With Donald Trump In The White House, Robert Mugabe Wants To Restore Ties With The U.S.

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe wants to return to the United States’ diplomatic fold after years of tense relations, and his administration is confident that president-elect Donald Trump will welcome him back.

Mugabe, 92, has been in power for 36 years, presiding over Zimbabwe’s slow descent from one of Africa’s most productive post-independence economies—know at one point as the continent’s “breadbasket“—into an economic basket case besieged with angry protests. The US has imposed targeted sanctions against the Zimbabwean government since 2001, following a political and economic crisis that saw violent crackdowns by Mugabe and his supporters on opposition politicians and activists. Still, the superpower has continued to provide aid assistance to the impoverished southern African nation, investing nearly $100 million annually in health programs and other initiatives through USAID.

Mugabe’s government is looking forward to Trump’s inauguration next January as an opportunity to restore relations between Harare and Washington, Chris Mushowe, the country’s information, media and broadcasting services minister, told The Herald, a state-run, pro-Mugabe newspaper, last week.

“As a government, we were quite happy listening to Mr. Trump’s acceptance speech,” Mushowe said, welcoming what he saw as Trump’s pledge to work with every nation willing to cooperate with his administration. “Zimbabwe has never had any quarrel with America and does not need to have any quarrel with America.”

The Herald has been clear about the fact that it is not a fan of Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. It has accused the former secretary of state of being “a warmonger” at the “forefront” of supporting US sanctions against Zimbabwe. The newspaper also speculated that Clinton’s possible support of pro-democracy movements like the #ThisFlag campaign, an ongoing social media protest movement driven by young Zimbabweans, was aimed at unseating Mugabe and the ruling Zanu-PF.

It celebrated Trump’s “crushing” victory over Clinton last week, touting the potential benefits to the Zimbabwean government of the change in status quo, and mocking Zimbabwean opposition parties and civic movements who expressed disappointment over her loss. Several articles hailed Trump’s “establishment-shaking populist victory” as a nod to nationalism, and a lengthy editorial argued that the media attacks and criticism Trump endured would help him “understand Western characterization of Zimbabwe.”

Mugabe has for years laid the blame for Zimbabwe’s economic troubles with the US, UK, and EU, rather than with his own failing policies and growing unpopularity. In his marathon speeches, he has insulted former US president George W. Bush, whose administration enacted sanctions against Zimbabwe, as well as president Barack Obama.

But his tune has changed for the incoming president. Mugabe has been rooting for a Trump presidency for some time now, reportedly warning visiting US lawmakers earlier this year that “Once [Trump] is your president, you’ll wish you’d been friendlier to me.”

Trump has so far not mentioned Zimbabwe, so it is unclear why Mugabe and his ministers are so optimistic. In fact, Trump has barely outlined his policy toward Africa (although that may not necessarily be a bad thing.) But Mugabe, who fought white minority rule during Zimbabwe’s liberation era and then targeted the remaining white farmers during his bid to return the land to black people, is unlikely to find favor among Trump’s right-wing political allies and supporters.

Zimbabwe fails to pay army on time for second month: sources

The military is paid on the 14th of the month but soldiers and air force officers said they were still to receive their pay and had not told when they would get it.

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe has failed to pay the army on time for the second straight month, military sources said on Friday, underscoring the precarious financial position of President Robert Mugabe’s government as it faces rare popular protests.

The military is paid on the 14th of the month but soldiers and air force officers said they were still to receive their pay and had not told when they would get it.

The delays could fuel political tensions in the southern African nation, which has been hit by drought, a drop in mineral prices and chronic cash shortages – all factors behind this month’s protests against 92-year-old Mugabe.

“The mood is sour among the rank and file. Life is tough and we are not being told by our superiors whether we will be paid this month or not,” one private told Reuters.

One colonel said: “We have not been informed of new pay dates by the ministry of finance.”

There was no comment from finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, who was attending an African Union summit in Rwanda with Mugabe. Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Alphios Makotore could not be reached for comment.

DEFIANCE

There was a two-week delay in the June pay check for the military, a central security pillar throughout Mugabe’s 36 years in charge of the former British colony.

Without balance of payment support and foreign credit, the government is seeking to clear $1.8 billion arrears to the International Monetary Fund, African Development Bank and World Bank in a bid to unlock new funding.

But the IMF said on Thursday it was still far from a financial programme with Mugabe’s government, which would need to resolve issues of governance, accountability, transparency and carry out economic reforms before receiving any cash.

Last week, a ‘stay away’ protest movement led by activist pastor Evan Mawarire shut down most businesses, government offices, schools and hospitals in the biggest act of public defiance in a decade.

Mawarire, who rallied followers under his #ThisFlag Twitter hashtag, was arrested this week and formally accused of treason but was freed on Wednesday when a magistrate threw out the charges. [nL8N19Z1BA]

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is suffering from cancer and who has so far stayed on the sidelines of the protests, pitched in on Friday, saying he backed Mawarire and other groups such as Tajamuka (We Refuse).

Tsvangirai said Mugabe should step down to make way for a transitional government to implement political reforms and plan fresh elections.

“I am giving President Mugabe an opportunity to soft land the national crisis. He will only have himself to blame if citizens take matters in their own hands. The ball is in his court,” he told reporters.

A rare strike in Zimbabwe shakes the government of 92-year-old Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwean police arrest protesters on July 6 2016, in Bulawayo. (AFP/Getty Images)

It began on YouTube in April with one man’s frustrated lament for Zimbabwe. Wrapped in the national flag, railing against the country’s problems, Pastor Evan Mawarire broke a spell that had kept Zimbabweans silent for years, too fearful to protest their anger over government failures and abuses.

On social media, his hashtag #ThisFlag has become a rallying point for citizens angry over the economic and political crisis gripping their country and dire shortages of food and currency.

The hashtag was used to organize a general strike Wednesday as workers in the private sector and many civil servants stayed home to protest government corruption, the failure to pay civil servants’ wages on time and the country’s economic collapse.

Coupled with riots in Harare on Monday, the rare strike has shaken the government of President Robert Mugabe that has ruled since Zimbabwean independence in 1980.

Banks and businesses were closed in major cities, while Zimbabwean independent media reported clashes between riot police and protesters in the Mufakose neighborhood southeast of Harare and rioting in the Makokoba neighborhood in the southern city of Bulawayo.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe speaks Feb. 27 during celebrations to mark his 92nd birthday in Masvingo. (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / Associated Press) — Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe speaks Feb. 27 during celebrations to mark his 92nd birthday in Masvingo.
(Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / Associated Press)

In an interview on South African radio, Mawarire said the strike was a protest of the government’s failure to deal with corruption, injustice and poverty.

“We are tired and everyone identifies and agrees to say enough is enough,” he said. “The problem is the government has not learned how to respond to the citizens. They’ve always responded with a heavy hand. They respond with banning. They respond with threatening. They respond with intimidation.”

Zimbabwe faces severe shortages of American dollars — which have been its currency since 2009 — leaving the government unable to pay doctors, hospital staff, teachers, civil servants and other public sector employees on time. Many people are struggling to buy food and other staple goods, or pay school fees.

Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency because of rampant hyperinflation. In May, the government tried to reintroduce bond notes to replace American dollars, but the public has shown little confidence in the notes.

The government also attempted to ban imports of many goods from South Africa in hopes of boosting local businesses. But because Zimbabwe doesn’t produce many of those items itself, the move only outraged much of the public.

Opposition protests and strikes have often flopped. Mawarire lauded Wednesday’s work stoppage as a success. “Fed up and not afraid,” he posted on Facebook, adding the slogan, “Bolder Citizens, A Better Zimbabwe.”

Jonathan Moyo, a government education minister and close Mugabe ally, warned that people could be fired for failing to come to work.

“A day like this presents immense opportunities to discover who is who & what they are really up to. Tremendous!” he posted on Twitter.

Moyo indicated late in the day that the stoppage had some impact in cities but declared it a failure in rural areas, tweeting: “So the success of the stay away, shutdown or whatever, was 20% at most & only in towns like Harare while it was 0% in most of the country!”

The Herald, a government-owned newspaper, warned in a tweet Wednesday morning that police were “ready to deal with rogues.” It also reported the arrest of a man in Bulawayo armed with grenades, which he “intended to use to foment anarchy” during the strike.

The battle between the government and the people also appeared to play out in the digital realm, as the government warned that anyone sharing “subversive” messages or posts on social media could be traced and would be prosecuted.

When the popular messaging app was disabled for several hours, leaving protesters unable to communicate with each other, activists blamed the government. A hacker with the Twitter handle 0011Send1 claimed responsibility for temporarily shutting down the websites of the government, ruling party and state broadcasting company.

The work stoppage followed violent clashes Monday between police and commuter mini-bus drivers who were protesting police harassment and demands for bribes.

The protests come as 92-year-old Mugabe faces deep scrutiny over his basic fitness for the job. Over the last year, he has fallen asleep in public meetings, stumbled in public and read the wrong speech in parliament without realizing it.

Despite all that, he has insisted that he will govern to the age of 100.

Factions of his ruling ZANU-PF party, however, are already fighting over who will succeed him.

Speculation is mounting in Zimbabwe’s independent press that his wife, Grace Mugabe, may eventually try to win control of the presidency. Over the last year, the ruling party has purged dozens of members who have expressed support for a rival, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy president and a former security minister.

Mugabe empties his prisons because he can’t pay for them

Female prisoners celebrate before their release at a maximum prison on the outskirts of Harare on Feb 17. (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP)

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

Zimbabwe’s economy is plunging toward total ruin and the government is looking for ways to stanch the bleeding it has inflicted on itself. In May, the government announced that it would be selling wildlife from its game reserves and even printing its own version of the U.S. dollar amid a desperate cash shortage.

This week, a government gazette issued by the country’s nonagenarian dictator, Robert Mugabe, gave a blanket pardon to thousands of prisoners. The pardon extends to all women who are not on death row or serving life sentences — so even women who have been booked for murder but are serving shorter sentences will be released. It also includes all male prisoners under 18, regardless of their crime; prisoners over 60 who have completed two-thirds of their sentence; and prisoners who are terminally ill.

Priscilla Mthembo, Zimbabwe’s superintendent of prisons, was quoted in the local media as saying, “We don’t have the total figure at the moment because the verification process is still going on, but we expect over 2,000 prisoners to be released under the amnesty order issued by the President.”

The government’s mouthpiece newspaper, the Herald, chalked up the pardons to the need to decongest crowded prisons, which is certainly also an issue. The system has the capacity for 17,000 and currently houses almost 20,000. Reports indicated that the pardons would leave some women’s wards entirely devoid of inmates. As such, it seems unlikely that decongestion was the main reason for Mugabe’s decree.

“We are appealing to the people of Zimbabwe to embrace togetherness and accept the inmates, giving them a second chance at life through supporting them in different endeavors to earn a better living,” Mthembo said. “Inmates should not take this pardon for granted. Let them go out there and exhibit the spirit of Ubuntu and respect the laws of the country.”

The gazette came as a surprise to activists who had been advocating measures to relieve crowding in the prisons, which are notorious for their minimalism. Prisoners sleep on stone slabs and use a toilet in the middle of shared cells that might hold dozens of inmates.The Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to solve our biggest global challenges and bring people everywhere a better quality of life.

“We were never informed, the relatives were never informed and reintegration isn’t an easy process,” said Peter Mandiyanike, executive director of Prison Fellowship, an organization that advocates for prisoners’ rights, in an interview with Bloomberg.

“The amnesty is welcome and we’re grateful, but we should have been consulted because some of them don’t have clothes, they don’t have money for bus fare home,” Mandiyanike said. “Some have been in prison so long they’ve grown old and are afraid to go home.”

Zimbabwe to print own version of US dollar

Zimbabwe is set to print its own version of the US dollar in order to ease a cash shortage in the country.

Central bank governor John Mangudya said the cash, known as bond notes, will be backed by $200m (£140m) support from the Africa Export-Import Bank.

The specially-designed two, five, 10 and 20 dollar notes will have the same value as their US dollar equivalents.

Zimbabwe introduced the US dollar after ditching its own currency in 2009 following sustained hyperinflation.

Since then Zimbabweans have been using the dollar as well as a number of other foreign currencies including the South African rand and the Chinese yuan. But the BBC’s Brian Hungwe in the capital, Harare, says that bank customers are not always able to withdraw the amount of US dollars they want because of a shortage of dollar notes in Zimbabwe.

The governor stressed that the issuing of bond notes was not the first step on the way to reintroducing the defunct currency, the Zimbabwe Herald newspaper reports.

Mr Mangudya also introduced a number of other measures to steer people away from using US dollar cash.

This includes setting a $1,000 limit on how much cash can be taken out of the country.

He wants to encourage people to make greater use of the rand since a large portion of Zimbabwe’s trade is with South Africa.

Shoppers in Zimbabwe are not always able to use a the wide official range of currencies for all purchases.

But our correspondent says that people are reluctant to hold rands as they are not confident that the currency will maintain its value against the dollar.

He adds that not all shops and traders accept the full range of currencies officially in use.

The central bank brought in so-called bond coins of one, five, 10 and 25 cents, pegged to the US dollar, in 2014.

Mr Mangudya said the bank was still working on a design for the new notes, but they should be in circulation “within the next two months”, the Herald reports.

Thousands protest against Mugabe in Zimbabwe capital

Harare (AFP) – Demonstrators in Zimbabwe held the largest protest against President Robert Mugabe in nearly a decade on Thursday, marching through central Harare demanding that the “tired” leader make a “dignified exit.”

Under the watchful eye of riot police, more than 2,000 supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) carried anti-Mugabe placards and sang party songs before their leader Morgan Tsvangirai gave a speech attacking Mugabe’s rule.

Anti-government protests in Zimbabwe have often been brutally broken up by police under the authoritarian regime of the president, who has been in power since independence in 1980.

Mugabe, 92, remains active but his increasingly fragile health has sparked intense speculation over his successor and the fate of the country when his rule come to an end.

Zimbabwe has suffered years of economic collapse and mass emigration during an era marked by intolerance of dissent, vote rigging and accusations of human rights abuses.

“Mugabe has no solution to the crisis,” Tsvangirai said in a brief speech to supporters gathered in Africa Unity Square wearing T-shirts in the party’s red colours.

“We are here to tell Mugabe and his regime that you have failed.

“We are not demanding an overthrow of the government… We are demanding a dignified exit for the tired Mugabe.

“It’s time Mugabe listens to the voice of the people. The people shall liberate themselves.”

The march, which had been authorised on Wednesday in a last-minute court ruling, was peaceful, with police on duty in full riot gear armed with batons and water canon.

“This is a demonstration against poverty and corruption,” Douglas Mwonzora, an MDC party spokesman told journalists.

“We have an empty promise of 2.2 million jobs which are not there. We have massive corruption.”

The MDC has vowed to hold more protests around the country, which is also beset by severe food shortages worsened by its economic decline since land reforms started in 2000.

“Old clueless Mugabe must go,” read one protest placard, while another said “Enough” in Zimbabwe’s three main languages.

Marchers were greeted by blaring car horns, and clapping and whistles by onlookers including some people waving from windows in high-rise buildings.

Mugabe, who still gives fiery 90-minutes speeches on his feet, is expected to stand again for election in 2018.

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