Zimbabwe army generals are not a threat, says Dabengwa

ZAPU leader Dumiso Dabengwa says army generals who have threatened to veto the political transition if President Mugabe loses the forthcoming election cannot  stand in the way of a popularly elected government.

Dabengwa said even the Rhodesian army commanders including general Peter Walls had vowed not to accept a rule by "terrorists", but when push came to shove after President Mugabe's 1980 electoral victory, the army was following civilian orders.

MDC-T leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai wants polls to elect a successor to the coalition government delayed to allow what he describes as re-alignment of the country's security sector, among other key reforms.

Tsvangirai claims he has repeatedly been advised by pro-Mugabe generals that they would not allow him to take over power even if he won the elections.

Several top commanders have also issued statements insisting they would not serve under a president who did not participate in the country's liberation struggle, a barely veiled reference to the MDC-T leader.

Tsvangirai believes the generals planned the brutalisation of his supporters after he beat Mugabe in the first round of the presidential ballot in 2008.

But Zapu president, Dumiso Dabengwa - a top Zipra commander during the independence war - told reporters in Harare Wednesday that the threats were par for the course.

Dabengwa, who served as home affairs minister but later quit Zanu PF to revive Zapu, said similar threats were made by Ian Smith's generals before independence in 1980.

"I think the issue of a threat that hangs along the power that the security sector might have, it's not threat at all I don't see it," he said.

"Up to Lancaster I and (Josiah) Tongogara asked to meet General (Peter) Walls, when we were already agreed on the ceasefire and we wanted to agree and discuss on certain details which would apply during the ceasefire.

"He (General Walls) used to say we are terrorists but immediately after we set foot on home soil and we met under the ceasefire commission he was talking and saluting us and listened to what we said."

The country's security service chiefs first threatened to block Tsvangirai from power in 2002 when, led by then Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe, they declared that the presidency was a "straitjacket".

"Let it be known that the highest office on the land is a "straight jacket" whose occupant is expected to observe the objectives of the liberation struggle," Zvinavashe, flanked by the heads of the other security services, told a press conference in a widely condemned statement.

"We will therefore not accept, let alone support or salute anyone with a different agenda that threatens the very existence of our sovereignty, our country and our people."

Mugabe tried to explain the anxieties of his generals at the recent SADC meeting in Maputo where he said most of them were still in liberation war mode.

"These are people who were with us during the liberation struggle and they have not disconnected themselves from the liberation struggle to today. As far as they are concerned they are still in the mould of the liberation struggle and we know we have to treat them with sensitivity but l agree there is a problem," Mugabe told regional leaders, according MDC secretary general Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga who attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, Dabengwa said despite facing huge funding challenges, Zapu would field candidates in elections due this year to replace the coalition government.

"Zapu has been reviving its structures throughout the provinces quietly with very little resources at its disposal. Zapu is satisfied and we have covered enough ground," he said.

"We will not boycott elections and hold people of Zimbabwe at ransom. It doesn't matter how we are disadvantaged."
He also confirmed that talks were on-going over a possible grand coalition with other political parties.

"We do hope that the results of elections will give Zapu a victory or alternatively will give us enough seats to go into a coalition arrangement," he said.
"We are still engaging other political parties on this coalition and we will announce as soon as we finalise."