allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Muckraker - General, People Know Who Hit Them (Page 1 of 3)

TWO fascinating insights to the regime's frailties were evident on the Herald's front page on Monday.

Firstly we had the revealing quote from army commander Lieutenant-General Philip Sibanda saying the president's detractors were "wondering what had hit them" in the June 27 run-off.

Most people know perfectly well who "hit" them, General.

And then we had Patrick Chinamasa saying Morgan Tsvangirai "should listen to the people of Zimbabwe who want peace and stability so that we can focus on economic recovery".

So why can't Zanu PF deliver recovery as they promised in full-page adverts prior to the run-off? And who is blocking peace and stability? It is not Zanu PF activists who are still being abducted and murdered.

Sibanda thanked the security forces and the nation at large for "standing solidly behind our candidate".

This is the partisan stance we had all safely assumed. But it is useful to have it on the record so that restoration of professionalism in the armed forces is top of the agenda in the forthcoming talks.

The country's detractors were doing everything possible to overturn the people's will, Sibanda declared.

Isn't that what happened after March 29? Wasn't there a systematic campaign to overturn the people's will? Isn't that why the UN and AU are now involved in ensuring the people's will is respected? What would they be doing here if the people's will had already been respected?

There appears to be a degree of cognitive dissonance here!

Chinamasa's reference to the need for economic stability is intriguing. This came just as the government announced it would use the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act to "audit" British companies with a view to distributing them to Zanu PF cronies.

British investors have interests in some 499 companies, the Sunday Mail told us. "Friendly countries" would be approached to take control, a "source" said.

The story later reveals that of the 499 companies, British nationals have interests in 134 in which locals have majority shareholdings. Others are jointly owned.

What the story doesn't say is that over the past 10 years British investors have been leaving the country in droves for the very simply reason this is no place to do business.

There are now only an estimated 60 British companies left.

The "source" in the Hate Mail's sinister story seems to think there will be a rush by Chinese and Indians to take up the slack. What he doesn't understand is companies from those countries usually look to first see what the investment climate is like before leaping in. They speak to other investors, particularly well-established ones. Once they discover they will be mugged of a 51% share of their ownership by an avaricious political class they move along to more fertile ground in South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius.

Zanu PF likes to think it is punishing the British for threatening to pull out. But it is the people of Zimbabwe who end up punished by the scorched earth policies of Zimbabwe's rulers.

A good example is "people's shops" where the state sources commodities from South Africa and then sells them for a fixed price to ruling-party supporters.

This distorts the economy by importing goods and selling them well below the cost of production locally. As a result companies go to the wall.

This produces an artificial economy that is designed to impress local consumers. But at the same time it compounds inflation and unemployment. Very simply, it is not sustainable. But economically illiterate policies of this sort will persist so long as Mugabe's acolytes are in charge.

This perhaps explains why the focus of the inter-party talks will be on the impossibility of recovery so long as Zanu PF is free to damage the economy at will and blame sanctions.

The MDC has said it wants to see an end to militia gangsterism and the release of political prisoners before serious talks can get under way. This is not an unreasonable demand. Those prisoners are being held as hostages. There can be no political settlement so long as abductions and arrests persist.

But from our point of view there is an equally important demand that needs to be met. That is to stop the abuse of state newspapers and ZBC by ruling party supporters to rubbish the opposition and pursue a dishonest agenda of blaming the British and Americans for Zimbabwe's predicament.

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