Mugabe is scared

AN AFRICAN journalist who has made several personal visits to President Robert Mugabe has revealed that the urban blitz codenamed ‘Operation Murambatsvina’ was the “brainchild” of Zimbabwe’s intelligence community designed to “nip in the bud a Ukrainian-style revolution.”

“After the success in Ukraine, the same metropolitan powers that paid the Ukrainian students to start the street protests in Kiev were paying for a similar thing in Harare,” Ankomah wrote in an article carried by the state-run Herald newspaper.

“They had in fact hoped that Zimbabweans would do it by themselves in the aftermath of the March 31 parliamentary elections that saw the MDC beaten out of sight.”

Zanu PF sources last night described Ankomah revelations as unhelpful, with one official saying they were a “public relations disaster”. The Herald, which published the article, also came in for criticism.

A couple of things of note here: 1) the CIO panicked and must have thought that the revolution was really coming to Zimbabwe 2) Tibaijuka’s UN report is fully vindicated 3) the fact that The Herald published the article could mean that someone wanted people to know how scared Mugabe is of an impending revolt.

Good news from Zimbabwe

Soldiers in Zimbabwe have spoken of being sent on forced leave, as the army was unable to provide them with food.

"Sometimes we are forced to buy our own food for lunch because of shortages," said one of the soldiers from Imbizo Barracks, 20 km from Bulawayo.
Imbizo Barracks produced some of the best infantry soldiers and fighting units of the Rhodesian army during Zimbabwe's independence war.
"Some of our colleagues have been told to commute to work everyday because of food and transport problems facing the army," said another soldier from Imbizo.
A large number of soldiers have also been affected at Braddy Barracks, which trained soldiers who fought for Britain in World War II.

This is indeed good news; if the Army becomes disaffected with the regime, an “Ukrainian-style revolution” is more than a possibility. Zimbabwe has an Army of 30.000, but if Mugabe for lack of funds disregards their grievances relying only on his trusted personal thugs (ZANU PF has a militia of 5000), he could come to regret it very soon.

Mugabe will not and cannot step down. Like every other dictator, he has committed too many atrocities to stay in power and would be hanged and quartered in a second if he did. Moreover, he cannot change his policies as this would be tantamount to admit that he has wasted his life to pursue ridiculous chimeras. The fact that he is still considered a liberator by many Africans – as Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” in fear of the ANC demonstrates - is an indicator both of his success as a liar and of African political irresponsibility.

Africa has been a mere pawn in the cold war and, as many realize, no amount of Beijing or Moscow educated, panga yielding, screaming, bloodshot eyed “freedom fighters” would ever have put an end to the colonies in such an untimely manner. Nevertheless, most African politicians continue to resort to this easy rhetoric, fomenting racism and resentment, and knowingly delaying African maturity and development.

Today one US dollar is worth 100.000 Zimbabwe dollars.

While even baboons are getting hungry, Zimbabwe government promises to feed Zimbabwe and Zambia as well (Zimbabwe population is 12m):

Zimbabwe, Mugabe