The so-called workshop, held inside the Brigade barracks in the eastern border town, was attended by chiefs, headmen and village heads from all the seven districts of the province. Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC-T spokesman for Manicaland, told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that the summoning of the traditional leaders was confirmation that ZANU PF, with the help of the security establishment, is readying itself for another electoral battle with the MDC-T party and the familiar tactics of persecuting the opposition is on the agenda.
Muchauraya said: They were summoned for a workshop to look at issues to do with sovereignty but it turned out to be straight forward indoctrination. The military ended up telling the traditional leaders not to allow the MDC to hold any meetings in their areas.
The leaders were also given instructions that MDC supporters should not have any access to farming from government. Fortunately we have many traditional leaders sympathetic to the MDC who made us aware of this, Muchauraya said, adding that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was briefed about the workshop during his visit to Mutare over the weekend.
It is believed Robert Mugabe has started mobilizing his party for next years anticipated elections. The top brass of the army, police and intelligence structures have been reactivated to push the ZANU PF agenda in the rural areas, where the party is said to have lost considerable support.
The rural areas used to be the bedrock of the former ruling party, but its modus operandi of using violence to coerce people to vote ZANU PF has backfired. Brigadier-General Nyikayaramba is one of the top military generals who helped Mugabe retain power after his devastating electoral defeat in the March 2008 poll. The one star General covertly took control of the presidential election machinery to ensure Mugabes victory in a sham one-man run-off poll, following the ZANU PF leaders electoral loss to Tsvangirai.
Prior to his posting to 3 Infantry, Nyikayaramba was commander of the 2 Brigade headquarters at Cranborne Barracks in Harare. During the 2005 legislative vote, he was the chief elections officer for the Electoral Supervisory Commission.
Following Mugabes defeat two years ago, Nyikayaramba was placed in charge of a national command centre in Harare, which became the headquarters of the electoral machinery. This gave the military control of the collation and publication of forged results from around the country, which eventually declared that Tsvangirai failed to get past the 51 percent to be declared the winner.
Post published in: News