• Discussions on the critical South African negotiators’ report aimed at moving Zimbabwe out of the current political deadlock were again put on the backburner pending Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara’s return from Ghana.

• Mediation by the South African facilitation team under President Jacob Zuma’s leadership is dependent on the principals discussing their negotiators’ report, compiled in April.

• Police arrived at the home of Iain Kay, Marondera Central MP with a search warrant for items including cocaine, smuggled goods and unlicenced firearms, as well as unregistered and expired drugs. The medicines in his possession were confiscated and he was detained at Harare Central Police station, although the church which donated the medicines has all the necessary clearance and documentation. Kay, who has previously been held on trumped up charges, was granted bail of US$500 Tuesday and had to surrender his passport.

• Zimbabwe’s political climate has not changed significantly for the international community to remove targeted sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party top brass, the Zimbabwe Europe Network (ZEN) has said.

Governance

• The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is being investigated by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) for allegedly importing 75 vehicles without paying duty. Some of the unmarked vehicles, imported through Imperial Motors, were allegedly used in Zanu PF’s terror campaign during the 2008 elections.

• Imperial Motors is a supplier of vehicles to government departments including State House, the President’s Office, the army, police and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Media

• NewsDay, the first independent daily newspaper to hit the streets since authorities forced the Daily News to close in 2003, was officially launched Monday by Alpha Media. This milestone was marred Friday when police detained staff, vendors and a truck laden with promotional copies. They were released three hours later.

• Workers at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) are said to be threatening strike action after accusing management of looting licence fees and splashing out on luxury cars, while failing to pay salaries on time.

Economy

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is considering introducing a staff-monitored programme (MTP) for Zimbabwe as it warns of “debt distress”. Zimbabwe is burdened with arrears of more than US$4.5 billion.

• The MDC expressed concern regarding the continued power cuts that have virtually brought business to a standstill across the country. It said the disruptions by ZESA were a threat to industry and that the load-shedding schedules were shambolic.

Business

• Indigenisation and property rights issues have become the centre of Zimbabwe and Botswana’s Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) negotiations that are supposed to result in a deal by year-end. Negotiations between the two countries stalled seven years ago following concern over Zimbabwe’s land reform programme. The Botswana government and investors are seeking clarity on the controversial indigenisation regulations.

• Attorney-General Johannes Tomana said last week that Zimbabwe’s top business moguls, Mutumwa Mawere, James Makamba and John Moxon, could still faced arrest upon returning home even after they were despecified by authorities. He said the despecification did not absolve them of charges that could still arise from allegations of externalisation of foreign currency and defrauding government.

• Kingdom Bank founder Nigel Chanakira has failed to pay US$22,5 million to Meikles Ltd in order to finalise the demerger of Kingdom Meikles Africa Ltd, prolonging one of the most bitterly fought corporate fights, a top Meikles Ltd official last week. As a result, KFHL would remain a “subsidiary” of Meikles Ltd.

• Zambezi Airlines have introduced an airline in Zimbabwe to fly the Harare- Johannesburg route, the airline said Friday.

Mining/Diamonds

• Kimberley Process (KP) Civil Society Coalition and the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) on Friday demanded the release of diamond activist, Farai Magawu, director of the Centre for Research and Development (CRD), who was forced into hiding and then arrested by police Thursday.

• The groups also demanded that KP monitor for Zimbabwe Abbey Chikane suspend all monitoring activities in the country until the government can re-assure diamond activists that their work will be carried out without any hindrance.

• Chikane told journalists in Harare after meeting Parliamentarians on 27 May: “Zimbabwe is on track to meet the KP requirements. I am yet to produce my report to the KP in which I will make the recommendations for it (Zimbabwe) to start trading in rough diamonds.”

• The police raid on CRD’s office followed Farai Maguwu’s meeting with Chikane, and CRD’s announcement that 2 000 carats per day were being smuggled from the Marange fields.

• A leaked document compiled by the police for Joint Operations Command (JOC) is also said to be behind the crackdown on the CRD, the most important civil society organisation monitoring human rights abuses at the diamond fields.

• On Monday, a Mutare Magistrate freed Maguwu’s younger brother, Lisben, on US$20 bail. Lisben had been charged with obstructing the course of justice after he allegedly tried to prevent the police from arresting his brother. Lisben was remanded out of custody to June 14.

• Rio Tinto’s diamond unit in Zimbabwe says it has begun work on a US$300m expansion programme to raise output six-fold. Neils Kristensen, head of Murowa, the 300,000-carat-per-year diamond mine in southern Zimbabwe, said at a weekend mining conference the firm had begun preparatory work for the planned expansion.

• President Robert Mugabe told the conference Friday his government would not expropriate mines and said he realised the need to promote the industry’s growth when applying the law.

• Murowa is also talking to government about the state’s decision last week to ban diamond sales, including from Murowa, until diamonds from the controversial Marange fields are certified by global industry regulators.

• Aim-listed resources investment company Sable Mining said Tuesday it would acquire an 80 percent interest in Monaf Investments, which holds the Lubu coal concession in the Bulawayo mining district.

• Parliamentary mines committee member Moses Mare said workers at Shabanie Mashaba Mines have not been paid in more than a year although managers receive hefty salaries while the mining operation – seized several years ago from businessman Mutumwa Mawere – grinds to a halt.

• Reports indicate some of the mine shafts have been flooded with water, submerging machinery worth billions. Zimbabwe’s formal mining sector employs some 45,000, contributes around 50 percent of exports, and comprises nearly 20 percent of GDP.

Land/Agribusiness

• Charles Taffs, the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) Vice President said last week that the eviction of white farmers and their workers had intensified over the past 10 days, further threatening Zimbabwe’s fragile food security.

• He warned that Zimbabwe will produce less than 10,000 tonnes of wheat –a third of national requirements — because of lack of security of tenure caused by evictions and electricity blackouts.

• Aid agency officials report that Zimbabwe is appealing for about a million tons of food aid this year.

• Last week in Matabeleland North, police went to Felton farm, broke into the house where Inyathi farmer Mike Huckle’s staff live and told them they had one hour to vacate the farm. Huckle, a South African resident, is theoretically protected by the recently ratified bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPPA).

• Also last week, police and four impatient beneficiaries switched off the electricity on Highfields Farm in the Nyamandhlovu district, cutting off water for thousands of chickens, hundreds of head of cattle and sheep in pens, the vast majority of them belonging to settlers. Additionally 35 settler homesteads were also rendered waterless. The SPCA was called in to assist.

• Evicted Shamva farmers Gary and Jane Sharp won a court case Wednesday allowing them to return to their farm to collect their belongings. However, as Mrs Sharp walked out of the court she was forced into a police van and held at Shamva police station overnight.

• Last week a group of between 30 and 50 Zanu PF youths spent the day trashing and looting the homestead of Mrs Helen Newmarch, a widow who owns a small farm close to Marondera.

• The SADC Tribunal in Windhoek sat again on Tuesday 1 June to consider an application to hold the Government of Zimbabwe in contempt of the SADC Tribunal and to obtain an order to refer the “matter” urgently to the SADC Summit. The Zimbabwean government boycotted the hearing and judgement was reserved.

• The power-sharing government has delayed an audit of the country’s controversial land reforms due to funding problems, Lands Minister Herbert Murerwa said Thursday.

• Zimbabwe’s sugar output fell 13 percent to 259,000 tonnes during the season ended March 2010 due to low cane yields caused by the limited and delayed application of fertilisers and herbicides. Sugar production has remained below 300,000 tonnes for the past decade following the disruption of commercial agriculture.

New Constitution

• Reports have been received country-wide that Zanu PF has stepped up its intimidation tactics ahead of the constitution making process scheduled for next month.

• Last week a high-level undercover delegation was sent into Epworth, a Harare shantytown, by the Union for Sustainable Democracy. The delegation was shocked by repeated accounts of how Zanu PF thugs are threatening to mete out violence on anyone who defies their formula for the constitution-making process.

Elections

• President Mugabe has lost the confidence of women, according to a recent poll that projects he will win only 9 per cent of their votes in a future election.

• The poll, conducted by the International Centre for Transitional Justice, IDASA, the Research and Advocacy Unit and the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe, predicts that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai would win 51 percent and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara just 3 percent.

• Speaking in the Ghanaian capital Accra where he was attending a Ghana-Zimbabwe business summit, Mutambara said his country would not rush into holding fresh elections, contradicting indications by his coalition partners that the next ballot would be held in 2011.

• Interviewed last week, Tsvangirai said elections would be held after the constitutional reform process. “You cannot talk about a date for the elections when the constitutional reform process has not been carried out,” he stressed.

• The MDC-T MP for Mabvuku/Tafara, Shepherd Madamombe, has died, bringing to 15 the number of vacant Senate and House of Assembly seats. The constitution requires that a by-election be held within 90 days of a parliamentary seat falling vacant, but shortages of money and a gentlemen’s agreement by coalition government parties have resulted in a moratorium on by-elections.

Political Violence

• UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston last week said countries with a track record of election violence should draw up plans for dealing with future violence, including creating non-partisan taskforces to probe murders and other poll-related crimes. Zimbabwe was one of eight countries named.

• Human rights violations rose five percent in April, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) reports: 959 cases were recorded compared to the 908 for March. The abuses included assault, intimidation, unlawful detention, harassment, torture and murder.

• Female Zanu PF youths who were trained to terrorise suspected MDC supporters in the run up to 2008 presidential elections are once again threatening MDC supporters and activists who survived their brutal beatings.

• Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe reports that outbreaks of violence targeted against vulnerable victims of political violence across the country has reached intolerable levels. ROHR has expressed outrage at attempts by the Ministry of Home Affairs to ban peaceful protests calling for an end to Zanu PF led violence.

• The MDC has published additional names of perpetrators of violence on their ‘roll of shame’ list, including a colonel in the army who is accused of leading Zanu PF youths in murdering and raping MDC activists in the Buhera district.

Legal

• One of Africa’s largest banks, Standard Bank, was right to close the accounts of John Bredenkamp, one of Zimbabwe’s richest businessmen, because of his links to President Mugabe, South Africa’s Supreme Court has ruled.

• Freelance journalist Stanley Gama last week appeared in court, together with four other journalists from The Standard newspaper, as state witnesses in the criminal defamation case against the Harare Mayor and eight councillors. The Mayor and councillors are alleged to have defamed businessman Philip Chiyangwa when a 54-page report compiled by the council accused Chiyangwa of corruption.

• Former legislator Abednico Bhebhe has dragged the country’s co-Home Affairs Ministers to court after police in Nkayi district barred him from holding a campaign rally in his former constituency Wednesday.

Health

• By the end of Day 7 of the World Health Organisation’s Measles Immunisation and Child Health Days Campaign for 2010, a total of 3,580,441 children had received measles vaccination and 1,219,419 had been given vitamin supplements.

• Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr Henry Madzorera has dismissed reports that health institutions are dispensing expired malaria drugs and rapid diagnostic kits.

Education

• Tensions between students and college authorities countrywide are running high over exorbitant tuition and exam fees, which students say they cannot afford to pay. With those too poor blocked from writing exams, clashes are being reported at different colleges and universities.

Wildlife

• As Lake Kariba rises after record seasonal rains in central Africa, animals are being stranded on an island that has shrunk to about one-third of its original size.

• At least 200 animals are in immediate danger of starvation and funds are being raised by conservationists, including the SAVE Foundation of Australia, to take hay bales and food blocks to those which remain on the island.

Sport

• More than 50,000 jubilant fans packed the National Sports stadium in Harare Wednesday to watch five times world champions Brazil take on the Warriors. Brazil beat Zimbabwe 3-0 in this warm-up match ahead of the World Cup which begins in South Africa on June 11.

• Cara Black was knocked out in the third round of the women’s doubles at the French Tennis Open, the first time the Zimbabwean has failed to make into the quarter finals of the grand slam event since 2005.

The Good News

• Operation Hope, a solution to combat one of the major causes of climate change, has been named the winner of the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. At its core the organisation’s winning strategy transforms parched and degraded Zimbabwe grasslands and savannahs into lush pastures with ponds and flowing streams, even during periods of drought. Operation Hope was awarded US$100,000 to further develop its work at a ceremony last week in Washington DC.

• The three principals in the Harare coalition government have still to meet to discuss the final report on the GPA submitted by South Africa’s SADC-mandated facilitation team last month. Team leader Lindiwe Zulu said, “It is our hope that they meet soon to accept our final report, work on the recommendations of the report and indicate what they intend to do on the outstanding issues (in the GPA).”

• After an emergency council meeting at the weekend, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called for an immediate SADC summit to resolve outstanding issues and the stalling by Zanu PF on the GPA, together with a “road map to an election and guarantees to the legitimacy of this election.”

• The European Union and South African ministers’ dialogue meeting in Brussels issued an appeal to Zimbabwe’s political leaders to fully implement the GPA and resolve the disagreements holding back democratic reform in the country.

• US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Tsvangirai on Monday to discuss ways of aiding Zimbabwe and fostering democratic reform.

• Tsvangirai reiterated his party would not change its position on appointing Bennett to the cabinet.

• On Thursday, Zanu PF ministers boycotted the bi-weekly Council of Ministers, chaired by Tsvangirai and convened to assess implementation of cabinet decisions.

• MDC founding member Job Sikhala’s new party is to be controversially called the MDC-99, after the year the MDC was formed, bringing the number of MDC groupings to three. Sikhala’s platform is to ensure that perpetrators of political violence face justice.

• Zanu PF party mouthpiece Jonathan Moyo startled readers of the Sunday Mail by claiming that ‘compelling developments in our body politic point to the real possibility that even God may also be Zanu PF’.

Governance

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti stated that he will put a halt to excessive or unauthorised foreign travel by government ministers, which has drained the fiscus of some US$30 million over the last 6 months. He also indicated that the civil service audit to uncover ‘ghost’ workers was complete and would be released soon.

• President Mugabe left on a five-day trip to Teheran at the invitation of controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The G15 developing countries summit will also be attended by the Presidents of Algeria, Brazil, Senegal, Venezuela and Sri Lanka.

• Thousands of former National Youth Training Service recruits and Zanu PF youths, who were improperly recruited into the public service, thronged several banks in Harare this week demanding their salaries. The youths, who are illegally employed by the Ministry of Youth as Zanu PF ward, district or provincial youth officers, brought business to a virtual halt at some banks and nearby shops as they violently demanded their salaries.

• Zimbabwe will conduct its fourth population census in August 2012, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) has said. Commentators observe that this may reveal the true number of economic emigrants and younger citizens without ID documents inside Zimbabwe.

Economy

• According to the Reserve Bank, Zimbabwe’s total national debt as at March 31 was US$5,84 billion, up from US5,7 billion in January. US$5,3 billion is external while US$513 million represents domestic liabilities.

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti proposes that Zimbabwe should adopt Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief, so that resources can be spent on health, education and other social services. Zanu PF ministers say they will oppose the initiative.

• Zimbabwe’s Central Statistical Office reports that year-on-year inflation rose from 3.5 percent in March to 4.8 percent in April, although food prices showed signs of easing.

• The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority is considering a deal to sell some of its already inadequate capacity to its largest creditor, Eskom of South Africa, which needs extra supplies for winter heating during the Soccer World Cup period. 

• At a recent government briefing it was revealed that 99 percent of the National Railways of Zimbabwe’s rolling stock, track and equipment is past its design lifespan. The parastatal needs US$150 million to rehabilitate its commuter and freight services.

Business

• Telecel International will sell a 20 percent stake in its mobile subsidiary Telecel Zimbabwe to locals to comply with the country’s telecommunications regulations. Several Zanu PF party billionnaires, including Leo Mugabe, are vying for the shares.

• AGRIBANK has announced it will cut its branch network by 25 percent, closing ten branches and shedding jobs in a move to lower costs. CEO Sam Malaba said that the bank suffers from under-capitalisation.

• Delta Beverages attracted investors’ attention after publishing an impressive set of financials which showed volumes increasing 99.7 percent.  However, shortages of power and water are resulting in frequent shortages of beer and dry pubs around the country.

• Business interests in Matabeleland North have pledged support in terms of vehicles, fuel and funds to police in their province. The local police commissioner said that his force will be targeting thieves who steal unguarded national infrastructure such as copper telephone cables, electrical supply cables and National Railways of Zimbabwe cables and equipment.

• Software piracy is an epidemic in Zimbabwe, according to a report released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). Zimbabwe is ranked second worst offender worldwide with a score of 92% after Georgia (95%).  Unemployment in Zimbabwe is above 90 percent.

• The Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group (ZABG) is almost bankrupt, with potential liabilities of more than US$12 million due to alleged mismanagement of depositors’ funds and lavish spending on management perks.

Mining/Diamonds

• Chinese nationals with military links are being issued with permits by Zimbabwe National Army Commander Constantine Chiwenga to mine diamonds in Marange. In exchange, China is supplying the ZNA with military hardware like vehicles, guns and bomb materials.

• Mutare-based Centre for Research and Development (CRD) warns that around 2000 carats a day of Chiadzwa diamonds find their way to local and foreign illegal buyers, contravening the Kimberley Process.

• The Reserve Bank estimates that Chiadzwa diamonds ‘should provide over US$1 billion per month in revenue.’ If diamond revenue sales were harnessed for the benefit of the whole economy, GDP could jump from the 2008 level of US$3.2 billion to at least US$16.7 billion.

• Zimplats Holdings, the largest platinum producer, has put on hold a US$445 million expansion programme pending finalisation of the controversial black empowerment regulations. The proposed project includes development of an underground mine, construction of a 35 000 megalitre dam, 1 125 employee houses and creation of 1 000 jobs.

• Mineworkers have called off a strike, a union official said Monday, ending a protest that paralysed the country’s gold mines which are battling to recover from a decade-long economic crisis.

Land / Agribusiness

• ZIMSTAT will conduct surveys in the agricultural sector where production has shrunk by more than 60 percent due to the violent land grab.

• Since the formation of the GNU in February 2009, commercial farmers’ organisations say invaders have raided at least 150 of the 300 remaining white-owned commercial farms.

• The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) has presented a comprehensive document to 50 Embassies, the World Bank, Southern African Development Community and GNU seeking a way forward for resolving conflict and restoring the agricultural sector.

• Zanu PF has unilaterally decided that only ten white commercial farmers should be allowed to remain in Mashonaland Central province, according to reports from the CFU.

• An increasing number of violent robberies has been recorded on commercial farms – sixteen cases over the last few weeks, mainly in the Midlands area. It is believed that the attacks form another tactic in the Zanu PF campaign to force farmers off their properties.

• Zanu PF sympathizer Wilfred Chagwedera has been ordered by High Court judge Justice Joseph Musakwa to vacate Friedenthal farm near Beatrice, which belongs to the family of CFU president Deon Theron.

New Constitution / Violence

• Campaigns of intimidation are taking place in Manicaland, with war veterans’ association leader Jabulani Sibanda forcing villagers to attend ‘educational’ meetings on the controversial ‘Kariba’ draft constitution, which seeks to retain an all-powerful Presidency.  The villagers have been warned it is a matter of ‘life or death’ for Zanu PF.

• Youth militia continue to terrorise rural people in Mudzi and Muzarabani while campaigning for the ‘Kariba’ draft constitution.  Lists of people attending meetings on civic education, or those organized by NGOs, are being compiled, with threats of expulsion from their villages or death if they speak during the (constitutional) outreach meetings.

• Former Irish President and past United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson says that international observers must be deployed to Zimbabwe to monitor the constitution-making process. This is in response to reports of growing violence and threats by President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, aided by the military.

Elections

• Tsvangirai told reporters Monday he hoped the country’s constitutional revision process would be completed by year-end so that a new round of elections can be held in 2011.

• Mugabe and Zanu PF have reportedly developed cold feet over holding early elections after a recent poll showed that Tsvangirai would win by a massive 88 percent.

• Zimbabwe’s Restoration for Human Rights (ROHR) organisation has expressed fears that with or without a new constitution the likelihood of election violence is very high since the infrastructure of violence is still intact across the country.

• ZAPU chairman Dumiso Dabengwa has called for fresh elections, saying that “The inclusive government has failed totally.”

Legal

• The Roy Bennett saga: On Monday, Attorney-General Tomana said he would not appeal the dismissal of treason charges against MDC senator and party treasurer Roy Bennett.
• On Tuesday, Bennett said that if he were appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture, he would be “able to expose a lot of the lies, deceit and theft that is taking place in Zimbabwe.”
• On Wednesday, Tomana’s office applied for permission to appeal the High Court Judge’s decision in the Supreme Court. Bennett attempted to retrieve his confiscated passport but found it had been taken by one of the prosecutors, without permission from the court.  Bennett’s lawyers submitted papers opposing the application to the Supreme Court and calling for an investigation into Attorney-General Tomana’s behaviour.
• On Thursday, South African President Jacob Zuma’s team of facilitators said they would engage Zanu PF over the Justice Minister’s decision to challenge Bennett’s acquittal.
• On Friday, Bennett’s lawyers filed a charge of theft against the Attorney-General’s office over the senator’s missing passport.

• George Chiweshe, the man accused of organising the rigging of the 2008 presidential election and thus forcing a run-off, is to be appointed Judge President of the High Court, according to high-level government sources. If the appointment by President Mugabe goes ahead, it will be in contravention of the GPA as the MDC has not been consulted.

• A civic group of taxpayers has filed a lawsuit against the Inclusive Government over the ‘illegal’ appointment of ten government ministers, posts which were not part of the GPA and therefore are constitutionally ‘null and void’. Controversial Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere is one of these extra ministers.

• Another ‘quasi fiscal’ enterprise by the Reserve Bank under Gideon Gono has had its assets attached by creditors. The bank’s transport company owns one hundred buses which are being seized in part payment for a US$1.5 million debt to a South African seed company.

• Irregularly-retrenched employees of Air Zimbabwe have engaged lawyers to attach the airline’s assets as compensation for almost US$5 million in unpaid salaries and allowances.

• KFW Bank, a German development bank, has attached Zimbabwe government-owned property in South Africa over a €59 million loan to Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company. The bank will cooperate with AfriForum, which has already attached four Cape Town houses.

Health/Humanitarian

• Zimbabwe is facing a cereals deficit of 459 000 metric tones, the World Food Program (WFP) said in a new report released Monday.

• Last year the United States funded over US$300 million in humanitarian aid and health assistance for Zimbabwe.

• UNICEF is currently supplying water treatment chemicals to over 20 local authorities, spending over US$3 million each month on the service.

• The Zimbabwean Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the WHO and UNICEF, will launch a 10-day national immunization campaign from May 24 through June 2, aiming to vaccinate 5 million children against a range of diseases, including deadly measles.

Education

• Education Sports and Culture Minister, David Coltart is working to introduce civic education into the country’s curriculum which will see children being taught tolerance and respect for human and property rights.

Media

• The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) last week postponed a crucial workshop to expedite the licensing of new newspapers, due to financial problems. It still has not received its 2010 National budget allocation of US$ 47 000 and has yet to license new media houses since it was officially appointed in February.

Diaspora

• The Legal Resources Centre has threatened to take legal action against South African authorities over the expulsion of over 500 refugees from a safety camp in De Doorns, Western Cape. The refugees were displaced after violent xenophobic attacks in November last year. Breede Valley Mayor Charles Ntsomi said the municipality needed to close the camp ‘before the Soccer World Cup’.

• Foreign migrants and refugees in South Africa have been warned to prepare for a wave of xenophobic attacks immediately after the World Cup, a consortium of leading migration organisations said this week.

• A shocking report released by Medecins Sans Frontieres reveals that destitute and desperate illegal immigrants crossing the border from Zimbabwe into South Africa are being ambushed, robbed and sexually abused by organised HIV-positive gangs on the South African side. Rape victims include men, women and children.

• MSF says as many as 300 Zimbabweans are arriving in South Africa each day to apply for asylum at Musina, close to the Beitbridge border post.

• A UNDP working paper on diasporan remittances recommended that Zimbabwe should allow dual citizenship and postal voting to incentivise foreign currency remittances and direct investment from Zimbabweans living outside the country.

Wildlife

• Conservationists are protesting the export of wild animals, including elephants, from Hwange National Park to North Korea. Animal welfare experts warn that many of the animals being removed from the park will not survive the shock of capture, sedation and air transportation, let alone the conditions at North Korean zoos, which do not meet international standards.

• Conservation groups estimate that half a million wild animals have been lost to poaching in the country’s national parks over the past decade, with local communities and the army being the main offenders.

The Good News

• The National Democratic Institute (NDI), a US pro-democracy group, presented one of its highest honours, the Averell Harriman Democracy Award, to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday.

• Prominent Zimbabwe human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has been awarded the 2010 International Human Rights Award by the American Bar Association (ABA).

• Internet money transfer company Mukuru.com has launched a project to aid disadvantaged musicians in Zimbabwe by helping to sell their music online and paying them 80 percent of the proceeds every month via the company’s SMS-Cash system.

• Hotel occupancy at Victoria Falls has increased to 85 percent ahead of the FIFA World Cup in June. Ten years ago, Zimbabwe drew 1.4 million tourists who generated US$400 million for the economy. Last year, only 223 000 tourists came, generating just US$ 29.1 million.

Source:   Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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• U.S. Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr. has referred to the U.S. Treasury the question of whether prospective National Basketball Association team owner Mikhail Prokhorov has had dealings in Zimbabwe with a business tied to individuals under targeted sanctions

• Former Finance Minister and now leader of the Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn (MDKD) party, Simba Makoni, said Tuesday that the people surrounding Mugabe, including himself, should have persuaded him to undertake land reform in a way that would have empowered the people. He said the failing coalition arrangement was not the only solution and genuine engagement of citizens across sectors was required.

• Political tension is intensifying in Mashonaland Central between MDC and Zanu-PF supporters, resulting in two provincial leaders from the MDC-T being arrested Tuesday. They are accused of being disrespectful by not standing up when the governor arrived for independence celebrations in Bindura.

• A splinter group of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, has started a “Heal Our Wounds Campaign”, directed at forcing the British government to give them more compensation for taking part in the liberation struggle.

• The use of child ‘cadet’ soldiers in Zimbabwe’s 30th Independence anniversary celebrations on April 18 has been described as detestable and having no place in a society that is currently engulfed in a low-intensity conflict.

Economy

• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Wednesday that conflicting messages from the coalition government have fuelled uncertainty about Zimbabwe’s economic direction and discouraged investors. Zimbabwe stock exchange Chief Executive Emmanuel Munyukwi confirmed this on Wednesday.

• Russia has expressed interest in investing in Zimbabwe’s mining sector as it moves to enhance diplomatic ties. Russia’s ambassador in Harare, accompanied by a delegation from his country, described Zimbabwe as a safe investment destination.

• The Zimbabwe government has denied a report that it has entered a deal with Iran to mine uranium in the country in exchange for oil. Mugabe has expressed support of Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.

• Zimbabwe is still struggling to repay an outstanding loan of 15 million Euros provided by Iran in 2005.

• The government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sino Hydro of China to focus on the expansion of the Kariba South Bank extension through Chinese financial institutions.

• Road accidents claimed the lives of four senior politicians from both Zanu-PF and the MDC-M during the weekend, raising more questions about the state of the roads.

Business

• The Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) opened in Bulawayo Tuesday with most of the exhibition space taken by 40 Iranian companies. The fair was opened Friday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

• Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara shocked delegates at the ZITF Business Conference in Bulawayo on Wednesday when he said bad governance, violation of human rights and democracy do not affect investment or the growth of Zimbabwe’s economy.

• Sources said Friday the 2007 Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act will apply to companies with assets of at least US$3 million dollars rather than US$500,000 as specified under regulations published last month.

• The deadline for companies to declare their shareholdings had been extended to May 15. Faced with the threat of the termination of their licences, more than 400 white-owned and foreign companies have submitted black economic empowerment (BEE) plans.

• UTC, a transport company linked to Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, has been taken to court for failing to pay its workers since last year.

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti last week Friday released over US$6 million for the laying of a fibre optic cable, connecting the country to the Beira under-sea cable in a project that will dramatically boost internet speeds.

• Biti said Tuesday national labour laws must be reviewed urgently so they are in step with economic realities. He said existing laws put businesses in a precarious position because it is difficult for them to lay off workers, resulting in bankruptcies.

• The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has ordered the suspension of the ?controversial US$90 million project to dualise the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport Express Road in Harare over the non payment of environment impact assessment fees of US$500 000 by the contractor. The project was corruptly awarded to a joint Ukraine/Zimbabwe company linked to Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo.

• Econet Wireless, the country’s largest mobile operator, has launched a free phone service in a major investment into communities.

Diamonds / Mining

• Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said Tuesday ?that the government ‘unanimously’ agreed that the first target of the indigenisation programme will be the mining sector. The world’s two largest platinum miners, Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum, have multi-million dollar investments in Zimbabwe, while Rio Tinto has gold and diamond interests.

• The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme has urged that the armed forces leave Marange, but observers say there is still a significant military presence in the district and that diamond smuggling continues.

• Political tension over Zimbabwe’s controversial Marange diamond field surged ?Wednesday as officers of the police’s law and order section tried to serve a summons on parliamentary mines committee member Moses Mare, MDC legislator for Chiredzi South, in connection with a Marange probe.

• A soldier who shot and killed an illegal diamond miner in the Chiadzwa diamond fields before turning his gun on a police constable who tried to disarm him has appeared in court.  The constable is still battling for his life in hospital.

Agriculture

• The China Development Bank (CDB) has offered a US$30 million line of credit to assist in the rebuilding of Zimbabwe’s collapsed agriculture sector in a deal that may see the Chinese institution getting a stake in the Infrastructural Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ).

• Ongoing farm seizures in Zimbabwe pose one of the greatest threats to the hopes of a better life by the thousands of people displaced by the country’s political crisis, according to the World Food Programme.

• President Robert Mugabe is one of the biggest landowners in Zimbabwe. A newspaper investigation has found that he and his family own at least 10 farms through Gushungo Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, Mugabe’s clan name.

• Dairy farmers here who have been supplying milk to the country have said Zimbabwe’s national dairy herd is down to just 22,000 cows from 192,000 in 2000.

• A Chipinge magistrate had to flee for his life after a group of illegal settlers led by Zanu-PF officials besieged the court building threatening to assault him for ordering their eviction from an estate they invaded eight years ago.

Law

• Harare mayor and eight councillors who carried out an investigation into a municipal land scandal appeared before the magistrate’s court Tuesday facing criminal defamation charges. The report named Local Government and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo and businessman Phillip Chiyangwa among the top government officials who had illegally acquired vast pieces of land in Harare.

• Police have also summoned four journalists from The Standard, a local private weekly newspaper, to testify as state witnesses in the councillors trial which is set for May 6.

• Almost 300 MDC activists in Manicaland province are still to stand trial, a year after police charged them with trying to reclaim their livestock looted by Zanu PF supporters during the election violence in 2008.

• The four Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) who were arrested last week during anti-ZESA protests at the electricity supplier’s headquarters in Harare were finally released on Tuesday, after spending five nights in custody in appalling conditions. They plan to sue the police for wrongful arrest and detention.

• Amnesty International has urged the Zimbabwe police to end their intimidation of activists and stop preventing them from exercising their right to peaceful assembly.

• The Marondera Residents’ Association has dragged the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Ignatius Chombo to court over his controversial appointment of ‘special interest’ councillors.

Political Violence

• Zimbabwe has sworn in its first human rights commission, led by and comprised mainly of academics – at a time when academic freedoms continue to be violated.

• Zanu-PF thugs armed with machetes and barbed wire clubs have gone from home to home terrorising villagers in the Marambapfungwe district of Mashonaland East. MDC supporters have been told that immediately after the South African hosted FIFA World Cup of Soccer, MDC supporters will be killed and their bodies thrown into the Mazowe river or down mine shafts.

• A 25-year old female informal trader, who was among 100 traders brutally beaten last week by war veterans and Zanu PF members for failing to contribute money towards independence celebrations held Sunday, has died.  Five others were seriously injured.

New Constitution

• The European Union has pledged an estimated eight million dollars to the constitutional reform programme’s outreach phase which has stalled due to lack of funds. It is now scheduled to start early May and is expected to take 65 days.

• Lawyers for the three unity government parties have finished drafting talking points or questions that will be posed by constitutional outreach teams in engaging the people on their wishes for a revised basic document.

• Zanu-PF is using soldiers in Masvingo Province to campaign for the adoption of the controversial Kariba draft constitution. Villagers in the Mushandike Resettlement Scheme were threatened with death by soldiers in full military gear if they rejected the Kariba Draft. Four Brigade commander confirmed the presence of the soldiers there but said they were ‘on a training exercise’.

Humanitarian

• With measles continuing to spread across rural parts of Zimbabwe and claim lives, authorities have started to set up emergency clinics. Some 3,000 cases of measles have occurred in 55 of the country’s 62 districts since March, killing more than 200, most of them children.

• Since Independence in 1980, Britain has given Zimbabwe over US$1 billion in aid and ordinary Zimbabweans have expressed their appreciation.  “Despite every provocation and insult from the Zimbabwean government, and because of Mugabe’s utter disregard for his own people, the British government has given Zimbabwe over US$100 million in humanitarian assistance last year: from healthcare and education to providing water, food aid, seed and fertilisers to the poorest households,” wrote an activist representing “The Voice of Democracy” in Zimbabwe.

Media

• Human Rights Watch reports that the unity government still has not implemented promised media reforms and that Zanu-PF still controls most levers of government. Media laws that criminalize any criticism of government are still in place and credentials for international journalists are heavily restricted. At least 15 journalists have been harassed, arbitrarily arrested or assaulted by security forces since the GPA was signed.

• Reporters Without Borders says it’s time for the government of national unity to demonstrate its will to reform press legislation and liberate the country’s media. Zimbabwe is ranked 136th out of 175 countries in its press freedom index.

• Zanu -PF has revived its long forgotten propaganda newspaper, The People’s Voice, a sign that the party might be starting to prepare for a possible election next year.

Education

• Hundreds of orphaned and vulnerable children in Manicaland province have been forced to drop out of school following President Mugabe’s decision to bar non-governmental organisations from offering direct assistance with fees. Nearly a quarter of all Zimbabwean children are orphans.

Diaspora

• Humanitarian organization Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) is scheduled to formally announce a US$ 1.5 million funding to help returned migrant Zimbabweans to resettle. Funding will be channelled through the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Zimbabwe.

• Scores of Zimbabweans were stranded at the Beitbridge Border Post after South African immigration officials refused to accept Zimbabwe’s new Temporary Travelling Document, saying they had not been officially notified.

• The Zimbabwean Consulate has fleeced its South African-based citizens of over R10 million since it began issuing them with Emergency Travel Documents (ETDs) mid last year.

• The Prime Minister’s office said Monday that government is in the process of coming up with a national migration management and Diaspora policy which seeks to comprehensively address the country’s migration and development challenges.

• London-based remittance company Mukuru.com has won South African Reserve Bank approval to assist Zimbabweans in South Africa in tandem with local partner Inter Africa to send financial support to struggling families at home.

The Good News

• Zimbabwe has received a US$13,3 million grant for education and health from Japan that will be disbursed through five United Nations agencies.

• The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has embarked on a US$ 24 million solar energy project to encourage rural people to start income generating projects.

• The SABC’s investigative news programme, Special Assignment, won the Amnesty International Award for Human Rights for a documentary titled ‘Hell Hole’, which lifted the lid on Zimbabwe’s appalling prison conditions and the deaths due to starvation, filth and depravation.

Source:   Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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• Zimbabwe marked its 30th anniversary of Independence this week on Sunday 18 April. For the first time, parties other than Zanu-PF were involved in the celebrations. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was cheered each time his image appeared on the live video monitor at the national stadium.

• The Chinese embassy in Harare made a significant financial contribution to the celebrations and activities in collaboration with Saviour Kasukuwere’s Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, as part of a drive to strengthen diplomatic and business ties. The National Art Gallery exhibited a 30-year collection of photos featuring China-Zimbabwe diplomatic and business relations.

• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe disagreed on the progress of the South African-mediated talks on implementation of the GPA. SA President Jacob Zuma promised impartiality in his government’s mediation efforts after the ANC Youth League leader, Julius Malema, had promised ‘undying support’ for Mugabe.

• Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara was invited to the USA by Congress’s Black Caucus to report on progress in the GPA that might warrant the lifting of targeted sanctions against top Zanu-PF officials and their businesses.

• Zimbabwean prosecutors have withdrawn charges of  ‘illegally keeping maize’ against Senator and MDC Treasurer Roy Bennett, a former commercial farmer who is still awaiting a ruling on his recent terrorism trial.

Governance

• A new multiple-entry Emergency Travel Document was introduced by the Registrar General’s office. The document, which has a 6-month validity, has several security features to prevent counterfeit copying.

• The (MDC-dominated) Harare city council has proof that billionaire Philip Chiyangwa, a relative of Mugabe, and the Minister of Local Government, Ignatius Chombo, have fraudulently acquired municipal land. So far the police response has been to interrogate journalists reporting the story, and arrest and ‘caution’ eight city councillors for ‘leaking’ the report. The affair is being seen as a test of the GPA, which states police should be impartial in their duty to bring charges against any criminal.

• Phillip Chiyangwa has announced he will sue the Harare City Council and local newspaper The Standard for US$ 900 million (R6,5 billion) for defamation over allegations that he illegally acquired city land.

• Zimbabwe prison services have advertised urgently for the services of a hangman.  The number of prisoners on death row has been increasing since 2005 when the previous hangman quit. Humanitarian and church organisations are meanwhile pressing for the abolition of the death sentence.

• Zimbabwe’s Law Society has called for the appointment of a new Anti-Corruption Commission as specified in the GPA. Members of the previous commission were appointed in 2006 by the Zanu-PF-led government and have done did nothing during their term of office except draw salaries. The Law Society points out that the existing commission is now operating illegally.

• The Ministry of Finance will move in to deal with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s debt and protect it from writs of execution, an initiative aimed at halting the stripping of the bank’s assets by creditors.

• Zimbabwe’s dilapidated weather stations and meteorological equipment need upgrading, but government does not have the US$7 million required to modernise the department.

Economy

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti has announced that the 2010 economic growth forecast could be cut from 7.7 percent to 4.8 percent due to political uncertainty and the country’s failure to attract foreign donor support. Biti said donors had so far provided only US$2.9 million to finance a US$810 million budget deficit, a shortfall which analysts say is due to the non-implementation of reforms under the GPA.

• The Industrialisation Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), a Danish development financial institution, is prepared to invest in Zimbabwe’s tourism sector among others but is holding out until there is political and economic certainty.

• Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate accelerated to 3.5 percent year-on-year in March. Finance minister Tendai Biti accused local businesses of stoking inflation, saying speculative price increases were creating inflationary pressure. “On analysis, the increase in the inflation figures has largely been food-driven,” he said. Month-on-month inflation rose to 1% in February from 0,7% in January.

• Dysfunctional parastatal, the National Railways of Zimbabwe, has contracted to purchase rolling stock from China while many of its employees have gone without salaries for months. 29 new coaches are due to be delivered in June.

• A peaceful demonstration outside electricity utility ZESA Thursday to protest the price and lack of electricity supply led to the arrest of around 60 members of WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise). Most were held overnight and released but four leaders remained in custody over the weekend, including leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, who were honoured last year by President Obama.  WOZA is a community based social movement with 70,000 members countrywide.

Business

• Tsvangirai and Mugabe have publicly contradicted each other over the status of the empowerment law which would give black Zimbabweans a 51% interest in white and foreign owned companies.

• According to legal monitor Veritas, the Indigenisation Regulations [Statutory Instrument 21/2010] have not been suspended. They continue in force in the form in which they were gazetted on January 29. One amendment is expected to be gazetted in the near future to accommodate the views of the Parliamentary Legal Committee. There are still ongoing consultations which may result in further amendments but until these are gazetted – and there is not sign of this yet – the present regulations hold good.

• US investment fund African Century has bought a 25 percent stake in NMB bank. The fund’s CEO says that “..Investment will in the long term help the continent (Africa) more than any amounts of aid have.”

• South African fixed-line telephone provider Telkom is in discussions to sign a contract with Zimbabwe’s TelOne to provide the state-owned entity with a wide range of management services such as engineering expertise.

Agriculture

• A ban on beef imports from South Africa has been imposed to prevent the spread of Rift Valley fever. A beef shortage looms as Zimbabwean commercial beef production has plummeted following 10 years of de-stocking by white commercial farmers forced off their land and with no access to grazing.

• Co-Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi (Zanu-PF) is believed to be behind the invasion of Denlynian Game Ranch, a South African-owned wildlife conservancy near Beitbridge.  This latest invasion violates the bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPPA) signed between South Africa and Zimbabwe in November last year which protects South African-owned property in Zimbabwe. The invasion is a threat to tourism business in the area.

• On Friday, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Tourism, Walter Mzembi, told his South African counterpart that Zimbabwe would like to intensify tourism co-operation and secure at last 30 percent of all tourists who visit South Africa.

Mining/Diamonds

• The blocking of a fact-finding parliamentary committee to the Marange (Chiadzwa district) diamond fields at the end of March has been described as a delaying tactic to provide more time to conceal the military presence and show the pretence of a normal diamond mining operation.  On Wednesday the visit finally went ahead and Public Works Minister Theresa Makone announced that all was well and the diamonds were being mined according to international requirements.

• This contradicts the findings of the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme monitor for Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane of South Africa, who noted in a report on his March fact-finding mission that the presence of too many state entities increased the risk of diamond leakages and the absence of paper trails made the situation worse. He said most state workers lacked specialised training.

• Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has admitted that his department did not follow proper procedure when it allowed the two firms, Mbada Investments and Canadile Miners, to work the Chiadzwa claims.

• If managed correctly, economists say the diamond wealth of Zimbabwe could fund the entire rebuilding of the country.

• Gold production in the first quarter reached 1.667 tonnes, compared to zero tonnes during the first quarter of 2009, but mines are still being hampered by intermittent electricity supply, according to a Chamber of Mines report.

• Four Zanu-PF officials have reportedly started fighting over which of them should be given ‘empowerment’ shares in the country’s largest lithium mine, Bikita Minerals. Board member and Zanu PF politburo member Dzikamai Mavhaire has already announced he wants 51% of the shares on the grounds that “giving me shares will not affect the viability of the company.”

New Constitution

• Zanu-PF has launched ‘Operation Hapana Anotaura‘ (Nobody Speaks) to silence rural people during the constitutional outreach programme to be undertaken by the Parliamentary Select Committee. The Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ), an NGO working with traumatised communities, has expressed concern at this latest development.

• Victims fleeing political violence in Matabeleland Central province told reporters they were warned that “only selected Zanu-PF officials, youths and war veterans would be allowed to speak at outreach meetings. Anybody who spoke without permission would be beaten up after the constitutional outreach teams had left.”

Political Violence

• Zimbabwe’s civil society organisations are calling for the coalition government to temporarily postpone the re-introduction of the National Youth Service programme since the scheme had been prone to sexual and physical abuse and has been used as a political tool to maim or kill Zanu-PF perceived opponents.

• A Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) agent, Innocent Makamure, who went missing after denouncing President Mugabe and saying he felt used by the government for taking part in the torture and harassment of innocent MDC members, has been found dead.  His body was discovered floating in the Mwerahari River – foul play is suspected.

• In Masvingo, more than 100 informal traders, mostly women, had their wares looted and were brutally beaten on Saturday morning by a group of war veterans and Zanu PF youths who had demanded at least US$2 from each trader to pay for ‘independence celebrations’ on Sunday 18. Over 20 traders had to be taken to Masvingo General Hospital for treatment.

• Zanu-PF youth militia yielding iron bars and machetes descended on Dandare Primary School in Murewa and frog marched the school’s headmaster, John Chananda, out of the building after accusing him of being an agent of the MDC-T.

Elections

• President Mugabe has told his supporters they should prepare for general elections next year but commentators say it is doubtful whether this could be feasible before a new constitution is adopted.

• Reports from the rural areas indicate that Zanu-PF has stepped up youth militia deployment in most areas. Traditional chiefs, who have been used consistently to force villagers into voting for Zanu-PF, are reported to be receiving 100 percent salary increases.

• Villagers in Mutoko have reported seeing soldiers and war veterans brandishing brand new AK47 and FN assault rifles as well as Uzi sub-machine guns. There is growing concern that arms have been purchased by Zanu PF from China with money generated by Marange diamonds.

Humanitarian

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Zimbabwe government have said the measles outbreak has now spread to 48 districts in the country, with 200 confirmed deaths and at least 3,285 suspected cases since the outbreak was first announced in September last year.

• Human rights group Amnesty International marked Zimbabwe’s 30th Independence Day celebrations by releasing ‘a series of exclusively commissioned photographs which show the effects today on those evicted en masse in 2005 under Operation Murambatsvina’.  More than 700 000 people were rendered homeless or jobless and at least 2,4 million poor people were affected.

• The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) announced a contribution of US$5.5 million to support the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, to be channelled to targeted UN-approved organisations.

Media

• The work of the new Media Commission is being hampered by lack of funds. The task of drafting new regulations for licensing newspapers has been handed to the discredited Attorney-General, Johannes Tomana. This latest move has sparked outrage among media players who fear that Tomana may use his influence to block or delay registration of media houses seen as critical of Zanu-PF.

• First in line for licensing is the Daily News, banned by the previous Zanu-PF-appointed Media and Information Commission. In preparation, the Zimbabwe Times website masthead was last month replaced by that of the Daily News. Zimbabwe’s only privately owned daily newspaper, the Daily News was forced to shut down seven years ago and its printing presses were bombed.

• The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA Regional Office) announced Wednesday that the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is to launch a second television channel on May 1.

Education

• The Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (ZINASU) faction which backs the parliamentary-led constitutional revision process has informed Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that since January one student has been abducted, 51 have been arrested and 13 have been expelled.

Diaspora

• Gabriel Shumba, the Director of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum in South Africa, Irene Petras (the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights) and Lovemore Matombo (the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions) ware holding the first in a series of workshops in London this week, aimed at garnering input and opinions from Zimbabweans in the Diaspora on transitional justice options.

Sport

• The Zimbabwe cricket team went to the West Indies to participate in the World 20Twenty tournament, with a new coach and former Zimbabwean greats, Grant Flower and Heath Streak, as specialist coaches.

The Good News

• US-based charity Operation of Hope started its seventh programme of surgical corrections for cleft-palate children referred from all over Zimbabwe, with 70 operations planned.

• The award-winning Dangamvura Old Students Association (DOSA) choir from Mutare has been selected to compete in the 6th World Choral Games in China in July.

• The Harare International Festival of the Arts is on next week:  27 April to 2 May.

Source:   Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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• A consolidated report by the three principal parties in the GPA has been forwarded to South African President Jacob Zuma. The parties failed to agree on all outstanding issues and now await SADC’s recommendations. It will be viewed by President Zuma before being forwarded  to Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, the SADC chairman on defence politics and security.

• MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the party would not accept deputy agriculture minister (designate) Roy Bennett being given anything less than a junior agriculture portfolio. Bennett is still waiting a ruling on his treason trial.

• Zanu-PF and MDC negotiators have agreed on a raft of electoral reforms designed to prevent a repeat of the 2008 presidential election fiasco. The proposed new amendments to the Electoral Act outline strict procedures on how the poll is to be conducted and results announced. They are also calculated to stem systematic rigging.

• An MDC delegation, reportedly to be led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, will travel to Brussels later this month to campaign for the removal of targeted sanctions still in place on Zanu-PF elite in the MDC’s latest concession to the party.

• US Congressman Donald M. Payne concluded a two-day trip to Zimbabwe on April 9. He met with Tsvangirai and leaders of civil society in order to assess political and economic progress since the signing of the GPA. He was unable to meet with President Robert Mugabe, despite a US Embassy request made two weeks before the visit.

• President Mugabe last week jointly swore in commissioners of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in line with constitutional provisions.

• At a news conference in Durban on Saturday, South African President Jacob Zuma said ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema’s conduct was “alien to the ANC”.  He rebuked Malema for meddling in the talks on Zimbabwe and for continuing to sing the “shoot the boer (farmer)” apartheid era song.

• Retired Bishop Abel Muzorewa, who played a brief but historic role as the prime minister of the short-lived state of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in 1979, died Thursday at his Harare home at the age of 85.  Politically moderate, Muzorewa opposed the armed struggle that ultimately led to majority black rule.

Economy

• Zimbabwe will face serious power shortages in the next six weeks as the country’s power utility ZESA carries out maintenance at Kariba power station. This comes at a time when all but one of the generators at Hwange Power Station are inoperable.

• The joint venture project between ZESA and Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) to revive Bulawayo’s thermal power station is hanging in the balance due to bureaucracy within the Harare company, which is stalling progress.

• Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkzemi discussed energy ties with Zimbabwean Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Didymus Mutasa, on Tuesday. Based on a memorandum of understanding signed in 2006, Iran agreed to take part in the Feruka refinery renovation project.

• The Competition and Tariff Commission will next week conclude investigations into allegations that ZESA is abusing its monopoly by charging excessive tariffs and over the arbitrary disconnection of supplies. The commission’s assistant director said they would set a hearing for the power utility to respond, compile a report and recommend action.

• Zimbabwe’s cash strapped Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will next month begin retrenching about half of its bloated staff as it embarks on an exercise to realign its structures.

Business

• Tsvangirai on Thursday promised business leaders new and “more progressive” empowerment laws, as the government continues to give conflicting signals over its controversial new indigenisation regulations.

• In direct conflict with Minister of Youth and Economic Empowerment Saviour Kasukuwere, his deputy, Thamusanqa Mlangu, said the government is seriously considering revising the controversial indigenisation law. He said the ministry does not want to repeat the land ‘reform’ error that was done in a chaotic manner and only benefited a few people, most of them with links to Zanu (PF).

• Kasukuwere has dismissed an offer from Zimplats to set aside 10 percent of shares for black Zimbabweans, saying he would rather do away with all foreign-owned mining firms than accept anything less than a 51 percent stake.

• Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono last Monday maintained that the new indigenisation laws are susceptible to abuse by senior officials. He and Kasukuwere have openly clashed over the controversial empowerment regulations.

• A New Jersey congressman said he would demand a government inquiry into a possible deal by Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire, to buy the New Jersey Nets in a US$200 million team deal, for his extensive business dealings in Zimbabwe. Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. is questioning whether Prokhorov’s companies in Zimbabwe violate US sanctions against Mugabe and his cronies.

• Mugabe has invited controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to officially open this year’s Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo on April 23. Local human rights and journalist organisations have condemned the decision to invite the dictator.

Diamonds

• The Kimberley Process (KP) monitor for Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane, has slammed the involvement of too many government agencies in the handling of rough diamonds from Chiadzwa. He said this “poses the danger of diamonds being swapped or stolen in the process.” The report notes that between October 2006 and February 2010, the Marange fields have produced 4,4 million carats.

• A week before Chikane’s visit, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy was banned from touring the diamond fields and holding meetings with different stakeholders.

• The government is considering auctioning parts of the Chiadzwa diamond field to firms that have applied to mine in the area, but this could prove problematic because not all of Chiadzwa has been surveyed to establish the value or size of deposits.

• Villagers in Chiadzwa are demanding the immediate withdrawal of soldiers from the area, whom they accuse of demanding national identity cards and assaulting those found without cards.

Agriculture

• Zimbabwe has so far earned US$45,3 million from 13,39 million kgs of tobacco since the auction floors opened last month, the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) said last week. Seventy-seven million kgs of tobacco are expected to be sold this year, up from 42 million kgs last season.Tobacco is the country’s second largest foreign currency earner after mining.

• Zimbabwe’s ailing dairy industry is on the verge of collapse, with the national dairy herd down to just 22,000 cows from 192,000 in 2000 when the land grabs began.  Deliveries have plunged to 38 million litres a year from 138 million litres of milk. The state-controlled Dairibord is being supplied by just 60 dairy farmers compared with 215 providers in 2000.

• A multi-million dollar dairy plant, built for President Mugabe and his wife Grace by a South African-based German firm, Guth SA, is reportedly finished and ready to be transported to Zimbabwe. Payment for the plant, believed to be about US$13.5 million, is understood to have been channeled through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

• White Zimbabwean commercial farmers who lost their farms under the land reform programme have asked the SADC tribunal in Namibia to find the Zimbabwean government in contempt for ignoring a 2008 judgment by the tribunal saying farm seizures were illegal and discriminatory.The farmers also plan to refer the matter to SADC, whose next summit is likely to be held later this year.

• Civil rights group AfriForum, which last month helped commercial farmers attach a Cape Town property belonging to the Zimbabwean government to cover outstanding legal costs, said it will wait to hear from the government if there are plans to compensate the farmers before selling it. AfriForum also said it will wait before going ahead to attach three others properties in the city.

Education

• Education Minister David Coltart said his ministry has hired a German-based chartered accountant to help rehabilitate the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC), which has for years faced allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

• Lecturers at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) have gone on strike over unpaid allowances. Meanwhile, the state has renewed its crackdown on students over demonstrations staged on 29 March in protest against continuing deterioration of university standards.

Law

• 210 rapporteurs for the public outreach phase of the constitutional revision process on Friday completed two days of training in Harare. But the outreach programme has been delayed due to donors only disbursing US$2,1 million of the total US$14 million they were promised for the constitution-making process. The donors are allegedly still consulting their home countries regarding various aspects of concern.

• The High Court will next month make a ruling in a case in which a senior official at the Ministry of Mines is suing Mines Minister Obert Mpofu for US$30 000 as damages for criminal defamation. Mpofu allegedly accused Manyenge and other commissioners of corruption.

Violence

• Human rights groups are urging the newly constituted Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) to ensure that Zimbabwe takes immediate steps to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture. Zimbabwe is one of the few SADC countries that have not signed this convention.

• Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition says the unity government should give a high priority to the prosecution of human rights violators and perpetrators of political violence.

• A Zanu-PF deputy minister, Hubert Nyanhongo, was on Wednesday named in the MDC’s roll of shame as one of the masterminds of the political violence during the 2008 elections.

• A member of Mugabe’s Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), who recently publicly apologised to villagers in his home area for being used by Mugabe to torture MDC party members, has gone missing, according to relatives.

• Police on Thursday barred MDC youths from holding a peaceful demonstration on transitional justice, saying it would cause anarchy in the country.

• An annual report by the US State Department on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe has warned of a rise in trafficking in persons through Zimbabwe.  It has also revealed that ‘corrective rape’ against gay men and lesbians is on the increase.

• Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (Zimrights) director Okay Machisa has said the organisation will not be intimidated by police in their quest to showcase pictures of the victims of political violence and will soon be taking its photo exhibition to rural areas.

• The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR)’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has urged the Zimbabwean government to compensate three Banket residents who were abducted by state security agents two years ago and held incommunicado for several months.

• Scores of war veterans who refused to beat up people in the violence-ridden 2008 Presidential Election run-off have had their benefits withdrawn.

Humanitarian

• An estimated 78 percent of Zimbabweans are “absolutely poor,” with 55 percent of the population living below the food poverty line, a UNICEF report said Wednesday. The report said a burgeoning HIV/AIDS pandemic has killed many breadwinners leaving large numbers of child-headed families. Zimbabwe currently has an estimated 1.6 million AIDS orphans.

• A report by the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) said although most households in rural areas have come through the peak hunger season, adverse agricultural conditions are affecting Masvingo, Matabeleland South and Manicaland provinces, among others. More than three million people needed food aid between January and March.

• Hundreds of villagers from the drought-perched Benzi communal lands in Zaka, Masvingo Province, staged a six hour sit-in Monday at the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), demanding urgent food relief to avert possible starvation of their families. About 100 000 villagers are reported to be vulnerable.

Media

• The US State Department’s annual report on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe has identified media freedoms as an area where there has been little progress over the past 13 months.

• A Beitbridge correspondent for the state-owned Chronicle Newspaper has been arrested as the ongoing clampdown on the media continues. The incident comes in the wake of the arrest of four journalists who were detained after exposing the Philip Chiyangwa land scandal. MISA, the Media Institute of Southern Africa, has expressed concern.

• Despite having a propaganda monopoly on the public media, Zanu-PF has launched two newsletters, The Insider, and The Zimbabwe Today, which are circulated free of charge in rural areas, and are being seen as an attempt to counter successful MDC publications.

Sport

• China has handed over a revamped national football stadium to Zimbabwe after refurbishments costing US$10 million. China first built the 60,000-seat stadium in 1987, but it has been closed for renovations for the past three years.

• North Korea will train in Zimbabwe before heading to South Africa for this year’s World Cup in June. Zimbabwe approached five countries playing in the tournament to set up their training bases in the country, but only North Korea has confirmed it will come.

The Good News

• The Zimbabwean government has allocated US$2 million through the Ministry of Tourism to provide free access in rural areas to transmissions of the FIFA World Cup, while corporate sponsors are funding public viewing stations allowing urban residents to watch the games.

• President Jacob Zuma has both visited and sent negotiating delegations to Zimbabwe over the last few weeks, but the South African leader is being tested by Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party: reported agreements reached on implementation of the GPA were rebutted by Mugabe as soon as the South Africans went home.  The coalition partners failed to meet the March 31 deadline set by Pretoria to complete negotiations.

• The stand-off continued all this week while SADC, guarantor of the GPA, has neither commented on or condemned the situation publicly. President Zuma is due to present a report to the SADC organ on security, defence and politics, which may then call a plenary meeting to discuss the situation.

• Solidarity Peace Trust director Brian Raftopoulos told journalists at the launch of a new report in Johannesburg Wednesday that President Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party is determined to remain in power at any cost.  “ Be very clear this is a struggle for the state. Any struggle for the state is intense, it is violent, it is problematic, especially when you are fighting a party whose very future is invested in control of the state.”

• The Zimbabwean judiciary has once more postponed the final ruling in the Roy Bennett case which has been adjourned to May 10.  On the same day police served the MDC senator with a new summons on charges of ‘hoarding’ maize he had grown on his farm nine years previously.

• France, which is in charge of granting Belgian visas to Zimbabweans, has declined to issue a visa to discredited Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa as part of a delegation from Zimbabwe to discuss re-engagement plans. However, Chinamasa, who is on the EU travel-ban list, could apply direct to the Belgian Embassy in South Africa.

• Minority partner in the GPA and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara angered his supporters in a speech at a Women’s Day event, when he heaped praise on Robert Mugabe, describing him as “a consistent leader with organizational capacity and strategic vision.”

• South Africa’s ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema, visited Zimbabwe to “learn about Zimbabwe’s revolutionary empowerment programmes” from Zanu-PF Youth Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere. Also a controversial figure, Kasukuwere admitted last year that Zanu-PF deployed youth militias to spearhead its violent 2008 pre- and post-election campaign. Malema created controversy by declaring the ANC would start confiscating white-owned farms and nationalising mines in South Africa.

• In-fighting within the re-formed ZAPU party has surfaced, with several suspended officials seeking to sue the party’s chairman, Dumiso Dabengwa over their outstanding grievances.

• Zimbabwe Liberation War Collaborators (ZILIWACO) members who took to the streets in Masvingo Wednesday claimed sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West had caused the deaths of half a million people through cholera and malnutrition. The demonstration was called to pressurize Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to push for the removal of sanctions.

Governance

• After a year of delay, two key reform commissions were finally sworn in – the Human Rights Commission and the Electoral Commission. But analysts at legal monitor Veritas say the new electoral commission cannot reform the deeply flawed electoral laws without the consent of Zanu-PF Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa.

• Harare City Council has adopted a report exposing illicit municipal land deals by Mugabe relative Philip Chiyangwa and Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo. A local newspaper which covered the leaked report was raided by the police and journalists were interrogated.

• Bulawayo city council has announced plans to purchase six luxury vehicles for its top managers, while the city’s water reticulation system, street lighting, and roads are all in serious disrepair through lack of finances.

• The new constitution-making process became marred in controversy after reports emerged that the committees and MPs involved in the process were paying themselves hefty allowances during the training period. The UNDP and other donors therefore announced they would only fund the 70% of the public consultation programme which deals with the actual constitution-making process. The Zimbabwe government is to fund the remaining 30% of costs.

Business

• The German African Business Association (GABA) cancelled a visit to Zimbabwe because Zimbabwe has become a “no go area” for foreign investors following promulgation of the empowerment laws that give foreign-controlled business up to 2015 to sell a majority stake to indigenous Zimbabweans or face punitive levies and taxes from the government. Norway recently announced that it was putting on hold a US$1,5 million project to assist Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector because of the indigenisation law.

• State electricity utility Zesa is battling to find investors to pay for new generators at Hwange power station, while other generation projects remain unfunded, including the proposed Batoka Hydro Power station, the Gokwe North Power station and a raft of mini hydro power stations across the country.

• Lack of electricity has forced thousands of residents to use wood fuel for cooking, causing massive deforestation as entrepreneurs cut down trees in the countryside to transport to the cities. Environmentalists have warned that 20 percent of forests have been lost to firewood vendors since 1990, and that losses are accelerating by an alarming 16 percent each year.

• Hwange Colliery Company Ltd (HCCL) has resorted to barter trade. It will pay two South African companies with processed coal (coke) to the value of US$4 million, in exchange for repairing its 32-coke oven battery.

• State telecoms regulator Telco has switched off the internet accounts of 200 of ISP Zimbabwe Online’s customers. The Zol account holders have refused to supply their personal details as demanded by the much-maligned Interception of Communications Act. The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) enforces compliance with the Act.

• A shortage of over-the-counter drugs has been caused by the forced closure of pharmaceutical manufacturer Caps Holdings’ factory by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe.  This was reportedly due to the production of drugs from the newly-refurbished plant before it had been inspected.

• Taxi bus operators have appealed to Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri to stop his police officers forcing the operators to ‘donate’ a routine US$5 bribe at roadblocks in and around Harare and outlying towns.

• Ecoweb, the wholly-owned ISP subsidiary of Zimbabwe’s largest cellular network operator, Econet Wireless, has started implementing a project to install the country’s first mobile WiMAX network.  The new network will be capable of carrying mobile, nomadic and fixed services ranging from individual netbooks to large corporate networks.

Elections

• The Zimbabwe Republic Police has ordered all officers-in-charge to eliminate ‘unpatriotic’ officers from the force as the country prepares for a possible fresh election.  Last week senior police personnel warned officers at Police General Headquarters that anyone who was suspected of supporting any other party than Zanu-PF would be dismissed from the force.

• Hundreds of thousands of ‘invisible’ and ‘forgotten’ Zimbabweans inside the country, disenfranchised by the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2001 and denied many rights, including the right to vote, are lobbying for dual citizenship.  This constituency comprises an estimated two million second and third generation Zimbabweans, many of Zambian and Malawian descent.

Agricultural Sector

• The SADC Tribunal in Windhoek has postponed the hearing of a contempt of court case brought by the Commercial Farmers’ Union against the Zimbabwe government after Mugabe refused to accept the Tribunal judgment outlawing the country’s land reforms. The Tribunal ruled that the “reforms” were “discriminatory, racist and illegal under the SADC Treaty”. The commercial farmers want the Tribunal to grant an enforcement order urging SADC leaders to take measures that might include the suspension or expulsion of Zimbabwe from the regional bloc.

• Lawyers for civil rights group AfriForum seized a luxury property in Cape Town belonging to the Zimbabwe government, in what is a significant step towards gaining compensation for Zimbabwean farmers who lost their land in President Mugabe’s unlawful land reform programme. Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa had no comment on the action, but returned to Harare to ‘consult’.

• South African foreign affairs official Kgomotso Molobi announced that the South African Government would appeal the court ruling in favour of AfriForum.

Political Violence

• On Wednesday the pressure group Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) reported that Zanu-PF mobs had attacked villages in Mashonaland East, burning houses and a church in Muzarabani district and forcing 16 families to flee. Certain MDC officials have denied that there is organised violence in the area.

• Demonstrations by Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) members were violently disrupted and several student leaders were arrested in Harare and Masvingo. The students were demanding the ‘full implementation of the GPA’ as well as protesting against ‘deteriorating conditions in education’.

• The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) released its report on election violence, rape and sexual abuse, entitled “Fighting for a New Constitution: Human Rights Violations Experienced by Female Members of the National Constitutional Assembly”. The report detailed serial abuse of women by Zanu-PF youth militias, ‘war veteran’ groups and police.

• A grouping of NGOs under the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition say they are seeking an audience with South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma over the rising levels of violence and harassment in Zimbabwe.

The Arts

• An exhibition of paintings at Bulawayo’s National Gallery was closed and the artist, Owen Maseko, arrested and charged with ‘inciting violence’. The exhibition theme was the political violence and the Gukurahundi massacres which took place in Matabeleland in the 1980s. Last week in Harare’s Delta Gallery, a photographic exhibition by ZimRights, featuring pictures of the 2008 political violence, was also shut down by police.

Mining

• Mining Minister Obert Mpofu is under scrutiny after a personal multi-million US dollar cash spending spree on property in Victoria Falls.

• Minister Mpofu admitted to the parliamentary committee probing mining activities in Chiadzwa that he had issued licences to two diamond mining firms in Chiadzwa in which it is believed he may have an interest. Although the firms are more than 50 percent owned by the Government, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said there had as yet been no income from the two firms.

• The Parliamentary Committee on Mines’s fact-finding mission to the Marange/Chiadzwa diamond diggings was refused entry to the diamond fields and to the premises of the two firms exploiting the diamond fields. The group of lawmakers and journalists were barred by police on the orders of the Zanu-PF Provincial Governor, the Police Commissioner and Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu.

• The Kimberley Process monitor for Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane, said no diamonds from Marange have as yet been certified for sale, but he has submitted a detailed report to the Kimberley Process working committee on monitoring.

• Illegal gold panners have descended on two farms near Masvingo, causing massive land degradation and trampling crops. Police have arrested 80 people but the gold rush is attracting hundreds of men, women and schoolchildren every day.

• The Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Indigenization under which foreign-owned mining companies would set aside 10 percent of their equity shares for indigenous blacks under the indigenization program. The proposal noted that bodies such as the IMF could fund the purchase of shares for ordinary Zimbabweans who would otherwise not be able to afford them. The proposal was rejected by Indigenisation Minister Kasukuwere.

• The 5 000 workers at Zimbabwe’s massive Shabanie and Mashava asbestos mines have not been paid for 18 months, and are now being assisted by the World Food Programme. The mines were confiscated from businessman Matuma Mawere by the Zanu-PF government and are no longer operating.

Health/Humanitarian

• UNICEF director in Harare, Dr Peter Salama, has called for international aid to restart the measles immunisation program in Zimbabwe, where 183 deaths have occurred in the last few months and fears of an epidemic are rising. Health Minister Henry Madzorera (MDC) said US$ 8.4 million would be required for a countrywide measles vaccination program.

• Thousands of Bulawayo residents who have not paid their water bills are being disconnected by the Bulawayo city council, prompting fears of another cholera outbreak.

Diaspora

• Solidarity Peace Trust has released a new report titled:  “Desperate lives, twilight worlds – how a million Zimbabweans live without sanction or sanctuary in South Africa”.  It details the dire reality facing Zimbabwean immigrants who fled their country seeking safety and work in South Africa, a trend that is still continuing. It also notes that more Zimbabweans have fled their country in the past 10 years than those who fled Mozambique at the height of its long and bloody civil war.  Click here to access the report.

Good News

• The United States government officially handed over a new, upgraded bio-safety, level-two-plus laboratory to the Minister of Health, Dr. Henry Madzorera. The facility at Harare hospital will enhance the capacity of the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to offer clinical and diagnostic testing as well as research on indigenous/exotic agents which may cause serious disease after inhalation, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) ,typhoid (Salmonella Typhi),anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) and the H1N1 virus.

• US-based media development organisation Internews Network plans to launch a project to use local media, video and civic networks to promote understanding of Zimbabwe’s national healing and reconciliation agenda. There are no transitional justice mechanisms sponsored by government in spite of the organ on national healing having been set up under the GPA.

• An ex-member of Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Office (CIO) has publicly apologised for violence and torture campaigns in which he participated during and after the 2008 elections, saying there were many more in the CIO who felt guilt and shame.

Africa Briefing N°70

Harare/Pretoria/Nairobi/Brussels, 3 March 2010

I. Overview

As Zimbabwe enters its second year under a unity government, the challenges to democratic transformation have come into sharp focus. Despite reasonable progress in restoring political and social stability, ending widespread repression and stabilising the economy since February 2009, major threats could still derail the reform process. In particular, resistance of intransigent and still powerful security sector leaders and fractious in-fighting between and within the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU-PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) must be addressed now. South Africa and other countries in southern Africa – who monitor the accord that guides the transition – must press the parties, and particularly President Robert Mugabe, to see the transition through to a successful conclusion. Donors should back their efforts.

The unity government, created under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed by Mugabe and MDC factional leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, was born under a cloud of scepticism. Most observers gave it little chance, predicting that, even as prime minister, Tsvangirai would fall prey to Mugabe’s “divide, rule, co-opt and destroy” strategy. Against the odds, the government started well: schools and hospitals re-opened; civil servants were paid and returned to work; the Zimbabwe dollar was shelved; goods returned to store shelves; and a cholera epidemic was controlled. Human rights activists reported a significant drop in abuses. Donors generally received well an ambitious yet pragmatic reconstruction program calling for $8.5 billion in foreign aid and investment.

But major concerns undermining the transition process have come to the fore. Hardline generals and other Mugabe loyalists in ZANU-PF are refusing to implement the government’s decisions, boycotting the new national security organ and showing public disdain for Tsvangirai. Farm seizures have continued virtually unabated. Most attention has focused on completing the GPA, but ZANU-PF has delayed or ignored important commitments in that document, while stalling constitutional reforms by insisting on preserving broad executive privileges. Key blocked steps include a land audit, appointment of MDC governors, an end of arbitrary detentions and arrests, regular functioning of the National Security Council in place of the infamous Joint Operations Command, public consultations on a new constitution and preparation for elections.

These delays reflect the two deeper challenges on which this briefing concentrates. First, a mature political system must develop, so that ZANU-PF and MDC engage as both competitors in the political arena and partners in the inclusive government. This will be difficult, especially under the divisive Mugabe, but other ZANU-PF leaders, including the factions led by Vice President Joice Mujuru, and Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, know that their party has lost much popular support and needs a generational shift. For its part, the MDC must keep faith and engaged with its broad following in the transition process, including trade unions, human rights groups and women’s organisations. It must also show the country as a whole that it is a viable custodian of the state – competent, transparent, and capable of preserving social change since independence.

Equally challenging are security issues. A relatively small number of “securocrats” use their positions and symbiotic relationship with Mugabe to exercise veto power over the transition. They are motivated by differing factors: fear of losing power and its financial benefits, fear of prosecution for political or financial abuses, and a belief that they guard the liberation heritage against Tsvangirai and the MDC, which they view as fronts for white and Western interests. Zimbabweans across the political spectrum are quietly considering how to ease these officers into retirement, even at the cost of allowing them to keep their assets and providing them a degree of impunity from domestic prosecution, while simultaneously professionalising security forces respectful of human rights and a democratically elected government.

While the primary tasks ahead rest with Zimbabweans, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) must take seriously its GPA guarantor role. South African President Jacob Zuma’s activism as mediator must convey the message that the region will abide no alternative to the GPA. His recent actions, including appointment of three respected advisers to oversee the Zimbabwe account, are welcome indications he will be tougher vis-à-vis Mugabe on GPA obligations and respect for rule of law.

The broader international community, especially the UK, U.S., EU and China, should support and complement SADC’s efforts through careful calibration of trade, aid, and investment to encourage progress; maintenance of targeted sanctions on those thwarting the transition; and lifting of sanctions on entities key to economic recovery. Donors should provide new recovery and development assistance – including for rural development, health and education and strengthening of the judiciary, legislature and civil society – through transparent mechanisms, such as the Multi-Donor Trust Fund.

This briefing focuses on political party and security issues, as well as South Africa’s mediation. Subsequent reporting will analyse other topics vital to the transition, including constitutional and legal reform, justice and reconciliation, sanctions policies and security sector reform.

II. The INCLUSIVE GOVERNMENT’s Mixed Record

Ten months after the violent and disputed 29 March 2008 elections that led to political stalemate with the long-time ruling ZANU-PF party of President Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai’s wing of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) announced it would enter the government alongside ZANU-PF and the splinter MDC-Mutambara (MDC-M) faction. This followed an extraordinary summit of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) on 26 January 2009, whose final communiqué called for Tsvangirai to be sworn in as the prime minister by 11 February and the remainder of the government two days later.[1]

The unity government was formed under the auspices of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), which had been hammered out with SADC assistance during lengthy negotiations. The GPA spelled out a specific continuing role for the regional mediators in monitoring and supporting its implementation. This was especially important, since most observers believed that the agreement was essentially unworkable, having established two centres of power within a single government but leaving most real political and military authority with Mugabe, his party and the hardline security establishment.[2] Many considered that the African Union (AU), SADC, and the primary mediator, the then South African President Thabo Mbeki, had been too accommodating and respectful of Mugabe during the negotiation process. Additional concerns emerged after the GPA was signed, as Mugabe was allowed to ignore deadlines and otherwise repeatedly undermined the agreement without consequence.

Now into its second year, however, the inclusive government is making discernible, if slow and painful progress in a number of areas, bringing a degree of stability and predictability to a country that twelve months earlier was on the brink of collapse. Most notably, schools and hospitals have reopened, multi-million per cent inflation has come down to single digits, government revenue has begun to pick up and shops are fully stocked with food and other commodities.

Key Western donors have been slow to embrace the new government largely because of its failure to fully implement the GPA and their continuing antipathy toward Mugabe. For much of 2009, donors provided welcome expansion of humanitarian assistance, but generally adopted a wait-and-see posture on longer-term financial support for recovery and reconstruction. This risked thwarting the very changes the international community is seeking, both by weakening the hand of relative moderates in ZANU-PF and more generally by undercutting popular support for the reform process. More recently, the U.S., UK and European Union (EU), among others, have expanded the definition of “humanitarian assistance” to cover many important social and economic sectors, such as agriculture, health, sanitation and education.

A. Economic Reforms

Rebuilding a devastated economy with a 90 per cent unemployment rate is a daunting challenge for the inclusive government. Finance Minister Tendai Biti has won praise for his steps to restore a degree of confidence and fiscal stability, but the prospects for rapid recovery are weak, not least because the fragile inclusive government and incomplete GPA have caused investors to shy away. Recently, government workers have gone on strike to demand a pay increase beyond the $160 monthly stipend they are generally now receiving, which they point out is insufficient to cover even basic costs of living in Harare and other urban centres.

Nevertheless, there are some signs of recovery. GDP grew 4.7 per cent in 2009, the first positive totals in a decade. The 2010 budget aims for 7 per cent GDP growth, underpinned by 10 per cent growth in agriculture, as was already achieved the previous year, and 40 per cent growth in mining. Since the Zimbabwe dollar was suspended and the U.S. dollar and South African rand adopted as legal tender, inflation has fallen from an official 231 million per cent in July 2008 to a 6 per cent average in 2009 and is forecast at 5.1 per cent in 2010.[3] The International Monetary Fund extended $510 million to Zimbabwe as its share under an expansion of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) facility that was authorised as a response to the global economic crisis. This has been earmarked for debt clearance, support of the budget and productive sectors, and water and sanitation, health and education needs.[4]

The improved economy and donor pledges to cover half the $718 million required to cope with disease and hunger have been reflected in a lessening of the formerly dire humanitarian situation. Cholera, which had become rampant in late 2008, was brought under control in 2009, but there are warnings of a potentially new serious outbreak during the current rainy season.

B. Political Reforms

Ultimately, the economy cannot be restored to health through technical measures alone. The political reforms envisaged in the GPA are needed. Helped by the regional re-engagement that resulted from the SADC Maputo summit in November 2009, there has been some gradual progress on implementation since the MDC-T briefly suspended participation in the unity government the previous month to protest ZANU-PF’s intransigence in discussions to move forward on GPA requirements.

Independent commissions have now been formed to address media, human rights and election issues.[5] Notwithstanding statements to the contrary by senior ZANU-PF officials, a land audit may soon begin that would not just be a survey but rather an attempt to lay the groundwork for addressing this most sensitive reform area, including multiple farm ownership, production by new farmers, compensation for former white commercial farmers and an end to farm invasions. Arbitrary and politically motivated detentions and arrests have declined, though they have not ceased entirely, and the repressive Public Order Security and Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Acts (POSA and AIPPA) remain on the books.

The challenges of completing the GPA, crafting a new constitution and moving toward elections could yet cause the inclusive government to collapse. A number of issues are still outstanding in the protracted negotiations over GPA implementation. Indeed, the six on the original agenda have ballooned to 27, as the MDC-T, MDC-M and ZANU-PF have brought in additional topics they considered had either been overlooked when the mediation began or had gained prominence during the course of the negotiations.

The negotiators have agreed to postpone to the end the especially contentious appointment of MDC-T’s Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister as well as the status of Mugabe stalwarts, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana, whom the MDC believe were re-appointed to their positions unilaterally by Mugabe in violation of GPA provisions requiring consultations. Agreement has been reached on sharing provincial governors, though the dates of their appointments have not yet been determined.[6] How the new National Security Council (NSC) is to function as a successor to the infamous Joint Operations Command (JOC) is still sharply contested.

Controversial matters introduced by the MDC-T and remaining open include security sector reform and compliance with the National Security Act, a framework for government operations (including procedures for chairing of the cabinet when the president is not present) and rule of law topics such as freedom of assembly and association.[7] ZANU-PF has put forward for consideration such issues as removal of sanctions, donor-funded parallel government structures, the role and funding of non-governmental organisations, selective funding of ministries and other entities by donors and the functions of the Multi-Donor Trust Fund, a basket fund coordinated by the international community to support the inclusive government.[8]

The constitutional reform outreach program intended to lead to a new constitution kicked off on 7 January 2010 but needs greater impetus.[9] There is a growing recognition that this process cannot be the exclusive preserve of government and legislative committees, but rather must be a national exercise with full participation of civil society groups. This is especially essential for the MDC, since there are concerns that the party is losing contact with its popular base. Civil society activists and unions have complained, however, that the process is being driven by political elites for their own purposes, and some have even called for the international community to withdraw support for the transition until a credible consultation process has been adopted.[10]

It is positive, nevertheless, that there is increasing acceptance across the political divide that the “Kariba Draft” – agreed by the inclusive government’s three parties under Mbeki’s mediation – cannot be the only reference for the new constitution, since it incorporates a number of potentially anti-democratic principles, most notably further enhancement of executive powers at the expense of legislative or judicial authority.

While many political figures believe a broadly acceptable compromise draft is likely by the end of the year,[11] sharp differences remain between the parties. A blueprint written by ZANU-PF strategists linked to the hardline camp around Emmerson Mnangagwa suggests that the party remains committed to an all-powerful presidency.[12] While the 41-page document – a comparative analysis of ZANU-PF and MDC-T constitutional positions – gives an insight into the long-time ruling party’s intention to preserve an authoritarian centralist government, the notion of an imperial presidency is not shared by the party wing around Vice President Joice Mujuru and her husband, ex-general, now prominent businessman Solomon Mujuru. The MDC-T wants executive authority to be shared between president, prime minister and cabinet, with internal checks and balances within the executive. ZANU-PF – arguing that the past year has shown two centres of power are unworkable – supports a presidential system of government.[13] The ZANU-PF document states:

The experience of the people of Zimbabwe with the inclusive government since February 2009 has shown that sharing of executive power by the President and Prime Minister will result in … always a fight for power rather than progress. If there has to be a Prime Minister, he [should] not have executive authority. He is only a senior minister appointed and accountable to the President. In the SADC region, the prevalent arrangement is Head of State and leader of government.[14]

Finally, preparations need to be made for presidential and parliamentary elections. There is much discussion of delaying these for several years, perhaps until 2013, so as to put electoral politics aside while the country copes with massive economic and social tasks. Many in Tsvangirai’s camp believe their party has not yet built a strong record in government and are equally concerned over how the military would react to a potential MDC-T victory.[15] Meanwhile, many ZANU-PF stalwarts believe their party would be convincingly defeated, since recent polls indicate its support is now less than 20 per cent.[16] Though it is still possible that Mugabe might dissolve the government in an attempt to catch the opposition off-guard with a rigged snap election as early as 2011, this seems unlikely at present, partly because of increased international scrutiny and engagement.

C. Threats to the Transition

Despite the current stalemate on outstanding GPA issues, there is some prospect that compromises can eventually be reached, though only with the help of intense mediation. However, security sector reform – firmly rejected by Mugabe – has emerged as a key challenge. Failure to initiate this process could unravel the inclusive government, prevent a smooth transition to the post-Mugabe era and raise real prospects of a coup, with accompanying instability that would affect the whole region. A dozen or so “securocrats” – senior military and intelligence figures – are widely considered to hold de facto veto power over any real transition. A cabal of powerful generals, with the support of elements in ZANU-PF, still believes that Tsvangirai should not be permitted to lead the country, even if he wins an election. The MDC-T leadership has raised this implicit threat with SADC leaders. The issue is so sensitive that it was not addressed in the Mbeki-led GPA negotiations, but it has become a key agenda item for the new mediation team appointed by Jacob Zuma, his successor as South African president.[17]

Moreover, even if the inclusive government completes the GPA, achieves a new democratic constitution and addresses the electoral process, the transition will not be assured unless a broader challenge is met, namely development of the political system to ensure that ZANU-PF and the MDC-T balance political competition with cooperation in governance. This will be particularly difficult as long as the divisive Mugabe is at the helm. At the December 2009 ZANU-PF congress, he retained his party presidency unchallenged for an additional five-year term, thus positioning himself to contest another national election.

III. Political party strategies

The three principal parties to the GPA went into the inclusive government with a stated objective of securing political stability, initiating economic recovery and holding fresh elections under a new constitution within eighteen months, that is, by March 2010.[18] While that date is no longer realistic, the government’s perceived successes and failures have emerged as the key battleground between the parties as they position themselves for an eventual electoral test.

ZANU-PF – divided along factional lines on strategy, still seized with its Mugabe succession problem and battling to retain power that it has only reluctantly shared in the inclusive arrangement – comes close to unity only in its intent to frustrate reforms whose benefits would accrue primarily to the MDC-T. The MDC-T believes that success for the inclusive government in instituting political reforms and economic recovery would pave the way for it to win the right to form the next government after elections. MDC-M leaders, recognising their party lacks a solid base, are hedging their bets, seeking to keep the inclusive government functioning, while searching for an advantageous alliance ahead of a national vote.

A.    ZANU-PF’s Divisions

1.      The Mnangagwa camp’s hard line

ZANU-PF’s overall objective in the inclusive government is to undercut any major political and economic reforms associated with the MDC-T and Prime Minister Tsvangirai. Under Emmerson Mnangagwa, the defence minister and presidential hopeful, and with the support of military leaders, ZANU-PF’s participants in the unity government want to neutralise Tsvangirai and his party’s ministers, while taking advantage of the former opposition’s presence in government to push for the removal of targeted travel and related international sanctions on Mugabe and his party’s ministers.[19]

This approach has Mugabe’s backing but, for reasons related to ZANU-PF’s ongoing internal power struggle, not that of the Mujuru faction. Mnangagwa allies control the state bureaucracy, while Mujuru allies control what remains of grassroots support in those provinces the party dominates. Mugabe, conscious that neither faction commands overwhelming support within the party or sufficient national popularity to ascend to power on its own, plays them against each other in order to maintain his grip on the divided movement. While he has tended to side with Mnangagwa in dealings with the MDC-T, he has mostly favoured the Mujurus on internal ZANU-PF decisions.[20]

The attempt to frustrate the MDC-T includes at the national level:

• securing a five-year term for the inclusive government (to 2013), with Mugabe at the helm until then or he decides to retire, while making both it and the parliament dysfunctional; steps in this regard continue, including acts of lawlessness such as continued farm invasions, violations of property and investment rights, and resistance to political and economic reforms so as to discredit the MDC-T both nationally and internationally as an effective political force;
• retaining control of key state institutions and reducing Tsvangirai to a ceremonial prime minister, while discrediting, compromising and corrupting him and his party’s ministers;
• derailing the pace of the constitutional reform process; and
• inducing fears of a military coup should Tsvangirai win the election and attempt to take over from Mugabe.[21]

The plan is executed at government level by ZANU-PF permanent secretaries, whose appointments Tsvangirai accepted in the misguided belief that they would act as professional civil servants.[22] All these ZANU-PF loyalists selected by Mugabe were first recommended by Misheck Sibanda, chief secretary to the cabinet and a key Mnangagwa ally. In general, the permanent secretaries have taken advantage of the inexperience of MDC-T ministers to acquire free rein in determining the pace and implementation of government decisions and policies.[23] Permanent secretaries in education and public service ministries, for example, have in effect overturned decisions by their ministers with regard to new school fees structures and a manpower audit of the civil service, on whose payrolls ZANU-PF has placed more than 20,000 youth militia members.[24]

George Charamba, the influential permanent secretary in the information and publicity ministry, who doubles as Mugabe’s spokesperson, has denigrated the work of the government in which he serves, saying “I am in the kitchen; there’s lots of smoke but hardly much cooking going on”.[25] This characterisation suits those in ZANU-PF who fear that the electorate would credit successes primarily to Tsvangirai and the MDC-T.[26] Likewise, strategists aligned with Mnangagwa calculate, failures of the inclusive government are more likely to cast doubt on Tsvangirai’s capacity to provide effective national leadership.[27]

Tsvangirai is also being prevented from demonstrating authority. He has not been able to chair a single cabinet session,[28] even though the GPA makes him deputy chairman of cabinet as well as prime minister and leader of government business in parliament. He should normally exercise the chair function in the president’s absence, but ZANU-PF argues at the GPA negotiations that allowing him to do so would make the two vice presidents, Joice Mujuru and John Nkomo, redundant, causing further tension in the already fractious party.[29] Consequently, those senior ZANU-PF members alternate in chairing the cabinet when Mugabe is absent. On 25 January, Mugabe issued a written order for all ministers to report to the vice presidents and their permanent secretaries, not to Tsvangirai, on the execution of government business. While the order was subsequently withdrawn, the MDC-T considered it a blatant attempt to neuter the prime minister’s office.[30]

In addition to frustrating the constitutional reform process so as to extend the lifespan of the inclusive government, a second strand of the strategy involves ensuring that parliament does not pass laws that would affect ZANU-PF control of state institutions.[31] Even though the two MDC parties together constitute a small majority in the legislature, only eight bills have been passed in more than a year, two of which were meant to facilitate formation of the inclusive government, and the parliament has limited its work days due to inadequate funding.[32] While ZANU-PF’s bloc has used parliamentary procedures to stall movement, this meagre legislative record is also partly the result of the MDC-T’s own failings (see below).

Mnangagwa supporters believe that despite its problems, the inclusive government could well limp on for a full term until 2013, with Mugabe at the helm, as the constituent parties have no better alternative.[33] They consider that this would give their camp time to regroup from its failure to tilt the balance of power at the ZANU-PF December 2009 congress, when it supported the unsuccessful candidacy of ZANU-PF Women’s League chair Oppah Muchinguri to oust incumbent Vice President Joice Mujuru.[34] They hope also that, after elections, they can dominate a new coalition government through alliance with MDC-M and perhaps even some MDC-T elements.

The Mnangagwa camp and its military allies, led by Defence Forces Commander General Constantine Chiwenga, was behind the resolution at the December congress instructing Mugabe to make no further concessions on outstanding GPA issues until the MDC-T provides satisfaction on a number of ZANU-PF demands, including the removal of targeted Western sanctions against party leaders.[35]

2.  The Mujuru camp’s pragmatism

The Mujuru camp believes the successes the inclusive government has achieved and its ability to put a crimp in Mnangagwa’s presidential ambitions at the December congress have strengthened its chances to control the party and retain significant national power when Mugabe eventually retires or dies. Its dominance in the new politburo announced on 10 February 2010 by Mugabe confirmed that it is tightening its grip on the party leadership.

Mujuru supporters no longer call for Mugabe’s early exit, instead supporting him to stay until a moment of his own choosing.[36] This shift results from a conclusion that he is too strong to be forced out at present and that his continued prominence provides cover for their largely behind-the-scenes manoeuvres to consolidate their position for the eventual showdown with Mnangagwa. Consequently, the Mujurus seek to promote further achievements for the inclusive government and building lines to Tsvangirai and the MDC-T that could eventually result in a coalition. They realise that it would be difficult in the immediate term for any ZANU-PF candidate to beat Tsvangirai and the MDC-T in reasonably free and fair elections[37] but conclude that Zimbabwe is likely to need an inclusive government for at least the next decade regardless of which party does best in a national vote.[38]

This strategy requires Joice Mujuru, 54, to retain the country’s senior vice presidency, a position that gives her the inside track to ascend to the presidency if Mugabe retires or dies before the end of his term.[39] The current constitution provides that in such a contingency the senior vice president acts as head of state for a 90-day period followed by elections. The GPA stipulates that ZANU-PF would appoint a successor for the remainder of Mugabe’s term.[40] Because of her seniority, that would also favour Joice Mujuru.

In either event, the Mujuru camp considers that an alliance with Tsvangirai would be necessary to solidify Joice’s position. She herself has privately told supporters she would have no problem working with Tsvangirai in the post-Mugabe period, though in public she talks tough about the MDC-T leader. A senior ally in the ZANU-PF politiburo said, “she recognises Tsvangirai as an undeniable key player in Zimbabwe politics and in any future arrangement, hence strategic political relations are being cultivated across the party divide using the platform of the inclusive government”.[41] Cabinet ministers linked to the Mujurus have established a degree of confidential collaboration with their MDC-T counterparts and Tsvangirai to promote the reform agenda. This is still mainly preparatory and has not yet produced concrete legislative achievements, however, because the Mujurus rightly fear that to come into the open now would leave them vulnerable to criticism from the hawks within their own party.[42]

The Mujuru camp advocates a constitution providing for an executive prime minister and a president with considerably less power than at present.[43] Its assessment is that there will need to be a second inclusive government of some kind after Mugabe leaves the scene[44] and that such a constitutional arrangement would be advantageous under the two likeliest scenarios – both of which acknowledge that it may have to be content with the junior role in a partnership with Tsvangirai and the MDC-T. If the Mujurus lose the internal party battle to Mnangagwa, they might throw their support behind MDC-T in the elections and Tsvangirai as a strong prime minister in exchange for the backing of Joice as a relatively weak president. Even if the Mujurus win control of ZANU-PF, however, they doubt they could defeat Tsvangirai nationally, so the presidential post would be a reasonable second best in a political settlement to which they would bring their presumed ability to placate a critical mass of the military.[45]

A close Mujuru adviser summed up: “Tsvangirai and MDC-T would be key in any future dispensation, and our political strategies are alive to that reality”.[46]

3.  Clan politics and the Mugabe succession – the “Zezuru mafia”

The December congress that retained Mugabe at the helm of the party for another five years appeared to confirm the view that the octogenarian wants to die in office rather than face an uncertain future in retirement. Barring any major midstream leadership changes, Mugabe, who turned 86 on 21 February 2010, now seems likely to stand for re-election.[47] However, clan and regional fault lines that will influence the question of his eventual successor as party leader were also highlighted at the congress.

While Mugabe has kept his authority in the party in part by skilfully playing the Mujuru and Mnangagwa factions against each other, he has also relied heavily on the fact that the presidium – the party president, two vice presidents and the national chairman – is dominated by members of his Zezuru clan. He used that connection again in December 2009 to keep his position unassailable. In particular, the Zezuru line-up in both the presidium and politburo beat back relatively marginalised clans, mainly the Karangas led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, who believe it is their turn to have more power.[48] A key consequence of this latest round of clan politics was, therefore, the strengthening of the Mujurus’ position vis-a-vis Mnangagwa.[49]

The Zezuru dominance results from the 1980 division of Zimbabwe into ten provinces. Mashonaland (Zezuru) was cut up into four provinces: West, East, Central and Harare; Matebeleland (Ndebele) into three: North, South and Bulawayo; and Masvingo (Karanga) into only two, Masvingo and Midlands, while Manicaland (Manyika) remained undivided.[50] On any decision in ZANU-PF, the Zezuru grouping, now headed by the Mujuru camp, has a virtual veto and needs only two other provinces to carry the day. Moreover, the strength of the Mashonaland East and Central vote for ZANU-PF in past national elections has increased the leverage of the Zezurus generally and the Mujuru camp specifically.

The Karangas, who are 35 per cent of the national population to the Zezurus’ 25 per cent, received none of the top five party posts at the 2004 congress and were determined to do better in December 2009.[51] By the eve of the congress, however, it was apparent they would fail. Basil Nyabadza resigned as party chairman for Manicaland in protest at what he described as a flawed nomination process and told Crisis Group: “Some leaders are like UN permanent Security Council members”,[52] a reference to Mugabe’s rigid allocation of presidium positions based on the ZANU/ZAPU 1987 unity accord. While the congress’s rejection of the Karanga-Mnangagwa initiative and confirmation of Zezuru dominance within the party gave the Mujuru camp an edge in the succession struggle,[53] it at the same time exacerbated clan tensions that risk erupting into conflict at the national level in the post-Mugabe era.

4. Tsholotsho II

Mnangagwa, 65, has the support of the ZANU-PF leadership in Manicaland, Midlands, Masvingo and Matebeleland South, but these provinces have been MDC-T strongholds in recent elections. This suggests that he starts well behind in any three-way national contest against Tsvangirai and Joice Mujuru. He is a resilient politician, however. Despite a series of setbacks in the past ten years, he continues to marshal support and remains a serious contender for power. Having been thwarted in the campaign to bring down Joice Mujuru at the December congress, his camp is having more success in its current campaign, called Tsholotsho II,[54] to return key allies – suspended or marginalised in the aftermath of the 2004 congress defeat – to influence in party structures.[55]

A Mnangagwa supporter in the ZANU-PF politburo said, “we are creating our party within the main party – it’s one of the strategies which we are crafting to ready ourselves for the challenges ahead to win the presidency”.[56] Mnangagwa is also using his defence minister portfolio to strengthen ties to the security establishment,[57] and his emissaries have even begun to explore possible alliances with Tsvangirai and the MDC-T, or at least some elements of that party.

Nothing is impossible in politics. There are no permanent friends or enemies. All options are open for consideration. Our Plan A is for our preferred candidate to ascend to power on his own. Our Plan B is to consider how we can forge an alliance with MDC-T and Tsvangirai, though this is still a remote possibility at this juncture.[58]

B. MDC-T

1. Advancing the inclusive government

The MDC-T leadership believes that it will ultimately be judged by the electorate on its record in office. As a result, it has been focused over the past year on pushing implementation of the GPA and making the inclusive government functional. Thus, it has given relatively little attention to growing the party by building alliances and to shoring up its structures countrywide. Tsvangirai considers that a successful inclusive government would pave the way for the MDC-T to take responsibilities more firmly into its hands after fresh elections, since it can prove to sceptics that it is competent and can be entrusted with stewardship of the country. He told Crisis Group:

We are in this inclusive government to restore political and economic stability and give Zimbabwe hope for a better tomorrow and a chance for a fresh beginning, and we believe, besides the setbacks and frustration, we have managed to do that in the past year. … Zimbabweans have seen a modest peace dividend and want more. Our challenge is to deliver on that front.[59]

The decision to enter government was driven by a pragmatic assessment that Mugabe, ZANU-PF hardliners and the security forces held a monopoly of force, were willing to use it against opponents and were favoured by Mbeki, the SADC mediator. The MDC-T calculated that in those circumstances, its capacity to effect change would be greater inside than outside government, and it believes that events are proving it correct.

The party is proudest of the inclusive government’s ability to overcome obstacles put up by the ZANU-PF hardliners and its limited financial resources to record some impressive economic gains. Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the MDC-T had managed “to stop the bleeding and to bring sanity to the governance of economic affairs under very difficult circumstances. … An economy works on the basis of predictability and trust, and what we have done in the past ten months is to bring predictability, consistency and therefore some legitimacy”.[60]

Though Biti added that the recovery is fragile, and more donor support is needed to sustain the momentum for change and avoid a relapse, [61] economic stability has caused Tsvangirai’s popularity to rise. A poll by the reputable Harare-based Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) in September found that 57 per cent would vote for Tsvangirai, 10 per cent for Mugabe in new elections.[62]

Tsvangirai believes that the international community should reward progress by extending aid for reconstruction and development. “There is no dispute in everyone’s assessment that there is, indeed, progress being made in Zimbabwe, and how do you reward that progress? By moving away from just humanitarian aid to economic growth, development aid and ensuring that any existing restrictions are removed”.[63] Attempting to walk a tightrope with its ZANU-PF partners in the inclusive government, the MDC-T wants the lifting of “non-personal sanctions” – those impacting government entities vital to economic recovery, such as the Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe – but targeted measures retained on individuals who continue to block meaningful political reforms.[64] Tsvangirai has written to EU leaders, including UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, urging a general review of restrictive measures, while Biti requested the EU to free eight government companies from its sanctions.[65] On 15 February, the EU responded by renewing the sanctions regime for a year, while dropping nine companies from the list.[66]

2. The Tsvangirai/Mujuru axis

The MDC-T originally anticipated that the inclusive government would last at most two years, during which rapid political and economic reforms would be followed by fresh elections.[67] This expectation has been modified by political realities, and a senior Tsvangirai aide summed up the frustration: “You really wonder whether Mugabe is in charge. Maybe we should have directly negotiated with the military during the mediation, because they appear to be the ones calling the shots”.[68] Tsvangirai has suggested publicly that an early election might be necessary to break the impasse,[69] but this appears to be a tactic to put pressure on ZANU-PF. He realises that more time is required to democratise state institutions and put a new constitution in place, so the MDC-T may be prepared to stay in uneasy harness with ZANU-PF in the inclusive government for a full five-year term.[70]

Tsvangirai and his team are consequently taking a two-pronged approach, pushing for incremental gains on political reforms through the negotiation process, while seeking to take full charge of the economy through Biti’s finance ministry. Jameson Timba, the MDC-T deputy information and publicity minister, told Crisis Group:

We have ring-fenced the ZANU-PF economic tsar, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, and our minister, Biti, is in control. On that front, we have made huge strides because the treasury has reclaimed its power, which was not the case before. Now we are going to pitch the fight to expedite political reforms.[71]

Party strategists worry that if the inclusive government collapses before meaningful political reforms are implemented, elections would be held under the current constitution in an even more hostile environment conducive to ZANU-PF rigging than March 2008.[72] ZANU-PF hawks are mainly responsible for frustrating reforms, but the MDC-T shares blame for failing to lead in parliament, where it has not used the speakership and its plurality to initiate progressive legislation to open political space. It has not moved aggressively, for example, against restrictive laws like AIPPA and POSA. The MDC-M leadership has threatened its legislators with party expulsion if they get too close to the Tsvangirai wing of the once unified movement, and, as noted above, the Mujuru camp of ZANU-PF is not yet prepared to cooperate openly. But some MDC-T leaders in government and parliament appear satisfied with the temporary arrangement and the accompanying perks it provides. There are also allegations, as yet unproven, of corruption involving ministers and local councils the party controls.[73]

The MDC-T constitutional proposal – an executive prime minister and a weaker president – is similar to what the Mujuru camp supports, and Tsvangirai, like Joice Mujuru, has privately indicated to confidantes a willingness to work together.[74] However, Tsvangirai seeks to maximise his leverage by keeping options open, since both ZANU-PF factions are privately reaching out to him about possible post-Mugabe alliances.

MDC-T insiders told Crisis Group the past year has convinced Tsvangirai he would still need to work with some ZANU-PF elements after an electoral victory “to complete the transition and neutralise hawks in ZANU-PF and some elements in the securocrats who still control most key institutions”.[75] A close adviser said, “we would need to form a second inclusive government with some elements in ZANU-PF out of our own magnanimity to complete the transition and soft-land the crisis, even if we were to win outright in the next election”.[76] But worry about a military coup explains much of the MDC-T leadership’s interest in exploring a second inclusive government, in particular with the Mujuru camp, which commands loyalty from some influential generals.

C. MDC-M

The MDC-M faction, which has ten members of parliament, exercises limited influence and recognises that its very survival is heavily dependent on the durability of the inclusive government. While publicly stating that an early election would favour ZANU-PF, its leader, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, acknowledges that he needs the full five-year term to raise his political standing and give the splinter party time to forge new alliances that might allow it to stay relevant in the post-Mugabe era. Mutambara’s claim that he and the party play a critical unifying role in the GPA and keeping the government functional despite Mugabe’s and Tsvangirai’s often tense relationship is less than fully persuasive in view of their unhelpful role in parliament.[77] Without solid grassroots support, it is most likely that the MDC-M will eventually collapse, with some leaders rejoining the larger MDC-T, a revived ZAPU[78] or ZANU-PF, depending on which faction gains control of the old ruling party. Industry and Commerce Minster Welshman Ncube, the MDC-M power broker, would favour collaboration and an inclusive government pact with the Mnangagwa camp.[79]

IV.   The Securocrat Problem

A. Opposition to the Transition Process and Hints of a Coup

After almost a year in the inclusive government, senior MDC-T officials told Crisis Group that they believe the greatest threat to the power-sharing coalition and to the country’s stability will come from leaders of the national security services who are refusing to accept the new dispensation.[80] One said:

We can implement the GPA to the last line, but if we don’t deal with the contentious issue of the security leadership in this country, we will be haunted by it at the next elections. We will have a Madagascar-like situation if the military is left with free rein to dictate and influence key decisions with regards to political developments in the country, including national leadership.[81]

In private discussions in South Africa, Tsvangirai and other senior MDC-T officials highlighted the issue of “phased security sector reform” as his principal concern in the run-up to new elections.[82]

Most observers believe that up to twenty high-ranking security officials (the “securocrats”) maintain a de facto veto over the transition process. Among those frequently cited as hardliners are Defence Forces Commander General Constantine Chiwenga, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Central Intelligence Organisation Deputy Director General Maynard Muzariri.

In hushed conversations, MDC-T officials and civil society activists express fears that a coup could come shortly after an MDC-T electoral victory or should Mugabe die in office. Mugabe has fully backed the military leadership, his last remaining line of loyal support given his fractious party, in part by ruling out attempts to carry out a security reform program. He left no doubts about this symbiotic relationship in his closing remarks to the ZANU-PF congress on 19 December 2009:

ZANU-PF as the party of the revolution and the people’s vanguard shall not allow the security forces of Zimbabwe to be the subject of any negotiations for the so-called security sector reforms. …That is the most dependable force we could ever have, it shall not be tampered with”.

The issue of the military command was not specifically addressed in the GPA negotiations. Still, the parties agreed to establish a new coordinating body for defence and security policy, the National Security Council (NSC), that would include Tsvangirai and his two deputy prime ministers and replace the ZANU-PF-dominated, secretive and abusive Joint Operations Command (JOC).[83] Over the past decade, the JOC has been behind the strategy of repression to keep Mugabe and ZANU-PF in power. It is the instrument through which Mugabe has masterminded the rigging of elections and the continuing wave of violent farm seizures. The fact that the NSC has met only once in the past year while the supposedly defunct JOC holds numerous weekly sessions with no MDC-T participation is deeply worrying. Most recently, the JOC was reportedly behind the January decision by the ZANU-PF politburo to make no further concessions to implement the GPA until sanctions are lifted.[84]

A number of generals are now contemplating moving into full-time politics in ZANU-PF, including Chiwenga, who is eyeing a leadership position in the party’s campaign in the new elections. This pattern underlines their determination to remain at the centre of national political and economic life.[85]

B. “Soft Landing” Considerations

The motives driving the senior security leaders to undermine the transition process and the inclusive government are diverse. In the past, they have reportedly benefited from packages administered by Reserve Bank Governor Gono through so-called “quasi-fiscal measures”, as well as largesse channelled through Mugabe’s wife, Grace, and Chiwenga.[86] A number of generals have reportedly built up substantial landholdings, either personally or through family members and other proxies, as a result of farm seizures ostensibly designed to assist the rural poor. Their desire to protect these holdings is a key reason ZANU-PF is opposing implementation of the GPA requirement to conduct a comprehensive land audit, since that exercise would expose these ownership patterns. Mugabe is reportedly still sustaining the livelihoods and patronage network of a small group of generals, mainly through proceeds from the controversial private sale of diamonds being mined in abusive conditions from the Marange fields in eastern Zimbabwe and through loans extended to the military by the Chinese government.[87]

Some senior security officials fear prosecution for gross human rights abuses committed in recent repression campaigns, especially those associated with the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as decades-old abuses, such as the killing of over 20,000 mainly Ndebele-speaking people in Matebeleland in the 1980s in a campaign known as Gukurahundi. Amnesties have been granted frequently in the post-independence period, including in 1980, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1995 and 2000. The amnesty provision in 1990 provided a full pardon for security force members for any offense committed during “anti-dissident” operations “if that offence was committed in good faith for the purpose of or in connection with the restoration or maintenance of good order and public safety in Zimbabwe”.[88] Still, a number of senior security officials have quietly expressed concerns that such amnesties could be revoked under an MDC-controlled government and legislature and that these provisions do not afford protection from international prosecution.[89]

Others generals are motivated by a continuing sense of ideological fervour, viewing their acts of repression against “dissidents” and white farmers over the past three decades as simply a continuation of the liberation struggle of the pre-independence period. In the extreme, they believe that Tsvangirai and the MDC-T are mere puppets for white farmers and business interests, as well as foreign interests, especially British. They see themselves as the bulwark and Praetorian Guard of the revolutionary struggle, and thus handing over power to Tsvangirai, who has no liberation war record, would amount to selling out. One implication of this attitude is that these security officials would be loath to appear before anything resembling a truth and reconciliation commission and acknowledge their abuses, since they believe that their acts were not crimes but heroic feats to protect Zimbabwe from its enemies.

Zimbabweans across the political spectrum are increasingly debating the question of how to secure the retirement of these security officials during the life of the inclusive government.[90] Many are highly reluctant to consider any concessions to the officials, viewing them as rewards for past abuses and undercutting rule of law in a future Zimbabwe. While even these individuals see the threat from the generals, they also believe that the threat can be minimised by playing on the growing divisions between senior security officials and the rank-and-file military and police, who have themselves suffered under the economic implosion brought about by Mugabe and his cronies. Further, they doubt that concessions would have the desired effect, given the varied motivations of the generals and their scepticism regarding the permanence and utility of past amnesties.

Some suggest that security sector reform, leading to higher salaries, improved housing and educational benefits and a greater sense of pride in a professional security service, would better undercut the capacity of senior officers to use troops against a democratically-elected government.[91] Expanded international pressure on Mugabe and ZANU-PF to ensure the full functioning of the National Security Council, truly disband the Joint Operations Centre and proceed with the land audit to settle issues of ownership and compensation, if necessary, would go a long way toward diminishing the threat of the security officials.

At the same time, a number of MDC-T and MDC-M officials and human rights activists, including some who have suffered the worst of the abuses, have raised the possibility of arranging “soft landings” for the securocrats.[92] Persuading them to retire peacefully will not be easy, given their fears of the post-Mugabe era. Among the ideas being discussed is a new domestic amnesty for acts committed since the last amnesty in 2000, in exchange for the retirement of the officials, but revocable should they be found to be engaging in actions to thwart the transition to democratic governance. In keeping with past Zimbabwean practice, such an amnesty would not apply to so-called “specified offences”, such as murder, rape and theft of public property, nor would it protect the officials from international prosecution for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

Another idea being discussed is to allow the generals to keep their assets, including perhaps even their farmlands, by arranging legal transfer to them as retirement compensation, but also providing compensation to those illegally dispossessed. The U.S., EU and others could sweeten the deal by removing targeted sanctions on those who comply with its terms, since they would no longer be thwarting the transition.

It is unclear whether these measures, even in combination, would be sufficient to remove the threat posed by many of the incumbent leaders of the security forces. Having always associated the exercise of power with the use of force, they may never be satisfied that their economic interest and personal security could be adequately protected after they surrender their power.

V. The role of South Africa and SADC

Zimbabwe’s economic implosion and Mugabe’s increasingly authoritarian rule have had wide regional implications. The country traditionally was Southern Africa’s bread-basket, and its relatively modern infrastructure, extensive mining and manufacturing sectors, prosperous tourism and well-trained labour force helped anchor the region. With the end of apartheid in the early 1990s, many envisaged South Africa and Zimbabwe driving a broad regional market, complete with extensive energy and transport links. Instead, Harare has become a regional crisis and embarrassment. Up to four million Zimbabweans[93] – roughly a third of the population – have flooded across national borders due to political repression and absence of economic opportunities, affecting the stability of particularly South Africa and prompting xenophobic attacks by those fearing loss of jobs or a drain on social spending.[94] Similarly, South African business grew deeply concerned over the collapse of Zimbabwe’s mining, manufacturing, tourism and agriculture sectors and infrastructure, in all of which it has major investments.[95]

A month after the failed March 2008 elections and acting on behalf of SADC and the African Union, Thabo Mbeki launched the mediation that produced the GPA in September of that year. As described above, this mediation remains essential, because of the difficulties that immediately developed with GPA implementation and the operations of the inclusive government. Facing a political crisis at home that eventually led to his resignation as president, Mbeki did little further, but the advent of Jacob Zuma as his successor has changed the situation. While Zuma carefully refrained from challenging Mugabe or the new SADC president, the Congo’s Joseph Kabila, during the early September 2009 Kinshasa summit, he has subsequently displayed a refreshing engagement and toughness on the Zimbabwe account.[96]

In a clear break with the Mbeki team, Zuma appointed three of his most trusted and powerful advisers – international relations specialist Lindiwe Zulu, anti-apartheid veteran Mac Maharaj and former cabinet minister Charles Nqaqula – as his point-persons for the mediation process. Significantly, at SADC’s special summit on Zimbabwe in Maputo in November 2009, following the MDC-T’s suspension of its participation in the inclusive government, Zuma was reportedly firmer with Mugabe than anyone had been during the lengthy crisis, reaffirming that there was no alternative to the GPA and that a tough response would be forthcoming against any party that derailed it. “He told the three principals, including Mugabe, that with him at the helm of the mediation, it was no longer business as usual”.[97]

There is growing impatience among the South Africans with the slow pace of reform. Though it looks improbable, the mediation team indicates that all main outstanding issues should be resolved before June, when the football World Cup begins in South Africa: “We don’t want trouble in our backyard, especially this year when we host the World Cup, and our mediation team will work hard to ensure that key issues are out of the way before mid-year”.[98] The South African intelligence leadership has reinforced this message with all principals in the inclusive government,[99] and Zuma has publicly urged the three political parties in the power-sharing arrangement to resolve remaining issues in time for elections in 2011.[100]

The Zuma team considers that ZANU-PF and MDC-T have both been guilty of adding peripheral items to the negotiating agenda. Zuma has called on the principals to be more flexible and “park” a number of topics for the time being to allow progress.[101] A senior ANC executive member told Crisis Group:

The heart of the crisis in Zimbabwe centres around security issues which have closed political space and yielded disputed election outcomes for the past ten years. That’s what should consume our time in the mediation process. Getting Reserve Bank Governor Gono out today or arguing about the prime minister’s residence is not going to result in a free and fair election and a smooth transition”.[102]

Zuma’s mediation also includes an effort to deal with the securocrat problem. A selected group of retired generals from South Africa and other SADC countries are to hold discussions with senior Zimbabwean officers about the role of the military in a civilian-led government.[103] At the same time, Pretoria is working on issues related to a possible amnesty or other forms of immunity for the current security leadership in the post-Mugabe era. A senior official in the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s ruling party, explained:

The way the security leadership in Zimbabwe is handled is crucial to how a smooth transition process can be achieved. Our mediation process, as well as the main parties to the negotiations, cannot turn a blind eye to that critical element given Zimbabwe history. We can complete all the elements as outlined in the GPA, but if we don’t work on and begin to engage that sensitive issue now, it could create great instability and roll back all the gains which we would have achieved. We are very aware that is the crux of the matter, and we are exploring ways to delicately engage on this sensitive issue.[104]

In order to influence the emerging power dynamics in Zimbabwe, the Zuma administration has also deepened its relations with Tsvangirai and the MDC-T, while privately urging ZANU-PF to consolidate and clarify its own party succession plan.[105] A member of the ANC executive told Crisis Group that because his party was doubtful there would be a smooth political settlement after another round of elections or a Mugabe exit, it was drawing on its experience in ending apartheid to encourage a private dialogue between moderates in ZANU-PF and the MDC-T with a view to building support for a coalition government after the polls regardless of who wins.[106]

SADC as an organisation has continued to defer to South Africa on Zimbabwe policy, while calling for strict adherence to the GPA, continued negotiations on outstanding issues, new foreign assistance and investment and a lifting of Western sanctions. Many in Zimbabwe believe that only Zuma, among current southern African leaders, has the mix of political stature and revolutionary credentials to take a tough, effective line with Mugabe. While Mugabe is reportedly surprised and angered at his treatment by Zuma, recent progress, though slow and inconsistent, suggests the approach can work. Aware of the impact of Zimbabwe’s continuing crisis on his own country’s economic and social conditions, there are strong reasons for the South African president to remain engaged once the World Cup is over and indeed to adopt the even more assertive approach to the mediation and the parties that may be necessary to resolve the crisis.

VI. Conclusion

Zimbabwe remains at risk from the long legacy of misgovernment that produced the interlocking political, economic and humanitarian crises of the past decade. In addition to the challenges of governance and security highlighted in this briefing, any of a wide range of problems, singly or in common, could return it to the edge of collapse, particularly as long as Robert Mugabe remains head of state and his long-time ruling ZANU-PF party maintains its intransigent stance. The reformist MDC, split into sharply opposed factions, has performed reasonably in government, but has not seized the impetus for reform that seemed possible after it gained a parliamentary majority in 2008.

But despite its internal contradictions, the widely divergent ambitions of its three participating parties and the reluctance of donors to fully embrace it, the unity government has important achievements to its credit. The economy has gained a degree of stability, arbitrary political violence has been reduced, and a dialogue continues, with South African mediation, on the major political, constitutional and electoral issues. Even a bitterly divided ZANU-PF implicitly acknowledges the need for a generational change, and at least one of its two main contenders for Mugabe’s mantle is well into exploration of ways to come to terms with the main MDC wing and the transition process.

South Africa’s role remains vital, especially now that Jacob Zuma is bringing to it a more even-handed and energetic quality of engagement. Western governments need to offer complementary financial as well as political assistance, including the maintenance of targeted sanctions on the spoilers and the selective removal of corporate sanctions that stand in the way of economic growth. Above all, Zimbabweans themselves – both the parties in the inclusive government and broader civil society – must put the legacy of “divide-and-rule” politics behind them and learn basic lessons of cooperation essential for a successful democratic transition.

Harare/Pretoria/Nairobi/Brussels, 3 March 2010

[2] The Global Political Agreement (GPA), which gave birth to the formation of the inclusive government, was signed on 15 September 2008. See Crisis Group Africa Briefing N°59, Engaging the Inclusive Government, April 2009.

[3] Zimbabwe Budget Statement 2010, 16 October 2009.

[4] “Biti allocates IMF U.S. $510 Million to Fiscus, Productive Sector”, The Herald, 30 September 2009.

[5] “Principals agree on Commission”, The Herald, 11 December 2009. Commission memberships were announced four days later.

[6] Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF lead negotiator and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Harare, 4 January 2010.

[7] Crisis Group interview, member, MDC-T National Executive Council, Harare, 6 January 2010.

[8] Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF lead negotiator and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Harare, 4 January 2010.

[9] “Constitutional outreach kick off”, The Zimbabwe Standard, 10 January 2010.

[10] Crisis Group interview, Ernest Mudzengi, coordinator, National Constitutional Assembly, Harare, 8 January 2010.

[11] Crisis Group interview, Paul Mangwana, ZANU-PF co-chairman, Constitutional Review Committee, Harare, 7 January 2010.

[12] Booklet on ZANU-PF position on the constitution-drafting process, February 2010, shown to Crisis Group.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Crisis Group interviews, senior MDC-T officials, 4-8 January 2010.

[16] A Gallup International poll released on 18 January 2010 indicated that Mugabe’s support is only slightly greater: 25 per cent.

[17] See Sections IV and V below.

[18] See GPA, preamble, p. 2.

[19] Crisis Group interviews, ZANU-PF politburo member, Harare, 23 December 2009; intelligence official, Harare, 21 December 2009.

[20] Mugabe and the Mujurus belong to the same Zezuru clan. As discussed below, this clan, and not Mnangagwa’s Karangas, tends to dominate key ZANU-PF offices and institutions. Solomon Mujuru also played a vital role during the liberation struggle in persuading fighters to accept Mugabe’s rise to the party leadership.

[21] Crisis Group interviews, ZANU-PF politburo members and intelligence and military officers, Harare, 9-29 September 2009, 23 December 2009-10 January 2010.

[22] “Principals agree on appointment on Permanent Secretaries”, The Herald, 30 March 2009.

[23] Crisis Group interview, MDC-T cabinet minister, Harare, 21 November 2009.

[24] “Permanent Secretaries usurp Ministers Powers”, ZimOnline, 10 January 2010.

[25] “When leaders prove they are a big joke”, The Zimbabwe Independent, 8 October 2009.

[26] Crisis Group interview, Harare, 7 January 2010.

[27] Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF member of the commissariat department, Harare, 17 September 2009.

[28] Ibid.

[29] Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF politburo member, Pretoria, 12 January 2010.

[30] “Tsvangirai rejects Mugabe directive”, The Zimbabwe Independent, 4 February 2010.

[31] Crisis Group interview, senior military official, Harare, 2 January 2010.

[32] Crisis Group interview, Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo, Harare, 17 September 2009.

[33] Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF politburo member, Harare, 2 January 2010.

[34] “Mnangagwa faction crushed”, The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 December 2009.

[35] “Congress resolves that our negotiators cease to entertain any discussion on or negotiation of the resolution relating to the appointment of the governor of the Reserve Bank, Attorney General and the provincial governors as these issues fall outside the purview of the Global Political Agreement and have their solid statutory origins that protect them. There should be no movement on the concerns of the MDC formations without corresponding and simultaneous redress of ZANU-PF’s concerns such as the illegal western sanctions, western funded radio broadcasts and western interference in Zimbabwean internal politics through the funding of parallel government structures”. ZANU-PF Congress Resolutions, 13-15 December 2009. “No more outstanding issues”, The Herald, 10 August 2009. Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF politburo member, Harare, 25 September 2009.

[36]?Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF politburo member, Harare, 23 September 2009; “ZANU-PF endorses Mugabe for President”, The Herald, 12 September 2009.

[37] Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF politburo member and adviser to Mujuru faction, Harare, 11 September 2009.

[38] Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF politburo member linked to Mujuru faction, Pretoria, 11 February 2010.

[39] At the ZANU-PF congress, the Mujurus obtained the endorsement of all the party’s provincial leaders for Joice to keep her position in the face of the Mnangagwa-Muchinguri challenge.

[40] See GPA, p. 3.

[41] Crisis Group interview, senior ZANU-PF politburo member linked to Mujuru faction, Harare, 2 January 2010.

[42] Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF cabinet minister linked to Mujuru camp, Harare, 17 September 2009.

[43] Crisis Group interview, member of Mujuru advisory group, Harare, 21 September 2009.

[44] “Given the political dynamics evolving, it is inevitable that there would be need for a second inclusive government post-Mugabe, regardless of which party or faction wins [elections]”. Crisis Group interview, member of Mujuru camp advisory group, Harare, 22 September 2009.

[45] Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF politburo member linked to Mujuru faction, Harare, 16 September 2009.

[46] Crisis Group interview, member of Mujuru camp advisory group, Harare, 22 September 2009.

[47] The ZANU-PF constitution states that the president of the party is automatically its candidate for the national presidency in an election called during his or her tenure, though the individual can choose to step down rather than perform this obligation.

[48] The Zezuru, Karanga and Manyika clans make up the Shona-speaking bloc in Zimbabwe. The other major linguistic grouping is that of the Ndebele from the Matebeleland provinces.

[49] The politburo is the party’s supreme policy-making body, made up of 40 members appointed by Mugabe in consultation with the presidium. Joice Mujuru is a leading member of both the presidium and the politburo. In addition to her and Mugabe, the other members of the presidium are Vice President John Nkomo and National Chairman Simon Moyo, both Ndebeles who owe their positions to the ZANU-PF/ZAPU 1987 Unity Accord.

[50] See “Zimbabwe National Geographical Map”, p. 11, local government and rural development ministry.

[51] Mugabe also regularly gives members of his tribe a large portion of key government, military and parastatal positions.

[52] Crisis Group interview, Harare, 22 December 2009.

[53] The Mujuru camp, with all four Zezuru-speaking Mashonaland provinces voting as a bloc, created alliances with the Matebeleland provinces to control the presidium elections.

[54] Tsholotsho I is the name given to the effort that former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo reportedly spearheaded in 2004 to defeat Joice Mujuru’s nomination to the ZANU-PF presidium.

[55] Among those in key party positions are former ZANU-PF lead negotiator and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa; former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo; Manicaland provincial chairman Mark Madiro (Nyabadza’s successor); former Matebeleland North Chairman Jacob Mudenda; Headman Moyo; Midlands Central Committee member and key adviser July Moyo; Deputy Minister for Energy Power Development Hubert Nyanhongo; war veterans leaders Jabulani Sibanda and Joseph Chinotimba; youth leader Edison Chakanyuka; former Masvingo provincial governor Josiah Hungwe; and Women’s League leaders Oppah Muchinguri, Shuvai Mahofa and Mabel Chinomona. A majority of key government bureaucrats are also linked to Mnangagwa including the chief secretary to the president and cabinet, Misheck Sibanda.

[56] Crisis Group interview, Harare, 7 January 2010.

[57] Ibid.

[58] Crisis Group interview, ZANU-PF politburo member linked to Mnangagwa, Harare, January 2010. An intelligence officer offered a slightly different take, saying that Mnangagwa seeks to weaken Tsvangirai’s presidential chances by forging an alliance with the MDC-M and splitting the MDC-T. Crisis Group interview, Harare, 9 January 2010.

[59] Crisis Group interview, Johannesburg, 30 November 2009.

[60] Crisis Group interview, Harare, 22 September 2009.

[61] Ibid.

[62] See Mass Public Opinion Institute Survey, September 2009.

[63] Crisis Group interview, Johannesburg, 10 October 2009.

[64] Crisis Group interview, member, MDC-T National Executive Council, Pretoria, 7 November 2009.

[65] Crisis Group interview, Western diplomat, Harare, 8 January 2010.

[66] “EU renews sanctions on Mugabe and his cronies”, voanews
.com, 15 February 2010. The EU cited lack of speed in implementing the GPA and reforms as the basic for retaining the sanctions regime. The U.S. announced on 1 March that it would also continue its sanctions regime for another year. “U.S. extends Zim sanctions for another year”, Agence France-Presse, 2 March 2010.

[67] Crisis Group interview, Johannesburg, 10 October 2009.

[68] Crisis Group interview, Pretoria, 9 October 2009.

[69] “Tsvangirai says early elections could solve Zimbabwe’s political problems”, voanews.com, 5 February 2010.

[70] Crisis Group interview, member, MDC-T National Executive Council, Harare, 3 January 2010.

[71] Crisis Group telephone interview, 6 January 2010.

[72] Crisis Group interview, member, MDC-T National Executive Council, Harare, 4 January 2010.

[73] “MDC-T Ministers under probe”, The Zimbabwe Independent, 15 January 2010.

[74] Ibid.

[75] Crisis Group interview, Harare, 24 September 2009.

[76] Crisis Group interview, Pretoria, 10 October 2009.

[77] Crisis Group interview, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, Harare, 21 November 2009.

[78] ZAPU is led by Dumiso Dabengwa, a former ZANU-PF politburo member who quit the party to revive the movement that was once led by the late Joshua Nkomo and merged with ZANU-PF in the 1987 Unity Accord.

[79] Crisis Group telephone interview, MDC-M National Executive Council member, 20 January 2010. An electoral alliance with ZAPU to undercut MDC-T support in Matebeleland provinces is also said to be under consideration.

[80] Crisis Group interview, Harare, 4 January 2010.

[81] Ibid. The Madagascar military forced the elected president, Marc Ravalomanana, from office in 2009 and installed opposition leader Andry Rajoelina.

[82] Crisis Group interview, senior official, South Africa international relations and cooperation department, 11 December 2009.

[83] Crisis Group interview, intelligence officer, Harare, 7 January 2010. The JOC is a national security organ chaired by Mugabe. Its membership includes the two vice presidents, the heads of the army, air force, intelligence, police and Reserve Bank, and the defence, state security, and home affairs ministers. It was inherited at independence from the Smith regime.

[84] “No further concessions until sanctions lifted”, The Herald, 1 February 2010.

[85] Crisis Group interview, senior military official, Harare, 8 January 2010.

[86] Crisis Group interview, senior military officer, Harare, 7 January 2010.

[87] Crisis Group interview, senior official, finance ministry, Harare, 3 January 2010.

[88] See “Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace”, The Legal Resources Foundation and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), a March 1997 report on the 1980-1989 disturbances in Matebeleland and the Midlands.

[89] Crisis Group interviews, senior military officer, ZANU-PF politburo member, Harare, 7 January 2010.

[90] Crisis Group interviews, senior MDC-T, MDC-M, ZANU-PF and civil society leaders, Harare, December 2009, January 2010.

[91] Crisis Group interview, member of MDC-T National Executive Council, Pretoria, 11 February 2010.

[92] Crisis Group interviews and discussions, Zimbabwe, November 2009, January 2010.

[93] “Four million Zimbabweans living in diaspora”, The Business Day, 16 December 2009.

[94] “Xenophobic attacks ignite in Cape Town”, The Star, 27 November 2009.

[95] “South Africa seeks investment protection with Zimbabwe”, The Business Day, 11 December 2009.

[96] Crisis Group interview, senior official, South Africa international relations and cooperation department, Pretoria, 21 December 2009.

[97] Ibid.

[98] Crisis Group interview, senior official, South Africa international relations and cooperation department, Pretoria, 12 January 2010.

[99] Ibid.

[100] “Zuma pushes for early election”, The Zimbabwe Standard, 10 January 2010.

[101] “Zuma calls for Tsvangirai to be flexible”, The Pretoria News, 15 January 2010.

[102] Crisis Group interview, member, ANC national executive, Pretoria, 16 January 2010.

[103] Ibid.

[104] Crisis Group interview, Pretoria, 20 December 2009.

[105] Ibid.

[106] Crisis Group interview, Pretoria, 15 January 2010.

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Thursday the inter-party talks had reached a deadlock and were “going nowhere.” Biti called for South Africa and SADC to intervene.

• President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday the extension of targeted sanctions by the EU was a deliberate ploy by the West to undermine development in the country. But he said he would not breach the power-sharing agreement and pull out of the unity government over the issue of sanctions, stating it would be “stupid of us to do so.” The EU extended targeted sanctions by 12 months, but removed six individuals and nine companies from the list.

• South African President Jacob Zuma said the sanctions against Mugabe and his allies were hurting his efforts to create conditions for free and fair elections. Zuma has said the only solution to the outstanding issues in the unity government is a free and fair vote.

• In his 86th birthday broadcast on Saturday, Mugabe defended the law requiring foreign companies to cede 51 percent stake to locals, undermining Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s statement that the law was unworkable and would scare off foreign investors. Mugabe said the law was “irreversible,” and wise investors would continue to put money into the country.

• Members of a US congressional delegation met Thursday with Mugabe and Biti to discuss progress in the inter-party talks. Biti said after the meeting he hoped the delegation would recommend amendments to the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic and Recovery Act, the basis for U.S. travel and financial sanctions.

• Gregory Meeks, leader of the US delegation, said the meeting with Mugabe was “very constructive,” and he “looked forward to working with him.” The delegation, however, said Zimbabwe still had a long way to go in restoring political and economic stability.

• Five new ambassadors and high commissioners belonging to the MDC were on Wednesday officially appointed. This is the first time in thirty years that ambassadors outside Zanu-PF have been appointed by Mugabe.

Governance

• More than two thousand civil servants marched in Harare on Friday and presented signed petitions to Parliament and the offices of finance. The workers are demanding an increase from the current US$150 to US$630. They have vowed to continue with the strike until the government comes up with a better wage offer.

• Zimbabwe’s police force has been ordered to join the civil servants’ strike, despite a law that uniformed forces are not allowed to take industrial action.

• The Zimbabwe/Botswana Joint Permanent Commission will meet in Victoria Falls next week to discuss the diplomatic stand-off between the two countries after the arrest of three Botswana game rangers who accidentally crossed into Zimbabwe. The commission will sit from Monday to Friday.

• China will not provide Zimbabwe with any further loans until it settles its existing debts, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said. Harare owes Beijing an undisclosed amount in unpaid loans given to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority and the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company.

Business

• The Affirmative Action Group said starting next month it would go from factory to factory in cities to help the government enforce the controversial indigenization regulations for black majority control of companies.

• The South African-based company Impala Platinum threatened to call-off any further “expansionary investment” in Zimbabwe pending clarification over the new indigenization policy.

• Two senior managers at the beleaguered Nestle plant in Harare have claimed they were fired for being black, allegations that will likely afford Mugabe’s supporters an opportunity to launch fresh attacks against the company.

• Zimbabwe’s second largest hotelier Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) plans to double its room capacity in the next two years to take advantage of an expected rise in the number of visitors to the region, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

• Harare is the toughest city to live in, according to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU ranked Harare last out of 140 cities surveyed in its 2010 livability survey, due to the country’s ongoing social and economic crisis.

Economy

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week restored Zimbabwe’s voting rights after a seven-year suspension for unpaid debts. But the country is still ineligible for loans until it has paid off the US$1.3 billion it owes in arrears. The IMF said it had restored the country’s voting rights after a request by Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

• The Central Statistical Office (CSO) announced Thursday a 4.7 percent increase in prices in the past two months, but it said the rolling three month average at 1.5 percent is still far from hyperinflation levels.

• Hwange Thermal Power Station has suffered a complete loss of generation, which will likely lead to acute power deficits in the country. A series of faults on the regional power grid left Hwange unable to produce any power. Most cities have for the past week experienced prolonged electricity cuts, sometimes lasting more than 24 hours.

• UNICEF has said that it will stop supplying local authorities with water purification chemicals in March this year, the reason undisclosed.

• The country will look to the Diaspora to help raise US$50 million to help finance the rebuilding of the economy. The floating of a Diaspora Bond will serve as a means to recruit the resources of Zimbabweans abroad in the reconstruction of the country. The bond was first suggested last year in July, but it was put on hold for administrative reasons.

• Tollgates on Zimbabwe’s major roads are earning the government US$1.7 million every month, Transport Minister Nicholas Goche told parliament on Wednesday. Goche said close to US$7 million was raised in the first four months of the tollgates being introduced.

Agriculture

• At least 5 000 families were evicted from their homes and jobs on commercial farms in 2009, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

• The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) of Zimbabwe has issued a report charging that at least 16 Supreme Court and High Court judges have been given property seized from white farmers under the land reform programme, compromising their judicial objectivity in those cases.

• Resettled farmers have allegedly confessed that their participation in the land seizure programme was as a result of spite towards the white community, and not to cultivate the land.

• 77 million kilograms of tobacco was sold on Tuesday, an increase from 56 million sold last year. The increase was due to firming prices in the industry and an increase in the number of farmers.

Law

• The treason trial of Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett resumed on Monday. It was put on hold two weeks ago due to the civil servants’ strike.

• Zimbabwe’s constitutional revision process has stalled again, this time over a disagreement between the government and donors supporting the project through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Donors are demanding increased accountability, but Zanu-PF is accusing them of trying to hijack the redrafting process.

• The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs last week heard that government must repeal the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) instead of amending it. The committee is conducting nationwide consultations on the oppressive law that limits freedom of expression and association.

• The Zimbabwe police on Thursday night brutally assaulted more than twenty Great Zimbabwe University students in Masvingo who had on Wednesday supported the repeal of POSA.

• The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said last week it was seeking to give voting rights to prisoners and ill persons. ZESN, encouraged by recent reforms to the country’s electoral law, said it would push for other changes to the Electoral Act to give all Zimbabweans a say in the country’s future.

Media

• The new Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) launched on Friday, amid hopes it will help reform the media industry in Zimbabwe. But there are questions over the organisation’s commitment to instituting these reforms.

• Zimbabwe has the highest number of journalists in Africa who have been forced into exile during the past decade, many of whom had to abandon journalism as a career, according to the latest report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based media protection group.

Violence

• Armed members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) this week forced the closure of Victoria High School in Masvingo, ordering teachers who were conducting lessons to join the civil servants’ strike. The state agents brutally assaulted and injured six of the teachers.

• Six car loads of ZANU-PF youths on Sunday attacked a Movement for Democratic Change rally at Epworth, a very poor district on the outskirts of Harare. Reliable reports confirm many residents were badly injured by axe and club attacks, which continued into the early hours of Monday morning, with the militia systematically targeting the homes of known MDC members.

Cholera

• Health officials said Wednesday cholera had killed nine people in the southern district of Mwenezi, and said it appeared to be spreading to neighboring regions. A further eight cases were under treatment in the area. Medical teams have been dispatched to contain the disease.

Wildlife

• Zimbabwe game rangers last week killed a Zambian poacher and arrested eight others after a shoot-out in a wildlife park in Binga, north of the country. The game rangers said they recovered twenty elephant tusks, rifles and other arms from the poachers.

Diamonds

• The Supreme Court has ordered the government to stop mining operations at the Chiadzwa diamond fields, which legally belongs to African Consolidated Resources (ACR).

• ACR’s lawyers have filed a complaint against a senior police officer over his role in the seizure of diamonds from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe offices. The company’s attorneys say Police Assistant Commissioner Freedom Gumbo’s conduct amounted to “contempt of court, abuse of authority and robbery”.

• Authorities said Wednesday they had accepted the nomination of Abbey Chikane, head of the South African Diamond Board, as Kimberley Process monitor for the Chiadzwa fields in a key step toward Zimbabwe exporting diamonds from the fields.

• Mugabe last week threatened to defy the Kimberley Process, saying the country’s diamonds can be sold “elsewhere.” His comments will likely further dissuade potential donors.

• Russian mining company DTZ OZEGO is allegedly secretly mining diamonds at Charleswood Estate, a large commercial farm in Chimanimani confiscated from Roy Bennett. The company is working with senior Zanu-PF officials who have kept the entire operation under wraps. The Center for Research and Development made a site visit to the estate and claims mining activities have been going on for a year now.

The Good News

• A wildlife trust was recently launched in Zimbabwe to help further the conservation of wildlife and wildlife habitats. The Animal and Wildlife Area Research and Rehabilitation (AWARE) Trust will offer services such as free veterinary treatment to wild animals and facilitate conservation and education campaigns around animal health and welfare.

• Zimbabwe’s prisons have seen a 93 percent drop in the death rate and are now under-populated by 24 percent, Deputy Justice Minister Jessie Majome revealed in parliament last week. Prior to the formation of the unity government, Amnesty International said 1,000 prisoners were dying every six months in Zimbabwe’s overcrowded prisons.

• Jonathan Moyo was passed over for promotion to the new Zanu-PF Politburo lineup. The spin-doctor was hoping to become either information secretary or to head the party’s commissariat. The central committee was reportedly wary of trusting political chameleon Moyo enough to be part of the party’s inner circle.

• The EU has decided to extend targeted sanctions until 2011 against Mugabe and Zanu-PF elite, official sources said in Brussels on Friday. The decision was based on a “shortage of sufficient progress” in the implementation of the GPA. But the EU food security co-coordinator in Zimbabwe Pierre-Luc Vanhaeverbeke said it would continue to support efforts to revive Zimbabwe’s economy and provide humanitarian assistance.

• The MDC announced on Friday the inter-party talks on the GPA had reached a deadlock and now required the intervention of SADC. MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said if the deadlock persists, the only solution is free and fair elections.

• But the South African mediation team contradicted this on Sunday, saying the coalition parties were still in negotiations. President Jacob Zuma’s International Relations Adviser and team member Lindiwe Zulu said they had successful meetings in Zimbabwe.

• Meanwhile a new report released on Friday by the Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism (CISOMM) said the unity government had not delivered on its promises, failing to resolve the land dispute, transitional justice, human rights and institutional reform. The report said the unity government has instead become a “talk-shop”.

• Amnesty International (AI) on Wednesday called on the unity government to fulfill its promise to reform state institutions, in a bid to end continuing human rights abuses. AI said that without genuine reform, the abuse would likely persist.

• President Robert Mugabe has withdrawn a directive to ministers and permanent secretaries to report to his deputies after protests by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Arthur Mutambara when they met last Friday. The directive was made through a circular dated January 25 by the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda.

Governance

• The civil servants’ strike for a quadrupling of wages has reportedly been encouraged by Zanu-PF. Off-duty officers in the armed forces and police were ordered to join the demonstrations in civilian clothes. Zanu-PF youths and soldiers allegedly raided several schools and government institutions in Masvingo Province to enforce the strike. The MDC has accused Zanu-PF of politicizing the strike in an effort to wreck the fragile coalition government. The civil service is being paid in US$, supplemented by donor funds to support essential services, but these funds will not cover any increases. The civil servants say that revenue from the Marange diamond fields should be used to improve salaries and working conditions.

• Prison labour is being exchanged for maize grain to feed inmates at Guruve Prison. A senior prison officer said senior government officers and Zanu-PF officials were using prisoners as ‘slave’ labour on their farms in exchange for maize. The government is mandated to provide food for prisoners.

• The government is to review the salaries of top earning parastatal bosses in an attempt to pacify the civil servants currently on strike. The strike has exposed some utilities who pay their employees as much as US$5 000 a month.

• The ongoing constitution-making process has become illegitimate and confusing, National Constitutional Assembly Chairperson Lovemore Madhuku said on Thursday. Madhuku said the process was not “people-driven” as planned, criticizing politicians for their “power-hungry motives.”

• The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is reported to have purchased around 200 Nissan twin cab trucks for as yet unexplained reasons. Observers say the agency spent approximately US$5 million.

Business

• The new regulation that requires businesses to hand over at least 51 per cent ownership to indigenous Zimbabweans will be enforced from March 1, with jail penalties of up to five years. Minister of Indigenisation Saviour Kasukuwere said the regulation would not be reversed, despite the MDC’s call to withdraw the “destructive policy.” Tsvangirai allegedly said the gazette had been made without his knowledge.

• Zimbabwe’s biggest international investment conference since the formation of the unity government started in Harare. The Africa investor (Ai) Pan-African Tourism and Infrastructure Investment Summit runs until Thursday, with an aim to discuss tourism strategies, investment opportunities and tourism infrastructure development to help Zimbabwe benefit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

• The tourism sector is projected to grow by 10 percent this year, underpinned by a stimulus package, Tourism and Hospitality Minister Walter Mzembi said on Friday. Mzembi said investment was crucial to growth.

Economy

• A project aimed at alleviating the water in shortage in Bulawayo has finally started, but the laying of the pipeline from the 99% full Mtshabezi Dam is underfunded by more than US$18 million. Only 2km of pipeline has been laid of the 33km needed to connect Mtshabezi to the city’s main supply dam, Ncema.

Agriculture

• The European Union (EU) announced a US$13 million funding scheme to assist smallholder communal farmers. Head of the EU Delegation in Zimbabwe Xavier Marchal said the rehabilitation of the agricultural sector is crucial to Zimbabwe’s economic revival. The scheme will run till 2012.

• A state newspaper Manica Post said on Friday the government had allegedly banned all food handouts by NGOs.  The decision was announced by Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who said the main motivation was agricultural rehabilitation.

• Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo and Information minister Webster Shamu are allegedly leasing out their farms to former white commercial farmers, Mashonaland West secretary for lands and resettlement Temba Mliswa said. Chombo and Shamu are reportedly part of a scam involving senior Zanu-PF officials subletting more than 30 farms in the province. Mliswa also said Chombo and Shamu were multiple-farm owners.

• The Commercial Farmers Union reported that ‘at least’ 16 judges have so far benefited from the chaotic and violent land reforms.

• Zimbabwe’s commercial farmers will ask the SADC Tribunal to set guidelines on ‘fair compensation’ due to farmers for land lost under the land distribution programme. The Southern African Commercial Farmers’ Union (SACFA) supported the initiative.

Humanitarian

• US$500 million is needed in food aid amid a serious drought that has hit the country. Tsvangirai said a government response to the food shortage was urgently needed. He said the government would have a mid-term plan to import food by June or July.

Violence

• MDC transport manager Pascal Gwezere, who was recently released after being abducted from his home in October, said he was tortured while in custody. He said his torturers were often drunk when interrogating him, and used a variety of torture methods such as tying his genitals with strong cotton thread and threatening to bury him alive.

Law

• Mugabe’s war veterans on Friday had a run in with riot police when they were found digging up the Zimbabwe Ruins, allegedly to exhume remains of bodies of fighters of the liberation struggle, which they said had been buried there. The ruins are the most important historical monument in the country and a prime tourist attraction in Masvingo.

• Two senior police officers and an ex-policeman were last week arrested after they were accused of violating the Official Secrets Act by leaking police information to the MDC.

• The civil servants’ strike forced the postponement of Deputy Minister of Agriculture (designate) Roy Bennett’s treason trial. The trial was deferred for the duration.

Media

• Distributors of UK-based newspaper The Zimbabwean were arrested on Friday and charged with publishing “falsehoods prejudicial to the state.” Media groups pointed out that distributors are not publishers and have decried the charges, saying they demonstrate the coalition government’s insincerity about media reforms.

• A Mexican journalist was arrested Friday while filming tourist facilities in southern Zimbabwe. Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi said the unnamed journalist had been cleared by the Zimbabwean government to film attractions in Masvingo ahead of the FIFA World Cup.

• A three-member cabinet team led by Vice-President John Nkomo has been tasked to summon editors from the state and independent media to urgently discuss ‘hate speech’ in the media.

Diamonds

• The diamonds removed from the Reserve Bank on the orders of Mines Minister Obert Mpofu last week are still unaccounted for. The missing diamonds are part of a collection that was mined by the UK based mining firm Africa Consolidated Resources. “We don’t know where they (the diamonds) are,” ACR’s lawyer, Jonathan Samkange said, “The police robbed the central bank.”

• Zimbabwe’s House Committee on Mines warned government officials that they risk being charged with corruption and sentenced to prison if they keep mismanaging the Marange diamond fields.

• Two executives of Canadile Miners, a South African mining firm, were arrested in Zimbabwe on Tuesday on charges of stealing diamonds from Marange. They were reportedly found with 57 diamonds worth R280 000. Canadile’s board members include diamond smugglers from the Congo and mercenaries from Sierra Leone.

Health

• A four-member delegation from Tanzania arrived in Zimbabwe on Sunday to study how the country administers the Aids levy. Zimbabwe has used the National Aids Trust Fund (NATF) – funded through a taxpayer levy in 2000 – to implement a successful campaign against the disease. The National Aids Council which delivers services has in the past been accused of holding on to funds. In Zimbabwe the treatment gap is huge with only 180 000 of the 600 000 people in need of ARVs accessing the life-saving drugs.

• Zimbabwe’s Health Minister Henry Madzorera on Tuesday acknowledged improvements in the country’s health delivery system but said it is still in “high dependence unit” and would remain so until the international community increased funding.

• Water Resources, Development and Management minister Samuel Nkomo has accused two mining companies and Zesa (the electricity supply utility) of releasing toxic waste into a Hwange river, posing a serious health hazard to villagers, livestock and wildlife. He said he would continue to “monitor” the situation.

Diaspora

• Hundreds of Zimbabweans were on Friday evicted from Chambers Building in Johannesburg central after the property was deemed unsuitable for human occupancy. The residents were left stranded after they were ordered to vacate the property immediately.

• Refugee rights group PASSOP said last week that Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa are given “selective assistance” by organisations meant to help them. The group’s Braam Hanekom said the organisations, funded or mandated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), have refused to help some Zimbabweans and acted “maliciously” towards displaced Zimbabweans in De Doorns in the Western Cape.

Wildlife

• Zimbabwe could face sanctions at the upcoming Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference in Qatar in March for its failure to control poaching of wildlife, especially of the endangered rhino, the Convention’s secretary general Willem Wijnstekers warned. Wijnstekers, in Harare after a fact-finding tour, also charged that Zimbabwean security forces are spearheading poaching of elephants and rhinos in the country.

• The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park Initiative joining Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South African national parks is under threat as villagers illegally living inside Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park have vowed to stay put, demanding compensation from Zanu-PF for broken promises. At least 1000 families have accused Zanu-PF of abusing them for political gain.

The Good News

• Nobody was arrested when members of WOZA and MOZA held their annual Valentine’s Day march in Bulawayo and Harare, distributing ‘protest Valentine’ cards and red roses during the peaceful march.

• Zimbabwe’s biggest cell phone operator Econet Wireless is asking its more than three million subscribers to help raise aid for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Subscribers wanting to help will donate US$0.89 for every text message sent.

• The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) last week donated communication equipment to the government, in order to improve the response to disease outbreaks in remote areas. The equipment will be used to bridge the communication gap between rural health centres and district hospitals.

• Inter-party talks were again adjourned on Wednesday and are expected to resume in two weeks.

• MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said that the party is losing patience and allegedly wants to declare a deadlock in its negotiations with Zanu-PF. It plans to refer the agenda to SADC and South African President Jacob Zuma. The MDC appears to be standing its ground on key issues it wants resolved despite a plea by Zuma last week that it be ‘flexible’.

• The MDC (Tsvangirai formation) last week lost its majority in the Lower House of Assembly. It is now left with 95 seats, one less than Zanu-PF’s 96 seats. The MDC-M (Mutambara formation) holds 8 seats, and normally votes with MDC-T (Tsvangirai formation).

• A senior British diplomat in Harare said on Friday the UK wants to see the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), as well as human rights and economic reforms, before it backs the lifting of sanctions.

Political Violence

• Gangs of Zanu-PF-sponsored thugs, led by the son of MP Aquiline Katsande, are terrorising villagers in the Mudzi district. George Katsande has threatened to shoot anyone supporting the MDC, adding that he is ‘above the law’.

Economy/Business

• Zimbabwe’s economy appears to be recovering from its disastrous collapse over the last 10 years. Economic analysts say prospects of opening new a business in Zimbabwe are better compared to previous years as the business environment has improved. According to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, the manufacturing sector’s operation has improved to about 35%.

• Mwana Africa, a mining company based in Johannesburg and London, has led a resurgence in mining exploration, which had virtually come to a standstill before the government of national unity was installed early last year. Mwana Africa PLC is a pan-African, multi-commodity resources company.  Its principal operations and exploration activities cover gold, nickel and other base metals, and diamonds in Zimbabwe, the DRC, South Africa and Ghana. Mwana was the first African owned and managed mining business to be listed on London’s AIM market.

• However, critical to Zimbabwe’s recovery is a return to the rule of law and economic openness.  Zimbabwe was in 2009 ranked 178 out of 179 countries in the Index of Economic Freedom, which ranks countries according to criteria in both categories. Zimbabwe was in the same position in 2008.

• Workers at the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) are threatening to strike after not being paid since November 2009. Tourism officials meanwhile have admitted that there are hardly any passenger coaches in service.

• Zimbabwe is currently negotiating with Botswana over the building of a fuel pipeline linking Harare with Francistown. The pipeline is aimed to be a continuation from the existing Harare-Beira pipeline, which Zimbabwe uses to import its fuel. Botswana also wants to import electricity by financing the rehabilitation of Bulawayo’s long-mothballed thermal power station.

• The national fuel distribution parastatal, NOCZIM (which has not been audited for 20 years or more) is being restructured by the new Minister of Energy, Elias Mudzuri, to resume its original role as sector regulator and developer. The Minister said that NOCZIM should restrict its market operations to just retailing fuel, instead of crowding out competition by being distributor, wholesaler and retailer.

Diamonds

• The government has sent evaluators to monitor diamond production and sales at Chiadzwa to ensure operations at the controversial diamond field comply with Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) requirements.

Agricultural Sector

• South African civil rights movement AfriForum has served papers on the Zimbabwean government over its land-seizure programme. The High Court in Pretoria issued an order last week granting three farmers leave to add the Zimbabwean government to an application to register in South Africa the 2008 SADC Tribunal ruling against the seizures.

• A Rusape commercial farmer was arrested on Friday for refusing to leave his De Rust tobacco farm. Koos Smit and his family were barricaded in their house for more than a week after Zanu-PF youths invaded their farm. Smit has been released on bail.

• Theft and vandalism of equipment from former commercial farms has hindered government efforts to repair and develop irrigated crops in the country over the past decade. The huge Wenimbi Dam near Marondera lies unused due to cancellation of irrigation projects by the Department of Water Development.

• The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) allegedly lost fertiliser worth thousands of dollars through vouchers fraudulently acquired from banks under the US$210 million agricultural support facility.

• The Grain Millers’ Association (GMA) of Zimbabwe has asked government to lift a ban on genetically modified grain amid a looming shortage. The Association wants to mill the GM maize instead of importing it ready-milled. GM whole grain is not allowed into Zimbabwe because it may find its way into farmers’ hands and be sown as a crop.

• A Zanu-PF activist, Goodson Nguni, has threatened Finance Minister Tendai Biti with “war” if he allocates money for the land audit. The activist said the US$31 million allocated to the land audit should be given to new black farmers. On October 7 last year, the European Commission (EC) said it was prepared to fund a land survey in Zimbabwe if government was willing to implement an “inclusive, transparent, and comprehensive land audit” as provided for in the Global Political Agreement (GPA).  Land audits in 2003 and 2004 incriminated 178 high-ranking Zanu-PF officials who violated the rules on land resettlement.

• Chief Ringisai Chikukwa in Chimanimani is leading a group of traditional leaders who are pushing for the return of Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett to his Charleswood farm in the area. The farm falls within the chief’s traditional territory.

Health

• Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health said it would not force members of religious sects to have their children vaccinated. Thirty-two children have died of measles in recent days in Manicaland and Masvingo provinces, mostly from families belonging to the Apostolic Faith sect, which is opposed to vaccination.

Education

• An estimated 10 000 teachers are needed nationwide, with some rural schools left with either very few or no teachers at all. The most acute shortage is teachers for Science, Mathematics and English. The teacher shortage is due to problems dogging the re-engagement system that aims to bring teachers back to the fold.

• The University of Zimbabwe is seeking US$400 000 to renovate its halls of residence and kitchens which have been closed since 2006. The buildings are in disrepair due to years of neglect during the country’s political and economic turmoil of the past decade.

Law

• High Court Judge, Justice Chinembiri Bhunu, on January 25 declared firearms dealer Peter Michael Hitschmann an adverse and hostile witness in the treason trial of Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett. State prosecutor, Attorney-General Tomana proceeded with the impeachment process and cross-examined Hitschmann.

• Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga dismissed reports that the committee managing the constitutional revision process has been suspended. He said the process has merely been paused to attend to administrative and budget issues.

• Parliamentary constitution select co-chair Douglas Mwonzora, facing sudden charges of insulting Mugabe for allegedly calling him a ‘goblin’ two years ago, says the charges are a ploy by Zanu-PF to divert attention from the process of redrafting the constitution. Mwonzora faces a maximum penalty of one year in jail if found guilty.

• Mwonzora also said his committee ignored a petition by the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe to include more women in the process because it believed it was another Zanu-PF ploy to distract it from carrying out its work. Zanu PF had failed to nominate its quota of women to the thematic committees, he said.

• The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) faces the seizure of its property under a court order obtained by an agricultural equipment dealer who claims the central bank never paid him the US$2.1 million owed for a delivery of 60 tractors. The RBZ is reportedly close to collapse due to large amounts of unpaid debt incurred by several of Gideon Gono’s quasi-fiscal projects. These included the Productive Sector Facility, Basic Commodity Supply Side Intervention (Bacossi), Local Authorities Reorientation Programme (LARP), the Farm Mechanisation Programme and the Agricultural Support Enhancement Facility, which were financed by printing money.

• A senior immigration officer has gone into hiding after he allegedly issued 26 Bangladeshis with visas without authority. It is believed he operated in a syndicate that has seen Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Somalis entering the country, mostly through illegal entry points, en route to South Africa.

Media

• Zimbabwe’s former ambassador to China, Christopher Mutsvangwa, has accused Zimbabwean journalists of bowing to western powers and being too quick to criticize their government. The remarks drew angry protests from Harare journalists.

• Two of the top-scoring candidates for the new Media Commission have been sidelined, and are protesting that their non-appointment was a result of ‘political horse-trading’.

Diaspora

• South Africa’s Methodist church said on Friday that prominent Bishop Paul Verryn, suspended earlier this week, is facing charges of breaching church rules. Verryn is well known for turning his Johannesburg Central Methodist church into a sanctuary for more than 3 000 homeless refugees, mostly Zimbabweans. The disciplinary hearing is scheduled to take place on February 8. Messages of support for Bishop Verryn are pouring in from around the world.

Wildlife

• Fifty families in Guruve have fled their homes after stray lions killed three people. The displaced villagers are being housed at a nearby school.

• The 2009 sport hunting season was severely affected by uncertainty surrounding issues in the GPA, the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe (SOAZ) has said. The association said the industry operated at about 45 percent capacity during the last season.

• The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force reports escalating incidents of poaching within Charara and Hwange National Parks, apparently with the collusion of parks wardens.

The Good News

• A project in Bulawayo is using treated wastewater creatively to ease water scarcity and help about 1 000 residents grow food and earn a living. The 350-hectare Gum Tree Plantation Allotment project aims to boost food security in the city.

• The United Nations (UN) has approved an additional US$5 million from its Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) to finance the operations of the World Food Programme (WFP), whose Zimbabwean operation is currently facing a funding crisis and needs up to US$50 million.

• St John Ambulance on Saturday opened a new first aid training centre, which will enable the charity to increase the number of first aid and home-based care courses it offers. St John in Western Australia also donated three fully equipped ambulances to the charity.

• A serious cholera epidemic was expected in 2010, but the disease has so far lain low. This season the case fatality rate has dropped from 5.1 percent to 3.4 percent. Only ten of the country’s 62 districts have been affected by the current outbreak, compared to 51 districts last year, a World Health Organisation (WHO) bulletin said.

• The MDC-T is moving quickly to investigate and deal with corruption charges that were raised by the African Caribbean Pacific/European Union joint parliamentary assembly in Brussels.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

www.zimbabwedemocracynow.com