The 'Smoking lounge'

There has been much hype in the Zim government press over the coming 2010 world cup, with Ministers and their lackeys drivelling on about the (highly unrealistic) expected influx of tourists. Of course there will be some spill over from the soccer frenzy, but sadly most of it will take the form of tourists flying directly into Victoria Falls or crossing over from Livingstone, for a day or two on their way to better facilities in South Africa, Botswana and Zambia. One would think that the great Maosi Tunya was actually a South African destination as it is very often included in their domestic tour packages. Having visited the tourist town recently it is a sad, faded, shabby remnant of its previous glorious self. Indeed Unesco is currently threatening to downgrade it as a world heritage site.

Zimbabwe was once a tourist mecca, with all ages and budgets flocking to visit our rich and diverse range of destinations, from the Matobo hills to Hwange game reserve, the Victoria Falls to Kariba dam, Nyanga to Gonarezhou. Today over 80% of the luxury lodges, backpacker inns and small establishments have closed. I visited the Hwange Safari Lodge (owned mainly by ZPF) last year and we were the only tourists there rattling around in a vast hotel and being followed by a herd of staff, all bemoaning the state of affairs and longing for the old days when they were run off their feet.

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Conference Flyer

(Via circulated email) Human Resources (Pvt) Ltd has obtained a commitment from the Minister and the Permanent Secretary to address a follow-up conference on Friday, March 26.

A good line-up of lawyers and experienced business speakers have also been asked to address the conference and will  make a useful contribution too.

If you can make it to the conference and if you can help the government officials gain a better understanding of the requirements of genuinely helpful indigenisation promotion policies, or even if you want to gain a better understanding of the issues involved, this could be a very important event for you to attend.

Details on how to enrol in the flyer available for download at the end of this post. Fees and speaker details provided below.

Speakers:

• Hon. Minister S. Kasukuwere – Min. of Youth Dev., Ind. & Empowerment
• The Permanent Secretary – Min. of Youth Dev., Ind. & Empowerment (Panel)
• Mr T. Musarara – Secretary General, AAG
• Prof. E. Masunungure – Director, MPOI
• Adv. E. Morris – LLB(Hons), (Lond), Barrister
• Mr J. Robertson – Economic Consultant, REIS
• Adv. Jeremy Lewis – Optima Services
• Mr P. Cawood – Independent Consultant
• Dr E. Bloch – Partner, H & E Bloch & Co
• Mr D Harrison – Industrial Psychologist, Human Resources (Pvt) Ltd

This Conference will go ahead, especially if the Act/Regs are repealed/withdrawn, in the interests of national economic development

FEE: $120-00 (includes lunches, refreshments, e-mail or hard copies of all papers, and attendance at all sessions). Enter early to avoid disappointment. Fee may be tax allowable. Group discounts negotiable. Cancellations will not be refunded, but substitutes may be nominated. (Space limited, only one Jacaranda Room)
Bank Details: Stanbic Bank, Park Lane Branch, Acc. No.0222023094401 or cash to
11 Lawson Avenue, cnr Blakiston Street, Milton Park, Harare.

Click here to download a copy of the flyer and enrolment form: in PDF format and in Word format. Click the image above to enlarge and preview.

Please circulate widely.

Gwaai River Hotel as it was in its glory days

Gwaai River Hotel today, after ten years of chaotic 'land reform'

A friend today gave me images of the Gwaai River Hotel taken in recent years, and it hurled me back to my childhood. The hotel is a fixture of my very early youth, inextricably locked into my earliest memories of Zimbabwe. A year or so ago I was with my father when we drove past the turning off to the hotel, and I asked him to take me back so I could see it again: “There’s nothing there anymore; I don’t think you should see it”. My father, who once introduced me to a friend of his as his ‘bush baby’, knows how much I loved the place.

I understood from the pictures I saw today why he didn’t want me to see it. It is gone. Totally destroyed, and all this senseless destruction has taken place in the last ten years in the wake of Zanu PF’s chaotic land reform programme. My memories, however, are not destroyed.

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(Via Veritas) The Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance, Economic Planning and Investment Promotion will be holding public hearings on the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (General) Regulations [SI 21/2010] in Bulawayo and Harare. Venues and times are as follows:

Bulawayo

Friday 12th March, Small City Hall, 9 am

Harare

Monday 15th March, Harare International Conference Centre, 10 am

The Portfolio Committee Chairperson is Hon Zhanda, the Committee Clerk is Mr Ratsakatika.

Public Welcome to Attend Hearings

Interested stakeholders and members of public are invited to attend these hearings at which they will be given the opportunity to give evidence and make representations on the regulations. If you are making a written submission, it is advisable to take as many copies as possible for circulation at the meeting. If you are able to take a copy to Parliament before the meeting and give it to the Committee Clerk [see above] and he will duplicate copies for the members of the Committee.

If you want to make an oral submission, signify this to the Committee Clerk so that he can notify the chairperson to call on you. An oral submission is more effective if it is followed up in writing.

Written submissions

If you are unable to attend a hearing, written submissions and correspondence may be addressed to:

The Clerk of Parliament

Attention: Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance, Economic Planning and Investment Promotion

P.O. Box CY298

Causeway, Harare

I think what ruffles my feathers more than anything about Zanu PF’s indigenisation policy is the duplicity shrouding the  sanctimonious speech around it. It also bugs me that the few people supporting it fail to see the wood for the trees, and  that they foolishly turn a blind eye to Zimbabwean history as recent as five years ago.

For a start, there’s a world of difference between an empowerment policy that is based on the notion that one group of people ‘has too much and should be punished for it‘, and one that argues ‘I want the entire country  to have the ability to be equally as successful as that group of people‘.

Second, there is an absurd contradiction in any policy that claims to be economically ‘empowering’ when its means of enforcement requires the calculated disempowerment of a group of people.

But these contradictions are small details when viewed alongside Zanu PF’s hypocrisy.

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What an amazing tribute to Prudence and all the wonderful members of Liyana. The full acceptance speech is posted below and can be read on the official Oscar’s page here.

I was expecting the usual Oscar-style thank-you speeches that we all have yawned through, but the producer, Elinor Burkett – who lives in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe – was on a mission! She cut in to the director’s speech with an intense sense of purpose. I was already emotional, blown-away by the fact the film had actually won an Oscar, but tears literally poured down my face when Burkett, who looked emotional herself, said

In a world in which most of us are told and tell ourselves that we can’t. Liyana, the band behind this film, teaches us that we’re wrong. Against all odds they did, so we can.

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Today I was talking to a friend about women’s rights in the constitution. She told me this story about how she recently met a young girl from a very impoverished school in a high density area – the kind of school where there are hardly any text books and you expect the kids to battle their way through to exams, and then probably do badly despite their very best efforts and despite the huge lengths their parents go to to try and get them an education. This bright young woman is apparently dreaming of a trail-blazing career and my friend asked her what she thought was standing in her way.

The young woman replied: “Please tell me how we address this patriarchal society and how we can reach a point where women are superior?”

“In those very words…?!” I asked, thinking it took University and many textbooks to ram that kind of language into my head.

My friend replied: “Ja! … eish, I wanted to stand on a chair and yell ‘Hallelujah!’”

I know what she means, because I also smiled at the young woman’s aspirations to not be equal – forget that! -  but to be superior. I smiled because she’s going to need that kind of bull-headed feistiness to move herself forward in her life, especially if she stays in our country.

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ZLHR Press Release – 24 Feb: Some ZANU PF youths on Wednesday 24 February 2010 detained freelance photo-journalist Andrison Manyere for filming a demonstration held in the capital, Harare.

Manyere was seized at the corner of Fourth Street and Jason Moyo Avenue whilst covering the demonstration organized by the ZANU PF youths to protest against the imposition and maintenance of targeted travel sanctions on the party’s leaders.

Manyere was detained at the ZANU PF provincial offices near the Fourth Street bus terminus for about 15 minutes and accused of taking video footage on behalf of some western media organisations. The ZANU PF supporters reprimanded him for not seeking their permission before taking pictures of the demonstration.

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