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Zimbabwe's rivals agree to seek Mbeki mediation
Reuters
Fri 10 Oct
2008, 13:24 GMT
By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's
political rivals agreed on Friday to seek
renewed mediation from former
South African President Thabo Mbeki to try to
end deadlock over posts in a
unity government, the sides said.
President Robert Mugabe, opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara, who heads a breakaway
opposition faction, failed again to agree
on who gets key ministries under a
power-sharing deal vital to ending
devastating economic
turmoil.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF had previously said there was no immediate
need for further
mediation by Mbeki, who brokered the deal last month just
days before he was
forced to give up South Africa's presidency by his ruling
African National
Congress.
"The three leaders agreed to call in the
facilitator to assist in resolving
the outstanding issues. An appeal will be
made to the facilitator for him to
travel to Zimbabwe," said Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Mugabe's chief
negotiator.
Mbeki has
agreed to continue his mediation in Zimbabwe on behalf of southern
Africa's
regional bloc despite being ousted.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), which accuses ZANU-PF of
trying to sideline it in the
power-sharing government, had called for more
help from Mbeki, the Southern
African Development Community and African
Union.
Opposition spokesman
Nelson Chamisa said Mugabe and Tsvangirai met for about
an hour on
Friday.
"It's still a tale of a deadlock. There is now consensus that
there is
indeed a deadlock, so the intervention of the mediator becomes both
imperative and inevitable," Chamisa said.
He was unsure when Mbeki
would travel to Harare.
"We're hoping that maybe by the end of next week.
Mugabe says he will be
busy this weekend."
Under the deal, Mugabe, in
power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain
in 1980, would retain the
presidency and chair the cabinet, while Tsvangirai
as prime minister would
head a council of ministers supervising the cabinet.
Zimbabwe's political
crisis worsened in June when Mugabe was re-elected
uncontested in a poll
boycotted by Tsvangirai, citing attacks on his
supporters.
Official
data on Thursday showed annual inflation surged to 231 million
percent in
July, reminding the leaders of the dire economic situation and
the need to
form a government quickly to tackle the crisis.
'We don't need Mbeki'
iafrica.com
Article By:
Fri, 10 Oct 2008
13:59
Zimbabwe's ruling party said political leaders did not need to invite
former
South African president Thabo Mbeki to mediate as there was no
deadlock on
power sharing, the state-run Herald said on
Friday.
"We should learn to overcome our challenges and as
negotiating parties we
feel that we should not find easy ways to avoid
taking hard decisions," said
Zanu-PF chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa,
adding there was no need to
continue "abusing" Mbeki's office.
The
leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
Morgan
Tsvangirai, on Thursday denounced the "deadlock" in talks with the
ruling
party on the composition of a new government.
He called on the
intervention of the regional bloc, the Southern African
Development
Community, which mandated Mbeki, and the African Union (AU).
Since the
power-sharing accord was signed on 15 September in Harare, the
Zanu-PF and
the MDC have met several times without resolving the issue of
allocation of
ministries and government agencies.
The MDC says Mugabe's Zanu-PF wants
to take influential cabinet portfolios
such as defence, home affairs,
finance and local government.
According to the Herald, negotiations were
continuing and President Robert
Mugabe is expected to meet on Friday with
Tsvangirai and the head of the MDC
splinter group, Arthur
Mutambara.
But Tsvangirai's MDC told AFP it was unaware of such a
meeting.
"We have not received any correspondence to that effect," the
party
spokesperson, Nelson Chamisa, said.
"I suppose Zanu-PF wants to
validate its claim that there is no need for the
intervention of the
mediator," he said.
Mbeki's spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga, simply told
AFP that "he (Mbeki)
has accepted that he is going to continue with the
mediation efforts,"
either in South Africa, in Harare or over the
telephone.
AFP
Say
goodbye to power-sharing
http://www.zimbabwetoday.co.uk
The dream of a new deal could end this
weekend
Sources within Zanu-PF have told me this week that Zimbabwe's
President
Robert Mugabe will decide on Sunday to bring down the curtain on
the
farcical power-sharing talks. He will announce, probably early next
week,
that the dream deal with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
signed
with such fanfares only a few weeks ago, is off.
Then he will
announce his new cabinet. This will include Arthur Mutambara,
leader of the
tiny MDC breakaway faction, purely for window-dressing. All
the other
members will be hard-line Zanu-PF party men. And for Zimbabwe,
nothing will
have changed.
Throughout the talks Mugabe has been faced with three
options. If you make
the existential effort to look at things through his
eyes, his final
decision has been obvious and inevitable.
His first
option was to ignore the wailings and threats from his core
Zanu-PF support
in the Politburo and the Central Committee, and give the MDC
control of some
of the government's key ministries.
This, he soon came to realise, would
have resulted in the mass resignation
of the security chiefs and other top
men, including his right-hand man
Emmerson Mnangagwa, now known to have
organised the well-documented
Gukurahundi massacres in the
1980s.
Mugabe would then have been left with a skeleton party to lead, he
would
have little personal power, and he would be highly likely to face
either a
military coup or a new breakaway Zanu-PF even more toxic than its
parent.
Both his career and his life would be in danger.
Option two
facing Mugabe was to convince the MDC to accept a lesser role in
the new
government, promising that it would be constantly consulted, and
that leader
Morgan Tsvangirai's opinions would be taken into account.
To be fair, he
appears to have attempted to take this option. But the MDC
were having none
of it. Tsvangirai insisted on a full and tangible share of
government. One
MDC negotiator told me: "We know Mugabe. We know we can't
trust him. Once
bitten, twice shy. We refused."
This left Mugabe his third option, which
he appears to be taking. He is
calling the whole deal off, accusing the MDC
of failing to listen to reason,
of being driven by "western masters", and of
trying to steal all power from
Zanu-PF.
Can he do this? Why not?
After all, his arguement goes, he's been running
the country without any
form of unity or power sharing with anyone else for
years, so why not just
keep going?
What can the MDC do in the face of such implaccable defiance?
It has asked
for ex-President Thabo Mbeki to resume his mediator role. But
Mugabe has
personally told Mbeki of his intentions. Mbeki has no wish to be
associated
closely with the resulting debacle, and at the time of writing
has yet to
appear in Harare.
The MDC has also appealed to the
Southern Africa Development Community
(SADC) and the African Union (AU) to
intervene. It's a forlorn hope, but at
the moment this is all the MDC - and
the rest of us in Zimbabwe - have.
Posted on Friday, 10 October 2008 at
09:22
Mugabe,
Tsvangirai, Mutambara face to face meeting fails to break deadlock
http://www.hararetribune.com
Friday, 10
October 2008 13:27 HT Staff
Movement for Democratic Change on Friday
claimed that talks to allocate key
cabinet positions have reached deadlock,
leaving a power-sharing accord in
jeopardy, a spokesman said.
"The
three principals met and there is now a shared consensus among them
that
there is a deadlock," Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the MDC said.
"The
intervention of the mediator therefore becomes imperative," said
Chamisa.
President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF was not available to
comment.
In September Zimbabwe's political rivals signed a landmark
power-sharing
deal aimed at ending the country's ruinous political
crisis.
Under the deal, 84-year-old Mugabe would retain his position as
head of
state, after nearly three decades in power, while Tsvangirai took up
the new
post of prime minister.
Tsvangirai's MDC claims that Mugabe's
ruling party wants to retain key
posts -- believed to be the defence, home
affairs, state security and
finance ministries -- in violation of the
pact.
Tsvangirai had also said in statement Thursday that the MDC and
ZANU-PF had
made no progress in the talks. "There has been no progress made
on this
entire section as ministries can only be negotiated comprehensively
and not
individually," Tsvangirai said.
The two parties have been
deadlocked for the past one month and there are
fears the GNU deal will
collapse if something drastic isn't done to break
the deadlock.
Mugabe
risks MDC fury by releasing list of ministries for parties
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
By Lebo
Nkatazo
Posted to the web: 10/10/2008 20:24:13
ZIMBABWE'S President Robert
Mugabe risked confrontation with the opposition
on Friday after publishing a
list of ministries which he said had been
allocated to the three parties to
a power-sharing agreement.
In a surprise development, coming just hours
after a meeting between Mugabe,
and opposition MDC faction leaders Arthur
Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai
broke off from a meeting without agreement
on the cabinet, Mugabe went on to
assign 30 of the 31 ministries - 15 for
his Zanu PF party, 13 for Tsvangirai's
MDC and three for Mutambara's
MDC.
Only the Finance portfolio remained unassigned.
In a
government gazette, using his powers in terms of paragraph (a) of
subsection
(1) of section 31D of the Constitution which says the President
"shall
appoint Ministers and may assign functions to such Ministers,
including the
administration of any Act of Parliament or of any Ministry or
department.",
Mugabe said there was still discussion over the Finance
Ministry.
New
Zimbabwe.com could not obtain a copy of the gazette, but reliable
sources
said it had been availed to the state media for publication late on
Friday
by Zanu PF's chief negotiator and outgoing Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa.
MDC Tsvangirai spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the ministry
allocation was
"just a wish list for Zanu PF and some in the other
MDC".
"There is bitter disagreement on Finance, Home Affairs, Local
Government,
Foreign Affairs, Education, Media and Justice," he
said.
Earlier on Friday, Chinamasa told reporters that Mugabe, Tsvangirai
and
Mutambara had asked former South African President Thabo Mbeki "to come
and
assist in overcoming the impasse" on the sharing of cabinet
posts.
Edwin Mushoriwa, a spokesman for Mutambara's MDC said in another
statement
that Mbeki was expected in Harare "early next week".
Mbeki
painstakingly got the power-sharing accord signed last month between
the
three leaders, raising hopes that Zimbabwe will emerge from its dragging
political drama and economic meltdown.
But no sooner had the parties
signed the power sharing agreement, which will
see Tsvangirai become Prime
Minister and Mugabe remain President, that the
parties started haggling over
who gets which ministry in the new government.
These are the ministries
gazetted by Mugabe, with a footnote that discussion
is on-going over
Finance:
MDC Tsvangirai: 13
1 Constitutional and Parliamentary
Affairs
2 Economic Planning and Investment Promotion
3 Energy and Power
Development
4 Health and Child Welfare
5 Labour and Social Welfare
6
Water Resources Development and Management
7 Public Service
8 Sport, Arts
and Culture
9 State Enterprise and Parastatals
10 Science and Technology
Development
11 Information Communication Technology
12 Public Works
13
National Housing and Social Amenities
MDC Mutambara: 3
1 Regional
Integration and International Cooperation
2 Education
3 Industry and
Commerce
Zanu PF: 15
1 Defence
2 Home Affairs
3 Foreign
Affairs
4 Transport
5 Local Government and Urban Development
6 Mines
and Mining Development
7 Lands, Agriculture and Resettlement
8
Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism
9 Higher and Tertiary
Education
10 Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development
11
Justice and Legal Affairs
12 Media, Information and Publicity
13 Women's
Affairs, Gender and Community Development
14 Youth Development,
Indigenisation and Empowerment
15 Finance
There is still a debate on
the finance ministry.
Constitutional amendment to legalise power share not even drafted
By
Tichaona Sibanda
10 October 2008
Constitutional amendment 19, which
was expected to be railroaded through the
second session of the seventh
Parliament that begins in Harare on Tuesday,
has not yet even been
drafted.
Almost a month after the signing ceremony of the power-sharing
agreement the
drafting of the Bill has still not happened because of the
impasse over the
sharing of key ministries.
MDC MP and chief whip
Innocent Gonese told Newsreel the new constitutional
amendment needed to be
drafted 30 days before it can be tabled in
Parliament.
'Nothing
meaningful will come out of this (parliamentary) session. We are
still
waiting for the conclusion to these talks so that we have a new
government
that will start to address the plight of the people,' Gonese
said.
The MDC chief whip highlighted the fact that the only item on
the order
paper in parliament next week would probably be debate on the
president's
speech, which he said will not move the country
forward.
The constitutional amendment is aimed at creating the post of
prime
minister, which will be assumed by Morgan Tsvangirai. The
power-sharing deal
will allow the three parties to appoint three cabinet
ministers from outside
members of Parliament. The three ministers will have
the power to sit, speak
and debate in Parliament, but will not have voting
powers.
Further, the MDC-T will appoint two non-constituency senators
while MDC-M
appoints one. Mugabe has already appointed 5 senators from ZANU
PF.
Non-constituency senators will have voting powers. There will be two
vice-presidents from Zanu PF. Mugabe's party retains the two posts that were
created following the 1987 Unity Accord between Zanu and Zapu. There will be
two deputy prime ministers, one from Tsvangirai's MDC and the one from
Mutambara's MDC.
There will be a cabinet of 31 ministers, 15
ministers from Zanu PF, 13 from
Tsvangirai's MDC and three from Mutambara's
MDC. There will be 15 deputy
ministers, eight from Zanu PF, six from
Tsvangirai's MDC and one from
Mutambara's MDC.
But for now all this
is still theory - as Zimbabwe still awaits a new
government and some sign
from Robert Mugabe that he will relinquish some of
his
power.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
UN chief 'concerned' about
Zimbabwe impasse
africasia
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 10 (AFP)
UN chief Ban Ki-moon Friday expressed concern about the
impasse in a
Zimbabwe power-sharing accord and urged the two sides to step
up efforts to
reach a "workable" deal as soon as possible.
"The
secretary general is concerned about this impasse," UN deputy
spokeswoman
Marie Okabe told a press briefing. "He urges the parties to
focus hard on
reaching a workable agreement as soon as possible."
"It is critically
important to get a government in place and to take steps
to restore the
economy and get Zimbabwe on a path to recovery and a better
life for its
people," she added.
She stressed the world body was doing its utmost to
work with the new Harare
government to help solve the problems facing the
bitterly divided southern
African country.
Okabe also expressed alarm
over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in
the country, with more than
five million Zimbabweans facing severe food
shortages.
Warning that
it will run out of stocks in January, the UN World Food Program
appealed for
140 million dollars to provide vital relief rations over the
next six
months.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe agreed on Friday to
allow
outside mediation in a bid to break a four-week deadlock over cabinet
posts
in a new unity government with his opposition led by Morgan
Tsvangirai.
After earlier insisting there was no need for South Africa's
former leader
Thabo Mbeki to resume his troubled mediation mission in
Zimbabwe, Mugabe's
camp said it now accepted a third party was
needed.
Following talks between the opposition and Mugabe's Zimbabwe
African
National Union - Patriotic Front, ZANU-PF's chief negotiator Patrick
Chinamasa confirmed Mbeki would now be asked for his help.
Since a
power-sharing accord was signed on September 15 in the capital
Harare,
Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai's main opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change have met several times to agree on a share of ministries.
The MDC
has argued it should take the lion's share of power as it won most
votes in
March's first round of elections. MDC leader Tsvangirai pulled out
of the
second round after mounting violence against his supporters.
However, the
opposition party has accused ZANU-PF of trying to cling onto
all the major
cabinent portfolios including defense, home affairs and
finance.
Mbeki, who was toppled as South African president last
month, has been
widely accused in the past of being too soft on Mugabe who
has led the
former British colony since independence in 1980.
UN
troubleshooter Haile Menkerios is serving as the UN high-level
representative on a so-called "reference group" -- also including the
African Union and a security panel of the Southern African Development
Community -- set up to assist the South African mediators and provide
regular progress updates.
Rights group offices raided after demonstration
By Lance Guma
10
October 2008
The offices of a human rights pressure group were raided by
police on
Friday, immediately after the group held a demonstration around
11am.
About 200 members of Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR)
took to
the streets of Harare marking what they called a campaign for
democracy and
justice in Zimbabwe. The demonstration itself was without
incident as the
police were taken by surprise and only deployed after it had
ended.
According to ROHR Information Director Edgar Chikuvire, riot police
patrolled the Harare city centre before some of the officers raided their
Alexandra Park offices, looking for the leaders who organized the
march.
Chikuvire spoke to Newsreel while in hiding and says several other
members
of the group have also gone underground. ROHR feels the power
sharing accord
signed by the MDC and ZANU PF sets a very bad precedence for
human rights in
the country because people are being denied the chance to
get a government
of their own choosing. 'Our hopes are underpinned in the
need for people to
embrace and feel passionately for the need to be ruled by
a government that
will be accountable to them simply because they chose it
into power,' ROHR
said in a statement.
The group also pointed out
that despite the deal being signed the country's
crisis, 'continued
unabated.' The group further argues that, 'Zanu-PF is
making frantic efforts
to retain the power that it lost to Morgan Tsvangirai
and the MDC during the
March 29 election, a situation that is a direct
assault on the people's
power and constitutional right to choose the leader
they want.' ROHR says
it's campaign will encourage Zimbabweans to demand
free and fair elections,
whose outcome will reflect the people's will.
ROHR is led by the former
MDC Chairman for the UK province, Ephraim Tapa.
Several activists run the
Zimbabwe office. Last month it sponsored a High
Court application by Rodgers
Chigwededza, Tinashe Gotora, Jackson Mabota,
and Precious Mateyeni,
demanding that the central bank scrap cash withdrawal
limits. Justice Joseph
Musakwa ruled the case was not urgent and had to wait
in line like all the
other court cases. ROHR slammed the decision saying,
'in other words we are
supposed to join another queue to stop the cash
queues.'
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Kenya PM slams
Africa's 'conspiracy of silence'
http://www.mg.co.za/
LAGOS, NIGERIA Oct 10 2008
10:22
Kenya's Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, on Thursday blasted African
leaders'
fear of criticising each other, saying it was stifling the
continent's
progress towards democracy.
"The African Union has fallen
short, failing to condemn brutal regimes and
sham elections, including the
second round of elections in Zimbabwe. This
has now become the
norm.
"But we should not be surprised at the AU's failure to stand up for
democracy, many of our nations' leaders have some skeletons rattling loudly
in their cupboards," Odinga said.
He condemned what he called African
leaders' "diabolical conspiracy of
silence and complicity in refusing to
condemn their neighbours", which had
helped some of the continent's infamous
dictators, such as Mobutu Sese Seko
of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Uganda's Idi Amin and Malawi's Kamuzu
Banda.
"Time has come when we
must turn our backs on that negative history," he
said, adding "we must
confront our demons".
Odinga, who spoke at a silver jubilee lecture for
one of Nigeria's major
dailies, the Guardian, said while there had been
progress on the continent,
there was still much to be done.
"The AU
is not doing sufficient in Darfur, in Somalia and other troubled
spots in
Africa," Odinga said.
"The AU needs to be more engaged,"
"The
Darfur problem is a sore on the conscience of African people ...
Kenya's
security is completely compromised by the insecurity in Somalia," he
said.
He also criticised the AU for failing to condemn the
violence-racked second
round of elections in Zimbabwe in which President
Robert Mugabe stood
against himself.
He said Mugabe has "dragged the
name of Africa into the mud".
"Mugabe turned out to be a brutal dictator.
He has turned to be grotesque
and a parody of a leader," he said.
SA
farmers asked to help Zimbabwe
http://www.businessday.co.za
10 Oct 2008
Neels Blom
Agriculture
and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana has asked SA's
commercial farmers to
join the agriculture department in coming to the aid
of Zimbabwean farmers
to prevent a food crisis in that country in the year
ahead.
The
minister told the farmers' union AgriSA at its annual congress in
Pretoria
yesterday that she had received an urgent request to assist in
Zimbabwe. She
also asked SA's financial services institutions to join in the
rescue effort
of Zimbabwe's farm sector.
An agricultural intervention may, however, be
too late to prevent a food
crisis in Zimbabwe, according to an estimate by
the United Nations' Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) last month that
about half of Zimbabwe's
people would need food aid next
year.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union president Trevor Gifford told
the
congress earlier that the country would be unable to plant the required
1-million hectares of maize needed to feed itself. There was fertiliser for
only 40000ha and seed for a maximum of 360000ha, while the minimum annual
planting is 1-million hectares.
Gifford said Zimbabwe would have to
rely on food aid from the international
community and its southern African
neighbours at least until 2010. The
recent power-sharing agreement was
meaningless to farmers, and harassment
and evictions were continuing. "There
is no rule of law," he said, warning
that hunger and social disintegration
were likely to lead to regional
instability.
In making her appeal for
help for Zimbabwe from SA's commercial farmers,
Xingwana appears to have
performed a virtual turnabout in her attitude to
commercial farmers. She
recommitted her department to supporting an increase
in food production in
SA and to facilitate investment . She said the
government was making an
effort to mitigate increases in fuel and fertiliser
prices. Good progress
was being made, particularly in coming to an
arrangement with industry about
fertiliser prices.
Xingwana also admitted that "some of the land and
farms handed over" for the
purposes of land and agrarian reform in SA were
"not working" and asked SA's
commercial farmers to come to the assistance of
emerging farmers who, she
said, had an important role to play in SA's
agriculture and in providing
food security.
Earlier, the president of
the International Federation of Agricultural
Producers, Ajay Vashee,
reminded delegates that the global food crisis added
75-million people to
the number suffering from hunger since last year.
That brought the number
of people with insufficient nutrition for life and
work to about
900-million, most of whom were African. The FAO estimated at
its Rome
meeting earlier this year that food production had to double by
2050 to meet
world food needs.
"This will have to be done on essentially the same land
area, using less
water. At the same time, farmers are being asked to reduce
greenhouse gas
emissions to fight climate change and also to conserve
biodiversity," Vashee
said, noting that governments, African ones included,
lacked the political
will to meet those needs
Aust, NZ,
Canada urge Zimbabwe to resolve differences
http://www.abc.net.au
Posted Fri Oct 10, 2008 6:00pm
AEDT
Australia, New Zealand and Canada have issued a joint statement
about their
grave concern over Zimbabwe.
The three nations say three
weeks after the power-sharing arrangement was
reached, there is an ongoing
unacceptable political and humanitarian
situation.
Inflation in
Zimbabwe is officially at 231 million per cent.
The joint statement says
Zimbabwe's people are facing critical shortages of
food and clean
water.
It urges the parties in Zimbabwe to resolve their differences as
soon as
possible.
UN appeal
The United Nations World Food
Program has made an urgent appeal for $US140
million to help feed the people
of Zimbabwe.
The UN says almost half the population are already suffering
from
malnutrition.
Food stocks are expected to run out by January,
leaving an estimated 5
million Zimbabweans in need of emergency
help.
- ABC/BBC
How do you rein in 231 million percent
inflation?
JOHANNESBURG
, 10 October 2008 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's official annual inflation rate reached 231
million percent in early October, from the July estimate of 11.2 million
percent, and the deadlock in talks between the ruling ZANU-PF and opposition
parties is likely to push hyperinflation higher.
The state-run daily
newspaper, The Herald, said the driver behind the inflation rate was wheat
shortages that forced bakers to import ingredients, which led to a higher bread
price.
After a succession of dismal harvests, attributed to
environmental factors and political disruptions, nearly half of Zimbabwe's
citizens will require food assistance in the first quarter of 2009, according to
the UN.
Several attempts by President Robert Mugabe's government to
bring down inflation - including lopping off ten zeroes from the currency,
introducing a new currency, and price controls - have failed to put brakes on
the multimillion percent inflation rate.
The importance of a political
solution to counter hyperinflation was illustrated in the wake of elections this
year, when the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won a majority in
parliament for the first time since independence in 1980, and MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai narrowly missed winning the presidency.
"There is a widely
held perception that the Zimbabwe dollar is seriously undervalued in the
parallel market. The sharp 65 percent appreciation of the Zimbabwe dollar on the
parallel market in the immediate aftermath of the 29 March 2008 elections
suggests that this is, in fact, the case," said a recent UN Development
Programme (UNDP) discussion document.
Independent economists have
estimated the real inflation rate at billions of percent: Zimbabwe's financial
malaise is not seen as a direct consequence of Mugabe's 2000 fast-track land
reform programme, in which more than 4,000 white-owned farms were redistributed
to landless blacks, it is rather a series of injudicious decisions overlaying
structural economic weaknesses inherited from the former Rhodesia that are being
amplified.
Dual economy
At independence
Mugabe's government inherited a dual economy "characterised by a relatively
developed and diversified formal economy sitting alongside a neglected and
underdeveloped peasant-based subsistence rural economy," according to the UNDP
discussion document, Comprehensive Economic Recovery in Zimbabwe.
 The trigger for the current
hyperinflation environment can be traced to the so-called 'Black Friday' crash
of the Zimbabwe dollar on 14 November 1997, which was precipitated by the
government's unbudgeted payment of gratuities to war veterans |
This dual economy has not
been addressed by the ruling ZANU-PF during 28 years of power, and "with the
collapse of the formal economy and the exponential growth of the informal
economy both in urban and rural areas during the crisis period, the problem has
deepened, with most economic transactions and units now operating outside formal
systems," the discussion document commented.
The trigger for the current
hyperinflation environment "can be traced to the so-called 'Black Friday' crash
of the Zimbabwe dollar on 14 November 1997, which was precipitated by the
government's unbudgeted payment of gratuities to veterans of the liberation war.
"This was followed in 1998 by Zimbabwe's participation in the conflict
in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which further contributed to the ballooning
fiscal deficit," the UNDP document noted.
Inflation rose from 19 percent
in 1997 to 56 percent by 2000, when the land reform programme was launched -
spearhead by the war veterans - so that by 2006 inflation was running at more
than 1,000 percent and reached hyperinflation levels by 2007.
"Zimbabwe's inflation is fundamentally caused by excess government
expenditure, financed by the printing of money in an economy with a real gross
domestic product (GDP) that has been declining for the last nine years. Money
supply growth has been completely decoupled from economic growth, the inevitable
result being continued and accelerating inflation," the UNDP said.
Between 1998 and 2006 Zimbabwe's GDP contracted by 37 percent, and by
2000 per capita incomes were lower than those in 1960.
Accelerating poverty
Poverty has accelerated,
according to the 2003 Poverty Assessment Study Survey (PASS II), from 55 percent
of Zimbabweans living below the Total Consumption Poverty Line (TCPL) to 72
percent of the population by 2003, or an increase of about a third in eight
years.
A rider to Zimbabwe's economic deterioration is the effect of the
HIV/AIDS pandemic, which UNAIDS and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
calculate may decrease GDP growth rates by between one and two percent.
About 1.6 million Zimbabweans between the ages of 15 and 49 years old
are living with HIV/AIDS, although prevalence of the disease declined from 20.1
percent in 2005 to about 15.9 percent by 2007.
The document was written
by Dale Doré, director of Shanduko, a Harare-based non-profit research institute
on agrarian and environmental issues, Tony Hawkins, Professor of Economics at
the Graduate School of Management at the University of Zimbabwe, Godfrey
Kanyenze, director of the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of
Zimbabwe, Daniel Makina, professor of Finance and Banking at the University of
South Africa in Pretoria and Daniel Ndlela, director of Zimconsult, a Harare
economic consultancy firm.
| Full recovery, defined simply
in terms of a return to peak real per capita incomes of 1991, would take twelve
years |
The authors agree that the medicine to
reverse the ravages of the economic mismanagement is likely to be as painful as
hyperinflation's symptoms, and that the precursor of a pro-poor recovery would
be "sound macroeconomic management".
"Full recovery, defined simply in
terms of a return to the peak real per capita incomes of 1991, would take 12
years, assuming a bottoming-out of the decline in the course of 2008, and
uninterrupted growth of five percent annually from 2009 to 2020," the discussion
document noted.
"And, given that Zimbabwe is susceptible to drought - on
average every three years - and that with the decline of commercial agriculture
this vulnerability has increased, even the five percent annual growth in per
capita GDP may be beyond the upper bounds of probability."
There is no
one-size-fits-all remedy for hyperinflation, but there is consensus that
delinking the political manipulation of the exchange rate and monetary systems
is a prerequisite.
Drastic measures
Professor
Steve Hanke of Johns Hopkins University in the US believes measures used
internationally to restore economic confidence and rein in hyperinflation
require "punishingly high" interest rates, causing slow GDP growth, stagnation
of living standards and the worsening of poverty during the "stabilisation
period."
Hanke contends in the UNDP discussion document that, should
there be a political settlement in Zimbabwe, the new government has three
options to consider: dollarisation, free banking, or a currency board, all of
which have their pros and cons.
Dollarisation or randisation - the rand
is the monetary unit of South Africa, Zimbabwe's neighbour and the continent's
economic powerhouse - would entail one of the foreign currencies being made
legal tender instead of the Zimbabwe dollar, which would die a natural death.
However, the new government would "no longer have an
independent monetary policy and set their own interest rates, but must 'import'
the monetary policy of the country whose currency is chosen," Hanke said in the
discussion document.
A second consideration is "free banking", used in
colonial Southern Rhodesia until 1940, in which private commercial banks issued
currency notes with 'minimal regulation'.
The third consideration is a
currency board, which would mean holding "foreign reserves equal to 100 percent
of the domestic money supply determined at a fixed exchange rate ... as a
result, money supply, and thereby interest rates, are determined 'entirely by
market forces'."
Handing over "monetary policy to outsiders or even to
market forces would be a high-risk strategy for a fresh administration," the
UNDP discussion document said, especially in the light of Mugabe's consistent
accusations that Zimbabwe's economic decline was a result of "former
imperialists" trying to re-colonise the country.
"Furthermore, the
suggestion that Zimbabwe should abolish its central bank when much smaller
regional economies – Lesotho and Swaziland – find it necessary to operate a
central-bank system, even though they are members of the Rand Monetary Area, is
unrealistic," said the UNDP document.
Should there be some sort of
political settlement, the creation of an independent central bank under a new
constitution was likely to be part of the public debate.
"Given
Zimbabwe's unhappy recent history with a politically driven central bank, the
economic case for RBZ [Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe] independence is very powerful,"
the document noted.
Whatever solutions are used to tackle Zimbabwe's
hyperinflation, its legacy will haunt the country for many years, and manifest
itself in such areas as investor confidence - both local and international - and
the rebuilding of "once strong" public institutions.
[ENDS]
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations] |
Zimbabwe's
village granaries are empty
http://www.hararetribune.com
Thursday, 09 October 2008 19:03 Phil
Matibe
Full bellies, and the state of village granaries, not the size
of the
county's mansions or opulence of its urban elite, are the universal
measures
of the prosperity of any nation with an agrarian based
economy.
Regardless and in spite of good rains this
season, Zimbabweans are facing
famine again due to archaic government
policies.
Communal and commercial farmers alike are in a
dilemma over when seeds,
fertiliser, agro chemicals shall become available
and when to plant. The
first early October rains have already fallen and
with less than 30 days
left before the official start of the rainy season,
fields earmarked for
maize have yet to be tilled.
Winter
ploughing which should have occurred in June/July as a way of
conserving
moisture and suppressing weeds is no longer practiced in most
farming
regions due to ineptness, the shortage of fuel and draught
power.
In a 21st century mechanized agriculture environment
Zimbabwe needs 42 000
tractors in the 60 horsepower range in order to
adequately cultivate all its
land for a successful season. Implements in the
form of ploughs, disc
harrows, ridgers, planters, sprayers and rippers are
also required for these
tractors.
Farmers usually
undertake timely soil analyses, scientific ways of
determining the amount of
nutrients in the soil. These soil tests also tell
the farmers the pH values
and determine how acidic the soils are.
Recommendations for the amount and
type of fertilizer or lime needed to
amend the soil for optimum plant growth
are availed to the farmer.
The Department of Research and
Specialist Services (DR&SS) carried out these
invaluable tests at
minimal cost to the farmer. However, most experienced
soil scientists have
resigned due to poor working conditions and the
analytical laboratory
technicians have moved to greener pastures. The DR&SS
offices and
research plots have been earmarked for demolition to make way
for the
expanded State House and to create a new home for the Presidential
Guard
Battalion.
Farm soil analyses, rainfall and fertiliser
records are indispensable in any
agricultural planning and every competent
farmer keeps meticulous journals
from previous years. However, irresponsible
war veterans and their
land-invading accomplices used these for toilet paper
or to light fires on
occupied farms.
When farms were sold
in Zimbabwe, the provision of every agreement of sale
was for each farmer to
surrender the title deeds and all farm records upon
payment of the selling
price. Any new farmer attempting to farm without
these vital records, which
in some cases were centuries old, is akin to a
deaf doctor treating a blind
patient with the help of a mute nurse.
Zimbabwe can easily
produce the 1.8 million metric tonnes of maize in a
single season needed to
feed its 12.5 million citizens if the agrarian
reform programme is
depoliticised and conducted in a transparent fashion.
The final total maize
production estimate for 2008 is 575 000 metric tonnes,
a 28 percent decline
from last years production.
Security of tenure, an
economically sustainable producer price, is a
prerequisite if farmers are to
plant maize and remain viable.
Maize is a controlled product declared by
the Minister of Agriculture and
Rural Resettlement as controlled in terms of
the Grain Marketing Act. Maize
can only be bought or sold in terms of the
controls of the Act and any
producer who wishes to dispose of excess
production can only do so through
the Board as prescribed in Statutory
Instrument 387 of 2001, which makes it
an offence for any person who fails
to deliver any controlled product to the
Grain Marketing. Movement of maize,
maize meal, wheat and wheat flour from
one specified area to another without
a valid movement permit or private
trading in these commodities is
illegal.
The GMB has been selling grain to a cartel of ZANU (PF)
briefcase
businesspersons at the controlled price of US$42.80 per metric
tonne. These
unscrupulous functionaries then sell the maize to millers and
the consuming
public for US$390 per metric tonne.
Persons who are
currently occupying productive farms and cannot prove
delivery of cereals
consistent with the previous farmer's output need to be
ejected from these
farms and only competent agriculturalists must resume
farming. An audit of
the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) intake accounts would
reveal and identify
bona fide farmers. It is illegal in Zimbabwe to market
maize by private
treaty and anyone who has done so since 2000 has committed
a serious
offence.
It is important that seed producing farmers and
farms be exempt from the
fast-track land distribution exercise. Isolation of
a seed crop is essential
to ensure non-contamination by other commercial
varieties. Seed producing
farms need a buffer zone and wind direction is a
determinant factor in any
resettlement model. The haphazard allocation of
land has to be reversed if
organised agriculture is to return and help avert
hunger.
Fertilisers are crop and soil specific, therefore,
the RBZ and Gideon Gono
must refrain from importing chalk dust and other
Chinese powders for use as
agricultural fertilizers in Zimbabwe. All crop
chemicals imported for use in
Zimbabwe previously were subjected to
registration after rigorous testing by
the DR&SS. Zimbabwe now risks
having pests and diseases that are resistant
to approved agro-chemicals and
our future food crops are in danger of being
devoured by pests that had
previously been suppressed to manageable levels.
Zero tillage
or minimum tillage is a possible alternative for planting this
year's maize
crop but this will require special farm implements. Fields for
zero tillage
must have adequate stover (crop residue). Agronomic practices
that will
control the infestation of weeds need to be employed.
Without
an urgent change in the agrarian reform policies, Zimbabwe's economy
shall
continue to decline and famine shall embed itself in our rural
communities.
Agriculture in Zimbabwe is rudderless, a microcosm of the
leadership vacuum,
cronyism, corruption and ineptness that has now become
the hallmark of the
present illegitimate regime.
A farmer can be a great
politician, but can a politician be a great farmer?
ZESA
Tariff Hike Shocks Residents
http://www.radiovop.com
GWERU, October 10 2008 - Gweru residents
have expressed shock over the
constant Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority's tariff hikes in the light
of poor service and have threatened to
boycott paying bills.
"What angers me most is that I do not
know exactly what warrants that
high charge because we rarely have
electricity. Four logs of firewood now
cost Zd 10 000 and you can imagine
how much we spend on firewood for a whole
month, while a candle costs more
than Zd 5 000. If you add all that plus the
bills that we got from ZESA and
compare to the salaries most of us get, one
wonders how ZESA expects us to
manage," said a fuming Adam Gunda.
Most of the bills shown to
this reporter showed that ZESA's monthly
charges were above the monthly
salaries of the majority of residents.
Mercy Maphosa, a nurse
who had a bill of Zd 68 000 dollars said: "We
have a fixed power usage of
5Amps and we have been billed Zd 68 000 - my
salary is below Zd 30 000. The
sum is ridiculous considering that there are
other bills that need to be
settled with this paltry salary of mine and
other
responsibilities."
Gunda who normally uses an average of ten
Amps a month said he
received a bill of over Zd 83 000 compared to the Zd
3000 that he paid last
month.
Others suggested that it was
better to have no electricity at all than
pay a power utility that is not
providing power to the consumers.
Wilbert Muringani, Chairman
of the Gweru Residents and Ratepayers
Association (GRRA) said: "I am very
disappointed that we have meetings and
they seem not to be very fruitful. We
meet these people thinking that we
will have tried to solve something, and
in favour of the residents. The fact
that these people keep on increasing
their tariffs will not augur well with
the residents who after all hardly
get the power."
He warned that if the power utility continued
to increase tariffs
without improving on service delivery, his association
will mobilise its
members to boycott paying tariffs.
Residents Fake Deaths To Get Mealie-meal
http://www.radiovop.com
Gweru, October 10 2008 - The
critical shortage of food in Zimbabwe has
resulted in some residents in
Gweru faking their relatives deaths for in
order to get maize from the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) Depot.
Investigations carried out by
this reporter revealed that some hungry
families were conniving with some
funeral companies and other relevant
authorities to get fake burial orders
so they could use them to get mealie
meal for their staple
sadza.
Although, it was impossible to obtain official comment
from the depot,
RadioVOP understands that the situation is so rampant that
at times
officials from the depot have to visit the houses of those who
bring burial
orders to establish whether the purported funerals are
genuine.
A Mkoba resident, who spent five days behind bars for
faking a
funeral, explained that the conditions prevailing in the country
have forced
almost everyone to devise survival tactics.
"If
you see or hear of someone faking death, it means that person
would have
gone through a lot, tried all tricks of survival... It is taboo
to fake a
death in our culture as it means that one is wishing for a
funeral, I was
driven to fake death by hunger and could not bear to see my
family continue
starving. Unfortunately luck was not on my side," explained
Titus
Mupoko.
The GMB gives pereference to those in possession of
burial orders or
to people with special needs. However the GMB verifies all
information
including taking visits.
"On the day that I
took the fake burial order to the GMB we were
called into a room and were
asked who we had lost and were the funeral was
and I gave them my house
number...On our way, I confessed that I had lied
inorder to save my family
which was starving but all the same I was punished
as they said i had
misrepresentation of facts was a crime," explained the
man.
The survey also revealed that most people were fraudulently getting
documents that indicate they have to buy medicines or had been bereaved, in
order to withdraw more than the permitted Zd 20 000 daily withdrawal
limit.
Surviving in Zimbabwe
By Stephen Matenga, Africa News, Haarlem, The
Netherlands. Photo's: Francis Ncube
-
Zimbabwe, the once bread basket of southern
Africa, now struggles to feed its people. The country has always been in the
news for various reasons. The controversial land reform, political violence, the
current economic crisis and world record hyper inflation. So how do people
survive under such a crisis?
Africa News reveals the insider story with
exclusive photographs as Zimbabweans await the an address from the new Prime
Minister, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai who will address a rally on Sunday
to brief the nation on the deadlocked power sharing talks with Mugabe. The talks
had reinvigorated hope among Zimbabweans. Hope that their economic, social and
political agonies would evaporate but it seems it never rains but pours.
Inflation
How do people really survive in a country with 231
million % inflation, worthless money, shortage of fuel, meaningless salaries,
where prices go up every day, where medical attention has become a luxury
because it has gone beyond the reach of many, where parents can not afford to
pay school fees. A country suffering from the yoke of economic sanctions
romanticised as targeted travel bans by the all powerful west. The country is
with erratic electricity supply and flowing raw sewage. Zimbabwe is suffering
from internal political tension, international condemnation and
isolation.
Sifelani Mapfumo, is a 32 year-old school teacher in the high
density suburb of Tafara (ironically meaning we are happy) in Harare. He earns
$12 000 Zimbabwean dollars per month (about US$30) and he almost cried as he
explained how the money does not sustain him.
A loaf of bread costs
$800, meat $3000 per kilo, transport costs $400 per single trip, he has to pay
for school fess for his two kids who each needs about $10 000 per term and he
has to pay rent. Landlords demand payment of rent in foreign currency which is
about R250 (South African Rands, thus about $24 000).
We are not even
talking about clothes and support for his ageing parents in the rural areas or
the groceries needed per month. Sifelani needs at least $75 000 per month to
survive but he only earns a paltry $12 000. So how does he and other Zimbabweans
survive?
In order to make ends meet, Sifelani relies on monthly support from
his younger brother who is working as a general hand in South Africa. The
younger brother sends foreign currency every month and it makes a very big
difference in Zimbabwe. “This is how many people survive; we receive foreign
currency from the diaspora. US$100 is equivalent to Z$54 000 so it makes a lot
of impact here, otherwise I cant imagine how I would survive with my peanuts of
a salary,” said Sifelani.
Social vices
However, others have turned
to crime and prostitution for survival. Others are now cross-border traders
going to South Africa, Botswana, Dubai and other neighbouring countries to buy
cheap products then come and re-sell them in Zimbabwe at a profit. Some people
in the cities grow vegetables in their gardens which is cheaper than buying meat
at about Z$3 000 per kg which is a quarter of the majority’s monthly income.
Most young people have embarked in illegal dealings in foreign currency
on the black market to earn a living. Others have resorted to illegal trade in
precious minerals such as gold, diamonds, emeralds and others. They will then
smuggle the minerals outside the country where they fetch reasonable prices in
foreign currency.
Those who go to work steal from their employers. They
do so in many ways. For instance, they avoid using their phones for personal
business and abuse phones at work as well as cars, fuel and some steal company
products for resale in the black market at give away prices.
Amos, a
journalist in Zimbabwe said he has been forced to cut on meals to reduce his
budget. He only affords one meal a day, in the evening. Some times there are
functions and cocktails that he attends as a journalist such as press
conferences, parties, workshops and others, and then he will be lucky to have
two meals.
In other words, while the situation is unbearable, people will
always find their ways of survival. It is unfortunate that some of the ways are
illegal, de-humanising and detrimental to national development aspirations, but
people have to survive and they have to find a way out. In the thick and thin of
economic and political challenges, Zimbabweans will always remain a resilient
people never running out of tricks for survival. People in Zimbabwe will always
find a way even if it means bribing the policeman which is a normal way of
business.
NB: Below are exclusive pictures from our reporter in
Zimbabwe
Zanu PF, MDC and the control of Structural Power
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
DR ALEX
T. MAGAISA
Last
updated: 10/11/2008 16:21:34
THE apparent deadlock over the formation of the
new Cabinet in the wake of
the agreement between Zanu PF and the MDCs has
caused much pessimism and
despondency among ordinary Zimbabweans.
The
agreement was only going to work if the parties acted in good faith and
cultivated a culture of trust and confidence between them. These ingredients
are sadly lacking, hence the continuation of the political impasse that has
so debilitated the economy of the country.
In order to gain an
understanding of the current difficulties over the
allocation of cabinet
seats, I intend to revisit a model of power previously
employed in these
pages.
The basic feature of that model, conveniently adapted from Susan
Strange's
theory of power in the international political economy, is
Structural Power,
which is the power to shape and determine the structures
within which others
operate. It is the power to set the agenda and decide
how things are or
should be done. The Cabinet itself the key structure for
this purpose.
We saw in the past how Zanu PF traditionally uses
Structural Power to set
the agenda and framework in which persons operate
and relate to each other
within the political and economic
landscape.
In many ways, the battle over the cabinet is centred squarely
on the desire
to, on the part of Zanu PF, maintain close hold on the sources
that confer
structural power and on the part of the MDCs, to gain control of
the same
sources.
Strange identified four sources of Structural
Power, namely Production,
Finance, Security and Knowledge. Put simply, the
proposition is that
structural power is held by those that are able to
first, exercise control
of people's security; make decisions and control the
manner of production;
control the financial architecture, i.e. supply and
distribution of finance
and control the definition, development,
dissemination, storage of and
access to knowledge broadly defined to include
information, ideas and
beliefs.
To these four, we added welfare as
another source of power - the ability to
provide or withdraw aid to the
people.
The election season was the climax of the battles over the
control of
sources of Structural Power. But the elections failed to
decisively deal
with the issues at stake, leaving the Thabo Mbeki-mediated
negotiating
process to decide matters.
When, therefore, the agreement
was signed on 15 September 2008, after many
twists and turns, the hope was
that although it was a messy compromise, it
would pave the way for recovery.
Yet a fundamental weakness of the agreement
is that it does not provide for
an efficient enforcement mechanism or what
little there is, is not capable
of doing the job effectively.
A key shortfall is that it does not
properly deal with the allocation of
cabinet seats, which symbolically
signify the amount of structural power
that each of the parties commands
under the proposed order.
Yet because structural power is the key form of
power that Zanu PF and the
MDCs have been fighting for, it is odd that this
was not properly and
effectively dealt with prior to the signing of the
agreement.
A quick look at some of the so-called key ministries within
the framework of
this model should help indicate why the fight over the
cabinet is simply a
perpetuation of the struggle over Structural
Power.
The Home Affairs ministry is chiefly responsible for policing
affairs. It is
part of the security apparatus, alongside the military and
intelligence
services. It is understood that Zanu PF will retain the Defence
Ministry,
responsible for the armed forces. In any event, as the
Commander-in-Chief of
the Armed Forces under the Constitution, Mugabe and
Zanu PF were always
going to have greater leverage in this area.
The
police authorities have greater day-to-day involvement with the ordinary
people. Control of both the defence and police authorities would enable Zanu
PF to retain the tight hold they have had over the security forces for 28
years. Within the above model, it would enable Zanu PF to have exclusive
control of security as a source of structural power.
An alternative
outcome in the spirit of the compromise agreement, and in
order to share
power arising from the security structure, would be to share
the ministries
that make up the security structure.
Since Mugabe and Zanu PF already
draw power from the military by virtue of
his supreme command as President,
it makes sense to allow one of the MDCs to
have leadership of the police
authorities. In any event, the MDCs' control
of the police authorities would
not be as exclusive as Zanu PF fears,
because under the Constitution, the
Police Commissioner-General is a
presidential appointee.
The
arrangement of sharing power drawn from the security structure is not
new.
When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, Mugabe became Prime Minister
and
was also in charge of the Defence Ministry. His rival, Joshua Nkomo took
the
Home Affairs Ministry.
Of this arrangement, Nkomo says in his
autobiography, The Story of My Life,
that it was necessary for him and his
party, PF ZAPU that they "demand a
senior ministry dealing with security
matters. Robert Mugabe himself took
the ministry of defence, responsible for
the armed forces. I took the
ministry of home affairs, in charge of the
police. That seemed the formula
best calculated to win the confidence of the
fighting men of both armies and
to contribute to the building of a real
sense of impartial national
security." (pp225).
These words echo very
loudly in today's political environment and show why
it is necessary to
share power arising from the security structure.
Second, the finance
ministry is critical in that it confers leverage over
financial and economic
matters, which represents the Finance Structure as
outlined in the above
model. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has
epitomised the critical role
of the provision (or withdrawal) of finance and
the significant power that
this represents.
Whoever controls this ministry and the institutions
falling under it will
have enormous power drawn from the finance structure.
Zanu PF has had
exclusive control of this ministry for 28 years. Given the
state of the
economy, it has not worked well and is unlikely to work any
better going
forward. They know that nothing will work if the old order
persists. But the
fear is that letting finance slip might mean letting go of
the power that is
drawn from the finance structure.
The same analysis
applies to the power drawn from the knowledge structure,
in this case the
dissemination of information through the media. The
agreement referred to
the electronic media, including foreign-based radio
stations. But it was
strangely mute on the print media, where, as we have
seen in the last 8
years, information laws were employed to cause the
closure of a number of
newspapers.
Zanu PF would like to control the ministry that is
responsible for
information matters because it would retain its dominance of
the media. The
perpetual abuse of the state media, in some cases the use of
hate language,
has continued even after the agreement was signed. For as
long as Zanu PF
retains the type of control that it has had over the media,
it means it will
retain the greatest, if not exclusive control of power
drawn from the
Knowledge/Information structure.
In a nutshell, the
on-going squabbles over cabinet positions represent the
continuation of the
struggle between the parties for the control of sources
of structural power.
Structural power confers the ability to set the agenda.
The key sources of
power, namely production, security, finance and knowledge
have to be
accounted for in determining the allocation of cabinet positions,
because
they give a symbolic (and actual) signal of who has greater leverage
in the
proposed government.
Zanu PF has, for a very long time enjoyed a monopoly
over the sources of
Structural Power. It is hard for them to give that up
because it would
signal a diminution of its power over the state. But given
the circumstances
that they face, they have very limited options.
It
could well happen, as a result of frustration that the MDCs could decide
to
walk away and leave Zanu PF in charge of all sources of structural power.
But they know as well, that power under those circumstances would be
meaningless.
Good faith and common sense are essentially if the
current impasse is to be
overcome.
Alex Magaisa is based at Kent Law
School, The University of Kent. He can be
contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
The Mugabe-Tsvangirai Rotten Alliance
Fahamu
(Oxford)
OPINION
10 October 2008
Posted to the web 10 October
2008
Kola Ibrahim
Denouncing the implications of the
Mugabe-Tsvangirai alliance, Kola Ibrahim
assesses the consequences of a
pro-capitalist union for the Zimbabwean
working masses. Emphasising the
MDC's and ZANU-PF's moral bankruptcy, the
author concludes that unless the
country's labour movement is resurrected to
take a lead in forthcoming
struggles, its future will be doomed.
Events postdating the political
stalemate that precipitated the unilateral
elections in Zimbabwe where
Robert Mugabe was the sole contestant could
hardly be described as respite
for the working but poor masses of Zimbabwe.
News had it that Mugabe and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change's
(MDC) Morgan Tsvangirai
concluded an agreement for negotiation with the
possibility of forming a
unity government (as witnessed in Kenya and as
advocated by Nigeria's Umar
Yar'Adua). This is coming at a time when
inflation in the country has
skyrocketed to over 2 million percent; a sign
of an unprecedented plummeting
in the standard of living with over 80
percent of the population officially
poor. The increase in living wage is
linear while the inflation (which was
200,000 percent about three months
ago) is increasing geometrically. The
situation is so terrible that the
government had to give free food to the
masses. It is under these conditions
that the opposition - that should serve
as the beacon of hope and a platform
for struggle for better living - is in
reality forging an alliance with the
rotten, anti-poor and dictatorial
Mugabe government. This clearly reveals
the real quagmire in which the poor
masses of Zimbabwe find themselves, a
quagmire overseen by a rotten
government with practically no platform of
hope and
change.
During the presidential run off, Tsvangirai had predicated
his withdrawal
from election based on widespread violence against the
opposition members
which he rightly claimed could snowball into serious
crisis if the contest
should continue. Inasmuch as one cannot deny the
reality of Mugabe's brazen
violence, the retreat of Tsvangirai and his party
in the election is a
reflection of the political frustration that has beset
the working poor. How
else could one describe a situation where the masses
who voted out the
Mugabe dictatorship, (despite unprecedented campaign of
violence) would back
off from defending their choice at the run off, even if
it includes taking
arms against the regime? The main reason is that
Tsvangirai and his MDC
party do not represent any beacon of hope for the
masses; they possess no
clear-cut economic programme to take the country's
economy out of the woods
or any plan to challenge imperialism. A glance
through the MDC's website
clearly reveals its pro-rich, pro-imperialism
neoliberal economic
orientation that will further economically
disenfranchise the working poor.
In its normal messianic nature, the
opposition did not reveal how it intends
to resolve the land problem (which
in the real sense affects the poor
Zimbabwean farmers than the much-touted
white farmers). Maybe he is taking
after Nigerian crooked politicians who
conceal their ignorance-cum-hypocrisy
with the argument that they do not
want the other party to steal (or maybe
loot) their programme when they are
really the same birds flocking in
different camps. This is coupled with the
fact that Tsvangirai himself was
formerly part of Mugabe's dictatorship -
his former official physician -
just as many of the MDC stalwarts are former
staunch members of Mugabe's
ZANU-PF.
The fact that Tsvangirai and the
opposition do not pose any genuine
alternative to the masses is clearly
manifested in the manner in which
Tsvangirai reacted to the violence
initiated by the Mugabe's shock troopers.
Rather than appeal to the working
masses and youth to organise and resist
the fascist troops (who are in
reality in minority), he is fond of calling
on the 'international' community
(note his definition of international
community means the imperialist
nations of the US and Europe) to use
military actions and sanctions against
Mugabe. The implication of this is
that he has contempt for the masses for
which he claims to be 'fighting'.
Any international action by any
imperialist country will not be in the
interest of the working poor of
Zimbabwe and will either boost Mugabe's
status as an anti-imperialist -
which he never was - or help imperialism
establish a military and economic
base in the country (and turn the country
into another Iraq - where a
'liberation' war overseen by the US and Europe
has turned into war over oil
and occupation). This has further intensified
the skepticism felt by the
Zimbabwean poor attitude towards him, something
which in the process has
unfortunately given the Mugabe regime another lease
of life.
A
possible calculation of Tsvangirai is that reliance on the working masses
could inspire a mass movement that may push him to the left. This will
definitely undermine his capitalist neoliberal economic programmes. This
will definitely also diminish his status to govern on behalf of big
business. Having realised that imperialism had more in its hands than the
problems facing Zimbabwe, and fearful of the consequences of a mass movement
to dislodge Mugabe on his political interests, Tsvangirai resorted to
negotiation with a regime he has decried as dictatorial. He was even
reported to have renounced all his critical statements on Mugabe's
dictatorship. This treachery of Tsvangirai is not unexpected because - as I
had earlier stated in my previous commentaries on Zimbabwe and Kenya
(published in many newspapers and websites) - as a pro-capitalist
politician, he is bound to limit his struggle for power within the precinct
of capitalism and not raise the masses to their feet. The era of progressive
capitalism is long gone, and the current neoliberal capitalism is not
favourable to mass movement, even one that would give it a 'human
face.'
It is vital to stress that the treachery and the pro-imperialist,
anti-masses character of Tsvangirai (and his MDC) should not bolster any
latent credibility for Mugabe's autocratic regime. As against the claim of
many commentators that Mugabe is an anti-imperialist, anti-apartheid hero,
he actually emerged from imperialism, even during the apartheid struggle. Of
course, like every other nationalist petty bourgeois and in the spirit of
the mass anger against imperialism during the period, he was against
apartheid, but he was also used by British imperialism to maintain its
presence in Zimbabwe. It is noteworthy to state that the same Mugabe who
claims to be fighting white rule did not take white big farms during the
anti-apartheid victory, when the movement was raging, but rather negotiated
with British imperialism. But having lost control of the economy through
subjugation of the nation to the poisonous neoliberal pills of
commercialisation of social services, privatisation of public corporations
and trade liberalisation (which led to the loss of over 25,000 jobs in 1996
alone and a slashing of wages by 25 percent in 1995, among other terrible
results) and looking for a shortcut, resorted to anti-imperialism slogans.
Ridiculously, the land distribution could only benefit just a thousand of
rich black farmers (out of millions of poor and landless farmers) most of
whom have stakes in his ruling ZANU-PF party. Therefore, it is a miscarriage
of logic to present Mugabe as fighting imperialism. The economic woes
witnessed in Zimbabwe are a product of the anti-poor neoliberal policies of
imperialism implemented by Mugabe in the 1990s and not a result of economic
sabotage of western imperialism as some people claim. While of course the
role of western imperialism, which in actual fact benefited from the
neoliberal policies implemented by Mugabe (and subsequently left the economy
in ruins), should not be underemphasised, this should not be done to bestow
credibility on the Mugabe regime.
This also brings to focus the role
and hypocrisy of imperialism in the
crisis facing Zimbabwe. Aside from the
fact that imperialism contributed to
the country's economic woes, western
imperialism's reactions again reflect a
certain hypocrisy. It will be
recalled that while these nations (especially
the US and the United Kingdom)
were condemning the Mugabe regime, they did
not mention their roles in the
economic crisis. No relief package was given
to the poor people of Zimbabwe
who are groaning under economic woes that had
provided unprecedented wealth
to capitalist corporations. Rather,
imperialist nations in the UN Security
Council prefer to place sanctions -
including in economic and military form
- which will further the sufferings
of the Zimbabwean poor, who represent
anywhere up to 80 percent of the
country's population. Though sanctions were
vetoed by China and Russia, this
does not portray any section of imperialism
in any good light. The fact is
that it is sheer selfish capitalist interests
that drive foreign policy and
international politics.
Russia's and
China's vetoes are not a product of sympathy for the Zimbabwean
poor, but an
attempt to boost their capitalist economic agendas. For
instance, Russia has
been boosting markets in Third World countries for its
economy, especially
its gas industry. Furthermore, Russia has been trying to
stand on its feet
in the committee of imperialist nations after the collapse
of Stalinism (a
grotesque caricature of genuine socialism), something
reflected in the
recent nationalism campaign begun by Vladimir Putin, a
policy meant to mask
the glaring failure of capitalism in Russia. The only
way for Russia to
stand therefore is by posing as an alternative to US and
British
imperialism, all the while pursuing the same capitalist and
imperialist
policies (Chechnya as an example) in the eyes of Third World
countries with
the central aim of boosting its outreach economic status.
As to China, it
is a known fact that the Asia country's recent economic boom
coupled with
its importance to the world (and US especially) economy has
boosted its
international status, something which has further reinforced its
struggle
for resources and markets to sustain its economic boom. Failure in
this
regard will spell political doom for the fragile ruling class of China,
and
as a result, the international economy. This informs its international
politics and indeed the veto. As against the thinking that the veto is meant
to protect Africa's interests or liberate countries of the Third World, it
is worth recalling the terrible role of China in sustaining Sudan's terror
and its direct repression in Tibet.
In the much the same vein, the US
and the UK's pro-sanction vote shows no
concern for human rights. The
historic record of the two countries has been
one of sustaining tyrannical
governments: in its arming of strategic
supporters in Chile, Panama, Morocco
and; in supporting armed forces against
popular governments like Cuba (since
the 1960s), Nicaragua (in the 1970s),
and Venezuela (since 2002). Even the
role of US and other section of
imperialism in recent events in Africa have
confirmed the treacherous policy
of imperialism. For instance, despite the
brazen manner of election-rigging
in Nigeria and Kenya, the US (and later
the UK) was the first country to
congratulate the beneficiary of the
rigging, even when people rejected the
election. Therefore, the crisis in
Zimbabwe is also a clear failure of
international capitalist politics which
tailored its political agenda
according to the interests of profit of the
big capitalist classes of each
country, especially the imperialist ones. The
latest reports indicate that
the European Union has endorsed the negotiation
between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai, and has in fact commended South Africa's
government, the new
face of imperialism in Africa. Definitely, this
recognition of the
negotiation will give a new lease of life to Mugabe, yet
the same EU had
earlier strongly condemned Mugabe's sit-tight
rule!
More horrible is the reaction of most African countries to what
amounts to
political barbarism in Zimbabwe. Aside most African leaders who
maintained
criminal silence, those that claim to have spoken out - like
Angola's Dos
Santos and Nigeria's Umar Yar'Adua - are little different from
Mugabe in
their manner of emergence, repressive activities and economic
policies, and
their comments have been evasive, mostly in the attempy to
boost their image
while avoiding confrontation with Mugabe. In fact, to show
the level of
Africa's political doom, Mugabe even threatened to expose any
African leader
who criticises his government. However, Thabo Mbeki went a
mile further by
not only giving surreptitious support to Mugabe but also
organizing a power
deal between Mugabe and the opposition MDC to stabilise
Mugabe's government
and give him international recognition. Aside from the
moral burden of most
African rulers, the fear of a mass revolt in Zimbabwe,
which can set the
masses of other lands in motion, is a dangerous sore that
made many African
leaders keen to maintain a notorious deafening silence. It
is this same
silence that was maintained during the Kenyan election
standoff. Most
African leaders are lapdogs of capitalist imperialism, who
fear losing their
status as apron strings of imperialism through mass
movement. Gone and never
to return is the old era of petty bourgeois
nationalism of many African
leaders. The crisis in Zimbabwe has manifested
the 'primer faecal'
(apologies to Wole Soyinka) nature of capitalism and
imperialism, and the
terrible stench is suffocating the working poor of
Africa and the world at
large.
What is the future of Zimbabwe, and
the implications of the present
situation for the poor people of Africa? As
has been said earlier, the major
reason the poor masses had not come to the
centre stage of the struggle to
chase away Mugabe is the fact that they see
no alternative to the rotten
Mugabe regime, as represented by Tsvangirai and
MDC. However, the political
alliance being forged between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai will further deem the
future of the working poor of Zimbabwe. As
against the position of some
commentators that the deal will restore sanity
to Zimbabwe, the reality is
that the deal will further deem any hope of
respite for the masses who have
been suffocated by the economic
strangulation. It should be noted that the
simple majority gained by
Tsvangirai in the first round is a sign that the
masses are in need of
change but do not have trust in the capitalist
economic policy of MDC and
Tsvangirai. This coupled with the political
bankruptcy of the MDC further
alienated the Zimbabweans who prefer to stand
aloof rather than shed blood
on behalf of one capitalist politician, who
stand for nothing clear.
Therefore, the political alliance between Mugabe
and Tsvangirai will further
frustrate the masses - some of whom still nurse
some illusion in Tsvangirai
- who will now feel totally insecure. Expected
economic failure that will
result from this rotten collaboration will
further estrange the masses, who
may, in the absence of clear cut working
class leadership, resort to
self-help through sectarian means as witnessed
in the Kenya election crisis,
something which is only the first phase of the
simmering
discontent.
Unless the labour movement in Zimbabwe is resurrected to take
a lead the
oncoming political and economic struggle of the working masses
for change,
the future is doomed. The labour movement and working class
activists in
Zimbabwe must start to build a political alternative that will
genuinely
defend the interest of the poor Zimbabweans. Such movement must
incorporate
the working class with other oppressed strata including the
peasants and
youth (most of whom are unemployed and thus pose a serious
challenge to the
social stability of the country) by linking their demands
together.
With the clear manifestation of the political bankruptcy of the
opposition
MDC and Tsvangirai, the stage is set for a social revolution by
the working
and poor people of Zimbabwe to bring back the economy in the
interest of the
working poor of the country, and to restore sanity to the
polity. This is
the central task of the labour movement and the working
class movement in
not only Zimbabwe but the whole African continent. It is
unfortunate that
the Zimbabwe Trade Union Congress (ZTUC) has played an
insignificant role in
the whole political development to provide a serious
political hope for the
Zimbabwean poor. Genuine pro-working class
organisations in both Zimbabwe
and the whole African continent must start
the process of building a
working-class mass movement in Zimbabwe as a
stepping stone towards forming
a pan-African working-class movement that
will bring back the fighting
spirit of the African poor for genuine
socialism where the vast but
mismanaged and plundered resources of the
continent (human, material,
natural and monetary) will be nationalised and
democratically run by the
working and poor people themselves. This will mean
that the huge
agricultural resources of Zimbabwe (and other African
countries), rather
than being struggled over by the both imperialism and
local moneybags, will
be used to develop a vast, environmentally friendly
agro-based economy that
will employ the majority of the country while
providing the resources to
develop the country - provide basic social
infrastructures along with free,
qualitative education, healthcare, cheap,
efficient and environment-friendly
transport, agriculture and communication
system, and a developed
industrialised economy - which cannot be achieved
within the framework of
neo-colonial, neoliberal capitalism. This
transformation cannot be achieved
without working class solidarity, and the
elimination of decadent capitalism
in Africa.
It is unfortunate that
most labour leaders in Africa did not take a
practical action in support of
the working poor of Zimbabwe, with most of
them either supporting one
section of the bourgeoisie or the other. This
clearly shows the
pro-capitalist orientation of most of the central labour
leaders in Africa,
since the collapse of the Stalinist Soviet Union. One
would have expected
the labour movements in Africa to declare solidarity
with mass action in
support of the Zimbabwean poor but for the pro-business
character of the
labour leadership. This is not to say that the working poor
are not ready
for change. On the contrary, the mass movement that greeted
the recent
capitalist-induced food crisis is a sign that the masses are
ready for
social change, but for the character of the pro-capitalist labour
leadership. The spirit of solidarity of the African poor is clearly
manifested in the heroic actions of South African dockworkers, who refused
to ship arms meant for Mugabe to implement a form of fully fledged fascism.
The lesson to be learnt from the present Zimbabwean issue is the need for a
political platform of the working poor in each and every African country to
lay the basis for social revolution to enthrone a socialist society in the
continent to prevent total descent to barbarism. This is the challenge
before the labour movement and pro-working class activists in Africa to
build a change-seeking, fighting, mass-based, democratic working class
organisation and movement as a basis for a mass socialist political
alternative.
* Kola Ibrahim is a member of the Democratic Socialist
Movement (DSM),
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
*
Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at
http://www.pambazuka.org/
A
letter from the diaspora
http://www.cathybuckle.com/
10th October 2008
Dear Friends.
I have
been writing this Letter from the Diaspora for one whole year now.
This is
Letter No 52. I have no idea who reads the letter or whether it
makes any
difference but for the first time in 52 weeks I have to admit that
I am lost
for words. There are no words to express my horror and disgust at
what is
happening in Zimbabwe. Horror at the level of hunger and poverty
being
experienced by ordinary Zimbabweans and disgust at the politicians
who
continue to play their childish power games while all around them
the
country sinks further and further into the abyss.
The World Food
Programme yesterday issued an appeal for 140 million dollars
to save 5
million Zimbabweans from imminent starvation. With the
international
economies in such disarray and billions being spent by
governments to rescue
failing banks it is hard to see this WFP appeal
succeeding in raising
sufficient funds to rescue Zimbabwe from its
self-inflicted wounds. The rainy
season is less than a month away in
Zimbabwe and there is still no seed and
no fertilizer in the bankrupt
country for the new agricultural season. The
country faces another
disastrous crop failure which Robert Mugabe will no
doubt once again blame
on sanctions and greedy white farmers. In a carefully
researched piece in
the UK Times this week Jan Raath estimated that less that
400 white farmers
of the original 5000 remain on their farms. Since the
Agreement was signed
on September 15th some 60 farmers have been forced,
often at gunpoint to
abandon their farms. 'Land grabbers' Jan Raath call
them. " Army officers,
magistrates, agricultural officials, local government
officials are walking
into homesteads and settling in, commandeering farmers'
vehicles, furniture
and the food in their fridges." All this while the people
of Zimbabwe die
slowly of starvation, of AIDS or water-borne diseases. The
forthcoming rainy
season can only increase the misery as malaria takes its
annual toll and
health care system collapses for lack of resources. A whole
generation is
being wiped out while the land grabbers and fat cats look the
other way,
blind and deaf to the cries of the suffering masses.
What
of the next generation? The pupils at primary schools, the bright young
men
and women at universities and colleges who will be the future leaders of
the
country. What hope for them? This week four major institutions of
higher
learning failed to open their doors for the new semester citing
'budgetary
constraints', the collapse of basic infrastructure and the absence
of
lecturers who, along with secondary and primary school teachers, have
fled
the country in their thousands. In educational terms, 2008 has been
declared
a 'non-year'. There will be no Grade Seven exams and possibly no O's
or A
levels either. Pupils and college students will just have to repeat a
year
in 2009 they are told. And what guarantee do they have that things will
be
any different next year? Without a political solution, nothing will
change.
So while Mugabe and Zanu PF continue to hold on to power there is no
end to
Zimbabwe's misery in sight. The official inflation rate is an
unimaginable
232 million percent, twenty times more than it was a month ago.
None of
Gideon Gono's attempts to bring down inflation and rescue the economy
have
succeeded; in fact; they have made things worse. The sight of food
outlets
laden with goods for sale in foreign currency right next to empty
shelves
for local currency sales proves the point.
The country is being
held to ransom by Robert Mugabe and his gang of
thieving supporters who
continue to plunder the country's resources while
the people die a slow and
lingering death. More than anything else, it is
the total lack of humanity,
the callous indifference to the suffering of the
African people by the
president and his party that leaves me lost for words.
In his determination
to cling to power at all costs Robert Mugabe is
committing silent genocide
while Africa and the rest of world look the other
way. There are no words to
convey that horror.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle. PH.
Why Civil Disobedience will save
Zimbabwe, Africa and the US
http://nationalvision.wordpress.com“
The citizen can bring our political and governmental
institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them
honest. No one else can”, asserted John Gardner. I
might as well add, if you think civil disobedience does not work, try a
dictatorship.
Throughout human history, civil disobedience, has played a critical role
in transforming societies and there are several cases all over the world which
prove its successes. Some of the most renowned cases include Dr Martin Luther
King -led Civil Rights Movement in USA, Viktor Yushchenko-led Orange Revolution
in Ukraine, Mahatma Gandhi in India, Egyptian Revolution of 1919 against British
occupation, etc.
To gain a perspective, civil disobedience is not necessarily what most
people think. It is not an armed insurrection but it is, at20least in my view, a
serious undertaking by organized citizens to push for the restoration of
political sanity using a strategy of nonviolence and forceful
courage.
It was the same Martin Luther King who warned that “Our lives begin to
end the day we become silent about things that matter.” For that reason Rosa
Parks spoke out refusing to give up a seat meant for the whites because blacks
were required by law to sit at the back of the bus.
Zimbabwe has already shown a lack of seriousness in dealing with the
world's worst economic crisis ever. We have all seen how the politicians there
are continuously jostling for their own positions and power privileges while the
country is plunging deeper into socio-economic fissures. They are trying to drag
the country in the same direction using the same tactics that have not worked
for the past 28 years of Mugabe's rule. Was it not Albert Einstein who defined
insanity as doing the same thing expecting a different result? One thing is
certain though, that the people can change the course of the country and the
continent altogether by putting such purposelessness to an abrupt
end.
Government of National Unity (GNU) announced in Zimbabwe recently has
suddenly become a real joke especially when it comes to critical issues like
restoring macroeconomic stability. Not to mention Mugabe's bizarre demands for
key and real ministries like Home Affairs, Defence, Finance and Foreign Affairs
to fit perfectly well in his grand scheme to have a castrated MDC.
The awful structure of the proposed government seeks to perpetuate fiscal
irresponsibility and an unwillingness to cut spending. How is a bankrupt
government going to afford sustaining 31 ministries (and 31 ministers), 31
deputies, 2 Vice Presidents, 2 deputy Prime Ministers, a Prime Minister and a
President, 66 Senators (never mind what they do) and 150 Members of Parliament
(120 elected, 30 appointed by Mugabe, except House Speaker).
What a recipe for corruption! Where is the money going to come from
enough to sustain such a bloated bureaucracy with characteristic lavishness in a
society swamped with poverty, hunger and disease. Potential donors need to help
the people of Zimbabwe by not bankrolling such madness. The sick and the
starving can be provided for by a simple step into reality. Several hospitals
and schools can be reconstructed and reopened by just trimming that swollen
government in half. W here is the disapproval by the people? Where is the
outrage?
It seems Zimbabwe never learns, considering that this is the same matrix
of disaster that contributed to Zimbabwe’s catastrophic economic circumstances
as the nation has come to live them today. It is now written on the wall that
the nation is dealing with the same politicians seeking to sustain a life-style
characterized by wanton profligacy that also contributed to the nation’s
bankruptcy. The sad thing is that Zimbabwe is going to be stuck with that
swollen government bent on looting the nation’s fiscus for another half decade (as
stipulated in the GNU deal).
In the US, the Republican mismanagement has stretched over a period of 8
years unabated while in Zimbabwe, the Zanu PF’s nerve-wrecking fiasco has gone
on for 28 years. For the US, the Bush Administration has not only produced the
greatest foreign policy debacle in history but has also plunged the country into
the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
While the full impact of US’s economic meltdown is still unknown, many
economic pundits are assertively describing its magnitude as far surpassing the
Great Depression. Professor Paul Krugman of the New York Times describes the US
as ‘a
banana republic with nukes’ (September 29, 2008). Zimbabwe’s Mugabe-led
kleptocracy has resulted in a totally plundered civilization. Two months ago, I
wrote an interesting juxtapositional economic piece entitled “The Economies that
Bush and Mugabe destroyed and why they did it” (http://nationalvision.wordpress.com).
When Fredrick Chiluba, the former President of Zambia, tried to remove a clause from Zambia’s constitution in order to sneak in
a third term for himselfin 2002, public protests thwarted
the move. Zambia’s parliamentarians could not stand in the way as public
dissention intensified.
It is true that non- governmental organizations have always stayed ahead
of governments, be it on issues to do with HIV and Aids, gender equality,
environmental issues, fighting global poverty or feeding the hungry. The
political systems in Africa have not been able to address the urgent problems
bedeviling the continent. The people of Zimbabwe and Africa, being fearful and
altogether pusillanimous, surrendered to their governments consequently bearing
all the brunt associated with dictatorships.
In Zimbabwe, the civil society was systematically emasculated by 'men of
the sword' through torture, intimidation and outright elimination, oftentimes in
the form of cold-blooded murder. The people remained silent even though Francis
Bacon reminded us that “silence is the virtue of fools”.
Zimbabwe’s degeneration into such a sorry sight should see the civil
society taking the bulk of the blame having succumbed to the whims of the
dictatorship. The public should never have surrendered and given up the struggle
for a better Zimbabwe. What we have seen is that people are patient to stand in
queues in their thousands every single day (because there is a shortage of
everything) but they cannot convince each other to get out of the line and start
demonstrating.20
George Bernard Shaw contended that “Democracy is a device that ensures we
shall be governed no better than we deserve” We , the people, deserve the
government we have in Zimbabwe and in the US. We are the people who let the
situation deteriorate to current dire situations. Can you imagine that there are
still people out there who still support Mugabe inasmuch as there are people who
still sincerely support George Bush?. Gallup Poll of August 2008 put Mugabe's
approval rating at 17% while Bush has the lowest in history at 27%. It is true
that the percentage of their beneficiaries is not that high!
At the same time Mugabe wants the world to believe that Zimbabweans are
suffering because he is fighting for them. C. S Lewis warned that “Of all
tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most
oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent
moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity
may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will
torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own
conscience.”
0A
Ten years ago (1998), spontaneous nationwide food riots that occurred in
Zimbabwe from January 19-22 were so strong that the government got a rude
awakening. Regrettably there was no follow-through and as a result nothing was
achieved. There was no oppostion at the time (MDC only came into existence
towards the end of 1999). It was the last time the civil society ever staged a
successful civil disobedience campaign.
It is interesting to note that the natiowide riots were triggered by
rising inflation which at that time was only 23%. The source of rising inflation
rested squarely on economic mismanagement by the government. Zimbabwe
Government's Central Statistical Office, just released, on Thursday,
October 9 2008, the official inflation figures as 231 000 000% (231 million
percent) up from the June figure of 11 200 000% (11.2 million percent).
Historically, and accuaretely so,
the government's figures have always been suppressed and many times much lower
than the actual figures leading most economic ex perts such as Professor Steve
Hanke of the US-based Cato Institute estimating the real inflation figures at
531 000 000 000% (531 billion) as of October 2008 . It makes sense given the
rate of currency depreciation that has seen the central bank's futile attempts
of repeatedly slashing zeroes. It was less than 2 months ago that saw Zimbabwe
slashing 10 zeroes from its currency. The world was mesmirized. Sadly the people
are struggling on as if the situation is normal.
For Zimbabwe, the biggest problem
with continuing with that path of endless negotiations is that Zanu PF will
arm-twist MDC until the latter surrenders, only to settle for useless
Ministries. MDC must continue to resist any pressures to settle for mediocrity.
There is no reason for it to show signs of being persuadable.
The cause for that is still
unknown though there are two possible explanations. Either MDC is too eager to
join the gravy train at the expense of the masses that are behind that party or
is genuinely being out-manouvered. If the latter is the reason then MDC must
pull out and join hands with the civil society for a call to civil disobedience.
If the reason is the former then the people need to confront both Zanu PF and
MDC. However I think that the MDC to this present day largely remains relevant
and 'on top of the game. '
Even though MDC finds itself in a
tight spot and has suddenly become a closely guarded organisation, there is a
danger in alienating the people, the very base that gave MDC its current
mandate. In 2002, more than 300 MDC activists and supporters were murdered and
more than 150 again murdered in 2008. It will be a sad day when MDC chooses to
disregard taking input from the very constituencies that created and died for
it.
The liberation struggle in
Zimbabwe was fought by the masses. Today those very masses that include the
majority of war veterans have descented into pauperism while their leaders live
in extreme luxury. Where is the rationale of propping up a regime that has left
them distitute?
As a proponent of the government
of national unity from the beginning, I have never held any illusions that the
process was going to be a piece of cake. The biggest hurdle to overco me is the
battle for the key ministries. A deal that will make Zanu PF in charge of Home
Affairs, Defence, Foreign Affairs and Finance is a horrible deal. Zanu PF lacks
the urgency and the moral responsibility to normalize life for ordinary
Zimbabweans.
Realistically, if MDC pushes hard
enough without budging, its demands will be met especially to have Ministries of
Finance and Home Affairs. Forget Defence, Mugabe will never cede that Ministry,
as they say 'simba rehove riri mumvura, (the power of the fish is in the water).
In the meantime, ZCTU should continue to mobilise for national civil
disobedience alongside other civic groups to bring about
change.
MDC will get the people's
approval if it pulls out on the basis that ZanuPF refused to share key
ministries. In any case why should any ministry be 100% 'owned' by a specific
party. It would be proper for the minister and his/her deputy to come from
different parties interchangeably. Why should Defence Ministry belong to Zanu PF
100%? MDC must insist that they share the positions as that will make a smart
'infiltration' strategy by MDC or Zanu PF, though the latter needs more
infiltration.
The problems facing even the developed world stem from the
fact that the people have abdicated their role to dissent and have allowed
themselves to be manipulated by the ruling elite. During the build-up to the
Iraq war, the Bush administration pandered to popular fears connecting the
dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, to the 9-11 atrocities. According to the
Washington Post Poll of September
5, 2003, 70% of Americans believed that “Iraqi leader was personally involved in
the attacks carried out by al-Qaeda.”
A fortnight ago, the former US
Vice-President Al Gore made a passionate plea to all young people who care about
environmental issues to rise up against the polluting coal companies. He did not
mince his words clamoring, “If you’re a young person looking at the future of
this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe
we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the
construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and
sequestration,”
0D
The media went on a frenzy
attacking the messenger (Al Gore) and not the message. I am also familiar with
those kinds of attacks given the incessant threats and hate mail I receive from
Zanu PF apologists and other 'hate groups'. Likewise the voices of solidarity
from men and women who share the same cause far outweigh the few idiotic threats
but that is not to say criticism is unwarranted. The young adults, who form the
bulk of the population have a lot to lose from this crisis. We are talking about
a whole generation robbed of a future altogether.
It was Edward R Murrow who stated
that “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition
dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.” H L Mencken added “The notion
that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is,
more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus
more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it
debauched”
In the US even though the crisis
is largely a product of George Bush's creation, the democrats and the
republicans within two weeks managed to cast aside their bitter differences by
coming together to pass an emegency rescue package for the good of the nation.
Sadly the crisis is a rude-awakening for the rest of our American counterparts
who blindly believed in their politicians to such an extent that they felt they
were immune to such kinds of crisis meant for Africa.
Former President Jimmy Carter
lashed out at the Bush administration stating “it's because of the atrocious
economic policies of the Bush administration” because “Eight years ago, the
United States had a budget surplus, low inflation and a stable, strong economy”
He also noted pointed out that "The economic situation is an entrenched problem.
It is going to take years to correct what has been done economically...,"
Reuters, October 10, 2008.
The US crisis is affecting the
entire globe with reports showing a worlwide economic crisis. Friday October 10,
2008 has already been dubbed "The Black Friday in Europe" due to the
historic tumble of the stockmarket while Japan exeperienced its worst stock
market crash in 21 years.< /div>
It is going to be a long, arduous
and exhausting journey to the restoration of the American economy and pride as
we had come to know it. The news we are getting on a daily basis about the US is
as depressing as that coming out of Zimbabwe. The problem is that the crisis did
not start overnight. There were people in authority who knew exactly what was
brewing in the horizons. I really feel sorry for the ordinary Americans who are
exponentially losing their jobs, homes, savings, education, medical insurance,
etc while the politicians and other architects of the Wall Street implosion
continue to thrive.
Likewise Zimbabwe's crisis
affects Zanu PF and MDC supporters alike excerpt Mugabe and his few henchmen who
have caused this man-made crisis and continue to be the biggest beneficiaries of
the crisis. How can the country have 90% of its population living below the
poverty datum line? By interpolation, less than 1% make up the evil ruling
elite.
Jesse Jackson once said “In
politics, an organized minority is a political majority. ” In the US the
Republican establishment does not represent the majority just like Zanu PF. Al
Gore did not become president even though he overwhelmingly received more votes
(popular votes) than George Bush. The contest was for Florida's electoral votes
that saw George Bush getting the Presidency backed by the Supreme Court. The US
uses an outdated electoral college system that divides the country into red
states and blue states where the former represent predominantly the Southern
states that were once bleeding with slavery.
The origins of electoral votes
dates back to slavery era where pro-slavery whites living in the Southern States
were outnumbered by anti-slavery whites in the North. Such a discrepancy in
population distribution meant that the South would inevitably suffer election
losses in a popular vote hence the emergence of the archaic electoral system.
Southern states went a step further and declared that slaves were to be counted
as about 1/2 of a person (0.6 to be exact) even though they were not allowed to
vote. It takes the civil society to challenge such a relic of a voting system.
Let us all
remember, in conclusion, that 'intelligent discontent is the mainspring of
civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation' as
accurately=2 0summarized by Eugene V Debs. Zimbabwe and Africa's growing
challenges of economic crisis and political illegitimacy call for civil
disobedience by both civil society and opposition political parties to demand
progress, rule of law and respect for human rights (among other things).
Without these forces
for good, governments are never transparent and accountable. Civil disobedience
is complimentary to the democratic process and helps to stop corrupt and authoritarian politicians from plundering our civil
liberties and destroying our communities while we watch from the
sidelines
President Tsvangirai to address major
rally on Sunday
[MDC Media Release]
MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai will on Sunday 12 October
2008 address
a rally at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield, Harare dubbed the
"Big
Sunday Rally".
President Tsvangirai is expected to unpack the
character and substance
of the political deal that was signed by the three
principals of the
three major political parties on 15 September 2008 in
Harare.
Members of the MDC national executive are expected to address
the
rally, which is expected to start at 10.00 am.
Department of
Information and Publicity
JAG open letter forum - No. 572 - Dated 9 October 2008
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject line.
To subscribe/unsubscribe to the JAG mailing list, please
email: jag@mango.zw
with subject line
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Mike Jack
Dear JAG,
Eddie Cross' letter - as usual informative and
encouraging- in the l forum
on 6 October has the (now suspended) "RTGS rate"
- his estimate of the rate
between banked Z$ and USD cash or transfers -
going from 7000 at the end of
August to 2m on 3rd October. About
right.
The annualised rate of change in this forex rate- a good measure
of
inflation given that most costing and pricing was done with regard to
the
RTGS rate- is 286 times in about two months- 55 quadrillion percent
p.a
compounded each 2 months - give or take a few quads.
With the
suspension of RTGS and inter account transfers, and to the extent
that anyone
will wish to - or have to - use banked Z$ funds, the rate will
now have to
factor in the additional delays in processing cheque payment.
Current
inflation will we even higher than the quadrillions implied by Eddie
Cross'
start August to early October figures.
55 quadrillion percent is about
the same as a doubling each week - on that.
If cheque payments take 5 working
days the "Cheque Rate" would need to be at
least twice an inter account
transfer rate. We have recently seen the RTGS
rate go nearly 10 times in a
week- hard to factor that in- and there seems
to be no reason why it should
not get higher still.
Current inflation, as measured, by the open market
Z$ exchange rate, is
probably out of the quads and into the quints now - it
has to be a World
record? And these figures make nonsense of inflation in the
mere billions of
percent, based on historic year on year estimates that
feature in the Press.
It is now almost impossible for any business that
does not operate in forex
to trade and stay solvent. Dollarisation (including
Randisation etc) is the
only option that will help make business viable again
- but probably there
will be a serious but futile attempt to prevent this -
along the lines of
the price blitz - as dollarisation threatens the patronage
base.
While the new scheme to allow licensed outlets to buy and sell in
forex will
result in some more product on the shelves, it is not clear on
what terms
local manufacturers will be allowed to charge in forex. In any
case, local
companies operate under so many disincentives that
further
de-industrialisation is inevitable until all controls (exchange,
price) are
abolished, threats to ownership removed and confidence returns. A
big
"until".
MIKE
JACK
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.
Joe Whaley
Dear JAG,
If Churchill had been alive today, in reference
to the Dark Continent, he
would have said something along the lines of "Never
before in the history of
mankind has so little been achieved by so many with
so much"!!
Cheers
Joe
Whaley
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
Eddie Cross - Filibustering
Dear JAG,
Today it's the 8th of
October - nearly 4 weeks since the SADC brokered deal
was signed. It's now 7
months since the March elections took place and both
Zanu PF and Robert
Mugabe were soundly beaten by the MDC. Yet we still do
not have a government
and Zanu PF continues to behave as if they had the
right to control the State
and to make all key decisions. No Minister is in
office legally at this
moment of time yet they continue to drive government
vehicles and draw their
salaries. Many continue to work in their old offices
as if nothing has
happened.
Just as was the case in Kenya, the Party that should have taken
over from
the incumbents has been forced by regional pressure to concede a
compromise
deal that is proving to be unworkable. If the experience of the
past 4 weeks
is anything to go by, we have learned that the SADC brokered
agreement is
most likely to produce a dysfunctional government that simply
cannot make
the decisions required on a daily basis to resolve our many
problems. It is
also clear that Zanu PF does not have any intention of
meeting their
obligations in terms of the deal and is not in the slightest
way concerned
about the rapid collapse of Zimbabweans society and the
economy.
The economy now slides to a halt leaving millions of people
without an
income and no access to even the most basic necessities, schools
close their
doors and Universities are unable to function. While preparations
for the
next cropping season are simply non-existent and water and
electricity
supplies dwindle, while poultry, pig and dairy farmers watch
their stock
starve and die; Mugabe and Mbeki fiddle and
procrastinate.
Since the signing, of course, we have had the ANC coup in
South Africa.
Unlike the Zimbabwe process there was no quiet diplomacy
involved in that
operation! In four days, the ANC very publicly, recalled Mr.
Mbeki, forced
him to resign and appointed a new (not elected) President. Mr.
Mbeki and his
supporters in the ANC have subsequently embarked on a political
guerrilla
war and might shortly announce they are forming a new alliance
grouping to
oppose the ANC in elections in early 2009.
I was asked by
the staff in our factory what was happening and I said that
the two bulls in
South Africa were fighting and were not interested in the
cows next door -
even though the Zimbabwe cow was ready for some sort of
consummation of the
agreement. They understood that analogy immediately and
saw that this was
what was now holding up progress.
Someone else came to me and asked, in
real sincerity, why was Zanu PF
delaying the process of forming a government?
They were right in that final
part - they are filibustering this deal very
effectively and it has nothing
to do with the fundamentals or power sharing.
The question of why is not so
easy to determine. One ambassador told me that
in his view it was quite
simple - they wanted time to loot the store before
they handed over the
keys. And that they are doing - in great style with
millions of dollars in
hard currency leaving the country daily for safe
refuge elsewhere.
The other part, of course is that they know that the
formation of a new
government - the resumption of government by Cabinet
selected on a
democratic basis (in so far as the deal recognises the outcome
of the March
elections), marks the end of years of luxurious living, access
to foreign
exchange on special terms, power and influence and protection from
the reach
of law enforcement agencies.
The MDC has appealed to the
region and the African Union several times in
the past two weeks for the
mediation to resume and for help with the issues
that remain. Each time that
Mbeki has looked likely to come to the country,
Zanu PF have said 'no, we do
not need his help, the issues that remain are
insignificant', and Mbeki has
taken them at their word and stayed at home.
An easy decision when you think
that he is trying to pick up the remains of
his life and to rescue what is
left of his part of the ANC.
But the consequences of this delay in the
consummation of the SADC deal are
very serious. In an unstable world where
markets are collapsing and rescue
efforts are under way on a scale not seen
since the 30's in the last
century, the double impact on South Africa of not
only the collapse of the
ANC Alliance but the collapse of the Zimbabwe deal,
could put southern
Africa into a tail spin. The Rand may have gone through
the 9 to 1 barrier
today and looks set to perhaps hit the lows of several
years ago. Inflation
is already too high and global commodity prices are
falling rapidly.
The Zimbabwe economy, in my view, is now as close as it
has ever been to
real collapse. Companies simply cannot carry on under these
circumstances. I
spoke with a young civil servant today about her salary. She
said she was
paid $13 000 in local currency credited to her account at a
building
society. That is about US$1,50 at the street rate. Even so she had
not been
able to draw the money out and was virtually working for
nothing.
Hunger and starvation now stalks the land - even those in
employment are
going without food for days on end. The flood tide of refugees
going to
South Africa is worse than ever and if allowed to continue will
create
mayhem in South Africa shortly. The MDC is ready to tackle all
these
problems and has well advanced plans to do so, but it cannot move
one
millimetre without the formation of a government headed by the new
Prime
Minister.
There is little we can do about this filibustering
operation by Zanu PF -
that is the task of regional power brokers. If they do
not come to the party
and break the deadlock, the whole thing will collapse
in an ignominious heap
and further punish the reputation of Africa and
African leadership. We can
ill afford that at this point in our
history.
Eddie Cross is MP for Bulawayo South and the MDC's Policy
Coordinator. This
article was first published on his website October 8
2008
Eddie Cross
09 October
2008
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Vigil marks its 6th anniversary outside London's Zim embassy
By Alex
Bell
10 October 2008
Protest action group the Zimbabwe Vigil is
marking its 6th anniversary
outside the Zimbabwe embassy in London on
Saturday - this as the country's
political, humanitarian and economic crises
continues to put millions of
lives at risk.
The Vigil was launched on
the 12th of October 2002 after MDC MP Roy Bennett
and Tony Reeler of the
Amani Trust suggested a regular vigil against the
illegitimate regime in
Zimbabwe, as an effective way to raise awareness in
the UK about the plight
of the Zimbabwean people. The pair cited the hugely
successful pickets
outside South Africa House during the time of apartheid
and as a result the
Central London Branch of the MDC set up the Zimbabwe
Vigil - which has been
held every Saturday since.
The group's main focus over its six years has
not only been to raise
awareness, but also to put pressure on Southern
African regional leaders and
European leaders, not to recognize the Robert
Mugabe regime. The group uses
weekly protests, as well as high profile
campaigns and strongly worded and
often controversial petitions, to urge
action against the human rights
violations in Zimbabwe. The most recent high
profile action was the combined
protest with Tibetan and Burmese human rights
groups during the Beijing
Olympics, outside the Chinese embassy in London.
All three countries are
victims of China's use of its veto in the UN Security
Council to protect
human rights abusers.
The group's use of petitions,
often signed by passersby during the Saturday
Vigils, has been another
successful form of protest, despite certain
controversies. Most recently, the
Vigil issued a petition to football
association FIFA urging them to pull the
2010 world cup away from South
Africa. The group has said the petition is not
to punish Africa, but to put
pressure on the region to take action against
Mugabe.
The Vigil's coordinator, Rose Benton, told Newsreel on Friday
that the
anniversary "is not a celebration, because nothing has changed in
Zimbabwe."
She explained that the group has done well to raise awareness, but
expressed
anger that "a dictator can keep his hands on Zimbabwe and the world
is
apparently unable to do anything."
The Vigil has stated since day one
that it will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. But
Benton said on Friday she never thought
the protests would need to enter
their sixth year. "Every year we say that
surely we won't be here for
another year," Benton said, "and yet we're still
here."
But Benton added that the Vigil will not give up its efforts and
made it
clear that their motivation to keep going is the Zimbabwean people.
"We've
always said we're not in this for fame," Benton explained. "We are
saying to
people back home that we care, and that is the most important
message."
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Chombo's World Habitat Day pretence
newzimbabwe.com
By Trudy
Stevenson
Last updated: 10/10/2008 16:48:41 Last updated: 10/07/2008
18:23:18
FORMER Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo (who among others
presided
over Operation Murambatsvina to destroy over 700,000 people's
homes) led
celebrations of World Habitat Day at Town House on Monday - as
hundreds of
thousands of residents of Harare and Chitungwiza scurried around
looking for
water! Water to flush our toilets, water to wash ourselves as
well as our
babies, sick and elderly and water to drink, here in this
capital city in
the year 2008.
At the UZ campus in Mt Pleasant,
where some 5000 people were supposed to
congregate, there has been no water
for over a month, despite lies put out
by ZBC that ZINWA had sunk boreholes
and everything was sorted out.
Students, lecturers and workers travel
here from as far as Chitungwiza,
hoping they will be able to relieve
themselves in the northern suburbs and
even get a drink of clean water.
Alas, they find themselves reduced to
squatting behind whatever shelter they
can find - and then going thirsty.
People's stay on campus is determined
by their bodily functions. They have
to rush in and do whatever they can
before nature calls - or before they are
driven away by the
stench.
On Saturday, Pomona dumpsite started burning again, and the pall
of noxious
smoke was so heavy over Emerald Hill the sky turned dark and we
could hardly
breathe.
Last year, the Environmental Management Agency
fined Harare Municipality for
polluting the atmosphere from Pomona and other
sites, and ordered the city
to close the dumpsites down - but they are still
in operation, poisoning the
atmosphere and residents.
In my area,
no-one has been to collect our refuse for a month now, and I
know it is the
same elsewhere. Our bins are overflowing, garbage is piling
up behind the
shopping centre and in the drainage ditches, and rats, flies
and fleas are
having a field day.
Again, the city was ordered by the EMA last year to
put in place sustainable
waste management practices to guarantee a clean,
safe and healthy
environment for residents - but the situation has
deteriorated, not
improved.
This is our habitat in the northern
suburbs, and it is very much worse in
the high density areas, where people
have still not been able to replace
their homes and are squashed together in
all manner of makeshift
arrangements.
How dare Chombo even show his
face on such a day? And how dare the
Municipality of Harare go along with
this pretence? They should all hang
their heads in shame, for they have
failed and continue to fail, however
much they may try to pass the
buck.
Trudy Stevenson is the former MP for Harare North and member of the
MDC
Ahtisaari
is Nobel Peace Prize winner
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=5596
October 10, 2008
HELSINKI (Reuters) -
Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel
Peace Prize on Friday
for his work on conflict resolution.
Ahtisaari, 71, was in the
international limelight when he organised and
hosted talks between
Indonesia's government and the Free Aceh Movement, who
signed a peace deal in
August 2005 to end 30 years of armed struggle.
The statesman made his
mark in international diplomacy as point man for the
European Union, when he
persuaded then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic
to accept NATO's terms
for ending the Kosovo air campaign in 1999.
The work in Kosovo earned
Ahtisaari a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize
in 2000, and in 2006 he was
again tipped as the likely winner after the
successful outcome of the Aceh
talks.
Until March last year Ahtisaari mediated Serb-Albanian talks on
Kosovo as
the EU's envoy. He drafted a plan advocating EU-supervised
independence with
broad autonomy for Kosovo's Serb minority, but Serbia and
Russia have
rejected it.
Ahtisaari was perhaps best known abroad for
his role as a U.N. official in
negotiations on the independence of Namibia
from South African rule,
achieved in 1990.
A no-nonsense diplomat,
Ahtisaari investigated U.N. operations in Iraq after
the 2003 truck bombing
that devastated the organisation's Baghdad
headquarters and killed 22 people,
including the chief of the mission,
Sergio Vieira de Mello.
His
findings - that security had been "dysfunctional" and "sloppy" -
prompted
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to propose a $97 million overhaul
of the
world body's security arrangements, and 778 new security jobs.
Ahtisaari,
president of Finland from 1994 to 2000, demonstrated his
leadership
credentials by leading his homeland into the European Union in
1995 and
economic and monetary union in 1999.
He spent virtually his whole career
in the foreign service, and is known to
be more at ease and in touch with
world affairs than domestic politics.
Ahtisaari bowed out of national
politics in 2000 to head various
international institutions and projects
promoting peace, democracy and
crisis resolution.
He served as an
independent arms inspector in Northern Ireland from
2000-2001 and in 2000 was
picked as one of three "wise men" to assess the
Austrian government's
commitment to upholding human rights and combat
racism.
Since then he
has also been the U.N. special envoy for the humanitarian
crisis in the Horn
of Africa, and in April 2002 he headed a fact-finding
team to investigate the
scene of a three-week Israeli assault on Jenin in
the West
Bank.
Ahtisaari is married and has one son.
Winners of Nobel Peace
Prize in past decade:
2008 - Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari
for peace work from Namibia
to Kosovo.
2007 - Former U.S. Vice President
Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC).
2006 -
Muhammad Yunus and Bangladesh's Grameen Bank for work to end poverty.
2005 -
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its head
Mohamed
ElBaradei.
2004 - Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai.
2003
- Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi.
2002 - Former U.S. President
Jimmy Carter.
2001 - The United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi
Annan.
2000 - South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
1999 - Medical aid
charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.
1998 - Northern Ireland politicians John
Hume and David Trimble.
