Mugabe threatens U.S. ambassador as campaign begins

Yahoo News

By Cris Chinaka 1 hour, 26 minutes ago

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Sunday accused the
United States of political interference and threatened to expel its
ambassador, as his party began its campaign for next month's election
run-off.

Mugabe also said the State Department's top diplomat for Africa had behaved
like a prostitute by suggesting that the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won the March 29 elections.

The 84-year-old's attacks on U.S. ambassador James McGee and Assistant
Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer signalled the start of his campaign for
the June 27 run-off against Tsvangirai, who won the first round but fell
short of an absolute majority.

"He (McGee) says he fought in Vietnam, but fighting in Vietnam does not give
him the right to interfere in our domestic affairs. I am just waiting to see
if he makes one more step wrong. He will get out," Mugabe said at a campaign
rally.

"As tall as he is, if he continues to do that I will kick him out of the
country."

Of Frazer, he said: "You saw this little American girl trotting around like
a prostitute celebrating that the MDC had won. A disgraceful act."

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980,
routinely accuses the United States and Britain of backing the MDC to punish
him for seizing thousands of white-owned farms since 2000.

He told supporters in Harare that the Western allies wanted to control
Zimbabwe's resources.

Mugabe also promised land to Zimbabweans who returned from South Africa.
Some 3.5 million people have fled to South Africa and other countries to
escape impoverishment in an economy where inflation is over 165,000 percent,
four in five adults have no job, and food and fuel are in desperately short
supply.

CHANGE OF TACTICS

Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have signalled that they intend to pursue a
grassroots campaign ahead of the run-off, in place of the mass rallies they
have favored since 1980.

That strategy failed on March 29, when ZANU-PF lost control of parliament
and Tsvangirai came within a few percentage points of winning the
presidential poll outright.

The new tactics will include canvassing voters door-to-door and organizing
meetings in villages, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the
state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper.

The MDC draws much of its backing from the capital Harare and other cities,
and offsetting that urban support is one of the keys to victory for Mugabe,
whose popularity has plunged as the economy has collapsed.

He is still admired by many in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa for leading
the battle to end British colonial rule, and a grassroots campaign may tap
into this part of his reputation.

Tsvangirai returned to Zimbabwe on Saturday for the first time since early
April.

He has been traveling to raise support for his bid to oust Mugabe, and
postponed his return a week ago when his party said Zimbabwe's military
intelligence was plotting to kill him.

The government dismissed the allegation as a stunt.

The MDC says dozens of its supporters have been killed or beaten in an
intimidation campaign orchestrated by ZANU-PF, and that the final result
could be rigged by election officials, who held back the results of the
first round for five weeks.

"What we want is a complete demilitarization of the situation," Tsvangirai
told a press conference on Saturday.

ZANU-PF says the MDC is responsible for the violence. Mugabe said on Sunday
it was training youths to engage in attacks and denied that he and his
officials wanted more unrest.

The Southern African Development Community, which is due to monitor the
run-off, said this month that conditions were neither safe nor fair yet for
a fresh vote. It is due to hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss preparations
for the election.

(Writing by Paul Simao; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Mugabe urges his party to unite in "war against foreigners"

Monsters and Critics

May 25, 2008, 15:08 GMT

Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Sunday urged his Zanu-PF
party to unite behind him in the 'war against foreigners,' namely the United
States and Britain.

Mugabe, 84, was speaking in Harare at the launch of his campaign to extend
his 28-year rule in a presidential election run-off against opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai next month.

'It's a war to defend our sovereignty. We've to bury our differences in
Zanu-PF until the war with foreigners is over,' Mugabe said.

Tsvangirai, 56, took more votes than Mugabe in the first round of voting on
March 29, but not enough, according to the official tally, for an outright
victory. A run-off has been set down for June 27.

On Saturday, Tsvangirai returned to Zimbabwe after a six-week absence to
kickstart his campaign.

On Sunday, the former trade unionist attended the funeral of slain Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party activist, Tonderai Ndira, one of the
40-plus victims of a campaign of brutality by pro-Mugabe youth militia
against opposition supporters since the March elections.

Tsvangirai vows to defeat Mugabe

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com

May 25, 2008

By Raymond Maingire

HARARE - MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai finally flew back into Zimbabwe on
Saturday morning to resume his campaign ahead of next month’s presidential
election run-off.

He said threats around his personal safety had been resolved.

“The threat as far as the assassination and the risk inherent in that has
been resolved,” he told journalists at a news conference Saturday afternoon,
“We have resolved the issue of risk. There are assurances and measures that
have taken place in order to reduce the risk.”

He did not elaborate.

Tsvangirai was forced to delay his return to Zimbabwe by a week on the
advice of his party’s security intelligence that warned of an assassination
plot against him.

The MDC leader, who claims to have won the March 29 election by 50, 3
percent, had been holed up in South Africa since the beginning of last
month.

He says this was lessening the risk of being disrupted by Mugabe’s
government while pursuing a diplomatic effort to force the Zimbabwean leader
to accept defeat.

Results released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on May 2 show
that Tsvangirai won 47,9 percent of the national vote, against President
Mugabe’s 43,2 percent, setting the stage for a bruising run-off between the
two on June 27.

Zimbabwe’s electoral laws prescribe a 50 plus majority for one to form the
next government.

The MDC leader has since climbed down on his threats to boycott the run-off
and says he is now prepared to defeat Mugabe.

Tsvangirai denied the existence of any secret talks to form a government of
national unity with Zanu-PF, saying his party could not impose such
decisions on Zimbabweans who have demonstrated their desire for change
through the ballot.

“There is no government of national unity being discussed. I don’t know how
that is going to be constituted because as far as I am concerned, the people
of Zimbabwe voted on the 29th of March, produced a result, undisputed result
about what they want. You cannot have a government of national unity imposed
on Zimbabweans when they have spoken. There is a clear winner and a clear
loser.”

He said he returns home with a “very sad heart” after many of his supporters
have been beaten up and displaced by President Mugabe’s militant supporters.

Tsvangirai said his party was aware of the risks of confronting the
84-year-old leader in an election he fears he will lose.

But the MDC leader is adamant he will not betray his supporters who have
been brutalized by Mugabe in his bid to cling to power.

“Those who have faced the brutality of this regime, those who have died at
the hands of this regime in the fulfillment of their goal of achieving
change in this country; we cannot betray them,” he said.

Tsvangirai said 42 members of the MDC had been killed and over 25 000
displaced since Mugabe’s defeat in March.

He said this would not secure Mugabe a win.

“If violence pays, then Matebeleland would be the bedrock of Zanu-PF,’” he
said, “In fact, it’s the most disastrous policy and strategy that Zanu-PF
has ever implemented, to beat every Zimbabwean and hope to get their
support.

“They have beaten themselves into serious rejection by the people of
Zimbabwe. If Mugabe thinks he has beaten the people into submission, then he
will have a rude shock on the 27th.

“Since the MDC’s victory eight weeks ago, the regime has targeted our most
dedicated, brightest and strongest activists, young men and women who have
stood together shoulder to shoulder with us.

“I don’t know on what leg they will go and campaign among the people of
Zimbabwe and convince them that they are worth the vote of Zimbabweans when
in the first round they lost 57 per cent of the vote.”

Tsvangirai says he is still confident of defeating President Mugabe despite
his party’s structures having been decimated by massive violence.

This, he says can be achieved on the back of assurances by SADC and other
organisations to send observers into Zimbabwe by June 1 to help restore the
electorate’s diminishing confidence in the electoral process.

He said SADC had placed Zimbabwe’s deepening crisis at the top of its
priorities and would soon convene another summit on Zimbabwe to apply
pressure on Mugabe to end violence ahead of the watershed election.

“I am satisfied with our diplomatic effort,” he said, “The majority of SADC
leaders are appalled by what is happening especially the level of violence
that is being meted out indiscriminately in Zimbabwe.”

The MDC leader attributed the outbreak of xenophobic attacks on Zimbabweans
and other foreigners in South Africa to “to Mugabe’s policies of intolerance
and repression”.

Mugabe changes tactics ahead of run-off election

Reuters

Sun 25 May 2008, 11:02 GMT

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe has changed his campaign strategy
ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off, opting for voter canvassing and
small village meetings, a senior official said.

Mugabe has tended to make mass rallies the focus of his election bids since
assuming power in 1980. The strategy backfired in the March 29 presidential
poll when opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai outpolled the Zimbabwean
leader.

The two will face off in a second ballot next month because Tsvangirai
failed to win an absolute majority.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) draws much of its backing
from the capital Harare and other cities.

Offsetting that urban support is one of the keys to victory for Mugabe, who
has seen his popularity plunge amid an economic meltdown that critics blame
on his mismanagement. His government says Western sabotage is responsible
for the problems.

But the 84-year-old ruler is still admired by millions in Zimbabwe and
elsewhere in Africa for spearheading the battle to end British colonial rule
in Zimbabwe. A grassroots campaign could re-ignite support for the
liberation era hero.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the new campaign style, which Mugabe
would kick off later on Sunday would pave the way for his re-election.

"The machinery has been well oiled and (is) ready to win the June 27
presidential run-off," Chinamasa was quoted as saying by the
state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper.

Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party lost control of parliament in the March 29
poll for the first time since it came to power.

COMPLACENT

Chinamasa and other ZANU-PF officials concede that they were complacent
ahead of the elections, which allowed Tsvangirai's MDC an opening, including
in rural areas where Mugabe has been traditionally strong.

Meanwhile, Tsvangirai has kicked off his run-off campaign after returning to
Zimbabwe on Saturday for the first time since early April. The MDC leader
has been travelling to galvanise support in Africa and overseas for his bid
to unseat Mugabe.

Tsvangirai cancelled his homecoming a week ago after his party said it had
learnt he was the target of an assassination plot by Zimbabwe's military
intelligence. The government dismissed the plot as a propaganda stunt.

He, too, has expressed confidence ahead of the run-off despite raising
concerns that post-election violence threatened to taint the vote and that
the final result could be rigged by election officials.

"What we want is a complete demilitarisation of the situation," Tsvangirai
said at a press conference on Saturday.

The MDC says dozens of its supporters have been beaten and killed in an
intimidation campaign orchestrated by the ZANU-PF, which in turn accuses the
MDC of being responsible for the violence. The government also says the MDC
are Western puppets.

The Southern African Development Community, which is due to monitor the
run-off, said this month that conditions were neither safe nor fair yet for
a fresh vote. SADC is due to hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss
preparations for the election.

Zimbabweans hope the run-off will bring recovery from the current crisis.
Zimbabwe is struggling with inflation of 165,000 percent, 80 percent
unemployment and chronic food and fuel shortages. Millions have fled to
nearby countries.

Mugabe promises land for SA-based Zimbabweans

SABC

May 25, 2008, 18:15

President Robert Mugabe today said that Zimbabweans living in South Africa
would be given land if they returned home to the economically depressed
southern African nation.

"We have land for our people in South Africa who may want to return home,"
Mugabe said in a rally kicking off his campaign for the June 27 presidential
run-off election.

Zimbabweans are among the African migrants targeted in a wave of deadly
xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

Mugabe has been addressing a rally of the governing Zanu-PF party, a day
after opposition Movement Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangarai
returned to the country, vowing to defeat him.

Tsvangirai has called on Southern African Democratic Change (SADC) leaders
to send election monitors and peacekeepers to Zimbabwe by the end of the
week. SADC is to make a decision on Tuesday. However, the organisation's
executive secretary, Thomas Augusto Salamo, says there is no question of
SADC sending anything more than observers. - Additional reporting by Reuters

Regime coup threat if Mugabe loses poll

Back home … Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday.
Photo: AFP

Robyn Dixon in Johannesburg
May 26, 2008

JOHANNESBURG: Zimbabwe hangs in dangerous political limbo: the ruling clique clings to power amid rumours of a coup if the incumbent, Robert Mugabe, loses the presidential run-off.

His opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, far from facing down military hardliners, has returned to Harare after weeks of self-imposed exile, fearing assassination.

As regional leaders dither, a new wave of systematic abductions and killings of top opposition activists suggests a regime unwilling to leave office, even if it loses the second round, scheduled for June 27.

"There's no way we are going to lose the run-off," a senior ruling party figure said. "We are going to make sure of that. If we lose … then the army will take over.

"Never be fooled that Tsvangirai will rule this country. Never," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in Harare, the capital.

Human rights organisations, including the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, say the level and intensity of the violence far surpasses the violence around elections in 2000 and 2002. Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change says 43 activists have been killed since the first round of voting on March 29.

The opposition charges that the Government is targeting its top activists and officials, saying that at least six have been abducted in the past 10 days by armed security officials, and four have been found dead, after severe beatings and torture. An MDC official said 10 others are missing and feared dead.

At a news conference in Harare on Saturday, hours after arriving from Johannesburg, Mr Tsvangirai said leaders in southern Africa had guaranteed his safety and assured him that election monitors would arrive by June 1 to prevent further violence against his supporters.

"I return to Zimbabwe with a sad heart," he said. "Even since my return a few hours ago, I have met and listened to the stories of the innocent people targeted by a regime seemingly desperate to cling to power, a dictatorship that has lost the support of the people."

Some analysts see a mounting threat of a coup, convinced that the punitive violence has only increased Mr Mugabe's unpopularity in the weeks since he was shocked by his loss to Mr Tsvangirai in the first round. But others predict the regime will opt for at least the pretence of legitimacy, rigging the elections rather than overturning a Tsvangirai victory with military force.

With the rank and file disgruntled at conditions and about the farms and fancy lifestyles of commanders, some predict a coup would split the army.

"It's the senior officers running the terror campaign in the rural areas," said Morris, 35, an army captain who did not want his last name published. "It's being done by colonels and lieutenant-colonels. The lower ranks don't want what is happening. If the old man lost, he should just give up," he said, referring to Mr Mugabe.

A report by the International Crisis Group said there was "a growing risk of a coup either before the run-off, in a pre-emptive move to deny Tsvangirai victory, or after a Tsvangirai win".

An opposition politician, David Coltart, believed there was a risk of a coup. "I think they're intent on trying to give it some sort of legitimacy through an election."

Los Angeles Times

Suspected CIO agents burn The Zim on Sunday truck

The 14-tonne truck containing 60,000 copies of today's edition of The
Zimbabwean on Sunday has been found this afternoon near Chivi - burnt out.
The driver, Christmas Ramabulana (a South African national), and
distribution assistant Tapfumaneyi Kancheta, a Zimbabwean, were stopped 67
km from Masvingo last night and forced to drive along the Chivi-Mandamabwe
Rd for 16kms before they turned off into the Mandamabwe Rd where the truck
and its contents were set alight. The two men were badly beaten by their
kidnappers and abandoned in the bush. They made their way to Masvingo where
they arrived this afternoon and contacted our Harare office.
Kancheta said his head was badly swollen from the savage beating, and the
driver was having problems breathing. An ambulance has been dispatched to
take them to hospital. The were both in severe shock and unable to give any
details of the attack.
The Zimbabwean on Sunday was launched in February this year as a sister
paper to the popular weekly The Zimbabwean, which since last year has become
the largest selling newspaper in Zimbabwe - selling 230,000 copies a week at
its peak during the run-up to the landmark 2008 elections.
The Zimbabwean on Sunday quickly established a reputation as the country's
leading Sunday paper.
Mugabe's senior henchman, Emmerson Mnangagwa, recently blamed The Zimbabwean
for Zanu (PF)'s electoral defeat. Mnangagwa heads the Joint Operations
Command responsible for the atrocities being committed in Zimbabwe since the
aged dictator lost the March 29 elections to popular MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.

The Zimbabwean was established in February 2005 to stand against Mugabe's
media blackout. It exploits a loophole in Zimbabwe's draconian anti-press
legislation by being published and printed in South Africa and trucked into
the country.
Despite frequently being harrassed and denounced, until this weekend every
issue had made it safely to Harare, from where it was distributed throughout
the country and devoured by a population starved of accurate information and
fed a daily diet of the coarsest government propaganda.

We condemn this barbaric attack against our staff and the newspaper and vow
to leave no stone unturned until the perpetrators of this atrocity are
brought to book.

Wilf Mbanga
Editor/Publisher
The Zimbabwean
P O Box 248 Hythe SO45 4WX, UK
Tel/fax +44 (0)2380 845 271
Mobile - +44 (0)7963963547
email: mbanga@thezimbabwean.co.uk
www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

MDC leader Shepherd Jani murdered, mutilated body dumped in Goromonzi

The Zimbabwean

Sunday, 25 May 2008 18:12
The callous murder

The Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ) is shocked at
the callous murder of yet another community leader Shepherd Jani, who was
abducted at his offices at Murewa Centre on Wednesday morning by suspected
Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) operatives. The Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) treasurer for Mashonaland East province was abducted
at gunpoint and bundled into a pick-up truck by four men.Reports received by
the CCDZ indicate that Jani's mutilated body was discovered yesterday (24
May) in Goromonzi, the same area where the body of Tonderai Ndira,another
civic activist who was abducted  by CIOs was discovered before it was taken
to Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare.
We are in great pain because to us Jani was more than a community
leader whom we relied upon to run our programmes in Murewa and the entire
Mashonaland East province.The leadership of CCDZ is shell shocked by this
barbaric act and urges the government to  investigate the murder of Jani and
other civic activists who have been murdered since the 29 March elections.
Jani  showed and demonstrated ethical leadership and was committed to
positively impact the lives of ordinary citizens. We urge immediate
investigation and the prosecution of the criminal gangs that are targetting
prominent community leaders to instil fear in the whole electorate.The
attacks against the civic leaders are systematic and targetting opinion
leaders within communities to instil fear in the electorate and make it
difficult for people to identify with the MDC.
CCDZ urges the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
leadership to take a firm stand on the political impasse in Zimbabwe. We
urge SADC to set up a Regional Criminal Tribunal to investigate the ongoing
human rights abuses and bring the instigators to justice.We urge the
International Criminal Court (ICC) to open investigations and issue warrant
of arrests against the known politicians in Zimbabwe who are instigating
human rights abuses.The people of Zimbabwe are being butchered for
exercising their democratic right to political participation.
We mourn Jani and grief with the entire Jani family in Murewa.We say
go well! Hamba kahle! You are our hero! The tree of liberty that you decided
to water with your blood shall forever grow.

Advocacy & Community Organizing
Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ)
+263912962381

Reflections on Africa Day

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com

May 25, 2008

By Arthur G.O. Mutambara.

Rethinking the African Economic Model.

Introduction:

As we commemorate Africa Day, the 25th of May, it is important that we
reflect on the economic circumstances obtaining on our continent. Much
discourse has taken place on the challenges of poor political governance and
leadership failure in Africa. This is not the primary objective of this
treatise. Of particular interest here are lessons that can be drawn from
Africaís economic experience, as a basis for formulating new developmental
trajectories. We are very alive to the fact that an economic model will
depend on foundational matters of political governance and legitimacy. The
economy cannot be de-linked from politics.

While it is imperative to address the fundamental issues of how political
power is distributed and exercised, and to develop and live a new democratic
culture characterized by people crafted constitutions, political pluralism,
leadership renewal, and freedoms of association, assembly and expression, it
is equally important that we also work towards achieving freedom from
poverty and breaking the cycle of destitution among all our people.
Africansí economic rights to employment, decent housing, adequate
healthcare, and affordable education should receive the same guarantees and
safeguards as their political freedoms. It is therefore imperative that, as
we celebrate the unity of our continent, some time be spent reflecting
specifically on the nature of the African economy?

Eradicating Xenophobia: The Case for both Shared and Regional Economic
Growth

The recent xenophobic attacks against Black immigrants in South Africa (SA)
signify a shameful and despicable development on our continent. This has
been made worse by the fact that it is taking place in May, a month in which
we are supposed to be coming together as Africans to celebrate our unity.
These attacks constitute a terrible indictment of our collective and
historical commitment to Pan-Africanism, the African Renaissance, Ubuntu,
African dignity and Black humanity.

However, rather than address the symptoms of the crisis we should deal with
the fundamental issues that have caused this sad development. Both the push
and pull factors of the tragedy must be attended to. The xenophobic attacks
should be understood from the premises of two empirical factors. Firstly,
the poor people of SA have not yet economically benefited from their
nationís transition from the evil apartheid system to democratic rule.
Secondly, the economies of other African countries in the SADC region and
beyond have not grown sufficiently enough to provide a decent standard of
living to their peoples. Most of these economies are very weak in comparison
to SA.

At the root of the attacks are the South African poor peopleís grievances of
increasing poverty, growing inequality and unemployment, coupled with a
deplorable social infrastructure where health, housing and education are
woefully inadequate. This is a crisis driven by incompetent delivery of
social services and lack of economic opportunities for the poor. SAís
developmental programs, including black economic empowerment, have failed to
address historical economic imbalances inherited from apartheid. True broad
based social transformation has been elusive.

By and large, the traditionally rich Whites, and their new Black
counterparts, are getting richer while the poor Blacks are receding into
abject poverty. Unfortunately, to the down-trodden South African have-nots,
poor black immigrants are then conveniently perceived as job stealers,
criminals and competitors placing unreasonable demands on scarce resources
and a shaky infrastructure. The foreigners, in particular the undocumented
ones, are loathed for receiving slave wages for unskilled jobs, and in the
process undercutting the South African lumpen proletariat.

Indeed, SA businesses have also mercilessly exploited this glut in cheap
labour in pursuit of supersonic profits. They are guilty as charged. There
is need to reflect on the role of capital in SA, and Africa in general. We
should debunk once and for all the outdated and flawed concept of the
trickle down effect. Not all economic growth automatically benefits all the
people in a country, nor is the greater the growth, the more widespread the
benefits. Throughout the world, recent economic growth has benefited only a
small portion of the population. Almost without exception, growth has led to
the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. In many countries,
including some of the richest countries in the world, there is increasingly
no middle class to talk about. There are essentially the super rich and the
desperately poor. SA is a classic case of this.

By any standard, the SA economy has had a good performance since the
transition to democracy. The captains of SA industry have become super rich
through obscene compensation. Meanwhile, the majority of the population
continues to mire and wallow in poverty. This has perpetuated the unjust
circumstances that used to prevail during apartheid. Squalid conditions have
persisted in informal settlements such as Thembisa and Alexandria. So, while
economic growth is crucial, there is need for active social justice to
ensure that the prosperity is shared.

The crisis of unbridled capitalism is not unique to SA. Globally we witness
the tragedy of unfettered market forces running amok as executives are paid
exorbitant salaries while they hire people at near-slave wages to toil under
inhuman conditions in Asian and African sweatshops. Oil companies wantonly
pump toxins down rivers consciously killing people, animals, and plants and
committing genocide among ancient cultures. The pharmaceutical industry
denies life-saving medicines to millions of HIV-infected Africans. We are
experiencing a global crisis that calls for business and political leaders
to start thinking differently.

In particular governments must effectively play their role in setting the
business terms of reference, leveling the economic playing field, and
providing a safety net for the poor. This is clearly more imperative in
Africa, SA in particular, where there has been a history of economic
exploitation, social degradation, and political subjugation, of one group by
another. It is on this score that the SA state is found miserably wanting.
There has been a major policy failure on the part of the SA government with
respect to the underemployed, the unemployed and the unemployable. Any
attempt by the Mbeki regime to link the uprisings to third force actors
should be rejected with the contempt that it deserves. Even if such actors
existed they will simply be taking advantage of systemic and structural
policy failures rooted in inadequacy and incompetence of economic
governance. The buck stops with Mbeki.

External to SA, the economic and political instability within the SADC
region and other parts of Africa has led to an influx of both skilled and
unskilled Africans into a fairly stable South African economy. Of particular
significance is the meltdown in Zimbabwe which has led to disproportionate
displacements into SA. Here again SA foreign policy failure has led to a
harvest of thorns. It is a case of the chickens coming home to roost. If
Mbeki cannot be convinced that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe, may be he can
be convinced that events in that country have lead to a crisis in SA. What a
comedy of errors! We need to paraphrase Kwame Nkrumah into the language of a
21st century characterized by globalization. Economic prosperity in SA is
meaningless without prosperity in the rest of Africa. More importantly, that
economic growth and success must be shared with those at the bottom of the
pyramid, the poor. For the despicable xenophobia we have witnessed to be
effectively contained, the needs of the poor in SA must be met. There must
be efficient social service delivery and increased opportunities for the
poor, through a radically overhauled and broad based economic empowerment
model. We are not in any way advocating for equality of outcomes but rather
equal access to opportunity. The importance of personal agency and
responsibility cannot be overemphasized.

Beyond SA, there is need for an inclusive Pan-Africanist approach that puts
regional sovereignty, stability and prosperity ahead of narrow and perverted
definitions of sovereignty. This means, for example, the crisis in Zimbabwe
must be viewed as an African catastrophe that undermines both strategic and
economic interests of the SADC region. It demands immediate and unequivocal
African intervention. We must totally disregard any claims to sovereignty by
the illegal, illegitimate and kleptocratic regime of Robert Mugabe. It is
the peopleís will that is sovereign. Under globalization nations will only
prosper as successful regional economic blocks. The collapse of one national
economy is detrimental to the entire region.

Furthermore, there is need to ensure that economic paradigms and programs
are transportable across African borders. For example, will it not be
sensible to have an Africa-wide, broad based economic empowerment model that
ensures that SA corporates which operate in other African countries are
legally bound to empower black people and poor communities in those
countries? What is currently happening is that White SA corporates are
essentially exporting apartheid and unbridled exploitation to the rest of
Africa, while carrying out minimum and ineffectual empowerment in SA
(characterized by the enrichment and corruption of a few Black elites). This
is unsustainable for both SA and the rest of Africa. There is need to
rethink. It is important that the economic growth and prosperity in SA is
shared among all citizens and effectively extended to the rest of Africa.
This is the only sustainable way to contain xenophobia among Africans.

Revitalizing Agriculture through Innovation:

While most African economies are predominantly driven by Agriculture, there
has been very limited investment and innovation in agricultural development.
In particular, the small scale farmers and the poor rural land owners have
been largely neglected. When our poorest farmers finally prosper, all of
Africa will benefit. We should seek to help millions of small-scale farmers
and their families across Africa to lift themselves and their families out
of poverty and hunger through sustainable increases in farm productivity and
incomes. A wide range of interventions across the agricultural “value
 chain,” can be implemented. These range from strengthening local and
regional agricultural markets, helping improve irrigation, soil health and
training for farmers, to supporting the development of new seed systems
better equipped to cope with the harsh African climate.

The motivation should be to increase yield per hectare and optimize land
use. This means driving both agricultural productivity and production. This
can be done by using high yield seeds, fertilizers, and mechanization.
African governments must be encouraged to launch strategic frameworks for
revitalizing agriculture. A new path for prosperity can be opened by
spurring the continent’s agricultural development. There is need to help
reverse decades of relative neglect in funding for agricultural development
in Africa. We should seek a 10% percent annual growth in food production by
2020. The objective is to build broader political and economic support
behind a vision of pro-poor, pro-environment partnerships needed to
revitalize agriculture for Africa’s small-scale farmers. This will replace
wide-spread poverty with prosperity.

Africa must learn from the efforts that dramatically boosted agricultural
productivity in Asia and Latin America while seeking to appreciate the
limitations of these models as well. For example, it is of critical
importance to ensure that small farmers are the primary beneficiaries of the
efforts, and that consumer and environmental health considerations are made
part and parcel of agricultural development process.

There is need to link up the innovations from the ICT revolution to
Agriculture. For example, development of a rapid system for disseminating
real-time market information to farmers across a country, e.g., ICT kiosks
in rural markets where farmers find up-to-date prices and link with buyers.
The cell phone revolution must come to rural Africa, so that farmers can use
their cell phones to get real-time market data. Such innovations bring the
benefits of technology and science to small-scale farmers so that they can
improve their farm productivity and incomes. This will be a step towards
ending the poverty that has become so entrenched in rural Africa. In
summary, the key requirements for revitalizing Agriculture include improved
investment, innovation, research, business planning, mechanization, and
broad political consensus.

The World Food Crisis: An African Opportunity

The current world food crisis is a reflection of the disparities, inequities
and contradictory forces at play in the global economy. There is a bottom
billion starving to death while there is a top billion that are eating
themselves to death. Food is becoming unbearably expensive in poor
countries, while it is cheaply available in advanced economies. The United
States spends over $87 billion conducting a war in Iraq while the United
Nations estimates that for less than half that amount we could provide clean
water, adequate food, sanitation services, and basic education to every
person on the planet.

Globalization is giving rise to growing middle classes in emerging markets
such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. This is leading to an unprecedented
increase in the demand for high-quality food. On the other hand, increased
protectionism in a number of food-producing countries, in the West has
pushed the price of food up. The protectionist policies of the developed
countries through the use of large agricultural subsidies for their farmers
have stifled and undermined the growth of vibrant and globally competitive
agri-businesses in poor African countries. This has undermined global food
security. There is need for free and fair trade in the global food industry.
Some developing countries are also becoming protectionist by stopping
exports of food, due to fears of a possible food shortage. There is no
global food shortage, just as there is no global shortage of oil reserves to
justify the increase in the fuel price. It is fear of a shortage that has
caused some countries to hoard their supplies in the name of food security.
It seems under globalization FDR still makes sense. The only thing we have
to fear is fear itself.

However, the food crisis is an opportunity that can be used to unlock the
agricultural potential of Africa to produce enough food for its people and
supply other parts of the world. Most of Africa has arable land and rural
populations that are not economically active. The crisis has created scope
to commercialize rural agricultural activities creating sustainable jobs for
millions of rural poor people. Assistance with technical support, business
skills, and managerial expertise will enable them to play a meaningful role
in providing solutions to the food crisis. This would be a unique
empowerment opportunity for the rural poor. The revitalization of
agriculture through innovation then dovetails into these potential farming
activities created by the world food crisis. Africans must be able to
produce food to feed themselves and the world. Food security, self
sufficiency, and an agri-business export strategy must define the clarion
call for a new agrarian revolution in Africa.

In terms of the world food crisis, what we are partly experiencing is also
the real cost of the bio-fuels industry, which has been promoted as a
solution to the global energy crisis. Bio-fuel production uses more fuel
than it produces. Thus its net effect on energy security is debatable. In
addition, given the world food crisis, the challenge is whether we should
grow food for people or for cars. The food crisis has revealed the worldís
lack of preparedness to effectively deal with unintended consequences of
globalization, energy security and climate change. Africa needs an
integrated approach to both energy and food security. This continental
framework should then inform regional and national strategies.

The Myth of Development through Aid:

Although the stated intention is to assist the poor economies, ostensibly
most foreign aid benefits the donor countries. The modus operandi has been
that the rich West provides financial assistance or loans to poor countries
to engage Western consultants or institutions to do unsustainable and
useless projects on the continent. As result there is minimum benefit to the
African country while the money is recycled back via a Western institution.
This is partly why there is very little to show for the $400bn in aid that
has apparently been disbursed to the African continent since 1960. Economic
growth and human development in Africa still lag behind the rest of the
world. In part, this is because past aid flows were often spent to suit the
geo-strategic interests of the givers. Today, Africa represents less than 2%
of world trade. While Asia and Latin America have advanced through
integration into the global economy, Africa has yet to make globalization
work for its people.

The foreign aid strategy has been to convince emerging African economies to
accept enormous loans for infrastructure developmentóloans that are much
larger than neededóand to guarantee that the development projects were
contracted to Western corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel. Once these
African countries are saddled with huge debts, the Western governments and
the international aid agencies allied with them are able to control these
economies and to ensure that oil, minerals and other natural resources were
channeled to serve the interests of Western economies.

The perverted task has been to encourage African leaders to become part of a
vast network that promotes Western commercial interests. In the end, those
leaders become ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. The
rich countries can then draw on them whenever they desireóto satisfy their
political, economic, or military needs. In turn, they bolster their
political positions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports
to their people through Western contractors. The owners of these Western
engineering and construction companies become fabulously wealthy. The givers
of aid benefit more than the receivers.

While fresh promises of doubling aid to Africa to $50bn a year are to be
welcomed, this financial assistance alone will not be sufficient in
transforming our continent. The consequences of aid dependence must be
understood. Countries that have used aid as temporary support while driving
domestic and foreign investment have achieved lasting success. Aid should
strengthen the bonds between governments and their own citizens, including
business communities. It should aim to build stronger domestic institutions
and transfer skills to local leaders, managers and entrepreneurs. There has
to be close alignment of aid with national priorities, working hand in glove
with African institutions. This approach stresses the effectiveness of aid
as transitory support, avoiding long-term dependence.

Aid and debt relief must be used as stimulants and catalysts for economic
development and growth. Please do not give us fish. We would rather learn
how to fish. This is how we can be build sustainable African economies.
Furthermore, there is need to remove external conditionalities and replace
them with internal policy clarity. This means that knowing ourselves what we
need to do, and articulating this clearly, is more important than doing what
the donors prescribe to us. There must be alignment and congruency between
aid and domestic economic development plans.

What is really critical for sustainable socio-economic transformation is
economic development through private capital. Africa receives less than 10%
of the $500bn in annual private capital flows to emerging markets. This
global investment inflow is five times the amount of official development
assistance to all emerging economies. The challenge is how to increase the
investment flows into our continent, and not how to attract more aid? We
need both political and economic stability. These are dependent on shared
economic growth and political inclusiveness. This has to be through a
regional strategy to ensure sustainability and also inspire confidence in
those international investors who have a regional or continental approach to
Africa. The constraints and challenges facing different African countries
are not necessarily universal to each economy, and they certainly do not
affect all our countries equally. This is why there will never be a
successful “one-size-fits-all” African economic solution to our continent’s
development challenges. However, generic elements of the different country
specific economic models can be identified and lessons extracted and
extrapolated from one country to the next.

The barriers that governments and the state bureaucracy put in the path of
entrepreneurs and corporations need to be urgently removed. Individuals and
companies create wealth, not governments. State actors should see their role
as enablers of business, and not gatekeepers that control and hamper it.
They should merely create the right policy environment. We need to move away
from a paradigm where the government does things for people or institutions.
The objective should be to enable and facilitate individuals and
institutions, which then advance their interests and those of the wider
society. Each African country must have a national economic vision and a
substantive strategy for growth and development in pursuit of that vision.
That national vision must be linked to both the regional and continental
aspirations.

Unlocking Economic Value from and for the Poor: It cannot be Business as
Usual

About 66% of the worldís poor people live in Africa while globally there are
4 billion people earning less than USD 1500.00 (purchasing power parity) a
year.
Corporates have overlooked this bottom of the economic pyramid (BOP). Most
companies have perfected the business practices of serving the top of the
pyramid. Serving the BOP profitably cannot be achieved by simply replicating
the same models applicable at the top. It cannot be business as usual. The
real source of business value in Africa is not just derived from the
expanding corporate and public sectors, wealthy elites and the emerging
middle class market. The key opportunity comes from investing in, and
empowering the aspiring poor. Africaís BOP presents a huge volume driven
business opportunity. It also presents an ideal testing ground for
developing innovative products for the rest of world. However, capturing the
value from the BOP involves resolving major challenges. The book: ìThe
Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramidî by Professor C.K. Prahalad, offers an
intriguing blueprint on the subject. He demonstrates how to fight poverty
and economically empower low income groups, while still achieving commercial
profitability. The message is that poor African communities need investment
and economic development more than charity.

There are assumptions why the BOP has been ignored: (1) The poor are not our
target consumers because with our current cost structures, we cannot
profitably compete for that market. (2) The poor cannot afford and have no
use for products and services sold in developed markets. (3) Only developed
markets appreciate and will pay for new solutions. (4) The poor can use the
previous generation of products. (5) The BOP is not important to the
long-term viability of our business. (6) We can leave the BOP to government
and nonprofits. (7) Managers are not excited by business challenges that
have a humanitarian dimension. (8) Intellectual excitement is in developed
markets. (9) It is hard to find talented managers who want to work at the
BOP.

All the above assumptions can be systematically challenged and disproved.
The BOP can be served both profitably and responsibly. Perception of the
business market opportunity and its attendant risks is dependant on levels
of exposure, cultural intelligence, socialization of managers, and the
analytical tools employed. Income or revenue based analysis and usual
product assessments for the top of the pyramid are inappropriate in the BOP.
There is need for radical innovations in ICT, financial engineering,
business models, and economic definitions in order to serve the poor
profitably. There is need for re-evaluation of price-performance
relationships for products. Success in the BOP demands different products,
cost structures, distribution networks and market strategies from those
applicable at the top end of the market. A paradigm shift is required
towards a volume driven, culture sensitive and innovation focused strategy.
The BOP market is wide open for product innovation, without old product
legacy issues and infrastructure sunk costs. Corporates can be leaders in
leap-frogging to creative solutions that enable businesses and people at the
BOP to realize their potential. There is BOP appetite and capacity to pay
for business solutions traditionally associated with mature markets.

It is important that corporates and governments attend to the BOP. Poverty
breeds discontent and extremism. Financial sector activity that leads to
poverty alleviation and economic empowerment leads to stability of the
global economy and sustainable success of companies and communities. Thus,
involvement in the low income markets of Africa is a win-win business
operation for all stakeholders. The Africa BOP best practice can be
leveraged and applied in similar markets in South America, Asia, India, and
Eastern Europe.

The Challenges of Access to Capital:

One of the main reasons why economic success has eluded developing African
countries is the lack of access to capital. Broad based economic empowerment
is not attainable without access to capital. For example, the challenges of
the SA BEE model where the same few Black faces are involved in all the
major empowerment deals is due to poor access to capital by the majority.
For example, there is need for capital to pay for the discounted shares.
Lack of traditional financial sector capital is compounded by the fact most
of the assets owned by poor people are not liquid. Most poor people in
African countries own what has been called dead capital. This notion speaks
to unregistered and non-performing assets such as communal area land, rural
houses, and informal businesses.

These assets, owned primarily by poor people, are in the extralegal and
informal realm with no title deeds and proper documentation. Consequently
there is neither security of tenure nor collateral value of property,
leading to poor access to capital. The assets available to poor communities
are thus not maximally leveraged. Without the collateral value of assets,
there is limited wealth creation and skills development. The concept of dead
capital and its consequences in emerging markets was eloquently developed by
the Peruvian economist De Soto in his seminal work, The Mystery of Capital.

As an illustration, the magnitude of Egyptís dead capital is US$241.2
billion which is 55 times all FDI into Egypt up to 1996, including the Suez
Canal and Aswan Dam projects. This dead capital is also 30 times the market
value of the Cairo Stock Exchange, 6 times the total savings in all
commercial banks in Egypt, and 13 times the Egyptian accumulated foreign
reserves. That is staggering. If only Egypt could liquefy just a 10% of this
dead capital the impact on its economy will be phenomenal. This is the
challenge of most African countries: How to convert unlock from
non-performing assets.

In order to improve the poor peopleís access to capital there is need to
liquefy their dead assets through the following activities: (1) Develop a
legal structure for property and property rights. (2) Establish and
normalize financial instruments and legal networks that turn dead assets
into liquid capital, such as title deeds, leases and security of tenure. (3)
Develop the invisible infrastructure of asset management (4) Transformation
from extralegal, informal ownership to a formal unified legal property
system (5) Use assets to create further wealth through skills development,
education, mortgages, equity, collateral, stocks and bonds. Access to
capital is a key part of economic empowerment. Converting dead capital into
performing assets improves access to capital, which leads to new wealth
creation, poverty alleviation, and shared (sustainable) economic growth.
Governments in emerging economies of Africa have a duty and obligation to
establish the required financial and legal infrastructure for property
rights. All assets, including those acquired through empowerment should be
liquefied and hence maximally leveraged.

Global Outsourcing: The African Opportunity

It is important that corporates operating in Africa understand the business
case for outsourcing. The starting point is that one has to be smart enough
to know what one does not know, and appreciate the value proposition of both
local outsourcing and global outsourcing. The extreme case is a virtual
company which outsourcers everything hence having one employee, the
entrepreneur. There is potential for outsourcing into an African country and
out of it. The key drivers of global outsourcing are time zones, cost
savings, and quality. This means by globally outsourcing a company can
achieve 24 hour service without overtime, save on labour and material costs,
and achieve higher product quality. African economies can offer these three
advantages to international firms, but this global outsourcing opportunity
has not been fully exploited.

The outsourcing decision is guided by a number of factors. (1) Concentrate
the companyís own resources on a set of core competencies, where the company
can achieve clear competitive advantage, and provide unique value for
customers. (2) Strategically outsource other activities, including some
traditionally considered integral to the company, for which the company has
neither a critical strategic need nor special capabilities. (3) It is no
longer the companyís ownership of capabilities that matters but rather the
companyís ability to control and make the most of critical capabilities,
irrespective of whether they reside within the company or not (4) The
company should become a flexible organization with elastic value chains (5)
The company should create new strategic capabilities through collaborative
relationships.

India, China and Ireland are examples of countries that have benefited
extensively from global outsourcing. There are attractive factors existing
in African countries that can rival the conditions in these three
destinations. Hence, there is scope for corporates to unlock value and spur
economic development by globally outsourcing to Africa.

Conclusion: Towards an Economic Paradigm Shift

African countries need to move from aid dependent economic models to
investment (domestic and foreign) driven economic development. Within this
framework they need to migrate from resources based economics to
manufacturing and value addition. This should be driven by export-led
investment leading to the production of finished products for both the
domestic and export markets. Entrepneurship, innovation and leveraging of
the ICT revolution should be the central organising mantras of our
industrial revolution. All this must be backed by extensive investment in
physical infrastructure and human capital development. Beyond this, Africans
must strive be net exporters of capital. This means we should become
competitive players in global financial and investment markets. Our higher
educational systems, research and development, and intellectual property
rights legislation need to be robustly developed and advanced as we seek to
become net exporters of knowledge, ICT expertise and human capital.

This is how we should move up both the value and skills chains. This is the
way to drive productivity and competitiveness of African economies. As we do
all this we have a unique opportunity to leap-frog and bypass destructive
industrialization stages, by adopting green and clean technologies. Thus, we
will be advancing the global climate change agenda through leveraging its
business case.

In pursuing all these economic endeavours there must national inclusiveness
leading to shared economic growth and prosperity. More importantly, there is
need for a new type of Pan Africanism rooted in collective economics that
invokes the dictum: Poverty anywhere on the continent is an indictment of
every African. The destiny and prosperity of all people of African descent
is irrevocably intertwined.

The political impasse in Zimbabwe

The Tide Online, Nigeria

• Sunday, May 25, 2008
Zimbabwe was one of the colonial countries that gained independence in 1980
through the struggles of her nationalists. The earlier independence declared
unilaterilly by Mr. Ian Smith on November 11, 1965, was not recognised by
the international community including Britain, her colonial master. When
this was done, the country was known as Rhodesia. The name was changed to
Zimbabwe when she truly became independent from Britain in 1980.

In any case, efforts of the black nationalists in the 1970s yielded positive
fruits when Ian Smith negotiated an internal settlement with black leaders
in 1978. Because of this negotiation, the principle of universal sufferage
was adopted in the 1979 elections. Following this, Bishop Abel Muzorewa
became its first black Prime Minister in 1979. Nevertheless, nationalist
attacks continued through guerrilla warfare until an agreement was reached
on a new constitution for the country that embraced all segments of that
society.

Based on this arrangement, elections were held in 1980. The outcome of these
elections brought Mr. Robert Mugabe to power in 1980 as Prime Minister.
However, more constitutional changes followed. Because of these
constitutional changes Mugabe was eventually installed as Executive
President of Zimbabwe in 1987.

On coming to power, President Mugabe adopted socialist principles as his
base to run the affairs of Zimbabwe. But in 1991, he soft pedaled on this
and introduced a multi-party political system. However, we should note that
since 1980 President Robert Mugabe has been in power in spite of the fact
that multi-party political system was introduced in 1991.

His party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front is the
dominant political party in that country.

The other opposition parties have not been able to make any significant
impact since the ZANU –PF came to power in 1980 and so Zimbabwe is regarded
as a one-party state. But events went haywire when President Mugabe
introduced a land policy that removed land from their white owners and given
to black Zimbabweans who have no experience in large scale farming. The
situation generated economic crisis in the country.

For instance, food items became scarce, unemployment among the population
soared. Many people migrated to neighbouring countries such as South Africa
and Zambia to look for employment and daily bread. Inflation skyrocketed and
that coutry’s currency depreciated in value to a miserable level. In fact,
the economic sector of Zimbabwe had nothing to commend it.

The economic situation in the country made some foreign countires and heads
of state to criticize President Robert Mugabe and urged him to change his
land policy. The European Union advised him on this. The United Kingdom also
persuaded him to change his land policy. But President Mugabe would not
budge.

In any event, it was in the midst of all these economic crises that
President Robert Mugabe called for a general election to seek for a fresh
mandate of six years to rule Zimbabwe. The elections were held on March 29,
2008. The political parties that participated in the elections include the
Zimbabwe African national Union-Patriotic Front and the Movement for
Democratic change led by Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai. But since after the
elections that country’s election commission has refused to release the
results. Meanwhile, exit polls have indicated that the Movement for
Democratic Change won both the parliamentary and presidential elections in
Zimbabwe.

The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is alleging that
the elections were rigged in favour of the opposition party. Meanwhile, a
former Secretary General of the United Nations, Dr. Koffi Annan has appealed
to neighbouring African countries to take positive steps to check what might
result into another genocide in the African continent. African leaders
should listen to the voice of Dr. Annan and take measures that would not
pre-empt a major crisis in Zimbabwe.

From all indications, it is clear that the March 29, 2008, general elections
in Zimbabwe were won by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
President Robert Mugabe should therefore step down for the opposition party
and its leader Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai.

Dr. Tolofari is a director in Ministry of Information, Port Harcourt.