I had told myself I was not going to comment on the Zimbabwe Big Brother candidate – Munyaradzi Chidzonga’s loss conundrum. I mean, enough criticism already. However, for someone who supported the state’s parting with $1.8 million for the Warriors-Samba Boys friendly, I have recently been accused of hypocrisy for not supporting the Munya (as he is affectionately known) money initiative by some close friends. I have defended the former by saying; at least over 40 thousand people were involved, versus just one person. But that is fodder for another post.

When I watched the unprecedented meet with the president on the news yesterday, I was motivated to highlight that the kerfuffle around Munya and his subsequent reception of 300 thousand USD in ‘compensation fees to cushion him against depression’ served at least one good purpose for me; the opportunity to witness our leaders demonstrate their ability to raise big funds in a considerably short space of time.

One word from a flaky professor and another from an obscure land tycoon and just like that, on a whim, thousands were raised in less than a week. If this were to be done on a sustained basis for more meaningful things, imagine what that would do for our country’s development. Imagine what 300 thousand can do for the non-working traffic lights and potholes littering Harare’s streets; hundreds of needless deaths would be avoided. Imagine what a similar initiative would add to the lives of the displaced folk living and scavenging like animals at Borrowdale race course…

Hopefully none of that money was donated from the collective taxpayers’ pocket.

As I watched the news, I vaguely couldn’t help drawing thin parallels between the big rush for the ‘Diamond boy’ and the diesel n’anga circus. Quite an embarrassment to see such big men getting caught up in such silly things. As someone I know would say it, it just somehow feels super-stupid.

When the First Spin Crowd set to work, the Munya fundraising campaign seemed to suddenly precipitate into something of a publicity gimmick masquerading under the guise of wish granting, with Munya in the centre as the oblivious pawn. Words like youth empowerment, sovereignty, and son of the soil interestingly found their way into the President’s speech at the colourful reception at state house. Talk about grabbing slight opportunities.

And who would have thought Gushungo was a fan or even had the time to watch Big Brother. Perhaps we can put this down to the work of an excellent briefing by the First Spin Crowd, who are we kidding? But one thing is for certain, they conveniently neglected to inform the president that the son of the soil had just come back from a house that harboured totemless, nicotine addicted youths among which were women who often kissed each other full on the mouth. The First Homophobe would have rather died than be remotely associated with such.

For the icing on the cake; asked (Big Brother style) what he was going to do with all that cash, the ever grinning young man looked into the camera and said, “I’m going to use the bulk of it to market and promote my movie,” referring to some obscure production in which he featured, that we are yet to know the full details of. Let’s just say it was a relief to know that speech was going to end and that he was courteous enough not to abuse the redundant and clichéd charity card. Now that would have defeated the whole idea, wouldn’t it?

Following the publication of a Satutory Instrument which introduces new requirements for vehicles on Zimbabwe’s road, we published the below and asked our subscribers for feedback.

Road Traffic (Construction, Equipment And Use) Regulations Act. Statutory Instrument (S.I. 154 Of 2010)

Effective 1st December 2010 new minimum requirements for all motor vehicles have been promulgated, as follows: -

Special visual warning device: all motor vehicles (Breakdown triangles)

52. (1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle on a road unless two warning devices complying with the requirements of this section are carried in that vehicle:

Provided that, if the motor vehicle is drawing one or more trailers, two additional warning devices shall be carried in respect of each such trailer.

(The regulation then describes the type of reflective triangles required, their specifications, storage and their positioning on the road in the event of a breakdown.)

Spare wheel, tools and fire extinguisher: all vehicles

53. (1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle, other than a motor cycle, on any road unless the vehicle is equipped with -

(a) A serviceable spare wheel; and
(b) An efficient jack; and
(c) A wheel-brace or wheel-spanner capable of undoing the vehicle’s wheel-nuts; and
(d) In the case of a light motor vehicle, a serviceable fire extinguisher of a size commercially known as zero comma seven five kilograms

(The rest of Section 53 describes similar requirements for heavy vehicles and the Standards Association requirements of the fire extinguishers.)

Kubatana’s pause for thought:

a) Road safety in Zimbabwe needs a broader solution. For example, street lighting, potholes, signage, and traffic lights need to be fixed. The police force needs to be out on the roads monitoring and fining poor driving. Unroadworthy vehicles need to be made safer. Perhaps revenue from diamond sales and tollgates could actually benefit and enhance the lives of Zimbabwean citizens through improving the general safety of the roads.

b) The Government make up a large number of vehicles on Zimbabwean roads in the form of public service vehicles like ambulances, prison vehicles, police cars, municipal vehicles, and army trucks. Will these vehicles adhere to the regulations that the general public is required to? Silly question right?

c) How many vehicles are on the road in Zimbabwe? Can the manufacturing industry supply the items that every car is required to have by 1 December 2010? Clearly not – so what do people do when the police fine them for not having these items?

d) Wording like “efficient” and “serviceable” are subjective. At a police roadblock how will the “efficiency” of a jack be determined?

e) The Zimbabwean authorities are surely aware that the majority of citizens in Zimbabwe are either unemployed or underpaid and whilst vehicles need to be roadworthy and our roads need to become safer, many members of the public do not have the spare cash to purchase items like fire extinguishers.

f) One has to wonder whether this is just another way for the Government to acquire funds from the public – is it really their business if you have a spare wheel in your car?

Here is some of the feedback we received. What do you think? Leave your comment on this issue below.

Hey guys, this is the statutory instrument which is going to change things starting March 2010, I have a worry that if Zimbabweans will no longer in a position to import these cheap vehicles and resort to commuting, is the government going to provide the means. I know public transport provided by our Government has seen ages of failing through corruption and mismanagement. Isn’t it regressive, that when Citizens can now afford cheap means to travel around the government tend to restrict the progress. Zimbabwe has 2 companies which assemble vehicles and the vehicles are so expensive, where on earth can a Zimbabwean get USD$18 000.00 to buy a Mazda BT50,and even those vehicles which are less than 5 years are so expensive ,they cost close to new ones. Very few people in Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe could afford vehicles apart from those with good salaries and possibly with profitable organizations.

We might look at the other angle, credit facilities in Zimbabwe are not yet available to an extent that it is affordable. If there is a credit facility, it is normally granted to those with either title deeds or some collateral of some sort. I thought Government could wait until the economic environment is stable and Citizens can afford. It’s now almost 2 years we started paying toll fees and the speed of Tollgates construction and road construction is yet to be significant.  How can a Government be mini to its citizens like this and yet they allow the imports of Chinese goods which do not last, ranging from clothing, plastic shoes and after market machinery and equipment.  Today if you are to travel to some other rural places, there might be only 2 buses which go there, and only 2 times a week.  I can see Zimbabweans going back to walking long distances to a bus stop.  I think government did not a good research on this, I thought it was getting a lot of money from duty they have been charging.

- ZM

——

Good analysis in Kubatana’s pause for thought.

My first reaction was: providing an opportunity for extra pocket money for many police officers – all officers will want to go for the roadblock/ road patrol duty; and…

Wording like “efficient” and “serviceable” are subjective. At a police roadblock how will the “efficiency” of a jack be determined? … will depend on officer’s pocket requirements…

- MT

——

The Statuatory Instrument 154 which refines traffic regulations is a blessing in disguise for the police force. Imagine, the breakdown triangles (you need 2 per vehicle) need to have serial numbers, name of the manufacturer, year of manufacture and must conform to SAZ standards. Fortunately, it does not need an expiry date!

This is happy days indeed for the cash strapped police at road blocks.

May I propose some more regulations:

You need to produce a doctor’s prescription in case you carry pills and other types of Mushonga.

Drivers with spectacles or eye lenses are allowed, but you need to carry a prescription from your optometrist who has to be registered and paid up member of the Association of Optometrists of Zimbabwe.

Furthermore, do not wear shoes of the wrong size, the correct size can be obtained from the shoe officer at your local SAZ office.

It is forbidden to carry used condoms, and unused condoms must have a stamped serial number, a date of expiry, a letter of consent from your wife to use it and the name and ID of the intended recipient.

Ashtrays have to be empty all the time.

You need to carry at least 50 ml of washing liquid of which the quality must adhere to CAZ norms. This is to clean your windows.

All vehicles need to carry waste bags, one for each passenger.

In case a vehicle carries a baby under 9 months, the driver has to wear earplugs, the size of which must be within the norms as specified by the Health Council of Zimbabwe.

Music may be played during driving, but pirated recordings are not allowed, check with the Arts Council of Zimbabwe.

Traffic safety concerns us all, it is therefore obligatory to report every pothole, every non-working robot, and every non-working streetlight to the nearest police station, failure to do so will result in your vehicle being impounded and a maximum jail sentence for the driver of one weekend. In case of a custodian sentence your relatives may retrieve the working jack and a maximum of two breakdown triangles from the vehicle.

- GJ

——

Thanks for the news and the comments. I would like to find out who really comes up with these (sometimes crazy) regulations. Second hand vehicle ban, curfew on beer sales after seven and now the vehicle requirements. Maybe you can help me understand it as it`s becoming like cramming for an exam

- KM

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I support this regulation because it is one way for providing safety to people. I drive every week to Gweru from Harare  and oftenly find breakdown cars on the road without any   warning signal  and at times, tree branches, stones or empty containers are placed on the road. This is risking other people’ lives. Furthermore, I watched a guy trying to put off fire on his car by pouring sand on it. This is unsafe and the guy lost the car. He could have minimised the damage to his car if he had a fire-extiquisher. Truely travelling without a spare wheel compromise the safety of individuals, one ends up sleeping on the road or can be attacked by thieves and robbers.

However, we are aware that gvt vehicles will not adhere to these regulations and we will need to put pressure on the govt to comply. We only live once

- ZM

——

Yes, we do appreciate the efforts by the government to solve some of the problems like safety standards on motor vehicles, however, should not be done at the expense of the general public  who are already suffering

- WM

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It is our expectations that time to time government comes up with measures to ensure road accidents are reduced drastically. Everyone agrees with that but:

The whole approach is not being holistic when it comes to the real problems on the ground.

1. Right now our vehicle tyres are being worn out or damaged by unrepaired trenches that are being made acroos many roads in Harare. The people or who ever the company digs those trenches and put their cables and only cover the trench will soil. Right now a trench at the intersection of Charter and Chinhoyi has been like that for more than three weeks.There is another one dug just last week along the same charter road as you drive towards the fly over.Many like trenches like that are common feature in Harare’s roads and no one seems to care.Who will compensate for all damages to our vehicles or even accidents that may occur due to such trenches? The vehicles are becoming unroadworthy because of these bad roads.

2. Pot holes are all over.If you drive along Seke road from Coca Cola then you wonder if we have authorities responsible for ensuring that tsuch roads are repaired to avoid accidents and damages to vehicles.Just adjascent to Seke Road is airport road.You would think you are in a different country when you drive along airport road.No potholes.well surfaced and I have seen that the road is even being widened.Ok

3. A lot of people are allegedly obtaining drivers licences over the counter like bread .Very young people are driving commuter omnibuses without drivers licences everyday passing through road blocks.Commuter omnibus drivers are just a menace in our roads as they are reckless,just drive in any lane,stop at any point,does not even care others are using the roads and putting the lives of many into serious risk.Wht has so far been done to the problem-nothing

4. Drive along our major highways and you will discover tall grass growing and uncut for years which makes clear vission impossible.

I think we are not going to solve our probles.Just recently there were regulations that drivers are tested by CMED before real road test and that has since been abandoned.Why did the initiative fail to reduce road carnage.What we are proposing is no different to measures once implemented with CMED testing leanerr drivers.

I think we are not serious at all.

- GG

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Road safety in Zimbabwe needs a broader solution. For example, street lighting, potholes, signage, and traffic lights need to be fixed. The police force needs to be out on the roads monitoring and fining poor driving. Unroadworthy vehicles need to be made safer. Perhaps revenue from diamond sales and tollgates could actually benefit and enhance the lives of Zimbabwean citizens through improving the general safety of the roads. Yes while this is true but at least we should start somewhere and I think this is a noble idea by the government. Let us, the motorists do our part and then vigorously push the government to meet its side of the bargain as well. This is the beginning and I believe, we in Zimbabwe have amassed a lot of hatred for the government to such an extent that we know longer believe that there is something we can do for ourselves. There is a limit to what the governemnt can do for its people, but there is no limit to what the people can do for themselves.

b) The Government make up a large number of vehicles on Zimbabwean roads in the form of public service vehicles like ambulances, prison vehicles, police cars, municipal vehicles, and army trucks. Will these vehicles adhere to the regulations that the general public is required to? Silly question right? – Let us the common people comply, and it is us the common people who use those government vehicles, so once your personal car is complying, move on and tell your employer that I am not going to work with this car because it is not complying with traffic regulations!Thats where we can start to force them to adhere to the rules, this we can equate to democratic resistance!It pays.Civil society need to rise up and be the police of whatever the government promulgates

c) How many vehicles are on the road in Zimbabwe? Can the manufacturing industry supply the items that every car is required to have by 1 December 2010? Clearly not – so what do people do when the police fine them for not having these items? – Here I tend to agree with you, that the timing is a bit too close for motorists to put their house in order. December 1 is just around the corner, even if every motorist was going to send in their cars for everything, there is no industrial capacity for that in Zimbabwe at the moment.  But I am again at pains to understand why one can move with a car that does not have a Spare wheel, a jack or a red triangle?I still can not understand this. These are requirements on any car and anyone buying a car in Zimbabwe should refuse that car if its coming without a jack, a spare wheel or a red triangle. These are the basis of what is called a car. These things are not for the police but for your own safety, its just like a stupid person who rushes to fasten a seatbelt on seeing a police road block. I for one does not drive a car with a passenger not putting his/her seatbelt. And its very easy once you make it a habit, for yourself, for the whole family. If my little 3 year old daughter can immediately fasten a seatbelt on getting into the car, why can’t grown ups do that. Its these little things that led to the collapse of the country.People should learn from the past, never to buy fuel from a chigubhu, never to change money on the black market and more importantly NEVER pay a bribe.Let him write the ticket and the money goes to the government.Its better that way!

d) Wording like “efficient” and “serviceable” are subjective. At a police roadblock how will the “efficiency” of a jack be determined? – This is the main problem of the regulation. And this reflects the main undoing of the Zimbabwean populace.From the GPA’s “in consultation with the Prime Minister” on major appointments to the the Electoral Act’s “reasonably satisfied”. We should be more to the point and leave no room for the officer’s discretion.

e) The Zimbabwean authorities are surely aware that the majority of citizens in Zimbabwe are either unemployed or underpaid and whilst vehicles need to be roadworthy and our roads need to become safer, many members of the public do not have the spare cash to purchase items like fire extinguishers. – This is not an excuse at ALL! So does this legitimise stealing, robbing etc because of poverty?Poverty has never been an excuse for legitimising illegitimate things.So we allow people to perish in the roads because someone does not have spare cash to purchase items like fire extinguishers?If that was the case, do you think poor countries like Mozambique could continue running and maintaining their Fire fighting engines, fire-brigades and firemen because they don’t have spare cash. A law should be a law, irregardless of one’s financial position. If one can not afford to meet the requirements of owning a car please sell it and let those who can meet them purchase the car.Infact Zimbabwe is not as strict when it comes to cars-all cars including private vehicles should go for yearly certifying for roadworthiness and any that does not meet the minimum should be denied a certificate of roadworthiness. Only after the owner has rectified all the problems and have it tested again only then can they be issued with a certificate of roadworthiness. Anyone who drives a car without a certificate of roadworthiness should either be jailed or the car forfeited to the state.

f) One has to wonder whether this is just another way for the Government to acquire funds from the public – is it really their business if you have a spare wheel in your car? – Why would anyone drive a car without a spare wheel?To whose disadvantage is it? And to whose inconvinience is it? Those are the cars that block roads causing accidents because someone has gone to start looking for some money to buy another tyre. People should budget for their cars and not just want to drive without the necessary parts for their cars at the same time endangering other motorists. My ONLY challenge with this law is only selective application of the law, otherwise the law itself is okay. Just like the ban on 5 year old Japanese vehicles, and the ban on LHD vehicles. I support these laws and they are being promulgated to make our country a better place to live. Asina mari ngaafambe nemaKombi vane mari votenga mota svinu!Infact the government should say a brand new car does not pay duty, marata ekuJapan ayo voaisa kana pa500% duty chaiko!

- JK

Last Saturday as a friend and I were driving along Borrowdale Road we witnessed a full commuter speeding at an estimated 120km/hr as compared to the 70km/hr speed limit. To make matters worse the driver was bullying other cars out of his way!

Commuter transport operators have become a law unto themselves. In a report published in The Herald last week, Inspector Chigome from the Zimbabwe Republic Police named commuter transport operators as the main culprits in road traffic accidents that have killed 1 500 people and injured more than 12 000.

The majority of the public have no choice but to take their lives into their hands and board a combi because what other transport options are there?

The police are useless to the public. The recent police blitz on combis ended in commuters having to walk several kilometres to and from work. This is not the first time the operators have taken out their frustrations on the public. In more than one incident, I along with other passengers, have been forced off a combi after complaining about many things, including fares that double or treble after leaving the commuter rank, change not being returned, reckless driving, or overloading.

Police corruption doesn’t improve matters either. I have witnessed for myself a commuter driver bribing the police to get a car that was obviously overloaded and unroadworthy past a roadblock.

This is no way to live. I have had enough. On Saturday I took this picture of the combis licence plate – ABJ 7892. For your own safety, if you see this combi don’t get on it. If you are driving and you see it on the roads, stay very far away from it.

The International Freedom of Expression eXchange recently published this statement:

African newsrooms have long way to go to reach gender equality, media summit finds

A 16-year-old girl from Mozambique who had a failed abortion is identified down to her name, home and school in a local paper. A Ugandan tabloid scans Facebook for purported homosexuals to feature them in a front-page article on the country’s “100 top homos”. Delegates from 20 countries at the fourth Southern African Gender and Media (GEM) Summit meeting this week in Johannesburg, co-organised by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), used these cases to express their extreme disappointment at the slow rate of change within African newsrooms and their coverage of gender issues.

For instance, while women comprise 41 percent of media employees, less than a quarter of them are senior managers and only a handful are top decision-makers, according to findings released at the forum.

And although only 24 per cent of people heard, seen or interviewed in the news are women, according to the study, “Who Makes the News”, by the Global Media Monitoring Project, that number drops to 19 percent in Africa – and a mere 14 percent in Mozambique.

“We cannot talk about freedom of expression when half of the population is effectively silenced,” said Gender Links for Equality and Justice executive director Colleen Lowe Morna. “It is disturbing that progress is so slow in countries like South Africa, Mauritius and Namibia that have the largest, most diverse and supposedly most ‘free’ media in the region.”

The proportion of women sources in those three countries has remained stagnant for the past six years at about 20 percent, says Gender Links.

“These findings beg the question of what we really understand by freedom of expression, democracy and citizen participation,” delegates to the summit stated. “While more blatant forms of censorship may be subsiding, our media daily silences large segments of the population, notably women.”

The delegates pointed out that the media is nowhere near meeting the provisions of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, which sets 28 targets to be achieved by 2015. Media goals include: achieving parity in decision-making; giving equal voice to women and men; challenging gender stereotypes; and ensuring sensitive coverage of HIV and AIDS and gender violence.

Gender Links has identified more than 100 media houses that it will work with over the next year to adopt gender codes of practice in newsrooms. More recommendations coming out of the summit can be found on Gender Links’s website.

Convened by Gender Links, MISA and the Gender and Media Southern Africa Network, the three day event was held on 13-15 October under the theme “Gender, Media, Diversity and Change: Taking Stock.”

Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) sent us through this statement supporting the provision of condoms in prisons for important reasons of public health and human rights.

GALZ supports calls by the Ministry of Health and Child welfare to provide condoms to prisoners as a noble move in fighting HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe’s prisons.

The danger of sexual violence in prisons is extremely increased under conditions of severe overcrowding and malnutrition such as currently prevails in Zimbabwe.

Prison culture encourages men to have sex with men if not necessitating it and you will often find aggressor/victim type relationships. The mere existence of sexual relationships between inmates who do not identify as homosexual or bisexual is powerful testimony to men’s need for and ability to create intimacy when faced with factors such as confinement for longer periods.

Due to the fact that men generally have a high sex drive, they are bound to have sex regardless of circumstances. By making condoms unavailable and by not acknowledging that men have sex with men in prison, the government and prison authorities are encouraging the spread of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS and putting pressure on the national health budget.

Gender roles and identities in prison are defined primarily by the ability to exercise power. It is important that those less able to stand up for themselves and not be bullied into unwanted sex, protect themselves. Not providing condoms to prisoners has serious implications. When prisoners are eventually released and come back into society to wives and girlfriends, they may infect healthy partners and thus spread HIV.

This isn’t about condoning homosexuality. It is a practical health based human rights issue that seeks to protect the health of both those who are incarcerated as well as people on the other side of the prison walls.

Government, in it’s bid to stem the HIV/AIDS infection rates should ensure that inmates are provided with condoms. We also call upon the Justice Ministry to improve the conditions of the country’s prison system and address overcrowding in these facilities to ensure that prisoners are not exposed to diseases such as Tuberculosis.

Making condoms available to prisoners does not encourage homosexuality; it protects the health of prisoners and their partners outside of prison.

Khadija Sharife writing for the Harvard International Review:

Somewhere in my closet, taped across a small cardboard and sealed in a transparent casing, is a $50 billion Zimbabwean note. Purchased two years ago at a local bookstore for R21 ($3), this ‘made in zimbabwe’ wonder at the time had the purchasing power of two eggs, or a loaf of bread, in a country where inflation hit the 231 million % mark. An unemployed lawyer working a street hawker in SA expressed outrage that I would spend $3 to acquire it. ‘That money is life or death back home,’ he said. But there’s bigger money in the making – and for the taking. Mugabe Inc. has once again, in anticipation of forthcoming elections, vigorously begun to engage in exploitation through ‘primitive accumulation’ of resources via war vets, corrupt corporate execs and political cronies.

Prior to the discovery of diamonds, specifically Marange — estimated to be one of the world’s largest diamonds capable of yielding as much as $1.7 billion in revenues annually, the big kahuna was land. The bulk of large-scale commercial farms seized by Mugabe’s war vets, using the rhetoric of social justice, were not redistributed to those previously dispossessed by the colonial government. Instead, a new politics of dispossession took form through the politicisation of rural poverty, equating the ‘public interest’ with the nationalist vocabulary serving elite political interests. This time around, legal concessions to Marange have been voided, with two South African companies granted right of access via fraudulent licenses.

One company in particular, New Reclamation, has engaged with the Zimbabwean government through a joint venture called Mbada. The company’s operating arm, Grandwell Holdings Ltd, has been created a Global Business Category II (GBCII) entity, essentially a paper company, using Mauritius as the ‘tax haven’ of choice. As the Zimbabwe Mining and Development Corporation (ZMDC) admitted, due diligence into internal financing mechanisms, beneficiaries and other critical details, could not be conducted as it was ‘a paper company registered in Mauritius.’ Such shell corporations act as passthrough conduits allowing for economic activities, including profits and transactions, to be disguised and transferred through to ‘ultimate beneficiaries’. GBCII companies are tax free enabling entities allegedly accruing tax to escape taxation, while facilitating the flow of profits to ultimate beneficiaries.

But Mauritius should better be classified a secrecy jurisdiction thanks to legal and financial ring-fenced services such as the provision of nominee shareholders. Basically, all private companies must have at least one shareholder, and one share. Unless these are bearer shares (according ownership to those physically possessing shares), such shares can be ‘represented’ by intermediaries nominated by ultimate owners or beneficiaries profiting from economic activities. The same applies to nominee directors. Mauritius kindly provides these mechanisms to foreign clients and entities deliberately cloaking specific activities.

As OCRA, an international corporation peddling secrecy vehicles itself reveals on its website, “Beneficial ownership is not disclosed to the authorities.”

For $1000, the company can access banking secrecy preventing the Zimbabwean government from ever accessing the true value and volume of diamond exploitation. Many companies like OCRA provide bank account signatories, professinal directors and other false fronts assembled to create the illusion of an active business. Mauritius claims to be within the bounds of the law having complied with the voluntary ‘on request’ only Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIAE). While these are usually useless unless one already possesses the information required by external government authorities to investigate corporate and state corruption, in this instance, the South African government, if it decided to do so, could easily the corporate veil given that Grandwell’s details are already known. During an interview with Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for the BBC, I learned that he ‘was hearing about it for the first time.’

The threat that corporate secrecy presents to Zimbabwe’s economy cannot be understated especially in anticipation of the desperate need for sustainable revenue for basic services and the impact of ‘primitive accumulation’ as a means of controlling the outcome of forthcoming elections. This time around, Zimbabwe stands a great chance for actual democracy and economic and political recovery: The power sharing agreement between ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) coupled with the appointment of Judge Simpson Mutambanengwe at the helm of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), cultivates a growing environment of accountability and justice. But Mutambanengwe has declared outright that the ZEC requires financial resources to ensure that the processes and outcome is not disputed. Siphoned diamond revenues – to a ‘secrecy’ corporation where any number of war vets may be the ultimate beneficiaries, provides the old guard with unlimited millions – even billions, in financial resources that should be invested in justice not war, nor even – and this is what the Mugabe Inc hopes for, a forced peace.