Sinatha

My trademark signature reads as follows:

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I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant

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There is absolutely nothing wrong with our people buying land and properties in Bulawayo using what ever scheme at their disposal. If we choose to (as predictable) sit back on our butts and bask in brinkmanship and illusion, then Amashona will crowd us out of Bulawayo by buying properties in and around Bulawayo. Needless to say we will be forced to kick our own butts in regret, logic dictates that we need to engage in all manner of activism wittingly and/or unwittingly.

Lobs,

The suggestion that the ndebele people have not been buying houses and were sitting on their 'backs'up until the introduction of this ZPF homelink scheme is rather an insult to their intelligence and their being.

Zama futhi Lobs.

Sinatha

So what you are in fact saying is this that all these tears of abantu besiNdebeleni about the clear and present dangers of being marginalised and crowded out by the Shonas in Bulawayo are just hogwash or balderdash?. Are you saying that their tears are in fact crocodile tears signifying nothing in the neighbourhood of reality? Are we saying mfana kaSitshela that because Ndebeles are so intelligent as you allege above, they are in fact, immune and impervious to all the vestiges and shenanegans of Shona malfeasance. In the extremely unlikely event that your claim is accurate, then can you explain why all this sound, fuss and fury found in our politics where we all cry foul about the Shona shenanegans against our people. Are we then actually saying we are just cry-babies(singabo baby) who are spoilt and always need to be treated with kids gloves? What about the all too familiar brouhaha and imbroglio within our fora about the political and economic vicissitudes that our people are going through in their provinces?

I personally thought that the fears expressed by our people about lack of jobs, imposition of Shona language down their kids' throats, a deliberate occupation of Matebeleland by hordes and herds of Shona souls and mortals were clear and visible signs of continued treachery directed at undermining the Ndebele, backwardising him and condemning him to stone age existential conditions.

Lobs,

Your other entry Lobs does suggest that we Ndebeles, even if we have resources, are by nature not intelligent and initiative enough to develop ourselves if opportunities arise but are known for sitting on our 'butts' and doing nothing about developing ourselves. I am saying that this kind of idea is rubbish. This is a typical Shona stereotype that is perpertuated by our one and only self styled King Lobengula and this is shocking and amazing indeed. My contribution here has been to challenge that stereotype and say to you we are not what you and the Shona believe we are. That is lazy buggers. This is the same stereotype that one of Mugabe's goons was airing in channel 4 here in the UK last week. He was saying that we in tha 'part of that country' are always fed by the government and we do nothing to help ourselves. I say this is bullocks and no serious minded person should subscribe to this kind of perveted thinking. We are responsible people and if we have the resources and face no marginalisation, or ethnic beurocracy heavily enshrined in every institution of Zimbabwe today, we take steps to develop ourselves like any other human being. To attribute that kind of development spirit to the Shonas alone is grossly irresponsible and unwarranted. Why 'backwidise' our people unnecessarily and continue to perpertuate this Shona nonsense? The ZPF homelink housing scheme, with all its intentions to milk our people's foex can not be used as a barometer to castigate our people for not taking part in it. That scheme is there for ZPF to milk our forex and there is nothing else that can dovetail or tailor make your call for consumer activism by boycotting the maShona schemes than this homelink housing scheme that you shamelesly and enthusiastically support. We should boycot that and buy houses directly from our own people in the region. That will be better off.

Ngithemba uyangizwa baba Mthiyana!

Sinatha

Hk hk hk angikuzwisisi simply because your response is emotionally charged thereby camouflaging it from reality and common sense. It borders more and more on rhetoric than reality. Because your response is pregnant with euphoria and fury, it smacks of a dose of wanton vituperative diatribe, when in fact the subject of our discussion is straight-forward. Obviously this is to be expected because acting otherwise would have put a lie to the long held orthodox and dogmatic mantras that we are a conditioned people who, as you allege above, are true to stereotypes as perpetuated by the stunted Mashona.

But the good thing is that it shows that you are indeed extremely applying your mind on this particular issue which in itself is great thing, given your nonsensical statement about basking on your "butts" above hk hk.

Hayi sengiyahamba ke manje mfana sengizakubona ngoMvulo, ngapha sokuyi "woza Friday" hk hk.

Hk hk hk wena ulizanka sibili. Mfana kaMthiyana it is high time you released yourself from this Shona diatribe school of thought about the Ndebele or this Shona tribalist closet form of thinking and attitudes about your people.

Next week! Udakwe kuhle!

Bakwethu

abacwaninga ngezemfundo bathi ama-indicators e-learning yichange of attitude ranging from mood swings to change on how one does his/her daily business. amapostings alomfutho awaxabene akhomba ukufunda(learning)

Lobengula jaha lakwaGuduza wake wethula isethulo esihle ngendlela u******* angathola ngayo iforex. ironically ugono implented a carbon copy of your strategy owayifaka lapha enkundleni. one might wonder, engxenye unguye ugono hk hk! or izanu isila ngenkundla, angingeke ngatsho ukuthi ucabanga njengogono that will be an insult. as a Tjolotjian i choose to be obstinate, ogono copied hk hk!

now here is another homework,sorry for this abuse lami ungangibuza ngokuloya ngizakutshele ezomkhonomi sobuza kuwe. umgwaqo kaWanki uyawazi ngizwa kuthiwa awusela bus a kurakure co. left after whorevests sacked F. Pullen and sons. i know a "Tjepfunye" chap who can come up with R800 000. and reality has that transport business is tantamount to suicide in zim because of fuel scarcity. on your work plan think about extending Wanki route to Francis Town at one end and Livingstone at the other using 2 brand new scarnia buses and volvo later when the Tjolotjo-Titji lap is tarred. this is serious help if you can, iforex is not a problem neither is getting rid of the ridiculous KZim. if this is rubbish say it in no uncertain terms. this is my own version of Mthwakazi's economic empowerment. labanye feel free umfowethu angaphathiseka. i chose Lobengula ngoba uyawazi umgwaqo engikhuluma ngawo kanti njalo waphumela egcikeni ukuthi he is our own Eric Bloc and availed his untainted services as usual and to my chagrin shonas utilized eg gono hk hk!

Lastly, where is Mntongenakudla? angabe ehlabe ikhefu? ukewamchecker eLindela hk hk! kodwa ngethemba uphilile lapho akhona.

asisebenze jo.

Lembe
iLembe eleqa amanye amaLembe ngokukhalipha,Tshaka Zulu

That is a very excellent proposal you are making. Given the fact that Victoria Falls is one of the seven wonders of the world, logic dictates that the shortest route to Victoria Falls for tourists travelling by road is via Plumtree, Tjepfunye, Bubude (KwaGuduza) into Tsholotsho business centre all the way to Victoria Falls through Lupane.

As you rightly state above Wena Wendlovu, currently, the transport business in Zim is a sure preamble to one's own financial obituary. As we ponder on these issues as Mthwakazians, we take note of the fact that the current economic environment is intensely catastrophic for any ambitious business initiative. However, I will contact you privately so that we can deliberate further on your proposal, which I must state that it is very good.

Gideon Gono embraced a blue print which, as you rightly assert above, was born out of my own initiative but true to form, in his capacity as a member of a discredited junta, allowed himself to be hoodwinked and crooked by bereft politicians to the detriment of an otherwise excellent economic framework. What catalysed Gono's failure was his brinkmanship and his self-centred know-it-all maverick grand posture masquarading as a quasi-immortal being who has fathomed all financial rhyme and rhythm. That he failed to consult and seek advice from humble people is well documented. He allowed Mugabe, as usual, to usurp the economic framework and personalise it and turned it into a Zanu-Pf manifesto, and as fate has had it it blew straight up in their faces because they had confused and mixed financial formulae with their communist doctrines. Already reports of Gono being under pressure from Zanu-pf politicians are beginnning to surface.
UMntongenakudla is very much alive and well. Should be in rural KZN (KwaZulu-Natal) this weekend attending a friend's traditional wedding in Mtubatuba. You remember his wild allegations that Kalanga is very much related to Shona?

Lobengula

kuyabongeka ukuphendula kwakho ngokutshetsha. kuhle njalo ngoba into engiyitshoyo uyayibona ngizahle ngikuthinte ngasese manje ngikuphe amadetails onke sixhumane ngencingo.

ngizwa kuthiwa kuyavunyelwa ukuthi angayanatha phandle kwelizwe ungene lesigujana esilingeni imota yakho hatshi amadiramu ongawathengisa, like ofellowship abaya eFrancis Town banatha lapho bangene lelingane uhambo lwabo noma sithi itanka. lokhu ngikuzwe lami ngizama ukufeya feya ekhaya, abalolwazi ngincedeni bafowethu.

Lobengula

There is your posting on inflation, thanx you very much Sir for the posting, can I ask something on som of your points.

There is point number one where you talk of

Seeking stability on the currency front
· Strengthen the value of your currency
· Protect the value of the Z$

How do you do all these things, how do you stabilise the local currency? From what are you protecting your currency from?

Point two
Remove obstacles to free flow of trade
· Adhere to free market principles

Free market principles, do you mean like we do not have to charge any duties or what/ i am not really getting this. If it is about duties, is it a practical solution or its just a theoratical solution. If we do not charge any duties then when we export our products we should get the same favours otherwise we run the risk of that our products will be more expensive as compared to products from other countries. Maybe I did not get what you were trying to put across.

Point eleven

Free exchange rates of currencies
· let the market dictate these
· let interest rates find their own level


I liked this one, is this possible? Which country is using this one? I thought that this was more theoratical than practical, is it not that most of the countries that purpote to be using this kind of an exchange rate have a limit/cap and a floor for their currencies. I mean like their rates are not allowed to get below a certain rate and they are not allowed to be above a certain rate. They manage their rate in one way or the other but they manage it a a way that there are not very many interferences like they do in most african countries.

OK by using this exchange rate regime, how do you protect the value of your local currency???


I think that we will shout and shout and shout BUT the solution really is not that the economy is not doing well, the reason lies in us mending the international relations only. If the silent sanctions are removed then I do not think there will be a problem. I think the Western countries are doing what they can to subortage the economy because of the person they gave a knighthood sometime ago.

I will say we have the resources its now for us to plan kuhle.

Thanx you very much bantu for talking Nation Building

Pope
I think that we will shout and shout and shout BUT the solution really is not that the economy is not doing well, the reason lies in us mending the international relations only. If the silent sanctions are removed then I do not think there will be a problem. I think the Western countries are doing what they can to subortage the economy because of the person they gave a knighthood sometime ago
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I am not going to attempt to answer the questions you poised to Lobs above, but i am failing not to respond to your closing comments. You purpote above that in reality it is not that the economy is not doing well, but the need to mend the international relations only there lies the solution. I am not sure whether you are aware of the factors that have an impact on an economy. This world we are living in has become a global village, therefore "glocal" approach to an economy is absolutely essential. The other thing we must not delude ourselves into believing is that the zim economy started going down after the so called "smart sanctions", the economy started going down a long time ago, an economy that thrives on excluding certain sections of the population on a deliberate move and on political motivated manuerves will not last, it might only last long but not longer.

Mr Pope your comments above reveal to me that you are not aware that the so called "smart sanctions" are targeted only to a certain clique of Zanu pf individuals, they are not economic sanctions. How can you blame the international community for targetting these evil leaders? how is the international community sabotaging the economy?, if it does, of which i doubt you are aware of, when compared to Mugabe and his henchmen who sabotages the economy more?

Sibamba

I will not say much about your comments BUT I want you to just tell us the reasons of any sanctions. I think, this is just a personal opinion correct me if I am wrong Mr. I think these sanctions were put in place to force the people of Zimbabwe to change the government which had fallen out with the western powers. Initially they underestimeted the devil they had created, they thought that if they make the masses suffer then they will inturn say that the government has failed them and then they will vote that government out of power.

The honourable Sibamba, I do not think that we have to be fooled that the smart sanctions are targetted to the selected few. Yes they might say that BUT who is feeling the pinch, is it Mugabe?, is it Mnangaga? I think the answer is no the answer is, the people of Zimbabwe that is the ordinary man on the streets is the one on the receiving end.

I concure with you when you say the government is an evil one yes I agree lami I'm affected like you. Maybe I have some experiences which are worse than yours. Kodwa regarding the issues of these so called sanctions, they are the ones that are really pushing the economy down. If the government is changed and these so called sanctions are removed then you will see that the Zimbabwean economy is not a bad economy at all. The other thing which you must bear in mind is that if we want the economy to be better, we should not like change the current government and put in any one, at the moment they (UK & cronies) want the MDC nxa lingafaka abanye, there is nothing that can be done.

The other thing even thought it is my personal opinion is that even if peole fail to change the rural/ ruling party and someone aligned to the west takes over as president, you will see that things will get better.

Mr. Sibamba I will take the UK as an example tell me about the North South devide, which areas are considered to be having better infrastructure are they in the North or South? Is the economy doing badly? Take RSA is everyone involved or its just the whites and a few black capitalist? I am not getting you when you talk about excluding some sections of the society please elaborate. How does that affect the economy? How does that affect exports and imports?.


I will still maintaing that without sorting our relationship with the Western countries who are sabortaging the economy, we will continue to cry.

At times I do not blame Mugabe, I blame the UK and other western countries. Who rigged the elections for Mugabe to be president? Why is it that we are not blaming Thatcher, she is the one to blame too. Why was she quite when we were being killed. Sorry ungasuki usulahleka and start discusing too much politics lapha coz we are linking it with economics lana and international relations.

Ngiyabonga Sibamba with your posting.

Mr Pope John

Mr Pope can you tell me why were the smart sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe? To my knowledge they were imposed to avoid unnecessary suffering on the part of the general public. We know that economic sanctions directly affect the innocent masses. Most sanctions in the past were meant to cripple the governments concerned or instil some sort of despondence on the part of the masses, so that they could revolt and depose those governments, but such kind of full blown sanctions were discovered that they hurted the masses more than they did hurt the devils they were aimed at. I am not saying that these targeted have no impact on the masses but what i only want to know from you is, how are the sanctions affecting them by denying people like Mugabe to travel to France do to shopping for Grace? Remember that even these countries that imposed these travel bans on Zanu pf individuals still do business and trade with Zimbabwe, how many British companies are still operating in Zimbabwe? There are no restrictions on trade with any country in the world, you can ask how are they to conduct the trade when they are not allowed to travel? firstly, there are zim embassies in all of those countries and the use of technology can enable them to trade without having to travel.

The notion that the economy is going down due to the sanctions i think is a misplaced one. The economy started long back to go down, it was only a matter of time for it to crumble. You allege that when discussing economics therefore i am not to be carried away and involve politics unnecesarily, i will tell you one thing Mr Pope, the economy and politics of zimbabwe can not be seperated when analysing its economic well-being, zim government does not follow conventional economic principles but politics leads or determines the allocation of resources or the misallocation of them. How does discrimination affects the economy? Any country needs to use all available talent at its disposal inorder to reach its full potential, when a country starts practising nepotism on the expense of merit and ability you must know that it is surely leading to destruction. If i am lying Msupa please correct me. Your example of Britain's north and south devide is rather not illustrative enough or to say the truth not to be used out of context. The British government or the private sector allocates resources equitably accross the geopolitical regions of that country, people are not employed because they support the labour party, people can move freely to any part of the country and find that barriers to employment are non-existent. Msupa you will tell me that it is so in zim, but in reality you know it is not, there are no regulations to that effect, that certain people hailing from a certain region must not be employed in zim, that is true, but it has become like British common law or the British constitution that is not written down but known to its citizens.

Marget Thatcher and her Tory government will remain condemned by me for imposing a thief on us.

Thole likamahlabayithwale (Sibamba)

Thanx you very much, in your last posting

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I am not saying that these targeted have no impact on the masses but what i only want to know from you is, how are the sanctions affecting them by denying people like Mugabe to travel to France do to shopping for Grace?

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Hatshi you said it all. Where is the aid we used to get from other countries? Even though it did not fully get to the masses atleast something goyt to the masses emakhaya. As I speak now some foreign funded organisations that used to operate in Zim closed because of these sanctions Sibamba. CIDA, SIDA used to assist kakhulu BUT now they are no longer doing like they used to, because of sanctions. If like these organisation close their offices who suffers? Mugabe no masses yes. I wanted to give you an example of an organisation that used to operate koGodlwayo okwamanje ngiswelile, I will give you next time.

WEna WeSilo Msupa

I have to acknowledge your clean and objective fight. You are a qhawe, thina oMahlabayithwale siyaziqhenya ngawe.

You asked on your post above that, "where is the aid we used to receive?" my answer is i don't know. Sometimes it is easy to mix issues and end up getting mixed up. Let us be clear on what we are talking about so as not to digress unnecesarily. The government of Mr Mugabe has deteriorated to unbelievable levels, that man has committed all sorts of crimes against humanity, NGOs were not spared, he thought that the civil organisations were sponsoring the opposition political parties. The closure of any organisation has nothing to do with the imposition of sanctions on that "sun-set" political regime. I would be happy if you could elucidate or elaborate on how organisations ceased operations due to sanctions.

Pope John Msupa

I think your assertion and or question relating to NGO can be further answered by the following publication which adds to what Sibamba has alluded to above:

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IRIN/Mercedes Sayagues

Local human rights groups' existence has been threatened by the new NGO bill

JOHANNESBURG, 23 Aug 2004 (IRIN) - The Zimbabwean government this week defended a proposed ban on foreign human rights groups and restrictions on local rights organisations, describing them as a "threat to national security".

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, placed in all the Sunday newspapers, the government also accused donors of employing "local puppets to champion foreign values".

The proposed Non-Governmental Organisations Bill seeks to ban foreign NGOs concerned principally with "issues of governance", and deny registration to NGOs receiving foreign funding for "promotion and protection of human rights and political governance issues". Details of the bill, which constitute a blow to local civil society, were provided by the government on Friday.

The bill requires all NGOs to register with a government-appointed regulatory council similar to the controversial Media and Information Commission, and disclose details of their programmes and funding. This council will comprise five representatives from civil society and nine government members, all appointed by the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare. NGOs without registration licenses will be shut down, and officials who continue with their activities illegally could face up to six months in prison.

Organisations involved in charity work, disbursing humanitarian assistance, the provision of funds for legal aid, animal welfare, environmental issues and the promotion of human rights are all covered in the bill.

The regulatory council will have the power to formulate a code of conduct for NGOs and decide whether a particular NGO can be registered. The council will also have the right to cancel a registration on several grounds, including if it feels that the NGO's objectives when it was registered "are merely ancillary to, or incidental to, the other objects of the organisation." NGOs will be required to pay an annual registration fee.

The government statement on Sunday said some NGOs were "deviant and others dabble in politics ... This legislation should not come as a surprise ... to patent adversaries of government. It was long overdue". It added the bill was aimed at helping other NGOS to work without being pressured into being anti-government.

Brian Kagoro, chief executive of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a group of pro-democracy NGOs, had previously told IRIN that the bill would hamper the ability of NGOs to "monitor the administration of development assistance and humanitarian aid, and to make sure it is not politicised to the benefit of any party, especially the ruling party".

Local human rights advocacy group ZimRights, which has been in existence for the past 12 years and receives overseas funding for its legal aid and human rights campaigns, said its activities would be curtailed. "According to Section 17 of the bill, local NGOs carrying out 'activities involving or including issues of governance', defined as human rights activities in the bill, will not be able to function," ZimRights national director Bidi Munyaradzi told IRIN.

"In terms of the bill, even church groups that have been vocal on human rights issues will be under government scrutiny, as it only excludes religious groups confined to religious work," he added.

In their analysis of the bill, Arnold Tsunga and Tafadzwa Mugabe of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights noted that the proposed legislation was "calculated at limiting the individual as well as the collective enjoyment of universally recognised rights and fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly and association of the citizens of Zimbabwe".

Kagoro added, "That there is an attempt [through] the bill to proscribe and severely limit the role of civil society speaks volumes of the extent to which they [government] intend to control the forthcoming elections", due in March 2005.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations in Zimbabwe is to discuss the bill at a public meeting in Harare on Friday.

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Pope John Msupa

You ask very good questions and I quote:

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Free exchange rates of currencies.....,

I liked this one, is this possible? Which country is using this one?

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South Africa, US, UK, Canada , all European Union members that are using the Euro, Scandinavian countries, Botswana, Australia, Japan and numerous other countries have free exchange rates of currencies. Now, the question which arises is: in what way do they differ from Zimbabwe? The answer to this question will come from none other than the monetary authorities in Zimbabwe as detailed in one of their authoritative monetary policy publications:

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1 EXCHANGE RATE MANAGEMENT OPTIONS.

(a) The Head of State and the Minister of Finance and Economic Development have both deplored the current state of the Zim Dollar exchange rate....

(b) Monetary Authorities (ie the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) have looked at possible exchange rate management options as well as their immediate, medium and long-term implications on the economy arrive at what we believe is, an acceptable compromise forward.

NB:The options examined include the continuation with a FIXED EXCHANGE RATE that has prevailed in the country for the last 6 or so years. This option was considered inappropriate for the short, medium to long-term good of the country.

NB:The extreme apposite of this system, the FREE FLOAT SYSTEM, was also considered inadvisable to a thin market such as ours.

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Msupa, a few issues arise from the above quote from the Reserve Bank of Zim publication. Evidence of a head of state(Mugabe) interfering with a supposedly independent financial institution is visible to a naked eye. We are told that Zimbabwe currently uses a FIXED EXCHANGE RATE!!!! which even they themselves now agree that it is an inappropriate system. We further glean or learn that the long tried and tested FREE FLOAT RATE (free exchange rate in my post above) is also not acceptable ("inadvisable" to use their own words).

So there you have it baba Msupa. In Zimbabwe, the problem is this nonsensical policy of fixing the rate of Zim$ to other major currencies. This is the very source of all the financial woes of that country, add to that the political marasmas and kwarshiokored political decisions that Mugabe endlessly make!!!. The pegging of the Zim$ at a fixed exchange rate to the major currencies gives rise to what is referred to as arbitrage opportunities in the financial markets. It gives rise to "Abolisphatheleni" who are essential arbitrageurs (profit from mismatched currencies). An example will suffice in this respect. If the US dollar is pegged or fixed at US$1 to Zim$5 000 by the Reserve Bank of Zim, while in the free market (euphemistically black market)the US$ is exchanging hands at US$1 to Zim$10 000. A clever Postoli will quickly rush to the nearest bank, buy the US DOLLARS at the official exchange rate of Zim$5000. Mathematically the following arise:

Postoli spends Z$5 billion to aquire US$1 million at this ridiculous official exchange rate.

Upon receipt of the US$1 million he quickly rushes out of the bank with his shiny head and long Bin Laden-like beards and quickly sells the US$1 million which he bought for Zim$5 billion.
He sells this US$1 million at an exchange rate of US$1 to Z$10 000. Now if you multiply his US$1 million by Z$10 000, my Grade 7 maths says you get Zim$10 billion!!!!!. There you have it baba Msupa, a Postoli making an extra Z$5 billion within 10 minutes!!!!. He bought his USdollars at Zim$5 Billion, quickly rushed outside and sold them for Zim$10 Billion!!!!.