Week Ending 27th October 2009

ZIMBABWE WEEKLY UPDATE

Politics

Lengthy talks on Monday between Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe ended with no agreement, deepening the political crisis. It was the first meeting between the two men since Tsvangirai disengaged from the coalition government on Oct. 16. The MDC says it is now looking to a meeting in Harare later in the week with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to try to end the stalemate. "If that fails... a free and fair election under the supervision of the international community, SADC and the African Union will be the only option," Mr Chamisa told the BBC.

Mugabe has insisted that his party has abided by all the conditions laid out in the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

Note: However, after the signing of the GPA on September 15, 2009 there were still disagreements, resulting in further negotiations. Agreement was only achieved four months later through the SADC communiqué of January 27, 2009 – in effect an addendum to the GPA. It is the communiqué which contains some of the issues that are outstanding in the GPA implementation, such as the appointments of the Reserve Bank Governor, the Attorney General, and the Provincial Governors.

Zimbabwean armed police raided a house in Harare on Saturday belonging to the MDC. The party’s secretary general Tendai Biti said fifty armed police officers searched the house, in which senior party members stay, claiming they were looking for weapons stolen from the police. "[They] ransacked every room and took a bunch of valuable party material from a room occupied by our organising secretary Morgan Komichi…They beat up the wife and sister of the caretaker before they started digging part of the garden ostensibly in search of weapons," said Biti. Zimbabwe's police spokesperson Wayne Bvindzijena says they will investigate the raid.

Angolan Head of State José Eduardo dos Santos told Prime Minister Tsvangirai on Friday in Luanda that he will continue aiding efforts to resolve the impasse between the MDC and ZanuPF. Tsvangirai spent most of last week lobbying SADC leaders with stops in Mozambique, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.

Government

The Zimbabwe government has finally agreed on how to allocate a US$400 million grant from International Monetary Fund (IMF), after months of feuding about its allocation, said Industry Minister Welshman Ncube last Wednesday. The money will be used in the completion of public works. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting on October 13, before the MDC’s withdrawal from Zanu-PF.

Business

Foreign investors are drawing back from Zimbabwe following the MDC’s disengagement from cabinet. Industry Minister Welshman Ncube last Wednesday told a meeting of local business executives that since February, several potential investors were now hesitant.

"For example, investors who were keen to invest in Zisco (Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company) are now phoning asking if it is worthwhile, given the announcements which were made last week Friday," Ncube said.

The pro-ZanuPF Affirmative Action Group (AAG) described as “unacceptable” Nestlé's decision last month to bow to global pressure and stop sourcing milk from First Lady Grace Mugabe’s Gushongo Dairy Estate. "We are demanding that with immediate effect Nestlé must be indigenised," said an AAG spokesman. This farm is one of at least six of Zimbabwe’s most valuable commercial farms to have been taken over by Mrs Mugabe since 2002.

Violence

At 8.10 this morning (27 Oct) Edith Mashayire, senior security officer for the MDC Headquarters at Harvest House, was accosted by four armed men in civilian clothing, three with AK 47 assault rifles and one with a pistol. They tried to force her into their white twin cab Isuzu truck but people in the vicinity reacted immediately and were able to free her.

Intimidation and violence are on the increase in Zimbabwe’s rural schools, the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said Friday. The union said ZanuPF youth militia are targeting teachers who are regarded as MDC loyalists in the wake of the MDC’s withdrawal from ZanuPF. The PTUZ reported incidents in Chiweshe, Mashonaland Central province, Buhera, Manicaland province, and Murehwa, Mashonaland East. It said the violence could jeopardise the upcoming national exams.

Fifty homes belonging to known MDC supporters in Chiweshe district were burnt down by ZanuPF militias last week. MDC MP for Mazowe central Shepherd Mushonga told SW Radio Africa that MDC supporters and activists are being driven out by the militia.

Reports were received of militia moving into the Mhondoro area, east of Chegutu, and Mashonaland East and into Masvingo province.

Legal

Zimbabwe's controversial Attorney General, Johannes Tomana, says he has taken the lead role in the prosecution of MDC treasurer general Roy Bennett because the case poses a serious security threat to Zimbabwe. "This case is a very serious one and carries serious security issues,” said Tomana in an interview with the Zimbabwe Times last Tuesday. Bennett faces weapon and terror charges that he denies and that the MDC says are false.

Two officials from the National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (NANGO), the umbrella organization for all of Zimbabwe’s NGO’s, were arrested on Sunday after attending the Directors’ Forum Summer School. The arrest of chief executive Cephas Zinhumwe and chairwoman Dadirai Chikwengo took place at the Victoria Falls airport. “Police have accused them of holding an unauthorized political meeting, which is untrue,” said spokesman Farai Ngirande. The officials were held by police overnight, and were due to appear in court Monday afternoon.

Commercial Farming Sector

Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Monday that the government would float grain bills valued at US$5 million this week to buy an additional 50,000 metric tonnes of maize.
Biti said that the grain bills were the start of a programme under which the government would buy more than 400,000 tonnes of surplus maize from local farmers. The programme aims to rebuild strategic reserves diminished by years of poor harvests. Small maize growers have been reluctant to sell their grain to the parastatal Grain Marketing Board as many did not get paid for their last deliveries, receiving promissory notes instead.

Last week the number of commercial farmers who were evicted through the courts doubled, with 152 of the estimated 400 remaining commercial farmers currently facing prosecution.

Health Crisis

International humanitarian organisations on Friday said the breakdown of political order and lack of respect for its citizens is putting Zimbabwe’s population at risk as hunger and disease threaten to seize the country again. In a joint statement following the MDC’s boycott of ZanuPF, the organisations, which included UK-based Oxfam, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSN), UN's Roll Back Malaria Partnership and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said Zimbabwe needs coordinated "robust leadership" to prevent another cholera epidemic and widespread hunger. "We are obviously concerned that the government of national unity continues to work," head of Oxfam-UK's operations in southern Africa Charles Aban said.

Media

The Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity has allegedly ordered the ZanuPF-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and other state-controlled newspapers to stop covering MDC-T ministers until the party reverses its decision to withdraw from ZanuPF. According to the privately owned Zimbabwe Standard, ZBC chief executive Happison Muchechetere told the state broadcaster's senior editors about the directive last Friday evening.

ENDS

Source: Zimbabwe Democracy Now

www.zimbabwedemocracynow.com