t Thokozani Khupe said this at a press conference in
Accra on the ongoing AU Summit.
Khupe urged this will enable observers to take note of the situation on
the ground in Zimbabwe to inform their remarks after an election.
She said, most of the time, election observers do not get the true
reflection of what characterizes an election in Zimbabwe because they
only observe the day of election and base their comments on it.
“In Zimbabwe the electoral platform is not even. We demand to go to an
election in 2008 monitored by SADC with the help of the African Union.
The only way the existing environment of fear in Zimbabwe can be removed is
if our African brothers are on the ground in Zimbabwe four months in
advance of the election in order to guarantee their African counterparts that they
have nothing to fear and that they can freely exercise their democratic
right to vote”, Khupe said.
”Election days in Zimbabwe are usually peaceful or seen as fair but,
the processes that lead to the election cannot be described as such”, she
added.
Ms Khupe, who is also the Member of Parliament for Makokoba
constituency appealed to Africans to break the silence on “Mugabe’s abuse of the
Zimbabwean people”.
She called for African leaders to take problems in Zimbabwe seriously
and intervene in bringing a solution in the country, because “the reality
is that our people are suffering:, she said.
Khupe however lambasted President Mugabe and the ruling party Zanu-PF
for blaming western countries unsteady of solving the current crisis in the
country.
“The problem in Zimbabwe is not about Tony Blair and George Bush, the
problem is not about the West, the problem is about a dictator who will
do everything necessary to cling to power”, she said.
She accused President Mugabe’s land reform program saying it was only
meant to benefit Zanu-PF officials and ministers not the ordinary
Zimbabweans.
“The land reform was chaotic process where land was taken from
the white minority and given to a black minority in the form of ZANU PF
ministers and parliamentarians, the mass did not receive anything”, she
alleged.
Opposition MDC together with other civic movements in Zimbabwe wants a
new constitution to replace the existing, which progressive movements say
is not democratic enough to encourage free and fair election.
Post published in: News