FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Political
Editor
Cites State violence for threat to pull out
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki's
mediation effort was this week hanging by a thread
after the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) threatened to pull out of the
process citing
escalating violence by ZANU-PF against its supporters,
documented in a
report submitted last week to the Southern African
Development Community
(SADC).
SADC appointed Mbeki to mediate in negotiations between the
ruling ZANU-PF
party and the two factions of the MDC, which have so far led
to an agreement
on electoral reforms - a deal many saw as a sign of
progress.
But the fractured opposition has upped the pressure on the regional
initiative endorsed by SADC leaders in March by approaching the
Botswana-based secretariat of the 14-member grouping with a protest
letter.
In a new twist that might throw Mbeki's mediation into disarray and
worsen a
full-blown economic crisis gripping the country, the Morgan
Tsvangirai
faction of the MDC is alleging that more and more of its
supporters have
been persecuted even as dialogue between the two
protagonists took place in
Pretoria and at home.
The MDC whose
endorsement of the 18th constitutional amendments - a ZANU-PF
project - has
created a rift between the party and its traditional backers
(the civic
society) presents in its letter to SADC a chronicle of recent
incidents of
repression against its supporters.
The MDC accuses ZANU PF of negotiating in
bad faith, citing the arrest this
week of one of its Members of Parliament
(MPs) and several people allied to
it, among them student leaders and women
activists.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the Tsvangirai camp of the MDC,
confirmed his
party had formally expressed its concern about the fresh
violence to SADC.
"It is summer at the dialogue in Pretoria, but winter time
in Harare. ZANU
PF is not showing the true spirit of dialogue by its
continued persecution
of our supporters and officials. There is no use for
us to be in Pretoria
sharing the same table with ZANU PF when our people are
being targeted,"
said Chamisa. "Most of our meetings and rallies are being
cancelled or
interfered with by the State, yet the talks seek to ensure free
and fair
elections whose outcome is expected to be accepted by all parties
to the
talks," he added.
Tsvangirai, who has been overseas for the past
two weeks, is threatening to
exit the talks if violence persisted. The
former trade unionist said while
his faction remained committed to dialogue,
it increasingly doubts ZANU PF's
sincerity.
He has also previously
threatened to boycott next year's elections if no
further concessions,
including the abolishment of security and media laws,
were
forthcoming.
While the Arthur Mutambara-led faction of the MDC remained
tight-lipped
about the issue, Elphas Mukonoweshuro, MDC secretary for
international
relations and a senior advisor to Tsvangirai, gave the
strongest indication
of a pullout, suggesting his faction could leave the
talks within a week.
A meeting of Tsvangirai's national council has been
scheduled this weekend
to decide on the talks.
However, The Financial
Gazette has established that the new threats have
widened divisions within
Tsvangirai's faction, with militant figures being
pitted against officials
who support a more pacifist route to dealing with
ZANU PF.
Tsvangirai has
been under strong pressure from hawkish supporters since last
month's
agreement on Constitutional Amendment 18, and could be backing the
boycott
threats to placate dominant hard-line sentiment in his party. But
this has
only heightened internal tensions.
Police on Monday summoned the MDC MP for
Glen View and the party's Harare
organising secretary, Paul Madzore, to
Harare Central Police, in what
Chamisa said was an attempt to thwart the
opposition from holding rallies in
the capital.
The MDC reports that
since the start of the talks in April, police have
disrupted a total of 103
opposition rallies.
The party has recorded 4 122 rights violations between
January and June this
year. These included seven murders, 18 cases of rape,
69 kidnappings or
abductions, 459 cases of torture, 2323 cases of
interference or
intimidation, 1141 cases of assault and 152 cases of
unlawful detention.
Efforts to get the police's reaction to the MDC's
allegations were
fruitless.
Innocent Gonese, legal secretary for the
Tsvangirai faction, told reporters
on Tuesday that ZANU PF continued to
abuse the legal system to crack down on
opponents.
The collapse of a
state case against a group of opposition activists charged
with "terrorism"
showed how ZANU PF was prepared to use the police to
intimidate the
opposition, he said.
"The ZANU PF regime lied to SADC in Dar es Salaam, they
lied to Parliament,
and they lied to the people of Zimbabwe that the MDC
harboured terrorists.
Now that the cases have died a natural death, the only
act of terrorism,
which turns out to have taken place was the brutal
assault, illegal
detention and torture of MDC members who spent months in
prison for no
apparent reason," said Gonese.
The activists were acquitted
and had charges of terrorism against all but
one of them withdrawn last
week.
Gonese revealed that in addition to a $4.7 trillion lawsuit against the
state, the MDC is demanding an extensive and immediate investigation into
the alleged acts of torture against its supporters at the hands of the
police.
Mbeki has reported progress in the talks between the two
protagonists,
describing last month's agreement as a "breakthrough".
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business
Reporter
INFLATION accelerated to a new record 7 982.1 percent in
September,
underlining the failure of a government crackdown on business
intended to
slow down price increases.
A blanket freeze on prices of
commodities and services ordered by government
last June helped temper
inflation to 6 592.8 percent in August from 7634
percent in July.
But the
Central Statistical Office (CSO) reported yesterday that inflation
leapt 1
389.3 percentage points to break the previous record.
On a monthly basis,
inflation surged 26.9 percentage points to 38.7 percent,
reversing a
slowdown recorded in August to 11.8 percent.
The initial impact of the price
freeze now appears to have worn off, as
shown by the September
data.
Government has also abandoned the policy and lifted caps on selected
commodities, setting off a spike in prices, which analysts say lay the basis
for a sharper rise in inflation for October.
The analysts warn that
inflation, the most conspicuous sign of Zimbabwe's
economic crisis, would
continue on the upward march as pressures continue to
build on
prices.
"The pressures for inflation are still there as money supply is
expected to
continue growing while the National Incomes and Pricing
Commission is
expected to continue reviewing prices up," said Blessing
Sakupwanya, an
economist at MBCA.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor
Gideon Gono earlier this month raised
interest rates in his monetary policy
statement, but there appears to be
little the central bank can do now to
slow inflation.
Gono himself gave a grim forecast for inflation in the short
to medium term,
saying he saw a continued rise on an expected surge in
government spending
due to elections next March and spending on a range of
new farm and business
subsidies meant to end food shortages.
His comments
drove a bull run on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, which firmed a
marginal 1.9
percent yesterday after the release of the latest inflation
figures.
Gono
said he believed boosting the supply of goods and services on the
market was
the only remedy to combating inflation. But critics charge that
the
subsidies in fact speed up inflation as they feed money supply growth.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube and
Clemence Manyukwe Staff Reporter
THE first in a series of internal ZANU
PF elections are to be held in
Bulawayo this weekend, setting the stage for
a final showdown between rival
ruling party factions jostling to control the
province.
Ahead of the elections, Jabulani Sibanda, who is leading
President Robert
Mugabe's bid for re-election as party leader, charged
yesterday that
opponents planned to manipulate the electoral system to
secure their own
positions.
But those at the receiving end of Sibanda's
verbal attacks stuck to their
guns this week, insisting the controversial
war veterans leader had not been
re-admitted into the party following his
expulsion from ZANU PF in 2004.
Information obtained by The Financial Gazette
is that John Nkomo, the ruling
party's national chairman, was told in a
closed door ZANU PF Bulawayo
province meeting last Saturday of manoeuvres by
war veterans to get rid of
senior former PF ZAPU leaders at the
extraordinary congress in December.
It was made known to the meeting that the
war veterans were also targeting
Vice President Joseph Msika, politburo
member Dumiso Dabengwa, and other top
ZANU PF figures in Bulawayo.
The
meeting, which was convened to discuss the political turmoil in the
volatile
ZANU PF province, ironically took place on the same day that
Sibanda led
hordes of w