“It’s the economy, Stupid”

Bill Clinton apparently had a sign hung over his desk during his 1992 Presidential campaign which read “It’s the economy, Stupid”. It was an effort by his campaign manager to help keep the campaign on message.

If Mugabe’s campaign manager had hung a sign over Mugabe’s desk, I imagine it probably would have said: “It’s all Britain’s fault, because you are a wonderful genius and a hero to Africa, and did I mention you are very handsome too (can I have my US$ now please?)”.

If Mugabe cared about legitimacy or his country, he would listen to the people not the yes-men surrounding him. The people are going to bite him badly at some point. Desperation levels are soaring, options are running out. We received an email today from one of our readers who neatly summed up the obvious:

Over the past couple of days, there have been suggestions from some sections of the media and Zimbabwean political analysts that because of the failure to approve sanctions by the UN that Mugabe is now in a far stronger position in the upcoming negotiations with the MDC.

However, this view belies one major fact: the Zimbabwean economy is in free fall and it is only a matter of months before the economy totally implodes on Mugabe and his regime. Mugabe cannot govern without an economy.

He can govern without the MDC, but unfortunately he cannot govern without a sound economy that provides employment for his subjects (and thus placates them and keeps them quiet while they have food on the table), that provides taxes to fund his regime’s administration (including the loyalty of his soldiers and police officers that keep him in power) and that generates the foreign currency that he needs to buy the paper to manufacture his bearer cheques…

The real message is not written on a sign hung over a desk, its in the streets and in the rural areas: Mugabe should listen to the people.

One of the commercial farms taken over a long time ago in rural Matabeleland has had ‘newly settled farmers’  on it struggling to eke out an existance for a few years now, with little or no support from the Zanu PF regime (newly settled farmers being war veterans who invaded and took over the farms from former white commercial farmers). This is an area prone to drought, so agricultural ventures without the back-up of smart irrigation systems (the pipes and pumps were stolen and sold a long time ago) are difficult to sustain even on a small-scale. They have had a miserable time, living a difficult hand-to-mouth existance.

Very recently the newly settled farmers were themselves ‘invaded’ by Zanu PF thugs - not war veterans, but hungry youth militia. They confiscated all of their grain stores, leaving the already struggling settlers with no food resources during a period of immense food scarcity.

The ‘newly settled farmers’ - just like the commercial farmers before them - were angry at the invasion and the theft and turned to the police for assistance. Apparently the police arrived but were told by the youth militia to ‘get lost’: they maintained that they were claiming what was their ‘rightful due’.

The youth militia had been promised fortunes by the Zanu PF regime for the ‘work’ they did over the election period (the terror work you can see here), but they haven’t been paid. The looting and theft with impunity is payment in lieu, and the police could do nothing.

The militia were asked to leave the farm - which they did, taking their loot with them - but no doubt they’ll turn up somewhere else soon to top up their ‘incomes’ at the expense of someone else.

A few years ago the war veterans could do no wrong in Mugabe’s grand plan for his future. It must be dawning on them now that they were nothing more than a political tool, discarded when they were no longer useful. Now its the militias who are the lynch-pin of Mugabe’s terror-agenda (just look at who is carrying out most of the violence on our map here), and at the moment they are able to literally get away with murder.

But what is going to happen when there is nothing left to loot and pillage?

Mugabe is famous for once saying, ‘Absolute power is when a man is starving and you control the food’. Food as a political weapon is a classic Mugabe trick and has been used time and time again. It’s transparently clear to those of us who understand this man and his evil ways where we are bound for next.

The BBC have an article today saying that the Zimbabwe regime is planning to distribute food hampers:

Zimbabwe’s government is to distribute cheap food hampers to help people deal with inflation of 2,200,000%. [...]

The food hampers are intended to reach all households to be distributed at local centres and at a village level by chiefs and headmen, the Herald reports.

It says each hamper will contain items such as cooking oil, soap, flour and maize meal and those that cannot afford it in rural areas should be able to arrange to pay at a later date.

I can assure you that the food hampers (if they even exist) will not go to everyone who is hungry: they will go to those who prove their loyalty to Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe. In the same way the chiefs and headmen were used to direct people on how to vote at village levels (and inform on them if they did not comply), they will be expected to continue shoring up support for a regime on its knees.

The food aid agencies, you remember, have already been banned from carrying out their humanitarian work.  Why?  Because in this context the threat of terror can be easily be replaced with a promise of starvation.

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