Mugabe will not quit 'if party is going to be in shambles'

Mugabe will not quit 'if party is going to be in shambles'

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S ruling party is expected to endorse a controversial proposal this weekend to extend President Robert Mugabe's rule by two years to 2010, a move critics say will worsen the country's deep economic woes.

Mugabe's Zanu-PF party opens a three-day annual conference today to discuss the economy and proposals to "harmonise" the national electoral calendar, in effect a call to postpone a 2008 presidential election until 2010, when parliamentary polls are due to be held.

The proposal - which has already been adopted by eight of the ruling party's 10 provincial executives - would give Mugabe an extra two years in office when his current six-year term expires in March 2008.

Officially, Zanu-PF says it wants to postpone the presidential vote to save money, but analysts believe the decision is meant to give Mugabe more time to sort out a bitter succession battle that threatens to split |the party.

Mugabe, 82, has ruled the Southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980.

In an interview with a Canadian television station, Mugabe said he supported the extension of his presidency and would only retire when his Zanu-PF party wanted him to go, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported yesterday.

"I will retire, of course, some day, but it all depends on the circumstances. I can't retire if my party is going to be in shambles. But any day we feel we are ready for that retirement - that is we as a party feel we are ready for it - sure," Mugabe was quoted as saying.

The move to extend |his rule, if adopted by Zanu-PF, would need to be approved by parliament, but that is seen as a formality because the party enjoys an overwhelming majority in both the lower and upper chambers of the legislature.

"This whole thing serves Mugabe, who definitely enjoys power even at a high cost, and it serves his party because it hasn't settled the succession question," said John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe.

"But the cost of an extra two years with Mugabe will be big because the economy is collapsing over his policies, and the world is isolating Zimbabwe over his stance," he added.

Zimbabwe's economy has endured eight years of recession, marked by chronic shortages of food and fuel. Inflation, at just less than 1 100%, is the highest in the world.

Mugabe's policies, including the seizure of white-owned commercial farms for distribution to landless blacks, have been blamed for the economy's collapse.

He denies the charges, blaming the problems instead on sanctions by Western powers, primarily Britain.

Analysts say Zanu-PF remains bitterly divided after Mugabe's decision in late 2004 to appoint Joyce Mujuru, a relative political lightweight, as his deputy - a post seen as a stepping-stone for the top job.

Factions aligned to Mujuru and rural Housing Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa are jostling for the |top job.

Analysts say Speaker of parliament John Nkomo and Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono are also lobbying for the job, although Gono has publicly denied interest.

Makumbe and other political commentators, however, said that some Zanu-PF officials were unhappy with the plan because they wanted a new leader in 2008 to help change policies that had prompted many Western donors to suspend aid to the country. - Reuters

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