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Tsvangirai outwits Mugabe

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By Denford Magora

Robert “The Solution” Mugabe has been played thoroughly by Morgan Tsvangirai during the PM’s visits abroad. JOC appears to have cottoned on to this, but the depth of the Prime Minister’s strategy in tackling Mugabe is now very clear.

Here’s the Prime Minister’s game plan. I have alluded to it before in an article on this blog:

Morgan Tsvangirai still has the weapon of the economy, just Mugabe still retains brute force (through the Generals etc) as his weapon.

Although the two are in government, they are stalking each other. Mugabe uses his brute force weapon to intimidate his opponents, including the Prime Minister. He eggs his people on as they behave atrociously, as if there is no GNU in place at all. In essence, although he carries the title, ZANU PF is trying to make sure that Tsvangirai is PM only in name. They are blocking him from real power.

This they are able to do because of the weapon of brute force, which is unchallenged in this country. Tsvangirai and the MDC-T have now decided to also bring out their own weapon.

They are saying, basically: “If you will not fire Gono, whom no one in the world trusts to handle any aid money, if you will not fire the Attorney General who is imprisoning our supporters, if you will allow Service Chiefs to challenge the authority of this government to the detriment of the MDC-T, then we will continue wielding our weapon, the economy.”

As was discussed by JOC recently, it is now clear that, behind the scenes, the Prime Minister is encouraging the world to hold off on helping Zimbabwe. He is telling them that they can not invest now nor can they bring in aid money for government and for reconstruction because Mugabe is still not sincere about sharing power, despite the public utterances from him.

Frankly, I do not blame Tsvangirai. He is right and he has no choice. Were he to suceed in opening doors for aid and grants and credit lines at this very moment, he would have lost out tremendously.

He knows very well that he still has no power in government. That it is possible for Mugabe to grab that aid, say thank you very much and turn on his coalition partners. Once Tsvangirai delivers that aid, he will be of no use to Mugabe and ZANU PF. They need him now because they want those sanctions and closed credit lines reopened.

Tsvangirai knows this. So this is now a fight for supremacy. Mugabe pretends like he is powerless over the Service Chiefs and “hardliners”. Tsvangirai pretends the West just will not listen to his pleas for aid and reconstruction assistance. Privately, he must be saying: “Waifunga kuti wakangwara Mugabe?! (You thought you were clever, Mugabe?!!

Tsvangirai has to do this. It is the only card he still has, really. If he gives it away, that’s it, Mugabe gets to keep everything, Zimbabwe will be awash with donor funds and the false prosperity of the 1980s will be back with us for a bit.

But Tsvangirai will then be discarded, because the economy has always been Mugabe’s biggest headache, his Achilles Heel. If Tsvangirai sorted it out for him without securing his own power and future, then that will be the end of the story.

Now we should watch and see how long it takes Mugabe to revert back to type and turn on Tsvangirai. This he will do. The lack of funds coming will frustrate him and Tsvangirai will be sitting there, smiling, insisting that he is in government to stay, he is not going to go anywhere.

Mugabe will have to eject him, which will be a a breach of the GPA so naked that no nation in Africa will support Mugabe.

Kirsty Coventry beats old rival to win

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Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry vanquished an old rival and held off a new challenger to win the women’s 400 medley, then followed up with a victory in the 100m backstroke at the Santa Clara Invitational in the US.

Coventry, who won a gold and three silver medals at last year’s Beijing Olympics, set a meet record of 4 minutes, 32.15 seconds to win the 400m individual medley by nearly four seconds over Dagny Knutson, who is considered among the best of the next generation of US swimmers.

Knutson’s time was a personal best of 4:36.02, more than a second faster than fellow American Elizabeth Beisel.

Australia’s Stephanie Rice, who set the world record in winning gold over Coventry in the event at the Beijing Games was fourth in 4:38.08.

Rice, who won three golds in Beijing, recently completed a three-week high-altitude training program and said before the meeting that she was still tired and not yet in top form.

Coventry’s convincing victory in the medley and her backstroke victory, showed that she again will be one of the top medal contenders at this summer’s world championships in Rome.

The Santa Clara grand prix meeting, which concludes Sunday, is her last big competition before next month’s world event.

“This is definitely a good self-confidence booster. It felt good,” Coventry said. “Now we have another five weeks of hard training.”

Leisel Jones, an Australian who is a six-time Olympic medalist, pulled away at the end to win the women’s 100 breaststroke in 1:07.11. Jones, who broke her own meet record while winning the 200 breaststroke on Friday night, is skipping the world championships this summer to focus on her beauty school studies back home in Australia.

In other races, Japan’s Masayuki Kishida won the men’s 100 butterfly and American Ryan Lochte, the Olympic gold medallist and world record-holder, won the 200m backstroke. American Nathan Adrian won the 50 free.

American Dana Vollmer won her third individual gold medal of the meet in the 200 freestyle. She won the 100 freestyle and the 100 butterfly on Friday. – AFP.

Obama pledges aid for Zimbabwe

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President Barack Obama has announced $73m (£44m) in aid for Zimbabwe.

The US president was speaking at the White House in Washington, where he met the visiting Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mr Obama said he wanted to encourage the rule of law, human rights and basic health and education in Zimbabwe.

Mr Tsvangirai – who entered a power-sharing agreement with President Robert Mugabe in February – is on an international tour to seek aid.

President Obama said he had “extraordinary admiration for the courage and tenacity” shown by Mr Tsvangirai, the leader of the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe.

Contrast with Mugabe

The US president said the power-sharing coalition in Zimbabwe was showing promise, following what he termed the “very dark and difficult” period the country had been through.

Correspondents say the warm welcome given to Mr Tsvangirai is in sharp contrast to the attitude towards President Mugabe, who is the subject of a travel ban and assets freeze by the United States and European Union.

Earlier, Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the country’s economy could grow by between 4% and 6% this year.

Mr Biti said steps would be taken to restrict central bank activities such as borrowing and that Zimbabwe was coping with a lack of foreign aid.

The Zimbabwe economy has been battered by years of hyperinflation.

Mr Biti was speaking at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town.

“I think we will be able to achieve a growth rate of at least 6%, although conservatively it will be 4% in 2009,” he told journalists.

Zimbabwe’s economy has been shrinking for years. It contracted by 6.1% in 2007, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The power-sharing government has said the country needs about $10bn (£6bn) to stabilise its economy. Story from BBC NEWS:

Tsvangirai rocked by niece farm-grab

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By Fred Bridgland and Jane Fields

A RICH niece of Zimbabwe’s prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai, currently on a three-week tour of western countries to beg for aid to kick-start his country’s battered economy, has tried to take over a white-owned commercial farm by force.

Dr Erikana Chihombori, who owns a lucrative medical practice in the United States and has citizenship there, tried to seize Bertie Cremer’s 60-hectare flower farm near Chegutu, 60 miles east of Harare, but the young land invaders she hired withdrew after complaining they were being paid too little.

She insists she has letters from the Zimbabwean government permitting her to expropriate Mr Cremer’s De Rus Farm, which has been owned by his family for 81 years. She also says she has a right to the land, and that her takeover will help “correct historical injustices”.

The attempted land grab by Dr Chihombori, who was born in Zimbabwe, is potentially hugely damaging to Mr Tsvangirai and to his efforts to secure western aid, as he seems to be complicit, at least by association, in her attempt to take the property.

Yesterday, he met President Barack Obama in Washington to ask the US to help him and Zimbabwe without assisting powerful president Robert Mugabe.

Mr Obama, along with leaders of other western democracies, has said he wants reforms to the rule of law and human rights in Zimbabwe and an end to farm invasions before the US considers resuming financial aid.

Mr Tsvangirai, who entered a power-sharing agreement with Mr Mugabe in February, was with Dr Chihombori at the inauguration ceremony of new South African head of state Jacob Zuma on 9 May in Pretoria. They were photographed together on the VIP red carpet.

The relationship between them is far from clear. Mr Tsvangirai, 57, told the US ambassador to Zimbabwe before flying to Washington that he had no relationship of any kind with Dr Chihombori, 52. Then, after he left for Washington, Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesman said Dr Chihombori was his niece. “That is not in dispute,” he added.

But yesterday, junior officials in Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change said he and Dr Chihombori had been meeting frequently in South Africa since his wife, Susan, died in a car crash in March.

In an interview this week with SW Radio, a former Zimbabwe-based station now operating from London and beaming into Zimbabwe, Dr Chihombori said she had been given an “offer letter” last December from the Zimbabwean government permitting her to seize Mr Cremer’s land and farmhouse. She said that “as a Zimbabwean citizen” she had “a right to land”.

However, she is, in fact, a US citizen and Zimbabwean law does not permit dual citizenship. It is, therefore, a mystery as to how she obtained the necessary “offer letter” from the government permitting her to take De Rus Farm.

Asked on the radio show if it was right to “steal” someone else’s property, she replied that Zimbabwe’s land redistribution programme was introduced to “correct historical injustices”.

She also told SW Radio’s Violet Gonda that she had withdrawn the farm case from court “for the time being”. She insisted this was not down to pressure from Mr Tsvangirai but because of the way Mr Cremer allegedly abused her sister and a land official when they visited De Rus Farm to take possession.

Dr Chihombori said: “At one point, Mr Cremer let his dog at them and started yelling at my sister, calling her a cold stupid kaffir (the highly abusive equivalent of ‘nigger’ in the US] and that he was not going to listen to any instructions from a kaffir.”

Last night, Mr Cremer’s wife Lena, asked to comment on the abuse allegation, told The Scotsman: “It is absolutely untrue that my husband verbally abused this woman or set the dogs on her. He never did. Besides, whites would never talk like that in this day.”

The farm, bought by Mr Cremer’s grandfather in 1928, was originally 716 hectares. As a result of land reform, more than 650 hectares were given to black “settlers” in 2002.– Scotsman.

Authoritarianism undermines the family

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By Mutsa Murenje

in Nairobi, Kenya

A closer look at and critical analysis of the family shows beyond argument that the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society entitled to protection by society and the State. For we all know, don’t we, that the family is the custodian of morals and traditional values recognised by the community. What gives me heartache, however, is the fact that authoritarian regimes undermine the beautiful institution of the family and this shall be the subject under discussion in this, my humble contribution. A lot shall surely be shown in the paragraphs that follow.

Fighting Mugabe’s authoritarianism in Zimbabwe during the past decade or so has been a project of surpassing difficulty for many families. The road to the Biblical land of Canaan has not been very easy. I remember reading the late Professor Masipula Sithole’s essay, ‘Tasks of a democratic opposition’ in which he wrote that: “….authoritarianism is a pathology against which humanity has a tendency to always rebel.” In trying to rebel against Mugabe’s dictatorship, the following are but some of the true stories that have taken place in Zimbabwe.

I know of well-learned and beautiful young women who, upon completion of their studies and because of the economic collapse of the country, left their noble professions to join the despised and unpopular profession of prostitution to eke out a living. They are foraging for greener pastures because the State is ‘bankrupt’ or is it corrupt, and has nothing to offer them although they also happen to be the very people with the very potential to turn around the rotten economy of Zimbabwe. And I wonder if at all these people will found their own families. If they were to do that, will they be good parents Mr. President?

And yet I also know of unemployed young men who have become pundit criminals because the rotten regime of Robert Mugabe could not provide them with employment. These young people have lost their inherent dignity and they need it restored soonest. For I know, as you also know, that investing in this generation of present as well as future national, regional and international leaders has huge payoffs especially when taking into cognizance the critical fact that these, unlike the older generation, have a lifetime of potential productivity ahead of them.

The question is: Will our leadership restore their dignity, when and how? Let’s not forget that these have fallen behind due to especially difficult circumstances brought about by the tyrannical despot, Robert Mugabe, and his unpopular regime. Restoring their dignity therefore is fundamentally important in that it helps them to rebuild their future which has a long-term beneficial effect on society as a whole.

Need I say more? Why not? I know of caring and loving husbands who, because of dictatorship in Zimbabwe, have been wrongly blamed for ‘abandoning’ their wives and children and driving them into poverty when they left Zimbabwe for ‘greener pastures’ in South Africa and other neighbouring nations. Some of them entered into marriages of convenience, (am sure some of my colleagues from University will remember them as juntado unions as we learnt in our Social Anthropology course!), when they got the rude shock that not all pastures are green. This has had a devastating impact on their marriages back home.

Some have eventually returned empty-handed and are ill and they expect their suffering wives to take care of them. What do these wives have to take care of their husbands when they are also in extremely difficult circumstances? They have virtually nothing! What about husbands and wives who have not returned? What happened to their families because of your dictatorship Mr. President?

And yet friends and faithful followers of the dictator are already asking: Is he blaming the right person? Shouldn’t he be talking about the “illegal sanctions” imposed on us by Britain and her allies? My response to them is: I know Robert Mugabe as the president of Zimbabwe who has led it since independence in 1980, and as the chief architect of the 1980s slaughter of 20,000 Matebele people. Not only that, Mugabe’s administration is corrupt, incompetent and its primary concern is political repression and cronyism that has ultimately led to the economic collapse of the country.

What then is the way forward? There is an imperative need to restore the dignity of the beautiful institution of the family. Let’s recognise the family as a school of deeper humanity; within which each member learns best what it means to be a human person. There, each member of the human family, from conception to natural death, experiences the gift of unconditional and enduring love. Thus each human person is carefully taught by the family to be responsible, to commit, to share, and to love.

My training on the philosophical foundations of the dignity of the human person at the World Youth Alliance-Africa, where I am currently undergoing the regional internship programme has brought to the fore that it is only within the beautiful institution of the family that children first come to understand their own intrinsic and inviolable human dignity (ubuntu/utu wa mtu). Through their complementary roles, mother and father, equal in dignity, show their children that the freedom of the human person is most fully and rightly lived in the gift of self (service to others).

True love freely received and given within the family is an image of the transcendent love that makes possible the fulfillment and completion of every human being. Restoring the dignity of the family therefore should be our top priority in this new political dispensation. This is so largely because the family sustains society as it gives life to the next generation. It also has the privilege of forming free and responsible citizens, thus securing democracy. As the fundamental unit of society, the family ensures the sustainability of civilization and culture. It takes on essential tasks in the care of all and especially the weakest and most vulnerable.

In finale, “…and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die” (Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela). How I wish these words would become second nature to us especially in view of our vigorous fight against dictatorship in Zimbabwe. I put it to you dear readers and I rest my case until next time. Be blessed.

Latest Premier Soccer League Table

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This is the latest Zimbabwe Premiership log as updated on the 13th of June 2009.

13june

Dynamos Thomas Sweswe joins Chiefs

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Dynamos midfield defender Thomas Sweswe has shocked the club by signing a three-year contract with the South African Premier League’s Kaizer Chiefs. Besides Dynamos, Sweswe has previously played for Highlanders, Mwana Africa, and Manning Rangers of South Africa.

Fellow Zimbabwe Warriors team member and Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Tinashe Nengomasha told VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that he welcomes Sweswe’s recruitment, which fills a midfield gap for the team.

Kaizer Chiefs have meanwhile also confirmed the acquisition of much-talked about Pretoria University midfielder-cum-striker Mthokozisi Yende.

“We have great pleasure to announce that we have agreed on terms with Mthokozisi and his team Pretoria University, to acquire his services. The onus is now with ‘Tuks’ legal team to finalize due processes with regards to the signing of the contracts and agreements,” said Chiefs Football Manager, Bobby Motaung.

He added: “A need also arose for us to ensure that we reinforce our defence material for next season. We have subsequently secured a three-year contract with a central defender, Thomas Sweswe from Zimbabwe whose international track record speaks for itself. We are confident that his loads of experience will ensure that we have a water-tight defence line-up next season.”

Both players have agreed to sign three-year deals with ‘Amakhosi’. Motaung also revealed that the club has released defender Mokete Tsotetsi to Bloemfontein Celtic.

“Mokete has a bright future ahead of him. He is a player with loads of potential and we believe he has made his mark with the team and will continue to do the same at Celtic,” said Motaung.

“On behalf of the Kaizer Chiefs family, I would like to thank him for his contribution to the team. He has demonstrated a very good professional behaviour at Chiefs. We also would like to wish him success in his new club,” concluded Motaung.

Open letter to Robson Sharuko

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By Mugrade wekwa Goredema

Dear Robson Sharuko

Last week in the Sunday Mail Charles Mhlauri wrote criticing ZIFA for playing friendlies with Oman. On Thursday you then carried a story defending your corrupt friend ZIFA “THIEF EXECUTIVE”, Henrietta Rushwaya. Today`s Saturday Herald has the same article defending shambolic ZIFA simply because Rushwaya is your friend who takes you on free foreign trips with the national team in return for good coverage.

Listen my friend, not everybody is a fool, Who are Oman in  world football, who are Bahrain ?? Even though you talk of rankings why cant Zifa arrange to play, Netherlands, Argentina, or Portugal if your partner in thiefing Rushwaya is competent. Mhlauri is right and no amount of wasting space in the Herald attacking him will help.

By the way who elected Rushwaya into office? Hand picked by Vice President Joseph Msika even though she has no JC (Junior School Certificate)? Is she not the same person who stole Zifa money for other officials allowances some time ago? Why didnt you report it with vigour the same way you did with Jonathan Mashingaidze? By the way Mashingaidze was cleared and is back at ZIFA… why didn’t you apologise?

Not everybody is daft to think Oman are a good football side, you even know it? If Mhlauri says the truth about Rushwaya`s incomptence, why can’t you accept? Anyway since she takes you on free foreign trips to Oman, Bahrain when the mickey mouse games are arranged, only a fool would expect you to denounce the wrongs Rushwaya did?

By the way are you stealing defrauding ZIFA with Rushwaya? On foreign trips you over invoice Zifa and claim Rushwaya`s sister paid with her credit card in the United Kingdom then Zifa reimburse you two exorbitant money which you falsely claim in expenses even though the host nation (Oman) pays all bills.

You are a discredited journalist who  never went to a proper school to sharpen his skills , no wonder you are so biased, a shame, a muppet, a loser, a corrupt, a phony, dull, thick individual who thinks you know all, and take advantage since not many newspapers report daily on football in Zimbabwe.

What has stopped you criticizing ZIFA? Remember you sent Rafiq Khan to prison, lied over Mashingaidze and he was suspended, what has stopped you criticising Rushwaya… you want to tell everybody she is a god……UTTER RUBBISH…the more you realise you cant fool everybody the better, but being thick and daft as you are you think simply because the Herald is the only daily newspaper you can get away with lies, abuse of the pen and pure hypocrisy?

By the way your other hero , whom you use as a tool in your agenda against Charles Mhlauri, Moses Chunga behaved like a baby at Rufaro and remonstrated against Lovemore Banda, when are you going to tell us about him?

You had the guts to inform us Mhlauri had a domestic altercation with his wife some years ago… How about Chunga who behaved like a dull grade zero in front of the cameras at Rufaro…

Go to school, munhu wepi , sports editor ane kaDiploma kemass communication keku border gezi …. taught by Tafataona Mahoso… you mentioned Pathisani Moyo… why cant you tell the whole world she was humiliated by Rushwaya whilst you sat stone quiet on that flight from Malawi ? After another free foreign trip paid for you by your master Rushwaya

Ndaenda ini
Mugrade & wekwaGoredema.

Gloves are off as JOC meet and decide Tsvangirai has not done enough

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By Denford Magora

On Wednesday this week, (yesterday), JOC met in Harare and the resolutions they came up with are disturbing.

I really do feel pity for Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, who Mugabe said he “sent” on a mission to being back aid and get sanctions lifted.

While The Prime Minister fights a forlon and hopeless battle to try and do Mugabe’s bidding, The Solution and his party have decided that gloves will now come off.

In essence, the resolutions by JOC yesterday can be summed upin one sentence: “No more concessions”.

The idea is to now proceed as if the MDC is not in government at all.

This decision was apparently reached as it became clearer that sanctions and travel bans are not to be lifted.

This comes at it was also revealed to me yesterday that the the president, Robert “The Solution” Mugabe, has said to Tsvangirai the future of this government is “quid pro quo”. He has told the Prime Minister that the swearing-in of Roy Bennet and the Governors as well as the Ambassadors that they agreed to is dependant on what Tsvangirai can bring to the table for the government.

Yesterday, there was agreement in JOC that there had been nothing forthcoming from the MDC-T.

More disturbing was the consensus that ermerged from the JOC meeting. This body believes that Morgan Tsvangirai is “on a different mission to what was agreed in cabinet”. One of the JOC members is quoted as saying Tsvangirai is “looking for money for his NGOs” instead of money for government.

It appears this feeling is universal within that body.

They are certain that the Prime Minister is privately telling his hosts not to give any assistance to the Inclusive government so that he can achieve what Mugabe still calls “regime change”. The belief within ZANU PF now is that Tsvangirai wants that aid witheld so that he strengthens his argument for the removal of Gono and Tomana.

The bottom line, though is this:

JOC has decided that

* Bennet and the Governors will not be sworn in (“because the MDC have failed to live up to their end of the bargain”)
* Should a constitution be drafted and passed by parliament, the president will refuse to sign it and implement it, ensuring the next elections will be held under the current constitution (“there is nothing they can do to us that theyhave not already done,” was the sentiment I heard yesterday)
* The MDC and its officials will be locked out of public media in a much more explicit manner. (This is rather moot, in my opinion, because, as you are well aware, the state media has completely ignored Tsvangirai’s trip overseas. The only article that appeared on the front page of The Herald was celebrating the fact that Tsvangirai had been refused aid by the Dutch)
* ZANU PF will activate its hordes in the rural areas and ensure that the MDC_t is not allowed free reign there

Apart from this, we already know that Gono and the Attorney General are not going anywhere and that the Permanent Secretaries that Mugabe put in place will stay put and stay ZANU PF.

Because the MDC-T has vowed it will not get out of government, the official position of JOC now is to use every available opportunity to humiliate and demean the Prime Minister, thereby diminishing his political capital in the eyes of the electorate.

It is pitiful, really, to watch the MDC-T in government now, as ZANU PF laughs and says “alll they wanted was to be called “Honourable” and that is it.”

Rather pitiful to see the Prime Minster fighting a lone, fruitless battle against this tide.

The Prime Minister, who meets President Obama inFriday in Washington D.C., now has a dagger drawn for him and his party back home. Like I have been saying for so long, there is no hope that he will bring anything back from this trip.

His last hope is Barak Obama, whom he meets tomorrow (Friday) at the White House. Don’t hold your breath, though.

US Seeks Ways to 'Appropriately' Support Zimbabwe

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By Blessing Zulu & Patience Rusere

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai met Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who in comments to reporters before their conversation appeared to add some nuance to the well-established American position that Washington will not directly fund the operations of the Harare government without seeing broad and deep reforms.

Mr. Tsvangirai is scheduled to meet Friday with President Barack Obama.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson said early this week that no major aid could be expected until the Harare government as a whole institutes significant reforms on human rights and the rule of law, and ends harassment of political and civic activists, seemingly underscoring the humanitarian-only aid policy that has been in place for months.

Clinton told Mr. Tsvangirai after praising him as a “longtime advocate” of human rights and economic opportunity that she was “anxious to hear about the plans and the work that your government is undertaking and to look for ways that we appropriately can be supportive.”

Her choice of the modifier “appropriately” reflected the dilemma facing U.S. officials who want to support Mr. Tsvangirai and the reform-minded program of his Movement for Democratic Change, but who do not under any circumstances want to see the injection of American development funds bolster his governing partner, President Robert Mugabe.

Following bitterly contested elections in 2008 which opened several months of deadly political violence, Mr. Tsvangirai and Mr. Mugabe along with rival MDC formation leader Arthur Mutambara signed a power-sharing pact and formed a government in February.

The Zimbabwean prime minister met later on Capitol Hill with members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee whose Africa subcommittee chairman, Donald Payne, a Democrat, has been advocating increased American assistance to Zimbabwe.

“We do see some progress being made,” Payne told VOA following that session.

“Much more has to be done. We’re not certainly ready to remove any sanctions or anything like that, however we are going to explore ways that we can get assistance to the people of Zimbabwe” targeting the agricultural sector and the educational system.

“But we will be watching closely, we will be having guidelines and roadmarks to see whether the ZANU-PF government is cooperating with MDC in a real collaborative spirit,” he said.

Mr. Tsvangirai also met with Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who in 2001 co-sponsored the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act restricting U.S. support for aid to the country by any international financial institution until democracy and the rule of law should be restored.

In a statement, Feingold “reaffirmed our country’s commitment to providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Zimbabwe and new resources for critical services like education, health, water and sanitation.” But, he said, “I was clear with (Tsvangirai) that the United States will continue to maintain our targeted sanctions and restrictions on direct assistance to the government until we see real progress toward restoration of the rule of law, civilian control over a disciplined security force and respect for human rights.”

In a speech and news briefing Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Tsvangirai said there could be serious consequences if his government is unable to reinvigorate the economy, making the case for the United States to provide transitional funding.

The alternative, if the government failed for lack of funds, could be “ghastly,” he said.

In an interview with reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe this week, Mr. Tsvangirai described his approach to the U.S. government as a dynamic process.

For interpretation of Clinton’s comments Thursday and analysis of where Mr. Tsvangirai’s quest for funds goes from here, reporter Patience Rusere turned to two political analysts: Resident Fellow Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy in Washington, and independent analyst Bekhithemba Mhlanga in London.

Bate noted that Mr. Tsvangirai has been cordially received in Washington, but cautioned that whatever aid the United States may provide will come with strings attached.- VOA News

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