By Levi Mhaka
Phone text messages and emails being circulated among many Zimbabweans are describing the political situation as follows: The two major soccer teams, Dynamos and CAPS United, are playing a cup match at the National Sports Stadium. By the end of the match, the score board is reading 4-0 in favour of CAPS at the end of the match. The match officials, commissioners, special guests and fans are satisfied with the peaceful environment that has prevailed during the match.
Supporters of the winning team are then told not to celebrate until the match results are announced on Sports News on both radio and TV. Before they are announced, the nation realises that the losing team is meeting the national football association (ZIFA) by itself. Later the losing team issues public statements that the football association should simply announce a draw and therefore there a need for a rematch.
We are then told that it is only ZIFA that should announce results and soon after that Dynamos tells us that the captain for CAPS team wants to be the Vice Captain of Dynamos.
(Bhora rotambwa kuNational Sports Stadium pakati pe Dembare neMakepekepe. Makepekepe wins 4-0 kobva kwanzi imbomirai kufara kusvika mawona Sports news pa ZTV neparadio. Zvonzi vakuru veDynamos vamboita meeting nevakuru veZifa kumaoffice avo. Kwozobuda pa ZTV zvichinzi yaita zero zero and there is supposed to be a rematch. Mozonzwa kuti referee nema linesmen acho vasungwa. Kuita here ikoko?Pave paya, zvavekunzi Captain weCAPS United ari kuchemera kuita Vice Captain weDembare. Manje so!!)
In the State-owned Herald newspaper front page story on Wednesday, April 9, 2008, ZANU PF has claimed that MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai has “begged” to become the Vice President of Zimbabwe “in a government of national unity after being told by his advisors that a possible run-off with President Mugabe was not in his best interests”.
One wonders how MDC can approach ZANU PF for possible talks for a coalition government when results have not been released at the behest of ZANU PF and when all the indications are that ZANU PF will lose in a peaceful and fair electoral re-run or runoff.
In a marginally won election, the winner must approach the losing party to form a coalition government. ZANU PF is not the winner and currently there is no winner without results having been made public!
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) lawyer, George Chikumbirike made a submission in the High Court on Wednesday, April 9, 2008, that releasing presidential results is "dangerous”. Why it is dangerous, he did not elaborate.
From the information slowly filtering into the public domain, the danger is that people will get to know the extent to which Robert Mugabe got far less than the combined votes of ZANU PF candidates for House of Assembly (HA) or Senate. A lot of people who voted for ZANU PF legislative (HA or Senate) and local authority candidates, did not necessarily vote for Robert Mugabe to become president. They voted for either Morgan Tsvangirai or Simba Makoni.
A constituency based results for the presidential election will clearly show this view. It is wrong to use the parliamentary results as a basis to make people expect a re-run or run-off.
This is the level of embarrassment that ZANU PF cannot stomach being made a public matter.
ZANU PF’s strategy is to render the release of results useless and meaningless by focusing on the very insignificant anomalies as a result of the arithmetic work of its thoroughly vetted ZEC election officials, most of whom are employees or informers of CIO. All these arrests are stage managed because if ZANU PF is the complainant, then it had access to the results on its own. Statements being made by ZANU PF prove beyond reasonable doubt that it had receipt of the actual results by itself by coercing ZEC.
If there were simple arithmetic errors, they would have been corrected by going back to the source document – the results form for each polling station. It becomes a logistical/administrative matter rather than to conclude that the behaviour by election officials was driven by a criminal intent.
The full accounting for ballot boxes and ballot papers was done at polling station level collectively by representatives of contesting parties, observers and election officials. Signatures were appended to the forms that clearly showed the serial numbers of the ballot papers used, spoiled and remained. Such polling station records were brought together to constitute the total for each ward; and likewise all the wards at one constituency centre.
All the current ZANU PF efforts are bereft of legal guidance because the pronouncements and actions forced on ZEC defy the procedural requirements in the constitution and electoral law.
As ZANU PF make wide claims about Tsvangirai, some people have been named as emissaries for Tsvangirai. Let us look at who the people are.
Elton Mangoma is the MDC's Deputy Treasurer General. He is said to have generally supported the party financially. A Chartered Accountant by profession, he is the owner of a beneficiary of cheap RBZ loan funds through his company, Mowpower, which is involved in manufacturing of lawn mowers.
Mangoma is the managing Director for Corporate Excellence and a former partner with Kudenga & Co, an accounting firm until end of 1999. he served in various capacities for Delta Corporation since 1987 until 1992. He rose from being a Financial Manager of Delta's subsidiary, Chibuku Breweries, to become Group Finance Director. Earlier, in the early 1980s, he worked with Ian Makone at Agricultural Finance Corporation - AFC (now Agribank) as a Financial Manager
Ian Makone is a member of the MDC's National Executive Committee. He is the National Director for Elections and Special Advisor to the MDC President. He is a former chairman of the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) now Agribank, and thus his connection with Mangoma goes back in time.
Joe Mutizwa is the chief executive officer of Delta Corporation. He is a founding director of Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group (ZABG), a banking institution created by the RBZ out of remains of some indigenous banks Gono caused to close. He is also a trustee of the obscure Simon Vengai Muzenda Scholarship Foundation. In June 2007, Mutizwa was one of beneficiaries of the RBZ funded farm mechanisation programme.
As written by a correspondent of the Zimbabwe Times in January 2008, Gono forged close links with Delta Corporation's Joe Mutizwa, in a bid to wrest control of the industrial conglomerate from SABMiller. Mutizwa is alleged to have received funding from Gono to take up a horticultural project at Kintyre Estates, along Bulawayo road. The Ruwa-based Delta's subsidiary, Mega Pak Pvt Ltd, was one of the beneficiaries of the RBZ cheap funds named 'BACOSSI" by receiving US$1 million, which was the largest chunk of the foreign currency portion.
As it turns out, Gono had a meeting with Joe Mutizwa as a way of discussing the political dynamics as information filtered that ZANU PF was loosing the elections. Gono mooted an idea of sounding up to MDC for talks to protect their personal business interests and the political career of Gono as a ‘unifier” for the two political sides.
Mutizwa then contacted his former subordinate, Mangoma, for a social chat and made indications for a possible coalition talks between the two parties, without making explicit who was driving the initiative. Mangoma in turn contacted Makone, Tsvangirai's advisor. This personal contacts was then leaked to the foreign media on April 1, 2008 as if there are talks between ZANU PF and MDC. It is still not known if Makone played ball by talking to Tsvangirai but it is possible that Makone might have not known where it was coming from. He could have ben surprised when the foreign media went into frency about it.
What is background to all these manipulations and machinations?
The ZANU PF Electoral ‘A’ Team was created to become the ‘War Cabinet’ and deliver a win to the party. Reporting to only President Mugabe and unaccountable to the ZANU PF Politburo, the core group consisted of Elliot Manyika, the party's Secretary for Commissariat; Patrick Chinamasa, then Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs; Gideon Gono, the RBZ Governor and the main electoral funder; George Charamba, the Presidential Spokesman and Permanent Secretary for Information and Publicity, and the 'Editor-in-Chief' of government owned mass media. The party's information and publicity department was made redundant by this ultra-nationalist cabal, whose personalised agenda is being driven dressed as anti-colonial/anti-imperialist.
To give semblance of the security establishment factor, the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) Commander, Constantine Chiwenga was brought into the political game. Chiwenga wants to protect his own business interests and his wife, Jocelyn, who attacked Tsvangirai in August 2007, without having been unprovoked.
Chiwenga, like all the other senior military officials, have been some of the biggest beneficiaries of the RBZ funded farm mechanisation programme, while their spouses have received cheap funds for their small businesses. Chiwenga’s wife owns Zimsafe, a company in the business of manufacturing protective clothing and a recipient of lucrative ZDF contracts.
Anyone who would disagree with the approached and tactics of the 'A' Team was to be branded as against the electoral victory of President Robert Mugabe and actually was seen as a "Simba Makoni sympathiser". This is the same basis now being used to deal with Henry Muradzikwa, the ZBC Chief Executive Officer, who was implementing the electoral law requirements. A media survey released during the campaign period in actual fact exposed the extent to which ZBC was biased against the opposition. How Muradzikwa is now said to have been biased against ZANU PF is laughable.
The Electoral ‘A” Team created the campaign message and used RBZ staffers and funds to make the necessary payments for both ZEC and the ZANU PF costs.
This team manipulated and held Mugabe hostage and caused the release of concocted electoral survey by a CIO-aligned political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, Dr. Joseph Kurebwa, who “predicted” that Mugabe was to win marginally.
From ignoring the economic realities on the ground, the ZANU PF electoral campaign team resoundingly delivered a loss to Mugabe because one cannot deliver an anti-colonial message to a population desperately seeking for a basic survival according to the Maslow hierarchy of needs. If there is a re-run or run-off, ZANU PF will still lose. Since it has recalled its violent machinery, the MDC should not participate.
The latest ZANU PF gimmick is to create a fake a document detailing alleged transitional arrangements from the office of the MDC Secretary General, Tendai Biti. The RBZ being taken over by Germans and the other lies being peddled by the Herald were produced by the CIO’s counter-intelligence department based in Harare suburb of Highlands and uploaded on the CIO online “research” organization called Global Analysis (http://www.glob.co.zw/) run from Mt. Pleasant in Harare. There is no meaningful research work on the site apart from articles uplifted from the Herald (especially the ones written by Caesar Zvayi and Mabasa Sasa), Sunday Mail and New African magazine and other foreign sites.
Desperately trying to survive from an electoral defeat, ZANU PF is getting dirtier and murkier. The Chinamasa-led self-created committee as become the de facto Cabinet and will continue to mislead Mugabe, the nation, region and the world. They will continue to be in denial and talk about everything JUST to illegally stay longer in power.
We are dealing with a very belligerant person of Robert Mugabe. The High Court judgement on April 14, 2008 will likely order the release of results. ZEC will likely claim that they were ready early in the week to release but were being held due to the court process instituted by MDC and will then release them. They are likely to be the doctored version because the arithmetic has been completed without the presence of contesting parties since the dismantling of the command centre mid-week.
As MDC contests the doctored results, ZANU PF will focus on the runoff which the MDC will ill advisely boycott.
Meanwhile the violent and rigging machinery has been sharpened and oiled....
Friday, April 11, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The Herald Lying at the Behest of Gono
By Levi Mhaka
On Monday 7 April 2008, the State-owned Herald newspaper had a front page story entitled "Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Plans to Give Control of RBZ to Germans". It made me laugh and felt pity for the editorial team at the newspaper.
In the story, the newspaper alleged that the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, "intends to give control of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to German agents for up to one year in the event that he becomes State President."
The newspaper also claimed that Tsvangirai "also plans to change commanders of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Zimbabwe National Army, Air Force of Zimbabwe, Commissioner-General of Police, Director-General of the Central Intelligence Organisation, the Chief Justice and Permanent Secretary for Finance, among other high-ranking officials."
As a sign of desperation of the incumbent RBZ Governor, Gono, he has been funding the State-owned media using loan funds meant for the intervention on the supply side of basic commodities. He is literary running the public media together with George Charamba, the Presidential Spokesman and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Publicity, as reckless propaganda outfits. The Herald has failed to subject many of its political stories using journalistic standards of truthfulness, accuracy, balance and fairness.
The newspaper went on to allege that the MDC's "transitional plan includes a restructuring of the RBZ that will see at least two agents from Germany's central bank playing key roles at the institution. The delivery of the central bank to the Germans will be among Tsvangirai's first directives in the event that he becomes President. Under the scheme, Tsvangirai will first relieve present Governor Dr Gideon Gono of his duties, appoint one of his deputies as acting boss and rope in the Germans to "advise" him."
As we wait for the High Court to make a ruling on the release of presidential and local authority election results, readers must be careful that we shall be seeing a lot more of these rabid levels of lying by people trying to protect themselves from the looming political changes.
One wonders why those who said they cannot salute Morgan Tsvangirai should not retire or resign on assumption of duty by a new government. What about one who had been running the only factory in Zimbabwe runnnning for 24 hours printing money to sponsor a partisan electoral venture? Core business of a central business has been abandoned. Why would a sane government allow such a person with distorted understanding of the central bank's role in an economy remain in office? This is the same person who has reduced the central bank into becoming a department in the President's office.
There is so much panic that we shall be seeing through pre-emptive lies in the State-owned media as the collective effort of Mugabe, Charamba, Gono, Elliot Manyika and the losing member of parliament, Patrick Chinamasa, further sink the economy by their shortsightedness, to protect their jobs.
The lying was in a higher gear on Tuesday 8 April 2008, when the same newspaper alleged that Tsvangirai has failed to secure the support of the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC for an opposition bloc that will have simple majority in the house of asembly.
This allegation defies reason. Let us look at it from another angle. Between the two parties (ZANU PF and MDC-Tsvangirai), who can receive votes from the voters who voted for Mutambara-led MDC? Alternatively, who would the person who voted for Mutambara-led MDC choose between the two choices - ZANU PF and MDC-Tsvangirai? Majority of the votes for the two MDCs and Simba Makoni have been derived from "as long its not ZANU PF" because of the economic conditions.
If Mutambara had wanted to work with ZANU PF from the onset, he should not have supported Makoni's candidature against ZANU PF. If he has a parliamentary pact with ZANU PF, it would mean ZANU PF controls simple majority in the House of Assembly together with the 10 parliamentarians from his faction. That is not being progressive!
From a gut feeling, one can easily tell that the 'natural' alliance for the Mutambara faction will be Simba Makoni as yet unlaunched political party.
On Monday 7 April 2008, the State-owned Herald newspaper had a front page story entitled "Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Plans to Give Control of RBZ to Germans". It made me laugh and felt pity for the editorial team at the newspaper.
In the story, the newspaper alleged that the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, "intends to give control of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to German agents for up to one year in the event that he becomes State President."
The newspaper also claimed that Tsvangirai "also plans to change commanders of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Zimbabwe National Army, Air Force of Zimbabwe, Commissioner-General of Police, Director-General of the Central Intelligence Organisation, the Chief Justice and Permanent Secretary for Finance, among other high-ranking officials."
As a sign of desperation of the incumbent RBZ Governor, Gono, he has been funding the State-owned media using loan funds meant for the intervention on the supply side of basic commodities. He is literary running the public media together with George Charamba, the Presidential Spokesman and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Publicity, as reckless propaganda outfits. The Herald has failed to subject many of its political stories using journalistic standards of truthfulness, accuracy, balance and fairness.
The newspaper went on to allege that the MDC's "transitional plan includes a restructuring of the RBZ that will see at least two agents from Germany's central bank playing key roles at the institution. The delivery of the central bank to the Germans will be among Tsvangirai's first directives in the event that he becomes President. Under the scheme, Tsvangirai will first relieve present Governor Dr Gideon Gono of his duties, appoint one of his deputies as acting boss and rope in the Germans to "advise" him."
As we wait for the High Court to make a ruling on the release of presidential and local authority election results, readers must be careful that we shall be seeing a lot more of these rabid levels of lying by people trying to protect themselves from the looming political changes.
One wonders why those who said they cannot salute Morgan Tsvangirai should not retire or resign on assumption of duty by a new government. What about one who had been running the only factory in Zimbabwe runnnning for 24 hours printing money to sponsor a partisan electoral venture? Core business of a central business has been abandoned. Why would a sane government allow such a person with distorted understanding of the central bank's role in an economy remain in office? This is the same person who has reduced the central bank into becoming a department in the President's office.
There is so much panic that we shall be seeing through pre-emptive lies in the State-owned media as the collective effort of Mugabe, Charamba, Gono, Elliot Manyika and the losing member of parliament, Patrick Chinamasa, further sink the economy by their shortsightedness, to protect their jobs.
The lying was in a higher gear on Tuesday 8 April 2008, when the same newspaper alleged that Tsvangirai has failed to secure the support of the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC for an opposition bloc that will have simple majority in the house of asembly.
This allegation defies reason. Let us look at it from another angle. Between the two parties (ZANU PF and MDC-Tsvangirai), who can receive votes from the voters who voted for Mutambara-led MDC? Alternatively, who would the person who voted for Mutambara-led MDC choose between the two choices - ZANU PF and MDC-Tsvangirai? Majority of the votes for the two MDCs and Simba Makoni have been derived from "as long its not ZANU PF" because of the economic conditions.
If Mutambara had wanted to work with ZANU PF from the onset, he should not have supported Makoni's candidature against ZANU PF. If he has a parliamentary pact with ZANU PF, it would mean ZANU PF controls simple majority in the House of Assembly together with the 10 parliamentarians from his faction. That is not being progressive!
From a gut feeling, one can easily tell that the 'natural' alliance for the Mutambara faction will be Simba Makoni as yet unlaunched political party.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
A Constitutional Crisis has been Created in Zimbabwe
By Levi Mhaka
April 3, 2008
THE tenure of office of the President of Zimbabwe is stipulated by Section 29 of the Constitution which states that “the President shall continue in office until the person elected as President at the next election of President enters office.”
President Robert Mugabe has ensured that the results of the presidential election are not announced, to give him and colleagues in Zanu-PF time to work behind the scenes preparing for a re-run after the release of the presidential election results.
Vice Presidents are a type of minister, albeit a senior one. Their tenure, arising out of general and presidential elections, together with that of ministers and deputy ministers, is provided for under section 31E (1) (c) of the Constitution.
Firstly, it was unconstitutional for President Robert Mugabe to have dissolved the Cabinet on March 27, 2008 two days before election day because according to section 31E (1) of the Constitution, the tenure of “the office of a Vice-President, Minister or Deputy Minister shall become vacant:
(a) if the President removes him from office; or
(b) if he resigns his office by notice in writing addressed and delivered to
the President; or
(c) upon the assumption of office of a new President.”
None of these three instances above applied when Mugabe "fired" his vice presidents, ministers and deputy ministers by dissolving the Cabinet.
Secondly, in trying to fill in the ministerial vacuum, the public pronouncements by the former ministers and deputy ministers (like Bright Matonga) are illegal and mischievous. A former ambassador to China, Chris Mutsvangwa, who lost in the Norton constituency, has been pontificating as the government spokesman.
Thirdly, the country has had no Cabinet since March 27, 2008 until the presidential election results have been announced. If there is to be a re-run, there will not be a Cabinet for the next 21 days (at a minimum) during which the election will be held.
This means the president is currently running the country by himself and together with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Gideon Gono, the Presidential spokesman, George Charamba (aka Nathaniel Manheru and "Editor-in-Chief" of Zimbabwe Newspapers Ltd and ZTV News), some excitable bureaucrats and senior securocrats, plus a few loud-mouthed Zanu-PF functionaries.
In the absence of a Parliament to hold him accountable, Mugabe is busy working on his political survival and protection of his legacy. The executive institutional functions of the State of Zimbabwe as provided for by section 31H (1) of the Constitution have irretrievably been broken down since “the executive authority of Zimbabwe shall vest in the President and, subject to the provisions of this Constitution, may be exercised by him directly or through the Cabinet, a Vice-President, a Minister or a Deputy Minister.”
Related to this section 31 H (5) stipulates that “in the exercise of his functions the President shall act on the advice of the Cabinet, except in cases where he is required by this Constitution or any other law to act on the advice of any other person or authority…”
Meanwhile, information now available is that it was allegedly the RBZ Governor Gideon Gono who created an impression to international media that there are talks currently going on between Zanu-PF and MDC because he wanted to test the Zanu-PF establishment.
He is actually now shuffling between the two sides to create a ground for an amicable handover of power to the MDC, while protecting Robert Mugabe and calming the security establishment.
Gono is not being sincere because he has more to protect about himself, personal gains and his tenure. The MDC and Simba Makoni aptly exposed his level of economic sabotage and abuse of public resources by fully bankrolling the Mugabe regime in the just ended election.
Meanwhile, the Zanu-PF propaganda machinery is now busy creating an impression that the previous white landowners are back in the country and are visiting “their farms". Britain and the USA are not making it any better by their official pronouncements on the elections. The government of Britain even went further by deciding for the new Zimbabwean government to rejoin the British Commonwealth, as if that alone will solve our many economic problems.
We must not harden Mugabe's position when he is already out. If it can, the MDC must tell Britian, the EU and the USA to keep quiet for their own good and that of the people of Zimbabwe.
This is the time to be very calm and cautious about Robert Mugabe because he is like a suicidal bomber in our midst. Engage him carefully! The Zanu-PF propaganda machinery wants to continue with its election campaign message in which they cast the MDC as Western stooges.
Today's Herald had a story “exposing" the British hand, not that of the people of Zimbabwe, in the winning of the elections by the MDC.
We must be calm as we wait for the results because Mugabe can create and sponsor chaos to find a reason and an excuse to hold on to power.
Update: Following the publication of this article on the Zimbabwe Times news website, Caretaker President Robert Mugabe renewed the tenure of the Cabinet until the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) has done the needful. The government press statement has not indicated whether this has been gazetted as required by law. Welcome to the a country of absolute illegality and illegitimacy! (10/04/2008)
April 3, 2008
THE tenure of office of the President of Zimbabwe is stipulated by Section 29 of the Constitution which states that “the President shall continue in office until the person elected as President at the next election of President enters office.”
President Robert Mugabe has ensured that the results of the presidential election are not announced, to give him and colleagues in Zanu-PF time to work behind the scenes preparing for a re-run after the release of the presidential election results.
Vice Presidents are a type of minister, albeit a senior one. Their tenure, arising out of general and presidential elections, together with that of ministers and deputy ministers, is provided for under section 31E (1) (c) of the Constitution.
Firstly, it was unconstitutional for President Robert Mugabe to have dissolved the Cabinet on March 27, 2008 two days before election day because according to section 31E (1) of the Constitution, the tenure of “the office of a Vice-President, Minister or Deputy Minister shall become vacant:
(a) if the President removes him from office; or
(b) if he resigns his office by notice in writing addressed and delivered to
the President; or
(c) upon the assumption of office of a new President.”
None of these three instances above applied when Mugabe "fired" his vice presidents, ministers and deputy ministers by dissolving the Cabinet.
Secondly, in trying to fill in the ministerial vacuum, the public pronouncements by the former ministers and deputy ministers (like Bright Matonga) are illegal and mischievous. A former ambassador to China, Chris Mutsvangwa, who lost in the Norton constituency, has been pontificating as the government spokesman.
Thirdly, the country has had no Cabinet since March 27, 2008 until the presidential election results have been announced. If there is to be a re-run, there will not be a Cabinet for the next 21 days (at a minimum) during which the election will be held.
This means the president is currently running the country by himself and together with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Gideon Gono, the Presidential spokesman, George Charamba (aka Nathaniel Manheru and "Editor-in-Chief" of Zimbabwe Newspapers Ltd and ZTV News), some excitable bureaucrats and senior securocrats, plus a few loud-mouthed Zanu-PF functionaries.
In the absence of a Parliament to hold him accountable, Mugabe is busy working on his political survival and protection of his legacy. The executive institutional functions of the State of Zimbabwe as provided for by section 31H (1) of the Constitution have irretrievably been broken down since “the executive authority of Zimbabwe shall vest in the President and, subject to the provisions of this Constitution, may be exercised by him directly or through the Cabinet, a Vice-President, a Minister or a Deputy Minister.”
Related to this section 31 H (5) stipulates that “in the exercise of his functions the President shall act on the advice of the Cabinet, except in cases where he is required by this Constitution or any other law to act on the advice of any other person or authority…”
Meanwhile, information now available is that it was allegedly the RBZ Governor Gideon Gono who created an impression to international media that there are talks currently going on between Zanu-PF and MDC because he wanted to test the Zanu-PF establishment.
He is actually now shuffling between the two sides to create a ground for an amicable handover of power to the MDC, while protecting Robert Mugabe and calming the security establishment.
Gono is not being sincere because he has more to protect about himself, personal gains and his tenure. The MDC and Simba Makoni aptly exposed his level of economic sabotage and abuse of public resources by fully bankrolling the Mugabe regime in the just ended election.
Meanwhile, the Zanu-PF propaganda machinery is now busy creating an impression that the previous white landowners are back in the country and are visiting “their farms". Britain and the USA are not making it any better by their official pronouncements on the elections. The government of Britain even went further by deciding for the new Zimbabwean government to rejoin the British Commonwealth, as if that alone will solve our many economic problems.
We must not harden Mugabe's position when he is already out. If it can, the MDC must tell Britian, the EU and the USA to keep quiet for their own good and that of the people of Zimbabwe.
This is the time to be very calm and cautious about Robert Mugabe because he is like a suicidal bomber in our midst. Engage him carefully! The Zanu-PF propaganda machinery wants to continue with its election campaign message in which they cast the MDC as Western stooges.
Today's Herald had a story “exposing" the British hand, not that of the people of Zimbabwe, in the winning of the elections by the MDC.
We must be calm as we wait for the results because Mugabe can create and sponsor chaos to find a reason and an excuse to hold on to power.
Update: Following the publication of this article on the Zimbabwe Times news website, Caretaker President Robert Mugabe renewed the tenure of the Cabinet until the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) has done the needful. The government press statement has not indicated whether this has been gazetted as required by law. Welcome to the a country of absolute illegality and illegitimacy! (10/04/2008)
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