Military wants Mugabe until 2020

Director of air force intelligence, Wing Commander Bramwell Katsvairo told villagers during a Zanu (PF) rally in Mutoko last week that they should tell constitutional reform outreach teams that the presidential tenure should be limited to a maximum of two five-year terms and that Mugabe should be eligible to stand because this will be under a new constitution. Top of your contributions, you must suggest that the presidential term of office should be two terms of five years each. The maximum ten-year term must start with President Robert Mugabe from the next elections, Katsvairo told the villagers during the conscientisation rally held at Corner Store.

The airforce officer, who was in the company of several other members of the security forces, noted that Mugabes previous terms in office should be disregarded since this would be a new supreme law. He must rule until 2020, said the airman. He ordered villagers to emphasize in their constitutional reform contributions that age should not be a factor when setting criteria for a presidential candidate. Mugabe, who turns 86 next month, has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist since the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain in 1980.

Critics have described the veteran leaders 30-year reign on the country as worse than the legislated discrimination practised by the former white Rhodesian government that his Zanu (PF) and the former PF ZAPU waged a bitter decade-long battle to dislodge.

To avoid prosecution for human rights abuses, Mugabe and his party are campaigning for the adoption of the constitution drafted by negotiators from Zanu (PF) and the two MDC formations on Lake Kariba in September 2007. According to the Kariba draft, the president would be limited to two five-year terms but the proposed supreme law is silent on the tenure

already served by Mugabe. The tenure of the incumbent as president prior to the proposed new constitution would not be counted if the Kariba draft sails through. Constitutional experts say the Kariba draft is a mere extension of the current constitution and would further entrench Mugabes stranglehold on Zimbabwe. They also say the increasingly isolated Zimbabwean leader is unlikely to call for fresh elections in 2011 as agreed in a power-sharing agreement with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai but will run the full five-year term to 2013, after which he will stand for re-election for an additional two terms.

Under the September 2008 global political agreement between Zanu (PF), Tsvangirais MDC-T and a breakaway MDC faction led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, Zimbabwe is supposed to hold new elections in early 2011 after the passing of the new constitution. Analysts say Mugabe is aware that his political survival is at risk once he agrees to a new democratic constitution that would drastically clip his powers. As in the past three polls, the Zimbabwean leader has turned to the countrys military to ensure that any new constitution does not take away the system of privileges enjoyed by his coterie of Zanu (PF) sharks. The army has during the past few months stepped up campaigns in rural areas to have the Kariba draft passed as Zimbabwes new constitution. During the Mutoko rally, hapless villagers were told in no uncertain terms mistakes would not be tolerated in the constitution making process.

The utterances by Katsvairo and his army colleagues should not be ignored given the way they have influenced events in the past. The army was behind Mugabes blood reelection campaign during the June 2008 presidential runoff poll in which some 200-plus people died. Katsvairo is notorious in Mutoko where he led the areas terror campaign team in 2008.

Last year he terrorized MDC-T supporters who wanted to recover their property stolen by Zanu (PF) thugs. He arrested and ordered the police to imprison more than 150 innocent

peasants without trial.