Soldiers terrorise Gokwe

Posted by on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 in military, Zimbabwe politics | 9 comments

Soldiers are forcing citizens in Gokwe to attend Zanu PF rallies

By Tererai Karimakwenda
30 October 2012

Villagers in Gokwe, Mashonaland West, have reported that uniformed soldiers are forcing them to attend political rallies, where they are being warned that more soldiers with guns will be deployed to punish them if they do not support ZANU PF policies on the constitution and in elections due next year.

The report comes just a day after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka, told reporters that Robert Mugabe met with Tsvangirai on Monday and agreed to call a meeting with the country’s army generals, to discuss the issue of political violence and elections.

According to Tamborinyoka, Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed that peaceful elections can only be held if soldiers were confined to their barracks during the poll. The meeting with army generals is scheduled for early next month.

These meetings with what is called the National Security Council (NSC) are supposed to be held every month, for Mugabe and Tsvangirai to discuss key security issues. But Mugabe has not called an NSC meeting with Tsvangirai for almost 5 months.

Mugabe is commander in chief of the military services and can order the soldiers to stay in their barracks if he wants to, especially during the elections. But given ZANU PF’s history of using the army to intimidate and assault people, there is concern that he is just paying lip service to Tsvangirai and will not restrain soldiers who attack any perceived “enemies of the state”.

Meanwhile an activist from Gokwe told SW Radio Africa that soldiers recently set up a camp at Moses Village in Mapfungautsi district. He said a soldier named Magwizi, who wears a military police uniform, appears to be in charge of the base. Another soldier named Mabhunu, is known to run a base at Nyarupakwe.

Our contact said the soldiers have been preaching ZANU PF propaganda at rallies that they are forcing people to attend. They have lists with the names of all local residents, which they get from traditional leaders like chiefs and headman. Those who fail to attend are penalized.

The next meeting will be held at a place called Rest Camp in Masore Area, which is under Headman Chingoma. It is not clear whether Chingoma is cooperating, or being forced by the soldiers.

Statements recently made by senior ZANU PF officials make it clear the party has no intention of allowing the MDC-T and party president Tsvangirai to take over, if they win the election next year.

In an interview earlier this month, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the BBC that Tsvangirai cannot be allowed to win the presidential poll. Chinamasa did not elaborate how this would be done. This was followed by ZANU PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo, telling South African television that there would be bloodshed if Tsvangirai won.

  • http://twitter.com/WMukori Wilbert Mukori

    Zanu PF is pushing hard to have the referendum and then the elections by March 2013 although Finance Minister Biti says the government does not have the US$104 m and US$115 m required for the referendum and elections respectively. And there has not been a queue of donors to once again bankroll the Zimbabwe.

    “Zimbabwe is not in the pockets of donors. The money for elections is there. We are going to have the elections once the President proclaims the dates,” said Zanu PF MP Jonathan Moyo. “It is not up to Minister Biti to decide on this matter. His tricks are not going to delay the elections anymore.”

    Mugabe and Zanu PF are as keen as mustard to have the referendum approve the COPAC draft and quickly hold fresh elections. Mugabe, Zanu PF and the country’s public media have gone to great lengths to create the impress that they do not like this COPAC draft constitution because it will seriously reduce Mugabe’s dictatorial powers. They know it does no such thing!

    Mugabe was involved in the writing of the COPAC draft constitution the nation will be asked to consider during the referendum. MP Mangwana and MP Goche, Zanu PF’s representatives on COPAC, were in and out of Mugabe’s office like yo-yos throughout the three and half years it too to write the draft. Mugabe scrutinized every section and clause in the draft to ensure his “sweeping and unregulated powers” were protected. The COPAC draft will
    not stop Mugabe using any of the dirty tricks including violence to win the
    next elections.

    Mugabe and Zanu PF are very pleased with the COPAC draft constitution but are only pretending to be unhappy with it to draw attention away from the fact that it is not going to end Zimbabwe’s culture of violence or deliver free and fair elections as many people had wished.

    The two MDC factions have both agreed the COPAC constitution was a negotiated (by the three political parties) document as contrast to what the Zimbabweans had asked for during the outreach phase. The two MDC factions had clearly conceded to Mugabe’s demands to exclude all the GPA democratic reforms from the COPAC draft hoping they could push through the reforms separately. The reason why both PM Tsvangirai and Professor Ncube rejected Mugabe’s proposed date of March 2013 for the next elections is because would not be practical to enact and implement the reforms.

    MDC has had the last four years to push through the reforms and yet not even one has seen the light of day; that is not going to change even if elections were moved to June or October 2013. Mugabe has already said there will be no more reforms; the political playing field is now “level” as far as he is concerned.

    A rushed referendum will help to force through a constitution everyone knows will allow Mugabe to use violence and deny the people their right to free elections but everyone pretends this not so: Mugabe because it will help him to dismiss all intimidation, beatings, rapes and murders as minor skirmishes; Tsvangirai and MDC because they do not want to acknowledge they failed to deliver not even one democratic change and as for the ordinary Zimbabweans, it makes it easier to swallow the bitter reality that they have once again been cheated.

    • http://www.facebook.com/kmutsinze Kossam Mutsinze

      Your political views make a lot of sense Mr Wilbert Mukori. I can now understand why some of your views are taken on board by SW Radio Africa. I was reading with interest the other day that your articles are at times a point of reference by this news outlet in the United Kingdom. It is refreshing to know that we have a black Zimbabwean with a wealth of knowledge and such vision, a vision that can be utilized by the MDC to its advantage during this election year and beyond. I was wondering whether with this abundance and wealth of knowledge, you could consider to be the political adviser of the MDC. I am sure you can play a very important role, who knows you could even be the political adviser for Tsvangirai our Prime Minister. Please give it a thought.

      • wilbert_mukori

        I only wish half of what you said was true! If I was Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s adviser, then the first thing I will do is look him straight in the eyes and tell him to go back to herding goats. Zimbabwe has had many chances of ending this Zanu PF dictatorship but they all been wasted by Tsvangirai playing at being Prime Minister. The sooner Zimbabweans realize this the sooner the nation can get a competent leader and start the difficult task of getting the nation out of this hell-hole Mugabe landed us!

        I have nothing against Tsvangirai or those herding goats but we should not allow millions of people to suffer and put the lives of hundreds if not thousands on the line just to allow someone with nothing to offer the nation to play statesman and hobnob with world leaders!

        • http://www.facebook.com/kmutsinze Kossam Mutsinze

          Oh gosh, no Aah, I did not expect that Wilbert for it appears to me there is a serious deficit of useful advisers within the structures of the MDC. In view of what you have said above, what are the chances of the MDC winning a crucial election when its leader is this incompetent? Will it not be too late to consider a new leader for the MDC when the general elections are around the corner and how can we get out of this hell-hole Mugabe has landed us? Oh gosh, Aah not another election victory for Mugabe come March 2013.

          • wilbert_mukori

            It is hard to see how Mugabe can lose an election when he is miles ahead already. Beside the issue of violence, there is the problem of Zanu PF’s continued monopoly of the country’s media. If we had a free media Zimbabweans would be more aware of what is going on and they would reject this COPAC rubbish. Instead the country’s media is flooded with this stage managed fight between those who wrote the COPAC draft and supposedly Zanu PF hardliners. Then there is the problem of the mess voters roll.
            MDC has done nothing to address these problems and many people will find their right to vote is denied in one way or the other.
            If Zimbabweans reject this COPAC draft that will force Mugabe to draw a new democratic constitution and mark the real start of the national recovery.

          • Chimbwido Warvet

            I do not think for a second, Yepec will warm up to your ideas that ZANU PF is destined to win a landslide victory during the forthcoming elections. You know what he is like.

          • wilbert_mukori

            People like Yepec shoot themselves in the foot and yet still dream of a landslide. I know you would like to attribute the Zanu PF victory to Mugabe’s competency but how can anyone who has turned a once prosperous country into a total failure. The very fact that Mugabe with all this baggage can still “win” goes to sho just how incompetent Tsvangirai and MDC are!
            As I said Mugabe can be stopped dead in the tracks if people voted NO to this COPAC draft. But of course, Tsvangirai is too stupid to see that bolt-hole!

          • http://www.facebook.com/clayton.peel.7 Clayton Peel

            How did MDC keep this fellow as president after his final and second term ended earlier this year? Surely the whole party is to blame. Now the man is in UK on honeymoon, while Mugabe launches his re-election campaign in Harare. Tsvangirai has betrayed the blood shed by so many who believed that the MDC would be the vehicle of liberation.

          • Chimbwido Warvet

            Kossam Mutsinze should come to terms with reality as Mugabe still has a role to play for a long time to come. Unfortunately I’ll advised and learned think he will be in the dustbin of history, come March 2013. It is highly unlikely the people of Zimbabwe will deny him another term in office. Remember that since the demise of Joshua Nkomo, Mugabe is now the surviving Father of Zimbabwe. I know my opponents will raise their eye brows with these views, but who cares when it is the sober truth.