US embassy cable - 04HARARE1963

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 001963 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR BNEULING 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/08/2009 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, ZI, Foreign Relations - Other 
SUBJECT: ZIMBABWE'S CRICKET DIPLOMACY 
 
REF: (A) HARARE 1913 (B) HARARE 1770 (C) HARARE 882 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Christopher W. Dell under Section 1.5 b/d 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY:  A visit by England's cricket team is 
exposing conflicts inside the ruling party and may evidence 
further impetus within the GOZ to moderate its anti-Western 
posture.  The GOZ's decision to admit 13 originally barred 
journalists to cover the tour suggests the waning influence 
of Information Jonathan Moyo and coincides with curious 
contemplation in the official press of possible rapprochement 
with the UK.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (U) The English cricket team arrived in Zimbabwe November 
26 for a ten-day, four match tour.  The controversial tour 
appeared to be derailed just days before its originally 
scheduled commencement November 24 when the team refused to 
travel in response to the GOZ's barring of 13 British 
journalists from entering the country to cover the matches. 
After reportedly heavy lobbying by the director of the 
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the Information 
Ministry reversed itself and announced that the journalists 
would be permitted to enter the country to cover the matches, 
but "not to meddle in the politics of Zimbabwe."  The 
journalists reportedly were going to be required to sign 
statements upon entry undertaking not to stray from sports 
themes in their reporting, but we are unaware that they were 
asked to do so or actually did so.  Indeed, we understand 
that the Sky News crew has been reporting on the ZANU-PF 
Party Congress underway this week.  The cricket boards 
reportedly are continuing to spar over who will bear losses 
associated with the cancellation of one match as a result of 
the delayed entry. 
 
3.  (U) Articles in The Independent and the Daily Mirror 
portrayed the Ministry's volte face as a defeat for combative 
Information Minister Moyo engineered by ZANU-PF Secretary for 
Information Nathan Shamuyarira.  According to press reports, 
Shamuyarira overruled the Ministry in order to avoid an 
embarassing the GOZ with a cancellation of the publicized 
tour.  The official press reported nothing about the 
flip-flopping and announced only that all 78 of the 
journalists applying to cover the tour had been accredited. 
Focused principally on sports themes, official Zimbabwean 
coverage of the tour featured English players' positive 
comments about Zimbabwe and occasionally contrasted this 
visit with last year's tour, which was cancelled over 
purported security concerns. 
 
4.  (U) Much more eyebrow-raising was an unrelated Herald 
op-ed piece the same date, "Jack Straw's handshake turns into 
an olive branch," in which the rabidly anti-Western columnist 
Donald Charumbira lays out evidence of purported UK interest 
in "burying the hatchet" with the GOZ.  Charumbira argues 
that the UK has accepted the inevitability of ZANU-PF rule 
and needs better relations with all countries, including 
Zimbabwe, to advance larger priorities such as Iraq and the 
Middle East.  He forecasts British attempts at harmonization 
but warns that "clandestine machinations" will continue and 
that the UK would shift efforts from the MDC to "tackling 
ZANU-PF from within."  The ZANU-PF-aligned but unofficial 
Daily Mirror published an article on November 24 that gave 
prominent play to the British Ambassador's urging of more 
cordial bilateral ties. 
 
5.  (C) A British diplomat here confirmed to poloff that HMG 
did not support the cricket tour but had protested the 
barring of the journalists.  An unnamed minister in London 
had called in the Zimbabwean charge in London and the British 
DCM visited working level counterparts at MFA here to express 
displeasure and to urge a policy reversal.  The British 
diplomat attributed the reversal, however, not to the 
demarche but to anti-Moyo sentiments within the Government 
and Mugabe's strong desire to have the cricket tour. 
Commenting on the Charumbira piece, the diplomat reiterated 
that HMG had not changed its Zimbabwe policy at all but that 
the new British Ambassador's more outgoing style might be 
"puzzling" the GOZ. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
6.  (C) Shamuyarira's reported triumph over Moyo, if true, 
reprises his successful contest with the mercurial 
Information Minister over the admission of a Sky News team to 
interview President Mugabe (ref C) in May.  It is one of 
several indicia that Moyo's influence finally may be running 
out.  He is a candidate to be scapegoated over party 
divisions and rancor that flowed from a meeting he reportedly 
assembled to thwart the Joyce Mujuru Vice-Presidential bid 
last month (septel).  We are hearing growing rumors that the 
President himself, on whose favor Moyo had relied for so 
long, is dissatisfied with Moyo's divisiveness and plans to 
sack him from the cabinet after the election.  Certainly 
there are many in the ruling party who would welcome his 
departure from the scene, but predictions of the adept 
bureaucratic operator's imminent political demise now have 
proven no more than wishful thinking for more than a year. 
 
7.  (C) The GOZ's reversal on the journalists' accreditation 
contrasts with the hard line shown just last month in 
deporting the COSATU delegation (ref B) and suggests the 
growing ascendancy of more outward oriented elements in the 
ruling party.  Certainly, the GOZ is being more attentive to 
its international image and is trying to convey a sense of 
growing normalcy to domestic audiences.  We expect the UK 
will continue to be the regime's principal bogeyman through 
the elections (ref A), but the Charumbira piece may 
foreshadow a softening after that. 
DELL