POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: SECURITY REFORMS FIRST, THANK YOU!!! : Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and his State Security counterpart Sydney Sekeramayi have lately been particularly vocal in this reg...

Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and his State Security counterpart Sydney Sekeramayi have lately been particularly vocal in this regard, as has been the state media churning out reportage packaged to discredit the reform calls as a foreign-sponsored agenda. These demands for professionalism in the security sector were this week presented in the state media as a grand plot by the MDC-T to fire military commanders and outsource the country’s security to the West should the party win elections. In his latest pronouncements Sekeramayi claimed Zimbabwe’s security was under threat from the West relentlessly pursuing an “illegal regime change” agenda, in the hope of installing a puppet government. This shrill sentiment has become Zanu PF’s refrain as high-stakes elections beckon. The reason for the campaign which dovetails with Zanu PF’s mounting resistance to agreed-to reforms is easy to pin down. The defense forces have been Zanu PF’s pillar of strength and electoral trump card sinc...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: ROADMAP FIRST BEFORE ELECTION-PM : Tsvangirai said polls would only be held when the elections roadmap has been fully implemented. He also said he would launch a diplomatic o...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: ROADMAP FIRST BEFORE ELECTION-PM : Tsvangirai said polls would only be held when the elections roadmap has been fully implemented. He also said he would launch a diplomatic o...

Tsvangirai said polls would only be held when the elections roadmap has been fully implemented. He also said he would launch a diplomatic offensive within Sadc and other strategic African states to lobby their leaders to pressure Mugabe to adopt reforms. Tsvangirai spoke about the elections roadmap, security of the vote, Zec secretariat, invitation and accreditation of observers, electoral law amendments, voter education and the conduct of security forces during elections. “The major stumbling block to the implementation of the above already agreed reforms remains a palpable deficit of political will to implement agreed issues, without which we are likely to reproduce electoral contestations and a disputed outcome,” Tsvangirai told journalists in Harare yesterday. “In a short while, I will be visiting players within Sadc and the AU to ensure that the people of Zimbabwe are guaranteed of a free and fair election that will usher in a new dispensation.” He said security forces must not i...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: ZANU PF ON THE PATH TO SELF-DESTRUCTION!! : This failure at re-inventing itself to resonate with the ‘new voter’ whose attachment to liberation politics is not as emotional, has ha...

This failure at re-inventing itself to resonate with the ‘new voter’ whose attachment to liberation politics is not as emotional, has haunted most of the liberation movements in Africa. This presents the greatest threat to the survival of ZANU PF as a (former) liberation movement, and as well its quest for continued hegemony. This threat is further compounded by entrenched gerontocracy and ethnicity commonly referred to as factionalism. This piece will argue that ZANU PF is not a coherent and solid unit as it has been in the past but will be fighting for its life in the forthcoming elections. This is so, in light of its failure to regenerate itself and the internecine eth nic struggles within it. Furthermore it will be argued that ethnicity (commonly referred to as factional ism) makes ZANU PF vulnerable in electoral politics. Its over dependence on the Mashonaland vote presents its major vulnerability as Mashonaland is not Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe is not only Mashonaland as Jonath...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: ZANU PF IN FREE-FALL : THE possibility of President Robert Mugabe exiting the political stage before serving his full term should he win the forthcoming electi...

THE possibility of President Robert Mugabe exiting the political stage before serving his full term should he win the forthcoming elections has intensified jostling for the high-pressure job within ZANU-PF resulting in widespread divisions and infighting that may cost the party at the polls, The Financial Gazette can exclusively reveal. The succession issue has refused to die down despite it being clear that it now presents the greatest threat to ZANU-PF’s continued survival. Essentially, it has created sworn enemies among party cadres, some of whom would rather put up with a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) administration than having their internal rivals within the cusp of succeeding President Mugabe whose tribal balancing has been credited for keeping the party intact thus far. A few months before the elections, the rivalry that once rocked the party’s District Coordinating Committees (DCCs) last year, is rearing its ugly head again, this time at the provincial levels. B...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: LIKE PIUS NCUBE WE ARE STILL PRAYING FOR THE DEATH... : A VISIBLY tired looking President Robert Mugabe presided over the country’s 33rd Independence Day celebrations at the National Sports ...

A VISIBLY tired looking President Robert Mugabe presided over the country’s 33rd Independence Day celebrations at the National Sports Stadium in Harare yesterday where his advanced age was evident as he struggled to cope with the demands of his duties in front of a capacity crowd. Mugabe, 89, looked increasingly frail and struggled to walk as he hobbled on while inspecting the guard of honour. He had earlier stumbled and almost fallen while lighting the Independence flame when he missed a step after receiving the torch from school pupils. The veteran leader who has ruled since Independence in 1980 further struggled to climb the steps leading up to the VVIP tent to join his wife Grace, Vice-President Joice Mujuru, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, and deputy prime ministers Arthur Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe. He also laboured to read his prepared speech and his once booming voice was barely audible.Yesterday’s incidents fed into the growing perception that Mugabe is now infirm due ...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: IT IS ILLEGAL TO JOKE ABOUT MUGABE IN ZIMBABWE, TH... : LAUGHTER is the best medicine, wisdom says. But not necessarily in all places at all times. In Zimbabwe, laughter might actually be the w...

LAUGHTER is the best medicine, wisdom says. But not necessarily in all places at all times. In Zimbabwe, laughter might actually be the worst poison, depending on who or what you are laughing at. A man living in the east of the country near the belly of the rich diamond fields drinks a few quaffs of his frothy beer, the ­semi-traditional Chibuku. It is President Robert Mugabe's birthday. And the 2012 presidential birthday party is in the eastern province's capital, Mutare. The man, who is stubborn in the wholesome traditional personality of that region, does not go to the stadium where the party is being held. He has probably attended many in the past and has come to the conclusion that standing in the queue for hours for a small cup of his favourite drink was not to his liking. So, the man goes to his favourite bar, which is screening the festivities. As if to torture him further, the national broadcaster is airing the lavish birthday party live. The birthday cake is a c...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: MORE CRACKS IN ZANU PF!! : AS President Robert Mugabe prepares for possibly his last electoral battle before retiring from active politics, internecine infighting wh...

AS President Robert Mugabe prepares for possibly his last electoral battle before retiring from active politics, internecine infighting which has erupted once again in his faction-riddled party poses nightmares for the veteran nationalist who would want to exit the grand political stage with his head held high.The Financial Gazette can exclusively reveal that President Mugabe would use today’s extraordinary Politburo meeting to try and quell infighting in ZANU-PF, which celebrates its Golden Jubilee in August. He is also expected to rally his cadres for an epic battle against an unpredictable Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai — his fiercest rival since independence. The ZANU-PF leader is battling to contain major fallouts in his party which might cost him crucial votes at the polls whose exact dates could be negotiated between the principals in the inclusive government. The party, which lost its majority in Parliament in 2008 to the combin...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, PLEASE STICK TO ROBOTICS!! : Arthur Mutambara is young and ambitious, attracted to radical, anti-western rhetoric and smart as a whip, but he is not aware that knowl...

Arthur Mutambara is young and ambitious, attracted to radical, anti-western rhetoric and smart as a whip, but he is not aware that knowledge and wisdom are not one and the same thing. But, in many respects he’s a light-weight who has spent too much time reading U.S. campaign messaging manuals and too little thinking about the real issues; in essence he is not a wise man but rather a village fool. His contribution in the Inclusive Government has been to try and outshine Zanu PF by being more Zanu PF. For a man who cannot win an election in a burial society, we find his actions unacceptable and dubious. I condemn Mutambara`s lean thinking by trying to be a representative of those who rejected him in 2008. THAT Arthur Mutambara is not the director of proceedings in the puppet theatre is clear. It is equally clear that he is performing puppetry politics. We are guided here by George Charamba’s engagement of the situation when he said the following about Arthur Mutambara, unexpec...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: VILLY SØVNDAL A S... : POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: VILLY SØVNDAL A SIMPLE DANE WITH DELUSIONS OF ELOQ... : DENMARK has announced it will start providing aid t...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: MR MUGABE , YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ZIMBABWE`S ECO... : First and foremost, for over three decades, the government strenuously asserted that the economic ills confronting Zimbabwe were a result...

First and foremost, for over three decades, the government strenuously asserted that the economic ills confronting Zimbabwe were a result of the Machiavellian stratagems of the former colonial powers to recolonise Zimbabwe. The plan, they said, was to denude Zimbabwe of its resources and, to all intents and purposes, to enslave Zimbabweans.   Occasionally they varied their theme song, by also ascribing the ills to negative climatic circumstances and other “acts of God”.   On rare occasions, the latter contention had some limited credibility, whilst the primary claims of recolonisation intents were blatantly devoid of any substance. As the Zimbabwean populace progressively recognised that not only were the stated causes of Zimbabwean ills wholly without foundation, but also that the actuality was a combination of intense economic mismanagement and of even more intense profligacy and actions of self-enrichment and engrandisement. So the politicians had to find other expl...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: VILLY SØVNDAL A SIMPLE DANE WITH DELUSIONS OF ELOQ... : DENMARK has announced it will start providing aid to Zimbabwe after the country adopted a new constitution with elections for a substant...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: VILLY SØVNDAL A SIMPLE DANE WITH DELUSIONS OF ELOQ... : DENMARK has announced it will start providing aid to Zimbabwe after the country adopted a new constitution with elections for a substant...

DENMARK has announced it will start providing aid to Zimbabwe after the country adopted a new constitution with elections for a substantive government expected later this year. The country’s Foreign Minister Villy Søvndal described last month’s referendum on a new Constitution “as an essential step towards legitimate elections in the near future”. This is just a simple Dane with delusions of eloquence. If he had done his home work he will know that people in Zimbabwe are being tortured, murdered and imprisoned. Søvndal should have realized that Zimbabweans are not that stupid, not to realize that Søvndal is simply positioning his country for the eventuality that MUGABE wins the next elections, then Denmark will be in a position to conduct business in Zimbabwe with Mugabe. It is common knowledge that Denmark needs raw materials and other minerals, which Zimbabwe has a lot of. Mr Søvndal, we are aware of the fact that one country`s misfortune is another country`s fortune. Denmark i...

POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE: MR MUGABE, YOU FAILED ZIMBABWE! : Mugabe has apparently been reacting to events. His own history and actions also attest to a schizophrenic personality. While he likes post...

Mugabe has apparently been reacting to events. His own history and actions also attest to a schizophrenic personality. While he likes posturing as a Marxist revolutionary, sometimes by only wearing Communist attire during elections and emitting searing populist rhetoric, some just know him as an educated man recognised for his Western suits, love for English cricket, tea and admiration for British royalty. Mugabe was for long content and not inclined to upset the applecart when it came to Western interests. Most importantly, after Independence in 1980, apart from command economic and social services delivery approach, Mugabe did not seek to reform the settler colonial state structure in line with his party’s socialist and one-party state manifesto. He happily inherited colonial institutions, laws and even top individual officials and bureaucrats to run the state while he learned the ropes. No one is opposed to the principle of indigenisation and its aims to eradicate poverty and ...