US embassy cable - 05HARARE310

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 000310 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR BNEULING 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2010 
TAGS: EAID, PGOV, PREL, PHUM, ZI, MDC 
SUBJECT: BULAWAYO AND MASVINGO'S MDC MAYORS ON CHALLENGES 
OF GOVERNING: GOZ'S THE BIGGEST 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Christopher W. Dell under Section 1.4 b/d 
 
1.  (C) Summary: During a recent trip to south-central 
Zimbabwe, the Ambassador met with the mayors of Bulawayo and 
Masvingo on February 8 and 9 respectively.  Both mayors are 
members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change 
(MDC).  Mayor Japhet Ncube of Bulawayo criticized the central 
government for micromanaging municipalities, especially those 
governed by the MDC, and for failing to provide financial 
support to city governments.  He named urban issues such as 
lighting, water and streets as major concerns, and said that 
voters are aware that the GOZ is in large part to blame for 
such problems.  Ncube fully expects the MDC to win big in 
Matabeleland in the upcoming parliamentary elections. 
 
2.  (C) Summary Continued: Mayor Alois Chaimiti of Masvingo 
cited food security as the single biggest issue affecting the 
city.  He noted that the GOZ was not only failing to help 
local governments, but was also constraining their ability to 
raise needed revenue from other sources.  He added that the 
MDC would launch its national campaign in Masvingo February 
20 and said the party stood a good chance of picking up 
additional seats in the region.  End Summary. 
 
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Bulawayo Mayor: Tense Relations with GOZ; Mtabeleland to 
remain MDC 
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3.  (C) Mayor Ncube told the Ambassador that the central 
government tried to manage local authorities at every turn. 
He referenced a fax he had received the previous Friday 
requesting that all mayors attend a lunch in the capital in 
honor of the newly appointed Vice President, Joyce Mujuru. 
The GOZ expected mayors to attend on short notice and at 
their own expense.  The Mayor said he had sent his deputy in 
his stead, indicating his distain for the central 
government,s behavior.  He also cited the fact that 
correspondence from the central government came to him via 
the Governor, an appointed official and a member of the 
ruling ZANU-PF party. 
 
4.  (C) Mayor Ncube also criticized the central government 
for failing to make good on its financial promises.  The 
Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, 
recently pledged 150 billion Zim dollars to Bulawayo.    The 
Mayor had yet to receive official notification of Gono,s 
bequest, let alone see any of the cash.  Based on past 
experience, he said he did not expect the money to be 
forthcoming.  Ncube said that while Bulawayo received little 
from the central government, its needs were significant.  The 
Ambassador asked Mayor Ncube how he would spend money if he 
had it, and the mayor named roads, street lighting, and the 
sewer and water systems as priorities.  With a population 
that had expanded to two million people, he said Bulawayo,s 
overtaxed infrastructure was in desperate need of 
revitalization. 
 
5. (C) On an even more basic level, Ncube said that the city 
could not feed itself and that nationally Zimbabwe would need 
to import hundreds of thousands of tons of grain to avoid a 
crisis.  Ncube expressed concern that ZANU-PF had exploited 
similar situations in the past, providing food to those who 
vote for the ruling party.  The fact that war veterans 
handled food rationing in Bulawayo, even though this fell 
within the city council,s purview, provided yet another 
example of the central government,s on-going effort to 
control local authorities and their constituents. 
 
6.  (C) Despite tense relations with the central government 
and a severe lack of resources, Ncube said the situation was 
far from hopeless.  To begin with, the city council realized 
that people might point fingers at them when visible issues 
such as lighting and refuse removal were ignored, so they had 
developed a plan to ensure that the central government took 
the blame, including a bi-annual city hall paper, &Masiye 
Pambili,8 that listed accomplishments as well as areas for 
improvement. 
 
7.  (C) Politically, Ncube said Matabeleland remained an MDC 
stronghold.  He noted two reasons for optimism in the 
province.  First, he felt confident that the people of 
Matabeleland would vote MDC again since they were accustomed 
to the threats that came with supporting the opposition. 
Second, he thought ZANU-PF supporters in Matabeleland were so 
disenchanted that they simply wouldn,t go to the polls.  He 
added that ZANU-PF was in such chaos that he wouldn,t be 
surprised if the parliamentary elections scheduled for March 
31 were postponed. 
 
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Masvingo Mayor: More Trouble with GOZ; MDC Electoral Hopes 
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8.  (C) The Mayor of Masvingo, Alois Chaimiti, and six of ten 
city councilmen, all of whom are members of the opposition 
party MDC, told the Ambassador that Masvingo would have the 
honor of hosting the launch of MDC,s campaign on February 
20.  The Mayor said he was confident that the party would 
break through and win a number of rural seats in the region 
in the parliamentary elections.  He allowed that intimidation 
and violence were very real possibilities as the elections 
approach.  He also noted that previously used ZANU-PF 
tactics, including tearing up candidates, nomination papers 
and barring voters from going to the polls, could affect the 
outcome if deployed.  Like Mayor Ncube, he believed the 
ruling party could also use food as a tool to get votes as 
they have done in the past. 
 
9.  (C) Chaimiti expressed the same frustration felt by Mayor 
Ncube over the central government,s unfulfilled promises of 
funding and echoed the sentiment that no funds would actually 
be dispersed.  He said Masvingo needed help in many areas but 
he flagged food security as the principle concern.  Food 
scarcity cut across all wards, and affected rural as well as 
urban areas.  Chaimiti explained that low salaries and 
joblessness in the region made it difficult for people to 
afford food. 
 
10. (C) Overall, Chamiti said Masvingo was a distressed 
community whose economic base was being eroded by bad 
government policies.  For instance, the GOZ had only allowed 
municipalities to raise budgets by 15%, a much lower increase 
than the percentages originally promised and grossly 
insufficient given current inflation rates.  The policies of 
the central government constrain the city,s ability to raise 
revenue on its own, making it impossible to provide adequate 
services to meet citizens, needs. 
 
10. (C) Chaimiti said the support of the international 
community was key to encouraging democratic change in 
Zimbabwe.  In that regard, he lamented the decline of NGO 
involvement in the Masvingo region, faulting primarily the 
central government for pushing out programs that had 
benefited the disadvantaged. 
 
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Comment 
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11. (C) The GOZ,s hostile attitude toward MDC-led city 
governments is a consistent theme in our visits to various 
parts of the country.  The ZANU-PF led GOZ has severely 
constrained the cities, former authorities to raise 
revenues, leading to cutbacks in services that the official 
media then portrays as signs of MDC incompetence.  Ncube has 
been the most successful of the MDC mayors at fighting back 
and ensuring his voters are wise to the game, but our sense 
is that city residents in general are aware of this dynamic 
and that the MDC therefore stands a good chance of retaining 
its urban support base.  In addition, the fortitude and 
creativity of both Mayor Ncube and Mayor Chaimiti in the face 
of significant problems gives reason for optimism that if the 
MDC were ever to come to power nationally, it would have a 
cadre of experienced administrators it could draw on to run 
the central government. 
DELL