By GILLIAN GOTORA,
Associated Press – 35 minutes ago
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's
87-year-old president said Saturday he
will not retire before proposed
elections next year and will stay on also to
lead the country against what
he called a Western campaign for regime
change.
President Robert
Mugabe, addressing 6,000 delegates at the end of his
party's annual
convention in the second city of Bulawayo on Saturday, said
it would be "an
act of cowardice" for him to step down. He has ruled
Zimbabwe since
independence in 1980.
"Luckily, God has given me this longer life than
others to be with you and I
will not let you down," he said.
The
four-day convention passed resolutions confirming Mugabe as its sole
presidential election candidate and called for polls "early next year
without fail."
Speaking in the local Shona language, he said he felt
it would be wrong for
him to leave now.
The 30-month coalition with
the former opposition needed to be "put to
death" at elections.
"Let
us now start preparing for elections and as we do that we are digging
the
grave of this monster," he said.
His ZANU-PF party was under siege from
Western economic sanctions that tried
to dislodge it.
"I can't leave
you in such a mess. It would be completely wrong and a loss
of confidence in
myself. When the party is moving ahead, then I'll say it is
in your own
hands," he said.
Deep divisions have emerged in Mugabe's party over his
ability to remain in
control, stop infighting and contest a rigorous
election campaign.
Mugabe has visited Singapore at least eight times this
year for medical
treatment. U.S. cables quoted on the WikiLeaks Internet
site earlier this
year cited close associates saying he has prostate
cancer.
Speaking for 90 minutes late Saturday, Mugabe said the coalition
had failed
and opponents blamed the failure on his intransigence and pointed
to his age
as an obstacle. But, he insisted, some coalition members from
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's party took "a free ride" on the power
sharing deal
brokered by regional leaders after disputed and
violence-plagued elections
in 2008 to benefit from government
perks.
"Are you ready to dig this grave? Have you got your picks and
shovels
ready?" he asked party loyalists.
Of Tsvangirai's party, he
said "It's money and pleasure they want, they want
to be a happy lot. We are
in an impasse, we are in deadlock. We can't go on
standing
still."
Other resolutions passed by the gathering blamed Western travel
and banking
bans on Mugabe and his loyalists for undermining the economy and
called for
Western aid groups and non-governmental organizations to be
expelled if they
followed the political goals of Western governments who
want Mugabe ousted.
One resolution condemned the International Criminal
Court at The Hague for
bringing former African leaders — Charles Taylor of
Liberia and Laurent
Gbabgo of Ivory Coast— to trial while overlooking rights
violations by
Western leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Another
resolution said the U.S., Europe and other "white countries" were
linking
aid flow to poor countries by demanding they accept gay rights.
The
convention stopped short of setting a possible election date next year.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
09/12/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has warned that Zanu PF would reject
the draft
constitution if the charter, currently being drafted, undermines
the party's
key empowerment polices and the country’s cultural
values.
Mugabe recently blasted moves to include gay rights in the
constitution and
his party also wants its controversial land reforms
protected along with
current moves to transfer control of foreign-owned
companies to locals.
“Zanu-PF reserves the right to disassociate itself
from a draft constitution
which seeks to undermine the cardinal goals of our
national liberation
struggle and our national culture and values,” Mugabe
said in a central
committee report presented at the party’s conference in
Bulawayo.
Zimbabwe is writing a new constitution as part of a raft of
reforms expected
to lead to new elections next year.
The process has
however, been delayed by inadequate funding and squabbling
between political
parties.
Once completed, the new charter must be put to a referendum
followed by the
new elections.
Mugabe blamed his rivals for the slow pace
of the reforms.
“It is sad that this much awaited referendum on the
proposed draft
constitution, which must pave way for elections and should
have been
completed by now, continues to be stalled, if not forestalled, by
our
adversaries who do not seem to want to see their new found comforts
under
the inclusive Government overturned by motions of democracy,” he
said.
The Zanu PF leader said his coalition partners were dragging the
process to
delay the new elections which would end the unity
government.
“There is fear of defeat now dictating their stances. Shame,
shame, shame!
Elections have to come soon this coming year,” he
said.
“The GNU has become a drag on our nation. This conference must send
a clear
message that elections must be held early next year without
fail.”
Political analysts say Zanu PF is pressing for early elections
fearing that
Mugabe, who would be 89 in 2013, may not cope with the pressure
of
campaigning then.
A June 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable released by
WikiLeaks in September claimed
Mugabe had prostate cancer that had spread to
other organs.
He was urged by his physician to step down in 2008 but has
stayed in the
job.
Mugabe has also travelled to the Far East several
times this year, allegedly
for medical attention.
He however,
maintains he is still fit.
http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/
Eyewitness News | 9 Hour(s)
Ago
President Robert Mugabe’s party said it plans to remove all remaining
white
farmers from the land.
The proposed take-over of another 198
white-owned farms is contained in a
report made public at the ZANU-PF annual
party conference that ends on
Saturday.
The report said the
white-owned farms that have not yet been listed for
resettlement.
The
ZANU-PF central committee said the farms are needed for redistribution
to
new black farmers or for urban expansion.
It said another 223 white
farmers are facing prosecution for failing to
vacate their land.
The
president of the Commercial Farmers Union said the move to take over
previously unlisted farms is “absurd”.
Charles Taffs told Eyewitness News
that Zimbabwe is desperate for investment
and the country is facing its
worst food deficit in 100 years.
http://www.radiovop.com/
Harare, December 10, 2011
-Seven jailed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
activists who were
arrested in May on charges of murdering a police officer
have filed an
appeal at the Supreme Court against a ruling denying them bail
by the High
Court.
The papers were filed at the Supreme Court on Thursday after High
Court
Judge Justice Tendai Uchena had granted them leave to appeal against
the
refusal of bail by the High Court.
Charles Kwaramba, the lawyer
representing the seven said he hoped the matter
will be heard before the end
of the year.
They have been in custody for seven months.
The MDC T
says the charges are “fake” and trumped-up saying the plainclothes
policeman
was killed by unknown reveler during a beer brawl.
The seven are among 28
MDC activists who are facing charges of murdering a
police officer at a
shopping centre in Glen View.
Among them is Solomon Madzore, the MDC-T
Youth Assembly chairperson who was
denied bail on Monday.
Madzore is
being detained at the Chikurubi Maximum Prison.
Meanwhile, Wilstaf
Sitemere, the MDC Masvingo provincial chairperson who was
arrested in
November on false charges of assaulting a Zanu-PF supporter,
Nyasha
Mazorodze who appeared in court on Tuesday for routine remand and the
matter
was postponed to 20 December. Sitemere is on a US$50 bail.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, December 10, 2011 - The
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) has
raised a complaint with the Joint
Monitoring and Implementation Committee
(JOMIC) over Zanu-PF politburo
member Jonathan Moyo’s use of abusive
language and hate speech against their
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The complaint was raised over an
article published in the Sunday Mail
edition of the 4th-10th of December
2011 headlined “Morgan’s open zip and
shut-mind approaches” in which the
former minister of Information and
Publicity slated Tsvangirai over his
perceived bed-hopping.
Moyo is a member of JOMIC after he was seconded by
Zanu-PF in October this
year.
“If Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
has one fatal character weakness which
defines his persona and leadership or
lack thereof, it is that just like he
typically approaches national issues
with an open mouth, he now routinely
approaches women anywhere and
everywhere at places such as political
rallies, airports and offices with an
open zip and a shut mind,” reads part
of Moyo’s article.
“… when
Tsvangirai promiscuously opens his zip in the privacy of his bedroom
or
space he invariably comes out claiming foul play and wondering who opened
his zip to get him to sleep with any of the many women alleged to be in his
life with his dirty finger pointed at some of his advisors, media, CIO
agents and Zanu-PF members.
“Morgan Tsvangirai is a promiscuous
politician who cannot be trusted by
voters in particular and women in
general.
" Tsvangirai’s open-zip approach to the women he meets anywhere
and
everywhere including at places such as political rallies, offices,
supermarkets and airports poses a clear and present danger to Zimbabwe’s
otherwise successful and internationally respected fight against HIV and
Aids to the detriment of Government policy,” said Moyo.
Moyo
charged that Tsvangirai was promiscuously seeking the votes of
Zimbabweans
to be president of Zimbabwe by approaching all national issues
“with an open
mouth while he is promiscuously seeking women by approaching
them with an
open zip for his sexual gratification without caring about
moral
consequences including the scourge of HIV.”
But MDC-T Secretary General
Tendai Biti, in his letter of complaint to JOMIC
over Moyo said the Zanu-PF
spin-doctor’s Sunday Mail article was clearly
defamatory against
Tsvangirai.
“The article in question is not only defamatory but
scurrilous and
malicious. It hits below the belt and represents the worst of
ourselves,”
reads part of Biti’s letter to JOMIC dated 7 December,
2011.
Biti reminded JOMIC co-chairpersons Elton Mangoma (MDC-T), Nicholas
Goche
(ZANU-PF) and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga that Article XIX.1 (e)
of the
GPA obliged that the public and private media should refrain from
using
abusive language that may incite hostility unfairly undermined
political
parties and organizations.
“The article in question is
clearly not favourable and is indeed abusive,
incites hostility against the
President of our political party and therefore
a fortiori to the MDC. What
is most disturbing is that the article has been
authored and penned by a
member of JOMIC the very same body that in article
XXII of the GPA is tasked
with ensuring full and proper implementation of
the letter and spirit of the
GPA” added Biti.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Xolisani Ncube, Staff Writer
Saturday, 10 December
2011 11:22
HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has refused to
appear before Chief
Lucious Negomo’s traditional court in Chiweshe to answer
charges of breaking
traditional laws following his alleged “marriage” to
Locadia Karimatsenga.
Chief Negomo on Wednesday personally travelled to
Harare and summoned
Tsvangirai to his traditional court to answer charges of
breaking a
traditional law that prohibits marriage ceremonies or traditional
rituals in
the month of November.
However, it has turned out that the
law does not apply to other parts of
Zimbabwe amid indications that this is
one of Zanu PF’s dirty tactics on
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai is said to
have paid damages to the Karimatsenga family on
November 18, but the
Karimatsengas insist he paid lobola. Locadia is said to
be pregnant with
twins.
Tsvangirai, through his lawyers Dube, Manikai and Hwacha Legal
Practitioners, told the chief that he will not attend the hearing which is
set to take place today.
Selby Hwacha said summoning Tsvangirai to
the traditional court was not
constitutional.
Hwacha claims that
Negomo is not among the list of chiefs empowered to
convene traditional
hearings.
“It appears to us that you are not included in the list of
chiefs who have
been entrusted with responsibility of convening a customary
court,” said
Hwacha in the papers sent to the chief.
Tsvangirai’s
lawyer said the chief was out of order the moment he decided to
personally
serve Tsvangirai with the summons.
“In fact the purported summons is
defective also because it cites you as
both the plaintiff and complainant
and as the presiding officer or judge!
Obviously this is irregular,” said
Hwacha.
Added Hwacha’s letter to Chief Negomo: “It appears to us that you
have not
read and or that you do not understand the law, province and your
limits as
a traditional chief.”
Deputy Minister of Local Government,
Rural and Urban Development Sesel
Zvidzai, a Tsvangirai appointee in the
fragile coalition, came out fighting
from his boss’ side saying the area in
which the Karimatsenga family resides
does not fall under the jurisdiction
of Chief Negomo.
“Christon Bank is a Human Settlement under Mazowe Rural
District Council.
“Resettlement areas have not been placed under
jurisdiction of any
appropriate Chieftainship and Christon Bank is one such
resettlement that
has not been placed under the jurisdiction of any Chief,”
said Zvidzai.
Zvidzai described Chief Negomo’s action as “serious
mischief.”
“His actions to summon the Prime Minister to his so-called
court are
mischievous (this) will naturally invite action from the
ministry,” said
Zvidzai.
But Negomo, who insists that the
Karimatsenga family come from his area says
the “marriage” ceremony has
invited misfortunes in his area.
In the past, traditional leaders have
been accused of siding with Zanu PF, a
move which was later to be confirmed
by Chief Fortune Charumbira, president
of the chief’s council during the
on-going Zanu PF conference when he openly
pledged support to the former
ruling party.
Negomo’s actions have attracted serious criticism from
other traditional
leaders saying his action was politically-driven.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Nkululeko Sibanda, Senior Writer
Saturday, 10 December
2011 11:18
BULAWAYO - The song Lonely by American-based hip hop
artist, Akon is
synonymous with estranged lovers.
They cry and wail
over the departure of their loved ones, crying out to the
world to
sympathise with them in their time of great need and loneliness.
But on
Thursday, President Robert Mugabe hypothetically sang the song,
surprising
all and sundry who sat and listened to his two-and-a-half hour
speech to
mark the official opening of the 12th Zanu PF annual national
people’s
conference.
The conference, which took place in Bulawayo, ends
today.
In his address, Mugabe told his party faithful he was now a lonely
figure as
his fellow leaders of the former ruling party had all
died.
Many in Zanu PF believe the 87-year-old leader now has to step down
from
office given his advanced age which makes him susceptible to
ill-health.
Ironically, Mugabe’s statement came after he toured an
exhibition that had
been put together by the Friends of Joshua Nkomo Trust
featuring pictures
and paraphernalia that by the late nationalist, Vice
President, Joshua
Nkomo.
In the pictures were some of the country’s
fallen heroes.
“When I look around me, I realise that all those that I
plotted the
liberation struggle with, the founding fathers of Zimbabwe, are
all gone,”
Mugabe said.
“Ubaba u Joshua Nkomo, Umdala Wethu sewahamba
(Father Joshua Nkomo has
passed on). Baba Simon Muzee (Muzenda) has also
passed away. Then you also
have Joseph Msika, he has also left
us.
“These were the founding fathers of this movement called Zanu PF.
With them,
we led a successful liberation struggle, a struggle that brought
about this
independence that we so much cherish,” he added.
“When I
look at all these names, including some that I did not mention here,
I then
ask myself the question what about me. What about me?
“I am here but all
my fellow comrades are all gone. What does this mean to
me as an
individual,” Mugabe said.
He then chided some in Zanu PF whom he said
were getting out of line and
sync with the values his party.
Mugabe
said there were serious differences that had rocked his party,
arguing that
those divisions had cost his party and forced it into a
coalition government
with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party.
“I really wonder
whether we are still walking in the very same path that we
walked in when we
charted the course of liberation. Some of you have gone
out of line. There
are now divisions all over."
“I believe if we had all been united under
one goal, then we would not be
having all these divisions. … We are in this
inclusive government because of
some of you who decided to depart from the
liberation struggle values,”
Mugabe lamented.
He also lambasted
elements in his party who have used violence as a way of
cowing supporters
to vote for Zanu PF.
“The point is why we are afraid of the MDC if we believe
we have the
policies that can deliver Zimbabweans out of their
problems.
“We in Zanu PF must denounce violence. It is not a cure to our
problems. We
do not need it. Let us adhere to our values and principles. Let
us avoid
corruption. Let us be clean in our business as a
party.
“These values are our greatest weapon that will see people own a
new status
as a happy people,” Mugabe added.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Bridget Mananavire, Staff Writer
Saturday, 10
December 2011 11:16
HARARE - Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
yesterday slammed the
decision by the state to oppose the granting of bail
to two Media Monitoring
Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) employees by a Gwanda
court.
In a statement ZLHR said it was malicious and unwarranted for the
State to
veto a bail order granted in favour of Fadzai December and Molly
Chimhanda
and MMPZ member, Gilbert Mabusa.
“ZLHR is perturbed by
malicious and obdurate actions of the State in
continuing to unnecessarily
infringe upon the fundamental right to liberty
of the MMPZ employees by
bringing up Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure
and Evidence Act (CPEA),”
ZLHR said.
December, Chimhanda and Mabusa, who are accused of
contravening some
provisions of the Public Order and Security Act (Posa) and
the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act were arrested on
Monday.
They were granted $50 bail each by Gwanda Magistrate Douglas
Zvenyika with
no reporting conditions.
However, State prosecutor
Blessing Gundani, invoked the infamous Section 121
of the Criminal Evidence
and Procedure Act (CPEA) thereby suspending the
bail order which had been
granted to the three.
The invocation of Section 121 of the CPEA suspends
the bail order for seven
days pending the filing of an appeal by the State
in the High Court.
“This is despite the fact that the constitutionality
of Section 121 of the
CPEA is being challenged in numerous cases which are
yet to be heard by the
Supreme Court of Zimbabwe,” ZLHR said.
In
addition, the State added an alternative charge of undermining authority
of
or insulting President Robert Mugabe against the MMPZ officials in
contravention of Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform)
Act without elaborating how the trio committed the offence.
ZLHR
added: “The pressing of a new charge against the MMPZ officials is
sufficient confirmation that the State is determined to deprive these human
rights defenders of their liberty and keep them in detention at all costs.”
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Chengetai Zvauya, Senior Writer
Saturday,
10 December 2011 10:20
HARARE - High Court Judge Justice Ben
Hlatshwayo yesterday recused himself
from hearing a matter in which the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU)
members are fighting to control the
country’s biggest labour union.
The factions — one led by Lovemore
Matombo and the other led by George
Nkiwane — are locked in a legal battle
to control ZCTU with both groups
claiming to be legitimate leaders of the
union.
Hlatshwayo recused himself yesterday in the court before hearing
because he
had offered a legal opinion suggesting that the two parties
should meet and
reunite so that they work as one group representing the
interests of the
workers.
The two parties met in Harare on Thursday
but failed to make any headway in
their negotiations.
Hlatshwayo last
week had recommended that the two parties should consider
settling their
matter out of court before he could deliver his judgment.
Alec
Muchadehama representing the Nkiwane led group said: “The judge has
referred
the matter to the Registrar of the High Court for it to be
allocated to
another judge; he has recused himself because he had offered
his own opinion
in the matter two weeks ago.”
Caleb Mucheche who is representing the
Matombo side said Justice Hlatshwayo
had not heard the merits of the matter
and had no court order to stop his
clients from going ahead with their
scheduled congress.
“There is no court order in this matter as the judge
recused himself and we
wait for the matter to be allocated to another
judge,” said Mucheche.
Matombo is set to hold his elective congress next
week in Bulawayo on
December 16 and 17.
Raymond Majongwe who is the
secretary-general for the Matombo faction said
their congress will go ahead
next week in Bulawayo and thereafter get the
new leadership to occupy the
ZCTU offices.
The Nkiwane faction is currently occupying the ZCTU offices
at Chester House
in Harare.
Nkiwane last month filed an urgent
chamber application seeking to bar
Matombo from referring himself as
president of ZCTU, holding an elective
congress and using ZCTU logos and
assets.
The ZCTU split into two groups in August this year after Nkiwane
was elected
president of the labour body at a congress which the Matombo
group
boycotted. Matombo disputed the results saying the delegates who voted
Nkiwane into office were not bona fide ZCTU members.
http://www.voanews.com/
09 December
2011
Dr. Custodia Mandhlate, World Health Organization country
representativ,
says Zimbabwe has made strides in improving health care since
2008 when the
system virtually collapsed as a cholera epidemic
raged
Tatenda Gumbo | Washington
Zimbabwean public health
spending of some US$9 a person - US$20 per
Zimbabwean if international donor
funds are taken into account - remains
well under the recommended level of
US$34 per capita according to a recent
government calculation.
This
comes despite a significant allocation of US$63.4 million for the
health
sector by the Ministry of Finance this year and the creation of a
$435
million dollar fund by international donors working with Zimabwe.
Based
on World Health Organization recommendations and targets agreed in the
African Union Abuja Declaration of 2001, African countries are urged to
allocate 15 percent of government expenditure to providing health care to
their populations.
The United Nations Children's Fund says it costs
between US$10 and US$50 to
deliver a baby in an urban public health
facility. Consequently, percentage
of deliveries attended by trained medical
personnel has declined over the
past 10 years.
Dr. Custodia
Mandhlate, WHO country representive, said Zimbabwe has made
great strides in
health care since 2008 when the system virtually collapsed.
She said that
while spending is under recommended levels, allocations should
rise next
year.
Health activist Emmanuel Gasa said Harare must make health a top
priority,
adding that it seems at times that politics has taken priority
over the
needs of the people.
OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL
Specially Designated Nationals Update
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM - No. 775- Dated 9 December 2011
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Jack
McLellan - Sale of Agricultural House
Dear Jag
I have been advised
to write to you to make public my concerns regarding the
sale of, and more
importantly, the disposal of the funds raised from the
sale of Agricultural
House.
Have the present CFU office bearers the right to sell an asset
paid for by
all commercial farmers before 2001. If they have the right to do
so, do they
have the moral right to use the proceeds from the sale to
maintain a lavish
life style for themselves and the other staff that seem to
be unproductively
employed there and who don't take cognizance of my
views.
To my way of thinking it is like an insurance company paying out a
minimal
policy claim, while still owning a huge office building that was
built to
protect the policy holders but when it comes to paying says - it has
no
money. I would like to propose that the money raised is split between
all
the registered commercial farmers at say the end of 2001.
Please,
if you have a voice at CFU, could you make my views known? In my
personal
dealings with CFU I have never felt that I mattered and have always
been told
diplomatically, that my views are of no consequence.
With further
thought, I think we should look at CFU's attitude to it's
members in it's
relations with ZANU PF. I think legal opinion should be
sought as to whether
the office of CFU collaborated with ZANU PF over the
years, to the detriment
of it's members. To have supported the Government
while its members were
killed, beaten, harassed and driven from their farms
and homes, to my way of
thinking, betrays the trust and obligations they
accepted when they took
office.
Jack
McLellan
====================================================
All
letters published on the Open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
====================================================
Dear Family and Friends,
The day before the official opening of Zanu PF’s
Bulawayo conference
the collapse of a tree in Harare got tongues wagging and
left the
superstitious running for cover. A Musasa tree thought to have
been
nearly 200 years old collapsed on the road near State House when
it
was hit by a vehicle. The tree, which was a National Monument on
a
declared Historic Site, has for many years been called the Hanging
Tree
despite the fact that historians disputed stories that famous
Zimbabwean
ancestors were hanged from its branches in the late
1890’s. One historian
said the Hanging Tree was an urban myth but
even so there can be few of us
who haven’t stood under its branches
at one time or other and wondered, goose
bumps covering our arms.
In a magnificent article, journalist Angus Shaw
described how a
n’anga arrived and performed a ceremony over the collapsed
Musasa
tree, witnessed by crowds who had gathered, many of whom took
away
leaves and pieces of bark as momentos. Shaw wrote that the
the
Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association said the
“tree
represented "powerful forces" in the nation's social and
political
life.” He said that a street vendor nearby said the collapse of
the
Musasa was surely a sign that “something big was going to
happen.”
On the same day as the ‘Hanging Tree’ collapsed in Harare,
Mr
Mugabe was in Bulawayo, planting a tree on National Tree Day. All
eyes
were on him and Bulawayo as Zanu PF held their annul congress.
This
the most important gathering of senior members and leaders of Zanu
PF
and this year it had the potential to be explosive to say the
least.
Zimbabwe held its breath.
A year of damning Wikileaks cables
had shown that most of Mr
Mugabe’s high level colleagues had betrayed him and
indicated that
he should step down, including his Vice Presidents. Everyone
thought
that the Bulawayo gathering would be the place where the
betrayers
would be held to account and lose their positions in the
party’s
leadership but nothing happened.
Delegates had a unique chance
to change the leadership of their party
but did not do so.
They
unanimously endorsed Mr Mugabe as their presidential candidate in
the
country’s next election. Mr Mugabe is 87 years old.
Wearing a baseball
cap and a red and white Zanu PF jacket, Mr Mugabe
addressed the party he has
been the president of for thirty one years.
He spoke to the four or five
thousand delegates for two and a half
hours and television cameras showed a
very restrained and subdued
audience – not a reaction we have come to
associate with these
events.
Despite anticipation and expectation, the
Bulawayo gathering appeared
to have been a regurgitation of more of the same.
Mr Mugabe described
the present government of national unity as “a drag on
our
nation,” saying it shouldn’t be allowed to continue. He
spoke
repeatedly of an election in 2012. He said there was no turning
back
on indigenization laws and that they were not an election
gimmick.
Mugabe said all mining companies would be forced to hand over at
least
51% of their shareholdings to black Zimbabweans.
At the end of a
week when we expected huge fireworks but got a damp
squib, you have to wonder
if the collapse of the 200 year old Musasa
tree is a sign that something big
is going to happen. That grand old
tree will be missed but reminds us that
nothing and no-one is
immortal. Until next time, thanks for reading, love
cathy.10th
December 2011.
Copyright � Cathy Buckle. www.cathybuckle.com
