Posted on 12/20/2008 3:31:32 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BINDURA, Zimbabwe (Reuters) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Saturday he would not allow a unity government to reverse his controversial policy of seizing white-owned farmland and giving it to blacks.
Speaking at his ZANU-PF party's annual conference, Mugabe said that while he hoped the opposition would agree to form a coalition government, he would not compromise on policies such as land seizures, which critics say wrecked Zimbabwe's economy.
"We don't want a unity which is retrogressive," Mugabe told about 6,000 ruling party supporters at this town about 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital Harare.
"The biggest issue is of land ... the land has already been given to the people, it will not be returned to whites."
Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed three months ago to form a coalition government after disputed elections, but the pact has stalled as they fight over who should control key ministries.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has sunk deeper into crisis: hyperinflation means prices double every day and a cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,100 people.
Mugabe has threatened to form a government with or without the MDC, which complains the president is trying to relegate it to a junior role.
Investors hope a unity government would wrest enough control from Mugabe to reverse the policies they blame for the meltdown, and avert total collapse in Zimbabwe. Mugabe blames Western sanctions for the crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe salutes delegates at the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) annual People's Conference in Bindura about 90 km (56 miles) north of the capital Harare, December 19, 2008. (Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters)
“We don’t want a unity which is retrogressive,” Mugabe told about 6,000 ruling party supporters at this town about 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital Harare. “
Certifiable lunatic.
And now Zimbabwe, which previously sold their excess food crops at a profit, now must depend on the UN for food aid to prevent starvation in Zimbabwe. Progress comes in many forms in Africa.
Exactly the same as Democrats and their "turning back the clock" mantra. Reactionaries.
Mugabe’s not so famished looking is he? Must be all the good elephant meat he is seizing from the zoos. At least El Puerco Chavez has some oil to bank on....not so with Muggo.
Mugabe is quite portly isn’t he?
A pity that nothing has happened to him as of yet, no slip in the bath tub, no spider bites, nor a sudden stroke...
Suppporters of the ZANU-PF party listen to Robert Mugabe speaking at the party's annual conference which is entering its final day, with the veteran leader vowing never to surrender amid internal divisions which party chiefs say cost the March elections. (AFP/Desmond Kwande)
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at the ZANU-PF party's annual conference which is entering its final day. The veteran leader has vowed never to surrender amid internal divisions which party chiefs say cost the March elections. (AFP/Desmond Kwande)
The funny thing about that sign is it was Britain and Jimmy Carter who are most responsible for putting Mugabe in power.
Do any of the people whom the land was given to know anything about farming?
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/10-17-2004-60553.asp
published 2004:
Police Raze War Veterans’ Farms As Fresh Land Evictions Rock Zimbabwe
President Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party accused of cronyism after invasion of settlements. They were feted by Robert Mugabe as patriots and pioneers in a radical redistribution of land to redress colonial injustice. But the war veterans who ousted white farmers have now themselves been invaded.
Last month, police units fanned across Trelawney, a rural district outside the capital, Harare, and erased settlements with matches and mallets.
The devastation starts just north of Harare and stretches for mile after mile with hundreds of homes wrecked, fields scorched and families gone, leaving the landscape silent and empty. “Now we are in the position the white farmer was. The authorities used us,” Richard Mapuringa, 33, said last week, sifting through the ruins of his house.
Across Trelawney and other districts there were thousands like him, angry and confused over livelihoods reduced to ashes and a promise betrayed.
No official explanation was given for the evictions, but the suspicion was that senior figures in the ruling Zanu-PF party wanted to claim the farms, which had names such as Little England, for themselves.
“You can’t accept a government that does this,” said Mr Mapuringa.
But it seems Zimbabweans do accept a government that does this and worse.
Inflation exceeds 300%, unemployment tops 70%, decent food is unaffordable for many, freedom of speech and assembly have been crushed and a repressive law muzzling civil society is on the way.
Parliamentary elections are due next March but instead of fighting for survival, the party that has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980 is expected to coast to victory.
Last year’s general strike has not been repeated and protest rallies have not materialised. “Mugabe is more secure in power now than before,” said one western diplomat, referring to the country’s president.
A sullen, resigned mood reigns in Zimbabwe. Since narrowly losing elections in 2000 and 2002, which international observers deemed rigged, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has floundered.
Broke, exhausted and traduced by the media, the party has no way of combating the government’s ability to pay the forgers and bully opponents. “We are cracking under the strain,” said one MP.
Non-governmental organisations used to challenge the regime but several have started winding down operations since being targeted by a new bill likely soon to become law. “People are disillusioned, they can’t see a way forward,” said one United Nations official.
What happened at Trelawney shows how the government can keep a tight grip on power despite chaotic policies and deep internal divisions.
Having mobilised the settlers in 2000 to chase away the white farmers and their black labourers the government failed to supply feed, training or equipment, prompting a national collapse in production which has fuelled food shortages.
“At least here we still coped. I was able to grow maize, sorghum, ground nuts, paprika, and enough to feed my family,” said James Hodzi, 58, a local Zanu-PF party chairman.
But in mid-September the police destroyed everything.
Who gave the order is a mystery, since no minister has publicly endorsed the policy. Earlier this month a high court halted the evictions, prompting Mr Hodzi and others to return and try to rebuild.
But as commercial farmers learned four years ago, a court ruling is no protection from the ruling party.
Peasants in Trelawney accused Mr Mugabe’s sister Sabina and his nephew Joe of coveting their land. Others said it had been earmarked for army officers. Another theory was of a machiavellian plot to discredit a faction within the party. Whatever the motive, invaders were no longer wanted.
“There is some poetic justice in their eviction but you have to sympathise. They have been used. The small fry making way for the bigger fry,” said John Worsley-Worswick, of the white farmers’ group Justice for Agriculture.
Not all sympathised. John Jones, one of the last white farmers in Trelawney, welcomed the expulsion of neighbours he accused of theft. “It’s the way forward if we are to get commercial production back on an even keel.”
However, a few miles further down a dirt track his neighbour Mr Hodzi, a self-styled invader, said he was determined to stay and rebuild the burnt shell of his home. A member of Zanu-PF since 1980, he declined at first to blame the party for his troubles but later suggested there was cronyism in the leadership. Gesturing to his scorched fields he said: “All this destruction, just so someone can give his girlfriend a present.”
Eliciting praise from a white farmer and anger from erstwhile Zanu-PF supporters, the evictions appear an aberration but one that is unlikely to threaten the party’s re-election.
With a near monopoly of the media and food stocks, and with a population cowed by security forces, the regime feels assured of victory.
On a recent trip to Mozambique Mr Mugabe had a spring in his step. “We are now, day by day, regaining a noteworthy political and economic stability,” he told journalists. In other words, the possibility of his overthrow had receded.
There. Fixed it.
What is Mugabe now claiming to be Irish?
Doesn’t matter who the next maximum leader of Zim is, no white farmer with any brains is coming back.
come back? ‘siezed’ means, they were drug from their homes and murdered - how do you come back from that?
Mugabe is guilty of anglo-saxon genocide, and he’s not the only one.
best regards, blu
Yes, but control of who gets food, even UN food, is used to enforce support for Mugabe. If you do not support him, you do not eat.
Miserable Vermin like him deserve to be exterminated.
Mugabe wants starvation in Zimbabwe. He is trying to starve his political opposition. Every African famine in recent decades has been engineered for political reasons.
Will someone or something please put this IDIOT out of my misery! The sooner the better!
—
at least get rid of whoever is dressing him.
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