The ZIMBABWE Situation
An extensive and up-to-date website containing news, views and links related to ZIMBABWE - a country in crisis
Please note: You need to have 'Active content' enabled in your IE browser in order to see the index of articles on this webpage
Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai says new talks unlikely soon
Reuters
Wed 3 Sep
2008, 4:48 GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has said
power-sharing talks are deadlocked and are unlikely to
resume soon, South
Africa's Talk Radio 702 reported on Wednesday.
It
quoted Tsvangirai as saying in an interview he "was not aware of plans"
for
post-election negotiations to resume soon.
The talks have been deadlocked
over executive powers.
Tsvangirai explained why he refused to sign a
power-sharing deal with
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in talks over
recent weeks.
"There was an attempt to fragment the cabinet. With some
ministries
reporting to the president and some ministries reporting to the
prime
minister," he told Talk Radio 702.
"In this case the economic
and social ministries will go to the prime
minister. The security ministries
will go to the president."
Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in a March 29 election
but fell short of enough votes
to avoid a run-off vote, which was won by
Mugabe unopposed after Tsvangirai
pulled out citing violence and
intimidation against his supporters.
(Editing by Charles Dick)
Mugabe Loyalists Impede Zimbabwe Unity
Talks
Wall Street Journal
Party Insiders Abet
Leader's Resistance
To Sharing Power
By
SARAH CHILDRESS and FARAI MUTSAKA
September 3, 2008; Page A16
As South
African mediators scramble to salvage talks over a power-sharing
agreement
in Zimbabwe, a small but influential group of loyalists of
President Robert
Mugabe has emerged as the biggest roadblock to a deal.
In more than six
weeks of negotiations following contested presidential
elections, Mr. Mugabe
and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have
deadlocked over plans to form a
unity government. They appeared close to a
deal early last month. But last
week, Mr. Mugabe threatened to name his
cabinet, which the opposition said
would scuttle any further talks.
Behind the president's apparent reversal
is new resistance by a group of
longtime loyalists and ruling-party insiders
toward ceding executive power
to the opposition, according to people
familiar with the group's thinking.
Mr. Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change won the most seats in
parliament in elections in the
spring. Mr. Tsvangirai also beat Mr. Mugabe
in the presidential poll, but
not by enough to avoid a runoff. The
opposition abandoned the second round
in June amid violence against its
supporters. The opposition and
human-rights groups blamed Mr. Mugabe's
supporters for the violence, but the
government blamed the opposition.
The group of Mugabe loyalists -- which
includes Emmerson Mnangagwa, a
potential successor to Mr. Mugabe and an
alleged architect of the country's
post-election violence -- initially urged
the president to negotiate with
opposition leaders, according to several
military and ruling-party members.
A close ruling-party associate of Mr.
Mnangagwa said that the group never
intended to cede any "real or meaningful
power." It hoped instead to bring
Mr. Tsvangirai into the government as a
junior or ceremonial partner, this
person said.
The move would
preserve Mr. Mugabe's legitimacy in the eyes of regional
powers. Western
powers might also be willing to ease economic sanctions. But
Mr. Tsvangirai
has insisted on some form of executive power, according to
opposition
members who are not authorized to speak publicly about the talks.
In
response, Mr. Mnangagwa and others pushed for Mr. Mugabe to announce last
week that he would soon form his cabinet, effectively shutting out the
opposition from any prominent posts, while publicly remaining committed to
the talks, according to ruling party members who are close to Mr. Mugabe's
inner circle. In the state media, the government has recently suggested that
Mr. Tsvangirai is responsible for the deadlock.
Meanwhile, another
pillar of Mr. Mugabe's hard-line support has publicly
said it won't go along
with any deal either. Isaiah Muzenda, a
representative of the so-called war
veterans, a band of young men who often
enforce Mr. Mugabe's rule, told a
local newspaper that the group wrote to
the president warning him not to
agree to such a deal.
Economic pressures are weighing heavily on Mr.
Mugabe. Ordinary Zimbabweans
have long suffered from out-of-control
inflation. Amid tightening sanctions
from the U.S. and Europe, even the
president is struggling to maintain his
traditional web of patronage, in
particular the soldiers who have helped
enforce his rule, says John
Robertson, a Zimbabwean economist in Harare.
That could be boosting the
leverage of his hard-line backers, whose own grip
on power could be
threatened by a deal with Mr. Tsvangirai.
"Ceding executive power to
Tsvangirai would be bad for business," said a
senior military officer
familiar with the internal debate. "Mugabe uses an
extensive patronage
system that ties a lot of military and [ruling party]
leaders to him," this
person said. "For Mugabe, patronage is a form of
insurance."
Government spokesman Bright Matonga said he wasn't
authorized to speak about
Mr. Mugabe's goals in the talks. "In these
negotiations we've been very
genuine and open and honest, and [Mugabe] wants
that process to succeed," he
said.
Attempts to reach Mr. Mnangagwa
were unsuccessful. Movement for Democratic
Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa
said that the talks were stalling because
Mr. Mugabe is no longer in
charge.
"He is circled by vultures," Mr. Chamisa said. "The military and
greedy
cronies of his are dictating the pace and direction of the talks from
behind
the scenes. The tragedy is that they want to continue with a free
reign of
looting and plundering the country's resources, and this can only
be ensured
if Mugabe remains in charge."
Zimbabwe's Mugabe pays tribute to late Zambian president
AFP
50
minutes ago
LUSAKA (AFP) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has paid a
glowing tribute
to the late Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, his
arch-critic, for his
"courage" and "frankness," state radio reported on
Wednesday.
"Mwanawasa was a very courageous leader. He was very frank and
wanted to
change not only his country but the entire southern African
region. We will
greatly miss him," the radio quoted him as saying on arrival
in Lusaka, late
Tuesday, for Mwanawasa's burial.
Mwanawasa had been
an outspoken critic of Mugabe, once referring to Zimbabwe
as a "sinking
Titanic."
At least 10 of the 15 African heads of state expected for
Wednesday's burial
are already in Lusaka, officials said.
Besides
Mugabe, Presidents Ian Khama of Botswana and Bingu wa Mutharika of
Malawi
and Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili have arrived in the
Zambian
capital, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation said on its
website.
A representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of
Gloucester and
Lord Malloch Brown, Minister for Africa, have also arrived
along with German
and Chinese official delegations, the radio said.
A
top US delegation will also attend the funeral, a White House statement
said.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kiwete, and South African President
Thabo Mbeki,
who is the chairman of the 15-nation Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) are scheduled to deliver speeches at the
occasion on behalf of their
organisation.
The burial will follow a
church service, according to the official
programme.
Mwanawasa was
until his death chairman of the SADC and one of the few
African leaders to
speak out against Mugabe's policies.
Mbeki took over the leadership of
the SADC during a summit of the body in
Johannesburg last
month.
Mwanawasa, 59, who died in a Paris hospital on August 19 after
suffering a
stroke, will be buried at Embassy Park, situated outside the
presidential
secretariat.
Mwanawasa, married and father of six, was a
trained lawyer.
Mugabe won't go without a fight
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=8794
'Stalinist'
Peter Roebuck September 03,
2008
Retirement, illness, death, coups, flight, defeat - all have
been mooted as
causes of Robert Mugabe's imminent departure and all have
been wrong. Some
optimists even convince themselves that he will withdraw
voluntarily. But
the old rogue is not going anywhere except in a box or at
the end of a gun.
He dare not because he has much blood on his hands and
cannot trust anyone.
Also he has an unabated lust for power. In his eyes
elections are a charade
put on to appease the West, to be ignored when the
results are inconvenient.
He will leave only when convinced it is his last
remaining option.
Even the talks are fake. Mugabe is playing for time
while trying to placate
African leaders whose support is waning. He is just
going through the
motions. Meanwhile he has opened Parliament; outlined
policies, attacked the
West, added to his vast wealth and perchance built
another spectacularly
tasteless retirement home.
Not bad for a leader
so discredited it took his vote riggers two months to
get his tally up to 43
per cent.
But still Zimbabweans cling to hope. And audacity is rising.
Far and away
the most startling development in recent weeks has been the
jeering of
Mugabe amid all the pomp and ceremony of the opening of
Parliament.
Emboldened by the election the previous day of their candidate
for the
Speaker's chair, opposition loyalists heckled as Mugabe delivered
his absurd
address.
It made him seem a shrunken figure ripe for the
satire of a latter-day
Chaplin. He had arrived in a vintage Rolls
Royce.
A million Zimbabweans driven from their hopes by thugs, despair or
hunger
watched from distant shacks and cheered. But they know his cunning.
Already
the loathed dictator has tried to restore his majority by persuading
Arthur
Matamabara, the quisling leader of a breakaway MDC faction, to take
his
side.
Matamabara signed a deal that gave him importance but not
power, but it was
overturned by principled members of his faction. Morgan
Tsvangarai was not
so easily swayed.
Undeterred, the government has
arrested several opposition MPs on trumped up
charges. Soon a by-election
must be held and already the constituency has
been declared a no-go area.
The fix is in.
Encouragingly, this devious demagogue has lost his grip on
the continent he
once dominated. African trades unions have staged protests,
workers have
refused to unload ships bearing Chinese arms, legitimately
elected
presidents from Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia have broken
ranks to
condemn him.
The mighty President of Liberia voiced her
concerns and pointed out that
'Africa is not poor, merely poorly managed'.
Moreover Thabo Mbeki has been
ousted as leader of the ANC, and his
replacement is much less accommodating.
Yet the booing took the matter
further for the insult was direct.
Mugabe will fight to the bitter end,
and is prepared to take an entire
nation down with him. Already Zimbabwe has
paid a terrible price for his
clinging to office. When his position has been
under threat he has always
been vile and violent.
For a few years,
between the Zapu massacre and the suppression of the MDC,
he was
unchallenged and able to masquerade as a caring leader. He was
protected by
security forces who were enriched with diamonds from a war in
the Congo
fought for that very purpose. He did not need to snarl or rig.
But the
oppressor remained within. A friendless bookworm as a child, he has
always
been full of hate ...
Mugabe is not to be underestimated. He is adept at
dictating the terms of
every argument and at shifting blame to others. In
the past it has been the
colonialists and now it is his last
cabinet.
But he is worried because Africa is deserting him. Eventually
local
intellectuals and genuine liberators realised that he was malign. Hs
own
people detested him. The white man's foe was no friend of the common
man. He
is a force of destruction unleashed upon a tolerant
nation
Not that it is over. Dictators do not leave with a shrug. Sensing
isolation,
scared of being humiliated, and still uttering vapid rhetoric
about
'insidious foreign hands' hell-bent on destroying 'my Zimbabwe', he
has
lowered himself to talking to his opponents. Optimists say everything
has
been agreed except the distribution of power. But that was the only
serious
issue.
Mugabe will not concede anything until he has been
cornered. He has always
been the same: cunning, callous, spiteful,
dictatorial, ugly.
Everything is a tactic. Mugabe complains about
'counter-revolutionaries',
protests about supposed sanctions, condemns the
opposition party as a stooge
of anti-colonial forces and raises the land
issue in a last ditch attempt to
appeal to African sentiment. He wants to
distract attention from the
suffering he has caused. He knows people are
starving but does not care.
It is all a lie. Zimbabwe has become a feudal
country by government decree.
Despite his rhetoric Mugabe is not a liberator
but a Stalinist sustained by
a lust for power. He believes not in country
but in State, cares not about
his people but himself.
He knew the
farm invasions would cause shortages and knew also that
international
agencies would rush in with aid. Ministers laughed about it.
Food could be
used as a weapon in elections, a weapon almost as valuable as
the duped and
drugged youths paid to torture opponents.
No good will come of the talks.
Any agreement will be broken. Zanu has been
consumed by Mugabe's evil. It is
not sensible to trust a snake, let alone an
entire den of
vipers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter
Roebuck is a writer for the The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald,
amongst
other publications, and a commentator on the ABC. He also helped
found the
the LBW Trust, which helps young Zimbabweans attend university.
No apology for Zimbabwe --
FG
http://www.triumphnewspapers.com/no392008.html (Nigeria)
RAMADAN,
4 1429 A.H.
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 3 2008
The federal government says it does not owe President Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe any apology over its stand on the June run-off
elections.
Nigeria, at the AU Summit at Sham El-Sheik, Egypt, had joined
others to
reject the run-off elections.
It said the position before the
June presidential run-off was a more
inclusive platform for
negotiations.
Minister of foreign affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, made the
statement in an
interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Monday
in Abuja, shortly
before departing for Lusaka.
The minister was to
represent the federal government at the burial of late
Zambian President,
Mr. Levy Nwanamasa.
"I want to use this opportunity to reaffirm that what
Nigeria said at the AU
summit still remains.
"Our position is that we do
not consider the presidential run-off of June as
a basis for moving forward;
we felt and we still do feel that way,'' he
said.
He explained that
government took such position based on principle and not
to disparage
Zimbabwe .
"We did not say so because we are perfect; we didn't think that
the notion
of people living in glass houses, should intimidate Nigeria from
speaking up
about what is right in Zimbabwe and the rest of
Africa.
Referring to comments by Mugabe about "those who live in glass
houses'',
Maduekwe said "the glass house" had been reinforced, transformed
by rule of
law and independence of judiciary.
"There is no basis to
apologise to Zimbabwe for our standing firm on
democracy, rule of law, good
governance, and the triumph of multi-party
democracy on the continent,''
Maduekwe said.
"It costs us money, time and in many instances lives; we have
a strategic
interest in this matter because quite often when there is
democratic
failure, it leads to civil unrest that might even lead to civil
war,'' he
stressed.
Maduekwe explained that Nigeria could not look the
other way because
traditionally, its foreign policy focus was on
Africa.
"Ours is an Afro-centric foreign policy which really both history and
demography left us with no option, because every 4th African is a
Nigerian,''
he added.
He said from Congo to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Darfur
and currently Somalia,
Nigeria had paid enormous price in promoting
continental stability.
Maduekwe observed that the threat to continental
stability was not
inter-state, but intra-state conflicts which normally
emanated from
democratic failure to address electoral succession.
He said
Nigeria would not interfere in the situation in Zimbabwe because it
is the
people of the country that would determine their future.
"We are also
concerned that there should be no meltdown in Zimbabwe, the
economy is
already in tartars, and inflation rate is over a million per
cent.
"The
people of Zimbabwe deserve a lot better than they are going through,''
Maduekwe said.
Malnutrition On The Rise In Zimbabwe As Food Becomes Even More
Scarce
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
02
September 2008
Zimbabwean medical experts say malnutrition is
on the rise as food becomes
ever more scarce and expensive, and is a
contributing factor in many other
health problems.
Aid workers
say a government ban on food distribution by private voluntary
associations
imposed in June made millions of people more vulnerable.
Though the
government nominally lifted the ban last week, requirements for
re-registration and reporting could keep most NGO's on the sidelines for
weeks to come.
But sources among humanitarian agencies say there is
no time to lose - such
organizations large and small are looking to feed 3.8
million people as of
next month with that figure rising to 5.1 million by
early next year.
Currently only a few hundred thousand are getting
aid.
Meanwhile even the middle class is feeling the pinch with food
prices driven
out of reach driven by hyperinflation last officially measured
at 11.2
million percent for July.
Dr. Douglas Gwatidzo, chairman of
the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for
Human Rights, told reporter Carole
Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that physicians and other health
care providers are seeing more cases in
which malnutrition is a root
cause.
Dr. Henry Madzorere, health secretary for the Movement for
Democratic Change
formation of Morgan Tsvangirai, said statistics on
malnutrition are
difficult to collect, but he believes the effects of hunger
are widespread
and serious.
Mugabe “allows” NGO’s to feed his
people—maybe
Posted on September 2nd, 2008
Two million people in Zimbabwe are facing a food crisis. Many children in
rural areas are dropping out of school so that they can help their families
gather food from the woodlands and carry water to the small garden plots.
A lot of the problem is that despite Mugabe’s claims that he confiscated
white farmland under the guise of land reform, the reality is that much of the
confiscated land went to his cronies, and the farm workers lost their jobs and
plots on these farms. Sorry, but when they did land reform in the Philippines,
those working the land got the land, not some outsider cronie who doesn’t know
or care about farming.
At the same time, the collapse of the economy has made getting decent seeds,
fertilizer, and insecticides impossible for farmers, so the farming sector has
reverted back to traditional practices, without the ability of “slash and burn”
new fields when the older fields are worn out. Traditional practices in good
years could support the farmers and families, but alas are unable to support
that country’s larger population.
One result is that this year, two million people need food aid, and it is
estimated that by the end of the year (which is the hungry season, after crops
have been sowed but not harvested), that number will approach five million.
Yet before last March’s election, Mugabe threw out all the NGO’s who feed the
people. Why? Because they could be witnesses to the violence. Because they feed
anyone, not just those who vote for the government. Mugabe claims they offered
food to those who “supported his opponents”. What actually is going on is that
Mugabe is trying to control the food so that he can use food as a weapon against
his enemies, as he has done during several previous elections.
After the first election, which after a long “count” was named a tie, and
after a second election, where the opponent dropped out because of the violence
against opposition members, South Africa started sponsoring talks to “settle” a
coalition government.
It was assumed that Mugabe’s opponent would sign a paper to allow Mugabe to
run the government while getting power only on paper. Mugabe did this years ago,
with Joshua Nkomo, and destroyed the opposition. However, Tsvangirai refused to
sign, so the talks are stalled.
Yet at the start of the talks, one provision was that Mugabe was supposed to
allow the NGO’s to resume their work. He did not do so, until this week.
But although NGO’s are now “allowed” to resume food and other aid to all
Zimbabweans, this might not be true.
NGO’s who aren’t “registered” aren’t allowed to resume food aid.
And now, we have reports that the most respected NGO’s have had their aid
stopped by red tape.
From CNN:
“Government has introduced new reporting mechanisms for private voluntary
organizations and non-governmental organizations … that will see them constantly
indicating to the parent ministry their programs, areas and modes of
operations,” according to the state-controlled daily….
There was no immediate comment from the aid agencies operating in Zimbabwe
about the reports. But the new restrictions are likely to further impede the
flow of aid to Zimbabwe at a time that the country desperately needs
it
A report on South
Africa’s News 24 reports:
Aid agency officials, human rights groups and churches say that…there is
incontrovertible evidence that the government uses food aid as “a political
weapon”, denying food to people suspected of supporting Tsvangirai….
“It is imperative that non-governmental organisations know that they are
operating in the country to complement government and not to set parallel
structures,” Social Welfare Ministry Permanent Secretary Lancaster Museka said.
“The police will not hesitate to enforce the law.”
Ngirande said they had been told by welfare ministry officials at a meeting
on Monday that they would have to supply all the information by the end of the
month, or be “deregistered”.
So Mugabe continues to fight against his “enemies” by imposing restrictions
that will allow the police to prevent food going to those who voted wrong.
However, on paper, his enablers will say he is allowing them to work.
Similarly, if voters are beaten, denied food, or jailed for voting wrong,
Mugabe can claim it is western propaganda, since outsider reporters are not
allowed in the country, and any NGO sending such reports out will find their
papers pulled.
However, those who promote “international” law can be happy since on paper,
the Mugabe government can claim his government is obeying the agreement of the
power sharing negotiations under South Africa’s Mbeki.
—————————————
Nancy Reyes is a retired physician living in the rural Philippines. She
writes about human rights in Zimabwe at MakaipaBlog
Zimbabwe's black market economy, Mugabe to blame
http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com
3rd
Sep 2008 02:00 GMT
By
Masimba Kadzviti
Zimbabwe is a country with an inflation rate of over
2 million and the food
inflation is incalculable as supermarket shelves are
permanently empty.
- The Zimbabwe dollar has been on a free fall since
1997 when Mugabe decide
to give the so-called war veterans £50 000 -00 each,
without consulting the
finance minister and the economists in the
country.
- Banks were stretched to dish out the money, there was free
spending, with
some war veterans buying vegetables for livestock.
-
From the date Friday 13 November 1997 the economy fell in the hands of the
black market and reserve bank governors have not been able to get hold of it
or come with any viable solution to it.
- Over the past 10 years we
have seen fire-fighting measures being employed,
half baked economic
policies, of which one after the other they have all
failed.
- Israel
and Palestine have been at war since biblical times but do not have
an
inflation rate as bad as Zimbabwe's, neither is there currency as
worthless
as Zimbabwe's.
- It does not need an economist to identify the problems
of this once great
and vibrant economy. It is clear to all and sundry except
those in power
take away Robert Mugabe with his fiscal and monetary policies
and you will
bring back the economy on its feet.
Mugabe knows he is the
root problem but because of what he has done, either
maiming killings, rapes
committed in the name of Zanu PF as his military,
militias and thugs
suppressed the opposition.
Take for example £1 equivalent to 150 trillion
Zimbabwe dollars on the black
market Did you ever dream that one day you
would wake up and utter the word
trillion. Well Mugabe is a miracle
performer, he has brought all
denominations to the point that we now have to
look for an inventor to
produce calculators special to the Zimbabwe
situation. How cool is that BOB.
You must be proud of yourself in a sick
way.
The question on every Zimbabweans lips is who fuels this inflation
and
enables the black market to thrive. How is it possible that the reserve
bank
can issue a new currency today and within six hours of its issue the
black
market is already flooded with the new bill and you can even have
suitcases
full of the currency in neighbouring countries.
Such
clandestine operations can only be done by those who are privy to the
information and operations of the reserve bank. So the question is if the
reserve bank is that leaky, can Gideon Gono be trusted in the position. Can
Zanu PF be trusted as it is the Zanu PF government which has fuelled
inflation and fed the black market. Can the Zanu PF government be trusted,
when some of its rank and file are involved in this black market
exchange.
Zimbabwe needs strong, practical, viable fiscal & monetary
policies.
Zimbabwe needs a radical, brutal overhaul to the economic
situation, if it
is to return to normalcy. The only way to succeed in doing
this is by
removing Mugabe, Gono, Zanu PF and their associates from the
picture.
Masimba Kadzviti is in MDC activist based in the UK.
Zimbabwe youth survive jungle of doubt
Peter Hodge September 03, 2008
Zimbabwean names often reflect the mood or
reaction of a family to the arrival of the new member. At a rural mission school
in Matabeleland I taught Blessing, Immaculate, Charity and Unique Faith. But
Penniless Ngwenya was the best and brightest of my students, the one most likely
to graduate from university and lead her family from the teeming townships of
Bulawayo to the relative comforts of a middle-class suburb.
I once played the Billy Joel song, 'River of Dreams', to my senior students.
It seemed to capture all of the hopes, doubts and anxiety of a generation
determined to take advantage of their window of opportunity. After all, barely a
decade ago, Zimbabwe was flying.
Sure, thanks in part to the IMF's Structural Adjustment Program, there was a
mounting debt problem, and Robert Mugabe seemed welded to his presidential
palace, even then. But, superficially at least, there were numerous positive
signs.
The state-run press media had lost its monopoly, and independent newspapers,
particularly the Daily Mail, were thriving. With tremendous natural
assets like Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe had become a
tourist mecca. It was safe and had infrastructure the envy of the rest of the
continent.
Investment dollars were pouring in and a stock exchange had opened. Optimism
that, in tandem with the newly liberated 'rainbow nation' to the south, Zimbabwe
could drive development for southern Africa, seemed justified.
Penniless achieved a strong A-Level score and was offered a place in the
Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare. It wasn't what
she wanted, but a passport to a better life nevertheless. Penny wrote to me
before going to university and included a poem she had composed in her second
year of high school. The final verse:
Lonely, desperate, hungry,
Angry and in sorrow
Hoping for a better
tomorrow
The poor man's daughter
She clutches her sack of books
Makes
her way to the classroom
There, it all disappears
The loneliness,
desperation, hunger and anger
The wise words are uttered
Her troubled mind
is dismissed
With it all the poor man's daughter will be as good as any.
For me, the saddest aspect of Zimbabwe's disintegration is the shattered
aspirations of Zimbabwe's youth, for whom the 'valley of fear' must seem
endless, the 'jungle of doubt' impenetrable. There are few jobs waiting for
them, even if they do graduate. In the age of hyperinflation many of those who
have jobs find that the cost of getting to work exceeds their meagre salary.
Survival is the imperative for all but the well-connected. Given the recent
anti-immigrant riots in South Africa, even an illegal and often dangerous border
crossing (a route already taken by hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans) seems
less of an option.
Zimbabwe's youth have been abandoned by the majority of their leaders, by
their African brothers and sisters and the broader international community. They
are more likely to be brutalised in one of Mugabe's notorious youth camps than
find their way to university.
Western nations will not intervene — there is no pressing interest — and the
ideals expressed in the Constitutive Act of the African Union are mere window
dressing. It would be rank hypocrisy for most African leaders to press Mugabe to
hold free and fair elections. Sadly, Mugabe is right. In Africa the gun is
mightier than the pen.
We cannot comprehend the collapse of countries like Zimbabwe because too few
of us in the first world remember a past that continues to reverberate in the
present.
Too few of us understand the bilateral and multilateral (World Bank, IMF,
WTO) forces that, far from reducing poverty in Africa, have quite often ensured
that poverty would not be alleviated, that healthy civil societies and
democracies would not flourish, that familiar power structures within countries
and between African countries and the West would be preserved.
Similarly, too few of us remember that Mugabe has always been a thug. Perhaps
because Zimbabwe was an important frontline state in the struggle against
apartheid, we forgot the atrocities in Matabeleland in the mid 80s, and rarely
did we explore the rumours that have always surrounded Mugabe's rise to power in
ZANU.
All this forgetfulness contributed to the disproportionate media focus on the
plight of white farmers when the first land invasions took place in 2000. This
was always an alarming sideshow. The main game for Mugabe then, as now, was
staying in power. The president's main enemy then, as now, was the growing
number of Zimbabwean people willing to vote him out of office.
It became important to me to learn how Penny was coping in the current
crisis. Internet search engines are amazing things. I discovered that Penny
graduated from UZ with Honours and was recruited by the Cotton Company of
Zimbabwe. She was promoted and her wedding was reported in the company
newsletter.
Soon after she left the company and there the trail goes cold. I would like
to think she moved on to better things, fully cognisant that few people in
Zimbabwe have moved on to better things.
Peter Hodge works as a teacher and
freelance journalist.
Mugabe
has destroyed our sovereignty
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=3339
September 3, 2008
By Tendai
Dumbutshena
ROBERT Mugabe gets visibly agitated and froths at the mouth
when he talks
about the need to safeguard Zimbabwe's sovereignty. He of
course is the
chief custodian of a sovereignty he deems sacrosanct and
inviolable.
His political opponents, nay enemies, undermine Zimbabwe's
sovereignty by
colluding with imperialist powers to effect regime change.
These foreign
powers want to seize control of Zimbabwe's abundant natural
resources.
It is a tragic irony that no one has undermined Zimbabwe's
sovereignty more
than Mugabe and his government. Nothing undermines a
nation's sovereignty
more than economic dependence on foreign powers or
interests. Reckless
policies pursued to perpetuate Mugabe's rule have
impoverished Zimbabwe to
an extent unimaginable in the early years of the
country's independence. The
country then was classified as a medium-income
developing country with a
functional and viable economy. Now it has been
reduced to a ramshackle
economy which can only be revived through foreign
assistance.
Mugabe may rant and rave against Western countries as much as
he likes, the
unpalatable truth is that they will pick up the tab for
Zimbabwe's economic
recovery. The country has been so degraded and devalued
it simply lacks the
capacity to arrest the decline and reverse
it.
The national currency - that symbol of a nation's pride and
sovereignty -
has been reduced to worthlessness. While Mugabe childishly
attacks America's
President George Bush the United States dollar is
increasingly becoming
Zimbabwe's de facto currency. Most goods and services
of value can now only
be purchased with the greenback. It is illegal to do
so but the government
is unable to enforce the law. It cannot enforce this
law because it is
precisely black market activity that is now driving the
economy.
Laws governing economic activity are now more honoured in their
breach than
observance. In fact, the government, mainly through the Reserve
Bank, is the
chief violator of the country's currency laws. It has in its
employ an army
of shady foreign currency dealers who frequently raid the
black market. That
is the only way it can source sufficient foreign currency
to pay its bills.
This is evidence that the formal sector has collapsed. It
cannot even supply
the country with sufficient local currency which is
painfully rationed to a
desperate population.
The sad reality is that
financial transactions that keep the country limping
along are done on the
streets and in the privacy of homes and offices. The
authorities realize
that these strictly illegal deals keep Zimbabwe going.
If you cannot beat
them join them. This is the motto guiding Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono
who has become the biggest player on the currency black
market.
Even
sadder is the dependence of the country on foreign food aid. A country
that
in the 1980s was lauded as a bread-basket of the region has been
reduced to
the status of a beggar. It is a frightening thought that had
there been no
food aid forthcoming after the agricultural sector was
decimated by a
reckless land grab, a famine of Ethiopian proportions would
have stalked the
land. The citizens of a country that once produced food in
abundance are now
dying of malnutrition. Some are forced to eat wild fruit
like wild animals,
sometimes with fatal consequences. They have lost their
dignity. While
Mugabe talks endlessly of sovereignty the people of Zimbabwe
cannot stand
tall as a proud and sovereign people.
The tragedy does not end there.
Every sector of the economy has been
destroyed by a government solely
concerned with its own survival. The
manufacturing sector only operates at
20 percent of its capacity. Mining and
tourism have also been hard hit by
government policies that fly in the face
of economic common sense. A chronic
shortage of goods has devastated the
retail sector. The black market is now
a more reliable source of goods.
Economics is the science of the production
and distribution of goods and
services.
The formal economic sector in
Zimbabwe no longer efficiently produces and
distributes goods and services.
It has been supplanted by an economy driven
by black market merchants and
crooks. This economic disaster translates into
human suffering.
Unemployment, poverty, hunger and disease are now the lot
of most
Zimbabweans.
When Mugabe came into power in 1980 he inherited a country
in reasonable
economic shape.
The late president of Tanzania, Julius
Nyerere is reported to have said to
Mugabe: "You have inherited a jewel. Do
not destroy it."
Well, destroy it Mugabe certainly has. The Rhodesia
which Mugabe inherited
from Ian Smith had been subjected to 15 years of
comprehensive economic
sanctions. It also diverted resources to fight a war.
Yet it had a
functional economy.
When the Mugabe era finally ends
whoever takes over will need a massive
injection of foreign currency to
kick-start the economy. No money is given
without conditions. A dependence
on foreign funding leads to an erosion of
sovereignty. In the early 1990s
when the Economic Structural Adjustment
Programme (ESAP) was forced on
Zimbabwe by the IMF and World Bank, policy
was dictated to government by the
lenders. When working on a national budget
priorities are determined by
foreigners. Short of direct rule there cannot
be a greater loss of
sovereignty than this.
Zimbabwe's hopeless economic situation makes it
inevitable that a
post-Mugabe government will operate within a straitjacket
of donor-imposed
economic policies. The whole notion of self-government will
be thrown out of
the window as bureaucrats from Washington and elsewhere
call the shots.
Mugabe sacrificed the economy to prolong his rule.
In
so doing he has effectively compromised the sovereignty that he
continuously
harps about. It is he, not his so called western enemies, who
has delivered
Zimbabwe to the neo-liberal policies of the West.
Alarming
crisis in Zimbabwe -Urgent Preventive Action Needed
http://www.modernghana.com
By Paul B. Abudu,
Dr.
Feature Article | Wed, 03 Sep 2008
The current political situation
in Zimbabwe is alarming and African Leaders
must be serious about addressing
the problem. Unfortunately, African leaders
lack the political will to
handle the situation and have been making
statements which lack any
substance in terms of presenting concrete ways to
avoid the impending danger
in Zimbabwe. When African leaders make statements
such as, "the world
community should take action" - what exactly does this
mean? What actions
are they proposing? Anyone who has been closely following
the elections in
Zimbabwe knows that the current President - Robert Mugabe -
lost the
election held in March, but refuses to relinquish power After a
very long
delay, the so-called electoral commission published manipulated
election
results. In recent days, the President's wife has promised that the
Opposition Leader Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai will not see the State House which
many have interpreted as a thinly veiled threat to Mr. Tsvangirai's
safety.
One of many problems with Zimbabwe's electoral process is that
military
officers have been ordered to either vote for Mr. Mugabe or "get
out" of the
military. This statement should not be taken lightly because it
has a lot of
predicable implications. For example, The so-called run off
election held on
June 27th did not help matters. The aftermath of the
election was the failed
power sharing negotiations under the President of
South Africa Mr. Mbeki.
This has failed miserably and the way forward is
unknown. One can now assume
that the next step will be continued and
intensified crisis in the country.
This will only increase the political
instability. It would have been better
if President Mugabe had asked the
military chief to voluntarily resign or if
the opposition party had asked
for his resignation. It appears that the
country is now under miliatry
dictatorship as the miliary have much control
of the President. Many writers
have already contributed to the history of
Zimbabwe and the noble and
fearless war waged against the white minority
regime. This war was
effectively led by President Robert Mugabe. Nobody
doubts his sacrifice, but
the time has come for him to go. He has nothing
else to offer the country
after ruling and ruining it for the past 28 years.
The people of Zimbabwe
honored him by voting for him all these years, but
now they want to give
someone else a chance to run and, hopefully, improve
the country. It would
have been better for ZANU-PF if someone else from the
party had run for
President this time around. He cannot and should not think
that he will be
president until the day he dies. He is now 84 years old and
he has given all
he can - good and bad - to his country. His place in the
annals of African
liberation fighters is solid and cannot be forgotten.
However, he has been
in power too long and has now jeopardized whatever
positive legacy he might
have had if he had quietly stepped aside. People of
his age - most of them
dead now - and those who witnessed the liberation
struggle have been
replaced by younger people who have no personal
recollection of the
liberation struggle and
instead are only witnessing an oppressive leader
who is determined to stay
in This is a perfect opportunity for African
leaders and, for that matter,
the international community to engage in
conflict prevention instead of
waiting for the violence to escalate. They
need to prevent the almost
inevitable human rights abuses which will occur
RIGHT NOW. They need to have
the political will to tell their colleague
President Mugabe - "It is over
and give up." The recent statement by Mr.
Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary
General, that the opposition should sit with
the President and negotiate is
completely out of the question and will not
aid in conflict prevention.
There is nothing to negotiate when the only wish
of the president is to stay
in power even though he has been rejected by his
people. All that needs to
be negotiated is Mugabe's peaceful exit The onus
of negotiating Mugabe's
exit should not be on the opposition leader, who the
people duly elected. As
further proof that this is not the best strategy,
just take a look at what
happened in Kenya when the opposition leader was
asked to play that very
role. Such a course is inconsistent with the
principles of democracy. It is
tantamount to usurping power via an
unconstitutional way under the pretext
of democracy. One aspect of democracy
is one person one vote and this was
exercised in Kenya and Zimbabwe, but the
running elite in these countries
will not give up power. If this is not
immediately curbed, it will become
the trend in all African countries. Mr.
Kofi Annan, knows this and should
also have the courage to advise leaders
who lost elections to give way
instead of negotiating with the winning
opposition leader. The people of
Zimbabwe, just like citizens of other
African countries, have suffered
tremendously under their leaders. Some
leaders have ruled worse then the
imperialists/colonialists did in their
days. This was the system that people
like Mugabe fought to overthrow.
Unfortunately, it appears that Mugabe, a
former freedom fighter, is even
worse given his background. Is it because he
is a black man doing the same
thing to his people that Africans should not
complain? What is clear is that
he has become drunk with power. While his
young wife (45 years his junior)
should be the first person to tell him
"Honey you have done the best you can
do for this country and it is time for
you to have a long rest before you
die" she is encouraging him to hang on.
The reason is not very clear to me.
She has enjoyed the benefits of being
the first lady of Zimbabwe after
finding her way to him before and after the
death of his Ghanaian wife.
Should President Mugabe die before she does, she
will enjoy all the wealth
legal or ill gotten by President Mugabe. It is
also believed that she has
acquired her own wealth most of it stacked away
in foreign bank accounts.
Relatives of this young woman should advise her to
have a "pillow talk" with
the husband and advise him to give up and take a
long vacation of rest. The
stress is too much on him these days and that may
add to his demise.
President Mugabe can longer continue his accusations
against of Western
nations as the ones responsible for his economic woes.
The economic woes are
due to his mismanagement of the country's natural
resources and wealth. Why
should a country that used to be a bread basket of
Southern Africa now
become the "beggar for food" from his neighbors and the
international
community? The key question for African leaders is what
happens after June
27th. A run-off Presidential election? More than likely
what will happen is
that when the winner is declared .whoever it might be -
there will be an
instant conflict in the country. President Mugabe will not
accept any defeat
and will instead initiate political disturbances in the
country. The
Opposition Leader Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai will be arrested
immediately if he
is declared the winner; if Mugabe is declared the winner,
the result will
not be accepted by the people because they had already voted
him out. Unless
African leaders have totally ignored the political crisis in
Zimbabwe, they
must have some sense that these predictions most likely will
come to
fruition. They also have a personal and professional stake in the
outcome
because any instability in Zimbabwe will have implications on the
continent
and certainly the region. Much already has been written and said
about the
current situation in South Africa. The immediate cause of the
problem in
South Africa is the great number of refugees coming in from
Zimbabwe. It
will be worse if the result of the run off election on June
27th is not
acceptable to the people of Zimbabwe. They want Mugabe out,
period. He wants
to stay in power by all means. International monitoring of
the run off
election, even if Mugabe allows them to enter the country, will
not resolve
the political issue unless Mugabe decides to give up power. He
has shown his
defiance of international involvement in previous elections
and assistance
to help in the famine in the country. It appears that Mugabe
no longer loves
his people the way he did during the liberation struggle.
Maybe he used his
own people to gain "personal power" and he has no need for
them any more.
The blind support he is getting from his cabinet and other
followers should
be dealt with by African leaders. They should assist in
getting Mugabe to
give up power for the sake of stability in the country and
the region. The
question of non-interference in each others country should
be revisited by
the African Union. When heavy casualties begin to take
place, it is the
African Union that will provide the military forces to
bring about peace and
calm in the country. For all of the reasons stated
above, African leaders
must have the political will to tell Mugabe to adhere
to the results of the
run off election so that peace will prevail in his
country. The majority of
the people deserve that kind of behavior from their
leaders. It can be
argued that some leaders who have entrenched themselves
in power will not
have the back bone to call on him to resign or accept the
election results.
However, leaders who have the political credibility should
be able to tell
him to his face, it is time for you to go and bring peace to
your country.
Most world leaders have voiced their concerns about Zimbabwe.
Recently, the
Prime Minister of Norway, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, sent a letter
to the
Chairman of the SADC, a copy of which he also sent to the President
of the
African Union, which states in part:
"The crisis in Zimbabwe has become
even more serious in recent days.
Recently, opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai was detained while
campaigning. Intimidation and restrictions
against civilians and election
observers demonstrate a lack of commitment to
the democratic process that
can not be tolerated. I therefore urge the
leaders of the region to put
additional pressure on the Zimbabwean
authorities, to ensure that the
elections on 27 June are free of violence
and intimidation and open to the
press"
Does African leaders have to
be told what to do? Of course, it they are not
acting right they will have
to be compelled to comply with international
pressure. Since it is generally
believed that this is an African issue and
should be handled as such, if
they fail to act, the pressure will now come
to them to act from the
international community instead of directing an
appeal to Mugabe that goes
to death ears. It is a shame that after years of
decolonization, African
leaders have not learnt a lesson to take care of
themselves and always
seeking assistance either financial, social, economic
and now political from
the countries from whom they fought and got their
independence. The
pronouncement by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah prior to the
independence of Ghana which
implies give us our freedom and let us rule or
misrule ourselves has now
become a reality because African leaders are now
misruling and some lay the
problem on colonialism, imperialism and
neo-colonialism. I believe that
after so many years of independence it is
time we do away with such blames
and accept the fact that our leaders cannot
govern. One thing that they can
do and do very well is "govern their
pockets" and where do they safe their
bounties, it is in the European
countries. These European countries use
these stolen monies saved in the
countries to help in their national
developments..
There is not much time left to prevent this impending
conflict in Zimbabwe.
The time is NOW. All the signs of conflict abound and
action should be taken
immediately either by the African Leaders, who appear
too impotent to act,
or by the international community, which appears
disinterested in addressing
the problem. Africa cannot deal with another
conflict and if African leaders
cannot act, African citizens must join
together to counter the political
takeovers happening in their
countries.
Paul B. Abudu, PhD.
Founding Executive Director
African
Institute of Strategic Studies
abudu2aiss@yahoo.com
A
new dispensation is imperative
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=3333
September 2, 2008
By Paradzai
Mangenje
I read somewhere sometime ago that the problem with running a
rat race is
that even if you win, you are still a rat!
Events from
the "no deal on talks" just reminded me about exactly that. Now
we go back
to square one; what next? Did anyone really win from the indaba?
MDC-Tsvangirai did not. Zanu-PF, no matter what they may want to think,
clearly did not. South African president Thabo Mbeki got egg on his 'quite
diplomacy's' face, and the least said about MDC - Mutambara, the
better.
They all ran the race and still finished up as rats. I suppose
the only
people who benefited from the big sham are the hotel
waitresses!
So what happens from here? Back to barbarism, I guess. Yes,
to our everyday
life. We go back to form long queues whenever we want to buy
anything, or
buy from the black market using money we don't have at
ridiculous prices
from vendors.
Yes, we go back to watch ZTV (if the
electricity is there) where patriotic
citizens like Tazzen Mandizvidza tell
us about all the heroic exploits of
Zanu-PF and the villain MDC. They will
insult our collective intelligence on
all those dreary programmes - where
Mugabe is a hero par-excellence and has
never done anything
wrong!
Gukurahundi never happened, one-party-state attempt of the 80s
never
happened, Sandura commission was never there and no corruption ever
happened
at Noczim, GMB or War Victims Compensation Fund. Election violence
was all
caused by the opposition.
Yes they killed all their own
supporters from Talent Mabika to the driver
whose dead body was found in
Beatrice. Where we get told how evil Tsvangirai
is, how MDC comes from
Britain (yes, Britain is on our voters' roll and is
responsible for the 47
percent votes MDC got on March 29). Then we will go
to the Heroes Acre (I
wonder who will die next) and the Dear Leader will
shout and froth about
sanctions and regime change and sell outs. And then
what happens
next?
We go into another festive season with nothing to celebrate, and
nothing to
celebrate it with. No basic groceries, no cash, no fuel, too
expensive to
visit the rural areas. So we sigh and sit down and look at each
other and
together agree to be miserable. And after that? We get told by The
Herald
how the heroic party is working hard for our sovereignty, while
ministers
and army chefs (bosses) go to their farms for Christmas braai and
drink
imported whisky and white wine. Total independence! And when we come
back?
Opposition MPs get arrested and locked up. And then we hold
stage-managed
by-elections. Voters get beaten up, war veterans do some more
storm
trooping, army commanders threaten voters some more. And then
what?
Zanu-PF "wins" all the by-elections and regains control of
Parliament. Then
they use their parliamentary majority to make more laws,
and make more noise
about sanctions? Then Gono prints more cash and we have
more inflation and
we have doctors and teachers striking some more and then
what?
Then the likes of Charamba write more hate messages in his
Nathaniel Manheru
column, and Ceaser Zvayi tells us all about how bad the
Botswana government
is because they deported him, (never mind how many
journalists his own
government deported) And Sikhanyiso Ndlovu calls all the
European heads of
states some unprintable names. And then what?
We
get more price controls on commodities that are not in the shops. We get
more sovereignty from our hunger and total empowerment from our joblessness.
We go to other people's countries to buy tomatoes, bread and salt. We really
prove our 100 percent independence. Mugabe has proved his
manhood?
Fellow citizens - are we just not tired of the same old thing?
Can't someone
somewhere give us something new to cry about - a new way of
insulting the
opposition maybe? Or a new word for "sanctions"? Maybe another
word for
sovereignty. Hopefully we will be having 'Obama and Brown' by
December,
because we are also tired of Bush and Brown, just like we grew
tired of Bush
and Blair
Give us something new, please! I'm so sick of
this comedy!
Paradzai Mangenje lives in Dangamvura, Mutare.
Emotional Hick ready to bow out
Press Association, UK
4 hours
ago
Graeme Hick struggled to hold back the tears after admitting "my time
is up"
as he announced his retirement from county cricket after 25 seasons
with
Worcestershire.
But the 42-year-old admitted he may be open to
offers from the rebel Indian
Cricket League next season.
The former
England batsman said: "I felt it was right to finish. I had a
feeling at the
start of the year that it was going to be my last year."
He added: "I
just wanted to wait until a bit later in the year just to make
sure it was
the right decision. I think there are guys in the dressing room
who need to
start playing first-team cricket and my time is up.
"A few weeks ago I
was sitting at Cheltenham during the four-day game and I
felt it was time to
go."
Hick has decided to end his playing career with the Royals at the
end of the
current campaign after 136 first-class centuries and 41,112
first-class
runs, in addition to a prolific record in one-day
cricket
Hick insisted: "It is not a physical thing. I have got this
problem with my
elbow at the moment which has come on from the keyhole
surgery I had early
in the season.
"Surprisingly, after the back
injuries in the mid-1990s, in the last few
years I've felt better than
during that period. I don't know why. Maybe the
body got hardened to it more
and I've trained a lot over the years.
"It is not a physical choice at
the moment but, from how my body feels, it
will have been harder to get
through a full season next year and I felt I
wouldn't want to start the year
and pack up halfway through the season.
"I felt it was the right time. It
was an emotional decision."