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R 180819Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4499
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 2283
RUEHAR/AMEMBASY ACCRA 2833
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 2952
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RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2124
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 000411 
 
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 05-15-09 
 
---------------------------- 
SUMMARY - Topics of the week 
---------------------------- 
 
- Tsvangirai Launches Next 100 Day Plan 
- MDC-M Suspends Three MPs from Party 
- While an MDC-T MP is Convicted for Inciting Violence 
- Media Conference Wraps Up; Journalists Arrested 
- Abductees Released, Prominent Lawyer Arrested 
- Late Rains Lead to Better Than Expected Crops 
- Government Warns of Trafficking 
- Wheat and Barley Output Set to Fall 
- LonZim Paid Too Much for Zimbabwean Investments 
- Former President of the CFU Elected to a Continental Body 
- Kingdom Meikles Saga Nearing an End 
- Quote of the Week 
 
----------------------------- 
On the Political/Social Front 
----------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Tsvangirai Launches Next 100 Day Plan...  Having just about 
completed the first 100 days of the unity government, Prime Minister 
Morgan Tsvangirai hosted a conference in Harare to lay out his plans 
and goals for the next 100.  The plan groups the 32 ministries into 
five clusters (Economic, Infrastructure, Social, Rights and 
Interest, and Security) each of which is led by a minister.  While 
the reform and capacity building objectives are laudable, the 
financial means to execute them are lacking.  Also, ZANU-PF doesnQt 
appear to support the initiatives as two of the three ZANU-PF 
ministers who lead clusters failed to show. 
 
¶2.  MDC-M Suspends Three MPs from Party... MDC-M President and 
Deputy Prime Minister, Arthur Mutambara, along with other top party 
leaders suspended six party officials on May 8 for Qbringing the 
party into disrepute.Q  The six suspended members include the 
following three Matabeleland MPs: Abdenico Bhebhe of Nkayi South, 
Norman Mpofu of Bulilima East, and Njabuliso Mguni of Lupane East. 
All six targeted officials had been highly critical of MutambaraQs 
leadership, charging him with aligning himself too closely with 
ZANU-PF.  See Harare 402.  Two other MPs, Maxwell Dube of Tsholotsho 
South and Thandeko Mkandla of Gwanda North, were subsequently 
summoned to face charges of misconduct likely also related to 
criticism of Mutambara. 
 
¶3.  While an MDC-T MP is Convicted for Inciting Violence... 
Chipinge East MP Matewu Mathias Mlambo was slapped with a 10 month 
jail sentence by a Chipinge magistrate for inciting violence at the 
funeral of an MDC member who died recently in his constituency. 
Mlambo was first arrested last month following a clash between 
ZANU-PF and MDC-T supporters at the funeral in Chipinge.  The MDC-T 
also reported that its MP for Chipinge South, Meki Makuyana, who is 
also facing charges of inciting violence during the run-up to the 
June 2008 presidential run-off election, had his ruling set for May 
27 by the same magistrate. 
 
¶4.  Media Conference Wraps Up; Journalists Arrested... With only 
about half of the expected participants present as most independent 
journalists boycotted, results from the QAll Stakeholders Media 
Qjournalists boycotted, results from the QAll Stakeholders Media 
ConferenceQ continue to emerge.  Although some in government 
portrayed the historic conference as a significant achievement, 
others criticized the draft recommendations as Qcosmetic.Q  On 
Monday, The Zimbabwe IndependentQs editor and news editor were 
arrested for Qcommunicating falsehoods with the intention of 
undermining public confidence in security forces.Q  The arrests were 
made in connection with last weekQs story on police involvement in 
abductions, which we reported on in Zim Notes last week.  According 
to this weekQs Zimbabwe Independent, neither co-Minister of Home 
Affairs Giles Mutsekwa (MDC-T) nor Police Commissioner-General 
 
HARARE 00000411  002 OF 003 
 
 
Augustine Chihuri knew in advance about the journalistsQ arrest, 
which was reportedly ordered by Attorney General Johannes Tomana. 
See Harare 395. 
 
¶5.  Abductees Released, Prominent Lawyer Arrested... Less than 24 
hours after securing the bail for three men who were abducted last 
year and face accusations of bombing police stations, Human Rights 
lawyer Alec Muchadehama was arrested on May 14 and charged with 
obstructing justice when he allegedly conspired with a court clerk 
to secure the menQs release last month.  See Harare 401. 
 
¶6.  Late Rains Lead to Better Than Expected Crops...  The Food and 
Agriculture Organization/World Food Program/GOZ Crop and Food 
Security Assessment (CFSAM) teams completed their field work this 
week on May 11.  USAID, as observers, joined two of the four teams 
and visited three provinces and numerous districts and wards.  In 
these three provinces, the general consensus was that the crop and 
food security situation was much better than last year.  The 
extended rains have helped the late-planted crops.  Though the 
harvest is better than last year, it is still about half the 
historical average and there are numerous areas that had harvests 
that were worse than last year. 
 
¶7.  Government Warns of Trafficking...  This week, the Minister of 
Labor issued a warning to young Zimbabweans to consult widely before 
migrating to other countries to avoid being caught up in human 
trafficking syndicates.  In a speech delivered at a local school, 
the ministry acknowledged that young girls are at risk of 
trafficking by agents offering false promises.  There are no known 
statistics on the extent of human trafficking in Zimbabwe. 
 
 
-------------------------- 
Economic and Business News 
-------------------------- 
 
¶8.  Wheat and Barley Output Set to Fall...  According to the 
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), time for making sufficient 
preparations to enable the production of a decent sized wheat and 
barley crop for 2009 is running out.  The CFU believes that there 
has to be a moratorium on current farm disruptions in order to 
restore the confidence of productive farmers.  The current 
disruptions will also negatively affect the summer crops. 
 
¶9.  LonZim Paid Too Much for Zimbabwean Investments...  An analyst 
at the private financial news source, Zfn, believes that the 
UK-listed investor, LonZim, overpaid for its purchase of 
Zimbabwean-based Celsys, Millpal Chemicals, and Leopard Rock Hotel. 
According to the analyst, AMB Capital of South Africa (which owns 
20.7 percent of LonZim) and Damille Partners IV (which owns 6.3 
percent) have now woken up to the fact that the investments were 
overvalued. 
 
 
¶10.  Former Prsident of the CFU Elected to a Continental Body... 
Doug Taylor-Freeme was elected vice president of the African 
Committee at the International Federation of Agricultural Producers 
at a meeting held in Kenya recently.  Despite his new position, he 
Qat a meeting held in Kenya recently.  Despite his new position, he 
is still being forced off his farm in Chinhoyi, about 100 km north 
of Harare, under the current wave of farm seizures. 
 
¶11.  Kingdom Meikles Saga Nearing an End...  Shareholders have been 
informed that they will soon receive a cautionary notice for an 
extraordinary general meeting to be held in the next 21 days at 
which shareholders will be asked to vote on a motion to demerge the 
group into Kingdom and Meikles.  The Financial Gazette of May 14 
reported that Strive Masiyiwa is likely to support the motion. 
 
 
 
HARARE 00000411  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶12.  Quote of the Week: 
 
QI have asked the Commissioner-General (Chihuri) to reduce this to 
writing so I can take it up with my colleague in the Ministry of 
Justice (Patrick Chinamasa).  I want to reiterate that it is not my 
ministryQs policy and I am also completely disgusted that this took 
place. 
 
Q Co-Minister of Home Affairs Giles Mutsekwa addressing the House of 
Assembly on the arrest of lawyer Alec Muchadehama on May 14. 
 
MCGEE