• Simba Makoni Launches Political Party Tomorrow
    Simba Makoni, who will head the interim leadership of the new political party, to be called Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn (MKD)., which officially launches tomorrow.


    Tomorrow, Wednesday 1 July 2009, Dr Simba Makoni finally launches the Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn party. Yes, the party will be known as Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn

    The launch will be held at Stoddart Hall in Mbare, a teeming high-density suburb of Harare, the capital city. The function starts at 10:30a.m.

    The party launches with an interim leadership to be headed by Dr Makoni and will start rolling out formal structures all over the country soon after that.

    Already, I understand delegates from all the provinces of Zimbabwe have registered for the event, the most exciting political development in the country since the launch of the Inclusive Government of Robert Mugabe (The Solution) and Morgan Tsvangirai.

    In a sign of just how little things have changed, the new party had to seek police clearance to hold the launch meeting, and the clearance was delivered to the party offices in Harare only this morning, paving the way for the announcement to be officially made.

    I will give a full account of the proceedings here soon after the event itself is done.

    All I can say is that finally, the people of Zimbabwe will have a true alternative, headed by the cleanest politician in Zimbabwe (who even refused to be allocated a farm while MDC-T politicians fall over each other to grab the remaining farms).

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  • MDC Cabinet Boycott Will Not Be Taken Further
    SITTING PRETTY: Robert "The Solution" Mugabe is now supremely confident and secure in his position, thanks to Prime Minister Tsvangirai. None of this is likely to change


    Nothing will come of it, of course.

    You have, I am sure, heard by now that the MDC-T boycotted cabinet today. They were protesting the moving of cabinet from Tuesday to Monday. They figured the move by Mugabe, who leaves for an African Union Summit in Libya on Tuesday (today), was designed to deny the Prime Minister the opportunity to chair cabinet.

    The boycott is mere posturing, of course.

    The threat by Deputy PM Thokozani Khupe that the MDC-T reserves the right to disengage from the Coalition government is also hollow and only serves to drive the final nail into any prospects for recovery.

    More importantly, though, people must also realise that this is mere posturing, designed to hoodwink the public into thinking the MDC-T has finally retrieved its spine from the trash can.

    After all, Simba Makoni is launching his party in a day or so. People have made it clear that they are ready for real change.

    Still, it only serves to expose yet again that the MDC-T is all at sea. Prime Minister Tsvangirai told the media over the weekend in South Africa that the MDC-T and ZANU PF will succeed or fail together.

    In effect, then, he has tied the fortunes of his party to the fortunes of Mugabe and ZANU PF. Since Mugabe and his party are destined to fail (and the Prime Minister knows this) then it means he has also accepted that he and his party will fail.

    Yet today, his Deputy President in the MDC-T was singing a different tune. She even exhumed the issues of Gideon Gono, Johannes Tomana (both of whom Mugabe refuses to fire despite the MDC-T's insistence), governors, ambassadors, Roy Bennett....it was a tour de force.

    But we thought the Prime Minister said Bennett and all the other issues are solved? Were we not told by the MDC-T that Bennett would be sworn in around August?

    Has that changed?

    And if Governors and the like have all been agreed to as announced by the Prime Minister and celebrated by blind MDC-T followers, why are they still an issue?

    We thought we heard the MDC-T announce at the weekend that SADC would meet in the first week of July, yet today they were lamenting the fact that SADC won't meet to discuss Zimbabwe?

    It is all hot air. Tsvangirai holds absolute sway in the MDC-T right now. He tells them, "You better listen to me" and they listen. He thinks everything is fine. He thinks things are going very well. He would rather ignore the abuses and breaches from ZANU PF and simply paper over the cracks, joking and dining with Mugabe.

    His views will carry the day.

    As for this boycott posturing. You will hear nothing more of it once the Prime Minister is back at the office.

    End of story.

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  • Prime Minister Tsvangirai, Why Did You Lie To Us?
    Morgan Tsvangirai, who, it turns out has lied to Zimbabwe three times now in the last two months, is seen here leaving No 20 Downing Sreet after meeting Gordon Brown. It is now clear that the Prime Minister also wishes to be a dictator: "You'd better listen to me," as he said to Zimbabweans who booed him last weekend

    On three seperate occasions this year, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told the media, the nation (at the May Day Rally at Gwanzura stadium, in the presence of Dr Simba Makoni and thousands others) and in a meeting with the leadership of the National Constitutional Assembly, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai stated that the Kariba Draft Constitution would NOT be used as the basis for a new Constitution.

    He lied.

    Last week, his party, the MDC-T, as well as MDC and ZANU PF, published the Kariba Draft as an insert in the State media. The draft is now officially the basis for any new Constitution.

    It may look like thePrime Minister and his party have capitulated to the fait accompli presented by ZANU PF, whose Supreme Body adopted the Draft as the basis of a new constitution only last week, despite the Prime Minister's assurances.

    But he has not. He wanted the Kariba Draft all along. That is why he signed it in 2005.

    Zimbabweans, I have always said, are not too fussed about the Constitution. Give them a strong economy and they will abandon that document. Which is a mistake, for the Kariba Draft, as a western diploamt said to us last week, is worse than the Constitution that was rejected by the people of Zimbabwe in 2000.

    The most disturbing thing about the Kariba Draft, according to the western diplomat, is that it provides for an executive presidency that is much stronger than we have at the moment.

    The strength of the current Executive Presidency makes it well-nigh impossible to get rid of an incumbent president.

    It gives the president way too much power in the make-up of the Electoral Commission, the appointment of the judiciary and, in fact, all the most important aspects of governance in Zimbabwe.

    A president under the draft constitution has more power of patronage thanMugabe has now.

    "So, why did the MDC-T agree and to the Draft. Why did they sign it?" asked the Western diplomat.

    He provided the answer.

    It is because Tsvangirai and the MDC-T as well as the MDC-M, all want to have the power that the current regime enjoys, power to dictate to the people of Zimbabwe how exactly they should live and even die.

    The people of Zimbabwe do not seem to understand this. Or to be bothered by it, if they do understand it.

    They naively believe that whatever their party says is correct. Too trusting. Which is a mistake, because a politician should never be trusted to choose what is best for the man in the street.

    MDC-T suporters have told me previously that Tsvangirai will not be a problem to them, that they can easily get rid of him, much more easily than is the case with Mugabe.

    They are wrong.

    Right now, Tsvangirai is telling them that Mugabe is here to stay, that he is not going nowhere until Zimbabwe "achieves positive results. In other words, until the economy improves. The UNDP and many other economists and agencies have said under the current conditions, it could take up to twelve (12) years for Zimbabwe to achieve this.

    Which means, according to Tsvangirai, Mugabe can be with us until then.

    They want Mugabe gone. Their leader disagrees. Yet they can do nothing to him. What more when he is president?

    It now also emerges that Tsvangirai and his party have now resolved to push for the provision of the post of a Prime Minister in the new constituion, which post will go to the second largest party in parliament.

    This will pass and Zimbabwe will be in a worse posiion than it is in now. We will bequeath to our children a regime and a state that is as bad or worse than the ZANU PF regime.

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  • Mugabe Has Some Fun With Tsvangirai
    UP THE CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE: (Canoeing on The Zambezi): The inclusive government does indeed appear to be all at sea right now, with Mugabe sending his own begging mission to The East after Morgan Tsvangirai came back empty-handed from Europe and the USA. The dictator has also been having a bit of fun at the expense of the Prime Minister.


    It emerges the Prime Minister has been calling home to speak with Mugabe during his three-week tour of Europe and the United States. I am told the first time it happened, Mugabe told Tsvangirai, "Thank you for calling, Prime Minister, let me secure the line first and then call you back."!

    But the real news is how Mugabe is playing the part of victim convincingly.

    Here's what happened.

    The president told the Prime Minister that he (The Solution) would have gone to the UN himself, but had decided on sending Joice Mujuru because "it is not wise under the current circumstances for both you and I to be out of the country."

    I think the meaning of that statement, which was designed to show Tsvangirai that Mugabe has genuine fears about "hardliners" in his party and their midnight plots, could not have been lost on the Prime Minister.

    Let us remind ourselves that this is the man who boarded a plane to Dubai last year in December as soldiers ran riot in the city centre, smashing shop windows and beating black market dealers. Even when the disturbances continued and the whole world was holding its breath, the president did not cut short his trip, did not rush home, strolling in leisurely a few days after the soldiers had been "arrested".

    Now he is too afraid to go to the UN, where he was always ready to go in order to give the middle finger to the travel ban imposed on him by the West?

    Surely this is put on.

    But it is impressive showmanship, is it not?

    This comes as Mugabe declared day before yesterday before his party's Central Committee that "the only good imperialist is a dead imperialist".

    So now he is wishing death on the very people to whom he is appealing for the lifting of sanctions.

    Is this likely to make them more or less amenable to the idea? I think the latter applies.

    Add to this the fact that there is now emerging a strong group in ZANU PF that is campaigning for Mugabe to run again as Presidential candidate at the next elections.

    Mugabe has been here before. Last time he said, it was up to his party and the people to decide whether he should be their candidate for president or not.

    He promptly proceeded to make sure that they decided in the affirmative, hiring mobs to swamp the Conference venue, getting John Nkomo, the chairman to state upfront that this (the December Congress of ZANU PF) was a gathering simply to endorse the candidature of Mugabe.

    This time, he will again say it is up to the people. And he will make sure that the people say what he wants them to say.

    I am taking bets on whether Mugabe will be ZANU PF's candidate in the next elections next time round. My bet says he will be.

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  • Michael Jackson Died Yesterday
    1958-2009
    A file picture of Michael Jackson, who Died Yesterday aged 50


    Michael Jackson died of a heart attack in Los Angeles yesterday. Paramedics were called to his home in Bel Air at about 12:26 p.m anf ound him not breathing. A doctor was attempting CPR.

    He was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead after a bried period in a deep coma.

    Jackson, one of the most talented musicians of his generation, was 50. He leaves three children, aged 7, 12 and 11. Two boys and a girl.

    Jackson was in Zimbabwe a few years ago, looking for invesment opportunities and he drove around town with Philip Chiyangwa, Mugabe's nephew. He also got to meet Mugabe and his family while in the country.

    Nothing was heard of the investment plans after that.

    RIP Michael Jackson.

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  • Mugabe Deals Death-Blow To Zimbabwe Economic Recovery Hopes
    Showing his age: The Solution, Robert Mugabe, struggles up the steps at Gideon Gono's farm with King Mswati of Swaziland earlier this month. The dictator has now come out smash all the toys his and Tsvangirai's Inclusive Government was playing with. It really is a crisis


    There goes the neighbourhood.

    Yesterday, Robert "The Solution" Mugabe dealt a massive, irreparable blow to any prospects of economic recovery and investment in Zimbabwe.

    Speaking to his party's National Consultative Assembly, Mugabe said he was dead set against the dollarisation of the economy and that he is going to change it. His exact words were "Tiri kuongorora kuzvichinja todzokera kumari yedu." Which means, "We are looking at changing all that and going back to using our own currency."

    Good God! What has got into the man, this Prime Minister's "Solution"?

    Anyone who was thinking about investing in Zimbabwe will now back off sharpish. This is guaranteed. Dollarisation is the only thing that had given people hope.

    It is also the sole achievement the Prime Minister pointed to in his crusade to convince the world that things had changed for the better in Zimbabwe.

    It is because of dollarisation that the shops are full, medicines can be bought at pharmacies again, prices are stabilising and, until this last month, even going down.

    We know who holds real power in government. It is Mugabe. The cantankerous Old Man is about to blow this country back to the Stone Age.

    It is imperative for the Prime Minister to stop this nonsense.

    But tact will make the difference.

    At all cost, the Prime Minister must avoid a confrontational approach, because that will only press Mugabe's "assert your supremacy" button.

    Instead, the PM should use his Monday meetings with Mugabe to push for reason. He should talk to Mugabe like one talks to a mad hostage-taker with a loaded machine-gun.

    But I fear the Prime Minister's reaction will be that of also trying to "call the shorts", posturing to his support base. Which will only get Mugabe's back up and the Prime Minister does not have the armies to back up his word, whereas Mugabe does.

    So he would only be defeated again if he turns this into a fight.

    Still, it is important to realise what this is really all about:

    The Prime Minister and his Finance Minister have been too successful at hoodwinking the world into thinking that it was they who introduced dollarisation.

    Even the Wall Street Journal yesterday regurgitated the lie.

    So, like the brat who destroys the best sandcastle at the beach because he can not make a better one, Mugabe is now petulantly trying to destroy that dollarisation policy in order to pull the rug from under the MDC-T feet.

    During the same speech yesterday, Mugabe also said he will sit down with Morgan Tsvangirai when he comes back and tell him, "So, sir...you see what your friends are like?" (referring to the refusal to lift sanctions by the West.

    He complained that he only got US$100 as a salary saying he had been paid that little before. And he asked pointlessly if this was supposed to be an "Inclusive Government of hunger".

    And, oh yes, he also took a swipe at the Amnesty International Secretary General who was in Harare this last week, saying it looked as if she had been "bewitched" and was "too quarrelsome".

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  • Banking System in Zimbabwe Collapsing?
    Morgan Tsvangirai chats to clients at Stanbic Bank during last year's cash shortages. Stanbic appears now to be one of the worst banks in Zimbabwe, destroying confidence in the banking system by taking more than three days to do an electronic transfer that should be instant, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.


    For three days now, Stanbic Bank in Zimbabwe (part of the Standard Bank of South Africa Group) has been failing to make an electronic transfer of funds from a funded account at their bank to the payee at Barclays Bank.

    An electronic transfer is supposed to be instant or at worst to be effected overnight.

    But three days later, Stanbic are still to make the payment.

    There is no explanation about why this is so. The acount from which they should transfer the money is funded, they accepted the order and stamped it.

    Which begs the question: What is Stanbic doing with people's money held by them?

    It also raises other questions. Such as: With a banking system so utterly unreliable and inefficient, what makes the government of Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe think that anyone would want to invest in this country.

    This is a company account we are talking about, by the way. And we all know that businesses have lead times and deadlines to meet in order to pay for supplies and to continue functioning. Something like this would destroy their credibility with their suppliers and could well put them out of business.

    If this is the way the banking system in Zimbabwe in now operating, then government can forget about attracting investments into Zimbabwe.

    Quite apart from the crumbling infrastructure, investors will also have to deal with this?

    Stanbic Bank in Zimbabwe appears to be the worst bank when it comes to this. But you will also recall that I recently had to complain about another bank that was charging US1$109 to clear a cheque, regardless of the cheque's value.

    So this appears to be the way in which banks do business in Zimbabwe.

    Of course, it destroys confidence in the banking system. This is why so few people are banking their US dollars (now the official currency of Zimbabwe). What it means is that these banks will have to continue charging exhorbitant fees in order to turn a profit.

    Soon, companies will also start shunning Zimbabwe banks and keeping money in their safes.

    What is frightening is that Stanbic appears to think there is nothing wrong with what they are doing.

    As of writing this, the payee whose money Stanbic are sitting on has now had to make arrangement to be paid cash by the company that owes them.

    And where is Gideon Gono, who is supposed to oversee banks, while all this happening? He is busy fighting political battles and rearing chickens!!

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  • Monkey Urinates On President At Press Conference
    President Rupiah Banda, the Zimbabwe-born Zambian Head of State, remonstrates with the monkey that had just urinated on him at the Zambian State House, where he was holding a press conference. Pic Source


    A cheeky monkey urinated on President Rubiah Banda of Zambia at a State House press conference yesterday.

    No, this is not a joke.

    Banda, who had called the press conference to discuss vice-presidential candidates and the Zambian economy, looked up and shouted at the monkey:

    "You have urinated on my jacket!"

    The press conference was held under a tree in the Zambia State House grounds, where Kaunda famously strolled with Rhodesian PM Ian Smith accompanies by zebra and the other wildlife that is kept there.

    Banda was in Zimbabwe in April this year, where he officiated at the opening of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.

    Born in Zimbabwe, the Zambian president also paid a visit to Gwanda in Matabeleland, where he grew up.

    The monkey that urinated on the President Banda apparently made no attempt to run away.

    And it was brave of Rupiah, was it not, for him to look up that tree where the monkey was sitting. What if.....

    Enough.

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  • New Push To Ban Zimbabwe Diamonds Worldwide
    Miners at the vast Chiyadzwa Diamond Field in Zimbabwe. There is a new push to ban diamonds from here on the international market


    Just as Morgan Tsvangirai ends his begging trip to the USA and Europe, news comes that Zimbabwe diamonds will now almost certainly be banned totally from the world market.

    The current chair of The Kimberley Process, Namibian Deputy Mines Minister Bernhard Esau, told a conference of the Kimberley Process group in Windhoek today that "gaps can be strengthened" with regards to the process in Zimbabwe.

    It was a surprising thing, coming as it does from a government that supports Mugabe heavily.

    The group pointed to the Marange massacres of illegal miners as a top concern for them and it is the Marange diamonds that they do not want out in the market.

    The Zimbabwe government now denies the killings. It's strange, because it was the MDC-T Deputy Minister of Mines who defended the ZANU PF abuses in Marange. "There are unsubstantiated reports of a number of deaths," he told the press in Namibia. And he says "we are keen to investigate if anybody comes forward with any leading information.."

    Excuse me, but YOU are the government. This would be easy to find out.

    But it just shows again that the MDC-T especially has thrown all principle out of the window. Their defence of Mugabe and ZANU PF is going beyond the call of politeness.

    Mugabe's Spokesman, George Charamba, boasted about the Marange abuses in his now-defunct column in the State daily newspaper The Herald.

    He said the illegal miners had been taught a good lesson and that they now knew "kusina mai hakuendwe " (appr. Never go where your mother is not).

    So now human rights and pressure groups have converged on Namibia to push for the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process.

    What does this say about whether the world is listening to Tsvangirai when he says everything is now fine and dandy in Zimbabwe? Even as he calls for lifting of sanctions and re engagement with the West, more sanctions are imminent.

    And he still says Mugabe is indispensable and irreplaceable?

    Indispensable to what, exactly?

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  • The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves
    Deputy PM Arthur Mutambara at the World Economic Forum a couple of weeks back. He is spearheading a doomed drive to "rebrand" Zimbabwe.


    Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara personally called yesterday to invite us to a "Rebranding Zimbabwe" workshop due to be held here in Harare tomorrow (25 June 2009).

    Unfortunately, Dr Makoni had a prior engagement and had to send regrets for this event.
    (Some exciting things are happening here and Zimbabwe will experience a political earthquake in the next few days!)

    But it all just got me thinking: This is an exercise in futility.

    Some things will actually need to change before Zimbabwe can spend money on rebranding. Right now, the only thing that has changed is that the two MDCs are now part of ZANU PF. Other than that, repressive laws are still in operation, for example.

    Journalists are still barred from Zimbabwe, sewage continues to flow in the streets, democracy activists continue to be harassed and arrested, WOZA protesters beaten. Zimbabwe remains one of the most expensive places in which to live and just last month, our hotels were abandoned by FIFA because of their ludicrous charges.....

    Tourists are supposed to come and see this?

    There is precious little else for them to see because hungry villagers have poached much of the wildlife. In fact, ZANU PF and even some MDC-T MPs have been allocated GAME FARMS under the Land Reform Programme.

    They have destroyed those farms, neglecting and letting anything and everything happen there.

    Tourists are supposed to come and see this?

    Or perhaps the rebranding is directed at investors?

    Again, I say pull the other one.

    There are no new policies in place. The Deputy PM very sensibly told the World Economic Forum in Cape Town two weeks ago that "there are no sacred cows" in investments in Zimbabwe and that his new government would welcome partners in everything and anything.

    But the world is still skeptical that he and Tsvangirai's voices carry any weight in government. They know Mugabe. They have seen him in action, threatening to take away companies like he did with farms. 100% Empowerment is his misleading motto still.

    Even our Eastern friends do not trust him enough to put their money where their United Nations Security Council vetoes are.

    The politicans are still at it, aren't they? They insist that they will tell you how and what to think, how to see things. Your own views do not come into it at all, you must do as you are told.

    It reminds of that summer camp joke: "The beatings will continue until morale improves".

    "You had better listen to us," as the Prime Minister said.

    Still, Mutambara's heart is in the right place, but alas, behind it hides a fox and the fish are very unlikely to bite.

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  • Zimbabwe Has No Government
    Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai addresses the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London yesterday June 23 2009. It is now clear that there really are two governments in Zimbabwe, working at cross purposes

    There is no government in Zimbabwe, of that we can be certain.

    We will break it down like this: The Prime Minister is supposed to be in charge of policy formulation and implementation. His title misleadingly suggests that he is also Head of Government. Which he is not. Webster Shamu, minister of information, made that clear.

    Instead, we were told that Tsvangirai is the leader of government business in parliament and that is all there is to it. In other words, and if we are to put it in local parlance, "Tsvangirai anotonga muparliament chete" – meaning "Tsvangirai only governs in parliament."

    So that is the attitude: you have a majority in parliament, and that is where you can prance around and call yourself boss. But every cabinet minister has a right to say, "You are not the Boss of me!"

    Except those from the MDC-T, perhaps, whom he can fire at will. But the ZANU PF ministers now clearly and publicly say they do not listen to anything the Prime Minister says.

    Two governments. I hope you note that.

    The one that is supposed to make a difference in people's lives, to implement policies and measures that will revive the sleeping lion that is Zimbabwe, is being told point blank that they should, lives slaves, see to it that the masses are catered for and leave the governing business to grown-ups.

    It is an impossible situation, which makes it even more puzzling that the Prime Minister defends this and now says Mugabe is, in his own words, "irreplaceable and indispensable".

    All Shamu did was throw into sharp focus what I have been saying for months now: Mugabe believes that the MDC-T have been "accepted" into government so that they can get rid of the sanctions and revive the economy that he accuses them of destroying, working together with their Western puppeteers.

    But that is where it ends.

    The MDC-T, according to Mugabe, must leave the business of power and governing to ZANU PF. They should run along now and fix the economy and stop meddling in the real business of running the country.

    His actions clearly demonstrate this thinking. Everything Robert "The Solution" Mugabe has done whenever a matter of real power must be decided has shown that to him, nothing has changed. He is still in his office, still has his powers (all of them). The only thing that has changed is that he has gained a few new ministers, who must all pay homage to him, which they do.

    Tsvangirai has no responsibility in government except to the people of Zimbabwe. Every decision of substance, from media freedoms to the rule of law and the sort of democracy people want, is decided according to Mugabe's will and whims.

    Civil servants carry more weight than the Prime Minister. He learnt that after he came out with the nullity and voidness of the Permanent Secretaries appointed without the knowledge of the PMS office. After gnashing his teeth for a bit, the Prime Minister was forced to come back and re-announce those very same names. They were, after all, not null and void.

    So, Tsvangirai's side of government is held to account. Mind you they are held to account not to the people, but to the High Table of ZANU PF. They must motivate everything they seek to do, ask for permission from the president and the powers behind him.

    Mugabe's side of government, meantime, does what it wants, when it wants, how it wants, without seeking anybody's approval or even concurrence. So many faits accomplis have been presented to the MDC-T and its leader.

    Roy Bennett arrested without warning. Waves of MDC-T MPs standing before the courts accused of all manner of nefarious deeds. So much so, in fact, that VERITAS now says the MDC-T majority in parliament is in imminent danger.

    This is the real story.

    That while the Prime Minister and his apologists look the other way, scanning the horizon for aid dollars, Mugabe is busy snickering and cutting the MDC down within the country. And not a voice is raised in protest.

    The man whose party is being so targeted says those who speak up about these things are "paranoid and delusional".

    Why?

    Because Morgan Tsvangirai has got what he wanted, he is now Prime Minister and everything else pales into insignificance. It is an achievement for him to have forced his former hero, Mugabe, to swear him at the head of this regime that is now in office but not in power.

    He has done more than any other person has been able to do to Mugabe since Independence.

    The people?

    They can go hang.

    That is the message from the MDC-T and its leader, whom they are too paralysed to call to order.

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  • SADC Makes Fools Out Of The MDC-T
    This was the last straw desperate MDC-T and Tsvangirai apologists were clinging to, that Jacob Zuma would read Mugabe the riot act, unlike the hated Mbeki. On Saturday, Mugabe was pallying around with Zuma at the SADc Heads of State meeting in Johannesburg as can be seen here. Then King Mswati emerged to tell reporters that no one had written to them to complain about Zimbabwe and they will, therefore, not be discussing it. The MDC-T leadership meets today in Harare in a panic response to this development. They will only issue more meaningless deadlines and resolutions that are not very resolute at all.


    I did tell you, did I not, almost a month ago, to hysterical cries of protest from MDC-T and Tsvangirai apologists ,that outstanding issues will remain outstanding.

    It is now official.

    King Mswati, who was living it up with Gideon Gono and Robert "Tsvangirai's Solution" Mugabe at Gono's farm a couple of weeks back, has said that "no official" complaint has been lodged with SADC about Zimbabwe's new government and that he was in Zimbabwe, where he saw for himself that everything is just fine.

    Regular readers of this blog have the background to how it has come this.

    I have explained it before.

    Still, my position is vindicated, my analysis proved correct and my sources also vindicated. The MDC-T claimed that they had written to Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa and current Chairman of the Southern African Development Community, about outstanding issues which include Gideon Gono, Reserve Bank Governor and Johannes Tomana, the Attorney General.

    Now SADC say they never received such a letter. No "official" communication.

    There is nothing to investigate, SADC says.

    If you have not read my previous analysis of this, let me just state again that King Mswati, the despot of Swaziland, should be listened to on this matter because he is the Chairman of the SADC Organ on Defence and Politics. This is the Organ that deals officially with the Zimbabwe issue.

    It then makes recommendations about the matter to a full Heads of State meeting.

    None of this is going to happen.

    The MDC-T has been rattled enough by the jeering in London and this latest rebuff from SADC to call for a special meeting of its Executive today. They will meet today, yes.

    But nothing will come of it.

    They have built the same aura and personality cult around Tsvangirai as ZANU PF did around Mugabe. He is, I am afraid, too big for them now ("I am the MDC, he once said, without me, there is no MDC".)

    SADC was meeting at the weekend to discuss Mauritius, whose exiled leader is cooling his heels in South Africa and there had been talk that Zimbabwe would be discussed, especially since the MDC-T claimed they had sent a letter to the regional body.

    Like I said before, Tsvangirai sabotaged his own party on this one. He bought Mugabe's argument (flawed) that only if there is agreement amongst ALL the Principals in the Unity Government that there was an impasse could the matter be referred to SADC.

    Unfortunately for the MDC-T, their principal agrees with Mugabe that not swearing in Roy Bennett, not swearing in ambassadors, Governors etc can not be considered an impasse.

    As Tsvangirai drags them towards the cliff, there to fall off into oblivion and irrelevance, all the MDC-T can do at the moment is consult and discuss.

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  • "Sekai Holland and Zimbabwe Exiles Paranoid" - Morgan Tsvangirai
    Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai leaves No. 10 Downing Street after a meeting with embattled British PM Gordon Brown. Tsvangirai had earlier dismissed Sekai Holland and the Diaspora as "paranoid" and "obsessed".
    Looks very pleased with himself, doesn't he?


    Not only has Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe called his own minister of National Healing, Sekai Holland, as well as Zimbabweans in the diaspora "paranoid", but he has also stated that "if you wanted a Mugabe ouster, you should have staged a revolution."

    Tsvangirai made the comments during an interview on Monday with BBC Radio Four.

    Mike Thompson, the interviewer, tried to bring up the subject of the continued harassment of MDC-T officials, MPs, Civil rights activists and journalists by referring to an interview he had in Zimbabwe two weeks ago with Sekai Holland.

    He resisted naming the Minister, but that did not stop Tsvangirai.

    "I know who we are talking. We are talking of Sekai Holland is it?" Tsvangirai said.

    The interviewer confirmed this.

    Tsvangirai then says, " I, I'm afraid that the paranoial fear is an environment that used to exist in the country before the inclusive government and once the inclusive Government was there the situation has improved for the better."

    Obviously, Thompson was not buying this.

    So came the question on the exiled Zimbabweans in the Diaspora:

    Mike Thompson: Even Zimbabwean exiles here, when you were speaking to them on Saturday night and you said, "Come home, we need you, things are now stable", they jeered. They just didn't believe it, did they?

    MT: Well they didn't and I think, I think it's, it's, it's a paranoid obsession of what was happening before, and I will not be the one to force them to accept what I am explaining.

    So Morgan Tsvangirai is quite pleased with the "progress" he and Mugabe are making in abducting MDC-T leaders and human rights activists.

    Just last week, WOZA women were beaten up for marching peacefully in the streets of Bulawayo, with three of them having to be hospitalised. But this is just paranoia as far as Morgan Tsvangirai is concerned, a figment of the imagination of the WOZA women and others?

    Perhaps this is as good a time as any to respond publicly to a question Conor asked me on Facebook a few weeks back: Is Tsvangirai just naive or is has he been co-opted. That was the question.

    The answer we must settle on now is that Tsvangirai has indeed been co-opted into ZANU PF. His defence of Mugabe and ZANU PF tactics and brutality beggars belief, it goes beyind the call of duty, unless that duty is to spruce up Mugabe at all cost. Even a blind and deaf man would realise there is something wrong with this arrangement.

    Yet it is clear that the PM believes what he says and he says it with conviction. Like I said before, there is no mysterious strategy at play here from the Prime Minister. He has simply surrendered to Mugabe and ZANU PF and wants Zimbabweans from all walks of life to join in the capitulation.

    If not, you are paranoid and are talking nonsense, you should be deported because everything is fine back home.....if you felt so strongly about Mugabe going, why did you not stage a revolution...you failed to do this so stop pointing fingers at me..... This is the Prime Minister's message to Zimbabweans.

    What he seems unaware of is that, in order to stage a revolution, people need a revolutionary leader (Yeltsin mounted a tank sent to blow him and his supporters to pieces, for example), not one who runs away to Botswana at the height of violence, leaving his supporters to face the music, rudderless and lost and unprotected...

    The repeated failure of the leaders who were given the people's votes in 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2008 to mobilise people against electoral theft led directly to Mugabe realising that this tactic of violence worked.

    And that is how he defeated the people.

    It is not the people that are to blame, but the leadership to which they looked for a lead on how to react to Mugabe's violence.

    The lead they got was running away to Botswana or Australia or South Africa.

    Which is what they did.

    But now we know this: Tsvangirai's message to Zimbabwe is "Surrender to Mugabe as I have and everything will be fine. You will not be beaten, tortured or thrown in jail on trumped-up charges. Mugabe will not go, not matter what you say you want, so surrender, capitulate."

    And, oh yes, "You'd better listen to me." Or else.

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  • A Cold Reception Awaits Tsvangirai From Mugabe In Zimbabwe
    Morgan Tsvangirai being welcomed to No. 10 Downing Street by Gordon Brown earlier today. The Zimbabwe PM has now told reporters in London that the British will "not appreciate" Zimbabweans claiming asylum in Britain because "things are fine back home" now


    Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his office were warned through the official media yesterday as Joice Mujuru flew off to the United States to attend a UN Summit.

    They were warned that the Prime Minister's office has breached not only protocol but also the Official Secrets Act, a breach of which constitutes "treason" under current law.

    Why?

    Well, as you all know by now, the state media has all but ignored the Prime Minister's tour overseas (except for today when The Herald splashed on its front the story about Tsvangirai being booed by Zimbabweans in London.)

    So Tsvangirai published his own paper, with pictures of him meeting Obama et al. He distributed it free.

    The state media has reacted by publishing a story saying the Prime Minister is out of line and that he is going to be hauled over the coals by Mugabe when he returns.

    Their line is that the PM was "sent" by Robert "The Solution" Mugabe and Cabinet and should therefore report to them first before telling the whole country that he has met with Obama, Brown, Clinton and all these other world leaders.

    Even George Charamba, Mugabe's spokesman, got in on the act, telling The Herald he had seen the paper and his ministry was "looking at what the law says".

    It is almost certain that they will take no action against the Prime Minister himself, despite the state media quoting ZANU PF people asking, "What about the Oath of Secrecy?".

    But I can assure you, as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, ZANU PF civil servants will pick on a couple of people from the PMs office for investigation and harassment over this once-off newspaper.

    People from the PM's office will perhaps even be arrested and charged with crimes related to AIPPA and POSA and even, as the state media alluded to yesterday, "breaching the Official Secrets Act."

    But it is also certain that when the persecution of his people starts, the Prime Minister will tell the world that it is all "due process" (just as he is doing with the Jestina Mukoko persecution) and that the law must take its course.

    This comes hot on the heels of the Minister of Information, the former Charles Ndlovu (who used to be editor of the ZANU PF newspaper, The People's Voice, who is now known as Webster Shamu, telling the courts in Zimbabwe that Tsvangirai has no power over any minister because he is not Head of Cabinet nor Head of Government, let alone Head of State.

    With all this happening, have you now noticed how MDC-T apologists have gone underground, not heard anymore.

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  • Tsvangirai Jeered In London - Video Released
    Part of the crowd that whistled, jeered and humiliated Tsvangirai on Saturday in London. The PM later told a press conference that Zimbabweans in the UK were ignorant and that he does not get this kind of treatment "when I meet Zimbabweans back home."

    Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe shouts back at protesters who had just disrupted his speech, chanting: "Mugabe must go!" on Saturday at the Southwark Cathedral' He just sat back down next to Elton Mangoma and Tendai Biti when he exploded, shouting back at the chanting crowd and waving his hands dismissively

    The BBC has released a video showing the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, unable to make his address at Southwark Cathedral amid booes and jeers.

    He started off by saying: "I want to state something here and I will state it boldly..."

    At which point a member of the audience interjected and said: "Mugabe must go!"

    Tsvangirai continued: "Zimbabweans must come home."

    And all hell broke loose, the jeers and booes got even louder. The PM could not get a word in, stating:

    "I want...........(jeers).......Let me.......(jeers)....." And then he got angry and waved down the crowd, saying:

    "Hold on, hold on......" The jeering would not stop and was getting even louder.

    Tsvangirai then says: "Well, let me state here, you'd better listen to me."

    That was the last statement he made before walking off stage.

    As he sat back down next to one of his officials, he was clearly angry and was gesticulating dismissively towards the audience.

    Later, at a press conference, it is also reported that Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans in the diaspora are ignorant: "they lack knowledge," he said, about what is happening back home. Out of touch, in other words.

    I just wonder, who is it that is out of touch: The People or Tsvangirai?

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  • Tsvangirai Jeered By Zim Exiles, Forced To Cut Short His Address
    Morgan Tsvangirai slinks off as he is jeered by Zimbabweans in London at Southwark Cathedral. This was just over two hours ago as I write this. Tsvangirai had to cut short the event and leave after it became clear that the majority of the people present did not want to hear his apologies and lies about the "stability" of Zimbabwe


    Morgan Tsvangirai was forced to cut short his address to Zimbabweans at Southwark Cathedral in London after they started jeering him. This happened about two hours ago.

    According to the BBC website, Tsvangirai told his audience that his and Mugabe's government has ensured that there is "peace and stability" in Zimbabwe.

    It was at that point that the crowd started jeering them, with some holding banners calling for Mugabe to go.

    As we all know, Tsvangirai now says there is no need for Mugabe to go. In fact, he says Mugabe "is the solution" to Zimbabwe's impasse, telling an audience at Wits University in South Africa last month:

    "President Mugabe is not going anywhere. He is with us in this government until we achieve positive results."

    I wonder what the MDC-T praise-singers think now? Were the 1000 (yes a thousand) people who jeered Tsvangirai today at Southwark Cathedral CIO or ZANU PF?

    Can they not see just utterly compromised the Prime Minister has become?

    I guess not. They will still blindly follow, even if he tells them to vote for Mugabe today, they would defend him on that!!

    Still, it is now plain for everyone to see that Tsvangirai hold no moral authority anymore within or outside Zimbabwe. He has become a liability to the MDC-T.

    But they can do nothing to him because, as he once said at a rally in Gweru, "I am the MDC. Without me, there is no MDC."

    So, there you have it. People are not happy with this man, they are not happy that he sold their votes to Mugabe. They are not happy that he is now globe-trotting to source funds for propping Mugabe, whom he says "is not going anywhere."

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  • A Stunning Coincidence
    I do this now and again, when something really stunning catches my eye.

    This photo is a shot from a webcam in Hungary, which took a picture of a curious bird in flight. The bird was staring straight into camera when the the shot was taken.

    The camera is set to take a shot once every minute, making the coicidence of the moment even more stunning.

    Yeah, we got birds in Zimbabwe, so I am still on-topic for the blog!

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  • The Importance of Being Morgan Tsvangirai
    Showing strain: The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai at a press conference with the EU leadership in Brussels earlier today, June 18 2009

    The MDC-T and its cohorts must make up their minds fast.

    This thing of "fighting from within" simply will not work, has never worked and has no hope of working. I said as much in January when I asked what the Prime Minister would be "struggling" against when he himself is in charge of policy formulation and implementation.

    If the MDC-T has decided to appease Mugabe, they should go all the way and stop wasting the people's time with this Hoky-Poky dance they are engaged in.

    Morgan Tsvangirai, his party and his supporters are all agreed now that Mugabe is The Solution to Zimbabwe's problems.

    They keep telling us as much every time they open their mouths.

    Mugabe hears this. He believes it.

    It tells him the MDC-T recognises that he is the glue that is holding Zimbabwe together. That is exactly what the Prime Minister and his supporters say.

    So now, they do not believe that he should go. (Now!). Continuing to fight after such a blatant capitulation is both pointless and vexatious to the people of this country.

    What is the point in making threats and issuing deadlines and writing letters to partisan SADC Lordships and Kingdoms if at the end of it all, you still insist that you are not leaving government, the process is irreversible. No matter what. "Hell, no we won't go," you say.

    But there are real issues of substance to be engaged here.

    Poverty, disease, a free falling economy....the list is endless.

    These must be addressed ahead of concerns about which party gets the most Mercedes Benzes that come with Governorships and Ambassadorial posts.

    Yes, we know that these things can not be addressed without funds, but you knew that when you decided to sleep with the devil. You said you "budgeted" for it.

    What the MDC-T by going into government, knowing they will be resisted and still insisting they will never leave is like a hunter telling his family to cook sadza before he has even embarked on his expedition.

    So, get a move on and start making plans for reviving Zimbabwe using whatever resources we have now. Surely, you "budgeted" for this as well, knowing as you did that Mugabe was not going to just roll over and play dead.

    Government could be cut, for instance, expenditure halved. That will free up half a billion dollars immediately which could go to stimulating recovery.

    This just but one example.

    But this can happen only if there is a will. Right now there isn't.

    Refusing to leave government, resting on their laurels and staring at Mugabe over the smouldering ashes of the victims of cholera, disease, abuse and criminal neglect, the MDC-T are doing a disservice to the people who put hope in them.

    We know how far Mugabe is willing to go. He will, as Heidi Holland put it, let this country go up in smoke just so he can prove to the British and the Americans that they have no power over him.

    The MDC clearly says they have no power over him also. Which is why they have abandoned all talk and thought of his departure. Which is why the PM says The Solution in "not going anywhere until we achieve positive results"

    So, achieve them and let us be done with this albatross.

    The Importance of being Morgan Tsvangirai lies in the fact that, as unquestioned leader of MDC-T, if he decides, as he has, to capitulate to Mugabe, he need not go half-measures about it. Plunge in.

    Every single MDC-T supporter will support your utter surrender, because you are Morgan Tsvangirai.

    Then we can start focusing on the economy that is killing people instead of futile power games with a muscular madman.

    It is dishonest for MDC-T to continue to want to spoil for a fight, when they have already admitted defeat. There is no silver bullet they hold with regards to Mugabe. The previous weapon was the economy, but now they are at the forefront of reversing this.

    What other leverage to they have over Mugabe now that they abandoned the squeeze on the economy?

    None.

    And, if the destruction of the economy did not soften this dictator's heart, what, pray tell, is the new weapon the MDC-T and Tsvangirai plan to wield against Mugabe?

    None.

    Boycotting government, the only plausible alternative, they have already discounted. "Irreversible!," they chant.

    Yes, but just because you are not in reverse gear does not mean you are moving forward.

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  • Amnesty International Damns Unity Government
    Irene Khan, Head Honcho at Amnesty International is seen here at a press conference in Harare earlier today. She said human rights violations persist and said the Unity Government had failed to arrest this trend.


    In Zimbabwe today, Irene Khan, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, issued a damning report of the Unity government to journalists.

    But even this was couched in diplomatic-speak, which is uncharacteristic of the organisation.

    Khan said commitment was lacking from "sections" of the government, without naming names.

    She did, however, state that "persistent and serious human rights violations continue."

    Quite sensibly, she also added, "The government must give as much attention to securing human rights reforms as they are to seeking economic resources."

    This will no doubt get The Solution's back up. It will be dismissed as talk of regime-change agenda. It is all quite predictable that way.


    It appears Mugabe s following through on what I told you a few weeks back, about Mugabe telling the Prime Minister that the economy is the priority according to the GPA and he wants to see those sanctions gone or he is not implementing any of things the MDC wants.

    Which will mean no swearing in of Roy Bennett, no Governors, no Ambassadors, - nothing. Zilch for the MDC. As Mugabe said during his June 27 solo run-off, "What can they do to us that they have not already done?"

    What is important is to understand the meaning of all this.

    Mugabe is no friend of Amnesty International. He is no friend of anyone in the West, in fact. Ask Simba Makoni and he will tell you the absolutely delusional paranoia Mugabe has about whites trying to topple him (the regime change agenda).

    Ask Morgan Tsvangirai to repeat to you what he told an interviewer in September last year about Mugabe's "paranoia and obsession with the British."

    Tsvangirai, as a result of the Amnesty International push and the refusal to grant relief to Zimbabwe by Western governments, will not be able to shake off the image of a Trojan Horse from Westminster that Mugabe has of him.

    He will become even more paranoid that they want to replace him with Tsvangirai as president and that he can expect that no quarter will be given he were to lose power. It would be off with his head, he will think.

    I fear Morgan Tsvangirai may be right is what he told a Wits University last month: "President Mugabe is not going anywhere until we achieve positive results in this government."

    Elections do not come into it, apparently, according to the PM. Nor does the will of the people. No. Mugabe's condition is "positive results", the PM says.

    And that means lifting sanctions, and seeing a growth in the economy, just so the old man does not leave the stage in disgrace.

    That could take ten years.

    I could go on about cornered bulls and how they fight, but we all know that: Mugabe is in a corner with sanctions and unfortunately for the Prime Minister, The Solution also has the PM in a pincer.

    For the next three months or so, it will be a battle of wills, to see who cracks first, who gives in, concedes.

    I am indeed taking bets.

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