The hitherto all-powerful symbols of American Capitalism - Morgan Stanley, The Citibank, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Merryll Lynch to name but a few - are in disarray.

The government has set aside some 700 billion dollars and already spent 250 billion of that sum buying equity shares in struggling banks to help them stay afloat. Matters are not helped by the fact that America's annual budget deficit last year tripled to 455 billion dollars, the highest it has ever been.

Well you know what they say about the American economy; that when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold.

It is projected that the world will have to find 11 trillion dollars in very short order if a global recession is to be avoided. Several European governments have pledged some $3 trillion to prevent their banks from going under.

Britain alone has already injected AGBP37 billion (about 70 billion dollars) into just three banks.

A cow that has been wrestled down and roped up for slaughter cannot be particularly bothered about concealing her private part; to wit the Americans have allowed Japanese, Chinese, Singaporeans and some other well endowed Middle Eastern financial power-houses to buy equity shares, government bonds and treasury bills in the full belief that one hand alone cannot open the - er , shall we say- the "gateway to paradise"!

So where is Africa in this free- - for-all jumble sale? Don't we possess any princes of capital on this continent? What has happened to the diamond barons: Oppenheimer and De Beers? The Mo Ibrahims and the Micheal Ezras?

And those oil sheiks we dare not name in Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea? A few years ago, a 28-year-old South African billionaire spent $20 million to be allowed to join astronauts on a Russian space ship for a two- day excursion to outer space.

Twenty million big ones to satisfy a personal whim! In three weeks' time we could have a Black man waiting in the wings as president-elect to accede to the most powerful office on earth. Don't we want to support one of our own by helping him to sort out the global financial crisis with a bit of African capital?

What the dickens do Africans want with English football clubs? In case you live on another planet and still haven't heard, a consortium of Nigerian businessmen are in a cut-throat race with another consortium of South African tycoons to purchase the troubled Newcastle United Football Club.

Well, if the Russians and Abu Dhabi petro-dollar moguls are snapping up English Football Clubs, who am I to lecture African brothers on how to spend their money?

Muhammed al Fayed, the Egyptian money magnate, better known perhaps as the owner of the elite Harrods chain of stores and also as the father of Dodi al Fayed, who very nearly married the mother of England's future king, has, after all, owned Fulham F.C and its Craven Cottage stadium for donkey years.

With professional footballers earning a weekly wage ranging between AGBP40,000 and AGBP100,000 per person, I wish the Nigerians and South Africans luck.

Newcastle's players' jerseys

It helps, of course, that Newcastle's players' jerseys have ornamental stripes of black and white, like an African zebra. It might enhance racial harmony. But if I had that kind of money, I would consider buying an American bank or some other world-class credit institution.

The Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Wall Street, or across the Atlantic, The Bank of England. or the Royal Bank of Scotland. That is where the money is.

So, what is this I hear some Ugandan consortium of businessmen tagged Armah Ltd. or some such, have tabled a bid for Luton Football Club, a miserable club languishing somewhere in the doldrums of the Second or even Third Division of English football?

Unless, of course, the sound of the name of their cherished club- "Loot on" is a signal of their intent.

"Luton F.C", "Loot on" . That is the true Ugandan motto.

On the day we signed the agreement the people of Zimbabwe breathed a sigh of relief and their hopes for a final resolution of this crisis were raised. Unfortunately no progress has been made since then, to bring the Zimbabwean people to the beginning of the path of recovery.

Instead the economic crisis has worsened with people spending all their days in endless cash queues.

We now live in an environment characterised by hunger and starvation and we are days away from seeing people dropping dead on the streets.

I believe suffering knows no political affiliation and both ZANU-PF and MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] supporters are suffering under this economic crisis. The agricultural season is upon us yet the nation is not prepared to take full advantage of what promises to be a good season.

We have just witnessed the conclusion of the most disastrous education year in the history of our country, with the national examination board crippled by the economic crisis to the extent of failing to implement the Grade 7 examination sitting for this year. The countries universities are failing to open for the next semester due to the economic crisis.

I stated at my last press conference that given a nation in such a state it was necessary to put a government in place in order for us to begin the task of ensuring that the problems facing our country are dealt with.

I believe that as leaders we have a duty of ensuring that we reward Zimbabweans for their patience and commitment to peace by ensuring we succeed in working together. We have actively engaged our colleagues in ZANU PF with a view to ensuring that we have agreement on the outstanding issues. May l take this opportunity to brief the nation on the state of the dialogue?

State of The Dialogue

We have been engaging with our colleagues in ZANU PF at both the negotiators and principals level.

In particular we have been deliberating on the allocation of ministries. There has been no progress made on this entire section as ministries can only be negotiated comprehensively and not individually.

It is not true to say that we are left with two ministries to negotiate as any agreement reached on those two particular ministries would have an effect on the allocation of the rest of the ministries. In this regard we have declared a deadlock and therefore the process cannot move forward except in the presence of the facilitator.

I would like to emphasise that in looking at the allocation of ministries we have been informed by our desire as MDC, of ensuring that we have a fair power sharing arrangement that allows us to deal with the current economic crisis while at the same time ensuring that we guarantee the basic freedoms for our people as well as democratize our society.

We have not yet deliberated on the outstanding issue of the allocation of governors. This issue remains outstanding considering that as negotiating parties we agreed that the allocation of governors must be in the spirit of the result of the election on the 29th of March 2008.

There is still an outstanding issue of omissions made in the signed agreement at the signing ceremony on the 15th of September that had been agreed and initialed by all parties when we signed the original agreement on the 11th of September 2008. We are assured that the facilitator will sort out this problem and provide an updated document to the general public.

Lack of paradigm

We are concerned by the lack of paradigm shift on the part of our colleagues in ZANU PF and have watched with dismay: -

-their continued hate language in the state media which is destroying the hope of our people as well as their confidence in this power sharing arrangement.

-the continued trumped up charges brought against our Sec retary General, m embers of parliament and various members of our party structures across the country.

-the continued discrimination on the basis of political affiliation mainly taking place in the rural areas.

-the continued interference with, and threatening of, our councils, by the illegal minister of local government.

-the lack of sincerity and commitment to working together demonstrated by what should be a simple administrative issue like issuing my passport, which has been turned into a political weapon by our colleagues in ZANU PF.

Throughout this negotiation effort up to the signing of the global political agreement we have compromised on many occasions with a view to ensuring that the political crisis in our country is resolved in the interest of our nation.

We are committed to change and therefore do not have challenges accepting change in its many forms. ZANU PF is not sensitive to the plight of the people and therefore has not gone through a paradigm shift of accepting the change created by signing the global political agreement.

SADC and AU are the guarantors

The global political agreement we have is guaranteed by SADC and the African Union and therefore in the event of a dispute or deadlock as we have now, the matter should be taken to SADC and AU in order for them to assist us. We have communicated this position to the African Union and to SADC as well as to the facilitator and have confidence that our African brothers will do everything in their power to ensure that this issue is resolved with speed.

We as Zimbabweans owe it to our African counterparts to ensure that we spare no effort in resolving the outstanding issues. We look forward to working with SADC, AU, and the facilitator in order to find a solution.

I thank you

M T Tsvangirai

Source: Zimdaily.com website, London, in English 10 Oct 08

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On the day we signed the agreement the people of Zimbabwe breathed a sigh of relief and their hopes for a final resolution of this crisis were raised.

Unfortunately, no progress has been made since then, to bring the Zimbabwean people to the beginning of the path of recovery.

Instead, the economic crisis has worsened with people spending all their days in endless cash queues. We now live in an environment characterised by hunger and starvation and we are days away from seeing people dropping dead on the streets.

I believe suffering knows no political affiliation and both Zanu PF and MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] supporters are suffering under this economic crisis. The agricultural season is upon us yet the nation is not prepared to take full advantage of what promises to be a good season.

We have just witnessed the conclusion of a disastrous education year in the history of our country, with the national examination board crippled by the economic crisis to the extent of failing to implement the Grade 7 examination sitting for this year. The country's universities are failing to open for the next semester due to the economic crisis.

I stated at my last press conference that given a nation in such a state it was necessary to put a government in place in order for us to begin the task of ensuring that the problems facing our country are dealt with. I believe that as leaders we have a duty of ensuring that we reward Zimbabweans for their patience and commitment to peace by ensuring we succeed in working together.

We have actively engaged our colleagues in Zanu PF with a view to ensuring that we have agreement on the outstanding issues. May I take this opportunity to brief the nation on the state of the dialogue.

State of the dialogue,

We have been engaging with our colleagues in Zanu PF at both the negotiators and principals level.

In particular, we have been deliberating on the allocation of ministries. There has been no progress made on this entire section as ministries can only be negotiated comprehensively and not individually.

It is not true to say that we are left with two ministries to negotiate as any agreement reached on those two particular ministries would have an effect on the allocation of the rest of the ministries. In this regard, we have declared a deadlock and therefore the process cannot move forward except in the presence of the facilitator.

I would like to emphasise that in looking at the allocation of ministries we have been informed by our desire, as MDC, of ensuring that we have a fair power sharing arrangement that allows us to deal with the current economic crisis while at the same time ensuring that we guarantee the basic freedoms for our people as well as democratise our society.

We have not yet deliberated on the outstanding issue of the allocation of governors. This issue remains outstanding considering that as negotiating parties we agreed that the allocation of governors must be in the spirit of the result of the election on March 29, 2008.

There is still an outstanding issue of omissions made in the signed agreement at the signing ceremony on the 15th of September, that had been agreed and initialled by all parties when we signed the original agreement on the 11th of September 2008. We are assured that the facilitator will sort out this problem and provide an updated document to the general public.

Lack of paradigm,

We are concerned by the lack of paradigm shift on the part of our colleagues in Zanu PF and have watched with dismay:

A their continued hate language in the state media which is destroying the hope of our people as well as their confidence in this power sharing arrangement.

A the continued trumped up charges brought against our Secretary General, members of parliament and various members of our party structures across the country.

A the continued discrimination on the basis of political affiliation mainly taking place in the rural areas.

A the continued interference with, and threatening of, our councils, by the illegal minister of local government.

A the lack of sincerity and commitment to working together demonstrated by what should be a simple administrative issue like issuing my passport, which has been turned into a political weapon by our colleagues in Zanu PF.

Throughout this negotiation effort up to the signing of the global political agreement, we have compromised on many ocassions with a view to ensuring that the political crisis in our country is resolved in the interest of our nation.

We are committed to change and therefore do not have challenges accepting change in its many forms. Zanu PF is not sensitive to the plight of the people and therefore has not gone through a paradigm shift of accepting the change created by signing the global political agreement.

SADC [Southern African Development Community] and AU are the guarantors,

The global political agreement we have is guaranteed by SADC and the African Union and therefore in the event of a dispute or deadlock as we have now, the matter should be taken to SADC and AU in order for them to assist us.

We have communicated this position to the African Union and to SADC as well as to the facilitator and have confidence that our African brothers will do everytihng in their power to ensure that this issue is resolved with speed.

We as Zimbabweans owe it to our African counterparts to ensure that we spare no effort in resolving the outstanding issues. We look forward ot working with SADC, AU, and the facilitator in order to find a solution.

I thank you.

Morgan Tsvangirai is president of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)

Source: newzimbabwe.com website, London, in English 0000 gmt 9 Oct 08

BBC Mon AF1 AFEausaf 111008 cb

Tsvangirai told journalists in Harare that several rounds of talks in recent days between his MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] party, Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF [Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front] party and a break away faction of the opposition led by Arthur Mutambara had failed to reach agreement on the distribution of ministries in a proposed unity government.

The opposition leader said while a September 15 power-sharing agreement signed by the three parties had not yet collapsed, the opposition had closed talks with ZANU PF and approached the regional SADC grouping, the African Union (AU) and ex-South African president Thabo Mbeki to intervene to break the impasse over Cabinet posts.

"There has been no progress made...in this regard we have declared a deadlock and therefore the process cannot move forward except in the presence of the facilitator (Mbeki)," Tsvangirai said.

He added: "The global political agreement we have is guaranteed by SADC and the AU and therefore in the event of a dispute or deadlock as we have now, the matter should be taken to SADC and AU in order for them to assist us.

"We have communicated this position to the AU and to SADC as well as to the facilitator and have confidence that our African brothers will do everything in their power to ensure that this issue is resolved with speed."

Tsvangirai said Mbeki, who brokered the power-sharing deal on behalf of SADC, would soon travel to Harare. But the opposition chief declined to say when exactly that would be.

The power-sharing agreement signed by Zimbabwe's three biggest political parties stipulates that Mugabe will remain president while Tsvangirai becomes prime minister and Mutambara deputy prime minister. The agreement allots 15 Cabinet posts to ZANU PF, 13 to the Tsvangirai-led MDC and three to Mutambara's faction.

However the bare-bones agreement does not say who gets which specific posts and the rival parties have since the signing of the agreement wrangled over who should control the important ministries of home affairs, finance, local government, foreign affairs.

Crisis-weary Zimbabweans had hoped a power-sharing government would immediately begin work to reverse an economic crisis, highlighted when the government Central Statistical Office released fresh figures on Thursday showing annual inflation at 231 million per cent, the highest in the world.

Hyperinflation is the most visible sign of Zimbabwe's deep recession that has left more than 80 per cent of the labour force without jobs and triggered shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency.

Source: ZimOnline, Johannesburg, in English 9 Oct 08

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