Exactly two months ago, this “outpost of tyranny” was holding parliamentary elections that were inexplicably fraudulent. Many foreign journalists were inside the country, so Mugabe made sure that food was given out and gasoline made available — at least in his supporters’ strongholds. Even once he stole the election and secured enough seats to change the constitution at whim, he made conciliatory grunts to the opposition.

No more.

The cloak of illusion soon came off as these basic commodities have become memories of the distant past. Inflation and unemployment has skyrocketed, making it impossible to save or even to live. This, however, is now the least of the problems facing the people of Zimbabwe. Despite the lies that Mugabe tells about a united country, he is now using his constitutional coup to destroy the homes and businesses of every single person who voted against him. It is called “Operation: Clean-up,” a bid to get rid of crime and the black market by explicitly “getting rid of” the people themselves.

Harare – Police in Zimbabwe continued demolishing thousands of shacks and vendors’ kiosks in opposition strongholds on Monday, burning a 10km-long line of curio stalls along the road near Victoria Falls. A spokesperson for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) called the crackdown a “tyranny” and urged people to resist. Lawyers for the party sought a court order on Monday that banned police from demolishing shacks and kiosks, and demanding compensation for the owners of buildings already destroyed in what the government calls a campaign to clean up the cities. Thousands of street traders have been arrested and their wares seized or destroyed since the May 19 start of the crackdown, which the government has described as an urban renewal campaign. Police using torches, sledgehammers and bulldozers have also burned and demolished the homes of the urban poor in informal settlements around the country. “A government that destroys the property of people who are trying to make an honest living is evil,” MDC spokesperson Paul Themba-Nyathi said on Monday after a session of the main opposition party’s national council. “We call on all Zimbabweans to mobilise against this assault on their dignity, livelihoods and well-being,” said Themba-Nyathi, defying tough new security laws that provide a 20-year prison term for anyone trying to “coerce” President Robert Mugabe’s government. “We shall overcome this tyranny,” he said.

Over the weekend, residents in some informal settlements put boulders across a maze of side roads in a futile attempt to keep police and security forces out. However, there were no reports of rioting in any of the townships where police demolished and burned shacks. In the resort town of Victoria Falls, police burned a 10km-long line of curio stalls and claimed to have confiscated a large amount of stolen or illegally imported goods. In the eastern city of Mutare, police said they arrested an American, identified as Howard Smith Gilman, under media laws for allegedly covering the destruction of 9 000 illegal structures there. Zimbabwe’s media laws make it illegal to operate without a licence. MDC legislator Trudi Stevenson said in the preceding 24 hours, police had “at gunpoint” forced 2 000 more people in Hatcliffe township in northern Harare to destroy their houses and leave. On Friday and Saturday, 7 000 were evicted, although they had lease agreements issued by Mugabe’s government. “The people are homeless and sleeping in the open,” she said. Many were trying to salvage building materials in the hope they would be allocated other plots. Harare’s government-appointed mayor Sekesai Makwavarara last week gave dwellers in the city’s myriad backyard shacks until July to vacate, citing health grounds. About half the city’s poor live in such shacks. The government has not explained why it began demolitions before the July deadline.

Mugabe definitely isn’t losing any sleep over this because, while the residents tried to fight back, they simply can’t match machine guns. It is no coincidence that this clean up occurs in every area that is an opposition MDC stronghold. At the end of all this, he may literally have no competition left.

But wait, there’s more. As I said earlier, Mugabe’s “victory” two months ago gave him over the 2/3 necessary in the parliament to amend the constitution at will. Those changes are finally coming. Now that his oppositions’ land and livelihood is being destroyed, he will prevent them from ever returning by amending the constitution to eradicate the private ownership of land.

Harare – Zimbabwe will amend its constitution to allow the state to seize land and claim full ownership without having to deal with court challenges, the lands minister said on Tuesday.

Didymus Mutasa told AFP that the proposed amendment would allow the state to immediately become the owner of farmland once a property had been “designated” for expropriation.

“The problem with our land reform process currently is that people can object to it and go to court, not that they want the land back, but just to frustrate the programme,” he told AFP in an interview.

There are other amendments as well, which would give Mugabe complete oversight of elections and establish a Senate that incorporates ZANU-PF members who lost in the recent ones.

These amendments will declare all land to be state owned; abolish the Electoral Supervisory Commission, leaving the recently established Zimbabwe Electoral Commission as the sole body tasked with running elections; and introduce a 40-member upper house, the senate, whose members would be chosen on the basis of the results of last month’s disputed elections for parliament, which would remain as the lower house.

Ncube, who is also secretary-general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said: “Mugabe has indicated that the senate issue is particularly urgent and he wants to see the body fully established within three months of parliament’s opening next month.”

He said that Zanu-PF proposed to establish four senate seats for each of the 10 provinces, allocated on the basis of the outcome of the March 31 elections. This would give the MDC just 12 seats in the senate and Zanu-PF the rest.

Mugabe has already assured some of his supporters who were defeated in the elections that he would find seats for them in the senate. This should help him heal cracks in the party.

So what is the west to do about a man whom it has no leverage over? Usually we would defer to a regional democratic power, such as India with regards to Nepal. In this case, I can imagine that South Africa would be the nation of choice. Sadly, however, their government is all too ideologically friendly with Mugabe. Besides affirming the fraudulent elections and failing to condemn the systematic abuse of human rights for what it is, they are actually trying to take the same path. Despite all studies to the contrary, South Africa will be pursuing its own land reform program.