Zimbabwe: Financial Results Reflect Ailing Economy

 A FLURRY of financial results have come to the market in the just ended reporting season with the figures projecting a picture of an economy paralysed by biting liquidity problems and general economic decline.

The figures by and large show that the majority of the counters reflected either moderate or negative top or bottom line growth.

Other results showed mounting pressure on the bottom line from increased provisions, high finance charges and negative revaluations reflecting the deteriorating economic climate, analysts have said.

Even property firms such as Zimre Property Investments are signing the blues.

ZPI chief Edson Muvingi laid bare the problems besetting his company when he presented his company full year numbers to December 2014. Although his disclosures were confined to the property sector and his company in particular, the problems he highlighted had a familiar ring and touched on the broader economy.

He said tenants had failed to pay rentals; the company had property voids and rising debtors. It was the same story to an extent, but with a different setting.

Muvingi said his company was contendingith high levels of debtors. "We are just like banks who are also lending to people who might never pay back," he said.

And when it comes to recovering such debts, companies are getting no joy.

For instance, Muvingi said auctioneers have run out of storage space for furniture. Against such a background, attaching property is no longer a good idea.This, analysts say reflects the liquidity problems in the country.

Instead of attaching property, opting for payment terms was a much more prudent way, Muvingi said.
The problems highlighted by Muvingi are not confined to property companies alone.Additionally, tenants are demanding lower rents, he said.

Even banks have to contend with such problems of bad debts.
The Reserve Bank last year said non-performing loans (NPLs) stood at almost US$800 million.

An NPL is when payments of interest and principal are past due by 90 days or more, or at least 90.
A special purpose vehicle, Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation (Zamco), was set up last year to deal with bad loans.


Zamco intends to clean up and strengthen banks' balance sheets and provide them with the liquidity to fund valuable projects for the economy to rebound and to mitigate loss of confidence.

MMC Capital warned in July that the cut back on lending would "have a huge bearing on the economy as the reduced credit supply will lead to working capital challenges and in many instances businesses" failing to fund capital expenditure.

"The net result will be a decline of private gross fixed capital formation and private consumption which in turn will negatively impact on economic growth," MMC said. "In a high NPL environment, banks increasingly tend to carry out internal consolidation to improve the asset quality rather than distributing credit."

A number of financial institutions have obtained writs of execution to attach property to recover the money from defaulting clients.

Every week, national newspapers are awash with auction adverts.

Many face starvation

 When man-made disasters correlate with natural phenomena, there can only be one outcome: total collapse of whatever is in question.

Such is the case for the Zimbabwean economy, where the man-made policies spearheaded by President Robert Mugabe are positively correlated to what nature has bestowed on the southern African country. This year there is going to be drought in Zimbabwe, and this at a time when government does not have a budget to import maize
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That President Mugabe’s policies have been largely disastrous cannot be disputed by anyone in the know. You only have to look at the potential the country has and compare it to what it has achieved, to see how far the current government has taken the country downhill.

Examples of economic decline abound. There is talk of the collapsed manufacturing sector now operating at a capacity utilisation level of about 36%. The unemployment rate is as high as 95%. At least nine banks have closed since 2011, two of them this year.

Talking about food, this year Zimbabweans are going to starve with government having already declared 15% of the food crops planted this season as complete write-off. Coming from government we know the figure is a conservative one; the actual outcome is much worse. What is however more scary is that on its own, government is unable to raise the cash needed to fund the grain deficit.

The government has therefore started issuing maize import licences to companies as part of efforts to avert food shortages, following a dry spell that has dampened prospects of a good harvest in many parts of the country. There is no question that erratic rains affected the harvest, but it is also a fact that the looming food crisis has several causes. Besides drought, there is the issue of lack of productivity following the land reform programme and government policy failures in agriculture.

Back in the day, farmers would have turned to irrigation to avert a national crisis, but some of the farmers who were given land destroyed the infrastructure that was on the ground and cannot turn to irrigation in times of drought. The other problem on the land is that farmers do not have security, hence they cannot put money into such businesses.

Farmers - whether black or white - are still losing farms, with those politically connected pitching up at successful farms with dubious offer letters. No one in their right mind would invest significantly in a farm politicians could claim any given day.

It’s high time that these greedy Zanu-PF backed politicians realise that “it’s not the hoe in someone’s hand that is ploughing, but it’s the strength of the ploughing.

 One of the Mugabe policies that has brought nothing but cheap shoes and clothing that might not even last a day on your back is the Look East Policy.

While other African countries  while most Zimbabweans have managed to weather the storm and hang on through the hard times, the scary thing is that worse is yet to come. The tobacco farming season, which has been touted as a beacon of success for the land reform programme, is slowly losing steam.

 This year, overall output is not expected to surpass the 216 million kilograms that were achieved last year are getting the bulk of their FDI from the West, Zimbabwe is getting nothing from the favoured East.

Britain gives Zimbabwe $72m

 Britain has given Zimbabwe $72m to help increase food production by rural farmers over the next four years, as the southern African country faces the prospect of poorer harvests this year due to inadequate rains.

 

Once the bread-basket of the region, Zimbabwe has since 2000 struggled to feed its people due to droughts and President Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks, which badly affected commercial agriculture.

Catriona Laing, Britain's ambassador to Zimbabwe, said with 70% of Zimbabweans living in rural areas and mostly surviving on farming, supporting agriculture would speed up economic recovery.

The money would be paid out through the Food And Agriculture Organisation and other relief agencies.

Zimbabwe and Britain have had frosty ties since 2000, with London, the European Union and United States, accusing Mugabe of rigging elections and human rights abuses. Mugabe denies the charges, saying Britain is leading the West in trying to remove him from power as punishment for the land seizures.

According to New Zimbabwe.com, more than 160 white commercial farmers in Mashonaland East province will soon be removed from their properties as the government claims they are occupying the land illegally.

The government purported that scores of white commercial farmers were still occupying vast swathes of land under the guise of special sectors protection, yet they are engaging in farming activities which are not covered by the scheme, the report said.
The land grabs were set to continue despite Mugabe publicly admitting a few days before his birthday celebrations that he blundered by giving ill-equipped black farmers vast tracts of farmland seized from whites under his controversial land reforms
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News Day reported on Thursday that the European Union had warned Mugabe over his threat for more land grabs saying the move could ruin business re-engagement efforts between Zimbabwe and the EU block.The EU recently lifted restrictions on most government officials, but retained Mugabe and his wife Grace on the sanctions list.

Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party launched the land reforms in 2000, taking over white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.

Mugabe said the reforms were meant to correct colonial land ownership imbalances.
At least 4 000 white commercial farmers were evicted from their farms.

The land seizures were often violent, claiming the lives of several white farmers during clashes with veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation struggle.

Critics say the redistribution sparked food shortages and contributed to a massive inflation.

A family stand next to their grass-hut dwelling which was destroyed by the police at Manzou Farm in Mazoe, north of Harare, in Zimbabwe.

13,000 SCHOOL DROPOUTS 

School children going to school without fees

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Some 13,000 children dropped out of school in 2013, a 43 percent increase on the previous year, a report from the ministry of primary and secondary education has revealed.

 Lack of school fees was cited as one of the main reasons for the spike in dropouts as Zimbabweans struggle to send children to school in a failing economy.

Unemployment is estimated at more than 80 percent with most people resorting to vending to feed their families.

Significantly too, the Education Management System report released last week shows that about 52 percent of secondary school drop-outs were females.

At primary level about 40 percent of all school pupils who failed to proceed with their education were also females.

“At secondary level 2,289 dropped out of school because of school fees,” reads the report.

“At primary level, 2 784 dropped out because of school fees consisting of 1 646 males and 1 138 females.”

Early marriages were also responsible for a significant portion of the dropouts.

“At secondary level, 1,191 failed to continue because of marriages… while pregnancy has a total of 856 drop-outs,” the ministry said.

The report also shows that the government’s Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) which is meant to assist children from poor families with school fees is failing to cope with the increasing demand.

At least 165,000 pupils failed to have their fees paid through BEAM due to cheques being dishonoured as well as bureaucratic bungling.

NUST lecturers down tools

LECTURERS and non-academic staff at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST)  went on strike Tuesday demanding that government pays them outstanding February salaries.

The decision was announced at a meeting addressed by the Nust Educators Association (Nusteda) at the university's campus.

At the meeting it can be  understood that Nusteda members unanimously agreed to down tools until they are paid their dues.

Lectures agreed not to return to work until the government honours its obligation

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The lectures and non-teaching staff  met and agreed to down their tools until government pays up their February salaries and December bonuses.

This time the strike have crippled operations at the university because even the non-teaching staff have also joined in.

Last  week  also Great Zimbabwe University lecturers and non-teaching staff went on strike, protesting non-payment of their salaries since January and their outstanding December bonuses.

The government did  not take immediate action,  and the situation have spread to other state universities like UZ.

 The reality on the ground is that lectures are  likely to get their bonus and salaries at end of February or March.

UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE lecturers have launched a massive strike against their employer, government, after failing to get their salaries on time.
Every single lecturer has joined the strike as they voiced they are not backing down until government acts on their requests.
- See more at: http://www.zimeye.com/breaking-news-uz-lecturers-launch-massive-strike/#sthash.fNUJjXeX.dpuf

The lecturers said their worst fear and worry was that the government might resort to the staggering or slashing their salaries on the pretext they were too high.

State university lecturers earn an average monthly salary of between $1,500 and $3,000 depending on grade.

The government is in the midst of a crippling financial crisis which has led to numerous shifting of civil servants' pay dates as the administration literally survives from hand to mouth.

usavengana Hove| Almost a week has elapsed since lecturers at Zimbabwe’s state universities began their strike over non-payment of last years’ bonuses and delay in payment of their January salaries.
Government’s failure to pay civil servants is well-known by now but what staggers the mind is the docile climate that has come to characterise state universities. It is compelling to write off student activism as a phenomenon past its prime. Student activism used to be no mean power broker in Zimbabwe during the 1990s. When students used to project freely themselves the government used to listen to their clamour. The power that used to be associated with student leaders was something to be considered by the government when dealing with issues critical for the smooth-running of education system, including the lecturers’ welfare.

Lecturers strike for their own cause, being non-payment by the government not students but if the Student Representative Councils (SRCs) thorough across state universities could come together and fight in solidarity with the lecturers whose rights the government is trampling on, it would be for the good of our higher education system.
The strike by lecturers is an academic battle to restore the dignity and value that was once associated with our education system.
If the SRC leaders were bused to Mazowe to endorse Grace Mugabe whose fast-track PHD is still a talk in Zimbabwe’s academic circles, why should the same “patriotic” student leaders remain quiet when professionals with authentic credentials are being stripped naked by the government.
What is so academic about Grace Mugabe’s accession to the post of secretary of ZANU-PF women’s league?
What is so academic about the relationship between ZINASU and MDC Renewal?
It is not only shameful but uncalled for to see future leaders fight for association in old-fashioned political entities which are not only retrogressive but have DNAs that disregard youthful vitality.
It would be no surprise if the Zimbabwe Congress of Student Organisation (ZICCOSO) was to send a solidarity message to Finance Minister Chinamasa for failing to avail funds to cater for the lecturers’ welfare on time.
It is pathetic to see the once vibrant ZINASU waiting in mendicant fashion for donors and MDC formations to pour in money for them to realise their founding principles and values.
Our “future leaders” have become copies of the old establishment self-evident but shameful reasons.
Student leaders are now frontiers of political parties not the students they claim to represent.
University students continue to multiply but instead of uniting into a relevant voice that the government can hear, their unions are an unpleasant discord.
The political economy of these unions has turned them into stooges who know nothing as to why they exist.
ZICCOSO waits for the order to strike from ZANU-PF’s commissariat department while ZINASU waits for anyone to give its grease its leaders’ hands for them to wake up to their mandate.
The shameful results are self-evident, that is, the downgrade of our once prestigious higher learning system.
This semester is a decider for thousands of destinies. Dissertations are mid-course and it is the time when students are in the most critical need for lecturers.
When lecturers come back for work, we are likely to see a marathon teaching style where students are going to be taught how to pass exams rather than critical engagement with concepts and theories that apply to their different disciplines.
This partly explains why our universities are now producing half-baked graduates a matter that has been raised by a number of mainstream media.
The development has been attributed to high enrollments exceeding the capacity of lecturers who are up against poor working conditions.
This should be a cause for concern for Zimbabwean students.
It is time students came together to chart a new chapter, with the restoration of dignity in our education system as a starting point.
Student leaders should come out of the decaying institutions in which they are helping to destroy their own future and face reality.
Youths are builders not pallbearers.
Musavengana Hove is a part 4 Journalism and Media studies student at the National University of Science and Technology. Email him soldierjournalist@gmail.com for feedback
- See more at: http://www.zimeye.com/lecturers-strike-continues-one-week-comment/#sthash.8E1DnoVr.dpuf

UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE lecturers have launched a massive strike against their employer, government, after failing to get their salaries on time.
Every single lecturer has joined the strike as they voiced they are not backing down until government acts on their requests.
- See more at: http://www.zimeye.com/breaking-news-uz-lecturers-launch-massive-strike/#sthash.fNUJjXeX.dpuf

UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE lecturers have launched a massive strike against their employer, government, after failing to get their salaries on time.
Every single lecturer has joined the strike as they voiced they are not backing down until government acts on their requests.
- See more at: http://www.zimeye.com/breaking-news-uz-lecturers-launch-massive-strike/#sthash.fNUJjXeX.dpuf

UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE lecturers have launched a massive strike against their employer, government, after failing to get their salaries on time.
Every single lecturer has joined the strike as they voiced they are not backing down until government acts on their requests.
- See more at: http://www.zimeye.com/breaking-news-uz-lecturers-launch-massive-strike/#sthash.fNUJjXeX.dpuf

Unemployment in Zimbabwe:

 Women turn to prostitution

With high unemployment and an unstable economy, some Zimbabwean women turn to prostitution to make a living for themselves and their families.
Almost half of all Zimbabweans rely on their own informal businesses as a source of income due to the extremely high levels of unemployment in the country.
Watch out for more videos in this Zimbabwe informal economy series. All footage obtained by the Mail & Guardian - apologies for the poor quality.

byafrican.com commented that  this is not about Zimbabwe only, Our "leaders" in Africa are the cause of this. They hoarding and living large while our people are stuffing. The same is happening in Marabastad, Sunnyside, Hillbrow etc. They are falling very far from the definition of leadership, in fact we are serving them with our taxes and hard work. They take simple job creation and make it rocket science. This is what happens when you vote for hyenas to look after sheep.

this is very sad. The sad thing is, too, that our government executives are fully employed and yet they also prostitute themselves.

This is also happening in South Africa. It stands to reason that the high levels of poverty and unemployment are driving women and young girls onto the streets. Not that the ruling party care a damn
Unemployment in Zimbabwe: Women turn to prostitution

ZIM ECONOMY EXPECTED TO WEAKEN FURTHER

ZIMBABWE’S economy is expected to weaken further this year after growing by 3.1 percent in 2014, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday, while the country’s finance minister said Harare expects to clear its arrears to the fund in the next year.


The government forecasts growth this year of 3.2 percent, but analysts say weak commodity prices, patchy rainfall this season and company closures as a result of cheap imports and high interest rates will curtail the economy’s growth.

The country’s foreign debt is $9 billion. Harare makes token monthly payments of $150,000 to clear $125 million in IMF arrears.

The fund says the government can only gain access to new finance if it clears the arrears and presents a credible plan to clear outstanding payments to foreign creditors.

Foreign investors often point to the government’s policy of forcing foreign-owned firms to sell a majority of shares to locals as an impediment to investment

The IMF  said Zimbabwe should show a commitment to clearing its accumulative debt if the country is serious about re-engaging with the international financial community.

Harare’s external debt, at $10 billion, continues to block access to fresh funding and government feels its resolution would bring the economy on the growth path.

The country owes the IMF and the World Bank $124 million and $1 billion respectively.

 The debt is prohibiting the country from accessing funds which are needed for economic and infrastructure development.

However,  Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, tells parliament he will ask the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions to provide new money to Zimbabwe so that it can clear its external debt and move forward.ZimSitRep_J —

He said Zimbabwe must restore international confidence in the economy, adding that this could only be achieved if Zimbabweans stopped bad-mouthing their country abroad.But he explains that government must also develop a culture of paying its debts.

Chinamasa said the government wants to engage many nations regardless of political differences between Zimbabwe and western countries.

He said it’s surprising some Zimbabweans insist there are no sanctions when countries that imposed them admit their existence and have told him reasons why they won’t remove the measures.
 www.New Zimbabwe.com

  Inside Zim economic crisis

 Lack of leadership now exposed

ZIMBABWE is currently facing a national crisis rooted in the dearth of leadership, eliciting political, social and economic instability of extraordinary enormity.

Strangely, Zimbabweans have looked everywhere, but nonetheless incessantly miss this glaring and obvious reality, much to their unrelenting suffering.

This is the sad truth which has now come to the fore for all of us to grasp and perchance take a lead in delivering a remedy.

The absence of leadership is unambiguous in government where public officers find comfort in expending energy and time in self-centered power retention fights as well as in the fragmented opposition that fights about “who and how” to convene a national dialogue platform intended to deliberate on the fast declining economic situation.

Lack of leadership also manifests itself in the church, which, true to fashion, enjoys harvesting resigned citizens and in the divided civil society. Surely, it is obvious that Zimbabwe is in serious deficiency of a visionary and people-centred leadership.

The leadership deficit in trade unionism is clear. This once vibrant sector looks enmeshed in whether to confront or to dialogue with government in respect of unpaid bonuses and the employer’s reluctance to meet agreed working conditions.

With this kind of leadership running the affairs of the country, should anyone be surprised as to why there has not been progress on the implementation of the new constitution? The resistance seems clearly to be the result of the fact that the new constitution confers ample rights and freedoms to citizens and therefore impedes the wishes of the Zanu PF ruling elite.

Is it not extraordinary therefore that Zimbabweans expect this regime to deliver public services and to eliminate corruption within government institutions, given the kind of leadership that it is? Unashamedly, issues of corruption are raised only to serve the power retention agenda and are therefore targeted at specific persons.

Lack of delivery by central government, local government and indeed by the opposition parties has not attracted any coherent rebuttal from civic society. Shouldn’t we in fact be thinking of a platform or process to watch over the “watchdog”, given that there is a clear absence of leadership in this arena as well?

As I have already observed, the church that is expected to provide sanctuary for the suffering masses through the much-needed spiritual guidance and leadership, has tended to follow a well-established routine giving the resigned masses a mirage of hope and whiling their time as they wait to eventually meet up with their heavenly father.

Zimbabwe needs a complete renewal of leadership at all levels. That way we can start afresh and begin to find solutions to our myriad challenges.

Farming diminishing
 Zimbabwe's economy is basically agricultural. The formerly strong commercial farming sector was thrown into disarray with the expropriation of white-owned farms that began in 2000, and the replacement of large efficient farms with smaller ones worked by inexperienced farmers. Formerly an exporter of foodstuffs, Zimbabwe now must import grains, but the small farmers have reversed some of the losses that occurred in the tobacco crop. Corn is the chief food source, and cotton and tobacco the principal cash crops. Other products include wheat, coffee, sugarcane, and peanuts. There are also tea plantations in the country; dairying is important in the highveld. Sheep, goats and pigs are raised.
however this does not mean the country is economically stable. we are facing a lot of problems especially this year the, they is no rain at all, in Shona they call it mvura yarambira mudenga. plants are wilting if ou walk around you will feel pity. most of us we do not have the money to by food, so are we going to die of h8nger as the year is promising. Come on Zimbabweans lets try to mend the economy of the country, lets stop our corruption.

Read more: Zimbabwe: Economy http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/world/zimbabwe-country-africa-economy.html#ixzz3TOpbrNv3

Tourism minister Walter Mzembi is threatening to grab a lucrative chicken breeding farm in Masvingo
 The land grab which will go against promoting the Brand Zimbabwe that Mzembi so tirelessly advertises also comes at a time when President Robert Mugabe has issued statements threatening the few remaining whites in the country.
According to a report in the NewsDay, Mzembi obtained an offer letter from the lands ministry dated February 20 2015 to take over the remaining 367 hectares of Banquest Extension Farm, a farm being run by a prominent Masvingo chicken breeder Helen Mitchell. The other part of the farm was resettled to indigenous black farmers.
The Mitchells run Masvingo Chicks Company which is the only chicken breeder that supplies the whole of Masvingo province, dishing out 100 000 day-old chicks and 50 000 eggs per week. They have been in the poultry business and horticulture for more than four decades.
NewsDay also said the Mitchells couple has always been donating to Zanu PF functions as well as several orphanages and schools in the province.