Stalemate

The past few weeks have had a funny feel about them. Nothing you can put
your finger on, just a sense that something is about to happen and we do not
know quite what. Human senses can be like that. I recall a warm Matabeleland
evening on a farm on the edge of the Matopo hills when a group of us were
walking back to the farmhouse from a small dam. We had several small dogs
with us and there were both adults and children. I had a feeling then that
we were being followed. I turned and looked back to see if there was
anything - nothing that I could see. But when we finally got to the house, a
leopard came out of the grass at the side of the road, picked up one of the
dogs and slipped away into the bush. So fast we were left wondering, "Did
that really happen?"

Mugabe has just completed one of his forays onto the world stage - first a
three-day State visit to Cuba and then his annual holiday in New York
courtesy of the UN World Assembly. I am puzzled by the almost total absence
of any sort of news about the Cuba visit. I saw a bit of television
coverage - no sign of Fidel, just the Cuban Prime Minister looking very
uncomfortable at a joint press conference. Silence means either something
significant happened, or that nothing happened. I have a feeling that this
time it was the latter. Mugabe has no friends left to whom he can turn to
for help.

This was clearly demonstrated in the China/Malaysia visit where he came away
empty handed, we learn now that in fact the Chinese leadership told Mugabe
that "so long as we are your only friends in the world, we will find it
difficult to help you." In other words - "repair your relations with the
other major players and then we will help". The Indians were even less
accommodating - not willing even to entertain Mugabe and his entourage.

So we have the Mugabe regime about as isolated as any in the world - we do
not have a nuclear programme to force others attentions and with which to
threaten our region and play the "bad boy or else" game. But translating
isolation into a democratic process of political change that will deliver
the kind of transformation that we need to save the country is another
matter.

As I write the opposition in Myanmar (Burma) is considering what they should
do after 17 years of resistance and campaigning for change. Their leadership
still under house arrest and a military Junta still in power and enjoying
the connivance and support of its neighboring countries like Thailand and
Malaysia. Are we destined for a similar fate? Our neighbors tolerating the
state of affairs here simply because the effort to effect real change is
just too much trouble?

But Mugabe is very vulnerable - he is 83 years old, has not set up a
succession plan which might work, his ship is sinking fast - GDP will
decline by up to 10 per cent this year - now down by 50 per cent in 7 years,
export earnings continue to fall and the final nails are being driven into
the coffin of agriculture so that farm output this coming summer will
provide only about 20 per cent of our needs. Unless Mugabe is prepared to
accept that up to half the population will either die or flee the country,
he is simply running out of freeboard and the sea looks very cold and
uninviting.

The issue is what will trigger the required changes? If we look at the power
brokers in Zanu PF - Munangagwa and Mujuru (the husband not the wife), they
are desperately looking for a way out of this dead end alley. They have
canvassed this with the MDC seeking assurances that they cannot expect about
the safety of their persons, freedom and assets (ill gotten gains). They
have looked long and hard at fighting their way back to the shore - a
strategy that requires further manipulation of the constitution to give them
more time (extending the term of the President to 2010 or making it possible
to appoint a successor for two years until fresh elections are held in
2010).

They are considering who might be in the team at that stage - Simba Makoni
as a fresh face with a decent smile as President, Munangagwa as a tough
street fighter as Prime Minister (more constitutional gerrymandering). John
Nkomo and Mai Mujuru as Vice Presidents to give the team ethnic balance.

Their problem is that even while they consider what to do and what staff
changes to make in the captains cabin, the boat they are all riding in is
actually sinking rather fast. Survival depends on millions of its passengers
bailing out - weakening the opposition and reducing the cargo in the hold.
Even this may not be enough and unless they can stop the crazy antics of
those who are drilling holes in the bottom of the boat - like Chinamasa,
Mutasa and Chombo, this tub is still going to the bottom and then we are all
in the drink - whatever our allegiances and position today.

The suggestions that the MDC abandon ship and set up an alternative
government in another boat a safe distance away from this sinking ship, is
not workable. Talk about us leading a charge on the Bridge and taking
control is also not a workable strategy - workable, I said, it may be
tempting but in fact in today's environment unlikely to work. So we are left
with pressure on those on the Bridge - from those who will be most affected
by the final sinking of this particular ship. From those who can offer
safety to those who fear the worst from the sea.

The signs are all there that such approaches are taking place - South Africa
remains steadfast - "we are here, right next door, you can see us from the
Bridge, we can help - but first you must agree to certain conditions". The
Captain of this sinking ship may splutter and explode with anger at the
stated conditions, but he is no longer in any position to bargain. Even Mr.
Anan has offered to come and look at the situation - from the safety of a
helicopter - but he too has stated that if we want that to happen then we
must concede the conditions the South Africans have laid down. No less.

This morning the BBC covered a story about the UN granting emergency relief



worth US$30 million to help the victims of Murambatsvina. While they covered
the story they showed footage shot secretly by local volunteers of the
conditions in Zimbabwe. The pictures were disturbing to say the least. There
is now no doubt that thousands are dying away from the reach of the
television cameras, but those on the Bridge know this as do those next door
offering help. The question is how much longer before a warning shot is
fired across their bow?

Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 28th September 2005

IMF Seeks Details on $120 Million Zimbabwe Debt Payment

Listen to Interview with John Robertson

UN wants $30 million for homeless in Zimbabwe

Reuters

27 Sep 2005 23:28:20 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed for nearly $30 million in humanitarian supplies for the most vulnerable people evicted from urban slums in Zimbabwe, according to a letter circulated on Tuesday.
The appeal was to have been launched in August but President Robert Mugabe initially rejected the funds, smarting from a critical U.N. report on July 2 that called his government's bulldozing of urban slums a disastrous and unjustified venture that affected 700,000 people.
The new appeal, called "Common Response Plan" was sent to U.N. ambassadors by Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, and is to provide some assistance to 300,000 people.
It asks for funds for shelter, food, health supplies, water, sanitation and medicines to combat AIDS, which affects about a quarter of the adult population and kills some 3,000 Zimbabweans each week.
Mugabe has asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to visit and the U.N. chief is considering it, diplomats said, adding that there was still division among U.N. officials about whether he should make the trip. Egeland intends to visit Zimbabwe first, late this month or in October.
In his letter, Egeland said that while the government plans to provide 5,000 houses in the short term, tens of thousands of people still lack adequate shelter.
"Some evicted people continue to move around, searching for housing as well as work," Egeland wrote. "Others, such as families in Hatcliffe Extension near Harare, live on or near the ruins of their former homes."
He said U.N. officials in Zimbabwe were consulting with the government on how they could help provide temporary shelter.
While donors contribute relief aid to Zimbabwe, Mugabe's feud with Britain, a leading critic of his human rights record, has prevented development assistance on a larger scale from the European Union, the United States and elsewhere.
Egeland said the government's figures showed 92,460 dwellings had been demolished, directly affecting more than 133,000 households. The July 2 report from Anna Tibaijuka, the executive director of U.N.-Habitat, estimates 570,000 people had lost their homes and 98,000 their source of income.


AlertNet news is provided by

Zimbabwe to set up biotechnology control authority

People's Daily

       
The Zimbabwean government is poised to set up a Biotechnology Authority to monitor activities in the sector, the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Development, Patrick Zhuwawo said on Tuesday.
Zhuwawo said that a National Biotechnology Bill to form the body was already under scrutiny in Parliament and the biotechnology authority was expected to be operational before year-end.
"All the necessary groundwork is already in place and we wait for the bill to sail through in Parliament that will make provisions for setting up the biotechnology control authority," he said.
He said the bill would provide for the management of potentially harmful biotechnologies and undertakings.
It would be a mechanism for managing the import, export, research, development and use of biotech techniques and products, according to Zhuwawo.
Zhuwawo said the Biotechnology Authority would act as an advisory board to the Ministry of Science and Technology Development as well as ensuring that activities regarding biotechnology research, development and application are performed in accordance with the law.
He said biotechnologies were very important in national development especially in agriculture.
"Biotechnology has made profound impact in agriculture, food processing, health and environmental protection," he said.
Biotechnology has enabled a rapid response in diagnosing diseases as well as disease monitoring.
Apart from providing new sources of renewable energy, it has also improved crop and animal production and health.
Source: Xinhua

Zimbabwe hospitals lack lab materials for HIV tests

Mail & Guardian


Harare, Zimbabwe

28 September 2005 10:26

Public hospitals in Zimbabwe are finding it difficult to conduct HIV/Aids tests because of a lack of essential laboratory chemicals, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. An estimated one in four Zimbabweans is HIV-positive.

Tendai Nyakuedzwa, a laboratory scientist at Chitungwiza General Hospital, a large public hospital about 20km from the capital Harare, was cited as saying there was a "critical shortage" of reagents used in HIV-testing.

Nyakuedzwa said machines used for accurate HIV-testing had not been operating at the hospital for four months because of the lack of the reagents.

The hospital's HIV viral load machine has also been lying unused for the past year because of the lack of reagents, he said. The chemicals have to be imported from neighbouring South Africa, but Zimbabwe is facing critical shortages of foreign currency needed to pay for such imports.

"We have to make-do with only two rapid on-spot HIV tests. But in the case of determinant results, we need the machines that, as it is, we cannot use now due to their state of disrepair," Nyakuedzwa said.

Patients have the option of paying for tests in private medical institutions, but their prices are steep and may be beyond the reach of many.

Viral load tests are also not being conducted at Harare Central Hospital, the Herald said. Specimens have to be sent to private laboratories for testing.

"The bulk of our laboratory equipment has been lying idle for many years and there is nothing new in us taking specimens to private laboratories," one laboratory scientist was quoted as saying.

The Herald said several patients with HIV/Aids "had to be turned away" in the last year from both Harare Central Hospital and Chitungwiza General Hospital.

Health Minister David Parirenyatwa blamed the problems on Zimbabwe's foreign currency shortages.

"The prevailing foreign currency shortages are hampering efforts to import reagents and spares for equipment, he said. - Sapa

Zimbabwe orders eviction of new black farmers

AFX News Limited

09.28.2005, 07:04 AM

HARARE (AFX) - Zimbabwe has ordered the eviction of some 70 families given farms under the controversial land reform programme, to make way for an agricultural research station, Zimbabwe's Daily Mirror newspaper said Wednesday.

Seventy small-scale farmers in Mashonaland West and their families have been ordered off the farms they were allocated in 2001, the privately-owned paper said, quoting farmers.

'The ministry of agriculture officials told us to vacate, failure of which we would be forcibly removed,' an unnamed farmer told the paper.

About 4,000 white commercial farmers have lost their land under the reform programme that began in 2000 to redress imbalances from the colonial era when most arable land was in the hand of whites.

The southern African country last month approved a bill that prevents white farmers from resorting to the courts to challenge the land seizures.

Mashonaland West governor Nelson Samkange confirmed plans were afoot to build a research station and said moving the farmers 'was still being looked into.'

'There is a proposal to have a research station,' Samkange told the paper.

'It will be a centre where people can be trained in agriculture.'

Zimbabwean Vice President Joyce Mujuru earlier this month warned that black farmers who acquired land under the reform plan and who were under-utilizing resources, were guilty of 'sabotage.'

'If you are not farming properly, this is sabotage at the highest level,' she was quoted as saying.

Conflict of interests as BCCI enforces patch-up

Harare food aid high on Annan's agenda

IOL

    September 28 2005 at 01:06AM

By Joe Lauria

United Nations (UN) officials have denied a report that secretary-general Kofi Annan's planned journey to Zimbabwe has been cancelled, saying discussions on a date and an agenda were still under way.

Jan Egeland, the UN's humanitarian affairs co-ordinator, said he would also visit Zimbabwe in mid-November.

The state-run Herald newspaper in Harare reported this week that Annan had been forced to cancel his visit because the United States and Britain had politicised it. The newspaper suggested Annan agreed with this assessment.

'A lot of reporting from media in Zimbabwe, which hasn't always been on target'
“I think there's been a lot of reporting from media in Zimbabwe, which hasn't always been on target,” said Stephane Dujarric, Annan's chief spokesperson

“As we've said before, the secretary-general may go to Zimbabwe, but obviously any such visit would have to be carefully planned in terms of its agenda and its aims,” he said.

 “The planning for such a visit is being done in conjunction with our department of political affairs and Zimbabwean officials.

“We don't want to set any conditions or time frames, but the point is that the visit be properly planned.”

UN officials refused to comment on whether Annan had agreed with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe that Washington and London had overly influenced the perception of the visit.

An official said that no date had been set for the Annan visit.

Egeland said he hoped his visit to Zimbabwe would allow him to break an impasse between the UN and Mugabe's government about distributing food to victims of Mugabe's controversial slum clearance programme as well as for other Zimbabweans facing food shortages.

Egeland said he had received positive feedback so far from donors whom he had contacted.

The UN is seeking to raise $30-million (about R193-million) to help those displaced by the urban clearance campaign.

In August, Egeland said the appeal had been blocked because the UN and the government could not agree to terms on how the aid would be distributed.

“We are trying to help 300 000 of the evictees for the rest of this year and into next year,” said Egeland. “In Zimbabwe, our big aim is to work with the government to have a food-security programme to help several million people who are at risk.”

Egeland said that the “crisis” of those evicted from their homes “was now a smaller part of a bigger one.”

The World Food Programme estimates that 4-million Zimbabweans out of a population of 13-million need food aid while the government claims the figure is 2,4-million.

UN officials would not comment on the thorny question of whether the UN would allow the Zimbabwean government to control the programme.

Opposition groups fear that the government would withhold food from strongholds of the political opposition.

The government, by contrast, says it does not trust some non-governmental organisations to distribute the food, claiming they have their own political agendas.

In the Herald report Mugabe is quoted as saying that he saw the proposed Annan visit as an opportunity for him to lecture the secretary- general on the wrongs of a UN report in July that was highly critical of the slum clearance programme.

The report by UN envoy Anna Tibaijuka said that 700 000 people had been made homeless, a number Mugabe claims was exaggerated.

Dujarric hinted in his comments that Annan would not go unless the visit was “carefully planned in terms of its agenda and its aims”.

Annan accepted an invitation from Mugabe in late July to make a first-hand inspection of the slum clearance programme.

At that time, Dujarric said before Annan could travel to Zimbabwe Mugabe would have to halt the evictions, ensure aid was getting through and start a process of political reconciliation.

The UN has given no indication that it has dropped these conditions and is apparently still waiting for assurances that they are taking place.


This article was originally published on page 10 of Pretoria News on September 28, 2005

Oliver Mtukudzi: 'It's not me, it's the song'

Mail & Guardian


Jan Hennop | Harare, Zimbabwe

28 September 2005 09:20

It's impossible to miss Oliver Mtukudzi.

Dressed in an all-black outfit that makes him look like a Vietcong guerrilla, Zimbabwe's super-bard stands head and shoulders above anyone else.

The lanky and tall "Tuku", as he is known by his fans around Africa, is in a buoyant mood at a press conference with a group of fellow musicians ahead of a weekend concert to celebrate his 53rd birthday.

On a background screen at an upmarket Harare hotel, images flash of the arts centre he's building in a small town just west of the capital and to which the proceeds of the bash will be donated.

"This centre had to be finished yesterday," Mtukudzi tells journalists.

With a community hall and recording studio, the Pakare Paye centre -- which means "that place" in Shona -- located in Norton, 40km outside Harare, is to become a breeding ground for future talent in the southern African country.

Tuku now hopes to have it finished by next year.

Despite his growing stature as one of Africa's superstars -- he's being mentioned in the same breath as Senegal's Salif Keita and Youssou N'Dour -- Oliver Mtukudzi remains a humble man.

"I'm just the same old Oliver that I have always been all these years. It's just the figure that's changed," he tells Agence France Presse with a faint trace of irony in his voice.

"It's not me, it's the song, it's the product that's important," he says while his face remains as still as a carving from Zimbabwean soapstone.

Two days later, on a balmy Saturday evening, Tuku's "product" sets on fire a home crowd of several thousand at a sports ground in Harare.

Dressed in a flamboyant cream suit and wearing his trademark crochet-skullcap, Mtukudzi is every inch the superstar that has gone from Harare to South Africa and on to Europe and the United States.

"Yayayayayaaaaaa!" Tuku draws the crowd which responds with the same greeting, before launching into a trio with guitar ace Louis Mhlanga and long-time friend and music producer Steve Dyer.

"Tuku music", as it has become known, is a mixture of ethnic styles including guitar rhythms of Zimbabwe's mbira, some South African traditional mbaqanga -- a distinctive guitar sound -- backed with a voice like sandpaper.

After 48 albums, Tuku still possesses the wired energy that makes him so electric on stage.

It was with fellow "collaborator" Dyer that Mtukudzi's star-status grew rapidly beyond the borders of Zimbabwe, where he has laboured as a songwriter, producer, writer and singer since first starting off in 1977.

After many years of slaving on the local market in which he wrote music and starred in two movies, Tuku and Dyer formed the "Mahube" group in 1997 and toured Europe.

The two men co-produced a second album to go gold in South Africa called Bvume (Tolerance) in 2000 followed by Vhunze Moto (Burning Embers) in 2002 in which Mtukudzi plays with Dyer as well as his long-time band The Black Spirits.

In March last year, Mahube released an album entitled Qhubeka (Moving forward) while Mtukudzi released his 48th album this year, a solo work called Nhava.

Singing in his native Shona and in English, Tuku's music often carries social messages about HIV/Aids and alcohol abuse, encourages self-respect or puts traditional Shona proverbs and wisdom into song.

These days Tuku's music also carries a message of hope in Zimbabwe, a country were people are facing food and fuel shortages.

"Things are not good at the moment," he says.

"How people really survive here is a miracle," he adds, but forgets to mention that his music inspires many, both inside and out of Zimbabwe. - Sapa-AFP

Zimbabwe State Hospitals Can't Afford Supplies - Report

JAG Membership Communique

A Memoir of One Man's Experience in Zimbabwe

SOUTH AFRICA-ZIMBABWE: Bailout talks to resume soon

Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 2:26 AM

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]


JOHANNESBURG, 28 September (IRIN) - Zimbabwean and South African officials
are to meet in the next two weeks for further talks on the possibility of
loan assistance, a government spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.

"Talks have been continuing, but the two sides have not met recently," South
African treasury spokesman Logan Wort told IRIN.

The countries have been negotiating an aid package worth almost US $500
million, including an outstanding payment of $175 million to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) to prevent Zimbabwe's expulsion from the
international financial institution.

But talks had stalled over Zimbabwe's reluctance to enforce political and
economic recovery plans - conditions set by the South Africans for providing
the financial assistance. "The conditions still stand, whenever talks
resume," said South African government sources.

In late August the IMF began procedures to strip Zimbabwe of its membership
over arrears to the tune of $295 million and failure to rein in public
spending. However, earlier this month Zimbabwe managed to make a payment of
$131 million to the IMF, which granted the troubled southern African country
a six-month reprieve.

Zimbabwe has promised to settle its arrears, currently totalling $175
million, by November 2006. It has also submitted an economic recovery plan
to the IMF.

South African government sources described Zimbabwe's recovery programme as
"unrealistic" and said the IMF was "unlikely" to accept it.

The IMF has already commented on some of the economic reform measures taken
by the Zimbabwean government in recent months, such as liberalisation of the
fuel and maize markets, saying they "fell well short of what is needed to
address Zimbabwe's economic difficulties."

The Fund warned that "unless strong macroeconomic policies are undertaken
without delay, economic and social conditions could deteriorate further".
Unemployment is currently over 70 percent and inflation is more than 265
percent.

Meanwhile, controversy has erupted over the source of Zimbabwe's initial
$131 million payment to the IMF. At a press conference on the regional
outlook for sub-Saharan Africa last week in Washington, an IMF official said
they had queried the source of the funding.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono revealed that the money paid
to the IMF came from banks in New York and London, among others, and the
funds had been sourced from export proceeds, free funds and foreign currency
liquidations, according to the official newspaper, The Herald, on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe is going through a severe economic crisis, with serious food
shortages due to recurring droughts and the government's fast-track land
redistribution programme, which disrupted agricultural production and
slashed export earnings.

The crisis has also seen a flood of Zimbabweans illegally crossing the
border into South Africa. According to the Geneva-based International
Organisation for Migration, at least 2,000 Zimbabweans are deported from
South Africa via the border town of Beitbridge every week.

South African government sources confirmed that Zimbabwe was in urgent need
of assistance, such as food and agricultural inputs. "We are extremely
concerned about the food situation," said a government official.

A vulnerability assessment conducted by the Zimbabwean government and some
NGOs earlier this year indicated that 2.9 million people - an estimated 36
percent of the rural population - would require food aid until the next
harvest in April 2006. Aid agencies have planned for over four million in
need.

Sources in South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party said
talks with the neighbouring country had been disrupted by "political
interference".

"While the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and other technocrats realise that our
assistance is critical, the political leadership in Zimbabwe is suspicious
of South Africa's intentions," commented a senior ANC official.

[ENDS]

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Hungry Zimbabwe villagers demand food in court

Wed Sep 28, 2005 11:59 AM GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Two Zimbabwean court sessions were forced to adjourn after hungry villagers serving as state witnesses demanded food, complaining police had neither fed them nor given them shower facilities.
The state-run Herald newspaper said on Wednesday the villagers had not eaten for three days and were being housed in "squalid and inhuman conditions" at a police training camp. It said some remand prisoners in a jail near Harare had also gone without food after officers said they had no money to feed them.
"It is not government policy to starve anyone, whether they are prisoners. Everyone is entitled to food," said deputy information minister Bright Matonga, ordering an investigation. Prison and justice ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.
Analysts said it did not appear the villagers were singled out for maltreatment. Their plight reflected the degree of hardships in Zimbabwe, which is struggling with food shortages amid a worsening economic crisis, they said.

Mugabe has left it too late for a smooth exit

Comment from Business Day (SA), 28 September

Dumisani Muleya
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu PF has announced it will soon amend the constitution - for the 18th time in 25 years - purportedly to synchronise parliamentary and presidential elections. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa proffered four scenarios of how the elections could be synchronised. He said both could be held in 2008, when President Robert Mugabe’s term expires, or both could be pushed back to 2010, when the general election is due. But that would mean an interim president between 2008 and 2010, or a president elected for only two years. The last option was to hold both elections in 2015. Whatever the shenanigans at Zanu PF, Mugabe is stewing in his own juices as he struggles to disentangle himself from his convoluted succession crisis. Although all the scenarios Chinamasa put forward seem plausible, Zanu PF insiders say the real plan is to delay the presidential poll until 2010 to give Mugabe’s anointed successor, Joyce Mujuru, enough time to consolidate her grip in the ruling party and prepare to mount a serious challenge for the presidency after Mugabe.
While Mujuru is still seen as Mugabe’s preferred successor after many other pretenders stumbled in the race to State House, questions are being raised about her political and intellectual clout. Her critics think she is not up to scratch, while her supporters think she could manage if given enough help. But she is battling to cut a credible image of a leader-in-waiting. As result of Mujuru’s mediocre profile, a Zanu PF coterie has hatched an ethnic balancing plan in which former finance minister Simba Makoni would be Mugabe’s successor. Zanu PF chairman and parliamentary speaker John Nkomo would be a co-vice-president with Mujuru, while Zanu PF luminary Emmerson Mnangagwa, at one time Mugabe’s heir apparent, would be prime minister. In terms of the plan, Makoni would represent the interests of the Manyika (a Shona subgroup), Nkomo the Ndebeles (an Nguni group of Zulu descent), Mujuru the ruling Zezurus (although she is by origin said to be a Korekore, a Shona subgroup), and Mnangagwa the Karangas (the largest Shona subgroup).
This arrangement in the Zimbabwean mind-set of ethnic politics appears a fair-minded approach to balancing competing tribal interests. This is not surprising because Zanu PF politics are largely seen through the prism of simplistic historical and ethnic dichotomies devoid of sound philosophy. This sort of hidebound planning confirms the notion that Mugabe is concerned about himself and his family, his Zezuru clique and his party, before thinking about national interest. Though this may not be a true reflection of Mugabe’s philosophy, his actions always confirm what might well be a conspiracy theory. As a result, this has largely filtered through the body politic and Zimbabwe’s tribal politics. Chinua Achebe deals with the dangers of such social and political organisation in his book, The Trouble with Nigeria. It reveals leadership, institutional and policy failures that give way to tribalism, usually under corrupt and incompetent political regimes.
Mugabe’s retirement and succession plan at the moment involves the use of constitutional amendments and an expanded legislature to support the scheme. After the recent constitutional amendments, which reintroduced the senate that was abolished in 1990, there will be elections in December for the upper house to form a bicameral legislature dominated by Zanu PF. The senate elections will be followed by another constitutional amendment to postpone the 2008 presidential poll to 2010. A provision could be inserted to ensure Mujuru takes over if Mugabe cannot continue - for whatever reason. There could also be a clause that there will be an interim president between 2008 and 2010. Mujuru would be the interim president to prepare for a head start in the presidential race. But this does not guarantee Mugabe’s smooth exit. He has left it too late.

Zimbabwe musical icon Tuku celebrates birthday

Zimbabwe's biggest musical sensation turned 53 recently

September 28, 2005, 15:00

Oliver Mtukudzi, Zimbabwe's musical icon, turned 53 last week. The award-winning musician is a source of inspiration to millions of people. Over 20 000 fans, including six international artists, were in Harare to celebrate his birthday and catch a glimpse of his life, looking back on many years of entertainment.

From the dusty streets of Highfields in Harare, Mtukudzi set himself up as one of the few influential and respected musicians. Growing up playing guitars in the township wasn't fashionable in the swinging sixties - then it was associated with insolence that would amount to nothing.

But today the father of four is still having the time of his life, a pied piper of music pulling in crowds with his unique concoction of African music. His birthday marked one of the few rare occasions in Zimbabwe when international artists descended on the capital, this time to celebrate the rich musical life of an icon.

Even President Thabo Mbeki has confessed to liking Tuku's music.