Zimbabwe, the tragedy

AustinBay's Blog has an excerpt of this longer StrategyPage analysis of what's going on in Zimbabwe:

...A statistic that really does matter is unemployment. No one really knows what the unemployment rate is in Zimbabwe. Visit the Web and you will find estimates from fifty to eighty percent. As always, you have to ask not only who did the survey but what constitutes employment.

Zimbabwe’s once flourishing tourist industry has all but disappeared. In 1999, 1.4 million tourists visited Zimbabwe. Now there are no tourists. An estimated 200,000 Zimbabweans once worked in a tourism-related job (hotels, restaurants, etc.).

Almost everyone agrees, however, that commercial agriculture jobs are (or were) a key component in Zimbabwe’s economy. Since 2000, Zimbabwe has lost between 250,000 and 400,000 jobs in its once productive agricultural sector. In 2003 the UN reported approximately 100,000 farm workers were still employed on commercial farms. That was a decrease of 250,000 from an estimated 350,000 workers employed by commercial farms in 2000 prior to president Mugabe’s first “land redistribution” program, his “agrarian revolution” called the “Third Chimurenga,” or “liberation struggle.” The vast majority of those farms were owned by whites. The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union reported that there were approximately 4,500 white-owned commercial farms in Zimbabwe in 2000. The higher agricultural worker job loss figure is based a recent estimate, which means it is a very iffy statistic, like Zimbabwe’s actual inflation rate.

In 2000 the UN estimated that the 350,000 farm workers supported roughly two million people.

Using the same ratio (5.7 per worker) that means 2.28 million people who once had well-paying jobs (by Zimbabwean standards) now have little or no income. That is out of a 2005 population of around 13 million people….

African aid: coordinating with locals

From Wharton Business school blog: Stating the obvious...

Donors "pour money into countries that don't have the infrastructure to support everything the initiative plans to do," said Brian Anderson, who raises funds for a program in his native South Africa called MaAfrika Tikkun, which seeks to help children in AIDS-ravaged families. "What is critical is to create structure, to create systems, to create ecosystems."

The panel was moderated by Emma Osong, a Maryland-based former engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration who now works as a consultant and actively promotes African development. She said she believes partnerships involving new-style NGOs are critical to Africa's future. "Investment opportunities remain on the continent," she noted, "but many are still cautious about investing."

The tenor of the discussion matched themes sounded by many who attended the Forum -- that the long-troubled continent is now in a new period of economic revival with gross national product on the rise and the world's fastest growth in cellular telephones. At the same time, huge problems persist, from AIDS to abject poverty to corrupt governments that interfere with aid efforts.

It's this vast downside of the African story that has lured new players to the region, such as the Gates Foundation, which has spent a major part of its funds in Africa, or the Ibrahim Foundation, which seeks to support and reward good government. Increasingly, the panelists noted, this new breed is finding the gaps between inadequate government programs and slow-moving, poorly targeted, traditional aid programs.

Indeed, many of the African programs that the panelists are involved with have an economic development component, some directly and some more indirectly. An example of the latter would be the MaAfrika Tikkun program, established in the 1990s as the rate of AIDS infection in South Africa was soaring. MaAfrika Tikkun takes in hundreds of children whose parents have died or been rendered helpless by AIDS, and offers them schooling and nutrition while also seeking to empower the surrounding community. According to Anderson, the program helps economic development in several ways, both by training children from the poorest families for a future in the South African workforce, and by sometimes making it possible for an infected parent to work as well.

"We're focusing on children from infancy to age 20, when they can get jobs," Anderson said. "It's a very exciting opportunity because we are terrified that a whole generation is going to be lost. We have had moderate success." The MaAfrika Tikkun effort is backed personally by South African leader Nelson Mandela as well as the government.

Mugabe stokes diplomatic war

From Institute for war and peace reporting:

President Robert Mugabe this week upped the stakes in his diplomatic war with the United States and Britain after he declared in a televised national address that only “friendly and objective members of the international community” would be invited to observe the country’s harmonised presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for March next year.....

Mugabe also appeared to have been angered by remarks attributed to the new US ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act limiting the US’s dealings with the southern African nation mainly to humanitarian assistance would not be scrapped even if Mugabe won “free and fair elections”.

McGee said last week, “United States policy on Zimbabwe is not about free and fair elections alone. That is only one of the principles outlined in the law. There is a need to address all the principles before the law can be repealed, such as human rights and the restoration of the rule of law.”

In what analysts said was a rebuke of the US ambassador, Mugabe this week said as Zimbabwe heads towards harmonised elections in 2008 “let the message ring clearly to our detractors that as a sovereign nation we will not brook any interference in our domestic affairs. We will hold our elections guided by our constitution and laws as we have always done”.

He added, “As is our tradition, we will invite friendly nations and objective members of the international community to observe the elections. Those of our people who wish to go about campaigning should do so in atmosphere of peace and shun activities that may leave behind a bitter aftertaste. Government has at its disposal the means to deal firmly with anyone seeking to engage in acts of violence.”

A political analyst in Harare said it was difficult to trust Mugabe, given the electoral violence that characterised past elections. But he added that those calling for free and fair elections were opening themselves up to attacks of hypocrisy in raising issues that are not raised in other countries in the region where the electoral process is overtly flawed and violence is endemic, such as Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo....

Corruption fuels hunger in Zim

From the LATimes


....As the government of President Robert Mugabe proclaims plans for the "Mother of All Harvests" this planting season, many rural Zimbabweans are teetering on the edge of starvation.

And a new hunger crisis threatens. Despite predictions of a good rain for planting after last year's severe drought and failed harvest, Zimbabwe's economic chaos has left the country with an acute shortage of seeds.

Just a few years ago, Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of southern Africa, exporting grain to its less blessed neighbors. But in 2000, Mugabe began seizing thousands of mainly white-owned commercial farms and dismantling the inequitable pattern of ownership established under the racist government of Ian Smith.

Cronyism suspected

Some analysts, however, argue that the real motive behind the land redistribution was to share the spoils of power with Mugabe's cronies and liberation war veterans in return for their continued loyalty. Government ministers, security officials and ruling party allies grabbed the land and ran the farms into the ground. The nation's richest export industry collapsed almost overnight.

The national harvest plummeted. Production of maize fell by 74% from 1999 to 2004, according to the Washington-based independent Center for Global Development, while in neighboring Zambia it increased.

Now, about a third of Zimbabwe's population depends on humanitarian food aid.

Just as the government plays favorites in awarding farms, it plays favorites when distributing food. For hungry village people, the threat of starvation is terrifying.

With the presidential election due next year, there are reports from rural areas that the state-run Grain Marketing Board, which has a monopoly on the distribution of maize, is selling only to ruling party supporters or siphoning it to party officials, police and bureaucrats who resell it on the black market at inflated prices.

But the biggest problem, according to human rights organizations monitoring hunger, is that the grain board is distributing very little maize at all in many rural areas.

"We have had a lot of stories about political abuse of food," said Shari Eppel, a human rights activist in the southern city of Bulawayo. "But I think one of the biggest problems around food at the moment is that there isn't any. Even if you have got money, there isn't any to buy, and yet this is a very hungry time of year."....

Students arrested for wearing tee shirt

SWRadio Africa reports:

Police in Kwekwe on Sunday arrested and severely assaulted five student leaders for wearing T-shirts with a portrait of the late MDC spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe.

Mehluli Dube, Laswet Savadye, Whitlow Mugwiji, Stephen Chisungo and Gordon Mukarakati were arrested at a police roadblock while travelling from a Zimbabwe National Students Unions (ZINASU) leadership-training workshop in Bulawayo. Police accused them of inciting public disorder by wearing Jongwe’s T-shirts and detained them overnight at Kwekwe Central Police Station. They were later released without charge on Monday morning.

Dube, who has pending treason charges against him, for allegedly calling for the overthrow of Robert Mugabe, sustained a fractured tooth. He said fellow student leaders Mukarati and Savadye, incurred bruises and lacerations all over their bodies from the beatings....

Comrad Fatso writes:

From Comrad Fatso's blog:

Empty shelves, 'millions' marching. It must be the festive season. But the only millions that march in Zimbabwe are the many zeroes that militarily parade from your pocket to the till on a daily basis. And the only thing that this season will be doing is festering.

.......................................

Sometimes the word is the best weapon against silence and suffering. We have been word hustlers, makorokoza emashoko. Taking the word to the many corners of Southern Africa. Just over a month ago I was spitting poetic fire at the Poetry Africa Festival, Durban. From there we carried the word in a car as we stubbornly drove it one thousand kilometres from Gaborone to Harare. We presented our word to our our Batswana word warriors at the Infinite Word Festival where I spat words of murambatsvina-resilience-worm sellers-structural adjustment. And Josh, Zimbabwe's beautiful bass player, coated the word in a web of bass strings. Our spoken word-bass duet incited the crowd of 500. The word had been spat and understood. It was an unashamed kwerekwere word, barefoot and illegal. But it was truth.

We then rushed the word through borders and roadblocks so that it could be re-born in Harare's Book Cafe at the launch of MAGAMBA! our new network of spoken word activists and creative rebels. A movement of Zimbabwean artists that organises the most cutting-edge spoken word performances. Where the word is rebellious and free. MAGAMBA! 'Our Word Is Our Weapon'

The word rested. There was a power cut. And an attempt at a rain storm. It didn't work though as most of the prospective rain drops were in a ZINWA queue to pay their water bills after their water was disconnected.

The word woke up. To a breakfast of bread memories and long life milk that had lived long before and only left a good-looking box. Now we carry the word to South Africa where MAGAMBA! is organising MAKE SOME NOISE! A festival for freedom in Zimbabwe. Then the word boards a train for Cape Town and will let loose on Long Street. In a bar. Where it's noisy. And all you can hear is the word.

See www.comradefatso.com for gig details

Writers criticize EU on Portugal summit

SWRadioAfrica reports:


Controversy surrounding the European Union/Africa summit that opens in Lisbon later this week has received more headlines, after a group of influential writers criticised European and African leaders for not including Zimbabwe and Darfur on the agenda. Calling it "political cowardice" writers including Wole Soyinka, Vaclav Havel and Nadine Gordimer issued an open letter saying they expected the crises in Zimbabwe and Sudan’s Darfur region to top the summit agenda....


The letter said in part: "What can we say of this political cowardice? We expect our leaders to lead, and lead with moral courage. When they fail to do so they leave all of us morally impoverished. The EU-Africa summit presents an opportunity to address the biggest issues affecting our people. However our leaders - by putting their own desire to avoid a confrontation ahead of the suffering of millions - are squandering this opportunity and doing us all a disservice”, the writers said.
Pascal Richard from Zimbabwe Watch, a collection of Dutch non- governmental organizations dealing with Zimbabwe, said the letter is being circulated to all Heads of State attending the summit and was published Tuesday in European and African newspapers. He explained that the writers were selected because they were not just creative minds, but people who also had moral weight./.....

Pass the fertilizer please

NYTimes notices Malawi's success in growing food.....

It's the fertilizer subsidies.

Malawi’s leaders have long favored fertilizer subsidies, but they reluctantly acceded to donor prescriptions, often shaped by foreign-aid fashions in Washington, that featured a faith in private markets and an antipathy to government intervention.

In the 1980s and again in the 1990s, the World Bank pushed Malawi to eliminate fertilizer subsidies entirely. Its theory both times was that Malawi’s farmers should shift to growing cash crops for export and use the foreign exchange earnings to import food, according to Jane Harrigan, an economist at the University of London....

Here in Malawi, deep fertilizer subsidies and lesser ones for seed, abetted by good rains, helped farmers produce record-breaking corn harvests in 2006 and 2007, according to government crop estimates. Corn production leapt to 2.7 million metric tons in 2006 and 3.4 million in 2007 from 1.2 million in 2005, the government reported.

“The rest of the world is fed because of the use of good seed and inorganic fertilizer, full stop,” said Stephen Carr, who has lived in Malawi since 1989, when he retired as the World Bank’s principal agriculturalist in sub-Saharan Africa. “This technology has not been used in most of Africa. The only way you can help farmers gain access to it is to give it away free or subsidize it heavily.”

Torture is Mugabe's Election weapon

From the UKTelegraph:

Some of the worst alleged abuses by police have been carried out upon members of the civil protest group Woman of Zimbabwe Arise, most of whom are ordinary mothers. Of 397 members interviewed in a recent survey, 40 per cent said they had been tortured by police, and 26 per cent needed medical treatment for their injuries.

One activist, Angela Nkomo, revealed how she was taken to Fairbridge after taking part in a demonstration in Bulawayo early this year.

"We were forced to strip naked and lie on our stomachs before dozens of Black Boots beat us with baton sticks and leather belts," she said. "After that we were interviewed individually in a room full of male policemen while we were naked." Another member, Clarah Makoni, 19, broke down in tears as she recalled how she was forced to run through what she described as an obstacle course of electric wires. "The torture continued for hours," she said. "I was whipped while lying on my stomach. They then put me in a room full of ice."

According to the latest monthly report on political violence produced by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, during the first nine months of this year there were 776 cases of assault and 526 cases of torture - almost twice as many as over the same period last year.

Tendai Chabvuta, head of the forum's research unit, linked the increase in torture to the forthcoming congress of Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party next month. It is expected to ratify Mr Mugabe as its presidential candidate for elections due in March.

"It's quite clear that 2007 is the worst year for human rights in terms of politically motivated violence against opposition forces and human rights activists," said Mr Chabvuta....

The Horrors of Zimbabwe

From the UKTimes:

The horror of a stricken nation waiting to die

As the people of Zimbabwe are ground down by poverty and brutality, Robert Mugabe is offered a welcome at the international table

See Martin Fletcher revisiting a young Zimbabwean Aids victim

We knew Sarudzai Gumbo was still sick, but nothing prepared us for what we found. The seven-year-old was lying alone and neglected in a dirty sideroom in a Harare hospital.

Her head was a mass of septic wounds. Two large cancers were devouring the right side of her face. She had lost the sight of one eye and the other was gummed up. A filthy, blood-stained hat concealed untold horrors on her scalp – she screamed with pain when we tried to remove it. Flies hovered around her lesions. The stench of her putrefying flesh was overpowering. She weighed only 36lb (16.3kg).

The Times highlighted Sarudzai’s plight in March after discovering her in Mbare, a Harare slum. Her family was living on wasteland because its home had been destroyed by President Mugabe’s Operation Murambatsvina (“Clean Up Trash”). Her parents’ livelihoods had been ruined by the regime’s ban on street vendors. They both had Aids, as did Sarudzai, whose face was disfigured by open sores.

Related Links

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Readers sent in £7,500 to try to help her – funds forwarded to the Jesuit mission in Mbare – and Sarudzai was sent to an Aids clinic. But her mother died in April and her father took her away to the ancestral village and – fatally – interrupted her treatment. Sarudzai was transferred to Parirenyatwa Hospital just as Zimbabwe’s healthcare system was imploding.

As with every other hospital, the doctors and nurses who were there have left in droves for better-paid jobs abroad, their salaries at home rendered almost worthless by hyperinflation. There are no anaesthetics, drips, painkillers, antiretroviral drugs, blood for transfusions or even bandages. This is a shell of a hospital – a place where patients are left to die.

Sarudzai, whose father is also close to death, is a lovely, brave, affectionate girl. She never cries. She claps her hands when given something, waves when you leave. We brought two teddy bears that she instantly named Rudzai and Rudo – Shona for “Praise” and “Love”. Her condition was heartbreaking. We had her examined by a private doctor, who said it was the most shocking case he had seen. Within hours she was admitted to a private hospital. She has now been adopted by Kidzcan, a charity that helps Zimbabwean children with cancer, but her chances of survival are slim....

Read it and weep...

Senegal's pres things Mugabe is loved

From AFP:

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is solidly in power and the world is misled on the crisis prevailing in the country, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal has said after a two-day visit to Harare.

"We are misled on (the situation in) Zimbabwe," he said on state television Thursday night on his return from Zimbabwe....Zimbabwe was doing well and led by Mugabe with the support of the rural population, Waded was quoted as saying, even if the country was going through "difficulties, like us (in Senegal), perhaps more".

Zim's 2008 budget

from all Africa

by Tendai Biti

THE mediocre budget proposals for 2008 presented yesterday by Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi is an economic fiction that reflects the disconnection, denial and the sense of abstraction of the Zanu PF regime.

At all material times over the years, we have always argued that the regime is trapped in a matrix of denial and has no depth of the nature and extent of the Zimbabwean crisis.

The suggestion by the totally talentless Mumbengegwi that the Zimbabwean economy will grow by 4% in 2008 and that year-end inflation in the same year will be down to 1 978% underpins the psychiatric disconnect....

No wonder, in real terms, 70% of the budget is devoted to the army, the police, militias and patronage in the form of high allocation to the women and the youth.

Thus, under a vote item innocuously headed Special Services in the vote for the President and Cabinet, $87, 9 trillion has been allocated to the Central Intelligence Organisation.

The Ministry of Defence got a staggering $374,3 trillion while the ministry of Home Affairs got $339,6 trillion.

But the real slush fund is found hidden as an unallocated reserve under the Ministry of Finance's allocation in the form of a staggering $277,9 trillion.

Further, a large part of the patronage funds are found hidden in various vote allocations to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare.

The attempt to label this budget a "people's budget" is as hollow as it is unoriginal. For all practical purposes, this budget is arguably the most anti-people budget since independence. We say so for a number of reasons, both structural and normative....

Zim's empty shelves stop inflation estimate

from CNN:

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- With virtually empty shelves in stores across the African nation, the state statistics office said Tuesday it couldn't calculate its regular monthly inflation figures....

Chief statistician Moffat Nyoni said goods used in calculating the average inflation basket were not available."There are too many data gaps"....

--------------

IHT reports:

"....Corn meal, bread, meat, cooking oil, sugar and other basic staples used to measure inflation largely disappeared from stores after a government order in June to slash prices of all goods and services by about half. Producers said they could not afford to sell their goods at below the cost of producing them.

About the only meat-based product on the shelves is sausages composed of about one-fourth low grade pork and the rest cereal. A package of six rose thirty-fold in price in the past month, to 20 million Zimbabwe dollars.

Most scarce products are available in limited quantities on the illegal black market at up to 10 times the government's fixed prices. If inflation was calculated on black market prices alone it would reach the IMF's prediction of at least 100,000 percent.

Last month, the central bank offered loans to businesses at 25 percent interest to restore supplies to shops. Interest of about 500 percent is charged on routine commercial bank loans.

But central bank loans have made little difference to the availability of basic goods so far, store managers say.....

Zim Ex pats keep families afloat

From All Africa:

The scale of migration to Britain by Zimbabweans escaping their country's economic and political woes has reached the point where, with typically wry humour, London is referred to as "Harare North".

An estimated three million Zimbabweans, a quarter of the total population, have packed their bags and left home. Most, typically the semi-skilled, have opted for neighbouring countries, but many others have chosen Britain's green, if damp, pastures.

.....

A 2006 study found that at least half of all households in Harare and Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, were regular recipients of goods and money from relatives living outside the country. ..

It is a simple process: the money is deposited into the company's bank account in Britain, and the funds are transferred directly to the beneficiary's bank account in Zimbabwe. John, the accountant, said this was the best way of remitting money as it attracted the government's highly overvalued exchange rate....

One of the biggest online remitting companies, Mukuru.com, allows people to pay for privately imported fuel in Britain. Their relatives are alerted to the transfer by SMS and collect their vouchers, which they then redeem for fuel. UK-based Zimbabweans can also pay for groceries imported from South Africa, and provide their relations with access to treatment via medical insurance taken out in Britain....

Power to the People

SWRadioAfrica reports these posters are sprouting up all over Africa:


"...Hill managed to speak to a woman activist who is part of Zimbabwe Democracy Now and she confirmed they were behind the first billboard that was erected in Musina in October. At that time armed South African police, accompanied by 9 soldiers in a troop carrier, swooped on the two advertising workers erecting the billboard. The billboard read, ‘We know why you are in South Africa: Life in Zimbabwe is Murder; But please go back to vote in March. We can all be free.’ Musina city council allegedly ordered it to be pulled down, before a backlash from the media, politicians and the courts forced a u-turn and the billboard was left alone..."

Two views on Ian Smith

This writer insists things were better under Smith for the average African.

This writer excoriates Smith, implying that if he hadn't stood in the way of democracy things would be fine in Zim today.

Actually, they are both missing the point.

Under Smith, if the PC world hadn't brought sanctions, things would have probably evolved faster into democracy...yet even with sanctions, the average Zimbabwean had little political power, but could earn a good living, and the government would have prevented him from starving.

Yet if Smith had allowed democracy, would Zim have evolved into a democracy such as Zambia or Malawi (both black run countries have had major human rights problems, dictators, and corruption)?

The key to Zim's prosperity is the same as every country: Keep the most productive people intact and happy, so they can make jobs for the poor to improve their lot.

The racism of Smith prevented this, but the last ten years prove Mugabe's solution, a Marxist purging of the productive, is worse.

And opposition leaders often disappeared into detention under Smith...now they disappear into London...

Sorry for lack of posts

I was in the US visiting family, and arrived back here in the Philippines two days ago. I suffer from jet lag, so between being busy and having jet lag, I've been amiss in posting links.

Seems that Mugabe decided to wreck the mining industries, and Ian Smith died while I was on vacation...

My friend writes things are still terrible in Zim...

Mugabe employed witchdoctor

From CNN:
-- President Robert Mugabe has said ministers at a Cabinet meeting he agreed to pay two head of cattle and three buffaloes to a woman who claimed she could produce gasoline out of rocks, the official media reported Friday.


Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe, right, tours a biodiesel plant Thursday amid an acute gas shortage.

Mugabe later ordered the woman's arrest on fraud charges.

The Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece, reported the woman claiming to be a tribal healer, known in the West as a witch doctor, also took large sums of money, a car and a piece of land from the nation's highest ranking politicians, promising in return to use spells to produce diesel fuel from rocks in the bush outside the provincial town of Chinhoyi, 70 miles northwest of Harare.

Instead of invoking spirits, the woman bought diesel and piped it into the rocks, the newspaper reported.

It said Mugabe himself ordered Rotina Mavunga's arrest. She was charged with fraud last month -- more than a year after the gas from rocks saga began.
--------------------

For those who know about Africa, this was not employing a local herbal healer or someone to diagnose illness/witchcraft, but employing someone to help him get rich.
This is not good...I wonder if he is using similar ceremonies to stay in power...

Zim refugee story

from Zim daily:

Hundreds of Zimbabwean cross border traders cross into Zambia daily in to sell their goods and import foodstuffs that are in short supply in Harare, and despite government restrictions on imports, they have continued to supply the Zimbabwean population with commodities that are not available in Harare’s supermarkets.

Most supermarkets in Harare have no basic commodities like toothpaste, bath soap, washing poweders, cooking oil and rice.

Thousands of cross border traders are importing these goods from Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa and Botswana daily.

“We come here every week to sell beer, wines, reed mats and cigarettes and buy groceries that we go and sell in Harare, the hardships in Harare are unbearable” said one cross border trader, a young woman in her early 20s.

However, the continuing decline in the value of the Zimbabwean dollar has resulted in increasing desperation among cross border traders, with most of them sleeping in the open in Lusaka, even in wet weather.

Teachers, nurses and other civil servants who use their meagre savings on cross border trips to supplement their paltry government salaries have been rendered destitute in neighbouring countries, as they have to sleep on the pavements and spend the day vending wines and cartons of cigarettes. ...

SA happy with Zim progress

from news 24:

Pretoria - South Africa is happy with the progress that has been made regarding efforts to resolve the problems currently facing Zimbabwe, says Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad....

'SA to facilitate dialogue'

He cited as a reflection of the progress made, the unanimous acceptance by all relevant stakeholders in Zimbabwe, of the Constitutional Amendment Bill No 18, which sought to harmonise presidential, parliamentary and local government elections as from 2008.

Pahad said: "SA will continue to facilitate dialogue between the government and opposition parties, including representatives from civil society in order to resolve the remaining challenges facing Zimbabwe leading up to the 2008 general elections....

"All the finance ministers have now returned to their capitals and after consultations with their capitals they will determine the next step.

"SA is quite happy with the progress being made in the facilitation efforts and we think even if there are some difficulties, the process has been placed on the right track," emphasised Pahad.

Regarding the progress with respect to the SADC Regional Economic Agenda, Pahad said the SADC had noted that there was considerable basis for declaring the SADC Free Trade Area by the time of the 2008 SADC Summit, which would be hosted by SA in July...

Zimbabwe: Agency Electrifies 5 228 Rural Institutions

From All Africa:

The Rural Electrification Agency has electrified 5 228 rural institutions, 192 of them during the first nine months of this year, the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Cde Mike Nyambuya, has said.

In a speech read on his behalf by Secretary for Energy and Power Development, Mr Justin Mupamhanga, during the official launch of the Solar Mini-Grid system in Mount Darwin South and Rushinga District, Cde Nyambuya hailed REA for making tremendous progress under the current challenging economic environment.

"Despite the economic and other challenges being faced by our country over the past few years, the Rural Electrification Agency has made tremendous progress in the implementation of the Expanded Rural Electrification Programme with Electricity End Use Infrastructure Development," Cde Nyambuya said....

MDC hit by more rumblings

From IWPR:

Some disgruntled members are even calling for a new party to be formed.

By Meshack Ndodana in Harare (AR No. 142, 8-Nov-07)

The largest faction in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, could split following a row over Morgan Tsvangirai’s sacking of a senior female party official, say analysts.

At a crisis meeting on November 3, the MDC’s national executive refused to endorse the decision of its leader to replace the head of the powerful Women’s Assembly, Lucia Matibenga, with Theresa Makone - the wife of Tsvangirai’s friend and financier, Ian Makone.

“This is a fatal case of poor judgment on the part of Tsvangirai,” said a University of Zimbabwe, UZ, political scientist who has monitored developments in the party since its formation in 1999....



The analyst added that what is most worrying is the way in which the party is gradually coming to resemble ZANU-PF in terms of internal squabbles and the arrogance of the leadership.

“The only major difference [between the two leaders] is that President Robert Mugabe is able to contain the divisions within his party,” he said.

People can't afford life saving drugs

From IWPR website:

As the prices of drugs and healthcare continue to soar to astronomical levels, many Zimbabweans with life-threatening conditions are going without the treatment they need.

Spending an afternoon at one of Harare’s busiest pharmacies is heartbreaking, as patient after patient walks in and out without collection their prescription because they just can’t afford it.

Barely able to stand without leaning against the wall, Martin Sibanda, a self-employed welder, waits anxiously for the pharmacist to give him the prices of the five drugs that were prescribed to him at a clinic close to his home in Harare’s poorest suburb, Mbare.

After a two-minute wait, the pharmacist hands him a piece of paper with the total cost of the drugs. He looks at the paper and as if in slow motion, he shifts his gaze to the pharmacist, who repeats the figure and asks if he should supply the drugs.

Sibanda whispers the figure and shakes his head in bewilderment, “My son, are you saying 28 million [Zimbabwean dollars, ZWD – 28 US dollars at the black market rate]? Did I hear you right? Please check again, you must be mistaken.”..
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In the Philippines, many of our poor people can't afford medicine for blood pressure...usually they can borrow to get antibiotics etc. for their kids and themselves, however...

Two posts on Zim and South Africa

Two posts on SA and Zim relations...both essentially saying the war of liberation was about land, so SA shouldn't make Mugabe change...

LINK

LINK

Of course, keeping the people of Zim poor as farmers of small plots would allow cheap labour for the large multinationals they defend, but never mind. You can't just give out land....our farmers in the Philippines got land reform, then electricity, and loans to get good seed, irrigation, fertilizer, pumps and chances to sell the seed at a good price. The increased income allowed them to educate their children. Their kids now work in Saudi or Manila, not wanting to stay on the farm, and the land is again for sale.

What is missing is the idea of prosperity and globalization. With a large population increase, going back to the land is a plan for famine and disaster...

Mugabe signs successor choice law

From the BBC:

Last Updated: Thursday, 1 November 2007, 14:51 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version

Mugabe signs in a successor law

President Mugabe intends to run in elections next year Zimbabwe's president has signed into law an amendment to the constitution that allows him to choose a successor if he decides to retire mid-term. Robert Mugabe's choice would then be voted in by parliament which is dominated by his Zanu-PF party. The constitutional amendment bill, which also allows presidential and parliamentary polls next March, had the backing of Zanu-PF and the opposition. Mr Mugabe has said that he will seek another term in next year's elections. Analysts say they expect Zanu-PF to dominate the joint elections in March 2008 and for Mr Mugabe to then put a hand-picked successor in place.

Malawian maize for Zim

From ReutersThe United Nations World Food Programme said on Wednesday it had bought 35,926 tonnes of white maize for Zimbabwe from Malawi as part of over 80,000 tonnes of food it purchased from Malawi to feed five countries.

"Food commodities have been bought from Malawi by WFP for operations in Liberia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe," said Mathews Nyirenda Senior Communications Officer at WFP Country office in Lilongwe.

CSA sit tight on Zim

From IOL

Cricket South Africa and the players representatives, the South African Cricketers Association (Saca), will meet next week to thrash out arrangements for Zimbabwe's inclusion in South Africa's professional domestic competitions.

In the meanwhile, Zimbabwe's participation in the SuperSport Series has been put on hold. The matter was discussed at a special meeting of Cricket South Africa's General Council held yesterday.

Zimbabwe's participation in the three domestic competitions; the four-day SuperSport Series, 45-over MTN Domestic Championship and the Standard Pro20 Series, had caused a furore earlier this week when Saca objected to the unilateral fashion in which CSA sought to force Zimbabwe's inclusion in the local competitions.

Protests at Milpark Hospital against ZANU-PF

Rev. Hove's blog spot has photos of HERE.

and other reports and links.
The Photos are of The Zimbabwe Revolutionary Youths demonstrating in JHB at Milpark Hospital against ZANU-PF Generals who are admitted there!

Blog update

I apologize for light blogging and posting. I am getting ready to visit relatives in the US next week, so posting may be light for the next month.

Misc links

writings by Rev. Hove:

www.finalpushzim.blogspot.com !)

I refer you to my submission “The thoughts and memories of a former ZANU-PF cadre” and the link thereof can be got at www.finalpushzim.blogspot.com .

For numerous articles and submissions on the atrocities of the 80s in Matebeleland and the Midlands in the 80s, I refer you to my www.gukurahundi.blogspot.com .

The next main “ZIMFINALPUSH HEADER” is the current page which is now available at www.thezimbabwedigest.blogspot.com .

This page serves in conjuction with the www.zimfinalpush5.blogspot.com

A link to that letter can also be found at www.finalpushzim.blogspot.com .

Why the SADC/MBEKI INTIATIVE CANNOT AND WILL NOT SOLVE ZIMBABWE'S PROBLEMS!

From Rev Mufaro Stig Hove:

There is no journalist, no blogger, no analyst, no politician: there is no individual or organisation that can ever describe the whole or even a part of the suffering that the people of Zimbabwe are going through just today as you read this humble submission of mine.

Suffering can never be adequately described!

It is the sufferer himself/herself who goes through the experience and may then try to describe it to whoever is interested in listening.

Zimbabweans are suffering both within Zimbabwe and outside Zimbabwe.

Whoever is reading this submission of mine has probably already read or heard of the trials and tribulations of the lovely people of Zim.

I will not go the direction of descriptions!

I will rather concentrate on looking at the Mbeki fallacy that the Elections of 2008 may/will help end the Crisis in the country of Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, Lovemore Madhuku, millions others and myself also.

In brief, the State President of the Republic of South Africa, Cde Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki seems busy with what looks like some Initiative of some sort to try and return Zimbabwe to a state of “normality.”

(In the meantime, his Government is on a recruiting spree absorbing all the qualified teachers, nurses, accountants, engineers etc that are fleeing the humanitarian disaster across the Limpopo.

Who remains to look after the sick in the Hospitals, who remains to teach our children in the schools, who is working for various Industrial Establishments back home?

I am equally guilty of fleeing the land of my fathers and hiding in the land of my uncles!)

Thabo Mbeki’s under-paid soldiers and police are making a “killing” collecting bribes at the border and within the country from desperate Zimbabweans wanting to “regularize” their entry and stay in the mighty Republic of South Africa.

Farmers at the northern border are having various items disappearing as the “illegal immigrants” pilfer whatever they can so they can sell and get the precious Rand to use on the uncertain journey Southwards. The Rand will be required to pay for transport, for further bribes and for survival as one tries to establish oneself in the land of the intellectual Marxist-Leninist Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki.

When our legal or illegal immigrant brother/sister arrives in some town further South, life then really becomes another Hell as bad or even worse than the Zim one abandoned.

The only difference is that here one can set up a Barber Shop of sorts and get R10 per hairdo or whatever one can involve oneself in.

Bricklayers and other skilled or semi-skilled persons can be luckily absorbed in some project or other.

Women must brace themselves for vigorous sexual orgies and the word “prostitution” does not exist in this new land of South Africa. If one puts on a condom and gets in and then gets out, where is the problem there? The liberal ANC Government makes it even easier since they have exterminated all fear and acknowledgement of God in the short time they have presided over the affairs of the South African State.

The whole story of what is really happening as far as sexual abuse of Zimbabwean women is concerned will never be fully known or told!

Women share blankets with men at Marabastad Home Affairs (Pretoria / Tshwane) and the “lucky” ones are picked up in the evenings, spend the night earning a few rands “God-knows-where” and are then returned in the mornings to continue their wait for weeks and months for “papers” of one sort or another.

I will not talk of the rise in criminal activities because I have noticed that Cde Thabo Mbeki will then concentrate on having me substantiate this and that allegation instead of appreciating that the crime levels of any society will definitely go up when hundreds of thousands of hungry, angry and displaced persons are absorbed in that particular society.

As I have already said above, I will not go on singing about the trials and tribulations of my countrymen within and without the Zim borders.

Police detain WOZA membersPolice Officers from Harare Central Law and Order Division briefly detained 3 members from Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) at

from SWRadioAfrica:

Police Officers from Harare Central Law and Order Division briefly detained 3 members from Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) at a restaurant in Harare, saying they wanted WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams to surrender herself to Harare Central Police station. The 3 women, Clara Manjengwa, Lilian Nketula and Kesina Munda, were interrogated for about 2 hours outside on the pavement. The police accused them of taking part in WOZA demonstrations on Monday, and planning more protests in the future.

Williams said she refused to turn herself in and wondered why the police did not deal with whatever the issue is on Monday, when she was in custody at Harare Central all day. According to Williams, the 3 WOZA members were ordered to walk to the police station with the officers. Just outside Harare Central the officers asked for Z$5 million from each member. The women refused and insisted on being charged if they had committed any crime. They were released without charge.

Williams said the police have been abducting WOZA members and asking for bribes. This has become a way for them to raise money to line their own pockets. The WOZA leader described how many ordinary Zimbabweans, especially vendors, are being forced to pay bribes by corrupt police officials. She added: “But the ordinary people have no platform to voice their anger about this. So we speak on their behalf.”

Sekai Holland explains Mugabe to New Zealand left

From SWRadioAfrica...
There are still some on the left who think that Zim's land reform was land reform...Ms. Holland tells them the truth:

Members of Parliament from the Maori party of New Zealand have withdrawn their support for Robert Mugabe’s regime, after it was explained to them that the land redistribution exercise has only benefited an elite few from Zanu-PF....

Since 1980, a government body established to settle legal claims has been engaged in compensating the Maori for land that was illegally confiscated.
This has similarities to what is happening in Zimbabwe, except that the regime in Zimbabwe has used violence to kill and subdue people it is taking land from. Kunaka said the impression the Maori people had was that Mugabe was taking land back for the people.

‘They genuinely thought the regime was empowering the indigenous blacks in Zimbabwe until Sekai Holland gave them the correct picture. They were shocked and immediately withdrew their support for Mugabe’s land redistribution exercise,’ Kunaka said.....

Holland is currently based in Australia were she’s still receiving medical treatment for injuries sustained during the 11th March beatings of the opposition.

China still supports Mubage

from All Africa;

...."First on the political front, we support the efforts Zimbabwean people have made to restore social tranquillity and develop national economy and oppose any exterior interference in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe in any form.

"We believe that the Government of Zimbabwe has the ability to solve the problems on their own," Amb Nansheng said.

He said China would continue to rally behind Zimbabwe and continue strengthening the strong ties, which dated back to the liberation struggle....

Anglicans seek to oust rogue Archbishop

From All Africa..

The controversial reign of Harare Bishop Nolbert Kunonga might be coming to an end if the Anglican Church has its way in court. The Church will now seek court intervention to seize control of its assets from Kunonga. This follows his decision to withdraw the diocese from the province over a feud on homosexuality that exploded at a meeting in Malawi. In papers submitted by lawyers the church says it has a well-founded fear that the bishop, 'will fund his new ministry with the Church's resources as he has access to the Church's investments and funds.'...

The Harare bishop has for years dominated headlines with his blunt support for violent land grabs that saw him receive a farm from government as a 'thank you' gesture. He has faced allegations of using state security agents to harass, intimidate and even threaten death on those parishioners who opposed his rule. To ensure support for his reign as bishop he has planted his supporters in positions of authority in the different parishes across Harare. Those victim to his threats have meanwhile fled the country fearing for their lives. But his latest decision to withdraw the diocese from the province has backfired and offered a legal route for the church to expel him....

How western policies slow down African growth

If you read the headlines, Africa is a basket case.

For example, today’s NYTimes headline says: Cost of Africa’s wars is equal to all aid money.

But there is another side to Africa that rarely gets in the news.

Last week in Minneapolis, there was a Pan African Trade and Investment Summit. It was to try to connect local businessmen, especially those of the African diaspora, with small businesses in African countries.

You see, development has to be done at many levels. As the Chinese saying goes: Give a man a fish, he eats for one day. Give him a boat, and he feeds his family for a generation.

And after a generation where the western elites insisted that socialism was more suited to Africa (because tribal land is owned in common) the failures of the socialist paradigm are now making some Africans stand up and say: But African traders and market women and skilled workers are also part of our heritage.

But the new paradigm for Africa is not the exploitation of cheap labour by multinational corporations, but the grass roots growth of small and medium sized businesses that are slowly making things better. And some African governments are starting to help their local economies grow.

For example, much of Africa (or Asia for that matter) are small farmers.

You need government to help small farmers with subsidies to buy fertilizer and get high yield seeds for their crops so that they have a surplus to sell…and use the money to send one’s children to school.

Mary Kalika certainly thinks the subsidy policy makes sense. Ms. Kalika and her five children farm a little less than a hectare of land in this nine-house village in central Malawi. “We harvested 42 oxcarts of maize this year; that is the most ever for this land,” she said. “It’s very good news, and it’s because of the subsidized fertilizer.”

Ms. Kalika has already sold some of her surplus to buy seeds and tools to plant tomatoes to sell in town for cash. She may put a new roof on their house, and buy the children school uniforms if the tomato crop does well.

So in one generation, we will have two things: Farmers limiting families (because it’s expensive to send kids to school, and when there is enough food, all your kids live). But all those kids won’t keep farming. They’ll move to the city and get office or factory jobs.
So the next step for development: Once you have excess grain, you have to allow merchants to buy the grain, transport it, and then sell it elsewhere. So Malawi is selling surplus grain to Zimbabwe.

Such transportation takes an infrastructure, which again is the government’s job. One problem in the past was that roads were built, but not used. Now, a smart country will allow locals and businessmen to have input in to where to put the roads, getting the money from things sold overseas.

And the small farmers will of course benefit. People will have money to spend, so there will be a market for other things, such as bottled softdrinks, or a second dress, or red sandals, or headscarves, or a magazine.

Ironically, the best hope for a prosperous Africa in the future is China.

As people get a little extra money, people will buy clothing, plastic dishes, shoes, and all sorts of things that China is willing to sell and distribute cheaply to the world. China needs raw materials, but will work with local businesses to get their products into small rural shops…One of the undercovered stories of globalization is a China that sees plans as long term, and has a millenium of experience in trade, will invest in infrastructure, knowing the resulting prosperity will mean more customers in the future.

But in the short term, the greatest danger to African economic growth is actually the eco friendly emphasis on using things grown and manufactured locally.

Much of America’s “off season” fresh food comes from South America, thanks to NAFTA. Africa hopes to do the same, but is finding their crops blocked by the gospel of ecology:

“Fresh vegetables from Africa” have for several years been one of the main focuses of environmental and anti-globalisation activists…Already in 2003, airlifted baby carrots and garden peas from South Africa were highlighted in energy budgets of imported foods. For carrots, “it will have taken 68 calories of energy in the form of fuel to air freight each calorie of carrot energy,” while “fresh peas require approximately two and half times the energy to produce, package and distribute as those sourced locally,” the British daily ‘Guardian’ reported….

The dirty little secret, as the article points out, is that the same grocery stores that discourage imported African crops think nothing about selling subsidized European food to China.

Even Tesco, being concerned about CO2 emissions of transported foods, shows its real face when it comes to exporting from Europe. Only two weeks before its much-publicised marketing campaign on “carbon counting” labels, the UK retailer… announced the opening of ten supermarkets in China, where it will be selling popular European grocery products.

Sigh.

——————————-

Green revolution needed in Africa

NYTimes notes problems getting new high yield hybrid seeds into the hands of local farmers...

Developed with financing from wealthy countries and private foundations, the New Rices for Africa, or Nericas, are unpatented and may be grown by anyone. Yet there is a severe shortage of them in a region where both the private and the agricultural sectors are woefully undeveloped.

“This is a story repeated thousands of times all over Africa,” said Joseph Devries, who is the head of seed development for a joint effort by the Rockefeller and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations to jump-start farm productivity in Africa.

“You have farmers who are very willing adopters of new technologies and want to raise yields,” he added, “but are not getting access to seed, fertilizer and small-scale irrigation.” Finding a sustainable way to supply them with seed, he said, “is emerging as the holy grail for agricultural development.”

Here in West Africa, where rice is a staple crop, the African Development Bank is financing a $34 million program in seven countries to spur wider use of the new rice seeds. But the obstacles are daunting.

Farmers typically lack credit to buy seed and fertilizer. And the agricultural economy itself suffers from a lack of investment. Foreign aid for agriculture has plunged over the past two decades. And African governments — some, like Guinea, endowed with natural resources and cursed with corruption — have too often spent less of that wealth than they might have on rural development.

Decent roads to move crops to market are scarce. So are storage facilities to preserve harvests and crop insurance to protect farmers from drought, flood or bumper yields that perversely cause prices to collapse. All can wipe out the income farmers need to provide reliable demand to seed companies, making sale and distribution of the improved seeds a high-risk venture.

Across the region, a handful of private companies in Nigeria and Benin have begun to multiply and market the new rice varieties. Here in Guinea, where there is not a single seed company, the government is now working with farmers to expand the supply of Nericas seed.

Villagers here in Hermakono first enviously spotted the new rices growing in a neighboring community’s field. In 2006, after writing to Guinea’s Agriculture Ministry, they got their first small store of the seeds.

So precious were they that as the first crop grew heavy with grain, the villagers took turns standing watch in the fields. “We divided into small groups to guard it so nobody would steal even one stalk,” said Goulou Camara, a farmer.

,....

Tsvangirai embarks on mission to explain talks

From swradioAfrica:

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is in the United States on the first leg of a two-nation tour of North America to appraise party supporters and pro-democracy groups on the progress made so far at the SADC led mediation talks.

Rocked by a backlash from its supporters and its partners from the civil society for supporting constitutional amendment bill number 18, the MDC leadership has been jolted into action to explain why it voted with Zanu-PF in Parliament a month ago.....

As a follow-up, the party dispatched its entire cabinet last week to meet with Mbeki’s mediation team and explain the need to either open up the talks, or alternatively give regular media briefings.

Hebson Makuvise, the MDC chief representative in the UK told Newsreel on Monday that Tsvangirai had several engagements in the United States and would fly to Canada for further consultations with both party activists and pro-democracy groups.

‘It is very important for the party to remain steadfast and focussed on the important job that lies ahead. ...

Mugabe admits Zim a "laughing stock"

from the UKTelegraph:

Zimbabwe a laughing stock, says Mugabe

By Sebastien Berger, Southern Africa Correspondent

Last Updated: 2:50am BST 09/10/2007

	President Robert Mugabe confiscated farms from white owners

The malnutrition that afflicts millions of Zimbabweans has reduced the country to a "laughing stock", President Robert Mugabe has admitted.

Distributing equipment to black farmers resettled on land seized from white owners, he said: "We have become the laughing stock because of hunger. We all need to eat, whether you are Zanu-PF or MDC. Let's unite."

Since Mr Mugabe began confiscating farms Zimbabwe has gone from being an agricultural exporter to a country where millions need food aid. He blames supposed Western sabotage for the situation, rather than his own actions.

An international court is to be asked to rule on the seizure programme. Papers filed with the Southern Africa Development Community Tribunal accuse Mr Mugabe's regime of illegal racial discrimination and violations of human rights...

---------------

Actually, I agree with land reform. But there are ways to do it that compensate families. Here in the Philippines, my husband's ancestral land was given to the workers, but we kept small farm plots. And his family were paid: not much, but enough to help pay school fees in university

White farmers in court: They grew food

from the UKTelegraph

Ten white farmers appeared in court in Zimbabwe yesterday accused of growing crops on their land — in a country where millions of people will need food aid within the next few months.

The case in Chegutu district, 70 miles southwest of Harare, exposes the perversity of President Robert Mugabe's policies. Commerical agriculture was the mainstay of the economy in the days when Zimbabwe was a food exporter...

The farmers, aged from 38 to 75, produce a variety of food from chickens to oranges and have already given two-thirds of their farms to the government for resettlement. All but one still work their remaining land intensively and say they intend to try to continue....

"The position is that food shortages or no food shortages, we are going ahead to remove the remaining whites," he said recently. "Too many blacks are still clamouring for land and we will resettle them on the remaining farms."

In fact many farms were given to members of the government and their cronies, and one minister has admitted that the new farmers have failed in their cultivation efforts.

------

South Africa rescues miners

from LA times

CARLETONVILLE, South Africa -- Some 2,700 gold miners -- some singing, some swearing, but most looking dazed -- were hauled from deep underground today as efforts continued to bring hundreds more to the surface after an accident crippled an elevator.

There were no casualties when a pressurized air pipe snapped at the mine near Johannesburg and tumbled down a shaft Wednesday, causing extensive damage to an elevator and stranding more than 3,000 miners more than a mile underground.

The trapped workers were bringing brought to the surface in a second, smaller cage in another shaft that can hold about 75 miners at a time. Most of the miners who emerged into the blinding sunlight looked dazed and exhausted, but there were no signs of injuries. The mineworkers union said 500 people were still trapped by evening.

"We nearly died down there," one man yelled as he walked past reporters. "I'd rather leave (the job) than die in the mine."

3000 trapped in South African mine

from aljazeerah

Amelia Soares, a spokeswoman for Harmony Gold, the world's fifth biggest gold producer, told Al Jazeera the workers at the Elandsrand mine in South Africa's Mpumulanga province, near Johannesburg were trapped after an electrical cable of a lift carrying workers to the surface snapped on Wednesday.

But Seshoka told Al Jazeera a water pipe had burst and probably caused the lift shaft to collapse.

Seshoka said: "It's a terrible situation. The only exit is blocked, probably by a fall of ground."

He added: "There is no contact at the moment. That is our greatest worry."

He said the miners were trapped in a cramped space where temperatures could reach 30 to 40 degrees Celsius.

NEWS AFRICA Tsvangirai calls for free polls

Morgan Tsvangirai has said he will not take part in national elections next year if the Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe continues political "repression" in the country.

"There is no point in participating in repressive elections if the environment is not conducive," the Movement Democraticfor Democratic Change leader told supporters.

But he said it was important to talk to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party "to create a free and fair election environment in this country" and denied allegations he had betrayed MDC supporters by making compromises with the ruling party....from aljazeerah

Mugabe a tyrant from the start

By James Kirchick
September 30, 2007
As Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, presides over what might be the most rapid disintegration yet of a modern nation-state, it has become de rigueur for journalists, politicians and academics to offer what has become a near-universal analysis: Mugabe, who has ruled his country uninterrupted for 27 years, was a promising leader who became corrupted over time by power.

This meme was popularized not long after Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms in 2000. Four years ago, in response to these raids, the New York Times editorialized that "in 23 years as president, Mr. Mugabe has gone from independence hero to tyrant." Earlier this week, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that "I'm just devastated by what I can't explain, by what seems to be an aberration, this sudden change in character."

The characterization of Mugabe as a good man gone wrong extends to popular culture as well. In the 2005 political thriller "The Interpreter," Nicole Kidman played a dashing, multilingual exile from the fictional African country of Matobo, whose ruler was once a soft-spoken, cerebral schoolteacher who liberated his country from a white minority regime but became a despot. Mugabe certainly understood the likeness; he accused Kidman and her costar, Sean Penn, of being part of a CIA plot to oust him.

But this popular conception of Mugabe -- propagated by the liberals who championed him in the 1970s and 1980s -- is absolutely wrong. From the beginning of his political career, Mugabe was not just a Marxist but one who repeatedly made clear his intention to run Zimbabwe as an authoritarian, one-party state. Characteristic of this historical revisionism is former Newsweek southern Africa correspondent Joshua Hammer, writing recently in the liberal Washington Monthly that "more than a quarter-century after leading his guerrilla army to victory over the racist regime of Ian Smith in white-minority-ruled Rhodesia, President Robert Mugabe has morphed into a caricature of the African Big Man."

But Mugabe did not "morph" into "a caricature of the African Big Man." He has been one since he took power in 1980 -- and he displayed unmistakable authoritarian traits well before that. Those who were watching at the time should have known what kind of man Mugabe was, and the fact that so many today persist in the contention that Mugabe was a once-benign ruler speaks much about liberal illusions of African nationalism....



In 1984, Mugabe imprisoned Methodist Bishop Abel Muzorewa, who had won the 1979 multiracial election boycotted by Mugabe, for 10 months without charge, falsely accusing him of conspiring against Zimbabwe.

And over several years in the early 1980s, Mugabe executed what arguably might be the worst of his many atrocities, a campaign of terror against the minority Ndebele tribe in which he unleashed a North Korean-trained army unit that killed between 10,000 and 30,000 people.

Yet, even in the midst of these various crimes, Mugabe never lost his fan base in the West. In 1986, the University of Massachusetts Amherst bestowed on Mugabe an honorary doctorate of laws just as he was completing his genocide against the Ndebele. In April of this year, as the campus debated revoking the degree it ought never have given him, African American studies professor Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, who had been in favor of honoring Mugabe two decades ago, told the Boston Globe: "They gave it to the Robert Mugabe of the past, who was an inspiring and hopeful figure and a humane political leader at the time." Similarly, in 1984, the University of Edinburgh gave Mugabe an honorary doctorate (revoked in July of this year), and in 1994, Mugabe was inexplicably given an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II....