Osogbo — A member of Osun House of Assembly, Mr Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has called on Nigerians to “cut their appetite” for foreign goods to fast-track the growth of the nation’s economy.

Oyintiloye, who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Information and Strategy, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Osogbo.

He said Nigeria as a nation must also cut its dependence on foreign goods, increase local production and enhance entrepreneurship.

He said these would help to strengthen the Naira which was under too much pressure.

The lawmaker said that Nigeria had failed to take advantage of the huge opportunities in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

“We need to cut our appetite for foreign goods; we should also cut the importation of food to 25 per cent of the current volume.

“It is really shameful that in spite of our endowments in natural resources, we are still dependent on imported food items as a nation.

“By importing, we are simply developing the economies of the countries we buy from through job creation, value chain maintenance, capacity for product development and other spin-off effects of production.

“We have to feed our population and depend less on importation to fast-track development of our country,” Oyintiloye said.

By Ndamu Sandu

Economic measures put in place by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya to drive economic growth will come to nothing in the absence of structural reforms, analysts have warned.

In his monetary policy statement released last week, Mangudya announced a raft of measures that included, among others, the extension of the $200 million interbank facility, putting caps on lending rates and bank charges to bolster confidence within the economy and to stimulate production and productivity across various sectors of the economy.

Mangudya said the measures were necessary as the country needed to pursue a new economic development model which was anchored on an export-led growth strategy to balance exports and imports while simultaneously addressing the structural rigidities besetting the economy in order to expand output.

Economists told Standardbusiness last week that Mangudya’s prescriptions gave temporary relief but would be meaningless in the absence of bold reforms by government to complement the monetary policy measures.

“Government has to make bold reforms on how it is spending money in the economy. The mismatch between expenditure and revenue has to be addressed,” an economist with a local bank said.

Government has been running budget deficits and financing the gaps through borrowing from the domestic market, thereby crowding out the private sector.

Another economist weighed in, saying whichever measure one puts in place “will have no effect until the structural issues have been attended to”.

“Whenever you put monetary measures to structural issues, it doesn’t work. Monetary policy is the engine oil in a car. The car will not move if it does not have fuel or wheels,” she said.

Businesses have in the past complained of unfriendly legislation and high costs of utilities which increase the cost of production and make local products uncompetitive. This has been compounded by the use of a strong currency, the United States dollar. RBZ has been advocating for internal devaluation as the use of the multicurrency regime makes the apex bank unable to devalue the currency and stimulate exports.

Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce CEO Chris Mugaga said Mangudya’s statement might be a good policy in a wrong environment.

“We are in a tough environment which needs robust structural changes. A depressed economy is managed better through fiscal policy,” he said.

Mangudya implored banks to ensure bond note-dollar parity by observing the policy to deposit bond notes into the dollar accounts without requesting the banking public to differentiate between bond notes and dollar cash.

The measure, Mangudya said, was essential to ensure that bond notes continued to trade at parity with the dollar and to reflect the fact that bond notes are supported by the $200 million offshore facility to support the demand for foreign exchange attributable to bond notes.

But a banker told Standardbusiness that the dollar-bond note parity would only be sustained if foreign currency was available.

“The issue of parity cannot go away until we address availability of foreign currency. If a number of companies are not accommodated [in the disbursement of dollars], they will resort to an alternative source which is the parallel market,” the banker said.

The banker said controls had become the main tool of the monetary policy, which he said was unhealthy.

Mugaga said the greatest worry would be when RBZ was forced to read the riot act on banks to ensure they adhered to the measures on cutting lending rates and bank charges.

He said it was “not sustainable in this environment” for banks to cut lending rates as they were under pressure.

But University of Zimbabwe economics lecturer Albert Makochekanwa said the high interest rates were discouraging companies from borrowing and fuelling high default rates.

“One of the major reasons why companies are not borrowing, even if the money is there, is because interest rates are high. It discourages companies from borrowing and at individual level it results in high non-performing loans.

The higher the interest rates, the higher the chances of people failing to pay,” said Makochekanwa, chair of the Economics Department at the University of Zimbabwe.

Mangudya said he was alive to the structural reforms required and urged government to complete the implementation of policy measures to address structural reforms. Of particular concern, he said, were structural reforms that related to the ease and cost of doing business, fiscal consolidation, state owned enterprises and incentives to expand output and productivity.

“These structural reforms are quite fundamental as they are the bedrock of achieving the supply-side development goal that is anchored on the need to balance exports and imports while simultaneously boosting domestic demand or output,” he said.

“This model requires significant levels of investment financed mainly through equity, as opposed to debt to mitigate against overgearing or leveraging the country. Addressing the structural reforms would therefore enhance business confidence and attract investment, both domestic and foreign investment.”

In the outlook, Mangudya said the mutually beneficial three-pronged policy approach relying on monetary, fiscal and structural policies being pursued by government and RBZ would go a long way in stimulating the economy and boosting productivity.

By Julius Businge

When The Independent recently spoke to William Sekabembe, the chief of business and executive director at dfcu about the bank’s strategy on digital banking, his comments reflected the popular view.

“We are investing heavily in technology so we can serve our customers without necessarily opening new branches in all parts of the country,” Sekabembe said.

His comments came at a time when sections of people argued that digital banking tools were silently killing jobs. Digital banking uses simple gadgets like phones and other internet enabled tools like tablets to make commercial transactions without necessarily visiting a service provider. Digital banking, therefore, sounds like a death knell on jobs since, according to informed sources, closing even the smallest bank branch in the smallest outpost kills at least about 15 jobs.

Media reports recently indicated that Equity Bank alone shed 660 jobs last year because of adoption of new digital technologies in Kenya. Up to 63% of the bank’s transactions are now conducted on the new technology platforms compared to just 7.4% of transactions conducted at its branches and 21% through agents as of September 2016.

The furor over job losses led the bank to issue a quick statement indicating that it would not be retrenching all workers but would instead reallocate them new roles within the bank. Bankers in Uganda share the share view. Instead of leading to net job losses, digital banking technologies, in fact, herald any rush of specialty jobs in the sector.

Bank executive have told The Independent that human contact remains critical in key areas that still require traditional way of banking. These include sales and marketing, product development, investment banking, loans, relationship management, and more.

Others say that once new banking segments like agency banking (where banks use agents to offer financial services in areas where they do not exist) come into play in Uganda, digital banking will open up a whole new array of jobs.

United Bank of Africa’s Head of Business Development, Don Atwine and Stanbic’s Head of Digital Banking, Veronica Sentongo said as banks become more efficient and improve performance, more jobs will exist in the area of financial literacy programs.

Banks will be working towards increasing the bankable population from the current about 30% of the bankable population of12 million. They added that there is still room for bankers to give advisory services to customers regarding retail and wholesale banking.

The question of unemployment is a major concern in Uganda because the country continues to grapple with about 500,000 people entering the labour market every year of which a small number of these get formal employment.

The services sector – where banks fall – contributes a substantial 50% to the national gross domestic product and that means a lot in terms of job creation and the multiplier effects.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) data indicates that 64% of the unemployed Ugandans are aged 24 and under, which is on the backdrop of high population growth rate of over 3.3%. That is higher than neighboring Kenya’s 2.7% and Tanzania 3.0%.

Specific official employment figures for banking in Uganda are not available but the rate of job losses among tradition bank positions of tellers, office staff, guards, supplies vendors and more is not negligible given that the number of bank branches and Automated Teller Machine (ATMs) has been on the rise.

The last Bank of Uganda’s report on financial inclusion released three years ago put the total number of bank branches in the country at 658 up from 167 recorded in 2004 whereas ATMs jumped to 835 from 152 in the same period.

The onward trend curve for these numbers is likely to stagger somewhat as digital tools continues to excite bankers and their customers.

“I am able to buy airtime from my bank account by using mobile money on my phone,” said Josephine Alinaitwe a Stanbic bank customer, “It saves my time, energy and costs to move to a bank or ATM.”

Indeed Sentongo (the head of digital banking at Stanbic Uganda) said if Arinaitwe and others can transact using digital tools, there is no need of opening branches everywhere because they are expensive. She did not give specifics but a former employee of Crane Bank, now dfcu bank said it costs approx. US $2 million (Approx. Shs billion at current exchange rate) to put up a full-fledged commercial bank branch. Considering many factors, the official said, investing in centralised IT systems that would ably handle transactions without face-to-face meetings between customers and the bank, would make a good investment.

Sentongo said that digital tools have reduced the bank’s operational costs per customer by 80%.

“We spend Shs12, 500 to serve one customer at a branch compared to Shs2, 500 when we serve them using digital platforms,” she said. She added that 55% of the bank’s transactions have migrated to digital for the last two years and that new software is being sought to enhance the platform.

At Standard Group level, according to a notice quoting Peter Schlebusch, the group’s chief executive for personal and business banking, 95% of the group’s transactions are already electronic “making it a genuinely digital bank”.

In 2015, according to Schlebusch, 825 million financial transactions worth $29 billion were processed through the Stanbic banking app.

As a consequence of this, branch transactional volumes have declined and ATM and branch transactions now make up less than 5% of total banking transactions.

The group names Uganda amongst markets where it continues to enhance its integrated universal banking app, which allows personal, business and high net worth customers to view and transact with a single digital identity. The other markets the group mentions include South Africa, Ghana, Namibia and Botswana.

Other banks locally are telling similar good stories about the new tools.

Don Atwine (the head of business development at United Bank of Africa) said digital banking is becoming another competitive area of business which they cannot ignore.

“Digital banking is one of our strength as a bank… .our aim is to digitize almost everything in the bank as we grow this business,” he said, adding “About 30% of the bank’s transactions are digital. The target is to keep electronic transactions going up, Atwine said.

Opportunities for growth

Michael Niyitegeka, an ICT consultant in Kampala told The Independent in an interview that once well implemented – with concrete firewalls to prevent cyber crimes – digital banking will cut costs of doing business and result into improved efficiency in addition to increased profit margins.

“… and ideally that should result into reduced interest rates and other charges levied by banks on services offered to their customers,” he said.

Even Bank of Uganda Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile reads the situation the same way. While addressing bankers in Kampala at a dinner on November 25 2016, he urged them to find ways of cutting operational costs so as to check the high cost of lending [hovering around 24% per annum] that was killing private sector growth.

Mutebile said annual operating costs as a percentage of average bank assets were as still as high at more than 7% than they were 10 years ago. As a percentage of their earning assets, he said, banks’ operating costs averaged nearly 11%.

The good thing, according to Niyitegeka is; access to mobile phones currently printed at slightly over 50% (where about 20 million people noted as telecom customers) will bolster the new system that widely uses digital banking.

Commenting on unemployment worries, Niyitegeka said: “… yes it can hurt employment but it can indirectly create more when banks become more efficient and engage in other forms of banking.”

The other forms he was referring to includes agency banking (where banks use agents to offer financial services) which many Kenyan banks are embracing in order to reach out to all the bankable population.

Kenya’s digital success story has seen banks swiftly respond by downsizing their branch networks.

Bank of Africa is shutting down 12 out of its 42 branches. Ecobank is closing nine out of its 30 branches. Diamond Trust Bank is doing the same.

All these banks have physical presence in Uganda. But top officials at these banks have not openly come out to announce their detailed strategy on the matter.

But Niyitegeka said that the decisions in Kenya are justified and Uganda would follow at the right time.

“When you have an agent to offer services on your behalf in places where you are nonexistent you do not need to be there physically,” he said, “I hope agency banking will make things happen when it comes to Uganda.”

Niyitegeka equated agency banking to telecommunication mobile money platforms that are creating thousands of jobs directly and indirectly in Uganda and other markets where the service is offered.

By Owen Khamula

Malawi Law Society of Malawi (MLS) has sharply criticised embattled Agriculture minister George Chaponda for his regionalism and tribalistic remarks over his maizegate scandal.

In a statement, the MLS secretary general Khumbo Soko warns Chaponda against dragging regionalism and tribalism into the maizegate saga.

“These remarks are divisive,” says Soko.

Chaponda told the parliamentary inquiry on maizegate that he was a target on maizegate because he was from the south.

The Agriculture minister also wondered on Capital FM radio recently why his cabinet colleague, Finance minister Goodall Gondwe was not a target yet he was involved in the procurement of the maize from Zambia.

But the MLS says such remarks have potential to divide the country further.

Gondwe says his involvement in the procurement of the maize was minimal as it was through the Reserve Bank of Malawi which provided Letters of Credit to Admarc to enable the state grain dealers buy the Zambia maize.

However, the presidential commission of inquiry on maizegate and the parliamentary joint Committee on maizegate found the conduct of Chaponda in his dealings with Transglobe most inappropriate, suspicious and raising issues of corrupt practices.

Meanwhile, the ministry of Agriculture is calling on staff to return to work at the ministry headquarters at Capital Hill on Monday.

The ministry, in a paid press release aired on radios, says electricity has now been restored at their offices.

This follows a raging fire which destroyed the offices of Chaponda, his secretary and ministry of Agriculture secretary Erica Maganga leaving other offices in the dark without electricity.

Some sections of society described the fire as an act of arson attack to conceal evidence in the maizegate saga as the Anti Corruption Bureau is moving in to investigate the minister further.

However Chaponda has denied this, saying if he would have concealed evidence when the two inquiries were investigating him.

The United Kingdom has promised to strengthen trade and investment links with the East African Community Partner States for mutual benefit.

UK High Commissioner to Tanzania, Ms Sarah Cooke, said that her country would remain an outward focused trade-based economy with strong partnerships with other countries and regional economic blocs even in the wake of Brexit.

The high commissioner was speaking after she presented her credentials to the EAC Secretary General, Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko, at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha. Ms Cooke said the UK would create new partnerships with the EAC aimed at promoting private sector-led economic growth for employment creation and poverty reduction in the East African region.

The envoy disclosed that the UK was the biggest contributor to Trade- Mark East Africa (TMEA), adding that the funding to TMEA was being utilised to finance technical assistance to the EAC in sectors such as customs, trade, investment and video teleconferencing.

On his side, Amb. Mfumukeko said his priorities over the next four years would be to promote the free movement of persons and labour as enshrined in the EAC Common Market Protocol; increase investment for job creation and improve agriculture to ensure food security and create employment for the youth in East Africa.

By Yahaya Ibrahim and John Chuks Azu

A federal judge in Lagos yesterday ruled the sum of $153 million (N34 billion) linked to a former Petroleum Minister Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke be forfeited to the Federal Government.

Justice Muslim Sule Hassan of Federal High Court ruled in favour of the anti-graft agency, the EFCC, which last month filed a forfeiture request.

It alleged that the money was diverted from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by the former petroleum minister.

The anti-graft commission first filed an ex-parte application for forfeiture but Justice Hassan on January 6 only issued an interim order.

The money, which was in different currencies, was stashed in three banks.

The judge issued a 14-day ultimatum to any interested party to appear before it and prove the legitimacy of the monies.

Several bank executives were involved but only one of them filed an application to claim N9.8 billion of the said money.

His lawyer, Charles Adeogun, had urged the court to issue an order, directing a refund of the sum of N9.08billion out of the said sum which the respondent claimed belonged to him.

He had urged the court to order a refund of the said money on the grounds that it was obtained by coercion.

But EFCC’s lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, had urged the court to make the interim order absolute and order a final forfeiture of the sums to the federal government.

He had also urged the court to order the forfeiture of other sums to which no claim had been made.

Oyedepo submitted that section 17 of the Advanced Fee Fraud and other related offence Act makes a property which is reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime, forfeitable to the FG.

He argued that paragraph 4 of the applicant’s reply affidavit shows a meeting of the minds of some staffs of NNPC as well as the respondent to launder funds.

“My lord, paragraph 4 of our reply affidavit shows a meeting of the minds of one Gbenga Komolafe, former group MD, Crude Oil Marketing ivision of NNPC, Prince Haruna Momoh, former group MD Petroleum Product Marketing Company, Umar Farouk Ahmed, group MD Nigerian Product Marketing Company as well as Dauda Lawal, to launder funds on behalf of former petroleum minister, Diezani Allison Madueke,” Oyedepo added.

Delivering his judgment yesterday, Justice Hassan ordered a final forfeiture of the unclaimed sum of N23, 426,300.00 and $5 million to the Federal Government.

He also ordered the final forfeiture of the N9.8 billion the second defendants claimed belong to him.

“I have carefully examined the affidavit evidence before the court and I find that the second respondent was duly cautioned in English language before his statement was taken and so, I hold that same was taken without any evidence of inducement.

“On the whole I am satisfied that all the conditions stated in section 17 of the Advanced Fee Fraud and other Related offence Act, was duly fulfilled by the applicant(EFCC),” the judge held.

“I hereby make an order pursuant to section 17 of the Advanced fee fraud and other fraud related offences Act 2016, for final forfeiture of the unclaimed sum of N23,426,300.000.00 billion and 5 million united states dollars to the Federal government finally.”

There are more than 15 applications for forfeiture filed by the EFCC in several courts.

By Frederic Musisi

Kampala — Energy minister Irene Muloni, disclosed Tuesday, that government has given the three oil joint venture (JV) partners, France’s Total E&P, UK’s Tullow Oil and China’c Cnooc, up to December 31 as deadline for closing Final Investment Decision (FID) on proposed investments in the next development and production phases leading to Uganda’s first oil.

Ms Muloni also reiterated that government remains on first commercial oil starting flowing four years from now – a date which is somewhat impractical given the amount of work that remains undone.

With financial aid taps lately getting drier the government wants oil revenues more than ever before and on which they are borrowing heavily as a guarantee.

“As government we are very anxious and committed to this,” she said, while presiding over contract signing for the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study between the JV partners and a consortium of French and US firms.

The Shs8b ($2.5m) FEED contract was awarded to Flour (France) working with China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation (CPECC), Technip (France), and Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (US).

FEED is the last preparatory stage that will detail technical requirements, among others, layout of the 36 well pads, technology required for drilling the 400 wells, and estimated costs of required infrastructure to start production on (EA1) at the northern end of Lake Albert (in the Murchison Falls National Park) operated by Total in Nwoya District and Exploration Area 2 (EA2) to the east of Lake Albert in Buliisa District previously operated by Tullow but sold majority stake to the former early this year.

Total’s general manager Adewale Fayemi, said the FEED will also entail engineering designs for the proposed 200,000 barrels Central Processing Facility (CPF) in Hoima.

This will also include design studies for feeder pipelines that will evacuate crude oil from Exploration Area 3 (3A)-Kingfisher in Kaiso-Tonya and nearby oil wells to the planned CPF in Hoima District.

A CPF is where oil will be stored first for stabilisation and treatment before being fed into either the proposed refinery or crude oil export pipeline to Tanzania.

The CPF in Hoima is also expected to generate 35 megawatts of electricity that will run field operations from natural gas from fields.

Another CPF will be constructed in Buliisa for oil fields in the area and in Nwoya (operated by Total) and is expected to generate 70 megawatts from gas reserves.

Mr Fayemi, speaking on behalf the JV partners, described the FEED contractors as having “invaluable experience” and expressed optimism that they will fast track the work at hand within schedule. The FEED study will run concurrently with the environmental impact and social assessment (ESIAs) and land acquisition and resettlement planning, for all the projects planned.

The FEED for EIA 1 and EIA 2 follows the awarding eight production licences to Total and Tullow last year in August last year. Once FEED is completed, will give a clear picture of how much the JV partners need to invest (FID) – although earlier projections showed the oil firms would invest up to $8b (about Shs27 trillion) – and propel to the last phase Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) leading to production.

Although government says the JV partners have up to December to close FID, usually this takes more than a year after FEED. EPC takes between two to three years.

The FEED will draw several engineers, especially expatriates but executives of the contracted firms said they will prioritise local content by tapping into available expertise.

Current plans are to fast-track works on the Kingfisher field, whose production licence was granted earlier in 2013.

Its licence had been initially, conditionally awarded to Tullow in February 2012 but after which the Anglo-Irish explorer sold (farmed down) 66.66 per cent of its stake to both Cnooc and Total.

After the farm down under a JV arrangement in the same month Cnooc was tapped to take over Kingfisher.

Oil reserves at the field are estimated around 800 million barrels but production in advanced stages will be running at 20,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Cnooc, since 2013, then embarked on rethinking most of its earlier conceptual designs for the field, undertaking surveys for feeder pipelines to evacuate crude to the CPF, baseline studies for installation facilities, and collecting of more data on the oil wells – which are expected to feed into the major FEED project to be undertaken by Technip.

The FEED for the oil fields is separate from the FEED study ongoing for the 1,445km oil pipeline also known as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) running from Hoima via Kiboga, Mubende, Ssembabule, Masaka and Rakai en route to Tanga port at the Indian Ocean. The pipeline FEED announced last month was awarded to US based Gulf Interstate Engineering.

Optimism of the refinery

Ms Muloni also said they are in advanced stages of zeroing down on a lead financer/designer for the Shs13 trillion refinery of 30,000 bpd but will be scaled up to 60,000 bpd.

Following the heartbreaking exit of the Russian consortium, RT Global Resources, and consequently government going back to the drawing table, she revealed that they had zeroed down on three lead investors and due diligence is ongoing to arrive at the most qualified investor for the project.

This process, she said, will be concluded by end of next month.

After the recommendation by Foster Wheeler in 2010 that the refinery was viable the government had moved and already acquired land, about 29 square miles in Hoima.

Looking at the distance so far covered, since announcement of discovery of commercial oil volunes in 2006, technocrats steering the sector often exude optimism that the 2020 date is achievable- notwithstanding that the remaining two phases leading to first oil are capital intensive, and more challengingly at the current gloom in the global oil market.

By Elias Mambo and Obey Manayiti

This week the Zimbabwe Independent — which in December last year began publishing fresh stories based on our ground-breaking investigation into the Marange alluvial diamonds discovery and subsequent looting — made a breakthrough by interviewing various security officers who were involved in gross human rights violations.

Owing to the sensitive nature of the issue, it was difficult for our investigative team to convince senior security officers to open up but, through painstaking efforts, they finally agreed to shed light into how the state wiped out the illegal diamond miners under Operation Hakudzokwi which resulted in untold suffering, arbitrary arrests and deaths of artisanal miners at the hands of ruthless security forces.

This special series is supported by the Investigative Journalism Fund and will continue for months.

“There was fear within the Joint Operations Command (Joc) at sub-national level that, if left unabated, the chaos in Marange would degenerate into a civil war because the ‘mashurugwis’ and the ‘machipinges’ who had invaded Chiadzwa were causing untold sufferings to other illegal miners and the villagers,” a senior military official who was deployed in Chiadzwa said this week.

“We had seen what had happened in Sierra Leone so the army had to move in. Chiadzwa is close to the Mozambique border which has guns everywhere and, as conflict in Marange escalated, there was danger these arms would find their way into the country as illegal miners and militias sought to defend their territories,” he said.

Sierra Leone suffered terrible social and economic costs as a result of its civil war and the fight over diamond control. Under the cover of warfare, the rebels committed heinous crimes against humanity in the form of murder, rape, and mutilation. The war between 1991 and 1999 claimed over 75 000 lives, caused 500 000 Sierra Leoneans to become refugees, and displaced half of the country’s 4,5 million people. Also during this period, the Sierra Leone economy was robbed of hundreds of millions of dollars in the form of illegal diamonds.

A senior Joc officer this week narrated how the state moved into Marange after thousands of illegal miners invaded the diamond fields.

“At the peak of illegal mining, close to 35 000 people invaded Marange and the violence was becoming a regional conflict as people from regional countries were also caught up in the chaos,” the officer said.

Between 2006 and 2007, Joc at sub-national level — which includes the heads of the army, police and Central Intelligence Organisation but without ministers — launched Operation Chikorokoza Chapera to remove illegal miners from Chiadzwa.

Despite this operation having been launched countrywide, it was escalated in Marange where it entailed searches, arrests and torture. During the operation, police deployed some 600 police officers, arrested about 22 500 persons nationwide whom it said were illegal miners (some 9 000 of them were arrested in Marange), and seized gems and minerals with an estimated total value of US$7 million.

The operation was marked by human rights abuses, corruption, extortion and smuggling. Many former farm workers who had been deprived of their livelihoods during the fast-track land reform programme, as well as small traders who had been deprived of their market stalls by Operation Murambatsvina (clean up) in 2005, were affected.

Government then launched Operation Hakudzokwi in 2008 aimed at ensuring that the illegal diamond miners were thoroughly tortured and terrified that they would not countenance returning to Marange.

“This was more brutal than any other operation you can think of. It made some people to even leave this country and in my whole life in the security I have never seen such brutality as the security details made sure that whoever was caught would either die or never return to Marange,” said one senior army official this week.

In 2008, soldiers from 3 Brigade in Mutare and military commandos were the first to arrive in Marange to crack down on illegal diamond miners.

“We unleashed overwhelming force as the aim was to make sure no one comes back,” a military officer said, adding: “However, the operation was let down by several officers who began to form syndicates with the miners in order to get diamonds or money as the army was failing to feed its officers.

Operation Hakudzokwi came at a time when Zimbabwe was experiencing hyperinflation which rose to world record levels until the country abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar in favour of the US dollar.

“As a result of the hyperinflation and a serious economic meltdown, the soldiers soon formed syndicates with the illegal miners as they had to fend for a living just as the illegal miners were doing,” the senior officer said.

It was during this period that Zimbabwean soldiers rampaged on the streets of Harare, assaulting people and committing robbery amid a serious liquidity crisis and severe food shortages.

About 100 soldiers looking for foreign currency dealers in the outskirts of Harare began beating up anyone in their way.

According to a Human Rights Watch report entitled Diamonds in the Rush, to guarantee for themselves a cut of the diamond revenue, police officers formed “syndicates” with local miners.

“A syndicate was a group of miners that operated under the direct control of members of the police. Groups of between two and five police officers would partner with a large group of local miners under a loose arrangement where police provided the local miners security and escort in the fields in return for a share of proceeds from selling any diamonds the local miners found,” reads the report

A briefing note by senior police officer Assistant Commissioner Nicholas Mawere to the sub-national Joc dated May 7 laid bare the looting syndicates which were formed and the severe brutality of the security operation.

The Independent has established that Mawere’s report was typed and printed at one of the big diamond mining companies in Chiadzwa because police did not have their own facilities. The document was subsequently leaked from there.

The memo written by Mawere, who commanded the Support Unit, a paramilitary wing of the police, shows how the security forces resorted to criminality for survival by raiding food that belonged to the illegal miners as well as partnering with them in exchange for illicit diamonds.

“Period ranging from 23 March to 05 April witnessed an increase in gweja (illegal diamond panner) population and activities in the area of Chiadzwa Primary and Muchena areas.

“This was attributed to connivance with gwejas by outgoing contingent of 2,2 infantry battalion. The unit formed syndicates with illegal panners towards the end of its tour of duty,” reads the memo.

“As a result the command tightened security at the illegal panning sites by pitching tents at the sites and allocating responsibilities to each officer. In addition, sweep-up operations were conducted in the area to deal with increased gweja population.”

The memo also states that “disciplinary action has been taken against the offending officers. Since the operation started, 14 officers including the commander of Jesse base were expelled from the operation.”

Mawere, who was leading Operation Hakudzokwi, has since been fired after his memo was leaked to the public.

“Joc was very angry with Mawere after his memo leaked and accused him of incompetence in handling sensitive documents,” an official, who was also in Chiadzwa during the operation which killed 200 people, said.

Pretoria — The President and CEO of Ford Motor Company Southern Africa, Jeff Nemeth, has announced a voluntary safety recall for certain Ford Kuga utility vehicles.

The safety recall is limited to the Kuga 1.6-litre model built between December 2012 and February 2014.

The recall of the Ford Kuga 1.6-litre comes after several reports of vehicles that have caught fire and one which resulted in the death of a man.

“We are now announcing a voluntary safety recall for the affected Ford Kuga 1.6. Our investigation has enabled us to narrow the number … to a total of 4 556 affected vehicles,” Nemeth said.

Speaking on Monday during a media briefing in Pretoria, Nemeth told reporters that a total of 39 incidents have been reported to Ford.

“With this safety recall, all affected vehicles, including those that have already been checked as part of our maintenance check, must be taken to a Ford dealer as soon as possible,” he said.

Two stages to recall

According to Nemeth, the safety recall comprises of two stages.

The first stage involves replacing affected components on the cooling system, verifying and updating the software as well as conducting an oil leak check on the cylinder.

“If any Kuga 1.6 owner sees any indication that the engine may be overheating or experiences warnings on the instrument plaster they should pull over as soon as it is safe to do so, switch off the engine and ensure that all occupants are safely out the vehicle. For safety reasons the bonnet must not be opened,” Nemeth said.

The second stage of the safety recall will make the cooling system even more robust and is likely to involve further changes and parts on the warning systems.

“We are currently ensuring that the changes we make are complete and thoroughly tested and we will communicate with our customers as soon as this stage commences,” he said.

Customers have been warned that there may be instances where dealers may not be able to complete repairing vehicles due to the increased volume of vehicles which could cause a shortage of parts.

“Should there be any delay in fixing the Kuga 1.6-litres, owners will receive a courtesy car. Together with our dealers we are working to streamline our processes to ensure minimal inconvenience to our customers.

“I want to stress that with the safety action and with the proper maintenance of the cooling system, the Kuga 1.6 is safe to drive,” Nemeth said.

Commissioner of the National Consumer Commission (NCC) Ebrahim Mohamed said the NCC has granted Ford an opportunity to conduct an investigation to find the actual cause of fire on these vehicles to enable them to repair or replace the faulty components to restore value and quality of the vehicles in line with relevant prescripts of the law.

“It is quite regrettable that a life [was] lost and that other consumers and the public at large had to be exposed to a hazard that we never would’ve expected from one of our most prized possessions, that being a car.

“There is no monetary value that can truly compensate for the loss of a life or permanent injury to a human being, and the NCC believes that recalling this vehicle is in the best interest of all consumers,” Mohamed said.

By Paul Adude

Entebbe — Along with the ongoing expansion, the automation of Entebbe International Airport will cost up to $9.5m (Shs34b), Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) managing director Rama Makuza has said.

“We are grateful to the republic of South Korea and KOICA for setting aside a $9.5m grant for the project, which commenced in March 2016, we as CAA have come up with counterpart funding of approximately $250,000 (Shs896m) towards the project that is expected to be fully delivered by 2018,” he said.

Mr Makuza made the remarks while addressing dignitaries from Korea and officials of the ministry of Works and that of Finance during the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) project midline workshop to showcase progress of the modernisation and Automation of Entebbe International Airport held in Entebbe.

He further said in addition to the modernisation and automation of the airports an operation which is a result of the memorandum of understanding between Uganda and Republic of South Korea in November 2014 to create a mechanism for improving efficiency and aviation safety at the airport.

“KOICA is to deliver a computerised maintenance management System (CMMS) and Airport operational database (AODB) system, implement the ATS Message handling system (AMHS), see improvement of Flight procedures efficiency through air traffic management and installation and commissioning of ILS/DME,” he said.

Mr Lim Doha, the resident engineer heading the works said that 3-year project that is expected to be completed by next year had 32 per cent of the works taken care of, further saying KOICA had a lot of technical survey with CAA and are currently designing the interface that will connect Uganda’s ATS Message Handling System (AMHS) with Kenya and other countries airports in the region.

South Korean Ambassador Park Jong-Dae said South Korea & Uganda will continue to strengthen their friendship through cordially working together on different projects.