neoliberalism and zim politics

                                                 

President R.G Mugabe and M.Tsvangirai

 Politicians deliberately pursue economic policies that meet their political interest and not the needs of the people. They are not ignorant of the correct policies, but deliberately ignore them because the correct economic policies would result in an inclusive economy; something which they fear most.

We have seen since independence in 1980 that there is always strong resistance by Zanu PF to the emergence of an empowered middle class and a strong black national bourgeoisie that is apolitical. We have seen how this political culture has created an uncompetitive economy underpinned by patronage and corruption.

Political authoritarianism and neoliberalism are responsible for many of the problems facing Zimbabwe, but they must be understood as intrinsically interconnected phenomena whose relationship has altered over time.

  The 1990s saw a relative unity between political authoritarianism and neoliberalism within the Zimbabwean state, with an IFI-designed Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) implemented using violence and political repression to crush internal dissent, precipitating a catastrophic economic decline which caused mass unemployment and poverty. 

 This period coincided with the rise of a labour and civil society opposition movement.  However, largely due to the rise of this political threat, the late 1990s saw the authoritarian state split from neoliberalism as it returned to an anti-imperialist rhetoric, focussing its attentions on rural land reform and a violent campaign against the MDC and its civil society allies. 

The regime’s inability to service its debt repayments resulted in economic sanctions and the removal of development aid and IFI loans, culminating in a huge loss of confidence in the Zimbabwean economy and a mass retreat by global capital (Chan 2012).  Yet again both political authoritarianism and neoliberalism were at work in Zimbabwe, but now the disciplinary neoliberalism of the IFIs, western governments and global capital was in force against the regime’s transgressions. 

 A truly progressive or ‘emancipatory’ struggle to end the poverty and repression engendered by political authoritarianism and neoliberalism must therefore aim to oppose both of these malignant forces.

did Zanu Pf ever care for the people

ZanuPf delegates

                          

Zimbabwe has long been considered a country in crisis.  It stands at 173 out of 187 on the Human Development Index (UNDP 2011), and the social, economic and political rights of its population have been repeatedly disregarded.  Zimbabwe’s entrenched economic crisis saw inflation peak at 231 million per cent in 2008; poverty is endemic and approximately 3 million people, or a quarter of the population, have emigrated abroad (Matombo and Sachikonye 2010).

 Attributing the blame for this situation and understanding how such a crisis arose is a complex task worthy of considerable analysis in its own right, but for the sake of this dissertation two concepts will be utilised as representing a duo of malignant forces largely responsible for the problems facing ordinary Zimbabweans.

With all that having been said the issues that then is always debated is that has ZANU-PF, being the ruling party since indepence ever cared for the people.MAY I assure you that my government is determined to bring about meaningful change to the lives of the majority of the people in the country? But I must ask you to be patient and allow my government time to organise programmes that will effectively yield that change.”, has this assurance they made years ago been completed.

Mugabe’s words, then received with pomp and fanfare, gave much promise to a people that had suffered more than a century of ghastly social and economic inequalities.

So refreshing were the words that the war-weary Zimbabweans could not but just throw themselves into months of wild celebrations.

 Unemployment is hovering above 80% while many companies continue to close shops. The country is faced with a severe cash squeeze, over 80% of the people are living on below $2 a day which, according to the United Nations standards, are judged to be living in abject poverty.

Unemployment and politicians take

                                    

unemployed youth in zimbabwe

  The excellent and important New Zimbabwe.com platform has been turned into a place of exchanging insults and other obscenities that do not help in the process to imagining a better Zimbabwe. The other unintended consequence of this type of approach to the political discourse on Zimbabwe is that as a people, we miss engagement with the big picture of the context within which the Zimbabwe question features. It would seem even those who claim to present academic analysis remain locked in inflexible partisan orientation that make them fail to provide refreshing analysis of the core problems haunting our beautiful nation.
All these disputes are centered around who is getting in power and who is having the highest ranking of votes the decisions politicians are driving forward are all about consolidating their power more than the sustainability of those who place them in power in the first place.

The youth of the country constitute to about 60% of the electorate and they are having employment challenges.The Zimbabwean economy continues to grow at a painfully slow rate. Things have gotten better in the country but people continue to struggle for a decent living. Wages and salaries continue to be stagnant and despite the cries from the people salary raises continue to be a pipedream. The President has on many occasions called for all our foreign graduates to come home and contribute to the building of our economy and resuscitating our country’s fortunes.

 Locally we have thousands graduating from high schools and universities and already the country cannot support all these graduates and apart from all those foreign graduates the president is calling on, we have thousands more from his Presidential scholarship from all the major universities in South Africa coming back as well to scavenge for the little resources that are already exhausted. I wonder where the learned President of the Republic of Zimbabwe wants all those professionals earning a decent living overseas, want to put them when the local professionals here have nothing. Does he want them to contribute to the unemployment rate. There is need for him to create job opportunities for us here in Zimbabwe before calling on all those foreign graduates. As a graduate myself who is unemployed I believe the president should work on making me and the rest of the other graduates happy by giving us jobs.

factionalism is it the real issue that needs attention

                          

Since 1980 independence from Britain, he is accused of masterminding massacres of opposition supporters in western Zimbabwe and post-2000, of violence against the new opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change. 

Many in Africa laud him for taking land from more than 3,000 white farmers for resettlement, a move which bankrupted the economy. Defeated in elections in 2008, he went into a unity government but won handsomely in disputed polls last year. 

Recently the issue has to factionalism as the main driving force of dis unity in the political arena and influencing the economic outcome of the country as well.

 Zimbabwe, the public health system is the largest provider of health-care services, complemented by Mission hospitals and health care delivered by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In recent years, economic decline and political instability have led to a reduction in health-care budgets, affecting provision at all levels. In the past five years, the country’s poorest have suffered the most, with a 40 per cent drop in health- care coverage (1).  Chronic malnutrition limits the life prospects of more than one third of the country’s children (2).  Zimbabweans continue to experience a heavy burden of disease dominated by preventable diseases such as HIV infection and AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other vaccines.

 A lack of trained medical staff remains a significant problem. Many health professionals have left the country to find better salaries and working conditions elsewhere.

prepaid water meters

                                                    


Confusion surrounds the issue of prepaid water meters with authorities at Harare’s Town House issuing conflicting statements on the council’s exact position.

Harare Mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni insists that there should be wide consultation before implementation of the proposed metering system, adding that council has not yet reached a decision.

Earlier in March, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) upped its fight against prepaid water meters by coming up with a position paper outlining its research findings on the controversial gadgets.

The organisation found that the prepaid system was at odds with Zimbabwe’s socio-economic and cultural context and would be problematic as the gadgets would lead to an affront on the right to water, particularly for poor people who would not always be able to purchase water before they access it.


Studies on introduction of prepaid meters in southern Africa indicate that they are often introduced as a panacea to problems of water management such as failure to administer free water, failure to recover costs or debts and failure to control water consumption and wastage.

They are often viewed as a magic bullet for such problems as they can be programmed to disperse a certain amount of free water each month and can be calibrated to deduct a certain percentage of payments made to recover debts, while they also offer an incentive for people to pay up and use water sparingly.

 In recent years, Africa’s economic growth rates have averaged around 5.2% per annum, making the continent one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Coupled with high population growth, urbanisation and changing lifestyles, the demand for natural resources especially water continues to increase rapidly on the continent with no signs that both growth and demand will slow down any time soon. This highlights an urgent need for water utilities to broaden and expand their infrastructure. At the same time, water as a sector is difficult to manage because conflicting industries are vying for the slice of this liquid pie.”

The issue of water problems is a continental issue bit the citizens of Zimbabwe lack trust in thier gorvenment to fully implememt a proper working prepaid water meter programm.

sanitary issues in zimbabwe vs corruption

children playing at a dumpsite in harare

borehole in bulawayo

  

Zimbabwe, with rich farmland and natural resources including gold and diamonds, should be a middle-income country. But its resources are controlled by a tiny elite, and President Robert Mugabe continues to battle with Western governments and foreign investors, deterring the trade and investment that the country badly needs.

Until the late 1980s, the government supplied safe drinking water to 85 per cent of Zimbabwe’s population. But decades of neglect and corruption have left the pipes dry, forcing many people to drink contaminated water. A cholera epidemic here in 2008 killed more than 4,000 people and sickened another 100,000.

Last year, a report by Human Rights Watch warned that Zimbabwe is at risk of another cholera outbreak because of the continuing shortages of clean water. Since then, little has been done to fix the water shortages, despite government pledges, residents say. “We only see the politicians when they’re campaigning,” said Mr. Gumboreshumba.

A bitter split in Zimbabwe’s ruling party is the latest distraction from the promises. Grace Mugabe, wife of the long-ruling Zimbabwean autocrat, has been relentlessly attacking the vice-president, Joice Mujuru, as a party congress approaches. For months, the country has been consumed by a power struggle over which faction will control the political succession when the 90-year-old President is gone.

politicians and gender based violence in zimbabwe

16 days of activism

                                        

  Arguments have arisen that the mis- representation or under representation of women in the media has lead to the trivialization of issues concerning women. Not long ago sanitary wear was made the joke of the day in parliament, questions then are posed to the politicians that if they fail to address such minor issues how are they tackling gender issues. the topic that is largely in debate is that of gender based violence.

While some activists who fight for women’s rights are calling for stiffer penalties on perpetrators of gender-based violence as a deterrent measure to ensure it is put to an end, activists standing for men’s rights argue domestic violence can only be nipped if there is dialogue between women’s groups and men’s groups to find lasting solutions to the scourge.

There is also a lot of concern that victims of gender-based violence sometimes have nowhere to run to as they find more vultures in institutions like churches where they are supposed to seek solace, but end up being abused by the men of cloth who are supposed to protect them.

Recent media reports were awash with stories of pastors who sexually assaulted their female congregates, sodomised boys or engaged in nefarious activities where, for example, one Kwekwe pastor was arrested after removing all his clothes during a court session and almost sexually abused a woman in front of the police.

Tendai Garwe, a communications officer with Women’s Trust said it was difficult to completely eradicate gender-based violence, but a lot could be done to nip it in the bud.

“What we can do as a nation is to first socialise our children to understand that they have to respect each other because if a child is a bully, they continue with such behaviour later in life. It is high time issues of rape and sex abuse are included in the school curriculum so that children know from a young age that if someone touches their private parts their rights would have been violated.

Zim currency and the econmy

         

                               

 Since the collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009 due to spiralling, uncontrollable inflation, the country uses several foreign currencies in everyday trade - mainly the US dollar and the South African rand - but the physical lack of coins has created problems when it comes to giving change. 

The dollarization of Zimbabwe’s economy was, I believed, the single most important policy introduced by the Government of National Unity, that awkward political arrangement which forced Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF to work together with the main factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Biti is a member of Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC faction, and I thought that it was him and his party which provided the impetus for the change (I’m not the only one. This perception is widely held, and even seems to be supported in academic research, such as this infamous Cato Institute report and this paper from the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa.

An annoyed reader in the comments section had a different version of events. Writing only under the name Batanai, the reader wrote: “If you like dollarization (which you falsely attributed to Biti), then you should love Chinamasa! On 29 January 2009, while acting minister of finance, Chinamasa introduced dollarization into the Zimbabwe economy.”

Fearing a return of the Zimbabwe dollar, the reserve bank introduced bond coins. The coins were initially met with resistance from street traders and commuter bus drivers, who refused to accept them. The coins are now slowly gaining acceptance, but beyond the main cities, reports suggest distribution still remains poor.

With all this evolution of currency in Zimbabwe the question that rises in peoples minds is where the economy is headed to currency is unstable and industries are closing on a daily basis.

                                          

President Robert Mugabe’s government has stakes of varying degrees in all firms operating in the Marange fields on the eastern border with Mozambique. Zimbabwean government is set to nationalize all diamond mining companies into one consolidated mining company, a government minister has said.
 

The merged diamond company will include Murowa Diamonds, the only remaining Rio Tinto asset in Zimbabwe., but the new proposal could see Rio Tinto Plc’s Murowa Diamonds, which operates in south-central Zimbabwe, coming under government control.

Murowa, 78% owned by Rio, with the balance owned by Zimbabwean-listed spin-off RioZim, produced 344 000 carats of predominantly gem-quality diamonds in 2014.

Chidhakwa told a parliamentary portfolio committee on youth indigenisation and economic empowerment that the state would own 50% of the new entity, which would include seven miners in Marange.

“At some point we started by saying we will first merge Gye Nyame and Kusena concession into Marange. But we have realised that it is actually better just to bring everybody together in the first instance,” Chidhakwa said.

Gye Nyame Resources, a joint venture between the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and Bill Minerals, represented by Ghanaian businessman William Ato Essien, had its licence revoked last year due to insolvency and failure to adhere to environmental requirements.

The company, which was granted mining concessions in Marange in 2011, was placed under final judicial management last June.

Other miners in the Chiadzwa area include Marange Resources, Diamond Mining Company (DMC), Anjin, Jinan and Mbada Diamonds.

“The new structure was given to them on Monday to consult their boards of directors. They will be coming back on Monday to tell us the outcome of their discussions with their boards. But we are very clear, this is a regulatory matter and we have said to them the only way you can participate in diamond mining in Zimbabwe is by being in this company,” Chidhakwa said.

He added that government was ready to buy out mining companies that are not willing to be part of the consolidated unit.

“I expect that on Monday, we will be meeting with the companies so that we hear the positions of their shareholders and we know who will be proceeding into the future and who will not be with us as we go into the future.”He said while some mining companies have run out of alluvial diamonds deposits at some concessions allocated to them, Zimbabwe still has viable reserves of the precious stones.

“Because government already owned 50% in each and every one of these companies except in the case of Murowa, but Murowa was also expected to comply with the indigenisation and economic empowerment act,” he said.

The mining sector had been the most dynamic sector of Zimbabwe’s economy over the last five years, with an average annualised growth of 35%.

Bulawayotransport issues

Residents stranded during a commuter omnibus industrial action

 Bulawayo commuter omnibus drivers protested and blocked the Tshabalala-Nkulumane intersection to press home demands against spot fines and harassment by police manning numerous roadblocks along major routes from residential suburbs into town daily.

Police in riot-control gear manned a major intersection that acts as an artery to the city centre and industrial sites where commuter omnibus drivers and touts ensured none of their colleagues breached the blockade, leaving travellers stranded.

The taxi drivers were stopped and contained by the anti-riot police contingent deployed at the intersection at mid-morning but they continued hooting and revving their motor vehicle engines in front of the police and threatening any motorist who tried to assist stranded commuters.

The drivers argued that the police were harassing them and that they were demanding more than they are actually getting per trip.

After the industrial action the transport situation has however improved and commuter omnibus drivers have agreed to go back to work as long as the situation gets better. Yesterday and today there was no sign of the traffic police across Bulawayo even on set positions where they are known to operate everyday. 

Residents however urged the government to implement proper and reliable transport service for the people as the combi drivers even harass them from day to day occasions.

In response to this the government announced through the national media (ZBC)that they have a transport plan that is undergoing to bring back buses as this will minimise the space occupied by the combi's and provide reliable transport. This plan is to be implemented by 2016.

Residents, however, feel the impasse between the operators and the police had negative effects on their day to day businesses.

They say all they want is a reliable transport system not to be used in power games between the operators and law enforcement authorities.
- See more at: http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-local-byo-64116.html#sthash.etD86k9w.dpuf

Residents, however, feel the impasse between the operators and the police had negative effects on their day to day businesses.

They say all they want is a reliable transport system not to be used in power games between the operators and law enforcement authorities. - See more at: http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-local-byo-64116.html#sthash.etD86k9w.dpuf

Residents, however, feel the impasse between the operators and the police had negative effects on their day to day businesses.

They say all they want is a reliable transport system not to be used in power games between the operators and law enforcement authorities. - See more at: http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-local-byo-64116.html#sthash.etD86k9w.dpuf

Traffic cops are accused of fleecing the operators as they are demanding 'fines' as high as $20. Drivers are not told their offences.
- See more at: http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-local-byo-64035.html#sthash.HoGLimTm.dpuf

Traffic cops are accused of fleecing the operators as they are demanding 'fines' as high as $20. Drivers are not told their offences.
- See more at: http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-local-byo-64035.html#sthash.HoGLimTm.dpuf

Traffic cops are accused of fleecing the operators as they are demanding 'fines' as high as $20. Drivers are not told their offences.
- See more at: http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-local-byo-64035.html#sthash.HoGLimTm.dpuf

Traffic cops are accused of fleecing the operators as they are demanding 'fines' as high as $20. Drivers are not told their offences.
- See more at: http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-local-byo-64035.html#sthash.HoGLimTm.dpuf

zim politics and land issues

Zimbabwe politics seem to revolve around land reform. President Mugabe’s ZANU-PF has played his politics around land reform since independence in 1980. The importance of land became even more profound in the last seven or so years when the economy nearly collapsed, experiencing the worst inflation in the world’s history. Peasants resorted to subsistence farming to eke out a living under such miserable conditions. Many Zimbabweans emigrated to neighboring countries, especially South Africa. The Zimbabwe currency collapsed. Zimbabwe now uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency, together with the South African rand.

Thus, one of the dilemmas facing policymakers in Zimbabwe is how to manage to introduce a new Zimbabwe currency without hurting recent economic recovery. The use of the U.S. dollar has reduced inflation greatly, although many people lost their savings when the country adopted the U.S. dollar. The economy is slowly recovering, notably in the tobacco sector. And, by a stroke of good luck, Zimbabwe discovered huge mineral deposits, especially diamonds. Zimbabwe now has about 25 percent of the world’s diamonds.

 Thus, questions still linger as to whether the new constitution will change the country’s political landscape. The major problem with Zimbabwe’s politics to date has been the concentration of power in the presidency. The new constitution has, in many ways, reduced the powers of the president while expanding the rights of the citizenry. However, to realize the full benefits promised by the constitution, it is not just enough to enact the constitution. For a country that has seen years of erosion of the rule of law, the real challenge is inculcating a culture of constitutionalism in society.

land disputes

The disputes of land are a growing concern in Zimbabwe many projects and reforms are on land but these instead of helping have compromised the economic state of the country.  The constant seizures of land from one person to the other has led to losses especially in the tobacco sector.

 The partnership was shaky and often acrimonious, but the coalition succeeded in agreeing a new constitution, which was approved by referendum ahead of fresh elections in July 2013.
However, following Mr Mugabe's re-election as president in 2013 and Zanu-PF's gaining of a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary poll, the power-sharing coalition was ditched.
Mr Mugabe continues to preside over a nation whose economy is in deep crisis, where poverty and unemployment are endemic and political strife and repression commonplace.

 

 

Control over the land has been a major issue in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is home to the Victoria Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world, the stone enclosures of Great Zimbabwe - remnants of a past empire - and to herds of elephant and other game roaming vast stretches of wilderness.

zim politics

from left to right, Prof A.Mutambara, Cde R.Mugabe,M. Tsavangirai, Cde T. Mbeki

 Until the 2008 parliamentary elections, Zimbabwe was effectively a one-party state, ruled over by Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

After the 29 March 2008 relatively free and fair general election won by the then opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), ZANU PF engaged in violent political repression against pro-democracy activists especially after its leader, Robert Mugabe lost to the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the Presidential poll.

 Dismissing Mugabe’s sham electoral victory were the AU and SADC observer missions joined by the EU, the Confederation of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) and individual countries such as Botswana and Zambia who were very clear on the illegitimacy of the Harare regime.

ZANU PF and its leader, Mugabe is slowly returning to the pre-GPA situation as it prepares for a violent election. The spate of arrests of pro-democracy forces and Members of Parliament from the MDC indicate that the ZANU PF violent machinery is at work.

 A power-sharing deal agreed after the polls raised hopes that Mr Mugabe might be prepared to relinquish some of his powers.

The partnership was shaky and often acrimonious, but the coalition succeeded in agreeing a new constitution, which was approved by referendum ahead of fresh elections in July 2013.

However, following Mr Mugabe's re-election as president in 2013 and Zanu-PF's gaining of a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary poll, the power-sharing coalition was ditched. Mr Mugabe continues to preside over a nation whose economy is in deep crisis, where poverty and unemployment are endemic and political strife and repression commonplace

                                                  

 PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party has admitted that the internecine succession fights rocking the former liberation movement have seriously stalled government business.President Robert Mugabe has bowed to pressure from certain quarters of the military to explain his wife, Grace Mugabe’s role in the day to day running of the country.

Military sources said the Joint Operations Command (JOC) has been torn apart since factional wars in Zanu PF were taken to monumental levels resulting in the ouster of former vice president Joice Mujuru and the firing of 16 ministers from the cabinet.

However, some members of Joc expressed concerns prior to the Zanu PF December Congress that Grace’s involvement in the party was going to destabilize not only Zanu PF but the country as a whole

.

This week NewsDay also reported that Grace was prodding Mugabe to appoint her Defence minister in the much-anticipated Cabinet reshuffle after she turned down the Women’s Affairs portfolio for being “less glamorous”.

However the Herald today quoted Mugabe, in his birthday interview, saying contrary to reports that Grace was now in charge of the party as well as running the show in government, he (Mugabe) is in firm control of state apparatus.

 In the midst of all this the country's economic state is degrading day after another citizens have angry military and a bankrupt country

21st celebrations

 

 

The 21st February Movement main celebrations will be held at Elephants Hills Golf Course on 28 February.

A gala will be held at Chinotimba stadium soon after the main event, while 111 children born on February 21 will be hosted at Victoria Falls Farm School on Friday. 

Residents are overcrowded in preparation of the 21st movement celebration, people are continuing to suffer from burst water pipes water rationing is still continuing, electricity wire are getting older and older. 

Just last week higher learning institutions we on strike, civil servant are demanding salaries and bonuses from government. Hey lower your voices the government has no money we busy trying to stabilise the economy pay the nations debts understand, be sensible.

The party is just but a donor funded event # just think about it