Iden Wetherell When Zimbabwe concluded its bloody election campaign in June the country heaved a sigh of relief as a return to normality beckoned. With more than 30 dead and thousands beaten and displaced in the ruling Zanu-PF party’s campaign of rural terror, it was hoped the country would at last find some peace. That looks unlikely now as President Robert Mugabe’s followers promise more of the same. A remark by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has provoked a frenzy of fist- waving from the ranks of Mugabe’s adherents. Tsvangirai, celebrating the first anniversary of the formation of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) last weekend, said if Mugabe did not want to leave office peacefully, “we will remove you violently”. Tsvangirai called a press conference to clarify his remarks. He said he had meant to say “unceremoniously”. He said Mugabe should “read the mood out there”. But the damage had been done. Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo said: “It has now become clear that the MDC is a movement for violent change that is interested in bomb- and-grenade issues instead of bread-and- butter issues.” He was referring to last month’s grenade attack on the MDC headquarters which the government alleges was an inside job. Ministers have been quick to recommend Tsvangirai’s arrest under the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, a colonial instrument designed to suppress African nationalism. Mugabe has returned to the offensive, depicting Tsvangirai as an agent of British- inspired destabilisation. He told his party’s central committee last weekend that the British were working closely with the MDC to trigger urban unrest “in the hope that a Zanu-PF government will capitulate or fall in violent circumstances”. Mugabe’s refusal to remove war veterans from the more than 1 000 farms they occupy and his rhetorical belligerence are clear evidence that the campaign for the presidential election, scheduled for 2002, is already under way. Mugabe loyalist and party mandarin Didymus Mutasa last week attempted to pre-empt moves to ditch Mugabe as the Zanu-PF candidate in the presidential poll by declaring him the sole contender. This has cut no ice with Young Turks among the rank and file who see Mugabe as an electoral kiss of death. The 76-year-old leader has complained that “Judas Iscariots” in his party are deserting him for “pieces of silver” dangled by the opposition. Others can change, he said referring to the MDC’s mantra, but he won’t. The British were organising hit squads to get him, he claimed. While Mugabe’s increasingly delusional rantings find no purchase with educated voters, or indeed Zimbabwe’s deeply alienated urban underclass, Zimbabwe’s unyielding leader can always fall back on brute force. Last week war veterans, responsible for much of the mayhem on the farms, found themselves incorporated into the army as a reserve force. This will bring them a regular income in addition to their government pensions and provide a handy weapon in Mugabe’s war with the MDC. That Zanu-PF is preparing to do battle was advertised in remarks by key Mugabe aides this week in response to Tsvangirai’s outburst.
Threatening to hit back, old-guard loyalist Nathan Shamuyarira reminded the MDC that “the area of violence is an area where Zanu-PF has a very strong, long and successful history”. Even more ominously, war veterans’ leader Chenjerai Hunzvi declared that “we will hit them before they hit us”. Zimbabweans had hoped for a respite from the violence and uncertainty that followed the government’s defeat in a February constitutional referendum. But that has proved elusive as Mugabe feels increasingly besieged by an ungrateful nation. Armed police on Wednesday raided Zimbabwe’s first independent radio station whose operations a Supreme Court ruling had authorised.
“New-look” ministers who were brought in to rescue an economy on its knees and to restore the rule of law conceded defeat this week with the announcement of pending price controls, a Mugabe policy they had pledged to resist.
With war veterans occupying farms and the police unwilling to restore law and order, investors and aid agencies are sitting on their hands. The International Monetary Fund has said that in the present circumstances it can offer no support while the World Bank said this week issues of governance had weakened the credibility of the government and undermined foreign confidence. Meanwhile, with inflation nudging 54% and interest rates of more than 60%, the economy is grinding to a halt with worrying implications for social stability. Zimbabwe is now hostage to the ambitions of its elderly president, who shows no sign of handing the torch to anybody else.
September
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