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RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #0390/01 1311814
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 111814Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4461
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 2278
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 2809
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 2929
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1372
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 2192
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 2557
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 2977
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 5418
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2101
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000390 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR B. WALCH 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR MICHELLE GAVIN 
TREASURY FOR D. PETERS 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR LDOBBINS AND JHARMON 
COMMERCE FOR BECKY ERKUL 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC PHUM ECON EFIN ZI
SUBJECT: ZIM NOTES 05-08-09 
 
---------------------------- 
SUMMARY - Topics of the week 
---------------------------- 
 
- MDC Takes on Outstanding Issues 
- Abductees Jailed, then Released 
- Media Conference Confusion 
- Schools Avert Strike 
- South Africa Scraps Visas Requirement 
- Anglican Church Elects New Bishop 
- Reconciliation Slow in Rural Zimbabwe 
- IMF Re-Engages 
- Four Hwange Power Station Generators Down 
- South African Mobile Operator MTN Expresses Interest in Zim 
- Cost of Family Basket Rises 
- Tobacco Marketing Season Starts 
 
----------------------------- 
On the Political/Social Front 
----------------------------- 
 
¶1.  MDC Takes on Outstanding Issues...Tendai Biti, in his capacity 
as MDC Secretary-General, held a press conference on Wednesday to 
demand that outstanding issues be resolved.  Noting that the 
principals Q Mugabe, Tsvangirai, and Mutambara Q had had a series of 
meetings on these issues, he said that next MondayQs principals 
meeting should be the last.  If the MDC did not receive 
satisfaction, its National Council would consider next steps at its 
meeting on May 17.  Biti and other high-level MDC officials have 
apparently concluded that TsvangiraiQs low-key approach with Mugabe 
has run its course and a high-profile, direct approach is now called 
for.  See Harare 372. 
 
 
¶2.  Abductees Jailed, then Released... After being formally indicted 
on May 4, Human Rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and 15 others were 
ordered into state custody on May 5.  13, including Mukoko, spent 
one night at Chikurubi Maximum Security prison before their 
surprising release on May 6.  Three others Q Ghandi Mudzingwa, Chris 
Dhlamini, and Shadreck Manyere Q remain in Avenues Clinic under 
guard pending a separate May 8 bail hearing.  Indictment documents 
reveal that the Assistant Director External in the Central 
Intelligence Office and several high-level police officers directed 
investigations against the abductees, including their videotaped 
confessions that were recorded while they were still missing.  At 
the time, police denied any knowledge of the abducteesQ whereabouts 
and claimed to be investigating their kidnappings.  See Harare 367 
and 372. 
 
¶3.  Media Conference Confusion... After civic media groups 
representing the majority of journalists in Zimbabwe announced they 
would boycott the May 6-9 All-Stakeholders Media Conference, the 
Deputy Minister of Information, Jameson Timba (MDC-T) announced 
Thursday that the conference would be delayed until May 8, but only 
after Qthe outcome of a court bail hearing involving a journalist 
(photo-journalist Shadreck Manyere).  Timba said the conference had 
Qbeen delayed by matters extraneous to it but important to some of 
the stakeholders.Q He continued, QWe are hopeful that it (the 
hearing) will be dispensed with early to enable the other 
stakeholders to join their colleagues in Kariba.Q Despite TimbaQs 
postponement, government papers reported that Minister of 
Qpostponement, government papers reported that Minister of 
Information Webster Shamu opened the conference on May 7 with a 
lengthy speech.  Local journalists tell us that only a handful of 
journalists are at the conference site in Kariba, several hours 
drive from Harare. 
 
¶4.  Schools Avert Strike...The second school term started on May 5 
after the Ministry of Education dramatically slashed school fees, 
narrowly averting a teachersQ strike.  Although teachers are still 
 
HARARE 00000390  002 OF 003 
 
 
waiting for a raise, they welcomed the move that also exempted them 
from paying fees for their own children.  Fees are now US$5, US$10, 
or US$20 per term.  Some teachers, however, are complaining the low 
fees will reduce schoolsQ ability to purchase supplies such as 
textbooks and chalk.  In one rural school we visited this week, not 
a single student had paid any portion of the $5 fee for rural 
schools.  See Harare 379. 
 
¶5.  South Africa Scraps Visas Requirement... Zimbabweans traveling 
to South Africa no longer have to apply for visas and may now apply 
for a 90-day visitor permit at the border.  The visitor permit also 
allows Zimbabweans to perform QcasualQ work in South Africa. 
 
¶6.  Anglican Church Elects New Bishop... The Elective Committee of 
the Anglican Church in Harare met on May 2 and elected Dr. Chad 
Gandiya to replace Bishop Sebastian Bakare.  Dr. Gandiya, who did 
his graduate work at Michigan State University and was favored for 
the position by Bishop Bakare, will be enthroned on July 25.  When 
he assumes leadership of the Harare Archdiocese, Dr. Gandiya will 
continue the legal battle against excommunicated former bishop, 
Norbert Kunonga, who continues to use his ZANU-PF contacts and the 
police to attempt to seize Anglican property. 
 
¶7.  Reconciliation Slow in Rural Zimbabwe... This week we visited 
the rural constituency of Gutu South in Masvingo province where 
villagers told us of their slow progress towards reconciliation 
after violence devastated their communities in 2008.  They remain 
fearful of potential violence in future elections.  See Harare 379. 
 
-------------------------- 
Economic and Business News 
-------------------------- 
 
¶8.  IMF Re-Engages... The International Monetary Fund partially 
lifted its suspension of technical assistance to Zimbabwe on May 4. 
The IMF Executive Board made the decision based on Qsignificant 
improvement in ZimbabweQs cooperation on economic policies to 
address its arrears problems.Q  The IMF can now provide technical 
assistance in tax policy, administration, payment systems, 
lender-of-last-resort operations and banking supervision, and 
central banking governance and accounting -- core areas of IMF 
expertise in which ZimbabweQs severe capacity constraints represent 
a major risk to macroeconomic stabilization. 
 
¶9.  Four Hwange Power Station Generators Down... The Minister of 
Industry and Commerce said that four out of six generators at Hwange 
Power Station are down and in dire need of a major service in South 
Africa.  The problems at Hwange have been compounded by the 
breakdown of the coal dragline; its repair will cost US$2 million. 
These developments indicate that Zimbabwe is headed for more and 
longer power outages over the winter months.  See Harare 361. 
 
¶10.  South African Mobile Operator MTN Expresses Interest in 
Zimbabwe... South AfricaQs mobile operator MTN has declared its 
interest in either buying an existing mobile operator, or by 
Qinterest in either buying an existing mobile operator, or by 
obtaining its own license in Zimbabwe.  Richard Hurst of IDCNews 
research in South Africa believes that MTNQs obvious route is to buy 
60 percent of the local mobile operator Telecel, owned by the 
Egyptian operator Orascom, which has hinted that it wants to 
concentrate on North Africa. 
 
¶11.  Cost of Family Basket Rises... According to the Consumer 
Council of Zimbabwe, the cost of a consumer basket for a family of 
six rose by 7.8 percent from US$396.22 in March to US$427.11 in 
April primarily due to increases in transport cost, electricity, 
health, education, clothing and footwear.  Prices of food and 
detergents actually fell by 6.9 percent during the same period. 
 
¶12.  Tobacco Marketing Season Starts... The tobacco selling season 
 
HARARE 00000390  003 OF 003 
 
 
officially started on May 7 and is expected to run for 80 days. 
About 75 percent of this yearQs sales at the floors will come from 
contract farming.  It is estimated that tobacco output declined 16 
percent on the year to 42 million kg.  Production peaked in 2000 at 
over 200 million kg. 
 
 
¶13.  Quote of the Week: 
 
QWe (the media) could not meet because we were divided, too 
polarized and too fractured to even qualify to be regarded as an 
industry. ...With this negative background, the world will ask: were 
they able to meet and confer productively? Did they agree on 
anything? ...Or are they still in deep trenches, trading projectiles 
and seeking annihilation of one another in a mutually ruinous 
fashion? 
 
-- Minister of Information, Webster Shamu, speaking to a nearly 
empty hall at the All Stakeholder Media Conference on May 7.  Most 
media stakeholders are boycotting the conference pending the outcome 
of a bail hearing for photojournalist Shadreck Manyere on May 8. 
Manyere was abducted in mid-December 2008 and is accused of bombing 
police stations. 
 
MCGEE