Author: TSA Press

Addressing Zimbabweans directly, Mnangagwa said that “the process of reform is not an easy one, it involves sacrifices from all of us. But I promise you it is worth it. Yes, today is tough, but tomorrow is looking brighter. We are opening Zimbabwe up for investment, building a new and mutually beneficial relationship with nations and businesses around the world. We cannot be left behind”.

Throughout the 80-minute programme on Capitalk FM, Mnangagwa discussed a wide array of issues, from agriculture, mining and infrastructure development, to fuel increases and a new Zimbabwean currency, which would require pre-conditions. “Production must be there, corruption must be eliminated, the mind-set of our people must change so they believe in themselves again. When all those things are in place, we can then introduce our currency.”

Nearing the end of the first year as elected president, Mnangagwa stressed the challenges he has faced following the 37-year tenure of Robert Mugabe. “It was not only our economy that collapsed, but also our courage”, Mnangagwa said. “And to rise from our collapsed economy, certain things must be done for us to get back on our feet: reforming our economy, reforming our institutions, reforming our legislations, reforming our mind-set as people.”

Mnangagwa pointed out some of the progress made so far, including modernizing the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), the controversial emergency law dating back to the Mugabe regime, as well as media and access to information reform legislations that would meet international media freedom standards – key demands by the U.S. to remove the Mugabe-era sanctions against Zimbabwe.

Critically, President Mnangagwa has also invited the leader of the opposition MDC Alliance, Nelson Chamisa, to join the ongoing political discussion between the majority of political parties in Zimbabwe. The Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) is an effort to improve the country’s difficult economic situation and to encourage its confrontational politicians to cooperate in the national interest.

But Chamisa has so far refused any multilateral or bilateral dialogue. “I cannot get a bulldozer or tractor to pull him out of his house for talks,” President Mnangagwa said. “Why doesn’t he come to the table where everyone is? To all those who want to offer their views, their advice on any issue, the door is open.”

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“The government of Zimbabwe has been clear that significant political economic reforms are necessary for the benefit of its people,” Olkkonen said, adding that the “EU is there to Support Zimbabwe move ahead with its reform agenda. In this we want to be a constructive, Credible and transparent partner.”

The first formal dialogue in 17 years focussed on issues ranging from investment and the rule of law to democracy and good governance. This long-overdue discussion is an important first step that may eventually lead to the resumption of financial aid for Zimbabwe’s ailing economy.

Relations between Zimbabwe and the EU were frosty throughout most of Robert Mugabe’s 37-year reign, which was marred by corruption, economic mismanagement and human rights abuses.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has vowed to transform the country, implement reforms and open the country for business, in order to woo foreign – and increasingly, western – investors. It is a noble undertaking, but western leaders are keen to see concrete results quickly, a difficult task following nearly four decades of Mugabe misrule, which ruined the country.

Nevertheless, progress is beginning to show. Olkkonen noted that “we have seen positive steps” and “that there is a staff-monitored programme by the IMF that attempts to reform the economy.” Under the terms of the monitoring programme by the International Monetary Fund, the government has committed to political and economic reforms.

A key challenge is the reduction of government expenditure – effectively, stop printing money – to underpin the new RTGS currency and boost the economy. Fiscal discipline would lead to debt forgiveness and future financing. With government finances in shambles in the wake of Mugabe’s mismanagement, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube managed to achieve a budget surplus in just six months. The latest report of public accounts shows a surplus of nearly half a billion RTGS dollars in the first quarter of this year. The IMF appeared pleased, stating recently that “significant economic reforms were underway” in Zimbabwe.

Among other reforms is the Freedom of Information bill, a new legislation that will meet international free media standards. The Minister for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa, said the government is committed to opening up the airwaves and promoting the freedom of expression and dissemination of diverse views in Zimbabwe.

The government is also revising the Public Order and Security Act, a controversial emergency law that dates back to the Mugabe era, and it has initiated the process of compensating white commercial farmers who lost their land during Mugabe’s Land Reform Programme. All these reforms take time, but they are necessary for the EU and U.S. to lift long-standing sanctions.

To push through these reforms, the Mnangagwa government has taken significant steps towards unity and reconciliation, reaching out not only to the opposition with the so-called Political Actors Dialogue initiative, but also to labour and businesses with the Tripartite Negotiating Forum, aimed at shaping policy and binding legal agreements on social issues that affect production and labour.

Mnangagwa also directly addressed the opposition leader of the MDC Alliance, Nelson Chamisa, tweeting post-election that his “door is open”. However, Chamisa has refused any collaboration so far and instead called for continued protests. The EU, meanwhile, supports the dialogue platform, maintaining it must be made on equal footing and discussions must be frank through a free exchange of views.

“Different positions must be permissible within our country,” Mnangagwa said. “However,these must never divide us or result in conflict. Violence must never be used as a tool to gain temporary advantage at the expense of the people we must serve and protect.”

Slowly but surely, Mnangagwa’s actions are bearing fruit. Leaders across Africa have called for the removal of sanctions, which would dramatically ease Zimbabwe’s economic burden. And even U.S. ambassador Brian Nichols sounded positive in a recent radio interview, talking about “a solid plan moving forward, no doubt about it” while acknowledging the challenges: “It’s going to be difficult to move through this year, I cannot sugar-coat that,” he said. “But what I will say is that this is a government that’s dealing with two decades of failed policies and you can’t fix that overnight. People have to keep that in perspective.”

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Speaking during a live radio interview, Mnangagwa said he was part of a committee that approached the SARB, with the intention of adopting the rand as “our domestic currency of Zimbabwe”– before Zimbabwe adopted the multi-currency system.

“But when we approached the SARB, they gave us a check list with certain conditions for us to use the rand.”

“It also needed South Africa to give us money (notes) that is commiserate with our GDP,” he said adding that some of the conditions were not acceptable.

He stated that the government led by Robert Mugabe then decided to use a basket of currencies without formally adopting them.

In 2016, the country tried to tackle the chronic shortage of US banknotes by introducing a parallel token currency called “bond notes”, which was meant to be worth the same as a US dollar. But the bond notes were in reality worth less than the green back.

Zimbabwe recently introduced a new currency the RTGS dollar, but is still allowing other currencies to be used for transactions. Plans are however in progress to ban the use of other currencies.

“Zimbabwe must reach a stage were it has its own currency which is the Zimbabwe currency. This will be announced at an appropriate time, when implementation is ready,” said Mnangagwa.

The country abandoned its currency, the Zimbabwean Dollar, after it spiralled out of control between 2008 and 2009 during Mugabe’s rule.

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Zimbabwe Reserve Bank Governor John Mangudya delivers his Monetary Policy Statement in Harare on 20 February 2019, where he announced the establishment of an interbank foreign exchange market in the country officially abandoning the 1:1 exchange rate between the USD and the country’s quasi-currency bond note. Picture: AFP

HARARE – In Zimbabwe, the central bank has told Zimbabweans to ignore an advert on social media advertising cheap commodities at an address in central Harare.

It said the advert was fake and misleading because it used the address and phone number for the central bank and its governor.

The advert for cheap cooking oil, sugar, rice and maize meal urged customers to hurry while stocks last.

It listed the address of the so-called People’s Wholesale and Retail Mart as Number 80, Samora Machel Avenue.

It also gave the mobile number to use for further inquiries.

The problem was that the address given was that of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, and the number posted reportedly belonged to central bank chief John Mangudya.

In a statement posted to Twitter, the RBZ urged Zimbabweans to ignore the message, which it described as unwarranted cyber abuse.

Frustration was mounting in Zimbabwe over rising prices, which many blamed on the government’s current austerity measures.

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HARARE, Zimbabwe – With Zimbabwe’s economy in shambles and political tensions rising, leaving the country seems the best option for many who are desperate for jobs. But those dreams often end at the passport office, which doesn’t have enough foreign currency to import proper paper and ink.

A passport now takes no less than a year to be issued. An emergency passport can take months amid a backlog of 280,000 applications, never mind recent ones.

Zimbabweans at the main office in the capital, Harare, have taken to sleeping in line for any chance at being served the following day — and that’s just to submit an application.

Several million Zimbabweans already left for neighboring South Africa and other countries during years of economic turmoil under former leader Robert Mugabe. The hardships have only deepened under current President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over after Mugabe’s forced resignation in late 2017.

The new government’s slogan “austerity for prosperity” now has a bitter ring.

Unemployment is rampant and inflation is at 75%, the highest since 2009, when Zimbabwe’s currency collapsed under the weight of hyperinflation. Rapid devaluation of the local currency against the U.S. dollar — also used as official currency — has seen basic items such as cooking oil changing prices several times a day. The health sector is collapsing, forcing those who can afford it to seek treatment abroad.

At the passport office, the desperation to escape is all too clear.

“Guys, it’s either we jump the queue or we will have to jump the border,” one teenager told a group of friends plotting to sneak to the front of the line.

Another teen, 19-year-old Brian Ndlovu, said coming to the office makes him “feel like there is really no way out of this country. We are trapped.”

The teens’ plot to jump the queue failed, in large part because those at the front had camped there for days and knew each other by name.

Emma Chirwa said she only reached the front of the line because she had been sleeping outside the office since June 5.

“I was No. 34 on Friday. They served no one. On Thursday, they served 12 people,” she said, huddled in a blanket on Sunday night.

In the biting cold of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, dozens of people, including women with toddlers, slept on cardboard boxes or in the dust, holding their places. Around midnight, one man parked his motorbike and joined his wife in blankets on the line. People laughed.

Some huddled around a fire of scrap wood taken from the grounds of an adjacent school. A small enterprise has emerged, with some young men holding places in the line for a fee. Others sell pens, food items and foreign currency while a generator powered a photocopy machine.

By daylight, the line snaked for more than a kilometer and included school children in uniform.

A preacher holding a Bible took advantage of the crowd to deliver sermons about resilience and hope. But for many, the spirit is slipping.

For those seeking an emergency passport, the task requires multiple lines and a week of sleeping outside the office. One applies for an ordinary passport, then waits for a chance to upgrade the application to an emergency passport. Those who are booked for a date in 2020 have to join another line to plead for an earlier date.

The delays are due to a lack of foreign currency to import special paper, ink and other materials, as well as machine breakdowns, according to the national passport agency’s registrar-general, Clemence Masango.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, a government body, has described the passport crisis as “a major human rights challenge” and launched an investigation.

In response, officials are promising change.

“We have sourced the foreign currency, and the machine is now working, so the backlog will be cleared soon. We have to bring dignity to our people,” Home Affairs Minister Cain Mathema told The Associated Press on Wednesday, vowing “a return to normalcy” in a month.

But for those badly in need of a legal way out of Zimbabwe, such official statements count for little without action.

In a busy, cramped corridor, people clutching envelopes waited in yet another line outside what they mockingly called the “mercy office.” It is where they plead with senior officials that their situations are dire enough for their emergency passport applications to be processed in days, not months.

One woman said the date she can upgrade her passport application to an emergency one is May 2020.

“My mother needs an urgent medical operation in India,” she said. “She will be dead by then.”

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The two agricultural commodities, which are fetching higher export prices, are on the rebound owing to the potential they give to Zimbabwean farmers and companies to earn foreign currency in a country battling a financial squeeze.Most farmers have been taking up tobacco, but this year’s crop has been fetching lower prices. In the Eastern Highlands region near the border with Mozambique, coffee and tea growing is becoming profitable once again.

Tea growing companies in Zimbabwe include Tanganda Tea Company, run by ZSE-listed Meikles, while horticultural concern, Ariston Holdings is also another tea growing company in addition to a handful of co-operatives of local farmers. “Tea production for the six-month period to March 31 improved by 6percent to 1851 tons,” said Paul Spear, the chief executive of Ariston Holdings.

The company said export prices were strong and favourable for its operations. Any company or business operation that generates forex in Zimbabwe is considered better off at a time the local currency has continued to sag down. For Ariston, export sales volumes for tea during the review period strengthened by as much as 18percent, giving the company a much needed financial boost. Prices were also massively stronger too. “Average export prices improved by 13 percent,” said Spear.

Coffee is another crop that is starting to recover in the Eastern Highlands area. Farmers in the area have also received a fresh lease of life after Nespresso launched a coffee product from Zimbabwe last month, putting the country’s prospects and advantages back on the global coffee market.

“For farmers in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands, coffee represents a ticket out of poverty – and farmers are paid in valuable US dollars, which go a long way in transforming the lives of smallholder producers,” said Technoserve, an organisation supporting coffee farmers in Zimbabwe through capacitation.

But the Chimanimani and Chipinge areas, where the crops are grown the most, were recently ravaged by Cyclone Idai and farm and irrigation equipment was destroyed. This has not been a deterrent with Ariston, which is also listed on the ZSE currently processing a $1.5million (R22.15m) insurance claim cover for the tea growing infrastructure that was destroyed.

Zimbabwe has a long history of coffee production and was once one of the producers of Africa’s most sought after coffee varieties. Coffee production from Zimbabwe peaked in the late 1980s, but dropped significantly in the early 2000s because of economic hardship and climate shocks as well as land grabs in 2000.