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RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #0812/01 2861124
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 131124Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4999
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 3077
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 3189
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1618
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 2452
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 2821
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 3237
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 5684
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2371
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 000812 
 
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 10-09-2009 
 
----------- 
¶1.  SUMMARY 
----------- 
 
Topics of the week: 
 
- Mugabe Opens Parliament... 
- ...And Then Attacks West's "Obnoxious Agenda"... 
- State Media Calls Off Attack Dogs... 
- ... And Then Intimidates Independent Paper... 
- Voter Roll Irregularities... 
- Striking Mine Workers Shot, Intimidated... 
- Minister of Defense Leads Diamond Delegation... 
- Zim Third-to-Last in Governance... 
- Biti is Best Finance Minister in Africa... 
- Stock Exchange Rises Against a Sea of Gloom... 
- Large Textile Firm Goes Under... 
- Journalists Astounded... 
- Government Cooks Up Another Privatization Plan... 
- Gono Wins Ig Nobel Prize... 
 
--------------------------------- 
On the Political and Social Front 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Mugabe Opens Parliament...  President Robert Mugabe gave a 
subdued and conciliatory speech at the opening of Parliament this 
week.  There was a marked contrast with the atmosphere last year 
when MDC MPs jeered him and accused him of stealing the election. 
Under instructions from their party, they remained respectful and 
even applauded when Mugabe called for unity.  Instead of the 
anti-Western rhetoric of previous parliamentary openings, Mugabe 
stated, "Our country remains in a positive stance to enter into 
fresh, friendly and cooperative relations with all those countries 
that have been hostile to us in the past."  Mugabe also said that as 
re-engagement proceeds, he would expect sanctions to be lifted. 
 
¶3.  ...And Then Attacks West's "Obnoxious Agenda"... President 
Mugabe spoke at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) 
'World 2009' meeting in Geneva on Wednesday.  He attacked the West 
for what he called the continued violation of Zimbabwe's airwaves by 
foreign based radio stations.  Mugabe told a Council of Ministers 
meeting that 'certain western countries' had 'radio broadcasting 
systems' that were targeting 'his' country to further their 
'obnoxious regime change agendas.' 
 
¶4.  State Media Calls Off Attack Dogs...  State media has ceased, at 
least for the time being, attacks on Prime Minister Morgan 
Tsvangirai.  A Tsvangirai advisor told us that "hate speech" was one 
of the issues about which Tsvangirai had recently confronted 
President Robert Mugabe, and that Mugabe had subsequently instructed 
George Charamba, presidential spokesperson and permanent secretary 
in the Ministry of Information, to lay off.  Charamba, who has 
substantial control over the content of State media, took Mugabe's 
instructions one step further.  There has been no negative coverage 
of Tsvangirai, but neither has there been any other coverage. 
 
¶5.  ...And Then Intimidates Independent Paper...  George Charamba 
admonished Zimbabwe Independent Editor Barnabas Thondhlana to not 
launch publication of a new independent daily "NewsDay." Charamba 
threatened to arrest him if the paper begins publishing without a 
license from the Media Information Commission. The MIC has been 
Qlicense from the Media Information Commission. The MIC has been 
defunct for more than six month, and until the President announces 
the new Zimbabwe Media Commission, there is no body to issue 
licenses. 
 
¶6.  Voter Roll Irregularities...  In an exhaustive preliminary 
analysis of the Zimbabwe voters' roll entitled "2013 Vision-Seeing 
Double and the Dead," the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) based in 
 
HARARE 00000812  002 OF 003 
 
 
Harare points to numerous irregularities that undermine the 
possibility of a fair election in Zimbabwe.  Among RAU's findings: 
There are over 74,000 registered voters over the age of 100 out of 
approximately 6 million voters (and RAU asserts the 6 million figure 
is improbable in a population that was calculated at 11.6 million in 
the last census in 2002); there are over 182,000 voters registered 
in two or more constituencies; in a number of instances, entire 
blocks of voters appear in two constituencies.  Because electoral 
authorities refused to release detailed election results, it was 
impossible to compare the voters' roll with actual voting.  RAU 
recommends legislative reform to remove the discretion of the 
Registrar-General in registration of voters, a reconstituted and 
independent electoral commission, a new Registrar-General, and 
construction of a new voters' roll.   The RAU report can be found 
at:  www.sokwanele.com/this 
iszimbabwe/archives/4858 
 
¶7.  Striking Mine Workers Shot, Intimidated...  Three leaders of a 
protracted strike at Shabanie asbestos mine in central Zimbabwe were 
shot on September 25 by police apparently acting at the behest of 
management of the government-operated mine.  Since the shooting, 
workers have returned to the job, fearing further violence and loss 
of their mine-owned housing.  Labor leaders have called for an 
official inquiry into the shooting, but so far no action has been 
taken.  See Harare 788. 
 
¶8.  Minister of Defense Leads Diamond Delegation...  The Herald is 
reporting that Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa is leading a 
Zimbabwean delegation to Angola and Namibia to consult on how best 
to comply with Kimberley Process recommendations in exploiting the 
Chiadzwa diamonds.  Deputy Minister of Mines Murisi Zwizwai (MDC-T) 
and other "high level officials" are also on the trip.  Zwizwai 
caused a firestorm in the MDC in June when he repeated ZANU-PF's 
mantra that there had been no violence in the lucrative, troubled 
diamond fields, where NGOs report over 200 have been killed in the 
last year. 
 
¶9.  Zim Third-to-Last in Governance...  The Mo Ibrahim Foundation 
released its Index of African Governance this week, ranking Zimbabwe 
51 out of the 53 African countries measured by commitment to four 
pillars of governance - safety and rule of law, participation and 
human rights, sustainable economic opportunity, and human 
development. Only Somalia and Chad scored worse. 
 
----------------------------------- 
On the Economic and Business Front 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  Biti is Best Finance Minister in Africa...  In another case of 
a prophet not being popular at home, Finance Minister Tendai Biti 
has just won the Euromoney Emerging Markets award for Best Finance 
Minister in Africa. Biti has withstood steady abuse from the 
government press for prudent policies that put a stop to the 
destabilizing habits of Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono.  Despite 
Qdestabilizing habits of Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono.  Despite 
the iron constraints that come with a cash budget, Zimbabwe's 
economy has recovered significantly under Biti's watch. 
 
¶11.  Stock Exchange Rises Against a Sea of Gloom...  Following the 
end of hyperinflation and the re-opening of trading on the Zimbabwe 
Stock Exchange (ZSE) in February, the market has performed 
exceptionally well. The latest data show that the benchmark 
industrial index rose by 64 percent from February through September. 
 According to the ZSE's Chief Executive Officer, foreign investors 
are taking advantage of low share prices for heavily capitalized 
firms such as Delta, Econet, Old Mutual, and Innscor, which should 
produce solid returns if the economic recovery is sustained. 
 
¶12.  Large Textile Firm Goes Under...  One of the largest textile 
manufacturers in Zimbabwe, David Whitehead Limited, has filed for 
 
HARARE 00000812  003 OF 003 
 
 
voluntary liquidation. The company has high production costs and a 
debt overhang of over USD2 million. New investors who bought the 
company late last year now believe that the balance sheet failed to 
show the company's true financial strength as it included some 
assets that were in dispute. The closure of the company will result 
in a loss of 1,400 jobs. 
 
¶13.  Journalists Astounded...  On October 5 the Public Affairs 
Section held a press roundtable on Zimbabwe's economy.  The 
questions mainly had to do with sanctions -- or the "illegal 
economic embargo," as it is known in the official press.  The 
assembled journalists, all of them from independent news outlets, 
were astounded to hear that trade between the U.S. and Zimbabwe has 
doubled since 2003.  So much for the embargo.  Surprisingly -- or 
perhaps not -- the local press did not consider this worth 
reporting. 
 
¶14.  Government Cooks Up Another Privatization Plan... 
privatization plan prepared by the Ministry of State Enterprises and 
Parastatals.  Most state-owned enterprises are operating at around 
five percent capacity, mainly because their capital stock has 
eroded.  Zimbabwe has seen many privatization plans but relatively 
little privatization.  We do not expect a different outcome this 
time. 
 
¶15.  Gono Wins Ig Nobel Prize...  Reserve Bank Gideon Gono received 
the Ig Nobel Prize in Mathematics on October 1 for "giving people a 
simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers - from 
very small to very big - by having his bank print bank notes with 
denominations ranging from one cent ($.01) to one hundred trillion 
dollars ($100,000,000,000,000)."  The Annals of Improbable Research 
announced the awards in a ceremony at Harvard University.  Gono did 
not attend. 
 
----------------- 
Quote of the Week 
----------------- 
 
¶16.  "We have repeatedly told the police that they should always 
refrain from using firearms against defenseless people." -- 
Co-Minister of Home Affairs, Giles Mutsekwa, speaking about the 
September 25 shooting at Shabanie mine 
 
 
¶17.  "I was hired by politics to make them look pretty" --George 
Charamba, the bombastic Information Ministry Permanent Secretary 
speaking to Zimbabwean newspaper editors at a UNESCO-organized 
meeting on October 6. 
 
 
PETTERSON