Get ready for a Zanu-PF meltdown

The People's Congress gave us a wobbly vision of unity in government - but already the cracks are widening again

I make no apologies for returning once more to the internicine struggle within Zanu-PF, because the persistent split within the governing party grows ever more bitter, and the tipping point, when the differences spill out into open warfare, could come at any time. At this moment of renewal, let us hope it comes soon.

Latest top party man to step out of line with President Mugabe is ageing vice-president Joseph Msika, who last weekend addressed a rally at Stanely Square in Makokoba, Bulawayo. The occasion was part of the nationwide Unity Day celebrations - an ironic title considering what Msika had to say.

Perhaps as a top man in the government that has led our country to squalid chaos and poverty, Msika's conscience is bothering him. Perhaps, with his retirement promised for next year, he doesn't care what he says any more. But a close examination of his comments only emphasises how much some of our senior leaders resent the twisted and devious rule of the President.

Merry Christmas...if only!

Celebration, rejoicing, entertainment, good food and drink, parties, presents, family get-togethers... Where have they all gone?

I want today to wish all readers of this blog a merry Christmas, and if you're in Europe, or South Africa, or elsewhere, perhaps that's just what you are about to experience. A truly merry Christmas. But if you live with us, here in Zimbabwe, you will know that Christmas is a long-forgotten ceremony. Yes, December 25 will come and go, and this remains a largely Christian country. But the Christmas we knew in the old days no longer exists.

I can remember a Zimbabwean Christmas from my teenage years. I can remember the Christmas lights stretching through the Harare business centre. I can remember supermarkets and department stores bulging with goodies. I can remember new t-shirts for the guys, new dresses for the girls. I can remember preparing to travel to the country to be with family on the day, taking candy and biscuits.

All that has gone. And what are we left with? No-one can afford presents and there are none to buy. Children expect nothing. There are no cheerful Christmas commercials on television. There is...nothing.

SPECIAL REPORT: THE ZIM MAFIA

Most of us here in Zimbabwe live in, or on the verge of, bitter poverty. We strive to exist on worthless wages, and the little we do earn we can't spend because there's nothing in the shops. Each day is a crisis. We struggle to survive - and some of us don't succeed.

But there are exceptions. There are those who don't struggle. There are still some Zimbabweans who glide over our potholes in Mercedes comfort, who live in elegant homes tended by armies of servants, who feed themselves from well-stocked freezers, and who comfort themselves in times of stress by reciting the numbers of their Swiss bank accounts.

They are the Zim Mafia. They are members of a special clique - all of them politicians and officials from our ruling Zanu-PF party - who take advantage of their positions of power to rake in millions of US dollars.

Follow the money in Zimbabwe, and you find the guilty men. I've spent the last three months following the money. Here is my far-from-comprehensive run-down on the graft, corruption, double-dealing and sheer theft that is the mark of our rulers...

How the mighty have fallen out!

One brief public squabble, and Mugabe loses a friend and gains an enemy

It's always nice to keep up with the doings of old friends, and an old friend of this blog certainly had a noteworthy day last week.  I'm talking about War Veterans leader and general rabble-rouser Jabulani Sibanda. For Jabulani, always one of Mugabe's noisiest supporters, Friday was the day when the wheels really came off.

It happened like this. Jabulani was attending the Zanu-PF Extraordinary Congress in the evident expectation that he would be lauded for his services to our President. After all, he's energetically organised a score of marches for Mugabe, included the recent and highly expensive Million Man March, which was attended by...well, by thousands, anyway. He naturally expected at least a public pat on the back.

So when it came the moment for a War Veterans statement of solidarity, Jabulani, to the cheers of his supporters, moved briskly to climb up on the podium and take the microphone. And all hell broke loose.

Mugabe to run for sixth term

No vote allowed on candidacy at Zanu-PF meeting

Amidst familiar late-night scenes of dancing, hand-clapping, ululating and cheering, President Robert Mugabe yesterday steamrollered through any opposition to be endorsed as the ruling party Zanu-PF candidate in Zimbabwe's presidential election in March.

The ten thousand delegates at the party's Extraordinary Congress in Harare were not given a chance to vote. Instead they were instructed to adopt the central committee's report backing Mugabe by acclamation.

Different wings of the party, including the Women's League, the War Veterans, and crucially the chairmen of the party's ten provinces also endorsed Mugabe, effectively silencing the rival faction led by Vice President Joyce Mujuru.

Don't panic!

Our inflation is bad, but not this bad. My congratulations to the unknown satirist who produced this amazing trillion dollar note. I pass on to you all in the belief that, even with things as bad as they are, there is always something to smile about. Can't see Mugabe laughing at it though, can you?

Click on image for larger picture

The Archbishop of York cuts up dog collar over Mugabe

John Sentamu, The Archbishop of York, has pledged not to wear his dog collar until Mugabe leaves power

John Sentamu, dramatically cut up his dog collar live on television yesterday in a protest against Robert Mugabe's regime – and pledged not to wear the collar until Mugabe leaves power in Zimbabwe. Sentamu, a guest on BBC1's Andrew Marr Show, was speaking as the Zimbabwean President attended the EU-African summit in Lisbon. The Archbishop said Mugabe had been "destroying the identities" of his people through oppression and economic mismanagement. Taking out his dog collar, Sentamu said Mugabe had "taken people's identity, literally... and cut it to pieces."

Full story on The First Post

Where has all the power gone?

We're all suffering from the shortage of electricity - but why have things gone so wrong?

This week I was shown a leaked confidential parliamentary report on the energy crisis in Zimbabwe, and I have to tell you, it makes grim reading - if, that is, you read it in daylight, and don't try to read it at night, when there's no electric light to see it by.

The bad news is, both South Africa and Zambia are now refusing to supply us with any electricity. They say first we have to pay our outstanding bill, which between the two amounts to some US$42 million. That total in Zimbabwean dollars come to a figure with so many zeros it won't fit on this blog.

The debt apparently covers the period from March to August, 2007, and the four-page resort says that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is just unable to pay it, because of the unavailability, and the cost, of the foreign currency. So where exactly does that leave us?

Death of a taxi driver

My family is in mourning for my cousin, who would be alive today if our police did their job

On Monday of this week we buried my cousin at West Park Cemetery in Bulawayo, and I blame our corrupt police force for his death. I want to tell you why, and I will try to write as a reporter, not as a family member.

I will not name my cousin, for all the usual security reasons. He was a taxi driver in Bulawayo, our second largest city, and he was killed in cold blood by three robbers, who stabbed and axed him to death in a bushy area on the outskirts of town.

Taxi drivers all over the world run the risk of such attacks. But my cousin would be alive today if the police had done their job. They didn't. Instead, this is what happened.

Mugabe must die... in office!

Close supporters of the President rally round - but there's a certain morbid note about their endorsements.

It gives me great pleasure to re-introduce to my readers the lovely Oppah Muchinguri. Oppah is the fervent supporter of Robert Mugabe who recently promised to get her kit off in public to show how much she loves Bob. (It was a prospect that many said they would go a long way to see, and even more said they would go a long way to avoid.)

This week Oppah is back in full cry, with the following rather grim enorsement:  "The late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo died in office, and the late Vice-President Simon Muzenda died in office. President Mugabe must also be allowed to die in office."

She might have mentioned that President John F. Kennedy also died in office, but the implcations of that comparison would not have been very positive, you might say.

Two pictures worth a thousand words

Who needs anything written down when you can look at these two photographs and see clearly what has happened to us in Zimbabwe

Harare in 2007

Salisbury (Harare) in 1981

click on images for a larger picture

The Big March - minus three

Why do so many join the One Million Men And Women March? Because if you don't, it's bad for your health.

I'm not about to start counting how many people actually joined yesterday's big march in support of our gallant president and his candidacy in next year's elections. I have better things to do, like find food for my family, or some water we can drink in safety. But I do know one young man who wasn't marching, and I know why.

His name is Arnold Tigere, and a couple of days ago he and two friends were having a drink in a crowded bar. The conversation came round to yesterday's march, and Arnold, a supporter of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), expressed his opinion.

"I just questioned the motive of the march," he told me. "I asked why, if Mugabe is as popular as he says he is, people had to march up and down to prove it. What I didn't know was, sitting next to us were four members of the CIO." A moment later Arnold was staring down the barrel of a revolver.