NewsHawks 24 March 2023

Price US$1 Friday 24 March 2023 NEWS Zim Miners' Federation boss Rushwaya exposed in gold scandals Story on Page 5 NEWS Blockbuster exposé rattles Mnangagwa’s spin doctors WHAT’S Story on Page 11 INSIDE SPORT Dutch words of wisdom from the ‘exiled chief ’ Story on Page 58 ALSO INSIDE Corruption fuelling poverty in Zimbabwe All the President's Men: Gold looting, money laundering syndicates exposed

Page 2 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 OWEN GAGARE ZIMBABWEAN President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been left exposed and politically vulnerable following ground-breaking revelations by Qatar-based international television network Al Jazeera’s of gold smuggling, corruption and money laundering. The disclosures have shaken the country and the political landscape to the core. For the first time, Zimbabweans have seen the optics of how their gold is smuggled and money is laundered by criminal syndicates connected to top government officials and politicians who have cornered the precious mineral found in abundance across the country, while leaving them impoverished. While the investigation brought so many things to light and left the nation shell-shocked, one of the most instructive disclosures about Gold Mafia — the investigative documentary film — is that all the main characters are linked directly and indirectly to Mnangagwa. This is even before the three other episodes of the film are aired. More revelations are coming which will leave Mnangagwa, the centre of gravity for action, worse off. Mnangagwa’s wife, First Lady Auxilia, is expected to feature in one of the coming episodes of the documentary series talking to Presidential envoy and Ambassador-at-Large Prophet Uebert Angel (real name Uebert Mudzanire) about gold dealings and influence peddling. Already, we have learnt from Angel that if one needs to see Mnangagwa they would have to pay US$200 000 cash upfront for access. The issue of people being charged to see Mnangagwa has been there for years now, but the President’s office and police have warned against abuse of his name for personal gain, including name-dropping. The cash-for-access strategy in government is familiar. Controversial Zimbabwean socialite Susan Mutami, who now lives in Australia and has accused Mnangagwa of rape, claimed some Russian mining investors in 2019 had to pay US$150 000 through Mines deputy minister Polite Kambamura which he shared with an unnamed President’s son for their papers to be signed. “In early 2019, there was a private jet that came to Zimbabwe and parked at Harare International Airport (now Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport) for a couple of days,” Mutami posted on Twitter on 5 February 2022. “These guys were Russian and wanted a deal in mining, but because (Mines minister Winston) Chitando kept on going around in circles in signing their paperwork. “These guys then offered Polite Kambamura US$150 000 cash and Polite roped in the president’s son in the deal and they flew on their private jet to Victoria Falls where the president was for him to sign their paperwork.” The US$150 000 which Mutami — who claimed to have had a love relationship with Kambamura — says the Russians paid in 2019 for Mnangagwa to sign their mining deal papers is not far removed from the US$200 000 that Angel spoke about as the access fee. Zimbabweans are reeling under severe poverty amid economic implosion, with far-reaching social and political ramifications. Every part of the country has gold deposits in varying quantities and qualities, and the mining is largely operated by artisanal miners who produce 60% of the mineral despite remaining poverty-stricken. Zimbabwe has significant reserves of platinum group metals, gold, chrome, coal, diamonds and lithium, among others. The mining sector contributes about 12% of the country’s US$25 billion gross domestic product, and over 60% of its export earnings. The country, which earns about US$2 billion from gold annually, is losing at least US$100 million a month through smuggling and corruption. Zimbabwe gold output surged to 35.38 tonnes in 2022, spurred by new mining projects, timely payments and incentives to miners. Since he came to power through a military coup in November 2017, Mnangagwa’s criminal associates and wheeler-dealers have crawled out of the woodwork. Opportunists have also jumped onto the bandwagon, parading themselves with him and posting pictures at the slightest opportunity to demonstrate their proximity to power and leverage. The President is surrounded by dodgy characters deeply mired in corrupt activities. The Al Jazeera investigation reveals how billions of dollars’ worth of gold is smuggled from Zimbabwe to Dubai, allowing criminals to clean dirty money through a web of shell companies, fake invoices and paid-off officials. Moses Nango, a South African Airways customer service agent who has worked at the airport for a long time, explains that the underworld gold smugglers go in and out through the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare, flying to and from Dubai — the Middle East's gold trading hub — using Emirates flights EK714 and EK713. They smuggle gold and money in broad daylight. Al Jazeera’s hidden cameras installed at the airport and which they travelled with during the investigation show the smuggling activities through revealing video footage. Angel was recorded in Al Jazeera’s undercover investigation promising to help smuggle US$1.2 billion into Zimbabwe through a diplomatic bag and launder money from a Chinese mafia led by a fictitious Mr Stanley, a Sino gangster with links to the Triads. The self-proclaimed prophet even said he could smuggle a person in his diplomatic bag, just to emphasise his freedom and impunity. Initially the mafia had said they wanted to smuggle and clean US$100 million through Zimbabwe. Angel promised the Chinese mafia smuggling and laundry services for the money. He said “it’s easy” to do it because he would use a diplomatic bag which is not searched in terms of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and no one would dare stop him until the money reaches his Greystone Park home in Harare. Further, Angels adds that he is the No.2 diplomat in Zimbabwe to Mnangagwa and has plenipotentiary powers — independent authority — to sign agreements and treaties on behalf of the country. Essentially, Angel says he can smuggle and launder the money for a commission. Smelling a life-changing staggering commission from the US$1.2 billion being dangled in one of the sting operation meetings, he even says Mnangagwa will die in office. It is his way of avoiding spooking the mafia with their cash due to political uncertainty. The investigative film is titled Gold Mafia. Its main characters include Kenyan tycoon Kamlesh Pattni, who was involved in the 1990s Goldenberg Scandal which almost bankrupted Kenya, but is now smuggling gold from Zimbabwe; Zimbabwe Miners' Federation president Henrietta Rushwaya, who is also Mnangagwa’s niece; notorious gold dealer Ewan MacMillan; Alistair Mathias, MacMillan’s business partner who advises clients on how to clean their dirty cash; local business magnate Simon Rudland; Rikki Doolan who is married to Angel’s niece Nicola; and Angel himself. In meetings, Angel is seen sitting next to his brother Limit Mudzanire Mnangagwa exposed: Something rotten in the state of Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa

NewsHawks News Page 3 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 and Dr Sobona Mtisi, chief investments and projects officer in Angel’s office, who is married to his niece Joy; sister to Nicola. There is also Dmytro Abakumov, Pattni’s runner, featuring in the documentary. Mnangagwa, whose local political allies like former State Security Owen “Mudha” Ncube and Pedzisayi “Scott” Sakupwanya, among others, are involved in gold dealings, is closely linked with the dodgy characters in the Gold Mafia film. Pattni, the MacMillans — Ewan and his family — as well as the Rudlands, Angel and Rushwaya, including their business partners and runners, are directly and indirectly linked to Mnangagwa and his network, making him the centre of gravity in the scandal. The latest Mnangagwa entanglement in a gold scandal comes after he was also implicated in another similar issue 20 years ago. In 2003, Mnangagwa, then Speaker of Parliament after he had lost his Kwekwe parliamentary seat to the then MDC official Blessing Chebundo in 2000, was accused of receiving ZW$8 million from an illegal gold miner. The allegations surfaced when Mark Matthew Burden, accused of trading in gold without a licence, appeared before the High Court. Owner of several licensed mining operations, including Ivan Hoe Mine and eight gold custom mining plants, Burden was in court for illegally milling ore from small-scale miners and panners in Mnangagwa’s hometown, Kwekwe. “Upon perusal of the bank documents, police discovered that the accused had made the following cheque payments to ED Mnangagwa. On 17 September 2003, the accused paid ED Mnangagwa ZW$8 million using bank cheque 693803,” court records show. “When asked about these payments, which the police suspected to have been related to gold transactions, the accused could not satisfactorily explain,” the state said in the charge sheet.” Mnangagwa’s name was later removed from the charge sheet. Burden was accused of milling gold ore from other registered miners, small-scale miners and gold panners around Kwekwe. “The accused would then buy gold at parallel market rate after milling gold ore from various people,” documents said. Detectives had earlier received information that Burden was buying gold at a price higher than the one offered by Fidelity Printers and Refiners, the sole official buyer of gold, implying therefore that he would not deliver to Fidelity. “Hence, it was suspected that he was externalising the gold,” the charge sheet said. More than 2 000kg of gold was discovered at Burden’s house. Mnangagwa’s family, wife and son Collins, are also implicated in the Rushwaya 2020 foiled gold smuggling scandal. Rushwaya was arrested at the airport in Harare trying to smuggle 6.09kg worth US$366 000 to Dubai. She is still trying to wriggle off the hook on that. Besides this, there are stunning revelations in a court case involving Bulawayo tycoon Mohammed Zakariya Patel and his former righthand man Ismail Moosa Lunat which exposes gold dealing, illegal currency transactions and money laundering involving Mnangagwa’s office and Auxilia. The evidence of criminality contained in court documents and chats between Patel and Lunat covers the period from 24 May 2018 to 14 January 2019. The President’s Office is named in some of the communications between them. The bulk of the evidence consists of WhatsApp messages between Patel and Lunat, records of local and international money transfers, memorandums, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe intelligence memos, a series of transactions that egregiously violate the Exchange Control Act, gold deals and money laundering statutes. Lunat was Patel’s accountant for a period stretching from May 2018 to July 2019, hence intimately involved in his finances. When they fell out, they took each other to court while exposing their dirty linen in public. In short, these characters involved in smuggling and money laundering in the Gold Mafia investigative film are All the President's Men. (The phrase is derived from the 1976 American biographical political drama thriller film about the Watergate Scandal — one of the biggest stories in the history of investigative journalism — that brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon).

Page 4 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BERNARD MPOFU CHARISMATIC Zimbabwean evangelist and President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s special envoy on Trade and Investment, Uebert Angel, is embroiled in a money laundering scandal involving the abuse of diplomatic privileges after he was caught on camera revealing how he has illicitly moved hundreds of millions of United States dollars under his cover. According to a new Al Jazeera Investigative Unit documentary titled Gold Mafia — Episode 1 — The Laundry Service, elites linked to Mnangagwa’s government are involved in illicit financial flows and the smuggling of gold. In the 51-minute long exposé, Angel is caught on camera bragging that he is one of the richest personalities in a country where over a third of its 15 million population is living in extreme poverty. Gold is Zimbabwe top foreign currency earner but a new expose by Qatar based television channel Al Jazeera has shown how Uebert Angel is involved in the complex smuggling of the yellow metal to predominantly the United Arab Emirates while prejudicing treasury of millions of revenue in export proceeds. He also assures the investigative unit that he could move money in and out of Zimbabwe without declaring the country’s tax authorities. He also confessed that he had moved hundreds of millions of dollars in the past. In March 2021 Angel, born Uebert Mudzanire, was appointed Zimbabwe's ambassador-at-large and presidential envoy by Mnangagwa. The ambassadorial role came with the responsibility for Angel to seek trade and investment opportunities for Zimbabwe. “I’m not stupid. I have two degrees in finance. So I have done a lot, okay. I am in the Forbes Magazine. I am in the Forbes Rich List of 2013 (Africa Forbes Rich List). And remember I am also a minister of the gospel,” Angel brags before he was interjected to answer if he could move gold or money without any "trouble". “Don’t worry … Trust me, I have already… I did this okay. This is what is happening and we have got it done … This is gonna be how much?” The investigators then said they would start with at least US$1 billion. “One billion? Now, we have done maybe for two hundred million or hundred million. But we have not done for one billion per se.” Angel and his assistant, the documentary reveals, then stepped out of a meeting room with a man identified as Mr Stanley whom he assured that he could move the money outside the taxman’s dragnet. “I am the second largest diplomat in the country. Do you know I can carry him in a bag and nobody is allowed to search. I can carry him in a bag and nobody touches the bag. Right now I can have a bag like this with 1.2 billion and put a red tape written diplomat. That’s it. “So it’s a very very easy thing. It will land in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe can’t touch it until I get to my house.” Under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations the mission may send one of its members to take possession of the diplomatic bag directly and freely from the captain of the aircraft. The diplomatic bag may contain only official correspondence, and documents or articles intended exclusively for official use. In accordance with Article 27.3 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR), properly designated diplomatic pouches “shall not be opened or detained.” Although inspection of a pouch by X-ray would not physically break the external seal of the shipment, such an action constitutes the modern-day electronic equivalent of “opening” a pouch. As a result, the United States does not search properly designated and handled diplomatic pouches, either physically or electronically (e.g., by X-ray) and considers it a serious breach of the clear obligations of the VCDR for another country to do so. According to a trade report by the country’s statistical agency, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has consolidated its position as Zimbabwe’s second-largest export destination as gold shipments to the region continue to grow. Fly Emirates, the UAE flag carrier, has over the past few years increased flights to Harare as trade between the two destinations surged. Mnangagwa’s presidential envoy abuses his position President Emmerson Mnangagwa (right) with Zimbabwe’s special envoy on Trade and Investment Uebert Angel

NewsHawks News Page 5 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 OWEN GAGARE WHEN Henrietta Rushwaya was arrested at the Robert Mugabe International Airport in October 2020 while allegedly trying to smuggle 6 kilogrammes of gold to Dubai, many Zimbabweans believed the case was a tip of the iceberg and that she had been involved in such dealings before. Rushwaya, who is President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s niece and the president of the Zimbabwe Miners' Federation, is of course denying the smuggling charges, claiming she picked the wrong handbag as she went to the airport. The matter is still playing out in the courts. But the controversial former Zimbabwe Football Association chief executive, whose tenure was marred by allegations of match fixing in which she played a central role, may have nailed herself as a dirty player in the gold sector, who has facilitated the looting of gold through private jets and helped in money laundering schemes, after being recorded by an Al Jazeera undercover investigative team. Rushwaya, who has a string of past scandals dating back to 2007, was among those exposed by undercover reporters who, posing as gangsters with up to US$1 billion in dirty money, approached President Mnangagwa's Ambassador-at-Large, Eubert Angel, and critical players in Zimbabwe’s gold sector seeking to launder cash, with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Fidelity Printers and Refiners acting as a laundromat. Angel is recorded phoning Rushwaya, who reveals they use private jets to pick up gold as part of their smuggling and laundering activities. “You want gold, we can make the call and it's done with the president of the miners' association, right this minute. Let me just call Rushwaya,” says Angel to undercover reporters, while calling. Angel then tells Rushwaya he has people who want to get gold “like the other deals that we normally do with these people, like the one we did in Dubai. He tells the ZMF boss that the investors are prepared to send a private jet that picks up gold every week. “Oh perfect. Now that’s okay. It’s doable. What quantity do they do?” asks Rushwaya. Angel tells Rushwaya the dealers want 100kgs of gold every week. She immediately offers them a 4% discount on world prices, before detailing how she can assist them to clean their money. “They bring in US$10 million, for instance. Five million will be put into Fidelity for the duration of their relationship. They get gold worth US$5 million every week, they take it out, bring another US$5 million,” she says. Rushwaya also offers to clean an additional US$5 million through one of her producers, whom she says can add onto the parcel that is taken out, bring the total to US$10 million a week. “You can easily open an account for them under one of your many companies. We are the only sector in the country that is paying in foreign currency cash basis,” she says. From the documentary it is clear that Rushwaya is a major player in gold smuggling and money laundering syndicates operating in Zimbabwe. Rushwaya: A dramatic life of scandal Zimbabwe Miners' Federation president Henrietta Rushwaya

Page 6 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 OWEN GAGARE THE first part of the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit’s four-part Gold Mafia series has named Zimbabwe’s biggest players in gold smuggling and money laundering syndicates, with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s subsidiary Fidelity Printers and Refiners. Undercover reporters posed as gangsters with about a US$1 billion black money that needs to be washed. They approached rival players on the shady gold market who promptly offered to launder the money, explaining elaborately how they would do so in the process. Kamlesh Pattni Kenyan national Pattni is one of Africa’s most notorious gold dealers. He calls himself Brother Paul and boasts of extensive contacts on the continent, including heads of state. He is among the dealers exposed through the investigation. By his own confession, he moves between US$20 million and US$50 million a week. Pattni has operations in Dubai and several African countries, inclusing Zimbabwe, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. He fled Kenya after former President Daniel Arap Moi left power in 2002, after which he was arrested for corruption when the opposition came into power. Pattni is recorded boasting about how he met Moi as a young man, through the country’s intelligence director and eventually became one of his advisers. He was granted an exclusive gold-exporting licence which saw him making over US$600 million, which he shared with the former Kenyan leader and those close to him. After being set free by the courts, Pattni moved to Zimbabwe where he has been cutting mouth-watering deals with the country’s leaders, including buying and exporting gold mainly to Dubai, in return for a handsome commission of 18% of proceeds from exported gold. He has all the required paperwork, which makes it easy to launder money, most of which he keeps in Dubai. “Dubai is the headquarters. Dubai is the centre of Africa; a banking centre, financial centre, it's tax free,” he tells undercover reporters. “We have our own licence clearing at Dubai airport. We have permission of the Central Bank of Dubai. We have permission of the Reserve Bank (of Zimbabwe). We have the money laundering clearing certificates. We will show you all that, we will show you.” Pattni and other dealers have taken advantage of the RBZ’s lack of hard currency, to buy gold from small-scale miners. In return, they are given licences to sell gold abroad. The competing mafias fly the gold to Dubai and sell it there. They then bring the proceeds back to Zimbabwe in US dollars cash but have taken advantage of the system to launder money. One of Pattni’s couriers is Dymtro Abakumov, who owns Suzan General Trading. He has RBZ authority to move US$3 million into Zimbabwe a week and generated US$168 million in 2020. The government pays an 18% bonus on the proceeds of his exports. The documentary reveals that Pattni and his courier declare their money on arrival at the airport. They however declare less money. In some cases, they bring in as little as US$50 000 or US$100 000 after selling gold worth up to US$2 million. They then bribe custom officials to confirm they have brought the right amount of money. In one case, Pattni’s former accountant reGold Mafia turning Zim into smugglers’ paradise Kamlesh Pattni Ewan MacMillan

NewsHawks News Page 7 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 veals that the dealer brought in US$99 850 after selling gold worth US$1.2 million. To fund his gold buying, he then collects money from the Hawala market, where Zimbabwean-based clients who want to move money to Dubai give him hard cash. He then uses the money to buy gold and sells it in Dubai before paying the clients with proceeds from the sale, in Dubai. “The hard cash doesn’t enter the country. He is not bringing any forex, but taking money out,” says his former accountant. Pattni however denied criminal wrongdoing in Kenya and emphasised that he had never been convicted in relation to his activities in that country. He denied involvement in any kind of money laundering or sanctions busting, as well as employing anyone to smuggle cash or offering to deal with funds he knew originated from illegal sources. He said when he met the undercover team, he thought he was meeting with an investor to whom he wanted to sell a stake in hotel businesses and who wanted to "divest a portfolio in China into gold buying and mining in Zimbabwe". Abakumov denied being employed by Pattni or engaging in any criminal activity whether himself or through his company Sukros Investments. Everything he and his company did was in strict compliance with the terms of its licences and all applicable laws. Suzan General Trading said its operations were legal and above board in all respects. Ewan MacMillan MacMillan is another big player, moving 200kgs of gold per month. He boldly declares: “I am number two in gold” to undercover reporters, before naming Pastor Paul (Pattni) as the number one player. “He is just a thief. He almost put Kenya into liquidation, that’s how big he is,” says MacMillan, also known as "Mr Gold". He boasts about being jailed over gold-related offences. “I went to jail first time for gold when I was 21, and then I went to do a lot of prison in the '90s,” MacMillan says. MacMillan says gold trading offers unrivalled opportunities to clean money. “There is an opportunity, a hell of a big opportunity to wash money here. You can wash money. You want US dollars in a bank account, which would be better to have a bank account in Dubai, US dollars. So, then the best thing is to meet my partner from Dubai, and he knows how we do things here. And then, he can help you with how you can bring the money here, no problem. I can give my partner gold in Dubai and he can pay you anywhere in the world and I need him to come up with a plan of how we can wash your money…and he is clever, he washes money for the Russians.” MacMillan told reporters he was approached by the RBZ to buy gold as part of measures to stop leakages. “They said to me, go out and get all the gold out that’s being smuggled out of the country,” he said. “When a person comes to sell me gold, I don’t have to write his name down. I don’t have to do anything. I just take his gold, pay him, he leaves. I deliver to the government. Government asks me no questions.” Macmillan has operations in Zambia, South Africa, Angola and Mozambique. Among his team members is Alistar Mathias, a gold trader and financial architect who builds money laundering schemes for corrupt politicians. He says he has done the job for the past 14 years. Mathias offers to launder money through his gold-trading network across Africa. “In Ghana I do one tonne. I do US$40 million every month out of Ghana. This region (Sadc), I do 500 to a tonne again. So, I do roughly US$70 to 80 million every month. We can export from Zambia, I can export from South Africa. We have a company in Zambia, Angola, Mozambique. We can export from anywhere." Mathias advises a reporter posing as a Chinese gangster, Mr Stanley, to set up a gold-trading company and bank account in Dubai. He tells him to get a licence to import gold into the UAE. “We are gonna tell the bank we are gonna be trading in commodities or gold. The money will come to that account all the time. They place clean money from the official sale of gold into Mr Stanley’s account. You show that it's imported legally. You show that you have sold it to a refinery and the money got paid in the bank account. It’s very clean that way,” Mathias says. MacaMillan adds: “And now you have access to that money. That’s your money. And you gonna give us the US dollars cash from Hong Kong, we gonna come back with that.” Under the scheme, Mr Stanley’s dirty money is then brought to Zimbabwe and declared as proceeds of gold sales, yet the proceeds of Zimbabwean gold are deposited into his Dubai account, making the money clean. The dirty money is then cleaned by buying gold from Zimbabwe, as part of a cycle. “The only illegal thing is that you are giving me the US dollars out of Hong Kong. But they don’t know that,” declared MacMillan. Mathias however denied that he designed mechanisms to launder money and said that he had not laundered money, or traded illegal gold for Russian clients or anyone else. He told Al Jazeera that he never had any working relationship with MacMillan. Simon Rudland MacMillan says Rudland, known as "The Boss", has a separate arrangement and bankrolls the country. He operates through his company Gold Leaf Tobacco.He exports more gold than MacMillan and Pattni and has a contract to sell gold abroad on behalf of Fidelity Printers and Refiners. Moses Nango, a South African Airways customer service agent, who says he has helped to move money, diamonds, gold out of the country, says Rudland’s couriers pick gold at Fidelity Printers and are escorted to the airport. Their bags are exempted from searches. The couriers fly out on Emirates EK714 business or first class and fly back on the same flight EK713. They are all white. His couriers include Keith Patrick, who made 13 trips in two months during part of the investigation, Talmage George Alexander (seven times in the same period); Terrance Ian Smith (nine trips), Johannes Swann Jnr and Johannes Swann Snr who appear 10 times and Peter Bowan, who also travels 10 times. “When they get here to Harare, they go outside by the arrival exit, hand over the cash, get another consignment and get on the same fight going back again,” Nango said. Some of the gold is sold to Rudland’s company, Aulion Global Trading, in Dubai. MacMillan says Rudland lends the government money to buy gold. “He gives Fidelity the money to buy the gold for him to export. Fidelity’s debt to him at one time is US$200m, 250 million. That is huge,” he says. Rudland however denied the allegations against him, saying they were “false and formed part of a smear campaign against him by an unidentified third party”. He described himself as "a strong businessman . . . competing against the greedy and envious". Gold Leaf Tobacco emphatically denied any involvement, past or present, in money laundering, the trade in illegal gold, or related matters. Fidelity Printers Fidelity Printers and Refiners denied having any business relationship with Simon Rudland or giving gold-exporting licences or incentives to those we identified. It also denied all involvement in money laundering, smuggling, and sanctions busting. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said it takes the issues of money laundering and illicit trade very seriously and will not participate, directly and indirectly, in such activities.

Page 8 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BERNARD MPOFU GOLD barons exposed the Al Jazeera investigation for smuggling, corruption and money laundering generating billions of dollars for self-aggrandisement are using a false pretext of sanctions-busting to justify corrupt activities when Zimbabwe is not under a trade and bullion embargo. Some of the gold dealers, Kamlesh Pattni, Ewan Macmillan and Henrietta Rushwaya for instance, claim they were engaged in smuggling activities to deal with sanctions and help government when Zimbabwe is not under a trade embargo and can openly sell its mineral exports, including bullion. While Western countries, including the United States, European Union states, Britain, Canada and Australia and New Zealand imposed limited targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe, those were not international sanctions. They were imposed bilaterally by the countries or blocs concerned and have been largely reviewed and removed in some cases. Through the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, updated in 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on Harare over policy, rule of law, political violence, human rights and elections issues. It also used the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control for targeted sanctions. This ensured that Zimbabwe would not get any funding from international financial institutions and multilateral development banks where the US has a voice. However, the United Nations has no sanctions on Zimbabwe as was the case with Rhodesia after Ian Smith declared Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from the United Kingdom in November 1965. The British government regarded UDI as illegal and unacceptable, and sought ways to end the rule of Smith's Rhodesian Front party. In the absence of an internal uprising, London, having eschewed the use of force, resorted to a policy of economic sanctions to effect the desired political and social changes. These were intended to affect incomes, employment, and economic activity generally so as to generate dissent and disaffection among the white population, who, it was hoped, would either emigrate or force a return to legality, the negotiating table, and progress towards a mutually acceptable form of independence. That was the first time the United Nations Security Council imposed mandatory economic sanctions against a state. The sanctions were broadened in 1968, but still were only partly successful; some strategic minerals, especially chrome, were exported to willing buyers. In Zimbabwe’s case, the country can still trade with any other country and export whatever it had producer, including gold. As a result, claims by the gold barons that they are smuggling to help the country are not true. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya highlighted that point when he sought to distance the central bank from the smuggling and corruption activities of the gold dealers. One gold baron claimed Mangudya is on speed dial with tycoon Simon Rudland. Mangudya denied the claims. “It is particularly strange that reports claim that ‘through the bank, government is using illicit ways as a scheme to bust international sanctions placed on political leaders and government entities’,” Mangudya said. “The bank is not a sanctioned entity, and the cited individuals are not sanctioned persons either. There are no sanctions on Zimbabwean exports and imports, including trade in gold, to warrant ‘circumventing international sanctions’ through illicit gold trade. “As such, the claim that there is ‘a scheme to bust sanctions using illicit ways’ shows beyond doubt that the peddlers of this narrative have a sinister agenda with nefarious objectives of tarnishing both the bank and the Republic of Zimbabwe.” So since Zimbabwe can trade and export gold, the sanctions-busting claims by gold barons are not true and misleading. Trade sanctions are restrictions on trade with a country. They often come in the form of a ban on trading, which prevents exports or imports of certain products and raw materials into or out of a country. They limit the country’s exports or restrict its imports; and entail embargoes and quantitative restrictions. Countries such as South Africa, Iraq, and Rhodesia, had trade sanctions imposed against them, as the international community wanted to influence political changes in those countries. In Zimbabwe, trade sanctions have only manifested themselves in the form of denied access to foreign lines of credit, which ordinarily finance external trade, and access to markets, particularly the US market, through exclusion from African Growth and Opportunity Act. The market for the country’s exports is also shrinking, as export competitiveness crumbles largely due to adverse perceptions and high country risk profile. Zanu PF and government officials make it appear as if Zimbabwe is under blanket international sanctions when it not. Misunderstandings between Zimbabwe and some members of the international community, triggered by the violent and chaotic land redistribution, political violence and disputed elections, resulted in sanctions being imposed on Zimbabwe from year 2001. Simultaneously, Zimbabwe also defaulted on its international obligations, resulting in international financial institutions, notably the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and African Development Bank, suspending lending operations and technical assistance to Zimbabwe. Sanctions have traditionally been applied against certain countries to achieve desired political and economic outcomes. These largely consist of the imposition of embargoes, trade and financial restrictions, and diplomatic isolation. In recent years, the coverage of sanctions has widened to include other elements that are not directly linked to trade and commerce such as culture and sports. Economic sanctions and related restrictions are by far the most important of all sanctions imposed on a nation. In the main, they consist of the withdrawal, or threat of withdrawal of trade and financial relations, including technical cooperation. In an effort sharpen the effectiveness of sanctions, the West imposed targeted measures, including travel bans and freezing of foreign bank accounts of individuals or entities. Some financial isolation also came due to de-risking refers as banking institutions reviewed relationships with and closed accounts of clients considered “high risk”. There was a trend towards de-risking of money service businesses, foreign embassies, nonprofit organisations, and correspondent banks, which has resulted in account closures mainly in the US, the UK, and Australia. Low profit, reputational concerns, and rising Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) scrutiny contribute to de-risking, which can further isolate communities from the global financial system and undermine AML/CFT. In view of the above, the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe by the US and the EU have branded Zimbabwe and its entire financial linkages with the rest of the world as representing high risk, making the country a compelling target for de-risking interventions by leading correspondent banks. Zimbabwe has lost over 100 international correspondent bank relationships due to de-risking and lines of credit. Gold smugglers lie on sanctions-busting Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya

NewsHawks News Page 9 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE AFTER watching gold smugglers and money launderers breezing through Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare travelling to and from Dubai to deliver the proceeds of corruption in Al Jazeera’s investigative documentary Gold Mafia, it has become even clearer that the country’s biggest airport is now a gateway and paradise for smugglers, particularly gold. As a major trading corridor, the airport —a gateway to Dubai and Johannesburg — is intricately bound up with patterns of human and goods movement, and consequently also with operations of smugglers who facilitate corrupt mobility. This is happening while state security agents are sleeping on the job or at the centre of the criminal syndicates. The Harare airport is monitored by police, civilian intelligence and military intelligence services, but still smugglers outmanoeuvre them and do as they please. For instance, the Minerals, Flora and Fauna Unit, a section of the police’s Criminal Investigation Department mandated with monitoring and curbing illegal activities — particularly that involving precious resources such as minerals, parks and wildlife resources and public utilities and infrastructure — has offices at the airport. The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and military intelligence operate there too. However, runners of gold barons named in the film, such as Kamlesh Pattni, Simon Rudland and Ewan MacMillan, are seen in the footage walking in and out of the airport without being searched, while customs officers look aside. In fact, immigration and customs officials seem to be familiar and comfortable with the smugglers, and do not bother them at all while they move their contraband through the airport to Dubai using Emirates (flights EK714 and EK713) as explained by South African Airways client services agent Moses Nango. This means the airport is also a gateway for human and drug trafficking, besides illicit financial flows. The human smuggling economy is one of a range of illicit markets which exploits the enhanced connectivity facilitated by airports, in this case to coordinate irregular flows of people. The airport facilitates and preys upon the innate drive of people to seek out livelihoods, security, and opportunities, both for internal and transnational migration. For refugees, and those on the move due to conflict and violence who have not satisfied a state’s asylum requirements, and who are therefore not recognised as refugees, cities and their airports offer a temporary haven, an administrative hub for those submitting asylum claims, and a place to connect with smugglers for those using them as a stepping stone for longer cross-border journeys. Corruption lubricates illegality and criminality. Entrenched corruption at points of entry and exit, and at national borders, facilitate the movement of illicit flows through cities and between countries. Patterns of corruption are first created to facilitate the movement of higher value illicit goods, such as gold or proscribed drugs. Smugglers rely on a system of bribes paid to customs officers at airports to border officials at national crossings and checkpoints. Once entrenched, this systematic corruption can then also be used to facilitate the irregular movement of people. In many contexts the same route and transport mechanism will be used to move illicit commodities and people, sometimes in opposite directions. This ensures profit is made on both legs of the journey by the smugglers. In 2021, police in Harare have arrested a CIO operative, Chamakandiona Nyahunde, also known as Vincent Moyo, for assisting a former aide of Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation president Henrieta Rushwaya to smuggle 23 pieces of gold worth R11 million (US$782 712) to South Africa. Tashinga Nyasha Masinire was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg by the Hawks, South Africa’s serious organised crime investigation unit, after a scan of his luggage by the South African Revenue Service customs section at international arrivals. South African police said Masinire failed to declare the gold and did not have any permit or licence authorising him to be in possession of the mineral. The Hawks were called in to effect the arrest and conduct further investigations. Masinire appeared in court where he was granted R100 000 bail. He was eventually fined and let go. However, following the arrest police in Zimbabwe had launched investigations to establish how Masinire had smuggled the gold, leading to Nyahunde’s arrest. Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe then revealed that preliminary investigations and closed-circuit television images showed that Masinire walked into the airport without luggage. This suggested that he could have been assisted by airport staff or security personnel. National police spokesperson Paul Nyathi told The NewsHawks at the time that local law enforcement are collaborating with the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) to investigate the case. Airports Company of Zimbabwe boss Tawanda Gusha said work to enhance security at the country’s airports was in progress. “We are however working on improving the monitoring and screening of passengers at the airports. Interpol installed facial recognition systems at the airport. We are working to ensure that those systems are monitored 24/7.” In October 2020, Rushwaya was nabbed at the airport trying to smuggle 6.09kg worth US$366 000 to Dubai. She was arrested in the departure lounge after going through all formalities, including security clearance, after being assisted by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s security aide Stephen Chenjerai Tserayi and CIO operative Raphios Mufandauya. Rushwaya’s accomplice, Gift Karanda, also of the Zimbabwe Miners' Federation, claimed that the gold belonged to First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa and her son Collins, although the suspect later said it belonged to a Pakistani businessman, Ali Mohammed. Investigations resulted in the arrest of two senior police officers from the Criminal Investigations Department’s Minerals, Flora and Fauna unit, Superintendent Douglas Shoko and Detective Chief Inspector Paul Chimhungu, who were accused of tampering with court documents that incriminated Mohammed, implicated by Rushwaya as the organiser of the smuggling attempt. They were charged with criminal abuse of duty. Smuggling through the country’s airports continues to be rife despite the heavy presence of state security agents. Officials reveal that apart from state security agents, diplomatic passport holders are also involved in facilitating smuggling. Mnangagwa’s Presidential Envoy and Ambassador-at-Large Prophet Uebert Angel is caught in a storm after promising to use his diplomatic passport to smuggle and clean US$1.2 billion for Chinese mafia. This is in the Al Jazeera investigation. A report by a global research group, the International Crisis Group, estimated that Zimbabwe is losing at least US$1.5 billion a year through the smuggling of gold, mainly to Dubai. Kazembe and other officials have previously said Zimbabwe loses US$100 million worth of gold every month through international smuggling rings and the country’s porous borders. Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport now a gateway for smugglers

Page 10 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 NATHAN GUMA ZIMBABWEANS reacting to the Al Jazeera documentary on gold smuggling by politically-connected elites say the country's economic crisis has been created by a combination of mismanagement and corruption, rather than sanctions as the government has been falsely portraying over the years. In a Twitter Spaces discussion convened by journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, participants said Zimbabwe’s crises have been man-made, particularly by politically-linked acolytes that have been smuggling minerals out of the country. “Most of us have known that this has been happening, but the documentary has brought it much closer. There are a lot of things that are happening. For example, hospitals are not working. People are also going for three weeks without water in an urban area, which is not good. “The excuse has been that the country is broke, and yet we have tonnes and tonnes of gold that are leaving the country every week. A few select individuals, which is completely unacceptable,” said a participant in the Twitter session. The government has over the years attributed its failure to attain economic targets to Western sanctions. However, an explosive documentary by the Qatari news channel, Al Jazeera, has revealed hard evidence showing how politically connected persons, all linked to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, have been smuggling gold to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while laundering vast sums of money. The racket has seen gold smugglers transport at least US$5 million every week, with the money being laundered in UAE banks, as shown by the documentary. Part of the scheme includes self-styled prophet Uebert Angel, President Mnangagwa's controversial envoy, who in the documentary brags about being able to sign binding treaties, even without the President’s knowledge, and controversial miner Henrietta Rushwaya, who was arrested in 2021 for attempting to smuggle 6.7kg of gold worth US$366 000 at Robert Mugabe International Airport in 2020. While she managed to wriggle out, her luck has run out, with phone calls in the documentary nailing her as a notorious gold smuggler. In the documentary, Angel was caught pants down, promising Al Jazeera's undercover investigative journalists to smuggle US$1.2 billion in a diplomatic bag into Zimbabwe for money laundering services for him to get paid for it. Apart from overwhelming evidence of mineral smuggling, the country has also been failing to craft a clear debt resolution strategy, which has seen the country fail to pay lenders, further plunging the country into economic limbo. Participants in the Twitter Spaces discussion said the gold being laundered, if properly administered, could have been enough to settle the national debt, which would ramp up economic development. Zimbabwe’s debt overhang has been continuing to weigh heavily on the economy, with international financial institutions forecasting a decline in the gross domestic product. In February, Mnangagwa conceded that debt was impeding development, at the second structured meeting, which sought to look into economic and governance issues constraining arrears clearance and debt resolution, headlined by African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinumwi Adesina and former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano. In December last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected a fall in Zimbabwe’s real GDP growth rate to decline to about 3.5%, owing to internal and external shocks, among other factors. With a total consolidated debt of US$17.5 billion, Zimbabwe has been owing international creditors US$14.04 billion, with domestic debt pegged at US$3.4 billion. Debt owed to bilateral creditors is estimated at US$5.75 billion, while multilateral creditors are owed an estimated US$2.5 billion. The amount is also little, considering that close to US$4 billion is lost annually due to illicit financial flows, as revealed this week by former Finance minister and opposition MP Tendai Biti. The country’s corruption-induced woes have also been cascading into the region, with Zimbabwean economic refugees flocking to neighbouring countries for employment and health. Last year, the head of health for Limpopo province in South Africa, Phophi Ramathuba, complained that the failure by the Southern African Development Community’s (Sadc) to tackle the migration crisis in the region is putting pressure on her country’s health system, whose resources are insufficient to cater for undocumented foreigners. The country is also home to approximately three million Zimbabweans, many of them economic refugees fleeing corruption-induced poverty. Prominent Zimbabwean activist Evan Mawarire said: “Zanu PF is a criminal enterprise to the core.” Banker Nigel Chanakira said while revelations by the Al Jazeera documentary have been an eye opener, it is important to be cautious before action can be taken. “Truth be told, we have been too busy doing whatever we have been doing. We have been busy talking about other things, and the documentary then leads us to painful scenarios. “What happened has happened. What is important is that thought leaders take the initiative to stand for what is right. It is important that we do that. I know Zimbabweans want action. I think it is also important that we do not just leap into action. We have to be strategic. Why do I say so? This is because it is a military regime. People will die. “And people have to be prepared to die. This is another revolution. I think the effect will be in the party itself. Because I cannot imagine that there are people who sacrificed their lives to die in the struggle for this nonsense that we are seeing,” he said during the Twitter Spaces discussion. Corruption fuelling poverty in Zim The IMF projected a fall in Zimbabwe’s real GDP growth rate to decline to about 3.5%, owing to internal and external shocks.

NewsHawks News Page 11 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 RUVIMBO MUCHENJE THE Al Jazeera documentary which exposed how people close to President Emmerson Mnangagwa are involved in gold smuggling and money laundering has torched a storm, with citizens openly expressing anger at the plunder of the country's resources and unbriddled graft. Prominent people such as cleric Uebert Angel, Zimbabwe Miners' Federation president Henrietta Rushwaya, among others, are implicated in the documentary as enablers of gold smuggling and money laundering. The documentary attracted a lot of interest among Zimbabweans — clocking 1.2 million views in one day and over 6 000 comments on social media. The snippet on the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit's Twitter handle attracted 88 000 views and 1 000 likes. Opposition Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa said the documentary exposes how corruption starts from the elite circles of Zimbabwe. “The fish rots from the head. The Al Jazeera documentary graphically exposes the extent of the rot at the top, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. This clearly shows how corrupt, rotten & broken leadership has destroyed a jewel and great country. Zimbabwe is not poor, it’s just poorly governed!,” he tweeted. CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere, again tweeted, saying Zimbabwe is being led by thieves. Self-exiled activist Makomborero Haruzivishe shared his views on the matter on the Al Jazeera international news channel, saying the power of the mafia surpasses that of the government. “Other countries have a mafia. In Zimbabwe the mafia has a country,” he said. Comedian and musician Prosper Ngomashi, popularly known as Comic Pastor, predicted that state-run newspapers will ignore the documentary. “Herald mangwana ndopainomuka yakanyora nyaya dzemombe kuti: Foot and mouth disease hits Lupane. (Herald will have a story on cattle reading foot and mouth hits Lupane),” Ngomashi posted on Facebook. Opposition Lead president Linda Masarira did a four-part thread on Twitter, saying the documentary has just put faces to information that the nation already knows and that the way forward is to plug leakages. “Sadly, the long awaited @ajenglish gold mafia documentary just put in the faces to a public secret that all Zimbabweans know about, there is really nothing new. Corruption has destroyed our economy left, right & centre. Getting angry & throwing insults won't fix the problem,” she tweeted. “Focus in my view should be directed on how best we should plug in leakages of gold, the resource case & a better legislative framework for natural resource governance without overlooking the existence of sanctions especially those imposed by the ofac & saps in their generality,” she added. Presidential spokesperson George Charamba, speaking under his Twitter pseudonym Tinoedza Zvimwe, said the outrage is coming from a point of lack of knowledge, as mining is Zimbabwe's greatest income earner. “Understand structure of Zimbabwean economy to know how to defend it: For the first time in its entire history, Zimbabwe’s foreign currency earnings through exports have hit a record high. "The figures are there for anyone to see. Much of that superlative performance has been led by the mining sector, principally gold! It therefore comes as no surprise that enemies of Zimbabwe’s recovery will inevitably seek to target this stellar sector which, in any event, has been battleground for east-west global conflict. "We are focused on building a usd12bn mining economy, which we should achieve this year. Nothing will stop that, least of all foreign media-led distractions. We keep our eyes fixed on the ball. Madhara ehovhorosi haanzi tsveta chaunacho tikupe chichichi chiri seri kwemusana!!!,” Charamba tweeted. He added that the two-year investigation is premised on spurious agendas and it is not credible. “How does an American ex-FBI agent become a soothsayer in a narrative of your country and nation, nhai maZimbabweans? A narrative which you — a victim of american hostilities — celebrate and treat as yours? Zvimwe zvinongoda kufunga so!! This made-in-America Al Jazeera becomes your celebrated organ for truth and defence of your national interest? Who doesn’t know the genesis of al jazeera and its siblings like al-arabya, themselves cia propaganda projects in an era of global news networks? Hinga tinoti takagundha wani?,” he added. The documentary comes at a time when multiple stories have been written about illicit flows in the mining sector but not as graphic as was done by the international news agency. When Al Jazeera announced that it was going to run the three-part documentary, The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, John Mangudya, released a statement rubbishing the findings of the investigation before they were even aired. Government apologists and spin doctors have sought to defend the rampant looting exposed in the documentary. Prominent Zimbabwean activist Evan Mawarire said: “Zanu PF is a criminal enterprise to the core.” CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere Blockbuster exposé rattles Mnangagwa’s spin doctors

Page 12 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE THE exploitation and mining of rough diamonds by Chinese firm Anjin Diamond Company in the Chiadzwa area of Manicaland province has led to a sharp rise in malaria cases due to poor environmental management practices. The company has over the years left numerous unreclaimed pits and slime dams which have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The development has also put the spotlight on the Environmental Management Agency (Ema) which is accused of failing to enforce the country’s environmental laws. Anjin has over the years left large pits, gullies and slime dams many of which are filled with stagnant water. They have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. As a result, malaria cases in Chiadzwa have increased, while the pits have claimed lives and are posing serious danger to humans and wildlife. Anjin Diamond Company is a a joint venture between China’s Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company (AFECC) and Matt Bronze, an investment vehicle controlled by Zimbabwe’s military. The firm started operating in Chiadzwa in 2010 but was ordered to shut down in 2016 when the government ceased operations of all diamond companies in the area after the then president Robert Mugabe claimed there were serious leakages of the gems amounting to US$15 billion. The ban led to the establishment of the stateowned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) which then took over operations. When President Emmerson Mnangagwa took over leadership of the country in a military coup in November 2017, he lifted the ban on Anjin’s operations, resulting in the company resuming full-scale diamond mining in Marange with an initial investment of US$38 million in 2019. However, investigations by The NewsHawks with support from Information for Development Trust under a project meant to support investigative reporting focusing on the accountability and governance of foreign interests and investments in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa, revealed that Anjin’s operations have resulted in serious land degradation in areas it has been exploiting diamonds. Some of the open pits have not been rehabilitated since 2010. A recent visit to Chiadzwa, by this reporter revealed there many pits holding stagnant water. The pits have become a haven for mosquitoes, causing a spike in malaria cases as confirmed by villagers, community leaders, and documents prepared by ministry of Health and Child Care officials as well as civil society organisations operating in the area. A physical count revealed that in Muedzengwa Village which is located in ward 30 of Marange, there are eight deep pits left unrehabilitated by Anjin. In nearby Chirasika Village there are six pits while in Tinoengana Village there are 15, bringing the total to 29 in the three villages alone. A total of 12 villages, namely Chiadzwa, Chibiya, Mwaora, Farikai, Makotamo, Tarindwa, Rambai, Charamba, Tonhorai, Muedzengwa, Chirasika and Tinoengana are bearing the brunt of mosquitoes breeding in the pits, resulting in an upsurge in malaria cases. The villages are spread between Marange’s wards 29 and 30. Investigations by this publication also revealed that Anjin over the years has not attempted to carry out land reclamation and gully filling in the affected areas in line with its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) plan approved by Ema. The company’s spokesperson confirmed the existance of the pits but said Anjin had a reclamation plan which would be rolled out this year. Malaria victims speak out In an interview recorded on camera, Shylet Mapindu of Tonhorai Village located in ward 29 of Chiadzwa revealed she contracted malaria two times last year. Her three-year-old son, Prosper Mapindu, also contracted the disease. “Each time that rains fall in this area, water gathers in the deep pits left by Anjin. Mosquitos are breeding there in large numbers and because of that we are enduring mosquito bites and we have many malaria cases in the area. Personally, I contracted malaria twice last year. The hospital is too far so I went to a nearby village health worker, who has testing kits,” Mapindu said. “She put me on a malaria course and unfortunately my child here also faced the same situation. Anjin’s diamond gullies lead to malaria crisis in Chiadzwa A graph taken in 2021 shows a spike of Malaria cases in Chiadzwa as a result of mosquitos coming from pits left open by Anjin.

NewsHawks News Page 13 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 He is three-years-old but he battled malaria at such a tender age.” Besides causing malaria, Mapindu said the mosquitos were a nuisance and making life unbearable for villagers. “In our huts here, you can hardly sleep at night due to the mosquitoes which will be giving us hard times. Some officials from the ministry of Health once came to do door-to-door spraying, but that did not help much. The mosquitoes are still plenty and we are enduring the bites daily,” she said. Another villager, Aleck Taranga, who contracted malaria in February this year, said: “The open pits with stagnant water left behind by Anjin are a very big problem for us. I contracted malaria in February this year, but the challenge is that we do not have a clinic nearby. From my home in Tonhorai village to Chishimwi Clinic, the nearest health facility, it’s about 14 kilometres. “There is no transport to reach there so for you to walk that distance while ill it is very difficult. So, like many people, I just went to the village health worker, got tested and was given my malaria course after diagnosis. We have a big malaria problem here.” Tonhorai village headman Onias Chinyadzwa said he and other villagers have in the past approached Anjin over the slime dams and pits. He however said Anjin had not taken action to rehabilitate the pits. “We are now thinking of going back to the company to highlight to them the increasingly devastating problem of malaria in our area caused by their slime dams. Because of the rains, the pits and slime dams have been filled with stagnant water. Mosquitoes are breeding there and malaria cases are rising,” he said. Some village health workers from Chiadzwa confirmed the upsurge in malaria cases although they said they could not comment because they work under the ministry of Health and Child Care and are not authorised to speak to the media. “What we do is that we collect malaria test kits and medication from major health centres like Chiadzwa Clinic. We then go back to work in our areas. In terms of malaria, in my community I handle an average of 25 to 45 cases of malaria a month and that is quite very high,” said a community health worker. “We have been having such a trend for some time. From my own observation, I believe the ministry of Health is not keen to make public these statistics because, we have strict orders not to reveal the statistics to anyone. It’s a dismissible offence for us.” The Environmental Management Act is the legal statute which provides for land reclamation after mining projects. Section 107 of the law says that land developers who include mining companies must “minimize adverse effect of (their) projects on the environment.” Section 107 (1) reads: “Every developer shall take all reasonable measures to prevent or, if prevention is not practicable, to mitigate any undesirable effect on the environment that may arise from the implementation of his project.” Those who violate the Act can also be fined or imprisoned in line with section 97 of the Act. Section 97 (2) and (3) says: “Subject to sub-section (4) any person who knowingly implements a project in contravention of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding ten million dollars or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or to both such fine and such imprisonment,” the Act reads. “The Agency may serve an order in terms of sub-paragraph (xiii) of subsection (1) of section ten on a person who knowingly implements a project in contravention of subsection (1) ordering that person — (a) to mitigate the effects of any adverse environmental impact in the manner specified in the order.” Amalgamated Chiadzwa Development Communities Trust (ACDCT) Marange chapter chairperson Jey Kasakara told The NewsHawks that malaria cases in Chiadzwa are a cause for concern. “From our interactions with environmental health technicians in our area, almost every month there is an outbreak of malaria in Chiadzwa due to proximity of some villages to pits that were left open by Anjin and are now breeding grounds for mosquitoes,” he said. “The stagnant waters are helping in the breedShylet Mapindu (in the picture) of Tonhorai Village located in ward 29 of Chiadzwa, revealed she contracted malaria two times last year. Her three-year-old son Prosper Mapindu also contracted the disease. A police officer attends to a scene where two women (covered in blankets) died while fishing in one of the slime ponds left by Anjin.

Page 14 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 ing of the mosquitoes, causing terrible bites to villagers, especially at night when the vector is active. We have held focus group meetings in the affected areas and villagers are bitter about the issue. “In November last year, officials from the ministry of Health sprayed chemicals to kill the mosquitos in homesteads but that was not enough because they did not do anything at the pits where mosquitos are breeding. So, the problem is still existing,” he said. James Mupfumi, the Centre for Research and Development (CRD) director, said malaria is affecting the education sector. “From our research and information we gathered in the area, the issue of malaria is now spreading into the education sector where children are being affected by the disease resulting in poor pass rates of zero percent. We have also held focus group meetings in the area to discuss on the issue of malaria and I can say it’s a big problem that is affecting the community there,” Mupfumi said. “All age groups are being affected by the mosquito bites but the problem seems to be bigger on children under the age of five. The source of the problem are pits left behind by Anjin which are now a breeding hub for mosquitoes.” Manicaland provincial medical director Munyaradzi Mukuzunga however professed ignorance on the malaria cases in Chiadzwa. “I have never heard about the malaria cases. I have over 200 health centres which I preside over in Manicaland, so I cannot know everything that happens in all these centres. It is impossible. Maybe you can check with people who live around that area, but no one has ever told me about that problem of malaria in Chiadzwa,” he said. Ministry of Health/CSO reports confirm malaria cases linked to mining. However, a report compiled by an environmental health technician employed by the ministry of Health titled “Environmental Health Impacts of Mining, Lessons drawn from Marange” presented at a policy dialogue meeting held on 9 December 2021 in Mutare confirmed malaria was on the rise, as a direct result of mining. The meeting was attended by various stakeholders, including the Centre for Research and Development, village health workers, ministry of Health officials, villagers from Marange and traditional leaders. Part of the report reads: “Before mining in Chiadzwa, the area was characterised by high temperatures of about 37 to 40 degrees Celsius receiving rainfall of about 28mm per annum. Occurrence of diseases was limited since there were no movements of people to the area,” the report reads. “Malaria became a problem in the area for the past nine years. From 2010 backwards there were no high cases of malaria recorded. “Highest number of malaria cases were recorded during the time when Anjin started mining activities. More than 100 cases in a month were once recorded for the period of 2016 and 2017. This was worst situation we experienced as health workers at Chiadzwa clinic. “In 2021, Malaria cases surpassed the malaria threshold limit value for the following weeks, week 1, week2, week 3, week 6 and 7 as well as week 11 and 13. “An increase in cases from the first week of January up to the third week of January was experienced, this means that we were in an outbreak for the whole month, and this was a result of many breeding sites in the area.” The report says environmental factors such as high temperatures speed up the life cycle of a vector (anopheles mosquitoes) hence the high number of malaria cases. “Studies were carried out and entomological surveillance was conducted in the area. A number of breeding sites around Chiadzwa and Chishingwi area were discovered with presence of larvae at 3rd and 4th insta,” the report reads. “There is evidence that the area is infested with vectors. These open ponds left during mining by Anjin are a problem as surveys conducted by Ministry of Health and Child Care in June, September, October and November 2021 found out that open ponds were source of mosquito breeding. “We experienced outbreaks on malaria almost every month and we conducted outbreak investigations, entomological surveillance, bio-laviciding, health education on Malaria. However even though these measures were being implemented, there is need for land reclamation, gully filling to reduce mosquito breeding sites in Chiadzwa.” ACDT and CRD also conducted a survey in Marange to assess the malaria situation in 2020 by talking to villagers and village health workers. The survey established that four villages in Marange’s Chishingwi area were malariuos. These are Kusena which is home to 1 141 villagers, Rombe with 909 people, Jessi area with 195 people and Muyedzengwa which had a population of 148 people. Death in Anjin pools While the issue of malaria has become topical in the area, there are other emerging hazards including loss of lives being caused by the unrehabilitated pits left by Anjin. Newman Chiadzwa, who resides in the area and is related to headman Chiadzwa, said in November 2021 a woman committed suicide in one of the pits together with her two children. Chiadzwa spoke in an interview with The NewsHawks during the visit. The children were aged two weeks and three years. The incident happened at a pit left by Anjin in Muedzengwa Village of Marange. “The pits left by Anjin are now a menace for human life due to causing of diseases as well as putting lives in danger. We are in trouble,” he said. On 30 April 2019, two women also died in one of the pits which resemble small dams while fishing. The NewsHawks obtained still photos of police attending to the scene where the bodies had been retrieved. CRD confirmed the deaths. Ema acknowledges environmental woes Ema’s national spokesperson Amkela Sidange said Anjin had a valid environmental impact assessment licence. “On the issue of the pits that have been left open, yes the agency is already working on that after also realising that there is a loophole by the same company,” she said. “The agency has been informed by the company that some of the pits, they still want to rework them, so they cannot cover them up because they still intend on coming back to work on them. So, what we are now doing at the moment; we are working with this company (Anjin) to actually come up with the comprehensive database on the number of pits that they have. It would be better to bring this up early in the story, to say Ema acknowledges that there is an issue. “We are also establishing the pits that they want to rework, so that at the end of the day we are able to then come up with a figure of pits that they are saying they are no longer going to rework on them. This is then going to assist us to then issue them with an order to back fill these open pits that they are saying they are no longer going to rework.” She added: “At the same time for those that they are saying they are going to rework on we must ensure that they are fenced off such that they don’t pose any risk be it to the livestock or to humans. So yeah basically, that’s what is happening there and the intention is to ensure that the pits that are going to be rehabilitated, we make sure that Anjin is given an order to have them backfilled to such an extent that the land can also be put into other use or rather it become reusable for other productive purposes.” We have a rehabilitation plan: Anjin Anjin spokesperson, Special Matarirano, said the company has a plan to rehabilitate the deep open pits and slime dams this year. He insisted that Anjin had not violated any environmental laws. “Anjin Investments (Private) Limited is a diamond mining company which has a high regard of Zimbabwe's national environmental laws. In fact, the company has and is compliant to all environmental legal and social requirements of the country,” Matarirano said. “The company has an approved environmental rehabilitation plan, which is set to be launched this year and this is on the company's environmental priority projects where a total of 7 hectares of land is set to be rehabilitated and populated with different fruit trees.” Matarirano said Anjin had not filled the pits or rehabilitated the land since 2016 because the Chinese company is considering re-working the land. “Key to note is also the fact that Anjin is still doing some re-explorations in the formerly alluvial mined areas, the exploration is mostly to determine the existence of the conglomerate in such areas,” he said. “Hence some gullies which are in areas with potential mineral resources are not filled. In such areas where exploration is ongoing, slime dams and pits are continually being fenced. We are fencing off the areas to secure them from intrusion by humans as well as livestock,” he said. Asked whether Anjin was aware that malaria cases are emerging around the area of Chiadzwa due to the high breeding of mosquitos in stagnant waters inside the pits that Anjin left unrehabilitated, Matarirano said the problem will be dealt with when the company completes its plans to be unrolled this year. He claimed the company has been treating the water in the gullies to curb mosquitoes from breeding. “Our rehabilitation action plan, that which we are launching this year, covers the hectarage we believe require immediate action on gullies, that’s the 7 hectares I mentioned earlier. One thing is that the company is quite awake and aware of its environmental protection duty and preservation of ecosystems, human and animal life in all its operations,” Matarirano said. “The slime dams are a controlled water body which we drain whenever there is possibilities of health effects and or treated to disallow mosquitos from breeding. Anjin is a company that has a raison de'tre and has health security and safety on its priority of operations,” he said. However, during the site visit to Chiadzwa last month, the measures which Matarirano spoke about such as securing the areas with the pits, draining water as well as treatment to disallow mosquito breeding, were not evident. Photographs taken this week showed that the company is yet to implement these measures. Ema’s Sidange called upon mining companies in general to be environmentally friendly in their operations. “It is actually our call as the agency really to those that are in the mining sector to ensure that they always rehabilitate after mining. To ensure that land is brought back into its natural state, and it can also be put into productive use and at the same time as a way of ensuring that we protect humans as well as animals,” she said. While Anjin and Ema work on a rehabilitation plan, malaria cases continue to rise among Chiadzwa villagers, who are also angry because they have not benefitted much from diamonds being exploited in their area. A body of a suspected suicide victim wearing yellow t-shirt (encircled) floats in one of the slime ponds left by Anjin. Pits like these breed mosquitoes.

NewsHawks News Page 15 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 NATHAN GUMA FORMER Finance minister Tendai Biti says Zimbabwe could be losing up to US$4 billion a year through illicit financial flows, part of which involve major mining companies such as Zimplats and Unki. Speaking in Parliament this week, Biti said Zimbabwe is losing more than US$1bn to gold smuggling, US$1bn to tobacco smuggling and possibly US$2bn through lithium leakages. “We are losing a billion US$1bn from tobacco smuggling, US$1bn from gold smuggling on its own and we are now losing possibly US$2 billion on lithium alone,” Biti said. He said the estimated loss is more than earnings the country has been getting through remittances. “Madam Speaker I am concerned about the issue of illicit financial flows in Zimbabwe. We are losing over US$2 billion annually in illicit financial flows. What we are losing in terms of illicit financial flows is actually more than what we are getting in terms of diaspora remittances US$1 billion, what we are getting in terms of foreign aid or overseas development assistance and what we are getting in terms of foreign investment which is around US$200 million. “The major culprits are the mining houses — organisations such as the ZimPlats of this world, the Unkies of this world who are guilty of transfer pricing, thin capitalisation, under-invoicing and over-invoicing,” he said. Biti said while there has been mining activity by major companies, there has been little to show for it, with the extractive sector continually bleeding. He said the majority of Zimbabweans are living in poverty despite the country’s vast mineral endowment. “It (mining sector) is accounting for US$6/7 billion a year, yet billions are getting out of our country. We have got 65 minerals but they are not benefiting our country. “Most of the mining model in Zimbabwe is extractive. You come in, you loot and you get out leaving total destruction, unemployment and so forth. Look at the status of Mhangura in Mashonaland West province, it is a ghost town. “Go to Renco in Masvingo, the road there looks like a road that was built in 1492 but they have been getting gold from our country. So I urge that the minister of Finance and minister of Industry and Commerce should come up with legislation that deals with illicit financial flows from this country,” he said. Biti also said the country has been losing more money through the smuggling of tobacco and possibly US$2 billion on lithium alone. “As I am talking to you right now, the price of lithium is US$80 000 a tonne. That is the new black gold and we have nothing to show for it. So I urge that the authorities come up with legislation on illicit financial flow and push the UN to come up with an international convention that deals with illicit financial flows,” he said. His remarks come at a time Qatari news channel, Al Jazeera has released an expose revealing how politically-connected acolytes are involved in underworld gold smuggling activities. In the hard-hitting documentar, close associates of President Emmerson Mnangagwa say how they can launder dirty money — using what they call their laundromat — gold and the central bank. The Zimbabwean government is on record as admitting that the country loses at least US$100 million per month in gold leakages, which translates to over US$1.2 billion. Earlier this month, a sub-committee of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS), which comprises law enforcement agencies responsible for financial investigations, reported an increase in cases of high-profile illicit financial flows in the country. In a report tabled at the NACS’ latest meeting held in Harare on 2 March, the committee reported that there were a total of 71 high-profile illicit financial flow cases received by the country’s law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in the first quarter of this year. In the month of January alone, the RBZ’s Financial intelligence unit recorded 28 cases of illicit financial flows, up from only two recorded in December last year, according to the report. Former Finance minister Tendai Biti US$4bn lost a year to illicit flows

Page 16 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE GOVERNMENT has largely ignored the grand abuse of funds disbursed to procure goods to contain the Covid-19 pandemic and cushion vulnerable citizens whose livelihoods were adversely affected by the national lockdown in 2020 by sweeping under the carpet the damning findings of Auditor-General Mildred Chiri and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which recommended an investigation to bring the culprits to book. The abuses were first highlighted on 3 August 2021 by Chiri in her report titled “Special Audit Report of the Auditor-General on the Covid-19 Pandemic Financial Management and Utilisation of Public Resources in the Country’s Provinces”. Chiri unearthed serious irregularities in the handling of Covid-19 funds, citing rampant abuse and corruption in the disbursement of relief funds and other resources. The detailed report, tabled in Parliament, showed that allowances meant for food insecure households, the disabled, the elderly and child-headed families were not received by the beneficiaries due to various reasons, including duplicate payments and disbursement of funds to people with fictitious names — meaning fraud. Following the release of the report, Parliament instituted its own investigation and concluded that due to the seriousness of the abuse of public funds, the Zimbabwe Republic Police and Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) should institute investigations within 180 days. PAC conducted its enquiry by first analysing the Auditor-General’s report to familiarise itself with the issues raised. The committee then had oral evidence sessions with officials from the ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and Local Government and Public Works through two meetings held with each of the ministries. On the database of beneficiaries used by NetOne to distribute funds, on behalf of the Social Welfare department, PAC in its findings said the distribution mechanism was in a shambles, leaving the process open to abuse. PAC said it believed that the ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare had databases for vulnerable people prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, given that one of its principal functions is that of assisting the less privileged in society through various social welfare assistance programmes. “The Zimbabwe Republic Police and Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission should institute investigations on the issue of duplicate beneficiaries with a view to prosecuting those guilty of any wrongdoing within 180 days of tabling this Report,” recommended PAC. The timeline was set on 10 May 2022, when PAC tabled its report through legislator Memory Mbondiah. The 180 days or six-month timeframe elapsed in November 2022. Subsequent investigations by The NewsHawks also revealed that some undeserving people received the funds, at the expense of vulnerable persons. A follow-up by The NewsHawks has revealed that the government has largely ignored the audit report by, among other shortcomings, not conducting a special investigation to look at issues raised by Chiri as directed by Parliament. Most of the Covid-19 related abuse of funds cases which went to court but were not covered in Chiri’s audit as they were not part of her auditing scope, were dismissed in court, while many other cases went uninvestigated. Chiri this week said she was unable to give an assessment on government’s handling of her report since she had not made a follow up. “My office has not yet made a follow-up audit due to other pressing issues and we also normally give our clients ample time to implement our recommendations,” she said. “I am not able to comment now until we make our own assessments.” We will summon Home Affairs minister: PACPAC chair Brian Dube did not respond to questions, but his deputy Edwin Mushoriwa said Chiri’s audit report and Parliament’s recommendations were ignored, showing that the government is not serious about fighting corruption He said when Parliament resumes sitting on 28 March, Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda will be implored to summon Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe to appear before the august House to explain why his ministry, which is charge of police, did not take action on the recommendation for an investigation into the abuse of Covid-19 public funds. “The failure by the executive arm of government as well as its agents such as police and Zacc among others is a cause for concern. The PAC report gave timelines which were supposed to be followed by government,” Mushoriwa said. “As PAC we will be moving for a point of privilege when Parliament next sits so that the Speaker directs the ministry to come before the House and explain the failure to action Parliament’s recommendations and directives.” We are not to blame: Zacc Zacc chairperson Loyce Matanda Moyo told The NewsHawks that her entity had investigated the abuse of Covid-19 funds which it received and submitted evidence to the courts, but was limited in its abilities as it does not have prosecutorial powers. The most high-profile Covid-19 abuse-related case was that of former Health minister Obadiah Moyo over a dubious US$60 million tender awarded to the United Arab Emirates-registered company for the supply of Covid-19 materials at grossly inflated prices. Prosecutors argued the contract was awarded without a competitive tender process. Moyo as minister was accused of influencing the awarding of the contract. High Court Justice Pisirayi Kwenda in October 2021 however dismissed all charges levelled against Moyo after ruling the offences were defective. The judge said the state did not elaborate how Moyo influenced the awarding of tenders. Moyo, through his lawyer Tawanda Zhuwarara, had argued that the awarding of the tender was not done by him but by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) – a state-run entity. The case has collapsed. Another high-profile arrest was that of the director of epidemilogy and disease control in the ministry of Health and Child Care, Portia Manangazira, who was arrested for alleged criminal abuse of office after being accused of facilitating the recruitment and training of 28 family members as community health workers. Manangazira is also accused of authorising procurement of goods worth US$280 529 without following due process. She allegedly committed the offences at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Manangazira however this week filed an apAbuse of Covid-19 funds ignored Auditor-General Mildred Chiri

NewsHawks News Page 17 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 plication for exception at the commencement of her trial, saying the charges were not disclosing an offence. She argued that the charges were defective because they did not state her duties as a public officer and the manner in which what was allegedly done was contrary to such duties. Mananganzira was arrested by the Special Anti-Corruption Unit (Sacu), a department housed in the Office of the President and Cabinet, to “improve efficiency in the fight against all forms of graft and to strengthen the effectiveness of national mechanisms for the prevention of corruption,” according to government. Matanda Moyo said: “What I know is that people were arrested for abuses of Covid-19 funds and matters are currently before the courts. They are being prosecuted. The dockets on Covid-19 funds abuses are there at the courts. What must be known is that we are only an investigating entity and we do not carry out prosecutions. After investigating, we forward our evidence to the prosecution section of the judiciary which is an independent body altogether. “Accordingly, we do not have powers to act beyond investigations, so in the case of Moyo [ex-Health minister] we believe we did our best just like in any other case.” The Zacc boss insisted that in the case of Moyo, the anti-graft body had provided what it thought was foolproof evidence. National police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi told The NewsHawks that he was unable to comment on the matter because he was away from office. “I am in Masvingo. I am therefore unable to comment on the matter because I am not in the office at the moment,” he said. The State must provide overwhelming evidence: JSC Judicial Service Commission (JSC) secretary Walter Chikwanha said he could not comment in abstract terms over why there have not been convictions of people accused of abusing Covid-19 funds who include ex-minister Moyo and Nguwaya at the courts. He referred questions to acting chief magistrate Faith Mushure, who said magistrates are guided by the threshold of determining whether an acussed person is guilty of a case laid against them or not. “Our threshold for a conviction is proving a case against someone beyond reasonable doubt. That is what guides us in all matters including cases of Covid-19 funds abuses. So you will see that if that threshold is not met, a magistrate cannot convict someone. “Having said that, the onus to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt lies with the state. So it is the state that must give us overwhelming evidence so that we can make convictions,” she said. Prosecutor-General Nelson Mutsonziwa was evasive when asked for comment. “What you need to do is to talk to those people (prosecutors) at that station (Harare magistrates' court) who are handling those cases. They are the ones who can give you an overview of what has been happening with the cases because they are the ones who handle them. Here you are talking to the Prosecutor-General. It is like you are talking to the Chief Justice,” he said. Obert Chinhamo, director of the Kwekwe-based Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa, confirmed that in the Midlands the police and Zacc had not arrested anyone in connection with Auditor-General Chiri’s report. In her report, Chiri said in the Midlands there was no transparency in the payment of bus fare to discharged inmates at Covid-19 quarantine centres due to the absence of documented guidelines to determine the amount due to each one of them. She added that there was no evidence that the inmates had received the indicated amounts due to the absence of signed payment schedules and revealed that at Midlands provincial social welfare office paid bus fares totalling ZW$604 760 without signed payment schedules. “The anomalies noted by Auditor-General and Parliament have not been addressed in Midlands this far. There is now lack of trust within ordinary people here that there will ever be redress on these issues of abuse of Covid-19 funds,” said Chinhamo. Chiri’s findings In her report, Chiri demonstrated that allowances meant for food insecure households, disabled people, the elderly and child-headed families were abused. She said: “There were clear control weaknesses identified in most of the visited provinces relating to the ordering, delivery, invoicing and payment of goods and services. Inadequate record keeping was a common feature across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) who did not always have updated or reliable information on donations and how they were distributed, goods and services delivered and reports on the implementation status of Government initiatives to fight the pandemic. “The lack of validation, integration and sharing of data and outdated or incorrect information across Government platforms resulted in some beneficiaries, including Government officials, receiving Covid-19 relief disbursements they might not have been entitled. This defeated the purpose of the disbursements as the intended beneficiaries could have been deprived of the assistance.” Chiri said the inability to coordinate and oversee complementary efforts by multiple government departments and agencies and in managing the usage of ZW$1 980 876 disbursed for funding of frontline workers and public sector investment projects such as the provision of clean water, ablution facilities, quarantine and isolation services and other services necessary in the fight against Covid-19, affected the timeous take-off of these projects. “The disbursement of ZW$89 022 103 worth of Covid-19 allowances by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Head Office to SMEs whose businesses were forced to close due to measures put in place to minimise the spread of Covid-19, food insecure households, people with disabilities, the elderly, chronically ill persons and child-headed households from May 19, 2020 to December 12, 2020 failed to achieve intended results due to various reasons which include unreliable databases, duplicate payments to beneficiaries and the payment to beneficiaries with fictitious particulars. “There was neither a follow-up nor feedback mechanism to verify if the allowances had reached the intended beneficiaries despite evidence that in some instances, the mobile money service provider issued two lines to the same person, some of the lines were not uploaded with the allowances and the presence of piles of uncollected sim cards at District and Provincial offices.” Chiri said the ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation also paid Covid-19 relief allowances ranging from ZW$1 500 to ZW$5 000 to youths, sportspersons and artists whose sources of income were negatively affected by the Covid-19 national lockdown measures through a selection process conducted at district offices. “However, the Ministry failed to achieve the objective of the intervention in some instances due to non-compliance with the Covid-19 Youth Relief Fund Operational Framework Section 3 (2) (a) which required beneficiaries of the Covid-19 relief funds to avail proof of operation for a minimum of 6 months to a year prior to the lockdown. “Seven (7) Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) in Manicaland, Mashonaland West and Matabeleland South paid COVID-19 allowances totalling ZW$2 654 089 and airtime worth ZW$22 165 to members of staff reporting for duty during the national lockdown period covering April to July 2020 without competent authority.” She said a total of $3 999 300 was disbursed to urban food assistance beneficiaries in the Midlands province between April and August 2020 without evidence of a pre-assessment suitability being done, “contrary to the requirements of Section 4 (3) of Social Welfare Assistance Act [Chapter 17:06] which prescribes the need for review and assessment of eligibility of persons for social welfare assistance.” She also noted that there were serious management issues at the country’s quarantine centres. “I observed some anomalies in the management of Quarantine Centres where the procurement process for food and other provisions were not supported by approved requisitions from the centres. Equally missing was lack of evidence of reconciliations of the cost of goods and services paid for by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Head Office with the actual goods and services received by each Quarantine Centre.” She said there was slow progress in the rehabilitation and refurbishment of Isolation Centres. As at 12 December 2020, a total of ZW$180 000 000 had been disbursed to central, provincial and district hospitals for these purposes, but only nine centres had been completed and functional out of the targeted 32 centres countrywide. Vice-President and Health minister Constantino Chiwenga.

Page 18 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BERNARD MPOFU THE United States says it has asked Zimbabwe to stop military involvement in democratic processes such as elections as men and women in boots remain key power brokers in the country’s political space, The NewsHawks has learnt. Diplomatic relations between Harare and Washington hit rock bottom after the southern African nation brutalised citizens and presided over defective elections. The US then slapped Zimbabwe with sanctions, citing Harare’s poor record of upholding fundamental human rights and accusations of electoral fraud. Zimbabwe dismisses the charges. The US deputy assistant secretary for Africa, Robert Scott, told journalists during a digital media roundtable that he held meetings with the authorities in Harare on military participation in elections. The Press briefing came after the US diplomat concluded visits to Zimbabwe and Eswatini. Zimbabwe is later this year expected to hold watershed elections at a time political tolerance has been deteriorating. “I think what Zidera looks for and I think what the African Development Bank process looks for as well is the very basic concept of civilian control of the military,” Scott said. “When I had the conversation (on Zimbabwe) which included the PS from the Ministry of Defence, our point was very consistent as it is: that the military should not appear in this process by any sense; that the military is leaving its barracks to be involved in this process or is appearing on the streets: it has an incredibly chilling effect on this kind of exercise on democracy. That is our message, we join many others in delivering that and I think it's very consistent with international standards and the aspirations of any country to hold peaceful, transparent and inclusive elections.” Military-civilian relations in Zimbabwe have been a contentious issue since Independence in 1980. Soon after Independence the North Korean-trained 5 Brigade was deployed in parts of Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces to carry out an operation code-named Gukurahundi which according to independent statistics claimed the lives of 20 000 lives. In 2017, the military played a role in the ouster of long-time leader Robert Mugabe who threw in the towel after popular protests were backed by the army. In the aftermath of the 2018 polls, the army was deployed to brutally quell protests which were triggered by delays in the announcement of election results. The role of the military has been on the agenda of far-reaching political governance reforms which the opposition and the international community are calling for in order to help normalise relations with the family of nations. Early this month, Scott, a career member of the senior foreign service with the rank of minister counsellor who currently serves as a deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs covering peace and security affairs and southern Africa, told a Press briefing that Zimbabwe’s ongoing dialogue with multilateral and bilateral creditors, which is currently being facilitated by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and former Mozambican president Joaquim Chisano, provides a window of opportunity to help normalise relations between Washington and Harare. The US diplomat, who previously served as the deputy chief of mission in Zimbabwe and Tanzania, said he met Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs minister Frederick Shava and expressed Washington’s concerns over the Public Voluntary Organisations Bill which is currently awaiting presidential assent. Civil society organisations and some Western governments have warned that if signed into law, the Bill will narrow Zimbabwe’s democratic space and water down the country’s political reform agenda. Army must not meddle in elections: US US deputy assistant secretary for Africa, Robert Scott

NewsHawks News Page 19 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE THE government’s recent disproportionate pay hike for civil servants is essentially a vote-buying gimmick by the ruling Zanu PF to win over the support of public sector workers ahead of the August general elections. Civil servants such as teachers and police play a critical role in elections as presiding officers and security personnel. This week, in a move tantamount to vote buying, the government announced through Finance ministry permanent secretary George Guvamatanga a 100% Zimdollar salary increment. He also announced an increase in the cushioning and Covid-19 allowance from US$200 to US$250 across all sectors, excluding the health sector In the education sector, Guvamatanga announced a US$80 teaching allowance for every teacher, indexed to the interbank rate and paid in the moribund local currency. There was also an increase of the cushionng and Covid-19 allowance for government pensioners from US$90 to US$100 and a promise of free primary education up to a maximum of three children at government schools for teachers as well as a funded funeral insurance framework for rest of civil servants. Last week, reports emerged that the government had also increased salaries of police by 400% before the latest increment was made public. As reported by The NewsHawks last week, Zanu PF has resorted to its traditional vote-buying tactics ahead of the elections. Traditional chiefs last week were pampered with all-terrain vehicles in a development that reignited concerns that rigging mechanisms of the next elections are already underway. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who will contest the next presidential elections with arch rival Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens' Coalition for Change party, handed over vehicles to 38 newly installed chiefs during the annual chiefs’ conference held in Bulawayo. Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT-SA) director Obert Chinhamo warned that the government’s continued link to reports of vote buying may taint the credibility of the coming polls way before the elections are actually held. “Election observer missions normally come when dates for the polls are announced. However, we have already seen several cases of vote buying which are in violation of electoral laws. It is a scenario that is undesirable for a constitutional democracy country like Zimbabwe.” “WE implore Zec [Zimbabwe Electoral Commission] to wake up from its slumber and begin to show teeth and strength in combating vote buying which is tantamount to electoral corruption,” he said. Recently, the government parcelled out ambulances emblazoned with big portraits of Mnangagwa, which is again tantamount to vote buying. Before that, Zanu PF officials had been busy in the campaign trail dolling out more goodies, with the recent incident being that of an unidentified man who was caught on camera distributing cash in anticipation of votes in Zanu PF’s primary elections. There has also been distribution of chickens, fertilisers and drilling of boreholes by Zanu PF functionaries in again vote-buying tactics. In the rural areas, the ruling party has lately been distributing food in a partisan way to starving villagers which manifests itself in the carrot-and-stick approach where there is both inducement and coercion. According to the constitution, central government is mandated to take a leading role in food aid distribution but Zanu PF has been using the obligation to harvest votes. 38% of the rural population, which translates to about 3.8 million people, will face hunger this year, according to government statistics. A recent report by the Zimbabwe Civil Society Anti-Corruption Coalition, and other concerned civil society organisations raised grave concerns against acts of vote buying in the country which it described as electoral corruption. “Our understanding of electoral corruption is that it is the manipulation, abuse or illegal interference with a conducive electoral environment, legal and policy frameworks, management modalities, voters, processes, the voting, outcomes and other related activities around the electoral cycle by state and non-state actors to give advantages to one political player over others.” “We are concerned that electoral corruption is rampant, appears as if it is normal and that it has flourished with impunity.” “We are gravely concerned that acts of electoral corruption have deleterious effects on development since it leads to conflicts and controversial electoral outcomes. Apart from destroying economies and societies, it subverts and undermines the principle of free choice thereby rendering an election open to contestation.” “In addition, electoral corruption jeopardises the freeness and fairness of elections, triggers physical fights, killings, and human rights abuses as witnessed in Kenya and Zimbabwe. It is also important to note that it leads to apathy triggered by the understanding that participating in elections that are often rigged is useless since that will not bring out changes expected by a voter,” reads part of the report. While vote buying is taking place, there are other rigging mechanisms that are already underway such as manipulation of the delimitation exercise which saw parliamentary seats in opposition strongholds being suppressed while increasing them in the strongholds of Zanu PF. Vote-buying extended to civil servants Zanu PF headquarters

Page 20 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BERNARD MPOFU A NEW study by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) shows that one in every five young people between the ages of 16-34 does not have identity documents, a development which may have ramifications for the next elections. Zimbabwe is later this year expected to hold general elections and the youthful population is expected to determine the course of the electoral process. The country’s laws dictate that citizens are eligible to get the national identity card at 16 but are eligible to vote after the legal age of majority which stands at 18. According to ZimStat, the total number of youths aged 16 to 34 was 4 511 823 when the country held its population census last year. Of these 21.1% did not have IDs. The proportion of population aged 16 and above issued with IDs was 92% for urban areas compared to 84.9% in rural areas. In urban areas, the proportion was 91.1% for females compared to 93.1% for rural areas. The revelation by ZimStat comes at a time the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is currently carrying out a mobile biometric voter registration exercise ahead of the forthcoming polls. The United Nations Development Programme (2017) in its , “Handbook for Electoral Management Bodies” acknowledges that youth are the key change agents in a country, and the potential of young people’s contributions to sustainable human development must not be ignored. Civil society organisations and critics say in the Zimbabwean context, the space for youth participation continues to narrow at a time the demographic group faces a litany of socio-economic challenges. According to the independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network, young people face challenges that hinder them from participating in electoral processes at parliamentary and local authority level such as fear of violence, absence of administrative mechanism to support participation, legal barriers and lack of political will among others. Other studies have however shown that although Zimbabwean youth are not currently fully engaging in political and civic activities such as voting and attending community meetings, they are however not totally disengaged. For various reasons, the youth have disengaged from traditional platforms of civic engagement, such as national and local budget consultative meetings, village development meetings, political party meetings and elections. But they are however engaging in public affairs in alternative spaces which include voluntary associations like youth social clubs and community associations like sporting, savings and gardening clubs. Elections: 21% of youths have no IDs

NewsHawks News Page 21 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 JONATHAN MBIRIYAMVEKA LOVEMORE Madhuku, a professor of law representing Harare automobile tycoon Farai Matsika in a constitutional case in which he is seeking leave to appeal a Supreme Court judgment in favour of his cousin Moses Chingwena, the Croco Motors Holdings boss, says the Constitutional Court has not struck off the roll his client's matter as wrongly reported in the media, but instead postponed it. Said Madhuku: "The correct legal position is that the Constitutional Court has removed from the roll or simply postponed the case of our client because the Supreme Court judgment concerned is not yet out; five months later. There is a huge difference between removing and striking off a case from the roll. Removing from the roll means postponing, while striking off means expunging. "The Supreme Court ruled against our client, but said that judgment and reasons will follow later. However, the judgment is not yet out, so ConCourt said it can't proceed without that. By consent the parties postponed the matter. This means we will have to wait for the judgment and then go back to court, probably around May. "Because of that, there was no substantial hearing on merits, so we requested postponement which was granted by consent, although defence wanted our client to pay costs, which was rejected. In short, the case was postponed pending release of the Supreme Court full judgment for us to proceed to have the case heard on merits." The case, number CCZ60/22, was set down for hearing on 20 March. It was Matsika, Fairgold Investments (Pvt) Ltd versus Moses Chingwena, Moses Tonderai Chingwena Family Trust, Croco Holdings (Private) Limited and 36 others worth US$100m. Chingwena and Matsika are related; they are cousins and grew up living together in the same house in Harare. Eight years after their acrimonious fallout over the ownership of a busines empire worth more than US$100 million, Matsika has not given up fighting to salvage value from his 25 years of sweat and toil. Matsika left the company amid a bitter boardroom wrangle. Since then, he has been battling in court to walk away with something. He says it is not just about value or money, but also justice, respect and peace. He wants closure on the issue. Yet when Matsika lost his last battle in the Supreme Court last year against Croco Motors after his appeal was declined — like many of his previous attempts — for lack of jurisdiction, it looked like he had reached a dead end. However, he never gave up, taking the case to the ConCourt. Now he has a chance to be heard at the apex court where he is demanding his pound of flesh and justice. Chingwena has been in the driving seat all along, winning the previous battles. The lower courts have ruled in his favour, but this has made Matsika unhappy as he thinks that judges have been misdirecting themselves and lacked fairness. Matsika and his company are represented by Madhuku, while the other parties have Chagonda, Masamba and Bera on their side. After losing a series of cases — the last one being in October last year — Matsika filed a constitutional case seeking leave to appeal, which he believes is of huge public interest and has reasonable prospects of success. Prior to his last defeat, he had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court following the dismissal of his other challenge at the same court in a case in which he was fighting Chingwena over the control of Croco Holdings after a High Court ruling against him. Supreme Court Justices Elizabeth Gwaunza, Joseph Musakwa and Hlekani Mwayera presided over the case. In another ruling, Supreme Court Justice Chinembiri Bhunu upheld High Court Justice Owen Tagu’s judgment against Matsika, saying he had put nothing before the courts to prove his 30% ownership claim of Croco Holdings, which is at the heart of the matter. Matsika had adduced documents before the court which he said proved his case, but they were dismissed amid allegations of forgery. Bhunu ruled it was Matsika’s obligation to convince the court he owned 30% of Croco Holdings, but it was clear he had submitted “doctored documents” which made it difficult for him to be believed. However, the FaraMatsi boss insists the documents are authentic and prove he owns 30% of Croco Holdings. Matsika believes his case has not been handled professionally, competently and on merit since he has no doubt Chingwena had given him 30% of the company, hence the ConCourt appeal to seek leave to challenge the Supreme Court judgment. The application, handled by Madhuku, is premised on a constitutional argument regarding the interpretation of section 176 of the constitution, with the applicants — Matsika and his company Fairgold Investments (Pvt) Ltd — contending that the section in question gave the full Supreme Court the power and jurisdiction to review and correct decisions of individual judges in chambers. The respondents in the case are Chingwena and 38 entities linked to him and Croco Holdings, showing how big the company and its subsidiaries have become. Croco Motors — synonymous with Chingwena and Matsika — is the flagship subsidiary of Croco Holdings which it owns 100%. Among other business lines, Croco Motors operates Ford, Mazda, UD Trucks, KIA, Eicher and Volvo franchises. The company is also a dealer for Nissan, Datsun, Toyota, Higer and Yutong. Croco Motors’ key product segments are new vehicles and approved used vehicle sales, automobile service and sale of spare parts and accessories. Other value-added services offered include tyre fitment, wheel alignment, wheel balancing and rhino lining. Key divisions are Croco Ford and Mazda, Croco Nissan and Croco Toyota, Croco Commercial Auto Body Centre and Pitstop). Croco Motors has operations in Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Chiredzi, Selous, Mutare and Victoria Falls. Further, during the course of previous proceedings before the court a quo, Matsika and his company invoked section 175(4) of the constitution and sought to request a referral of two constitutional issues to the ConCourt. The two constitutional questions that the applicants requested the court a quo to refer to the ConCourt are: Whether or not section 176 of the constitution of Zimbabwe gave jurisdiction to the full court to review judgments of individual or single judges in chambers; and whether or not section 25(3) of the Supreme Court was constitutional to the extent to which it is interpreted to prohibit an application for review by the full court of a judgment of a single judge in chambers. Matsika and his company say the Supreme Court did not act appropriately when it refused to allow him to file a written application for referral to the ConCourt under section 175(4) of the constitution, and instead ordered them to make an oral application in the process. The oral application was made, but was also dismissed, with full reasons to follow. On the merits of the review application, the Supreme Court held that it had no jurisdiction in the matter, and particularly that section 176 of the constitution did not give it jurisdiction to review decisions of its individual judges in chambers. Matsika’s application is made in terms of Rule 32 of the ConCourt Rules 2016 for leave to appeal the whole judgment of the Supreme Court handed down by Gwaunza, Musakwa and Mwayera in Harare on 19 October 2022, incorporating an order handed down on 17 October 2022 declining a request to refer the matter to the ConCourt. “The applicants are litigants within the contemplation of Rule 32(2) of the Constitutional Court Rules, 2016, in that they were applicants in the Supreme Court in SC 30/22,” Matsika’s application says. “The application in SC 30/22 raised constitutional issues. It was an application for review by the full court of a judgment of a single judge in chambers, the judgment by the single judge being judgment No. SC 144/21. The application was filed in terms of section 176 of the constitution of Zimbabwe as read with section 6 of the Supreme Court Act (chap 7:13).” Matsika is basically seeking leave to appeal in terms of Rule 32 of the ConCourt Rules of 2016, which means it is game-on with Chingwena. Chingwena-Matsika court battle deferred Harare automobile tycoon Farai Matsika

Page 22 News NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE TEACHERS have roundly rejected the pay hike announced by the government this week, saying it falls far short of their demand for a US$540 minimum salary in the public service which existed during the late president Robert Mugabe’s era. In the latest increment, Finance ministry permanent secretary George Guvamatanga announced a 100% upward review of Zimdollar emoluments from deputy director post and below for all sectors. He also announced an increase in the cushioning and Covid-19 allowance from US$200 to US$250 across all sectors, excluding the health sector In the education sector, Guvamatanga announced a US$80 teaching allowance for every teacher, indexed to the interbank rate and paid in the moribund local currency. There was also an increase in the cushioning and Covid-19 allowance for government pensioners from US$90 to US$100 and a promise of free primary education up to a maximum of three children at government schools for teachers as well as a funded funeral insurance framework for the rest of public sector workers. However, Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou said the offer is ridiculous as it falls way short of the US$540 threshold that they were pushing for. “For the avoidance of doubt, teachers and the rest of civil servants must take cognisance of the fact that the figures circulated in the communique are a product of figures discussed in the second meeting with workers' representatives; that government team was persuaded to go back and reconsider by workers' representatives.” “In the first meeting, the government team had even brought miserable figures of 50% Zimdollar remuneration review and increase of cushion and Covid allowance from US$200 to US$220.” “A wake-up call is not to negotiators but teachers and rest of civil servants. What is our response to government unilateralism, callousness and discrimination? Unity of action as opposed to competition remains a fundamental principle. Our demands must also remain realistic. It is a fact that teachers in particular, and other civil servants in general are worth over US$1 000 in terms of their labour value, but the restoration of US$540 as a basic salary must remain our clarion call.” “Those who can't swim across a stream cannot find energy to swim across the ocean. If we collectively fight for the restoration of our salaries' purchasing power parity (US$540) as basic salary, we then can swim across the ocean. In the long run, a clear-cut legal framework of negotiation under section 65 of the constitution is a panacea for our current challenges. Statutory Instrument 141 of 1997 has outlived it's usefulness, is archaic, obsolete and moribund,” said Zhou, adding: “Other than dispute over the total quantum, that did not resonate with US$540 as of October 2018, in the second meeting there were also sticking points that an increase must be backdated to 1 January as against government intentions to postdate the increment to April 2023, thereby robbing teachers and the rest of civil servants of a review in the first quarter.” Amalgamated Rural Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure said the union also rejected the offer because it is not a product of genuine collective bargaining as envisaged by section 203 (1) (b) of the constitution and as read alongside section 65 which stipulate that the employer is not allowed to unilaterally change conditions of service. “Therefore on that level the offer is illegitimate and not a product of genuine processes.The quantum of the offer is not in sync with current realities of the teacher. If calculated, the amount leaves the teacher living on less than a third of the basket of needs and cost of living.” “Thus the offer is not worth accepting because teachers remain poor. The US$80 per month which will be converted to local currency doesn't cater for the school fees needs. The 100% increment makes a total of ZW$80 000 and means the housing allowance will just be ZW$14 000. The pathetic figures must be rejected,” he said. Masaraure revealed that teachers remain incapacitated and cannot report for duty because the increment will be effected in April whereas the buying power of the money will have been eroded by inflation. “What we have seen so far is a statement from the employer and not an increment because the money has not been deposited into their bank accounts.” “We are also aware of the discrimination of teachers by the employer. Other civil servants in different sectors received their increments in February and March . So the question then comes: Why is that of teachers being delayed? It’s a clear case and act of discrimination. So in light of that, teachers remain incapacitated and we reject the offer by government,” he said. Added Zhou: “On the contrary, teachers and the rest of civil servants' salary review, and cushion and Covid allowances are postdated to 1 April 2023. Such naked discrimination is not only callous but a monument of Zimbabwean labour injustice. We don't need to have access to guns in order to be treated in the same manner with our brothers and sisters in the security sector.” “We don't begrudge their salaries but outright discrimination as professionals in total flouting of our national constitution.” Since the beginning of the year, teachers have been pushing for a significant pay hike offer US$540 but the government has been adamant that it cannot meet that threshold. The deadlock has resulted in teachers resorting to job action, with some being victimised and fired for demanding a living wage. Teachers reject pay hike Finance ministry permanent secretary George Guvamatanga Amalgamated Rural Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure

NewsHawks Page 23 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 News NATHAN GUMA PARLIAMENT has ordered Roads and Infrastructure Development minister Felix Mhona to issue a ministerial statement explaining why government has failed to rehabilitate the Mutare-Mozambique highway, 20 years after the legislature raised concern over its poor state. Deputy speaker of Parliament Tsitsi Gezi issued the order on Tuesday after opposition CCC chief whip Prosper Mutseyami demanded answers on the delay. Mutseyami said the government’s failure to rehabilitate the roads was hampering regional trade. “We have a serious problem with regard to a national road which links Mozambique, Zimbabwe via Mutare. This national road has a high flow of traffic, especially heavy trucks. It is a busy road and these trucks link Zimbabwe, Zambia, DRC and in other cases, they link Botswana,” Mutseyami said. “The problem we have is that it was put to the attention of the minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development some time in 1995. It is the Herbert Chitepo Road; part of the road links Mutare and part of the Green Market. There is a bridge there and that bridge links the flyover and the bridge at Green Market. “The honourable minister knows this story because it is on the record of the minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development. There was a plan at national level for that bridge to be expanded and to expand as well the flyover — but up to now nothing has been done and, all of a sudden, it is becoming more of a national crisis because it is affecting the countries that I have mentioned in terms of movement of transport and in terms of time management,” Mutseyami said. While the government has been happy with the progress made so far in rehabilitating roads such as the Harare-Beitbridge highway, most of the country’s major highways are in a sorry state. These include the Beitbridge-Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway and the Harare-Chirundu Road. Last week, President Emmerson Mnangagwa named Mhona among ministers who have been doing well. Besides highways, roads in the country’s cities and towns are also in a poor state, with the government blaming local authorities for their dilapidated state. Some local authorities have, in turn, blamed the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration for not availing adequate funds to rehabilitate roads. Zimbabwe is at the nerve centre of the Sadc region but countries in the region have become frustrated by the government’s failure to rehabilitate major roads, particularly the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu Road which facilitates the movement of millions of people between southern Africa and central, East and North Africa while also facilitating regional trade. Sadc countries moved to bypass Zimbabwe by building the Kazungula Bridge across the Zambezi River which enabled traffic to move from South Africa to Botswana and Zambia, effectively cutting off Zimbabwe, because of the poor state of roads. Kazungula Bridge was officially opened in 2021 with one-stop border posts in Zambia and Botswana. Construction work began in 2014 after Zimbabwe failed to repair and upgrade its roads which date back to the Rhodesian era. A 2001 Sadc assessment of the road infrastructure in the region showed that a third of Zimbabwe’s road network was in a parlous state. The Beitbridge-Chirundu Road was singled out as one of the roads that needed rehabilitation because of its importance in the region. Dilapidated Zim-Mozambique highway: MPs demand answers Roads and Infrastructure Development minister Felix Mhona

Page 24 NewsHawks News Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BERNARD MPOFU ZIMBABWE’S civil society organisations have been rocked by new divisions during and after their meeting with President Emmerson Mnangagwa in which they discussed the contentious Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Bill which now awaits presidential assent. Information gathered by The NewsHawks shows that CSOs wrote a letter to Mnangagwa after they took a position opposing the signing of the PVO Bill into law. The resolution was made at the last Heads of Coalitions meeting held earlier in the year. Sources say fissures emerged over who would lead the CSO delegation which met Mnangagwa at State House last Friday. The Jenny Williams-led Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) and the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (Nango) had different positions on how they would engage Mnangagwa. The dropping of CSOs perceived to be hostile to the government such as Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition also heightened fears among critically vocal organisations that the state was deploying divide-andrule tactics ahead of the general elections where CSOs have traditionally taken an active role. Eventually a delegation was constituted, comprising 16 individuals drawn from the Heads of Coalitions and the CSO Coordinating Committee on the PVO Amendment Bill. The CSO delegation which met Mnangagwa, sources said, represented areas such as regions, gender, demography and thematic areas. The government delegation was made up of Mnangagwa; the Attorney-General, deputy Attorney-General (Legislative Drafting); deputy minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare; secretary for Justice Virginia Mabhiza; secretary for Finance George Guvamatanga; secretary for Information Nick Mangwana; secretary for Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare; and chief directors in the ministry of Justice. No media organisation was invited into the discussions. “The forthcoming elections will be an acid test for CSOs. Many will be currying favour to avoid antagonising relations with state and of course de-registration,” a source familiar with the developments said. “During the meeting, government took a position that the PVO Bill was critical in ensuring that Zimbabwe does not return to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.” The southern African nation was placed on the FATF grey list in 2019, following a mutual evaluation (assessment) process that identified a number of deficiencies in the country's implementation of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CTF) Standards. It was then removed from the list in 2022 following an on-site evaluation. Isaac Maphosa, one of the coordinators of the meeting, declined to comment when contacted for comment. Asked to comment on some of the key takeaways from the meeting, Crisis in Zimbabwe chairperson Peter Mutasa said: “We are awaiting full feedback from the comrades who attended the meeting. Thereafter we will be able to issue a comment.” Maphosa said: “I prefer not to make a comment, thank you so much.” Under the amended Bill, PVOs will now need the government’s permission to make changes to their internal management and funding. Additionally, the new law will include harsh penalties like imprisonment for administrative offences related to funding or engaging in political activities. Critics say the proposed law has huge financial implications for Zimbabwe which stands to lose over US$1 billion in financial aid. CSOs and Western governments such as the United States have over the past year engaged the Harare authorities in an attempt to discourage Mnangagwa from signing the Bill — which they say is an affront on democracy — into law. Responding to the Senate’s passing of the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Amendment Bill, Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s director for East and Southern Africa, said: “The PVO Amendment Bill in its current form threatens civic society organisations working on human rights in Zimbabwe. The proposed Bill, if it becomes law, will have dire consequences, including restricting civic space and access to humanitarian support services in Zimbabwe as it will immediately render all non-governmental organisations (NGOs), not registered as PVOs, illegal. “This Bill, if passed by the President, could be used to deny registration of human rights organisations due to the work that they do, including defending rights such as freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. The Bill would also exacerbate the growing crackdown on civil society organisations, increase human rights violations and make it more difficult for the people to hold the government to account. There is a risk that employees and board members of NGOs could be arrested and subjected to punitive measures, including imprisonment, simply for doing their work. “President Mnangagwa must use his leadership position to reject this Bill as it is repressive. The President must ensure that this Bill is never signed into law." Chagutah urged Zimbabwe to enact laws which are consistent with fundamental rights and international law. “Any future law must fully reflect international human rights standards and reaffirm the country’s human rights obligations towards the promotion and protection of the human rights of everyone, including those who work to defend the rights of other people. NGOs must be allowed to operate freely and to do their work without any reprisals,” Chagutah said. On 5 November 2021, the Zimbabwean government gazetted a Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill ostensibly to “counter terrorism and prohibit political lobbying from, non-government organisations". An amended Bill was then presented in June 2022 which significantly toughened the initial legislation, disregarding civil society’s concerns, and imposed stricter and more repressive clauses, and is the basis of the legislation now passed by the Senate. Civil society divided over PVO Bill representations Crisis in Zimbabwe chairperson Peter Mutasa

NewsHawks Page 25 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 News RUVIMBO MUCHENJE A NEW United States human rights report on Zimbabwe has flagged a lackadaisical approach to cases of corruption as the major hinderance to fighting the cancer that has infested society. The report, which was released on Wednesday this week, stated that the judiciary was not vigilant in fighting corruption and although there are laws and pronouncements purportedly fighting corruption, there is little willpower in the courts. “The law provides criminal penalties for conviction of corruption; however, the government did not implement the law effectively or impartially. Despite government pronouncements, there were numerous reports of government corruption during the year,” reads the report. “Experts described the problem as 'catch and release', where the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) arrested some corrupt officials, often those out of favour with President Mnangagwa, but did not secure convictions through the National Prosecuting Authority, which was responsible for referring all cases to the anti-corruption courts. Government anti-corruption efforts were highly politicised,” adds the report. The reference to “catch and release” comes from multiple arrests of government officials and little convictions. Former Health minister Obadiah Moyo was arrested for criminal abuse of office, and on his first appearance in court he paid the bail money of ZW$50 000 in cash, but was later aquitted of the charges. MP for Gokwe Nembudziya Justice Mayor Wadyajena was arrested for diverting funds meant to purchase bale ties for the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe. He had three charges levelled against him, but has been aquitted of one already. Notable cases are the arrest, conviction and sentencing to 16 months of former Labour and Social welfare minister Petronella Kagonye for diverting 20 laptops for her own use, as well as former Energy and Power Development minister Samuel Undenge to three years for prejudicing the Zimbabwe Power Company of US$12 000. The former was denied bail pending appeal when she filed for an appeal contesting her sentencing at the High Court, the latter is out on bail pending appeal. The report adds that despite having the infrastructure to try these corruption cases in every province, the courtrooms have been frequented by non-corruption cases. “Although the country has specialised anti-corruption courts in all 10 provinces, challenges persisted, including perceptions of political interference, delays in concluding high-profile cases, and a low quality of investigations. Additionally, the anti-corruption courts often displayed political bias and were assigned cases involving activists, journalists, or opposition leaders even though the cases did not relate to corruption. In fact, the establishment of the courts specified they would adjudicate on matters including 'criminal trials and other matters arising out of or connected with criminal trials'. Independent governmental oversight entities were often constrained politically, and the government ensured they lacked the funding and staffing to carry out their mandates,” read the report. The institution has also seen suspension and arrests of officials for corruption. A Zacc investigating officer, Ngoni Nduna, was hauled before the courts earlier this month for shielding a fugitive who had three warrants of arrest. On 22 April 2022, President Emerson Mnangagwa dismissed Zacc commissioner Frank Muchengwa on findings of corruption and gross misconduct. The report adds that corruption is so deep-rooted that it has been institutionalised. “Corruption in both the public and private sectors persisted and was highly institutionalised. The country continued to experience both petty and grand corruption, defined respectively by Transparency International Zimbabwe as an 'everyday abuse of entrusted power by low- to mid-level public officials' such as by police and local officials and 'an abuse of high-level power by political elites'. In April, a Transparency International Zimbabwe report identified bribery as rampant and existing within most public institutions.” The report says people in high offices often partake in corrupt dealings with impunity, including cabinet ministers such as July Moyo of the infamous Pomona waste-to-energy deal. “Cabinet officials, including Local Government minister July Moyo, were involved in several high-profile corruption cases. Moyo was accused of diverting $55 million in public funds and compelling local authorities in a June 14 memo to purchase firefighting trucks from Belarus at inflated prices. Press reports indicated presidential associate Alyaksandr Zingman secured the deal without following public procurement processes. Moyo also is alleged to have pushed an unduly expensive contract for a Harare City Council dump site without following procurement processes or obtaining mayoral approval,” the report says. “Corruption concerns over the country’s Covid-19 response continued. In May, parliament’s Public Accounts Committee concurred with the Auditor-General’s 2021 findings that government officials breached the Public Finance Management Act, the Social Welfare Assistance Act, and the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act by misusing public funds meant to combat Covid-19. The committee issued a series of recommendations following its investigation which have not been implemented as of year’s end. Corruption also permeated the government’s Command Agriculture programme and other agricultural programmes such as the President’s Input Scheme.” The report also notes that there was a huge improvement in terms of cases reported on corruption, but the biggest weakness is that the institution meant to deal with the matter cannot do much beyond arrests. “In June, Zacc vice-chair Kuziwa Murapa reported the commission had received 1 501 complaints of suspected corruption in 2021, reflecting a 32 percent increase from 2020. While Zacc has the power to arrest, it does not have the power to prosecute,” the report notes. Corruption battle requires serious approach: Report Gokwe Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena

Page 26 NewsHawks News Issue 124, 24 March 2023 NATHAN GUMA ALTHOUGH the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called out rich countries for taking health workers from poor countries, representatives of public sector workers in Zimbabwe say pathetic working conditions amid an unending socio-economic crisis are forcing workers to seek pastures elsewhere. The World Health Organisation’s2023 report titled: “Health Workforce Support and Safeguards” found that some 55 countries, including Zimbabwe, now rank below the global median in terms of their density of doctors, nurses and midwives per capita. Countries making the list have a density of doctors, nurses and midwives below the global median of 49 per 10 000. Zimbabwe, with a health worker density of 36 per 10 000, was added to the new list made up of countries that have vulnerable health forces; together with Rwanda, Comoros and Zambia. The country has lost over 4 000 workers over the past two years, which includes 1 700 registered nurses who resigned in 2021 and over 900 who resigned in 2022, according to the Health Services Board quoted by Reuters. The Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Unions (ZCPTSU) says poor conditions which are still prevalent in Zimbabwe’s health sector have been forcing people to seek better opportunities outside the country. “The major problem in the health sector is remuneration. That is the major problem which has seen people migrating out of Zimbabwe to rich countries where they will be offered better conditions and better pay,” says Charles Chinosengwa, the ZCPTSU organising secretary. “Most of our hospitals have no resources. A patient may need oxygen, but then there will be none. In other cases, a patient may need paracetamol, then there will not be no paracetamol. Tools of trade are also pushing professional health workers out of the country. “Others may have passion, but when they get to work, there will not be any tools of the trade, which is frustrating. You want to do surgery, some tools are missing. You want to just do daily routines in wards, and there is no personal protective clothing. At the end, the health worker may work, but the conditions are unfavourable.” The union says the working conditions are set to worsen under new legislative framework bring pushed for by the government, which is aimed at preventing health workers from taking industrial action. “There is also the new Bill which bars health workers from undertaking industrial action. So, in the end, the health worker is forced into migration where they will have better working conditions and better remuneration,” Chinosengwa said. While the government this week hiked salaries for public servants by 100%, these have remained a shadow of what was before President Emmerson Mnangagwa came into power in 2017. When he assumed power from the late former president Robert Mugabe in 2017 after a military coup, teachers among other public servants were earning an average of US$540, which they are now demanding. Their proposal has remained lower than US$840 being demanded ZCPSTU for the lowest-paid public sector workers. The desire by health workers to migrate to greener pastures has also seen the nurse aide certificate becoming Zimbabwe’s new gold. As previously reported by The NewsHawks, the United Kingdom, is one of the countries paying nurse assistants lucratively. As of May 2022, the United Kingdom said it needed 650 to fill 110 192 posts left vacant after the death of frontline health workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The shortages included 39 652 nurses and 8 158 medical doctors, according to quarterly data for vacancies published last year by the National Health Services. Nursing assistants in the UK earn an average of £20 000 per annum (US$26 000), which translates to about US$2 100 per month. Nurse aide certificates have become a prized possession in the country. Desperate Zimbabweans seeking to escape the country’s never-ending socio-economic crisis are flocking to different institutions that have sprouted offering the nurse aid training certificates. A survey showed that registered institutions such as Angel Care Home, Ocean Bird Nurse Aide Training Centre, and One Africa Trust are charging between US$100 and US$200 for the qualification. Healthcare workers held to ransom

NewsHawks Page 27 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 News NATHAN GUMA AFTER realising that several students were attending class without shoes, with some walking long distances, Fundile Nkala (26), then a teacher at Sukasihambe Primary School in Filabusi, Matabeleland South, came up with an initiative to provide school shoes, clothes and uniforms to vulnerable learners three years years ago. As a teacher in rural areas since October 2020, Nkala has interacted with some less privileged children from the onset of her career and this emboldened the philanthropic spirit in her. She is a teacher, humanitarian, counsellor and mental health advocate who has a deep-seated passion for children and the less privileged in society. Her fondness for the welfare of young children, women and vulnerable members of society has resulted in Accountability Lab Zimbabwe (AL Zimbabwe) honouring her as an integrity icon. AL Zimbabwe holds the annual event to recognise honest public servants who show integrity in their job. The icons are selected by their communities and recognised by the organisation for their outstanding work. She was among five icons honoured by the organisation at a colourful ceremony in Harare on 24 February. Now a teacher at Sigola Primary School in Matabeleland South’s Umzingwane district, Nkala traces her philanthropic work as a public servant to her first station in Filabusi. “I partnered with Generation Empowerment Trust (GET) to assist school children, and through a social media campaign, we have managed to raise shoes and uniforms. In the shoe drive, I was influenced by learners who were walking very long distances without shoes,” said Nkala. “Some of the children were very young and I thought it would be a good idea to make them a bit more comfortable. Through the shoe drive, we have also managed to branch out and also donate shoes to the community at Ngozi Mine [unplanned settlement] in Bulawayo. “My values are simple, one should show a little bit of kindness because the world is already cruel enough and people are going through a lot. What we do can either make or break a person,” she said. Nkala has also been sourcing clothes for homeless children of school-going age at the Ngozi Mine unplanned settlement on the periphery of a dumpsite in Bulawayo, home to several homeless people. To support this work, Nkala has been volunteering with various other community-based organisations. “Besides my professional job, I volunteer with a number of organisations such as Mothers of Special Heroes (Mosh) and Generation Empowerment Trust, in order to get assistance on my projects, which include: assisting marginalised communities and bridging the gap between the urban and rural educational systems,” she says. “I am also an advocate for mental health. The aim is to demystify it. Under this programme I am involved in counselling initiatives for my students and community members. “With Mosh, I provide support to mothers through counselling, as well as material such as pampers,” she says. Nkala believes she is honest and has demonstrated it by carrying out duties as mandated without supervision. “These include being on time, doing right things; not because someone is watching, but because it is the right thing to do,” she says. Nkala says she treats people with decency; and cites her school shoe drive as an example of ensuring the dignity of all persons. “Poverty makes people vulnerable, especially young people who are vulnerable to bullying because of their appearance and background. The school shoe drives offers not only school shoes but uniforms, to give even marginalised masses dignity. I have advocated for kindness, respect despite age, background, gender or sexual orientation,” she says. She has also been spearheading accountability. To deal with lack of trust in public institutions, Nkala has been trying to restore trust among people she interacts with by doing the right thing at individual level. Nkala’s workmates believe she deserves to be an integrity icon. The head of Sigola Primary School where she works, Vusa Lunga, says she has demonstrated great ability since joining the school. “Socially, she is well-behaved and committed to duty. She is a person of good character and has good organising skills. She has been involved in fundraising initiatives at the school and demonstrated great capacity. She is one person who goes the extra mile, she does duties that are beyond her school chores.” The Sukasihambe Primary School head says Nkala is beyond reproach. “She is a hardworking person and she shows great care and compassion to learners. She has empathy and works well with others. She is a real team player but is self-driven. Her greatest asset is that she loves children and she is attached to them,” she said. “Fundile is no longer at our school but we feel her gap. The community feels her gap and the children feel her gap. She was donating uniforms and shoes to vulnerable children and this went a long way in bringing smiles on their faces.” Lydia Banda, the director of GET, an organisation that has been partnering her school shoe campaign, has been working with Nkala for almost half a decade. “I have seen so much growth from her. She is a bubbly person who passes on energy to the next person. She is loving, kind, caring and compassionate. She is also a very hardworking. I believe she can be a worthy integrity icon given her personality,” Banda says. “We have ventured into a number of communities with her in Bulawayo, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North, where hundreds of people have benefitted from her initiatives. She volunteers in the mobilisation of resources and helps to identify vulnerable people and those requiring mental health support,” Banda says. Lincen Masarirambi, a community development officer at MOSH, says his organisation has received invaluable support from Nkala, who has counselled and offered mental health support to children with disability. “She has offered counselling and therapy who are stressed or are having difficulties in accepting the condition of their children. She is a great speaker and has been involved in workshops and also goes into the community for home visits. “The impact of her intervention has been great. Many mothers are thankful for the support they have received. Some of the mothers were blaming themselves for the condition of their children, especially those who may have two or three children living with disability. Some saw it as a punishment from God but she has helped them understand issues and also the fact that their children are special,” Masarirambi says. Making a difference . . . Rural teacher sources shoes for disadvantaged pupils Teacher Fundile Nkala

Page 28 NewsHawks News Issue 124, 24 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE A CONSTITUTIONAL Court bench led by Justice Rita Makaru has granted former National Social Security Authority (Nssa) board chairperson Robin Vela permission to appeal a Supreme Court ruling which upheld a forensic audit report linking him to alleged corruption. In March 2019, BDO Zimbabwe Chartered accountants, after having been contracted by Auditor-General Mildred Chiri, released a damning forensic audit report which implicated Vela on several cases of corruption. The former Nssa boss filed an application for review of the audit report at the High Court and he won the matter after arguing that the findings were biased, incomplete and targeted at him in a witch-hunt exercise. Chiri however approached the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s ruling and it was duly set aside, implying that the audit report was upheld. The Supreme Court, in upholding the audit report, said it was basing its judgment on section 309 of the constitution. However, Vela last year in June approached the Constitutional Court seeking leave to appeal against the Supreme Court ruling and on Monday this week Justice Makarau ruled in favour of the former Nssa boss. Vela’s attorney, Advocate Method Ndlovu, confirmed the development in an interview. “Yes, leave to appeal was granted at the ConCourt and the applicant (Vela) was given 10 days to file his appeal. I won’t comment (further) on the matter as the same is sub judice. I need to respect the proceedings pending the appeal in the apex court of the land. If I give any comment I will be in a way interfering and that is ethically impermissible,” he said. The judgment number is CCZ 4/22 and the constitutional application number was recorded as CCZ40/22. Professor Lovemore Madhuku and Advocate Lewis Uriri together with Ndlovu constituted Vela’s legal team. In court papers obtained by this application, Makarau said there was a need for provisions of the constitution to be looked at in the matter. The judge reiterated that she was making an order for Vela to appeal against the Supreme Court ruling on the audit report on the basis that in determining a non-constitutional matter, the Supreme Court resorted substantively to the provisions of the constitution to resolve the dispute. “It may have erred in this regard,” she said. In her detailed analysis of the court proceedings that led to Vela seeking leave to appeal against the Supreme Court ruling, Makarau said: “In casu, it is common cause that the cause of action before the High Court was not predicated on a provision of the constitution. It was rooted in administrative law in terms of which the applicant sought to have reviewed what he alleged was administrative conduct by the first respondent through the agency of the second respondent. “Accordingly, the pleadings did not raise a constitutional matter. Put differently, the pleading before the High Court did not call upon that court to interpret, enforce or protect the provisions of the constitution.” “Instead, the pleadings sought to establish a basis for having the audit report by the second respondent, under contract from the first respondent, reviewed and set aside. Because no such matter had been pleaded before it, it stands to reason that the High Court did not decide a constitutional matter. As is evident from its judgment, the High Court did not invoke any provisions of the constitution in arriving at its determination on the non-constitutional matter that was before i ….” Justice Makarau said. Makarau added: “Further, the record of the appeal proceedings does not indicate that a constitutional question arose during the appeal hearing. “Had one arisen, the Supreme Court would have been obliged to invoke the provisions of section 175 (4) of the constitution to refer the question arising for answering by this court. In the circumstances and in view of the fact that no constitutional matter was determined by the High Court, that no constitutional matter was the subject of appeal before the Supreme Court and that no constitutional matter arose during the appeal proceedings, the text of the constitution should not have been interpreted by the Supreme Court. And in the ordinary course 12 Judgment No. CCZ 4/22 Constitutional Application No. CCZ40/ 22 of constitutional litigation in this jurisdiction, no appeal should lie to this court. “Regarding costs, there is no justification that any of the parties be mulcted with an order of costs. In the result it is ordered that: 1. The application for leave to appeal be granted with no order as to costs. 2. The applicant is to file his notice of appeal within 10 days of this order.” Justices Barat Patel and Ben Hlatshwayo who also sat on the Constitutional Court bench to decide on Vela’s application concurred with Justice Makarau’s ruling. Relief for former Nssa boss Vela

NewsHawks Page 29 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 News RUVIMBO MUCHENJE Human rights advocacy organisation Heal Zimbabwe Trust (HZT) has launched a peace campaign titled As One ahead of the 2023 general elections. The campaign comes at a time of multiple reports of political violence in Murewa and Bindura. The campaign was launched in Zaka's ward 19 at village head Siyawareva’s homestead during a “Nhimbe” — a gathering of people in the community to help with farm work, in a bid to get people of diverse political parties and leaders in one place and spread the gospel of peace. “We have launched this campaign in Zaka to encourage peace among all people of this community of diverse political backgrounds. We chose the phrase As One because it speaks to unity and oneness. For example, at our activity today, we brought people from different political backgrounds but we did not use those as labels to differentiate and dissociate from each other. We are family before we are members of political parties,” said Tapiwanashe Chiriga of Heal Zimbabwe. The countryside is a perennial hotspot of violence perpetrated by mainly ruling party thugs who lack tolerance for divergent political views. This has made participation of women in politics limited. People are frogmarched to support ruling party candidates, thereby infringing on the rights to association and assembly. During the 26 March 2022 by-elections a lot of opposition Citizens' Coalition for Change gatherings were disrupted by suspected Zanu PF suporters. In the Midlands, controversial cleric Abton Mashonganyika was recorded advocating the death of opposition leader Nelson Chamisa and his family. Heal Zimbabwe says the politics of hate have no place in the country. Village head Mukachana (Alex Moledge) welcomed the camapign, saying it will help heal all those that fell victim to the past acts of violence. “Remember the former President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe used to say I have forgiven all those that jailed me and all those that tortured me during the war, but this forgiveness was not victim centred. If we look at our liberation war heroes they did not even get counselling despite having toiled in the armed struggle for a long time. Had they gottten counselling, in this day we would not have problems of violence to force during elections,” said Mukachana. He adds that had the advocacy around peace happened earlier, issues of political violence could have been avoided. “If such programmes came earlier, we would not have experienced violence during elections because all people need is teachings on how to forge ahead peacefully,” he added. His sentiments were echoed by ward 19 councillor Peter Imbayarwo who said the community meetings not only help spread the gospel of peace but even information dissemination and solutions to problems haunting the community such as drug abuse. “During the activity we get to talk about other issues on development and the conversations are incomplete without discussions on our children who have been living under the influence of drugs. So we proffer solutions at these gatherings,” said Imbayarwo. Chiriga added that firstly the people of Zaka need to register to vote so that their candidates of choice regardless of political affiliation stand a better chance of winning. “Under this campaign we would like to encourage everyone who is 18 years old and above to register to vote. We emphasize that as Heal Zimbabwe we cannot tell you who to vote for, but we encourage individuals should choose the party which they are comfortable to be affiliated to, because voting is our only chance we have to choose our leaders. We need to do this minus intimidation and fear to the electorate and the candidates that seek election and their campaigners,” added Chiriga. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has just finished a mop-up voter registration exercise to cater for all those who missed the chance to register in previous blitzes. Voters must freely choose candidates The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has just finished a mop-up voter registration exercise.

Page 30 NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 IN the village of Bungmati, Nepal, above an ancient spring, stand two stone shrines and a temple. One of those shrines has a large hole where a statue of Shreedhar Vishnu, the Hindu protector god, used to be. Carved by master artisans nearly a thousand years ago, the sandstone god was flanked by the Hindu goddess Laxmi and the winged demigod Garuda and is considered a protective figure. For many years members of the local community carefully tended and worshipped the idol. “When women started their labor pain, our elders used to come to put mustard oil on the statue of Shreedhar Vishnu so that the women giving birth would be safe and the childbirth would be easy,” recalled Krishna Bhakti Mali, a 53-year-old resident of Bungmati. Sometime in the early 1980s that tradition abruptly ended when thieves removed the 20-inch statue. Mali’s neighbor, a man named Buddha Ratna Tuladhar, recalled how the community was “overwhelmed by melancholy” over its loss. “We kept hoping the statue would be restored, but it never was,” he said. About a decade after the theft, and on the other side of the world, a wealthy American collector donated the statue to New York City’s famed Metropolitan Museum of Art. There it would remain for nearly 30 years until an anonymous Facebook account called the Lost Arts of Nepal identified it, in 2021. Although the Met has since removed the statue from its publicly listed collection, signaling that it may soon be returned, the damage to the Bungmati community was already done. “Nepal has a living religion where these idols are actively worshipped in temples. People pray to them and take them out during festivals for ceremonies,” said Roshan Mishra, a volunteer with the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign, a coalition formed to restore the country’s lost heritage.“When relics are stolen, those festivals stop. Each stolen statue erodes our culture. Our traditions fade and are eventually forgotten.” In the antiquities trade, the Met’s reputation has begun to erode. Over the last two years, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its media partners have reported on the Met’s acquisition practices — often in relation to a trove of items obtained from Cambodia in an era when that country’s cultural heritage was sold off wholesale to the highest bidder. A broader examination of the Met’s antiquities collection, conducted by ICIJ, Finance Uncovered and other media partners in recent months, raises new concerns over the origin of the museum’s inventory of ancient statues, friezes and other relics. What the Met decides to do about these concerns will have consequences beyond the museum and may influence what the public can expect from museums all over the world. ‘The Met has it all’ In the beginning an informal gallery inside a former Fifth Avenue residence, the Metropolitan Museum of Art first opened the doors to its own building in 1880, long after its counterparts in Paris and London. The museum got its start with the purchase of 174 paintings. The galleries at France’s palatial Louvre already held thousands of works, many inherited from the nation’s colonial exploits. Even in the 1960s, the largest museum in North America was still playing catch-up. The Met’s leadership aggressively sought major acquisitions and took a casual approach to, and at times embraced, antiquities smuggling as a mainstay of the museum’s sourcing. Under then-Director Thomas Hoving, the Met embarked on a vigorous buying spree in an effort to build out an antiquities collection that could match rivals in London and Paris. Over the following decades, the institution filled its halls and warehouses with treasures from Greece, Italy, Egypt, India, Cambodia and elsewhere. “Not a single decade of any civilization that took root on earth is not represented by some worthy piece,” Hoving later wrote of the results of work he had begun. “The Met has it all.” And seemingly more than it should. Today, governments, law enforcement officials and researchers have linked a mounting number of the Met’s relics to looters and traffickers. While the Met has voluntarily returned some items, prosecutors have seized others. Reporters reviewed the museum’s catalog and found at least 1,109 pieces previously owned by people who had been either indicted or convicted of antiquities crimes; 309 of them are on display. Fewer than half of the 1,109 relics have records describing how they left the country of origin, even those that come from places that have had strict export laws for decades. Many were removed after international guidelines were already put into place to restrict the movement of antiquities across national borders, according to museum records. More than 150 additional items in the Met’s antiquities collection passed through ownership of nearly a dozen more people or galleries from whom prosecutors seized stolen ancient works. In a 1994 memoir, Hoving wrote that his address book of “smugglers and fixers” and other art world acquaintances “was longer than anyone else’s in the field.” Last year, the Met’s former curator of East Asian art, Martin Lerner, said he relied on “the goodwill and integrity” of dealers like his friend Douglas Latchford, who was charged in late 2019 with antiquities trafficking. (The indictment was dismissed after Latchford died in 2020.) In response to questions from reporters, the Met defended its acquisition practices. “The Met is committed to the responsible collecting of art and goes to great lengths to ensure that all works entering the collection meet the laws and strict policies in place at the time of acquisition,” said Met spokesperson Kenneth Weine. “Additionally, as laws and guidelines on collecting have changed over time, so have the Museum’s policies and procedures. The Met also continually researches the history of works in the collection — often in collaboration with colleagues in countries around the world — and has a long track record of acting on new information as appropriate.” An ongoing problem for countries hoping to recover stolen works, and for law enforcement officials investigating suspect collections, is that many relics in the world’s largest museums lack high-quality origin records. This makes it difficult to know whether antiquities were stolen and illegally sold before being acquired by a museum. ICIJ and Finance Uncovered found that hundreds of antiquities in the Met’s collection have no records going back to a country of origin. A look at the museum’s catalog of more than 250 Nepali and Kashmiri antiquities, for example, found that only three have any origin records explaining how they left the regions. (ICIJ focused on these specific collections because Nepal and Kashmir have experienced heavy looting that received relatively little international news coverage). Investigators’ interest in the Met’s collections, along with stepped-up media coverage, has caused experts in the antiquities trade to wonder how many more pieces in the museum’s catalog could be vulnerable to confiscation, and what that might mean for the art industry at large. “The Met sets the tone for museums around the world,” said Tess Davis, executive director of the Antiquities Coalition, an organization that campaigns against the trafficking of cultural artifacts. “If the Met is letting all of these things fall through the cracks, what hope do we have for the rest of the art market?” ‘We all believe the stuff was illegally dug up’ Hoving, the Met’s director from 1967 to 1977, is credited with transforming it into a world-class museum of major works. In his memoir, he describes how his decade of aggressive acquisition drew upon an array of illicit sourcing. Being an accomplice to art smugglers, he wrote, was a necessary role for a Met director. He had approved the purchase of a large batch of Indian and Cambodian antiquities that he suspected had been smuggled. Hoving hid diary entries detailing his misgivings about the origins of a stolen Greek ceramic work in case prosecutors came looking for evidence. And when Turkish authorities asked for the return of allegedly stolen relics from the Met, he made a striking admission of guilt to a fellow curator. “We all believe the stuff was illegally dug up,” Hoving recalled having told a longtime Greek curator. “For Christ’s sake, if the Turks come up with the proof from their side, we’ll give the East Greek treasure back. And that’s policy. We took our chances when we bought the material.” The Met’s lax approach to acquisitions has subjected large parts of its catalog to questions today. “The Met was established to be in competition with the major museums International InvestigativeStories More than 1000 artifacts in Metropolitan Museum of Art catalog linked to alleged looting and trafficking figures International Investigative Stories

NewsHawks Page 31 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 International Investigative Stories around the world,” said Erin Thompson, professor of art crime at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “It wants one of everything. When you put those conditions together, it’s pretty dangerous in terms of making the most ethical decisions.” Hoving wrote that late in his tenure at the Met, he attempted to change the museum’s practices. In the early 1970s, he attended UNESCO hearings on looted antiquities and came away feeling that “the age of piracy had ended.” He “decided to change the Metropolitan’s free-wheeling methods of collecting.” There is little evidence, though, that the Met tightened its acquisition standards in the years that followed. The number of pieces susceptible to claims of looting only grew. The Kardashian connection There may be no person in the world photographed more than Kim Kardashian, but in 2018 she appeared in an image that had a stunning impact on the antiquities trade. The reality TV superstar, outfitted in a gold Versace gown, posed alongside a gold Egyptian coffin inside a private gallery at the star-studded Met Gala. In doing so, she inadvertently revealed to the public an Egyptian work crafted more than 2,000 years ago. It turned out that the Met had bought the piece from a dealer who had provided the museum with a poorly forged export license. An investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office determined that the coffin had indeed been looted from Egypt. In early 2019, the museum agreed to return it. In September 2021, authorities seized more than a hundred pieces from one of the museum’s billionaire donors, Michael Steinhardt. The action was part of a deferred-prosecution agreement struck between Steinhardt and the district attorney’s office and involved some pieces that had been shown at the Met. The agreement bans Steinhardt from collecting antiquities for life. A Met gallery of Greek antiquities is named after Steinhardt and his wife, but the Met has not commented on the Steinhardt seizures. Throughout 2022, U.S. authorities seized at least 29 items from the Met’s collection — including Greek busts, Egyptian bronzes and ancient plates, helmets and statues. There are items made of gold, bronze and terracotta, and they were pillaged from around the Mediterranean and India. The investigators responsible for the seizures are part of an antiquities-trafficking unit led by Matthew Bogdanos, an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. Bogdanos’s unit has worked with agents in Homeland Security Investigations, a unit of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Bogdanos said that his office is not investigating the Met specifically but that prominent pieces in its collection have been swept up in investigations primarily focused on individual traffickers. In its five years of operation, his unit has begun to develop a fuller picture of international trafficking rings, and Bogdanos said he expects the pace of its actions to accelerate as a result. The Met is not alone in its struggles. Around the world, museums are facing a reckoning over how to deal with looted items in their collections. Just last year, London’s Horniman Museum, Washington’s Smithsonian Institution and various German museums and private collectors repatriated items looted from Nigeria. And in the first two months of this year, museums and private collectors from the U.S., Spain and Australia have repatriated dozens of looted relics to their countries of origin. Central to the issue are problems endemic to the antiquities market, in which transactions worth millions of dollars are sometimes conducted with no due diligence on the part of museums or auction houses. “The antiquities market has been called the largest unregulated market in the world,” said Angela Chiu, an independent researcher and expert on Asian art and the antiquities market. “It’s self-regulating, and you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.” This difficulty of confirming an object’s origin history has caused some in the art world to rethink whether museums should be buying antiquities at all. The National Gallery of Australia returned more than a dozen sculptures — bought through notorious antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor for more than $8.7 million — upon learning that they were stolen. Museum officials also made the decision to stop participating in the antiquities market entirely. “It’s very, very rare for objects to have the level of provenance that we would need to be able to ethically acquire them,” said Bronwyn Campbell, the National Gallery’s senior provenance curator. “We’ve judged that the antiquities market is just too risky and ethically fraught, and would prefer instead to explore new and creative ways of representing diverse cultures by working collaboratively with source countries and communities.” ‘This is a mafia-run business’ In the 1950s, the Met began acquiring pieces from Robert E. Hecht, an American-born antiquities dealer who spent decades running afoul of authorities and was ultimately tried on charges of antiquities smuggling in Italy. In 1959 and 1961, Italian prosecutors charged Hecht with antiquities smuggling, and in 1973, they issued an arrest warrant for him that was later revoked. But the Met kept buying from him. The Italian charges in a subsequent against Hecht were ultimately dismissed because the statute of limitations expired. Hecht, who died in 2012 at the age of 92, denied involvement in the illegal exportation of art. Bruce McNall, Hecht’s former business partner who helped Hecht sell pieces to the Met, told ICIJ that the museum asked little about how the pieces were acquired. “I don’t think Bob [Hecht] would disclose specifically too often where he got things,” McNall said. “Did I know the things were coming from illegal sites? No, but I suspected it. But we never really went into it at length.” McNall said he sold one Greek vase to the Met despite knowing nothing about how Hecht had acquired it. He also said the Met’s esteemed classics curator, Dietrich von Bothmer, “did not ask me for any details about its origin or where it was found.” The Met still holds nearly two dozen pieces once owned by Hecht, including seven Greek vases. The Met offers no provenance or history of ownership that explains how pieces tied to Hecht left their home countries. McNall said he avoided the underworld that supplied his business partner with relics. “This is a mafia-run business, and you have to be kind of careful,” McNall said of Hecht’s dealings in Italy and Turkey. “These are tough guys, so my view of it always was: ‘Let Bob handle it.’ I don’t want to deal with that shit. I’m not going to go over there and deal with these kind of guys.” Museum records of Hecht’s most notable sale to the Met, a Greek vase for $1 million, show the museum’s eagerness to acquire unique relics — and that few questions were apparently asked of Hecht. “The vase, if acquired, would not only raise the stature of the Greek and Roman collections but would also be considered one of the greatest objects in the Museum,” according to the minutes of a Met acquisitions committee meeting about the purchase. A summary of the committee’s discussion makes no mention of the vase’s origin apart from identifying Hecht as the seller. Hoving later became an advocate for repatriating stolen relics and joined a campaign to pressure the Met to repatriate the vase. In 2008 after a long-running criminal investigation into the piece’s origin, the museum returned the vase to Italy, where it was dug up. Italian prosecutors believed that Hecht bought stolen relics from a high-profile antiquities smuggler named Gianfranco Becchina. Convicted in 2011 by an Italian court for trafficking antiquities, Becchina was also another supplier of works to the Met. Although the Met holds no works with origin records citing Becchina by name, the museum has seven pieces from Becchina’s Swiss gallery, Galerie Antike Kunst Palladion. Becchina was a source of Met items seized by the Manhattan district attorney’s office in August, according to the office. The Met also has more than 800 pieces in its collection — by far the largest portion in ICIJ’s analysis — once owned by Jonathan P. Rosen, another close business partner of Hecht’s. The museum received these both before and after Rosen was charged along with Hecht in an Italian antiquities trafficking case in 1997. A wealthy banking official and real estate investor, Rosen avidly collected Asian and Mesopotamian relics and coowned with Hecht Atlantis Antiquities, a Manhattan gallery in the ‘80s and ‘90s. In the mid-2000s, Rosen’s name emerged in connection with Atlantis Antiquities when Italian prosecutors alleged that the gallery had sold stolen Italian treasures. In 2008, the Cleveland Museum of Art returned allegedly stolen relics it received from Rosen. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2013 that Cornell University agreed to return 10,000 ancient tablets to Iraq that had been donated by Rosen and his family. Scholars believed the pieces had been looted from Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War; the return followed a U.S. federal investigation into the tablets. An attorney for Rosen told the newspaper that the tablets “were legally acquired” and that the federal investigation found “no evidence of wrongdoing.” The charge against Rosen in Italy was cited in a sprawling criminal case against Giacomo Medici, a notorious antiquities smuggler. When Medici was convicted in 2004, the Italian court’s written judgment cited Rosen’s dealings at length. It said that Rosen had helped to sell an Etruscan tripod to the J. Paul Getty Museum and claimed the piece was legally exported from Italy. The tripod was, in fact, stolen, according to the judgment, and the Getty subsequently returned the piece. Guglielmo Muntoni, a judge in Rome who presided over the Medici case, said that Rosen was never brought to trial due to a statute of limitations expiring and because an important piece linked to Rosen was returned from the U.S. to Italy. A representative of Rosen’s told ICIJ that Rosen was not able to comment because of poor health. The Met’s collection also contains 85 pieces once owned by Subhash Kapoor or his gallery. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has described Kapoor as “one of the most prolific commodities smugglers in the world.” He was arrested in Germany in 2011 and convicted in India this year of trafficking what prosecutors said amounts to more than $100 million in antiquities. Among the Met’s high-profile antiquities from India, Celestial Dancer was acquired in a deal involving Art of the Past, Kapoor’s Manhattan gallery at the time. In 2013, two years after Kapoor’s arrest, the gallery’s manager pleaded guilty to selling stolen Asian works. Yet in 2015, as Kapoor awaited trial on smuggling charges in India, the Met accepted the piece as a donation from wealthy collectors who had purchased it from his gallery. The Met’s publicly available origin records for Celestial Dancer do not give any hint of how the work left India. An archived version of the Met’s website from 2016 states that the piece “ornamented a north Indian Hindu temple” in present-day Uttar Pradesh. This language no longer appears on the museum’s website. In response to ICIJ’s questions, the Met provided no information about where the piece came from or how it left the country. ‘Like having a heap of cocaine’ More than 40 years after the theft, the people of Bungmati, in Nepal, still go without their statue of Shreedhar Vishnu. But, with the aid of Lost Arts of Nepal, volunteers have traced three additional relics allegedly looted from Nepali temples to the Met’s collection, a claim they support with archival photos showing matches to temple relics. Site visits and interviews with locals confirmed two of the three matches: a smooth, hand-painted wooden statue of a Nrityadevi, known as the Goddess of Dance, and an elaborately carved wooden bracket, allegedly stolen from a temple in the world heritage site of Bhaktapur. The Nrityadevi had been looted from the temple of I Baha Bahi, one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Kathmandu Valley, according to members of the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign. Guarded by two black stone lions, the two-story brick, wood and mud building once held numerous statues of gods and goddesses. For many years during the holy month of August, the relics were taken out and put on display. Religious devotees from near and far gathered to celebrate the Bahidyo Bwoyego festival, during which they sang hymns, chanted prayers and worshipped the idols. In 1970, the temple was raided and the community’s gods and goddesses were stolen. By cross-referencing photos taken in 1969, Lost Arts of Nepal was able to match the lost Nrityadevi to an item in the Met’s collection, and claims to have traced several of the temple’s other lost relics to the collections of other American museums. Members of the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign have asked Nepal’s government to help them approach the museums and get the relics back. “I understand the concept of preservation, but taking an object away from its living culture and putting it behind glass in a museum and then saying, ‘We are preserving this object for that country’ — it’s just completely wrong,” said Roshan Mishra of the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign. Ken Weine, a spokesperson for the Met, said the museum is “presently in direct discussion with Nepal regarding select objects from the Museum’s collection, and looks forward to a constructive resolution and ongoing and open dialogue.” He did not say which items were being discussed or whether the museum had plans to return them. “We believe we will get these relics back,” Mishra said. “But we do not know when.” Even if all of these items are repatriated, hundreds of Nepali relics of uncertain provenance will remain in the collection of the Met and other museums around the world. Because Nepal has had a ban on the export of culturally significant materials dating back to 1956, the vast majority of items acquired by museums outside the country after that year are likely stolen, according to Emiline Smith, a lecturer in art crime and criminology at the University of Glasgow’s Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. “The Met shouldn’t have been dealing with [Nepali] objects at all,” Smith said. “Even if you have an object with provenance dating back to 1970, it should not have been traded after 1956.” “Having these Nepali pieces on display, it’s like having a heap of cocaine in the middle of the room,” observed Erin Thompson, who is also an adviser with the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign. “There is no legal” justification, she added. The Met’s Kashmiri collection is also rife with questions, according to experts. A disputed region between India and Pakistan, Kashmir’s temples have been the target of heavy looting, most of it during periods of conflict. An ICIJ and Finance Uncovered analysis of 94 Kashmiri relics in the Met’s collection shows that none of them have detailed provenance explaining how they left Kashmir. Only four have information about ownership before 1970 — the year UNESCO adopted a convention protecting cultural property, making it the gold standard for provenance. Eight items were acquired through art dealers, who at one point faced indictment. “The Met’s collection of Kashmiri artifacts are essentially blood antiquities, acquired during years when much of the population was fleeing what has been described as an ethnic cleansing,” said India Pride Project founder Vijay Kumar, who has published articles about the poorly–provenanced Indian items in the Met’s collection — and its Kashmir items in particular. “By buying these items, the museum was encouraging looting and smuggling from a known conflict zone.” The only provenance the Met gave for nearly 15% percent of the Nepali pieces and 31% of the Kashmiri pieces in its collection was the name Samuel Eilenberg, a Columbia University math professor and avid antiquities collector who died in 1998. An itemized list appearing in an archive of his personal papers at Columbia provides details about two dozen antiquities the Met purchased for $1.5 million, including their original purchase price and country of origin. Conspicuously missing were records of prior provenance. Eilenberg has never been accused of any antiquities-related crimes. Eilenberg worked extensively with Rosen and his files included correspondence with indicted collector Latchford. Despite historical evidence indicating that most of the Nepali artifacts in Western collections may be stolen, most museums only repatriate on a case-by-case basis when presented with overwhelming evidence that a specific object was stolen from a specific site. Repatriations, when they do happen, are “largely performative,” according to Smith. “They have lots of other items that should also be repatriated, but the burden of proof is on the claimant and relies on evidence rules that are dictated by the global North.” “It is heartbreaking when we have to explain to communities of origin that public and private collectors in the U.S. can keep their cultural heritage,” she added. In the absence of more comprehensive repatriation policies, much of Nepal’s lost cultural heritage will remain behind glass in Western museums, far from their communities of origin. “If you want to preserve cultural conservation, you need to restore these objects to the community,” Mishra said. “You need to bring them out of the museum space and reinstate them to their original temples, where a living culture is active and where the object can be worshipped and fulfills the purpose of why it was made.” — International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Page 32 NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 International Investigative Stories AS Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić embarked on an official visit to the United Arab Emirates in March 2021, he was under scrutiny due to recent revelations about his government’s ties to a murderous organized crime group. But as is his custom, Vučić instead went on the attack, using an opportunity of an interview with friendly media outlet TV Pink to address another subject. Vučić suggested that a political rival, former Belgrade Mayor Dragan Đilas, was behind the accusations. Vučić then claimed Đilas had illegally stashed his wealth in banks around the world, and predicted that more details would surface shortly. Six days later, Serbian pro-government newspapers began publishing stories about Đilas’ supposed offshore accounts. “Đilas hiding money in Mauritius and Switzerland: on 12th of December 2020 he had almost 6.4 million euros in bank accounts in these two countries,” claimed a front-page story in the Serbian pro-government daily Večernje Novosti. For two weeks, the allegations about Đilas’s supposed offshore millions dominated the headlines. Journalists claimed they had proof the accounts existed, commentators waxed lyrical about money laundering and tax evasion, and officials threatened consequences. Finance Minister Siniša Mali appeared on television brandishing a report that he claimed showed Đilas had dozens of accounts full of stolen money. Serbia’s anti-money laundering chief, Željko Radovanović, pledged to investigate. But while the media campaign distracted from the revelations about the government’s organized crime ties, the accusations never turned into charges. Đilas, who vociferously denied the allegations, tried to sue Vučić, Mali, and journalists at Večernje Novosti, claiming they forged the bank records to distract from their own “criminal activity,” but a Serbian court declined to take up the case. Đilas may have been on to something. Evidence collected by OCCRP and its reporting partners suggests the false bank report was likely created by Tal Hanan, an Israeli explosives expert who sells disinformation services. A source provided OCCRP with a purported copy of the document Mali showed on television. Metadata shows it was created in December 2020, a few months before the accusations against Đilas were first aired. It bills itself as a “deep bank search,” and its formatting looks nearly identical to a report for a service Hanan calls a “global bank scan,” which he pitched to undercover reporters posing as potential clients. Two sources with knowledge of Hanan’s operations confirmed that he was behind the operation. It is unclear who hired him to produce the document, and Serbian government officials, including representatives of Mali and Vucic, did not respond to requests for comment. This would not be the first time Hanan has been suspected of selling bank records. Swiss prosecutors previously investigated Hanan for supplying similar information to a Swiss spy named Daniel Moser. As reported by OCCRP’s Swiss partner, Tamedia, prosecutors found Moser paid Hanan $88,000 in 2014 to provide financial intelligence on one of the spy’s targets, but his report turned out to be fake data. (Prosecutors dropped the case against Hanan in 2021, saying they could not show Hanan knew the information he provided to Moser would be used for espionage.) Hanan denied any wrongdoing when contacted by Forbidden Stories, but has not replied to follow-up questions or requests for comment on the Đilas report. The “Global Bank Scan” Hanan has a history of using disinformation and hacking to meddle in global politics. In mid-2022, undercover reporters working on the Story Killers project approached Hanan’s team posing as intermediaries for a potential client looking to delay an election in Africa. Over several Zoom calls, and one in-person meeting, Hanan and his team pitched their tactics to spread disinformation and derail democracy. Reporters were able to verify that Hanan’s team has used some of these tactics, like targeted social media campaigns and email hacking, to manipulate political outcomes. Other things he claimed he could do — like locating a target’s bank account anywhere in the world to find compromising material — seemed more far-fetched. “Now I’ll show you financial intelligence,” Hanan said during one Zoom call. He opened a document named “Global Bank Scan: Confidential Report” and scrolled down a list of account balances, purportedly belonging to a previous target: Batkhuu Gavaa, a Mongolian lawmaker and businessman who died in 2019. Hanan claimed to have found nearly $232 million in 67 accounts belonging to Gavaa, but he did not explain how he did this. “It’s not 100 percent,” Hanan conceded. “We estimate 75 percent accuracy, but 75 percent is usually 300 percent more than what they have today.” James Henry, an economist and lecturer at Yale University, said Hanan’s claims of gaining access to confidential banking information around the world were implausible. “There is no centralized global banking database, nor could there ever be,” he said. “Anyone who offers this type of access is telling you outright that they are a fraud or engaging in serious blackmail or bribery of officials within specific banks” The layout of the Gavaa report displayed by Hanan closely resembles the report on Đilas obtained by reporters, though there is no company branding on either. Hanan’s group, which refers to itself as “Team Jorge,” is not registered as a company and does not use branding, preferring to remain in the shadows. When the undercover reporters met Hanan in a nondescript office building in Modi’in, Israel, in December, the disinformation expert explained: “You saw what it says on the door, right? It says nothing. That’s who we are: We are nothing.” Forging Accounts The lawsuit Đilas filed against Vučić, Mali and journalists at Večernje Novosti was rejected by the court, but the case produced a telling detail: The first reporter who published the story in the pro-government daily said she received the bank records “in an anonymous shipment to her by an anonymous source probably aware that she was a journalist.” Her stories highlighted two alleged foreign accounts belonging to Đilas — one with Deutsche Bank in Mauritius and the other with Societe Generale Switzerland — totalling some 6.4 million euros. But although she and other pro-government journalists wrote dozens of stories about these accounts, neither of them was real. Deutsche Bank did not have a branch in Mauritius at that time, and Societe Generale in Zurich issued a letter confirming that the account number attributed to Đilas did not exist. Đilas said he had previously opened a company in Switzerland with permission from Serbia’s national bank, but that the bank account attributed to him did not exist. “I’ve really never had an offshore account,” he told OCCRP’s Serbian member center KRIK. According to evidence obtained by OCCRP, Aron Shaviv, a political consultant who has worked with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, may have been involved in connecting the Serbian government to Hanan. Shaviv confirmed to reporters that he had worked on the Serbian president’s campaign in 2017, but denied involvement with Hanan. “I was introduced to ‘Team Jorge’ once in early 2019 and have had no business or any transactions with them,” he told OCCRP. “If my name has been used by a third party involved in this case to establish credibility - it is without my knowledge and highly regrettable.” Đilas said he had long suspected the Serbian government was behind the fake reports, but never had proof. “After all, who was the first to announce that I had those accounts?” he said. While the secret bank account allegations were new to Đilas, the smear campaigns have been around for years. He and Vučić were rivals in a race for the mayor of capital city Belgrade in 2008. Vučić lost then, and again four years later. But in 2012 Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party came to power on the national stage, and the anti-Đilas narrative has been pervasive in the pro-government media since then, painting Đilas as a rapacious businessman who illegally made over 600 million euros through his companies. “[T]hey declare me a thief, a criminal, that I have a billion euros, and so on,” Đilas said. “You cannot fight against fake news, especially when it is a coordinated campaign with enormous amounts of money invested in it.” — Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Israeli disinformation expert linked to faked bank accounts in Serbian smear Campaign Serbia’s Finance Minister, Siniša Mali, shows the alleged bank report on Serbian TV.

NewsHawks Page 33 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 The NewsHawks is published on different content platforms by the NewsHawks Digital Media which is owned by Centre for Public Interest Journalism No. 100 Nelson Mandela Avenue Beverly Court, 6th floor Harare, Zimbabwe Trustees/Directors: Beatrice Mtetwa, Raphael Khumalo, Professor Wallace Chuma, Teldah Mawarire, Doug Coltart EDITORIAL STAFF: Managing Editor: Dumisani Muleya Assistant Editor: Brezh Malaba News Editor: Owen Gagare Digital Editor: Bernard Mpofu Reporters: Brenna Matendere, Ruvimbo Muchenje, Enock Muchinjo, Jonathan Mbiriyamveka, Nathan Guma Email: [email protected] Marketing Officer: Charmaine Phiri Cell: +263 735666122 [email protected] [email protected] Subscriptions & Distribution: +263 735666122 Reaffirming the fundamental importance of freedom of expression and media freedom as the cornerstone of democracy and as a means of upholding human rights and liberties in the constitution; our mission is to hold power in its various forms and manifestations to account by exposing abuse of power and office, betrayals of public trust and corruption to ensure good governance and accountability in the public interest. CARTOON Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe The NewsHawks newspaper subscribes to the Code of Conduct that promotes truthful, accurate, fair and balanced news reporting. If we do not meet these standards, register your complaint with the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe at No.: 34, Colenbrander Rd, Milton Park, Harare. Telephone: 024-2778096 or 024-2778006, 24Hr Complaints Line: 0772 125 659 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] WhatsApp: 0772 125 658, Twitter: @vmcz Website: www.vmcz.co.zw, Facebook: vmcz Zimbabwe Mnangagwa kleptocracy must stop Dumisani Muleya Hawk Eye Editorial & Opinion Be patient. We're still removing all the criminals who were surrounding Mugabe. ON Thursday, Part 1 of Al Jazeera’s long-awaited investigative documentary titled Gold Mafia was released. Undercover reporters posing as gangsters with US$1 billion of dirty money that needs to be cleaned managed to record various corrupt elements disclosing their role in the astonishing looting of Zimbabwe's gold. Although there is really nothing new about the news-gathering methods of the Al Jazeera crew, the intrepid journalists manage to gain remarkable access to members of Africa’s Gold Mafia and film closed-door meetings with crime bosses. Charismatic preacher and self-styled prophet Eubert Angel is caught pants down. Angel, born Eubert Mudzanire, is no ordinary chap; he is President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Presidential Envoy and Ambassador-At-Large to Europe and the Americas. Lofty titles indeed! Angel, who boasts that he is Zimbabwe's "number 2" diplomat, is captured on camera offering to smuggle into Zimbabwe US$1.2 billion using the cover of his diplomatic bag. The gold mafia says it can easily launder money through government gold export schemes. One of the highlights of the documentary is the finding that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is essentially southern Africa’s biggest laundromat. Interestingly, the RBZ fell into the trap of responding to the allegations even before the Al Jazeera report was released. It appears the authorities at the central bank have continued with their badly calibrated communications strategy — issuing yet another kneejerk statement denouncing the documentary. But wait a minute, this is only Part 1; what will the RBZ do if the three remaining episodes uncover unassailable evidence? For a long time, people have wondered why Mnangagwa is soft on corruption, yet he was catapulted to power by a military coup which dramatically promised to tackle "the criminals surrounding Robert Mugabe". There is really no mystery; Mnangagwa is the source of the problem and you do not need to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. His own government is on record as admitting that Zimbabwe loses at least US$100 million every month to gold smuggling. The big question is: What have the authorities done about this rampant looting? Nothing, as far as the empirical evidence shows. The border posts are still leaking like a sieve; airports have been reduced to smugglers' playgrounds; politically-connected persons are untouchable, and the real cause of Zimbabwe’s multi-faceted crisis is high-level corruption, not Western sanctions. Illicit mineral dealings are masterminded by politically connected individuals and networks. That is how the culprits find it easy to manipulate airport security, evade tax and escape the scrutiny of security agencies. There is an entire ecosystem of brazen criminals. Henrietta Rushwaya — who runs the Zimbabwe Miners' Federation and is also Mnangagwa’s niece — was caught at Robert Mugabe International Airport in 2020 with six kilogrammes of purified gold. Predictably, she was virtually let off the hook. It is also important to mention that the Al Jazeera exposé is not the first time a corruption scandal has been laid bare. Far from it. Journalists in this country are regularly exposing corruption. The headache, it seems, is that the citizens typically follow a familiar behavioural pattern whenever a scandal erupts: they momentarily gasp in disbelief, proceed to chat excitedly on social media platforms for a couple of days and soon forget about the entire brouhaha. The politicians know this and — true to experience — the storm seldom lasts long. Al Jazeera's investigative documentary is helping the world to solve one of the most enduring puzzles of our time: Why is Zimbabwe, a country vastly endowed with valuable natural and human resources, failing to give its people a dignified life? Country run by thieves

Page 26 NewsHawks Issue 76, 15 April 2022 Business MATTERS NewsHawks CURRENCIES LAST CHANGE %CHANGE USD/JPY 109.29 +0.38 +0.35 GBP/USD 1.38 -0.014 -0.997 USD/CAD 1.229 +0.001 +0.07 USD/CHF 0.913 +0.005 +0.53 AUD/USD 0.771 -0.006 -0.76 COMMODITIES LAST CHANGE %CHANGE *OIL 63.47 -1.54 -2.37 *GOLD 1,769.5 +1.2 +0.068 *SILVER 25.94 -0.145 -0.56 *PLATINUM 1,201.6 +4 +0.33 MARKETS *COPPER 4.458 -0.029 -0.65 Massive load-shedding persists NATHAN GUMA ZIMBABWE is still reeling under massive power cuts despite an increase in water levels at Lake Kariba and recent efforts to ramp up electricity generation at Hwange Thermal Power Station's Unit 7. As of Thursday, the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) was generating 810 megawatts (MW); with Hwange Power Station producing 442MW, whilst Kariba and Munyati produced 350MW and 18MW respectively, compared to around 500MW produced at the peak of the power crisis in December last year. Whilst normalcy was expected to return following a rise in water levels at Lake Kariba, the situation has remained the same, with residential areas going for over 18 hours without power. At Kariba, lake levels have been rising due to an increase in local rainfall activity, with inflows in the immediate streams and mainstream Zambezi River, closing at 478.14m (18.39% usable storage) on 20 March 2023, according to the Zambezi River Authority. This week, Hwange's Unit 7 was also added to the national grid and is seen ramping up power supply. Harare Thermal Power Station, whose production has been ranging between 0MW11MW, is now generating electricity. Rolling power cuts have been continuing. Domestic electricity generation has been dogged by several challenges, including obsolete equipment and infrastructure, inability to attract significant private sector investment, and other financing instruments, leading to drastic load shedding. According to statistics on ZPC’s website, the power utility produced 1 719 gigawatt hours (GWh), falling short of its quarterly goal of 2 490GWh by 30.96% due to numerous forced outages, in the fourth quarter of 2022. The power generation utility missed its 9 111GWh annual energy target for 2022 by 7.29%. A report by the Portfolio Committee on Energy and Power Development on the supply and distribution of transformers in Zimbabwe presented on 2 March in Parliament by Binga South MP Gabuza Gabbuza showed that a total of 1 900 transformers were faulty and needed repairing. However, while there are several reputable companies that are able to repair at least 3 000 units annually, their servicing plant is outdated, leaving the power utility in limbo. As previously reported by The NewsHawks, Energy minister Soda Zhemu has also been taken to task by parliamentarians who are accusing him of painting a rosy picture of Zimbabwe’s power situation. Early this month, Zhemu said the country has good potential to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, which will help in ending load shedding. Legislators however dismissed his explanation, highlighting he had repeated the same statement several times. “The government has a whole policy that was launched in 2019 – the National Renewable Energy Policy. It articulates how we will transition from the use of fossil fuels to renewable energy. We have very good potential for generation in Zimbabwe from solar; also wind is being ascertained as to what potential can be harnessed from wind. We also have the biogas that is also being articulated from the same Renewable Energy Policy,” Zhemu said. “Mr Speaker, the same policy comes with some incentives, especially to the private sector knowing that government alone cannot carry the load. The private sector has been invited to participate, especially in the area of power generation, which they can sell to the power utility as the off-taker or directly to consumers of their preference. “So, we have a whole policy that speaks to how we shall transition to clean energy sources that are mostly renewable.” He also said the country is exploring gas-to-energy projects that can be undertaken within the country, especially with the prospects of getting gas from the Muzarabani area. However, this did not convince some legislators who said Zhemu has been reading from the same recycled script over the years. The power situation has continued to worsen, affecting businesses and residents countrywide. Prolonged power cuts are still ongoing despite rising water levels at Lake Kariba.

NATHAN GUMA MOST of Zimbabwe’s pensioners are singing the blues, with information from the National Social Security Authority (Nssa) showing that most retired workers are earning monthly payouts ranging from US$18 and US$46 per month, The NewsHawks has learnt. The social security agency has been paying a ZW$42 741 monthly retirement pension, which translates to US$46.76 using the US$1:ZW$914 official rate. This was revealed by Nssa's deputy director for social protection, Shepherd Mupesa, in his presentation on the overview of the pensions and other benefits scheme at a Zimbabwe-Mozambique engagement programme in Harare this week. Nssa is also paying out ZW$17 096 (US$18.70) monthly under the invalidity pension fund, which is availed to people who suffer from permanent invalidity. The amount is also equal to the survivors' monthly payout of ZW$17 096 (US$18.70). Worsening livelihoods have also been highlighted by an increase in inactive members of society, which Mupesa said reflects the informalisation of the national economy. According to Nssa's official statistics, there are a total of 36 307 employer organisations, of which 1 223 894 members are active while 1 816 685 are inactive. It is also estimated that only 24.3% of the population aged 65 and above are receiving pensions through the Pensions and Other Benefits Scheme (POBS), a mandatory contribution towards social security by individuals mainly working in a formal profession, trade or occupation. Several Zimbabwean workers across various pension schemes have been reeling under dysfunctional schemes, which has seen people wallowing in poverty. For instance, former Redcliffe workers are yet to get their pensions, five years after being retrenched without severance packages. Workers' unions have been calling on the government to honour the 2015 Smith commission of inquiry report, to give the insurance and pensions industry a transparent process for addressing challenges encountered in converting pensions and insurance benefits from the Zimbabwe dollar to the United States dollar in 2009. The commission was initiated to compensate pensioners across all sectors of the economy who retired between 2007 and 2009. The pensioners lost their lumpsums due to adverse hyper-inflation which wiped out their balances in banks. Upon the demonetisation of the Zimbabwe dollar, some pensioners only received as little as US$5 as their one-third lumpsum benefit. To date, little has been done to cover the loss. Workers, previously under the Cold Storage Company (CSC) are reeling after failing to access their pensions following their retrenchment in 2019 by the investor, Boustead Beef. After undertaking to shore up the CSC, a loss-making parastatal, the United Kingdom-based company undertook to capitalise the company’s pension fund in line with an agreement with a Joint Farming Concession Agreement (LJFCA) with the government. CSC-Boustead Beef, which promised to inject US$130 million in five years from 2019, has injected little capital into the venture, with workers and pensioners failing to access outstanding remittances and pensions. In 2018, Nssa expressed interest, as an equity investor, to inject up to US$14.3 million that would see the revival of the CSC. However, the state-run social security agency ceased to be part of the venture in 2019. After taking over the CSC in 2019, Boustead Beef was obliged to pay outstanding salaries and pensions owed to the company’s workers as agreed in the Livestock Joint Farming Concession agreement (LJFCA) signed in January 2019 between the company and the ministry of Agriculture. According to the agreement, Boustead Beef would: “Takeover and retire the entire inherited CSC legacy debt as outlined in the High Court of Zimbabwe case number 3099/17, scheme of agreements as per the negotiated payment plan.” With accumulated debt of over US$33 million since 2009, the CSC owed its current employees US$2 074 948 in salaries and US$4 443 104 in pension funds by 2018, according to the High Court order of agreement. Workers’ committee members say the company has failed to inject a total of US$290 000 into the pension fund, leaving the workers stranded. Pensioners pocket meagre US$18 monthly from Nssa NewsHawks Page 35 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 Companies & Markets

Page 36 NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 Companies & Markets BERNARD MPOFU ZIMBABWE is upping its dependence on Brics countries as a source of much-needed financial support after concessional funding from traditional international financial instititutions (IFIs) dried up due to non-payment of arrears, The NewsHawks has established. The southern African nation, saddled with an external debt of over US$14 billion, has been struggling to service its loans from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, African Development Bank, European Investment Bank and the Paris Club since the turn of the millennium. In the absence of long-term loans from international financial institutions, Zimbabwe has been heavily dependent on domestic resources such as taxes and costly bilateral loans and facilities from some regional banks such as the African Export and Import Bank. The continuing accumulation of arrears is also seriously undermining the country’s credit rating and severely compromising the country’s ability to attract foreign direct investment. It is also hampering balance of payment and budgetary support. Early this month, Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs minister Frederick Shava flew to Qatar where he pushed for Zimbabwe’s admission as a Brics Bank member. Shava had held a meeting with the minister of External Affairs and Education of India on the sidelines of the United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries which was recently held in Doha, Qatar. “The Ministers agreed on a mutual support arrangement in the respective campaigns for non-permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council. They also discussed bi-lateral cooperation matters and an offer to Zimbabwe for membership in the New Development Bank (formerly BRICS Bank),” reads a post-cabinet Press briefing. Established in 2015 by Brics countries, the New Development Bank is a multilateral development bank aimed at mobilising resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in Brics and other emerging markets and developing countries. The bank is headquartered in Shanghai, China, with regional offices in South Africa and Brazil. Kamath from India was the first president of the NDB (2015-2020). Brics is an acronym referring to the developing countrues of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which are identified as rising economic powers. Other countries that have expressed interest in joining include Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain and Indonesia, along with two nations from East Africa and one from West Africa. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, SouthSouth cooperation refers to the technical cooperation among developing countries in the Global South. It is a tool used by states, international organisations, academics, civil society and the private sector to collaborate and share knowledge, skills and successful initiatives in specific areas such as agricultural development, human rights, urbanisation, health and climate change among other issues. Last July, Zimbabwe launched its arrears clearance and debt management programme at a time the economy is struggling to access concessional facilities to finance capital projects. But several political governance and economic reforms--such as the upholding of human rights and the compensation of white former commercial farmers who lost vast tracts of land during redistribution exercise--remains key to normalising relations with the international community. Isolated Zim looks to Brics for funding Foreign Affairs minister Frederick Shava New Development Bank

NewsHawks Page 37 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 Companies & Markets ‘Dollarisation big threat to economy’ PRISCA TSHUMA THE increasing degree of dollarisation of the financial sector poses a threat to the economy and undermines the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)'s goal of stabilising the exchange rate, says the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI). The business environment last year was characterised by high interest rates, which were frequently reviewed by the RBZ in a bid to curtail speculative borrowing, high inflation and stabilise the exchange rate. The interest rates were first raised to 80% then later on hiked to 200%, which discouraged Zimdollar borrowing. This forced some businesses to convert their existing ZW$ loans into US$ loans, which increased the proportion of foreign currency-denominated loans to 64.2% in December 2022 from 37.08% in the prior year. In its first edition of the Business Environment Insights report, the CZI said the foreign currency deposits are on an upward trend, while the Zimbabwe dollar deposits are trending in the opposite direction, hinting at gradual dollarisation. “The trend shows that if the total transferrable deposits are converted into USD using the official exchange rate, they were increasing up until April 2022, when a downward trend would begin up to June 2022, when they started to recover,” said CZI. The CZI says the United States dollar was dominating money supply, with foreign currency deposits taking up 56.88% of total money supply as at December 2022, while local currency deposits constituted 43.04% of the money supply and the remaining 0.18% is currency circulation. “The general decline in ZW$ deposits supports the notion that the Zimbabwean economy is getting closer to full dollarisation,” said the report. In addition to this, the CZI says the increased USD loans were going to pose difficulty in reversing the dollarisation that had engulfed the Zimbabwean economy. “Borrowing in USD for working capital means that business will be forced to sell more of their products in USD for them to be able to service their debts,” added the report. However, the CZI asserted that full dollarisation would spell doom to the Zimbabwean economy, as the economy would migrate to a high-cost environment. “Local companies will lose competitive advantage and Zimbabwe will become a big supermarket of imported commodities. Shrinking capacity utilisation, closure of local manufacturing companies, loss of jobs and depressed economic growth will be the end result,” warned the CZI. PRISCA TSHUMA PROPERTY investment and development company Mashonaland Holdings Limited has recorded a 98% revenue increase from ZW$1.9 billion to ZW$3.8 billion for the year ended 31 December 2022. In a statement accompanying the group’s financial results, chairperson Grace Bema attributed the increase to the positive performance of the Mashview Gardens cluster housing development. “The revenue growth was mainly driven by revenue earned by the Mashview Gardens cluster housing development amounting to ZW$1.2 billion, which contributed 30 percent of the revenue performance,” she said. Bema added that a 34% increase in rental income to ZW$2.6 billion also contributed to the revenue performance despite the change in financial year-end in 2021. “The increase in rental income was driven in part by periodic rent reviews to align rentals with obtaining market conditions and also improved market occupancy which grew from 81 percent in 2021 to 87 percent in December 2022,” said Bema. In the period under review, the property occupier submarket adopted measures such as the frequent rent reviews, indexation and charging of rentals in US dollars, as the country continues to dollarise, to ensure inflation hedging. “This attribute has attracted more investments towards specific pockets of the property market such as the small sub-urban retail sector as opposed to the traditional, large and capital intensive centrally located retail malls,” said Bema. The group recorded an annual profit of ZW$17.2 billion from a loss of ZW$4.8 billion recorded in the prior year, due to the improved operating profitability and 39% capital gain in investment properties. Independent and professional property valuer EPG Global valued the group’s investment property at ZW$68 billion as at 31 December 2022, representing a capital gain of 39%. “The gain was achieved through the group’s periodic rent reviews to hedge against rising inflation as well as firming values for the Group’s strategically located land banks. This realignment is reflected in the growth in rental income in inflation-adjusted terms,” Bema said. The operating profit before fair value adjustments increased by 243% from ZW$ 1 billion to ZW$3.5 billion partly due to foreign exchange gains of ZW$3 billion, which were realised on foreign currency balances on hand following the disposal of the Charter House. Mashonaland Holdings disposed of Charter House during the financial year as part of its diversification strategy, which entails reduction of Harare central business district office exposure and deployment of the sales proceeds towards the development of strategic investment assets in line with emerging market needs. During this financial year, the group acquired a 4-hectare site in Pomona for the development of a wholesale centre and; 2-hectare land along Borrowdale Road for the development of an office park as part of its diversification and growth strategy. Bema said the group’s strategy going forward will remain targeted at delivering on its long-term plan which is hinged on diversification and increasing operational efficiencies to ensure sustained business growth. Mash Holdings doubles revenue

Page 38 NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 Companies & Markets PRISCA TSHUMA THE financial services sector led by the Insurance and Pensions Commission (Ipec), Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SecZim), has been visiting schools and educating students in Matabeleland North and South provinces about financial matters in this year’s Global Money Week campaign. The international financial literacy month programme runs from 6 March to 30 March and the 2023 Global Money Week campaign theme was “Plan Your Money, Plan Your Future.” Speaking to The NewsHawks, Ipec public relations manager Lloyd Gumbo said their goal this year was to ensure that they improved financial literacy levels through consumer education. “Our goal for this year’s campaign was to raise awareness and improve financial literacy in the country so that people can make informed financial decisions for their future financial well-being and resilience,” Gumbo said. The rate of financial literacy in Zimbabwe currently stands at only 40%. Ipec used the Global Money Week campaign leveraging on mainstream and social media to reach out to young people and improve knowledge. “The focus of our message during the Global Money Week campaign is to sensitise young people about money matters, particularly financial management so that they make well-informed financial decisions from a young age to improve their future financial well-being and resilience,” said the PR manager. A week before the launch of the campaign, the sector reached about 4 500 pupils in Binga, Hwange, Lupane, Plumtree and Matobo districts from 6 March to 17 March. The financial sector held an exhibition fair in Harare at the RBZ Sports Club from 20 March to 24 March with schools in and around Harare coming to learn more about financial matters. They also conducted seminars for students at Lupane State University and the National University of Science and Technology, with another seminar to be held at the Harare Institute of Technology this week and at Bindura University of Science Education next week. “Ipec, RBZ and SECZim have also introduced a quiz competition for tertiary students who will be expected to record themselves talking about how financial service providers can enhance access to and usage of banking, insurance and retirement savings, and capital markets products by young people. “The submission of entries ends on Wednesday 29 March,” added Gumbo. Gumbo said they were engaging with the youth with the future in mind and the impact of consumer education could be measured in the medium to long term. “We expect this campaign to help them understand financial matters better so that they can make informed financial decisions, for example, budgeting, savings, credit, insurance, and investments.” The success of the previous campaigns has been seen through the continued engagement of the young people in financial matters; with last year’s Global Money competition winner conducting financial literacy programmes targeting young people. PRISCA TSHUMA ZIMBABWE'S insurance industry has recorded growth across its various sub-sectors, namely funeral insurance, short-term insurance and reinsurance sectors despite facing significant headwinds in a hostile operating environment. Emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, which had a significant impact on business between 2020 and 2021, and whose effects are still being felt, local insurers have recorded an uptick in the uptake of insurance policies. Commenting on the performance of the funeral insurance sector, Zimbabwe Association of Funeral Assurers (Zafa) president Arthur Mukasi attributed the recent growth of the sector to the increase in the uptake of various funeral assurance products in 2022. “There are a variety of funeral assurance products tailor made to suite clients’ requirements, for example, products at micro-insurance level where affordability of the products has made it possible for more people to participate, especially in the informal sector,” he said. According to Zafa, the country’s insurance penetration rate is currently around 3.6%. In the period ending September 2022, there was improvement in gross premium written (GPW) for the short-term insurance industry, with insurers recording 359% growth for Zimbabwe dollar premiums and 26% for US dollar premiums compared to the same period in 2021. During the same period, the reinsurance sector recorded 364% growth for Zimdollar premiums and 38% for US dollar premiums. However, Mr Mukasi added that high inflation rates and relatively low disposable incomes continue to pose challenges to the industry as some of the policyholders struggled to pay their premiums for funeral polices. Speaking to The NewsHawks, the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe (ICZ)'s marketing and publication relations consultant, Ringisayi Batiya, said only those policyholders who had US dollar insurance covers are better protected from the negative impacts of inflation. “Policyholders with Zimbabwe dollar policies were being encouraged to consistently review their covers in line with foreign exchange rate movements to avoid under-insurance,” said Batiya. The ICZ official said low disposable incomes have affected the insurance industry because consumers continue to disregard insurance as a priority expense. “Due to the economic hardships faced by the consumers, insurance continues not to be a priority expense. For the general public, uptake is high in the statutory third-party motor insurance,” she added. Although the confidence in the insurance industry increased, the ICZ said there was a need to innovate the traditional insurance products offered in the industry. “There is need to innovate and offer relevant and affordable products in response to emerging needs and habits of consumers. "This process will also aim at providing products that encourage financial inclusion of low-income earners,” said ICZ. In the contemporary era, technology is increasingly playing a key role in enhancing efficiency and scaling business. In line with the aim to expand financial inclusion, the Insurance and Pensions Commission (Ipec) announced the start of a Bima lab project at the virtual launch of the 2023 Journalism Mentorship Programme held on 10 March 2023. “This is a lab being facilitated by FSD Africa, where we have invited the industry stakeholders to come up with Insurtech-led innovations to serve the underserved," said Ipec commissioner Grace Muradzikwa. Ipec, RBZ, SecZim embark on financial literacy drive RBZ Insurance industry thrives despite headwinds

NewsHawks Page 39 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 Companies & Markets ONE of the sad realities that I have encountered in my 22 years in the public relations (PR) profession was how difficult it is to measure. However, as the years have gone by, I have discovered it is not impossible. “It’s difficult to measure the results of a PR campaign you conducted orally through a news channel. Without data, it is harder to prove that your campaign influenced public decisions to favour your brand or your company,” according to a paper by the firm 5WPR. The good news is that today you can record and document PR campaigns conducted by the spoken word. Public relations experts can collect and analyse the data and present it as proof of success of a campaign. The technological revolution has brought with it the ability to account for PR activities that largely seek to change perceptions and sentiments. The efforts of PR can go to waste if the outcome is not measured effectively. Another question is that if you aren’t measuring content and its success, how can you really tell what impact that PR is having, how engaging the content is, and if you are really getting across what the client wants to achieve from PR? Successful public relations campaigns require the use of analytics and metrics to measure the impact, success, and effectiveness of the efforts. Without understanding the impact of a campaign, it's difficult to understand which approaches are successful and which are not. By analysing the analytics and metrics of a public relations campaign, practitioners can ensure they are effectively achieving both their short-term and long-term objectives. One of the most important metrics to measure the success of a public relations campaign is media coverage and impressions. By tracking the number of news articles, blog posts, Press releases, and social media posts that were shared, practitioners can get an indication of how far the message of the campaign spread. Views and likes can also be tracked to get a better idea of the overall reach of the campaign. Organisations should also evaluate the sentiment of the coverage that their public relations campaigns generate. A high number of mentions does not necessarily equate to success if most of the coverage is negative. By tracking sentiment and measuring the volume of positive versus negative reviews, organisations can get an indication of how well their campaign is resonating with the public. Another way is to track the performance of specific key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs can include website visits, leads, sales, or downloads if appropriate for the campaign. Tracking the performance of these KPIs will give insight into how effective the public relations campaign has been. The cost of the campaign compared to the results achieved can be another method of measuring success. If the results achieved are lower than expected or the amount of money spent on a campaign far outweighs the results achieved, then the public relations campaign can be deemed unsuccessful. How to measure successful public relations campaign Organisations should also consider feedback from customers, stakeholders, partners, and other interested parties when evaluating the success of a public relations campaign. Surveys, interviews, and focus groups can provide valuable insight into its overall success. As a PR practitioner, it is important to measure and evaluate the success of your campaigns in order to find out what is working and what is not. There are various tools available to measure and evaluate your campaigns. They ensure you are getting the most out of your efforts. First, monitoring tools such as BuzzSumo or Mention can help you gauge the public response to your campaigns. These tools track the spread of your content across social media, allowing you to identify your key influencers, the most engaged audience segments, and the topics that resonate most with your followers. Second, analytics platforms such as Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics are useful for assessing the effectiveness of your campaigns. By tracking the visitors to your website, you can see which campaigns have worked best at drawing them in. You can also measure the performance of your content, the amount of time visitors spend on the website, and how much they engage with it. Finally, surveys and questionnaires are great ways to get direct feedback from your target audience. Asking questions such as “Did you find this campaign informative?” can help you understand what your audience thought of it and which elements resonated most with them. By using these tools, a PR practitioner can easily measure and evaluate the success of their campaigns. With the data collected, it is easier to understand the impact of the campaigns, assess their effectiveness, and make improvements for future campaigns. In conclusion, there are a variety of metrics and analytics that can be used to measure the success of a public relations campaign. By tracking media coverage, sentiment, KPIs, cost analysis, and customer feedback, practitioners can ensure that their public relations campaigns are achieving their goals. *About the writer: Lenox Lizwi Mhlanga is a specialist communication consultant with over 22 years of experience. He has worked for organisations such as The World Bank Group and consulted blue chip companies in Zimbabwe and the region. He provides strategic communication counsel, facilitation, mentorship, and training in these areas. Contact him on mobile on +263 772 400 656 and by e-mail at: lenoxmhlanga@gmail. com Corporate Communications Lenox Lizwi Mhlanga

Page 40 News Analysis NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 NATHAN GUMA ANALYSTS say Zimbabwe should plug loopholes on tender processes that benefit the politically connected, facilitating the theft of taxpayers’ money. The government has over the years been criticised for unfairly awarding tenders, leaving citizens with the tough burden of paying through the nose, especially in the event of handpicked companies failing to deliver. The situation has also been worsened by rampant corruption, as shown by the country’s latest ranking on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), released by Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) in February this year. The country maintained a 23/100 score, placing it 157th out of 180 countries, only four points above the bottom 10. Some of the dubious tender processes have sparked public outcry over the government’s commitment to transparency. For instance, last week, controversial businessperson Wicknell Chivayo was absolved of wrongdoing following accusations of misappropriating US$5.6 million for the 100 megawatt (MW) Gwanda solar project, after the Harare magistrates' court agreed that there had been an unreasonable delay in the prosecution. In 2015, Intratrek, a company owned by Chivayo, won a US$193 million tender to build a 100MW solar project, aimed at easing pressure on the dilapidated Hwange and Kariba power stations, a project that has failed to take off, eight years later. The Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) in 2015 filed charges of fraud against Chivayo, accusing him of pocketing US$5 111 224 paid to him for pre-commencement works on the 100MW plant meant for the Gwanda Solar Project. Signs of hope for the project’s take-off started showing again in July 2020, when then Energy minister Fortune Chasi said the government was going to re-establish plans to run the Gwanda Solar Project, after Intratrek had vowed to deliver the first 10MW within six months. The project has been in limbo since then. Last week’s ruling was a win for Chivayo whom ZPC had on several occasion tried to press criminal charges against - without luck. Energy lawyer Darlington Chidarara said the country should fix porous tender processes which have effected loss of taxpayers’ money. “This particular project was supposed to give us 100MW into the grid, which is quite a lot as we are in a power crisis. So, imagine if this was to complete. We are talking about close to eight years now, and what is there are probably those cabins that were put and inspected in 2018. “So, since then, it has been court battles and others. So, basically, I think the biggest challenge that we have is, firstly, looking at our tender processes as the government. We need a tender process that can be trusted. “Because we are using taxpayers' money at the end of the day. We are looking at those principles of openness and contract transparency within the government. If everything is not done in a black box, then we can be able to hold the duty bearers to account so that we do not repeat mistakes of the duty bearers, of giving those who may not have the capacity, like what we have seen under this case,” said Darlington Chidarara, an energy law expert. While tenders have been tilted towards politically-connected people, Chidarara said that it was important for tenders to be won on the basis of competitiveness. “If we want to progress, then that is the major issue, the tendering process. It has to be competitive bidding, and not a few people who are politically connected getting tender when they do not have a track record or when they do not have the capacity to run these projects,” Chidarara told The NewsHawks. There have been several other illicit tender processes which have raised public outcry. In September last year, Parliament found itself in the eye of a storm when leaked official communication revealed that it had awarded Blinart Investments (Private) Limited a tender to supply 173 laptops for a total of US$1 602 755.77, translating to US$9 200 per gadget. Mid-End Computers and Hardware Ltd was awarded a tender to supply 79 desktops valued at US$3 000 each. Treasury quickly cancelled the inflated tender and blacklisted the companies involved. In a statement dated 23 September, clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda (pictured) released a statement blaming Parliament staffers for the “corrupt deal”. In February this year, the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) called for an immediate audit into government ministries, departments and agencies as revelations show millions of dollars could have been lost to corruption scandals during the Covid-19 pandemic. This came after government ministries had failed to account for their procurement processes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings by PAC showed that the ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare is yet to account for a ZW$89 022 103 windfall meant to cushion vulnerable people affected by effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The report availed to The NewsHawks  showed that some of the allowances processed through the NetOne platform in July 2020 for 873 beneficiaries at ZW$300 each had not been collected from Buhera and Umzingwane District Social Welfare offices, which is said to have been caused by poor record keeping by the department. In another instance, the same address was used by over 1 107 beneficiaries, making it difficult to track them. According to the committee, the ministry has been showing lack of seriousness in dealing with the issues. Senior government officials have also been mired in high-level tender scandals. In 2021, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Paul Mavima and National Social Security Authority (Nssa) top executives are entangled in a murky ZW$400 million (US$4.8 million) National Building Society (NBS) tender for the construction of 500 housing units in Harare’s Dzivaresekwa suburb, casting a long shadow of corruption over the housing scheme. More acolytes, embroiled in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s web have also been sanctioned on accusations of milking state funds through dubious state contracts and tenders. In December last year, the United States slapped sanctions on Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son Emmerson Jr, and business tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei’s wife Sandra Mpunga, Nqobile Magwizi, Obey Chimuka and Fossil Contracting. The individuals were placed on the reviewed list for their links to Tagwirei, who was sanctioned in 2020 on accusations of using his wealth to cultivate relationships with high-level government officials while receiving state contracts and access to hard currency in exchange for luxury items. Tagwirei’s Landela Investments reportedly purchased buses for Zupco at US$58 900 and sold them for inflated prices of US$212 962 each, prejudicing the country of funds. Controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo Dubious tenders must fall away

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 41 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 nificance to the local people. It was his "final display of power, a deliberate and calculated act... of domination," said the activist. Zimbabwe's ex-strongman Robert Mugabe, who took the reins from independence from Britain in 1980, saw no reason to remove Rhodes's remains. But Marangwanda has been energised by the current president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who "understands the significance, the heritage aspect of the debate". Even so, more than five years after Mnangagwa came to power, there is no indication of movement on the issue — or consensus on where the remains would go. The economic benefits accruing from the tourism do not hold water for Marangwanda. "Matobo is such a beautiful landscape, it doesn't need this colonial grave," to attract foreign visitors, she stressed. The presence of the grave in Zimbabwe is an "insult to our very existence as a people," said historian and co-founder of Rhodes-Must-Fall campaign Tafadzwa Gwini (33). Exhuming the remains "is a form of reclaiming our identity as a people," insists Gwini. Yet some visitors simply don't understand the outrage around the grave. "I brought my kids. I also came here as a kid," said a 45-year-old white Zimbabwean, Nicky Johnson. "History shouldn't be tampered with. He wanted to be buried here, that's how it should be". Akhil Maugi (28), who lives from nearby city of Bulawayo, shares similar sentiments. "You can't erase what happened. No one would come here if this grave was gone," he said. Pathisa Nyathi, a 71-year-old local historian, points out that it was "the grandeur of the rocks" that made it a "holy site" that once attracted pilgrims from neighbouring countries. The "pre-eminent shrine" in the region "was sacred to Africans" but not to Rhodes, said Nyathi. Opposition MP and ex-education minister David Coltart, who regularly cycles in Matobo park, brings some humour to the debate saying "I must say Rhodes had an incredible eye for real estate". Exiting the park, is a roadside market selling T-shirts, woven baskets and carved animals to tourists. A little further is a village with a few houses. Micah Sibanda (82) stands barefoot, leaning on a walking stick, overlooking a few cows. Rhodes's grave is "important" to the villagers because it attracts visitors who in turn buy crafts "and we get some money to send our kids to school...get food and clothing," said Sibanda. If the grave is removed it "will be very painful for us". After all, Sibanda said, the white visitors are also coming "to pay respects to their own ancestor." — AFP. British colonialist Cecil Rhodes's grave problem for Zimbabweans GERSENDE RAMBOURG IT is a sacred hill where for centuries Zimbabweans would go to consult their ancestors. It is also where the notorious British coloniser Cecil John Rhodes chose to be his final resting place. The white supremacist died more than 120 years ago in South Africa aged 48 after carving out swathes of territory for the British Empire. Part of the land grab, later named Rhodesia in his honour, included modern Zambia and Zimbabwe. Nestled in the Matobo National Park, his grave is simple, with "Here lie the remains of Cecil John Rhodes" engraved on it. Part of the younger generation wants his remains removed to rid the country of the last vestiges of colonialism. But the grave attracts tourists who bring much-needed income for surrounding villages — and many local people oppose any exhumation. Located atop a steep hill immersed in lush vegetation, a short climb is necessary to reach the grave, which is surrounded by imposing rocks rounded by erosion. The stones are covered in light green aniseed and orange lichens that brighten at the slightest touch of the sun. From the hilltop, visitors gaze at the vast expanse of trees around, where antelopes and warthogs roam. Clouds roll across the tranquil horizon while birds chirp in the silence. In neighbouring South Africa, students at the University of Cape Town launched a "RhodesMust-Fall" protest in 2015, initially to pull down Rhodes's statue at the campus. It later morphed into a global campaign, which saw Oxford University resisting calls to remove a statue of the politician — placing an explanatory panel next to it instead. Often described as a philanthropist but also an arch-racist, Rhodes dreamt of a British Africa from Cape Town to Cairo, with the blessing of Queen Victoria. Cynthia Marangwanda (37), from Harare, is enraged by the presence of Rhodes' grave. She believes he chose that site because he knew its spiritual sigCecil John Rhodes's grave in Matopo National Park.

Page 42 Reframing Issues NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 WANGUI KIMARI/ZOLTÁN GLÜCK A WORLD without the police is inconceivable to many people. The police are viewed as part of modern society’s foundation, ensuring democracy and keeping people safe. In practice, however, police around the world sometimes repress  social movements, stifle  democracy, and exacerbate social and racial injustice. Across the African continent, they often use force to prop up repressive regimes. And in Kenya in particular,  extortion  and  extrajudicial killings by the police are rampant. Kenya is unusual for its extensive attempts to reform the police. Reform efforts began in earnest in 2008, when the police were found to be complicit in post-election violence. And yet, after 15 years and billions of shillings spent, the police reform project has largely failed. The Kenyan police remain repressive, unaccountable and effectively unreformable. Many citizens complain about how the police treat them like ATMs — a source of cash. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the police  killed tens of Kenyans  while enforcing curfew measures. Given such failures, we posed the question: are the Kenya police obsolete? We’ve conducted hundreds of interviews, discussion groups and over a decade of ethnographic research into how  counter-terrorist policing  and  securitisation  have shaped  Nairobi. And in turn, how local residents respond to police violence and build their own practices of care, mutual aid and security. We have come to the conclusion that the police make most people feel less safe. Many residents told us they don’t depend on the police for their safety: they keep each other safe. Given the impasse of police reform — and citizen responses to this — there is a strong argument to be made for the abolition of the Kenyan police altogether. Policing at an impasse Modern police institutions made their first appearances on the African continent as part of colonisation and the expansion of European capitalist interests. In Kenya, the roots of policing lie in early colonial “conquest”. The Imperial British East African Company developed security forces to protect its expanding economic interests in the 1890s, and the  Kenya-Uganda Railroad  developed its own police force in 1902. After Kenya’s independence in 1963, the police were “Africanised” but retained much of their  colonial character. Under  Daniel arap Moi’s authoritarian regime  (1978-2002), the police continued to play a key role in repressing dissent. There have been calls to reform the Kenyan police for decades. But the  2007-08 post-election violence, in which police were complicit in widespread ethnic violence, accelerated attempts at reform. Over the past 15 years, police reform has been enshrined in the 2010 constitution and actualised in numerous acts of parliament. It’s been supported internationally with  funding and technical expertise from the UN, the US and the EU, among others. It prompted the  reorganisation of the police service  and the establishment of civil oversight mechanisms. Yet, despite all of these efforts, the Kenyan police  remain corrupt, violent and unaccountable. Civilian oversight over the police has proved ineffectual. The Independent Policing Oversight Agency has managed to bring only 12 cases of police violence to conviction out of more than 20,000 complaints received between 2012 and 2021. That is only one out of every 1 667 complaints. The under-resourced agency simply can’t grapple with the immense volume of reported police abuses. The case for abolition Police reform has failed. Is it time to consider abolition? Abolition is not about simply tearing things down, but rather asking what should exist in place of outdated and violent systems that no longer serve people. Abolition is a  creative  and  constructive project  with deep philosophical roots. So why abolish the Kenya police? • The police are functionally obsolete for most Kenyans. In many low-income neighbourhoods, our research shows that people avoid calling the police to respond to crises or crimes. For many, experience shows that the police can make matters worse. • The police often exacerbate insecurity, violence and  corruption. To provide for their own safety, residents increasingly organise themselves into networks  of friends, family and neighbours for basic safety. For instance, women in Mathare, Nairobi,  organise their own security practices, which include conflict resolution, de-escalation of violence and support for survivors. • In more affluent neighbourhoods, residents increasingly rely on private companies to provide  security in their compounds. Police are seen as one among  many security services  available for hire. In our research, the few positive experiences with the Kenyan police were reported (predominantly) by such affluent residents. • The remaining function of the police is “enforcing order” and protecting the state against society. Officers uphold and protect a rarefied governing class and political elite against the population. Police abolition, therefore, would mean dismantling ineffective and repressive institutions and replacing them with  systems of actual safety, systems that enable society to thrive. What should replace the police? When confronted with the idea of “abolition” for the first time, many people often respond: “but who will keep us safe?” In Nairobi, the answer is to be found in existing social practices. The problem is that there’s a lack of resources to support alternatives to punitive security. We call for defunding the police and investing these resources in such alternatives. 1. Invest in communities. When we ask about local security problems, residents often answer that the lack of schools, food, land, quality housing, water, electricity, toilets, healthcare and safe places for kids to play are what cause “insecurity”. Reinvestment in community means funding such social infrastructure to allow people to thrive. This reduces  crime and violence. 2. Invest in alternative safety mechanisms.  This means strengthening dispute-resolution mechanisms that help resolve conflicts without violence. The government needs to support existing  social justice centres,  networks  and movements fighting for change. When these forms of social reinvestment are pursued, the need for the police is greatly diminished. — The Conversation. *About the writers: Wangui Kimari is an anthropologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Zoltán Glück is assistant professor of anthropology at American University in the United States. Police officers pursue Azimio protesters in Kisumu. Kenya’s police are violent, unaccountable and make most citizens feel less safe

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 43 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 Legal remedies to Zim state when responding to human rights issues MATTHEW MARE LEGAL remedies to the state when responding to human rights concerns refer. African independent churches (AIC) s' practices, rituals, teachings and beliefs have over the years drawn scholarly attention in terms of when secular rights are applicable in the religious sphere. The Johanne Marange Apostolic Church (JMAC) has theologically established some practices, rituals and teachings which are viewed to be a violation of the rights of women and children by virtue of them being inconsistent with the constitution of Zimbabwe. These theological practices, teachings and rituals are being challenged in the rise of global criminal law codification and rise in feminism culminating from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There has been a growing demand first by feminists, and now by the general populace, for third-generation rights to safeguard women and children’s rights, especially the girl child, in all spheres of life. In JMAC women and children are not being accorded the three generational rights, namely: first, second and third generation rights and the most common ones being the right to life, quality health, education and free determination in the social, economic, political and religious sphere. The laws pertaining to the rights of children and women seem not to be of paramount importance to the Zimbabwean government as the law enforcers and lawmakers are seemingly turning a blind eye to cases of abuse of women and children in JMAC. AICs are an important voting constituency in Zimbabwe. The government is thus a political beneficiary of AICs, resulting in political parties stampeding for political support and negating their duty to eradicate human rights abuses emanating therefrom. There is glaring evidence that children and women’s rights are being violated in the church. It appears in Zimbabwe political interests of the state override any other rights. The state is very quick to notice and even respond when the citizens' rights are violated, especially in cases where its political interests are at stake. The same principle is not being applied to the human rights considerations despite the fact that the state has a legal duty to promote and protect the rights of the general citizenry. There is a sense in which JMAC and the state believe that human rights are foreign and do not safeguard its interests. There are human rights concerns against the state and the church, further that the state is under Western sanctions for violating human rights. The constitution is very clear that whenever there are concerns of human rights abuses, the state can institute a commission of inquiry in order to investigate, account and recommend. The commission at law is appointed by the President from people of high integrity. Of note to this study is that the Zimbabwean government has instituted a number of commissions of inquiry in line with constitutional provisions as set out in chapter 12, section 232 and section 242 (Constitution of Zimbabwe, Amendment 20 Act, 2013, sections 242, 232:95,92). This section deals with the establishment of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and section 245 on the Zimbabwe Gender Commission to respond to the human rights concerns from any section of society. Notably, the academic fraternity, non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations have on numerous occasions raised a red flag. Since 1936 when JMAC was founded, the government of Zimbabwe is yet to establish a commission of inquiry into alleged abuses of women and children in JMAC. The outcome of the commission would help to respond to allegations of gross human rights violations of women and children in JMAC. The theology of JMAC teaches that members of the church must not accept to appear before secular courts. There is a lot of evidence pointing at congregants who would disappear, evade arrest, fight the law enforcement agencies (The Herald, 28 April 2003: 13, The Herald, May 10: 2003, Ashcroft et al 2007:125). This evidence points to resistance by the church to secular authority. The majority of human rights violations collapse due to lack of evidence and unwillingness by the victims to stand before secular courts. This is perhaps due to the fact that they are mostly illiterate, lack exposure to secular laws and courts, lack resources to hire lawyers to defend their rights and the fear of being excommunicated from the church or expelled from home for exposing the church and the family. Since the recruitment in JMAC runs within family links, expulsions from the family imply that no family can accept you for fear of breaking the church rule. Meanwhile, the ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare does not have adequate resources to safeguard the livelihood of the victims. To add on, the majority of human rights violations lack evidence due to unwillingness by the members to co-operate because the theology of JMAC teaches that the state is a domain of Satan. The failure by victims to cooperate is an issue that the state must find ways of crafting victim friendly policies. The only evidence on the abuse of women and children in JMAC is scholarly work and reports by the non-state actors. This type of evidence cannot sustain prosecution, since there must be prima facie evidence to enable successful prosecution. The hobius corpus principle demands that the person must be physically present in a court of law. The right to be heard principle demands that both parties must be given their right to be heard in a court of law. Since the major challenge in JMAC is child marriages or statutory rape, it means Zimbabwe is faced with a challenge of child friendly courts if it is to secure prosecution. Rape cases are one of the most delicate cases which usually take up to two or three years to be completed. To add on, with the high-level of corruption and political interference in the judiciary system, successful prosecution is now very difficult and expensive to secure. The case of Dr Munyaradzi Kereke is a classic example where the minor’s rights were undermined due to political interference and was only prosecuted after Charles Warara applied for private prosecution. Meanwhile, rape cases require examination and cross examination and in the absent of cooperation by the victim, it is very difficult to secure prosecution. The church’s doctrine is limiting cooperation by victims who usually run from investigative officers. In light of what was discussed above, no victim from JMAC will likely report abuse. The problem being faced by the government of Zimbabwe is to dismiss the occurrence of human rights abuses on the basis of non-availability of victims. The state must study the level of indoctrination by the church which makes it difficult for the victims to voluntarily admit and cooperate. Under-age marriages and rape cases are taken very seriously if the victim is on the forefront, which leaves one to wonder if the government of Zimbabwe is waiting for women and children in the JMAC to report abuses for the constitution to be invoked. According to an African Union communique in 2014, about 14 million adolescent and teen girls are married, almost always forced into the arrangement by their parents (African Union Communique, 2014:1). The Multiple Indicator Cluster report of 2014 indicated that child marriages in Zimbabwe stood at 32.8%. This translates to about one in three women and less than 1 in 20 (3.7%) Johane Marange Apostolic Church of men aged 20-49 who were first married or in union before age of 18 years (Zimbabwe Multiple Indicator Cluster: 2014:35-36). The state is empowered at law to limit rights which it feels must be curtailed and this is done in Zimbabwe through section 86, the General Limitation Clause. With the human rights concerns that churches are abusing women and children, section 60 which give churches unlimited rights can be limited under section 86 which is the General Limitation Clause 242 (Constitution of Zimbabwe, Amendment 20 Act, 2013, sections 60, 86:30,40). Whenever the state feels that an entity might abuse their given rights, it limits that right under the General Limitations Clause. However, this does not apply to laws under the Bill of Rights that are protected under the doctrine of abrogation. Section 60 which gives legal status to churches is not covered under the Bill of Rights. Therefore, it can be limited under General Limitations Clause Section 86 of the Constitution (ibid, 2013:30,40). The General Limitations Clause is found in section 86 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment number 20 of 2013242 (Constitution of Zimbabwe, Amendment 20 Act, 2013, Section 86:40). The government of Zimbabwe has limited a number of freedoms, for example section 56, the right to demonstrate and petition (Constitution of Zimbabwe, Amendment 20 Act, 2013, Section 59:30). The constitution set conditions under which the right to demonstrate and petition can be enjoyed. The constitution states that the right must be enjoyed or exercised peacefully. Of note to this study is that section 60 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment number 20 of 2013 did not limit religious rights as if to confirm that churches in Zimbabwe are not a legal persona and that they are immune to the laws of the country. The rights are not just enjoyed but they must have a corresponding obligation. Of note, also to this study, is section 60 (3) which give parents and guardians of a minor the right to determine in accordance with their beliefs, the moral and religious upbringing of their children. The constitution went on to cite only four rights that parents cannot religiously deprive their children, namely: education, health, safety and welfare (Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment 20 Act, 2013, Section 60:30). The JMAC is not according any of the four key rights and yet the state is taking no action. *About the writer: Matthew Mare is a Zimbabwean academic who holds two bachelor’s degrees, five master’s qualifications and a PhD. He is also doing another PhD and has 12 executive certificates in different fields. Professionally, he is a civil servant and also board member at the National Aids Council of Zimbabwe.

Page 44 Reframing Issues NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023 ADMORE TSHUMA THE economic mismanagement claim may be another key factor in trying to understand what caused mass poverty in Zimbabwe. Economic mismanagement is perhaps the most conceivable cause of Zimbabwe’s prolonged economic decline. It is also linked to market responses to the disregard of property rights by the Zimbabwean government when it ignored the “violent” invasion of white farmland by black veterans of the liberation struggle. The abolishment of property rights characterised the controversial land reform programme, and may have been a major cause of poverty creation in Zimbabwe. The National Social Security Authority (Nssa) report (2013) reveals that Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector has been struggling to recover from the impact of the land reform programme, which may have violated property rights and disrupted land ownership and tenure. The argument is that through a haphazard land reform programme, president Robert Mugabe’s government developed economic policies that undermined the principle of private property. The principle of private property is critical to economic development, hence any violation could mean economic backslide. Up to this day, there is a persistent view that Mugabe used white farmland as weapon against the opposition in his quest to hang on to power, hence his government abolished property rights to pave way for invasion of white farms. This view is shared by Cross (2012) who argues that: The problem was that the new regime destroyed property rights in their efforts to perpetuate their hold on the state and maintain their privileges and patronage rights (Cross, 2012.p4). Consequently, the abolishment of property rights was a harbinger for economic mismanagement, hence the two should be viewed in one genre of analysis. For instance, O'Driscoll & Hoskins (2003) argue that prosperity and property rights are inextricably linked. They point out that process of weighing costs and benefits produces what economists call efficient outcomes, which translates into higher standards of living for all. Hence, the low standard of living currently being experienced by most of Zimbabweans is linked to an incompetent black economic manager who unwittingly failed to identify the link between economic growth and property rights. For, it is the abolishment of property rights, coupled with economic mismanagement that set the trigger, inflamed the decline in welfare, and caused avoidable deaths such as the 4 000 who died of cholera. Furthermore, Zimbabwe’s processes of economic mismanagement, linked to the abolishment of property rights has also led to lack of investment in human capital. No wonder why the Nssa report (2013) states that the period between July 2011 to July 2013 shows that 711 companies in Harare closed down, rendering 8 336 individuals jobless. Major companies that were retrenching included Platinum Miners, Zimplats and Unki, Bindura Nickel, Spar supermarkets, Dairibord, Cairns, Olivine Industries and PG Industries. This section has attempted to demonstrate an existing link between the abolishment of property rights and rise of poverty. Missing diamonds Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields are estimated to be one of the world's richest diamond deposits' this century (Stockhouse, 2013). However, production from Marange is controversial due to missing revenues realised from the sale of the diamonds. What should have been an opportunity for redemption for a country that is sinking into poverty and bankruptcy after years of chaos that saw world record inflation, the discovery of Marange diamonds in eastern Zimbabwe is turning out to be a further curse for the embattled former British colony. Greed, corruption and exploitation on a grand scale including the use of forced labour, both adults and children – horrifying human rights abuses, brutal killings, degradation of the environment and the massive enrichment of a select few (Sokwanele, 2011, p2). Stockhouse.com is a global hub for investors to find relevant financial news, access expert analysis and opinion and share knowledge and information with each other. According to the global hub for investors, Stockhouse (2013) despite being an impoverished country: ... some Zimbabweans are awash in money, judging by the Mercedes-Benzes parked at a country club and the private woodland estate with artificial lake and mansion built by the nation's police chief. Stockhouse (2013) observes that the wealth of the country is enjoyed by just a few, at least in part, from the vast Marange diamond field that was exposed by an earth tremor in 2006. Stockhouse (2013) states that eastern Zimbabwe's diamond fields are the biggest ever found in Africa for a century, worth billions of dollars. Furthermore, a 2013 bipartisan parliamentary investigation concluded that tens of millions of dollars in diamond earnings are missing from 2012 alone. The report highlights corruption, bribery of senior officials, smuggling and so on. President Mugabe himself has bemoaned corruption, in particular when he publicly accused one of his top mining officials of accepting a US$6 million bribe from Ghanaian investors to obtain diamond mining rights in Marange (Mugabe parliamentary speech, 2013). However, the discovery of diamonds in Zimbabwe should have been a step forward towards efforts to address absolute poverty in Zimbabwe. Colonialism The question of colonial imprint remains heavily implicated in the Zimbabwean poverty story. However, colonialism and its legacy may not be the central problem, Mismanagement versus property rights

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 45 Issue 124, 24 March 2023 but remains a contributing factor. The dehumanising of the colonised black Africans had an intergenerational negative impact on black peoples. This was fostered by the colonisers’ successful attempt to mischaracterise colonised races as biologically inferior, and in some cases there was “screwed up” scientific proof as evidence. The issue of racial prejudice may have created deep-seated anger among black Africans, including other colonised societies, be it in Asia. Gould (1996) shares this view, arguing that the subsequent biological justification of “inferior” blacks imposed an additional burden of intrinsic inferiority upon despised groups. The view being propounded is that colonialism was inherently racist, and sought to destroy the humanity within the colonised groups. It sought to destroy the existing social structures, replacing them with the racist structures which were designed to prevent colonised groups from succeeding as fully paid-up members of the human race. However, the problem arises when those countries that were not colonised, such as Thailand, appear to be no better off than Malaysia or Singapore next door (Kristof, 2010). Furthermore, Kristof, (2010) observes that Liberia, which was not formally colonised, appear to be in the same league of problems with neighbouring Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone. Another example is Ethiopia which was not entirely colonised yet the country is not better than other wholly colonised African countries. Redress policies This section will explore potential means in which Zimbabwe could address the problem of absolute poverty. The section considers two important transformative models, namely the growth-centred model and the redistributive developmental model. The thought of transformative remedies contra to affirmative remedies makes more logic for the Zimbabwean story of injustice. Poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon that requires a wide range of solutions for a wide range of problems (Gordon et al, 2004). This view clarifies the transformative remedies two-model approach proposed in this analysis which is merely a reflection of the scale of the Zimbabwean problem. A growth-centred model, as propounded by Srinivasan (1992), could be a useful approach for social transformation and revival of the Zimbabwean economy. Contextually, through the growth-centred model, policymakers may be able to identify processes that could underpin more effective policies for reducing poverty. Fakir (2007) asserts that in countries with high levels of inequality, the state has no option but to embark on a developmental agenda. Fakir observes that unequal countries trying to address the inequalities must concede to their underdeveloped constituencies, or risk social instability. The second model is the developmental state model propounded by Polanyi (1946). He argues that the approach represents a progressive state focussing on the role of the economy. In this case the economic imperative is less important than social and political objectives. Mkandawire (2001) identifies three key attributes of a developmental state. First, it has an ideological hegemony, and Mkandawire (2001), observes that this helps the state’s ideas to predominate. Second, Mkandawire (2001), argues that a developmental state must have the technical, administrative, institutional and political capacity and power to implement its economic policies. In the Zimbabwean context, this could help address corruption that has become endemic in the government. It may also help in identifying technical expertise required for the country to be able to deal with mass poverty while creating effective state and private institutions that are focussed on dealing with poverty. For these transformative models to function effectively, there must be autonomy by those charged with the task of restructuring the status quo. The idea is to afford them to act in the best interests of its citizens without being constrained, consequently this could mean cracking down on corruption and putting in place structures that seek to redress absolute poverty. These may include introducing minimum wage, protective labour laws, grants for children and those over 65, including a job seekers' allowance. The two transformative models are imperative for Zimbabwe, thus to redistribute income and wealth, and to increase the government’s revenues, to enable the country deal with the backlog of development such as building schools and clinics including financing state institutions such as the health delivery system. Conclusion This paper has attempted to explore forces of injustice that have created poverty in post-colonial Zimbabwe. The notion of absolute poverty in Zimbabwe includes a variety of burning issues contributing to the poverty problem. Most of these issues cause considerable suffering to Zimbabwean citizens. The study has demonstrated that a large proportion of the population may score highly on the scale of personal hardships. For instance, the paper has identified a direct link between Zimbabwe government’s expropriations of commercial farmlands with absolute poverty currently being experienced in Zimbabwe. It is the controversial expropriation of white farmland that has relegated Zimbabwe to become utterly dependent on aid from “white European states”, the country purports to so loathe. Supporters of the Zimbabwean government may argue that sanctions were the main cause of the absolute poverty. However, this view is problematic in the sense that the interconnectedness of the world through processes of globalisation reject the hostile economic environment resulting from the government’s violent land reforms and disregard of property rights. In a modern market economy, market forces spontaneously react against countries where there is no rule of law. Furthermore, conventional wisdom has taught us that market reactions produce goods scarcity and devaluation of national currencies which is the basis of mass poverty. Henceforth, it can be asserted that eradicating poverty in Zimbabwe is an achievable goal, but corruption and lack of political will is hindering meaningful efforts to end it. With all this in mind, maldistribution of basic resources in Zimbabwe is generated by blackon-black post-colonial forms of injustice. This takes many forms such bad governance, tyranny and corrupt rule. *About the writer: Dr Admore Tshuma is a former Zimbabwean journalist, now an academic at the University of Bristol. He did his PhD in Social Policy at the University of Bristol’s School for Policy Studies. He previously worked at the University Centre of Southend as a programme director for the BSc (Hons) Psychology and Sociology course, in partnership with the University of Essex. Bikita Minerals

Page 46 Reframing Issues WILLIAM J. MPOFU WELL before the war, the Singaporean diplomat and scholar Kishore Mahbubani described how the “world has turned a corner” and why “the West has lost it” in trying to maintain its economic and political dominion by any means necessary and some means unnecessary. Power is shifting under the feet of a young and fragile Euro-American Empire that will not lose power peacefully, hence the spirited desire to force another unipolar world that is without China and Russia as powers. Taiwan and Ukraine are the chosen sites where the Euro-American establishment is prepared to militarily confront its threatening rivals. That “from AD1 to 1820, the two largest economies were always those of China and India” and that “only in that period did Europe take off followed by America” is little understood. That the Euro-American Empire has not been the first and it will not be the last empire is little understood by the champions of the New World Order that will cling to a dangerous fantasy of their unipolar world that Francis Fukuyama much mistakenly declared as “the end of history and the last man” in 1989. A world ruled by the West, led by the United States of America and its European allies, had arrived and was here to stay in the enchanting prophecy of Fukuyama.  Ensuing history, 9/11 amongst other catastrophic events, and the present war in Ukraine were to prove Fukuyama’s dream a horrific nightmare. Mahbubani predicts that the short-lived rise and power of the Euro-American Empire has “come to a natural end, and that is happening now.” It seems to be happening expensively if the costs in human life, to the climate and in big dollars are to be counted. The expensive Euro-American investment in the war in Ukraine and the reduction of Ukraine to a burnt offering to be sacrificed arises from the fear of loss of power and desire to maintain economic, political, and military dominion in a fiercely contested world that can no longer be a dominion of one Empire. While on the one hand we have a terrified Euro-American Empire fearing a humiliating return to oblivion and powerlessness, on the other hand we have the reality of an angry China and Russia, carrying the burden of many decades of geopolitical humiliation, and do not wish to remain there, Chinese took to the streets to demonstrate against the Japanese government's purchase of contested islands. but want to be part of the leadership of that New World Order whose price clearly appears to be much New World Disorder. Why it is not obvious that the future world will be a world shared by empires and not dominated by a singular all-powerful empire may boggle and African mind that is looking at and judging world power from below, from the underside of history. In its form and content, not only for Africa, but for the whole world this New World Disorder is too ghastly to ponder. Graham Allison pondered it in 2015 and came up with the alarming observation that “war between the US and China is more likely than recognised at the moment” because the two powerful countries have fallen into the Thucydides Trap. The ancient Greek historian Thucydides described the trap when he narrated how war becomes next to impossible when a ruling power is confronted by a rival rising power that threatens it dominion. Thucydides had witnessed how the growing power and prosperity of Athens threatened Sparta in ancient Greece driving the two powers to war. The political and historical climate between China and the US captures the charged political temperatures that punctuated the relations between an entitled and proud Sparta that was confronted with the growth and anger of a frightening Athens. Allison, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School, has  popularised  the phrase Thucydides Trap to explain the likelihood of conflict between a rising power and a currently dominant one. This is based on the famous quote from Thucydides: “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this inspired in Sparta that made war inevitable.” This usage has even spread to Chinese President Xi Jinping who  said:  “We all need to work together to avoid the Thucydides trap — destructive tensions between an emerging power and established powers …Our aim is to foster a new model of major country relations.” However, those like Allison who talk about a Thucydides Trap only capture half the meaning of the  History of The Peloponnesian War.  The true trap is countries going into, and continuing, war clouded by passions like fear, hubris and honour. For the US and China to escape the Thucydides Trap that is drawing both superpowers to war, “tremendous effort” is required of both parties and their allies. The effort is mainly in mustering the emotional stamina to see and to know that the world is going to be a shared place where there must never be one centre of power. That political, economic and military diversity is natural, and the world must be a decolonial Pentecostal place where those of different identities, and competing interests, can share power and space, is the beginning of the political wisdom that can guarantee peace. Xi seems to have read Allison’s warning about the Thucydides Trap that envelopes China and the US because on a visit to Seattle he was recorded as saying: “There is no such thing as the so-called Thucydides Trap in the world. But should major countries time and again make the mistakes of strategic miscalculation, they might make such traps for themselves.” The world is sinking deeper into new disorder and violence because rival powers cannot resist the Thucydides Trap and keep repeating “strategic miscalculations” based on their will to power and desire for global dominion. The problem with China, the Athens of our present case, that troubles the US as the Sparta of the moment is that, as Allison observes, “China wants to be China and accepted as such — not as an honorary member of the West.” The problem with world powers, yesterday and today, seems to be that they cannot live with difference. In fact, political, economic and cultural differences are quickly turned from competition to conflict, from opposition to total enmity. How to translate antagonism to agonism, and to move from being enemies to being respectful adversaries that can exist alongside each other in a conflictual, but shared world is a small lesson that seems to elude big powers whose ego-politics drives their geopolitics into a kind of militarised lunacy. Observing from Africa, one can hazard the view that big powers might be small and slow learners, after all.  The death-drive of the superpowers is driven by the desire to force other countries, including other powers, to be “more like us” when they are formidably determined to be themselves. To break out of the Thucydides Trap and avoid war, for instance, the US has to generate and sustain enough emotional stamina to live with the strong truth that China is a 5 000-year-old civilisation with close to 1.5 billion people and in its recent rise is only returning to glory and not coming from the blue sky. And that the world has to be shared with China and other powers, and countries. *About the writer: Dr William Jethro Mpofu is a Zimbabwean-born researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in South Africa. Thucydides Trap: Destined for war NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023

Reframing Issues Page 47 ANDREW SHENG/XIAO GENG With the global economy teetering on the edge of a financial crisis, it is time for emerging-market and developing economies to revise their development strategies. By adopting a bottom-up approach that empowers communities, policymakers could define and achieve realistic socioeconomic and environmental goals. THE world is in the midst of a global permacrisis. As interrelated shocks — the war in Ukraine, the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, the escalating US-China rivalry, climate change, and a looming financial meltdown — threaten to engulf the world’s great powers, it is time for emerging-market and developing economies (EMDEs) to revisit and revise their development strategies. After the end of World War II, development economists emphasised decolonisation, alternative growth models, and strengthening state mechanisms to rein in markets. But over the past four decades, the neoliberal trade framework — underpinned by the Bretton Woods institutions and the Washington Consensus — did away with many of these state capacities in favor of market-oriented growth with minimal government intervention. The Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 shook confidence in the Washington Consensus, and the 2008 global financial crisis led some development economists to abandon it altogether. At the same time, economists have begun to look beyond GDP growth, broadening the concept of development goals to include gender equality, environmental sustainability, happiness, and diversity. For a while at least, the spectacular rise of the Brics economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — seemed to offer a compelling alternative to the neoliberal development framework. But conflicting ideologies and approaches have left economists unable to agree on a new paradigm. To address diverse goals, development economics has become increasingly multi-disciplinary. By incorporating insights from various other social sciences, as well as from ecology and other life sciences, development scholars have been trying to devise alternative, more holistic economic models. But reimagining the economy, as Harvard economists Dani Rodrik and Gordon Hanson  have argued, also requires shedding outdated assumptions. Having said that, there is no one-size-fits-all development model. Economies are complex systems shaped by a dizzying array of interactions between individuals, communities, societies, states, and global structures. These constantReimagining development ly shifting local and international contexts generate unpredictable outcomes that cannot be easily explained by simple, seemingly elegant theories. In short, EMDEs must adapt to a fast-changing world in which achieving a universal development agenda is no longer possible. Devising holistic and practical development strategies suitable for this new reality requires systems thinking and a new philosophical framework. For example, consider the complex challenges facing the world’s 38 small island developing states (SIDS), whose share of the world’s population is just under 0.2%. Individually, these countries, which account for 0.1% of global GDP, look minuscule in terms of land, economic output, and population size. But including their maritime exclusive economic zones (EEZ), they collectively occupy 21 million square kilometres (8.1 million square miles). If they were a single country, it would be the world’s second largest, just behind Russia. The fact that they account for one-fifth of the United Nations members and 8.7% of the world’s combined EEZ and land area gives SIDS geopolitical clout, with larger countries regularly courting their UN votes and maritime access. The  growing tensions  between the United States and China over the strategically important Solomon Islands are a case in point. But SIDS are highly vulnerable to external shocks. The pandemic crushed the tourism industry, which accounts for most of these countries’ exports, causing SIDS’ combined GDP to contract by 6.9% in 2020, compared to the average decline of 4.8% in other developing countries. SIDS are also increasingly threatened by rising sea levels. For example, 77% of the Maldives’ land area  is expected to be underwater by the end of the century. The scarcity of usable land, small populations, and limited capital constrain SIDS’ development prospects. With services accounting for half their GDP, no significant manufacturing or agricultural activity, and few oil and gas resources, SIDS’ economies are extremely vulnerable to rising prices for consumer goods and energy. One area where SIDS could have a comparative advantage is digital services. But first they must invest in high-quality technology infrastructure and in creating a workforce skilled in information and communications technologies. Mobile broadband subscriptions rose from one-quarter of the population in 2014 to almost half by 2018, but lag behind the world average by 22 percentage points. If SIDS wish to develop new sources of sustainable income, governments must devote considerable resources to upgrading their education systems, particularly their science, math, and creative arts curricula. As we have previously argued, a bottom-up approach to sustainable development, underpinned by community-level consensus and powered by nonprofit social enterprises, is preferable to top-down strategies. Mainstream development economics’ focus on creating economies of scale has fostered concentrations of state and market power, generated social and environmental injustices, and helped fuel the current populist backlash. Without reaching a broad social consensus and empowering grassroots communities, polarization will intensify further, undermining developing countries’ ability to achieve the UN  Sustainable Development Goals. By embracing technology and modern management techniques, SIDS could harness the power of communities to drive sustainable socioeconomic development. Shifting from a top-down design to a bottom-up approach would enable small communities to empower themselves. This would ultimately strengthen developing countries’ national economies and the global economy as well. Reimagining development economics is not about socialism versus capitalism. Rather, it is about thinking systemically and acting locally, thereby enabling economies and communities to define, experiment, and achieve their own aspirations while still benefiting from relevant global knowledge. — Project Syndicate. *About the writers: Andrew Sheng is a distinguished fellow at the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong. Xiao Geng, chairperson of the Hong Kong Institution for International Finance, is a professor and director of the Institute of Policy and Practice at the Shenzhen Finance Institute at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shenzhen, China. NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023

Page 48 Africa News JOHN J. STREMLAU CHINA'S foreign ministry published a 4 000-word analysis entitled  US Hegemony and its Perils on 20 February. It is an indictment of alleged US foreign interference, intimidation and interventions that began 200 years ago. This was followed by President Xi Jinping’s  accusation  during the Communist Party National Congress in March that the US was pursuing an  unprecedented  global policy to contain and suppress Chinese development. US official reaction to the Chinese accusations has been muted. But the recent US shooting down of an alleged Chinese spy balloon  escalated tensions. There are fears that escalating US-Chinese tensions  might threaten the independence of African and other non-aligned nations. This essay seeks to contribute to an overdue debate among Africans about how to avoid being entangled in US-China global rivalry, while maintaining productive partnerships with both nations. It draws on my many years of teaching and research on Africa’s changing international relations. I hope it will encourage other scholars and policy makers across Africa to assess the hegemony statement in the light of their own interests and values. Finally, this essay is intended to encourage debate about what each topic realistically implies for Africa continent. The topics in the statement are: • political hegemony – (America) throwing its weight around • military hegemony – wanton use of force • economic hegemony – looting and exploitation • technological hegemony – monopoly and suppression • cultural hegemony – spreading false narratives. Although Chinese rhetoric is harsh, the initiatives and interactions of China and the US in Africa under each heading illustrate my general belief that their competition in Africa has been – and can be – both peaceful and productive. Political hegemony China’s indictment ranges from US efforts at hemispheric domination beginning in the early 19th century  to fomenting the  “colour revolutions”  – non-violent protests that overthrew autocratic regimes in the three post-Soviet republics Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. But, China’s vision of the US glosses over the volatility of US domestic politics. Domestic concerns can alter foreign policy, a leader’s ideology, and political and historical circumstances. Domestically, China too has undergone several political upheavals since the civil war that brought the Communist Party to power in 1949. If China underestimates US domestic swings, US analysts may exaggerate the global impact of Chinese internal pressures. During my election work for the Carter Centre in Africa, from 2006-2015, I was impressed by Chinese and American representatives able to seek common ground and learn from each other. At higher levels of diplomacy, China and the US have used summits with African leaders to set broad guidelines of cooperation in trade and investment, climate, public health, building infrastructure and other areas. These should help African leaders decide areas of comparative advantage for them, in dealing with the two major powers. The  Forum on China-Africa Cooperation  differs from US initiatives, the most recent being the US-Africa Partnership in Promoting Peace, Security, and Democratic Governance. Neither major power appears to me to harbour hegemonic presumptions, as African leaders test their abilities to be productively nonaligned. These high-level channels to both superpowers might yield more if African regional economic communities and the African Union made more concerted efforts to develop complementary and cumulative strategies for pressing African priorities. Extending the US African Growth and Opportunity Act to ensure favourable access to US markets is one example. Managing debt obligations for China’s important “Belt and Road” investments in African infrastructure is another. Military and economic hegemony The differences in what Africa had to contend with during the US-Soviet Cold War and today’s US-China rivalry are most pronounced in areas of military and economic hegemony. Neither China nor the US seem poised to use Africa to test political military resolve, as the US and Soviets did when they fought proxy wars in Angola during the 1970s, for example. African national and multilateral bodies should lobby China and America to back  African-led peace operations within African states. Globally, economic interdependence between China and the US will remain vital for sustained growth and prosperity for both nations. Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are committed to reviving their domestic economies. They both want greater equality, less corruption, and sustained growth. Neither appears to want or need to foment conflicts in Africa. African governments rightly pursue support from both China and the US for regional integration and cooperation, such as the African Continental Free Trade Area. Greater Chinese and US economic engagement in response to African collective appeals could also become a confidence building measure between China and the US. This rarely happened during the Cold War. Back then, the US was aligned with European colonial powers and the apartheid regime in South Africa. The Soviets  backed liberation forces. Today, such polarisation doesn’t exist. The Chinese statement on US hegemony rightly notes the US is plagued by domestic violence and has a history of failures in military interventions. [US analysts acknowledge] this. But US domestic resistance to new Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) with U.S President Joe Biden. foreign military adventures  became bipartisan and popular for the past decade. African nations should hold America and China to account for their avowed commitments to respecting core  UN principles  of sovereign equality and territorial integrity. Equally, they must hold Russia to account for blatantly violating those principles by invading Ukraine. Technological hegemony Benefits and risks of new technologies are well known. Communication, data retrieval and collection, and artificial intelligence bring both  promise and peril  that Africa must navigate carefully. This is becoming all the more pressing as progress in artificial intelligence  accelerates. Neither China nor the US need to be hegemonic in making available technologies that spur Africa’s development. More issues of contention need to be resolved with the help of scientists and scholars from China, US, and Africa. The availability of Huawei 5G is a  particularly contentious issue. Perhaps interested scientists and members of the African Research Universities Alliance could work with their Chinese and US counterparts to establish guidelines and mediation capabilities. Cultural hegemony US crimes against Africans began in earnest in  1619  with the  trans-Atlantic slave trade. Its sediments persist today. But? The African diaspora has become a  key political constituency  of the Democratic Party. It is a fast growing demographic. In music, sports, arts, these Americans are invaluable conveyors of  soft power in Africa. China does not have similar ties with Africa. But, it has recently become more active culturally across the continent, as evident in its network of Confucius Institutes. China has also become the biggest donor of  foreign scholarships, enabling future African leaders to study in China. Graduates enrich African universities and, interacting with graduates of US institutions of higher education, represent potential channels to explore options for three way, useful collaboration in their fields of applied research. Looking forward This essay reflects my belief in the value and prospects for greater African agency in response to rising tensions between China and America. I have used China’s indictment of alleged US hegemony only to debunk fear of Africa becoming a pawn in another Cold War. There is no evidence I have seen to suggest that will happen. — The Conversation. *About the writer: John J, Stremlau is honorary professor of international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. US-China tensions: How Africa can avoid being caught in new Cold War NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023

Africa News Page 49 BUSISIPHO SIYOBI LAST month, Glencore, a multinational mining and commodity company, pleaded guilty to long-standing charges of systematic bribery, corruption and market manipulation to authorities in the United States, Brazil and Britain. Glencore was subsequently fined US$1.2 billion for these offences. Although this is the right step towards attaining some level of accountability in these countries, it leads to the question: where does it leave mining jurisdictions in Africa? The earliest reports on Glencore covered a bribery scandal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) involving the controversial businessman Dan Gertler, who bribed Congolese officials on behalf of Glencore to secure mining contracts with the government in 2008. In its West African operations, particularly in Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea, Glencore is reported to have paid about  US$79.6 million  to intermediary companies to secure improper advantages to obtain and retain contracts with stateowned entities between 2007 and 2018, as indicated by the United States justice department. The bribes were concealed by entering into questionable consulting agreements, paying inflated invoices and using intermediary companies to make corrupt payments to officials. For instance, in Nigeria, Glencore and its subsidiaries paid more than US$52 million to intermediaries with the intention that the funds be used to bribe Nigerian officials. The US public statement highlights that much of the bribery and corruption took place in Africa. But little to no intervention has been initiated by the several African governments to investigate these matters in their respective countries. Limitations inhibiting African governments from doing so vary from country to country. The  African Energy Chamber  has called for African governments to investigate Glencore’s dealings in their operations and examine the cases at a local level. It has also excluded Glencore from the African Energy Week in October 2022. Glencore fessed up – but not in Africa But it remains unclear what the consequences for Glencore’s executive team will be and what African governments will do to prevent this in the future. The US justice department confirmed that Glencore’s executive team took part in or approved the schemes. To conceal these schemes, Glencore traders would use codewords such as “chocolates” for bribe payments with no attempt to hide the corrupt practices. Where sufficient evidence is given, criminal prosecution should follow — that is how executive teams involved should be held accountable. The timeline graphic above illustrates the significance of misconduct by Glencore over the past two decades in some of the mining jurisdictions in which they have operated. The extractives industry is, at least in principle, governed by global and local codes, and standards such as the  Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative  (EITI). These are established primarily to improve and promote transparency in the extractives industries and to prevent revenues being diverted for unproductive purposes and not being properly accounted for. In 2011, Glencore  listed  as one of the EITI-supporting companies. Part of this support includes companies advancing transparency and good governance in the industry, promoting the expectations for EITI-supporting companies and by contributing financially to the international management of the EITI process. The expectations delineated for EITI-supporting companies include making comprehensive disclosures in accordance with the  EITI Standard  in all EITI-implementing countries where the company and its controlled subsidiaries operate. Another expectation is that supporting companies would publicly disclose taxes and payments to governments at a project level in line with the EITI Standard. Where “disclosure is not feasible”, the requirement is to have country-specific legal or practical barriers to disclosure publicly explained. EITI implementing countries that have been implicated in the Glencore bribery case include the DRC, Nigeria and Cameroon. This raises questions about how credibly EITI-supporting companies and implementing countries are assessed if such levels of bribery and corruption practices pervaded the respective countries for more than two decades. Furthermore, the EITI reporting process could be strengthened to equip the EITI secretariat to assess the dealings of supporting companies in implementing countries. Glencore’s corrupt practices, along with the countries willing to be corrupted by bribery, have been inconsistent with the EITI Principles  and thereby undermined the EITI Standard. Although the EITI board has released a  statement  condemning Glencore’s misconduct, it has not outlined real consequences for the company as a supporting member. This points to two of the key problems with the EITI process. One is its inability to prevent corruption effectively.  The second is its insufficient capacity to work with implementing countries to investigate reported revenue  discrepancies highlighted in country-level reports. But the statement calls for Glencore to actively participate in the  EITI Commodity Trading Group  to ensure that lessons can be learnt and measures identified that can prevent such practices from happening again. The EITI board has called for governments of the implementing countries to examine the cases, act and provide adequate preventative measures. The EITI should support the investigation process and equip implementing countries such as Nigeria and DRC with resources and tools that will lead to justice. Finally, the US justice department indicated that Glencore  will be scrutinised  by an independent monitor over the next three years as part of the overall deal. This is a critical step that needs to be tracked and adhered to rigorously. Further to this, the assigned independent monitor will need to be transparent regarding the findings. Where there are discrepancies, serious remediation steps must be taken. This will foster a step toward better governance and create the conditions for real accountability to take root. It is important to develop and continue to strengthen mining codes such as the EITI to create standards that promote transparency that leads to effective accountability mechanisms. The Glencore case has shown that corrupt corporate culture and misconduct has been tolerable for many years because it does not apparently break any laws. Independent monitoring agencies supporting the work of regulatory bodies will be crucial for keeping corporates such as Glencore in check. For good governance to prevail, incentives for compliance need to be developed alongside credible deterrents for noncompliance. More importantly, willingness from corporate leadership teams and governments to curb bribery and corruption will be critical for attaining better governance in the industry.  It has to become increasingly evident that taking social responsibility and good governance seriously — by at least avoiding behaviours that entrench and normalise corruption — is ultimately good for business. — Mail & Guardian. *About the writer: Busisipho Siyobi is the lead researcher in the Natural Resource Governance Programme at Good Governance Africa. NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023

Page 50 World News JEFFREY D. SACHS The immediate question is whether Silicon Valley Bank’s failure is the start of a more general bank crisis. The rise of market interest rates caused by the Fed and European Central Bank’s tightening has impaired other banks as well. Now that a banking crisis has occurred, panics by depositors are more likely. THE banking crisis that hit Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the United States two weeks ago has spread. We recall with a shudder two recent financial contagions: the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which led to a deep Asian recession, and the 2008 Great Recession, which led to a global downturn. The new banking crisis hits a world economy already disrupted by pandemic, war, sanctions, geopolitical tensions and climate shocks. At the root of the current banking crisis is the tightening of monetary conditions by the Federal Reserve (the Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB) after years of expansionary monetary policy. In recent years, both the Fed and ECB held interest rates near zero and flooded the economy with liquidity, especially in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Easy money resulted in inflation in 2022, and both central banks are now tightening monetary policy and raising interest rates to staunch inflation. Banks like SVB take in short-term deposits and use the deposits to make long-term investments. The banks pay interest on the deposits and aim for higher returns on the long-term investments. When the central banks raise short-term interest rates, rates paid on deposits may exceed the earnings on long-term investments. In that case, the banks’ earnings and capital fall. Banks may need to raise more capital to stay safe and in operation. In extreme cases, some banks may fail. Even a solvent bank may fail if depositors panic and suddenly try to withdraw their deposits, an event known as a bank run. Each depositor dashes to withdraw deposits ahead of the other depositors. Since the bank’s assets are tied up in long-term investments, the bank lacks the liquidity to provide ready cash to the panicked depositors. SVB succumbed to such a bank run and was quickly taken over by the US government. Bank runs are a standard risk but can be avoided in three ways. First, banks should keep enough capital to absorb losses. Second, in the event of a bank run, central banks should proNew World Economy: Global banking crisis in a time of war, geopolitical tensions and climate shocks vide banks with emergency liquidity, thereby ending the panic. Third, government deposit insurance should calm depositors. All three mechanisms may have failed in the case of SVB. First, SVB apparently allowed its balance sheet to become seriously impaired and regulators did not react in time. Second, for unclear reasons, US regulators closed SVB rather than provide emergency central bank liquidity. Third, US deposit insurance guaranteed deposits only up to US$250 000, and so did not stop a run by large depositors. After the run, US regulators announced they would guarantee all deposits. The immediate question is whether SVB’s failure is the start of a more general bank crisis. The rise of market interest rates caused by Fed and ECB tightening has impaired other banks as well. Now that a banking crisis has occurred, panics by depositors are more likely. Future bank runs can be avoided if the world’s central banks provide ample liquidity to banks facing runs. The Swiss Central Bank provided a loan to Credit Suisse for exactly this reason. The Federal Reserve has provided  US$152 billion in new lending to US banks in recent days. Emergency lending, however, partly offsets the central banks’ efforts to control inflation. Central banks are in a quandary. By pushing up interest rates, they make bank runs more likely. If they keep interest rates too low, however, inflationary pressures are likely to persist. The central banks will try to have it both ways: higher interest rates plus emergency liquidity, if needed. This is the right approach, but comes with costs. The US and European economies were already experiencing stagflation: high inflation and slowing growth. The banking crisis will worsen the stagflation and possibly tip the US and Europe into recession. Some of the stagflation was the consequence of Covid-19, which induced the central banks to pump in massive liquidity in 2020, causing inflation in 2022. Some of the stagflation is the result of shocks caused by long-term climate change. Climate shocks could become worse this year if a new El Niño develops in the Pacific, as scientists say is increasingly likely. Yet stagflation has also been intensified by economic disruptions caused by the Ukraine war, US and EU sanctions against Russia, and rising tensions between the US and China. These geopolitical factors have disrupted the world economy by hitting supply chains, pushing up costs and prices while hindering output. We should regard diplomacy as a key macro-economic tool. If diplomacy is used to end the Ukraine war, phase out the costly sanctions on Russia, and reduce tensions between the US and China, not only will the world be much safer, but stagflation will also be eased. Peace and cooperation are the best remedies to rising economic risks. — Daily Maverick. *About the writer: Jeffrey D Sachs, professor at Columbia University in the United States, is director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. NewsHawks Issue 124, 24 March 2023