Gwisai and Davis Trying to Privatise The Masses !!!

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Written by Lameck Funduka

Thursday, 05 July 2007

Directionless opportunists? Opinion By Lameck Funduka I thought Mike Davis and the Combined Harare Residents Associations (Chra) were with us until I read his interview with Violet Gonda on SW Radio, attached below. Munyaradzi Gwisai who was also in the interview showed a remarkable failure to mature, or is it naked ambition on part of both gentlemen? While acknowledging the need for unity, they tried to find any excuse they could to say the MDC was not the appropriate party to lead that unity, yet all the efforts that they were pointing to as successes in mobilising the people can be directly attributed to the MDC.     The reason is simple; they think that by acknowledging the MDC they will have lost the possibility of getting into political power themselves. I say slow down brothers; we are in this together and it's not too late to come back. Mike has had a flirtation with organising Harare residents to demand their civic and consumer rights  and now thinks they are his his people. I say, Remember Trudy Stevenson! And I do not mean it from a racial point of view, just that as soon as you lose direction they will also show you the door. It is clear that Gwisai wants to use the now mobilised masses in his International Socialist agenda, which he does not care when it comes to fruition, as long as he has pushed worker consciousness that much further - even at the expense of postponing the deposition of the current regime and perpetuating the suffering.  Even WOZA, which was not in the interview but was being referred to as another centre for grassroots initiative, seems to be fumbling in the dark while refusing to recognise the leadership of MDC in any united movement that might succeed in mobilising the masses for the final push. First, WOZA was part of the civic partnership, then it was not, then it was consulting its members about whether they wanted to be in the campaign, then it was demanding – through the Press for that matter, representation in the SADC negotiations. I am glad it has gone back to the electrical power struggle with Zesa. The SADC negotiations, even if they were to succeed, are not going to make Zimbabwe's future social order. It is still going to be decided by us the Zimbabweans and our Zimbabwean institutions, party cells, local community organisations, and people, WOZA and Chra included, because they are the ones working in these areas of social policy. But demonstrating inclusion in what are essentially political negotiations between the two powers which have been recognised by the SADC as necessary to bring about the transition to peace and democracy in Zimbabwe, was completely misplaced. The MDC through Mbeki's initiative is not negotiating the Constitution of Zimbabwe or the social policy – just how Mugabe can be persuaded, pressured or otherwise kicked to step aside for the benefit of his people. Of course the power of the MDC to be so recognised also comes from its partners, and their withdrawal weakens it, but they should recognise that they are under the umbrella of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign or the Crisis Campaign representing their particular social policies, not in the political power structure of MDC. MDC itself is still struggling with elements within it about whether they should be united by being incorporated in the leadership, which the MDC President has said is not possible, leading to an attack from Job Sikhala at St Mary's where Sikhala said Tsvangirai is a Zanu (PF) sellout. Grapes are sour indeed. The civics must not be deceitful and say we are fighting for children's rights, consumers' rights, civic participation rights or socialism, then, when they have opened our eyes so that we can see for ourselves that the MDC represents all these ideals, they start telling people that the MDC is not the right party to lead them – trying to destroy the very house whose foundation they helped to build. This is pure opportunism and it shows up in such contradictions. They mobilised the masses for the struggle, using their various tactics; the masses joined them, and together created the conditions for sustainable mass action. Now that the masses also see for themselves that their power to make a change comes from their united efforts and they gravitate towards the main stream, the leaders think they must stop them because they should be driving. In one breath they criticised the international travelling and networking that the MDC leadership is doing and in the next they praise it for having been effective in mobilising the international community. It is clear they are trying to find reasons for negating the MDC for selfish reasons. How can they be left out in race in which they never declared their intentions to run? I think it is time that opportunists within the civic movement were denounced for what they are. Their members, i.e. Chra and WOZA are already supporters if not full members of the MDC and should be told that their leaders are misleading them. I think a clear message should go out to members that they are being led in some of these coalition partners by people who are trying to achieve political power by deceiving their members that they are fighting for residents' rights, socialism, women's or whatever it is. Right now the crucial thing is creating a level playing field so that even the NDAs, the ZUMs, the Federal Parties and any new formations may be able to campaign freely, and in this struggle we need everybody. When it is most crucial that they should lead their members to the united final push to create the conditions for a free and fair election, so that we can start creating the society we want, they start trying to hold back, while trying to negotiate themselves into political leadership. Suddenly everyone wants drive the political bus. Who is going to be there still fighting for the women's rights, the community rights, for the inclusion rights for marginalised communities; who is going to oversee the drafting of a people's constitution, who is going to represent the residents of towns and cities, and hold the new political leaders to account for their promises. Is the MDC government not going to consult these same organisations that were its partners in pushing out the dictator about its social policy? I should think in the affirmative. And, of course, if it does not they have every right to also show it some Tough Love all over again. So for me there is no privatisation of the democracy struggle by the MDC, rather there is an attempt to privatise the masses by those who are the MDC's partners and working with the masses. Fortunately the masses have an inherent capacity to refuse to be privatised because their interests do not change - food, shelter, good living and better living, and yes participation in the running of their affairs. Lameck Funduka, Not Far From Where You Are.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 July 2007 )

 

Indigenisation Bill another platform to loot!!! BY TENDAI BITI

Indigenisation Bill another platform to loot

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By Tendai Biti MP

Last updated: 06/28/2007 15:23:09

ON FRIDAY, 22 June 2007, the government of Zimbabwe gazetted the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill. In broad and general terms, the objective of the Bill is to ensure that 51 percent of the shares of any public company and any other business is owned by indigenous Zimbabweans.

In addition, the Bill prescribes that no projected or proposed investment in a prescribed sector of the economy should be approved unless indigenous Zimbabweans hold a controlling stake in the investment.

Over and above this, all government departments, statutory bodies and local authorities and companies should procure 50 percent of their goods and services from a company with a controlling interest held by indigenous Zimbabweans.

Quite clearly, the Bill has far reaching consequences with regards to the issue of ownership and investment by companies in Zimbabwe.

In dominated social formations such as Zimbabwe, underdevelopment and uneven and unequal distribution of property characterizes the structural economic base of the country. Decades of colonialism have resulted in a skewed economy owned and controlled by a minority few whose mandate and interest was to serve the colonial metropole under circumstances wherein the majority black population was not a beneficiary of the national cake.

The colonial State was thus a gate-keeping State, with its most intrusiveand ambitious distortions based on narrow export-orientation and raw material production in which the African and African labour were mere objects of the reproduction of this client State.

Independence therefore, if it was to be meaningful, should have gone beyond the mere changing of the guards. It must involve the structural reconstruction of the State and the economy. Without this, independence becomes a meaningless charade that generates its own vicious contradictions, to the extent that in the overwhelming majority of cases, there has been no reconstruction and redefinition of the post-colonial State and post-colonial economy.

The colonial gate-keeping State has been reproduced under post-independent labels, but the old contradictions of deprivation and pursuance of narrow interests have been perpetuated.

The post-colonial State thus remains anti-majority and anti-development, but one, which without the military and economic might of the former colonial master, has to reproduce itself through patronage, coercion, repression, clientelism and rent-seeking activities..

The question that begs an answer is: Does the Indigenous and Economic Empowerment Bill represent a genuine attempt to restructure and reconstruct the State and the economy in order to transform Zimbabwe from the caretaker State it has been to a people-oriented economy? The answer, sadly, is No.

Between 2000 and 2004, the government of Zimbabwe embarked on a land reform programme that resulted in the compulsory acquisition of 11 million hectares of land. That the land reform programme was an essential ingredient in the process of reconstructing the State and the economy is not in dispute.

However, four years after the implementation of the programme, it is not in dispute the despite negligible pockets of success, the programme has been a cataclysmic exposure of Zanu PF's greed and asset stripping. The programme has been a disastrous expression of greed, aggrandizement, wastage and unbridled avarice, what Ibbo Mandaza described as "voracious primitive accumulation" in his foreword to Edgar Tekere's book, A Lifetime of Struggle.

The net result has been a total decapitation of agricultural capacity by more than 73 percent of the 2000 output. In the 2006 agricultural season, Zimbabwe could hardly produce 600 tonnes of maize and finds itself in the embarrassing position of having to import food from countries such as Zambia, who not more than five years ago, were entirely dependent on Zimbabwe's agriculture.

A cursory and casual drive through Zimbabwe's greenbelt (Banket, Chinhoyi, Alaska, Lions Den, Karoi) will expose the catastrophic consequences of Zanu PF's greed expounded in the name of the land reform.

For us in the MDC, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill has nothing to do with the genuine economic empowerment of the indigenous population, a population which has done well on its own in asserting itself in the commanding heights of the economy. The financial services and retail sectors are both dominated by indigenous capital.

The Bill therefore is a mere avenue of further patronage and rent-seeking activities by the big guns in Zanu PF. It will allow Zanu PF and its acolytes access into the remaining sectors of the economy, in particular mining, which, because of high initial investment capital, it has hitherto been unable to access.

Indeed, empowerment will take place but of the very same looters that have brought the country's economy to its knees and that for the past seven years have been eating not just the fruits of independence, but the stem of independence as well.

The Bill will not empower the millions of Zimbabwean workers and poor people who are surviving on less that US$ 1 per day and are dying in their thousands every week. It will not empower the average Zimbabwean in Dotito, Highfield, Msampakaruma, Nkayi or Makokoba.

Over and above this, the legal construction of this Bill is suspect. The compulsory acquisition of 51 percent equity of companies clearly brings the Bill into conflict with property rights as enshrined in section 16 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

In addition it is in flagrant breach of Article 17 of the Universa Declaration of Human Rights.

Another problematic issue is the fact that all decision pertaining to the approval of any transaction and any change of ownership in respect of the Bill are solely to be handled by the Minister responsible for administering the Act.

Put simply, to the extent that the execution of the provisions of the Bill is solely resident in the Minister, the legal construction of the Bill remains suspect because subjective application is inevitable. One wonders why, as in other jurisdictions, those functions are not given to an Independent Empowerment Commission.

The bottom line is that Zanu PF has failed and has absolutely no answer or solution to the current structural crisis arresting the country. Instead of concentrating on resuscitating the collapsed supply side of the economy, Zanu PF is disingenuously seeking to destroy those remaining pockets of this challenged economy.

They will not fool anyone and history will judge them harshly!

Hon Tendai Biti, MP is MDC Secretary-General

RADICAL SOLDIER TO SAY: "GOOD-BYE" TO BRO LEARNMORE JONGWE!

THE RADICAL SOLDIER TO WRITE A PROPER GOOD-BYE....

TO BROTHER LEARNMORE JONGWE!

 

Mr Robert Mugabe went to town speaking various foul things about the tragedy

that sorrounded the great, young man, Mr Learnmore Jongwe!

Some of us just wept and could not hit back!

Mr Robert Mugabe is the last person that should have spoken about Mr Learnmore Jongwe!

The most evil person under the sun, that Robert Mugabe / Matibili!

To Bro Learnmore I say, "I'm really and sincerely sorry young man!

I, personally identify with you!

I wish I was there then to share your feelings, emotions etc!

Then you fell into the hands of wicked men mhondi vana Robert Mugabe!

Self-professed professors of violence!

Men who kill others like they kill flies!

You inter-acted with hypocrites like Cde Thabo Mbeki

(LINK),

Robert Mugabe

and Tobaiwa Mudede (whom you correctly described as a PATHOLOGICAL LIAR!)

Bro Learnmore, I have yet to release you from my heart!

I have a lump in my throat about your going!

I will write a few things which mainly will be pieces of advice to spouces of POLITICIANS!

No.....YOU ARE NOT GONE!

Some of us have not yet fully released you!

YES....AS THEY SAID AT YOUR FUNERAL.......

HEROES LIE IN OUR HEARTS!

MANY AT THE SO-CALLED "NATIONAL HEROES ACRE"

WILL BE EXHUMED WHEN THE TIMES COMES!

Yes....You are not visible among us!

Your courage will forever inspire us!

I'm very sorry my dear Brother LEARNMORE, true son of the soil,....

NOT THE BLOODY ROBERT MATIBILI!"

REV Mufaro Stig Hove....THE RADICAL SOLDIER!

 

 

Peace and Tranquility???

 

 

 Cell in RSA: 0791463039

 

REMEMBERING THE LATE, GREAT "BOB" MARLEY'S DEPARTURE (11th May, 2007)

"FOR MEMORIES OF ONE OF OUR OWN, ROBERT NESTER MARLEY PLEASE SEE, LISTEN AND DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY!"

http://web.bobmarley.com/index.jsp

 

THE LATE, GREAT, LEGENDARY BOB MARLEY "We remember you on this day that you passed on!....

...but Bob can you believe the man who cruelly murdered His Majesty, Ras Tafari, Emperor Haille Sellasse is being kept by Robert Mugabe in the Zimbabwe you welcomed with such joy in April, 1980? We remember you this day, dear Iron Man!" Ras Radical!

 

 

Stephanie Marley!

Rita Marley!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ziggy Marley!

 

Rohan Marley!

 

 

A SINCERE FAREWELL TO THE HON TONY BLAIR!

A SINCERE FAREWELL TO THE HON TONY BLAIR!

 

"From Dr Joshua M'qabuko Nyongolo Nkomo in the 80s to today, the Government of Britain has very religiously looked after those fleeing that local madman of ours, Robert Mugabe! The issues where we need Britain's assistance, we will definitely approach Britain after we are through with our own Serious Internal Problems! Many of these serious problems have absolutely nothing to do with you, Hon Mr Blair! In fact you did well to ignore that evil deranged demagogue that has terrorised us well before you even entered Politics! By God's grace and with some muscular activity, we will overcome! ANYWAY, FARE THEE WELL THOU GREAT MAN!" Radical Soldier of Zimbabwe!