MUGABE -- To stand for re-election next year

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU PF party on Thursday endorsed President Robert Mugabe as its candidate in next year’s presidential election, ignoring worsening economic hardships and food shortages blamed on his government. 

"There being no objections, this congress on this day of 13 December 2007 fully and unreservedly declare Comrade R G Mugabe as the ZANU PF candidate for the presidential elections," ZANU PF chairman John Nkomo declared to wild cheers from delegates. 

Some of the visibly overjoyed delegates broke into song praising Mugabe, while others repeatedly chanted the veteran leader’s name. As always, he sat there at the high table, motionless, as if untouched by all the wild excitement around him. 

Moments before, Nkomo had asked representatives of the party’s 10 provincial executives, the women and youth leagues to stand up and read out to congress resolutions in support of Mugabe. 

They dutifully did. And none - as anyone familiar with such gatherings of ZANU PF would have told you in advance - mentioned the parlous state of Zimbabwe’s economy, food shortages or inflation, which at nearly 8 000 as at the end of September is the highest in the world. 

The endorsement that was widely expected after Mugabe whipped dissenting senior party officials to back his candidature, paves the way for the 83-year old President to extend his rule to more than three decades if, as is expected, he defeats the opposition in the March poll. 

Mugabe is the only ruler Zimbabweans have ever known after first coming into power at independence from Britain in 1980. 

Analysts say he has managed to hang on to power despite Western isolation and a bold challenge from the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party through a violent crackdown on opponents and a patronage system that has seen supporters and cheer leaders handsomely rewarded. 

Addressing the congress earlier in the day, Mugabe displayed some of those tactics, promising more programmes to empower indigenous Zimbabweans – often supporters and cronies of ZANU PF – if his government is re-elected in the joint presidential and parliamentary polls next March. 

Mugabe, who said ZANU PF would launch its election manifesto soon, reminded the estimated 10 000 delegates that his government had given them land in the past. 

He was referring to his government’s chaotic land reform exercise in 2000 that displaced established white commercial farmers and replaced them with either incompetent or inadequately funded black farmers, in the process plunging Zimbabwe into food shortages. 

Mugabe said the next target for his government was to ensure black Zimbabweans control the lucrative mining sector. “We must own the land, what is under the land and what lives on that land,” he said to thunderous applause. 

Economic experts say a proposed mining law that will force foreign controlled firms to transfer shareholding to local owners will deliver a devastating new blow to an economy on the verge of total collapse. 

Mugabe also used the address to thank South African President Thabo Mbeki for his mediation effort in Zimbabwe and urged the congress to write to Mbeki thanking him. 

Mbeki has facilitated talks between ZANU PF and the MDC after he was tasked to do so by the Southern African Development Community which is pushing for a lasting solution to Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis. 

The Zimbabwean leader, who has previously threatened death against opponents, struck a different note, appealing to his supporters not to engage in violence in next year's elections. 

Mugabe, who blames Zimbabwe’s economic problems on sabotage by Britain and its Western allies, used his address to fire a fresh broadside at London and warned Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to interfere in Zimbabwe’s affairs. - ZimOnline