Dell’s MDC lectures: The untold story
Sunday, 15 July 2012 00:15
Munyaradzi Huni
The leader of the smaller MDC faction, Professor Welshman Ncube, has revealed that he was never friends with former US ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Christopher Dell because, unlike others in the then united MDC, he refused to go to the “classroom” where the diplomat would give the Western-sponsored party lectures on how to run its affairs.
Prof Ncube went on to reveal that he got frustrated during the days when he was the negotiator in the united MDC because Mr Tsvangirai would authorise that they make compromises with Zanu-PF, only to backtrack whenever there was a backlash.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Mail, Prof Ncube confirmed the long-held view that the MDC is a project of the West, saying he was not prepared to take orders from any embassy in Harare or from any foreigners.
When he was asked to comment on remarks that were made by Mr Dell, as revealed by WikiLeaks, that he was “a genius who is highly divisive”, Prof Ncube said:
“Well, Dell was never one of our friends. I have never been able to figure out what divisive means in that context, but what I know is that there are those of us who refuse throughout the history of the MDC united and divided MDC to be told by any of the embassies here or any foreigner what we should do or what we should not do, what we should say and what we should not say.
“For that reason Dell was never a friend of ours because we refused to go to a class where he was the teacher and I guess the divisive he is referring to is our inability to accept that he had a right to determine our strategies and tell us what position we should take on any particular issue.”
When pressed whether there were some in the leadership of the MDC who attended the classes, Prof Ncube added: “Well, I am sure there are others, otherwise some of us we will not be hated by Dell and be so categorised. We were seen as an obstacle because we would not do those things he wanted us to do.”
Turning to Mr Tsvangirai, Prof Ncube said the MDC-T leader cannot be trusted by those he gives the responsibility to tackle issues on behalf of the party because even up to now, he changes positions whenever there is a backlash.
Said Prof Ncube: “You recall that in the united MDC I was tasked with the responsibility of negotiating with Zanu-PF . . . We negotiated many of the amendments to Posa, Aippa, all of those things were negotiated.
“When you negotiate, you always have a principal. Your principal is the leader of the party, your president. So, you always negotiate within the parameters of what you are given. Where you cannot agree, you go back and report that you cannot agree; this is what is on the table, what about this? You are then given a mandate, okay, go and try this one. I always did that.
“Among ourselves, with Tsvangirai as the president of the MDC, we were always able to agree to say okay let us do this. But when you went outside that, one never always got the support on things that we would have agreed on … If you have a principal who authorises a compromise and then backtracks on that compromise, that is a problem.
“Let me say, this did not only happen in the past, it is happening even now. I will give the example of why the Electoral Bill was stuck in Parliament for one year over the issue of the polling station-based voters’ roll.
“I was still a negotiator at that time. We negotiated and signed. We even signed the draft Bill itself to say there shall be a polling station-base voters’ roll . . . We all said given the compromises Zanu-PF has made, we are now prepared to accept the polling station-based voters’ roll.
“We all signed, but the MDC-T later says, we are taking all the things you gave, but we are withdrawing support for the polling station-based voters’ roll. I am just giving you an example of where negotiators are given authority and it is then withdrawn.
“That is the sort of frustration you would have at that time and I am sure this is the same frustration MDC-T negotiators have even today because they make compromises within mandates, then they are repudiated later on.”
He chronicled how Mr Tsvangirai went against all the rules of the party in 2005, disregarded advice from other leaders in the party and even stormed out of one of the meetings after discovering that no one was supporting his position not to participate in the Senatorial elections.
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, MDC, WELSHMAN NCUBE
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Conference must deal with electile dysfunction
Tuesday, 06 December 2011 20:47
ZANU-PF'S enduring strength has always reposed in its ability to radicalise the political dynamic, as observed by Christopher Dell, unite behind a common cause; defend the votes of its elected leaders and steamroll into opposition territory to grab more votes and even seats.
All this was made possible through unity of purpose that spawned sheer force of numbers that always left the opposition gasping for breath. Well, in March 2008 this juggernaut nearly came unstuck as Zanu-PF suffered something akin to ‘electile dysfunction' when it mattered most.
The party could not rise to the occasion, so to speak. It lost its parliamentary majority and forced its President and First Secretary R. G. Mugabe into a runoff poll for the first time since 1980. And that against one of the most uninspiring opponents.
Granted, the west's economic sanctions regime was really biting and the economy was screaming to high heaven.
Things were bad, bad, bad but through it all the majority of people were not fooled. They kept faith in Zanu-PF as they understood where and why the rain began beating them. This is why Zanu-PF got an edge over the MDC-T in the popular harmonised poll.
Though the crunching sanctions had a lot to do with voting patterns over the past 11 years, Zanu-PF was in a position to shake off the MDC-T challenge in 2008 but two issues cost the party outright victory.
The first, and to me the most grave one was the imposition of candidates by the Politburo and other higher echelons of the party at the expense of what the grassroots wanted.
This happened in several constituencies where Zanu-PF fielded two candidates who ended up splitting the vote in favour of the MDC-T.
The second and equally grave one was the sheer absence of principles among some party members who voted Zanu-PF for the council, House of Assembly and Senate, then Simba Makoni for president.
This self-defeating attitude came about because some Zanu-PF leaders openly told voters in their constituencies to vote for a Zanu-PF councillor, House of Assembly rep and/or senator and then Simba Makoni for president.
And in the end some Zanu-PF legislators got higher votes than President Mugabe in their constituencies as the President's vote was split with Simba Makoni nationally.
One would have thought Zanu-PF had learnt its lesson after that near miss of March 29 2008. But alas, events proved otherwise this year during elections to chose a speaker for the House of Assembly after the nullification of Lovemore Moyo's election in the wake of a court challenge by Professor Jonathan Moyo. Two Zanu-PF legislators secretly voted for Lovemore Moyo who beat Zanu-PF's Simon Khaya Moyo.
While what the two Zanu-PF MPs did was deplorable, indications were that they were protesting the imposition of Simon Khaya Moyo over other aspiring contenders.
Zanu-PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo, and Women's League boss Oppah Muchinguri were reportedly interested in the Speaker's post with the former having done extensive groundwork but were shunted aside as the Politburo wanted Cde Moyo, the party's most senior member out of government, to land the post.
Khaya Moyo's imposition spawned disgruntlement in party ranks that saw VP Mujuru read the riot act to Zanu-PF MPs whom she threatened with expulsion from the party if they did not vote for the national chairman.
Yet all that wasn't really called for, what the party should have done is hold primaries pitting Cdes Khaya Moyo, Oppah Muchinguri and Joram Gumbo with the winner taking on Lovemore Moyo.
I hope this will be standard practice in the run-up to next year's poll.
Zanu-PF can ill-afford the self-defeating practice of kicking the ball into the wild instead of the nets (bhora musango or protest voting). There is urgent need to remove the cancer that sees some leaders say no self-respecting Zanu-PF cadre should challenge another cadre with a higher rank in party primaries.
Let the primaries be real primaries where one's standing in the party is not an issue but one's ideas and appeal to the electorate so that voters get the candidates they want.
This is the only way to beat the scourge of self-defeating protest votes like we saw on March 29 2008 and during Lovemore Moyo's re-election.
Be that as it may, the paucity of principles exhibited by some party cadres should worry the leadership because in a situation like the one that pitted Lovemore Moyo against Khaya Moyo, votes should have been cast on principle not personalities.
One must vote for the party not its representative which is what happens in systems of proportional representation where a voter does not even know who the party will nominate to be his/her representative in parliament.
Many hope the 12th Annual National Peoples Conference will afford Zanu-PF the opportunity to look at itself critically, warts and all and ensure that going into next year, the ghost of 2008 has been well and truly exorcised.
And this calls for cleansing party ranks of dubious characters and putting an end to the cancer of imposing candidates. Zanu-PF can ill-afford the electile dysfunction of 2008, that necessitated inviting other partners into what should have been a monogamous union.
Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS (ZIMBABWE), CAESAR ZVAYI, CHRISTOPHER DELL, ELECTIONS, ZANU-PF
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Uneasy lies head that wears Western crown
Tuesday, 08 November 2011 00:00
Faced with a rebellion and plagued by guilt after killing his predecessor Richard II. King Henry IV laments how he, a royal, sleeping on the finest of linen can't afford to sleep a wink when commoners, after a day of back-breaking work, got a good night's sleep; when even fishermen being tossed around by the wind and sea waves could nod off to sleep. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," he concludes, probably wishing he had not seized the throne from his predecessor, Richard II who had been killed on his command.
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose;
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
King Henry IV laments (Part 2 Act 3, scene 1).
To his conclusion I would have added, ‘‘especially if the crown is borrowed or has been foisted by foreign handlers.''
I recalled King Henry IV's lament after reading reports that Libya had a new prime minister one Abdurrahim el-Keib, a US-educated engineering professor with little political experience and who had not set foot in Libya for all of 30 years. The man had just been parachuted to be premier of Libya's transitional government ahead of Mahmoud Jibril.
My thoughts went to the dour-faced interim prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, who had been passed off by Nato as the face of the new Libya. Jibril was relegated to the dustbins of history accused of not having spent much time in Libya during the time the rebels were shooting for the cameras as Nato bombs pounded Libya to rubble. The irony stuck out like a sore thumb.
Surely, how could they accuse poor Jibril of having spent ‘‘much of his time (the past eight months that is) outside Libya'' when they (Nato) were responsible for that globetrotting as they used Jibril to give an Arab face to an Anglo-Saxon invasion? The poor bloke also stood accused of having been an advisor to Gaddafi.
Surprise, surprise! What is eight months spent being shuttled from one western city to another by Nato, to deodorise the invasion as a Libyan effort to the 30 years El-Kieb without setting foot in Libya? What ties does the 61-year old El-Kieb have with the ordinary Libyan?
You be the judge.
Rewind to Afghanistan, 2001, after overthrowing Omar Mullah and his Taliban, Uncle Sam parachuted Hamid Karzai to lead Afghanistan. It soon emerged that Karzai had no authority outside Kabul, the Afghan capital.
His authority was so limited that he was derided as the "Mayor of Kabul". Despite this, Uncle Sam pressed on with his man, providing him with security, holding his hand but the conflagration did not end, infact it intensified. To this day, Afghanistan is still on fire and Karzai's authority remains in Kabul.
Rewind again to 2003, when Uncle Sam deposed Saddam Hussein. One Nuri al-Maliki, who had spent 24 years in the US, was thrust to the leadership of the Iraq transitional government. Once again his authority did not extend beyond the US fortified Green Zone.
I will not continue boring you with history serve to say Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan should be lessons for those among us fronting western regime change projects. He who pays the piper calls the tune so to speak. Uneasy lies the head wearing a borrowed crown.
The MDC, a regime change project to boot, was launched by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy that brought together the three main British parties, the Tories, Labour and Liberal Democrats with a view to unseating Zanu-PF to thwart land reforms.
Tsvangirai was foisted with leadership of the MDC ahead of Gibson Sibanda as it was felt a Shona leader would have national appeal. He admits as much in his William Bango-written memoirs.
Tsvangirai who has stubbornly insisted on retaining his Western placenta must learn from what has happened in Libya particularly in light of the unflattering appraisal he was given by former US ambassador, Christopher Dell.
Dell made it clear, in a leaked US diplomatic cable, that Tsvangirai is a liability to the regime change cause, and that should the West achieve its goal of effecting regime change in Zimbabwe, it might be prudent to look to the Diaspora for an MDC-T leader.
Said Dell; ‘‘Zimbabwe's opposition is far from ideal and I leave convinced that had we had different partners, we could have achieved more already. But you have to play the hand you're dealt. With that in mind, the current leadership has little executive experience and will require massive handholding and assistance should they ever come to power.
‘‘Morgan Tsvangirai is a brave, committed man and, by and large, a democrat. He is also the only player on the scene right now with real star quality and the ability to rally the masses. But, Tsvangirai is also a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgement in selecting those around him.
"He is the indispensable element for opposition success, but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power. In short, he is a kind of Lech Walesa (ex Polish president) character: Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country's recovery . . .
‘‘With few exceptions - Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa - the talent is thin below the top ranks. The great saving grace of the opposition is likely to be found in the Diaspora. Most of Zimbabwe's best professionals, entrepreneurs, businessmen and women, etc, have fled the country. They are the opposition's natural allies and it is encouraging to see signs, particularly in South Africa and the UK, that these people are talking, sharing ideas, developing plans and thinking together about future recovery.''
So our Prime Minister need not dream big as long as he wears the western crown because in the unlikely event that he wins the national presidency, that might be the end of him. He might find himself watching from the outside, facing a fate similar to that of an earthmoving machine, that is used to clear the road but is not allowed on it once its tarred and marked.
But again, if Tsvangirai loses he also risks being thrown in the cold as his backers look for a new horse to ride. The bottom line, it's not wise to be a vassal of westerners, no matter how enticing the crown.
It's better to be a homegrown politician like the enduring Egypt Dzinemunhenzva who, no doubt, sleeps soundly at Wedza centre, at his grinding mill that doubles as the African National Party's headquarters. The crown he wears is his own. He answers to his supporters. Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have shown us that, uneasy lies the head that wears a western crown.
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, LIBYA, MUAMMAR AL-GADDAFI, NATO, WIKILEAKS
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What WikiLeaks tells us about US
Saturday, 10 September 2011 23:25 Opinion
Diplomats as spies: As part of an intelligence gathering effort, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 ordered US diplomats overseas and at the UN to collect personal information on foreign officials including credit card and air travel numbers and biometric information.
While this may not be shocking to foreign policy gurus, it is certainly embarrassing for the United States and calls into question how much — and how frequently — the role of diplomat and spy has been blurred.
The US has lost everyone’s trust: Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called the release the “September 11 of world diplomacy”, in that everything that had once been accepted as normal has now changed. He is right. Many people — allies and foes alike — who have supplied information to American diplomats will be asking: Can the US ever be trusted? Some will blame WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for that.
But the US political establishment must blame itself. In these cables, we see American politicians and diplomats bad-mouthing their so-called allies. What a bombshell! The US is saying a lot of unsavoury stuff about its beloved “friends”. Surely, Assange cannot be blamed for exposing the double-speak?
Hypocrites are everywhere: All political parties have their fair share of people who indicate left but turn right. They shout slogans in public, but bad-mouth their parties in private. Zanu-PF, MDC-T, MDC, Zapu, Mavambo. They all have their fair share of hypocrites. But when gold rusts, what will happen to mere iron?
Undiplomatic name-calling: Several of the cables have US diplomats describing foreign leaders in unfriendly terms — from comparing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler to calling Russia’s Vladimir Putin “alpha-dog” and French President Nicolas Sarkozy “the emperor with no clothes”. In the Harare cables, American ambassador Christopher Dell describes President Mugabe as “a brilliant tactician and has long thrived on his ability to abruptly change the rules of the game, radicalise the political dynamic and force everyone else to react to his agenda”. But the same ambassador goes on to make unflattering statements about the President’s “ego and belief in his own infallibility; his obsessive focus on the past as a justification for everything in the present and future; his deep ignorance on economic issues (coupled with the belief that his 18 doctorates give him the authority to suspend the laws of economics, including supply and demand); and his essentially short-term, tactical style”.
On Morgan Tsvangirai, Dell says the MDC-T leader is “a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment in selecting those around him. He is the indispensable element for opposition success, but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power”. Dell says of Arthur Mutambara: “In many respects he’s a light-weight who has spent too much time reading US campaign messaging manuals and too little thinking about the real issues.”
On Welshman Ncube, Dell said the MDC leader “has proven to be a deeply divisive and destructive player in the opposition ranks and the sooner he is pushed off the stage, the better. But he is useful to many, including the regime and South Africa, so is probably a cross to be borne for some time yet”.
Mental slavery is still alive: A good 31 years after Zimbabwe’s hard-won independence, there are very senior politicians in this country who worship Western governments. All along, the public assumption was that imperialist treachery is the lifeblood of the MDC formations. But it is stunning to suddenly discover, through WikiLeaks, that some very senior people in Zanu-PF are consorting with the West and actively subverting our sovereignty.
Appearance is not reality: Any entity — be it an individual or a political party — has both a public persona and a private persona. Although we are shocked every time a scandal is brought to our attention, the truth is that there is always a difference between what we see (or what we think we see) and objective reality. Your friend can be more dangerous than your enemy. Unthinkable alliances can be forged behind the party leader’s back, raising serious questions over matters of betrayal and loyalty. To remain in control, and to avert palace coups, party leaders will have to devise new methods of monitoring the political universe. Even your most trusted ally is not a saint. Conversely, your most hated adversary is not always a devil. Political leaders — and the masses they lead — must always question and challenge what they believe to be true.
Every man has a price: It is safe to say that most politicians are driven primarily by money. Give them what they want and they will do anything for you. Forget all the rhetoric on the importance of principle. “Principle” is the motto of those who have not been offered a tempting sum. Once a politician tastes illicit money, all innocence is lost and there is no going back.
Unflattering assessments: It appears most party members lack the spine to speak out against their leaders in official party meetings. But when they sit down with foreign diplomats, the party members do not hesitate to criticise or even belittle their leaders.
International law is a charade: The WikiLeaks cables show the low regard US secretaries of state hold for international treaties that bar spying at the United Nations. Both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, systematically and serially violated those treaties to gain an incremental upper hand. And they did it in writing! That Clinton now decries Julian Assange's truth-telling as an “attack” on America but excuses her cavalier approach to treaty violation tells you all you need to know about US diplomacy and “international law”.
The US thrives on manipulation: The American government has always denied accusations of meddling in the internal politics of sovereign states. But the WikiLeaks cables provide proof that the US has sought to manipulate Zimbabwe’s elections, all in the hope of achieving a pre-determined outcome that preserves American interests. As Jack Shafer rightly observed, the history of scandal in America is the history of institutions and individuals routinely surpassing our darkest assumptions of their perfidy. Illegal regime change is not a figment of Zanu-PF’s imagination; it is the bedrock of Western foreign policy.
Watch your telecoms: Americans are quite clever on this one. To prevent local intelligence services from snooping into their telephone conversations, they use satellite phones and other state-of-the-art technologies which make it difficult, if not impossible, for local spooks to intercept.
The cables show that during election time in Zimbabwe, the Americans use satellite phones (on contract lines, rather than pre-paid) for secure communication. They also do away with the usual TelOne landline telephones, preferring CDMA handsets.
The story does not end there. The cables also allege that the US embassy worked closely with Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa to set up a parallel system for relaying election results straight from polling stations to a command centre, presumably in a bid to thwart alleged Zanu-PF machinations to rig the elections.
But in terms of law, only the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has the power to announce election results.
Intelligence services must introspect: There are lots of questions here. When all these senior politicians and influential personalities were having plenty of meetings with US diplomats, where was the Central Intelligence Organisation?
Where was Military Intelligence?
Where was the VIP Protection Unit?
Someone, somewhere, must have known or suspected what was happening. Are we to assume that all these meetings were detected by the local intelligence community?
If so, then the nation could afford a sigh of relief and take comfort from the knowledge that someone is taking care of national security. If not, then the intelligence community must seriously introspect and take decisive action.
Labels: AMBASSADOR, ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, CHRISTOPHER DELL, WIKILEAKS
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WikiLeaks sucks in church leaders
Thursday, 08 September 2011 02:00
Herald Reporter
WIKILEAKS cables reveal that in 2006 some church leaders intended to court Zanu-PF to participate in activities that would lead to regime change. The Mutare "bishops troika" comprising Trevor Manhanga (Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe) Patrick Mutume (Catholic Church) and Sebastian Bakare (Anglican Church) met US ambassador Christopher Dell at his offices in Harare on December 19, 2005 and explained how they intended to execute their plan.
The bishops reportedly said they had planned a meeting early in 2006 to discuss ways to influence people towards a possible "indaba-style" gathering on a new constitution.
They reportedly told Mr Dell that the new year would see a reinvigorated effort by the churches "to create momentum against the regime".
Mr Dell said the bishops acknowledged the risks he raised that Zanu-PF would manipulate such a diverse constitutional indaba to its advantage.
"Nonetheless, they maintained that while Zanu-PF had cynically sought the ‘churches' vision' to exploit for its own purposes, the churches would exploit the offer to create their own momentum against the regime.
"The bishops said they intended next year to ‘get the people out in numbers,' numbers that the regime would have to respect," said Mr Dell.
The US Ambassador further stated in his brief that the bishops intended to start by getting church leaders together in the new-year to discuss a common constitutional agenda that was likely to revolve around social and economic issues at the centre of Zimbabweans' concerns.
They would consult other democratic forces.
Last night, Bishop Manhanga confirmed meeting Mr Dell and the British ambassador but denied ever trying to influence people to rise against the Zanu-PF Government.
"No such thing ever happened. We were working cordially with the two political parties here," said Bishop Manhanga.
He said over a period of time they were trying to bring Zanu-PF and MDC together and encouraging them to come up with a new Constitution for Zimbabwe.
"We were looking at diffusing the tension between the two sides. We wanted them to talk to each other. We met Dell and the British ambassador over a period of time trying to find a solution to challenges facing the country that time," he said.
During the meetings, Bishop Manhanga said, one of the issues that featured prominently was the stand off between Zimbabwe and the British government over land.
He also said they met former South African President Mr Thabo Mbeki, Bakili Muluzi, the then Malawi President, former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano among other Sadc heads of State and Government to bring the two parties together.
Bishop Mutume said he could not remember meeting Dell, but was quick to dismiss the allegations as "very untrue".
"How can we do that? It was not possible to do that as we were trying to get the two parties (Zanu-PF and MDC) to do what has resulted in the present situation," said Bishop Mutume.
He said regime change was never part of their agenda.
"Our effort was trying to engage the two feuding parties to find a common ground and work together peacefully," said Bishop Mutume.
Retired Bishop Bakare could not be reached for comment.
According to the cables, the bishops exploited the opportunity they got to engage the Zanu-PF leaders.
"A principal opening in this regard was an approach to them before the Senate elections by Zanu-PF party chairman John Nkomo (now Vice President) and (former) Information Secretary Nathan Shamuyarira.
"According to the bishops, Nkomo and Shamuyarira asked them to articulate a proposal for bipartisan dialogue in Parliament to support a new constitution. After the senate elections and the opening of the MDC rift, the Zanu-PF ‘moderates' asked them to expand it beyond the Parliament to a broader stakeholder ‘indaba,' including strong Government of Zimbabwe critics such as Lovemore Madhuku's National Constitutional Assembly."
Mr Dell noted at the time that the MDC was absorbed by internecine struggles.
However, the bishops allegedly told him that they had consulted the previous week with MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai, who said the party would not be prepared for meaningful outside engagement until after the party congress in February.
"The bishops maintained that in any event, when the time came, churches and all other stakeholders would be driven by the imperative to limit executive power and assure that the country would ‘never, never again' experience the centralised autocracy of Mugabeism," said Mr Dell.
He said the bishops agreed with the ambassador that a de facto political transition was already underway as people increasingly focused on the post Mugabe era and that the nation's economic implosion was a liability from which the ruling party could not escape.
Everybody, he said, knew Zanu-PF had no plan; Zimbabweans --- including many in the ruling party -- were suffering and angry.
"Sanctions were useful in that they imposed "economic accountability" on those who otherwise enjoyed impunity.
"Moreover, the churches and others had lists of the perpetrators of abuses who would one day have to be called to account, whether by a truth commission or any other number of options that might ‘give expression to people's anger."
In 2005, Bishop Manhanga chaired the Heads of Christian Denominations, which came up with a draft document titled "The Zimbabwe We Want-Towards a National Vision".
The church's vision was to call for a national reconciliation process entailing the setting aside of political differences for the country's common good and for the realisation of economic turnaround.
Copies of the document were presented to President Mugabe, the two MDC formations and civic organisations.
Meanwhile, Zanu-PF has urged its members named in conspiratory engagements with US embassy officials by the whistle-blower website, WikiLeaks to examine their conscience as the party will soon institute investigations into the "disturbing" revelations.
Zanu-PF secretary for information and publicity Cde Rugare Gumbo last night implored those named in the cable leaks to start examining their conscience as the party was seriously investigating the matter.
Cde Gumbo said it was unfortunate that some senior and prominent people have been implicated in the secret meetings with hostile forces.
He said the party would look into the matter with the seriousness it deserves.
"The revelations are disturbing and demoralising. We are studying the issue, we want to see how these things develop but we have not yet taken a position as a party.
People should examine their own conscience and ask themselves whether they have done right or wrong, and if it is wrong, there is a way of correcting it," said Cde Gumbo.
The WikiLeaks have implicated some Zanu-PF officials, including a Vice President, MPs, army generals, MDC officials and Reserve Bank officials among others for secreetly met US embassy officials.
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, WIKILEAKS
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Mujuru behind Makoni party: WikiLeaks
05/09/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
THE late Rtd General Solomon Mujuru initiated Simba Makoni’s 2008 presidential bid and actively supported the former finance minister before chickening out at the last minute to save his wife’s career and business interests.
Leaked United States embassy cables say Vice President Joice Mujuru’s husband, who was burnt to death when an as yet unexplained fire razed his farm house in Beatrice last month, was the mastermind of Makoni’s candidacy after failing to build sufficient momentum within Zanu PF to force President Robert Mugabe to step down.
Mujuru’s moves against Mugabe were revealed by his key aides, Tirivanhu Mudariki and David Butau, in private meetings with officials from the United States embassy in Harare, according to diplomatic cables released online by WikiLeaks.
In a summary of discussions with Butau following a meeting held in May 2007, US Ambassador Christopher Dell wrote: “David Butau, Zanu PF MP and member of the faction allied to ex-military commander Solomon Mujuru, (told us) on May 31 that Mujuru had determined that the time to unseat President Robert Mugabe was now.
“Mujuru had flexed his muscle and wrested control of the party structures in Masvingo and Bulawayo, and his subordinates had begun to chip away at Mugabe's key backers. Butau added that while pressure on Mugabe was needed, the USG needed to quietly weigh into this intra-party battle to help block Mugabe's bid for another term.”
After failing to stop Mugabe’s nomination as Zanu PF’s Presidential candidate at the December 2007 congress, the conspirators apparently initiated Makoni’s bid while maintaining pressure within the party.
Mudariki told Dell’s successor, Ambassador James McGee, that Mujuru’s efforts culminated in a meeting with Mugabe on March 30, 2008, where the General was however outwitted by the veteran Zanu PF leader.
Wrote McGee: “(Mudariki) reports that Mujuru, in a meeting March 10 with President Robert Mugabe, urged Mugabe to step down, Mugabe declined, subsequently telling the press that Mujuru supported him and not presidential candidate Simba Makoni.
“Mujuru is now attempting to rally Zanu PF politburo members to put additional pressure on Mugabe at a scheduled Wednesday politburo meeting to resign. Mujuru continues to actively support Makoni, although he has not come out publicly.”
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Mujuru’s involvement in Makoni’s Mavambo/Kusile project was also confirmed by Dumiso Dabengwa, one of the few prominent Zanu PF officials to leave the party ahead of the key 2008 elections.
McGee adds: “Dabengwa averred that Makoni had substantial support in the country, even though high-profile leaders had, for personal reasons, chosen not to publicly express their support.
“He commented that General Solomon Mujuru also was one of the initiators of Makoni's candidacy; Mujuru was still solidly behind Makoni, but Dabengwa was unsure when and if he would make his support public.”
Mujuru is said to have balked at publicly endorsing Makoni for fear of possible “prosecution for corrupt business practices”.
Butau said Mujuru’s bid to get rid of Mugabe was driven by increasing alarm at the impact the country’s economic collapse was having on his vast business empire.
“The Mujurus believe Zanu PF cannot solve the economic mess and they need a regularisation of the business environment so that they can continue to conduct their many businesses,” Mudariki allegedly told Ambassador McGee at another meeting in October 2010.
The General had complained bitterly about the impact of Western sanctions on his business activities in a rare meeting with Ambassador Dell in 2006.
“Demonstrating that even he was hurt by the financial sanctions, Mujuru complained bitterly about a US$7 million line of credit he had arranged which had been frozen by OFAC,” Dell said.
“Mujuru added that the targeted sanctions were impacting other regime leaders and making them less eager to engage.”
The revelations could be a hammer blow to Vice President Mujuru’s waning dreams of succeeding Mugabe at the helm of Zanu PF.
Political commentators say already weakened by her husband’s death, VP Mujuru now risks being sidelined by Mugabe who bristles at any challenge to his rule.
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, JOICE MUJURU, MDC, SANCTIONS, SIMBA MAKONI, TREASON, WIKILEAKS
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WikiLeaks cables rightly scathing about Tsvangirai
by Petina Gappah
17/12/2010 00:00:00
ZIMBABWE'S prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, can be forgiven for being an angry man. Not only has Robert Mugabe failed to implement the agreement that created Zimbabwe's unity government between Mugabe's Zanu PF and Tsvangirai's MDC, the cables unleashed on WikiLeaks in recent days have revealed just what one of his key allies thinks of the prime minister.
The country is abuzz with details of what America's former ambassador to Zimbabwe thinks of Tsvangirai. It is of course the view of one man, Christopher Dell, but to many, the US has spoken. As Thursday's Guardian editorial put it:
"The cables were written by Americans, to be read by Americans and they form the undigested raw material of American policy."
And what the US had to say about Tsvangirai is so raw as to be downright unflattering. Tsvangirai, according to Dell, is "a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment". He is, Dell wrote, "an indispensable element for opposition success … but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power. In short … Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country's recovery."
The Guardian pointed out that many of the diplomats' cables are "are consistently well-informed, well-sourced and well-judged". Tsvangirai's spokesman issued a bellicose response: Dell's assessment of Tsvangirai, he said, was contrary to the views of the increasing number of Zimbabweans who have been supporting him since 1999.
But this is beside the point. The reality is that Tsvangirai has always been a protest choice, and not a real one. Given the choice between him and Mugabe, most voters would choose, and have chosen him. But this is not to say that he is by any means the best possible leader for Zimbabwe.
Dell's thinking chimes with what many in Tsvangirai's MDC and outside it have been whispering. There is no question at all that Tsvangirai is a brave man, a decent human being, and from all accounts, a likable one. But his actions as MDC leader have also revealed him to be all the things that Dell has said.
Tsvangirai encapsulates the dilemma of the revolution donated from abroad: for the west, he raises the question of what to do about a pro-democracy leader who is not all that he should be, but represents the best alternative to the regime it is fighting.
Dell compared him to Lech Walesa, but he is more like Hamid Karzai. Like the Afghan leader, he is a deeply flawed man whose success is nonetheless essential to the interests of the US and its allies, and who, flawed as he is, still offers a better alternative to the regime he is fighting.
But the strategy of uncritically supporting the lesser of two evils has been to the detriment of politics in Zimbabwe, and indeed, to its democratic development. Tsvangirai may be a lesser evil, but there is still much about him that causes discomfort. Supporting him has led to multiple contradictions and hypocrisies, both for the people of Zimbabwe and the MDC's western allies.
So while Mugabe is castigated for hanging on to power, and refusing to let democratic processes take place both within his party and the country,
[A criticism obviously not leveled against US ally, Egyptian president Hosny Mubarak, who is in his 80s, and has not lifted the state of emergency since he came to power after the assassination of President Sadat. Obviously, instituting democracy is not their foreign policy goal in Zimbabwe - securing the Zimbabwean people's diamond fields is. - MrK]
Tsvangirai, who intends to stay on as MDC president beyond the constitutional limits imposed by his party's constitution, is considered essential to democracy. In effect, undemocratic means are used to advance supposedly democratic outcomes. And in pushing and supporting a man who as patently flawed as Tsvangirai, they may effectively be creating a monster.
Dell also zoomed in on Tsvangirai's apparent aversion to ideas outside his small narrow circle. Rumours abounded that he wanted to sack Tendai Biti, the finance minister who has proved to be one of the leading lights in cabinet, and who, interestingly, was lauded by Dell as one of only two quality leaders in the MDC.
This, in the context of the elevation of the patently unqualified Theresa Makone to the high profile home affairs portfolio was a shocking development. A flamboyant businesswoman who started life as a beauty therapist, Makone and her equally wealthy husband are said to control party appointments in a way that many consider damaging to the party.
Dell's reflections are therefore an important trigger for a discussion of Tsvangirai and his style of leadership. The MDC has largely escaped scrutiny, as, for that matter, have other actors opposed to Mugabe.
The thinking behind this lack of scrutiny is that those opposed to Mugabe must be in the right. But Mugabe himself is the best example of a revolutionary motivated by idealism who soon found himself opposed to everything that he had stood for. Dell's cables are thus important to an examination of the MDC.
But considering the bellicose response to Dell from Tsvangirai and his party, this may ultimately prove to be a vain hope.
Petina Gappah is the award-winning author of An Elegy for Easterly and Zimbabwean lawyer. This article was originally published in the Guardian
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI
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WikiLeaks: One shame more, one gain less
by Nathaniel Manheru
04/12/2010 00:00:00
WIKILEAKS! WikiLeaks! Oh WikiLeaks! Yesterday morning we woke up to a front page story headlined, "I’m not bothered — Tsvangirai." With obvious relish, I quickly reached for a copy of the Ncube tabloid, curious to see how the big man from Buhera, so vaunted by the West for wielding superlative skills, handles this one, handles the invidious in general.
Here was mighty America — Tsvangirai’s sworn ally, and author of ZDERA — unhelpfully telling Robert Mugabe — Tsvangirai’s bete noire, and ZDERA’s victim — that, yes, you are right Bob, right after all; Tsvangirai is woefully inadequate: whether to play personality foil to you, or to succeed you as leader and president of this land of Great Stone.
Regarding the latter, mighty America says Tsvangirai — her proxy — has "little executive experience and will require massive hand holding and assistance." America goes further. The man will require massive assistance "should they [opposition] ever come to power." And in the unlikely event that they "should ever come to power", please watch out, warns our Prime Minister’s all-powerful master!
Zimbabwe’s Walesa
The man is "a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment in selecting those around him." And America declares that this composite flaw definitively circumscribes prospects both for the man’s career and for the opposition: "He is the indispensable element for opposition success, but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power." It helps to remember America did this character assessment before the Inclusive Government. Traversing the continent of Africa, all to reach Poland in mainland Europe, America declares Tsvangirai is alter ego to Lech Walesa, himself a precursor trade unionist-turned-president, thanks to Uncle Sam and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The analogy and conclusion is stark: "Zimbabwe needs him [Tsvangirai], but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country’s recovery." In his place, mighty America finds no alternatives, which is why it turns its eyes to those living in the Diaspora.
Timba the little…
Now, with this kind of characterization from a whole all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful, planetary superpower called America, who would not be too keen on the reaction? Who? Eagerly, I go for the "intro". It reads: "Jameson Timba, the Minister of State in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Office, says…blah, blah, blah." A-ah, so it is not the man himself saying "I am not bothered"? It is another? And who be it? Jameson Timba!
Timba the little bird! Timba the little! The whole story is devoted to the diminutive Minister "in the Prime Minister’s Office". It is, in other words, a story driven by someone coming from the very Office which is the subject matter of WikiLeaks. Let us see with what amount of competence. I read on. The horror, the horror! The Minister has "risen" to tell us all that the Prime Minister, Right Honourable Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, is not bothered by America’s view of him! Simply, not bothered at all. Palaver Finish!
Illustrating America’s verdict
Let me confirm that I had absolutely no interest in this story until this little man Timba rose tall and taller, all to tell us his boss is not bothered. But his boss is bothered enough to send him to tell us he is not bothered?
Not bothered at all! And when the messenger comes from his Office, when the messenger is his officer, we are immediately furnished with material with which to test mighty America’s character assessment of the man. Is someone thinking in that office?
The subject of America’s dismissive view of Tsvangirai centres on his sense of judgment, specifically his "judgment in selecting those around him." Such as Timba? How do you stretch yourself larger and taller to declare un-existing nonchalance? You convey non-bother by taking a bother with a media enquiry on the matter? With men like this, who needs to doubt the Americans?
R.S.V.P.
Now that the minister has invited us into the story, let us deal with it, candidly too. If not simply on grounds of his clumsy and disastrous handling of this public relations challenge on his boss, certainly on grounds of concern at the MDC-T leader’s claimed lack of concern at his handler’s view of him.
Let me dispense with matters of protocol first. America’s piece does not relate to Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister of this country. It could not have, given that at the time of this American judgment, the man was nowhere near Munhumutapa building, less in dreams, far, far less so in reality. Secondly, America is addressing him as a leader of an opposition it made and expected so much from. ZDERA, reinforced by successive executive orders makes this paternal connection and filial expectation so obvious as to be trite.
So I need not comment within strictures, fearing I am accused of disrespecting the Office of the Prime Minister of this country. But equally, I am not constrained from gauging whether or not the man has evolved, ever since the passing of this verdict, now leaked to the world.
Aesthetics of longer apartheid
I am Zanu (PF) and the temptation to go for Tsvangirai beckons compellingly. Yet that would be to miss a crucial point with a direct bearing on this country and its African (black) people, the true indigenes of this land. I am not the type that gets finicky about whose land Zimbabwe is. I am very clear, the same way I am very clear that when a victim of oppression agonizes to ingratiate himself or herself with the oppressor, he/she is showing appalling weakness, in fact showing a despicable complex.
He is not showing strength of character, less still magnanimity. It is a weakness that only invites greater derision from the oppressor, not a higher regard for superior humanity. You cannot mortgage the entitlements of your people in the name of one-sided reconciliation. Much sooner than much later, South Africa will learn there is no black colour on the rainbow, itself a vaunted symbol of post-apartheid reconciliation and its famed amity.
If South Africa treats "rainbow" as a symbol of permanence, as a timeless and unconditional ideal, then the rainbow will turn out to be such a bad, execrable metaphor that misled a generation. If South Africa treats the rainbow as a social model for tackling racially entrenched disparities, then the rainbow will turn out much worse, indeed acquiescence so unfit and so demeaning to a liberation movement.
One shame less, one gain more
No amount of aesthetizing the apartheid that lingers well into Uhuru will alter the above facts. We saw it here. We called "longer Rhodesia" the "private sector" or "commercial farming". We deodorized it up to 2000, until our embittered people told us there was dung in the room.
We only began moving forward as a people the day Robert Mugabe decided that the reconciliation which had given us some peace respite from a bitter war, could never deliver social justice to the downtrodden. And it has been so throughout histories of the oppressed.
It was Mexico’s armed revolutionary leader, one Zapata, who said: "We fight for the land and not for illusions that give us nothing to eat…. With or without elections, the people are chewing the cud of bitterness." Real progress begins to register when as a people and a race find each day comes to mean one shame less, and one material gain more.
Hard on the ward
I want to go back to WikiLeaks. Zanu (PF) welcomes this as propaganda manna. It should and it must wring out of this hefty disclosure every ounce of propaganda value. Well before the Zimbabwean masses have judged this man called Tsvangirai, his own benefactors have dropped a hint to guide all of us when the time of judgment comes.
They do not think highly of him, something this column has repeatedly pointed out. Surely benefactors are always charitable, even reluctantly so. When they eventually say hard things about their ward, when they cannot hold back on negativity, and say so loud enough for the ward’s enemies to hear, surely they have seen something too sinister to be ignored, too dangerous to benefit from doubt. This seems to be where we are.
America’s KRA
But there is a more fundamental point: that to do with imperial America’s relationship with small, rich states, relationship with small, dark people minding their own little, coveted corner in the world. Throughout the leaked assessment of Tsvangirai, the concern of America is apparently not Zimbabwe and its futures.
The fixation is with one Mugabe, chiefly his delayed political end. America’s "grit, determination and focus" is in getting Mugabe out of the way and the fact that this was the subject focus of Dell, clearly suggests that was the raison d’etre of his deployment here. Maybe the all-time reason for the deployment of American Ambassadors to Harare. Mugabe’s downfall is a key result area of American foreign policy, it seems.
Caveat Emptor
And America pursues this with singleness of purpose. Its whole concern is invested in this one outcome. Here we call it regime change, a sinister goal the American embassy here stoutly denies as sullying its otherwise impeccable foreign policy. And when Mugabe falls? America, apparently, is not concerned.
About that, it makes a measly contribution: simply by way of a costless warning to all of us on who should not lead us. And the man who should not lead us is Morgan Tsvangirai, America tells us. Read all that against the tall claims of ZDERA and Executive Orders signed by successive US Presidents and tell me what price tag you would put on America’s care of this small, great country, on this small, great black people.
Holding thy hand
Except not caring for post-Mugabe Zimbabwe’s fate would actually have been a favour to all of us as Zimbabweans. And don’t get me wrong: to say America does not seem to care is not to say America has no interest in getting involved. On Zimbabwe, America is not about to cut and run. You cannot miss America’s fervency in the leaked report.
America means to stay. It promises "a massive hand holding and assistance" to a Zimbabwe led by an unable MDC and its equally unable leader. I mean, no-one should be foolish enough to think Dell is wishing for a "massive SADC hand holding"? The massive hand he means is that of imperial America.
That is where Tsvangirai’s character as read by his American benefactors and your fate and my fate, intersect. America will lead Zimbabwe simply by holding the disabled governing hand of the MDC, should it ever become a ruling party! And America is too impatient to hesitate. After all, save for Tsvangirai’s ineptitude, America "could have achieved more already."
Brave for what?
But there are qualities in Tsvangirai America gladly extols. He is brave. He is committed. He is "by and large" a democrat. More fundamentally for America, he is the one player "on the scene right now" with "the ability to rally the masses". Brave in defence of what? Committed to what? Whose democrat? Rallying the masses towards what?
Such questions bring us closer to America’s sense of leadership abroad, little abroad. Answers to all these questions, quite naturally, must relate to helping America "achieve more" in Zimbabwe, which is where one needs to broaden the outlook beyond Dell’s instalment, itself the latest and "lastest", as his tour of duty came to a close. What WikiLeaks gave us were last rites of policy exhortations by an American envoy to America pursuing defined goals, working for definite outcomes, all set well before this leak.
For America, African opposition politicians are there to neutralize African leaders who dare oppose the realization of American interests on their own soil. For that eventuality, they must show bravery and commitment; they must be charismatic enough to "move the masses". African political leadership should be instrumental to the pursuit of American interests on the continent. And the whole MDC campaign woven around marches to State House, around "removing" Mugabe "forcefully", was part of the leadership test for Tsvangirai. They found him brave; they found him committed, but with a serious IQ deficit.
I did not say it; America did. And as "the end gets nigh", quite naturally American imperialism gets anxious. It needs an able hand "to rally the masses" towards endorsing the outcome America desires, towards accepting to live under a neo-colonial outcome perpetually, without challenging American interests. It means reconstructing a new "State" out of the one created in the aftermath of the war of liberation. That State must be ably manned, with competent hands. This is America’s gripe with Tsvangirai and those around him. Through the incompetence of those around him, he cannot build a cleverly run neo-colony for America.
The Maliki option
America’s solution is not Biti or Chamisa, much as it places both above their condemned leader. It is those Zimbabweans in the Diaspora. I call this simple America’s Maliki option, after the experiences of post-Saddam Iraq. Or the Karzai option where Gucci-smelling Moslems are plucked from Diasporic Afghanistan to take over an Afghanistan ruined by a blatant American invasion, and then to rule it after the image and vision of Uncle Sam. America tried the same in Cuba, which is why post-1959, America pursued a policy of Floridising Cubans, including through the Peter Pan project which involved massive abduction of Cuban children for adoption by American families in Florida and other cities.
The idea was to raise a Cuban émigré community in sufficient numbers to be able not just to mount an invasion, but also to cobble an American-reared leadership for Cuba. So when the American envoy talks of a hand-held outcome, we need not conjecture what that means in everyday terms. We have precedence already, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, but also spectacularly inspiring examples in Cuba. To say so is not to indict many Zimbabweans out there eking out a hard living in the Diaspora. We should get away from this fallacy of thinking everyone out there is pro-West and an MDC activist, supporter or sympathizer. True, tall tales have been sold to western immigration officers by many in the Diaspora.
But once settled, Zimbabweans in the main regain their sense of nationalism. I have always told people if you want to radicalize a Zimbabwean, send him abroad. Whatever the dominant disposition of Zimbabweans out there, the issue is imperialism will not stop hoping or drawing scenarios serviceable to it. It is important to know this.
Still standing
I recall Baffour Ankomah of "New African" magazine reminding me after an instalment that America’s penultimate act before ousting Nkrumah was to withdraw its white envoy who had done much of the dirty work, in order to replace him with a black one who would blend well with Ghana. Maybe that is what McGee was all about and this column made the same point. It read McGee together with Johnnie Carson, averring their deployment to or on the Zimbabwean case was not necessarily out of sync with the broader pursuits of imperialism. But a good two years after McGee, Mugabe still stands. It is precisely for the same reason that I find Charles Ray and his latest forays at attempting to rally veterans of Zimbabwe’s war of liberation, quite interesting. Is he the one America has been waiting for to deliver Mugabe’s head? Is he a correction on McGee? Or might he be a turning point after the false end Dell saw and America hoped for?
Shark on sand dune
Ambassador Charles Ray reads like a proverbial shark pushed to a sandy shoreline. It can no longer rely on its size and agility, facing as it does a sea of sand. Much as one wants to like him, one finds him a bit strange in white America’s way. How can he tell us an American Ambassador’s view is not American policy, without nullifying his own role here? That view certainly matters to American policy, and that is the point. And when he says so, is his not another American ambassador’s viewpoint which need not be America’s policy? Which is to say Dell could very well have articulated America’s policy, whatever Ambassador Ray thinks and says?
Anyway, what is America’s policy towards Tsvangirai, if Dell’s views are not it? That he has good judgment and must lead this country? Or that the end for Mugabe is "not nigh"? I do not like denials from Westerners which take us for buffoons. We are a thinking nation, a thoughtful people, and Ambassador Charles Ray must respect his origins which connect him to us regardless of whom he serves today. He must never bring to bear here a white man’s contemptuous view of the Zimbabwean African. We are not cretins and Dell’s backhanded tribute to Robert Mugabe is deserved. It is not an act of generosity by a white American Ambassador.
Wikileaks or Weak Links
We have come a very long way, seen a lot and survived stupendous adversity. We are still standing. We mean to live, to endure, driven by the same appetite for longevity that animates white America. The era of revolutions that produce martyr-leaders is long over. We read Nkrumah not just to know how to move forward, but also to know how not to be extinguished in a dangerous world. The African revolution must defend its leaders. It must not ape Haiti, itself an ambivalent symbol of black prowess and black vulnerabilities. From where I stand, America must budget to deal with Mugabe, a longer Mugabe, which is what makes its view of his fall utterly mistaken.
It is a hard fact Britain is just beginning to digest, albeit interrupted by numerous internal growls in its own stomach. It is a hard fact that Europe, led by its southern soft-belly, is beginning to grapple with, turning over to the page of pragmatism. And Mugabe’s longevity subsists not in claimed "autocracy" or "rigging", which all the westerners do know is fictional, self-serving fabrications. Mugabe’s longevity lies in the fact that he has turned out to be both "the wind of change" which began in the 1960s, and the gale of empowerment which roars in open challenge to neo-colonialism.
He wants the aftermath to be African, truly African. In that respect he leads the pack and has treaded where even angels would dare not go. With a continent still occupied, a people still marginalised, a future still strangled, how can Mugabe ever fall? How can his end ever be nigh? WikiLeaks has shown imperialism’s weak links.
Icho!
Nathaniel Manheru is a columnist for the Saturday Herald newspaper
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, MANATHANIEL MANHERU, NEOCOLONIALISM, WIKILEAKS
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COMMENT - Excellent reporting and analysis. Especially juxtaposing Christopher Dell's proposals and Tendai Biti's itinerary is brilliant and systematic - we need more of it.
MDC-T: Conduit in US foreign policy
By Itayi Garande
SECRET documents released by whistle blowing Wikileaks on Monday show MDC-T as an unwitting puppet in the US plan for regime change in Zimbabwe, a charge President Mugabe has been making for the better part of the last decade.
A leaked cable sent to Washington by Christopher W. Dell, former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, also directed to USAID, selected US embassies in African countries, NGOs like USAID, military centres in Europe, among other agencies reveals the US foreign policy plan and the MDC’s role in that plan.
The cable was also sent to Dan Mozena, then Director of Southern African Affairs at the US State Department. This is not surprising. During a March 23, 2007 Congressional briefing on Zimbabwe, Mozena and Donald Payne (Democrat), House of Representatives Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations, revealed continuing US Government funding for the MDC factions, Lovemore Madhuku’s National Constitutional Assembly, civil society organisations, NGOs and the Voice of America Studio 7 Project through USAID and the US Embassy in Zimbabwe.
They also disclosed ongoing efforts with a number of other African leaders and to co-ordinate efforts with the United Kingdom, European Union, United Nations, African Union, and Sadc to ensure that regime change was achieved in Zimbabwe sooner rather than later.
Dell’s leaked classified cable was an important and sensitive document, which revealed and confirmed the Zimbabwe Government’s earlier regime change accusations.
It was sent to American embassies in Abuja (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Dakar (Senegal), Kampala (Uganda), Nairobi (Kenya). They were also sent to embassies in Canberra (Australia) and France (Paris).
It was also sent to the United States European Command intelligence centre (USEUCOM) in Vaihingen, Germany; the National Security Council in Washington DC and to the American Joint Analysis Centre at Molesworth; the RAF Molesworth (a Royal Air Force station located near Molesworth) in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom and to the United States UN mission in New York.
The cable was a highly sensitive piece of information, and Mr Dell classified it under Section 1.4b/d of Executive Order 12958. So the matter is as sensitive as it can get.
The Senior African Director at the National Security Council works closely with the US President. The NSC is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. This means that the Zimbabwean issue is dealt with at the highest level within the US administration.
It seems that the embassies that received Dell’s cable, represent countries that were sympathetic to the MDC-T. Between 2007-2008, the MDC-T embarked on a major offensive in the African region and in the West with Tsvangirai declaring that he wanted "to cut Mugabe’s umbilical cord with Africa".
He visited the countries quoted in Dell’s leaked cable.
Tsvangirai himself, or senior MDC-T officials, visited all these countries in 2007-8. The trip to Ghana was briefly interrupted as MDC-T founding chairman, Isaac Matongo had died. Tsvangirai was to later visit that country in 2008, where he told a news conference in Accra that: "We believe the time has come for him (President Mugabe) to have an honourable exit," in line with US foreign policy. He added: "We are calling ... on every head of state in Africa to stand in defence of the people of Zimbabwe."
MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti held "consultative talks" with Kenya’s then new Prime Minister Raila Odinga on July 21, 2008. Tsvangirai visited Uganda (November 21, 2007), Nigeria (April 21, 2010) where he met with then President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ghana (April 22, 2008), Senegal (July 31, 2008), etc.
These trips, however funded, seemed congruent with Dell’s recipients of the leaked cable.
These revelations echoed similar pronouncements further afield in Europe made by Tony Blair, Lord Triesman and Sir Ian McCartney in the United Kingdom House of Commons between March 12 and 26 2007, and the publication of a report of the International Crisis Group entitled "Zimbabwe: An End to the Stalemate?"
The report marked the roots of Dell’s regime change move and a full description of the "managed change" formula was contained in that ICG report of March 6, 2007.
The idea of taking Zimbabwe to the UN Security Council was hatched in the House of Lords, after this report was published, and Dell travelled to London to discuss the US’ role in the post-Mugabe era.
It seems there was a "final push" now being envisaged as "the end of Mugabe was nigh".
Dell and Lord Triesman spoke with the same voice during that period. Dell’s idea was that the economy would eventually destroy President Mugabe and Lord Triesman retorted in the House of Lords:
"I have also heard that Mugabe anticipates carrying on in power well beyond 2008. I do not know whether that will happen, because his economy has more or less imploded."
Lord Lea of Crondall seconded Lord Triesman’s contention by declaring that Tsvangirai "is a former friend of ours, a trade union official and a great democrat".
The web was quite intricate.
Dell, in his communication, also reveals that he was working with Zanu-PF so-called "moderates" who had come together with the MDC to draft a "new constitution" as a basis for internationally supervised elections in 2010 — which would see Tsvangirai installed as president.
It has now emerged that the idea of an internationally supervised election was the work of Dell, who reported in the leaked cable that "The End is Nigh". It was not an MDC-T baby. This also sheds light on the US regime change strategy in Zimbabwe, and its possible hand in the harmonised elections of 2008.
In line with this design, the MDC formations were encouraged to unite behind the so-called "people-driven constitution" in an effort to postpone the harmonised elections from 2008 to 2010.
Tsvangirai failed to follow this US plan as Sadc, through former South African President Thabo Mbeki, was pushing for a negotiated solution.
This led Dell to conclude that "Tsvangirai is ... a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgement" in the 2007 cable to Washington.
It seems that Dell, at his departure, was quite sure that his regime change agenda had succeeded, and that, with the help of the donor community, especially USAID, ‘change’ was in the offing.
He wrote: "Change is in the offing, we need to step up our preparations. The work done over the last year on transition planning has been extremely useful, both for stimulating a fresh look at our own assumptions and plans and for forging a common approach among the traditional donor community.
He makes an interesting revelation that was dismissed at the time — the revelation that NGOs were directly involved in regime change activities, in concert with the MDC-T.
Government briefly banned NGO work and asked all NGOs to re-register.
The MDC-T criticised government’s move, but it is now clear that government was right in stating that NGOs were exceeding their mandate and meddling in internal politics.
Dell’s leaked cable further reveals: "But the (regime change) process has lagged since the meetings in March in London and should be re-energised. It is encouraging in this respect that USAID Washington has engaged the Mission here in discussing how we would use additional resources in response to a genuinely reform-minded government."
He added: "I hope this will continue and the good work done so far will survive the usual bloodletting of the budget process."
While Dell admitted that African diplomacy was taking over the negotiating space, via mechanisms like Sadc, he however felt that the US should lead the regime change process in Zimbabwe, citing countries like Australia and Britain and supra-governance structures like the EU and UN as failing to "pack enough punch".
This puts a stop to academic arguments that the US was merely responding to a bilateral dispute between Zimbabwe and its ally, Britain. The US, it can now be categorically stated, has its own interests in changing the government of Zimbabwe, divorced from the stand-off between Zimbabwe and Britain.
That means any negotiations on sanctions removal, e.g. the EU - Zimbabwe talks, are mere moot points unless they involve the US as well. Dell concluded: "The Africans are only now beginning to find their voice. Rock solid partners like Australia don’t pack enough punch to step out front and the UN is a non-player.
"Thus it falls to the US, once again, to take the lead, to say and do the hard things and to set the agenda."
Unfortunately, MDC-T is not mentioned in any of these structures. They are a mere conduit for the realisation of US foreign policy objectives in Zimbabwe and the region, and are a dispensable lot in Washington’s eyes. The sooner they realise this, the better for everybody.
itayig *** hotmail.com
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, MDC, NEOCOLONIALISM, WIKILEAKS
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Tsvangirai anger over Dell criticism
by Staff Reporter/AP
01/12/2010 00:00:00
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party expressed irritation over critical remarks made by the former United States ambassador to Zimbabwe in a secret 2007 cable made public on Monday.
Christopher Dell described the former trade unionist as “a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment in selecting those around him.” The envoy further suggested that Tsvangirai was unfit to govern, although adding that he was “indispensable” as an opposition leader.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party, said Tuesday that Dell was "entitled to his opinion".
He added: "Dell's statement on Tsvangirai’s alleged failings is not the collective opinion of the people of Zimbabwe who will determine the future of this country.”
MDC officials have been stung by Dell’s cable leaked on the whistle blower website, Wikileaks.
Zimbabwe’s state-run media, fiercely loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, seized on the comments to mock Tsvangirai – totally ignoring criticism of the President in Dell’s memo.
Dell’s statement that the MDC was a “partner” in America’s efforts to bring “change” in Zimbabwe “showed the MDC was a mere pawn in the American scheme to direct Zimbabwe's internal affairs”, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.
And addressing reporters on Tuesday, Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said the text of Dell’s cable confirmed Washington’s commitment to what he called “a regime change agenda” to oust Mugabe with Tsvangirai as its token figurehead to replace the veteran leader, who has ruled since independence in 1980.
In Dell’s words, Zimbabwe’s former opposition was “far from ideal and with different partners we could have achieved more” to help remove Mugabe.
The current United States ambassador, Charles Ray, said in a statement Tuesday lives could be endangered in Zimbabwe and other troubled nations if Wikileaks identifies human rights and other activists who gave their “candid insights” to U.S diplomats.
Ray said revealing such identities could lead to “imprisonment, torture, even death” in nations with a record of rights abuse such as Zimbabwe.
“The United States government is committed to maintaining the security of our diplomatic communications. We will continue to work to strengthen our partnership with the people of Zimbabwe and make progress on the issues that are important for our two countries. We can’t afford anything less,” Ray said.
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NELSON CHAMISA, WIKILEAKS
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US scorns ‘inept’ MDC leadership
Herald Reporters
THE United States failed to effect regime change in Zimbabwe be-cause it was working with a weak MDC party with an inept leadership, leaked classified documents have revealed.
Among 250 000 leaked documents published by Wikileaks on Sunday night is a communication by former US ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell in which he said there was no "ideal" opposition to Zanu-PF and President Mugabe. In a scathing assessment of the two MDC formations, Dell said regime change would have been easier to instigate had the parties had more "talent".
The communication — titled "The End is Nigh" — to the US State Department and other diplomatic missions was on July 13, 2007 and gave Dell’s assessment of how the 2008 elections were likely to go.
Dell said MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai was, however, useful for American purposes in Zimbabwe. He lamented: "Zimbabwe’s opposition is far from ideal and I leave convinced that had we had different partners, we could have achieved more already.
"But you have to play the hand you’re dealt."
Dell said the MDC leadership had little executive experience and would "require massive hand-holding and assistance should they ever come to power".
Last week, The Herald broke the story that Mr Tsvangirai, as Prime Minister in the inclusive Government, had asked the British to second someone to hold his hand and offer him "technical advice".
Dell described Mr Tsvangirai as a "flawed figure" who was "not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment in selecting those around him".
"He is the indispensable element for opposition success, but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power.
"In short, he is a kind of Lech Walesa character: Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country’s recovery."
Walesa, also a former trade unionist, was largely built up by the West to take charge of Polish politics in opposition to communism during the Cold War.
Dell was dismissive of MDC leader Professor Arthur Mutambara.
"Arthur Mutambara is young and ambitious, attracted to radical, anti-Western rhetoric and smart as a whip.
"But, in many respects he’s a lightweight who has spent too much time reading US campaign messaging manuals and too little thinking about the real issues."
He also took a dig at MDC secretary-general Prof Welshman Ncube.
Dell said he was a "deeply divisive and destructive player in the opposition ranks and the sooner he is pushed off the stage, the better".
The American diplomat wrote of his belief that the sanctions-induced economic malaise would lead more to President Mugabe’s ouster from office than any other single factor — including the MDCs.
He said there was no prospect of the MDCs working together.
Commenting on the party’s October 2005 split, he said this was "a totally unnecessary self-inflicted wound".
He said MDC-T had "thin talent" and needed "the great saving grace" from Diaspora professionals, entrepreneurs and businesspersons.
Dell expressed frustration that the MDCs could not co-ordinate activities with NGOs like the National Constitutional Assembly and Women of Zimbabwe Arise.
He said NGOs — many of which are also Western-funded — and the MDCs were "natural allies" with "more reason to work together than fight against each other".
In light of this, he hinted at other prospects for President Mugabe’s removal from office, including a "popular uprising", "Mugabe’s sudden, unexpected death" and a military coup.
He mentioned the possibility of former South African president Thabo Mbeki facilitating a coalition government led by Zanu-PF.
Observers yesterday said the revelations showed the MDCs were mere pawns in the American scheme to direct Zimbabwe’s internal affairs.
Others noted the arrogance with which America gave itself the mandate to determine who should lead.
Controversy stalked Dell since his posting to Harare in 2004 until his unceremonious departure in 2007, when he left for Afghanistan where America is bogged down in a military quagmire of its own making.
Before coming to Zimbabwe, Dell had been posted to other places where the US has meddled in internal affairs with disastrous consequences — Kosovo and Angola.
Dell was in October 2005 detained by security forces after trespassing into a restricted area of the National Botanical Gardens, after which he tried to provoke a diplomatic incident.
He also travelled to areas outside the capital without Foreign Affairs clearance as is the norm the world over, and had a brush with the police in Mashonaland Central.
In November 2005, the Government summoned Dell for a dressing down in which he was told to behave or pack his bags.
A similar riot act was read to him and other Western diplomats in March 2007.
Dell left in July 2007 when his term expired. He left without bidding farewell to President Mugabe, as per diplomatic etiquette.
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, NEOCOLONIALISM, WIKILEAKS
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Wikileaks: Ncube accuses US of plot to kill him
Murder he wrote ... Ambassador Christopher Dell
by Staff Reporter
29/11/2010 00:00:00
INDUSTRY and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube has accused the United States of a plot to assassinate him after a leaked cable from its former ambassador to Zimbabwe recommended that he be “pushed off stage”.
Ncube said Ambassador Christopher Dell’s 2007 cable, posted on the whistle blower website Wikileaks, showed the United States’ “extensive” and “deep” interference in Zimbabwe’s domestic affairs.
As the United States battled to contain the fallout from the leaking of some 251,000 diplomatic communications from 274 embassies, the release of Dell’s classified communication has opened a new diplomatic fault line in Harare.
In it, Dell said Ncube “has proven to be a deeply divisive and destructive player in the opposition ranks”, in the context of the 2005 split in the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Dell, who wanted opposition politicians and civic groups to rally behind Morgan Tsvangirai, added cryptically: “The sooner he is pushed off the stage, the better.”
Ncube said he was in no doubt that Dell was soliciting his assassination.
In an angry telephone outburst from Harare, Ncube stormed: “I’m a politician and my future rests in the hands of voters who can vote for me, or choose not to vote for me.
“But when I lose an election, I don’t leave the stage but continue fighting over ideas. So if Dell is proposing that I be taken off stage, how do you do that without killing me?”
Ncube said he expected correspondence like Dell’s cable from “an ambassador of a fascist state”.
He added: “It is quite surprising and shocking that a country which is supposed to be a leading democracy in the world would behave in the manner in which its ambassador to Harare behaved.
“He was seeking to determine on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe which leaders should lead the country and interfering so extensively and so deeply in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe that he had no problem recommending literally the assassination of leaders the Americans don’t like.
“And their reason for not liking those leaders being that they refused to be part of their politics of puppetry in Zimbabwe.”
No comment was immediately available from US embassy officials in Harare.
Zimbabwe comes 20th out of 274 on the Wikileaks website cable volumes ranking – with more diplomatic chatter than Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The website says over the coming weeks and months, it will release 1,542 classified documents on Zimbabwe, 1,417 unclassified and 39 secret files.
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, NEOCOLONIALISM, WELSHMAN NCUBE, WIKILEAKS
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Wikileaks has 3,000 files on Zimbabwe
by Staff Reporter
29/11/2010 00:00:00
ZIMBABWEAN politicians on both sides of the divide braced for more disclosures from leaked secret American diplomatic files this week after it emerged the whistle blower website, Wikileaks, would be
releasing 3,000 cables from the United States embassy in Harare to Washington going back to 1966.
Bristling over the unauthorised release of more than a quarter million classified State Department documents, the United States on Monday ordered a government-wide review of how agencies safeguard sensitive information.
The weekend release of documents reflecting, in some cases, unflattering assessments of world leaders has caused embarrassment to the administration.
By late Monday, Wikileaks had put online just over 240 files of its massive data collection.
Among the documents released was a cable sent by the United States’ former ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell in which he wrote in detail about his country’s efforts to prop-up opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai while seeking to “do in” President Robert Mugabe.
Calling Mugabe a “devil”, he also expressed frustrations that Tsvangirai, now Prime Minister, was “not readily open to advice” and suggested he was not fit to govern.
He also launched an astonishing attack on Welshman Ncube, a key figure in one of the MDC factions, whom he suggested should be “pushed off the stage”.
Figures provided by the website show that it has a total of 2,998 files on Zimbabwe -- 1,542 of which are ‘classified’, 1,417 ‘unclassified’ and 39 labelled ‘secret’.
Wikileaks says it will release the documents in dribs and drabs over the coming weeks and months.
A senior Zanu PF official in Harare told New Zimbabwe.com: “You just don’t know what’s coming next. If these documents go back to 1980, it’s likely there would be something in there embarrassing for the party.”
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the Tsvangirai-led MDC, said: “Just like every other political party in the world, we are watching the same space with interest.”
Labels: CHRISTOPHER DELL, MDC, NEOCOLONIALISM, WIKILEAKS
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