28 November 2008
Harare — Uniformed Zimbabwean soldiers raided one of the capital's money-changing haunts after becoming frustrated with queuing to withdraw cash at a Harare bank, according to an IRIN correspondent who witnessed the event.
The soldiers descended on foreign currency dealers in "Roadport" in central Harare on 27 November, where they assaulted money dealers and robbed them, an indication of the low morale among Zimbabwe's rank and file soldiers.
A soldier, who declined to be identified, told IRIN that there were increasing levels of despondency among soldiers deployed by President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government to suppress unrest and protest.
"We have no food in the barracks. There is no medication in military hospitals, while we can not access our money in the banks. The general attitude is that even if people are to riot, there would be no enthusiasm to stop them. After all, we are all suffering, and the irony is that we have done our own rioting," the soldier said.
We have no food in the barracks. There is no medication in military hospitals, while we cannot access our money in banks. The general attitude is that even if people are to riot, there would be no enthusiasm to stop them. After all, we are all suffering
Zimbabwe's official inflation annual rate is estimated at 231 million percent, but independent economists cite the inflation rate in the billions of percent; hyperinflation is causing widespread cash shortages.
Banks have set a maximum daily limit of Z$500,000 (US$0.25), creating long queues at banks each day, with no guarantee there will be any money to withdraw.
Go slow
Soldiers and police officers are paid in local Zimbabwean dollars, and although in theory they are granted preferential treatment, in practice this is not occurring.
A junior police officer, who declined to be named, told IRIN: "The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has a facility for us to collect money from the banks, but senior officers are looting all the money and asking us to go to get ours from the banks, and we have said we will not do much work, as we have no money."
Low-ranking police and prison officers have embarked on a go-slow to protest their inability to access their wages, while the country's largest labour federation, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, and civil society organisations are calling on people to demand that banks allow them to withdraw all their money on 3 December.
The cash shortages join other shortages such as food - the UN estimates that in the first quarter of 2009 nearly half the 12 million population will require food aid - medicines, electricity, fuel, potable water and agricultural implements.
The collapse of municipal services has combined to produce a cholera epidemic that is sweeping the country, while Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal has stagnated; the latest dispute appears to be more about whether the power sharing deal has collapsed, or is on the verge of collapse.
Bad blood
A senior official of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who declined to be named, told IRIN a solution to the political impasse was not in sight.
"The issues of genuine equal power-sharing, including the provincial governors and diplomatic appointments, will have to be ironed out before it is steered through Parliament. The matter of [former South African president] Mr [Thabo] Mbeki continuing as a facilitator would also have to be addressed."
Mbeki was appointed as the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) negotiator, but the deal he brokered between the ruling ZANU-PF party and opposition MDC began unraveling at the first hurdle, when the signatories tried to decide on the allocation of government ministries.
The MDC has questioned Mbeki's partisanship in recent months, but correspondence between MDC negotiator Tendai Biti and Mbeki, published by a South African newspaper on 28 November, has illustrated the bad blood between the Zimbabwe's opposition and the former South African president.
In a letter to Mbeki on 19 November, Biti said the SADC decision to force the MDC to share the home affairs ministry with Mugabe's ZANU-PF was a "nullity", and warned that the Zimbabwe situation, "if left unresolved, will explode or implode, and indeed such an explosion or implosion will have a contagious multiplier effect in the region."
Biti also said there was another wave of political violence against MDC supporters, contrary to the September power-sharing agreement, and that "the ZANU-PF regime is crafting an assassination plot, code-named Operation Ngatipedzenavo (Let Us Finish Them), intended to eliminate the MDC leadership."
In his reply, addressed to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Mbeki said: "I must confess that the contents of this [Biti's] letter came to me as a complete surprise, causing me grave concern."
Zimbabwe's regional burden
Mbeki privately acknowledged in his correspondence to the MDC leader the Zimbabwean crisis was detrimentally affecting the SADC region, but "loyal to the concept and practice of African solidarity, none of our countries and governments has spoken publicly of this burden, fearful that we might incite xenophobia, to which all of us are opposed.
Loyal to the concept and practice of African solidarity, none of our countries and governments has spoken publicly of this [Zimbabwe] burden, fearful that we might incite xenophobia, to which all of us are opposed
"This particular burden is not carried by the countries of Western Europe and North America, which have benefited especially from the migration of skilled and professional Zimbabweans to the north," Mbeki said in the correspondence.
"It may be that, for whatever reason, you [Tsvangirai] consider our region and continent as being of little consequence to the future of Zimbabwe, believing that others further away, in Western Europe and North America, are of greater importance."
Mbeki's solution to the power-sharing deal impasse was: "All that is required is that you, the leaders of the people of Zimbabwe, should do what you have committed yourselves to do, and that is all!"
Mbeki then used the opportunity to address the MDC's repudiation of the SADC as "cowards" after rejecting the SADC's recommendation that the MDC share the home affairs portfolio, which controls the police, with ZANU-PF.
"All of us [SADC] will find it strange and insulting that because we do not agree with you on a small matter, you choose to describe us in a manner that is most offensive in terms of African culture, and therefore offend our sense of dignity as Africans."
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
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Sure looks like a civil war coming on. How can the poor man on the street do anything else. Nothing seems to work in Zimbabwe and all the leaders want to do is talk..talk...talk. The leadership in Zimbabwe and South Africa really don't care. Instead of "let them eat cake" they have adopted "let them die." I can only hope the entire region is sanitized by the flames of revolution. Maybe something good would rise out of the ashes. The talky-talk just doesn't cut it...It is sad how badly those countries have wasted their independence.
The situation in now at the most urgent level.The Army will mostlikely overthrow Mugaba.Mugaba should be looking for a point for his exile.No one can govern that country presently simply because of thje level of collapse present.
These soldiers who should be defending the country have agreed to be used by Mugabe to brutalize the population during elections and demonstrations. Noone can demonstarte in ZW because of fear of the lawless treatment from police and soldiers.in defence of Mugabe. It is good that they now reap where they sowed. Sow oppression and lawlessness, the same comes back to bite you and your families. We are in this together and people must be allowed to express their free will. Adductions must stop. For Mbeki, I have never seen a mediator that biased from the beginning. I have also never seen a mediator so much desliked by one party but still insisting on meditiing. Mbeki you have been rejected. You failed in ANC. You were fired as RSA president. MDC, the majority party, has fired you. You failed to get international elders in the country, millions are dying under your mediation from willful neglect by Zanu PF. The Cholera epidemic spread to the threaten the whole region. For firing you, you are manufacturing cholera in ZImbabwe and unleashing it on South Africans and the region. This in effect is the net result of your action - you might not be aware of it. Very strong suggestion for the sake of Zimbabweans still alive and for the region's sake, recuse yourself now and let more impartial mediator finish this process.
This is definitely the mark of Mugabe's era. Mugabe is not the God of Zimbabwe. He should not think he is the life president. He has to step down and pave way for the new government. We certainly do not want to hear of war in Zim. Mugabe is unless, irrelevant and out of touch with the welfare of Zimbabweans and Africa at large. SADC countries, squeeze him out of his seat if he remains stubborn!!!
Boy, the REACTION from the neo-imperial West is at it again; this time recruiting a fifth column within the Armed Forces of Zimbabwe as its gang of elders, only armed. All for nothing, of course: in a few days, the Warrior and the loyal peop0le of Zimbabwe, true patriots, these, will deal with these two by four degenerates. Watch!
As the Great Fighter would put it: the degenerates will go hang, and hang they will, should it be determined that they are AGENTS of the neo-imperial western reaction, the archaic remnant of the days when Africans said "Yes Boss" to you know who.
Kindest Felicitations. Glory to the Great Warrior!
why dont you tell us more about this 5th column that you keep referring too. Only you mention it, so please explain yourself for the betterment of others... or like the rest of your posts would you rather just post things with the purpose to confuse?
Respectfully, I shall stay my rhetorical hand, for in my neck of the woods, it is Sunday, a holy day for those Africans who say they are Christians.
This, this, I say, however, must ROCK NOW:
Dude, I cannot respond to a text---YOURS---WHOSE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS make it almost impossible FOR ME to hang any sense to the same.
Now, is that "confusing" 'nuf for you, homey?
Hope, it sinks you into the depths of reflective confusion, DOMBOLO, while it sheds the piercing rays of Englightement on those who, similar to God's Lamb, are humble.
My Sermon on the Mount, you suppose?
Glory to the Great Fighter in Harare, the hammer of fifth columnists, African vel non!
See all comments (14).
What a difference 6 months make! Recently, there are even rumblings in the Army! At what point will ZANU-PF/Mugabe order the Army against the people and the Army will fail to respond? Will the Army reject ZANU-PF/Mugabe just like Russia's Bolshevik Revolution (that sort of irony would be sweet!)? Will the Army fight the "War Veterans"? Just how can ZANU-PF/Mugabe retain their death grip on power when even PF-ZAPU is deserting them?
Only 6 months ago, we were waiting for the "official" results of the "Election" where MDC-T was said to have won a clear majority from the polling data that was posted outside each polling station. 80% of the population was still unemployed, 30% of the population had left the country, inflation was ONLY one MILLION per cent!
Since the blood bath ZANU-PF/Mugabe calls the June elections, 80% of Zimbabweans are still unemployed, another 10% have left the country and inflation has skyrocketed from ONLY one MILLION per cent to TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY-ONE percent! Oh yes, since May 2008, the health infrastructure has basically imploded, schools have been closed, people are beginning to starve and HALF of Zimbabwe's population is destined to be reliant on foreign food aid by January! In addition to all of this, the public sanitation infrastructure has broken down, the people cannot even get clean water delivered to them, raw sewage runs in the streets or is pumped (untreated) into Harare's fresh water storage! Cholera (a middle-ages type disease that is easily treatable) has exploded onto the scene in Zimbabwe and has claimed over 300 (officially - unofficial estimates are greater than 1000!) lives!
Such is the legacy of ZANU-PF/Mugabe! A country with the best health, education and public infrastructure in all of Africa when ZANU-PF/Mugabe "took" power has been reduced to cowering from their "masters" of ZANU-PF or holding out their hands for food aid to keep from starving.
While Harare and the rest of Zimbabwe burn, Comrade Bob and his ZANU-PF henchmen continue to fiddle and insist that "they" have a mandate to continue to lead Zimbabwe? Only at gunpoint...........
While ZANU-PF/Mugabe is only too happy to crow about the SADC's recommendation that they form an inclusive government w/ MDC-T, they thumb their noses at an SADC Tribunal ruling that their "land redistribution" program is illegal and violates SADC and AU statutes. The police continue to ignore orders from the High Court that MDC-T supporters/prisoners abducted almost a month ago be given a "habeas corpus" hearing. The "Government" of ZANU-PF/Mugabe is clearly in contempt of court, and an arrest warrant should be issued for the Minister of Home Affairs and Comrade Bob himself! No one is above the law - unless you're ZANU-PF and live in Zimbabwe!
Zimbabwe is now a country that has no rule of law except by the barrel of a gun or blade of a machete, that doesn't recognize or heed the rulings of their own courts, that cannot even feed itself, where people vote with their feet and flee the country, where the government cannot educate their children, or even provide medical care to deliver their children, where easily treatable diseases wreak havoc on the population, where people stand in line the entire day to withdraw their own savings from banks, where the currency they are able to withdraw is virtually worthless before they even get home, where the water that comes from their taps (when it comes at all) is poisonous and carries a disease their hospitals cannot even treat, a country where the central bank steals the foreign currency of foreign aid organizations yet still purchases plasma TV's and new cars for judges!
With all of these things going for them, one must ask why Zimbabweans would want change? Why would they want to cast aside the party that "liberated" them from colonial oppression? How ungrateful the people of Zimbabwe must be towards ZANU-PF and Comrade Bob for their efforts to rescue the people of Zimbabwe!
ZANU-PF/Mugabe are living in the same demented daydream that Nicolas Ceaucescu of Romania did. The same daydream of Idi Amin or Haile Selassie. Those who once led the liberation of Zimbabwe have only become the replacement of Ian Smith's repressive, racist regime.
Isn't it ominous that even the armed forces of Zimbabwe are starting to grumble? Didn't Czar Nicholas II lose the support of the Army that caused the October Revolution?
We all now what happened to Ceaucescu, Amin, Selasie and others like them - what does the future hold for Comrade Bob? Will he be immediately excuted by firing squad like Ceaucescu? Will he be held for a period and then executed by firing squad like Nicholas II and his family (even though the Bolsheviks dumped acid on the bodies of Nicholas II and his family to hide their remains)? Or will Comrade Bob escape to Malaysia and his millions?
Pete Townsend of "the Who" penned the words, "meet the new boss - just the same as the old boss".
Comrade Bob claimed, "Total Empowerment"
I have penned, "Total Empowerment" to starve, to be beaten, or raped, or tortured or murdered by ZANU-PF/Mugabe!
"Total Empowerment"!