• Zimbabwe One Step Closer To Becoming A Province of South Africa
    Death to The Zimbabwe Dollar! Elton Mangoma, minister of Economic Planning from the MDC, announced on Sunday that the Zimbabwe dollar (such as the FIFTY BILLION DOLLAR NOTE pictured here)  has been "suspended" for a year. A lot of commuters are going to be mad as hell, because they had been using these to board commuter omnibuses. But in confirms the timeline I gave in December in my article, Zimbabwe Approaches South Africa to Officially Use The Rand

    So, you woke up on Sunday morning to hear that what I revealed to you here in my article in December last year (Zimbabwe Approaches South Africa To Officially Use The Rand) has been proved correct. Yet again.

    As I explained it back then, Gono had met with Mboweni to discuss the adoption of the Rand and the conditions laid down by the South Africans were daunting.

    Zimbabwe, I told you back then, was required to suspend its own currency for at least six months. (They have done better, with Elton Mangoma, the minister of economic planning, revealing yesterday that the Zimbabwe Dollar has now been officially suspended for a whole year.)

    The other condition was the provision of security of some sort for the deal. I passed on to you the information I got that Mugabe and his governor were seriously thinking of mortgaging the country's mineral wealth for this.

    It appears they have now settled on the Chiyadzwa diamonds (which were promptly banned and can't now be sold on the open market). The South Africans will probably take them and certify them on a much larger scale than they have been doing now. (Yes, our diamonds have been certified on our behalf by the South Africans for some time now and they are sold in the market as originating from South Africa.

    There is nothing much the international market can do to South Africa, seeing as it is the leading nation in diamond mining. A South African company, De Beers, has an international monopoly on diamonds and can manipulate the price to its own advantage if it felt hard done by.

    Then there was the issue of trust. The South Africans were not prepared to support budgetary allocations in Zimbabwe. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe would not be able to set monetary policy and would not be the lender of last resort for the government of Zimbabwe.

    Hence, just like Biti then announced in his own budget revision last month, all budgetary money, to be disbursed to ministries for their operations, will now be housed at Treasury (meaning the Ministry of Finance) and not at the RBZ as was the case before.

    Further, none of the money can be withdrawn by any ministry without the express consent of the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti. And, of course, there was the minister's Hunter-Gatherer budget, about which he himself said, "From now on, what we gather is what we eat." 

    Please take note of the words he used......".....What we eat." That is the whole point of this government, "to eat". Vari kuda kudya mari dzedu chete-chete.

    But, to get back to the matter at hand: Most of the conditions for Zimbabwe to be Randified are now met.

    Tendai Biti himself has also announced that all government accounts will be held in Rand and all accounting matters will also be Randified

    We can now see the trend very clearly. The President of South Africa told the media earlier this year that he saw nothing wrong with Zimbabwe adopting the Rand as its official currency.

    The Reserve Bank of South Africa itself refused to comment and only, tellingly, said no "official" approach has been made.

    Basically, the possibility was thrown into the ring to gauge public reaction in South Africa. Public opinion having been prepared for the move, we are now seeing an inexorable march towards adopting the Rand openly, officially.

    Then, Zimbabwe will forever be a colony again, a province of South Africa. What with the announcement last week that Zimbabweans would no longer need visas to visit South Africa (an announcement that was immediately disowned by the South African Ministry of Home Affairs on their website...)

    We are ahead of the pack. Regional-integration-r-us. By the time Africa comes to be a united continent (United States of Africa, is what Gaddafi wants), we would have been one country for ages.

    I bet the new mega-country combining Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho (who all already the use the South African Rand), Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique will be called.......South Africa!

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  • Tsvangirai's Final Defeat
    The significance of Mugabe swearing in Tsvangirai and his ministers was dismissed when I discussed it on this blog in February. The importance of that gesture is now becoming very clear as it emerges who it is that is, as Mugabe it, "firmly in control" It is a final defeat for the MDC and the Prime Minister, as events now show that they have responsibility, but not authority or power. And they are accepting this


    Laughter was echoing through the corridors of State House yesterday afternoon, where, uncharacteristically, the dictator Robert Mugabe had showed up for work, meeting with the three ZANU PF Politubro members who are now virtually his kitchen cabinet.

    It is the Politubro members who had called the meeting, concerned at the latest developments within the coalition government. Mugabe assured them that everything was in order and they need not worry.

    The reason for the laughter was the Prime Minister's office statement issued to the press over the weekend declaring the disemboweling of Nelson Chamisa's ministry by Mugabe "null and void."

    "Regai apedze shungu," the dictator said.

    It is quite clear that Mugabe has no intention of reversing any of these things, and Tsvangirai knows it. But the Prime Minister is playing to the gallery here, issuing statements only to make himself look good with his half-informed, fanatic supporters who still refuse to accept that Prime Minster Tsvangirai has been finally defeated, utterly, by the dictator. He holds office without power, responsibility without authority.

    And he is being humiliated by the very man he has now taken to calling "Father" - "Baba".

    This is simply a statement of fact, which some will see as "hatred" for Tsvangirai. But that has never bothered me, because time has a way of proving me right so far.

    Tsvangirai declared the appointments of Permanent Secretaries "null and void" before the accident that claimed his wife's life.

    Have you heard about this matter since?

    He also declared the appointments of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono and Attornery General Johannes Tomana null and void. Now we know that they are neither null nor void and the two men are not going anywhere.

    Now this.

    Zimbabwe news is getting predictable, isn't it?

    So, for the level-headed and realistic ones amongst us, I refer you back to an article I wrote a month ago on this very blog: "The Reason for the Mugabe/Tsvangirai Clash To Come".

    Let me say, when a fish is caught on a hook, the best thing for it is to stop struggling because it will only hurt itself. It may escape, yes. But it would be fatally wounded, unable to feed and facing certain death.

    So it is with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. In that article a month ago, I explained to you all that the clause that was never questioned by Morgan Tsvangirai in the agreement he signed, the one which says, "The Prime Minister shall have executive authority" was going to be the source of the problems between the two men.

    Authority of whom? Over what? I asked. Because their agreement does not say, and Tsvangirai was too afraid to press home the point.

    So it has come to pass.

    Remember that I also told you that in "the battle to come" (it was still to come then), Tsvangirai would prove to be at a disadvantage and his regaining the advantage would entirely depend on the goodwill of Mugabe. It would, in other words, depend on what Mugabe was willing to give away to Tsvangirai out of the goodness of his heart, not because he has to.

    Here's why: According to this Agreement of theirs, both Mugabe and Tsvangirai "shall have executive authority."

    But, Tsvangirai's authority is not written down anywhere else, or detailed in any statutory instrument. Mugabe's powers. however, which Morgan Tsvangirai decided not to contest but to confirm in their agreement, are intact.

    Worse, Mugabe's powers are contained in the constitution that we are currently operating under. Tsvangirai only has a job description, which also says that he reports to Mugabe, an act that the Prime Minister last week confirmed he does every Monday.

    Hence, the position we have today, which is that the Prime Minister shall have whatever executive authority the president chooses to delegate to him.

    Here's the bottom line: Mugabe is President. That role was not redefined in the Global Political Agreement. So Mugabe still chairs cabinet. He is the Head of state and government. 

    Yes, folks, according to that agreement, Tsvangirai is not even head of government, as a normal Prime Minister would be. He is instead head of the Council of Ministers.

    The Council is like a task force, put together by the executive authority (cabinet, to which the agreement says the Council of Ministers reports) to deal with a specific mandate. In this case, the mandate is policy formulation and implementation. Nothing more and nothing less.

    Tsvangirai is well aware of this. That is why, on the day he announced his pick of cabinet ministers, before he was sworn in, he made the following comment; "I hope that I, as Prime Minister, with responsibility for policy formulation and implementation, will be allowed to define the mandates of the ministers."

    It was a hope. 

    Mugabe, as executive cabinet chair, makes appointments across the board. This is why Tsvangirai's ministers were sworn in by Mugabe. Some naive people thought at the time that I was pointing out the fact that the ministers were being sworn in by Mugabe just to get up the noses of MDC supporters.

    Well, what we are seeing now is the reason why that swearing-in was important. If, as with other Prime Ministers, Tsvangirai had been allowed to swear in the ministers, you would know where the power over ministers and ministries lay - with him.

    But it does not. And I think he had accepted that.

    Legally, therefore, according to the constitution in operation in Zimbabwe, the President makes appointments of Permanent Secretaries and defines the mandates of the ministers. Their job descriptions are essentially written by Mugabe.

    Tsvangirai did nothing to renegotiate this, so happy was he with the Prime Ministerial title that all that escaped him. He was outwitted. Which is not the end of the world. 

    Instead of trying to fight these little battles that will not count for anything, he should regroup and restrategise.

    He knows this. But politically, there are gullible people out there who need to be assured by the PM, whom they support blindly, that he is still "tough" and can stare down Mugabe. He is doing nothing of the sort.

    There are now too many "null and voids" that never go anywhere. Gono, Tomana, PermSecs etc

    Of course, not a single newspaper or journalist is going to hold the Prime Minister to account when his words fall flat.

    Permanent Secretaries? What happened? Nothing? Did any of the media ask the Prime Minister what he was going to do after the "null and void" statement? No.

    So now he knows he can get away with it and issues a statement again on the Ministry of Communications issue.

    He knows that, within two weeks, the issue will be forgotten, no journalist will follow it up and his supporters, having last heard the words "null and void", cheer him and say their man is in charge.

    The issue dies a quiet death and matters remain as they are.

    The Prime Minister knows this. The President knows this. They all know this.

    It is the supporters, especially the MDC ones, whom I pity. Still, they cling to the title, Honourable Prime Minister.

    It is all they have, even if it means absolutely nothing. But I will give them that, at least.

    Still, the dictator wins again.

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  • Paranoia in The Presidential Corridors
    The cup that Morgan Tsvangirai drinks tea from, as well as the tea bags and sugar, are brought into his office by his own secretary everyday. When he is done with the cup, it is the secretary who washes it up herself and puts it back into her handbag.

    At meetings, sources in the Prime Minister's office says he routinely and randomly exchanges cups with other people attending the meeting or simply refuses to have any.

    The Prime Minister's car, although serviced by the Government Garages, CMED, is sent for a second opinion at a leading car company in Harare the moment it comes back.

    The Prime Minister has indeed been given a CIO escort from the Mugabe government, the ones who were in the car in front of his 4x4 when it was hit by the death truck from USAID. But, his head of security is still the same man he had when he was still in opposition.

    It is he, the head of security, who routinely changes the routes of the Prime Minister's cavalcade. Trips out of town are only truly revealed as they get into the cars to leave the house. There is also the matter of the additional security the Prime Minister has, from his own party days, who are being rejected for government service and having their training delayed in order to keep them away from Tsvangirai.

    The issue of State House was not out of any altruistic motive. It was a practical security consideration. After all, this House is right next door to some of the most elite fighting men Zimbabwe has, at the King George VI Barracks.

    It is but a short hop and skip from there to the dining rooms of State House. And with the army brass behaving the way they are behaving, it was not considered wise to move the Prime Minister into the Lion's Den like that.

    And another thing, I don't know why The Independent yesterday claimed that Mugabe also lives on the other side of the road, at Zimbabwe House.

    He does not. And he hasn't lived there for years. The dictator commutes daily from Helensvale, where he now lives in that notorious "Gracelands" House, a sprawling palace with a Blue Chinese Roof (for good luck, the Chinese say).

    Mugabe does not like Munhumutapa Building, the Presidential Office Complex, so much. It is said, with the deterioration in the mood of urbanites, especially, his security also thought it an easy target and hard to completely secure.

    Hence, you will notice that all of Mugabe's publicised meetings take place at Zimbabwe House. He uses that as an office now, having moved out all of his private property to Helensvale.

    So, yes, Tsvangirai did a wise thing in refusing to take the State House, but the motive force is more security than concern.

    So it appears there is paranoia in the Presidential Corridors of Munhumutapa Building. Hope it does not go too far, else we will find people running away from their own shadows before long.

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  • Nelson Chamisa Is Disemboweled By Mugabe
    These are the two men who have been humiliated by Mugabe in the last two days. Day before yesterday, it Tendai Biti who was forced to eat humble pie and live with Gideon Gono. Yesterday, it was Nelson Chamisa who was stripped of all the most important elements of his ministry


    There really is no other way to put it: Robert Mugabe today essentially disemboweled Nelson Chamisa, gutting his ministry into a shell and hiving off Telephone and cellphone companies and their regulatory bodies to a ZANU PF heavyweight minister.

    Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is being systematically cut down to size by President Robert Mugabe.

    Mugabe quietly announced the "redefining" of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, which Nelson Chamisa is in charge of. He sent the Secretary to the President and Cabinet (Mugabe is in charge of cabinet while Tsvangirai is in charge of the Council of Ministers), to tell the ministers how their turfs were now defined.

    You will recall that Chamisa clashed with Webster Shamu, the ZANU PF minister at the Ministry of Information and Publicity when both men tried to address workers at the cellphone company owned by government, NetOne.

    Immediately after this, Permanent Secretaries were also announced.

    Prime Minister Tsvangirai called a press conference at which he declared the appointments null and void. He also announced at the same press conference that he was going to set out the areas of contention in the ministries of communication. Tsvangirai also expressly said the government-owned parastatals would fall under Chamisa.

    In fact, Tsvangirai also announced that it was his job to define the job descriptions of cabinet ministers and said this is exactly what he was going to do.This, the Prime Minister has repeated on at least three separate occasions. 

    He did no such thing, obviously. Mugabe has once again asserted his authority over the Prime Minister. He himself decided to take the Department of Communications away from Nelson Chamisa, the MDC minister of Information and Communication Technology.

    In essence, by taking this bit away from him, Mugabe has taken TelOne, the phone company, Netone, the cellphone company and the regulating bodies for the communication industry out of the ambit of the MDC.

    Which means that Nelson Chamisa is now a minister in charge of shops that sell cellphones, phone shops and computer shops. Even the matter of the Internet has now been taken out of his hands.

    And no, Mugabe has not given the Department of Communications to Webster Shamu, the ZANU PF communications minister. It goes instead to a heavyweight in ZANU PF, Nicholas Goche, who was one of the ZANU PF negotiators in the talks that led to the formation of this government.

    Goche is the minister of Transport, Communication and Infrastructure Development. 

    Do you now understand that we have three ministers in charge of essentially the one industry. Each of them gets a US dollar salary, a Mercedes Benz, unlimited fuel allocation, an office, secretary and staff, all with their own running costs.

    Jobs were indeed created for the boys. But we wander....

    Back to this story, this disemboweling of Nelson Chamisa. It goes back again to the issue of control, power. That is what this government is preoccupied with while this country burns, while no water flows through taps, while cholera roams the rubbish-strewn streets of our cities like The Grim Reaper, while the health system collapses.

    Mugabe was never going to allow the instruments of eavesdropping, wiretapping and spying fall into the hands of the MDC. They are a junior partner and had to be put in their place.

    And all of a sudden, the Prime Minister is quiet. He did brief his spokesman, James Maridadi on the position of his office today, in case the media asked. That position is that, "there has to be give and take, in the spirit of inclusivity." You will almost exactly these words when the MDC justifies its capitulation yet again.

    This disemboweling of Nelson Chamisa is only a chapter in the book that is being written now as it is lived. There is still the little matter of Permanent Secretaries to come. And then some.

    That score now reads: Robert Mugabe 2 Morgan Tsvangirai 0

    With all this going on, the Prime Minister is satisfied enough with his role to want to make the arrangement permanent, making deals with Robert Mugabe to divide this country like their cake?

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  • The Shocking Deal Between Mugabe and Tsvangirai
    For the next parliamentary elections, the MDC-T and ZANU PF have agreed to split Zimbabwe in half as if it is their private property.

    According to this deal, revealed by impeccable sources, the MDC-T will field candidates in the the urban areas of Zimbabwe, with ZANU PF fielding candidates in the rural areas. The objective is to have yet another coalition government after the next elections, with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai ("or his nominee/successor) retaining the Pm post, while Mugabe or his successor/nominee retains the presidency of Zimbabwe.

    Just today, I have spent a good one hour on the phone with the Prime Minister's office trying to pin them down on this story.

    They refuse to confirm or deny it. Judge for yourself their response and tell me whether you do not smell a rat here. A very big rat.

    The response from the PM's office was as follows on phone: "Right now, we are fighting to smoothen relationships within this transitional government." That was their first line. When I kept pressing for an answer, I was then told:

    "The MDC will continue to exist, we are a separate party to ZANU PF, which will also continue to exist."

    I was looking for a yes or no answer and it never came. Instead, all I got was this slipperiness.

    Under these circumstances, I have no option but to conclude that the deal really was struck and, as my sources say, it is just waiting for an "opportune time" to be announced.

    All I can say is that, by agreeing to this deal, the MDC-T are the ones losing. You see, Mugabe knows that he has to write off the urban areas. He will never win there. His popularity with urbanites is ZERO and is likely to remain that way for some time. So Mugabe would never win anyway even if he ran in the cities and towns.

    The MDC-T, on the other hand, can indeed make inroads and win the rural areas. Their popularity there has been increasing (especially prior to the Inclusive government).

    By agreeing to this deal, they are throwing away their chance to win an outright majority and rule the country by themselves, all things being equal.

    Yes, I do understand that the MDC-T may have come to the conclusion that they will never be "allowed" to run the country by themselves (by the military and those phantom "hardliners" Mugabe speaks of), but they could have at least tried.

    Still, it appears as though the deal is done, especially considering the slipperiness of the PM's office on the issue today.

    By agreeing to remain in perpetual opposition on the basis that they will get the Premiership of the country, is the MDC not selling out the hopes of its supporters? And will those supporters accept it?

    I do know that the Prime Minister says that he is so popular within his party that he can sell them anything and they will fall in line with whatever he decides, but he may be biting off more than he can chew here.

    Time will tell, but there are also very strong indications now that this Inclusive government may actually last for more than two years, maybe as much as five years. Too many people within the government are giving this indication for it to be mere rumour.

    If that does indeed happen, then it will also be confirmation of this deal that they have struck. 

    At least now we know. But have these two parties considered that Zimbabwe is not their to carve out like a cake? There are other parties in the offing, not bound by this agreement at all. ZAPU has come back into its own (the PM apparently dismisses it, saying that Matabeleland "is mine" - that is how confident he is.)

    And what of the MDC-M, which apparently has been considered such an insignificant player that it is not part of these Nicodemus moves between Mugabe and Tsvangirai? What will they do with this party?

    I think we should all brace ourselves because the political landscape in Zimbabwe is about to get a lot more interesting.

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  • Mugabe 1: Tsvangirai: 0
    Soon after Morgan Tsvangirai "nullified" the appointment of Permanent Secretaries, I told you on this very blog of the meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai at which the dictator informed the Prime Minister that he was not going to fire Gono or the Attorney General, that Tomana guy.

    I was right, my detractors were wrong.

    Yesterday, Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti ate humble pie.

    Because, yesterday, Tendai Biti was forced to hold a press conference at which he declared that he was best friends with the Reserve Bank governor. Online newspapers, Tendai Biti said, were "awash with falsehoods about my relationship with the Central Bank Governor".

    The truth of the matter is what I told you on this blog. You will recall that I did inform you that Mugabe had told Tsvangirai that there was no reason for the government to fire Gideon Gono. I also informed you that Mugabe had said the two men must first work together and, if Gono was found to be insubordinate, then, and only then, would Mugabe think about firing the RBZ governor.

    The press conference yesterday was evidence of the truth of that story I gave you here. The two men are now "starting on a clean slate". Gideon Gono is not going anywhere.

    Mugabe wins again, is what this means.

    In the same story I am talking about, I also informed you that the Attorney General was not gonna go anywhere. Sure enough, a couple of days later, the AG was sworn in on the same day as the Prime Minister was sworn in as a non-constituency member of Parliament.

    Effectively, then, the issue of Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana is dead. Mugabe has triumphed. All the complaints we have been hearing from Morgan Tsvangirai about the need to "revisit" the appointments of the two men have now come to exactly nought.

    At the press conference yesterday, Gideon Gono was careful to say that Tendai Biti was his boss. Which falls in line with Mugabe's position to Tsvangirai that the only grounds on which the Governor could be fired would be if he proved insubordinate. 

    So he signalled yesterday that he would not go down that route and give Biti and Tsvangirai reason to demand his head from Mugabe.

    It is important here to note that Biti and Tsvangirai objected to Gono on the basis of his past actions. Biti publicly called for Gono to be "put before a firing squad" during the election campaign of March 2008.

    The MDC-T have always said that Gono used public funds to tilt the playing field in favour of ZANU PF, that he funded the horrific violence that surrounded the ill-fated presidential run-off election from which Tsvangirai eventually withdrew.

    Of course, we don't need to be reminded that, from day one, Morgan Tsvangirai has said that the "outstanding issues" in this government included the appointments of Gideon Gono and Tomana, the Attorney General. He was demanding that these appointments, made by Mugabe before Tsvangirai was sworn in, should be withdrawn.

    Nothing of the sort is about to happen.

    In other words, the scoreboard in that stand-off at the moment reads: 

    Mugabe: 1, Tsvangirai:0.

    Soon, we will get public confirmation of the fact the Attorney General is also not going anywhere and that Mugabe's "unilateral"  appointment of him stands and that the MDC has also climbed down on that one.

    So, for those western countries that met last week and demanded that a "credible team" be put at the Reserve Bank, they got their answer yesterday, the team that is at the RBZ stays and the donors and the MDC will have to live with that.

    The MDC, through the presence of Biti at that press conference yesterday, has signalled that it will indeed live with this.

    Which is, I guess, a slap in the face for the MDC's supposed allies in the west.

    The true impact of this is yet to be realised. But it is quite clear that the aid and donor money that Tsvangirai's government is looking for will certainly not be coming. Tsvangirai has signalled to the donors that he stands with Mugabe. Now it is up to the donors to announce whether they are happy with this and will help their man, Morgan Tsvangirai, who claimed during the March 2008 elections that he holds the keys to the unlocking of aid to Zimbabwe.

    Where are those keys now?

    Or have his western landlords changed the locks on him?

    We'll see.


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    And another thing, Mugabe told his ZANU PF Central Committee yesterday that he wants the MDC-T to be more vocal in calling for the lifting of sanctions. He is quoted in today's Herald as saying:

    "We want the voices of all against the sanctions, we want the voices of the MDC-T to be heard much more loudly against the sanctions."

    So Mugabe is certainly making Tsvangirai jump through hoops of fire. The PM has already called for the lifting of "restrictive measures" against Zimbabwe. But Mugabe now says this is not enough. The PM must do more.

    And he will. He has no choice now. As Mugabe said during his last address to his ZANU PF Central Committee:

    "We are firmly in the driving seat and we will not tolerate any nonsense from our new partners in government."

    And there's an end to it.

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  • Mugabe Tells Tsvangirai To "Mind His Own Business" On The Commonwealth
    Mugabe and Tsvangirai are looking in different directions on everything except the need to get money from the West to revive Zimbabwe's economy

    Dictator Robert Mugabe has told Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that he should forget about repairing relations with the British Commonwealth, from which Zimbabwe withdrew after it had been suspended for violation of human rights.

    I am reliably told that Mugabe reminded Tsvangirai that according to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, he, as Head of State, had sole authority when it comes to international agreements.

    Effectively, Mugabe was telling Tsvangirai to mind his own business and leave the matter of the membership of Zimbabwe in the Commonwealth to the Head of State. The dictator vowed that Zimbabwe will not return to the Commonwealth as long as he is still leading the country.

    Tsvangirai had brought up the subject in the context of "reintegrating" Zimbabwe into the international community, pointing out that there would be material advantages to Zimbabwe being a member of the Commonwealth.

    This raises the question of just what sort of "policy formulation authority" the Prime Minister has. Suggesting re-engaging the Commonwealth is certainly a policy initiative. But the President clearly thinks this is one of many areas where the Prime Minister's mandate does not apply.

    Mugabe apparently believes that going back to ask to be part of this group is tantamount to being colonised again. He especially objects to what he calls the "dictatorship of Britain" in the grouping of former colonies.

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  • Tortured So Hard They Have Spent A Month In Hospital - And They Are Still Not Free
    Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is seen in this file photo after he had beaten up by police while in custody. Worse treatment has been meted out to his personal assistant, who remains in detention under police guard at the Avenues Clinic, even as Tsvangirai "runs" government


    Those who know and have worked with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai will tell you that he adored Ghandi Mudzingwa, his former personal assistant.

    Mudzingwa abducted along Mutare Road in the Industrial Area of Msasa, Harare, in December last year only to surface in court days later, charged with banditry and terrorism together with a freelance photographer, Andrison Manyere and Chris Dhlamini, now has no hope of being released, despite intense lobbying by Morgan Tsvangirai.

    Mudzingwa and Dhlamini were tortured so hard while in prison that they have now spent more a month at the Avenues Clinic in Harare being treated for their injuries. They are still there.

    Yesterday, the High Court denied all of them bail, although it was granted weeks ago to Jestina Mukoko and others, including the mother and father of two-year old Nigel Mutemagau, who spent months at Chikurubi Maximum Prison with his parents, some of it in solitary confinement.

    Meantime, to show that nothing has really changed as a result of this Unity Government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, eight white farmers were arrested last week and appeared in court yesterday, where it was revealed that they had been severely beaten up by the police while in custody.

    The farmers are accused of kidnapping ZANU PF youths and assaulting them with bicycle chains. The police also claim that one of the kidnapped ZANU PF youths is still missing and may even have been murdered by the farmers.

    But these are not the reasons for their arrests. Instead, they were arrested for resisting the Tsvangirai government's attempts to finally evict them from their forcibly acquired farms.

    Amongst those arrested for this and in court yesterday is one of Zimbabwe's most succesful farmers, Digby Nesbitt. He is also owner of the world famous Nesbitt Castle Boutique Hotel in Bulawayo.

    Andrison Manyere, the freelance photographer charged with Gandi Mudzingwa, was refused permission to go to the clinic where his fellow prisoners have been for more than a month now. He remains the only "political prisoner" still at the notorious Chikurubi Maxium Security Prison.

    Question: what sort of torture sends a person to hospital for more than a month? And counting. We will not have a full answer until these men come out, but they have already revealed in court that it included electrocution of their private parts and horrific beatings.

    One of those who have now been freed on bail (the cases have not been dismissed), a 72 year old man, told of having a brick tied to his penis and being asked to jump up and down naked, with the brick attached.

    He also said that he had been locked in a deep freezer as part of the torture.

    The denial of bail to the three men yesterday signals the tone of this Inclusive government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. And it shows just how powerless the Prime Minister is. Mugabe is still in charge and vindictively pursuing MDC supporters.

    Even as I write this, there are MDC supporters who have been missing for months and whom the police say they have no information about. They are feared dead, because if they were still alive, they would have been brought to court as was done with Mudzingwa, Mukoko and the rest of the group that disappeared between August and December 2008.

    Still, Mugabe and Tsvangirai, with all this going on, believe that the world will come to Zimbabwe's aid.

    They are pressing ahead with efforts to send a team to Europe and America to ask these countries for money and for the lifting of sanctions and "restrictive measures."

    This is not likely to happen before Jesus comes back down to earth on a cloud and accompanied by a choir of whistling angels. Just yesterday, the German Ambassador to Zimbabwe told Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara that his country is not going to lift snactions until it was satisfied about the rule of law and "protection of BIPAs (Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements, which the Tsvangirai government has now said it would legal to violate)."

    Anyone who is putting faith in this government to turn the country around will obviously need to have their head examined. All things point to the fact that Zimbabwe will remain a pariah state for some time to come.

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  • Tsvangirai's Government Deals Another Blow To White Farmers
    Zimbabwean farmer Ben Freeth poses in court with injuries sustained from a beating he got at his farm for resisting the government's efforts to acquire it compulsorily

    The Inclusive government of Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe has announced that farms protected by Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements are not immune to compulsory acquisition.

    The announcement was made by the body that Tsvangirai said last week he had referred farmers' grievances to, JOMIC (Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee), which comprises officials from all three political parties in the Inclusive government.

    I told you a few days back that the "referring to JOMIC" that Tsvangirai spoke of was simply a way to get a hot potato out of his hands. And this prove it.

    Speaking in Victoria Falls, where the whole cabinet and Permanent Secretaries are living it up under the pretext of a "retreat" to strategise on the way forward for the economy, Professor Welshman Ncube, who is also minister of International Trade from the MDC-M and a member of JOMIC dropped this bombshell.

    He told the media that there was a mistaken belief amongst farmers and the general population that farms protected by agreements between nations, such as the Danish-owned dairy farm I showed here on this blog a few days ago, can not be "compulsorily acquired"

    They can be, he said. The only difference is that, unlike the other farms, government would have to pay full market value for them in foreign currency. For the other farmers not protected by BIPAs, government has been taking the farms without compensation, telling the owners to go and get their money from Britain, the former colonial master of Zimbabwe.

    This latest announcement by the Inclusive Government effectively means that Tsvangirai and Mutambara have endorsed the way Mugabe has been acquiring land. What they still object to is the fact that he is keeping people who are not producing on these farms.

    Mugabe says he agrees that non-producers should be kicked off the land.

    You remember that donor nations a week and a half ago asked for an end to the compulsory acquisition of land before they could assist Zimbabwe with aid. Other conditions had to do with political prisoners, cleaning up the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe by putting in a "credible team" there (meaning firing the current governor) etc etc.

    It does not look like Tsvangirai and Mugabe's new government is listening.

    It beggars belief that they are doing this now, and making this announcement now, when they are readying themselves to go to the West and ask for aid for the lifting of "restrictive measures" against Zimbabwe so that the country can access not only loans from the IMF and World Bank, but also investments from Western (especially American) companies that are now forbidden from dealing with Zimbabwe.

    I don't know whether they are just thick or perhaps it is just that they do not understand what they are doing.

    By going after BIPA farms, protected by a word of honour as well as contracts given to foreign governments, Tsvangirai is basically adopting Mugabe's "I don't care" attitude.

    It means we can forget about investments because this sends a message that no investment in Zimbabwe by foreigners is safe.

    What if Tsvangirai also joins Mugabe tomorrow in going after companies, having finished with the farms?

    This crisis of confidence is what has destroyed Zimbabwe. Do the two MDCs not understand this?

    And please, do not try and make this about MDC Mutambara because it is Welshamn Ncube who made the announcement.

    No.

    He is still just a minister who reports to Tsvangirai and can be censured by him if he speaks out of turn. His announcement was made with the full knowledge and support of the Prime Minister. You will not hear him condemn Ncube because this is his government's official policy now.

    It is sad because it confirms that there is no help coming to Zimbabwe. I think the Norwegians and Swedish and Danes who had started moving towards Zimbabwe will also now recoil in horror.

    This, I guess, is the change the MDC promised us. This is "A new Beginning, A New Zimbabwe" as their slogan during the campaign said?

    Sounds like Mugabe all over again to me.

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  • We Got An Award
    This Blog is extremely delighted to announce that we have been given an award, the Best Blog Thinker Award, from Mama Shujaa over at Mama Shujaa blog.

    As most of you reading will know, we normally don't do awards here and when we do accept an award, it is because there is meaning behind it. This one is one of those meaningful ones.

    We are quite honoured and grateful for this, the second award this blog has received in its short life. The first was when we were voted one of the Top Five Blogs For Amnesty Day by Reconstitution, based in the USA.

    The Best Blog Thinker Award we have been awarded by Mama Shujaa was created by B. J. Roan who says of the award:

    "This award acknowledges the values that every Blogger displays in their effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values with each message they write. Awards like this have been created with the intention of promoting community among Bloggers. It's a way to show appreciation and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

    I will now pass this award on to the following Bloggers: Kenyan Poet, a deep thinking and soul-nourishing blog out of Kenya, which is quite a vibrant blogging community.

    Transforming Zambian Leadership, an impressive Zambian blog that I find engaging in the way it continuously questions the status quo and presents suggestions and alternative ways to raise the level of political thinking in Africa and Zambia beyond the mundane.

    Afromusing, a blog that strongly advocates renewable energy, which happens to be one of my passions. I find Afromusing quite inspiring, with posts that highlight the best innovative ideas and developments coming out of Kenya and Africa.

    And of course, my friend SOLOMONSYDELLE at Nigerian Curiosity, who has also just won the Best Political Blog in the just-ended Nigerian Blog Awards. Nigerian Curiosity opens up Nigeria to the world with its incisive posts about developments within the country, the latest I found engaging being the efforts to rebrand Nigeria.

    Check them out and you will realise why I think so highly of them.

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  • The Three Men Who Run The Zimbabwe Government
    Not long ago, Dr Simba Makoni spoke about what he called the "classic Yes Minister style" of Zimbabwe's government.

    For those who do not know, Yes Minister is a British comedy set in Whitehall, the seat of the government of the United Kingdom. In the comedy, people like Sir Humphrey actually run government business, telling a minister what he can and can not do, getting up to all sorts of tricks to ensure that their agenda (which they say is the national agenda), carries the day.

    Dr Makoni mentioned the issue of speeches, for instance. When he took over at the Ministry of Finance, he found that his speeches were written for him by the civil servants. 

    Worse, these speeches would not be given to him until just before he got into his car to go to the function where they were to be delivered.

    To get around this, and being a fully technologically literate person, he asked for a computer to be put into his office. He also demanded that the computer be given Internet and intranet access. He wanted to ensure that communication within the ministry could be done via email instead of pieces of paper. 

    He also announced that he would be using his own Internet-based email, which the government can not hack into.

    This, remember, was the year 2000!

    After much resistance, it was done. 

    As for speeches, he started writing his own. Civil servants in his ministry took him to task about this, saying there were people who could write the stuff for him. He resisted.

    It is no exaggeration to say that as a result of the resistance to change in the civil service and their need to control the ministers, the clash with these functionaries contributed to the eventually departure of Dr Makoni from the government.

    You see, Mugabe uses the civil service to spy on his ministers, in addition to the usual spying on them done by the CIO, the Intelligence Organisation.

    Hence, the three most powerful men in government (as opposed to in the country) are:

    1. George Charamba: as the spokesman to Mugabe, he has immense influence with the man, especially since Mugabe is insulated from the public and does not interact or even remotely socialise with his ministers. The daily briefings he gets from Charamba and the opinion and advice that is shared between them has made Charamba Mugabe's ears and eyes on the administrative side of government.

    For the other eyes and ears functions, Mugabe has the Central Intelligence Organisation of course, although even these are out favour to an extent now.

    Charamba is really so powerful only because, working with Mugabe, it is understood that only Mugabe can fire him. Hence those in government, including cabinet ministers, see him as untouchable.

    2. Mariyawanda Nzuwa: As head of the Civil Service Commission, he approves all appointments below the Deputy Minister level. He is the one who drafts the original list of Permanent Secretaries and where they are assigned. He and George Charamba are the ones who drafted that list of Permanent Secretaries which Morgan Tsvangirai said was null and void.

    This issue is still to be settled and you will see in the end who is more powerful by just how many of Nzuwa and Charamba's original PermSecs are kept on in the new line up. Tsvangirai has told his staff that he is going to be "professional" and will even keep well known ZANU PF PermSecs in ministries run by the MDC if they are well qualified.

    3. Misheck Sibanda: As Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Sibanda (and before him Utete) has actually had a direct influence in decisions on which ministers Mugabe fires and which ones he keeps when he reshuffles. Apart from the ministries that Mugabe himself has an interest in, such as Women's Affairs, Agriculture and the old Ministry of Political Affairs as well as the Ministers of State he appoints within his office, all other recommendations were done by Sibanda, who then consulted Charamba before the list was presented to Mugabe for his final vetting.

    If there was someone on the list that Mugabe had a personal vendetta against, then the name would jump up at him and the fellow would be removed without question. All other "lesser" ministries sailed through.

    Sibanda was, therefore, heavily lobbied by ZANU PF politicians who wanted themselves or their favourites to be given jobs. This is how people like Bright Matonga ended in jobs that were too big for them - recommendations to Sibanda from ZANU PF politicians who were interested in "tribal balance".

    Apart from this procedure, Mugabe's only guidance, especially in the last ten years or so, has been to tell these men what sort of cabinet he wanted.

    So, he would quietly let be known that this time he wanted a "technocrat cabinet" and the President's Men would scour for suitable new faces. In the last "technocrat" cabinet, three names suggested by these men were removed by Mugabe himself, who said one of them had been a supporter of Forum, the opposition party of the early 1990s which was led by the retired First Black Chief Justice of Zimbabwe: Enoch Dumbutshena.

    Recently, after the formation of the Inclusive Government, these men have continued as though nothing has changed and Mugabe appears to be backing them, perhaps because they have gained his trust.

    They are still doing some damage, flexing their muscles.

    For instance, you will notice that James Maridadi is no longer quoted by the Herald, the government daily newspaper. In the first days of the GNU, the Herald referred to him as the Spokesman for The Prime Minister.

    It was Charamba personally who issued the order to The Herald that Maridadi was not the spokesman for the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Instead, he is Tsvangirai's  spokesman at the party level, so he was to be quoted only when Tsvangirai was speaking on matter to do with his party and not the government.

    Hence, effectively, Maridadi has been banned from the pages of the Herald. Look carefully and you will see that the paper now refers to the "Prime Minister's Office", as in "The Prime Minister's Office confirmed...", without mentioning any names.

    Misheck Sibanda is the man whom Mugabe uses as a sounding board to gauge the effectiveness of his ministers. Sibanda's reports are taken seriously by Mugabe, who is very much a protocol person, schooled in the old English style where rules are rules and must be followed even if they are silly.

    In other words, the Yes Minister school of government....

    Of the three, Nzuwa's powers are perhaps the most sweeping of all, considering the breadth of senior government appointments he controls.

    In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say Nzuwa can either make or break the career of a minister, especially the lesser ones (the big fish he would not even dream of touching are Emmerson Mnangagwa, Sydney Sekeramayi, Joice Mujuru, VP Msika, Didymus Mutasa, Joseph Made and, lately added to the list, Kembo Mohadi.  All others are fair game to him.

    Morgan Tsvangirai realises this, and it sunk home for him on the day he was summoned to explain himself at Sate House after he issued that statement saying the appointment of Permanent Secretaries was null and void.

    He walked back into his Munhumutapa Offices the next day shaking his head, telling his staff that Mugabe was not in control of government.

    Why?

    Because Mugabe's had apparently asked Tsvangirai if he had not had input into the selection of PermSecs. He further went on to say, " Did I sign those appointment papers? I can not remember, I signed so many papers yesterday, these young men brought me so many papers...."

    Which means that the career of PermSecs were being decided by these three men in the name of Mugabe. If Tsvangirai had not objected, they would have gotten away with it, the new PermSecs would have known to whom they owed their allegiance and their ministers would have been simply figure heads, without any power over the civil servants in their ministries.

    And by the way, the reason this PermSec thing is being drawn out like this is because Mugabe said to Tsvangirai, and here I am quoting a source within the PM's office:

    "Prime Minister, what you should do is take the CVs of these people and look at them, see which ones are not qualified and then lets get back together and hear your thinking."

    Today, Monday 06 April 2009, the PM and the Prez will meet at State House and Tsvangirai is supposed to point out the ones on the list of PermSecs whom he believes are not qualified. If Mugabe agrees, then they will go. If not they will stay.

    Tsvangirai was not given the option to get rid of them on political grounds, because Mugabe maintains that his is a professional civil service. He still claims that no party interests inform their decisions, only national interests.

    So, in essence, Tsvangirai can not fire any of them on the grounds that they are "ZANU PF" because he would not be able to prove it. As you know, our PermSecs do not make political speeches. The only time they make public speeches would be when they have to read a policy speech on behalf of a busy minister.

    Most times, the minister is told what he would have said at such gatherings later, because he would not have written speech at all.

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  • Another Tsvangirai Family Accidental Death
    Shaun Tsvangirai, grandson to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, drowned in the swimming pool at the PM's home in Strathaven. Shaun was being looked after by the PM and his wife


    The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, lost a grandchild on Friday, who drowned in the swimming pool at the PMs residence in Strathaven, a middle-density surburb in Harare.

    The child who drowned is understood to be Shaun Tsvangirai, son of Garikayi Tsvangirai, himself a son of the Prime Minister. Garikayi had not been living with his parents in Strathaven but had instead left his two children in the care of their grandmother for quite some time now.

    Around the time of the death of Mrs Tsvangirai, I was told that Garikayi had actually been kicked out of the home together with his wife, after his parents objected to the union (the wife had apparently at one time left Garikayi for his friend before coming back to him. This was the source of discord, I was told.) At the time, I did not think the story worth sharing at all, with the family still mourning the loss of their mother.

    It is tempting to think that, in the absence of the grandmother who dotted on them, the children wandered and one of them ended up drowning in the swimming pool. The Prime Minister rushed back to Harare from the Victoria Falls, where he was attending the ministerial retreat.

    The retreat had itself been postponed due to the death of Mrs Tsvangirai in a car accident.

    The Prime Minister was very fond of his grandchild as can be seen in the photo above.

    Our condolences are with him, Garikayi and the rest of the Tsvangirai family. The people of Zimbabwe, I am sure, share this pain with the Prime Minister who, it seems, is getting more than his fair share of sorrows just as he reaches the pinnacle of success in his professional life.

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  • "Zimbabwe Does Not Need The Diaspora"
    This photo was taken last week and shows the shelves full once again. Some say this is the extent to which the diaspora can help and that the capital projects needed to restart production and an economic turnaround are beyond them.



    We were sitting at a well-known local hotel this evening when one of the guys brought up the subject of the article on the Zimbabwe diaspora, which is in today's Zimbabwe Independent.

    Some of us at the table had not read the piece, so a copy was brought out and the bone of contention revealed. Jess read it out.

    By the time she was half way through, it appeared as though everybody in the room was now standing around our table. 

    Nothing I have seen in recent memory compares to what then ensued just in terms of the passions that were unleashed.

    One group said the Zimbabwe diaspora is not really a force to reckon with and it would be a mistake to single them out for any special expectation with regards to the economic turnaround.

    The argument says they have been remiting money all along but that money has failed to make a dent in Zimbabwe's problems. As one guy who says he works at a car dealership said, "It's sustenance money", meaning that the contribution from the diaspora is enough only to meet consumptive needs.

    He points out that right now, this is what Biti faces: just enough money to keep the Zimbabwe government ticking over, but absolutely, woefully inadequate for the heavy capital expenditure that Zimbabwe needs to get back on her feet.

    On the other hand, another group contented that the diaspora money is significant. Without it, they said, the country would have collapsed completely, but the diaspora helped ensure that petrol, diesel and other imports continued to trickle into Zimbabwe, preventing a complete meltdown.

    What is needed, they argued, is simply to organise and channel those efforts, perhaps bring together the different groups and encourage them to set up a single, well-capitalised company that could then be a viable  entity even on a regional scale.

    As most of you reading this know, I am totally against the idea of a government playing around with the markets, let alone playing God with them, creating behemoths that would be breeding grounds for favour-currying, corruption and greed.

    Government has no business doing business, full stop.

    Still, we have chosen to live by the tyranny of the majority, otherwise known as democracy, so the voice of the many would carry the day in the end.

    I am sorry to admit that I did leave before the conversation was concluded, I had an errand to run. But still, it was an engaging enough conversation that just I wanted to share it and hear what the people out there think. It is time for the majority to exercise its tyrannical rights!!

    So, of the two positions, which would you take? Can Zimbabwe not do with its diaspora if it is to achieve an economic turnaround? And, more importantly, why?

    I hope we will not see anything like the debate we see now around STERP, where people simply have blind faith in the thing yet fail to answer a simple question: name at least three policy measures proposed by STERP that would have an impact on job creation and infrastructural rehabilitation. Your answer must not include the words West, Aid, Help, Donor(s), IMF or World Bank. That is not policy. It's called begging.

    *****************************

    And a bit of a brain teaser: what exact phrase would sound inspiring if said by Winston Churchill, but chilling when said by Robert Mugabe? Answer: "We shall never surrender."

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  • Showing Mugabe The Door: Morgan Tsvangirai's New Strategy
    There are two things that have been making it impossible for Robert Mugabe to simply resign, bugger off into the sunset and leave us all alone.

    People forget that Mugabe is an example of what disaster can ensure when an idealist with the wrong ideas gets some power. For, no doubt about it, Mugabe is an idealist. The only problem is that the vision he has is outdated, outmoded and utterly destructive to the spirit of the 21st century.

    Because Mugabe is an idealist, he actually sees no problem with suffering for a "cause". Hence, as Zimbabwe melted under his watch, he castigated his countrymen at rally after rally in Zimbabwe. One time, he told a crowd that Zimbabweans should not be so fickle that "if you have no salt, you say oh its the end of the world, I'd do anything to get that salt."

    There was, in other words, nothing wrong for him in Zimbabweans suffering unto death for the sake of his big cause: returning land to blacks, taking it away from white owners. He is so idealistic about this that he considers failure to implement this transfer would negate everything he has fought for and lived for all his life.

    This is one thing that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai realised in his early meeting with Robert Mugabe. One of these meetings took place at the Rainbow Towers in Harare, where the two men sat and had a private lunch together soon after signing the GPA in September 2008.

    Tsvangirai told a reporter a couple of weeks later that he had been surprised to realise that Mugabe "actually believes what he says..." Meaning that the Prime Minister "realised" that Mugabe was "not politicking" when he pronounced his "never, never, never" speeches.

    He believes that the MDC is a tool for the former colonisers to get back into Zimbabwe through the back door. Clearly, if he was sincere in believing this, the Prime Minister had to find a way to disabuse him of this notion, to demonstrate to him that the MDC was not only patriotic to the country of Zimbabwe, but that they were also patriotic to the idea that is Zimbabwe.....basically Mugabe's obssesion with "total independence" on the economic to add to the political independence Zimbabwe got in 1980.

    The second thing that has made it impossible for Mugabe to go is that he really was never going to agree to go out in disgrace. This is why he forlornly fought the tide of inflation and economic meltdown, social and infrastructural decay, hoping to turn it around and "prove he could do it", then leave with his some vestige of honour.

    With a crumbling economy and a generally destroyed country, Mugabe is not the type to throw in the towel and say someone else may have other ideas. He will seek to regain the upper hand with the economy so that people do not say that he "left his country in ruins."

    Tsvangirai has realised this as well. And I say this with some authority. It is the realisation of these two things that have apparently informed the Prime Minister's new strategy with Mugabe.

    By giving him his due, insisting as Tsvangirai does, that journalists refer to Mugabe as President Mugabe, telling the west to leave him alone because he is not the problem, addressing him as "Father" even in their one on one meetings, the Prime Minister  is directly seeking to give Mugabe back his dignity.

    Doing so would mean half the job done.

    Should there then be success on the economic front, Tsvangirai is certain that Mugabe would then be more amenable to retiring, knowing that he would do so with applause, and not jeers, ringing in his ears.

    There is certainly some sense to this strategy. But then again, it is based on, at best, the most accomplished study of the intractable subject called Mugabe. It could succeed. If, and only if, the reading of Mugabe is correct, by making sure that, in his retirement, he would believe that he has nothing to lose.

    Like I said today to my conversationalist from the Prime Minister's office: it is exactly like what one would do if one had a madman in the house and the madman was refusing to leave.

    You would promise the most ridiculous things, agree with his most ridiculous statements and so on, just as long as doing so keeps him moving towards the door.

    This is where we are. And certainly I, for one, have a different outlook on what it is that the Prime Minister is trying to do.

    I still protest, though, about the quality of the ministers he has given us and their failure to be more imaginative than ZANU PF in strategy for the revival of the economy.

    And I am still disgusted that there is so much sanctioning of greed by the MDC in government

    All the same, at least we all know now that there is method to the pally-pally madness. And we wish the Prime Minister well as he throws the old dog a bone.

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  • We Have Adopted Mugabe's Version of Land Reform , says Morgan Tsvangirai
    This was two weeks ago in Zimbabwe and the pic shows Danish dairy farmer Ajs Kirk showing Danish Minister for International Cooperation Ulla Tornaes around his farm. The minister was in Zimbabwe for talks with the government of Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe


    The desertion of white commercial farmers by the MDC was completed yesterday by the Prime Minister's announcement that "there is a process on land reform we have to follow."

    What is clear now is that this process is the process started by ZANU PF, which is what the MDC now say is official government policy and should be followed.

    In the last seven days, it has been very clear that this was the direction the Tsvangirai-led government was now adopting.

    Mugabe himself was the first to speak, telling the visiting Norwegian development minister last week that there were no farm invasions in Zimbabwe now, but that there were people whose farms have been designated and who are refusing to move off those farms.

    The Norwegian minister seemed to accept this.

    Then, at the weekend, we got our first sign that the MDC wing of government has also bought this and had now adopted it as the official government position.

    Welshman Ncube told the SADC summit in Swaziland that very same story: there are no new farm invasions, just some people whose land has been taken and who are refusing to leave their farms to allow the new owners to move in.

    And now this, from Prime Minister Tsvangirai himself. In fact, the Prime Minister signalled just how insignificant the whole issue is to him when he said he had referred the matter to the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC), a body set up to arbitrate disputes between the parties to the agreement.

    The curious thing is that JOMIC should not be dealing with this issue at all, because it only comes in if there is a disagreement between the parties.

    It is clear now that there is no disagreement. The Prime Minister says they will follow the official government position because it is "orderly". 

    Having said the continuing farm invasions must stop and that he will arrest those doing this, Tsvangirai has apparently had it explained to him by Mugabe and now understands that it was all just a big misunderstanding.

    Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC have also dodged the question asked of them by the Commercial Farmers' Union regarding where they stand on the SADC Tribunal ruling, which allowed the white farmers to remain on their properties and reversed Mugabe's acquisition orders.

    He did not answer directly, of course, as the statement above shows. But he did answer. By referring the matter to JOMIC, all he wants is to get the whole thing out of his way.

    So what is JOMIC likely to do?

    Kick the military brass off their farms? Forbid Edna Madzongwe, President of the Zimbabwe Senate, no less, to take over the farm she is currently fighting for against one of the SADC Tribunal farmers?

    You see this happening?

    Well, if you do, perhaps you can also tell us where we might watch pigs flying.

    JOMIC will almost certainly simply confirm the position of government: Those who have been given acquisition orders should vacate the farms and let the new owners move in.

    End of story.

    Tsvangirai's statement was a response to the Western nations (17 of them)  who met in Washington and demanded more reforms before they could assist the government of Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

    "This country has embarked on a number of reforms - the constitutional process, legislative reforms, economic reforms, media reforms....I don't know what other reforms they are talking about," the Prime Ministe said.  So, in other words, the West are talking nonsense, then.

    Amongst the West's demands, land reform was mentioned. This statement from Tsvangirai is a response to that demand.

    Question: What on earth has got into the Prime Minister? "Media reforms"? Which ones? The fact that the Herald now calls the Prime Minister Comrade does not qualify as a form of Media Reform.

    Continued defiance of the courts by the Attorney General is not reform.

    Begging for donor money in order to finance parastatals that are themselves staffed to the gills with ZANU PF appointees does not qualify as a form of Economic Reform.

    The fact that the Prime Minister was allowed to swear in additional, illegal (according to their own Global Political Agreement -GPA), senators and appoint illegal Ministers of State in his office does not qualify as a form of Legislative Reform.

    This government has done nothing about AIPPA, and it's evil twin, POSA, two of the most despicable assaults ever passed against freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

    This government has done nothing about putting a plan in place to revive the economy and are implementing the They Do Thega economic theory - throw money at the problems and hope they go away.

    South Africa is giving us US$50 million for state owned companies, we are told.  Why is the MDC not selling off stakes in Air Zimbabwe, National Railways, NOCZIM, TelOne etc in order to raise the finance needed to turn these companies around?

    They enjoy begging while they sit on a gold chair, is that it?

    It is straightforward really. Sell or part-sell the companies, and then give the management contract to the new shareholders. Success is guaranteed with this route as opposed to the MDC/ZANU PF plan of throwing money at these parastatals while ZANU PF appointees who ran them into the ground are still at the helm.

    But we digress: Everybody now knows where they stand within and outside Zimbabwe. The farmers should now be clear that Tsvangirai is in no position to give them back their farms.

    They should also now be aware, as announced by Tsvangirai yesterday, that JOMIC has now been tasked with kicking the white farmers off the farms.

    The West has its answer, as does Morgan Tsvangirai the West's answer. Bottom line: You can now write off the West in terms of assistance to Mugabe.

    The exasperation is probably going to explode in about two weeks time, the time frame within which SADC said member countries must come forward with pledges for Zimbabwe and lobby the West for aid.

    Nothing much will come from all this, of course. And then, and then.......you will see the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and the rest of the MDC publicly ape their new-found best friend and "father", Mugabe.

    They have already started shouting at the West. They will just get more direct and louder.

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  • Mugabe In Opposition
    Villagers such as these seen here being given treated mosquito nets  in Gutu, rural Zimbabwe, are herded to the meeting place by ZANU PF activists, working with chiefs or against them if need be, and they are told that these things are brought to them and made possible by Mugabe


    An amazing thing is happening here in Zimbabwe.

    When Morgan Tsvangirai went into government, he said he was going in there to continue the politics of opposition, to fight from within. 

    I pointed out at the time that Mugabe had handed him a stink bomb, basically, by putting the Prime Minister in charge of policy formulation and implementation, meaning he would not be able to fulfil the role he set up when he announced the decision to join Mugabe in government.

    He could not go into government to oppose policies he was charged with formulating and implementing.

    Well, the amazing thing at the moment is that Mugabe is now using the state media, which he still controls, despite the GNU and the presence of a Deputy Minister from the MDC in that Information ministry, to act like the opposition and to campaign against the MDC.

    The dictator's side of the government is being sly, praising Tsvangirai to his face and yet at the same time, de-campaigning him on issues using the state media.

    On the 8 o'clock news on state radio last night, the newsreader and reporters went to town interviewing residents of Glen Norah, Lusaka in Highfields, Glen View, Budiriro and other townships.

    With a faked pain in their voices, both residents and reporters told stories of raw sewage flowing in the streets of Highfields, running into the market where ladies sell vegetables and other wares.

    They spoke of a city council that is collecting very high rates and yet is not able to restore water into people's taps, which is why Glen Norah, Highfields and Glen View, amongst many other townships, has had no water for some weeks now.

    They wailed that the roads are still potholed. They cried that cholera is rearing its ugly head again because of the turned-off taps and the flowing raw sewage.

    These are things I have spoken about plenty of times here on this blog, but Mugabe's party is now highlighting them and playing them up because the MDC is in charge of these things, since they have crushing majorities in the City Councils.

    At the same time, Emmerson Mnangagwa is now being given HUGE prominence on state television. He is everywhere, addressing appropriately awed villagers as he did in the Midlands recently, where he promised manna from heaven because the province had given Mugabe "more MPs than any other province in Zimbabwe." So the vote buying starts....

    Oppah Muchinguri who, for a long time now, has had to shoulder the burden in Zimbabwe of being widely, very widely rumoured to be Mugabe's girlfriend or "small house", was also on the news bulletin.

    The former minister was reported to have announced that she will now restart those women empowerment projects that made Mugabe unassailable at one time with the women's vote. She is promising them money to start all sorts of small businesses as groups.

    We know Mugabe and ZANU PF can do it, using state resources. That, after all was what Mugabe used the old Ministry of Women's Affairs for, using government money to dish out to his party's  Women's League for projects, cooperatives and subsidised agricultural inputs.

    The odd thing about this is that, by hiving off the policy formulation and implementation to the MDC, ZANU PF is now left free to start campaigning, without having to answer any questions about their abysmal record in office.

    This is largely because the MDC appears to be asleep at the wheel. Since they discovered that Mugabe was their long-lost father, they are loathe to criticise him at all. They are quiet as ZANU PF picks holes in their service delivery and points out all their "failures" so far without actually being directly confrontational like they were during the old days.

    Meantime, as the Mail and Guardian reported a few days ago, Tsvangirai is concentrating on sprucing up Mugabe's image: the paper says at one press conference, after a reporter asked Tsvangirai how he could "trust Mugabe", Tsvangirai shot back: "It's President Mugabe", putting emphasis on the Presidential title.

    Mugabe's aim with this strategy: to cast enough doubt about the MDC's ability to lead to be able to at least disenchant MDC voters or win them over (dream on, I say). Still, Mugabe sits there and sniggers as the MDC fights his demons for him while he de-campaigns them subtly but unmistakably.

    What he has managed to achieve is to remain in power, give responsibility to the MDC (it is now reliably confirmed that Mugabe actually hopes the MDC gets nothing from its partners in the west, which will lead to MDC failure to deliver and, hence, defeat at the next election. Mugabe has already said quite openly that the next elections will be one in which ZANU PF will have an MDC record in government to campaign against.") and still find room to turn on his partners in government because the onus to deliver services is no longer on ZANU PF but on the MDC.

    It is a peculiar situation. Make no mistake about it, Mugabe is at his evil best when he is cornered. And he was cornered before the MDC decided to rescue him by going into government without thinking it through. He still feels cornered and this is his way of fighting his way out of that corner.

    But, you really have to be here to see the way the roles are slowly, imperceptibly being reversed. By the time the MDC wakes up, I fear it may be too late. The song will be "We gave them the chance to run government and they failed......"

    This dictator is getting away with more than his fair share of luck, I think. But the MDC, by folding its hands and pursuing power, positions and oneupmanship, is entirely missing the point.

    Of course they never listen to advice like this, so we can expect to tragedy to play itself out.

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  • Britain, America and The West Dump MDC
    SADC Heads of State pose for a group photograph yesterday at their summit in Swaziland, where they once again told Zimbabwe they can help financially and can only try and lobby the west to lift sanctions. Prof Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti of the MDC said at the meeting that "the sanctions have had an effect on the economy". The Heads of State have pledged to specifically target the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act in the United States, lobbying for it to be repealed.

    The MDC has now effectively admitted that it has been cut loose by its friends and allies in the West and has to instead seek the intercession of Zimbabwe's neighbours to talk to its former allies in the West about helping the limping Inclusive government.

    Yesterday, Tendai Biti, the MDC Minister of Finance in this Inclusive Zimbabwean government, together with Robert Mugabe and Prof Welshman Ncube, asked the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State to intercede on Zimbabwe's behalf with Britain, America and other rich nations.

    SADC itself repeated at the same meeting that they can not give Zimbabwe any money, as had been hoped for by Tendai Biti. Of all the SADC countries, South Africa is the only one that has stumped up some cash - they pledged US$30 million, to be disbursed in monthly US$10 million tranches over three months.

    This is not even enough to cover the government wage bill, which stands at about US$50 million a month when you factor in allowances. Salaries themselves alone need US$30 million a month.

    Interestingly, though, Biti adopted Mugabe's and ZANU PF language this week, after "touring banks" according to the government newspaper, The Herald.

    Biti told the state-owned paper that he is "aware of saboteurs who want the Inclusive government to fail" because they are questioning whether the government can sustain the payment of foreign currency salaries.

    It was Mugabe who said during his birthday interview that he did not think the payment of salaries in foreign currency for the civil service was sustainable because " we do not have the money."

    So there is one saboteur right there.

    But Biti also shoulders the blame because of his alarmist talk that the Treasury coffers are "empty". He carries blame for his statements warning of "chaos" unless the donor countries give him money to pay the salaries of this bloated government.

    I feel sorry for the man and for the MDC in particular, because they are clearly in over their heads on this issue.

    Biti is perhaps still learning that his words now carry a lot of weight as Minister of Finance. He is no longer an opposition politician whose words have no impact on the running of the country and he must realise this and start to work accordingly.

    Still, even after those dire warning, except for the US$30 million from South Africa (enough for a month's salary bill), no other southern African country came up with any funds.

    Even Botswana, the MDC friend in the region, appears to also be dumping the Inclusive government. They did not pledge anything. Namibia said it will continue working with the Zimbabwe Power utility, ZESA, to refurbish Hwange Power station. 

    And that is it.

    The bottom line appears to be that the West, the people with the "deep pockets", as Biti called them at the summit in Swaziland yesterday, are keeping their money deep in their pockets.

    Was it not the MDC that always insisted that there must be good governance before aid is given to Zimbabwe. That good governance does only mean doing what the MDC wants, which is what the opposition thought before they joined government.

    Good governance also means not buying luxury cars when taps are dry because water treatment chemicals can not be bought.

    Good governance means setting priorities right, deciding whether it is better to bloat a government by providing "jobs for the boys" when there is no money to pay those "boys".

    Good governance means coming up with workable policies to turn the economy around and not simply announcing an "it will alright on the night" STERP document, which is bereft of any policy except begging for money.

    Good governance means demonstrating fiscal responsibility, deciding what is more urgent, furniture for minster's offices or US$1.5million to refurbish Harare Hospital (this is sum that Morgan Tsvangirai said was needed to get the hospital in top condition).

    In effect, the West have dumped the MDC because the party has failed to demonstrate, just demonstrate, that its presence in the corridors of power has resulted in a shifting of priorities.

    It is unlikely that SADC will succeed in garnering the aid that they have undertaken to demand from the west. Britain and American and the IMF and the Word Bank are not amenable and no one can force them.

    Their position is still the same: they do not see any meaningful change in the way the affairs of the country are being run and they are not keen to part with their money under these circumstances.

    With Biti cutting away all the infrastructure development provisions in the budget and leaving only consumptive budget provisions in his "hunter-gatherer" economy as he himself has insultingly called his new regime, there is no policy in place to stimulate growth of the economy from within.

    Their hopes were pinned on others giving them money to spend on salaries and also money to start production in Zimbabwe.

    South Africa, by giving away the insulting sums of US$10 million, is only looking after its own interests. As long as Zimbabwe does not have a manufacturing sector, South African companies have a dollarised market in Zimbabwe that will give them even more money and grow the South African economy even more.

    Meanwhile, dumped by the West, the MDC can only flounder, together with its new best friend, ZANU PF.

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  • Tsvangirai/Mnangagwa Meetings And My Call From "The President's Office"
    Most of you reading this blog know that you can not mistake a call from "The President's Office". Yes, it is that unique number, the one with five zeroes in it (and it is a land line). The presidential switchboard numbers, as you will know, have 7 digits where most others in Harare have six.

    Well, I was extremely surprised at about 3 p.m. today to get a call from that number and even more surprised that the caller seemed keen to "clear the air" about the meetings I reported on yesterday between Tsvangirai and Mnangagwa.

    To start with, I was surprised that the caller referred to "the article you wrote in the Zimbabwean". I did not. I have never written for The Zimbabwean in my life, ever. I checked it out later and it turns out the article was taken from this blog by an online newspaper called The Zimbabwe Mail. The Zimbabwean then took the same article from the Zimbabwe Mail.

    This is now a familiar story with my articles. I must say that I have personally given permission to The Zimbabwe Mail to use my articles on condition they credit the source and provide a link to this blog within that story, as is normal ethical practice in the online industry. 

    Other "publications" on the Internet are also now so obsessed with this blog that, normally , within an hour of me publishing anything here, they would have stolen it and put it on their websites. I thought I would clear the air on that and tell you that it is only The Zimbabwe Mail who use my posts here with permission.

    The Zimbabwean did nothing wrong in picking the article up from The Zimbabwe Mail, together with the credits to source at the bottom of it.

    Anyway, my caller today puzzled me greatly because I was not sure what he was trying to achieve. He claimed that he wanted to give me "context", which is surprising because the President's Office does not bother itself with newspaper stories, let alone bloggers.

    Whatever the case, the person at the other end, who I would have cut off as a wacko were it not for the number reflected on my screen, claims that I "missed the true significance" of the story that was given to me about the meeting between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence.

    He says the true story is not about Mugabe's reaction and that I was "supposed" to look into the fact that the two men, Tsvangirai and Mnangagwa, are both from the same ethnic group (Karanga). This, apparently, is where the true significance of the story lies.

    "How do you know that it was not His Excellency himself who asked Mnangagwa to speak to Tsvangirai as a home boy? No matter what happens in the future, the president knows that if Mnangagwa is a big player in the politics of tomorrow, then the Minister of Defence would always safeguard the interests of not the president, but also the liberation war?"

    What my caller was insinuating, basically, is that the president was using the ethnic bond between the two men to sound out the future, to see whether his "legacy" would be protected once he leaves the national stage.

    What I found disconcerting was this caller's emphasis on ethnicity. For instance, he claimed that "the two people who have mastered African tribal politics in post-colonial Africa are Robert Mugabe and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya."

    It is disconcerting for me because, I have never, ever thought in terms of tribal politics and I really do not think that such politics has a place in the 21st century.

    Still, the mentality seems strong enough and I am not sure whether MorganTsvangirai would want to perpetuate such divisive politics. I have never seen him as a tribal politician, which is a hallmark of ZANU PF power games.

    Which means I doubt very much that the PM would be swayed by ethnic considerations in his decisions. I could be wrong, but I hope I am not.

    But the call puzzled me because I can not see what it was trying to achieve really. A colleague in our office pointed out to me that the PM is now working from the Presidential Office Complex and that the call could easily have been made by one of his own as opposed to one of Mugabe's men.

    Even then, I still can not see the point it.

    So I am going to do an unusual thing here: There are three readers of this blog who have, in my experience of exchanges with them, proved astute analysers of events and I would ask that they perhaps give their thoughts. 

    So step forward, Mr Mutota, Thokozile and Oliver (I will not give the last name, cause I am not sure he wants to be identified, but you know who you are and I have even made an article out of one of your email comments to me).

    Do any of you guys see anything in this that I am missing? I would really really appreciate those incisive and insightful analysis from you right now. And, of course, anyone else who believes I may be missing something here.

    The story was straightforward to me before that accursed call came through!!!

    P.S. By the way, I am failing to access my blog to post new stories today, must be the internet connection again. So to post this article, I have used a very convenient feature in Wiindows Vista, where you can compose your article in MS Word and, as long as you have some form of internet connection, you then "send" your post to your blog by putting in your Google user name and password into the Windows Vista dialogue box.

    This explains why this post has no pictures in it, I have not figured out how to do that yet!! And, although Windows Vista tells me my ppost has been published, I have no way of seeing it on my own blog until the connections improve enough for me to see my Blogspot blog.

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  • Zimbabwe Truth Commission: We're Proved Right Yet Again!
    These are the remains of an MDC polling Agent, who was abducted and murdered by Mugabe's activists during the June 2008 run-off election. The picture was released by the MDC after his body was discovered on the outskirts of a Harare suburb weeks later. It is crimes and violence like this that the Prime Minister's Office now confirms will be forgiven by the envisaged Truth Commission, which will be kicked off in Bulawayo in April this year.


    This blog has now been proved right yet again and this time it is on the envisaged Zimbabwe Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Morgan Tsvangirai prefers the title Truth and National Healing Commission).

    Gorden Moyo, Minister of State in Prime Minister Tsvangirai's office, has confirmed to the Standard that Zimbabwe is to hold a "summit" in April in Bulawayo with other stakeholders in order to get a way forward on this process.

    I told you about all this in my scoop entitled "Zimbabwe To Get Truth Commission", which was published on this blog last month, on 23 February, to be precise.

    As I told you in that article, Mugabe has refused to include the Matabeleland Massacres of the 1980s in this process, telling the PM that Gukurahundi had "nothing to do with the MDC" and Tsvangirai has agreed to this. 

    The PM is obviously trying to make up for this betrayal of Matabeleland by holding the workshop in Bulawayo, the capital city of the Matabeleland region.

    Interesting to see is the fact that my sources were also very accurate with regards to the fact that Mugabe has told Tsvangirai that Gukurahundi has nothing to do with the MDC. Hence, in the announcement made by Minister Gorden Moyo in The Standard today, the paper says the planned summit in Bulawayo will "explore ways of reconciling Zimbabweans divided by almost a decade of political".

    This clearly rules out Gukurahundi. The focus will be on the violence meted out since the formation of the MDC. Mugabe has argued that when he joined hands with Joshua Nkomo in 1987, that ended the matter of Gukurahundi.

    But even this "consultation" set for April is also a sham. Mugabe says on matters like this, "guided democracy is best."

    What this means is that the Conference in April is simply for show. Gorden Moyo says the report from that Summit will be submitted to the Council of Ministers, chaired by Tsvangirai. This Council will, in turn, then submit its recommendations to Cabinet.

    Effectively, then, the final format of this Truth Commission will be decided by Mugabe, who chairs cabinet. Because of his "guided democracy" belief, you can expect that this Commission will only take the form that Mugabe wants it to take.

    As most of you know, no one has ever been prosecuted for the massacres of Gukurahundi and Mugabe wants the same to happen with the violence around the MDC, such as the one in the photo above.

    There are some within MDC who are opposed to this "impunity" but Tsvangirai has such mastery over the MDC that his agreement with Mugabe will ensure that their voice never carries the day.

    In effect therefore, this proposed Truth Commission is going to simply paper over the cracks. It is disappointing only because by papering over the issue instead of bringing closure to it, Mugabe and Tsvangirai will simply be handing a powder keg to future generation. The issues of Gukurahundi and the violence meted out to opposition supporters is bound to explode in the faces of future leaders of Zimbabwe.

    Mugabe is reviled in Matabeleland and can never hope to win a majority there because Gukurahundi was never fully dealt with to bring closure for the people of the region. This time, he and Tsvangirai will repeat the same mistake and leave simmering hatred and resentment to be sorted out later by future leaders.

    Still, I thought I would bring it to your attention that yest another scoop from this blog has now been proved correct.

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  • Mugabe Goes Ballistic Over Tsvangirai, Mnangagwa Secret Meetings
    President Robert Mugabe "went ballistic" on Saturday when he found out Morgan Tsvangirai and Emmerson Mnangagwa have secretly  met up to six times since the MDC leader became Prime Minister.

    The Prime Minister is said to have met with the ZANU PF heavyweight, who has been confirmed already by Mugabe as his preferred choice for President, in Harare and at a farm in the Kwekwe area.

    Mugabe, told Saturday in a briefing about the meetings, is reported to have threatened to send the Minister of Defence back into the "wilderness" (gwenga, was the Shona word Mugabe used, apparently).

    Although not immediately clear whether Mugabe was told what the mettings were about, he immediately saw this as a threat to his continued grip on power. Mugabe, although he has told Mnangagwa that he will most certainly now take over as head of ZANU PF and eventually President of Zimbabwe, likes things done his way.

    He believes Mnagagwa and Tsvangirai may be planning to sideline him, now that Mnangagwa is confident of taking over within ZANU PF. 

    I have previously told you about Mnangagwa's statements to ZANU PF colleagues, where he half-jokingly said he would not mind having Tsvangirai as his Prime Minister when he takes over the presidency of Zimbabwe.

    It is quite likely that the Prime Minister is trying to negotiate for the future, perhaps to cement his position within the corridors of power. It is highly unlikely that the two could be discussing a situation in which Tsvangirai would try to accomodate Mnangagwa in a future Tsvangirai presidency.

    This is because Mnangagwa's burning, fierce ambition for the Presidency means he is unlikely to ever contemplate playing second fiddle to Tsvangirai.

    I just got this news today, so I will try and dig up some more to find out just what sort of deal these two men are trying to strike.

    It may well be all in vain, however, if Mugabe's mood today is anything to go by. What it means is that Mnangagwa has not reported on these meetings to Mugabe, which makes the dictator extremely suspicious.

    As for Tsvangirai, I think he is aware that he is playing with fire. The last time Mnangagwa was suspected of plotting against Mugabe was when Prof. Jonathan Moyo arranged that meeting in Tsholotsho, at which support was being drummed up for Mnangagwa to take the vice-presidency now occupied by Joice Mujuru.

    Mugabe swiftly demoted Mnangagwa, relegating him to the Ministry of Rural Housing and Social Amenities. He was, effectively, "put in the dog house", as he himself recognised.

    He only bounced back in February as Minister of Defence in the Inclusive Government, a very high accolade indeed to the presumptive heir. He is trusted, and that is the message Mugabe sought to send, grateful that The Crocodile had not sought to capitalise on Simba Makoni's defection from the party.

    Now, however, the Minister of Defence could again very quickly find himself relegated back to the wilderness if Mugabe believes what he was told today. It already appears that he does indeed credit the reports.

    When his power is "threatened" directly like this, Mugabe is very predictable. Action will be swift, ruthless. I dare say, on account of this, he would indeed be willing to let the government fall to pieces, if it were to come to that.

    Or perhaps there is a good enough explanation that he will get from Mnangagwa and all this will simply be a storm in a tea-cup?

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  • The Corruption Of Morgan Tsvangirai
    Either the MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai have been corrupted by ZANU PF or they were always like this and never really represented the change and seismic shift in focus that Zimbabwe needs in order to rise and start working again.

    We had interesting meeting with a western diplomat stationed in Harare today and what he had to say reveals just why the west, especially, is not going to come to the aid of the GNU with funds.

    The western diplomat minutely detailed his country's concerns about the way the MDC is going about things and here are some of the things he says show that Morgan Tsvangirai has either been corrupted by ZANU PF or that the MDC was always a corrupted party and are now simply showing their true colours because opportunity has been granted them
    • The MDC-controlled Harare City Council set the minimum wage for its workers at US$379. This means that the least paid municipal worker is getting this amount from the City Council.
    • The same MDC council had allocated its councillors stands in low and high-density areas, which stands were being given virtually free, since the price was set in Zimbabwe dollars and were ridiculously low.
    • The people who are being paid US$379 minimum wage above are MDC grassroots supporters whom the opposition gave jobs to in January this year, vastly expanding a staff complement that had already been bloated under ZANU patronage rules, where ZANU PF also offered jobs to supporters in order to buy support. The MDC simply followed this same example when they took control of the councils. In other words, there was no change of culture or mindset when the opposition took over.
    • The same MDC controlled council has also set salaries for "supervisors at as high as US$3 000 per month
    • While all this going on, City of Harare residents are still going without water, risking a resurgence of cholera.
    • While the MDC Council pays these salaries, Harare's roads controlled by the council are still full of potholes and in a very bad state of disrepair.
    • While The MDC does this, the water delivery infrastructure has collapsed, hence the absence of water from city home taps, meaning cholera continues to loom large.
    • Rubbish is still piling up in the streets of Harare, uncollected, again breeding cholera.
    • The Council is, therefore, simply hiking charges (yes they hiked, water charges where they are not delivering water, rubbish collection fees when they are not collecting any rubbish etc) in order to pay inflated salaries to their army of underemployed supporters, NOT in order to improve the lives of citizens
    • At the National level, within the GNU itself, the MDC has rushed to collect Mercedes Benzes for its ministers, to pay hefty salaries for the same ministers and their staff and to claim expenses for "work" when none can be seen being done.
    • The Prime Minister now spends his time fighting over the appointment of Permanent Secretaries, Ambassadors and Governors (in order to give jobs "to his boys" - is how the western diplomat put it.
    • The government of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is spending precious foreign currency buying new furniture, from leather sofas to glossy coffee tables for ministerial offices, while paying civil servants US$100 per month, which, as of this month, the same civil servants are failing to access. This is why you hear Biti warning of "civil unrest" if aid is not delivered.
    • The western diplomat also pointed to the one ministry in particular, the failure by Nelson Chamisa to bring TelOne and the Internet service of Zimbabwe to heel as evidence that the MDC's priorities in the ministries they control is all wrong.....
    • The continued prosecution of Jestina Mukoko, Roy Bennett, Ghandi Mudzingwa and many others, seem to have been accepted as inevitable by the MDC, and it appears that they have now shifted their focus to the trappings of power as opposed to the deliverance of the rule of law, respect for human rights and other democratic ideals. They are, the diplomat said, "abandoning the very principles upon which they staked their reputation."
    • Farms continue to be invaded, destroying food security yet again, but it appears the Prime Minister has also decided that there is anything he can do about this.
    "I am absolutely certain that if we gave any money to this government, it would disappear down a black hole before it can get to the people. I have told my government that the best option is to give money to aid agencies like UNICEF and USAID, who will use it to benefit people directly."

    However, the statement that gave me cause for concern was when he said he had such high hopes for Morgan Tsvangirai that he was "personally wounded by this corruption of the Prime Minister."

    He did not mean that the Prime Minister is now corrupt, but that he has been corrupted, he said. I just wondered whether there is a difference between the two. Much as Mugabe was considered "not corrupt, but he tolerates corruption", the same appears to now be said of Morgan Tsvangirai.

    Surprisingly, this western diplomat says he believes that the only reason the MDC are not getting even more corrupt and greedy at national level is because of the presence of ZANU PF. He believes that the two parties at that level are watching each other closely and the MDC is unlikely to suggest any moves that could be seen as corruption or greedy.

    But he also points out that where the greediness is institutionalised, like with the offering of new Mercedes Benzes to ministers, the MDC will actually give in, since it can always justify itself by saying these are established benefits that they found in place.

    It was a long meeting, indeed and it served to show me personally just how closely this government is being watched.

    As this diplomat explains minutely what it is that is wrong with this arrangement (and why Mugabe and Tsvangirai appear happy with it), it becomes clear what the MDC are doing at the moment is pursuing power. Everything they are focusing on (appointments of governors, ammbassadors, permanent secretaries etc) has no impact on the suffering of the people.

    Instead, it is all designed to concentrate as much power as possible in the hands of the MDC.

    And yes, it is the people who suffer in the end.

    As a footnote, let me end by telling you that Zimbabwe, for most of today, was again cut off from the Internet. Yes, the whole country "disappeared from the Internet" as the people at Utande, an ISP here, put it.  It simply confirms what I told you a couple of weeks back when we were also cut off from the world as a country: as long as this GNU is in place, our Internet services will continue to be like this.

    As a result of the shutdown of national Internet, I was unable to fulfil an interview request with BadGals Radio, based in America, who wanted an interview on the Internet with me today.

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  • Bennett: I told You So, Didn't I?
    Regular readers will not be surprised that yet another scoop that I published here has now been independently confirmed.

    The latest in the long line of the scoops I have given you to be proved right is the story that Mugabe wants Roy Bennett to be withdrawn as the MDC nominee for Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

    This scoop I gave you in the article entitled: Roy Bennett Must Be Withdrawn, which I published here on Thursday, March 5 2009.

    Well, SWRadio have now independently confirmed this, with an MDC source telling them exactly what I told you. My source was within ZANU PF. When I got the news, I contacted friends in the Prime Minister's office. I remember very clearly that I spoke on the phone with one of the Prime Minister's very close aides only a couple of hours before the crash that killed Mrs Tsvangirai.

    In that scoop I published on March 5, I wrote: Mugabe considers it an insult to have to swear the man into the office of Deputy Minister of Agriculture. And I am sure that unless and until Morgan Tsvangirai agrees to withdraw Bennett's nomination for the Agriculture ministry, the MDC Treasurer-General is in for the Long-haul.

    Yesterday, SW Radio published the story, which can be found here. This is coming a full 20 days after I published the scoop here. The radio station says:

    According to MDC officials, Mugabe told a cabinet caucus on Monday that he will not swear in Bennett, claiming he is facing serious charges. This is despite the fact that the President swore in some MDC officials such as Minister Eric Matinega, who also still faces trumped up political.

    During the meeting, it's alleged that Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara asked Mugabe what would happen if Bennett was acquitted. Mugabe is reported to have said, "He will ever be acquitted."

    So, I am proved right yet again.

    Throughout this Bennett ordeal, I have stated time and again that the Prime Minister is mistaken to defend Mugabe as he is now doing, telling the Guardian, "Mugabe is not the problem. It is others." He has swallowed the tripe that Chiwengwa and some "hardliners" in ZANU PF are the ones doing all these nasty things in order to scuttle the agreement and the coalition government.

    I have said repeatedly that these army guys and what Tsvangirai and the MDC call "ZANU PF hardliners" are not the ones calling the shots. Mugabe is. The biggest hardliner in ZANU PF, I have said, is Mugabe himself.

    This confirmation of my scoop is yet another validation of the reliability of my sources, who tell me that the president simply want the MDC to fix the economy and then he will part ways with Tsvangirai and go back to his old ways. But Biti and Tsvangirai seem to think, as Biti has said, "we have now seen a side of President Mugabe we never knew. He spoke like a father."

    There is a critical question that needs to be answered here. What exactly does the MDC and especially Prime Minister Tsvangirai, think they will achieve in an atmosphere like this? MDC supporters have left comments and messages here saying: "Because of the immense suffering of the people....." the MDC decided to go into government.

    This assumes that the MDC going into government means the people's suffering will be lessened or ended. Now we know this is not the case. The people themselves are now complaining heavily that their problems seem to have actually worsened as a result of this government.

    Perhaps the MDC have a death wish. Because they will certainly suffer a political death as a result of the developments within this coalition. The suffering of the people will not be lessened by this new govenment at all.

    Already, the USA, the EU and Britain have said sanctions will remain in place and they will not give any aid to Zimbabwe.

    The truth of the matter is that these donor countries have now also written off Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC. They have decided that the MDC, with its behaviour in government, where it is implementing ZANU PF policies despite being given the mandate by Mugabe to formulate and implement new policies, is simply another ZANU PF.

    So, with no aid, with his friends deserting him and refusing to help bolster the image of the MDC with its supporters and voters, Tsvangirai and Biti still insist that they will not pull out of government? 

    To what end?

    It really is no exaggeration that the MDC is facing political death because of the way they are now identifying themselves with ZANU PF. The world watches and sees this and decides to wash its hands of Zimbabwe. Britain has been very quiet, simply letting their silence tell the MDC what they think of the new arrangement.

    The problem is that, the voters in Zimbabwe have also lost any belief they had that the MDC could magically change things through its Western friends if it came to power.

    The result may be that they will look for a third party to support or simply decide to abandon all hope that the ballot box can bring any change to Zimbabwe.

    This time, the MDC can not blame Mugabe for the ills facing the people. They are now in government and the failures of this government are their and Mugabe's failures together.

    I really do not expect any MDC supporters to engage this issue. They always go very quiet when their party is exposed as a fraud visited on the people of Zimbabwe. It will be same this time around: no comment from MDC supporters.

    But that does not remove the people's anger and frustration. As one young man said yesterday (in a Kombi, of all places), "we will meet the MDC at the next election, and then they will see what we do to them."

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  • Mugabe And Tsvangirai Stuck
    Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe, is watching with glee as the MDC squirms in the hot seat of government, with the latest blow to Tsvangirai's hope for alleviating the people's suffering coming from the United States Ambassador in Zimbabwe.

    The Ambassador told SW Radio that sanctions will not be lifted any time soon. The European Union is indeed showing signs of fracturing, which is Mugabe's long-cherished dream and prediction. The Zimbabwean leader has said privately on many occasions that the Nordic countries will be first to break ranks with the EU.

    He has also predicted that Germany will do the same, once Chinese investments for rebuilding Zimbabwe start coming in. German is an industrial powerhouse, was the thinking, and it would not stand idly by while lucrative contracts were dished out......

    So far, ministers from two Nordic countries have come to Zimbabwe, but their commitment has been muted and they are still saying they will help on the humanitarian front only. The state newspaper, The Herald, is shouting itself hoarse, cheering every landing at Harare International Airport by an EU minister and promising wonderful things as a result of the visits.

    The truth is that it is all wishful thinking. Even Harare's streets, which were full of the usual bluster barely two weeks ago, with people telling each other that the West has promised Tsvangirai US$5 billion, have now all gone quiet.

    It is starting to sink in. There is no bailout coming for this country. The only hope lies in South Africa, whose Finance Minister said recently that he could revive an old line of credit extended to Ian Smith's Rhodesia by Vorster's apartheid regime through the South Africa Reserve Bank. "We could resuscitate that," he said at the time.

    But help from South Africa, whether through a line of credit or full monetary integration into the Rand Monetary Union, can only be looked at in May. This is because South Africa hold its elections in April, which is next month. 

    Zuma and his camp would not want to be seen to be giving money to Zimbabwe in the run-up to elections. The xenophobia attacks in South Africa last year show just how touchy the subject of foreigners is in the country.

    If the ANC government were to give Zimbabwe money before the election, they could suffer heavily at the polls, as the opposition would be able to take advantage of this to preach about giving money away to Mugabe while service delivery and the housing needs of South Africans are not yet met.

    Meantime, the IMF is still saying Zimbabwe needs to repay its debts first before discussions can take place. Gideon Gono now knows from bitter experience that, even after the debt is repaid, the IMF will simply find another reason not to lend money.

    The IMF are taking their cue from the Americans and as long as they and the British maintain sanctions, then there will be no change of heart at Bretton Woods either.

    Anyway, you will recall that Finance Minister Tendai Biti told gathered diplomats and businessmen at the launch of "Economic Recovery Programme" that the Mugabe/Tsvangirai government was in talks about the lifting of sanctions, especially the America Law ZIDERA.

    "As far as the USA is concerned, it is imperative that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) be repealed and representations and consultations have already begun in this respect," Biti told the gathering.

    Later on that day, Robert Woods, acting Spokesman for the State Department in the USA, contradicted this when he pointedly told his daily briefing audience, "We are not in consultations with any persons or any group about that.

    The bottom line is that, no aid is coming to Zimbabwe, certainly, and there will be no influx of the skilled Zimbabweans back into the country from the diaspora where they went in search of better lives. This means there will be no recovery, the skills are simply not here anymore. And we will not have the money nor the stability to attract them back.

    Which means Mugabe and Tsvangirai are stuck, basically. The sad thing is that Tsvangirai has taken on some of Mugabe's culpability as far as the people of Zimbabwe are concerned.

    Tsvangirai will now be identified with this failure and my greatest fear is that faith in democracy, politicians and the fruits of transparent and honest government will also suffer the same crisis of confidence as people decide that all these people are the same and nothing will ever change.

    SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? WHY NO AID, NO HELP FOR TSVANGIRAI?

    Well, as I have said on this blog before, and as one of our readers, Nyatsimba Mutota, pointed out yesterday, the lack of policy direction from the MDC is definitely counting against them. Donors look at the bloated government, which is essentially going to gobble the entire US$1 billion budget announced by Biti and they run.

    The issue now is not about Mugabe or whatever certain ignoramuses may want you to believe. Biti made provisions for circumventing ZANU PF, Mugabe and the Reserve Bank in his operations.

    He says in his new budget statement that the country's accounts will now be held at Treasury, meaning his ministry. Which means Gono has no power over any money the country will have, either donor funds or revenue from taxes and duties.

    In his Blue Book, which details the votes for each ministry, money that is kept in reserve for specific contingencies for various ministries has also now been put under the sole control of Treasury (Ministry of Finance). Each item listed under these reserves in the blue book is headlined by a statement stating that none of the money will be released without the approval of the Finance ministry.

    So, having put all these measures in place to reassure donors and aid agencies, Biti, Tsvangirai and the MDC are still being kicked in the teeth by their allies, who were "promising" ten billion US dollars during the March 2008 elections?

    Funny? It would be if it did not have such devastating consequences for the people of Zimbabwe and the  future of this country.

    ***************
    As for the earlier story about the fight between soldiers and policemen, it appears it was nothing organised at all but started when one soldier accused a policeman of stepping on his shoe in the bank queue at First Street.

    The two challenged each other and went into the park, followed by their comrades, where the fight between the two men degenerated into a melee. 

    This evening, there was a riot police lorry parked at the park, along Third Street, in front of our offices. It appears even this inclusive government is not leaving anything to chance.

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  • Army, Police Fight It Out In Harare City Centre Park

    Army personnel in uniform engaged in a fist-fight with policemen in uniform in Africa Unity Square in Harare today. Africa Unity Square is right in front of parliament in the capital. The fight apparently started outside CABS in First Street, where the uniformed forces were waiting for the arrival of their foreign currency salary allowances. It is still not clear at this very early stage what exactly triggered it. But you will recall that the last time the police and soldiers clashed in Harare, it was also over money and payment of salaries. I saw one policeman who was bleeding from the head as the fight ended and he was put into a police pick-up truck and driven away.

    The fight ended when a huge lorry, covered with canvas at the back, arrived at the Square with military police on board. When the truck arrived, some of soldiers quickly disappeared, some going towards First Street and others, crossing the park towards Meikles Hotel.

    This incident comes as some civil servants also invaded Tendai Biti's office in Harare. Biti is the MDC Secretary-General and Zimbabwe's Minister of Finance. The civil servants had gone to Agribank to withdraw their US$100 salaries using the vouchers given to them by the government. Agribank was refusing to honour these vouchers, claiming that they had not received any money from the government to disburse.

    The civil servants, who included teachers, invaded Biti's office yesterday and refused to leave until the matter was resolved. Biti then went the group to Agribank on Park Street in Harare and went into a meeting with the management of the bank. The meeting was closed to the public, including the civil servants who had gone to complain.

    It appears the meeting did not bear much fruit because even as of today, the civil servants are still waiting outside CABS and Agribank.

    Now, sources within government, but on the ZANU PF side are saying that when Biti announced that the vouchers would be exchanged for cash at the banks (they were originally to be used only to buy goods in designated supermarkets when Gono introduced them earlier this year), the Reserve Bank warned him that there was not enough cash to meet the demand that would ensue. Mugabe himself, in his birthday interview, also said that he did not think the move was sustainable "because we don't have the money."

    But you will recall that a couple of months ago, I told you about the massive looting that was being undertaken by the "caretaker cabinet" of Mugabe, which was in place awaiting the appointment of Tsvangirai as Prime Minister. They basically cleaned the government out, externalising huge sums of money as a result of a loophole the Reserve Bank worked into its last Monetary Policy Statement, basically dumping all forms of Exchange Control regulation.

    Most people are not aware that the auditing of the Reserve Bank has been blocked by Mugabe and the MDC have given in, for now. But, in retaliation, Biti has since announced that all government revenue from now on will be kept at Treasury, meaning the Ministry and NOT the Reserve Bank. His revised Budget statement last week also removed every single levy and source of income for the Reserve Bank. Which means the RBZ now has no income generating opportunities at all.

    Biti has told the MDC leadership that, through this strategy, he fully expects that Gono will be asking for money to run the Reserve Bank within about six month. It is at that time that the Minister of Finance intends to revive the issue of the firing of the Central Bank Governor, which has, in the meantime, been ruled out flat by Mugabe.

    But it appears that the handling of this civil service salary issue is a powder keg. If Biti is not careful, he will have a true rebellion on his hands, especially with the soldiers. Previously, the armed forces ire was directed at Gono. Some of them, if you recall, went to one of the Central Bank Governor's farms and impounded a lot of chickens, saying they were hungry because the Reserve Bank was limiting cash withdrawals and they could not access their salaries. To this day, the soldiers who took all those chickens have not been apprehended, as is the fashion with Mugabe, where he habitually licences impunity.

    Unless the MDC can get some form of funding from outside, I really do not expect this coalition to last till end of the year. The problem is compounded by the MDC's failure to come up with proper policies for driving the economy. At the moment, they are focusing on simply keeping Zimbabwe limping.

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  • Zimbabwe Army Commander Gravely Sick
    The Commander of the combined Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantine Chiwengwa, is so gravely ill that on Friday night, he was admitted to the Manyame Air Force Base Hospital in Harare and was only released on Sunday afternoon. 

    The General arrived at Manyame Air Force Base with an oxygen mask on him, apparently.

    The release on Sunday was apparently a self-discharge. Doctors at the hospital had insisted that Chiwengwa needed at least a week under observation in hospital but, "like a true soldier", (according to sources close to him), he checked himself out on Sunday afternoon, saying he had important work to attend to.

    President Mugabe visited the General alone on the night he was admitted, Friday. I understand the president stayed for close to three hours.

    The Generals wife, Jocelyn, who nearly assaulted Morgan Tsvangirai at a wholesalers a couple of years back, has not been seen in public for some months and it is rumoured that she is also extremely ill and that doctors do not hold much hope for her beyond a couple of months. The last time she was seen on Zimbabwe television was about a year ago.

    She was doing humanitarian work with some village women and appeared very gaunt, thin and unwell.

    The General himself is a frequent visitor to a hospital in Cuba, the same hospital where General Zvinavashe was last treated in January this year.

    General Chiwengwa is currently Public Enemy No 1 with the MDC, who allege that his car was used to abduct Roy Bennet when he was taken from Charles Prince Airport in February this year. The opposition party also claims he is at the forefront of destabilising the Government of National Unity (GNU) by arresting MDC supporters and directing events at the courts to keep MDC prisoners in jail.

    ******************

    Meantime, Grace Mugabe has been declared to have diplomatic immunity in China and Hong Kong and will not face any charges arising from her assault of Sunday Times of London photographer Richard Jones.

    Mrs Mugabe was in Hong Kong to collect Bona Mugabe, her and President Mugabe's daughter from University for her vacation back in Zimbabwe. Bona recently returned to Hong Kong after a delay of some weeks in Harare.

    The delay was caused by the Chinese authorities putting in measures to protect the First Student. Security has now been beefed up at the Villa where she is staying with the daughter of another ZANU PF cabinet minister while they attend university.

    Chinese police are now permamently stationed outside the complex and the Chinese government has now allocated additional plainclothes security to Bona. The Chinese have also worked with Mugabe's security to put in place a contingency plan for evacuation, if needed. It was only after the new measures were in place, I am told, that Bona went back.

    ********************

    There is chaos in Harare today and you should not be surprised to hear later on that soldiers have gone on the ramapge again.

    First street is absolutely choked with soldiers, policemen, teachers and other civil servants who are failing to access their US$100 salaries. They have been trying since Friday and it clear this morning on First Street that some of them have slept at the banks waiting for them to open. There are blankets and long jackets spread on the pavement, where the civil servants are sitting waiting for the money to get to the banks.

    I was very impressed by the soldier's queue. Straight as an arrow, with all of them standing straight, it looked like they were on parade when I passed by CABS First Street this morning!!

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  • Get Ready To Prop Up Mugabe. Yes, You!
    First, some latest news from here in Zimbabwe. Vice-President Joice Mujuru put on MDC regalia while Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe put on ZANU PF regalia yesterday. It was all in aid of International Women's Day.

    The two ladies took the opportunity to preach the new Coalition mantra, calling on supporters to desist from violence.

    Which is all very well, as far it goes, I suppose.

    But I do wish the MDC and ZANU PF would stop confusing their followers so. What are the bewildered "Mugabe Must Go" brigade to think now, seeing their own deputy president in the MDC putting on ZANU PF dress with Mugabe's face on it?

    And the ZANU PF folk? The "Tsvangirai Will Never Rule This Country" brigade, seeing their second-in-command in Chinja gear?

    It is a curious state of affairs, you'd think. But no. I think the selective arrests of the last few weeks show us what ZANU PF wants. Yes, the MDC may want a peaceful atmosphere in which to campaign next time round, but these recent selective arrests of MDC members in Mbare, Buhera and other areas show us what ZANU PF wants.

    ZANU PF simply wants to be left in peace to beat up any MDC supporter they fancy. When they do this, they are not arrested.......

    Anyway, the puzzled look on Harare streets today as people peered at the foreign-currency-charged Herald said it all.

    ****************

    Ah, yes, about the heading:

    I was just wondering, seeing as most of my readers are in the diaspora, would you remit money back home to your relatives through official means (Homelink) now that Tendai Biti is asking you to?

    Of course, we must recognise that that money will also contribute to the salaries of Mugabe, policemen, soldiers, ZANU PF ministers and so on. 

    This is the very same question that is confronting the West. Do we give money to this new government when we know that the money is going to be used to sustain the liestyles of the lavish-living ZANU PF ministers?

    I just wondered what you think would be the right thing to do. 

    But keep in mind that the revised budget that Tenda Biti proposed is now even more of a consumptive budget than the one issued by Patrick Chinamasa just before MDC joined government.

    Quite apart from the fact that Biti lied to the people of Zimbabwe in it, this budget is simply designed to sustain the wage bill of the bloated government.

    The US$700 million that Biti is said to have cut from the cut is the lie. What he in fact did was almost completely wipe out budgetary provisions for infrastructure rehabilitation.

    What needs cutting is not funds for infrastructure development, no. It is this very government. Get rid of half of these people in it and you will save US$500 million dollars. Take that and resurface the roads, repair dams (villagers are now resorting to doing it themselves, inadequately), repair the water reticulation and other infrastructural rot that is making this country a repellant against investment.

    It has been proved since the days of Roosevelt that the best way to create jobs and lay the foundation for a booming economy in depressive cinditions is through public works. Almost every single ecoomy that has gone the route of increased public works in a depression has come out of it stronger and never looked back.

     Then, the lie in the cut of the budget: In the same revised budget, Biti acknowledges that government's basic needs will end up goobling US$2 billion by the end of the year.

    That is more than even ZANU PF estimated.

    Still, we come back to the question: would you remit your funds and pay the fees that will support this government.

    And why?

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  • Mugabe Going Deaf plus Behind The Scenes in Mugabe and Tsvangirai's Coalition
    It appears to me that Mugabe is going deaf and I will prove it to you just now.

    Take a closer look at the picture above. You can click on it or download it to enlarge the pic. Now you will see that Mugabe is actually looking at Biti's mouth while Biti speaks, otherwise he would not be able to understand his finance minister!!

    When one becomes hard of hearing, they will always resort to some combination of using the hearing they have left and also lip-reading. And Mugabe looks rather frail, do you not think?

    Mugabe's deafness should surprise no one really, considering we have seen him over the years pretending not to hear the calls of his people and the world to step down.

    MDC cabinet members have also claimed to me directly that Mugabe regularly nods off in cabinet meeting, the meetings are unruly and generally a dog's breakfast.

    This could merely be smearing or there could be some truth to it, I thought at the time. But now that I see this pic, I am beginning to think maybe there is something to that talk.

    *****************


    I got a rare glimpse today into what it is that goes on behind the headline news around the Zimbabwe coalition between the MDC and ZANU PF.

    I managed to get a copy of the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme in it's draft form. This was the document presented to (and debated in) Cabinet by Tendai Biti and which was revised extensively at the insistence of ZANU PF.

    The evidence is there to see, because large chunks of the original document that came out of cabinet negotiations are simply crossed out and do not appear in the final product distributed yesterday at the launch of STERP.

    There is a huge chunk on what was Page 2 of the document, which goes into some detail about the need for the rule of law to be observed and land reform to be revisited for efficiency, which was simply run through with a red pen by Mugabe. 

    He likes doing that. 

    Those who have worked with him recount how, even the speeches that were written for him were not spared the red pen.

    He was a teacher and the habit is still within him, so he would mark ALL his speeches with the red pen, correcting various things. The "marked" copy would be sent back to be retyped.

    This is what comes through clearly in the draft document. It is only a draft now because ZANU PF managed to get all of the passages it didn't like struck out.

    On Page 3, for instance, where one of the conditions for economic recovery in Biti's original was "Democratisation", it was struck out and replaced with "Governance" by Mugabe and the ZANU PF ministers.

    Biti claims that they had to give in in order to get the STERP programme approved by cabinet. 

    He did get his own back, though, if you noticed. Although they had censored the document itself, Mugabe and his crew could not do the same with Biti's speech. The Minister's speech is his own and he does not need to have it approved by anybody.

    So Biti used the speech to inject back some of the things that had been taken out during cabinet negotiations, such as farm invasions and human rights and democracy.

    ZANU PF are said to be fuming at this display of one-upmanship, but there is little they can do about it really. Mugabe, perhaps you didn't know, can not fire Biti. Just as he can not fire Tsvangirai. They can say whatever they want whenever they want and still continue to be Honorable This and That. Which makes the MDC's propensity for giving in and speaking softly in government rather puzzling.

    Here is the chance they have to show the world that in terms of their cultures, their values and their approach to things, they are the opposite of ZANU PF today. Yet they let it go? I wonder.....

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  • The MDC Now Says Zimbabwe Is Under Sanctions
    Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe Minister of Finance, delivering the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme in Harare today

    Tendai Biti launched the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme in Harare today together with Robert Mugabe and Acting Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe.

    For those present at the ceremony, it was sad to miss Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who is recuperating in South Africa and is only expected back in Harare next week. What we got today is really his big Action Plan for Zimbabwe, and welcome news to the ears of the weary citizens of Zimbabwe.

    But what struck me was Tendai Biti's admission that there are indeed sanctions on Zimbabwe. Previously, the MDC and its supporters have always maintained that these are only "targeted sanctions, travel bans and the like, just a harmless bit of fun at ZANU PF's expense."

    Biti told the gathering today, " STERP recognises that apart from targeted travel bans, measures have been taken against Zimbabwe, denying the country the right to access credit facilities from international financial institutions,suspending Zimbabwe's Voting Rights, as well as denying Zimbabwean companies access to lines of credit."

    It gets worse.

    "In this regard, discussions have already started with the European Union, European Commission, World Bank, IMF, and the AfDB with the objective of removing the above sanctions and measures in compliance with Article 4.6 (c) of the GPA. As far as the USA is concerned, it is imperative that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) be repealed and representations and consultations have already begun in this respect."

    It is an extremely interesting development indeed.

    There were other points to take special note of in this STERP thing.

    Such as, for instance, the fact that the Programme is said by Biti to run from March to December 2009.  The MDC are locking themselves into the corridors of power, that's what this means. This government, if you recall, is supposed to be reviewed by SADC at the end of six months, which is in about four months' time.

    Given the continued flouting of the Agreement by ZANU PF, the selective application of the law, especially, as well as the continued presence of two relics from the past whom the MDC has vowed to get rid of: the Attorney General and the Governor of The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, one would think there was no reason for the MDC to be optimistic about the future of this GNU creature.

    What do they intend to do at the review, if not trot out the various ways and means in which Mugabe has sought to frustrate the opposition party? Will they say, "Oh everything is just fine, thank you for asking. In fact, we now think good old Bob is not such a bad chap after all. He's like a father to us, you know. No, we are doing ok"?

    What will people who remain in jail or on trial on spurious charges think of this approach? Can they expect that they will remain harassed until the GNU ends in 2 or (as is now being discussed in government) 5 years years time?

    Other than that, the STERP document is nothing more than a compilation of the nation's misery, ending in Biti and Mugabe bringing out the begging bowl and looking around to see if anyone feels sorry enough for us now.

    That is all there is to it, really. Like I said in my article below this one, the Obama government reacted rather swiftly, answering the call to lift sanctions (Biti specifically called for ZIDERA, the American Act on Zimbabwe, to be repealed by the US Congress) by saying they will do no such thing.

    Those insults to be traded between the MDC and America are not too far off. Biti is a livewire and the frustration, already showing will lead to an outburst one of these days. If Mutambara joins in, as well he might, then God help us all.

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  • Tsvangirai and Biti's Risky Attempt To Force Mugabe's Hand
    Tendai Biti, MDCs minister of Finance, chats with the man he said last week is now "like a father" to the MDC, President Robert Mugabe. This was at the unveiling of the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme (STERP) earlier today. Mugabe and Biti publicly begged for US$5 billion. But in the background, the MDC have kicked into action a risky strategy to get rid of one man, Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank. Read on.


    So determined are the MDC to get rid of Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank Governor, that they have now embarked on a risky strategy to force Mugabe's hand.

    So even as they smiled at each other during the launch of the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme today, the daggers are secretly drawn.

    Tendai Biti says the country is broke, totally broke. There is no money at the Reserve Bank to meet even the most rudimentary needs of government, let alone teachers' US$100 "salaries" (which the teachers want reviewed anyway). 

    But teachers started receiving the March US$100 salary in their bank accounts today. Question mark right there.

    As for where the money came from, I expect anyone who is so stupid as to ask will get the same response from Biti as he gave last month: "Takango kiya-kiya." Meaning, "We made a plan."

    In fact, the MDC wants to use the reluctance by the world to come to the rescue of Zimbabwe to get rid of Gono. They are telling ZANU PF that as long as Gono remains Governor, then those with the money say they are unwilling to give it to Zimbabwe.

    Biti and Tsvangirai are pursuing this policy doggedly. Hence the by-now routine warnings that the coffers are empty before money is found the very next day for foreign currency salaries or new vehicles and new leather furniture for ministerial offices.

    An MDC official claims, "Ndisu tiri kuti 'imbomirai' kuvanhu vane mari, Gono ari kufanirwa kuenda." - "We are the oes telling the donors to hold off giving us anything, Gono must go."

    The idea is to see who will give in first. Mugabe or Tsvangirai, MDC or ZANU PF. Squeeze the money side, is the current MDC reasoning, and Mugabe will have to give in at some point.

    "We will tell him, look Old Man," says the rather optimistic MDC official I spoke to, "you can't let a whole country collapse just because of Gono. Find something else for him to do. Make him an ambassador or whatever, but keeping him means no money coming into Zimbabwe."

    I say "optimistic" because the reality of this game may turn out different to what the MDC think. Has it occurred to them that perhaps Mugabe WANTS them to collapse. Have they thought that the old man is wishing that the whole thing would collapse on the MDC's watch?

    He would then simply campaign by telling people that the MDC was given a chance to deliver and they failed. They were in charge of policy and policy formulation and they could not come up with the said policies to get Zimbabwe out of the doldrums.

    I do not think that, no matter what pressure they put Mugabe under, he will give in and get rid of Gono. He has nothing to gain from doing so and everything to lose. Books will have to be audited, and that is one whole big can of worms...

    Back when all this started, Mugabe told his moribund Politburo that letting an MDC minister of Finance appoint a Governor at the RBZ would be tantamount to "Kuisa gonzo mudura." Meaning "throwing a rat into the granary."

    If you were to bet, which outcome would you back: Mugabe giving in and firing Gono or the MDC having to withdraw from that fight and living with Gono?

    Oh, by the way, as for this joke called STERP, which Mugabe and Biti announced today, the American responded VERY swiftly. The State Department issued a statement saying, "this government has to show more before we will consider removing any targeted sanctions or for putting together an aid package."

    One of the concerns from America has to do with the gluttony and greed exhibited by this government. So, just after Mugabe gave his plea earlier today ("Friends of Zimbabwe, please help us," were his words), America gave him their answer.

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  • The Destruction Of The MDC Has Started
    All the President's Men: (from right to left - Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, Defence Forces Commander Constantine Chiwengwa, Air Marshal Perence Shiri of the Air Force of Zimbabwe and General Sibanda, Commander of the Army)

    Last weekend, I told you about Mugabe's speech at the burial of Vitalis Zvinavashe, the former Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

    Mugabe described those engaged in continuing violence that they were "enemies of Zimbabwe". Of course, the state media had prepared the ground by telling us over and over again that MDC supporters were torching the huts of ZANU PF supporters and beating them up.

    Prior to this, General Chiwengwa, the current head of the Armed Forces of Zimbabwe, had also issued a "warning" to these people. Which was itself disturbing because we have never had an army commander issuing such orders, leaving it to politicians.

    Now, however, my warnings are being borne out. Police in Buhera have arrested more than 20 MDC supporters and has charged them with violence. The MDC mayor of Mutare, as well as his deputy, were arrested TWICE. The two have now been released, but the other MDC supporters remain in jail.

    The curious thing about this is that the MDC supporters supporters were apparently retaliating to the burning of a hut belonging to an MDC supporter. The MDC supporter is said to have told his colleagues at the funeral of Mrs Tsvangirai about the incident and they all piled into cars, drove to the culprit's homestead and burnt down his huts, as well as chicken runs. It is claimed some chickens got burnt in process as well!

    The bottom line is this, really: the MDC continues to behave as though this is a normal coalition. You will notice that no ZANU PF supporters are being arrested in this wave of arrests, although their own acts of violence are being reported to the police.

    Now, if the police do not react to these acts by the ZANU PF hooligans, certainly, MDC supporters will feel that they have to take the law into their own hands. The law itself has made it clear that they do not deserve any protection from ZANU PF thugs because they are MDC members.

    Instead of warning these MDC supporters, shouldn't the government (only the government, the army should stay out of this) be warning its own police force that they should investigate and arrest people who engage in violence even if they are ZANU PF supporters.

    Yesterday, Giles Mutsekwa, the MDC co-minister of Home Affairs, held a press conference together with his ZANU PF co-minister, Kembo Mohadi. During the press conference, they both gave warning to people who are engaged in violence. But it is clear that as far as the police, whom these men are in charge of, think this warning applies only to the MDC supporters.

    And the MDC co-minister actually allows this? Why is he not at the very least speaking out against the selective arrests of members of his party?

    You should expect that Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai's Zimbabwe will turn out to be no different to the Zimbabwe run only by Mugabe. This is intimidation, basically, against opposition supporters, showing them that ZANU PF supporters continue to enjoy impunity. They can do whatever they want and, should the other party retaliate because the police seen unwilling to do anything, then it is the victim that gets arrested.

    Mugabe and Mnangagwa, (who is already campaigning, if you listen to his speeches from this week), intend to bring the full force of the police to bear down on MDC supporters, as has been the case for years.

    ZANU PF believes that it owns the rural areas, which is where the majority of our people live. Ity will not allow the MDC or any other opposition to encroach on that territory. So, if anyone wants to see just how sincere ZANU PF is about sharing power, the true litmus test is how it responds to the MDC and other opposition groupings campaigning in the rural areas.

    The cities and urban centres, which Mugabe has given up on, are alright, very peaceful with no violence whatsoever. It is the rural areas that are going to prove the undoing of this government, unless, of course, the MDC has also now decided to simply ignore all that and join hands with ZANU PF regardless.

    What we should be very afraid of now, however, is the fact that Mugabe's heir-apparent, Mnangagwa, who says he is "ready to take over", is now in charge of the armed forces.

    Mark these words: the army will get involved in this before long. And we know from experience that when the army gets involved, they do not exercise restraint. 

    What they want, the Mnangagwa camp, is to defend their rural electoral strongholds and they are going to bring the army  into this to smash the opposition in the rural areas.

    As Mnangagwa told a friend two weeks, "I do not mind Morgan being my Prime Minister when I take over." Which means ZANU PF has given up on the urban areas, opposition strongholds and now wants to defend its rural base. 

    The purpose is to ensure that, at the very least, we get another parliament in which no party has an outright majority, making it necessary to have another coalition government.

    As for the presidential election, Mnangagwa points to the fact that, in terms of numbers, ZANU PF won more votes in the parliamentary elections than the MDC, it is in terms of the seats that they were beaten.

    So, he reckons, if there is no other party running (read Mavambo or the revived ZAPU), then he could get the ZANU PF vote out and still win the presidency. To do this, he realises, he will have to embark on a massive intimidatory campaign in the rural areas. And it is a safe bet to say that the intimidation, which we will start seeing after the SADC meeting in South Africa in about four months time, will be led by the soldiers, whom Mnangagwa is now in charge of.

    So, yes, the destruction of the MDC in the rural areas has started. ZANU PF is only waiting for the review of the GNU by SADC, to take place six months after the formation of the GNU. After that, the gloves will be taken off.

    Mark these words.

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  • One Thousand Witches Arrested!

    Ok, I thought we could get some perspective here, especially us jaded Zimbabweans within Zimbabwe.

    The President of Gambia, (above with his wife at a campaign rally) has had 1 000 witches "arrested" in a "smelling out" operation undertaken by witch-hunters from neighbouring Guinea. This was after the death of the president's beloved aunt, which death he publicly blamed on witchcraft.

    Quite frankly, I do not see what the alleged witches had to complain about. They were not taken to a prison, but to a farm, where they were "forced to drink unkown substances that cause(d) them to hallucinate and behave erratically."!

    So, they were taken to a farm where they were plied with alcohol or some exotic concoction that got them high? And they are complaining?

    Thing is, apparently, this concoction induced deadly kidney reactions to at least two of the "abductees". Their deaths were said to be proof of their guilt.

    The same president of Gambia has also claimed that he can cure AIDS. He has set up a hospital within the State House where he treats sufferers.

    To top it all, the person who first reported on this story in a local Gambian newspaper has since been arrested and charged with spying and sedition.

    Now, I ask you, do you think that we have it at least half-good in Zimbabwe, inspite of the best efforts of our leaders to destroy us completely?

    Just a question, to get some perspective, I thought. 

    Oh, the story comes from the British Telegraph, coming out of London.

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  • The Attempted Assasination of Morgan Tsvangirai? - The Facts So Far
    First, some context and background. You will already have read the state media reports and articles implicating the white farmer's organisation, the Commercial Farmers Union, in the crash that killed Mrs Tsvangirai.

    Then there was an attempt to muddy the waters through the release of anonymous information alleging that one of the drivers of the two trucks involved in this story is employed by Saviour Kasukuwere, the Minister of Youth (ZANU PF).

    This has turned out to be untrue.

    But so far, the ZANU PF government is determined to pursue its allegations. That is why we have former information minister Jonathan Moyo, Ceaser Zvayi at the state-owned Herald and others wondering out loud about this discrepancy and that inconsistency.

    The case, if we can call it that, has the following ingredients.

    It has now emerged that the truck that hit the Prime Minister's car actually belongs to a logistics company, JSI, which appears to have been subcontracted to deliver medicines to HIV/Aids patients across Zimbabwe.

    This would not be so bad by itself, but the said JSI is headquartered at Agriculture House in Marlborough, here in Harare. This building is, in turn, the Headquarters of the Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe, a white farmers' association.

    So, the Herald a couple of days back emblazoned a headline that said, "CFU Implicated In Tsvangirai Crash." I would venture to call this story an act of incitement.

    Still, it gets curioser and curioser.  JSI themselves have also told the Standard newspaper that the death driver was not their regular driver and they were trying to investigate how he ended up behind the wheel.

    The Administrator who books drivers in and out at JSI has apparently been suspended. Internal investigations at JSI are said to be underway.

    It is curious, also, is it not, that while the government is girding up its loins to happily go on a wild goose chase, they are at the same time, putting together a delegation to go and beg for donor aid from European countries. 

    Quite clearly, the MDC-PF government can not be trusted to conduct a sincere investigation of this matter. They have already donned their witchhunt outfits and should be allowed nowhere this sensitive matter.

    Conspiracy theories should be quashed straight away by the institution of that international investigation that people are calling for.

    Otherwise we will be left with varying stories and suspicions. Already, quite a number of people have concluded that this was the work of the CIA. Ironically, the British Foreign Office saved Mugabe's hide on this one.

    By announcing hours after the accident that it was "genuine", they removed all suspicion from Mugabe. But Mugabe is now turning around and going after them and the Americans and the white farmers in Zimbabwe.

    That's gratitude for you.

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  • Is Nelson Chamisa an Incompetent, Drooling and Cluess Minister?

    Nelson Chamisa (minister of information & comunication technology, above) and the MDC are taking policy cues from Chairman Mugabe's Little Red Book


    What on earth has possessed Nelson Chamisa, the MDC minister in charge of ICT, which includes internet and mobile phone companies?

    Zimbabwe's internet was switched off again on Saturday night. It had been restored on Friday afternoon after a week of complete shutdown. The restoration was through the limited-access South Africa links. It is still off and you should not expect the problem to be truly solved before the end of this year, if at all. As for first-world standards, you should forget about that for as long as MDC-PF are in power.

    As I have been saying since the year 2001, at least, the MDC has no policy platform whatsoever and this was amply demonstrated by the blundering Minister of ICT in Zimbabwe, MDC's Spokesman, Nelson Chamisa.

    Now in government and "in charge of policy formulation and implementation" (as the Prime Minister reminds us at every opportunity), the MDC are simply adopting failed, discredited and stupid ZANU PF policies. Take the issue of prices charged by the mobile phone companies now, for instance. This is something that falls into the MDC camp, with Chamisa in charge, the same minister who is presiding over this disgracing of Zimbabwe through a complete internet shutdown for the entire nation. I got mail on Friday from people all over the world who said essentially the same thing: "Come on, we are in the 21st Century. Internet switched off? That is inconceivable, just can't be true."

    But true it is.

    We know that ZANU PF totally messed up all sorts of things, including this, the internet issue. But MDC are in charge now of policy formulation and implementation. So we expected at the very least an abandonment of the policies that have brought us to the Gates of Hades at which we now stand. That would signal true change and a chance to give economic common sense and tried, tested policies to turn things around.

    But no.

    Last week, Comrade Minister Chamisa announced that mobile phone charges were too high in Zimbabwe (which they are) and he was going to send a directive to mobile phone companies to reduce their charges drastically. So, we are back to price controls, which everyone, including the resident madman at the corner of First St and Jason Moyo as well as street kids, knows does not work. ZANU PF tried it and service suffered as a result. Infrastructure collapsed. Because profit margins are a function of the market, and not a result of a minister's say-so. It is an elementary concept, really, and I wonder how the MDC fail to grasp it.

    What on earth has possessed Chamisa? I ask again.

    What will happen is the mobile phone companies will reduce their charges, yes, but then they will also stop investing in infrastructure expansion, congestion will increase and the system will collapse yet again as it has under ZANU PF.

    The solution to unreasonable price increases is simply to increase competition, a simple, proven concept that the MDC fails to grasp. Open up the market. If CellC of South Africa or MTN or Vodacom or a local entrepreneur wants to set up a new mobile phone company, let them. The only condition for granting that licence should be that the new company demonstrate how it would do things differently to increase competition. Once there is competition, no one company will have a hold on the consumer, free to abuse him/her with wanton price increases and dismal service. And as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, the new-comer will also have charges that are lower than those prevailing now.

    The locals will have to drop their prices as well. If they want money to expand their infrastructure, then they will have to bring in business partners to take a stake in their companies, paying for them in US dollars. Overcharging consumers to raise that money will simply not be good business then. The money invested by their new equity holders is then used to expand the locals' infrastructure. If they are too greedy to reduce their shareholding in their own companies, then they will go under and no one should mourn them.

    The same principle applies even to basic foods. We now have local millers of mealie meal and flour the staple foods of most of Africa, crying that imports are hurting them. Really? Are these not the same people who, when they were protected by Mugabe's communist government, simply charged three times what people in other countries pay for their mealie-meal?

    Now they want government to ban imports of food or to impose punitive tariffs on them? To what end? So that they can increase prices again and use the super profits to buy cars and feather the nests of executives without investing in machinery and modernisation of their factories? No sirs and madams, if you can't withstand competition, then you must go under. Go broke. That will teach you.

    But Nelson Chamisa's "directive" to mobile phone companies to reduce their charges shows us that the MDC will most likely also bend on this one. It is now official, the MDC also believes in the same failed policies of ZANU PF. They will most likely cave in and impose tariffs on foodstuff imported by individuals into Zimbabwe. This will be done in order "to protect local industry and save jobs." This is a common blackmail tactic of inefficient industry. If you do not protect us, x-number of families will be at risk because we will have to lay off people blah blah blah.

    Let them go under if they must. The result of protectionist policies is inefficiency, overpriced and low-quality products and services. That is all there is to it. This is not something Zimbabwe can afford in a globalised economy, where our products, if they are to have an use to the nation, must compete on the international stage on the basis of quality and price differentiation.

    Because of the MDC aping of ZANU PF way of doing things, we can expect that this government will make our lives worse, because there will be no change at all. The only things that have changed are the faces at some of the ministries. Even after being given carte blanche to formulate and implement policy, the MDC are showing that the best they can do is ape the failed policies of ZAU PF. It is quite frankly disgusting and bodes ill for the future of this battered nation.

    So, yes, Nelson Chamisa is an incompetent minister. Not only because he has failed to solve the Zimbabwe internet problem for the more than one month that he has been in charge of this ministry, but most importantly because he has already started adopted ZANU PF policies in his ministry, going against all economic sense.

    As he fights to be in charge of mobile phone companies and everything else, we now know that he just wants "powers" that he will do nothing with. He will simply dust off the mouldy policy files of the failed ZANU PF and seek to implement. It justifies what I have always said about the MDC being bereft of policies.

    You will see more of this from more MDC-PF ministers. NOTHING HAS CHAGED EXCEPT THE FACES AT THE FOREFRONT OF OUR DESTRUCTION AS A NATION.

    This aping of ZANU PF is going beyond policies, flashy cars etc. Take the simple matter of transparency, letting the voting citizens know what on earth is going on. How easy it would be to tell the internet public the truth! Instead, in the true tradition of ZANU PF, the consumer, the voter, is the last consideration for this bunch of new jokers. We have not been told how much is owed Intelsat. We have not been told how much has been paid. We were first told two weeks ago that TelOne has paid. Then when the South African links packed up and we were completely cut off, the Internet Service Providers Association was then told by TelOne that, no we actually only paid part of the debt and will not be reconnected until we pay it all off.

    Now they are being told that by Monday 16 March 2009, the debt will be completely paid off. This is clearly a lie and you should not expect to be reconnected to your internet for weeks and weeks to come. Between the incompetent Minister, the incompetent TelOne and South Africa's equally incompetent Hellkom, this state of affairs is now going to become a way of life for Zimbabweans.

    So, when I call this new creature MDC-PF, I am not just saying so. Some of us read that RESTART, the MDC "policy" document upon which they have been campaigning since 2002 and saw that it was not at all a "policy document." It has no ideas that are different from ZANU PF's failed ideas. There is no plan, as I have said before beyond presenting new faces to donors, cap in hand.

    The biggest and loudest promise that the MDC has sold the undereducated (but schooled) Zimbabweans, is that they will succeed simply because they are not ZANU PF. That worked only when the MDC was the only viable opposition. Which is why the MDC has always been very afraid of another opposition party. Any opposition party that comes up, even if it is started by Jesus Christ Himself, will always be labelled by the MDC-PF as a ZANU PF plant. Instead of examining their own policy failures, they would rather scare voters by finding Secret Police skeletons in the cupboards of anyone who challenges them.

    No more, we should say. I am heartily sick of this. The MDC has proved, in the short period that it has been in government, that it will simply follow ZANU PF ways of doing things, from a bloated cabinet to stupid policies like price controls.

    More alarmingly, it is also now clear that the MDC does not believe in transparency and honesty in government, just like ZANU PF. They would rather keep people in the dark in order to lie more effectively. That is what ZANU PF does. They do not communicate to the public what problems there are or what challenges are impacting on service delivery.

    The lack of money is an issue that can only go so far. Even if the aid does come in, with policies such as the MDC is now "formulating and implementing" as per their mandate in this government, we will still not see any improvement. Money is not a substitute for sound policy platforms. Surely Chamisa and Biti and Tsvangirai know this? Or do they?

    Right now, people here in Zimbabwe are already saying things are getting worse than before the MDC joined government. High density areas are still without water from their taps. Some Southern Suburbs have been without electricity for weeks on end. Those that do have it, get such a weak supply that it will not lift their stoves in order to cook, so you will find Highfields, Glen Norah, Budiriro, Glen View and other areas enveloped in the smoke that comes from cooking fires. Outdoors. In the rain that has been pounding us now for over a week.

    The city councils that the MDC have been in charge of for more than about a year now still do not collect rubbish. Mounds of rotting filth stench-up the neighbourhoods. People are simply tipping their rubbish in open spaces at the edges of their suburbs. Again, how easy it would be to open up refuse collection to bids from private contractors. Give them performance benchmarks. And then let them loose. Problem would be solves inside a week. The councils are already charging a line item on all bills and that item reads: "Refuse Collection."

    Talk about extortion. Demanding money for a non-existent service!

    What this means is that no one out there has any confidence in this new regime. And that has nothing to do with politics. One negotiator from a neighbouring country told a former Regional Diplomat from Zimbabwe that he was shocked when he sat down to negotiate with his Zimbabwean counterpart, a new minister in the Inclusive Government.

    "He sounded more ZANU PF than ZANU PF itself," said the negotiator. "I think Zimbabweans do not understand economics at all, no matter what party they are from."

    We have the people who can turn this thing around and the policies to do so are as clear as day. They just need the political will to be implemented. Right now, neither the MDC nor ZANU PF have that political will. And we will also need to have ruling parties that value competence above loyalty, meaning minister's will be given jobs because they have at least a clue as to what they are supposed to be doing. Then the Man in Charge must make sure they are not too busy polishing their new Mercedes Benzes and enjoying their new-found comfort and luxury to give a thought to the downtrodden who put them there.

    The only thing that has changed so far in Zimbabwe is that food is now readily available in the shops, but even this is not going to last because the MDC and its new ZANU PF best friend will cave in to protectionist petitioning from local industry and try to freeze out imports. The local manufacturers will simply revert back to type. Price controls will be imposed on them because they still have the "super-profits" mentality from the hyperinflation days. They will then hold the nation to ransom by stopping production and asking for subsidies in foreign currency from government.

    The MDC will give them the subsidies. And we will be back to square one.

    Donors will keep their hands in their pockets because they cannot fund such myopic destructive policies.

    At that time, the ZANUfication of the MDC will be complete and you will hear them shouting at the Western nations for refusing to help them.

    With the policies of the MDC already exemplified by the policy pronouncements from Chamisa on price controls, the future of Zimbabwe is still bleak.

    To answer the question: yes Nelson Chamisa is an incompetent, drooling minister and we can expect no change from him and his MDC fellow travellers in the comfortably inclusive MDC-PF government.

    As for the internet, do not hold your breath, we are in for the long haul, because Chamisa has no clue, policywise. All this because the MDC have now "discovered a side of President Mugabe that we never knew," as Biti put it. So now Mugabe is the Messiah? One whose policies are sacrosanct and will be adopted by the new faces in government without questioning, let alone reasoning?

    What an utterly disgusting, tattered and humiliated Zimbabwe we will have when this lot is done with us, only God can say.

    It's enough to make you wish you had voted for Simba Makoni, I tell you!


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