Vaarwel, “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish”
2 years ago
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"Tsvangirai Is Mentally Unstable" - Mugabe
Robert "The Solution" Mugabe arrives today at Heroes Acre in Harare for the burial of a senior ZANU PF senator who was declared a National Hero this last week. Mugabe used the occasion to call Morgan Tsvangirai "mad" and said he is still committed to working with the madman. He says the parties are talking. The SADC Ministerial team that was here has now left and there will be no Extraordinary Summit to address Zimbabwe's problems, despite all the posturing and propaganda
Harare, Zimbabwe, 31 October 2009
Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe with the blessing of Morgan Tsvangirai despite losing losing an election in March last year, told a gathering at Heroes Acre in Harare today that Morgan Tsvangirai is "not mentally stable."
He said this even as he insisted that the parties are talking and working through their problems.
Wheat. Chaff.
Let's separate.
Mugabe was speaking today having addressed the Central Committee of his party, ZANU PF, yesterday lambasting the MDC-T, saying they were not serious. He insisted that ZANU PF was not cabinet, was not government, only a part of it.
He was questioning the MDC-T decision to pull out of cabinet meetings while remaining in government.
Soon after he met the SADC delegation from the Troika on Defence and Politics, Mugabe also told journalists that the SADC Troika would convene an ordinary summit to receive the reports of the ministerial team on Zimbabwe and Lesotho. He dismissed the Prime Minister's statement that there was going to be an Extraordinary Summit as "cheap politicking and propaganda from the MDC".
That said, a lot of people are perplexed and confused.
They need not be.
It is vital to understand the workings of regional diplomacy and even international diplomacy because thw two are not that different. The temptation right now is for MDC-T supporters to start celebrating, shouting that the SADC Troika has seen the urgency of the issues in Zimbabwe and is now going to convene a summit to discuss it.
When disappointment finally comes, predictably, MDC-T supporters will start shouting at SADC, hurling insults and all manner of things at them.
Which is why it is important to separate the wheat from the chaff.
If the Prime Minister thinks that there is going to be a Summit to resolve the dispute in Zimbabwe, he is sorely mistaken and we must now seriously start to question his leadership and his judgment. This sort of thinking can be expected from the clueless supporters of his party, not from him, who has had many dealing with international organisations.
It is not the convening of a Summit that is important here. That convening is a normal part of business for the Organ and for SADC. What is important is for us to try and get an indication of what the report from the Ministers will say. It is that report that will inform whether the Troika calls for a full and Extraordinary Summit or not.
At the moment, it is clear what the report to the Troika will say. Dr Oldemiro Baloyi, the Mozmbican Foreign Minister who led the delegation, told reporters that his team was urging the parties to the agreement to "intensify dialogue".
That is telling in itself. The position is quite clearly as I reported last week, that the Troika is saying the MDC and ZANU PF should work within the confines of Zimbabwe and the Inclusive Government to find common ground and solve the problem.
In other words, there is no deadlock. The parties are simplynot "intense" enough in their engagement of each other.
Further to this, the Troika Ministers also stated:
"In our interaction with stakeholders we made it clear that problems have to be solved first and foremost by Zimba-bweans themselves. All of us are there to help them help themselves."
Does this sound like SADC is about to intervene? No.
Even more interesting and telling is the statement from the head of the delegation that, after speaking to all three parties, "it remained clear to us that all three parties are fully committed to the Inclusive Government."
So there is no crisis and no impasse, no threat to the Inclusive Government.
End of story.
No matter what MDC supporters may wish, no matter how much spin is given by the parties to the Inclusive Government, this will not change.
The bottom line is that theTroika says the problems should be solved by Zimbabweans, by Mugabe and Tsvangirai and not by SADC, saying that SADC was "here to help them help themselves."
Anyone, therefore, who thinks that this crisis will escalate beyond where it is now is living in cloud cuckoo-land.
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Ministers Biti, Shamu, And Chamisa Squared Off This Evening
In this file photo, Tendai Biti is seen with Nelson Chamisa soon after the now Finance Minister of Zimbabwe had treason charges against him dropped to allow the Inclusive Government to be formed. Tonight, the two came face to face with a ZANU PF minister at a function I attended and the coldness of the air was palpable.Harare, Zimbabwe, 30 October 2009It has just gone pat 8p.m. as I write this and I have just come back from a very interesting function hosted by Trevor Ncube, publisher of the Zimbabwe Independent and Mail Guardian.When I arrived at the function to commissioning of the new Zimind Publishers printing press in Graniteside this evening, Nelson Chamisa and Finance Minister Tendai Biti were already there. (Unfortunately, I was wearing my Spokesperson hat, so I had left my camera behind. I wished I had not...)The function proceeded well with guests standing about and chatting before the speeches started. Trevor Ncube was about half way through his speech when a lady walked up to the podium and whispered something to him.He immediately announced that we had been joined by the ZANU PF Minister of Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu. I turned around and there, right behind me stood the former Charles Ndlovu. Trevor was quite welcoming and declared himself happy to have been graced by the Minister's presence.But the tension levels immediately rose in the tent. Tendai Biti and Nelson Chamisa, who were standing just in front of me, moved off and to the right.Only then did it dawn on me what had just happened, especially after Trevor asked everybody to come inside the tent erected by the entrance to the building, saying, "Even those who are gathering intelligence, please come closer," to laughter from the crowd.Clearly, Shamu had no intention of coming to the event. He arrived more than hour after the event had started.So, clearly, word had been sent back to him that Nelson Chamisa was present at the event. The two ministers are still fighting a turf war, just as Chamisa is also fighting another turf war with Nicholas Goche, the Minister of Transport and Communications and a ZANU PF member.Shamu thought that Chamisa was there in an official capacity and was trying to muscle in on his territory, Media and Information, which is charge of newspapers in Zimbabwe, so he jumped into his car and came over to the event.The two MDC ministers did not speak to the ZANU PF minister throughout the event and when Shamu walked over to engage Trevor Ncube and Simba Makoni in conversation, Biti and Chamisa walked off with their security details.I intended asking Chamisa about this but just as we started talking and he was joking that Makoni "has been deployed by the MDC-T and we want him back now.....", Tendai Biti arrived and said to him "Asihambe..." - Let's go...What I found particularly touching was how Biti was very protective of Chamisa throughout the evening. It was like two brothers walking through a predator-infested forest, staying close together with their security, even when they engaged other people in conversation!In any case, the object of the evening was a very impressive new printing machine bought by Trevor to make himself truly independent in the run-up to the publishing of his daily paper, Newsday.He told the gathering that gone will be the days we see now, when daily papers hit the streets at midday instead of midnight of by 5a.m.Tendai Biti gave the keynote address and specifically addressed the current "crisis" in Zimbabwe's coalition government. He said that the country should not worry because these were problems that were normal in any marriage."If, in a marriage, you go for six months without arguing, then that is a fake marriage," he said.His explanation was that this crisis was simply "landmines, metaphorically speaking" that had to be de-mined in peacetime and that the Inclusive Government was not in any danger at all of collapsing.Mind you, he was saying this soon after he had just seen the SADC delegation that called on Morgan Tsvangirai today, which delegation made it clear that it has no solutions to the crisis and that Tsvangirai will have to slug it out with Mugabe until they reach an understanding.As he has said previously, Biti told us, "I was one person who cried on 30 January when our (MDC-T) National Council made the resolution that we must go into government. But I am here to tell you today that the government is no danger at all. We will press ahead."A surprising revelation from him today was that the Zimbabwe Investment Centre is currently processing half a billion (US$500 million) worth of investments and that most of that is coming from South African companies and investors. He made the interesting observation that South African capital seems to have more faith in Zimbabwe than Zimbabwean capital itself.Anyway, it was a good evening. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and I look forward to seeing the new daily on our streets (Trevor says they are still working towards launching in November, but I have my doubts about that.)*******************Meantime, as you hear reports that SADC is going to convene an extraordinary summit to resolve the crisis, do not take them seriously at all. The announcement was made by Morgan Tsvangirai, who says he "has been told" that this is what will happen. By whom? He does not say.This is the same man who told us after the September SADC Summit in the DRC that SADC was going to convene an Extraordinary Summit "within two weeks" to deal with outstanding issues in the Inclusive Government.That never happened.You can rest assured that there will be no Extraordinary Summit. None at all.Just today, in South Africa, Joseph Kabila, the current chairman of SADC, said that there was no alternative to Mugabe and Tsvangirai solving their problems within government and within the Global Political Agreement.There is no Summit coming and anyone who wants to bet with me can do so, my email is at the top of this page.
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Mugabe Approach To Dabengwa On Vice President Post Causes Havoc In ZANU PF
Mugabe at the burial of Vice President Joseph Msika: the president's reluctance to appoint John Nkomo to the post of VP, which led to him considering Dumiso Dabengwa for the post, is now very apparent within ZANU PF, which has led to a free-for-all, with all sorts of jokers throwing their names into the ring in the hope of catching Mugabe's eye. There is only one other name Mugabe has mentioned besides Dabengwa's as a possible candidate. The rest are simply trying their luck, knowing that they will not be penalised for challenging Nkomo.Harare, Zimbabwe, 30 October 2009When we broke the story about Mugabe's approach to Dumiso Dabengwa to consider the Vice-presidential post made vacant by the death of Joseph Msika, we also revealed that the Zimbabwean president was not too keen on John Nkomo, who should rightly take over the post as the most senior remaining ZAPU leader within the ZANU PF structures.Other members of ZAPU who have remained in ZANU PF have been emboldened by Mugabe's reluctance to anoint Nkomo to the post. Stories about Nkomo committing sodomy on a man from Bulawayo suddenly surfaced.Now, the whole thing is a mess, with several men actively putting their name forward to challenge Nkomo's presumption to the throne. As of now, Naison Ndlovu, Ambrose Mutinhiri, Cain Mathema and Obert Mpofu have publicly declared that they want the job to come to them and not John Nkomo.The one man who Mugabe has mentioned as a person whom he would consider is Simon Khaya Moyo, current ambassador to South Africa, but the context was of "extremis" when Mugabe mentioned him, making him immediately a long shot.But he is said to believe that he is also a contender.The reason why he has remained largely quiet on the specific subject of the VP post is that he knows the way Mugabe operates: Mugabe does not like people in his party to show ambition.For instance, when Simba Makoni came back from SADC and started running Zimpapers as Managing Director, he soon clashed with Charles Chikerema, a relative of Mugabe.Mugabe called in Makoni and asked him: "It is said that you have ambitions to sit where I am sitting right now" - meaning the presidential chair.Makoni replied that even if that was the case, it was not a sin to have presidential ambitions if a person believed that they had the ideas, vision and capability to help Zimbabwe become more prosperous.It was the beginning of the fall out. Mugabe eventually forced Makoni out of Zimpapers and it was the beginning of the process that eventually led to the former Finance Minister leaving ZANU PF in February last year and forming his own party, Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn.So, Khaya Moyo has instead focused on writing lots of opinion pieces, making presentations to Mugabe quietly by sending him "analytical reports" on the state of Zimbabwe's (and especially Mugabe's) image within the SADC region. He says he is well positioned to do this because he is based in South Africa.Mugabe has effectively confirmed his unhappiness with Nkomo as a candidate by failing to whip the provinces into line. Were he to indicate his preference in any of the various party meetings he is holding, word would filter out and you would see the provinces of ZANU PF coalescing around a single candidate.That this is not happening and the process has now become a free-for-all shows just how uneasy he is with Nkomo.ZANU PF insiders even say that it was Mugabe who moved swiftly to scupper Nkomo's ascendancy after Bulawayo Province endorsed the ZANU PF Chairman for the VP post. He called his point men in the other Matabeleland provinces, including Jabulani Sibanda, the "War Veterans' leader" who saved Mugabe's skin at the December 2007 Congress by intimidating all challengers to the presidency. All of a sudden, we heard the other provinces say that they did not agree with what Bulawayo Province had said.Two weeks ago, the race was then thrown open, with all ten provinces being asked to nominate their choice for the post.This is when it became clear to all and sundry that Mugabe was trying to find a way to avoid appointing Nkomo.The confusion will almost certainly go all the way to the ZANU PF Congress in December this year.It is a mess, but it really has no bearing on the direction this country is taking at all and can not change a single thing in the way the country is run for the foreseeable future.
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SADC Ministerial Team Refuses To Commit Itself In Zimbabwe
Thabo Mbeki has "disengaged" from the Zimbabwe issue, Jacob Zuma is proving to be even quieter than his predecessor (despite the assurances we got from half-baked analysts when we pointed out that he would not crack the whip on Mugabe) and the rest of SADC is tired of the Mugabe/Tsvangirai circus. The Ministerial team currently in Zimbabwe will meet with Mugabe and Tsvangirai separately today and fly out of Zimbabwe without committing themselves to anything. For Tsvangirai, it is back to square one. For Mugabe, it is business as usual.Harare, Zimbabwe, 30 October 2009Details emerging after the meetings the SADC Ministerial team had with ZANU PF and MDC-T leaders yesterday show that we were right yesterday in urging the world not to take the visit seriously as it was simply for show.Inside sources reveal that the team of foreign ministers from the Troika (the Organ on Defence and Politics) listened politely to ZANU PF and MDC-T presentations, made by negotiators from bot parties, including heavyweights like Tendai Biti, the Finance Minister and Nicholas Goche, the Minister of Transport and Communications, but refused to "take sides" in the words.As was to be expected, the ZANU PF team moaned about sanctions and "pirate radio stations", which, taking MDC-T language, they accused of beaming "hate speech" into Zimbabwe.The MDC-T presented its litany of grievances, including the issues of Gono, Tomana, ambassadors and Roy Bennett, as well as the Provincial Governors.The team from the MDC-T were shocked to hear the Secretary General of SADC, Tomaz Solamao, as well as the Mozambican Foreign Minister say that they were in Zimbabwe on a "bigger agenda than the current problems". They insisted that their mission was to fulfil the SADC obligation to review the Global Political Agreement.When pressed on the matters presented before them, the team insisted that these matters are not part of the Global Political Agreement which they are reviewing and that the issues would best be handled through internal structures like the Joint Operating and Monitoring Committee (JOMIC) and cabinet.Nicholas Goche immediately interjected by saying this could not happen because the MDC-T was refusing to attend cabinet, where these issues could be discussed and ironed out.The Secretary-General of SADC has since publicly stated that the team's mission is indeed to review the GPA but that they "could not ignore what is happening right now". The way they are dealing with "what is happening now" is to simply listen and promise to report back to their own presidents.As most of you aware, the presidents of the Troika are very reluctant to convene a Summit and it is unlikely that the summit will come about.Later on today, the Troika Foreign Ministers' Team will meet with Mugabe and Tsvangirai separately. They are not here to mediate over the "disengagement" crisis, but to hear the parties out and report back. That is all there is to it, according to them.Now, Tendai Biti has asked Morgan Tsvangirai to let him sit in when the Prime Minister meets the SADC delegation, mostly because Biti is afraid that Tsvangirai will, once again, put his foot in his mouth and repeat what he did when Jacob Zuma visited Harare in August.Back then, the Prime Minister told the South African president that the Inclusive Government was working well and that there were only a few issues that remained outstanding but which were "not insurmountable". If Tsvangirai were to do this with the visiting delegation, that would be the end of the dispute with Mugabe. The SADC ministers will go back and report that the coalition in Harare in working and is in the process of solving minor outstanding matters.This is what Zuma reported in Kinshasa, DRC, after Morgan Tsvangirai's ill-thought-out statement to him in Harare.The bottom line: the SADC ministerial team will fly out of Zimbabwe today or tomorrow without having solved anything because that is not their mandate.The MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai will be left alone once again to face Mugabe and ZANU PF.Like I explained earlier this week, Mugabe will then call in Tsvangirai, knowing that it has become clear to the Prime Minister now that there is no help coming from Jacob Zuma, SADC or even Joseph Kabila.I ask: where are all those MDC-T supporters" voices that were very insistent that Zuma would crack the whip against Mugabe because COSATU will demand that he does this?It was this sort of idiotic thinking and flawed analysis that was swallowed by the MDC-T during the days of Thabo Mbeki, to the extent that Tsvangirai asked for Mbeki to be removed as mediator and for Zuma to take over from him.Having pinned their hopes on Zuma, the MDC-T are now stuck: the South African president is no longer Chairman of SADC. His country still has immense influence over Zimbabwe because of it's economic muscle, but Zuma is proving to be practitioner of a diplomacy quieter than that of Thabo Mbeki.Meantime, Mbeki himself, who is the only SADC leader who has ever told Mugabe to his face (at State House in Harare, no less) that he lost the election and must find a way to diffuse tensions by sharing substantial power with the MDC, has now disengaged as well.The former SA president, who says he was abused by the MDC-T during his tenure and throughout his efforts to mediate in Zimbabwe, now states clearly that his mandate is at an end. He mediated the talks that led to the formation of the Inclusive government and that was the end of his job.If SADC want another process, they will have to either specifically reappoint him or choose another mediator and appoint him.This is unlikely to happen because the parties to the Agreement have not declared a deadlock. Even Tsvangirai says the problem is "slow progress" not a "deadlock".
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We Were Right As Gono Is Exposed To Be Contuining Stealing
The IMF has called on Tendai Biti to budget for the Reserve Bank after the Bretton Woods Institution uncovered scandalous theft of statutory reserve money by the Central Bank to continue funding quasi-fiscal operations this year. Books at the Central bank have also been cooked to allow for the dispersal of money belonging to banks to fund foreign trips by government officials and certain well-known shoppers at taxpayers' expense. Gono did not seek or get approval from Biti for this shady behaviour. He acted like he was the Finance MinisterHarare, Zimbabwe, 30 October 2009We revealed on this blog a little while back that Mugabe had given Gideon Gono widespread ministerial powers and that the MDC-T were aware of this fact.The IMF, after an audit of the Reserve Bank, has effectively confirmed our story, revealing that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe continues to steal funds its custody and using these to continue quasi-fiscal operations.The Central has been taking money belonging to Zimbabwe's Commercial and Merchant Banks as well as Discount Houses and Financial institutions. With this money, Gono has been dishing out patronage to Air Zimbabwe as well as paying for operating expenses.He has even used some of the money to pay for Mugabe's Presidential Scholarships.All in all, Gono has used more than US$45 million from statutory reserves deposited with him by the banks.Some of the money is being marked against expenditure items that do not exist: it is misappropriation basically, when Gono, instead of writing down that he has given Grace Mugabe US$80 000 to go to Hong Kong, writes instead that he has used US$800 000 to fund the operations of the Zimbabwe Consulate in Hong Kong, the Zimbabwe embassy in Beijing or this and that Embassy.The IMF is worried that this means that, in the event of a crisis in the banking sector, the Central will fall short on the amount of money it would need to bail out banks.More shocking, however, is that this is again theft, which is continuing even with the Inclusive Government in place: Gono is basically taking money that does not belong to him, but to the banks in Zimbabwe and using this to finance ZANU PF's favourite projects and pets.This money should not have been touched by Gono without ministerial approval. His job is simply to keep it safe in case there is need to bail out banks in a moment of crisis.Tendai Biti should have the final say in a moment of crisis on whether Gono can use that money for purposes other than what it is intended for.This has not been happening.The IMF has now called on Biti to please budget for the Reserve Bank in order to obviate the theft of statutory reserve funds by the Central Bank. Gono has argued that he had to do this because Biti did not budget for the Central Bank and he had to continue operations somehow.Yet, in his mid-term fiscal policy review, Biti gave the Reserve Bank US$3 million for its operations.But Gono's appetite is so keen that this was not enough, he had to go and raid banks' statutory reserves to the tune of more than US$45 million!!No action can be taken against Gono for this breach of faith, because Mugabe continues to protect him.
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SADC Ministerial Team Meets Zimbabwean Leaders Today - Not Looking Good For Tsvangirai And MDC-T
As the SADC Ministerial team prepared to land in Zimbabwe (they are now here), the MDC was holding a press conference addressed by Nelson Chamisa, at which Edith Mashaire, the party's Security Administrator, recounted how armed men had attempted to kidnap her in the Harare City Centre two days ago. The police are being dismissive, with the Police Spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena saying this was just a stunt and posturing ahead of the visit by the SADC team. The police, clearly, have no intention of investigating the matter, although number plates have now been taken on two occasions.Harare, Zimbabwe, 29 October 2009A team of Southern African Development Community (SADC) Foreign Ministers from that body's Organ on Defence and Politics is in Zimbabwe right now meeting with the political leaders of the country.Right off the bat, things are not looking good for Morgan Tsvangirai and his party. The meeting takes place as the MDC has effectively left government, refusing to attend cabinet meetings until their issues are resolved.The spin from the MDC-T has been that the team is in Zimbabwe to try and end the current impasse between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, ZANU PF and MDC-T.But the SADC team, which is accompanied by Secretary-General Tomaz Solamao, is quite eager not be seen to be responding to the "disengagement" by the MDC-T.The Secretary General himself says that he is in Zimbabwe to tell the political parties that " we are reviewing the GPA".It is a highly legalistic position and goes back to my articles in January this year, in which I said that SADC, once the Government is in place and Tsvangirai is Prime Minister, will disadvantage the Prime Minister by adopting a purely legalistic approach to things.So here it is.According to the regional body, there is one clear obligation of SADC that is outstanding: the reviewing of the Global Political Agreement. All the other issues are not for them to deal with, is their legalistic position.So, of all the issues Morgan Tsvangirai raised in his "disengagement" statement, SADC has picked this one as the only one on which they can act.What the review entails is simple: this morning, they told political leaders they met that all the principals in the government agree that the Inclusive Government is working well and is still intact, but that there are a few outstanding issues that can be overcome through all the parties working together.According to sources from this morning's meetings, the SADC team urged the leaders to ensure that they go through the toothless Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee, which was set up by the Inclusive Government to hear disputes arising from the coalition of ZANU PF and the two MDC-T's.It is crucial to understand that none of the parties to the agreement, including Morgan Tsvangirai, have declared a deadlock. Tsvangirai himself says the issue is "slow progress", playing straight into the hands of SADC and Mugabe himself.Until and unless all the parties agree that there is a deadlock, SADC says it can not come in because there are internal mechanisms in place to deal with niggling issues.The presence of the SADC Ministers in Zimbabwe today, which has excited a lot of people, especially in the media, is really a non-event. These ministers can not solve a single thing. They are here to listen, and then they will head back to their countries and tell their presidents what they would have heard.The media is simply heightening its own expectations, which will be dashed and after they have been dashed, it will be fault of SADC. Yet we all know that the real reason they are here is because the Organ on Defence and Politics is trying by all means to avoid having to convene a Summit for Heads of State to discuss Zimbabwe.They are all tired of us.A month from now, there will still be no SADC Summit to discuss Zimbabwe because the parties are not declaring a deadlock and that is all you need to know.As for excitable chatter about going to the African Union, forget it. Even Morgan Tsvangirai knows this. When he attempted to bypass SADC in November and December last year, flying off to Tanzania to meet the then Chairman of the African Union, Jakaya Kikwete, he was told that the African Union had mandated SADC to deal with Zimbabwe at the previous AU Heads of State Summit in Egypt in June 2008, just after the "run-off".The African Union's position is that, unless SADC hands the matter over to them, they can not come in. SADC, on the other hand, says there is no matter to hand over to the AU as everything is under control and the Zimbabwe government is only experiencing slow progress, which is not reason enough to escalate the matter to the continental body.So please, those who are sending through emails to me asking eagerly about what is going on with the ministers who are here right now, calm down - nothing, absolutely nothing, will come of this. Not even a SADC Summit.You can whip yourselves into a frenzy as much as you like over the propaganda war between ZANU PF and MDC-T at the moment, but that does not change the fact that there is nothing to look forward to in this visit.
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Zimbabwe Intelligence Service Operatives Refuse to Pay Toll Fees
Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives, seen here surrounding Mugabe in Victoria Falls, derive their power directly from the president, who sanctions their impunity. They work hand in glove with Mugabe's party and are simply there to extend their impunity to cover members of Mugabe's party, ZANU PF. Parliament and the courts mean absolutely nothing to them.Harare, Zimbabwe, 29 October 2009In a surprising article today from the Financial Gazette, it is revealed that Zimbabwe's notorious Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives are refusing point-blank to pay toll fess at Zimbabwe's newly established tollgates.A parliamentary committee said this last week that this is an illegal move on the part of the CIO.According to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Development, the only departments and agencies exempt from tollgate fees are the Fire Brigade, Ambulances and the Presidential motorcade. Everyone else must pay up, including ministers.It is not surprising that the CIO would do something like this. They effectively see themselves as being above the law. They are, after all, the ones who were behind the abductions of Jestina Mukoko and her fellow detainees. They admitted as much in a court of law and said they would not reveal the names of the agents who abducted Mukoko, even though the highest court in the land has said the move was illegal.The minister in charge of the CIO themselves told the court that he could not name the persons who committed the illegal act because it was a matter of national security.This is what they always hide behind.This is not as light a matter as it would appear to desensitised Zimbabweans. It goes directly to the issue of impunity. When impunity is brought up, it is usually in relation to ZANU PF youths and "thugs", ordinary people who commit horrendous acts and get away with them because they belong to ZANU PF.But the CIO is actually the impunity circle in Zimbabwe. Even the ZANU PF youths that Ian Kay of the MDC was complaining about to Minister Saviour Kasukuwere last week are accompanied by CIO operatives.The CIO has become so embedded in ZANU PF that they act only on its behalf, even though the organisation is supposed to be national organisation, serving the state and not a party.As with any organisation, there are elements who are not bad and others who are utterly atrocious. The problem is that it appears the atrocious elements are the ones with the upper hand in the organisation because they have the direct protection of Mugabe himself.In fact, the CIO members never identify themselves as CIO, but as "President's Office."And their impunity is nothing new. As I have pointed out before, there are people who have disappeared without trace in the hands of the CIO, including a secretary called Rashiwe Guzha who has still not been found today, more than 15 years after she disappeared off the face of the earth.So, parliament can shout as much as it wants, but the CIO will get away with not paying at tollgates for the foreseeable future until and unless Mugabe himself gives a directive that they should pay.He will not do this, because the more impunity his minions commit, depending on his protection, the harder they will fight to make sure that he stays in office by hook or by crook.
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Simba Makoni Talks Business on Zimbabwe Television
Simba Makoni earlier today being interviewed by Supa Mandiwanzira for the programme Talking Business, which will air on Zimbabwe Television next week Thursday (05 November) after 9p.m. It was a wide-ranging and engaging interview and I was impressed*********************Zimbabwe has finished playing against South Africa in the COSAFA Cup at Rufaro Stadium and Zimbabwe won 3 -2. The match has just ended. Dr Makoni, his wife and Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara were also at the game.*************Now for my article on Simba Makoni.I was at Supa Mandiwanzira's Studios at Newlands today for the recording of an in-depth interview with Simba Makoni.The interview will be broadcast on Thursday next week on ZTV on Supa's programme, Talking Business.It covered familiar ground: the statement issued by Makoni last week in which he lambasted Mugabe and Tsvangirai for the breakdown in government. Makoni was able to dispel various misconceptions, such as the widely circulated lie that when he and Morgan Tsvangirai went to Lusaka, Zambia to meet SADC presidents after the March presidential elections, Makoni had asked that he be appointed to lead a Transitional Authority!Makoni hit that one out of the park, and said, yes, he was the first person to ask for a Transitional Authority and that he specifically asked that the Transitional Authority should not be led by any one of the presidential candidates, himself included, because they all had vested interests.Instead, it was to be composed of business leaders, non-governmental organisations' leaders, academics, women's and youth representatives: in fact all stakeholder constituencies in the country. These would have been tasked with arranging for a new people-driven constitution, the constituting of an independent Electoral Commission, reform of the media.The idea was to have stakeholders from all constituencies (that is, the people) craft the Zimbabwe that they wanted without the interference of politicians. Once they had finished this job, they would then call for an election. The electoral process would have been overseen by this All-Stakeholders body.The end result would have been an unprecedented level playing field for all parties, Makoni's included.Tsvangirai was angry with Makoni for suggesting that neither he, nor Mugabe nor Makoni should feature in the Transitional Authority, but you can now see, Makoni was right.What we have now is not a Transitional government because both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have vested interests and are both trying to manipulate the reform process to give themselves an unfair advantage.Mugabe still has all his powers and is using these to frustrate the crafting of a people's agenda.Tsvangirai is trying to muscle in but is proving to be a minion in the game, buffeted by the gigantic waves of the Zimbabwe Security Establishment, ZANU PF vested interests and a government structure saturated to the bone with ZANU PF poison.At the end of the Inclusive Government, nothing would have changed. Whereas if Makoni's idea had been bought, we would not have Mugabe in power today. We would a group of technocrats restructuring all wings of government, instilling a proper apolitical culture and levelling the playing field in preparation for a new election.That new election would have been held most probably under the supervision of the United Nations or African Union because by then, Mugabe would have been out of office and would not be able to use State machinery to block the coming in of the United Nations.Right now, no matter what happens, it will be Mugabe who decides who gets invited to observe the elections and he will not invite the United Nations. SADC and AU will only be given observer status, not a supervisory role.Makoni also touched on the progress of his party, the failure by Mugabe and Tsvangirai to come up with any realistic and workable policies for creating jobs and growing the economy, which has led to the IMF and World Bank refusing to lend money to Zimbabwe because there is no prospect of the money being paid back.If you are in Zimbabwe, be sure to watch the show after 9p.m.Thursday next week (November 5) on Zimbabwe Television.
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ZANU PF Minister Turns On Gideon Gono, Demands: "Return Our Money"
With Zimbabwe's roads still in a deplorable condition, littered with potholes such the one in Harare City above shown in this picture, a senior ZANU PF minister and trusted aide to Mugabe has publicly demanded that Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono return US$7 million that he siphoned from a bank account belonging to Zimbabwe's Roads Agency. He is threatening to let Tendai Biti loose on Gono is the Governor continues to ignore letters sent to him demanding repayment of the misappropriated money.
Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 October 2009A senior ZANU PF minister has turned on Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in parliament, saying he had stolen money from the bank account of the Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (ZINARA) and was refusing to give it back.Minister of Transport and Communications Nicholas Goche (also a negotiator for Mugabe in the negotiations with the MDC, leading to the formation of the Inclusive Government) told a Parliamentary Committee that Gono stole US$7 million from the ZINARA account at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe."We have written several letters to the RBZ (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe)," said the Minister. "ZINARA have actually shown me some of the letters. R50 million is a lot of money, about US$7 million, so we are still waiting for that money to be returned."Gono has simply ignored the letters and not bothered replying to ZINARA or to the Minister. He still has the arrogance from his heydays, when he operated as the de facto Prime Minister of Zimbabwe under Zimbabwe, accountable to nobody but Mugabe himself.He even had so much clout that he got Finance Ministers fired by Mugabe.Goche then turned and threatened to hand Gono over to Tendai Biti, saying, "If we fail to get a response, we will also engage the parent ministry because that money will assist us a lot."It is a shock move and a shock revelation: while roads all over Zimbabwe are crumbling, littered with potholes, the Central Bank governor was busy siphoning money meant to repair these roads and using it to fund the trips of ministers and the president overseas, funding the shopping sprees of Grace Mugabe in Hong Kong and Dubai.....Gono himself wants to posture, talking about sanctions and the like, yet he will not address such issues as these - the taking of money that did not belong to him was theft, pure and simple, even if that theft was done with ministerial authority. A thief is not exonerated because he says he was forced or ordered to steal.It is mind-boggling that Mugabe sees nothing wrong with Gono did, because these are not the only funds Gono too without account owners' permission. There are other NGOs and government departments that are also still waiting for him to repay them.It is also a revelation that shows Gono not to have the unified support of the ZANU PF machinery. The only person who is saving his skin is Mugabe himself, because Gono knows all the financial skeletons of Mugabe's family and which cupboard they are in.Gono and the Reserve Bank are now broke, having been reined in by Tendai Biti, who has cut off all avenues of funding for the Central Bank. Biti has also taken the view that money stolen by Gono from NGO and Government agencies' accounts will not be refunded by this new government.This is why it is wholly unwarranted for Morgan Tsvangirai to go the route of destroying the Inclusive Government over the appointment of Gono, especially.Biti has him under control. And he continues squeezing.Slowly but surely, he is being squeezed and because of this dipping of his hand into other people's bank accounts, displeasure with Gono reaches across the political divide.Gono is definitely on his way out, but not through being fired by Mugabe.Tsvangirai should leave Biti to deal with Gono and concentrate on more substantive issues. It ma take time, but he will get there.What the Prime Minister is doing now is simply putting his progress, if there has been any, two steps back.
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MDC-Tsvangirai Activist "Abducted" Last Night - Here's The Bigger Picture
The wave of abductions from last year has started again, signalling to the MDC-T what awaits them if they walk out of the Inclusive Government. The effort is being led by the security establishment, which even Mugabe allegedly has a hard time controlling. It explains a lot of the behaviour from Morgan Tsvangirai right now, insisting on remaining in government to try and minimise the impact of the inevitable assault on his party by ZANU PF as elections approach, whenever that may be.Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 October 2009The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai has confirmed reports that started reaching us last night that one of their employees and activist, Pascal Gwezere was "abducted" last night by armed men in a double cab vehicle.The abduction took place in the township of Mufakose in Harare.Gwezere is a very close relative of MDC-T Morgan Tsvangirai, his mother is a sister to Morgan Tsvangirai's own mother. Gwezere works in the intelligence department of the MDC.This "abduction" follows an attempted abduction of another MDC activist who heads the secretariat of the MDC-T security division, Edith Mashayire.As I promised day before yesterday, I will now lay out for you what this is all about and why this is the reason why Morgan Tsvangirai is reluctant to leave government completely and go back to the trenches.Put bluntly, the insurgency case, involving Jestina Mukoko and others, in which the MDC-T stands accused of attempting to overthrow Mugabe by force of arms, is still active. Mugabe and ZANU PF had simply kept quiet about it because of the formation of the Inclusive Government.They had not yet managed to implicate Tsvangirai himself, as was the original plan.Morgan Tsvangirai openly admits that he is aware of this. The moment he walks out of government, Mugabe and ZANU PF will kick into action the case of insurgency.Do not rule out the rearrest of Jestina Mukoko on "modified" charges - which are essentially the same charges as before with a few variations to get around the human rights and legal issues arising from her release by judicial order.The initial intention of crippling the MDC in the run up to any election is still very much in play.There are, of course, those who dismiss this ZANU PF plottery as so much hogwash, but believe me it is not. for several reasons:Mugabe and his cohorts believe that there have nothing left to lose. They believe that they have hit rock bottom in terms of international relations. For starters, they are still banned from most parts of the Western world, credit lines and balance of payment support are still frozen.Sanctions, in words, have reached their limit.As ZANU PF said when they encouraged ZBC and ZTV to pirate international programmes and movies: "What more can they do to us. We are already under sanctions."The reasoning is "In for a penny, in for a pound."Despite the continued misplaced faith in the regional SADC and continental AU bodies, these will remain on the sidelines, urging dialogue, while Tsvangirai, Mukoko and entire structures of the MDC are decimated, arrested and incarcerated on banditry charges.That the charges may eventually be dismissed in court is of little consequence to the game plan. The idea is to so preoccupy the leadership of the MDC with trials and arrests that the grassroots fail to get any direction and leadership.That is the first thing.The second thing is to terrify the same grassroots structures by reaching down to Provincial and District structures, arresting MDC-T leaders in those structures and looking out for anyone at all who may remain active in mobilising the people on behalf of Tsvangirai.Mugabe knows his people. He knows they will not at all raise their heads, fearing that they will also be sent to join their leaders in jail and be put on trial.Then there is the mentality that was shown even on this blog as we discussed the disappearance of Jestina Mukoko. I was the first to break the news that she had been "arrested" on banditry charges. I also predicted the eventual abduction of such people of Ghandi Mudzingwa on the same charges.Most people who came to blog also said the same thing, that there is no smoke without fire and that the police did not just arrest people out of the blue: "Why her, specifically? She knows something," was one comment left here on the blog.So, Mugabe knows that the MDC supporters will be cowed into silence, and elections will arrive, be conducted and pass without the leadership of the MDC-T, even down to the District and Branch levels.MDC activists will be too afraid to campaign for their campaign with hundreds of their fellow comrades being abducted and arrested.What is more important, whoever, is that this is an indication of how the next general election will be conducted, no matter what MDC-T supporters (especially those in the diaspora) may tell you.Violence. Intimidation. Murder. With the UN, SADC, AU, America and Britain looking on helplessly, issuing harsh sounding words that will roll off Mugabe's back like water off a duck's back.This is why Tsvangirai says there is no option to the Inclusive Government. If he is in it, he hopes, he will be able to minimise the decimation of his structures and keep an eye on aspects of the ZANU PF intimidation machine.
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Mugabe Threatens To Fire MDC-T Ministers
Ministers from MDC and ZANU PF take the oath of office in front of Mugabe and Tsvangirai in February this year. Mugabe announced yesterday through his Ministers of Information and Agricultural Mechanisation that he may appoint Acting Ministers to take over from MDC-T ministers because government business is being affected by the Prime Minister's decision not to attend cabinet.Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 October 2009Robert The Solution Mugabe has now come up with another one, this time sending his ministers to spread word that he is considering firing "key" MDC-T ministers and appointing Acting ministers in their stead.This is not posturing or empty threats.Instead, it is a well-calculated move designed specifically to divert attention.Here's how.After Mugabe appoints the Acting Ministers, what will happen is that he would have set the agenda.The end result will be that, all of a sudden, the appointment of Acting Ministers will suddenly become THE issue. People will start running around trying to diffuse that specific crisis.By the time Mugabe reverses the appointment of Acting Ministers, the real issues over which Tsvangirai is disengaging will be forgotten. Instead, Tsvangirai and the MDC-T will suddenly start crowing about having forced Mugabe to climb down from the appointment of Acting executives in MDC-T ministries.Bennett, Governors, Security Services reform and all the rest of the originally issues will be lost in the dust storm raised by Mugabe.It is a sly move but one that, if Tsvangirai is clever enough, he will ignore and keep his eye on the ball, take it to its logical conclusion (which is only two days away, anway).Information and Publicity Minister (ZANU PF) Shamu and that bungling old fool Joseph Made who is in charge of a useless ministry called Farm Mechanisation have simply been sent to try and stampede the MDC-T back into government. Morgan Tsvangirai and his ministers boycotted Cabinet again yesterday, and Mugabe is simply trying to pile pressure on Tsvangirai by leaking this threat.The justification being used by ZANU PF and Mugabe for "considering" appointing Acting Ministers "to key positions" is that Cabinet decisions need to be implemented "expeditiously". This is not happening right now because the MDC-T is not attending cabinet, although all their ministers are at their posts, doing their work.It is almost certain now that this issue of appointing Acting Ministers will be tabled by Mugabe to the SADC delegation that is coming to Zimbabwe tomorrow. Again, the objective would be to ensure that pressure is piled onto the MDC-T and change the agenda of the crisis.It is also revealed today that the Prime Minister presented the president with a catalogue of his demands when the Principals met on Monday. Top of the agenda was the reform of Security Services, disbanding of JOC in actual fact and not just in word, appointment of Roy Bennett as Deputy Minister of Agriculture and the appointment of Resident Ministers and Governors.Mugabe is said to have responded by saying that the Governors should not have been included in the agreement by the negotiators because they are presidential representatives, appointed to represent Mugabe in the provinces of Zimbabwe.He refused to budge.On Bennett, again he refused to swear him until he is cleared of the shady arms charges against him.Morgan Tsvangirai then retreated from insistence on reform of the Security Services and instead said he would attend cabinet if Bennett and the Governors were sworn into office.Mugabe told him to go and hang.The failure by Tsvangirai to attend cabinet yesterday was a bold move on his part, but it is only brinkmanship.As I have noted before, the MDC-T has no option but to go back into government, even by the Prime Minister's own admission.The point will sink home after the SADC ministerial team visits Zimbabwe tomorrow, after which they will, of course, simply say that the two should discuss their outstanding issues. This will drive home the point to Tsvangirai that SADC has washed its hands of Zimbabwe and the Prime Minister will have to summon all his wits to outfox the Old Fox on home ground.It is possible, and it is puzzling that the Prime Minister fails to see this. It would not happen in a day or a month, but it is possible.I can not mention the tactics and possible avenues he can pursue here.Intricate knowledge of the dynamics of ZANU PF internal power struggles is key.Still, the upshot is that the Prime Minister need not stampede himself into government over this announcement by ZANU PF ministers, it is a upping of pressure and an attempt to change the agenda of the crisis by Mugabe, nothing more.After the SADC team confirms its "hands-off approach", the MDC-T will be able to see clearly the way forward, which will simply be that they have to go back into the lion's den and try to subdue the beat.The greatest question, asked ever since Tsvangirai signed the agreement with Mugabe, is simple: Does Tsvangirai have what it takes.His National Council and Executive Council are convinced that Tsvangirai does not have what it takes. They know that he lacks the skills to work his way around Mugabe, especially after outsiders like SADC say that they can not interfere in civil service appointments of a member government.Yet they can not do anything to Tsvangirai, who is effectively now running the MDC-T by decree.So, there is a lot of hot air about today, but by Friday evening, when the SADC team departs, a cold wind will sweep over Zimbabwe's political landscape, bringing everyone in the Inclusive Government to their senses.Then, we will know for sure.
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Mavambo Party Takes Control Of University of Zimbabwe Students' Body
The new leadership of the University of Zimbabwe Student Representative Assembly pose for a group photo today at the University. They are from left to right as you are looking at the picture: Tafadzwa Mazonde (Committee Member), Stephen Zvinavakobvu (Head of Disciplinary Committee), Stuart Mwale (Secretary-General), Misheck Mugabe (Vice-Chairperson), Samuel Matikiti (Chairperson), Emmanuel Muzanenhamo (Committee Member). They are also the leaders of the Mavambo-aligned Amalgamated Students Union of Zimbabwe (ASUZ) and are active members of the Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn youth structures.Harare, Zimbabwe, 27 October 2009Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn, the party led by Dr Simba Makoni, has taken control of the University of Zimbabwe Students Assembly.The SRA is now controlled by the Mavambo-aligned Amalgamated Students Union of Zimbabwe, whose leadership is also active in the Youth leadership of the Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn party.Out of the 22 positions in the Council (which popularly elected by the students at the UZ), Mavambo and ASUZ secured 13 positions, including he key positions of Chairperson, Vice-Chair and Secretary General. The SRA acts as the parliament of the Students' Union.MDC-Tsvangirai-aligned students secured 3 of the 22 available seats, ZANU PF took control of one, ZAPU (Dabengwa) took one and the rest are Independents.I understand the University authorities are reluctant to let the Students Administration move with speed to now constitute the Student Executive Council, which together with the SRA, will then inform the final Students Representative Council (SRC).It is expected that when this process is allowed to proceed, the Mavambo/ASUZ group will naturally assume its position as the dominant party in student politics not only at the UZ but also at other tertiary institutions.The "seizure of power" by the Mavambo group at the UZ is an indication of just how well Makoni's party is doing generally amongst the people of Zimbabwe. Their approach has been to work the grassroots directly all over country.The impression that the party has gone quiet is, hence, proved to be wrong. It's like the proverbial duck - appearing all calm on the surface while paddling like crazy below the waterline.ASUZ was started by students who were unhappy with the way Student politics had been hijacked by such parties as the MDC-T who insisted on being supported without offering a programme either for the country or for students themselves.It appears their position is resonating with students in general and they expect that they will also control other student bodies when they are constituted at Bindura State University, Chinhoyi, NUST and other Universities in the country.Personally I congratulate the new group, who appear raring to go. I met some of them today and they are a passionate and very informed bunch. They know the potential of Zimbabwe and can see clearly what future this country can have with the right of leadership!
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Mugabe Guides Tsvangirai Into A Corner
Harare, Zimbabwe, 27 October 2009The three main political leaders in Zimbabwe (referred to rather ambitiously as "The Principals") met late afternoon on Monday in a tense meeting that lasted four hours, with Mugabe insisting that he will not budge on any of the issues Tsvangirai wants addressed.Mugabe suggested that it was "pointless" to discuss the matters Tsvangirai has brought up because there was a SADC ministerial mission that is coming to Zimbabwe and he would rather wait to hear what they, as "impartial outsiders" say about who has failed to implement the GPA.This is a direct contradiction of the position taken by the State media today, who were briefed by the President's office that the SADC ministerial team was no coming to Zimbabwe to deal with the issue of the MDC-T disengagement from ZANU PF and the Zimbabwe cabinet.The team mission, duly reported state media, was decided on at the SADC Summit in the DRC in September, before the MDC-T action.Yet here is Mugabe saying he would wait to hear what they have say about the matter.It does not help that the Prime Minister continues to have misguided faith in the regional body, hoping still that they will lever him into power. So he also concurred that it makes sense to hear what the SADC Team say before coming back to talk to Mugabe and ZANU PF.Mugabe has managed to guide Tsvangirai exactly where he wants him to be: After SADC fail to come out in support of his position, Tsvangirai will be at a loss. He has learnt from bitter experience that running off to Britain and the USA every time there is a crisis will not help him at all. With SADC having turned its back, he will be going back to a Mugabe who will know that the man is on a back foot.The dictator will know for certain that he is now dealing with a man who has no options left, as the Prime Minister himself has admitted in public several times.Then, Tsvangirai will take what he is given.So, there will be no movement at until the SADC departs Harare. It is yet to arrive, although the MDC claim that the Mozambican president has promised to send it. We shall see. We were told the same thing after the SADC Summit in the DRC, but more than a month later, nothing promised Tsvangirai by the leaders has materialised.It appears their strategy now is simply to meet with the Prime Minister, cluck their tongues in sympathy and tell Tsvangirai to "go talk nicely to Mugabe."Lately, the Prime Minister has been very eager to insist that he has not left government. "Let me clarify," he told international news agencies three days ago,"we have not withdrawn from government. We are still in government."The Prime Minister is well aware of what lies in store for him and his party should they withdraw, which will be the subject an entire article by itself.He will not step out of the protective cocoon offered by Government. Not just yet. Mugabe knows this, and that is why he appears not bothered at all.This is not brinkmanship. This is "go hang".
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MDC-Tsvangirai Harassing, Intimidating Our Supporters, Says ZAPU
Dumiso Dabengwa, interim leader of the revived opposition party, ZAPU, is seen here attending a National Event, is extremely popular in the southern region of Zimbabwe, and a sizeable following in the rest of the country. MDC-Tsvangirai have now exposed how much they fear him and his party by intimidating supporters ahead of by-elections expected to be held in Matabeleland South after the expulsion of Mutambara MDC MPs from their partyHarare, Zimbabwe, 26 October 2009The resurgent opposition party, ZAPU, which is sweeping Matabeleland provinces at the moment has accused the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai of intimidating its supporters in Matabeleland South province, where by-elections are expected to be called to fill seats that have fallen vacant.There are three seats that are now vacant after the MDC led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara expelled three MPs who had started getting friendly with Tsvangirai's MDC.Ironically, even though Mutambara's MDC and the Tsvangirai faction of the MDC both fancy their chances in the by-elections, they may actually lose out to the newcomer, led by one of the most loved politicians in the region, Dumiso Dabengwa.ZAPU is campaigning intensely in the province and is set to take all of the seats when the elections are called.ZAPU Spokesman Methuseli Moyo says his party's supporters are being warned against ZAPU meetings, and that "if they defy that directive not to attend ZAPU meetings, they will be met with unspecified action, since MDC-T is now part of government and can use state machinery to mete out vengeance."This is a very grave threat in the region, where memories of Gukurahundi are still fresh. The MDC-T knows this and it is especially cruel for them to use the threat of state machinery because the villagers will think that the MDC-T, being part of government now, will also resort to ZANU PF tactics to cow this region populated by the minority Ndebele tribe.The area has been treated shoddily for decades by Mugabe, who saw even the civilians of the region as anti-Zimbabwean, which is what led to Gukurahundi.Yet, the MDC-Tsvangirai is shooting itself in the foot by going this route. The Ndebele people are not easily intimidated. Mugabe learnt that the hard way - despite massacring 20 000 of their comrades, the people of the area still came out in droves to vote repeatedly against him and ZANU PF.I think we can be certain now that the MDC-T stands little chance in the area if they are resorting to these tactics.The by-elections will show us just how badly they have been affected by their adoption of ZANU PF attitudes in the area.*************By the way, Mugabe moved his meeting with Tsvangirai and Mutambara to much later this afternoon (it is a tactic he uses to wear down negotiating partner), so the results of their meeting will not be known until around 8 o'clock tonight, when the meeting is supposed to end.As soon as word gets out, you will find it here first, just as you did with the announcement of the disengagement, which was broken on this blog before any other media in the world reported it!!Keep checking.
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"Air Zimbabwe To Be Privatised, Blah Blah Bllah..." Says Government
Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 October 2009The highly inefficient and struggling Zimbabwean National Airline, Air Zimbabwe, is set to be privatised, according to the Zimbabwe Inclusive Government (which is still operational, by the way, because the MDC "disengaged" from ZANU PF and NOT Government).Last week, I told you about the airline's failure to pay its workers since February this year, when the Inclusive Government was formed. The airline previously relied on Gideon Gono and the Reserve Bank for funds to pay salaries and operating costs.It emerges now that the airline has a debt totalling US$28 million. They can not retrench staff because they do not the money for the required retrenchment packages. (like other government-owned companies, the airline has an unhealthy and bloated staff complement as a result of ZANU PF patronage).The culture of entitlement at the airline and in ZANU PF generally has seen the workers gang up through their union to resist any move to retrench workers. They simply claim that any retrenchment exercise would be "unfair".The Ministry of Public Enterprises and Parastatals is backing the demands from the workers, despite telling the airline that Cabinet has taken a decision for them to rationalise their workforce and retrench staff.Officials in the ministry told State media at the weekend:"We expect management to follow proper labour laws in retrenching the staff."But we are not holding our breath.We have heard of the privatisation of Air Zimbabwe before and it has never gone anywhere. This is the case again and the corporate world in Zimbabwe has stopped paying attention.There is lack of political will to finally do away with the company and send it into private hands. For Mugabe, the airline is a prestige asset, to be kept on life support for the sake of image and nothing else.Government, which has no business running an airline, can not keep burdening taxpayers with this albatross which is of no benefit whatsoever to the people. It is not as though, you, as a taxpayer funding the operations of the airline, are entitled to any sort of discount when you fly with them.The new players in government, the MDCs, are so bereft of policy ideas that they cannot be bothered to pursue the privatisation of the airline or indeed the privatisation of any other government-owned company. They intend to use these as patronage vehicles themselves when they get into government.Air Zimbabwe still operates the lucrative London route, which is so busy that they never have a seat to spare.The airline also now flies to Dubai, another busy route where Zimbabweans are flocking to buy trinkets and goods to sell back home since our own manufacturing sector is still in the doldrums, operating at 25% capacity.Yet they manage their affairs so dismally that they can not even pay salaries!!It is a joke, but one that costs you and me dear.You will hear nothing more of this privatisation until the airline gets back in the news for failing to pay yet another creditor and perhaps also for having one of its aeroplanes impounded.
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