‘Zimbabwe Today’ by Robb WJ Ellis (04-02-2008)

This is nothing less than a catastrophe. The fact that the two factions of the MDC cannot agree to bury the hatchet (and not in the back of each other’s heads!) causes huge concern for the voting Zimbabwean public.

The conundrum concerning the split party’s factions being badged the same may not mean very much to the simple man in the street, but what it means is neither faction is strong enough on its own to outgun Mugabe.

Whilst we all knew that Mugabe has the election result already tied up (remember Wrex Tarr’s – I think – one liner: “Thieves broke into State House and stole next year’s election results”?), this failure by the MDC to offer the public a viable alternative to Mugabe, is now a tragedy of huge proportions…

“Talks between two factions of Zimbabwe's main opposition to forge a coalition against President Robert Mugabe in elections next month collapsed Sunday, a faction leader said. “This thing is irretrievably broken,” Arthur Mutambara told journalists in the capital after a series of meetings between his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change and another led by former trade unionists ended in deadlock. “People of Zimbabwe, we apologise for failing to construct a united front.” Mutambara said a disagreement over seat allocations had been the dealbreaker. “From haggling over two seats last night, this morning our colleagues came back to us demanding 20 more seats in Matabeleland even where we have sitting MPs. At the same time they are not prepared to make such concessions in Harare.” Matabeleland is considered a stronghold of the Mutambara faction while the splinter led by Morgan Tsvangirai is dominant in Harare.“

Simply put, when are opposition politicians going to look past their own wants, needs, desires and whims – and look to the needs of the oppressed Zimbabwean population?

I am not only disgusted, my heart is sore for the onslaught that I know is right around the corner…

“In the absence of an agreement, we have no choice but to go right ahead and provide leadership in this country,” said Mutambara. “This means from this place we're going out in the country to work out our nominations for the presidency, 210 members of parliament, senators and councillors. Morgan Tsvangirai is not our candidate for the presidency of this country.“

As Mutambara is?

Don’t make me laugh!

So much for the ‘vow’ to present and unified front against Mugabe. This failure does nothing more than hand the election to Mugabe – he won’t even have to do very much doctoring now!

When will Mugabe and his government finally stop attemtping to hoodwink the public at large that the problems in the agricultural sector are as a direct result of his chaotic, violent and destructive land grab?

“Zimbabwe’s much ballyhooed “Mother of all season” looks set to become the “Mother of all poor harvests”, agricultural experts warned last week.

They warned, contrary to official predictions of a bumper harvest, of a “serious food crisis”.

Their projection: the harvest may only amount to 30 percent of the total national maize requirements.

The experts blame the crisis on poor agricultural planning by the government and the excessive rains which have been falling since last December.“

Mugabe, of course, will blame the crop failure on the heavy rains and Western governments that are meant to be bent on “fomenting regime change”…

And when the farmers, who are working with limited input because of government short-sightedness, fail to produce in the abundance that Mugabe’s government have heralded the crop, they are threatened with removal of their land.

The fact that the land they are working is sub-standard – because the majority of the best land in Zimbabwe is owned by Mugabe’s hierarchy, who insist on not working the land, preferring it to remain dormant and fallow, escapes any mention. Working the land is too much like hard work.

“Most farmers failed to plant on time because they could not access seed, fertilizer and fuel, among other vital inputs.

They were repeatedly promised the inputs by the government, but in the end only a few managed to get them.

The situation was exacerbated by the heavy rains which resulted in water-logging, a condition detrimental to crop growth.

The continuous rains made even weeding virtually impossible, resulting in maize competing with weeds for sunlight and nutrients.“

But the land grab continues, compounding the problem…

“The whole thing was a hotchpotch,” said Amos Mutingwende, a farmer from Uzumba in Murewa. “There was no seed, no fertilizer and no loans for farmers, except for the beneficiaries of the political patronage.”

In some areas, the tractors distributed to farmers by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe were turned into “minibuses” to ferry people in the rural areas or hired to transport Chibuku (opaque beer) to bottle stores.“

And as Mugabe’s grip on power intensifies, his associates seem to be all on the slippery slide into Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison…

“On Monday last week, two senior government employees – Attorney General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele and Grain Marketing Board (GMB) operations director, Samuel Muvuti – appeared in court on corruption charges.

That same day, a close ally of President Robert Mugabe, Nicholas van Hoogstraten, was charged with illegally dealing in foreign currency.

Could this be the beginning of the end of the honeymoon for corrupt government officials and businesspeople? Is the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) beginning to get tough?

Could Muvuti become the first top official to be prosecuted by the commission – more than two years after its establishment?“

I doubt it. This is Mugabe making a statement:

“When we appoint some of these people,” said Mujuru at a function at Hupenyuhutsva Children's Home. “we assume they are capable, but I think to some extent we have misjudged some people who hold important positions.

“They are full of the individualistic feeling and practice. We know what happened during Operation Restore Order. This is what we call corruption; it is not good. Our society is no longer clean. It's like we are developing crooks.“

And all we have to do is look at the top of the tree to see the biggest crook of them all – RG Mugabe.

“A month earlier, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Gideon Gono, said he knew many top officials were engaged in corrupt activities.

Gono said corrupt officials were responsible for the three-months- long cash crunch, which forced him to introduce six sets of high denomination notes.

On two occasions, Gono said he was prepared to name and shame the officials. But he seemed to develop cold feet, when he failed to turn up for a meeting with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget and Finance.“

So the message from Zimbabwe government to the people is very simple. Do as I say, not as I do… And all you have to do is listen to today’s podcast for further information…

“Corruption in Zimbabwe is fast becoming a way of life.

“The vice has become so deep-rooted and institutionalized that some people now accept it as their sole means of survival due to a total collapse of systems that offer checks and balances.“

A friend in Zimbabwe – and I don’t hear from them that often, possibly due to the constant power failures in Zimbabwe of late – told me that the worst potholes are on Glenara Avenue just Hillside side of the Mutare Road, just over the railway bridge…

“Please expose this so-called commission running the affairs of Harare. I am lucky to be alive after I drove my car into a pothole last week.

At the end I lost three of my tyres, and the suspension of my car was heavily damaged,” fumed a Harare motorist last week.

The motorist, Romeo Rusere, is now demanding the commission replace his rims and three tyres damaged when he drove into the pothole.

In addition, he also wants the commission to pay the full cost of repairs to the suspension and other body parts damaged in the crunching encounter with the pothole.“

But each and every road in Zimbabwe has the same problem. Except, that is, the roads that Mugabe’s motorcade travel on (not that they would notice, as they fly by at such a rate, they fly over the potholes as well!)…

I suppose that Mugabe will tell the world that the potholes are a ‘plot by Western governments in an attempt to foment regime change”…

Don’t you just get so sick of it?

“Potholes have assumed the character of a national disaster, as they continue to widen, turning roads into death traps.

Inevitably, one wag coined this adage: “If you saw Zimbabwean motoristdriving in a zigzag manner, they are not drunk they are merely dodging potholes in the roads.”

A drive around the city centre and other residential areas illustrates the sorry state of the dilapidated roads.

The problem has been excabertated by the end of the lifespan of many tarred roads, especially in the high-density areas, most of them built by the colonialists, cheaply and overcrowded.“

Are we surprised then, when we hear about buses leaving the roads at high speed?

But I do question the reporter’s comment that the problem lies with the ‘colonialists’ that built the roads. They did the job then – but Mugabe’s administration have failed to exercise the need for maintenance. The problem does not lie with the ‘colonialists’ but with the man that is driving the country into a rapid and painful collapse.

“There has been a dramatic increase of cars, especially with damaged wheels, and wheel balancing and alignment. One in three of every four cars coming here for repairs are a result of the potholes,” he said.

Replacing a new tyre costs an average $800million, depending on the car.

Repairing a bent rim at the garages ranges from $7 million upwards.

Many motorists complained this was far beyond their reach.

Potholes are not only affecting vehicles, but even pedestrians are at risk.“

This is not a case of the hostile West, but is a simple case of preventing the West from reporting the truth on the ground in Zimbabwe.

“Zimbabwe's Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu says Harare will not accredit journalists from “hostile” Western nations to cover next March's presidential and parliamentary elections.

Speaking at the Bulawayo Press Club on Friday night, Ndlovu said journalists from Western media groups were continuing to violate Zimbabwe's media laws by illegally sneaking into the country.

“The government would limit the accreditation of foreign media houses to only those with friendly ties with the government,” said Ndlovu.

“Journalists from the likes of BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) who continue to sneak into the country illegally and report illegally would not be accredited to cover the elections,”” added Ndlovu.“

Not that there is really any need to have any Western media representatives inside the country to report on their poxy election. The result is known, the ‘fix’ is in. Why put yourself in harm’s way to report that Mugabe has won?

The local press, what little there is in the country, will congratulate the electoral body on a job well done, and the result will be announced with much fanfare. Mugabe wins.

And regional African countries that have sent representatives to ‘monitot’ the process will hail it ‘free and fair’ as we have seen so many times before – even though courts in Zimbabwe have found otherwise.

When Tsvangirai narrowly got beaten by Mugabe in 2002, he took the results to court and the court agreed there was indeed vote tampering, but failed to rule for a repeat vote, or for Mugabe to stand down – as it took the courts so long to deliberate on the issue that the court said because Mugabe had already been sworn into office and had begun his next tenure in power, there was nothing they could do.

Justice delayed – is justice denied…

“Last month, the BBC's John Simpson defied the ban on the organization and spent a week in Zimbabwe covering political developments on the ground as well as in President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party.

The clandestine visit riled as well as embarrassed state security agents who are keen to maintain a tight lid on political developments in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabweans go to the polls on 29 March with Mugabe, who has maintained a tight grip on information flow over the past five years, seeking a fresh five-year presidential term that could take his rule to 33 years.”

“The government last week said it would only invite election observers from “friendly nations” to observe the elections that come amid a worsening economic crisis that has manifested itself in rampant inflation of over 26 000 percent, shortages of food and foreign currency.“

Nothing like stacking the deck…