Power Failures in Zimbabwe

It is said that Zimbabwe doesn’t really have power failures, they occasionally have electricity! The state-owned Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) schedules programmes of rolling black outs which have seen households going without electricity for many hours, sometimes days. A Harare newspaper, The Daily News, reports that ZESA narrowly escaped being cut off from its key power supplier in Mozambique over non-payment of a £47million bill. The Daily News also revealed that ZANU-PF cabinet ministers have accumulated over £650,000 in unpaid bills.

Farm Failures
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has warned that Zimbabwe is facing another major crisis after a third of the country’s maize crops were declared a "write-off". The Agricultural minister has reported that the country faces a serious grain deficit. The country is once again unable to feed itself without Foreign Aid. The President of the CFU has declared: "We cannot continue to blame drought. It's quite absurd that this is still used as an excuse." The reason for the grain deficit is that "agriculture continues to be undermined" by the ZANU-PF government and its farm invasions.
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Mugabe’s Lavish Birthday Bash
Despite famine, schools without textbooks and rampant typhoid, Marxist dictator, Robert Mugabe threw himself a million dollar birthday party for his 88th birthday. The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition commented: "It is the wrong way of deifying an individual: The belief that Mugabe is a supreme being while our country is suffering."


 Military Threat
Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has reported that the country’s top military leaders have told him they will not allow anyone but Robert Mugabe to rule the country, regardless of whoever wins an election. Prime Minister Tsvangirai has insisted that constitutional reforms must be implemented before any vote is held. The MDC cannot be stampeded into a sham election without the necessary reforms and guarantees of a peaceful transition of power to whichever party wins the elections. The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has reported that the current constitutional revision process lacks openness and transparency. Human Rights Lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, has reported that the constitution is being drafted in "a polarized and repressive environment with meetings to discuss issues being banned."


Hijacking Foreign Firms
Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party has stepped up its drive to force all foreign owned firms to hand over majority stakes to Black Zimbabweans. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai points out that this attempted hijacking of all foreign owned companies is chasing away foreign investors at a time when Zimbabwe needs to emerge from more than a decade of disastrous economic decline. Foreign mining firms at risk include: Impala Platinum, the world’s second largest platinum producer and Anglo American Platinum, the world’s number one platinum miner. Foreign mining firms are being forced to fund ZANU-PF projects as part of the government’s "extortion scheme". BBC World Service reported that Rio Tinto, the mining conglomerate, has given 51% of its shareholdings to Black Zimbabweans.


Mugabe Soon to Meet His Maker
Robert Mugabe who has ruled Zimbabwe since its Independence from Britain in 1980, is said to be fighting for his life in a Singapore hospital. Although his spokesman describes the trips as for cataract surgery, numerous media reports state that he is suffering from prostate cancer that has spread to other organs. Reportedly his Defence Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is acting as his deputy in Mugabe’s absence.


Dr. Peter Hammond

Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Fax: 021-685-5884


Email:  mission@frontline.org.za