Tinaani Nyabereka

Gweru- The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) officers have today (February 17) arrested City of Gweru Acting Town Clerk Vakayi Chikwekwe on allegations of Criminal abuse of duty.
Chikwekwe was charged with alleged abuse of office as defined in Section 174(1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23) or in the alternative c/s Section 94 (3) of the Public Procurement and Disposal (Regulations) Statutory Instrument (SI) 5 of 2018.
Appearing before Gweru Provincial magistrate Miriam Banda, Chikwekwe who was represented by Tonderai Chitere, of Chitere, Chidawanyika and Partners was granted ZW$ 100 000 bail and also ordered to report once every fortnight at ZACC offices in Gweru.
Chikwekwe will appear in court on March 17, 2023 and is not allowed to interfere with State witnesses at the local authority, or PRAZ.
According to State papers, the complainant in the matter is Tapiwa Hove who is employed by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) as a Legal Manager.
The State led by Fredrick Matsheza says Chikwekwe’s duties as the Accounting Officer for the City of Gweru among others include responsibility of ensuring that procurement activities of a procuring entity are carried out in compliance with the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act [Chapter 22:235) and any other directions of the PRAZ.
Sometime in 2020, Gweru City Council reportedly wanted to develop and service Mkoba 21 stands and as such on May 29, 2020, the local authority advertised an invitation of expression of interest in the Zimbabwean Government Gazette for tender number COG/01/06/2020.
Eight prospective bidders submitted their applications and on June 30, 2020, the Technical Evaluation Committee recommended that Sheasham Investments, Casas Properties and Wackdrive Pvt Ltd be shortlisted as they were compliant with the mandatory requirements.
On July 3, 2020, the Procurement Management Unit Committee which was chaired by Chikwekwe as the Acting Town Clerk approved the recommendation made by the Technical Evaluation Committee. Further, the Procurement Management Unit Committee is said to have recommended that the tender be submitted to the Special Procurement Oversight Committee.
The accused as the Accounting Officer submitted the tender documents to the Procurement Oversight Committee for review on July 29, 2020.
The state alleged that he was supposed to obtain clearance from the Special Procurement Oversight Committee with regard to the documents he had submitted on July 29, 2020 for review.
However, Chikwekwe reportedly proceeded to award contracts to the three bidders on August 18, 2020 without clearance from the Special Procurement Oversight Committee in contravention of Section 94 (3) of the Public Procurement and Disposal of the Public Assets Act- (General) Regulations SI 5 of 2018 which requires for certification by the Procurement Oversight Committee before awarding a contract.
The court heard that on August 20, 2020, PRAZ wrote a letter directing the accused to collect bids, extend bid validity, correct the evaluation reports and submit the revised evaluation reports which show that the Special Procurement Oversight Committee had not certified the awarding of the contracts to the three developers.

TellZim Reporter

All roads will lead to Victoria High in Masvingo on February 17, 2023 where a total of 63 secondary schools (Masvingo district) are set to parade their best athletes as they compete in preparation for the provincial finals to be held later in early March.

Confirming the event, National Association of Secondary Heads (NASH) Masvingo district Head in Charge Kura Chizimba said the athletics extravaganza will kick-off as early as 0730 hours on February 17.

“Yes, Victoria High School is set to host a total of 63 secondary schools whose participants are going to battle it out at Masvingo District Athletics Finals for the year 2023.

“The competitions are held as part of selection for the district team and preparations for the provincial finals to be hosted by Mwenezi Government secondary school on March 2, 2023 if no changes come into effect,” said Chizimba.

According to Chizimba, the schools are divided into ten zones namely Zone A (Makomba, Mavhiringidze, St Francis, Mazambara and Kushinga), Zone B (Ndarama, Masvingo Christian, Mucheke, M. Hugo, Victoria, Zimuto, Makanaka and Vision Academy), Zone C (Chirichoga, Ruvhure and Morgenster), Zone D (Mapokomhere, Mapanzure, Manunure, Chekai, Chevanhu, Gunikuni and Mukosi), Zone E ( Tugwane, Nyabata, Mudarikwa, Madzivanyika and Maweza), Zone F (Zivezano, Rambakutemwa, Daitai and Makoni), Zone G (Gokomere, Masvingo Day, Matova, St Stansilous, Bere, Chidzikwe, Temeraire, Zvamahande and Gundura), Zone H (Mutendi, Rumwanda, Mazare and Wendedzo), Zone I (Chabaya, Bondolfi, Mukonde, Zvehuru, Mushandike, Mushawasha West and Shingirirai College) and Zone J (RCZ Nyajena, Chiwawa, Makotore, Nyikavanhu and Magudu).

Learners in various age groups (Under 15, 17 and 20) will battle it out in high and long and triple jumps, short put, discus and track events (100, 200, 400, 800, 1 500, 3 000, 5 000 and 10 000 meters including relays and 80 and 300 m hurdles.

By Zvikomborero Sibanda

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) usually announces its monetary policy statement (MPS) in February of every year. A monetary policy is a list of actions to be taken by a country’s central bank to influence how much money is in the economy and how much it costs to borrow. It is implemented through various tools including inter alia the adjustment of interest rates, trading of government securities, and altering the amount of money circulating in the economy. This policy’s primary objectives are to manage inflation or unemployment and maintain currency exchange rates and financial market stability.
As such, the success of a central bank is generally measured by the prevailing level of price inflation and currency performance. The latest statistics from Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) show prices massively cooling off in January 2023. In annual terms (January 2022-January 2023), the inflation rate as measured by the all-items Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in at 229.8% relative to 60.61% recorded in January 2022. The January 2023 annual inflation outturn is 14 percentage points lower than the 243.8% realized in December 2022 and the lowest in seven (7) months. ZimStat statistics also showed that from a month-on-month perspective, the price inflation rate in January 2023 was 1.1% shedding 1.3 percentage points on the December 2022 rate of 2.4%.
ZimStat time series data shows that the monthly inflation rate for January 2023 is the lowest outturn since September 2018. In that September, it was recorded at 0.92% before it however jumped to 16.44% in the following month when austerity measures such as the 2% tax were introduced. After mounting by 14.31% on average in the first half of 2022 from 5.34% in January to 30.7% in June, the monthly inflation rate is falling ever since save for December. It decelerated to 25.6% in July and had now closed January 2023 at 1.1%. Buoyed by this increased moderation of price growth, authorities through the 2023 national budget statement are projecting monthly inflation to average 1-3%.
The late Milton Friedman who popularized the theory of monetarism posited that the antidote to price inflation was higher interest rates, which in turn reduces the money supply. Consequently, prices will fall as people would have less money to spend. In short, Friedman argued that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. As such, authorities should not rapidly increase the money supply as this is counterproductive by fuelling inflation. There is a wide consensus that the increase should be gradual to circumvent higher unemployment rates. Theoretically, this would help establish a Goldilocks economy -a period of stable economic growth where inflation remains low and RBZ does not feel the need to increase interest rates.
From the foregoing, Zimbabwean experiences surely validate the monetary theory. Excessive money supply growth is the major culprit causing ZWL deterioration and its resultant pass-through effect on inflation. For instance, RBZ statistics show a staggering reserve money supply growth of 170%, 113%, and 38% in 2019, 2020, and 2021 respectively. During this 2019-2021 period, ZWL lost about 10.7% of its value on average per month. In response, both annual and monthly price inflation grew at an unsustainable rate averaging 339.3% and 11.6% per month respectively.
As for 2022, annual inflation raged havoc in the first half mounting from 60.61% in January to close June at 191.7% as monthly prices upscaled at an unsustainable 14.31% on average. According to its 2023 Monetary Policy Statement (MPS), it is RBZ’s increased financial tightening that helped cool down inflation in the second half. For instance, it revealed that both local and foreign currency statutory reserves constituted 90% of total reserve money as of the end of December 2022. As such, since these statutory reserves are locked up in RBZ vaults and therefore unavailable for on-lending by banks, their increase helped reduce the money supply in circulation. The MPS also indicated that excess bank reserves –ZWL balances at RBZ– declined from around ZW$14 billion in 2021 to less than ZW$100 million by end-December 2022 thus signifying further tightening of liquidity conditions.
The foregoing highlights from the 2023 MPS confirm my view that the Russia-Ukraine war was not the significant driver of exchange rate and price volatility in Zimbabwe. Massive ZWL depreciation since its re-introduction in 2019 and subsequent accelerated price growth is highly linked to the increased money supply. To curb these volatilities, this column has been calling for tight monetary targeting to attain sustainable ZWL liquidity growth in the system.
Taking the 2023 MPS at face value, these are the actions the Bank confirms to have taken in order to arrest price instability. This is enough evidence that going forward RBZ should maintain sustainable levels of ZWL liquidity in the system to help achieve a Goldilocks economy. Sustainable liquidity growth is the one that keeps parallel market exchange rate premia within conventional threshold levels of between 0-20%. In simple terms, money supply growth in the economy should move in tandem with the rate of growth of economic activity in the real sector.
Nevertheless, as I alluded to a fortnight ago, 2023 is going to be a challenging year for monetary policymakers. The desired Goldilocks economy only comes when fiscal and monetary policies are complementary. This year, Treasury is expected to experience an unsustainable budget overrun due to the upcoming harmonized elections. Election seasons are highly distortionary as political pressures increase the possibility of fiscal policy slippages and reversals. Studies have shown that incumbent governments facing re-election tend to display dovish spending tendencies as political goals are prioritized at the expense of the long-term health of the general economy and the welfare of citizens.
More so, apart from harmonized elections, Zimbabwe will likely continue to face prolonged load-shedding hours for most of 2023 as the usable water level in Kariba Dam remains significantly low and forex shortages will constrain production at existing old thermal stations which frequently breakdown. As such, power shortages at a time prices of electricity substitutes like fuel are expected to remain elevated will balloon production costs and subdued activity in the real sector thereby worsening the already high cost of living. As the West now starts considering supplying Ukraine with heavy and advanced weapons, the Russia-Ukraine war will likely shift to a whole new level with serious global risk. The disruptions to supply chains induced by the war and ensuing global inflation exert disproportionate impacts on developing nations like Zimbabwe which are perennial net importers. In addition, there is a possibility of a severe trade war between the US and China as the former had already instituted rules prohibiting the sale of advanced semiconductor chips to Chinese customers.
The 2023 environment poses a monetary policy-making dilemma as the need for a contractionary stance to cool inflationary pressures may be overshadowed by the expansionary fiscal stance driven by election-linked spending. Cognizant of this, it is likely going to be a daunting task for RBZ to keep the average monthly inflation rate at 1.5%. Therefore, next week this column will analyze if the policy actions proposed in the 2023 monetary policy are adequate to boost ZWL appeal and arrest macroeconomic instability.

Zvikomborero Sibanda is an economic analyst and an astute researcher. He writes in his personal capacity. He can be contacted via email:

bravosibanda@gmail.com
Twitter: @bravon96

Theresa Takafuma

Women from the Chipara area under Chief Makore in Gutu have lamented the lack of accessible maternity services as local health care centers do not have adequate facilities to cater for them.
Pregnant women end up walking long distances to access prenatal and antenatal care, as the available health centers are mostly private and unaffordable for the rural folk who have to part with certain amounts of money in order to be assisted by qualified midwives.
In an interview, Miriam Magoga, a woman from Chipara Village said they go to a private clinic at Guni, and have to pay maternity fees to be attended to, and the only other option is to trek to Cheshuro or Nerupiri Rural Health Centre which are very far away.
“To register your pregnancy you have to part with US$20, and when you go to deliver you then pay another US$15, which is hardly affordable for most of us. This then leads to women giving birth at home because the options are equally difficult.
“The other issue is that at the clinic there are no perinatal care services and for us to have our babies immunized we have to go to the nearest clinics like Nerupiri which is many kilometres away,” Magoga said.
Another woman, Jessica Matara, who recently gave birth at the private clinic at Guni said it was difficult to access water when she went to give birth there, and people had to walk about 5km to fetch water for her to use.
“The challenge at the clinic is water and people had to walk nearly 5km to access water. The other problem is that you have to buy your own injections. After giving birth you are told to go to Cheshuro Rural Health Centre which is over 20km away and you can imagine how it is for a woman who has just given birth.
Hilda Chipara, from the same area said local clinics do not assist first time mothers, those with pregnancy complications and women who have had multiple births.
She said for first time mothers in the area it then becomes difficult especially if they do not have money, making them vulnerable to birth complications, birth injuries, even deaths.
“Our local clinics do not accept mhandatsva (new mothers) and that leaves them with little to no option but to resort to home births. At Cheshuro they do that because they say if you have complications they do not have transport to ferry you to a bigger hospital.
“They also do not have waiting homes so it then becomes difficult if a woman gets into labour to walk all the way to the health center in that condition, as there is no transport,” Chipara said.