HARARE Zimbabwe's ruling MDC T party has accused Zanu PF of waging a campaign of violence in an attempt to force an early election. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC says Zanu PF is intimidating voters ahead of presidential elections expected mid year. The Movement for Democratic Change says President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF is trying to force the people of Zimbabwe into submission. “The violence indicates that this is an orchestrated plan by Zanu PF to induce fear and intimidation,” said MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Morgan Tsvangirai believes he will that presidential election again and consign Mugabe to the dustbins of history. The MDC leader says he wants an election not war. Zanu PF on the other hand accuses the MDC of trying to make the country ungovernable, and political analysts say the danger of a state of emergency being declared appears to be growing day by day. Tsvangirai said that the violence carried out on behalf of Zanu-PF party suggested it knew it was facing defeat in the elections.
In the most serious incident since Zanu PF supporters began attacking MDC structures more than four weeks ago, an MDC activist has been shot, a MDC councillor’s house burnt, and five MDC youths hospitalised on Saturday after a savage attack by the socalled Chipangano militia, loyal to Mugabe. The Zanu PF militia says it wants the MDC shut down. A Zanu PF activist Jim was paraded on State TV showing wounds he sustained from an attack by alleged MDC youths, who have vowed to fight back and defend themselves.
The previous day, prominent MDC members in Mbare went into hiding while others found at the party’s destroyed MDC offices were savagely beaten with sticks and pickaxe handles. At the weekend, Zanu PF attacked Town House, a symbol of MDC power in the capital, Harare, in full view of the police with apparent impunity. In spite of clear evidence to the contrary, the police said Saturday’s violence was provoked by the MDC. Home Affairs minister Theresa Makone of the MDC T says police commissioner general Augustine Chihuri was refusing to take orders from her and to support the rule of law.
Last week Tsvangirai confronted Mugabe about the violence in a meetig said to be “heated”. President Mugabe’s party is reportedly paralysed with fear of a popular uprising in Zimbabwe, spontaneous revolts that have already sent Tunisias president packing and threatens Egypt’s strongman Hosni Mubarak. Zanu PF is accusing the MDC leader of using the Egypt
protests to whip up similar anti-government sentiment.
State media has cited an exclusive Fox News.com interview with Tsvangirai at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week in which he seemed to encourage his countrymen to follow suit. Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka has rejected claims that PM was planning an uprising as “hogwash.”
The Defence minister Emerson Mnangagwa has warned that the government was considering strict measures to deal with public demonstrations. Speaking at a dinner of retiring officers over the weekend held at a city hotel in Harare, Mnangagwa said the army was on full alert. He said MDCyouths stand warned against initiating Egypt style protests. “We in Zanu PF are determined to make sure that there is peace. Those who may want to emulate what has happened in Tunisia, what is happening in Egypt they will regret because we will not allow any chaos in this country,” Mnangagwa said.
To date, Mugabe has managed to retain power through sham elections and by neutralising and demoralising political opposition. But analysts say carefully staged demo – in which the disenfranchised masses are ready to face down bullets to demand an end to violence – can be a very formidable force. Political analysts have called the MDC response to the escalating Zanu PF violence so far weak and said the MDC needed to take control and not display this political
impotence while its supporters were being injured by the drugged Chipangano militia.
Political analyst and University of Zimbabwe political science professor, John Makumbe said: “”They need to show some political muscle by organizing well-controlled and managed street demonstrations and other effective responses to the actions of the Zanu PF hoodlums. Failure to do that in a timely fashion can easily be interpreted as cowardice.” In a rare joint statement inked by Zanu PF, MDC T and the MDC led by Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube, the three parties in the GNU called for an end to political violence, and the police to act.
“We agreed that what is happening in Harare is not good for our country and is completely against the spirit of the global political agreement signed by our leaders,” they said in reference to a pact on Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government.
“We believe it is within our power to stop the violence, which poses a threat to the lives of our people,” they said, adding that it only required political will and police help.
The talks and press statements have however failed to contain the rising tide of violence against the MDC in Harare ghettos, Mbare, Budiriro, Epworth and parts of Chitungwiza amid fresh reports the MDC was also launching revenge attacks. The Home Affairs ministers have been powerless to stop the violence and the MDC T youth assembly has
threatened to take matters into its own hands. MDC Youth Assembly chair Thamsanqa Mahangu said the youths will defend the party.
With anger building, Tsvangirai seems to have walked out of his Munhumutapa offices which he shares with the President on the other wing, for the second time in as many months. Unlike the first time where he “disengaged” and stopped talking to Mugabe, this time he will see his supporters cower in fear in the catastrophe that will emerge from the Zanu PF violence if it continues unchecked Tsvangirai’s patience is wearing thin. Tsvangirai said he is frustrated by the actions of what he calls “residual elements” in the regime.
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