Family of MDC spokesman assaulted in village raid (SWRadio)
The spokesperson of the MDC, Nelson Chamisa’s 78-year-old grandmother, his mother and young 13-year-old brother were severely assaulted by armed soldiers in the Chiwara Village, Gutu. Two groups of soldiers, estimated at about 40 in total, terrorised villagers and demanded to be shown Chamisa’s rural home. The soldiers chanted ‘Tinoda Chitaka cha Chamisa!’ (We want Chamisa’s heart). The soldiers assaulted Chamisa’s family for over 2 hours. His little brother fainted 4 times during his assault and his mother was beaten while naked. Chamisa blamed the operation on Major General Engelbert Rugejo who sanctioned the operation in the area. Chamisa’s family members are badly injured.

Text: Tsvangirai speech to MDC Parliamentary Caucus (NewZim)
The above is the full text of an address by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to the MDC’ Parliamentary Caucus on Friday, May 30, 2008. (more…)

This is an ‘agro cheque’ (click on it to enlarge). It looks like it has been printed on ordinary office paper and it feels like it too!

Zanu PF’s PR skills reached new heights with this one. In Zimbabwe, if someone says ‘That person was agro’, they are actually saying, ‘That person was very very angry’. So Zanu PF has given us a new ‘currency’ note that captures the mood of the country and our views of them perfectly. Most people are feeling fairly ‘agro’ about the new cheques and about the state of our economy. (more…)

Zimbabwe: Top Government Officials Blacklisted (Zimdaily)

ZimDaily says that according to reliable sources, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Gen. Constantine Chiwenga (ZDF) have ordered, amongst others the blacklisting of:

• Didymus Mutasa – State Security minister
• Elliot Manyika – Zanu-PF political commissar & Minister without Portfolio
• Nicholas Goche – Minister of Labour, Public Works and Social Welfare
• Ray Kaukonde – Governor of Mashonaland East
• Sikhanyiso Ndlovu – Minister of Information and Publicity
• Gary Thompson – Independent businessman and advertising guru

Blacklisted for:

Mutasa is targeted for allowing farm invasions that included targeted resettled farmers and the diesel n’anga saga through which the government was duped after a traditional healer claimed that he discovered natural diesel deposits near Chinhoyi.

Manyika and Goche are credited for causing Zanu-PF’s defeat in the Mashonaland Central and East provinces, which in the past were Zanu-PF strongholds.

Kaukonde is believed to have been secretly backing Simba Makoni who was challenging Mugabe for the presidency.

Ndlovu, for allowing the state broadcaster to air positive publicity regarding the MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai. Henry Muradzikwa the CEO of ZBC has already been fired.

Gary Thompson has been credited as the creative mind behind the “Morgan is More” adverts.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s strategist, is chairman of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) and is in charge of the presidential run-off campaign. Other members of JOC include, Com. Contantine Chiwenga (ZDF), Gideon Gono governor of RBZ, Patrick Chinamasa Minister of Justice, and July Moyo, former Zanu-PF Midlands provincial chairperson.

More information about JOC: Hawkish ally leads Mugabe fightback (ZimOnline)

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe will never step aside for rival: wife (AFP)
Grace Mugabe told Zanu-PF supporters on Thursday, that Robert Mugabe would never vacate his office for the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, even if Mugabe should lose the run-off. She said “He will only get to hear about what it looks like inside State House from people who have been there. Even if Baba (Mugabe) loses, he will only leave State House to make way for someone from ZANU-PF.” (more…)

This video from the Solidarity Peace Trust

Zimbabwe: UN Rights Chief Speaks Out Against Murders of Opposition Activists (allafrica.com)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Louise Arbour, has strongly condemned the killing of the MDC activists in Zimbabwe, as well as the continuing harassment of civil society members such as NGO-workers and human rights defenders. Ms Arbour expressed shock over the reports of the recovery of the bodies of murdered MDC activists, including Shepherd Jani a provincial treasurer of the MDC.

“At one level, there appears to be an increasing pattern of people being targeted for politically motivated assassination. At another, arrests, harassment, intimidation and violence – directed not just at people with political affiliations, but also at members of civil society – are continuing on a daily basis.” said Ms Arbour.

Violence in Zimbabwe affecting children and relief effort (webwire.com)
UNICEF has strongly denounced the political violence that has displaced at least 10 000 children in Zimbabwe. The ongoing violence is hampering relief efforts to the children and their families in certain parts of the country. Politically motivated violence has resulted in the destruction of hundreds of homes and thousands of children are unable to attend school. Many of the children have been beaten or turned away from schools. Some schools are even used as centres of torture. UNICEF has found that more than half of the NGO’s in Zimbabwe who had programs that assist children, have had to restrict their activities due to threats, or have been directly ordered to stop by Zanu-PF or have done so out of general ‘concern at current uncertainties’. In South Africa as many as 20 000 Zimbabwean women and children had to flee their homes because of xenophobic attacks. (more…)

This was sent to us by the Crisis Coalition:

Mabel Penisara, wife of Ian Kay’s Campaign Manager who was abducted by 20 ZANU-PF thugs was found yesterday, 27 May 2008. She sustained serious injuries from the torture and beatings she endured during the detention period and was left naked and for dead by a roadside. She is the first person to be abducted and found alive since the March 29 General Election.

Mabel was abducted on Monday night (blogged here).

Everyone in Zimbabwe is well aware of inflation and to some degree, has become savvy with their finances.

The main rule is to spend your money as you receive it – even if it means spending it on items you may not need – because of the rate of depletion of our dollar (or bearer cheques as we no longer have actual dollars and cents). This is the only way to survive.

Then: don’t lend, don’t borrow, don’t purchase on credit, don’t pay in advance or don’t even pay a deposit in advance of delivery. These things just don’t work.

But even for the financially savvy, the rate of inflation during the month of May has been staggering.

The drop has been so hard and fast, prices are just a blur of zeros. Many of my friends have said that they often just trust the cashiers when making payments because adding, subtracting, multiplying, counting out handfuls of cash and then trying to check your change is an impossible task to do on the spur of the moment.

You cannot budget ahead and go into a store with the correct cash – inflation does not allow for this luxury.

Time is money.

Last week I hesitated on the price of a spare part for my car. On Monday 19th May I was quoted $35 billion (which looks like this $35,000,000,000-00). On Friday 23rd May I phoned the supplier again to find the price had now gone to $58 billion ($58,000,000,000-00). I rushed down to the store not realizing that they closed at 4pm. Yesterday morning, Tuesday 27th May, I contacted them again and they quoted me an additional $5.8 billion on Friday’s price. (Remember that this time-delay has been during a weekend and Monday was a public holiday, so store has been closed since the last quoted price).

The value of cash withdrawals is restricted by the banks (as per instruction of Mr Gono). I cannot withdraw enough cash to pay for items like my much-needed spare part.

So in addition to this morning’s increase, the supplier has told me that I must add 20% of the value of my purchase onto the payment as I am paying by cheque.

Are you keeping up?

The part now costs 76 billion, five hundred and sixty million dollars ($76,560,000,000-00).

The supplier is calling this additional charge ‘administration expenses’. They explain that it takes the banks 3 to 4 days to clear a cheque and present it in their account. In that time, they lose money. So much so that they cannot replace their stocks. The supplier either transfers the cost to me or he goes under.

The banks cannot keep up, suppliers cannot keep up, customers cannot keep up, wages cannot keep up! The hole is getting deeper and deeper.

I have used the cost of a spare part to illustrate what is happening in our country.

Food costs are increasing at the same rate.

Gono has totally lost control and as the rate of the dollar literally drops by the minute, the suffering increases by the minute.

The week commenced amid reports that inflation had now exceeded 1 million % and, in fact, the actual inflation rate is now adding zeros rather like the cost of basic goods.

Month on month inflation is now over 300% and prices are projected to rise by over 1000% by the date of the run-off poll on June 27.

Further reports are coming in of exporters FCA’s being raided and this is restricting production and interfering with long standing and hard won relationships with purchasers abroad.

The currency’s dive accelerates and the USD has now passed the 700 million (billion) mark.

More and more businesses are trying to dollarise their operations in order to try and achieve a sense of real value in terms of costs, wages and projected income.

Quasi-government institutions have all but collapsed as they have neither the skills nor the means to coping with such hyper inflation.

Manufacturing industry is fighting a desperate battle to remain viable as the political stalemate extends well beyond what was initially predicted.

The Hard Boiled Egg Index has reached a Fair Value Rate of 700 million as at Friday the 23rd.