NewsHawks 25 March 2022

Price

US$1

WHAT’S INSIDE Friday 25 March 2022 NAuEdWitSor-General’s ISnP-OfoRrTm
office in Muzarabani
MNEnWanSgagwa’s dire straits targets unique
advisory council family feat
falls apart, ill-fated Story on Page 10
from birth Story on Page 50

Story on Page 6

Mnangagwa
tightens firm
chokehold on
Jonathan Moyo
under new siege

ALSO INSIDE Command Agriculture scandal explodes

Page 2 News NewsHawks

Mnangagwa Issue 73, 25 March 2022
tightens firm
chokehold on
Jonathan Moyo
under new siege

OWEN GAGARE law in this country. The case concerning Moyo’s Former cabinet Moyo.
donation of motorcycles to Tsholotsho traditional minister, MP and Former NPA director, Kumbirai Hodzi, now
FORMER cabinet minister, MP and Zanu PF leaders in 2016 which Zacc is now pursuing was Zanu PF politburo member
politburo member Jonathan Moyo, who escaped filed after he had fled.” replaced by his deputy Nelson Mutsonziwa, who
by death by a whisker when the army stormed his Jonathan Moyo was also involved in the matter, previously pre-
home and that of a friend guns blazing during the Mnangagwa tried in vain recently to secure have seized and withheld all his correspondence pared indictment papers for Moyo’s trial in the
2017 military coup, is reeling under an intensify- President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cooperation with sent to the House of Assembly after 15 November High Court, but Kenyatta refused, saying it was
ing new siege from President Emmerson Mnan- extradition through a special arrangement even 2017. Any and all correspondence in his name a political case linked to Zanu PF power struggles
gagwa. though Harare and Nairobi have no extradition sent to parliament from 15 November 2017 has and the coup that had removed Mugabe.
treaty. been forwarded to the CIO by parliament. Efforts
Having unleashed a crack multiple agency se- to get his correspondence from the clerk have fall- Said a security source recently: “It’s a very se-
curity unit to hunt down Moyo in Kenya where Moyo is living in fear in Kenya under a United en on his deaf ears. rious issue. Remember that our agents previous-
he fled to at the height of the coup, Mnangagwa is Nations’ Refugee Convention. ly used the Global Positioning System (GPS) to
now tightening his chokehold on Moyo through “Besides, the army occupied his house for track his movements via his phone (there is evi-
a series of measures calculated to destroy him. Apart from his pension, Moyo has also lost the slightly over two weeks from 15 November 2017. dence of that); they even texted him his location
car he was issued with under the Joint Monitoring Family members in Zimbabwe could not access at a Nairobi hotel where he was having a meeting.
Official sources say Moyo is being denied his and Implementation Committee, a multi-par- it. Apart from being massively damaged by bullets
pension which accrued from his public service as tisan panel launched in January 2009 following and explosives on 15 November 2017; it was ran- “Second, state agents breached security at his
minister between 2000 and 2005, and again from Zimbabwe’s power-sharing agreement between sacked and property valued at US$500 000 was residence in Nairobi and got pictures of him
2013 and 2017. the ruling Zanu PF and the two main opposition damaged or stolen. walking into the premises from the CCTV of the
MDC formations. complex that he lives in. They then put the photos
While Moyo’s former allies within Zanu PF’s “In another trumped up charge, government online to expose and dramatise his security vul-
G40 faction are getting their pensions under “The vehicle, a Ford Ranger, was given to says Moyo used money from the sale of elephants nerability.
the Presidential Pension and Retirement Bene- Moyo in 2011, but it was seized by Zacc and Mil- meant to build Tsholotsho Stadium. The truth is
fits (services and facilities for spouses of former itary Intelligence officers. Other Jomic members the he was not and could not be involved in the “Apart from vigorously pushing for his extra-
presidents) and the Parliamentary Pensions Act, still have their vehicles.” sale of even one elephant. dition from Kenya, they also sought to put him
Mnangagwa has blocked his benefits. on the Interpol red list to designate him a wanted
Government is also struggling to grab Moyo’s “The sale of elephants was between Camp- man. They further made this public to pressurise
The Act is for pensions for vice-presidents, Patterson Farm in Mazowe. The case has been in fire, Lodzi Hunters and Tsholotsho Rural Dis- him to run away too far from home where he
ministers, deputy ministers and MPs, as well as the courts. trict Council. The cost to build a Zifa-approved might lose touch or keep quiet to give Mnangag-
certain office-bearers of parliament and gratuity stadium for premier league football was US$4.9 wa relief.
for a former prime minister. Other G40 members are also in the same sit- million.
uation. The Mugabe family is facing seizures of “Meanwhile, the inter-security taskforce has
Not only that, government is also trying to its numerous farms accumulate during the late “Out of 60 elephants that had been approved been hunting him down. Further, Hodzi headed
seize Moyo’s Greystone Park home in Harare over former president Robert Mugabe’s 37-year reign to contribute towards raising that; only 10 ele- another taskforce to Rwanda to find ways from
the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund which ended in a coup in 2017. phants were actually allocated when he was still there of bringing him to book. The security task-
(Zimdef) corruption allegations. “They want to actively helping the council and Tsholotsho FC, force largely comprises CIO, counter-intelligence,
seize his property, the house, over the Zimdef Farms are being used as an instrument of po- and the proceeds of the sale went to funding the military intelligence and police details.
case, which is clearly unlawful,” an official source litical patronage, coercion and control to ensure football club whose home games were at White
said. “He is under renewed siege.” loyalty or punish disloyalty. City Stadium in Bulawayo, which meant all they “Beginning this year the security taskforce
games were away games, thus had a huge weekly started exploring ways of seizing Moyo’s proper-
Zimbabwe’s National Prosecuting Authority “There are many incidents in which Moyo has bill. ties at home. Its members from CIO have been
(NPA) has been trying to nail Moyo. Previously it been pressure and harassed by government and harassing chiefs in his rural Tsholotsho home over
wrote to Kenya requesting Moyo’s extradition on state security agents. One incident involved his “The elephant money was not enough to sus- him since January. They have also sought to polit-
corruption allegations linked to accusations that youngest daughter’s encounter with Central In- tain the team; and this was made worse by the ically punish him by other means.”
he and four others had allegedly misappropriated telligence Organisation agents at RGM Interna- fact that when Defence minister Oppah Muchin-
U$244 575 from the Zimdef. tional Airport. They intercepted her travelling as guri was then appointed Environment minister, Recently Zimbabwean pastor Walter Magaya
an unaccompanied minor and took her papers to she ordered Campire to stop the sale of to assist was raided by police looking for arms of war at
Only last week, a Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption see her details and those of her father, including Tsholotsho FC, let alone to contribute to the con- his Mount Pleasant home in Harare soon after re-
Commission (Zacc) team visited Moyo’s former home address in Kenya and other things. Moyo struction of the stadium. turning from a much-hyped crusade in Kenya as
personal assistant in Harare Mai Mukabeta trying protested to Kenyan Airways for allowing that,” Mnangagwa’s regime feared that he had met with
to make her sign an affidavit to nail Moyo and his a source said. “The US$4.9 million needed to build a multi- Moyo to plot his downfall in the 2023 elections.
co-accused. purpose stadium in Tsholotsho was approved by
“Of course, there is the infamous threat by cabinet, but blocked by Mnangagwa.” Further, Moyo is also a marked man because he
While Zacc and the NPA have renewed their Mnangagwa to separate his head from his shoul- is suspected of closely working with main opposi-
bid to get Moyo, documents show that they are ders at the politburo meeting in July 2017. The From fierce clashes in the Zanu PF politbu- tion Citizens Coalition for Change leader Nelson
on a wild goose chase as their first attempt to ar- late Agriculture minister Perence Shiri illegally ro meetings after a bitter political fallout over a Chamisa to oust Mnangagwa in 2023. This has
rest Moyo and put him on remand in November settled soldiers at his family farm in Mazowe. Bar- hotly contested leadership succession during the seen Mnangagwa’s government pulling out all the
2016 was dismissed by the magistrate’s court. clos Majuru, who was recently ordered to vacate late former president Robert Mugabe’s rule to re- stops to get Moyo by all means.
the farm by the Supreme Court, is one of the sol- sorting to guns, explosives and thunderflash amid
The court then ruled: “What is therefore left diers illegally and spitefully settled there by Shiri. a coup, and tailing by state security agents in a
to determine is whether the purported undertak- foreign country, this has been the dramatic story
ing by the Zacc officer is legally binding or can “In 2019, 2020 and 2021 the CIO sent coun- of Mnangagwa and his former ally-turned-rival
be accorded at law the same legal weight with a terintelligence officers to his farm, where they
summon or warning which would amount to a harassed workers, asking them about his where-
breach and subsequently justifies the issuance of a abouts and claiming to be looking for weapons
warrant of arrest. The answer is a simple no. The they alleged were cached at the farm.
state is wrong both in fact and at law in trying to
apply for a warrant of arrest where there is no legal “On 2 July 2020, a team with Zacc officials,
basis to do so. military intelligence and police seized his Ford
Ranger. The truck was seized from a garage where
“In view of that, it is my finding that CRB it was being repaired. No explanation was given
14177/16 in reference to the accused Jonathan for the seizure of the truck by an inter-agency se-
Moyo was erroneously opened.” curity team.

An official source involved in the case said: “The Office of the President and cabinet has
“When Moyo fled Zimbabwe during the coup denied Moyo his pension for his 17 years as an
in November 2017, there was no criminal case or MP and seven years in government as a cabinet
any charges pending against him in any court of minister.

“Parliament through the Clerk and Speaker

NewsHawks News Page 3

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

JONATHAN MBIRIYAMVEKA Mnangagwa’s advisory council
falls apart, ill-fated from birth
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Pres-
idential Advisory Council (Pac) has virtually Former Pac member and media mogul Trevor Ncube
collapsed after the acrimonious quitting by its
high-profile deputy chairperson, Alpha Media man. I believed this man was about to do a Mnangagwa’s cheerleaders during the Novem- “Pac may, with the concurrence of the Pres-
Holdings (AMH) proprietor Trevor Ncube, its turnaround for our country, again was I disap- ber 2017 coup that brought him to power. ident, invite experts for presentations. Pac will
founding mouthpiece in charge of media and pointed. I was actually approached and agreed be serviced by a secretariat which is based in the
communication. to serve in the Presidential Advisory Council. I Cabinet secretary Misheck Sibanda spelt out Office of the President and Cabinet.”
have set at close range with the President advis- Pac’s mandate from the start.
Official sources say Ncube, who quit after he ing him on a number of issues, but I have since He said government would fund operations
was denied radio and television licences by gov- retired, stepped down because I have seen this “It is supposed to advise on national energy of the advisory council with members drawing
ernment — part of his motivation for support- thing is not going to end well.” development strategy which makes Zimbabwe some honorarium, although the expectation is
ing Mnangagwa, has been replaced by Professor competitive; to suggest blue prints for regula- that their services are voluntary.
Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, director and chair of He went on to lambast Mnangagwa and to tory frameworks and institutions for a mod-
the African Research Universities Alliance Cen- admit that he was naïve to support him. ern, market-driven, business-friendly economy; Pac members included Busisa Moyo, Mutiz-
tre of Excellence in Sustainable Food Systems to advise on strategies for building strong and wa, Tagwirei, Divine Ndhlukula Zondo Sakala,
at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He Ncube had joined Pac in January 2019 when gainful global partnerships as well as maximis- Somkhosi Malaba, Lewis Musasike, Norbert
also serves as a policy adviser to numerous other it was launched with trumpet blast and trend- ing on Zimbabwe’s bilateral and multilateral Mugwagwa, Godfrey Sikipa, Remigius Makum-
African governments and global institutions. ing media publicity. He even demanded that his relations and to proffer ideas of building a Sov- be, Simbarashe Mangwende, Lindiwe Sibanda
AMH editors write prominent stories about it, ereign Wealth Fund and to ensure that national Natalie Jabangwe, Aenias Chuma, Elisa Raven-
It now transpires that Ncube, who lost con- and put them on their front pages. When some growth and development strategies are built on gai, Manikai, Kuzvinetsa Dzvimbo, Robson
trol of his South African Mail & Guardian me- weekly newspapers editors resisted, he was not environmental safeguards for future genera- Mafoti, Herbert Nkala, Munyeza, Simon Ham-
dia house in 2017 before rushing back home happy. tions,” he said. mond, Richard Wilde and Ncube.
broke to join Mnangagwa’s gravy train, while
battling to revive the shrinking fortunes of his At subsequent reviews of newspaper editions Sibanda said the advisory council was also Its coordination was to be done Mfaro Moyo.
struggling AMH media empire, was frustrated that covered the Pac launch, Ncube threw pet- mandated with organising interactions between Mtata refused to join from day one.
by government’s rigid anti-reform approach and ty tantrums whenever some negative feedback the President, local and international businesses.
his failure to get radio and television licences, as was communicated as he demanded an editorial It was supposed to have quarterly brainstorming Pac has all but collapsed after becoming dys-
well as derive financial benefit and influence he loyalty and shift to support Mnangagwa’s gov- or feedback meetings with the President and ad functional due to a number of reasons, includ-
had hoped for. ernment. hoc meetings as and when necessary. ing a disjuncture between the appointer and the
appointees, and vastly incongruous expectations
Ncube, who has always shown an interest in That was studiously resisted by editors and In terms of its composition and character, Pac within the Zanu PF government that has re-
politics, although poor at political praxis, also triggered a fierce battle for the control of the ed- was supposed to be non-partisan, proffer hon- mained unreconstructed and unreformed.
wanted leverage his media group to exert insid- itorial until he intervened and removed the edi- est and sincere advise, declaring own interests
ious influence at the heart of Mnangagwa’s gov- tor-in-chief Dumisani Muleya, making political whenever necessary. Although desirable and used around the
ernment Rupert Murdoch-style. His approach editorial changes in line with his self-serving world to help Presidents improve their lead-
openly showed he wanted to become a media power matrix manoeuvres and currying favour “The Presidential Advisory Council should ership quality and make the right decisions to
mogul and political influence peddler. with Mnangagwa. respect rules of confidentiality and trust and re- better serve their countries, the Pac concept in
frain from abusing proximity for unlawful and Zimbabwe was fatally flawed from the start due
The sources say Ncube was further spooked Sources say Ncube was often under pressure unethical ends. Members should ensure that all to incongruent expectations among its mem-
by the murder of his close friend banker Doug- to balance interests: As the coup and Mnangag- advisory content generated and produced by bers.
las Munatsi killed by suspected state agents in wa’s cheerleader he needed to continue singing Pac are a property of His Excellency the Presi-
November last year. for his supper to be at the feeding trough or dent who assumes automatic copy right,” Siban- “Pac practically is dead awaiting burial. The
high table, while also avoiding recklessly ruin- da said. problem was not the concept, but the main
Munatsi, a close Mnangagwa associate who ing his papers’ editorial credibility. He failed to reason for its existence, which for public rela-
helped Ncube to buy his newspapers, was ap- maintain the precarious balance and quit. Pac members were to hold office for the dura- tions purposes, and incongruent expectations of
pointed Zimbabwe Investment and Develop- tion of the President’s term of office. Mnangagwa and his advisers, at least some of
ment Agency chief in 2020. AMH, which is technically insolvent, was them, and the implementation process that nev-
and still is his key source of livelihood. “The President will chair Pac meetings which er worked from start to finish,” a Pac member
Latest information obtained by The News- are also attended by his Vice-Presidents and by told The NewsHawks. “That’s why it has fallen
Hawks this week shows Pac has all but crum- Pac comprised business executives, profes- any other invitees, including ministers and offi- apart.”
bled, with most of its members frustrated, sionals and intellectuals, most of whom were cials,” he said.
others no longer committed and some contem-
plating resigning in exasperation.

Ncube resigned in acrimony, hence his bit-
ter tirades saying Mnangagwa was worse than
the late former president Robert Mugabe. He
said he had initially supported him thinking as
Mugabe’s protégé and enforcer, he would re-
form and change things for the better, including
addressing past atrocities like Gukurahundi.

“Pac virtually collapsed way before Ncube
left. Ncube’s departure months ago, which he
confirmed at the beginning of March in South
Africa at the BizNews Conference in the Drak-
ensberg, just makes a bad situation worse,” a
senior Pac member says.

“It worked at the beginning as most mem-
bers attended meetings. We were supposed to
meet monthly and report to the President quar-
terly unless there were urgent issues arising that
needed emergency attention, but no sooner had
we been appointed and settled than it started
falling apart.

“It was ill-fated from day one: Some mem-
bers refused to join and participate such as Zim-
babwe Council of Churches Secretary General
Reverend Dr Kenneth Mtata, others were not
committed like tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei
who only attended a few meetings and some
threatened to resign in the case of clergyman
Shingi Munyeza. But Munyeza didn’t resign, he
just made noises to that effect.”

After initially quietly disappearing from the
body he had joined with hype and fanfare,
Ncube recently confirmed that he had quit Pac
where he was deputy chairman to Mnangagwa’s
nephew Edwin Manikai. The first chair was
business executive Joe Mutizwa, with Manikai
as deputy.

Ncube’s departure was a public secret for
months now. The NewsHawks was fully aware
of it, but did not write about it as it sought to
investigate the reasons behind it. His colleagues
say they were informed of his resignation at least
six months ago, which he did not voluntarily
announce publicly.

That is why Ncube did not attend Mnangag-
wa, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube and Pac’s 7
December 2021 meeting with business execu-
tives at State House in Harare.

Explaining his decision, Ncube recently said:
“I was generous in my spirit as a God-fearing

Page 4 News NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

OUR neighbour to the north, Zimbabwe, is in a Neighbourly advice on SA from
torrid state. It has been for some time but it seems Zim media mogul Trevor Ncube
the status quo — despite having a new coup-im-
posed leader since late 2017 — is not budging. Media mogul Trevor Ncube (third from left) meets President Emmerson Mnangagwa (right), with his team from Alpha Media Holdings.

The outlook in the short term remains bleak. approached and agreed to serve in the Presidential confidence there would be a judiciary to argue my come. Parliament is a place where mediocrity is
Although, recovery in the long term remains a Advisory Council. I have sat at close range to the case and, indeed, that happened. displayed in full force. There is a danger of hunger
possibility according to Zimbabwean entrepre- President and advised him on a number of issues in Zimbabwe because our currency is losing value.
neur and media mogul Trevor Ncube. He shared but have since stepped down. I could see it was not When they took away my citizenship, I in- It is as if somebody has opened a tap and water is
his views on the final day of the BizNews Con- going to end well. We thought Robert Mugabe volved my lawyers and got my citizenship back gushing out. Currencies have become a big issue
ference in the Drakensberg about whether Zim- was bad. Sadly, President Mnangagwa has shown because the judiciary was professional. That is no in Zimbabwe. It has caused instability across the
babwe presents opportunity for investors or is a an amazing [aptitude] to do things much worse longer the case and it scares me. The government economy. When you get up in the morning, you
basket case. It is the latter that shone through in than Robert Mugabe ever did. The most fright- is unable to provide public services or protect its have no idea at what rate you will be charged for
his comments. ening [is that he has mutilated] our constitution citizens. It only protects its interests. products and services as the currency fluctuates a
Opportunities in Zim and captured our judiciary. When they took away lot.
I am going to share what I see as opportunities in my passport, I went to court and fought, in the Sadly, in this regard, Zimbabwe is teetering on
Zimbabwe and what I know to be the problems the edge of becoming a failed state. It breaks my — BIZ NEWS
that the country currently faces. Then, you make heart when you see what the police force has be-
up your mind whether Zimbabwe offers an op-
portunity or is a basket case. In doing so, I must Ncube says tourism is a big thing in Zimbabwe, but road infrastructure, rail, airports and policy issues are a huge impediment.
remind you of the story of the two salesmen who
went into a continent and one of them sent a mes-
sage back saying: “These people have no shoes.
We can’t sell them shoes because they don’t know
anything about it,” while the other salesman said:

“These people have no shoes, please ship as
many shoes as possible.”

That is what my country is right now. You de-
cide whether we do not have shoes and we will
never wear them; or if you ship them, whether we
might put them on. Let me start with an interest-
ing opportunity that exists; the cannabis industry
has become huge in Zimbabwe. Laws are being
fine-tuned to allow people to invest in medicinal
cannabis and industrial hemp. The two have been
divided and we are seeing a lot of foreign investors
coming in.

A licence will cost you US$57. Another inter-
esting thing — which you will not read about in
books or in magazines — is the amazing build-
ing boom in a country with no mortgage finance,
where banks cannot afford to lend people money
to build houses.

To a large extent, this building boom is being
financed by diaspora remittances, which in 2020
were US$1 billion. In 2021, those remittances
stood at US$1.4 billion.

So, there is a building boom and everything
that goes with it. To a large extent, we are an agri-
cultural country, with agriculture supplying about
60% of raw materials. The second biggest crop is
cotton. If only we could have GMOs or the po-
litical willingness to have GMOs . . . That would
increase production. At the moment, we are pro-
ducing only 30% of our national requirements of
soybeans and the return on investment on soy-
beans in Zimbabwe is 200%. Then there is to-
bacco, the largest export crop, contributing 11%.

We are also a mining country with over 40
minerals, including diamonds, platinum, gold,
lithium. We have got the largest lithium deposits
on the African continent. Oil and gas exploration
has become huge. One thing that got me excit-
ed in 2017 when I could see the possibility of a
new Zimbabwe — believing that since Robert
Mugabe was gone, we could rebuild — is the op-
portunity that lies in mining exploration. We do
not know exactly how much there is underground
and the investment required to do that. Unfortu-
nately, that has not happened.

Tourism is also a big thing in Zimbabwe, but
road infrastructure, rail, airports and policy issues
are still a huge impediment to tourism being able
to contribute full force.

Sadly, our roads, our railways, sewage and wa-
ter reticulation have not been attended to and are
in total disrepair. It is a crisis but also presents an
opportunity for investors. The road network in
Zimbabwe has been declared a national disaster.
This is a good and a bad thing. National funds are
being deployed to build roads, but that brings in
an element of corruption.
Zim a failing state
The new dispensation arrived in 2017. I was ex-
cited and went home. There was an amazing buzz
in Zimbabwe that things were going to be bet-
ter. I was among the first people who stood up
and said we should give Emmerson Mnangagwa
a chance, and how wrong I was. I believed it be-
cause he sat in the same room as Robert Mugabe
and saw what he did to the country. Secondly,
Mnangagwa played a role as far as Gukurahundi
is concerned; the massacre of over 20 000 people
in Matabeleland. I thought it was time for him to
make amends.

I was generous in my spirit as a God-fearing
man that he was about to do a turnaround. I was

NewsHawks News Page 5

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

NYASHA CHINGONO Sink or swim for Chamisa

TO sink or swim is the question in this Sat- CCC (above)’s popularity will be tested in tomorrow’s polls, while Zanu PF is likely to retain most of its rural seats.
urday’s by-elections as the opposition Citizens’
Coalition for Change (CCC) faces a stern test ous test of CCC’s potential to mount a serious a serious challenge to Zanu PF. Whilst CCC yond the by-elections is needed,” Nkomo said.
of political strength, where there is everything challenge to Zanu PF. may make inroads into Zanu PF strongholds it “Indeed, these elections are not mere
to fight for in a vote largely viewed as a precur- will be difficult currently to dislodge the Zanu
sor of the watershed 2023 polls. “This by-election is a test of the potential PF rural vote. A bit more time and strategy be- by-elections; they are a dress rehearsal for the
of CCC as a brand and its ability to mount 2023 elections.”
Twenty-eight seats are up for grabs this
weekend and the CCC expected to grab the
vacant urban constituencies where the party
enjoys considerable support.

This election comes at a time Zimbabwe is
witnessing the rebirth of opposition politics,
which two months ago had taken a nosedive
amid an onslaught by the authorities to create
a one-party state.

Although CCC is just two months old, its
popularity will be tested in these polls. A win
will cement the CCC as the legitimate oppo-
sition following months of political combat
with MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora who
now leads a ship many believe is doomed.

Zanu PF claims to have made major strides
to reclaim urban seats which has the party has
perennially lost to the opposition since 2000.

The by-elections serve to test the party’s
strength in urban areas. A win in some urban
centres would be considered a massive boost
ahead of 2023.

Even losing by small margins will be consid-
ered a boost for the ruling party, but the CCC
would see landslide victories as testimony of
its strength.

Zanu PF is likely to retain most of its rural
seats, but the effectiveness of CCC’s rural mo-
bilisation drive will come in for scrutiny.

If the CCC wins some seats previously held
by Zanu PF, it will confirm that the party has
made inroads in rural areas.

A slimmer winning margin for Zanu PF in
rural settings like Gokwe Central, Murehwa
South, Chivi South and Mwenezi East would
be worrisome ahead of next year’s polls as this
entails major inroads for the opposition.

While winning is the major goal of both
parties, winning margins will be more crucial.
Slimmer wins for the opposition in urban ar-
eas will rattle the CCC as it would mean that
Zanu PF has made major inroads.

A win for Zanu PF in any of the urban con-
stituencies would come as a shocker, analysts
say. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zanu
PF will be looking to win the Kwekwe Central
seat which fell vacant following the death of
the National Patriotic Front’s Masango Mat-
ambanadzo in 2020.

Kwekwe proved a volatile constituency
during the campaign period after CCC mem-
ber Mboneni Ncube was killed, while 22 were
injured when Zanu PF militants, known as Al-
Shabaab descended on the rally.

This election comes amid massive infight-
ing in Zanu PF with Mnangagwa’s allies in the
Midlands accused of destabilising the party in
his political citadel.

With the CCC expected to retain urban
constituencies after a Parliamentary bloodbath
between 2020 and 2021 when MDC-T lead-
er Douglas Mwonzora recalled MPs, analysts
have expressed concern over the lack of an even
playing field.

“The unlevel playing field will be a major
factor to deter prospective CCC supporters.
It will be without doubt. The voters’ roll is a
key element in any election and the voters’ roll
will be decisive. The integrity and quality of
the voters’ roll will be contested, whatever the
outcome,” political analyst Eldred Masunun-
gure said.

Political analyst Ibbo Mandaza said a CCC
win would be a blow for President Emmerson
Mnangagwa and Mwonzora, who were accused
of plotting the downfall of the opposition.

A CCC win would fire warning shots for a
possible showdown with Mnangagwa in 2023.

Mnangagwa will be seeking his second term
after taking over the country in a military coup
in 2017.

“It is more than just a by-election. It’s a test
between the two. The MPs' recall was obvious-
ly illegal. It is a statement of fact on the part of
CCC but a statement of failure for Mwonzora
and Mnangagwa,” Mandaza said.

He added: “A CCC win would be a warning
to Mnangagwa to say his days are numbered.”

Bulawayo-based independent analyst Du-
misani Nkomo said the by-elections are a seri-

Page 6 News NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

MOSES MATENGA By-elections fail credibilty test

THE by-elections set for tomorrow have re- . . . police, Zec blamed for showing bias
vealed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s
administration is stuck in the past by con- Observer missions have been calling for the demilitarisation of Zec.
tinuing to abuse state institutions and inde-
pendent commissions to manipulate electoral per. How incredible.” ple answer. Why has the government concen- dications that the polls have failed the credi-
processes with observers saying the polls have Amnesty International media manager trated on disruption and suppression in these bility test.
failed the credibility test. by-elections? It seems the government had no
Robert Shivambu said Zimbabwe is in crisis track record of its own on which to run. A “Everyone knows that Zec has no credibili-
Mnangagwa stands accused of abusing the and there is a need for action from the local, host of stubborn wrong turns has meant a feel- ty at all from the way they have been handling
police, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commis- regional and international community. ing of national downturn.” elections and we have no expectations at all,
sion (Zec) and the courts to manipulate the but basic requirements like the final voters’
by-elections, with the opposition Citizens’ “These are some of the violent attacks we A network of Zimbabwean activists, Team roll is something that even a discredited Zec
Coalition for Change (CCC) always at the re- have seen being meted out against the oppo- Pachedu, said it has discovered that the names should be able to assist with,” Hwende told
ceiving end. sition in the past few weeks and months and of at least 165 000 people have been moved The NewsHawks on Thursday.
this is not good because we are going to the to different wards and constituencies without
The Nelson Chamisa-led outfit has com- by-elections. These reminds us of the violence notification, leading to confusion and some “We will be on guard to ensure the correct
plained about Zec’s refusal to give them a copy associated with the history of elections in people having to travel long distances to vote. voters’ roll is the one being used and we will
of the voters’ roll for inspection Zimbabwe,” Shivambu said. resist if they want to use a new voters’ roll,”
In addition, about 40 000 have been re- Hwende added.
Party secretary-general Chalton Hwende “As Amnesty International we have been moved from the roll without due process,
complaining bitterly over why the police was calling onğ authorities to investigate these at- while one residential address belonging to a “We have faced a lot of hindrances mainly
being used to block him from making enqui- tacks on the opposition and make sure perpe- politician in the resort town of Victoria Falls from the police and misinterpretation of laws
ries with the supposedly independent com- trators are held to account,” he said. registered 46 people, the team was quoted as that government elections. They have banned
mission on Tuesday. saying. our rallies, six of them in total and none from
“We are saying to the authorities in Zim- Zanu PF or any other party,” Hwende said.
Recommendations made by several local, babwe, there should be a proper and impar- Chamisa took to microblogging site Twitter
regional and international observer missions tial investigation into acts of violence we have to vent his anger over the behaviour by the “Six of our candidates have been arrested
that include the need for the demilitarisa- seen against the opposition in the country.” electoral mother body that he accused of be- for various offences. Our volunteers have also
tion of Zec, police impartiality, and electoral ing both a referee and player. been blocked and arrested. Police, particu-
reforms have been ignored, raising fears the He accused Vice-President Constantino larly senior ones charged with administering
by-elections will not be free and fair. Chiwenga of using inflammatory language by “Zed, ZEC, ZEC . . . you are a referee not laws that govern campaigns favored Zanu PF
threatening to crush the opposition like lice, a wing of any political party. Be transparent, and usual problems of state broadcaster gave
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) saying it was a call to the Zanu PF militia to professional, independent, constitutional and us no publicity even that we are entitled to,”
leader and member of President Emmer- silence dissent. honorable. Don’t force us as citizens to de- Hwende said.
son Mnangagwa’s Political Actors’ Dialogue mand your disbandment. We have that pow-
member (Lovemore Madhuku) told The Chiwenga told thousands of Zanu PF sup- er,” Chamisa said. Hwende said the party was, however, ready
NewsHawks that the situation that prevailed porters in Kwekwe last month that the oppo- for a clean sweep come Saturday.
ahead of tomorrow’s by-elections was evidence sition will be crushed like lice. A day later, CCC secretary general Chalton Hwende,
enough of how Zimbabwe was desperate for opposition activist Mboneni Ncube was killed who was on Tuesday blocked by the police Chamisa was blocked from addressing ral-
electoral reforms, particularly ahead of the by Zanu PF thugs who besieged a rally ad- from approaching ZEC offices to inquire on lies in Binga, Gokwe, Marondera and initially
2023 elections. dressed by Chamisa in Mbizo, Kwekwe. the voter’s roll, said a lot of hindrances they Epworth amid heavy police presence, but in
encountered in the campaign period were in- some instances, he had to force his way to ad-
“There are a lot issues that came out in the Political commentator Stephen Chan said dress the people.
by-election process which justified electoral of the by-elections: “A key question has a sim-
reforms. It is clear from what has been hap-
pening in these campaigns for by-elections
that there is very much need for reforms that
we are championing as Polad,” the NCA lead-
er and constitutional law expert said.

“There are issues related to the role of the
police in monitoring law and order at rallies.
I think it is clear that the police are still an
impediment to free and credible elections,”
Madhuku added.

Madhuku said it was unfortunate that the
opposition parties, particularly the Citizens'
Coalition for Change (CCC) was forced to
turn to the courts to hold its rallies while oth-
er parties, Zanu PF and the MDC-T had it
smooth sailing.

“It was very unfortunate and completely
something that must not happen to have op-
position political parties campaigning having
to turn to the courts several times to have their
rallies. It ought not to happen and we never
heard any single Zanu PF rally banned,” Mad-
huku said.

“We never heard there was no police man-
power at the Zanu PF rallies and the main
reason that the courts had to be involved al-
lowing people to do political campaigning is
a very bad indictment and that needs to be
reformed and we made the proposals challeng-
ing that as Polad.”

“(As for) The public media, I wasn’t able to
see the rallies of opposition parties, which is
something we are fighting for. Many people
ended up relying on social media. There was
selective coverage in the public media and it
must be stopped as it is unfair.”

The Zimbabwe Election Advocacy Trust
(ZEAT) executive director Ignatius Sadziwa
said Zimbabwe was experiencing one of its
worst elections ever and its credibility was al-
ready up in flames.

“We are witnessing the worst elections
ever in the history of our troubled democra-
cy. Zec's blunders are too legendary for these
by-elections to qualify for a credibility test,”
Sadziwa said.

“Everything is conducted nicodemous-
ly from ballot paper printing to a shambolic
voters' roll. We are disappointed by such gross
incompetence and we call upon Parliament to
quickly resume business and act on this,” he
added.

“As ZEAT, we don’t tolerate such exhibition
of incompetence. In their defense on failing to
tender, ZEC said the ballot paper has special
security features on it hence their handpick-
ing Printflow (Pvt) LTD and Fidelity Printers.
Shockingly they present a black and white pa-

NewsHawks News Page 7

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Page 8 News NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

End of the road for MDC brand

NYASHA CHINGONO . . . the political trademark sinks into oblivion

D-DAY has arrived for the MDC brand, with MDC had huge support and backing, which has now virtually dwindled.
the electorate expected to decide its fate, as an-
alysts say the iconic party associated with the logical beliefs, even if those may not be coher- gion, he became larger-than-life and towered That sparked widespread outrage at home
firebrand Morgan Tsvangirai may disappear ent, be they liberal, socialist, or conservative, for over the MDC. and abroad. It revived Tsvangirai’s political
into oblivion if it loses this Saturday’s vote as instance. Ideological constructions are not rigid; fortunes. This culminated in Tsvangirai defeat-
the odds remain in favour of the new opposi- they are variegated, complex and overlap — The party became synonymous with him. ing Mugabe in March 2008 before the veteran
tion party, the Citizens’ Coalition for Change sometimes confused and confusing. Holding a different opinion from him became dictator fought back through intimidation and
(CCC). tantamount to treason, attracting swift and violence led by the military in a runoff in June
The MDC was ideologically and dialogical- harsh punishment from his loyalists. that year. Tsvangirai pulled out of the election,
One of the most iconic opposition parties in ly mixed, complex, and muddled. Although it citing brutality.
Africa, by membership and visibility, MDC has had labour roots, its funders, white farmers, the The internal splits
over the past two decades become a symbol of business community and foreign governments This inevitably created factions, infighting The move further divided the MDC-T. Cha-
defiance. and foundations, had different and competing and clashes within the party that culminated misa, leader of the current main opposition
ideological perspectives and agendas. in the 2005 first split, with Sibanda and secre- Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC), another
But as Zimbabweans go out to choose parlia- tary-general Welshman Ncube leading a break- MDC offshoot which emerged on 22 January
mentarians in 28 constituencies and more than While it often purported to be a social dem- away party which called itself the MDC. 2022, supported Tsvangirai, while some party
100 local authorities, there is belief that the ocratic party, it neither practiced social democ- That forced Tsvangirai to call his faction the stalwarts such as the late Roy Bennett and Inno-
MDC, which has for over two decades posed a racy nor developed close with socialist, social MDC-T, which is the shell which Mwonzora is cent Gonese did not.
threat to Zanu PF, is now on its deathbed. democratic and labour parties. currently holding onto. Khupe used that brand
to contest the 2018 elections and lost while “There is a huge avalanche of calls and pres-
Saturday’s election is likely to hammer the It worked with parties ranging from social Mwonzora was still at the MDC-Alliance. sure from supporters across the country, es-
final nail into the MDC coffin, as it is not ex- democratic to conservative; they were at home They then fought over it following a court pecially in the rural areas, not to accept to be
pected to win a considerable number of parlia- with Tony Blair and his New Labour party as judgment which found that Chamisa was not participants in this charade,” Chamisa said at
mentary seats, if any. they were with George Bush and his Republican the legitimate party leader and called for con- the time. Bennett said while the 27 June run-
Party. They transacted — sometimes literally — gress within 90 days. That congress was held in off would not be free and fair, it was critical to
Party leader Douglas Mwonzora, who has with both; with institutions like the Westmin- December 2020 and Mwonzora defeated Kh- stand against Mugabe.
wrested control of the iconic name, is largely ster Foundation in the United Kingdom and the upe amid chaos and allegations of rigging.
responsible for the sweeping recalls of former Republican Institute in the United States. The MDC split, precipitated by disagreement “On the backdrop of that we have to compete
MDC-Alliance MPs, but has failed to attract over participation in Senate elections that year, in these elections to show the total illegitimacy
meaningful grassroots support and is now des- While the MDC often appeared ideologically had undertones of identity politics and ethnic- of them,” he said. Gonese, the MDC’s secretary
tined to see his party losing popular appeal. weak, amorphous and unclear, torn apart by in- ity, the bane of Zimbabwean political discourse for legal affairs, agreed with Bennett.
terests of its left social base and the right consti- and practice. The split was acrimonious. There
While Mwonzora’s MDC-T is likely to go ex- tuting its funders, with pragmatism sometimes was serious polarisation, name-calling, and “People are saying despite all that we should
tinct after the election, his nemesis, CCC leader as its approach, some modern political thinkers character assassination, as well as violence and not withdraw, and we also believe withdrawing
Nelson Chamisa, is basking in public goodwill have argued that ideology is dead, that no one brutality. will not solve anything,” he noted.
as witnessed by massive turnouts on the cam- believes in it anymore, and that conflicts no lon- That badly dented the MDC’s image and rep-
paign trail. ger have an ideological basis as they were before utation. Tsvangirai also began to be seen as a The GNU and MDC’s demolition
the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of dictator-in-the-making. The split crippled the In the aftermath of the disputed 2008 pres-
During an election like this, which is largely the Berlin Wall. MDC and Tsvangirai hit rock bottom after a idential election, a Government of National
viewed as a precursor to the 2023 poll, wearing comprehensive defeat in the 2005 elections. Unity (GNU) was formed between Mugabe’s
a red T-shirt (MDC party colour) would attract The MDC was initially funded by white Prior to that, the MDC had performed dra- Zanu PF Tsvangirai’s MDC-T and the MDC
intimidation and state brutality, but since the farmers who opposed Mugabe’s radical and un- matically well in the June 2000 parliamentary led by Mutambara, which had supported for-
CCC was launched, yellow has become the real structured land reform (some television footage elections and the 2002 presidential poll. How- mer ruling party stalwart Simba Makoni and his
colour of defiance. showing donations by farmers provided pro- ever, in March 2007, before the 2008 syn- Mavambo party in the elections.
paganda fodder to Zanu PF and Mugabe) and chronised general elections, Tsvangirai, and oth- Using the Gramscian concept of “passive
The CCC, which is only two months old, has that created internal tensions, dramatised by the er pro-democracy activists, including National revolution”, Zimbabwe’s democratic forces be-
surpassed expectations on the campaign trail de- leftist lawyer Munyaradzi Gwisai’s quitting of Constitutional Assembly leader Lovemore Mad- come part of a passive revolution through two
spite a state clampdown and is expected to win the party. huku and former MDC (Ncube’s formation) processes, the political scientist Brian Raftopou-
most of the urban seats on offer. leader Arthur Mutambara, were viciously at- los wrote. In one part of this configuration,
While Tsvangirai started as a humble ser- tacked and seriously injured by police as one of notwithstanding the electoral popularity of
The same cannot be said of the MDC, which vant of the MDC, he was fast elevated by those his supporters was shot dead in an anti-govern- Tsvangirai’s MDC, the repressive anchor of the
faces an existential threat: extinction. It has run around him, exercising collaborative agency to ment demonstration in Harare. Mugabe regime, itself pushed into a negotiated
its course. Reached a dead end. Its demise will a personality cult status through the deliberate settlement by a variety of factors, largely shaped
be a tragedy for democracy, yet an opportunity creation, projection and propagation of a god- the contours of this settlement, forcing the op-
for reconfiguration, re-alignment, and renewal like image. position to adjust to Zanu PF’s reconfiguration
of pro-democracy forces.
Through lionisation, hero-worshipping and
Formed in 1999 primarily by trade union- deification, as well as associated political reli-
ists led by its late founding leaders, fronted by
Morgan Tsvangirai, Gibson Sibanda and Isaac
Matongo, among others, the party was a broad
church — with a wide range of ideological be-
liefs, values and opinions, as well as competing
interests — which included academics, profes-
sionals, particularly lawyers, civil society organi-
sations and students, along with white commer-
cial farmers.

Although rooted in local political conditions
and a product of its environment, the MDC
also had huge foreign support and backing. That
is beyond reasonable doubt.

The MDC has virtually collapsed with
MDC-T leader Mwonzora masquerading as
leader of the now defunct MDC-Alliance play-
ing the role of undertaker.

Mwonzora, aided and abetted by Thokozani
Khupe, who is now his new rival, presided over
the destruction of the MDC. Tsvangirai, Siban-
da and Matongo, among others, and hundreds
of MDC members and activists who died at the
height of political combat with the late former
president Robert Mugabe, who led Zanu PF,
must be turning in their graves.

To understand the reasons why the MDC
has all but collapsed, one needs to look at the
role of ideology in politics and society, as well
as political ideas and movements. Aristotle be-
lieved man was a “political animal” because he
is a social creature with the power of speech and
moral reasoning.

Hence it is evident that the state is a creation
of nature, and that man is by nature a political
animal. And he who, by nature and not by mere
accident, is without a state, is either above hu-
manity, or below it; he is the “tribeless, lawless,
heartless one,” whom Homer denounces — the
outcast who is a lover of war; he may be com-
pared to a bird which flies alone.

Being political creatures, people have ideo-

NewsHawks News Page 9

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

of the state and its relations to capital from MDC-T, under the leadership of Douglas Mwonzora, attracts paltry crowds.
above.
tionship marked by simultaneously hopeful and many MDC formations and manifestations in ed consequences.
Moreover, Zanu PF had carried out this ma- ambivalent political attitudes — as critical in 15 years: The original MDC, MDC-T, MDC The neutrals
noeuvre under the cover of the regional body, shaping the outcome of the 2013 elections. (Ncube’s formation), MDC-99, MDC Renewal
itself constrained by its own limitations. In an- Team, People’s Democratic Party and Renewal Some of the people who sacrificed body and
other part of this conjuncture, the control of In addition to all of these conditions and fac- Democrats. soul — and toiled with their blood and sweat
an important tool of leverage for change in the tors, a key claim in this book is that going into — are exasperated that the party, which became
country’s political relations by external forces the 2013 elections the MDC ran a haphazard Using his personality cult, Tsvangirai during one of the biggest pro-democracy movements
has placed the opposition and civic forces in a campaign. For Chan and the 2014 party congress blocked Chamisa as the in Africa and with a rich legacy of fighting an
subordinate role to broader global agendas on popular choice for the post of secretary-gener- entrenched authoritarian regime while trying to
political and economic change. Gallagher, the MDC was weakened during al and imposed Mwonzora. Khupe was elected gain power to rebuild Zimbabwe, has been sac-
the coalition government. To begin with, partic- vice-president. Two years later, Tsvangirai tried rificed on the altar of unbridled personal ambi-
In that context, the politics of the opposition ipation in the coalition undermined the MDC’s to correct his mistake by appointing Chamisa tion and political expediency. Many people were
and civil society groupings could be understood most potent argument, one “rooted in the idea as one of the two more vice-presidents together beaten, raped, maimed and killed on behalf of
as being in defensive mode, fighting to institu- of its differences from Zanu PF, one of which with Elias Mudzuri. The decision fuelled divi- the MDC and yet it now seems their sacrifices
tionalise forms of politics that could establish was the idea of probity in government”. Second, sions and internal strife. It ultimately became a were in vain as their leaders commit politicide in
a broader basis for imagining and carrying out key members and resources of the MDC were ticking time bomb within the party. pursuit of personal ambition and power.
alternative political visions. directed towards participation in the coalition
government, resulting in fractured and weak When Tsvangirai died on 14 February 2018, The blood of many innocent Zimbabweans
Moreover, the MDC-T has had to adapt its party structures. Consequently, the party lost the powder keg exploded as Khupe, Chami- was spilt during the MDC’s mortal political
political positioning to the imperatives of the discipline and capacity, both of which affected sa and Mudzuri battled to succeed him. Cha- combat with Zanu PF. Neutrals hope that the
Global Political Agreement, the politics of Sadc, its campaign and ability to connect with voters misa seized control of the party and a further blood of those who died in the struggle for
and the demands of its supporters in the West. in the 2013 elections. split erupted. Khupe remained with the name change, which is flowing like a river below the
In that field of force, the persistent calls for new MDC-T, while Chamisa moved on to form surface, will water the tree of democracy and
legitimate elections were understandable, but While the MDC seemed to have been de- the MDC-Alliance. After the 2018 election in lead to a new Zimbabwe where they will prop-
clearly faced enormous odds. stabilised and decentred by participation in the which Khupe’s MDC-T performed badly and erly be honoured and remembered .
coalition government, Chan and Gallagher con- lost dismally to the MDC-Alliance, Mwonzora
Finding a way through the problem remained tend that Zanu PF took advantage of the GNU waged war on Chamisa. The losers
a complex challenge that involved not just an to reconnect with its supporters. By far the biggest individual loser in this po-
electoral strategy but a broader development vi- He took him to court and won, seized the litical soapie is Khupe. She fought Chamisa and
sion. As the parties pushed reforms, a process Bound and united by the ideological con- party headquarters and other properties and then Mwonzora viciously and lost dismally. All
Mbeki had started way back in 2007, amid struct of “patriotic history”, they suggest that then claimed its legacy. After defeating Khupe her efforts, driven by rage rather than political
growing suspicions among them, Tsvangirai Zanu PF fashioned a campaign that strength- at the MDC-T strategic thinking and calculation, have gone to
found himself closer to Mugabe and isolated ened its grassroots party structures among the waste. Yet Mwonzora, who has won his battle
from his top lieutenants like former finance rural populace and offered middle-class voters, December 2020 congress, Mwonzora sought against Chamisa
minister Tendai Biti who feared the old dictator for long the core supporters of the MDC, the to destroy the MDC-Alliance through recalls of over the MDC brand, is almost inevitably go-
wanted to draw the MDC closer and destroy it. possibility of material gains through its indi- elected officials, taking over state finances due to ing to eventually become a big loser as he will
genisation programme. the party and later claiming the name MDC-Al- go down as the MDC undertaker, risking being
Tsvangirai started enjoying power or proxim- liance. In the end, Chamisa formed the CCC judged harshly by the current generation and
ity to it through close association with Mugabe, “The outcome of this effort was that Zanu and left Mwonzora with a shell. That almost cer- history itself. Khupe, however, threw her weight
including drinking tea with him, and the trap- PF ran a ‘professional and committed campaign tainly marks the end of the MDC, although this behind Chamisa this week, marking an end to
pings of office and patronage such as getting a that involved a substantial voter registration Saturday’s by-elections and, most importantly, her alliance with Mwonzora, a move that has
big house from the state. drive, effective party mobilisation and a care- the 2023 general elections, will determine that. sent tounges wagging on the political scene.
fully crafted re-seduction of the Zimbabwean The MDC-Alliance could well be a poisoned
By the end of the GNU, Tsvangirai’s relations electorate’. Little wonder then that Freedom The winners chalice for him, which is almost certain.
with Biti were strained significantly, especially House survey results of voter intentions in 2012 Zanu PF emerges as the biggest winner in Chamisa lost the battle for the MDC-Alli-
over the new constitution-making process and pointed to real gains in support of Zanu, survey many ways after fighting the MDC tooth and ance to Mwonzora, but has gained under the
concessions in various contested issues. Tsvangi- results that, curiously, the unfocused MDC dis- nail for two decades to destroy it. Mwonzora CCC. He remains probably the most popular
rai had been significantly compromised despite counted.” did in two years what Zanu PF under Mugabe politician in Zimbabwe today.
his popularity. When Mugabe, indicating right, and later Mnangagwa failed to do in 20 years, Mnangagwa won the prize of destroying
swiftly turned left on his return from the Mapu- Consequently, on 20 November 2013 Biti that is demolish the MDC for his own personal the MDC as a brand, although his plot with
to Sadc summit on 15 June 2012 and railroad- announced he would be opening a new law firm interest and on behalf of the ruling party. His Mwonzora might backfire. Yet without a doubt
ed the country to the 31 July 2013 elections, specialising in international finance law and collaboration with Zanu PF is now common the biggest loser is democracy. When a big op-
Tsvangirai and the MDC could not figure out domestic constitutional issues. In 2014, he fell cause. position party like the MDC — which at its
what hit them. Amid a rigging plot by Israeli out with Tsvangirai and left with Elton Man- However, this might be a pyrrhic victory height was a major democratic counterweight to
security outfit Nikuv, Mugabe won 62% of the goma and others to form a breakaway party, or worse. The strategy might boomerang and Zanu PF and its failed authoritarian project —
vote to claim a sixth term as president and was MDC Renewal. The party quickly split and Biti lead to Chamisa’s vigorous rejuvenation under collapses, democracy is the ultimate loser.
sworn in on 22 August. formed the People’s Democratic Party, while the rising “yellow wave” as indications on the
former Energy minister Mangoma established ground strongly suggest that a stronger party
Tsvangirai emerged second with 34% of the the Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe. might rise out of the MDC’s ashes like a Phoe-
vote. Zanu PF also dominated the parliamen- nix in the form of CCC — the law of unintend-
tary election, winning 196 seats. The MDC-T Prior to that, MDC founding senior leader
was buried under a landslide. Job Sikhala had formed his own splinter party
called MDC-99 in 2010. This means there were
The 2014 split
After the 2013 elections defeat, which cost
the MDC domestic and international support,
as its former allies, including friendly voices like
British world politics professor Stephen Chan,
attacked its organisational incapacitation and
incompetence, infighting intensified. In their
book, Why Mugabe Won: the 2013 Elections in
Zimbabwe and their Aftermath, Chan and Julia
Gallagher were ruthless against the MDC.
They said Zanu PF and Mugabe’s victory left
the MDC battered and in disarray, as election
post-mortems predictably led to recriminations
and another split in the party.
“How did it happen? Was this another in-
stance of Mugabe and Zanu PF stealing an
election through what some in the opposition
claimed was a potent combination involving a
sketchy voters’ roll with 100 000 centenarians,
‘assisting’ voters, turning away over 300 000
voters, bussing people into key races, and intim-
idation, though with less overt violence?” the
authors asked.
“Or, did the wily politician win the election
fairly, as Zanu PF claimed and as was accept-
ed, with misgivings, by observer teams from the
Southern African Development Community
(Sadc) and the African Union?” Chan and Gal-
lagher challenged the rigging claims, suggesting
instead that Mugabe and Zanu PF won credibly,
aided by some “judicious rigging” and a healthy
helping of ineptness on the part of Tsvangirai
and the MDC.
Chan and Gallagher pointed to several con-
ditions — the legacies of colonialism; memo-
ries of the economic collapse of 2007-08 and
the horrific election violence of 2008; Mugabe’s
continued towering presence in Zimbabwean
politics; Tsvangirai’s heroic, if flawed, challenge
to Mugabe; and an evolving state-society rela-

Page 10 News NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Auditor-General’s office in dire straits

MOSES MATENGA l MPs question govt’s sincerity in fighting graft

THE efficiency of the Auditor-General’s office is office seriously. said: “We cannot continue like this as a coun- Auditor-General Mildred Chiri
under threat as the government has reneged on “When we talk about 1% of the budget going try. I, personally would be happy if a vote of the AG’s office. Then we would have proved that
financing the critical body in what members of no confidence motion can be moved against the we do not just talk but walk the talk.”
Parliament say is a futile attempt by the regime towards them, it does not mean much, that is minister of Finance to show the people of
to cripple the Mildred Chiri-led team from the truth of the matter. It is therefore important “We talk about fighting corruption in Zim-
exposing the massive looting in ministries and without any further delay or any debate that this Zimbabwe that we are serious in addressing babwe, how can we fight corruption when we
parastatals. 1% be given to this department because it is the the issue that they are facing and that we are are not funding the AG’s office? How can we
one that is looking after the people’s money.” serious in stopping this brain drain.” win the battle against corruption when the AG’s
So dire is the situation that the Auditor-Gen- office is losing a lot of its skilled and experienced
eral’s office has since been hit by high staff turn- “You have got to see that the minister of Fi- “In particular, it has been cited that the AG’s staff?” Harare North MP Rusty Markham said:
over, transport challenges and lack of furniture nance is also a culprit. We must call a spade a office should receive 1% of the budget. As par- “It is absolutely essential if the minister of Fi-
to properly execute their duties while the gov- spade. The minister of Finance, though he is a liamentarians, we do not need to talk about it, nance and the government, if they are serious
ernment is turning a blind eye to requests by responsible minister, the accountability leaves a we need to take a strong position and make sure about corruption, they will fund the tool that
Parliament to give 1% of the national budget lot to be desired. They have failed to hold most that when it comes to voting for the budget and has proved itself to highlight corruption and
to the office. ministries accountable for the monies that they approving it, we can take a public position and that is this office. By not funding it, it is quite
give to them.” say as members of Parliament, we are refusing to obvious that you do not want to stop the cor-
MPs have since put Finance minister Mthuli pass the budget until the 1% is fully allocated to ruption.”
Ncube in a corner for not addressing critical is- Whange Central MP Daniel Molokela-Tsiye
sues of remuneration of staff in the AG’s office
and not providing essentials, with some now MPs have since put Finance minister Mthuli Ncube in a corner for not addressing critical issues in AG’s office.
calling for a vote of no confidence in the Trea-
sury chief.

According to a report by Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) chairperson Brian Dube
(Gweru Urban), the AG’s office is now too
handicapped to carry out its mandate — includ-
ing the preparation and presentation of annual
reports to the minister each year — important
work which routinely exposes mainly corrup-
tion, incompetence and inefficiency in para-
statals and ministries.

“The effect of the late preparation and tabling
has the effect of rendering the examination of
reports an academic exercise as the effects of
the malpractices will not be addressed in good
time,” the report presented by Dube read in
part.

Transport challenges have seen workers in the
AG’s office arriving at late at work and leaving
early to catch the only cheaper available Public
Service Commission (PSC) buses just like other
civil servants.

“Some of the staff was reported to arrive rath-
er late for work around 9.00am since some of
them are picked up on the second trips. Thereaf-
ter, they have to go to their clients and auditees
at various ministries and state enterprises where
they may arrive around 10:00 am,” the report
read.

“In the afternoon, the first trips were reported
to leave around 3:15pm and so for staff to catch
the buses, they in turn have to leave the clients’
premises around 2:30pm, effectively leaving
them with about four (4) hours per day to carry
out audits.”

Another challenge is the mass exodus of crit-
ical staff due to lower salaries and poor working
conditions.

“The Committee gathered that the Audit Of-
fice continues to lose experienced staff due to
low salaries, leaving a lot of vacancies.”

“The office doesn’t also have tools of the trade
that include computers, making it difficult to
operate.

“Most of the laptops used by the staff were
reported to be old, having since outlived their
useful lives,” Dube said.

Dzivaresekwa MP Edwin Mushoriwa said
there was a need for the government to allocate
at least 1% of the national budget allocation to
the capacitation of the AG’s office.

“Most auditing offices across the region and
in the world are allocated 1% of the budget.

That percentage makes your audit office to
be professional, to be able to retain critical staff.
We have a situation at the moment where our
audit office is lagging behind because it becomes
a training ground for professionals and auditors.
Once they would have reached the peak, they
then leave and we continue training.”

“In my view and the Committee’s view, it is
important that when we do budget debates, we
should urge the minister of Finance to ensure
that a sizeable budget is given.”

Shurugwi North MP Robson Nyathi said:
“From the report that I have just heard from the
chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee,
it shows that for our employees that are em-
ployed at the AGs Office the work conditions
are not favourable.”

Norton MP Temba Mliswa said it was time
the government took the funding of the AG’s

NewsHawks News Page 11

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Command Agric scandal explodes

MOSES MATENGA l Biti says final report doctored
l Claims cartels milking billions
FORMER Finance minister Tendai Biti has
raised a red flag over the recently publicised re- Former Finance minister Tendai Biti says Command Agriculture (below) must be disbanded.
port on Command Agriculture that exposed how
a former minister and the central bank oversaw debt. tional budget and yet it is not approved by Par- millions of dollars without going through requi-
the murky approval of Treasury Bills that bur- “We need to put a cap on domestic debt be- liament. A parallel government is being run else- site tender processes.
dened the government with a debt of nearly where and you can’t run a country like that.”
US$1.6 billion. cause Command Agriculture is a parallel budget. Other companies which took part in the Com-
If you look at 2017, Command Agriculture spent However, Biti has ruffled feathers, with mainly mand Agriculture programme are FSG, Quton,
Biti alleges that the final report was doctored US$2.7 billion when the national budget was Zanu PF MPs accusing him of lying and exag- Pedstock, Cottco, Sable Chemicals, Valley Seeds,
to exonerate corrupt individuals. US$3 billion. In 2018, Command Agriculture gerating the amounts just to push a misleading Seed Co, Windmill and ZFC.
spent US$3.5 billion when the national budget narrative on “cartels”.
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee was US$3.5 billion, 2020 Command Agriculture In the report, the PAC said it was “gravely
(PAC) report, presented over a fortnight ago, spent US$6.8 billion when the national budget Several companies, including Sakunda Hold- concerned” that these huge amounts were spent
exposed how billions of dollars were looted by was US$4 billion. The budget for ings owned by business tycoon Kudakwashe Tag- outside the Appropriation Act, in breach of the
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s cronies and wirei, who is President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Constitution of Zimbabwe and the Public Fi-
companies linked to them under the Special Command Agriculture is bigger than the na- adviser, are implicated in the report. Sakunda got nance Management Act.

Maize Programme better known as Command
Agriculture. The report cited former Finance
minister Patrick Chinamasa and the central bank
for allegedly disregarding the law in discharging
the programme.

Chinamasa and the central bank, the report
said, administered a suspicious and illegal process
through dubious approvals of Treasury Bills.

But Biti, who was the PAC chairperson before
he was recalled in 2020 by the MDC-T, alleged
that over US$3 billion was abused under the
scheme.

He told The NewsHawks that although the re-
port ultimately presented by current PAC chair-
person and Gweru Urban member of Parliament
Brian Dube exposed graft and looting, it lacked
focus on a number of key issues that showed how
cartels were controlling the Zimbabwean econ-
omy.

“I did the work, I did interviews of chairper-
sons, so I am extremely disappointed that the
conclusions are not the conclusions we had made
at the time,” Biti said.

“At some stage the committee got captured
and at some stage certain individuals prevailed
because certain exonerations made were not our
findings,” Biti, the former Harare East MP, who
is seeking re-election this weekend, said.

“Be that as it may, the report essentially makes
the findings that Command Agriculture is cap-
tured, Command Agriculture is corrupt and it is
not in the national interest. That is so self-evi-
dent.”

“What is also self-evident is that Command
Agriculture is benefitting cartels,” he said.

“lt is also self-evident that the ministry of Ag-
riculture is not in control, the Grain Marketing
Board (GMB) is not in control and that at least
comes out from the doctored version that was
presented in Parliament,” Biti said.

Biti said the Command Agriculture scheme
must be disbanded as it is a feeding trough for
the elite at the expense of the country.

“Command Agriculture must be disbanded
because it is just a feeding trough for the boys
and the cartels. It is quite clear is that out of every
dollar that is devoted to command agriculture,
only 20 cents is going to agriculture; the rest is
going to vehicles, these companies and to certain
powerful individuals in Zimbabwe. So Com-
mand Agriculture must be disbanded.”

The report confirmed that cars were bought for
senior government officials as part of the scheme.

“It is also clear that command agriculture is
being funded through the back door of Treasury
Bills so I think that the Public Finance Manage-
ment Act must be amended so that the minister
doesn’t have any powers of issuing any Treasury
Bills.”

“It is also self-evident that the constitution
and the Public Finance Management Act must
be strengthened so that a minister cannot spend
outside Parliament, a minister cannot spend out-
side the Consolidated Revenue Fund and outside
the budget.”

“The central bank has outlived its usefulness. It
is now a portal of looting. Look at the way they
are looting foreign currency. Look at the way that
it is engaging in quasi-fiscal activities. A case is
made in those reports for the total disbanding
of the Reserve Bank and adoption of a currency
board in Zimbabwe.”

Biti said the Command Agriculture pro-
gramme was being treated as a parallel budget
and there was a need to put a cap on domestic

Page 12 News NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

SOME of the controversial payments through the New details emerge on Command
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to President Agriculture funding and looting
Emmerson Mnangagwa’s adviser Kudakwashe
Tagwirei’s companies formed up to one-third
of the US$280 million his firms received while
running the Command Agriculture programme,
according to new analysis by The Sentry, an Amer-
ican investigative organisation.

From 2016 to 2019, Tagwirei’s firm Sakunda
Holdings ran the Command Agriculture scheme,
which was intended to boost agricultural produc-
tion through the provision of inputs such as seed
and fertiliser to commercial farmers.

Sakunda — formerly an oil trading company
before divesting its interest in international com-
modity broking giant Trafigura Zimbabwe — was
appointed to run the billion-dollar project with-
out an open tendering process.

The Sentry’s investigation found that, over the
course of the three-year programme, Sakunda re-
ceived US$1.28 billion total — US$230 million
in hard currency and over US$1 billion in Trea-
sury Bills (TBs) — while providing inputs worth
US$1 billion: a surplus of US$280 million.

One of the TBs was improperly redeemed at a
favourable exchange rate by the RBZ after a new
law had reduced the US dollar value of such as-
sets. While others saw the US dollar value of their
TBs fall, the RBZ protected Tagwirei’s asset from
this erosion in value when it was cashed in: the
central bank sent more Zimbabwean dollars to his
firms than it was obliged to by the new law.

This decision was worth — in US dollars — at
least US$50 million, and perhaps up to US$100
million, for the tycoon’s companies.

“The RBZ’s decision does not seem to be in
accordance with Zimbabwean law, and the In-
ternational Monetary Fund reportedly blamed
the Reserve Bank’s treatment of this Treasury Bill
for bloating the money supply and contributing
to inflation and the rapid decline in the value of
Zimbabwe’s new currency from mid-2019,” it
says.

Neither the RBZ nor Treasury responded to a
request for comment, The Sentry says.

Sakunda, which denies any wrongdoing, testi-
fied in Parliament that it received the favourable
rate so that it could repay foreign suppliers —
particularly of chemicals — in hard currency.

However, it appears that the TB was given a
preferential exchange rate partly to allow one of
Tagwirei’s firms to pay the government for some
gold mines and a Zimbabwean military-con-
trolled company for its share of a platinum min-
ing joint venture with a Russian conglomerate.

In effect, the publicly-owned RBZ was print-
ing money for private companies to buy publicly
owned assets.

Zimbabwe’s parliamentary Public Accounts
Committee (Pac) has accused the RBZ and the
ministry of Finance of acting “outside the law”, a
charge denied by those entities.

Pac said the RBZ acted unconstitutionally by
issuing TBs to pay for Command Agriculture and
many other projects, circumventing democratic
approval of spending and borrowing.

Pac accused the government of breaching pro-
curement and public finance rules. In addition to
Pac, the Treasury’s own debt management office
and the auditor-general both raised similar alarms
about the Command Agriculture programme and
expressed concern about potential conflicts of in-
terest.

“The scheme may also have served as part of a
system of patronage. At least some of the Com-
mand Agriculture program recipients — who
were not selected by Sakunda — were past or
present members of the security forces,” The Sen-
try says.

“And Command Agriculture may not have
been the only politically motivated expenditure
financed by the RBZ. Leaked TB issuance notes
raise red flags about potentially politicised RBZ,
spending just before the coup that brought down
the late former president Robert Mugabe.

“Command Agriculture was the product of a
behind-closed-doors culture: the procurement
process for this billion-dollar programme, the
preferential treatment of the TB, and the selection
of recipients of inputs were all hidden from pub-
lic view. The Sentry’s recommendations therefore
include procurement transparency measures that
could allow Zimbabwean citizens to see how their
money is spent.”

Zimbabwe’s summer of 2016/2017 was hot,
dry, and tense as usual. El Niño had disrupted
global weather patterns, causing the rains to fail
in southern Africa. As many families went hun-

NewsHawks News Page 13

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

gry, Mugabe declared a state of “drought disaster” by-side during the 2016 to 2019 period. Low- which contracted farmers had to sell their harvest. The RBZ issued TBs to companies as short
and appealed for US$1.6 billion in aid. Mugabe’s er-income subsistence farmers benefited from free The GMB would distribute the inputs from their term IOUs (informal document acknowledging
financial options were limited. His 36-year-long inputs, such as fertilisers, pesticides, and seeds, depots at the start of the growing season and then debt) and paid out either in US or Zimbabwean
regime then had lurched from economic crisis to under the Presidential Input Scheme, while Com- buy the farmers’ grain at harvest time. dollars after the loan period ended.
crisis: banks and donors were reluctant to lend to mand Agriculture was intended to be a commer-
a regime with a track record of not repaying debts cial programme focused on medium-sized farms. Part of the GMB’s payment to the farmers For example, the holder of a TB issued for
and abusing human rights. would be withheld and used to repay their “loan,” US$100 at a “coupon” rate of 5% for 365 days
Many such farms found it hard to borrow mon- the cost of the inputs. would be paid $105 after the year was up.
This was not a strong economic platform for ey from banks to pay for inputs at the beginning
Zanu PF, led by the then visibly frail 93-year-old of the growing season, partly because they leased The original design was that the private compa- The plan for Command Agriculture was that
Mugabe, to take into the 2018 elections. Even their land from the state, rather than owning it ny would buy the inputs upfront, in effect lending funds collected by the GMB would be transferred
worse for the ruling party, in-fighting was rife. outright, making it difficult to use the land as col- to the government, and it would then be repaid to the Treasury and then to the private company
Grace Mugabe, the president’s wife, supported lateral. from the proceeds when the GMB sold the grain upon redeeming their TBs, although in practice,
by the so-called “G40” faction, was positioning it had purchased from the contracted farmers. Al- the private company didn’t receive any loan repay-
herself to succeed him, to the consternation of Command Agriculture got around this prob- though the private company requested that their ments but instead “had recourse” to the TBs.
the military. The Zimbabwe Defence Forces com- lem, as inputs would be bought centrally by a loan be underwritten by a guarantee, the govern-
mand the then-vice-president Emmerson Mnan- private company rather than by, for instance, the ment provided the private lender security in the Taken as a whole, the financing of Command
gagwa, partly for self-interested reasons, and partly Ministry of Agriculture. form of TBs, short-term debt instruments that can Agriculture was designed to bridge the finance gap
because they saw him as heir to the legacy of the be cashed in by the recipient at a future maturity between the start of the growing season and har-
1970s liberation struggle against the racist Rhode- These inputs would then be distributed to the date with earned interest. vest time. That was the theory, but practice led to
sian regime. Grain Marketing Board (GMB), a parastatal to looting. — THE SENTRY/THE NEWSHAWKS.

By 2016, liberation war veterans, traditionally
a key political constituency for Zanu PF, had lost
patience with Mugabe and the G40. While some
had benefited from the fast-track land reform pro-
gramme of the early 2000s — which saw white
commercial farmers evicted, often violently, and
their farms redistributed — the veterans now ex-
pressed dismay at Mugabe distributing “that land
as reward for his foot soldiers.”

Declaring that they would no longer vote for
Mugabe, they blamed him for presiding “over
unbridled corruption and downright misman-
agement of the economy, leading to national eco-
nomic ruin”.

Command Agriculture was part of Zanu PF’s
answer to these interconnected problems. Led by
the military and the Office of President and Cab-
inet, the programme was intended to boost agri-
cultural production, making Zimbabwe less de-
pendent on grain imports, which required scarce
foreign currency.

Along the way, it would help shore up support
in Zanu PF’s rural heartlands, particularly among
war veterans and former members of the security
sector who had received farms.

Two agricultural support programmes ran side-

Page 14 News NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Petrotrade execs challenge forced leave

MOSES MATENGA

TWO senior executives at state-owned pe- Petrotrade is in chaos after Energy minister Soda Zhemu suspended the Tinomudaishe Chinyoka-chaired board early this month.
troleum firm Petrotrade have gone to court
to challenge their placement on “mandatory mandatory leave,” he added in his application. He said the company’s actions were a threat members as they were opposed to a suspicious
leave”, warning that the illegal action could “We were instructed to surrender immedi- to his future job prospects as they were calcu- deal that reeks with corruption in which Petro-
plunge the country into chaos as the entity is lated to mean he had done something wrong. trade and Genesis Energy are to be sold to In-
critical in supplying fuel to the military and ately our company vehicles and laptops and dependent Petroleum Group (IPG) of Kuwait.
police who are key in maintaining law and or- escorted by security out of the respondent’s “I have indicated as much to respondent’s
der. offices.” acting chief executive officer in the preceding Ministry officials want to sell Petrotrade for
days. His only concession has been to release less than US$20 million to IPG after an un-
Cougan Matanhire, who is the firm’s chief He said the mandatory leave was not part of the applicants’ motor vehicles back to their derstated valuation which will prejudice the
operations officer and Nomsa Chitsaka, the his employment contract. possession.” state while benefitting corrupt government
business development director, were forced to facilitators.
go on “mandatory leave” by the company’s act- “Respondent’s actions are also contrary to Petrotrade is also in chaos after Energy
ing chief executive officer who claimed it was provisions of the Public Entities Corporate minister Soda Zhemu suspended the Tinomu- A local transaction advisory consortium
a directive via text message from ministry of Governance Act (Chapter 10:31) and Pub- daishe Chinyoka-chaired board early this has already been paid US$115 000 before the
Energy and Power Development permanent lic Entities Corporate Governance (General) month. controversial deal — which is being resisted by
secretary Gloria Magombo. Regulations as well as section 68 of the con- the suspended Petrotrade board against a back-
stitution which guarantee my right to admin- Zhemu said he had instituted investigations drop of mounting pressure from the ministry
The duo is seeking interdictory relief sus- istrative conduct that is lawful, reasonable and into what they called “corporate governance — is signed.
pending the operation of the directive. procedurally fair.” issues”, but it emerged he suspended the board

Matanhire was employed by Petrotrade in
November last year before he was confirmed as
substantive chief operations officer in February
this year while Chitsaka was confirmed as the
substantive business development director at
the same time.

The two are seeking a declaratur to the effect
that the respondent’s directive “is unlawful,
null and void and of no force and effect.”

“Additionally, respondent is a state-owned
entity with a critical role to play in the volatile
energy sector. My role within the respondent’s
operations is a critical one. Presently, I am not
able to supervise the staff in my department
or liaise with respondent’s suppliers and cus-
tomers, who include, in the main, government
departments and agencies, some of whom are
responsible for the preservation of law and
order in Zimbabwe,” Matanhire’s affidavit de-
posed with the High Court on 22 March 2022
read in part.

“It is not without exaggeration when I state
that respondent’s operations will be plunged
into inevitable chaos should this unlawful state
of affairs persist. Only urgent relief from this
honourable court can stall this.”

Matanhire said he, together with Chitsaka,
were on 11 March 2022 summoned to a meet-
ing with the acting chief executive officer who
told them they were suspended immediately.

“We were informed by him that the perma-
nent secretary of the ministry had advised by
way of text message to suspend us immediately
from employment,” Matanhire said.

“I was shocked and demanded to see text
message. The acting chief executive officer
refused to show me the message. He said he
would, out of his benevolence place us on

Russian invasion sends Zim fuel prices haywire

NYASHA CHINGONO

AS the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues
with all the strategic geopolitical and economic
consequences, the oil and fuel industry remains
one of the most affected sectors.

Fuel prices have spiked around the world
due to the war as well as the subsequent West-
ern sanctions.

Zimbabwe has not been spared, with the
pump price of petrol having spiked to an all-
time high of US$1.68 per litre before coming
down to US$1.59 this week. Diesel had gone
up to US$1.68, but is now US$1.60.

Even though Zimbabwean fuel has margin-
ally come down, it is still relatively higher than
other countries in the region.

Despite high global oil prices, in Zambia
petrol is pegged at US$1.24 , South Africa
US$1.41, Mozambique US$1.08 and Botswa-
na US$1.09.

The biggest impact of the fuel price increases
globally is the stoking up of inflationary pres-
sures.

Fuel price increases usually have a knick-on
effect on the economy.

NewsHawks News Page 15

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

NGOs: Top politicians at crossroads

MOSES MATENGA . . . I will kick you out, says Mnangagwa
. . . I will protect you, says Chamisa
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s threats
to kick out non-governmental organisations President Emmerson
(NGOs) is reckless and likely to plunge Zimba- Mnangagwa
bwe into further decay and humanitarian crisis,
Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) leader CCC leader
Nelson Chamisa has said. Nelson Chamisa

Chamisa’s warning during his final campaign “Don’t be lied to each time they come here Zimbabwe goes to by-elections this Saturday Chamisa also accused Mnangagwa of bussing
in Epworth on Thursday ahead of tomorrow’s seeking your votes. It is not the duty of the gov- with observers saying the campaign messages by people to his rallies and believing he has support
by-elections came after Mnangagwa on Wednes- ernment to always promise, it is the duty of the the two main political parties have exposed how while accusing the regime of abusing the police
day told his party supporters that he will kick government to deliver,” Chamisa said. broken and fragile Zimbabwe is as politicians to harass opposition supporters and block their
out NGOs he accused of dabbling in politics and were promising what are supposed to be basics in rallies. Zanu PF hired over 70 buses for its St
pushing a regime change agenda. “You have 40 years in office, you cannot al- a normal country. Mary’s rally on Wednesday.
ways be promising people now.”
Mnangagwa’s threats are in disregard of a stern
warning that if his party allows the Private Vol-
untary Organisations Amendment Bill to pass
as is, it could cost Zimbabwe close to US$800
million in development funding this year and
will come with devastating social and economic
consequences.

The report, titled Punching Holes To A Frag-
ile Economy?, compiled by Prosper Chitambara,
Clinton Musonza and Phillan Zamchiya, says the
proposed law will have a far-reaching negative
impact and implications not just for civil society
organisations, but also for government develop-
ment programmes and the poor who rely on aid
for survival and access to critical social services.

According to the report, Zimbabwe risks los-
ing out on over US$800 million in aid.

“NGOs that fail to stick to their mandate, I
will push them out of the country, I will chase
them out. We can do without them, we don’t
need them,” Mnangagwa thundered during his
rally in St Mary’s, Chitungwiza.

Mnangagwa’s regime has targeted mainly
NGOs fighting to protect and promote human
rights in Zimbabwe while accusing most of them
engaged in humanitarian assistance of working
with the opposition.

Chamisa on Thursday said Mnangagwa must
leave NGOs alone and not threaten them for do-
ing their work.

“NGOs must continue working and giving
people food and aid. We will not act like what
Mnangagwa is doing to threaten them. They are
not in politics, let them help the people because
you have failed,” Chamisa told his party support-
ers in Epworth.

The PVO Amendment Bill was gazetted in
November 2021 and seeks to amend the PVO
Act to impose new restrictions, but civil society
organisations have warned the proposed amend-
ments will constrain their work and violate hu-
man rights, while negatively affecting communi-
ties who depend on their activities.

Chamisa also blasted the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (Zec), saying they should stop act-
ing like an appendage of Zanu PF.

“Zec is not Zanu PF, it must be a commission
for the people. They must play fair and do not be
an extension of a party that is on its way out. We
are watching you and, if you rig, we as the people
have a right to call for you disbandment, we have
that power,” Chamisa said.

Mnangagwa and Chamisa ended their cam-
paigns on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively,
where they focused mainly on service delivery
and promises to the electorate.

Mnangagwa centred his message on accusing
the opposition councils of failing to provide po-
table water to cities, while priding himself as a
“saviour” who has brought the Presidential Bore-
hole Drilling Scheme that he said will see thou-
sands of boreholes drilled in cities and towns.

But Chamisa accused central government of
running down local authorities and crippling
them by appointing partisan officials who were
aiding looting.

In Epworth, Mnangagwa promised thousands
of settlers that he will issue them with title deeds,
but up to now, nothing has been provided, with
the CCC leader dismissing the President’s words
as hot air.

“I want to debunk Mnangagwa’s lies. He came
and lied to you that he will issue title deeds to
everyone. Title deeds is independence, there
is no independence without land. In Epworth
you know you were brought by land barons and
duped but don’t worry, we will sort them out.”

Page 16 News NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

‘Mnangagwa plotting second genocide’

MOSES MATENGA . . . We are not scared, declares MRP

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s threats MRP leader Mqondisi Moyo says President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s threats were declaration of a second Gukurahundi.
that those calling for a separate state will have
their lives cut short is declaration of a second that if he is under political pressure he will resort someone was killed?” the killings as “a moment of madness” but re-
genocide synonymous with the Gukurahundi to violence.” His statements has caused both anger and pan- fused to apologise. Mnangagwa, then a minis-
atrocities that saw over 20 000 people killed in ter of State Security, described a small group of
the 1980s, the Mthwakazi Republic Party and “What if his people tomorrow start killing ic, particularly among victims of Gukurahundi, a freedom fighters who refused to demobilise after
several pressure groups said yesterday. people? What will be done, because we have genocide which left an estimated 20 000 dead in Independence as “cockroaches” who needed a
seen it in Kwekwe a day after Chiwenga threat- the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces. pesticide to deal with them.
Mnangagwa is known for issuing chilling ened that the opposition will be crushed like lice,
threats against critics that are usually followed Former President Robert Mugabe described
with action and his latest warning has sent shivers
down the spines of activists who view them as a
danger warning sign of what lies ahead.

During his address at an election campaign ral-
ly at St Mary’s in Chitungwiza, Mnangagwa, in
apparent reference to the Mthwakazi

Republic party and pressure groups calling for
secessionist agenda, said: “No one will divide this
country into small states. You will be looking for
a premature end to life. Walk in a way that gives
you life, a path that builds. We want unity, peace
and harmony.”

But MRP leader Mqondisi Moyo said Mnan-
gagwa’s threats were declaration of a second
Gukurahundi, but warned that they will not be
intimidated.

“We regard his utterances as declaration of the
second Gukurahundi. We are not going to take
those threats lightly and our warning to him is
that it won’t end well because we are not going to
take his threats lightly,” Moyo said.

“As Mthwakazi Republic Party, we heard what
Mnangagwa said when he addressed in St Mary’s
in Chitungwiza where he spoke hard against us.
We are not surprised about his utterances as the
architect of Gukurahundi around 1983 to 1987,”
he added.

“If you reckon that sometime in 1984 he said
our people are like cockroaches who need DDT
and the following day at a place called Cewale
in Lupane, 55 people were butchered. As he said
that, we are not even surprised though we are
now saying to him, we are yet another genera-
tion that is totally different from (the late former
Vice-President) Joshua Nkomo’s generation.”

“Whether he threatens us with death, with ar-
rests or anything at all, we are not afraid of him
and we are going forward with our agenda for a
separate state.”

Pressure group Ibhetshu Likazulu coordinator
Mbuso Fuzwayo said Mnangagwa still has same
criminal mind that contributed to the Gukura-
hundi massacres and his claim that he is eager to
address the 1980s atrocities is “nonsensical.”

“Some of us are not surprised,” he told The
NewsHawks yesterday. “Always when they are
cornered they will always resort to violence. It
must not be taken lightly. He is a man who issues
threats and has followed up on them.”

“lf you are to go back to the killing of Mbone-
ni Ncube in Kwekwe recently, it came after
(Vice-President Constantino) Chiwenga uttered
careless statements that incited and what Emmer-
son has said now it is clear that he is mobilising to
commit a second genocide,” Fuzwayo said.

Ncube was killed by Zanu PF thugs during a
Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) rally a day
after Chiwenga said the opposition in Zimbabwe
would be crushed like lice.

“It must not be taken lightly and the question
is how do his people interpret it — including the
military — because the Commander-in-Chief
has spoken. He is mobilising for a genocide.”

“If you go back to the ‘80s, it is the same state-
ment that led to the killing of more than 55 peo-
ple a day in Lupane and so it is not surprising be-
cause he is a person who has DNA for genocide
so he is not someone whose statements can be
taken lightly,” Fuzwayo added.

“The way forward is to unite and make sure
they are voted out of power and the international
community must not sit and allow them to com-
mit a second genocide,” he added.

“These utterances by somebody who claims to
be head of state makes it clear he is speaking like
a criminal and his criminal mind is still with him.
It then tells you that what he has been telling peo-
ple that he was working to address the Gukura-
hundi issue is just nonsense. He is not going to
address anything, but in fact it must be known

NewsHawks News Page 17

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

IMF directors urged Zimbabwean authorities to phase out exchange restrictions and multiple currency practices.

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) Zim should tighten monetary
says Zimbabwe must further ensure monetary policy to rein in inflation: IMF
tightening to rein in resurging inflationary
pressures, while also allowing more operational demic, including through containment mea- over the medium term, reflecting a pickup in emphasised the need to enhance revenue mo-
independence of the central bank, ending qua- sures and economic and social support, helped imports and slowdown in remittances. The bilisation, including through broadening the
si-fiscal operations, and tackling currency as contain its adverse impact. Pandemic-related effects from the Covid-19 pandemic and pro- tax base and improving tax administration and
well as exchange rate issues. spending, equivalent to 2% of GDP, in 2020 tracted drought have compounded existing compliance. On the spending side, accelerating
was financed by reallocation within the bud- structural constraints and would lead to scar- reforms of state-owned enterprises and enhanc-
This follows the conclusion of the IMF exec- get. In 2021, such outlays represented about ring on the economic outlook. ing fiscal controls will be critical to limit fiscal
utive board Article IV consultations. 1.6% of GDP, partially financed by the Spe- risks. Directors also encouraged the authorities
cial Drawing Rights allocation of about US$1 “International reengagement has lagged as to use the SDR allocation prudently and trans-
“Directors recommended further monetary billion. stakeholders seek political and economic re- parently.
tightening, given the persistently high infla- forms. The 2019 Staff-Monitored Programme
tion,” the IMF said yesterday. In addition, expenditures were increased to experienced significant policy slippages and “Directors noted that Zimbabwe remains in
bolster food security and farm inputs to vulner- elapsed without a review,” IMF said. “Since debt distress, with large external arrears to of-
“In this context, they emphasised the need able households. The Reserve Bank of Zimba- then, the authorities have made significant ficial creditors. They welcomed the authorities’
to increase the operational independence of the bwe introduced a medium-term bank accom- progress towards restoring macroeconomic sta- commitment to re-engage with external cred-
central bank, discontinue its quasi-fiscal oper- modation lending facility and private sector bility, though the implementation of past IMF itors, including by resuming token payments
ations, and improve its coordination with the lending facility, it says. policy advice has been mixed. The authorities and preparing a debt resolution strategy. Direc-
fiscal authorities. Concerted efforts are needed have developed a debt resolution strategy and tors encouraged further efforts to enhance debt
toward greater exchange rate flexibility by al- Real GDP rose by 6.3% in 2021, reflect- started token payments to creditors in a bid to management and transparency.”
lowing a more transparent and market-driven ing a bumper maize harvest, strong pickup in make progress on reengagement.”
price process. Directors called on the authori- mining, and buoyant construction. A tighter The IMF highlighted the need for continued
ties to phase out exchange restrictions and mul- policy stance since mid-2020 relative to 2019 IMF says despite Zimbabwe’s problems, it is vigilance to ensure financial stability, includ-
tiple currency practices as soon as conditions has contributed to lowering inflation to 60.7% not all gloom and doom. ing by addressing remaining banking sector
permit.” at end-2021. Fiscal policy was tightened in weaknesses. They welcomed the removal of the
2020‑21, reflecting increased revenues and “Executive directors welcomed the posi- country from the FATF grey list and progress
Zimbabwe’s annual consumer price inflation lowered spending. The current account balance tive signs of economic recovery following two on strengthening the AML/CFT framework,
surged for the sixth straight month to 66.1% turned into a surplus during 2019-21, reflect- years of deep recession. Directors commended and encouraged further efforts to address the
in February, from 60.6% in January. That was ing favourable metals’ prices, lower imports, the authorities for their swift response to the remaining deficiencies.
the highest inflation rate since last June, even and a surge in remittances. However, high Covid-19 pandemic and for stronger efforts to
though the central bank raised in October its double-digit inflation and wide parallel foreign address macroeconomic imbalances, while pri- “Directors noted that addressing institution-
main lending rate to 60% in an attempt to exchange market premia have persisted. Pover- oritising social support,” it said. al weaknesses is instrumental in supporting
tame that increase and to stabilise the free-fall- ty has risen and about a third of the population growth and social development. They looked
ing Zimbabwe dollar now trading at up to is at risk of food insecurity. However, Zimbabwe still needs to ensure re- forward to further progress on implementing
US$1: ZW$250. forms and international engagement. the 2020 National Anti-Corruption Strate-
The output recovery that resumed in 2021 gy. Directors underscored the importance of
Part of the renewed inflationary pressures is expected to continue, albeit at a slower pace, “Noting that substantial challenges remain, prioritising structural reforms to improve the
are due to fuel prices hikes triggered by Rus- with growth projected at about 3½% in 2022 including extreme poverty and longstanding business climate and build resilience to climate
sia’s invasion of Ukraine. The war, which has and 3% over the medium term in line with structural constraints, they urged the author- change. Directors encouraged the authorities
an impact on the world economy, has sent the Zimbabwe’s growth potential. ities to implement the necessary reforms that to advance reforms, noting that a new Staff
volatile global oil markets into turmoil, with would foster higher, more inclusive growth and Monitored Programme could help establish a
oil prices surging well above US$100 per barrel Authorities aim to limit the 2022 budget pave the way for reengagement with the inter- track record of sound policies and provide fur-
amid fears it will scale US$200 per barrel by deficit at 1½% of GDP, and below 2% of GDP national community,” it says. ther impetus to their re-engagement efforts.”
year-end. over the medium-term. At the same time, the
current account surplus is expected to decline “Directors agreed that fiscal policy should —STAFF WRITER.
The IMF says Zimbabwe experienced severe aim to restore macroeconomic stability and
exogenous shocks (cyclone Idai, protracted create fiscal space for priority spending. They
drought, and the Covid-19 pandemic) during
2019-20, which along with policy failures in
2019, led to a deep recession and high infla-
tion.

Real GDP contracted cumulatively by
11.7% during 2019-20 and annual inflation
reached 837% by July 2020.

It says authorities’ swift response to the pan-

Page 18 News NewsHawks

Moment of truth for Harare Issue 73, 25 March 2022
East by-election candidates
Mbizo seat
up for grabs

MARY MUNDEYA Mavis Gumbo Tendai Biti Settlement
Precious Chikwinya
THE race for the Harare East National As- Garikai
sembly seat pits Tendai Biti of the Citizens’ Mlambo Musarurwa MARY MUNDEYA
Coalition for Change (CCC), Mavis Gumbo
of Zanu PF, Lovemore Christopher Mbanga Christopher “To the people of Harare East, I promise to SETTLEMENT Chikwinya of the Citizens’ Coalition
of the MDC-Alliance, Garikai Mlambo of the Mbanga provide mature, honest, experienced, dignified for Change (CCC), Vongaishe Mupereri of Zanu PF,
United Zimbabwe Alliance (UZA) and Pre- and sober counsel in, among others, the util- Brave Eventhough Mapfumo of the MDC-Alliance,
cious Musarurwa of the Labour Economists glory. It’s a stark reminder of what it used to be isation of Constituency Development Funds, Lovemore Chibukwe of the United Democratic Party
and African Democrats (LEAD). The seat fell and the effects of unresolved and continued po- monitoring progress of devolution to local au- (UDA) and Gladys Mutunami of the United Zimba-
vacant after the recall of Biti in 2021 by the litical conflicts. The constituency development thorities and promoting and coordinating chal- bwe Alliance (UZA) are jostling to become members of
People’s Democratic Party (PDP). has been compromised by political differences lenges and problems being faced by residents,” Parliament for Mbizo constituency.
and massive looting of land at local council, to Mbanga said.
Tendai Laxton Biti national governance.” The seat fell vacant after the recall of Settlement
Tendai Biti was born on 6 August 1966. He “I also intend to provide an oversight role Chikwinya in 2021 by the People’s Democratic Party
is one of the longest-serving members of Par- Christopher Lovemore Mbanga for government and municipal services being (PDP).
liament from the opposition in Zimbabwe. He Mbanga is a City of Harare former deputy rendered to residents in wards (Highlands,
served as Finance minister from 2009 to 2013 mayor who has been a resident of Highlands Greendale and Tafara) and highlight any chal- Settlement Chikwinya
during the Government of National Unity. suburb since 1978. lenges to Parliament and the executive through Chikwinya is the former legislator for Mbizo constit-
Biti is also a senior CCC official. He is the current chairperson of the Catholic responsible ministers.” uency, having won the seat in the 2018 general elec-
His political journey began around 1988 University of Zimbabwe council. tions. He did his high school education at Dadaya in
and 1989 when he was secretary-general of the If elected Harare East’s legislator, he hopes Garikai Mlambo Zvishavane and is a holder of a diploma in mechanical
University of Zimbabwe’s Student Representa- to provide mature, honest, experienced, dig- Mlambo declined a telephone interview engineering. His political journey began in the early
tive Council. He is a founding member of the nified and sober counsel as well as provide an with The NewsHawks. 2000s when he joined the then united Movement for
MDC and was elected member of Parliament oversight role in government and municipal Democratic Change.
for Harare East constituency in 2000. Over the services rendered in his constituency. He held the post of secretary for information tech-
years, Biti has served as a member of the port- nology in the national executive council chaired by the
folio committees on Lands, Agriculture, Water late Morgan Tsvangirai between 2006 and 2014.
Development, Rural Resources and Resettle- In 2014, Chikwinya broke away from the main-
ment, Defence, Home Affairs, Budget and stream MDC, together with Tendai Biti and others to
Finance, and Public Accounts, among others. form the PDP.
If re-elected, he hopes to continue his fight Chikwinya became the PDP’s secretary for elections
against corruption. between 2014 and 2016. He was elevated by Biti to the
“We have unfinished business around cor- position of secretary-general of the PDP in 2016, a po-
ruption. Whether they take me back to the sition he held until the formation of the MDC Alliance,
Public Accounts Committee, I don’t know and that merged opposition parties into one in order to
I don’t care. What I know is that we are going tackle Zanu PF as a united front in the 2018 elections.
back to finish the unfinished work of fighting He won the seat in the 2018 elections, Chikwinya
corruption,” he said. triumphed and clinched the Mbizo constituency seat
which he lost after his second recall in 2021. Before his
Mavis Gumbo recall, Chikwinya was one of the most vocal members of
Gumbo’s phone went unanswered during Parliament. If elected into office, he hopes to continue
the different intervals The NewsHawks reached implementing the work he started when he was elected
out to her to discuss her candidature. in 2018.
She has worked in both the public and pri- “I have a contract with my constituency and in terms
vate sectors. of the projects that the people want to implement, I al-
ready have them. It’s a matter of panel beating them and
Precious Musarurwa seeing if they still fit the circumstances and what it is
Musarurwa is a human rights defender who that we can prioritise ahead of the other.”
has worked in both public and private sectors, Chikwinya also intends to continue being a champi-
the film industry included. She is a qualified on for exposing corruption and accountability issues as
reflexology practitioner registered with the In- he was previously doing in Parliament.
stitute of Reflexology America and is currently “We are going to make Parliament alive again. Parlia-
a media studies student with a local university. ment is dead, there is no longer a voice of the people,”
She is one of the pioneers of the Anti-Cor- he said.
ruption Citizens Taskforce, a youthful move-
ment against corruption by the elite, that is Vongaishe Mupereri
pro-youth access to national resources. Mupereri declined to speak about his candidature to
Musarurwa, together with other women’s The NewsHawks. “I don’t speak to the private media,”
rights defenders, was a court applicant chal- he said.
lenging the justice delivery system, Women’s
Affairs ministry and apostolic churches on the Brave Eventhough Mapfumo
alignment of the Marriage Bill with the consti- Mapfumo’s phone was going unanswered.
tution in ending child marriages.
In 2021, she received a Gender Champi- Gladys Mutunami
on award from the Netherlands embassy for When approached to speak about her candidature by
her efforts in protecting the rights of girls and The NewsHawks, Mutunami did not answer her phone
women in Domboshava. Although it is her first as well as respond to messages we sent her at intervals.
time vying for a parliamentary seat, she is con-
fident of victory. Lovemore Chibukwe
“I’m expecting a landslide victory in the The NewsHawks failed to get in touch with Chibuk-
race for the Harare East member of Parliament we because he was unreachable on his mobile number.
seat against Biti of CCC and Mavis Gumbo of
Zanu PF, who are senior players in the political
arena,” she said.
Musarurwa intends to advocate for inclu-
sivity, a move which she said will lead to the
benefit of the formal and informal sectors in
her constituency and beyond.
“I intend to challenge the political con-
flicting trajectory towards a more embracing,
diversified approach beneficial to the formal
and informal sectors of the constituency and
beyond,” she says.
“With 42 years of Zanu PF rule and 22
years of opposition MDC representation, Ha-
rare East has suffered and fallen from its former

NewsHawks News Page 19

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

MARY MUNDEYA Meet Binga North candidates

THE Binga North parliamentary by-election will Kudakwashe
be contested by Peggy Mudimba of the MDC Munsaka
Alliance, Kudakwashe Mavula Munsaka of Zanu
PF, Clive Muzamba of the United Democratic Prince
Alliance (UDA), Prince Dubeko Sibanda of the Sibanda
Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) and in-
dependent candidate Disciple Munkuli. The seat Disciple
fell vacant after Sibanda was recalled by the then Munkuli
Thokozani Khupe-led MDC-T on 1 October
2020. “I’m going back to this position because it is of my people who have for years been treated as don’t vote if you don’t give them something. They
my rightful position. The people of Binga will second or third-class citizens and I’ll continue do- are used to being given T-shirts, money and so
Peggy MudimbaMudimba did not respond to vote me to be their representative”. ing that,” Sibanda said. forth for them to vote. They want instant solu-
The NewsHawks’ messages and phone calls when tions and they don’t care about the future.
we reached out to her to discuss her candidature. If re-elected, Sibanda said he would continue Disciple Munkuli
with work to restore the dignity of the Tonga peo- Munkuli is a 24-year-old Binga resident who is “But my independent movement is against
Kudakwashe Mavula Munsaka ple. looking forward to winning the electorate’s man- that. I don’t give people something or anything,
Munsaka (36) is a businessman who holds a date. but I tell them what I will do for them once they
degree in accounting. His political journey began “The Tonga people of Binga people have been “The main problem with our people is they vote for me, that’s it. I’m convincing them and
when he was in high school where he was a junior neglected and marginalised by Zanu PF since they are showing up,’’ Munkuni said.
councillor and proceeded to become the “minister 1980. I have been working to restore the dignity
of entertainment” at Solusi University.
If elected to office, Munsaka is looking forward
to contribute to the development of Binga North
constituency. “The people of Binga can look for-
ward to development and more development. I’m
looking forward to industrialising Binga through
value addition to every product we are able to of-
fer as a constituency,” he said.
“Also, we cannot achieve economic growth
with infrastructure development so I’m looking
forward to building clinics, schools and resolve
the water situation. By 2023, we don’t want peo-
ple to be walking more than a kilometre to find
water.”

Clive Muzamba
Muzamba was unreachable on mobile phone
when The NewsHawks sought his comment.

Prince Dubeko Sibanda
Sibanda is a former police officer who was born
and bred in Binga where he attended Nagangala
Primary School and Siyabhuwa High School for
his primary and secondary education respectively.
He joined the MDC-T in 2005 and became
the secretary for the Victoria Falls district (now
Hwange West district). In 2008, he was elect-
ed councillor for ward 11 in Victoria Falls City.
He was elected Member of Parliament for Binga
North constituency in 2013. He retained the seat
in the 2018 general elections. Sibanda is confi-
dent of victory, come Saturday’s by-election.

MARY MUNDEYA Race for Chivi South seat hots up

MUNYARADZI ZIZHOU of Zanu PF, Paul the time unlike others who after being voted, dis- Paul Munyaradzi
Thompson Mhlolo of the Citizens' Coalition for appear only to resurface when they need re-elec- Mhlolo Zizhou
Change (CCC), Faith Chuma of the Zimbabwe tion. The people of Chivi South should benefit Faith
Patriotic Front Party and Shadreck Mapope of the from their natural resources,” he said. Shadreck Chuma
MDC-Alliance are vying for the Chivi South Na- Mapope
tional Assembly seat. The seat fell vacant after the Faith Chuma
recall of Killer Zivhu by Zanu PF for alleged acts Faith Chuma (46), a Chivi South resident, is
of indiscipline. passionate about women and young people’s is-
sues. If voted into office, she hopes to construct
Munyaradzi Zizhou bridges as well as assist vulnerable members of her
Zizhou is a businessman who joined politics at constituency.
the age of 21. He was born in Mandava village, “If I win, I will focus on construction of bridg-
ward 22 under Chief Nemauzhe in Chivi district. es in the constituency. I have discovered that there
His first attempt at becoming a legislator was are a lot of areas in need of bridges and other areas
thwarted in 2018 after he failed to qualify during with bridges that only need to be repaired. I will
his party’s primary election selection criteria. also make sure that the vulnerable members of the
If elected as member of Parliament for Chivi community get assistance in terms of food, as well
South, Zizhou is hoping to improve the digital as paying fees for orphans,” she said.
infrastructure in the constituency.
“I am currently engaging network service pro- Shadreck Mapope
viders for the erection of one or more boosters in Shadreck Mapope (74), a retired motor me-
ward 23, so if I win as I am confident I will be chanic, stays in Chivi. He is a father of 12 and
better positioned to make that dream a reality. I passionate about rural development. If given an
also intend to make sure that all schools get access opportunity to become a member of Parliament
to the internet and electricity connectivity so that for Chivi South, he is hoping to be the voice of
they can do online learning,” he said. the people in his constituency as well as provide
solutions to the water shortages they are currently
Paul Thompson Mhlolo facing. “I am going to take up each and every task
Mhlolo (51) is a businessman who runs a sig- the people are going to give me with the serious-
nage company. His first attempt at contesting to ness it deserves. Of all the people who have been
become a member of Parliament in 2013 was elected in the past, no one has bothered them-
unsuccessful. However, he contested under the selves to go and represent the interests of the ordi-
MDC-Alliance banner in 2018 but lost to Zivhu. nary people especially our needs as a constituency
If elected, Mholo intends to be a man of his and I intend to change that,’’ he said.
word and ensure that people from his constituen- “I will also look for ways the water shortage we
cy benefit from their natural resources. are currently facing will be dealt with.”
“I promise the people of Chivi South real de-
velopment and not just talk. Together we can
achieve more and I promise to be with them all

Page 20 Ukraine News NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

LEONARD HYMAN/ WILLIAM TILLES The global political economy of oil

A QUICK look at the numbers Russia's invasion of Ukraine a
will show just how intertwined catastrophe for its oil industry
Europe and Russia are, and how
the Russians have taken aim at A huge portion of Russia's gross domestic product comes from its oil exports, and nearly 80%
the goose that lays the golden of those exports go to Europe.
eggs. Here are the numbers, all
rough and all changing fast. While Europe will suffer in the short term as it moves away from Russian oil, a majority of the pain will be felt
by Russia’s oil industry as it attempts to sell to China and India.
First, the world consumes
about 97 million barrels a day The focus for both Europe and the United States now will be on promoting domestic energy, whether that is
(b/d) of oil. fossil fuels, renewable energy, or nuclear.
mercial move could upend the
The Russians produce about 11 oil and gas markets.
million b/d. They are big produc- After this, the Russians will
ers. They export about eight mil- have to switch to China (or In-
lion b/d. Now it gets pertinent to dia) as their principal commodi-
today’s crisis. The Russians send ty purchaser. And with no other
about 80% of their exports to recourse, the Russian oil and nat-
Europe. And the Europeans get ural gas sellers will take whatever
40% of their oil from Russia. a monopsonistic buyer offers to
a temperamental supplier. Which
In other words, getting off is as little as possible.
Russian oil within five years, the For Europe, the war will lead
European goal, requires finding to a scramble for oil and gas
roughly six million b/d of alter- supplies, a renewed effort in the
natives, whether other oil sources renewable sector, and possibly a
or non-oil energy or energy effi- nuclear revival or at least a post-
ciency measures. ponement of existing plant clo-
sures.
This will take more than going We expect similar activity in
to Saudi Arabia or the United the US with more emphasis on
Arab Emirates and asking them fossil fuels production. But in
to be nice and turn up the “spig- Russian President Vladimir Putin. reality, high fossil fuel prices
ot” by, say, one or two million
barrels a day. preserve nuclear power, build re- ronmental safeguards that might of nuclear power. make competitive energy sources
newable generation, and develop slow that process. The nuclear But that is another matter.  like renewables and nuclear look
That is one side. hydrogen resources. The Ukraine lobbying effort in Europe has To sum up the economic con- more attractive in the long run.
But consider the Russian war just accelerates those efforts, increased, as we see it, and we sequences of this awful conflict, President Vladimir Putin may
side. Russia will bring in maybe while also eliminating Russia’s would expect the same to take the Russians have taken steps have done more to endanger the
US$300 billion per year from oil nuclear export potential, at least place in the US. What we do not to aggrieve their biggest ener- future of the fossil fuel industry
exports at current prices. Rus- to Europe. see, though, is a coherent nation- gy commodity customers to the than anyone in its history. For
sia’s entire gross domestic prod- In the United States, politi- al effort to finance nuclear pow- point that the customers intend many, the question will now be-
uct before the invasion was only cians are taking a different tack. er. This is surprising considering to end the relationship. This come, “who needs these ongoing
US$1.5 trillion, making its econ- The Ukraine war shows, to them, how much money the construc- jeopardises one major source of geopolitical risks when we can
omy smaller than that of Italy the need to expand fossil fuel tion (and related) industry could income that maintains the Rus- make (at least some) of our own
and about the same size as New production and remove envi- make on a wholesale expansion sian economy. This suicidal com- energy nearby?”.
York State’s.
Near-term sanctions on Rus-
sian oil might have a brutal im-
pact on Europe, but they will
have a catastrophic one on Rus-
sia. In the long term, even if the
war ends shortly and sanctions
with it, Russia stands to lose its
biggest export market. The Euro-
peans (including the British who
are not dependent on Russian oil)
have already taken active steps to

SOME of the world’s biggest oil Top oil traders see prices is going to be a crude supply
traders expect oil prices to exceed scale US$200 by year-end shock,” King told the FT summit.
US$200 per barrel by the end of the
year, the Financial Times  reported, A number of big oil traders Earlier this month, there
citing opinions shared at its Com- now predict crude to trade were  forecasts  that Brent crude
modity Global Summit this week. at more than US$200 per would hit US$200 by April, but
barrel by the end of 2022. that seems to have been a reaction
“Wakey, wakey. We are not go- Doug King, the chairperson to the US ban on Russian oil and
ing back to normal business in a of RCMA Group even sees fuel imports. Now that initial shock
few months,” said Pierre Andurand, crude at US$250 by year-end. has subsided — and so have pric-
who has been super bullish on oil Most US$200 oil predictions es slipped from the heights reached
for a while. “I think we’re losing the are factoring in a significant following the ban. However, the
Russian supply on the European loss of supply from Russia. upside potential remains consid-
side forever.” erable as analysts see some three
million barrels daily of Russian oil
The hedge fund manager first going off the market.
made his US$200-per-barrel fore-
cast earlier this month, saying that The problem is that these barrels
producers ranging from African cannot be replaced either easily or
members of OPEC+ to the United swiftly, according to the trading in-
States shale patch will struggle to dustry.
replace the Russian crude going off
the market. “I don’t think given the way
things are going, this is a temporary
Yet Andurand is neither the only problem,” Alok Sinha, head of oil
superbull nor the biggest one. Doug and gas at Standard Chartered told
King, the chairman of RCMA the FT summit. “You now have to
Group, told the FT that crude deal with this as a long term issue
oil could top US$200 and reach which means you need to find alter-
US$250 by the end of the year. native supply growth.”

“This is not transitory. This – Oilprice.com

NewsHawks Ukraine News Page 21

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

CRUDE oil production in the US oil production recovery workforce shortages, limited avail-
United States grew faster during the speeds up amid price rises ability of equipment, supply chain
first quarter of the year, the Dallas disruptions, and social, environ-
Fed reported in its quarterly indus- mark could end the year at more growth mode. While the Dallas growth plans were not dependent mental, and governance issues.
try survey, noting that costs also in- than US$120 per barrel. Another Fed’s own data supports this, based on oil prices. According to 59%, the
creased. interesting outtake from the survey on reactions from the Biden admin- main reason for production restraint The Dallas Fed’s crude oil pro-
is the biggest portion of respon- istration, production has not been was investor pressure to maintain duction index shot up to a reading
Price sentiment in the industry dents in the survey, at 41%, believe growing anywhere near fast enough. capital discipline. of 45 in the first quarter of 2022,
was guardedly bullish, with a ma- a WTI price of between US$80 from 19.1 in the fourth quarter of
jority of respondents in the survey and US$100 is sufficient for more However, it is worth noting that Among the other reasons moti- 2021. The natural gas production
expecting West Texas Intermediate producers to switch to production about 30 percent of the respondents vating a cautious approach to pro- index jumped to 40 from 14 in the
to end 2022 at between US$80 and in the survey said that production duction growth, respondents cited period. Costs, meanwhile, rose to a
US$90 per barrel. A much smaller record reading of 77.1, from 69.8 in
portion — about 5% — expect- the fourth quarter of 2021.
ed WTI to end 2022 at between
US$110 and US$120. Oilfield services costs have been
rising for five consecutive quarters,
Interestingly, a bigger portion of the Dallas Fed reported.
respondents believed the US bench-
– Oilprice.com

Opec warns
EU ban on
Russian oil
could have dire
consequences

Opec: EU oil embargo on Russia to hurt consumers.
Opec + and OPEC have not officially commented on the
Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Nothing is off the table about additional EU sanctions
against Russia, the EU official told Reuters.

CHARLES KENNEDY  early March to rubberstamp anoth- part, commented on the meeting Russia, the EU official told Reu- however,  failed to come to an
OPEC is concerned that a poten- er 400 000 barrels per day (bpd) for Reuters that “Opec present- ters. agreement about whether to punish
tial European Union embargo on increase in its collective oil pro- ed their analysis of the oil market Putin with an oil embargo. Some
Russian oil imports would hurt duction in April, despite soaring situation and informed us of their Earlier this week, oil prices small EU members, including Lith-
consumers, and has relayed those oil prices after a key member of plans in terms of oil production.” jumped after EU ministers gath- uania, pushed for an embargo, but
concerns to the EU, Reuters  re- the pact, Russia, invaded Ukraine ered  to discuss the idea  of poten- the biggest economy, Germany, was
ported  exclusively on Thursday, a few days prior to the Opec+ Nothing is off the table about tially joining the US in banning against it. – Oilprice.com
quoting Opec sources. meeting. During the short meet- additional EU sanctions against imports of Russian oil. Ministers,
ing on 2 March, Opec+ decided to
Russia is Opec’s key non-Opec leave its production plan as-is and
partner in the Opec+ production didn’t mention the Russian war in
agreement, which has been manag- Ukraine, which was the reason why
ing supply to the market for several oil prices jumped to above US$100
years now. Opec+ and Opec have per barrel for the first time since
not officially commented on the 2014.
Russian invasion of Ukraine as the
organisation usually steers clear of Opec officials have met in recent
geopolitical commentary or com- weeks with EU officials, and Opec
ments on the rule of law or policies has made clear its concern about a
in its member states. possible EU ban on Russian oil, Re-
uters’ sources said.  
The Opec+ group decided in
An official at the EU, for their

Page 22 Editorial & Opinion NewsHawks

CARTOON Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Moment of truth
AFTER months of scheming and counter-scheming, the
moment of truth has finally arrived for Zimbabwe’s restless A tribute to great colleagues
political parties.
Rerun . . . sands and dramatic changes in the media; I’m talking about talented individuals, an
This Saturday’s by-elections may be flawed and even com- the vagaries of the volatile environment, inspirational collective which is largely an
promised, but they will still be useful in helping the long-suf- WHEN former Alpha Media Holdings political and commercial interests, and epitome of professionalism and commit-
fering masses to separate authentic leaders from charlatans editor-in-chief and Zimbabwe Indepen- technology will have a huge bearing on her ment. People who would toil — sweating
and opportunists. dent editor Dumisani Muleya left the performance. blood — out of passion for very little in
group on 1 November 2019, he wrote: return.
It is certainly the end of the road for the Movement for Most newsroom colleagues refused to Besides, Faith knows that anyone taking
Democratic Change (MDC), a phenomenal brand in its hey- give in to political and commercial pres- charge of the editorial in the current Zim- Naturally, we also had some cynical, nas-
day but now the epitome of betrayal, decay and capture. sures. Some compromised and corrupt babwean media environment has to make a ty and incompetent opportunists around.
elements did, but still we stood firm. great leap of faith (no pun intended). But in this era of vast swathes of informa-
On the MDC’s epitaph will be inscribed in bold letters: Zimbabwe needs independent journal- tion and huge volumes of real-time news,
Born 1999; Died 2022; Undertaker Douglas Mwonzora. ism, not compromised, captured and The other challenge is that editors must amid shoddy stories and fake news, it is
partisan coverage for political and com- now join the search to find innovative and encouraging that AMH journalism still
The story of the original MDC is a multi-textured tapestry mercial expediency, to recover and rise. sustainable business models. It’s difficult, remains part of the silver lining; an oasis
of resilience, courage and democratic struggle. It has shown but the fundamentals are clear: either cre- of truth and credibility in a cosmic desert
the world the remarkable qualities of the quintessential Zim- YESTERDAY was my final day as editor ate compelling and quality journalism, of rolling lies and mass deception, notwith-
babwean personality: a never-say-die spirit and the belief that, of the Zimbabwe Independent. So effective- which implies credible editors and good standing mounting internal pressures.
no matter how tough our lives may get, a better day is coming. ly from today, my deputy for many years, reporters with competitive skills set, that
Faith Zaba, is now in charge. We had our own shortcomings; made
But the MDC story is also a narrative of grief, shame and Hawk Eye some mistakes, failed our readers occa-
loss. Spare a thought for the countless MDC supporters It has been a long and spectacular ride sionally and struggled with meagre re-
who have been murdered, raped and maimed by the Zanu in top positions for more than a decade. Dumisani sources in tough working conditions, but
PF regime in the last two decades. Their sin? Exercising their Yet a far longer journey in journalism — Muleya that’s part of the game. For the mistakes
constitutional rights to freedom of association, assembly and reporting, investigating and editing stories we made, it’s regrettable and we apologise.
conscience. People have been killed in the name of politics. of public interest — and sometimes stories readers are willing to pay for, or find viable But we accept the other difficult challeng-
merely interesting to the public, but not alternatives to monetise your audiences. es as part of professional hazards.
From the Gukurahundi genocide to Murambatsvina to necessarily in the public interest.
the 2008 “short sleeve, long sleeve” atrocities, a criminal state Only then can one truly say, hand on The chase of perfection is usually unat-
has wantonly slaughtered unarmed citizens. More recently, I chose Zaba as my deputy when I be- heart, that they are still relevant in the new tainable, but when you chase it you may
the cold-blooded massacre of unarmed civilians on 1 August came editor over eight years ago for many media landscape and journalism. Other- end up catching excellence. That way we
2018 reminded us how evil the self-appointed rulers of this reasons; her nous for news and newsgather- wise, some models are simply unsustain- created good brands through quality jour-
land are and how utterly incapable of reform they have be- ing; her networks, her experience, capacity able and doomed in this dynamic environ- nalism and dedication.
come. and indeed good work ethic. ment and attendant upheavals.
Even if journalism is a thankless job
Barely a month ago, on 27 February, Mboneni Ncube Gender was also an issue. Talented Of course, Faith was not the only great (from some places you literally leave with
(35), a supporter of the new opposition Citizens’ Coalition women in the media, as in other facets of colleague I had during my long career at nothing), the newsroom crystallised its
for Change, was murdered by Zanu PF thugs at a rally in society, sometimes go unnoticed in profes- Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), which mission — agenda-setting and public in-
Kwekwe. sional elevations due to patriarchy. spanned more than two decades. There terest reportage — and executed it very
were many other good people — OGs like well.
Zanu PF is focusing on power retention and consolidation We still live in a society where men have publisher Trevor Ncube, production old
at all costs instead of expending its energies on the troubled a chokehold on power and play predom- hand Jeffrey Milanzi down to Archibald Most newsroom colleagues refused to
economy. Just yesterday, the International Monetary Fund inant roles in leadership, societal control Makoni, a dedicated shop-floor veteran — give in to political and commercial pres-
was warning that at least a third of 16 million Zimbabweans and social privilege. despite some problematic and needlessly sures. Some compromised and corrupt
face starvation in the face of chronic high inflation and ex- unpleasant moments, especially of late. elements did, but still we stood firm. Zim-
change rate fragilities. We are talking five million desperately So Faith is definitely a suitable replace- babwe needs independent journalism, not
hungry people. When you factor in the livelihoods which had ment. Given the editorial latitude, resourc- Most of the newsroom was inspiring. compromised, captured and partisan cov-
already been devastated by a combination of bad governance es and support, she will perform. But then erage for political and commercial expedi-
and the Covid-19 pandemic, the picture emerging from Zim- again, we now live in politically shifting ency, to recover and rise. Darkness cannot
babwe is frightening. drive out darkness; only light can. Well, it’s
over to you madam Faith. Wish you all the
The agricultural harvest will be whittled down by a mid-sea- best!
son drought that has seen crops wilting across the length and
breadth of the country. There are no social safety nets, no pen-
sions, no savings and no public services worth talking about.

While all this is happening, President Emmerson Mnan-
gagwa decides to recklessly badmouth non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), accusing them of fomenting dissent.
As The NewsHawks exclusively reported last week, the govern-
ment’s misguided hostility against NGOs could see the coun-
try losing an estimated US$800 million in donor support in
just one year. At the social level, the Zanu PF regime failed
to deliver a long time ago. What will happen to the massive
number of citizens who are on anti-retroviral drugs bought
by the donor community? What of the orphans, widows and
other vulnerable groups whose very survival depends on the
benevolence of NGOs? Who is going to provide valuable sup-
port to the thousands of income-generating projects which
are giving sustenance to impoverished families?

Mnangagwa is failing to stem the looting of gold worth
US$100 million monthly by Zanu PF cronies and cartels, but
he has the temerity to stand atop his ivory tower and insult
donors who have kept Zimbabwe’s neglected communities
alive.

This Saturday’s by-elections are a dry run for the water-
shed 2023 general polls. When Zimbabweans have suffered
enough, they will go out there, cast their ballots in huge num-
bers and resolutely defend their vote.

Reaffirming the fundamental impor- The NewsHawks is published on different EDITORIAL STAFF: Marketing Officer: Voluntary Media
tance of freedom of expression and me- content platforms by the NewsHawks Digital Managing Editor: Dumisani Muleya Charmaine Phiri Council of Zimbabwe
dia freedom as the cornerstone of de- Media which is owned by Centre for Public Cell: +263 735666122
mocracy and as a means of upholding Interest Journalism Assistant Editor: Brezh Malaba [email protected] The NewsHawks newspaper subscribes to the
human rights and liberties in the con- No. 100 Nelson Mandela Avenue [email protected] Code of Conduct that promotes truthful, accurate,
stitution; our mission is to hold power Beverly Court, 6th floor News Editor: Owen Gagare
in its various forms and manifestations Harare, Zimbabwe Subscriptions & Distribution: fair and balanced news reporting. If we do not
to account by exposing abuse of power Digital Editor: Bernard Mpofu +263 735666122 meet these standards, register your complaint
and office, betrayals of public trust and Trustees/Directors: with the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe
corruption to ensure good governance Beatrice Mtetwa, Raphael Khumalo, Reporters: at No.: 34, Colenbrander Rd, Milton Park, Harare.
and accountability in the public inter- Professor Wallace Chuma, Teldah Mawarire, Nyasha Chingono, Enoch Muchinjo, Moses Matenga,
est. Doug Coltart Jonathan Mbiriyamveka Telephone: 024-2778096 or 024-2778006,
Email: [email protected] 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

NewsHawks News Page 23

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Green SMEs are crucial in any economy

SMALL and medium enterprises mation to achieve environmentally, velopment of sustainable agricultural this initiative is targeted towards and implementing energy efficient
(SMEs) can be crucial for greening as socially and economically sustainable value chain activities such as the es- eco-friendly startups or green SMEs, projects in collaboration with the
well as growing the economy. SMEs development in the future. Based tablishment of electronic warehouses it can result in the robust growth of central bank. The RBZ can collab-
play a critical role in the economic upon the economic importance for the storage of various commod- Zimbabwe’s green industries and en- orate with the SMEDCO) for the
growth of every nation, such as gen- of this sector, the development of ities as collateral through which an vironmental sustainability. development of Zimbabwe’s green
erating work opportunities, income, eco-friendly or "green SMEs" is per- electronic warehouse receipt (EWR) Green financing can also be ex- SME sector through green financing.
wealth creation, and poverty reduc- tinent for realising the vision of a system can be implemented across tended towards the small and me-
tion. "Clean and Green Zimbabwe". the SME sector. dium-sized construction industry The effective adoption of environ-
Banks can support this initiative and allied businesses such as the mentally friendly business operations
These are very important in less Due to their small and flexible as they can launch a low-interest fi- financing of brick manufacturers, by the SME sector of Zimbabwe de-
developed economies. In develop- nature, SMEs are more suited to nancing scheme for the development green cement manufacturers, green pends upon green capacity building
ing nations, the SME sector plays pioneer green innovations and con- of EWR and green warehouses to warehouses and eco-friendly logistics within the SME sector and among
an essential role in achieving United tribute to green growth, especially in ensure economic the concerned stakeholders. This can
Nations-Sustainable Development local and emerging markets that may and environmen- be achieved by inculcating green
Goals (UN-SDGs) 2030 by creating be neglected by large corporations. tal sustainability management knowledge among stu-
job opportunities, alleviating pover- Integrating the element of environ- in SMEs connect- Econometrics dents across all educational levels.
ty, promoting innovation and foster- mental sustainability in the SME sec- ed with the supply The RBZ and SMEDCO can pro-
ing sustainable industrialisation, and tor can synergise this important eco- chain industry. HawksView vide stakeholder training and also
reducing income inequalities. nomic sector with the rising Global This can play an awareness sessions at the university
Green Banking initiatives. important role in level to ensure green education and
According to global data, in the overcoming the the creation of green awareness.
majority of countries, the formal and Banks can launch low-interest shortage of safe Tinashe Kaduwo The green SME sector can play the
informal SMEs make up over 90% green financing schemes, under the storage facilities for role of an important cog in the at-
of all businesses, 60%–70% of total umbrella of Green Banking, for en- various businesses through effective companies. The RBZ through Small tainment of the United Nations–
employment, and 50% of gross do- vironmentally friendly SMEs such public-private partnerships. and Medium Enterprises Develop- Sustainable Development Goals
mestic product. Despite its import- as renewable energy production, Existing Reserve Bank of Zim- ment Corporation (SMEDCO) can (UN-SDGs) 2030. An increase in
ant economic role, the SME sector smart-metering, building retrofit- babwe-led financing schemes can provide green financing to green employment and production of the
struggles to access formal financial ting, green supply chain activities, be transformed into green finance SMEs, not requiring any collateral country’s SME sector will lead to an
services. According to a report, ap- eco-friendly channel financing and programmes. In Pakistan, for in- and having the risk covered accord- increase in employment and produc-
proximately 130 million, or 41% waste recycling. stance, Prime Minister Imran Khan ing to the financing amount. tion in the rest of the economy.
of formal SMEs, in low and mid- launched interest-free financing, Similarly, the government may
dle-income countries faced credit Zimbabwe’s SME sector can un- worth Rs 407 billion (US$5.3 bil- boost the efforts of ensuring envi- *About the writer: Tinashe
constraints before the Covid-19 pan- dergo green transformation under lion), for youth, women and farm- ronmentally and socially sustainable Kaduwo is a researcher and econ-
demic and the SME finance gap was the circular economic model through ers and the construction of low-cost economic growth for Zimbabwe’s omist. He writes in his personal
estimated at US$5 trillion. green financing, re-manufacturing, houses and starting a business. If SME sector by creating awareness capacity. Contact kaduwot@gmail.
repair, maintenance, recycling and com whatsapp +263773376128
According to my own in-house eco-design businesses. Green financ-
estimates, 600 million jobs will be ing can also be provided for the de-
needed by 2030 to absorb the grow-
ing global workforce, which makes
SME development a high priority
for many governments around the
world. In emerging markets, most
formal jobs are generated by SMEs,
which create seven out of 10 jobs.
However, access to finance is a key
constraint to SME growth: it is the
second most cited obstacle facing
SMEs to grow their businesses in
emerging markets and developing
countries.

The International Finance Corpo-
ration (IFC) estimates that 65 mil-
lion firms, or 40% of formal micro,
small and medium enterprises (MS-
MEs) in developing countries, have
an unmet financing need of US$5.2
trillion every year, which is equiva-
lent to 1.4 times the current level
of the global MSME lending. The
SME sector serves as the backbone of
various economies like Malaysia and
Zimbabwe which has approximate-
ly a number of SMEs making up
97.2% of the total number of busi-
nesses in these countries. In Zimba-
bwe, in 2020, the SMEs sector con-
tributed 68.2% to the national GDP
and employed approximately 76% of
the country’s workforce.

According to our in-house Zim-
babwe Economic Survey 2020-21,
approximately 3.25 million SMEs
account for nearly 90% of all the
businesses operating in Zimbabwe.
This sector holds approximately 40%
and 25% of the country’s annual
GDP and exports respectively.

However, one of the major hin-
drances in the financial inclusion
of the SMEs sector in Zimbabwe is
that approximately 97% of SMEs are
undocumented and operating under
individual ownership as an informal
sector.

The SME sector of Zimbabwe
needs to undergo a green transfor-

Business

MATTERSNewsHawks

MARKETS CURRENCIES LAST CHANGE %CHANGE COMMODITIES LAST CHANGE %CHANGE
EUR/USD 1.168 +0.001 +0.05 -1.402
USD/JPY 109.75 +0.03 +0.03 *OIL 62.61 -0.89 +0.123
GBP/USD 1.362 -0.002 -0.154 -0.39
USD/CAD 1.29 +0.007 +0.55 *GOLD 1,785.3 +2.2 +0.44
AUD/USD 0.713 -0.001 -0.098 +1.14
*SILVER 23.14 -0.09

*PLATINUM 975.5 +4.3

*COPPER 4.087 +0.046

Zim’s capacity
utilisation to
remain subdued

BERNARD MPOFU power expansion projects of Hwange Thermal xxxxxx
Power Station Units 7 and 8 which are set to Experts say electricity generation in sub-Saharan Africa has continued to deteriorate over the years.
MANUFACTURING sector capacity utili- be completed in November 2022 and February
sation in Zimbabwe will remain subdued in 2023 respectively will start to bear fruit and pro-
the first quarter owing to rolling power cuts, vide some relief to the manufacturing sector in
Covid-19 and limited access to foreign ex- 2023 going forward. Manufacturing will likely
change, a research unit has said. further underperform its projected performance
in 2022 as most of the risks to the projections
Despite having one of the most diversified are materialising,” the report says
industries in the region, local manufacturing
firms continue to face a myriad of challenges “In Zimbabwe, forex shortages will continue
such as capital constraints, competition from to worsen the power situation and the manu-
regional peers and antiquated equipment and facturing sector capacity utilisation is expected
technology. to remain subdued in Q1’22 and the upcoming
quarters. Inflation will remain a key risk to eco-
Official figures show that merchandise ex- nomic growth as consumers will scale back on
ports are estimated to have increased by 28% to consumption as they seek to preserve incomes.
US$6 315.2 million in 2021, from US$4 931.9 Household and corporate balance sheets will
million in 2020, driven by increases in mineral likely remain under pressure as cashflows will
and agriculture exports, while manufactured ex- be squeezed by rising costs. Resource-based sec-
ports remained subdued. tors of the economy will grow at a declining rate
as the Chinese economy seeks directions amidst
Experts say electricity generation in the the resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Con-
sub-Saharan Africa region has continued to de- tact-based sectors of the economy including
teriorate over the years, with most state-owned tourism are at risk of contraction as lockdown
entities providing the public good unprofitably. threats heighten.”
On average, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority (Zesa) requires US$17-20 million Massive closures and downscaling of large
per month to import additional power from firms and yesteryear multinational companies
Mozambique and Zambia to meet the national has resulted in job cuts and growth of a thriving
requirement. informal sector which, according to indepen-
dent estimates, accounts for more 70% of the
Akribos Research Services in its weekly mar- economy.
kets review said the outbreak of Covid-19 in
some parts of China could blight Zimbabwe’s
economic prospects. China is one of Zimba-
bwe’s major trading partners.

“The Zimbabwean economy was also not
spared by the power shortages that affected
the region as increasing demand continued to
outstrip supply. Demand for electricity stands
at between 1 800MW and 2 200 MW against
local production of 1 400MW,” Akribos said.

During the week under review, the coun-
try’s power utility, Zesa announced that the
electricity situation is likely to get worse before
it gets better, citing that they were unable to
get foreign currency allocations on the Dutch
auction system to cover the electricity import
bill. Zimbabwe has strong ties to China and we
expect the knock-on effects to be huge should
China extend its lockdown further than antic-
ipated. Experts say the possible effects on the
local economy will include delayed shipments
and inflation caused by shortages of goods and
services.

“In the short to medium term, forex shortag-
es will continue to worsen the power situation
in Zimbabwe and the Government of Zimba-
bwe needs to reimagine its pricing model or risk
subsidising power consumption. For the man-
ufacturing sector capacity utilisation is expect-
ed to remain subdued in Q1’22 (first-quarter
2022) and the upcoming quarters. The ongoing

NewsHawks Companies & Markets Page 25

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

US$20m legacy debt cripples Nat Foods

BERNARD MPOFU

A LOCAL research unit has singled out the near- The resurgence in inflation however weighed pressures and an increase in sales volume. Oper- representing a 34% increase from the same period
ly US$20 million legacy debt owed to Zimba- down the growth in sales volume as year-on-year ational expenditure grew by 89% year on year, in the last financial year.
bwe Stock Exchange-listed heavyweight National volume growth was 24% but first-quarter growth slightly ahead of inflation as certain costs corrected
Foods Limited operations and a lower-than-ex- was only 8%. in real terms. Total assets for the group as at 31 December
pected agricultural output as major risks affecting 2021 stood at ZW$19.227bn. The liabilities were
the agro-processor. In historical terms, revenue was up 96% to EBITDA was up 78% to ZW$3.53bn, whilst ZW$13.399bn, thereby giving an equity value of
ZW$24.86 billion as a result of both inflationary the Profit-Before-Tax (PBT) stood at ZW$3.12bn ZW$5.888bn.
The government has proposed assuming the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s US$3.3 billion lega-
cy debt in outstanding foreign payments incurred
during the transition from the multi-currency sys-
tem to a mono-currency regime in 2019.

National Foods, one of the companies owed
by the central bank, released its financials which
showed that overall sales volume was up 15% to
303.068MT compared to the similar period last
financial year.

ZFN in its analysis of the company’s results said
a prolonged dry spell experienced in December
could affect the agro-processor’s output.

“As a defensive stock, NatFoods is one of the
counters investors might want to keep looking at
closely in 2022,” the research note reads.

“It is unique in the sense that it pays dividends
consistently like a mature stock but at the same
time continues to grow and create value for its
shareholders like a growth stock. The company
has managed to increase its sales volume across
most of its divisions through investing in more
production facilities. The legacy debt remains a
challenge for the organisation since they have to
keep accounting for them using prevailing rates al-
though the board remains confident that RBZ will
settle the debt. It also faces the risk of a drought
which will increase its import bill.”

DUMISANI NYONI NV Group’s US$250m brewery to
challenge Delta’s market dominance
RESEARCHERS at Morgan & Co say the
coming in of Indian-based distiller NV Group Delta is currently the undisputed market leader of alcoholic beverages Zimbabwe.
in Zimbabwe could shake Delta Corporation’s
decades-long market dominance in the clear and only after this period in its financial year 2024. India’s 5.5 litres. 95% market share in the clear beer market and
opaque beer market. Our financial year 2022 and 2023 earnings per Beer, which accounts for 63% of total alco- 92% in the opaque beer market.
share estimates for Delta Corporation remain
The NV Group, which established itself in unchanged and we maintain a hold recommen- hol consumption, is the country’s most popular The company, through African Distillers, is a
just 25 years with popular brands for lovers of dation.” alcoholic beverage, followed by spirits which ac- major supplier of wines, spirits, and ciders in the
gin, whisky, vodka, rum, and brandy, recently count for 12% of the local alcoholic beverages formal markets of these products. However, the
announced a US$250 million investment into a Zimbabwe’s alcohol consumption per capita market. company’s market share for spirits, wines and
brewery in Zimbabwe over the next 18 months. is estimated to be around 4.8 litres, which pales ciders has been facing heavy competition from
in comparison to South Africa’s 9.3 litres, and Delta is currently the undisputed market lead- illicit brewers and illegal imports.
The brewery, once complete, is anticipated to er of alcoholic beverages in the country, holding
employ over 3 000 employees and support local
grain farmers situated in Chiredzi.

The business exports to several sub-Saharan
African countries such as Kenya,

Zambia, Nigeria, Namibia and Ghana.
“We opine that the new brewery could shake
Delta’s market share in the clear and opaque beer
market, much in the same way as Varum Bever-
ages’ dent on the company’s sparkling beverag-
es market share if the brewery is classified as a
Special Economic Zone,” Morgan & Co said in
its 17 March 2022 economics and market intel-
ligence report.
“Given the size of the investment of US$250
million and an anticipated staff compliment of
3 000 to 4 000 employees, the brewer is like-
ly to match Delta’s current output in the clear
beer unit of around 1 820 000 hectolitres (hl)
and the sorghum beer unit’s output of around
3 900 000hl.”
“Currently, Delta employs some 5 000 em-
ployees with assets in the local clear beer and
opaque beer units collectively valued at about
US$229 million. We also note the similar out-
grower model that will allay any supply-side
constraints and reduce the volatility of margins
from the onset,” it said.
However, researchers said the penetration of
the brewer’s brands is not without risks, point-
ing out that the current constraints in packaging
material as a challenge for the group's brewery
given Delta’s relationship with Nampak, a major
supplier of packaging material in Zimbabwe.
“In addition, we also observe that alcohol
preference is notoriously difficult to change and
this could defend Delta’s market share from new
tastes that will be rolled out into the market by
NV Group’s brewery,” researchers said.
“Given that the brewery is anticipated to be
commissioned after 18 months, we note that the
risks to Delta’s operations will likely manifest

Page 26 Companies & Markets NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

DUMISANI NYONI Policy discord derail quality
tobacco production in Zim
THE Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) says
demand for Zimbabwe’s flavour tobacco remains Tobacco is among Zimbabwe’s top foreign currency earners.
very high, but poor and inconsistent monetary
policies are hurting the local industry and imped- “For Zimbabwe, all of the above dynamics are of tobacco have increased significantly and may see growers looking into alternate food and
ing growth. point to much firmer prices this season. While will continue into 2022. Countries have reported export crops, ZTA warned.
there may be minimal upward movement in top increases of 15% to 20% in costs with fertilizers,
During this year’s tobacco marketing season, leaf prices, especially China grades, there will be labour and fuel being the main cost drivers. “The war will also see countries dependent
farmers will be paid 75% of their sales proceeds in strong demand for the middle and bottom plant on food crops imports e.g. wheat from the two
foreign currency and the remaining 25% in local positions. A 15% to 20% increase in average US With the recent Russia — Ukraine war, costs countries having to increase local production of
currency, converted at the prevailing auction ex- dollar prices is expected this season,” it said. are estimated to increase even further and prices the food crops by offering higher incentives and
change rate on the day of sale. paid for tobacco this season have to also take this prices. This may see a further drop in flue-cured
The TIMB said top quality tobacco grades for into account. production in 2023 as ably resourced growers con-
The 75% will be paid directly into the growers’ premium brands this season are likely to remain sider reducing their tobacco hectares in favour of
foreign currency accounts and this is treated as free unchanged at between US$3.50 per kilogramme The association said the recent fuel price in- the attractive food crops,” it said.
funds while 25% local currency will be deposited and US$5.40 per kg. crease has seen the local cost of flue-cured produc-
into the growers’ local bank accounts or e-wallets. tion rise by 8.3%. The increase in tobacco costs of This could be an option for growers in Brazil,
ZTA said globally, costs of producing a hect- production, if not matched with cost-plus prices, US, Zambia and Zimbabwe, ZTA said.
However, farmers are demanding 100% of
their export proceeds in United States dollars to TIMB expects auction floors to open next week.
offset high production costs and make profit.

According to the Tobacco Industry and Mar-
keting Board (TIMB), auction floors will open
on 30 March, while contract sales will start on 31
March.

In its latest report, ZTA said Zimbabwe’s in-
consistent monetary policies were hurting the lo-
cal industry and hampering growth.

“In Zimbabwe, the US dollar retention level
of 75% United States dollar and 25% Zimbabwe
dollar at a non-market managed exchange rate,
will sadly negate all the anticipated positives for
the season hence diversification and identification
of alternate crops to tobacco remains key for all
growers,” the report reads in part.

“Demand for Zimbabwe’s flavour tobacco re-
mains very high, however it is poor, inconsistent
monetary policies that are hurting the local indus-
try and impeding its growth.”

A total of 210 million kgs of the golden leaf
were delivered to the auction floors in the last
marketing season, generating the country close to
US$1 billion.

Tobacco is one of Zimbabwe’s foreign currency
earners, providing liquidity in the economy.

The country exports its flue-cured tobacco to
over 60 nations around the world, with China, the
United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Indone-
sia being the major consumers of the golden leaf
from the country.

In 2021, following increases in production in
major producing countries such as Brazil, US and
Zimbabwe, global flue-cured production increased
by 3% to 1,787 million kgs, while demand con-
tinued to weaken as Covid-19 trade restrictions
and constraints continued for most of 2021.

In 2022, the report notes that flue-cured pro-
duction in the southern hemisphere in particular
was affected by adverse weather conditions with
very hot and dry conditions during the peak
planting and growth periods, with South Amer-
ican producers affected the worst.

Countries in southern Africa, though affected
by similar conditions did however receive signif-
icant rainfall in January of 2022 (cyclone linked)
which improved yields, though drier conditions
prevail now.

In Brazil, the adverse weather resulted in the
top of the plant not filling out and yields are sig-
nificantly lower than initially estimated. Produc-
tion is estimated to drop from 573 million kgs to
a conservative 460 million kgs.

“While in Zimbabwe production is estimated
to drop from 203 million kgs to 190 million kgs,
there are smaller drops in production in other pro-
ducing countries in the southern hemisphere,” the
report reads.

ZTA said in the northern hemisphere produc-
tion is estimated to remain relatively stable, with
minimal increases. Production in the US has been
affected by the highest recorded increases in costs
of production and with just a 10% increase in
price this will deter any further increase. China’s
demand from its major source countries will not
significantly change as supply remains sufficient
for their requirements.

Overall, flue-cured production for 2022 is esti-
mated to fall by 9% to an estimated 1,700 million
kgs, just below the recorded lowest production of
2016.

With the significant drop in production in
2022, ZTA said reduced uncommitted stock lev-
els and a post-Covid-19 recovery in demand, pric-
es will be firmer this season.

In Brazil, for example, prices are significantly
up in 2021 with almost single grading and loose-
leaf deliveries.

It is estimated that the average prices will be
closer to US$3 per kg up from US$2.01/kg in
2021.

NewsHawks Companies & Markets Page 27

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

RONALD MUCHENJE Galileo Resources buys
Kamativi lithium stake
LONDON Stock Exchange-listed Galileo Re-
sources is set to acquire a 51% stake in BC ven- The Kamativi
tures, the owner of a highly prospective lithium Lithium Project
project in south-western Zimbabwe and two
gold licences through its wholly owned Zim- tive for pegmatite-hosted lithium and associat- uary 2022. Under the agreement, Cordoba was the option has been exercised, BC Ventures and
babwe subsidiary Sinamatella Investments (Pri- ed mineral, past exploration having focused on given an exclusive option to earn a 51% interest its projects shall be re-valued by an independent
vate) Limited. tin and tantalum. BC Ventures by making a payment of US$50 third party to be agreed by both parties prior
000 within 10 days of signing (which has been to any new money being raised or injected into
The agreement, signed in January this year, The Bulawayo Gold Project comprises EPO paid) and a further US$100 000 within 45 days the company. The original shareholders of BC
will see Galileo forking out US$1.5 million. 1783 and EPO 1784 and covers a large 1 300 of the principal agreement which has not been Ventures will subsequently contribute pro-rata
The target is to explore for resources to support square kilometre licence area near Bulawayo paid and wass due to be paid by 7 March 2022. to exploration funding above and beyond the
the development of a large-scale mine. with extensive greenstone belt rock formations initial US$1.5 million or dilute their respective
that are host to many small to mid-size quartz “ . . . spending a minimum of US$1.5 million shareholding in BC Ventures and the projects
The gold licences adjoin and enclose a num- reef gold mines and deposits in Zimbabwe. (net of any due diligence, legal, or administra- via a straight-line dilution formula,” the com-
ber of small-scale gold mines on pre-existing tional fees) on exploration works on the Proj- pany said.
mining permits, providing the opportunity to The principal agreement was entered into ects within a maximum of 24 months. Once
integrate the production from these operations. between Cordoba and BC Ventures on 21 Jan-

In an update on the agreement, the com-
pany said on 4 March 2022, Galileo entered
into a deed of assignment with Cordoba and
BC Ventures under which Cordoba assigned all
its rights and obligations under the principal
agreement to Galileo for US$198 000, which
is being settled by the issue of 13 741 609 new
ordinary Galileo Resources shares, which will
rank pari passu with existing Galileo Resources
shares.

“Galileo Resources plc is pleased to provide
details regarding an assignment agreement en-
tered into on 4 March 2022 (the ‘Deed of As-
signment’) which assigns to Galileo an option
granted under an agreement dated 21 January
2022 between BC Ventures and Cordoba In-
vestments Limited (the ‘Principal Agreement’)
to acquire a 51% interest in BC Ventures Limit-
ed (‘BC Ventures’) (the ‘Option’). BC Ventures
is the owner of a highly prospective lithium
project in south-west Zimbabwe (the ‘Kamativi
Lithium Project’) and two gold licenses (the
‘Bulawayo Gold Project’) close to

Bulawayo (the ‘Projects’), through its whol-
ly owned Zimbabwe subsidiary Sinamatella
Investments (Private) Limited,” the company
said.

The Kamativi Lithium Project comprises
Exclusive Prospecting Order (EPO) 1782 and
lies on the Kamativi Belt directly adjacent to,
and along strike from the historic Kamitivi
tin-tantalum mine, which operated from 1936
to 1994, where there are active plans by the
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation
to produce lithium from mine tailings.

First-pass grab sampling within the project
area by GeoQuest, who are a fully independent
southern and Central African-based geological
consultancy and contracting group, has con-
firmed lithium-bearing minerals in pegmatites
based on preliminary AAS and XRD results.
The ground is also considered highly prospec-

People begging us to sell them fertilizer: Dangote

ON Tuesday, Aliko Dangote, the richest person the Ukraine-Russia conflict as both Ukraine and Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote
in Africa, opened the continent’s largest fertilizer Russia control substantial amounts of agricul-
plant. “People are begging us to sell,” Dangote tural inputs.”
told CNN.
Dangote’s fertilizer plant is already shipping
Sitting on 500 hectares (1 235 acres) of land to the US, Brazil, and India, CNN reported, cit-
on the outskirts of Lagos, the US$2.5 billion ing the billionaire.
fertilizer plant has an initial annual production
capacity of three million metric tonnes of urea Dangote, 64, is the 80th-richest person in
fertilizer, according to information on the Dan- the world with a net worth of US$20 billion,
gote Group’s website. according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The Dangote Group, which he founded, is the
The Nigeria plant’s opening comes amid dis- second-largest employer in Nigeria after the
ruptions in fertilizer supplies due to sanctions government, the country’s Vanguard News outlet
against Russia. Dangote said demand is robust, reported recently, citing the Nigerian president.
with customers “begging” for supplies.
The Dangote Fertiliser Plant is expected to
The opening of the Dangote Fertiliser Plant create 5 000 direct and indirect jobs, Vanguard
comes amid a supply crunch in crop fertiliz- News reported, citing a government official.
ers due to sanctions against Russia, which ac-
counted for almost one-fifth of 2021 fertilizer Amid the war in Ukraine, resource-rich Af-
exports, according to Trade Data Monitor and rican economies are tipped to benefit from
Bloomberg’s Green Markets. Russia is also a top sweeping sanctions against Russia, the world’s
exporter in key fertilizer ingredients such as third-largest oil producer.
urea, ammonia, and potash, per trade outlet Ar-
gus Media. “As the European Union and the United
States impose sanctions to deny Russia access to
The supply strain has sent fertilizer pric- European oil and gas markets, oil-producing Af-
es soaring, with the Bloomberg Green Markets rican countries could seize on the opportunity,”
North America Fertilizer Price Index surging to Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director of the Africa
record highs. This, in turn, is expected to feed Programme at the Centre for Strategic and In-
into already soaring food prices. ternational Studies wrote in a recent note. Oil
companies may also expand prospecting oper-
“We are lucky to have this plant,” Dangote ations on the continent, he added. — BUSINESS
told CNN. “It is coming at the right time with
INSIDER AFRICA.

Page 28 Companies & Markets NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

BERNARD MPOFU Zim needs fresh impetus
on debt reform — IMF
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) says
Zimbabwe’s re-engagement with creditors has Zimbabwe’s arrears with the IMF, African Development Bank (below), among other international financial institutions, makes it ineligible to access
lost steam despite ongoing efforts by Harare to cheap long-term financing for critical capital projects.
normalise relations with multilateral creditors
before extricating itself from a huge debt over- that culminates in regular (usually annual) assess economic and financial developments to the executive board, which represents all of
hang. comprehensive consultations with individu- and discuss the country’s economic and finan- the IMF’s member countries.
al member countries, with discussions in be- cial policies with government and central bank
Zimbabwe fell into arrears with the World tween as needed. The consultations are known officials. IMF staff missions also often meet A summary of the board’s views is sub-
Bank, African Development Bank and the IMF as “Article IV consultations” because they are with parliamentarians and representatives of sequently transmitted to the country’s gov-
at the turn of the millennium, making the required by Article IV of the IMF’s articles of business, labour unions and civil society. ernment. In this way, the views of the global
country ineligible to access cheap long-term agreement. During an Article IV consultation, community and the lessons of international
financing for critical capital projects such as an IMF team of economists visits a country to The team reports its findings to IMF man- experience are brought to bear on national pol-
infrastructure. agement and then presents them for discussion icies.

A visiting IMF mission, which concluded
Article IV consultations on Zimbabwe, also
projected a modest 3.2% growth on the econ-
omy this year compared to a government esti-
mate of 5.4% as the multilateral lender express-
es concern over policy inconsistency.

“International re-engagement has lagged as
stakeholders seek political and economic re-
forms. The 2019 Staff-Monitored Programme
experienced significant policy slippages and
elapsed without a review,” the IMF says.

“Directors encouraged the authorities to ad-
vance reforms, noting that a new Staff-Moni-
tored Programme could help establish a track
record of sound policies and provide further
impetus to their re-engagement efforts.”

Political interference and policy reversals
have often been cited as some of the reasons
unnerving potential investors from injecting
capital into the debt-ridden southern African
nation.

The IMF said while Zimbabwe has been pur-
suing a reform agenda in its quest to stabilise
the economy and normalise relations with cred-
itors, mixed signals on policy remained a source
of worry.

“Since then, the authorities have made sig-
nificant progress towards restoring macro-eco-
nomic stability, though the implementation of
past IMF policy advice has been mixed. The au-
thorities have developed a debt resolution strat-
egy and started token payments to creditors in
a bid to make progress on re-engagement,” the
Bretton Woods institution says.

“Directors (IMF) noted that Zimbabwe re-
mains in debt distress, with large external ar-
rears to official creditors. They welcomed the
authorities’ commitment to re-engage with
external creditors, including by resuming to-
ken payments and preparing a debt resolution
strategy. Directors encouraged further efforts to
enhance debt management and transparency.”

The economy is this year expected to main-
tain its recovery after contracting between
2019/20 due to the outbreak of the Covid-19
pandemic and droughts.

“Directors agreed that fiscal policy should
aim to restore macro-economic stability and
create fiscal space for priority spending. They
emphasised the need to enhance revenue mo-
bilisation, including through broadening the
tax base and improving tax administration and
compliance. On the spending side, accelerating
reforms of state-owned enterprises and enhanc-
ing fiscal controls will be critical to limit fiscal
risks. Directors also encouraged the authorities
to use the SDR (Special Drawing Rights) allo-
cation prudently and transparently,” the report
says.

“Directors recommended further monetary
tightening, given the persistently high infla-
tion. In this context, they emphasised the need
to increase the operational independence of the
central bank, discontinue its quasi-fiscal oper-
ations, and improve its coordination with the
fiscal authorities. Concerted efforts are needed
toward greater exchange rate flexibility by al-
lowing a more transparent and market-driven
price process. Directors called on the authori-
ties to phase out exchange restrictions and mul-
tiple currency practices as soon as conditions
permit.”

What is an IMF Article IV Consultation?
When a country joins the IMF, it agrees to
subject its economic and financial policies to
the scrutiny of the international community.
It also makes a commitment to pursue policies
that are conducive to orderly economic growth
and reasonable price stability, to avoid manip-
ulating exchange rates for unfair competitive
advantage, and to provide the IMF with data
about its economy.
Country surveillance is an ongoing process

NewsHawks Companies & Markets Page 29

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Page 30 Stock Taking NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Price Sheet A MEMBER OF FINSEC & THE ZIMBABWE STOCK EXCHANGE

Friday, 25 March 2022

Company Sector Bloomberg Previous Last VWAP (cents) Total Total Price Price YTD Market
Traded Traded Change Change (%) Cap
AFDIS Consumer Goods Ticker Price (cents) Traded Volume Value ($) (cents) ($m)
African Sun Consumer Services (%)
ART Price 100 23,110
Ariston Industrials 13,500 108,670
Axia Consumer Services AFDIS: ZH 23125.00 23110.00 23110.00 776,000 14,744,000 -15.00 -0.06 84.88 27,615.18
BAT ASUN: ZH 703.10 820.00 804.96 14,800 101.86 14.49 25.33 11,462.08
CAFCA Consumer Goods ARTD: ZH 2000.00 1900.00 1900.00 89,100 47,406 -100.00 -5.00 81.82
CBZ Consumer Goods 305.00 320.00 320.31 6,122,475 15.31 5.02 -13.94 8,302.57
CFI ARISTON: ZH 6560.15 7000.00 6871.46 100 311.31 4.75 128.67 5,212.71
Dairibord Industrials AXIA: ZH - 366,600 14.53 37,940.79
Delta Banking BAT: ZH 366600.00 366600.00 366600.00 - - - 75,642.47
Ecocash 17000.00 - 17000.00 5,000 - - - 1,484.97
Econet Industrials CAFCA: ZH 8500.00 8502.00 - 425,100 2.00 0.02 13.11 44,436.68
Edgars Consumer Goods CBZ: ZH 12000.00 8500.00 12000.00 - - - 28.24 12,724.91
FBC Consumer Goods CFI:ZH 3411.54 - 3600.00 3,000 188.46 5.52 2.86 12,888.03
Fidelity 24640.30 24514.10 275,100 108,000 -126.20 -0.51 50.83 319,706.91
First Capital Technology DZL: ZH 6361.64 3600.00 6306.79 67,438,280 -54.85 -0.86 55.14 163,382.27
FML Telecommunications DLTA: ZH 14128.85 24300.00 14069.58 18,400 -59.27 -0.42 65.52 364,483.28
FMP Consumer Services EHZL: ZH 6300.00 2,400 1,160,450 -37.50 -6.52 23.56 3,247.83
GBH ECO: ZH 575.00 14095.00 537.50 600 337,670 600.00 20.00 6.34 24,190.20
Getbucks Banking 3000.00 3600.00 300 3,225 - - -17.65 1,416.00
Hippo Financial Services EDGR: ZH 1300.00 500.00 1300.00 2,100 10,800 17.03 4.56 12.98 8,428.03
Innscor FBC: ZH 373.19 3600.00 390.22 27,300 - - -10.00 12,422.51
Lafarge Banking FIDL: ZH 1799.99 1300.00 1799.99 28,600 111,603 148.04 18.05 24.11 11,985.86
Mash Financial Services FCA: ZH 820.00 390.00 968.04 - - -17.17 -11.45 -42.12
Masimba 150.00 132.83 845,100 - - 712.75
Medtech Real Estate FMHL: ZH 600.00 - 600.00 87,300 104,407 2494.57 9.07 - 6,978.71
Medtech Class B Industrials FMP: ZH 27504.58 984.00 29999.15 78,600 1,800 -14.44 -0.05 7.14 57,904.53
Meikles GBH: ZH 30524.07 129.50 30509.63 500.00 4.00 87.87 173,867.20
Nampak Financial Services 12500.00 600.00 13000.00 300 1,769,950 -6.50 -2.10 62.50 10,400.00
NatFoods Consumer Goods GBFS: ZH 310.01 29950.00 303.51 5,900 24,224,650 - - -6.46 5,642.48
NTS HIPO: ZH 5400.00 30500.00 5400.00 79,400 - - -1.82 13,049.30
NMBZ Industrials 2050.00 13000.00 2050.00 13,000 - - -41.43
OK Zim Industrials INN: ZH 3400.00 310.00 3400.00 100 444,030 -3.51 -0.02 36.00 246.00
Proplastics Real Estate LACZ: ZH 14473.51 14470.00 146,300 45.00 3.59 15.67 45.63
RTG Industrials MASH: ZH 1255.00 - 1300.00 - - - 16.52
RioZim Financial Services MSHL: ZH 189500.00 - 189500.00 - - 140.00 20.00 37.86 36,557.89
SeedCo Financial Services MMDZ: ZH 700.00 - 840.00 - - -198.64 -14.19 33.33 9,823.43
Simbisa Industrials MMDZB: ZH 1400.00 14470.00 1201.36 - 824,790 -4.25 -0.14 49.18
Star Africa Industrials MEIK: ZH 3013.97 1300.00 3009.72 5,700 19,500 8.87 0.24 9.66 129,618.20
Tanganda Consumer Goods NPKZ: ZH 3769.57 - 3778.44 1,500 - -13.67 -2.16 30.30 2,132.53
Truworths Industrials 633.67 840.00 620.00 - 26,040 - - -20.51 4,855.56
TSL NTFD: ZH 6200.00 1200.00 6200.00 3,100 750,850 3.39 0.02 55.00
Turnall Banking NTS: ZH 17996.61 3000.00 18000.00 62,500 50,725,870 -95.40 -0.50 70.51 38,701.52
Unifreight Consumer Services NMB: ZH 18996.31 4200.00 18900.91 1,685,400 653,670 0.99 0.69 110.01 9,519.24
Willdale 142.52 630.00 143.51 17,300 1,240 589.57 6.55 23.87
ZB Industrials OKZ: ZH 9005.00 6200.00 9594.57 200 62,000 0.31 0.19 43.07 15,472.07
Zeco Consumer Services PROL: ZH 164.69 18000.00 165.00 1,000 4,500,000 - - -17.50 7,565.83
Zimpapers 11105.00 18900.00 11105.00 25,000 2,494,920 - - 58.26
Zimplow Basic Materials RTG: ZH 500.00 140.00 500.00 13,200 307,108 - - 21.92 44,496.48
ZHL Consumer Goods RIOZ: ZH 2800.00 9795.00 2800.00 214,000 1,237,700 -44.48 -14.83 -6.56 106,258.04
TOTAL Consumer Goods SEED: ZH 300.00 165.00 255.52 12,900 990 - - -17.43
Consumer Goods 6000.00 - 6000.00 600 - - - -22.08 6,766.62
Consumer Goods SIM: ZH - - - - - 316.67 25,048.02
Consumer Services SACL: ZH 2.00 - 2.00 - - - - 3.09
Consumer Goods TANG: ZH 300.00 269.50 300.00 - 20,697 -13.56 -3.04 -17.68 633.71
TRUW: ZH 1942.86 6000.00 1942.86 8,100 6,000 15.12 39,656.23
Industrials 446.50 - 432.94 100 -
Industrials TSL: ZH 300.00 - 2,700 2,465.20
Industrials TURN: ZH - 900 - 2,981.28
UNIF: ZH 419.00 - 22,080 4,543.15
Banking WILD: ZH 5,100 180,093,780 10,511.44
Industrials ZBFH: ZH 3,683,600
Consumer Services ZECO: ZH 9.27
Industrials 1,728.00
Financial Services ZIMP: ZH 6,694.72
ZIMPLOW: ZH 7,871.80
1,929,730.06
ZHL: ZH

ETFs DMCS.zw 167.74 165.00 175.60 3,969,966 6,971,422 7.86 4.69 75.60 123.86
MCMS.zw 1390.49 1415.00 1411.45 2,800 39,521 20.96 1.51 41.15 1,816.16
Datvest Modified Consumer Staples ETF OMTT.zw 996.12 1000.00 995.26 -0.86 -0.09 126.15 1,429.44
Morgan&Co Multi-Sector ETF 30,362 302,180
Old Mutual ZSE Top 10 ETF 12,451.76

FINSEC Financial Services OMZIL 13502.21 15000.00 15000.00 300 45,000 1497.79 11.09 50.00 US$m
65.42
Old Mutual Zimbabwe 8.06

VFEX (US cents) Mining BIND:VX 5.06 5.10 5.14 1,212,150 62,287.70 0.08 1.58 -6.55 113.73
Mining CMCL:VX 1300.00 - 1300.00 - - - - - 106.81
BNC Consumer Goods - - -
Caledonia Consumer Goods PHL:VX 21.00 21.00 21.00 122,790 25,785.90 - - YTD %
Padenga SCIL:VX 28.00 - 28.00 - - -0.18 +6.34
SeedCo International +33.33
+24.11
Index Close Change (%) Open YTD % Top 5 Risers Price Change % +25.33
ZSE All Share 15,581.92 +0.57 15,494.05 +43.98 FBC 3600.00c +600.00c +20.00 +7.14
Top 10 10,296.70 +0.01 10,295.27 +51.17 NTS +140.00c +20.00
Top 15 11,343.38 +0.39 11,299.35 +50.66 FMP 840.00c +148.04c +18.05 YTD %
Small Cap +2.49 389,990.11 -0.76 African Sun 968.04c +101.86c +14.49 -17.43
Medium Cap 399,696.21 +1.96 25,199.13 +25.90 Hippo 804.96c +9.07 +49.18
25,692.63 29999.15c +2494.57c -42.12
+23.56
Top 5 Fallers Price Change % +81.82
Willdale
NMBZ 255.52c -44.48c -14.83
GBH 1201.36c -198.64c -14.19
Edgars -11.45
ART 132.83c -17.17c -6.52
537.50c -37.50c -5.00
1900.00c -100.00c

SALES & TRADING: Davide Muchengi: [email protected] | Lungani Nyamazana: [email protected] | Tatenda Jasi: [email protected]
RESEARCH: Batanai Matsika: [email protected] | Precious Chagwedera: [email protected] | Tafara Mtutu: [email protected]
Tel: (+263) 08677008101-2 | Email: [email protected] | Address: 14165 Sauer Road, Gunhill, Harare

MORGAN & COMPANY has issued this document for distribution to its clients. It may not be reproduced or further distributed in whole or in part for any purpose. This document is not and should not be construed as an offer to
sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe to any investment. MORGAN & COMPANY has based this document on information obtained from sources it believes to be reliable but which it has not independently

verified; MORGAN & COMPANY makes no guarantee, representation or warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability as to the accuracy or completeness of its content.

Property
NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022 PROPERTY INTERIORS ARCHITECTURE GARDENING Page 31

The home of prime property: [email protected]

TSL real estate posts good performance

THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed group gic initiatives in pursuit of its ‘Moving Agricul- Performance in Zimbabwe’s
TSL Limited’s real estate operations for the first ture’ strategy,” Pedzisayi said. real estate operation is said to have
quarter to 31 January 2022 registered a positive
performance on the back of improved occupan- The anticipated increase in agricultural pro- remained satisfactory.
cies. duction and mining is expected to boost de-
mand for warehousing facilities.
Company secretary Fadzayi Pedzisayi high-
lighted that space leased out during the quarter Meanwhile, TSL Limited’s revenues in the
was 10% above the corresponding period last quarter under review jumped 72%, supported
year. mainly by the supply of agro-inputs, provision
of logistics services and real estate services pri-
She attributed the growth to the contribution marily to the agriculture industry.
by the group’s new warehouse that was under
construction in the prior year. Pedzisayi said Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF) was
well-advanced in preparation for the tobacco
Last year, the business completed the con- marketing season expected to start on 30 March.
struction of a 10 000 square metre warehouse The business is setting up a new decentralised
in Harare, which was later occupied in May, floor in Mvurwi to augment the Harare, Karoi
significantly contributing to the performance of and Marondera floors in a move expected to
the real estate segment. enhance tobacco volumes to be handled in the
year.
“Performance in the real estate operation re-
mains satisfactory,” Pedzisayi said in a trading According to the group, Propak Hessian com-
update for the quarter under review. menced distribution of tobacco packaging ma-
terials during the quarter as volumes of hessian
Earlier this year, TSL Limited announced wraps closed ahead of prior year whilst tobacco
plans to expand its real estate portfolio with the paper was 16% above same period last year.
construction of another warehousing facility
to complement the already existing ones as de- On the other hand, the late start of the rainy
mand for warehousing space remains firm. season had a knock-on effect on Agricura where
volumes across all major product lines were de-
Construction of the new 9 000 square metre pressed compared to the same period in the pri-
warehousing facility is expected to start this fi- or year.
nancial year.
However, there was significant volume
Without specifying, the group announced growth in fertilisers compared to last year due to
construction of the new facility would be done the availability of stocks and favourable pricing.
at one of its strategically located warehouses.
The group anticipates improved volumes on
This comes as the group implements plans its tobacco-related operations due to the onset
to expand and improve its infrastructure in line of this year’s tobacco selling season scheduled for
with facilitating the movement of agriculture. 30 March. — STAFF WRITER

“The group continues to undertake key strate-

Page 32 News Analysis NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Opposition poised for by-elections sweep

NYASHA CHINGONO

THE opposition Citizens' Coa- sa from Harvest House, with the territory. ingful inroads into rural areas, tra- CCC leader Nelson Chamisa.
lition for Change (CCC) is ex- help of the military and winning “An upset will be Zanu PF win- ditional Zanu PF strongholds.
pected to win the lion’s share of the battle for the MDC name, failure for Mwonzora and Mnan-
tomorrow’s by-elections which are Mwonzora has failed to garner ning the election. These by-elec- “The question is whether CCC gagwa,” Mandaza said.
largely viewed as a dress rehearsal enough grassroots support to tions are in constituencies where will be able to retain the seats. It's
for next year’s vote, analysts have make him the main opposition the MDC-Alliance, now Citizens' clear Zanu PF has pulled out all "A CCC win would be a warn-
said. in Zimbabwe. It is apparent that Coalition for Change (CCC) the stops to make significant in- ing to Mnangagwa to say his days
Chamisa will be the main chal- overwhelmingly won,” Masunun- roads. In Harare there are 12 such are numbered.”
Analysts say this by-election is lenge to Mnangagwa come 2023 gure said. parliamentary constituencies. If
a watershed for the CCC which and his return to Parliament is they win six, they will celebrate,” Amid state-sponsored violence
is looking to bounce back into likely to stir debate, while stop- “Zanu PF will cause an upset if Masungure said. on opposition activists including
Parliament after dozens of its MPs ping Zanu PF, which holds the they make inroads in traditional the brutalisation of staunch CCC
were recalled in a political blood- majority, from making sweeping opposition constituencies.” “I suppose Zanu may win three campaigner Madzibaba veShan-
bath by Douglas Mwonzora be- changes to the constitution. seats (in Harare). I will be sur- duko last week, a Zanu PF loss,
tween 2019 and 2020. He said the unlevel playing field prised if they win six. it is also especially in its traditional bases,
The CCC's entry into Parlia- during the campaign will be a ma- expected to retain most rural could trigger yet another wave of
The by-elections come amid ment would stop Mnangagwa jor factor in deciding the vote. constituencies. It is unlikely that political violence as the national
concerns by the opposition of the from extending his presidential CCC may make inroads into the hurtles towards 2023.
lack of a level playing field, vio- term limit, curtail the fiddling “The unlevel playing field will rural areas.”
lence and the manipulation of the with presidential candidates' term be a major factor to deter prospec- Analysts have warned of an-
voters’ roll by the Zimbabwe Elec- limit and other amendments that tive CCC supporters. It will be, Political analyst Ibbo Mandaza other bloody poll as the CCC
toral Commission (Zec). make him an imperial president. without doubt. The voters' roll said a CCC win would spell doom basks in the glory of a rejuve-
is a key element in any election for Mnangagwa and Mwonzora’s nated movement whose political
In March 2020, electoral ac- Political analyst Eldred Masun- and the voters' roll will be deci- plot to destroy the opposition. mass continues to grow. With the
tivities were suspended under the ungure said while Zanu PF had sive. The integrity and quality of wounds of the 2008 bloody elec-
guise of Covid-19 regulations, enjoyed free reign on the cam- the voters' roll will be contested, “It is more than just a by-elec- tion still fresh, worsened by the
which have been used to under- paign trail, it is unlikely to make whatever the outcome,” Masun- tion. It’s a test between the two. 2013 post-election killings of ci-
mine the rule of law, control po- meaningful inroads into CCC ungure said. The MPs recall was obviously ille- vilians in central Harare, Zimba-
litical behaviour and curtail citi- gal. It is a statement of fact on the bweans are in for another bout of
zens’ constitutionally mandated Masunungure added that the part of CCC but a statement of intimidation if the state does not
freedoms. CCC is unlikely to make mean- mend its ways.

The CCC has also been banned
from holding rallies in Marondera
and Binga as the police continue
to be used as a pawn in a political
chess game orchestrated by Zanu
PF.

Despite the state clampdown on
opposition rallies and the violence
that led to the death of a CCC
supporter in Kwekwe, analysts say
the party is poised to reclaim seats
lost during the 2020 recalls.

It has been a bloody path to the
by-elections with Vice-President
Constantino Chiwenga declaring
that Zanu PF would crush the op-
position like “lice”.

While it is largely viewed as a
dress rehearsal for 2023 polls, to-
morrow’s vote is a crucial test for
CCC’s popularity after the several
attempts by the state to annihilate
any meaningful opposition.

CCC president Nelson Chami-
sa, who has been on the campaign
trail for the past month, is cur-
rently enjoying massive goodwill
from supporters. A win in most of
the constituencies would solidify
his status as the main opposition.

Retaining former MDC-Alli-
ance seats would give Chamisa a
voice in Parliament and thwart
Zanu PF moves to mutilate the
constitution.

President Emmerson Mnangag-
wa has gone for broke, mutilating
a largely progressive constitution
with the help of MDC-T leader
Douglas Mwonzora who came out
in support of the passing of Con-
stitutional Amendment Number
1 and 2. Mwonzora’s MDC-T is
largely viewed as an extension of
Zanu PF’s interests and a hired
gun for Mnangagwa to destroy
the opposition.

But after hounding out Chami-

NewsHawks Critical Thinking Page 33

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Alex T. Turning from the regime
Magaisa while gaslighting opposition
that he does not rate Tsvangirai’s
ONE of President Emmerson President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s former adviser Trevor Ncube. successor and the new party, the
Mnangagwa’s advisers, Trevor Ncu- CCC. Ncube’s politics is rooted
be, recently announced that he had more equal than others. has some backing within the estab- relationship with his media compa- in what he describes as the “Third
resigned from the Presidential Advi- The decision to back Mnangagwa lishment? It is this that is causing ny is a classic tribute to the icon- Way”, which is not quite the so-
sory Council (PAC). speculation that Ncube’s confidence ic Salomon principle in the law of cio-economic paradigm in West-
might be said to have been a poor derives from a faction that is rival- companies, where the company and ern politics but represents some-
In comments made at a business judgment on Ncube’s part as well ling Mnangagwa and is aiming to the shareholder are separate. thing that is neither Zanu PF nor
conference a few weeks ago, the as others who went along with the usurp power from him. Still, how the MDC and now the CCC. One
newspaper publisher was severely charade. But to describe it as mere- the regime responds to these public Despite his personal contempt, wonders whether he thought Mnan-
critical of the Mnangagwa regime, ly poor judgment might also be too revelations will be telling.  his papers have given ample cover- gagwa and the coup represented the
effectively describing it as hav- generous an assessment. These are age to the CCC in an environment Third Way, but the enthusiasm with
ing failed. In a serious indictment business elites who knew what they Whatever the case, what is clear where state media is still heavily which he embraced it suggests that
against his former principal, Ncu- were getting into, and self-interest is that Ncube’s comments and ap- skewed towards the ruling party. he saw it as an opportunity. He now
be said Mnangagwa had performed would have played a major role in parent turnaround have nothing to But for him to use a business plat- realises that this was a naïve way to
worse than his predecessor, Robert their thought processes. They must do with any newfound love for the form and pretend that he does not look at it, hence his misgivings re-
Mugabe. have known that the new regime increasingly popular opposition. know the name of the opposition garding coups.
was incorrigibly bad, after all, they Despite his severe criticism of his party is insincere. As someone who
Ncube described Mnangagwa as were the men who had enforced former boss, Ncube said he has no was explaining to his internation- There is a generation of Zimba-
having “shown an amazing degree Mugabe’s long rule. confidence in the opposition either. al audience how Mnangagwa has bweans who still wander in the po-
of doing things worse than Robert fared worse than his predecessor, he litical wilderness, unsure of which
Mugabe ever did”. Mugabe ruled How could they have turned into He has a legitimate right to ex- should have known that one of the direction to take. The result is that
the country for 37 years before he better men overnight? For those press a lack of confidence in the hallmarks of the current regime is they tend to go where the wind goes
was removed through a military who joined, the new regime of- opposition, but to pretend that he its systematic attempt to co-opt and at any given time, as happened after
coup in November 2017. It was that fered opportunities that come with does not know its name is not only destroy the opposition. the coup. This generation, in the
coup that ushered Mnangagwa into proximity to power. There were im- petulant but disrespectful and con- 50s and 60s, did not join the lib-
power and Ncube was one of the portant rent-seeking opportunities. descending. It is classic gaslighting But this narrative is inconvenient eration struggle when other young
most vociferous supporters of the But five years later, their baskets that a person can have an opinion because it would inevitably lead men their age were crossing to Mo-
new regime. Ncube appeared to rue remained empty while they saw the on you but pretend not to know him to recognize how the opposi- zambique and Zambia. They were
the fact that he had urged others to baskets of their peers overflowing your name. tion courageously resisted this au- too young or choose to pursue their
give Mnangagwa a chance and that with loot. thoritarian strategy of co-optation education.
he had been let down by the man What Ncube did on that stage and destruction. He would rather
who succeeded Mugabe. However, as others have observed, when he said “Do I have confidence pretend to his audience that the After Independence, they found
Ncube’s boldness may also be an in the MDC, it’s now called some- opposition which has been making themselves entering the middle
For many hearing for the first ominous sign for Mnangagwa who thing else” was not only contemp- waves across the country does not class, as civil servants or in the cor-
time of Ncube having resigned from is known from his liberation war tuous but a deliberate exercise in exist.   porate sector. They were the gener-
Mnangagwa’s inner circle, his com- days for his ruthlessness. If Mugabe erasing the biggest opposition party ation that was next in line to take
ments sounded like a Damascene was the architect of Gukurahundi, in the country. It was a cold and But why does this gaslighting over leadership. After all, were they
moment. It was not that he had Mnangagwa was the enforcer in his calculated assault designed to trivi- persist? Part of it is a historical con- not the learned and smart ones?
supported the coup, no. He was not role as minister in charge of state se- alise and exclude the Citizens' Coa- tempt for the opposition which is
the only person who jumped onto curity. He is not known for giving a lition for Change from the political rooted in elitism and both inter- Unfortunately, the generation of
the coup bandwagon. Men and moratorium to those who cross his narrative. Ncube owns newspapers and intra-generational envy. Ncube war leaders had no intention of giv-
women of stronger moral fibre fell line. Why would Ncube cross this that cover Nelson Chamisa and the never rated the MDC under Mor- ing up power. They held on to pow-
for the ruse. The difference is that hard man’s path so openly unless he CCC every day. To his credit, his gan Tsvangirai. It is not surprising er for decades and it took a coup
elites like Ncube carried on even to remove Mugabe. But it was the
when it became clear that the ship war generation that replaced him.
was headed for an iceberg. They The generation that had waited
were part of a small band that kept is still waiting. Meanwhile, when
playing as the ship was sinking. the MDC arrived in 1999, it was
an opportunity to break the cycle.
As one of the most prominent But these elites were too proud to
enablers of the Mnangagwa regime, be led by trade unionists like Mor-
they condemned anyone who dared gan Tsvangirai and Gibson Sibanda
to differ as not having enough love who did not have degrees like them.
for their country. Some friendships The arrogance was self-defeating.
and associations fell victim to the Many of the elites missed the boat
tensions along the way. It is not and watched from the sidelines as
surprising, therefore, that when their garden and house helpers be-
video clips of Ncube condemning came their bosses in local authori-
the regime emerged, they generated ties. Then they complained of poor
much excitement and discussion in public services.
recent days. Here is a man who had
condemned and attacked many for Many are still hanging there in
challenging the Mnangagwa regime the middle, unhappy with incom-
now using the same language.  petent and destructive Zanu PF
rule but too proud and too fearful
As one of a coterie of business to associate and work with the pop-
elites that crowded around Mnan- ular opposition led by a young man
gagwa in the PAC, his recent state- from another generation. Some of
ments represent an important vote them simply cannot stomach the
of no confidence in Mnangagwa. It idea of being led by a younger man
tells the nation and the world that whom they consider to be their
even his advisers are deserting him. junior. They would rather endure
PAC itself has become moribund. more Zanu PF rule even when it
One by one, its members have is killing the prospects of future
walked away, realising that Mnan- generations.  Power skipped a gen-
gagwa had sold them a ruse. There eration, but some have delusions of
was frustration that their advice just grandeur and feel entitled.
went into a dark hole.
In trying to explain his change
The surprising thing is that astute of heart regarding the Mnangagwa
businessmen and women did not regime, Ncube tweeted a quotation,
see what millions of citizens saw saying “when the facts change, I
from a mile away, that PAC was just change my mind”.
one of Mnangagwa’s several façades
designed to hoodwink the world. ...To next page
It took Ncube and others a while
to realise that this was an Orwel-
lian farm where some animals were

Page 34 Critical Thinking NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Zimbabwe by-elections are attracting huge
crowds, but don’t read too much into them
JAMES MUZONDIDYA / tion day. Attendance of rallies is often
MUNYARADZI MUSHONGA Some people even say the Citizens' for Coalition for Change poses an existential threat to Zanu PF. motivated by  different factors. These
include a range of incentives on offer,
ZIMBABWEANS are set to cast their tions is also evident from the way to translate into a huge voter turnout. focus on economic survival in the de- such as free music entertainment, al-
votes in key parliamentary and local the two main parties, Zanu PF and That is partly because by-elections in teriorating economy. cohol, food, t-shirts and other items
government by-elections on 26 March Citizens' Coalition for Change, have Zimbabwe have always had a low voter of clothing. All are absent on election
2022. The by-elections have the po- invested huge human and financial re- turnout. For example, the 2018 gener- The International Republican Insti- day.
tential to set the tone for next year’s sources in organising campaign rallies al election showed a very low turnout. tute’s survey on public perceptions of
general elections. across the country. In some areas,  not even a quarter of local government of October 2021 also And most people who have been at-
the registered voters showed up. shows an increase in citizen apathy to- tending campaign rallies, especially in
Zimbabwe’s National Assembly Rallies have attracted huge crowds wards political parties and community urban areas, are young. But a signifi-
has  270 parliamentarians  of which and ignited political excitement in the Second, political violence  has leaders. This is especially so for local cant proportion of Zimbabwean youth
210 are elected. The 60 additional country. They have also fuelled specu- spoiled Zimbabwe’s elections  since government councillors and members – most of whom are unemployed and
parliamentarians are brought into the lation that the 2023 national elections, 1980, and even more so  since 2000. of parliament, due to loss of trust in frustrated with the current political
House through a quota system re- due in less than a year, will be a tight This is likely to dissuade some voters representative leadership. The grow- and economic status quo – are still not
served for women. political contest between the two main from turning up. ing trust deficit is strongly linked to registered as voters. Analysis conduct-
parties. increased corruption and irresponsible ed by Pachedu (a group of data experts
The 28 parliamentary and 105 lo- Most recently, there have been leadership among parliamentary and that has been analysing the Zimbabwe
cal government council seats that are Some even say the Citizens' for Co- clashes between Zanu PF and Citi- local officials. Voters Roll since 2018) showed that
up for grabs in these by-elections were alition for Change poses an existential zens' Coalition for Change supporters in 2018, 39% of Zimbabweans aged
left vacant due to recalls and deaths of threat to Zanu PF. in the mining town of Kwekwe on 27 Fourth, a growing number of Zim- between 18 and 34 were not registered
representatives. The empty seats con- February 2022. One person was killed babweans are losing confidence in and nearly 50% eligible young voters
stitute 13.3% of Zimbabwe’s 210 elec- The by-elections have even been de- and 10 injured. elections as a mechanism for bringing didn’t vote.
tive parliamentary seats. The council scribed as a dress rehearsal for the 2023 leadership change at both national
positions represent 5.4% of the 1 958 elections which some think could be a Since then, media and human and local levels. This is mainly be- The Zimbabwe Electoral Commis-
local government seats. watershed poll. rights watchdog reports have  not- cause of strong allegations of electoral sion recently pointed out that only 2
ed  that some supporters and leaders fraud and the growing list of disputed 971 new voters  registered country-
Parliament is currently overly dom- There are  wide expectations  that of Citizens' Coalition for Change have election results since 2000. wide in 2021, and that just under 50
inated by members of the governing Zimbabwe’s opposition will be able to been violently attacked by Zanu PF 000  people registered during Zec’s
Zanu PF. The election of new parlia- build on its earlier successes and capi- and state security agencies. The disillusionment is fuelling vot- registration blitz conducted in January
mentarians will bring new voices. talise on the deteriorating political and er apathy. Most citizens feel that it and February 2022.
economic conditions in the country to This has included including candi- is pointless to vote because it won’t
The polls were initially due to break Zanu PF’s authoritarian control dates for the by-elections. change anything. For all these challenges, this week-
take place in December 2020 but since 1980. end's poll cannot be dismissed. Com-
were  postponed  because of the The violence could deter voters on Fifth, attendance at political rallies ing a few months before the country
Covid-19 pandemic. There are, nevertheless, some cave- election day. cannot be taken as an indicator of goes for the 2023 national elections,
ats. likely voter turnout. Most people who the elections create an opportunity for
The by-elections have attracted Need for circumspection Third, evidence from recent sur- attend rallies don’t necessarily turn out electoral stakeholders, including polit-
huge national and regional focus. They It is important not to exaggerate the veys suggest that Zimbabweans have to vote. ical parties, the electoral management
will give communities that have gone impact of the poll. become more politically disengaged body, security sector agencies, civil
without representation for almost two since the 2018 elections. An example Evidence from past elections indi- society and citizens, to review oppor-
years a chance to choose their candi- First, it is unlikely that the huge is  one done in June by the indepen- cates that crowd size is frequently not tunities and challenges ahead of the
dates. They also provide an opportu- public turnout at the rallies is going dent pan-African network Afrobarom- a good indicator of success on elec- milestone elections.
nity for the youthful and charismatic eter. Instead, they are turning their
Nelson Chamisa the chance to show- The elections are coming at a time
case the party he recently rebranded when the country, which has been
after breaking away from the leading experiencing political and econom-
opposition party, the Movement for ic crisis for the last two decades, is
Democratic Change (MDC). going through its  worst crisis since
2007-2008, with unemployment and
This followed a  bitter leadership poverty soaring and political divisions
struggle after the death of its founder worsening.
Morgan Tsvangirai in February 2018.
A peaceful and credible election is
Chamisa  raised the political needed to restore political and eco-
stakes  by leaving the original party nomic normalcy in the country.
and rebranding his political grouping
to the Citizens' Coalition for Change — The Conversation.
at the end of January 2022. *About the writers: James Mu-
zondidya is a part-time lecturer in
Hopes for the opposition African history and politics at the
Twenty of the 28 parliamentary seats University of Zimbabwe.
being contested – 71.4% –  became Munyaradzi Mushonga is a senior
vacant after the controversial recall of lecturer and programme director for
the representatives by a faction of the Africa studies in the Centre for Gen-
Movement for Democratic Change der and Africa Studies at the Univer-
party led by Douglas Mwonzora be- sity of the Free State in South Africa.
tween May and October 2020.

The significance of these by-elec-

Turning from the regime while gaslighting opposition

...From previous page point in discussing Ncube’s views. spaces to share his views on Zim- media business may become target- who was part of the inner circle,
Sure, his mind may have Sure enough, he is a private in- babwe he is generating and shap- ed by the regime. After the coup, a former regime cheerleader who
changed, but to claim that the facts ing a discourse concerning Zimba- a rueful Mugabe explained how not only gave up but is telling the
changed is a generous view of the dividual who is entitled to share bwe. In this case, it is a discourse Mnanangwa does not forgive. “He world why Mnangagwa has failed.
Mnangagwa regime. It was a mili- his views. But when a man chooses in which Zanu PF is bad, but also has got his own views, he has got To be described as worse than
tary coup and no good ever comes to share his views concerning af- in which the CCC is not only just his own character, and it’s a char- Mugabe is a terrible indictment.
out of a coup. The facts are as they fairs of the state and those views as bad but is so bad that it cannot acter perhaps I did not quite see Back in 2019, I wrote about  the
were in November 2017 and in Au- become public, he must anticipate even be mentioned by name. It is and know about him, that of not regime and its enablers. Perhaps
gust 2018 when six civilians were that they will be subjected to scru- a discourse of exclusion of the op- forgiving. If a person steps on his there will be time before the end of
killed in cold blood. The fact that tiny. He gets those platforms be- position couched as criticism of toes, he will go after him,” Mugabe this term for another article on the
billions of dollars had been looted cause there are people who value Zanu PF.  But Ncube has already said, shaking his head several times regime and its disablers.
by a coterie of elites was there in his views. But if those views are not demonstrated poor judgment over to express disapproval.
2018. Yet despite those facts, he subjected to scrutiny, they set a dis- Mnangagwa and there is no reason *About the writer: Dr Alex
still chose to support the regime. course that will be self-serving and to believe that his judgment on the It remains to be seen how Mnan- Magaisa is a law lecturer at Kent
There is nothing wrong in saying misleading. Those who understand issues he was discussing is any bet- gagwa will react to Ncube’s severe University in Britain and former
my opinion was wrong, but to the complexities of power under- ter. critique of his regime. He has been adviser to the late Zimbabwean
claim the facts have changed is in- stand that there is a nexus between criticised before, but mostly by crit- prime minister Morgan Tsvangi-
sincere. Some might say there is no discourse and power. The irony is that after these crit- ics and opponents of the regime. rai.
ical comments, Ncube and/or his But this is criticism by someone
When Ncube occupies those

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 35

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Zambia’s democracy is still under attack

SISHUWA SISHUWA Zambian president Hakainde Hichilema. Lake Kariba,  “so that he can work
well as has failed to do so”.
WHEN Hakainde Hichile- Post, Zambia’s leading independent In it, the two were heard plot- the government or the UPND dis-
ma  won  Zambia’s  August 2021 newspaper since the re-introduction ting to use state institutions to tanced themselves from the MP’s These arrests on charges of defa-
election, many hoped the assault of multiparty democracy in 1991, undermine the opposition Demo- threats. mation have a chilling effect on even
on democracy that had  character- was forcibly closed in June 2016, cratic Party ahead of a by-election. those who are not targeted as they
ised  his predecessor Edgar Lungu’s less than two months before a gen- Ngoma suggested the scheme was Fourth, the UPND has emulated show the costs of criticising officials.
rule would come to an end. eral election, under the pretext of sanctioned by the president and its predecessor’s legacy of denying Many would prefer to self-censor
a disputed tax bill.  Prime TV, the vice-president. coverage to opposition parties in the than risk months or even years in
While in opposition, Hichile- country’s leading private television state-run media. In opposition, Hi- protracted legal cases. The casualty
ma had presented himself as a re- station, was forcibly closed in April Authorities initially claimed the chilema pledged to stop this culture is free speech and poor citizen par-
form-minded politician determined 2020 in the “public interest”, al- audio was fake. When this failed, by transforming the state media into ticipation in governance.
to restore the rule of law, launch an though no specific charges were laid they accused the journalists of hav- genuine public platforms, establish- Dismantling the opposition
anti-corruption campaign, strength- out. ing tapped the pair’s phones. Instead ing legal safeguards for editorial Given how opposition parties were
en democratic institutions, and pro- of interrogating Ngoma and Akaf- independence, and reviewing leg- continuously obstructed by Lun-
tect human rights. Hichilema’s administration is yet umba, police  arrested  the reporters islation that undermine their gov- gu, it was expected that Hichilema
to close any media stations, but it who had leaked the conversation. ernance structures and leave them would behave differently. This has
Nearly seven months into his has overseen four worrying develop- In what has become characteristic vulnerable to political interference. not been the case so far.
five-year term, however, the new ments. fashion, Hichilema, who no lon- In power, however, it has been busi-
president is turning out to be a ger holds Press conferences and has ness as usual. On 15 March 2022, for instance,
major disappointment. A pattern First, the government has  in- adopted Lungu’s unwanted legacy Assaulting free speech the Deputy Speaker of the Nation-
of worrying developments suggest troduced  a 16% Value Added Tax of addressing the country through As under Lungu, the assault on free al Assembly  banned  30 opposition
that democracy is not returning to on newspaper sales, for both print Press aides and on airport tarmacs, speech under Hichilema has gone lawmakers from parliament for 30
Zambia despite what many seem to and electronic copies. This move is spoke through deafening silence. beyond just the media. days. This followed their peaceful
believe. widely seen as targeted at three pri- protest in November 2021, when
Maintaining the anti-democratic vate newspapers, since state-owned Third, officials have intimidated In December 2021, for instance, the PF MPs noted that the finance
status quo publications face no consequences independent media. Last month, police arrested opposition Patriotic minister had referenced constitu-
Since taking office, Hichilema’s ad- for failure to meet their tax obliga- the UPND MP Heartson Mabe- Front (PF) official Raphael Nakacin- tional provisions that no longer exist
ministration has shown little appe- tions. With the economy perform- ta threatened News Diggers, arguably da after he advised the oft-traveling and asked for these anomalies to be
tite to change the laws that enabled ing poorly and media outlets already the most influential private newspa- Hichilema to “put your buttocks corrected. When this request was re-
the authoritarian tendencies of his struggling, this move threatens to per, with closure after the publica- down” and address the high cost jected, the lawmakers converged in
predecessor. raise the price of newspapers out tion ran a story quoting the UPND of living. In January 2022, police front of the Speaker’s mace, leading
of the reach of more Zambians and secretary-general, saying  the party arrested Morris Lungu, a 42-year- to a suspension of business for about
These include the law on defama- collapse the industry. did not sign a contract with anyone old taxi driver, on a charge of def- 20 minutes. On resumption, the fi-
tion of the president, which makes it to guarantee them employment. In amation for saying that  “if there is nance minister corrected the error
an offence to publish “any defamato- Second, the government has a country reeling with record un- a president who is a fool, it is the and the debate proceeded peaceful-
ry or insulting matter…with intent continued with the Lungu-era ha- employment, the public backslash one who is there”. And, last month, ly.
to bring the President into hatred, rassment of the private media. This was huge, especially after the paper 24-year-old Saliya Laisha was arrest-
ridicule, or contempt”. This crime, January, the private TV station KBN published the recording of the inter- ed following allegations she accused Two MPs from the ruling party,
punishable by up to three years’ im- published a leaked audio of a phone view. Mabeta accused the newspaper Hichilema of having sacrificed six however, then asked the Speaker if
prisonment, has been widely inter- conversation between Hichilema’s of malice and warned that it risks youths, who died in unclear circum- it was acceptable for the opposition
preted and used to deter legitimate political aide, Levy Ngoma, and meeting same fate as  The Post  if it stances while on a boat cruise on MPs to remain in parliament when
criticism. It has undermined media permanent secretary in the ministry did not change course. No one from they had “intentionally disrespected
freedom, led to the arrest of critical of Home Affairs, Josephs Akafumba. it”. They claimed, without evidence,
voices and, especially under Lungu, that “the only permissible means for
created a culture of self-censorship. Members to express displeasure was
by walking out of the House”. The
Another such law is the Cyber Se- Speaker’s decision, reserved to a lat-
curity and Cyber Crimes Act, which er date, was finally delivered on 15
was hurriedly enacted by the Lun- March.
gu administration on the eve of last
year’s election. It violates the right Protests are a commonplace tac-
to privacy by allowing the authori- tic in multiparty democracies, and
ties to tap information communica- the form they can take is hardly
tion technology devices, effectively prescribed anywhere. To treat the
turning everyone into a suspect, and action by the PF MPs as a major of-
confiscate electronics without prop- fence highlights Zambia’s new slant
er procedural safeguards. towards repression in which any
dissent is prohibited. The Deputy
Finally, the Public Order Act Speaker has the authority to repri-
(POA) requires any person who in- mand lawmakers for misconduct,
tends to convene a public meeting but she failed to establish how their
to “give police at least seven days’ protest amounted to contempt rath-
notice” and other details. This colo- er than legitimate protest, and why
nial-era law has been used by succes- the  first-time offenders  warrant-
sive administrations to  restrict  the ed the maximum punishment of a
rights to assembly and free speech. month-long ban and suspended sal-
Under Lungu in particular, opposi- aries.
tion meetings and demonstrations
were repeatedly curtailed under the If the 30 MPs challenge their sus-
pretext of this act. Violations are pension, the matter is unlikely to be
punishable by up to six years’ im- decided before the expiry of the ban
prisonment. due to the slow pace of the courts.
In December 2021, for instance, 9
In opposition, Hichilema vowed PF MPs filed an urgent legal chal-
to repeal the first two of these stat- lenge to the Speaker’s decision to
utes immediately and reform the ban them from taking their seats
POA on assuming office. Under before election petitions in their
Zambian law, repealing an act of constituencies are resolved. The
parliament requires a simple major- Constitutional Court only ruled on
ity, and the governing United Party the matter today, three months on,
for National Development (UPND) siding with the PF complainants.
holds 99 of the National Assembly’s The Deputy Speaker may well have
164 seats. In power, however, Hichi- factored these timings into her cal-
lema has shown a studied disinterest culations.
in fulfilling these promises.
Undermining the media The ongoing suspension of 39
Under Lungu, numerous critical of the PF’s 51 MPs suggests an or-
media outlets were shut down.  The ganised effort to weaken the main
opposition or intimidate it into

Page 36 Reframing Issues NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

submission. It also means there is Former Zambian President Edgar Lungu. nored accusations of the corruption
effectively no opposition party in in his own government. When op-
the National Assembly currently. same way the PF did while in gov- aligned themselves to Lungu, such This is especially concerning as position parties presented evidence
ernment. Opposition parties with as the  Law Association of Zambia, Zambian presidents have general- showing executive involvement in
The suspensions also appear to be little power are potentially being now lack legitimacy to critique the ly used state power to accumulate an inflated fertiliser contract award-
motivated by a desire for revenge. used to manipulate electoral law to actions of Hichilema. The result is wealth. In less than 16 months in ed to one of the president’s business
In June 2017, the then PF-aligned suit Hichilema’s party. Again, the a weakening civil society and the power, for instance, Lungu’s net associates, for instance, Hichile-
Speaker  suspended  48 UPND law- UPND is using the same tactics as ironic situation in which the PF, worth  grew  from K10.9 million ma kept quiet. The president has
makers for boycotting Lungu’s state the PF, but without the consequenc- the party that almost collapsed the ($0.62million) in 2015 to K23.7 also  backtracked  from his commit-
of the nation address. At the time, es of criticism from civil society and country’s democratic institutions, million ($1.34 million) when he ran ment to delink the presidency from
Hichilema and the UPND con- international actors. finds itself slowly becoming the new for re-election in 2016. He refused the Industrial Development Corpo-
demned the move as a brazen assault Weakening civil society defender of the public interest. to reveal his net worth ahead of last ration (IDC), the holding company
on democracy. Over the years, Zambia’s democra- year’s vote, perhaps due to fears that of all parastatal bodies in the coun-
cy has benefited from a robust and Hichilema has shown himself to knowledge of his opulence would try. In opposition, Hichilema con-
The recent onslaught on demo- effective non-state sector capable of be out of his depth on many key increase calls for the removal of his demned Lungu and, earlier, Michael
cratic rights under Hichilema has checking the power of the govern- issues. He only appears positive in immunity if he lost the election. Al- Sata for their failure to amend the
not attracted much outrage. This is ment. Such actors assumed prin- contrast to the disastrous Lungu, though there is no evidence to sug- IDC Act, which allows the president
largely because broad sections of civ- cipled positions that aligned with but as memories of the PF’s terri- gest Hichilema has started stealing to chair the board of the parastatal,
il society and international (mainly those adopted by the UPND when ble record fade, the new president’s public funds or using public office providing opportunities for patron-
Western) actors support the new in opposition. The election of Hich- shortcomings may dawn on more to promote his private interests, his age or corruption and undermining
government, think it is too early to ilema has affected the effectiveness people. If the public become  dis- reluctance to publish his net worth corporate governance. In power,
criticise the new administration, or of civil society in two main ways. enchanted  with the UPND, voters is concerning given his  extensive Hichilema no longer sees anything
simply consider the PF as undeserv- are more likely to see the PF differ- business interests. wrong with this arrangement.
ing of sympathy given its own terri- The first is that many of the criti- ently, especially if the former gov-
ble record on similar issues. When cal voices from academia, civil soci- erning party manages to resolve its The second is that over six months Failure to tackle political violence
Shebby Chilekwa, a PF member and ety and the church who spoke truth leadership question and comes out in office, Hichilema’s  anti-corrup- Under Lungu, political violence
suspect in a murder investigation, to power under Lungu have failed to of its elective conference united.f tion strategy  has been chaotic at around election was commonplace.
recently  complained  that he had remain impartial since Hichilema’s Hichilema’s political position be- best and non-existent at worst. The The perpetrators were usually PF
been tortured by the police while in election. Previously neutral voices comes threatened, he may resort to grand corruption of the Lungu era supporters, while UPND support-
detention and showed his scars, not have become part of the choir of bribery, repression, or both. Unless is well known yet not a single mem- ers were typically the victims. The
even major human rights bodies ex- praise or gone silent. Others have civil society wakes up soon or new ber of the former regime has been police rarely arrested PF cadres but
pressed outrage. been  co-opted  into government progressive voices emerge, Zambia’s taken to court on serious corruption were quick to unleash brutality on
through appointments to parastatal democracy may return to the same charges. opposition members, occasionally
Another example of the UPND boards, public bodies such as human position it was in under Lungu. culminating in fatalities.
undermining the opposition oc- rights commissions, or presidential Nurturing corruption Hichilema continues to accuse
curred this January. Days before the advisory entities. One or two have Hichilema has demonstrated a lack PF leaders of having presided over a Again, Hichilema pledged to end
Kabwata parliamentary by-election, applied for positions that can only of commitment to fighting corrup- corrupt administration, but mostly this culture of political violence, but
a candidate from a small opposition be conferred by the president and tion in three main ways. to delegitimise the opposition par- if the two by-elections since his elec-
party, the United Progressive Party are therefore unlikely to speak out ty’s reputation rather than to signal tion are any indicator, very little has
(UPP), announced his “withdrawal” unless their bids fail. Some remain The first is the lack of example. plans to prosecute those who looted changed.
from the race under highly dubious in the long queue for appointments Despite being elected a platform of public funds.
circumstances. Given the UPP had to public office, including diplomat- anti-corruption, accountability and The polls in both Kaumbwe,
nothing to gain from this surprise ic service. transparency, Hichilema has so far Moreover, members of the klep- Eastern Province, Kabwata, Lusaka,
move, many speculate the UPND failed to disclose the value of his tocratic networks that were deeply featured  violent activities  that saw
induced this move for two reasons. The second is that previous- assets. Along with Lungu, he is the involved in high-level corruption suspected UPND cadres beat oppo-
ly effective civil society organi- only major party nominee and pres- under Lungu have since  transi- sition supporters. As under the PF,
The first would have been to fa- sations that were seen as having ident to do so. tioned  and cultivated new allies in none of the culprits were arrested
cilitate a new election date when the governing party. even when the victims identified the
Hichilema would have been avail- perpetrators and formally lodged re-
able to campaign for his party’s can- The third is that Hichilema has ig- ports to the police. The political vi-
didate. Some argue that the presi- olence in Kabwata was even preced-
dent’s failure to dedicate ample time ed by clear threats of violence from
to a previous by-election in October senior UPND members, none of
2021 cost the ruling party the seat. whom has been arrested or repri-
The second reason suggested was to manded by the party’s leadership.
allow the UPND to change its rela-
tively unpopular candidate, Andrew The false narrative of democratic
Tayengwa, following internal party resurgence
opposition to his rule. Although it may have slightly im-
proved under Hichilema, Zambia’s
As it was, any possible plan al- democratic trajectory remains most
most failed to come to fruition concerning. Based on its early track
as the Electoral Commission  re- record, the Hichilema administra-
fused  to postpone the by-election, tion has shown a lack of willing-
arguing that the UPP candidate had ness to make  structural changes  to
not resigned – a move that would strengthen accountable, democratic
have required re-organising the elec- governance. As a result, Zambian
tion – but merely withdrawn from institutions will remain as suscep-
the race. A few days later, however, tible to manipulation as they were
the electoral body claimed to have under Lungu.
received a letter from the UPP can-
didate, who had otherwise disap- The recent narrative of a demo-
peared, categorically stating he had cratic resurgence in Zambia does
indeed resigned from the party. The not adhere to the reality, one that
Electoral Commission postponed has seen the intimidation of inde-
the poll to 3 February. pendent media, the arrest of critics
for insulting the president, the use
For this delayed by-election, the of state institutions to undermine
UPND re-adopted Tayengwa – per- the opposition, the weakening of
haps afraid its ruse would be too civil society, and the continued cor-
obvious otherwise – but deployed ruption in government. Contrary
Hichilema alongside several cabinet to what many are saying, Zambia
ministers to literally camp out in is not returning to democracy. Not
Kabwata constituency. The ruling yet.--African Arguments.
party  narrowly  beat the PF, while
the UPP failed to run, explaining *About the writer: Sishuwa Si-
that it had expended its resources in shuwa is a post-doctoral research
the previous campaign. fellow in the Institute for Democ-
racy, Citizenship and Public Pol-
This episode suggests that as well icy in Africa at the University of
as pressuring state institutions to Cape Town in South Africa and a
directly get involved in an internal lecturer in modern history at the
party matter – the same tactics once University of Zambia.
used against the UPND – the ruling
party is instigating divisions within
opposition parties and over-stretch-
ing their meagre resources in the

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 37

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

‘They’re all the same’: Ethiopia’s sad
descent into a war between brothers
DESPITE being an ethnic Tigrayan, of Tigrayans,” says Getachew Temare,
Birhane* (28), was born and grew up Ethiopia’s Tigray war has potential to escalate. acting executive director of the US-
in the town of Kombolcha in the Am- based Tigray Human Rights Forum.
hara region. He was part of both an he recalled. “They declared him a their enemies. Today, the hope that now attacking the special forces and “They have now forcefully annexed
ethnic and religious minority – being Fano [an Amhara fighter] and killed Ethiopia’s war could remain limited militia of Amhara region.” the territory. Amhara political elite
a Protestant in a mostly Muslim area him. He was not even armed.” to warring parties – rather than pit- and their government have no under-
too – but he felt comfortable and at ting communities against one another According to Adem K. Abebe, an standing of the depth of harm they
home. He felt particularly blessed to “They wanted to wipe us out, the – feels distant. expert on constitution and peace inflicted upon Tigrayans.”
be part of a tight-knit Christian com- Amhara, and finish off the Ethiopian building, long-running tensions be-
munity. people,” he continued. ” I will not Even religious associations, which tween political elites in Ethiopia are International rights groups have
leave my brother’s blood spill over. I once helped unite people across now being writ large across society, also  documented  atrocities against
When war broke out in the Tigray will fight them when my time comes.” ethnic boundaries, have split. Last in particular between Amhara and civilians in western Tigray. The UN
region in November 2020, however, month, the Tigray wings of the  Or- Tigray. Humanitarian Office (UNOCHA)
things began to change. The conflict In December 2021, Human Rights thodox , Islamic , Catholic and Evan- estimates that  1.2 million  from this
resulted from a dispute between Ethi- Watch also  reported  the summary gelical faith groups cut ties with their “It was a ticking time-bomb,” he area have fled their homes, a fig-
opia’s  federal government and the executions of scores of Amhara civil- central organisations, accusing them says. “The war has now spiralled into ure  contested  by Demeke Zewdu,
Tigray government led by the Tigray ians in Chenna and Kobbo, another of being passive onlookers of “geno- and worsened in the social realm. the deputy chief of the new zone,
People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), but Amhara town, by Tigrayan forces. cide in Tigray”. According to aid It has generated fear and tension who claims there were only  140,000-
it quickly morphed into a bitter civil In February 2022, Amnesty Interna- agencies,  5.2 million people  (over amongst the two people that it now 150,000 Tigrayans in the area even
war. Despite the government’s assur- tional  documented  the rape of “girls 90% of the population) in the Tigray has become difficult for one group to before the war began.
ances that its intervention was merely as young as 14”, accompanied by region need emergency food aid, yet trust the other.”
a “law enforcement operation” target- “shocking brutality”, in and around the federal government continues to A territorial dispute “A mere countdown to another war”
ed at a “terrorist group” or “junta”, Chenna. African Arguments and oth- restrict humanitarian access as well as At the heart of tensions between the Amid a recent lull in fighting, there
the conflict quickly led to growing ers have documented the widespread block banking, telecommunications neighbouring Amhara and Tigray re- have been growing calls for peace talks
distrust between entire communities. harassment, forced disappearances, and other services. At least 2.5 million gions is a  territorial dispute  that has in Ethiopia. Last month, Prime Min-
and torture of ethnic Tigrayans in the people are estimated to have been dis- simmered for over three decades. Am- ister Abiy said there had not been any
“Many people in my neighbour- capital Addis Ababa and other parts of placed  by the war, the vast majority hara leaders claim that a large swath negotiations with the TPLF yet but
hood started pointing fingers at me,” Ethiopia since the war began. from Tigray. of land that was demarcated as part indicated an openness to dialogue. “If
says Birhane, his sparkling smile “A ticking time-bomb” of Tigray in 1991, when a TPLF-led there is an option towards peace – if
fading as he recalls the early days of At the very start of the conflict, Prime Nearly 18 months into the war, coalition took power in Ethiopia, is the TPLF becomes sober, and if it un-
the war. “Some of my friends since Minister Abiy Ahmed tried to draw a statements from officials and armed rightfully theirs. The area in ques- derstands that war will not be an al-
childhood began calling me a ‘junta’. clear distinction between the TPLF leaders have also shifted from empha- tion – covering parts of the highly ternative and it cannot win it too – we
I thought they were joking with me at and ordinary Tigrayan citizens. “Let sising the distinction between warring fertile western and southern Tigray – are very happy to accept that,” he said.
first, but I was shocked when I heard us all be the keepers of our brothers parties and civilians to equating the is home to both Amhara and Tigray
some people in my church talking by making sure our fellow Tigrayan two. people. More recently, Wondimu Asamin-
about me as a menace among them.” people living in each of our neigh- ew, a senior TPLF official speaking on
bourhoods face no discrimination,” In Amhara, for instance, some mi- Mistrust over this disagreement has Tigray TV, referred to promising signs
About a year into the war, Tigray he wrote a week into the war. litia leaders have openly called for “all bubbled for 30 years and, when the from the federal government and al-
armed forces took control of Kombol- Tigrayans” living in the region to be war began in 2020, Amhara forces luded to negotiations “started by a
cha. On their very first day in charge, It did not take long, however, for put in concentration camps. An of- didn’t wait long to cross the border. third party”.
they allegedly  killed  several youths reports of intercommunal violence to ficial from North Gondar Zone in They quickly took control of much
in the town. After a few weeks, the surface. Just days into the war, eth- Amhara commented to journalists in of western Tigray and declared it the He added, however, that the “Am-
federal army and Amhara regional nic atrocities were committed against Debarq that “[Tigrayans] are all the Wolkait Tegede Setit Humera Zone of hara elite” are trying to sabotage talks
forces retook the area. Retaliatory kill- Amhara and then Tigrayan civilians same; they blindly follow each oth- Amhara. Their militias allegedly com- due to “sesame politics”, referring to
ings and the mass arrest of ordinary in the town of Mai Kadra, in western er”. And in a televised briefing in July mitted widespread atrocities against the widespread sesame farming in
Tigrayan residents followed almost Tigray, in a worrying sign of things 2021, Agegnehu Teshager, the then Tigrayan civilians living there. parts of the land under dispute.
immediately. to come. In other parts of Ethiopia, president of Amhara regional state,
both officials and ordinary people also claimed that “misled by the Weyane “They started it early by destroying If difficult talks are to finally hap-
“Tigrayans that I knew well have took matters into their own hands in [TPLF] propaganda, the people of the economic capacity of the Tigrayan pen, observers worry that the land dis-
been found killed on the streets,” says targeting civilians they deemed to be Tigray, from the child to elder, have society in western Tigray. They looted pute between the Amhara and Tigray
Birhane. “Some of them were merely attacked our defence forces. They are agricultural products and possessions regions may prove to be one of the
accused of eating and drinking with more intractable disagreements, espe-
the Tigrayan fighters, others of de- cially given the alleged atrocities and
faming the army and Amhara forces. high distrust between communities.
I had to hide for over a month. I was
sure I too would be killed if I went “Should negotiations begin, the is-
out. I have become a criminal because sue of territorial disputes between the
of my identity.” Amhara and Tigray is a critical issue.
It is a major point of contention,” says
Birhane has since fled his home- William Davison, senior analyst at the
town. International Crisis Group. “While it
is possible to imagine long-term solu-
Over the past year, there have tions, such as local autonomy or joint
been many stories like these – of al- administration, as it stands now, both
leged abuses by Tigray forces and of parties consider control of the territo-
revenge attacks against Tigrayan civil- ry as non-negotiable.”
ians – in the Amhara region. Weeks
after Tigray forces had been expelled According to Adem, anything but a
from the town of Chenna in Septem- plan for a long-term peaceful solution
ber 2021, it resembled a ghost town. will simply lay the groundwork for
The dead bodies of soldiers alongside more violence in the future.
the carcasses of animals were spread
throughout the village. “A political scenario where the
Amhara seek to rely on brute force
“We don’t even touch the enemy to claim contested territories and dis-
corpses,” Melke Alew, an Amhara regard Tigrayan claims and concerns
militia told African Arguments, hold- will be making the same mistakes the
ing a Kalashnikov as he strode atop TPLF made when it had the power,”
the cliffs overlooking the mountains. he says. “This would only be the rep-
“They killed our children, women and etition of the zero-sum game in Ethi-
priests.” opia’s politics and a mere countdown
to another war, if this one ends at all.”
Other locals spoke of similar atroc-
ities committed by Tigray forces. — African Arguments.
Babu, a 13-year-old boy, described
how his older brother had been killed *About the writer: The author
in cold blood. “My brother was also asked to remain anonymous to avoid
about to flee, but they caught him,” retaliation from the government.

Page 38 Reframing Issues NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

How to make peace with Putin
THOMAS GRAHAM/RAJAN MENON The West must move quickly to end the war in Ukraine

WHAT terms should Ukraine accept takes to subdue the Ukrainian army. war may not end. Russian President Vladimir Putin. broader concerns about Europe’s se-
to end Russia’s unprovoked, unjustifi- Putin started this war, but toppling The United States and its Euro- Poland. Demands to create a no-fly curity architecture. For these discus-
able war? Some may consider this an zone over Ukraine or to dial up sanc- sions, Russia will accept no other
impertinent question. him would not necessarily end it. A pean allies, meanwhile, cannot wait tions with the aim of bringing down interlocutor than the United States,
popular uprising that overthrows to find out how long the Kremlin Putin’s political order carry the risk of the only other country with sufficient
In a war between democracy and him is unlikely; the Russian state has can bear the costs of its war. They disastrous unintended consequences military might to alter the balance of
autocracy, or good and evil, only a formidable means of repression at are fast approaching the limit of without achieving the desired results. power on the continent — and to act
righteous victor’s peace is defensi- its disposal and has proven its will- the  sanctions  they can levy without Time to negotiate as guarantor for a final settlement.
ble. The right question, in that view, ingness to use them. In the event of suffering the economic repercussions Even though Ukraine and its Western
is what demands the United States a palace coup, a new leader could be themselves. Gas prices are soaring, backers are in no position to defeat Front and center in these negoti-
and its partners, first and foremost more willing to talk but would hardly as is the cost of wheat (both Russia Russia on any reasonable timescale, ations will be the question of Nato’s
Ukraine, should impose on Russia as be interested in surrendering, given and Ukraine are major exporters). they do have leverage to push for eastward expansion, which the Unit-
punishment for its egregious aggres- the risks that would pose to remain- Inflation, already severe, is expected negotiations. Stiff resistance from ed States and its allies have so far
sion. ing in power. There is little reason to to get worse and economic growth Ukraine’s army and irregular forces is categorically refused to discuss with
think regime change attempted from rates to fall, introducing the risk multiplying Russian casualties, which Russia. It is hard to imagine, howev-
In reality, a satisfying victory is the outside would produce a posi- of 1970s-style stagflation. The dis- — together with deteriorating eco- er, that Putin will drop his demand
likely out of reach, at least for now. tive outcome, either. Those who ad- ruption of supply chains that began nomic conditions in Russia and the that Ukraine’s membership in Nato
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vocate this route assume one of two during the pandemic has been exac- ruling elite’s fears of popular discon- be blocked before he withdraws his
run into unanticipated, stiff resis- scenarios: the emergence of a new erbated by the war, as container ship- tent — could put enough pressure on troops. Before the war,  Nato mem-
tance from the Ukrainians and harsh autocrat who is willing to end the ping companies face higher insurance Putin to make him amenable to a po- bership  was non-negotiable for
sanctions from an unexpectedly uni- war without victory, or even better, rates and cargo aircraft are forced to litical settlement. Ukraine’s leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zel-
fied West, but nothing suggests that mass protests that eventually lead to use longer routes following Russia’s for their part, may be open to major ensky. But his recent statements have
he is about to retreat. Instead, he is a democratic Russia. They overlook a decision to deny overflight rights to concessions in order to end the hu- put neutrality back on the table. The
doubling down. His military is in- third outcome that cannot be ruled 36 countries.  man suffering and economic damage United States and its allies, mean-
creasingly targeting civilians, espe- out: prolonged political upheaval and caused by the Russian assault. The while, may have to decide whether
cially in large cities. As the death toll, violence that destabilises a nuclear su- Prolonging the Russian offensive tipping point for both parties to com- they are willing to shut Nato’s door to
the scale of destruction, and the risk perpower. will lead to the deaths of many more mit to the type of agreement that can other former Soviet countries seeking
of a widening conflict mount, the pri- innocent Ukrainians and wreak fur- end the war may be only weeks away. membership.
ority must be an end to the suffering. Likewise, harsh, punitive sanctions ther economic damage on Ukraine
This can only be achieved through will not end the war any time soon. that will take years, perhaps decades, That means the time to sketch the The time to sketch the outlines of a
diplomatic engagement that produc- The historical record shows that sanc- to repair. And it will increase the outlines of a diplomatic solution is diplomatic solution is now.
es a political settlement.  tions take a long time to affect the chances of the war spreading beyond now. It is the Ukrainians’ right, of
calculations of the targeted state, if Ukraine, drawing the United States course, to decide the terms acceptable The next challenge is to find an ar-
The first, most urgent challenge they do at all; consider the example and its  Nato allies  into an armed for ending their armed resistance to rangement under which a militarily
is to broker a cease-fire and provide of North Korea. Leaders who believe confrontation with Russia. Moscow Russian aggression. But negotiations nonaligned — or neutral — Ukraine
humanitarian aid to refugees, both their actions are essential to achieve has already declared that the convoys will not be limited to Ukraine and can be confident in its security. After
inside and outside Ukraine. The next vital national security objectives, as carrying Western arms to Ukraine Russia, as any resolution to the crisis Russia’s invasion, a deal with terms
is to negotiate an end to the war. A Putin does today, have often proved are legitimate targets and has stepped will need to address not just Ukraine’s similar to those of the 1994 Budapest
cease-fire would create conditions for willing to pay a steep economic price. up airstrikes and missile attacks on geopolitical orientation but Moscow’s Memorandum — in which Russia,
more fruitful diplomacy, but talks, locations near Ukraine’s border with the United States, and the United
such as those now underway between Without hard compromises, the Kingdom offered security assurances
the Ukrainians and the Russians, in exchange for Ukraine abandoning
should proceed even if it proves un- the nuclear arsenal it inherited from
attainable. Either way, the Russian the Soviet Union — will hardly be
army will be occupying consider- acceptable to Ukrainian leaders. Kyiv
able Ukrainian territory: Crimea, to will undoubtedly look to the United
be sure, but also parts of northern, States and other Nato members for
northeastern, and eastern Ukraine, arms and military training, as well as
including a land corridor connecting assistance in modernizing its defense
Crimea to Russia and land north of industries, to ensure that Ukraine has
the peninsula. Ukraine and the West the capacity for self-defence.
will need to determine what compro-
mises they can make to induce Pu- Russia will be uneasy with such an
tin to stop his war and withdraw his outcome, but it may accept it as long
forces. Demilitarising Ukraine or rel- as Ukraine agrees not to allow Nato
egating the country to Russia’s sphere combat troops, armaments, or bases
of influence, as Moscow demands, on its soil. In exchange, Ukraine may
would be unacceptable. Short of such seek limits on Russia’s military de-
appeasement, however, Kyiv and ployments in its territory adjacent to
its partners must now consider how Ukraine. 
much they are willing to concede.
A settlement must also ensure that
In a final deal, Kyiv’s bid to join Russia abandons the territories it has
NATO — and, possibly, further en- occupied since its 24 February inva-
largement of the alliance into the for- sion and establish a procedure for de-
mer Soviet space — will likely need termining the future status of Crimea
to be ruled out, but Russia will also and the Donbas statelets whose in-
need to accept that a neutral Ukraine dependence Putin recognised prior
would retain close security ties with to the attack. Ideally, that procedure
the West. The agreement must also would end in a decision based on
include plans for Russia to contribute internationally monitored referenda
to the cost of reconstructing Ukraine that are certified as free and fair. Such
and for referenda to settle the politi- a vote would likely affirm Crimea as
cal futures of Crimea and the Donbas a part of Russia, which Ukraine can
“republics.” The West, for its part, accept as a reality without formally
must clarify the circumstances un- recognizing it — this would be sim-
der which it is prepared to remove ilar to the way the Federal Republic
sanctions on Russia. No party will be of Germany and the German Dem-
satisfied with all aspects of the final ocratic Republic handled their rela-
settlement. But without hard com- tionship in a treaty signed in 1972.
promises, the war may not end. The outcome of a referendum in the
Out of options Donbas would be less certain.
There is no obvious path to an ear-
ly, decisive victory over Russia. The Since the separatist leaders have
United States and its allies have reject- claimed, with Russian backing, the
ed the possibility of direct military in- entirety of the Donetsk and Luhansk
tervention to defend Ukraine, given provinces, only a third of which they
the risk that it could trigger a nuclear physically controlled before the war,
war. The Western arms flowing into Kyiv should insist that the referenda
Ukraine will increase Russia’s already be conducted throughout the two
substantial losses in soldiers and ar- provinces. That would almost cer-
maments, but Putin appears prepared tainly result in a defeat for the sep-
to accept the cost if that is what it aratists and the liquidation of their
strongholds.  ...To next page

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 39

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Tanzania’s Hassan has made changes:
But the ruling party retains tight grip

AIKANDE CLEMENT KWAYU President of Tanzania Samia Suluhu Hassan. small business growth.
In addition, her government has
SHE may have been Tanzania’s "acci- basis. to public service and the opposition. approach weakened the party’s ability
dental president", but Samia Suluhu Expanded civic space:  Hassan has In  contrast  to the previous adminis- to legitimately win elections. It made used force to  remove street hawk-
Hassan has used her first year in office tration, she has treated those in public the party dependent on the police force ers without providing them with alter-
to cement her power. reversed some of the restrictions im- service with sensitivity and respect. and state machinery to silence dissent. natives.
posed under Magufuli. For example,
The way in which she took over the she lifted the ban against some news- She has also engaged opposition As the party’s chair, Hassan is trying Consolidating her team: To man-
position put her on the back foot. papers and made it easier for bloggers leaders. Hassan  has met with  Tundu to reverse this. age the politics of her party, Hassan has
to operate without licences. Lissu, an opposition figure who has been building her own team.
She found herself stepping up to been in Belgium in political exile fol- The informal sector:  Hassan has
the plate after the sudden death of She has also  changed the tone  of lowing threats to his life after the 2020 set about trying to address the chal- She has had two cabinet reshuffles.
John Pombe Magufuli, Tanzania’s fifth government rhetoric. For example, to elections. She also  met  opposition lenges faced by the country’s informal Requiring the new team to swear into
president who served from 2015 until create a conducive business environ- leader Freeman Mbowe at Tanzania’s sector. This includes active participa- her administration was a subtle way of
2021. A year earlier, Magufuli had led ment, she has warned tax authorities State House immediately after he was tion in Generation Equality to ensure transferring ministerial loyalty from
the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapin- not to frustrate or threaten businesses, released from jail. Mbowe  was arrest- women’s participation in the economy. the former regime to hers.
duzi (CCM), to power again in a bit- but rather facilitate their operations. ed in July 2021 while organising a con- She has also insisted on fair tax reforms
terly contested general election. The ference on constitutional reforms. He that would help formalise the informal Hassan has also dealt with dissent-
poll was marred by violence and mas- Her administration has also tak- was in jail for more than 200 days. sector. ing voices from within the ruling party
sive rigging. en legal action against a former district in parliament.
commissioner — Lengai Ole Sabaya. However, the authoritarian streak But her efforts to address informal
Magufuli was nevertheless sworn in He openly tortured the opposition in in the ruling party remains. This is sector challenges have been hindered She forced the speaker — Job Ndu-
as president, and Hassan as vice-pres- the name of defending Magufuli’s ad- evident from the fact that some re- by both infrastructure and policy is- gai — to resign, showing that she can
ident. She automatically assumed the ministration. In this way, she distanced strictions remain, including on public sues. Some of the hurdles include in- discipline the party’s heavyweights. To
presidency after he died on 17 March herself from the previous regime’s ap- rallies. creasingly regular power cuts. further manage criticism from within
2021. proach of using  local authority lead- the party, she  appointed  outspoken
ers  to silence citizens critical of the It remains to be seen if Hassan can Hassan has also taken steps that member of parliament Humphrey Po-
The two immediate challenges she government. bring about radical democratic change have been criticised for harming the lepole an ambassador to Malawi.
faced were that, firstly, she was a bene- in Tanzania if it threatens the domi- informal sector.
ficiary of an election that was not con- The other front on which she’s tak- nance of the ruling party. Magufuli’s She has also hired a former journal-
sidered free or fair. en a different approach is in relation These include  high levies  on mo- ist to lead the State House communi-
bile money transactions, which curtail cation directorate. She is building an
Secondly, most members of parlia- inner circle of professionals rather than
ment felt their election victories were a of hardcore party loyalists.
result of Magufuli’s political approach. What now?
Ninety-nine percent of Tanzania’s par- Tanzanians have definitely seen
liament is held by the ruling party. change happen under Hassan. But
what remains the same is the ruling
This parliamentary loyalty has, argu- party’s unwillingness to create a fair
ably, been a  recurring source of chal- political playing field.
lenges in Hassan’s first year of admin-
istration. To realise real change, Hassan has
to address legal structures, including
As a result, she has made several draconian laws that facilitate discrim-
changes to showcase her presidential ination. These include the Cybercrime
power, and her ability to run the coun- Act,  Media Services Act  and the  An-
try and manage its politics as she pre- ti-Corruption and Economic Crimes
pares to run for a second term in 2025. Act.

I analyse four areas where Hassan’s But doing so might be difficult given
impact has been felt in the first year of the current parliament’s loyalty to the
her presidency. These are: the about- past administration and its approach.
turn on Covid-19 protocols, her ex-
pansion of the civic space, a focus on The real test of Hassan’s genuine-
the informal sector and her efforts to ness in wanting change will be in her
build her own team. allowing constitutional reforms. There
Turning the ship is need for an overhaul of the existing
Covid-19:  One of the most radical constitution given its inability to pro-
changes seen during Hassan’s presi- vide checks and balances. It also gives
dency is in Tanzania’s stance on the enormous imperial powers to the pres-
pandemic. The former administration ident. Delivering a new constitution
had denied the existence of Covid-19. that ensures accountability will give
Hassan has acknowledged the science Hassan a legacy that endures beyond
and prevention protocols to manage her presidential tenure.
the disease, and encouraged citizens to
get vaccinated. — The Conversation.
*About the writer: Aikande Clem-
Wearing a mask is now the norm in ent Kwayu is an independent re-
government meetings and, as per in- searcher and honorary research
ternational requirements, Tanzania is fellow at the University of Wiscon-
providing Covid-19 data on a regular sin-Madison in the United States.

How to make peace with Russia president

From previous page terms and timetable for phased eco- of continued fighting outweigh the thing it urgently needs — this is the — Foreign Affairs.
Finally, the settlement must include nomic relief and, eventually, the end of sacrifices that a diplomatic settlement inevitable outcome of any negotiation *About the writers: Thomas Gra-
provisions for the reconstruction of all penalties. Without this assurance, it will require. And the West might push to end a horrific war. It will not look ham, a distinguished fellow at the
war-ravaged Ukraine. The Russians will have no incentive to agree to a set- vigorously for a settlement only when like the victory that many in the West Council on Foreign Relations in the
will be unwilling to bear the entire tlement. it realizes that sanctions on Russia re- and Ukraine yearn for. Still, a settle- United States, served as senior di-
burden, but Moscow ought to cover Not yet a victory quire that it endure severe economic ment that preserves an independent rector for Russia on the US National
a large share of the costs its invasion The final terms of an actual agreement blowback. No party has reached that Ukraine with the wherewithal to de- Security Council staff between 2004
has inflicted, with the United States, will depend on where the fight stands stage yet, but given the brutality of fend itself should count as a major and 2007.
Europe, and international financial in- as the negotiations unfold. Positions the conflict, the mounting losses on success. It is worth remembering that Rajan Menon is the director of the
stitutions picking up the rest.  on the battlefield and economic and both sides, and fragile socioeconomic the West won the Cold War not in Grand Strategy Programme at De-
Convincing Russia to undertake political conditions within Russia, conditions in the West, the time could one fell swoop but through a series of fense Priorities, the Anne and Ber-
a substantial financial commitment Ukraine, and the West will all influ- come sooner than expected.  steps — including, when necessary, nard Spitzer Professor of interna-
— or to make any of the tough con- ence the pace and results of the talks. compromises with Moscow to avert tional relations emeritus at the City
cessions outlined here — will require Russia and Ukraine may be prepared An enduring settlement will have war. The result was the steady accu- College of New York, US and a senior
the United States and its allies to put to make the necessary concessions to balance the interests of all parties mulation of advantages over 40 years. research fellow at Columbia Univer-
forward a plan for the removal of sanc- only after both conclude that the costs to the conflict. In the framework That is the approach the West should sity’s Saltzman Institute of War and
tions. Moscow will want to know the proposed here, no party achieves its adopt today. Peace Studies.
ultimate goals, but each gets some-

Page 40 Reframing Issues NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Western values? They enthroned the
monster shelling Ukrainians today

ADITTA CHAKRABORTTY However repressive his regime, Vladimir Putin was tolerated by the United
States, Britain and the European Union – until he became intolerable.
SIX days after Vladimir Putin or-
dered his soldiers into Ukraine, Joe Bush replies: “It is certainly against ev- Ukrainian kids fleeing Russian bombs Vladimir Putin. but which actually handed over the as-
Biden gave his first State of the Union ery principle of international law and are genuine refugees. It is a giant and installing in the Kremlin someone sets of an industrialised and commod-
address. international order.” She maintains a morally repugnant lie and yet elements more congenial to the US and UK and ity-rich country to a few dozen men
commendably straight face. of it already taint our front pages and certainly better house-trained. Spot- with close connections to the Kremlin.
His focus was inevitable. “While rolling-news coverage. ting the flaw here doesn’t require histo-
it shouldn’t have taken something so None of this is to defend Putin’s ry, it just needs a working memory. The In 1993, the New York Times
terrible for people around the world to brutality. When 55 Ukrainian chil- Those TV reporters marvelling at west has already tried regime change in Magazine ran a  profile  of a Harvard
see what’s at stake, now everyone sees dren are made refugees  every min- the devastation being visited on a Eu- post-communist Russia: Putin was the economist it called “Dr Jeffrey Sachs,
it clearly,” the US president said. “We ute  and pregnant women in hospital ropean country, as if its coordinates on end product, the man with whom Bill Shock Therapist”. It followed Sachs as
see the unity among leaders of nations are shelled mid-labour, there is noth- a map are what counts, are just one ex- Clinton declared he could do business, he toured Moscow, orchestrating the
and a more unified Europe, a more ing to defend. But to frame our con- ample. Another is the newspapers that rather than the vodka-soused Boris privatisation of Russia’s economy and
unified West.” demnations as a binary clash of rival spent the past 20 years cursing eastern Yeltsin. Indeed more than that, Lon- declaring how high unemployment
value systems is to absolve ourselves Europeans for having the temerity to don and New York are not just guilty was a price worth paying for a revit-
In the countdown to the invasion, of our own alleged war crimes, com- settle here legally and now congrat- of hosting oligarchs — giving them vi- alised economy. His expertise didn’t
the Conservative chairperson Oliver mitted as recently as  this century in ulating the British on the  warmth of sas, selling on their most valuable real come for free, but was bankrolled by
Dowden flew to Washington to ad- Iraq and Afghanistan. It is to pretend their hearts. estate and famous businesses – they the governments of the US, Sweden
dress a think-tank with  impeccable “our” wars are just and only theirs are helped create the oligarchy in Russia. and other major multinational insti-
links to Donald Trump. “As Margaret evil, to make out that Afghan boys And then there is the unblushing The US and the UK funded, staffed tutions. But its highest cost was borne
Thatcher said to you almost 25 years seeking asylum from the Taliban desire expressed by senior pundits and and applauded the programmes meant by the Russian people. A study in
ago, the task of conservatives is to re- are inevitably liars and cheats while thinktankers that this might end with to “transform” the country’s economy, the  British Medical Journal  conclud-
make the case for the West,” the cab- “regime change” – toppling Putin and ed: “An extra 2.5-3 million Russian
inet minister told the Heritage Foun- adults died in middle age in the peri-
dation. “She refused to see the decline od 1992-2001 than would have been
of the west as our inevitable destiny. expected based on 1991 mortality.”
And neither should we.” Meanwhile, the country’s wealth was
handed over to a tiny gang of men,
Western values. The free world. who took whatever they could out of
The liberal order. Over the three the country to be laundered in the US
weeks since Putin declared war on or- and the UK. It was one of the grandest
dinary Ukrainians, these phrases have and most deadly larcenies of modern
been slung about more regularly, more times, overseen by Yeltsin and Putin
loudly and more unthinkingly than at and applauded and financed by the
any time in almost two decades. Per- west.
haps like me you thought such puffed-
chest language and inane categorisa- The western values that are be-
tion had been buried under the rubble ing touted today helped enthrone
of Iraq. Not any more. Now they slip the monster who is now shelling
out of the mouths of political leaders Ukrainian women and children.
and slide into the columns of major However corrupt and repressive his re-
newspapers and barely an eyebrow is gime, Putin was tolerated by the west
raised. The Ukrainians are fighting for — until he became intolerable. In
“our” freedom, it is declared, in that much the same way, until last month
mode of grand solipsism that defines Roman Abramovich was perfectly fit
this era. History is back, chirrup intel- and proper to own Chelsea football
lectuals who otherwise happily stamp club. Now No 10 says he isn’t.
on attempts by black and brown peo-
ple to factcheck the claims made for There are no values here, not even
American and British history. a serious strategy. Today, Boris John-
To hold these positions despite the son claims Mohammed bin Salman is
facts of the very recent past requires a valued friend and partner to the UK,
vat loads of whitewash. Head of the and sells him arms to kill Yemenis and
European Commission, Ursula von pretends not to notice those he has ex-
der Leyen, claims Vladimir Putin has ecuted. Goodness knows what tomor-
“brought war back to Europe”, as if Yu- row will bring.
goslavia and Kosovo had been halluci-
nations. Condoleezza Rice pops up on *About the writer: Aditya
Fox to be told by the anchor: “When Chakrabortty is a Guardian colum-
you invade a sovereign nation, that nist.
is a war crime.” With a solemn nod,
the former secretary of state to George

NewsHawks Africa News Page 41

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

From message to violence: What to watch
for in the media ahead of Kenya’s elections

ADITI MALIK/ PHILIP ONGUNY

AS Kenya heads towards elections, con- Voters line up to cast their votes (file photo).
cerns about the outbreak of electoral
violence tend to rise. re-election have been particularly prone political information in Kenya. In age of the upcoming elections. We caution that these newer nar-
to conflict. studying the 2007-2008 post-election First, the deputy president has cast ratives, combined with prior frames
Existing research has offered several crisis, we found that  vernacular radio about marginalisation, victimisation
explanations for the violence. These in- Constitutional changes implement- stations  played an important role in the polls in populist terms as a “dynas- and foreign occupation, could inflame
clude weak political parties, perceptions ed since 2010 were partly designed to spreading messages of hatred and divi- ties versus hustlers” contest. Here, Ken- tensions.
that elections are high stakes for differ- weaken the presidency and reduce the sion in the country. yatta and former prime minister Raila Social media’s role
ent communities, and land grievances. stakes of national contests. But  recent Odinga are cast in the dynasty category The rapid proliferation of social media
research  has found that the political We found that narratives of mar- and Ruto as a hustler. platforms in competitive electoral set-
The evidence for these explanations logic of Kenyan elections remains large- ginalisation, victimisation and foreign tings such as Kenya also comes with
is compelling. For example, the weak- ly unchanged. Scholars have also shown occupation informed the stakes of the Second, the deputy president’s some risks.
ness of parties has meant that polit- that elites’ incentives to foment violence election. This was true for Luo, Maa- right-hand man and the former ma- There is limited policy related to  on-
ical  patronage has usually trumped are strong in many parts of the country. sai and Kalenjin voters. Their interests jority leader in the National Assembly, line content regulation. This makes it
policy proposals in Kenya. In a related were cast as opposed to those of Kikuy- Aden Duale, has portrayed Odinga as a difficult to contain messages of political
vein, grievances over the distribution The latest changes in elite-level us. “state project”. This frame suggests that intolerance in these spaces.
of land have provided politicians with groupings and  alliances  are now gen- members of the ruling Jubilee Party
a powerful means to organise violence. erating concerns that electoral violence The country’s political environment and other influential actors are groom- There is already evidence to suggest
could return to Kenya in 2022. has evolved since 2007-2008. Even so, ing the former prime minister for the that many of the conversations con-
But researchers are yet to fully un- the media still play a part in shaping presidency. ducted over WhatsApp in Kenya are
derstand how, when and why political This is primarily because President perceptions of electoral stakes. We ar- inflammatory.
elites succeed in encouraging ordinary Kenyatta and Deputy President Ruto gue that some of the frameworks dis- Such representations have not gone
citizens to engage in violent conflict. To have turned into  adversaries. The for- cussed above could re-emerge in the down well in Odinga’s camp. As a Different forms of media will need
better examine this issue, we conduct- mer allies were leaders of an  unlikely coming months. counter-narrative, the Kenyatta-Odin- to balance the polarising narratives that
ed interviews with vernacular radio lis- electoral coalition which won national ga “handshake” team and the newly are emerging from the major electoral
teners in the Central, Nyanza and Rift elections in 2013. To begin with, Ruto is no longer formed “Azimio la Umoja” (Unity Dec- camps to keep violence at bay.
Valley regions. We also interviewed po- Kenyatta’s apparent successor. Nar- laration) movement have cast Ruto as a
litical elites in Nairobi, Coast province A related worry is that  many citi- ratives about  victimisation (and be- thief who cannot be trusted with public *About the writers: Aditi Malik is
and the Rift Valley. zens are reporting low levels of trust in trayal)  could become prominent. In coffers. assistant professor of political science
the Independent Electoral and Bound- meeting with constituents, the deputy at College of the Holy Cross in the
Our work helped us to uncover three aries Commission. president has already used such  lan- Third, the rift over constitutional United States.
important narratives disseminated via Traditional media’s role guage to describe the president’s actions. amendments through the  Building
vernacular radio. These informed par- We focused on studying radio mes- Bridges Initiative  is emerging as a rel- Philip Onguny is associate profes-
ticipation in violence during Kenya’s saging in our work because radio is Beyond victimisation, we observe evant element in the August elections. sor at Saint Paul University in Can-
2007-2008 post-election crisis. These the  primary form of mass media. It that three newer narratives are gaining The  thwarted  initiative has increased ada.
were: is a dominant source of social and some traction in electoral politics. They political intolerance between rival po-
are also appearing in the media’s cover- litical elites and their potential voters.
Political marginalisation: This narra-
tive emphasised economic deprivation
and political alienation of some groups.
(An example is the Luo.)

Victimisation:  This exploited
deep-rooted land grievances to cast
some communities (the Kikuyu, for
example) as the primary beneficiaries of
policies after independence.

Foreign occupation:  This narrative
capitalised on fragile inter-community
relations in areas such as Rift Valley. It
cast Kikuyus as “foreign occupiers” of
Kalenjin and Maasai ancestral lands.

Drawing on this work, we suggest
that the media — newspaper, televi-
sion, radio, and online platforms —
can inform perceptions of what’s at
stake in elections. Media narratives, in
other words, can offer an early sign of
the risk of violence.
August 2022 elections
In August, Kenyans will vote in pres-
idential, legislative, and county-level
elections. These contests will be the
third since the country got a new con-
stitution in 2010.

In the era of multi-party politics,
several Kenyan contests — especially
presidential ones — have given way to
violence. As the Kenyan writer Patrick
Gathara has observed, presidential con-
tests in which the incumbent is seeking

HUNDREDS of farmers in Libya Libya's decade-old conflict impacts the encroachments on agricultural
have been rendered vulnerable to cli- mitigations on climate change lands and try to increase investment in
mate variability due to the ongoing arable lands. All our resources in this
conflicts, according to a statement re- dry, except for some olive trees, only ple here. The wheat and barley crops, it now experiences increased and more regard must be invested, and farmers'
leased by the International Committee about 10% of them survived. All the in addition to fruits and almonds, severe sand and dust storms, droughts awareness of the importance of in-
of the Red Cross (ICRC). other trees, including the almonds and were a major source of income for and increased temperatures. creasing production in a sustainable
even the scrubs, were gone, there is farmers here. But the drought wiped manner must be increased, said Dr. Ja-
The decade-old conflict has impact- nothing left of them. I started planting this source of livelihood, and desertifi- "Climate change requires great lal Al-Qadi, the head of Laboratory in
ed mitigation efforts to climate change trees all over again," said Ali Ebrahim cation had a great impact on people's preparation from everyone. Empha- Misrata Agriculture Research Centre.
and is likely to increase the impacts on Al-Taleb, a farmer in Awinyia. income." sis must be placed on raising people's
agricultural production and therefore awareness of how dangerous this issue Libya witnessed a significant de-
livelihoods, food and economic secu- Ali further added, "agriculture was a The change in climate is already vis- is on the globe, especially in our coun- crease in rainfall between October
rity of thousands. major source of income for many peo- ible in the North African country as try. Serious steps must be taken to stop 2020 and October 2021. The few
rainy days over that period only result-
"The area was badly harmed during ed in water ponds that quickly evapo-
the years of displacement from 2011 rate without penetrating the soil.
to 2017. When I returned from dis-
placement, all the trees were dead and — Africa News.

Page 42 World News NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

NICHOLAS MULDER The toll of economic war

THE Russian-Ukrainian war of ... How sanctions on Russia will upend the global order
2022 is not just a major geo-polit-
ical event but also a geo-economic Ukrainian soldiers and rescue officers search for bodies in the debris at a military school in Mykolaiv. Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images
turning point.
Ilya Matveev has  put it, “30 years 26 February. Prices of crude oil, also caught up in the sanctions tions packages have had a catalyzing
Western sanctions are the tough- of economic development thrown natural gas, wheat, copper, nick- shock. These former Soviet states effect on international businesses
est measures ever imposed against a into the bin.” el, aluminum, fertilizers, and gold are strongly connected to the Rus- operating in Russia. Virtually over-
state of Russia’s size and power. In have soared. Because the war has sian economy through trade and night, Russia’s impending isolation
the space of less than three weeks, The ramifications of the West- closed Ukrainian ports and inter- outward labor migration. The col- has set in motion a massive cor-
the United States and its allies have ern sanctions go far beyond these national firms are shunning Rus- lapse of the ruble has caused seri- porate flight. In what amounts to
cut major Russian banks off from effects on Russia itself. There are at sian commodity exports, a grain ous financial distress in the region. a vast private sector boycott, hun-
the global financial system; blocked least four different kinds of broader and metals shortage now looms Kazakhstan has imposed exchange dreds of major Western firms in the
the export of high-tech compo- effects: spillover effects into adja- over the global economy. Although controls after the tenge, its curren- technology, oil and gas, aerospace,
nents in unison with Asian allies; cent countries and markets; multi- oil prices have since dropped in cy, fell by 20 percent in the wake of car, manufacturing, consumer
seized the overseas assets of hun- plier effects through private-sector anticipation of additional output the Western sanctions against Mos- goods, food and beverage, account-
dreds of wealthy oligarchs; revoked divestment; escalation effects in from Gulf producers, the price cow; Tajikistan’s somoni has under- ing and financial, and transport
trade treaties with Moscow; banned the form of Russian responses; and shock to energy and commodities gone a similarly steep depreciation. industries are pulling out of the
Russian airlines from North Atlan- systemic effects on the global econ- across the board will push global Russia’s impending impoverish- country. It is noteworthy that these
tic airspace: restricted Russian oil omy. inflation higher. African and Asian ment will force millions of Central departures are in many cases not re-
sales to the United States and Unit- countries reliant on food and ener- Asian migrant workers to seek em- quired by sanctions. Instead, they
ed Kingdom; blocked all foreign Spillover effects have already gy imports are already experiencing ployment elsewhere and dry up the are driven by moral condemnation,
investment in the Russian economy caused  turmoil in international difficulties. flow of remittances to their home reputational concerns, and outright
from their jurisdiction; and frozen commodities markets. A gener- countries. panic. As a result, the business re-
US$403 billion out of the US$630 alised panic erupted among traders Economists expect Russian GDP treat is deepening the economic
billion in foreign assets of the Cen- after the second Western sanctions to contract by at least 9 to 15% this The impact of the sanctions goes shock to Russia by multiplying the
tral Bank of Russia. The overall ef- package—including the SWIFT year. beyond decisions taken by G-7 and negative economic effects of offi-
fect has been unprecedented, and a cutoff and the freezing of central EU governments. The official sanc- cial state sanctions.
few weeks ago would have seemed bank reserves—was announced on Central Asia’s economies are
unimaginable even to most experts: The Russian government has re-
in all but its most vital products, sponded to the sanctions in several
the world’s eleventh-largest econo- ways. It has undertaken emergen-
my has now been decoupled from cy stabilisation policies to protect
21st century globalisation. foreign exchange earnings and
shore up the ruble. Foreign portfo-
How will these historic measures lio capital is being locked into the
play out? Economic sanctions rare- country. While the stock market
ly succeed at achieving their goals. has remained closed, the assets of
Western policymakers frequent- many Western firms that have de-
ly assume that failures stem from parted may soon face confiscation.
weaknesses in sanctions design. The ministry of Economic Devel-
Indeed, sanctions can be plagued opment has  prepared a law  that
by loopholes, lack of political will grants the Russian state six months
to implement them, or insufficient to take over businesses in case of an
diplomatic agreement concerning “ungrounded” liquidation or bank-
enforcement. The implicit assump- ruptcy.
tion is that stronger sanctions stand
a better chance of succeeding. The potential nationalisation
of Western capital is not the only
Yet the Western economic con- escalatory effect of the sanctions.
tainment of Russia is different. On 9 March, Putin  signed an or-
This is an unprecedented cam- der  restricting Russian commodity
paign to isolate a G-20 economy exports. Although the full array of
with a large hydrocarbon sector, a items to be withheld under the ban
sophisticated military-industrial is not yet clear, the threat of its use
complex, and a diversified basket
of commodity exports. As a result,
Western sanctions face a different
kind of problem. The sanctions, in
this case, could fail not because of
their weakness but because of their
great and unpredictable strength.
Having grown accustomed to using
sanctions against smaller countries
at low cost, Western policymakers
have only limited experience and
understanding of the effects of tru-
ly severe measures against a major,
globally connected economy. Ex-
isting fragilities in the world’s eco-
nomic and financial structure mean
that such sanctions have the poten-
tial to cause grave political and ma-
terial fallout.
The real shock and awe
Just how severe the current sanc-
tions against Russia are can be seen
from their effects across the world.
The immediate shock to the Rus-
sian economy is the most obvious.
Economists  expect  Russian GDP
to contract by at least 9–15% this
year, but the damage could well be-
come much more severe. The ruble
has fallen more than a third since
the beginning of January. An exo-
dus of skilled Russian professionals
is underway, while the capacity to
import consumer goods and valu-
able technology has fallen drasti-
cally. As Russian political scientist

NewsHawks World News Page 43

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

will continue to hang over interna- To better grasp the choices to be be confronted when they disrupt mand. It is a structure that is very strength or to impose further eco-
tional trade. Russian restrictions on made in the current economic sanc- the international order. But it ill suited to the prolonged impo- nomic punishment on Putin. If
fertilizer exports  imposed in early tions against Russia, it is instruc- equally drives home the fact that sition of trade-reducing sanctions. the goal of the sanctions is to ex-
February have already put pressure tive to examine sanctions use in the the viability of sanctions, and the Increasing EU-wide renewable ert maximum pressure on Russia
on global food production. Russia 1930s, when democracies similarly chances of their success, are always energy investment and expanding with minimal disruption to their
could retaliate by restricting ex- attempted to use them to stop the dependent on the global economic public control in the energy sec- own economies — and thus a man-
ports of important minerals such aggression of large-sized autocrat- situation. In unstable commercial tor, as French President Emmanuel ageable risk of domestic political
as nickel, palladium, and industrial ic economies such as Fascist Italy, and financial conditions, it will be Macron has announced, is one way backlash — then current levels of
sapphires. These are crucial inputs imperial Japan, and Nazi Germa- necessary to prioritise among com- to absorb this shock. But there is pressure may be the most that is
for the production of electrical bat- ny. The crucial backdrop to these peting objectives and prepare thor- also a need for income-boosting politically feasible now.
teries, catalytic converters, phones, efforts was the Great Depression, oughly for unintended effects of all measures for consumer goods and
ball bearings, light tubes, and mi- which had weakened economies kinds. Using sanctions against very price-dampening interventions in At the moment, simply main-
crochips. In the globalised assem- and inflamed nationalism around large economies will simply not producer goods markets, from stra- taining existing sanctions will re-
blage system, even small changes in the world. When Italian dictator be possible without compensatory tegic reserve management to the ex- quire active compensatory policies.
materials prices can massively raise Benito Mussolini invaded Ethio- policies that support the sanction- cess profits taxes  that are being For Europe especially, neither  lais-
the production costs faced by final pia in October 1935, the League of ers’ economies and the rest of the rolled out in Spain and Italy. sez-faire economic policies nor fis-
users downstream in the production Nations implemented an interna- world. cal fragmentation will be sustain-
chain. A Russian embargo or large tional sanctions regime enforced by Then there are the consequenc- able if the economic war persists.
export reduction of palladium, 52 countries. It was an impressive More intensive sanctions will in- es of sanctions cause for the world But if the West decides to step up
nickel, or sapphires would hit car united response, similar to that on flict further damage to the world economy at large, especially in the the economic pressure on Russia
and semiconductor manufacturers, display in reaction to Russia’s inva- economy. “global South.” Addressing these further still, far-reaching economic
a US$3.4 trillion global industry. sion of Ukraine. problems will pose a major macro- interventions will become an abso-
If the economic war between the The Biden administration is economic challenge. It is therefore lute necessity. More intensive sanc-
West and Russia continues further But the league sanctions came aware of this problem, but its ac- imperative for the G-7, the Euro- tions will inflict further damage,
into 2022 at this intensity, it is very with real tradeoffs. Economic con- tions so far are inadequate to the pean Union, and the United States’ not just to the sanctioners them-
possible that the world will slide tainment of Fascist Italy limited de- scale  of the problem. Washington Asian partners to launch bold and selves but to the world economy at
into a sanctions-induced recession. mocracies’ ability to use sanctions has attempted to reduce strains in coordinated action to stabilize large. No matter how strong  and
Managing the fallout against an aggressor who was more the oil market by a partial recon- global markets. This can be done justified  the West’s resolve to stop
The combination of spillover ef- threatening still: Adolf Hitler. As a ciliation with Iran and Venezuela. through targeted investment to Putin’s aggression is,  policymakers
fects, negative multiplier effects, major engine of export demand for Countering the spillover effects clear up supply bottlenecks, gener- must accept the material reality that
and escalation effects means that smaller European economies, Ger- of sanctions against one leading ous international grants and loans an  all-out economic offensive  will
the sanctions against Russia will many was too large an economy to petrostate may now require lifting to developing countries struggling introduce considerable new strains
have an effect on the world econ- be isolated without severe commer- sanctions on two smaller petro- to secure adequate food and energy into the world economy.
omy like few previous sanctions cial loss to the whole of Europe. states. But this oil diplomacy is supplies, and large-scale govern-
regimes in history. Why was this Amid the fragile recovery from the insufficient to meet the challenge ment funding for renewable energy An intensification of sanctions
great upheaval not anticipated? Depression, simultaneously plac- posed by the Russia sanctions, the capacity. It will also have to involve will cause a cascade of material
One reason is that over the last ing sanctions on both Italy and effects of which are aggravating subsidies, and perhaps even ra- shocks that will demand far-reach-
few decades, US policymakers have Germany — then the fourth- and preexisting economic woes. Sup- tioning and price controls, to pro- ing stabilisation efforts. And even
usually deployed sanctions against seventh-largest economies in the ply chain issues and pandemic-era tect the poorest from the destruc- with such rescue measures, the eco-
economies that were sufficiently world — was too costly for most bottlenecks in global transport and tive effects of surging food, energy, nomic damage may well be serious,
modest in size for any significant democracies. production networks predated the and commodity prices. and the risks of strategic escalation
adverse effects to be contained. The war in Ukraine. The unprecedent- will remain high. For all these rea-
degree of integration into the world Hitler exploited this fear of ed use of sanctions in these already Such state intervention is the sons, it remains vital to pursue dip-
economy of North Korea, Syria, overstretch and the international troubled conditions has made an price to be paid for engaging in lomatic and economic paths that
Venezuela, Myanmar, and Belarus focus on Ethiopia by moving Ger- already difficult situation worse. economic war. Inflicting material can end the conflict. Whatever the
was relatively modest and one-di- man troops into the demilitarised damage at the scale levelled against results of the war, the economic of-
mensional. Only the rollout of US Rhineland in March 1936, advanc- The problem of managing the Russia simply cannot be pursued fensive against Russia has already
sanctions against Iran required spe- ing further toward war. German fallout of economic war is greater without an international policy- exposed one important new reality:
cial care to avoid upsetting the oil officials were aware of their  com- still in Europe. This is not only making shift that extends economic the era of costless, risk-free, and
market. In general, however, the mercial power, which they used to because the European Union has support to those  affected by sanc- predictable sanctions is well and
assumption held that sanctions use maneuver central European and much stronger trade and  energy tions. Unless the material well-be- truly over.
was economically almost costless to Balkan economies into their polit- links with Russia. It is also the re- ing of households is protected,
the United States. This has meant ical orbit. The result was the cre- sult of the political economy of the political support for sanctions will — Foreign Affairs.
that the macroeconomic and mac- ation of a continental, river-based eurozone as it has taken shape over crumble over time.
rofinancial consequences of global bloc of vassal economies whose the last two decades: with the ex- The new interventionists *About the writer: Nicholas
sanctions are insufficiently under- trade with Germany was harder for ception of France, most of its econ- Western policymakers thus face Mulder is assistant professor of
stood. Western states to block with sanc- omies follow a heavily trade-reliant, a serious decision. They must de- history at Cornell University in
tions or a naval blockade. export-focused growth strategy. cide whether to uphold sanctions the United States and the au-
against Russia at their current thor of  The Economic Weapon:
The sanctions dilemmas of the This economic model requires The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of
1930s show that aggressors should foreign demand for exports while Modern War.
repressing wages and domestic de-

Page 44 World News NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Russia sanctions: New impetus for Chinese
yuan to move up the reserve currency ladder?

ELSABE LOOTS yuan the dominant currency in trade, potential to crowd-out the dollar as around the world. and India.
financial transactions and especially as the eminent global reserve currency? The increase of China’s role in world According to the Central Bank of
THE invasion of Ukraine by the Rus- a global reserve currency.
sian forces has led to the most aggres- The recent global uncertainty and trade is an important factor determin- Russia (June 30, 2021)  China is the
sive  financial sanctions  by Western The country has expanded access divisions created by the Ukraine crisis ing whether countries are increasing single largest foreign holder of Russia’s
countries against another country in to more foreign financial institutions may give further momentum to this their reserve holdings in yuan. In 2017 foreign currency reserves. The country
modern history. through the  Belt and Road Initia- process. the European Central Bank added the holds 13.8% of Russia’s total reserves,
tive  and the expansion of offshore yuan as a prominent reserve curren- of which 13.1% of the total reserve
Two financial sanctions stand yuan transaction centres. This, in turn, On the rise cy  when China became one of Eu- holdings of US$630 billion are de-
out in particular. Firstly, the deci- has boosted the yuan’s role in trade More than half – 55% – of all cen- rope’s biggest trading partners. nominated in yuan. 21.7% of reserves
sion to block the majority of Russian and financial transaction as well as its tral bank currency reserves are still held are held in gold reserves.
banks  from  SWIFT, the global mes- role as a reserve currency. in US dollars and 19% in Euros. But The same applies for countries in
saging system that enables them to a clear shift has gradually been taking Asia and Africa. Russia’s remaining currency reserves
transfer money across the world. This Geo-political considerations in place. The most notable has been the of 65% are held by France, Japan,
measure is backed by the major world the past such as Brexit and the US/ decline of the US dollar as reserve cur- All these factors could influence its Germany, the US, UK and interna-
economies such as the European Com- China trade tensions under US Pres- rency, down from 69% in 2007. standing as a more prominent future tional institutions. This means that
mission, France, Canada, Germany, ident Donald Trump affected reserve The yuan now holds the fifth posi- reserve currency. Russia will now only have access to an
Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and management positions. These events tion in the Currency Composition of estimated 35% of its reserves under
the United States. contributed to global trade tensions Official Foreign Exchange Reserves The fallout from Russia’s invasion of the financial sanction dispensation.
and may have started the gradual shift after the US dollar, the Euro, the Japa- Ukraine could provide added impetus
Secondly, these countries also away from the US dollar and Euro as nese Yen and Pound Sterling. to this. Russia may consider channelling
agreed to prevent the Russian central reserve currencies. The yuan’s share  is a mere 2.5% some of these reserves through China
bank  from using its international re- of official foreign exchange reserves. The ripple effect of sanctions to access much needed goods and ser-
serves held by these countries to un- The Russian/Ukraine conflict, But its share has increased , dramati- Russia has built up its reserves dra- vices.
dermine sanctions. which has contributed substantially cally so since 2016. matically. It now holds total reserves
to renewed geo-political tensions, is In addition, it’s held as a reserve of  US$630 billion. Unconfirmed But will China embrace the roll?
The aggressive sanction response expected to have an even more pro- currency by an estimated 75 countries 2021 estimates indicate that Rus- Russia and China have a close rela-
from Western nations will most defi- nounced influence. sia holds the number five spot in the tionship. In 2019 Chinese President
nitely influence the central bank of world and is surpassed only by reserve Xi Jinping  was quoted as saying  that
Russia’s decisions in the management But does the Chinese yuan have the holdings by China, Japan, Switzerland he and Russian President Vladimir
of its currency reserves. And here the Putin have met nearly 30 times. And
neutral role of China will be pivotal. just less than a month before the in-
vasion the two heads of state signed
A telling factor is that  China, the an agreement before the start of the
second largest economy globally, Beijing Winter Olympics. The two
did not join in introducing sanc- leaders agreed  to close and extensive
tions against Russia. China also  ab- cooperation  on economic, political
stained  during the United Nations and security fronts.
General Assembly vote and followed a
toned-down condemnation approach The changes that need to happen
by stating that sanctions are not the Before the yuan can expand its
solution to the problem. role as eminent reserve currency Chi-
na would have to comply with some
The US, UK, Japan and countries regulatory requirements. Most im-
in the EU and their respective cur- portantly, the People’s Bank of China
rencies are the dominant players on would need to relax its managed peg
the world financial markets. The US to the US dollar and other prominent
dollar and the Euro dominate SWIFT global currencies.
payments  – in 2021 they made up Another key ingredient is the re-
77.2% of them. quirement of greater transparency and
stability in monetary policies and the
But earlier this year Bloomberg not- regulation of financial markets.
ed that the Chinese yuan (also known As the world becomes more divid-
as renminbi) reached  fourth posi- ed by this war, the Chinese yuan may
tion   in the international payments become the safe haven for Russia and
market. This is a remarkable im- other liked-minded countries. It may
provement. In 2010 the yuan ranked be just the stimulus that China hoped
35th when SWIFT started its tracking for.
of international transactions. — The Conversation.

That was the year that the yuan en- *About the writer: Elsabe Loots is
tered the international financial trans- professor in economics and former
action market. Six years later the cur- dean of the faculty of economic and
rency received International Monetary management sciences at the Univer-
Fund approval as a reserve currency. sity of Pretoria in South Africa.

China has great power aspirations
on a wide front. A decade ago it indi-
cated that it was aspiring to make the

Porsche just got angrier Being a Fashion Model

&Life Style

STYLE TRAVEL BOOKS ARTS MOTORING

Page 45 Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Extrabasso
readies

new album

JONATHAN MBIRIYAMVEKA

KING of sungura music Alick Macheso is readying his latest studio album which is
due out on his 54th birthday on 10 June.

Macheso, who is also affectionately known in music circles as Extrabasso for his bass
guitar wizardry, last put an album out --- Dzinosvitsa Kure --- in 2018.

He then followed it up with his successful collaboration with Zim dancehall prodigy
Freeman on Ngaibake in 2019.

While the massive was still rocking to Ngaibake, Extrabasso then dropped his 2020
single titled Zuro Ndizuro.

Of late, there have been newcomers in sungura with names like Mark Ngwazi, who
dominated the charts with his club banger Dzimwe Nzendo Taurai Madzoka in 2020
and then 2021 saw the emergence of another new name in DT BiO Mudimba of Kujata
Jata fame.

While longevity at the top is not assured in music, Extrabasso has displayed his staying
power sometimes collaborating with young artistes while also composing and releasing
his own music.

That has ensured that Extrabasso has remained relevant in music among young talents.
Added to this, Macheso is known for his great compositions, songs that speak not only to
his generation but also to the young generation.

His subjects resonate with the downtrodden, the grassroots and ordinary people. Al-
though he is affected by the day-to-day politics, Extrabasso has always stayed above party
politics and his messages are subtle.

According to his manager Tich Makahamadze, the new six-track album is expected
out on 10 June.

“We have a bash at the Aquatic Complex in Chitungwiza where Macheso will release
his latest album,” he said.

Asked what fans should expect, Makahamadze said it was a surefire hit album.
“You know Macheso,” he said, adding: “There is great music coming your way.”
Backed by his Orchesra Mbeirkwazvo outfit, Extrabasso is known for his energy-sap-
ping performances. Despite his famed lisp, he makes music sound easy as he effortlessly
delivers on stage.  

Page 46 Life & Style NewsHawks

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

JONATHAN MBIRIYAMVEKA It’s showtime at running from 15 to 17 April.
Vic Falls Carnival! This year’s theme is: “Local is
VICTORIA Falls will this April
burst with Zimbabwean pride as atmosphere. DJ Maphorisa aka Best Amapiano Album. er. He is known as the pioneer of Lekker” and the line-up features
festival goers throng the resort city “Lord of Hits”, is a South African Sha Sha is a Zimbabwean singer Bolobedu dance. In 2020, his song mostly top Zimbabwean artistes
for a feast of music, drinks and DJ and producer behind many club Jerusalema, went viral online and including Jah Prayzah, Holy Ten,
dance. bangers. hailed by many as the "Queen of earned him International Song of Mzoe7, Enzo Ishall, Muffia King
Amapiano". She has gained popu- the Year at the NJR Music Awards and Feli Nandi.  
Dubbed “Africa’s most exciting He is one of Mzansi’s most fa- larity through collaborations with held in France. He was also named
and adventurous music festival", mous exports, credited with co-pro- amapiano producers such as DJ Best African Act at this year’s MTV Jah Prayzah is a multi-award-
the 10th edition of the Victoria ducing Drake’s ”One Dance” and Maphorisa and Kabza De Small. Europe Music Awards. winning singer, performer and
Falls Carnival is expected to add ex- has also crafted hits for interna- In 2020, Sha Sha was awarded Best composer known for his contem-
citement to what may already have tional acts like Major Laser, Jason New International Act at the BET The curtain comes down on the porary beats. Backed by the Third
been interesting Easter festivities as Derulo, Trey Songz, Wizkid, Run- Awards. Her last album Blossom Victoria Falls Carnival on Sunday 1 Generation Band, he is one of
visitors and top performing artistes town, Davido and Vanessa Mdee. has dominated dance floors across May with a Secret Picnic Bush Par- Zimbabwe’s top musicians with a
from South Africa and Zimbabwe the country. ty. Festival goers can expect laid- discography that includes popular
share the stage. On the other hand, Kabza De back vibes with various live acts on collaborations with Davido, Jah
Small is a phenomenal South Afri- On Saturday 30 April, after a the day, as well as delicious local Cure, Patoranking, Mafikizolo and
Organisers have put together an can DJ and record producer often fun-filled day in the Victoria Falls cuisine and craft brew.  Diamond Platnumz, among others.
array of performers ranging from referred to as the “King of Amapia- National Park, which offers an ar-
DJ Maphorisa, Kabsa De Small, no”. He is considered the best-sell- ray of adventure activities, revellers What better way to celebrate the The show is put together by Dol-
Sha Sha to Master KG as headline ing amapiano artiste. Kabza De can dance the night away with Je- last day of the carnival experience larBill Entertainment with support
acts for the three-day jamboree. In- Small is one of the pioneers of the rusalema hitmaker Master KG and than with a Sunday feast? from the Zimbabwe Tourism Au-
deed, these are some of the heavy genre. At the 27th South African a host of other top artistes during thority under their domestic tour-
hitters of amapiano and those who Music Awards, he received three the Electric Safari Experience. But those who cannot make it to ism campaign known as ZimBho.
will attend will have a whale of a nominations, namely Album of the the Victoria Falls Festival need not
time. Year, Male Artiste of the Year and Master KG is a multi-award-win- to despair as the Mapopoma Fes- Feli Nandi is perhaps one of the
ning South African record produc- tival Easter Special edition will be fastest-rising musicians at the mo-
The festival begins on Friday 29 ment, having been nominated for
April with Grand Opening night a National Arts Merit Award for
featuring performances by amapia- Outstanding Female Musician. She
no kings and queen – DJ Maphori- is a regular at Theatre in the Park
sa, Kabza De Small and Sha Sha. in Harare where she holds sold out
concerts.
It will be a night to remember,
with live Afrobeats and amapia- This year’s Easter holidays look
no setting the stage for a carnival set to thrill holidaymakers and mu-
sic lovers as there is plenty to enjoy!

NewsHawks People & Places Page 47

Issue 73, 25 March 2022

Journalists attending an election workshop

Page 48 People & Places NewsHawks
PORTUGAL kept their hopes of
reaching the 2022 World Cup alive Issue 73, 25 March 2022
as they beat Turkey after the visitors
missed a late penalty in the play-off Portugal kept their hopes of
semi-final in Porto. reaching the 2022 World Cup

First-half goals from Otavio and Diogo Jota missed a great chance before scoring Portugal's second goal.
Diogo Jota put the hosts in control at
Estadio do Dragao and they looked to their lead when Otavio headed wide lowed Yilmaz to finish smartly and the awarded after the referee consulted the Portugal wrapped up their progression
be cruising into the play-off final be- in the second half and against the run 36-year-old was then presented with pitchside monitor. in added time when Nunes beat the
fore Turkey responded. of play Turkey responded. a huge opportunity after Jose Fonte offside trap to finish smartly.
caught Enes Unal in the box, a penalty But Yilmaz lent back and sent his
Burak Yilmaz side-footed into the A swift move from the hosts al- effort sailing over the crossbar, before – BBC Sport.
bottom corner with 25 minutes re-
maining to set up a nervy finish but
then fired over the crossbar from the
penalty spot.

Matheus Nunes added a third for
Portugal in stoppage time to put the
game beyond Turkey.

Fernando Santos' side, denied auto-
matic qualification from the group by
Serbia, will now face North Macedo-
nia on Tuesday for the chance to book
a place in Qatar.

Portugal were no doubt expecting
to find Italy waiting for them in their
play-off final, but Aleksandar Tra-
jkovski's stoppage-time winner earned
North Macedonia a shock win against
the European champions.

"These games are finals. Finals are
always complicated," said Portugal
boss Santos. "We won the first one and
now we have to win the second. That's
what we're going to focus on.

"This game is over. Now we have
to focus on North Macedonia, which
will be a difficult game for sure. If they
managed to beat Italy that means it's
going to be very difficult."

In Porto, the final score made this
look like a comfortable win for Portu-
gal and it would have been if the hosts
had capitalised on their dominance
earlier in the game. A stretching Jota
somehow turned Bruno Fernandes'
dipping free-kick over the crossbar
from close range before Portugal broke
the deadlock after 15 minutes.

Bernardo Silva struck the post with
a low effort and the ball ran across the
goalmouth into the path of Otavio,
who squeezed in from an angle despite
the best efforts of goalkeeper Ugurcan
Cakir.

Turkey then began to play and had
half chances of their own, with Kutlu
heading wide at the far post, before
Portugal doubled their lead.

Captain Cristiano Ronaldo started
a neat move with a lovely flick and the
hosts worked it well to Otavio, who
picked out Jota and the Liverpool for-
ward powered a header into the net.

That seemingly put Portugal in
command but they failed to extend

A refreshingly unpredictable PSL title race ahead

THE 2021-22 Premier Soccer League fit sit at the top of the league with 19 they last won eight years ago, is unlikely season since gaining promotion was in were all released by the Zvishavane side.
(PSL) season might still be in its early points, two ahead of second-place Man- to save his job. 2018 when they finished as runners-up Mapeza has it all to do if he is to
stages, but signs are already there that ica Diamonds. DeMbare have signed a number of to Mapeza's Pure Platinum Play.
we will witness a race like no other in players to boost their chances of win- However, the turmoil that character- mould another championship-winning
the modern era of Zimbabwe’s top- In Antipas, the Gamecocks have a ning the title. They registered three wins ised their pre-season, which resulted in team.
flight league. highly shrewd tactician who has won on the spin to underline their creden- the unceremonious departure of coach
the league title previously with Motor tials as one of the teams to watch this Rodwell Dhlakama, might come back CAPS and Highlanders have picked
The last few seasons have seen an Action and his current side. season. to haunt them. up form just at the right time and they
alarming plummet of standards in local What of In new gaffer are sure to have a shout as to where the
football, due to several factors. The Bulawayo-based side have been Tr i a n g l e ? Takesure Chirag- title eventually ends up.
going about their business quietly and The Lowveld wi, they have a
Sponsorship has been the major fac- efficiently as they lost only one game in side, which HawkZone coach who might The Green Machine began the sea-
tor, with Delta Beverages having been the opening eight of the season so far. is in fourth buckle under the son slowly as they looked to put their
the only consistent partner for the PSL position, has weight of expec- house in order, but they are unbeaten in
in extremely trying times. Manica Diamonds are also sure to flattered to tations. However, their last four games.
have a big say on the eventual destina- Alwyndeceive for the on their day, they
As a result, the league has seriously tion of the league title come end of the can match any of Lloyd Chitembwe will surely be
been devoid of quality and substance, a season. past few sea- the PSL’s big boys. looking to add another championship
sad development for a league that was Mabehlasons. But they As for FC Plat- medal to the 2016 title.
once the envy of the southern African The men from Mutare underlined
region. their stature as an emerging giant of lo- are another CAPS will look back agonisingly to
cal football by hammering CAPS Unit- dark horse in inum, their quest the 2019 season in which Chitembwe
Norman Mapeza and his FC Plati- ed 6-2 on match day five. Massive result the race should for a title on the left the club in a huff and the Green
num have dominated the local scene, against one of the country’s traditional they be able to spin might just be Machine lost the title on the very last
winning the title for the past three sea- Big Three! maintain some level of consistency. hampered by the club's decision to do day of the season to eventual winners
sons. Then there is Ngezi Platinum, who away with a good number of their expe- FC Platinum.
Then there is also Dynamos some- sit in fifth position. Last week they rienced players.
Things look to take a different turn where in the equation. proved to many that they are in for the Players like Rahman Kutsanzira, For football-loving fans, the 2021-
this season, with at least five teams look- fight as they humbled namesake FC Kelvin Madzongwe, Tawana Chikore, 22 season surely looks to be an exciting
ing adequately equipped to wrest the The Glamour Boys seem to be a re- Platinum in their own backyard. Keith Madera, Ralph Kawondera, Stan- one, a departure from the yawn of the
PSL championship away from Manda- born club since the financial boost from The Mhondoro-Ngezi miners’ best ley Ngala, and Rodwell Chinyengetere past few seasons.
va Stadium. energy company Sakunda Holdings.
*About the writer: Guest columnist
Joey Antipas' Chicken Inn are the But there is pressure on coach Tonde- Alwyn Mabehla is a former Daily
early pacesetters. The Bulawayo out- rai Ndiraya, who knows that anything News sub-editor and sports writer.
less than bringing back the league title

NewsHawks Sport Page 49

Issue 73, 25 March 2022 ‘Our position is that African
competitions are for Africans’
THE controversial decision by Rugby
Africa to host its 2023 Rugby World Uganda playing against Zimbabwe in a World Cup qualifier in Kampala in 2018. the much-anticipated World Cup one of the strongest contenders for
Cup qualifiers in France has ruffled qualifiers a potentially profitable the continent’s single qualification
feathers. Many have asked why an perfect choice to host after bids by class tournaments, like they continu- tournament. World Cup ticket, which will be a
important African tournament, in the Kenya and Zimbabwe, described ously do.” first in their history if they win it.
fastest growing sport on the conti- as “strong” by Rugby Africa, were That the returns will not be en-
nent, is being played in Europe. turned down. Tjombe suggested that a blight on joyed by an African host nation is of Ugandans absolutely love their rug-
most African sports confederations, huge concern to veteran Zimbabwe- by and if you fancy a memorable life-
France is set to host eight African “It’s a slap in the face of African regionalism, could have been behind an journalist Goodwill Zunidza, who time experience from an international
teams in July competing in the World rugby,” Tjombe told This is Africa. Rugby Africa’s move to take the tour- has covered rugby for many years and rugby match anywhere in the world,
Cup qualifiers. The qualifiers will be “How can such a big African tourna- nament to France. heads his country’s main sports writ- watch one live match at a stadium in
held in two cities, Aix-en-Provence ment, with potential to generate good ers’ body. Kampala. As a sports journalist, I had
and Marseille, for one automatic tick- revenue, be hosted in another conti- “Rugby Africa has for a very long the privilege to experience Ugandans’
et to the finals scheduled to be hosted nent? What you have done is taking time been dominated by Franco- “Our position is that African com- love for their team when the “Rugby
by France in September next year. African money to Europe. If Rugby phone Africa, so perhaps this decision petitions are for Africans in totality,” Cranes” hosted Zimbabwe in 2019.
Africa wanted a neutral venue for the is hardly surprising,” he said. Zunidza wrote in a statement to TIA. 
It will be the first time in the his- tournament, they should have taken One of Uganda’s strengths as a
tory of African rugby that its World it to South Africa, who have the facil- Rugby Africa, under the presi- “Such events are not for the players rugby nation is their inclusivity: on a
Cup qualifiers have been hosted out- ities and capacity to host even world- dency of Tunisia’s Khaled Babbou, only but also supporters and all stake- good day, their men’s side can defeat
side the continental borders and the is enjoying unprecedented corporate holders. Africa stands to lose by hav- any of the world’s second to third tier
decision has been met with strong backing at the moment. This makes ing this competition staged in France, teams, and the East Africans also have
criticism. watched by Europeans and marketed one of the best women’s teams on the
by European companies, for example continent.
AIPS Africa, the union of Afri- TV. How shall our own rugby grow
can sports journalists, has issued the in Africa, and when shall our own The women have a strong voice,
strongest disapproval yet of the deci- broadcasters take part? Our people too, a pride in African rugby, like
sion.  are saying we want to know more Helen Koyokoyo Buteme, a former
about African countries and commu- stalwart of Uganda’s women national
“I believe the decision made by nities through such events. We are team.
the president of Rugby Africa to host not interested in seeing France, ex-
the African qualifiers for the Rugby cept on personal family holidays. The We asked Buteme her thoughts on
World Cup in France, rather than fact that Zimbabwe and Kenya’s bids Rugby Africa’s decision to stage the
keeping it on the African continent, is failed should not mean there was no continent’s World Cup qualifiers in
completely wrong, and sends a high- African country available to step in.” France and she called it “nonsensical.”
ly disturbing message to all Africans,
especially the young populace and the Zunidza’s sentiments on depriving “I think it’s nonsensical,” she said.
continent’s rising rugby community,” local fans are echoed by no less an “This is Africa’s biggest tournament
Mitchell Obi, AIPS Africa’s president, African icon than World Rugby Hall so it should be held in Africa. Rugby
said in a strongly-worded statement of Fame inductee Kennedy Tsimba, a Africa’s justification for holding it in
last week. firm believer in the potential and abil- France is weak. One of their excuses
ity of the continent’s rugby players.  was the COVID-19 pandemic, but
“People will rightly be asking Kenya has held several international
themselves why the most prestigious “I think it should never be played competitions successfully during the
rugby tournament on the continent is in Europe as it is an opportunity for pandemic. The Under-20 Athletics
being moved away and played in Eu- an African country to host and help World Championships were hosted
rope, when there are plenty of alter- promote and develop the game to by Kenya during COVID-19.
native locations within Africa that are their local communities,” Tsimba, a
perfectly well-equipped to host it.” Free State legend and Zimbabwe’s “Kenya is an easy country to travel
first black rugby captain, told TIA. to so more African rugby fans are able
Officials from the countries going travel there than to France, with its
to France for the games declined to “The game needs to be seen as ac- visa requirements and expensive flight
comment on the controversial issue, cessible, not something that’s only tickets. If they want to talk about
perhaps understandably so given that watched in media. neutral venues and world-class sta-
some of them are on the executive of diums, there is South Africa. All this
the continent’s rugby confederation, The African game always needs talk of a neutral venue is nonsense be-
Rugby Africa, so were involved in the platforms to spread awareness.” cause the World Cup (to be played in
heavily censured decision. France next year) itself is not a neutral
Rugby continues to grow in leaps venue! Using their extremely flawed
Only Namibia – the favourites and bounds on the continent, becom- logic, then France should not be host-
to clinch Africa’s sole qualification ing more and more attractive to peo- ing the World Cup, it should go to a
ticket for their seventh consecutive ple of all shapes and sizes, both female neutral venue.”
World Cup appearance, have official- and male.
ly and publicly spoken out against the – This Is Africa.
choice of venue. Uganda is one of the best-known
rugby-playing African nations today,
Gabriel Tjombe, a former manager
of Namibia’s national junior teams,
supported the stance taken by his
country’s rugby board. He comment-
ed that South Africa – who do not
play in the qualifiers and go to the
World Cup directly thanks to a high
world ranking – would have been a

In-form Muzarabani targets unique family feat

From page icate them to my grandmother back reliable run-scorer fulfils the potential ing confidence throughout the team. I for themselves. Every team knows
Fittingly, he grew up idolising an home. She’s the reason I made it this he always had. think Tau knows how good he can be they have to counter him and often
Australian pace bowling legend. far.” and now that he is used to Australian have their own plans specifically for
“My biggest hero in cricket is “Tau keeps it simple and it works,” conditions, there could be some huge him. A great aspect of having some-
Glenn McGrath,” says Muzarabani. It’s not only Muzarabani who is Storey says of Muzarabani’s batting. games from him next season.” one who has represented their country
“Thankfully, I’ve had a chance to play hugely pleased with his contribution “The local grounds aren’t as big as is that players then want to come to
in a charity game for the McGrath to Ferntree Gully, on and off the field. MCG or Harare, and Tau knows he The Australian club circuit has a your club. They want to be part of it.
Cancer Foundation.” can clear the boundary easily. He reputation of being hard cricket, and Tau comes with reputation and play-
This past season has particularly “The first thing you notice about keeps the good balls out and then being described as “class” by the team’s ers want to be involved. The juniors at
been a memorable one for the Zim- Tau is that he is amazingly relaxed,” anything on a length or in his zone, boss is lofty endorsement for Muzara- the club are where the main benefits
babwe international. Although chiefly Lachlan Storey, the club’s president, he backs himself to hit cleanly and as bani. are seen. These kids look up to players
a pace bowler, Muzarabani dominated comments. “He enjoys himself and we saw this season, more often than like Tau and being able to hear advice
Ferntree’s awards ceremony at the end doesn’t let any situation get the bet- not he does this successfully. It's sim- “On the field, he is a class above,” and work with him is a game-changer
of the season, including scooping the ter of him. When you get someone of ply good batting though. He shows adds Storey. “With the ball, he chang- for their careers and their enjoyment
best all-rounder gong. Tau’s quality, it helps draw other play- how easy the game of cricket can be. es his pace regularly and rarely bowls of the game. Keeping kids in the game
He was also the bowler of the sea- ers to the club. For us particularly, our If there are plenty of overs to bat, he a bad ball, bowling to the situation. is crucial and as a local sporting club,
son and received the Greg Langford juniors love seeing him and training, will still play his shots, but target ar- He is the perfect option to throw the if we can have players like Tau around
Medal, which is awarded to the club’s enjoying the tips and the banter that eas of the ground where there are no ball to in any situation. His batting, the place, keeping them involved, the
most outstanding player overall. comes with Tau. In his first season, fielders so even a mishit is likely safe. he keeps it simple. He has a very good impact is huge.”
“It’s a good feeling to always step he took over our Milo programme, a But there weren’t too many mishits eye, and he backs his ability to simply
up when your team needs you the weekly junior programme for five to this year, usually if he hits the ball, it hit the ball. It’s great to watch and be That impact can also be seen in
most,” he remarks. “We managed to seven-year-olds, buying into our val- stays hit. This year with the bat Tau a part of his performances with both Muzarabani’s nephew, who now
get out of trouble and stayed in the ues and ensuring he was more than changed games almost immediately. bat and ball. He has given the club a spearheads Zimbabwe’s bowling at-
top league. I feel honoured to win just a player.” Fields had to spread and he put the lot of belief as we look ahead to next tack and has proved a genuine threat
three awards in a single night. I ded- pressure on, making it easier for the season. For a local club to be able to to some of the world’s best batsmen in
Muzarabani is known in Zimbabwe batsman at the other end and build- attract top-end talent is what sepa- his short international career.
as a bowler who can hold a bat down rates us from the rest. Results speak
the order. His transformation into a

Sports A crippling
poverty of
leadership
at Zifa

‘Humiliated, intimidated,
degraded’ ref reports
Thursday 1 October 2020 sexual advances

Friday 25 March 2022 @NewsHawksLive TheNewsHawks www.thenewshawks.com

WHAT’S INSIDE NEWS CULTURE

Muzarabani targets$60Covid
tariff for
visitors &
tourists
Community
radio
regulations
under review

Story on Page 3 Story on Page 8

unique Cfahmamilyisfaeraetac
ENOCK MUCHINJO out to Khupeto witness his nephew make his own
Zimbabwe debut, in a day-night
SOME very close relatives have four-day Test against South Africa
played international cricket together in Cape Town in December 2017, a
for Zimbabwe in the professional era proud occasion for the family.
of the game. “I remember when he got selected
Unofficial president calls for emergeon his first tour to South Africa, I
More prominent have been broth- wasn’t sure if he was ready for the big
ers: the Flowers, the Rennies, the stage,” Muzarabani says.
Strangs, the Masakakadzas. “All I expected was for him to go
there and learn. He had a big burst
Then the cousins, Guy and Andy in the domestic first-class compe-
Whittall. tition that year, thanks to (former
Zimbabwe coach) Heath Streak who
An uncle and his nephew in the saw what I didn’t see at that time.”
same team would be a pretty unique The older Muzarabani was intro-
case, perhaps a rarity, if not a first, duced to cricket at Chengu Primary
at the highest level of international School in Highfield, with the turn-
cricket. ing point being his senior school
years at Churchill Boys High, where
At 34, Taurai Muzarabani is hop- he wasn’t short of cricketing role
ing to soon return to Zimbabwe’s models.
national team to bowl alongside his “As a junior at Churchill I used to
sister’s son, nine years his junior, and watch first-team players like Tatenda
a protégé of his. Taibu, Elton Chigumbura, Prosper
Utseya and Tinashe Panyangara and
Tall fast bowler Blessing Muzara- I got inspired,” he says. “It was so
bani has been Zimbabwe’s biggest amazing that I then got to play first-
find of the past few seasons, with class and international cricket with
the remarkable story of a heavy fam- them.”
ily influence, in which uncle desires Muzarabani, who has also previ-
to share the dressing room with the ously played four seasons of league
25-year-old Chevrons speedster. cricket in England, is now well set-
tled in Australia and has been with
And this is highly possible, fol- Ferntree Gully for two years, coach-
lowing a stellar season by the older ing juniors in addition to playing.
Muzarabani for Ferntree Gully Foot- “It’s good cricket all round here in
ballers Cricket Club, who feature in Taurai Muzarabani displays his awards at a ceremony in Melbourne.
the premier league of the Melbourne ALiehaHthhcnnhSrwaiaediseadrpHTc’OisatdikhfwhnfbefeeeTaeeeototIwrnaensN2rweorurpdmtn0lnlplieScdeotIepaaaodesntIttasktmaoriD,tysoagotdM2mcnsoahrEoeri0yaewnfiespu.l1rcpnslzekh6dabtitalety.oleearetIbdawcaiFnnbnkussiditagthnnhaweinoateiiiaiinigshwst,mnhiehtnaJihrtcucawogsistileusHr,enycectshnaeaMmct2Oeerltre0lusapasiiD1rnshdchnie.n5kg”eeI-.istyrakaStskremoabfweectrn!ephoJ““enagpu(iIHtuorsaupashotetrtneiihenelerot1,tcidm”escswcnl8aoehuMaeioo,ubhdiplammyryuauytm!a)todbezh’otgtuaa.taehiahrtrr$nmlancswaNeegt3hpbyfleeadtala.mtbraat2,‘ianeneakymKkerirtihdbB.a,asnw”eruommriehi,gtoalwlceelebayhwamil,neawoliwalyndhi)ysasn,eag.zamsahafabrisyd(airouIsboksoHetthutafrwupadnoiighsrnsraagotnhoaes--,,sitofiomeaOtlIsaaynahtivlbnrfd’smsuzgiesodopnef,rn”uuniteyfktliohtptuooyhthutyeohhpteneainr.luymlapeljgeodwvsAsutawisaesiscaswuamintyt.dalya”Issgoiletrest.aln.rsgh.fyb.ag“tr.eg.IhohliTIitiievthueIeamotnearhattZedbphhpveeb.cposaseraaiahtmloIwxgvsacasmtaeven’kyanhsaiy'edyinssecnott,atogleofauglpswagao,etmttcobhmomtdhhbroeeoiieeuelcedpmysntkrIclslteafteoookeaeaacytvulmile.dleaalsteltllrlooyyIs----n.l d
area in Australia. “My parents died when I was eight c
years old,” Muzarabani says. “We
So the two could be lining up to- were six kids in one household. We
gether in Zimbabwe’s colours. only had grandmother to look up to.
Blessing wasn’t born at that time. I
“That has always been my grand- was there at his birth, and then see-
mother’s dream, to watch both of us ing him grow up to be a fine young
play in the same team,” Muzaraba- man he is, thanks to good grooming
ni tells The NewsHawks from Mel- by his mother, my sister. Our grand-
bourne. mother is the family hero. She sold
tomatoes and bread to take care of
“Grandma did all the ground- us all. All we could do was to work
work, so if Blessing and I play to-
gether, history will be made in our
community. The combination will
be great to watch.”

The two lived together since child-
hood, and life was not easy growing
up in the Zimbabwean capital’s sec-
ond oldest township, Highfield.

ALSO INSIDE 18 years later, have CAPS already moved on?