Kubatana recently received this interesting opinion from Arkmore Kori:

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. (Mohandas Gandhi).

Recent political developments such as the impasse concerning the Government of National Unity with only four months before it expires and the constitutional stalemate have made it fashionable to talk about elections as the only solution to the Zimbabwean crisis.

Many, including Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, believe that with the help of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations, peaceful elections are possible. Some have even called for either regional or international stakeholders to be deployed in Zimbabwe to safeguard peace during election time.

But our experience shows that SADC and the AU are powerless to stop any political or election violence in Zimbabwe. When they came for the June 2008 run-off, they just ‘observed’ both elections and the accompanying violence with the mild conclusion: ‘elections were not free and fair!’ In fact, it’s a bit ambitious to expect SADC or AU to make Zimbabwe a better place. President Mugabe did not join SADC, but is the only surviving founder of then Frontline States, which changed into the Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) before becoming SADC. This means he has a lot of influence in regional decision-making. At the same time, it’s SADC that advises AU on regional issues, including the Zimbabwean question. This means any decision made on Zimbabwe at either regional or continental level, is indirectly made by Mugabe.

Indeed, except for Operation Gukurahundi of the 1980s, which had an external influence in the substance of North Korea, the political and electoral violence that has been occurring in Zimbabwe, particularly after the year 2000, has been home grown. It has been organised and perpetrated by four community based conglomerates – traditional leaders, war veterans, youth militias and the ‘women’s league’ – that work together.

Against their traditional role of safeguarding our culture, providing food to the needy (remember Zunde Ramambo?), mediating conflicts and preserving peace, traditional leaders have become an extension of the deteriorating ZANU PF structures. Their mandate in Zimbabwe’s internal conflict is ‘selling out’, pin-pointing and compiling lists of ZANU PF opponents for the salaries and numerous benefits, including houses, vehicles and electrification provided at the tax payers’ expense. The youth are responsible for administering the list of opponents and effecting ‘punishment’ according to instructions they receive from war veterans. The ‘women’s league’ provides moral support: ululating, singing and clapping during torture or murder sessions.

The way forward is to destroy this network. The removal of the youth from this violence equation would make elections safer. Real war veterans and traditional leaders are too old to torture or kill. Recently in Bikita the youth refused to be ‘used’ in violence by war veterans. Communities must discourage the youth from cooperating with violence mongers. Instead, the youth should become the defenders of their communities against the ‘intrusion’ and violence, especially caused by ‘imported youth’ from other villages or districts.

Surely, we don’t need SADC, AU, United Nations or international forces to stop us from beating or killing one another?

The City of Harare has recently been issuing public notices in the press informing residents of flats and apartments about its intentions to phase out the bulk meter billing system. This, I am certain – is a welcome and noble development among most tenants especially in view of the chaos caused by the Zim dollar – US dollar changeover. Tactless estimates were made and coupled with the new currency being beyond the majority’s reach – this saw tenants accrue and inherit impossible water and rates bills. The state department claims it is currently being owed close to $130 million.

What threatens to derail the process of people acquiring individualized water meters is the rigid precondition that all candidates first clear outstanding accounts of bills accrued on the bulk water meters before submitting their applications.

Meanwhile, last Tuesday Herald’s headlines screamed – Water disconnections loom – with City of Harare promising to soon embark on a massive water disconnection exercise. Flats have been encouraged to defray this by entering into some kind of payment plan with the department, to settle their arrears. The payment plan still includes putting in hefty down payments first before having your arrears staggered. Surely, if people had the thousands demanded by City of Harare, they would have simply paid in the beginning rather than live with this burden hanging over their heads and feeding off their peace of mind.

A lot of households in some of Harare’s most populous suburbs like Mbare, Mabvuku, Tafara, Chizhanje and Kuwadzana were disconnected a long time ago. Is this the best City of Harare can do? It is not as if this will solve the problem. If anything, one would imagine that the 2008-2009 cholera outbreaks left a lasting impression enough to disqualify the option of disconnecting water from the masses. Soon, most of Harare is going to be without running water, and then what? We know they badly need the money, but this cost recovery exercise is as good as futile as it is doomed to fail. People simply do not have that kind of money.

For a country once ravished and traumatized by cholera, I think holding us at ransom with this threat is not the wisest thing to do. City fathers really need to find lasting solutions other than allowing COH to hold the cholera noose above our heads. Essentially that is what they are saying; pay or get ready to die.

I think it is high time the COH cut its losses, calls it quits and moves on. Letting go of all that money would certainly be hard, but that does not dismiss the necessity of doing it. There are times in life when it is more logical to stop doing something that is already failing in order to reduce the amount of time and money being wasted on it.

As a state department, COH has a lot of leeway to exercise that kind of ‘leniency’. I mean, besides the fact that it might be the smartest thing to do, I think it is only fair because these debts were especially a result of circumstances beyond anyone’s control. Everybody knows that the country’s general economic downturn with the subsequent dollarization contributed immensely to these problems, and this is so widespread to the extent that what you can count on one hand, is those who actually do not owe anything to COH.

Much as the COH is insisting on going on like someone who has been grievously wronged, they must remember that we have all had to cut our losses. For instance, imagine what would happen if all former Zim dollar account holders started hectoring the banks about conversion and compensation for all the trillions they lost.

My other submission is, just how legal is the exercise of using estimates (which greatly contributed the huge debts people accrued in the first place). If it is, I think citizens deserve a chance to challenge the validity of charging people what they did not consume. A good way forward is for COH to put good billing systems in place, then start charging reasonably for actual usage. They would be amazed how much people would be motivated and willing to cooperate when given a chance to start on a fresh slate.

Moreover, if COH simply writes off what it is supposedly owed, psychologically this is enabling and good for the ratepayer because their contributions become more meaningful when no longer pitted against an impossible debt that they will never be in a position to offset in this lifetime. Picture this, say someone owes COH an interest- accruing debt of $4000, paying $25 in a month against this is like a drop in the ocean, which does not do much to motivate anyone to pay any more. It is like trying to squeeze water out of a rock, literally. Let’s get real; the majority of citizens either do not have regular sources of income or are civil servants, earning less than $300 per month. With issues of rent, school fees and basic existence, you do the math.

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.

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.

UNESCO: Africans Urge Cancellation of Obiang Prize

Prize is an Affront to Efforts to Promote Human Rights and Good Governance in the Continent

(Paris., October 11, 2010) – Citizens of Equatorial Guinea and prominent African figures including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Graça Machel, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, and author Chinua Achebe wrote to UNESCO’s Executive Board today urging them to cancel definitively the UNESCO-Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Prize for Research in the Life Sciences.

The letter, signed by 125 African laureates, scholars, human rights defenders, and citizens of Equatorial Guinea, cited the record of serious abuses and mismanagement of the country’s wealth by the eponymous funder of the prize, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.

“The continued existence of this prize is inimical to UNESCO’s mission and an affront to Africans everywhere who work for the betterment of our countries,” the letter said.

Equatorial Guinea has the highest GDP per capita on the continent, yet 3 out of 4 Equatoguineans live in poverty. There are no research centers in Equatorial Guinea that would enable a citizen of the country to qualify for the UNESCO-Obiang award, and even basic education and health care remain unattainable for the vast majority. Civil liberties are heavily curtailed: in August, four Equatoguinean refugees were abducted from neighboring Benin, tortured for months and then summarily tried and executed.

“While Equatorial Guinea’s government has tried to characterize opposition to this prize as racist and colonialist, in fact many Africans have been vocal opponents of the prize,” said Tutu Alicante, an Equatoguinean and Executive Director of the human rights organization EG Justice. “Not all Africans believe that a dictator should be able to purchase legitimacy through a prize created in Paris. Many recognize that this prize harms Africans.”

UNESCO’s Executive Board has a responsibility to protect the organization’s integrity, which this prize places in jeopardy. “[T]he diversion of wealth that should benefit Equatoguineans to finance a prize honoring President Obiang runs counter to the objective of improving human dignity that underpins the mission of UNESCO,” the letter said.

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EG Justice is a non-governmental organization that promotes human rights and the rule of law, transparency and civil society participation to build a just Equatorial Guinea.