Government still taking raw material duty removal applications

News Update as @ 1530 hours, Wednesday 30 July 2014Feedback: [email protected]: [email protected]

Ngoni Dapira

THE Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mike Bimha, has said the door is still open for applications for duty removal on raw materials for manufacturing companies.

Bimha said this in his official opening remarks of the Confederation of Zimba-bwe Industries congress in Mutare yes-terday. He said Government had realised that most companies were requesting for tariff reviews and decided to look for ways to get around the dilemma without violating regional and international obli-gations.

“Government continues to receive appli-cations from local manufacturing compa-nies for duty removals for raw materials and increase of duty for imported fin-ished products as a way of meeting the diverse needs of our local industry

“After realising that most companies are requesting for tariff reviews and that this will imply in some cases, reversing Zim-babwe’s commitments to regional and international obligations, Government decided to also use the option of remov-ing some products from the Open Gen-eral Imports Licence.

“Removing products from OGIL means that goods will be imported at the discre-tion of the Minister of Industry and Com-merce, through the issuance of import

licenses,” said the minister. Bimha said he was recently in Botswana for a South-ern African Development Community meeting where Zimbabwe succeeded applying for emergency measures to be allowed to enact policy measures which were against regional obligations for a derogation period of three to five years.

He said this was necessary as Govern-ment was making strides to implement the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation and develop the economy.

On another note, Bimha revealed that principles for the establishment of Spe-cial Economic Zones had been crafted and would be presented to the Minister of Finance and Economic Development in due course as Governments concerted efforts to create favourable conditions for Foreign Direct Investment are being act out.

The Minister of State for Manicaland Pro-vincial Affairs, Chris Mushohwe, urged local companies to promote the ‘Buy Zimbabwe’ campaign and promote local manufacturing industries.

“Local mining companies and all compa-nies in general that import components and other spare parts for their retooling should stop importing and start sup-porting local industries so that we grow our industry instead of enriching foreign industries,” said Mushohwe.

The CZI congress which started on Wednesday ends on Friday and was run-ning under the theme: “Taking Zimba-bwe Industry to the next level.”

Several local and international speakers were invited to present papers on funda-mental economic matters that could help take Zimbabwe’s economy to the next level.-Manica Post •

Government still taking raw material duty removal applications

Minister Bimha

BH24

3 NEWS

By Lynn Murahwa

The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Develop-ment says it will dissolve housing coop-eratives that do not meet approved standards and conditions while some could have their accounts frozen as the ministry moves to curb corruption in the sector .

Addressing the Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Devel-opment Parliamentary portfolio com-mittee, permanent secretary Eveline Ndlovu said the ministry was swamped with complaints about housing cooper-atives that might be abusing funds at the expense of members.

"Housing Cooperatives have tended to give the most problems. The problems emanate from management commit-

tees not wanting to comply with pro-visions of the Act as regards to having books audited and held resulting in lack of leadership renewal.

"As well as management committees that are sub-dividing plots allocated and selling stands without the knowl-edge of cooperative members," she said.

She said 12 cooperatives risked hav-ing their accounts garnished as they have been resisting having their books audited.

"Some of these management com-mittees are not holding annual general meetings and in some instances ignor-ing advice from supervisory commit-tees and the ministry," she said.

Ndlovu added that land developers

were taking advantage of low income cooperators who are not well versed in legal matters to take portions of land from cooperatives as payment for ser-vices that they hardly ever give.

"After the people put in infrastructure, land developers move in and push peo-ple out. Cooperatives are taking in the role of Government, laying in roads, water and electricity then land devel-opers come saying they have papers from the Ministry of Local Government (to develop that land)and move them out,” she said.

Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Sithembiso Nyoni yesterday said her ministry will work with local authori-ties to punish offenders of the Housing Cooperative Act.•

Defrauding housing cooperatives to be dissolved

Minister Nyoni

BH24

BH24 Reporter

A local think tank has said the coun-try needs to deepen its financial sector reforms to encourage wider investor participation in the sector.

The Zimbabwe Economic Policy Analy-sis and Research Unit said an analysis of the macroeconomic performance and the developments in the financial sectors during the financial reform period revealed modest improvements in the efficiency of the financial sector.

“While ill managed and timed financial reforms can induce an economic crisis, financial reforms are a critical pillar in the economic growth and transforma-tion strategy of a nation.

In this regard, Zimbabwe needs to deepen its financial sector reforms that result in a broad spectrum of products to meet the demand s of the investing public,” Zeparu said.

Zeparu undertook a study on the expe-rience and lessons learnt for Zimbabwe in financial liberalisation and crisis.

The study noted that the measures that have been put in place to ensure recapitalisation of banks will need to be

accompanied by a conclusive way to deal with high level of non-performing loans.

“The rationale of these measures is anchored on the logic that strong and highly capitalised banks have capacity to underwrite more loans.

However, the issue of NPLs still needs to be addressed holistically through a co-ordinated approach .

One question that needs to be resolved is whether a policy under which all NPLs are recognized at once and the accompanying fiscal costs are all paid

up front is preferable to a piecemeal policy,” the report said.

The report also said for the ZimAsset blueprint to take shape, there is need for financing from the local financial sector .

“The tradable sector depends on inputs from the non-tradable sector. In this regard it is necessary that the non-tradable sector also grows in order to attain a balanced and sustainable growth path.

This requires adequate financing for domestically oriented firms and struc-tural reform in key sectors, such as energy and infrastructure, among others. Limited investment in the non-tradable sector will constrain export growth.” •

5 NEWS

Zim should deepen financial sector reforms: Study

BH24

BH24 Reporter

The completion of Starafrica Corpora-tion’s plant upgrade will result in a 50 percent increase in production capacity at the company’s main cash cow Gold

Star Sugars Harare and the resumption of exports.

In a statement, chairman Joe Mtizwa said the plant upgrade which started eight months ago had been completed

and would be commissioned in the sec-ond week of August.

“The upgraded plant will increase pro-duction capacity from 300 tonnes per day to 600 tonnes per day. As a result,

GSSH will be able to consistently sat-isfy refined sugar requirements for all domestic market segments and have a surplus to export,” he said.

He said the plant in Bulawayo remained under care and maintenance in the year ended Marchg 31 2014.

Mtizwa said the company recorded a 72 percent decline in production to 4 616 tonnes in the period under review due to the eight months shut down necessitated by the plant upgrade. This also negatively affected sales volumes during the review period.

Revenue went down to $9,3 million from $24,3 million in the prior year and the finance costs were also down to $4,8 million from $5,3 million.

The group narrowed its loses from $16,4 million in the previous year to $12,2 million. The group’s total assets also went down from $42 million to $35,3 million in the period under review.

Mtizwa said the group will improve its performance in the later part of 2014/2015 due to the plant upgrade and a stable domestic market for sugar. •

7 NEWS

Plant upgrade to double production for Starafrica

AdM-DI156506-

BH24

BH24

The equities market traded in the positive after the Industrial index moved up 1.54 points to close at 188.08 points.

Ten counters traded in the positive with Hippo adding on 2 cents to trade at 62 cents and Colcom gaining 1.41 cents to trade at 26.41 cents. Fidelity

was 1.02 cents solid to close at 8.52 cents whilst DZHL and Seedco both traded a cent higher at 12 cents and 80 cents respectively.

Two counters traded in the negative territory today. Pioneer lost 2 cents to trade at 3 cents and Radar eased 0.02 cents to close at 2 cents.

The mining index lost a further 0.65 points to close at 95.00 points as Bindura shed 0.23 cents to trade at 8.50 cents. Falgold was unchanged at 3 cents while Riozim rose by 3.10 cents to close at 24.10 cents. Hwange also had a firm bid at 5.50 cents.

― BH24 Reporter •

10 ZSE REVIEW

Equities market maintains gains

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PROPSHAFTS SPARES

SPIDER BEARINGS

BOOSTERS

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PROPSHAFTS & DRIVE SHAFTS

TRACK RODS &DRAGLINKS

BH24

The housing industry is regarded as a barometer for economic growth in developed countries for the simple reason that the growth of credit in this sector stimulates economic growth as banks make profits for their investors.

But in Zimbabwe, this is not happen-ing as the investors are shunning the sector and Government struggles to deal with the backlog.

So what has been happening is that individuals are using their meager earnings to build their own houses, a process that may take years.

And to counter this, we have had numerous housing cooperatives com-ing in to help the situation.

While the initiative of cooperatives was noble, hundreds of these co-op-eratives have taken advantage of the desperate citizens to dupe them of their hard-earned money.

They take people’s hard earned money and put it to their own selfish use. And very few have been punished for this by the looks of things. And what has Government done with these errant

co-operatives? Not much we feel. Zimbabwe’s housing backlog stands at a staggering 1,2 million applicants, a figure Government says could soar if a proper survey is conducted. Thou-sands are living in squatter camps while illegal structures are resurfacing.

And the rapidly growing communi-ties in the capital that accommodate low-income-earners infrastructure such as such as Hopley Farm, Cale-donia and Whitecliff that were built by housing co-operatives do not have schools, proper roads, health and rec-reational facilities.

Now with a figure this high, Govern-ment should have done something more by now. Instead of demolish-ing houses in Chitungwiza and other areas, Government should be working to make them legal so that we do not increase the number of homeless peo-ple.

Harare Residents Trust director Pre-cious Shumba has said local authori-ties have not taken housing as a major priority.

“Housing has not been taken as a major priority by local authorities, especially in Harare. The increasing number of people on the housing waiting list reflects the attitude of the Government of Zimbabwe where they have not really invested in the provi-sion of housing to millions of desper-ate home seekers.

“To confirm this view, a review of the strategic plans of local authorities, their annual plans and budgets show that housing is not being given top pri-ority.The current restructuring of the City of Harare shows that the housing department has been put under the

chamber secretary’s department as a division, yet it is a key service that the City of Harare or any other local authority provides. They have main-tained a human resources department showing their priority as a municipality is on employment provision instead of housing delivery,” Shumba said.

It seems housing cooperatives that are engaging in corruption have been getting more attention from local authorities than the genuine ones.

So we feel Government should come in and mediate. They should not be licensing so many of them for the purposes of audit. The more they are, the more difficult it is to regulate and monitor them . Cooperatives need to be controlled so that they do not abuse the people who are in desperate need of housing.

So we feel Government should enforce regulations to ensure that the millions of Zimbabweans who need houses get attention. This is the only way housing in Zimbabwe can contribute to eco-nomic growth. •

12 BH24 COMMENT

Restore sanity in the housing sector

BH24

Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg has just announced that Facebook is launching the Internet.org application in Zambia. This app allows free data access to basic internet ser-vices.

Zambia is the first country which will benefit from this project and its large set of free internet services with other countries in other parts of the world set to benefit from the service as well.

The service will be available to Air-tel subscribers in Zambia who can access these services in the Internet.

org Android app, at www.internet.org, or within the Facebook for Android app. This is meant to improve internet penetration in Zambia which currently stands at 15%

The internet.org project was launched by Zuckerburg and Facebook in a bid to bring internet access to the “next five billion people.” This effort has roped in other large players in telecoms and technology which include Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung.

Posting on his Facebook page Zuck-erburg said right now, only 15% of people in Zambia have access to the internet. Soon, everyone will be able to use the internet for free to find jobs, get help with reproductive health and

other aspects of health, and use tools like Facebook to stay connected with the people they love.

Some of the sites include Facebook, AccuWeather, Airtel, eZeLibrary ,Facts for Life,Google Search, Go Zambia Jobs, MAMA (Mobile Alliance for Mater-nal Action), Wikipedia and Messenger.

A similar service, Econet Zero was launched locally by the country’s larg-est network operator Econet Wireless. It’s focus has solely been free access to education sites and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). •

Mining project house DRA said on Thursday that it had agreed to acquire the Forge Group North America com-panies, formerly known as Taggart Global, for an undisclosed sum.

DRA, a private, employee-owned Johannesburg-based project and engineering services company which is celebrating its thirtieth year in busi-ness, said the acquisition of Taggart’s US operations would add more than

$100-million to its existing Americas business, along with world-class engi-neering capabilities.

DRA has bought the 21-year-old Tag-gart with the full support of the man-agement team, which will remain with the company. A company in engineer-ing, construction and operations ser-vices, Taggart, headquartered in Pitts-burgh, gives DRA added experience in coal preparation and diverse mineral

and aggregate handling systems in North America, Africa, Australia and China.

DRA CEO Paul Thomson said Taggart, which had an “excellent” reputation in the global coal preparation and clean-coal technology markets, had expanded its skill set into the power sector, ports and terminals, biofuels, mineral sands, as well as the mining and aggregate industries.He was also

particularly attracted to the compa-ny’s ability to build and operate pollu-tion control systems, coal preparation plants, mineral load-out facilities and material handling facilities.

Taggart’s South African subsidiaries would be part of a separate transac-tion, which would be subject to regula-tory and competition authority approv-als. ― Mining Weekly. •

14 REGIONAL NEWS

South Africa’s DRA adds $100m to Americas business as it tags Taggart

Facebook announces free data access in Zambia with Internet.org

Mark Zuckerburg

BH24

16 DIARY OF EVENTS

The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.

POWER GENERATION STATSGen Station

31 July 2014

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 669 MW

Kariba 720 MW

Harare 20 MW

Munyati 26 MW

Bulawayo 28 MW

Imports 0 MW

Total 1463 MW

1 August - Sixteenth Annual General Meeting of the members of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited, Place: Econet Park, 2 Old Mutare Road, Msasa, Harare, Time; 10.00am

Seed Co Limited 19th Annual General Meet-ing Venue: Seed Co Administration Block at Sta-pleford Date: Wednesday 20 August Time: 12:00 hours

National Tyre Services Limited 52nd Annual General Meeting Venue : Boardroom, Stand 4608, Corner Cripps/Seke Roads, Granite-side, Harare Date: 20 August 2014 Time: 14:30 hours

THE BH24 DIARY

BH24

18 ZSE

ZSEMOvERS CHANGE TODAY PRICE USC SHAKERS CHANGE TODAY PRICE USC

RIOZIM 24.10 2.01 PIONEER -40.00 3.00

STARAFRICACORPORATION 14.43 2.30 BNC -2.63 8.50

FIDELITy 13.60 8.52 RADAR -0.99 2.00

ZIMRE 10.00 1.10

DAIRIBORD 9.09 12.00

OK 5.82 18.00

COLCOM 5.64 26.41

HIPPO 3.33 62.00

BARCLAyS 2.75 4.11

SEED CO 1.27 80.00

IndicesINDEx PREvIOUS TODAY MovE CHANGE

INDUSTRIAL 184.95 183.76 -1.19 POINTS -0.64%

MINING 61.13 66.53 +5.40 POINTS +8.83%

Stocks Exchange

BH24

20 AFRICA STOCkS

Botswana 8,664.65 -11.96 -0.14% 12July

Cote dIvoire 246.37 +2.18 +0.89% 07Mar

Egypt 7,949.60 -75.68 -0.94% 06Mar

Ghana 2,295.37 -14.73 -0.64% 24July

Kenya 4,896.77 -13.83 -0.28% 21July

Malawi 12,662.47 +0.00 +0.00% 07Mar

Mauritius 2,074.51 -3.51 -0.17% 07Mar

Morocco 9,544.10 +21.01 +0.22% 07Mar

Nigeria 42,285.85 -258.48 -0.61% 25July

Rwanda 131.27 +0.00 +0.00% 24Oct

Tanzania 2,018.97 +25.40 +1.27% 07Mar

Tunisia 4,624.39 -39.32 -0.84% 07Mar

Uganda 1,503.90 +0.81 +0.05% 10Sep

Zambia 4,242.74 +14.95 +0.35% 10April

Zimbabwe 184.37 +0.77 +0.42% 29July

African stock round up Commodity Prices

Name Price

Crude Oil 1,300.91 -0.21%

Spot Gold USD/oz 1,292.63 -0.26%

Spot Silver USD/oz 19.38 -0.46%

Spot Platinum USD/oz 1,421.25 -0.33%

Spot Palladium USD/oz 798.50 -0.64%

LME Copper USD/t 6,770 -0.18%

LME Aluminium USD/t 1,780 -1.17%

LME Nickel USD/t 18,230 -1.73%

LME Lead USD/t 2,095 -1.41%

Quote of the day — "Never turN dowN a job because you thiNk it's too small, you doN't kNow where itcaN lead." ― julia morgaN

Globalshareholder.com

BH24

Global mining giant Rio Tinto markets itself as a 'sustainable company',but serious failures in its reporting, and its attempt to hold an Australian indige-nous group to ransom, reveal a very different truth: the company is driven by a reckless pursuit of profit at any cost.

Rio Tinto uses its sustainability report-ing to bolster the argument that it is a responsible company and therefore entitled to a license to operate. Now, a global campaign is demanding that Rio Tinto live up to its sustainability claims.

Rio Tinto subsidiary, Energy Resources of Australia (ERA), has threatened the Mirarr people that if it is not allowed to expand its Ranger uranium mining operations underground, it may be unable to fully fund rehabilitation of the open pit mine.

The Ranger mine is located in the tra-ditional lands of the Mirarr, the world heritage-listed Kakadu national park in Australia's Northern Territory. If ERA does not complete rehabilitation of the site, which suffered a radioactive spill last year, the water, air quality and soil

in the area could be scarred with toxic radiation for generations.

'It's not our problem' When a share-holder confronted Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh about this at the company's April annual meeting, Walsh flatly refused to commit to full rehabilitation or take responsibility for the mess.

Walsh said it is a problem for ERA, not Rio Tinto: "We are clearly sharehold-ers [of ERA], but it's a matter for all shareholders and a matter for the ERA board." What he did not mention is that Rio Tinto is the controlling shareholder of ERA, and that five out of six ERA

board members are current or former Rio Tinto employees.

What's more, in its latest sustainable development report, Rio Tinto une-quivocally states that "ERA will make sure that when its operations come to an end, the Ranger Project Area will be safely closed and rehabilitated ... ". RT: sustainability 'supporting our license to operate' Rio Tinto is keen on sustain-ability reports. It produces them both at the global level and for many of its individual sites.

The reason why is neatly summed up in the title of its 2013 sustainable

development report: "Supporting our license to operate". In effect, Rio Tinto uses its sustainability reporting to bol-ster the argument that it is a responsi-ble company and therefore entitled to a license to operate. This tacit license is distinct from the authorisation it needs to operate each individual mine, such as land, water and air permits. How-ever, it is just as important.

Unless it is seen as trustworthy, deci-sion-makers will be reticent to grant mining rights to Rio Tinto. Without these rights, the company will have no way to make profits. ― The Ecologist •

22 INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Rio Tinto's 'sustainable mining' claims exposed

By Garikai Dzoma

When I was a young man in our rural home there were only two households with landline phones. These doubled as phone shops and people would queue for hours to make brief calls over poor lines that buzzed like bees due to static.

If you think today’s mobile operators are ripping you off then you should have seen what those two charged. The actual figures are lost in a hectic decade of currency changes but it must have been in the region of a hen every two or so minutes.

Understandably for the majority of us the most popular means of communi-cation was via the PTC’s postal service. It was not fast or overly efficient but it was cheap so everyone, including us kids, could afford it.

For a fraction of a dollar – the US dol-lar I mean – one could send entire pages of messages to their loved ones. I remember my family and I used to stuff several letters into the same enve-lope as we sent messages to my father whenever he was deployed abroad.

There was none of this bundles non-sense. Every now and again I have to explain data pricing models to my maternal grandmother. She hasn’t really grasped the meaning of data and megabytes so I spent a good amount of our time making up crazy analogies about letter weight and stamps.

Bundles are like special stamps that can only be used to sent and receive special types of letters. The response is always invariably a why? And why do I have to buy a stamp to be able to receive a letter? Is it because the mes-sages are marked Pay Forward?

Zimbabwean statistics are hard to come by so I can only speak for myself-I have only received a total of three letters in two years. Not counting parcels, I have received only one let-ter through the post during this time and it was a business letter. I haven’t posted a single letter in almost 8 years. The red painted ZIMPOST letter box that used to be a prominent feature of every shopping centre from Machipisa to Hauna has now been relegated to memories. When was the last time any of you sent a letter? I am not referring

to those “Final Notice” demands that are hand delivered to your debtors every month. I mean by post.

Old Mr. Dodzo the Postmaster, one of the many postmen in our village used to deliver every letter to its recipi-ent in the village. He didn’t have to, but he preferred that personal touch and delivered every letter and with it, pieces of village gossip in love and with relish.

Postmen were ubiquitous then and as an important a job as any. They were at par with our teachers, policemen and soldiers acting as the nervous system to our great nation. I cannot help but think that part of the high unemployment rate in our country has

been brought about by the increasing redundancy of the postman. I haven’t seen anyone in a Postman’s uniform in a while, they have become more rare than swallows in July.

Most have no need for a postman now. They send their messages through email, IM, Facebook, Twitter and increasingly less through SMS and MMS. In the name of progress these “letters” are transported, sorted and delivered by machines in real time.

The flesh and blood postman is giv-ing way to the digital postman.Dis-turbingly with the decline of SMS and MMS usage more and more of these tasks are being handled beyond our borders. Old Mr. Dodzo would never have approved of such an impersonal method of delivery.

But he is dead now and almost certainly the postman’s post (pun intended) will soon follow him to the grave. With the increase in the uptake of courier ser-vices it seems even the parcel deliv-ering niche that they have enjoyed for so long might also fall to the prey. ― Techzim •

23 ANALYSIS

The death of the postman