"Mugabe tightens power grip"

[GreenPartyVoter]

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- The constitutional tightening of President Robert Mugabe's grip on power has all but dashed South African hopes of mediating an end to Zimbabwe's crisis or keeping it in the IMF, analysts said on Wednesday.

Mugabe rammed constitutional changes through his ZANU-PF dominated parliament on Tuesday giving his government powers to nationalize white-owned commercial farms, re-introduce an upper chamber Senate and restrict suspected dissidents.

"Essentially we are seeing a regression, not progress in resolving Zimbabwe's crisis," said Chris Maroleng, specialist on Zimbabwe at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.

He said it was now difficult to see how South Africa can persuade a supremacist ZANU-PF to negotiate power sharing with the opposition, a move seen by African leaders as key to ending five years of political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/08/31/zimbabwe.constitution.reut/index.html

[wli]

1. Reminds me a lot of some American politicians.

[truebrit71]

2. Mugabe is a thug...

Wonder what Pat Robertson would suggest we do here...??

[SteppingRazor]

3. Remember when some people here...

celebrated Mugabe's forced removal of whites as the best possible way to overturn neocolonialism?
Wonder what they think now that Mugabe's becoming a dictator.