Author Archive

We are just back from a rally to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the MDC – we formed the Party ten years ago today! The rally was the biggest we have had in Bulawayo since we formed the Party and the entire leadership was present. The rally was preceded by meetings of the National Executive... »

More than ever we are learning that good government is not an optional extra – it’s central to the task of administering the world in which we live. Bad government is bad for everyone except a small minority who may stand to benefit from the concentration of power and patronage. As Churchill said once, democracy... »

I bumped into Max Chigweda last week and in the course of our discussion he said to me, “At least we are closer to the end than the start”. That just about sums up where we are right now and the territory in front of us is as deadly as any we have traversed... »

Zanu was launched in a small home in Highfield, a high density township on the outskirts of Harare. The small group of activists and intellectuals that took that fateful step that day could hardly have imagined the journey that lay ahead of them. In the next half century they were to be imprisoned and... »

Dear Family and Friends, A few months ago a friend was approached by a vendor who had a large walnut -sized transparent stone. The vendor didn’t want to say where he’d got the stone from but claimed it was a diamond and he was trying to sell it. The stone had a sharp edge which... »

The decision was made in the past few weeks to proceed with the implementation of the road map to a new constitution as laid down, in some detail, in the Global Political Agreement. This has set us on a course that is likely to transform our political landscape and bring an early end to... »

A letter from the diaspora Dear Friends. ‘While the cat’s away the mice will play’ goes the old English proverb. I’m pretty sure there’s a Shona equivalent – something involving the endearing ‘kitsi’ no doubt! But whatever the language, there’s a great deal of truth in the old proverb. As soon as Prime Minister Tsangirai boarded... »

In an estuary the turn of the tide happens every day – when it happens it is difficult to see at first but soon the water starts to run, slowly at first and then like a flood, sweeping all in front of it and even tempering the incoming waves. Are we seeing the first... »

It may be difficult to believe but on Monday next week, the MDC would have been in government for 100 days. On Tuesday the Prime Minister will address Parliament and on Wednesday he will launch the next 100 day programme at the International Conference Centre in Harare. The day before that he will address Parliament... »

In the late 90’s the Government of Zimbabwe held a conference on land reform in Zimbabwe. Broad agreement was reached between the State, the stakeholders and international aid agencies but the agreement was never implemented. Two years later, in an attempt to destroy the opposition base on commercial farms, the State began what it... »

I have not bought a Herald newspaper for at least 10 years. The reasons are many but mainly relate to the fact that for as long as I can remember your paper has been an apologist for the government and what in the past has been called the “ruling Party”. However on Wednesday this week... »

Just how bad the situation is in the economy is not hard to see. Banks are empty – no clients and often just one teller on duty. Wholesalers are slowly getting back on their feet but stocks are pathetic and staff few and far between. The streets are empty of traffic and in town... »

I looked through a list of one of the more recent line-ups of the Zanu PF government and found that in the list of 58 or so Ministers were 17 PhD graduates, many from prestigious Universities in Europe and the USA. Mugabe himself is no slouch, he works out, drinks very little and eats... »

It is now five weeks since we went into the transitional government and I think the most frequently asked question that I hear is “Why are you still in there”. That is not an easy question to answer but let me have a go at it here. Our objectives, as set out in 1999 when... »

I have often said that the only country in the world that has the power, and therefore the responsibility, to get Zimbabwe out of the crisis it is in, is South Africa. The reasons are geopolitical and easily demonstrated. It is the failure of South Africa to exercise that responsibility with the effective use... »

I am sure we all recall that press conference in Iraq when the Minister of Information for the Iraqi government was holding forth on the status of the war against them launched a few days earlier by the Americans. He boldly declared that the American forces would never reach the city of Baghdad. Behind... »

In late 2001, the local media covered a story claiming that a war veteran, Cain Ncala had been murdered – the story was elaborate and carefully constructed. The State claimed that he had been abducted by MDC operatives, taken into the bush and strangled. He body was found in a shallow grave some 40... »

Many years ago, Didymus Mutasa said that they (Zanu PF) would be quite happy if the population fell to 6 million people who would then support the Party in its ambitions. At the time the population was probably just over 12 million and most thought these were the remarks by someone who did not... »

I had two disturbing experiences this week. I visited the Head Office of the Ministry of Education and then went to the Government Pensions office. I was asking after the pension of a friend who had been retired for two years and had not received his pension. The Ministry of Education was a shock –... »

In the past two weeks the Zimbabwe economy has seen two really significant developments. The first is the total collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar and the second is the sharp deterioration in basic food supplies. On Tuesday a local banker told me that the cost of money transactions in Zimbabwe dollars now exceeded the value... »