HARARE - Zanu PF has tried very hard, but in vain, to convince a sceptical world that its campaign of harassment against officials in the the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai Tsvangirai’s top aide Elton Mangoma been formally charged with criminal abuse of office. Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo gave the impression that there was nothing at all bizarre about the governments latest attempt to persecute the MDC minister of Energy and Power Development.
But to many Zimbabweans, the depths to which Zanu PF has now sunk can longer be considered ordinary. Detaining a minister for two weeks, over a deal that his permanent secretary as the accounting officer conducted, ought to be absolutely the limit of their aberration.
“If someone commits a crime, why should he not be arrested? says Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo.
The MDC always talk about the rule of law. If the police establish that someone has committed a crime whats wrong if that person is arrested? We find it absurd that each time something happens against the MDC, they say its a violation of human rights but if it happens to Zanu PF, they say they must go to jail. Lets be balanced.
Tsvangirai says its suprising that the police’s long arm of the law is only kinetic when it comes only to MDC officials and becomes paralysed when cases are brough against Zanu PF. “In the past few weeks, Zimbabweans have been shocked that there have been various concessions granted to companies other than Mbada and Canadile in Marange diamond
fields,” Tsvangirai says. “These include Anjin, which has been mining for more than 18 months in partnership with the police and the army and has not remitted any cent to Treasury.
“It is obviously surprising how a State organ such as the ZNA could be involved in mining activities. It is also surprising how new concessions could have been granted without the scrutiny of Cabinet committees,” said the MDC president.
The police have been completely disniterested in pursing the minister of Mines and Mining Development over $313 million which has vanished from Marange diamond revenues.
“Indeed, Zanu PF corruption infests and infects every aspect of our economy and Government,” Tsvangirai said. “To take example amongst hundreds, in the past year, more than three official complaints of corruption have been made to the police against Minister Ignatius Chombo and yet the police have refused to investigate these allegations.
“The arrest of minister Mangoma is an attempt to cloud and obscure the massive corruption in Zimbabwe. It is an attempt to embarrass the peoples party of excellence. The people of Zimbabwe are not foolish.
The people of Zimbabwe are not cowards. The people of Zimbabwe will not accept this,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nyanga North MP Douglas Mwonzora and 23 other MDC members have been freed from remand prison after the High Court granted them US$50 bail each on alleged political violence charges.
But to then let them free after hours of interrogation and almost a month jail time smacks of psychological terror tactics.
And its not only Mwonzora. Hon. Shepherd Mushonga of Mazowe Central has also been granted bail after languishing in jail for almost a month on what the MDC says are “trumped up” charges. Hon. Mushonga has been granted a US$50 bail by a Bindura magistrate after he was hauled before the courts charged with digging quarry stones in Chiweshe from
a Zanu PF councillor. The councillor claimed that the stones were worth US$700. The MP is building a clinic in his constituency.
Another MDC MP, Costin Muguti of Gokwe Kabuyuni has been in police custody in Gokwe on allegations of committing violence in Kadoma. He is detained at Gokwe Centre Police Station. There are now three MPs from the MDC who are either in police custody or in remand prison.
In January, Munyaradzi Gwisai and 45 others were arrested for watching a video of the Arab revolution and six are languishing in solitary confinement at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison. Gwisai is the former MDC MP for Highfield and a professor of labour law at the University of Zimbabwe. To compound matters, there has been the unrelenting invocation of section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, which has meant that even where bail has been granted, people have remained in detention.
The world is expected to believe that, on the basis of a video film available to anyone with a TV set, the police will to build a
cast-iron case of treason against the six.
The key witness will be policeofficers who busted the meeting where an alleged plot to overthrow President Mugabe was mooted. This entire case has been built like a house of cards.
As comic opera, it would probably win some prizes, but as a serious attempt to punish six citizen who cold-bloodedly planned to overthrow the 87-year-old head of state, dogged by ill-health for years, it would be laughed out of any court, but not in Zimbabwe.
The Attorney General Johannes Tomana has such a fascinating past of dubious exploits he would fit in snugly into the essence of the comic opera.
Gwisai and his four coaccused would be the martyrs, activists persecuted for doing no more than their duty as loyal citizens – trying to give the people a chance to explore alternatives to Mugabe’s stale rule.
The more serious side of this whole caper is that it demonstrates Zanu PFs desperation.
One suspects that even the police detectives instructed to bring this case to its logical conclusion are a bit bemused: on such rickety evidence, how do they build a case respectable enough to take to thecourts? But then much more relevant is the role of the Zanu PF Attorney General Johannes Tomana in the plot.
By all accounts, Tomana had been working for Mugabe since the inception of the GNU. And for Mangoma, who has instituted wide sweeping reforms at NOCZIM and exposed theft of US$35million by regime cronies, he had to be dealt with. And the NOOA deal was the bonanza, a new client fell into Tomana’s lap.
The rest, for a man apparently schooled thoroughly in the cloak-and-dagger business of bluff and double bluff, was almost
routine. They set up Mangoma.
The State Press has bolstered the governments shaky case against Mangoma. It has virtually made itself part of the prosecution team, leaving no room whatsoever for any doubt as to Mangoma’s guilt. In fact, in many respects, State TV has reported as if it was the plaintiff.
As to how the case will eventually pan out, it would be wise to leave that to the courts. But legal exerts are already giving a word of warning to the government: they could tie themselves into so many knots in this wild attempt to prevent Tsvangirai from challenging Mugabe in the forthcoming poll. Already government is saddled with massive lawsuits for malicious prosecutions.
“This persecution could convince the fence-sitters which way to vote,” says political commentator Ronald Shumba.
Post published in: News