Hunt on for Zim army rebels

http://www.iol.co.za

December 04 2008 at 06:26AM

By Stanley Gama

Police and the army in Zimbabwe have launched a massive hunt for those
responsible for the rampaging and looting of shops by soldiers in Harare on
Monday, amid revelations that at least 10 soldiers had been taken into
custody by Weddnesday evening.

Police sources said that initially, up to 30 soldiers had been rounded up
but after screening, only 10 were believed to be still in custody.

In what appeared to be a well-planned strategy, angry soldiers rampaged
through the streets of Harare protesting against economic hardships that
have left the majority of Zimbabweans, especially civil servants, living in
abject poverty.

In a development that has left Robert Mugabe's government shaken, the
soldiers attacked money changers and expressed anger at their inability to
withdraw their paltry salaries.

So unprecedented was the action by the soldiers that it took more than 24
hours for the government to respond. Defence minister Sidney Sekeramayi
confirmed that soldiers were involved in the rampage and looting, which left
several people injured and property worth millions either stolen or damaged.
He apologised for the rampage. As investigations continue, it has emerged
that the government is worried about the way the protest was planned and has
started to take strict measures to ensure that the violent incidents by
soldiers will not be repeated.

Soldiers will now have a facility to withdraw money from their barracks to
avoid them meeting in bank queues, where they have ended up organising
protests and inciting the public.

The development was noticeable in the streets of Harare on Wednesday, as
bank queues featured fewer soldiers compared to previous days.

Sources say the government is also worried that the soldiers incited the
public to join in the protests, and immediately suspected collaboration
between the troops and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions protest, which
was violently crushed by police on Wednesday.

The workers wanted to protest about the cash crisis in the country by
marching to the Reserve Bank, but riot police broke up the protesters.

At least 70 protesters were arrested throughout the country.

Sources in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions said the organisation's
Secretary-General, Wellington Chibhebhe, had been arrested as was
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe Secretary-General Raymond Majongwe.

Meanwhile, South African Government agencies said they were monitoring the
border with Zimbabwe as political tensions spiralled amid the unfolding
humanitarian crisis and cholera outbreak.

Fresh water and medical facilities have been made available at the main
Musina border gate after the outbreak of the deadly waterborne disease,
which has claimed more than 500 lives.

The United Nations said that deaths from the cholera epidemic had risen to
565, with 12 546 people infected.

The nationwide outbreak of the disease is blamed on collapsing water
treatment plants and broken sewage pipes.

Zimbabwe has been paralysed since disputed elections in March. Mugabe and
the opposition are wrangling over a power-sharing deal.

The country is suffering from the world's highest inflation, and Zimbabweans
face daily shortages of food and other basic goods.

Many hospitals and clinics have been forced to shut their doors because of a
lack of drugs and medicines.

On Wednesday, water supplies were restored to parts of Harare after
authorities had turned off the taps for three days, saying they had run out
of purifying chemicals.

SA presidency spokesperson Thabo Masebe confirmed that the situation in
Zimbabwe was on the agenda on Wednesday for cabinet's last meeting of the
year.

South Africa and other southern African countries have toughened their
stance against Zimbabwe, with President Kgalema Motlanthe suspending
R300-million pledged in agricultural aid until a unity government is in
place.

Masebe stressed that there were no particular concerns over the situation on
the border, as the departments involved in the border control operational
co-ordinating committee were capable of taking charge of any situation.

Adrian Lackay, spokesperson for the South African Revenue Services, which
oversees the operations of the committee, said that border staff had not
reported "anything out of the ordinary" and that there was no significant
escalation in the number of people entering South Africa. - Additional
reporting by Sapa-AFP-Sapa-AP

This article was originally published on page 3 of The Mercury on December
04, 2008

Zimbabwe appeals for donor help on cholera

http://africa.reuters.com

Thu 4 Dec 2008, 6:18 GMT

HARARE, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has declared a cholera outbreak that has
claimed more than 560 lives and its "malfunctioning" hospitals as national
emergencies and urged donors to help, state media reported on Thursday.

The Herald newspaper quoted Health Minister David Parirenyatwa as saying
there was a critical shortage of resources in the health sector.

"Our central hospitals are literally not functioning. Our staff is
demotivated and we need your support to ensure that they start coming to
work and our health system is revived," he said.

Zimbabwe needed medicines and medical equipment, as well as food to feed
patients and for child supplementary feeding programmes.

"The emergency appeal will help us reduce the morbidity and mortality
associated with the current socio-economic environment by December 2009,"
Parirenyatwa said. The United Nations humanitarian office estimates the
death toll from a deadly cholera outbreak at 565 people, with the capital
Harare the worst affected.

The disease is preventable and treatable under normal circumstances, but
Zimbabwe's health sector is collapsing with not enough money to pay for
essential resources and doctors and nurses often striking over pay.

A political crisis and economic meltdown have left the water delivery system
in disarray, forcing residents to drink from contaminated wells and streams.

The southern African country is suffering the world's highest inflation,
officially estimated at 231 million percent, unemployment of more than 80
percent and dire food, water and fuel shortages.

Critics blame the crisis on President Robert Mugabe's policies, and the
situation has worsened amid a stalemate in power-sharing talks with the
opposition over cabinet positions.

Zimbabwe's deputy minister for water and infrastructural development Walter
Mzembi said his ministry only had water treatment chemicals to last about 12
weeks, and called for donor support, the Herald reported.

"I am appealing for at least 40 million rand ($3.89 million) to purchase
chemicals for the next two months and the money is needed between now and
next Monday," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

The Zimbabwe government also appealed for $450 million in aid to deal with
food shortages.

Western governments have shunned Mugabe's government, and blame his policies
for the crisis, including the forced removal of white commercial farmers
from what was once southern Africa's bread basket. (Reporting by Gordon
Bell)

Watershed for Mugabe as soldiers rampage

http://www.businessday.co.za/

04 December 2008

Dumisani Muleya

Harare Correspondent

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe appears to be losing his 28-year iron
grip on the military, with protests by soldiers this week raising fears that
a revolt could be brewing in the armed forces.

As the economic meltdown intensified and a cholera epidemic spread, sources
told Business Day the Mugabe regime was trying to contain growing discontent
within the armed forces. Its members staged protests twice this week against
poor salaries and working conditions.

It is the first time that Zimbabwean soldiers have taken to the streets. On
Monday, a group of uniformed soldiers rampaged through Harare to protest at
poor salaries and working conditions. A similar riot happened last
Thursday - although that was confined to a small section of the city.

Mugabe was already facing widespread strikes and protests by discontented
public servants, including doctors and nurses .

The groundswell of discontent poses a serious threat to Mugabe's regime, and
if bolstered by military disturbances it could erupt into a nationwide anti
government campaign.

The incident on Monday , which resulted in injuries to onlookers, looting
and damage to property, shook the Mugabe regime and marked a watershed in
Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis.

The country is reeling from shortages of food and basic commodities. It is
also gripped by a cholera outbreak which has so far claimed more than 500
lives, according to United Nations figures.

Military sources said soon after the riot by troops that Mugabe's Joint
Operations Command (JOC) - which consists of the army, police and
intelligence chiefs - held an emergency meeting.

Sources said the JOC recommended that the army be placed on high alert and
that serious measures be taken to contain the situation before it
deteriorated into an uprising.

This led to the rapid deployment of military police.

The army also immediately launched an investigation into the incident, with
Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi warning on Tuesday that " those found
culpable will be brought to justice".

Sekeramayi, who was communicating the JOC decision, also threatened to deal
with "those who may try to incite some members of the uniformed forces to
indulge in illegal activities".

Sources said the army commanders had been caught off guard by the incident
and wanted to get to the bottom of it as it was uncommon for troops to
protest.

There were reports yesterday that 150 soldiers, mainly from 2 Brigade in
Harare, had been arrested after the riot.

Sources said the army commanders feared that if left unchecked, the
discontent may intensify and result in a general uprising.

Based on the slogans chanted during the riot, army commanders feared the
protesting soldiers were pursuing a "mutinous agenda".

The soldiers chanted "hondo" meaning "war" as they ran through the city
streets. This initially puzzled bystanders but many joined the soldiers.

Police intervened to stop destruction of property but showed marked
reluctance to deal with the rioters. There were some clashes between
soldiers and the police, but the police did not arrest any of the soldiers.
Troops that were picked up were allowed to escape .

Sekeramayi tried to play down the incident, saying it was the act of "unruly
elements" .

He tried to link the soldiers' actions to yesterday's nationwide strike,
organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), saying that this
"coincidence raises many questions".

The union federation, a key ally of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, faced a serious backlash by police.

At least 69 ZCTU members, including its secretary-general Wellington
Chibebe, were detained .

Executive director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, Jestina Mukoko, was
abducted by suspected state agents for allegedly being involved in plans for
anti government demonstrations.

SABC journalist John Nyashanu and three colleagues were also arrested.

While the government was showing signs of panic, there has been speculation
that the troops' revolt was engineered by elements within the state.

Some observers claimed the riots were instigated by the embattled regime,
which desperately wants to create conditions for a state of emergency.

There was speculation the government wanted to use the army "rebels" protest
as a pretext to clamp down further, possibly even declaring a state of
emergency.

An observer said a state of emergency would allow Mugabe to rule without the
MDC and deal decisively with the economy by taking extraordinary measures
against anyone deemed a "financial terrorist".

"This is a planned and calculated action and it is not going to stop any
time soon.

"Not until the final planned action, a state of emergency."

Army boosts presence in central Harare

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8237

December 3, 2008

By Our Correspondent

HARARE - The Zimbabwean army boosted its presence in the capital city of
Harare on Wednesday night to try to contain mounting unrest after more than
70 were arrested across the country in running street battles between the
people on one side and the military and the riot police on the other.

Dozens of army vehicles moved into the restive  capital city where fierce
clashes between people and the police erupted late on Wednesday. They
disgorged special forces in a bid to restore calm to a restive city rocked
by protests since Monday.

Fighting intensified Wednesday between riot police and protesters who had
heeded a call by trade unions to picket banks and demand cash in a protest
demanding the scrapping of limits on cash withdrawals.

The ZCTU said at least 70 activists were said to have been arrested
countrywide, 35 in Gweru, six in Zvishavane and more than 20 in Harare.

The riot police raided offices of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights in
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, accusing the human rights group of
harbouring ZCTU leaders.

No arrests were made.

Lawyer Alec Muchadehama has been denied access to the detainees in Harare.

Among those arrested is the ZCTU leadership, including secretary-general
Wellington Chibhebhe and his deputy Japhet Moyo.

Jestina Mukoko, head of faith-based human rights group, Zimbabwe Peace
Project was abducted from her home in Norton in a dawn raid by 15 men
believed to be members of Mugabe's much feared intelligence organisation,
the CIO.

Chibhebhe and Moyo were arrested as they addressed workers on First Street.
The ZCTU had earlier been assured by the central bank that they would be
allowed to address workers outlining progress made in meetings with the
central bank in relation to the continued cash shortages.

The central bank had sought to stop the protest by inviting labour leaders
to a meeting on the eve of the strike aimed at pre-empting the protest. The
Reserve Bank also raised withdrawal limits from Z$500 000 daily to Z$100
million in a bid to stall the protests. The bank also introduced a Z$50
million and Z$100 million bills. However defiant labour leaders forged ahead
with the protest.

Riot police seized labour leaders Chibhebhe and Moyo from a podium set up on
First Street, bundling them into a police truck and taking them to Harare
Central Police Station.

Five women were said to be in hospital nursing injuries sustained during the
clashes with the police.

In Harare, two people have been killed this week alone and many others
wounded in street battles between dissident soldiers and military police
armed with sniper rifles, baton sticks and tear smoke canisters. The dead
reportedly include two dissident soldiers who were shot by snipers.

The exchange of gunfire in Harare on Monday caused panic among residents.

The latest unrest followed the eruption of similar battles on Monday in
Harare that left a trail of destruction, looted shops and widespread
carnage. Soldiers assaulted street money changers, accusing them of working
with the central bank.

The mounting protests comes amid continued efforts to form a national unity
government which have been hampered by bickering between rival parties over
cabinet and other government posts.

Even the normally pliant State-controlled media outlets have acknowledged
that the situation has become explosive.

The Herald newspaper on Wednesday carried a front page picture of soldiers,
some of them members of the Presidential Guard, resplendent in yellow
berets, running across deserted streets, looting clothing from shops, with
shattered windows littering pavements of city buildings. Clashes were
expected to continue Thursday as the National Constitutional Assembly has
announced more mass action Thursday demanding a transitional government to
be established mandated with dealing with the worsening humanitarian
catastrophe.

Top army commanders and the former defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi have
gone on national television to assure Harare residents that the army was on
top of the situation.

Sekeramayi alleged a foreign hand in the army protests.

"Let me also emphasise that those who may try to incite some members of the
uniformed forces to indulge in illegal activities will equally be found
culpable," Sekeramayi warned.

A colonel in the army told The Zimbabwe Times: "The army is deploying into
the city centre to maintain security and prevent any armed presence," he
said. "There are undeclared emergency measures and all army personnel have
been confined to the barracks until further notice."

Late on Wednesday main feeder roads into the city had troops stationed,
ready to counter protests.

Foreign Briefing by Fred Bridgland in Zimbabwe

http://news.scotsman.com

Published Date: 04 December 2008
I NEVER thought I would have to report a huge cholera epidemic again, after
countless thousands died of the disease among the ten million refugees who
fled across the border from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) into India in
1971.

As a fledgling foreign correspondent, I was pitched into daily coverage of
the exodus. Flooding was so bad sometimes I had to walk neck-deep in water
to reach the refugee columns. People were flowing into India at the rate of
some 50,000 a day, near naked with ragged clothes piled on their heads,
walking barefoot, mud sucking at their heels.

Many died of cholera in front of us by the side of border paths. There was
no-one to bury them. Dogs, vultures and crows did the cleaning-up. Refugees
held pieces of cloth over their mouths and noses as they passed the rotting
corpses.

They were fleeing a cyclone that killed half a million East Pakistanis, and
a human cyclone in the shape of General Yahya Khan, who began a slaughter of
the people because they had dared to vote against continued union with West
Pakistan.

At its height, in May 1971, cholera was killing 50 per cent of the people
who arrived in the refugee camps in India. But the moral of the story - as a
similar fate overwhelms Zimbabwe - is that the Indian government got to
grips with a disaster not of its own making and called on international
help. Planes flew in with oral and intravenous rehydration salts. Indian and
international workers administered the fluids.

Which is what makes the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe a crime against
humanity. It should not be happening. Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF government has
allowed the country's sewerage, water and healthcare systems to collapse.
India allowed free reporting of its calamity. Mugabe bans foreign
correspondents and tries to hide the truth.

The only way Mugabe will be able to contain this catastrophe is if he admits
his own errors, opens his borders to an international effort to supply and
administer rehydration salts and allows free reporting.

The consequences, if he continues to bury his head in the sand, will be
mega-disaster.

Zimbabwe's deadly diamond fever

http://www.latimes.com/

The rich Marange diamond field draws illegal miners as well as regime thugs
who will gun them down.
By Robyn Dixon
December 4, 2008
Reporting from Mutare, Zimbabwe -- Ronald seems a sober, respectable,
church-on-Sunday type. Not the kind you'd find prospecting for diamonds here
in Zimbabwe's wild east, a world of swaggering foreigners, dirty money and
shoot-to-kill police. Not the sort who'd utter movie-script lines like this
one: "You can make $15,000 or $20,000 in 30 minutes. But you can die within
seconds."

Ronald, like the rest of Zimbabwe, has caught Africa's nastiest ailment -- 
diamond fever.

Sleepy towns such as Mutare have blinked awake to find their quiet streets
buzzing with opportunists and black marketeers. Every day, illicit miners
show up at the hospital with gaping bullet wounds and flimsy excuses for how
they got them. Characters straight out of "Blood Diamond" cruise like
sharks.

But the biggest sharks are nowhere to be seen: Officials of President Robert
Mugabe's regime are looting the diamonds, industry sources and members of
Zimbabwe's security services say.

Not only are they personally enriching themselves with one of the few
natural resources still left in this ruined country, party fat cats may be
finding life support in the diamond riches, Western diplomats and analysts
fear, and gaining one more motive to cling to power.

"I think the political implications are very interesting," said a diplomat
based in Harare, the capital. "Right now, the government's getting very
little. If it can regularize this in some way, it could really prop things
up for a while. It could give them some time to pursue their interests and
just keep going."

The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid political problems
with Zimbabwe's government. Others who were willing to discuss the diamond
trade declined to be identified for fear of repercussions.

Industry and security sources say government leaders have their own
syndicates to dig and trade diamonds on the black market.

"The diamond game is the filthiest game in town and everyone's into it,"
says one source familiar with the gem industry. "It's not even semi-
organized chaos. It's a bunch of thieves who backstab each other.

"A lot of leaders of the political regime are involved in trading. They have
their own diggers and traders. But it's all to their personal account.
They've all got a vested interest in chaos."

Regime cracks down

Diplomats, industry sources and some nongovernmental agencies believe the
Marange field here could be one of the most significant diamond discoveries
in decades.

Mugabe's regime is certainly behaving as if it is. In mid-November, the
government sent in the military to crack down on unsanctioned miners.
Soldiers even fired on miners from helicopters, local sources say. The
opposition Movement for Democratic Change says nearly 140 people have been
killed.

One insider close to the ruling party said the scope of the crackdown was a
measure of how significant the diamonds were to the regime.

"I don't think they would expend such resources if there was not something
significant there," he says.

A prison official in Mutare said top figures in the ruling ZANU-PF party and
security officials are running the illegal diamond trade here.

"The people in the police, prisons service, army and CIO [Central
Intelligence Organization] have got groups of people who are working for
those lieutenants, known as syndicates," says the official. "Usually these
high-ranked officers in the armed forces are working for the ministers,
governors and other ZANU-PF bigwigs."

The exploration rights at the Marange field were initially held by a
subsidiary of the diamond giant De Beers, which let its license expire in
early 2006. The rights were then taken up by a British company, African
Consolidated Resources.

In late 2006, a rush began, driven by the large quantities of diamonds close
to the surface -- making the site almost unique. The government promptly
evicted the company in much the same manner it evicted white farmers from
their land in 2000. Today, the site is ostensibly being developed by the
state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corp., but most of the gems find
their way onto the black market.

The British company continues to pursue a legal battle in the High Court
over the right to mine the area, but in cases involving property rights in
the past, High Court judges -- appointed by Mugabe -- have sided with the
government.

Almost irresistible

In a country where the paralyzed economy offers few opportunities, diamonds
are almost irresistible. Ronald, 31, who had given up working for an
insurance firm for black-market currency dealing, was drawn into illegal
mining. He gave only his first name, fearing possible jail.

Ronald says he saw five unsanctioned miners, including two women, shot to
death by police on the diamond field late last month as they fled carrying
large sacks of soil. One of those killed was a policeman mining illegally.

"It's like war," Ronald says.

At dawn that same day, he had been in the diamond field filling bags with
dirt to carry off and later sieve. "We heard a gunshot. It was very close.
Then everybody, including myself, started to run, carrying our bags of soil.
We were running and running. . . . We were more than 50 and they were firing
shots at us."

They scattered, but Ronald didn't want to drop his sack, thinking he might
have a gigantic diamond. Finally, exhausted, he ditched it to save himself.

"That was the day I thought, 'Maybe this is the end of my life.' " Yet he
went back in.

It is filthy, back-breaking work, a shock after his peaceful insurance job
and black-market money dealing. The hastily dug tunnels can be deep, and
they often collapse, burying prospectors alive.

Opinions differ on the significance of the Marange field. Some put its worth
in billions of dollars annually; others estimate this at under $50 million.

Local industry figures say that in the last 12 months, high-quality diamonds
have increasingly been turning up. The Reserve Bank chief, Gideon Gono, said
last month that more than 500 syndicates were operating in Marange, and
estimated that the government was losing $1.2 billion in diamond revenue
every month.

But a Belgian-based diamond expert scoffed at the figure -- equivalent to
global diamond production -- and said 90% of the gems were low-quality
industrial diamonds.

'Dangerous'

Brilliant flame trees line the streets of Mutare, like dawdling women
bearing scarlet parasols. Intelligence men are everywhere. Foreigners brag
loudly and flirt with local women in restaurants and bars. A car draws up
and a plump fellow nods hello.

"Ah, things are tough, eh? Things are dangerous," he says, grinning slyly.
Pause. "You wanna buy dah-mons?"

It's a place of treachery and swirling rumor: People talk of a $5-million
diamond found here recently, or the woman who made her fortune trading
cabbages for diamonds.

When the rush started, miners were loath to leave their diggings even for
water: It was common for them to swap a diamond for a bottle of water, or so
the story goes.

Industry sources whisper the names of notorious international diamond
dealers said to have fingers in the Marange pie.

The fenced area in Marange operated by the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corp.
is known locally as "Mai Mujuru's Breast," meaning the breast of Mama
Mujuru, a reference to the country's corpulent vice president, Joyce Mujuru.
You need just a short time there, people tell you breathlessly, and you'll
have a diamond the size of a bird's egg.

"It's a ZANU-PF place," says opposition lawmaker Pishai Muchauraya. "No one
is allowed to get in there. If you're a special person, you will go there
and you will be allowed just 20 minutes. That's where you can get clear
diamonds."

But Ronald, the illegal miner, says he paid a bribe to a policeman to spend
several hours at Mai Mujuru's Breast. He got only one tiny diamond, which he
sold for $150.

A $30,000 deal

Itai, 28, got into trading diamonds 18 months ago. He smuggles them in his
mouth across the border to sell to Lebanese and Israeli dealers in Manica,
Mozambique. He's bought two houses and five cars. Three months ago, he says,
he and his aunt traded a clear 30-carat stone as big as his thumbnail for
$30,000 in a hotel-room deal with an Israeli.

He says most of the illegal miners are well educated: "They're teachers,
nurses, soldiers, policemen and civil servants."

The prison official said the real aim of the recent crackdown was to give
the syndicates operated by top ruling party figures free rein.

"In effect, these operations are not to restore order but to make sure [the
syndicates] can take the diamonds," the official says. "But what is
devastating us is that they're actually killing people. They're shooting to
kill."

Political violence and power struggles in Manicaland province, where the
Marange diamonds are found, suggest how important the area is to Mugabe and
ZANU-PF. Manicaland was one of the areas most severely hit by political
violence after the elections in March, which saw ZANU-PF lose the Mutare
council, the mayoral post and 20 parliamentary seats there to the Movement
for Democratic Change.

Although Zimbabwe's diamonds are not technically "blood diamonds," or ones
that fuel wars, they are bloody in nature.

'I might die'

Isaac, 38, and Richard, 32, brought their brother Cledious to the hospital
after he was shot in the back while mining illegally. The three brothers and
two cousins were in a tunnel at about 6 a.m. when police threw in a tear-gas
canister.

"We started running away. He was the last to come out. We heard a gunshot
and we looked back and saw our brother on the ground," Isaac says. Police
took him to their camp and dumped him, unattended and bleeding profusely.

"The base wasn't guarded," Richard says. "I went in to collect him. We
carried him five kilometers [about three miles] to our base camp. He was
crying, saying, 'I might die.' "

The brothers assured him that he would live. In their hearts, though, they
fear he faces a slow and painful death.

But seeing fortunes being made all around them, they won't give up mining,
even if their brother dies.

"If one person is killed," Richard says, "there's more for the rest."

Dixon is a Times staff writer.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

Mugabe's strategy for State of Emergency

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8251

December 3, 2008

By John Huruva

LADIES and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for a State of Emergency to be
declared in Zimbabwe. This is imminent.

I put up a post a few hours ago explaining what I saw of the fight between
the police and the army at the Fourth Street Terminus in Harare. I had no
idea just what carnage the soldiers had caused until I left the office a
little while back. However, this is not what anyone thinks it is. There is
method to this whole madness. It is minutely planned.

The soldiers have smashed shop fronts along both Jason Moyo and Nelson
Mandela Avenue. On my way home I passed shop after shop with glass shattered
and strewn all over the pavement. As those of you who were on the site are
aware, I witnessed the start of the fight from my office.

We are (un)lucky to have offices overlooking Fourth Street bus terminus,
also known as Roadport, which is where the soldiers have been going daily
since Friday and causing havoc.

I know most of you think this is the beginning of a mutiny in the ranks of
Mugabe's soldiers and at the surface it would appear that way.

First of all, you have to realise that the information I have is coming from
inside sources. Second, you also must realise that these incidents are
directly linked to the bombing of police stations around Harare last month
(October). The sources who explained what is happening happened to be
speaking to someone they trust deeply in my presence and I can assure that
the information you are about to read was told only to this person and I.
Obviously, you will see this inside information being published by the usual
online journals who are now in the habit if visiting here and taking my
posts to publish as news of their own. But I am not complaining! This is too
important a story and must be shared.

Anyway, here's the thing: This is no mutiny. This is a planned and
calculated action and it is not going to stop any time soon. At least not
until the final planned action, a State of Emergency. The authorities here
in Zimbabwe have now made up their minds that the police are sabotaging the
efforts to rein in rampant illegal dealings. They think that the police
force in Zimbabwe is now passively rebelling against Mugabe, by letting
foreign currency dealers and other criminals go about their dealings without
arresting them.

They also suspect strongly that it is the police force that is bombing its
own stations, as even the Police Commissioner himself said after the first
bomb a few weeks ago. But this is not the main motivation for what you are
seeing here. It is only part of a larger strategy by Mugabe, designed
specifically to create the conditions necessary for a State of Emergency.
The police are not part of this plan, but the bombs come in handy for this
strategy.

It was confirmed to me today, before I heard this inside source speaking,
that soldiers are being paid their money at the barracks. I was at my bank
earlier that day and was discussing the matter of the soldiers with my
manager as general chit-chat when he specifically mentioned that they have
always been taking money to the barracks and paying soldiers out in situ.
The army commanders have told banks that they should turn away any soldier
trying to withdraw cash from the banks in town, because tellers are paying
out at the barracks, so there is no truth to the rumour that the soldiers
are going on a rampage after failing to withdraw cash.

Instead, four members of the Joint Operations Council, without the approval
or knowledge of the Police Commissioner-General, Augustine Chihuri, managed
to convince Mugabe that the police were now complicit in the "financial
crimes that are ravaging the country." But this action was not directed at
the police as I will explain just now. The police have simply given Mugabe
an additional arrow to put into his quiver. The bombs themselves are not a
part of this plan and that is why Chihuri is being kept in the dark. No
member of the police force is part of this strategy to bring about a State
of Emergency.

This is important to note.

Before he left for Doha, Mugabe approved an operation Final End Times/Magumo
Zvachese. Its internal acronym in the army is FEET, which they think is
quite funny seeing as they will be making people flee. This is an operation
in which the army has basically been given authority to usurp the role of
the police, whom the JOC and Mugabe believe have failed, "either because
they are demoralised or because they are simply not up to the job".

The operation is not supposed to end until all places known to be "havens of
forex dealers" are completely cleaned out. To do this effectively, the
authorities believe, it is necessary to have a state of emergency. That is
the ultimate aim. Primarily, this is about the economy, but Zanu-PF hawks
also believe that it will have the added bonus of effectively making the
talks redundant.

It is an intricate and very crafty strategy, astonishing for its
inventiveness when it is laid bare. And it is working, because virtually
publication in the world has swallowed the bait and thinks this is the
beginning of a rebellion against Mugabe. It is working as Mugabe planned. So
far.

Gideon Gono's concurrent clampdown on "white collar crime" and
 "indiscipline" is supposed to, in the words of the originators of this
plan, "decapitate the beast while the army deals with the body". More
importantly, Gono features in this story because, starting Thursday, people
will be allowed to withdraw $100 million in one transaction per week. This
is a lot of money (my bank manager claims not to earn that much per month
from his job).

The government believes that when Thursday comes and if nothing is done
about these money-changers, the price of the US dollar will rise
stupendously, fuelling inflation to even higher levels and frustrating
Mugabe's efforts to bring the economy back to some form of stable footing.
Under Section 53 of the Emergency laws of Zimbabwe, "violation of exchange
control" or suspicion that one is about violate exchange control get special
attention and would, in the eyes of the government, help in dealing with the
"extraordinary threat" this crime is posing to economic security.

IT IS IMPORTANT HERE TO EXPLAIN THAT THE PURPOSE OF ALL THIS IS TWO-PRONGED.
ONE ASPECT DEALS WITH HOW TO, IN THE WORDS OF GONO, "DEAL WITH THE CASH
PROBLEMS ONCE AND FOR ALL" AND THE OTHER IS TO DEAL A FINAL BLOW TO THE
TALKS IN SUCH A WAY THAT THE STATE OF EMERGENCY WILL BE BLESSED BY SADC. The
economic war is not central to this strategy. This is about how to retain
power without the MDC, who have scuttled the talks by walking away.

The real story, therefore, is not the Police vs the Army. It is the Army vs
the Money-changers, in order to create conditions the world will accept as
making a State of Emergency inevitable. It is just that the police do not
know what the army are up to and, "professionally", they are responding to
disturbances in the city centre in the manner Mugabe taught them - send in
the riot squad and disperse the mob, even if that mob are soldiers.

The soldiers in turn resent the police interfering in what they know to be a
legitimate operation and they respond by trying to chase away riot police,
to leave them to do their job. The soldiers are not aware of the grander
plan. They think they are being asked to deal with money-changers once and
for all and are not aware how their actions will be used later on next week
to achieve the main goal of all this.

The police have been left completely out of this plan because they simply
are not trusted anymore. Ask yourself this: soldiers have been "running
 amok" since Friday last week. Everyday they are on the streets doing this.
If this is a mutiny, why has discipline not been enforced? Why are military
police amongst the soldiers doing these things? Why, if this is a "mutiny"
have soldiers not been confined to barracks? Why are they being let out,
driven to specific points and then left to safely go back to their barracks
without facing any music there from their superiors?

More importantly, ask yourself this: has Mugabe rushed back to Zimbabwe from
the Middle East where he is currently attending a conference? Why not?

Look, it is difficult for a layman to understand this deeply crafty
strategy, how to connect the police to the army. This strategy, which has so
far managed to fool the world, can be broken down to:

1. The army "rebels", go on the rampage
2. The State declares a State of Emergency
3. The State of Emergency allows the state to (a) rule without the MDC (b)
deal "decisively" with the biggest headache it will face after this: the
economy, through allowing extraordinary measures to be taken against any
"financial terrorist", a phrase you will start hearing a lot about from next
week at the earliest.

If you grasp this, then you understand immediately why Mugabe is now not
afraid of "Chitongai tione" (MDC strategy to boycott the proposed government
of national unity.)

So, in essence then, the soldiers are deliberately being let out to punish
foreign currency dealers, who the government believes are the root cause of
the economic problems we face because they are the ones deliberately pushing
up forex rates to drive Mugabe out of power. Theirs is a specific mission
they have been assigned and they believe that's all there is to it. They
have not been told of the bigger picture.

Another angle to all this is the "looting" of shops. The shops being
 "looted" are not just any shops. If you care to check, you will see that
specific shops owned by two groups of people, are being targeted:

1.    The groups in Zimbabwe who are known to be active in dealing in forex:
(there is a racial connotation to this, which I will not dignify with an
explanation, but all of you Zimbabweans know what I am talking about). These
are groups of people known not to go to banks even when things are "normal"
in the country. Gono has publicly warned them before. I think it was about
two years or a year and a half ago.
2.    The government believes that these are the people who fuel the black
market because they take their daily cash takings and buy US dollars with
them. They are, in the words of one source," the handmaidens of the
money-changers and foreign interests".
3.    Prominent businessmen, very successful, who are known to be supporters
of the opposition (financially). One of them does not live in Zimbabwe
anymore but his business is doing extremely well here. The reasoning behind
targeting this group is simple as explained in my presence: you are
supporting people who are hitting the economic interests of Zimbabwe, in the
hope of bringing Mugabe down, so now we will hit your economic interests.
Right back at you!

But this is only preparation. It is almost certain now that after this
exercise has been allowed to run its course, our source does not know the
time frame, the current illegitimate government of Zimbabwe will have
created sufficient cause to impose a proper State of Emergency, complete
with proper martial law. The government now believes that this is what is
required to restore economic order as well as to allow Zanu-PF to continue
in power without the MDC and without SADC raising eyebrows. Parliament, the
MDC's trump card, is now redundant.

What is certain is that the civilian courts will be suspended and white
collar crime, including money-changing and all the other acts classified as
"financial crimes" under the current sweeping laws will be tried by the
military courts. At this time, I am unable to rule out the imposition of
mandatory death sentences for those found guilty.

Almost two weeks ago, I predicted exactly this while analysing Mugabe's
possible reaction to the breakdown of talks. The whole charade about the
soldiers, which most publication on the Internet and in print are reporting
at face value, is so that Mugabe has a strong case to present to SADC heads
of state on why a State of Emergency was unavoidable. It would be hard for
him to get their support if he simply said it was necessary because Morgan
Tsvangirai refused to join him and therefore made running the country
through Parliament impossible (because MDC have a majority there).

While the world is looking at the story of soldiers rebelling, gleefully and
hopefully reporting their smashing of shop fronts and looting, Mugabe, the
past-master at survival (a phrase I have borrowed from the BBC), is actually
implementing a strategy that will catch everyone by surprise. By the time
they realise what is happening, it will be too late (remember the land
invasions; dismissed by everyone before they happened as, "He would be mad
to do that!")

Already, this evening, while I was still in the office, I got an example of
just how wrongly the opposition community is reading this. I got a text
message that "soldiers are running amok, chaos everywhere, there will be a
demo by ZCTU and NCA...please pass on". I have deliberately left out the
date because I do not want to alert the wrong people before the fact, but I
am sure they already know.

Anyway, I do not like to think I contributed to what will happen to them
this week when their demo is quashed. And it will be quashed.

This is because they mistakenly think that the soldiers will join them and
beat back the police. They won't. The soldiers have not rebelled against
Mugabe. This is why Mugabe has not rushed back home from the middle east
where he is attending a UN conference. He knows exactly what is happening.
And he knows why. And he knows he is safe.

NOCZIM top brass help themselves to fuel

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8244

December 3, 2008

By Raymond Maingire

HARARE - At least US$132 000 worth of scarce fuel is said to have been
siphoned off the stocks of the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) in
just two months by the company's top level managers.

Sources within NOCZIM revealed this week 22 officials, who constitute the
loss-making parastatal's top hierarchy, shared 132 000 litres of fuel among
themselves between October and November as part of their additional
benefits.

According to the source, each manager took away US$6000 litres worth of the
precious liquid in fuel coupons which they sold on the black market in US
dollars.

This, it is said, excludes the 300 litres of fuel which is paid to them
every month as a supplement to their basic salaries.

A fuel service station owner operating in Harare says he can run his
business viably on 5 000 litres per month.

The looting spree is said to have sparked a row within the government
controlled company leading to a government order being issued to stop the
pillage.

However there were no investigations opened to probe the allegedly corrupt
managers.

The looting orgy is suspected to have been triggered off by reports the
energy ministry would go to the MDC under a September 15 power-sharing
agreement signed between that party and President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

There are widespread fears that once a new government comes into office,
public entities such as NOCZIM, which are traditional epicentres of
corruption, will come under stringent scrutiny, leaving no opportunity for
further looting.

"This is pathetic corruption," said the source. "The situation becomes even
worse when you imagine that this has been allowed to pass as a normal
occurrence within NOCZIM. Nothing will be done to the politically correct
managers.

"Unfortunately this turns to have negative effects on general employees who
see such corruption going on unpunished.

"As we speak, farmers are stranded. There is no more fuel to give to them
for the current agricultural season."

Just like every other loss-making government department, the scandal-ridden
NOCZIM has depended heavily on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for its
sustenance.

This is due to a combination of perennial under-pricing and rampant
corruption.

Zimbabwean farmers and government officials are privileged to buy fuel from
NOCZIM at Z$22 000 per litre.

This is the equivalent of less than one US cent when calculated in terms of
Wednesday's black market rate of US$1:Z$1 800 000.

The black market rate has since become the most realistic rate on which to
peg the value of the US dollar against the Zimbabwean dollar.

Reached for comment, NOCZIM public relations manager Zvikomborero Sibanda
refused to take questions over the phone.

She insisted that questions must be written down preferably on a letterhead
and personally delivered to her office.

Coup by stealth

http://www.businessday.co.za/

04 December 2008

It is shockingly naïve to think that SA's decision to withhold R300m in
agricultural aid to Zimbabwe until "a representative government is in place"
will sway the Zanu ( PF) regime to finally strike a deal that reflects an
equitable sharing of power with Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC. Robert Mugabe and
his Zanu (PF) apparatchiks will remain completely unmoved by the human
catastrophe engulfing that country.

They will merely continue with their obstructionist approach and pursue
their entrenched power-retention agenda, while hundreds of thousands of
their countrymen are decimated by famine and disease.

Tsvangirai has nothing to give. Mugabe holds all the cards. Nearly eight
months after losing an election, he and his henchmen still stalk the
corridors of power, carrying on as if it is "business as usual". This
surreal situation was created when, immediately after the March 29
elections, they first perpetrated what amounted to a coup d'état by proxy
and, then, a de facto coup d'état by stealth. So, one needn't be a rocket
scientist to realise that results can only be achieved if the "big stick" is
wielded against Mugabe and Zanu (PF) , not against the opposition.

The question has to be asked: W hy the sudden, nonsensical tendency in
African politics to allow the incumbent, ruling party to negotiate a
"power-sharing deal" with the victorious opposition, a lá Kenya? What is
this strange device called a "government of national unity" - a devious
instrument allowing discredited and defeated rulers to retain a major slice
of power?

Is this, perhaps, what Robert Mugabe and Muammar Gaddafi refer to as "the
African variant of democracy"? One shouldn't forget that they are leaders
who rule over failed and essentially dysfunctional states, who peddle
"creative interpretations" of what democracy really means, and who symbolise
systems of unaccountability and rule by impulse. What hope is there, then,
that true democracy - not the sham or pseudo variety - can be established
and consolidated in, at least, some African countries?

Dr Denis Venter
Die Wilgers, Pretoria

We fiddle while genocide plays itself out in Zim

http://www.sowetan.co.za

04 December 2008
Themba Molefe

"The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people" - Ashanti proverb.
Africa has a proud legacy of wisdom and knowledge dating back to the
beginning of civilisation, which has its foundations in Egypt.

It is therefore not uncommon that gold nuggets such as this Ashanti proverb
strike a chord with us.

Zimbabwe is in ruins today while the world watches, as if waiting for its
end with dread.

I have to say at the outset that Africans are to blame for the genocide
taking root in Zimbabwe, once known as the bread basket of Africa.

What genocide ?

For almost 10 years - if not longer - we have been shying away from saying
what is happening in Zimbabwe is genocide.

The United Nations defines genocide as an act committed with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic , racial or religious
group.

This might be by killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or
mental harm to members of the group or deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in
whole or in part.

All of these things are happening, simultaneously, in Zimbabwe today.

And meanwhile, what do we do?

We have embarked on a series of failed missions, mediations, summits or
interventions - call them what you may.

But we were never genuine in our intentions.

This conjures up images of Thabo Mbeki embracing Mugabe, while Zimbabweans
starved and braved the crocodile-infested Limpopo River to escape tyranny
and pain.

As if to rub salt into the wounds of the people, the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) has held endless summits on the Zimbabwe
question.

But what have these leaders come up with?

Again we were bombarded with footage of these leaders embracing Mugabe, even
when it was clear that he had become the problem.

I'm afraid we are now witnessing the beginning of the end of what was once a
great nation.

And how does the saying go, by the way?

Didn't Nero fiddle while Rome burnt? Of course, Africa personifies Nero,
watching and waiting for doomsday.

And what about the Zimbabweans themselves? They fought gallantly to win
their liberation and deserve to be enjoying the fruits of their fight.

But can they rise against tyranny as they see it now?

Why are they not fighting, you may ask.

Zimbabweans are war-weary and hope against hope that the bloodshed and
suffering will end.

We now see soldiers revolting in the streets and this spells real danger.

Everybody knows what angry and hungry soldiers are capable of.

No one is guilt-free inside or outside the Zimbabwean borders.

To every problem there is a solution, so I was taught.

Africans, especially South African leaders, know what to do.

We cannot be held to ransom by Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, Mbeki or the SADC
on Zimbabwe.

I repeat the Ashanti proverb: "The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of
its people".

Is this the story we one day want to tell the children of our children?

I doubt it.