US embassy cable - 02HARARE2803

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 002803 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR J. FRAZER 
LONDON FOR C. GURNEY 
PARIS FOR C. NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR T. PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/16/2012 
TAGS: PGOV, ZI, ZANU-PF 
SUBJECT: ZIMBABWE PROMISES MORE OF THE SAME AT ZANU-PF 
CONFERENCE 
 
REF: HARARE 2742 
 
Classified By: Political Officer Kimberly Jemison for reasons 1.5 b/d. 
 
 SUMMARY 
------- 
1.  (C) ZANU-PF,s annual conference, concluded in Chinhoyi 
December 14, proved to be another platform from which the 
senior party leadership could blast their critics and blame 
others for the country,s economic woes.  President Mugabe 
tacitly admitted that the land reform exercise had not gone 
well but in the same breath he blamed most of the country,s 
economic woes on the British and other Western powers.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
MUGABE CONTINUES TO DEMONIZE MDC, BRITAIN, AND THE WEST 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
2.  (U) ZANU-PF,s sixth National People,s Conference was 
filled with the same rhetoric the party has been espousing 
over the last year.  The West, the MDC, NGOs, and civic 
groups, led by Britain, are the reason for most of the 
economic problems besieging the country, Mugabe said in his 
opening address.  Mugabe also made a thinly veiled threat 
against Australia, New Zealand, and some EU member states 
that if these countries continued to side with Britain, then 
they would be treated as enemies.  &The more they work 
against us, the more they should expect hostility from us and 
the more negative we shall become to their kith and kin 
here.8  An Australian diplomat in attendance told us Mugabe 
had said explicitly "white people are the enemy" and noted 
that the US was notably absent among the list of countries in 
the diatribe.  (NOTE: Despite assurances from ZANU-PF 
Director of Administration, Fred Shava, that the Embassy 
would receive an invitation to the opening ceremony, we never 
did (see reftel).  Other Western embassies received 
invitations during the week leading up to the opening 
ceremony.  Our Australian colleague told us he had to 
repeatedly ask for their invitation. END NOTE.) 
 
LAND REFORM NOT TOTAL SUCCESS 
----------------------------- 
3.  (U) Mugabe admitted that it was necessary to review the 
land reform and that there had been disapproval and 
dissatisfaction with some aspects of the exercise, especially 
the A2 model, according to press accounts.  Mugabe was quick 
to say there would be no turning back on the land issue and 
he reiterated a desire to indigenize the mining, 
manufacturing, industry, tourism, and the financial sector. 
Mugabe reiterated a threat he made two months ago to 
nationalize gas stations owned by multinational oil 
companies. 
 
4.  (U) Patrick Nyaruwata, the chairman of the Zimbabwe 
National Liberation War Veterans Association, criticized the 
government over corruption in land distribution during his 
speech, according to the independent newspaper, the Daily 
News.   Nyaruwata appealed to Mugabe to act against the 
corrupt officials.  After the speech, John Nkomo, ZANU-PF 
national chairman, admonished Nyaruwata for criticizing the 
government in what was supposed to have been a solidarity 
speech. 
 
CONFERENCE ATMOSPHERICS 
----------------------- 
5.  (C) Our Australian diplomatic colleague was alarmed at 
the number of guns he saw at the conference.  Machine guns 
were everywhere and seven bodyguards surrounded Mugabe to 
within an arms length. (COMMENT: This is the most bodyguards 
we have known Mugabe to have and is a revealing statement of 
Mugabe's personal sense of security, at an event attended 
primarily by his own party supporters.  END COMMENT.)  Few 
Western diplomats attended the conference--the Australian 
diplomat reckons Greece (EU Acting President), Canada and 
Belgium were present--but was reasonably well-attended by 
some Eastern European countries, Arab and African countries, 
Cuba, China, and Indonesia.  As soon as Mugabe finished, most 
of the diplomats left. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
6.  (C) As expected, there was no discussion on succession or 
any substantive shift on policies expressed at this year's 
conference.  Conference delegates expressed concern over most 
crises afflicting the country (fuel, food, and HIV) but 
offered no real solutions to the problems, instead proposing 
more price controls, intensified nationalization and 
indigenization of businesses, and mobilization of resources 
to win the Kuwadzana and Highfield parliamentary 
by-elections. In a transparent attempt to boost morale at its 
annual conference, Chinhoyi was flush with food and fuel, 
according to the independent weekly, The Standard.  Prior to 
the conference, Chinhoyi suffered the same shortages as the 
rest of the country (corn meal, bread, sugar, milk, meat, 
chicken, and fuel). 
 
7.  (C) Mugabe's attempts to fan racial hatred are troubling, 
but even more worrisome is his absolutist approach to a 
deteriorating economic situation over which he has decreasing 
influence. Mugabe's determination to forge on with a 
"business as usual" approach is pushing his regime and this 
country ever closer to the precipice.  While one moderate 
ZANU-PF governor cautioned us not to take the conference's 
political rhetoric too seriously, he acknowledged that he was 
worried that the "situation may have slipped out of our 
control." 
 
 
 
 
 
SULLIVAN