President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe greets Politburo members of the ZANU-PF ruling party on Friday, April 4, 2008.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
By Michael Padera
ZANU-PF has readied itself for battle in the presidential run-off with the party’s top leadership meeting in Harare yesterday to review the poll results and chart the way forward unanimously endorsing President Mugabe and a second electoral fight.
The massive show of unity and camaraderie in the meeting put paid to claims from certain quarters, particularly the Western media, that Zanu-PF had been thrown into disarray after losing the parliamentary majority to the opposition, and that some top leaders had since developed cold feet over the run-off.
Though the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is still to announce the official result of the presidential contest, Cde Mugabe is expected to battle it out with MDC faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai amid reports that neither candidate attained the absolute majority required under the Electoral Act.
ZEC will soon announce the official result and date for the run-off.
Briefing journalists at the end of the Politburo meeting, Zanu-PF secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa said the party leadership had unanimously endorsed contesting the run-off and was confident of a resounding victory.
"Because of the stalemate in the presidential election, we have resolved to go for a run-off. The decision for the run-off was in the affirmative by all members. Cde Mugabe, our dear old man, remains our candidate. We shall take him and carry him along with us," Cde Mutasa said.
He appealed to voters to maintain the political maturity and tolerance they showed during the just-ended four-tier poll.
Cde Mutasa’s comments were echoed by Vice President Joseph Msika, who urged supporters gathered at the ruling party’s headquarters not to lose heart, saying Zanu-PF would prevail.
Cde Mutasa scoffed at prophets of doom predicting a Zanu-PF defeat in the run-off, saying the party had just suffered a minor setback.
"If you are Zanu-PF, you should never expect embarrassment. Whoever said that does not know Zanu-PF. Apa tangogumburwa, hatina kuputsika (We stumbled, we did not fall)," he said.
In apparent reference to the incidence and prevalence of white former commercial farmers who have flocked back into Zimbabwe and are reportedly threatening newly resettled farmers with eviction in the event of Mr Tsvangirai’s victory, Cde Mutasa said Zimbabweans would endorse Zanu-PF to protect their birthright — the land.
He said the white former farmers threatening a reversal of the land reform programme would soon receive the shock of their lives.
"You do not go to another people’s country and demand their land. That is childish. If they do that, the law will take its course," he said.
Turning to the possibility of a government of national unity with the MDC-Tsvangirai faction, Cde Mutasa said if the opposition was interested, it should approach Zanu-PF.
"We have co-existed with the opposition since 1999. We have talked to them nicely. The just-ended elections were very peaceful. We want the same environment in the presidential run-off," he said.
White former farmers threaten blacks with eviction
Herald Reporters
AN increasing number of white former commercial farmers are reportedly threatening resettled black farmers throughout the country with eviction from their farms or face the wrath of an anticipated "incoming MDC government".
In Chiredzi, white former sugarcane farmers and conservancy operators have reportedly returned in their droves, threatening to repossess their plots in anticipation of an MDC victory.
This has raised fears and apprehension among a host of newly-resettled farmers who benefited under the Zanu-PF Government’s land reform programme.
Some of the sugarcane farmers who spoke to The Herald yesterday expressed concern over incidents of white former farmers in Mkwasine, Hippo Valley and Triangle who were threatening to return to plots they previously owned.
The newly-resettled farmers said the white former farmers were allegedly camped at Malilangwe Conservancy on the outskirts of Chiredzi town where they have been staying since the run-up to harmonised elections.
Zimbabwe Sugar Milling Industry Workers’ Union secretary-general Cde Admore Hwarare last night warned the white former farmers against any attempts to repossess land in Chiredzi, saying that such moves would be fiercely resisted.
"Let no one fool himself or herself that they can repossess land in Chiredzi because we are going to resist that. The land was allocated to us by the Government and we have got security forces who are prepared to defend the right to our land.
"Let it be known that there is nothing like that going to happen in the Lowveld as we are prepared to defend ourselves," said Cde Hwarare.
White former commercial farmers in the Lowveld have been resisting the land reform programme where they had maintained a stranglehold in the multi-billion-dollar sugar industry.
In Mashonaland East, the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC faction’s proposed Agriculture Minister and newly-elected House of Assembly representative for Marondera Central, Mr Ian Kay, reportedly told workers at his former Chipesa Farm that he would soon be repossessing the farm that was acquired by the State at the height of the Land Reform Programme.
While Mr Kay could not be reached for comment yesterday, workers at the farm said that he had told them that he would be demanding to be paid rent for the past seven years since his eviction from the property.
Yesterday morning, a rifle-wielding Mr Thomas Beattie is said to have gone to Cde Bright Matonga’s farm in Chegutu with a gang of five or six men and told workers that he would soon be "reclaiming his land".
Mr Beattie only left when farm workers organised themselves and made it clear that they would not tolerate his presence on the property.
Cde Matonga, a ruling Zanu-PF MP and Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity in the last Cabinet, confirmed the incident.
Reports of white former commercial farmers threatening new owners with eviction started emerging early this week following reports that the MDC was likely to win the harmonised elections.
Such cases have been reported at Paarl, Impofu and Bougainvillea farms in Mashonaland West as well as in Norton where the former farmers were seen taking pictures at various farms.
Speaking at a Press briefing yesterday, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association chairman Cde Jabulani Sibanda said: "We have received reports from villages and farms that there are white former farmers moving around the country threatening to invade the farms.
"This is a second invasion after the first one in 1890 (but) then the whites had some guns and we only had spears.
"If these elections result in an invasion of the country instead of a fight for parliamentary seats, then these people must know that there are other freedoms outside democracy," he said.
Cde Sibanda said Zimbabweans had a right to their land, minerals, natural resources and if need be their freedom to choose their leaders.
"Under these conditions, we do order those involved in sanctions, supporting and funding the invasion of our land to know that we
have the capacity, strength and, far and foremost, willingness and determination to defend our revolution and sovereignty," he said.
The war veterans’ leader said although Zimbabwe had had free, fair and credible elections, the process was done under the pressure of sanctions to reverse the gains of independence.
"The West has organised and imposed illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe and we want to tell people to ignore activities of Europe in supporting the opposition and employing sanctions to weaken the party, Government and revolution," he said.
"Our country was taken away in 1890, we fought a protracted struggle to recover it and the process is still on. We gained political independence in 1980, got our land after 2000, but we have not yet reclaimed our minerals and natural resources.
"The fight for freedom is still on until everything is recovered for our people."
Cde Sibanda said the war veterans are still solidly behind President Mugabe.
"This is a battle between revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries, Zimbabwean people represented by President Mugabe and foreign interests through the MDC and we will continue supporting him," he said. However, the MDC-Tsvangirai party said it had no intentions of reversing the gains of the liberation struggle by handing back farms to white former commercial farmers.
Reacting to the reports that some white ex-farmers had threatened to repossess farms in the event of a Morgan Tsvangirai victory, opposition spokesperson Mr Nelson Chamisa said they would not undermine the agrarian reform.
"Land is a national heritage and asset which belongs to all Zimbabweans. No people-centred government would seek to undermine the desire and need for land reform. As the MDC, we have underscored that there is no going back to the pre-2000 era," Mr Chamisa said.
Remain apolitical, AFZ members told
Herald Reporter
All serving members of the Air Force of Zimbabwe must remain apolitical and should remember that the primary role of the defence forces was to defend the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Air Vice Marshal Titus Abu Basutu said yesterday.
Addressing graduates of number 33 recruit course 1/2007 at Field Air Base in Chegutu yesterday, Air Vice Marshal Abu Basutu urged them to remain loyal to Zimbabwe.
"Remain loyal as you are aware that Zimbabwe was born out of a long and bitter struggle for independence. Let us therefore jealously guard the gains of our liberation struggle.
"May I remind you that you are the custodians of the defence and security of the nation, so I urge you to remain loyal and dedicated to duty," he said.
Air Vice Marshal Abu Basutu reiterated the need for the 208 graduates’ conduct to remain above reproach in all aspects, and portray the high standard of training they had gained.
"It is my opinion that this should be embedded in your minds at all times. Be reminded that whatever you do reflects on the Air Force of Zimbabwe, so do not tarnish the image of the force in any way.
"Do not be lured into undesirable activities because of the love for material gains," he said.
Among the 208 graduates were 52 women.
The course syllabus included foot and arm drills, weapon training, fieldcraft, range work, map reading, conventional warfare, low-intensity operations and military civic education subjects.
Manheru: Zanu-PF to the marrow!
Make no mistake about it I am Zanu-PF to the bone and marrow, ever will be until politics dzamera nyanga. And so it is this column which will not mind if the shorthand to its name is Zanu-PF. Few of us went to vote last Saturday, and that included yours truly.
For various reasons, many withheld their vote, which is why I fault fatuous claims by the international media that Zimbabweans turned out massively "to vote for change".
Simply put, they did not.
Aptly put, they stayed indoors to allow fighting minorities to decide the fate of this rich and sacred country.
Thank God those minorities from all the parties, Zanu-PF included, did not succeed in usurping the prerogative of the majority, which is why there is the current deadlock of a zero outright winner.
Lawyers tell us a run-off will decide the day. What they do not tell is that in practical terms, the run-off will bring back and reawaken the majority to play its rightful role in deciding which direction this country takes.
In their short-lived euphoria, the MDC (Tsvangirai) faction has had no time for this sobering truth, which is why they are in for a rude awakening.
Probing attack
The figures availed us by ZEC — and more are still to come — clearly suggest that the MDC’s momentary success hides a longitudinal decline, which will show abundantly in the run-off.
It did its best-est to mobilise its supporters, and got the result it could ever muster.
In urban areas, its supposed strongholds, it suffered a net decline relative to its past performances.
It managed a simple win, a slender margin, which is why its many seats could not translate to a majority by way of popular vote.
Where it made forays into rural areas, much owed to disgruntlement and apathy within Zanu-PF, than to a new found appeal likely to endure politically. But much worse, these forays masked and made up for its terminal decline in urban areas.
In any case, these forays did not make for hefty margins against Zanu-PF, a factor which will turn out decisive in the run-off. However you look at it, the margins are with Zanu-PF. So is growth, given that the vote which is dormant and available is in Zanu-PF strongholds. For Zanu-PF, the harmonised election has been something of a probing attack.
The placement and calibre of MDC guns are now fully located and known. I said Zanu-PF wields the prerogative of growth. For sure it does. This is the only party in the harmonised electoral game which allowed its vote to go to sleep, or to be recklessly playful in a very serious matter at a critical juncture.
There is much that Zanu-PF is implacably guilty of, including simply not waking up to its enormous responsibilities as the party of liberation, indeed as a vanguard party in Southern Africa’s politics of anti-imperialism.
Friends coming back from shopping trips in Mozambique tell me our neighbours are angry. They accuse us of selling the country. We nearly did, either by complacently going to sleep or by tolerating dissent within when the castle was under siege.
Judging by what I saw somewhere yesterday, the result has been a wake-up call and MDC faces a wounded tiger in the run-off. This is dynamic number one which will snuff out MDC’s illusory defeat, carting the British to their nadir.
Playing reckless with white vote
More importantly, the results of the harmonised elections have reissued the land question, and reissued it with venom and vengeance.
The MDC has been extremely reckless with its white money and vote. Buouyed by this illusory success, the MDC allowed white dogs out, fatefully loosening them into acquired farms in which the new farmers inhabit.
White former commercial farmers made stunning visits in Mashonaland West, Central, East and Masvingo. Directly, often cynically thanking the new farmers for being reckless caretakers for the period they have been away.
Their message was the same: "we are coming back and please start packing!" Not helped by a document leaked from the MDC, outlining its take-over plans which include making Ian Kay minister of lands, and inviting some Germans to take over control of the Central Bank.
The MDC has made a monumental blunder, in the process provoking a vicious dog it had better let sleeping. The war veterans are aroused and dire statements and resolutions have been made.
For them far more important than the vote is the land which now stands threatened by MDC’s returning white farmers who have massed around Espungabeira, Chirundu, on boat houses in Kariba and in various lodges across the country.
Some even flew in, using their small planes. The patina of nationalism which MDC had contrived using copious advertisements it was granted by a curious management at ZBC, stands all torn and sharded, with its pink-nosed policies obtruding bare, ugly and menacing.
Today, even the most phlegmatic member of Zanu-PF is actuated, agitated by the sheer awesomeness of what the current result could have done to the gains of the revolution and to the country.
This dynamic will be key in the run-off.
Awesome little pen, paper and box
I notice the Tsvangirai faction of the MDC is sobering up a bit, after a reckless glow it had developed from pampering by the West.
It is beginning to wake up to the fact of a run-off which will rivet national attention on the attributes of its leader against the incumbent.
It is beginning to wake up to the fact that Zimbabweans have been jolted into realising that the outcome of that contest between Zanu-PF and MDC does have a direct bearing of who will govern them, with whom and how.
Equally, it does have a direct bearing on the land question. All these are grave questions which until now seemed unrelated to what one does with that little pen on that slip of paper, in that small box.
A clear causality has now been established and a sense of responsibility weighs heavily on every voter, including those in Zanu-PF who have been snoring.
It will never be the same again. And especially for Zanu-PF, the present result has brought to the fore a very ugly prospect. Now every one in the Party knows that when the skies come down, even the little bird that flies so high still flies under the falling sky, and is thus inescapably doomed by the crumbling dome.
To the collapse of the Party are no nooks for hiding. Everyone is flattened. What is worse, rammed home is the clear message that if Zanu-PF plays shy with the succession issue which proved so divisive and detrimental, the British are always on hand to resolve it for them through Tsvangirai’s Presidency.
Such a prospect is a red cloth to a raging bull. And the British did not mitigate this rage by going oh la la before the elephant had fallen and was truly dead.
Short dalliances, no long mating please
This uninformed international media think Welshman Ncube and his 10 seats may very well be decisive in the run-off.
Plain wrong! In the first place, they write as if the position of Ncube’s MDC faction is not known. Intense courtship by Tsvangirai’s faction has taken place and concluded.
Tsvangirai has failed the test of handsomeness. Ncube’s MDC has chosen the path of noncommittal dalliance.
It has decided to go into Parliament as a minority party, leaving itself open to courtship by any party, but not for a lasting mating.
It prefers short squeezes based on one legislative exigency per time. That means everlasting bidding for its attention. . . or everlasting importance in spite of its being a minority party.
Quite a clever posture, if you ask me. But never important enough to decide who governs Zimbabwe after those 21 days. What does is whoever rouses the sleeping vote which materially is a Zanu-PF vote. The MDC knows this, and so does the British. Which is why there was a bit of desperation to stampede both Government and ZEC into announcing faulty results that would have rigged Tsvangirai into an outright win. Or triggering civil unrest to open the way for international mediation which would have handed power over to Tsvangirai.
The maturity of Zimbabweans did not help matters, which is why MDC is daunted by the prospects of a run-off and now seeks an arrangement that would obviate such a development.
With only two years to go in leadership (in terms of MDC constitution), once beaten Tsvangirai will never be able to make another bid for Presidency. With only two years to go, Tsvangirai feels he has come closest to the Presidency, which the run-off now places so far away.
He has made proposals which one cannot write about, but which his propaganda people would want ascribed to Zanu-PF. History will reveal this offer some day and this column is not that history, this Saturday that day.
That takes the burden off me. But one thing is clear. The emerging dispensation clearly allows for no new law-making, except by consensus.
Which means the current laws will reign, and these are Zanu-PF laws. Zanu-PF now needs to defend Presidency so it forms the next Government.
Both Zanu-PF losers at party primaries and at the national level now stand as equal losers whose prospects in politics are raised by the ruling party’s ability to defend its presidency. This is clear to all.
When Makoni collapsed
So this all that Simba Makoni is worth? Goodness me!
He is a shocked and unhappy man. And we almost came close to a tragedy.
His system just could not take the bad result and the man slumped into an elevator, unconscious.
He had to be helped out and home. Today he has nothing to take to Morgan Tsvangirai, except his desperate need.
He wields zero leverage and has withdrawn into his shell. Much worse, Welshman Ncube blames him for the hefty vote swing in Bulawayo, away from his party to Tsvangirai’s MDC.
In consequence, Welshman Ncube has told Simba never to lay claim on the 10 seats won in Matabeleland, which means Simba no longer has the 190 000 plus voters ZEC theoretically records against his name.
And if Tsvangirai is kind enough to admit him, even the remnant renegade vote he had attracted from Zanu-PF will desert him the same way voters in Bulawayo deserted Welshman at the mere mention of the name Simba Makoni.
And Ibbotson Joseph? Oh my God! Buried and soundly sleeping under a fresh mount of red earth.
Killed both as a political mulatto and as a social scientist who carved hare-brained scenarios for the consumption of the British media.
No one pays regard to him, and he sleeps ignored. But hey, grant the man good calculation. He now rests a defeated, stout man, with very good prospects of wielding estate beyond our borders, somewhere in the scenic Cape Town. Nhaka yemapenzi inodyiwa nevakangwara. Icho!
nathaniel.manheru@zimpapers.co.zw
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