The best of it all is that President Robert Mugabe was part of the same cabinet meeting and now he knows that he appointed the wrong person to office.
If he has had any doubts regarding the police force’s partisan behaviour, President Mugabe must now be fully aware of that most of the reports he has heard and denied in the past about partisan arrests by the police are indeed true. Not only does he now know that these reports have always been true, he now knows the person behind the violence by police: Chihuri and his colleagues in Zanu (PF), including Vice-President Joyce Mujuru and Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi. These are the people who have been misleading President Mugabe into believing that there is no need for international observers, because they know very well that police behaviour during the election will be found deplorable.
Mugabe’s best plan is to fire Augustine Chihuri. However, knowing him as we do, he is unlikely to do so, but SADC, the African Union and all those who Mugabe and Zanu (PF) had preferred to be more involved in the elections respond accordingly.
The President must now re-think his recent statements after the death of Christpower, which were obviously based on reports from police investigations from within his own party. Now that he knows that every policeman in Zimbabwe has been made to behave in a way that guarantees a Mugabe victory, he certainly must revisit his statements.
Mugabe and Zanu (PF) must know that what goes round comes round. His calls for peace have been heard, but he now must walk the talk.
President Mugabe must spend his last few active years molding his sons, especially Chatunga, who he has admitted is wayward. – Benjamin Chitate, New Zealand
Post published in: Letters to the Editor