Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was re-elected on Saturday as leader of his Zanu-PF party at a depleted party congress in Harare, which showed signs of strain after officials struggled to raise funds for the five-yearly traditional jamboree.
On Friday, Mugabe, 85, used his speech to decry factionalism in his party, the Zimbabwe African Union-Patriotic Front.
“There are too many leaders now outside the scope of the leaders provided for in our Constitution,” he said, adding that the party was “eating itself up.”
University of Zimbabwe lecturer John Makumbe said the address showed Mugabe’s desperation after 29 years in power.
“He was shouting and screaming about factionalism, but really he was saying ‘we are dead’ as a party,” Makumbe said.
Last February, Mugabe was forced into a unity government with Morgan Tsvangirai, 57, now the prime minister, after Zanu-PF lost its parliamentary majority and the presidential race ended in dispute.
Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) remain politically hamstrung by Zanu-PF obstructionism. But targeted sanctions by the US and the EU and the move by MDC Finance Minister Tendai Biti to abolish the Zimbabwe dollar — whose use as a patronage tool had wrecked the economy — have removed the last of Zanu-PF’s authority.
South Africa has also hardened its stance after years of dithering under the former president Thabo Mbeki. Two weeks ago, South African President Jacob Zuma sent a new team of negotiators to Harare to try to advance talks between the MDC and Zanu-PF over the troubled “global political agreement” that divides power.
Makumbe said Mugabe’s continued tenure of the party leadership simply proves that Zanu-PF “is too sick” for a healthy leadership battle.
“They know they do not have anyone who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Tsvangirai and hope to win,” he said.
Zanu-PF has already endorsed Mugabe as the candidate for elections in 2013, when he will be 89.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese