General Chiwengwa Now Issuing Political Orders

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Tsvangirai and Mugabe sat and chatted amicably at Heroes Acre Today, with Mugabe once again referring to his former foe as the "Honourable Prime Minister", thanking him for attending the ceremony and saying, "That is at it should be." But in his speech, Mugabe resurrected the ghost of Gukurahundi with his words, which were echoing the political orders issued by his top commander on Thirsday

The last time Robert Mugabe uttered the words "enemies of Zimbabwe" in reference to his own citizens, we ended up with more than 20 000 people in Matabeleland. The words triggered a genocidal orgy of violence that even Mugabe has called a "moment of madness." Gukurahundi.

Of course, the leader of that momentary state madness is today the Commander of the Zimbabwe Air Force, but that is another matter entirely.

Today Mugabe uttered those words again, describing those who continue with the "recent violence" as " enemies of Zimbabwe."

This echoes the words of General Chiwegwa on Thursday, who demanded that the recent violence stop. Chiwengwa went even further and named the areas he was referring to, just in case somebody got him wrong and actually thought he was speaking out against ZANU PF thuggery.

This is where the real significance of these two statements lies. You will recall that I explained in detail to you here how Mugabe intended to isolate Tsvangirai in office while cracking down on and decimating the MDC as a political force.

Well, all of the violence we have been told of in the last three weeks or so is said to be meted out by MDC supporters against ZANU PF supporters. I told you of the Mbare MDC supporters who were kicked out of their homes by ZANU PF supporters, who then moved in and took over the houes.

The MDC supporters went back to reclaim their homes after Tsvagirai was sworn in and they were arrested and sent to jail, where they remain pending a bail hearing.

Ask yourself this: Did you hear the highest ranking commander of the defence forces call for a stop to violence during the June 27 bloody run-off? No. And now, in a move unprecedented in our state, he, a soldier, is now issuing political orders? He is targeting opposition supporters who we are told by the state media are behind the beatings of ZANU PF supporters all over the countryside in the last three weeks.

The supporters of ZANU PF who have been the "victims" of this "violence" have been uncharactistically restrained, do you not think? There has been no retaliation, when we know that ZANU PF suppporters  mete out instant and disproportionate retaliation to any isult, let alone beatings.

They are restrained because theirs is simply a role, a cog in the wheel of the larger strategy. "Vengeance is mine, sayeth Chiwengwa". So they should leave the retaliation to the guys with the guns. 

Now that the banditry case is crumbling around their ears, this presents a new opportunity to find an excuse to crack down hard on the MDC in the rural areas. But it will be disguised as cracking down on violence and thuggish elements who have made themselves outlaws.

"Enemies of Zimbabwe." That is a heavy statemet to come from Robert Mugabe, like I said. What will it lead to this time, especially seeing as the Commander of the  Defence Forces has also now publicly come out to basically declare where his political sympathies lie.

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Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 14, 2009 at 5:32 PM

    Hi Denford,
    Was there any saluting done there to the Prime minister? I see there is what looks like a high ranking Police Official behind the President. Were the Generals there? Did they salute? The country is changing and we must change with it. Even the Prime Minister has attended the burial of a national hero, at the heroes acre, something that a lot thought will never happen. Every one should climb down and move some steps back to tolerate and accomodate each other. It starts from the top, and it will be easy for those on the bottom to follow suite.
    As for Chiwenga, I do not see anything improper or political for him to say violence should stop. These are issues of a security nature, and he is one of the Security chiefs, it is right within the scope of his responsibilities. But if that is applied selectively, then that is something else.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 14, 2009 at 8:51 PM

    Hi Thokozile,

    No, there was no saluting of the Prime Minister at Heroes Acre. The Generals arrived after the PM had sat down and they sat at the opposite end of the dias from where Tsvangirai and Mugabe were.

    ReplyDelete

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