TSVANGIRAI ABUSES A 23 YEAR OLD CHILD

A 23-year-old Bulawayo woman claims Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is neglecting their three-month-old child in revelations that might put a dent on the MDC-T leader’s image.

The woman identified as Loreta Nyathi is now preparing to drag Tsvangirai to court in an effort to force him to pay maintenance for the child.

Top Bulawayo lawyer Josphat Tshuma of Webb Low & Barry confirmed on Friday that he had received an instruction to draft a maintenance letter of demand to Tsvangirai.

“We have not done the letter yet because I am attending a funeral. We hope to finalise everything by Monday,” he said.



 Loreta who said she was forced to move out of home when the pregnancy was discovered by her parents.She said her father was not fully briefed about the circumstances surrounding her pregnancy and the birth of her son named Ethan.

Late yesterday when The Standard  spoke to the father, he said he had not been in the picture when he earlier denied that Tsvangirai was being blamed for the pregnancy.

He however said he preferred to have the matter solved through traditional channels.

Sources close to Loreta say she was first introduced to Tsvangirai in 2009 at the Churchill Arms hotel in Bulawayo’s Hillside suburb by a mutual friend.
The two are said to have kept in touch through phone calls and text messages before they met again in February last year when Tsvangirai was on a tour to assess the food situation in Matabeleland.

They reportedly met at the Holiday Inn where they became intimate and Nyathi claims that is where she fell pregnant.

In early November Loreta says she travelled to Harare where she met Ian Makone, the permanent secretary in the office of the Prime Minister who allegedly gave her another US$2000 for her upkeep.

However when the woman reportedly went back to Makone’s office early this month for money for rent and the baby’s upkeep she was told in no uncertain terms that she was not getting any more money as they had given her a lot of money already.

The woman who for over a week had refused to speak to this journalist said she was hoping the situation would be resolved amicably.

“I thought they would want us to resolve this issue amicably but they don’t even want to communicate with me,” she said.

Makone refused to comment on Friday saying he was not Tsvangirai’s spokesperson.

Luke Tamborinyoka, the prime minister’s spokesperson said Tsvangirai would not comment on the issue.

“We are sick and tired of these stories. The PM is worried about pressing national issues like violence, the issue of civil servants salaries and the roadmap to elections,” Tamborinyoka said.

Last month, state media reported that Tsvangirai had been linked to a Bulawayo businesswoman Aquilina Pamberi leading to a breakdown in her marriage.

Pamberi’s husband Jacob Mandeya reportedly wanted to end the marriage because he was convinced his wife was seeing Tsvangirai.

The PM’s office dismissed the story saying it was part of the state media’s campaign to vilify Tsvangirai.  The MDC-T leader is a widower after his wife died in March 2009 in a road accident.

This article first appeared in the Standard newspaper!

THE SPLIT THAT PAINED MANY ZIMBABWEANS WHO HOPED FOR A CHANGE IN 2006

14 February 2000

MDC's participation in the "Vote NO" campaign against the government's Draft Constitution in the Referendum resulted in the first ever defeat of Zanu PR This warned the ruling party that they had lost popularity, and led to massive violence on commercial farms in the run up to the General Election, as they strategised to retain power.

24 June 2000
MDC made history when it nearly upstaged the ruling party in the June 2000 general election by winning 57 out of 120 contested seats, while ZANU PF could only manage 62 seats. This was in spite of the fact that the MDC was only 8 months old.

 31 March 2005

Although the MDC got fewer seats in the 2005 general elections than in 2000, it was evident that violence, intimidation and downright rigging by the ruling party were major factors in influencing the outcome of the results. While the MDC remained the only formidable threat to the ruling party's hold on political power in Zimbabwe, it began to experience serious internal challenges. Fatigue and despondency due to the prolonged struggle, disregard of the provisions of the party constitution by some party officials and the tendency to resort to unorthodox means to resolve internal conflicts that had crept into the party, contributed to the fateful 12 October 2005 conflict that culminated in the split of the party.

It is imperative to those who are thirsty for the truth that we give an outline of what happened on the fateful day of 12 October 2005. At the time, the ZANU PF government had decided to bring back the upper house (Senate) through Amendment No. 17, a development that deepened divisions within the party as the structures haggled over whether to participate in the Senatorial elections or not. Against this backdrop, a National Council meeting to come up with a party position on the matter was held on 12 October 2005. The sequence of events that occurred on the day, are outlined below.

12 October 2005: National Council Meeting

Council debated whether or not to participate in the Senatorial elections. As members could not agree on the way forward, it was agreed that the matter be resolved through the vote. A secret ballot was held and the results came out 31 against and 33 in favour of participation.

The then President of the MDC, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, stood up and said, "Well, you have voted, and you have voted to participate, which as you know is against my own wish. In the circumstances, I can no longer continue. I cannot let you participate in this Senate election when I believe that it is against the best interests of the party. I am the President of this party. I am therefore going to go out of this room and announce to the world that MDC will not participate in this election. If the party breaks, so be it. I will answer at Congress." He then stormed out of the room, followed by a few supporters.

The remaining five Management Committee members followed the President to his office and implored him to accept the result of the Council vote in accordance with the party constitution, and then report back to the rest of the Councillors. They caught up with him at his home, where he had already finished addressing a press conference. The then President refused to talk to them and he left for his rural home. Efforts to contact him were fruitless as he would not answer his phone.

Meanwhile, they learned that at the press conference, with both international and local media, he had misrepresented the truth by claiming that the vote was 50-50 and he had used his casting vote (which he did not have, according to the constitution) with the result that MDC would not be participating in the Senate election. Management met again that evening to release an official announcement giving the real results and declaring that the MDC had therefore resolved to participate.

When it became evident that the party was headed for a split, there were several mediation efforts to reunite the party, however they were not successful. This led to the two formations convening seperate Congresses in 2006. This was a clear confirmation that the party had irretrivably seperated and that the MDC had indeed into two formations.

Gaddafi has lost control over the Second biggest city of Libya, will Mugabe ever loose control over Bulawayo ?

Tobruk - Eastern Libya is no longer under the control of Muammar Gaddafi after a revolt spread like wildfire across the country, soldiers who no longer backed the Libyan leader told a Reuters correspondent on Tuesday.
Tobruk residents said the city was in the hands of the people and had been for three days. They said smoke rising above the city was from a munitions store bombed by troops loyal to one of Gaddafi's sons. There was the occasional explosion.
"All the eastern regions are out of Gaddafi's control... The people and the army are hand-in-hand here," the now former army major Hany Saad Marjaa told the correspondent, one of the first foreign journalists to enter Libya during the uprising.
The Libyan side of the Egyptian border was controlled by armed anti-Gaddafi rebels who welcomed visitors from Egypt.
One held up a picture of Gaddafi, upside down, and defaced with the words "the butcher tyrant, murderer of Libyans", the correspondent said when passing through the town of Musaid, just inside the Libyan side of the border.
The men were welcoming and waved cars through.
Gaddafi used tanks, helicopters and war planes to fight a growing revolt, witnesses said on Tuesday, as the veteran leader scoffed at reports he was fleeing after four decades in power.
V-for-victory
Demonstrations spread to Tripoli from the second city Benghazi, cradle of the revolt that has engulfed a number of towns and which residents say is now in the hands of protesters.
Citizens in Tobruk said people had worked together to get back to normal. Rebels with knives, clubs and assault rifles guarded the streets. Armed men flashed V-for-victory signs and posed for pictures with their weapons.
"Food is available, the pharmacies are open, the hospitals are open. Everything is open," Fayyez Hussein Mohamed, 59, said, adding: "Everyone has extended their hand to help, young and old, men and women".
A group of men in military uniform stood in the main road, directing traffic. They said they no longer had any allegiance to Gaddafi. Around 200 people gathered in the central part of town chanting: "The people want the downfall of the regime" and "Down, Down with Gaddafi". Graffiti sprayed on walls said: "Enough is enough".
Egypt's army said Libyan border guards had been withdrawn, with Libya's side of the border controlled by "people's committees", without giving details of their allegiance.
One Libyan, who could not be identified, said earlier on the road to Tobruk that Benghazi had been "liberated" from a battalion belonging to one of Gaddafi's sons since Saturday.
Driving along a stretch of desert road with the occasional low-brick house and goat herds, groups of rebels with assault rifles and shotguns, waved cheerily at the passing cars.
Personality cult "Photo! Photo!" they said, flicking the victory sign and posing with their weapons.
One of the Libyans, mocking the personality cult promoted by Gaddafi, pointed at graffiti which read: "No God, but Allah".
Security forces have cracked down fiercely on demonstrators across the country, with fighting in Tripoli after it erupted in Libya's oil-producing east last week, in a reaction to decades of repression and following uprisings that have toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt.
Speaking to Reuters by telephone from the Libyan town of Al Bayda, one Libyan described on Tuesday how forces using aircraft and tanks killed 26 local people, including his own brother.
Libyans were now "scared of their own shadows", said Marai Al Mahry, from the Ashraf tribe, who named his dead brother as Ahmed al Mahry.
"This is worse than anyone can imagine, this is something no human can fathom. They are bombing us with planes, they are killing us with tanks," he said, sobbing uncontrollably as he appealed for help.
Mahry accused forces loyal to Gaddafi of indiscriminate killing on the streets of the coastal town, which lies east of Benghazi. "They shoot you just for walking on the street".
His account could not be independently corroborated.
No going back "The only thing we can do now is not give up, no surrender, no going back. We will die anyway, whether we like it or not. It is clear that they don't care whether we live or not. This is genocide," said 42-year-old Mahry.
Describing the climate of fear created by the crackdown, he said: "Libyans are scared of their own shadows, children can't sleep. It is like we are on another planet."
Keen to send his message to neighbouring Egypt and beyond, he said: "I call on the people of the world - I call on the Egyptians - to pray for us, to demonstrate for us."
Egypt's new military rulers - who took power following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak on February 11 - said the main border crossing would be kept open round-the-clock to allow the sick and wounded to enter.
Piled onto tractors and trucks, hundreds of Egyptians streamed over the border from Libya on Tuesday, describing a wave of killing and banditry unleashed by the revolt.
A witness who had fled the city of Benghazi said at least 2 000 people had been killed there - a figure that could not be corroborated but which indicated the scale of destruction people believed was wrought by a week of violence.
Egyptians described a treacherous journey out of Libya in which they were shot at by bandits taking advantage of the chaos.
They took everything Hassan Kamel Mohamed, a 24-year-old steel worker who had fled from Tobruk, said: "There were thugs everywhere and they would pull weapons on you at any time."
"We were trying to sleep at night but we couldn't. Thugs would fire in the air every fifteen minutes. They took our money, they took everything."
Mohamed Bayoumy, 37, said he had been travelling for three days in the western part of the country and that there were armed groups along the road, demanding bribes.
Another man, who declined to be named, said: "The situation is bad for Egyptians right now."
"They took money from us and shot at us," he said, declining to give his name.
"Five people died on the street where I live," Mohamed Jalaly, 40, told Reuters at Salum on his way to Cairo from Benghazi.
"You leave Benghazi and then you have... nothing but gangs and youths with weapons," he added. "The way from Benghazi is extremely dangerous," he said.

Someone asked whether this will also happened to Mugabe one day, he asked "are the people of Zimbabwe brave enough to face bullets and die for their freedom?"

Please post your views and comments .

Result of legalising Zimbabweans in South Africa

Over 275 000 Zimbabweans applied for permits. 65 570 have been approved, 210 192 are still pending. 6 243 Zimbabweans returned their South African IDs. 45 555 returned their asylum documents. There where 16 960 incomplete applications. 28 044 had applied for passports, 15 066 applied using any other Zim documents but not passports. 17 596 applied with no documents at all and 32 662 are yet to apply passports.

It means that the Zimbabwean government should process 60 702 passports. Those of the 17 702 who applied with no documents will be sent an sms instructing them to go and apply for Zimbabwean documents at the consulate. The Zimbabwean government will produce 10 000 passports per month.

The Home Affairs is to send forms to those 6 243 who surrendered their IDs. The idea is to link the permit number to the South African I'D number so that banks will be able to know that the person on the RSA I'd and on the Zimbabwean is the same. This will enable people not to lose their bank accounts and properties. Discussions are on going.
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The information is provided by Ngqabutho Dube as he is party of the delagation from MDC

I want to define in the most clear of terms, what we as a party stand for, what we as a party fight for. We hold no brief for anyone. We fear no one. Our only brief is that of the ordinary working men and women of Zimbabwe who are burdened by unemployment, poverty and hunger. The workers who toil only a daily basis for a grinding existence, our mothers  and fathers in the rural areas who work and work, toil and toil on the land, only to remain steeped in an endless cycle of poverty. It is for them that we are in the trenches fighting.  It is because of them that we will never give up the struggle. We are here in the service of the people of Zimbabwe.
                                     'President Ncube"

Leveraging Matabele discontent for national good

Matabeleland has a special way of captivating national interest from time to time. 

Recent political developments in the region have once again set the agenda for national debate. 

It is interesting how Welshman Ncube has dominated media coverage in more than two weeks now. 

His ascendancy to the helm of his MDC formation comes on the heels of the revival of Zapu and the less known Mthwakazi Liberation Front. 

These other two developments have met with lukewarm interest nationally, but it is Ncube’s ascent that has captured attention. 

The debate has inevitably turned tribal in many instances and has brought to the fore how the issue of ethnicity has not been dealt with and how the country is yet to come to terms with the manner in which it treats minority groups.

Inevitably, there has been a lot of criticism and scorn poured on Ncube with some quick to pronounce that his rise will not alter the political landscape nationally. 

Interestingly, there is a fresh sentiment that the party will now be regional, something that was not amplified when Professor Arthur Mutambara was still at the helm. 

It would appear that Ncube is in the frying pan with renewed charges of how he is allegedly to blame for the split of the MDC and revelations from diplomatic circles that he is “a very divisive player” in the country’s political terrain and “the sooner he is pushed off the stage the better”. 

There is no doubt that Ncube doesn’t have many friends in this country but for an objective thinker, it is difficult not to sense tribalistic undertones in these criticisms.

Surely, for all his other limitations and shortcomings, Ncube is not as bad as he is portrayed by some of his detractors. 

The man may be aloof, bookish, elitist, and sometimes too engrossed in his personal perspective of issues, but this is nothing compared to the transgressions of other national leaders whose limitations are hardly ever hung out for the world to see. 

Ncube’s sympathisers have charged that he is being persecuted by Shona supremacists who believe that a Ndebele should not occupy the top post of a national political party or government for that matter. 

I have particularly found interesting Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga’s opinion pieces suggesting how Shona supremacists have connived with white capital to deny the Ndebele meaningful leadership positions in this country.

The current discourse has found ample fodder among hard-line Ndebele tribalists who have found fuel to fire the desire for secession. 

They are also actually using the South Sudanese case to portray secession as a viable option to deal with regional and ethnic discontent in the contemporary world.

What this should show us as a nation is that we have lived with underlying ethnic tensions for far too long without speaking about them and not doing anything to deal with them. 

It is a fact that Shona supremacists exist in this country and that they do not think Ndebele people should play a meaningful role in leadership in this country and they are there in all the major political parties. 

They think that the Ndebele and other minority groups should be the recipients of token positions like Deputy So-and-so. 

The Ndebele themselves have perpetuated this state of affairs by accepting it. There are very senior Ndebele leaders in the major political parties who feel that they should be grateful to their principals for the positions they hold. 

They hardly challenge for top honours and seem to be content from this seemingly overt arrangement. 

This should stop and everyone should not feel constrained not to contest for any position as indeed this is a country for all its occupants. 

It is also a fact that there are some angry people in Matabeleland who hate Shonas with a passion.

They hate them for the harm that was visited upon their kith and kin by Robert Mugabe in his Gukurahundi campaign in the early 80s. 

Non-Ndebele people will probably never know the extent of hatred and the feeling of non-belonging in the Matabeleland region which will take a generation to heal. 

The reluctance of the powers-that-be over the years to conduct an effective transitional justice programme that prescribes how to deal with these issues has compounded our predicament as country.

While the grievances of the Ndebele are justified, it is regrettable that this period of history has stunted their ability and desire to contribute to the national project. 

There are people who are so bitter that they have resigned themselves to participating in anything with Zimbabwe in it. 

Some are so angry that they are vociferous supporters of retributive justice as a way of settling the score. 

Some are so vindictive that they barricade Shona leaders from addressing the public in some parts of the country. 

This is the extent to which Mugabe has killed a section of the country and decimated nationhood in Zimbabwe.

Sadly, it is the Ndebele themselves who have to pick themselves up and begin to behave like people who belong to this country because no one will come knocking on their doors to beg them to participate in the national project. 

The Ndebele should also learn that they are not the only minority group in the country and that other countries in the world are also working on how to fully integrate their constituents in their nations. 

People should also learn that no one has any legitimate claim to any geographical area bearing in mind the mobility that has been necessitated by globalisation as well as the economic and social realities of this world. 

The nation-state is itself becoming an obsolete concept considering migration.

Countries can no longer drag their feet in the manner that they treat minorities as this is the source of protracted conflict in many an African state. 

The Ndebele and other minority groups should in fact channel their energy into fighting for their rightful space in this country. 

This does not mean discarding their pride for their ethnicity but locating it in the national landscape.

The Ndebele have displayed shameful “good manners” in dealing with some of their Shona counterparts perhaps in the hope of receiving favours. It would appear that they are ashamed of being Ndebele. 

We have abstained from the ethnicity debate and only whisper about it in hushed tones. 

We should also fight hegemonic tendencies and structures that have been put in place overtly to subordinate one ethnic group to another in this country. 

We should also embark on affirmative action mechanisms that will go some way in ameliorating ethnic discontent in Zimbabwe. 

Development institutions have also risen to the occasion by developing development indicators that exhibit how much the state is spending in what are widely viewed as minority constituents in comparison to other constituencies. 

Zimbabwe is for everyone who lives in it.

Mziwandile Ndlovu is a researcher and media practitioner working in Bulawayo. thwalimbiza@yahoo.com

THE POLITICAL DANGERS OF MUGABE'S DEATH

mpatient with the political blundering of the Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai, a brave catholic Bishop Plus Ncube promised to put on his “best robe” and “March with Zimbabweans against Mugabe’s blazing guns.” Not only that, but the fearless bishop also disclosed that he was “praying for Mugabe’s death”. Understanding that Ncube, a man equipped with a will of steel, meant business and could have confronted Mugabe’s regime in a suicidal but effective march, Mugabe sent the central intelligence organization to record the Bishop’s bedroom activities.

The revelations were explosive and damning. The Bishop, who is sworn to celibacy, was caught on camera performing felatio on women and the wild pornography was broadcast on national television. Humiliated and disgraced, the brave bishop failed to surmount the bad publicity and was effectively silenced.

Earlier in the years, some Zimbabweans in Zanu pf, fed up with Mugabe’s genocidal and disastrous rule, proposed that an intelligent statesman, theologian and scholar, Canaan Banana must be brought forward to replace Mugabe. Banana, a combative theologian who once proposed “to rewrite the bible” was an imposing and scary challenger against Mugabe’s dwindling popularity and sinking political legitimacy. A suspected CIO agent Jefta Dube came up and accused Banana of sodomising him. The theologian was humiliated, tried, jailed and finished.

The spooky way in which Mugabe treated Bishop Pius Ncube and Professor Canaan Banana is cinematic of how he handles political challengers that he fears and cannot fault in any other ways besides exposing and criminalizing their lower sides. So far, by ordinary appearance, Mugabe’s hold on political power in Zimbabwe looks like the firm grip of the many handed octopus. With Morgan Tsvangirai boycotting here and scoring political on-goals there, while appearing rudderless on any clear political way forward, Mugabe has so far appeared a skilled political macavity who is slippery like a fish in water.

Besides the understandable excitement and optimism encouraged by the rise of Welshman Ncube, a decorated legal mind and political strategist to the leadership of MDC and the increasing prominence of Dumiso Dabengwa, a seasoned warrior who has summered and wintered in the struggle, most Zimbabweans are, like Pius Ncube “praying for Mugabe’s death.”

Unlike the tearful and somber South Africans who called prayer meetings, lit candles and held night vigils upon hearing that Nelson Mandela had been taken ill, most Zimbabweans prepared to party and “prayed” for the worst when rumors circulated that Mugabe’s life was in danger in Malaysia. It is a widely held belief among disillusioned and tired Zimbabweans that Mugabe’s death will bring Zimbabwe closer to democracy, peace and orderly governance.

I write in this article to argue that Mugabe as a personification of the historical, political, legal and economic crisis in Zimbabwe must be solved alive and solved so totally that even Mugabe’s “ghost” need not be feared. I also write to observe that there are many political and historical landmines that lie buried around a possible Mugabe death at this moment.

Besides acting and appearing strong, Mugabe is ailing physically and a weakling politically who is hostage to his securocrats and economic hangers on in zanu pf who are using his name and symbolism to hold on to the benefits of economic and political power that come with it. A Socratic observation of the political and historical circumstances that surround Mugabe’s hostage status indicates a strong possibility that upon his death, an extremist Mugabeist political cult might rise and in his name torment Zimbabwe more than Mugabe ever did in his lifetime.

Minus the fact that Mugabe’s death is likely to unite cracking Zanu pf, a zanu pf replacement of Mugabe is likely to outdo Mugabe in Mugebeism to prove that he or she can fit into his big genocidal boots. Mugabe’s death in office undefeated and unprosecuted for his crimes will give the many genocidal offenders in zanu pf a legal argument that they conducted genocide under legal instructions of the late commander in chief. Besides that, the removal by death of Mugabe from office as things stand cannot in any way translate to victory or political power for the opposition in Zimbabwe, his death can only perpetuate rather than weaken the wicked zanu pf genocidal agenda.

The many zanu pf hardliners who continue to show fanatic and near cultic support for Mugabe are not Zimbabweans who love and honour “a dear leader.” It is a collection of fearful beneficiaries of Mugabe’s violence, corruption, patronage and pillage who stand to lose their freedom, wealth and even lives in the case of his departure. These are Mugabe’s zealots who have raped, murdered, robbed and stolen in the name of mugabeism and are most likely to be thrown into extremism upon Mugabe’s death and run down Zimbabwe in a bloody civil war if not managed strategically by the political opposition.

Contrary to their pretensions and posturing, these zealots are not courageous but dead afraid. They include some of Mugabe’s top ministers and service chiefs in the military and intelligence echelons. They have access to arms and other state resources which make them a formidable, though not indefatigable force. If handled with adequate political masonry; they can prove to be a small political quantity whose fears and weaknesses can be exploited victoriously.

That zanu pf has feuding factions cannot be doubted. Mugabe has remained as the leader by playing them against each other and ensuring that they all report to him. It is the political spinelessness and inaptitude of Morgan Tsvangirai that he has totally failed to attract any of these factions to his side and permanently crack and finish zanu pf.

Observations of cultic behaviors and tendencies suggest that a Mugabe death might actually unite these factions who might then rally behind Mugabe’s appointed successor and in his name sentence Zimbabwe to “turmoil and tenacity.” Whoever will replace Mugabe is most likely going to desperately try to prove his worthiness to fit into Mugabe’s “strongman” political template by exceeding Mugabe in violence, cruelty and genocidal inclinations. If the political opposition in Zimbabwe in that case does not employ slippery political craft and gamesmanship, Zimbabwe might be taken back politically by many years.

It is a well understood zanu pf plan that “dear leader” Mugabe should not suffer the indignity of being replaced alive and being out of office and powerless. This is mainly to allow him to cling to the immunity from prosecution for crimes against humanity and escape possible harassment by political opponents. Mugabe’s death at the moment can be seen by political observers as a natural and somewhat dignified escape from justice to the comfort of the grave. Those securocrats that Mugabe used to commit genocide will then remain with the argument that they were sent to slaughter civilians by a head of state, which is a lousy legal argument but a sound political excuse.

Those opposition politicians who have a genuine interest in solving the excesses of Mugabeism in Zimbabwe should look at confronting Mugabe in his life time not wait for death that might strengthen rather than weaken him.

It appears clearly from the evidence of previous elections that electoral defeat alone is not enough to remove Mugabe from office as he is most likely to ignore the results and stay on. It is my argument that even his death at this point in time cannot dethrone Mugabeism, it can only hide Mugabe from prosecution; give his securocrats legal leverage while the genocidal system persists in power. Mugabe;s only survival tactic in politics is violence and the tried and tested manipulation of the fear of death that politicians like Tsvangirai suffer from and tend to boycott  and take to their heels.

The solution to this will be found by politicians who will mobilize the many Zimbabweans into self defence mode against the few youth militias, soldiers, police and war veterans who are instructed to intimidate the people. As soon as these hired forces are overwhelmed by the many Zimbabweans who are prepared to die for freedom, precedence has it that the armed forces are known to turn around and join the people. This takes reckless and suicidal leaders who understand that just at the shadow of death is where freedom normally hides.

Mugabe will be removed by politicians who will surmount the fear of death and breathe courage to the population, who will, with their trusted people power and large numbers demolish Mugabe’s thin fortresses of violence and extract freedom and justice from the sinking regime. In his life time Mugabe must see the colour of defeat, taste the bitter cup of justice and smell the freedom of his victims.

The removal of Mugabe from office will not be a beauty pageant or a picnic but a wrestling match with the gods that only those leaders with the jihadist ingredient and suicidal element need to attend. Too much love for life or too much fear of death are qualities that are not needed in the political theatre that will uproot the titanic tyranny in Harare. Praying and wishing for Mugabe’s death is not enough, not even voting in huge numbers will help, what is needed is the conquest of the fear of death and then Mugabe will be Tunisiad and Egypted from state house. Paying Mugabe in his own currency by standing up pound to pound to his violence is a political choice that Zimbabweans should be seriously thinking of or otherwise stop wasting time in preparing for elections whose results Mugabe will ignore.

Dinizulu Mbikokayise Macaphulana is a Zimbabwean journalist who is studying in Lesotho, he can be contacted dinizulumacaphulana@yahoo.com  

TSVANGIRAI: THE MOVEMENT FOR DELAYED CHANGE

THE line can be very thin between an astute political observer and a conspiracy theorist. It can even be thinner in a slippery and tricky scenario like the Zimbabwean political situation where prospects of democracy are as much in danger from the ruling tyrannical regime as they are from those who promise Zimbabweans “democratic change”.
I posit in this short instalment to forgive entirely the two types of MDC-T apologists who littered my inbox with complaints and threats, after New Zimbabwe.com published my short piece on “The curse of UK’s men in Harare”.
I will divide the protesters into two: the innocent, and the painfully ignorant. I was labelled at best “a rabid Tsvangirai hater who must shut up” and at worst “an idling conspiracy theorist without a scar from the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe”. All I had done was point out that Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai are not opposition to each other but opposame, and that both of them are pawns on the chessboard of the British political and economic elite.
Besides the forgiveness that I deliver with love, I would like to seize with gratitude the challenge to state exactly why I believe that the MDC-T are unequal to the important task of unseating Zanu PF, and that they are neither equipped with the “software” nor the “hardware” that is needed to consign Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF to where they belong -- in the blistering incinerators of the garbage of Zimbabwean politics and history.
I also would like to argue and supply the reasons that actually if Zimbabweans and all those around the globe who care about the economic and political happiness of Zimbabweans do not act with urgency, MDC-T will continue to delay the arrival of democratic change in Zimbabwe, ironically.
First, I must admit that “Morgan is more” as his apologists are fond of reminding us, and so many Zimbabweans believe and trust that he will deliver democracy to Zimbabwe one day soon. As much, I must warn that while he is more, he is not enough to remove Mugabe from power because the most important political decisions that he makes, and steps that he takes, he is advised by Mugabe. This is not one conspiracy antic.
When Tsvangirai fled Zimbabwe before the unfortunate June 29 presidential run-off election which Mugabe force-won with violence and threats of war, and which Tsvangirai most unwisely boycotted, he told the whole world that some members of the Central Intelligence Organisation advised him to flee Zimbabwe because Mugabe planned to kill him. Now, dear reader, do you need Nicollo Machiavelli or Dinizulu Macaphulana to point out that Tsvangirai fled the country and eventually boycotted the election on the advice of Mugabe who remained behind forcing a victory that has made him the president of Zimbabwe once more?

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At the serious risk of being branded a conspiracy theorist, I insist that an imagined democratic movement that swallows without chewing contaminated intelligence advice from double-dealing agents of the dictatorship that it seeks to unseat will not deliver political change in any country anywhere under the sun, late alone in Zimbabwe where politics is still a dirty game.
Secondly, MDC-T have needlessly and most disappointingly failed to convince Africa, most of whose countries fought liberation wars, that they are an African political movement that respects the history and legacy of Africans against colonialism.
To pick a fresh example, MDC-T information chief, the innocent Nelson Chamisa, described Roy Bennett as “an angel” that Mugabe has been persecuting. Let me branch a little and remind you of a statement that was made by the sober David Coltart that people like him and Roy Bennet who served in the brutal Rhodesian forces must be grateful beneficiaries of the reconciliation and forgiveness that the common people of Zimbabwe have granted them to the point of voting them into political office, despite the well-documented atrocities and monstrosities of the Rhodesian regime.
Going back to my argument, it is fair and fine to forgive Bennet and his likes, but to innocently ignore  history and see an “angel” in him is politicidal and very silly to be polite. But this exemplifies the political silliness of MDC-T who have made Alec Goosen and Roy Bennet the faces of their organisation, which has now nauseated the SADC and the African Union who would rather keep the embarrassing Mugabe than embrace what Malema calls “mickey mouse” politicians who show no iota of African historical knowledge or memory.
In short, MDC-T have long lost the information war to Zanu PF in Africa, and many African populations and organisations still unfortunately believe that Mugabe is a genuine Pan-Africanist.
The Chamisas of this world have done nothing to undress Mugabe and expose him as the genocidal tyrant that he is before Africa, but have concentrated on composing pointless poetry and coining silly insults that neither change hearts nor touch African minds but instead provide western imperialists with comic relief.
In short, I would like to ask the question that Thabo Mbeki asked Tendai Biti: in the remote possibility that MDC-T assume power in Zimbabwe, whose neighbours are they going to be, South Africa, Angola, Namibia or Britain and America?
Thirdly, I think Tsvangirai is not a leader in the true meaning of the word, but a manager -- an apology of a manager for that matter. Leaders are personalities that exude compelling influence within their organizations, inspire action, champion visions that make unpopular decisions popular and grow the organisations in unity. Leaders are men and women in charge and in control. Conversely, managers are maintainers of the status quo who in a hot political scenario can easily be mistaken for clueless and visionless placeholders who cannot lead revolutions but maintain tyranny.
Everyone who is familiar with Zimbabwean politics knows that Zanu PF has three factions -- one led by Mugabe himself, the other by Solomon Mujuru and a third by Emerson Mnangagwa.
Mugabe, to his credit, has made sure that all these factions report to him and catch the flu when he coughs. Mugabe commands these factions so emphatically that at the last Zanu PF congress where he was expected to be ejected, Mujuru held the microphone when Mnangagwa spoke.
On the other hand, Tsvangirai had the MDC suffer a debilitating split and various factions in his party openly defy him. He has also failed to master enough political masonry to attract away from Zanu PF any one of the factions, including the fired Dinyane operatives who have now all gone back to strengthen Zanu PF while MDC-T grows weaker by the hour. This makes Tsvagirai’s chances of outpacing Mugabe in the political leadership of Zimbabwe very narrow indeed.
A fourth point is that it is clear that Tsvangirai and the MDC-T have fallen for Mugabe’s trap of pushing them into confirming themselves as an organisation that is allergic and inimical, if not contemptuous of Zimbabwe’s historical and national values and ideals.
When Arthur Mutambara came and announced that “we are the new ZIPRA and ZANLA, and we stand on the shoulders” of the nationalist of yesteryear, MDC-T simplistically and with their typical unsophisticated analysis, judged him as a Mugabe parrot. Yet what Mutambara was trying to do was to wrest away from Mugabe the monopolisation of the Zimbabwean nationalist and patriotic legacy and label.
The MDCT have unwisely sold an unfortunate sentimentality to the youths of Zimbabwe that nationalist and patriotic language is Zanu PF language, that the national anthem is a Zanu PF slogan and that the national flag is Zanu PF regalia, which is sad because the Zimbabwean nation with its historical nationalist legacy and pride must exist beyond Mugabe and Zanu PF.
In fact a political party that will topple Zanu PF must first expose the falsehood of Zanu PF in its commitment to Zimbabwean national values, in short, in terms of political analysis and understanding MDC-T are a big apology and if left unchecked they will nationalise ignorance and popularize poverty of thought!
The above, dear readers are but a few of my reasons why I believe the MDC-T in Zimbabwe are actually a movement of delayed change. The comrades neither have the “software” nor the “hardware” to remove Mugabe and Zanu PF from power.
Call it hating Tsvangirai, call it conspiracy theorisation, the truth is written on the wall: Mugabe will not go by Tsvangirai and the MDC-T because while Zanu PF are playing rugby, the MDC-T are happy to play netball. In totality, Zanu PF is very safe in power with MDC-T as their opposition.
And dear reader, Mugabe’s recent invitation of Iranian President Ahmadinejad to officially open the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair is a clear political statement that announces what is in store for the clueless MDC-T in the coming elections. Zimbabweans will have to wait longer for political change while Tsvangirai and the MDC-T learn slowly.
Dinizulu Macaphulana is a Zimbabwean student based in Lesotho. He is contactable on e-mail: macapulana@yahoo.com

NCUBE: THE SINS OF OUR FOREFATHERS

“No matter how well the hen dances” says a Ugandan proverb “the fox will never admire her” because for fox, the hen is just a meal whose talents must never go beyond filling his tummy. This proverbial predicament of the talented hen whose gifts are ignored while her value as the fox’s delicious meal is upheld compares interestingly to the political and historical predicament that confronts Welshman Ncube in Zimbabwe today.

He is being told in all manner of words and signs that in spite of being mandated to assume the leadership of his party and the position of political principal and that of deputy prime minister, he cannot do so. All sorts of legal and political confabulations are being erected to block his ascendancy, for no other good reason except that he is Welshman, surnamed Ncube. A loose translation of Lovemore Majaivanna’s classic song “Isono Sami” bespeaks as much as the above Ugandan Ocholi proverb. “No matter how well I dance, even if I go across oceans, whatever it is that I do well” sings Majaivana. “They won’t publish my story because my one and only sin is being zwangandaba.”

It is this historical, cultural and political sin of being “Zwangandaba” that pursues Welshman Ncube like the Biblical curse of the sin of the fathers that is punished upon their grandchildren. It is very easy to look at this as Welshman Ncube’s problem or even to see him as the author of his own demise, but a close Socratic scrutiny of the matter shows that the sin of being “zwangandaba” dogs all personalities of Ndebele bearing in Zanupf, MDCT, and even outside the perimeters of politics, in schools, universities, companies and sporting organizations.

It is not a joke. It is a serious historical, cultural, spiritual and political question that begs an urgent answer. It is a problem that will not commit suicide but must be confronted and killed once and for all. It is an invitation to deep thought and emergency corrective action that can only be postponed at the expense of the truth and justice. It must not be called by any other name, nickname or euphemism but its correct and honest description of anti-Ndebele tribalism that punctuates the politics of zanu pf and MDCT in Zimbabwe. I will, at this juncture, digress a little for illustrative purposes, after all, the curse of the sin of the fathers is not unique to the Ndebele people, but it is uniform to all feared, hated, and marginalised minorities in the world.

Some time ago in imperial America, that did not only enslave but cemented the bricks of her civilization with the blood of black people, rose Marcus Mosiah Gurvey. He built a giant ship called the black star liner in preparation to “ship out” the blacks back to Africa, since America was refusing to “shape up” to the needs of the African Americans. In fear, anger and hatred the system infiltrated Gurvey’s group, manufactured fraud charges against him, damned, jailed and finished him.

Later on, there rose Martin Luther King Junior, a hair raising Christian orator who shook the world with his “dream” of togetherness between blacks and whites in America. His teachings amounted to Christian “turn the other cheek” strategy. Angered by his compelling truths, growing popularity and spectacular talents, the system did not only record his various bed-room operations (remember Pius Ncube) but his life ended with a bullet to the head.

Then came Malcolm X, a fiery Islamic speaker of the militant category. X preached an eye for an eye and argued that it was impossible to confront the “extreme” violence of American racism with “moderation”. He urged blacks to shoot back to the Ku Klux Klan. Malcolm X also died under a hail of bullets.

Earlier on, as a student of agile intellect, X had disclosed to his teacher that he wished to be a lawyer by profession. The white teacher was taken aback. He advised X to try bricklaying or other professions that were equal to his station of race and class, not law, a preserve of the white and privileged.

There you have it, patient reader. The blacks were the zwangandabas of the American system. They were not supposed to aspire above what was cut out for them. They were to be labourers and not leaders. They were what legendary British investigative journalist John Pilger calls “the unpeople” who always must be underlings and ladders upon which the masters of destiny must climb and that is it, they are residents of the peripheries of mainstream political and historical happenings whose talents can be enjoyed without their benefit. Let us return, dear reader, to the Zimbabwean political and historical theatre of the macabre, where the “zwangandabas” and “unpeople” of Ndebele label are playing out their own encounters with the self appointed first borns of historical and political destiny who occupy the high echelons of zanupf and MDC-T leadership.

The late Joshua Nkomo, perhaps the greatest paragon of the Zimbabwean struggle against colonialism, died a broken and finished man. Nkomo was told that he is “father Zimbabwe” which title I still insists was a cruel nickname given to him by his enemies who wanted him to cling to nationalism while they resorted to opportunistic tribalism.

For rightfully aspiring to lead Zimbabwe, Nkomo invited hell for himself and all the Ndebele people of Zapu. “Father Zimbabwe” left the country through a rabbit exit as Mugabe’s gukurahundi hounds came for his life and many lives of his disarmed followers. The “chibwe chitedza” and “father of the nation” had to scamper for dear life as “the father of the dissidents” that Mugabe called him in parliament. And who were the dissidents dear reader?

This writer attended a school in Bubi, where the “dissidents” came wearing deliberately torn and dirty clothes and raped our teachers. These “dissidents” spoke English with a now familiar accent. The following day, the same dissidents came, wearing new army fatigues, in hot pursuit of yesterday’s dissidents. We were toddlers at primary school, but we were not fooled. The dissidents were soldiers and soldiers were dissidents, with a sole mission to stop the “zwangandabas” and the “unpeople” from ascending to the leadership of Zimbabwe.

There is also good Gorden Moyo. He worked so hard for the victory of the MDCT in Bulawayo, to the extent of creating an entire Progressive Resident Association to campaign for Tsvangirai and unseat MDC. Gorden Moyo even uttered vows that certain politicians were not to see parliament as long as he lived. He even attended the all important “Botswana meeting” where some MDC parliamentarians were “persuaded” to rebel and to break the MDC for all time.

Recently when Gorden announced his wishes to be elected into some top office within MDC-T; he was reminded that he is not MDC-T enough to go that far. They enjoyed his efforts in manufacturing their victory and rewarded him with a ministerial post and now they cannot endure his wish to rise to influential ranks. He is a “zwangandaba” and also very “unpeople” in the eyes of the system that is now using the same people that Gorden campaigned for to remind him to keep his political station.

Thokozani Khupe is the vice-president to Morgan Tsvangirai in the MDC-T and she is the deputy prime- minister. In the party and in government she deputises Tsvangirai but she has to live with the interesting reality that Tendai Biti is called MDC-T “number two”. If Biti is Tsvangirai “second in command” what is Thokozani Khupe? She is a shadow or just a ceremonial and symbolic place holder like a decimal in arithmetic. She too is “unpeople” and a “zwangandaba” that she cannot escape.

Have you wondered dear reader why the MDCT as an organization which did not have any unity accord with any political party but its leadership structure is set up along the lines of zanu pf that had a political arrangement of “unity” with zapu? That is why some of us have insisted that the difference between zanu pf and MDCT is that of castle larger and castle lite. Different levels of fermentation and alcoholic concentration but the same ingredients and flavor.

Professor Jonathan Moyo, that one politician from Tsholotsho, who Mugabe is happy to have back in zanu pf because of his many “talents” Mugabe said, cannot escape mention in this article. By his “talents” which are well understood they mean his industry at political strategy, his ability to command words as if he created them.

Moyo does hammer and chisel words into such a shape that delivers old ideas as if they were novel discoveries of today. Words obey him, and he is a champion of politispeak. Any political party will be happy to have him. For all his talents and service to zanu pf Moyo did not create zanu pf or has he been in there for very long, yet all the sins of zanu pf have been heaped upon him. He is said to have single handedly sat down in his closet, drafted and enacted aippa and possa. There are senior zanu pf politicians who have commanded genocidal brigades and overseen the slaughter of many innocents but these are tolerated.

For being a spokesperson of the regime for that period all the sins of zanu pf rest on Moyo’s political shoulders. Is it because he has propped up zanu pf or that he is from Tsholotsho? There are many who have served zanu pf, bigger bolder and lager than Moyo including the now political “ angels” like Pachedu Roy Bennett who have been fundraising for the genocidal government of zanu pf for years but are now delivering lectures in Paris on the evils of zanu pf.

I have been confronted by angry Tsvangirai supporters who charge that I unnecessarily bundle Tsvangirai together with Mugabe and criticize him without observing that he is far better than Mugabe. I refuse that suggestion. Ronald Roberts Suresh in No Cold Kitchen an unauthorized biography of Nadine Gordimer, anti-apartheid Nobel price holding novelist accuses her of being “weirdly positioned as one wanting to undo racial distance while remaining a beneficiary of that distance.” It is the same with Tsvangirai, while he is happy to win awards presenting himself as Mugabe’s formidable opponent; he is not showing himself willing to abandon the benefits of the genocidal system that Mugabe and Zanu pf have instituted in Zimbabwe. He carries himself more like a Zanu pf reformist or faction leader than one who wishes to overthrow the system. Angry Tsvangirai and Mugabe’s supporters should also know that I do not write to make friends but to expose what I see as truths.

In conclusion, the political spectacle that is ensuing around Welshman Ncube is not an accident but an incident deliberately and conspiratorially occasioned by the anti-Ndebele system of tribalism in Zimbabwean politics. Notice how two weeks ago, Mugabe’s parrot and poet Nathaniel Manheru was accusing Ncube of having been “a negotiator without a principal” and for the first time praising Mutambara as “his own man”. Tsvangirai was also lionized by Manheru as a political “big boy” which was also a first. This was a deliberate effort by the system to fertilise the political landscape in Zimbabwe for resistance to Ncube’s ascendancy. Just notice Mugabe’s response “only if Mutambara resigns” otherwise “we cannot “remove him.” It is now clearer than before that Priscilla Misihairambwis argument that there is an enduring fear of Ndebele leadership in Zimbabwe is a valid conclusion.

Joubert Mudzumwe and others were possibly sponsored and encouraged to mount that legal challenge to give the system an excuse to block Welshman Ncube’s rise. No doubt Ncube is a formidable politician of robust intellectual stamina and agile emotional intelligence who is equal to this challenge. The political lesson that can be gleaned from this unfortunate attempt by tribalists in Zimbabwe to block the political ascendancy of a deserving and capable politician is that the separatists and divisionists in Zimbabwe are not as commonly alleged in Matabeleland but they are in Harare and in government, What Mthwakazi Lliberation Front and others are doing is to react to the separatism and divisionism. There is no doubt any more that what is happening around Welshman Ncube in Zimbabwe is a bold attempt to fulfill the dictates of the infamous 14 paged 1979 nine tribal manifesto that clearly spells out how the Ndebele people must be undermined in all spheres of Zimbabwean life.

Dinizulu Mbikokayise Macaphulana is a Zimbabwean journalist who is studying in Lesotho, he is contactable on dinizulumacaphulana@yahoo.com

Tsvangirai fallen prospective hero

As president of the ""main opposition party"", Morgan Tsvangirai has
been too quiet or rather too slow on mapping the way forward for
Zimbabwe!

Is he tired, Is he busy enjoying the coalition with Robert, is he
afraid of him, has he given up on him, is he just not sure what step
to take next, or the million dollar question - Is he the right person
to lead the masses? What happened to the Energetic Tsvangirai??? Did
he become Prime Minister and forgot about the Zimbabweans ?

Miniehle Nyathi said " I have always said that Tsvangirai has always
cared about lining his pocket and gaining fame nothing more nothing
less". Isn't this too harsh or as they always say, "they is nothing
harsher than the truth"

Fellow Zimbabweans what do you think ?

--
Forward Ever Backward Never

Sir Shephard Dube

Army generals fighting to succeed Mugabe as president of ZANU~PF !!! General Constatine Chiwenga, General Emmerson Mnangagwa, and General Solomon Mujuru are the questers for succession.

Emmerson Mnangagwa the current Minister of Defence has entrenched his
power since 1980 by making himself indispensable to Mugabe and well
known for his ruthlessness, he and his tightknight group of top
military and security officials in the shadowy joint operations
command allegedly directed the violence that reversed Mugabe's
stunning defeat in 2008.

The Mujuru faction, led by retired army general Solomon Mujuru has
been consistant on saying that they need a democratic and firm leader
like Solomon Mujuru. "It is very flabbergasting to hear someone from
ZANU PF claiming to be democratic" said the MDC youth assembly
secretary for international relation Cde Diliza Mangoye Dlamini.
General Chiwenga is the fast emerging in the succession race and he is
well known for his short tempered wife who wanted to beat Tsvangirai
  physically at a shopping mall in Harare in the 2008 pre~eletion campagn.

Diliza Mangoye said: "replacing Mugabe with any of the above mentioned
candidates is as good as recycling him. He will be fresher, stronger,
faster and accurate in his perpetual rule. And in addition he will be
having much more military experience".
--
Forward Ever Backward Never
Sir Shephard Dube

The badly groomed Zimbabwean youths (Green Bombers)

Until five years ago, youth violence in Zimbabwe had been confined mostly to the electoral season.  After elections, youth ceased their violent ways and dissolved back into mainstream society. Even during elections, youth rarely had access to the kind of conventional weapons that the Green Bombers use today. Nor was their training so militaristic. 
Today, the violence of the Green Bombers is always in season. "Traitors" pay dearly.  Traitors are people who want democracy, who demand their rights and freedoms. No one should question the Third Chimurenga, the war of liberation by which the land previously expropriated by white colonialists is being seized. Zimbabweans should be grateful. They owe ZANU PF an eternal debt of gratitude for their liberation. Indeed, the party has not really changed from the guerilla movement it was 25 years ago. It still sounds and acts like an uncompromising, undemocratic guerilla force. In a speech President Mugabe gave on August 11, 2003, during the commemoration of heroes of the liberation struggle, he said: "Those who seek unity must not be our enemies.  No, we say to them they must repent…  They must first be together with us, speak the same language with us, walk alike and dream alike." And of course, failure to do so may well merit a visit from the Green Bombers. 



--
Forward Ever Backward Never

Sir Shephard Dube

How youth has been used as a weapon of mass distruction in Zimbabwe by ZANU PF.

Following Independence in 1980, it was clear that Mugabe intended to create a one-party state in Zimbabwe.  Machinery was required to bring the population, which had no experience with democratic institutions, into line, and it became the Youth League's job to enforce support and stifle opposition. However, the party leadership decided that the Youth League, while a vital tool in the party arsenal, was not enough. A few months after Independence, therefore, the Youth Brigades movement was launched.

The stated purpose of the Youth Brigades was to create "politically conscious youth" who wished to participate in developing their newly independent country without necessarily joining the party. In reality, however, the Youth Brigades were simply a duplication of the party's Youth League.  Both participated in state violence against the opposition.  Thus, whether young Zimbabweans were part of the Youth Brigades or ZANU PF Youth League, they were doing the same thing – and, if one was a member of one, one was likely a member of both. 

Youth of Zimbabwe Forward ever Backward never !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

RGS office bars youths from registering

The Registrar General’s Office in Bulawayo has reportedly created bottlenecks to inhibit youths from registering as voters for the next elections.
As a result, youth organisations have accused the RG Tobaiwa Mudede’s Office of systematically barring youths from registering for the forthcoming elections citing flimsy excuses.
The Youth Initiative for Democracy in Zimbabwe (Yidez), which seeks to mobilise youths to register so that they are eligible to vote during election periods complained that the registration process was not “youth friendly” and that officials at the RG’s Office cited various excuses to bar their members from registering as voters.
President Robert Mugabe has indicated the country might go for polls with or without a new Constitution this year to replace the coalition government formed between Zanu PF and the two MDC parties.
The international community has expressed concern over the holding of early polls in Zimbabwe before an election roadmap guaranteeing free and fair polls was put in place as agreed on by the three main political parties.
“The problems we are facing as an organisation to
have youths registered is that each time the officers from the RG’s Office see a group of young people with affidavits to confirm where they reside, then they know they are doing so for purposes of elections.
“The youths are given a plethora of reasons such as machines are not working. It’s like what was happening in Karoi towards the end of last year.
“They would say they are strictly attending to the Apostolic sect for registration and birth certificates,” said Yidez executive director Sydney Chisi.
“In some instances, youths are just being told, ‘we are not yet doing registration yet’,” he said.
Repeated efforts to get comment from Mudede were fruitless as his mobile phone went unanswered, while Home Affairs co-minister Theresa Makone refused to comment.
But analysts said the RG’s Office does not recognise tenants, thereby thwarting the democratic process by excluding from registration mostly youths and women.
Ironically, youths form the backbone of the country’s political parties. The analysts said voter registration should be non-partisan.
Analyst Effie Ncube said the barring of youths to register for the forthcoming polls was a systematic strategy by Zanu PF to slice the MDC vote as most youths in the country back the former opposition party.
“It’s a deliberate approach by Zanu PF to exclude the youth, who mainly support the MDC parties. Zanu PF is working with the RG’s office to make voter registration very difficult so that the youths do not win their battle for change,” Ncube.
Madock Chivasa, chairperson of another independent youth organisation, the Youth Forum Zimbabwe, also took a swipe at the RG’s Office for barring youths from voter registration.
“The Forum notes with deep regret the numerous bottlenecks that have over time become entrenched in our Constitution and other statutes that seek to inhibit the full participation of young people in the overall governance processes of our country.
“The requirements that the RG has set for one to be registered as a voter are inhibitive and have over the years denied a lot of young people their democratic right to participate in elections,” Chivasa noted.
A report released last week by an election monitoring organisation, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, noted the majority of youths were not on the voters’ roll.

Tsvangirai is as good as Mugabe

1. ZANU PF left ZAPU in 1963 complaining over tribal dominance by Ndebele people. Shona speaking people who remained in ZAPU like James Chikerema, Joseph Msika, Ambrose Mutinhiri and Josiah Chinamano were instantly labeled sellouts pushing an Ndebele agenda.
MDCT was formed in 2005 after the MDC split over several complaints including tribal dominance by Ndebele people. Shona speaking people who remained with the Gibson Sibanda led group like Priscila Misihairabwi, Edwin Mushoriwa, Goodrich Chimbaira,Jourbet Mudzumwe and others were instantly labeled sellouts pushing an Ndebele agenda.
2. ZANU refused to go into the 1980 elections united with ZAPU claiming to have fought the enemy too much alone to share the spoils with anyone
MDCT refused to go into the 2008 elections united with MDC claiming to have fought the enemy too much alone to share the spoils with anyone.
3. In the 1980 elections where ZANU had refused to unite with ZAPU they led in the outcome and their leader Robert Mugabe who turned 56 during the month of the elections (February 21) became the Prime Minister
In the 2008 elections where MDCT refused to unite with MDC they led in the outcome and their leader Morgan Tsvangirai who turned 56 during the month of the elections ( March 12) later became Prime Minister.
4. A year after becoming Prime Minister, Mugabe made a cabinet reshuffle that raised eyebrows of many in the nation but the complaints were swept under the carpet.
A year after becoming Prime Minister, Tsvangirai made a cabinet reshuffle that raised eyebrows of many in the nation but the complaints were swept under the carpet.
5. The ZANU PF leader works well with a group of people solely appointed by him, the Politburo.
The MDCT leader works well with agroup of people solely appointed by him, the Kitchen Cabinet

6. When Mugabe came into power he prioritized people from his province of birth Mashonaland West in Cabinet appointments
When Tsvangirai came into power he prioritized people from his province of birth Masvingo in Cabinet appointments (Nelson Chamisa (Gutu),Obert Gutu (Gutu), Prof. Heneri Dzinotyiweyi (Zaka), Prof. Eliphas Mukonoweshuro (Gutu), Tongai Mathuthu (Mwenezi) and Engineer Elias Mudzuri (Zaka) among others)
7. When Mugabe as President of ZANU had a difference in 1988 with the party’s Secretary General Edgar Tekere, the party’s Constitution was amended to suit the President.
To date Tsvangirai as President of the MDCT has problems with the party’s Secretary General Tendai Biti; the party’s Constitution has been amended o suit the President.
8 As part of an internal arrangement in ZANU PF, the positions of National Chairman and Vice President are reserved for party members from Matabeleland.
As part of an internal arrangement in MDCT, the positions of National Chairman and Vice President are reserved for party members from Matabeleland.
9. Before attaining power ZANU was affected by serious cases of internal violence which was carried into Government when they assumed power.
The MDCT is today affected by serious cases of internal violence which stand to be carried into Government should they assume power.
10. When ZANU was formed, its current leader Robert Mugabe was Secretary General but later became President under unclear circumstances, removing founding leader Ndabaningi Sithole. His relations with his successor in the Secretary General’s office Edgar Tekere later became too bad leading to divisionism in the party.
When MDC was formed, the current MDCT leader Morgan Tsvangirai was Secretary General but later became President under unclear circumstances, removing founding leader Gibson Sibanda. His relations with his successors in the Secretary General’s office- Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti -have always been bad leading to divisionism in the party...
Well it’s as simple as all that. You are changing the driver but the bus and the destination remain the same. Is it the change you want?


By MDC Assembly youth Secretary General Discent Bajila