POLITICS-AFRICA: When Will the Pan-African Parliament Come of Age?
By Vusumuzi Sifile

MIDRAND, South Africa, May 19 (IPS) – It will remain difficult for Africa to address the effects of the global financial crisis or tackle other problems the continent faces as long as African countries try to go it alone.

“The progress on the African unification project has been frustratingly slow,” Ghana’s vice president, John Mahama told members of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) at the opening of its 11th Ordinary Session in Midrand, South Africa.

Ghana Vice President John Mahama with then PAP President Gertrude Mongella

“We have parochially clung to our little flags and national anthems without seeing the advantages a more united Africa offers us… All that Africans want is a continent where they can hold up their heads with dignity and pride as Africans.”

The PAP was inaugurated in 2004 as one of the organs of the African Union, but its activities since then have often gone unnoticed. Governments have not been supportive to PAP because of suspicions that it would put in place stricter measures of accountability compared to those of national parliaments.

The institution’s leaders say its activities and visibility have been affected by lack of resources.

“Among the key challenges are resource (finance, human and technical) mobilisation and capacity building for the needs of the PAP,” said PAP President Gertrude Mongella in her opening address.

“Sometimes these imperfections tend to eclipse or even ridicule the many successes we have achieved. The good thing however is that all of us are aware of these shortcomings and are also aware of the efforts being made to resolve them.”

The financial challenges facing the parliament worsened recently when the AU halved its budget. As a result, PAP was unable to send observer missions to recent elections in South Africa and Algeria.

Uppermost on the agenda of the session which will run until May 29, is debate on the Protocol establishing the PAP and the global financial crisis, which continues to hit the developing world hard. Adoption of the protocol is expected to make the organ more visible.

The parliamentarians will during the course of the session also debate on how increased continental integration can strengthen efforts to tackle challenges such as the holding of free and fair elections in the continent, or stem the migration of skilled people and youth from the continent in search for greener pastures.

Mongella said there was a need for a shared vision and collaboration in order to steer the continent forward.

“While debating on these important items, we are aware of the ongoing transformation processes of the ongoing African Union Commission to an Authority. Since this organ coordinates all other organs (of the AU), we think its transformation will influence some changes on other changes as well,” said Mongella.

With reference to the forthcoming debate on weathering the global financial crisis, Mahama identified agriculture as a possible way out for the continent. He said billions of dollars were being spent on food imports annually, yet that money could be saved IF countries step up their farming activities.

“The food crisis must reveal to us that the abandoned and long-suffering African farmer must become a focus of our attention. We must assist our farmers to modernise and increase productivity in order to be able to feed us,” added Mahama.

(END/2009)

‘Zimbabwe impedes Sadc intergration’

 By Vusumuzi Sifile

THE continued economic and political meltdown in Zimbabwe is endangering any prospects of regional integration within the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc), political analysts have said.

During a debate in Harare recently, the analysts were unanimous that the current situation in Zimbabwe was making it virtually impossible to integrate the region.

The debate focused on what role Zimbabwe could play in helping to integrate Sadc.

Among other factors was Zimbabwe’s inflation rate, estimated at more than 14 000% — more than 1 000 times the average across the region.

Weber Chinyadza of the MDC, who presented the argument, said although there had not been much effort in integrating the SADC region, Zimbabwe would “make the attainment of the integration objectives difficult”.

“The rest of the region is suffering as a result of Zanu PF’s misrule,” said Chinyadza. “Zimbabwe is short-changing the rest of the Sadc members. How can you integrate Zimbabwe, with an inflation of 14 000% with, say, Botswana, whose inflation rate is about seven percent?”

Chinyadza said the huge difference between the official and parallel market exchange rate was inconveniencing other countries.

The chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Dr Lovemore Madhuku said “the levels of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe are not found anywhere in Sadc”.

“The extent of human rights abuses on its own makes it difficult for Zimbabwe to fit into a community of nations with respect for human rights,” Madhuku said.

“Our political culture is clearly outside the framework that is necessary for integration. Zimbabwe is not so much in a class of its own in terms of creating problems for the SADC. For example, we have Angola which still wants to rerun the 1990 presidential elections, and Swaziland which is still run by a monarchy. But the difference between Zimbabwe and those countries is that in those places there is a genuine effort to implement the Sadc guidelines on the holding of free and fair elections.”

Madhuku said Zimbabwe had polarised regional and world politics, making it difficult to implement any form of integration. He said “each time the issue of Zimbabwe is raised, so many other irrelevant issues arise, diverting people’s attention” and as such, if the “Sadc were to be serious with any form of integration, they have to handle the Zimbabwean issue with openness”.

At the same time, said Professor John Makumbe, it was impossible for the rest of Sadc to integrate without Zimbabwe, as “the country is literally at the centre of the region”.

“The country’s position at the centre of the region forces every infrastructure to somehow touch Zimbabwe. Our position makes Zimbabwe key to any efforts to integrate the region,” Makumbe said.

The newly conferred Professor jokingly added that Zimbabwe was already implementing its own form of regional integration.

“The whole country is now a training centre where people are trained and exported into the region. Zimbabwe is exporting victims of human rights violations into the region and elsewhere, forcing neighbouring countries to spend lots of money on deporting Zimbabweans,” Makumbe said.

ZPPDP vows to win elections

By Vusumuzi Sifile

A NEW political party last week boasted it intended to “embarrass” both the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition MDC in next year’s harmonised elections.

The Zimbabwe People’s Progressive Democratic Party (ZPPDP) has still to be officially launched, but declared, through its leaders, it would win the elections.

In an interview the president, Tafirenyika Mudavanhu, and secretary-general, Gibbs Paul Gotora, said they were confident they would form the next government.

“From what we have done so far,” said Mudavanhu, “we have no doubt we will win the elections next year.”

Unlike a number of new parties formed in recent years just before elections, which have subsequently fizzled out within months, the ZPPDP leaders say they have “done everything” to win next year’s elections.

But the party has no full-time staff and was virtually unknown until last week when an advertisement appeared in this newspaper.

But Mudavanhu was undeterred: “The fact that we are still new is not an issue. We were formally registered on 3 August, but all along we were establishing our roots.

“As it is now, we are almost through with the selection of candidates for next year. We will contest every position at every level, and we have no doubt, on the basis of what we have done so far, we are going to win.”

Asked what it was they “have done so far”, Mudavanhu said: “We are a membership based party. So far we have close to two million registered members.

We are not like all the other parties that depend on supporters. Supporters can change their allegiance anytime, but with members, you are guaranteed they will be on your side all the time.”

Mudavanhu insisted there were a number of “respected businesspeople” involved in the project, but could not give their names.

Gotora said the structure of the party “also makes it very easy to win an election”.

“We have members at all levels. The lowest level, the village congress, has 588 executive members, representing seven leagues”.

The party’s platform has as its priorities minority rights, economic issues and democratic concerns.

Education: 30 Years Backwards and Still Declining

By Vusumuzi Sifile TWENTY years ago, University of Zimbabwe students fought the administration and among themselves over the quality of education.

Today they fight for a chair, a plate of sadza, a textbook, a seat in a commuter omnibus, among other mundane objects.

Student leaders no longer confront the authorities on student issues; otherwise they would be expelled immediately.

Students go for days without a proper meal. Their fees are mostly higher than the average income parents can afford. There is an almost permanent accommodation shortage on campus.

There is an equally unending lecturers’ exodus, shortage of books and learning equipment. Girls are reportedly turning to prostitution to make ends meet.

Former UZ Vice-Chancellor Professor Gordon Chavhunduka recalls with nostalgia how it was like “a fairy tale” at the same university.

“We had everything,” he says. “The library was fully stocked with new publications from the most renowned publishing houses.

We had foreign lecturers as guests. Not now.”

The standoff between the government, on the one hand, and Britain and the United States of America, on the other, saw a sharp decline in the number of foreign guest lecturers. Chavhunduka said politicians, such as Ian Smith, would hold discussions at the university with students.

“We would invite them regardless of their politician affiliation. The situation today is terrible. I am told there is a shortage of library books, and newly published books from outside the country are no longer available.”

During his days, Chavhunduka says, student life was good. “The environment was most ideal for their interaction. I can say we have gone back to pre-independence standards.”

Chavhunduka believes the standard of education is now worse than it was 30 years ago.

Students are destitute following the institution’s refusal in July to re-open their halls of residence, effectively banning students from staying on campus.

Student leaders believe this was part of the administration’s plan to “fix them” for their demonstrations over deteriorating standards.

The situation at all State universities — Bindura, Chinhoyi, National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and Midlands State University — is no better.

The president of the NUST Students Representative Council, Langton Muchembere said last week: “The current spate of victimization of student leaders in Zimbabwe by the tyranny of Robert Mugabe… is unacceptable.”

Six NUST student leaders were recently suspended for “leading students’ unrest”.

Muchembere said the “current learning environment is not conducive”. Among other things, he said “there is a chronic shortage” of lecturers, accommodation and transport.

Just before this year’s NUST graduation ceremony, students petitioned Mugabe to urgently resolve their crisis.

“Thousands of students are expelled, suspended, arbitrarily arrested, detained, tortured or killed for demanding better education.”

But the director of information and publicity at NUST, Felix Moyo said universities were not hospitality or finance institutions providing food, accommodation, and money for students.

He said most of the students’ complaints were about their physical needs, not the core business of universities.

“We are in the academic industry to give tuition of world class quality. While certain things may look like they have gone down, I can vouch that we still have the best and most effective quality control measures,” he said.

Lovemore Chinoputsa, UZ Student Executive Council (SEC) president, said Mugabe “should be ashamed of himself by capping students” who wrote exams without learning much.

“There should be 1200 lecturers at UZ but there are only 450, most of them pursuing their master’s programmes,” said Chinoputsa.

At Chinhoyi University, Ngonidzashe Muusha, a student leader, said: “All students, undergraduate and postgraduate, are being treated like Grade One pupils.”

The academia shares Chavhunduka’s sentiments: universities are churning out “half baked graduates”.

The former chairperson of Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT), Dr Ibbo Mandaza, said the standards have “declined tremendously”.

“We have a serious problem, I have no doubt about that,” said Mandaza. “As in every other sector, we currently have a serious capacity problem. Most of our skilled personnel have left the country, and this is impacting negatively on the quality of education at our institutions.”

MDC shadow Minister of Education, Fidelis Mhashu, described the situation at the country’s universities as “deplorable”.

He accused government of being reluctant to address the crisis in state universities. Instead, Mhashu said, students who air their grievances are victimized.

“Even up to now they have not started renovating the halls of residence at the UZ. When students complain they are labelled anti-government and members of the opposition. They are either fired or suspended from the institution,” said Mhashu, who chairs a parliamentary committee on education.

The committee, which met student leaders last week, will tour universities across the country to assess the situation.

Efforts to get a comment from the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Stan Mudenge and the Association of University Teachers (AUT) were fruitless.

This article was first published on the front page of The Standard on December 2, 2007.

WELCOME

Dear Reader,

Thank you for taking time off your schedule to visit this blog, the HOMEPAGE of Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda, a young Zimbabwean journalist currently working for The Standard newspaper. In this blog you will find all the professional and social infomation about Vusa.

Through this blog, you will also be able to access some of my published professional and academic articles. 

 You will also be able to browse through my wide selection of pictures taken from my different travels, at home and abroad.

You will also be able to contact me and share your ideas on some of my writings and other things.

 You are most welcome to share your idaeas about anything to do mwith this. This being a new initiative, there are certainly many things whioch acan be better, and I hope through your constructive criticism, I will be able to make this blog a useful informative tool.