Top stories for December 16-20

Inflation for November down- Zimbabwe’s year-on-year inflation declined once again this time by 0.05 percentage points from 0.59 percent in October to 0.54 percent last month, according to figures released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Office. Inflation has been on the decline this year from March when it peaked at 2.98 percent. It averaged 5.1 percent last year and but is likely to be well below the 5.7 percent forecast for this year.

Renaming of Victoria Falls
The media was today awash with news that the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front wanted to rename the country’s top tourist resort, the Victoria Falls, one of the seven wonders of the world. Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi, however, said there was nothing of the sort. The reports said the decision to rename the Victoria Falls was reached at the ZANU-PF national conference which said it should be renamed Mosi –oa-Tunya its original name. “There is already a double parallel name of Victoria Falls and Mosi-Oa-Tunya. So I don’t know where the fuss is coming from really,” Mzembi said.

Editor fired
Herald editor Caesar Zvayi was today sent on forced leave following the publication of a story about former central bank governor Gideon Gono hiring former Finance Minister and Movement for Democratic Change secretary-general Tendai Biti as his lawyer. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo blasted the Herald for what he alleged was “a shameless smear campaign against Gono using the cover of cheap politics”. “Even worse, The Herald’s undisguised smear campaign against Gono is based on quotations from faceless and nameless sources described as ‘senior Zanu PF officials’ and ‘a Zanu PF politburo member with close ties to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.’ One does not need to be a rocket scientist to realise not only that the faceless and nameless sources in the unfortunate story are uncreative inventions but also that it is not possible for Kereke, who is clearly the main source of the scurrilous story, to be at one and the same time rolled into ‘senior ZANU-PF officials’ and ‘a ZANU- PF Politburo member with close ties to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces’,” Moyo said.

No going back on indigenisation
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa today said there is no going back on the country’s indigenisation programme and those who had not yet complied will have to do so within the stipulated period. Chinamasa made the clarification when he presented his 2014 budget. He said there were different policies for resource based investments and other investments. “In the case of resource based investments, our contribution is the depleting asset in the form of the in-situ value of the mineral which will be our contribution to the 51% of the business. The investor who comes with capital, technology and managerial skills to exploit this depleting resource is entitled to 49% of the shareholding,” he said. For other investments Zimbabweans had to pay for the 51 percent and the investors were free to choose their partners. “With respect to the other sectors of the economy, the 51/49% share structure still applies. However, what needs to be clarified in this connection is that the 51% stake for Zimbabweans is not available for free where the enterprise does not benefit from a natural resource or raw material derived from Zimbabwe,” Chinamasa said.

MDC says 2014 budget is a wish list
The Movement for Democratic Change has described Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa’s 2014 budget presented yesterday as a wish list, full of promises with no solutions in place. In a statement today the party said the budget will result in the already suffering ordinary person being taxed more. It said that any caring government should strive to create an enabling, inclusive, environmentally sustainable economy that delivers food security, happiness, social services, eliminates poverty and creates wealth.

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