The Times
August 11, 2008
Martin Fletcher
For millions of desperate
Zimbabweans there were rising hopes last night
that President Mugabe could
finally be on the brink of surrendering if not
his office then at least his
monopoly on power.
Throughout yesterday, President Mbeki of South Africa
chaired talks in a
Harare hotel between Mr Mugabeand Morgan Tsvangirai, the
opposition leader
who won the presidential election in March but was
excluded from office by
vote rigging, violence and intimidation.
Mr
Mugabe's demise has been predicted many times during his 28-year rule,
but
all parties appeared to agree yesterday that some sort of deal requiring
him
to share power with Mr Tsvangirai was within reach.
Zimbabwe's state-run
media reported that in secret talks over the past week
the two sides had
reached a "common position" on key issues, including land
distribution.
Tendai Biti, the secretary-general of Mr Tsvangirai's
Movement for
Democratic Change, told reporters: "There is progress...keep on
praying."
Other sources were quoted as saying that a deal was just "one or
two
sticking points away".
Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a
breakaway MDC faction who was also
participating in the talks, said that a
compromise agreement was close
which, for all its limitations, "offered the
best temporary measure to
extricate the country from its worst
situation".
Speculation centred on an arrangement whereby Mr Mugabe would
retain the
presidency, which would give him immunity from prosecution for
alleged
crimes against humanity, but surrender much of his power to Mr
Tsvangirai,
who would become prime minister. The MDC and Mr Mugabe's Zanu
(PF) party
would both have a deputy prime minister, with one controlling the
military,
the other the police.
Mr Mugabe, 84, is a supremely cunning
politician who has repeatedly
outwitted Mr Tsvangirai in the past, and it
remains to be seen whether this
is just another ruse to buy time and keep Mr
Mbeki on side.
Mr Mugabe's military and security chiefs would also have
to approve any deal
and they, too, would demand immunity from prosecution
over years of brutal
repression. But it is just conceivable that Mr Mugabe,
whose country is
collapsing around him, is suing for the best possible deal
while he still
has the authority to do so.
For Zimbabwe to recover
from its desperate economic situation, however, he
would have to cede enough
power to secure the lifting of sanctions and a
massive infusion of
international aid. MDC officials have said that Mr
Tsvangirai will accept
nothing less than full executive power.
Zimbabwe's official inflation
rate is 2.2 million per cent - the unofficial
rate is higher - and the
regime is struggling to pay the security forces on
which it depends for its
survival. It no longer has the hard currency to
import fuel, food or paper
and ink required to print enough new money.
Zimbabwe's most basic services
have all but collapsed. A third of the
population, including most of the
best-educated and productive citizens,
have fled.
Once the
breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe is now a country where millions
survive on
barely a bowl of sadza - mealie-meal porridge - a day, thanks to
Mr Mugabe's
seizure of 4,000 white-owned farms. Farms have reverted to
vegetable
patches, the electric bulb has given way to the oil lamp, and the
wheel to
the foot as the most common form of transport.
Even the doctored results
of the March presidential election showed that Mr
Tsvangirai beat Mr Mugabe,
but with just under the 50 per cent of the vote
required to win
outright.
The MDC leader withdrew before the second round on June 27
after a sustained
campaign of violence against MDC supporters left scores
dead and thousands
injured.
Mr Tsvangirai has said that he is
prepared to work with moderate members of
Zanu (PF) and grant Mr Mugabe
immunity if that is the price of prising him
from power.
On July 21
he and Mr Mugabe met face to face for the first time in a decade
and agreed
a framework for negotiations. Last week their deputies held
talks. On
Thursday the regime and the MDC issued a rare joint statement
urging their
supporters to refrain from violence.
Mr Mbeki flew to Harare on Saturday
night and yesterday met Mr Mugabe, Mr
Tsvangirai and Mr Mutambara separately
before bringing them together. At one
point flowers and chairs were taken
into the hotel ballroom, suggesting some
sort of ceremony might be
imminent.
A power-sharing deal would represent vindication for Mr Mbeki,
who has faced
mounting international criticism for his failure to take a
tougher line with
a man whom he has long considered a father
figure.
Next weekend he is due to host a summit of the increasingly
restive Southern
African Development Community, which appointed him as
mediator more than a
year ago.
The struggle for reform
1997
Morgan Tsvangirai organises a series of nationwide strikes against tax
rises, provoking an attempt on his life by a group of war veterans loyal to
Robert Mugabe, below
1999 Mr Tsvangirai forms the Movement for
Democratic Change. Within months
the MDC secures victory in a referendum to
reject a draft constitution put
up by Mr Mugabe
2000 Mr Mugabe's Zanu
(PF) party narrowly clinches victory in parliamentary
elections after
squatters seize hundreds of white-owned farms
2002 Mr Tsvangirai is
charged with high treason after being accused of
plotting to assassinate Mr
Mugabe. He is acquitted, but not before Mr Mugabe
sweeps to victory in
elections condemned as seriously flawed by the
opposition and foreign
observers
2005 Zanu (PF) wins two thirds of the votes in parliamentary
polls that the
MDC says are rigged. Later in the year Zanu (PF) wins a
majority of seats in
the newly created Senate after the MDC boycotts the
poll
2007 Mr Tsvangirai suffers a suspected fractured skull, brain injury
and
internal bleeding after being arrested
2008 Mr Tsvangirai and the
MDC claim victory after Zimbabweans go to the
polls in March. When the
election goes to a run-off, Mr Tsvangirai pulls
out, branding it "a violent,
illegitimate sham"
June 29 Mr Mugabe is declared winner and sworn in for
five-year term. Three
weeks later, Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai sign deal for
formal talks
Sources: Times database, agencies
The Telegraph
Zimbabwe's political rivals were locked in talks late into the
night as
deadlock loomed over negotiations for a government of national
unity.
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare and Sebastien Berger
Last
Updated: 9:03PM BST 10 Aug 2008
The meeting between Robert Mugabe, the
84-year-old who has been in office
for 28 years, and Morgan Tsvangirai, who
won the first round of the
presidential election in March as leader of the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, had been touted as heralding a
breakthrough.
Thabo Mbeki, the South African president who has been
mediating the talks,
was with them on the 16th floor of a hotel in the
capital, as was Arthur
Mutambara, leader of a smaller MDC
faction.
Speculation of a deal to end the country's political crisis,
triggered when
Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of a presidential run-off in the
face of a campaign
of sustained violence by Mr Mugabe's supporters, had been
high.
But the key question of who would wield the most executive power in
the new
government remained unresolved.
Over the decades, Mr Mugabe
has used every possible tactic to retain power,
from out-negotiating his
opponents to massacring them, and he and his
Zanu-PF party are thought
unlikely to simply give up now.
For his part, Mr Tsvangirai has insisted
he is Zimbabwe's rightful leader
and if he accepts a settlement that leaves
him the weaker partner, he will
be accused of betraying his people and the
investment in the country
promised by the West will not be
forthcoming.
Agreement is believed to be close, or have been achieved, on
several other
issues, including the time frame for a new government and a
new
constitution, but will be meaningless without settling the question of
power.
The MDC's secretary-general Tendai Biti, who is its chief
negotiator, nodded
when asked if progress had been made. "I think we all
need to pray," he
said.
Initially the atmosphere at the hotel had
been cordial, but as the day wore
on it began to worsen, with even
Zimbabwe's loyal state press realising that
the "deal" they had predicted
was further away than they thought.
The building, down the road from
Zanu-PF's headquarters, was surrounded by
members of Mr Mugabe's
Presidential Guard, and swarming with intelligence
operatives and ministers,
many of whom face the end of their careers in a
transitional cabinet of
mixed political hues.
But if no deal is reached Mr Mugabe will be left
presiding over an economy
racked by hyperinflation and unravelling
daily.
Doubts about the negotiations began to emerge on the streets of
the capital.
A street trader and mother of four, who asked not to be named,
said: "I am
not happy because we think the agreement will leave Mugabe in
control. I
would prefer Morgan to be president and Mugabe will go to
jail."
At the Road Port international bus terminal a black-market
currency dealer
said: "I am not pleased because my family has sacrificed a
lot. My uncle was
killed in Chipinge after the March 29 elections. I am
worried that if Morgan
and Mugabe are in government together they will do a
deal so that
perpetrators have amnesty."
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Harare & Washington
10
August 2008
Discussions between Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe and opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai over their respective roles
in a proposed power-sharing
government continued late Sunday amid reports
Mr. Mugabe was unwilling to
cede significant powers to Tsvangirai, who
stands to become prime minister
if the two men can reach final
agreement.
Their marathon negotiations at Harare's Rainbow Towers Hotel
capped nearly
three weeks of talks by senior officials of Mr. Mugabe's
Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriotic Front and both formations of the
Movement for
Democratic Change. Tsvangirai, MDC founder, heads the dominant
grouping
while Arthur Mutambara leaders the smaller
formation.
Sources close to the talks said they were hanging in the
balance after more
than nine hours because Mr. Mugabe was refusing to make
concessions handing
over a significant portion of his powers to Tsvangirai.
Mr. Mugabe claimed
victory in a June 27 presidential runoff ballot, but that
vote was widely
denounced as illegitimate because Tsvangirai, leader in a
first-round
presidential March 29, had refused to participate over violence
targeting
his party.
South African President Thabo Mbeki was working
to bridge the gap between
the two leaders in his capacity as mediator for
the Southern African
Development Community.
Sources said Mr. Mbeki was
urging Mr. Mugabe to accept genuine
power-sharing, which meant devolving
significant powers to Mr. Tsvangirai as
prime minister in what those close
to the talks describe as a French-style
balance of presidential and prime
ministerial powers.
ZANU-PF sources told VOA that President Mugabe
was prepared to work with
Tsvangirai as prime minister, but refused to agree
to give him executive
powers to go with the post.
Sources said
Tsvangirai and his MDC negotiating team were demanding
significant powers as
a condition of agreeing to a government of the normal
five-year duration,
failing which they would only agree to a transitional
government of no more
than 30 months duration.
Sharp disagreement led to the adjournment of the
talks for an hour Sunday
afternoon.
Critical issues on the table
include the shape of the power-sharing
government and how long it would
last, as well the question of whether a new
constitution would be
required.
Correspondent Thomas Chiripasi of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
reported from
Harare that the talks had been dragging on for hours with no
end in sight.
Director Gordon Moyo of the Bulawayo Agenda, a civic group,
cautioned that
any pact which retains President Mugabe as executive head of
state would
negate any prospect of political and economic reform, and told
reporter
Ntungamili Nkomo that Zimbabweans would be "dismayed" if Tsvangirai
were
left playing second fiddle to Mr. Mugabe.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/
Aug 10, 2008, 15:01
GMT
Harare/Johannesburg - Intense negotiations were underway in
Zimbabwe Sunday
on the details of a powersharing deal aimed at ending the
country's
political and economic woes.
South African President Thabo
Mbeki was mediating talks between President
Robert Mugabe, opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan
Tsvangirai and the leader
of a smaller MDC faction, Arthur Mutambara, on the
proposed government of
national unity.
After more than four hours of discussions in a hotel in
Harare, the leaders
had yet to emerge to announce a pact.
The venue
for Sunday's talks was the Rainbow Towers hotel, where Mugabe and
Tsvangirai
met face-to-face for the first time in ten years on July 21, also
under
Mbeki's stewardship.
Mbeki, the Southern African Development Community's
(SADC) mediator in
Zimbabwe, is thought to be anxious to clinch a deal to
show off at a SADC
summit in South Africa next week.
The South
African leader was met on arrival in Harare international airport
Saturday
evening by Mugabe. The two were rumoured to have held one-on-one
talks
during the night before meeting again Sunday morning. Mbeki also held
private talks Sunday morning with Tsvangirai and his chief negotiator Tendai
Biti.
Mbeki's visit to Zimbabwe has sparked speculation that a
powersharing deal
between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the two MDC factions is close
at hand.
The three parties have been holding talks on a unity government
in South
Africa since July 24.
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president of 28
years and who was recently inaugurated as
leader for another five years
after a controversial election he alone
contested, grudgingly entered the
talks at the bidding of the African Union.
Western powers, such as
Britain and the United States, are standing by to
plough money into
rebuilding Zimbabwe, but only, they say, if the MDC and
Tsvangirai are given
the senior role in the new dispensation.
Reports circulating in South
African media have variously suggested
Tsvangirai would be made executive
prime minister or prime minister with
limited powers under Mugabe as
president.
A senior Zanu-PF source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa
Friday the parties
had agreed that Mugabe would be president, Tsvangirai
prime minister and
that the two would share control of government
ministries.
The term of the government - whether a transitional two-year
authority as
sought by the MDC or a full-term five-year government as sought
by Zanu-PF -
was a key sticking point, the source said.
In a sign the
two sides were overcoming their differences, the MDC on Friday
issued a
statement promising not to reverse Mugabe's controversial land
reform
programme.
While recognizing that the seizure of thousands of white-owned
farms by
Zanu-PF members and allies since 2000 had been 'chaotic and outside
the rule
of law,' the MDC reiterated previous promises to 'not return to the
pre-2000
status.'
On the issue of compensation for dispossessed
farmers, the MDC said it would
ask multilateral institutions and countries
'inextricably connected to the
Zimbabwe crisis' to pick up the tab, because
the state did not have the
available funds.
In South Africa, the
Congress of South African Trade Unions, at a meeting
with its Zimbabwe and
Swaziland counterparts, called for civil society and
labour to form an
integral part of any political solution in Zimbabwe.
A powersharing deal
would be a triumph for Mbeki on the eve of his
retirement as president in
2009.
After being pilloried for years of fruitless 'quiet diplomacy' in
Zimbabwe,
Mbeki won plaudits for getting Mugabe and Tsvangirai to the
negotiating
table.
Internatioanl Herald Tribune
Reuters, The Associated PressPublished: August 10,
2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Trying to bridge the huge divide in
Zimbabwe's troubled
politics, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa met
separately Sunday with
the Zimbabwean president and the main opposition
leader.
State media reported that the two sides had achieved a
breakthrough in their
negotiations, reaching a "common position" that would
allow Zimbabwe's
longtime leader, Robert Mugabe, to remain
president.
The discussions were the clearest sign yet that an agreement,
which could
end the post-election political crisis and increase the chances
of recovery
from an economic catastrophe, was within reach.
Mbeki
brokered talks between Mugabe and the opposition leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai,
after a contested presidential election in March triggered waves
of violence
across the country and led to Mugabe and Tsvangirai both
claiming to be the
legitimate leader of the country.
Reporters saw Mbeki and Tsvangirai head
into private meetings at a hotel
here. After that meeting, which lasted
about an hour and a half, Mbeki and
Mugabe held talks.
Mbeki was also
expected to meet Arthur Mutambara, leader of a smaller,
breakaway opposition
group.
The Sunday Mail, a state-run newspaper, reported that a major
obstacle had
been cleared, saying "a common position" had been reached that
would allow
Mugabe to remain president. But opposition officials, citing a
news blackout
imposed by Mbeki, refused to confirm or deny the Mail
report.
A deal could mean that Mugabe has survived elections that posed
the biggest
challenge to his rule but could also remove some of the power
that has
allowed him to govern with an iron hand.
Both sides are
under pressure for a deal.
Zimbabweans and neighboring countries hope an
agreement can end years of
political turmoil and revive an economy whose
collapse has spilled millions
of people across Zimbabwe's
borders.
The political crisis in Zimbabwe began even before the elections
in March.
Tsvangirai won the first round, but then withdrew from the runoff
against
Mugabe because of government-sponsored attacks on his
supporters.
Tsvangirai has said that while he could work with moderates
in the
president's party, he would not share power with
Mugabe.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai met face to face for the first time in a
decade after
they signed a memorandum of understanding July 21, which set a
framework for
meetings between Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the two groupings
of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The talks broke
down July 28, with officials saying that the problem was
Mugabe's insistence
that he be the president of any new government. But
talks resumed a week ago
and within days produced an indication that both
sides were determined to
work together toward a solution: Both ZANU-PF and
the opposition issued
their first joint communiqué condemning political
violence in the
country.
A possible compromise could involve Mugabe being named a largely
ceremonial
president, with few powers but with immunity from prosecution for
his
alleged human rights abuses.
The recent talks have chiefly
involved top deputies of the party leaders and
have been held at an
undisclosed location in the South African capital,
Johannesburg.
Mbeki is under pressure to show results before hosting
a summit meeting this
weekend of the Southern African Development Community,
which appointed him
as mediator.
http://www.zimbabwemetro.com/news/deadlock-over-cabinet-posts-delays-settlement/
Local News
August 10, 2008 | By
Philip Mangena |
Failure to agree on how to divvy up cabinet posts delayed
the signing of a
deal between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, a person
close to the
negotiations said Sunday evening.
On Sunday, the two
sides continued to bicker over cabinet posts. ZANU-PF is
adamant that the
MDC should take over the ministries of finance and trade
and the opposition
is declining the offer. MDC also wants to take local
government,foreign
affairs but ZANU PF insists on holding on to those.
The MDC also wants
the Central Intelligence Organisation to be reformed
before they take office
in an all-inclusive government arguing that its
structure and operations as
they are now will seriously impede the smooth
day to day business of the
government
The MDC has already conceded on that the security ministries,
Defence and
State Security are left to ZANU PF after insistence by the Joint
Operation
Commands but they will be deputized by the MDC. However the MDC
will take
over home affairs and justice.
JOC members also wanted
assurances that the MDC will not take away farms
that were distributed by
the government in the chaotic land reforms and the
MDC had to release a
statement affirming that it will not reverse the land
grab.
An “MDC
government would ask the international community and multilateral
lenders to
help compensate farmers whose farms were confiscated by Mugabe’s
government
since 2000″, the MDC said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.
In a
related development Metro has established from sources in the Mutambara
led
MDC faction which controls the crucial 10 seats in Parliament that the
party’s secretary general Welshman Ncube will likely take up a single
cabinet post offered to them in the government not the leader of the
formation Arthur Mutambara.
The faction will have two posts in the
inclusive government one in the
cabinet and another deputising another key
ministry and Bulilima MP Moses
Mzila Ndlovu has already been earmarked for
it.
There was a flurry of activity at the Rainbow towers where the MOU
was
signed two weeks ago as Mbeki met Tsvangirai and Mugabe
separately.
Meetings were earlier held at state house and at the South
African embassy
with the expanded mediation team and the principals met
Mbeki in the
afternoon until this evening.
There are unconfirmed
reports that invitations have already been sent out to
diplomats and other
guests who should attend the ceremony when the
power-sharing deal is
signed.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Sunday, 10 August
2008 16:14
By Chief Reporter
HARARE - Donor countries
on Friday warned Zimbabwe government
ministers that they would be held
personally liable for any humanitarian
crisis arising from the refusal to
lift the ban on relief agencies.
The Governments of Australia,
Canada, France, Germany, Japan,
Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom,
the United States of America,
and the European Commission, said the June 4
suspension of humanitarian
operations by Social Welfare minister Nicholas
Goche has affected more than
1.5 million Zimbabweans already.
The donor countries warned that steps must be taken now in order for
food to
be available to those in need in future months.
"Timing is
critical," warned the donor countries in a joint statement
issued in Harare
Friday. "Moreover, resources currently identified for
Zimbabwe are also
needed elsewhere, and they cannot be reserved
indefinitely. We feel a sense
of responsibility to sound the warning about
the coming
emergency."
The donor countries said the Zimbabwe Government had
not responded to
a July 29 diplomatic appeal for full, safe and unhindered
humanitarian
access, and said they felt they must now raise the profile of
this issue
publicly.
While global condemnation of Mugabe's ban
on aid agencies was growing,
a spokesman for a coalition of aid agencies in
Harare , Fambai Ngirande
immediately appealed to the donors not to punish
the people of the southern
African country for the actions of its
government.
The government ban, coupled with political conflict has
combined to
threaten as many as 5 million poor and needy across Zimbabwe
with
starvation, famine or food shortages, Ngirande said.
"This
year's poor harvest means that 5 million Zimbabweans will face a
severe food
crisis if the ban is not lifted," said the donors. "Without the
immediate
resumption of food aid across the country, widespread hunger and
worsening
malnutrition are unavoidable.
"The magnitude of the humanitarian
crisis requires the immediate and
unconditional lifting of the suspension on
all NGO field operations.
Harassment of NGOs must cease immediately, and
protection for humanitarian
workers must be guaranteed. Full, safe and
unhindered humanitarian access is
our overriding concern."
The
donor countries noted that despite the ongoing peace talks in
South Africa
between President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the MDC, no
concrete steps had
been taken to lift the ban despite commitments to ensure
this is
done.
A Memorandum of Understanding signed in Harare on July 21
between
Mugabe, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and leader of a breakaway MDC
faction,
Prof Arthur Mutambara in Harare states that they "will work
together to
ensure .that humanitarian and social welfare organisations are
enabled to
render such assistance as might be required."
The
donor countries said they were concerned that more than two weeks
after the
signing of the MoU, and despite diplomatic appeals, "we have seen
no
concrete steps taken to carry out this commitment."
"In the absence
of any positive response to this issue, and given the
failings of the
Government to protect vulnerable groups, including IDPs
(Internally
Displaced Persons), the international community holds Zimbabwean
ministers
and officials responsible," said the donor countries.
Aid agencies,
including the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) - the
main food aid agency
that has also been banned from operating in Zimbabwe
ostensibly because they
were using food to campaign for the MDC - say the
hungry are stretched to
the limit and some are already being forced to seek
out roots and leaves to
eat.
Government has reacted with introducing the BACOSSI (Basic
Commodities
Supply Side Intervention) facility, a scheme where villagers are
given food
hampers for a song. But the scheme is only benefiting
card-carrying Zanu-PF
members.
Mmegi, Botswana
Friday, 08 August 2008
TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE
It is reported that dictator,
Robert Mugabe, has reached an agreement with
the now very suspect, Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Under normal circumstances, I would have cheered
that, finally, my country
was on the brink of greater things. But I dare say
that I am not amused by
this clear sell-out of an arrangement.
To
start with, the MDC won the election, but now we hear that, like Raila
Odinga in Kenya, Tsvangirai has accepted being 'Executive Prime Minister'
and leave the presidency in the hands of the losing candidate, Robert
Mugabe.
Tsvangirai will say he accepted in order to save Zimbabwe,
but that is not
true. The reason is that, for him, it's better than nothing,
dead people be
damned!
Secondly, how will the people feel to see
ZANU-PF people, including Mugabe,
still wielding power and running
ministries and making decisions that affect
them? Will the people cheer at
such betrayal? Many people were prepared to
die for change, and they did,
because they did not want anything to do with
Mugabe and ZANU-PF after 28
years of murderers, abuse, plunder and misrule.
So did the people go
through all this misery in support of the MDC to get
this in the end?
It
gets worse.
If reports are to be believed, there are many appalling
concessions made by
the MDC. Not only did they agree to employ Mugabe as
President, ceremonial
as it is expected to be, but they offered Mugabe and
his murdering
underlings blanket amnesty.
Now that is one issue that
I would take up as a personal crusade against the
MDC.
What authority
does the MDC have in pardoning "each and every Zimbabwean
who, in the course
of upholding or opposing the aims and policies of the
government of
Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF or either formation of the MDC, may have
committed crimes
within Zimbabwe..."?
More than 97 percent of political murders were
perpetrated by ZANU-PF thugs
against the defenseless MDC supporters so
ZANU-PF comes out the winner,
thanks to the MDC.
Wasn't it the MDC itself
that asked all Zimbabweans to record names, places
and incidences of
violence committed by ZANU-PF functionaries for later
prosecution?
Now we should throw away the lists because they have
united at our expense?
Curiously, they are both quiet on the Midlands and
Matabeleland atrocities.
And I don't like it one bit.
Surely, the MDC
cannot pardon crimes committed even before its own
formation! Besides, is
this the kind of closure the people want?
Is it possible to forget all
the many people who were killed by Mugabe and
ZANU-PF?
I am not
forgetting people who were killed by Mugabe and ZANU-PF even before
independence.
And the MDC considers itself all forgiving and goes on
to forgive people who
wronged other people. Think again, I ain't buying this
even if it means
launching a campaign for Tsvangirai, along with Thabo
Mbeki, to be summoned
to The Hague for harbouring and aiding mass
murderers.
Tsvangirai will appoint two deputy prime ministers, one from
his own party
and the other from ZANU-PF, who will both preside over the
ministries of
Defence and that of Home Affairs? Why? Are they ganging up on
the people
already?
Mugabe, however, is expected to keep control of
the Defence ministry. Why?
It is further reported that a number of
ministries, including Finance and
Investment, Justice, Land, Resettlement
Implementation, Agriculture and
State Enterprises, "would reside
independently of either party chief..."
Aaah! The MDC accepted
responsibility without authority; I thought all along
they were fighting to
acquire the authority to change things around? Chinja
Maitiro,
indeed!
And given the fact that the majority of the ministries will not
be under the
transitional government, who would be blamed if something went
wrong? If the
agreement comes out in this reported way, then God have mercy
because we
have clearly been sold out.
People are being asked to stomach
the sight of those murderers and to
continue yielding to their
authority.
There are thousands of people amongst us whose names are not
synonymous with
amnesty. Do these people expect me to rub shoulders with
Joseph Chinotimba
"in a new and democratic Zimbabwe"?
Do they expect
me do hug and cheer alongside Joseph Mwale at a soccer match?
Am I expected
to forget the sight of a law abiding farmer, whose farm had
been violently
seized, lying dead in his shorts on his doorstep with his
petrified mutt
sitting bolt-upright, as if guarding its master's corpse?
Are we being
asked to forget Tsvangirai's puffed up face as he was
humiliated in front of
a court? And some people cried for him.
What about our daughters and
sons?
People are not given the opportunity to arrive at some sort of closure
for
all their murdered relatives.
We should all just forget about our
dead loved ones so that Tsvangirai,
Tendai Biti and all those MDC people can
mingle, eat, drink and toast each
other as buddies while we are left out in
the cold with all our tattered
feelings and rubbing our scars and tending to
the graves of our murdered
relatives.
I can no longer tell the MDC to
be careful; they appear to be in too much of
a hurry to get on the gravy
train.
Why did they not demand that all the service chiefs be retired by
Mugabe
now, before this agreement goes into effect? The CIO hierarchy must
all be
retired now by Mugabe.
There are people in both the military and
the police who have individual
cases to answer but the MDC says they all
deserve a blanket amnesty.
I thank both Mugabe and Tsvangirai for what
they have done.
They have done their part and now they should publicise the
terms and
conditions of the agreement and hold a referendum to give the
people, on
whose behalf they negotiated, the opportunity to accept, reject
or to fine
tune it, unless, of course, they were negotiating for
themselves.
I don't suppose they intend to force whatever agreement they
reach on the
people, do they? We are also mindful of our heavily
panel-beaten
Constitution. We need a new constitution as a basis of all
these maneuvers.
As Mbeki meets with the two leaders, Mugabe's violence
continues on innocent
people. And you say these are the people who should be
forgiven?
Mugabe and his service chiefs and all his functionaries must answer
for the
crimes they committed in the motherland.
No, I declare, there
will not be blanket amnesty.
I wanna bet, just this once?
Independent, UK
Opposition leader threatens to walk away from a deal as President
Mugabe
refuses to hand over majority control
By Fiona Forde in
Harare
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Morgan Tsvangirai threatened to
walk away from the negotiating table in
Harare yesterday as he demanded
control of Zimbabwe's future government.
Under a final deal crafted by a
team of negotiators in South Africa in
recent days, Robert Mugabe is set to
remain as President, while Mr
Tsvangirai will be appointed Prime Minister in
a new coalition.
But there remain fears that a final agreement is a long
way off, since both
men are still claiming to be Zimbabwe's legitimate
leader, and the
distribution of executive powers under the suggested
coalition has yet to be
properly discussed.
"With Mugabe holding 100
per cent of the executive power as it stands, it
now has to be decided what
percentage of powers Tsvangirai will get," a
member of the talks has told
The Independent on Sunday.
The 84-year-old President is unlikely to cede
majority control, least of all
to his 56-year-old union-backed rival, Mr
Tsvangirai. The spokesman for Mr
Mugabe, George Charamba, described the very
suggestion of such a handover of
power as a "falsehood".
Others point
to the bloody campaign of late June, which ensured Mr Mugabe's
victory in
the disputed one-man presidential run-off. "He didn't kill more
than 300
people and terrorise the nation only to give it away for nothing to
this man
after two weeks of talks," said one unnamed Harare-based
commentator.
But while Mr Tsvangirai has suggested that he could work
with members of Mr
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, he does not want to share power
with Mr Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change group has
warned that its
leader "will walk away, with the mandate of his party, if he
is offered
anything short of 'full executive power'". Should he take such a
decision,
Mr Mugabe is likely to immediately form a government without him,
and thus
banish Mr Tsvangirai to the political wilderness for the next five
years.
However, if Mr Tsvangirai enters Mr Mugabe's government as a
junior partner,
he makes things difficult for the international donor
community, which has
said on repeated occasions that it will fund only a
post-Mugabe Zimbabwe.
With the donor community his trump card -
international aid is critical to
the bankrupt country - Mr Tsvangirai could
choose to sit tight and let the
talks stall, rather than break off or see
his party subsumed in government.
Even then, Mr Mugabe could still insist on
the need to form an
administration, given that Zimbabwe has been without one
for more than five
months.
Talks had already broken down once before
they resumed last Sunday. The MDC
has negotiated for a 30-month transitional
government, but Zanu-PF wants it
to run for the full five-year
term.
"Does it make sense to insist you will only agree to marriage if
the
certificate includes the date of eventual divorce?" Mr Charamba wrote in
yesterday's edition of The Herald.
The parties are also divided on
the size of the future coalition, with the
MDC pushing for 22 ministries
while Zanu-PF demands 38. The talks began on
Friday when the South African
President, Thabo Mbeki - the official mediator
between the two sides - flew
to Harare and began a round of talks with each
of the party leaders before
their joint session, which was scheduled for
last night.
Mr Mbeki is
under pressure to show results before he hosts a Southern
African
Development Community summit later this month. The SADC appointed
him to
find a solution to a crisis that is undermining regional security.
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown has added urgency to the search for a
settlement. On Friday, Western nations urged the lifting of restrictions on
the activities of aid agencies in Zimbabwe imposed on 4 June after the
government accused them of favouring opposition supporters in the
distribution of food aid.
africasia
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 10 (AFP)
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe should be
barred from an upcoming regional
summit if power-sharing talks in his
country fail, the head of South
Africa's main trade union confederation said
Sunday.
"If the current talks fail to reach any settlement, Mugabe should
be banned
from attending any summits or meetings as president of Zimbabwe,"
Zwelinzima
Vavi told a gathering of unions from the region.
"He is
not regarded as president of Zimbabwe until the political situation
in his
country is resolved."
Vavi's COSATU confederation is a junior member of
President Thabo Mbeki's
governing coalition.
Zimbabwe's political
rivals are locked in power-sharing talks with Mbeki,
the mediator for the
negotiations, in a bid to end the country's
longstanding
crisis.
Southern African leaders are scheduled to hold a summit in
Johannesburg next
weekend.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai is himself a former trade union
leader.
Sunday's
conference attended by union representatives from Zimbabwe,
Botswana and
Malawi also denounced parliamentary elections planned for
September 19 in
Swaziland, the continent's last absolute monarchy.
"Democratic elections
have never been held in that country, and that makes a
mockery of their
so-called democracy," said Vavi.
Parliamentary elections are held every
five years in Swaziland, after which
the king appoints a prime
minister.
More than a third of the parliament's 85 members are handpicked
by the king,
who makes all government appointments.
Swaziland's
constitution, re-written in 2006, allows for freedom of
association but
people can only stand for elections as individuals.
SABC
August 10, 2008,
12:30
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says it is
cautiously
optimistic that the sealing of a government of national unity in
Zimbabwe
could put that country on the path of political and economic
recovery.
The labour federation is meeting its counterparts from Zimbabwe
and
Swaziland in Kempton Park on Gauteng's East Rand to discuss the climate
in
the region. The two-day meeting comes as President Thabo Mbeki's meets
with
the political leaders in Harare. It is hoped that it could result in
the
unity government being announced later today.
Cosatu's
International Secretary, Bongani Masuku, says they still want civil
society
and labour to form an integral part of the political solution in
Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, human rights activist and political analyst
Elinor Sisulu says
they are really concerned about the mediation process as
the humanitarian
situation has not changed since the start of the talks
between Zanu-PF and
the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC).
Mmegi, Botswana
Friday, 08 August 2008
MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff
Writer
Head of policy and strategic planning at SADC, Professor Angelo
Mondlane,
has said Zimbabwe is not the first country in Africa to slash
zeros in an
attempt to stabilise its currency.
"We have seen
it in Mozambique and Angola. It comes about because of the
abnormal
situation of war or political turmoil.
If it is a war, the solution is to
stop the war first. If it is political
strife, stop it and then undertake
the necessary stabilisation and
adjustment measures," Mondlane said. He said
one of the main causes of
inflation in Zimbabwe is that there is not enough
goods in circulation.
The little, which is available, triggers spiraling
prices. Mondlane said the
prices keep rising so long as the goods do not
stabilise the supply
situation.
He said the move to cut the zeroes
from a currency is an administrative act
that does not determine its value.
He said the value of a currency is
determined by the power of the economy.
"It is not the currency
denomination, which changes the weight of the
currency," he explained.
Meanwhile, it is reported that prices of goods
have increased phenomenally
following the introduction of a redenominated
currency by the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe last week. A survey by radio VOP of
Zimbabwe revealed that
business people in Zimbabwe have taken advantage of
the new currency to
double prices.
The Business Weekly of Zimbabwe
reported on its website that prices in
Zimbabwe only appear cheap in
numerical terms yet they are exorbitant in
real terms. "A two-litre bottle
of cooking oil went up to Z$120 in new
currency, which is Z$1.2 trillion in
old currency," the Business Weekly
reported.
A two-kilogramme packet
of sugar is now selling at an average of Z$50 from
Z$25, a loaf of bread is
now Z$25 that is Z$250 billion in old currency from
an average of Z$15.
_
Comfort Muchekeza, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe spokesperson for the
Southern region bemoaned the price hikes and urged the government to
crackdown on businesses to restore sanity.
Zimbabwean President,
Robert Mugabe, last week warned that his government
might have to declare a
state of emergency to contain an economic crisis
that has seen prices rise
on a daily basis while inflation has shot to 2.2
million percent, the
highest in the world.
http://www.radiovop.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3483&Itemid=756
HARARE - ZIMBABWE's soaring
inflation now stands at a staggering 42
million percent, economists have
said.
The figure is contained in document made
available to Radio VOP. The
document has been circulated among the banking
community and top business
leaders.
They say it was not true
that the inflation rate stood at 11 million
percent as pointed out by
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr Gideon Gono,
in his Monetary Policy
Statement last week.
Genesis Investment bank (GIB) chief economist,
Brains Muchemwa, said
the figure given out by Gono was for July and not for
August as he did not
want to rile the international community at a time when
there are talks
between the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF party.
He said Gono did not bother to check with economists before presenting
his
statement to the nation.
A document was sent to all bankers in
Zimbabwe which said the
inflation figure stood at 42 million percent but
this did not see the light
of day as Gono is alleged to have told the
economists not to be alarmists.
Gono is alleged to have then
withdrawn the foreign currency trading
licence of Genesis due to its
economic department which he accused of
overstepping its boundaries by
revealing the actual inflation figure.
He accused the bank of dealing
illegally in foreign currency but this
was never proven as the bank had its
licence given back last week.
This 42 million percent inflation
figure is the highest in the world
and other economists point out that since
there are no goods on the shelves
it could actually be much
worse.
Meanwhile the rates for the South African Rand and the
United States
greenback continue to pick up in Harare as citizens now prefer
to keep
foreign currency instead of the worthless bearer
cheques.
The Rand on Saturday was pegged at Zd 4.5 trillion for 100
Rands. For
USd5 one could recive Zd 1.5 trillion on the same
day.
The dealers say there is no cash on the market as people are
now
holding on to their money expecting a major cash crisis.
The Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ) has however denied the money
shortage in Zimbabwe.
However surveys carried out in Harare at
CBZ Holdings Limited, CABS,
KIngdom Bank Limited, and FBC Holdins Limiyted
showed long queues in Harare
on Saturday.
BAZ boss, John
Mangudya said there was no cash crisis and this was
being taken out of
context.
This is despite the fact that just below his office there
was a very
long and winding queue.
http://www.thepost.ie/
10 August 2008 By Bill Corcoran in
Johannesburg
If Zimbabwe's parties manage to negotiate a power-sharing
deal over the
coming days that brings an end to the country's political
crisis, the art of
diplomacy may well get the initial plaudits.
While
the ability to coax compromise from stubborn stakeholders will have
played
its part in resolving southern Africa's longest running political
emergency,
it is arguably the ruling regime's mismanagement of the economy
that has
forced it to the negotiating table.
Although Zimbabwe's economic downfall
has been steady since the white-owned
land invasions began in 2000, the
speed at which it has disintegrated since
the disputed March 29 general
elections has been astonishing.
According to Co Galway man Garrett
Killilea, who has been living in Zimbabwe
since the late 1970s, the economy
has been shrinking steadily over the last
eight years, but the recent
elections and their violent aftermath have
brought it to a virtual
standstill.
''Since last March, there has been a serious decline in
business activity
among our clients due to the decline in the value of the
currency, and the
lack of confidence in relation to the country's political
and economic
situation," he told The Sunday Business Post.
The
founder of Lamont Engineering in Harare used to employ 80 people, but
his
workforce now stands at just eight, and they mostly work on projects in
neighbouring countries.
''Unless you have access to foreign currency,
life here is nearly impossible
at the moment. Food has become incredibly
scarce - even at the supermarkets
in the very wealthy areas there is next to
nothing to buy,'' Killilea said.
''Local producers can't operate under
the government price controls because
the hyper inflation means they will
lose money if they do; importers aren't
bringing in food because they can't
keep up with the pace of the devaluing
currency either," he said.
But
how has a country once known as the ''breadbasket of Africa'' come to
this?
Historically, agriculture, tourism and mining formed the
backbone of
Zimbabwe's once booming economy. But when president Robert
Mugabe seized
white-owned farms during the 2000 land invasions and gave them
to cronies
with no knowledge of farming, commercial agriculture was
destroyed.
When Mugabe unleashed violence against his political
opponents, he scared
off tourists, and by passing a law last year allowing
the state to seize 51
per cent of shares of foreign-owned companies, forced
most mining firms to
abandon exploration and investment.
As a result
of those actions, Mugabe's tax revenues have dwindled to the
point where he
can no longer pay his bills, and there are few assets left to
strip and use
as a substitute form of payment to those who keep him in
power.
Instead, the Reserve Bank has stepped in and has been working
overtime to
print money needed to pay members of the army, police and ZanuPF
-Mugabe's
political party.
However, printing money is also one of the
main reasons for hyper inflation.
The more that is printed the less it is
worth, which means most of those who
support him are now suffering as much
as his opponents, despite being paid.
The economic shutdown has led to a
scarcity of food and commodities, which
has helped to drive inflation
upwards from 100,000 per cent last January to
an official figure of 2.2
million per cent last month. But independent
financial institutions suggest
the real inflation figure is around 10
million per cent - and
rising.
In an attempt to rein in inflation, Gideon Gono, the governor of
Zimbabwe's
central bank, launched a new currency on August 1, which
effectively knocked
ten zeros off the existing
currency.
''Zimbabweans must realise the country is in a practically
binding state of
socio-economic emergency," he told the state-run Herald
newspaper recently.
He also urged the few remaining businesses in the
country to freeze prices
and wages for the next six months.
However,
this is not the first time Gono has dispensed with zeros as a means
to curb
inflation. In 2006, he knocked three zeros off the currency, but two
years
later the situation was worse than ever.
Indeed, there is little
confidence in the new currency. Some businesses have
recently decided to use
petrol coupons, which are given out by fuel
suppliers once a customer lodges
foreign currency into an off-shore account
as payment for fuel, as a more
stable form of currency.
Barred from using US dollars by the government
and unwilling to conduct
transactions in local currency, Harare auctioneer's
Hammer and Tongues
announced last Wednesday that its first auction by barter
using petrol
coupons would take place last Friday. ''Homegrown solutions for
Zimbabweans.
Now we are selling in litres (gallons), not in dollars," a
statement from
the auction house read.
South African-based Zimbabwean
economist Davey Malungisa said that the real
reason behind the launch of the
new currency was purely to help financial
institutions whose computers could
no longer handle electronic transactions.
''The banks weren't able to
deal in the larger transactions of trillions and
quadzillions, so something
needed to be done. But the zeros will be back
soon enough as it will have no
affect on the inflation," he said.
According to Malungisa, what is needed
for economic revival is peace,
stability, a massive investment from abroad
and the cancellation of the $4.5
billion Zimbabwe owes foreign organisations
like the IMF and World Bank.
''There is an international principal called
'odious debt'. This is where a
new government has the right not to honour
debts incurred by dictatorships.
This needs to be applied, otherwise all the
foreign currency the next
government earns will go to pay off that debt,
rather than being invested in
health, education and infrastructure," he
said.
A soaking wet Vigil so we went
into survival mode: tarpaulin billowing in
the wind and a minimum of banners
and posters. At least it wasn't cold. We
thought few people would turn up
but amazingly we had what has become a
fairly normal turnout of upwards of
150. The damp didn't seem to matter at
all even when someone prodded the
tarpaulin and unleashed a torrent on the
unsuspecting people on the
fringes. Crammed together there was even more
incentive to sing and just
enough room to dance, enhanced by the
reappearance of an old friend Clifford
Mahembe, a founder member of the
Vigil.
Ephraim Tapa, another founder
member of the Vigil, who recently returned
from a visit to South Africa,
answered anxious questions about the talks
between the MDC and Zanu-PF. He
said people wanted genuine change for
Zimbabwe and the objective was
creating a conducive environment for free and
fair elections. The talks
should not be about power sharing but about
allowing the people to freely
decide their own destiny. "The people know
what they want", he said. The
general feeing was that the Vigil is in for a
long haul outside the Zimbabwe
Embassy because no one is prepared to accept
a deal which will not recognise
the needs of the people.
An indication of how integrated Zimbabwean
exiles are becoming in British
life came when a disabled Zimbabwean briefly
joined us with his English
carer - an interesting reversal of roles given
that so many Zimbabweans here
are employed as carers.
For latest
Vigil pictures check:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
.
FOR THE RECORD: 155 signed the register.
FOR YOUR
DIARY:
· Euripides' ' Elektra' at 9.15pm on 11- 13 August at the
Camden
People's Theatre, 56 - 61 Hampstead Road, London NW12PY. This
production is
set in Zimbabwe and hopes to raise questions about the
current situation.
For bookings contact; www.camdenfringe.org
· Next
Glasgow Vigil. Saturday 16th August, 2 - 6 pm. Venue: Argyle
Street
Precinct. For more information contact: Ancilla Chifamba, 07770 291
150,
Patrick Dzimba, 07990 724 137 or Jonathan Chireka, 07504 724 471.
·
Zimbabwe Association's Women's Weekly Drop-in Centre. Fridays
10.30 am - 4
pm. Venue: The Fire Station Community and ICT Centre, 84 Mayton
Street,
London N7 6QT, Tel: 020 7607 9764. Nearest underground: Finsbury
Park. For
more information contact the Zimbabwe Association 020 7549 0355
(open
Tuesdays and Thursdays).
Vigil co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the
Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current
regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue
until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in
Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080809/OPINION/501860542/1080&profile=1080
Sultan Al Qassemi
a.. Last
Updated: August 09. 2008 10:18PM UAE / August 9. 2008 6:18PM GMT
As the
Beijing Olympics take-off, predictably and literally, with flying
colours,
China has set a new standard in organising major sporting events. A
brand
new stadium, the world's fastest train and the largest airport in the
world
are some of the brighter aspects people will remember of the
tournament.
In contrast, South Africa, the nation hosting the next
world sporting
event - the football World Cup in 2010 - has been troubled by
problems in
construction so severe that the country exceeded the time delay
margin
permissible by Fifa, the world football governing body, before
construction
even began, forcing Fifa's top official to say: "I would be a
very negligent
president if I hadn't put away in a drawer somewhere a Plan
B."
Could there be a direct link between the woes currently plaguing
South
Africa's hardware infrastructure as seen in its construction delays,
and the
troubles plaguing its software infrastructure as embodied in its
leadership
crisis?
South Africa's story is one of struggle and
perseverance; a story of triumph
in the face of injustice that enabled the
nation to free itself from the
evils of apartheid in the early 1990s. Soon
after his election as the first
post-apartheid president, Nelson Mandela
initiated a courageous healing
process that culminated with the
establishment of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission in which the
country began to account for its
past. The TRC was so successful that its
influence was felt throughout
Africa and was emulated in Morocco and Sierra
Leone.
South Africa in the 1990s restored the faith of all Africans in
their
continent and put to shame the racist system that had plagued the
nation for
many decades. In the last major elections however, its citizens
had to
settle for a choice in leadership, not in the best person to lead,
but
between the lesser of two evils.
In the dying days of 2007, two
years after he was ousted by his former
ally-turned-rival and current
president, Thabo Mbeki, the fiery Jacob Zuma
was elected leader of the
dominant Africa National Congress party that has
ruled South Africa since Mr
Mandela was elected president in 1994.
An ethnic Zulu politician, Mr Zuma
served an entire decade in jail during
the apartheid years after joining the
MK, the military wing of the ANC. The
MK carried out numerous attacks in the
country including the notorious
Church Street bombing of 1982 in which
innocent civilians were killed.
Recently, during a multi-billion dollar
corruption case currently pending in
court against Mr Zuma, his backers,
including MK veterans, took to shouting
alarming slogans, such as "No Zuma,
No country". His supporters previously
celebrated Mr Zuma's election as
leader of the ANC with an apartheid era
song entitled Bring Me My Machine
Gun.
Possibly due to a culture that celebrates such songs, South Africa
is
plagued by one of the highest murder and rape rates in the world. In the
12
months leading up to March 2008, over 18,000 people were murdered - more
than 50 a day - including over 1,100 children, while 36,000 women were
raped.
Mr Mbeki peculiarly holds the opinion that crime isn't "out of
control". One
of his ministers, insinuating that it was only white people
who complained
about the crime rate, suggested that "they should get out if
they don't like
it".
The high murder rates compound the health
problems that this country of 45
million individuals already faces; life
expectancy averages a brief 43 years
for both sexes. Despite the epidemic
proportions that HIV/Aids has reached,
with more than 20 per cent of the
adult population infected, both Messrs
Mbeki and Zuma display serious
ignorance of the disease. The first by
naively denying a link between the
HIV virus and Aids and the latter by
saying he took a shower after having
unprotected sex with an HIV-infected
woman to reduce the chances of his
infection.
Mr Zuma, who has taken four wives, was also acquitted of rape
charges and
claimed that the intercourse was consensual because he wouldn't
have risked
raping a woman while his own daughter was in the
house.
Recently, despite the fact that four million Zimbabweans have fled
their
country, mostly into South Africa, escaping bloodshed, tyranny and an
astronomical inflation rate of 2.2 million percent, Mr. Mbeki foolishly
stated that "there is no crisis in Zimbabwe".
South Africans deserve
leaders of moral integrity, character and
intelligence who do not celebrate
machine gun culture, shower after
adulterous sex to avoid Aids, and deny
soaring crime rates. They deserve
leaders who can take the rainbow nation
beyond the football championships,
leaping above "Plan B" and into the 21st
century.
Sultan Al Qassemi is a Sharjah-based businessman and graduate of
the
American University of Paris. He is the founder of Barjeel Securities in
Dubai
sultan.alqassemi@gmail.com
IOL
August 10
2008 at 08:38AM
By Tawana Kupe
The outcome of the
secret talks that President Thabo Mbeki is
mediating could be a new
beginning for Zimbabwe, a country that, as the
cliché goes, has gone from
being the bread basket of the region to a basket
case.
A new
beginning for Zimbabwe would be the creation of a transitional
government
based on the March 29 elections, with a mandate to stabilise an
economy in
free fall and create a new democratic constitution, through an
inclusive and
participatory process involving all Zimbabweans.
The process should
end with fresh, free and fair elections within 24
months. Such a beginning
should exclude Robert Mugabe and his key supporters
from office and make
them account for past and present human rights
violations.
What
is more likely, is what some will perceive to be a false dawn and
a
disappointing outcome. Mbeki's dogged refusal to raise his voice or take
tough action against Mugabe and his strenuous opposition to sanctions is
driven by a belief that he is pursuing a new beginning for Zimbabwe, which
is part of his larger vision of an African renaissance.
For
Mbeki, failure is not an option and, for him, any setback cannot
be larger
than the dream of Africa solving its problems in its own way,
without what
he perceives to be the megaphone diplomacy of Western nations.
Consistent
with this view, for him an imperfect deal is something that is
the basis of
a new beginning.
Everyone must therefore be prepared for the deal
that emerges from the
"power sharing talks" to be unpalatable to those who
want the departure of
Mugabe from the political landscape. Mbeki's mediation
will seek a political
accommodation for Mugabe, from which he escapes
culpability for the
brutality he has committed during his nearly three
decades in power.
Instead, he will be allowed to gradually retire
with honour and
dignity. This outcome will be explained as the price that
must be paid for a
new beginning.
For those who consider Mugabe
a liberation-hero-turned-monster, a
blanket amnesty will be a bitter pill to
swallow. They will want to see
Mugabe's hands tied behind his back, (a la
Charles Taylor) alighting from a
United Nations aircraft at The Hague to be
tried for human rights
violations.
For this compromise, it is
important that there should be an end to
the culture of impunity and that a
culture of respect for human rights
begins with the transitional government
that will emerge out of the mediated
talks.
A transitional
constitution must provide a mechanism to protect and
promote the human
rights of all Zimbabweans. This mechanism must be a key
distinguisihing
aspect of a new constitution, which communicates an
unequivocal message:
that human rights in Zimbabwe should not be sacrificed
on the altar of
political expediency.
The rapidly collapsing economy is an
important factor pushing all
players, including Mbeki, to produce a deal
quickly. Even more incentive
comes from the billions that are being offered
for Zimbabwe's
reconstruction.
But therein lies the danger of
massive corruption by members of the
transitional government, including
those who have recently been critical of
the Mugabe government and asked for
assets and funds to be frozen.
An anti-corruption agency and
legislation that is explicit about
transparency in the use of public funds
and assets should be part of the
transitional constitution in order to
promote public accountability and
clean government.
If
corruption is allowed to take root during the transitional period,
the
government could easily morph into a government of national
looting.
Such a government will want to enjoy a full five-year term
because the
comforts that come with abusing public funds dull the appetite
for
constitutional reform.
Professor Tawana Kupe is Dean of the
Faculty of Humanities at the
University of the Witwatersrand (Wits),
Johannesburg.
This article was originally published on page 6 of
Sunday Independent
on August 10, 2008
Sunday Monitor, Uganda
August 10, 2008
Editorial
Kenya kicked off the madness at the start of the year
when depraved
politicians decided that a few thousand deaths were what their
people
deserved for voting in the December 27 elections.
Then the
totally inept and wicked government of Zimbabwe picked up the
button from
Kenya. Egomaniacal Robert Mugabe simply chose to not hand power
to
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai who had defeated him at the March 29
poll. For good measure, he unleashed his goons on Opposition supporters even
as the economy collapsed.
But just when we were feeling relieved with
Kenya's government of national
unity seemingly holding and the opposing
sides in Zimbabwe talking - however
belatedly - the Mauritanian generals
chose to insert themselves into prime
news. On Wednesday, they toppled the
15-month old government of President
Sidi Cheikh Ould Abdallahi, the
country's first freely elected president in
over two decades.
With a
population of 3.4 million, Mauritania has been wracked by more than
10 coups
or attempted coups since independence from France in 1960, a news
agency
report said. With that sort of record, you would think the
Mauritanians had
lost appetite for coups. Not so, obviously.
The generals have not given
the reasons for their coup. But whatever they
are, nothing justifies a
military coup in the present age. As Mauritania's
own history shows, more
coups tend to breed more coups.
And yet the military has not proven
itself competent to run the state in
Africa, or anywhere else. This is
because of the tendency of the military to
resort to the gun to resolve
political disagreements.
Some would argue that the continent has seen
civilian dictatorships as well.
True. But on the balance, one would rather
have civilians messing around
than generals.
Civilians will much more
easily grasp the need to resolve political
disagreements politically through
talking and cutting deals. It takes time
but it is durable and it is the
stuff of mature politics. Which is why we
think the political processes in
Kenya and Zimbabwe are worth watching and
encouraging.
It is
important to ask, however, why coups occur to begin with. We think it
is the
result of the near-complete failure of political leadership in
Africa. One
could explain away the golden age of coups in Africa in the
1970s as a
manifestation of the crisis of state formation. Not now, really.
Today,
the politicians simply appear to be selfish and duplicitous, doing
very
little for their countries. This has tended to leave a leadership
vacuum
that the military has been happy to fill with "revolutionary" or
"people's
redemption" councils. And the results have been woeful at best.
From The Sunday Tribune (SA), 10 August
Hans Pienaar
President Thabo Mbeki was part of
the Zimbabwe problem by using the
continuing violence in the country to
blackmail the opposition into talks,
Allan Boesak said yesterday. He called
on churches and religious bodies to
find ways to put pressure on Mbeki and
Zimbabwe's rulers to stop the
violence there, after victims testified at the
international HIV/Aids
conference this week about the systematic rape of
opposition supporters.
Boesak was part of a delegation of reformed churches,
including the
Presbyterian and Unitarian churches, which gathered last month
near Benoni
for a special summit on Zimbabwe. Their subsequent submission to
the
presidency was critical of Mbeki's handling of the crisis. This week
South
African Council of Churches (SACC) president Tinyiko Maluleke said the
council had not been satisfied with the response. He said the presidency had
asked the delegation to bring evidence on the level and scope of the
violence. "We handed a comprehensive dossier to his office, but were are not
happy with the response," he said.
After Zimbabwe's March 29
election, Mbeki dispatched a team of retired
generals to probe the violence,
but their report has never been published.
The opposition Movement for
Democratic Change said at least 120 of its
officials and supporters had been
murdered, while non-governmental stalwarts
such as Elinor Sisulu said the
figure could well be more than 600. Boesak
said yesterday the group was
receiving e-mails and phone calls daily from
victims of violence. At the
Aids conference in Mexico this week, a group of
women recounted how they had
been raped by government militias. The SACC had
been particularly upset
about increasing reports of limbs being hacked off,
which is reminiscent of
the infamous amputations of the hands of
participants in Sierra Leone
elections during the reign of Fody Sankoh. This
information had been
gathered at great risk by churchgoers and others across
Zimbabwe, said
Boesak. The presidency's response had been one "we had become
used to", he
said - one of "stilstuipe" (Afrikaans for an attack of
silence). "It raises
the fundamental question, why is the violence still
continuing?" asked
Boesak. "Why is Mbeki not getting Mugabe to stop the
violence? How can a
real, honest settlement be achieved while violence is
being perpetrated on
people?"
He accused Mbeki of using the violence to put the MDC in an
"invidious"
position during the talks - forcing the organisation into
negotiations in a
morally disadvantageous position, because Mbeki told them
the violence would
stop only if they took part. Boesak said this hidden
agenda was being played
out in the talks. Maluleke cast doubt on the whole
exercise of the talks.
"What is the use of a political settlement if the
people have to live in the
midst of death?" he asked. Boesak said the talks
should no longer be about
"making a pact with the devil", but about securing
peace. He suggested that
pressure from all sides, including renewed calls
for sanctions, be
maintained on the Mugabe regime, and on Mbeki, to stop the
violence. During
their first submission, the church leaders called on
regional governments to
refuse to recognise Mugabe as president. They also
called on Mbeki to desist
from making statements showing a partiality to
Mugabe.
Business Daily, Kenya
Written by Rejoice Ngwenya
August 11, 2008: Reconciliation talks mean
that our self-inaugurated
president Robert Mugabe is now unlikely to face
justice in Zimbabwe but it
is hard to see where he could run from
international law and he must know
that.
The last
colonial-vintage ruler, Ian Smith, spent the twilight of his
years
peacefully at his Shurugwi farm. Credited with a dirty anti-liberation
war
that accounted for 20,000 deaths in the 1970s, Smith received a
handshake of
forgiveness on the eve of freedom in April 1980 from a Mugabe
who had been
expected to vent his Marxist-Leninist vengeance on him.
Now
national hatred has turned on Mugabe.
Mugabe's political resumé
features the Gukurahundi massacres in
Matabeleland with North-Korean-trained
troops, Operation Murambatsvina that
"cleaned out the filth" of
slum-dwellers, military intervention in the
Democratic Republic of Congo,
and the abduction, torture, murder and
displacement of thousands of Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) activists:
these fall squarely into the category
of crimes against humanity.
Now faced with the real prospect of him
losing power, many of us
believe that for his every past action there should
now be an opposite and
equal retaliation.
There might be,
however, a substantial part of the present generation
that will want to
adopt a more conciliatory position to facilitate rapid
nation
building.
We cannot expect any support for his prosecution from our
neighbours
(except Botswana). Many Africans of all types support Mugabe and
really
believe his economic vandalism is caused by Western (principally
British)
machinations.
Other Africans tell me Mugabe is not as
bad as Uganda's Idi Amin or
Ethiopia's Haile Mengistu-but this callous moral
relativism means nothing to
the dead, the tortured or the fearful in
Zimbabwe or to more than two
million refugees.
The only person
with the moral authority to stand up and call the
dictator a dictator is our
neighbour Nelson Mandela, but his single mild
comment about "failure of
leadership," last month during the election
terror, gave the impression that
all Zimbabwe needs is a few policy
adjustments.
In practice, it
is difficult to see what trade-offs Southern African
Development
Community-appointed mediator President Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa can
demand in order to insulate Mugabe from national or international
prosecution.
Pursuit of consensus like the 1979
British-brokered Lancaster House
Agreement calls for large-scale compromises
but this depends on the ability
of MDC to extinguish the anger of its
supporters and allies who bore the
full brunt of Mugabe's post-2000
political wrath followed by the latest
post-election campaign of
terror.
Many groups are crying foul for being shut out of the
negotiations in
Pretoria between Mugabe's representatives and the MDC: the
1998 People's
Convention that gave rise to the formal opposition was a
concoction of
disparate civil society bedfellows.
Ironically,
it is in Mugabe's own interest to encourage an inclusive
negotiating team
since reconciliation and forgiveness are backed by the
Zimbabwe Council of
Churches, the Christian Alliance of Zimbabwe and the
Evangelical Fellowship
of Zimbabwe.
Yet the very relationship between freedom and justice
is a potential
hazard for Mugabe and his cronies.
If
Zimbabweans suddenly find themselves once more with a credible
judiciary,
even where Mugabe's legitimacy is no longer a priority issue,
aggrieved
citizens-and there are millions-may use their new-found freedom to
challenge
any immunity clause.
And international law now makes it impossible
for dictators to retire
in comfort to the Côte d'Azur or even inside their
own country: the
International Criminal Court's prosecutor filed charges of
genocide, crimes
against humanity and war crimes against Sudanese President
Omar Hassan
al-Bashir last month, around the time Bosnian-Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic
was mysteriously seized to face justice and while the trial
of fallen
Liberian ruler Charles Taylor continues at the ICC.
Paradoxically, it makes dictators harder to shift as they have nowhere
to
hide. China didn't seem to want him at the Olympics but they have no
problem
selling him arms so maybe they or his friends in North Korea will
have him.
Any offers?
Ngwenya has been involved in constitutional research
and electoral
supervision from 2000 to the present.
The Tide, Nigeria
. Saturday, Aug 9,
2008
President Robert Mugabe may be offered 'founding President and father of
the
nation' status as parties in the Zimbabwe's crisis talks are close to
agreement, a South African newspaper has reported.
However, President
Thabo Mbeki's spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga, could not
be reached for
comments.
The paper, quoting from a draft settlement said to be in its
possession said
"Mugabe will become ceremonial president of Zimbabwe in the
new transitional
government."
It said he would, after this, retire as
founding president and father of the
nation, protected under a blanket
mnesty.
"Morgan Tsvangarai will run the country as the new executive
prime minister
in a transitional government that will pave way for fresh
elections in the
future," it said.
It reported that Tsvangarai would
appoint two deputy prime ministers each
from his party and
Zanu-PF.
"The draft agreement will provide the basis of the face-to-face
meeting
between the two men in Harare on Thursday to be facilitated by
President
Mbeki.
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/latestnews?articleid=4375152
Published Date: 10 August 2008
By Liz
Rawlings and Eddie Barnes
THE Scottish Parliament pension fund is helping to
prop up the regime of
Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, Scotland on Sunday
can reveal.
More than £18m has been invested on behalf of MSPs, hundreds of
thousands of
which has gone into firms which have already been criticised
for their close
links to the failed African state. The companies involved
include
Anglo-American, the mining giant which is investing $400m (£208m) to
develop
a platinum mine in Zimbabwe.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
recently warned the firm that it should think
again about "supporting" the
Mugabe regime in this way. And Conservative
leader David Cameron has called
on all companies and individuals with "any
dealings" in Zimbabwe to examine
their consciences and ensure that they are
not keeping Mugabe in
power.
But figures released by the Scottish Parliament show that MSPs
have invested
more than £100,000 in Anglo-American via the pension fund.
There are also
substantial investments in other companies heavily involved
in the country,
including Standard Chartered bank, Rio Tinto, Barclays and
Royal Dutch
Shell. On the back of these and other investments, the MSPs'
fund grew by
£700,000 last year.
The revelations come just weeks
after several MSPs backed the decision to
strip Mugabe of his knighthood and
called on the international community to
redouble their efforts to bring
about change in the country.
Last night, one senior MSP on the Scottish
Parliament Corporate Body
(SPCB) - its ruling council - said the revelation
was "regrettable" and said
he would examine whether it was possible to
switch the money.
Mike Pringle said: "In the light of what is happening
in Zimbabwe, it is
extremely regrettable that the Scottish Parliament has to
be involved in
investing in Zimbabwe. I would be hopeful that as a Corporate
Body we would
be able to influence this decision.
"If we can't
influence it then that is regrettable. As a member of the
Corporate Body I
will be suggesting that they discuss this with Baillie
Gifford (their
investment managers] to find out whether there is any
flexibility in the way
it is managed."
Senior Nationalist MSP Roseanna Cunningham said: "I have
no idea how it's
funded or invested in that sense but, like most MSPs, I
would be pretty
concerned. I should imagine that MSPs would be unhappy with
it and people
will start asking questions."
The MSPs' scheme requires
them to pay in 6% of their £54,000 salary each
year. In return they get back
a generous one-50th of their final salary for
each year at
Holyrood.
Adam Ramsay, Ethical Investment campaigner and president of
Edinburgh
University Students' Association, said: "By investing in a
company, the
Scottish Parliament is giving both financial and moral support
to what the
company is doing. You can't condemn something with one hand if
you are
paying for it with the other."
Along with Anglo-American,
Barclays has attracted the greatest controversy
for its Zimbabwean
operations. It owns two-thirds of Barclays Bank Zimbabwe,
and contributes to
a government loan scheme that is thought to have lent
money to at least five
ministers for farm improvements. Standard Chartered
operates in a similar
manner. Rio Tinto, another mining giant, has a diamond
mine at
Murowa.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Parliament said: "The Members'
Pension Scheme
is part of a pooled fund... which operates in accordance with
the United
Nation's Principles for Responsible Investment.
"The
Parliament is only one of a large number of investors in the fund and
cannot, therefore, direct where investments are made. Our total investment
in this fund would have to be worth more than £50m in order for MSPs to be
able to direct the investments."
Anglo-American claimed last night
that withdrawing investment from its
activities in Zimbabwe would only make
things worse in the ravaged country.
"Anglo-American is deeply concerned
about the current political situation in
Zimbabwe and condemns the violence
and human rights abuses that are taking
place," it said. "The responsible
development of the Unki mine will create a
long-term viable business which
will be important to the economic future of
Zimbabwe for years to
come."
The firm also claims that, if it quit the country, the Zimbabwean
government
would assume control of the mine, potentially making matters
worse.
Another Nationalist MSP, Bill Wilson, has written to Zimbabwean
opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai expressing his concern that "such
investments might
be serving to perpetuate Robert Mugabe's despotic
regime".
It emerged earlier this summer that several Conservative MPs had
sizeable
shareholdings in companies accused of propping up Robert Mugabe's
regime.
The Parliament's Fund has previously attracted controversy after
it emerged
it also invested in British America Tobacco - despite having
voted through a
ban on smoking in public places.
Yesterday, talks
were continuing in Harare between Mugabe and the opposition
MDC party over a
potential power-sharing deal, to be brokered by South
African president
Thabo Mbeki
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=2342
August 10, 2008
By Munyaradzi
Mutizwa
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe Times photojournalist Tsvangirayi
Mukwazhi has fled
Zimbabwe to South Africa with his family after the police
seized his car
while on assignment and then raided his home, arrested him
and then
assaulted him.
Before leaving the country, Mukwazhi told
MISA-Zimbabwe that the police
accused him of possessing an "improperly
registered vehicle" and of having
used the vehicle to travel and cover the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirayi,
in the run up to the 29 March
presidential elections.
According to
Mukwazhi, plain clothes police officers visited his home at
around 5.00 am
on Thursday, July 24, three days after the historical signing
of the
Memorandum of Agreement by the leaders of Zanu-PF and the two MDCs.
They
broke down the main door and assaulted him and his maid.
He says he was
driven first to Harare Central Police Station and the on to
Southerton
police station. He was released after two hours without charge.
His car was
confiscated by the police and remains in their hands amid
allegations it was
improperly registered.
Mukwazhi says when he produced the documents for
the vehicle, a Toyota
Raider pick-up truck, the police insisted that he had
used the vehicle
during the elections to cover the MDC leader's campaign
trail in
Matabeleland North.
Mukwazhi told MISA-Zimbabwe he was
concerned for his safety and that of his
family. He said he had seen his car
being driven by the police officers who
arrested him. He said lawyer
Beatrice Mtetwa was handling his case.
Mukwazhi asked MISA-Zimbabwe to
hold on to the information until after he
had left the country.
This
is not the first time that Mukwazhi has been assaulted by the police
and had
his property confiscated. He was arrested on March 11, 2007,
together with
the MDC leadership, as he was covering a prayer meeting
organised at
Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfields. He was severely assaulted and
his laptop and
cameras were destroyed by the police. His car was also
confiscated at that
time. MISA-Zimbabwe's legal department made several
representations before
the police released the vehicle.
At the height of the farm invasions back
in 2000, Mukwazhi was covering the
invasion of a commercial farm by
so-called war veterans for The Daily News
when his equipment was confiscated
by war veterans' leader Joseph
Chinotimba. The equipment was recovered from
Chinotimba by the newspaper's
management after two
days.
MISA-Zimbabwe says they see this latest attack on Mukwazhi as an
indication
of the state's unwillingness to allow freedom of expression,
access to
information and freedom of the media, even at this crucial stage
in the
political development of Zimbabwe.
From The Sunday Tribune, 10 August
Fiona Forde
On my return
flight from Harare yesterday afternoon I struck up a
conversation with the
woman seated next to me. We chatted amicably for some
time and then she
asked, "What do you do?" "I'm a spy," I told her, in great
jest. "Is it?"
she responded. I assured her I was only joking. And she was
satisfied with
that. You certainly don't have the makings of one, her face
was telling me.
But George Charamba, Robert Mugabe's spokesman, is convinced
otherwise. So
much so that in yesterday's edition of the Herald newspaper he
outed me as a
British agent, a woman hell-bent on scuppering the settlement
that is being
stitched together in the Zimbabwean capital this weekend.
Charamba was
ranting about an article I wrote, published in our sister paper
The Star,
last Wednesday, based on a document that had been leaked to us,
which
outlined the makings of a deal between Mugabe and his rival, Morgan
Tsvangirai. Until then, according to comrade Charamba, Zanu PF had been
happy with their lot and the weight of the executive power that they were
likely to win in this historic deal that was near completion. Then entered
"starless Fiona Forde" with a document outlining a proposal with Tsvangirai
as the executive head of state, Mugabe as the ceremonial leader, complete
with an exit plan for the Zanu PF chief that would see him retire peacefully
after the transition with the lifelong title of founding president of the
country, free from persecution under a blanket amnesty. The prospect of
Mugabe becoming the "queen" to the Movement for Democratic Change king irked
Charamba no end. The only plausible reason for the thinking had to be the
British, he wrote. And their agent was none other than "South Africa's
starless" maiden.
According to Charamba, "starless Fiona . . .
did wonderfully well to become
the poke-and-probe stick for the British. She
did much to splash dung,
thereby dimming the Johannesburg Star, her
employing title," he wrote, in
his weekly column which he pens under the nom
de plume of Nathaniel Manheru.
"Not many at The Star knew she would turn out
to be a serial rapist of truth
on the talks," he said. I all but choked on
my corn flakes as I read the
piece in my Harare hotel yesterday, confident
as I am that it was not the
British who leaked this document to me but one
of his own compatriots. Yet I
couldn't help but spare a thought for the
British in all of this. In
fairness, comrade Charamba, the British would
hardly turn to an Irish woman
to help them in this entrenched post-colonial
battle in which you find
yourselves. His pen continued to attack viciously.
"When The Star ran the
story, which seemed to suggest the president has
acceded to become 'the
queen' in the Zimbabwean body politic, a few white
farms in Masvingo were
occupied by war veterans who felt the land gain was
about to be lost in the
new settlement. And in the countryside people cannot
understand why Zanu PF
is partitioning or even surrendering its mandate of
June 27, which is why a
falsehood from the South African Star triggers a
potentially explosive
reaction here in Zimbabwe, in real time." A likely
excuse for the barbarity
that continues to wreak havoc all over the
country.
Zimbabweans are in utter darkness over the direction their
country is about
to take. There is no mention of the talks on state radio
and television, and
only a government fed slither in the state-owned Herald.
Hence it seems
far-fetched for "starless Fiona" to hope of having any kind
of impact on the
thinking of Mugabe's people, with my supposed covert
credentials. Only two
days ago, the same state-run newspaper ran a
quarter-page advertisement,
headed "Constitution", which listed eight farms
and swathes of land that are
to be acquired immediately under the Land
Acquisition Act. Either Charamba
is revealing the true identity of the war
veterans or this spy is losing her
golden touch. But it is his deep-seated
hatred for the British that appears
to be blinding the hapless Herald
columnist. The "real issue", he reckons,
is "the place and position of
Zimbabwe against Britain". "Mark my words,
until and unless this fundamental
question is tackled and resolved, this
land will know no peace. Limbs will
continue to be broken, lives violently
terminated, to bring about a
resolution to this one question."
August 10, 2008
Kirsty Coventry
BEIJING - Swimmer Kirsty Coventry became the first Zimbabwean to win a medal at the 2008 Olympics on Saturday night as she won the silver in the 400-meter individual medley, clocking a time of 4:29.89.
Her time is one of only two ever below the 4:30 mark and comes in under the old world-record time of 4:31.12 held by the United States’ Katie Hoff.
Australia’s Stephanie Rice took gold in the event and set a new world record with a time of 4:29.45.
Coventry set a new African record with her time of 4:29.89, breaking her own previous record time of 4:34.25.
She was never lower than second place throughout the race, turning behind Rice after the opening butterfly leg and eventually briefly taking the lead following the backstroke leg. Rice regained the lead during the breaststroke leg and never let it go as she came in for the win.
Coventry took the silver after sneaking into the final. She finished seventh in the preliminary, clocking a time of 4:36.43 that left her 0.53 seconds ahead of ninth place.
The medal is the fourth of Coventry’s career as she won three (gold, silver and bronze) at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Her performance marked her first 400m IM in an Olympic Games and the sixth different event of her Olympic career. Coventry swam the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 200m IM at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She came back at the 2004 Games to compete in the 100m back, 200m back and 200m IM.
The 400m IM is the first of four events for Coventry at the 2008 Olympics. She will return to the pool Sunday morning to swim in the 100m backstroke preliminary.
Also on the program is the women’s 100m backstroke, an event that will feature Coventry (Zimbabwe), Alana Dillette (Bahamas) and Margaret Hoelzer (United States).