via How Mugabe fooled Tsvangirai | The Zimbabwean 04.12.13
President Robert Mugabe deliberately gave MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai a false sense of comfort ahead of the July 31 elections to make him relax and assume that he would win an easy victory, a highly placed source has revealed.
The source, a former MDC-T MP who lost his seat in July, told The Zimbabwean that Tsvangirai had been given the impression that Zanu (PF) was in tatters and MDC-T would easily win the polls.
“Tsvangirai shared with us tidbits from his confidential discussions with Mugabe. He said Mugabe had told him Zanu (PF) was ill-prepared for elections because of factionalism and it was clear that MDC would win overwhelmingly,” said the source.
“The impression we got from our president was that Mugabe was desperate. Tsvangirai even said Mugabe had pleaded with him for protection for him and his family after the elections, and advised him not to take drastic action against the status quo.”
Mugabe reportedly offered to advise the MDC-T leader when he took over power, even giving him elaborate strategies for the new government, such as retaining acceptable Zanu (PF) figures like Joice Mujuru, engaging security chiefs for their exit packages and maintaining the land “reform” programme but with an audit.
“This persuaded our leader that he was on his way to State House. In fact, a lot of us in the party thought the same. We didn’t see any way in which Zanu (PF) would beat us. Their candidates were hardly campaigning and that to us proved there was chaos in the party.
“Little did we know, however, that Zanu (PF) was busy rigging the elections. We genuinely believed that Mugabe had grown a soft spot for Tsvangirai and was trying to curry favour with us,” he said.
Luke Tamborinyoka, Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, dismissed reports of Mugabe leading Tsvangirai down the garden path. “That is mere speculation. If anything like that ever happened, I would have been privy to it,” he said.
During his election campaign, Tsvangirai brushed aside threats that the police would arrest anyone who prematurely announced the election results, saying that could not happen as MDC-T was assured of victory.
“They say they are going to arrest us for announcing the elections outside ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission). How will they do that because, after the elections, some of us will already be at State House, as the new government?” said a confident Tsvangirai at a rally in Chitungwiza.
At the recent burial of his former chief of security, Benson Muchineuta, Tsvangirai told mourners that Mugabe had confided in him that he was afraid to hand over power in Zanu (PF) because factionalism would destroy the party.
The two met regularly over tea, during which they reportedly engaged in confidential discussions.
Eldred Masunungure, a political scientist, said: “MDC-T basked in the sun like it would never sink. They were too relaxed and assumed that they would get victory on a platter. They rested on a dangerous assumption that Zanu (PF) was beyond rescue. If Zanu (PF) rigged, then the MDC has itself to blame because, as part of government, they didn’t do anything to avoid it,” he said recently.
The MDC-T source added that a false sense of security caused the party to accept that a huge number of voters had cast their ballots without appearing on the voters’ roll. There were complaints after the elections that thousands of Zanu (PF) supporters voted more than once by producing voter slips, some of them fake, even though they did not appear on the voters’ roll.
The matter was complicated by the fact that in many cases, polling officers abandoned the traditional practice of scanning voters’ fingers to establish if they had already voted or not.
COMMENTS
So how did that change voters’s behavior? Have you run out of stories?
“Fooled” is a verb most apt. After the experiences of 2002 and especially 2008, anyone who still believes that ZANU can be voted out of power – unless there is a repeat of 1980, i.e. independent or UN supervised elections, is beyond foolish.
@Rwendo shamwari you know zim like the back of your hand.zanu will never go anyway as long as zim is their personal property..freedom must come first then we can talk of free and fair elections
Hapana fooling mugabe’s were either going to fail so it was a backup plan for bob stop talking zvisina basa thus why you lost your seat to hell with you
Once beaten twice shy i think mugabe fooled himself because the opposition is the pple not Tsvangirai its always hard when pple of the calibre of a preident lie when his opposite was putting trust and hope but the bottom line is they failed to destroy mdc
But if Mugabe fooled Tsvangirayi as you are saying. So what is the point of doing that yet the country is heading back to the 2008 scenario. What is the point of committing another political suicide after being rescued by the GNU. where Tsvangirayi was a hero.It beggars belief that some sober minded people praise Mugabe for thinking that he is a hero by playing such negative political games to score cheap political scores to the detriment of the country. We need younger innovative leaders not old and tired people like this current zanu pf gangster who are being recycled since 1980.
How Mugabe fooled Tsvangirai – So Tsvangirai is now a ‘FOOL?’
mugabe fooled tsvangirai to foolishness
Tsvangirai and the entire mdc t have always been fools. Facking idiots. See how this idiot tsvangirai globe trotted telling the people that their perception about mugabe was wrong and that sanctions must be removed. You should have listened to the two clowns, biti and chamisa praising mugabe. The two had become mugabe’s praise poets- imbeciles!
How Mugabe (HE) stole the election.
Mugabe rates with Mabuto Sese Seko and Idi Amin. Absolutely no better and he will go down in history as such. A murdering lying thieving tyrant who has stayed in power through terror and enriching the security apparatus around him. Anyone who cannot see this is ether brainwashed or blind.
I beg to differ, Mugabe stayed in power coz the Ma Shona tribe wanted him there period. stop the rigging cries people! Morgan while he does attarct a few Shonas, he has a bad Matebele paint on his side and will never rule Zimbabwe until Voters mature as a nation!
let by gone be bygone and lets build our country..time makes everything come to pass..just like smitj’s time came and passed..
Agreed, we need this kind of thinking.
If you are naive and stupid you will always be cheated or fooled easily.Politics is about cheating the opponents or out witting them.
zvinotibatsirei?
Politics is nothing to do with doing the best for the people. When mdc gave up surrendered at the last hurdle in 2008 by boycotting second run off we knew their naivity. A phoenix is being reborn from the ashes. It’s not mdc
Tsvangirai is an idiot and an idiot is easily fooled by cheap tricks. We must now suffer 5 more years of torture because of fools like Tsvangirai.
with rigging in place as the case with Zanu pf VICTORY, there is nothing MDCs or any other political party could have done. ZEC was supposed to have taken control of the electotal process, JOC and the junta still in control refused. Nothing real could have been done, if MDCs had refused to go to the polls, there were enough opposition parties to still register and go for elections with ZANU PF, so all said and done the case is outside the Zimbabwe territory but the international communinty to accept the rigging of Zanu PF and legitimise the regime as they have already done despite of the evidence. Speculations of who to blame or was in comfort zone is not helpful. Even SADC could not stop Mugabe’s elections despite the GNU provisions not having been met on free and fair elections. The question is that ZANU PF is a monister which SADC and the international community breed and its now hounding them all hence the issue of targetd sanction the desire to implimenmt the Rome treaty, by making SA accountable for arresting those from ZANU PF who have abused human rights in Zimbabwe.
I beg to differ, Mugabe stayed in power coz the Ma Shona tribe wanted him there period. stop the rigging cries people! Morgan while he does attarct a few Shonas, he has a bad Matebele paint on his side and will never rule Zimbabwe until Voters mature as a nation!
can you please fool the economy now
When were the elections held? Why not talk on the state of the economy? I am sure you can use your brains far much better than wasting time over such a stupid issue. To the journalist, please spare us our thoughts, don’t recycle dead news like Mugabe who does not want to pass the button even in his own party. We salute you Madiba! Go well the true son of the soil.
All in MDC leadership are just fools, mapenzi. (Period)!