WHY THE WEST DUMPED TSVANGIRAI

An American think tank says the West has abandoned Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) founding president Morgan Tsvangirai following a dismal performance in the unity government and the 2013 national elections.

In an interview, senior policy analyst Marion Tupy of the Washington-based Cato Institute for Global Liberty and Prosperity said Tsvangirai the West bet on a wrong horse and it’s now time for Zimbabweans to look for an alternative opposition leader.

“It was the expectation that after four or five years in a power sharing government the MDC will be rewarded for good governance and for the improvements that Zimbabwe has accomplished.

“… But the MDC ministers and Tsvangirai himself turned out be less impressive than people hoped, certainly Tsvangirai’s life and failings and it turned out that Mugabe and his Zanu still enjoy quite a bit of support within the Zimbabwean electorate.”

It was a mistake for the MDC to go into the unity government as they did not achieve their goal since they were outmaneuvered by President Robert Mugabe.

As a result, Tupy said Tsvangirai appears to have now run out of steam and the West has dumped him though the initial support was not based on regime change and grabbing Zimbabwe’s wealth.

“It’s true that the West has abandoned Morgan Tsvangirai its very sad but it’s very true. It’s like putting your money on a horse in a race hoping that he wins and then if he fails you may do it a couple of times but ultimately you decide that that person was not worth the investment,” said.

Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka and MDC-T spokesman Obert Gutu were not reachable for comment on their mobile phones as they were not responding to calls. voa

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GUKURAHUNDI WAS A WEST CONSPIRACY, SAYS VP MPHOKO

CIVIL disturbances that rocked Zimbabwe in the early years of Independence were part of a region-wide conspiracy to destablise Southern Africa and not part of any anti-Ndebele agenda by Shonas, Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko has said. In an interview with The Sunday Mail at his offices in Harare, the VP opened up on what triggered the violence that is commonly referred to as Gukurahundi.

Hostilities formally ended on 22 December, 1987 when President Mugabe and Dr Joshua Nkomo signed the Unity Accord that joined their two parties in today’s Zanu-PF.
VP Mphoko said there was no way Zimbabwe could come to terms with this dark chapter in its history — which President Mugabe has referred to as a regrettable “moment of madness” — if citizens did not speak frankly about what happened.

Key to this healing, VP Mphoko said, was analysing the roots of the problem; which he traced to a wider conspiracy formulated within the context of the Cold War politics that sought to discredit black nationalist rule as informed by Socialist and Communist ideological underpinnings.
“There is one point which has not been articulated to my satisfaction: The issue of Gukurahundi,” said VP Mphoko, who was Zapu Chief of Logistics and the direct link between President Mugabe and Dr Nkomo during the Second Chimurenga.

“Now, there were two Gukurahundis. This must be understood — two Gukurahundis. The first Gukurahundi was a proclamation by President Mugabe in 1975 as a New Year’s message to his advancing forces that let’s turn this year into what he regarded as Gukurahundi.

“That was a proclamation during the war, a revolutionary demand that ‘this is how we should defeat the enemy’. Meanwhile, on the Zapu side, the old man (Dr Nkomo) proclaimed a similar situation as a turning point in the armed struggle. There is Gukurahundi here by Mugabe; there’s a turning point there by Joshua Nkomo. This was a pre-Independence Gukurahundi; pre-Independence turning point by the two leaders.”

He said that first Gukurahundi ended on 18 April, 1980 when Zimbabwe attained Independence via the military and diplomatic onslaught by President Mugabe’s Zanu and Dr Nkomo’s Zapu.
VP Mphoko continued: “Now, I have always said the post-Independence Gukurahundi was a conspiracy of the West. This I maintain . . .
“When Portugal gave up its overseas territory in 1974 . . . the Rhodesians, the South Africans, General (Hendrik van den) Bergh who was head of the BOSS (apartheid Bureau for State Security) and Ken Flower who was head of CIO here, they almost walked to Portugal to protest to the Portuguese.

“‘Why are you doing this? You have opened the gates in Mozambique. ANC terrorists will walk into South Africa. Rhodesian terrorists will walk into Rhodesia. The terrorists of the ANC from Angola will walk into Namibia and into South Africa. Why did you do this? Can’t you reverse this?’
“The Portuguese said, “No, we can’t do that. Find your own solutions’. South Africa and Rhodesia insisted ‘you have opened gates to Communism’.

“So then, what do they do? Information we have is that the Americans, the British, the South Africans and Rhodesians . . . (decided) ‘we need to find a solution to contain the situation’.
“So they came up with a buffer zone in Mozambique and Angola to stop ANC from both sides; to stop ANC and the Patriotic Front forces on this side. They created — in Mozambique — Renamo, which was heavily supported by South African military intelligence.

“And they created Unita in Angola . . . which was heavily supported by the South Africans. Unita was supported by the Americans: $15 million every year for 27 years.
“They were given some of the best weapons to make sure no Communism passes to Namibia, passes to South Africa; no Communism is passed from Mozambique to South Africa and also to Zimbabwe. That is what happened. They created that.

“Now, because their concern was South Africa, they wanted to protect their interests in South Africa from the Mozambican front and the Angolan front that side.
“Come Zimbabwe becomes independent: South Africa gets the same threat now. Zimbabwe is independent; the front is open.
 
“So what do they do? They create — from a myth, from nothing: ‘Ah, Zapu wants to overthrow you (the Zanu Government)’. (This was) in order to justify, to create something.
“So that is what happened. So the Gukurahundi after the war had nothing to do with Mugabe — nothing! That is a fact. People can say what they want, but that was a Western conspiracy. You can never hear the British condemning that — never! They can’t say anything. They never said anything. They never condemned anything because it was their baby.

“They knew what they were doing because they were protecting South Africa. So that point should be emphasised; it is very important.”
VP Mphoko said greater awareness of this history was crucial for Zimbabweans to stop being divided by external forces.

“Our people should be very careful not to be used . . . the Rhodesians, the British have always wanted a war between the Shonas and Ndebele.
“They have always wanted that and this is historical. And up to now, there is so much suspicion between the Shonas and Ndebele because of these things. We have lost relatives, I was a victim also. The people who were affected will never forgive you and that is what they wanted.

“It is going to go a long way to heal. That is where the problem is. They have achieved it. But we have to be very analytical as a people to understand the source.

“If we don’t do that then we will continue for years and years. But if we understand and be analytical, then you will understand that yes, it was a conspiracy.”
VP Mphoko, who also heads the National Healing and Reconciliation portfolio, said his work was cut out for him in this regard.
 
“That is a very sensitive area because people lost lives. But we need to solve a situation. We need to heal those wounds. It would be very important that eminent persons in the affected areas participate in the healing system. That’s very important.

“You see, we should avoid the tendency of: ‘Wow, jobs have opened up, this is an interesting ministry . . .’
“No, no, no. It’s a very serious matter. It needs eminent people. There are people who were killed . . . where people have died you have to be very careful.”
VP Mphoko said unity between Shonas and Ndebeles pre-dated the Unity Accord with the first formal and nationwide collaboration coming in 1972 after the Organisation of African Unity meeting in Benghazi, Libya.

“That was the time of Cde Herbert Chitepo and JZ (Cde Jason Ziyapapa Moyo) when we formed the Joint Military Command in Mbeya (Tanzania).
“And I must emphasise here that the Joint Military Command was the first unity between Zanu and Zapu . . . “In the meeting, and we were very clear, we don’t want anyone to have an advantage over the other. This is a win-win situation.

“If Chitepo becomes Chairman, then the Commander of the Army will be from Zipra. If JZ Moyo becomes the Chairman, then the Commander of the Army will be from Zanla. So that’s what happened.

“Chitepo became Chairman, and then Mangena Nikita became Chief of Staff.
“And we were sharing positions. Josiah Tongogara became Chief of Operations. I became Chief of Logistics. And Robson Manyika became Commissar; John Mataure became (Chief of) Personnel and Training and then Gordon Munyanyi became (Chief of) Military Intelligence and so forth . . .

VP Mphoko said thereafter, following an attempt by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and Cde James Chikerema to take over Zanu in Mozambique, unity between Zanu and Zapu again came to the fore.

When their attempts were rebuffed, the trio approached the OAU Liberation Committee saying no material assistance should be given to Zanu fighters.
 
“So, everything was completely cut off, and that is when we had a lot of sicknesses in the camps because there was no food, no medical assistance. A number of people died.”
He said during a tour of the camps with Mozambique’s leadership as well as Bishop Muzorewa, Rev Sithole and Cde Chikerema; Cde JZ Moyo witnessed firsthand the dire situation.

“When he got back to report to the Revolutionary Council about the trip, he talked about the problems in Mozambique; affecting our people in Mozambique — Zanla; Zanu people.
“Moyo insisted that we have to rescue that situation because we have identified each other, Zapu and Zanu, as allies, we have to protect the revolution to deny the reactionaries from taking over what is there.

“So, we came up with a plan to rescue that situation. Sithole and others had put a condition that the Zanla (cadres) should join Muzorewa, Chikerema or Ndabaningi. If they don’t, no food; nothing!
“. . . we had to come up with a limited strategy to rescue Zanu from this crisis. The limited strategy was to form Zipa (Zimbabwe People’s Army) on the same lines as we did with the Joint Military Command of 1972.
 
“Hashim Mbita (head of OAU Liberation Committee) promised JZ Moyo that: ‘If you do that we can rescue the situation. That’s the only way we can do it.
If you don’t do it now, we can assure you that Zanu and Zapu are likely to be de-recognised and then Frolizi and Muzorewa recognised at the next Liberation Committee meeting in Addis Ababa’.
“The most important thing here is that the formation of Zipa was mainly to rescue Zanu from collapse. Any other interpretation is not correct.”
 
VP Mphoko said as Chief of Logistics, he secured supplies and arms in Tanzania and took them to Zanu fighters in Mozambique.
“Zanla in Mozambique became alive again . . . And when our mission was accomplished, we withdrew as Zipra because we had finished our mission . . . Our mission was to rescue Zanu from collapse and this is what we did.”

He, however, pointed out that finding each other as Zanu and Zapu had not been easy.
“The relationship between the two parties was very hostile in the early days. But those who meet at the front crossing, you cannot try to fight each other because enemies are close. We met John Mutaure on several occasions at the front there and then we had a common approach long before the leadership . . .

“The military people, we had our own relations. You would find a Zanu fellow or he would find you stranded on the way from Tanzania to Lusaka with a tyre puncture. He is going that side; you are coming this side. You would say, ‘Take my spare wheel. Take it to Lusaka, but don’t take it to (your) place’.
 
“And this is how things were. So, that relationship in the military is older than the unity between the two parties.”
 
VP Mphoko also singled out the formation of the Patriotic Front as another landmark in Zanu-Zapu ties. “After the withdrawal of our Zipra command in Mozambique, unfortunately when we were planning these things, other people had their own views. They wanted a third force. They wanted to control and so forth.

“Now this is very critical. What happened was when these people wanted a third force, we refused. We came with a mission to rescue Zanu. The people who knew about that were the Zipra Command and Rex Nhongo (General Solomon Mujuru). Not the rest.”

He said there was pressure from the likes of Wilfred Mhanda to depose the leadership, to the point of even claiming that Dr Nkomo was collaborating with the Smith regime.
Through that tense period, President Mugabe emerged as the natural leader, acceptable internally and within the Frontline States; with Dr Nkomo playing a pivotal role in convincing the likes of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania to realise that Bishop Muzorewa, Rev Sithole and company had in fact become destablising factors.

“That’s how those boys lost. From that time, they were told to toe the line and the Frontline Heads of State recognised Zapu and Zanu.
 
“And when those young fellows left, they were in actual fact told by Nyerere and Samora Machel to toe the line. So they refused. They wanted to exist as a separate entity but they couldn’t and ended up having problems with the Mozambican government.

“So when we went back to Maputo that is when we formed the Patriotic Front on October 30, 1976.
“That’s when we formed the Patriotic Front because the feeling was that we should go to (the) Geneva (Conference) as one.
“Immediately after forming the Patriotic Front, the co-leaders of the Patriotic Front, created a Commission of Inquiry to find out what led to the collapse of Zipa. What was highlighted were the fights that took place in the camps.

“So, the Commission from Zanla was led by (Cde Simon) Muzenda, (Dzingai) Mutumbuka, Rex Nhongo, Josiah Tungamirai and Mark Dube. The Zapu side was led by George Silundika, Dumiso (Dabengwa), Gordon Munyanyi, Ambrose Mutinhiri and I . . .
 
“That commission went to Tanzania collecting evidence; went to Zambia and the camps in Mozambique to collect evidence. But we knew what was there. Well, we knew about our mission which was limited.

“But there was another element where there were clashes in the camps. That element was a foreign element, which reveals heavy infiltration, the anti-unity element within the liberation struggle.”
VP Mphoko said after that commission, he remained in Mozambique as a Zapu representative after the withdrawal of Zipra, on the instruction of the Zipra command.

“When Mozambique became independent, we wanted a presence as Zipra. We sent a man called Tom Ndebele in 1974 to go and be our man there.

“He disappeared. So when I remained there, one of my tasks was to establish what happened to him. He was arrested. There had been too many Rhodesians . . . So he was arrested, thrown into a prison called Mashava and he died there. They killed him there.
 
“That was an interest we had. Frelimo was a partner and military ally and so forth. I had worked with Frelimo before. When they opened their Tete front in 1968, I personally delivered weapons to their front there.

“I had worked with them personally from a logistical point of view. And I remained there in Mozambique, as a representative now of Zapu.
 
“When we went to Tanzania when the leaders had decided to  . . . Zapu and Zanu, I was told by the old man, Joshua Nkomo, to go back and represent Zapu.

“And then I said to the old man: ‘Mdala, I have a problem being there in Mozambique. The relationship between Zanu and Frelimo and I am squashed there, sandwiched’.
“The old man said to me: ‘You must go back and make sure that that situation also favours you’.
 
“Those were his instructions. So, I went back. Now, after the formation of the Patriotic Front that’s when I was co-ordinating the two leaders of the Patriotic Front. That was my biggest mission.” sunday mail

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MORE PICS : AFTER THE FALL

Presidential spokesman Mr George Charamba said President Mugabe arrived at his Munhumutapa Offices at 0930 hours to chair Cabinet.

”Today, as he got off his car,” Mr Charamba said, ”I snatched a short conversation with him at the foyer of the Munhumutapa Building:

”’Are you okay, Cde President?”

”’Why?” (light-heartedly).

”’After yesterday’s incident?”’

”’I am okay; it was just a slip”’, Mr Charamba quoted the President as saying.

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MUGABE'S FALL : NO LAUGHING MATTER

Alex T Magaisa
When the rumour of what had happened in Harare began to filter through the social networks yesterday and then the images of the fall began to emerge, I deliberately held back on commenting publicly on the matter. The fall of President Mugabe, as he descended the steps of a podium, has generated a lot of excitement and commentary quite apart from the large number of memes on social networks. 

But I kept my thoughts private. I am a boy from the village. And in the village, there were many elderly people. I grew up with the elderly around me and learnt to respect old age. In that part of the world, there is a saying that when an elder farts, the child does not shout that he has farted, even if it is a loud fart. You maintain a stoic silence and get on with it.

However, I observed with great fascination, the mixed reaction provoked by the incident. Social networks were awash with news, pictures and memes of the Presidential fall. Typical of anything that goes on around the person of President Mugabe, opinion was sharply divided between those who found cause to laugh and those who were more sympathetic.

The sympathisers were also disgusted by the behaviour of those who were taunting and laughing at Mugabe. For the laughing group, this was evidence to confirm what they have always argued – that Mugabe is now too old to rule. It seemed like a vindication of their view. But for his sympathisers, there was nothing abnormal or newsworthy – any person can fall.
I suspect there were many others like me – those who had their opinions on what had happened, but chose to keep them to their private spaces.

This morning though, I woke up to read the papers and what I read changed my approach to the incident. I was shocked by what I read in The Herald.

In an article entitled, “President in carpet mishap”, The Herald tries hard, too hard, one might add, to sanitise the incident. It is not a very good effort. I had not laughed at the fall. I had felt sorry for the President, as a human being. But I did laugh at the comical attempt by the state media to put a spin and white-wash the incident.

And, in some ways, I suspect it is these comical efforts that cause people to end up laughing at things that they really should not be laughing at. It reminded me of Comical Ali, Saddam Hussein’s propaganda chief who, at a time when pictures were showing that Baghdad was already under siege, spoke with a straight face, claiming in bombastic fashion, that the ‘infidels’ were facing imminent defeat.

The Herald says “President Mugabe yesterday tripped over a poorly laid-out carpet at Harare International Airport, but remarkably managed to break the fall before walking to his car, evidently unscathed”.

They quote the Government information chief, Professor Jonathan Moyo, trying hard to put a coat of sugar on the incident, “What happened is that the President tripped over a hump on the carpet on one of the steps of the dais as he was stepping down from the platform but he remarkably managed to break the fall on his own. I repeat that the President managed to break the fall”.

This is classic propaganda, certainly one for the archives, and years from this day, students of propaganda will use this as a classic case study. The object of all this is to deny and dilute the negative news that the President suffered a fall.

Therefore, according to them, no, he did not fall. It had to be said and indeed, it had to be repeated, that instead, he “broke the fall”. The idea is to draw a positive out of this unfortunate incident – to make lemonade from a basket of lemons. Hence avoiding the negative messaging that he fell and instead promoting the positive messaging that he “managed to break the fall”.

“Managing to break the fall” therefore becomes some act of heroism; some extra-ordinary feat which the President managed in a situation of adversity. But it is precisely this kind of behaviour by people who claim to be acting in the President’s best interests, that causes people to laugh when they really should not be laughing.

Because most people understand and appreciate that the President is human. He falls sick and he can fall, like any of us. Yet the propaganda machinery would want everyone to believe that the President is infallible, that he does not get sick and indeed, that he does not fall and that even if he trips over, he does not actually fall but he is so super-human that he “breaks the fall”, whatever that means.

But normal people understand that President Mugabe is human and that at almost 91 and after a hectic career, he is at an age where he will be susceptible to problems related to old-age They understand that the body is not as strong as it was before, and that he is bound to lose balance and this is why people at that age usually walk with the aid of appropriate equipment. There is nothing wrong or abnormal with that. What people hate is for someone to pretend that President Mugabe is an exception to these rules of nature.

Those around the President and the media have spent years creating the illusion that he does not get sick and when he does, it’s just a minor ‘eye operation’. People do not trust this information. They think the State is in the business of withholding information about their leader. And so when something like this happens, even if it is an accident, people get excited by the news which really should be normal and they should be sending their sympathies and best wishes.

Now they want to pretend that the President did not fall, that instead, he “managed to break the fall”, when all pictorial evidence before the world suggests otherwise.

This is a problem they have created themselves. They have created this mythical character that they must deify – a super-human figure who never gets ill and who is forever young and fit.

But the problem with creating a mythical figure based around a living person is that while the mythical figure remains young, vibrant and super-human, the real person ages, gets tired and becomes susceptible to limitations of old age. At some point, the real person ceases to match the mythical figure.

The mythical figure is the one that does not get ill, that has the bones of Peter Pan, and never falls. But the real person ages, he gets sick and sometimes, he loses balance and falls. Then when you want to use your image of the mythical figure to explain the conduct of the real person, people see though it and they find cause to laugh – not at the incident but at the clumsy effort sugar-coat an otherwise unfortunate incident.

People around President Mugabe must get used to the fact that he is human and that these things happen, especially at his age. They cannot pretend that this is not happening because the more it happens the more it exposes the President to unnecessary ridicule.

I have previously referred to these as the “Kamuzu Moments”, after the founding President of Malawi, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who led his country till he was a nonagenarian. Twice in December, the President had these “Kamuzu Moments”, when he made some embarrassing gaffes. On one occasion he said Morgan Tsvangirai had won the March 2008 election by 74 per cent, before he was corrected by the security chiefs that he was addressing.

On another occasion, also at Congress, President Mugabe ingloriously chanted “Pasi neZanu PF!” (Down with Zanu PF), a slogan that is normally reserved for the opposition, leaving his admiring audience bemused. And back in February last year, during his birthday interview with the ZBC, he described events of the 1980 election although he had been asked a question about the 2013 elections.

Now, like Kamuzu Banda before him, also in Harare, he has suffered an unfortunate fall. People understand that these things happen and that they are associated with old age.
But no, the state media would rather sugar-coat that incident and paint him as some sort of super-hero who does not fall but instead manages to “break the fall”. President Mugabe deserves better.

In trying to explain and dismiss the incident, the Government information Tsar says, likely to the chagrin of the flock of believers that “even Jesus, let alone you, would have also tripped in that kind of situation”.

It is typical of Zanu PF politicians to invoke the name of Jesus in their descriptions of Mugabe. But as one colleague quipped today, the Professor must have forgotten that Jesus actually walked on water and that he issued commands, which even the wind obeyed.

I said at the start that back in the village, a child does not shout to the elder that he has farted. But in the village, elders or those around them, do not go around claiming that they have not farted when they have. The state media does not have to tell people that the President did not fall. Because in this information age, the whole world can see from the pictures what really happened. Gone are the days when newspapers were the exclusive source of news. By the time The Herald went to print last night, the world had already seen pictures of the incident. Which makes the whole attempt to sugar-coat the incident very comical and a source of derision.

I could not laugh at President Mugabe’s fall, no. But those around him are creating a circus which is causing a great amount of laughter.
wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk

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