Tag: Opposition

  • Heather Bennett Says It All

    MDC Treasurer, Roy Bennett returned to Zimbabwe on the 30th of January after living in exile in South Africa since 2006. He flew Zimbabwe to support MDC decision to join forces with Mugabe’s Zanu PF and also after assurance from Morgan Tsvangirai that everything would be okay if he returned. He was however arrested on February the 13th at Charles Prince Airport whilst on his way back to South Africa. He was first charged with treason but they have since changed to attempt to commit terrorism, banditry and sabotage and now he being charged under Section 61 of the colonial, Apartheid type law, Public Order and Security Act (POSA) – conspiring to acquire arms with a view to disrupting essential services.

    He is being held at the Mutare police station and he is no stranger to prison. In 2004 he spent eight months in prison after a scuffle with the then Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa who called his ancestors ‘murderers and thieves’. A short while after his release from prison the secret police were after him again with all sorts of accusations which is when he decided it would be best to slip out of the country.

    Heather Bennett, Roy’s wife spoke to SW Radio Africa about her husbands arrest and there were a couple of things she said that struck a cord viz;

    “If Morgan Tsvangirai has no power to protect his top leadership, the rest of the country is in big trouble because nothing is going to change.”

    “If they get away with this Morgan Tsvangirai may as well not even be there because they will walk all over him. And unless he shows the leadership now it is going to be a waste of time having an inclusive government anyway.”

    This is the start of power sharing and it just goes to show who is in control. Roy Bennett’s arrest is something that is unwarranted and those holding him know it too – just look at how they can’t decide on what to charge him with. Going back to Zimbabwe at the time he did may not have been a good idea and why he decided to is anyone’s guess. Nonetheless, what Mrs. Bennett had to say about the GNU was straight to the point and a fact that cannot be ignored. If Tsvangirai cannot protect Roy Bennett, what is the point of him being Prime Minister?

    Listen to Heather Bennett’s interview on SW Radio Africa here

    Roy Bennett – Movement For Democratic Change Treasurer

  • Why Mugabe Killed A Nation

    A short and interesting video with a brief history about how it all went wrong:

    Could we really have been better off if Joshua Nkomo had gotten his way?

  • Mugabe Feeling The Pressure

    This week, African leaders meet in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt for an African Union (AU) summit. President Robert Mugabe made his way to Sharm el-Sheikh after his inauguration and it was clear that he did not want to hear any advice from other countries. He went there thinking that no-one would speak up about all that has taken place in Zimbabwe. This was not the case as some of the leaders at the summit took the opportunity to express their concerns about the situation in Zimbabwe. The AU commission chairman, Jean Ping was one of the first to raise his concerns about the violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe followed by Raila Odinga, the Kenyan Prime Minister who urged the AU to suspend Mugabe until he allowed free and fair elections and Ernest Koromo, the President of Sierra Leone commented that the people of Zimbabwe have been ‘denied their democratic rights.’ All the criticism would not have been easy for him to take especially with him being there at the time. This is something that is necessary and I applaud the people who have managed to speak up.

    It looks like African leaders have realized that doing nothing is not an option because Mugabe will do whatever it takes to stay in power which was evident from the June 27th election and his hasty Presidential inauguration on the 29th of June. There was nothing free and fair about that election. President Mugabe did not look too pleased at the summit after all the criticism he faced and by the looks of things he is beginning to feel the pressure. This may explain his outburst when he was approached by a journalist at the summit:

    A recent visitor to this blog, Hilary left a comment with a link to a petition to make world leaders recognize Mugabe’s crimes and speak out against him – Global Action for Zimbabwe – you can make a difference.

  • Zimbabwe Resistance Movement

    Below is a very interesting article about a military movement that has apparently been set up to depose Mugabe. If this is infact true it just goes to show that Zimbabweans have had enough and are ready to do whatever it takes to remove Mugabe from office.

    05 June 2008

    FELLOW Zimbabweans, it is with deep regret and trepidation that we announce the formation of the Zimbabwe Resistance Movement, a military organisation comprising of serving and former members of the Zimbabwe armed forces and security services.

    We thought it would not come to this, but unfortunately the situation on the ground in Zimbabwe has forced us to take this unprecedented move. We are firm believers of democracy but we are also alive to the fact that the democratic means are not necessarily the only options available to achieve democracy.

    We have discovered that the problem in Zimbabwe is a military one and therefore, require a military solution to bring a resolution to our long suffering. We acknowledge the efforts that have been made by numerous political, civic and student groups to achieve a democratic transition, but also note the arrogance of a few politicians, generals, colonels, police chiefs and top brass of the CIO.

    It is against this background, that we, serving and former military, police and CIO men and women believe that we would be doing our once great nation a disservice if we do not challenge the status quo by all means that are open to us, including but not limited to militarily means.

    For the benefit of our geriatric leadership that is fond of conspiracies, we would like to place it on record that we are a stand alone organisation, with its own leadership and doctrine. We, are however, not averse to alliances with like minded people, groups and organizations that are committed to the removal of the evil and despotic Robert Mugabe regime by any means necessary.

    WHO ARE WE?

    We are a group of serving and ex-servicemen and women who were and/ or are intimately involved in the operations of the Army, Air force, Police, CIO and Prisons.

    We are aware of what is happening at all military, police and CIO establishments such as 1 Commando, Inkomo, Magunje, Ngezi Barracks, KGV1, Chikurubi, Manyame Airbase, Suri Suri, and Thornhill.

    We would not hesitate to use the confidential and classified information and knowledge that we have about sensitive security and military state that we have to strike fear and pandemonium into the ranks of this dictatorship, which is causing untold suffering and hardships on its people that it claims it fought to liberate from colonialism.

    We are in everyday contact with Officers and other ranks in the armed forces and security services that places us at an unassailable position of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each battalion, squadron, brigade etc.

    Furthermore we have minute and intimate personal details of the politicians, generals, CIO directors and police commissioners who are wreaking havoc on our people. These details include, and are not limited to their residential addresses, the security details, the communal areas that they hail from, their farms, the schools that their children attend, their itineraries and mistresses. We reserve the right to strike this dictatorship where it hurts most and as they have chosen to be indiscriminate in their attacks on the Zimbabwean people, we are also going to be indiscriminate. History abounds with cases where the people have chosen to be as indiscriminate in their revenge as those who instigate the killings in the first place.

    Let those who are instigating the current wave of killings of innocent children, men and women not say we were not warned when the people’s juggernaut exacts revenge on the perpetrators.

    We reserve the right to use any means available and necessary to get rid of him and other impediments to the realisation of a full democracy in our beloved country.

    We aim to cripple and suffocate the dictatorship’s financial ability to continue to finance the killings and we will be targeting the financiers of this killing spree. To this end, we are hereby serving notice to Gideon Gono, who has unashamedly abdicated from his professional role, opting instead to align himself with the cause of the people’s suffering.

    We will exert our energies on exterminating and disrupting the operations of businesses that finance the regime such as Barclays Bank and those that are fronts for the people who are the cause of our suffering.

    It is widely acknowledged that the dictator and his surrogates use companies registered in the relatives’ names as conduits of siphoning money and resources from the state. It therefore does not surprise anyone that today they live opulent lifestyles and have amassed huge fortunes despite having no known history of primitive accumulation.

    AIM

    We are guided by our desire to free Zimbabwe from the burden of the Mugabe dictatorship.

    Zimbabweans should know that the MDC won an absolute majority in the June 2000 parliamentary elections; that Morgan Tsvangirai won by over 500 000 votes in the March 2002 presidential elections; and that he won convincingly in the March 2008 elections. They should know that Mugabe is still there because of intransigent generals who are afraid of Tsvangirai’s pronouncements that he will establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, if and when he assumes the reins of power.

    Zimbabweans should also know that even if Tsvangirai were to win again on June 27, there is little likelihood that these generals acting in cohort with Emmerson Mnangagwa are going to allow the people’s will to prevail, just like they have denied us since 2000. Mnangagwa knows that Mugabe is terminally ill and that he will handover power to him by the end of this year. We will take our fight with Mnangagwa to Zambia where his family live so that he will realize how traumatic it is to indiscriminately butcher defenceless people for simply having exercised their democratic right.

    Some of us, as serving soldiers, police officers and prison officers, we have already been denied our democratic right to choose who we want to lead us as we been directed to vote in front of our superiors. We would like to place it on record that we will do this under protest and urge our country men and women to do to Mugabe what he has denied us.

    We would like to urge our people to be extra careful and vigilant in these dangerous and desperate times as there are lot of blood thirsty vulnerable young people who are armed and have been freshly minted by Gideon Gono, an arch accomplice in the suffering of our people.

    The people who are killing and maiming the defenseless men, women and children are predominantly young recruits and war veterans who are being armed and let loose to commit the greasily murders.

    MDC and human rights activists as well as lawyers should avoid walking alone and patronizing the areas they normally frequent. We advise that they lie low until after the elections as the current abductions that are just an eye before the storm.
    Fellow Zimbabweans, there is only one outcome to expect on 28 or 20 June 2008, the delayed but eventual DEPARTURE of Robert Mugabe and if that is not announced by the poodles who run ZEC, then that is our call to ARMS.

    LETS SPREAD THE WORD – MUGABE MUST GO OR BE FORCED OUT

    Zimbabwe Resistance Movement

    Source: Nehanda Radio

  • Simba Makoni to Challenge Mugabe

    Dr. Simba MakoniLast week there were a number of reports flying around that former finance minister Simba Makoni was starting a political party to run against Mugabe in the elections. According to a number of reports, he has the backing of a number of senior government officials, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), the armed forces and prominent business leaders. If these are all true it may deal a big blow to Mugabe’s campaign because he needs the backing of his ministers and security forces to cling-on to power.

    BBC’s World Affairs editor John Simpson managed to make his way into Zimbabwe and on Monday the 14th he was interviewed live on the BBC’s News at 10 from an undisclosed location in Zimbabwe. He reported that Simba Makoni was breaking ties with ZANU PF and forming a party that will challenge Mugabe.

    Dr Simba Makoni, a chemistry graduate, started of as a ZANU representative in Europe which impressed the powers that be. After independence he served as deputy minister of agriculture and minister of energy and of youth. He left the government and went on to become Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). After returning to Zimbabwe Mugabe appointed him as minister of finance. Dr Makoni is very popular within ZANU and the general population and may very well be the person to depose Mugabe. There are however a number of critics who say he is no match against Mugabe.

    Mugabe has been in power for almost 28 years and Zimbabwe is long overdue for a change in leadership that has the interests of all of Zimbabwe’s citizens at heart. Can a successor who is/was a member of ZAUN-PF step-up and revive the country and not continue Mugabe’s legacy?