Three semi-related new items:
(See also, most recently, yesterday's batch of Reuters stories.)
From IRIN...
President Robert Mugabe has called on neighbouring countries not to interfere in Zimbabwe's internal affairs, while signalling that constitutional reform was on the cards, possibly to smooth the way for a chosen successor.
Speaking in a televised interview to commemorate his 82nd birthday over the weekend, Mugabe said: "We have tolerated some of them because they are our friends. We hope in future they will keep away." He was responding to a question on what he thought of diplomatic interventions by South Africa and Nigeria in Zimbabwe's political crisis.
Mugabe sneered at his colleagues in the African Union, suggesting their interest in resolving Zimbabwe's problems was more to do with pressure from western governments deemed hostile to his ruling ZANU-PF.
Mugabe also said the country's constitution would be amended as many times as was necessary. He is due to retire in 2008.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Patrick Chinamasa immediately hinted there were several possibilities for constitutional reform. One option was the current parliamentary term, which expires in 2010, could be reduced to 2008 so that presidential and parliamentary elections could be held that year.
Another possibility would be to have a president elected to serve a seven-year term from 2008 to 2015, so that parliamentary and presidential polls could be synchronised in 2015. A third, believed to be favoured by Mugabe, is to have his successor elected by parliament in 2008 to serve for two years before joint elections are held in 2010.
Political commentator and conflict resolution expert, Webster Zambara, said that scenario would give Mugabe's chosen successor, most likely Vice-President Joyce Mujuru, time to entrench herself in power.
"That option is ideal for Mugabe in that when parliament is whipped into choosing his preferred candidate, that person would have two years to establish himself or herself and to weed out potential opponents. That would ensure that the succession issue is much smoother," he commented.
The weekend also added a new twist to the split in the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) with Arthur Mutambara returning to the country to lead the pro-Senate faction ahead of their congress in Bulawayo this weekend. [see below]
Mutambara, an academic who was a former militant leader of the University of Zimbabwe Student Representative Council, has been living abroad. The official Herald newspaper quoted a statement by Mutambara in which he said he had witnessed with distress the split in the MDC over the past four months.
The rump of the party has remained loyal to MDC leader and former unionist Morgan Tsvangirai, which is set to hold its own congress next month. "Mutambara's advantage could be that he has an activism background, just like Tsvangirai, but his slight advantage could be that he also has a very strong academic background to eclipse that of Mugabe," said Zambara.
An analysis feature from ZimOnline...
Economic experts on Monday predicted that the final collapse of Zimbabwe's long ailing economy was nigh after President Robert Mugabe confessed that his government had discarded the economics rule book and was printing money to guarantee its political survival.
Besides the obvious push-up effect on inflation, the decision to ignore basic economic rules will scare away the few investors still interested in doing business in Zimbabwe while also dissuading the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Western donors from providing financial assistance - vital to any efforts to revive the economy, the experts said.
Speaking during a televised interview last Sunday night to commemorate his 82nd birthday, Mugabe said he would continue printing more money, a move he said was necessary because accepted economic principles and monetary rules did not apply to Zimbabwe's economic crisis.
Mugabe turns 82 today [Tuesday].
But Harare-based consultant economist John Robertson said Zimbabwe will pay dearly for the government's decision to ignore economic rules.
He said: "The President may have the power to order his government to ignore the rules but in economics there are severe penalties to pay for such behaviour - economies collapse because people disobey the rules."
Robertson said the Harare administration's chances of redeeming itself as a democratic government guided by sound economic principles and worthy of international support were fast fading by the day, adding that Mugabe's comments were only helping stick the badge of "rogue regime" on his government.
An economist with a commercial bank in Zimbabwe's second largest city of Bulawayo concurred with Robertson, saying: "In essence, what the President is saying is that he does not want to play by the accepted rules of the game and that given a chance he would want to do things that are at tangent with the IMF even against advice from his own officials."
The bank economist, who did not want to be named for professional reasons, said Mugabe's comments were "the clearest sign yet that unless there is a complete change of direction, the total collapse of Zimbabwe's economy will be a reality sooner than most people expect."
Defending his stance to ignore accepted economic principles and conduct, Mugabe said his government had no option but to keep the printing machines running in order to be able to feed hungry Zimbabweans, a quarter of whom require urgent food aid after poor harvests last farming season.
The veteran President, whom critics hold responsible for ruining Zimbabwe's once vibrant economy because of repression and wrong economic policies, castigated his Ministry of Finance for wanting to implement "bookish" economics that he said cannot work in Zimbabwe.
Respected University of Zimbabwe business lecturer, Anthony Hawkins, said Mugabe's utterances would damage investor confidence and help fuel the country's inflation, already among the highest in the world.
Zimbabwe's annual inflation was pegged at 613.2 percent in January from 585.5 percent recorded the previous month and is seen approaching 1 000 percent in the next three months.
"It will also drive up the price of foreign currency especially if that money (being printed by the government) is used to buy foreign currency," Hawkins said.
Zimbabwe is facing a serious shortage of foreign currency, which is blamed for shortages of fuel, food, electricity and agricultural inputs because there is no hard cash to pay foreign suppliers.
Mugabe's televised birthday address comes about two weeks after a team from the IMF completed a mission to Harare, during which they told the Zimbabwean authorities to adopt economic policies that conform to international best practice.
Among its recommendations was the need for the central Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to discontinue its quasi-fiscal activities that were cited as fuelling money supply growth and high inflation.
The RBZ has been dolling out large sums of money to largely ruling ZANU PF party supporters without proper monitoring strategies in place.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono also shocked the business community last week when he revealed that he had to print Z$21 trillion to purchase the foreign currency that was used to settle Zimbabwe's arrears to the IMF.
Former student leader Arthur Mutambara, tipped to take over the leadership of one of the factions of Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, yesterday [Monday] called for a re-unification of the party and other democratic forces in the country.
The MDC faction controlled by deputy president Gibson Sibanda and secretary general Welshman Ncube is scheduled to hold its congress next weekend, at which new leaders will be elected. The other faction of the MDC controlled by president Morgan Tsvangirai is due to hold a separate congress next month.
In a statement yesterday Mutambara, whose own bid to lead the Sibanda-faction of the MDC is said to have sparked divisions within that group according to some media reports, said there was critical need to reunite and refocus the pro-democracy movement in Zimbabwe.
"There are three critical success factors that define the way forward: Reunification of all democratic forces fighting for change in the country, the need to refocus and energise the vision, values and strategy of these forces, the development of a comprehensive macro-economic blueprint that resolves the economic crisis," Mutambara said.
He however did not say how, if elected to lead the Sibanda group, he hoped to reunite the MDC whose splintering has virtually rewound the political clock back to the eighties and early nineties when President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF completely dominated the politics of Zimbabwe.
A respected academic and popular leader even after spending many years outside Zimbabwe, Mutambara, however said that the infusion of new leadership "untainted" with the squabbles of the past was necessary to bring the MDC together.
He said: "(Zimbabweans have) witnessed with distress the split in the main opposition party MDC. For the past four months, the party top leadership has failed to unite the ranks of the movement.
"As the party goes towards two separate congresses, the infusion of new leadership, untainted by current disagreements, is imperative to facilitate the reunification process."
And in a separate statement Ncube, the kingmaker in the Sibanda-faction of the MDC, rejected several reports that have circulated since last weekend suggesting infighting in the group allegedly after deputy secretary general Gift Chimanikire - who is also vying for the top post -- refused to step aside for Mutambara.
Ncube said the MDC constitution guaranteed every member the right to challenge for any post in the party.
He said: "The management committee noted the right of all members of the party including the deputy secretary general, Gift Chimanikire and Professor Arthur Mutambara to present themselves to congress for election.
Furthermore the management committee noted that in terms of article 5.4.3, it is the prerogative of the party's 12 provinces at Congress to nominate for election any members of the party who wish to contest the position of President, Deputy President or any other party position."
Speaking to ZimOnline separately Chimanikire he was standing for president of the faction because he could not see any reason to step aside for Mutambara.
Chimankire said, "I am standing for the post of president. I did not find anything convincing for me to stand down so we have agreed that I will be participating with anybody who wants to contest for the post.
"No one wanted take responsibility of having spoken to Mutambara but some just confirmed that they held telephone conversations with him. It was a casual meeting characterised by frank talk."
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