In economically shattered Zimbabwe, a power-sharing deal

How awful is the situation in Zimbabwe, the southern-African nation the dictator Robert Mugabe has ruled for decades with an iron fist?

Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters

Zimbabwe’s military and notorious Central Intelligence Organization national-security forces want Mugabe to stay in power; they see him as a protector of their interests. Above, in a July 2008 photo: Director General Happyton Bonyongwe, Army Commander General Constantine Chiwenga and Mugabe

This is how bad, according to Britain’s Times: “For anyone brave enough to speak out as a supporter of [opposition leader Morgan] Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change since the elections of March 29, violent retribution has been a fact of life. Election workers have been beaten until the flesh has fallen from their bones, made to sing songs in praise of…Mugabe at all-night re-education sessions or murdered. Hundreds have gone into hiding.” Economically, “Zimbabwe has gone in a few years from [being considered] the…pride of Africa to [an] utter basket case. One of its leading banks…has said that the country’s inflation rate” has now increased to “more than 20 million percent. Recently, [Mugabe's] government had to knock 13 zeros off the [national] currency because banks and bank machines simply could not cope with the mathematics.”

Leading up to the parliamentary elections more than five months ago, Mugabe’s thugs used violent intimidation to dissuade known or assumed Movement for Democratic Change supporters from voting for Tsvangirai. Before and after the election, the Mugabe regime has used every technique in its dirty-tricks playbook to try to isolate Tsvangirai, whose backers have claimed the March 29 elections were unfair.

Finbarr O’Reilly/Reuters

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change, whose supporters have been violently intimidated by Mugabe’s thugs

Now comes the news that Mugabe and Tsvangirai have reached a power-sharing agreement. The deal was brokered by South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki. However, the details of the arrangement “were not released, and Mbeki said the agreement would only be made public after a formal signing ceremony [that is] scheduled for next Monday.” On that date, too, Mugabe and Tsvangirai are supposed to officially “file a report concerning the constitutional composition of the inclusive government” they have agreed to form. In that new government, what role will each of the rival politicians play? (Agence France Presse)

Tsvangirai had warned that he would have preferred “no deal at all over a bad agreement.” Recently he indicated that “he would not accept any accord [with Mugabe] that did not grant him sufficient power.” In the deal the two rivals have concluded, it remains to be seen who will be given control of Zimbabwe’s notorious, national-security forces. That command “was believed to have been one of the major stumbling blocks” in the negotiations between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. “The 84-year-old Mugabe, a liberation hero in the war that led to Zimbabwe’s independence [from Britain] in 1980 and who has ruled since that time, has drawn strong support from the country’s security chiefs. It remained unclear how a power-sharing government involving [Mugabe and Tsvangirai], intense rivals for many years, would work in practice.” (Agence France Presse)

Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters

In August, a man held old, now-worthless 1000 Zimbabwean-dollar notes found at a garbage dump near Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital; the African country’s annual inflation rate, the highest in the world, jumped to 11.27 million percent in June from 2.2 million percent the previous month

Zimbabwean political analyst and Mugabe critic John Makumbe said in reaction to the news of a Mugabe- Tsvangirai power-sharing arrangement: “It…was overdue for the sake of the nation. We don’t know the details yet, but this is a move in the right direction. There is only one person who can bring something to the table[;] that is Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC, but it is crucial to see what powers will be invested in the prime minister.” (Makumbe appeared to imply that he understood the deal would allow Tsvangirai to become Zimbabwe’s new prime minister.) The political analyst added: “Tsvangirai needs [to be given] meaningful executive powers and to have his hands on the critical state machinery, such as the security structures in the country. The deal will hold depending on who will have control of the cohesive machinery of the state. If these are still in Mugabe’s hands, the deal will unravel and we will soon be back to the negotiating table.” (Reuters)

In an article published last week, South Africa’s Mail & Guardian suggested that, in addition to clinging to power at all cost on his own, it was Zimbabwe’s military that wanted Mugabe to remain in control of the country. The newspaper reported: “The argument that Zimbabwe’s military is calling the shots has been harped on since the March 29 elections. Th[at] argument says…Mugabe would have stepped down when his ZANU-PF [party] lost its parliamentary majority, and [that] Mugabe himself [would have] won fewer votes in the presidential race than opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, had it not been for the military. Even his wife, the extravagant Grace Mugabe, was reported to have persuaded him to step down gracefully. But…military leaders…told him to stay on to save their own interests.”

Reuters

Harare, August 29, 2008: Mugabe congratulated the Zimbabwean swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Kirsty Coventry (right), presenting the young athlete with an award of $100,000 (in U.S. dollars, presumably, for Zimbabwe’s currency is worthless) in recognition of her achievements in the Beijing Olympics

Earlier this month, an unsigned editorial published in the Zimbabwean newspaper the Standard mocked Mugabe’s lust for power by portraying him as a megalomaniacal monarch. That satirical text, which a reader was supposed to have imagined the dictator himself had penned, stated: “As everyone knows, I am the undisputed and divinely anointed king….Everyone knows that, as king, I am obviously incapable of doing wrong, even if the facts indicate otherwise, but no one should dare elevate the facts above the king….Because I’m always utterly right, none of my actions can give rise to the slightest criticism. Thus all [critics] or, even worse, jeerers and hecklers, will be given a free, extended tour of the deepest and darkest dungeons in the kingdom.”

Posted By: Edward M. Gomez (Email) |
September 11 2008 at 09:53 PM