Posted on 08/28/2002 4:59:21 AM PDT by Clive
Zimbabwe's new cabinet should have been announced in March in terms of the constitution. The delay by Robert Mugabe was intended to keep tempting patronage plums dangling for as long as possible, and to delude the South African and Nigerian governments about the possibility of a "cabinet of national unity."
In the event, Mugabe has failed singularly to deliver anything like the national unity government envisaged by the South Africans and Nigerians. Such a cabinet would have included personalities such as retired University of Zimbabwe Vice Chancellor Gordon Chavunduka, and Professor Masipula Sithole, widely regarded as being on the fringes of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Instead, Mugabe dropped the cabinet's only surviving realist, finance minister Simba Makoni, and left untouched his ruling Zanu PF hardliners, including the Nazi-style Gauleiter of the youth militias, Elliott Manyika.
Reflecting Zimbabwe's growing isolation, Mugabe called this line-up a "fully fledged war council."
Makoni, 52, was ditched after 25 months of fruitless pleading for sensible exchange rates, an end to self-inflicted destruction of the economy, and a reopening of relations with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The only marvel is that Makoni has lasted so long. His exit must finally awaken South Africa's ANC from the dream that a "new Zanu" will show that moribund liberation movements can regain respectability.
Mugabe was aiming at Makoni when he said last year: "If some of you are getting weak-kneed, tell us, and we will continue with the struggle. I want those I can call amadoda sibili (real men), people with a spine. And if you do not have a spine please tell us and we will say goodbye in a friendly way."
Herbert Murerwa returns to the Treasury, having proved helpless in 1998 when Mugabe embarked on the road to bankruptcy with his Congo adventure and his ruinous grants to ex-guerrillas.
Mugabe's cousin Witness Mangwende comes back as transport minister. He has since 1980 left a trail of ruin at foreign affairs, information and at agriculture.
Untouched are agriculture minister Joseph Made (who insisted there would be no need to import grain), justice minister Patrick Chinamasa (who had dragged Zimbabwe's reputation for the rule of law through the mire), and information minister Jonathan Moyo. Mugabe has with their help demonstrated his ability to mobilise the dregs of society under the guise of "war veterans", to impose his will on Zimbabweans. It is a technique which may become the common currency of Zimbabwean political life.
This week's distortion by Moyo's propaganda machine of remarks from US assistant secretary of state Walter Kansteiner poses a direct threat to all those still struggling for the legal decencies.
Kansteiner said the Bush Administration does not recognise the legitimacy of Mugabe's presidency and is working to support civil society, in the hope fresh elections may take place in a more democratic atmosphere.
State-run media lied that Kansteiner had said Bush was working through critics of Mugabe's regime, including independent journalists, to overthrow Mugabe. There is clear menace in this lie.
The Commercial Farmers' Union still urges compromise. It is conventional wisdom that bullies must be stood up to. On the other hand, homicidal maniacs may have to be kept talking, to try to prevent their killing people indiscriminately.
How to classify those who invade food-producing farms during a famine, their eyes bloodshot with dagga, saying they don't care whether courts have set aside "Section 8" seizure and eviction notices or not? Bullies or maniacs? Can CFU president Colin Cloete be blamed for continuing to seek dialogue despite being arrested by police and dragged before the magistrates?
Cloete's insane case is typical of those facing many of his 4,000 members. He himself owns only one (319 hectare) farm, which is not subject to a Section 8 order. He was arrested for continuing to work his 82-year-old father's neighbouring 435 hectares on which the Section 8 order has been temporarily set aside by the Administrative Court.
His Zimbabwe $5,000 bail bans him from return to his father's farm (where Cloete himself has his homestead), but his 22-year-old son Rodney is allowed to keep the irrigation going on 70 hectares of wheat and barley there. What is he to do?
Farmers, independent journalists, supporters of civil society, hang on like besieged but amazingly disciplined pockets of resistance in a chaotic battle zone, trying to keep their nerves in the face of mob hysteria.
We may seem to be praying for a miracle, but what we are really doing is watching for signs that the forces of barbarism may be about to inflict on themselves, through their own conceited stupidity, the sort of reverses they have already inflicted on the country at large. The signs are already there. Without waiting to study Mugabe's largely meaningless cabinet reshuffle, or the results of UN secretary general Kofi Annan's visit to the region, we know these forces have lost any sense of reality and all leadership.
Bump!
Might they already have the government they desire?
Their economic structure was two levels, the haves and the have nots.
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