Zimbabwe -- Who is hoarding food and fuel for elections?

Zimbabwe Independent ^ | December 20, 2002 | (Muckraker)

[Clive]

Who is hoarding food and fuel for elections?

THE Zanu PF National People’s Conference hosted in Chinhoyi last weekend confirmed Muckraker’s worst fears that it is the ruining party and not the retail outlets that are hoarding food.

Reports from Chinhoyi said that all basic commodities were available in the town. We are wondering who provided these foodstuffs? Where did they come from?

The same thing happened in Insiza and is now happening in Kuwadzana and Highfield. Zanu PF, it seems, is hoarding food in anticipation of by-elections. This is surely disturbing because close to 6.5 million Zimbabweans are starving and the party is keeping food for speculative purposes. At the same time it is preventing the MDC from importing grain.

Still in Chinhoyi, Chenhamo Chakezha Chimutengwende was at it again last weekend. The rumba-crazy Chen’s contribution to the conference we gather was a performance that sent delegates into a frenzy.

While Elliot Manyika once entranced the president with his choral exploits, Chen might have caught the president’s attention with his gyrations. Who knows what the next reshuffle will hold in store for him!

Dancing ndombolo in front of delegates from all over the country and even beyond is no mean achievement. Chen is indeed indoda sibili — at least in the Zanu PF lexicon.

What on earth was President Mugabe doing poring over pictures of the body of the late Rutendo Jongwe-Muusha?

"If I were to show you pictures of the post-mortem of Jongwe’s wife you will never want to hear about the MDC again," he told conference delegates in Chinhoyi last weekend.

How did these pictures fall into the president’s hands and is this the sort of thing he should be discussing at a public forum? Should he be using police post-mortem pictures for party-political gain?

Why did he not refer to the body of David Stevens who was murdered after being abducted from a police station in the presence of policemen? Why did he not disclose the appalling way Stevens’ body was treated after it was thrown into the back of a truck by armed Zanu PF supporters?

It took the police two years to bring that case to court and still they don’t have a conviction. Learnmore Jongwe handed himself in and was incarcerated for the rest of his life.

Mugabe didn’t mention that. Nor did he mention the case of a CIO officer who has been named in court as responsible for the deaths of Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika. That officer continues to preside over a regime of terror in Chimanimani with impunity. Why weren’t delegates in Chinhoyi invited to reflect on the fate of his victims after they had been doused with petrol and set on fire?

Mugabe should stop being an old hypocrite. His party is responsible for the murder and mayhem of the last two years and no amount of dissembling or unethical disclosures will persuade the nation otherwise.

But we were interested to hear from the president that he had told his wife that when it came to serving his family and the people, "the people come first".

When did he tell her that? Was it on one of their many visits to London and Paris in happier times? And exactly how much is it in foreign exchange they consume on each trip abroad? We have never managed to nail that figure down and invite patriotic officials at the Reserve Bank to pick up the phone and tell us.

Nobody believes that Grace and the Mugabe tribe have gone without bread or mealie meal or fuel even once. Nor do we ever imagine that she spares a thought for the hundreds of fellow women who have been brutalised by Zanu PF militia during elections.

Anyway, which "people" is Mugabe talking about when half the nation is facing starvation because of his ill-thought-out land policies?

Readers will recall Didymus Mutasa’s asinine remarks made in 1996 that Mugabe was Zimbabwe’s king. He told the BBC that "you have your Queen. Why shouldn’t we elect our king?"

Meeting the new Dutch ambassador recently, Mugabe noted that the Netherlands had a monarchy while Zimbabwe had "its own system". He wondered why the Dutch wanted to change Zimbabwe’s system.

In fact the Dutch monarchy is almost entirely ceremonial. Mugabe as an ostensibly republican head of state has far more powers than any crowned head of state in Europe. Indeed, it would be easier to compare him to Louis XIV of France who famously said: "L’etat? C’est moi (The state? It is I)".

The Dutch, we are sure, like everybody else, have only one wish: that Zimbabwe’s monarchy would resemble more the constitutional monarchies in place around the world than those ensconced in Swaziland and North Korea.

We were interested to see that President Mugabe has been urging African airlines to promote African countries as tourist destinations. He said while Africa was endowed with numerous tourist attractions, it receives the least share of tourists in the world. He challenged airlines to consider how best to improve Africa’s tourism industry.

African airlines should challenge him to provide a political and economic environment conducive to tourism growth. That means one in which tourists from Europe and the United States — the two largest catchment areas — feel they are not targets of a venomous racist campaign led by the president himself. That if they are in any danger the police will react swiftly and impartially. And that necessities like fuel are available to them.

The fact is President Mugabe is the biggest disincentive to tourism in this region, even frightening visitors away from Botswana’s resorts, according to President Festus Mogae. And when Mugabe speaks about the viability of airlines, he should reflect on the damage caused by arbitrary diversion of flights to collect him and his retinue. We do concede however that with invitations drying up, his travel plans are less likely to impact on Air Zimbabwe’s service!

Muckraker was shocked to see a report that Harare mayor Elias Mudzuri has given a long-service award to Joseph Chinotimba. The self-styled leader of farm invasions was among 677 workers who have served the council for periods ranging from 15 to 35 years. They were given certificates and cash.

Chinotimba has served 20 years. In 2000 and 2001 he was on leave for long periods heading a violent campaign of land seizures on the environs of the city which have added immensely to the cost and complexity of the council’s work. We never heard who had authorised that leave, whether Chinotimba was paid while he was absent from work, and who gave him a Cherokee and other perks, including promotion at a time when he was threatening the then Chief Justice.

It defies belief that ratepayers’ money has now been used to reward him for his "service" to the city.

The mayor did at least make one telling point when handing out the awards. He warned workers against engaging in private business or political activities during business hours. And he said the council would not be held to ransom by incompetent and indolent employees. Did he have anybody particular in mind, we wonder?

The Herald this week carried a long interview with Information minister Jonathan Moyo that looked like an elaborate attempt to justify spending $65 million on Miss Malaika — arguably the biggest non-event of the year organised by Moyo’s pal Adjovi.

There was no hint of who the interview was conducted with and, given the number of "I’m glad you asked me that" questions, speculation will naturally arise as to whether this was not another self-interview.

Moyo complained about the "negativity and cynicism that have taken hold of some of our few but vocal compatriots". Even if they were told Jesus was coming they would protest and claim Zimbabwe did not deserve the honour, Moyo suggested without elaborating on Miss Malaika’s Marian virtues.

These were the same people seeking the cutting of fuel supplies, Moyo opportunistically claimed. The money was well spent to counteract the negative publicity being spread about Zimbabwe, he added.

In other words, Zimbabwe loses millions of dollars in tourism because of Zanu PF’s record of violence and lawlessness and then needs to spend $65 million in persuading people that it’s not as bad as it seems!

There was value for money in African beauty, Moyo insisted, "because beauty is by definition invaluable". If you had difficulty with that logic the next sentence was even better.

"Even the most partisan and reckless among our detractors would concede that point save for those who have gone bananas and are no longer capable of any rationality and there are some like that around."

Indeed there are minister, indeed there are.

Zimbabwe’s long-drawn-out fuel crisis doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. Not even President Mugabe seems to have a clue what to do. Instead what we have from Mugabe are the usual, hard-to-believe accusations against Noczim officials.

Noczim has become Mugabe’s own Frankenstein monster. Allegations of corruption at the oil procurement parastatal have gone on for a long time but nothing has been done to the officials, which makes Muckraker believe these guys are not entirely on their own. There are big fish protecting them.

But Mugabe was particularly furious that these Noczim officials had alienated the Libyans who were ready to give us their fuel in exchange for a stake in the petroleum sector such as pipelines, storage depots and, above all, retail outlets such as service stations. That was the deal they were negotiating last week, as this newspaper reported.

"Why offend the Libyans? What for?" fumed Mugabe in Chinhoyi at the weekend.

But he must know the Libyans have us over an oil barrel because we have no foreign currency and have foolishly made it our national duty to alienate as many erstwhile well- wishers as possible, thanks to Mugabe’s private war against the world.

In the end all we had was a promise: "I am going to look into this matter in a serious way."

If that look will yield fuel that’s fine but no more counter- productive ranting against the petrol companies please. We need a few friends right now!

As for Mugabe’s threat to take over the assets of the Big Five multinational oil companies operating in Zimbabwe, apart from being unconstitutional this would almost certainly put an end to even the small trickle of fuel we are currently getting. As the London Times reported this week, total state control over fuel distribution would condemn the industry to the same failure affecting much of the country’s agriculture, transport, mining, telecommunications, railways and power industries.

When the Russians occupied Berlin in 1945, Soviet soldiers who had never lived in towns unscrewed lightbulbs because they thought they produced light and taps because they thought they made water. Western diplomats in Harare covering the Chinhoyi conference think Mugabe’s approach is much the same.

"Mugabe’s thinking is that taps make water," a Western diplomat told the Times. "If he goes ahead (with the takeover of multinational service stations), the country will dry up far quicker than it is doing already."

Sounds like the president’s idea of a Christmas present to his people!

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South African President Thabo Mbeki, wearing a scarf bearing the Palestinian flag, salutes the crowd during a rally to close the African National Congress's 51st conference in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Friday, Dec. 20, 2002. (AP Photo/Obed Zilwa)