The crisis in Zimbabwe is set to deepen, analysts said, as President Robert Mugabe appeared to be "digging in" by trying to wrest control of parliament on 25 August, and hopes of a transitional government are waning.

The convening of parliament and the appointments are a breach of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the ZANU-PF and the two factions of the MDC in July to pave the way for talks to resolve the political impasse, said Lovemore Madhuku, chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an NGO lobbying for a new, people-driven constitution.

The MOU stipulated that none of the parties could make unilateral decisions before a deal for an inclusive government was announced, but talks being mediated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) representative, South African President Thabo Mbeki, have been deadlocked over how power should be shared between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF backed a candidate from the smaller faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-M) to be the speaker of parliament, against the candidate proposed by main faction, MDC-T, led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

In a surprise result, Lovemore Moyo, chairman of the Tsvangirai-led MDC, became the first opposition speaker since the country's independence in 1980.
However, Mugabe has also appointed three non-constituency members of the Senate and eight provincial governors without consulting the opposition.

"It should be borne in mind that the MOU is a political document, not a legally binding one, and ZANU-PF could feel at liberty to put it aside," Madhuku commented.

"As it is, it is likely that Mugabe will go ahead and announce a full cabinet, considering that he has already taken the first step by announcing provincial resident ministers [governors], and that could make the signing of a deal impossible," he added.

Mugabe lost the general elections on 29 March, and won the presidential run-off on 27 June as the sole candidate after MDC leader Tsvangirai withdrew because his supporters were being violently attacked.

Chris Mhike, a legal expert and political commentator, told IRIN that indications on the ground were that Mugabe was digging in and going for broke.

"The voting trends for the speaker's post indicate a purely party political agenda and not a national agenda," he said. "The fact that Mugabe appointed governors only from his party is another indication that the talks are in trouble."

Brian Raftopolous, a Zimbabwean academic and analyst, said Mbeki could call for a resumption of talks soon, as it seemed that Mugabe "will not give any ground. He [Mugabe] has forced the MDC MPs [members of parliament] to be sworn in, and that will see the impasse continue."

Economic crisis

Zimbabwe's economic crisis is set to worsen, Innocent Makwiramiti, a Harare-based economic analyst, told IRIN. Almost everything is in short supply and annual inflation has risen above 11 million percent.

"Hopes of an economic turnaround were pinned on a successful political deal. Given the direction in which things are moving, the economic crisis will worsen," Makwiramiti commented.

"I foresee a situation in which industry will grind to a complete halt in the next six months, thousands of people will join millions of other Zimbabweans who are living outside the country as economic refugees, and there will be more political tension."

Tension brewing

Signs of political tension have resurfaced, after a lull in the political violence that erupted following the March elections. Police briefly detained two members of parliament from the Tsvangirai-led MDC on 25 August.

The police also reported two bombings in the capital, Harare: in the first incident, earlier in August, several offices at Harare central police station were blown up; the second damaged a railway track 30km west of the city on 21 August.

Police commissioner general Augustine Chihuri recently admitted that they had not been able to establish who was behind the bombings, but hinted that disgruntled officers could be behind the police station incident.

IRIN

Zimbabweans are turning to fuel coupons as a new form of "currency" after struggling to find local money, which continues to lose its value steeply.

Simon Gambaga, 43, who owns a backyard carpentry business, faces eviction from the middle-income suburban home where he and his family live, about 10km south of Harare, the capital, after refusing to pay his rent with petrol (gasoline) coupons.

"My landlord has told me to vacate the house because I indicated to him that there was no way I could raise the foreign currency to buy the fuel coupons. Houses to rent are difficult to get these days, and that means that my four children, wife and I might end up living in the open if we fail to secure alternative lodgings," Gambaga told IRIN.

The coupons are usually obtained from fuel stations in exchange for foreign currency. His landlord was asking for 200 litres of petrol in coupons, amounting to US$300, an astronomical figure for Gambaga, whose business has declined because he has hardly any buyers for his products. The landlord has no car and refused to accept payment in liquid petrol.

"As it is, I am struggling to keep the children in school, we barely have enough food and I need to settle a huge bill after my wife stayed for two weeks in hospital, where she was operated on for breast cancer. God knows where on earth I would raise that kind of money," he said.
"We have seen many property owners arrested for charging rent in foreign currency, but there is no law that I am aware of that stipulates that a landlord cannot ask for fuel coupons, so that way we are able to dodge the law, while at the same time getting our rent in a form that enables us to keep our money stable," a landlord who refused to be identified told IRIN.

Like Gambaga's landlord, he cannot accept fuel "because that would leave me with the burden of having to go out onto the streets to sell it again". Landlords usually sell the coupons to illegal fuel dealers, who pay for them with foreign currency.

Zimbabwe's run-away inflation, estimated at 2.2 million percent by the government and at more than 15 million percent by independent economists, has severely weakened the currency.

The hyperinflation is characteristic of an economy suffering a biting shortage of foreign currency in the formal banking system, scarcity of commodities, power and fuel, as well as shrinking industrial production and unemployment levels thought to be around 80 percent.

"Fuel coupons are now firmly a form of currency in a country whose people will stop at nothing to ensure that they are protected against a hyperinflationary environment," John Robertson, an economic analyst, told IRIN.

"Like foreign currency, the value of the coupons does not change, even if kept for a long time and, that way, service providers realise that they are able keep their money in a stable form," he said.

"In other words, coupons are a replacement for foreign currency, and insistence on their usage by those who offer services or sell products amply indicates the level to which our economy has dollarised."

Robertson described payment in fuel coupons as a "clever type of barter trade, now the norm countrywide in an economy where the local currency is not worth much."

IRIN 

When the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) announced its decision to revive old coinage, Samuel Mapuranga, 29, of Chitungwiza, a dormitory city 30km south of Harare, the capital, had something to smile about.

Without enough money to buy even a loaf of bread for his two school-going children, he borrowed a pick and a shovel from a neighbour and rushed to a nearby informal garbage site.

"I used to work as a till operator for a local shop owner who gave me coins to throw away because they had become useless. I followed his instructions ... Now that they [the coins] are back in circulation, I have something to smile about," Mapuranga told IRIN.

Coins last used in 2001 were brought back into circulation on 1 August. Gideon Gono, governor of the RBZ, has introduced new coins as well as new notes to replace the old bearer cheques, from which and 10 zeroes were removed.

On the first day Mapuranga dug up enough coins to transform himself into a "trillionaire" in the old currency. "I found about nine trillion dollars [Z$9,000 in the new currency, about US$60] on the first day of my secret treasure hunt, and half of that the following day, but the 'gold mine' is drying up now," said Mapuranga, whose windfall amounted to more than a quarter of a school teacher's monthly salary.
Resuscitation of the coinage has brought cheer to Zimbabweans likes Mapuranga, struggling to make ends meet in a collapsed economy. Even though he is not as lucky as he was on the first two days, he is able to find the odd stash of coins in dumping sites dotted around the city, "And that makes me the envy of many people who put on a jacket and tie six days a week and yet get peanuts from their employers."

Shops and informal traders sometimes refuse to accept his coins because they are too blackened with dirt, but that does not worry him because he can still go to the bank and exchange them for new notes.

These days, Mapuranga can afford basic commodities like sugar, washing soap and maize-meal, and even manage to have a drink with friends at the local liquor shop.

"I have been struggling to put money on the table for years, but in the past four days the sun has been shining brightly through my window, thanks to the return of the coins," he said. "I can now give my children money to spend at school and I have even managed to pay up the top fees that the school was demanding."

Play money

Fortunate Kanhukamwe, 19, a housemaid who also lives in Chitungwiza, has suddenly found joy in the coins she used to use as play money to cheer up her employers' two-year-old son.

"My employers throw these coins everywhere and when they are away at work I look in every hidden corner - even madam's underwear closets - for them. They don't know it, but I have managed to gather about three times the salary they give me a month in a short space of time," Kanhukamwe told IRIN.

In her free time she searches the alleys and streets for coins, but is careful not to let her employers know, fearing they might take them away from her. "Sometimes we fight over the coins that we find in the streets, but that [the fights] is a lot of fun in these hard times."

However, there are fears that the joy brought by the reintroduction of the coins could be short-lived, and Mapuranga and Kanhukamwe admit that "We have to make as much hay as possible while the sun shines."

Innocent Makwiramiti, a Harare-based economist and past chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), told IRIN: "The coins are bringing back temporary joy. In two weeks or so they will be despised, because they would have been rendered useless by the hyperinflationary environment we are operating under."

Inflation is officially estimated at around 2.2 million percent, but independent analysts have put it as high as 15 million percent. Makwiramiti said the RBZ had been forced to reintroduce the coins because Giesecke and Devrient, the German company supplying the paper used to print notes, had decided to stop doing so in protest of the political violence in the recent elections.

Elton Mangoma, secretary for economic affairs in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said in a recent statement that "no amount of tinkering with currency denominations will address the Zimbabwean crisis", and described Gono's new measures as "the usual nonsense".

"Allowing people to scrounge for old money from their drawers will make it impossible to know how much currency is on the market," he pointed out, and this "could further push up inflation, which has now hit stratospheric levels".
 
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has appealed for about US$26.6 million to assist 260,100 people in need.

More than 5 million Zimbabweans will suffer food insecurity by the height of the hungry season between January and March 2009, according to a crop assessment forecast released on 18 June by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP).

"This figure [5.1 million] represents approximately 45 percent of the country's population," said Peter Lundberg, the head of the IFRC's delegation in Harare. "It gives a clear indication of how severe the situation is, and could become. We are very concerned."

IRIN

Attempts to tame Zimbabwe's multimillion percent annual inflation rate had an inauspicious beginning on 1 August when banks turned customers away after running out of cash.

Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono sees the introduction of a new currency that will lop off ten zeroes from the old currency, effectively revaluing Z$10 billion to one Zimbabwe dollar, as the solution to the country's hyperinflation.

On 4 August, US$1 was equivalent to Z$75 on the parallel currency exchange market. The largest denomination of the new currency is Z$500 (US$6.60).

The new attempt to curb inflation - estimated at 2.2 million percent by the government and at more than 15 million percent by independent economists - was announced in Gono's half-yearly monetary policy statement on 30 July and implemented two days later.

He said the new notes, along with the bearer and agro cheques being used as currency, would remain in circulation until 31 December. He recommended that wage and salary increments be frozen for six months.

"The six-month moratorium is suggested here as the most credible foundation and seed for the retransformation of market trends and micro-level pricing behaviour into stable and predictable modes," he said.

President Robert Mugabe, 84, who attended the monetary policy presentation, threatened to impose a state of emergency if the business sector continued to adjust its prices in line with the hyperinflationary environment.

"We have the power to invoke further measures, but we do not want to use the emergency rules. Emergency measures can be taken but we do not want that yet. We can do that to deter unjustified price increases," said the president, who has ruled for 28 years.

A bank manager, who declined to be identified, told IRIN that they had not received the new notes. "Our only problem is that the maximum withdrawals have been increased to Z$2 trillion (US$200) per customer per day, and as a result we have run out of cash. The Reserve Bank has not given us any additional supplies of money." Delivery vans were parked outside the central bank, waiting to transfer the new currency to rural areas.

The printing money habit

The notes were manufactured in 2007 by a German company, but additional trade restrictions imposed after Zimbabwe's elections in March were dismissed as a sham by the European Union, led paper suppliers Giesecke & Devrient cancel their contract.

The decision put pressure on an Austria-based company, Jura JSP, which provides the specialised software used to print forgery-proof bank notes, to review its business relationship with Mugabe's government.

The EU has frozen bank accounts and slapped travel restrictions on Zimbabwe's ruling elite in protest against the government's human rights violations.
In August 2006, Gono chopped three zeroes from the currency in a bid to contain inflation, which was then running at 1,183 percent, describing his policy as a "sunrise - a new beginning for Zimbabwe".

Independent economist Tony Hawkins dismissed Gono's latest strategy as little more than posturing. "What monetary policy? That was a political statement that was made. The nonsense about Zimbabwe being under sanctions was not monetary. There were a few currency changes, but that is where it ends. Freezing wages is not going to end hyperinflation," he told IRIN.

"The main causer of hyperinflation is Gideon Gono, who is printing money, which is being used for handouts and is being given to political thugs to beat up people."

Hawkins said unless there was a political settlement, the zeroes would be back on the currency in a few months. "We are looking at a situation whereby the (US) dollarisation of the economy is going to increase, because our own money would have become worthless."

The ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change are engaged in negotiations, but no settlement has been reached.

IRIN

Where in the world could you be a multi-billionaire and still go hungry? The answer is, of course, Zimbabwe.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has fixed the daily withdrawal limit at Z$100 billion (roughly US$1.25) a day for individuals, but that comes nowhere near to covering the day-to-day costs of people living in the most inflationary environment in the world.

A loaf of bread costs Z$100 billion at the official rate, a kilogramme of meat Z$450 billion, (around US$5.60) and a half-litre sachet of milk sells for Z$200 billion (about US$2.50). On the parallel market, where most people shop, prices are far higher.

Ernest Nyandoro, 43, works as a casual labourer at a brick factory in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. He was in a bank queue for four hours before he finally got to the teller's window and was handed his two Z$50 billion notes.

Neatly folding them into his wallet, he headed outside to find his bike and begin his journey to work, angry at the sheer frustration of daily survival in Zimbabwe.

"The money the banks are giving out is not enough. I borrowed Z$500 billion so that my two children can get transport fare to and from school, and food for the coming three days, but with what the banks are giving out I will have to queue here for five days before I pay back the amount," Nyandoro told IRIN.

"What is further irritating me is that I will have to find another excuse to give to my boss for me to come and queue at the bank again." But with Zimbabwe's inflation rate now officially at 2.2 million percent, and rising every day, "If I do not collect the money instantly I am afraid it will lose value, and the more time I will take in withdrawing [it]."

It would take him six days, in theory, to withdraw his Z$600 billion (about US$7.50) salary - that's not counting the bank queues and cash shortages that can scupper the best laid plans. And at the end of the day, his salary would not buy him much more than a 20kg bag of maize-meal at current prices on the parallel market.
 
"I re-sell bricks that I buy cheaply as a staff member at my workplace, and with the extra that I make I get ready cash that augments my salary," said Nyandoro, explaining how he gets by. His wife also sells vegetables at a stall near his home to help support the family.

Cash for sale
 
Charlotte Sibanda, 28, a nurse at a private clinic, turns to the parallel market when her superiors do not give her time off to get to the bank. Shops that have cash make it available to customers for a fee.

"The supermarkets charge a commission and a fee if one wants to write a cheque for them - just yesterday I signed a cheque for Z$400 billion and I received Z$300 billion in cash," she told IRIN. She said fees differ, but most shops in Bulawayo charge about 15 percent commission for cash.
 
A local businessman who runs a hardware store in the city, Collin Mandizvidza, said it was pointless banking his takings, given the difficulty of getting his hands on his money again. "The withdrawal limits are ridiculous, so the cash I make I sell to people who pay me in cheques," he said.
 
Reserve bank governor Gideon Gono said the bank was seriously considering increasing withdrawal limits. "The central bank is in the process of reviewing daily cash withdrawal limits following numerous representations from the public," he recently announced.
 
However, he blamed the business community for profiteering, forcing up prices. "The central bank notes with concern the unjustifiable and general increases in prices of goods and services, and we appeal to the business community to follow ethical business practices."

IRIN

Stanlus Marowa's brief stint as a henchman recruited by local ZANU-PF party leaders is coming back to haunt him since they abandoned him, and he is now facing the wrath of his community and charges of assault and theft.

Marowa, 24, unemployed and living the dormitory town of Chitungwiza, 30km south of the capital, Harare, told IRIN that he had engaged in acts of torture against supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after the 29 March poll, in which the ruling ZANU-PF party lost its majority in parliament for the first time since independence in 1980 and its leader, Robert Mugabe, came off second best in the presidential poll.

Marowa told IRIN he was "conscripted" by ZANU-PF into a youth militia, and was tasked with identifying and torturing MDC supporters in St Mary's, a suburb of Chitungwiza.

"My victims reported me to the police for beating them up and stealing from their houses and, at that time, I thought that the police, as in the past, would take no action."
 
But after Mugabe, as the sole candidate, won the second-round presidential runoff on 29 June, Marowa found things had changed.

"When I asked [ZANU-PF] party leaders in my area to intervene, they told me that they could not protect me since the elections were over and Mugabe had won," said Marowa, who has appeared in court on charges of housebreaking and assault. "I am now alone, I have been cheated and I don't think the feeling of guilt that I have now will ever go away."
The election has been widely condemned, and even the few African observer missions permitted to monitor the poll have declared it not free and fair.

Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African state for 28 years, denied any complicity in election violence. "I instructed them to go and campaign for me, not to beat up people," he said, and has also blamed the MDC for the violence.
 
Marowa said he and scores of other youth militia had operated from a base that had since been dismantled; his colleagues, fearing arrest, had fled to rural areas - where political violence is still being reported - to escape prosecution.

"I am now being treated like a leper or murderer [by the community] simply because I was too stupid to know that I was fighting other people's war on the basis of empty promises."

He said local ZANU-PF leaders had promised him rewards for his handiwork, such as scholarships to study overseas - even though he failed his exams - or a job in government, if Mugabe was re-elected.

While Marowa has turned to the church for redemption, the victims of political violence said their experiences were too raw to contemplate forgiveness.

"How does it feel to lose a relative, to be maimed or raped and to lose your property, simply for exercising your vote? Why would these militias be so ready to participate in this war of attrition, particularly when they are neighbours?" said Grange Mairos, 68, who lives in St Mary's suburb.

No forgiveness from victims

"We told them chickens would come back home to roost, and that is what is happening, exactly." He said he helped his daughter open a case of rape against another member of the militia, "but when reporting, you need to be careful and stay away from politics as much as possible, otherwise you can frighten the police from recording your case," he told IRIN.

Mairos has not managed to visit his home in rural Masvingo Province, in southeastern Zimbabwe, since the beginning of May, for fear of attack, but he has been told by relatives that the militia killed his three goats and took his grain to use as food at their bases, which were also used as torture camps.

"Once the dust has settled, those who stole my livestock and grain will have to compensate me or face jail; I know them," Mairos said.

David Chimhini, the director of the Harare-based Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust, said it would be difficult for victims to forgive their "enemies", but it was important that political parties "invest their efforts in a process of national healing and promote a culture of tolerance and forgiveness, if we are to pull out of this mess".

"You can't underestimate the urge for revenge among victims, now that they have a sense of boldness as the election fever subsides. But retaliation would be regrettable, given the sorry state that post-election violence has left our country in. Political parties and civil society should come together and build the capacity in communities for co-existence," Chimhini told IRIN.

He said it was "unfortunate that innocent people were turned into murderers by political leaders who just want to safeguard their personal interests", but also conceded that some of the perpetrators of violence were "settling personal scores with their enemies, yet others were naively overzealous".

IRIN 

A R100 (US$13) remittance from a relative living in South Africa was a lifeline to food for Lydia Nxumalo, 36, and her family in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city.

After searching in vain for maize-meal in the shops and supermarkets, Nxumalo, with her five-year-old daughter in tow, eventually managed to buy a 10kg bag of the staple food from a vendor at the bus terminus.

"This bag of mealie-meal [maize-meal] will only last me a week and then I will need to purchase some more to feed my family, but where am I going to get the foreign currency to buy the mealie-meal? It is too expensive," Nxumalo told IRIN.

Maize-meal is no longer available from formal businesses, and for many the only recourse is the informal market, but while the illegal market thrives and maize is available in abundance, it is sold only for foreign currency. The price varies, depending on the dealer, from US$10 to US$13 for a 10kg bag. Officially a 10kg bag of mealie-meal costs Z$15 billion (US$0.40).

Other basic commodities, such as cooking oil, sugar and bread, are also only available on the informal market, but vendors charge for these in the currency of neighbouring South Africa and Botswana.

Since 2000, more than three million Zimbabweans are believed to have left the country in response to the economic meltdown, which independent economists believe now has an annual inflation rate somewhere between one million percent and 10 million percent, and unemployment of more than 80 percent. Zimbabwe's currency is fast becoming obsolete as more and more traders demand foreign currency for their goods.

Ahead of the 27 June presidential run-off vote - from which the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew in protest over the widespread violence - the incumbent, ZANU-PF leader Robert Mugabe, promised to import 600,000mt of maize.

Half was said to be sourced from South Africa, and half from Zambia and Malawi; however, the maize does not appear to have found its way to the streets.

Playing politics

"President Mugabe is playing politics with our stomachs. Before the elections he said a lot of maize will be arriving in the country from South Africa and three weeks down the line we are still waiting for the maize. He should stop politicking and make sure the maize comes in before people die of hunger," said Martin Ndlovu, a resident of Bulawayo's Makokoba township.

"We are tired of politicians playing around with our lives. What we need right now is food, and President Mugabe should stop lying to us. If there is no maize and mealie-meal available, he should say so," Ndlovu said.  

For those Zimbabweans who cannot rely on relatives or friends to remit money to them from other countries, a 10kg bag of mealie-meal costs the equivalent of a month's wages for those who still have a job.

"The shortage of mealie-meal is so intense we are spending weeks without eating any sadza [a thick porridge cooked from maize-meal], said Nhalnhla Sibanda, a self employed cobbler. He told IRIN he had last bought mealie-meal two months ago on the informal market, but could no longer afford it.

"People in the townships are now relying on sweet potatoes and vegetables for survival, but the price of those is also going up daily," he said.

"Everyone is charging in South African rands and in Botswana pula for basic commodities - where do these people expect us to get the foreign currency from?" Sibanda asked, hammering at a shoe.

"We are waiting with bated breath for the maize promised by President Mugabe, because if it does not come soon we will all die of hunger. Let us hope it is not one of those campaign gimmicks President Mugabe has used in all elections to woo voters to vote for his party," Sibanda said.

Cain Mathema, the governor of Bulawayo, dismissed the belief that Mugabe's promised maize imports were being distributed to ZANU-PF supporters. "The government is committed to feeding all Zimbabweans, irrespective of political affiliation, and we are currently awaiting maize supplies from South Africa, Zambia and Malawi.

"That maize [import] has been paid for ... We are aware that the black [informal] market is selling maize and mealie-meal at exorbitant prices," he said.

Mathema said the government had introduced a ward-based food distribution programme, in which basic commodities were sold at government-controlled prices, but residents claim the system is only benefiting supporters of Mugabe, who came to power in 1980 after the country won its independence from Britain.

"The ward-based food programme benefits ZANU-PF supporters, and what they sell is not enough for everyone, and supply is erratic," a city resident who declined to be identified, told IRIN.
  
In the lead-up to the 27 June ballot, the government ordered non-governmental organisations involved in humanitarian assistance, including food distribution, to suspend their activities.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to Zimbabwe projected in its forecast, released in June 2008, that about 5.1 million Zimbabweans will suffer food insecurity.

"The Mission estimates that 2.04 million people in rural and urban areas will be food insecure between July and September 2008, rising to 3.8 million people between October [and December] and peaking to about 5.1 million at the height of the hungry season between January and March 2009."

IRIN 

The already high levels of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe's rural areas are escalating, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change told IRIN.

Violence surged in the aftermath of the 29 March elections, in which ZANU-PF lost it majority in parliament for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980, and its leader, Robert Mugabe, come off second best to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential ballot. It continued in the lead-up to the second round of presidential voting on 27 June.

The presidential run-off ballot was deemed necessary after neither presidential candidate managed to achieve the 50 percent plus one vote required for an outright win.

In the interregnum between the 29 March and 27 June polls, there were reports of widespread violence, torture and internal displacement, which, according to the MDC, resulted in the deaths of more than 80 of their supporters and led to Tsvangirai's decision to withdraw his candidacy.

Mugabe, who has ruled for 28 years, claimed a landslide victory in the second round.

Rape as a weapon

Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC spokesperson for the country's eastern province of Manicaland and newly elected parliamentarian for Makoni South, told IRIN the violence intensified after Mugabe was sworn in as president two days after the vote, on the eve of the African Union summit in Egypt.
"The torture camps are still in place, and since the beginning of July three supporters of the MDC have been murdered by ZANU-PF militia and war veterans at the torture camps. Several women, including a 70-year-old grandmother and a 15-year-old girl, have been gang-raped, while beatings and displacements continue. People are being forced to donate goats, cattle and women to the bases to avoid being victims."

Rape was being used as a "deplorable" weapon against those perceived as not supporting ZANU-PF, and "In many instances, the victims cannot remember the number of people who raped them but it is usually more than 20, and that increases the chances of infecting the victims with HIV/AIDS," Muchauraya said.

"The perpetrators ... also expose themselves to infection, which could have a significant impact on reversing the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic."

Muchauraya said "the siege" by government supporters was an attempt to change the political culture and thinking in rural areas, and that rather than being dismantled, "more torture camps are being established."

During the independence war against white rule, the rural areas were the bastion of support for Zimbabwe's guerrilla armies, and the rural vote against the ruling ZANU-PF in the recent elections was seen as an insult by the country's ruling elite, according to political analysts.

"The international community has rejected the 27 June circus, in which Robert Mugabe contested against himself and declared himself the winner. ZANU-PF is subjugating everybody, so that if another election is called, and even if it was free and fair, people would vote for ZANU-PF out of fear," Muchauraya said.

Social welfare minister Nicholas Goche told IRIN the upsurge in violence was a consequence of the MDC attacking their own supporters in a bid to create sympathy among the international community.

"The MDC stage-managed these developments in order to coincide with the G8 summit [in Japan] so that Zimbabwe is put on the agenda. The idea is to give the impression that there is increasing political violence and that people are still being beaten, but all that is false."

In reaction to Goche's comment, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told IRIN: "As the MDC, we are deeply concerned by the upsurge in political violence, especially in the countryside. We are overwhelmed by the number of internally displaced persons who continue to flock to our offices.

"War veterans and ZANU-PF militia are behind these attacks. We have information that the torture chambers have not been dismantled and that new ones are being set up," he said.

Apparatus of violence

A "demobilised" member of ZANU-PF's youth militia, who declined to be identified, told IRIN that only the militia bases in urban areas were being dismantled.

"Some of my colleagues have relocated to rural areas to set up new bases or join existing ones. They have launched Operation Makazviitirei [Operation Why Did You Ever Vote for the MDC]," he said. This operation has been running since ZANU-PF lost the general elections on 29 March.

"On the eve of voting [in the presidential runoff on 27 June] we mobilised all the people to spend the night at an all-night vigil, so that they would go straight from the base to the polling station. Our base commander, a serving soldier who is a war veteran, was in charge, and the same appeared to be the case with other bases.
"Unfortunately, the lines of communication are so vague  that some of my colleagues, who had not been officially told to stop mobilising the people [in urban areas], have been severely beaten up by the police and army for political violence," he said.

The ruling party had ordered that political violence cease in urban areas, as it was difficult to hide such activities and exposed ZANU-PF to international criticism, the youth militia member said.

ZANU-PF has mobilised the three main pillars of the party: the Youth League, which also contains the Youth Brigade; the Women's League; and its Main Wing, comprised mainly of male ZANU-PF members.

The Youth Brigade has been wearing uniforms since the 1980s, but in 2000, after Mugabe launched the fast-track land reform programme to redistribute white commercial farmland to landless blacks, ZANU-PF established a National Youth Service. Its graduates - also known as the Green Bombers because they dress in green fatigues - combined with the Youth Brigade and are collectively called the ZANU-PF youth militia.

The militia recruits youth from the ranks of both the urban and rural unemployed and though they do not receive payment, they use their positions to force people to supply them with food and drink.

These young people fight against opposition activists and were responsible for rounding up and frog-marching people to "re-education and re-orientation bases", known as torture camps by the MDC, the youth militia member told IRIN.

He said youth militia were never accepted into the party hierarchy, as these positions were the preserve of "old men and women".

The militia bases were usually established in schools or clinics and were under the overall command of veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war, or serving members of the army or security services, he said.

The youth militia member said all-night vigils were held, during which those brought to the bases were made to sing liberation songs and chant praises to Mugabe, and to publicly "confess" to being opposition members and then denounce the MDC.

IRIN 

The already high levels of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe's rural areas are escalating, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change told IRIN.

Violence surged in the aftermath of the 29 March elections, in which ZANU-PF lost it majority in parliament for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980, and its leader, Robert Mugabe, come off second best to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential ballot. It continued in the lead-up to the second round of presidential voting on 27 June.

The presidential run-off ballot was deemed necessary after neither presidential candidate managed to achieve the 50 percent plus one vote required for an outright win.

In the interregnum between the 29 March and 27 June polls, there were reports of widespread violence, torture and internal displacement, which, according to the MDC, resulted in the deaths of more than 80 of their supporters and led to Tsvangirai's decision to withdraw his candidacy.

Mugabe, who has ruled for 28 years, claimed a landslide victory in the second round.

Rape as a weapon

Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC spokesperson for the country's eastern province of Manicaland and newly elected parliamentarian for Makoni South, told IRIN the violence intensified after Mugabe was sworn in as president two days after the vote, on the eve of the African Union summit in Egypt.

"The torture camps are still in place, and since the beginning of July three supporters of the MDC have been murdered by ZANU-PF militia and war veterans at the torture camps. Several women, including a 70-year-old grandmother and a 15-year-old girl, have been gang-raped, while beatings and displacements continue. People are being forced to donate goats, cattle and women to the bases to avoid being victims."

Rape was being used as a "deplorable" weapon against those perceived as not supporting ZANU-PF, and "In many instances, the victims cannot remember the number of people who raped them but it is usually more than 20, and that increases the chances of infecting the victims with HIV/AIDS," Muchauraya said.

"The perpetrators ... also expose themselves to infection, which could have a significant impact on reversing the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic."

Muchauraya said "the siege" by government supporters was an attempt to change the political culture and thinking in rural areas, and that rather than being dismantled, "more torture camps are being established."

During the independence war against white rule, the rural areas were the bastion of support for Zimbabwe's guerrilla armies, and the rural vote against the ruling ZANU-PF in the recent elections was seen as an insult by the country's ruling elite, according to political analysts.

"The international community has rejected the 27 June circus, in which Robert Mugabe contested against himself and declared himself the winner. ZANU-PF is subjugating everybody, so that if another election is called, and even if it was free and fair, people would vote for ZANU-PF out of fear," Muchauraya said.

Social welfare minister Nicholas Goche told IRIN the upsurge in violence was a consequence of the MDC attacking their own supporters in a bid to create sympathy among the international community.

"The MDC stage-managed these developments in order to coincide with the G8 summit [in Japan] so that Zimbabwe is put on the agenda. The idea is to give the impression that there is increasing political violence and that people are still being beaten, but all that is false."

In reaction to Goche's comment, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told IRIN: "As the MDC, we are deeply concerned by the upsurge in political violence, especially in the countryside. We are overwhelmed by the number of internally displaced persons who continue to flock to our offices.

"War veterans and ZANU-PF militia are behind these attacks. We have information that the torture chambers have not been dismantled and that new ones are being set up," he said.

Apparatus of violence

A "demobilised" member of ZANU-PF's youth militia, who declined to be identified, told IRIN that only the militia bases in urban areas were being dismantled.

"Some of my colleagues have relocated to rural areas to set up new bases or join existing ones. They have launched Operation Makazviitirei [Operation Why Did You Ever Vote for the MDC]," he said. This operation has been running since ZANU-PF lost the general elections on 29 March.

"Unfortunately, the lines of communication are so vague  that some of my colleagues, who had not been officially told to stop mobilising the people [in urban areas], have been severely beaten up by the police and army for political violence," he said.

The ruling party had ordered that political violence cease in urban areas, as it was difficult to hide such activities and exposed ZANU-PF to international criticism, the youth militia member said.

ZANU-PF has mobilised the three main pillars of the party: the Youth League, which also contains the Youth Brigade; the Women's League; and its Main Wing, comprised mainly of male ZANU-PF members.

The Youth Brigade has been wearing uniforms since the 1980s, but in 2000, after Mugabe launched the fast-track land reform programme to redistribute white commercial farmland to landless blacks, ZANU-PF established a National Youth Service. Its graduates - also known as the Green Bombers because they dress in green fatigues - combined with the Youth Brigade and are collectively called the ZANU-PF youth militia.

The militia recruits youth from the ranks of both the urban and rural unemployed and though they do not receive payment, they use their positions to force people to supply them with food and drink.

These young people fight against opposition activists and were responsible for rounding up and frog-marching people to "re-education and re-orientation bases", known as torture camps by the MDC, the youth militia member told IRIN.

He said youth militia were never accepted into the party hierarchy, as these positions were the preserve of "old men and women".

The militia bases were usually established in schools or clinics and were under the overall command of veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war, or serving members of the army or security services, he said.

The youth militia member said all-night vigils were held, during which those brought to the bases were made to sing liberation songs and chant praises to Mugabe, and to publicly "confess" to being opposition members and then denounce the MDC.

"On the eve of voting [in the presidential runoff on 27 June] we mobilised all the people to spend the night at an all-night vigil, so that they would go straight from the base to the polling station. Our base commander, a serving soldier who is a war veteran, was in charge, and the same appeared to be the case with other bases.

A R100 (US$13) remittance from a relative living in South Africa was a lifeline to food for Lydia Nxumalo, 36, and her family in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city.

After searching in vain for maize-meal in the shops and supermarkets, Nxumalo, with her five-year-old daughter in tow, eventually managed to buy a 10kg bag of the staple food from a vendor at the bus terminus.

"This bag of mealie-meal [maize-meal] will only last me a week and then I will need to purchase some more to feed my family, but where am I going to get the foreign currency to buy the mealie-meal? It is too expensive," Nxumalo told IRIN.

Maize-meal is no longer available from formal businesses, and for many the only recourse is the informal market, but while the illegal market thrives and maize is available in abundance, it is sold only for foreign currency. The price varies, depending on the dealer, from US$10 to US$13 for a 10kg bag. Officially a 10kg bag of mealie-meal costs Z$15 billion (US$0.40).

Other basic commodities, such as cooking oil, sugar and bread, are also only available on the informal market, but vendors charge for these in the currency of neighbouring South Africa and Botswana.

Since 2000, more than three million Zimbabweans are believed to have left the country in response to the economic meltdown, which independent economists believe now has an annual inflation rate somewhere between one million percent and 10 million percent, and unemployment of more than 80 percent. Zimbabwe's currency is fast becoming obsolete as more and more traders demand foreign currency for their goods.

Ahead of the 27 June presidential run-off vote - from which the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew in protest over the widespread violence - the incumbent, ZANU-PF leader Robert Mugabe, promised to import 600,000mt of maize.

Half was said to be sourced from South Africa, and half from Zambia and Malawi; however, the maize does not appear to have found its way to the streets.

Playing politics

"President Mugabe is playing politics with our stomachs. Before the elections he said a lot of maize will be arriving in the country from South Africa and three weeks down the line we are still waiting for the maize. He should stop politicking and make sure the maize comes in before people die of hunger," said Martin Ndlovu, a resident of Bulawayo's Makokoba township.

"We are tired of politicians playing around with our lives. What we need right now is food, and President Mugabe should stop lying to us. If there is no maize and mealie-meal available, he should say so," Ndlovu said.  

For those Zimbabweans who cannot rely on relatives or friends to remit money to them from other countries, a 10kg bag of mealie-meal costs the equivalent of a month's wages for those who still have a job.

"The shortage of mealie-meal is so intense we are spending weeks without eating any sadza [a thick porridge cooked from maize-meal], said Nhalnhla Sibanda, a self employed cobbler. He told IRIN he had last bought mealie-meal two months ago on the informal market, but could no longer afford it.

"People in the townships are now relying on sweet potatoes and vegetables for survival, but the price of those is also going up daily," he said.

"Everyone is charging in South African rands and in Botswana pula for basic commodities - where do these people expect us to get the foreign currency from?" Sibanda asked, hammering at a shoe.

"We are waiting with bated breath for the maize promised by President Mugabe, because if it does not come soon we will all die of hunger. Let us hope it is not one of those campaign gimmicks President Mugabe has used in all elections to woo voters to vote for his party," Sibanda said.

Cain Mathema, the governor of Bulawayo, dismissed the belief that Mugabe's promised maize imports were being distributed to ZANU-PF supporters. "The government is committed to feeding all Zimbabweans, irrespective of political affiliation, and we are currently awaiting maize supplies from South Africa, Zambia and Malawi.

"That maize [import] has been paid for ... We are aware that the black [informal] market is selling maize and mealie-meal at exorbitant prices," he said.

Mathema said the government had introduced a ward-based food distribution programme, in which basic commodities were sold at government-controlled prices, but residents claim the system is only benefiting supporters of Mugabe, who came to power in 1980 after the country won its independence from Britain.

"The ward-based food programme benefits ZANU-PF supporters, and what they sell is not enough for everyone, and supply is erratic," a city resident who declined to be identified, told IRIN.
  
In the lead-up to the 27 June ballot, the government ordered non-governmental organisations involved in humanitarian assistance, including food distribution, to suspend their activities.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to Zimbabwe projected in its forecast, released in June 2008, that about 5.1 million Zimbabweans will suffer food insecurity.

"The Mission estimates that 2.04 million people in rural and urban areas will be food insecure between July and September 2008, rising to 3.8 million people between October [and December] and peaking to about 5.1 million at the height of the hungry season between January and March 2009."