The Wardman Wire

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I’ve wanted to return to covering developments in Zimbabwe.

The BBC reports that a deal has been reached between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangarai:

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe have reached a deal to share power.

After mediating four days of talks in Harare, South African President Thabo Mbeki said the deal would be signed and made public on Monday.

Mr Mugabe has not yet commented. The two sides had already agreed that Mr Tsvangirai would be prime minister with Mr Mugabe staying on as president.

But negotiations had faltered over how the two sides were to share power.

Mr Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, was first to announce the deal as the talks ended.

Later, Mr Mbeki told a news conference: “An agreement has been reached about all the matters on the agenda of the negotiations.”

We won’t see the detail until Monday. I have no idea whether it will work; I am sure that it will require an enormous commitment from Civil Society to police their government.

One of the few good things that can be said about Mr Mugabe is that he is creating a country of Maths geniuses, and future weightlifting champions.

Nowhere else in the world does your average 6 or 8 year old sent out on an errand to buy a loaf of bread have to deal with numbers in the millions tens of millions without parental help, carrying currency around by the bucketload.

This note is 10 million Zimbabwe dollars. As you can see from the date, it is now obsolete.

Let’s go backwards through history to explain the Mathematical Genuises and look at the price of bread - remember that this staple is price-controlled by the government.

The Group of 8 countries with large economies - representing perhaps 60% of world GDP, have supported stronger action against Zimbabwe.

The G8 leaders have agreed to push for UN trade sanctions against Zimbabwe, British officials have confirmed.

Italy and Russia have fallen into line with demands to extend existing sanctions, after initially opposing tougher action against the African country, whose veteran leader President Mugabe has just won re-election in a campaign marred by state-sponsored violence, intimidation and rape.

Sokwanele, the Civic Action Support Group in Zimbabwe, is wondering what will happen at the UN Security Council, where China is also involved.

A guest post by Paul Canning.

The UK Prime Minister is currently in Japan lecturing people about doing more to oust Robert Mugabe.

At the same time his government is doing everything it can to oust the opposition to Mugabe from the UK.

This week 11,000 Zimbabwean refugees received letters asking them to return to a country described by the same government as undergoing a campaign of terror orchestrated by a military cabal. No opposition is brokered and activists are being hunted down and killed.

In Zimbabwe the level of Civil Liberties and Political Freedom - as assessed by the Freedom House organisation - have gone below those recorded in the 1970s under white minority rule. Click through for the full graph.

This is not to defend the situation back then, which was appalling - but does highlght out how bad things have become. The common factor is perhaps that there is a Dictator who perceives himself to be under serious threat. That highlights the need for a government that is put in by the people, and can also be removed by the people if it proves untrustworthy.

The Tea Chicken News is in from Harare.

Zimbabwe News Mugabe, Tsvangirai, MDC , Biti and SADC. With TC and Maud and a special financial report.