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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000725 
 
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 09-11-2009 
 
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¶1.  SUMMARY 
----------- 
 
Topics of the week: 
 
- SADC Summit... 
- New Strategy Against White Farmers? 
- Senior EU Delegation to Visit... 
- MP Jonathan Moyo Re-joins ZANU-PF... 
- Activist Killed for a Song... 
- MFA Apologizes, and The Herald Prints Embassy Letter... 
- University of Zimbabwe Re-opens... 
- ZANU-PF Harasses MDC Supporters in UMP... 
- Violence Continues in Chiadzwa... 
- More Spin on SDRs... 
- Investment Road-show Moves to London... 
- Zimbabwe Slips on the World Bank's Doing Business Rankings... 
- Retail Giant in Discussion with Potential Partner... 
 
--------------------------------- 
On the Political and Social Front 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  SADC Summit...  The SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government 
which ended this week in Kinshasa produced a communiqu which, with 
reference to Zimbabwe, "noted the progress made in the 
implementation of the Global Political Agreement and called on the 
international community to remove all forms of sanctions against 
Zimbabwe."  The MDC unsuccessfully sought a subsequent special SADC 
summit on Zimbabwe in light of the short shrift the Kinshasa Summit 
afforded to Zimbabwe.  Global Political Agreement issues will next 
be considered by the SADC organ on politics, defense, and security 
of which Mozambique, Angola, and South Africa are members.  No date 
has been set for a meeting of the organ. 
 
¶3.  New Strategy Against White Farmers?  Embattled white farmer Mike 
Campbell, whose house was burned to the ground two weeks ago, 
continues to face trouble from the government.  On Thursday security 
forces claimed that they found two explosive items, reportedly 
weapons caches, in the remains of his house.  They then held two 
controlled explosions to destroy them.  The Campbells have not been 
charged with any crimes, and police refuse to investigate the fire. 
Separately, last week a farmer reported police were trying to charge 
him with shooting at settlers.  Police presented empty shells as 
evidence, but the farmer got off because the shells didn't fit any 
of his guns.  These two incidents may be part of a new strategy to 
lock up resistant farmers. 
 
¶4.  Senior EU Delegation to Visit...  The most senior EU delegation 
since 2002 will visit Zimbabwe September 12 and 13.  The delegation 
will be comprised of Swedish International Development Co-operation 
Minister Gunilla Carlsson, EU Aid Commissioner Karel De Gucht and a 
representative of the council secretariat.  A Ministry of Media, 
Information, and Publicity official commented with the usual ZANU-PF 
party line, declaring "the starting point would obviously be that 
the EU has to admit that sanctions are wrong and that land reform in 
Zimbabwe is irreversible. That admission, and that admission alone, 
is the only true proof that they recognize us as a sovereign nation 
that lost tens of thousands of citizens to create a democracy after 
decades of racist minority rule." 
Qdecades of racist minority rule." 
 
¶5.  MP Jonathan Moyo Re-joins ZANU-PF...  The controversial 
independent MP Jonathan Moyo has petitoned to re-join the ZANU-PF 
party.  ZANU-PF officials told the press that Moyo will have to 
re-enter ZANU-PF at "cell level" and rise through the ranks like 
everyone else.  Moyo, who called ZANU-PF a "dead duck on the shelf" 
in 2007, has recently re-directed his long, vicious tirades against 
the MDC.  Moyo is well-known for his service as Mugabe's Minister of 
 
HARARE 00000725  002 OF 003 
 
 
Information from 2000 until 2005 when he was expelled from the party 
for attempting to re-arrange the ZANU-PF succession, enraging 
Mugabe. 
 
¶6.  Activist Killed for a Song...  On August 30 MDC activist 
Godknows Mtshakazi, was beaten to death by four soldiers at Mufiri 
Business Centre in Shurugwi, Midlands Province for playing an MDC 
song in a bar. Mtshakazi and several other MDC activists were having 
a drink and a listening to the radio when a soldier accused the 
group of organizing an MDC rally, which the group denied. The 
soldier singled out Mtshakazi as the leader of the group and beat 
him to death after dragging him to a nearby army base. Afterwards 
the soldiers sent word to Mtshakazi's wife to go and collect her 
husband.  Immediately after the incident, the soldier who instigated 
the fight was arrested in Bulawayo; it is not yet clear if he will 
face charges. 
 
¶7.  MFA Apologizes, and The Herald Prints Embassy Letter...  After 
The Herald reported on September 4 that Codel Meeks only met with 
President Mugabe as an "afterthought" on September 3, we sent a 
letter to The Herald clarifying that the delegation had sought a 
meeting with Mugabe weeks before the visit.  To our pleasant 
surprise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent us an "urgent" dip 
note that day, explaining that the story in The Herald was not the 
government's view of events.  On September 5, The Herald printed our 
letter.  This is the closest thing we've seen to an apology from the 
MFA in recent memory, and The Herald has rarely printed our critical 
letters. 
 
¶8.  University of Zimbabwe Re-opens...  The University of Zimbabwe 
finally re-opened on September 8 for the second semester, after 
closing for 10 months. The lack of water and financial problems 
forced the closure of the university in November 2008. The Zimbabwe 
National Students Union (ZINASU) staged a demonstration and 
petitioned the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education to review 
what they called unaffordable tuition fees. Surprisingly, police on 
bicycles escorted the peaceful protestors. 
 
¶9.  ZANU-PF Harasses MDC Supporters in UMP...  ZANU-PF has stepped 
up a campaign of harassment against MDC supporters in Uzumba Maramba 
Pfungwe (UMP) in Mashonaland Central Province. The MDC says ZANU-PF 
is using war veterans, soldiers and traditional leaders to demand 
that MDC supporters denounce their party membership and surrender 
all party materials and regalia by October.  As a result, several 
MDC supporters have been forced to become ZANU-PF members. 
 
¶10.  Violence Continues in Chiadzwa...  Soldiers killed an illegal 
digger after imposing an arbitrary curfew on residents in the area 
on September 4.  The police who took him to the hospital claimed he 
had attempted to disarm a soldier, but privately conceded he had 
been beaten to death by soldiers when he violated the curfew.  The 
Mutare-based 3rd brigade of the army will soon move to the area to 
QMutare-based 3rd brigade of the army will soon move to the area to 
replace the 5th brigade. Our contacts report that the changeover may 
contribute to increased smuggling because the 3rd brigade has more 
knowledge of the area and contact with the illegal diamond dealers 
in Mutare and across the border in Mozambique.  The Herald published 
a scathing article this week, claiming that the NGO Human Rights 
Watch, which has publicly decried human rights abuses in the 
Chiadzwa diamond fields, is nothing more than a tool of the U.S. 
government for illegal regime change in Zimbabwe. 
 
----------------------------------- 
On the Economic and Business Front 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  More Spin on SDRs...  The September 8 edition of The Herald 
extended its misinformation campaign on Zimbabwe's "windfall" from 
the IMF.  (On September 4, a lead article in the newspaper quoted 
RBZ Governor Gono as stating that Zimbabwe had received US$500 
 
HARARE 00000725  003 OF 003 
 
 
million from the IMF.)  Under the headline, "IMF loan: Second 
tranche released," the ZANU-PF rag reported that "dust raised by 
internal wrangles" between Finance Minister Biti and Gono had "sent 
bad signals to the global lender."  The Herald also said, 
"Investigations have revealed that the US$408 million received at 
the end of last month has remained untouched in the RBZ account." 
The paper quoted Gono's adviser, Munyaradzi Kereke, saying, "We 
continue to await directives from Government on how to deploy it." 
Elsewhere in the press, reporting on this story has been on target. 
The Sunday Standard, for example, accurately reported on September 6 
that Biti did not intend to borrow from Zimbabwe's new SDR 
allocation. 
 
¶12.  Investment Road-show Moves to London...  Following a successful 
investment conference for 40 international fund managers in Zimbabwe 
in June, the financial services group Imara and co-hosts Fleming 
Family and Partners will take their road-show to London on September 
¶24. According to Imara, economics is going ahead of politics, with 
investors seeking to exploit the first mover advantage.  In a press 
statement, Imara said Finance Minister Biti and executives from five 
leading Zimbabwean companies will address the London conference. 
Imara says dollarization makes Zimbabwe a good deal for investors 
because it eliminates exchange-rate risk.  The many Zimbabweans who 
keep their foreign currency accounts outside the banking system seem 
to take a different view. 
 
¶13.  Zimbabwe Slips on the World Bank's Doing Business Rankings... 
Zimbabwe is now ranked 159 out of 183 countries surveyed in the 
World Bank's Doing Business Report for 2010, well below South Africa 
and Botswana, which are rankd 34 and 45, respectively. Reflecting 
the poor business environment, a senior cartographer in the Ministry 
of Mines and Mining Development told us that applications for 
prospecting licenses submitted in 2007 have not yet been processed. 
Such delays help to explain why Zimbabwe has not attracted foreign 
investment in recent years. 
 
 
¶14.  Retail Giant in Discussion with Potential Partner...  A local 
retail giant, OK Zimbabwe Limited, has held a number of discussions 
with South African retailers, including Shoprite, to find a 
potential technical and equity partner. The chief executive officer 
of OK told us that the discussions are still at a preliminary stage, 
but the eventual shareholding structure will be guided by the 
current rules of a maximum of 35 percent foreign ownership in 
retail. 
 
------------------ 
Quotes of the Week 
------------------ 
 
¶15.  "Politicians are the ones that would have let the nation down. 
I won't feel bad. I am not a politician. The nation would have been 
let down, but not by me." - Attorney General Johannes Tomana, 
deflecting potential blame if the government collapses.  September 
7, 2009 
 
¶16.  "The rule of law has failed in Zimbabwe as there are some 
Q16.  "The rule of law has failed in Zimbabwe as there are some 
people in government and ZANU-PF who continue to disregard the law. 
MDC members continue to be arrested on trumped-up charges, assaulted 
or even murdered... Perpetrators of political violence cannot go 
unpunished. As long as there is no rule of law there is no justice, 
which means there will be no investment in Zimbabwe as there is no 
investor security." -- MDC-T Senator and businessman Matson Hlalo, 
speaking to residents of his constituency of Emakhandeni-Entumbane. 
 
 
PETTERSON