"No way baby ... this ain't over baby!"

[Lazie]

no .. not Portia this time ... the Tyrant Mugabe.

Zimbabwe bans political rallies


Zimbabwean police have banned political rallies "with immediate effect", amid growing tension over the country's disputed presidential election.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told state radio there were insufficient officers to deploy at such rallies.
The decision came as state radio reported that President Robert Mugabe would not now attend a regional summit on the crisis in Zambia at the weekend.
The opposition says he is using violent and underhand means to retain power.
The results of Zimbabwe's presidential election, held 13 days ago, are yet to be released. Mr Tsvangirai's party has said he won more than 50% of the vote.
State media have reported that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) will not release the results of the poll before the High Court had decided whether it can be compelled to do so. A judgement is expected on Monday.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has called for a general strike from Tuesday to push for the results to be published.
"We call upon transporters, workers, vendors and everyone to stay at home. The power is in our hands. Zimbabweans have been taken for granted for too long. We demand that the presidential election results be announced now," the party said.
Increasing militarisation
The heads of state of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) were invited to talks about the post-election deadlock in Zimbabwe on Saturday by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa.









But in an apparent snub to the regional grouping, the Zimbabwean government said President Mugabe would instead be represented by three ministers, according to state radio.
Earlier, Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said the summit "was called without consultation with the Zimbabwean government".
The BBC's Peter Biles in Johannesburg says the MDC will see the ban on rallies as further evidence to back up its claims that there has been an increasing militarisation of Zimbabwean society since the elections.
On Thursday, the MDC accused the government of staging a constitutional coup d'etat.
'Will of the people'
In an interview with the BBC on Friday, MDC leader Tsvangirai said his party would not take part in any second round run-off of the presidential election because of the changing "electoral environment".
The MDC originally reported after the election that its leader had won 50.3% of the vote, enough to avoid a second round, but on Thursday it said broader results suggested he had done even better.

What we hope for SADC to achieve is to arrive at a conclusion which will resolve this crisis once and for all - precisely to navigate the problems around the disputed result and to allow Mugabe to gracefully accept defeat


Morgan Tsvangirai
Movement for Democratic Change


Mr Tsvangirai said the circumstances in which a run-off election would be held had changed.
"First and foremost, Mugabe has deployed the military in the provinces, in the districts. People are being beaten up," he told the BBC's World At One programme. "In other words, he is creating a new electoral environment that is neither free nor fair."
"Secondly, he has been interfering in the work of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission by arresting Zimbabwe Electoral Commission officials, by interfering with its work, and also by manipulating the result," he added.
"So, if a new election has to be conducted, surely you wouldn't expect the MDC to participate in a new electoral environment."
Mr Tsvangirai said he instead hoped SADC leaders would "arrive at a conclusion which will resolve this crisis once and for all - precisely to navigate the problems around the disputed result and to allow Mugabe to gracefully accept defeat".
"I expect them to emphasise the fact that SADC has got values, one of which is, of course, that we should respect the will of the people," he added. "And I am sure that they would continuously draw him to that fact, that the people of Zimbabwe have voted and that their will must be respected."

[Islandman]

Can't say I am surprised. People like Mugabe make you wonder about what power can do to you if you have it for too long.

This was a good article from the Observer on the Zimbabwe situation.

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Time runs out for Mugabe

Patrick Wilmot
Thursday, April 10, 2008



Robert Mugabe began his political life as a freedom fighter, a guerrilla leader whose successful struggle against the racists of the so-called Rhodesia gave him the right to be called the father of his nation. To celebrate this momentous event, Bob Marley sang at the independence of Zimbabwe where he is still remembered after 28 years. The qualities which people most admired in Mugabe were his intelligence, humility, and asceticism.

In the brutal prisons of Ian Smith, Mugabe gained several degrees by correspondence courses, a feat beyond the ability of most of his countrymen and women outside. He dressed modestly, ate the food of the people, and lived in a house that did not alienate the people with its gratuitous luxury. He applied his intelligence to organising his society so the people who were deprived by the racist inheritors of British colonialism could receive education, health care, and economic opportunities.

Twenty-eight years after Independence Mugabe is not even a shadow of the man he was in 1980. People all over Africa and the diaspora, who once worshipped his talents and modesty, now regard him with contempt. He now lives in a 25-bedroom mansion on 44 acres in an expensive suburb, which allegedly cost £8 million. People who have been inside speak of marble, granite, ornate chandeliers, expensive furniture. His tailored suits now make him look like a playboy.

Mugabe's intelligence became a liability when he started to believe that he was the brightest man in existence, without whom his country could not function. Instead of using it to make the lives of his people better, he sent out tanks and cannon to silence them. When his hungry people tried to replace him, he rigged elections as shamelessly as his counterparts in Nigeria and Kenya. With his complete disregard for human life he was even more ruthless than Babangida, Abacha, Obasanjo and Kibaki.

One of the virtues of intelligence is the ability to analyse action in order to assess its effectiveness in achieving goals. When intelligence degenerates into seeking enemies and rewarding sycophants it becomes a weapon against oneself.
The people of Zimbabwe fought a war to liberate the land which had been conquered by Europeans. But when ZANU raised the issue of reform in the Lancaster House talks, the Americans and British said that land should not be taken from whites and given to blacks, but be bought at market prices if the whites were willing. Since the guerrillas had no money, Kissinger and Thatcher promised to provide funds.

The Anglo-Americans who had been the strongest opponents of Mugabe, however, broke their promise because they saw nothing wrong with Europeans owning most of the fertile land. They had supported Vorster and Smith, thought Apartheid brilliant, and thought Mandela and all the other "communists" should hang. Even worse, Mugabe did nothing to force the Anglo-Americans to fulfil their pledges.

For almost two decades the people were deprived of the land which they had fought to liberate. Mugabe did not seize European-owned land until he was politically cornered by opponents who tried to articulate the needs of the people. And when he did, it was a disaster. Instead of resettling farmers on the millions of hectares of unused land, he seized working farms which were the backbone of the agricultural economy. And instead of giving the land to people who could work it, he gave it to family and cronies in politics, business, the military and security forces who abandoned it.

Economic mismanagement meant that funds from the rich minerals of the country were not invested in education, health, roads, industry or public housing. People had to queue for bread in a land which once fed its neighbours. Put perhaps nothing exemplified Mugabe's failure more starkly than the 100,000 per cent inflation which forced poor Zimbabweans to queue to buy food with millions of dollars which weighed more.

Mugabe's condemnation of the Anglo-Americans as the source of his problems is so crude that it lacks credibility. It is true that Britain created the murderous colonial system which made Europeans gods and Africans sub-humans on their own continent. But this did not prevent South Africans or even Kenyans from letting some of its people enjoy a better life. South African leaders made errors but the racists cannot snicker, as Ian Smith did, that Mandela and Mbeki had destroyed their country.

If Mugabe were as intelligent as he thinks he is, he should accept the will of the people and step down. But when an intelligent man refuses to use his brains, he's the biggest fool of all.

Patrick Wilmot is based in London. He's a writer and commentator on African affairs for the BBC, Sky News, Al-Jazeera and CNN. He's a visiting professor at Ahmadu Bello and Jos Universities in Nigeria.

[MdmeX]

& what is Mugabe's problem. The man is 82 or there about, what more POWA does he want!!

[Gamma]

you might not know what more power he wants but importantly for him there appears to be more to be had