The BBC have a short video of a telephone interview between John Simpson and Simba Makoni.

I always think things are getting a bit serious when John Simpson arrives on the scene; I think of him as one of the ‘big guns’. The guy who ‘liberated Kabul‘ snuck into Zimbabwe last month disguised in a baseball cap, and here he is again interviewing Simba.

It’s serious: the elections really are just about to happen!

So what did Simba say?

A few things, including a clear acknowledgement of the fear pervading the country:

“We must work to remove the fear that so bears on our life everyday, as individuals as communities. This country is a country of fearful people. Remove the mistrust and the suspicion that dominates our everyday life”.

What he says is self-evident: people fighting for freedom and democracy have been saying this for years. What intrigues me is the fact that the man saying it, until very recently, was a member of Zanu PF - the party that has deliberately cultivated fear and intimnidation.

I want to believe and hope we have a way out of this hideous morass, but my cycnicism and dashed expectations in the past keep coming to the fore. Besides, even Robert Mugabe knew how to say the right things in the past.

Bottom line for me is to hope, but to hang on to my scepticism. We need to demand more of our leaders and we need to make them dance hard for us. They are there to serve us. Why should they be given an easy ride?

So Simba, keep talking. I’m listening - carefully!

More on Simba Makoni:

• Interview with Makoni (Financial Gazette)
• Makoni taunts Mugabe in presidency challenge(Mail and Guardian)
• Simba Makoni: Zimbabwe’s roaring lion? (BBC Profile)
• Simba Makoni is getting up steam (The Economist)
• I’ll beat Robert Mugabe, says former ally (The Telegraph)

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, elections, Simba Makoni, Robert Mugabe, democracy, Zanu PF, John Simpson

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The Solidarity Peace Trust has begun a regular election update,

which will summarise into general categories the notable events and quotes of the last week to ten days, as Zimbabwe heads into a highly fluid and unpredictable election. Sources are media articles from both government and independent media published within the dates of the summary, as well as statements from civic groups.

Download the first release here.

This document is an excellent companion to Sokwanele’s Zimbabwe Election Watch, where we have been monitoring the Zimbabwean government’s compliance with SADC electoral standards and principles for elections in Southern Africa since July last year. We have recorded over 1,200 breaches of the SADC standards so far. Please visit our website to explore our database of information.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Solidarity Peace Trust, Zimbabwe Election Watch, elections

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This was sent to me by a friend in South Africa. It’s an advert for insurance brokers, and clearly shows what a figure of fun Robert Mugabe has become. People talk about sportspeople and dancers needing to know when to retire - at the top of their performance, before people start to pity them. Seems Mugabe has missed the point in relation to politics and the laughter is getting louder and louder and more open. Bring it on!

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, advertising, South Africa, Robert Mugabe, advert, marketing, humour

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We were in this queue for sugar one day, just outside a big supermarket in town. The sun was scorching, we were like pieces of meat in the oven.

Osiphatheleni and the supermarket staff were selling each other sugar, in front of our eyes. So we started shouting at the workers and demanded “first come first serve” and “no favouritism”.

Someone in the queue called the police (vanaRovai) were quick to arrive in their truck. We were happy that “vanaRovai” had come, and that order would be restored. But right in front of our eyes, “vanaRovai” started loading sugar into the defender truck. They loaded and loaded until one of the supermarket guys told us the sugar was finished.

Imagine.

So all the sugar we had waited for the whole day, went to a few “Osiphatheleni” and “vanaRovai”.

Today, while we go hungry, we are still looking for some sugar. Satsha ngabo Rovai.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, sugar, corruption, police, ZRP

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Much of business is paralysed due to the bottleneck in the Reserve Bank’s release of foreign currency to exporters. These funds would normally provide for imported content in the mechanisms of day to day commercial and industrial activity. The lead time, from application to receipt, is growing and it is strongly suspected that the forex starved government is increasingly robbing Peter to pay Paul and this is exemplified by some reports of delays of up to 3 months. This effectively means that these funds are locked in the system and deprive business of their desperately needed cash and raw materials.

With the impending election, many decisions are being put on hold as boardrooms adopt a wait-and-see attitude. This has had a negative effect on building and construction, hospitality and, to a lesser extent, manufacturing and mining.

The indigenisation bill predicted to force mining companies to give up 50% of their interests, has effectively expired and will have to be redrafted. Nevertheless, threats of such legislation tend to intimidate the business community and, all in all, industry and commerce strives to survive in the hope that the political deadlock will be broken.

Statistics that provide interesting reading are that individual tax contributed 31% of revenue collection in 2007 followed by VAT 24% and company tax only 17%. Virtually all salary earners are now paying executive rates of tax due, and, due to the deteriorating business environment, VAT and company tax are realising less and less revenue for the treasury. The USD has climbed rapidly to over 23 million: 1 and the OM Implied Rate now exceeds 16,5 million to one. Newly listed ZECO pushed the stock market to rally across the board to post record levels.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, business, economy, formal sector, mining, indiginisation bill, inflation, commerce

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Executive Summary

In an opinion piece titled “Mugabe’s Rigging Nightmare”, political commentator John Makumbe from the University of Zimbabwe points out he has “consistently insisted that Mugabe and Zanu PF have always rigged the elections in order to ‘win’ and retain power since 1985.”

This has been confirmed by comprehensive reports and analyses of the regime’s election rigging modus operandi compiled by civil society organisations and the opposition. Zimbabwe Election Watch (ZEW), first published in October 2004 prior to the March 2005 Parliamentary election, supports these documents by highlighting examples of violations to the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.

A glance at early ZEW story headlines reveals the consistency of the regime’s strategy: Food as a Political Weapon, Arrest of Journalists, Student Leader Battles for Life After Savage Attack, Youths Harass Electorate, Repressive New Laws, Proposal to Exclude Some Observers, Non-Residents Excluded From Voting, Police Brainwashed.

This time around, however, Makumbe says Mugabe may find it rather hard to rig the actual elections for a number of reasons. Firstly, “Mugabe and his crumbling party don’t really know who their friends and foes are in this power game come March 29… (and) who among the persons responsible for the rigging machinery are loyal to Mugabe or to Makoni or to Tsvangirai (the three main presidential candidates) …

“Secondly, the Electoral Act provides that, ‘where two or more candidates are nominated and no candidate receives a majority of the total number of valid votes cast, a second election’ must be held within 21 days after the previous election… In the forthcoming election, with three rather strong candidates, the possibility of all the candidates obtaining less than the requisite 51% or higher cannot be ruled out…”

Debating the same scenario, a leading Zimbabwean journalist, Dumisani Muleya, writes that, if Mugabe is forced into a run-off, it would almost certainly give his rival unstoppable momentum, and it is widely held he is unlikely to win 51% of the vote.

The entrance of Zimbabwean businessman and former Zanu PF finance minister Dr Simba Makoni into the equation is “a leap that is a lot bigger than people outside Zimbabwe may appreciate - from the heart of the pernicious Zanu PF politburo into a political showdown with President Mugabe. Mugabe is a dangerous opponent,” writes Diana Games, director of research and publishing company Africa @ Work.

Moeletsi Mbeki, deputy chairperson of the South African Institute of International Affairs, notes that “the rise of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) illustrated more than anything to date the arrival of the African Renaissance. Twenty years after independence in 1980, Zimbabwe had become a transformed society with a rich and complex social structure… In this fast changing and dynamic environment it was the ruling party, Zanu PF that remained unchanged. In fact, the opposite had happened, it had fossilised.”

With the elections only five weeks away, media attention is escalating rapidly. In this issue we’ve touched on a broad selection of stories which can be accessed via the links provided.

Once again the Mugabe regime has splashed out scarce foreign currency to import tear-gas and other anti-riot material from China. In 2002 his shopping list included anti-riot tanks, gas masks and microscopic laser guns.

The regime’s onslaught on all forms of opposition has been relentless and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who was appallingly beaten in March, has been a primary target. At this point however, Mugabe’s vitriol is being directed at Dr Makoni.

2007 has been the worst year yet for defenders of freedom with more than 6 000 instances of human rights abuses recorded by Zimbabwean NGOs. Once again members of the Progressive Teachers’ Union have been severely beaten up.

Civic groups, notably the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, report serious problems with respect to critical electoral processes, including voter registration and the delimitation of constituencies. Voter education is totally inadequate and the voters’ roll is in a shambles.

There has been no let-up in the slanted coverage of the electoral campaign by the public broadcaster. The opposition still has virtually no access the state media and a number of independent newspapers remain outlawed, notably the Daily News. Journalists from “hostile” Western nations will reportedly not be accredited.

Corruption remains rife and senior police officers have been given new luxury vehicles - with more perks promised - in exchange for their support. Conversely, flood victims who support the opposition are being denied food aid. MDC ‘Freedom Marches’ have been brutally disrupted or banned.

Read the full article on our website here. This includes a detailed breakdown of all breaches and provides links to information sources. Subscribe to our mailing list to receive our articles by email.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, elections, Zimbabwe Election Watch, SADC, Robert Mugabe

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Another update from the Zimbabwe Revolutionary Youth (ZRY) protest.

BeitBridge Border Post
South Africa
Saturday 23 February, 2008
12 noon

More than 30 police worked to control an estimated crowd of 1200 demonstrators as trucks and cars backed up for two kilometres, waiting to cross the Beit Bridge border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The protest, just metres from a customs office that marks the start start of bridge zone, was organised by a number of Zimbabwe exile groups based in Johannesburg, Pretoria and the border town of Musina.

“It is hard to tell how many people were there,” Mr. Simon “Dreadman” Mudekwa of Zimbabwe Revolutionary Youth (ZRY) said after the meeting,”but we came with 1000 T-shirts and they are all finished. I think there must be at least two or three hundred who did not get shirts so that makes it a very large crowd,” he said.

The ZRY had brought its supporters in six buses from Johannesburg and other regions.

“Many from Zimbabwe walked over the bridge to come and join us because we had put out the word that there would be a rally here to counter Mugabe’s celebrations that side.”

President Robert Mugabe, who turned 84 on Thursday, held his own party on the Zimbabwe side of the bridge. Food supplies have run short across the country and insiders from Mr. Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) say that the border town was chosen so that food and other goods could be ferried to the party from the South African town of Musina, 10 kilometres south of the bridge.

While the protestors danced and sang, a helium-filled blimp was raised 100 metres above the bridge with a banner that cast doubt on the integrity of elections due for March 29. “Free and fair or just hot air,” ran the slogan on one side of the balloon while the other called on President Mugabe to, “Have your cake… and beat it!”

A giant cardboard cake was hauled into place and four men dressed a skeletons jumped out danced to hoots and cheers from the audience. At first, it seemed that the point was to show how Zimbabweans are starving in a country where United Nations agencies estimate that seven out of 10 people are malnourished.

However, one by one the bone-men raised signs with the names of former Mugabe colleagues who have died under mysterious circumstances after clashing with the president, including the late ZANU-PF youth commander, Border Gezi and Mugabe’s military advisor, Josiah Tongogara who was killed in a car crash shortly before independence in 1980,

Tongogara had been popular with the working class and with veterans on both sides of the civil war that raged from 1972 to 1980.

The protestors, clearly enjoying the joke, surged towards the cake and held two of the skeletons on their shoulders while shounting chants in support of opposition leader, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai who leads the Movement for Democratic Change or MDC.

Mr Tsvangirai’s treasurer, former MP Mr. Roy Bennett who now lives in exile in South Africa, addressed the gathering in the Shona language, calling on people to go home and vote in next month’s election.

The MDC lost to ZANU PF in 2005, in a poll that many analysts claimed was marred by rigging and intimidation. Western countries including the USA, Britain, Australia, Canada and the EU have not recognised the result.

Shortly before the crowd dispersed, ZRY’s Simon Mudekwa again took the microphone and summed up the remarks made by Mr. Bennett.

“We have suffered long and many of our people have died or been tortured by the regime,” Mr. Mudekwa said. “The future will be ours, but only if we fight for it with our votes. That battle starts now, and next time we meet, we will do so on the other side of this bridge, home at last in a free Zimbabwe.”

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, protest, Robert Mugabe, Beitbridge, South Africa, Musina, human rights, elections

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BALLOON DEMO CRASHES MUGABE BIRTHDAY PARTY
Beitbridge, South Africa-Zimbabwe border

As promised, we are pleased to send you photos of the helium balloon protest taking place right now on the South African side of the Beitbridge border post.

President Robert Mugabe, who is holding a Z$3 trillion party and election rally on the Zimbabwe side, has reportedly seen the balooon and ordered his soldiers not to shoot it down as this would create an armed incident with South Africa.

The 5 metre (17 foot) long blimp, filled with helium, is flying above a protest by several hundred Zimbabweans who have gathered on the banks of the Limpopo River in South Africa. Some have crossed from Zimbabwe and waves of others are joining the event.

The South African police is maintaining crowd control at the site near the Bridge.

More info as it becomes available.

Contact:
www.zimrevyouths.blogspot.com
+27 (0)790864171

Pictures attached to this release - free for use without copyright restrictions

Image 1 caption: One side of the helium blimp reads ‘Elections free and fair, or just hot air?’
Image 2 caption: A helium blimp hovers in the sky on the Limpopo River with his message facing into Zimbabwe where President Mugabe is holding a party for his 84th birthday.
Image 3 caption: Protestors check their props ahead of a birthday demo against 84-year-old President Robert Mugabe
Image 4 caption: The reverse side of the helium blimp reads ‘Bob, you’ve had your cake. Now beat it!’

SOKWANELE NOTE: High resolution versions of these images (suitable for print) are available for download at this link. Click on the image you want to download (the image will open on a page of its own); select ‘All sizes’ from the options directly above the image, then choose the image size you want to download.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, Beitbridge, Musina, South Africa, civic action, protest, photojournalism, elections, human rights

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HELIUM BALLOON DEMO AT BEITBRIDGE AGAINST MUGABE

A giant helium balloon is being hoisted near the South African border post of Beitbridge this Saturday, just as President Robert Mugabe arrives on the Zimbabwe side to celebrate his 84th birthday.

Mugabe’s actual birthday was on Wednesday 21, but he has chosen to combine festivities with an election rally at the Zimbabwe town of Beitbridge this weekend.

Hundreds of black demontrators, both from exile groups in South Africa and inside Zimbabwe will gather at the bridge to protest for free and fair elections on 29 March.

Former member of Parliament, Mr Roy Bennett, will address the protest in both English and Shona and a large crowd is expected to cross the bridge to hear him. Mr Bennett is banned from entering his homeland.

To crown the event, a giant helium balloon will be raised more than 100 metres into the sky where its message will be clearly visible by Mr Mugabe and his colleagues inside Zimbabwe.

The balloon banners will read: “Happy Bye Bye to Bob” on one side and “Free and fair or just hot air” on the other.

Mr Mugabe faces a stiff challenge next month from veteran opposition leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and the former national treasurer, Dr Simba Makoni.

Please come and cover this unusual yet timely protest.

Date Sat 23 February
Where Beitbridge border zone (SA side)
Time Starts 10am

Contact : http://www.zimrevyouths.blogspot.com/

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, beitbridge, protest, action

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Today’s mailing to our subscribers is an ‘appreciation’ of Robert Mugabe on his 84th birthday.

By any of the normal indices by which one judges the success of a leader of a modern nation state, he is a failure, and an abject failure at that. Yet still, after 28 years of disastrous rule, he remains at the helm and, incredibly, at the age of 84 he is putting himself forward again as a candidate - ZANU PF’s only official candidate - for a further term as President of Zimbabwe. Such is the overwhelming arrogance of the man, Robert Mugabe. And that, with such a record of shame, he should have even the remotest prospect of prolonging his tenure in office, is testament only to the experience and expertise his regime has acquired in defying the democratic process.

At independence in 1980, Zimbabwe seemed poised on the threshold of an era of great promise. That independence was won at the cost of a bitter and protracted civil war, but now the proud nation was bursting with new confidence. Robert Mugabe was widely acclaimed as a hero - a revolutionary leader who had committed to the cause of reconciliation and the path of pragmatism. Western governments were falling over themselves in the rush to provide offers of aid. In the general euphoria then prevailing Julius Nyerere of Tanzania counselled Mugabe: “You have inherited a jewel. Keep it that way.”

28 years on that precious jewel of Africa lies in ruins, giving an ironic twist to the name of the country which is derived from the ancient ruins of the stone fortress, dzimba dza mabwe, or “house of stone”.

Read the full article on our website here. Subscribe to our mailing list to receive our articles by email.

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The Consumer Council has now admitted that it is extremely difficult to compute the bread basket as commodities are not sufficiently available. This problem is much the same for estimating the Poverty Datum Line and the Consumer Price Index largely due to the meaningless nature of the data by the time it is made public. This makes life very difficult for businesses as somehow they must exercise social responsibility without really knowing at what rate the cost of living is rising.

Salary increases are now in excess of 100% in some cases ad it is widely accepted that inflation is probably higher than 150 000% as we speak. Using old data, the government mouthpiece (Herald) has admitted inflation at 66 000% commerce and industry is perilously placed as a slip in judgment or a miscalculation on rapidly rising costs could see collapse. Monthly inflation sometimes exceeds profit margins by 12 – 15 times which makes business very vulnerable.

Equity markets slumped a further 16% in one day due to the central banks failure to provide a surplus in the money market. This has forced down the cost of large lots of currency. The stock market remains in limbo, negative sentiment is rising and this is compounded by talk of a looming banking sector crisis. The reality on the ground is that, in the household to business and government, it is becoming extremely difficult to cope with the rapidly changing environment and generally there is a failure to adapt and protect investment and performance.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, business watch, Consumer Council, Poverty Datum Line, Consumer Price Index, social responsibility, cost of living, inflation, Herald, Equity markets, money market, currency, stock market, crisis, investment

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I wrote recently about a conversation I had with a ‘runner’, where he told me about the scale of bribing that goes on in some of the journeys he and cross border traders make between Zimbabwe and South Africa. It was his description of corruption on the South African side that got my interest. I know corruption is rife in Zimbabwe, but hadn’t fully appreciated that Zimbabweans provided an income to South African officials as well. I’ve been asking a bit about this.

One guy I know well said that he himself had paid a R10 bribe to the person manning the gate on the South African side. Gate passes have to be stamped by both customs and immigration to show that the traveller has cleared both, and only then can they proceed on their journey. In his case, either one or the other had forgotten to stamp his pass and he hadn’t realised. When he got to the gate, the official wanted him to turn back and re-join the endless queue to get a stamp. But he already had other cars behind him and turning around proved to be a nightmare and angered the other drivers. The gatekeeper leant towards the car window and quickly whispered “Ten rands”.

“I gave him R10 so fast my hand was a blur”, the guy joked.

The gate boom lifted, and he continued onwards towards Zimbabwe, despite the fact that a major border transgression had effectively occurred. My friend believes that this wasn’t the first time the gatekeeper had turned a blind eye: “He was confident, knew exactly what he wanted and made it happen quickly and discretely”.

But the big potential scam on the South African side appears to involve Zimbabweans and the re-claiming of VAT.

Zimbabwean shoppers need not pay VAT to the South African government, and there’s a small hut at the border where Zimbabweans can queue, submit their invoices and have all the VAT they have paid totalled and then refunded. I’ve been told that if the invoices are less than R1000, a cheque is issued on the spot; more than R1000, a VAT certificate is issued and a cheque is posted to the recipient by the tax people at a later date.

I have never claimed VAT. The queues to the tiny little hut take place under a corrugated iron roof and extend outwards into the blazing sun. And every time I have been there there have been only two (slow) people manning the desk. Temperatures in the afternoons sore into the high 30s (Beitbridge can get as hot as 40′C), and it is hellish. My VAT refund would usually be as little as R30 because I never buy much, and frankly I would pay R100 to avoid a queue like that!

But the fact is that all those little till strips translate to hard cash - more importantly, foreign currency, highly valued in Zimbabwe and very hard to come by. Cross-border traders and runners usually do bulk buys so their invoices add up significantly. Reclaiming VAT is a perk that most of their customers don’t think about when they pay for the goods up front back in Zimbabwe. So the trader makes an additional bit of extra profit by claiming for himself the VAT on goods paid for by others.

So the scam opportunity presents itself. Every person standing in the queue, clutching a wad of till strips, is effectively holding cash in the open. One guy I spoke to told me he had his pockets picked in the queue and lost several till strips. Someone else no doubt nicked them and added them to their pile to claim his VAT.

Just as ‘touts’ work their way up and down the queues in the customs buildings in the Zimbabwean side, offering to help you to clear customs for a ‘fee’ (bribe), so touts have started to scan and work their way through the South African VAT queue. I was told to be very careful in the queues: “Staple all your invoices together so none of the officials can nick one or two, and make sure you have copies of everything because they will deny it ever existed if it does go missing”. Another person told me to, “Refuse all offers of help; you only need to do it once before you understand how it all works”, she said. “If you accept help, you will be robbed”.

Apparently the touts offer to assist, by ‘buying’ your invoices from you for a discount. They total up all the invoices (and this is the point where some tend to ‘go missing’) to work out how much they are worth, then they offer you half the value of the VAT left on the remaining invoices. I assume that the touts then re-claim the full VAT as their own. I find it hard to believe that the South African officials can’t see what is happening in the queue and there must be a few faces very familiar to them, especially if they make regular claims but never leave the border. Are the South Africans involved? Why are they refunding VAT on goods the claimant cannot produce as evidence that he or she has bought them?

The advantage to the ‘customer’ is that they receive a little money back, but don’t have to stand in the queue. For someone like me, with my R30 of refundable VAT, it might be worth handing the strip over to a happy queuer for R15 because I always leave with nothing. But I was strongly advised against even trying this.

“Think about it”, a friend said. “If you give them your till strip they know what you’ve bought and exactly how much and what you are carrying with you. All they have to do is phone their friend on the Zim side with the registration number of the car you are travelling in, and you are a sitting duck for theives”.

A good point. I think I’ll hang onto my till strips myself, or give them to someone I care about who needs a bit of extra cash.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, South Africa, VAT, tax, border control, customs, immigration, corruption

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I occasionally use a ‘runner’ to buy things I need that are no longer available to buy in Zimbabwe. A group of us place an order, and the runner nips across the border to South Africa or Botswana and buys it for us. Fees vary from runner to runner, but it’s usually about 20% of the value of the goods (although I have heard of some people paying cheaper rates). Given my recent first-time experience at paying a bribe, I asked him how runners fared with their regular cross-border ventures.

He told me when they left South Africa, they made sure they had plenty of Rands, in small denominations, easily accessible in their pockets. Bribe payments begin right from the start of their journey. Apparently the South African police routinely stop the buses and vehicles heading towards the Zimbabwean border. Lengthy ‘harassment’ (his word) over paperwork or the amount of goods in the vehicle ensues. The driver does a quick whip around, and all the passengers chip in a few Rand which is handed over and the problem goes away.

I had noticed, on a trip I made to South Africa last year, that the police did seem to be stopping all the vehicles with Zimbabwean number plates and lots of passengers. My fellow passenger and I assumed this was to do with the refugee crisis, but neither of us could understand why they would stop people LEAVING the country. Surely this is what they want to happen if it was a refugee issue? Now I wonder if we were witnessing bribing on a grand scale going on.

The runner told me that when the vehicle reached the border post bribing increased further. If the queues were very long, a bribe helped people to jump to the front. He pointed out that this is very important if cross border trading is your job: “Time is money”, he said.

He told me that those passengers travelling on dubious documents faced heavier bribes than he did to persuade the officials to turn a blind eye. What was interesting about this nugget of information was his comment that the border officials - on both sides - wanted Zimbabweans with suspicious paperwork to leave the country and go back to Zimbabwe. This meant the bribes paid while leaving the country tended to be ‘reasonable’. I was told that officials know that the crisis in the country will drive the people back to South Africa, most likely using the same suspicious paperwork. At this point the bribes become very steep because the desperate person trying to find a way back to the land of employment will pay almost anything to get in: “It is better to get a little money on the way out, so you can make a lot of money when they return”, he said. “You don’t want those people to be stuck in South Africa”.

The bribes don’t stop there. Once through the border, the intrepid Zimbabwean traveller faces endless harassment by the Zimbabwean police: the runner told me that the police tended to stop all the vehicles laden with passengers and goods. “What are they after?”, I asked. It turns out the Zimbabwean police will make passengers slowly unpack their entire possessions on the side of the road, demand customs clearance payments (even though they have no mandate to do customs work) and threaten to seize goods. Again, R10 from each passenger smoothes the way and makes harassment and hassle disappear. So, to answer ,my question, they are ‘after’ a bribe.

The runner I was talking to took pains to explain to me that this was one of the reasons why the goods he brought in cost so much more than if they had been bought in South Africa. He said he could pay as much as R500 in a trip, through bribes to border officials on both sides, and the police on both sides. This is a cost passed on to Zimbabwean customers like me.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, South Africa, customs, Immigration, border, corruption, bribe, bribes, police

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Whilst political developments preoccupy the business community, it is more of the same for those that have to endure the ever worsening economic crisis. Industry requires approximately USD 2 bln to recapitalise as a result of the counter productive price controls introduced in June last year. This figure exceeds Zimbabwe’s total annual export income.

Whilst the bottle neck in the banking sector has eased somewhat, cash flow ripple effects are still being felt through all industrial sectors. This has resulted in the value of the USD easing at the top end of the forex market where large volumes are traded. Exporters are desperate to convert export earnings into ZWD to pay their bills but the market place does not have the cash and cannot afford the price. At the lower end of the market, currency rates of exchange have risen dramatically to sit at as much as 70% higher than the larger parcels.

Because of hyper inflation and the inability of Ministry and RBZ to cope, most salary workers are now paying executive rates of tax, drastically reducing disposable income. This further affects spending patterns and behaviour as more and more of the pay package is now spent on bare essentials such as food, housing and transport.

Disparities in pricing across the spectrum, from the cost of services to of goods on the sheleves continue to widen and this in itself, generates another parallel economy as opportunist pounce to exploit the situation. A local economist predicts that the USD will be placed in the region of 100 million to 1 in June.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, business watch, industry, foreign currency, hyper inflation, parallel economy, forex, RBZ, ZWD, tax

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I bribed a government official yesterday - my first ever bribe. The Zimbabweans reading this post may now shut their mouths and massage their bruised chins from where they hit the floor. I know that everyone does it but this really was my first ever bribe, and not because I am prudish about it. I fully appreciate that I am lucky and it is unusual for me to reach several decades in age and have managed to live in this country without ever paying bribes. And I put that down to the fact that I live alone, simply and seldom travel, so don’t have the customs / passport / car travel document etc etc hassles that everyone else endures. If I did, I may well have bribed people years ago.

I do have to say though that I do actively resist paying bribes, mostly because it bugs the hell out of me that people have so easily fallen into an expectation that ‘backhanders’ should be given for every little thing they do. There was a time when bribes were a way to smooth extremely difficult or lengthy processes. Now it seems we need to bribe ordinary people just to get off their bottoms and do ordinary jobs.

In my case I had ‘no choice’ (that easy excuse): the failure to bribe would have caused me all sorts of personal paperwork problems and it was very clear from all the hurdles being thrown up that the government official I was dealing with had no intention of even blinking unless I gave him money.

So, R10, given to an intermediary to pass on (because I am chicken) suddenly produced activity and papers. It was so easy.

It worries me that it was so easy. Am I better off, as a person, for realising how easy it is to make my life a bit better with a bit of foreign cash? I think not. I can see now how so many fall into a pattern of bribing, their casual acceptance that bribing makes life easy leading to a casual expectation from all officials that accepting cash is the way to go.

Where does that leave those who do not have access to a bit of forex here and there? Most likely standing at the end of a queue that never ever shortens, or perhaps simply at the mercy of a bureaucrat who might, out of kindness, decide to simply do his/her job for nothing more than his/her salary that day.

I cannot adopt a higher moral ground here: I have corrupted myself. I did it knowingly and with full knowledge that I always had a choice to be honest, and I chose to be dishonest knowing full well that it was unethical and wrong. But I did it anyway.

And so our society unravels. What a shame.

For myself, I promise I will not fall into the easy pattern of always bribing and will continue to try and resist doing so. But I cannot promise to be a martyr, to throw my life into hellish difficulties for the sake of principle. Life’s too short, especially in Zimbabwe. I am sure that this won’t be the only time I have to bribe someone; I do it reluctantly, but I accept that I have the capacity to do it.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, bribery, corruption, bribe, crime

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