Zimbabwe -- Hogwash handidi

Zimbabwe Independent ^ | June 21, 2002

[Clive]

Hogwash handidi

ARE you part of the conspiracy? It seems everybody else is. The pages of the official press daily announce new plots against the government. But nobody seems to be taking any notice. Perhaps it is a case of having "cried wolf" too often. Or perhaps the public have other things on their minds.

Last Wednesday the Herald published an article by somebody calling himself Morgan Handidi who wove a convoluted web of intrigue that tied in British High Commissioner Brian Donnelly, the MDC, the Selous Scouts, the Law Society, Amani Trust, something called Mumvuri waDavid Coltart, a cartel of black businessmen, the CFU, and a number of hit squads.

Donnelly, we were told, would be supervising the MDC's "Milosevic-option" mass action programme, "commanding operations from high-tech mobile communications centres throughout the country". But MDC activists intent on attacking senior Zanu PF officials, government property and strategic installations would have to reckon with an armed national guard, the writer warned, which had been rehearsing for just such an eventuality.

The strategy being put in place by British covert operatives was designed to leave casualties among MDC activists in order to create a pretext for US and British intervention, Handidi said, perhaps preparing us for casualties of a less external provenance. Citing sources in the regional intelligence community, the writer said that Zanu PF mobilised and armed its militant youths following Cain Nkala's murder. The skirmishes that saw the burning down of the Bulawayo and Kwekwe MDC offices were "quickly contained by security forces who are aware of the Zanu PF youth grand plan to hunt down MDC terrorists and their families".

MDC officials were alleged to have colluded with "Rhodesian forces concentrated in the Matabeleland region to organise and arm themselves in preparation for doomsday".

Then we had the widely-discredited Uganda training story thrown in for good measure, followed by NGOs such as the Amani Trust which was said to be working with the British to protect "MDC thugs". Amani Trust will be banned at the first sign of disturbances, we were warned.

Any credibility which this silly story had left was effectively sabotaged by the claim that "the peace which is prevailing today was identified as a direct result of the democratic principles which the government has adhered to since 1980, namely the holding of regular parliamentary elections which have allowed citizens to choose their own leaders."

If you believe that you might possibly have believed the rest!

But the story does contain significant new dimensions. The security service was said to be monitoring civic and militant groups aligned to Zanu PF "which have taken it upon themselves to eliminate the same threats".

"A recent security brief prepared for a joint security meeting revealed the existence of two shadowy groups aligned to the MDC and Zanu PF respectively," we were told.

Waiting to pounce is a group of known MDC activists "currently on the run who have some kind of military training and have plans to target its own leadership including Mr Tsvangirai, as well as members of the diplomatic community, and blame it on Zanu PF".

There we Handidily have what could well be Zanu PF's game plan masquerading as a plot by the MDC. Messrs Tsvangirai and Donnelly: You have been warned!

The security authorities, Handidi told us, are most concerned by the Mumvuri waColtart whose correspondence has been intercepted by security agents. They have armed themselves from caches on the Mozambique border left over from the liberation war, we are informed, and also weapons clandestinely obtained from the DRC war front.

"Intercepted communications in the hands of the security agents expose a nationwide plan to pick out and shoot MDC youths who are currently being mobilised to undertake the mass action."

The author of this clumsy threat explains that "some members of this shadowy group are suspected to be working closely with some members of the security forces who are sympathetic to the group's cause".

That would of course explain any involvement by security- force members.

Armed robbers and criminals are also involved, just in case anybody had been left out! These have been "tasked to kidnap and murder Zanu PF district and provincial leaders under coordination from the British-supplied high-tech mobile communication stations being manned by white activists, mainly CFU members and former members of the Rhodesian forces".

Just to cap this bizarre and improbable plot, the security service, we are told, has found a "missing link" following the arrest of the Law Society's "Stanford" Moyo and Wilbert Mapombere who can allegedly be linked to the British High Commission.

If there is a "Missing Link" it is surely the author of this hogwash. Why does Morgan Handidi suppose that if the public are not prepared to swallow Zanu PF's Uganda/ Denmark/MDC training stories, Ari Ben-Menashe or the anthrax plot, they will swallow this hokum?

But there is more. Handidi identifies individuals within the MDC who he thinks are more "pragmatic" and with whom Zanu PF can work. They include Harare mayor Elias Mudzuri, UZ Professor Mukonoweshuru, Prof Gordon Chavunduka, and Prof Masipula Sithole.

In a revealing remark about his own credentials, the author claims these individuals would be prepared to steer the MDC towards a Pan-Africanist future government. They may even obtain Zanu PF's "blessing" to head the next government!

This is all in a sense newsworthy. Zanu PF appears ready to concede the instruments of power to duly anointed MDC personalities. It discloses the existence of an "armed national guard" and elements in Zanu PF prepared to "hunt down" and "eliminate" the threat posed by political opponents.

But it does more than that. It vividly exposes the delusional thinking at the top of Zanu PF. And it fails to grasp the extent of national alienation beyond President Mugabe's parched rural fiefdom. If the named individuals in the MDC got into bed with Morgan Handidi and his crowd of failed politicians it would be the political kiss of death for them. And they know it.

If Handidi has evidence of hit squads and plots to overthrow the regime, not to mention unreliable elements in the security forces, presumably he will hand his information to the police. Otherwise the public may conclude that his exposé is nothing more than partisan posturing!

[Clive]

The title is a play on Handidi's name

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[Clive]

I should explain:

Morgan Handidi is a pseudonym, meaning "I don't want Morgan", referring to Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition MDC party.

So the author's title is a play on the play.

"I don't want hogwash"