Source: Big week for troubled Zim – DailyNews Live
Blessings Mashaya 21 March 2017
HARARE – The coming few days promise to be very tense starting tomorrow
when the country’s angry opposition holds a massive demonstration in
Harare, after they were given the go-ahead by edgy security commanders
yesterday.
And on Thursday, disaffected war veterans will also gather in the capital
for their long-planned indaba which was earlier banned by panicking
authorities.
This comes as there are renewed fears by the country’s jittery government
that the spirit of resistance which swept across Zimbabwe last year is
once again gathering steam ahead of next year’s make-or-break national
polls.
To underscore the fact that the government is worried by tomorrow’s
protests, the much-feared Joint Operations Command (JOC) – a security
think tank comprising military, police, prisons and Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) bosses – first demanded to meet with the opposition and
then allowed the parties to go ahead with their demo under strict
conditions.
Douglas Mwonzora, the secretary general of the National Electoral Reform
Agenda (Nera), a group of 18 opposition parties agitating for electoral
reforms ahead of next year’s elections, confirmed to the Daily News last
night that they had been cleared to hold their demo, but under stringent
conditions.
The security commanders will reveal the exact conditions in a letter of
clearance that will come via the police, and to be delivered to Nera
today.
“We had a fruitful meeting with JOC, who agreed that the demonstration
should go ahead. The police said we should pick up the letter tomorrow.
“According to JOC, the letter is going to have conditions on how we are
going to hold the demonstrations.
“We argued our case successfully. They were talking about our previous
Nera demonstration, but we told them that the police started the violence
by beating people.
“Basically they told us they were not banning the demonstration but that
they are worried with what happened at our previous demo,” Mwonzora told
the Daily News.
“If they give us unrealistic conditions we will go to court. But we do not
expect the police to do that. The demonstration is going ahead.
“What I want to assure people is that the demonstration is going to be
peaceful. People are going to show their anger against Zec peacefully,” he
added.
Zimbabwe’s quest to acquire biometric voter registration (BVR) kits has
caused a huge storm among opposition parties who view the government’s
involvement in the purchase of the equipment as problematic.
The controversy erupted into the open recently following the government’s
sudden decision to sideline the UNDP from assisting in the procurement of
the kits, with unanswered questions being raised about how and where
President Robert Mugabe’s stone-broke administration was able to secure
funding for this, to the staggering tune of $17 million.
The opposition has alleged that the government is hijacking the process to
rig next year’s eagerly-anticipated national elections.
“It was all along agreed that the procurement of the BVR kits would be
done by Zec through the UNDP. Consequently, a joint advertisement was
flighted by the UNDP and Zec calling upon all potential suppliers of the
kits to place their bids.
“These bids were opened at the UNDP offices in Copenhagen and this was
witnessed by both Zec and political parties. It was further agreed that
once the winner of the tender was declared, political parties would second
their technical experts to inspect these kits.
“But suddenly, the government announced that it was taking over the BVR
kits procurement process. Among other things, this means that the
government will now select the supplier of these kits.
“Crucially, political parties and other key stakeholders will thus not be
able to monitor the process,” Mwonzora pointed out at the weekend.
This comes as opposition parties are still smarting from the electoral
controversies of the 2013 election, when an Israeli company, Nikuv,
allegedly manipulated the vote in favour of Zanu PF.
“Nera totally rejects this move because it is designed to enable the
government to manipulate the procurement process. That way the government
will also manipulate the 2018 election process.
“In other words, this move marks the beginning of the rigging of the 2018
elections … To this end, Nera is organising nationwide demonstrations to
show the people’s outrage at this political abomination. All Zimbabweans,
irrespective of their political affiliation, are called to action,”
Mwonzora said.
He also said while Nera would attend the planned meeting today with Zec,
the outcome of the meeting would not have a bearing on tomorrow’s mass
action.
Nera alleges that Zec called the meeting in a bid to dissuade them from
going ahead with the protests.
“Whatever Zec is going to say is not going to stop the demonstration
because we know that Zec is being controlled by the security apparatus.
We know that Zanu PF have started the rigging of the 2018 elections.
“Zimbabweans have the right to demonstrate, and we are saying people
should come in their numbers so that we show the ruling party that we are
tired of it all, and that we are not going to allow another rigged
election,” the defiant Mwonzora told the Daily News.
Analysts say the Nera protests could herald the beginning of a new season
of protests, following the relative calm that has prevailed in the country
over the past few months, after the panicking government used brute force
to crush rolling protests last year.
On Thursday, a day after the Nera demonstration, disaffected war veterans
who have been feuding with Mugabe since last year, will have their own
indaba where they are expected to discuss the welfare of their members, as
well as the ruling Zanu PF’s deadly tribal, factional and succession wars.
Their meeting follows last week’s High Court ruling which quashed an
earlier decision by the police to bar them from holding the indaba.
Yesterday, the spokesperson of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War
Veterans Association (ZNLWVA), Douglas Mahiya, said they had since lost
respect for the police, further alleging that high-ranking police officers
were taking instructions “from somewhere to frustrate us”.
“The war veterans had lots of respect for the police. It is for this
reason that we submitted our application to hold that indaba. Because of
our respect we decided to postpone the meeting, but the police replied at
the last minute the same day we were supposed to hold our meeting.
“We were surprised by the action of the police when they blocked our
gathering. But through Posa (Public Order Security Act), we are only
required to notify them. We don’t know why they did that and who is
involved in these issues.
“The police wanted to know what we are going to discuss, but they are not
required to know that by the law. We had followed the right procedures for
us to hold this meeting. On the day of the indaba we expect that the
police are going to respect the law,” Mahiya said.
War veterans have been brawling with Mugabe and Zanu PF ever since they
served the nonagenarian with divorce papers, after they released a damning
communique against him mid last year.
The vets are pressing Mugabe to name a successor and ditch a faction
rabidly opposed to his deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, from succeeding the
nonagenarian.
Analysts also say the country’s worsening cash shortages, which almost
caused riots by angry tobacco farmers last week, are likely to fuel
further tensions from this week onward.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a debilitating economic crisis which has seen
the government failing to pay its workers on time.
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