Zimbabwe- What are the chances that this leads to a significant change?

[otherlander]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/11/20091123114110155776.html

Video: hunt started for "ghost workers". When I first saw this, my initial suspicion was that it would be a news story about some government crackdown on undocumented laborers or something. But it turns out that what it actually is, is that the opponents of Mugabe, who have managed to gain some power within the government, are tracking down people who Mugabe has been paying as "civil servants," but who aren't actually doing any work. Basically Mugabe is just paying them- possibly up to 10,000 of them- for nothing except continued political loyalty. Many of them may have been involved in the violence against opposition supporters in the last election. (And now I know how you pronounce Tzvangirai.)

So what are the chances that this is actually the start of something major that could remove the Mugabe regime from power? How much leverage do his political opponents (i.e. most people in the country) have? Also- Mugabe's loyal-guard are accusing this investigation of being a World Bank plot. While Mugabe is exploiting the population of a whole country for wealth and brutally suppressing democracy- the kind of thing the World Bank usually loves- it seems he's made enemies with them by acting as a self-interested strong-man rather than the puppet of a global one. Does anyone know anything about the breakdown of the opposition- which camps are controlled by people who genuinely want to run their own country democratically, and which ones are more branches of neoliberal free-traders?

[tabatha]

1. Zimbabwe, SA agree to investment protection

HARARE – Zimbabwe and South Africa have finally signed the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) which enjoins
both countries to protect each other’s business interests.

This follows five years of procrastination by South Africa which cited its troubled neighbour’s continually unstable political environment.

The protocol, which now awaits ratification by both countries’ parliaments, provides protection for businesses as from September 15, 2008 when Zimbabwe’s Global Political Agreement was signed.

In cases of a dispute, parties have recourse to the International Centre For the Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington DC or can seek arbitration through the UN Commissioner on International Trade.

Zimbabwe’s Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister, Elton Mangoma told a group of South African investors who witnessed the signing ceremony on Friday that Zimbabwe had since emerged from its political turbulence and should not be judged on the basis of its past.

“We are departing from the past,” Mangoma said, “We certainly, as an inclusive government, do not want to be judged on the basis of how the
previous government performed.


http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=25419

[Archae]

2. Call me cynical, but I think it won't make any difference.

Not until that old thug Mugabe finally dies.