Posted by South Africa will host the next emergency summit on Zimbabwe, the foreign ministry said Thursday, as regional leaders were trying to save a Zimbabwean unity deal .
President designate Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister designate Morgan Tsvangirai agreed to the summit after marathon talks on Monday failed to resolve their dispute over how to share control of powerful ministries under a unity government.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, who mediated the talks earlier this week, will host the summit in Pretoria as the chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the foreign ministry said in a statement.
All 15 member states will be represented, along with Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and a splinter group. The statement did not say if heads of government would attend, after earlier summits on Zimbabwe drew only a handful of regional leaders.
The summit would mark the fourth time that all SADC members have gathered to discuss Zimbabwe’s crisis since disputed elections last March.
There is nothing extraordinary about this summit. If they cannot face the Baboon they must rather let him rule as he like. MDC must not be part of it. MDC won in March. If they cannot agree on that then let Zanu Pf continue killing people, that is what they are good at. Now they have started stealing fertilizer, how on earth can Cabinet Ministers do such an evil thing. People will be judged by what they have built for their people not by what they have destroyed, Where does Zanu fits?????????. For what are we going to remember Zanu for?????????. Grace Matchel said all. Time has changed so people must change with it.But Zanu chooses the opposite.
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Dzichadzurika chete ndebvu dze ZANU Pf. Hatirambe takabata
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TSVANGISON ACHAPINDA MUFORO ZANU CHIORORO.
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That western sponsored stooge-tsvangirai continues thumbing his nose at Sadc and rejecting all and every position proposed by the region and the other parties to the agreement, insisting all others give in to his demands, without him moving an inch.The question on everyone’s lips is: For how long shall the nation be held to ransom by a sellout who clearly is not acting of his own volition, but comes to the table as an agent of the inimical forces that have imposed ruinous sanctions on our people?
Sadc leaders should ask why at every opportunity Tsvangirai asks to leave the room to consult before making a decision as if he is the only one with a party and constituents to consult?
It would have been better if the stooge was consulting people who voted for him. He — instead — consults British and American envoys or agents who always hover at every conference or summit venue where the abortive talks will be in session. It is not lost to us that Tsvangirai is buying time in the hope that Zimbabwe will collapse and Rhodesia will rise from the rubble; or better still, his principals will muscle out Sadc and do an Iraq on Zimbabwe..We are not at all surprised at the outrageous demands Tsvangirai is making , as the demands, just like his self-imposed exile at a time Sadc had recommended the immediate formation of the envisaged inclusive Government, appear designed to sabotage the process..After emerging from the negotiating rooms in which he, together with President Mugabe, President Kgalema Motlanthe, President Armando Guebuza, former President Thabo Mbeki and Professor Arthur Mutambara, had been locked up for half a day, Tsvangirai tried to heap all the blame for the failure to finalise the September 15 broad-based agreement on everyone else but himself….What the media and, by extension, the rest of the world saw when Tsvangirai spouted out his monotonous charges against everyone outside of MDC-T was the huge shadow of a political creature whose image has been well-sculpted by years of Western propaganda but whose facade is peeling off at a rate faster than America and Britain can ever hope to repair…The uneducated stooge lied that zanupf was negotiating in bad faith when it is increasingly apparent to everyone that it is Tsvangirai himself who has never been sincere about the dialogue process..That western puppet lied that his party was still committed to the implementation of the deal signed last year and yet he had just come from trying to renegotiate the whole deal as if he was blind when he put pen to paper on September 15, 2008..So ,that aspect of lack of education comes in again, tsvangi signed a deal he couldn’t understand its contents?Tsvangirai’s handlers have tried to build an image of the man, they have attempted to hide the fact that he is merely a shadow of interests and principalities that are far b**** than Harvest House, far b**** than words like “rule of law”, “human rights” and “good governance”.,fortunately,for zim that image is fast being eroded by the stooge himself…And on Monday, Tsvangirai firmly PLACED ONE FOOT IN THE POLITICAL GRAVE!! by choosing to remain a Western shadow rather than metamorphosing into a real Zim politician..After the abortive meeting,Tsvangirai was not even man enough to tell the media that the Sadc leaders that had condescended to listen to his bleating for renegotiation of the whole deal had presented to the three parties a solution to break the deadlock..,that is a proposal, they all agreed to..
The opposition’s ceremonial leader chose to preen the cracking veneer of the image the West have created for him by concealing the fact that Presidents Motlanthe and Guebuza and Cde Mbeki had offered a means for forward movement(proposal) and that he said he would go for it if the other principals also agreed to it..He opted to perpetuate the lie that he is truly concerned about Zimbabweans by choosing not to reveal the fact that after the other two principals had okayed the proposal, he turned around and suddenly declared he could no longer go along with it because of instructions from his western handlers…. the fact is that Tsvangirai LIED when he walked out of the negotiating room.The uneducated stooge will remain intransigent not because that’s what the generality of MDC-T supporters want, but because that is what the owners of the MDC franchise, who made their position clear when the broad-based agreement was signed on September 15 that they were after regime change not inclusion, want.The truth is that Tsvangirai, in synch with the instruction from his fellow substance-less shadow Jendayi Frazer, will never willingly accede to become part of a Government in which he is a junior partner..This explains why Tsvangirai brings fresh demands to the table every time; these are proposals he hopes would abet illegal regime change in the boardroom. Regime change is the brief Tsvangirai was given, and being a stooge hardly known for original thought, it’s a mission he hopes to see through, unless he gets instructions to the contrary..Last month, the then, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer announced, in South Africa of all places, that the US had withdrawn support for the envisaged inclusive Government.
Her sentiments were echoed by the Rhodesian remnants in MDC-T exemplified by Eddie Cross, who said he would rather see Zimbabwe ‘‘crash and burn’’ than allow MDC-T to go into a Government headed by President Mugabe.The time has come to tell Tsvangirai enough is enough, and we hope when Sadc leaders convene at the Extraordinary Summit on Monday, that is the message they will deliver to Tsvangirai and his western handlers…Tsvangirai’s game plan — as given to him by the West — is simple..He wants a complete breakdown of Government and its administrative and implementation structures. That is why he does not want Cabinet to be constituted, he does not want ministries to have permanent secretaries and principal directors, he wants Foreign Affairs to recall all ambassadors, he does not want the police to arrest suspected criminals and for the courts to try them, he does not want the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to fight the sanctions that he called for.In short, he wants a total collapse, ideally exacerbated by cholera, so that foreign troops can stroll into Zimbabwe and plant him firmly in State House..That is why Eddie Cross can talk about “crashing and burning”.And the truth of the matter is that Tsvangirai is angling for chaos in Zimbabwe ..The fact that Tsvangi wants things his way, without conceding any ground, points to an agenda at variance with what everybody else is working for, an inclusive Government.That sewer rat-tsvangi should be reminded that he lost the election and is in no position to dictate to a man with a mandate to form a Government, as he deems fit.To this end, we feel the only role Monday’s Extraordinary Summit can play is in telling Tsvangirai and his handlers that enough is enough, lest the region unwittingly sets a dangerous precedent to all stooges, and nurture a monster that will pose a serious risk to regional peace and security..Chinongoti chiface chine mapotholes…
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Fungai who do you think will spend time reading 20 pages crappe of yours. I dont even want to waste my time reading your comment and i know most MDC people wont even read what you just wrote above keep it to your self or post it in your Zanu Pf webside. Idiot
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If MDC were making being unreasonable demands, SADC would have not hesitated to ask Mugabe to go it alone but they realize the Zanu proposal is less than equitable sharing. What they are doing now is attempting to manage and sanitize Mugabe’s embarassing stand. Thanks to Mbeki bcz they cannot be seen to go against the facilitator’s recommendation. SADC just needs more brave souls to clearly tell Mbeki and Mugabe that their proposal is in fact denying the party that should rightfully be in govt.
Mugabe’s denial to have the summit in Botswana is because 1). He wants to save face after making outrageously false banditry accusations against that country 2). Ian Khama cannot boycott a summit in his own country.
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Ava varume ngavanokurukura nyaya yavo kuBudiriro 3 pakaIsland kari pakati pedhamu resewage then it will last a few minutes in either failure of success not zvekutaura for 13 hrs vachidya havo ma spiced ribs mumahotera eSandton.
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Fungai unofunga nekumanyowa. hausi kuona zvaita Zanu here? Zanu yauraya nyika imi muchiikuridzira. nxaaaa mhani. n way i think yu are just singing fo yo supper at the expense of us. Dei mwari akutonga.
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leave zimbabwe alone you bunch of maggots, you are really giving our country a bad i mage. Lets treat whatever is happening to our beloved zim as a bedroom story, how many pple have you heard telling their bedroom stories in public? a few i suppose. the RECCESSION has just hit britain so hard but its not a big thing around the world coz they dont go around preaching the bleeding thing like us zimbabweans. Lets unite and rebuild our zimbabwe and we shall correct what went wrong and i am not saying its gonna be 2days this will take us some years. forget about tswangirai he is a loser we can do this on our own
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Is this GNU the only solution SADC can think of to solve Zim problems?
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Fungai haufungi sezita rawakapiwa,you just do the opposite of your name.Why writing a thesis of nonsense.Have you come across Barack Obama’s followig saying;”To those leaders around the globe,who seek to sow conflict,or blame their society’s ills on the West-know that your people will judge you on what you can build,not what you destroy.To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent,know that you are on the wrong side of history;but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”This really applies to Mugabe,yourself Kusafunga and Zanu Pf supporters.ZIM people denied you through the ballot in March elections.Then you go on assaulting people through beatings,torture and killings.Is that DEMOCRACY according to Zanu Pf?Muchatongwa na Mwari because of the innocent blood you shed.
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Fungai you are a waste of space. These talks are dead in the water and the only solution left is free and fair elections under international supervision
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fungai i have read your whole article and it makes sense. We think , love and respect our country not to allow traitors to destroy all that in order to entertain Rhodesians and foreign regime change agents.zimbabwe is ours and thats how it will always be.Our brothers and sisters shed their blood for that and we will maintain the peace and freedon they died for..people like morgan should be hanged in public for such tr****rous activities and banditry behaviour.The same goes for those involved in corruption and stealing farming implements our president has worked so hard to get with very little foreign currency.They are not real zanu pf people-they have been planted there by regime change agents to destabilise the country for they know that if zimbabwe manages to feed itself their sanctions will never ever work…So lets punish them for stealing our wealth.
They make our country look bad.They are no different from those who sell online charging exorbitant fees for their products.How can a tin of beans cost £1.75? If you go to any supermarket in the west , you will pay that amout for 8 tins of beans..how evil is that? I think the gvt should take a look at these online business and regulate them somehow. They bring distortion to our local markets.They are creating artificial shortages in zimbabwe by hoading food and then only make it available when people have paid online through the nose.This is corruption too and it should be reported to the gvt so they can investigate.Why exploit the suffering?
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Fungai,Fungai,Fungai……you loose your argument you try to discredit Tsvangirai,his lack of education,his ugly face and his puppetry.I read the same words from Kasukuwere’s speech from the Herald.Why are educated men like Mugabe,Mutambara etc being dragged to all these summits by a uneducated Tsvangirai.Were you counting on his lack of education so you could bulldoze the GNU on unequal terms,I guess you were wrong.Are trying to tell us when Tsvangirai left the meeting to consult ,he phoned George Bush,and Gordon Brown.Read what you wrote,and tell me you really believe your spin.The only reason why SADC are pushing for this GNU is to accomodate Mugabe in this government so that he won’t face prosecution for human rights violations.Tsvangirai is with the people while Mugabe is fighting for his survival and protecting his cronies.
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FUNGAI , is a STOOGE of Mugabe and a FAILED ZIMBABWE ! What an idiot!!
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FUNGAI – Amai vanomammira becche semombe . Hauna staira mfanha ! Pasi newe . Pannyo mhani .
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The Mugage Baboon piece of crap needs to be flushed down the toilet
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Mugabe = Monkey = Monkey see monkey do = banana republic
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Only I can save this land!
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How predictable-i told you there would be more sanctions before the SADC summit and morgan will hang around until all that is done. There will be no more GNU after that. Morgan as always has campaigned for sanctions and he clearly wants more. The funny thing is at the end of all that he still wont be president but people would have died in their thousands.He has contributed to the deaths of zimbabwe more than zanu pf and for that he should be tried at the hague.
Any one who campaigns for sanctions against his own people in order to get into power is a sell out and should never be allowed to be leader of this great nation.
I understand Obama has told zimbabweans to do away with the fist -but really a kenyan who now runs the biggest economy in the world should know better.Our fist is a way of life-our fist represents the sacrifices my brothers made to free our country from white oppression.People shed blood for that fist-the fist is an inspiration to the rest of Africa and a reminder that colonial days will never be allowed here in our motherland.
Dont get me wrong, i respect obama and i stayed all night wacthing tv when he beat hilary clinton ton represent the democrats-amazing. And now he is the president of America -great for the whole world.But he should never tell our independent zimbabwe that we should unclench our fists-ndaramba obama and that is that. Our fists represnt much more than a political symbol-like i said it is a way of life for many.Many fought battles with white regime and died for the fist which was their form of togetherness and inspiration..So mr obama please forget the fist because its here to stay ..good luck with your first 4 yrs in office.
No one interfered in your local elections and so please do not ever interfere in ours.We have seen off many presidents in the uk and america..tony blairs-clintons-bushes-john majors etc now browns but our life time president is still there leading with the fist. We can outlive your four years in office easily so come up with a fresh approach..dont be hoodwinked by brown on the zimbabwe issue..try and understand our history -like the history of the fist ( chimurenga ) and our struggle for independence before you pass judgement.start afresh dude..
As for morgan , he can dream on. He will never be president of zimbabwe .He will have to unclench our fists to manage that.why waste time ? we know he stands for no good and even Dabengwa said that in his latest interview.Dabengwa knows the mdc are incompetent . Morgan represents the filth of Rhodesia and the gays of Britain who want to give away our land back to mabhunhu..amakiwa.never ever will that happen again in zimbabwe…
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Why not have an election, winner take all, held in 30 days because we all know Mugabe will systematically murder Zimbabweans under the guise of campaigning if he gets the 2 years he seeks. An election is the only way to solve this crisis but I seriously doubt Mugabe wants that because he’ll know what’s coming despite the bullshyte he peddles that he has the people behind him. The only people who back him are all those sharks like Gono who are guilty of heaping pain and suffering on the hapless povo.
Famba MT famba, we true patriots are behind you, no to this GNU unless you are given half the power .
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OH NO ! Not another BARBA BLACK SHEEP STOOGE of Mugabe .
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I am fed up of this sadc nonsense-morgan already knows the outcome of the next meeting and his gay partner kharma is even attending in order to give him maximum support. Morgan has his speech ready for the after party at the British embassy.I am sorry my fellow comrades and citizens -your highness gordon brown in england and my newly elected brother obama- odingas cousin ,but the GNU is dead and buried. We have achieved our objective that you set us to do and so now its your turn to come up with a new solution under the UN because there is a humanitarian crisis in zimbabwe.It has taken a while but we have managed to kill the deal just like you wanted.We are now ready for more sanctions to kill off the regime of mugabe once and for all.I will do as you say once i am in gvt.This dead GNU should be the end of mugabe as we know him.
I shall return the farms to their rightful owners and appoint a foreign guy to run the army and another to run the reserve bank to make sure your loot will be protected .The farmers will be in good hands and they can do as they please .My black people only need to work for a minimum wage and be able to get milk and bread from the shops when they want.They do not ask for much since they are not as a****ous as the white man..God i love Rhodesia.Mugabe will be all your and you can send him to the hague if you wish.Rhodesia is coming back and i ma prepared to change the tarnished name of zimbabwe to Rhodesia within six months.Zimbabwe is as good as saying zanu pf.
To my fellow Rhodesians please come back home and run our country because we have failed as a black nation.I will give you your farms back and kick out all the blacks .I worked in mines under white people and i know how good my minimum wage was..i could buy bread and sugar and milk and still have enough left for transport..and to think i was just a tea boy.Let me warn all zanu pf supporters -unclench your fists and i will work with you…SADC is a bag of sh.i.t. I must thank bush -brown -odinga-khama tutu-for their unwavering support over the years..I am president at last and my people are free ..Thank you eddy cross and bennet for working on targetted sanctions and choosing the companies that need to be included on the sanctions.ZImbabweans are too uneducated to understand the nature of the illegal sanctions so they will only blame mugabe for all the mess.
Thank you all for the support you have given…the media for twisting stories and make zanu pf look bad and your inventiveness and cunning ways that got us this far.Without you guys our propaganda would never have worked ..what a job you did!!!!
Yours morgan tsvangirai -the new president of Rhodesia ( formerly known as zimbabwe)
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THERE is one thing about America which President Barak Obama can do nothing to change: the White House establishment. He will have to fit into the System.
Most despicable about the System for us is the agenda it has already set for Obama — that America will not recognise a political settlement in Zimbabwe in which Robert Mugabe remains President. This is not helped by locals who repeat the fib about a decisive victory in the March 29 elections, as if ignorant of the legal position. Thus whatever Obama’s personal inclinations, he will to a large extent depend on the information the System feeds him to judge the nature of the war in Zimbabwe. The same System which led America into Afghanistan and Iraq.
Yet at another plane, systems do help resolve complex problems. In Zimbabwe negotiations for a political settlement have stalled since September 15 because politicians refuse to see the b**** picture — national well-being. The Global Political Agreement signed on that day envisaged the two MDC formations and Zanu PF working together as or in a system in a brief transitional period. There would be room for adjustments in response to feedback while a holistic constitutional framework was being worked out. Success or failure would depend on Zimbabweans taking full responsibility of the process.
From the looks of things, there are people who pretend our problems can be resolved by reducing government from a system into tiny components to be allocated to rival political entities before it can function. So the nation has been held to ransom over frivolous arguments about which political party “owns” which ministries, ambassadors and provincial governors!
Government is the sum total of its components which should be neither Zanu PF nor MDC. There is no point in trying to fashion the finest model agreement on paper which will never have practical application in the human world. It is one thing to reject outright an agreement which is flawed in substance and call for fresh polls; it is dishonesty on the other hand for politicians to filibuster to frustrate SADC and kill a deal to which they pay public lip-service to escape the charge of spoiler.
I was impressed by Obama’s inauguration. No foreign dignitaries invited. Symbolically, this was a purely American thing. Even Obama’s address was crafted to appeal chiefly to American pride. He deftly used historical references to reinforce this, from the war and victory against Britain to the Civil War and the end of slavery.
One could also not miss the powerful symbolism in Obama’s choice of American hero in Abraham Lincoln, the man who risked the Civil War in the fight to end slavery in the South. America was able to resolve this historical contradiction and catapult a descendant of the slave race to the pinnacle of political power.
America did not just win political freedom from Britain. It also gained economic independence some 220 years ago. Zimbabwe is in the second phase of that war. There is no need to apologise to anyone for seeking economic emancipation by gaining total control of our God-given natural resources. This is a war which should make historical sense to Obama if he understands the resistance to the end of slavery, and the roots of and opposition to the civil rights movement in America.
In Zimbabwe, incidental deaths and infractions of the law are being overblown to overshadow and subvert the fundamental need for and long-term implications of a successful land reform – Zimbabwe’s economic independence. This, in an inverted microcosmic way in which the MDC can conceive of an inclusive government only in a fragmented form and not as a system, is the meaning of its rejection of “responsibility without authority” while Zanu PF tries to assert “total empowerment” from more powerful forces.
But the MDC’s “responsibility” rests on a shaky premise — political leverage based on promises of financial aid from the West to “jump-start” economic recovery without a firm local foundation to attain the same long-term goal. We want our economy and politics to be like America’s by fiat — without the pain and learning which America went through! Obama himself warns in his speech about the pitfalls of “shortcuts”, in business as in politics.
I also liked Obama’s positive affirmation of the spirit and values which won America its freedom, its fight for economic independence, scientific mastery and ideological dominance. I envy the way African Americans have overcome their inferiority complex which locally still manifests itself in extreme cultural alienation.
Just before Christmas, I attended a leadership course in Tanzania sponsored by the British Council. It included conflict resolution and the concept of ubuntu. Looking at the sparring between Zanu PF and the MDC, it is evident that you cannot conduct negotiations through public recriminations nor can you reach agreement by accentuating areas of discord. This reduces serious debate to showmanship.
Ubuntu is a fundamental concept of self-respect in Ndebele where we say “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”. I am because you are because we are. Mutual respect is a key ingredient in negotiations. It calls for mutual and good faith. Above all, you need to be honest with each other. Our politicians have let us down big time and the nation is paying a heavy price.
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obama needs to paint the white house black
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fungai you are a mad idiot who cannot realize that you are on the wrong side, mugabe will be exposed soon and we will have the last laugh. Whaterver this useless summit says we will never join a GNU as little boys like what zanu did to Zapu PF. fungai funga usat wanyora apa benzi remhunu.
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Alternatively heralded as an incompetent fool and a tragic hero, Gideon Gono has been at the center of Zimbabwe’s economic decline since he was appointed governor of the country’s Reserve Bank in 2003. A ZANU-PF insider and by many accounts president Robert Mugabe’s right-hand man, Gono generally keeps himself shielded from the foreign press, fortifying himself in luxury hotels or his 47-bedroom mansion in Harare. Gono is known in some circles as “Mr. Inflation” because he has overseen the printing of billions of dollars in worthless notes, most recently Zimbabwe’s trillion-dollar bill, to be launched later this year. But he is more than a central banker. He is thought to have had a hand in many of Zimbabwe’s controversial government ventures, from rewarding party loyalists with land to downplaying the magnitude of the cholera epidemic. In an exclusive interview with NEWSWEEK’s Alaina Varvaloucas and Jerry Guo in Johannesburg, Gono addresses his critics in the international community. He blames most of his country’s woes on Western economic sanctions, though Western officials maintain that the travel and business bans directed at top members of the Mugabe regime cannot undermine an the economy. Gono sees himself as a rags to riches success story with a Puritan work ethic: he says he doesn’t drink, only sleeps 4 hours a night, runs daily and has a blood pressure of 120/60. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: A lot of people have blamed you for Zimbabwe’s economic collapse.
GONO: The West wants you to think it’s because of mismanagement. But sanctions have had quite a devastating effect on the country. I cannot think of any genocide that is worse that that. By their very nature, sanctions are supposed to induce fear. It’s like terrorism. It’s callous.
But the United States maintains that the sanctions are targeted toward top members of Mugabe’s regime, like yourself.
They do have an impact [on me] but it is the degree of suffering that the world is missing. It’s not like I’m an international persona non grata; I often travel. Quite contrary to what the world has been made to believe, the sanctions are not really hitting the middle to high-income bracket. The impact of sanctions is to deny the country access to credit facilities, and then we are unable to import fuel. Then the poor suffer.
Now the global economy is also going through a credit crunch. What do you make of that?
I sit back and see the world today crying over the recent credit crunch, becoming hysterical about something which has not even lasted for a year, and I have been living with it for 10 years. My country has had to go for the past decade without credit.
Your critics blame your monetary policies for Zimbabwe’s economic problems. I’ve been condemned by traditional economists who said that printing money is responsible for inflation. Out of the necessity to exist, to ensure my people survive, I had to find myself printing money. I found myself doing extraordinary things that aren’t in the textbooks. Then the IMF asked the U.S. to please print money. I began to see the whole world now in a mode of practicing what they have been saying I should not. I decided that God had been on my side and had come to vindicate me.
Do you feel optimistic about Barack Obama’s incoming administration? I don’t want anyone to put unnecessary pressure on Obama and hold him to supernatural powers. He’s coming into a situation that is untenable already. By the very same standards, I don’t like anybody saying if President Mugabe was to go tomorrow, the fortunes of Zimbabweans will change for the better, as if he is personally liable for our situation.
A lot of people do hold Mugabe personally liable. Wouldn’t sanctions be lifted, at the very least, if Mugabe lets go of power?
[Laughs]. The sanctions will not be lifted because Mugabe leaves office. It is not about Mugabe.
How so?
Unless they are engaging in some colossal intellectual honesty, they will not admit the sanctions are political. There are other countries with serious human rights shortfalls, even war, but you find [Western] investors going there.
Would you do anything differently if you had the last five years to do over again?
There are certain things, policies with the benefit of hindsight, where we could’ve managed our affairs better. I don’t want to leave you with an impression that Gono or Mugabe are direct descendants of St. John or St. Paul. We are human.
What would you have changed?
There is a very high level of indiscipline and corruption in the Zimbabwean economy. I would enact tougher legislation that would ensure offenders would never do it again. I would also deal differently with the critics of our land-reform programs, and invest more in educating them. We were outwitted in the propaganda war. We didn’t go out there to explain to the world how our war of liberation came about in the first place.
Is it time to change course then?
Only a fool does not change course when it is necessary. Because economics is not an exact science, you want to be able to be relevant. The only constant is change and adaptation.
In November you shut down Zimbabwe’s stock exchange. Will you open it again?
The stockbrokers were creating a money supply that wasn’t there. I printed Z$1.5 quadrillion, but the exchange was operating with Z$100 sextillion. So I said, “Who is doing my job?” Unless there is more discipline and honor, the exchange will stay closed. I can’t be bothered. I don’t know when it’ll open. It’s a free market, a business which must be allowed to succeed or fail.
So will 2009 be a year of improvement or disaster?
It’s got to be a good year. What keeps me bright and looking forward to every day is that it can’t be any worse. And those who have studied the history of economies know that we are down, but that the only thing that can happen is we will move up. That is a certainty.
What about the cholera epidemic? Many have called the government’s handling of the health crisis a crime.
The cholera is under control. I’ve been personally involved in ensuring that we minimize and finally eliminate the disease. Every year there is a cholera outbreak in southern Africa; the epicenter of the disease just happened to be in Zimbabwe this year.
Do you view your term as a success?
It’s a mystery to many how I have survived. I am modestly credited with the survival strategy of my country. The issue is if you want to break Zimbabwe and want it to fall, just deal with one man. You deal with Gideon Gono.
That sounds a bit egotistical.
I owe a lot of my character and who I am today from a humble background. I was poor. I got my start making tea and keeping house. That is when I developed my own philosophy of life. Don’t look down on anybody. I still lay claim that I am the best tea maker in the world. Of cleaning floors and toilets I take pride. I’m a normal guy: I miss going to the supermarket. One would like more freedom.
Do you have constant security?
It’s elaborate. It’s an occupational hazard. If you ask Bernanke or Greenspan, it’s the same, but it just differs in intensity. If you raise the interest rate you’ll be friends of people who have access to money. If you lower the interest rate, you’ll be the darling of borrowers, but pensioners will curse you to hell. It’s never about popularity. At all times you are definitely hurting some people in the economy.
Many say you profit off the poverty of others.
That is simply not true.
What do you think of your many critics?
I have been in the trenches during every moment of survival for my country. Any central bank governor is of necessity. When things go bad, we governors are the fall guys. No other governor in the world has had to deal with the kind of inflation levels that I deal with, no other governor has to come up with the gymnastics and strategy for the survival of his country. But let me say that in my bank resides the cutting edge of the country. I’m privileged to be the leader of that team.
You’ve been called Mugabe’s right-hand man. How closely involved in politics are you ? It’s impossible to be directing the course of an entire economy and divorce yourself from politics. Politics are important because the turnaround of the economy hinges on political stability, but I can’t tell when that will happen.
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the zim leadership is full of bull**** i tel you do they really think that they are doing the pple a great favour. they are actually killing us as the pple who are suppose dto enjoy the fruits of zimbabwe. mugabe probably never killed any white man during the war, he probably doesn’t know how to hold the gun and now he is the one inflicting the pain to all the zimboz who are left in this pooor state
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