Mugabe must address peace rallies

By Benjamin Chitate

With news that ZANU PF supporters and war vets are arrogantly going around intimidating and threatening MDC supporters in Mudzi, telling them they will spill more blood in the coming elections, a free and fair election seems a pipe dream.

According to the reports, the Zanu PF supporters and war veterans move around holding pictures of MDC people they killed in 2008 to remind everyone what they’re capable of. It appears this is Zanu PF’s plan to prolong the life of the Government of National Unity to ensure that they continue to plunder the country’s resources.

A careful look at the period from the time the GNU came into force to date, Mugabe and Zanu PF hasn’t lost much, hence would prefer that things remained the same rather than loose an election. One wonders why all the calls by Mugabe for peace are not being heeded to.

It would appear Zanu PF has a grand plan to violently win the elections, or prolong the life of the GNU rather than lose power.

It would appear their intention is to cow the people into voting for them ahead of the elections, so if the MDCs insist on elections, Zanu PF will agree to an election and get the votes from a frightened electorate who will have been intimidated as is reportedly happening in Mudzi.

If the MDCs refuse to go into an election where people have been intimidated, just the same way as Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the re-run, then Mugabe will make a suggestion to extend the GNU. This time round he will not allow Zanu PF to contest itself because he knows SADC, the Africa Union and the United Nations will not accept the result.

Given this scenario, forces opposed to Mugabe must confront Mugabe on the on-going intimidation of people opposed to Mugabe and demand an immediate arrest of the terrorists who are intimidating innocent citizens of Zimbabwe.

In most cases, these people will have been identified, but arrests have not been made.

I have suggested before that Mugabe and other party leaders must visit the trouble spots like Mudzi where violence has been reported and address joint peace rallies. That, in my opinion, will minimise violence, and people in those areas will believe Mugabe’s peace intentions when they see him in person share the platform with his opponents and preach peace.

This idea is worthy re-visiting, and must be made a condition by the forces opposed to Mugabe. I am sure this is a better contribution to a free and fair election than even a new constitution before the elections.

I believe even the current constitution does not allow war veterans to turn themselves into terrorists and terrorise innocent villagers into voting for Mugabe and Zanu PF. This does not mean that a new constitution is not a requirement, but just to point out that it takes more than a new constitution to get a free and fair election.

Another Mugabe ploy to prolong the life of the GNU is to refuse the participation of international observers from countries that Zanu PF says are unfriendly to Zimbabwe.

Everyone knows that government does not have enough money to bankroll all the preparations that need to be done to prepare for an election, and that those countries Zanu PF describes as unfriendly have been bankrolling some of the preparatory work such as the constitution-making process through the United Nations.

Zanu PF thinks that if it wins the argument that unfriendly countries will not be allowed to send election observers, they may not fund further work that is needed to prepare for elections, so elections will not be held on the basis that there is no money to hold them, hence the GNU’s term may be extended.

The situation therefore requires unity of purpose from all forces opposed to Mugabe. Unfortunately, to Professor Welshman Ncube and others in his party, anyone who calls for unity of purpose among parties opposed to Mugabe that includes Morgan Tsvangirai is labelled a Tsvangirai bootlicker.

Even though there are some among the rank and file of the MDC-Ncube, such as Senator David Coltart, who see a need to work with Morgan Tsvangirai as absolutely necessary.

It is my wish and hope that the people will be able to identify such narrow-minded personalities who put personal hatred of other players opposed to Mugabe for their personal and partisan interests.

Any politician in Zimbabwe who is worth the salt should look at the bigger picture, put personal differences aside, and find a way of working with others making similar efforts to uproot Zanu PF, the cancer, and give Zimbabwe a new beginning.

In summary, Zanu PF knows it will not win a free and fair election, so it will try violence to cow people into voting for it, or will use some delaying tactics to ensure that the elections are not held.

Zanu PF will be aided in its wish by dividing its opponents, hence the opponents may need to revisit some of their retrogressive egos and find a way of working together.

Forces opposed to Mugabe must research on the new strategy called co-opetition, which requires competing parties to find some common ground of co-operating while still competing against each other.

The concept has been used more in business than in politics, and in the business world, it has proved that real long-term business success comes not solely from competing against other players, but also from being an active participant in shaping the industry’s future.

Benjamin Chitate, New Zealand