Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 01:30:18 -0700
To: "Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List":;
From: Zimbabwe Crisis
Subject: ZimCrisis#79 -- MDC Economic Post-Election Programme
Cc: "Australian government":;, "British government":;,
"Canadian government":
;, "South African government":;,
"US government":;, Commonwealth:;, "NG organisations":;,
"African press":;, "Foreign press":;
Hi everyone,
Here is the MDC's post-election programme.
Craig
A Post Election Program for the Economic Affairs Committee of the Movement for Democratic Change.
MDC now has a block of 57 Members of Parliament and is planning to increase these by legal means over the next few months. In addition we have decided not to co-operate with Zanu PF and to act as an opposition until we can take power through democratic means.
The election will probably be regarded as "not free and fair" by observers and therefore the government will be denied financial and political support. This will result in the present suspension of all bi-lateral and multilateral development assistance continuing.
Without support from our development partners, there is no possibility of stabilizing the economy and financial markets in Zimbabwe. This will lead to the continued decline in the economy and an intensification of the inflationary pressures on both the local currency and foreign exchange markets.
Without a coherent and integrated stabilization and recovery program, based on improved relations with the major development partners of Zimbabwe, the melt down of the economy will continue with disastrous consequences. It is now expected that the economy will reflect the following main features in the year 2000.
1. Inflation, presently at 60 per cent, will continue to rise reaching 85 per cent by year end.
2. The value of the Zimbabwe dollar will depreciate on currency markets to over 70:1 against the US dollar.
3. Serious food and other shortages will continue and intensify from September onwards as the limited supplies from the 1999/00 agricultural season are exhausted.
4. Some 250 000 people will lose their jobs in the formal sector, reducing over 1,5 million urban and rural poor to a state of penury.
5. Some 500 000 people will be displaced by farm occupations with no possibility of orderly settlement of the land that is involved.
6. Commercial farm income will decline by Z$20 billion or over 40 per cent in the winter of 2000, this will lead to the collapse of the farming industry and will result in severe shortages of food and other essential industrial inputs in 2001.
7. Foreign exchange earning in 2000 are projected to fall by 50 per cent over those achieved in 1999. This will result in the escalation of shortages of essential inputs and liquid fuels with further closures of mining and industrial enterprises.
8. Incomes, already down by a third in the past decade, will fall a further 20 per cent in 2000 alone. Formal sector employment will fall below 10 per cent of the population for the first time in 80 years.
Long term damage will be done to the economy if this situation continues for even 6 months. To envisage that the economy will survive a further two years of Zanu PF led government is an impossibility. Such a collapse will impact on every State in southern Africa and will endanger the political and economic stability of the region as a whole.
The resulting economic conditions in the domestic economy will result is severe hardship for the low income community who have no savings and no alternative means of support. It will also result in serious long term damage to the private sector unless means can be secured to help in the most critical areas. To this end we propose the following course of action to be taken by the MDC in the immediate future:
a) The establishment of a National Trust with an independent Board of Trustees who would take responsibility for funding activities by the MDC and its civil society partners designed to alleviate the worst aspects of the economic collapse.
b) We launch 4 programs of assistance to be funded by the Trust, these would be:
(i) A program of assistance through the Women's Clubs to help families with school fees, emergency food assistance and health expenses through a local "Social Fund" which is administered by the women running the clubs.
(ii) A program of unemployment benefits for workers laid off by their employers administered through the Trade Unions.
(iii) A work program in both urban and rural areas designed to create work on local projects which will help with the rehabilitation of infrastructure and the maintenance of community buildings and facilities. This could include forestry projects in rural areas supervised by timber companies.
(iv) Support for the micro enterprise industry through established and reliable institutions such as Zambuko Trust to enable them to establish operations in key areas and to expand their loan portfolios significantly.
c) All these activities would be operated by the established networks of each organization and would simply be funded by the Trust who would also be responsible for financial controls and audit. The activities would be funded on an imprest system and would be financed by an initial grant followed up by reimbursing expenditure supported by vouchers.
d) The Trust would be funded by grants from donors and counterpart funds generated by donor supported commodity aid programs. Where a foreign donor supplies a product (wheat for example) this would be sold on the local market and the counterpart funds paid to the Trust. In this way donors can assist the country through commodity aid and help with food supplies as well as industrial raw materials to keep key industries running. By supplying such aid through the Trust they would avoid support for the government and Zanu PF and help strengthen civil society and the MDC structures.
It is suggested that we draft a proposal along these lines to go the MDC Executive and then take charge with regard to the funding and programming. The Legal Affairs Committee would create the Trust and deal with the legal aspect. The MDC Leadership would deal with the structure of the Board and the question of the beneficiary programs.
Craig
Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List
http://www.niner.net/zimcrisis
This is currently a manually administered mailing list. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send your request to DELETED. Personal requests for removal will be carried out immediately. Requests from governmental, political or press organisations (or their representatives) will be treated less favourably. The purpose of this list is not necessarily to redistribute published news reports. Rather, it is intended to distribute reports from or directly affecting people in Zimbabwe. If you have seen something before, I apologise. Hopefully that will not be a regular occurrence. Any reports from respondents that are relayed to the mailing list will be done so anonymously.
Brief list of helpful sites on the issue:
- Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List Archives -- http://www.niner.net/zimcrisis
- Comprehensive news updates -- http://www.1freespace.com/beetee
- Offers of and requests for help for Zimbabweans -- http://pub9.ezboard.com/boffersofhelp
- Commercial Farmers' Union -- http://www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
- Movement for Democratic Change -- http://www.in2zw.com/mdc
- Zimbabwe Democracy Trust -- http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org
- BSAP Pursuit of Zimbabwean Criminals -- http://www.bsaphq.f9.co.uk
To: "Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List":;
From: Zimbabwe Crisis
Subject: ZimCrisis#79 -- MDC Economic Post-Election Programme
Cc: "Australian government":;, "British government":;,
"Canadian government":
;, "South African government":;,
"US government":;, Commonwealth:;, "NG organisations":;,
"African press":;, "Foreign press":;
Hi everyone,
Here is the MDC's post-election programme.
Craig
A Post Election Program for the Economic Affairs Committee of the Movement for Democratic Change.
MDC now has a block of 57 Members of Parliament and is planning to increase these by legal means over the next few months. In addition we have decided not to co-operate with Zanu PF and to act as an opposition until we can take power through democratic means.
The election will probably be regarded as "not free and fair" by observers and therefore the government will be denied financial and political support. This will result in the present suspension of all bi-lateral and multilateral development assistance continuing.
Without support from our development partners, there is no possibility of stabilizing the economy and financial markets in Zimbabwe. This will lead to the continued decline in the economy and an intensification of the inflationary pressures on both the local currency and foreign exchange markets.
Without a coherent and integrated stabilization and recovery program, based on improved relations with the major development partners of Zimbabwe, the melt down of the economy will continue with disastrous consequences. It is now expected that the economy will reflect the following main features in the year 2000.
1. Inflation, presently at 60 per cent, will continue to rise reaching 85 per cent by year end.
2. The value of the Zimbabwe dollar will depreciate on currency markets to over 70:1 against the US dollar.
3. Serious food and other shortages will continue and intensify from September onwards as the limited supplies from the 1999/00 agricultural season are exhausted.
4. Some 250 000 people will lose their jobs in the formal sector, reducing over 1,5 million urban and rural poor to a state of penury.
5. Some 500 000 people will be displaced by farm occupations with no possibility of orderly settlement of the land that is involved.
6. Commercial farm income will decline by Z$20 billion or over 40 per cent in the winter of 2000, this will lead to the collapse of the farming industry and will result in severe shortages of food and other essential industrial inputs in 2001.
7. Foreign exchange earning in 2000 are projected to fall by 50 per cent over those achieved in 1999. This will result in the escalation of shortages of essential inputs and liquid fuels with further closures of mining and industrial enterprises.
8. Incomes, already down by a third in the past decade, will fall a further 20 per cent in 2000 alone. Formal sector employment will fall below 10 per cent of the population for the first time in 80 years.
Long term damage will be done to the economy if this situation continues for even 6 months. To envisage that the economy will survive a further two years of Zanu PF led government is an impossibility. Such a collapse will impact on every State in southern Africa and will endanger the political and economic stability of the region as a whole.
The resulting economic conditions in the domestic economy will result is severe hardship for the low income community who have no savings and no alternative means of support. It will also result in serious long term damage to the private sector unless means can be secured to help in the most critical areas. To this end we propose the following course of action to be taken by the MDC in the immediate future:
a) The establishment of a National Trust with an independent Board of Trustees who would take responsibility for funding activities by the MDC and its civil society partners designed to alleviate the worst aspects of the economic collapse.
b) We launch 4 programs of assistance to be funded by the Trust, these would be:
(i) A program of assistance through the Women's Clubs to help families with school fees, emergency food assistance and health expenses through a local "Social Fund" which is administered by the women running the clubs.
(ii) A program of unemployment benefits for workers laid off by their employers administered through the Trade Unions.
(iii) A work program in both urban and rural areas designed to create work on local projects which will help with the rehabilitation of infrastructure and the maintenance of community buildings and facilities. This could include forestry projects in rural areas supervised by timber companies.
(iv) Support for the micro enterprise industry through established and reliable institutions such as Zambuko Trust to enable them to establish operations in key areas and to expand their loan portfolios significantly.
c) All these activities would be operated by the established networks of each organization and would simply be funded by the Trust who would also be responsible for financial controls and audit. The activities would be funded on an imprest system and would be financed by an initial grant followed up by reimbursing expenditure supported by vouchers.
d) The Trust would be funded by grants from donors and counterpart funds generated by donor supported commodity aid programs. Where a foreign donor supplies a product (wheat for example) this would be sold on the local market and the counterpart funds paid to the Trust. In this way donors can assist the country through commodity aid and help with food supplies as well as industrial raw materials to keep key industries running. By supplying such aid through the Trust they would avoid support for the government and Zanu PF and help strengthen civil society and the MDC structures.
It is suggested that we draft a proposal along these lines to go the MDC Executive and then take charge with regard to the funding and programming. The Legal Affairs Committee would create the Trust and deal with the legal aspect. The MDC Leadership would deal with the structure of the Board and the question of the beneficiary programs.
Craig
Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List
http://www.niner.net/zimcrisis
This is currently a manually administered mailing list. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send your request to DELETED. Personal requests for removal will be carried out immediately. Requests from governmental, political or press organisations (or their representatives) will be treated less favourably. The purpose of this list is not necessarily to redistribute published news reports. Rather, it is intended to distribute reports from or directly affecting people in Zimbabwe. If you have seen something before, I apologise. Hopefully that will not be a regular occurrence. Any reports from respondents that are relayed to the mailing list will be done so anonymously.
Brief list of helpful sites on the issue:
- Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List Archives -- http://www.niner.net/zimcrisis
- Comprehensive news updates -- http://www.1freespace.com/beetee
- Offers of and requests for help for Zimbabweans -- http://pub9.ezboard.com/boffersofhelp
- Commercial Farmers' Union -- http://www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
- Movement for Democratic Change -- http://www.in2zw.com/mdc
- Zimbabwe Democracy Trust -- http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org
- BSAP Pursuit of Zimbabwean Criminals -- http://www.bsaphq.f9.co.uk
