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Archived News
7th December 2004
Mugabe purges 'rebel' officials
Zimbabwe ruling party congress set to elect first woman VP
State files appeal against Tsvangirai acquittal
File on High Court judge's suit disappears
Cosatu cools it, but warns on 'intolerance'
ANC says Cosatu matter not urgent
Demonstration greets England cricketers
England protest at 'political' coverage
Turmoil in Zanu PF as six top officials are suspended
Mugabe exit not for discussion as long as he lives
Bredenkamp speaks on Tsholotsho
Zimbabwe opposition leader may take part in elections
Free, fair poll doubtful without greater pressure
Inter-Parliamentary Union expresses outrage at Bennett's continued detention
Zimbabweans see no quick relief in reforms
Mugabe livid over Moyo's Zanu-PF 'plot'
Disgraced Jonathan Moyo fights back
Moyo breathes fire on 'palace coup' enemies
Tale of contrasting fortunes at Zanu PF congress
ANC affirms its support for Zanu PF in message to congress
Cricket's shame: the inside story
Three ministers face the boot amid fears of a Zanu PF rift
Gono's mission is to save Zanu PF, not the economy
Zimbabwe opposition warns of food crisis
Government to import 300 000 mt of SA maize
Cricket's shame: the inside story
Zanu PF ditches Moyo
Joyce Mujuru elected Vice-President of Zimbabwe
Zanu fat cats don't say a word about the starving
Hunger claims 10 more in Bulawayo
Mugabe arrests opposition leader
Political meddling has cricket on back foot
Zimbabwe's Mujuru faces test as Mugabe's deputy
Mugabe slaps down his unpopular disciple
Mugabe's party faces strife ahead of Zimbabwe poll
England happy to leave but a bad smell lingers
Mujuru sworn in as vice president
Two governance-related NGOs to be shut down
Goff seeks release of Zimbabwean opposition figure
Umguza villagers feel hard done by the government
New plan to ease Zim's fuel crisis
British sports minister calls for Zimbabwe talks
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From Reuters, 1 December
Mugabe purges 'rebel' officials
By Cris Chinaka
Harare - Seven top officials have been suspended from Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party and a controversial cabinet minister has been severely reprimanded in a row over President Robert Mugabe's possible successor. The party purge, which Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation called "the night of the long knives", comes as Zanu PF opens a crucial party congress on Wednesday ahead of parliamentary polls next March expected to test the ruling party's dominance. Zanu PF provincial executives have endorsed Mugabe to retain his party presidency for another five years. But political analysts say a battle over a second vice presidency - a position seen as a stepping stone to the top job - is fuelling tension in its ranks. Mugabe bowed to pressure from some lieutenants to give the post to a woman, Joyce Mujuru, sidelining parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, often touted as his preferred successor. Mugabe warned last week he would punish officials accused of "defying the party" by trying to scuttle Mujuru's rise.
Zimbabwe state media reported on Wednesday that Mugabe had chaired a meeting on Tuesday night of Zanu PF's politburo inner-cabinet which suspended six of the party's 10 provincial chairmen for six months and "heavily reprimanded" Information Minister Jonathan Moyo for organising a meeting in his rural home district of Tsholotsho to campaign for Mnangagwa. Mugabe also led the politburo in suspending Zanu PF liberation war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda for four years for other cases of indiscipline and for attending the Tsholotsho meeting two weeks ago. Zanu PF information secretary Nathan Shamuyarira said Sibanda and the six provincial chairmen would not be allowed to attend the party's five-yearly congress starting in Harare later on Wednesday with a central committee meeting. Shamuyarira said Moyo - a combative figure who has angered several senior officials with his abrasive style - could face further sanctions, a hint he might be sacked from the cabinet.
Mugabe - who has led Zanu PF since the mid 1970s - is due to address the conference on Thursday whose 7,000 delegates are expected to endorse his re-election and to confirm Mujuru as co-vice president alongside Joseph Msika. The 80-year-old veteran Zimbabwean leader, in power for nearly 25 years, retains a firm grip on Zanu PF despite a severe economic crisis that critics blame on government mismanagement. Mugabe, whose government has effectively been under Western economic sanctions since Zanu PF's controversial re-election in a parliamentary poll in 2000, is likely to remain under international pressure if his party wins the March election pitting it against a weakened but still viable opposition. Mugabe's state presidential term ends in 2008, but few expect 81-year-old Msika to succeed him on account of age. Political analysts say despite Mujuru's election as Zimbabwe's first woman vice-president, jockeying for Mugabe's position would continue until he retires. In an editorial entitled: "It's time to move forward," Zimbabwe's official Herald newspaper acknowledged that Zanu PF had suffered some "sibling rivalry" but said the party would not split over leadership contests.
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From AFP, 1 December
Zimbabwe ruling party congress set to elect first woman VP
Harare - The ruling party in Zimbabwe is due to begin a five-day congress at which the country's first woman vice president is likely to be elected. The congress, to be held in the capital Harare is drawing some 9,000 delegates of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party. From all 10 of the country's provinces, delegates are expected to vote to fill one of the two posts of party vice president, which is also the position of vice president in the southern African country's government, left vacant by the death last year of Vice President Simon Muzenda. Muzenda, a longtime friend and confidante of Mugabe, died after years of deteriorating health. His replacement is almost certain to be Water Resources Minister Joyce Mujuru. Last week Mugabe said he thought the position should go to a woman, and supporters in the majority of provinces have nominated Mujuru. "We really support the nomination of Comrade Mujuru," Mugabe told party supporters recently. Although there has been speculation that the new vice president might be a potential successor to Mugabe, analysts now say Mujuru's nomination makes this unlikely. Mugabe hinted in an interview earlier this year that he was unlikely to seek re-election after his current term expires in 2008. Zimbabwe has two vice presidents. Sitting vice president Joseph Msika is likely to retain his post after being nominated by most provinces. If elected to the vice presidency, Mujuru, who has been in the Zimbabwean cabinet since independence in 1980 when she was only 25 years old, will become the first woman to hold the post in the southern African country. Other items on the agenda of the congress, which is held every five years, are rural development, electrification and water supplies, the party's spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira has said. But the independent press is sceptical that any advances will be made, with the weekly Standard calling it a "non-event." Well-known government critic and constitutional lawyer Lovemore Madhuku told AFP that the congress was just another "government function". Several foreign delegates will be attending the congress, including officials from China. Mugabe has urged Zimbabweans to forge closer links with China. Observers have estimated the congress to cost 20 billion Zimbabwe dollars (3.5 million US dollars / 2.6 million euros).
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From The Daily Mirror, 1 December
State files appeal against Tsvangirai acquittal
By Constantine Chimakure
Zimbabwe's chief prosecutor has filed papers with the Supreme Court challenging the acquittal of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges relating to an alleged plot to overthrow the government of President Robert Mugabe. Acting Attorney General Bharat Patel filed papers with Zimbabwe's top court Monday as Tsvangirai was winding-up his tour of Europe before flying back to Zimbabwe on Thursday. "An application for leave to appeal against Tsvangirai's acquittal by the High Court was lodged with the Supreme Court on November 29 this year. This sets the motion for our appeal," Patel said. "I cannot show the court papers to you at the moment because I am out of my office. Come tomorrow." However, MDC secretary for legal affairs David Coltart said he was not aware of the Supreme Court application. He said he needed to consult Tsvangirai's lawyers as he was of the opinion that the Attorney General's office had not lodged an appeal within the stipulated time. "I am not aware of the application for leave to appeal. I need to consult Tsvangirai's lawyers," Coltart said. "To me it seems the Attorney General's office is late in filing the application. I would have thought that their time to lodge the application expired."
Coltart, a Bulawayo-based lawyer, said normally applications for leave to appeal and appeals were done within 21 days. But, last night Patel said he was not sure of what Coltart was referring to. "I don't understand what he meant. Anyway we needed to get the High Court's final judgment record before we could proceed with the application. We have followed the law," Patel said. High Court Judge President, Justice Paddington Garwe on October 15 found Tsvangirai not guilty of high treason. He was accused of plotting to kill President Mugabe ahead of elections controversially won by the Zanu PF leader in 2002. Tsvangirai's defence was that State security agents framed him, and Garwe ruled that the evidence was not sufficient to convict the MDC leader. The case revolved around the testimony of Ari Ben-Menashe, a Canada-based consultant who was dismissed as unreliable by the judge. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa hinted that the State would appeal against the judgment, arguing that Justice Garwe had played down the evidence tabled in court.
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From Zim Online (SA), 1 December
File on High Court judge's suit disappears
Harare - A file on the matter in which Judge President Paddington Garwe is being sued for illegally occupying a farm has gone missing at the High Court, sources told Zim Online last night. The missing file has delayed the hearing of the application in which white farmer, Christopher Geoffrey Tracey, is accusing Garwe and his business partner of unlawfully taking over his Mount Lothian Estate in Mashonaland East province. Tracey is also accusing Garwe and retired army colonel, Godfrey Mutemachani, with whom the judge is jointly occupying his farm of failing to pay for US$30 000 worth of farm equipment he sold to them. "The case was expected to be an urgent application but proceedings have been delayed because of the disappearance of the file. We cannot locate it but we are investigating," said an official in the Registrar's office, who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation. The High Court registrar could not be reached for comment on the missing file last night. Officials at the Attorney General's office had two weeks ago told ZimOnline that they were under pressure to speed up the case and use it to embarrass Garwe as punishment for his October acquittal of opposition Movement for Democratic Change party leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason. The matter between Tracey and Garwe is a civil one and the AG is not normally involved in such cases. But acting AG, Bharat Patel said his office was involved because Tracey had also named the Ministry of Lands as a respondent because he alleges it improperly issued Garwe and Mutemachani letters allowing them to occupy his property. Garwe, who is head of the High Court, surprisingly dismissed state charges that Tsvangirai had plotted to murder Mugabe ahead of the March 2002 presidential election when many had expected him to convict the opposition leader and sentence him to at least a long prison term.
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From Business Day (SA), 1 December
Cosatu cools it, but warns on 'intolerance'
Chief Reporter
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said yesterday it had no intention of ditching the alliance between itself and the African National Congress (ANC), but warned of "increasing intolerance" of criticism among "some ANC members". Cosatu called on the ANC to convene an urgent alliance meeting to calm burning tensions that boiled over last week when ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama accused its secretarygeneral, Zwelinzima Vavi (pictured right), of behaving recklessly and making "toxic" statements. Vavi said yesterday Cosatu "wanted an end to this", but would not compromise its right to disagree with the ANC on issues such as Zimbabwe and the Telkom empowerment deal. These two issues form the backdrop to the current standoff after Cosatu hit out at the conflict of interest posed by Ngonyama's involvement in the consortium buying 15,1% of Telkom. Relations also fractured after a Cosatu fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe was booted out by President Robert Mugabe's government, with the ANC defending the decision to expel the team. Cosatu's resolve to stand its ground could be tested soon if a report due to be released today is as critical of alliance relations as some quarters suggest. But Vavi said the report was an "analysis of the state of politics in the alliance and in society", and not "aimed at criticising (President) Mbeki". If it could be said that Cosatu offered an olive branch to the ANC yesterday, the ruling party appeared keen to accept this. Ngonyama said last night: "It is necessary for us to stop this public spat and meet together as the alliance, and I have confidence that we can resolve this."
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From SABC News, 30 November
ANC says Cosatu matter not urgent
The ANC has defended Smuts Ngonyama, the party's spokesperson, and says its slinging match with Cosatu does not warrant urgent talks. This after the union called on the ANC to show leadership and convene an urgent meeting of the Tripartite Alliance to end the current impasse. The call was made after Cosatu's urgent central executive committee meeting held in Johannesburg today. Zwelinzima Vavi, the Cosatu secretary general, says it was not in the interest of the alliance to keep the current levels of tensions among its members. "It's not in the interest of the broader liberation movement for these tensions to be there or we will all pay dearly." However, the ANC says the events of the past few days hardly constitute a crisis. "I don't think it's a crisis myself, I just think we can manage with little difficulty," said Kgalema Motlanthe, the ANC secretary general. Cosatu says while it is willing to end the stand-off, it won't give up the fight - be it around anti-retroviral drugs, Zimbabwe, or black economic empowerment. Motlanthe, however, said: "Smuts is the national spokesman of the ANC nobody should question his bona fides in that regard." For now the public name calling seems to have died down. How long it will last is uncertain as Cosatu is due to release its review of the country's state of politics tomorrow.
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From AFP, 1 December
Demonstration greets England cricketers
Alexander Joe
Harare - The first demonstration of the England cricket tour to Zimbabwe was held outside the players' hotel before they left for Harare Sports Club and the second of four one-day games. Three African men held up posters, not specifically against the tour, but demanding the release of imprisoned opposition member of parliament Roy Bennett. Their posters read: "No Justice," "No Cricket," "Free Roy Bennett." Bennett had pushed over a government minister in the House of Assembly in March and early in November he was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment following a vote along party lines. He is being held at Mutoko, a small town 90 kms north of Harare, in what are said to be appalling conditions. The demonstrators were chased away by hotel security staff and police reservists. It is not known if there were any later arrests. No comment was available from the England camp.
From ZWNEWS: For more information regarding the imprisonment of Roy Bennett, please visit www.freeroybennett.com
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From The Guardian (UK), 1 December
England protest at 'political' coverage
Paul Kelso in Harare
Politics is so all-pervading in Zimbabwe that it was naive to think England's cricketers could avoid being exploited by the propaganda that passes for mainstream media here, and yesterday they got their first taste of what may become routine attempts to make political capital from this series. Yesterday's edition of the pro-government Herald newspaper used selected quotes and photographs from Ian Bell's media interviews on Monday to support a piece claiming England's cricketers were happy to be here and eager to return to Zimbabwe soon. It prompted a statement of disapproval from the England and Wales Cricket Board and increased tension as the squad prepared for today's second one-day international. Yesterday the England coach Duncan Fletcher claimed that "politicisation" of the tour had already affected the players, and the story has done nothing to dispel the suspicion that the team's presence is helpful to the ruling Zanu PF party, whose national congress also begins today.
Under the headline "England players appreciate Zim", the paper claimed: "One by one, England's players are queueing up to give their approval of their tour to this country. "Among the touring players," the piece continued, "are some who believe in sticking to their business of playing cricket and leaving politics to the politicians. One of them is opener Ian Bell." Bell is then quoted, accurately, as saying: "We are very comfortable at the moment and we are being looked after very well . . . I didn't know what to expect but I have been pleasantly surprised. This is somewhere that I would like to come back and play more." The article is illustrated with a picture of Bell admiring a local artefact in a market near the team hotel, a photo opportunity set up by the ECB that it may now regret. In a statement the media officer Andrew Walpole said the ECB was disappointed at the politicisation of Bell's comments. "We are very disappointed that the newspaper concerned has chosen to politicise what was essentially a piece of sightseeing," he said. "We are disappointed in the way it was reported and nothing that Ian Bell said was intended as a political comment."
Further evidence that the tour has entered the political arena came as Morgan Tsvangari, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, slammed England's decision to fulfil their fixtures in a speech in Brussels. "We appealed to the cricketers to realise [Zimbabwe's president] Mugabe is the patron of cricket in Zimbabwe. We have from the very beginning condemned anything that will give legitimacy to Mugabe, including the English cricket tour," he said. The row over the Herald's treatment came as Fletcher spoke for the first time since returning to the country of his birth. Guarded in front of the media at the best of times, the coach was loath to comment on the situation in his homeland, but did say that the uncertainty of the last week had harmed the squad's preparation. "You can't hide away from the fact before the game there was a strange feeling in the camp because the build-up to this game has been different," he said. "That may have contributed to the way we started."
Fletcher said that the mood in the camp had lifted as the game progressed, and defended the decision to give the players most of Monday off. Some of the squad played golf and others went on a game drive outside the city. He admitted that there was still uncertainty about what could happen on match days, and despite the absence of protesters or an official government presence on Sunday, the squad will clearly not relax until they arrive in South Africa next Monday. "As far as the politicisation is concerned we will only really find out [what will happen] as the tour progresses, but we feel that we just want to get on with the cricket. It has already had an effect to some degree from the point of view that the guys were nervous before the first game." Sunday's match was more notable for the good-natured atmosphere than the quality of the cricket, and the broadly positive coverage of the match added fuel to the accusations of Peter Hain, the leader of the House of Commons, that the tour is a "propaganda victory" for Robert Mugabe.
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From The Star (SA), 2 December
Turmoil in Zanu PF as six top officials are suspended
By Own Correspondent and Basildon Peta
Harare - The six suspended provincial chairpersons of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party were not only bent on sabotaging the imposition of a woman as co-vice-president. They wanted, for the first time ever, to have President Robert Mugabe's own position contested at the party congress. The fourth five-yearly congress of Zimbabwe's ruling party, Zanu PF, was thrown into turmoil yesterday with the suspension of six provincial chairpersons and strong censure of Information Minister Jonathan Moyo. The latter had convened a secret meeting in Tsholotsho, in Matabeleland North, two weeks ago to plan against Mugabe's recommendation of Minister of Water Affairs Joyce Mujuru as Zanu PF's first woman vice-president. Moyo and his six supporters were believed to be lobbying for Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa against Mujuru, but authoritative Zanu PF sources say they wanted all four top nominations to be done via secret ballot without a quota system for women. Zanu PF's leaders - president, two vice-presidents and national chairperson - would have been chosen secretly for the first time since independence in 1980. The intention, said the sources, was not to use their majority among the 10 provincial chairpersons tasked with electing leaders to remove Mugabe from his post, but to promote democracy within the party by having Mugabe "decently" elected.
"That is what irked Mugabe most when information leaked out. He interpreted it as a direct challenge to his authority. He somehow believed the whole meeting was a plot to remove him from power, but that was not the case," said one official who attended the meeting convened by Moyo. "We do not think that it's right to conduct elections the way we have been doing in Zanu PF, whereby the imposed outcome is already known well before congress begins." The official said Mugabe wants to remain leader of Zanu PF. His war veterans have recommended that he be appointed president of Zanu PF for life. The mission of the six chairpersons was also to back Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa for the chair against the current chairperson, John Nkomo. Mnangagwa was Mugabe's heir apparent until he was implicated in an illicit gold scam during a High Court case. This was followed by the arrest of another close Mugabe ally, Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri, for illegally taking desperately needed foreign currency out of the country to build an eight-bedroom mansion in Cape Town. This week, Kuruneri was remanded in custody until December 15. Moyo was slammed by the politburo, led by Mugabe, on Tuesday in what one diplomat close to Zanu PF's most influential body described as "the beginning of the end" for him in Zimbabwean politics.
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From Zim Online (SA), 2 December
Mugabe exit not for discussion as long as he lives
Harare - Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party will not discuss President Robert Mugabe's retirement because "he is still alive" its chairman, John Nkomo, told the Press in Harare yesterday. Responding to queries by journalists whether the party's key congress underway in Harare this week would discuss an exit plan for Mugabe who has been at the helm of the party for nearly 30 years, Nkomo said: "Why should his exit be on the agenda, (of the congress) when the President is still fit and raring to go? The issue of his exit does not arise at all. He is still alive." Nkomo, who was briefing the Press, straight out of a meeting of Zanu PF's central committee that was deciding on the final agenda of the congress, added: "His (President Mugabe) exit does not arise at this congress at all. "Why do you want him to reveal his exit plan when people still want him to continue leading them? It is not for this congress but it is up to him to put it up. At the moment it is not on the agenda for this congress." Mugabe - the only ruler Zimbabweans have ever known - has never said when he plans to quit politics but he has indicated that he might leave office at the expiry of his current term in 2008. He will be 84.
The disclosure by Mugabe that he might leave office in three years' time triggered vicious jockeying by his lieutenants to take over his job with Water Resources Minister, Joyce Mujuru, emerging as the frontrunner to become Zanu PF and possibly Zimbabwe's first ever woman president. Mujuru is expected to be elected Zanu PF's co-vice president at the congress. The party's other vice president Joseph Msika is expected to retire together with Mugabe. Nkomo said the congress will focus on the government's chaotic land reforms and on measures to rescue Zimbabwe's crumbling economy. Meanwhile, outgoing Mozambican President, Joachim Chissano, 65, is expected here today to bid farewell to Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party at their ongoing congress. Chissano, who is 15 years younger than Mugabe, steps down after serving three five-year terms as President. He is scheduled to address the Zanu PF congress tomorrow. Chissano's departure from the helm follows that of Malawi's former President Bakili Muluzi in May this year and that of Namibia's founding President Sam Nujoma, who gave up power last month. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and Botswana's Festus Mogae are firmly on their way out of public office as they are serving their last terms.
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From The Financial Gazette, 2 December
Bredenkamp speaks on Tsholotsho
Staff Reporter
Business tycoon John Breden-kamp this week denied any involvement in the ongoing Zanu PF succession gridlock, describing the allegations as "totally false". Bredenkamp, who has in the past been linked to prominent government and ruling party officials, refuted allegations that he had lent an aircraft to a Zanu PF faction that organised a fateful meeting in Tsholotsho two weeks ago, presumably to drum up support for Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was eyeing the vacant party vice-president's post that has since been filled by Joyce Mujuru. "The aircraft that I am alleged to have 'lent' to a political party was not in Zimbabwe at the time it was purported to have been used - it was being serviced in South Africa. It is my understanding that the aircraft in question was a hired, twin-engine propeller driven aeroplane. "Insofar as the allegations that I am backing Mr Mnangagwa's political campaign are concerned, I reiterate that I am not involved in any political activities and have not made funds available to any political party or individuals within any party, either as loans or donations or on any other basis," Bredenkamp said.
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From The Financial Times (UK), 2 December
Zimbabwe opposition leader may take part in elections
By David White and James Lamont
Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe opposition leader, hinted yesterday that his party might change its stance and take part in parliamentary elections next March if Robert Mugabe's regime called a halt to political violence. His Movement for Democratic Change party suspended participation in all elections earlier this year until the government met conditions for free and fair ballots. He said party members would take a decision in the next three weeks on whether to stand in the March elections, the first national poll since Mr Mugabe's re-election as president in 2002 in a contest condemned by most international observers for intimidation and vote-rigging. In an interview with the Financial Times in London, Mr Tsvangirai said violence against opponents of the regime was "the really critical issue". The MDC had other demands including an impartial electoral commission and free media access. But Mr Tsvangirai accepted "we may not get 100 per cent". If the MDC stayed out of this contest, it would have to wait until the next presidential ballot in 2008. Without seeking to prejudge the decision, he added: "My gut feeling is that the majority of Zimbabweans want to go in [to the elections], want to participate regardless of the conditions".
Mr Tsvangirai, one of Africa's best known opposition figures, is due to return to Zimbabwe today after a tour of African and European capitals, the first foreign trip he has been allowed to take for two and a half years. He regained his passport when he was acquitted last month after a long-running trial on charges of plotting to have Mr Mugabe assassinated. He still faces separate treason charges for attempting to overthrow the government in mass protests called last year. Mr Tsvangirai called on European governments to support polling guidelines agreed in August by leaders of the 14-member Southern African Development Community, to assist with the training and deployment of SADC election monitors and to raise the profile of the Zimbabwe issue in the United Nations. "There is no reason why the Zimbabwean crisis should not be internationalised," he said. He was careful to avoid criticising the "quiet diplomacy" approach of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, who has sought unsuccessfully to promote a negotiated outcome to Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis. If the MDC fought the next election and won a parliamentary majority, it would have to negotiate a transition deal with Mr Mugabe. The party had contacts with members of the ruling Zanu PF party who favoured change, he said. "We talk to them, but they all plead helplessness," he said. "Of course, they are just cowards, that's all."
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From IRIN (UN), 1 December
Free, fair poll doubtful without greater pressure
Johannesburg - Greater pressure must be brought to bear on Zimbabwe's government to implement genuine electoral reforms before the March 2005 parliamentary elections, an international political think-tank said on Wednesday. In its latest report on Zimbabwe, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said it was "doubtful" whether the election would be free and fair, but implored regional and international leaders to press on with efforts to get Zimbabwean authorities to adhere to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol and guidelines on fair polls. President Robert Mugabe endorsed the guidelines, which guarantee freedom of association and equal access by all political parties to the state media, earlier this year in Mauritius. The ICG noted that since then Zimbabwe had undertaken legislative steps, however "flawed", to accommodate the SADC principles.
Some of the remaining concerns raised by the Brussels-based think-tank were that technical reforms were not matched by other measures, such as the "repeal of repressive laws and an end to political violence", which was largely blamed on the state. "The best prospect in sight is a C-minus election that is fairly clean on election day, but deeply flawed by months of non-democratic practices," the ICG remarked. It was "critical" to the "credibility" of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that the party participated fully in the electoral process, the report added, pointing out that a last minute decision to boycott the election could always be made if circumstances compelled it. Since August the MDC has suspended its participation in all elections, alleging a lack of transparency and fairness in electoral processes. Western countries have also been encouraged by the ICG to tone down the language against the Zimbabwean government, and support African diplomatic initiatives. "Western friends of Zimbabwe can help best by supporting and complementing the African efforts vigorously, but without the flights of rhetoric that Mugabe knows so well how to turn to his advantage," the report noted.
One of the key developments had been the emergence of South Africa's civil society as a potential force for change in Zimbabwe, the report observed. It highlighted cooperation between church groups in the two countries and growing support for the MDC by South Africa's influential trade union movement. In late October the Congress of South African Trade Unions broke with its coalition partner, the ruling African National Congress, and sent a mission to Zimbabwe to investigate trade union rights and whether conditions for free and fair elections existed. The ICG also suggested that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan should use his international prestige to press Mugabe on the importance of implementing the SADC protocol, and accepting a UN team of experts into the country to evaluate the electoral environment well in advance of the 2005 elections.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 2 December
Inter-Parliamentary Union expresses outrage at Bennett's continued detention
Johannesburg - The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has expressed disappointment at the Zimbabwean parliamentary authorities' failure to respond to its concerns over the "harsh" sentence imposed on Chimanimani MP Roy Bennett. A senior official of the IPU's committee on the rights of parliamentarians told Daily News Online they were treating the Bennett issue seriously and would be communicating with Harare again before the end of the week to express dissatisfaction over the handling of the issue. He said the committee was further concerned by the fact that Bennett was not being held in acceptable conditions and that he had been transferred to a rural prison where his lawyers and relatives could face difficulties in visiting him. The jail is located in a Zanu PF stronghold. "After his sentencing we wrote to the authorities conveying our concern about the heavy sentence but we haven' t received any response from Harare. We are going to write again this time complaining about his conditions in prison," the official said.
Bennett, the most persecuted MP in Zimbabwe, was in October jailed for a year by parliament for shoving Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa to the ground during a heated debate in May. Fifty-three ruling Zanu PF party parliamentarians voted for the jail term while Bennett's colleagues in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) voted against the prison term. Bennett, a commercial farmer, pushed Chinamasa to the ground after the minister had called the former's ancestors "thieves". Although under Zimbabwean law parliament has the authority to sit as a court and impose penalties, the Bennett case has been roundly condemned worldwide. His lawyers have appealed against the sentence and have said they would be taking the matter to the African Commission for Human and People's Rights. The IPU said it was disturbing that the Bennett case came just after the committee on the Rights of Parliamentarians had produced a damning report on the harassment and torture of opposition MPs in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is expected to dominate the committee's deliberations in Geneva in January. The southern African country now joins other countries such as Burundi and Mynamar that are renowned for harassing legislators.
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From l'express (Mauritius), 2 December
Zimbabweans see no quick relief in reforms
MacDonald Dzirutwe
Tendai Dube is angry and despondent as he counts the last notes in his pocket, and it is only two days after pay day. "Things are tough my friend. You can't just make ends meet yet they say inflation is slowing down," said Dube, sitting in the shade in a park in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. He had only a slice of bread for lunch. For Tendai and many of Zimbabwe's poor majority, President Robert Mugabe's government's economic reforms ring hollow; they have not brought the quick relief they want. The government says its central bank-led reforms are working, noting the slow-down in annual inflation to 251.5 percent in September from a peak of 624 percent in January, the availability of basic commodities, rising export earnings and the stabilisation of the Zimbabwe dollar. Yet for many Zimbabweans the daily grind to eke out a living continues as the price of basic goods continue to rise while wages fall behind and pensions and savings are eroded by inflation.
"How can they say inflation is coming down when prices are going up?" asked Dube, a question echoed by many unable to link the decline in inflation with the rising cost of living. Statistics from the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe show that a low income urban family of six now needs double the amount each month to cover basic costs from the Z$750,000 it did in January when the economic reforms were introduced. Under Zimbabwe's official fixed exchange rate, Z$1.4 million translates into $225.80 needed to survive each month. In reality, inflation has led to a black market exchange rate closer to Z$7,000-8,000/dollar, further eroding the buying power of poor families. Godfrey Kanyenze chief economist of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions said: "The rate of wage increases is not matching price rises and from a worker point of view the economic reforms have not improved the lives of Zimbabweans. And people are understandably impatient."
Prices of basic products like bread, milk and meat have gone up by more than 100 percent since January while rentals and building materials continue to climb. But Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, remains upbeat, saying a slowdown in inflation will not see prices coming down, and warns that reforms will hurt Zimbabweans as the country adjusts from a speculative driven economy. "As a country we (must) stay the course of self imposed reforms, which inevitably come with painful adjustments...as we have said 'no pain no gain'," Gono told a monetary policy review meeting in October. Zimbabwe, whose GDP has contracted by 30 percent in the last five years, has a jobless rate of more than 70 percent and is battling shortages of foreign exchange and fuel. The country has faced food shortages since 2001, some caused by successive droughts but others blamed on Mugabe's controversial land seizures to resettle blacks.
Some companies have found themselves deep in debt, caught by a shift in RBZ policy on interest rates last December when they soared to over 900 percent, raising the cost of loans. Many had borrowed while rates were low for expansion and acquisitions but the RBZ says some of the money was used in speculative trade of foreign currency, property and stocks. A year later many firms are selling assets like buildings, machinery and vehicles to repay the loans. "The monetary policy on interest rates has resulted in major debt financing costs ...," the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries said in a study released in October on the state of the manufacturing sector. The government has spent Z$200 billion and the central bank Z$2.1 trillion in bailing out distressed businesses. Gono says the money has saved some companies from collapse and boosted exports but the CZI said 40 firms in the manufacturing sector, which accounts for 18 percent of GDP and a third of exports, could fold this year due to a tough operating climate.
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From The Cape Argus (SA), 2 December
Mugabe livid over Moyo's Zanu-PF 'plot'
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has turned against and blasted his one-time top propagandist, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, accusing him of attempting to stage a coup in Zanu PF. Moyo endured the scathing attack and humiliation at the ruling party's central committee meeting which took up almost the entire day yesterday. Mugabe, according to a source within the committee, was so furious with Moyo that he said the party would disregard all that Moyo had done for Zanu PF and the Zimbabwean government in the past. The attack came a day after Zanu PF's police committee reprimanded Moyo and suspended six provincial chairmen for convening an "unauthorised" meeting in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North, two weeks ago. The meeting, dubbed the Tsholotsho Declaration, was intended to defy Mugabe's endorsement of Water Affairs Minister Joyce Mujuru as the first female candidate for Zanu's vice-presidency. Moyo and his six supporters were lobbying for Zimbabwe's speaker of parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, but Mujuru has the overwhelming backing of seven of the 10 provinces. The highly contested position of Zanu PF's second vice-president was left vacant when Simon Muzenda died last year.
The Tsholotsho seven were also plotting to replace Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. It is alleged that Nkomo was targeted for speaking out about Zanu PF leaders who had grabbed more than one farm in the controversial land reform programme. Nkomo told Zanu PF's official newspaper, the Voice, that the divisions within the party were so rife that some of the "comrades" had resorted to paying delegates to vote for their favourite candidates. Mugabe accused Moyo of masterminding a leadership coup in Zanu PF, an offence the president described as "unforgivable". The source said Moyo had opened old wounds that reminded Mugabe that Moyo was the same man who used to write academic papers and articles for newspapers criticising Mugabe's presidency and Zanu PF.
This morning a diplomat described the situation as the beginning of the end for Moyo in Zimbabwean politics. "He has given his detractors in Zanu PF, the old Zanu PF veterans, ammunition for finishing him off, because he has never been welcome in the organisation, they never forgave him for what he used to write and say about the party and Mugabe before his Damascene conversion. "He will be reminded that he is not that powerful after all. Now is the chance. He is finished," said the diplomat. Moyo has been tacitly stripped of his role as a propagandist in favour of Zanu PF's old warhorse, the party's publicity secretary Nathan Shamuyarira. Shamuyarira has accredited foreign journalists to cover the congress and the current cricket tour by England. Shamuyarira warmly welcomed the foreign press corps last night, a gesture that is alien to Zanu PF and the Zimbabwean government.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 3 December
Disgraced Jonathan Moyo fights back
Harare - Zimbabwe's disgraced Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, has launched a fight-back in the public media in a desperate bid to clear his name over President Robert Mugabe's succession wrangle. Moyo is accused of spearheading a clandestine bid to defy President Mugabe over the nomination of Water Resources Minister Joyce Mujuru as the ruling party's second vice-president. His future now lies in the hands of Mugabe who has promised to deal with the information minister. Six Zanu PF provincial chairmen were on Tuesday suspended from the party for six months for their roles in the Tsholotsho meeting, organised by Moyo to scuttle Mugabe's choice of a successor. War veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda, was suspended from the party for four years. In a lead story in yesterday's issue of the state-controlled Chronicle newspaper, Moyo lambasted Matabeleland North governor, Obert Mpofu for complaining to President Mugabe over his conduct in the area. He also said that he had used money from the fiscus, through his ministry, to charter a plane which took him and his entourage, to the Tsholotsho meeting. He denied that they were being bankrolled by British tycoon John Bredenkamp.
For the first time, Moyo also admitted that there were complaints within the party's top leadership over the closure Zimbabwe's biggest daily newspaper, The Daily News. He said he was now being blamed for the closure of the paper and yet parliament had enacted laws which resulted in the closure of the popular paper. "It is a question of calm before the storm for Jonathan Moyo because Mugabe will definitely come down on him heavily. What the party did to the six provincial chairmen is an indication of what awaits the professor," said a central committee member who attended Wednesday's meeting. The source, who cannot be named, said the central committee would be happy with the expulsion of Moyo from the party, as he had become a liability both to the presidium and the grassroots supporters. "It's Mugabe who catapulted Moyo to the politburo and therefore he should see to it that he is removed from the same. Everyone is not happy with what the professor is trying to bring into the party. Unity has to be maintained."
The sources said the central committee had endorsed a politburo decision to suspend the six provincial chairmen who attended the Tsholotsho meeting. Moyo's case is being dealt with by the party's presidium. At the Tsholotsho meeting, it is alleged that a subversive document, codenamed 'The Tsholotsho Declaration' was penned with a mandate to scuttle Joyce Mujuru's nomination into the party's presidium in support of the party's secretary for administration, Emmerson Munangagwa. The document, which is now in the hands of President Mugabe, has not been made public, but the contents are alleged to include the issue of democratising the operations of the ruling party, including the introduction of a secret ballot in all elections as opposed to the current format of raising hands. The document is also said to have addressed the issue of tribalism, pointing out that there was need for a tribal balancing act if the party was to reclaim its waning support in some parts of the country.
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From Business Day (SA), 3 December
Moyo breathes fire on 'palace coup' enemies
Beleaguered Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo hit out at his colleagues yesterday, accusing them of engineering a failed palace coup in the Zanu PF power struggle. Moyo, his cabinet colleague July Moyo and six other senior ranking Zanu PF officials were either suspended or heavily reprimanded for defying a party resolution to support a woman candidate, Joyce Mujuru, for the post of second deputy president. They are said to have been part of a faction within the party campaigning for Mujuru's rival, Emmerson Mnangagwa. They are said to have held a meeting at Moyo's rural village in Tsholotsho to map a strategy for the elections. Mnangagwa has since lost the bid. Moyo, President Robert Mugabe's propagandist and spokesman, described the accusations against him as "ugly lies" and "pure fiction". Moyo's angry reaction came as Mugabe further warned at his party's congress yesterday that those with "misguided ambitions" for power would be dealt with. But Moyo said the allegations against him were similar to "false intelligence used by US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to invade Iraq to remove non-existent weapons of mass destruction". "It is pure fiction that does not help anyone," Moyo wrote in a report to Mugabe. Moyo said there were no sinister motives behind the Tsholotsho meeting, which was allegedly disguised as a prize giving ceremony. "What we have here is an allegation whose purpose is to smear imagined or real opponents in order to attack their integrity."
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From Zim Online (SA), 3 December
Tale of contrasting fortunes at Zanu PF congress
Harare - It's still six in the morning but all routes eading from the city centre to the Harare nternational Conference Centre, the venue of the uling Zanu PF party's Fourth National People's Congress are already congested. Motorists battling to get to work on time blow horns almost in unison to make the "chefs" - as the rich and powerful politicians are known in local parlance - move their cars faster but to no avail. Unperturbed, the Who-is-Who of Zanu PF parade their latest acquisitions as they roll down towards the congress venue. The posh four wheelers, BMWs, Mercedes Benz and Lexus are all here. "So how much fuel are they burning?" asked Fungai Chinhembe, a typist at the Harare Magistrates' Court just across the giant conference centre. Chinhembe must certainly be speaking for a lot of Zimbabwean motorists who must battle fuel shortages everyday as a four-year-old fuel crisis shows signs of worsening again with several garages here in Harare and elsewhere across the country without diesel or petrol because there is no hard cash to pay foreign suppliers.
But you can ignore the typist's distractions and admire the Italian and French designer apparels on show here, a surprise one might say, given that most of the senior Zanu PF officials here cannot go shopping virtually in all of Europe or the United States after they were banned there because of the government's failure to uphold human rights, the rule of law and democracy. Also on view at the four-day congress are the latest models of Nokias, Samsungs, Motorolas and other leading cellphone brands. Is this a gathering of the blessed and rich only? Not quite! At the entrance to the conference hall, disgruntled lower and poorer ranks of Zanu PF, most of them delegates representing their even poorer fellow party members in rural areas, make their feelings known. "We have to be moved from Danhiko Centre (a school for disabled people on the outskirts of Harare). The place is dirty, human waste is lying around. I wonder how this school is being run," fumed Emma Guvava, a delegate from the Midlands Province, as she sought the attention of the administration team. The place is stinking and the food is bad. This is not good," she went on. According to her, male delegates accommodated at Danhiko, whose patron is Mugabe's comfort-loving wife, Grace, had resorted to sleeping outside as the dormitories were in a sorry state.
And standing by her side is John Sithole from rural Matabeleland South province who claims mosquitoes feasted on him and his fellow delegates at the nearby Harare Poly Technical College where they are housed. "There are no windows and the beds are urine-stained. I cannot leave my home to come and be housed in such conditions. Are the 'chefs' aware these are the conditions we are having to put up with," he said. Although party spin-doctors are already passing off the congress that ends on Sunday as a phenomenal success, evidence is abundant here of poor organisation. For example, the congress is now in its second day but some delegates, who arrived here three days ago, are still queuing for access cards to be able to enter the conference hall. There are three queues, one for submitting registration forms, another for people to be taken photographs that are inserted on the accreditation cards and another still for collecting the cards. "Its tedious, three queues for just a card valid for only four days. The organisation is bad. The congress has started while we queue here," a delegate, who only identified himself as Timothy, charged. It's already 12 noon, President Robert Mugabe, who is also First Secretary of Zanu PF, is almost half-way through his keynote address as Timothy and scores of other equally disgruntled delegates battle to get access cards to the congress. "If this is how Zanu PF chefs will treat their own, then it is no wonder they do not seem to care much even as Zimbabwe itself is burning," quipped my colleague, as we left the conference centre to cool ourselves by the bar at the Sheraton Harare Hotel and Towers just adjacent to the centre.
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From The Cape Times (SA), 3 December
ANC affirms its support for Zanu PF in message to congress
By Moshoeshoe Monare
Harare: The ANC has expressed its unequivocal support for Zanu PF and its political and economic policies. Delivering a message at Zanu PF's fourth congress yesterday, the ANC's representative and former deputy secretary-general, Henry Makgothi, said South Africa's ruling party had great confidence in the Zanu PF government. "Our national executive of the ANC and the people of South Africa (are) confident that Zanu PF, as a party of revolution, will continue to play a leading role to assert the political and economic independence of Zimbabwe," he said, reading a statement. "As the ANC we take pride in the bilateral relations that we have forged over the years of the struggle and we are confident that this conference will emerge with concrete measures to respond to the challenges that the people of Zimbabwe face. The ANC wishes to reiterate its firm support for the people of Zimbabwe under the leadership of Zanu PF." The ANC also praised Zanu PF for its liberation contribution and support of South Africa during apartheid. "It is always a great experience to come back to the hero land of comrades who did so much and made such sacrifices to support the freedom struggle and that of South Africa in particular." In Cape Town, Joe Seremane of the Democratic Alliance said in a statement: "The ANC's attendance can be viewed only as an endorsement of Zanu PF's patently undemocratic policies and practices. The ANC's decision to be present in Harare today is also the clearest indication yet that the ANC's loyalties lie more closely with Zanu PF than with its alliance partners. In choosing to attend the Zanu PF congress, the ANC has illustrated to the (opposition) Movement for Democratic Change that it cannot be considered an 'honest broker' in resolving Zimbabwe's ... impasse."
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From The News Statesman, 3 December
Cricket's shame: the inside story
Des Wilson
How did England's cricketers end up playing in Zimbabwe, where a tyrant rules and millions starve? Des Wilson blames Jack Straw, as well as the game's amoral leaders.
In January this year Phil Edmonds, the outspoken former England spin-bowler, now chairman of Middlesex County Cricket Club, attended his first meeting of the England and Wales Cricket Board (the ECB). About the planned tour to Zimbabwe, he was uncompromising. It should be "cancelled forthwith". The board was "obsessed with money"; it was time to make a moral stand. One board member, he said, "sounded like a Nazi". It was gloriously over the top, but welcome to me, who was at that time one of few board members openly opposed to the tour. I looked forward to Edmonds's support when the debate was renewed at the following meeting. As I entered the gates of Lord's for that next meeting, I saw Edmonds climbing into a car and disappearing at speed in the opposite direction. At the meeting, all was explained: Edmonds had discovered a business interest in Zimbabwe and was, therefore, withdrawing from the board until the Zimbabwe matter was resolved. I haven't seen him since.
The ease with which he was despatched - or despatched himself - intensified my fear that the ECB was now hell-bent on repeating the debacle of England's World Cup campaign a year earlier, when the players forced the board to cancel the Zimbabwe fixture after days of chaos and confusion. Three factors contributed to that fiasco. First, ever since England kept trying to play South Africa in the apartheid era, English cricket had never moved from mindless adherence to the doctrine that "there's no place for politics in sport". Yet - and this is the second factor - the International Cricket Council (the ICC) is riven with politics, much of it motivated by dislike of England. Rather than being sympathetic to England's difficulties over Zimbabwe, some countries could barely disguise their glee. Third, English cricket had become totally dependent upon its earnings from international cricket. Without that money, most of the 18 first-class counties would be bankrupt. Without a moral dimension to their thinking, those who ran English cricket allowed money to dictate every decision.
When I joined the board, I was asked to advise it on the "Zimbabwe problem" and to explore ways whereby the tour about to take place could be cancelled without paying too high a price, financial or diplomatic. I believed it could be - and still believe it could have - but it called for a principled stand by both the ECB and the Foreign Office. Alas, that was beyond them both. The strategy had two parts, one dependent on Jack Straw. While the ICC rules did not allow tours to be cancelled for "political or moral considerations", it did allow force majeure. This meant a tour could be cancelled if the government issued a clear instruction to that effect. It was, therefore, vital that we received from the Foreign Secretary if not a firm instruction, at least powerful advice that could be interpreted as one. Second, the ECB needed what it had lacked for more than 30 years: an intellectual and moral basis for taking decisions on controversial tours. The plan was to publish a "framework paper" and then a follow-up paper applying its principles to the Zimbabwe tour. This, we hoped, would win support from politicians, the public and the cricket world, and give the ECB the moral high ground. For that reason, we were keen to publish it before any Straw intervention so that we didn't appear to be acting only because we were being forced to do the right thing.
The framework paper argued that "to seek to isolate sport as an activity that stands alone in human affairs, untouched by 'politics' or 'moral considerations' and unconcerned for the fate of those deprived of human rights, is as unrealistic as it is (self-destructively) self-serving..." It identified five factors that could lead to abandonment of a tour: a threat to the safety and security of the players; impacts on the integrity of a tour (racism, or restrictions on freedom of expression); relationship with British foreign policy; the views of the cricket world; and moral considerations - in particular, whether the tour would give succour to a despotic dictator. At every point in preparing the paper and the strategy, I worked closely with the two men who had involved me in the first place - David Morgan, the ECB chairman, and Tim Lamb, the then chief executive. Assuring me that they both believed a majority of board members were opposed to the tour, they not only contributed to and approved the framework paper, but also approved the date and the manner of its release.
So, with work on the paper under way, I approached Straw's office. Since the UK had been instrumental in forcing Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth and had been pressing both the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to impose sanctions, we were optimistic, and were at first encouraged. We were "all on the same side"; the FO would do "all in its power to help". While it would not actually instruct the ECB not to tour - Straw did not want to set a precedent and was afraid of having to pay financial compensation - it was sympathetic to an alternative idea: the ECB would ask for advice, and Straw would reply, offering the "strongest possible" advice not to go. We hoped we could convince the ICC that this was the nearest to an instruction you could achieve in a democracy. Then I was shown a draft of Straw's letter. Far from offering the "strongest possible" advice, it offered none at all. It simply spelled out what we all knew about the Mugabe regime and stated that the UK was taking "a leading role" in mobilising international pressure for change. All I could do was persuade the FO to add a sentence. Following the claim that the UK was "taking a leading role" internationally, it would say: "You may wish to consider whether a high-profile England cricket tour at this time is consistent with that approach." This sentence was small consolation, for while the media could possibly be persuaded to read it as advising the ECB not to go, there was no chance the ICC would. to be continued...
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 4 December
Three ministers face the boot amid fears of a Zanu PF rift
As the Zanu PF story takes new twists and political intrigue continues, three Cabinet ministers and a provincial governor face the sack for their role in the much-publicised Tsholotsho Declaration. The Tsholotsho meeting was meant to prop up Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa as the new vice-president ahead of pre-congress favourite Joyce Mujuru. The ruling Zanu PF party has already suspended six provincial chairpersons who attended the private and unsanctioned meeting called by Information minister Jonathan Moyo in Tsholotsho, who has himself been heavily reprimanded pending a final decision on his fate. Authoritative sources in Zanu PF told The Daily News Online on the sidelines of the on-going party's Congress that the party was in danger of a serious rift and that President Mugabe will certainly fire three of his Cabinet ministers and a governor to send a clear message to senior members on the dangers of dissent. The sources said those facing the chop were Moyo, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa and Energy and Power Development minister July Moyo, who was chairman of the Midlands province and has since been suspended. Chinamasa was nominated chairman by most of the suspended chairpersons ahead of party favourite John Nkomo.
"The three Cabinet ministers face the chop in a reshuffle expected any time before the new year and Masvingo governor Josaya Hungwe is not likely to be re-appointed following his role in influencing the provincial executive in Masvingo to defy the party directive and voting for Mnangagwa and Chinamasa," the source said. The suspended provincial chairpersons are said to have mentioned several politicians who had influenced their voting patterns and it is understood that TeleAccess boss and Masvingo provincial chairman, Daniel Shumba, told Mugabe that Hungwe had influenced the provincial vote by heavily lobbying for Mnangagwa and Chinamasa. He said for his sins, Shumba was being probed for externalising foreign currency as well as a separate probe on why his company has failed to operate the second fixed telephone network despite being awarded a licence two years ago. As part of the plot to deal decisively with Mnangagwa and his lieutenants, the sources pointed to Thursday's demonstration in Masvingo, where thousands of ordinary party cadres, war veterans and war collaborators dissociated themselves from Mnangagwa and said their choice as a province was Mujuru. The protesters urged the party to oust the Shumba-led executive.
The sources said Mugabe wanted to send a clear message that dissent is not allowed in Zanu PF while at the same making sure that he does not split the party. "It is clear that Mnangagwa was the brains behind the Tsholotsho Declaration, but he is not likely to face any disciplinary action because he could turn out to be a rallying point for a new party if the entire bloc is fired, so the only plausible action is to fire his lieutenants, who are junior in the party and therefore do not have any potential of forming a new party which could deal a blow to Zanu PF's chances ahead of parliamentary elections next March," the source added. The revelations come amid separate calls for Mugabe to deal decisively with Moyo, who is unpopular for his criticism of senior party members through his various columns in the state media. Through his involvement in Mnangagwa's failed bid for vice presidency, Moyo's detractors have been blessed with a fresh window of attack, urging Mugabe to fire his trusted information chief if unity is to be maintained in the party. Moyo's critics reportedly want stern action taken by Mugabe since the acid-tongued information supremo was appointed to the government and the Politburo at the behest of Mugabe himself.
But analysts added that whatever the bold declarations at Congress and Mugabe's calls for unity, Zanu PF would remain scathed by the revelations of vote-buying and secret meetings by its power hungry senior members. "The party has been seriously dented and regardless of these moves to rid the Cabinet of Mnangagwa's lieutenants, the cohesion within Zanu PF will never be the same again after the Tsholotsho declaration," one political observer noted. "The problem is that despite the Mnangagwa faction being vilified for being power hungry and for defying party directives, there are others who believe they have a point especially as it is certain that the Presidium will have three Shonas in Mugabe, Mujuru and Msika if the nominations are ratified at Congress. These people believe they have a point in that other tribes should be given a chance at the top echelons of power."
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From Business Report (SA), 3 December
Gono's mission is to save Zanu PF, not the economy
By Alex Dawson
Harare - In a whirlwind year, Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, has reintroduced discipline to the financial sector and slowed Zimbabwe's economic decline. To the government, and some others, he is Zimbabwe's saviour. But to most of the industrialists trying to keep factories going in a dying economy, he is a mightily feared predator. His methods have been likened to those of the country's feared Central Intelligence Organisation. While the intelligence agency is ruthless in pursuit of information, he is as ruthless in pursuit of foreign currency - the commodity that has become desperately scarce in an economy where politics has largely killed off production, tourism and exports. Gono warmly greets visitors he has invited to see him in his plush suite of offices on the 22nd floor of the Reserve Bank building in downtown Harare. Most of these special visitors will have been phoned in the morning to meet him at 5pm. While they wait, visitors may be diverted by the rare bird's eye view of the city centre, which looks orderly and clean. Not like Maputo or Luanda, and a whole lot better than Lusaka or Kampala, it's the view Gono mostly sees. To paraphrase the song: from a distance, the Zimbabwean economy looks healthy.
Gono often shows up two hours late, apologising profusely and claiming pressure of work. He is hardworking and sometimes uses the sleeping quarters in the executive suite at the bank. But some visitors suspect his lateness is a deliberate strategy to unbalance them. He envelopes his visitors in charm. For a while. First-time visitors are usually disarmed and immediately put at ease. Those who have been before are wary, dreading the upcoming encounter with the banker with the cheery public face who now gets more publicity in the domestic press than his hero, President Robert Mugabe. Meetings with Gono begin with pleasantries, but often degenerate within minutes into ugliness. The public would be astonished if they saw Gono, the urbane banker, transformed into a political zealot in full rhetorical flight. Those called in for these special meetings are usually exporters. He accuses them of hiding foreign currency from him. Many emerge from the meetings convinced they will be arrested either by police at the bank when they leave, or later that night. They are often right.
One weekend recently, there were more than 20 businessmen and businesswomen locked up in various police stations around the country, horrified and mortified by their lice-infested accommodation and invariably blocked toilets en suite. It is now a topic of debate in Harare as to who has sent more to police cells, Gono, the scourge of business, or information minister Jonathan Moyo, the scourge of the media. Some have simply paid the bribes that investigators from the bank demand, rather than go to court. It's cheaper in the long run. Others, among them Zimbabwe's most talented bankers, have chosen instead to flee into exile. Among these, of course, are some real crooks. But not all. Gono accuses them indiscriminately of externalising foreign currency illegally. Most retort that all they have done is what all their peers have to do if they want to survive - and that is trade on the parallel market. They insist that they had resorted to the parallel market in desperation after failing, for up to 10 weeks at a stretch, to win foreign currency on Gono's weekly currency auctions, the only legal source. The auction rate is fixed by Gono within a range of a few cents at US$1 for Z$5 600, way below the realistic parallel market rate. Only a fifth of bidders get what they ask for.
Most are ready to admit that they have indeed externalised foreign currency, hundreds of thousands of US dollars in fact. But that, down to the last cent, they can account for in payments for vital imports to keep their factories going. Whistle-blowers are having a field day, for expected financial gain or personal revenge, but they often nail the wrong people and it's too late for tears after a weekend's lock-up. In the secrecy and paranoia that have now spread throughout the business community, one exporter, who would speak only if he was not named, said: "We dread getting the call to go in and see him. He won't believe us, no matter what documentation we show him. "He believes we are stashing billions in forex overseas." None of the really high-profile politicos in Zanu PF have had the dreaded call, with the exception of former finance minister Chris Kuruneri, and insiders say he was arrested only because the Sunday Times exposed him on its front page. This is how Gono is rescuing the Zimbabwean economy. It is a short-term strategy, designed, Mugabe's critics say, to suck enough foreign currency out of every nook and cranny in the country to keep things ticking over until after the elections due in the first quarter of next year. Then drastic reforms will be needed, which will hurt ordinary Zimbabweans, if the economy is to be given real, long-term medicine. In other words, Gono's whirlwind mission is not so much to save the Zimbabwean economy as it is to save the ruling Zanu PF party.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 3 December
Zimbabwe opposition warns of food crisis
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party claimed on Friday that government forecasts of a bumper grain harvest were false and that the southern African country faced a severe food crisis next year. "Zimbabwe will require substantial amounts of food aid from international donors in order to prevent an unprecedented humanitarian crisis occurring in 2005," Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lawmaker and shadow agriculture minister Renson Gasela told a press conference in the capital. Gasela said the government had inflated its estimated maize harvest as a pretext for putting a stop to international food aid, and claimed the government was secretly importing maize to distribute ahead of elections due in March. "We have it on good authority that the government has been secretly importing maize, which is being deliberately held back from distribution due to the integral role it is likely to play in the Zanu PF election campaign," Gasela claimed. Gasela insisted that a recent parliamentary committee report that the state-run Grain Marketing Board (GMB) had just 351 810 tonnes in stock in October was accurate, and warned it would soon be depleted. The government estimate for the maize harvest was for 2,4 million tonnes. Authorities have said it is no secret that maize is being imported, but this is being done under deals signed some time ago. Zimbabwe, which has faced successive years of food shortages, this year turned down international food aid because it believed it would produce sufficient food for its people. Last month's parliamentary committee report expressed concern over discrepancies between the government's claim of a bumper harvest and low deliveries of grain to the GMB. But the government dismissed the report and insisted farmers were holding on to their grain stocks in expectation of better prices.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 3 December
Government to import 300 000 mt of SA maize
Itai Dzamara
Government has submitted an order to purchase about 300 000 tonnes of maize from South Africa to cover the looming deficit. Sources at the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and South African Grain Services last week said Zimbabwe has negotiated with the South African government for 300 000 tonnes of maize. The GMB has already received confirmation that the order will be met, sources said. GMB acting chief executive officer Samuel Muvuti last week refused to comment on reports that government was importing maize. "I can't comment on that. If you say the maize will be delivered wait for the time it will be delivered," Muvuti said. Jaco Grobelaar, a Commodity Trading House economist in South Africa, said he had heard reports that Zimbabwe had purchased maize from South Africa. This followed the delivery two weeks ago of 1 808 tonnes of white maize to Zimbabwe. An official at the South African Grain Service said another 5 000 tonnes of maize already paid for by the Zimbabwe government had been delivered by the end of last week. Sources at the GMB confirmed that there was maize, which was delivered to the Harare depot last week. The reports of maize imports from South Africa come after the parliamentary portfolio committee on Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement recently established through a survey on food stocks countrywide that the 2,4 million tonnes of maize forecast by government for this year's harvest was hugely inflated. The committee, which visited GMB silos, said the country would more likely end up with a maximum of 574 000 tonnes of maize this season. The committee established that government had ordered over 200 000 tonnes of maize from outside the country by October despite denials by the GMB and Agriculture minister Joseph Made.
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From The News Statesman, 3 December
Cricket's shame: the inside story
Des Wilson
Straw was repeatedly pressed to take a stronger line, especially in answers to the Commons, but while he made his disapproval of the tour clear, he would not do so. When push came to shove, the Foreign Secretary was not going to help. He didn't have the power, he said, to order sportsmen around, even when they were begging to be so ordered - this from a government that had no problem finding powers to invade Iraq. This was not the limit of Straw's betrayal. The plan called for careful timing, with publication of the letters in February. But in January Straw, under pressure from the shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram, found it politically expedient to publish the exchange early. What began as a plan to help the ECB was now to be used to help Straw. His office was indifferent to our protests. This led to the inevitable mistakes that accompany haste, including a bad one by me - the publication of the paper before all the board had had a chance to see it. This error played into the hands of the pro-tour element on the board, who were able to claim that they were being unfairly pressured. The result was a row about process, instead of a calm debate about the actual paper.
Under the same pressure, Morgan took the paper, prepared for an English audience, and personally delivered it to the ICC. Its members went ballistic. International pressure on the ECB included a letter from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union's chairman to every county, with warnings of heavy financial penalties and other punitive action aimed at the English game. And Rod Bransgrove, a self-made multimillionaire and chairman of Hampshire County Cricket Club, raised the possibility that the ICC would remove that autumn's lucrative Champions Trophy from England. This was of particular concern to Hampshire because its Rose Bowl ground was about to achieve international status, hosting trophy games. Bransgrove tried to isolate me within the board, circulating a memo accusing me of deliberately forcing the board into a corner. Then, at a dinner on the eve of a board meeting, he accused me of "doing the whole thing for personal publicity". I said that if these charges were fair, I was unfit for office, and challenged him to move a vote of censure the following day. Instead, when the time came, he sat, silent, while a resolution was recorded accepting that I had acted in good faith.
Undeterred by further attacks by Bransgrove, I now tabled the follow-up paper, in the form of a letter to Morgan. It argued that the tour could only strengthen Robert Mugabe's regime by allowing him to claim international respectability; that it would undermine UK foreign policy in the region; that it would be contrary to the wishes of the cricket world and deeply damaging to the game's image in the UK; and that it was morally wrong to play cricket at an oasis within a country suffering such repression and hunger. Alas, to Morgan and his first-class-county constituency, this was now all irrelevant. Morgan had by now abandoned the original strategy, partly under the influence of the Bransgrove element, but mainly because of the pressures from overseas. Nevertheless he went to New Zealand, to an ICC meeting in Auckland, to make the force majeure case. The ICC now makes much of Morgan's failure to argue the moral case there. Yet it was understandable: even I accepted that moral arguments were wasted on men without a moral bone in their bodies. The Straw letter, when added to letters from the other political parties and the position of the Commonwealth, was our only hope. But the ICC dismissed it out of hand.
The evening before the meeting, Morgan and Bob Merriman, chairman of Cricket Australia, and their wives had a jolly dinner together. Morgan found this encouraging. Yet the following day, it was Merriman who took up the attack, raising the stakes even further by proposing an additional penalty for abandoning a tour - suspension of the offending country from the international game. Morgan was aghast; suspension could cost England tens of millions if enforced for just one season. And inevitably, when he reported back, the English game was panic-stricken. In vain, some argued that the ICC would never do it. Others said that it would never survive a legal challenge. But should Morgan and the ECB board be blamed for running scared? I don't think so. A malign and morally bankrupt ICC, an organisation that could insist on ruling out moral considerations from the game's deliberations and back that up with draconian measures, was capable of almost any injustice. The ICC's role in this affair has been unforgivable. England's case should have been sympathetically listened to, its difficulties as the founder member of the cricketing family recognised, and some compromise - a postponement with financial compensation for Zimbabwe cricket - properly negotiated. The ICC leaders' refusal even to consider moral issues is beyond belief - at least until you meet them. I still remember being introduced to the head of the West Indies Cricket Board in Barbados. "Ah," he sneered, "so this is Mr Morality!" I told him he should look the word up in a dictionary; it could widen his horizons.
Morgan, who loves socialising at cricket's top table, hated the atmosphere and hostility he experienced in Auckland. Now, with the board being told that it had to consider its fiduciary responsibilities, and the counties that put him in post worried about their share of Test match money, Morgan committed himself wholeheartedly to the tour (and has stuck rigidly to his guns ever since). Realising that I had lost the battle, and desperate to try to save the game from the fury I knew this would engender, I suggested a compromise to the management board: a tour under protest. "Let's make clear we've been blackmailed into the tour by the threat of bankruptcy," I argued. "Let's place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the ICC, and then do the minimum necessary to meet our contractual obligations. Let's publicly advise supporters not to travel. Let the team wear plain whites, no ECB logo. Let the team go out into the community and be pictured talking to the hungry and the oppressed." But the will was not there. It was to be business as usual. So, less than a year after joining the board, I resigned. Contrary to Bransgrove's claims about my hunger for publicity, I turned down more than 100 requests from radio and TV, doing one radio interview only.
Straw's betrayal of our earlier endeavours was even now not complete. He and Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, hosted a press conference to acknowledge that the ECB was in an impossible situation and he gave the tour his blessing. Then he sat benignly by while Morgan said the ECB accepted that it should not allow "moral considerations" to influence its decisions. When the team finally arrived in Harare, Morgan said: "Our business, our trade is cricket. If we want to trade in international cricket, then we have to do so by the rules of the ICC. It's crystal clear that members of the ICC are not permitted to pull out of tours for political or moral reasons." Most readers will know what has happened over the past few days. Assuming that the tour is concluded without further disaster, it will be the ECB's hope that memories will quickly fade. It will have "toughed it out". But it has diminished the game. Let down by a weak foreign secretary, betrayed by the international cricket family, dominated by the financial vested interests of the first-class counties, it responded with cowardice and indifference to the fate of others or to the feelings and views of its fellow citizens. Morgan says he hopes the tour will heal a "running sore". It won't, because the sore of Zimbabwe is only the symptom of a deeper disease - a moral vacuum at the heart of the game - that will ultimately kill it unless eradicated. How wise were the words of C L R James: "What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?"
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From The Sunday Mirror, 5 December
Zanu PF ditches Moyo
Staff Writers
Information and Publicity Minister in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Jonathan Moyo, yesterday failed to secure the greenlight into the ruling Zanu PF's central committee after his province, Matabeleland North, ditched him. Moyo stood pensively as other party members sloganeered and ecstatically celebrated the nominations of President Robert Mugabe as the party's president and first secretary while Joseph Msika and Joyce Mujuru were elected the two vice-presidents and second secretaries. John Nkomo was re-elected the party's national chairman. Throughout the proceedings, Moyo, the architect of the controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), was not his usual hyper-active self. In an act of transparency, the media was allowed to sit through the nomination process at Zanu PF's Fourth National People's Congress, which was supposed to be a closed session, after President Mugabe's intervention. Moyo's omission from the central committee might mean that he will not be part and parcel of the new-look Politburo unless President Mugabe again catapults him back into the supreme decision-making body outside congress. President Mugabe is expected to announce members of the Politburo at a special central committee meeting to be held soon.
Political observers said the move by the sole leader of the country since independence in 1980 to defer the announcement of Politburo members was to let the tension, which had been palpable during the congress, subside. They added that what could have cost Moyo the nomination was his role in an "attempted coup" of the presidium at a meeting he convened in Tsholotsho. As a punitive measure, the party suspended six provincial chairpersons who reportedly attended the high-powered indaba. The Women's League deputy secretary, Oppah Muchinguri was heard saying: "Yes! Yes! Tsholotsho yasara. Jonathan (Moyo) wasara.zvatopera." (Tsholotsho has been left behind. Jonathan Moyo has been left behind. It's over.) Muchinguri campaigned heavily for the nomination and later election of Mujuru. In his closing speech at the Congress, President Mugabe castigated underhand dealings, which he said had been going on for a long time within the party. "No party can ever succeed if there are those who believe in secret and clandestine dealings.It is wrong for chairpersons to go to a secluded place, ngale eTsholotsho," said the emotionally- charged President.
He fired a salvo at power-hungry elements that sought to claw their way into the party's top echelons through the use of money. Such unorthodox manoeuvres, he said, were not in the party's best interests as they were destructive in nature. "Those whose hearts and minds can be bought are political prostitutes. This party has no room for political prostitutes," he said. The six provincial chairmen - July Moyo (Midlands), Lloyd Siyoka (Matabeleland South), Jacob Mudenda (Matabeleland North), Themba Ncube (Bulawayo), Daniel Shumba (Masvingo) and Mike Madiro (Manicaland) - were suspended for six months. President Mugabe said provincial chairpersons had no power to call for such meetings, but "to guide the people". Moyo, who switched academics for politics and a "former" ruling party critic during his days as a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, made an about-turn in 1999 when he returned from South Africa and joined the government-sponsored Constitutional Commission as its spokesperson. Although the draft constitution was rejected in the February 2000 referendum, Moyo's sterling role saw him being co-opted into parliament as a non-constituency MP after the June 2000 parliamentary polls. He was subsequently appointed Minister of Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet and secured a place in the Politburo as deputy secretary for information and publicity.
Moyo - the President's spin doctor - has been vocal in vigorously attacking dissenting voices and is seen by his detractors as the hand that orchestrated closure of media houses namely The Daily News and its sister paper, The Daily News on Sunday and The Tribune Other smaller provincial publications were forced to amalgamate. Meanwhile, Mashonaland West provincial chairperson Phillip Chiyangwa was not short-listed by his province. He, however, forced his way to the podium to be congratulated by President Mugabe on making it to the central committee as an ex-officio member. Afterwards, a jubilant Chiyangwa could be seen shaking hands with other central committee members, including Saviour Kasukuwere and Muchinguri - who appeared not quite sure whether or not to congratulate the Chinhoyi lawmaker. Chiyangwa's exclusion from the Mashonaland West nominations for the central committee came against the backdrop of a surprise nomination of acting Harare executive mayor, Sekesai Makwavarara, who defected from the MDC to Zanu PF this year. Since her defection, Makwavarara has been rewarded handsomely. She was elevated to the central committee soon after she was allocated a farm in Raffingora.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 5 December
Joyce Mujuru elected Vice-President of Zimbabwe
Harare - Zimbabwe's ruling party on Saturday elected longtime Cabinet minister Joyce Mujuru as the country's first woman vice-president at the end of a party congress. Welcoming her election President Robert Mugabe hinted that Mujuru may be destined for higher office. "When you choose her as a vice-president, you don't want her to remain in that chair do you?" he asked the delegates amid applause. Mugabe, who earlier this week called for unity in his party again hit out at reports of infighting over the nomination of Mujuru. "No party can ever succeed if amongst its members there are those who believe in secret dealings, in clandestine activities," he said in reference to a meeting organised by some top government officials allegedly in support of a rival candidate to the vice-presidency. His controversial information minister, Jonathan Moyo was one of the alleged organisers of the meeting. In what may be a sign of Moyo's loss of favour in the party, he was not elected on Saturday as a member of the central committee, the ruling party's chief co-ordinating body.
Mugabe closed the congress in fighting style, saying: "You came, you saw, you conquered" to more than 10 000 delegates gathered at the Harare International Conference Centre. Earlier on Saturday various party committees presented reports on the state of the party, the nation and the country's international relations. Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge on Saturday told the gathering that Zimbabwe was at "war" with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But many ruling party supporters will see Mujuru's election as the focal point of the congress. The election of Mujuru, who has held various Cabinet posts since independence from white minority rule in 1980, comes as little surprise after Mugabe said he and the party were behind her. Her election is likely to be welcomed by women who make up more than 50% of the country's 11,6-million people. After the announcement of her election Mugabe's wife Grace got up and embraced Mujuru, who is a veteran of the country's war of independence.
At the same congress Mugabe was unanimously confirmed as president of the party, amid deafening cheers from party delegates. Co-vice president Msika was also confirmed in his position. The congress comes just four months ahead of watershed parliamentary elections expected to be held in March, which the ruling party has vowed to win. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has vowed to boycott the poll unless the government carries out electoral reforms. The MDC claims elections in 2000 and 2002 were flawed. But foreign minister Mudenge earlier on Saturday struck a defiant note, saying the opposition party would lose. "The Western powers - the Americans, the British, the Europeans - all know that the MDC is going to lose," Mudenge told the congress. "They are already working with plans to attack and condemn those elections before they are held. We have to be vigilant," he said. Meanwhile the opposition said its leader Morgan Tsvangirai was on Saturday briefly detained by police at Harare International Airport on his return from a whirlwind tour of Europe, where he called for pressure against the Mugabe government to carry out electoral reforms. He was later released. In his closing speech Saturday Mugabe criticised Tsvangirai for travelling to Europe, saying his constituents were among Western nations. "That's where their [the MDC's] constituents are," said Mugabe. "It is Mr Blair, the Germans, the Dutch, the Americans. Those are the people who matter to them."
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 5 December
Zanu fat cats don't say a word about the starving
Zimbabwe's ruling heavyweights gather for their leadership congress - and a lavish meal or two
Convoys of limousines, Mercedes-Benz Kompressors, Lexuses, BMWs, Jeep Cherokees and other posh cars roll into the grounds of the luxurious five-star Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Harare, creating a dazzling spectacle. Stepping out, their occupants show off designer suits and latest-model cellphones. It is an extravaganza worthy of any Hollywood gathering. But the spectacle is spoilt by the thousands of hungry-looking people who make up the rent-a-crowd hired to sing and dance to greet the delegates attending the leadership congress of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party. The praise singers represent the other face of Zimbabwe: a country where shortages of basics like water, fuel and electricity are rife, where foreign currency is difficult to get and inflation is running at 200%. This is a country described last week by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a virtual basket case. But for the top brass of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF - or "chefs" as they are known locally - who arrived at their congress in such style this week, that might as well be a continent away.
While thousands are said to be starving in his country, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his entourage sit at VIP tables decorated with flowers and bearing drinks, water and imported delicacies. Inside the venue, banners like "MDC: The People's Enemies" or "2005 Anti-Blair Election" hang on the walls. The 10 000 delegates - some put up at the city's finest hotels - enjoy three hearty meals a day, a far cry from some of their families starving back home. Some of the delegates, ambassadors in particular, have been flown from all over the world to attend. Altogether, about Z$20 billion is believed to have been blown on the congress. Yet, despite the problems besetting his people, Mugabe does not talk about poverty, unemployment and macroeconomic fundamentals such as inflation, interest rates and the exchange rate in his keynote address. Instead, he spends most of his time attacking real or perceived enemies, especially the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Even points about the economy, land, elections, the power struggle in his party and international relations are punctuated throughout by vitriolic remarks about Blair.
Mostly, the five-day conference - which ends today - is characterised by infighting and a vicious power struggle between two factions, one led by Mugabe's former heir-apparent Emmerson Mnangagwa and another by retired army general Solomon Mujuru. Outside the conference, however, another Zimbabwe is evident - one slated by the IMF, which has visited Zimbabwe three times this year in a bid to pull the country out of the quagmire. In a report issued last month, the organisation said Zimbabwe's social and economic conditions had continued to deteriorate. In particular, it said the disorderly implementation of the land reform programme had contributed to a sharp reduction in agricultural production. "Concerns about governance, the rule of law and human rights, and the continued lack of clarity about property rights," it said, "have severely damaged confidence, discouraged investment, and promoted capital flight and emigration.Unemployment is very high and increasing, social indicators have worsened, and the HIV/ Aids pandemic remains largely unchecked. Severe food shortages have necessitated massive food imports and donor assistance," it said. But those inside the Sheraton Hotel and Towers this week appeared blind to this reality, ignoring their culpability as they plot their course - and that of Zimbabwe - for the next five years.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 5 December
Hunger claims 10 more in Bulawayo
By our own Staff
Bulawayo - Ten more people have died of hunger in the country's second largest city of Bulawayo, bringing the malnutrition death toll recorded in the city to more than 180 over the past year, official council documents show. Bulawayo city council minutes on health, housing and education for November, reveal that nine children under the age of four and a 70-year-old man died as a result of malnutrition last month. The deceased were from Bulawayo's wards 2, 4, 7, 9, 14, 15, 19 and 22. Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, the executive mayor of Bulawayo, refused to comment on the statistics. The mayor has in past provoked the ire of Zanu PF government officials for revealing that people were dying of malnutrition in Bulawayo. "At the moment, the Bulawayo city council is feeding over 13 000 children at council clinics but the number of these desperate children is increasing each day," said one councillor, who asked to remain anonymous. Archbishop Pius Ncube, the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bulawayo, said the deaths were a cause for concern. "It is a shame that the latest 10 deaths have come at a time when the governing Zanu PF party is spending billions of dollars feasting at its congress," he said.
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From The Observer (UK), 5 December
Mugabe arrests opposition leader
Rory Carroll
The leader of Zimbabwe's opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, was detained yesterday at Harare's international airport after returning from Europe, according to his party. Police and customs agents intercepted the president of the Movement for Democratic Change when he stepped off the plane. They then photocopied his passport. For the past several weeks Tsvangirai has toured several African and European capitals to drum up support in advance of next year's elections in Zimbabwe. His warm reception in South Africa, Britain and Belgium annoyed President Robert Mugabe's government and it was determined to prevent another tour, said MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi. 'It was a reaction to the success of his trip. Photocopying the passport was a marker. We expect them to confiscate it to stop him leaving the country.' The authorities would be able to cite the treason charges Tsvangirai is expected to face next year as an excuse, Nyathi added. A court in Harare acquitted Tsvangirai of treason charges in a separate case in October, prompting the return of his passport and the first chance to leave his country since 2002. He took full advantage, meeting South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, Tony Blair, and senior EU officials in a whirlwind tour that raised the MDC's profile. There was speculation that Mugabe's security services had made a blunder in returning Tsvangirai's passport and that the government had intended to keep him in the country.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 5 December
Political meddling has cricket on back foot
The resignation of two key figures is proof that Zimbabwe Cricket cannot escape the tentacles of Robert Mugabe's government
By Simon Wilde
Zimbabwe has gone to great lengths to convince everybody that its cricket is independent of the country's repressive Zanu PF government, but reality just keeps getting in the way. The latest blow to Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC, formerly Zimbabwean Cricket Union) - chief patron, President Mugabe - is the resignation of Kish Gokal, general manager of its national academy. Gokal, who managed the Zimbabwe side when England toured in 2000, has declined to make public his reason, but it is understood to be political interference. He had run the academy for three years. The academy's administrator, Anthea Reeler, is also leaving. Considering that 20 years ago few black sportsmen in Zimbabwe played cricket (football was their preferred sport), the quality of players coming through the system is impressive. Most of the players facing England have been coached at the academy, but rumours that selection at all levels is distorted by patronage and corruption refuse to go away.
On Friday, the opposition Independent newspaper in Harare alleged that administrators at one of the city's leading clubs, Takashinga, were demanding 10% of match fees from any club player selected for Zimbabwe, for "reinvestment". Tatenda Taibu, the Zimbabwe captain, recently left Takashinga. He denies any connection, but it is hard to see why any player would opt to be levied without a return. At a recent board meeting of the Mashonaland Cricket Association - the strongest provincial body in the country - a senior figure expressed concern over the composition of the national Under-16 and Under-19 teams. The minutes of the meeting, seen by The Sunday Times, record his comments that "something needed to be done with how these age group teams were selected . . . a number of deserving kids were left out and some of them were not even called for trials". The Mashonaland meeting also recorded disquiet at "how appointments were being done at (ZC). He (one board member) had not seen any adverts in the press about vacancies. "All keep seeing new faces every day at (ZC). Other members wanted to know whether the people who are being employed had a cricketing background".
Gokal is not the first person to resign in protest at how things operate here. Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands during the World Cup last year in protest at what they called the death of democracy in Zimbabwe. They were never chosen for the squad again. At about the same time Andy Pycroft resigned as a national selector after being told the team was "non-negotiable". This year, Heath Streak's tenure as Test captain came to an end after he protested at the make-up of the national selection panel, saying that two of its five members - Max Ebrahim and Steven Mangongo - had little experience of the game. Ebrahim still heads the panel. Although an International Cricket Council hearing cleared Zimbabwean cricket of the charge of racism, stories of discrimination continue to surface. They are rarely pursued through official channels because experience has shown that complaints are routinely not upheld and are sometimes met with threats. "Cricket is devoid of politics," Ozais Bvute, acting managing director of ZC, said before Gokal's departure. "There is the politics of cricket, as there is in any board, but to say that the government of Zimbabwe interferes in the day-to-day running of cricket is untrue."
Bvute says cricket had no choice but to alter the racial mix of the national side if it was to survive, given that the country's white population, estimated at 210,000 in independence in 1980, has dwindled to 20,000 today. No mention from him that the white population's shrinkage was a direct consequence of Zanu PF policies. Nor was it necessary for most of the white players - 14 of whom joined Streak in strike action - to be alienated so aggressively by the board. Zimbabwe's current team, largely made up of black players, has its own concerns. Two players are believed to have approached Richard Bevan, the England team's representative and an officer of Fica, the global players' union, asking for assistance. By some estimates, they are being paid only 25% of what they should be. ZC will be mindful not to alienate them, however: another strike would be disastrous for the already battered image of the country's game.
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From Reuters, 6 December
Zimbabwe's Mujuru faces test as Mugabe's deputy
Harare - The woman picked by Zimbabwe's ruling party as President Robert Mugabe's new deputy earned her stripes as a teenage liberation war fighter. But Joyce Mujuru's latest rise in rank has largely been attributed by the local media to her husband - a former army commander - who is said to be keen to stop a political rival from occupying the post. "She has earned her place in the past, but in this case she is coming through as a pawn in a deadly political game," said analyst Eldred Masunungure. Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party confirmed Mujuru on Saturday as the party's vice president, virtually guaranteeing her appointment to a similar position in the government. The position was left vacant after the death last year of veteran politician Simon Muzenda. Political analysts say despite Mujuru's selection as Zimbabwe's first woman vice president, jockeying for Mugabe's position would continue until he retires. Mugabe's state presidential term ends in 2008, but few expect either Mujuru, who is likely to face more political challenges in future, or first vice-president Joseph Msika, who will be 86 then, to succeed him. Mugabe bowed to pressure from a Zanu PF faction led by Mujuru's husband, General Solomon Mujuru, to give a woman the second vice-presidency post - effectively sidelining speaker of parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa, widely seen as his favoured heir, the analysts say. While Mugabe himself has never publicly commented on speculation that he preferred Mnangagwa, analysts said negative publicity linking Mnangagwa to controversial deals involving party companies might have lost him points.
Mujuru is an affable character, who many say has been able to balance her public political life with her role as a wife and mother in a traditional African environment where women high-fliers are admired but still expected to retain low-profile positions at home. Mujuru, now 49, joined Zimbabwe's liberation war movement at their military bases in neighbouring Mozambique in 1973 at the age of 18 and trained as a guerrilla fighter. She fought in the war under the guerrilla name Teurai Ropa (spill blood), and then rose to become one of the first women commanders in Mugabe's Zanla forces. In 1977 she married Solomon Mujuru -- known then as Rex Nhongo -- who was deputy commander-in-chief of Zanla. She continued to use the name Teurai Ropa Nhongo name after independence but later changed to Joyce Mujuru when her husband adopted his birth surname. Mujuru was born in Zimbabwe's northeastern district of Mt Darwin, and had completed two years of secondary education when she decided to join the liberation war.
After Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980, Mujuru became the youngest cabinet minister in Mugabe's government when she was appointed minister of women's affairs at age 25. Since then Mujuru has held various cabinet portfolios, including a brief stint in the powerful position of defence minister. She has also gone back to school and acquired a higher secondary school certificate and is currently studying for a degree in public administration. Mujuru's elevation has created unprecedented tension in Zanu PF, opposed by a number of top officials who felt the party was being hijacked by a faction bent on consolidating power in Zimbabwe's northern Mashonaland provinces. "It's going to be very difficult for Mrs Mujuru's name to be seen outside this political saga, the impression is that she was imposed and a lot of people were purged to pave the way for her," Masunungure said. Mugabe suspended seven party officials on Tuesday for allegedly attending a meeting convened by Information Minister Jonathan Moyo to push for Mnangagwa's candidature.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 6 December
Mugabe slaps down his unpopular disciple
By David Blair in Johannesburg
President Robert Mugabe spurned one of his most ardent followers yesterday when Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's information minister and scourge of the free press, was suddenly demoted. In a capricious display of presidential power, Mr Mugabe abruptly dropped Mr Moyo from the ruling Zanu PF party's central committee and publicly reprimanded his subordinate. Mr Moyo was accused of plotting against Joyce Mujuru, a veteran ally of Mr Mugabe who became Zimbabwe's new vice-president on Saturday. The president seized the opportunity to deliver a calculated rebuff to an increasingly erratic and unpopular minister whose main role is to vilify the regime's opponents and wreck Zimbabwe's free media. The state press, which Mr Moyo once ruled with a rod of iron, made a point of reporting his demotion. "Jonathan Moyo failed to make it into the central committee despite being earlier elected by Matabeleland North province," said the Sunday Mail, an official weekly. Mr Moyo remains a member of the cabinet and politburo but the 240-strong central committee is Zanu PF's main policy-making body.
Once a vociferous critic of the president, Mr Moyo turned full circle and won his cabinet job in July 2000 by doing everything possible to please his master. He pushed through the notorious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which crippled Zimbabwe's independent press by forcing all journalists to register with a state media commission. Any journalist working without official permission now risks two years in jail. These requirements caused the closure of the Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily, and led to the arrest of scores of journalists. But Mr Moyo, 47, believed that all privately owned newspapers were conspiring with Britain to overthrow Mr Mugabe and return Zimbabwe to colonial rule. In a single article written in January 2001, Mr Moyo accused the Daily News of "corrupting our moral values", compromising "our national interest", putting "our heroic troops at risk", making "deplorable and nauseating claims", displaying "rank madness" and denigrating "anything and everything that is nationalistic, Zimbabwean or African".
His unquestioning devotion to Mr Mugabe perhaps stems from the fact that he was a latecomer to Zanu PF's cause. Mr Moyo played no part in the war against white Rhodesia, lasting only six weeks in a guerrilla training camp in Tanzania. Wilfred Mhanda, the camp's commander, later called him the "first successful deserter of the struggle". During the 1980s and 1990s, Mr Moyo collected overseas scholarships, studying variously at the University of Southern California, San Francisco University and Stanford. As late as 1999, he was still criticising Mr Mugabe, writing of the president's habit of "shooting himself in the foot". When Mr Moyo landed his cabinet position, he had to prove his loyalty. He did so by attacking Mr Mugabe's critics with abandon and simply denying any facts that were inconvenient. But he could not resist using the state media to fashion a personality cult around himself. A report in The Chronicle, an official daily, of a visit he paid to Bulawayo praised his "mesmerising glamour". Mr Mugabe might have seen Mr Moyo's self-glorification as a challenge to his authority. The president has now taken his revenge.
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From SABC News, 5 December
Mugabe's party faces strife ahead of Zimbabwe poll
An internal power struggle over Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's successor has weakened his Zanu PF party's ranks ahead of parliamentary elections next March and could split the party before he retires, analysts say. Mugabe is glossing over the cracks which emerged after he bowed to pressure from a faction led by former army commander General Solomon Mujuru to pick Mujuru's wife as second party vice president, blocking the general's political rival. But political analyst an |
