zimbabwe milk production continues on the up

18
News Update as @ 1530 hours, Monday 5 January 2015 Feedback: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Zim milk production continues on the up By Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Latest statistics from the Dairy Ser- vices Unit in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Develop- ment show that raw milk production for the month of November went margin- ally up to 4, 6 million litres bringing the total production for the eleven months to 50,6 million litres. This raises hope that total production for the full year to December 2014 might exceed last year’s figure of 54,6 million litres. In the period under review, the total amount of milk taken up by processors 4 078 446 litres compared to 4 055 041 litres in the previous year. And pro- ducers retailed 526 958 litres up from 505 238 litres. For the 11 months to November, the total amount of milk retailed by pro- ducers was 5,4 million litres compared to 4,9 million litres in the same period in 2013. Processors took in 45,1 million in the same period up from 44,5 million litres in 2013. The increase that has was recorded in milk production in 2014 could be attrib- uted to a larger heifer herd following imports by large processors like Dair- ibord, Nestle and Dendairy during the year as well as a noticeable availability of stock feed on the local market. The country’s annual milk production has been low in the past few years due to high production costs and a depleted national dairy herd. With the industry operating at 45 percent capacity, an estimated 223 registered dairy operators and a dairy herd of about 26 000 animals, this left producers struggling to meet national demand of 120 million litres per annum. Government last year said it was work- ing on introducing the livestock policy to drive the industry towards efficiency of production as well as growing the capacities of small scale dairy farmers. At its peak in 1999, Zimbabwe pro- duced over 150 million litres of milk annually and was exporting into the region and beyond.

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News Update as @ 1530 hours, Monday 5 January 2015

Feedback: [email protected]: [email protected]

Zim milk production continues on the upBy Rumbidzayi Zinyuke

Latest statistics from the Dairy Ser-vices Unit in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Develop-ment show that raw milk production for the month of November went margin-ally up to 4, 6 million litres bringing the total production for the eleven months to 50,6 million litres.

This raises hope that total production for the full year to December 2014 might exceed last year’s figure of 54,6 million litres.

In the period under review, the total amount of milk taken up by processors 4 078 446 litres compared to 4 055 041 litres in the previous year. And pro-ducers retailed 526 958 litres up from 505 238 litres.

For the 11 months to November, the

total amount of milk retailed by pro-ducers was 5,4 million litres compared to 4,9 million litres in the same period in 2013. Processors took in 45,1 million in the same period up from 44,5 million litres in 2013.

The increase that has was recorded in milk production in 2014 could be attrib-uted to a larger heifer herd following imports by large processors like Dair-ibord, Nestle and Dendairy during the year as well as a noticeable availability of stock feed on the local market.

The country’s annual milk production has been low in the past few years due to high production costs and a depleted national dairy herd.

With the industry operating at 45 percent capacity, an estimated 223 registered dairy operators and a dairy herd of about 26 000 animals, this left producers struggling to meet national demand of 120 million litres per annum.

Government last year said it was work-ing on introducing the livestock policy to drive the industry towards efficiency of production as well as growing the capacities of small scale dairy farmers.

At its peak in 1999, Zimbabwe pro-duced over 150 million litres of milk annually and was exporting into the region and beyond. •

2 NEWS

Delta, CAFCA boost shares in issueBH24 Reporter

Listed beverages producer, Delta Cor-poration, has added a further 472 900 ordinary shares to the beneficiaries of its share option scheme.

This brings the number of Delta shares in issue from the previous 1 244 808 235 to 1 245 281 135 with effect from last week (January 2).

The beverages manufacturer, which is one of the few well performing compa-nies on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has continually and consistently boosted its employee scheme.

In November last year. Delta Corpora-tion added a further 1 935 820 ordinary shares to the beneficiaries of its share option scheme, bringing its number of shares in issue from the previous 1 241 270 415 to 1 243 206 235.

Two months earlier (September), the beverages maker boosted its shares in issues by an additional 370 100, and prior to that in July this year Delta Cor-poration increased its shares in issue by 91 600 under the same scheme.

A share option scheme allows employ-ees to buy shares in their employer at below market value. It can also be used as a possible measure to avoid income tax on what is effectively a benefit in kind – that is, the difference between the buying price and the market price.

The company will however need to keep swelling those shares in issue for its Share Option Scheme if it is to become fully compliant with Zimba-bwe's indigenisation law.

Basically an employee share own-ership scheme is a contribution plan that provides a company's workers with an ownership interest in the com-pany. Under such schemes, companies provide their employees with stock ownership, typically at no cost to the employees. Employee share ownership scheme are envisioned in the Indige-nisation and Economic Empowerment (General) Regulations of 2010.

As at present, 33 percent of Delta is indigenised and locals still need to purchase another 33 percent of total shares to reach the stipulated 51 per-cent.

Meanwhile, listed cable manufacturer CAFCA has increased shares in issue to 8 436 774 .

The company add a further 115 533 ordinary shares to the8 321 241 that

were previously in circulation.

CAFCA management attributed the increase in share in issue to its share option scheme and removals inwards. •

BH24

44 BH24

AFCR shareholders approve name change

55 NEWS

AIM-listed resources company, African Consolidated Resources (AFCR), which owns 50 percent of Pickstone Peerless gold mine near Chegutu has changed its name to Vast Resources to reflect a number of business opportunities that it undertook last year.

Shareholders approved the change at an Annual General Meeting that was held on December30.

“Accordingly, the Company is pleased to confirm that the change of its name to Vast Resources plc will become effec-tive 31 December, 2014, and trading in the Company’s New Ordinary Shares, the Placing Shares and the Subscrip-tion Shares on AIM under this name is expected to commence at 8:00am on 6 January 2015,” the company announced after the AGM.

AFCR sold 50 percent equity to Grayfox Investments, a Zimbabwean incorpo-rated company owned by a local con-sortium, which paid $4 million for it and formed a new joint venture, Dallaglio Investments.

The new company will now run the mine.

Vast Resources also owns mines in Romania. - Wires •

66 NEWS

Gold rose for a second day as Greece’s political crisis spurred demand for a haven. Bullion climbed above 1,000 euros an ounce to the highest in 15 months.

European policy makers are striving to fend off a return of the region’s debt crisis. Greece has begun an election campaign that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said will determine the coun-try’s euro membership.

Samaras used a Jan. 2 speech to warn that victory for the main opposition Syriza party would cause default and Greece’s exit from the 19-member euro region. Gold rose for the first time in four months in December as slowing eco-nomic growth outside the U.S prompts governments to boost stimulus as the Federal Reserve moves closer to raising interest rates.

“Greece probably doesn’t have the potential to cause a systemic crisis as it did a few years ago, but if you’re short gold you probably want to cover,” Robin Bhar, an analyst at Societe Generale SA in London, said by phone. “It might pay to go long, on the perhaps negative sound bites coming out of Greece.”

Bullion for immediate delivery added 0.1 percent to $1,189.93 an ounce by 10:57 a.m. in London, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. It reached $1,168.34 on Jan. 2, the lowest since Dec. 1. Gold for February delivery gained 0.3 percent to $1,189.80 on the Comex in New York.

Trading Volume

Futures trading volume were about the average for the past 100 days for this time of day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The euro fell to the weakest level in

almost nine years versus the dollar amid speculation the European Central Bank is moving closer to large-scale sover-eign-bond purchases. A weaker euro has helped gold priced in the currency to climb to the highest since September 2013.

Silver for immediate delivery increased as much as 2.3 percent to $16.1065 an ounce in London and last traded at $16.0003. Platinum was little changed at $1,201.60 an ounce. Palladium was also little changed at $795 an ounce after falling the previous five days in the longest run of losses since July. - Bloomberg •

Gold rises for a second day as Greece spurs demand for haven

BH24

As the new year begins, both Gov-ernment and the private sector need to ensure that the they focus on the effective implementation of indicated policies and projects.

Because it is only when these projects are implemented can Zimbabwe's economy move forward in the right direction.

A case in point in the ZimAsset national economic policy programme, which has been lauded by a number of agen-cies including the World Bank, the Afri-can Development Bank and a British business delegation that visited Zimba-bwe late last year.

The common thread that we picked up from these agencies' commentary on ZimAsset is that is a positive policy paper, but the Government needs to find a way to fund the projects indi-cated therein in order to drive capital formation growth.

At a basic level, 'capital formation' refers to increasing the stock of real capital in a country. To this extent, cap-ital formation entails making of more capital goods such as machines, tools, factories, transport equipment, mate-rials, electricity, which are all used for future production of goods (especially

the latter - electricity).

In this respect, the private sector has been complicit in maintaining the low energy output status quo as licensed private players to establish power projects have been taking too long to develop their indicated projects.

Reasonable time has already lapsed for these projects to have moved beyond the prefeasibility study phase, which

some of them seem stuck at.

In any case, for the achievement of effective capital formation growth, both savings and investment are essential.

But the Government has over the past few years been struggling to balance the fiscus in such a way as to distribute the collected monies towards projects that lead to greater capital formation.

This is essentially because most of those monies have been consumed by civil servants salaries (and bonuses) at the expense of the broader economy.

So the announcement made by Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa last year that the Government is planning to streamline the civil service this year, thereby reducing the wage bill should be commended.

It's a huge sacrifice, but one that needs to be made.

If the Zimbabwean economy contin-ues to consume all that it produces and saves nothing, future productive capacity of the economy will fall as the present capital equipment wears out. We have been far too short-sighted for a long time in this country.

As an old Chinese proverb reads:

“He who cannot see beyond the dawn will have much good wine to drink at noon, much green wine to cure his headache at dark, and only rain water to drink for the rest of his days.”

We need to cut down some of the pres-ent consumption and wait for more consumption in the future. •

8 BH24 COMMENT

Greater capital formation needed in 2015

The equities market maintained its downward trend in today’s session with three counters trading in the neg-ative and none in the positive.

The Industrial index retreated by 0.13 points to close at 162.44 points after

NMB shed 0.50 cents to close at 4 cents.

The Mining index was flat at 72.61 points. Falgold lost 0.50 cents to close at 3 cents and the loss was factored on index when the counter was offered

lower on 16 December 2014. Bindura, Hwange and RioZim were unchanged at 6.50 cents, 4.80 cents and 15 cents respectively.― BH24 Reporter •

9 ZSE REVIEW

ZSE maintains negative trend

REGIONAL NEWS 10

South Africa's rand weakened to a two-and-a-half week low against the dollar early on Monday as investor bets on quantitative easing in the eurozone and weak global growth prospects strained sentiment toward emerging market assets.

By 0625, the local unit had slipped 0.25 percent to 11.7400 per dollar, its weak-est level since Dec 17 amid growing expectations the European Central Bank would print money.

The eurozone is battling weak eco-nomic activity and consumer spending that has remained outside the ECB's 2 percent target, with the December CPI number due later in the week expected to show little improvement from the current 0.3 percent.

The rand is in danger of slipping back toward six-year lows of 11.8400 under the current risk-shy climate, which has favoured dollar buying, as yawning budget and trade deficits as well as an unreliable electricity supply worries investors.

While the rand is not the only currency under pressure from dollar strength, South Africa's fragile economic funda-mentals pose significant risk to any kind of recovery when the dollar bull-run eventually corrects, a currency trader said.

"The investment money is going to flow into those risky assets that are less sus-ceptible to external shocks and have their ducks in somewhat of a row," War-rick Butler, executive trader at Standard Bank wrote in a market note.

"This is where my fear factor starts kick-ing in because South Africa is not in that position."

Local bonds were also weaker, with the government issue due in 2026 adding 4 basis points to 8.03 percent. - Reu-ters •

South Africa's rand dragged lower on bets on eurozone money printing

Egyptian pound steady in official market, gains on black marketThe Egyptian pound held steady at a central bank dollar sale on Sunday and made gains on the black market.

The bank offered $40 million at the sale and said it had sold $38.7 million at a

cut-off price of 7.1401 pounds to the dollar, a rate unchanged from its last sale.

The rates at which banks are allowed to trade dollars are determined by the

results of central bank sales, giving the bank effective control over official exchange rates.

In the unofficial market, a trader said the pound was trading at 7.77 to the

dollar on Sunday, stronger than last week when traders put it at 7.81. - Reuters •

11 DIARY OF EVENTS

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

POWER GENERATION STATS

Gen Station

19 December 2014

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 507 MW

Kariba 738 MW

Harare 30 MW

Munyati 26 MW

Bulawayo 0 MW

Imports 0 MW

Total 1301 MW

29 December - Extraordinary General Meeting of the members of Zimplow Holdings Limited; Place: Main

Lounge, Royal Harare Golf Club, 5th Street Extension, Harare; Time: 12:00 hours

12 January 2015 - CBZ Extraordinary General Meeting; Place: CBZ Wealth Management Centre, Pomona;

Time: 08:30am

THE BH24 DIARY

12 ZSE

ZSEMOVERS CHANGE TODAY PRICE USC SHAKERS CHANGE TODAY PRICE USC

FALGOLD -14.29 3.00

NMBZ -11.11 4.00

IndicesINDEx PREVIOUS TODAY MOVE CHANGE

INDUSTRIAL 162.57 162.44 -0.13 POINTS -0.08%

MINING 72.61 72.61 0.00 POINTS 0.00%

Stocks Exchange

PREVIOUS

13 AFRICA STOCKS

Botswana 8,664.65 -11.96 -0.14% 12July

Cote dIvoire 256.50 -1.58 -0.61% 02Jan

Egypt 8,942.65 +16.07 +0.18% 04Jan

Ghana 2,287.32 +26.30 +1.16% 02Jan

Kenya 5,117.43 +4.78 +0.09% 02Jan

Malawi 14,886.12 +0.00 +0.00% 02Jan

Mauritius 6,795.35 +24.31 +0.36% 31Dec

Morocco 9,643.19 +23.08 +0.24% 02Jan

Nigeria 34,657.15 -27.17 -0.08% 31Dec

Rwanda 143.39 +0.20 +0.14% 02Oct

Tanzania 2,602.19 -30.74 -1.17% 28Oct

Tunisia 4,624.39 -39.32 -0.84% 07Mar

Uganda 1,942.77 -12.69 -0.65% 10Dec

Zambia 6,160.66 +12.17 +0.20% 31Dec

Zimbabwe 162.57 -0.22 -0.14% 02Jan

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 — "Any FAct FAc-Ing US IS nOt AS ImPORtAnt AS OUR AttItUdE tOwARd It, FOR thAt dEtERmInES OUR SUccESS OR FAIlURE." - Nor-maN ViNceNt Peale

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14 INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Oil fell for a third day, extending its drop from the lowest close since 2009 amid speculation a global supply glut that’s driven crude into a bear market may persist this year.

Futures slid as much as 2 percent in London, after losing 5.1 percent last week. Iraq, the second-largest pro-ducer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, plans to boost crude exports this month, the oil min-istry said. Sanford C. Bernstein cut its Brent forecasts for this year, citing increases in global spare capacity and rising inventories.

Brent slumped 48 percent last year, the most since the 2008 financial crisis, as OPEC resisted calls to cut output amid a battle with U.S. shale producers for market share. The 12-member group, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s crude, pumped above its target for a seventh straight month in December, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

“ Iraq’s crude production is one of the contributors to the glut we’ve been seeing,” Hong Sung Ki, a commodi-ties analyst at Samsung Futures Inc. in Seoul, said by phone. “The glut is

expected to continue if demand fails to catch up with supply.”

Brent for February settlement declined as much as $1.15 to $55.27 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, and was at $55.38 at 3 p.m. Singapore time. The contract fell 91 cents to $56.42 on Jan. 2, the lowest close since May 2009. The European benchmark grade traded at a premium

of $3.79 to West Texas Intermediate.

Iraqi Supplies

WTI for February delivery dropped as much as $1.29, or 2.5 percent, to $51.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It slid 58 cents to $52.69 on Jan. 2, the lowest close since April 2009. The vol-ume of all futures traded was almost double the 100-day average.

Iraq plans to expand crude exports to 3.3 million barrels a day this month, Asim Jihad, a spokesman at the oil ministry in Baghdad, said by phone yesterday. The country exported 2.94 million a day in December, the most since the 1980s, he said.

Iraq reached an agreement with its semi-autonomous Kurdish region last month over oil exports through Tur-key, after years of disagreement on the territory’s right to independently develop its energy resources. The pact allows as much as 550,000 barrels a day from northern Iraq to be shipped to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, along a pipeline to the Turkish border operated by the Kurdistan Regional Government. — Bloomberg •

Oil extends drop from 5 1/2-year low on supply glut speculation

By Bernard Bwoni

What clearly distinguishes the ruling party from any other political entity in Zimbabwe is the party’s consistency to principle and it is this immersion to ideological probity that defines the rul-ing party. One of the obvious outcomes of firmly standing by principle and ide-ology is the conflict it generates with friends and foes alike. The ruling party in Zimbabwe has taken an honourable ideological stance on controversial but crucial policies such as the land reform, indigenisation and economic empow-erment but this left the country iso-lated on some fronts and the economy heavily compromised. The bondage to doctrines, the many blueprints, the inconsistencies and the perennial habits without practical and effective imple-mentation have unnecessarily exposed many of the ideological sacrifices to ridicule. Zimbabwe is well-known for producing excellent, well-drafted blue-prints yet when it comes to implemen-tation everyone seems to develop cold feet. It is the ideological and principle consistency that creates coherency in policy implementation. Zimbabwe has the ZIMASSET economic blueprint to

execute, to drive up the country and translate ideology into tangible out-comes that will benefit the ordinary man, woman and child.

The worry is that the country seems deeply and consistently engrossed in petty political pickings at the expense of procurement for the nation as a whole.

We are agreed that this is the post-con-gress period and focus now should be on driving up the economic blueprint to realise its undeniable full potential. The

15 aNalySiS

ZIMASSET: Principle, consistency and effective implementation

15 ANALYSIS

inconsistencies, the polarisation, the negativity, the lack of consensus and the constant political squabbling only put obstacles in the paths towards eco-nomic recovery and genuine prosperity.

The fact of the matter is that ZIMASSET is a technical document and as such poses technical questions which require technical answers. It is the technical answers which will unlock the country’s true economic potential. These answers are going to be provided by the techni-cal people and the processes are going to be driven by the politicians and poli-cymakers. You cannot take the politics out of the economics or the economics out of the politics but for Zimbabwe to address the many debilitating economic problems the country is currently facing there is an urgent need to prioritise the economics. This is in no way meant to say the politics is any less important.

The ruling party has to dismantle the pretences, the mirrors of inconsist-ency, the dishonesty, disharmony and the deliberate delays in demonstrating commitment to implementation of pro-posed programmes as rank and order indulge in petty political contretemps. Consistency of ideology and principle is

a virtue in its own right and consistency in implementation is a virtue if put for-ward with practical application and by the letter of the law.

The Indigenisation and Empowerment policies are Laws and Acts which have been passed through parliament. The Indigenisation and Economic Empower-ment Act was passed through an Act of Parliament in 2008. All potential inves-tors to Zimbabwe are often confronted with some unhelpful headlines about the Act and its application.

However investors into Zimbabwe should have very little if anything to worry about as the Act is clear in terms of objectives and intended outcomes as set out in the policy. For consistency sake those who seek clarification can do so simply by contacting the relevant ministry.

The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, Chapter 14:33, Part II, Section 3, subsection (a) clearly states “The Government shall through this Act or any other law, endeavour to secure that “at least fifty-one per centum of the shares of every public company and any other business shall

be owned by indigenous Zimbabwe-ans”. The Law is very clear and the newly appointed Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Christopher Mushohwe recently said that the Government of Zimbabwe would remain guided by the Law in the implementation of its indigenisation and economic empowerment programmes.

That is the consistency that investors seek because from there any investor can simply read through the Act itself and seek clarification where required from Minister Mushohwe’s office.

The concern is that there is deceitful disinformation and sensational media headlines alleging inconsistencies from different government officials. This dis-information and misinformation are unhelpful and unnecessarily creates uncertainty and negative speculation which is not good for the country’s struggling economy.

There are many erroneous reports doing media rounds that VP Mnan-gagwa recently said that Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment laws will ‘be scrapped next year’ when in fact what he was talking about is “getting rid

of bureaucratic regulations that incon-venienced investors”.

There is policy consistency throughout on the indigenisation and economic empowerment programmes. The Vice President Mnangagwa and Indigeni-sation Minister Mushohwe are saying exactly the same thing and those who chose to interpret the two statements differently did so for whatever motives of their own.

Mushohwe is talking about the Law of the land on Indigenisation and Economic empowerment and VP Mnangagwa was very specific about the essence of mak-ing the investment environment and process in Zimbabwe simpler and was pronouncing new policies that attract more investment into the country.

It is not the ‘Law’ but the bureaucratic bungling which frustrates potential investors. The Law is the law and most if not all investors have not been blocked from doing business in Zimbabwe by law but by the intricate bureaucracy such as investors spending over six months consulting and going through the registration process.

16 aNalySiS16 ANALYSIS

VP Mnangagwa was putting emphasis on dealing urgently with issues affecting business to put the economy back on the road to recovery by simplifying and expediting investment formalities.

The Indigenisation Minister Chris Mush-ohwe’s quest for a full list of all those who have benefitted from the policy so far is a welcome development as this will bring about clarity and transparency into the whole process. It is important to have a clear picture of who is actually benefiting from the policy and present areas for improvement.

The key to the country’s economic recovery is being anchored on the ZIMASSET economic blueprint which needs to be followed by effective imple-mentation, eradicating corruption, pol-icy consistency and clarity, providing information on the investment policies and laws in the country and govern-ment speaking from the same page for clarity sake.

There is reason to be optimistic about Zimbabwe’s long term economic pros-pects and there is need to iron out some issues relating to inconsistency that have been unnecessarily slowing

down the recovery. It is a fact that hope is the only thing that is stronger than fear. Now is the time for politics to give economic recovery the highest level of priority.

The Zimbabwe economy can be sal-vaged easily with consistency, deci-siveness and less emphasis on unnec-essary and counterproductive political squabbles. The country is saturated with the ruling party’s intraparty politics and there is an urgent need for a shift towards intraparty economic dialogue to harness the experience and expertise of those in and outside of government to take on the challenges being presented.

The fundamental problems crippling the country’s economy are well-known and well-documented, namely corruption, low capacity utilisation, unemployment, long term and short term structural deficits, negative perception and lack of confidence from some potential inves-tors, lack of confidence in the finance and consumer sectors. There is no need to change the law but a simple change in tone can quickly change perception and increase confidence. Words are very powerful and need to be used with caution as they end up portraying the

country in a negative light.

The priority is to address the problems head on and to target economic growth and reducing the numbers of those without formal work that is creating employment. The country’s economic growth needs to be over 6% to be able to catch up with lost capacity of the last fourteen years induced by sanctions and other factors already highlighted above. A strong growth of over 6% will help boost tax revenues and create jobs to be able to successfully reduce the current unsustainable government fiscal deficits.

The country has to effectively balance solving short term and long term struc-tural deficits. No one is questioning the importance of Foreign Direct Invest-ment in world economies; however investment alone will not stimulate the economy. There is also a need for real demand for products and services pro-vided there is readily available dispos-able income.

Zimbabwe has the former but falls short on the latter. There is a great deal of uncertainty in the economy and wage constraints and how the country goes

about addressing these is how the country is going to start emerging from the mire and mud.

Zimbabwe is indeed open for business and any potential investors should be approaching the relevant ministries with their queries instead of relying on some unhelpful media headlines. The govern-ment of Zimbabwe is very much open to constructive and mutually beneficial engagement and welcomes investors from any part of the world.

The country’s Indigenisation and Eco-nomic Empowerment Laws have often been misrepresented, misconstrued and misunderstood and that is unfor-tunate as Zimbabwe is such investor friendly country.

The country has the right ideology, the right principles and now what is required is the right attitude to implementation of programmes. And for the implementa-tion to be right the issues of corruption, consistency and coherency have to be addressed as a matter of urgency. - bernardbwoni.blogspot.com•

17 aNalySiS17 ANALYSIS

1818

The way things are.........

MOBSTER'S MONDay MUSiNGS

So, Mobster welcomes back all of you from celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ through greed (sin), indo-lence (sin), pride (sin), lust (sin), envy (sin), gluttony (sin) and to top it all up drunkenness (sin).

Now some new age Christians have come up with clever conceptualiza-tions that seek to differentiate between drinking and drunkenness, but Mobster will not been drawn into those trappings right now.

My brief at this particular moment is to congratulate all my Zimbabwean folk for a job well done over the just faded festive season.

And who am I to judge?

Besides, our existence is way too clut-tered and problematical for there to be anything like a universal morality or an absolutist ethics. So, you can celebrate your Lord whichever way you like.

And it's not like anything much has changed since back in the days when Mobster was but a toddler. It's still the same old christmas celebrated by a few devout christians who go attend a morn-ing service on the special day...........before rush home and dive headlong into gluttony (and a few other sins).

Well, for everyone else its sin full-throt-tle.

And who am I to judge?

Even Mobster finds it hard to moderate the state of my relationship with God, fundamentally because I am yet to fully understand myself.

So I can't judge other people's methods of festive celebrations, also considering that I really can't tell whether an action has been deliberately or otherwise.

A significant amount of actions are not quite free, considering the overwhelm-ing force of circumstances.

It is what it is, this is christmas as we have known it...................as we know it....................and as we shall always know it.

(Mobster is a Zimbabwean philosopher who has an opinion on just about any-thing. She however has a particular lik-ing for business and economics stuff. However her opinions are not necessarily representative of this platform. You can send your feedback to her on [email protected]) •