Matebeleland South AVM Abu Basutu
Beit Bridge East Group Cpt.
Mayera
Rtd. Maj. Mbedzi
Lt. Col. B. Moyo
Gwanda South Maj
J. D. Moyo
Gwanda Central Maj. B. Tshuma
Matopo North Lt. Col.
Maphosa
Matebeleland North Brig. Gen. Khumalo
Binga North Maj E. S.
Matonga
Lupane East Lt Col. Mkwananzi
Lupane West Lt Col.
Mabhena
Tsholotsho Lt. Col. Mlalazi
Hwange Central Lt. Col P.
Ndhlovu
Masvingo Province Maj. Gen. E. A. Rugeje
Rtd. Maj. Gen. Gibson
Mashingaidze
Rtd. Brig. General Rangwani
Bikita West Maj. B. R. Murwira
Chiredzi Central Col G.
Mashava
Chiredzi West Maj. E. Gono
Gutu South Maj. Chimedza (Medical
Doctor)
AVM Muchena
Masvingo Lt. Col. Takavingofa
Mwenezi
West Lt. Col. Muchono
Mwenezi East Lt. Col. Mpabanga
Zaka
East Maj. R. Kwenda
Mash West Province Brig. Gen. Sigauke
Chinhoyi Col
Gwekwerere
Chegutu East Lt. Colonel W. Tutisa
Hurungwe East Lt. Col.
B. Mabambe
Mhondoro Mubaira Col. C. T. Gurira
Zvimba North Cpt. T.
Majongwe
Mashonaland East Brig. Gen. D. Nyikayaramba
Rtd. Brig Gen
Rungani
Chikomba Central Lt. Col. Marara
Gromonzi North Lt Col.
Mudzimba
Maj F. Mbewe
Marondera Central Maj. Gen. Chedondo
(COSG)
Lt. Col B. Kashiri
Marondera West Squadron Leader U.
Chitauro
Murehwa South Maj. Gurure
Murehwa North Lt. Col.
Mukurazhizha
Lt. Col. Chinete
In total, 200 serving senior officers of the armed forces will be
participating in the exercise. They will be commanding other war veterans and
Zanu pf thugs.
The teams will be deployed on 8th April 2008 to campaign
for RG Mugabe in the run off under the guise of war veterans. With the exception
of two, all the deployed officers are senior serving officers of the armed
services. It is understood that Lt. Gen. PV Sibanda will command the operation
with the assistance of Maj. Gen. Nick Dube. General Chiwenga will be the overall
commander of the operation. He is being assisted by Maj. Gen Last Mugova and
Col. S. Mudambo
Zimbabwe opposition complains of
orchestrated violence
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: April 8,
2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Opposition officials accused
Zimbabwe's ruling party
Tuesday of orchestrating a campaign of violence in
remote rural areas in an
effort to intimidate opponents of President Robert
Mugabe ahead of a likely
runoff election.
The accusations came amid
growing reports that ruling party loyalists were
escalating their invasions
of white-owned farms and driving the farmers off
their land.
Mugabe,
who has led Zimbabwe for 28 years, has virtually conceded that he
did not
win the March 29 presidential elections. Though results of the poll
remain
secret 10 days after the election, he is campaigning for an expected
runoff
against the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, by intimidating his
foes
and exploiting racial tensions.
"There has been massive violence inside
the country since the 29th," said
Tendai Biti, secretary general of the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
Much of the violence has
erupted in traditional ruling party strongholds
that voted for the
opposition in the election, including the rural areas of
Murewa, Mutoko and
Gweru, he said. Ruling party militants, used previously
to intimidate
government opponents, were being rearmed, he added.
"There's been a
complete militarization and a complete rearming of mobs who
led the terror
in 2000 and 2006," he said.
Reports of violence in remote rural areas -
including the torching of
opposition supporters houses - have circulated
through the capital, Harare,
in recent days. The reports could not be
confirmed because of the danger in
traveling to the
areas.
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu denied the claims as
outright lies
and said there had been no outbreak of violence. "There is
nothing like
that," he said. "They are concocting things. It is
peaceful."
But about 60 farmers have been forced off their land since
Saturday, said
Mike Clark, a spokesman for the farmers' union.
"The
situation is escalating very rapidly," said Trevor Gifford, president
of
Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmer's Union, adding that many farmers were not
allowed to take anything with them.
Mugabe's opponents pressed a
lawsuit to force the publication of the results
of the presidential election
that they say Tsvangirai won outright. The High
Court ruled Tuesday that it
would hear the petition.
Mugabe's ruling party has called for a recount
and a further delay in the
release of results, a tactic that opposition
leaders said would lead to
tampering.
"The results are being cooked
to fit the template of a runoff," Biti said.
In recent days, Mugabe has
urged Zimbabweans to defend land previously
seized from white farmers, and
militants began invading some of the few
remaining white-owned farms. Such
land seizures started in 2000 as Mugabe's
response to his first defeat at
the polls - a loss in a referendum designed
to entrench his presidential
powers.
Did vote cost farmer his land?
IOL
April 08 2008
at 03:40PM
Militia loyal to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe have
evicted
around 60 farmers, including one black farmer, from their land, the
country's Commercial Farmers' Union said.
"We had the first
commercial black farmer evicted on Tuesday," Trevor
Gifford, CFU president
told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, estimating at
around 60 families the
number chased off their farms since the latest wave
of farm invasions began
Saturday.
"They said he (the black farmer) had voted for the
opposition,"
Gifford said, adding the farmer's workers' houses had been
burnt.
"By the weekend we expect hundreds will have been evicted,"
he added.
The provinces affected were Masvingo, Mashonaland West,
Mashonaland
East and Mashonaland Central. - Sapa-dpa
100 farms invaded in 4 days
By Tererai Karimakwenda
08 April,
2008
Illegal farm invasions have escalated dramatically in the past few
days as
the government continues to delay announcing the results of the
presidential
elections. The Commercial Farmers Union say there were about
500 white owned
farms left before the current campaign, but now about 100
have been taken
over in the last 4 days alone. CFU president Trevor Gifford
said the
evictions are gaining momentum and black farm workers are also
being
victimised. The areas most affected have been Masvingo and Mashonaland
Central, the heart of Zimbabwe’s agriculture. The invasions began Saturday
in Masvingo, where 5 farmers either fled or were trapped inside their homes
by mobs.
As for the farm workers, Gifford said they are being
terrorised by being
rounded up, abused verbally and physically and forced to
chant ZANU-PF
slogans. The ruling party blames the farm workers for Mugabe’s
electoral
loss in the rural areas that used to be his stronghold. But
Gifford says
many of them are not even allowed to vote. The government
denied them
citizenship because they have at least one grandparent from
either Zambia or
Malawi.
Meanwhile it has been revealed that the
Masvingo farm invasion reported by
the state controlled media after the
elections, was stage managed by the
government with the help of Zimbabwe
Broadcasting (ZBC). Gifford said they
have information that shows that the
Masvingo bureau chief at ZBC, Lilian
Muungani, paid the so-called invaders.
The incident was portrayed as a
spontaneous uprising, yet the television
crew just happened to be there with
cameras ready to film.
Saturday’s
state newspaper The Herald also claimed that the Malilangwe
Reserve in the
Gonarezhou area was harbouring foreign journalists and former
commercial
white farmers in a lodge on the property. The paper suggested
that the
farmers were gathering, ahead of an MDC victory, with a view to
returning to
their farms. Officials from Malilangwe said this was “totally
untrue and
unfounded”.
The people at the lodge were actually architects,
sub-contractors and
marketing agents who were flown into Buffalo Range and
Malilangwe last week.
The lodge made available to the authorities all the
associated paper work to
prove this.
Gifford said the government once
again is trying to create racial tension
and much of the language has to do
with getting rid of all white farmers.
Justice for Agriculture which
represents evicted white farmers, released a
statement which said in part:
“The deadlock in the country's political
process following last week’s
general election and the slow announcement of
results has left the
government looking once again for scapegoats to blame
for the outcome. It is
little surprise that further farm invasions have been
orchestrated in
response to falsified reports that white farmers are to
blame for
threatening those currently occupying land with eviction in the
event of an
opposition victory.”
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Robert Mugabe steps up land grab
violence
The Telegraph
By
Sebastien Berger in Johannesburg
Last Updated:
7:37pm BST 08/04/2008
|
President Robert Mugabe's regime has
stepped up its campaign of violence in the wake of Zimbabwe's elections,
evicting more than 60 commercial farmers from their properties.
The brutal response to the polls, in which Mr
Mugabe is widely held to have come second to Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change in the presidential race, is a direct echo of
what happened last time he lost a vote.
| |
 |
|
Zimbabwean farmer Munyimo Munyaradzi and his
family on their maize and bean farm which they have owned since independence in
1980 |
Two weeks after Mr Mugabe lost a
referendum on constitutional reforms in 2000, the first white-owned farm was
invaded, and four weeks later the first white farmer was killed.
This time - even while the presidential
election result has still not been announced - the reaction has come more
quickly.
"We've got over 60 farmers who have been
evicted," said Trevor Gifford, president of the Commercial Farmers Union. "Every
couple of minutes my phone is ringing with another case of eviction. Some are
being given a couple of minutes or a day to vacate, but they have to leave what
is there behind."
Two of those forced from their land were
black, he added. "They are targeting anyone seen as against the ruling party,
it's really sad," he said. "We should be living in harmony, we need unity. There
is enough land for everyone."
At the same time several farmers are
fighting court actions against eviction orders from the properties they have
cultivated for years. With Mr Mugabe claiming the MDC are Western stooges bent
on reversing his land reforms, the political motivation behind the invasions by
so-called "war veterans" is clear.
Opposition supporters are also being
beaten up, according to both the MDC and the campaign team of Simba Makoni, once
a stalwart of the ruling Zanu-PF party who stood against his former mentor.
An army source said that at least two
military camps, Magunje near Karoi about 125 miles north of Harare, and another
in Rusape, about 120 miles south east of the capital, had begun fitness training
for a new intake of Mr Mugabe's youth militia.
The violence appears to be geared
towards putting Mr Mugabe in a position where he can win a second-round run-off
for the presidency.
Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary-general,
said the war veterans' activity was concentrated in areas that were once Mr
Mugabe's strongholds, where many voters had switched allegiance to the
opposition.
"There's been a complete militarisation
and a complete re-arming of mobs who led the terror in 2000 and 2006," said Mr
Biti. "I say to our brothers and sisters across the continent: Don't wait for
dead bodies in the streets of Harare."
He said that the government was seeking
to provoke protests that it could use as a pretext to declare a state of
emergency, which would Mr Mugabe to delay, or possibly even annul, the polls.
He said that he feared for the safety of
five Electoral Commission officials arrested on Monday after the ruling Zanu-PF
party claimed that the count was fixed against it.
A court has began hearing an MDC
application for an order releasing the presidential results.
David Coltart, an MDC senator, said:
"There is an eerie silence reminiscent of what followed the referendum in 2000
which Mugabe lost. He used that period of seeming inactivity to lay the
groundwork for the farm invasions which followed and I fear that is precisely
what is going on now."
Zimbabwe's information minister,
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, said the opposition claims were untrue and there was "no
violence whatsoever". |
Fear returns as defiant Mugabe musters forces for a
run-off
Financial Times
By Alec Russell
Published: April 8 2008 18:49 | Last updated:
April 8 2008 18:49
Just five days ago, the mood in Morgan Tsvangirai’s
temporary headquarters
in Harare was close to euphoric. Outside the villa in
the Zimbabwean capital
where the leader of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change was
telephoning regional leaders and planning the final
stage in his run at the
presidency, his entourage lounged confidently in the
autumnal sun, framed by
a brilliant backdrop of bougainvilleas.
“The
old man [as the 84-year-old President Robert Mugabe is known] could be
gone
by Sunday night,” said one aide. “The ball is rolling in only one
direction.
There could be a carnival by Sunday.” The aide was not alone in
having such
– as now seems clear – extravagant thoughts. Optimism was then
sweeping
swaths of Zimbabwe and elsewhere that Mr Mugabe’s 28-year,
increasingly
autocratic rule was near its end.
Leaks from inside his Zanu-PF party
indicated that some senior figures were
urging Mr Mugabe to concede defeat
to Mr Tsvangirai in last month’s
elections. In Chitungwiza, south-east of
Harare, some residents cast aside a
caution born of previous failed attempts
to unseat Mr Mugabe and flashed
thumbs-up signs. Many wore T-shirts bearing
the image of the MDC leader.
How ephemeral that spirit now seems. The
March 29 elections – which Mr
Tsvangirai won, according to independent
projections and MDC figures –
brought a mini-“Prague Spring” to Harare, long
an opposition stronghold. But
last Friday the jubilation came to an abrupt
end. A statement from Zanu-PF’s
politburo made clear Mr Mugabe would contest
a second presidential round, if
the official results showed neither man in
the first round gained the clear
majority necessary to avoid a run-off. In
short, he was going to fight – and
as the MDC has learnt to its cost in the
nine years sinceits foundation,
that meant only one thing:
violence.
Mr Mugabe has been accused of many things over the years but
ambiguity is
not one of them. In recent years, as the economy imploded, he
has outlined a
number of stark interventionist policies to prop up his
position. Each time
many business people have said: “He will never implement
this.” Yet each
time, eventually, he has. Few in Zimbabwe doubt his resolve
to redress the
setback of last week, when Zanu-PF lost its majority in
parliament for the
first time since independence in 1980.
“If you
look at his history, if he has been humiliated or rejected or
disillusioned,
his response is revenge,” says Heidi Holland, the author of
Dinner with
Mugabe, a new book about the Zimbabwean leader. She had a
2½-hour interview
with him last December, his first with a western writer in
several years.
“We have seen that over and over again,” she says. “I don’t
think it’s
surprising at all [that he is fighting on]. He has nothing left
to lose.
It’s payback time for the country.”
On Tuesday increasing evidence of
that determination was coming to light, as
security forces arrested,
threatened and beat MDC activists in the rural
areas where Mr Tsvangirai
made inroads in the campaign. In the past, Mr
Mugabe’s voter backing in most
rural areas was overwhelming. But such is the
suffering from hyperinflation
– estimated by business at up to 400,000 per
cent – and the collapse of
public services that Mr Tsvangirai was able to
undermine that support
base.
MDC activists insist their leader will trounce Mr Mugabe in a
second round.
People “just can’t make ends meet”, says Ian Makone, the
party’s chief
election strategist. “Our message will be: if you want real
change, Mugabe
must go.” But the MDC is all too familiar with the scenario
unfolding in
Zimbabwe: privately its officials, gloomy about the escalating
onslaught in
the rural areas, are floating the idea of boycotting a second
round.
Ahead of elections in 2000 and 2002, government forces arrested
and tortured
hundreds of activists. Scores were killed. Then, as now, gangs
of so-called
“veterans of the liberation war” were unleashed on white-owned
farms to whip
up anti-colonial sentiment and terrorise black farm workers
into submission.
MDC officials assume the authorities have delayed releasing
the election
results in order to give Zanu-PF time to soften up the
electorate before a
run-off. Officially, any second round should happen 21
days after the first,
although hardliners are pushing for a delay of up to
90 days.
While the momentum is clearly again with Zanu-PF, two questions
hang over
the expected second round. First, might the president have lost
his magic
now it appears he failed to win a clear majority? Last night the
election
commission had still not released the results, nine days after
votes were
tallied. Second, given Zimbabwe’s economic deterioration, will
the “system”
again rush to do his bidding? Jonathan Moyo, Mr Mugabe’s former
information
minister, who is now an independent MP, reckons his old boss has
a 50-50
chance of winning the second round. That is rather different from
what he
was saying a week ago, when he argued that the president would lose
a
run-off by a landslide.
But Mr Moyo shares the view of other former
Zanu-PF stalwarts that despite
the impression of a monolith effortlessly
rolling towards victory, Mr Mugabe
was badly wounded last week. His apparent
defeat in the first round reminded
many in Zanu-PF why the party had been
deeply split over whether to nominate
him for the presidency last
year.
Major Elton Choga, 51, a veteran of the liberation war and a party
member,
has turned against the president since the last parliamentary
election in
2005. He says that despite intimidation at the polls it may
still be hard
for Mr Mugabe to win. “The whole nation is hungry. There is no
grain. The
people are suffering. And he just says it’s the fault of the
British or the
Americans [the two most frequent targets of Mr Mugabe’s
rhetoric]. He blames
outsiders. But only those who have benefited from his
policies pay
attention.”
For Zimbabwe, a lot rides on the outcome. Mr
Mugabe’s defeat would,
diplomats say, lead to the disbursement of a huge
western aid package and
the offer of other interventions to rebuild the
economy. Economists predict
that victory for him would only accelerate
economic collapse and send fresh
waves of refugees fleeing to neighbouring
South Africa.
Unfortunately for Zimbabweans, the second scenario seems
more likely. If
regional leaders could jettison their traditional reluctance
to criticise a
fellow head of state and push for an immediate release of the
results and
tight monitoring of a second round of voting, the MDC might have
a chance.
But without a unified position within the 14-country Southern
African
Development Community, still less a plan of action, diplomats are
not
optimistic. “The entire cupboard is bare,” says a western envoy,
referring
to Zimbabwe’s economy. “We are in the death throes of this regime
but it
just won’t go. There’s no one around to put the stake in its
heart.”
Zimbabwe opposition slams 'deafening silence' of Africa
Yahoo News
by
Susan Njanji 1 hour, 14 minutes ago
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's opposition
slammed the "deafening silence" Tuesday
of Africa in the aftermath of the
country's elections, warning of blood on
the streets unless pressure is
brought to bear on Robert Mugabe.
As party lawyers argued at the high
court for an immediate announcement of
the result of the March 29
presidential poll, the Movement for Democratic
Change's number two said its
supporters were being provoked into violence as
part of a strategy to impose
a state of emergency.
In events on the ground, the country's commercial
farmers' union said 60 of
the last remaining white farmers had now been
forced off their land in an
echo of the unrest which followed Mugabe's last
electoral reverse eight
years ago.
While there has been a flurry of
behind-the-scenes diplomacy in the 10 days
since the country went to the
polls, African heads of state have declined to
put their name to calls for
the presidential results to be announced.
Exasperated by the lack of a
diplomatic breakthrough, MDC secretary general
Tendai Biti said "the
deafening silence by our brothers and sisters" in
Africa was symptomatic of
the continent's failure to react to crises.
Drawing a parallel to the
1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which some 800,000
people lost their lives, Biti
urged institutions such as the African Union
and the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) to take a clear stand
as he reiterated party
claims that pro-government militias were being armed.
"We (Africa)
responded poorly in Rwanda and a million people were killed,"
Biti told a
press conference.
"I say don't wait for dead bodies on the streets of
Harare. Intervene now.
There's a constitutional and legal crisis in
Zimbabwe."
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has already declared himself
the outright
winner over his old rival Mugabe, met with senior members of
South Africa's
ruling ANC party on Monday, including its president Jacob
Zuma.
In an interview with South African television, Zuma criticised the
delay. "I
don't think it augurs it very well," he told SABC.
However
South African President Thabo Mbeki, who mediated between the MDC
and
Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in
the
build-up to the election, has so far only called for all sides to await
the
election results and called the situation "manageable."
Observer missions
from the African Union and SADC both gave the elections a
largely clean bill
of health, even though the outcome is still unknown.
While there has
still to be any significant outbreak of violence since
polling day, Biti
accused the Zimbabwean authorities of deliberately sitting
on the results of
the presidential election in order to provoke the
opposition into
violence.
"Why do they want us to go in that direction? It's because they
want to
declare a state of emergency."
The opposition fears that a
state of emergency could allow Mugabe, who has
ruled since independence in
1980, to suppress the election results and
therefore cling to
power.
ZANU-PF has already called for a complete recount of the poll even
before
the release of results and authorities have arrested seven election
officials for allegedly undercounting votes cast for the
president.
Simultaneous parliamentary results have been announced in
which the MDC
wrested control from ZANU-PF for the first time, but Mugabe's
ruling party
is contesting enough seats to reverse their victory.
In
a bid to force an end to the presidential results delay, the MDC has been
trying to persuade the high court to order the electoral commission to
release them forthwith.
A high court judge agreed on Tuesday to
consider the MDC's case urgently but
the hearing was held over until
Wednesday.
The head of the election commission, meanwhile, said the body
was continuing
to try and produce the presidential result but was hampered
by financial and
personnel problems.
"We have scaled down because
most of the people were support staff for the
house of assembly, senatorial
and council results. We are also scaling down
because of costs," said ZEC
chairman George Chiweshe.
With an unemployment rate of some 80 percent
and six-digit inflation, around
three million of Zimbabwe's 13 million
population have left the country,
where even basics such as bread and
cooking oil are now hard to come by.
Mugabe and
Zanu PF now constitute a coup
http://www.kubatana.net
Briggs Bomba
April 07, 2008
The
unfortunate, yet predictable drama unfolding in the wake of Zimbabwe’s
March
29 elections resurrects Josef Stalin’s ghosts reminding us of his
uncanny
words that ‘Its not who votes that counts, its who counts the votes’.
Mugabe’s crafty actions since the elections evidently show that he is
determined to win the count after losing the elections.
Seven days
after peacefully casting votes in the most anticipated election
since 1980,
Zimbabweans still await the official announcement of the
results. The
profound sense of hope that characterized the voting day is now
turning into
downright bewilderment as it becomes clear that President
Mugabe and his
Zanu PF are doggedly bent on disregarding the people’s
sovereign will as
expressed on March 29.
The revelation from State media that Zanu PF
ordered the Zimbabwe Elections
Commission (ZEC) not to announce the
presidential election results is
baffling to anyone with a sense of how the
Zimbabwean elections process must
work. ZEC is a constitutionally mandated
body tasked to independently
administer elections. For such a body to take
orders from Zanu PF whose
legal status in this case is a mere contestant
demonstrates what is wrong
not only with elections but with everything in
Zimbabwe. It is this rotten
state of democratic institutions and the
subordination of state bodies to
the ruling party that is at the heart of
the country’s decay.
The important point that must be made now is that
President Mugabe’s
continued hold on power, after an election he visibly
lost, now constitutes
a coup. Zimbabweans, supported by the international
community must
immediately act to thwart this violation of the people’s
democratic will.
The unprecedented and unconstitutional move by Zanu PF’s to
bar the ZEC from
announcing the presidential election results is clear
evidence of mischief
and unwillingness by hardliners in Mugabe’s regime to
respect the sovereign
will of the people of Zimbabwe. By heeding this
illegal request, ZEC has
failed the crucial test of independence, thus
confirming the longstanding
fears by Zimbabwe’s civic society that the
elections body will sacrifice
Zimbabwe’s democracy at the alter of partisan
interests.
Zanu PF’s calls for a recount and already ongoing preparations
for a
presidential election rerun, before the results are known, is not only
bizarre but also evidence of utter contemptuous disrespect to not only
Zimbabweans but also the whole world. With the current machinations, the
Mugabe regime has reached the height of illegality because they have in
actual fact staged what is essentially a ‘veto coup’. By definition this is
when ‘people’s mass participation and social mobilization to govern
themselves’ is vetoed.
By refusing to bow to popular will Mugabe is
daring the people of Zimbabwe
who have demonstrated legendary restrain and
patience under the most
unbearable living conditions. The March 29 elections
presented a singular
opportunity for many to peacefully speak out and
entrust the future of the
country in a leadership of their choice. The
consequences of frustrating and
thereby rendering irrelevant such a
democratic arena of struggle are
dangerous not only to Zimbabwe but,
potentially to the whole of Southern
Africa. Mugabe’s reckless actions risks
destabilizing the whole region by
provoking people to extra democratic means
in Zimbabwe with certain adverse
spill over effects in the region. As such
the responsibility to defend the
March 29 vote goes beyond Zimbabweans.
SADC, the AU and the United Nations,
as bodies with longstanding commitment
against illegal usurpation of power
must play a key role in breaking the
impasse in Zimbabwe. If these bodies
are to remain relevant it is they speak
out now to pressure Mugabe to
release and accept the election results,
otherwise they will be faced with a
serious crisis of legitimacy.
At
this very late hour, statements by South African President Thabo Mbeki
that
‘the situation in Zimbabwe is manageable’ and that ‘it is time to wait’
are
not only unhelpful but a slap in the face for long suffering
Zimbabweans,
who at considerable risk and sacrifice went out to vote on
March 29. There
cannot be any plausible reason why results are not known
seven days after
voting! No, Mr President, this is not ‘a time to wait’;
neither is it a
‘manageable situation’. This is more like a time bomb that
can only be
defused if the people’s vote is respected.
President Mbeki’s unfortunate
statements and the deafening silence from
other African leaders in SADC and
the AU raises serious problems of
accountability with the current crop of
African leaders. Where is the moral
outrage in this clear case of daylight
robbery? Diplomacy seems to have been
redefined to ‘see no evil, hear no
evil and speak no evil’ within the old
boys club. Africa is not helped by
this blind, uncritical support amongst
its leaders.
The opposition in
Zimbabwe must now show decisive leadership. While it is
commendable that we
have not seen ‘Kenyan style’ violence in the post
election period,
Zimbabwe’s opposition must learn from Kenyan opposition
that the business of
appealing to an incumbent’s courts does not work. There
are pending cases in
courts from the 2000 elections. In fact, with a
compromised judiciary, such
as Zimbabwe’s, court appeals only serve the
purpose of disarming people’s
vigilance by creating a distracting sideshow
and reinforcing illusions of
mitigation. Already a dilly dance has started
in the courts with all sorts
of delaying tactics meant to buy Mugabe time
until its too late, rendering
the court challenge academic. The opposition
is best advised to resort to
peaceful mass mobilization of people power to
defend the vote. The
opposition must lead unions, students and the full
range of civic society in
defending the people’s vote. Mugabe will only pay
attention if he is
convinced that he can no longer govern in the old way,
therefore the
strategy must be to paralyze the state through effective,
peacefully direct
action. I personally hope that Professor Masunungure will
be proved wrong on
his recent assertion that Mugabe will get away with
mischief and fraud
because Zanu PF is ‘risk taking’ whereas the opposition
is ‘risk
averse’.
The despicable levels of suffering by many Zimbabwean make
resolving the
current impasse in Zimbabwe an urgent matter. Having been on
the ground
myself for two weeks around election time, I can attest that the
humanitarian disaster I witnessed is heartbreaking. An old man I talked to
in one of the rural areas told me that “now we wait to see which bush the
goats are feeding on, and we eat that because we know it will not be
poisonous”. Their village had always voted Zanu PF, this time they voted out
one of Mugabe’s ministers despite all their fears of what could happen. They
voted to restore their dignity.
It is time to defend the
vote.
* Briggs Bomba is a Zimbabwean born Economist working for Africa
Action in
Washington DC, and writes here in his personal capacity. He can be
contacted
at briggsbomba@yahoo.com
Please
credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of
material from this
website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
License unless
stated otherwise.
How should the international community handle Robert
Mugabe?
The Telegraph
Posted at: 16:01
Zimbabwe's white farmers are "preparing for the
worst" and many fear that
the country will descend into violence before the
presidential run-off that
must take place by April 19.
In a sign that
the regime was trying to further undermine the validity of
the election
results, police charged election officials with under-counting
votes cast
for president Robert Mugabe.
Mr Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since
independence in 1980. The results of an
election held on March 29 are yet to
be officially announced but the
president's Zanu-PF party has denounced the
electoral commission and
threatened to purge its leading members.
How
should the international community handle Robert Mugabe?
Is it time for
the rest of the world to step in and ensure that the
presidential run-off is
free and fair? Is William Hague right to argue that
the West must help
rebuild Zimbabwe? Are you worried that the country will
be marred by
violence similar to that in seen after recent elections in
Kenya?
Do
you think African leaders should take the lead? Or is it up to the
Zimbabwean people themselves to find a solution?
Comments (22)
As
a Zimbabwean ex-pat I yearn for this man's downfall... Born 3 years after
independence, I saw the country in it's time at the top... So much potential
slowly sucked out of the land and its people by one man and his fellow
leeches... Can you honestly tell us that the only effective option at this
point is a bullet in his head...?
Posted by Phil on April 8, 2008 6:53
PM
Report this comment
Its simple, the "west" tells Mbeki, no World
cup soccer for you in 2010
unless you withdraw all support for Mugabe AND
ZANU-PF, oh and by the way
just for good measure, that will include no more
electricity and closure of
the beitbridge border post. At the same time,
whoever handles the donors
pouring aid and funds into Mocambique and Zambia
can give them the same
message. How do you think all the parties were forced
to the Lancaster House
talks in the 70's? Nobody from here even has to speak
directly to Robert
Mugabe, so the brave people who have to make the decision
can deny it later
if needs be. If this happens then I will tell you what to
do next.
Posted by Quentin Kelly-Edwards on April 8, 2008 6:48
PM
Report this comment
britain gave that country to the majority via
lord carrington.
maybe its not britain's total responsibility to rebuild but
its certainly
its responsibility to rid them of mugabe.
with just a
little help from someone
that cares,zimbabwe could become a beautiful country
once again.
such a pity the U.N. doesn't function.
Posted by j.atkinson on
April 8, 2008 6:40 PM
Report this comment
I think Willie Hague and his
wife, sons and daughters and the rest of the
trashy band should go over to
Rhodesia (the once bread basket of Africa) and
lay down their lives for
their beliefs - like the trashy lot in Parliament
are doing now for Iraq and
Afghanistan. It's easy to go to war when you and
yours aren't the ones doing
the fighting and dying - a bit like UK 2008. The
trouble with Zimbabwe? No
OIL!
Posted by Bob Kincaid on April 8, 2008 6:39 PM
Report this
comment
The people of Zimbabwe have got to get themselves out of this
mess if their
future is to be a better one.
Britain has no moral grounds
to intervene however much we feel the
injustices done to the remaining white
population. The surrounding African
nations just seem mesmerised by Mugabe
who they see as the saviour of
Zimbabwe not its destroyer.
Posted by
Caroline Collett on April 8, 2008 6:36 PM
Report this comment
William
Hague is right, but the conditions we should make in rebuilding
Zimbabwe to
be a flagship for growth and prosperity in the whole of Africa
for the
future would never get the support because it would be mistaken for
colonisation, and the rebirth of Cecil Rhodes.
if we do not find a way
then China surely will.
Posted by jack randall on April 8, 2008 6:33
PM
Report this comment
The question should be "how does Africa deal
with Robert Mugabe".
a)They have given him standing ovations when in their
countries.
b)South African government has not issued a single criticism over
human
rights abuses in nine years.
African leaders have let their racist
hatred of white
people cloud their judgement on selected
humanrights.
Yes Europe should contribute to the African fiscus, while
African leaders
see this source of income as their personal bank
accounts.
God Bless Europe
Posted by Malcolm Fletcher on April 8,
2008 6:33 PM
Report this comment
We have to let this run on to the
bitter end. Whatever we do will be wrong,
so lets stay out.
Posted by
mike mines on April 8, 2008 6:31 PM
Report this comment
Come on let's
be honest. Hardly any white people have died during Mugabe's
regime whereash
hundreds if not thousands of black people had their land and
property taken
away. It will never be as bad for Zimbabweans under Mugabe as
it was under
Smith.
Posted by Bee on April 8, 2008 6:28 PM
Report this
comment
Follow the example set at the end of WWII - put him on trial for
crimes
against humanity!
Posted by A D Pink on April 8, 2008 5:58
PM
Report this comment
Air lift the white farmers out of the country,
give them asylum status in
the UK and leave Zimbabwe to it.
Posted by
Little Miss Rage on April 8, 2008 5:55 PM
Report this comment
Tell him
if his thugs (sorry "war veterans") attack one more white farmer..
we'll be
sending the British Paras over to kick their arse big time.
Posted by Bob
on April 8, 2008 5:52 PM
Report this comment
If there was oil in
Zimbabwe he would have been out long ago and America
would have have
disposed of him by now.
Posted by bob on April 8, 2008 5:50 PM
Report this
comment
It is only up to UN or African leaders to help if someone invites
them. Any
involvement of EU, NATO or individual countries without invitation
is
meddling in Zimbabwe's affairs - most likely because of their own
economic
interests, like copper, oil, etc.
Nobody meddling in Yemeni
human rights - because they have nothing of
interest.
Posted by savo on
April 8, 2008 5:47 PM
Report this comment
As long as other African
leaders refrain from challenging Mr Mugabwe, they
prop up his henchmen and
supporters, who use this manipulative unfeeling man
living in the past,
fighting battles that were won when he first came to
power, in their brutal,
self-serving ambitions and who care nothing for the
Zimbabwean people they
are supposed to represent. I speak as one who
applauded Mr Mugabwe when he
first came to power and am now bitterly
disappointed that he has led his
nation to become a shadow of its once
thriving, successful recent past. What
must the Zimbabwean nation endure
before their neighbours are moved to
intervene?
Posted by Sandra Manning on April 8, 2008 5:46 PM
Report this
comment
Of course extrnals must help Zim BUT ONLY when big bad bob has
gone.
Bob won't let go though and that is what the press fails to
realise. They
put normal, sane, processes on the decision making process of
a "rock and a
hard place" leader.
He will hang on to the bitter end
and, knowing the paltry efforts his
neighbours have taken to stop this
flagrant abuse of logic and facts, he
will carry on until his
death.
Where is the STRENGTH and moral fortitude of current
politics?
Posted by Michael O'Brien on April 8, 2008 5:43 PM
Report this
comment
Like the international community ie the U.N. its inability to do
anything in
dafur sudan,and previous areas congo the genocide which
continues
today.never mind the morons and establishment lackies in the media
and
broadcasting will pander to the uneducated masses.keep up the good work
,your masters are well pleased with its servents devoution in the media.how
is british airways these days .showing off our great airport to its
visitors.british airways is the sum total of this country ,incompetant and
totally useless.first get your house in order before you engage in trying to
get involved in anything outside your territorial limits.
Posted by
joseph walker on April 8, 2008 5:37 PM
Report this comment
Shoot him.
I'll do it.
Posted by Bernard Lawson on April 8, 2008 5:35 PM
Report this
comment
No William Hague is not right to say that the west should help to
build
Zimbabwe.
The african countries that have tacitly supported
Mugabe despite any normal
moral scruples should now fund the rebuilding of
this broken nation.
Incidently, if it wasn't for the duplicity of Harold
Wilson on the HMS Tiger
talks, none of this would have happened.
Posted
by John Lee on April 8, 2008 5:27 PM
Report this comment
There's one
thing the UK could do, and that is to revoke the immunity given
to Mugabe
and the ZANU-PF leaders in respect of war crimes they committed
during the
war of independence.
Posted by Michael Petek on April 8, 2008 5:24
PM
Report this comment
It is now or never for Zimbabwe. With an
economy worse than Darfur and a
population dying of treatable diseases such
as diabetes it is time for the
international community to stop being
spectators to this crisis. Its almost
as if everyone in the international
community is afraid of Mugabe. It may be
worthwhile to mention that he has
more to lose than anyone else so stop
being afriad and get tough with this
despot who is killing his people. It's
not about colonialism, land etc it's
about a corrupt regime which fears that
losing this election means losing
the land and lifestyle which they have
grown used to such as palaces, cars
and huge amounts of land!
Posted by Simon on April 8, 2008 5:24 PM
Report
this comment
This is yet another perfect example of a situation where the
international
community should mind its own jolly business!
As Iraq
taught us, internation concern is the tip of the iceberg!
Posted by Bree
Harding on April 8, 2008 5:17 PM
Report this comment
Zimbabwe Opposition Accuses Mugabe Supporters of
Sabotage
VOA
By Scott Bobb
Johannesburg
08 April
2008
Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe say supporters of President
Robert Mugabe
have launched a campaign of violence in order to derail
elections 10 days
ago, which they say they won. The accusation comes as a
court in Harare
began hearings on the delayed results of the presidential
vote. VOA's Scott
Bobb reports from our Southern Africa Bureau in
Johannesburg.
The secretary-general of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC), Tendai Biti, says militias of the ruling ZANU-PF
party are being
armed and are attacking MDC supporters in what he called
massive
post-election violence.
Biti appealed to African governments
to intervene in what he called the
constitutional and legal crisis in
Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, Commercial Farmers Union leader Trevor Gifford said
supporters of
Mr. Mugabe have evicted farmers who were thought to have
supported the
opposition.
"Sixty farmers have been removed from their
farms since Saturday evening and
of those 60, two are black commercial
farmers and the remainder are white
commercial farmers," he said.
He
said it reminded some of the period following the elections of 2000 and
2002
in which all, but a few hundred of Zimbabwe's 4,000 white farmers were
evicted and their farms given to liberation-war veterans and government
officials.
"We have information at hand, which shows to us that this
is state
sponsored," he added. "It is directed by parts of the military,
the
[ruling] party and the war veterans. And basically, we are getting very
little support in trying to sort out this problem."
The high court in
Harare began an urgent hearing at the request of the
opposition on whether
to oblige the Zimbabwe Election Commission to release
results of the
presidential election 10 days ago.
The Commission has released results
from the parliamentary election showing
the opposition won a majority of the
seats. And it has released results
from Senate elections showing the two
sides won an equal number of seats.
But results for the presidential vote
have not been released. The
opposition and pro-democracy civic groups say
their tallies of official
results posted outside polling centers show MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai
defeated Mr. Mugabe and may have won the 50 percent
majority needed be
declared the winner outright.
The government has
asked for a recount of many of the results and has
arrested five electoral
officials, accusing them of undercounting votes for
Mr. Mugabe. ZANU-PF
leaders have indicated they are preparing for a runoff
election, which is
required if no presidential candidate wins 50 percent of
the vote. By law a
runoff must be held within 21 days of the announcement
of the
results.
The opposition says these moves are part of an orchestrated
attempt by the
ruling party to overturn its first defeat since independence
28 years ago.
Western governments have expressed concern over the delay, but
South African
President Thabo Mbeki urged patience Monday, saying the
process should be
allowed to take its course.
Zimbabwe trade union stunned by election impasse
SABC
April 08,
2008, 19:15
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) says it is stuck
between a rock
and a hard place when it comes to reacting to the political
situation in
that country.
The union federation says its members want
to protest against the resolve of
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to
withhold election results, but
this could give President Robert Mugabe a
reason to declare a state of
emergency and continue to rule by
decree.
The ZCTU today met two of South Africa's labour federations – the
Congress
of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and Federation of Unions of SA
(Fedusa).
The ZCTU says it is known throughout Zimbabwe who has won the
presidential
election. ZCTU Secretary General Wellington Chibebe says:
"According to the
statistics coming through from the ZEC, Morgan
Tsvangirai's MDC party has
won the election, but not all the results are
known."
Cosatu says President Thabo Mbeki's recent utterances on the
current
situation are unfortunate.
Meanwhile, in a separate meeting,
Fedusa urged the ZCTU to calm its members
to minimise the threat of a
violent uprising like the one that took place in
the aftermath of Kenya's
elections.
Zimbabwe's opposition warns of bloodshed, farmers evicted
Reuters
Tue
8 Apr 2008, 13:54 GMT
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - African
states must intervene in Zimbabwe to prevent
widespread bloodshed, the
opposition said on Tuesday, accusing President
Robert Mugabe of trying to
provoke violence as a pretext for a state of
emergency.
"I say to my
brothers and sisters across the continent -- don't wait for
dead bodies in
the streets of Harare. There is a constitutional and legal
crisis in
Zimbabwe," Movement for Democratic Change Secretary-General Tendai
Biti told
a news conference.
He said the ruling ZANU-PF had launched a violent
campaign against
opposition supporters following a stalemate over March 29
elections.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he won the presidential vote
and should be
declared president immediately, ending the 28-year rule of
Robert Mugabe,
whose critics accuse him of reducing a once prosperous nation
to misery.
Zimbabwe has inflation of more than 100,000 percent -- the
highest in the
world -- an unemployment rate above 80 percent and chronic
shortages of food
and fuel. Millions have fled abroad, most of them to South
Africa.
ZANU-PF is pressing for a delay in issuing the presidential
results pending
a recount and is also alleging abuses by electoral officials
in an attempt
to overturn its first defeat in a parliamentary
poll.
"There's been massive violence inside our country since the 29th of
March
2008 ... MDC people are being beaten up ... farms with remaining
pockets of
white people are being invaded. Farms with known MDC supporters
are being
invaded," Biti said.
"Militias are being rearmed, ZANU-PF
supporters are being rearmed ... The
long and short of it is that there has
been a complete militarization of
Zimbabwean society since the 29th of March
2008," he added.
Earlier, a farmers' union said independence war
veterans,
used as political shock troops by Mugabe, had evicted more than
60 mostly
white farmers from their land since the weekend.
"The
situation is very severe. The evictions are continuing right round the
country. We have over 60 farmers evicted as of this morning. Every couple of
minutes my phone is ringing with another case of eviction," said Commercial
Farmers' Union President Trevor Gifford.
FARM EVICTIONS
The
veterans had forced them to leave their homes with only the clothes they
were wearing. Those evicted included at least one black farmer, Gifford told
Reuters.
Police said they were not aware of the farm
invasions.
The veterans have already spearheaded the eviction of most
white farmers
under Mugabe's land reforms.
The MDC says Mugabe is
delaying the presidential election result to give him
more time to prepare
for a runoff against Tsvangirai, and has asked the High
Court to force
release of the outcome.
The court ruled on Tuesday it would treat the
opposition's application as
urgent and began hearing arguments in the
case.
Legal proceedings are already in their fourth day and could drag
further,
delaying the end of a 10-day stalemate that has dashed hopes of a
quick
answer to the crisis.
Biti told reporters: "We are saying to
our fellow Africans, in the African
Union and in SADC (Southern African
Development Community) ... don't wait
for dead bodies ... intervene
now."
Traders in neighbouring South Africa said the impasse was likely to
weigh on
the rand currency, briefly boosted last week when there was
speculation
Mugabe would stand down after his ruling ZANU-PF party lost the
parliamentary poll.
"Counting against the rand is the way in which
the Zimbabwe elections are
rapidly deteriorating into a farce," said market
analysts ETM in a trading
note.
Tsvangirai met South African ruling
party leader Jacob Zuma on Monday after
appealing for help from outside
powers to end Mugabe's uninterrupted rule
since
independence.
Tsvangirai wrote in a newspaper article that Zimbabwe was
on a "razor's
edge" because of the 84-year-old Mugabe's efforts to cling to
power.
SAfrica's Zuma criticises
Zimbabwe poll delay
africasia
JOHANNESBURG, April 8 (AFP)
South Africa's ruling party leader Jacob Zuma on Tuesday
criticised the
delay in declaring the results of Zimbabwe's presidential
election.
Zuma, elected head of the African National Congress in December
and the
frontrunner to become next president of South Africa, indicated that
"keeping the nation in suspense... keeping the international community in
suspense" was wrong.
"I don't think it augurs very well," he said in
an interview with South
Africa's SABC news.
Zuma was speaking the day
after he met Morgan Tsvangirai during the Zimbabwe
opposition leader's first
foreign trip since the election.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) won control of the
Zimbabwean parliament for the first time in
the March 29 polls but the
outcome of the simultaneous presidential election
is still to be declared.
Tsvangirai has claimed outright victory but the
ruling ZANU-PF says there is
no clear winner and has endorsed Mugabe to run
in a possible second-round
run-off vote as well as demanding a complete
recount.
State broadcaster's
poll goes against Mugabe
zimbabwejournalists.com
8th Apr 2008 10:58 GMT
By Ian Nhuka
BULAWAYO - An
overwhelming 65 percent of visitors to Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation
(ZBC)’s website reckon that the ongoing verification of election
results
requested by Zanu PF is improper.
The online opinion poll and its
resounding result as at 10am Tuesday comes
four days after Zanu PF, which
exercises a tight grip on the broadcasting
monopoly, requested the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) to verify
results and recount ballots of the
presidential election after it emerged
that the party’s candidate, President
Robert Mugabe, had lost the poll to
long-time rival and Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Long accused of
favouring Zanu PF and the government, this is probably the
first time in its
history that the public broadcaster has, literally
provided a platform for
its readers to openly go against the embattled party
and its government. It
is for that reason that the results of the poll are
surprising.
Newsnet, ZBC’s news unit, is running the online poll
which asks, “Is
verification of election results proper?”
According
to the results 65,18 percent of the unspecified number of visitors
to the
website said it is improper, or “not at all.”
About 18,87 percent agreed with
the verification process while 15,95 percent
said that the process was
“partly” proper.
A ZBC producer yesterday said his bosses would most
likely be alarmed by the
result of the poll. He said the bosses may not have
visited the website or
read the results, noting if they did, the poll would
immediately be removed.
“It is surprising because the poll and its
results definitely do not reflect
the opinion of those in authority,” he
said.
“You cannot say a few days after the party (Zanu PF) asked for a
verification and recounting of presidential ballot papers, we carry a poll
whose results say doing so is improper. I tell you once our bosses see the
results, they will order the poll to be discontinued.”
On Friday last
week, the Zanu PF politburo met in Harare and claimed there
were
irregularities in the conduct of the March 29 elections.
The party’s
secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa emerged from the
meeting, to
make the astounding claims that the opposition bribed ZEC
officials to
induce them to falsify election results to ensure that Zanu PF
loses.
He said the party, which lost its traditional dominance of
parliament to the
MDC, would contest results in at least 16 constituencies
across the country.
In addition to the recount, Zanu PF has requested an
audit of all electoral
material relating to last week’s presidential
election.
The Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC faction won 99 seats in the House of
Assembly
while Zanu PF got 97 seats. The other MDC faction led by Arthur
Mutambara
took 10 seats, with an independent winning another in the 210-seat
house.
There would be three by-elections soon.
“This is the worst
election I have ever seen and we are going to raise all
the dirty stuff they
did (ZEC),” Mutasa was quoted as saying.
“We cannot sell our birthright for
30 pieces of silver.”
Mugabe also alleged irregularities. “We don’t
believe in any cheating, but
the other side, oh, lots of the irregularities
you know, people who do
forgeries… but they also must also be
straightforward,” he said while
meeting African Union observers to the poll
last Friday.
Barack Obama Statement on Zimbabwe's
Election
All American Patriots
Posted on April 8th, 2008
April 4, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. -
U.S. Senator Barack Obama today released
the following statement on
Zimbabwe's presidential and parliamentary
elections:
"On March 29th,
millions of Zimbabweans went to the polls to choose their
president and
parliament. The resulting defeat of the ruling ZANU-PF party
in
parliamentary elections underscores the Zimbabwean people's rejection of
the
failed policies and the widespread suffering caused by Robert Mugabe's
repressive rule.
"The long delayed release of the results of the
senate and presidential
ballots by the Zimbabwean Election Commission has
exacerbated suspicions
that Mugabe will again manipulate the outcome. The
election results should
be announced without further delay. Yesterday's
detentions, including of two
foreign journalists, among them a reporter for
the New York Times, and of an
American staffer of the National Democratic
Institute, further fuel tension.
The government's raid on the offices of the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change as well as today's staged march
through Harare of
so-called "war veterans" are provocative tactics designed
to intimidate the
opposition and Zimbabwean people.
"Zimbabwe now
appears poised to hold a run-off election for the presidency,
which Mugabe
has vowed to contest. This election must be conducted in a
fully transparent
manner, free from intimidation and consistent with the
rule of law. These
elections have the potential to be truly historic, if
indeed they are fully
free and fair. Their conduct and outcome will
determine if Zimbabwe's
economic and humanitarian crisis is deepened, or if
the door is finally
opened to a new and more hopeful chapter in Zimbabwe's
history."
Source: Senator Barack Obama
Mugabe's recipe for power: rob whites, bash blacks,
rig rules
Sydney Morning Herald
David Blair in Johannesburg
April 9, 2008
ROBERT
MUGABE'S response to his apparent defeat in the first round of
Zimbabwe's
presidential poll springs directly from the unofficial manual of
electioneering pioneered by ZANU-PF.
To guarantee his survival, Mugabe
will now rob the whites, beat the blacks
and rig the rules in his favour.
These methods saved him from oblivion after
he lost a referendum in 2000.
Everything indicates that Mugabe is now
resorting to them once
again.
Robbing the whites is well under way. The white farmers have been
reduced to
a rump of about 200, almost all of whom own only portions of
their previous
land.
This last handful has now been singled out, with
organised invasions
overwhelming at least 27 farms. The aim is to offer
white-owned land as a
reward for supporting Mugabe.
But all
Zimbabweans know that the land grab was largely completed five years
ago. In
2000 Zimbabwe had about 4000 white farmers. By 2003 that total had
fallen to
its present level.
So Mugabe is now trying a new propaganda line. He says
that unless he stays
in power, white farmers will return and reclaim their
property, evicting any
blacks who were settled on their land. "There have
been widespread reports
of white former farmers flocking back into the
country," said The Herald, a
state newspaper, on Monday.
Mr Mugabe
has urged Zimbabweans to "safeguard their land" and said: "The
land is ours,
it must not be allowed to slip back into the hands of
whites."
Reinforcing this battle cry are the veterans of the war against
white rule,
who led the first farm invasions in 2000. They will assault,
torture, rape
or murder blacks who oppose Mugabe, in accordance with the
second chapter of
ZANU-PF's manual.
As for rigging the vote, the law
requires that Mugabe must face the
election's second round by April 19. He
may decide that he needs more time.
Fortunately, under the Presidential
Powers Act, passed as a "temporary
measure" in 1986, he can amend any law at
will. He may employ this to delay
a second round for weeks or
months.
Latest developments
* Zimbabweans were expecting a High
Court ruling last night that may end
their long wait for presidential
election results - 10 days after the polls.
On Monday Justice Tendai Uchena
promised to rule on an opposition bid to
force the electoral commission -
whose leaders are appointed by Robert
Mugabe - to immediately release the
results
* Police have arrested seven election officials, accusing
them of
undercounting votes cast for President Mugabe in the March 29
presidential
poll. The officials, who were working for the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission
in four provinces, are to be charged with
fraud
* A reporter for The New York Times who was jailed for covering the
elections without government permission has been released on bail. The
reporter, Barry Bearak, was swept up during a raid on a small hotel
frequented by foreign journalists in the suburbs of Harare, the capital, on
Thursday.
Telegraph, London
Lots of talk but little pressure to sway
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe leader of 28 years
International Herald Tribune
The Associated
PressPublished: April 8, 2008
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa:
Zimbabwe's impeccably dressed Robert Mugabe
can't shop at Savile Row and
Harrods any more. Feared security minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa's sons were
thrown out of university in Australia. The
foreign bank accounts of scores
of top officials have been frozen. What else
can be done to pressure
Zimbabwe's autocratic ruler to reform?
Not much, diplomats and analysts
say.
"We have worked closely with many in the international community to
try to
bring pressure on the government in Zimbabwe to change its ways. That
has
not had much effect," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack
admitted.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai made an impassioned
plea for the
international community to persuade Mugabe to step down, even
as electoral
officials continued to delay releasing the results of the March
29
elections.
Independent tallies indicate Tsvangirai won the most
votes, but not enough
to avoid a runoff. The opposition fears Mugabe will
use ruling party
militants and the security forces to intimidate voters and
rig the runoff
results as he has in previous elections.
Violence will
be used as "a weapon to reverse the people's victory,"
Tsvangirai
said.
The United States, Britain, the European Union and the United Nations
are
putting out daily statements urging the publication of the results — but
none have gone further.
World leaders appear to be leaving it up to
South African President Thabo
Mbeki, whose "quiet diplomacy" approach some
see as an appeasement that has
allowed Mugabe to dig in his heels as he
presided over rigged elections and
the destruction of his nation's economy
over the years.
Mbeki called for patience. "I think there is time to
wait. Let's see the
outcome of the election results," he said Sunday. He has
made no public call
for the release of the results, which independent
monitors say were
available the day after the vote.
South Africa's
opposition Democratic Alliance urged Mbeki to consider asking
the African
Union to send monitors or peacekeepers to Zimbabwe. Former
President Nelson
Mandela, an outspoken critic of Mugabe and of Mbeki's
handling of the
crisis, set a precedent for such a move when he sent troops
into neighboring
Lesotho in 1998 to end weeks of protests over rigged
elections and to
prevent a coup.
But African leaders — who applaud Mugabe at summits as
one of the few
remaining liberation icons — have been silent and are
unlikely to agree to
send troops into the country.
"We are concerned
by the deafening silence in the region in the AU" and in
the Southern
African Development Community. "I say to our brothers and
sisters across the
continent: Don't wait for dead bodies in the streets of
Harare," said Tendai
Biti, secretary general of Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic
Change.
John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of
Zimbabwe, said
opposition officials told him Tsvangirai had sent delegations
to meet with
Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete, President Levi Mwanawasa
of Zambia and
Mbeki in South Africa last week.
"The same message has
come through: that there is little, if anything, they
can do apart from
urging Mugabe to allow (the electoral commission) to
release results and
take proper steps thereafter in relation to the law,"
Makumbe
said.
But African leaders may not even be able to get in touch with the
Zimbabwean
leader.
"For the moment, the leaders of the AU have not
been able to be in contact
with Mugabe," said Javier Solana, the EU's
foreign policy chief.
A U.N. Security Council diplomat said it would be
difficult for the world
body to do anything given Mbeki's opposition,
especially since South Africa
holds the council's rotating presidency this
month. In addition, China,
which became a strong Mugabe ally after the West
abandoned him, would likely
veto any action against him.
The only
major African to speak out over the past week has been Kofi Annan,
the
former U.N. secretary general from Ghana. Annan mediated this year's
Kenyan
election crisis, interceding after more than 1,000 were killed in
ethnic
confrontations that began as protests over a rigged presidential vote
count.
"The eyes of the world are on Zimbabwe, on its electoral
commission, on its
president," Annan said last week. "I urge them to do the
right thing ... The
election results should be released now."
Annan
and other eminent Africans should go to Zimbabwe to mediate a
resolution
before the situation gets out of control, Makumbe said.
But Makumbe also
suggested Tsvangirai marshal his supporters to "agitate in
a peaceful but
robust manner" for the release of the election results.
The opposition
fears protests are just what the government is looking for —
an excuse to
mobilize security forces to terrorize opponents.
Tsvangirai took another
approach, flying to South Africa to meet Monday with
Jacob Zuma, the
political leader who humiliated Mbeki by defeating him in
elections to lead
the governing African National Congress.
Zuma never was sympathetic to
Mugabe and, until he became ANC president,
openly criticized Mbeki's stance
on Zimbabwe. Neither party would discuss
their talks, but Zuma and the ANC
are close to the Congress of South African
Trade Unions, which is supportive
of Tsvangirai, a former labor leader.
Currently, Mugabe and about 130 of
his allies suffer travel bans and have
had their overseas bank accounts
frozen under smart sanctions aimed at not
hurting the people of Zimbabwe.
Humanitarian aid, with the Europeans the
biggest donor, continues to flow,
but channeled only through aid groups
instead of the
government.
Tsvangirai has called for the West to expand the sanctions to
include more
people in Zimbabwe's leadership.
Last year, Australia
refused to allow children of those targeted to be
educated in the country. A
couple dozen Zimbabwean students were forced to
leave. The expelled students
found places in European schools, not the
University of Zimbabwe, where
academic standards have collapsed under a
shortage of books and lecturers,
and water outages have forced authorities
to install portable toilets, now
filthy.
Known for his sartorial elegance, Mugabe used to love shopping on
London's
Savile Row and in swank Harrods department store. Today, his suits
are made
locally at a shop called Liberty
Tailors.
---
Associated Press writers Paul Ames and Jan Sliva in
Brussels, Belgium;
Foster Klug in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the
United Nations in New
York contributed to this report.
Refugees fear Mugabe's wrath
IOL
April 08 2008 at
02:49PM
Zimbabwean refugees in Cape Town have appealed to the
international
community and President Thabo Mbeki to immediately deploy
peacekeeping
forces to their country amid fears that Robert Mugabe is set to
unleash a
reign of terror on civilians who voted against him.
Some of the refugees who spoke to the Cape Argus said Mugabe's
orchestrated
mass killing of the 1980s, farm invasions of 2000 and the urban
purges of
2005 were stark examples what "the dictator" could do.
The
refugees, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal, said
Mugabe was
ready to shed the blood of their loved ones back home.
"The
last kick of a dying horse is very dangerous. He (Mugabe) will
bring the
house down with him before throwing in the towel. The Titanic is
sinking, he
will go down with innocent lives.
"I phoned home for the latest
news and my family told me the situation
is tense as people feared that
their new-found freedom would be stolen
through violence, unless the world
intervenes during this hour of need,"
said a former salesman whose family
lives in Harare.
He added that the world should not wait "in
corridors of hesitation
until blood flows or Mugabe steals the elections in
the next 21 dark days".
A refugee who fled Zimbabwe four days ago
with his family said his
fellow countrymen had finally spoken, but warned
that dark days lay ahead.
"If Tsvangirai becomes president Mugabe
will mobilise war vets, the
army, police, secret service and the militia to
take revenge on the people
who just want bread and freedom.
"On
the other hand, if Mugabe rigs the elections in the next 21 days
and imposes
himself as president, people will fight back and lives will be
lost," he
said.
The man urged the UN, African Union and Southern African
Development
Community members to ensure that Kenyan-style violence be
prevented and "the
people's victory be retained".
The refugees
said they were worried and angered after the black-out on
announcing the
winner in the presidential race, which many believe
Tsvangirai has
won.
"We are being taken for fools, Zanu-PF is keeping a lid on the
results
the world knows.
"And now the new language of run-off
is tantamount to stealing the
elections," said another refugee, who added
that life in South Africa as a
refugee was tough and that he longed to go
home.
The octogenarian Mugabe tasted a historic defeat last week
when his
party lost the lower house of parliament to Tsvangirai's Movement
for
Democratic Change (MDC).
The results of the presidential
and senate elections, which took place
simultaneously with the parliamentary
elections, have not been announced
even though more than a week has passed
since the voting was completed.
A run-off of the presidential
election has been ordered by Mugabe.
This article was
originally published on page 5 of Cape Argus on April
08, 2008
Police assault Zim activists
afrol News, 8 April - Zimbabwean police have
been accused of assaulting more
than 80 opposition activists in the western
provinces of Manicaland and
Matabeleland.
Opposition figures said the
attack was among the ruling Zanu-PF government's
calculated tactics to
intimidate voters ahead of the planned presidential
second round
poll.
Informed sources said at least 200 senior officers of the armed
forces have
been deployed to lead the war veterans and Zanu-PF thugs in a
military
operation aimed at cowering Zimbabweans into voting for President
Robert
Mugabe in the poll run-off.
Zimbabweans voted in the combined
polls nine days ago, but the national
electoral commission has failed to
declare the presidential results public.
The opposition Movement for
Democratic Change was impatient with the trend
and filed a petition at the
High Court. The party had earlier declared its
leader Morgan Tsvangirai of
the presidential polls.
Justice Tendai Uchena has agreed to preside over
an opposition request
seeking the urgent release of the results.
"The
case should proceed," Justice Tendai Uchena ruled.
But Zanu-PF officials
demanded a recount of the vote, accusing some
electoral officers of
conniving with the MDC to falsify their leader's
votes. Scores of electoral
officers have been arrested and charged with
fraud and criminal abuse of
duty. They are currently being held at Harare
Central police
station.
The ruling party wondered why the results posted outside polling
stations
portrayed more votes for Mr Mugabe than those sent for counting in
Harare.
Officials of the MDC called on the international community,
especially
African leaders to pressure President Mugabe to concede defeat
and avoid a
bloodshed in the country.
By staff writer
Election Violence Predicted for
Second Round
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
It is all or nothing for the ZANU-PF regime, whose past record
shows it is
grimly determined to hold onto power.
By Meshack Ndodana
in Harare (AR No. 165, 08-Apr-08)
With a run-off between Robert Mugabe
and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
looking increasingly likely, there
are signs that the Zimbabwean regime will
launch a crackdown to ensure
victory for the incumbent at all costs.
The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, ZEC, is dragging its feet on announcing
the official result of
the presidential ballot, although it has said that
Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change, MDC, won the parliamentary
election also held on March
29.
Although the MDC has claimed outright victory, most observers think
that
when the ZEC announces the final figures, neither of the top two
candidates
will be awarded over 50 per cent of the vote, requiring them to
contest a
second round.
Tsvangirai’s MDC faction – the bigger of two
that contested the elections –
initially said that it would take part in a
second round, but changed its
mind after reports emerged that pro-Mugabe war
veterans, youth militia and
armed forces had been deployed in rural
areas.
Now it says that in order to protect Zimbabweans from a wave of
political
violence, it will boycott a run-off vote unless the United Nations
is
invited in to observe the elections.
Tsvangirai warned journalists
that ZANU-PF would use violence to ensure
victory for
Mugabe.
“ZANU-PF is preparing a war on the people such as we saw in 2000
and 2002
[elections]. The run-off is thus a ‘run-over’ of the people,” he
said. “I,
Morgan Tsvangirai, the legitimate winner of this election will not
participate in the run-off. If President Mugabe thinks he can bulldoze his
way into a further era of illegitimacy, then history will judge.”
The
consequences of a second election surrounded by violence would be dire,
said
the opposition leader, who predicted, “A run-off will polarise and
traumatise this country. The country does not need another
war.”
Tapiwa Mashakada, a senior MDC official, told IWPR that his party
would not
help legitimise Mugabe by taking part in a second
round.
“We are not going to expose our people to violence. A run-off is
going to be
bloody, and we are going to see some of the worst violence ever.
We will
only participate if a United Nations observer mission is invited to
monitor
the elections,” said Mashakada.
With the parliamentary
election handed to their opponents, ZANU-PF officials
have everything to
lose if Mugabe fails to win a new term.
A member of the party’s governing
body or politburo told IWPR that ZANU-PF
did not trust Tsvangirai, not least
because they feared he would take away
the farms awarded to many regime
insiders by Mugabe’s 2000 land reform, in
which white farmers were forcibly
dispossessed.
The politburo member said Tsvangirai might also sanction
the prosecution of
Mugabe and others named as culpable in the “Gukurahundi”
killings of the
Eighties, in which Mugabe’s military stand accused of
murdering large
numbers of civilians in a bid to eliminate political
opposition in the
Matabeleland and Midland regions.
“Unfortunately,
no matter what Tsvangirai says about guaranteeing President
Mugabe’s safety,
we just cannot trust the man,” said the ZANU-PF insider.
“So if one day he
gets a call from [British prime minister] Gordon Brown or
[United States
president] George Bush and is told to arrest Mugabe, do you
think he won’t
do that and will say, ‘I gave him my word’? Obviously not.”
The politburo
member was referring to Mugabe’s oft-stated view that Britain
and the US are
to blame for Zimbabwe’s problems. Statements by Bush and
Brown that Mugabe
must step down have merely made him more determined to win
the
run-off.
“If he loses, then Mugabe would have lost to the British and the
Americans
and to quote him, ‘never, never, ever, ever’ will we let that
happen,” said
the politburo member.
He concluded by warning, “We will
protect our president and ensure that
Tsvangirai does not go anywhere near
State House.”
A former guerrilla from the 1970s war of liberation
admitted to IWPR that he
had committed murder during an earlier election
campaign, and insisted that
war veterans would never let Tsvangirai take
over.
This man feared a Tsvangirai victory might lead to retribution
against
people like him. “I have killed, and I am not the only one who has
killed.
Who will protect us if Tsvangirai comes into power? We are not going
to let
him win. Mugabe is going to continue ruling this country,” he
said.
The performance of both Mugabe and ZANU-PF, scoring more than 40
per cent of
the 2.4 million votes cast on March 29, belies the expectations
of some who
expected voter support for the regime to collapse because of the
unprecedented economic decline that has left the country with the world’s
highest inflation rate.
Since life is close to unbearable for many
Zimbabweans, it might seem
strange that Mugabe should still get so many
votes.
However, Zimbabwean politics run deep, and calls for a fresh start
are only
part of the picture. The present political environment cannot be
divorced
from the role of ZANU-PF, and Mugabe personally, in the 1970s war
of
liberation and in the violence of the post-independence years. Many
people,
particularly the younger generation, underestimate the effect of
Mugabe’s
credentials on rural voters.
In the Seventies, ZANU’s armed
wing, the Zimbabwe African National
Liberation Army, ZANLA, left a deep
imprint on the ethnic Shona provinces
from which it operated, and still
affects voting patterns there.
“The legacy of the liberation struggle has
left a deeper memory in rural
areas than in urban areas,” said Sabelo J.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni of the Ferguson
Centre for African and Asian Studies at the
Open University in Britain.
“Memory of a rural guerrilla is in fact a memory
of ZANU as an emancipatory
force. This memory will take time to pass from
peasant consciousness. ZANU
is reaping dividends from this
consciousness.”
Ndlovu-Gatsheni explained how during the insurgency,
“ZANU imbibed Maoist
mobilisation strategies of the 'fish and water' type –
the rural peasants
became the sea within which ZANLA forces played their
politics”.
The post-independence period saw the mass killings of the
Gukurahundi
campaign, conducted in ethnic Ndebele areas, and later on,
violence used
during the seizure of white-owned farms and in the election
campaigns of
2000 and 2002.
The people involved in past violent
action to uphold ZANU-PF’s rule have so
far enjoyed impunity, and can be
expected to do what they can to ensure
Mugabe stays their
president.
Pre-election violence was notably lacking ahead of the first
round, and the
MDC was able to penetrate constituencies seen as no-go areas.
In the
southern Masvingo province, for instance, the MDC won more than half
of the
parliamentary seats; it won an absolute majority in Manicaland and
also
snatched some rural constituencies in the ZANU-PF strongholds of
Mashonaland
East and West and the Midlands.
Many fear Mugabe will not
allow this to happen again. The deployment of
ZANU-PF militants and war
veterans to secure victory would raise the
prospect of violent clashes with
defiant MDC supporters.
Despite these fears, some ordinary voters told
IWPR that the MDC should go
into the run-off because people would come out
in large numbers to vote
against him.
“I hope the MDC won’t let us
down by refusing to contest the run-off,” said
Harare resident Mary Musodzi.
“I can tell you that Zimbabweans, who all this
time thought it was
impossible to beat Mugabe, now realise that people can
actually vote him
out. Those that did not vote will go and vote, and Mugabe
will lose badly in
the second round.”
Meshack Ndodana is the pseudonym of a reporter in
Zimbabwe.
Don’t Underestimate Mugabe’s
Resilience
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Reports of President Robert Mugabe’s imminent political demise may
be
exaggerated. -Reports of President Robert Mugabe’s imminent political
demise
may be exaggerated.
By Nonthando Bhebhe in Harare (AR No. 165,
08-Apr-08)-By Nonthando Bhebhe in
Harare (AR No. 165,
08-Apr-08)
Although the result of Zimbabwe’s presidential election is
still unknown, it
is clear that President Robert Mugabe still commands a
substantial share of
the vote – confounding predictions that his support
would crumble away
entirely amid growing resentment at the dire state of the
country.
As the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, ZEC, continues to withhold
the final
figures from the March 29 ballot, Morgan Tsvangirai of the main
faction of
the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, has claimed victory with
over 50
per cent.
A source in the ZEC and a member of the ruling
ZANU-PF party’s politburo
member both told IWPR that Mugabe could get up to
45 per cent and Tsvangirai
about 48 per cent. This would mean neither man
had an absolute majority so
that they would have to contest a
run-off.
Jonathan Moyo, a former information minister who is now an
independent
member of parliament, estimated that Tsvangirai is likely to get
49.4 or
49.5 per cent of the vote, followed by Mugabe with 42.5 or 42.6 per
cent.
With the ZEC stalling on its announcement, there are fears that
Mugabe’s
officials are engaged in a last-minute attempt to fix the result in
his
favour.
Moyo, however, dismissed allegations of vote-rigging,
saying this would be
difficult to arrange and the final result was likely to
reflect the true
situation.
But even by the MDC’s count, Mugabe has
scored upwards of 40 per cent of the
vote.
The results of the
parliamentary election held the same day as the
presidential ballot have
been released, and show that ZANU-PF got 97 of the
210 seats in the lower
House of Assembly, two less than the 99 won by
Tsvangirai’s MDC.
Even
adding in the ten seats won by the other MDC faction led by Arthur
Mutambara
and assuming the two groups would cooperate on legislative
matters, the
opposition would still not have the two-thirds majority needed
to pass the
constitutional changes seen by many as central to political
change in
Zimbabwe.
These results reflect the constituency-based system used for
the
parliamentary election. The continuing strength of ZANU-PF is reflected
in
the raw numbers, which suggest it actually won more votes overall than
Tsvangirai’s MDC – 45.94 compared with 42.9 per cent.
Turnout was
disappointing; of the 5.9 million registered voters, only 2.4
million
actually took part in the election.
Mugabe’s opponents see him as a
hero-turned-dictator whose policies have led
to economic collapse over the
last ten years and whose record on human
rights and political freedom is
abysmal. They say he has manifestly failed
to address massive problems such
as rising poverty and hunger, corruption,
bad governance, and high mortality
rates as the health system collapses and
HIV/AIDS grows.
For some of
Mugabe’s critics, it is enough that ZANU-PF has been pushed
aside as the
governing party and that he has either lost or been forced into
a second
round. These setbacks are reminiscent of the experience of other
African
liberation movements which overstayed their time in power and never
recovered after performing poorly in elections.
That was the case in
Zambia, where the United National Independence Party
lost a 1991 election
and has performed dismally since then. The same
happened in Malawi, where
Kamuzu Banda’s Malawi Congress Party never bounced
back from its 1994
defeat, and in Zambia, where President Kenneth Kaunda of
Zambia lost to
former trade unionist Frederick Chiluba in 1991.
Yet in Zimbabwe, there
are clearly still significant numbers of people who
still support Mugabe and
believe his achievements outweigh his failings.
They believe his rhetoric
that the West is to blame for Zimbabwe’s problems
and point to his role as
liberator and now defender of the national
interest, high literacy levels,
and land reforms that were ostensibly
intended to improve
livelihoods.
If there is blame to be apportioned, these people look to
Mugabe’s
entourage, whom they hold responsible for systemic corruption and
inefficiency.
This group of voters is mistrustful of Tsvangirai, and
suspects, for example
that he is sympathetic to the white farmers
dispossessed by Mugabe’s 2000
forcible land redistribution, and might seek
to restore their property if he
were elected.
For Mugabe allies in
ZANU-PF, this close-run election amounts to a sort of
victory against
arch-enemies Britain and the United States, in that the
results at least
show that Mugabe is not as unpopular as some thought and
the ballot has not
been a walkover for Tsvangirai.
Political analysts say neither ZANU-PF
nor Mugabe should be underestimated.
The president has proved remarkably
resilient despite frequent predictions
of his imminent
demise.
Analyst Brian Kagoro suggested that the MDC would do well to put
its
declaration of victory on hold.
“It’s not over until it’s over. I
am not celebrating. There is nothing yet
to celebrate,” he said. “I am sorry
to pour water on your celebratory mood.”
Pondai Bamu, a Zimbabwean
academic at the Transitional Justice Institute at
the University of Ulster,
Belfast, gave a similar assessment prior to the
elections.
“The
problem with commentators on Zimbabwean politics is that we have tended
to
think with our emotions and so we speak with little objectivity,” he
predicted. “After March 29, a lot of us will be very disappointed because
what we hoped would happen will not have happened. Frankly speaking, Morgan
Tsvangirai will not be able to command the majority to become
president.”
The ZANU-PF politburo member told IWPR that his party was
ready for a
presidential run-off and still believed Mugabe could
win.
He said people should not underestimate the ruling party’s ability
to patch
up internal differences and unite in the face of its greatest ever
challenge. What was at stake here, he said, was political survival, not just
for the president but for ZANU-PF itself, which did not want to go down like
other liberation movements that lost elections.
“We believe that we
can cover the gap,” said the politburo member.
“President Mugabe is not yet
down and out until Tsvangirai beats him with
the required 50 per cent-plus.
He will never give up even if it means a
third or fourth
round.”
Nonthando Bhebhe is the pseudonym of a reporter in
Zimbabwe
Zanu PF politburo meets
on keeping election results a secret
Comment from The Cape Times (SA), 8 April
John Scott
The Zanu
PF politburo gathered in sombre mood. "I thought the elections were
free and
fair," said one member. "SADC promised us they would be declared
free and
fair even before they took place." "They would have been free and
fair if we
had won them," said another. "But there was a terrible mistake
and the MDC
won them, so they weren't free and fair after all." "Can't we
count the
votes again?" suggested a third. "You know, two for us and one for
them,
like we used to." "We've already done that, and they still win," said
the
first. "We can't go on counting the votes over and over again." "What
was
the result exactly?" asked a general. "Shhh," said a police chief,
"you'll
send him into a rage again. You've seen how he can't bear to hear
it. "The
main thing is we have declared it to be classified information, and
anyone
found guilty of releasing it will be tried for treason. If those
figures get
into the wrong hands, life in Zimbabwe could change for all of
us." Everyone
shuddered at the thought. "But when will we release the
figures?" persisted
the general. "We can't keep them secret for ever."
"We'll keep them secret
until we have another election, with better
figures," said the police chief.
"I know what," said an administration
secretary, "we'll just invert the
figures. We'll give 72% to the president
instead of the 27% he really got
... "
There was a roar of anger from the head of the table, and the
secretary had
to dodge a flying water bottle. "Sorry, boss, I meant the 27%
that those
crooks in the electoral commission said you got. And we'll give
35% to
Tsvangirai instead of the 53% we all know he didn't get." "Will Mbeki
fall
for that?" asked the general. "He'll fall for anything," said the
police
chief. "Aziz Pahad can explain to him it was all a misrepresentation
by the
media." "I don't know why we bother to have elections," said a senior
politburo member. "Unless you have pre-arranged to win them, what's the
point?" One man who had kept very quiet finally spoke up. "The fact is, the
people have expressed their will in this election," he said. "The people's
will se ma se ...," retorted the senior politburo member rudely, only he
said it in Shona. "The main thing is to protect our land from the whites,"
said the administration secretary. "But we've chased nearly all the whites
off it," said the quiet man. "And kyk hoe lyk ons nou." Only he said this in
Shona, too. "But they'll come back under Tsvangirai," argued the police
chief. "If they do, maybe we'll get some food production going again," said
the quiet man. There was a bellow of fury from the head of the table, and
guards quickly dragged the quiet man out of the room. When they shut the
door, you could hardly hear his screams of pain. "With luck," said the
police chief, "we can get him to confess he rigged the whole election."
Cricket - India Cancel Zim Tour
Cricket365
April 08
2008
India have cancelled their tour of Zimbabwe, scheduled to take
place at the
end of May, because the dates clash with the launch of the
Indian Premier
League.
The week-long tour, which was to have
comprised three one-day
internationals, was part of the International
Cricket Council's Future Tours
programme.
But the Board of
Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has said it has told
Zimbabwean
authorities that the national team was "very busy" and would be
unable to
tour.
"We will not be going to Zimbabwe because the team is very
busy, but will
try and fix the tour after the IPL," BCCI secretary Niranjan
Shah said.
The IPL's Twenty20 competition will be played between
April 18th and June
1st between eight city-based franchises featuring
leading players from
around the world.
India already have having
a packed international schedule until February
2009, leaving it unlikely
that the tour of Zimbabwe will take place this
year.
Following
their current series against South Africa, against whom they play
their
third and final Test from Friday, India are scheduled to tour
Bangladesh for
a tri-series also involving Pakistan from June 8th - 15th.
They then
proceed to Pakistan for the Asia Cup from June 24th to July 6th,
followed by
a tour of Sri Lanka between July 18th and August 29th.
The Champions
Trophy will then be played in Pakistan from September 11th -
28th, after
which India host Australia and England for Test series until the
end of the
year.
India are also scheduled to tour Pakistan in January and
February next year.