Jonathan Moyo rejoins ZANU-PF

Tsholotsho independent Legislator Jonathan Moyo who once called the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front a “dead duck on the shelf” had applied to rejoin the party.

Moyo was expelled in 2005 when he refused to give way to a woman candidate for the Tsholotsho constituency after the party said the seat had been reserved for a woman, a move that was meant to fix Moyo for allegedly organising the Tsholotsho meeting at which party members planned to oppose the election of Joice Mujuru as vice-President.

ZANU-PF officials said Moyo would have to re-enter the party at “cell level” and rise through the ranks like everyone else.

Moyo at one stage stated that though he had been expelled from the party he still had his ZANU-PF card.

He was also reportedly behind the “third way” which was planning to take the best from ZANU-Pf and the Movement for Democratic Change.

Full cable:

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TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC PHUM ECON ZI

SUBJECT: ZIM NOTES 09-11-2009

———–

¶1. SUMMARY

———–

Topics of the week:

– SADC Summit…

– New Strategy Against White Farmers?

– Senior EU Delegation to Visit…

– MP Jonathan Moyo Re-joins ZANU-PF…

– Activist Killed for a Song…

– MFA Apologizes, and The Herald Prints Embassy Letter…

– University of Zimbabwe Re-opens…

– ZANU-PF Harasses MDC Supporters in UMP…

– Violence Continues in Chiadzwa…

– More Spin on SDRs…

– Investment Road-show Moves to London…

– Zimbabwe Slips on the World Bank’s Doing Business Rankings…

– Retail Giant in Discussion with Potential Partner…

———————————

On the Political and Social Front

———————————-

¶2. SADC Summit… The SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government

which ended this week in Kinshasa produced a communiqu which, with

reference to Zimbabwe, “noted the progress made in the

implementation of the Global Political Agreement and called on the

international community to remove all forms of sanctions against

Zimbabwe.” The MDC unsuccessfully sought a subsequent special SADC

summit on Zimbabwe in light of the short shrift the Kinshasa Summit

afforded to Zimbabwe. Global Political Agreement issues will next

be considered by the SADC organ on politics, defense, and security

of which Mozambique, Angola, and South Africa are members. No date

has been set for a meeting of the organ.

¶3. New Strategy Against White Farmers? Embattled white farmer Mike

Campbell, whose house was burned to the ground two weeks ago,

continues to face trouble from the government. On Thursday security

forces claimed that they found two explosive items, reportedly

weapons caches, in the remains of his house. They then held two

controlled explosions to destroy them. The Campbells have not been

charged with any crimes, and police refuse to investigate the fire.

Separately, last week a farmer reported police were trying to charge

him with shooting at settlers. Police presented empty shells as

evidence, but the farmer got off because the shells didn’t fit any

of his guns. These two incidents may be part of a new strategy to

lock up resistant farmers.

¶4. Senior EU Delegation to Visit… The most senior EU delegation

since 2002 will visit Zimbabwe September 12 and 13. The delegation

will be comprised of Swedish International Development Co-operation

Minister Gunilla Carlsson, EU Aid Commissioner Karel De Gucht and a

representative of the council secretariat. A Ministry of Media,

Information, and Publicity official commented with the usual ZANU-PF

party line, declaring “the starting point would obviously be that

the EU has to admit that sanctions are wrong and that land reform in

Zimbabwe is irreversible. That admission, and that admission alone,

is the only true proof that they recognize us as a sovereign nation

that lost tens of thousands of citizens to create a democracy after

decades of racist minority rule.”

Qdecades of racist minority rule.”

¶5. MP Jonathan Moyo Re-joins ZANU-PF… The controversial

independent MP Jonathan Moyo has petitoned to re-join the ZANU-PF

party. ZANU-PF officials told the press that Moyo will have to

re-enter ZANU-PF at “cell level” and rise through the ranks like

everyone else. Moyo, who called ZANU-PF a “dead duck on the shelf”

in 2007, has recently re-directed his long, vicious tirades against

the MDC. Moyo is well-known for his service as Mugabe’s Minister of

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Information from 2000 until 2005 when he was expelled from the party

for attempting to re-arrange the ZANU-PF succession, enraging

Mugabe.

¶6. Activist Killed for a Song… On August 30 MDC activist

Godknows Mtshakazi, was beaten to death by four soldiers at Mufiri

Business Centre in Shurugwi, Midlands Province for playing an MDC

song in a bar. Mtshakazi and several other MDC activists were having

a drink and a listening to the radio when a soldier accused the

group of organizing an MDC rally, which the group denied. The

soldier singled out Mtshakazi as the leader of the group and beat

him to death after dragging him to a nearby army base. Afterwards

the soldiers sent word to Mtshakazi’s wife to go and collect her

husband. Immediately after the incident, the soldier who instigated

the fight was arrested in Bulawayo; it is not yet clear if he will

face charges.

¶7. MFA Apologizes, and The Herald Prints Embassy Letter… After

The Herald reported on September 4 that Codel Meeks only met with

President Mugabe as an “afterthought” on September 3, we sent a

letter to The Herald clarifying that the delegation had sought a

meeting with Mugabe weeks before the visit. To our pleasant

surprise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent us an “urgent” dip

note that day, explaining that the story in The Herald was not the

government’s view of events. On September 5, The Herald printed our

letter. This is the closest thing we’ve seen to an apology from the

MFA in recent memory, and The Herald has rarely printed our critical

letters.

¶8. University of Zimbabwe Re-opens… The University of Zimbabwe

finally re-opened on September 8 for the second semester, after

closing for 10 months. The lack of water and financial problems

forced the closure of the university in November 2008. The Zimbabwe

National Students Union (ZINASU) staged a demonstration and

petitioned the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education to review

what they called unaffordable tuition fees. Surprisingly, police on

bicycles escorted the peaceful protestors.

¶9. ZANU-PF Harasses MDC Supporters in UMP… ZANU-PF has stepped

up a campaign of harassment against MDC supporters in Uzumba Maramba

Pfungwe (UMP) in Mashonaland Central Province. The MDC says ZANU-PF

is using war veterans, soldiers and traditional leaders to demand

that MDC supporters denounce their party membership and surrender

all party materials and regalia by October. As a result, several

MDC supporters have been forced to become ZANU-PF members.

¶10. Violence Continues in Chiadzwa… Soldiers killed an illegal

digger after imposing an arbitrary curfew on residents in the area

on September 4. The police who took him to the hospital claimed he

had attempted to disarm a soldier, but privately conceded he had

been beaten to death by soldiers when he violated the curfew. The

Mutare-based 3rd brigade of the army will soon move to the area to

QMutare-based 3rd brigade of the army will soon move to the area to

replace the 5th brigade. Our contacts report that the changeover may

contribute to increased smuggling because the 3rd brigade has more

knowledge of the area and contact with the illegal diamond dealers

in Mutare and across the border in Mozambique. The Herald published

a scathing article this week, claiming that the NGO Human Rights

Watch, which has publicly decried human rights abuses in the

Chiadzwa diamond fields, is nothing more than a tool of the U.S.

government for illegal regime change in Zimbabwe.

———————————–

On the Economic and Business Front

———————————-

¶11. More Spin on SDRs… The September 8 edition of The Herald

extended its misinformation campaign on Zimbabwe’s “windfall” from

the IMF. (On September 4, a lead article in the newspaper quoted

RBZ Governor Gono as stating that Zimbabwe had received US$500

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million from the IMF.) Under the headline, “IMF loan: Second

tranche released,” the ZANU-PF rag reported that “dust raised by

internal wrangles” between Finance Minister Biti and Gono had “sent

bad signals to the global lender.” The Herald also said,

“Investigations have revealed that the US$408 million received at

the end of last month has remained untouched in the RBZ account.”

The paper quoted Gono’s adviser, Munyaradzi Kereke, saying, “We

continue to await directives from Government on how to deploy it.”

Elsewhere in the press, reporting on this story has been on target.

The Sunday Standard, for example, accurately reported on September 6

that Biti did not intend to borrow from Zimbabwe’s new SDR

allocation.

¶12. Investment Road-show Moves to London… Following a successful

investment conference for 40 international fund managers in Zimbabwe

in June, the financial services group Imara and co-hosts Fleming

Family and Partners will take their road-show to London on September

¶24. According to Imara, economics is going ahead of politics, with

investors seeking to exploit the first mover advantage. In a press

statement, Imara said Finance Minister Biti and executives from five

leading Zimbabwean companies will address the London conference.

Imara says dollarization makes Zimbabwe a good deal for investors

because it eliminates exchange-rate risk. The many Zimbabweans who

keep their foreign currency accounts outside the banking system seem

to take a different view.

¶13. Zimbabwe Slips on the World Bank’s Doing Business Rankings…

Zimbabwe is now ranked 159 out of 183 countries surveyed in the

World Bank’s Doing Business Report for 2010, well below South Africa

and Botswana, which are rankd 34 and 45, respectively. Reflecting

the poor business environment, a senior cartographer in the Ministry

of Mines and Mining Development told us that applications for

prospecting licenses submitted in 2007 have not yet been processed.

Such delays help to explain why Zimbabwe has not attracted foreign

investment in recent years.

¶14. Retail Giant in Discussion with Potential Partner… A local

retail giant, OK Zimbabwe Limited, has held a number of discussions

with South African retailers, including Shoprite, to find a

potential technical and equity partner. The chief executive officer

of OK told us that the discussions are still at a preliminary stage,

but the eventual shareholding structure will be guided by the

current rules of a maximum of 35 percent foreign ownership in

retail.

——————

Quotes of the Week

——————

¶15. “Politicians are the ones that would have let the nation down.

I won’t feel bad. I am not a politician. The nation would have been

let down, but not by me.” – Attorney General Johannes Tomana,

deflecting potential blame if the government collapses. September

7, 2009

¶16. “The rule of law has failed in Zimbabwe as there are some

Q16. “The rule of law has failed in Zimbabwe as there are some

people in government and ZANU-PF who continue to disregard the law.

MDC members continue to be arrested on trumped-up charges, assaulted

or even murdered… Perpetrators of political violence cannot go

unpunished. As long as there is no rule of law there is no justice,

which means there will be no investment in Zimbabwe as there is no

investor security.” — MDC-T Senator and businessman Matson Hlalo,

speaking to residents of his constituency of Emakhandeni-Entumbane.

PETTERSON

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