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Zimbabwe Crisis Reports Issue 17

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Zimbabwe Crisis Reports Issue 17 ZIMBABWE CRISIS REPORTS Issue 17 ■ November 2007 Fresh insights into the Zimbabwean situation ZANU-PF LEADERSHIP DIVISIONS MOUNT Growing evidence of split in ruling party over its candidate for presidential election next year. By Jacob Nhlanhla in Bulawayo With ZANU-PF stalwarts distancing themselves from the intensive campaign by war veterans to ensure President Robert Mugabe holds onto power, all is clearly not well in the ruling party, say analysts. The signs of division within the party over who should govern Zimbabwe come just two months before ZANU-PF meets to choose its Lazele Credit: presidential candidate for what many War veterans march through the streets of Harare in support of President Robert here see as a watershed poll next year. Mugabe. Picture taken September 1. The veteran president turns 84 next The war veterans, erstwhile heroes of Since 2000, when the expropriation of February, and has already indicated Zimbabwe’s 1970s war of liberation, white-owned commercial farms he is ready to stand for another term are already planning what they have intensified, the war veterans have despite being in power since 1980 termed the “million-man march” in been Mugabe’s most vociferous and and presiding over the collapse of the support of Mugabe staying on in violent supporters. Their support has country’s once-model economy. He is power. become even more vocal in the wake one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. of public spats within the ruling party’s NEWS IN BRIEF ■ A decision to dissolve the ■ The head of the government’s ■ Water and infrastructure minister women’s assembly of the Movement price commission, Goodwills Munacho Mutezo announced on for Democratic Change faction led by Masimirembwa, has warned that October 26 that water rates in the Morgan Tsvangirai continued to cause companies will face prosecution if they capital Harare will go up significantly internal strife and considerable public are caught using the black market to following an increase in the cost of acrimony. Assembly leader Lucia buy scarce foreign currency as a way of water-treatment chemicals. He said Matibenga refused to accept her financing their imports, Reuters news the national water company had no dismissal, and took the matter to agency reported, quoting local media. choice but to raise its prices, The court last week, after which the MDC Herald reported. held a congress of female members ■ After his summer onslaught on to decide who should be leader. inflation which resulted in price cuts ■ The last British Airways flight left Following rowdy scenes at the and — inadvertently — widespread Harare on October 28. BA was the last weekend meeting, Theresa Makone, shortages of basic commodities, long-haul carrier running flights to the wife of Tsvangirai advisor Ian President Robert Mugabe has Zimbabwe, but demand has collapsed Makone, was picked as the new launched an attack on a recent round as the political and economic women’s assembly leader. of price hikes, the International situation deteriorates further. Herald Tribune reported. NOVEMBER 2007 ■ 1 THE INSTITUTE FOR WAR AND PEACE REPORTING ranks over who will take the party to leader who forged the Unity Accord supporting Mugabe, without... letting the next generation. with Mugabe in 1987 and became the party congress decide the party’s Zimbabwean vice-president until his [presidential] candidate.” The Zimbabwe National Liberation War death in 1999. Veterans Association, ZINLWA — a It is generally believed that ZANU-PF belligerent force that has been In another sign that Sibanda has members who formerly led ZAPU are incorporated by the authorities into an estranged Mugabe from his erstwhile fed up with Mugabe and would rather official reserve army — began staging comrades from ZAPU, these see another leader selected by the marches across the country two Matebeleland politicians have reportedly party’s December congress. The months ago, campaigning for Mugabe sought an audience with Mugabe “to indications are that they support the as sole ZANU-PF candidate. remind him of the Unity Accord”. faction led by retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru in the internal The leader of the war veterans, Mugabe increasingly seems to be ZANU-PF power struggle. Jabulani Sibanda, was suspended sidelining the former ZAPU members from ZANU-PF after his alleged whom he sees as an obstacle to his Mugabe says he is going to stand participation in an attempted 2004 ambition to be the country’s life because he does not want the party to palace coup to oust Mugabe. president. become divided over the succession However, he says he has now returned issue. Yet the nationwide marches to the party fold. seeking to impose him as the “The war veterans [are] candidate for next year’s polls appear When the veterans this month took throwing their weight to be achieving just that. their march to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s behind Mugabe when second largest city, deep cracks within everybody else seems to “This is just what the country does not the ruling party emerged. need,” said a Jesuit priest who is a see the future of the close observer of the political scene. Situated in the heart of Matabeleland, country without him” — Bulawayo is home to former members political commentator. “If only people were left to choose of ZAPU, the Zimbabwe African their leaders, the marches [by war People’s Union. ZAPU was crushed by veterans] would not have any Mugabe’s military in the 1980s and its Though officials have tried to play relevance. But then Zimbabwe offers remnants swallowed up by ZANU-PF down these reports, some Bulawayo- many bad examples of how war in the 1987 Unity Accord. based war veterans have reportedly veterans have been empowered by been asking how Sibanda can lead politicians who seek to pursue power When Sibanda took his campaign to marches in support of Mugabe if he for power’s sake.” Bulawayo, local ZANU-PF was expelled from ZANU-PF. heavyweights would have been Zimbabwe’s war veterans have in the expected to rally behind him in this These differences have arisen against past been accused of fomenting stronghold of the Movement of the backdrop of efforts by the political violence ahead of elections, Democratic Change, MDC. However, Southern African Development and their endorsement of Mugabe former ZAPU stalwarts ignored him. Community to broker a resolution to ahead of the ruling party’s congress the troubled nation’s crisis. this December points to the possibility Zimbabwean vice-president Joseph of another election marred by violence. Msika, once a ZAPU member, has Analysts insist the war veterans’ pro- distanced himself from the veteran’s Mugabe campaign is further Already, human rights organisations say marches and is one of several obstructing the negotiations between they have recorded an escalation in politicians to have criticised Sibanda’s ZANU-PF and the MDC, in which the politically-motivated violence over recent involvement in the pro-Mugabe president’s departure is already a months. One faction of the divided MDC campaign, although he still insists he sticking-point. has already indicated it could be pulling is behind the president himself. out of the South Africa-mediated talks “We are in for a long wait in the solving with ZANU-PF if state-sponsored “Sibanda was expelled from the party of the crisis, with the war veterans violence is not stopped. a long time ago. He has no mandate throwing their weight behind Mugabe to campaign for the party or its when everybody else seems to see Observers say that if war veterans can president. He has to stop,” said Msika the future of the country without him,” browbeat party officials as they did in in early October after Sibanda led the a Bulawayo-based political Bulawayo, the average voter will be at Bulawayo march in support of commentator told IWPR. their mercy as they press for Mugabe’s Mugabe. re-election. “The divisions rocking ZANU-PF do Msika is said to have been a confidant not point to any reforms as long as the Jacob Nhlanhla is the pseudonym of of the late Joshua Nkomo, the ZAPU war veterans march across the country an IWPR journalist in Zimbabwe. ■ 2 ■ ISSUE 17 ZIMBABWE CRISIS REPORTS MDC RIVEN BY NEW DIVISIONS As elections draw closer, the already divided opposition is stricken with internal strife. By Joseph Sithole in Harare October has not been a good month for Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, in the last couple of years. In October 2005 the party split into warring entities, while this month two key groupings within the larger of the two factions have been dissolved under controversial circumstances. Credit: Lazele Credit: The Movement for Democratic MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai at a rally held in a high-density suburb of Harare. Change, MDC, has also spent the Picture taken July 7. month dealing with the fallout from its controversial decision to back constitutional amendments that, Both factions have since tried to damp But even as attempts are made to heal among other things, allow President down their differences as they the rifts and form a united front, the Robert Mugabe to effectively hand- confronted an increasingly violent Tsvangirai-led MDC has become pick his successor. Mugabe administration, but in embroiled in two internal conflicts of its September they jointly incurred the own that could be leading to a messy wrath of their opposition allies when implosion. they took a tactical decision to back the Both MDC factions incurred constitutional bill, which went through the wrath of their civil both houses of parliament unopposed. MDC women’s assembly society allies by voting and British branch both They are still struggling to mend the rift with ZANU-PF to get with their main civic society partners dissolved amid controversy.
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