http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Jameson Mombe
Friday 29 August 2008
HARARE - A senior Zimbabwe
official said on Thursday that nothing would stop
President Robert Mugabe
from appointing a new government while on the same
day police broke up an
NGO meeting, as Mugabe adopts an increasingly
belligerent stance in the face
of stalled power-sharing talks with the
opposition.
Deputy
Information Minister Bright Matonga said Mugabe would defy opposition
warnings that forming a new government before conclusion of power-sharing
talks could derail negotiations that remain deadlocked over who between the
veteran President and opposition MDC party leader Morgan Tsvangirai should
control a government of national unity.
Mugabe had delayed appointing
Cabinet or convening Parliament to give chance
to power-sharing talks. But
the 84-year old leader convened Parliament this
week and was quoted by state
media as having said he would go ahead and
appoint a new Cabinet without the
MDC which he said was unwilling to join.
Matonga told the media: "Nothing
is going to stop us from forming a new
government. We need to move forward,
we need to make sure that Zimbabwe
regains its status, we need to work on
the economy. People are suffering."
The deputy information minister, who
dismissed the MDC as "not serious at
all", claimed Mugabe was given
permission by Southern African Development
Community (SADC) leaders to form
a government after Tsvangirai refused to
sign a power-sharing deal that was
endorsed by the bloc's leaders at a
summit in South Africa.
Matonga's
claims that regional leaders had given Mugabe the green light to
appoint a
new government before conclusion of power-sharing talks could not
be
immediately verified with the SADC secretariat in Botswana.
In their
communiqué after the summit two weeks, ago SADC leaders only said
Zimbabwe's
new Parliament, which had not sat since being elected five months
ago, could
be convened but was silent on the issue of Cabinet.
A government of
national unity is seen as the most viable way to extricate
Zimbabwe from a
multifaceted crisis marked by political violence, the world's
highest
inflation of more than 11 million percent, severe food shortages,
record
unemployment and shortages of hard cash.
The MDC has said it will not
join any government formed by Mugabe before
conclusion of negotiations and
has warned that if the Zimbabwean leader
unilaterally appoints a Cabinet
that would be tantamount to killing the
dialogue.
MDC secretary
general Tendai Biti told reporters: "You will be killing the
talks. Once you
form a government, forget about talks. It is a disaster and
an act of
insanity to think that Mugabe can go it alone."
Biti said the MDC would
write to South African President Thabo Mbeki, SADC
mediator in the Zimbabwe
talks, to formally complain about the violations by
Mugabe of a July 21
memorandum of understanding on talks signed by Zimbabwe's
three main
political leaders.
And in a sign that Mugabe may have decided to toughen
his approach towards
the MDC and other opponents of his rule, police
forcibly broke up a an
annual general meeting of the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition (CZC), one of the
largest civic groups in the country.
A
ZimOnline correspondent who was present at Cresta hotel in Harare where
the
meeting was taking place said dozens of police, some of them armed,
stormed
the hotel and ordered CZC members to leave the conference room.
The
police remained camped at the hotel until every member of CZC had
left.
"We have failed to hold elections. They sealed the hotel until all
members
had left," said CZC official, speaking to our correspondent after
the
incident.
The CZC is a coalition of civic rights and
pro-democracy activists, women's
groups, churches, the labour and students
movements that campaigns for a
democratic solution to Zimbabwe's crisis. -
ZimOnline
http://www.mg.co.za/
JASON MOYO - Aug 29 2008
00:00
Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe has been pegged back in a week
of setbacks, but
is preparing to reverse his opponents' gains in Parliament
by hunkering down
and going it alone, even if this leaves Zimbabwe at a
constitutional
dead-end.
The opposition MDC expected to soften
Mugabe's resolve after the party
gained control of Parliament this week, but
he has declared he will go ahead
and form a new Cabinet.
His
opponents, emboldened after seizing the key post of speaker in
Parliament,
now plan to use the legislature to "box him in".
Last week Mugabe
appeared to gain the upper hand in power battles with his
main rival, Morgan
Tsvangirai, by winning tacit SADC backing and calling
Parliament in an
attempt to pressurise the MDC to sign a deal critics say
leaves much of his
powers intact.
But the opposition has taken control of the fourth
most-powerful post in
government and Mugabe is on the back foot. Rather than
be forced back to the
negotiation table, Mugabe intends to ride out his
opponent's resurgence and
continue his rule using the executive powers at
his disposal.
With Parliament falling to the MDC, two centres of power
have now emerged,
each devising plans to cripple the other.
MDC
officials say they will starve Mugabe's government by voting down
budgets.
Parliament will "put a wall in front of him, box him in until he
bends", an
MDC MP said.
"Until we have a restoration of legitimacy, we will continue
to have this
crisis," said Innocent Gonese, the MDC chief whip.
But
there is little else the MDC can do. Even combined, the opposition
remains
short of the two-thirds majority required to impeach Mugabe. He can
veto any
legislation proposed by the opposition-dominated Lower House and
his Zanu-PF
party still retains control of the Upper House. Mugabe can also
exert his
executive powers and rule by decree.
"We are at a constitutional
dead-end. Neither side can put one over the
other," said a constitutional
expert who did not want to be named.
Mugabe still insists talks with the
MDC will succeed, saying "landmark
agreements have been concluded, with
every expectation that everyone will
sign up". South African President Thabo
Mbeki was expected go to Harare this
week in the hope of getting both sides
to talk again.
But the MDC has drawn first blood in the power struggle
and believes it has
Mugabe cornered. The hardening of positions on both
sides was apparent as
Mugabe was heckled in Parliament and police briefly
arrested five MDC MPs.
Mugabe declared: "The MDC does not want to come
in, apparently. They have
been promised by the British that sanctions would
be more devastating, that
our government will collapse in six months'
time."
His previous Cabinet had been "the worst in history", he conceded,
and he
identified replacements. He would leave some seats open for the MDC,
he
said. But Tsvangirai now believes he is in a better position to press for
much more.
Political analyst Alex Hove said Monday's vote, in which
the smaller faction
of the MDC unexpectedly ditched its own speaker
candidate to back the
candidate of the larger MDC faction, indicates there
will be a lot of
"wheeling and dealing" in the new Parliament. Mugabe, he
said, will need all
his bargaining powers to survive. "The executive will
have to show its
persuasive powers now," Hove said.
The effectiveness
of the MDC's plans to undermine Mugabe's rule from
Parliament will depend on
how Lovemore Moyo, the new speaker, steers debate
in the key legislative
Lower House.
Moyo told the Mail & Guardian after his election the
legislature would no
longer be a rubber stamp for the president. He said he
would seek to direct
debate in Parliament over the enactment of "progressive
legislation".
"This is a new era for our Parliament. The executive has to
negotiate with
the legislature to push through its programmes," he said. "No
longer must we
be expected to act as a rubber stamp for the
executive."
But Moyo faces the difficult task of taking up a powerful
political post in
a government still led by Mugabe, whose legitimacy the MDC
disputes.
Although Moyo says Mugabe only "claims" to be head of state, he
insists he
will be impartial in his work. "A polarised Parliament is in the
past."
On Tuesday MDC MPs handed Mugabe a petition, calling him "the
illegitimate
usurper of the people's will".
A penchant for colonial
pomp
They love their bling colonial style, the people in charge in
Harare.
They laid it all out this week at the opening of Parliament. The
judges
strutted along in flowing robes and white, woollen wigs that hang to
the
shoulders. The traditional leaders proudly plodded along in their
ankle-length red robes, gold chains around their necks and those
"white-adventurer-in-darkest-Africa" hats.
Then came Robert Mugabe
himself, Africa's last defender against marauding
Western imperialists -- in
a black open-top Rolls Royce used by Load Soames,
the last British governor
of pre-independence Zimbabwe. The car has been
pimped out, with white
leather seats and silver rims.
Mugabe was guarded by dozens of horsemen
in bright red vests with polished
gold buttons. They wielded gleaming lances
with little fluttering red
feathers at the base, as swords with gold-plated
handles dangled from
shining saddles.
Inside, hundreds of MPs crammed
into the small chamber of the Lower House of
Parliament -- an exact replica
of the British House of Commons, with leather
seats, a huge table and
helpers in white gloves, black tuxedos and tails
sauntering about like
butlers. And, to use Mugabe's description of his
hostile reception in
Parliament, he might have been in some English pub.
Movement for
Democratic Change MPs heckled and sang dirty songs; one
repeatedly shouted
"murderer". Mugabe was visibly annoyed, but as is the
hallmark of his rule,
he simply pretended the problem wasn't there. He
plodded on for 30
minutes.
At a dinner later, Mugabe was back on form. He'd been told, he
said
laughing, that the "barbaric" MDC legislators had spent the previous
night
in some cheap bar.
This is the first time Mugabe has been
jeered inside Parliament. But it is
not the first time he has faced
hostility in public -- the halo has been
slipping for years.
In 2000,
arriving for a Parliamentary ceremony after a narrow election
victory won
through fraud and violence, Mugabe faced loud taunts from an
adjacent public
square, the nastiest of which cast aspersions on the
paternity of his
children.
On Monday Tsvangirai's MDC had not expected to carry the vote.
But, when MPs
from the Arthur Mutambara faction filed past Tsvangirai's
chief whip,
Innocent Gonese, appearing to show him their ballots, it was
clear something
was up.
As the result was read out announcing the
MDC's Lovemore Moyo's appointment
as speaker, one side roared. The other sat
in cold silence. Emmerson
Mnangagwa walked over to Deputy President Joyce
Mujuru. The two huddled in
discussion, like tail-ender batsmen plotting to
delay the inevitable.
Mnangagwa was clearly reluctant to stand and give
his party's
congratulations, as parliamentary decorum demands of the losing
side. He
stood up only after repeated cajoling and gesturing by
Mujuru.
"You can crow all you like," a Zanu-PF MP defiantly declared.
"Tomorrow,
Mugabe will still be your president."
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=3223#more-3223
August 29, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - A senior Zanu-PF politburo member has urged party
supporters to
prepare for a revenge mission after the humiliation of
President Robert
Mugabe when he officially opened Parliament on
Tuesday.
MDC supporters, gathered outside Parliament, sang derogatory
songs aimed at
Mugabe and his government when the Zimbabwean leader arrived
at the House.
Worse was to come inside the House; MDC MPs refused to
stand up, as per the
traditional show of respect, after Mugabe walked into
the building.
The Zimbabwean leader then endured a torrid time as the
opposition MPs
interrupted his speech with boos and jeers; it was his first
experience of
public and televised humiliation.
Addressing supporters
outside the Zanu-PF headquarters in Harare, the party
secretary for
administration Didymus Mutasa urged them to gear themselves
for retribution
against MDC supporters.
Mugabe failed to pitch up for the meeting as
planned. It is understood the
meeting had been called to plan the
restructuring of the party after its
defeat in both parliamentary and
presidential elections at the hands of the
MDC on March 29.
The
embattled party suffered further embarrassment when Lovemore Moyo,
chairman
of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC, was voted Speaker of Parliament.
Moyo beat
a candidate supported by both Zanu-PF and the smaller faction of
the
MDC.
Mutasa said Zanu-PF legislators watched in dismay as MDC supporters
and
legislators harangued Mugabe in full view of passers-by. He said, inside
Parliament, Mugabe and Zanu-PF MPs were treated like school children by the
opposition.
Said Mutasa: "It was a painful experience to watch our
president, your
president, being subjected to that kind of treatment and
harassment by the
MDC and its supporters
"We know that you were as
pained as your leadership and there should be some
recourse for that kind
behaviour. We will do all we can to feed you and be
strong to hit
back.
"They know what we are capable of doing and they should not cry
foul when we
deliver that blow as symbolized by the fist which is the
party's symbol."
He said Mugabe would, in the near future, give direction
and guidance on the
nature and form of the retribution.
"I cannot
speak more about the things that will be done," said Mutasa. "If
the
president was here, he would have told us what will be done and how it
should be."
Mugabe is accused of engineering well-calculated violent
campaigns.
In the run-up to the presidential elections on both March 29
and June 27, he
was blamed for ordering party youths and war veterans to
embark on a bloody
campaign that left opposition supporters dead, displaced
or injured.
At the same gathering, Zanu-PF political commissar Elliot
Manyika also
expressed anger at Mugabe's public humiliation.
"We
thank you for having been at parliament on Tuesday to support your
leadership," said Manyika. "If you were not there, it was going to be a bad
day in the office for the president because of the behaviour of those MDC
hooligans.
"We were pained by the way they treated the party, the
president and the
entire leadership of this country. This should never
happen again. What we
are working on now is a strategy that can see us
revenging for that
episode."
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=3218
August 29, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE- Zimbabwe's labour movement has lambasted President
Robert Mugabe for
retaining for five years a cabinet he described as the
worst he had ever
appointed.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
secretary general, Wellington
Chibebe, on Wednesday said Mugabe's admission
that his cabinet was inept
reflected his lack of leadership.
Chibebe
said, as the head of government, Mugabe should ultimately be held
responsible for Zimbabwe's crisis.
Speaking during a luncheon
organised by the local government ministry to
mark the opening of parliament
on Tuesday, Mugabe railed against his cabinet
ministers, criticizing them
for their penchant for self-enrichment.
"The Cabinet that I had was the
worst in history. They look at themselves.
They are unreliable" Mugabe said
while promising to appoint a new cabinet
which should have the competence to
manage the business of the people.
Chibebe said the poor performance of
the cabinet, which he said was running
the country illegally after the March
29 elections when Zanu-PF was
convincingly defeated, should include him as
well.
"The question which now begs for an answer from him is: why did he
allow
this worst cabinet in history of Zimbabwe to continue ruining the
country
even after his defeat at the hands of the Movement for Democratic
Change
(MDC)?" Chibebe said.
"It shows that Mugabe does not have the
people of Zimbabwe at heart.
Instead, just like his cabinet, he is the worst
leader this country has had
in living history."
Chibebe likened
Mugabe to a fish out of water. "Mugabe should know that he
has been a fish
out of water for the past ten years when his legitimacy has
been under
scrutiny," he said.
"A fish starts rotting from the head, hence his
criticism that he was
presiding over the worst cabinet also includes
him."
Zimbabwe's slide into decay started a decade ago when Mugabe
expropriated
vast tracts of farmland mainly from white commercial farmers in
a chaotic
and often violent land redistribution programme.
The
exercise came after Zimbabweans rejected a government-sponsored
constitution
in a referendum following a campaign spearheaded by trade
unions, civic
organisation and the fledgling opposition MDC.
Economic decline gradually
set in as the haphazard agrarian reform triggered
the collapse of the
agricultural sector which formed Zimbabwe's economic
backbone, capital
flight and worsened foreign currency, food and fuel
shortages.
Economists estimate Zimbabwe's inflation to be at 50
million per cent
although government put it at 11 million percent.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own Correspondent Friday
29 August 2008
JOHANNESBURG - The United Kingdom on
Wednesday relaxed its warning
against travel to Zimbabwe, following
continued decrease in political
violence that had engulfed the Southern
African country since disputed
elections in March.
"Due to the
continued decrease in violence in the country we no longer
advise against
all but essential travel to Zimbabwe," the Foreign Office
said in a travel
update on its website, cautioning that unrest could erupt
again "without
warning", amid continued uncertainty over stalled
power-sharing talks
between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
"We strongly advise against all travel to high
density, low-income
suburban areas at any time; and all but essential travel
to rural
Mashonaland, rural Manicaland and farming areas. There have been a
number of
serious incidents in rural areas and it is dangerous for farmers
or
agricultural workers to visit former properties or other agricultural
areas."
Zimbabwe's former colonial power, which has been the
leading critic of
Mugabe added: "You should also avoid areas where war
veterans are active.
The situation remains unpredictable and incidents of
violence across the
country continue: it could deteriorate further, without
warning."
Mugabe reportedly said on Wednesday that he will form a
new government
despite a deadlock in power-sharing negotiations, a move
condemned by both
the Morgan Tsvangirai-led main faction of the opposition
MDC and its Arthur
Mutambara-led splinter group who both said they would not
join any new
government before the conclusion of negotiations meant to bring
the country's
feuding political parties into an all-inclusive government of
national
unity.
MDC leader Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a
first round presidential
election in March but failed to secure the margin
required to takeover the
presidency. Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party also lost
to the MDC in a parallel
parliamentary poll in March.
However,
Mugabe went to win the second round presidential vote in
which he was sole
candidate after Tsvangirai pulled out saying a free and
fair vote was
impossible after at least 113 MDC supporters were killed and
about 200 000
others displaced in state orchestrated political violence
during the run-up
to the poll.
The West and several African governments rejected the
June 27
presidential ballot as undemocratic.
Efforts to find a
negotiated settlement to Zimbabwe's political
impasse have hit deadlock
because Mugabe and Tsvangirai cannot agree on who
between them should
control a government of national unity that some said is
the only way to
break the country's political and economic crisis.
Britain, the US
and other key Western donor nations whose financial
support is vital to any
plan to revive Zimbabwe's comatose economy insist
they will only back a
Harare government whose executive head is
Tsvangirai. - ZimOnline
SW Radio Africa
(London)
28 August 2008
Posted to the web 28 August 2008
Alex
Bell
United States ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee has warned
that the
country faces a humanitarian disaster because of the continued ban
on NGO
food aid.
The ban was announced during the run up to the
election run-off in June,
after Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche accused aid
groups of supporting the
MDC's campaign during the first round of elections
in March. The ban forced
NGOs to suspend their desperately needed aid
operations, and has now left
millions of Zimbabweans facing starvation in a
situation that is becoming
increasingly desperate.
In rural areas
of Mashonaland East and Manicaland maize supplies have dried
up and
households that previously produced maize on their homestead plots
have been
hit by poor harvests, made worse by the lack of fertiliser. At the
same
time, according to a report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation
and
the World Food Programme, more than 5 million Zimbabweans will suffer
food
insecurity in the next nine months because of poor harvest
projections.
The report said it estimates that, "2.04 million people in
rural and urban
areas will be food insecure between July and September 2008,
rising to 3.8
million people by October and peaking to about 5.1 million at
the height of
the hungry season between January and March 2009."
The
dire situation has seen the Red Cross federation issue an urgent appeal
for
more than 20 million US dollars in emergency food aid. The food packages
are
set to be distributed to almost 300 000 of the country's most desperate
people from September.
Matthew Cochrane from the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies based in Johannesburg,
told Newsreel on Thursday the
emergency food aid initiative is the start of
a comprehensive 6 month
"recovery" programme. He said that the
organisation's primary focus is
getting aid to the "most desperate,"
including the elderly and people living
with HIV/AIDS. But Cochrane added
that it is "critical that more food aid
comes" to start easing the desperate
humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe.
The Red Cross was one of the few
organisations not affected by the
government's ban on aid. But Cochrane said
although its efforts have
continued, it is "unrealistic" for one group to
provide aid for an entire
nation' and said the operations of other aid
groups is urgently needed.
http://www.independent.co.uk
In the run-up to Zimfest, Oliver Mtukudzi tells Rob
Crossan about being a
Zimbabwean superstar
Friday, 29 August
2008
The phone lines are down in Zimbabwe. With frustrating
regularity, the
antiquated system has been collapsing for years now. For
Oliver Mtukudzi,
the most famous living musician still to call this
deeply-scarred country
his home, it means that keeping in touch with his
friends and family back
home is a logistical nightmare. A punctured tyre and
near-deadly road crash
on his current tour of the UK has only added to the
communication problems:
"I wasn't on the bus but my entire band was,"
says Mtukudzi, his voice as
dry and weathered as emery cloth as we speak in
his London hotel. "We were
lucky in that we have a very skilled driver, but
the first thing a lot of
our friends and families heard about it was when it
was reported in the
newspapers."
For Mtukudzi, road accidents are one
of the less seditious occupational
hazards of being the last remaining
superstar musician still living in
Zimbabwe who is prepared to speak out
against the regime of Robert Mugabe.
Mtukudzi headlines the Zimfest
outdoor festival in Raynes Park, south
London, this Saturday. The festival,
organised by three Zimbabweans - one
white, one Shona and one Ndebele (the
two main black ethnic groups in the
country) - was initiated in 2001 with
the aim of raising money to support
charities and NGOs that are still
operating in the country. It would seem to
be a natural platform for a
veteran dissident like Mtukudzi. This, after
all, is the man who, as far
back as 2000, was singing (in his native Shona
language), a song called
"Mkuru Mkuru", meaning "old man", whose lyrics
spoke of a leader knowing the
time to give up and bow out gracefully.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party complained
bitterly about the lyrics. Mtukudzi
cunningly responded by saying: "If the
leader is being affected by this song
then that means there is something
wrong with him. But I'm talking about any
head of family. 'Mkuru Mkuru'
applies to any family, but families make up a
community, and communities
make up the nation."
"Walk down the street in Harare, and you'll find
more people of any age who
love Tuku [Mtukudzi's nickname] or at least have
heard of him, than you will
any politician," says Gordon Glyn-Jones, one of
the organisers of Zimfest. A
mercurial and impudent front man, Mtukudzi, now
in his fifties, may not be
quite as energetic on stage as he once was, but
the success of the highly
distinctive musical style he has developed over
the last 30 years (known as
"Tuku Music") is still dependent on his booming
growl of a voice, backed
with a lush guitar sound, plucked to sound like the
mbira. This instrument
is also known as a thumb piano: a native Zimbabwean
creation consisting of
thin strips of steel layered across a hollowed-out
calabash. Marimba, bass
and resonant female backing vocals create a sound
that is energetic,
accessible and highly popular with British audiences:
"People should come to
listen," says Mtukudzi when describing his sound.
"But they should also
bring their dancing shoes." He sold out the Jazz Café
in Camden Town, north
London, last week and is expected to play in front of
an audience of more
than 5,000 at Zimfest.
"Every day is a struggle
and it's getting worse all the time," admits
Mtukudzi when I ask him about
his choice to continue to live in Harare.
"I didn't choose to be a
Zimbabwean but the fact that I am makes me proud. A
lot of people have left
the country - perhaps they have better reasons to
than I do. To be proud to
be Zimbabwean is a totally different thing to
anyone saying they can be
proud of Zimbabwe - because now, every day is a
struggle."
Perhaps
understandably, Tuku, as a man living under the present regime, is
not a man
to scream revolution when you talk to him, preferring to use more
subtle
methods of allegory and metaphor in his conversation and his music.
He is
returning home after this tour, which also takes him to South Africa,
but he
has no problem with headlining a festival such as Zimfest, which has
been so
outspoken about Mugabe's reign.
"I think it's a brilliant idea," he tells
me. "Nothing is forever. Whether
leaders, or me and you, like it or not,
things have to turn around. Our
economy is ruined but everything changes at
some point. Hope is vital for
all of our people. And anyway, there's no such
thing as an easy life,
wherever you are."
The event that started it
all...
Zimfest started in 2001 as a music and arts festival for 700
people in a
field behind Wandsworth Prison in south London. It was organised
by "We
Zimbabwe", a charity that focused on raising money for groups working
with
youth development, education, human rights and support for victims of
the
crisis in Zimbabwe.
Now spearheaded by three Zimbabweans - Phil
Chikwiramakomo, Hilton
Mendelsohn and Gordon Glyn Jones - this year's
festival is expected to draw
around 5,000 people to the Prince George
Playing Fields, Raynes Park, south
London on Saturday.
Appearing with
Oliver Mtukudzi are a range of other Zimbabwean artists
including rock act
Mann Friday, Rina Mushonga and urban duo Bkay & Kazz.
Tickets cost £20
in advance and £30 on the day. See www.wezimbabwe.org for
more information
and tickets.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008
21:43
Consultations to conclude Zimbabwe's stalled talks for a
negotiated
political settlement commence today in Pretoria, amid reports
that South
African President Thabo Mbeki may press MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai to sign
a proposed deal endorsed by Sadc a fortnight
ago.
Sources told the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday that Mbeki
called for
the consultative meeting after the gulf between Zanu PF and the
MDC-Tsvangirai widened on Tuesday when parliament was convened and President
Robert Mugabe was heckled by MDC members of parliament during his
address.
Tsvangirai said the convening of parliament by Mugabe was
against the
provisions of the memorandum of understanding signed on July 21
by political
parties engaged in the negotiations.
MDC-Tsvangirai negotiators Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma and Mutambara
faction's Priscillah Misihairambwi-Mushonga flew into South Africa on
Wednesday and Zanu PF's Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche left yesterday.
Welshman Ncube (Mutambara camp) is leaving today.
"It is going
to be a consultative meeting," one of the sources said.
"We expect Mbeki to
ask Tsvangirai when he is going to sign the proposed
deal, which was
endorsed by Sadc at its recent summit."
The sources said it was
"likely" that Tsvangirai would be given a
deadline to sign. Two weeks ago
Tsvangirai refused to sign the final of a
series of documents so far agreed
to, saying he needed time to reflect. He
has insisted that the talks were
not dead.
However, a source this week declared: "Negotiations have
already
ended. It is either Tsvangirai signs or not. In Mbeki's view, there
is no
outstanding issue to discuss. This applies to Mugabe
also."
But other sources said Mbeki might be forced to seek the
re-opening of
negotiations after Tsvangirai's MDC on Monday won the post of
Speaker and
effectively took control of parliament.
"The MDC
victory in parliament gives them leeway to demand more power
in an inclusive
government," one of the sources said.
The sources said Mbeki would
not want the talks to collapse as he
"understands gravity of the
consequences South Africa" and other Sadc
countries would face.
There has been an influx of Zimbabweans in South Africa, Botswana and
other
neighbouring countries escaping the decade-long political and economic
crisis.
The talks between Zanu PF and the two MDCs stalled
three weeks ago
after Mugabe and Tsvangirai failed to agree on the powers
each should wield
as president and prime minister respectively.
Tsvangirai reportedly wanted a transfer of power to him as executive
prime
minister rather than share power with Mugabe whom he says should
become a
ceremonial president.
Sadc heads of state and government met in
South Africa two weeks ago
and urged Tsvangirai to sign all "outstanding
agreements" to pave way for an
inclusive government.
The
regional bloc recommended the convening of parliament.
Political
analysts said Sadc's recommendation was meant to put
pressure on Tsvangirai
to sign the deal, but this has not happened, forcing
Mbeki to call for
today's meeting to find a way forward.
Doubts abound that Zanu PF
was no longer interested in the talks after
Mugabe on Tuesday said he was in
the process of forming a new cabinet.
Mugabe has already appointed
10 provincial governors and three
non-constituency senators -- positions
that were on the talks agenda and
were expected to be distributed between
Zanu PF and the two MDC formations.
The move by Mugabe to appoint a
new cabinet before power-sharing talks
have been concluded did not go well
with the Tsvangirai camp, which said
this would be a "declaration of war"
against the people.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesperson of the
MDC-Tsvangirai, said Mugabe
wanted to "hijack the leadership" of Zimbabwe by
naming a new cabinet.
By Constantine Chimakure
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008
21:39
ZIMBABWE'S political troubles are intensifying as President
Robert
Mugabe struggles to form a functional government after losing control
of
parliament in the wake of faltering power-sharing talks with the
opposition
MDC.
Although talks are resuming today in
Pretoria, no agreement is likely
to be signed because Mugabe is said to be
determined to resist pressure for
him to surrender more power to Tsvangirai,
while the MDC leader is also not
willing to budge. Tsvangirai has refused to
sign a power-sharing deal with
Mugabe that regional leaders and his
opposition rivals think is fair and
realistic in the circumstances.
Tsvangirai says it will make him a lame-duck
prime minister.
Sources said South Africa president Thabo Mbeki, the mediator, who has
called for today's consultative meeting on the talks, would not reopen
negotiations but ask the negotiators what is needed to break the
deadlock.
If the talks collapse, Mugabe will proceed with his
cabinet project
which could however be paralysed by his party's loss of
parliament. Mugabe
said on Tuesday he was in the process of forming a new
government.
Deputy Information minister Bright Matonga said
yesterday his boss was
going ahead with plans to appoint cabinet despite
ongoing talks.
"Nothing is going to stop us from forming a new
government," Matonga
said in an interview with South Africa's public
broadcaster SA FM. "We need
to move forward, we need to make sure that
Zimbabwe regains its status, we
need to work on the economy." Matonga
suggested that Sadc had given Mugabe
the authority to convene parliament and
appoint cabinet.
However, Sadc, which authorised Mugabe to
reconvene parliament during
its recent summit in Johannesburg, South Africa,
said yesterday it had not
given him the go-ahead to appoint
cabinet.
Sadc defence director Dankie Mothae said the regional body
had not
given Mugabe any such authority.
Sadc executive
secretary Tomaz Salomao said Sadc only gave Mugabe
authority to convene
parliament. The Sadc communiqué issued after the summit
only refers to the
convening of parliament. "Although we don't want to
comment on the talks, we
don't know where they are getting it (that Mugabe
can appoint cabinet)
from," Salomao said. "Sadc specifically referred to the
convening of
parliament only."
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for talks
signed by Mugabe,
Tsvangirai, Mutambara and Mbeki on July 21 prohibits the
convening of
parliament and appointing a new cabinet before the conclusion
of the talks.
Tsvangirai's MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said
they would today
lodge a formal complaint with Mbeki on these issues,
including the arrest of
five of their MPs and senior party official this
week.
Whatever government Mugabe forms alone will be paralysed as
it cannot
pass laws or a budget without the support of the MDC in
parliament.
Zanu PF was defeated in parliament on Monday by the
leading MDC
faction led by Tsvangirai despite trying to strike a coalition
deal with MPs
from the smaller MDC group led by Arthur Mutambara in a fierce
battle for
the post of Speaker of the House Assembly.
This
dealt a heavy blow to Mugabe and Zanu PF who lost in the March 29
elections.
Mugabe however reversed his defeat on June 27 via a
campaign of
violence, killings and intimidation, according to the
MDC.
After being outmanoervred on Monday, Mugabe was further
subjected to
humiliation by jeering opposition MPs on Tuesday while he was
opening
parliament.
Mugabe said on Tuesday he was proceeding to
form a new government
excluding the MDC, a move which would compound the
political impasse at the
heart of the economic meltdown.
Constitutional lawyer Lovemore Madhuku said if negotiations collapse,
Mugabe
would have a torrid time trying to govern without a majority in
parliament.
He however said Mugabe's real problem is the economy, not loss
of
parliament. He said Mugabe's fate in power would largely depend on what
the
MDC does or fails to do after a break down of talks.
"Mugabe will
have a difficult time running governing without a
majority but that is not
his real problem. His main problem really is the
crumbling economy. The day
to day running of government does not need the
control of parliament, so he
can manoeuvre," Madhuku said. "However, there
is no room for manoeuvre in
dealing with the economic crisis."
Madhuku said if parliament
blocks Mugabe's proposed laws, he would
have no choice but to abandon his
legislative agenda and perhaps resort to
Presidential Powers (Temporary
Measures) Act which empowers him to make
regulations dealing with situations
that have arisen or are likely to arise
and require urgent attention.
However, the problem is that the Act only
allows him to introduce measures
that last for six months.
Madhuku said declaring a state of
emergency as some people had been
saying would not help because it would
only be able to suspend "certain
provisions of the constitution mainly
relating to the Bill of Rights, not
parliament".
"The real
problem in terms of parliament will be when it comes to the
passing of a
budget," Madhuku said. "If MDC MPs block the budget, Mugabe
would have no
option but to dissolve parliament. However, this is
problematic because if
he dissolves parliament his term of office also comes
to an end at the same
time in terms of the current constitution as amended."
By
Dumisani Muleya
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008
20:47
THE Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC won parliament's speaker position
this
week after it struck a deal in Botswana with rebellious members of the
smaller faction led by Arthur Mutambara.
The deal
allegedly scuttled an agreement between Zanu PF and Mutambara
and his
secretary- general Welshman Ncube to land influential posts in
President
Robert Mugabe's government.
Impeccable sources told the Zimbabwe
Independent that Tsvangirai, his
vice-president Thokozani Khupe and national
chairperson Lovemore Moyo met
nine MPs from the Mutambara camp soon after
the Sadc summit and persuaded
them to vote in their favour for the
parliamentary speaker in return for
positions and other
incentives.
The nine legislators from the Mutambara faction were
Edward Mkhosi
(Mangwe West), Abednico Bhebhe (Nkayi South), Njabuliso Mguni
(Lupane),
Nomalanga Mzilikazi Khumalo
(Mzingwane), Siyabonga
Malandu Ncube (Insiza North), Norman Mpofu
(Mangwe East), Maxwell Dube
(Tsholotsho South), Patrick Dube (Gwanda North)
and Thandeko Mkandla (Gwanda
South).
Moses Mzila Ndlovu of Bulilima constituency did not attend
the
meeting.
The meeting took place a week after Sadc heads of
government and
states recommended that Mugabe could reconvene
parliament.
The sources said the MPs from Mutambara's camp agreed
during the
Botswana meeting to vote for Moyo and they in turn asked the
Tsvangirai
faction to back them and elect Khumalo as deputy
speaker.
"An agreement was reached in Botswana and the MPs from
Mutambara were
promised positions and other incentives if they voted for
Moyo," one of the
sources said.
During the election of the
speaker on Monday, Moyo won against Paul
Themba Nyathi who was co-sponsored
by Mutambara's MDC and Zanu PF. Khumalo
was unanimously elected deputy
speaker.
But the spokesperson of the MDC-Mutambara, Edwin
Mushoriwa, in a
congratulatory statement, alleged that a Zanu PF group
working with the
party's Nkayi MP and cabinet minister Sithembiso Nyoni
voted for Moyo. Nyoni
is the mother-in-law of Moyo.
"The
outcome of this election clearly shows that parliamentarians
voted across
party-lines. We are aware that Zanu PF parliamentarians,
particularly the
Sithembiso Nyoni groups, were canvassing and voted for
Lovemore Moyo. We are
more than certain that our MPs voted for our
candidate."
However, Nyoni yesterday charged that the claims were mischievous and
malicious and said she would not lose sleep over them.
By
Constantine Chimakure/Loughty Dube
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008
20:44
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has dropped provincial governors
perceived as
sympathetic to Vice-president Joice Mujuru's bid for the
presidential post
before Zanu PF's extraordinary congress last
year.
The purge, sources in Zanu PF and government said,
would extend to the
appointment of a new cabinet by Mugabe.
Mugabe this week dropped four governors who allegedly were part of a
faction
in Zanu PF that backed Mujuru to succeed the 84-year-old leader.
The four are Ray Kaukonde (Mashonaland East), Tinaye Chigudu
(Manicaland),
Willard Chiwewe (Masvingo), and Ephraim Masawi (Mashonaland
Central).
Former Education minister Aenias Chigwedere,
ex-Transport minister
Chris Mushohwe, Titus Maluleke and Advocate Martin
Dinha replaced the four.
Mugabe also dropped two other governors,
Cephas Msipa (Midlands) and
Nelson Samkange (Mashonaland West).
Mugabe at the party's Goromonzi conference in December 2006 publicly
reprimanded Kaukonde, who was also Zanu PF provincial chairperson for
Mashonaland East, for openly supporting Mujuru.
His province
and Harare refused during the conference to endorse a
proposal to extend
Mugabe's rule to 2010 when the country's first harmonised
elections were
initially planned for by Zanu PF hardliners.
By then Mugabe was yet
to be endorsed and confirmed by the party as
its presidential candidate in
this year's harmonised elections and this
necessitated the convening of an
extraordinary congress in December.
Mugabe allegedly manipulated
the congress to endorse his candidature.
"Kaukonde was seen as
behind the Mujuru faction and Mugabe was
bitter," a source in Zanu PF said.
"He decided to replace him with
Chigwedere whose loyalty to Mugabe is
unquestionable."
The sources said Chigudu, Chiwewe and Masawi were
also perceived to be
behind Mujuru's bid for the presidency and mobilised
her support in their
respective provinces.
"There are more
people who will be dumped from the current cabinet and
from party
structures," the source added.
Zanu PF has since ordered the
restructuring of its organs after it
performed dismally in the March 29
elections.
The restructuring was sanctioned during a central
committee meeting
last month where a reportedly irate Mugabe quizzed the
party's leadership on
why Zanu PF lost the elections to the opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change.
The party sources said the
exercise was expected to usher in new
leaders from cell up to provincial
levels.
"The plan now is to have a restructuring exercise that will
ensure
that people who are deemed failures will not be elected as leaders
ahead of
the party's conference in Bindura in December," said one of the
sources.
In an interview yesterday, Zanu PF national commissar
Elliot Manyika
said the restructuring exercise was being conducted in line
with the party's
constitution.
Manyika said: "The
(restructuring) process is being held after the
realisation that the terms
of office for the old executives have come to an
end. We are preparing for
the conference in December and we want to go to
the conference with new
executives in place.
"Of course, we have said the leaders should go
to the people to seek
new mandates and if they (the executives) fail to rise
to the occasion and
let down the people, surely they will not be voted
back."
By Nkululeko Sibanda
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008
20:39
ZIMBABWE'S opposition leader and President Robert Mugabe set
aside
years of bitter rivalry and talked like a father and son when they met
for a
private dinner last month.
Morgan Tsvangirai, who
has repeatedly suffered arrest and assault at
the hands of Mugabe's regime,
described how the tension disappeared during
their first one-on-one meeting
following the signing of a memorandum of
understanding to negotiate a
power-sharing deal between Zanu PF and the two
MDC formations on
July21.
"A passer-by might have mistaken it for a lost father-son
reunion,"
said Tsvangirai. "Initially, there was tension between us but as
we chatted
about this and that and became more relaxed, I discovered that he
was a
human being after all."
This private dinner, details of
which have never previously been
disclosed, followed the public handshake
between Tsvangirai and Mugabe in
Harare.
Only weeks earlier,
scores of opposition supporters had been murdered
and thousands assaulted or
tortured during a bloody presidential election
campaign.
But in
an exclusive interview, Tsvangirai said these traumatic events
did not come
between him and the 84-year-old president. "We chatted about
family, about
my mother, as well as about politics and the talks. Mugabe ate
a lot and
knew exactly what he wanted. He is very alert mentally but,
physically, the
age is telling."
Tsvangirai said it would be "unfair" to reveal the
political details
of 90-minute dinner with Mugabe. But he said the ageing
leader was concerned
about his place in history and genuinely worried about
Britain's alleged
plots to oust him -- a constant feature of his
speeches.
"I got the impression that he has a deep commitment to
his legacy. I
realised that he actually believes a lot of what he is saying;
it's not all
said just for propaganda purposes. He is paranoid about the
British. I think
overall he wants to prove to them that he is right," said
Tsvangirai.
As for the British government, Tsvangirai discovered
that Mugabe views
(prime minister) Gordon Brown as an even more dedicated
opponent than Tony
Blair. "I said, 'Why don't you talk to them?' And he
said, 'Well, you know,
Blair was bad enough but this Brown, he is even
worse'."
Mugabe's regime has been responsible for thousands of
deaths since he
won power 28 years ago. But the old leader appeared
genuinely pained about
how he is portrayed.
"At one point
Mugabe told me, 'You know, some people say I'm a
murderer. But I'm not. Let
the two of us carry on eating together and
showing that we can go forward in
peace'," said Tsvangirai.
But Mugabe seemed to have blanked out the
violence which scarred the
presidential election campaign and was firmly in
denial about his own
responsibility.
"It felt like a remarkably
normal conversation most of the time, apart
from his denial of the violence
in Zimbabwe," said Tsvangirai. "He seemed to
be unaware or he feigned
ignorance of the atrocities committed by his own
people.
"I
wondered if he was suppressing knowledge of something he was not
comfortable
with. Right up to the end of the dinner, I kept coming back to
the issue of
violence and he kept denying any knowledge of it."
Only a week
after this meeting, however, Mugabe gave a very different
message. During
the annual ceremony remembering the dead of the war against
white rule,
Mugabe said: "We used violence to defend what is ours."
Tsvangirai
remains puzzled by the president's capacity for
double-think and
denial.
"I left the hotel wondering why Mugabe is so violent. Why
does he
resort to violence whenever he is cornered? Being in his company, I
couldn't
imagine where the violent streak was: I think he suppresses it,
even to
himself. Or is it the people around him? He doesn't seem as bad when
you're
with him, but I know he was trying to manipulate me that
night."
Despite this friendly meeting, Tsvangirai later refused to
sign a
power-sharing deal that would have left Mugabe in command of
Zimbabwe's
government. But he said he felt "no sense of bitterness," adding:
"I
actually have to admit that I have some respect for Mugabe, who used to
be
my hero."
By Heidi Holland : the author of Dinner with
Mugabe, published by
Penguin Books.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008 20:37
THE three Matabeleland provinces have threatened to pull out of former
Simba
Makoni's Mavambo movement, in a move that will scuttle plans to
transform it
into a fully-fledged political party.
Plans to turn the
movement into a party, to be known as the National
Alliance for Democracy,
are underway.
Bulawayo and Matabeleland North and South provinces
have written to
Makoni threatening to quit over the way the movement is
being run.
Last week, Dumiso Dabengwa, Makoni's main backer in the
March 29
presidential election, abandoned the movement.
In a
letter to Makoni dated July 28 in the possession of the Zimbabwe
Independent, the inter-provincial steering committee said it was dismayed by
the manner in which its contributions to the formation of the party had been
handled by the Harare office.
"We would like to remind you that
we are equal human beings and that
we were ill-treated for a long time under
similar circumstances, and cannot
live to repeat this," the letter
said.
"We have seen the superiority complex displayed by
individuals at 'the
head office' which is run like a family outfit and are
very unhappy to be
part of this, and particularly detest the arrogance, lack
of foresight and
leadership that has so far been displayed."
Furthermore, the letter warned that failure by the Mavambo head office
to
deal with issues of concern raised by the steering committee could lead
to
the severing of ties.
"We request audience with you (Makoni) before
the national
consultative conference to discuss the issues (stated in the
letter). If
this is not possible, we shall have no option but to announce
(an) immediate
suspension of the relationship between ourselves and the head
office and we
shall proceed with the development of the party in the
direction and pace
that we feel shall be beneficial to our supporters,"
added the letter.
A fortnight ago, the Independent reported that
there were complaints
on resource allocation towards the mobilisation of
support for the planned
party by the three provinces.
In the
letter, the question of allocation of the movement's vehicles
was
highlighted.
It has since emerged that the vehicles referred to
were actually
donations and not acquired using funds procured by Mavambo in
its
fundraising campaign for the presidential and general
elections.
Read the letter: "As we struggle through the formation
of this party,
we wonder where the donated vehicles are and why the process
of getting them
to good use is taking so much time.We were issued with one
truck that
services the office and also covers the immediate areas. This
vehicle had
not been serviced until it was sent to Nissan Clover Leaf Motors
where it
attracted a huge bill that is now pegged at $33 trillion (old
currency). The
chairman had no option but to pay out from his
pocket."
Godfrey Chanetsa, the Mavambo spokesperson, said it was
surprising
that the matter of differences within their camp should be played
out in the
media while there were avenues of seeking reconciliation within
the
structure of the movement.
He said anyone with any
grievance should approach the head office with
the matter for
attention.
"I am wondering why some people want us to address
issues of Mavambo
in the media. Those that feel they have grievances know
what the party
structures are and they should be free to approach the head
office and these
matters shall be thrashed out at that forum. There is
absolutely no need to
try and resolve our matters in the media," Chanetsa
said.
He said that some of the problems were "fixated and imagined"
that
could be thrashed out "within the confines of the four walls" and not
in the
public domain.
By Nkululeko Sibanda
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August
2008 20:34
ESTABLISHED local and international companies have shunned
this year's
edition of the Harare Agricultural Show (HAS), leaving small and
medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), government ministries, parastatals and
banks as the only exhibitors.
A visit to the Exhibition
Park this week showed that ministries such
as Local Government, Energy, and
Education, had taken up space to display
school uniforms, textbooks, and
model rural houses.
Parastatals like the Zimbabwe United Passenger
Company had on display
30 seater Swaraj buses that were part of President
Robert Mugabe's
presidential campaign in the run up to the March 29 and the
June 27
presidential election runoff.
Exhibition halls such as
Home Industries and Rajiv Gandhi, which in
previous years used to be packed
with indigenous entrepreneurs and
small-scale farmers displaying their
produce, were nearly empty save for a
few interior décor
exhibitors.
However, the Harare Show Society (HSS) this week said
the number of
exhibitors had gone up from 469 last year to 500 this year
because of the
increased presence of SMEs.
Tsitsi Moyo, a Mbare
woman, who had taken her kids to the show, told
the Zimbabwe Independent
that she was disappointed to find out that most of
the exhibition space had
been taken up by government ministries that did not
have on display any
interesting material for her children.
She said: "I am so
disappointed that after struggling to raise enough
money to bring my kids
here we find empty stands and government ministries
with information which
is not exciting to school going children."
The annual event, which
started on Monday, has been marred by a low
turnout, which the HSS
spokesperson Heather Madombwe blamed on the economic
crisis in the
country.
"The annual event has not lost its traditional appeal, but
the public
are failing to access cash from banks as well as many other
challenges
facing the nation," Madombwe said.
By Wednesday,
only 11 332 people had visited the Exhibition Park
compared to over 50 000
people during the same period last year.
The current cash shortages
and the high cost of food at the Exhibition
Park forced many people to bring
packed lunches from home.
Mugabe will for the second year in a row
officially open the show
today.
By Lucia Makamure
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008
20:21
BUSINESS and industry this week warned that the economy would
further
deteriorate if the country's two major political parties which
adjourned
talks two week ago fail to find a lasting solution to the
country's
prolonged crisis.
Its appears the economy has
deteriorated further since the talks were
suspended with prices of all goods
and services increasing astronomically,
companies and industries operations
depressed as the dollar continues to
lose value against major trading
partners.
In an interview with businessdigest on Wednesday,
Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries president, Callisto Jokonya, said
business appeared to
be in better shape before the talks
started.
"Business is concerned with the delay of the talks and is
appealing to
politicians to consider the life of the 13 million people ahead
of personal
gains," Jokonya said.
He added: "sanctions are real
and business and people are now feeling
their negative
effects".
"Talks must be finalised today and not a day later.
Politicians must
be moved by compassion and not power," he
said.
The talks were suspended when opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai
refused to sign the document saying he needed time to
reflect.
"We cannot wait and say it is business as usual, when
industry and
business is collapsing. There will never be a solution without
the two
parties sitting down and finding a lasting economic and political
solution,"
he said.
Jokonya said it was not time for both
parties to exchange bitter
words.
"The (economic and political)
solution must be drafted locally because
it is the locals who are affected.
No one will help Zimbabwe when we are
divided," Jokonya said.
Jokonya said he was not shifting blame to any political party as CZI
had not
seen the document that both parties were supposed to sign.
Business
and indusrty are clinging to the hope that the positive
outcome of the talks
would signal the turnaround of the economy.
Zimbabwe National
Chamber of Commerce president, Obert Sibanda, said
failure of the talks
could signal a very dark chapter in Zimbabwe's
businesses and life of the
ordinary man on the street.
"It is critical that the parties reach
a consensus. There should reach
a point were they agree for the revival of
the country," Sibanda said.
He said failure of the talks would
condemn Zimbabwe's economy to
levels that might be very difficult to
revive.
By Paul Nyakazeya/Thando Mpofu
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008
20:18
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's plans to amend the controversial
National
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act could draw a furor of
debate in
parliament after opposition legislators jeered at proposals he
made at the
opening of parliament this week.
Opening
the Seventh Parliament on Tuesday, Mugabe said his government
would among
other things table motions that would give indigenisation
minister more
powers to oversee the empowerment exercise with "renewed
vigour".
The empowerment act was promulgated in April amid
outcry from business
and civic quarters alleging that its implementation
would result in
government expropriating foreign owned
companies.
"Now that the National Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Act,
which provides for the acquisition of at least 51 percent
shares in every
public company and any other strategic businesses by
indigenous persons is
law, implementation of the empowerment policy shall be
pursued with renewed
vigour on a sector-by-sector basis," said
Mugabe.
"However to facilitate implementation, some amendments of
the Act will
have to be brought to this Parliament during this session. The
amendments
will among other things, empower the relevant minister to
prescribe what
constitutes a strategic company or sector, the timeframe for
compliance with
the Act, and the approval format for indigenisation
arrangements."
The president's remarks were responded to with
interjections from
opposition members of parliament who reminded Mugabe of
the ill-planned land
reform programme.
"Minda makatadza wani
(You failed on the land exercise)," shouted an
MDC MP.
Speaking
at the just-ended American Business Association of Zimbabwe
Just Business
forum, LonZim country representative Geoff Goss said his
company had no
immediate plans for an "exit package" despite imminent plans
by government
to seize control of foreign-owned companies. Conglomerate
Lonhro Plc has a
20% stake in the company with remainder being shared by
emerging market
funds.
"We don't have one, it is not our intention to move out.
It's not on
top of our agenda right now," said Goss.
"Indigenisation requires empowerment rather than endowment.experience
rather
than expedience. As foreign investors, we have the responsibility
beyond
simply making profits for our stakeholders. We must also respect,
include,
engage and return to the communities we operate in."
He said LonZim
had plans to raise US$100 million to invest on the
local market, hinting a
keen interest in tourism and mining. The mining
sector is likely to be
affected by the exercise.
Earlier this year Chamber of Mines of
Zimbabwe, David Murangari warned
government against "adverse monetary and
economic policies" which inhibit
exploration, development and major capital
projects. Murangari said there
was need to revisit the empowerment Act. The
gold mining sector is
forecasting a significant drop of about 4,5 metric
tonnes compared to 29
metric tonnes at peak in 1999.
"This law,
in its present form does not inspire both local and foreign
investors to
commit their funds in growth projects for the long term," he
said.
"The Chamber of Mines is not against the policy of
indigenisation as
such, and it would suggest that the objective should be to
promote further
development of the mining industry by taking into
consideration the fact
that it is capital intensive and requires long
periods of investment before
positive returns are experienced.
What the industry encourages is a policy that will grow the "cake"
rather
than share an existing small one."
Last month Indigenisation
minister Paul Mangwana said hundreds of
foreign-owned companies earmarked
for the government takeover were being
audited before the exercise
commences.
Mangwana said British investors held stakes in at least
499 Zimbabwean
companies while 353 firms have shareholders from other
European countries.
By Bernard Mpofu
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008 19:56
HIDING inflation figures has forced speculators to run riot with
producers
and retailers increasing prices daily, a move that will further
intensify
inflationary pressures.
Economic analysts this week said
blocking the figures will not help
bring down inflation but will instead
force it to rise because economic
players will not have a guiding figure to
effect new prices.
This, they say, will lead to rampant speculative
pricing based on an
assumed inflation figure "well above the official
one".
What is however true is that no one really knows what
Zimbabwe's rate
of inflation is.
It should be enough to just
say "prices are rising astronomically,"
rather than for banks and research
institutes to engage in the charade of
trying to put a number to
it.
The situation is simply too fluid to be able to do that
accurately, as
the widely varying figures of these "reputable" finance
houses and
organisation show.
The effect of speculative tendency in
Zimbabwe is already being felt
on the foreign currency front where the US
dollar's depreciation against
major trading currencies is also being used to
estimate inflation.
The secrecy on the inflation figures has only led
to more suffering
for the common man and worsen the economic crisis,
analysts say. The Central
Statistical Office last week announced that the
June inflation was 11,2
million percent.
Kingdom bank group
economist Witness Chinyama, said the major problem
with not releasing
inflation figures was that it hampered developmental
plans for companies
while at the same time fuelling inflation even further
because of
speculation.
"Inflation figures are essential for companies
planning purposes
especially in a hyper inflationary environment like we are
living in now,"
he said
"Companies need to track their
performances based on these inflation
figures. Without these figures,
companies won't know where they are coming
from and where they are going,"
Chinyama said.
A fortnight ago, Kingdom Bank reported that
inflation had reached 20
million percent.
Producers said the
figure could be higher and would not stop
increasing their prices simply
because they do not have inflation figures.
Market will continue to flourish
on the back of an unrealistic exchange rate
which is way behind the parallel
market.
Prices of fuels, spare parts and other imports show clearly
that the
pricing models are based on the parallel market rates.
Retailers and manufacturers have been responding to each announcement
of
inflation figures by increasing the prices of goods and services.
Zimbabwe's economy and quality of life have been in rapid,
uninterrupted
decline.
The irony has been that while companies are happy to base
their salary
increments on known inflation figures to cut their costs, they
are more than
willing to use speculative figures to increase their
prices.
Independent economist John Robertson said the delay in
releasing
inflation had led to confusion in the market.
"People
will not be able to get an idea of what is happening to the
exchange rate
leading to prices being pegged using the prevailing parallel
market rate,"
Robertson said.
"There are so many figures being thrown around. The
impact (of
speculation) is disastrous on smaller companies with less cushion
and no
external operations," he said.
Robertson who believes
that the June inflation rate was about 30
million percent said the higher
estimates were likely to be more accurate.
In a country where about
half the population is reportedly threatened
with starvation, the increase
in inflation would be felt particularly hard
as the dollar continues to
slide.
A local banker who refused to be named said the government has
been
conservative in portraying the real situation on the
ground.
"How can one explain the fact that we went for six months
without a
official inflation figure. This has created a lot of distortions
in the
country in terms of pricing and has had an impact on the exchange
rate. We
have the Old Mutual Implied Rate, the interbank rate, the parallel
market
rate, the hard boiled index, the NGO and embassy rate, and the Mazowe
Orange
Crush rate which are all reactions to the inflation figures," said
the
banker.
The bank official said there were multiple prices
for goods and
services for almost every commodity and service.
"There is an official and unofficial price. This is because when the
Central
Statistical Office releases a figure, it is based on the official
prices
while banks and research institutes use prices being obtained on the
market," the official said
What is happening in the country is
no laughing matter.
For untold numbers of Zimbabweans, toilet paper
and bread, margarine,
meat, even the once ubiquitous morning cup of tea have
become unimaginable
luxuries.
All are casualties of the
hyperinflation that is "officially" roaring
towards 12 million
percent.
By Jeslyn Dendere
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008 19:26
THE
power-sharing talks between the Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe
and the
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have been presented as the best
hope of
bringing peace to the embattled country.
However,
power-sharing agreements are in fact a poor strategy for
resolving
conflicts.
They are extremely difficult to reach and possibly even
more difficult
to implement and sustain.
Power sharing is not a
credible or viable solution to the crisis in
Zimbabwe, either in the
immediate or longer term.
It is unlikely to bring a durable peace,
is inherently undemocratic
and rewards ruthless behaviour.
Power-sharing deals are difficult to negotiate under the best of
circumstances.
Reaching an agreement in Zimbabwe will be
particularly problematic,
for at least three reasons. First, the ruling
party's interest in sharing
power is highly questionable.
Negotiators from Zanu PF are reportedly refusing to consider ceding
any
executive powers to an opposition prime minister -- the main bone of
contention in the power-sharing agreement that ended a standoff following
Kenya's December 2007 elections.
Zanu PF is only sitting at the
bargaining table because of
international pressure, notably from South
Africa and other neighbours, and
will be loath to compromise.
While the opposition is more likely to be negotiating in good faith
than the
government, the failure of talks may help the MDC's case that Zanu
PF is
intransigent and that sterner international pressure will be
required.
Another major impediment to agreement is the lack of
trust between
actors.
Not only has the ruling party brutalised
MDC officials and supporters
in myriad ways since 2000, its previous
power-sharing agreement serves as a
stern warning to the MDC.
In 1987, a deal was signed between Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, the leader
of
the then main opposition party.
Nkomo was brought in as a
figurehead vice-president and the deal
resulted in his party's absorption
and disbandment, serving to consolidate
Mugabe's power.
A third
challenge is internal fragmentation.
Though not as significant as
the multiplication of actors that have
plagued negotiations in the
Democratic Republic of Congo or Darfur, both
Zanu PF and the MDC are
factionalised.
Not all perspectives are represented at the
bargaining table and
further splits may be forthcoming if any eventual
agreement displeases
significant wings on one or both sides.
For instance, even if Arthur Mutambara's MDC faction signs a separate
agreement with Mugabe, his 10 MPs might defect to the main MDC wing, leaving
Zanu PF no closer to achieving a parliamentary majority.
In
addition, high-ranking military officials in Zanu PF, who have
consolidated
political and economic power in recent years, may prevent
Mugabe from
reaching an agreement that is detrimental to their own
interests.
Even if a deal is reached, three principal
challenges threaten its
viability.
First, governing elites
might lack the commitment to applying the
terms of the
agreement.
They might actually only be seeking to co-opt the
opposition and could
renege on the agreement if they fail.
Alternatively, there may be institutional resistance to sharing
power.
For instance, where the bureaucracy of the state and a party
apparatus
have been one and the same for a long time, a political agreement
at the top
does not guarantee compliance at the middle and lower echelons of
government, and indeed resistance may be orchestrated from the
top.
In Sudan, members of the National Congress party continue to
dominate
state institutions in spite of the power-sharing provisions of the
2003
comprehensive peace agreement that ended the north-south
conflict.
Second, government and opposition elites might lack the
ability to
deliver their commitments, particularly where key parts of their
constituency are resistant to a political deal.
Veterans, one
of Mugabe's most powerful constituencies, may attempt to
spoil a transfer of
executive powers if they fear losing influence.
This is not unique
to Zimbabwe. Veterans have obstructed progress in
other locales such as the
Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Third, the MDC's
shortcomings might impede power sharing.
Where incumbents have been
in power for a very long time, the
opposition's capacity to govern is likely
to be limited.
That was the case in Sudan, where the Sudan People's
Liberation
Movement found itself propelled to a governing position
overnight.
Permitting ill-equipped opposition leaders to assume positions of
responsibility is also a way of ensuring they will stumble and fall,
especially when assigned near-impossible tasks.
For this
reason, one could expect Mugabe to give Tsvangirai
responsibility for
redressing Zimbabwe's economic woes.
Even if a power-sharing
arrangement was a viable option and could
prevent more violence in the
shorter or longer term, it is not necessarily a
strategy worth
pursuing.
Allowing a small number of elites to determine outcomes
is inherently
undemocratic, and manifestly ignores voters'
choices.
It would make more sense to hold new elections as soon as
possible,
preferably under a caretaker government.
Otherwise, a
terrible precedent is set, encouraging politicians who
are not committed to
democracy to attempt to steal elections and then,
through power-sharing
agreements, secure a much stronger position than they
otherwise would have
held.
The Zimbabwean opposition and international actors would be
well
advised to consider this before supporting further
negotiations.-kubatana.net
By Chandra Lekha Sriram :director of
the Centre on Human Rights in
Conflict at the University of East London
School of Law.
and
Marie-Joëlle Zahar is associate
professor of political science at the
University of Montreal specialising in
the politics of power-sharing and
conflict resolution.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008
19:23
THE proposed power-sharing deal between Zanu PF and the two
formations
of the MDC is intended to retain President Robert Mugabe as head
of state
and government while leaving new prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai
with
little executive power.
According to the leaked
proposal which Tsvangirai refused sign, Mugabe
would have remained the
commander-in-chief of the armed forces and head of
government, as well as
head of state.
Tsvangirai declined to sign the deal after
questioning Paragraph 2 of
the proposed deal titled the Role of the Prime
Minister.
While the paragraph states that the prime minister would
have the
responsibility to oversee the formulation of policies by the
cabinet, it
also spelt out that Tsvangirai would not be the man in
charge.
It said Tsvangirai would only be "a member of the cabinet
and its
deputy chairperson".
This arrangement would have left
Mugabe as the head of cabinet in
accordance with the Constitution of
Zimbabwe.
Political analysts observed that the situation was made
worse by
Paragraph 11, which stipulated that Tsvangirai would have to
"report
regularly to the president".
Mugabe was also to retain
broad powers to declare a state of
emergency, declare war or make peace and
to grant amnesty.
The analysts said the proposed deal also revealed
that Sadc leaders
were in support of Mugabe's retention of far more
executive powers than is
warranted.
Sadc heads of state and
government met in South Africa two weeks ago
and made a passionate plea to
Tsvangirai to sign all "outstanding
agreements" to pave way for an inclusive
government.
The regional bloc recommended the convening of
parliament that took
place on Tuesday, a move analysts said was contrary to
the spirit and letter
of the memorandum of understanding signed by the
negotiating parties.
Zimbabwean-born South Africa businessman
Mutumwa Mawere said the
proposed pact intended to create two centres of
power with attendant
challenges not only in terms of accountability, but
also in reconciling the
past and the future.
"Mugabe is an
ideologue and believes in the justice of his cause,"
Mawere observed. "His
world-view has not changed and he has invested so much
in the past that the
future appears to be of little concern to him."
He said the country
needed a break from the past and the correct
interpretation of the March 29
election was confirmed by the takeover of
control of the House of Assembly
by the opposition for the first time in
Zimbabwe's history.
"The proposal was negotiated when it was not clear how much support
MDC-Tsvangirai enjoyed. The view held then was that whoever controlled
parliament should have executive powers," Mawere argued. "With the outcome
of the Speaker's election, a new argument can be legitimately made that
Tsvangirai does control parliament . . . If Tsvangirai does control the
House of Assembly, then a case must then be made that he deserves to deliver
the change that people want."
Political scientist Michael Mhike
concurred with Mawere that the South
African President Thabo Mbeki-mediated
deal intended to create two centres
of power -- an executive president and
prime minister. He further argued
that change in Zimbabwe would not be
credible with Mugabe at the helm.
"A new face with executive powers
is required," suggested Mhike. "Two
centres of power in terms of day-to-day
supervision of ministries has its
own dangers."
He said the
proposal was framed on the basis that Mugabe was duly
elected as head of
state.
"The events following the March 29 election culminating in
the
election of the Speaker confirms that the legitimacy of Mugabe is
problematic and a new scenario is called for," Mhike argued. "The parliament
and senate configuration is sufficiently balanced to give comfort to Mugabe
that the inevitable loss of executive powers through the transfer of power
to the prime minister will not pose a serious risk to moving the country
forward."
He said the ideal deal would have been for Tsvangirai
to report to
parliament and senate, not Mugabe.
Mhike said it
was apparent that the negotiated deal was meant to
accommodate Arthur
Mutambara, Mugabe and Tsvangirai as individuals.
"It turns out that
Mutambara may not enjoy the support of his
constituency to give him a
credible standing in any negotiations. If this is
the case, then there has
to be a new realisation by Sadc and all interested
parties that no deal that
places Tsvangirai in a subservient position to
Mugabe will be credible," he
argued.
For declining to sign the deal, Tsvangirai has been accused
by the
MDC-Mutambara of demanding power transfer to himself rather than
power-sharing.
Welshman Ncube, the chief negotiator of
MDC-Mutambara camp, last week
quoting the Sadc communiqué said the deal on
the table was appropriate, fair
and an equitable power-sharing
pact.
"The executive function is the function of running
government, of
appointing and supervising ministers, of determining the day
to day
operations of government, of defining policy," Ncube said. "If you
exclude
the leader of one of the parties from that completely, you are
rendering
whomsoever you have excluded ceremonial. That is why Sadc found
that the
demands which are on the table (from Tsvangirai) are for a
power-transfer.
And they were unable to endorse those. Which is why they
endorsed what is on
the table which is power-sharing."
He said
even if one would go by the results of March 29, no single
party can argue
for transfer of power to itself because no single party had
the absolute
majority entitling it to have power transferred to it.
"Consider
the figures, Zanu PF has 99, MDC-T 100 and we have 10,"
Ncube argued. "For
anyone to say that power ought to be transferred to
themselves alone, they
ought to have 106 seats in the House of Assembly. No
one has that. The fact
that you might have the highest number does not
entitle you to a
transfer."
Writing in the Cape Argus this week, former professor of
constitutional law at Unisa and veteran of South Africa's own negotiations
for a new constitution, Marius Wiechers, argued that Tsvangirai was right to
reject the deal because it was not about power-sharing. "It's just jostling
for positions -- the really operative side is not addressed," he
wrote.
Wiechers argued that despite the attempt to dish out
ministries fairly
equally, the clincher was that Mugabe retains the chair of
cabinet, which
could prove decisive.
He dubbed the deal an
"incestuous merging" of presidential and prime
ministerial
systems.
Wiechers said there was no other conflict-resolution
mechanism in the
deal, which becomes, therefore, a "recipe for disaster" in
the form of
inevitable deadlock.
He suggested that Sadc should
take a leaf out of the international
community's handling of the Kosovo
crisis by creating a superior Sadc body
standing above all the Zimbabwean
parties to arbitrate the deadlocks which
he believed must inevitably arise
from the power-sharing deal.
By Constantine Chimakure
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008
19:13
GOVERNMENT'S unmitigated recourse to endless duplicity is brazen
in
the extreme, and clearly knows no bounds.
Admittedly, this is neither a new phenomenon, nor a characteristic
that is
exclusive to the Zimbabwean government, for many (if not most)
governments
are guilty of devious double-dealing, dissembling, and reliance
upon the
"nod and wink", hypocritical actions diametrically opposite to that
which it
does, or claims to do, or expects of others.
Examples are numerous
of such duplicity.
Probably the most recent is gazetting of a
Statutory Instrument
prescribing that all as are possessed of generators are
bound by law to
register such generators with the Zimbabwe Electricity
Regulatory Commission
(ZERC), subject those generators to ZERC inspection,
and effect payment of
prescribed fees to that commission.
The
duplicity of this regulation is two-fold. On the one hand, it is
the bounden
duty of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), which
is a
wholly-owned parastatal of government, to provide all Zimbabwe with
requisite supplies of electricity. This it has been dismally failing to do,
to an ever-increasing extent, with the country's residents, its commerce and
industry, mining and agricultural sectors, being grievously prejudiced by
pronounced interruptions in supplies.
Almost all are subjected
to being without electricity seven days a
week, in many instances for
periods of six to 10 hours, and as recently as a
fortnight ago Zesa publicly
foreshadowed intensification of those periods to
a probable twelve hours
each day.
Due to Zesa's gross inability to meet the nation's
essential
electricity supply needs, more and more businesses and individuals
have been
driven to acquiring, at great initial and on-going operational
costs,
generators to assure them of at least some of the power supplies so
critically needed.
Now government places yet another hindrance
before them, by
promulgating oppressive registration requirements. But the
duplicity does
not end with the registration requirement, obviously
targetted and
indirectly preserving government's absolute and total control
over
Zimbabwean electricity generation.
It extends further, not
only by assuring the regulatory authority of
licensing and inspection fees
(undoubtedly to compensate for declining
revenue flows resulting from the
diminishing sale of electricity), but by
legislating that the fees be
"pegged" to the United States dollar.
Repeatedly the minister of
industry and international trade, the
minister of finance, the president,
the chairman of the national incomes and
pricing commission (NIPC) berate
those in the private sector as have
resorted to pricing their goods and
services by pegging the prices to the
United States dollar, the South
African rand, or other foreign currencies.
Such pricing policies are stated
to be unlawful, and to be contrary to the
national and public interest, as
major fuellants of inflation. But that does
not deter government from
empowering itself to peg the generator fees to the
United States dollar!
Apparently, government's policy foundation is "Don't
do as I do, do as I
say!" (Probably its next measure will be to impose an
energy tax on candles,
batteries, and tensile springs!).
Of course, this duplicity
incident on the part of government is far
from unique, and is certainly not
an isolated one, for it has unhesitatingly
imposed a fee payable for
Zimbabwean passports in US dollars, allows Air
Zimbabwe to peg its fares to
the US dollar, and to require payment by
Zimbabweans of foreign airport
taxes and landing fees in that currency
(thereby driving many, in
desperation, to engage in the alternative parallel
and black markets), and
prescribes that Zimra charge import duties on
alleged "luxury" imports in
foreign currency, notwithstanding that such
duties are payable by
Zimbabweans.
In many, if not most, instances, the recipients of the
imported goods
are receiving those goods as relief support from distant
families and
friends who wish to alleviate the extreme distress and
hardships of those in
Zimbabwe struggling to survive on increasingly
worthless pensions, rapidly
declining incomes (in real terms), and in an
environment of very great
scarcities.
But that sympathetic,
well-intended, and very necessary relief, is
eroded by the state's
avaricious demand for duties in foreign currency. For
most, that currency is
only available at extraordinary cost from within the
unlawful black market.
This is even so for the few who were fortunate enough
to be possessed of
Foreign Currency Accounts (FCAs) funded by monetary gifts
from family and
friends abroad, for all too often they are unable to access
their lawfully
owned foreign currency from the Reserve Bank. And "luxury",
according to
Zimra, even includes medically prescribed disposable sanitary
pants for the
frail and aged!
Governmental duplicity is in no manner limited only
to foreign
currency related issues. Never endingly, the president, his
ministers and
NIPC berate the business community for alleged profiteering
and for
exploitation of the captive consumer market.
Government
contends that business heartlessly strives to enrich itself
excessively,
with total disregard for the hardships which afflict the
populace. In the
alternative, or more probably as complementary to that
objective of private
enterprises, government recurrently claims that
business is engaged in
diabolical conspiracy with government's enemies to
destroy the economy, in
order to motivate the population to force a regime
change. But these
contentions in no manner deter government from resorting
to almost
continuous escalations of charges by its parastatals and other
enterprises.
In the last month the newspapers owned by a
state-controlled company
have increased their prices, to a gargantuan
extent, at least twice,
concurrently with the number of pages, and the
extent of editorial copy,
declining extensively.
Air fares on
the state-owned airline rise on a weekly basis. (This is
not to say that the
newspaper prices and air fares should not rise, for
hyperinflation impacts
upon publishers and the airline to as great an extent
as it does upon all
other businesses, but if the price escalations were, and
are, necessary for
them, so too are they for all other enterprises.
Therefore, it is
naught but duplicity for government to castigate
scathingly the private
sector for necessarily doing the same as it and its
enterprises must
do).
Government's ability to twist, distort, misconstrue and
misrepresent
is far from a recently acquired skill, for it has relied upon
it ever since
it so vigorously destroyed the economy and, in pursuit of
self-interest,
strove to divert culpability for that destruction to
others.
Until the recent imposition of certain, unwarranted and
unjustified,
sanctions by Germany, including the freezing of Zimbabwean
funds and the
withholding of delivery of paid for currency paper, Zimbabwe
was not the
victim of any substantive economic sanctions, save and except
for the USA's
Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act provisions,
which included
mandatory veto by the US of any IMF support to Zimbabwe,
there were no
substantive economic sanctions imposed upon Zimbabwe. But that
did not
impede government from recurrently attributing Zimbabwe's economic
ills to
the mythical economic sanctions.
Similarly, although it
is inconceivable that government did not know
the minimal extent of land
cultivation in the last agricultural season,
the gross insufficiently
available quantities of seed, and the grievous
lack of inputs by way of
fertilisers, chemicals, pesticides, electricity,
and so forth, nevertheless
for eight months government constantly trumpeted
on radio, television, in
the print media, parliament, and elsewhere, that
that season was going to
be "The mother of all agricultural seasons".
Regrettably, government's
duplicitous character is such that it studiously
ignored the fact that "the
mother was barren!" Once the season had ended,
and facts could no longer be
denied, even by government, it had no
difficulty in ascribing the season's
near total failure to a combination of
allegedly negative climatic
conditions, and to its perpetual blame
diversionary tactic of so-called
economic sanctions.
A very old maxim is that "honesty is the best
policy", matched only by
ethics and integrity, but with extraordinary rare
exception, governments the
world over do not subscribe to that maxim, or
those commendable principles,
and instead resort unceasingly to duplicity,
deceitfulness, fabrications and
fiction or, at best, economy of truth.
Regrettably, not only is the
Zimbabwean government no exception thereto, but
it has become one of the
foremost practitioners thereof.
The
article was submitted before the government suspended the
recently gazetted
Statutory Instrument on generators.
By Erich Bloch
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008
19:02
IT was an all-time Herald classic, to be cut out and sent to
friends
and colleagues abroad. Many will have it
framed.
Even if you didn't see it last Friday, you would
have heard about it.
It provided merriment in bars and clubs across the
country. As the nation
sank further into the abyss, the Herald declared:
"Zim's inflation not that
bad."
It was not that bad, it said,
when compared to Weimar Germany's
monthly 3,25 billion percent in 1923 or
Hungary's 4,19 quintillion percent
in 1946. Then there was Yugoslavia in
1993 where the monthly rate reached
five quintillion percent.
So, no reason to worry then. We are "yet to claim number one spot in
modern
world history". But judging by the speed at which we are travelling
we will
soon be there, on a par with post-war Hungary!
But the Herald must
get some sort of award for this latest piece of
sunshine
journalism.
Do the people working at the Herald really believe that
"Zim's
inflation not that bad"? Is that what people say? What sort of
cloud-cuckoo
land do these guys live in?
Then there was the bit
in the story which said: "A tough monetary
policy, a balanced blend of
economics and politics, as well as increased
production will be key to
achieving macro-economic stability."
Indeed, but since when has
this government ever shown the slightest
inclination to achieve these goals?
Journalists have a duty to exercise
healthy scepticism when reporting on
these matters, not utter gullibility.
We were interested to see
in the Herald last Thursday a ZimOnline
interview with Welshman Ncube which
our paper also carried. What caught our
attention was the spin given to the
interview in the introduction (that the
Herald was just seeking
clarification on Morgan Tsvangirai's "dithering")
and the omission of the
interviewer's name.
Why was the Herald unable to disclose that the
interview was conducted
by Basildon Peta?
Here we have a case
of a publisher denying to a journalist his right
to proper attribution. The
Herald was happy to use the interview because it
was grist to its political
mill, but was unwilling to credit the person
responsible for it. This is
another sign of a suborned media that conducts
vicious attacks on
journalists based outside the country, questioning their
professionalism,
but is then happy to appropriate their copy when it suits
them.
Muckraker is delighted that Kirsty Coventry was able
to bring honour
to the country with her gold and silver medals haul. They
seem to have
generated a good deal more excitement than the medals handed
out a few weeks
ago to those responsible for the current mess.
But Kirsty should beware of attempts to associate her with the
Chitungwiza
Aquatic Complex. This mosquito-infested pond has become a byword
for
Zimbabwe's misrule.
At the time of its construction for the
All-Africa Games in 1995 the
government was warned of the danger of it
becoming another useless white
elephant.
Sure enough it was
never put to good use. Zimbabweans like Kirsty who
wish to excel at their
chosen sport have to seek the hospitality of nations
denounced daily by our
politicians and state media.
It would be entirely inappropriate in
the circumstances to accept the
dubious honour of having any sporting
facility here named after her. Kirsty
should be happy with her diplomatic
passport and leave it at that.
Meanwhile, the anti-Tsvangirai
campaign is scaling new heights. What
this has done is to show the outside
world the "face of the beast" he is up
against here. Can you imagine MPs
elected by the people being arrested when
arriving at parliament to be sworn
in?
There was a nice little letter in the Herald last week saying
it was
"odd that a whole nation can be held to ransom by the intransigence
of one
man.What monster are we creating in allowing one man to think he
holds our
destiny in his hand?"
Indeed!
We
enjoyed the debate between George Charamba and Tendai Biti on the
pages of
last week's Mail & Guardian. Asked what he considered the most
important
outcome of the inter-party talks, Charamba put economic
independence at the
top of his list.
"To put it down simply to matters of democracy and
good governance is
missing the issue altogether," he said. "Talks are of no
significance if
they do not address economic independence."
Asked what influence Zimbabwe's economic decline had on the talks,
Charamba
asked "what decline"? The banks and mining companies were doing
very well.
They were in for the long haul.
Biti on the other hand said that
the economic decline was proof of the
fact that nationalism had been a
failure. Some people's values systems were
skewed and the economy is the
least of their concerns, he said. Thousands
were fleeing the country every
day. Inflation was sky-high.
"One of the ironies of the present
matrix is that the regime that has
made sovereignty the national religion
has made the Zimbabwean economy so
vulnerable. This has decreased our
independence."
Irony indeed. In an editorial the M&G points out
that under the deal
being offered to Tsvangirai, Mugabe would retain the
right to hire and fire
ministers and to veto all legislation.
"How can a lasting solution to the country's profound crisis be
found?"
ecretary for Justice David Mangota doesn't appear
to grasp the
elementary principle that it is injudicious for judges to
accept gifts from
any source other than those prescribed by
law.
That includes accepting anything from the Reserve Bank. Nobody
is
opposed to the government "looking after the judiciary", as he ineptly
puts
it.
This means they will be giving more of their time and
attention to
their work, he claims. Weren't they doing that in the first
place? Perhaps
he could enlighten us.
And why has Mangota
suddenly decided to speak up several weeks after
the event?
Law
Society president Beatrice Mtetwa made the obvious point that many
of the
gifts dished out last month were unrelated to a judge's core
business. How
is a plasma-screen television an essential tool?
Why is it when
government officials rise to defend the government they
invariably make
things look worse? All these officials are required to do is
the right
thing. Why is that so difficult?
We have in the past accused
New African editor Baffour Ankomah of not
being his own man. That's because
his magazine serves as a public relations
platform for President Mugabe. We
would be keen to know who paid for his
latest visit to
Zimbabwe.
Here is a clue. Ankomah says "the impression widely
created by the
Western media that the political violence in Zimbabwe was
perpetrated by
only one side, Zanu PF or Mugabe's thugs, is absolutely not
true. There have
been no saints in Zimbabwe. In fact all independent
analysts agree that it
was the MDC that first started the violence before
Zanu PF retaliated."
Really, is that the view of "all independent
analysts"? Not even Zanu
PF believes that.
Let's throw down a
challenge to Ankomah. Name "the independent
analysts" who suggest that the
MDC started the violence. Or did you, as in
the past, get your information
from the Office of the President?
Could Dairibord clarify its
outrageous charges. A week ago a 500 ml
packet of Chimombe milk from vendors
on Prince Edward St cost $40. The same
packet this week is going for $115.
Some vendors are charging $130.
Where's the National Incomes and
Pricing Commission? Dairibord is
ripping it.
Readers are
welcome to write to us with particularly shocking cases of
price hikes. Of
course companies have to recover their costs. But there are
some unjustified
cases of profiteering that need to be exposed.
Muckraker is
amused by Zanu PF's sudden rediscovery of the Senate. In
1989 the upper
house was declared a colonial relic we could do without. Now,
we are told it
is an essential instrument which can block measures passed by
the lower
house.
Not strictly true. It can delay but not block. But it is
obvious why
we are seeing reports about who's who in the Senate and Zanu
PF's majority
there. It's the only place they won any significant support in
the March
election, largely because most people weren't bothering. Even with
the
current set-up the opposition is well placed to resist any attempts to
roll
back the democratic tide.
Zanu PF's response to the
drubbing Mugabe got in parliament on Tuesday
was to be expected. The party's
spokesmen waxed indignant. "Childish
grandstanding", we were told. "A
mockery" of the august House. "Pathetic and
disgusting".
Mugabe
himself described the demonstration as "barbaric and
nonsensical".
These criticisms of the understandable exuberance
of a new generation
of MPs come from those who have denied us freedom of
speech on a systematic
basis. What the unprecedented events of Tuesday so
clearly demonstrated is
that the mould has been broken. Mugabe is no longer
the icon the nation
worships.
Many may indeed regard the
demonstrations staged in parliament as
childish and unnecessary. But stop
for a moment and think what those MPs
have been through at the hands of the
ruling party.
They endured three months of brutality and bloodshed
designed to
reverse the nation's will. Many lost members of their immediate
family and
colleagues. These were the survivors of the most vicious campaign
since
Gukurahundi. And Mugabe in his speech tried to suggest these were
isolated
incidents.
It was significant that the jeering started
when he tried to blame
Britain and sanctions for our predicament. "These
must stop now," he
ordered.
That proved provocative. The
opposition wasn't having any political
dishonesty of that sort. They had
heard it all before. In a sense what we
witnessed was some healthy
iconoclasm. The MPs took the opportunity to
express their anger and contempt
for their oppressors.
It was a lonely president who made his way
out to his colonial-era
Rolls and sat down on the back seat looking a
shrunken, melancholy and
rather forlorn figure.
But he was back
to his old self when addressing the party faithful at
the lunch hosted by
the Ministry of Local Government. It was actually
"disgusting" watching
these chefs stuffing themselves at taxpayers' expense
while the president
entertained them with stories about people spending the
night in bars.
Casual abuse hurled at the opposition instead of educating
his party on the
realities they now have to face.
Caesar Zvayi thought
parliament resembled a rowdy high school on
Tuesday. Then he decided the
demonstrators behaved like "pre-pubescent
youths".
This is what
happens when you really have nothing useful to say. You
get mixed up about
which grade you're in.
Their raucous behaviour at times drowned out
the president's voice,
Zvayi indignantly observed.
Goodness,
the voice that dominates the airwaves and newspapers while
denying a say to
others actually met its match. Surely not!
And Caesar, if you must
resort to other languages please get them
right. A dog is un chien, not
"chain". And the expression is "the dogs bark
but the caravan moves
on".
We appreciate Zvayi's barking role in defending the
indefensible, but
if the "on-going inter-party talks were predicated on
mutual respect for
each other's political space", then surely the public
media, given the MDC
majority, should allow other voices to be
heard?
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August
2008 19:00
PRESIDENT Mugabe's speech at the opening of parliament on
Tuesday
attracted the same kudos from trusted praise singers who were quick
to
attach tags such as "progressive" and "groundbreaking" to it but overall
he
said what we generally expected him to say.
That is
to say the Presidential speech was the same old monotonous
monologue
promising hope, food on the table for the poor, enhanced social
services,
provision of water and electricity, dealing with corruption,
fighting HIV
and Aids and improving foreign relations. It basically promised
a better
livelihood without changing fundamentals on the ground.
As usual
Mugabe trained his guns on the West and other enemies whom he
accused of
trying to effect illegal regime change in Zimbabwe. All in all
this was a
speech we have heard before and whose supposed punchlines have
become empty
clichés because listeners now find it hard to believe anything
promising
prosperity, especially coming from the Zanu PF government.
In
concluding his speech, Mugabe tried to put his best foot forward to
set the
tone for national recovery and healing. He said: "I wish to urge all
Zimbabweans to rekindle the spirit of national pride and self-belief as we
strive to build a strong and united prosperous Zimbabwe. Let us exert our
full effort towards raising our country and its flag in the manner our
Olympic team has done in Beijing."
Unfortunately for Mugabe, he
cannot marshal the collective strength of
the nation to rebuild this country
as he did with state resources to protect
his throne after his defeat in
March. The attempt to rally the nation to
support a recovery programme under
his leadership will fail as it has done
in the past because Mugabe today is
not the epitome of social progress and
trailblazer to national
recovery.
There is however still the false belief that our
political leadership
despite a myriad of shortcomings is joined at the hip
with the whole nation.
It is primarily about the relationship between, on
the one hand, the leader
promising a pot of gold and on the other hand,
followers who want nothing so
much as to just believe.
Not any
more. The sinews of attachment have been severed and no
blandishments of
electoral victory, legitimacy of the throne and
conspiracies of neo-colonial
plots can restore this engagement with the
people. We have a nation that is
now determined to defy Zanu PF's
administration at every turn and the
evidence is abounding.
We tend to think of defiance in openly
hostile terms, the way MDC MPs
barracked Mugabe during his address on
Tuesday or street demonstrations and
other more visible forms of resistance.
These the state can put down easily
through the use of concomitant
force.
But the biggest resistance to Mugabe's regime has been
refusal by
Zimbabweans to conduct themselves as required by his policies.
The illegal
trade in foreign currency, corruption in government,
bureaucratic truancy
among civil servants and people charging rentals, goods
and services in
foreign currency all point towards a silent revolution that
cannot be put
down. Has Mugabe not spoken strongly against all these ills?
It is not just
his opponents who have raised the sceptre of resistance but
his supporters
and lieutenants are on board -- indeed leading the
way.
In parliament on Tuesday rowdy MDC deputies sang and
interjected. They
did not want to give Mugabe a chance to speak. But at
various fora Mugabe
has been given the opportunity to speak without any
interruption but the
evidence is abounding that his calls for national
recovery and healing no
longer resonate with national sentiment. Instead of
drowning out the
president's voice with a cacophony of disapproval many have
simply looked
the other way.
The country, I believe is crying
for an alternative voice to
communicate strategy and unite the nation.
Mugabe's voice alone can no
longer achieve this. The faltering dialogue
process was a unique opportunity
to retire the voice of Mugabe and to
introduce a fresh tone to rally the
nation forward.
MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai provides that alternative voice
notwithstanding his
moments of weakness and errors of judgement. He needs to
start talking to
the nation as leader of a party which controls the nation's
principal
democratic institution, the House of Assembly. This is what the
people are
waiting for and not the soporific adverts on radio and TV
expounding
Mugabe's virtues and pleading with the nation to support his
efforts for
unity. Not many have been recruited into Mugabe's fight.
It is
important to note that people follow a leader when they have
confidence in
his plans. They do not just follow, they work, they sacrifice
and they won't
give up. Leaders have two important characteristics; first
they are going
somewhere and secondly, they are able to persuade the people
to go with
them. As an old Chinese axiom says; "he who thinks he leads when
no one is
following is just taking a walk".
By Vincent Kahiya
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August 2008 18:43
THIS
cabinet that I had was the worst in history," said President
Robert Mugabe
this week after the opening of parliament.
He said most of
the ministers were unreliable, they were incompetent
and spent time
attending to personal business. Many abused their powers to
deny people
food. He didn't say who the chief culprits were, neither did he
say who were
the competent ones.
What is however well known is that corruption
in high places has been
condoned. In the case of those arrested for abusing
the subsidised fuel they
get for farming, they have been given such risible
fines that the eloquent
message was "go and steal again".
"They
look at themselves," said Mugabe of his "unreliable" ministers.
"They are
unreliable, but not all of them," he said.
It is hard to tell why
Mugabe made this otherwise self-evident
confession. Our best guess is
perhaps to say that he wanted to look better
in the public eye. Secondly, in
the face of a spiralling economic crisis, he
imagined that he could curry
public sympathy by portraying himself as the
victim of unreliable cabinet
colleagues. It is by all accounts a hopeless
leap of faith.
In
the first place there is nothing redeeming in Mugabe's attempt to
justify
the current economic malaise on the basis of betrayal by his own
ministers.
The least he could do would have been for him to fire those
ministers who
are not performers just as it was his prerogative to appoint
them. But in
any sane society he should have resigned for gross dereliction
of
duty.
Mugabe's confession in fact amounts to an insult to the
people of
Zimbabwe. Over the years he has recycled the same ministers he now
calls
incompetent and corrupt and he begs for our indulgence in this. And
while he
was making the confession, he was on the other hand appointing to
new
positions the same people, some of whom have repeatedly been rejected by
voters at every election in the past 10 years.
Furthermore, we
find it deceitful of Mugabe to tell the nation that
those who own businesses
should employ people to work for them. The truth is
that under his
administration, his ministers have gotten fabulously rich
without ever
declaring their interests in various organisations. He has
allowed this
culture of self-aggrandisement to flourish among his closest
associates
without a thought for ordinary Zimbabweans.
Those who have so
benefited include members of the judiciary who have
been given
farms.
Most of them were recently given plasma-screen TV sets and
satellite
subscriptions to enable them to perform their duties more
efficiently. Not
just that. They were also offered 4x4 vehicles so that they
would not use
their newly-acquired Mercs to drive to their
farms.
In other countries such offers to members of the Bench would
be
frowned upon as it besmirches their reputation. But under Mugabe's
government it is business as usual. What makes it worse is that these gifts
are given without conditions.
For instance, it is not clear how
the judges and the ministers are
supposed to divide their time between their
official duties and attending to
private affairs on their farms. Shouldn't
there have been a choice between
those who wanted to go into fulltime
farming and those who wanted to remain
employees of the state to be
allocated sufficient resources for their tasks?
So what does Mugabe
promise toiling Zimbabweans as he contemplates a
new cabinet?
He had a ready answer too, except that even here he has no time to
reflect
on his own limitations. "I need managers. I want workers -- people
who take
people to work. I do not want people with their own businesses. I
want one
business -- people's business," he said.
The focus is completely
mistaken here even if we give Mugabe the
benefit of the doubt that he wants
people who will devote all their
attention to government business. The
parlous state of Zimbabwe's economy
needs more than ordinary workers and
managers. The country is in desperate
need of strategic thinkers who can see
beyond tomorrow. It needs people who
can think beyond political patronage
for them to survive.
Quite contrary to what Mugabe is thinking, the
economy needs the
skills of those who have already succeeded outside
political favours --
entrepreneurs who are prepared to serve the people
because they already have
enough for the good life.
It is
unfortunate that our politics are so tainted that they cannot
attract such
people. It's much worse that politics has been demeaned to a
sport of the
poor and corrupt who seek to make a living out of it. The
interests of the
people become no more than a convenient cover for
self-enrichment. Mugabe
has turned this disgraceful behaviour into a
national culture. That is a
shocking legacy.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 28 August
2008 18:38
WE Zimbabweans have been so buffeted by President Mugabe's
economic
policies that it is sometimes not clear to me whether we still know
what it
is we want.
Is it change for its own sake;
simply a new president so long as it's
not Mugabe, or a new president and a
new constitution as a first step
towards a more democratic
dispensation?
Currently the thinking seems to be "give us the
president and
everything shall follow". This defective "thinking" is often
followed by an
unpolitical "reasoning" that anyone who comes into power
after Mugabe should
be easy to replace because he/she is unlikely to be as
sophisticated.
The more daring ones name names, declaring with
breathtaking arrogance
that Morgan Tsvangirai will be easy "to deal with"
because he is less
"educated" or has no university degree. In other words
there is no need for
institutional safeguards against the abuse of power,
and consequently, the
issue of a new constitution has been pushed off the
national radar screen.
We are in grave danger when we allow national memory
to lapse so badly.
Professor Ken Mufuka wrote an interesting
article in the Financial
Gazette this week which raises two very fundamental
questions about the
Zimbabwean national psyche. One was his attack on
Zimbabwe's
"intelligentsia" for its failure to see the obvious in why
Tsvangirai
refused to sign the final of a series of documents at the
inter-party talks
between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations. The second was
to expose Mugabe's
unlimited executive powers in the current constitution.
The two are closely
related.
The first point was a denigration
of higher education in a way that
would find resonance with today's young
foreign currency dealers. Why, often
ask secondary and high school dropouts,
should I waste my time going to
school when I can make more money in one day
selling foreign currency than a
university professor earns in two months?
One can't doubt that there is
idiotic logic in this reasoning, but is that
how we want our children to
perceive education?
I have no
problem with people questioning the content of our syllabi
and the quality
of our debate. But to veer to the other extreme and declare
that because
those with degrees have messed up the economy therefore we don't
need
university education is to expose our country to danger in a world
facing
furious competition for ideas and influences.
"Why is it that
educated men cannot see what this brother (Tsvangirai)
can see so clearly?"
asks Mufuka in his article titled "It's not about
Tsvangirai". "Kufunda
kwakaipa chokwadi. Their (educated men's) brains are
messed up with too many
books."
This leads to the second issue. What did Tsvangirai see
which the
"intelligentsia" failed to see? It is Mugabe's divine power.
Mufuka sums it
well without a hint of irony. He quotes from the constitution
that the
"president shall take precedence over all other persons in
Zimbabwe". (I
guess this is a given in every country!) Further down it says:
"A court of
law shall not inquire into the following matters, or the manner
in which the
president exercised his discretion."
Mufuka
rightly observes that over the years, through constitutional
amendments,
Mugabe has "arrogated to himself the powers which were once held
by divine
kings". "I was surprised," confesses Mufuka, "to find that the
more learned
Zimbabweans did not appreciate what our undegreed brother
(Tsvangirai)
understood so easily."
It was left to Tsvangirai's genius to grasp
these plain truths.
Tsvangirai explained why he needed time to "reflect" on
the final document
which he is reluctant to sign. "We don't want positions.
We want power,"
Tsvangirai is said to have told Raila Odinga in
Nairobi.
Tsvangirai is right. You don't risk your life in politics
to get a
ceremonial post. Mufuka is also right. The issue should not be
about
Tsvangirai signing himself into obscurity.
However,
Mufuka appears to obfuscates matters here. He is full of
praise for
Tsvangirai's "genius" in demanding real power, but doesn't
explain the
nature of that power. The plain truth is that Tsvangirai craves
the same
"powers which were once held by divine kings" but are now wielded
by Mugabe.
He wants a complete transfer of the same powers.
I find that scary,
but it does explain the current subterranean
tension in the so-called
pro-democracy movement about Lovemore Madhuku's
place - a new constitutional
and presidential powers.
Shouldn't the mere transfer of raw,
undiluted power ring alarms bells
among those fighting for democracy who
have blamed Mugabe's sweeping powers
for the state we are in? We are coming
almost full circle but nobody in this
frenzied power dynamic seems to care
about trimming executive powers,
whether presidential or prime
ministerial.
The supreme irony is that Mufuka wants us to believe
that it is the
"uneducated" or "undegreed" who should discover and expose
these power games
and lead us to democracy.
Neither Mugabe nor
Tsvangirai needs absolute power in a democracy. The
Europeans and Americans
we are trying to ape discovered these banal truths
centuries back and have
set up safeguards to protect themselves against
"human nature". Mufuka knows
this much better than I do but chooses to
prevaricate around "genius". And
he belongs to the intelligentsia which he
denigrates. Is the truth that
painful in this polarised land where the
dollar has become a deity directing
the fate of every politician?
I am baffled and
horrified.
By Joram Nyathi
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Mugabe's Aura Of Infallibility On The
Wane
Thursday, 28 August 2008 18:58
WHILST one cannot condone
the disorderly conduct with which some
junior MDC MPs conducted themselves
at the opening of parliament on Tuesday,
it was amusing to see Robert Mugabe
being lambasted in an institution in
which he had had his way for
decades.
Most Zimbabweans have watched helplessly as Mugabe
over the years
built a cult personality in which he exuded the aura of
infallibility and
riding roughshod over all who dare stand in his way. Even
African leaders
usually articulate in criticising tyranny elsewhere in
Africa, were
seemingly tongue tied when it came to the Zimbabwean ruler's
excesses. It
appears however that the times are changing.
African leaders who are unimpressed by Mugabe's tired neo-colonial
diatribes
are sprouting up and are condemning his callous disregard for the
democratic
values he signed up to. Some have gone to the extent of not
recognising him
as head of state and he can no longer claim that Africa is
solidly behind
him when he addresses the West. Events such as these evoke
memories of the
gradual fall from grace of Mobutu Sese Seko and how the aura
of fear he had
fashioned steadily gnarled until he had to escape to exile.
It was
good for a moment, to see him being drowned out whilst making a
humdrum
speech about economic recovery without any policy change and
purporting to
reach out to the opposition without sincerity.
Joshua
Munekani.
Gutu.
-------------
Congratulations
To Mutambara
Thursday, 28 August 2008 18:56
I WOULD like to
congratulate you. When it comes to treachery and greed
you have set a
standard that will be hard to surpass.
I hope you will now
find joy and happiness with your comrades in Zanu
PF, Arthur
Mutambara.
The people of Zimbabwe too will, I am sure, never forget
the way you
fought for their rights and their liberty and in due course I
hope that you
will be appropriately rewarded. So too I guess will the
esteemed Cde
Welshman Ncube be rewarded, you are truly a unique
combination.
You have also convincingly demonstrated the absolute
need for high
academic qualifications if you are to be accepted into the
circle you have
tried so long and so desperately to join. Again I am sure
that the suffering
people of Zimbabwe will remember your unswerving
dedication to the person
you deem most important of all. Self interest is
after all a good thing to
behold.
In most universities it is a
requirement that engineering students do
a course in what is called "Liberal
Studies" in order that they learn
something of the humanities. It would seem
when you were a student you did
not attend or more likely understand the
lectures on ethics. This is very
apparent.
If you should think
that I am mocking your much-vaunted education and
maturity, please be
assured that it is totally intentional.
Charles
Frizell,
St Petersburg (Stalingrad),
Russian
Federation.
------------
Mugabe Stumbling Block
Thursday, 28 August 2008 18:53
THE political negotiation process has
predictably yielded no solution
for Zimbabwe.
In my view this
is because of a real and clear point that has sadly
been
ignored.
The central problem to the Zimbabwean issue is that Robert
Mugabe does
not want to pass on the baton of power to anyone including
members of his
own party Zanu PF.
To him the current talks
cannot in any way negotiate about his
retaining of power and he will use
every trick in the book to achieve this.
We have seen how over the
years Zanu PF members who have dared
challenge his right to rule perpetually
have been dealt with thoroughly and
ostracised from the party.
We have also seen how party members were cowed into endorsing him as
the
presidential candidate for the March 2008 elections. As a result I
believe
that the current negotiation process is clearly an exercise in
futility.
The mediator and some of the other Sadc heads of
state appear not to
see that this is the issue that needs to be dealt with
if any progress is to
be made.
Going forward from where we are
now, I see the need for all to whom
Mugabe listens to persuade him to exit
the front line scene and revert to a
party leadership advisory role and
allow others to lead Zanu PF and
negotiate a "meaningful" power sharing deal
with Tsvangirai and the MDC. As
long as Mugabe remains an active player in
the process, the combination will
not work. The sooner the mediators face up
to this, the better for Zimbabwe.
Whilst only time will tell
whether Tsvangirai will live up to
expectations as a national leader, there
is no denying the fact that he is
one man who, against enormous odds has
been brave and persistent in pursuing
democracy.
Ndega
Ngega,
Harare.
--------------
Call A Spade A
Spade
Thursday, 28 August 2008 18:50
YOUR Candid Comment
(Zimbabwe Independent August 8-15) headlined
"Dialogue with Magaisa over
dialogue" refers.
I used to suspect that you are biased
against the MDC-T and its leader
Morgan Tsvangirai. I have been following
your articles since the MDC split
in 2005 when you appeared to favour the
other MDC faction.
However, recently, I have witnessed a
significant difference in your
work, particularly last week's article. This
leads me to think that I was
either wrong in my interpretation, or that
Joram Nyathi has improved as a
writer.
Anyway, my point is;
your interpretation of the current political
developments and criticism of
Tsvangirai was very justified and based on
fact.
You
demonstrated that you do not fear and favour anyone by critically
highlighting his shortcomings leading to our present situation as well as
their strategic blunders in the current Sadc-brokered dialogue.
It is increasingly looking like there is indeed "lack of leadership in
Zimbabwe", borrowing from former SA President, Nelson Mandela.
Keep that up and let us call a spade a spade because politicians can
never
be trusted!
Edson Madondo,
Media Monitoring Project
Zimbabwe.