Mandebvhu Talks “Zimbabwe”…

Zimbabwe’s opposition on Tuesday hand-delivered a letter to the country’s electoral commission confirming that its leader Morgan Tsvangirai will not participate in this week’s presidential run-off, a party spokesman said. “They are now happy recipients of that letter from the MDC,” Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa told AFP. “In the letter we are stating clearly that we are not participating in this election.” He added: “We are saying a free and fair election is impossible in the prevailing circumstances.” The letter adds that if Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU PF party goes ahead with the vote set for Friday, “it has no endorsement of the MDC and indeed the majority of the people of Zimbabwe.” According to Chamisa, “the election result of March 29 should stand until a free and fair election is held.”

Tsvangirai defeated President Robert Mugabe in the March 29 first round of the election, but with an official vote total just short of an outright majority. Mugabe’s ruling party also lost its parliamentary majority in the election for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980. Tsvangirai announced on Sunday he was withdrawing from the run-off poll since violence had made a fair election impossible. However, Zimbabwe’s ruling party and electoral officials have said they were pushing ahead with Friday’s run-off because Tsvangirai had not formally confirmed his withdrawal. The opposition claims more than 80 of its supporters have been killed in a campaign of intimidation ahead of the vote, and Tsvangirai has been holed up in the Dutch embassy in Harare for nearly two days, saying he will remain there until he feels safe. International calls have intensified for the government to postpone the run-off election.

(Source)

ShareThis

It has been done with great brutality, but Robert Mugabe has achieved an extraordinary turnaround here.

Back in March, when the first round of voting took place, he was humiliated by being beaten into second place in the presidential race, and by losing the parliamentary election outright.

Now he’s the sole effective candidate in Friday’s presidential run-off, and he cannot fail to win with an overwhelming majority.

His opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, has been completely outmanoeuvred. The outside world, which mostly sympathises with him, can do nothing whatever to help him.

The suburban street outside the Dutch embassy where he’s taken refuge in Harare is empty, except for a few security policemen on the look-out.

Even his choice of embassy has been turned against him by his political enemies. It might well have been better for him politically if he had chosen an African rather than a European country to ask for help.

As it is, MDC supporters are gloomy and resentful. They are also cowed.

The streets of Harare are quiet because there is no longer any need for the groups of violent political activists in ZANU PF t-shirts who have been roaming them, looking for people to beat up.

There will be no demonstrations in favour of the man inside the Dutch embassy. He seems as cowed as his supporters.

There are plenty of people here who do not even know yet that Morgan Tsvangirai has dropped out of the political race.

That is not entirely surprising. The official media scarcely mentions Mr Tsvangirai or the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) unless they are obliged to.

The main English-language television news programme at 8pm each evening on the ZBC is an hour-long paean of praise to Mr Mugabe and his past record.

The programme’s reporting merges imperceptibly with the frequent election advertisements for Mr Mugabe. If anything, the reporters and newscasters praise him more than his own party hacks.

As for Mr Tsvangirai, he only gets a substantial mention on television when he is being attacked. One rather well-made advertisement lists him with Tony Blair, George W Bush and Gordon Brown as members of the “failures club”.

A long news report on Mr Mugabe’s political campaigning contrasts his successes and his likely future achievements with Mr Tsvangirai’s inexperience. The reporter, referring to Mr Tsvangirai’s past as a union leader, says dismissively that he has merely negotiated about getting more money.

Neither she nor anyone else in this hour-long programme mentions that on Monday the Zimbabwean dollar fell to 30 billion against the US dollar. The cost of a tub of margarine in a Harare store on Monday was Z$420m.

No-one knows how much worse the economic collapse will be after Mr Mugabe wins the vote on Friday. The economy seems to be in complete freefall now.

But as long as he can blame it on Western sanctions, even though they are few and mostly aimed at leading members of ZANU PF, he will remain unscathed.

Western powers will be openly angry about the eclipse of Morgan Tsvangirai and the sweeping victory of Robert Mugabe on Friday. Many African governments will be just as angry, but will be more discreet about it.

Some countries, China in particular, will continue to help Mr Mugabe quietly and give him what diplomatic protection they can.

It all adds up to a remarkable sweeping victory for a man who only three months ago seemed to be on the ropes.

The moral is clear: never underestimate Robert Mugabe’s ferocious determination to stay in power, nor the ability of his political opponents to destroy their own case.

(Source)

ShareThis

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has pulled out of a run-off election for the country’s presidency, saying that his supporters are facing violent intimidation by loyalists of incumbent Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF.

The MDC says that at least 80 of its supporters have been killed and 200,000 others forced from their homes by ZANU PF supporters - claims denied by Mugabe.

Haru Mutasa, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Zimbabwe, talked to Morgan Tsvangirai about his decision to boycott the June 27 vote and how he sees the future of his party and country.

Haru Mutasa: You have just announced that you are not going to take part in the run-off election for the Zimbabwean presidency. How do you think your supporters will react?

Morgan Tsvangirai: I think our supporters will support this decision, because our council is a representative of all the provinces at the grass roots level.

They are the ones we have to confront with this - on a daily basis they have to live with this violence [allegedly carried out by Mugabe’s supporters].

Therefore, when we took this decision, it was really an informed decision. I think it is in the best interests of our people.

What about those who say you are giving Mugabe an easy victory?

We are not giving victory to anyone.

In fact, if we were to proceed to an election it would satisfy Robert Mugabe because he would be able to claim legitimacy.

But if we withdraw because the conditions are so compelling, then he will have a hollow victory to claim.

For us, we won the election on March 29. What he is now doing, to declare war - we will not be a part of it.

What is next for the MDC – what is your strategy now?

Our basic strategy is to inform our people that this is the way we are going to go.

I think everyone agrees that these elections are not acceptable. We will be able to mobilize international opinion on that basis.

Have you ever considered a government of national unity with ZANU PF?

Everyone is suggesting there is almost an unclaimed momentum around a government of national unity. I don’t know about it.

No-one has discussed with me nor with the party about the possible proposals.

We have never said we are not keen to hold negotiations and we are not keen to accommodate ZANU PF, or to cohabit with ZANU PF. We never said that.

For the good of the country we need a transitional mechanism that is going to take the country to a more stable [situation]. But no-one is coming forward with specific proposals to say “look, this is the crisis we are facing”.

If we have to end [the crisis] in order to create the necessary stability, I think there is a need to co-exist and co-operate.

(Source)

ShareThis

Youth militia from Zimbabwe’s ruling party attacked people at the site of a campaign rally in Zimbabwe’s capital just days ahead of the presidential runoff election, according to an opposition official and a journalist on the scene.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had been scheduled to address the opposition MDC rally in Harare Sunday.

A judge in Zimbabwe’s High Court cleared the way Saturday for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally with an order that banned national police from interfering.

Police had banned the rally earlier in this week, citing security concerns.

A journalist on the scene said “rowdy youths dressed in ZANU-PF regalia have occupied the venue of the rally.”

The MDC issued a statement Sunday saying “thousands of armed ZANU-PF youth militia” disrupted their rally.

“Pedestrians passing through the area were being harassed and assaulted if they do not compile to the demands of the marauding ZANU-PF militia who are asking them to chant ZANU PF slogans,” the journalist, who is unidentified for safety reasons, said.

“This country belongs to ZANU PF,” a ZANU PF youth shouted as he punched the air with a fist. “It came through blood and we are prepared to spill more in order to defend it.”

MDC presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai was expected to speak at Sunday’s rally.

Tsvangirai will again face President Robert Mugabe in a presidential runoff set for Friday, after the March 29 election resulted in a standoff.

Though reports of violence are not uncommon in Zimbabwe, there has been an uptick in attacks since those elections.

There have been numerous reports from the opposition and church groups about kidnappings, torture and other violence, including the deaths of opposition party members. They say the violence targets opponents of Mugabe and his ZANU PF party.

Pre-runoff election violence has killed about 70 MDC supporters, according to the party, which says that more than 30,000 people have been displaced.

Tsvangirai and other MDC members have also been detained several times in the weeks leading up to the runoff election.

On Friday, Mugabe, speaking to a rally in Bulawayo, said the MDC was compiling names of alleged victims of political violence.

“They have been saying their supporters are being beaten up by our soldiers. They say this so that they can later say the elections were not free and fair. Which is a damn lie!,” he said, according to the state-run Herald newspaper.

(Source)

ShareThis

With just days to go before the second round of the presidential election in Zimbabwe, violence seems to be escalating.

Reports of intimidation against opposition supporters have included severe beatings, murders and sexual violence.

But ZANU PF, the ruling party of President Mugabe, denies these reports, blaming the violence instead on the opposition MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

In the first round in March, which was relatively peaceful, Morgan Tsvangirai gained about 120,000 more votes than Robert Mugabe but still not enough to avoid a run-off, according to official results.

BBC website readers in Zimbabwe tell of their recent experiences as the vote approaches. Their names have been changed to protect their identity:

As I write this message police officers are queuing to vote using postal votes. There is no way one can vote for Morgan Tsvangirai because seated on the voting table in Masvingo is the senior commissioner flanked by the assistant commissioners. They tell you ‘vote for our father Mugabe’ and show you where to put your X. Even police officers who were not registered voters were registered after the 29 March elections. I was surprised to see my name and many more others appearing and giving me a constituency. Observers should visit centres where postal ballots are cast because this is rigging at its best. Please let the world know about this forced postal voting.

Tendai, Masvingo

I am a student in my final year of university but I wonder if I will finish my degree. There are rumours of a war breaking out regardless of which party wins. My uncle, who resides in a small town called Chiredzi, fled the country and is now in exile in South Africa. My neighbour who was an independent candidate for the House of Assembly is also in exile. Many people in my parents’ social circles have also left for S Africa. But my dad is being stubborn and refuses to go into hiding. What kind of a country is this? There is such greed and such cruelty. I do not see our nation ever being truly independent as long as Mugabe or his party is in power. They are doing exactly what the regime of Ian Smith regime used to do. This kind of oppression is worse because it is brother against brother.

Kennedy, Chiredzi

I am very disturbed by the situation in my country. What we need is divine intervention because we tried our best by voting for the president we wanted, but now we are being killed, harassed and tortured for exercising our rights. The world should condemn Mr Mugabe and his government for taking the people of Zimbabwe for granted. Only God knows what will happen next.

Chris, Harare

Against the background facing us especially in Masvingo province’s Bikita district, it is inconceivable that the elections will be free and fair. Here a bloody reign of terror has been unleashed on us such that we have resorted to hiding in mountains and other areas for the sake of our security. There is maximum brutality here as ZANU PF militias step up their whacking of the MDC supporters with the direct help of a few deployed soldiers and local ZANU PF supporters.

Michael, Masvingo

This is a nightmare. If anyone were to call this environment conducive to free and fair elections, one must question their sanity. We had three people killed yesterday (one said to be the driver of the MDC MP elect) and now ZANU militia and soldiers have put up road blocks and if you don’t show your support for Mugabe by chanting slogans, you will be severely beaten. They have even gone as far as stopping staff buses and beating up workers on their way to their jobs. Mugabe surely is the devil and these demon friends and supporters of his are ruthless! Powerless as we are, I feel we are heading towards a massacre like the one in 1985-7 and it’s a big ask but the international community has to help us. We need help!

James, Kadoma

I live in an upmarket suburb of Harare and even here the ZANU PF youths have moved in en-masse. They have taken over a piece of wasteland where they drink the local moonshine and smoke ‘mbanje’ before patrolling the streets, carrying hammers, pangas and other assorted weapons, insisting that any person going about their daily business go with them. After they’ve gathered up enough people (to refuse results in a sound beating) they take them back to the wasteland and make them sing patriotic songs and chant ZANU PF slogans for hours. If you don’t do this with enough enthusiasm you are threatened and beaten. People are terrified.

Jane, Harare

The violence just needs to stop. ZANU PF and MDC thugs have taken over and are abducting and killing each other at will. This is not an election, it’s a murderous campaign of senseless killings which will achieve nothing. We are on the brink of absolute anarchy and we shudder to think whether we will be able to retrieve the country from where it is being taken to. God help us.

Farai, Harare

The whole thing has gone out of hand and without intervention we are sitting ducks waiting to be picked off one by one. The elections should not go ahead, they are an excuse for bloodshed. We have been summoned for a meeting in Seke, Unit M - we expect hell if we go but if we don’t go its worse. From a town dominated by MDC less than a month ago to not even one opposition supporter in sight, we must be a bunch of spineless Africans. I’m scared for my family!!!

Joseph, Chitungwiza

(Source)

ShareThis

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is considering pulling out of the June 27 presidential run-off election, a spokesman for his Movement for Democratic Change said on Friday.

“There is a huge avalanche of calls and pressure from supporters across the country, especially in the rural areas, not to accept to be participants in this charade,” MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters.

Chamisa did not say when the MDC would decide on participating in the run-off between Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the March 29 presidential election but failed to win an absolute majority, according to official results.

The opposition, human rights groups and Western nations accuse Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF of orchestrating a brutal campaign to intimidate the opposition and extend Mugabe’s 28-year rule in the country, its economy now in ruins.

At least 70 opposition activists have been killed by ZANU-PF militia and security forces and thousands of others have been beaten and harassed, the MDC says. Mugabe’s officials blame the opposition for the bloodshed.

Tsvangirai has been arrested five times in the past month and his lieutenant, Tendai Biti, is in police custody facing a treason charge that could carry a death sentence. A judge is due to decide on Friday whether to release Biti.

European Union leaders were set to issue a new threat of further sanctions on Zimbabwe on Friday over the election violence, a draft summit statement showed.

The EU text, obtained by Reuters before the final working session of the two-day summit, said a free and fair election was critical to the resolution of a political and economic crisis in the former British colony.

But it stopped short of backing U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s assertion on Thursday that actions by Mugabe’s government meant the run-off will not be free and fair.

EU leaders urged the Southern Africa Development Community and the African Union to deploy a significant number of election monitors and called for a swift and transparent vote count this time after lengthy delays in the first round.

“The European Council reiterates its readiness to take additional measures against those responsible for violence,” it said.

EU sanctions currently include an arms embargo, and visa bans and freezing of assets on more than a hundred officials including Mugabe.

(Source)

ShareThis

Zimbabwe’s public broadcaster ZBC has said it will no longer carry campaign adverts from the opposition party ahead of next week’s presidential election. The Movement for Democratic Change said it would appeal against the decision. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa defended the move saying international coverage favoured the MDC and never reported the ruling Zanu PF’s position. Earlier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the political violence in Zimbabwe. Adding his voice to growing international concern, he said the violence in Zimbabwe could undermine the outcome of the 27 June run-off vote. “Violence, intimidation and the arrest of opposition leaders are not conducive to credible elections,” he told the UN General Assembly in New York. The MDC says 66 of its supporters have been killed and 25,000 forced to flee their homes in a state-sponsored campaign of violence.

Correspondents say the ban on adverts will not make a great deal of difference, as news bulletins at the state-run ZBC have always favoured Mr Mugabe, only mentioning the opposition in negative terms. There are no privately controlled radio or TV stations in Zimbabwe and only a few weekly newspapers, which most people cannot afford. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to chair an informal UN Security Council meeting on Zimbabwe later on Thursday, in an attempt to maintain international political pressure. On Wednesday, South African President Thabo Mbeki spent his 66th birthday continuing his efforts to mediate between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. He held separate talks with both presidential candidates as pressure mounted on Mr Mugabe to curtail political violence ahead of the poll, but released no statement on the talks.

The MDC has criticised Mr Mbeki’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” for failing to hold Mr Mugabe to account. Official results show Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), gained the most votes in the first round of the presidential election in March but did not pass the 50% threshold for outright victory. A senior UN official, Haile Menkerios, earlier met President Mugabe to discuss the political stand-off and what the UN says is the increased suffering of an already vulnerable population. The UN is prepared to pay to fund election monitors to oversee the run-off vote. South Africa is opposed to the Security Council having too much involvement, the BBC’s Laura Trevelyan reports from the UN. Pretoria argues that it is not for the council to resolve disputed elections.

Earlier, an African poll observer warned that he would not endorse the vote if current levels of violence continued. Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan-African Parliamentary observers, told the BBC his team had received horrendous reports of attacks and that the political environment was not conducive to a free poll. But with the vote just days away, there is a growing sense of urgency with political violence beginning to spread from the countryside to the towns, says the BBC’s Peter Biles in Johannesburg. Mr Mugabe has been waging a fierce campaign to extend his 28-year rule since Mr Tsvangirai failed to win enough votes to score an outright victory in March’s disputed first round. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has called for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed in Zimbabwe to ensure a free and fair vote. “It is time for the leaders of Africa to say to President Mugabe that the people of Zimbabwe deserve a free and fair election,” he said.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has also criticised Mr Mugabe, asking why he bothers holding an election, if he says he will not respect the outcome, reports the Reuters news agency. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he has spoken to the leader of South Africa’s governing African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, about the possibility of deploying 1,000 election observers from the ANC. Western observers have been banned, as the government accuses them of being biased in favour of the opposition. The government has also said it wants to reduce the number of local election monitors, after 50,000 asked for accreditation.

(Source)

ShareThis

The dead body of the wife of MDC Councilor Emmanuel Chiroto, who was elected Harare Mayor on Sunday, is reported to have been found at a nearby farm on Tuesday. 27 year-old Abigail Chiroto had been abducted, along with her 4 year-old son, by a gang of armed ZANU PF thugs that came looking for her husband on Monday. Chiroto was not home so they petrol bombed his property before taking his family. The child was dumped at Marlborough police station later that day, and the husband is now in hiding.

Chiroto was the chief election agent for Trudy Stevenson, who was an MDC parliamentary candidate in 2005. Stevenson said the security guards at the house ran away when 2 twin cabs showed up without license plates. “This is the death squad, and they were armed,” she added. The outspoken MDC official said Chiroto’s wife was still blindfolded when her body was found. She had tried to grab her child and run but was too slow and got caught.

A report in The Telegraph newspaper on Tuesday quotes the Harare Mayor as saying: “I knew when I heard that a woman’s body had been found that it was her.”

Meanwhile, another murder was reported by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN). The group said they are outraged and saddened by the ‘brutal, calculated and cold blooded’ murder of Elliot Machipisa, a ZESN observer in Karuru, Hurungwe. Machipisa and his family were attacked in the morning on Tuesday. According to ZESN, the attack left his wife in critical condition and hospitalised at Karuru Clinic. There had been sustained threats of violence targeting all individuals living in the area who acted as observers for ZESN in the March 29th elections. A military style base was set up on the same day at Karuru Township and is being manned by ZANU PF militia, commanded by war veterans.

Despite the presence of observers and a United Nations envoy in Zimbabwe, the ruling party’s campaign of violence, abductions and intimidation has not ended. We are receiving reports from all around the country about ZANU PF youth militia who are abducting suspected MDC supporters and officials, and bringing them to designated bases where they are beaten severely before being released.

John Ngorima, a 74 year-old farm caretaker and manager in Chiredzi, was reportedly abducted on Tuesday afternoon by a group of about 9 people who drove away with him in a white Mitsubishi pickup. Witnesses alleged that the car was driven by Lieutenant Edson Ndhlovu. Ngorima was driven over 20 kilometres from his home and was severely beaten by the group, who accused him of voting for the MDC. But it turns out that Ngorima had been unable to vote on March 29 because his name had been removed from the voters’ role. He walked home in the dark with severe injuries. Police were informed but no arrests have been made.

We received a report from Bikita, East of Masvingo that on June 9th the youth militia attacked the councilor for ward 10, Wilson Mabhoko, and his legs and ears were cut off. Chiredzi farmer Gerry Whitehead said Mabhoko is being treated at Silveira Hospital. Once again, the police have done nothing about the incident.

Takalani Matibe, the MDC MP for Chegutu West, on Wednesday reported that dynamite was thrown into his house and he was threatened with death.

The strategy of abducting the relatives or close associates of intended targets is now being used by state agents in an attempt to forcibly obtain information about their whereabouts. The wives of at least 2 MDC MPs were burned to death in the last month and many family members have been abducted. More than 60 Zimbabweans have lost their lives in the post-election violence perpetrated by thugs under the direction of the Mugabe regime. It is believed that Mugabe wants to postpone the run-off poll against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, using the violence as the excuse.

(Source)

ShareThis

President Robert Mugabe’s onslaught against his opponents widened to include their families when the wife and child of the mayor of Harare were abducted. Armed men raided the house of Emmanuel Chiroto, a senior member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and recently elected mayor. They burned down the house with petrol bombs and kidnapped his wife, Abigail, 27, and their four-year-old son, Ashley. The boy was released a few hours later, but Mrs Chiroto is still missing. The incident bore all the hallmarks of a state-organised operation designed to break the MDC’s organisation by targeting its key figures. Five of the MDC’s local organisers have been murdered. But Mr Chiroto was not at home when the men arrived. The signs were that the operation was deliberately aimed at his family.

“They came in two un-marked pick-ups,” said Mr Chiroto, 43. “The maid escaped out the back and heard two bangs. I think it was petrol bombs. The house went up in flames and they took my wife and son. My wife was screaming.” Both Mrs Chiroto and Ashley had been staying away from the house, fearing that it would be attacked by Mr Mugabe’s ZANU PF party. They had returned to the home in the township of Hatcliffe shortly before the raid took place. “She had been at our house for an hour so they were watching it,” said Mr Chiroto. But kidnapping a child does not seem to have entered the gang’s plan. Ashley was dropped off by unknown people at a Harare police station a few hours later. Mr Chiroto said: “He told us ‘mummy was blindfolded and they took her to the bush, I don’t know whether she was alive or dead’.”

Harare is an MDC stronghold and the party won 45 of the 46 seats on the city council in the elections held in March. But Ignatius Chombo, the local government minister, refused to allow the councillors formally to take office. They are still banned from entering Harare’s city hall. Mr Chiroto was elected mayor of the city by his fellow MDC councillors during an informal meeting on Sunday. Many MDC officials have been abducted since early May. Most were later murdered. Many others are still unaccounted for. Mr Chiroto fears that his wife may have been killed. At least 60 political murders have been recorded since the presidential election’s first round in March. The wave of violence has driven about 50,000 people from their homes. Mr Mugabe faced rare criticism from a fellow African leader when Raila Odinga, the prime minister of Kenya, described Zimbabwe as “an eyesore on the African continent”. Mr Odinga also said that the presidential election run-off next week involving Mr Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangari, the MDC leader, had been “pre-rigged”.

(Source)

ShareThis

As in other places in Zimbabwe, the mood outside the AIDS hospice was swinging between anger, patience and dogged determination. It’s a cold Monday night and a dozen people wait quietly outside a small home in Belgravia, Harare. They have just been asked to leave; the doctors are not coming today and there will be no treatment or drugs this week. Perhaps not even next week. There are grumbles, but still the group waits. “The truth is we have had to stop until the elections. But who knows what will happen after the elections”, Conrad Makonese, who helps run the centre, told the Mail & Guardian. As President Robert Mugabe tightens the noose on the activities of his opponents, even sending field workers out to monitor people on anti-retroviral treatment would get Makonese jailed. A blanket ban on aid work has added to the despair caused by worsening pre-election violence and the sharpest ever price hikes.

The consequences of the ban are dire, says James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson in Zimbabwe: “UNICEF alone was reaching hundreds of thousands of children with health, nutrition and education - and they haven’t received any of that for the past four days and they won’t until the government reinstates all these NGOs.” Two weeks ahead of the polls, sentiment on the streets is a mix of dejection and determination. In the long bank queues tempers boil over easily and there is robust political debate, yet people wait patiently for hours, determined to withdraw salaries, which now come in hundreds of billions. The only clear signals are coming from ZANU PF; Mugabe’s party has made it plain it no longer feels it has anything to lose: “The comrades are at their most dangerous,” one ZANU PF official told the M&G.

The broad sentiment within ZANU PF is that its reputation has been soiled so badly in the months since the first round of the presidential election that it has no image left to defend. Reflecting this, the state-owned Herald daily published an opinion piece at the weekend urging an even tougher response to dissent, including from foreign diplomats, whatever the consequences. “We have hit the bottom, we should not fear to fall,” the article said, “what the heck.” ZANU PF is going for broke, shedding all its inhibitions and all the pretences to democracy it showed ahead of the March poll. Its most senior officials now go on television to openly declare war if Mugabe loses. “Voting for Tsvangirai is to vote for a return to war,” Hubert Nyanhongo, a deputy minister, told a rally in a Harare slum. “So to prevent a war that will kill you and me, let’s vote for President Mugabe.”

ZANU PF had hoped violence would numb the opposition. But although MDC leaders deny it publicly, opposition supporters are organising and retaliating. In Manicaland and Masvingo provinces, areas that once staunchly supported ZANU PF but which voted MDC in March, the opposition has been fighting back. While this has encouraged MDC supporters elsewhere, retaliatory attacks raise the spectre of a rapid escalation of violence. Few are safe. After diplomats from the United States and United Kingdom were involved in a high speed car chase and a tense standoff with police last week in Mashonaland Central, diplomats too have seen their immunity to the violence disappear. Mugabe has closed down all the space he had allowed the opposition in the run-up to the March elections. Police have banned MDC rallies, defying court orders declaring the bans illegal. “The run-up to March 29 had represented real progress. All of that has been more than reversed,” an African diplomat said.

In this campaign the MDC has been denied even a fraction of the airtime it had been allowed in the public media in the first campaign. The head of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), the public broadcaster, has been sacked and eight of his most senior journalists suspended. Their crime was to follow legal requirements - and SADC election guidelines - compelling public media to grant access to all parties. Regular programming on television has now been suspended, with the prime-time staple now a diet of lengthy talk-fests featuring pro-government commentators. But Morgan Tsvangirai still believes he can defeat Mugabe. “I’m encouraged by the people’s determination and their desire to ensure that we finish it, that we dismiss hunger, poverty, loss of dignity and suffering on June 27,” Tsvangirai said on Tuesday.

Observers, however, doubt Tsvangirai’s chances. Eldred Masunungure, a professor of politics at the University of Zimbabwe, said a free election is impossible. “The chances are very slim for an MDC victory.” And Simba Makoni, a former ZANU PF official who came third in the presidential election, said “in the current situation, there is no hope that a free and fair election can be undertaken”. He again urged talks between the two sides. But as tensions rise, calls for a negotiated settlement are being drowned out. Tsvangirai said he would not negotiate with Mugabe before the election, while ZANU PF insiders also say they would only negotiate “from a position of power” once they had ensured Mugabe’s re-election.

(Source)

ShareThis