As is to be expected, some of the Ministers hit the ground running,
others were more hesitant and unsure of themselves. Some mistakes have
been made and some progress achieved not as much as we may have
wanted, but some.
Certainly the atmosphere has improved a bit although Mugabe does his best to knock us all down from time to time.
There have been some notable achievements in this short space of time.
The Ministry of Finance has affected some reforms and the public
service has received hard currency allowances. More will be paid this
week. Teachers are back at work and I think most medical establishments
are also working to varying degrees, but they are open. Food supplies
in the commercial markets are more or less in free supply and as a
result prices have started to decline some by a significant margin.
In areas receiving food aid there has been a notable reduction in
political interference and a sharp increase in food distribution. In
fact in February a remarkable 75 per cent of the total population will
have received food from the aid agencies. I think this is the highest
percentage of a national population in receipt of food aid anywhere and
at any time not even Ethiopia during the famine in that country,
reached this level of need across the whole country.
There has been a serious explosion at the only functioning fertilizer
plant in the country at Sable Chemicals this uses 30 per cent of our
national power consumption and as a result we have had no power cuts
for a week. Its not because the MDC Minister concerned has waved a
magic wand its just that we have more electricity to go around now
that the plant is out of action. I have argued for some time that we
should have in fact closed the plant down and used the electricity for
other purposes.
Water supplies have gone back to the urban councils where they belong
and the Councils are slowly picking up the pieces and trying to rectify
matters.
Water supplies in Harare are now up to 50 per cent of needs from 30
per cent and quite a bit of investment is taking place. Sewerage and
solid waste disposal is still a problem and will be for a long time but
a team of consultants is visiting all towns and cities to investigate
what needs to be done and is making recommendations to the Councils.
We have made some progress in the field of media reform the Zanu PF
Minister has been tasked with this responsibility and as a start, to
stop political interference with the State controlled media. After an
encouraging start the State media resumed its delinquent practices and
more action is now required perhaps a bit of surgery.
It is tragic that in those areas where the SADC has responsibility,
only very patchy progress has been made. Although they signed the
Global Political Agreement on the 15th September last year and then
supported the adoption of constitutional reform in February with the
President signing the new legislation into law on the 15th, the old
regime shows little sign that they intend either to honor their part of
this deal or to work with us on the many urgent problems that need to
be addressed.
The National Security Council Act is yet to be signed into law, the
basic tenants of the GPA are yet to find expression in the way the
State operates and every possible obstacle is being put in the way of
progress. The abductees remain mostly in detention or missing, farm
invasions have intensified and segments of the administration are
simply refusing to reform or to act when instructed to do so by the new
Ministers.
At the same time, a secret criminal cabal has been established
working downwards from the Presidents Office to remote police stations
and army barracks. The paymaster is Gono and the principle role players
are senior Cabinet Ministers assisted by a number of senior civil
servants. It is difficult to determine just what they want to achieve
but it would appear that they have a number of objectives.
They want to prevent any substantive aid coming to the country in the
belief that this will then discredit the MDC in the eyes of the
majority. They want to try and force us to quit the transitional
government by holding our people in detention on false charges and
allegations, they want to frustrate any new reforms that might usher in
a period of media freedom and a more open society. They want to skew
the upcoming debate on the constitution and electoral reform; they want
to protect their key players in the administration and to sustain their
activities by using state resources.
This past week we saw an open challenge to the authority of the Prime
Minister when the administration unilaterally announced the appointment
of Permanent Secretaries to head ministries. Tsvangirai immediately
repudiated the action and rescinded the appointments. A subdued Mugabe
conceded they had exceeded their mandate and violated the GPA by doing
so. The Prime Minster will now handle all those appointments properly
today. On Friday we obtained information of an attempt to shift
responsibility for the telephone system from the MDC Minister
responsible to a Zanu PF Minister. This was confronted and prevented.
Despite the fact that all farm invasions are illegal after the signing
of the GPA and despite instructions to the contrary by the Prime
Minister, the President stated that they would continue and the Chief
Magistrate ordered the Courts to ignore binding legal agreements in
regional Courts. Farmers with cows in milk, fruit on trees and crops in
the ground have been told to leave their farms and homes at 24 hours
notice. If they refused they were jailed and in many cases beaten.
Private assets and homes are being occupied illegally and assets
looted. Clearly this criminal activity will have to be addressed but
who is the policeman in all this surely SADC and in particular, the
South African government.
So here we are still no action on the key issues that the SADC
leadership said should be resolved by the new government governors
are not yet appointed, the Attorney General and the Reserve Bank
Governor all appointed in violation of the GPA have not had their
positions reviewed and agreed, the National Security Council is yet to
be constituted and begin operations. The Prime Minister is yet to be
allowed to function in accordance with the GPA and the new
constitutional provisions. Illegal detentions have continued and the
farm invasions intensified.
On top of all this, regional governments are yet to come to the
assistance of the new administration. When approached for help they
disingenuously argued that we Must settle our debts and they will give
us help to do so!.
We owe over US$5 billion to our creditors have done little or nothing
to settle these debts for over 15 years and now as we take over a
bankrupt and devastated State, regional governments sit on their hands!