Update 21 April 2010

Contents:
1. A step backwards.
2. Success at last.
3. Back from the world of the dead

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Final Problem”, Sherlock Holmes says to Watson,
"For years past I have continually been conscious of some power behind the malefactor, some deep organizing power which forever stands in the way of the law, and throws its shield over the wrong-doer. Again and again …… I have felt the presence of this force, ………….. For years I have endeavored to break through the veil which shrouded it,"

In the affairs of Zimbabwe we have had more than our fair share of similar deep organizing gnomes. No sooner do we look like we are on the road to recovery than a gnome throws yet another spanner in the works.

There are many ways of generating electricity. Thermal, nuclear, hydro, solar, wind and wave power plants are all different routes to the same electricity. Some ways are faster than others, some are cheaper than others and some have worse side effects than others.

So it is with struggles for political independence. There are many possible routes to the same end. Throughout history and throughout the world colonial empires have waxed and waned. In a sense Africa is a microcosm of that wider phenomenon. African countries have attained political independence in a variety of ways, some peaceful and others not so peaceful.

Zimbabwe took the armed struggle route. We made our bed and we must now lie in it. It is like choosing the nuclear power route. It is aggressive and quick. However if it is not well managed, the cost of its legacy could eventually exceed the value of the intended utility. I believe our lot at any point in history is largely the grand total resultant of choices we have made as well as choices we failed to make.

Since independence thirty years ago, we have been saddled with gnomes crafting unsustainable populist policies in areas where different professions would have been more appropriate. The recent collapse of the Zimbabwean economy can be traced to such roots.

Earlier this year we received yet another dose of the same, in the form of the controversial Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (General) Regulations, 2010 gazetted on 29 January 2010. It is a particularly rabid form of affirmative action that proposes to expropriate 51% of some companies’ issued share capital. To add to the intrigue, some of the people believed to have crafted it are businessmen in their own right. A friend was wondering how they would feel if we went and seized 51% of THEIR businesses. There are many theories to explain this apparent contradiction. Probably the most plausible is that there are parasites in the system whose welfare depends on spoils of chaos. So it is in their personal interests to stoke up confusion.

Curiously the authorities hastily called public hearings on the new regulations. The hearings were an absolute waste of time and money, not least because they were convened AFTER the regulations had already been gazetted. I attended one of the hearing sessions

only to see what happens next.

Personally I have been opposed to affirmative action even in the best of times. I think it is an insult to its intended beneficiaries. It is an implicit way of saying, “You won’t come anywhere unless we give you a head start in the race.” I would be most offended if I discovered that I was ever awarded a privilege purely on the basis of skin colour. In the eighties I worked for a Harare firm of accountants. In those days black partners were few and far between. However that did not stop my fellow articled clerks attempting to classify the few black partners there were. They used two broad categories: Those who made it into partnership on merit and those who appeared to have made it on black-advancement tickets. In their cruel way, the young clerks pronounced their verdict on the whole idea of affirmative action. Unfortunately over the years the young clerks appear to have lost their mettle. The once wanton kittens have now made apathetic sober cats. They are hopelessly reticent when destructive legislation is wheeled in. I think the Zimbabwean populace in general has been thoroughly browbeaten over the years.

Analysts have dwelt at length on the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (General) Regulations’ effects on foreign investors. However they seem to have overlooked its effects on local investors. Local investors are probably even more jittery because they know the breed of characters they are dealing with. For example the recent Star Africa rights issue flopped spectacularly. It was more than 70% undersubscribed. Sure, the market is facing liquidity constraints but security of investment is bound to have played a role there too. The only significant foreign shareholder in Star Africa is believed to be the UK’s Tate & Lyle group holding 23% of the issued share capital.

Some years back I had a strange journeyman assisting me at work. He confided in me that he only ever stole from white men. However before long my tools disappeared.
The moral of the story is that a predator is a threat to everyone even if its favourite prey may be only zebra.

Now for the good news: Seven years ago I invented the Gochamatic, a helical grill that overcomes the limitations of planar grills. Though it was designed with roasting green maize cobs in mind, it can generally handle many foods that have cylindrical symmetry. Seven years ago my grasp of temperature control systems was limited. So I never got the temperature right, until 14 March 2010.

With the business trials of recent years, the silver lining is that I have learnt many survival skills. I have learnt to fix the car, and more.

For some work where I used to hire electricians, I have learnt to do it myself. In particular, I have gained considerable experience wiring industrial boiling pans.
So on 13 March 2010, I had a sneaking suspicion that it would now be a piece of cake to build and tune a Gochamatic temperature control system (using a binary search algorithm).
So I retrieved the Gochamatic prototype from the store room where it was gathering dust and rust.
By 14 March 2010, it was already running. I got the critical temperature after only a few tries. Once that happened, it worked like a dream. So it could be on the market in the next few years.

The Zimbabwe Open golf tournament teed off today, after nine years in the wilderness. I am not a golfer but I am excited because my brother is the chairman of the committee that resuscitated it. It was first played in 1984 and was part of what was known as the Safari Tour, a collection of events in Africa that were played by professionals based on the European Tour. Since the Zimbabwe Open’s cancellation prior to the 2002 edition due to economic instability in Zimbabwe leading to the withdrawal of sponsors, there have been many unsuccessful attempts to resurrect it. At last it has happened, this time as part of The Sunshine Tour. So if you go to the Royal Harare Golf Club and tell them you know me, they might let you onto the green.