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‘Zimbabwe Today’ by Robb WJ Ellis (05-10-2007)

WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.

Original Post Date: 2007-10-05 Time: 00:00:00  Posted By: The BeardedMan

Howzit

This morning a programme I would normally swear by, Mozilla Firefox, I want to swear at. A major disruption to me today and I have easily lost 2 hours in fiddling around to get it to work. It is still giving me grief but I will try to complete the day’s posting with the skeleton that I have now.

Foreign currency mid-rate updated…

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Some of the first stories on today’s posting come from The Zimbabwe Independent, whose site for some reason shows just the structure – not the stories! Whether this is a problem caused by Firefox, I don’t know… yet.

President Robert Mugabe wants to replace State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, with whom he has fallen out over his succession politics and war veterans’ issue, with his Rural Housing Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, it has been learnt.

The moves, sources said, would have a major political bearing on Mugabe’s acrimonious succession fight and the ongoing power struggle in the ruling ZANU PF.“

I note, with raised eyebrows, that his plans reveal no move for the female Vice President, Joice Mujuru. Has he any plans for her at all, or is he just going to let her tread water, thereby effectively shackling her husband, Solomon, who would dearly like to be the ‘power behind the throne’.

Mnangagwa, a former State Security minister from 1980 to 1988 with an intelligence and military background, and his ZANU PF faction, are battling retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru’s camp over Mugabe’s throne.

The two factions have intensified campaigns behind the scenes as the party’s extraordinary congress in December fast approaches. The Mnangagwa camp wants Mugabe to be endorsed as the party’s presidential candidate, while the Mujuru group is pushing for Mugabe to quit. War veterans led by Jabulani Sibanda are fighting in Mugabe’s corner. They are currently on a nationwide campaign to secure Mugabe’s endorsement, now a difficult lobby for the president’s loyalists.

Of course, I support ANY split within the ruling party as it takes their attention elsewhere – fighting for their very survival, instead of exercising their heavy-handed rule over the people. Sadly, this is not necessarily true as they have so many different supporting acts – the police, the army, the youth brigades and the war veterans – just to name a few.

Sources said Mugabe was mulling the unexpected changes – which might be accompanied by a mini-cabinet reshuffle in a bid to deal with the current economic meltdown – before next year;s joint presidential and parliamentary elections. they said Mugabe wants to shake up his inept cabinet to tackle the worsening economic crisis and fine-tune the party for the elections.

Sources said Mugabe thinks his current cabinet is one of the worst. Critics say the cabinet, which approved disastrous policies like the recent price reduction blitz and proposed company seizures, is plainly incompetent. For a while, the sources said, Mugabe has been wavering on reshuffling the cabinet because he fears it may destabilise the party and government ahead of elections.“

We have seen in the last week or so Mutasa disobey Vice President Msika on the land grab. Msika ordered a halt to proceedings, but Mutasa ignored the order and the evictions continue – not that there are that many commercial farmers left…

Mugabe wants to remove Mutasa for allegedly consulting a witchdoctor on how to become president and bungling over war veterans’ issues on farms.

The sources said Mugabe summoned Mutasa to his ZANU PF HQ offices in Harare on September 19 and grilled him for withdrawing offer letter for farms from war veterans.“

Mutasa, who regularly issues threats to anyone who will listen, is a dangerous individual who, it would appear, is scared of no one – except, of course, Mugabe.

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Mugabe is insistent on perpetuating the pretence that there was a coup conspiracy attempt against him five months ago. Interestingly, within a couple of weeks of the alleged conspiracy, three senior army officers died in what can only be described as dubious circumstances.

Of course, the conspiracy line is an easy excuse for Mugabe to keep his armed forces in toe. If he wants to he can have any of them arrested for being part of the ‘conspiracy’ and whether the accused ever appear in court or just disappear is immaterial to Mugabe.

The saga of six men accused of plotting a coup to oust President Robert Mugabe took a new twist this week with revelations that police could arrest more suspects in the next two weeks.

The Zimbabwe Independent is also reliably informed that investigators want the accused men already in police custody to implicate two senior Air Force of Zimbabwe commanders in the coup plot.

Sources at the Attorney-General’s Office this week said the state was following leads into the involvement of the of the two Air Force officers. When the alleged conspirators were arrested five months ago, the state alleged that the accused wanted to stage a coup and install Rural Housing minister Emmerson Mnangagwa as prime minister.“

The State has been given a further two weeks to finalise its case for presentation to a criminal court.

Do not be surprised if you were to read articles in the next few weeks of Air Force personnel dying in mysterious circumstances. All that will mean is the State was unable to implicate them, so took them out of play….

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Until we receive absolute confirmation we should not celebrate. And even if the story is confirmed, the writing of a new constitution takes time – something which Mugabe will make a play for – and in the process, there will be many dead end streets and dark alleys.

There are reports from South Africa that both the ruling ZANU PF party and the opposition MDC have agreed on the need for a new constitution before next year's elections.

The SADC led mediation talks between the MDC and ZANU PF are believed to have reached a decisive stage in the negotiation process, where an agreement was also reportedly reached to substantively amend or repeal restrictive laws like POSA and AIPPA.

Reliable sources told Newsreel on Thursday that the latest talks, which began in Pretoria on Wednesday, focused mainly on a new constitution, POSA, AIPPA, the media laws and the general political environment in Zimbabwe. The role of the police, the CIO and the army is expected to be the next important item on the agenda before the finalisation of the talks, probably in two weeks' time.“

For mediated talks which are supposedly subject to a media blackout ordered by South African President, Thabo Mbeki, the information is flowing thick and fast.Although I don’t think so, this could quite easily be just wishful thinking.

The seriousness of the talks has been gauged by the presence of MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai, who is leading an expanded team comprising almost his entire cabinet, known as the standing committee. One source said the decision by the MDC to participate in next year's elections hinges on the success of these talks.

While ZANU PF has all but agreed to some of the demands brought up by the MDC, the ruling party has however refused to let almost five million Zimbabweans living in the diaspora vote in next year's elections.“

Which would virtually be the death knell for Mugabe’s death knell as the vast majority of people that would qualify to vote in the diaspora left the country because of Mugabe’s totalitarian rule…

Political commentator Oliver Mudyarabikwa said it might be easy for ZANU PF to tell the world it will repeal the restrictive laws, but might find it difficult to honor the pledge because they always thrive on violence and intimidation.

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I will wager that with a month we will hear of the threat of a strike by the same people when they realise that a meagre 420% salary increase will not cover the rampant inflation in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwean civil servants on Thursday called off plans to strike after the government hikes salaries by about 420 percent to cushion public workers from a severe economic crisis marked by the world’s highest inflation of more that 6000 percent and shortages of every essential commodity.

Cecilia Alexander-Khowa, president of the Public Service Association (PSA), that represents government workers outside the uniformed forces, told ZimOnline the association had decided to call off the civil servants strike which had been set for Monday next week.

So the civil servants called the State’s bluff. Two things should be borne in mind before the PSA can call this any kind of victory.

Firstly, paying the civil servants a further 420% on their salaries will not go very far – especially when you consider that the ‘money’ with which they are paid is not even recognised in a court of law in Zimbabwe as legal tender.

Secondly, the Governor of the Reserve Bank earlier this week hinted at yet another currency being released – similar to the Operation Sunrise last August. What good will an additional 420% of useless paper money be then? And he also stated that when it happens it will be fast…

We appreciate what the government had done but it is far below the PDL. Civil servants will continue to suffer.

Methinks that there is a little dissension in the ranks of the civil servants.

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What is the point of putting sanctions on a dictator if you refuse to enforce them? This was the question that the world community faced in its dealings with Saddam Hussein, who, over a twelve-year period, violated sixteen Chapter VII Security Council resolutions with impunity. The question has come up again in the person of Robert Mugabe. In 2002, the European Union placed a travel ban on the Zimbabwean dictator and his top associates, which it has repeatedly allowed them to break. This December, a European Union-African Union summit is planned for Lisbon, Portugal, and at the insistence of African governments, the Portuguese will be inviting Mugabe. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, however, has issued an ultimatum that he would not attend the conference were Mugabe seated across the table. Now, the Guardian reports:

“It's the working assumption that Mugabe will be coming if invited by the Portuguese as expected,” said a European Commission official familiar with the preparations for the first Europe-Africa summit in seven years.

It appears that Brown will not be in attendance, then, and that the European and African Unions have chosen a dictator over a democrat.“

I make no comment on this as the writer has encapsulated the problem brilliantly…

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Zimbabwean nationals who fled the brutal regime of Robert Mugabe, have held a protest in Bradford.

The Zimbabweans, some of whom have faced beatings and been the victims of rapes at the hands of Mugabe’s militias, say if they are forced back they will be in danger.

They are calling on the British Government to recognise their refugee status.

The Bradford Zimbabweans held a ceremony at Bradford Cathedral on Saturday, before holding a demonstration in Centenary Square.“

I think that I understand the feeling here. Whilst I fully recognise that the status of refugee is a difficult one to define and hence, even harder to claim, the fact that the Mugabe government treats all their people with absolute disdain and regularly beats, arrests and tortures people living within the country, what welcome will be awaiting these people should they be forcibly returned to Zimbabwe?

Ketima of Trenton Drive, Manningham, said: “I was electrocuted and tortured and I only got here because I escaped from custody. They went looking for me and found my parents. They died from injuries sustained by beatings.

“We expect aid from the British Government and for them to recognise the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. At the least we expect them to grant us refugee status.”

Chairman of the Bradford MDC, Alexander Chipatiko, of Marsh Street, Bradford, said: “People in Zimbabwe are dying of hunger, there is nothing in the shops and Robert Mugabe is continuing to damage Zimbabwe.“

The two statements are far reaching and make me want to shake the refugee assessors – or whatever they are called – to see sense…

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Zimbabwe’s remaining white farmers are now banking on the courts for their remaining on the land, as the elapse on Monday of a deadline for their departure triggered a new wave of forced evictions.

Sunday was the last day for white farmers served with eviction notices to leave farms gazetted for resettlement.

Those who failed to vacate the properties by Monday are liable to be imprisoned in terms of the Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act.

The Act, which repealed the Rural Land Occupiers (Protection from Eviction) Act, makes it an offence to occupy or to continue to occupy land without lawful authority after it has been gazetted in accordance with section 16B(2)(a) of the Constitution.“

I am, as I have mentioned previously, in the process of updating a old list I had of courts orders and legal indiscretions by the Mugabe government over the past few years. This list will not make pretty reading – but it will also show the watching world that Mugabe’s government have absolutely no regard for their own laws.

The fact that this article suggests that the farmers will look at some sort of protection from the law courts, is little solace, as historically, Mugabe ignores court orders – and, indeed, his reactions, once an order is issued against his regime, are doubly vicious.

There are only about 350 white commercial farmers left, farmers’ groups say. The number of commercial farmers has plummeted from 4500 before 2000 when the government embarked on its controversial fast-track land reform programme.

John Worsley-Worsick, spokesman for the farmers’ pressure group Justice for Agriculture (JAG), said there was a new wave of evictions at about the time the deadline elapsed.

“There have been cases of white farmers being removed off their properties through illegal means. The Ministry (of Lands and Resettlement) has no right to evict the farmers from their properties, only the High Court can authorise that, and we urge the affected members to follow the legal channel,” Worsley-Worsick said.“

And this is an indication of how serious and chaotic a firm grab would be…

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More than 23,000 people have been arrested in Zimbabwe for flouting controversial price controls imposed by President Robert Mugabe’s government three months ago, police announced here Thursday.

Under Operation Reduce Prices launched in late June price inspectors accompanied by police were sent around the country to enforce price cuts by around 50 per cent on most goods and services.“

23000 people is 90 days? That is about 1 person every 5 minutes! That is almost unreal! Have the police had time to very much else apart from processing these people?


Perhaps that is why we hear of police members committing crimes and not being prosecuted (see yesterday’s posting for more on this) – but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Criminal cases aginst ruling party members and their families are either ignored, or just don’t happen. But the police turn out in their dozens when there is a small protest or demonstration – or even an opposition party rally.

As Operation Reduce Prices continues we have so far as police arrested 23,585 people,” police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka told state radio.

Most of those arrested have been fined or ordered to perform menial labour such as cleaning government schools, police stations or courthouses.

The crackdown against the business sector, which at first proved popular with inflation-weary consumers, has since backfired as there are now chronic shortages of basics like meat, milk and bread on the formal market.“

Wasn’t Mandipaka reported as crippled in an accident not so long ago? And what has happened to Wayne Bvudzijena – has he been booted upstairs where he can do no more damage. Let’s remember that, as far as I’m concerned anyway. Bvudzijena has an outstanding case of culpable homicide pending at the very least…

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Take care.

‘debvhu

Source: http://thebeardedman.blogspot.com/2007/10/friday-5th-october-2007.html