Messages From Zimbabwe

Approaching his 87th birthday next February, President Robert Mugabe appears to give his friends a few birthday gift ideas as he walks unsteadily down the steps prompting aides to offer some support.
These pictures were taken as Mugabe left the closing ceremony of the African Union’s Summit in Kampala, Uganda, on July 27.
Mugabe, who still looks fit for his age, has never been seen in public with a walking stick and until recently, was bouncing up and down the steps of Air Zimbabwe planes – an image his PR people were happy to put out as it showed their man to be robust and raring.
But these pictures from Uganda show a man struggling to hold onto his youthful stoicism that has helped him stay in power for an incredible 30 years – for his minders and his Zanu PF party an unwelcome reminder that aging is mandatory, and he too is vulnerable to the pulling power of the end of time.
Surprisingly, Mugabe’s cabinet colleagues speak of a man whose attentiveness at meetings belies his advanced age.
A senior minister from Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party revealed recently: “Cabinet meetings start around 9AM and Mugabe can go all the way up to 1 or 2PM without taking a break, all the time listening intensely to the proceedings, but rarely talking himself.
“There is no question he’s doing better than many at his age.”
The teetotaller President is known to exercise regularly and is a big fan of yoga – a combination that has helped him stay fit and outfox his opponents despite growing public disaffection.
(Source)

The power struggles in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have re-ignited debate on who really pulls the strings in the former opposition party. Party president Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti, the secretary-general, were always seen as the main protagonists. But Ian Makone’s name continues to pop up in the fray. In political circles he has always been touted as a financier, king-maker and eminence grise behind the MDC-T but he has not been popular among the rank and file of the party.

Makone, a permanent secretary and adviser to Tsvangirai, is widely considered a “Johnny-come-lately” in the party who landed the top post from “nowhere” and is accused of destabilising MDC-T. His close relationship with Tsvangirai has also become a source of discomfort among some senior members of the party. Senior MDC officials say their advice and even access to the PM has been curtailed by Makone.

“Makone has ring-fenced Tsvangirai and it is now difficult to have access to him,’” said one MDC-T official who requested anonymity.

“This is why there is factionalism as some members feel Makone is getting too powerful and yet he only came in much later.”

They claimed that Makone came close to Tsvangirai at a time when the party was facing serious financial problems. Makone and his wife Theresa, the sources said, bailed out the party by paying salaries for MDC-T staff as well as pumping out money for the day-to-day operations.

“He came in as a donor because he has good connections in the white community and the corporate world where he worked for a long time,” said another a senior MDC-T official who requested anonymity.

“So this is now pay-back time for Tsvangirai.”

The current factionalism and violence has been linked to a power struggle between Biti and Makone. The two are reportedly jostling for the position of secretary-general which Biti holds, ahead of the party’s national congress next year. When the MDC split into two factions in 2005, Makone was outvoted by Biti but sources said the permanent secretary, an astute businessman and political schemer, is still determined to take up that post to consolidate his position in the popular movement.

Makone joined the party a few years after its formation through Professor Welshman Ncube’s office. Ncube was then secretary-general but Makone managed to manoeuvre his way into Tsvangirai’s inner circle. But he rose to prominence when he was appointed as one of the first political negotiators between MDC and Zanu PF after the disputed 2002 Presidential elections. He was later appointed director of elections.

It was during this tenure that he was arrested, detained and tortured by security forces in the aftermath of the March 2007 police brutalities. He was accused of training MDC activists to bomb police stations across the country. Before joining politics, Makone ran several businesses and sat on many boards of parastatals. He was also a chairman of First Mutual Life Society (FMLS), the country’s second largest life assurance company, where he worked with Norman Sachikonye, who is now a principal director in the Prime Minister’s Office.

In 2002, there was a campaign to have Makone placed on the European Union sanctions list imposed on President Robert Mugabe and his cronies because FMLS relied heavily on companies with government links such as Olivine and Zisco.

“Some have wondered why he has not been included on the list of persons barred from visiting America if his company benefits from government-owned company pensions,” wrote The Herald then.

Makone, the first black general manager of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), also worked for Manica Freight Services, where he was responsible for the southern Africa region including countries such as Tanzania and Kenya. Sources said Makone is close to the Minister of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Elton Mangoma after they worked together at the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) now Agribank. Then he was the chairman of the corporation.

Those close to Makone said he accumulated his vast wealth as a consultant for Mugabe’s administration through his businesses and the several companies he chaired before venturing into politics. Repeated efforts to get a comment from Makone were fruitless last week. His office said he was in meetings for the greater part of the week. On Saturday, he refused to talk to The Standard on party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa’s mobile phone. Chamisa however denied that Makone was preventing party officials and supporters from accessing Tsvangirai.

“The president is accessible at all levels,” said Chamisa. “Our challenge is actually that he is too much accessible which however is not even a problem considering that we are a broad-based party.”

He also refuted allegations that Makone at one point financed the party saying the allegations are malicious.

“There is no basis for such kind of malicious and dishonest allegations,” Chamisa said.

“Makone is a loyal and dedicated cadre of the party and his credentials are beyond scrutinising and questioning.”

Chamisa could not confirm whether Makone was once a government consultant.

Apart from owning several properties in Harare, his towering two-storey house in rural Domboshava, just outside Harare, is a spectacle. The house is guarded by armed state security details. However, in politics the name Makone has become synonymous with factionalism in the MDC-T over the past few years. His wife, Theresa, has also been entangled in factionalism after she allegedly elbowed Lucia Matibenga out of the race to lead the MDC-T’s women’s assembly in 2007, nearly splitting the party again into two camps.

In that conflict Tsvangirai supported Theresa to the chagrin of many of his supporters. But what further baffles those in the MDC-T is that while Makone appears to be very close to Tsvangirai, Theresa is a confidante of Jocelyn Chiwenga, the wife of Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander Constantine Chiwenga. The Public Works minister confirmed to the Zimbabwe Independent in 2007 that Jocelyn was her “long-standing friend”.

Ironically, Jocelyn’s husband is one of the service chiefs who have vowed not to salute Tsvangirai even if he wins an election to become the president of the country.

(Source)

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said power-sharing negotiations have broken down and are unlikely to resume soon, South Africa’s Talk Radio 702 reported on Wednesday. The talks have stalled over how executive power should be shared by President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who refused to sign an agreement that would have made him prime minister. Tsvangirai has protested against a proposed deal, saying it did not give him enough executive powers in government. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader said he refused to sign a deal with Mugabe because the proposal would have given the veteran leader control of security forces. “There was an attempt to fragment the Cabinet. With some ministries reporting to the president and some ministries reporting to the prime minister,” he told Talk Radio 702. “In this case the economic and social ministries will go to the prime minister. The security ministries will go to the president.”

Talk Radio 702 quoted Tsvangirai as saying he “was not aware of plans” for the talks to resume soon. Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in a March 29 election but fell short of enough votes to avoid a run-off vote, which was won by Mugabe unopposed after Tsvangirai pulled out citing violence and intimidation against his supporters. The deadlock has worsened a catastrophic economic decline marked by the world’s highest inflation rate of over 11-million percent, and chronic food, fuel and foreign currency shortages that have driven millions of Zimbabweans to regional countries. Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is expected to announce a Cabinet soon, a move the MDC has warned would endanger efforts to form a national unity government. South African President Thabo Mbeki, mandated by regional countries to mediate in the Zimbabwe talks, has drawn fire for not taking a tough line with Mugabe, a policy he says would only exacerbate tensions. Tsvangirai was critical of Mbeki. “The mediator says there is sufficient grounds for us to sign. He is not the one who is going to sign. It’s me.”

(Source)

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe opened parliament in defiance of opposition objections on Tuesday and said there was ”every expectation” of a power-sharing deal to end a post-election political crisis.

But heckling by parliamentarians from the main opposition party drowned out Mugabe’s speech, underscoring the bitterness of the divide.

”Landmark agreements have been concluded, with every expectation that everyone will sign up,” said Mugabe, 84, who has ruled Zimbabwe with his ZANU PF party since independence from Britain in 1980.

But parliamentarians from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change chanted ”ZANU is rotten!” and ”We have a pact with the people.”

The MDC said Mugabe had no right to open the chamber and warned that the move would endanger the deadlocked negotiations.

But the party’s parliamentarians nonetheless attended the opening of parliament, backing the MDC official who was elected to the powerful Speaker position on Monday.

ZANU PF also holds a key post as head of the Senate, intensifying a power struggle as the two parties come under mounting pressure to reach a breakthrough that could allow them to deal with Zimbabwe’s growing economic catastrophe.

ZANU PF won a vote for the presidency of the upper house of parliament, the Senate - where it has a majority - meaning it can block legislation passed by parliament.

Negotiations between ZANU PF and the MDC have stalled over what the opposition says is Mugabe’s refusal to give up executive power after 28 years in office.

(Source)

President Thabo Mbeki was part of the Zimbabwe problem by using the continuing violence in the country to blackmail the opposition into talks, Allan Boesak said on Sunday.

He called on churches and religious bodies to find ways to put pressure on Mbeki and Zimbabwe’s rulers to stop the violence there, after victims testified at the international HIV and Aids conference this week about the systematic rape of opposition supporters.

Boesak was part of a delegation of reformed churches, including the Presbyterian and Unitarian churches, which gathered last month near Benoni for a special summit on Zimbabwe. Their subsequent submission to the presidency was critical of Mbeki’s handling of the crisis.

This week South African Council of Churches (SACC) president Tinyiko Maluleke said the council had not been satisfied with the response. He said the presidency had asked the delegation to bring evidence on the level and scope of the violence.

“We handed a comprehensive dossier to his office, but were are not happy with the response,” he said.

After Zimbabwe’s March 29 election, Mbeki dispatched a team of retired generals to probe the violence, but their report had never been published.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said at least 120 of its officials and supporters had been murdered, while non-governmental stalwarts such as Elinor Sisulu said the figure could well be more than 600.

Boesak said on Sunday the group was receiving e-mails and phone calls daily from victims of violence.

At the Aids conference in Mexico this week, a group of women recounted how they had been raped by government militias.

The SACC had been particularly upset about increasing reports of limbs being hacked off, which is reminiscent of the infamous amputations of the hands of participants in Sierra Leone elections during the reign of Fody Sankoh.

This information had been gathered at great risk by churchgoers and others across Zimbabwe, said Boesak.

The presidency’s response had been one “we had become used to”, he said - one of “stilstuipe” (Afrikaans for an attack of silence). “It raises the fundamental question, why is the violence still continuing?” asked Boesak. “Why is Mbeki not getting Mugabe to stop the violence? How can a real, honest settlement be achieved while violence is being perpetrated on innocent people?”

He accused Mbeki of using the violence to put the MDC in an ” invidious” position during the talks - forcing the organisation into negotiations in a morally disadvantageous position, because Mbeki told them the violence would stop only if they took part.

Boesak said this hidden agenda was being played out in the talks.

Maluleke cast doubt on the whole exercise of the talks. “What is the use of a political settlement if the people have to live in the midst of death?” he asked.

Boesak said the talks should no longer be about “making a pact with the devil”, but about securing peace. He suggested that pressure from all sides and of all sorts, including renewed calls for sanctions, be maintained on the Mugabe regime, and on Mbeki, to stop the violence.

During their first submission, the church leaders called on regional governments to refuse to recognise Mugabe as president. They also called on Mbeki to desist from making statements showing a partiality to Mugabe.

(Source)

Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai - rival claimants to power in Zimbabwe - are expected to hold direct talks on a power-sharing deal today, but crucial disagreements remain over how much authority the president will continue to wield. The negotiations are based on a proposal by South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, for Mugabe to remain as a titular president, with a guarantee that he will not be prosecuted for past crimes, while political power shifts to Tsvangirai as an executive prime minister because he won the last election acceptable as credible - the first round of voting for president in March. Mbeki is expected to travel to Harare in the coming days, but possibly as early as today, to press forward the deal. Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change broadly welcomed such an agreement when Mbeki first proposed it in June, provided that it established a transitional administration with a focus on writing a new constitution and holding fresh elections within two years. However, the MDC is hesitant to endorse a blanket amnesty for leaders of the ruling ZANU PF who have overseen a bloody campaign of murder, abduction, rape and beatings against opposition supporters in recent months.

Mbeki’s aides have talked up the negotiations, suggesting that Mugabe also broadly agrees with the terms of the deal. But there remain serious doubts over whether Mugabe and the hardline ZANU PF leaders around him who pursued their campaign to break support for the opposition in the June presidential run-off would give it all away at the negotiating table. Sources close to the talks say that ZANU PF is insisting on Mugabe retaining many of his powers as president and on Tsvangirai, as prime minister, being forced to appoint a deputy prime minister from ZANU PF. A likely candidate for the post is Emmerson Mnangagwa, the head of the Joint Operations Command who is widely regarded as an architect of the terror campaign against voters. A greater stake in government would not only permit senior ZANU PF officials to maintain the considerable patronage they wield but offer protection from prosecution for their crimes, recent and distant. Mnangagwa, for instance, is not only vulnerable to prosecution over the state-orchestrated campaign against the MDC and its supporters but also as state security minister during the Matabeleland massacres of about 20,000 people by the army in the 1980s. ZANU PF also wants a powersharing deal to be kept in place for five years, putting off elections that are likely to see the party devastated if there is a clean vote. Senior MDC officials suspect that Mugabe is trying to buy time in the hope that Tsvangirai will pull out of the talks and be blamed for their collapse.

(Source)

Leading members of President Robert Mugabe’s regime and their business allies are transferring tens of millions of US dollars out of Zimbabwe to safe havens to avoid the threat of tightening sanctions and the possibility of financial scrutiny by a power-sharing government.

Almost all of these transactions are illegal under Zimbabwe’s foreign exchange laws and Africa Confidential has seen bank documents that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono has violated the monetary rules he claims to enforce.

This capital flight drives inflation ­ now officially reckoned at 2.2 million per cent ­ and is set to overtake the previous world inflation champions Brazil, Argentina and Peru within the next three months.

Draining the coffers

Most of the politicians and businesses taking out the money use established Western banks and insurance companies to make the transfers. They take advantage of the fact that several big financial institutions quote their shares on the Stock Exchange in Harare, as well as those in Johannesburg and London. The money is drained out of Zimbabwe to either Britain or South Africa with minimal institutional scrutiny, after which it is transferred to even safer, offshore jurisdictions or to financial centres in East Asia.

Within the region the favoured destinations are Namibia and South Africa, where the ruling elite have invested heavily in property, usually registered in the names of their spouses or children. As opinion on the legitimacy of President Mugabe’s regime changes in the Southern African Development Community (Botswana has called on the African Union to deny recognition), we hear that senior members of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front now prefer to move their money to financial institutions in Malaysia and China through large trading companies or multinational banks.

It is this outflow of capital that is more than anything else destroying Zimbabwe’s economy. Zimbabwe’s capital exporters have intensified their operations as political and economic conditions have deteriorated, promoting a cycle of decline. James Makamba, a ZANU PF Central Committee member, held accounts in Egypt, and former ZANU PF Guruve North member of parliament David Butau fled to Britain after externalising money into his HSBC Bank Channel Islands account.

Chris Kuruneri, a former Finance Minister forced out by Gono, was imprisoned for nearly two years on allegations of foreign currency externalisation in South Africa. But political uncertainty has seen a proliferation in overseas accounts as ZANU PF officials seek to secure their financial future ­ many in league with domestic companies.

Several companies have extended the government US dollar lines of credit, which the government has used to meet external debts and some current expenditure. In return, they are given shares for dual-listed companies that they can sell abroad for foreign exchange. These include Cargill Zimbabwe, a local subsidiary of the United States agriculture giant, African Banking Corporation (ABC) ­ chaired by top ZANU PF businessman Oliver Chidawu and in which the World Bank affiliate International Finance Corporation has a 10% shareholding; Mettalon Gold, owned by South Africa’s Mzi Khumalo and touted for a London listing; and Vulya Investments. All the companies were given Old Mutual shares as security, which they were allowed to sell outside Zimbabwe after the RBZ failed to pay back loans.

Approval for the disposal of Old Mutual shares by ABC was given last year for loans extended in 2006 and 2007, part of which was used to pay International Monetary Fund dues. The other three companies sold shares with RBZ permission between January and June this year. The disposal of Old Mutual shares in London and/or South Africa is usually done with the approval of Gideon Gono to raise foreign currency to redeem the loans.

Another company involved in externalisation is Remo Investment Brokers, owned by India’s M.I. Mohammed. One RBZ official told AC that RIB has moved some 8 mn. Old Mutual shares to London on instruction from Gono this year alone.

Gono moves the foreign exchange into offshore accounts, using the proceeds to buy fuel. He has also purchased some of the state’s farm machinery under the farm mechanisation programme through the selling of Old Mutual shares.

New channels

As Britain pushes for tougher European Union sanctions, ZANU PF apparatchiks are setting up new routes through Malaysia. Central to this new arrangement is Mugabe business ally Enoch Kamushinda, who has been living in Malaysia since 2004. Kamushinda recently sold 60% of his shareholding in Metropolitan Bank to the wholly respectable Nairobi-based Loita Capital Partner International. This allowed Kamushinda to open his financial investment firm in Kuala Lumpur ­ where Mugabe holidayed earlier this year. He also which advises the President on his business portfolio.

There are several other companies involved. We hear, former Army Chief General Solomon Mujuru uses a British-registered company to move money through Parlovan Investments, a Harare-based money transfer agency he controls.

Some of these cash exporting businesses are led by high profile foreigners such Nicholas van Hoogstraten. In other cases, the foreigners take on a purely functional role as accountants, private bankers or lawyers. London-based barristers David Oliver QC and Benjamin Shaw ­ instructed by Reed Smith­ are working for a nominee-company representing President Mugabe’s government in Britain, but they are acting entirely within the British law.

Earlier this month, a judge granted AMG Global Nominees an appeal hearing for 3 November in its long-running fight to take control of the London-listed Africa Resources Limited (ARL) and its asbestos mines, owned by Zimbabwean businessman Mutumwa Mawere (AC Vol 49 No 12).

An article on 27 June in Zimbabwe’s daily state mouthpiece The Herald let slip that AMG Global Nominees ‘represents Government [sic] interests’. AMG Administrator Afaras Gwaradzimba, appointed by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, said in an interview that AMG had received ‘US$2 million from the Reserve Bank’ in a bid to force Mawere to divest control in ARL. Charles Hewetson, a partner at Reed Smith, told AC that Gwaradzimba was independently appointed and the government’s relationship with AMG was as a creditor to the asbestos mines.

Comments

Author: greenbomber

Whoever wrote this article is clearly ill informed. He mentions people like David Butau, James Makamba and Chris Kuruneri who apparently has since been cleared of any wrongdoing,for being the ZANU PF bigwigs who are transferring money to offshore accounts. These are the same people that Britain has decided to give political asylum and yet the fist two are fugitives on the run and secondly have embezzled money from the state. Also it makes no sense to say that Britain is allowing these kind of transactions to go through their banks considering that they have clearly stated that they shall embark on an asset freeze on accounts and properties supposedly owned by the ZANU PF bigwigs. Also if these people are using other associates to carry out these transfers and you people have incriminating evidence why not just do it. Either all these are pathetic lies or clearly Britain and her sister states are displaying double standards/formulating a lie which does not exist.

Furthermore it also does not make sense for someone to move their monies to offshore accounts from Zimbabwe considering that the mighty Britain have been mulling for economic sanctions to freeze assets owned by ZANU PF guys. The only safe haven would be the one in Zimbabwe considering that they have their top man in GIDEON GONO. The writer should try critique is article and next time stop writing all this hogwash to feed the gullible.

Author: the west

Cleared of any wrong doing by whom? Ones that are paid off by the wrong doing people! Do not believe for a second that they stole the money and all is right because someone being paid 10000000 times more than most said it is fine. The Mugabe and regime have more corruption than just about anyone in the world whether private or public. Mugabe and regime has raped Zimbabwe of money and only the stupidest person would thin otherwise. Mugabe and regime has made the colonial raping of everything seem likes kids play. Mugabe uses colonialism to make what he and regime some how look like its ok to rape and plunder your own people.

It would take a very, very stupid person to think Mugabe and regime are doing anything but stealing from Zimbabwe and laughing at the real Zimbabwe people suffering in Zimbabwe!

As Mugabe is so old the ones that will pay for his crimes for eternity are his children. Like Zimbabwe he does not even care for his own children or children’s children or he will know they are the ones that will suffer big time in the future! Oh let me guess, he does not have children, so he is a waste of space in this world and does not do what we humans are born to do and have children to expand on our own knowledge and push the world forward to a greater good!

(Source)

Howzit

Well, they said at the hospital that they would consider discharging B today, but given that they have ordered a scan this morning, I can’t see it happening.

And with me going out and coming in every day I have somehow managed to pick up the ‘flu as well. What an unhappy little household!I have an appointment later this morning on the other side of town, so will possibly come back to this later on…

-o00o-

Am I meant to act surprised at this story? Seeing as they very nearly killed him not so long ago, I will not feign any surprise at all!

“Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai tops a fresh hit list of 300 opposition and civic activists drawn up by state security commanders for arrest and torture in a drive to weaken the opposition ahead of next year’s election.

The list, whose disclosure comes as President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday vowed to intensify a brutal crackdown against the opposition, was drawn up by the Joint Operations Command (JOC) at a meeting on the 5th of April in Harare.”

If you are not a member of ZANU PF and you were to plan and organise an operation like this against the ruling party, no doubt you would be arrested, tortured, charged and convicted - and the charge would probably be treason or terrorism… But if the state plans this sort of thing, it is acceptable. I say acceptable - and in that I mean to them and they do not attribute any blame or culpability with that.

In other words, do as I say, not as I do…

“The list, a copy of which was shown to ZimOnline, says police sent to break up opposition rallies and protests should aim to shoot the 10 leading figures on the hit list. But it does not say specifically whether the police should shoot to kill or merely to inflict injury.”

I think it is a safe assumption that the order will be to shoot to kill. I say this because not so long ago it was stated by Didymus Mutasa, Mugabe’s Minister of Threats, that the police and army would shoot to kill any protesters.

“Those in the top 10 of the hit list in their order include Tsvangirai, spokesman of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party Nelson Chamisa, Bulawayo-based Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary general Wellington Cibhebhe and Tsvangirai’s deputy Thokozani Khupe.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe Raymand Majongwe, women activists Grace Kwinjeh and Jenni Williams and St Mary’s legislator Job Sikhala are also in the top 10.”

Do you notice one name that is conspicuous in it’s absence?

Have another look… I will give you a clue:

“Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena dismissed the existence of a hit list, saying the law enforcement agency only arrested people suspected of committing crime and who would have to be be taken to court.

He said: “We do not work on hit lists, we are not a mafia gang that eliminates people. We only arrest criminals that we later send on to the courts where they are tried according to the legal statutes of this country.”

Amazing how they run and hide behind the law when it suits them, but will openly ignore the law when they want to. High Court orders are ignored, human rights are abused, people are abducted - even from their hospital beds - and others are tortured, beaten and harrassed as ZANU PF orders.

-o00o-

“President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday repeated threats against the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, adding that the opposition party was fomenting violence to unseat him from power.

In an address to mark Zimbabwe’s 27th anniversary of independence at Rufaro Stadium in Harare, a fired up Mugabe told about 30000 cheering supporters that he will never cede power to the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.”

Is this a suggestion that ZANU PF will never admit defeat through the ballot box, or is it an admission that the ballot box is already rigged?

“As government, our message remains clear that we will never hesitate to deal firmly with those elements who are bent on fomenting anarchy,” Mugabe told the crowd.”

But if you were to look at the cases of violence that have taken place, just in the last two months, you will see that the violence starts in the ruling party, is preached by the ruling party big-wigs and practised in the streets by the police, youth militia, war veterans and any other people that ZANU PF can muster.

And here’s the biggest lie of all…

“I won fairly and the MDC should accept it. SADC (Southern African Development Community) endorsed the elections. Who is Blair (British Premier Tony) and Bush (US President George W) to decide who rules Zimbabwe?” said Mugabe.”

The point being that Mugabe’s Supreme Court ruled years ago that Tsvangirai had won the election and that Mugabe was in power illegally, but then stopped short of ordering Mugabe out of office, saying instead that he had already started the term and should be allowed to finish it!

Mugabe asks how can Blair of Bush decide who rules Zimbabwe? How can Mugabe decide who rules Zimbabwe? The ballot boxes are rigged, the voter roll has been tampered with and many people are excluded from voting, while thousands of dead and non-existent people vote - for ZANU PF.

Mugabe insists on choosing who rules Zimbabwe, and he says to the rest of the world: “I chose me!”

“At a time when they should be coming up with ideas that can develop the nation, they are busy concentrating on saying Mugabe must go. Ndino nambuya vangu Nehanda (I swear with my ancestral spirits) that will never happen. I will not allow Tsvangirai and his bosses, to taste this seat. Never, ever,” said Mugabe.”

-o00o-

Further reports on Mugabe’s rantings yesterday.

“Addressing a rally to mark Zimbabwe’s 27th independence anniversary, Mugabe said he would never cede power to opposition figures he has branded stooges of Western powers bent on undermining his black nationalist government.

“As government, our message remains clear that we will never hesitate to deal firmly with those elements who are bent on fomenting anarchy,” he told some 30,000 cheering supporters at a Harare stadium.

A mounting economic and political crisis left many Zimbabweans in no mood for celebration on Wednesday, with many saying the country was in its worst shape ever.

But Mugabe – who denies he is holding on to power through violence and vote rigging – said people had reason celebrate “successive victories over British-sponsored negative forces, however organised.”

Zimbabwe had resisted attempts to reverse the government’s nationalist land and black empowerment policies through the opposition’s British-sponsored “regime change agenda”, he said.”

Mugabe has it in his head that he is a big fish in a small ocean, and that the likes of Blair and Bush are intent of facilitating regime change in Zimbabwe and re-colonising the country… or some such rubbish like that.

I hate to inform him, but Zimbabwe is VERY low down on the order of things. Very low down indeed. So low that it doesn’t even come up for air.

Nobody in the free world is remotely interested. The country has been ruined by Mugabe and his government. Who would want it now anyway?

“Mugabe said he had no problem with a “legal, home-grown, peaceful and constructive political opposition,” but said chief opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai – who says he was cheated of victory in presidential polls in 2002 – was a “pathetic puppet” of Britain and the United States.

“I swear by our forefathers, I will never concede power to such people,” he said.”

-o00o-

You might recall the asylum seeker here in Derby who has been told that he must return to Zimbabwe that I wrote about a week or so ago…

“An asylum seeker who fears he will be murdered if he has to return to is native Zimbabwe has met Derby South MP and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.

The Evening Telegraph has previously reported how Khumbula Dube’s application for asylum was refused by the Home Office.

But he fears he will be attacked if sent home because of his outspoken views against the regime of the country’s president, Robert Mugabe.”

When these cases are considered, do they just look at the evidence supplied by the applicant, or do they also look at the political climate in Zimbabwe?

I am only interested as these cases, when we hear of them, seem to be handled very badly - and many good people or returned to the country they fled - assumably to spend years either in prison or on the run.

-o00o-

“Zimbabwe is likely to go to the polls much earlier than March next year amid reports the ruling ZANU (PF) party is considering bringing the election calendar forward because of the fast deteriorating economic situation which is likely to militate against President Robert Mugabe’s re-election.Mugabe’s term expires on March 31 and constitutionally he is supposed to hold an election within 90 days prior to that date.”

I don’t think that the actual date of the elections is altogether too important - as long as the registration of the candidates is done correctly and in good time I don’t see a problem. Of course, Mugabe’s little helpers will endeavour to thrown obstacle after obstacle in front of any opposition, be it MDC or independents.

The MDC has to keep their ears to the ground to ensure that any flanking move by the ruling party is known about early and countered as soon as possible…

“Mugabe is now almost certain he will be opposed by Morgan Tsvangirai, the charismatic veteran trade unionist at the helm of the bigger wing of the MDC.”

-o00o-

“The ZANU (PF) government will soon embark on an exercise of dishing out land to peasants in impoverished communal areas as part of an election campaign, this paper has established. The party leadership recently discussed its campaign plans for next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections and came up with the land strategy to lure the electorate. Sources within the ruling party revealed to The Zimbabwean this week that minister responsible for land reform, Didymus Mutasa, would soon announce a new wave of resettlement.”

For 7 years the ZANU PF government has been taking farms away from the commercial farming sector and have been giving the prime, choice lands to their members and allies.

Now that there is an election on the horizon, they suddenly decide that the time is right to give land to the ‘peasants’ - and the land that they give is useless, and there are so many threats attached to the ‘gift’ that no self-respecting farmer would want it!

“Government has recently revived land seizures from the few remaining white farmers and the sources said that trend was expected to continue in order to make farms available for the campaigning exercise. “The land reform programme is ongoing and what is wrong with government giving land to peasants, that is the essence of the programme?” Mutasa said.”

Yep - it’s all in the timing…

And what thought has been given to those no without shelter because of Operation Murambatsvina? Oh. sorry - that’s right - they are deemed to be sympathetic to the MDC - that way they can be ignored and not be on the agenda for rehousing, land distribution…

-o00o-

 Take care

 ’debvhu