Zimbabwe court grants bail, but rules Bennett must still stay in jail

By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A Zimbabwean judge on Tuesday granted bail to Roy Bennett, a prominent official in the new prime minister's party, but ordered him held at least another week while prosecutors decide whether to appeal.

MDC lawyer put under deadly surveillance

By MIRANDA DUBE

ZIMBABWE - HARARE - Two unidentified men are stalking MDC lawyer Alec Muchadehama, who is representing political prisoners who have become a bargaining chip in a high stakes political amnesty game.

How 'Botox Bob' Robert Mugabe defies old age

Jan Raath: Behind the story

To the naked eye, Mr Mugabe looks the very picture of health, even for a much younger man let alone someone in their ninth decade. "He is in very good shape for 85," said a Harare doctor, requesting anonymity. "I would be very happy to look like that when I'm 85."

Surrounded by Destitution, New Zim Government treats itself to flush new cars

ZIMBABWE'S new unity government has splashed out on new cars and office furniture for its ministers and top officials, The Zimbabwe Times reports. The move comes as the country cries out for money from its neighbours. The government's spending frenzy has been extended to the security forces, notably the police.

On the morning of the wedding day, groom assaults bride

By Glen Mpani

Those close to the bride, aware of the abusive nature of the groom, plead with her to call the wedding off. She does not heed their advice. She has reached a point of no return. Guests have been invited. Money has been spent. The priest is ready to administer the rites...

'You want Bennet, give us immunity' security chiefs demand

Zimbabwe's security chiefs fearing prosecution for crimes against humanity are trying to use the arrest and detention of Deputy Agriculture Minister designate Roy Bennet, former television anchor Jestina Mukoko and 30 other political prisoners as bargaining chips to secure their own immunity from prosecution.

140 farmers face prosecution, eviction

HARARE - At least 140 commercial farmers face both prosecution and eviction from their land over the next two weeks as government tries to push the few remaining white farmers off their farms.

Should I stay or should I go: what every white Zimbabwean asks

Zimbabwe Police Deny Bennett Access to Food Following Arrest

Roy Bennet seen here with Morgan Tsvangirai. The veteran politician was arrested Friday just before the new cabinet was sworn in, raising serious doubts about the new government.
By Brian Latham

Feb. 14 Roy Bennett, treasurer general of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change, as well as Deputy Minister for Agriculture in the new unity government, has been denied food by police after being arrested yesterday, his party said in an e- mailed statement.

He was detained at Harare’s Charles Prince airport before police drove him 264 kilometers (164 miles) across the country to Zimbabwe’s eastern border city of Mutare.

Bennett’s arrest coincided with the swearing in of a new power-sharing government that may unite President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front and the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Bennett returned to Zimbabwe last month after more than two years in exile in South Africa, where he was granted asylum.

“Police detaining MDC Treasurer General and Deputy Minister of Agriculture designate, Roy Bennett, have denied him food,” MDC spokesman Nqobizitha Mlilo said in an e-mailed statement today.

“They are also keeping a watchful eye on all movement around the police station to make sure that police do not remove Roy Bennett from the Mutare police station to one of the torture and interrogation bases in Marondera or Goromonzi, as police had attempted to do earlier in the day,” Mlilo added. “The police station is heavily guarded.”

Zimbabwe’s state-controlled Herald, which echoes Zanu-PF opinion, quoted unidentified police officials as saying the MDC treasurer general was wanted in connection with an arms cache found in Mutare in 2006.

“Hundreds” of MDC supporters surrounded the Mutare police station in a standoff with armed police, Mlilo said.

Police didn’t answer calls to their offices in Harare or Mutare when Bloomberg News attempted to contact them today.

Bennett is Zimbabwe’s deputy agriculture minister-designate and a close ally of Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai Sworn in as Prime-Minister as Activists Remain in Jail

By ANGUS SHAW

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe swore in his longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister Wednesday, ushering in a unity government in an extraordinary concession after nearly three decades of virtually unchallenged rule.

There had been pressure for Mugabe — who remains president in the coalition — to step down altogether, and questions remain about whether a partnership can work after a long history of state-sponsored violence against Tsvangirai and his supporters.

Mugabe, who recently declared "Zimbabwe is mine," went further Wednesday than many would have expected. He stood to face Tsvangirai as an equal in a white tent on the grounds of the presidential palace.

Regional leaders watched from the tent and Zimbabweans across the country watched on state TV as Tsvangirai raised his right hand and was sworn in.

Both Tsvangirai and Mugabe were relaxed and smiling during the brief ceremony, which also included the swearing-in of Tsvangirai's deputies, Arthur Mutambara of a breakaway opposition party and Thokozani Khupe of Tsvangirai's party.

In a speech later to those who had attended the ceremony, Tsvangirai said he knew many were "skeptical of this arrangement. But this is the only viable arrangement that we have.

"I ask for Zimbabweans to be patient and give us time."

Mugabe also gave a speech after the ceremony and lunch with Tsvangirai, saying he had offered "my hand of friendship and solidarity" to work with Tsvangirai's party for Zimbabwe.

Ian Stephens, a Harare businessman, said it was too early to celebrate.

"It depends on how cooperative Mugabe is and whether he can be trusted," Stephens said. But "Mugabe no longer has absolute power and that could be the turning point."

The country's economic collapse — for which Tsvangirai holds Mugabe responsible — has left millions dependent on international food aid, and caused a cholera outbreak that has killed some 3,400 people since August.

Sampson Ibrahim, a street vendor, was in a crowd watching the broadcast on a TV in the window of an electronics store in downtown Harare.

"I am happy because I expect prices to go down," Ibrahim said. "They've got to get the schools and the hospitals working again."

Tsvangirai said Wednesday the new government would work to get children in school, hospitals open "and food back on the tables for everybody, regardless of his political affiliation."

At a celebration rally after his swearing-in, he drew the biggest cheer from the crowd of 15,000 when he pledged that starting next month, all government workers — from teachers to soldiers — would be paid in hard currency to shield them from the world's highest inflation rate. He did not say how the cash-strapped government would do that.

Neighboring leaders who pushed for the coalition said that once the two men had joined in the unity government, Mugabe and Tsvangirai would overcome mutual mistrust and work together for the good of their country.

Tsvangirai has been beaten and jailed by Mugabe's security forces. In 2007, police attacked him after he held an opposition meeting the government had banned. Images shown on news broadcasts around the world of his bruised and bloodied face came to symbolize the challenges his movement faced.

Mugabe, who turns 85 on Feb. 21 and has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has in the recent past treated the 56-year-old Tsvangirai as a junior partner at best, often not bothering to hide his contempt.

Tsvangirai won the most votes in the first round of presidential election held almost a year ago, and withdrew from a June runoff only because of attacks on his supporters.

Tsvangirai's decade-old party, the Movement for Democratic Change, also broke ZANU-PF's lock on parliament in March 2008 elections for the first time since independence.

A power-sharing deal was reached in September but remained deadlocked for months over how to divide Cabinet posts. Tsvangirai on Jan. 30 agreed to join the government now and resolve outstanding issues later.

The coalition agreement calls for the government to make its priority reviving the economy. Even if the factions can put aside their differences, they cannot do much without foreign help. The world's main donor, the United States, has made clear the money won't flow if Mugabe tries to sideline Tsvangirai.

The president of neighboring South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe, told his Parliament on Tuesday that the swearing in "is a vindication that our approach to the crisis of Zimbabwe all along has been correctly, despite skepticism in certain quarters." Motlanthe called on the international community to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe and turn its attention now to Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who mediated the unity deal, had stuck to a strategy of quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe for years despite criticism that the approach amounted to appeasing Mugabe.

The unity government's agenda includes preparing for new elections, expected in a year or two. Media restrictions will have to be lifted and other steps taken to ensure the elections are free and fair, after several ballots marred by violence, intimidation and manipulation blamed on Mugabe's party.

Tsvangirai called for political detainees to be released Wednesday. Human rights groups say tortured detainees are on the verge of dying in jail.

Some Tsvangirai allies say he never should have agreed to serve as prime minister in a government that left Mugabe president. Mugabe, meanwhile, has been under pressure from aides in the military and government who do not want to give up power and prestige to the opposition.

Unusually for a state occasion, no military chiefs were at Wednesday's ceremony. Generals in the past have said they would not salute Tsvangirai, a former labor leader who did not take part in the independence war that swept Mugabe to power in 1980.

Elphas Mukonoweshoro, an opposition leader who was to take the oath of minister of public service when the rest of the Cabinet is sworn in Friday, described said the absence of the military chiefs not as a snub, but an effort "to reflect the new Zimbabwe."

Usual blood- soaked suspects on Mugabe’s cabinet list

Emmerson Mnangagwa, an old ZANU PF henchman who has served Mugabe loyally for decades, laughs with Thabo Mbeki, the man credited for broking the questionable deal. Mnangagwa is on Mugabe's shortlist for the new cabinet, raising doubts that, even with the so-called new agreement, nothing has really changed for the Zimbabwean people.

Dumisani Muleya

Zimbabwe’s main political leaders are finalising lists of senior party officials who will form the cabinet of a new government that may help end the country’s long drawn-out political and economic crisis.
The quality of ministers and the policies they will generate will determine whether the government will be able to pluck Zimbabwe out of the deep hole it is in.
Sources say Robert Mugabe, who will be the head of state and government, will include a number of his Zanu (PF) old guard officials in his list, raising doubts about the political will and operational capacity of the new cabinet to introduce much-needed political and economic reforms.
Zimbabwe needs a government that will ensure reform and that will introduce fundamental policy changes to end a political culture of violence and repression in aid of economic revival.
However, sources say Mugabe will stick with the well-known Zanu (PF) diehards who got Zimbabwe into its crisis .
They say Mugabe’s list of 15 ministers includes his close confidants and party strategists Emmerson Mnangagwa, Sydney Sekeramayi, Didymus Mutasa, Patrick Chinamasa, Nicholas Goche, Ignatius Chombo, Joseph Made, Olivia Muchena, John Nkomo, Kembo Mohadi, Obert Mpofu, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Paul Mangwana, Sithembiso Nyoni and Webster Shamu.
Sources say the list has deepened divisions in Zanu (PF), as a number of former ministers have been left out of the cabinet.
It is understood Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai is also finalising his list of ministers.
Tsvangirai will nominate 13 ministers, while the smaller MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara will choose three.
However, Tsvangirai’s efforts appear to have been undermined by his party secretary-general Tendai Biti’s refusal to be included in the cabinet.
Sources say Biti has requested to be left out because he wants to concentrate on party work, although the real reason appears to be his protest against the MDC’s decision to join Mugabe’s government without much authority to influence policy .
If Biti does not go into government, this will weaken Tsvangirai’s team in the cabinet, giving Mugabe an added advantage .
Tsvangirai’s cabinet list is likely to be dominated by close allies as he seeks to tighten his grip on the party and secure his position as prime minister.
Tsvangirai will be sworn in on Wednesday, together with his two deputies, Thokozani Khuphe and Mutambara.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe on Friday commended Zimbabwe’s main political parties for reaching an agreement, saying this would bring political stability and a legitimate government.
In his state of the nation address, Motlanthe said SA would help to rebuild Zimbabwe .
Zimbabwe’s Parliament overwhelmingly approved the Constitution of Zimbabwe (Amendment 19) Bill on Thursday, the legislation that will pave the way for the inclusive government.
The 210-member House of Assembly voted by 184 to zero in favour of the amendment which will create the new position of prime minister.
The b ill was also approved by senate and now awaits Mugabe’s signature for it to become law.
The approval of the constitutional amendment brought relief to the parties, which salvaged the political agreement from the brink of collapse at a recent Southern African Development Community (SADC) extraordinary summit held in Pretoria.
Biti, Tsvangirai’s chief negotiator, described the process as a “ miracle", saying negotiations had triumphed over the violence that is endemic in Zimbabwe’s politics.
“Everything has happened on the negotiating table other than physical confrontation. It is a miracle that we are here.
“We go into this government knowing that for this to work there has to be commitment. It is important to establish trust from the word go," he said.
Chinamasa, Mugabe’s chief negotiator, said it was a huge relief that the parties had successfully amended the constitution as the negotiations had been “ a long, frustrating, quarrelsome journey characterised by animosity and name-calling, but notwithstanding this, what is important is we have reached this path".
SADC leaders are hopeful that the deal will hold.
At the African Union summit in Ethiopia, leaders endorsed the process and urged the US and European Union (EU), which are sceptical, to lift sanctions on Mugabe and his cronies .
However, western countries, whose aid is desperately needed to rebuild Zimbabwe, remain cautious about the new government.
“ While we underline that this is a positive development, it does not itself spell the end of the political, economic and humanitarian crises Zimbabwe finds itself in," said the EU’s ambassador to SA , Lodewijk Briet.
“ This first step towards normalising the situation in Zimbabwe must be underpinned by clear confidence-building measures by the new government," Briet said.
Zimbabwe is reeling from a deep economic crisis characterised by the highest inflation in the world, which is in the trillions; the most worthless currency; chronic shortages of basic commodities; and mass starvation, disease and a widespread humanitarian emergency.