Monday, 30th August 2010

Howzit

Foreign currency mid-rates updated.

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Today is the August bank holiday in England. The weather isn't bad, although there is a chilly breeze blowing. I am unsure whether the holiday has anything to do with the decided lack of any news on Zimbabwe on the internet, but we'll have a go nonetheless.

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Yesterday, despite the rejection of appeals for him to be declared a national hero, Gibson Sibanda of the MDC was laid to rest in Filabusi in a State-assisted funeral. There is quite a bit of disappointment within the MDC at the refusal by Mugabe to even consider Sibanda for the honour.

Mugabe has managed to add to the huge rift between his ZANU PF party and the MDC by refusing to consider Sibanda as a hero, whilst at the same time giving hero status to his own wife's brother...

"Hundreds of Zimbabweans from all walks of life yesterday thronged Filabusi’s Silalatshani to bury the co-founder of the Movement for Democratic Change Gibson Sibanda.

Mr Sibanda died last week after succumbing to cancer at Mater Dei Hospital here.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai described Mr Sibanda, who was accorded a State-assisted funeral, as a man of principles.

He said he was the first to form MDC, but appointed him (Tsvangirai) to lead the party, which he said many people could not do.

He said Mr Sibanda was a "national hero", whose works speak for themselves.

Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, who is also MDC president, said the late Mr Sibanda was a leader who created other leaders and not followers.

He said he did not count the number of people who were following him, but was there to mould other leaders and went on to cite himself, VP Nkomo, PM Tsvangirai, Dr Lovemore Madhuku, Wellington Chibebe as some of the leaders who were moulded by Mr Sibanda to be respectable leaders."

Why would Mutambara be listed as "MDC President"? Of his own faction maybe, but certainly not the MDC as a whole...

I was also a little surprised to read that ZANU PF's John Nkomo was at the funeral and was given the floor. ZANU PF decided not to confer the late Gibson Sibanda with the national hero status, but they send a senior emissary? Smacks of hypocrisy, I think.

"Vice President John Nkomo described Mr Sibanda as a gift to the nation "who wanted people of this country to live in peace and tranquillity".

"His sentence was always if you look for peace it should start with me, then you and all of us. He always said if it was going to be an eye for an eye Zimbabwe would be blind. Gibson was a gift to his family and the nation as a whole," said VP Nkomo.

He said people should carry on Mr Sibanda’s legacy.

"He was committed to national healing. When in Government we brainstormed together with him and (Mrs) Sekai Holland and all of us agreed that for national healing to be there, we should first build one big bridge of working together. Gibson’s word was never again in the life of Zimbabwe that we find ourselves fighting each other," he said."

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Mugabe is only comfortable when he is surrounded by military types. He did the same during the chimurenga, and has increasingly done the same in the thirty years that he has 'led' Zimbabwe.

Much of the threat behind Mugabe's rule has been a relected threat of the people who back him and hold influential positions in the 'unity' government.

"The appointment of serving and retired soldiers to various committees to oversee implementation of Zimbabwe’s controversial company ownership law has once again exposed President Robert Mugabe’s determination to establish a de facto military state amid fears that the indigenisation scheme is another facade to enrich ZANU PF cronies.

Top military officials and other Mugabe allies dominated committees recently announced by Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere to help the government set percentages of shareholding foreign-owned companies in different sectors of the economy must transfer to locals. The decision to set varying empowerment thresholds for each sector was adopted about two months ago, in a major shift from an earlier requirement that foreign firms cede 51 percent shareholding to local blacks."

It has got to the stage in Zimbabwean politics where, if you looked up the words 'indigenous empowerment' in the dictionary, you would probably find a ZANU PF emblem next to the definition.

Mugabe is not looking at empowering the local blacks - but he is only interested in 'empowering' the violent and unruly ZANU PF members and their supporters.

Mugabe believes that this is their entitlement for 'liberating' Zimbabwe through the barrel of a gun, swiftly supported by international interference in the political 'settlement'.

The problem, for Mugabe, is that the legacy he leaves is one of destruction, violence, intimidation - and almost a 'scorched earth' policy. Zimbabwe has much, much less to offer its people today than it did at independence over thirty years ago. Mugabe may deny responsibility for the situation, but we know what has caused it, what sustains it, and what future it holds for a people who are now tired of the bickering, the arguing, the back biting and stabbing...

"In a move that has become all too familiar in Zimbabwe since 2000, Mugabe appointed retired army officers Gibson Mashingaidze and Mike Karakadzai to sit on some of the committees that will determine how much foreign shareholders will be required to transfer to locals. Other pro-Mugabe supporters appointed to the committees included the acerbuc presidential spokesman George Chiramba, Affirmative Action Group President Supa Mandiwanzira and controversial Zimbabwe Tourism Authority boss Karikoga Kaseke.

But it is the appointment of the retired army officers that raised eyebrows. Both men - together with another retired army officer Brigadier-General Douglas Nyaikaramba - appear to feature prominently in Mugabe's militarisation scheme.

Mashingaidze is the current head of the Zimbabwe Sports and Recreation Commission and sits on the board of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation."

Tell me what a career soldier knows about indigenisation, sports, recreation or broadcasting? This is Mugabe loading the commissions with people that he knows will protect his and his party's interests. The need for him to fill these positions with former soldiers is his way of ensuring that any resistance to the move will result in serious consequences, laced with the obligatory threats from former security personnel.

Mugabe no longer even bothers to do this sort of thing behind closed doors or under cover of darkness. His duplicity is as public as it is arrogant..

More worryingly, he even has former armed personnel heading up the food distribution programme, ensuring that pro-ZANU PF people will get food, whilst those that support or are members of any other party are left the fend for themselves.

This is not the work of a world leader, but a bitter and twisted despot.

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Mugabe is a master of applying pressure wherever he wishes - and he has no want or need for a constitution that serves the people better than it serves him and his party. So he states this openly, knowing that there isn't a lot the MDC or any other body can do about it.

For the MDC to threaten a 'no vote' stance will only encourage Mugabe to follow through.

Who is going to come to the rescue of the Zimbabwean people? SADC? The AU? The UN?

What a joke!

"MDC-T has threatened a "No Vote" campaign if the proposed constitution does not reflect the will of the people.

The party also blamed SADC for not being tough on ZANU PF in addressing outstanding issues in the implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

Party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa told hundreds of party supporters at a rally in Chitungwiza Sunday that MDC-T was not happy with the ongoing process, citing intimidation and violence against villagers in most parts of the country.

Chamisa said the Constitution Select Committee (COPAC)’s handling of information dissemination and the state media’s treatment of the constitution-making process were a cause for concern.

"We are not happy with COPAC's information dissemination and the public media’s blackout of this important process," Chamisa said."

It would be a carbon copy of the effect of the second round of the Presidential election in 2008 if the MDC-T were to fold at the intimidation by ZANU PF. They don't vote and Mugabe has his own way...

Tried and tested. Done and dusted.

"Elections have to come after the necessary reform processes that include the drafting of a new constitution. We are expecting a constitution, but we are not happy with the way things are being handled. If the new constitution does not reflect the will of the people, we will reject it. We will only accept constitutions that reflect the will of the people."

"There are things we agreed on with ZANU PF that are not being implemented. There are issues we are not in agreement with at all that include Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana. We are not against them as individuals but how they were imposed on those positions without consultations in the inclusive government," Chamisa said.

“There is also the issue of the swearing-in of Roy Bennett as Deputy Minister of Agriculture and the continuation of unilateral decisions by ZANU PF in appointing public figures."

Mugabe lives by the maxim that 'resistance is futile' and will standby whatever is best for his party - not for the people of Zimbabwe.

"MDC-T has joined other groups that have threatened a "No Vote" campaign. The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and the Zimbabwe National Students Union have already concluded that the process was flawed and have threatened to lead a "No Vote" campaign against an outcome that does reflect people's wishes."

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"Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said President Robert Mugabe is lying that principals have agreed to only get MDC governors sworn in only after western sanctions are removed.

Mugabe told his ZANU PF party central committee in the capital Harare last week that Prime Minister Tsvangirai must call for the removal of a western travel ban and asset freeze of the 86-year-old leader and his inner circle, only then can five MDC governors be sworn in in line with the global political agreement. Tsvangirai told party supporters at the launch of of a new MDC card Friday that the principals in the GNU had agreed to a formula for the allocation of the governors based on the results of the election.

"It is for this reasons that the MDC was awarded five governors as a reflection of our mandate from the people," Tsvangirai."

Mugabe loves to dangle the carrot and as soon as his quarry takes the bait he is happy to beat them with the proverbial stick.

Very little in the cross-party negotiations by ZANU PF is genuine, honest or without duplicity.

For Mugabe, possession is 90% of the law - accordingly to ZANU PF thing at any rate...

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As was the case yesterday, much of the news on the internet is either repetitive or of no real importance. That being the case, I will wind up this posting here.

Take care.

'debvhu