Opinion / Columnist
This coup, attempted coup isn't a national democratic project!
20 Nov 2017 at 07:09hrs | Views
THE recent events in Zimbabwe are very depressing, fundamentally because they trample upon the fundamental principles enshrined in our very recent constitution. Our constitution guarantees, in the bill of rights, several liberties that have been suspended over the last few days. We have seen houses belonging to cabinet ministers sprayed with bullets.
We woke up to gory images of the savage torture of the Central Intelligence Organisation Director Presidential Security, Albert Ngulube, who was abducted and savagely attacked, allegedly by a group of soldiers who are ostensibly "fishing out criminals" under a dubious operation they are refusing to call a coup when all its configurations and execution point to one.
Sadly, the international community seems to have conveniently chosen to believe what is happening in Zimbabwe is not a coup. The most bizarre example of this is the attempt by British officials to call what is happening in the country by any other name other than a coup, yet Britain believes the attempted capture of the Labour Party from Jeremy Corbyn is one.
It is ironic that, after clearly outlining President Robert Mugabe's alleged failures and excesses in the 37 years he has been in power, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, in the House of Commons recently, failed to tell the house that the same army generals illegally seizing power in Zimbabwe today, orchestrated "the illegal seizure of land, leading to the worst hyper-inflation recorded history measured in billions of percentage points".
It seems lost to Foreign Secretary Johnson that the same characters who have taken over power in the country through a coup are alleged to have "rigged and stolen" elections in 2008 and were also responsible for "the murder and torture of his (Mugabe's) opponents".
Anyone who doubts that, should just look at what they did to their erstwhile comrades who have now become sworn enemies in the race to succeed Mugabe. If they could do that to people they worked closely with and befriended during their heydays in Zanu-PF, what about Morgan Tsvangirai and his supporters whom they conveniently labelled puppets of their "erstwhile colonisers?"
What is astounding, though, is that it is not only the international community that is strangely supporting the brutal use of military force on political opponents of former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, but the country's sorry opposition political parties fronted by ailing and desperate politicians who are prepared to walk on top of rotting corpses on their way to a power-sharing government.
No one needs to be reminded of what the same army generals will do if Mnangagwa were to contest and lose the forthcoming elections in 2018. The same guns that sprayed bullets on Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere's houses will certainly not run out of enough ammunition to subvert the outcome of an unfavourable democratic election.
The evidence is there for everyone to see. The coup is meant to impose Mnangagwa as the President of Zimbabwe and any other reason is a poor smokescreen. Even if we were to buy, for a second, the convenient lie that the coup plotters are selling and agree that the military operation is meant to fish out criminals, why are the criminals all known members of one faction in Zanu-PF and not the other? Is it because there are no criminals in Mnangagwa's Lacoste faction? Are there no criminals in the army?
If army officials were concerned about fishing out criminals as they purport, how on earth does the fishing out of criminals coincide with demands for the reinstatement of deposed Vice President Mnangagwa? Why didn't the army, through its commander who sits in the Joint Operations Command with the Commissioner General of Police, fail to convince Mugabe to use the police to fish out these alleged white-collar criminals?
Certainly there is a bigger scheme to the operation and the least concern is fishing out criminals. The bigger scheme in the operation is about the annihilation of political opponents by a Zanu-PF faction that was losing a political war to succeed Mugabe. It is an attempt to preserve political and economic interests by those who have looted the country's diamonds, gold, chrome and other precious minerals because of their proximity to the state and armoury.
It is a desperate attempt at achieving, through brutal military force, what the faction had failed to achieve politically. If this is not a bad omen for the country's deplorable opposition parties, nothing will ever make sense to them. What is clear is that the international community is refusing to fathom, is that the demands being made by the coup plotters have nothing to do with a return to democracy.
I contend that if the political army generals behind the coup had intentions to set off a roadmap for the country to return to democracy and constitutional rule, they would have demanded that Mugabe finishes his term and gives his commitment that he was not contesting the forthcoming elections but would promise to preside over free, credible and democratic elections as part of his lasting legacy.
They should have pressured Mugabe to give assurance that all criminals who looted the country's resources, including known personnel in the army, government and the private sector, be investigated by an independent body and prosecuted by an impartial judiciary. Mugabe definitely has all their files.
The coup plotters should also have asked Mugabe to guarantee that citizens enjoy fundamental freedoms to freely express themselves including criticising the excesses by men in military and police uniforms. In this regard, they should ensure nothing like the Computer and Cyber Crime Bill is passed into law.
The political generals should also have demanded that the forthcoming elections be supervised by the United Nations and observed by anyone who wants to, regardless of the countries from whence they come. They should also have made assurances they accepted that the United Nations sent a peace keeping force into the country immediately in view of the wanton shooting of government officials' residences by a section of the army supporting one faction in the ruling party.
But nothing of that sort has happened and some countries still believe there was no coup in Zimbabwe. Clearly the attitude of the international community is complicit to the gross human rights violations going on under the current military operation. It is very sad that the international community, especially Britain, America and some European countries, have taken their hatred of Mugabe to the levels of never caring about the future of this beautiful country as long as he is gone.
They don't care if we degenerate into a South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo or any such war zones as long as they see Mugabe's back. What we have seen in the last few days is a bad precedent that will haunt, not only Mugabe, Kasukuwere and Moyo, but any leader that might come out of an election who is not favourable to the men in military fatigues.
There is no country in the world where soldiers spray bullets on opponents of their favoured politician that can hold free and fair elections. The sooner Foreign Secretary Johnson and his Ambassador in Zimbabwe, Catriona Laing, learn of that fundamental reality the better.
The rhetoric within the British government should not be confined to just condemning Mugabe but the horrifying acts of his acolytes including the recent coup plotters. Their actions will never lead "Zimbabwean people to be masters of their fate" or make "any political change to be peaceful, lawful and constitutional" as Foreign Secretary Johnson told the House of Commons in the aftermath the coup.
The coup will never provide "a genuine opportunity for all Zimbabweans to decide their future" as Johnson bizarrely professes. It is bad for the country, for the current inhabitants of this beautiful nation, its posterity and the SADC region as a whole. What is bad is bad no matter how desperately you attempt to prefix it with the word "democratic".
Jealousy Mawarire is a former journalist and former spokesperson for National People's Party led by Joice Mujuru.
We woke up to gory images of the savage torture of the Central Intelligence Organisation Director Presidential Security, Albert Ngulube, who was abducted and savagely attacked, allegedly by a group of soldiers who are ostensibly "fishing out criminals" under a dubious operation they are refusing to call a coup when all its configurations and execution point to one.
Sadly, the international community seems to have conveniently chosen to believe what is happening in Zimbabwe is not a coup. The most bizarre example of this is the attempt by British officials to call what is happening in the country by any other name other than a coup, yet Britain believes the attempted capture of the Labour Party from Jeremy Corbyn is one.
It is ironic that, after clearly outlining President Robert Mugabe's alleged failures and excesses in the 37 years he has been in power, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, in the House of Commons recently, failed to tell the house that the same army generals illegally seizing power in Zimbabwe today, orchestrated "the illegal seizure of land, leading to the worst hyper-inflation recorded history measured in billions of percentage points".
It seems lost to Foreign Secretary Johnson that the same characters who have taken over power in the country through a coup are alleged to have "rigged and stolen" elections in 2008 and were also responsible for "the murder and torture of his (Mugabe's) opponents".
Anyone who doubts that, should just look at what they did to their erstwhile comrades who have now become sworn enemies in the race to succeed Mugabe. If they could do that to people they worked closely with and befriended during their heydays in Zanu-PF, what about Morgan Tsvangirai and his supporters whom they conveniently labelled puppets of their "erstwhile colonisers?"
What is astounding, though, is that it is not only the international community that is strangely supporting the brutal use of military force on political opponents of former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, but the country's sorry opposition political parties fronted by ailing and desperate politicians who are prepared to walk on top of rotting corpses on their way to a power-sharing government.
No one needs to be reminded of what the same army generals will do if Mnangagwa were to contest and lose the forthcoming elections in 2018. The same guns that sprayed bullets on Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere's houses will certainly not run out of enough ammunition to subvert the outcome of an unfavourable democratic election.
The evidence is there for everyone to see. The coup is meant to impose Mnangagwa as the President of Zimbabwe and any other reason is a poor smokescreen. Even if we were to buy, for a second, the convenient lie that the coup plotters are selling and agree that the military operation is meant to fish out criminals, why are the criminals all known members of one faction in Zanu-PF and not the other? Is it because there are no criminals in Mnangagwa's Lacoste faction? Are there no criminals in the army?
If army officials were concerned about fishing out criminals as they purport, how on earth does the fishing out of criminals coincide with demands for the reinstatement of deposed Vice President Mnangagwa? Why didn't the army, through its commander who sits in the Joint Operations Command with the Commissioner General of Police, fail to convince Mugabe to use the police to fish out these alleged white-collar criminals?
Certainly there is a bigger scheme to the operation and the least concern is fishing out criminals. The bigger scheme in the operation is about the annihilation of political opponents by a Zanu-PF faction that was losing a political war to succeed Mugabe. It is an attempt to preserve political and economic interests by those who have looted the country's diamonds, gold, chrome and other precious minerals because of their proximity to the state and armoury.
I contend that if the political army generals behind the coup had intentions to set off a roadmap for the country to return to democracy and constitutional rule, they would have demanded that Mugabe finishes his term and gives his commitment that he was not contesting the forthcoming elections but would promise to preside over free, credible and democratic elections as part of his lasting legacy.
They should have pressured Mugabe to give assurance that all criminals who looted the country's resources, including known personnel in the army, government and the private sector, be investigated by an independent body and prosecuted by an impartial judiciary. Mugabe definitely has all their files.
The coup plotters should also have asked Mugabe to guarantee that citizens enjoy fundamental freedoms to freely express themselves including criticising the excesses by men in military and police uniforms. In this regard, they should ensure nothing like the Computer and Cyber Crime Bill is passed into law.
The political generals should also have demanded that the forthcoming elections be supervised by the United Nations and observed by anyone who wants to, regardless of the countries from whence they come. They should also have made assurances they accepted that the United Nations sent a peace keeping force into the country immediately in view of the wanton shooting of government officials' residences by a section of the army supporting one faction in the ruling party.
But nothing of that sort has happened and some countries still believe there was no coup in Zimbabwe. Clearly the attitude of the international community is complicit to the gross human rights violations going on under the current military operation. It is very sad that the international community, especially Britain, America and some European countries, have taken their hatred of Mugabe to the levels of never caring about the future of this beautiful country as long as he is gone.
They don't care if we degenerate into a South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo or any such war zones as long as they see Mugabe's back. What we have seen in the last few days is a bad precedent that will haunt, not only Mugabe, Kasukuwere and Moyo, but any leader that might come out of an election who is not favourable to the men in military fatigues.
There is no country in the world where soldiers spray bullets on opponents of their favoured politician that can hold free and fair elections. The sooner Foreign Secretary Johnson and his Ambassador in Zimbabwe, Catriona Laing, learn of that fundamental reality the better.
The rhetoric within the British government should not be confined to just condemning Mugabe but the horrifying acts of his acolytes including the recent coup plotters. Their actions will never lead "Zimbabwean people to be masters of their fate" or make "any political change to be peaceful, lawful and constitutional" as Foreign Secretary Johnson told the House of Commons in the aftermath the coup.
The coup will never provide "a genuine opportunity for all Zimbabweans to decide their future" as Johnson bizarrely professes. It is bad for the country, for the current inhabitants of this beautiful nation, its posterity and the SADC region as a whole. What is bad is bad no matter how desperately you attempt to prefix it with the word "democratic".
Jealousy Mawarire is a former journalist and former spokesperson for National People's Party led by Joice Mujuru.
Source - Jealousy Mawarire
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