"Next Elections, Vote Tsvangirai And You Get A Bullet In The Head"

"If you thought a beating on the buttocks was bad last year, this year, it will be a bullet in the head". According to the MDC Secretary for Welfare, this is what ZANU PF youths, accompanied by military personnel, are telling people in the rural areas, in a systematic and methodical intimidation campaign being carried out despite wishful thinking within the MDC-T ranks that they will be able to triumph at the next elections. The MDC-T has written and complained about this to the Minister of Youth (a ZANU PF member) and have been told to go and tell someone who cares.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 24 October 2009

The MDC-T has written to Saviour Kasukuwere, a ZANU PF Minister in charge of youths to complain that it's supporters in the rural areas are being massively intimidated by ZANU PF Youths, who are going around the country accompanied by soldiers and "army details".

Ian Kay, the MDC-Tsvangirai Secretary for Welfare wrote to Kasukuwere last week saying:

"The information coming from people in the rural areas is that ZANU PF youths, in some cases with army details, are threatening people that "if you thought beating on the buttocks was bad last year, it will be a bullet in the head this year."

Kay, a senior confidant of Morgan Tsvangirai continued in his letter:

"Minister, we can not allow a repeat of of the terrible and vicious campaign with total impunity of violence against the people of Zimbabwe to happen again."

The letter, dated October 19 2009, confirms my often derided assertions on this blog (now confirmed by Tsvangirai himself in public) that ZANU PF is engaged in massive deployment of the military into bases set up in June last year during the presidential election run-off, which was accompanied by so much violence that Morgan Tsvangirai eventually pulled out of the election altogether.

Kasukuwere did not address the issues raised by the MDC-T in the letter.

Instead, he replied saying that if the MDC-T had any issues to raise, they should do so through the largely toothless oversight body set up by the Inclusive Government, the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC):

"If there is any complaint to make, the most appropriate procedure is to approach JOMIC."

But Kay was correct to direct his letter to Kasukuwere and not JOMIC. It is a well-known fact that, just like the now defunct Ministry of Political Affairs, the Youth Ministry as constituted at present is simply a department of ZANU PF funded by the state. Its job is to mobilise and organise "youths" all over the country for ZANU PF.

The Ministry is using taxpayers' funds to set up "projects" all over the rural areas, which are open only to those who carry ZANU PF cards and are confirmed activists and active members of Mugabe's party.

Some of these dubious "projects" are simply halfway houses, temporary holding pens for thugs and terrorists who hold their bloodthirstiness in check until election time comes, when they then let loose.

These are the people who are intimidating people in the rural areas.

But I am surprised at the MDC-T. It was the Prime Minister's party that has been telling us since January that they have grown tremendously in the rural areas, that the people there are no longer afraid and that "ZANU PF does not people to go round intimidating others in the rural areas anymore."

There were glowing reports of meetings and rallies that were "packed" deep in Uzumba, a stronghold of ZANU PF for decades.

Why cry now? What has changed? You have The Solution.

You see, MDC-T supporters are fooling themselves if they think the dictator is going to be a pushover at the next elections. He and his cabal are determined that Tsvangirai will not take over as president. They still do not give a hoot what the world thinks. They still do not care what sanctions are put on them.

It is pointless for the MDC-T to continue giving excuses for their leader, who has engendered so much hostility with the security establishment that commanders vow to put a bullet in his head before killing themselves, just so he does not ascend to the throne.

Like it or not, the man who is most likely to triumph and dislodge Mugabe is Simba Makoni. He showed this by the way he threw ZANU PF into confusion when he pulled out of the party in February last year. In the confusion, all of a sudden, Zimbabwe had the most peaceful election it has had in more than a decade. ZANU PF people started campaigning for him, as did some MDC-T activists, especially in the Midlands and Bulawayo Provinces.

Even in Mashonaland, in all the provinces, we know for certain of sitting MPs who urged voters to vote for Makoni and dump Mugabe.

As Patricia De Lille of the Independent Democrats in South Africa pointed out three months ago, liberation movements and ruling parties are only ever likely to be undone by someone from within them, someone who can split the loyalty of the stalwarts in that party or liberation movement. Makoni did this and he will do it again.

As more and more people become disenchanted with Morgan Tsvangirai, as the factions in his party start campaigning against him and for Simba Makoni (it is happening as I write), we will finally be rid of the politics of the personality cult in Zimbabwe.