgeon at Am I to lose every salvageable vic-
the same hospital, said the first tim because there is no oxygen or
bombing injured two women, fol- medicine?” he said.
lowed by a second “drone strike on
the people gathered to help and Al Jazeera has not been able to
see the victims”. immediately verify the claims, as
“Among the victims, a father was access to northern Ethiopia is se-
dead and his son is taken to sur- verely restricted and Tigray has
been under a communications
blackout for more than a year.

— Aljazeera

1 In late December 2021, someone else who had reported- group was holding court, literally.
Halima (her real name ly forged documents to help his “I filed my litigation through a
withheld on request) case.
boarded a minibus from man with a garment that covered
Zoobe bus station in the Somalia names former al- his head, providing all the docu-
Somali capital of Mogadishu to Shabab spokesperson as religion ments to support my case, testi-
Ugunji, a farming village just out- minister monies and the respondent’s con-
side the city, controlled by al- tacts,” the 50 year old told Al Ja-
Shabab. Arriving there after a tedious zeera. After four days in court, the
Her mission was to seek jus- two-hour journey, Halima booked case was determined in her favour
tice from the armed group after a room in a hotel made of mud and the defendant fully accepted
her plot of land was claimed by and sticks. After breakfast the next the verdict.
morning, she went to a house in
the heart of the village where the .— Aljazeera

Egypt court upholds sacking of belly-dancing professor

2 Tunisian public sec- It will be spread out over a government needed to sign off
tor workers are set for three-year period, as the coun- a deal with the powerful UGTT
a 3.5% pay rise af- try battles economic hardship. before it will give the green
ter the government light to loans, according to the
reached an agree- Tunisia is currently trying to Reuters news agency.
ment with the Tunisian Gener- obtain billions of dollars from
al Labour Union (UGTT), sources the International Monetary The country is also facing a
have told the state news agen- Fund (IMF) in the form of a loan shortage of goods in the shops.
cy, Tap. to help finance its budget, how-
ever, the financial body said the — BBC.

Stadium rush injures dozens as

Kenya inaugurates President Ruto

3 Several people South Africa power cuts may not
have been injured as end in a year, Eskom says
crowds tried to force
their way into the stadium where 5 South African govern- fleet of ageing, unreliable coal-fired
Kenya’s president-elect William ment plans to end re- power stations continued to deterio-
Ruto has been sworn in, accord- curring power cuts rate. He said 42 generating units, or
ing to local media reports. could take at least a year almost 24,000 megawatts of capac-
Television footage showed to deliver results, a top ex- ity, tripped last week, with some units
hundreds of people scal- ecutive at state energy utility Eskom breaking down more than once.
ing a wall to gain access to the has said.
60,000-seat Kasarani stadium Africa’s most industrialised econo- Midway through its financial year,
in Nairobi, which was packed my is set for its worst year of electric- Eskom has spent 7.7 billion rand
with spectators before dawn ity outages, despite President Cyril ($451m) on diesel to run emergency
on Tuesday. Ruto supporters Ramaphosa pledging new moves to generators, far in excess of the budg-
dressed in his party’s colours of tackle the crisis in July. eted amount, Oberholzer added,
yellow and green, dancing and Activists raise red flag over Argenti- calling it a serious concern.
waving miniature national flags na’s green hydrogen project
as a band played music from the Supporters of Kenya President elect William Ruto at the Moi International State-owned Eskom implement- “It’s really a difficult situation we
podium. Sports Center Kasarani in Nairobi ed extensive power cuts last week find ourselves in,” he told reporters.
But dozens of people were and is scheduled to do so again this
seen falling on top of each other “We have various plans in place, I be- Eskom, which generates more
at one entrance gate, while first and urged Kenyans to follow the proceedings, especially from the lieve very good plans … however this than 90 percent of the country’s
aid responders carried people to proceedings from home. comfort of their homes.” is going to take time to implement,” power, has struggled to meet elec-
a waiting ambulance. Eskom Chief Operating Officer Jan tricity demands in South Africa for at
People assist a man injured in “In anticipation of being part of Ruto took the oath of office on Oberholzer said on Monday, adding: least a decade, but the outages have
a stampede history, Kenyans have thronged the Tuesday at noon, five weeks to the “For the next 12 months or so, we may not been this severe since December
People assist a man injured in venue in large numbers,” Shioso said day since the August 9 election that not see the required benefits.” 2019.
a stampede as they jostle to at- in a statement. saw him clinch a narrow win over his Oberholzer told a news briefing
tend the inauguration of Kenya’s rival Raila Odinga. that the performance of Eskom’s Besides its ageing plants, the com-
President William Ruto “To avoid logistical challenges, this pany has previously also blamed the
Police spokesman Bruno Shi- is to request the public to make al- — Aljazeera severe outages on a labour strike
oso said the stadium was filled ternative arrangements to view the among its workforce.
to capacity at 5am (02:00 GMT)
— Aljazeera

THE DIGEST VIEW September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 3

Govt to
blame for
Mupedzanhamo

chaos

mo, it is perplexing. Stop labour migration
Honestly, any central government MIGRATION of skilled labour from nationality, some whites born in
Zimbabwe to the United Kingdom Zimbabwe, but have British ancestry.
worth its salt would have long inter- (UK) has spiked since the advent
vened, especially when the space of the second republic, following However, the interesting bit is that
Alfonce Mbizwo barons behind the chaos are linked the November 2017 coup, further we have had nearly 8 000 skilled
to the governing party. dimming the country’s prospects of Zimbabweans who entered the UK
Editor economic growth. on skilled work visas.
Government should not let un- This is a startling revelation,
IT has been some years now scrupulous people (in the form of especially in a period when President The UK says there were 1 059
since Harare’s most popular and space barons) tarnish its image, un- Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime Zimbabweans who went into the
populous flea market, Muped- less it is benefiting from the miscre- is parading itself as the panacea UK in 2020, the number creeping
zadzano, was closed. ants’ shenanigans. to the country’s economic ills that to 1 735 in 2021 and exponentially
The market was forced to shut range from spiralling hyperinflation, shooting to 5 549 in 2022.
down after some outlaws, who had Honestly, the Mupedzanhamo depreciation of the local currency
invaded the market premises, start- chaos cannot be allowed to continue against the United States dollar, low The UK officially says Zimbabwe Paidamoyo Muzulu
ed demanding money from traders. unchallenged, given that the City of wages, absence of social safety nets skilled immigrants are at number five
Harare appears powerless to control and collapsed health and education of all skilled labourers in Britain. Government expenditure on
The space barons, alleged to be the space barons. systems. things that are needed for work is
linked to the ruling Zanu PF party, These economic challenges, Ahead of Zimbabwe are India, far less than the packages given to
were so brazen that they elbowed The same situation is prevailing in whether caused by Nigeria, Philippines and the United executives, who are actually islands
the Harare City Council (HCC) out of the housing sector, where land bar- maladministration, corruption or States in that order. of riches in a sea of poverty.
the premises. ons have caused chaos while cen- political contestations, push skilled
tral government watches from a dis- workers to other markets where they This is shocking, considering Government expenditure has to
After the vendors, mostly second- tance, completely aloof, yet it is per- think they will do better and manage Zimbabwe’s population. be realigned, more money should
hand clothes traders, were barred ennially on the HCC’s case over ser- to look after their families. be put to operations than perks for
from entering the premises, they set vice delivery and the mayhem in the There have been wild estimates What does this mean? senior executives.
up shop along the roads in the Mu- capital. in the media that over three million The skilled visas are given to
pedzanhamo area to continue eking Zimbabweans are in South Africa medical professionals, engineers, More skilled people should be
out a living. How does government expect and nearly 4,5 million are outside the accountants, media personnel and recruited and supported to the
HCC to properly function or stamp country. technicians. extent that leaving for foreign lands
It was not long before the space its authority when spanners are be- These figures were debunked It means each passing day, should not necessarily be attractive
barons followed them on the streets, ing thrown in its works left, right and by last week’s Zimbabwe National Zimbabweans have a shortage of for them.
demanding money from the hap- centre? What is happening at Mu- Statistics Agency (ZimStat)’s these skilled persons when they
less vendors for the spaces they oc- pedzanhamo is lawlessness at its provisional 2022 census reports on are needed the most. We have This is a sad indictment on
cupy, which has now resulted in the worst and there is no way govern- migration. The report clearly states more unfilled vacancies for doctors, Mnangagwa and his administration.
skirmishes allegedly between Zanu ment should expect the local author- that nearly a million Zimbabweans specialised nurses, engineers,
PF and Citizens Coalition for Change ity to put a stop to this anarchy, given are outside the country, and mainly in accountants and technicians in the The figures churned out from
(CCC) youths as reported in yester- the fact that the people at the centre South Africa and the UK. public service. ZimStat point to a man who is
day’s edition of NewsDay. of the chaos are said to be linked to According to the report, there are We have people dying before they struggling to stop the bleeding, a
the ruling party. 773 246 Zimbabweans in SouthAfrica. are attended to by a doctor. We have man only worried about maintaining
Meanwhile, the space barons have This may shock some people, but it is parastatals and other government his office even at the detriment of the
since annexed the Mupedzanhamo Zanu PF information director, corroborated by the Statistics South departments going for years without nation. Other solutions lie in how the
complex and turned it into a “pri- Tafadzwa Mugwadi has said: “I hear Africa (Stats SA) 2016 report that being audited because there are no Treasury allocates resources. Salaries
vate” car park, where they are pock- its CCC members only who are caus- estimated 574 047 Zimbabweans as accountants. and wages of all workers should be
eting US$1 per car as parking fees. ing all this violence tarnishing the im- being in South Africa. We have sewer and burst water reviewed, operational costs should
age of our party. There are no Zanu Stats SA further said they had 3,95 pipes everywhere because there be funded and most social services
It is a pity that things have degen- PF supporters there. It’s not Zanu million migrants from all countries are no engineers and technicians to like education, health, housing
erated to such levels, whereby indi- PF, but CCC. Our people are not vi- within its borders. attend to them. It makes no sense and public transport should be of
viduals are now so powerful to chal- olent. They are well disciplined. CCC However, even Stats SA admits that that Zimbabwe should be losing so acceptable standards, comparable
lenge local authorities and central is the one which is causing all this vi- Zimbabweans are the largest migrant much human capital and still expects to other countries like South Africa,
government is not even perturbed. olence, they are also responsible for group in South Africa, constituting to develop into an upper-middle for instance.
that bombing in Chinhoyi.” 39% of all immigrants. income economy by 2030.
HCC, which is losing thousands of Zimbabwe is followed by This is overambitious and would In conclusion, ZimStat figures
dollars in revenue not only at Mu- As much as we would like to be- Mozambique, which has 20,2% (293 not be achieved if the brain-drain is have demonstrated how much
pedzanhamo, but around the city, lieve Mugwadi, we cannot because 405) migrants. not tamed. Zimbabwe has regressed post
derives its authority and power from the situation on the ground is telling The statistics get a little more How can the brain drain be tamed? the November 2017 coup in terms
central government, and when gov- us otherwise. This can only be done by improving of health, education, water and
ernment seems unbothered by wan- a number of things, among them sanitation, labour, housing, transport
ton lawlessness such as the one ob- In fact, the blame game will not the provision of a good working and outflow of migrants.
taining in and around Mupedzanha- help the situation, but worsen it. environment. This is a workplace
Mudslinging will not help clean Zanu where people have the basic tools to The country is slowly becoming a
PF’s image. If Zanu PF, as the “disci- use, to work without being strained. shell, but this has to be stopped. Can
plined” ruling party was at all inter- At the employee level, workers Mnangagwa rise to the challenge?
ested in upholding the rule of law should have decent accommodation, The jury is still out and the 2023
it should have by now reined in the transport, commensurate salaries general election will point where we
space barons, who are the real peo- and a reasonable pension when they are.
ple tarnishing its image, not CCC. retire. Paidamoyo Muzulu is a journalist
These arethethingsthat are lacking based in Zimbabwe. He writes in
The blame for the chaos at Mu- in the public sector in Zimbabwe and his personal capacity.
pedzanhamo and elsewhere should there seems to be no political will
be placed right on the doorstep of from government to address this.
the Zanu PF government because it
has allowed people to use its name
in their nefarious activities. If the par-
ty was as disciplined as it claims, it
would not have brooked this non-
sense all this while.

interesting when we look at the UK
figures.
ZimStat says there are 23 000
Zimbabweans in the UK, but the UK
Office of National Statistics (2021)
says there are 122 000 Zimbabwe-
born people living in Britain.
Zimbabwe-born is a term that
encompasses people with dual

Weekly Digest is published daily by Alpha Media Holdings EDITOR Tel: 883184-8/887057/58/69/70/71 Tel. 883184/5/6/7/8,887069/70/1,887058/885280/1/2.
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Building. Bulawayo

ECONOMY September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 4

Shaking up gold mining
sector in Bulawayo
I n the historic heartland of Zimbabwe-
an gold production, which is dominat- also the former chairman of some ba Iron Ore (a subsidiary of Anglo ing gold on a small scale in Happy Valley,
ed by artisanal producers' unions, the of South Africa's largest industri- American) and Impala Platinum. Techsed is also buying up the production of
new partnership between Zimbabwe's al groups, including Sasol, Kum- the many artisanal producers operating in the
Techsed Investments and Canada's Pam- In addition to already produc- area and is seeking to position itself as both
bili Natural Resources seeks to position the a major producer and a hub for the multitude
firms as leaders and to unite local producers. of local artisanal producers. Winston Chitan-
do, Emmerson Mnangagwa's mines minister,
The provincial director of the Ministry of is under increasing pressure to deliver on the
Mines for Matabeleland North province, Far- president's strategy of attracting internation-
ayi Ngubule, has a new pet project: the Hap- al mining investors, which is the cornerstone
py Valley gold site, some 15 km from the town of the economic component of Mnangagwa's
of Bulawayo in the southwest of the country. first term in office, as he seeks re-election in
2023.
Led by Zimbabwean-British geologist Jon-
athan Harris, Canadian junior Pambili Natural Experienced industry figure returns to Hara-
Resources (PNR) is in Ngubule's good grac- re Originally called Pennine Petroleum Corp,
es. Harris met with Ngubule in early August to PNR was co-founded by Harris and Canadi-
discuss the agreement with the Zimbabwean ans Raymond Gratz and Jeff Saxinger in 2018.
company that owns the Happy Valley mining Harris is the only one with experience on the
licence, Techsed Investments. African continent. Gratz is an entrepreneur in
the steel industry, where he chairs ASM In-
The agreement calls for PNR to progres- dustries, and Saxinger is the project director
sively acquire Techsed's share of the mine of Vepica, a hydrocarbon consulting and en-
through ongoing investment in mechanisa- gineering company with a strong presence in
tion and a new exploration programme. The the Alberta oil sands sector.
aim is to significantly increase production
at the site, which is currently hampered by While initially a non-executive director, Har-
equipment problems. ris was appointed CEO of Pennine Petroleum
in January 2021. He immediately renamed the
Gold in the Happy Valley company and dropped the oil and gas ambi-
Techsed Investments is controlled by Jo- tions to begin looking for mining investment
hannesburg-based Zimbabwean financier Si- opportunities in Zimbabwe. A co-founder of
misani Kupe, who is also CEO of Africa Ris- South African giant Eastern Platinum, Harris
ing Capital, a South African investment and has previously led mining exploration cam-
finance consultancy company he co-founded paigns in Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone, in-
with South African finance heavyweight Man- cluding as operations manager of Anglo-Af-
dla Gantsho. Gantsho, who was vice-presi- rican Minerals.
dent of infrastructure at the African Develop-
ment Bank (AfDB) between 2006 and 2009, is – Africa Intelligence

IPEC Message on Pensions Awareness Day

As the world commemorates Pensions Awareness Day today (15 September), the 4) IPEC approval of the compensation plans
Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) hereby updates stakeholders on IPEC will be required to give feedback to each insurance company or pension
progress made regarding compensation for the 2009 loss of insurance and fund/administrator on the proposed compensation plans within 30 days after
pension values following adoption of the multicurrency regime in 2009. receiving the same.

Update on 2009 Compensation 5) Payment of compensation
On the 12th of July 2022, Cabinet approved the draft frameworks for If IPEC approves the compensation plan, the insurance company or pension fund,
compensating policyholders and pension fund members following the loss of will be expected to start paying eligible policyholders or pension fund members no
insurance and pension values after conversion from the Zimbabwe dollar (ZW$) to later than 30 days after the IPEC approval.
the United States dollar (US$) in 2009.
HEAD OFFICE
IPEC advises stakeholders of the following steps based on the government- 160 Rhodesville Ave, Greendale, Harare, Zimbabwe
approved draft Regulations: +263 (242) 443358/59/61|443322|444033+263 772 154 281-4

1) Presentation to and call for input on the draft Regulations from the insurance COMPLAINTS HANDLING OFFICE HARARE
and pensions industry Kingstons House, Cnr Leopold Takawira/Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, Harare,
Zimbabwe
IPEC presented the draft Regulations to the insurance and pensions industry on 22 +263 (242) 749491/94
July 2022 and invited the industry to submit comments on the draft regulations The
comments received from industry are under consideration. COMPLAINTS HANDLING OFFICE BULAWAY0
Ofce Number 18, Bulawayo Centre, Cnr Joshua Nkomo Street & 9th Ave,
2) Gazetting of the Regulations Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
After considering industry input, IPEC will send the draft Regulations to the Attorney +263 (292) 261 822
General's Ofce for gazetting, to give force of law to the Regulations. Email: [email protected]
Website: www.ipec.co.zw
3) Industry to submit compensation plans
Each insurance company and pension fund will be required to submit PROTECTING THE INTERESTS OF INSURANCE AND PENSION CONSUMERS
compensation plans, showing compensation amounts and the eligible
policyholders and pension fund members, within 90 days after gazetting of the
Regulations.

ECONOMY September 7 to 13 2022 Weekly Digest 5

COVER September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 6

Can a currency board stop the
Zimdollar from tanking?

MBY TATIRA ZWINOIRA of the local currency, the Zimbabwe dollar, of the US dollar. It would be exactly the same turn because the requirement you have to
OMENTUM for a currency that would be issued,” Hanke said, during the as if you were dollarised because if you didn’t have a 100% backing for the local currencies
board is gaining steam as Zimbabwe Economic Society’s monthly vir- like the Zimdollar you could exchange it free- that are issued with currency boards.”
the Zimbabwe dollar con- tual meetings on Tuesday, last week. ly at a fixed exchange rate and you would
tinues to depreciate against know that you would receive US dollars in re- He said in setting the currency board the
other currencies. “So, the Zimbabwe dollar would be a clone local money does not pay interest as the li-
Currently, the United States dollar is trad-
ing at $604 in the local currency on the offi-
cial market as of yesterday. This is down from
almost $160 at the beginning of May, before
the Treasury and the central bank made sev-
eral policy interventions to try and stop the
Zimbabwe dollar from depreciating.

However, these policy interventions, while
they have managed to keep the parallel fo-
rex rate hovering at around US$1:$800 for
the past few weeks by reducing the RTGS li-
quidity, it hasn’t worked on the official forex
market.

As a result, the environment still remains
inflationary as the Zimbabwe dollar contin-
ues depreciating owing to a lack of suffi-
cient forex, commodity, market confidence,
or economic growth support.

Hence, businesses are now considering a
currency board, something that has been
championed by American economist, Ste-
ve Hanke, to fix Zimbabwe’s chronic curren-
cy crisis that began with the introduction of
bond notes in November 2016.

“The second option is what I called a cur-
rency board system… You would issue a lo-
cal currency; the Zimbabwe dollar would
be issued. It would trade with an absolutely
fixed exchange rate, an anchor currency, let’s
say the US dollar. Be freely convertible and
it would be backed with reserves of 100%

COVER September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 7

ability would be backed 100% with anchor considering a currency board. ereignty you are talking about sovereignty of it being used to fund government’s activities
currency reserves that earn interest which “The reason why I suggest Switzerland is a failed state so it’s a strange idea,” Hanke since the dissolution of the government of
means that it always generates a profit. that I don’t trust the laws in Zimbabwe and said. national unity in 2013. This was owing to the
I don’t trust the elites, shall we say, so that government failing to secure external cred-
Hanke has previously worked on curren- is the reason why I suggest “You want a monopoly on failure? Is that it lines owing to its massive public debt now
cy boards in Estonia in 1992, Lithuania 1994, that. If you what you are arguing? It doesn’t make any estimated at over US$20 billion.
Bulgaria 1997, and Bosnia Herzegovina 1997. have sense. I think it’s a polemical, rhetorical, and
a I think, stupid argument quite frankly. You The problem with the government using
Hanke’s idea was championed at last the central bank to borrow money, howev-
week’s annual Confederation of Zimbabwe cur- cy do not want monetary independence and er, mostly through the creation of debt se-
Industries (CZI) congress by CZI’s head of its ren- sovereignty in Zimbabwe. You have curities is that the money was not supported
economics committee, Jimmy Psilos. board, I want it ful- ly proofed with had one of the world’s worst records by economic growth leaving it mostly infla-
good governance. When you talk about sov- in history so you don’t want it. You tionary. To control soaring inflation, the RBZ
This was similar to a presentation dur- want to get rid of it. It’s like cancer, and Treasury since May have put measures
ing the Zimbabwe National Chamber the central bank is a cancer and to stabilise the parallel forex rate as the more
of Commerce annual congress, held you want to get rid of it.” widely used currency exchange in the coun-
in June, when Leon Africa founder Ti- He said that if it was decid- try, despite the official exchange.
nashe Murapata told delegates that ed to put the currency board in
along with setting up a currency board Zimbabwe, however, it would These measures were suspending gov-
Zimbabwe could redollarise. have to be legally protected in ernment contracts, servicing the forex auc-
some way and be established as tion backlog using Zimbabwe dollar balanc-
However, owing to the levels of cor- a separate institution. es, introducing gold coins into the market, a
ruption in the country, Hanke said the “A separate legal binding rule, 200% interest rate hike, and putting a 40%
currency board would need to be in separate from the central bank and capital gains tax on stocks sold before 270
Switzerland, only have two Zimbabweans I would require that the central bank days from purchase.
on the committee and keep local currency be dissolved then it would probably be
and its reserves in Switzerland. The effect of the measures was to depress
safe. As long as the central bank exists, I local currency in the market thus keeping the
One of the reasons cited by Treasury and don’t think it would be safe in Zimbabwe,” parallel forex rate at ZWL800 to the United
central bank officials against a currency Hanke said. States dollar.
board is the fact that it would in effect re-
move all monetary autonomy for the coun- The reason why Hanke wants the Reserve However, Psilos said this wasn't sustaina-
try. Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) dissolved is due to ble owing to the government being under
pressure to honour contracts with suppliers.
However the central bank is now seriously
Further, consumers and companies alike
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with their wallets. They have already spon-
taneously dollarised Zimbabwe. If you had a
fair referendum in Zimbabwe, you would get
virtually 100% of the people voting in favour
of dollarisation because they are already dol-
larised,” Hanke said.

“They don’t want – they know the Zim dol-
lar is junk, they know that controlling M3,
controlling the money supply within the cen-
tral bank, is a ridiculous argument. The cen-
tral bank has ruined the country. Two hyper-
inflation episodes and a current inflation of
484% so you don’t want monetary sover-
eignty. You want to replace junk currency
with good currency, that is the end of the
story.”

He continued: “The discretion that has
been given to the central bank, the Reserve
Bank, is one thing that has contributed to
making Zimbabwe a failed state and it is a
failed state”. He said the United States dol-
lar was the strongest currency currently in
the world, having briefly passed the Euro in
recent weeks, which is why Zimbabweans
wanted the dollar.

The dollar’s strength is due to the Feder-
al Reserve, the United States central bank,
increasing interest rate hike in an effort to
tame soaring inflation.

“What we need to put at the center, at the
core, of any monetary response in Zimbabwe
is the introduction of discipline. At the mo-
ment, like what the professor (Hanke) high-
lighted is that we almost have a cancerous
system that is spearheaded by the central
bank,” the United Kingdom based econo-
mist Chenayi Mutambasere said, during the
virtual meeting.

“And, I listened to colleagues almost at-
tempting to window dress the situation by
arguing on semantics saying that in 2017 we
were dollarised, you know, and all this and all
that. The truth of the matter is that we have
a central bank that has been at the helm of
really destroying our economy and reducing
our monetary value.”

She continued: “So, from that standpoint
we then have to decide what is the quick-
est and best way to introduce discipline into
our system and then have the two options of
dollarisation or as we have been learning to-
day the idea of the currency board.”

“When you look at the currency board, I
think the professor was really clear in high-
lighting that our concerns lean towards can
we uphold a currency board? It has to come
with very strict discipline. You are literal-
ly saying you are not sending more than we
have,” she said.

FEATURE September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 8

“Hotels
have stolen

our
business”:
Zim crafts
vendors fear

loss of
lifeline
H otels in Victoria Falls
began selling curios di- Inside the Sinathankawu arts and men themselves — sit in their stalls and polish Kunda lives in Chinotimba, a high-density Vic-
rectly to visitors dur- crafts market in Victoria Falls, Zim- their products. Like Kunda, they’re waiting for toria Falls suburb known for its resorts, and has
ing the pandemic. Lo- babwe, Amon Kunda polishes a customers, mostly local and international tour- had a shop in the arts and crafts market for 17
cal vendors fear it will sculpture as he waits for customers. ists who visit the town for attractions such as years. “I have built a home and put my two boys
jeopardise their way of life. Victoria Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the through school from selling arts and crafts,” says
The market is lined with stalls world. These attractions guarantee a ready mar- the father. “But hotels and lodges have stolen
Amon Kunda polishes a sculpture that sell beaded work, wood carv- ket. But today, only a few customers have visited. our business.”
in his stall at the Sinathankawu arts ings of various sizes and textures,
and crafts market in Victoria Falls, and other souvenirs. The wares are
Zimbabwe. Credit: Fortune Moyo/ neatly arranged, each piece the
Global Press Journal. evidence of a skilled hand. Other
traders — some of whom are crafts-

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with S.I 153 of 2011) etip
• Failure to scalise or non-use of

FEATURE September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 9

Local arts and crafts traders in this tourist traders to engage in dialogue and fig- — AfricanArguements an award-winning international news
hotspot decry increasing competition from ure out the best way to work together This story was originally published ublication with more than 40 inde-
hotels and lodges, which they say is not only — “from the production line right up to by Global Press Journal. Global Press is pendent news bureaus across Africa,
stealing their heritage but denying them a the selling point.” Asia and Latin America.
livelihood. Traders contend the competi-
tion worsened during the pandemic, when CITY OF KADOMA
movement restrictions meant that tourists
— both local and international — stayed in PROPOSED LEASE AND SALE OF COUNCIL LAND
their hotels, prompting hotels and lodges
to sell souvenirs directly to visitors. Even af- Notice is hereby given in terms of Section 152 of the Urban Councils Act [Chapter 29:15], the City of
ter restrictions eased, hotels didn’t stop, so Kadoma intends to lease the following stands for the mentioned purposes to individuals and institutions who
now, fewer tourists buy directly from infor- tendered their applications:
mal traders. “People were cautious of mov-
ing around,” says Nguquko Tshili, secretary- Stand Size Location Applicant Use Condition
general for the Adam Stander Traders As- No
sociation, an association of arts and crafts 8520 9972m2 Baobab Barbra Gonouya Commercial Lease with an
businesses in Victoria Falls. “They bought 8992 600m2 Industrial Area Emmanuel Maruni Commercial option to purchase
curios at hotels and lodges where they were Rimuka Light Lease with an
staying.” Between 500 and 600 traders have 7115 Industrial Area Kenneth Mekani Commercial option to purchase
been affected in Victoria Falls alone, Tshili 9719 Mantrans Logistics Commercial
says. For arts and crafts traders like Kunda, 300m2 Newton Park Sale
the industry is their lifeline, and they make 9021 Kudzanai Vere Commercial
up a significant part of its infrastructure. Arts 8995 10 306 m2 Baobab Midzi Construction Commercial Lease with an
and crafts products ranked fifth of 13 prod- Industrial Area option to purchase
ucts and services, according to 2018 govern-
ment data, in terms of percentage of prod- 2000m2 Baobab Lease with an
ucts consumed by tourists, such as food and 1568m2 Industrial Area option to purchase
beverage services, accommodation servic- Rimuka Lease with an
es and travel agency services. Foreign visi- option to purchase
tors spent 12.1% of their total expenditure
on arts and crafts that year. The conflict be- Copies of the Council Resolutions and the detailed terms and conditions will be open for inspection during
tween hotels in Victoria Falls and arts and normal business hours at the Public Relations Offices at the Town House, Kadoma until 05 October
crafts traders is about more than just loss of ccxde nj2022.
business, says Daves Guzha, a renowned arts
expert and theatre producer based in Hara- Any person who wishes to object to the above proposal may lodge his/her objection in writing to the Town
re. Guzha worries that if this line of business Clerk using the below mentioned address.
doesn’t remain viable for traders and they
lose out to big hotels, they will lose more M. DONDO CITY OF KADOMA
than a lifeline. They will lose their culture. TOWN CLERK P O BOX 460
Rayton Ncube has spent 22 years in the cu- FITT SQUARE
rio trade; it’s his identity. “Hotels and lodges KADOMA
should stick to their core business of offer-
ing accommodation to tourists and not in- 06821-22044-6
terfere with our business, which is our sole
source of livelihood,” says Ncube, a father of
four. The solution, Ncube says, is for the mu-
nicipality to ensure that businesses stick to
providing the services for which they are li-
censed. “Our biggest challenge is that there
is no law or clause in the local laws that
stops hotels and lodges from selling arte-
facts,” says Tshili, the secretary-general for
the traders’ association. “We are currently in
the process of lobbying the municipality to
include a clause that protects our business-
es.” He says the clause will bar hotel opera-
tors from selling curios.

Zimbabwe’s arts and crafts exports
reached about $10.5 million in 2019, most-
ly destined for South Africa, Europe and the
US. Mandla Dingani, spokesperson for the
Victoria Falls Municipality, says businesses
are free to offer whatever services they wish,
if they are licensed for it. “[The municipal]
council licences according to services ren-
dered by the applicant, and in this case, the
hotels in question have been duly licenced
for their services and crafts shops domiciled
in their areas of operation as well,” Dinga-
ni says.

Licences are governed by the Shop Licenc-
es Act, which doesn’t discriminate against
any company’s intention to venture into a
type of business, Dingani says. “In the same
spirit, the local authority is not prohibited
from licensing hotels who intend to venture
in the selling of artifacts.”

Brian Ndlovu, business manager for Teak
Lodge in Aerodrome, a low-density sub-
urb of Victoria Falls, says the municipali-
ty licensed the hotel to sell crafts in 2016.
In most cases, he says, their clients prefer a
one-stop shop. He adds that between 2014
and 2015, tourism boomed. The lodge saw
it as an opportunity to expand its business.

Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, minister of
environment, climate, tourism and hospital-
ity, says the current conflict is in the jurisdic-
tion of the municipality, which is responsi-
ble for issuing trading licences. But he sees
the arts and crafts sector as a part of tourism
that makes a significant contribution to the
country’s economy. “As a ministry, we make
sure that we support the sector the best way
we can,” he says.

Tourism in Zimbabwe has made major
contributions aside from employment, ac-
cording to a study published in the African
Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure.
For example, international tourists spend
foreign currency, which boosts Zimbabwe’s
currency reserves.

Tshili says the traders’ association is in the
early stages of drafting a proposal to the
municipality. Dingani confirms that the Vic-
toria Falls Municipality has not yet received
an official complaint from local traders.
Meanwhile, he urges hotels, craftsmen and

FEATURE September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 10

Petrotrade Ethnic
coupons minorities

now in rural
redeemable Zimbabwe:
at all identities
sites!
and
Petrotrade wishes to advise its livelihoods
valued customers that Petrotrade
Coupons can now be redeemed at AIAN SCOONES
all TREK sites nationwide. nother new book from the ever-impres-
As Petrotrade, we strive to satisfy sive Unit of Zimbabwe Studies at Rhodes
our customers and offer the best University, led by Kirk Helliker, is now out.
value to the nation at large! It is called Livelihoods of Ethnic Minorities
in Rural Zimbabwe and is edited by Kirk
Petrotrade (Pvt) Limited, 2nd Floor, Noczim House Helliker, Patience Chadambuka and Joshua Matan-
100 Leopold Takawira Street zima with 11 excellent chapters based on in-depth
Harare, Zimbabwe research along with the introduction. It’s (again) hor-
Tel: +263 867700724, (242) 748512-3, 748516-7 ribly expensive, but hopefully you can lay your hands
on it via a library.

Despite the dominance of the Shona and Nde-
bele in popular and political constructions of Zimba-
bwe, there are many ethnicities within Zimbabwe’s
borders. Some have come relatively recently; others
have been there for centuries. The ethnicities cov-
ered in the book include Chewa, Tonga, Tshwa San,
Shangaan, Basotho, Ndau and Hlengwe.

Ethnicity is described in the introduction terms of
features such as “common descent, history or na-
tional origin; familial ties or kinship relationships;
similar cultural and/or spiritual arrangements; and
shared linguistic attributes”. And all intersecting with
race, class, gender and other dimensions of differ-
ence. As the editors argue, an ethnic minority is not
one that may be demographically small in size, al-
though this is often the case, instead “the key ques-
tion entails the relationship between ethnicity and
power in a particular nation-state or even within a
sub-region of a nation-state…. As a general trend,
then, ethnicities excluded from power or incorporat-
ed into power in a subordinate manner are minor-
ity ethnicities.”

This is certainly the case with all those listed above
in relation to the Shona or Ndebele. However, of
course, as the book explains the there are multiple
sub-categories within the Shona for example, nota-
bly, the Manyika, Zezuru, Ndau, Karanga and Kore-
kore. And ‘the Shona’ just as with ‘the Ndebele’ was
a construct, reinforced by colonial administration,
Christian missionaries and subsequently a national-
ist state.

The construction of ethnicity
As the book’s introduction explains, colonial pow-
er was exerted through a a divide-and-rule strate-
gy: “This involved the emergence of political pro-
grammes, administrative structures and territorial
spaces focusing on ethnicity. Hence, colonially con-
structed ethnic identities were mapped onto fixed
territories (initially called the Reserves) and this took
place alongside the reinventing of tribal or ethnic
polities regulated by way of the dictates of British-
inspired indirect rule, overseen by salaried and ap-
pointed chiefs.” Christian missionaries reinforced this
through the translation of the bible into different
sub-dialects of ‘Shona’.
The creation of Shona power has been a feature
of nation-building since colonial times. Sometimes
refracted through particular identities – most nota-
bly Zezuru in the Mugabe era and now perhaps Ka-
ranga under Mnangagwa – the assertion of a par-
ticular authoritarian ethno-nationalism has some-
times been brutal, most notably the Gukurahundi
massacres of (mostly) Ndebele in Matabeleland in
the 1980s.
As discussed in the introduction to the book, dur-
ing the struggle for Independence, the national-
ist movement became closely aligned to the reviv-
al of ethnic-cultural nationalisms, carefully mixing
a nationalist rhetoric with enlisting people into the
struggle by drawing on (often reinvented) pre-co-
lonial histories and appeals to cultural and linguis-
tic identities, a theme explored by Ndlovu-Gatsheni
in his 2009 book “Do ‘Zimbabweans’ exist?” During
the liberation war, as Schmidt explains for the Honde
valley in her 2013 book “Colonialism and violence
in Zimbabwe’, grievances against the colonial state

FEATURE September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 11

were expressed in ‘vernacular mode’, not in terms of standard becoming integrated in a relatively elite ‘master farmer’ class of present themselves, at least publicly. As McGregor has shown,
nationalist discourse. Shona farmer in Masvingo, and later becoming involved in na- in Binga, Tonga people voted en masse for the opposition,
tionalist movements with their new compatriots. as the ZANU-PF rhetoric about land reform did not resonate,
Fluid and transitory ethnic identities as they wanted land back that had been taken for conserva-
Ethnicities and identities are of course not fixed. Fluidity, tran- Many rural areas across Zimbabwe have had long histories tion and the flooding of the Kariba dam not white commercial
sition, reinvention and reinterpretation characterise practices. of migration, with Gokwe being a case in point. Here ethnicity farming, as Matanzima and Marowa explore in the book.
As the editors explain there is always the “possibility of multi- becomes crucial as newcomers clash with indigenes over land,
ple forms of belonging existing simultaneously.” Indeed, this is religion and cultural practices, while the state tries to impose Land reform and ethnic contests
almost always the case, as the cases explored in the empirical strict ordering through resettlement and land improvement Fast-track land reform was explicitly not aimed restitution but
chapters of the book nicely show. This is not surprising as eth- schemes. In a number of papers, Nyambara, for example, ex- was seen by the state as a national project of redistribution for
nicity must be negotiated in relation to livelihoods and particu- plores how the Shangwe and Madheruka fought over differ- all Zimbabweans. However, this did not prevent ethnic conflicts
lar political contexts. This is especially so where ‘minorities’ live, ences in farming and religious practices, with the former fol- arising in parts of the country where resentments arose from
often in more marginal places away from centres of power and lowing traditional religion and the latter adopting Christianity. the imposition of Shona or Ndebele settlers in ‘their’ land.
frequently on borders, where others with similar ethnic ori- As Wolmer explains in his 2007 book, Shangaan people were
gin may live in a neighbouring state. Ethnic conflicts and development motivated by ancestral-ethnic claims, and have argued strong-
For example, in Zimbabwe, the Tonga have Ethnicised conflicts arise ly for restitution including in the sugar estates. As Ndhlo-
close links with Zambia and the Manyika and vu shows in his chapter, the history of the Chisa people is
Ndau with Mozambique. Numerous stud- during the implementation of rural development in areas where a story of endless displacement but combined with re-
ies of these borderlands show how ethnici- there are mixes of people. A number of chapters highlight this sistance. While benefiting from land through the land re-
ty and livelihood practices are intertwined, as for wildlife related development – which occurs on the margins form programme, their claims to ancestral land within the
for example in Hughes’ study of Vhimba on of the country where such ethnic diversity is pronounced. The Gonarezhou national park has not disappeared.
the border with Mozambique. Here, a ‘flex- CAMPFIRE programme, for example, has seen many such dis-
ible citizenship’ exists because people con- putes, for example between the Tshwa San and Kalanga/Nde- In the same way, Ndau identity was significant for those
tinuously move across the border. The mixing bele in Bulilimangwe and Binga, as described by a while back occupying plantations in the Eastern Highlands or commer-
of different ethnicities has occurred continu- by Madzudzo and Dzingirai. In the book, Jani looks at anoth- cial farms in Chipinge as shown in studies by Marongwe and
ously across Zimbabwe, in particular because er part of the country – Chapoto Ward in the north of Zimba- Zamchiya. As Nyachega and Sagonda show, those who took
of labour migration. The movement of many bwe- where the Doma and Chikunda compete for resources in over land – in their case the Aberfoyle/Katiyo tea estates –
workers to farms and mines during the Feder- the context of wildlife use. The Doma are deemed to be sub- new livelihoods linked to new identities had to be generated.
ation era resulted in some areas being settled servient because of their ethnic position and lose out. This af- With tea in decline, they had to generate new options, result-
by those whose origins are from Malawi, Mo- fects their livelihood opportunities in relation to rural develop- ing in the massive ‘banana boom’ in this region, with claims
zambique or Zambia. Displacement from the ment programmes. staked on often questionable claims around cultural-ethnic
war in Mozambique had similar effects. belonging.
In the book, Chadambuka looks at Chewa As the editors note, “Just as ethnicity may condition liveli- In many areas, including our own sites in Masvingo, this re-
people, originally from Malawi, who lived and hood strategies, changes in livelihood options likely affect eth- invention of ethnic origins has fuelled multiple disputes over
worked on white commercial farms in Zimbabwe since the nic identity”, resulting in shifts and compromises in how people land and authority, including numerous on-going contests
1950s. During the land reform many former farmworkers were over chieftaincies and headman positions. Claims to land
displaced with some moving to communal areas or others be- through past residence, the presence of grave sites and so on is
ing incorporated into the post-land reform settings. Many had often tenuous, but reflective of the power of ethnic histories in
lost all connection with their parents’ or even grandparents’ current land politics.
homes, but did not have true ‘Zimbabwean’ identities. The case Land, livelihoods and ethnic identity
study of Bushu communal areas in Shamva District, looks at This is an important book as it uncovers the diversity of eth-
how ex-farmworkers had to reinvent themselves in these new nicities and identities in Zimbabwe, rescuing Zimbabwe’s story
spaces in struggles over land and resources. from one that focuses only on the contests between the Shona
Those who remained on farms or moved to urban areas and and Ndebele. The ethnic landscape – and senses of belonging,
remained in larger groups were able to draw on their original identity and cultural association – is much richer and more con-
cultural identities to support their ‘community’, as Daimon ex- tested and fluid. And importantly, this landscape shapes and is
plains for those with Malawian ancestry and who practise their shaped by livelihoods and the ways land is used. For those con-
Nyau/GuleWamkulu cultural dances as a form of self-identifi- cerned with land and livelihoods this is a crucial issue, and the
cation and support in harsh times. In the same way, as Mujere book is an important resource.
explains, the Basotho migrants who were allocated freehold in This article first appeared on Zimbabweland
‘African Purchase Areas’ had to seek new ways of belonging,

FEATURE September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 12

Harare’s
rubbish
politics: Dirty
city, dirty
politics, dirty
black gold

Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume is to be fice of the president, the central bank and atives as signatories, as well as council- Change-T. According to reports, the con-
commended for standing in the way ministry of local government represent- lors from the Movement for Democratic tract is stipulated to be valid for 30 years.
of the dirty Pomona dumpsite contract
awarded to Geogenix, but Harare still
has a waste problem that needs solv-
ing. Kuda Manjonjo writes on what to do with Ha-
rare’s piles of waste.

On the northern side of Harare, between a golf
course, wedding venues and a growing middle-
class neighbourhood, is Pomona, the city’s prima-
ry landfill site.

This site has become the ground for the latest
political tussle in Zimbabwe which pits the Zanu-
PF-led national government against the opposi-
tion-led local government and brings to the fore-
front the nascent political issue of the environment
and climate change.

Amid corruption, poor service delivery and the
fight for democratic space, there is the possibility
of creating a decentralised, organic compost sys-
tem that is community-owned and supports Hara-
re’s sizeable urban agricultural sector.

Dirty city
The genesis of the matter is that Harare has a sig-
nificant refuse collection crisis. Twenty years of de-
teriorating service delivery has resulted in Harare
City Council, at the beginning of this year, having
only seven refuse trucks servicing 46 wards in a city
with a population of two million.
Waste dumpsites have become the norm, par-
ticularly in high-density suburbs that cannot af-
ford the private refuse collection services that have
sprung up over the last decade to fill the service
gap left by the council. The Pomona dumpsite,
which has filled up over the years, has become a
fire hazard as well as an environmental problem.
To deal with the growing waste problem, the city
council sent out two bids through a public ten-
der process in 2016 and 2018. The first tender fell
through because interested parties questioned the
council’s ability to uphold their side of the poten-
tial agreement, which was to deliver enough waste
to the dumpsite. The problem was not insufficient
waste in Harare, but the before-mentioned logisti-
cal issue of the lack of operational refuse trucks. The
2018 tender collapsed after the council failed to re-
ceive clearance from the State Procurement Board.
Toxic: the Pomona site frequently catches fire
In 2021, the national government decided to get
involved in finding investment for the dump site. A
Dutch-registered company, Geogenix, came into
the fold.
Without a feasibility study being conducted, an
agreement was signed that had the town clerk, of-

Waste dumpsites For many years, Zimbabwe has been regarded as a
have become the regional economic hub and a launching pad for both
norm, particularly domestic and international businesses, making the
in high-density Trade & Investment Fair appealing to investors look-
ing to establish themselves in both the Zimbabwean
suburbs that and UK markets. The country is heavily investing in
cannot afford the trade and infrastructure, particularly in the insurance
industry's rethinking towards financial inclusion and
private refuse implementation of fintech solutions, which Nyaradzo
collection services Group is a shining example of.
that have sprung
More information on the trade fair can be found at
up over the last https://bit.ly/NyaradzoTradeFair or by sending an
decade to fill the email to [email protected]
service gap left by
NFS
the council.

FEATURE September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 13

Harare will pay US$40 per ton to Geoge- ment of roads. The 2013 Constitution in Sec- ernment of Zimbabwe to supply drugs and compost.
nix. In the first year of the contract, the city is tion 264 entrenched devolution into the na- equipment worth US$60 million was gross- Compost is crucial for Harare’s economic
obliged to pay US$8.03 million. By the fifth tion’s laws, but the national government has ly inflated.
year of this contract, the figure would have purposefully delayed aligning acts of parlia- ecosystem, as about 10% of land in the capi-
risen to a minimum of US$14.6 million annu- ment — in this case, the 1995 Urban Coun- The Pomona deal appears to be yet an- tal is used for urban agriculture. Due to the
ally. cils Act — to extend their control over urban other attempt to fleece money from citi- Ukraine war, global synthetic fertiliser prices
councils. zens through a government contract. It is have increased by over 100%, which means
Dirty politics also worth mentioning that the day when most urban farmers will not be able to afford
On the surface, the above explanation ap- In this context, the awarding of the Pomo- the Pomona dumpsite contract was signed, fertiliser in the upcoming farming season.
pears to be a simple issue of a city struggling na dumpsite contract by the national gov- Mafume, who has been a vocal critic of the
to raise investment funds and the nation- ernment is an act of authoritarianism de- national government, was serving a suspen- Compost fertiliser costs about seven to
al government coming in to save the day. signed to enrich individuals linked to the sion from his position, which was later over- nine times less than synthetic fertiliser. This
However, a dark undercurrent of dirty poli- corridors of power. turned by the courts. will create a virtuous environmental cycle in
tics has been at play with the awarding of which citizens dispose of their waste in a re-
the contract to Geogenix. President Mnangagwa and RBZ gover- Mafume has expressed his anger, repeat- sponsible way to create dirty black gold.
Since 2000, there has been a toxic history nor meet Geogenix promoters, among them edly arguing that as the local council, “we
of animosity between the national govern- Mirel Mërtiri (second left) and Delish Ngu- have lost our power station, our roads and Additionally, establishing a city compost-
ment and urban local government in Zim- waya (third from right) now Pomona. We can’t keep on losing.” ing programme provides a chance to decen-
babwe. At the turn of the century, urban tralise and democratise how Harare deals
city councils became political havens for It has been es- Dirty black gold with waste. Structurally speaking, the reason
the main opposition party, the Move- tablished Mafume has managed to halt the Pomo- Geogenix is interested in the Pomona deal is
ment for Democratic Change, as they that na contract awarded to Geogenix, and has that a city of about two million people struc-
tried to wrestle power away from Geo- staunchly refused to pay the bill of US$780 turally relies on dumping all their waste in
Zanu-PF. As a result, the min- 000 due for May only. This is a noble effort, one area. This is a conducive structure for
istry of local government un- genix be- but Harare still has a waste problem. Only the monopolisation of an industry that elit-
der the Zanu-PF government longs to controversial Albanian businessman seven functional refuse trucks are opera- ist capitalism relies on to maximise profits.
changed from being in the Mirel Mertiri, who was a subject of the Par- tional, and the council is relying on private
lower rungs of political pow- adise Papers investigation. Mertiri’s Zimba- Establishing decentralised composting
er to becoming very power- bwean business partner is Delish Nguwaya, sector involvement, which is not acces- programmes that compost at the source
ful and important. who has links to Zimbabwean President Em- sible to all. of waste will weaken Zimbabwe’s govern-
Successive local govern- merson Mnangagwa’s sons. Nguwaya was ment’s hold on city councils. A decentralised
ment ministers have abused charged with fraud after a leak came out While Mafume fights against the au- waste system will increase citizen participa-
their oversight powers over that a contract he received from the gov- thoritarian measures of the national tion in an important issue, cultivating dem-
local urban councils. In the government, there is a need to pro- ocratic structures of social ownership from
2000s, Former minister Igna- vide alternative solutions that deepen below. It is easy to imagine each of the 47
tius Chombo suspended Hara- democracy, increase citizen engage- wards in Harare having at least two compost
re mayor Elias Mudzuri. In 2007, ment, and go a long way towards solv- sites, with other compost sites at famous
the mayoral executive powers ing the waste crisis in Harare. farmers’ markets such as Mbare Musika.
were stripped, which in turn gave A resident of Glen View, Harare, sifts
more power to the local government through a dumpsite (Pic: Gamu Masiyi- This article was first submitted to the
minister as well as the town clerk, who wa/GPJ) Canon Collins Troubling Power Essay Com-
was appointed by the minister. In 2013, min- One such solution that can be adopted is petition.
ister Saviour Kasukuwere suspended may- the city council establishing a “city compost
or Bernard Manyenyeni. Since 2021, the cur- programme”. City compost programmes Kuda Manjonjo is a democratic activ-
rent local government minister July Moyo are when cities actively adopt a plan to es- ist based in Zimbabwe. His main interests
has suspended mayor Jacob Mafume four tablish composting sites in as many are- are community-led socioeconomic polit-
times. as as possible within the city, usually based ical activism and the growth of the glob-
This has occurred alongside urban coun- at community centres, schools, hospitals or al solidarity economy. He is also the author
cils losing the administrative autonomy farmers’ markets. of the book, Aluta Continua – The Struggle
they previously held over service provisions Over 50% of municipal waste in most Continues, a Canon Collins PhD scholar at
such as power supply, water and manage- average developing countries is organ- the University of Witwatersrand and a PhD
ic, meaning it can be turned into compost. fellow at the Southern Centre for Inequal-
City compost programmes have the bene- ity Studies
fit of diverting food waste from landfills, re-
ducing methane emissions and producing

FEATURE September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 14

Remembering Queen Elizabeth II in Zimbabwe
In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II visited Zimbabwe for
the meeting of the heads of government in the host leader, Robert Mugabe, then-president of Zim- fascination that Zimbabweans had with British royalty.
Commonwealth, a community of former British babwe, a poster child of post-colonial leadership in For many Zimbabweans, then, the United Kingdom’s longest-serving
colonies. Africa at the time, smiling with the queen.
A photograph taken during the trip shows the monarch who died aged 96 on Thursday, was a celebrity as much as she
In a way, Mugabe’s excitement represented the was a diplomat. In a country where Queen Elizabeth’s name had long
national mood – the fervent interest, obsession, and been immortalised, it was not difficult to imagine why.

Mr Pfungwa Kunaka In the heart of the capital, Harare, the prestigious Queen Elizabeth
High School is a constant reminder of the sway the monarch had in the
The management and staff of ZIMASCO Southern African country. A kilometre away from the school, a big ho-
would like to congratulate Mr Pfungwa Kunaka tel is named after her. To the west, another is aptly called the Queen’s
Courtyard.
on his appointment as the
Permanent Secretary to the Ministry Beyond just buildings and schools, countless girls have been chris-
of Mines and Mining Development. tened after her in the country, undoubtedly a show of admiration and
respect.
Congratulations Makorokoto Amhlophe
Her visit, the first since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in
CREATING VALUE 1980, epitomised the cordial diplomatic relations between the Crown
and its former colony.

That relations between Mugabe and the British government would
sour so dramatically was not seen coming and anyone suggesting it
would have been dismissed contemptuously.

Land redistribution question
At the turn of the millennium, Mugabe wanted the constitution
amended to allow, among other things, the seizure of white farms with-
out compensation and redistribution to landless Black people. That,
however, was rejected in a referendum.
Mugabe felt the British had reneged on their pledge to finance the
country’s land purchase deal under the Lancaster House Agreement, a
ceasefire settlement between nationalist rebel leaders who fought in
the war of independence of the 1970s and Ian Smith, the then-prime
minister of Rhodesia, who declared independence from Britain.
“We do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet
the cost of land purchase in Zimbabwe,” Clare Short, the UK’s then in-
ternational development secretary, wrote in a letter to Mugabe’s gov-
ernment.
Under the Lancaster House Agreement, land redistribution would be
on a “willing buyer and willing seller” basis and would be financed by
the British government.
Attempts to engage further with the UK government on the land is-
sue came to a head when gay rights activist Peter Tatchell ambushed
Mugabe’s limousine in 1999 and tried to perform a citizen’s arrest when
he visited London for talks with then-Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain.
The following year, Mugabe broke ranks with the British and sanc-
tioned the invasion of white commercial farmers by veterans of the lib-
eration struggle, who often killed and wounded farmers in the process
and replaced them with landless Black people.
Banks holding billions of dollars worth of bonds as security for loans to
commercial white farmers were liquidated after the attacks.
Increasingly dictatorial
Because Zimbabwe’s economy was agriculture based, it was severely
affected. For the first time, manufacturing industries had no raw mate-
rials as newly resettled farmers struggled to produce without funding.
Production fell, triggering layoffs.
With no security of tenure for newly acquired land, Black Zimbabwean
farmers struggled to raise funding for production.
It also did not help that the Mugabe administration, which had be-
come increasingly dictatorial, failed to plan properly for the transition.
Politically, the appearance of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on the political scene in 1999
was a source of discomfort for Mugabe. He believed the opposition was
being funded by the UK government and commercial farmers – keen
to keep their land – an accusation Mubabe’s ZANU-PF administration
maintains to this date.
In the run-up to the 2002 elections, ZANU-PF unleashed violence on
the opposition MDC, a development observers said helped skew the

FEATURE September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 15
vote in its favour. The Commonwealth suspended
BE THE Zimbabwe from the group for the deadly elector-
DIFFERENCE al violence.

Make a difference (M.A.D) today! Take responsibility That culminated in the total breakdown of rela-
of your communities by disposing litter the right way. tions between the two countries.
Separate all PET bottles before disposal. Recycle to
curb pollution and ensure a clean and healthy “We are not Europeans,” Mugabe told dele-
environment. gates at the World Summit on Sustainable Devel-
opment in September 2002, six months after Zim-
PET Recycling Collection Points Mutare babwe was suspended from the Commonwealth.
Yellow Portion Services - No 21 Chimoio Street, Mutare “We have not asked for any inch of Europe, or any
Harare Masvingo square inch of that territory. So [PM Tony] Blair,
Plant and Factory - 41 Dover Road, Ardbennie, Harare Recycling Solutions - No 964, Industrial Road, Masvingo keep your England and let me keep my Zimba-
Tisungureiwo Co-operative -19351 Stevenson Road, Graniteside Kwekwe bwe.”
SHEQ Ambassadors - Kamunhu Shopping Centre Mabvuku No 55 Goods Avenue, Stuart Lloyd Complex
Bulawayo Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over from
GN Plastics - 76 Wolverhampton Road, Bulawayo Mugabe in a November 2017 military coup, has
largely followed in his predecessor’s footsteps, ac-
@DeltaCorporationInTheCommunity @Petreco cusing Britain in December 2021 of a “brazen, self-
confessed” violation of Zimbabwe’s “sovereignty”,
adding this was a threat to “our national security
and stability by the British government”.

His comments came after the British House of
Lords discussed what Mnangagwa said were ef-
forts to influence domestic politics by engaging
teachers’ unions in the country.

Yet, despite the differences between the Brit-
ish and Harare regime, the monarch’s affection for
Zimbabwe remained unchanged.

At the age of 21 in April 1947, the then-princess
made her first royal tour of Southern Rhodesia with
her parents – the Queen Mother and King George
VI and her sister, Princess Margaret.

“From the few times she has been here, she told
me how much she loved the country and the peo-
ple,” former British ambassador to Zimbabwe Deb-
orah Bronnert said in 2012.

But as the ceremonial head of the British gov-
ernment, she never really took ownership for the
actions of the empire she headed.

Colonial-era laws on the acquisition of land
barred rural Zimbabweans from having land titles
and still exist today.

‘Not the government’
The self-governing British colony of Southern
Rhodesia and the British protectorates of North-
ern Rhodesia and Nyasaland were federalised be-
tween 1953 and 1963. It eventually collapsed into
what is today Zimbabwe and Malawi, but its leg-
acy remains. Many Malawian residents in Zimba-
bwe are stateless.
Despite the marked diplomatic differences, the
queen never publicly spoke against Mugabe and
vice versa. Mugabe, who had a sharp tongue and
enjoyed berating his opponents, avoided naming
Elizabeth II.
To him, the real enemy was government leaders
such as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, whom he
verbally attacked at any given opportunity.
“I do not think that Tony Blair and Clare Short
consulted the monarch when they decided on re-
neging disbursing money for land reform and res-
titution in Zimbabwe. It was a political decision,”
Ngoni Mahuku, a lecturer in international relations
at Bindura University, told Al Jazeera.
Stephen Chan, professor of world politics at the
University of London’s School of Oriental and Af-
rican Studies, told Al Jazeera that “Mugabe had
much time for the queen”.
“She is a symbol of government and is not the
government, so she herself could not have caused
the reaction to the land reform,” said Chan.
After Blair withheld funding as agreed under the
Lancaster House Agreement, Mugabe reacted by
grabbing farms.
Elizabeth
‘Crown essentially kept quiet’
Critics say the late British monarch’s failure to
protect the weak under her rule in the colonial era
was her greatest undoing.
Under British rule, Africans suffered intolerable
cruelty and demeaning treatment from coloni-
al administrations. Racial segregation was the or-
der of the day. “The queen’s relationship with Zim-
babwe is equally chequered,” Harare-based inde-
pendent political analyst Rashweat Mukundu told
Al Jazeera, praising her for fostering better rela-
tions after Zimbabwe’s independence.
He criticised her, however, for failing to “promote
the interests of Africans in the colonial era” with
subjects of colour “suffering at the hands of white
colonialists while the Crown essentially kept quiet”.
“The British monarch supervised colonialism and
the looting of Africa by Britain, but unlike African
dictators, the looting benefitted British people not
an individual,” Hopewell Chin’ono, an award-win-
ning journalist wrote in a Facebook post on Thurs-
day. Yet, an outpouring of condolences on social
media in Zimbabwe came after the queen’s death.
“Rest in peace Queen Elizabeth. You were my
fashion icon. When l grow old, l want to dress like
you did. Rest in peace Queen,” Kerita Choga wrote
on Facebook on Thursday.
Added Oliver Keith: “I have seen many Zimba-
bweans lambasting us for expressing our condo-
lences in the passing of Queen Elizabeth, suggest-
ing that she was an oppressor. Listen, no one dic-
tates to me what I should or shouldn’t post. I was
born into a free Zimbabwe in 1986.”

— Aljazeera

INTERVIEW September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 16

Munyati: Sports, arts
are viable careers
Veteran football administra- you are not bright enough that is why
tor Nigel Munyati says there is you ended up playing sports.
need for Zimbabweans to see
sports and the arts as a viable If you say you are an actor they say it
is because you are not bright enough
career path because the in- that is why you are not a doctor or an ac-
dustries do pay well. countant.
Munyati, who is also a documenta- How do we change that mindset? Will
ry film maker and marketer, told Alpha we ever be able to change that mindset?
Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncu- NM: I think so. I think times are chang-
be (TN) on the platform In Conversation ing, people’s mindsets are changing.
with Trevor that sportspersons and art- There is also exposure to the global en-
ists are looked down upon in the country vironment which is also getting people to
because of a colonial legacy. wake up to say hey, yes, a doctor used to
The Black Aces Academy founder, how- be one of the highest paid professions,
ever, said he was seeing a shift in atti- or a lawyer used to be one of the highest
tudes by the younger generations be- paid professions, but nowadays it is David
cause of globalisation and the emer- Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldo.
gence of role models. TN: Jay-Z you know.
TN: Nigel Masimba Munyati, I love the NM: Exactly. So, I think the younger
names that we have which we do not usu- generation is going to effect a lot of that
ally share, welcome to In Conversation change.
With Trevor, Nigel. Our older generation, which is really
more our parents, they were brought up
NM: Thank you Trevor.
TN: Nigel, you are so many things. Let under a different cultural environment.
me see if I get this right. TN: You know I am finding Nigel, I don’t
You are a marketer, you are a commu- know if you are finding the same thing,
nicator, you are a sports person, you are these and like you. have the same drive or enthusiasm to play
a documentary filmmaker, you are build- People who are qualified as chartered again because it takes you such a long
er of dreams. time to recover and the season is coming
Which one of these gives you the big- accountants, medical doctors, veterinar- to an end.
gest kick and excitement? ians or scientists playing football and all
NM: Definitely sport. Football is my pas- of us respecting what they do? TN: The training.
sion, it wakes me up every day. NM: Here I was a qualified food scientist
I cannot wait for the sun to wake me up NM: Well, I am one of those people who who had just come to Zimbabwe.
and to go out there and to do the things I is determined to change that mindset. I then decided to just focus on my pro-
love doing. One of the things we are doing now at our fessional and academic career.
I joke with a lot of my friends, who used that a lot of my friends’ kids have gone academy is that we have 74 boys... TN: So, if this had not happened you
to know me in my previous life in the cor- into acting, music. wanted to be a professional football
porate world, and now see me involved in You know the artsy fartsy kind of TN: Shall we go there? And this is Black player?
football and they are like Nigel what went things, like sport they are going for trials Aces Academy? Is that what it is called? NM: If it had been possible I would have
wrong? with Real Madrid and Manchester Unit- become a professional football player you
ed. NM: It is just called The Aces Soccer know.
And I am like, nothing! Our parents would not have allowed us Academy. TN: Right.
TN: Hahahahaha. NM: Unfortunately, it was terminated
NM: I just realised what I was actually do- to do that? TN: Talk to us about that? First of all, early.
ing wrong! Our children are going there. Talk to why Aces Academy, why did you start it It also gave me the opportunity to look
TN: That question. Actually, Nigel what me about that if that is your experience? and what you are doing? at the other side of football, the adminis-
went wrong, should Nigel actually be NM: It is. You know running an academy trative side of football because I think that
playing football? that is what you see. NM: It is a very interesting story. is where the biggest problem is.
That is a strange question. A reflection TN: We will get to that. When I came back from college in the One of my memorable negative exper-
of our society when it comes to the im- NM: My experience has been quite in- United States in 1981 I was playing soccer iments with football was where we were
portance of sport, talk to me about that teresting in that I have kids who have in the United States, I was playing for my playing SuperSonics in Bulawayo, and so
Nigel? come to my academy and said to me Mr college team. we were told we would take a bus from
NM: In fact, the two things that I love do- Munyati please do not ever let my father TN: Penn State? Machipisa Shopping Centre.
ing tend to be looked down upon by soci- know that I come to play soccer because NM: Yes. The bus would come and pick us up
ety — sports and the arts. each time he finds out he beats me up. TN: First team for that matter. and we would then travel to Bulawayo.
There is this general feeling that if you TN: Wow. NM: Yes. We made it to the national I had my own car, I actually had my girl-
play football or you play music or are into NM: Some of those boys are playing in championships, lost in the semi-finals but friend take my car back home because
film you are what they call “zvemarombe” the Premier League today, and the fathers you know that was a fantastic experience you know we were now waiting for the
(loser class); you will never make anything are now proud of those sons because they that I had been there. bus. We were supposed to have gotten
successful out of your life, which I find very are now earning, they are doing well. I had always played soccer here, as a kid onto the bus around 3pm, 3pm came
tragic because it is only in our parts of the However, before that they would not al- I was fanatical about soccer. nothing and 5pm came, still nothing.
world where that mindset is. low them to do so. Let me tell you this. Around 6pm was when one of the of-
TN: Where does that mindset come TN: Wow. TN: Yes, talk to us. Absolutely. ficials was like the bus is not there any-
from? NM: So, it is changing because obvious- NM: Okay. As a kid, I think I was about more and we would have to take a typical
NM: I think it comes from our back- ly those products are now influencing oth- 10 years old or so, I broke another kid’s leg. chicken bus kind of thing.
ground, our colonial background. er parents. You know we used to play your neigh- You know this is the kind of bus that
Where you will find that football for ex- I am sure even this young man’s father bourhood teams soccer. would stop in Norton, stop in Chegutu
ample was always considered a lower is probably now saying something that is I was born in Highfield, grew up in High- and you have people selling eggs.
quality sport. very positive about football to other par- field. TN: You are going to a football match?
Rugby was looked at differently, cricket ents, and maybe encouraging them more, Our team was one of the more success- NM: You are going to a football match
was looked at differently. but you still find there are pockets here ful teams, but I had this unfortunate inci- you know. We get to Kwekwe now and it
So, you will find that even in going to and there. dent where I went into this tackle with this is like 9pm.
our academic system, most of our schools, What I love more is, we run a Saturday kid and he broke his leg. So they said it was too late to contin-
though it has changed a bit now, but they soccer programme, which brings in five to So, for the longest time I had to sit on the ue so we had to put up in some hotel in
used to play football and do athletics and 10-year olds, there is a difference there. side-lines because none of the other teams Kwekwe. The club officials managed to
those were the main sports. The young parents are so enthusias- would play our team. get two rooms for us. So we had four
In your group ‘A’ or the former white tic about their children playing sport that They would say if Nigel is playing we are beds for the whole team. So you can im-
schools, they would play rugby, they would they are actually the ones driving the fu- not playing you! agine four of us sharing one bed, two on
play cricket because they were supposed ture of sport in Zimbabwe. TN: Hahahahaha. one end and that kind of thing. This is a
to be for the upper social status. TN: Wow, that is good. NM: So that is how passionate I was with young man who has just come back from
So, I think as a result of that football nev- NM: Yes, so the future is bright. football. America where sometimes when we trav-
er really got the respect that it needed to. The past was you know rather murky, I played in high school, I then played at elled to matches we would fly.
but I have every confidence that things are university. TN: You would have your own bed-
TN: It has never got the respect. going to change here. Now when I came back, my eldest broth- room?
NM: It has never got it in Zimbabwe. er Rhodwell was at Black Aces, official, do- NM: Yeah. We got to Bulawayo around
I think that has affected its development TN: You know one of the things that at- ing the marketing and media. 1pm the next day.
and its evolution to being the greatest rev- tracted me to you, to have you here is As soon as I landed in Zimbabwe he said Even then we did not have a bus to take
enue earner globally, that football is today. precisely that. to me you will not play for any team other us from the rank to the stadium.
There is no other sport that generates That our sports are looked down upon, than Black Aces. We had to get a kombi that took us to
the kind of revenue that the sport does, or but you are one of those people, a pro- I had actually been a Black Aces fan as a the stadium.
has so many supporters. fessional person, a graduate from Penn kid as well.  “In Conversation With Trevor” is
You have got millions, if not billions of State University; and you reminded me Then it was called Chibuku, I was a a weekly show broadcast on YouTube.
them. as I was reading that there are people Chibuku Shumba fan. I joined Black Aces. com//InConversationWithTrevor. Please
TN: How do we change that mindset like Dr Tauya Murewa, a medical doctor, I did not play for Black Aces for very long. get your free YouTube subscription to this
Nigel, because it is not just football, it is the Flying Doctor playing football, Dr I had a very serious problem of appendi- channel. The conversations are sponsored
sports as a whole. Roderick Muganiri playing football. citis, my appendix burst I think two to three by Nyaradzo Group.
You know if you say to people I am a I was saying to myself what more do months after I had returned.
sports person they look down upon you, we need to do to have more of ones like I had peritonitis so I was in the hospital
for almost a month where they had to put
tubes down my gut to drain the green stuff
that was in there.
So when I came out of hospital and re-
covered from my illness I did not really

OPINION July 20 to 26 2022 Weekly Digest 17

Zim bourse in limbo
TTAFARA Mtutu
HE Finance and Eco- er, for those that did not have banking sector has significant- that this will not overwhelm sidered as capital for an equi-
nomic Development ZW$ lying around, they opted ly declined from ZW$15,5 bil- the standing structural chang- ty investment on the ZSE.
minister Mthuli Ncu- to liquidate their equity invest- lion in August 2021 to ZW$0,13 es and change the ZSE’s odds
be recently offered ments to fund the purchase of billion in August 2022. of recovery. The persistent global in-
slight reprieve to the gold coins. flation pressures further add
stock market investors when Trading costs While many hope for a quick to the tight hold on money
he made changes to Statutory This had the impact of A concoction of (i) the in- recovery — the author includ- supply in the country. Con-
Instrument 96 of 2022 that withdrawing liquidity on the crease in the CGWT for a hold- ed — of the stock market, the tinued supply chain disrup-
did little to inspire a rebound ZSE, which is critical for price ing period of less than 270 odds look disheartening. We tions and rising commodity
in Zimbabwe Stock Exchange support. days to 4%, (ii) closing the note that the ZW$ that has prices warrant sustained sup-
(ZSE) activity as the bourse re- doors on third party funding, been invested in gold coins to ply-side inflation pressures
mains downcast. Interest rates revision and (iii) lower circuit break- date (in excess of ZW$6 bil- which will likely cascade into
The increase in interest rates ers had a combined effect of lion) will remain vested for six a net-importing country like
The holding period for from 80% to 100% for indi- making round trip transaction months and should the vest- Zimbabwe.
which a higher capital gains viduals and 200% for corpo- costs (commissions, exchange ing period come to an end,
withholding tax (CGWT) of 4% rates significantly reduced fees, bid/ask spreads, market investors will have to contend As a result, there remains
applies was reduced from 270 speculative trading on the ex- impact costs, bank charges, with the possibility of selling an incentive for the govern-
days to 180 days. This came change, which is necessary for and taxes) within 270 days in- at a real dollar loss. ment to contain any ripple
after several members of the the smooth functioning of any feasible especially for specu- effects of global inflation by
parliament voiced their con- exchange. lative and cost-sensitive retail The gold price has been any means possible. Given
cerns over the crippling im- The move succeeded in investors. weakening because of antici- that the economy acutely re-
pact of several monetary and curbing speculative behaviour, In addition, the bear run pated interest rate hikes by sponds to money supply, we
fiscal policy changes on the but even more so, it drove busi- on the ZSE amid sustained the Fed, and this has driven opine that current measures
ZSE. nesses to expunge their debts currency depreciation incen- a negative return on the gold on money supply growth will
using internal funds as well as tivised investors to liquidate coins since their launch. remain in effect, much to the
The first four months of stock market investments. their equity positions and detriment of the stock market.
2022 were superb for inves- This compounded the li- hold foreign currency in order In addition, the growing
tors as the ZSE returned 172% quidity drain on the stock mar- to cap their losses. increase in ZW$ obligations Tafara Mtutu is a research an-
compared to CPI growth of ket. In addition, for risk-loving Although the applicable amid the severe withdrawal alyst at Morgan & Co Research.
39% and a depreciation of the investors considering borrow- holding period for which the of liquidity means that any — [email protected] or
local currency on the parallel ing short-term funds and play 4% CGWT applies has been additional ZW$ injected into +263 774 795 854.
market of 49% over the same the long game, the amount of reduced by 90 days, we opine the system will likely be chan-
period. ZW$ available for loans in the nelled towards servicing these
obligations before being con-
Up until this point, the stock
market had been a fair hedge
against the depreciation of the
local currency. According to an
analysis done by Morgan&Co
Research, exchange rate vol-
atility — proxied by implied
rates — between January 2020
and April 2021 explained 37%
of the volatility of the ZSE All-
Share Index and provided em-
pirical evidence of the strong
and positive relationship be-
tween the two markets.

However, structural changes
in May 2022 have seen this re-
lationship falter given that the
stock market lost 33% while
the local currency depreciated
by a further 47% between May
and August 2022.

Currently, the ZSE’s market
capitalisation stands at ZW$1,7
trillion, which indicates a US
dollar market cap of US$3 bil-
lion at current official rates
against a fair value of roughly
US$5 billion to US$6 billion.

Delta Corporation current-
ly trades at a share price of
ZW$222,62 (US$0,40 at a rate
of US$1:ZW$546,82) against a
fair value of ZW$887,43 while
Econet’s current share price of
ZW$106,44 indicates a steep
discount to a fair price of
ZW$426,01.

Several other stocks have
become grossly undervalued,
and we unpack key drivers of
the disconnect between the
fair and actual prices below.

Gold coins
When the gold coins came
into the market, they ad-
dressed a key problem among
local investors — a lack of al-
ternative investments. Given
a defunct fixed income mar-
ket, listed equity is the only
asset class that falls within
several institutional investors’
investment constraints that
chiefly include a high liquidity
requirement.
The introduction of the gold
coins, though relatively illiq-
uid, offered investors a new
but proven asset to invest into.
Gold is a globally accepted
store of value during times of
global economic uncertainty
and recessions, as is the cur-
rent economic environment.
With that in mind, it was like-
ly that investors would pounce
on these coins using the ZW$
that they had in hand. Howev-

COLUMN September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 18

Criminals are hiding The grapes are
in plain sight sour anyway
My Dear People
My attention was drawn to top soldier’s arrest. THE nation was in celebratory mood this week we can get banned.
a statement issued by the If it was anyone remotely linked to the op- after the country’s current owner shook hands When Drogba does visit Zimbabwe, as he
Zimbabwe Republic Police with Tony Blair. must, he will be surprised to find out that there
(ZRP) yesterday about peo- position, those two would be beating the We sang many songs about Blair, filled our is a country on this planet that does not have
ple who are said to be abusing Ngwena and drums of war already about weapons of war newspapers with diatribes against the war- a single working football stadium. The biggest
Dr Amai II’s names “in extortion, fraud, theft and imaginary regime change agents. monger, and even declared the 2005 election one, a dust bowl on the Western verges of the
and other related criminal acts.” the “Anti-Blair election”. Yet, here was our leader city, has no working toilets the last time Muck-
Panonetsa continues to play with our grinning ear to ear like a child at the scene of an raker dared to venture there recently.
ZRP said the “suspects are duping mem- minds concerning the faltering Zimbabwe accident involving an ice cream delivery truck. Fishing in own pond
bers of the public who include individuals, dollar. “For Zimbabwe to flourish, we cannot let his- Visiting Zimbabwe recently, Botswana’s pres-
businesspeople and companies on the pre- tory hold us back. It was a pleasure to meet ident, Mokgweetsi Masisi must have made a lot
text that they would have been tasked by After declaring that everyone is free to Tony Blair and Baroness Scotland, Secretary of friends.
the first family to fundraise or collect mon- charge for services in United States dollars, General for the Commonwealth,” President Em- Arriving at the airport, Masisi grabbed a loud
ey for various activities, which include din- the RBZ yesterday had to spring to action af- merson Mnangagwa’s office announced to the hailer and told a gathering of unemployable
ner dances, workshops, land sales and oth- ter Harare City Council took heed of their ad- nation. Zanu PF
er criminal activities.” vice. Perhaps Tidbits supporters:
“We just
The once respected ZRP said some crim- Harare said it will start charging for some believ- came from
inals were confiscating property, which in- services in forex in line with the market con- ing there our elective
cluded vehicles, land and cash for person- ditions. would be congress,
al “aggrandisement while taking advantage concern and Zanu
of the president’s name.” But Panonetsa’s boys would have none of from party
it. headquar- PF was
ZRP then threatened to name and shame ters, Mnan- Twitter: @MuckrakerZim represent-
the alleged criminals. They ordered the council to stop charging gagwa’s ed very
in forex forthwith, claiming that they were in well. The
The statement was very strange even by violation of the law. spokesper-
our police force’s standards! son, George Charamba, tried hard to explain two ruling parties have relations, we are friends."
The horses have already bolted Panonet- his boss’ enthusiasm for Blair’s acceptance, say- Soon, he walked around the Harare Agricul-
One of the questions that came into my sa, the market is dollarising on its own. ing “it was never the policy of the Zimbabwean tural Show, made a few speeches, gave priz-
mind was: why would the police give crim- government or leadership to avoid Tony Blair”. es to the army, then went fishing in a fishpond
inals prior warning before arresting the al- Service providers, who know why they are There was really no need for him to work that in Nyanga. All this angered a lot of opposition
leged fraudsters or “naming and shaming in business, are already charging exclusively hard. people in Zimbabwe, who have a habit of want-
them”? in US dollars. Which loyal party cadre is unaware that the ing everyone – from passing tourists to sports
party has long stopped pretending to have any people – to be angry with them about the
Well, the other more serious question I No amount of press statements and direc- kind of ideology? Unless Ideology is the name things they are angry about.
asked myself was: why are so many people tives will stop the process of dollarisation as of a local gold dealer, it has no place in the par- Instead, they should just ask Masisi to open
finding it easy to abuse Ngwena’s name for you all saw in 2009. ty. his borders, in the spirit of solidarity.
criminal activities? First Lady, first cook Ready to own us
The situation is bound to get worse as the Why was the President in Rwanda anyway? Every day, we come across people who try to
As a PhD holder myself I had an easy an- government will begin to spend more to- He was there to attend the African Green Revo- suggest that Nelson Chamisa is not yet ready for
swer to that one, kkkkk wards projects as this is the only campaign lution Conference. leadership. Every time, he proves them wrong.
route that can save Ngwena from humilia- Speaking at the event, our owner lectured Amid all the noise about structures in his par-
The criminals are taking advantage of the tion in next year’s elections. other leaders on the glorious strategies he is ty, Chamisa told off people who referred to
many parallel Zanu PF structures that Ng- leading at home to lead an agricultural revolu- Charlton Hwende as the “Secretary General” of
wena has been creating in his desperate bid Ngwena and his drum majorettes also tion. the party, the Citizens Coalition for Change.
to win next year’s elections. don’t seem to have any clue on how to stop According to the Herald of absolute truth, the “We have no such titles in the citizens move-
the collapse of the local currency. President told delegates about “the First Lady’s ment, we are all change champions,” he re-
Here I am talking of briefcase organisa- programmes that seek to promote growing of minded the nation, before deleting his remarks.
tions such as Men BelivED and Nurses for Most of their policies appear to be reac- small grains as well as her ‘Cook Out’ initiative Of course, the nation is free to refer to him as
ED, among many other bogus sounding tionary and the more this crisis unfolds, the that aims to boost the consumption of healthy President. Is it not the only position that matters
outfits. more you see that Mthuli Ncube is overrat- indigenous foods.” in this country? By making sure that all power
ed. We are blessed to be led by a modern man and focus is on him and him alone, Chamisa is
The people behind those organisations who boasts about his wife’s cooking at work. once again proving that he is now ready to own
are obviously looking for money to survive Parliament has in recent days been expos- According to the organisers, the conference the country.
and what stops them from organising din- ing Mthuli’s purported surpluses as a fraud. was a top event meant to end food shortages House of bones
ner dances and workshops in Ngwena’s in Africa. There was some good news in the science
name? His ministry is struggling to explain how It is therefore only natural that they would in- world for Zimbabwe recently. According to re-
the government has been incurring millions vite our leader, himself an authority on causing ports, scientists have unearthed remains of Af-
They discovered that the Lacoste leader is of dollars in unapproved expenditure. food shortages, to provide expert opinion on rica's oldest dinosaur in Zimbabwe, which lived
desperate for re-election, but is alive to the hunger. about 230 million years ago.
fact that many of his enemies from within The past five years under Ngwena have They are calling it the Mbiresaurus, after the
are plotting a serious Bhora Musango. clearly been a disaster and this explains why Despots' workshop
Zimbabweans are now fixated with HH next Still in Rwanda, our owner met the owner of Mbire district where the remains were found.
With this brief insight, I have made ZRP’s door. Rwanda, Paul Kagame. According to the chief palaeontologist and
job easier. They now know where to hunt for “Our vision for a stronger Africa is what unites deputy director of National Museums and
these alleged criminals, kkkkk. Zambia is on the rise, thanks to HH’s us,” the President announced to all of Africa, Monuments of Zimbabwe, such a “fossil is rare
shrewd stewardship of the economy. posting a picture of himself and Kagame. and shows potential for Zimbabwe to unearth
We will only take them seriously when Of course, some people paid by the West more discoveries”.
they start arresting people like that one who Suddenly the kwacha is now one of the started asking silly questions. They started ask- Well, Mr Scientist, here is a little secret. These
is stealing Harare’s waste in broad daylight. best performing currencies. ing our leader if he had taken any notes from fossils are not as rare as you think in this country.
Kagame on things like how to run a stable and Everyone in Zimbabwe knows that you need
As for Dr Amai II, I warned you during my International lenders such as the Interna- growing economy, how to stamp out corrup- not look far. We have more than a few fossils
interface rallies and I won’t hesitate to tell tional Monetary Fund are once again happy
you again that you deserve her. to help Lusaka with loans after those disas-
trous years under Ngwena’s friend, who was
Absolutely no class! shown the door by the Zambians only a year
In yesterday’s newspapers there was ago.
a curious story about a senior army offi-
cial who was arrested for allegedly smug- Many of you have been bombarding my
gling 31 AK-47 rifles and 62 magazines from inbox asking for my thoughts on the new
South Africa. Marriages Act, but I will not rush to com-
Colonel Leonard Matambo’s story is puz- ment as I am still studying it.
zling and we may never really get to know
the truth behind the alleged smuggling. But do you remember me warning you
I am astonished by the likes of Joji and about a certain Bambazonke?
that nurse for ED moonlighting as a spokes-
person for a serious ministry following the Some are whispering that the Lacoste
people are foisting this law on us for their
own selfish interests.

Small houses are very fashionable among
this lot and you could be on to something,
kkkkk.

Munopenga!!!!!!!!!!!
Dr Amai Stop it! PhD (Fake)

tion and all these other foreign values that Kag- at various locations, such as Zanu PF HQ and
ame is said to be known for. Munhumutapa Building.
Well, you can be sure that there was a lot of Jealousy neighbour
exchanging of notes on important things be- Zambia has just secured a US$1,3 billion life-
tween the two leaders. line from IMF, a big win for our so-called north-
These include important things like how to ern twin after the country defaulting during the
make sure the opposition is kept as quiet as pandemic. The Zambian kwacha soared on fi-
possible by banning their operations and ar- nancial markets after the announcement, a sign
resting them for talking too much. of investor confidence in the country after the
deal.
Football, what football?
There was more cause for celebrations You would think this is good news for every-
throughout the week after former Chelsea foot- one. Well, the news has not been received well
baller Didier Drogba was pictured with our own- by those who claim to own the land across the
er. Zambezi and claim to be the guardians of all
Drogba, obviously pleased with being given things pan-Africanist. Why celebrate a loan?
an audience by one of Africa’s greatest leaders, Some super patriots lectured Zambia’s Hakain-
pledged to visit Zimbabwe soon. We are hap- de Hichilema.
py to see our leader taking this much interest Who can forget one of Aesop's most famous
in sport. fables. Once, a fox tried to eat some juicy look-
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is currently banned ing grapes, which were high up on a vine.
by Fifa from playing football. Why? Because It couldn’t reach them, after spending the
someone’s son-in-law decided that as a nation, whole day trying every sort of jump to get them.
we have better things to do than play football. Rather than admit failure, the fox consoled him-
So he made sure we interfere with Zifa just so self: “The grapes are sour anyway.”

KENYA September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 19

William Ruto: How Kenya's new
president is influenced by religion

Inflation, recession and possibly a global reces- Many African countries depend on Rus- Higher fuel and fertilizer prices are al- the fiscal challenges in terms of stabilising
sion - these are words haunting the best of us sia and Ukraine for most staples. The sanc- ready affecting domestic food production debt burdens.
of late. tions and blockage of exports caused by within the continent and outside of it. Af-
These fears have dominated the trade with the war has resulted in a surge in food and rica’s oil-importing fragile states will be hit With 2022 Africa regional inflation ex-
equity markets and affected nearly all com- fuel prices threatening economic outlook. hardest, worsening trade imbalances, in- pected to be at 12.2 percent and 2023 pro-
modities. As consumers are faced with rising food Several African countries, including Ango- creasing transport and other consumer jected at 9.6 percent, the effect of the war
and fuel prices many are cutting back on purchas- la, Nigeria and South Africa, export a sub- cost. is starting to impact growth, erode stand-
es, demand taking a back seat as fears of reces- stantial volume of their raw mineral to Chi- ards of living and macroeconomic imbal-
sion continues to impede consumer confidence to na. Most currencies in the sub-Saharan Af- ances.
spend. rican region had weakened against the US
China’s industrial slowdown has halted dollar by the second quarter of 2022 due According to IMF Managing Director
In the beginning of July crude oil price tumbled demand for these materials. As a result, to US dollar resilience, a worsening over- Kristalina Georgieva, “the war further exac-
hard 10% down and broke the USD100/barrel mark. imports from Africa to China disrupted all current account position as import de- erbates pre-existing price and food sup-
Industrial metals were also on a melt down with and prices fell, ultimately resulting in pro- mand for fuel and food grew, and tight- ply pressures. Some countries and regions,
copper, aluminium, zinc all also had fair share of duction cuts, heavy losses in export earn- er global financial market conditions. The which were already food insecure and fac-
price drop from their recent record highs. ings and an exacerbated trade deficit for Ghana cedi has depreciated by 35 per- ing emergencies, are now confronting ad-
African economies. cent against the US dollar this year, mak- ditional price increases and supply disrup-
Additionally, a sharp rally in the U.S. dollar was ing it the second worst-performing cur- tions for imported food, fuel, and fertilis-
also seen as negative for commodity futures. Euro Just when Africa was starting to slow- rency in the world. Furious borrowing has ers. Early estimates suggest that at least 10
at the lowest level against USD since 2002, Yen ly recover from the economic slowdown seen Ghana's debt-to-GDP ratio soar to al- million more people could be pushed into
sinks near 24 years low again. caused by Covid-19 pandemic it’s now fac- most 85%. poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa due to high-
ing another daunting challenge. er food prices alone.” Policy makers need
Is there any good news, anything to look forward More than 50% of sub-Saharan African to formulate policies to address these
to? Doubtful, unless there’s an end to the war in Around 85 percent of the region’s wheat countries in IHS Markit's medium-term challenges to protect the most vulnerable
Ukraine. An end to the war without a pull out of Rus- supplies are imported. Input costs in the sovereign risk score series are ranked in the households. But - How does Africa get her
sian troops or with Russia still controlling the supply sub-Saharan African region have been on Actual or Possible Default Scenarios cate- economies back on track? How does she
chain may just make things worse. an upward trend since mid-2021, driven by gory. finance the recovery? How does she ad-
increasing global commodity prices. The dress inequality? Start replacing the short-
But hold on, following lengthy negotiations me- war amplified the global input costs rise Moody's David Rogovic said in a Reu- term myopic view with long-term future
diated by Turkey and the UN, Russia has agreed to and ultimately price pressures for food, ters report dated July 16th, 2022, that Ken- focused policies and regional cooperation.
unblock Ukrainian ports to allow the export of grain. crude oil, and fertilizers given Russia and ya, Egypt, Tunisia and Ghana are the most
Since then, approximately 30 vessels have left the Ukraine's prominence in the global supply vulnerable just because of the amount of — BBC
largest Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea. of these commodities. debt coming due relative to reserves, and

Fundamentally, this is bearish news as it said
there’s still a minimum of 20 million to 25 million
metric tonnes of last season grains crop that is yet
to be released to the world. This is on top of this
season crop, with sunflower seed and wheat cur-
rently being harvested now with corn harvesting
starting in September. If all goes well, this will also
mean Russian fertilisers would also be able to find
her way out of the Black Sea ports. This is positive
news for next season plantings.

While the fear of fertiliser shortage has somewhat
disappeared, at least for now, but the cost for next
planting season certainly have risen by over 150%.

The US economy is slowing. US inflation rate was
an average of 3% per annum for several years but
accelerated to over 40 years high of 9.1% in June
2022, falling to 8.5% in July. US Fed raised inter-
est rate for the 4th time so far this year, amounting
to a total of 225 bps thus far. Some expect Federal
Open Market Committee (FOMC) to raise rates by
another 100-150 basis points during the remaining
months of 2022.

Sluggish demand in China is pulling down Asia
equities. China GDP is expected to post its lowest
quarterly growth rate in more than 2 years. With
mounting Covid-19 costs, soft consumer spend-
ing, slower manufacturing activities; economist are
sceptical even a rebound in 2nd half of 2022 Chi-
na may not be able to achieve her minimum 5.5%
growth target. With China off-take predicted to fall
further, global demand for feeds is not likely to in-
crease.

Premier Li was quick to announce a $75 billion
infrastructure pending/stimulus plan to revive the
flagging Chinese economy. However, it’s unlikely to
reverse global metals meltdown. Unlike in the past
where Chinese stimulus played major role in res-
cuing industrial commodities from the slumps in
2008, 2015 and arguable in 2020, there appears to
be more caution this time.

These extra funds from special bonds sales will
likely be used to plug Covid-era budget gaps and
won’t tackle the bigger issue for metals demand as
China real estate is still in the grip of a long down-
turn and the scale of infrastructure spending is un-
certain along with export demand that global re-
cession which may slow down factory output.

As China continues to see sporadic outbreaks of
Covid-19 virus and pursues a zero Covid policy, this
year’s stimulus will be certainly weaker than the pre-
vious ones. Poor Chinese manufacturing index indi-
cate that China economy continue to be challeng-
ing, prompting crude oil to crack below the $100/
barrel range citing poor future economy growth.

All of this is a severe and exogenous shock to
countries across the African continent. The conti-
nent’s policy makers are not well position for more
shocks when existing policies has always been a
juggling act between more development spend-
ing, increasing tax revenues, and ever-increasing
debt settlement.

KENYA September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 20

What figures. In addition, the manifesto ob- panding occupational hazard and unem- ment accountability, and coverage”.
future for serves that nearly 85% of adult workers ployment insurance is a great idea, but It is notable that Ruto’s opponent in the
are in the informal sector. This means that it’s also not clear how this proposal would
social they miss out on the social insurance ben- overcome the basic problem for informal 9 August election – Raila Odinga of the
assistance efits of formal employment, since formal workers: how they’re going to afford the Azimio la Umoja coalition – ran on a plat-
employers are required to contribute 50% contributory insurance fees. form of expanding social assistance en-
under of the National Hospital Insurance Fund rolment by 50% and tripling the value of
Ruto? (NHIF) fees for their employees. The manifesto has little to say about the monthly cash transfers. Ruto has avoided
other current cash transfer programmes, this type of specific commitment on scal-
The rising cost of living in Kenya has seen This is a clear diagnosis of the persistent beyond a welcome pledge to “to improve ing social assistance.
ordinary citizens repeatedly taking to the challenge of pover- [their] operational efficiency, prompt pay-
streets this year. Sometimes this has been ty in Kenya. Howev- However, Kenya Kwanza does
in intentional protest, like the July march- er, it isn’t accompa- bring one novel idea to the table:
es calling for an Njaa (“Hunger”) Revolu- nied by a clear policy “establish a social welfare system
tion to lower food prices. Other times, people have proposal to use social for Kenyans living in the diaspo-
wound up in the street unintentionally, idling in assistance for pov- ra, by exploring and implementing
their cars for hours due to fuel shortages. erty reduction. The the portability of social protection”.
manifesto does call Many Kenyans abroad face exploit-
Whilst economic growth has picked up again af- for the government ative working conditions and lack
ter the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has still had to establish “a univer- access to national social protec-
to contend with years of severe drought, economic sal social security sys- tion systems in their country of resi-
mismanagement, and rising commodity prices due tem, encompassing dence, so this is a concept worth ex-
to the war in Ukraine. pension, occupation- ploring.
al hazard and unem-
In a recent Afrobarometer survey, over 80% of ployment insurance”. Ultimately, the Ruto administra-
Kenyan respondents said that the national econo- But it does not state tion appears focused on expanding
my was in “fairly bad” or “very bad” condition. Many whether this would social insurance rather than social
said they were often going without basic goods and complement – or re- assistance. This runs the risk of slow-
services, such as sufficient food (18%), clean water place – the univer- ing the steady expansion of NSNP
(22%), medical care (26%), or a cash income (47%). sal social pension for coverage over the last two decades,
people over 70, which and may result in more vulnerable
Social assistance programmes can help to cush- is already offered through the NSNP. Ex- households being excluded from
ion the most vulnerable citizens during times of cri- benefits.
sis. These programmes provide economic bene-
fits, like cash transfers, to beneficiaries without re- — African Arguements
quiring any matching payments. They are, in oth-
er words, “non-contributory programmes”. They are RTGS RATES DAILY 1 MONTH 3 MONTHS 6 MONTHS 12 MONTHS
different to social insurance programmes, which in-
clude unemployment or health insurance, and re- NewsDay ZW 550.00 ZW14,300.00 ZW42,900.00 ZW 85,800.00 ZW 171,600.00
quire beneficiaries to pay in now so they can receive
benefits later – in other words, “contributory pro- Zimbabwe Independent ZW 1,050.00 ZW4,200.00 ZW 13,650.00 ZW27,300.00 ZW 54,600.00
grammes”. Because social assistance programmes
don’t require beneficiaries to pay into them, they’re The Standard ZW 550.00 ZW 2,200.00 ZW 7,150.00 ZW14,300.00 ZW 28,600.00
generally a better option for providing economic
support to extremely poor households. Weekly Digest ZW 550.00 ZW 2,200.00 ZW 7,150.00 ZW14,300.00 ZW 28,600.00
Combo
Now that William Ruto has been sworn into of- ***** ZW 21,750.00 ZW 67,300.00 ZW 134,600.00 ZW269,430.00
fice after the Supreme Court upheld his victory in
the 9 August election, what sorts of social assis- RTGS Accounts: First Capital Bank (Barclays) Account:2157-6346662 | Stanbic Bank: Account: 9140001182179
tance might ordinary Kenyans expect from his Ken-
ya Kwanza administration? To subscribe in the comfort of your home for credible, reliable and exclusive news, follow link:www.amh.paynow.co.zw or Ecocash *151*2*2*26472*AMOUNT#

Social assistance programmes now
Ruto’s prior career in government – first as an MP
from 1998-2013, and then as deputy president un-
der Uhuru Kenyatta from 2013-2022 – has spanned
a period of steady expansion in Kenya’s social assis-
tance programmes.
Since 2003, Kenya has provided cash transfers
to extremely poor households through the Nation-
al Safety Net Programme (NSNP), also known as
Inua Jamii (“raise the community”). The current pro-
grammes include grants for orphans and vulnera-
ble children; people with disabilities; people affect-
ed by drought in arid and semi-arid lands; and all
citizens over age 70.
In its nearly two decades of operation, the NSNP
has had some real successes. By 2019, over 1.3 mil-
lion households were enrolled in the safety net, ac-
counting for roughly 5 million people or 10% of the
population. In addition, the programme delivers all
transfers digitally, which reduces fraud, and it is ful-
ly funded by domestic tax revenue rather than do-
nor funds.
However, there’s also room for the NSNP to im-
prove its operations. Most importantly, the safety
net’s current enrolment falls well short of the esti-
mated 33.4% of the population (roughly 17 million
people) who still lived under the $1.90 poverty line
in 2022.
Kenya Kwanza’s mixed messages
How does the Ruto administration plan to build
on the NSNP’s strengths and address its shortcom-
ings?
A review of the Kenya Kwanza coalition’s political
manifesto suggests that Ruto is aware of the need
for expanded social assistance, but short on spe-
cific commitments to scale up cash transfer pro-
grammes.
The manifesto notes that Kenyans face a range of
lifecycle vulnerabilities, including poverty amongst
children, the elderly, and people with disabilities.
Current social assistance programmes reach only
7.5% of children living in poverty, according to their

OPINION September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 21

Global babwe and North America. South Afri- ically accounting for +/-75% of total mine production disruption.
platinum ca dominates platinum mine supply, typ- supply aside from years of exceptional As such, small changes in output from
output
to dip 8% South Africa have the greatest bearing on
variations in total platinum supply.
EBEN MABUNDA
For the year, the report said the to-
T HE latest statistics released by tal surplus is expected to increase to
the World Platinum Investment 974 000 ounces, up from the previous es-
Council (WPIC) on Monday pro- timate of 627 000 ounces. An 11% drop
ject a decline in the production (y-o-y) in recycling supply (-217koz) is ex-
of platinum globally for the year pected, premised on reduced autocata-
2022 versus the 2021 outturn, dragged lyst scrap availability. Investment demand
by anticipated declines in recycled sup- is projected to dip -520koz y-o-y on con-
plies and leaner production in South Afri- tinued ETF and exchange stock outflows.
ca, Russia and Zimbabwe.
Although platinum is expected to see a
This is on the back of waning produc- significant surplus this year by the WPIC,
tion numbers witnessed in the second Chinese demand remains a major wild-
quarter of 2022 wherein global platinum card and an important reason for tight-
supply narrowed -7% over the period in ness in the market.
question.
Remarkably, despite major market
According to the report: “Platinum sup- shifts, platinum has managed to hold crit-
ply was also weaker at 1 961koz (-7%) year- ical long-term support at around US$800
on-year, albeit not by enough to offset an ounce with the WPIC indicating that
lower demand. Mine supply from South solid demand is expected to provide
Africa was down 3% year-on-year due to some support for the precious metal.
power outages, adverse weather condi-
tions and operational challenges, whilst Eben Mabunda is an analyst and
North American production was down TV anchor at Equity Axis, a leading
13% due to a mine flood and processing financial research firm in Zimbabwe.
maintenance in Montana and Sudbury re- — [email protected]
spectively. Whilst Russian production was
up 18% year-on-year, there are potential
risks to output in the second half due to
the unavailability of replacement mining
equipment from Western suppliers as a
result of sanctions.”

Meanwhile, recycling was down 16%
year-on-year at 437koz due to reduced
vehicle scrappage rates impacting the
supply of raw material.

However, aggregate platinum demand
declined 13% (-248koz) year-on-year in
Q2 2022, with stronger industrial and
jewellery demand offset by slightly weak-
er automotive demand, and significant-
ly weaker investment demand (-329koz).
The net effect as per the quarterly plati-
num outlook report was that the precious
metal saw a surplus 349 000 ounces in
the second quarter.

Platinum remains a critical metal in the
automotive catalytic converters, which
are used to remove harmful emissions
from gasoline and diesel-powered en-
gines. Automotive demand represents a
substantial majority of the platinum mar-
ket.

The WPIC said they expect automotive
demand for platinum to increase 14% this
year to more than three million ounces.
However, total industrial demand is ex-
pected to fall 15% to 2,132 million ounc-
es. This is expected to generate an overall
market surplus of 974koz, up from 627koz
previously and 10% below the 2021 sur-
plus.

Notably, platinum-backed exchange-
traded funds have weighed on prices;
however, despite the growing surplus,
there is still tautness in the markets.

“Significantly, the sustained high plat-
inum lease rates we have been seeing
throughout 2022 — the highest in 10 years
and higher even than those seen during
the peak of the pandemic when moving
materials was extremely challenging — are
a clear indication of shortages of physical
metal in the market,” reads the report.

While overall production for 2022 is ex-
pected to be -8% weaker than the 2021
outturn, South Africa’s production is ex-
pected to decrease -10%, Russia -1%, and
Zimbabwe -4%.

Platinum metal is mined in four main
geographies, South Africa, Russia, Zim-

ARTS September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 22

Interview: Sony Music Entertainment
Africa MD Sean Watson
Sony Music Entertainment Afri-
ca (SMEA) has been doing a lot of ativity, collaboration and innovation. We are through our expert partner management teams ent. This gives artists more options and choice
work lately amid the burgeoning Af- committed to being a safe space for employees as early as possible to reap big rewards for our about how they want to split the work in gen-
rican music industry, recently add- from diverse backgrounds and to being as in- artists down the line. As we find space and po- erating strong returns for their recorded music
ing emerging African artists includ- clusive as possible, providing as many comfort- sitioning for our local artists, it also means that and their songwriting.
ing Gyakie, 25K, Emotionz DJ, Ferre Gola, R.O.Z able and artist friendly engagement points as we’re opening up what we are doing in Africa to
and Abby Chams to its roster. we can for our partners in music, as well as a col- the rest of the world, which can now see in real What factors do you consider before sign-
laborative environment for our teams. We con- time what’s going on in the African streaming ing an artist to Sony Music Entertainment Af-
Sony Music Entertainment Africa managing tinuously work on internal dialogue about our ecosystem. We are part of an ecosystem that al- rica?
director Sean Watson. organisational culture, facilitating discussion as lows music fans to discover listen and share mu-
well as a series of programmes and workshops sic from anywhere at any time. There is no pass- A healthy mix of talent, momentum and rel-
Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Afri- designed to bring us closer to understanding port required for music in today’s digitally con- evance. There’s no single solution and each
ca, the music company has expanded its op- one another and our individual and collective nected world. signing we undertake has a different combina-
erations in other African regions including West needs, despite the different backgrounds we tion of the aforementioned metrics, all of which
and East Africa. SMEA managing director Sean all come from. Recently, we moved into new of- How has the COVID-19 pandemic affect- combine uniquely to make each deal we do a fit
Watson, who joined the company as an exec- fices in Johannesburg that, through innovative ed Sony Music Entertainment Africa’s opera- for both us and the artist in question. There are
utive director in 2009, has played a significant and creative design, provides a work environ- tions? an array of talent indicators, from vocal ability to
role in signing new talent and aligning Sony ment that inspires our teams to deliver excep- writing, performance and innovation. Momen-
Music Africa’s operations to the technological tional creative work. We’ve also just acquired COVID-19 taught us a lot about ourselves and tum can be measured by considering where
explosion in the music business. magnificent new office space in Lagos that will just how resilient we can be under pressure. I’m the impact is being made by the artist and what
be just as fantastic to work in as our new Johan- grateful to be in a business that proved to be level it’s being achieved against the contextual
Music In Africa caught up with Watson to nesburg space. This focus on making Sony Mu- relatively resilient in terms of the virus’ impact on benchmarks in spaces like DSPs, social media,
speak about his vision for the label, the com- sic a great place to work is also reflected in the our ability to operate, but I’m even more grate- charts, video streaming platforms, live circuits,
pany’s social projects and the disruption oc- work underway at a global level. For example, ful to work for a company that cares and a com- traditional media and so forth.
casioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, among in 2020, we launched a Global Employee Assis- pany that single-mindedly chose to put its peo-
others. tance Programme, which covers all our employ- ple first during the torrid time of our course Relevance comes from contemplating the
ees across the African continent too. through the pandemic. demand in certain geographies, genres and
MUSIC IN AFRICA: Since joining the label, scenes and how well the artist is positioned to
what have been your long-term goals, and However, it’s not just about employees, it’s We’ve come through the trials of COVID-19 be relevant to the audiences in those spaces, in-
how have you accomplished them? also about extending that culture of openness, having learnt how to adapt to global challeng- cluding future audiences in growing areas. Sony
support and transparency to our artists. That’s es that are beyond our control. Although we Music has a powerful set of tools that allow us
SEAN WATSON: I joined Sony Music in 2009 why we launched Artists Forward(link is exter- were able to translate most of what we do into to gather data and insights that assist us with
as an executive director and spent most of nal), a global initiative prioritising transparen- an online, remote-working version, our business making a lot of the decisions we make but ulti-
my time overseeing the music plans in Afri- cy and support for our music creators in all as- is about people and relationships, and being mately, we rely on the A&R specialists in our or-
ca for the 2010 FIFA World Cup project includ- pects of their development. Artists Forward is physically apart from each other and our art- ganisation who combine their expertise with in-
ing the official song ‘Waka Waka’. When I took very much an evolving initiative and part of our ists put strain on areas like A&R and marketing. stinct and data driven insights to arrive at de-
over from my predecessor in 2011 as manag- ambition to always put our artists first. We’re happy to be back to almost normal and cisions.
ing director, the primary long-term goal from to be able to meet, enjoy and create great mu-
the outset of my tenure was to develop Sony What challenges are you facing as Sony sic and plans together with our artists again. What tech has your organisation employed
Music’s business in sub-Saharan Africa out- Music Entertainment Africa and what meas- to advance its operations within the recorded
side of our then single operation in South Af- ures have you put in place to overcome them? Ultimately, coming out of the pandemic, we music industry?
rica. We started signing local talent in new Afri- see good potential for growth in Africa. Stream-
can markets where we could offer our services Competition continues to increase as stream- ing is at the heart of our business, and we’ve got The music industry is undergoing a huge
to them as a record company with global reach ing evolves and grows in Africa. There’s more an incredible roster of local artists who partner transformation driven by technology, data and
and in-depth experience, and set about form- choice than ever before for artists as Africa in- with us to find new ways to co-create a share of analytics, which now play a vital role in all phases
ing business partnerships and hiring people to tegrates more firmly with the worldwide music the space available in streaming for them. Our of our business globally. Our role is to help art-
grow organically. Our first-mover approach had market and deals flow in from all over the plan- team is focused on providing the right kind of ists predict future music trends, empower them
us setting up operations in West Africa as early et. In a competitive deal-making environment, setup for repertoire to maximise the impact on with easy access to the insightful data needed
as 2014, signing Davido and Wizkid to ground- it’s important to provide value-added and unri- a very large marketplace and they are excep- to guide their activities and partner with them
breaking deals in partnership with some of valled services that draw on our transcontinen- tional at it, benchmarking our digital marketing to help provide new opportunities for them to
Sony Music’s UK and US labels as far back as tal and global reach to support artists across work in Africa alongside our international col- gain more financial value from their creations
2016 and following suit in East Africa by signing Africa. An absence of robust music industry leagues. Africa is evolving fast as a digital mar- and build deeper relationships with their fans.
Rose Muhando, Redsan and Alikiba. In South data in many African markets continues to re- ketplace and we expect a lot of innovation still
Africa, we acquired local label Select Musiek strict growth in some ways. However, Sony Mu- to come out of our unique environment, as well To do this, at a global level we are building
and further strengthened our investment in the sic’s investment in data and analytics tools pro- as strong growth, for a while to come. value-added services for artists including pre-
local South African repertoire by signing then vides us and our artist with a lot more data than mium content and podcasting production,
new artists AKA, Kwesta, Shekhinah, Black Mo- is commonly available and allows us to work off What differentiates Sony Music Entertain- brand deal business development, and mer-
tion, Zakwe, The Soil and the more established unique insights that are a strong competitive ment Africa and Sony Music Publishing? chandising services, while also expanding our
Zonke. advantage. The massive growth in the amount network of owned studios, growing our live and
of music available to fans for streaming on digi- Sony Music Entertainment [SME] and Sony ticketing relationships, adding artist manage-
Today, a rapidly growing Sony Music West tal service provider [DSP] platforms means that Music Publishing [SMP] are two independently ment hubs and supporting artist-led ventures.
Africa operation in Lagos, Nigeria, boasts a it’s becoming harder and harder for artists to operating companies, with different manage- I’ve also found that being part of the Sony fam-
healthy roster of recording artists that includes stand out. As a result, our focus has been to en- ment and teams and very different roles in the ily has been a huge differentiator for our artists,
Mayorkun, Gyakie, Dice Ailes, SARZ, Davido and gage with these platforms as a valued partner music value chain. SMP represents the song- creating commercial, promotional and creative
Wizkid. Most recently, Turntable Charts rat- writers and their songs, while we represent re- opportunities spanning gaming, film and TV,
ed Sony Music the No 1 label in Nigeria, an ac- cording artists. As a result, the rosters of the two and electronics.
colade thanks to hard work from our amazing different companies are substantially differ-
Lagos team in collaboration with colleagues — MusicinAfrica
around the world. We’ve also enjoyed incred-
ible local success with Nigerian artists signed
abroad like Ruger [Columbia Records UK] and
Jae5 [Black Butter] and partnered with B1 Re-
cordings in Germany to sign the viral hit ‘Ame-
no Amapiano’. Last year we appointed Chris-
tine Mosha to accelerate the development of
our East African business out of Tanzania. She is
developing a local roster that already includes
Aslay, Young Lunya, Ommy Dimpoz and talent-
ed young newcomer Abigail Chams.

In South Africa we’re forging new ventures,
such as with New Money Gang, Black is Brown
Entertainment and Piano Hub. Artists like Mr
JazziQ, Mellow & Sleazy, Venom, 25K and Phi-
la Dlozi have also joined Sony Music, while ex-
isting artists Mlindo the Vocalist, Sha Sha and
Shekhinah have continued to be at the fore-
front of the South African local music scene.

All of our efforts in Africa have been driven
by the great people that work here. As we’ve
grown and expanded, we have prioritised ef-
forts to drive diversity, equity and inclusion in
the business, building a new pipeline of talent
to support the variety of different artists that
have joined us and making Sony Music a truly
great place to work. We’ve also been conscious
about balancing our presence with the com-
munities we work in by investing and giving
back to the community through initiatives like
Sony Music Group Global Social Justice Fund.

What is the company culture like at Sony
Music Entertainment Africa?

Sony Music is a people-centric business that
invests in building a culture which fosters cre-

SPORT September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 23

Ryan Burl's record high, and
Australia's record low

1 Zimbabwe's three-wicket win in Townsville was their first Mushtaq's record of 104 matches. Starc is also the fastest to
victory against Australia in Australia in any format. Before this 200 ODI wickets in terms of balls bowled (5240).
win, Zimbabwe had lost 12 ODIs and two Tests against Aus-
tralia in Australia, while another ODI ended in a washout. 1 Burl became the first Zimbabwe player to take a five-wick-
et haul against Australia. Duncan Fletcher's 4 for 42 during the
141 Australia's total was their lowest against Zimbabwe in 1983 World Cup were the previous best ODI figures for Zimba-
ODIs. Their previous lowest was 209 for 9 during the 2014 tri- bwe against Australia. Burl's 5 for 10 is the second best perfor-
series in Harare. It is also Australia's second lowest ODI total at mance by a Zimbabwe spinner, behind Graeme Cremer's 6 for
home in the last 20 years, after the 74 all out against Sri Lan- 46 against Kenya in 2009.
ka in 2013.
2 Burl's bowling figures are also the second best for a spin-
18 The number of balls Ryan Burl needed to complete his ner in men's ODIs in Australia. Only Yuzvendra Chahal is ahead
five-wicket haul - the second fewest deliveries taken for a five- of Burl, with 6 for 42 against the hosts in 2019.
for in men's ODIs since 2001. Sri Lanka's Chaminda Vaas had
taken a five-wicket haul in 16 balls against against Bangladesh Highest % of team runs in a men's ODI innings
in the 2003 World Cup. ESPNcricinfo Ltd
10 Runs conceded by Burl for his five-wicket haul, the cheap-
Fastest five-fors in men's ODIs since 2001 est five-for in men's ODIs against Australia. The previous best
ESPNcricinfo Ltd was by Ravi Shastri in Perth in 1991, when he took five wickets
66.66 The percentage of Australia's total of 141 scored by for 15 runs. Burl's effort was also the cheapest five-for in Aus-
David Warner (94), the second highest contribution by a play- tralia in men's ODI and the second cheapest for Zimbabwe.
er in a completed innings in men's ODIs. Only Viv Richards is 12 The number of runs Australia scored for their last five
ahead of Warner: Richards' 189 against England in 1984 ac- wickets, their second worst five-wicket collapse in the last 25
counted for 69.48% of West Indies' total of 272 for 9. years in men's ODIs. Australia had lost their last five wickets for
102 Number of ODIs for Mitchell Starc to complete 200 one run against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2011.
ODI wickets, the fastest to the milestone, breaking Saqlain
—ESPNCRICINFO

September 14 to 20 2022 Weekly Digest 24

Zimbabwe women cricket team

Lady Chevron win UAE
Quadrangular series

TBY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE are certainly going in the right direction. The girls are “Three out of three, I am really happy to see that and
he Zimbabwe women cricket team's fine run playing some decent cricket but there are certainly are- I am really happy to see the way the ladies have gone
ahead of the ICC Women T20 Qualifiers con- as we need to look at and improve on but we are happy and I am just hoping for more of the same when girls
tinued, winning the UAE T20 Quadrangular with the results,” he said after the series win. cross over to Abu Dhabi. I think the preparations have
series after beating Thailand by three wickets gone really well and the girls have looked the 'goods'
in Dubai on Tuesday. Zimbabwe will travel to Abu Dhabi tomorrow from out three today,” he said. The Lady Chevrons are look-
Zimbabwe won all their three matches in the competi- Dubai ahead of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifi- ing to qualify for their first ever ICC T20 World Cup and
tion which also included USA and the UAE. er starting on the 18th. There is a warm up game against play against Papua New Guinea, Thailand and UAE in
Scotland on the 16th. the group stage of the qualifiers. But their next assign-
In the first match, Lady Chevrons beat USA by five ment is a World Cup Qualifier warm up match against
wickets and followed it with an emphatic win against Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) director of cricket Hamilton Scotland on Friday.
the hosts before maintaining their 100% record against Masakadza was in Dubai to watch the girls play and was
Thailand. pleased with what he saw. ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier warm up
match
This comes after the team also beat South Africa “I thought the girls were brilliant, when we played
Emerging 3 – 2 in a five match T20 series just before Thailand in Harare (last year) they looked very competi- 16 September : Tolerance Oval, Abu Dhabi
they headed for the UAE. tive and they ran us close quite a lot of the times but to- 2pm Zimbabwe vs Scotland
day I thought the ladies totally outplayed them getting ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier fixtures
And in yesterday’s match Sharne Mayers was player of them out for 100,” Masakadza said. 18 September: Tolerance Oval
the match after she hit 48 runs as the team successfully 10am Zimbabwe vs Papua New Guinea
chased a 102 target. “Obviously it looked closer in the end than what it was 19 September : Zayed Cricket Stadium
having lost all those wickets in a cluster towards the end 10am : Zimbabwe vs Thailand
Coach Garry Brent was pleased with the team’s per- but the game was done and dusted about 10 overs into 21 September : Tolerance Oval
formance ahead of the ICC Women T20 Qualifiers which our batting innings. 2pm Zimbabwe vs UAE
begin on September 18 in Abu Dhabi. 23 September : semi finals at Tolerance Oval and
“There has been a huge improvement. I love the ener- Zayed Cricket Stadium
“The girls have played well. We have won all our games gy on the field and the girls are looking really slick, get- 25 September : Zayed Cricket Stadium
which is great but we have seen glimpses of us at our ting the ball in quite nicely looking very professional and
best and that’s it so we still have a lot of work to do. We like a very well drilled outfit the bowling was exceptional
and the batters upfront did well