Mugabeast

Mr Mugabe's critics say the real reason for the destructin is the ageing president wants to empty the cities to pre-empt a major uprising. By forcing hundreds of thousands of potential opposition supporters into rural areas where the government controls the food supply, hunger can be used to cement the government's grip on power.

Army and police desert beleaguered Mugabe

Officers walk out as inflation hits 1,600 per cent - but the president's £1m birthday party goes ahead

February 18, 2007
The Observer

Widespread desertions from Zimbabwe's army and police are weakening Robert Mugabe's security forces as large strikes loom because of the country's deepening economic collapse.

With inflation now at a global record of 1,600 per cent, The Observer can reveal that soldiers and police officers who cannot feed their families are leaving their posts in large numbers.

Flyers of army officers who have gone missing are posted in the hallways of the King George VI headquarters in Harare and the 1 Commando quarters near the airport, according to journalists.

'There are Awol notices up in the barracks, our reporter saw them,' said Bill Saidi, editor of the Standard newspaper. 'Discontent is very high up to mid-level officers. They do not earn enough to buy basic groceries. They are suffering the hardships all of us suffer now, yet they are the ones Mugabe depends upon to be ruthless in putting down any opposition. It adds up to trouble for Mugabe.'

Unhappiness is also rife among police. More than 10 per cent of officers have resigned and will leave next month, according to a report by Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, leaked to the Harare press. Many are joining the flood of the more than two million Zimbabweans estimated to be in South Africa.

Mugabe can ill afford weakening security forces as popular unrest is growing. A strike of doctors and nurses at government hospitals is in its eighth week and threatens to spread to teachers and civil servants. Trade unions are considering calling a nationwide general strike, despite the beatings and torture meted out to labour leaders last September.

Meanwhile, in an interview published yesterday Mugabe accused Britain of refusing dialogue with its former colony, and said he expects ties to improve after Tony Blair steps down. Harare's official Herald newspaper said the dictator, at odds with Britain since ordering the seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, had asked former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa to try to broker talks with Britain, but later asked him to step down because the task was 'insurmountable'.

'Blair behaves like a headmaster, old fashioned, who dictates that things must be done his way: "Do it or you... remain an outcast",' Mugabe is quoted as saying. 'But we are hoping that with the departure of Blair, there will be a better situation and they can be talked to.'

Mugabe, ruler of Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, claimed Britain has been trying to oust him. But the UK says Zimbabwe's long-running political and economic crisis is a result of rights abuses, vote-rigging and skewed policies, which have nothing to do with London.

Zimbabwe is also plagued by widespread power blackouts, often lasting more than eight hours. A breakdown in municipal water treatment is blamed for an outbreak of cholera in Harare's Mabvuku township. Life expectancy has plummeted to 36, the world's lowest, the economy has shrunk by 50 per cent since 2000 and inflation hit its record last week. The International Monetary Fund predicts it will soar to above 4,000 per cent this year.

Yet Mugabe's supporters - now trying to raise more than £1m to stage lavish celebrations to mark his 83rd birthday on Wednesday - appear unperturbed. The funds and advertisements praising him will come from the same state-owned utilities that are failing to provide clean water, electricity and transport.

'Mugabe is acting as if nothing is amiss and everyone should be happy to celebrate his birthday. He is not picking up the signs of growing unrest,' said Saidi.

Mugabe feasts - as his people starve and his party plots

Sunday February 25, 2007
The Observer

Robert Mugabe celebrated his 83rd birthday yesterday with a lavish feast for the ruling elite while ordinary Zimbabweans faced shops with empty shelves.

The hunger of his people, many of whom walked for miles simply to gaze at the tonnes of food on show, did not seem to put the President off his thickly frosted birthday cake, but he was said to be irked by a snub from one of his Vice-Presidents.

In what is likely to worsen a rift in Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party, Vice-President Joice Mujuru stayed away from the function, just days after the President had accused her of plotting to oust him from power. Mugabe has ruled the country for 26 years but has increasingly come under pressure to relinquish power as Zimbabwe's economic crisis worsens.
In a interview last week Mugabe said a faction led by Mujuru's husband was involved in a campaign to remove him. Mugabe complained of 'vicious, ambitious people' in the top echelons of his party who were manoeuvring to get him out of power. 'There are no vacancies,' he said emphatically. 'The door is closed.'

Mujuru's husband, retired army commander Solomon Mujuru, turned up alone. A government official told journalists the Vice-President was busy studying for exams. [..]

But if Mujuru absented herself from the party, held in a football stadium, others did not. 'We are terribly disappointed,' said a 38-year-old man who brought his wife and three children to the feast but was not allowed in. 'This was an opportunity for us to get a proper meal.' [..]

Organisers raised around £600,000 for the event, held every year for Africa's longest-serving President. Thousands of hungry Zimbabweans turned up after news filtered out that 38 cattle had been slaughtered and tonnes of corn meal ordered for the 10,000 party faithful.

Even people who thought they had become inured to the country's seven-year economic slide are increasingly frightened. Inflation has hit 1,600 per cent and is predicted to soar to 4,000 per cent later this year. Unemployment is at 80 per cent and severe shortages of fuel, staple foods and medicines have caused thousands of deaths.

Few Zimbabweans feel like celebrating. 'We have boycotted the TV and radio for three days because we don't want to see or hear anything about Mugabe's birthday,' said Harare factory worker Iddah Mandaza. 'We are struggling, we don't want to hear all that nonsense about Mugabe.' [..]

Zimbabwe: Teachers, Students, Doctors, Nurses All on Strike

Feb 21 (OneWorld) - Zimbabwe's education and healthcare sectors are lying almost completely dormant this week, and government repression of political opponents continues.

A strike looms as the nation's teachers and government officials remain far apart on salary negotiations. The government's latest offer is still less than half the so-called Poverty Datum Line, and a 1600-percent inflation rate has turned most of the country's 180,000 civil servants into paupers, according to the Zimbabwe Standard newspaper.

University lecturers are already on strike, as are the country's higher education students.

Last week, some 74 students and their leaders were rounded up, assaulted, and detained, according to the International Union of Students, which released a statement supporting its Zimbabwean peers.

More than 40 were arrested following a meeting to discuss "issues of the ever deteriorating standards of education, the astronomical hikes in tuition fees, and broader socio-economic and political pandemonium in Zimbabwe." The Zimbabwe National Students Union says that "more than 600 innocent, unarmed, and hungry students who had gathered on campus for the Extraordinary General Meeting were violently and brutally dispersed by the ruthless riot police and the non-uniformed state security agents."

But students are not the only Zimbabweans to have faced the truncheons in recent days.

A Valentine's Day march sponsored by the group Women of Zimbabwe Arise was met by police with tear gas outside the Parliament building in Harare.

And as one of the country's main opposition parties attempted to launch its presidential campaign with a public rally in the capital Monday, police fired tear gas and water cannons containing irritating chemicals and beat opposition supporters with batons.

A spokesperson for the opposition party claimed that more than 500 of its supporters had been beaten and severe injuries were sustained. There were unconfirmed reports of three deaths.

But perhaps the most difficult problem facing both the Zimbabwean government and its estranged citizens is the near-total collapse of the national health system.

Many of the country's doctors and nurses have quit working in recent weeks to demand higher wages and better conditions.

"Hundreds of people are dying every week due to lack of healthcare since the doctors' industrial action began on December 21 last year, bringing the health delivery system, already battered by a collapsing economy, to a near-total halt," reports Florence Cheda for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

One province recently reported that it had only one doctor to service 4 million people--and that was before the strike.

While government officials fly to South Africa and other countries for their own medical treatment, says Cheda, "Zimbabweans are left wondering how much longer the nation and international community [will] continue to watch so many of their relatives, friends, and others die unnecessarily."