LONDON TO NEW YORK LONDON TO NEW YORK OVERLAND CHALLENGE ii Beig PArot " 0 Irkutsk New YDIk Novosibirsk 4iE Moscow Warsaw Iof -, %J ,RA E LEYLAINJ Suppliers of Comet Trucks, and Service Leyland (Zimbabwe) Limited Watts Road Southerton Parts Phone: 67861 Teiex: 26387 ZW Zimbabw Official Organ of ZANU PF - I Contents Editorial Letters National News Foreign News Cover Story Feature Document Book Review Obituary Nigerian military condemned ............................. What to with the banks ...... ....................... Restructuring essential for success of congress ........................... Energy project tenders evaluated .............................................. Economy to grow by two percent .......................................... Committees to prepare for National Congress ............................ Labour officers urged to assist workers .................. SADC warns Zimbabwe on maize stockpile ............... ........... President speaks to BBC's frost ............................ Foreign investors scramble for shares .................................. S;truggle for survival exposes many to mercury poisoning...... No rushing into COM ESA .................................................... Briton wins Nobel prize for medicine ..................................... Hong Kong Chinese going to South Africa ............................... New treatment halves paralysis deaths ....................... London to New York - overland ...................... Malawi on the road to democracy ........................................... More objects" found beyond Neptune ....................................... Zambia faces acute socio-economic problems ............................. Monks were hooked on fish ......................... FAQ priority is food self-sufficiency ......................... Future UN operations in Somalia ....................................... , . Canada's policy change towards Southern Africa ........................ Commonwealth ratifies resolutions .......................................... North-South unity against desertification elusive ........................ Crim e does not pay ............................................................. Tracking sperm traffic........... Zimbabwe transforms constitution .......................................... Momentum builds against explosives .................... Limassol statement on the Uruguay Round .......; ................... Lady Thatcher's memoirs and Africans .................................... Melchoir Ndadaye. was a symbol of new Burundi ....................... 0uER Zimbabwe News is the official Organ of the Zimbabwe Afrcan National Union IZANU PF and is produced on the authority of the central Committee by the Department of Information and Publicity, Jongwe Printing and Publishing Co., No. 14 Austin Road, Workington, Harare. World Copyright, Central Committee [ZANU PFI.. Editorial Council: Cde. N.M. Shamuyarira Cde. C.C. Chimutengwende Cde. C. Ndhlovu Cde..S. Kachingwe Cde. A. Sikhosana Cde. M. Munyati. Nigerian military condemned THE Nigerian military is back in power again. In the last 32 years of independence, the military has ruled for 22 years. It appears that the chances of creating lasting democratic institutions, controlled and influenced by the people of Nigeria, are rather remote. General Sani Abacha, who took power in November, has been involved in many of the military coups that have taken place in Nigeria. He is the seventh military ruler to impose himself on the Nigerian people. He comes from the northern region. General Abacha's strategy appears to finally kill the June 12 general election which was won by Chief Moshood Abiola but annuled by General Babangida. Abacha has appointed several Abiola supporters to his cabinet, including Mr. Baba Gana Kingibe as Minister of External Affairs, and the well known publisher, Mr. Alex Ibru, as Minister of the Interior. It is not clear why these people have accepted the appointments. The new military government of Nigeria has been condemned by most governments in the world including the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Economic Community (EEC). Several African governments have also expressed their displeasure. Sanctions have been imposed and the Paris Club was expected to discuss cessation of aid to Nigeria at their meeting last December. D ZIMBP E E 193 geg A i ~he front-page leading article in The IPople's Voice made sad reading. it was about the sad plight of black businessman whose loan applications are being routinely turned down by financial institutions (banks, insurance houses, pensions funds and building societies). I am a ZANU PF cadre and wish to see our people entrench themselves in the economy. The ruling Party, ZANU PF, unflinchingly pursues the policy of building a nonracial society in Zimbabwe. This policy is embodied in President R.G. Mugabe's welknown philosophy of reconciliation. The detractors of this philosophy are deliberately misinterpreting the content of this philosophy as meaning a mere call to both blacks and whites to forget Equality can only come about as te result of applying policies of promoting the welfare of the disadvantaged majority and containing the further enrichment of the already rich minority. Financial institutions are the only medium through which the economic empowerment of the disadvantaged majority can be realised. In the operations of the economy of a country, financial institutions act along lines similar to the functions of the heart and liver in the human body. The heart supplies blood to the rest of the organs by pumping it through arteries and as the blood washles away impurities, it carries them to the liver where the blood is purified and sent back to the heart to be re-pumped through the arteries, thus completing a cycle. the past, forgive one anotner and carry Similarly, the banks mobilise idle moneon business as usual. .tary resources in the form of clients' sayThe true meaning of reconciliation is the ings and current accounts. Through another channel, this money is loaned building of a non-racial new Zimbabwe t er ha re in nee i for through a deliberate strategy of abolish- to borrowers who are in need of it for ing institutionalised racial inequalities, various economic activities. When borThe philosophy is to be implemented repractically ed loans by banks, they through deliberate economic empower- out thei planed oomcatii mernt of historically disdavantaged out their planned economic activities. blaean ofnistrically diesataed Thus, when banks deny blacks loan fablacks and constricting the accustomed ciities, they are practically preventing advantages aid previleges of the white them from carrying out their planned community- The aim is to end up with economic activities. This keeps blacks on equal opportunities for both races, the margin of economic life in society. It is a weird suggestion to imply that In practical terms, this practice by the equality is a spontaneity between liber- ' banks is a veiled continuation of the raated slaves and their former masters. cism of the past. Banks are giving two spurious excuses for not giving loans to blacks. The first excuse is that there is no money to give because of the liquidity problems currently being experienced in the country. But, why did they not give loans to blacks in the past when there were no liquidity problems? In a recent news item, a reporter of The Herald wrote that a property developer,. Micobe Property Development, is to spend $1 billion on the development of Hollywood-style facilities for the superrich at Borrowdale Brooke Estate along crowhill Road. if the banks have no money to give black businessmen, from where, on earth, and why did they get this very colossal sum of money for the pleasure of the super-rich? It has been an open secret that big companies whose shareholders are only whites have exclusive access to public pension funds which they borrow at ridiculously low interest rates for long term periods. Blacks are denied access to these pension funds. I suggest that the relevant Parliamentary Committee initiates legislation to empower the Reserve Bank to effect panalties on financial institutions proved to be avoiding the implementation of positive economic empowerment of the disadvantaged black majority. Leonard Nyamusora Chitungwiza ZIMBABWE NEWS DECEMBER, 1993 Letters to the Editor should be short and to the point. Writers should include their full names although pen names may be used on request. Address your letters to: The Editor The Zimbabwe News 144 Union Avenue Harare ..... ...... ........ ...... .......... .......... ...... .... ............... ............. ............. .. ........... ........ .... IDW...."66:11INaws i's printed and publii:hed. by .. ........ ........ ... .... ... ..... ............. .. ... H arare .............. 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