Mugabe ignores bleeding economy

IF, as analysts expect, the inscrutable Emmerson Mnangagwa is named this week as new vice-president and President Mugabe's de facto successor, the country will likely see more of the nationalism that has hit investment and growth in the last six years.

It's a tactic that Zanu PF embraced to deflect its responsibility for the economic collapse in 2000-2008 - stemming from its disastrous policy of reclaiming white farms and hyperinflation - that sits alongside its continuing blame of outsiders and Western sanctions for the country's troubles.

During the three-day party congress, Mnangagwa's one speech enforced the message from his clothing.

Besides formally recognising the black in the national flag as a symbol of Zimbabwe's indigenous people, the 68-year-old unveiled revisions to the party's constitution aimed at emphasizing the party's adherence to the "total ownership and control" of country's natural resources.

It was a key insight to the party's direction as it contemplates life beyond Mugabe, Zimbabwe's only leader since independence from Britain in 1980.

"We will remain forever masters of our own destiny," Mnangagwa said, to cheers from the crowd.

But with Zanu PF in the grips of an intensifying personality cult and politicians jockeying for space in a post-Mugabe administration, economic reality is slipping ever further down the list of the party's priorities.

In eight hours of congress speeches on Saturday, its only mention came from a 13-year-old schoolboy reading from an autocue -- and battling a deafening sound system -- about the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation, known by the catchy acronym ZIM-ASSET.

By contrast Mugabe focused his two hours of ad lib speaking on diatribes against perceived enemies such as former colonial power Britain - a "little, little island" - and "treacherous" factions within Zanu PF led by the departed Mujuru.

Sowing further confusion and prolonging anxiety about his lack of clear successor, he then declined to nominate his two deputies for another four or five days, saying he did not wish to "rush" the decision.

"This is all about power. Everything else takes second place," one senior Zanu PF source, who did not wish to be named, said of the congress.

"The economy doesn't matter."