No doubt it is all part of Mugabe’s grand plan to delay the whole process. The very specific requirements of the GPA forced him to concede on the election issue and there will now be a referendum on the constitution followed by a general election, which, says Mugabe “cannot go beyond March next year.” His failure to consult with his Prime Minister over that issue clearly demonstrates Mugabe’s unwillingness to share power, despite the GNU. His supporters, including the partisan police force, are thereby encouraged to continue their attacks on the MDC.
At the very same time that Mugabe was opening Parliament this week, the police stood by and watched while Zanu PF thugs in the middle of Harare were openly beating suspected MDC supporters. Truck loads of Zanu people arrived in Harare just before the opening of parliament where Mugabe in his speech once again called for peace. The reality on the ground is that the violence continues and no matter how much it is condemned by civil society or the US Ambassador, Mugabe’s fanatical followers maintain the violence, so desperate are they to keep him in power.
He will need another nomination at this year’s party conference to enable him to stand in the 2012 elections. And not all Zanu PF people are happy about that in view of Mugabe’s advanced age and the prostate cancer from which he suffers – or so claims another damaging Wikileak. While the government can hardly deny the old man’s age, they have denied that he has prostate cancer.
It is another cancer, the cancer of violence, sweeping the country that is so worrying. The violence against the Anglican clergy has caught the attention of the media in Britain and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s visit to Zimbabwe next month was the headline story in The Times on Thursday. What the Archbishop thinks he can achieve by meeting Mugabe is not clear. Mugabe is unlikely to stop the renegade ‘Bishop’, one of his more rabid supporters.
When Kunonga threatens to remove the nuns at an orphanage and replace them with his own ‘sisters’ it is no wonder the terrified nuns lock themselves in their rooms at night. How much more terrifying it must be for township residents where Zanu PF youths are on the rampage! In Highfields 20 people were seriously injured this week and. SW Radio reports that there have been attacks by Zanu thugs in different townships every day of the last ten. Once again the police have failed to take action; they say they “are investigating” but we all know nothing will happen to the perpetrators.
One of the gang leaders openly boasted that nothing would happen to him and when a victim of gang violence reported his case at the police station he was himself arrested.
As for the white farmers who are being harassed and intimidated by violent war veterans taking over their farms and property, they have nowhere to turn. This week the farmers appealed to the state for protection; no prizes for guessing the outcome of that appeal. The colour of their skin has apparently blinded even the MDC to the violence and racism that is being inflicted on these white farmers.
The MDC’s cowardly silence on this issue and on so many other matters of principle is shameful. We should be hearing their voices loud and strong in protest; their failure to condemn injustice increases my pessimism about Zimbabwe’s future. Zimbabwe needs a strong and principled opposition, without it Mugabe and Zanu PF will continue to rule through violence and fear.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle, PH. aka Pauline Henson author of the Dube books, detective stories with a political slant set in Zimbabwe and available from Lulu.com
Post published in: Top Bloggers