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06:45Last update on: 13 Aug 2013
The Namibian
Tue 13 Aug 2013
SMS Of The Day * MINISTRY of Gender and Child Welfare, TEARS are rolling down as I write this SMS. The killing of women in Namibia is now like reciting a poem. Are we really getting the protection we deserve while women not being treated as part of this c Food For Thought * SO the Zimbabwe elections were free and peaceful and not free and fair? Bouquets And Brickbats * NURSES at Katutura Hospital must stop wearing those big plastic sandals at work because they are not the official working shoes. We want to see you looking smart and beautiful with your full uniform. SMS Of The Day * THIS nation is in dire need of a massive conference on housing. When we experienced a crisis in the education sector a crisis-control brain-storming conference was organised which resulted in the best deal ever for the Namibian child, nam Food For Thought * BOURGEOISIE has become a daily occupation if not the order of the day of the upper-echelons, President Hifikepunye Pohamba we urge you to revisit this unpatriotic geocentricism among your staff and the well-connected, for everybody to r Bouquets And Brickbats * COMMISSIONER of Prisons, can you please explain the strategies you use to appoint officers to certain positions? It is my observation that you are being fed with wrong information then you just promote individuals without making p SMS Of The Day * I THINK Paulus ‘The Rock’ Ambunda lost his belt because of this promoter and trainer. How can a world champion still be training at the Katutura Youth Complex where there is not enough equipment. I think they must follow the example of Ha Food For Thought * NAMIBIA Dairies are unable to match low prices of imported milk and this ultimately means the consumer will have to pay more for local milk. Look at the prices of the local chicken. All these profits are going in the pockets of a few in Bouquets And Brickbats * I AM pleased to hear that Cabinet has responded positively to the proposal of Namibia Dairies to support the industry. The restrictions which support the industry by reducing competition to ensure the survival of the industry is a SMS Of The Day * CEO’s golden handshakes. Somewhere on our statute books there must be a provision that if a board of directors suspends/dismisses a CEO without due regard to legal provision (substantive/procedural law) such board must carry the costs for Food For Thought * JACKY Asheeke was so right with her last column- why are the fathers of the dead children not being prosecuted? (Reference to the children who died in shack fires last week) Our justice system still protects men over women. In this cont Bouquets And Brickbats * ALEXACTUS Kaure, your column in Friday’s newspaper opened my eyes. One hardly finds impartial case study analysers in Namibia. Let’s not destroy the Polytechnic’s strong foundation (Tjivikua) as yet. At least wait until the transf
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NEWS - AFRICA
| 2013-07-30
Tsvangirai again a thorn in Mugabe’s side
HARARE - Tomorrow Morgan Tsvangirai will get his third crack at dethroning veteran Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.
It may be his last.
In 14 years at the helm of the Movement for Democratic Change, the 61-year-old ex-trade unionist, has made his party the only credible alternative to Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.
In consecutive elections in 2002, 2005 and 2008 Tsvangirai has run Mugabe close.
Last time out he won 47.9% of the vote to Mugabe’s 43.2%.
In a fair race, he may well have won outright. But an orgy of violence against allies forced him out of the hunt before the final round of voting.
For his troubles Tsvangirai has been arrested repeatedly, been charged with treason and faced four suspected assassination attempts.
In 1997 assailants tried to throw him out of his office window.
His bodyguard has been killed and his wife died in a suspicious car crash that also hospitalised him.
He retains a strong following among urbanites and Zimbabweans in rural of the western part of the country.
But even among supporters, there is a lingering sense that Tsvangirai has repeatedly been outmanoeuvred by Mugabe, even when the international community forced Mugabe to accept him as prime minister.
After more than four years of a forced unity government, most meaningful levers of power - from the security services to the judiciary - remain under Mugabe’s control.
Tsvangirai has been criticised for offering Mugabe legitimacy by participating in polls that have repeatedly been rigged - and for failing to mobilise mass protests that could shift the terrain in his favour.
And on his watch, the MDC has split into two rival factions, draining energy and valuable votes.
He has managed to forge an alliance with Simba Makoni, a former finance minister and senior official of Mugabe’s party, who came third in the first round of the 2008 elections.
“This will be a do-or-die election for him,” said Eldred Masunungure, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe.
“After being at the helm of the party since September 1999, if he loses, then surely he must consider dropping the hat for someone else.”
While he is widely seen as a champion of democracy, recent scandals surrounding his love life, including a public divorce, have put a dent in his popularity. He “gets distracted by a whole lot of things, including personal issues”, said South African analyst Moeletsi Mbeki, who has known Tsvangirai since the 1980s.
The does little to help strengthen his fight especially facing a “very powerful adversary” like Mugabe.
“Morgan has been learning on the job while fighting against... Mugabe [who] is the one of the cleverest politicians in Africa.”
“I don’t have the ‘I-will-not-go’ attitude”
Mbeki thinks that “in fact Morgan has done reasonably well given the lack of experience he started off with”.
The teetotal, non-smoking Tsvangirai rose to political prominence via the trade union movement.
After working for 10 years at Bindura Nickel Mine he became leader of the country’s largest labour federation, spearheading national strikes in the 1990 against Mugabe’s economic policies.
He was born in 1952, the son of a bricklayer in the southern town of Gutu, as the oldest of nine children.
He grew up in the eastern district of Buhera but family poverty forced him to quit school early and earn a living to enable his younger siblings to get an education.
Unlike most of Zimbabwe’s politicians of his age and older, Tsvangirai did not take part in the Chimurenga liberation war against white colonial rule.
He was 28 when Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980.
Under Mugabe’s rule, he was detained twice for his political activism and was twice cleared of treason charges.
In March 2007, he was among dozens of opposition activists assaulted by police as they tried to stage an anti-government rally, and suffered head injuries.
Just three weeks after taking office as the premier, his first wife Susan died in a car crash that also left him hospitalised.
There are increasing signs his long struggle has taken its toll. “I don’t have the ‘I-will-not-go’ attitude. When my days are done, I will go and leave these young ones [to it],” Tsvangirai told thousands of supporters on Sunday. - Nampa-AFP
It may be his last.
In 14 years at the helm of the Movement for Democratic Change, the 61-year-old ex-trade unionist, has made his party the only credible alternative to Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.
In consecutive elections in 2002, 2005 and 2008 Tsvangirai has run Mugabe close.
Last time out he won 47.9% of the vote to Mugabe’s 43.2%.
In a fair race, he may well have won outright. But an orgy of violence against allies forced him out of the hunt before the final round of voting.
For his troubles Tsvangirai has been arrested repeatedly, been charged with treason and faced four suspected assassination attempts.
In 1997 assailants tried to throw him out of his office window.
His bodyguard has been killed and his wife died in a suspicious car crash that also hospitalised him.
He retains a strong following among urbanites and Zimbabweans in rural of the western part of the country.
But even among supporters, there is a lingering sense that Tsvangirai has repeatedly been outmanoeuvred by Mugabe, even when the international community forced Mugabe to accept him as prime minister.
After more than four years of a forced unity government, most meaningful levers of power - from the security services to the judiciary - remain under Mugabe’s control.
Tsvangirai has been criticised for offering Mugabe legitimacy by participating in polls that have repeatedly been rigged - and for failing to mobilise mass protests that could shift the terrain in his favour.
And on his watch, the MDC has split into two rival factions, draining energy and valuable votes.
He has managed to forge an alliance with Simba Makoni, a former finance minister and senior official of Mugabe’s party, who came third in the first round of the 2008 elections.
“This will be a do-or-die election for him,” said Eldred Masunungure, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe.
“After being at the helm of the party since September 1999, if he loses, then surely he must consider dropping the hat for someone else.”
While he is widely seen as a champion of democracy, recent scandals surrounding his love life, including a public divorce, have put a dent in his popularity. He “gets distracted by a whole lot of things, including personal issues”, said South African analyst Moeletsi Mbeki, who has known Tsvangirai since the 1980s.
The does little to help strengthen his fight especially facing a “very powerful adversary” like Mugabe.
“Morgan has been learning on the job while fighting against... Mugabe [who] is the one of the cleverest politicians in Africa.”
“I don’t have the ‘I-will-not-go’ attitude”
Mbeki thinks that “in fact Morgan has done reasonably well given the lack of experience he started off with”.
The teetotal, non-smoking Tsvangirai rose to political prominence via the trade union movement.
After working for 10 years at Bindura Nickel Mine he became leader of the country’s largest labour federation, spearheading national strikes in the 1990 against Mugabe’s economic policies.
He was born in 1952, the son of a bricklayer in the southern town of Gutu, as the oldest of nine children.
He grew up in the eastern district of Buhera but family poverty forced him to quit school early and earn a living to enable his younger siblings to get an education.
Unlike most of Zimbabwe’s politicians of his age and older, Tsvangirai did not take part in the Chimurenga liberation war against white colonial rule.
He was 28 when Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980.
Under Mugabe’s rule, he was detained twice for his political activism and was twice cleared of treason charges.
In March 2007, he was among dozens of opposition activists assaulted by police as they tried to stage an anti-government rally, and suffered head injuries.
Just three weeks after taking office as the premier, his first wife Susan died in a car crash that also left him hospitalised.
There are increasing signs his long struggle has taken its toll. “I don’t have the ‘I-will-not-go’ attitude. When my days are done, I will go and leave these young ones [to it],” Tsvangirai told thousands of supporters on Sunday. - Nampa-AFP
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