Friday, September 26, 2008
Zimbabwe has a deal: but is the Old Crocodile waiting to bite back?
author/source:Times (UK)
published:Fri 12-Sep-2008
Jan Raath, Martin Fletcher and Jonathan Clayton
“We’ve got a deal,” Morgan Tsvangirai told journalists waiting in the lobby of the Rainbow Towers hotel in Harare. It was the first news the world had that he and President Mugabe had at long last thrashed out a power-sharing agreement. If they really have, and if it sticks, it will mean an extraordinary alliance between Robert Mugabe and those who until yesterday were his bitterest foes – people who have been spied on, beaten up and arrested and seen friends and family killed by his thugs. The on-again, off-again talks between Mr Tsvangirai and the man known to his people as “the Old Crocodile” began on July 21 and had seemed to be meandering towards failure. On Monday they were shrouded in gloom and pessimism. Despite some optimistic noises from both parties on Wednesday, The Herald – the state-run paper and propaganda organ for the ruling regime – was repeating accusations that Mr Tsvangirai was taking orders from the West and seeking to “reduce President Mugabe to a ceremonial leader. That is obnoxious to the establishment here.”
As the weeks passed, the derision of President Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” and mediation turned to a weary scorn. Frustrated by the lack of progress, the EU was preparing to add more names to its list of figures subject to a visa ban and whose assets had been frozen. And yet on Wednesday Mr Mugabe was sounding upbeat. In a throwaway remark – of which, with hindsight, the world should have taken more notice – he told reporters: “I am optimistic. We are not born to be pessimistic, are we?” Mr Mbeki, the South African President, certainly sounded positive as he presented the agreement last night, although he urged the international community to wait and scrutinise the details – and not rely on what they thought should be in it. “It’s made in Zimbabwe, it’s made by Zimbabweans,” he said. “The rest of the world needs to respect that the people of Zimbabwe have taken a decision about their own country.”
Peter Hain, Britain’s former Africa Minister, sounded a note of caution, describing President Mugabe as a “slippery customer”. Mr Hain recalled how followers of Joshua Nkomo, a former opposition leader, were killed despite Mr Nkomo reaching an agreement with Mr Mugabe, his former comrade in the struggle that ended with Zimbabwean independence in 1980. “He [Mr Mugabe] effectively swallowed his party up and killed a lot of his followers and obviously we don’t want to see a repeat of that, but I don’t think Tsvangirai would have agreed to anything that could see an action replay of what happed to Nkomo. I think that because Tsvangirai won the presidential election, and because all the African leaders, however muted their criticisms may have been of Mugabe, know that this crisis, which Mugabe has created on his own, is not sustainable.” A Brussels-based diplomat who asked not to be named said: “We will see. The devil is in the details. It is a bit too early to react. We will see at the Council of EU Foreign Ministers [which meets on Monday].”
If the deal does stick, the new government will face an overflowing in-tray. Zimbabwe has gone in a few years from being the economic pride of Africa to its utter basketcase. One of its leading banks, Kingdom Bank, has said that the inflation rate was more than 20 million per cent. Recently the Government had to knock 13 zeros off the currency because banks and bank machines simply could not cope with the mathematics. In downtown Harare yesterday the banks were jammed with people hoping to cash cheques or trying to move their money by electronic transfer. Outside, hundreds of people queued at ATMs. The resentment of customers was intensified by the realisation that by the time they got their money, it would be worth less than when they started to queue. The economic collapse is evident in frequent power cuts and water shortages, in the mountains of uncollected rubbish and the broadening rivers of raw sewage. Crime and corruption have exacerbated a crisis rooted in severe food, fuel and foreign currency shortages.
The world has marvelled at pictures of Zimbabweans visiting the supermarket carrying piles and piles of near-worthless notes – images that would be laughable if they did not point to a human tragedy. For anyone brave enough to speak out as a supporter of Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change since the elections of March 29, violent retribution has been a fact of life. Election workers have been beaten until the flesh has fallen from their bones, made to sing songs in praise of Mr Mugabe at allnight reeducation sessions, or murdered. Hundreds have gone into hiding. Like the millions of Zimbabweans who have fled abroad – to neighbouring countries, to Europe and America – they may start weighing up plans to return home. Most will take their time to assess the political settlement before deciding on their future – to see if the new dawn is a true one. The new unity government is expected to agree an emergency economic revival programme, and to dispatch Mr Tsvangirai to mobilise vital financial and food aid. Fully a third of Zimbabwe’s 12 million citizens have fled the country. Most of those who remain survive on barely a bowl of sadza – mealie-meal porridge – a day. The most basic services, health, education, transport, have all but collapsed. Zimbabwe now has the lowest life expectancy in the world. If Mr Mugabe is right, and we should be optimistic, then the only way is up.
For Zimbabwe Newspapers Online and Zimbabwe News
published:Fri 12-Sep-2008
Jan Raath, Martin Fletcher and Jonathan Clayton
“We’ve got a deal,” Morgan Tsvangirai told journalists waiting in the lobby of the Rainbow Towers hotel in Harare. It was the first news the world had that he and President Mugabe had at long last thrashed out a power-sharing agreement. If they really have, and if it sticks, it will mean an extraordinary alliance between Robert Mugabe and those who until yesterday were his bitterest foes – people who have been spied on, beaten up and arrested and seen friends and family killed by his thugs. The on-again, off-again talks between Mr Tsvangirai and the man known to his people as “the Old Crocodile” began on July 21 and had seemed to be meandering towards failure. On Monday they were shrouded in gloom and pessimism. Despite some optimistic noises from both parties on Wednesday, The Herald – the state-run paper and propaganda organ for the ruling regime – was repeating accusations that Mr Tsvangirai was taking orders from the West and seeking to “reduce President Mugabe to a ceremonial leader. That is obnoxious to the establishment here.”
As the weeks passed, the derision of President Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” and mediation turned to a weary scorn. Frustrated by the lack of progress, the EU was preparing to add more names to its list of figures subject to a visa ban and whose assets had been frozen. And yet on Wednesday Mr Mugabe was sounding upbeat. In a throwaway remark – of which, with hindsight, the world should have taken more notice – he told reporters: “I am optimistic. We are not born to be pessimistic, are we?” Mr Mbeki, the South African President, certainly sounded positive as he presented the agreement last night, although he urged the international community to wait and scrutinise the details – and not rely on what they thought should be in it. “It’s made in Zimbabwe, it’s made by Zimbabweans,” he said. “The rest of the world needs to respect that the people of Zimbabwe have taken a decision about their own country.”
Peter Hain, Britain’s former Africa Minister, sounded a note of caution, describing President Mugabe as a “slippery customer”. Mr Hain recalled how followers of Joshua Nkomo, a former opposition leader, were killed despite Mr Nkomo reaching an agreement with Mr Mugabe, his former comrade in the struggle that ended with Zimbabwean independence in 1980. “He [Mr Mugabe] effectively swallowed his party up and killed a lot of his followers and obviously we don’t want to see a repeat of that, but I don’t think Tsvangirai would have agreed to anything that could see an action replay of what happed to Nkomo. I think that because Tsvangirai won the presidential election, and because all the African leaders, however muted their criticisms may have been of Mugabe, know that this crisis, which Mugabe has created on his own, is not sustainable.” A Brussels-based diplomat who asked not to be named said: “We will see. The devil is in the details. It is a bit too early to react. We will see at the Council of EU Foreign Ministers [which meets on Monday].”
If the deal does stick, the new government will face an overflowing in-tray. Zimbabwe has gone in a few years from being the economic pride of Africa to its utter basketcase. One of its leading banks, Kingdom Bank, has said that the inflation rate was more than 20 million per cent. Recently the Government had to knock 13 zeros off the currency because banks and bank machines simply could not cope with the mathematics. In downtown Harare yesterday the banks were jammed with people hoping to cash cheques or trying to move their money by electronic transfer. Outside, hundreds of people queued at ATMs. The resentment of customers was intensified by the realisation that by the time they got their money, it would be worth less than when they started to queue. The economic collapse is evident in frequent power cuts and water shortages, in the mountains of uncollected rubbish and the broadening rivers of raw sewage. Crime and corruption have exacerbated a crisis rooted in severe food, fuel and foreign currency shortages.
The world has marvelled at pictures of Zimbabweans visiting the supermarket carrying piles and piles of near-worthless notes – images that would be laughable if they did not point to a human tragedy. For anyone brave enough to speak out as a supporter of Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change since the elections of March 29, violent retribution has been a fact of life. Election workers have been beaten until the flesh has fallen from their bones, made to sing songs in praise of Mr Mugabe at allnight reeducation sessions, or murdered. Hundreds have gone into hiding. Like the millions of Zimbabweans who have fled abroad – to neighbouring countries, to Europe and America – they may start weighing up plans to return home. Most will take their time to assess the political settlement before deciding on their future – to see if the new dawn is a true one. The new unity government is expected to agree an emergency economic revival programme, and to dispatch Mr Tsvangirai to mobilise vital financial and food aid. Fully a third of Zimbabwe’s 12 million citizens have fled the country. Most of those who remain survive on barely a bowl of sadza – mealie-meal porridge – a day. The most basic services, health, education, transport, have all but collapsed. Zimbabwe now has the lowest life expectancy in the world. If Mr Mugabe is right, and we should be optimistic, then the only way is up.
For Zimbabwe Newspapers Online and Zimbabwe News
Friday, September 19, 2008
Zimbabwe dollar as foreign currency legalised
author/source:Daily Telegraph (UK)
published:Thu 11-Sep-2008
By Sebastien Berger, Southern Africa Correspondent
Robert Mugabe's government has bowed to financial reality and legalised the use of foreign currency in Zimbabwe's shattered economy. It is the final humiliation for Zimbabwe's battered currency, which was worth more than the US greenback at independence in 1980. Even after two revaluations that have knocked a total of 13 zeros off it, it was trading on the black market on Wednesday at around 6,000 to the USD - or 60,000,000,000,000,000 to one in terms of the original Zimbabwe dollar. Gideon Gono, the reserve bank governor and a key player in the ruling Zanu PF party, said that 250 wholesalers and 1,000 retailers would be licensed to accept foreign currency as an 18-month "experiment". "These reforms are essentially a pragmatic response to the realities in the economy," he said. "We have watched and observed with heavy hearts the suffering of fellow Zimbabweans as they wait and continue to wait in long queues at the borders as they bring in basic commodities. We have also seen desperate mothers, youth and the elderly spending cold nights in foreign lands as they seek for basic commodities."
But while Mr Mugabe and his officials lament the country's woes, they consistently blame them on foreign plots and profiteering businessmen, rather than their own mismanagement, typified by the seizure of white-owned land from 2000 onwards, which destroyed commercial agriculture, the mainstay of the economy. Since then the country has spiralled downwards, with millions leaving in search of work abroad, particularly in South Africa, and officially inflation in Zimbabwe is now running at 11.2 million per cent - unofficial estimates put it far higher. The imposition of price controls failed to dampen inflation and instead merely saw goods and commodities vanish to the black market. Even banknotes are in short supply - the most recent revaluation last month was accompanied by the issue of a new currency, but prices have kept soaring and the government's standard fallback position of recent times, printing ever more currency to meet its needs, has been stymied by the German company that supplied its banknote paper stopping its shipments.
"Some of you may ask, 'are we now trying to dollarise the economy?' No, the Zimbabwe dollar remains the legal tender," Mr Gono insisted. But de facto dollarisation has been under way for weeks and months. Carrying ever-larger bundles of increasingly worthless Zimbabwe dollar notes is inconvenient for shoppers, let alone businesses, and the US dollar and South African rand, along with fuel coupons, are far more useful alternatives which will not lose half their value in a matter of days. The move is also partly an attempt to bring more foreign currency into the government's own depleted coffers - by legalising the trade, it hopes to move business from the black market to official channels, where it will collect 25 per cent of private companies' export earnings and 15 per cent of domestic traders'.
John Robertson, an independent economist in Harare, said: "They can't physically print enough Zimbabwean money, I think this is what's caught them out. They seem to have run out of other options so the use of somebody else's money seems a good idea. Any normal person would be embarrassed at failing so badly but they have failed in so many ways and they are still denying they got anything wrong. They actually do believe their plans are brilliant, so the fact they are not working has got to be somebody else's fault." The move is an indication of the difficulties Zanu PF will face if talks over power-sharing with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change collapse and it tries to go it alone. Both sides have made optimistic comments in recent days, but the MDC is insisting that it will not agree to any deal that does not give real authority to its leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
For More Zimbabwe Newspapers Online & Zimbabwe News
published:Thu 11-Sep-2008
By Sebastien Berger, Southern Africa Correspondent
Robert Mugabe's government has bowed to financial reality and legalised the use of foreign currency in Zimbabwe's shattered economy. It is the final humiliation for Zimbabwe's battered currency, which was worth more than the US greenback at independence in 1980. Even after two revaluations that have knocked a total of 13 zeros off it, it was trading on the black market on Wednesday at around 6,000 to the USD - or 60,000,000,000,000,000 to one in terms of the original Zimbabwe dollar. Gideon Gono, the reserve bank governor and a key player in the ruling Zanu PF party, said that 250 wholesalers and 1,000 retailers would be licensed to accept foreign currency as an 18-month "experiment". "These reforms are essentially a pragmatic response to the realities in the economy," he said. "We have watched and observed with heavy hearts the suffering of fellow Zimbabweans as they wait and continue to wait in long queues at the borders as they bring in basic commodities. We have also seen desperate mothers, youth and the elderly spending cold nights in foreign lands as they seek for basic commodities."
But while Mr Mugabe and his officials lament the country's woes, they consistently blame them on foreign plots and profiteering businessmen, rather than their own mismanagement, typified by the seizure of white-owned land from 2000 onwards, which destroyed commercial agriculture, the mainstay of the economy. Since then the country has spiralled downwards, with millions leaving in search of work abroad, particularly in South Africa, and officially inflation in Zimbabwe is now running at 11.2 million per cent - unofficial estimates put it far higher. The imposition of price controls failed to dampen inflation and instead merely saw goods and commodities vanish to the black market. Even banknotes are in short supply - the most recent revaluation last month was accompanied by the issue of a new currency, but prices have kept soaring and the government's standard fallback position of recent times, printing ever more currency to meet its needs, has been stymied by the German company that supplied its banknote paper stopping its shipments.
"Some of you may ask, 'are we now trying to dollarise the economy?' No, the Zimbabwe dollar remains the legal tender," Mr Gono insisted. But de facto dollarisation has been under way for weeks and months. Carrying ever-larger bundles of increasingly worthless Zimbabwe dollar notes is inconvenient for shoppers, let alone businesses, and the US dollar and South African rand, along with fuel coupons, are far more useful alternatives which will not lose half their value in a matter of days. The move is also partly an attempt to bring more foreign currency into the government's own depleted coffers - by legalising the trade, it hopes to move business from the black market to official channels, where it will collect 25 per cent of private companies' export earnings and 15 per cent of domestic traders'.
John Robertson, an independent economist in Harare, said: "They can't physically print enough Zimbabwean money, I think this is what's caught them out. They seem to have run out of other options so the use of somebody else's money seems a good idea. Any normal person would be embarrassed at failing so badly but they have failed in so many ways and they are still denying they got anything wrong. They actually do believe their plans are brilliant, so the fact they are not working has got to be somebody else's fault." The move is an indication of the difficulties Zanu PF will face if talks over power-sharing with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change collapse and it tries to go it alone. Both sides have made optimistic comments in recent days, but the MDC is insisting that it will not agree to any deal that does not give real authority to its leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
For More Zimbabwe Newspapers Online & Zimbabwe News
Friday, September 12, 2008
Mbeki seals Zim deal
author/source:Star (SA)
published:Fri 12-Sep-2008
Master stroke clinches power-sharing agreement
Basildon Peta
Zimbabwe's political leaders have finally reached a power-sharing settlement to end the long-running crisis in the embattled country. Although President Thabo Mbeki declined to disclose details of the power-sharing arrangement, saying that would be done on Monday, The Star established some of the key points of last night's agreement:
It will comprise Robert Mugabe as president and Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister; There will be two deputy vice-presidents and two deputy prime ministers. Mugabe will keep his current two deputies, Joyce Mujuru and Joseph Msika, while Tsvangirai will appoint one of the two deputy prime ministers, with the other one coming from Arthur Mutambara's splinter faction of the Movement for Democratic Change; Mugabe will remain chairperson of the cabinet, while Tsvangirai becomes chairperson of a new council of ministers, from which Mugabe will be excluded. This arrangement was proposed by Mbeki to break the deadlock about who will chair the cabinet; There will be 31 cabinet portfolios, with Mugabe's Zanu PF getting 15 and Tsvangirai's MDC 13, while the remaining three will go to Mutambara's faction.
A new constitution will be written through a public process, including other stakeholders, within 18 months. Amendments to the current one will nevertheless be carried out immediately, to give effect to the new arrangement; The power-sharing arrangement will be reviewed every year; Three non-constituency MPs will be appointed, with Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara appointing one each. The three will have no voting powers but will assist in the running of the government; Mbeki will continue negotiating with Mugabe to redeploy some of the 10 provincial governors who he had already appointed, in order to create room for Tsvangirai and Mutambara appointees in certain provinces; The three political leaders will meet today and tomorrow to constitute a government ahead of a formal ceremony to sign the agreement and announce the new government on Monday in front of regional and other African heads of state and government.
Authoritative sources said the deal breaker was the agreement to reword the powers of the council of ministers that Tsvangirai will head. Initially, the council had been tasked with formulating government policies and recommending actions to the cabinet, and Mugabe felt this would have reduced the cabinet and him to mere ceremonial functions. All the leaders then agreed that the council of ministers will assist in the formulation of policies, the supervision of government ministries by the prime minister and the implementation of cabinet policies. Mbeki implored the world to respect "a deal made in Zimbabwe by the Zimbabwean people". "We have concluded the negotiations, an agreement has been reached. The formal signing will be done on Monday at 10am. The document will be released then." The ANC last night welcomed the news. "This is an important agreement for South Africa," said party spokesperson Jessie Duarte. "The outcome of a peaceful settlement for Zimbabwe will bring a great deal of prosperity and peace to the SADC region, and we congratulate President Thabo Mbeki for this remarkable achievement."
For More Zimbabwe Newspapers Online & Zimbabwe News
published:Fri 12-Sep-2008
Master stroke clinches power-sharing agreement
Basildon Peta
Zimbabwe's political leaders have finally reached a power-sharing settlement to end the long-running crisis in the embattled country. Although President Thabo Mbeki declined to disclose details of the power-sharing arrangement, saying that would be done on Monday, The Star established some of the key points of last night's agreement:
It will comprise Robert Mugabe as president and Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister; There will be two deputy vice-presidents and two deputy prime ministers. Mugabe will keep his current two deputies, Joyce Mujuru and Joseph Msika, while Tsvangirai will appoint one of the two deputy prime ministers, with the other one coming from Arthur Mutambara's splinter faction of the Movement for Democratic Change; Mugabe will remain chairperson of the cabinet, while Tsvangirai becomes chairperson of a new council of ministers, from which Mugabe will be excluded. This arrangement was proposed by Mbeki to break the deadlock about who will chair the cabinet; There will be 31 cabinet portfolios, with Mugabe's Zanu PF getting 15 and Tsvangirai's MDC 13, while the remaining three will go to Mutambara's faction.
A new constitution will be written through a public process, including other stakeholders, within 18 months. Amendments to the current one will nevertheless be carried out immediately, to give effect to the new arrangement; The power-sharing arrangement will be reviewed every year; Three non-constituency MPs will be appointed, with Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara appointing one each. The three will have no voting powers but will assist in the running of the government; Mbeki will continue negotiating with Mugabe to redeploy some of the 10 provincial governors who he had already appointed, in order to create room for Tsvangirai and Mutambara appointees in certain provinces; The three political leaders will meet today and tomorrow to constitute a government ahead of a formal ceremony to sign the agreement and announce the new government on Monday in front of regional and other African heads of state and government.
Authoritative sources said the deal breaker was the agreement to reword the powers of the council of ministers that Tsvangirai will head. Initially, the council had been tasked with formulating government policies and recommending actions to the cabinet, and Mugabe felt this would have reduced the cabinet and him to mere ceremonial functions. All the leaders then agreed that the council of ministers will assist in the formulation of policies, the supervision of government ministries by the prime minister and the implementation of cabinet policies. Mbeki implored the world to respect "a deal made in Zimbabwe by the Zimbabwean people". "We have concluded the negotiations, an agreement has been reached. The formal signing will be done on Monday at 10am. The document will be released then." The ANC last night welcomed the news. "This is an important agreement for South Africa," said party spokesperson Jessie Duarte. "The outcome of a peaceful settlement for Zimbabwe will bring a great deal of prosperity and peace to the SADC region, and we congratulate President Thabo Mbeki for this remarkable achievement."
For More Zimbabwe Newspapers Online & Zimbabwe News
Monday, September 08, 2008
13 ways to make money in Zimbabwe...
author/source:Sunday Mail (Zimb)
published:Sun 7-Sep-2008
While the world media focuses - and rightly so - on the poverty and political strife in Zimbabwe, there are those who are raking in the big dollars and remain seemingly unaffected by the politics of the state. The streets of Harare show off new cars every day - Hummers, Prados, BMWs and, oh yes, the ever-popular Mercs. It is said that Zimbabwe has one of the highest numbers of Mercedes Benz vehicles per capita in the world! Dig that. But how on earth do people make so much money in an economy that is said to be the worst in the world, in a country with the highest inflation on earth - it’s in the millions now, and in a place where the politics have been very jittery for a really long time. Here’s how:
1. Fuel: There are Hararians who have made hundreds of thousands of US dollars in the fuel trade. And they don’t own a single fuel tanker or garage. They simply hire a tanker from someone, buy fuel in SA, deliver in bulk. Get paid.
2. Forex: I don’t need to remind anyone that forex is in short supply in Zimbabwe. He who has it is king. Companies that want to buy foreign inputs, people who want to send their kids to colleges in other lands, travellers and investors who want to hedge against inflation. All these are hungry customers for forex. Those that have enough of it are negotiating some very good rates.
3. Zim dollars: Also in short supply - big time. It’s easier to get US dollars on the streets and in the banks of Harare now than it is to get Zim dollars. People are selling Zim dollar cash for a premium.
4. Groceries & other commodities: Cooking oil, salt, sugar, etc. Those that have a way of getting these into Zimbabwe at a reasonable price are making a good profit. Since these things are now very difficult to find in the shops, it’s easy to make a quick buck by inflating the price. Many have started whole empires based on cooking oil brought in from South Africa.
5. Mealie-meal: I know this falls under commodities but mealie meal deserves it’s own listing. In Zimbabwe it’s more than just a commodity.
6. Alternatives to Zesa: You may not be able to buy a Hummer selling firewood, but you’ll have a huge market. Frequent power cuts have made it a hot commodity in Zimbabwe. A warning here: You may get arrested for chopping trees down. Generators are also big business. So are candles. One business in Harare is reporting roaring sales from candle wax and candle-making machines.
7. Hot meals: A seemingly unlikely wealth creator but it’s difficult to get a good meal in a Zimbabwean restaurant or fast food outlet these days. Travellers, business people and suddenly rich forex traders cram into the few available places that sell good food. A sadza place at Avondale is a good example.
8. Property: Rentals in Zimbabwe have shot up over the last few years. Those with multiple properties are raking it in - in US dollars. Diasporeans have also been buying houses, flats and land with their hard-earned US dollars and pounds. The demand for homes is huge.
9. Vehicles - One car dealer who sells brand new cars says that he has so many orders that he has customers on a four-month waiting list.
10. Keeping your coins and old currency: Who knows, the Governor may just bring them back into circulation.
11. The Stock Market: The Zimbabwe Stock Market has to be the only one in the world where stocks will almost always shoot up in real dollar terms despite the performance of companies. A friend of mine woke up one morning and found that he could suddenly afford a house after a rally on the stock exchange pushed his net wealth up to new realms.
12. Know the right people: Need I say more? If your dad is a big dhara, all of a sudden you have so many doors open for you.
13. Leave the country: Yes, I have to admit that some of the Hummers and Dodge trucks on our roads are from Zimbabweans who have made their money outside the country. Leaving the country is an all-time favourite to increase your relative wealth. The pound is powerful and being a Zimbabwean you know what I mean.
For More Zimbabwe Newspapers Online & Zimbabwe News
published:Sun 7-Sep-2008
While the world media focuses - and rightly so - on the poverty and political strife in Zimbabwe, there are those who are raking in the big dollars and remain seemingly unaffected by the politics of the state. The streets of Harare show off new cars every day - Hummers, Prados, BMWs and, oh yes, the ever-popular Mercs. It is said that Zimbabwe has one of the highest numbers of Mercedes Benz vehicles per capita in the world! Dig that. But how on earth do people make so much money in an economy that is said to be the worst in the world, in a country with the highest inflation on earth - it’s in the millions now, and in a place where the politics have been very jittery for a really long time. Here’s how:
1. Fuel: There are Hararians who have made hundreds of thousands of US dollars in the fuel trade. And they don’t own a single fuel tanker or garage. They simply hire a tanker from someone, buy fuel in SA, deliver in bulk. Get paid.
2. Forex: I don’t need to remind anyone that forex is in short supply in Zimbabwe. He who has it is king. Companies that want to buy foreign inputs, people who want to send their kids to colleges in other lands, travellers and investors who want to hedge against inflation. All these are hungry customers for forex. Those that have enough of it are negotiating some very good rates.
3. Zim dollars: Also in short supply - big time. It’s easier to get US dollars on the streets and in the banks of Harare now than it is to get Zim dollars. People are selling Zim dollar cash for a premium.
4. Groceries & other commodities: Cooking oil, salt, sugar, etc. Those that have a way of getting these into Zimbabwe at a reasonable price are making a good profit. Since these things are now very difficult to find in the shops, it’s easy to make a quick buck by inflating the price. Many have started whole empires based on cooking oil brought in from South Africa.
5. Mealie-meal: I know this falls under commodities but mealie meal deserves it’s own listing. In Zimbabwe it’s more than just a commodity.
6. Alternatives to Zesa: You may not be able to buy a Hummer selling firewood, but you’ll have a huge market. Frequent power cuts have made it a hot commodity in Zimbabwe. A warning here: You may get arrested for chopping trees down. Generators are also big business. So are candles. One business in Harare is reporting roaring sales from candle wax and candle-making machines.
7. Hot meals: A seemingly unlikely wealth creator but it’s difficult to get a good meal in a Zimbabwean restaurant or fast food outlet these days. Travellers, business people and suddenly rich forex traders cram into the few available places that sell good food. A sadza place at Avondale is a good example.
8. Property: Rentals in Zimbabwe have shot up over the last few years. Those with multiple properties are raking it in - in US dollars. Diasporeans have also been buying houses, flats and land with their hard-earned US dollars and pounds. The demand for homes is huge.
9. Vehicles - One car dealer who sells brand new cars says that he has so many orders that he has customers on a four-month waiting list.
10. Keeping your coins and old currency: Who knows, the Governor may just bring them back into circulation.
11. The Stock Market: The Zimbabwe Stock Market has to be the only one in the world where stocks will almost always shoot up in real dollar terms despite the performance of companies. A friend of mine woke up one morning and found that he could suddenly afford a house after a rally on the stock exchange pushed his net wealth up to new realms.
12. Know the right people: Need I say more? If your dad is a big dhara, all of a sudden you have so many doors open for you.
13. Leave the country: Yes, I have to admit that some of the Hummers and Dodge trucks on our roads are from Zimbabweans who have made their money outside the country. Leaving the country is an all-time favourite to increase your relative wealth. The pound is powerful and being a Zimbabwean you know what I mean.
For More Zimbabwe Newspapers Online & Zimbabwe News
Friday, September 05, 2008
Two dead in cholera outbreak
author/source:News24 (SA)
published:Thu 4-Sep-2008
Harare - Two people have died and 23 are in hospital following an outbreak of cholera, the highly contagious diarrhoeal disease, in one of Harare's crowded townships, health officials said on Thursday. The outbreak occurred on Monday in Chitungwiza, a dormitory township of about a million people on Harare's southern outskirts where sewerage routinely flows through the streets and people's yards. Chitungwiza hospital chief executive Obadiah Moyo said the institution had dealt with a total of 34 people with the disease, but said that "we have enough medication for all the cholera victims". "Residents of this area have been getting their water from unprotected wells because there is no proper water supply system," said Chitungwiza town clerk Godfrey Tanyanyiwa. "We suspect these wells could have been contaminated by burst sewer pipes." Residential areas nearly all over the Zimbabwean capital often suffer broken sewerage pipes and open streams of raw sewerage are visible in all poor townships. Zimbabwe has suffered several cholera outbreaks in recent years following the collapse of infrastructure due to the country's political and economic crisis. "I can't believe we don't have a full-scale epidemic," said a doctor who asked not to be named. "The sanitary conditions in the cities are appalling. It's a health timebomb."
For More Zimbabwe Newspapers Online & Zimbabwe News
published:Thu 4-Sep-2008
Harare - Two people have died and 23 are in hospital following an outbreak of cholera, the highly contagious diarrhoeal disease, in one of Harare's crowded townships, health officials said on Thursday. The outbreak occurred on Monday in Chitungwiza, a dormitory township of about a million people on Harare's southern outskirts where sewerage routinely flows through the streets and people's yards. Chitungwiza hospital chief executive Obadiah Moyo said the institution had dealt with a total of 34 people with the disease, but said that "we have enough medication for all the cholera victims". "Residents of this area have been getting their water from unprotected wells because there is no proper water supply system," said Chitungwiza town clerk Godfrey Tanyanyiwa. "We suspect these wells could have been contaminated by burst sewer pipes." Residential areas nearly all over the Zimbabwean capital often suffer broken sewerage pipes and open streams of raw sewerage are visible in all poor townships. Zimbabwe has suffered several cholera outbreaks in recent years following the collapse of infrastructure due to the country's political and economic crisis. "I can't believe we don't have a full-scale epidemic," said a doctor who asked not to be named. "The sanitary conditions in the cities are appalling. It's a health timebomb."
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Monday, September 01, 2008
Medical advice in Zimbabwe: Just don't get sick
author/source:Associated Press
published:Mon 1-Sep-2008
By Angus Shaw
Harare - The advice of doctors to Zimbabweans is, don't get sick. If you do, don't count on hospitals - they're short of drugs and functioning equipment. As the economy collapses, the laboratory at a main 1,000-bed hospital has virtually shut down. X-ray materials, injectable antibiotics and anticonvulsants have run out. Emergency equipment is out of action. Patients needing casts for broken bones need to bring their own plaster. In a country with one of the world's worst AIDS epidemics, medical staff lack protective gloves. Health authorities blame the drying up of foreign aid under Western sanctions imposed to end political and human-rights abuses under President Robert Mugabe. A power-sharing agreement aimed at bringing the opposition into the government could open the gates to foreign aid. But negotiations have stalled over how much power rests with Mugabe.
Meanwhile, the economic meltdown is evident in empty store shelves, long lines at gas stations - and hospitals where elevators don't work and patients are carried to upper wards in makeshift hammocks of torn sheets and blankets. Jacob Kwaramba, an insurance clerk, brought his brother to Harare's Parirenyatwa hospital, once the pride of health services in southern Africa. Emergency-room doctors sent Kwaramba to a private pharmacy to buy drugs for his brother's lung infection. He returned two hours later to find his brother dead. "I couldn't believe it. It wasn't a fatal illness," he said. Another family said a relative dying of cancer was sent home, and no painkillers could be found. Relatives abroad were able to pay for morphine, but by the time import clearance was obtained, the man had died, the family said.
A report by six independent Zimbabwean doctors indicates the scale of the collapse. "Elective surgery has been abandoned in the central hospitals and even emergency surgery is often dependent on the ability of patients' relatives to purchase suture materials from private suppliers," it said. "Pharmacies stand empty and ambulances immobilized for want of spare parts ... this is an unmitigated tragedy." The doctors who compiled the six-page report withheld their names because comments seen as critical of Mugabe are a punishable offence. The independent Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said doctors and medical staff were chased from rural clinics to keep them from helping opposition supporters, while many city hospitals couldn't cope with the number of patients injuries sustained in beatings and torture blamed mostly on militants of Mugabe's party and police and soldiers. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says at least 200 of its backers died in the violence, with thousands more beaten and left homeless.
No data is available on how many lives have been lost because of the medical crisis, but the report said hospital admissions declined sharply because of the cost of treatment and transportation. In recent years, 70 percent of births took place in health facilities; now it's under 50 percent, the report said. It said a decade ago Zimbabwe had the best health system in sub-Saharan Africa. The main Harare medical school, once renowned for the quality of its graduates, has lost 60 percent of its complement of lecturers, and an unprecedented 30 percent of its students failed this year's final examinations. The elite go for care abroad, mostly to South Africa, but also to Asia. Mugabe regularly has checkups in Malaysia. But the doctors said if there was a plane crash or similar disaster, victims who might otherwise be saved by prompt and well-equipped care would likely end up as "dead meat."
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published:Mon 1-Sep-2008
By Angus Shaw
Harare - The advice of doctors to Zimbabweans is, don't get sick. If you do, don't count on hospitals - they're short of drugs and functioning equipment. As the economy collapses, the laboratory at a main 1,000-bed hospital has virtually shut down. X-ray materials, injectable antibiotics and anticonvulsants have run out. Emergency equipment is out of action. Patients needing casts for broken bones need to bring their own plaster. In a country with one of the world's worst AIDS epidemics, medical staff lack protective gloves. Health authorities blame the drying up of foreign aid under Western sanctions imposed to end political and human-rights abuses under President Robert Mugabe. A power-sharing agreement aimed at bringing the opposition into the government could open the gates to foreign aid. But negotiations have stalled over how much power rests with Mugabe.
Meanwhile, the economic meltdown is evident in empty store shelves, long lines at gas stations - and hospitals where elevators don't work and patients are carried to upper wards in makeshift hammocks of torn sheets and blankets. Jacob Kwaramba, an insurance clerk, brought his brother to Harare's Parirenyatwa hospital, once the pride of health services in southern Africa. Emergency-room doctors sent Kwaramba to a private pharmacy to buy drugs for his brother's lung infection. He returned two hours later to find his brother dead. "I couldn't believe it. It wasn't a fatal illness," he said. Another family said a relative dying of cancer was sent home, and no painkillers could be found. Relatives abroad were able to pay for morphine, but by the time import clearance was obtained, the man had died, the family said.
A report by six independent Zimbabwean doctors indicates the scale of the collapse. "Elective surgery has been abandoned in the central hospitals and even emergency surgery is often dependent on the ability of patients' relatives to purchase suture materials from private suppliers," it said. "Pharmacies stand empty and ambulances immobilized for want of spare parts ... this is an unmitigated tragedy." The doctors who compiled the six-page report withheld their names because comments seen as critical of Mugabe are a punishable offence. The independent Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said doctors and medical staff were chased from rural clinics to keep them from helping opposition supporters, while many city hospitals couldn't cope with the number of patients injuries sustained in beatings and torture blamed mostly on militants of Mugabe's party and police and soldiers. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says at least 200 of its backers died in the violence, with thousands more beaten and left homeless.
No data is available on how many lives have been lost because of the medical crisis, but the report said hospital admissions declined sharply because of the cost of treatment and transportation. In recent years, 70 percent of births took place in health facilities; now it's under 50 percent, the report said. It said a decade ago Zimbabwe had the best health system in sub-Saharan Africa. The main Harare medical school, once renowned for the quality of its graduates, has lost 60 percent of its complement of lecturers, and an unprecedented 30 percent of its students failed this year's final examinations. The elite go for care abroad, mostly to South Africa, but also to Asia. Mugabe regularly has checkups in Malaysia. But the doctors said if there was a plane crash or similar disaster, victims who might otherwise be saved by prompt and well-equipped care would likely end up as "dead meat."
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Monday, August 25, 2008
Zimbabwe opposition wins vote for speaker
author/source:Associated Press
published:Mon 25-Aug-2008
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition party wins the vote for speaker of the first parliament since disputed elections in March. Lovemore Moyo won the key position by 110 votes to 98 votes. It's a big victory for the opposition and an indication of divisions in both the parties of veteran ruler Robert Mugabe and a splinter opposition faction as all parties are involved in stalled talks to share power. Monday's vote came after two opposition politicians were arrested as they entered parliament to be sworn in. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change won more seats than Mugabe's party for the first time since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980.
published:Mon 25-Aug-2008
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition party wins the vote for speaker of the first parliament since disputed elections in March. Lovemore Moyo won the key position by 110 votes to 98 votes. It's a big victory for the opposition and an indication of divisions in both the parties of veteran ruler Robert Mugabe and a splinter opposition faction as all parties are involved in stalled talks to share power. Monday's vote came after two opposition politicians were arrested as they entered parliament to be sworn in. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change won more seats than Mugabe's party for the first time since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980.
