Vaarwel, “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish”
2 years ago
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Tsvangirai Offers Makoni Finance Minister Job?
Simba Makoni holds up the Finance Minister's Briefcase in 2002, just before presenting Zimbabwe's national budget for that year. Even back then, Makoni was reluctant to take the job and hesitated until Mugabe called him to say he could not wait announcing his cabinet any longer and that he would announce the cabinet without a Finance Minister if he did not get a response from Makoni by the end of that day.Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 July 2010Dr Simba Makoni paid what was dubbed a "courtesy call" on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last week, amidst persistent reports from within the MDC-T that Morgan Tsvangirai has proposed him for the Finance Minister position in a bid to get rid of Tendai Biti, whom the Prime Minister is in a bitter fight with for control of the MDC-T.Sources in the Prime Minister's office say Tsvangirai proposed Makoni to Mugabe for the second time just last week, with the president refusing flat out to entertain the idea of the former Finance Minister bouncing back as a Tsvangirai nominee.Tsvangirai says it is his prerogative to decide who he appoints for the slots allocated to him in the Inclusive Government. He told reportedly told Mugabe that Makoni had resigned from the Finance Minister post in the earlier this decade because he did not agree with the policies of the then ZANU PF government but that he was sure the Interim President of Mavambo party would accept appointment now because Tsvangirai would guarantee him a free hand in trying to correct the economic ills besetting the country.Mugabe is said to have used the argument that Makoni was not MDC-T and could therefore, not take up any position reserved for the opposition in the coalition party.Some reports say the meeting between Makoni and Tsvangirai last week was for Makoni to tell Tsvangirai that he was not interested in the nomination or the post. Makoni, who is on good terms with Biti, would almost certainly not look kindly on being used to try and settle scores within the MDC-T.But Tsvangirai is in corner, unable to identify a suitable candidate who would be seen to be appointed on the basis of merit and not on the basis of "fixing" Biti.The MDC-T sources say that it would be a mistake to believe that Biti is now safe after the reshuffle, saying the Prime Minister is "determined" to see the back of his Secretary-General as Finance Minister of Zimbabwe."PM says Biti has grown too big for his boots, using the post he was given by Tsvangirai himself to position himself as the natural heir to the MDC-T presidency."They claim that Tsvangirai is continuing to look and even if Makoni remains adamant he will not join the Inclusive Government gravy train, the PM will source people from within the private sector itself to fill the post of Finance Minister.Tsvangirai wants to continue to push Mugabe on this and believes that, eventually, the President will have no option but to appoint a replacement if Tsvangirai identifies a replacement of quality.The Prime Minister says he will not, once that is done, hesitate to announce the suspension of "redeployment" of Biti back to the party and leave Mugabe in a quandary, with no Finance Minister to run this crucial ministry.The Finance Minister post in the Inclusive Government is not deputised, neither by a ZANU PF nor an MDC appointee, making Biti perhaps the only Minister in the coalition without a deputy.I remain doubtful that Tsvangirai will be able to convince Makoni to join the Inclusive Government, seeing as the former SADC Secretary - General and Presidential candidate is busy setting up structures of his own party.At the same time, sources in the PM's office say that Makoni also denied flat out to Tsvangirai that he had, as rumoured, met with the fired MDC-T ministers Fidelis Mhashu and Elias Mudzuri.Harare had been awash with talk that the former ministers were in discussions with Makoni, with a view to forming an alliance designed to presenting a united front against Tsvangirai at the next elections.Mudzuri is the Organising Secretary of the MDC-T, who was given the ultimatum by Tsvangirai to choose whether he chose to continue as Minister or to go back to the party and strengthen structures. He had told Tsvangirai that he could do both and thought the matter had been rested, only to get the shock of his life when he was told that he was being fired from government in order for him to go back and concentrate on party affairs.The talk about Tsvangirai offering Makoni the post of Finance Minister will almost certainly not abate until such time as Tsvangirai eventually finds a replacement.
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In-Fighting In Tsvangirai's MDC "Frightening" - PM's Office
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai chats with President Robert Mugabe at State House after the President had sworn in ministers nominated by the Prime Minister from his own party to replace those he had firedHarare, Zimbabwe 18 July 2010A source extremely close to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai this last week described the fighting in Tsvangirai's party as "frightening" while claiming that the opposition party is so disorganised that "we will never take power from ZANU PF".The source, a confidant of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, blamed all the infighting on the Prime Minister, saying he was told "not to rock the boat" but went ahead anyway to reshuffle the cabinet on his side."The source also confirmed that Tendai Biti, the Finance Minister in Zimbabwe's coalition government and MDC-Tsvangirai's Secretary-General was saved from being reshuffled or fired by President Mugabe himself."The PM came back from a Monday meeting one day and said he thought that Biti was now more liked by Mugabe than he was. I asked why and PM said Mugabe had told him point-blank that he would refuse to swear in anyone nominated by Tsvangirai to replace Biti because the president said Biti was doing an excellent job."Also confirmed was the firing of James Maridadi, the Prime Minister's spokesman. Although the fact has not been made public, my source says that Maridadi is now the new Director of Protocol in the Prime Minister's office.Maridadi apparently wanted to resign when he was told of the reassignment, but Ian Makone, the PM's Permanent Secretary, convinced him to accept the post of Director of Protocol, to which Maridadi replied on Friday last week (16 July 2010) saying he would think about it.It also emerges that, apart from their government salaries, the people in the Prime Minister's Office also each get US$4 000 from Harvest House, the MDC-T Headquarters.But much more interesting are descriptions of the war of attrition between Tsvangirai and Biti.Tsvangirai, reportedly against all advice, first made the mistake of firing Eliphas Mukonoweshuro and effectively replacing him with Jamieson Timba, who is now the most powerful man in the Prime Minister's circle.My source says: "How can you fire Mukonoweshuro and replace him with Timba, a drunk who spends all his time at the Quill Club at Jamieson Hotel drinking whisky and boasting to journalists.Mukonoweshuro is the only man to have made a Cabinet Presentation which was accepted by Mugabe and cabinet without debate. After he made his presentation, Mugabe said to the cabinet, "This is the best presentation I have ever listened to in Cabinet since I started presiding over these meeting in 1980. I recommend that we have nothing further to add and must adopt this presentation without amendment".Tsvangirai was apparently told not to do the reshuffle by members of his office and party officials but he was determined to weed out all elements he considered to be part of a grand strategy by Tendai Biti to wrestle power from him and hand it over to Strive Masiyiwa at the next Congress.Tsvangirai told my source: "Cut the roots and the tree will wither." This is what is behind the wholesale massacre currently taking place at the MDC and at the Prime Minister's office.The whole secretariat at Party HQ has effectively been demolished, with Biti loyalists being fired.According to my source, Elias Mudzuri, the fired Minister of Energy, is also so bitter that he has vowed that he will see Tsvangirai depart before he himself leaves MDC-T.While Timba is telling people that there will be no Congress next year and that Tsvangirai will stay at the head of the MDC for twenty more years, Biti and other detractors are determined to see him go.The fight is principally about whether a Congress should be held next year, when it is due. Tsvangirai says there should be no Congress so that the party can concentrate on the elections, while Biti, Mudzuri and many others in his executive say the rules and Constitution of the party should not be broken that way because it will set a bad precedent for any future leaders of the party, who will feel they can ignore the constitution if they are popular enough to railroad the party's executive.Executives in the party are dismayed that the Prime Minister continues to display strategic blunders, such as his daily conference calls with Americans helping him run his office and the seconding of a British official to his Office in Harare.Tsvangirai still believes that he has enough popular appeal to get away with anything. He has openly said that he could declare himself Life President of the MDC-T and still win a national election to become Head of State in Zimbabwe.The majority of the executive in the MDC-T, however, believe that he is no longer fit to lead the party and this is what has led Tsvangirai to rely more and more on his so-called "Kitchen Cabinet."Meantime, the former Spokesman, James Maridadi, is threatening to spill the beans on the infighting and deficiencies of Morgan Tsvangirai in a book. He has told his confidants that he has volumes of meticulously-kept diaries. "I sat with PM during his meetings with Obama at the White House, I sat through his meetings with Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street. I have been at the side of the PM constantly since he became PM and I have mounds of information," he is reported as telling one.Even I can't wait to read the stuff!
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Mugabe Dons Christian Sect Regalia, Elections Campaign Confirmed
Pic: Sunday MailPresident Mugabe is seen here wearing the flowing white robes of the Johane Marange Apostolic Faith Sect in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe this last week. The president, in the clearest indication yet that he will stand for office at the next elections, attended the sect's annual gathering. He wants their votes at the next elections.Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 July 2010President Robert Mugabe appeared on the front page of the Sunday Mail in Zimbabwe today putting on the white robes of the Johane Marange Apostolic Faith sect.The Zimbabwean president was attending the sect's customary retreat in the mountainous Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe.The sect is becoming a powerful force in Zimbabwean politics, with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai also being seen there last year. The reason for the homage being paid by politicians is that the sect has hundreds of thousands of followers all over the country and they tend to follow the teachings of their leaders closely.There is little doubt that the sect is behind ZANU PF and President Mugabe. The president even has some "Mapostori" (as they are known) amongst his bodyguards and his late famed Political Commissar, Border Gezi was a member of the sect.Men who belong to the sect are known for wearing flowing white robes and keeping flowing beards (the longer and bushier the beard, the more devout the adherent is considered). They also shave their heads religiously.But, perhaps the most important message sent by Mugabe's attendance at the sect's gathering this last week is that he intends to stand again for President at the next elections. The sect's gathering is a well-known campaign stop for the major political leaders in Zimbabwe.The only reason for the president's attendance, therefore, is to identify himself as one of the sect's admirers, if not adherents, and therefore guarantee himself their votes at the next elections.His presence is also a clear indication that the president and his party mean business when they tell the country that there are going to be elections in 2011. We will now almost certainly see elections next year, despite the protests of some organisations in Zimbabwe and in South Africa that the country is not ready for polls.Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has accepted that Mugabe will the elections regardless what he and the MDC-T think or wish.So, if proof was needed that we are on the path to new elections in 2011 in which Mugabe will stand for the office of President of The Republic yet again, then here it is.Interesting times ahead.Meantime, one of the allegedly most important tasks of the Inclusive Government, National Healing, remains an illusion, with no activities whatsoever to kick-start the process. The ministers who are supposed to be in charge of the process in the Inclusive Government appear to be doing nothing but draw salaries for doing absolutely jack.Elections will come to a traumatised nation that will be further traumatised without the National Healing Organ having done a single thing to help their wounds from the last 10 or years heal.
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President Mugabe Opens Parliament in Harare, Zimbabwe
Prime Minister `Morgan Tsvangirai, Vice-president Mujuru and Deputy Prime Ministers Arthur Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe arrive at the Opening of the Third Session of the 7th Parliament of Zimbabwe in Harare yesterday.
Members of the Presidential Guard of the Zimbabwe Army take up their positions outside Parliament soon after the arrival of President Mugabe to open parliament in Harare, yesterday
President Mugabe whistling to himself as is his custom whenever he inspects the Guard of Honour. Behind him is the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantine Chiwenga
President Mugabe arriving in his vintage Rolls Royce at the Parliament Buildings in Harare yesterday.
Harare, Zimbabwe, 14 July 2010President Robert Mugabe opened the Third Session of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe in Harare yesterday as crowds watched from Africa Unity Square on a giant screen.
There was gridlock in the city centre, the traffic jam having been caused by the closing off roads leading to the parliament building to vehicle traffic. Pedestrians could still move freely, though.
The President displayed impatience with the Kimberley Process, which is delaying authorising the sale of Zimbabwe's reserves of 60 000 carat in diamonds from Chiadzwa in Marange, Eastern Zimbabwe. He said his government will go ahead and sell the diamonds whether the KP liked it or not.
That warning should be taken seriously.
There were even some very progressive policy proposals in Mugabe's speech, the most notable of which was the requirement for diamond producers to set aside 10% of their revenue for local diamond cutting and polishing. If done properly, this should see employment being created as an entirely new industry is set up. Because Zimbabwe's population is so well-educated but not that well-paid, the country could become another little Belgium as far as this particular down-stream industry of the diamond trade is concerned.
What I fear, though, is that we may well see the well-connected trying to corner this market through intimidation and fear. The government will have to be vigilant with this one, as they have proved to be with the Themba Mliswa issue, where a well-connected individual who had used his political connections to loot the country has now been brought to book and faces countless charges before the courts as I write this.
Zimbabwe's economy, according to the president, grew by just over 5% (a fact confirmed by Finance Minister Tendai Biti in his mid-term Fiscal Policy Review earlier today).
The benefits of this growth are still not being felt by the majority, though, who are still unemployed and are struggling to put food on the table.
On the issue of the diamonds from Chiadzwa , the president had this to say:
"The Kimberley Process Monitor's report declared the country (Zimbabwe) as having fulfilled the Kimberley Process minimum requirements as per the Joint Work Plan agreed to in Swakopmund, Namibia. The same report indicated that the country should be allowed to proceed with the immediate exportation of its diamonds. However, those ill-disposed to us have have not given up the use of absurd conditionalities and other dilatory tactics in a bid to block the sale of our diamonds. Let there be no doubt whatsoever about our resolve to sell our diamonds for the benefit of our country and our people."
The President also announced the coming of several bills before parliament during the sitting of this session.
Another significant policy proposal was the opening up of power generation to the private sector, although Mugabe couched it in uncertain language saying new players will be brought in either as entirely private power generators or as part of some form of Public-Private Partnerships. Knowing the ideological slant of both the MDC and ZANU PF, it is unlikely that entirely private power generation will be allowed.
But this is exactly the sort of thing that would ease pressure off the national, government-owned company, ZESA, that currently carries the burden for supplying the country with power and is clearly failing dismally.
Even PPPs are not looked on favourably by either party in government and it is very likely that we will remain with the undesirable status quo for some time to come.
Still, it was a hopeful speech by Mugabe and one that makes all the right noises. Implementation is another matter entirely, which we will now wait to see if it comes from parliament and cabinet.
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Tsvangirai Minister In Hot Water Over Detained Mugabe Minister's Son
Theresa Makone, (above) of the MDC-Tsvangirai and now co-Minister of Home Affairs in Zimbabwe's Coalition Government, ganged up with her relative, the ZANU PF Minister in charge of the Secret Police to "intimidate" police officers and demand the release of the ZANU PF Minister's son, who is in police custody for invading and grabbing a white-owned company. He and an accomplice, Themba Mliswa, who is a nephew of the ZANU PF Minister, are still behind bars, with the Zimbabwe police making public complaints through the state media that the two ministers' actions are "tantamount to defeating the course of justice". The ZANU PF Minister says that is nonsense, while Makone has refused to comment.Harare, Zimbabwe, 05 July 2010
Theresa Makone, the newly-installed co-Minister of Home Affairs in the Coalition Government has already started using her new powers: to demand the release of the detained son of a senior ZANU PF Minister.
Makone is wife to the Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister's office, Ian Makone. She and her husband are seen as very close to PM Tsvangirai. The two have even been accused of being part of the Tsvangirai "kitchen cabinet" that makes decisions in private and imposes them on the party.
Makone ganged up with Didymus Mutasa, the ZANU PF (President Mugabe) Minister for Presidential Affairs to go and demand the release of Mutasa's son, who is locked up together with Themba Mliswa, a Mutasa nephew, over an incident in which they invaded a company and forcibly took over 50% shareholding in it.
The white owner of the company was barred from the premises of his own company and he says "bouncers" were hired by Mutasa's son and Mliswa to enforce the ban.
Zimbabwe police have complained that the behaviour of Mutasa and Makone was tantamount to defeating the course of justice and they want action taken against both of them.
Makone, apparently, is related to the ZANU PF Minister of Presidential Affairs (and in charge of the Secret Police of Zimbabwe), so this was more a personal thing that a party (MDC-T) mission.
Now, the MDC-Tsvangirai itself is now up in arms over Makone's interference in the matter. Senior members are quoted by the local media as saying that Makone has brought the opposition party into disrepute.
That she has.
They question why she is not as zealous in ensuring that MDC-T members who are in jail are released and also ask what her actions will mean to ordinary members who have languished in prison without any protest from Tsvangirai's party.
In the same breath, these senor figures also express the fear that whole matter ill be swept under the carpet because the Makones are Tsvangirai confidants and friends. The more loose-tongued in the MDC leadership have even revisited claims that first surfaced in 2008, that there is an improper relationship between Theresa and Tsvangirai, although I suspect this is the only the talk of the Zimbabwean mind that says no man can be close friends with a woman unless there is something else behind it.
With Makone being so close to Tsvangirai and having only just taken over at the Police Ministry, it is unlikely that any action will be taken against her. The tongue-waggers are correct: nothing will be done to Makone.
But this will not stop MDC-T supporters celebrating rumours of her being disciplined. They will remain just that.
Mutasa, father of the man behind bars and a Mugabe favourite, says the police are talking "nonsense" in blaming him for "defeating the course of justice." He says he went to the police station only as a "father visiting his son".
In any other country, the Prime Minister and President would have received two resignation letters last week from the Ministers, but this is Zimbabwe.
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Tsvangirai In All Out war Against Tendai Biti
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, seen here holding hands with President Mugabe after the swearing-in of new MDC-T Ministers to replace those fired by Tsvangirai in his struggle to contain infighting within the opposition party has now gone ahead and fired Harare, Zimbabwe, 04 July 2010
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who is also president of the MDC witha surname (the MDC-T), has taken gloves off and taken the fight to Secretary General Tendai Biti (also Zimbabwe's Finance Minister in the coalition government).
Tsvangirai last week fired high level officials at Harvest House, the MDC-T's Head Office in Harare, Zimbabwe. Among those to go were the Finance Director of the party and members of the Secretariat, which Tsvangirai is accusing of being in service of Tendai Biti in his alleged bid to unseat Tsvangirai at the next Congress of the MDC-T.
This is coming after Tsvangirai fired several ministers and demoted others in a recent reshuffle of his ineffective rump of the Coalition Government.
The amputation of what are seen as Biti's limbs in the party comes just a couple of weeks after the Prime Minister called a meeting of senior officials of his party to confront them with a report he said had been compiled by the MDC-T's Security Department and which alleged, amongst other things, that Biti and his allies were mobilising membership behind their bid to take over the party while badmouthing the Prime Minister all over the country.
Biti denied everything, pointing out that he had not even met some of the officials he was said to be plotting with.
But Tsvangirai has faith in the reports from his cohorts, people like Gandhi Mudzingwa, who are clear that the Prime Minister is in imminent danger of being toppled by the Biti faction and replaced either with Biti himself or with Strive Masiyiwa, the founder of Econet Wireless International and Econet Wireless Zimbabwe.
The Prime Minister is extremely jittery just now, hence this decimation of the Secretariat at the MDC-T Head Office.
The ostensible reasons for the firings include incompetence but those fired, including one Rumbi, who was in the Finance Department of the party, say that this is pure victimisation for taking orders from the Secretary General, Tendai Biti.
They argue, however, that the SG is like the CEO of the party and, the nature of his position is that he controls and directs events at the office.
Tsvangirai is having none of it, apparently.
Still considering Biti too powerful and too popular to sack from wither government or party, the Prime Minister and MDC-T leader has now decided to maroon Biti in office, cutting off "the limbs" that were doing doing his biding at the party HQ.
There is a mood of uncertainty that has gripped Harvest House.
This does not bode well for the opposition party led by the Prime Minister, with elections having been agreed between Mugabe and Tsvangirai as due in March 2011 or May of the same year at the latest.
It means that the opposition party goes into the elections with a disenchanted support base, split from all the infighting and unable to present a united front to ZANU PF or Simba Makoni's MKD.
What should be more worrying for Tsvangirai is the fact that MKD offices are now being besieged by the disgruntled people who are leaving the MDC-T. Makoni's party membership cards are reported to have run out, with most of those expressing interest now simply paying their one dollar subscription fee to be put on a waiting list for when cards are available again.
Further to this, the rural areas of Zimbabwe remain a no-go area for the MDC-Tsvangirai, with NGOs reporting that camps from the Presidential election run-off of 2008 are being revived. Currently these are said to be used purely for intimidating people on the Constitutional outreach program underway.
The fight is over whether there should actually be Congress at all this year or early next year.
Tsvangirai is against a Congress before the next elections because he fears that he will lose his position at that Congress and, with that loss will also evaporate his chance of being president of Zimbabwe should the MDC-T win.
Biti and others want a Congress in order to "clean house" and get rid of Morgan Tsvangirai, who has proved incapable of dislodging Mugabe no matter how well the opposition does in elections.
By getting rid of those seen to be rebelling against him, Tsvangirai hopes to rally the remaining people behind him at HQ through fear.
The more things change, I say, the more they stay the same.
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