Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog: 6/1/09 - 7/1/09 Live From Harare, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe: Student Arrested For "Assaulting" Mugabe's Nephew at Constitutional Conference

A ZANU PF supporter is restrained by a policeman at the podium at Harare International Conference Centre, where the MDC-T had tried to resume the All Stakeholders Conference on the Constitution after earlier disruptions. The police had removed ZANU PF supporters while some MDC-T remained seated, including Tendai Biti, the Minister of Finance. The ZANU PF disruptors were brought back into the hall, however, and that is when they stormed the podium and it was clear that there would be no conference. Mugabe and Tsvangirai are now saying they had not been invited to the Conference.

A leader and delegate from ZINASU, the Zimbabwe National Students' Union has been arrested by police for allegedly assaulting Mugabe's nephew and former Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Patrick Zhuwao.

Zhuwao, who happens to be Mugabe's favourite nephew, was not hurt in the attack, it appears. But the eight o'clock television news tonight in Zimbabwe reported the arrest and blamed the entire thing on the MDC.

Yet it is clear that ZANU PF people started shouting the moment Lovemore Moyo, the Speaker, stood up to speak.

On why Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara all failed to pitch up at the event, where Mugabe was supposed to deliver the opening address, and Tsvangirai a key-note speech, state Television says the leaders now claim that they had not been invited.

They were only invited today, was the line.

Yet, even on Saturday, the State newspaper, the Herald, led with the story of the Constitution conference and announced that it would be opened by Mugabe. Mugabe spoke about teh Conference on Friday at the burial of a national hero at Heroes Acre.

The two men, The Solution and Prime Minister Mini-me, were holed up at State House in a fired-up meeting as the conference started.

It also appears that Mugabe has now decided to make his dirty business a family affair. It is now said by insiders that Zhuwao and Kasukuwere were goaded into this action by Mugabe himself, plotting behind the high walls of the green-roofed villa the president now calls home in Helensvale.

Zhuwao led the people who disrupted the proceedings. He knew where he was coming from.

When riot police arrived, Zhuwao then pointed out the guy who had "assaulted" him and the student was led away. He is still in police custody and is probably going to be made an example of.

So, despite the fact that the disruptions were started by ZANU PF, it is MDC-T supporters who are getting arrested. The student arrested by the police was described on State television this evening as "a member of ZINASU and an MDC supporter."

ZTV also told the nation that MDC-T supporters came into the hall wearing party T-shirts in order to provoke ZANU PF.

It was further alleged that Lovemore Moyo, the speaker, when he arrived in the hall and waved to the gathered crowd, was in fact giving an MDC salute and that this is what led "war vets" and rural women bussed into the Conference venue by ZANU PF to shout at him and disrupt his speech.

"They felt he was being partisan", said the newsreader. (I am afraid I do not keep newsreaders name in my mind, so I do not know what her name is).

Of course, we all know it "Her Master's Voice" speaking.

Photos: Zimbabwe Constitutional Conference Abandoned As Riot Police Break Up Rowdy Crowd

Riot Police first seperated the two camps, ZANU PF and MDC-T and then herded them outside the Harare International Conference Centre where this was taking place

Once outside, the police circled the rowdy supporters (here we see the ZANU PF supporters circled to prevent further clashes with MDC-T supporters. The conference was shelved and no word yet on when it will resume, with Mugabe still demanding that the Kariba Draft be the only draft on the table.

Fireworks At State House As Riot Police Patrol The Streets

Lovemore Moyo, the MDC-T Speaker of Parliament, who was forced to abandon his Welcoming Address at the All Stakeholders Conference on a new Constitution in Harare today. Mugabe, at the burial of a former ZIPRA freedom fighter at Heroes Acre on Friday pleaded with Moyo in his speech, saying, "Please please Mr Speaker, let the process be Zimbabwean". Mugabe was in a heated meeting with Tsvangirai at State House at the time of writing this

Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai are holed up at the State House in Harare, both of them refusing t come out to address the Constitutional Conference, which the organisers, especially the Members of Parliament from MDC-T, attempted to reopen about an hour ago.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai, whose traditional Monday meeting at which the PM reports to the President on government business today turned into a fireworks display, are still refusing to show up at the venue.

Riot police, who were called in to quell the disturbances between MDC-T and ZANU PF supporters during the disruption of the All Stakeholders Conference earlier today, are still roaming the streets. One of their vehicles was parked at Africa Unity Square, in front of parliament, only a few minutes ago.

Mugabe is insisting on two things in his meeting with Tsvangirai today.

First, he wants the process delayed so that there is clear agreement that the Kariba Draft is the one that will be adopted.

Second, he is insisting that the process must not be funded by western donor agencies and aid groups. He insists this will ensure that there are "no outside interests" involved in this.

During the same meeting, Mugabe told Tsvangirai that statements by Tendai Biti that the MDC-T and its allies will go ahead and write a constitution with or without those who do not want the process to go ahead if the Kariba Draft is ignored are not only against the GPA "spirit" but also "treason".

Mugabe's way forward is that the MDC-T, MDC-M and ZANU PF should agree on the Kariba Draft before the Conference resumes. He says the MDCs and his party have already signed the Draft and his party will not tolerate the MDCs "reneging" on their signatures.

The people, Mugabe insists, should only be given the chance to comment and vote on the Kariba Draft. Guided democracy, North Korea-style.

One comment that came out of the meeting at State House from Mugabe, which should a raise a laugh or two was this: "If you and your party (MDC-T) keep going back on your word like this, then I do not see how you can ever be trusted."

Tsvangirai, who wants to be trusted by Mugabe more than anything else at this point, will almost certainly give in by the time the meeting ends.

Mugabe insists that either his and his party's demands are met or they kill the Constitution-making process.

Something tells me Tsvangirai will bring his party around to Mugabe's point of view. And I am taking bets.

Constitutional Conference Abandoned Amidst Riotous Scenes

ZANU PF supporters shout, jeer, sing and dance during Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo's Welcoming Speech at the All Stakeholders Conference on the Constitution in Harare a couple of hours ago. The Conference was abandoned as MPs and delegates started walking out

The Inclusive Impediment to People's Hopes, led by Mugabe and Tsvangirai was today forced to abandon the All-Stakeholders Conference in Harare after disruptions by members and supporters of Robert "The Solution" Mugabe.

Lovemore Moyo, the Speaker of Parliament and Chairman of the MDC-T, could not finish his opening remarks as Mugabe's people started insulting him and singing War Songs.

It got so bad that he had to go and sit back down.

Soon after, as the crowd continued to sing and the dance the kongonya dance (a buttock-waving dance peculiar to female ZANU PF supporters), the Speaker and members of the MDCs started walking out.

Mugabe was supposed to have attended, but I did not see him there at all. I think he knew what was happening, regardless.

This effectively kills the process, really.

Mugabe is still insisting, as he did to his Central Committee, that he wants the Kariba Draft as the basis of a new Constitution, with its dictatorial powers and provisions for jailing people who fail to pay their water and electricity bills (or confiscating their property).

Now, since the Prime Minister the President and his party are the solution to Zimbabwe's problems, it would be impossible for him to go ahead with the process without Mugabe and ZANU PF.

We could all see this coming, really. That is why the NCA and ZCTU, by far the two biggest civil society organisations in Zimbabwe, boycotted this joke. Tsvangirai was trying to convince them he will make Mugabe come around, he had faith that Mugabe would see reason and allow all drafts on the table.

There is, as we all know, a new-found faith in Mugabe by the Prime Minister (American Ambassador McGee recently recalled how Tsvangirai also assured him at the beginning of the GNU by saying, "This time Mugabe really is sincere.")

Of course, the fact that Mugabe is stringing the MDC-T along is self-evident, although shockingly denied by some of the most ignorant people I have ever encountered, who insist that Mugabe and Tsvangirai are "sharing power".

Today, Mugabe just revealed where exactly he stands in the quest for a New Zimbabwe.

The PM, as always, will make excuses for Mugabe, brush the whole thing off and take out his scrubbing brush to scrub Mugabe's image clean once again.

This Conference is doomed.

The next referendum will also see the Constitution that will eventually be cooked up by Mugabe and Tsvangirai defeated. The people want change, real change, not capitulation after capitulation.

"Bennett Will Go To Jail"

Roy Bennet leaving Mutare Prison on March 12 this year, a full month after his fellow ministers and Deputy Ministers from the Tsvangirai MDC had been sworn in by Mugabe. Sunday 12 July is four-month anniverary of that release, and he is still not sworn in. Mugabe makes promises, Tsvangirai and his apologists swallow them........

The idiotic lie that Roy Bennett will be sworn in at the same time as the MDC-T Governors, which is supposedly to happen next month, is still being regurgitated by Tsvangirai apologists, even as the MDC-T itself as a party acknowledges that it has been sold a dummy by Mugabe.

You will recall that in March this year, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara took up the issue with Mugabe because Tsvangirai was too scared to confront Mugabe on it. Mutambara was told by Mugabe that Bennett would not be sworn in because he has a serious case against him pending in the courts.

Mutambara pressed the point and asked The Solution what would happen if Bennett was acquitted. Mugabe responded, according to Mutambara, by saying, "He will not be acquitted."

Just yesterday, another of Mugabe's people in ZANU PF was telling me, "Don't be fooled by all this talk, Bennett will go to jail."

And Mugabe should know about that, seeing as he controls the judiciary in Zimbabwe, much as he controls everything else, a result of Tsvangirai's myopic signing of an agreement that guaranteed Mugabe all the constitutional rights of an Executive President under the current Constitution.

Roy Bennett' case has now been scheduled for October this year. He is charged with terrorism and arms-related offences.

The idea, as you can see, is to ensure that Bennett does not have any time in office.

It is most likely that if he is sworn in at all, it will be at the very end of August, after which he immediately starts attending court to defend himself.

And as Mugabe said, Bennett, by hook or by crook, will be found guilty and jailed. The sentence he will be be given will be a political sentence, meaning that the courts will ensure that he is sent away for the rest of the envisaged life of this discredited Government National DisUnity.

So he is unlikely to get less than 4 years in jail. Perhaps "with hard labour" will be thrown in gratuitously, as it was with the MDC-T MP from Manicaland earlier this year.

And once convicted, Mugabe will very plausibly argue that, since PM Tsvangirai said "innocent until proven guilty" - guilt would have been established and Bennett would not be eligible to be nominated for any post in government.

And that will be end of the story.

Mugabe, Chinamasa and the service chiefs are determined to ensure that Bennett does not sit in his office as DeputyMinister of Agriculture.

They will achieve their end. Tsvangirai will capitulate. On that you can bet your bottom dollar. If you lose it, I will refund you, with interest.

I really have no idea where the people who think he will be serve as Deputy Minister of Agriculture are getting their optimism. Mugabe's track record on Gono and Tomana should really inform them on this.

But the MDC-T and its apologists live in cloud cuckoo-land, where their wishes are horses.

Mugabe knows now that the MDC-T will not leave the Inclusive Impediment to The People's Hopes no matter what. What would be the consequences, then, if he refuses to honour this promise to Tsvangirai (remember, the promise was announced by Tsvangirai. Mugabe and ZANU PF have said nothing at all and at a later stage, then can easily turn around and ask, "When did you hear me promise to swear him in?")?

We only have Tsvangirai and the MDC-T's word for this.

As ever, I am taking bets.

Zimbabwe Army Reveals It's Hidden Hand

Morgan Tsvangirai speaks under the watchful eye of his boss, Robert "The Solution" Mugabe at the opening of the "Investment Conference" in Harare yesterday. A South African investor interviewed by ZTV yesterday said the conference was a joke because, if he invests in a factory in Zimbabwe, "I will need to drill a borehole because there is no water in the country. And then I have to buy a generator to give me power. Your government needs to address these issues first before asking investors to come in." The Inclusive government of the two men above is, however, too busy "eating" all revenue, paying for a bloated government etc to actually see that it has its priorities wrong.

On top of all this, you now have the army thumbing its nose at investor confidence as I explain in this article.

The Zimbabwe Defence Forces has now publicly come out to demonstrate that it listens to no one in the world and is essentially running the show in Zimbabwe.

Earlier today, the Defence Forces announced that they will not be withdrawing from the Marange Diamond fields, despite what the Kimberley Process Team that was in Zimbabwe this week says.

Senior Assistant Commissioner Munorwei (What do you fight?) Shava Matutu, who is in charge of the Manicaland province where Marange is located, said in a statement that soldiers will stay on at the Diamond Fields to "deal with" illegal miners and panners.

Of course, to those who have been reading this blog, it was clear from the outset that the army had no intention of moving out of the fields as promised by the Inclusive Government last Sunday. This is Mugabe and ZANU PF's private cash-cows, whose proceeds the Prime Minister and Finance Minister (both from the opposition) have neither knowledge of nor access to.

I have previously told you that we know for a fact of the existence of buckets of rough diamonds kept in the vaults at the Central Bank.

These diamonds, which are let out in tranches and sold through friendly countries as originating not from Zimbabwe, but from those friendly countries, are the ones that are keeping ZANU PF "in the money".

While the world thinks it is fixing Mugabe and his cronies by refusing to give aid to Zimbabwe, Mugabe and his people are sitting very pretty indeed. In fact, even as I write, one Colonel in the Defence Forces is in Malaysia with ALL his family, including a University student based in the United States who was flown to Malaysia for the month-long holiday.

Shiny and latest 4x4 vehicles are being purchased for the defence forces. The big cheese in the forces all live in sprawling mansions in Zimbabwe's leafiest and cushiest areas.

But what this statement from the Defence Forces reveals is that the defence forces not only defy Morgan Tsvangirai, the titular "Prime Minister" of Zimbabwe, but also the world at large. They know the power behind them is the supreme power in Zimbabwe: Mugabe, whose very word is law.

The hidden hand is this: The Army is NOT the power behind the throne. It IS the throne.

The Lion Holds A Conference for For Its Prey

Dr Evil and Mini-me: Robert "The Solution" Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai at the start of the Investment conference in Harare earlier today. It is a monumental waste of time and energy.

The predatory Inclusive Government duly tropped out of its offices today and gathered for an "Investment Conference" at a Harare hotel.

Don't laugh. They are dead serious about this.

Of course the attendees told them exactly where they could put their investment pleas.

The conference, though, is remarkable for the little-noticed fact that for the first time ever, Mugabe was exposed to the people he governs and they could put their questions directly to him.

Tervor Gifford of the Commercial Farmers Union wanted to know where the Inclusive Government stands on compensation for acquired farms.

Mugabe harangued the hall, insisting that nothing has changed. The dispossesed white farmers must go and get their compensation from Britain (which has denied all responsibility and even knowledge of such an obligation).

Fears around the possible seizure of companies, given impetus by this week's reports of the invasion of a gold mine, will also continue to dominate discussion tomorrow, when the conference resumes.

There is no need for this Investment Conference at all. More so one at which the threat to private property rights is amplified by the Head of State.

The Prime Minister said the Land Reform Programme is done and over with. Next is an audit, he insists and focus on "productivity". As for the farmers? "Losers weepers" appears to be attitude of this Inclusive Government.

On compensation, Prime Minister Mini-me agrees with his boss. In fact the postion that these farmers should get their compensation from Britain is now the official policy of the Inclusive Government.

Tally-ho, then, as the Terrible Twins go forth into the sunset, insisting that it is dawn.

As they say, you do not need to goad a hungry man into eating. If the policy signals being sent by this Inclusive Government were right, investments would come in of their own volition. We are a rich nation (to our eternal shame) and many an international company wants to come and set up shop here.

If the environment is right, everything falls into place.

Instead of inviting their prey into their den, Dr Evil and Mini-me should really be concentrating on putting the correct policy framework in place. A good place to start would be the successful and irreversible privatisation of loss-making government companies.

And then they must start making the right kind of noises to instill confidence in the market.

Overseas, they say "The Market Is A Coward". At the first sign of risk it turns tail and runs.

Which is what's happening in Zimbabwe.

Nothing will come from this Investment Conference primarily because the Inclusive Government has no clue how to go about creating a conducive atmosphere.

Zimbabwe: Staring Into The Abyss Again

Of course, we can expect that those who have now adopted ZANU PF language although they claim to fight for "change" will label us "saboteurs", "divisive elements" or, if we are lucky, merely "skeptics".

But truth must be told.

And that truth is that, as I predicted to you last month, inflation figures just released show a 15% overall increase and a 24% percent increase in the cost of the standard food basket (I was out by one, at 25%, but close enough).

Civil servants to whom Tendai "Father Christmas" Biti is to give a big salary raise on July 16, are still earning US$100 a month.

It's no better in the private sector, with the RBZ revealing this week that our entire brood of 14 commercial banks hold a paltry US$600 million in their vaults (that is just interest to Bill Gates).

Suffer Continue, then.

Two weeks ago, it was also reported that two villagers had died here after they failed to raise the required US dollars for clinic and hospital fees, medication and so on.

Of course, this may well have been ZANU PF trying, as it always does, to influence the nation in its fight with the MDC-T for the restoration of the Zimbabwe dollar as our No 1 currency.

Still, there is no denying that the people are beginning to feel the pinch. Which is why the MDC-T is now panicking, threatening to pull out, yet getting dragged back in by their all-powerful leader, the Prime Minister.

Keep in mind that these figures just released do not take into account a further hike in the price of fuel in the last couple of weeks to more than a dollar and a half per litre of petrol.

It means 15% ain't nothing.

Next month, the figures will be worse.

Through all this, the Inclusive Government is sitting there, two parties trying to stare each other down while ignoring the raging inferno consuming the country.

Inflation figures such as these in an environment underpinned by the relatively stable US dollar and the strong Rand spell nothing short of disaster. And they expose the complete and utter ineptitude of the Inclusive Government.

The people are complaining but they are told to "listen to me" and do as they are told, swallow whatever tripe they are given. The Inclusive Government is not listening.

Then again, it is difficult to hear when you have your snout deep in the trough.

Of Masochists and Apologists

Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, the dictator of Zimbabwe, and his wife, Grace, seen here being welcomed by Muamar Gaddafi of Libya to the African Union Summit in Sirte. Nothing has changed for "The Solution", who retains all his powers while the Prime Minister rather pitifully grasps at straws, such claiming credit for the skeletal US$950 million loan from the Chinese. (By the way, a diplomat here in Harare tells us the Chinese do not like giving aid, they prefer to advance "30 year loans", which they never demand back).

The Masochistic MDC-T and Tsvangirai apologists are at it again. They have a knack for painting themselves into a corner, together with their leader.

First it was the saluting thing, when truckloads of MDC-T supporters drove around Harare on February 11, when the Prime Minister was sworn in, singing, "Muchamusaluta chete Morgan". Meaning "You will salute Morgan whether you like it or not."

We know how that turned out.

The National Security Council is still to meet and the service chiefs pointedly tell the Prime Minister that they do not report to a Prime Minister, but to a Commander in Chief, one Robert "The Solution" Mugabe.

The apologists then turn around when this happens and say they do not care about salutes?! So why compose songs about them?

They say they do not care about SADC but at the first sign of an arrest or a refusal to swear one of theirs onto the Gravy Train, they scream that SADC must do something.

When SADC does nothing they say they never expected them to do anything anyway.

I wish they would all make up their minds.

This time, perhaps in desperation at the failure of the MDC-T and MDC-M to make a single policy, they are now frantically trying to claim credit for the skeletal aid coming in from China.

Of course it is ignorance, because even Tendai Biti himself told reporters as recently as last weekend that he had nothing to do with the US$950 million from China. Biti says it was negotiated starting a couple of years back by Gideon Gono and the Look East crowd.

Still, MDC-T apologists insist on waving this about as an MDC- triumph. When it does finally sink in just how utterly ridiculous they look aping a line disowned even by the MDC-T Secretary-General, they will say they do not care about that as well. Of that we can be certain.

They will then almost certainly turn to deriding the very same figure of US$950 million which, while they still think can be credited to the MDC-T, they are praising to high heaven as the Fountain of Zimbabwe's Economic Youth.

We can only look on bemused as they tie themselves into knots.

Perhaps one of these days they will realise that they should not set up their expectations on the basis of their wishes. It is easier and much more lucrative in the long run to instead boast about how the aid, once it arrives, is expertly utilised by the Finance Minister and PM to alleviate the suffering of people and inject policy and capital stimuli into the private sector in order to reignite investments.

But wait.

They can not claim any such credit, because no evidence of it exists. The PM and Finance Minister are instead operating a hunter-gatherer government, where they hunt only to feed their over sized and bloated civil service family.

How anyone can still insist that this Inclusive Impediment to the people's hopes be allowed to stay intact a day longer is beyond the grasp of the sane.

Mugabe Goes For Broke. Flat Broke

The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai and his Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, were threatening banks day before yesterday for not giving people such as these "small scale miners" pictured here millions of US dollars in loans. This as Mugabe and ZANU PF have decided they have nothing to lose and are escalating their Third Chimurenga with fresh farm attacks and invasions of mines. The Prime Minister appears content to let them get away with all this.

Robert "The Solution" Mugabe of Zimbabwe has decided he has nothing left to lose. A deliberate escalation of the "Third Chimurenga" has been now been adopted.

With the failure to get any aid from the Western nations whose diplomats he publicly calls "idiots", Mugabe has reverted back to fighting mode. As he has always said, he considers this a war between himself and the West. Imperialists, he calls them. Tsvangirai, he said, was just a proxy.

Now that the proxy has been converted and is now the Chief Public Relations Officer for Mugabe, The Solution is turning his guns back on the "real enemy".

So, the war resumes.

The result of this is that, in the near future, we are going to see Mugabe move in directions none of us ever thought could even be contemplated. Already, mining companies are being targeted as are two companies on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

The problem is that when sudden shifts in policy like this occur, it always ends up as a free-for-all, with personal agendas and vendettas being pursued under the guise of enforcing the new policy imperative.

As I write, and with the FIFA 2010 World Cup around the corner, the Miekles family remains specified, any prospects of investment to woo 2010 tourists for the Miekles, at least, are in limbo.

And the desperation of this flat-broke Inclusive Thingy saw the Governor and the Prime Minister threaten local banks day before yesterday. The banks are sitting on US$600 million, complained the Governor, and yet they will not lend any of it to gold panners (makorokoza). The Prime Minister weighed in (the two attended a function for gold panners together).

They seem to fail to grasp a simple, elementary concept of commerce: you lend to people who are likely to actually pay back the loan and the interest. There are criteria to be met, such as provision of security or surety.

But no, the Inclusive Government, still pursuing discredited ZANU PF policies in Zimbabwe, wants to lead the solid banking institutions of Zimbabwe into the same bankruptcy that they have taken the economy of the country.

The banks are very sensibly ignoring all these noises. They have shareholders to account to, shareholders whom they can not beat up for asking awkward questions, like what the government of Zimbabwe does to its own shareholders: the voters.

So then, even as the Prime Minister promised that the 51% local shareholding requirement proposed for the mining sector will be revised, Mugabe sends his supporters out to do to mines what they did to farms.

What next?

Manufacturing companies? Supermarkets? Where will it end? Or will it?

And the Prime Minister?

He will continue to sit there watching the economic arsonists in ZANU PF fuel the raging fires? Will he continue to say Mugabe is the solution, "indispensable and irreplaceable"?

And the farmers who are being murdered still in their homes at the age of 80? "Blown out of proportion", as the PM said?

Mugabe Already Abusing China Loan To Buy Votes/Loyalty

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, seen here a few days ago at a press conference at his Munhumutapa Building offices soon after his return from a begging trip to the US and Europe, is letting Mugabe and ZANU PF get away with buying loyalty and future votes using the aid from China. Rural farmers are already being registered to get fertiliser and other farming aid. The registration is being done through local ZANU PF structures and traditional leaders

ZANU PF has asked its structures in the rural areas to register people who will recieve fertiliser and other incentives, all of which will come out of the US$950 million finance facility that the government is getting from China.

Almost certainly, the condition for being registered to receive this aid will be that one be a member of ZANU PF.

This comes hot on the heels of the revival of ZANU PF "boot camps" for youths, who will continue to be indoctrinated and fed hate speech against the British, Americans and other "imperialists".

Regrettably, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, has agreed to the continuation of the Border Gezi training camps. These camps gave birth to the notorious "Green Bombers" who were used as a paramilitary force by ZANU PF in the urban and rural areas, terrorising opposition activists and ordinary voters into "supporting" ZANU PF.

Tsvangirai agreed to the continuation of Border Gezi training earlier this year, telling news reporters that the youths would be trained in a "non-partisan" manner.

Quite how this will be enforced is anybodys guess. The MDC-T and the MDC-M do not even know what the curricula of the camps is. The Minister in charge of the training of these youths is from ZANU PF. Added to this, military personnel will also "assist" in the training.

The training had been halted because of lack of funds, as the ZANU PF regime was so broke that it was struggling to even pay attention, let alone run indoctrination camps.

With the arrival of Chinese loans and "bridging finance", the training will now resume and the resumption was announced by Saviour Kasukuwere, the ZANU PF minister of all things youth.

It is a tragedy all this.

A tragedy because, yet again, we see the Inclusive Government endorsing the practice of underhand vote and loyalty-buying.

Now, when we are supposed to diverting money to urgent life-saving issues, the Inclusive Government is instead using precious little aid from China to dish out fertiliser and other inputs to rural farmers who are already being told that the President (Robert "The Solution" Mugabe), has sourced money from China wth Gono to give them these goodies because Morgan Tsvangirai has failed to secure assistance for them from the West.

That the MDCs appear comfortable with this status quo is disturbing.

Let's Get Zimbabwe Queuing Again

Teacher protesting in Harare late last month. The Inclusive Thingy is broke, Mugabe is calling US diplomats "idiots" and Prime Minister Tsvangirai says all is well and people should just "listen to me."

Just as I warned you all a few weeks back, Zimbabwe is now in the grip of an inexplicable shortage of fuel.

True, it is not as bad as the days when there was not even a drop in the whole country, but queues have started to form again at service stations.

And they are long queues.

(You will recall that I told you that an importer was telling me that "there just is no money in the country" to import fuel and that some importers were shipping in consignments as small as 2000 litres and these were being snapped by by companies like Caltex, which is supposed to importing fuel itself.

The problem is that, ideologically, the MDCs and ZANU PF are cut from the same cloth. Hence Tendai Biti had no compunction about putting penalty duties on fuel that is brought into Zimbabwe by road.

The Inclusive government "encourages" the use of the Beira Corridor, which is itself controlled by government and can be used by the National Oil Company, NOCZIM, to import as much fuel as they want.

Private capital does not trust the pipeline from Beira in Mozambique because this government has a record of diverting things that belong to other people (witness the raiding of foreign currency from private accounts.)

So, quite apart from the lack of any substantial injection of capital to even import fuel for Zimbabwe, we also have myopic, socialistic policies that seek to patronise the people of Zimbabwe and treat them like children.

The policies actually do more harm than the lack of funds.

For it is the policies themselves that ensure that there are no funds coming into Zimbabwe.

Nobody trusts this Inclusive Thingy. Only last week, a senior NGO official here in Zimbabwe was telling us of his horror when he found out what it that the Inclusive Thingy is doing with money that is handed to it. He was especially surprised at the behaviour of MDC ministers and officials, of whom better was to be expected.

We still suffer blackouts, electricity being switched off for hours on end.

There is still no water in our taps.

Out in the rural areas, they are selling their livestock and emptying their granaries of whatever little they harvested so that they may get foreign currency with which to buy basic stuff and the like.

I suppose when the Inclusive Thingy stole the Mavambo slogan: Let's Get Zimbabwe Working Again for their 100-day wishlist and the laughable STERP, this is exactly what they had in mind: Let's Get Zimbabwe Queuing Again!

There is no reason at all for tolerating any of this.

Tsvangirai Grovels As Dictator Mugabe Gloats

A Rare Sight: I could not resist this image of Mugabe on bended knee at the Mwanawasa household! These days, it's Tsvangirai doing all the apologising.

You have by now heard about Morgan Tsvangirai's apology to dictator Robert "The Solution" Mugabe over the boycott of last Monday's Cabinet meeting by Tsvangirai's ministers.

It was the dictator himself who let the cat out of the bag, telling journalists in Libya that the PM had apologised and labelling the boycotting ministers' move "abject ignorance".

But this should not surprise anyone who reads this blog. I told you a few days ago that Tsvangirai is now to the MDC-T what Mugabe is to ZANU PF: they can not go against his wishes, even if those wishes are against the wishes of the people. And they will never be able to get rid of him.

Tsvangirai who, according to people I spoke to in Kuwadzana at the weekend, has "sold out", has decided that Mugabe is the solution and everyone must agree with him or else.

He came back from his overseas trip and immediately poured cold water over the suggestions by his deputy Thokozani Khupe, that the MDC-T may consider pulling out of the Inclusive Government.

No pull-out, come what may, the PM said.

Just like I told you on the day the news of the pull-out threat spread all over the world like wildfire.

In South Africa, the PM had gone even further, saying that the MDC-T will either succeed or fail together with Mugabe.

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And then there was the issue of Tendai Biti, who called the Zimbabwe Independent a "gutter" newspaper for publishing a front page splash this last Friday announcing that Biti had signed a US$5 bllion deal with the Chinese.

Biti denies the story and says it has no basis whatsoever in fact and truth. It is a cooked up story, claims the mDC-T Finance Minister. So there is no US$5 billion coming.

Yes, there is a US$950 million facility that was extended by the Chinese, but apparently, according to Mugabe and Biti himself, this was negotiated by the Reserve Bank and Gideon Gono almost a year ago.

That US$950 million means nothing and will do nothing for Zimbabwe. This is especially so now, when Biti, the MDC-T Finance Minister, has announced that on July 16 he will, in his mid-term Budget speech, abandon the payment of US$100 "allowances" that are being paid to civil servants.

"It is sending a wrong signal to businesses," he said, adding that businesses now thought the US$100 was a salary and they were pegging their own pay structures to this.

Quite apart from the obvious question of where they will get this money to pay "proper salaries" to civil servants (that US$950 million will be gobbled up within three months), there is the issue of setting the bar too high for businesses who are already struggling.

Many companies will go under in the next six months as they fail to meet the new salary demands bench-marked to civil servants' new salaries. Of that you can be absolutely certain.

So, the two dictators, Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe, remain as broke as ever in their marriage of convenience. The country continues to burn, with no firefighters in sight.

The sooner the people of Zimbabwe are given a chance to vote these two gentlemen and their parties out of power, the better.

Which is why as MKD, led by Simba Makoni, we are demanding that the Constitutional process be done with soon so that we can throw out these bums and bring real change to the people of Zimbabwe.

With Simba Makoni at the helm, it will only take two months for this country to be so transformed that it will be unrecognisable!

To those of you who are clamouring to get in touch with Simba Makoni's new party, you can reach us on the following Harare Numbers:

792566, 792428, 795326 and 791394.

Internet Mayhem In Zimbabwe

So, you missed me, huh?

I went AWOL because starting Friday, Internet connections in Zimbabwe went haywire.

As is typical of customer service from our Inclusive Government, which believes people must just shut up and bear it, there was no communication whatsoever as to what had gone wrong.

Today, I spoke with the government-owned company that is supposed to be in charge of these things. Here's what they said, verbatim:

"Starting Friday afternoon, something went wrong with base stations and affected ISPs. Because we do not work at weekends, the fault was only found out today, and our people are trying to see what they can do"

"When will we back on line?" I asked the nice lady who attended to me.

"I don't know"

"Can you ask someone who will know, I am willing to wait."

'No one knows. But it will be soon?"

"Three weeks?" I asked.

"No one knows. It affected everybody. It's not just you, lots of people have been phoning and coming in."

To make matters worse, we moved offices at the weekend. Our network guys had everything in place by Sunday, but transferring our lines to the new premises is proving a challenge beyond the capacity of TelOne.

We have been living on promises from TelOne since Friday but nothing happening here.

So right now, I am using a dial-up connection which is so painfully slow that it is not worth the while.

With the launch of the party, I have been so busy that I have not had time to read anything online and even my connections with people I speak to have suffered.

Still, there are three huge events that are brewing in this Inclusive Government, as well as between Mugabe and Tsvangirai that I should update you on once I am back online. I am hoping it will not be that much longer.

The Launch Of The MKD Party In Pictures

Dr and Mrs Makoni arriving at Stoddart Hall in Mbare for the launch of MKD.

Members of the audience reading up on MKD literature .

Part of the guests at the launch of MKD

Members of the National Steering Committee of MKD chat to a diplomat who had attended the launch

The MKD choir in full flight

Dr Makoni listen to the Welcoming Speech given by the party's Interim Chairman, Mr Godfrey Chanetsa.

A diplomat who attended the event congratulates Dr Makoni at the end of proceedings

MKD Interim Chairman, Mr Godfrey Chanetsa delivering his Welcoming Speech at Stoddart Hall in Mbare

Inclusive Government Orders Another Demolition Operation (Murambatsvina) in Harare

Riot police watch as a bulldozer demolishes houses in Harare during the widely condemned Operation Murambatsvina. The Harare City Council has now announced a new "clean-up" operation to rid the city of an "emerging pre-Murambatsvina"situation. In other words, they liked what Murambatsvina did and they want to repeat it because the people are getting too happy trying to make ends meet. And this is a council run and controlled by Tsvangirai's MDC-T? Go figure.

This is rather shocking news from Zimbabwe today.

The Harare City Council, which is controlled by the MDC-T, has ordered another "clean-up operation" while lamenting that the city was "going back to the pre-Murambatsvina" situation.

Murambatsvina was an operation that was launched by Mugabe's government in which "illegal structures", mostly homes and shops built informally in the cities were bulldozed. This was at the height winter and people suffered a lot.

The Operation was condemned by the United Nations and Human Rights groups all over the world.

Surprisingly, the Operation was also condemned at the time by the same MDC-T which is now launching a "clean up" and saying "we can not go back to the pre-Murambatsvina situation."

In effect, then, they are now endorsing that widely condemned operation as a move that brought benefits to the people of Zimbabwe.

It is a breath-taking volte-face.

And a shameful one.

Because it makes us all wonder just how sincere they were when they condemned Mugabe's "clean-up." We did not realise at the time that they actually secretly admired it and sought to emulate it the moment they controlled government and the councils.

This is a decision that slaps the people in the face.

It is a decision that was not forced on the MDC-T by ZANU PF "hardliners". The Prime Minister's party is doing this through its own free will.

As the saying goes:

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

It really is urgent that the people take back their agenda from the politicians of this moribund Inclusive Government.

Scenes From The Launch of Mavambo on 01 July 2009

I have never experienced the sort of difficulties I am experiencing with internet yesterday and today and the photos from the launch simply refuse to load onto the blog. I am not sure if it is Blogger themselves or the internet connection in Zimbabwe.

So, fo now, you will have to make do with the above photo, showing Dr and Mrs Makoni being welcomed to the launch ceremony by the interim leadership of MKD

The vitriol that is already being directed by the MDC-PF state media (Herald, ZBC, ZTV etc) is working wonders for Makoni. People know that whatever is criticised by the state media is in the interests of the people.

It would have been fatal if the state media has started praising the new party and Makoni!!

More photos will follow.

Mavambo Officially Launched

A strong contingent of diplomats, media and activists of Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn turned out at Stoddart Hall in Mbare today to witness the official launch of MKD as a political party. This was an "invitation-only" affair and consisted of invited diplomats, media and registered delegates of MKD Interim Provincial Structures.

The launch was held under the theme of "Real Change". The theme was informed by the fact that, although the MDC campaigned on a platform of "Change you Can Trust", it turns out now that there is no change after all.

People are still being arrested, media is still restricted, there is still no freedom of assembly unless you get police clearance, cholera looms large still, unemployment still hovers around 90% and capacity in industry is still well below 50%.....

People are still afraid (three video production companies refused to take on the assignment of filming the launch, saying they were afraid of reprisals, that their companies could be targeted and closed down and their equipment confiscated.)

Still, it was a rip-roaring affair, perfectly synchronised, reflecting the professionalism and focus of the new party.

In fact, one diplomat at the launch said as we finished, "This is the first political party that I have seen which has set a programme and stuck to it."

At exactly 11:00a.m., Dr Makoni and Mrs Makoni arrived to cheers and calls of "Nyati Imhenyu! Nyati Imhenyu!" - Nyati means Buffalo in the local languages and is Dr Makoni's totem.

The launch ceremony, which was presided over by one of the Party Formation Steering Committee members, Ms Florence Sachikonye, started soon after that, with a speech from the MKD Interim Chairman, Mr Godfrey Chanetsa.

He delivered a welcoming address in which he highlighted the need for a third party to rescue Zimbabweans from misery. He lamented the fact that nothing has changed since the formation of the inclusive government of Tsvangirai and Mugabe and reminded those gathered there that Mugabe, at the signing of the GPA in September last year, said that the problem with African opposition parties is that they want to take over from the ruling parties, which just goes to show that ZANU PF has not changed its mindset.

Dr Makoni then gave his launch speech. In it, he outlined the programme of the new party, highlighting the fact it wanted to introduce a new ethos into our political playing field.

Slamming corruption, greed and the "politics of power, command and control", he assured those gathered there MKD was committed to obliterating the mentality that "politics is dirty."

He went on to tell the audience that the programme and priorities set out by the new party represented "Real Change" and not the fake change from what he called "the new Inclusive Entity called MDC-PF".

At the same time, he assured those gathered there that he and MKD stand ready to assist the Inclusive government to succeed if it demonstrated that it had the interests of the people at heart.

So far, he said, this has not been case, with the MDC-PF government preoccupied with "bickering for vehicles" as well as fighting for power and jobs for its own boys and girls.

The ceremony ended at exactly 12:00 midday, although Dr Makoni was detained for a bit as the diplomats present lined up to congratulate him him personally and have a word or two with him.

I will be uploading photos from the launch later on today as soon as I have transferred them to my computer.

Simba Makoni's Mavambo Launch About To Start

A Simba Makoni supporter holds a poster with the presidential candidate's line: Let's Get Zimbabwe Working Again during the presidential elections in March 2008. The candidate launches a new political party in Zimbabwe in a few moments today

It is just after 9 in the morning in Zimbabwe and there is quite a crowd, according to our people on he ground. Most can not fit inside the hall, so some have gathered outside, where two flags are flying: the Zimbabwe flag and the Mavambo flag.

Dr Makoni will be arriving after 10 this morning at the hall to deliver his launch speech.

At the office, it is a hive of activity (you will have to excuse that particular cliche - very bad, I know, but that is how it is), with the phones ringing off the hook and people confirming their attendance.

And would you know it, after word got out yesterday that Dr Makoni and MKD will be launching the party at 10:30a.m. today, the Prime Minister immediately announced that he would be holding a briefing of his own at exactly the time.

He made the announcement yesterday after midday.

Still, his is not a public event, but restricted to the media and diplomats. Even so, the media is excited at the launch of MKD, with almost every single one of them saying, "We have been waiting for this."

I was very surprised at the genuine delight from the media when the invitations were extended to them.

I was going to try and live-blog the launch ceremony and I may still do that.

To check if I am online and blogging the launch LIVE and as it happens, just scroll down to the bottom of the page, where the chatroll will be attached and where will be reporting the event live.

Keep in mind that the event starts at 10:30a.m. Harare time.

If not, I will update the blog as soon as the event is finished!

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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!!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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?

Take a look for yourself.

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."

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!

Source

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.

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.

The Mail and Guardian says: "Khan said a climate of intimidation pervades, with human rights activists and Tsvangirai supporters still being prosecuted on terror charges, adding that media reforms have been ignored."

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.

Death To The Constitution-Making Process

A farmer in Chegutu walks past an armed man guarding a confiscated farm in the area. These men are not defence force members but have no problems with the law when they openly carry their weapons like this. It is things like this, constituting the subversion of the rule of law. The contemptuous attitude towards the coalition was displayed again yesterday by ZANU PF which adopted a draft constitution that has been rejected by civil society and disowned by the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, on at least two occasions since the formation of the Unity Government.

In a direct challenge to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and civil society, the ZANU PF Politburo, which met yesterday, has adopted the widely condemned Kariba Draft Constitution as the basis of any new constitution.

Morgan Tsvangirai said quite unequivocally on May 1 this year that the Kariba Draft Constitution would not be considered when the process of drafting a new constitution gets under way.

He gave the same assurance to the NCA when they met him at his Munhumutapa offices a couple of months back.

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), led by Dr Lovemore Madhuku, as well as the MDC-T's traditional ally, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), have both said they are set against the Kariba Draft and will boycott any process that is based upon it.

This draft was put together in 2005 by MDC-T and ZANU PF negotiators during the process of talks leading up to the Coalition Government. Most people are still unaware that the Coalition Government had been agreed to by Mugabe and Tsvangirai prior to the March 29 elections.

Tsvangirai himself complained when Mugabe called the March elections in 2008, saying doing so was a breach of the spirit of the talks that had started in 2005.

Still, the real issue here is that Mugabe and his party have deliberately chosen to inflame the situation in the country by adopting the very draft constitution that the people fighting for a new constitution are against.

It is calculated to throw a spanner into works, for there is no way NCA and the ZCTU will agree to take part in the process now.

Which also weakens the position of the Prime Minister considerably since he will, no doubt, bow to the fait accompli and try to convince civil society to accept the Kariba Draft favoured by Mugabe.

ZANU PF want it that way.

During the meeting, it was clear Mugabe was upset by the decision of some donors to channel aid directly towards the constitution-making process, in terms of funding the consultation process and other logistical needs.

Mugabe sees this as continuation of the regime-change agenda.

In doing this, Mugabe thinks he is asserting his authority. This may well backfire, as the battle-hardened civil society groups gird up their loins and prepare for defiance.

Which will only drive Mugabe to be even more repressive in the way in which he deals with them.

Sanctions remain Mugabe's most prickly point. Without them removed, he is willing to let this coalition government go to rot. It is an indication of how deeply they get to him.

The Western nations, on the other hand, will most likely see this and strengthen the sanctions and travel bans, looking at it as the piling of more pressure on The Solution. The intended effect may be the opposite, with Mugabe deciding instead to strengthen his grip by openly freezing out the MDC-T in government.

By the way, the story below about the beating of WOZA protesters gets you thinking, doesn't it? And asking questions.

Such as:

Is this what the Prime Minister had in mind when he said the co-Ministers of Home Affairs were working "fantastically" well together. These are policemen under that very same ministry beating up peaceful protesters who are only demanding that Zimbabweans be given their dignity back.

Mugabe Metes Out Harsh Retribution to Civil Society

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Coordinator, McDonald Lewanika (to your far left as you look at the screen), Vice-Secretary General of ZCTU, Gideon Shoko and Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Director, Abel Nkomo in Brussels last week, where they are urging the European Union to maintain pressure on the Inclusive Government in order to ensure that real reforms are implemented. Their presence here has angered Mugabe, who is now responding by cracking down openly and brutally on protesters. More is yet to come, undoubtedly.

Robert The Solution Mugabe has abandoned all pretence of tolerance towards freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. Police today dealt roughly with members of the WOZA group, led by Jenni Williams, when they tried to protest in Bulawayo.

Three protesters were hospitalised as a result of the police action.

According to Woza, the protesters were "attacked" and beaten by police at the Chronicle offices as well as en route to the protest focal point.

Members of Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA/MOZA) marched through the streets of Bulawayo today to mark International Refugee Day, commemorated annually on 20th June. Four simultaneous protests began at 12.30pm under the theme – real people, real needs. The four different protests began at different locations, one of which was outside Bulawayo Central Police Station, converging on the offices of the state-owned Chronicle newspaper to test if media freedom exists in Zimbabwe today.
Three of the four simultaneous protests, including the one that had started outside the police station, arrived at the offices of the Chronicle at which point they were attacked by uniformed police officers who brutally beat them, arresting many. The fourth demonstration was stopped en route by police who also viciously beat the peaceful protestors. At this point, we are still trying to verify how many people have been arrested and how many require medical treatment.
WOZA traditionally marks International Refugee Day as we believe Zimbabweans are refugees in their own country – displaced, unsettled and insecure. Government is still targeting informal trading, the only means of survival for most people and so many find themselves unable to provide for themselves and their families. Informal traders are harassed by police, their produce often looted and stolen. In a country where all goods and services are now charged in foreign currency, the inability to earn forex places the vulnerable even more at risk and forces more and more Zimbabweans to flee their country of birth to try and provide for their families. Through these peaceful protests, WOZA is reminding the inclusive government and the world that the people of Zimbabwean remain the victims of this crisis – it is time to put the needs of the people first. ALL Zimbabweans deserve to enjoy the full rights of citizenship; amongst others, the right to earn a living, the right to personal security and the right to adequate shelter. (Source)
WOZA is paying the price for Mugabe's anger at civil society leaders who are in Europe at the same time as the Prime Minister. These civil society leaders have been calling on European countries to withhold aid until certain reforms are implemented.
They are concerned with freedom of speech, assembly, human rights abuses and lack of media freedom in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe sad yesterday the NGOs just want to ensure government does not get any aid so that they themselves can continue to receive grants from the West.
It is typically cynical of the old man: he has always believed that every man has a price, which is why he lets those close to him loot and steal, as long as they remain loyal.
This also exposes the lie behind the Prime Minister's insistence that everything is fine and the country is making progress under the MDC-PF government. The lack of respect for the rights its own people is the reason why the world is refusing to engage this regime.
But the regime's biggest apologist, the Prime Minister, still insists that this must be tolerated and he must be given money to develop the country.
I dare say in the next few weeks, Mugabe will go for broke. Crackdown on dissent will be much more naked. And it is also almost certain now that the sham trials of MDC-T activists and members will be pursued with even more vigour.
All this because, as far as Mugabe is concerned now, he has nothing to lose.
Except the loosening of his grip on power.

EU Buckles To Mugabe Threats

The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, was in Norway today, where he is seen here with that country's Minister of Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim. Tsvangirai is struggling to convince the world to give aid to Zimbabwe and is due to meet the European Union this week in Brussels.

The European Union, which had initially turned down visa applications for two of Mugabe's ministers today did a volte-face and granted the two (Patrick Chinamasa and Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, both of whom are on the sanctions list) special permission to enter Europe.

This came after The Solution warned yesterday that "he would call off the talks" due to take place in Brussels this week.

Mugabe is clearly stung by the treatment given to Walter Mzembi, another ZANU PF minister, in Washington last week. Mzembi was left out of the delegation that went to see President Obama at the White House.

The trip has been fraught with this sort of tension from the very outset.

Even before the Prime Minister left, there were murmurs of discontent from ZANU PF and The Solution, after Joey Bimha, Permanent Secretary at Foreign Affairs, was denied a visa into America.

It all shows just how desperately Mugabe wants recognition and acceptance from the Western World. He was prepared to recall the delegation and cut off communication with the European Union if they had proceeded with their initial plan of meeting only the MDC-T.

Rather than risk a confrontation with the cantankerous old man, the EU relented today, emphasising, though, that this was "a temporary visa waiver."

By the time, this trip by Morgan Tsvangirai ends, Mugabe will be apopletic with rage. Not only is no country willing to extend aid and grants or even credit lines, but his side of government is being treated as if it does not exist by the Western powers.

The hope is that he does not take it out on Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC-T. A hope in vain, perhaps. But still.

Presidential Welcomes For Tsvangirai All Through Europe

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, takes a walk in Stockholm, flanked by Steve Rylander and Swedish Development Cooperation Minister Gunilla Carlsson. Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and James Maridadi are behind the leaders

The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, was in Sweden yesterday and was received for an audience at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

The Swedes, though, have remained quite on the subject of the grants and credit lines, which the MDC-PF government needs to ensure its very survival.

At a press conference with the Swedish Prime Minister, Tsvangirai repeated that his government urgently needs direct assistance to the coalition government.

It is looking increasingly like Tsvangirai will come back empty-handed, to face The Solution and try to carry on the fight for control of the levers of power. This will much be harder now, especially since Mugabe has already started asking in private, :What do I need them for?"

That the Prime Minister has been received like a Head of State everywhere including in America is certainly a spectacular slap in the face for Mugabe, whom the Prime Minister says is the solution to our crisis.

But I fear that, though designed to force Mugabe's hand, it may well make him even more intransigent. Silently, as he has been doing over the last four months, he will now sharpen his subterfuge, kidnapping responsibilities and authority left, right and centre.

He may put a brave face on it, but this reception accorded Tsvangirai has wounded Mugabe's pride immensely. Unfortunately, he believes revenge is a dish best served cold and can therefore draw out the process of giving the Prime Minister his comeuppance.

Just watch the steps from now on - they will lead to the High Road.

Tsvangirai Gets Military Honours In Germany, But No Aid

Morgan Tsvangirai is asked to turn around by German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the Prime Minister's welcoming ceremony in Berlin. And he got a salute!

James Maridadi and other members of the Prime Minister's entourage snap away as the two leaders walk into the Chancellery in Berlin

With his bearings right aagin, the Prime Minister inspects the Guard of Honour

In a move calculated to incense Robert Mugabe, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, welcomed Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai with full military honours, a treatment usually reserved for visiting Heads of State and Government.

A beaming Tsvangirai emerged with Merkel from the Chancellery in Berlin as his entourage looked on with evident joy and pride. In one of the photos above, you can clearly see James Maridadi, the Prime Minister's spokesman, recording the event on camera.

Tsvangirai later met with the German Development Minister, who announced afterwards that the German Government would give Zimbabwe 20 million Euros, to be channelled through the World Bank, mainly for small scale farmers in Zimbabwe.

It is interesting to see how this will go, since the rural areas where these people are located are still ZANU PF controlled.

Further, you will also recall that the aid that was given last year by South Africa, to the tune of 300 million Rand, was also looted. For the little that trickled down, Mugabe's ministers went round the country telling villagers that it was Mugabe himself who had sent SADC to give aid to "his people".

This country remains poised on the brink and none of the parties seem to be doing anything meaningful to break the logjam between them in order to free up intellectual resources for the job of getting Zimbabwe working again.

MDC-T's Latest BodyBlow To Zimbabwe Economy

Diesel is now being queued for again, thanks to myopic policies of the Tsvangirai/Mugabe government. The Zimbabwe Independent reports in its latest issue that economists say the rise in the price of petrol will trnaslate into a 25% inccrease in the prices of food.. The MDC-T ministry of Energy, meantime, is threatening service station owners who the ministry claim hiked prices wihout authority from government.

There is now a frightening shortage of fuel and lubricants in Zimbabwe now.

Diesel has been the hardest hit and any service station that finds itself lucky enough to have diesel quickly finds a long queue forming.

You will recall that I told you a little while back on this blog that the new MDC-T minister of Energy, Engineer Elias Mudzuri, has issued a directive to the fuel industry stating that petrol, for instance, should be sold at no more than US$1.10 per litre.

Now the mnistry has said the new price, which is US$1.30 per litre of petrol, should apply only starting June 7. Service started charging this (sometimes more) as soon as prices of oil moved upwards on the international market.

Still, the MDC-PF government says that does not matter and they are threatening to deal with service stations that started charging higher prices before June 7.

Still, the crux of the matter of is that we are simply getting confirmation yet again that the MDC-T, because it has no policies of its own, is now simply adopting and implementing the failed ZANU PF policies.

Why is it that they refuse to learn. As Einstein said, madness is doing the same thing in the same manner over and over again and expecting a different result each time.

Price controls do not work, full stop. If prices appear to be too high, there is a deeper reason to it, usually to do with policy or shortage.

One importer I spoke to on Saturday says most importers are bringing in only around 2 000 at a time and he was puzzled, saying, "It appears there just isn't the money in the country."

True, the money is not there in Zimbabwe. The "humanitarian assistance" that the world is pledging does not go into the economy, since most of the supplies being bought for humanitarian purposes are purchased outside Zimbabwe (South Africa is doing very well economically from the Zimbabwe economic crisis).

Even salaries are not spared, with most of the people in the humanitarian sector, be they UNICEF or whatever, are foreign aid workers and their salaries do not get spent in Zimbabwe to any meaningful extent.

But, more importantly, and to get back to the fuel situation in Zimbabwe, this is indeed a strange sight: MDC-T joining hands with ZANU PF to implement ZANU PF policies and expecting that the results will be different simply because the MDC-T is now part of government!

It will not work, and we already have the proof now.

Zimbabweans themselves have learnt that if you open up the market and let market forces dictate price, you will find that everything balances out.

But no, the MDC-T, because it is cut from the same ideological cloth as ZANU PF, sees nothing wrong in trying to control private enterprise and the markets.

The result is the shortage we now experience with diesel especially.

This shortage has huge ramifications: most factories in Zimbabwe power their plants with diesel, especially seeing as our electricity is still being cut willy-nilly and affecting production. Diesel shortage means that more and more of them will be back to the days when they are prepared to pay a premium to get that fuel.

As a result, goods and services will rise in price.

Already, as most of you know, the Consumer Council has indicated, a full month after I warned about it here, that Consumer Basket has gone up in price.

It will get worse.

Through all this, I laugh as I see the MDC-T and its supporters trying desperately to paint a picture of "positive changes" in Zimbabwe. I marvel when I see them defending the same Mugabe policies that they criticised in opposition.

All along, I thought it was only ZANU PF that engaged in wishful thinking!

Simba Makoni Says Coalition Government "A Child Born of Rape"

Part of the Zimbabwe Panel at the World Economic Forum. The panel included AGO Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Simba Makoni, president of Mavambo Kusile Dawn, Nigel Chanakira, Head of Kingdom Miekles Africa and Tendai Biti, Minister of Finance in Zimbabwe

Dr Simba Makoni, who was in Cape Town this last week to attend the World Economic Forum told the gathering that the Coalition Government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai is a child born out of rape.

"We love the child, but not the way it was conceived," he said.

He said Kenya and Zimbabwe, two countries that have gone the route of a Unity government, should not be allowed to set bad examples or as he put it, "make virtue out of vice." Makoni was clear that the Unity Government came about only because Mugabe refused to accept electoral defeat.

Nigel Chanakira, who was also in attendance, revealed that, while he has investments in four countries, Zimbabwe is the one that was giving him far better returns than any other.

He told the gathering Zimbabwe is currently the best candidate for recovery and growth in Africa, saying it is underpinned by "the hardest currency in the world", referring to the blend of US dollars, South Africa Rand and British Pound, which are now the official currency in Zimbabwe.

Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara invited business to invest in Zimbabwe in his contribution, saying, "We no longer want to own 100% of a rat, we would rather have 10% of an elephant."

He was referring to the current government's well-known penchant for wanting to control majority stakes in what they consider strategic assets, such as airlines, cellphone companies, Oil companies, Railways Companies and Energy companies, amongst many others.

On concerns about the lack of seriousness by parties to the Unity Government, Mutambara responded by saying the "Unity Government is prize we have to pay for peace."

Are Diaspora Zimbabweans Letting The Country Down?

Carlos Mambosasa and Wisdom Nzvimbo are two Zimbabweans living and sleeping rough in South Africa. They are seen here in Cape Town on June 8 2009 with all their possessions at the spot where they sleep out in the open every night in the South African city. They went to SA in search of jobs, trying to use their skills to sustain their families back home, where opportunities are being denied skilled people unless their politics are "correct"

The US Congress Resolution on Zimbabwe, issued this last week, bemoaned the fact that "many of the reform-minded individuals within the new transitional government are limited by a severe lack of qualified personnel and material resources."

This was after one of the Congressmen from the States physically came to Zimbabwe and met with The Solution as well as the Prime Minister and others. He saw for himself the severe constraints that hamper government efforts.

First amongst these constraints is the fact that the MDCs lack any policy platform whatsoever.

Second is the shocking insincerity of Robert Mugabe, despite the Prime Minister's insistence that he is The Solution to Zimbabwe's intractable problems.

Third is the culture of cronyism that has now crept into the MDCs (or perhaps it was there all along and was not seen because the MDC was not in government.

But the lack of "qualified personnel" as stated by the US lawmakers is perhaps where we should start. And end.

Zimbabwe has, without a shadow of doubt, the most skilled people in sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa included. We stand head and shoulders over any other nation in terms of the range of skills and expertise we have produced over the last 30 years or so.

But those skills are not in this country anymore. They have been poached by countries as far afield as Australia and the United Kingdom.

Previously, our problem was that, even with these skills, Zimbabweans were excluded from contributing to the development of our nation by ZANU PF. It was more important to be a card-carrying member of ZANU PF than it was to be skilled.

So we found skilled people marginalised, their ideas scoffed at or stolen in broad daylight, to be butchered because no one can implement an idea better than its originator. Witness the case of Strive Masiyiwa and Econet.

I remember how Strive Masiyiwa, Enoch Hwande (who owns an advertising agency in Zimbabwe) and myself would sit at Enoch's office in the Avenues of Harare as Strive prepared to launch Econet. I witnessed first hand the spanners that were thrown into his path by the government of the day, simply because he was not a screaming, grovelling ZANU PF card-carrying zealot.

He was frustrated by politicians who sought to steal a march on him and launch their own cellphone companies, even though they had never thought of the idea until Strive brought it up.

Eventually, he triumphed, but he had to play the political game and was saved by one of the most principled men ever to take part in politics in Zimbabwe, Dr Joshua Nkomo, who was a vice-president of the country by then.

Skilled people, professionals and geniuses of Zimbabwe, rarely, if ever, meddle in politics. Their passion lies in their work.

This is proving a problem for them, really.

It is now clear that the MDC-T, especially, has caught the ZANU PF fever and is rewarding loyalty to Tsvangirai ahead of competence. The skilled people we need to turn this country around are not welcome here unless they prove sycophantic and bow before the political masters.

Professionals have professional pride and they are not prepared to do that. This is why the US lawmakers see such a dearth of skills in this country.

The skilled people do not want to come back because, no matter how good their ideas are, they will be marginalised unless they take part in the destructive politics of Zimbabwe.

To many of them, it is easier to stay away, to stay in countries that reward competence and ability regardless of the politics.

Tsvangirai and the MDC-T, as the embodiment of hope in this moribund GNU, are, in fact, the ones betraying the dream of Zimbabwe by following the route of filling their offices with cronies and sub-standard people, alienating critical thinkers and so on.

Simply because someone criticises you does not mean that they do not support you, that is a lesson Zimbabwean politicans should learn.

But, as things stand right now, companies like ZESA, National Railways of Zimbabwe, ZINWA, Hwange Colliery and even the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority are all staffed by bootlickers of ZANU PF and, if the MDC-T had its way, they would instead be staffed by MDC-T bootlickers, not by professionals.

The people running government now, as well as those in state-owned companies, know that they can retain their jobs if they sing the praises of the ones who hold real power in government. Competence is not a factor.

This collapse will continue and Zimbabwe will slide further into mediocrity unless this changes.

Zimbabweans with skills need to be given space to contribute to a new Zimbabwe, regardless of the politics.

We can end our electricity, water, housing, job and economic problems today if we allowed professionalism to triumph over politics.

That this is not happening can be blamed on both ZANU PF and the MDCs. Their approach to government, seeking to reward party functionaries ahead of professionals, is contributing immensely to the death of Zimbabwe.

So, to answer the question: It is the politicians who are letting the country down by focusing on party allegiance and not competence, not Zimbabweans who simply seek a place where their expertise is valued ahead of their political character or allegiance or skin colour or tribe.

Denford Magora's Zimbabwe Blog

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