Robert Mugabe Won't Share Power

The latest attempt to revive Zimbabwe's power-sharing agreement has failed.

From the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire

"Four months after a power-sharing agreement was signed, Zimbabwe still does not have a permanent government. Robert Mugabe isn't interested in sharing power—but he may lose it.

Zimbabwe's parliament is due to reconvene on January 20th, just 24 hours after the collapse of the latest attempt to resurrect the power-sharing agreement forged in September 2008. Robert Mugabe, leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), claims that "we will continue with discussions here at home". However, his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is—understandably—less sanguine, stating that the talks had made no progress and that the failure was the "darkest day of our lives"...

[Mugabe] On the way out?
In fact, economic conditions are likely to prove decisive. After years of misrule, Mr Mugabe's position is becoming increasingly untenable. He has enough influence to remain in power for the time being—possibly even until 2010—but events are conspiring against him. Internally, the economic collapse will mean that nearly half of the population will require food aid during the next six months, increasing the tide of opposition against him. Compounding this is a cholera epidemic that has already killed more than 2,000 and threatens to spill over into neighbouring states. Although popular resentment of his rule has failed to worry Mr Mugabe in the past, the president's ability to keep his patronage networks intact is diminishing. Sources of financing for the government are decreasing in line with the economic collapse, and opposition to Mr Mugabe from within Zanu‑PF is understood to be increasing. It seems likely, therefore, that power will pass out of Mr Mugabe's hands at some point over the next 18 months."

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The Destroyer - Robert Mugabe and the destruction of Zimbabwe

Thanks to Jim for posting a link to this article in the comments section on the previous Zimbabwe-related item. If you have the time, it's well worth the read:

The Destroyer - Robert Mugabe and the destruction of Zimbabwe

by Jon Lee Anderson
October 27, 2008

"Nine hundred years ago, at a site on a high plateau north of the Limpopo River called Great Zimbabwe, Shona kings built stone palaces where they lived in splendid isolation from their subjects, with absolute authority over their means to sustain life—cattle herds, land, and the gold that came out of the earth. In the nineteen-sixties, members of a liberation movement in what was then Rhodesia, among them Robert Mugabe, adopted Great Zimbabwe’s name to refer to the notional state they were fighting for. Today, Mugabe can be said to be the owner of the riches that remain in the nation of Zimbabwe. After twenty-eight years, he remains in power––Zimbabwe’s only President since the end of whiteminority rule, in 1980. His nephew Leo, therefore, leads a cushioned life. He is an entrepreneur and has stakes in several companies, among them a mobile-phone network. He is a director of Zimbabwe Defense Industries, which purchases the weaponry for his uncle’s Army—most of it, these days, from China. He also controls at least one large farm that had been seized from its white owners. In the nineties, Leo earned notoriety for his alleged role in securing kickbacks, on behalf of his uncle and other officials, in the construction of Harare International Airport. In 2005, he was arrested for the contraband export and sale of government-owned food, but the charges were withdrawn for lack of evidence. (Leo said the allegations in both cases were unfounded.) That year, he was a candidate for Parliament for the Zimbabwe African National UnionPatriotic Front, known as ZANU-P.F., the ruling party. He won in a landslide..." More

$10 billion - and space still in your wallet for an Advantage card

I hate what Robert Mugabe has done to Zimbabwe, the once-proud former British colony of Rhodesia. He represents everything that is wrong with southern Africa, and his continued existence as "President" serves only to highlight the cowardice of South Africa's leadership, and that of the international bodies that allow him to cling to power while a cholera epidemic sweeps across the country, starvation is rampant and inflation in November topped...

89.7 Sextillion Percent.

The Mugabe regime is composed of utter scumbags, but I give them credit for having the balls to explain the cholera epidemic by "announcing that there is no epidemic, and if there were, it is a "chemical biological warfare" launched by Britain against its former colony."

Give a special tip of the hat to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono, who explained the introduction of a new Zimbabwean $10 billion note for the "convenience of the public ahead of the festive season."

For more background on the current horror that has enveloped Zimbabwe, I strongly recommend The Economist.