http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011 17:42
BY OUR
STAFF
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has warned that Zimbabwe can
experience the
mass uprisings that have shaken dictatorships in Tunisia and
Egypt.
Tunisian strongman Zine el-Abine Ali was recently forced to
flee the country
after weeks of protests against his iron fist
rule.
His Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak was also forced
to reshuffle his
cabinet yesterday as his country who for so long have been
regarded as
docile intensified demonstrations against his
rule.
Tsvangirai who told Fox News in a wide ranging interview he
said the
struggles being waged by people in the two autocratic Arab
countries were
similar to those Zimbabweans were facing.
“To me
when people take their rights and start demanding more rights, there
is
nothing wrong with that including in Zimbabwe. “That was the whole
purpose
of our struggle for the last 10 years.
“The aspect of incumbents
leaving power to their children, dynasties, as we
may call it, that is very
resented by the people.”
In 1998, Zimbabweans took Mugabe’s regime by
surprise when they took to the
streets protesting against soaring food
prices.
The protests were brutally crushed but still marked the
beginning of serious
resistance to Mugabe’s rule leading to the formation of
the Movement for
Democratic Change led by Tsvangirai.
Soldiers
who are considered Mugabe loyalists also shook the establishment in
2008
when they rebelled against poor salaries and working
conditions.
Tsvangirai warns of Tunisia style
uprising
DAVOS, Switzerland-- The following is a conversation with
Zimbabwe Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on the sidelines of the World
Economic Forum.
Tsvangirai, as the leader of the opposition party, Movement
for Democratic
Change, was tortured at the hands of Robert Mugabe’s regime
and survived
several assassination attempts. In 2009 Tsvangirai’s MCD party
formed a
unity government with President Mugabe –who has held power in
Zimbabwe for
30 years.
He talked to FoxNews.com’s Amy Kellogg about
anti-government riots in the
Middle East, China’s growing economic influence
in Zimbabwe and his country’s
struggle for economic and social
stability.
Amy Kellogg: What do you think of events in Egypt and
Tunisia, and how do
they relate to Zimbabwe?
Prime Minster Morgan
Tsvangirai: There are two issues. One is the general
resentment of
autocratic regimes, the manner in which these governments have
stayed in
power forever and ever. I think people resent that, naturally. But
there is
also another aspect which I have pointed out in the last interview:
The
aspect of incumbents leaving power to their children, dynasties, as we
may
call it. That is very resented by the people.
So it’s like a spring. The more
pressure you put on a spring, the more it
will bounce.
I think
what we are witnessing here is a general suppression of the people.
People
are demanding more freedoms and there is nothing wrong with that.
AK: Could
that happen in Zimbabwe and is President Mugabe nervous?
MT: To me,
when people take their rights, and start demanding more rights,
there is
nothing wrong with that, including in Zimbabwe. That was the whole
purpose
of our struggle for the last 10 years
AK: What do you think of
China’s involvement in Africa? Do you think it’s
been positive? Or do you
think in some cases they have been propping up
people like your President
Mugabe?
MT: Whatever you can say about the Chinese, they are not
missionaries. They
have business interests, they have their own national
interests especially
when it comes to resources.
AK: Do you think
China has been exploitative at times?
MT: They have not been
exploitative. There are certain practices that I
would not subscribe to.
They are not philanthropists. They are coming there
for business interests.
In that regard, it’s mutually beneficial.
AK: So you think you should
be tougher with them?
MT: We should be tougher. We should not be
preferential to them. Of course,
we should recognise our historical linkage
through the liberation struggle,
but certainly we should get the maximum
advantages in whatever deals are
made.
AK: Do you see a day when
the US will have investment opportunities in
Zimbabwe?
MT:
Definitely. I don’t see anyone excluded from the potential of the
country
including business opportunities and investment opportunities. There
is
energy potential, there is mining potential. There is industrial
development
potential. The people are the most educated in Africa.
AK: You have
been tortured and survived assassination attempts by this
government? Why
did you decide to join them?
MT: It’s a difficult question but the
relevant question is: was it
strategic? I think given the state of the
nation and the state of the
people, it was very strategic that we join with
our erstwhile opponents in
making sure we can respond to the plight of the
people. The country was
facing a precipice, and we do it for the sake of
that. I don’t regret that.
AK: Do you see Mr Mugabe loosening his
grip at all, becoming more
democratic?
MT: Of course, I don’t
subscribe to some of his activities and some of his
actions. I don’t think
he’s got a grip that he’s not willing to let go. I
think because he has
accepted to go through this transition, he is in
acceptance that he cannot
continue to hold on.
AK: Mugabe is nearly 87. What do you think will
happen when he dies?
MT: Hopefully he will die after we have managed
the transition and that it
won’t be chaotic. We have always worried about
the succession issue,
especially this part that he has left it too
late.
AK: Have you been able to make a difference in this
government?
MT: Firstly, the fact that we were able to stabilize
hyperinflation
condition from billion percent inflation to three
percent.
The second thing is we have been able to revive and revitalise the
social
sectors: Education has been re-opened, schools are now in form,
hospitals,
they have now been reopened, water, sanitation. We had cholera,
we have
eliminated that. Generally there is peace and
stability.
AK: Some people say the opposition has been silenced now
that you have
joined the unity government. What do you say to
that?
MT: You know, the media always want to see blood on the floor,
and when
there’s no blood, no chaos, they think people have been silenced.
We have
been a positive influence on the inclusive government for the sake
of the
people. We are not the opposition in government. We are in government
to
make a contribution for the transition and I hope that people would
appreciate that we added value in making sure we are able to
deal
with the plight of our people and that we have been appreciated by
our
people despite what people can say
AK: Zimbabwe’s economy
still has a long way to go, in terms of improving the
standard of living for
people. How do you plan to do that?
MT: We’ve got priorities. Our
program is based on five key priorities. One
is to ensure that we
rehabilitate our infrastructure. Secondly, let’s not
forget education,
health—also very important yardsticks for people’s
development. We do regard
the isolation of the country as very important. We
need to remove the
country from being isolated.
AK: How will you do that?
MT:
Well, we are engaging the Europeans. We are engaging the Americans. We
are
engaging everyone. Zimbabwe’s on the path, the irreversible path to
progress. That must be recognised. – Fox News.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011 17:50
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
President Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao who is
also MP for Zvimba East has
claimed responsibility for the invasions of the
tourism facilities around
Lake Chivero and has vowed the invaders who were
thrown out by the police
last week will return soon.
It has emerged
Zanu PF activists calling themselves war veterans from
President Mugabe’s
home district planned the invasion as far back as October
last
year.
According to documents obtained by The Standard last week had the
invasion
been successful the facilities would have been dolled out to senior
Zanu PF
officials, chiefs and top civil servants.
The documents and
Zhuwao’s admission in an interview with The Standard
expose as false claims
by Zanu PF ministers including Local Government,
Urban and Rural Development
minister Ignatius Chombo that the invaders were
criminals who were not
connected to the party.
Zhuwao was defiant yesterday saying he agreed
with people in his
constituency to “tackle the racists and this time around
we are going to
research on the proper procedure and we are going to do it
again.”
“Whilst the process and procedure may have needed to be improved,
I still
feel, together with the community that there is gross social
injustice that
continues to be perpetrated by remnants of racists in most of
the clubs,” he
said.
“We will never allow any form of perceived white
superiority in any part of
this constituency.”
About 300 rowdy people
who were waving Zanu PF flags took over lodges,
boating clubs and chalets on
the shores of the lake saying it was part of
the government’s controversial
policy to indigenise the economy.
Activities at the popular tourism
facilities were brought to a halt until
police flushed out the intruders on
Monday.
Vice President Joice Mujuru last week apologised to the owners of
the
facilities and Zanu PF officials moved in to do some damage control
alleging
the invaders were common criminals.
But documents obtained
by this paper from various sources reveal that Zanu
PF and the government
were aware of the plans to invade the properties as on
January 6 war
veterans from the Sally Mugabe district wrote to Lands, Rural
Resettlement
minister Herbert Murerwa outlining their plans.
In the three page
letter signed by Aaron Mazvi who led the invasions, the
war veterans make it
clear that they are pursuing Zanu PF policies.
Murerwa was asked to
facilitate a peaceful take over of the properties.
The letter, titled
Occupation of Properties Situated along Lake Chivero” was
copied to Zhuwao,
National Parks, Mashonaland West Province governor Faber
Chidarikire, local
chiefs and Zanu PF structures.
Resort owners, among them Kuimba
Shiri’s Garry Stafford, were accused of
being racist, to justify the
invasions.
“We intend to occupy properties along Lake Chivero which have
become a
hiding place for former Rhodesian war veterans who have maintained
their
racist tendencies in the area,” said the letter.
“The
properties constitute mostly chalets and boating clubs which are
operated
mostly by white former army and intelligencia (sic).”
Jacana Yacht Club
at Lake Chivero, the largest sailing club in the country,
had also been
simultaneously invaded clearly indicating the organised and
co-ordinated
manner in which the invasions were taking place.
Club officials Tim
Cameron and Frances Morris had to seek the assistance of
the toothless Joint
Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic), a
creation of the
government of national unity (GNU). They also reported the
matter to the
police.
Sources said Zanu PF ministers were set to move into the
properties soon as
there was no strong opposition to the
invasions.
Some of the ministers who had targeted the lodges and the bird
sanctuary are
already in conservancy and wildlife business, one source
said.
Other documents leaked to The Standard show that the Zimbabwe
National
Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) Zvimba district
started
initiating the invasions in October last year.
One of the
documents shows that the war veterans on October 8 2010 carried
out a “fact
finding mission.”
Jacana Yacht Club informed Jomic of the disturbances on
October 6 2010.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011 18:42
BY FAITH
ZABA AND NQABA MATSHAZI
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe said the new
president of the smaller MDC faction,
Welshman Ncube could only be sworn in
as deputy prime minister if Arthur
Mutambara resigns on his own
accord.
Mugabe told Zimbabweans in Addis Ababa at a luncheon held at the
ambassador’s
residence that Mutambara’s ouster as leader of the smaller MDC
faction
created not just political problems but also a legal one.
“So we
now have Welshman Ncube as the new president? And then what does he
do to
the three principlas?
“We have been working together in the Global Political
Agreement right from
the start,” he said.
“This creates legal problems.
Politically, they were able to remove him but
legally we swore him in as a
Member of Parliament and I swore him as deputy
prime minister.
“I don’t
know — it is up to him if he wants to resign and if he refuses to
resign we
are stuck. But the GPA will move ahead.”
Mugabe said he doubted Ncube’s rise
was a decision that came from the
majority of the people in his party. “I
thought this is the opposition which
was crying out Zanu PF is
undemocratic.
“I don’t know whether people really took the decision that came
out of that
congress,” he said.
“Well poor Mutambara, those who invited
him now say he has overstayed. He
actually came to me and he went to our
Prime Minister (Morgan) Tsvangirai
also and spent time with him and spent
time with me and told us what was
going on — that was before the congress
when there was lots of chicanery,
cunning and mischief and he said he was
not going to stand as a candidate
for the presidency of MDC-M.”
Mugabe’s
comments will fuel speculation that Mutambara, who has not
commented
publicly a week after he was asked to step down by his party, may
try to
hang on to his post.
Sources told The Standard that Mutambara was prepared to
be made a lame duck
DPM with most of the executive roles taken away from him
in the clearest
indication yet that he will not leave his post without a
fight.
It has since emerged that a few days before his departure for Davos,
Switzerland where he is attending the World Economic Forum, Mutambara met
the new MDC secretary-general Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and made some
demands.
MDC insiders believe Mutambara, who had initially looked
agreeable to
switching positions with Ncube, changed tact after getting
advice from Zanu
PF and MDC-T.
The two parties are reportedly urging
Mutambara to resist the redeployment
to spite Ncube who is yet to officially
communicate the party’s decision to
Mugabe.
Ncube was told that he would
only meet Mugabe after the AU summit.
Mutambara is reported to have asked the
party to leave him as DPM so that he
could pursue his pet projects of
rebranding the country and the Public
Private Partnerships
(PPP).
Meanwhile, Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema was
expected
to assume the chairmanship of the African Union at a summit
underway in
Ethiopia.
Obiang’s ascendancy will further complicate the
AU’s role in solving
Zimbabwe’s long-running political crisis as he is a
close ally of President
Robert Mugabe.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011 18:41
BY NQABA
MATSHAZI
JOCKEYING for positions in the MDC-T ahead of the party’s
congress in April
has reached fever pitch amid revelations that politicians
from Matabeleland
have demanded that some positions be reserved for the
region.
It is reported that the Matabeleland caucus has demanded the
positions of
vice-president, treasurer- general, national chairman, deputy
organising
secretary and national youth chairman among others.
Sources in
the party revealed that senior politicians from Matabeleland were
holding
consultative meetings throughout the country in an effort to build
consensus
around the idea.
“Before the split the region was well represented but after
that our numbers
have diminished at the top of the party,” a source
revealed.
He said it was too early to mention those that were eyeing top
posts, but
The Standard has it on record that Lovemore Moyo, the national
chairman and
vice-president, Thokozani Khupe were facing a challenge from
some party
members.
“There is a feeling that when politicians from this
region (Matabeleland) go
to the top they stop representing us and become
narrow and selfish,” another
source revealed.
The source said a case in
point was the appointment of Abednico Bhebhe as
the Water and Infrastructure
Development minister, a decision that was later
reversed, despite the fact
that he did not belong to the MDC-T.
“It was the senior politicians from this
region that sanctioned Bhebhe’s
appointment despite that some of us were
against his inclusion in the first
place,” the source continued.
Senior
politicians from the region were also accused of not consulting when
making
decisions that affected Matabeleland.
Moyo is reported to be on the brink of
losing his position because of ethnic
balancing in the party.
Despite
demanding that the position be reserved for a Matabeleland
politician, the
source said the post was likely to be taken up by a
politician from
Masvingo.
“That post was originally held by (the late Isaac) Matongo and he
was from
Masvingo, so there are suggestions that the post revert to
Masvingo, leaving
Moyo in the cold,” the source added.
Moyo’s
predicament, the source said, is further compounded by the fact that
he does
not seem to have the backing of politicians from the region and that
might
see him lose the position.
The party’s deputy spokesperson and veteran trade
unionist, Thabitha Khumalo
said she had seen a document circulating on the
positions that are to be
reserved from Matabeleland, but distanced the party
from it.
“We are yet to sit as branches, wards and districts to decide on
the
positions, but we have not done that so I don’t know where you got
that,”
she said.
Despite her denials there has been heightened
campaigning in the party, with
ministers and senior politicians setting base
and holding several meetings
ahead of congress.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011 18:40
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
TOURISM and Hospitality Industry minister Walter Mzembi will
always rue the
day rowdy Zanu PF supporters invaded tourism properties
outside Harare last
week.
The incident could not have come at a worse
time than when the Zanu PF
legislator was busy trying to woo tourists at an
international convention in
Spain.
Zanu PF activists from Zvimba district
invaded boating clubs and tourism
lodges around Lake Chivero, claiming their
activities were part of the
indigenisation programme.
A rowdy crowd of
more than 200 activists flying Zanu PF flags and chanting
the party’s
revolutionary songs sealed off more than 20 properties, claiming
they were
the new owners.
The original owners were blocked from getting out of the
premises while
visitors were denied entry on the pretext that the properties
were closed
for business to sort out some “office issues”.
Mzembi last
week told The Standard how he, unaware of developments back
home,
successfully launched an ambitious rebranding campaign called
“Zimbabwe: A
World of Wonders”, aimed at wooing Western tourists back to
the
country.
The following morning, he woke up to the news of the invasion that
spread
like a veld fire.
Shocked by the contrast between what Mzembi had
said at the launch and
reports from home, some delegates at the 31st
anniversary of the
International Tourism Trade Fair approached the minister
demanding answers.
“I felt very stupid and very sad at the same time,” Mzembi
said in a
wide-ranging interview.
“However, the world does not care less
and it is us who are shooting
ourselves in the foot.
“In this country, we
have laws and processes for the acquisition of land and
businesses – I would
rather we follow those.”
Like Ignatius Chombo, the Local Government, Urban
and Rural Development
minister who doubles up as Zanu secretary for lands,
Mzembi disowned the
invaders saying they were hired thugs.
“There is no
Zanu PF cadre who behaves like that,” he said. “We have
schooled our people
and they understand all the laid down procedures and
anyone who acts outside
those is not Zanu PF.
“I would feel very ashamed to lead a constituency like
that and I believe
they were hired people and not true Zanu PF
members.”
But The Standard reveals today that the invasion was planned as far
back as
October last year by war veterans who have been at the forefront of
Zanu PF’s
often violent land reform and some senior government officials
were kept
abreast of the developments.
Mzembi sarcastically referred to
the invasions as part of the wonders his
campaign talks about.
“Is it not
a wonder that when you are busy marketing a destination, someone
else is
busy pulling the opposite direction,” he asked rhetorically.
“We have done
extremely well in reversing negative perceptions about the
country in the
past two years and we need not ruin the gains by
unnecessarily dramatising
our actions.”
In continuing with his campaign, Mzembi now had an extra task
of explaining
indigenisation to those who enquired about the news.
“It
was not a big issue,” he said. “We nicely packaged it and told them that
the
disturbances were results of outstanding business of our people who have
waited too long for empowerment.
“We assured them that our law will soon
take its course and we are happy it
did as the police intervened and
restored order at the properties.”
Mzembi said he was studying proposals by a
15 member sectoral committee
regarding the indigenisation of the tourism
sector, which he will forward to
cabinet for consideration.
“But one
observation I have made is that following the land reform
programme, 70% of
our tourism assets are lying idle at farms including
lodges and game
reserves,” he said.
“We will need to do an audit of assets with the aim of
establishing good
areas to use the Tourism Revolving Facility to resuscitate
these assets some
of which have been turned into poultry pens.
“There are
also restaurants, amusement and theme parks lying idle out there
and all
these will see our people participating in the tourism sector if
resuscitated.”
Mzembi also said resettled farmers can participate in
tourism through
practising eco-agriculture whereby a sizeable number of best
performing
farms in each province can be showcased to tourists to market the
agricultural sector.
He decried lack of funding in the sector, saying
with a tenth of the money
given to other sectors of the economy, the tourism
industry can treble the
US$800 million it raked in last year.
“I am not
bragging but it is true that we have outperformed most of these
supported
sectors with no capital deployment,” he said.
“The revolving fund will thus
provide seed capital for the sector and help
players to borrow fairly
cheaply.
“Players in our industry are currently borrowing over the commercial
counter.
“Notwithstanding our bid of $16 million, we got a paltry $3
million which
puts us in the group of death in terms of fiscal
appropriations.”
Mzembi added that government needs to play an integral role
in the sector so
as to have benchmarks for standards and pricing for easy
enforcement on the
industry.
The biggest strategy however, Mzembi said,
will be for each citizen to
ensure that they do not undermine the Zimbabwe
brand.
ENDS
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011
18:39
BY NQABA MATSHAZI
WITH elections on the horizon,
President Robert Mugabe’s supporters have
embarked on an audacious plan to
have at least two million people sign a
petition calling for the end of
sanctions.
The petition is led by war veterans’ leader, Jabulani Sibanda and
has earned
the backing of Defence Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa and other
Zanu PF
heavyweights, as the ageing leader ups his anti sanctions
propaganda.
But it is difficult to be escaped by a sense of déjà vu,
considering that
slightly over three years ago, Mugabe’s supporters embarked
on another such
campaign to get the octogenarian leader some
votes.
Again, spearheaded by the same Sibanda, the war veterans embarked on
nationwide marches that culminated in the infamous million man march
campaign.
The idea then was to spearhead a campaign for Mugabe, whose
popularity was
on the wane, thanks to the strengthening of the MDC and
unprecedented
economic and social decline.
However, Mugabe’s fortunes did
not improve and he was thumped by Morgan
Tsvangirai in the 2008 polls but
managed to hang on to power after the MDC-T
leader failed to garner enough
voters to claim the presidency.
Mugabe and his party routinely blame
sanctions for economic decay that
festered over the past decade and accuse
the MDC-T for calling upon Western
nations to impose the sanctions.
On
the other hand the west claims these are targeted sanctions aimed at a
few
people who are accused of denying Zimbabweans their civil liberties and
looting the economy.
Despite all this Zanu PF has managed to get the
issue of sanctions into
mainstream politics even including the issue in the
Global Political
Agreement that ushered in the inclusive
government.
Political analyst, Effie Ncube reckons these are the signs of a
desperate
party, which was now clutching at straws.
“This is an act of
desperation to solicit for public opinion because the
people of Zimbabwe
have never bought into their sanctions story,” he said in
an interview last
week.
Ncube said despite continued grandstanding on the sanctions, the
narrative
was yet to have an effect on Zimbabweans, though Mugabe had
managed to
convince other African states.
He said this was an exercise
for propaganda purposes as Zanu PF felt it had
to convince the world that a
substantial number of Zimbabweans are against
sanctions, when the majority
were actually indifferent.
There are reports that the war veterans have
already engaged in violent
activities in order to force people to append
their signatures to the
petition.
“War veterans are usually violent and
this does not surprise me, it’s in
their genes,” Ncube warned. “This is
psychological warfare against
Zimbabweans and anyone who declines to sign
will suffer the consequences.”
He said Zanu PF will use this to cow people
and act as a reminder of the
orgy of politically motivated violence that
succeeded the 2008 harmonised
elections.
US ambassador Charles Ray, whose
country is due to receive the petition once
all the signatories had been
acquired, said they would await the petition.
Political scientist, John
Makumbe laughed off the anti sanctions campaign,
describing it as an
exercise in futility.
“It doesn’t mean anything, Mugabe still lost the
election despite the
million man march,” he said, adding that people will
sign the petition but
that did not translate to votes for Zanu
PF.
Makumbe said people were participating in Zanu PF activities so they
could
gain from things like seed distribution but, as in the past they did
not
vote for the party.
He said even if they got the required two million
votes expectations that
sanctions would be removed was a pie in the
sky.
Makumbe said the fact that there was still polarisation and a resurgence
of
political violence was a classic example of the failure of the organ for
national healing.
“There is no reconciliation, there is no healing and
there is still
polarisation, so whoever is calling for elections this year
is simply saying
let us repeat June 2008,” he said.
Bekithemba Mpofu, a
UK based political analyst said most Zimbabweans would
support targeted
measures against politicians who were an obstacle to
reforms.
“Most
Zimbabweans do not support sanctions but that cannot be said of
targeted
sanctions toward individuals whose actions have led to the
assassination of
democracy,” he said.
“The petition is part of a campaign strategy which
will be combined with
rhetoric around economic empowerment. This is set to
be used as
justification for the Zanu PF ruinous economic
policies.
“People now know these strategies and l will be surprised if
they fall for
them especially that a similar policy on land benefited the
elite.”
Mpofu said the two million signature campaign will used by Zanu
PF as a
disguise to cow people into voting for it in the rural
areas.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011 18:38
BY FORTUNE
MOYO
BULAWAYO — A pressure group, Ibhetshu Likazulu, is in the
process of
collecting signatures for a petition to leaders in the inclusive
government
to stop the tide of relocations of most major companies from
Bulawayo to
Harare.
The group says the relocation of these companies is a
deliberate ploy to
continue the marginalisation of people from
Matabeleland.
Mqondisi Moyo from Ibhetshu Likazulu told The Standard on
Tuesday that the
petition would raise the concerns on the relocation of most
companies.
“We are in the process of drafting a petition, which we will send
to
principals in the inclusive government because we are concerned about the
continuous relocation of major companies from Bulawayo to Harare,” he
said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011 18:37
BY
OUR STAFF
MDC-T is taking disciplinary measures against National
Housing and Social
Amenities minister Giles Mutsekwa and an MP accusing them
of causing
divisions in the party after they were fingered in the violence
that marred
the party’s failed restructuring exercise in Manicaland province
two years
ago.
The long-awaited case, which opened last week, is likely
to unpack the root
cause of the factionalism that continues to haunt the
party led by Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Sources say the case which
arose in 2009 finally went for disciplinary
hearing after Tsvangirai
insisted that it be finalised. Some senior party
officials were accused of
trying to block it in a bid to protect the two
politicians.
Mutsekwa, who
has been jointly charged with Prosper Mutseyami, the MP for
Musikavanhu in
Mutare is accused of “bringing the name of the party into
disrepute.”
The
charges have been linked to the violence that rocked the aborted
restructuring exercise led by the party’s organising secretary, Elias
Mudzuri who was threatened with “logs” in one of his visits to the
province.
Information reaching The Stan-dard indicated that rowdy youths
blocked
Mudzuri from holding a gap-filling exercise, charging that he was a
Karanga
out to remove Tsvangirai from the helm of the MDC-T.
The Standard
was told the youths embarked on an orgy of violence that forced
Mudzuri to
abandon his mission.
Ironically Mudzuri was in June last year demoted from
his post as Minister
of Energy and Power Development in a surprise cabinet
reshuffle by
Tsvangirai.
Mutsekwa was also removed from the influential
Home Affairs portfolio, in
what was seen as an attempt by the MDC-T leader
to deal with internal
divisions in his party.
Mutsekwa and several MPs
from the province are accused of “complicity to the
fiasco in Manicaland in
that they failed to protect their seniors from
unwarranted attack.”
The
disciplinary hearings are led by prominent Harare lawyer Chris Mhike.
Mutsekwa is also accused of obstructing the work of the teams led by Mudzuri
and his deputy Tapiwa Mashakada.
Mhike said the hearing was an internal
party matter and referred questions
to the MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa
who said “we have nothing to
communicate at the moment on the issues you are
referring to.”
However The Standard was told that the matter was a hot
potato in the MDC-T
and the manner the disciplinary hearing was handled was
raising eyebrows
since the people who were affected by the violence were not
called to give
evidence last week.
There were suggestions that a senior
party official was keen to have the
charges against the two dropped.
Mutsekwa and Mutseyami could not be reached
for comment yesterday.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011 18:09
By CHIPO
MASARA
FOR any city in the world to be able to properly function, it
should have in
place bylaws that give the residents clear guidelines on how
to conduct
their business in an urban setting.
Bylaws should regulate
such things as waste management, vending,
construction work, traffic control
and public behaviour among many others.
Failure by the responsible
authorities to put such bylaws in place and
enforce them is bound to leave
any city in a state of chaos and rampant
lawlessness.
Going around Harare
these days, any environment-conscious person cannot help
but notice how
people generally do as they wish, with no regard whatsoever
for the
law.
Some throw litter everywhere, others defaecate and urinate in public
places
while others spit anywhere.
It’s like Harare has become a real
jungle where animals live. Needless to
point out, such a state of affairs
has put a lot of lives at risk
unnecessarily and has led to the rapid
degradation of the environment.
The main reason for these problems, it
appears, is everyone in Harare is
busy devising ways to acquire the
much-needed US dollar without any regard
to the environment that we live
in.
But good as it is to have people earning a living; it has given rise to a
rather large number of hawkers who have taken to trading all sorts of staff
at all corners in town. A good example is the roasted maize traders that
mostly make a huge appearance during this rainy season when maize is in
abundance.
They normally sell their maize at “convenient spots”, mostly
by the shopping
centres and most preferably near bottle stores as imbibers
are generally
known to love roasted and salted maize.
My gripe with these
traders is the “little mountains of dirt” that they have
managed to create
in the capital city alone, worsening our already soaring
waste problem.
Since these guys are fully operational in every part of the
country, it
should make Zimbabwe a dirty country indeed!
Completely putting them out of
business wouldn’t do any good as it would
only create more problems.
Instead, the city council needs to keep a close
track of street maize
traders or any other traders for that matter and force
them to tidy their
selling zones.
A levy that can be directed towards payment of the cleaners
who can go after
litter thrown onto the streets would be very helpful. This
would mean the
traders remain in business while ensuring that there is no
litter in our
environs, truly a win-win situation.
Let’s turn to another
subject that is also of concern to me: that of the
traffic jungle in the
city of Harare. With a larger number of people now
owning their vehicles,
thanks to the dollarisation of the economy, there is
now chaos in the
streets. If you add commuter omnibuses to the traffic mix,
the result is a
real jungle in the city centre, especially when it is
raining.
Increased
traffic wouldn’t be such a major problem if we had proper traffic
control
measures firmly in place as in the case of South Africa where you
will
notice the difference. There, there are clear traffic control measures
in
place and failure to abide by them sees motorists facing a penalty. The
motorists themselves seem to be socialised to respect the need to give way
and patiently wait their turn in the event that traffic lights are not
working.
But if you drive along the Copacabana area along Speke Avenue,
or through
the corner of Albion Road and Mbuya Nehanda Street during a peak
hour in
Harare, you will be appalled by the behaviour that motorists,
especially the
kombi and taxi drivers, are demonstrating.
One is left
wondering why the responsible authorities seem oblivious of the
commotion on
our roads.
The situation proves to be even worse when the traffic lights are
not
functioning as most drivers are impatient. Nobody wants to give way to
the
other, and in many cases there have been gridlocks on Harare’s streets
that
have lasted for hours.
To make matters worse, the vehicles,
especially the kombis, are always
haphazardly parked all over the place and
pedestrians are often left with
very little space to manoeuver, not to
mention the terrible sight they
always manage to create.
Apart from this
problem of reckless drivers, most companies carrying out
maintenance work in
the city do not think twice about leaving huge trenches
on our
roads.
During the past few months, companies contracted to dig trenches in
town
have become notorious for that. The result has been catastrophic for
some
motorists who got involved in accidents when they hit the trenches
while
most are suffering in silence as they are forced to incur many costs
on
repairing vehicle suspensions, damaged as they cross over trenches left
unattended for long periods.
The city should have a bylaw that makes it
clear that when the contractors
finish their work, they must reinstate the
roads to exactly the conditions
they would have been before the work
started, or even better. Companies
should be given a time frame within which
they should have filled-up the
trenches and they should be monitored to make
sure they do a good job at it.
Failure to see this bylaw enforced on the
public will undoubtedly see a lot
of companies, some of which appear to be
the flight-by-night types, digging
up everywhere and leaving our cities with
gaping potholes, which I am sad to
note, is the present state of affairs in
the capital city.
This is just a glimpse of the many things that are amiss in
our cities. It
is up to the country’s city councils to make sure that the
necessary bylaws
are put in place as a matter of urgency and to post the
responsible officers
in the right spots to make sure that these bylaws are
complied with as
failure to do this will plunge our cities deeper into
lawlessness and
degradation to the extent that such actions would soon be
considered “just
one of those things”. I shudder to picture the environment
we would have to
live in if this current lawlessness is not taken care
of.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011
18:25
BY KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA
EMPLOYERS have agreed to make
once-off salary reviews this year because of
the tough operating environment
but it is feared the move could fuel more
job boycotts.
The
controversial resolution was made by 17 employer associations under the
Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) after a meeting last month, an
official has said.
“It was resolved, after due consideration that
employers shall provide for
negotiations and awards strictly on an annual
basis as opposed to the past
where bi-annual and quarterly reviews were
made,” Emcoz director, John
Mufukare said last week.
Collective
bargaining ended in deadlock in many sectors last year as unions
pushed for
salaries above the poverty datum line now estimated to be over
US$500.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) says many companies
are paying
“slave wages” and use the subdued economic activity as an
excuse.
ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo said the proposal by the employers
was
unworkable because of the country’s inflationary trends.
“The living
wage that we want relates to the price and income ratio,”
Matombo said,
adding that the unions will continue to push for better
remuneration for
workers.
“Commodity prices in Zimbabwe are much higher than our regional
counterparts.
“We are not looking at a quantum figure but looking at
prices on a pro-rata
basis.”
But Mufukare insisted that in the past,
National Employment Councils (NECs)
“stampeded” employers into awarding
unsustainable salaries during collective
bargaining, hence the new
thrust.
He said most employers were complaining that they were pushed into
awarding
salaries that did not match their productivity and
profits.
“Employers feel that if there is to be a deadlock this year, then so
be it,”
Mufukare said.
Labour relations in Zimbabwe have been rocked by
endless salary disputes and
retrenchments, as the economy has not been
performing well owing to a
decade- long economic stagnation and
hyperinflation.
The introduction of the multi-currency regime in 2009 brought
some relief to
the economy but most companies are still
struggling.
Patrick Muginyi, the chairman of Emcoz’s Labour and Manpower
Development
committee said employers were shouldering most of the blame when
it was the
economy that was not doing well.
“Zimbabwe’s minimums are well
above regional wages,” Muginyi said.
“Neighbouring countries are paying less
than we do, which also gives them a
competitive edge.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011 18:23
BY NDAMU
SANDU
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the dollarisation of
the economy
has improved Zimbabwe’s revenue coffers but said the challenge
now is to
contain spending, particularly on public sector wages.
Sharmini
Coorey, deputy director of the African Department at the global
lender told
journalists in Johannesburg on Tuesday that the use of
multi-currencies has
stemmed hyperinflation and imposed fiscal discipline.
“The challenge really
is to contain spending and particularly wages, public
sector wages.
“This
is a long-standing issue in Zimbabwe and it continues to be a
challenge to
get the consensus to hold back public wage increases,” Coorey
said.
IMF
recommendations to halt public wages increase is likely to incense the
civil
servants who are pushing for a review of salaries.
Civil service unions are
pushing for a minimum salary of US$502 per month
for the lowest paid
government worker.
Government on the other hand says it is constrained as the
resources
available cannot meet its workers’ expectations.
The
government’s salary bill has been chewing nearly half of the budget
leaving
little funds to other expenditures such as infrastructure and social
services.
In 2009, the public service wage bill was 47% of the total
budget and 9, 2%
of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This was expected
to rise to 54, 5% of the total budget and 15% of GDP by
end of last
year.
In the 2011 budget, Finance Minister Tendai Biti promised to maintain
the
wage bill within the levels which do not compromise financing of such
other
essential programmes as infrastructure, health and education.
He
said the wage bill as a percentage of the total budget will be reduced to
45% this year and will constitute 14, 5% of GDP.
“This reduction will be
made possible by implementing recommendations from
the Civil Service Audit
and taking advantage of the better performance of
GDP and revenues,” Biti
said in the 2011 budget statement.
The medium term target is to reduce the
wage bill to the desired levels of
30% of the total budget and 10% of
GDP.
IMF has been pushing government to rein in expenditure, especially on
the
wage bill.
After its Annual Article IV consultation last year, the
IMF team said
government should reduce the wage bill by 15% by 2011.
It
said the wage bill could be reduced through elimination of ghost workers,
illegal hires, freezing of recruitments and below inflation wage increases
in 2011 and 2012.
“The 2011 projections see an increase in employment
costs by US$200 million,
so a 15% reduction over 2010 levels means US$338
million in savings over the
baseline,” it said.
“Probably US$55m to
US$85m can come from elimination of ghost workers, but
firing illegally
hired or under-qualified workers will be politically and
legally
difficult.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011
18:34
By Benjamin Chitate
Politicians and political
commentators have had their say on the ascendancy
of Professor Welshman
Ncube to the helm of MDC-N. Some have dismissed his
rise as a non-event,
while others have showered him with praise and embraced
him as a capable and
intelligent leader.
What most of the commentators seemed to miss is the
tribalistic element in
Professor Ncube’s rise which was pronounced by
Professor Ncube himself and
the late MDC-M Vice-President Gibson Sibanda.
The commentators may have
missed media articles in which Professor Ncube and
the late Gibson Sibanda
told a rally in Bulawayo that they had made a
mistake inviting Professor
Mutambara to lead the party. They both reportedly
bemoaned the invitation of
a Shona person to lead the party, and vowed that
come next election, they
would field a Ndebele as a candidate for
presidency.
In my opinion, that is where Professor Ncube got it wrong. People
should not
be elected to leadership for a non-tribalistic national political
party on
tribal basis, yet all that Professor Ncube and the late Sibanda
wanted was a
Ndebele person to be the next leader of the splinter group and
be able to
contest in the country’s next presidential elections.
If
Professor Ncube and the late Gibson Sibanda were as talented and
intelligent
as Silence Chihuri and others who have heaped praise on
Professor Ncube want
us to believe, the two would have said the party made
the mistake of
inviting someone who had not been in the party for two years
as required by
both MDCs’ constitutions.
They appointed someone who had been out of the
country for too long and was
out of touch with local realities, someone who
had not been actively
involved in party politics apart from stints with the
now defunct Zimbabwe
Unity Movement while a student at the University of
Zimbabwe.
Having played a meaningful role in the formation of the National
Constitutional Assembly, and having been the founding secretary-general of
the original MDC were enough reasons to justify MDC-N presidency for
Professor Ncube, rather than talk about the need for a Ndebele leader for
the party and for the nation. Yes, Ndebeles, like every other Zimbabwean,
have the right to contest for any position in a political party and at
government level, but not when they say, vote for me because I am Ndebele as
is the case here.
Another blunder which could cost Professor Ncube’s
political career is his
public refusal to work with MDC-T in the next
election. If the media did not
misquote him, he is said to have said it was
to be each man for himself, and
there was no way his party would work with
another party, especially MDC-T,
blaming the failure for the two parties to
work together in the last
election on Morgan Tsvangirai, never bothering to
acknowledge the fact that
it was the then MDC-M which made unrealistic
demands on the proportion of
candidates each party was supposed to field
especially in Bulawayo.
In fact the MDC-T came out with more seats in
Bulawayo than they had
negotiated for. To blame Tsvangirai for the failure
to reach agreement in
the last election is out of question.
Going it
alone in the next elections may prove to be the end of MDC-N,
especially if
mass defections of councillors and other officials to MDC-T in
Matebeleland
are anything to go by.
More progressive politicians in MDC-N like David
Coltart, have been recently
quoted saying going it alone reduces the chances
of defeating Robert Mugabe
the dictator and they would be happier if
political parties opposed to the
dictator could work together in the next
elections.
I have nothing against Professor Ncube, as I actually admire some
of his
strengths, but his blunders may wipe off his strengths and he may
find
himself in the political dustbin.
Benjamin Chitate writes from
New Zealand.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January
2011 18:33
By Nevanji Madanhire
When Stan Mudenge joined
fulltime politics a fellow academic rued the day;
he was quoted saying: “We
have lost Mudenge the scholar; now what we have is
Mudenge the
politician.”
Mudenge became a high-flying politician serving the
Zimbabwean government
first at the powerful Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(1995-2005) and then at
the Ministry of Higher Education, a position he
still holds. Now it seems we
have also lost Mudenge the politician and in
his place we now have Mudenge
the tribesman who would like to kill all the
animals in conservancies and
“eat the meat”.
He was in
Masvingo this past week telling all and sundry that Zanu PF was
planning to
seize all conservancies in the lowveld areas and hand them over
to a Chinese
cotton farmer. The conservancies are mostly owned by British
and American
investors. He said, “Our top cash crop, tobacco is about to be
banned on the
international market. We have to grow cotton to get
forex.
Therefore we will take the conservancies where the soil is
suitable for
cotton and give them to a Chinese investor who is into cotton
growing. We
have already identified a Chinese investor in Masvingo who is
into cotton
growing.”
Using language that has come to be
associated with the less civil of the war
veterans such as Jabulani Sibanda
and Joseph Chinotimba, Mudenge spoke of
Zanu PF as an “unstoppable train”:
“We are coming with much more
determination and resolve under
indigenisation... the train is
unstoppable... anyone who thinks he can stand
in our way is a fool. Nobody
can stop us.”
He must have been
frothing at the mouth when he said: “We are not begging
anyone, the
resources are ours. It is time to assert control. We have got
that right...
it will not take us three months to destroy the
conservancies...after all
what is a conservancy? Just a hut built with pole
and daga (mud).
Are
we not able to erect ours? We can go and erect parallel structures and
kill
all the animals and eat the meat. Our craving for meat is very big
anyway.”
Interestingly, the former scholar thinks that the
Chinese are not
foreigners. “We are not benefiting anything from the
conservancies as they
are in the hands of foreigners. We need to change that
and take them. The
animals, the land, everything is
ours.”
Mudenge’s soft spot for the Chinese is well documented.
According to Africa
Confidential in April last year celebrating 30 years of
bilateral relations
with China, Mudenge used robust rhetoric in China’s
defence. In 2004, he
blasted Taiwan’s presidential election as a “sham” and
“a danger not only to
the stability of China but also to international peace
and security”.
Mudenge says the conservancies can be destroyed in
three months showing he
is oblivious of the importance of these pieces of
land. He seems to be
unaware of the huge role they play in the tourism
sector. His exhortation
regarding the global ban on tobacco is too
simplistic to come from a
scholar.
But Mudenge is not new to
destruction. Over the years he has presided over
the Ministry of Higher
Education he had the chance to empower thousands of
our young people who
sought tertiary education but what has happened is the
opposite. He has
presided over the destruction of arguably one of the best
education systems
on the African continent.
The University of Zimbabwe, once one of
the best in Africa, has gone the way
of Uganda’s Makerere University which
was destroyed under the dictatorship
of Idi Amin.
Ironically
Mudenge talks of indigenisation as a sure-fire way of empowering
the people
but he doesn’t see that any empowerment project should begin with
a sound
education.
In the past few years our universities were degraded to
mere centres of
strife rather than scholarship. The best university teachers
left for
foreign lands because they could not stand the lack of facilities
that had
come to characterise the institutions. They were also poorly
rewarded for
their excellent work and could not stand the thought of their
status as the
brains driving the country’s progress being downgraded to the
position of
mere temporary teachers.
Students were the most
affected by warped policies that saw tertiary
institutions introducing
tuition fees that were way above what their
guardians could afford. The
suffering that the students were subjected to is
now legendary. Because of
poverty the students became vulnerable to
exploitation. Not only did
thousands of young women and men turn to
prostitution for survival but they
also became subjects of ridicule. All
this was happening on Mudenge’s
watch.
Thousands of students and former students must be dying
everyday as we speak
of diseases that they contracted while fighting to
survive at our tertiary
institutions.
In recent years the
ministry has introduced what it calls a cadetship
programme where government
pays the fees and then bonds the graduates for a
certain period. But this
has turned out to be a highly punitive programme.
Former students
have said although government has paid part of their fees,
those who have
finished their courses cannot access their certificates and
transcripts
making it impossible for them to secure jobs. The whole thing
has become a
vicious cycle; graduates are commonly seen on street corners
vending
newspapers and other wares. Some have been spotted doing menial jobs
such as
digging trenches around the cities for the fibre-optic cables that
are being
laid out.
Each time Mudenge talks about indigenisation and
empowerment he must stop to
reflect on what he has done to these people. He
must also consider the
hypocrisy that he and those in the corridors of power
have exhibited in
sending their children to universities abroad while the
children of the poor
are subjected to substandard education created by him
and his ilk.
While the children of the poor suffer everyday to access
education, which is
a basic human right, the children of the rich
politicians are scattered all
over the globe enjoying some of the best
education money can provide.
It’s such a shame that our politicians
miss the ironies of their wayward
ways.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011
18:31
By Mziwandile Ndlovu
Matabeleland has a special way
of captivating national interest from time to
time. Recent political
developments in the region have once again set the
agenda for national
debate. It is interesting how Welshman Ncube has
dominated media coverage
for more than two weeks now.
His ascendance to the helm of his MDC formation
comes on the heels of the
revival of Zapu and the less known Mthwakazi
Liberation Movement.
These other two developments have met with
lukewarm interest nationally but
it is Ncube’s ascent that has captured
attention. The debate has inevitably
turned tribal in many instances and has
brought to the fore how the issue of
ethnicity has not been dealt with and
how the country is yet to come to
terms with the manner in which it treats
minority groups.
Inevitably, there has been a lot of criticism and
scorn poured on Ncube with
some quick to pronounce that his rise will not
alter the political landscape
nationally.
Interestingly,
there is a fresh sentiment that the party will now be
regional, something
that was not amplified when Prof Arthur Mutambara was
still at the helm. It
would appear that Ncube is in the frying pan with
renewed charges of how he
is allegedly to blame for the split in the MDC and
accusations from
diplomatic circles that he is “a very divisive player” in
the country’s
political terrain and “the sooner he is pushed off the stage
the
better”.
There is no doubt that Ncube doesn’t have many friends in
this country but
for an objective thinker, it is difficult to not sense
tribalistic
undertones in these criticisms.
Surely, for all his
other limitations and shortcomings, Ncube is not as bad
as he is portrayed
by some of his detractors. The man may be aloof, bookish,
elitist, and
sometimes too engrossed in his personal perspective of issues
but this is
nothing compared to the transgressions of other national leaders
whose
limitations are hardly ever hung out for the world to see.
Ncube’s
sympathisers have charged that he is being persecuted by Shona
supremacists
who believe that a Ndebele should not occupy the top post of a
national
political party or government for that matter. I have particularly
found
interesting Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga’s opinion pieces
suggesting how
Shona supremacists have connived with White capital to deny
the Ndebele
meaningful leadership positions in this country.
The current
discourse has found ample fodder among hard-line Ndebele
tribalists who have
found fuel to fire the desire for secession. They are
also actually using
the South Sudanese case to portray secession as a viable
option to deal with
regional and ethnic discontent in the contemporary
world.
What
this should show us as a nation is that we have lived with underlying
ethnic
tensions for far too long without speaking about them and not doing
anything
to deal with them.
It is a fact that Shona supremacists exist in
this country and that they do
not think Ndebele people should play a
meaningful role in leadership in this
country and they are there in all the
major political parties. They think
that the Ndebele and other minority
groups should be the recipients of token
positions like Deputy
so-and-so.
The Ndebele themselves have perpetuated this state of
affairs by accepting
it. There are very senior Ndebele leaders in the major
political parties who
feel that they should be grateful to their principals
for the positions they
hold.
They hardly challenge for top
honours and seem to be content with this
arrangement. This should stop and
everyone should not feel constrained not
to contest for any position as
indeed this is a country for all its
occupants.
It is also a fact
that there are some angry people in Matabeleland who hate
Shonas with a
passion. They hate them for the harm that was visited upon
their kith and
keen by Robert Mugabe in his Gukurahundi campaign in the
early 80s.
Non-Ndebele people will probably never know the extent of hatred
and the
feeling of non-belonging in the Matabeleland region which will take
a
generation to heal.
The reluctance of the powers-that-be over the
years to conduct an effective
transitional justice programme that prescribes
how to deal with these issues
has compounded our predicament as a
country.
While the grievances of the Ndebele people are justified, it
is regrettable
that this period of history has stunted their ability and
desire to
contribute to the national project. There are people who are so
bitter that
they have resigned themselves to not participating in anything
with Zimbabwe
in it.
Some are so angry that they are
vociferous supporters of retributive justice
as a way of settling the score.
Some are so vindictive that they barricade
Shona leaders from addressing the
public in some parts of the country. Some
have vowed never to live or work
in Mashonaland or indeed to marry a Shona
person.
This is the
extent to which Robert Mugabe has killed a section of the
country and
decimated nationhood in Zimbabwe.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 30 January 2011
18:30
EQUATORIAL Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is the
next
chairman of the African Union (AU) taking over from Malawi President
Bingu
wa Mutharika. This must be of great interest to Zimbabwe. The AU is
the
guarantor of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that established
Zimbabwe’s
government of national unity (GNU).
The GNU is teetering on
the brink mainly because the main guarantor, the AU
and its subordinate the
Southern African Development Community (Sadc) have
neglected their duty of
ensuring that the provisions of the GPA are
implemented to the letter and
spirit.
In the past year the AU’s lack of interest in the Zimbabwe crisis can
be
attributed to the outgoing chairman Wa Mutharika’s closeness to President
Robert Mugabe. That Wa Mutharika is a protégé of Mugabe’s is not in doubt;
not only did he name one of the most important highways in Malawi after the
Zimbabwe president but also he has been allowed to keep a farm in
Zimbabwe.
The Malawian president has never hidden his closeness to his
Zimbabwean
counterpart and has not made any comment on Mugabe’s constant
flouting of
the GPA. Where censure was expected from the top man at the AU
only
acquiescence emerged.
The same is bound to happen in the year that
Obiang will be at the helm of
the pan-African body. He will forever be
grateful for the help he got from
Mugabe in thwarting the 2004 Wonga coup in
which Simon Mann and a group of
mercenaries sought to invade the Guinean
capital Malabo and kidnap and/or
murder Obiang. The mercenaries landed at
Harare International Airport to
pick up the arms they planned to use in
Malabo but were stopped by
Zimbabwean security forces.
Obiang thanked
Mugabe by conferring on him the Medal of the Order of
Independence,
Equatorial Guinea’s highest honour that can be bestowed on a
foreigner.
It is disheartening that Zimbabwe was not on the agenda of the
AU summit
currently running in Addis Ababa; it is unlikely it will be on the
next
summit under Obiang for obvious reasons. Meanwhile Zimbabweans will
continue
to suffer the effects of Zanu PF’s impunity.