Mutambara suspends six members

Arthur Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic Change suspended six party officials on 9 May 2009 for bringing the party into disrepute.

The six suspended members included the three Matabeleland Members of Parliament: Abdenico Bhebhe of Nkayi South, Norman Mpofu of Bulilima East, and Njabuliso Mguni of Lupane East.

All six targetted officials had been highly critical of Mutambara’s leadership, charging him with aligning himself too closely with the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

Two other MPs, Maxwell Dube of Tsholotsho South and Thandeko Mkandla of Gwanda North, were subsequently summoned to face charges of misconduct likely to be related to criticism of Mutambara.

Full cable:

Viewing cable 09HARARE411, ZIM NOTES 05-15-09

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ZNR UUUUU ZZH

R 180819Z MAY 09

FM AMEMBASSY HARARE

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4499

INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE

RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 2283

RUEHAR/AMEMBASY ACCRA 2833

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RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1395

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RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000411

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AF/S FOR B. WALCH

ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU

ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR MICHELLE GAVIN

TREASURY FOR D. PETERS

STATE PASS TO USAID FOR LDOBBINS AND JHARMON

COMMERCE FOR BECKY ERKUL

E.O.12958: N/A

TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC PHUM ECON EFIN ZI

SUBJECT: ZIM NOTES 05-15-09

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SUMMARY – Topics of the week

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– Tsvangirai Launches Next 100 Day Plan

– MDC-M Suspends Three MPs from Party

– While an MDC-T MP is Convicted for Inciting Violence

– Media Conference Wraps Up; Journalists Arrested

– Abductees Released, Prominent Lawyer Arrested

– Late Rains Lead to Better Than Expected Crops

– Government Warns of Trafficking

– Wheat and Barley Output Set to Fall

– LonZim Paid Too Much for Zimbabwean Investments

– Former President of the CFU Elected to a Continental Body

– Kingdom Meikles Saga Nearing an End

– Quote of the Week

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On the Political/Social Front

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¶1. Tsvangirai Launches Next 100 Day Plan… Having just about

completed the first 100 days of the unity government, Prime Minister

Morgan Tsvangirai hosted a conference in Harare to lay out his plans

and goals for the next 100. The plan groups the 32 ministries into

five clusters (Economic, Infrastructure, Social, Rights and

Interest, and Security) each of which is led by a minister. While

the reform and capacity building objectives are laudable, the

financial means to execute them are lacking. Also, ZANU-PF doesnQt

appear to support the initiatives as two of the three ZANU-PF

ministers who lead clusters failed to show.

¶2. MDC-M Suspends Three MPs from Party… MDC-M President and

Deputy Prime Minister, Arthur Mutambara, along with other top party

leaders suspended six party officials on May 8 for Qbringing the

party into disrepute.Q The six suspended members include the

following three Matabeleland MPs: Abdenico Bhebhe of Nkayi South,

Norman Mpofu of Bulilima East, and Njabuliso Mguni of Lupane East.

All six targeted officials had been highly critical of MutambaraQs

leadership, charging him with aligning himself too closely with

ZANU-PF. See Harare 402. Two other MPs, Maxwell Dube of Tsholotsho

South and Thandeko Mkandla of Gwanda North, were subsequently

summoned to face charges of misconduct likely also related to

criticism of Mutambara.

¶3. While an MDC-T MP is Convicted for Inciting Violence…

Chipinge East MP Matewu Mathias Mlambo was slapped with a 10 month

jail sentence by a Chipinge magistrate for inciting violence at the

funeral of an MDC member who died recently in his constituency.

Mlambo was first arrested last month following a clash between

ZANU-PF and MDC-T supporters at the funeral in Chipinge. The MDC-T

also reported that its MP for Chipinge South, Meki Makuyana, who is

also facing charges of inciting violence during the run-up to the

June 2008 presidential run-off election, had his ruling set for May

27 by the same magistrate.

¶4. Media Conference Wraps Up; Journalists Arrested… With only

about half of the expected participants present as most independent

journalists boycotted, results from the QAll Stakeholders Media

Qjournalists boycotted, results from the QAll Stakeholders Media

ConferenceQ continue to emerge. Although some in government

portrayed the historic conference as a significant achievement,

others criticized the draft recommendations as Qcosmetic.Q On

Monday, The Zimbabwe IndependentQs editor and news editor were

arrested for Qcommunicating falsehoods with the intention of

undermining public confidence in security forces.Q The arrests were

made in connection with last weekQs story on police involvement in

abductions, which we reported on in Zim Notes last week. According

to this weekQs Zimbabwe Independent, neither co-Minister of Home

Affairs Giles Mutsekwa (MDC-T) nor Police Commissioner-General

HARARE 00000411 002 OF 003

Augustine Chihuri knew in advance about the journalistsQ arrest,

which was reportedly ordered by Attorney General Johannes Tomana.

See Harare 395.

¶5. Abductees Released, Prominent Lawyer Arrested… Less than 24

hours after securing the bail for three men who were abducted last

year and face accusations of bombing police stations, Human Rights

lawyer Alec Muchadehama was arrested on May 14 and charged with

obstructing justice when he allegedly conspired with a court clerk

to secure the menQs release last month. See Harare 401.

¶6. Late Rains Lead to Better Than Expected Crops… The Food and

Agriculture Organization/World Food Program/GOZ Crop and Food

Security Assessment (CFSAM) teams completed their field work this

week on May 11. USAID, as observers, joined two of the four teams

and visited three provinces and numerous districts and wards. In

these three provinces, the general consensus was that the crop and

food security situation was much better than last year. The

extended rains have helped the late-planted crops. Though the

harvest is better than last year, it is still about half the

historical average and there are numerous areas that had harvests

that were worse than last year.

¶7. Government Warns of Trafficking… This week, the Minister of

Labor issued a warning to young Zimbabweans to consult widely before

migrating to other countries to avoid being caught up in human

trafficking syndicates. In a speech delivered at a local school,

the ministry acknowledged that young girls are at risk of

trafficking by agents offering false promises. There are no known

statistics on the extent of human trafficking in Zimbabwe.

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Economic and Business News

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¶8. Wheat and Barley Output Set to Fall… According to the

Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), time for making sufficient

preparations to enable the production of a decent sized wheat and

barley crop for 2009 is running out. The CFU believes that there

has to be a moratorium on current farm disruptions in order to

restore the confidence of productive farmers. The current

disruptions will also negatively affect the summer crops.

¶9. LonZim Paid Too Much for Zimbabwean Investments… An analyst

at the private financial news source, Zfn, believes that the

UK-listed investor, LonZim, overpaid for its purchase of

Zimbabwean-based Celsys, Millpal Chemicals, and Leopard Rock Hotel.

According to the analyst, AMB Capital of South Africa (which owns

20.7 percent of LonZim) and Damille Partners IV (which owns 6.3

percent) have now woken up to the fact that the investments were

overvalued.

¶10. Former Prsident of the CFU Elected to a Continental Body…

Doug Taylor-Freeme was elected vice president of the African

Committee at the International Federation of Agricultural Producers

at a meeting held in Kenya recently. Despite his new position, he

Qat a meeting held in Kenya recently. Despite his new position, he

is still being forced off his farm in Chinhoyi, about 100 km north

of Harare, under the current wave of farm seizures.

¶11. Kingdom Meikles Saga Nearing an End… Shareholders have been

informed that they will soon receive a cautionary notice for an

extraordinary general meeting to be held in the next 21 days at

which shareholders will be asked to vote on a motion to demerge the

group into Kingdom and Meikles. The Financial Gazette of May 14

reported that Strive Masiyiwa is likely to support the motion.

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¶12. Quote of the Week:

QI have asked the Commissioner-General (Chihuri) to reduce this to

writing so I can take it up with my colleague in the Ministry of

Justice (Patrick Chinamasa). I want to reiterate that it is not my

ministryQs policy and I am also completely disgusted that this took

place.

Q Co-Minister of Home Affairs Giles Mutsekwa addressing the House of

Assembly on the arrest of lawyer Alec Muchadehama on May 14.

MCGEE

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