Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog: 12/1/09 - 1/1/10 Live From Harare, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Policemen Attempt To Steal US$1.5 million

It was in the Exhibit Room at the Harare Magistrates' Court (above) that two policemen and their civilian accomplices were caught red-handed demolishing a wall with hammers and chisels in a bid to get to US$1.5 million which was being kept there as evidence in a smuggling case.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 31 December 2009

Times are still tough for Zimbabwe's underpaid policemen, it seems.

Cephas Dumba and Talkmore Manyasha, two Harare-based policemen, tried to break into the Magistrates' Court in Zimbabwe's capital to steal US$1.5 million that was being kept under lock and key as evidence in the trial of that Mozambican who was caught a few days ago trying to smuggle the money out of Zimbabwe.

The policemen have since been arrested, together with a University of Zimbabwe Engineering student and two other people, apparently initially attempted to replace the one and half million US dollars evidence money with fake US dollar notes.A fake note dealer had given them US$400 000 for the purpose.

However, the Magistrate changed the rules for booking evidence in and this ensured that the plan to exchange the real money with fake notes failed.

Meantime, the gang were unaware that the Mozambican had since been acquitted by the courts and that his money had been returned to him, so they decided to use force and went to the Magistrates' Court armed with bolt cutters and other instruments of destruction.

They cut through grates and wires and managed to enter the evidence room, only to find the money not there. Since they were already in, they decided to go further, into another strongroom, which the two policemen knew contains valuable evidence.

They failed to gain entrance and went off to get hammers and chisels, which they then brought back and started demolishing the wall to the strongroom.

But it all proved tough going and one of them apparently told the other he was going off to buy drinks but instead ran off to Harare Central Police Station, where he reported that a theft was going on at the Magistrates Court.

The police, when they arrived, caught the robbers in the act, but the sentry, who was waiting outside in his car, the getaway car, managed to escape.

This report comes in the wake of two other high-profile robberies just in December 2009. One was a US$270 000 bank heist in the sleepy town of Chegutu, a few kilometers from Harare and the other was the case of the Town and Country Supermarket cashier who collected US$13 000 from his fellow cashiers and fled with it. He left a note saying that he had taken the money because the company had not given him a Christmas bonus and he therefore, had decided to give himself one.

The police, in fact, announced yesterday that have since arrested two members of the gang that launched the bank heist and recovered one of the two cars used in the robbery. The arrested members of the gang were also found in possession of cellphones and such from the clients in the banking hall, whom they had robbed, Hollywood-move style!

It is a sign of the times that these things are happening and it is by no means just because it is Christmas time. The correction that has since occurred in the Zimbabwe economy, where there are no longer opportunities to get filthy-rich, quick as was the case when hyperinflation and shortages reigned means that either people struggle to earn a living or turn to crime.

The failure by the Inclusive Government of Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe to create employment in the private sector by seeing to the supply side of the corporate economy means that we have a lot of people who have lost all hope of making something of themselves.

More importantly, though, the widespread use of the US dollar as Zimbabwe's official currency (the South African Rand has all but disappeared), means that shops, banks and other retailers are now targets worthy of attention from thieves and shady characters.

As a result, even the fast-food chain Innscor, which had sought to bring Zimbabwe into the First World by having some of their outlets open 24 hours or as late as 2a.m. are now closing them at 10 p.m.

Supermarkets and other retailers are also now closing earlier than they did before in an effort to protect not only their takings, but also the lives of their workers.

Zimbabwe, I am afraid, is slowly descending into the depths of crime which used to only read about in South African newspapers.

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Zimbabwe Toddlers in Tragic Forest Death

Children as young as 3 normally do not look after cattle or go after them to bring them in for the night. But to toddlers from Mhangura in Zimbabwe , this was par for the course. Their parents, who appear to be getting away scot-free, left them at home to go and attend to fields kilometres away. The toddlers wandered in search of their cattle and died as a result. It is all rather fishy.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 30 December 2009

Two toddlers aged 3 and five died of hunger in a forest in Zimbabwe after having gone to look for their family cattle and bring them in for the night.

It is a tragic story that should really result in criminal charges against the parents (if they can be called that).Gift and Patrick Magadhi of Mhangura were left alone at home by their parents who went off to tend to their fields, which are said to be five kilometres away.

As the day drew to an end, the two toddlers decided that their family herd of cattle was late and they went off to bring them in for the night.

But they got lost apparently, and ended up in a thick forest five kilometres away from their home.

The parents raised the alarm upon coming back but a search of the areas proved fruitless. It was only after villagers got wind of a bad smell as they walked in the forest that their investigated and found the two toddlers' body badly decomposed.

"The bodies of the two were found about 15 metres apart nearly five kilometres from their village in a thick forest. No fould play is suspected at the moment as there signs that the children were lost and could have died of hunger," said a police spokesman.

The police also say that there are signs that the toddler tried to eat grass and they conclude that they could have died of hunger out there in the forest, too young to know how to live off the forest in which they found themselves lost.

It ma be cruel to say this, but I find all this rather suspicious. Why on earth would parents leave a three year old and a five year old alone at home while they went off to their fields five kilometres away?

How many parents do you know, if you are Zimbabwe, who take their children to their fields as a matter of course and you will find even babies resting in the shade of a tree while their parents wee the maize fields?

Why should this then not be a case of child base at the very least and culpable homicide at worst? Why not? This was irresponsible behaviour and it really should not go unpunished. Of course, it boggles the mind that any parent would do this, which leads to the suspicions about the deaths of these two toddlers.

Mugabe Disappears Into The Sunset

This was the last time Zimbabweans saw their "leaders" this year, on December 23 at a press conference at Zimbabwe House. They joked and laughed and, with straight faces, urged the negotiators to speed up their talks. Whereupon Mugabe announces that he is now officially on his annual month-long leave. He might well be asking, "What outstanding issues?"

Harare, Zimbabwe, 29 December 2009

Well, for a month at least.

That's because Mugabe has gone on his annual leave starting yesterday, December 28. We will only see him again in February.

It is an act of supreme contempt for the talks and negotiations allegedly going on in Harare between his party and the MDCs. He has not solved the more prickly of Tsvangirai's grievances: Roy Bennett, for instance. Reform of the security services is another. And, although Mugabe says he has signed the mandates for ambassadors to take their posts, they have not been posted yet. Perhaps in January?

Mugabe was busy urging the mediators (together with Morgan Tsvangirai, at Zimbabwe House on December 23) to speed up their talks and come to a resolution of the conflict that saw Tsvangirai pulling out government.

So, Mugabe sees no urgency at all to these "outstanding issues"? The country and the region will have to just wait while the Zimbabwe president kicks up his heels at his red-roofed Zvimba mansion and as he walks amongst his dairy cattle at Gushungo Dairy Estates.

It's not as if anyone can do anything about it. Who would dare? Tsvangirai?

Officially then, we are on auto-pilot, but there is an army of engineers working away quietly beneath it all, ensuring that the Old Man's wishes be respected and enforced.

As usually happens, he will probably have to "urgently" meet one or two politicians on "state business". Morgan Tsvangirai will not be one of them, since, even by the MDCs own admission, Mugabe avoids Tsvangirai at every opportunity. The Prime Minister has to make an appointment through the president's PA if he wants to see Mugabe. He can not just pick up the phone and call his boss, like normal people do.

It is enough of an issue for the MDC to have complained to the SADC Troika about it.

Mugabe and his family will also almost certainly fly off to the Far East at some point during his leave. It is a family tradition now and is subject of much talk and publicity every year without fail.

By the way, Tsvangirai will still not chair the four cabinet meetings that Mugabe will miss. These will be presided over by the Vice President, Joice Mujuru, who has been appointed Acting President by Mugabe. The Acting, unfortunately, does not include Mugabe's motorcade - the make-believe does not get that realistic.

Still, we should see little difference here. Life goes on and we will only have cause to worry when Mugabe is readying to return to work.

What shocks will he have cooked up during a month of brooding.?

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Zimbabwe Gives Chinese and Angola One Thousand Hectares Of Land

All grandiose talk of housing construction from Mugabe's government so far has been nothing but hot air. Private developers, people like Philip Chiyangwa, for instance, with his Pinnacle Properties, tend to do a much better job. But now Mugabe has decided to make yet another grand announcement about handing over a thousand hectares to the Angolans and Chinese to build whole towns. I am sure it is the last time we will hear about it, although the Chinese are likely to take the land anyway and do something else with it.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 December 2009

Zimbabwe's government (still a ZANU PF government now getting Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC to do its bidding), has given a Chinese/Angolan company - Sonangol - one thousand hectares of land, purportedly to build new towns around the capital Harare.

The land, in Mt Hampden (which Cecil John Rhodes' European settlers first targeted as the capital of a new Rhodesia or Zambezia) and Mazowe, is imply just a gift at the moment and the Minister of Local Government and Mugabe ally, Ignatious Chombo, says the Chinese are yet to even inspect the land to see if it is suitable. The government of Zimbabwe appears confident that it is.

Sonangol, which to all intents and purposes is being used by President Dos Santos of Angola to invest some of his country's immense oil wealth in Zimbabwe, announced a couple of months ago that it had signed a US$8 billion deal with the Zimbabweans to invest in everything from infrastructure, oil and gas exploration and other areas of if interest.

The signing ceremony for that massive investment deal was turned into a purely ZANU PF affair, with Mugabe's men in attendance and Morgan Tsvangirai's people barred from even being present. ZANU PF wanted credit for this all to itself 0 another arrow in their election quiver.

Late last year, as Zimbabwe tottered on the brink of disaster, in the grip of a political crisis that was solved only by the co-option and swallowing of Morgan Tsvangirai into the Inclusive ZANU PF Government now governing Zimbabwe, I asked you to watch carefully the relationship between Mugabe and Angola, ZANU PF and the MPLA (ruling party in Angola).

This latest development confirms my observations from back then. Consultations between Mugabe and Dos Santos have now taken on immense proportions and barely a week goes by without a ZANU PF minister being in Angola. The latest visit was by Emmerson Mnangagwa, Minister of Defence and Mugabe heir-apparent.

As I pointed out back then, Angola is run pretty much by the military, with a civilian facade fronted by Dos Santos himself. Armed forces men, Generals and the like, have penetrated all facets of civilian rule and run the most important aspects of Angolan administration.

This is hangover from the conflict years that saw Dos Satos fight a bitter war against apartheid South Africa and the West. In all but name, Angola was, throughout that period, run by martial law, as tends to happen during wars that threaten the existence of a state.

By default, the presence of the military in the corridors of civilian power consolidated power around Dos Santos, who is almost a recluse now and rarely attends conferences, keeping as largely out of sight as Mugabe does.

With the Angolan president having been in power longer than Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president looks to him as a sort of instructor and this is why Zimbabwe's administration is being militarised. The latest and most blatant example of this was the injection of military men into Boards running the media in Zimbabwe. (Tsvangirai was not consulted on this and has had to live with it).

The US$8 billion deal is now being openly sold by ZANU PF through the state media as the fruits of Mugabe's "Look East Policy", launched four years ago. In so doing, ZANU PF is contrasting this with the failure by Morgan Tsvangirai to bring in any investment or significant aid from his Western allies.

Still, knowing how ZANU PF operates, it is quite clear that they have not thought through this town-building exercise and are leaving it to the Chinese to do the city planning and the other details.

Almost certainly, these new towns, if they are ever built, will be isolated and will stagnate, cut off from the vibrant capital and unlikely to be linked to it by any form of reliable transport. The idea that these towns can become dormitory towns like Chitungwiza, in which Harare workers will live and commute to their jobs, is likely to prove a mere pipe dream.

Sonangol's strength lies in oil and gas exploration, extraction and marketing and it is likely that it will not give the twon-building project due attention. But we may well be surprised.

Chombo makes it clear in his announcement that this is yet another ploy by ZANU PF to influence voters and a desperate bid to hang to its position as Zimbabwe's ruling party.

Housing remains on the failures of Mugabe's regime since independence. Just as Mugabe believed and told ministers that his job was not to create employment in Zimbabwe, he also did not put much thought or consideration into meeting the housing needs of an expanding population.

The townships of Zimbabwe remain overcrowded and the infrastructure, such as sewage and water treatment, are failing to cope.

This pressure needs to be alleviated as a matter of urgency by modernising the towns and cities, but the task is beyond both Mugabe and his new plaything: Morgan Tsvangirai.

Still, all we can do is watch. By the time of the next elections, it is a safe bet that this grandiose project will still be a castle in the air, a figment of Chombo's imagination.

Lets talk again in 2011.

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Judge Wades Into Political Minefield

Local Government Minister has had a decision he made to appoint a traditional leader in Hwedza nullified.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 December 2009

Justice Anne-Mary Gowora at the High Court of Zimbabwe perhaps does not know how the ZANU PF patronage machinery works. That is why she has nullified the appointment of a Headman in Hwedza by Local Government Minister and Mugabe homeboy Ignatious Chombo.

The Headmanship is for Goto Ward in the Hwedza Area. Strictly speaking, no matter what the modern laws say, Headmen are the responsibilities of the Chief of the area. Having a Minister appoint a Headman is akin to asking a Board Chairman to appoint a shop-floor supervisor, but that is how deeply ZANU PF is controlling the rural areas.

This being Goto Ward, it would have been expected that traditional laws of natural inheritance dictate that Milton Goto, the obvious candidate, would have been appointed. But Chombo instead appointed a Madzimbamuto Chikowore to the job. This was in May 2007.

Willard Goto promptly took the Minister to court and took the matter all the way to the High Court.

He is insisting that the current laws (Section 8 of the Traditional Leaders’ Act, Chapter 29/17) say he should be appointed.

The High Court agreed with him last week, in a ruling that nullified the decision made by Chombo in 2007. The ruling does not direct him to appoint Got, however, and only says he should revisit the appointment of a Headman for Goto Ward in accordance with Section 8.

But, as I pointed out above, Chombo's actions were not because of ignorance of the law. They were in spite of it. He knew exactly what he was doing. It could well be that the rightful Headman (Goto), could not be trusted to toe the party line and rally villagers around ZANU PF.

The Chiefs and Headmen, you will recall, were also used by ZANU PF in the farcical Presidential "run-off" of June 2008. They were told that they would queue to vote with their subjects forming a single line behind them.

It was a tactic used to intimidate not only the villagers, but also the chiefs themselves. ZANU PF claimed that they would be able to tell which Chieftainship had MDC voters within it and then deal with the Chief as well as his subjects once the votes had been counted. The Chief was also being held accountable for any absentees who heeded Morgan Tsvangirai's call to boycott the election run-off.

Turnout was very good in the rural areas, as a result of this intimidation.

The Chiefs are paid salaries by the ZANU PF government (now pretending to be co-governing with the MDCs) and they are also supplied with cars. Headmen get motorbikes. Chombo has also promised to built palaces for all the chiefs in Zimbabwe.

They are onto a good thing, obviously, and would not want to bite the hand that feeds them. Ironically, this was the very same approach used by Ian Smith's Rhodesia government. And he still lost. So there's still hope yet.

It is, therefore, in the interests of ZANU PF to put in place people they can count on, even if that means breaking the odd Section 8 law now and again, and again, and again........

It remains to be seen whether Chombo obeys the ruling or not. ZANU PF bigwigs have acquired the nasty trait of assuming that they are above the law. Almost certainly, Chombo will appeal to the Supreme Court and by the time the case is heard, perhaps ZANU PF would have quietly changed the law to make Chombo's desires legal.

Mugabe is very good at that. Instead of obeying the law, he changes the law so that it obeys him.

This is why we have 18 amendments to the Constitution (far too many for a nation that is barely a quarter of a century old.

Still, the Jsutice can now rest assured that she has been added to the ZANU PF list of "hostile judges" and may find her path to up the lagger missing quite a few rungs.

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33 Die On Zimbabwe Roads Over Christmas

An ashen-looking Mugabe addresses the media on December 23 during a press conference with Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara at Zimbabwe House, which Mugabe now uses as his office, rarely going to Munhumutapa Building, where Tsvangirai now works from, except for the Tuesday Cabinet meetings.This has been a much better Christmas than usual for Zimbabweans, at least in a decade, but deaths on the roads show a hangover from when corners were being cut n servicing cars and repairing roads

Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 December 2009

Same old story.

Police in Zimbabwe have announced that 33 people died in accidents on the country's roads since the Christmas period began in earnest on 21 December.

Zimbabwe police, who say that the hardest hit province was Manicaland, which far outstripped other provinces in fatalities, also cite fatigue, inattentiveness (driving without due care and diligence) and vehicles that were not roadworthy as the main reasons behind the high death rate.

The carnage on our roads can also perhaps be put down to the lack of a proper "Don't Drink and Drive" campaign as is usually seen in the years when road fatalities are few. I am in the advertising industry and have followed these campaigns carefully, including working on one a few years back.

What these campaigns do is put road safety top-of-mind for drivers and car owners so that, as they are reminded that this is a deadly season, they also remind themselves not to take any undue risks and attend to the conditions of their cars.

Still, it is now done and Zimbabwe will, predictably, start mouthing all sorts of platitudes about traffic safety after the fact. It will help none, of course.

The other statics I have (more are still coming in), say that the Midlands was the hardest hit province in terms of serious injuries on the roads. Mashonaland Central Province did not record a single fatality and is one of two provinces that escaped unscathed from the holiday season.

This is because most of the people staying behind in Harare and surrounds did so because travelling would have been too expensive for them. Police presence on the capital's roads and the vicinity of the Mashonaland Central Province was fairly visible and this contributed to the low death rate. Once drivers hit the open road on the way to Bulawayo (passing through the Midlands, of course (Gweru) or on the way to Mutare (Manicaland province), they tended to forget themselves.

This was the first Christmas that Zimbabweans have enjoyed in years without the spectre of hyperinflation and economy meltdown.

But, to show that the party in Zimbabwe has not yet started, most shoppers out just before Christmas Day told state media here in Harare that were almost exclusively shopping for their children's school needs. They did not want to spend all the money over the holiday before seeing to such things as uniforms and school fees, which remain high by Zimbabwean standards.

Good schools themselves are also failing to cope with enrolments at all levels. A lady I met who had just come in from South Africa says there are "many" out there who have decided to come back in the new year and they are looking for school places for their children.

I am not sure where Morgan Tsvangirai spent Christmas, but his Solution (Mugabe) is reported to have gone to him home in Zvimba with his family (no foreign trips this time around, it seems).

Although it was by far one of the best Christmases in recent memory, signs are still there that the country has merely stabilised and is not yet growing its economy.

But, as evidenced by the parents coming back home to look for school places for their children, it appears that Zimbabweans, ever optimists, are positioning themselves for what they intend to make a very good 2010, despite the politicians.

Hope you had a good one and do not have to make a resolution to visit the gym much more now as a result of overindulgence over Christmas.

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Mugabe Pimps Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara

Now wonder Mugabe looked so happy: he had just heard his Prime Minister and Deputy PM lambast Nestle for closing shop, calling Nestle's actions an "overreaction". It has now been announced that Nestle has now been forced to reopen!! On condition that they continue to buy Mugabe's milk in a roundabout manner

Harare, Zimbabwe, 25 December 2009

After Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called Nestle Zimbabwe's shutdown of its operations an "overreaction" and Mugabe turned the business of his family into State business, Nestle have now been forced to reopen their Zimbabwe operations.

Tsvangirai personally intervened to ask Welshman Ncube, Trade and Industry Minister, to lean on the local Nestle operation. The Solution that has been imposed on Nestle in Zimbabwe is one which will see them continue buying milk from Mugabe's farms, but this time in a roundabout way.

Dairibord Zimbabwe will purchase all milk from producers in the country, including Gushungo Farms, Mugabe's operations. Nestle and other diary players will then buy milk from Dairibord.

So Tsvangirai is now Mugabe's Business Manager? Why on earth would the private business of a citizen (even though he may be the First Citizen) be made into government business?

The only way to describe what just happened is that Mugabe has managed to pimp out both the Prime Minister and his deputy, make them work for him for no pay.

It now emerges that Nestle had closed operations because the safety of its employees could not guaranteed. Not only was the company beseiged by War Veterans and forced to buy a tanker of Gushungo milk, but managers from Nestle were also taken in by the police and questioned. It is not clear what law in Zimbabwe makes it crime to make the business decision not to buy milk from a particular supplier.

And Morgan Tsvangirai says Nestle overreacted?

Whatever they may say, it is now clear that Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara are at the beck and call of Robert Mugabe, protecting his interests even as he smashes their own to smithereens.

Welshman Nucbe (Minister of Trade)'s statement on the issue is very telling:

"As a result of those consultations, the parties have collectively reached an understanding to work together in ensuring that milk produced at Gushungo Dairies is absorbed by the local dairy processors."

You get the picture?

The overriding concern here was that "milk produced at Gushungo Diaries is absrobed by the local dairy processors." You will buy from me or I shut you down? What next? The Word Mafia comes to mind. Which would make Mugabe the Godfather of the Zim Mafia. Aided and abetted, it would seem, by the Prime Minister of his country and his deputy. There is an American word to describe the two men who are doing Mugabe's bidding on his personal matters. It is by no means a polite name, so we shall just leave it there.

Jobs have been saved by this measure, yes? But at what cost? What cost to the greater good of this country. Freign investment is unlikely to be reassured at the tardy manner in which the Inclusive Government has handled this matter. Impunity is being licenced openly and the perpetrators will walk away thinking this is only language that will get them what they want.

It is bound to happen again.

A precedent has been set and no business is now safe. That is the truth and the country will have to face the consequences.

Under such circumstances, is Nestle likely to expand operations as demand grows? No. Will any other company dealing with Mugabe's produce think itself safe and secure? What if they were ordered to buy at three times the prevailing prices? Would they refuse?

These are but only a tiny part of the repercussions of this whole messy saga.

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And to all of you readers from all over the world, who have given this blog such amazing support, I say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Do not overdo it with the eggnog.

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Mugabe Signs Mandates For Tsvangirai Ambassadors, Publicly Lectures Morgan Tsvangirai

A condescending Robert Mugabe looks on, smiling benevolently like a proud father, as Morgan Tsvangirai announces to the press at a Press Conference in Harare yesterday that he is happy with the crumbs Mugabe has given him. The press conference was held at Zimbabwe House. Mugabe pointed to the announcement of various commissions and his signing of mandates for ambassadors from the two MDCs as evidence that the Global Political Agreement had been implemented!!

Harare, Zimbabwe, 24 December 2009

Robert "The Soltuion" Mugabe announced at a press conference yesterday that he has now finally signed the mandates that will allow MDC-Tsvangirai and MDC (Mutambara) ambassadors to take up their posts in the new year.

You will recall that this blog was the first media in the world to reveal to you that the announcement by the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that his ambassadors would be posted in August 2009 was wrong and that Mugabe was refusing to post them until Tsvangirai called for the lifting of sanctions.

We were also the first to reveal to you that Trudy Stevenson had been nominated by Deputy PM Arthur Mutambara to become Ambassador to Senegal.

Yesterday's pres conference was addressed by Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara together.

The appointment of ambassadors, however, is a non-event, because these have no impact on the performance of this inclusive givernment. It is a smokescreen from Mugabe, so that he can claim that he has started implementing the Global Political Agreement in full.

Mugabe pointedly used the press conference to confirm his intransigence on the sticky issues of the appointment of Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana.

"This huge Government of three parties can not be derailed by Tomana (the Attorney General of Zimbabwe, whom the MDC says was appointed irregularly and is vindictively pursuing MDC-Tsvangirai officials and activists in the courts)."

Condescending as ever, Mugabe also used the press conference to lecture Morgan Tsvangirai on the meaning and art of negotiations:

"When you negotiate, you negotiate with a mind that must accept two dimensions of outcomes. One outcome is of the gains you get; and another one is of the gains the other party will get and that is your losses," said Mugabe.

"We have made a lot of gains all of us in terms of gains to the inclusive Government. We have fulfilled a much greater area than that remains to be fulfilled."

Tsvangirai himself, sitting besides Mugabe as the lecture was delivered, appeared happy enough with these crumbs from Mugabe's high table:

"Let us give our negotiators the time to conclude, but I hope that it won’t be long that we put this one aside," he said, adding that the fact that "everyone" has accepted the Inclusive Government is an indication that he, Mugabe and Mutambara "were doing their job."

Of course, as I have mentioned before, he ignored the fact that the real issues that led him to pull out of the government temporarily on 16 October 2009.

Mugabe still refuses to swear in Roy Bennett, to fire Tomana or Gideon Gono. He still maintains his private army our in the rural areas, which is going around telling people that next time, it will be a bullet in the head for Morgan Tsvangirai and not a beating on the buttocks like in the June 2008 presidential election run-off.

The year ends with Mugabe firmly in control, refusing to stick to the spirit of the Inclusive Government and outwitting Tsvangirai on everything that matters.

Mugabe revealed his mindset, which is that of pretending that the problems in the Inclusive Government of Zimbabwe do not exist:

"It (the year 2009) was about our trying to work together, ignore the political differences of the parties, submerge those differences and elevate the areas we agree on," he revealed. Which means he is admitting that he is simply ignoring the problems in the hope that they go away.

Tsvangirai appears content with this approach.

So it is not yet Uhuru by any stretch of the imagination. This government continues to preside over a huge unemployment problem and low productivity in our industries.

Mugabe is now eyeing elections and has, as a result agreed to the speeding up of the making of a new constitution, with Tsvangirai and Mutambara having agreed with him that the process will not be people-driven but driven by the politicians and that funds for the process will not be accepted unless they are channeled through the government (to allow them to skim some of it off the top!)

This circus can not end soon enough.

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Tsvangirai Refuses To Pay Lunch Bill

After addressing a rally like this one in Mucheke last year, Morgan Tsvangirai went to a hotel in Masvingo Province for lunch with his delegation and met with local officials, running up a bill of more than US$2 000. Which he promptly refused to pay and is still refusing to pay because his party now says this is one of the perks of being in the Inclusive Government!

Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 December 2009

The MDC-T, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, is refusing to pay for lunch that the Prime Minister and party president had at a Hotel in Masvingo during a rally held in Mucheke in 2008!

The MDC-T has told management at the Mandava A1 Hotel that they are now part of the Government and the use of the hotel and the food served is one of the perks of ruling Zimbabwe.

And we thought that it was only Mugabe and his crew who are used to taking things by force.

MDC-Tsvangirai Provincial Chairperson in the Masvingo Province, where the free lunch was eaten, says the demand for payment from the hotel "came to us as a joke." Wilstaff Stemere, the Provincial Chair, told state media in a telephone interview:

"The issue of money came to us as joke when the hotel management told that they are charging us per person who was having lunch and attending meetings with the (party) president (Morgan Tsvangirai) and we are not going to pay them."

Just like that?

Hotel Manager Banda Chatsaka confirms that the Prime Minister is refusing to pay for the lunch he ate. "I can confirm that they owe us money that they have not paid and we have tried to engage in dialogue on how they can best settle the debt and we seem to be hitting a brick wall."

I'll say!

The Prime Minister and his party are already revealing their true colours, letting power that they do not have go to their heads.

Is this any way for a party that believes in good governance, transparency and honesty in politics to behave? What happened to decency? Shame?

I do not really care what anyone says, but this sort of attitude and behaviour is the same that leads "leaders" and "ruling parties" to think that it is okay for them to confiscate other people's property simply because they are in power.

It is but a short hop and skip from this to invading productive farms and profitable companies, running them into the ground and then crying "sanctions!".

I have spoken before of the Animal Farm syndrome in Zimbabwean politics today. With things such as these happening it becomes even less clear which is the pig and which is the human in this circus of politicians that is running Zimbabwe (into the ground).

It is to be hoped that the Prime Minister, as the person who actually consumed the lunch, will pay the US$2 000-odd bill and salvage his reputation. As for his party officials, they are no better than ZANU PF people. There is no other way to look at it: this is theft and corruption.

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Mugabe Forces Nestle To Shut Down

For refusing to buy milk from Robert Mugabe's Gushungo Farm (whose dairy cows are shown on display at an Agricultural Show above), Nestle has been hounded out of Zimbabwe, forced to cease operations, throwing hundreds and perhaps ultimately thousands of people out of work. Not a squeak from those who should have a conscience in this Inclusive Government as we export jobs (Nestle products will now mostly likely be imported for our shops from South Africa)

Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 December 2009

Nestle Zimbabwe, by far the biggest and most dominant supplier of processed dairy products in Zimbabwe, has been forced by the Mugabe family and its supporters to shut down.

The company only says it has "suspended" operations and does not give reasons.

It does not take much to figure out what is happening. Nestle were buying milk from Gushungo Farm, owned and operated by the First Lady of Zimbabwe, Grace Mugabe until protests about their propping Mugabe up financially and profiting from "stolen land".

The Zimbabwe operation of the company then stopped buying milk from the First lady's farm and immediately came under attack from Mugabe's supporters.

Saviour Kasukuwere, Minister of Youth in the Inclusive Government and high-ranking member of Mugabe's ZANU PF threatened a few days ago that "we" would hand over companies such as Nestle to black people (read ZANU PF people).

Kasukuwere and other Mugabe supporters were claiming that Nestle's actions were tantamount to the imposition of sanctions on the First Family.

There were reports last month that Nestle had resumed buying Grace's milk, but the shut down of their operation last week here in Zimbabwe says otherwise.

ZANU PF officials are not hiding their glee at the shut down of Nestle. They are now publicly accusing the company of importing raw materials "that are available locally". The company is said to have used Zimbabwe "simply for toll manufacturing".

It is their fault now, apparently, that the Government of Zimbabwe has failed to put in policies that create jobs for the people of Zimbabwe. Yet, by forcing Nestle to shut down (and not even hiding their pleasure at the shut down), ZAU PF has just thrown a lot of workers at the company and downstream out of work.

A couple of thousand more people will be walking the streets jobless.

What is even sadder is that Zimbabweans, especially Zimbabwean parents, who rely on Nestle infant and toddler milk and milk products will simply import the stuff. Soon, supermarkets will realise that this is the way to go and will also import Nestle products to sell in their shops. The imports will almost certainly come from South Africa, which means more jobs will be created in that country as a result of this action.

All this because of one farm, owned by the wife of the president?

It shows where the power still truly resides in Zimbabwe. The MDC-T and Morgan Tsvangirai, if they had any shame, would at the very least issue a public and unequivocal condemnation of this travesty. They should let the people know that they value foreign investments as much as they value the appointments of their governors, ambassadors and deputy ministers, over whom they pulled out of cabinet on October 16 this year.

This is unlikely to happen, of course.

Which raises the question: if the interests of these workers, the interests of the citizens of Zimbabwe will not be protected by the party that says it wants to bring a better future to Zimbabwe, who will they protected by.

If there ever was a time to speak out, it is now.

But this will not happen.

Which leads, inevitably, to the question: what is the MDC doing in government, if it will bury its head in the sand as this is going on.

All the people need and want to have their faith in the loyalty of the MDC to the people of Zimbabwe is simply words: speaking out, distancing themselves from this act of intimidation and economic vandalism.

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Zimbabwe Police Plunder Invaded Farm

While crime rates in Zimbabwe increase and while the police are more eager to crack down on political dissent, it emerges this morning that they have diverted attention from their their "core business" of policing in Zimbabwe and are now instead into farming. The Zimbabwe police have taken over a farm in Marondera, where they are busy plundering timber from a vast cultivated field of gum tress left behind by the previous owner. Their attempts at farming crops have, by their own admission, failed dismally.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 22 December 2009

The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has "moved from its core business as police" and is now busy plundering timber at an invaded farm in Marondera, cutting down vast tracts of gum trees and selling the timber to tobacco farmers to allow them to cure their harvests.

The police were given the nearly 3 000 hectare farm by Mugabe under the Land Reform Programme and they are openly boasting that the former owner of the farm was "into timber", which they have now take over.

These, mind you, are trees that they found on the farm, tended and cultivated by someone else, who has now been kicked off that land without any compensation.

It is a stunning admission by Mugabe's police, this. The Zimbabwean dictator has always claimed that he is only after the soil itself and that he will compensate former owners for "improvements on the land" only and not for the soil itself.

The definition of "improvements" is what has led most former farmers (mostly white Zimbabweans) to resist the Programme.

Routinely, politicians and those that are well-connected politically wait until a farmer has a crop in the ground and has tended to the fields almost to the point of harvest before moving in and taking over a nearly ripe crop without paying a single cent for it.

By any definition, this is plunder and is one of the main reasons why the world (especially the Western countries) are opposed to the Land Reform Programme. This approach is what they object to.

For the farm n Marondera, the police are openly admitting that they have failed to properly utilising the land. According to them, all they could manage last year was 17 tonnes of maize (corn) which they say "did not give a good return".

They are trying again this year and have once again planted maize as well as tobacco.

But it is the forest of cultivated gum trees that they say is now giving them good money.

The struggling and bankrupt Zimbabwe Cold Storage Company (CSC) has also given the policemen 22 cattle for the farm.

Mugabe has been very careful to ensure that the police and the army are given vast tracts of land to farm and they have, in turn, caused an uproar by using prisoners as forced labour on their farms.

With most policemen not being farmers, the result has been that the land given them lies mostly idle, not exploited to its full potential and thereby contributing to the food shortages that now bedevilled Zimbabwe.

Most foodstuffs on sale in our supermarkets now is imported.

Meanwhile, with the police preoccupied with farming and with politics, crime in Zimbabwe is slowly increasing in the wake of the dollarisation of the economy. Most of the crimes committed in Zimbabwe today go unsolved and it has become an unaccepted norm that for such things as break-ins and robberies, it is a waste of time to report to the police because they never make an effort to solve any of them. They are, however, very quick to come down on human rights and political activists, blocking their marches and violently breaking them up.

All this is happening while the MDC-Tsvangirai party is partly in charge of the this very same police force. Their co-Minister of Home Affairs, Giles Mutsekwa, has been telling everyone who will listen (most recently at a Police Summit in Singapore) that the Zimbabwe Republic Police is a "professional force" that is well educated in human rights!!

To change this culture within the police force will require a change in government, which is looking very unlikely with the confirmation that Mugabe will run again for president at the next elections.

It will, therefore, be business as usual for the police in Zimbabwe for some years to come.

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Right Again! - Our Media Commission Scoop Confirmed

Morgan Tsvangirai embraces another "dishonest partner": The Prime Minister was congratulating newly sworn-in Vice President John Nkomo at State House last week. Today, he had reason to smile as Mugabe finally announced the names I leaked on this blog on October 5 this year.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 22 October 2009

On October 5 this year (2009), I published here the list of Zimbabwe Media Commission appointees as agreed that day between Mugabe and Tsvangirai during their Monday meeting of that week in an article entitled: Scoop! - Zimbabwe Media Commission Names Released - Massive Victory For Tsvangirai.

The list that I published on October 5 2009 was:

Godfrey Majonga (former ZBC newsreader)
Matthew Takaona, former President of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists and an ardent supporter of Morgan Tsvangirai
Henry Muradzikwa, who is also in the Tsvangirai camp
Chris Mutsvangwa of ZANU PF, a former ambassador to China
Chris Mhike
Hussain Sibanda
A Mrs Nyati, whose first name I could not immediately establish and
Millicent Mombeshora, a senior official at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Today, our scoop was confirmed when Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara announced, through the Secretary to The President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, the new Commissioners to sit on the ZMC. They are:

Godfrey Majonga (former ZBC Newsreader, as Chairman of the Commission)
Matthew Takaona (former Zimbabwe Union of Journalists President)
Henry Muradzikwa
Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa
Chris Mhike
Ms Nqobile Nyathi (Deputy Chair)
Millicent Mombeshora (Deputy to Gideon Gono at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe)
Lawton Hikwa
Ms Miriam Madziwa

The Commissioners were agreed to by the so-called Principals at the beginning of October, as I told you here on October 5.

The announcement today was an effort to give the impression that something has come out of the talks precipitated by Tsvangirai's partial "disengagement" at the end of October. In actual fact, the only issue was that Mugabe was taking his time to announce the names (Tsvangiai is not allowed to announce them because he is not "Head of State and Government, Commander in Chief of the Defence Forces and......")

As you can see from a comparison of my October 5 list and the list released today, this blog was right on the money. The only name to be dropped in the final list is that of Hussain Sibanda. Lawton Hikwa and Miriam Madziwa are the two new names introduced here.

So, we are proved right yet again!!

Apart from the Zimbabwe Media Commission, there was an announcement today on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC).

The Electoral Commission that will run Zimbabwe's elections in future is fairly important and Mugabe and Tsvangirai could not agree on a Chairman, with Mugabe rejecting all recommendations as not having enough experience and "character".

For the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Mugabe returned two Commissioners who were with the old ZEC that sat on election results for two months in 2008 as Mugabe cooked the books and stole votes from Simba Makoni in order to force a run-off. The two to be returned from that old Commission are Mrs Joyce Kazembe, who was Deputy Chair of that old Commission and Theophileus Gambe.

The rest of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission comprises:

Dr Petty Makoni
Sibongile Ndlovu
Bessie F. Nhandara
Daniel Chigaru
Geoff Feltoe
Mukhuli Nyathi

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission:

Dr Ellen Sithole
Dr Kwanele Jirira
Mrs Neseni Nomathemba
Mr Elasto Mugwadi
Dr Joseph Kurebwa
Mr Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube
Mr Jacob Mudenda
Professor Carol Khombe

It is my fear that, especially for the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, the current environment may not allow them to be as thorough and relentless as they should be in terms of enforcing respect for human rights. They need to be able to prosecute all offenders on the basis of complaints from those who feel aggrieved.

But do they have the teeth? And will they be allowed to use them.

If not, then a very bad precedent would have been set and it would take another struggle to put together a Commission at the very least as effective and powerful as the South African and European Union ones.

Anyway, there you have confirmation of the reliability of our sources. You can expect this to continue and we will always be the first to bring you the news that politicians and our so-called leaders wish to put under a bushel.

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Tsvangirai's Heavy Loss To Mugabe Confirmed

After agreeing to be sowrn in by Mugabe like any other Minister (as opposed to insisting on being sworn in by the Chief Justice), Tsvangirai remains very much in Mugabe's shadow despite winning elections in March 2008. Confirmation of my story a couple of weeks back about Tsvangirai giving in to Mugabe on most of his "disengagement" issues has now been provided by a report compiled by the South Africans on the progress of the ongoing talks in Harare.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 20 December 2009

The Zimind has in its possession the report compiled by a SADC Facilitation Team appointed by Jacob Zuma, the South African president, which confirms what I told you last week about Tsvangirai losing out heavily to Mugabe in the ongoing talks in Harare. (See my article "Tsvangirai Loses Out Heavily To Mugabe In Ongoing Talks")

The talks talks are a result of Tsvangirai's temporary "disengagement" from ZANU PF, Cabinet and Council of Ministers.

Back in October, when he announced the pull-out, Tsvangirai spoke of specific grievances:

Failure by Mugabe to swear in Roy Bennett as Deputy Minister of Agriculture
Security Establishment reform
The continued meeting of the Joint Operations Command (JOC)
Failure to Swear in Provincial Governors from the MDC-T by Mugabe
Failure to post ambassadors appointed by the MDC-T
Militarisation of the countryside (rural areas)

There has been no joy for the MDC-Tsvangirai on any of these, according to the report, which was also authorised by the three political leaders in Zimbabwe's government before it was forwarded to Zuma.

ZANU PF has maintained its position that Bennett will only be sworn in when and if he is acquitted.

Mugabe's party has also told Tsvangirai's people to go and jump into the nearest lake on the issue of JOC meetings.

The ambassadors nominated by the MDC-T and the MDC are also still here in Zimbabwe, despite the quick announcement in October that they would be dispatched in December to their respective posts. Mugabe is now dragging his feet on this and is daring Tsvangirai to pull out yet again.

Tsvangirai's grievance about the militarisation of the countryside was not even discussed.

On Provincial Governors, ZANU PF is still insisting that they will not be appointed according to a political formula but that Mugabe, if he were to agree to appoint them, would be doing so out of the goodness of his heart and not because of the Agreement that gave birth to the Inclusive Government.

Even on new issues introduced after the current talks began, Tsvangirai is also losing out to Mugabe. ZANU PF has refused to entertain Tsvangirai's request that he chair Cabinet in the absence of Mugabe, since the GPA makes the MDC-T leader Deputy Chair of the Cabinet.

ZANU PF says there are Vice-presidents who act as Acting Presidents during Mugabe's absence and these have a higher claim to the chairing of Cabinet than Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai has, on the other hand, agreed to hold a press conference next week with Mugabe, during which he will publicly call for the removal of sanctions.

He has also caved in to Mugabe on the issue of the so-called "pirate radio stations" and has agreed to approach Botswana and Mauritius to ask them to stop facilitating the broadcasts of radio stations beaming into Zimbabwe.

On the funding of Non-Governmental Organisations, Tsvangirai has also caved in to Mugabe and agreed that the Government will take the position that no money will be allowed to be disbursed to NGOs in Zimbabwe. Instead, the new position is that all foreign money coming to Zimbabwe will be given to the government, which will decide what to with it.

A Loota Continua, then.

Curiously, Tsvangirai is also now insisting that he should get the same travel arrangements as Mugabe, with a full motorcade and outriders, clearing everybody out of the way and behaving as though he is a mini-me version of the Dictator of Zimbabwe.

But ZANU PF has shot that down, saying even the Vice-presidents of Zimbabwe do not get such treatment and that Tsvangirai is only fourth in the order of seniority in government. He will, therefore, not have his transport arrangements beefed up.

As is usual, there were voices that disputed my scoop here about Tsvangirai's loss to Mugabe on the talks. Desperately, they wanted to believe that Tsvangirai had put Mugabe in a corner and got what he wanted.

The report from the SADC Facilitation Team reveals that he not got anything he wanted from Mugabe. The big issues from his disengagement back in October remain very much unresolved to his satisfaction.

Then again, wishful thinking now informs most of what MDC-T supporters say, with no regard to reality.

And here was Tsvangirai last week in South Africa telling the world that there has been "progress" in the talks!! The internationl media swallowed that one and reports started appearing about the "toughness" of Zuma and the people he had appointed.

A lot of people have egg all over their faces this weekend.

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ZANU PF/MDC-Tsvangirai Fight For Power Spills Into Parliament

Lovemore Moyo, the Speaker of Zimbabwe's Parliament, is now engaged in an ugly and unprofessional turf war with the Clerk of Parliament, whom the MDC-Tsvangirai faction sees as a ZANU PF appointee. It is a continuation of the turf war between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, with the Prime Minister and his party trying to assert their authority as the largest party in parliament. This has led them to see conspiracies everywhere, including in the professional conduct of the Clerk. The Clerk stands his ground and it appears that there is nothing the MDC-T can do to him since he is playing it by the book, while Tsvangirai's party wants him to "get with the programme."

Harare, Zimbabwe, 20 December 2009

The fight for political space and authority between ZANU PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC has now spilled into parliament, with the Clerk of Parliament, the long-serving Austin Zvoma, threatening legal action against the MDC-Tsvangirai-appointed Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo for "defamation."

The fight has been a long time coming.

The MDC-Tsvangirai, controlling parliament for the first time in its history, has always been suspicious that the Clerk of Parliament is a ZANU PF person and that he continues to work in the interests of Mugabe's party in parliament, undermining the authority of the new majority party in the House, the MDC-Tsvangirai.

I know Austin Zvoma personally and I can vouch for the fact that the man has always been a professional in the way he approaches his duties. So professional, in fact, that at one time, Didymus Mutasa tried to get him fired.

And it is not only Mutasa. At least three other MPs from ZANU PF, including one previous "Leader of The House", have complained directly to Mugabe's Politburo about what they felt was disrespect from Zvoma.

What has always saved him is the fact that Zvoma plays it by the book and it is difficult to pin him down as a sympathiser of one party or the other.

But the latest rift with the new Speaker of parliament is a result of Moyo being rather wet behind the ears in his Speaker's Chair. He feels that he should exercise executive authority within the House and be its de facto Chief Executive Officer.

Last week, the Speaker asked one of his assistants to type up a letter of reprimand to the Clerk of Parliament, accusing him of overstepping the boundaries and dealing with matters that should be seen to by the Speaker himself.

Tellingly, the Speaker accuses the Clerk of Parliament of actively seeking to get involved in the cases of MDC-T MPs who are facing criminal charges in various courts and "going on to send written correspondence to those who were sentenced without the Speaker's authority."

Those of us who have been following the cases of expelled MPs will know that the Speaker was threatened with legal action by the Mutambara MDC after they accussed him of dragging his feet on the issue of expelling Mutambara MPs who had been fired from that party and had, as a result, lost their seats.

In fact, the Speaker was accused of unprofessional conduct because he started going around addressing people in the affected MPs' constituencies in the company of the fired MPs. In other words, he pursued a partisan agenda and thereby compromised his professional integrity.

His party interest appears to also be informing his fight with the Clerk of Parliament.

Zvoma has responded to the Speaker by quoting chapter and verse from the Constitution of Zimbabwe as it stands now and insisting that he has done nothing wrong. He accuses the Speaker of not understanding the Constitution and backs up his claims with quotes from the Standing Rules and the Constitution.

"I do not expect a person holding the position of Speaker to make unfounded, irresponsible and reprehensible allegations and proceed to draw wild and untrue conclusions," Zvoma said in a letter to the Speaker.

He continues: "The tone and tenor of the Speaker's memo demonstrates that he has not read the Constitution and other relevant documents thoroughly or that is badly advised."

Zvoma pointedly tells Moyo that, although he is Speaker, he is "not Head of Parliament."

Like I said above, the real issue here is the MDC-T's belief that it is now the party that holds sway in Zimbabwe by virtue of its parliamentary majority. This, therefore, is a continuation of the turf war between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

Because Moyo is taking his orders from the Prime Minister, the MDC-T assumes also that the Clerk is running a shadow administration in Parliament which is taking orders from Mugabe, especially considering that it is the Clerk who communicates with the President on matters to do with the Bills that Parliament passes.

Zvoma's insistence that he is in the right and that he is constitutionally safe is only adding to the frustration felt by the MDC-Tsvangirai, which is failing to translate its Parliamentary majority into real power at all levels of government, relegated by the GPA to being simply a party of "policy formulation and implementation" as is described in Tsvangirai's Job Description.

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Tsvangirai Denied Access To Mugabe

Although they may appear together in public, it emerges now from a report compiled by the South African Facilitation Team appointed by Jacob Zuma that Morgan Tsvangirai can only get access to Mugabe through the dictator's PA. This state of affairs does not sit well with Tsvangirai and he has made this one of his "outstanding issues" in the current talks going on in Zimbabwe. Why on earth would he think this is more important than the real issues that affect people's lives. Does he think getting direct access to Mugabe will change how the dictator sees him or get him to take the Prime Minister and his party seriously?

Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 December 2009

"I meet him (Mugabe) whenever I want," Prime Minister MorganTsvangirai boasted in South Africa back in April this year.

Well, it turns out that is not quite the case.

The report compiled by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Troika point man on Zimbabwe, Jacob Zuma, this last month says Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC-T complains that the Prime Minister does not have direct access to Mugabe.

The opposition party has made this issue one of their "outstanding issues". It is now officially a grievance. In all fairness, this is not news, because back in October, when he pulled out of the Government of National Unity (or Inclusive Government), Morgan Tsvangirai told the media at a press conference I attended that it was the government could not function "when the President refuses to see the Prime Minister."

The report submitted by the Task Team appointed by Jacob Zuma to oversee the ongoing crisis talks in Zimbabwe says the MDC is very unhappy that the Prime Minister can only gain access to the President through his (Mugabe's) personal assistant.

The Prime Minister is apparently not allowed by "protocol" to phone up Mugabe and have a chat or request a meeting. He has put his request through the PA!

This is unacceptable for Morgan Tsvangirai, who had led his supporters and party members to believe that he is going into government as an equal to Mugabe. Of course, you remember his Chinhoyi rally statement: "There is nothing Mugabe does without my approval."

Egg on the face then.

Mugabe's aloofness is legendary. As Jonathan Moyo once pointed out, one can sit with Mugabe on a ten hour flight and thew old man will be completely quiet, engrossed in his own thoughts. He will listen in silence to anyone who engages him on these flights and apparently only gets responsive when gossip is involved, but only in terms of wanting to hear the details of the gossip.

Unlike Adolf Hitler, for instance, the other dictator whose modus operandi closely resembled Mugabe's, the Zimbabwean dictator never gets into long monologues or offers his own opinions and experiences in conversations with those he works with.

He has always been like this, which is one reason why he has stayed so long at the top: no one can ever say they know him and what motivates him. No one has been able to read him enough to know his weaknesses and exploit them to dislodge him.

Still, it is a curious thing for Morgan Tsvangirai to complain about. I should think he would want to keep as much of a distance between himself and Mugabe as possible, dealing with him only when absolutely necessary. We fear the closer he gets to the dictator, the more he will come to resemble him!!

But he wants to be able to pitch up at Mugabe's home or office at a moment's notice in order to discuss government business.

The problem is that Mugabe does not think Tsvangirai is part of government. As far as the dictator is concerned, Tsvangirai is only being tolerated in the corridors of power and that is why Mugabe now refuses to come to his office at Munhumutapa Building, where Tsvangirai als now has an office.

Instead, Mugabe has fled to the sanctuary of State House, where Tsvangirai is not even allowed to just show up and get in. He has to state who he is coming with and what business they have accompanying him to see Mugabe. The last time Tsvangirai ignored this requirement, he ended up leaving State House in a huff after one car in his convoy was barred from entering State House by Mugabe's security men.

So now we know: Tsvangirai does not meet Mugabe any time he wants. He pulled out of government the last time because he said there was a crisis in the Inclusive Government and Mugabe said he was too busy to see him. as soon as Mugabe decided it was time to meet his Prime Minister, the PM and his party ended their boycott!!

Could it be that Morgan Tsvangirai wishes to be accepted and respected by Mugabe more than anything else and that if this is forthcoming, he is willing to compromise endlessly?

The details of the things he agreed to with Mugabe (through their negotiators) tend to confirm this. They also confirm my story of a few days ago in which I told you that Morgan Tsvangirai had lost heavily to Mugabe in the ongoing negotiations. No agreement, according to the South African Facilitation Team, has really been reached on the crucial things that Tsvangirai brought up when he "disengaged". He has added a whole lot of other things that were not part of his original "outstanding issues".

The idea is to announce agreement on these less important issues and ignore the real issues, such as the Bennett saga and the Governors' appointments. Tsvangirai will, mark my words, shamelessly claim "victory" on these small things while ignoring the major stumbling blocks themselves.

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