President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace will splash out close to R3-million on a 10th wedding anniversary party at their rural home in Kutama, about 60km west of Harare.
Several Southern African regional leaders are expected to attend, including best man at the wedding, former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano. Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, his Tanzanian counterpart Benjamin Mkapa and former South African president Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel have also cracked invites. ”It’s not expected that President Thabo Mbeki will come, but an ANC delegation will,” a government source told the Mail & Guardian.
”A lot of money will be needed for the flights, hotel accommodation, food and hosting the event at Kutama. But the costs could be cut down by many companies donating in cash and kind, with farmers supplying beef and vegetables as usual and national breweries providing beer.
”It will be classy, royal-like,” the source said, ”Mugabe will be driven from a church service in an open Rolls Royce with horses in front. That’s how they want it.”
The party will be preceded by a family trip to the Middle East.
Grace is 40 years younger than her 81-year-old husband, with whom she has three children.
Plans for the lavish celebration in August were revealed to the M&G this week as evidence emerged that Zimbabwe was sliding further into an economic recession. Emotions are running high in Harare, with commuters having to trudge 10km to and from work in chilly conditions as a fuel crisis grips the country.
In a move seen as provocative, riot police this week demolished business kiosks and market-place stalls of informal traders in Harare and surrounding townships. By June 20, the police said, ”all unauthorised buildings and market places would have been destroyed”.
Residents watched in anguish as police swooped on and arrested more than 9 500 people as part of Operation Murambatsvina, which began last week. The police said the vendors were operating at undesignated points, violating the city’s by-laws.
In Glen Norah township, police on Wednesday razed tuck-shops to the ground and burned carpenters’ stalls alongside roads leading into the opposition stronghold.
Glen Norah residents, who have declared the constituency a no-go area for the police, reacted by barricading roads leading into the township.
”This is shocking, it has never happened before. The government is trying to get an excuse for declaring a state of emergency because they realise the economy is receding into a disaster,” said Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga, the Movement for Democratic Change MP for the area.
”They want people to riot, and they will get that. The whole thing is political. Mugabe is simply saying you voted for the opposition and this is what you’ll get.”
Constitutional reform pressure group chairperson Dr Lovemore Madhuku slammed the crackdown as ”a recipe for an uprising” but felt that ”Zimbabweans in general have no disposition towards a spontaneous revolt”. He cautioned however that: ”These are purely bread and butter issues and you have the police demolishing tuck shops and market stalls, it’s being insensitive.”
Many companies have shut down because of the economic slump and unemployment levels have risen to about 80%.
A fuel crisis that has caused the public transportation system to grind to a halt means people are starting work four hours late and getting home at about midnight.
The urban folk are becoming increasingly restless. ”We are having a situation in which residents are now attacking the police,” said Misihairambwi-Mushonga. ”The situation is degenerating into total chaos and people are angry.”
But the blissfully happy Mugabe couple is going ahead with the party plans. Mugabe, though not showing any signs of frailty and fatigue, has, on the advice of his doctors, in the past three weeks, been cutting down on public engagements.
A family relative, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the M&G that: ”Gushungo’s [Mugabe clan name] bones are like teak. They have a reputation for living long. His [Mugabe] mother Bona lived until she was 100 years old.”
Policy bungles lead to famine
A new study points to critical policy errors as the main reasons for food and nutrition insecurity in Zimbabwe, in particular the government’s fast-track land redistribution programme.
A countrywide survey of communities indicated that 82% of districts reported widespread crop failure after poor rains in the 2004/05 growing season.
The study, funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, acknowledged the adverse impact of poor weather on the harvest.
Since commercial farms were taken over, the area planted fell — at one point to less than half the area previously tilled — as did the use of hybrid seed and fertiliser. State control of maize marketing through the Grain Marketing Board worsened the situation.
To illustrate the extent to which policy failures affected production, the study used three Southern African countries with similar weather patterns and compared actual harvest figures for Zambia and South Africa between 2000 and 2004.
Had Zimbabwe performed as modelled, the regional harvest deficit in 2002 would have been fully one-third less.
But land expert Professor Sam Moyo said it was disingenuous to compare agricultural production among the three countries without considering the particular challenges facing Zimbabwe’s economy.
”Yes, food production has been disrupted, [but it is] mainly because of the lack of access to inputs and the slow response to supporting newly resettled farmers.” — Irin News Service