On a walk on one of Harare’s upmarket streets in Borrowdale Wednesday, I turned a corner and was struck by this perfect square patch of tall, lush mealies planted in the verge outside a house. It reminded me of an urban gardener in London, who plants tiny gardens in sidewalks.

This morning I phoned COPAC Communications to try and get an electronic copy of the first draft of the COPAC Constitution. Maria, the Communications Assistant refused to give it to me, saying that they didn’t have an electronic copy available and in fact had no idea how it had been published in The Herald.

Police yesterday banned a public meeting in the MDC’s New Zimbabwe lecture series which was to have been addressed by South African economist Patrick Bond, the topic being “Global Financial and Ecological Crises, and Implications for Third World Countries.”

As one observer commented about the ban: “Hundreds had turned up for the meeting only to be greeted by baton wielding anti-riot police. Is this the state of the GNU we want?” The real question however is did we ever say we wanted any kind of GNU? The people of Zimbabwe didn’t vote for a compromise. The politicians decided to force one on us when none of them could get their own way.

Meanwhile, “The Principals” (Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara), signatories to the Global Political Agreement met for 2 ½ hours yesterday to “deliberate key issues affecting the country.”

Amongst other things, they discussed elections, media reforms the land audit, and sticky issues like the Attorney General’s Act and Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri. The gist of the statement after the meeting? Yes, these are issues. And something should happen about them.

Somehow, I wouldn’t have thought that “something” would have involved banning a public discussion. . .

The Zimbabwean opposition, that tired bunch, would first need to reinvent itself before it could lead an uprising.
And then there is Zimbabweans’ complicated relationship with Mugabe and Zanu-PF. Many suffer from a political version of Stockholm syndrome. Zanu-PF not only liberated Zimbabwe from colonial rule, before everything started unraveling, it also delivered some measure of prosperity. The Mugabe brand is a mix of irreparably damaged and historically glorious, and that confusing combination serves as a psychological block against revolt.

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