Dear Rev Hove,
What is the problem with Zimbabwe?
When I was alerted to a letter written by Rev M.S. Hove to Prime Minister Tsvangirai
LINK TO SAID LETTER
I was tempted to ignore it because of the state of mind of the author and his propensity to seek attention even when it is not necessary. However, in the interests of bridging the knowledge divide that poses a more significant threat to the progress of Zimbabwe than anything. Ignorance if not cured can be a debilitating disease and when malicious statements are made about one’s character and integrity then it is important to set the record straight.
This is what Hove chose to say about me in his open letter to Hon. Tsvangirai: “Incidentally I'm a South African Citizen by birth, not like Mutumwa Mawere who rushed to arrange his Citizenship with the then Minister of Home Affairs to escape his legitimate prosecution for externalizing the resources of Zimbabwe...and to be first in line to benefit from the Black Emplowerement Exercie (BEE) which is being implemented here in South Africa (This is a subject on its own for which I'm preparing a full submission!)”
He makes the point that he is a genuine South African since he was born in South Africa. The right to South African citizenship like in all other countries is determined by the authorities of the country. The South African government is more competent to make a statement about my citizenship than Mr. Hove. The rules for acquiring such citizenship are in the public domain and there is no provision for the acquisition of such citizenship from the Minister of Home Affairs. He has no authority to grant citizenship. A foreign born person has to comply with the rules of the country. As a person who evidently does not know me, Mr. Hove like many Zimbabweans who choose to believe what they read in the media may not know that I have been a resident of South Africa since 1995 which makes this year my 14th year in the country.
It is strange that Mr. Hove would choose to implicate a Minister in the government of South Africa without the decency of naming the person. In making this wild allegation, Mr. Hove is making a case that I corruptly acquired my citizenship. For how can South Africa grant citizenship to a person on the run. If I was a refugee, I would have qualified for political asylum rather than for citizenship. However, there is no provision for granting a person who is escaping legitimate persecution citizenship. Mr. Hove may not be aware that in May 2004, the government of Zimbabwe applied to the South African government for my extradition.
The matter was heard by three South African Magistrate. They had to determine if I was an extraditable person and if the alleged crime was an extraditable offence. The government of Zimbabwe was represented by 6 police officer throughout the hearings and the Court dismissed the application. Notwithstanding, Mr. Hove believes that he is a better judge and in his mind the adjudication of the Court was not sufficient. If I had corruptly acquired South African citizenship, then this ought to be a matter for the South African government to determine without the help of Mr. Hove and his apparent new friend, albeit for the purpose of attacking my character, the government of Zimbabwe.
He then goes to make the case that the allegations of externalisation which formed part of the extradition application were legitimate. In other words, he is making the statement that the Courts in South Africa erred in dismissing the extradition application. If he was the Magistrate, he would have extradited me. Does Mr. Hove understand what externalisation is? It is evident that his thinking is no different from the thinking at the RBZ and the rest of the government of Zimbabwe.
The allegation against me by the government of Zimbabwe was that SMM, a company registered under the laws of Zimbabwe, whose principal business is the mining processing and marketing of asbestos exported asbestos that was sold to Southern Asbestos Sales (Pty) Limited (SAS). Both SMM and SAS were ultimately beneficially owned by me. However, the supplier is a company and the purchaser is also a company. If a supplier is not paid by a purchaser who is domiciled in a foreign country it is up to the supplier to file a claim against the purchaser. In this case, the purchaser is a company that is governed under South African law. Zimbabwean law has no extra-territorial application. What should happen is that in the event that SAS is unable to pay its debts to its creditors, a Court will grant an order for its liquidation. This will then allow the Master of the High Court to appoint liquidators to identify the company’s assets and recover them to the benefit of creditors.
In the case of SMM, the government after failing to extradite m, proceeded to specify me under Zimbabwean laws. After the specification, an Investigator was then appointed by the Minister of Justice. This was then followed by the specification of all companies deemed to be under my control. An Investigator was then appointed. After this, the government discovered that there was no legal way to nationalise my companies other than use Presidential Powers to manufacture a new law that allowed the Minister without using the Courts to appoint an Administrator. Under the decree promulgated by the President in September 2004, the Minister was vested with the powers to appoint an Administrator whose remuneration was to be 6% of the turnover of the company. This was done and Gwaradzimba was appointed and he proceeded to dismiss the board.
This was in 2004 and now it is 2009. One would have expected the police to have completed the investigations but alas no investigations have been completed. Mr. Hove is and was free to assist in the investigations rather than pontificate on his blog as if he has some intelligence that we do not know about. Naturally, Mr. Hove has no qualms about the actions of the government of Zimbabwe.
In all this saga, one must be reminded that the exporter was a private company. The foreign currency generated belonged to the exporter and not the government. The government’s interest in the exports can only be its claim on taxes – that is if Zimbabwe is operating like a normal country. However, under Gono, the approach to exports changed and it is evident in Mr. Hove’s later response that he also believes that export proceeds belong to the state and not to the party that has incurred expenses in the generation of such output. We need not remind Mr. Hove that to produce one ton of exportable asbestos one has to incur expenses and the profit element in such endeavour is no more than 10% of the invoice value. Any producer that does not pay its creditors will cease to produce and the claims that Mr. Hove makes ought to come from the creditors of SMM.
When Gono was appointed Governor he introduced new policies whereby exporters were to surrender export proceeds and in return for this extortion new borrowing facilities were introduced i.e. Productive Sector Facilities where exporters could only access Z$ and not the required foreign currency to pay to creditors. As a result, most exporters like SMM had to endure such absurdity. As we all now know, dollarization is the order of the day in Zim but at what cost. Gono tried to defy the market with gimmicks but this failed and even President Mugabe has now accepted that it is futile to believe that the local currency has any traction when no one believes in it.
To Mr. Hove, this is all irrelevant.
He then makes some outrageous allegations as follows: The issue is not who did that externalization or whether I benefitted from somebody who did. The issues are: Is it fair for someone to stay in Johannesburg, support a mining venture at Zvishavane in Zimbabwe, send the minerals to India, get a cheque of US$X, bank that cheque in Johannesburg then only send a small fraction of those proceeds to support the mining venture in Zim only so it keeps providing fuel for the same cycle to continue. The issue also is not that the Government of the day in Zim is evil and illegitimate hence has no moral authority to cite that illegality. Even if it is not legislated its as evil as murder is evil even if it was not legislated. The people in Zim need medicines in their hospitals, sophisticated equipment in various sectors of Industry, Agriculture etc and what happens if millions of pounds and US dollars are banked by every businessman in foreign lands? We will all pass from this world one day….. each on his appointed day and we owe it to the future generations to do things right while we are holding the God-given resources in our custody. If a relative of mine was a drug-dealer or a prostitute and they paid for my education to University, that does not mean I should be unable to mention that drug-dealing or prostitution was wrong.”
He makes the point that: Is it fair for someone to stay in Johannesburg, support a mining venture at Zvishavane in Zimbabwe, send the minerals to India, get a cheque of US$X, bank that cheque in Johannesburg then only send a small fraction of those proceeds to support the mining venture in Zim only so it keeps providing fuel for the same cycle to continue. – If Johannesburg is my home, then I am not sure what it is that Mr. Hove expects me to do. If for instance, Bill Gates stays in Washington State, and he happens to be a shareholder of Microsoft, a company that does business in many countries.
Should Mr. Gates be resident in all the countries that Microsoft is registered? If Microsoft sells a product to a person then Mr. Gates must be involved. Any claim against Microsoft should automatically be a claim against Mr. Gates. How absurd? But in Mr. Hove’s world this is not absurd. Mawere must be resident in Zimbabwe because the mines are located there. The trading relationships between companies is regulated by the invoice value in the transactions. Should government harvest where it has not sown? Whose exports are they? The people of Zimbabwe need medicines so does SMM need cash to pay its creditors. Has it occurred to Mr. Hove that SMM had its own obligations that had to be discharged and the nationalisation of export proceeds by the RBZ for onward transmission to rent seekers was where the problem emanated from?
He make the point that I was the first in line to benefit from BEE. It appears that Mr. Hove knows of a line that people have to join to benefit from so-called BEE benefits. I am not aware of such a queue and what it takes to be eligible. I was born in Zimbabwe and, therefore, as an individual I am not qualified to benefit from BEE. I am a well known figure in South Africa and it would be unlikely that people would mistake me for a previously disadvantaged person. We have to wait for Mr. Hove’s promised dossier on the BEE exercise and how it is that I am supposed to be first in line and people would not recognise my name and accent as a Zimbabwean born person. Only a naïve person like Mr. Hove would believe that South Africans are foolish.
With respect to SAS, it is important that we bring to the attention of Mr. Hove that the company was liquidated in June 2005 and its affairs are under the control of liquidators appointed in terms of South African law. Accordingly, if the allegations of externalisation are valid then Mr. Hove should furnish such evidence to the liquidators so that they can pursue me. They have not done so to date and yet Mr. Hove appears to know something about the affairs of the company than the liquidators know. What is more significant is that all the people appointed by the government of Zimbabwe to deal with the SMM issue have not bothered to contact the liquidators with the so-called evidence of externalisation. It is important that people like Mr. Hove who appears to be motivated by an agenda walk the talk.
I do hope that the sickness that has visited many Zimbabweans to make wild allegations with no regard for the truth stops someday. The Zimbabwean nightmare will only end if energy was devoted to finding lasting solutions to the economic quagmire but time and resources are being spent on speculative and exploratory issues.
I do hope that Rev Hove takes time to read the above so that he can elevate his discourse to a level that moves whatever agenda he is pursuing to a logical conclusion. He needs help and I have done my part to assist and came to the conclusion that the injury is too deep to be fixed by one individual.
Regards,
Mutumwa
PLEASE ALSO CHECK http://zimfinalpush10.blogspot.com/2009/03/debate-sorrounding-rev-hoves-mention-of.html
AND
http://zimfinalpush10.blogspot.com/2009/03/mawere-responds-to-hoves-claim-that-he.html
Also posted at http://www.nehandaradio.com/zimbabwe/opinionwriters/mawere/replytohove250309.html
ALSO AT http://www.zimtownship.com/underdev/news/zimbabwe.php?zimbabwe=44f9dd3ea0d0f25d045d98c3e206aca8
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