Posted on 01/15/2003 3:42:09 PM PST by MadIvan
THE leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition party predicted the imminent collapse of Robert Mugabe’s regime yesterday in a lengthy public statement affirming that two top officials from the ruling Zanu (PF) party had offered him the President’s resignation.
Morgan Tsvangirai said that Mr Mugabe’s lieutenants had “all virtually abandoned him and maintain an appearance of loyalty out of fear. The machinery around Mugabe is now collapsing fast and leaking heavily.”
He claimed to have received reports from people close to Mr Mugabe that the 78-year-old leader had told his family to “get ready for life after his 23-year-old dictatorship”.
Zimbabwe was “grinding to a halt”, Mr Tsvangirai said. Its commercial agriculture was in ruins. The country’s fuel supply would dry up at the end of the month and there was no money to buy more.
“Mugabe does not know where the next litre of diesel or petrol is coming from,” he said.
Mr Mugabe’s “greatest nemesis” was the economy, which “refuses to bend to all his dictatorial formulae. He cannot use on the economy the same weapons he is using to subvert democracy and crush human rights. He cannot rig it, he cannot shoot it, he cannot intimidate it and, although he raped it, the economy continues to land fatal blows that Mugabe cannot block.”
Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), issued the statement to rebut a stream of denials from Mr Mugabe and Zanu (PF) that two of the regime’s senior members had secretly offered him a deal to save Zimbabwe from its deepening emergency.
A barrage of party statements blamed the British Government for reports in The Times and other media outlets, calling them “wicked, malicious and mischievous” and “the work of the enemy bent on destroying Zimbabwe”.
However, Mr Tsvangirai announced that “for the record, Zimbabweans and the international community need to know” that in December, Colonel Lionel Dyck, a respected former Zimbabwe Army officer, took a message to him from Emmerson Mnangagwa, who ranks third in the Zanu (PF) Politburo, and General Vitalis Zvinavashe, Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
He said that they “wanted to hear my views on the way forward now that Robert Mugabe had, in Dyck’s words, long indicated that he wanted to retire, was being restrained by Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe and could only be allowed to do so at such a time deemed appropriate by the two men and many others in Zanu (PF).”
Colonel Dyck had made clear that the initiative stemmed from “the realisation that he (Mugabe) has lost all capacity to govern”.
Mr Tsvangirai said that he had told Colonel Dyck that the MDC was “prepared to assist in the necessary transitional arrangements to enable Zimbabwe to move forward”, but made “categorically clear that this does not mean participating in the formation of a government of national unity or some underhand pact with Zanu (PF) . . . We will never be party to any political arrangement that seeks to sanitise Mugabe’s violent illegitimacy.
“If we are to avoid bloodshed, and achieve the change we have been trying to secure over the past three years, there is no other way other than through constructive dialogue,” Mr Tsvangirai said.
Brian Raftopoulos, a member of the Crisis in Zimbabwe think tank, said that Mr Tsvangirai’s statement would inflame the long-suppressed debate inside Zanu (PF) about Mr Mugabe’s future.
“Tsvangirai has very cleverly challenged them to deal with the situation,” he said. “He is putting pressure on them to deal with it, and for people inside the party to come out in the open.
“There are increasing indications that these discussions on succession are taking place. There will be more leaks and more pressure. There is a real sense now that he is battling. Zanu (PF) has never been so vulnerable. It gives the public a sense of hope again.”
On Tuesday Mr Mugabe said that he would “never, never, never” go into exile. But the state press reported his speech under the ambiguous headline: “I am not retiring yet.”
Yes, but hopefully they won't wait until Christmas like they did with Ceaucesceu.
he he he, If we can watch chavez, Mugabe and saddam go in the same month, it'll be as cool as the end of "The Godfather". :-)
Make that wonderful news! Throw in the Mandelas and Castro too :)
They certainly have nothing now. Morgan Tsvangirai probably did have the votes to win but how could he democratically assume the presidency? These are tricky times for the people of Zimbabwe and those watching.
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