HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) — Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was in stable condition and recovering from head injuries Friday night after a car wreck that killed his wife, Susan, medical sources told CNN.

The crash, on a busy two-lane highway between Tsvangirai’s hometown of Buhera and the capital city of Harare, comes just weeks after the start of a power-sharing agreement between Tsvangirai and his political rival, President Robert Mugabe.

Analysts say the crash is bound to raise suspicion of foul play, with one former U.S. diplomat calling for an outside investigation, saying it is not the first time that a political foe of Mugabe has been killed or injured in a car crash.

Members of Tsvangirai’s political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, said Friday that it was too early to tell whether the crash is anything other than an accident.

Tsvangirai’s aide and driver also were injured in the head-on collision with a large truck, according to his spokesman, James Maridadi.

Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa said he spoke to Tsvangirai at the hospital, and the party leader was in “relatively stable” condition. [ MORE ]

    Zimbabwean traffic police stand guard over the wreckage of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s
    vehicle, south of the capital Harare, Friday, March 7 2009.

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We have witnessed this mode of political assassination before — in Africa

Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi, both of Kenya, Idi Amin of Uganda and many other African dictators killed their detractors by staging accidents.

Victims of Kenyatta’s assassinations include — Pio Gama da Pinto, Ronald Ngala (a land rights crusader), C. M. G. Argwings Kodhek (MP and human rights lawyer), and the populist MP from Nyandarua Josiah Mwangi (JM) Kariuki, fierce critic of Kenyatta’s land grabbing disease.

Daniel Arap Moi, Kenyatta’s vice president for many years, picked up the killing after Jomo died, when he became president of Kenya — murdering and then burning the body of Dr. Robert Ouko, the then Foreign Minister in his government.

Idi Amin of Uganda, who was perhaps the most brutal military dictator to wield power in post-independence Africa, “staged” numerous accidental deaths too — Anglican Archbishop, Janani Luwum, was killed in a simulated car crash in Kampala — a fate suffered by many other political opponents.

I have a very strong feeling that Mugabe wants Morgan Tsvangirai DEAD!

Therefore his visit to Tsvangirai’s bedside immediately after the “ACCIDENT,” smells every bit as devious as Jomo Kenyatta attending Thomas Joseph Mboya’s memorial in Nairobi, in 1969 — after hiring the assassin who gunned him down.

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Tom Mboya Funeral

Tom Mboya & Dr. Martin L King at a civil rights rally in DC

African Nationalist Thomas Joseph Mboya coordinated an “airlift” in 1959 of 81 Kenyan students to the USA to attend college. With the help of Dr. King, the African American Students Foundation and its sponsors, Harry Belafonte, Jackie Robinson, and Sidney Poitier, Mboya raised sufficient funds to cover the students’ travel expenses. One of the students was a certain Barack Husein Obama snr., the late father of US President Barack Obama. This rally was in Washington DC, 1959

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Writes: CHARLES ONYANGO-OBBO

Kenya, and now Zimbabwe. Is power-sharing the panacea?

BOYS WILL ALWAYS BE BOYS. A few weeks ago, some male-dominated African lists on the Internet circulated the photos of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s daughter Bona, and that of his opposition rival Morgan Tsvangirai’s, Rumbi (Zimbabweans have such wonderful names!)

Members were asked which one of them they thought was the more beautiful. Also, which one of the two they would like to marry.

I thought, knowing that most of the chaps that I knew on the lists were anti-Mugabe that Bona would lose.

However, when it comes to matters of women, most men will gladly leave politics at the door, so Bona got many admirers. In the end, it was very close.

   [Bona Mugabe (left) and Rumbi Tsvangirai][Click Pics To Enlarge]
Bona, as the daughter of a president, clearly was receiving the care of a well-paid beautician. She had a glossier look than Rumbi. Half the men, on the other hand, said Rumbi didn’t have Bona’s grim look (much like her father), and exuded more character.

Only one bloke, Thomas (not his real name) rose beyond the limited choices being offered, and said he would marry both! His position was slammed as unprincipled and weak, because he feared the responsibility of choice.

This seemingly frivolous Internet fun game, however, proves how unpredictable African politics can be, and demonstrated that what is ideal and “right” is not always the best and most practical.

Mugabe had sworn that he would never share power with Tsvangirai, after he lost the first round of elections and unleashed so much terror on Tsvangirai ahead of the second round, that the opposition had little choice but to pull out. This left Mugabe to run against himself, and claim a sham victory.

Zimbabwe just plunged further into crisis. Inflation rose to over 20 million per cent, and unemployment skyrocketed to 80 per cent.

As The Observer (London) reported in a long insightful piece, the central bank knocked 10 zeros off the Zimbabwe dollar at the beginning of August because shops and banks could not cope with calculations in the trillions.

When it was launched on August 1, the new dollar was Z$4 to the Pound, but on the black market, it immediately slumped to Z$25. It continued crashing dramatically, and within a month, the black market rate was Z$13,000.

With worthless bank notes, and too broke to print more, three weeks ago the Government announced that it would legalise the use of US dollars and South African Rand as everyday currency.

It would seem that shortly after, Mugabe finally realised that he had run out of wiggle room, and put in a call to South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, who had been mediating the power-sharing talks that seemed doomed to fail.

THE RESULT IS THAT ALL THE MEN who said they would marry Bona Mugabe, would now have a father-in-law with less power than he wielded two months ago.

Those who went for Rumbi Tsvangirai, expecting their father-in-law would be an opposition leader, who came close to becoming Zimbabwe’s president, but not close enough, would have one who is a prime minister and controlling about 51 per cent of the Government.

Thomas would be the greatest winner, with one father-in-law being president, and the other prime minister. It couldn’t be better. However, his fortunes have been scorned.

Daily Nation’s sister publication The East African had South African judge Johann Kriegler, who is heading the commission of inquiry into what went wrong in the December 2007 election, saying he thought these Mwai Kibaki-Raila Odinga, and now Mugabe-Tsvangirai power-sharing deals were undermining Africa’s democracy.

He argued that they offered presidents, who are not ready to retire when their time has come, or who have lost elections, to cling on to power. Within a day, there were many such reservations being aired about the Zimbabwe deal.

Kriegler’s view is particularly interesting, because he should be aware of what is touted as the most successful power-sharing deal in Africa — the transitional government between the African Nation Congress’ leader Nelson Mandela, and F. W. de Klerk, who was president and leader of the racist National Party that had jailed him for 27 years.

This is not to say there are no problems with governments where power is shared.

Because there can never be two winners in an election contest, they reward losers and turn the logic of elections — the idea that the person or party that is preferred by most voters should form government — on its head.

And while power-sharing might give unpopular incumbents a way back into power through a back door, they can also equally hand disorganised opposition groups a slice of power that they were denied at polls.

On balance, if Kenya’s example is anything to go by, the competition between coalition partners for the affection of the public seems to be the greatest incentive for performance there is.

And because they are wooing voters, each of the sides is eager to be seen as more enlightened than the other, and therefore tends to avoid being repressive. The result is that Kenya is probably freer today, than the previous time when it had been freest — the first years of Kibaki 2003-2007.

About The Author: Charles Onyango-Obbo is Uganda’s leading political commentator. He is Nation Media Group’s managing editor for convergence and new products. Charles writes for The Monitor, Uganda’s only independent daily and most influential newspaper and The East African, a NationMedia publication. Be sure to check out his Article Archive featuring hundreds of Charles’s greatest publications…..Click Here To Read More Articles By Onyango-Obbo

HARARE (Reuters) – President Robert Mugabe returns to Zimbabwe on Wednesday under pressure from fellow African leaders to form a national unity government in the wake of his re-election in a violent poll ruled unfair by monitors.

   ENLARGE IMAGE

An African Union summit in Egypt, attended by Mugabe, approved a resolution calling for him to negotiate with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew from the run-off election because of violence against his supporters.

The resolution fell short of the tougher statement wanted by some African countries, but it was an unprecedented rebuff to Mugabe, previously feted as a liberation hero. …[ MORE >> ]

Mugabe Loses His Cool In Cairo

….meanwhile, US President George W. Bush, on June 26, 2008 at the White House in Washington, DC, said he had directed that sanctions be drawn up against the “illegitimate” government of Zimbabwe after a run-off vote boycotted by the opposition.

What?

George Bush has No Business sanctioning Mugabe….for he is as illegitimate, and a worse criminal than the man he condemning.

Both have stolen elections and have “killed” their own people. For Bush — add another 600, 000 innocent Iraqi’s at the behest of 500LB bombs and sadistic U.S soldiers.

Bush’s Operation Iraqi Freedom was a mission of Murder, Rape and Torture, featuring “sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses,” by the U.S Military personnel.

So, G.W. Bush please shut up!

You too belong in JAIL!

REFERENCE: The Criminal “High Cabal” — The American “High Cabal” adopted criminality as their primary strategy when they seized control of the United States in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Gilbert Wandera — Reports From Kenya

One US dollar exchanges at 6.2 billion Zimbabwean dollars — What a ‘Mugabean’ mess!

PICTURE: A child with wads of notes in Harare — 200,000 Zimbabwean dollars exchange at 1US cent.

Zimbabwe continues making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The Southern African country’s future is in oblivion, following political turmoil tied to the leadership of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

Mugabe’s iron fist and anti-donor policies have left Zimbabwe’s economy in tatters, with poverty, unemployment and political strife increasing by the day.

Last Sunday gave Harambee Stars players and local journalists an opportunity to experience challenges facing Zimbabweans.

If it had been Nairobi, all those who visited Harare for the national soccer team’s away match with Zimbabwe would be billionaires.

Exchanging US dollars at the airport to Zimbabwean dollars turned the entourage into multi-billionaires.

One US dollar exchanges at 6.2 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

The once vibrant Zimbabwean economy has been hit by hyperinflation. The Kenyan “billionaires” felt cheated while in Harare. They realised prices of basic goods were record high.

Rising inflation

A calling card, for instance, retails at 5.5 billion Zimbabwean dollars. The same would go for Sh50 in Kenya.

Ordinary Zimbabweans find life difficult as the country’s inflation rate tops 165,000 per cent, the world’s highest.

Zimbabweans say prices of goods in supermarkets are sometimes adjusted between the time one picks the items and pays at the till.

Beth and Daniel, a couple who works for an international faith-based organisation in Harare, are a case study of what Zimbabweans and expatriates endure.

For this couple, life is a daily battle. They can hardly afford the basic items used on a daily basis.

According to Daniel, the last time they had a loaf of bread was a month ago, because the cost is prohibitive.

“We cannot afford bread any more since the cost keeps rising. And in any case you can’t even find it,” he said in an interview.

A loaf of bread, which costs Sh35 in Kenya, costs 3 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

Because it is hardly available, scenes of consumers queuing in the streets of Harare to buy bread are commonplace.

Daniel says the emergence of black markets has led to the scarcity of bread and other basic food items.

“When bread comes, traders cashing in on the crisis buy all of it and sell it right outside the bakeries at exorbitant prices,” says Daniel.

Indeed many manufactures prefer to sell on the black market because this helps them get more money,” he said.

Daniel explains how he has to queue for long to withdraw money from his bank account.

According to Daniel, the Mugabe Government has restricted the amount of money one can withdraw to just 25 billion Zimbabwean dollars, which he says is too little.

“Today, I had to queue for three hours to withdraw 25 billion dollars. It is not enough to buy everything I need and so I will come back tomorrow for more,” he said.

Cash crunch

Though most banks have Automated Teller Machines, most have stalled because they are not equipped to serve the many customers who turn up to withdraw cash.

Beth says school fees and medical costs are spiralling out of control.

She says they find it difficult to keep their son David in school in Harare where he attends one of the most prestigious Government schools.

“We are no longer charged school fees per term because it goes up every week. Last month we were asked to pay another 300 billion Zimbabwean dollars as top up to what we had already paid as school fees,” she said.

Beth says two months ago when she was required to undergo an eye treatment, a hospital declined to treat her because her medical insurance could not afford to pay the bill.

“We have medical insurance for 600 million dollars, but I was required to pay 900 billion dollars for the treatment. It did not make sense and we are considering letting go of the medical policy because it does not help,” she says.

Beth says transportation cost in Harare is rising at least twice a day.

“Last Sunday, I paid three billion dollars in the morning to go to town, but in the evening it had shot up to 3.5 billion,” she adds.

Daniel and Beth moved from their rented house and built a wooden structure where they live to save them the burden of exorbitant rent.

Landlords demand that tenants pay rent in US dollars or the South African Rand. Most Zimbabweans, on the other hand can hardly access foreign currency. Figures boggle the mind everywhere.

Fuel shortage

Five litres of petrol would cost 85 billion Zimbabwe dollars. Less than a week ago, the same quantity was retailing at 65 billion dollars.

The energy sector is in crisis. Fuel is only available in the black market. Petrol stations in Harare do not have fuel stocks.

Most supermarket shelves were empty, with basic goods like sugar, milk and bread missing, making many Zimbabweans survive on grain handouts.

Thousands of citizens, including the professionals, have migrated to South Africa and other countries. Social amenities are crumbling down due to limited State financing.

The poor economy and the food shortage have been blamed on the land reform programmes that Mugabe had introduced. White farmers were kicked out of the country.

Mugabe accuses Britain and its allies of sabotaging his country’s economy in revenge for the land redistribution programme.

It remains unknown what the future portends for the people of Zimbabwe as they face one of the most difficult times in the country’s political history.

More than 80 people have already died in political violence between Mugabe’s Zanu-PF supporters and the opposition.

REFERENCES:

1. Calm on Criminal ‘Ethiopia’ — Hullabaloo for Zimbabwe: Jendayi Frazer’s Anti-African Lunacy
2. The ‘killing and maiming‘ going on in Zimbawe — WARNING: Pictures are very Graphic.
3. Africa Insight – This Man, Mugabe
4. Mugabe’s war with UK is decades-old
5. The world must treat Mugabe and Zenawi on equal terms

Mugabe Quote:

On Homosexuality: “…Degrades human dignity. It’s unnatural and there is no question ever of allowing these people to behave worse than dogs and pigs. If dogs and pigs do not do it, why must human beings? We have our own culture, and we must re-dedicate ourselves to our traditional values that make us human beings… What we are being persuaded to accept is sub-animal behaviour and we will never allow it here. If you see people parading themselves as lesbians and gays, arrest them and hand them over to the police!”.

….MORE >>

In 1991, A prominent African leader stood up against injustice in a neighbouring land. “The cry for freedom, as well as the cry for justice, stops at no border,” he declared.

That leader was Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. He was speaking in Harare, opening the Commonwealth meeting that would decide to begin lifting the people-to-people sanctions that had been imposed against South Africa.

“As you stand on Zimbabwean soil,” President Mugabe said, “only a stone’s throw away from South Africa, the world expects us to spare no effort in helping to achieve an outcome there which will bring comfort to the oppressed people of South Africa.”

It is now well past time that South Africa returned the favour. Quiet diplomacy is dead. One of Africa’s brightest hopes has turned into the continent’s most dismal failures. In an era in which our continent is meant to be embarking on an African Renaissance, Zimbabwe is both an obstacle and an embarrassment.

President Thabo Mbeki’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” in Zimbabwe has finally been denounced as a disaster by world leaders. The criticism has extended beyond muted signs of displeasure to condemnation.

Senior ANC leaders have urged Mr Mbeki to alter his stance, while MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has expressed a desire for South Africa to be replaced as mediator in the crisis.

It is worth examining what effects this policy, which has led Mr Mbeki to claim there is no electoral crisis in Zimbabwe, has had on the country.

Zimbabwe, once one of the healthiest economies in Africa, has been plunged into a crisis that worsens every day. Inflation stands at over 100,000 per cent, and is predicted to hit the 1.5 million per cent mark by the end of the year.

Its healthcare system has failed, with many children orphaned by an Aids crisis, which Mr Mbeki refuses to take seriously. Political violence, intimidation and corruption remain endemic. None of this has been ameliorated by South Africa’s diplomatic efforts.

This policy has resulted in strengthening Dr. Mugabe’s regime and other countries’ desire to effectively address the plight of the Zimbabwean people.

By indulging Mugabe’s insistence that the criticisms levelled against him are part of a neo-colonial plot, President Mbeki has granted the man a legitimacy that he would not otherwise have.

It is never quite clear to anyone precisely what quiet diplomacy is meant to accomplish. Is it supposed to bring about a fresh round of elections — free and fair this time round? Is it meant to bring about a transfer of power to the MDC or within a “reformed” Zanu-PF? Is it meant to bring about some kind of government of national unity?

South Africa’s treatment OF Zimbabwe’s opposition has been shameful. President Mbeki’s public embraces of Mugabe and his Zanu-PF cronies contrasts sharply with his studied avoidance of Mr Tsvangirai.

The ANC’s unswerving loyalty to its fellow liberation government has undermined any claim it might have wished to make as to the even-handedness of its approach. This, of course, reflects the ANC’s attitude towards political opposition more generally.

The tragedy has been that it is in the interest of all to stand firm in condemnation of the actions of the Zimbabwean government. It lacks the economic and military clout to seriously threaten its international critics.

There is everything to gain in pragmatic terms by supporting reform in a country that has demonstrated such economic potential, and a moral mandate to criticise Mugabe’s corrupt despotism.

A far better response would have been the more robust one. Standing up to the Zimbabwe government would have limited their ability to manoeuvre diplomatically and politically, making it harder for them to acquiesce in the current crisis.

Had South Africa been firmer from the outset in dealing with the regime and challenging its actions, it might have been able to limit the machinations of Zanu-PF and the generals now lining up to try and succeed Mugabe.

A tough stance that refused to indulge Mugabe’s delusions might not wake him up to reality, but his isolation would afford him less political protection than he currently has.

This is not to advocate a US-style hawkish diplomacy against Zimbabwe. That would be entirely inappropriate for the situation and the country, and would have a very dubious prospect of success.

Rather, to stand up to Zimbabwe would involve stronger words supported by resolute action, a refusal to indulge Mugabe’s fantasies, and joining the rest of the world in the sanctions they have placed on the regime.

The world currently awaits the results of this most contentious of Zimbabwean elections. A change of stance from President Mbeki might go miles in delivering a resolution. Let’s hope it’s not too late.

The South African government should tell Mugabe that the human rights abuses, police brutality, arbitrary arrests and beatings of opposition politicians have to stop. These actions should remind South Africans of the worst days of apartheid.

About The Author: Donald Mogeni —