I have been expecting this to happen but the degree is a bit more than I had guessed was coming. Mugabe is old and will not be around that mush longer but he has institutionalized thuggery as a preferred practice. They the ZANU-PF elites will not go when Mugabe does and I wonder if armed rebellion is the only road ahead; certainly the economy will get no better. Mbeki has proved a man with feet of clay. Who will step up?

Tom

Robert Mugabe grabs key Zimbabwe Cabinet posts
The surprise move, in defiance of a power-sharing deal, ensures Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party will retain their iron grip on the troubled country.
By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 12, 2008
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has defied a fragile power-sharing deal with the opposition, giving all key Cabinet posts, including the crucial security ministries, to his own party.

The power grab took Zimbabwe by surprise Saturday, less than a month after the deal was signed. Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa, whose Movement for Democratic Change has said ruling party control of the police would be a deal-breaker, called it "a giant act of madness which puts the whole deal into jeopardy."