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The Guardian
By Blessing-Miles Tendi
Thursday August 28 2008

Mugabe has always switched his views on race to make political capital, as his enthusiastic welcome of Kirsty Coventry shows

“The only white man you can trust is a dead white man.”

“Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy.”

Those are Robert Mugabe’s words. They are forever etched in modern African history as indicative of the anti-white politics that took hold in Zimbabwe from 2000 onwards, when the Mugabe government proclaimed that Zimbabwe was for black Zimbabweans and Africa for black Africans. Race was politicised to an unprecedented level and aggressive threats to the white community were carried out, namely the violent seizure of white-owned commercial farms. White Zimbabweans were blamed for all of Zimbabwe’s problems. They were labelled racists and accused of working hand in hand with white Britain in funding and directing opposition politics in Zimbabwe.

Only a government with selective amnesia would ever embrace anything “white” after years of inexorable anti-white politics. The Mugabe government is one such government. Kirsty Coventry, a white Zimbabwean swimmer, won four medals – one gold and three silver – at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She was the only Zimbabwean athlete to win a medal at the games. Coventry was greeted with a heroine’s homecoming in Zimbabwe yesterday. Mugabe congratulated her “most heartily on that heroic performance”, on the eve of her return. Gone was Mugabe’s anti-white speechifying. A victory parade through the streets of Zimbabwe’s capital city Harare was staged in her honour and she attended a banquet hosted by Mugabe at his official state house residence.

New York Times
By Celia W. Dugger
Published: August 26, 2008

JOHANNESBURG: Jubilant opposition legislators in Zimbabwe’s Parliament broke into song and dance on Monday after their candidate won the powerful position of speaker of Parliament, defeating a nominee backed by President Robert Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF.

The victory of the opposition candidate, Lovemore Moyo, by a vote of 110 to 98, underscored the opposition’s newfound control of Parliament. Despite widespread attacks on its members, the opposition holds a majority in Parliament for the first time since Zimbabwe achieved independence from white minority rule in 1980 — and now seems ready to wield that power.

The opposition’s rejoicing follows a grim period for the country since elections in March. Human rights groups say more than 100 opposition supporters have been killed and thousands tortured and beaten by Mugabe’s state-sponsored enforcers. Opposition members of Parliament, who feared until the moment of voting on Monday that Mugabe would somehow deprive them of their March victory, sang, “ZANU is rotten!”

“Parliament will cease to be a rubber-stamping house,” Moyo said triumphantly in his acceptance speech. “It’ll ensure that progressive laws are passed.”

Mugabe has held power for 28 years, but with his loss of Parliament, he and his party will probably find it difficult to govern the economically ruined nation unless they close a power-sharing deal with the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change.
Today in Africa & Middle East

Talks to reach such a deal have been deadlocked over how to divide executive authority between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai fared better than Mugabe in the last credible election, in March, then boycotted the June presidential runoff, protesting the violence against his supporters. Moyo’s election as speaker cements both Tsvangirai’s position as leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition and the opposition’s primacy in Parliament.

The Los Angeles Times
By Robyn Dixon
26 August 2008

The election of a candidate from the Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, deals a blow to President Robert Mugabe’s regime. The vote is seen as a key test of who will control parliament.

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Zimbabwe’s main opposition party won its first legislative showdown against President Robert Mugabe on Monday, taking the post of speaker of parliament.

The Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, is deadlocked in talks with Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party over who should control the government, and Mugabe reconvened parliament despite opposition complaints that such a move would “decapitate” the negotiations.
Frustrated by their country’s economic collapse, voters stripped Mugabe of his parliamentary majority in March 29 elections for the first time since independence in 1980. But Mugabe was declared the winner in a presidential runoff in June that observers found to be undemocratic.

International aid agencies say that by January, 5 million people will need emergency food aid to avoid starvation. But Mugabe has banned international humanitarian agencies.

Monday’s vote on the speaker was the first significant test of who will control parliament, analysts said, and the election of Lovemore Moyo was a blow to the regime.
Even though it lost its majority, ZANU-PF has been trying to tempt opposition members to defect by offering jobs and rewards, according to the opposition.

Police arrested two opposition members as they arrived at parliament and tried to seize a third, according to the MDC, which accused the ruling party of trying to rig the vote on the speaker’s job. One of those taken was freed in time for the vote, but the other, Eliah Zembere, was being held Monday.

The Telegraph
By Sebastien Berger, Southern Africa Correspondent and Peta Thornycroft in Harare
26 August 2008

Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe suffered a major blow to his attempts to hold on to power when an MP from Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change was elected as speaker of parliament.

In a stunning upset Lovemore Moyo, chairman of Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC faction, defeated Paul Themba Nyathi, of the smaller MDC grouping led by Arthur Mutambara, by 110 votes to 98.

Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party did not put up a candidate itself, instead ordering its newly sworn-in MPs to support the Mutambara faction’s man. Mr Mugabe will undoubtedly have been infuriated by the result.

The indications are that Mr Mugabe had been hoping to engineer a deal with Mr Mutambara’s faction to exclude Mr Tsvangirai from a government of national unity, and that enough of its MPs would support the government in parliament to enable it to function.

As of yesterday, those plans are in ruins. In Zimbabwean politics the speakership is a powerful role, with the ability to determine parliament’s agenda, and the octogenarian leader now faces the prospect of having to deal with a lower house fully controlled by his opponents if he decides to abandon the deadlocked negotiations being brokered by the South African president Thabo Mbeki and form a government of his own.

“Whatever game plan Mugabe had has been complicated and this greatly diminishes his capacity to form a cabinet and govern,” said Eldred Masunungure, professor of politics at the University of Zimbabwe. “Mugabe is seriously weakened and he and Zanu-PF will have to take the negotiations more seriously.”

SW Radio Africa
Broadcast 15 August 2008

Violet Gonda: We welcome David Coltart who is a newly elected senator for the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara and Brian Kagoro a political analyst, on the programme Hot Seat. Thank you for joining us.

Coltart & Kagoro: Thank you Violet.

Gonda: Let me start with David. The Herald reported that a deal had been signed by Arthur Mutambara and Robert Mugabe, now as far as you know did Mutambara sign an agreement or this is a divide and rule tactic by the regime?

Coltart: I think this is another divide and rule tactic by the regime because our party is very clear that we will not enter into any bilateral agreement with ZANU PF. We recognise that unless all parties are involved, especially our colleagues in the MDC under Morgan Tsvangirai, the public simply won’t accept any agreement reached.

Gonda: And what about your party? What if Arthur Mutambara was to actually sign this deal, will your party agree with that?

Coltart: Well we are speculating because I understand from Arthur Mutambara and Welshman Ncube that any agreement is conditional upon buying-ins from Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC under Morgan Tsvangirai so to that extent the question is moot, it doesn’t arise.

Gonda: And you know Mutambara has been intensely involved in these talks. Do you think this is right as he apparently has little support?

The Zimbabwe Independent
15 August 2008

THE Arthur Mutambara led-MDC faces a revolt within its ranks after its leader allegedly agreed on all issues under discussion with President Robert Mugabe during the Sadc-initiated dialogue mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki.

It has emerged that the majority of MPs, senators and supporters in the party structures in Matabeleland are up in arms over the decision by Mutambara to take sides with Mugabe.
Elected officials in the party said there was no way Mutambara could have found common ground with Mugabe.

MP-elect for Mangwe, Edward Tshotsho Mkhosi, told the press he would quit the faction if Mutambara agrees with Mugabe a deal that excludes the president of the main MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai.
“No, I will not watch history being repeated,” he said. “We have seen Zanu PF’s strategy of divide and rule in the past and this time it will not work, not this time,” Mkhosi said.

Khumalo Senator David Coltart also said he would not agree to a deal between his party’s leadership and Mugabe and expressed doubt that the majority of the executive would support that decision.
An MP from Matabeleland South said if Mutambara sold out, lawmakers from Matabeleland were prepared to quit the party.

“If what President Mbeki said to reporters after the talks in Harare is anything to go by then we have a big problem within the party because there is no way we could be associated with a decision that favours Mugabe,” the legislator said. “The position on the talks that we had as a party is similar to that of the Morgan Tsvangirai formation and if what Mbeki says is correct then Arthur Mutambara will have to explain to the national council why he acted in the manner alleged.”

The Guardian
By Chris McGreal
14 August 2008

Robert Mugabe will shortly install a new government in Zimbabwe following the collapse of political negotiations with his principal rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, according to the state-run press.

But the leader of an opposition faction, Arthur Mutambara, denied claims by Mugabe’s officials that he will join the administration, which Zimbabwe’s president is portraying as a government of national unity in an attempt to win international backing.

Senior ruling Zanu-PF party officials said on Tuesday that Mutambara had reached agreement with Mugabe on the shape of a new administration. South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, who was mediating the negotiations, confirmed that the two men did agree the division of powers in the next government, to be led by Mugabe.

But Mutambara, who heads a faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, said that did not mean he is prepared to serve in a new administration while there is still no deal between the two principal players. The talks broke up after Tsvangirai refused to drop his demand that Mugabe relinquish power and become a ceremonial president.

“This is a tripartite negotiating framework. You cannot get an agreement where only two parties agree,” said Mutambara. But he made clear his antipathy to Tsvangirai’s insistence that Mugabe surrender power by calling on his MDC rival to “put national interest before self-interest”.

Tsvangirai’s aides treated with suspicion Mutambara’s claim not to have done a deal with Mugabe, noting that the opposition faction leader had shifted his position considerably in recent days and was praised by Zimbabwe’s president in a speech earlier this week.

But Mutambara was also under pressure from his own members of parliament yesterday, some of whom threatened to desert him if he did a unilateral deal with Mugabe. The Mutambara faction holds 10 seats in parliament, which represent the balance of power.

GhanaDot.com
By James Shikwati
August 13, 2008

“The majority of Africans today are poorer than those who lived in the Stone Age Era,” Prof. Gregory Clark tore into our presentation. A Sydney based think tank, The Center for Independent Studies (CIS) introduced Africa to leading Australian business people and politicians. In a forum dubbed ‘Where to Africa,’ delegates sought to know why a continent rich in every imaginable mineral, with people full of aspirations is lagging in progress.

CIS President Greg Lindsay included Africa on the agenda of his organization’s annual brainstorming forum popularly referred to as the Consilium as part of a strategy to initiate dialogue between Africa and Australia. The ongoing scramble for Africa’s resources by Europe, U.S.A, China, India, and Turkey among others clearly calls for Africans sobering up and seeking positive ways to make the continent a hub of business.

Comparing African history to that of Europe, one can clearly see the need to initiate continent’s own Age of Enlightenment. Obviously no single individual drove the European enlightenment but historians do point out the fact that the quest to have reason as a primary source and basis for authority created a new order in Europe. According to Prof. Clark, the majority of the English as late as 1813 were in conditions no better than their ancestors in Africa. Europeans in London were … a filthy people who squatted above their own feces, stored in the basement cesspits.

European history is dotted with tribalism, ethnicity, superstition, extreme religious beliefs, repressive kingdoms and wars, but that ought not to be an excuse for Africans to celebrate. The lesson Europe offers however, is that the exploitation of an inquiring mind, a mind that was willing to be rebellious and give reason the power to shape people’s lives is what gave birth to Europe as we know it today.

The Zimbabwean Guardian
Staff reporter
Wednesday, 13 August 2008

UNBELIEVABLY, for the positive role he has played in the current political negotiations on Zimbabwe, South African President, Thabo Mbeki’s own position is now expected to come under scrutiny this weekend at a meeting of regional powers!

With hot communication lines buzzing throughout the world on the Zimbabwe situation it is no surprise that “wannabee first to hit the headlines” reporters are grabbing at straws, so much so that the SA President Mbeki has found himself having to stem rumours and deny that any power sharing deal has at last been signed between breakaway Opposition Leader Arthur Mutambara and President Robert Mugabe.

Despite this, it would appear that President Mbeki feels that a settlement could be reached.

The secretary general of the smaller opposition group, Welshman Ncube has rebuffed speculation that his party has clinched a power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe that excludes Morgan Tsvangirai.

We reported earlier that President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai had been unable to agree on the way forward, and Tsvangirai did leave the negotiations early yesterday (Tuesday) but, according to the BBC’s Karen Allen, this was merely to go and reflect on the deliberations.

At least one news publisher reported that the Mutambara faction came under fire from at least seven of its MPs-elect for signing the deal.

The following MDC(M) MPs are said to have threatened to quit if a deal was signed: Edward Tshotsho Mkhosi, MDC-Mangwe, Abednico Bhebhe (MDC Nkayi South), David Coltart (Khumalo senator), and a few unnamed others.

The only MP said to be receptive of the idea was Moses Mzila Ndlovu,MDC-Bulilima who was one of the negotiators in the power sharing talks in South Africa.

Radio Voice of the People
13 August 2008

HARARE, August 13 2008 - Seven Members of Parliament (MPs) aligned to the Mutambara led Movement for Democratic Change on Tuesday reportedly threatened to leave the faction if their leadership signed a deal with President Robert Mugabe.

MP for Mangwe, Edward Tshotsho Mkhosi, is said to have told the Zimbabwe Metro that he would quit if Mutambara hopped into bed with Mugabe.

“No I will not watch history being repeated,we have seen ZANU PF’s strategy of divide and rule in the past and this time it will not work,not this time,” said Mkhosi.

Another MP for Nkayi South, Abednico Bhebe, told the Telegraph that he would would not agree to such an agreement. “”If this has happened I don’t agree. This will be disastrous. None of us will go with him. He would be committing political suicide.”

Senator David Coltart, Khumalo, also said he would not agrre to a deal betwwen his party’s leadership and expressed ‘doubt the majority of our executive would support that decision.”

Four other unnamed MPs have reportedly voiced their displeasure with the leadership’s decision.

Mutambara and Ncube lost parliament bids in Zengeza West and Makokoba respectively, to candidates from the faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Reports indicate that the Mutambara faction pushed for an amendment of No. 19 during the talks, so as increase appointed senators from five to 21.

South African President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday confirmed that Mugabe had agreed a power-sharing deal with a breakaway opposition faction on Tuesday, but has yet to agree with main rival Morgan Tsvangirai.

A state controlled Herald report also confirmed the signing of an agreement by Mugabe and Mutambara on Tuesday, which it said would pave the way for Mugabe to form the next government.