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The Telegraph
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare
Last Updated: 1:07AM BST 19 Oct 2008

Aid agencies have accused Robert Mugabe of cutting their lifeline to millions of starving Zimbabweans after he imposed sweeping new bank restrictions which have made it impossible for them to finance their operations.

In a bid to stop speculators profiteering on the wide gulf between the official and black market exchange rates, the Zimbabwean reserve bank has cancelled the inter-bank money transfer system used by businesses and aid agencies to move cash around.

With daily cash withdrawals limited to Z$50,000 a day - worth just £1.20 given Zimbabwe’s current soaring inflation rate - it has become impossible for relief workers to make the large payments necessary to buy and distribute food or pay staff wages.

The banking restriction came despite a warning last week by the United Nations that nearly one third of Zimbabwean under-fives were now malnourished, and that nearly half the population would depend on emergency food aid by next year.

“We cannot get money from the banks to pay people to distribute the food, it is as simple as that,” said the operations manager of one of the top three distributing agencies, which has been working in Zimbabwe for the last 16 years.

“We can’t pay our staff hotel bills, or buy food for our field workers, or even advertise for people we need to hire to distribute food,” he said. “We have enough food in the warehouse to ensure no one starves, and we have enough money in the bank to finance our operations, but the Reserve Bank (of Zimbabwe) will not give us access to it.”

New Zimbabwe.Com
By Mthulisi Mathuthu
Posted to the web: 18/10/2008 13:11:08

AS THE curtain slowly comes down on one of the vilest regimes of our time, it seems easy to cast President Robert Mugabe as a failed politician who blew a sure thing – veering off from being a gentleman of international standing into a petty tyrant.

Opposite this fallacy is the uncomfortable home truth: Mugabe is a successful and consistent politician who sought, got and kept power by any means necessary.

The magic behind this was a calculated combination of hate, bloodletting and deception which make it possible that in the post-Mugabe era, he will remain ‘the climate’ for many years to come.

So neat and tight has been this interplay that even his erstwhile masters in Whitehall and White House have had the embarrassment of scooping the egg off their faces.

One of the most dangerous legacies that Mugabe seems sure to leave behind and will continue for many generations to come is his ubiquitous quarrelsome brand of politics underlined largely by violence, hate, propaganda, obtuse scholarship and bootlicking.

If what has been happening in Zimbabwe in the last eight years is anything to go by, it seems clear that even when the veteran dictator finally goes or dies and the walls of Jericho finally come crumbling down, there won’t be any change at all and the Zimbabwe we seek will remain a dream. Instead, the new masters will just replace the current ones and march into the palace with their bootlickers, praise-singers, shock-troops and the other hangers-on in attendance.

Among them will be perfect matches for people like Tambaoga, George Charamba, Happyson Muchechetere, Webster Shamu, Vimbai Chivaura, Claude Mararike, Tafataona Mahoso, Munyaradzi Huni, Caesar Zvayi and other bigots — only that they will be singing for a different master.

Nehanda Radio
17 October 2008

“We are still in the same deadlock. We failed to agree. ZANU-PF is trying to give us a bicycle without wheels but we are refusing to ride that bicycle,” MDC-T chief negotiator, Tendai Biti.

“We need to be tolerant, patient and lower our expectations. The deal is only three weeks old yet it took Kenya five months to come up with a national unity government,” Senator David Coltart, the legal affairs secretary for the Mutambara-led MDC.

“When the power sharing deal was signed we all celebrated hoping that relief was coming. But nearly a month later nothing has happened and people are getting disillusioned.” Mwenezi East Member of Parliament, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti.

“We also know why his party is demanding the Home Affairs ministry. They held discussions in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa recently but we can’t go into that now.” Mugabe spokesman George Charamba refering to Morgan Tsvangirai.

“Mbeki must not preside over the signing of another half-baked agreement. The future of Zimbabwe over the next five years is at stake. He must hold a private meeting with Mugabe where he should impress upon him the fact that presidents don’t own countries, while citing his own recent experience.” Zimbabwe Times editor Geoff Nyarota.

“I understand the ministry of finance has been settled in favour of the MDC, but proposals on how to handle the ministry of home affairs are still being discussed behind closed doors. We have no details on that.” Unnamed government source speaking to the media.

VOA
By Peta Thornycroft
Harare
16 October 2008

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has made some compromises over distribution of cabinet portfolios according to the state controlled and owned Herald newspaper Thursday. Peta Thornycroft reports from Harare a partial agreement is expected Thursday after two full days of intense and long sessions of negotiations mediated by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

At stake for prime minister designate Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change party, is the ability to run a new government and deliver relief urgently to the people of Zimbabwe.

He signed up to a power sharing agreement last month but it broke down at the weekend when Mr. Mugabe assigned all the security ministries to his ZANU-PF party. ZANU-PF now sits on the opposition benches in parliament following the narrow MDC victory in the March elections.

Tsvangirai has let it be known that he is deeply concerned about the sudden and dramatic upsurge in hunger nationwide, particularly in the south of Zimbabwe.

Several Legislators from the south, in Harare for parliament, said children under five are beginning to die in their rural areas. One legislator said he believes this is the worst food insecurity in living memory in the Matabeleland North province.

Senator David Coltart said Wednesday he is watching people shrivel in front of his eyes in his district in second city Bulawayo.

Food agencies have not yet begun any meaningful distribution of emergency feeding to many areas under threat of mass starvation, as they were banned in June by the government for three critical months from making preparations for emergency feeding. They are now trying to catch up but hunger stalks most of the population which goes to bed hungry at night.
The pressure therefore is also on Tsvangirai to find a way through the talks to be able to form a government.

ABC
By Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan
Posted Fri Oct 10, 2008 8:33am AEDT

Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), says a deadlock over power sharing arrangements with President Robert Mugabe is plunging the country into deeper economic hardship.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is calling for urgent foreign mediation amid claims that Zimbabwean people will starve if the crisis is not fixed.

Mr Tsvangirai is adamant that his party will have significant power in Zimbabwe’s new unity Government. He wants to take charge of the Home Affairs Ministry, which controls the police, but Mr Mugabe refuses to give it up.

The deadlock means that more than three weeks after signing a power sharing deal, Zimbabwe is effectively still without a government.

Mr Tsvangirai is calling on former South African president Thabo Mbeki to resume his role as mediator.
The deadlock has delayed any economic relief and Zimbabweans are now desperately trying to feed themselves as inflation moves beyond 230 million per cent.

Senator David Coltart from the Movement for Democratic Change says most people can no longer afford food.

“So we simply can’t go on like this for much longer without there being a very serious risk that people will start dying in their thousands,” he said.

The country’s economic meltdown is expected to continue until the MDC and Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party settle on the allocation of cabinet positions.

Financial Gazette
Njabulo Ncube, Political Editor
9th October 2008

A FRESH round of negotiations to unlock the impasse over the allocation of ministries between the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and ZANU-PF collapsed last night with President Robert Mugabe’s negotiating team dangling the release of Morgan Tsvangirai’s passport as a bargaining chip.

Before the negotiations yesterday, former South African president Thabo Mbeki had to shelve his trip to Harare after being advised to allow the three parties to iron out their differences without recourse to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) appointed mediator.

Mbeki was reportedly due in the capital on Tuesday at the invitation of the MDC, which had asked SADC to salvage the dialogue.

ZANU-PF and MDC negotiators have been locked in marathon talks for almost two weeks but have hit a brick wall over the allocation of the 31 ministerial posts.

While ZANU-PF claims the dispute revolves round the ministries of Finance and Home Affairs, the MDC is adamant the stalemate is on all Cabinet portfolios and the 10 posts for provincial governors.
ZANU-PF has since last week demanded all key ministries in the all-inclusive government, but Tsvangirai has rejected an uneven distribution of portfolios.

“We are still in the same deadlock. We failed to agree. ZANU-PF is trying to give us a bicycle without wheels but we are refusing to ride that bicycle,” MDC-T chief negotiator, Tendai Biti told The Financial Gazette last night. “As MDC we are discussing among ourselves whether the principals should meet or call in the facilitator,” Biti added.