“How You Can CHANGE Things…”

As you can see I have not update this site in a long time. For me it was becoming a bit mundane and I was no longer enjoying writing on the Zimbabwe news. The reason being all the news is just so doom and I was finding it depressing digging out and searching for sad news all the time. I am sure you get me.

Now I want this site to be more about exciting things and stuff I enjoy and stuff you may enjoy reading too. I am sure I am not the only one who is getting a little tired of all the news from back home in Zimbabwe.

I will still drip in a bit of news from Zim but that will not be the main focus. I will try and leave you guessing for now on what I will be writing about. For now I am working on the site design and should fully have the new look site on the 1st of February . In the meantime I welcome all comments and ideas from you guys or you might even want to contribute. Just email me through the contact section or leave your comment here.

Annual inflation in Zimbabwe hit a record 231 million per cent in July, with basics, such as a loaf of bread now costing more than £22 (Z$7,000).

There is now pressure on the ruling party and opposition to break a deadlock in negotiations and form a cabinet that can rescue the ruined economy.

President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition MDC again held more unsuccessful talks to end stalled power sharing negotiations on Wednesday, frustrating Zimbabweans who hoped new leadership would bring relief from hardship.

Many Zimbabweans have resorted to bartering goods and rely on help from relatives abroad, mostly in South Africa, for supplies of scant basic foodstuffs like maize, sugar and cooking oil.

A loaf of bread which cost Z$500 (£1.60) when the central bank redenominated the Zimbabwe dollar on August 1, now goes for at least Z$7,000.

An outline agreement signed on September 15 has stalled over key cabinet posts, angering Zimbabweans who have had to endure the world’s fastest price rises, shortages of food, foreign currency and crumbling infrastructure. Both sides accuse each other of jeopardising the process.

Eldred Masunungure, a political science lecturer at University of Zimbabwe, said: “What is baffling is that the political players seem to take a cavalier attitude over the political crisis whose resolution is tied to the economic turnaround.

“The consequences of such a rate of inflation is absolute desperation, despair and poverty. The politicians don’t seem to realise that what they do or don’t do has an effect on the economy.”

One United States dollar fetches Z$180 at the bank, Z$7,000 at the black market when using cash and Z$1.5 million when transacting with a cheque.

The main MDC faction, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, has called for urgent African intervention.- ITN

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has described his power-sharing deal with the opposition as a humiliation but intends to remain “in the driving seat”, state media quoted him as saying on Thursday.

Mugabe signed an agreement with Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday, relinquishing some powers for the first time in nearly three decades of rule under pressure from regional leaders and growing economic crisis.

Mugabe had told a meeting of his ZANU-PF party on Wednesday that the agreement was “a humiliation”, the state-run Herald newspaper said.

“Anyhow here we are, still in a dominant position which will enable us to gather more strength as we move into the future. We remain in the driving seat,” Mugabe said.

The deal with Tsvangirai and the head of a breakaway opposition faction followed weeks of tense negotiations to end a political crisis compounded by the veteran leader’s disputed and unopposed re-election in a widely condemned vote in June.

Under the agreement, Tsvangirai, who heads the largest of the two MDC factions, will become prime minister and chair a council of ministers supervising the cabinet.

The Herald newspaper quoted Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Mugabe’s top negotiator, as saying the meeting to finalise which party gets which ministry would be held on Thursday.

“The meeting to choose who goes to which ministry will be convened later,” the paper quoted Chinamasa as saying.

MUGABE STILL STRONG

Tsvangirai’s MDC is expected to get 13 cabinet posts, with Arthur Mutambara’s breakaway faction of the MDC likely to control an additional three ministries.

Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, which lost control of parliament in the March election for the first time in 28 years, is likely to have 15 ministers in the cabinet.

But the 84-year-old Zimbabwean ruler, who has governed since independence from Britain in 1980, will retain the presidency and head the cabinet as well as keep control of the powerful army. The police are expected to fall under the opposition.

Zimbabweans hope the agreement, brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki, will be a first step in helping to rescue the once prosperous nation from economic collapse.

Inflation has rocketed to over 11 million percent and millions have fled to neighbouring southern African countries.

Western nations and international agencies have said they will be ready to help the new government financially if it commits itself to political and economic reforms and shows a clear commitment to tackle the crisis.

Their support is seen as critical to any effort by the government to knock down prices and ease severe food, fuel and foreign currency shortages.

Mugabe, however, has vowed to continue his attacks on Britain and other Western nations he accuses of backing the opposition and trying to drive him from power.

BOYS WILL ALWAYS BE BOYS. A few weeks ago, some male-dominated African lists on the Internet circulated the photos of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s daughter Bona, and that of his opposition rival Morgan Tsvangirai’s, Rubi (Zimbabweans have such wonderful names!)

Members were asked which one of them they thought was the more beautiful. Also, which one of the two they would like to marry.

I thought, knowing that most of the chaps that I knew on the lists were anti-Mugabe that Bona would lose.

However, when it comes to matters of women, most men will gladly leave politics at the door, so Bona got many admirers. In the end, it was very close.

Bona, as the daughter of a president, clearly was receiving the care of a well-paid beautician. She had a glossier look than Rubi. Half the men, on the other hand, said Rubi didn’t have Bona’s grim look (much like her father), and exuded more character.

Only one bloke, Thomas (not his real name) rose beyond the limited choices being offered, and said he would marry both! His position was slammed as unprincipled and weak, because he feared the responsibility of choice.

This seemingly frivolous Internet fun game, however, proves how unpredictable African politics can be, and demonstrated that what is ideal and “right” is not always the best and most practical.

Mugabe had sworn that he would never share power with Tsvangirai, after he lost the first round of elections and unleashed so much terror on Tsvangirai ahead of the second round, that the opposition had little choice but to pull out. This left Mugabe to run against himself, and claim a sham victory.

Zimbabwe just plunged further into crisis. Inflation rose to over 20 million per cent, and unemployment skyrocketed to 80 per cent.

As The Observer (London) reported in a long insightful piece, the central bank knocked 10 zeros off the Zimbabwe dollar at the beginning of August because shops and banks could not cope with calculations in the trillions.

When it was launched on August 1, the new dollar was Z$4 to the Pound, but on the black market, it immediately slumped to Z$25. It continued crashing dramatically, and within a month, the black market rate was Z$13,000.

With worthless bank notes, and too broke to print more, three weeks ago the Government announced that it would legalise the use of US dollars and South African Rand as everyday currency.

It would seem that shortly after, Mugabe finally realised that he had run out of wiggle room, and put in a call to South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, who had been mediating the power-sharing talks that seemed doomed to fail.

THE RESULT IS THAT ALL THE MEN who said they would marry Bona Mugabe, would now have a father-in-law with less power than he wielded two months ago.

Those who went for Rubi Tsvangirai, expecting their father-in-law would be an opposition leader, who came close to becoming Zimbabwe’s president, but not close enough, would have one who is a prime minister and controlling about 51 per cent of the Government.

Thomas would be the greatest winner, with one father-in-law being president, and the other prime minister. It couldn’t be better. However, his fortunes have been scorned.

Daily Nation’s sister publication The East African had South African judge Johann Kriegler, who is heading the commission of inquiry into what went wrong in the December 2007 election, saying he thought these Mwai Kibaki-Raila Odinga, and now Mugabe-Tsvangirai power-sharing deals were undermining Africa’s democracy.

He argued that they offered presidents, who are not ready to retire when their time has come, or who have lost elections, to cling on to power. Within a day, there were many such reservations being aired about the Zimbabwe deal.

Kriegler’s view is particularly interesting, because he should be aware of what is touted as the most successful power-sharing deal in Africa — the transitional government between the African Nation Congress’ leader Nelson Mandela, and F. W. de Klerk, who was president and leader of the racist National Party that had jailed him for 27 years.

This is not to say there are no problems with governments where power is shared.

Because there can never be two winners in an election contest, they reward losers and turn the logic of elections — the idea that the person or party that is preferred by most voters should form government — on its head.

And while power-sharing might give unpopular incumbents a way back into power through a back door, they can also equally hand disorganised opposition groups a slice of power that they were denied at polls.

On balance, if Kenya’s example is anything to go by, the competition between coalition partners for the affection of the public seems to be the greatest incentive for performance there is.

And because they are wooing voters, each of the sides is eager to be seen as more enlightened than the other, and therefore tends to avoid being repressive. The result is that Kenya is probably freer today, than the previous time when it had been freest — the first years of Kibaki 2003-2007.

By: Daily Nation Kenya

The deportation of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe has now been halted, Gordon Brown said.

The Prime Minister told MPs that while officials continued to deal with the issue on a case-by-case basis, no returns were currently taking place.

“No-one is being forced to return to Zimbabwe from the United Kingdom at this time,” he said.

Mr Brown, who has been under pressure to stop the deportations in the wake of the violence surrounding the disputed presidential election, said that ministers were also looking to help failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers who were unable to work.

“They are prevented from leaving the UK through no fault of their own,” he said. “They are provided with accommodation and vouchers to ensure that they are not destitute but we are looking to see what we can do to support Zimbabweans in this situation.”

Mr Brown, who was making a Commons statement on this week’s G8 summit in Japan, appealed to the entire international community to back the imposition of United Nations’ sanctions on Robert Mugabe’s regime.

British officials had thought they had the support of the entire G8 for a resolution in the UN Security Council after the leaders signed up to a statement calling for measures against regime figures responsible for the violence.

However, on the final day of the summit, Russia - one of the five permanent Security Council members with the power of veto - denounced the draft resolution drawn up by Britain and the US as “excessive”. With the position of China - another permanent member - also unclear, Mr Brown said detailed negotiations were now taking place at the UN headquarters in New York.

He acknowledged that the draft resolution - which also calls for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe - went further than the G8 statement, but urged members to support it.

“It is very important that the whole weight of the international community is behind the efforts to secure a transition in Zimbabwe,” he said. “I believe that time is short for doing that and it is very important that the UN pass its resolution as soon as possible. I hope that all countries and all continents will come behind it.” Press Association

South Africa President Thabo Mbeki has presented a plan to Zimbabwe’s political leaders that would allow Robert Mugabe to remain as a titular head of state but surrender real power to the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who would serve as prime minister until a new Constitution was negotiated and fresh elections held.

A senior opposition Movement for Democratic Change source, who has read the document, said that Mbeki had sent the plan to Mugabe and Tsvangirai and that it was generally welcomed by the MDC.

The opposition believes the proposal appears to represent a recognition by Mbeki — whom Tsvangirai had previously accused of “colluding with Mugabe to play down the deepening political crisis” — that the Zimbabwean president’s power is crumbling. But the MDC remains suspicious of Mbeki and is demanding that the African Union be a party to any deal to ensure it is adhered to.

The proposal nonetheless adds to growing international pressure on Mugabe, who has said that while he is prepared to talk to the opposition, it must first recognise that he is the legitimately elected president and will remain so.

Mbeki’s spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga, said he could neither confirm nor deny that such a document exists.

Nigeria is the latest African government to condemn last month’s presidential election, in which Mugabe claimed 90% of the valid votes after a military-led campaign of violence against the opposition.

Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised countries are expected to consider taking “measures” against Zimbabwe, according to the host of this week’s summit, the Japanese prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda. A US official said Washington expected the G8 to “strongly question the legitimacy of [Mugabe's] government”.

The British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, speaking after meeting Zimbabwean refugees in Johannesburg on Sunday, said the crisis in their country was “infecting the whole of Southern Africa”.

“No one who meets the people here could do anything other than redouble their efforts to secure international consensus that the Mugabe regime is not a legitimate representation of the will of the people of Zimbabwe,” he said. He called for international backing for a US proposal at the UN Security Council for sanctions against Zimbabwe’s leaders.

Transition
The MDC source said the party leadership found itself in surprising agreement with much of what Mbeki was proposing, describing it as an important shift from what the opposition described as his previous positions aimed at propping up Mugabe.

The source said “all the basic ideas of the MDC are there”, including a recognition of the results of the first round of elections in March won by Tsvangirai. That would be met by making the MDC leader an executive prime minister.

“The important thing is that it recognises the outcome of the March 29 election, and that any government will be transitional on the way to new elections,” the source said.

He said the opposition recognised it would have to make concessions, and that allowing Mugabe to remain as a titular president was acceptable if it laid the ground for a new Constitution and a fresh vote. But there are important areas of difference with Mbeki, particularly an MDC demand for an African Union mediator to work with the South African leader, and for the AU to act as a guarantor of any agreement. There have yet to be formal negotiations on the proposal.

Mbeki flew to Harare on Saturday for a meeting requested by Tsvangirai. But the MDC leader pulled out when, according to the opposition, he was called at short notice by the South Africans to a meeting with Mbeki and Mugabe at the presidential offices in Harare.

Tsvangirai was concerned that going to the state house would be seen as conferring recognition on Mugabe as the legitimately elected president. The MDC also feared that such a meeting would be used by Mbeki to persuade AU and G8 leaders that he was on top of the crisis and there was no need for further international pressure or intervention.

Some of the opposition’s fears proved founded when the leader of a breakaway MDC faction, Arthur Mutambara, was invited to the meeting and pictured on the front of the state-controlled press yesterday smiling and shaking hands with Mugabe. Mutambara holds the balance of power in the newly elected parliament. He had previously said his MPs would back Tsvangirai, but there is clearly a concerted effort by the government to get him to side with the ruling Zanu-PF. - guardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008

The state-controlled press in Zimbabwe is hailing the June 27 election “result” with jubilant relief. Now normal revolutionary service can be resumed.

In March, it says, the Zimbabwean people forgot themselves, laid aside their revolutionary commitment, voted a majority of opposition MDC candidates into the Assembly, and gave the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai considerably more votes in the presidential election than Robert Mugabe.

The “revolution” was saved by one technicality — the requirement for a run-off if no one candidate for the presidency got more than 50 per cent of the votes cast. During the weeks before the run-off, the state press severely warned the people to take advantage of their “second chance.” The voter’s cross, they warned, could not be allowed to overrule the gun — “We may have to shoot the ballot box.”

PRESIDENT MUGABE HIMself threatened to return to the bush to lead a war if he were to lose the re-run. And so now, after quite a lot of guns and other weapons have been used to kill and wound and cow the electorate, the ballot box has behaved itself, even miraculously allowing the vote to be counted in two days rather than the three-week delay of the June election.

Mugabe is back, sworn in, and defying grim-faced the disapproval of the Botswana government at the AU meeting.

But can normal service be resumed? It is hard to comprehend how abnormal the situation in Zimbabwe has been between the March and June elections. Zimbabwe has had no parliament although all the MPs have been elected.

The new parliamentarians have not met to elect a Speaker. Several MDC MPs have been arrested on charges ranging from child abduction to organising violence; many others are in hiding.

There have been no functioning city councils or mayors even though a full slate of councillors was elected in March. The elected councillors in Harare met on private premises and chose themselves a mayor, but the only — and terrible — result of that was that his wife was abducted and brutally killed. Not surprisingly, no mayors have been elected elsewhere. Zimbabwe’s cities have been “in commission.”

Zimbabwe has hardly had a functioning civil society. Its human rights bodies have been raided and all non-governmental organisations have been prevented from operating in rural areas. Journalists have been beaten, arrested and killed.

Churches have been under pressure, as Mugabe has declared his desire to see every church answerable only to Zimbabwean leaders and committed to the Zimbabwean revolution.

The single thread of legal authority has been the presidency, even though since March everyone knew that Mugabe had won only a minority of votes for the office. Between March and June people hauled before the courts for insulting the president could reasonably argue that they did not know who the president was and even some magistrates tended to take the same line.

Despite this, the doubtful and fragile presidency was invoked more than ever before; more people were arrested for insulting it; it became treasonable to assert that Tsvangirai won more than 50 per cent of the March vote.

ALL THIS, TOGETHER WITH the obscenity of violence that has shocked even South African generals, has made Zimbabwe’s neighbours uneasy to an unprecedented extent. Can Zimbabwe’s relations with Botswana, which has called for its suspension from SADC, or with Zambia — or with Kenya — be normalised?

Gradually, no doubt, normal institutions will re-emerge. Parliament will be summoned and if enough MDC MPs are still in detention or hiding, then Zanu-PF may achieve a majority and elect a Speaker.

The Senate, equally balanced between the parties after the March vote, will become dominated by Zanu-PF once the newly legitimated president has exercised his right to nominate extra members. He may even be able to nominate men defeated in the elections who have been acting as ministers ever since.

There will be a cabinet. The military and police joint command which has openly dominated in the inter-regnum will be able to move into the background. City councils will meet. Now that votes are no longer at stake, NGOs may be allowed to resume food aid in rural areas.

Pressure on the churches may be relaxed. Zimbabwe will begin to look like a functioning polity again. Some of Zimbabwe’s neighbours will no doubt come to an uneasy co-existence with it.

BUT THERE ARE SEVERAL reasons why even such provisional normality will be hard to achieve or to maintain. One is that it is supposed to be a revolutionary normality. Mugabe has said he will remain as President until every scrap of land in Zimbabwe is owned by Zimbabweans, and a fourth chimurenga — to take over control of business and industry — is in the wings.

Violence, which is revolutionary normality, will increase. And that is the second reason. Violent revenge against those who supported the MDC has been enormously costly in lives and it has continued right through Mugabe’s inauguration as President.

Mugabe’s spokesman may charge that Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s hands are stained with African blood, but this is at best mere name-calling tit for tat. Zanu PF is often called by its adherents, and by Mugabe, a party of blood. It becomes ever more so and in Zimbabwe the violated dead will have their revenge.

However hard they try, Zimbabwe’s neighbours will find it impossible to recognise the façade of institutions in Zimbabwe as a legitimate state.

There is nothing to be gained by calling for a government of national unity in Zimbabwe when Mugabe makes it clear that it can only come into existence on his terms. The Zimbabwean crisis, which Mbeki has denied exists, will resume and become in itself the only form of normality- East African Times

LEADERS of the top industrialised nations are expected to ratchet up pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe — and President Thabo Mbeki, mediator in that country’s protracted political crisis — at a three-day Group of Eight (G-8) meeting starting in Japan today.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — About 200 Zimbabwe opposition supporters sought refuge Thursday at the U.S. Embassy in Harare amid new reports of violence against dissenters.

Loyalists of President Robert Mugabe, whose unopposed re-election last week was scorned by world leaders, have attacked supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Widespread state-sponsored violence had led the party’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to pull out of the presidential runoff, leaving the June 27 race to Mugabe.

On Thursday, people with small bundles of possessions milled outside the U.S. mission in the Zimbabwe capital. Riot police appeared there, but police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said they were at the scene only briefly.

U.S. Ambassador James McGee said the group was from the opposition headquarters in Harare, which had become a refuge. He said by telephone that embassy officials were working with humanitarian organizations to find accommodation for the group.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said embassy staff did not see the group as a security risk and that they were outside the building’s security perimeter.

More than 300 opposition supporters who last week sought refuge at the South African Embassy in Harare have been taken to a camp outside the capital.

Reports of violence and intimidation against opposition supporters have increased.

“There has been a high increase in abductions, beatings and rapes since ZANU-PF claimed it had won the ‘election’ with a resounding victory,” the opposition said in a statement.

At least 80 opposition supporters were killed before the runoff, and the opposition says more than 10 have been killed since.

A group of armed men in army uniforms abducted opposition lawmaker-elect Naison Nemadziva at gunpoint on Monday and his whereabouts was still unknown, an opposition statement said.

Nemadziva defeated a member of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party in the first round of voting on March 29. He was seized outside the courtroom where a hearing had been scheduled in his opponent’s challenge of the election.

Also Thursday, two woman activists were freed after nearly six weeks in prison.

Spokeswoman Annie Sibanda of Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise said the activists Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu were granted bail Thursday.

The two were arrested in Harare on May 28 after holding a peaceful protest and have been charged with disturbing the peace and publishing statements prejudicial to the state.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice honored Williams last year with an International Women of Courage Award.

“I am very happy to be out,” Williams said. “I woke early this morning wondering if by evening I would be in my own bed or back in a prison cell.”

Elsewhere in Zimbabwe, a group of thugs invaded the Imire Safari Ranch, a designated black rhino breeding area 90 miles (150 kilometers) northeast of Harare, the ranch owner said. The ranch has had previous problems with poachers.

John Travers said six men invaded the ranch Sunday, threatened to harm him unless he left, and forced him to shoot three impala for the men to eat.

Traver said another group of men arrived Wednesday night and threatened to kill him and his wife if the two did not leave by Thursday morning. Both were still at the ranch, also home to elephant, hyenas and buffalo, on Thursday. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority could not immediately be reached, but Travers said he had contacted them and was “very confident” that they would respond.

On Wednesday, the United States and the European Union said opposition leader Tsvangirai should be Zimbabwe’s next leader, but Mugabe has shown little sign of yielding any power.

Tsvangirai beat Mugabe and three others in the first round of presidential voting in March. Electoral officials said Tsvangirai did not take the simple majority needed to avoid a runoff against second-place finisher Mugabe.