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FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
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RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 3012
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 3127
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RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000714 
 
AF/S FOR B. WALCH 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR L.DOBBINS AND J. HARMON 
COMMERCE FOR ROBERT TELCHIN 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC PHUM ECON ZI
 
SUBJECT: ZIM NOTES 09-08-2009 
 
----------- 
¶1.  SUMMARY 
----------- 
 
Topics of the week: 
 
- Codel Meets with Mugabe, Tsvangirai and MPs... 
- Min. of Justice Withdraws Zimbabwe from SADC Tribunal... 
- Fires Destroy Two White Homesteads... 
- KP Chair Clarifies Zim Visit... 
- Teachers Ignore Call to Strike... 
- Mugabe Grants Amnesty to 1,500... 
- S/GAC Visits Zim... 
- Residents Angered by Council's Profligacy... 
- HRW: GPA Fails to Deliver... 
- Gono Spins SDR Allocation... 
- Cost of Food Basket for Family of Six Falls...- LonZim Mulls Secondary Listing in Zimbabwe... 
- Industry Recovery a Curse for Power Utility... 
- CZI Goes Zzzzz... 
 
----------------------------- 
On the Political/Social Front 
------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  Codel Meets with Mugabe, Tsvangirai and MPs...  A five-member 
Congressional delegation led by Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), and 
including Rep. Melvin Watt (D-NC), Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), 
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), and Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), spent two 
days in Harare meeting separately with President Mugabe, Prime 
Minister Tsvangirai, Speaker Moyo and the three co-chairs of the 
Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution. The delegation 
discussed the performance of the inclusive government and the need 
to resolve outstanding issues, while reiterating their support for 
the Zimbabwean people. Despite several weeks of advance notice, 
permission to meet with Mugabe came shortly before the group was 
scheduled to depart Harare resulting in only a brief courtesy call. 
The State media portrayed the rushed meeting as an indication that 
the U.S. was not interested in meeting with ZANU-PF officials. See 
Harare 707. 
 
¶3.  Min. of Justice Withdraws Zimbabwe from SADC Tribunal... 
Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa (ZANU-PF) delivered a letter 
to the SADC Tribunal dated August 7 informing the regional body's 
legal organ that Zimbabwe would no longer participate in Tribunal 
proceedings until the establishment of the court has been ratified 
by two-thirds of all members. Chinamasa said Zimbabwe would also no 
longer be bound by the court's decisions, which previously the 
country had only participated in out of "respect for the SADC 
Secretariat." Legal opinions differ about whether or not Zimbabwe's 
ratification of the SADC Treaty extends to the un-ratified Protocol 
that formed the Tribunal Court. The decision follows the Tribunal's 
November ruling favoring the case of a group of white farmers 
contesting the seizure of their farms. 
 
¶4. Fires Destroy Two White Homesteads...  The farmhouses of white 
commercial farmers Ben Freeth and his father-in-law Mike Campbell 
were burnt down on August 31 and September 2, respectively. There 
are different reports about the first fire, but the second fire 
appears to be an act of arson stemming from the farmers' refusal to 
vacate their properties, despite having been granted relief by the 
SADC Tribunal Court last November. The Freeths and Campbells have 
QSADC Tribunal Court last November. The Freeths and Campbells have 
also been victimized by violence for remaining on their land, as 
evidenced by their April 2008 abductions and beatings at the hands 
of ZANU-PF militias. Perhaps not coincidentally "Mugabe and the 
White African," a film about farm invasions and the SADC Tribunal 
screened in Johannesburg on September 1. 
 
¶5.  KP Chair Clarifies Zim Visit...  The Namibian Deputy Minister of 
 
HARARE 00000714  002 OF 003 
 
 
Mines and Kimberley Process Chairman Bernard Esau issued a statement 
this week to clarify that his recent visit to Zimbabwe was a 
"bilateral (trip) for informative purposes only." Also this week, 
Zimbabwe Minister of Mines and Mining Development Obert Mpofu told a 
parliamentary committee that the government wants "50 percent 
shareholding in joint ventures with investors, that's not 
negotiable." For Esau's statement, see: 
http://www.kimberleyprocess.com/download/getf ile/925 
 
¶6.  Teachers Ignore Call to Strike...  The Zimbabwe Teachers' 
Association (ZIMTA) called for teachers to strike this week when the 
third term started on September 2. ZIMTA and the Progressive 
Teachers' Union (PTUZ) engaged in long negotiations with Education 
Minister David Coltart (MDC-M) and Finance Minister Tendai Biti 
(MDC-T) over salaries. Teachers, like all civil servants, are being 
paid on average just US $150 per month. PTUZ did not call on its 
members to strike, acknowledging the two ministers' efforts to 
negotiate a raise while contending with empty government coffers. We 
have heard that most teachers, regardless of union membership, were 
back in class this week. 
 
¶7.  Mugabe Grants Amnesty to 1,500...  Citing overcrowding and 
limited resources in the prison system, President Mugabe granted 
amnesty to 1,500 prisoners this week. All convicted female prisoners 
and juveniles, except those serving sentences for serious crimes 
such as murder, rape and other sexual offenses, car-jacking, armed 
robbery and stock theft, would have the remainder of their sentences 
curtailed. 
 
¶8.  S/GAC Visits Zim...  Ambassador Eric Goosby, the Global AIDS 
Coordinator for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief 
(PEPFAR) and lead for the U.S. Government's engagement with the 
Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, was in Zimbabwe this 
week, meeting with USAID, CDC, implementing partners and government 
officials. Through PEPFAR, the USG is the leading provider of 
bilateral HIV/AIDS assistance to Zimbabwe. Between 2004 and 2008, 
the U.S. Government provided nearly $109 million to Zimbabwe to 
support comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care 
programs. 
 
¶9.  Residents Angered by Council's Profligacy...  Harare residents 
voiced their anger at the free-spending Harare City Council which 
recently bought a Mercedes for the mayor and two Toyota Prados for 
his directors, while failing to supply water to certain residential 
areas. The total bill for the vehicles came to US$343,000. The 
Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA) has demanded a meeting 
with Mayor Masunda over the matter and argues that the money could 
have provided six month's worth of water to the city's dry suburbs. 
 
 
¶10. HRW: GPA Fails to Deliver...  This week, Human Rights Watch 
published a new report documenting the Global Political Agreement's 
(GPA) failures to improve human rights in Zimbabwe. See: 
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/08/31/fals e-dawn-0 
Qhttp://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/08/31/fal se-dawn-0 
 
 
---------------------------------- 
On the Economic and Business Front 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  Gono Spins SDR Allocation...  Following the International 
Monetary Fund's new allocation of Special Drawing Rights to all its 
members, The Herald has portrayed the increase in Zimbabwe's 
reserves as a cash windfall ("IMF gives Zim US$500m") resulting from 
"months of behind-the-scenes interaction" between the IMF and 
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono. The GOZ mouthpiece 
quotes Gono as saying, "We have been in constant delicate 
discussions with IMF technical teams over the past few months and I 
am pleased to now say that we have gotten somewhere." Meanwhile, 
 
HARARE 00000714  003 OF 003 
 
 
back here on Earth, the RBZ is still going nowhere fast. But after 
Dr. Gono's spin-doctoring, Finance Minister Biti is likely to be 
pilloried by The Herald if he chooses not to borrow the SDRs (at a 
non-concessional interest rate) to fund a stimulus package. We 
expect Biti will risk The Herald's wrath and keep the SDRs in 
reserve for now. See Harare 711. 
 
¶12.  Cost of Food Basket for Family of Six Falls...  Data shows that 
the cost of a food basket for a family of six monitored by the 
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) fell from about US$500 in July to 
US$495 in August, thanks to a 4 percent decline in food prices which 
the director of CCZ attributed to a re-appearance of Zimbabwean as 
opposed to imported products on supermarket shelves. Despite the 
observed fall, the new level is still far above average earnings. 
 
¶13.  LonZim Mulls Secondary Listing in Zimbabwe...  After surviving 
a shareholder revolt that would have seen it selling Zimbabwean 
assets, the London alternative investment market (AIM) listed LonZim 
is working with advisors on a planned secondary listing on the 
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE). According to LonZim's executive 
chairman, the decision is primarily attributed to the expected 
recovery reflected in rising equities on the ZSE. 
 
¶14.  Industry Recovery a Curse for Power Utility...  The chief 
executive officer of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority 
(ZESA) told an energy forum on August 2 that an economic turnaround 
will strain the country's capacity to generate electricity. He 
stated that ZESA would need US$900 million to refurbish its two main 
electricity generating stations to ramp-up production and enable the 
utility to cope with the expected demand as the economy recovers. 
 
¶15.  CZI Goes Zzzzz...  The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries 
(CZI) held its annual conference this week. The two-day gathering 
was sparsely attended, perhaps because captains of Zimbabwean 
industry could not spare the US$240 registration fee. President 
Mugabe was scheduled to speak, but failed to appear. The Prime 
Minister and Finance Minister were also conspicuous by their 
absence. Speakers from industry, government, and academia offered 
numerous platitudes but no new ideas. 
 
----------------- 
Quote of the Week 
----------------- 
 
¶16.  "Clearly, the Congressmen did not have the President on their 
schedule. The meeting was incidental to their mission in Zimbabwe." 
-- Presidential spokesman George Charamba, on a September 3 CODEL 
meeting with Mugabe, requested over two weeks in advance. 
 
 
PETTERSON