HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s inordinate delay in naming a new Zanu PF presidium is fuelling speculation about the candidates that will be chosen to the top posts. In the week since Mugabe, 90, surprised the 6th Zanu PF congress by announcing he will not immediately name the presidium, he has provided little clarity on…
HARARE – At the MDC Congress, they gathered to elect their leaders while at the Zanu PF congress, the people’s business was simply to sing and to wait in vain for the dear leader to appoint his personal preferences into the cockpit of the party. While elections took place at the MDC congress, uneasy lies…
HARARE – As Zanu PF’s damp squib “elective” congress droned to a disappointing close yesterday, the pertinent question of who exactly among the party’s senior officials still wants President Robert Mugabe as the leader of the party and country became even more urgent. The long-ruling nonagenarian and his enthusiastic wife Grace have expended so much…
HARARE – The apology this week by Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) chairman Wilson Manase for the national side’s dismal performance in Bangladesh comes across to us as mere blame shifting and an insincere utterance. Zimbabwe slumped to an all-time low on the recent subcontinent tour, losing all three Test matches and five One-Day Internationals – drawing…
HARARE – Every time a local party goes into overdrive, which translates into open violence — either against itself or another party, I am reminded of the day in 1957 that the African National Congress was inaugurated in the Recreational Hall. How things have changed! The hall is now Mai Musodzi Hall, named after a…
HARARE – Two disturbing developments took place during President Robert Mugabe’s meeting with service chiefs and war veterans ahead of Zanu PF’s politburo meeting in Harare yesterday. Firstly, Mugabe, while running down embattled Vice President Joice Mujuru and claiming that she had tried to mastermind his ouster said, “… for that matter it’s a woman…
HARARE – On several occasions, government has made statements of intent to rationalise the civil service and re-engineer the bloat which has compelled it to apportion a huge chunk of its budget expenditure to salaries, wages, allowances and other entitlements. Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa admitted during this year’s budget speech that government workers were being…
HARARE – People watching the evolution of politics and state activity in Africa tend to lose sight of a battle that is being waged in our societies between the different elements that make up the populations of African countries. To use Zimbabwe as an example, the European settlers arrived in numbers in 1893, subjugated the…
LONDON – Politicians have been adept at manufacturing crises in order to mobilise support. For example, Zanu PF has managed to distort the true nature of Western sanctions in order to mobilise support around a perception of national victimhood. In other words, the idea is to present Zimbabwe as a victim. Politicians also create personal…
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe must take the opportunity presented by the Zanu PF congress this week to show leadership qualities and stop factionalists and youths who are threatening violence against Vice President Joice Mujuru and her perceived backers during the party’s 6th congress in Harare. The veteran Zimbabwe leader has largely been quiet as…
