Arkansas Online

25th November 2017

Zimbabwe’s newly inaugurated president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said democratic elections will be held on time next year and pledged to lead the revival of the economically distressed southern African nation.

“We dare not squander this moment,” Mnangagwa, 75, told supporters at the 68,000-seat national sports stadium in Harare, the capital. “I have to hit the ground running.”

Mnangagwa, who replaced Robert Mugabe after he resigned Tuesday to end 37 years in power, spoke about the need to revive an economy in free-fall, with a 90 percent jobless rate, a severe cash shortage and crumbling public infrastructure. He vowed to clamp down on corruption and pledged to put the southern African nation back to work.

“We put a premium on creating jobs, jobs, more jobs,” he said. “We welcome mutually gainful partnerships with international investors. The bottom line is we need an economy that’s back on its feet.”

Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s right-hand man for half a century through the liberation war against white-ruled Rhodesia and since independence in 1980 until their rupture in recent months. He described the former president as “my mentor, my father, my leader.”

At Mnangagwa’s Friday inauguration, helicopters and planes flew in formation, an artillery unit fired a 21-gun salute, honor guards with fixed bayonets high-stepped and Zimbabwean pop star Jah Prayzah had people dancing on a day celebrating a new stage in the nation’s history. Such an occasion had seemed almost impossible to imagine for many Zimbabweans as the years dragged on under the 93-year-old Mugabe.

In a show of regional support for the new leader, the presidents of Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia attended the inauguration, with the crowd cheering Botswana’s leader Ian Khama for his past calls for Mugabe to step down.

Zimbabwean military commander Gen. Constantino Chiwenga also got a big cheer from the tens of thousands in the stadium. His forces staged a takeover last week amid alarm over a perceived power grab by a ruling party faction loyal to Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace. The act of sending tanks into the streets triggered the national clamor leading to her husband’s resignation.

However, the national police commissioner, Gen. Augustine Chihuri, was booed when he pledged allegiance to the new president, reflecting public anger over perceived corruption in police ranks.

While Mnangagwa said “let bygones be bygones” in his speech and has warned against retaliation, human-rights activists and lawyers already were reporting moves against some figures linked to Mugabe’s wife.

Ignatious Chombo, the finance minister under Mugabe, was attacked after the military swept in and will appear in court today in connection with allegedly corrupt land deals, said his lawyer Lovemore Madhuku.

He said charges against Chombo, who has not been seen in public since the military takeover, were read out Thursday while he lay in bed at a government-run hospital.

Elsewhere in the capital, long lines formed outside banks, a common sight in the financially distressed nation.

“His major challenge will be creating an investment climate and efficiency in government, but he made no real mention of strengthening and rooting democracy,” said David Coltart, an opposition senator. “I suspect he’ll establish a Chinese-style of governance.”

Mnangagwa urged western nations that have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe to reconsider their measures and said his government was committed to compensating farmers whose land was taken under a Mugabe-backed expropriation program.

The president himself remains under U.S. sanctions for his activities as Mugabe’s enforcer, a role that earned him the nickname “Crocodile.”

Mnangagwa was minister of state security during the army killings of thousands of people when Mugabe moved against a political rival in the 1980s, and was justice minister around the time that the farm takeovers started. He also was in the Cabinet at the time of a violent crackdown on opponents in the 2008 presidential election.

Mnangagwa came to power after a tumultuous three weeks that started with his firing by Mugabe on Nov. 6 over accusations by Grace Mugabe that the former spy chief was plotting a coup. The armed forces’ intervention and a decision by the ruling party to back Mnangagwa as its leader and to begin impeachment proceedings against Mugabe prompted the president to resign.

Mugabe and his wife, Grace, are currently at their Blue Roof mansion in the suburbs of Harare, according to an official close to the former president who asked not to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak to the media. Mnangagwa’s administration won’t prosecute Mugabe or his family and they are free to remain in the country, according to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

Information for this article was contributed by Brian Latham and Godfrey Marawanyika of The Associated Press and by Christopher Torchia and Farai Mutsaka of The Associated Press.

Bulawayo 24

24th November 2017

Former Zimbabwean cabinet minister, David Coltart, told a South African radio station, Power 98.7, that Zimbabwe President-designate, Emmerson Mnangagwa’s history shows that he was Robert Mugabe’s point man and that is why ‘we don’t have the champagne out.’

“We place a tiny bit of hope in him. We wait to see whether he will be an Gorbachev or a Milosevic.

“There’s a lot of expectation.

“Words are easy, actions are far more difficult.

“There are mixed messages and there’s an element in ZANU-PF trying to encourage Mnangagwa to go it alone and not include the opposition.

BBC

24th November 2017

BBC reports that Robert Mugabe’s finance minister Ignatius Chombo has been admitted to hospital after beatings he received in military custody.

His lawyer Lovemore Madhuku reportedly said that Chombo has injuries to his hands, legs and back and was blindfolded throughout his week in custody.

Chombo was accused of corruption and abuse of power relating to his time as local government minister more than a decade ago, Madhuku was quoted as saying.

Chombo was detained when the military took over last week in events that eventually led to Mr Mugabe resigning as president.

Former Zimbabwean minister David Coltart says: “This is utterly reprehensible & those responsible must be brought to book.”

The Globe and Mail

24th November 2017

After 37 years of Robert Mugabe’s autocratic rule, Zimbabwe’s new president Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken office with an inaugural speech in which he vowed to revive the battered economy, attract foreign investment and provide compensation to the thousands of farmers whose land was seized on Mr. Mugabe’s orders over the past two decades.

Mr. Mnangagwa took the oath of office on Friday in front of a cheering crowd of 60,000 people at a sports stadium in Harare. He is replacing his long-time comrade in the ruling party, Mr. Mugabe, who resigned on Tuesday under heavy pressure after a military coup.

The stadium was filled with music, dancing and singing as Zimbabweans celebrated the first change of leadership since the country’s liberation from white-minority rule in 1980.

“This is a new dawn, a new era,” state broadcaster ZBC told a national television audience.

While the rhetoric in his inaugural speech was conciliatory and moderate, Mr. Mnangagwa’s long and shadowy career has raised deep concerns that he still might prefer repressive rule.

Mr. Mnangagwa, along with many other Zimbabwean ruling party members, is currently the subject of sanctions by the Canadian and U.S. governments for his role in undermining democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe.

He was one of Mr. Mugabe’s closest aides for more than four decades, including periods of brutal crackdowns on dissent. Never a great populist or orator, and twice defeated in constituency elections, he has preferred to operate quietly from the back rooms. Even his exact birth date is uncertain.

He has denied that he played any role in the notorious Matabeleland massacres of 1982 and 1983, in which an estimated 20,000 civilians were killed in a military campaign to crush dissent in the region. Yet researchers in recent years have uncovered strong evidence of his role in supporting the atrocities in the Matabeleland region.

Mr. Mnangagwa was born in the mining town of Shabani in what was then the British colony of Southern Rhodesia. His family had to flee to Zambia because of his father’s resistance to colonial rule. After receiving military training in China and Egypt, he rose to prominence as a guerrilla fighter in the early 1960s during the war of liberation from colonial and white-minority rule. His guerrilla unit was known as the Crocodile group – the original source of his nickname, the Crocodile. (His political supporters have embraced the nickname, portraying him as wily, patient and dangerous.)

In the early war years, Mr. Mnangagwa and his Crocodile unit sabotaged a locomotive and killed a police reservist. He was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison, where he sometimes shared a cell with Mr. Mugabe. He was tortured by the colonial police and was kept in solitary confinement for three years.

After his release, he became an assistant to Mr. Mugabe in exile in Mozambique. When Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, he was appointed to the Mugabe cabinet, where he served as the president’s enforcer for decades, helping build the regime’s secret police, known as the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

Despite his denials, there is powerful evidence that Mr. Mnangagwa was one of the main architects of the brutal campaign against the Matabeleland dissidents. He was the minister of state security at the time of the massacres, and his CIO supported the military in the Matabeleland operation.

David Coltart, a senator from Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, has documented Mr. Mnangagwa’s role in Matabeleland. In an autobiography last year, Mr. Coltart cited a 1983 report in which the state security minister threatened to “burn down all villages infested with dissidents.”

Mr. Mnangagwa denied Mr. Coltart’s allegation. But a Zimbabwean journalist dug into the archives of a state-run newspaper, The Chronicle, and found reports confirming Mr. Mnangagwa’s comments and several similar comments. In one report, for example, Mr. Mnangagwa is quoted as describing the dissidents as “cockroaches and bugs” who needed to be treated with pesticide – his euphemism for the army’s notorious Fifth Brigade, trained by North Koreans.

“Taking both the circumstantial and specific evidence together, his intimate involvement in the killings is indisputable,” said Stuart Doran, a historian who was extensively studied the Matabeleland massacres.

“Even if we were to confine ourselves to his contemporary public statements, those alone are enough to demonstrate his participation,” said Mr. Doran, author of Kingdom, Power, Glory: Mugabe, Zanu and the quest for supremacy, 1960-1987.

In an e-mail to The Globe and Mail, he also cited comments in 1983 in which Mr. Mnangagwa said the Fifth Brigade troops had arrived in Matabeleland “like fire” and had “cleansed” the dissidents and “wiped out their supporters.”

Mary Ndlovu, the Canadian widow of a former Zimbabwean member of parliament in the Matabeleland region, says she has “no doubt” that Mr. Mnangagwa was the mastermind of the crackdown on that region in the early 1980s.

Her husband, Edward Ndlovu, was a member of ZAPU, a political party that was repeatedly targeted by Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Mnangagwa. In 1985, he was detained without trial for eight months, accused of plotting to overthrow the government. When he was finally released, a cabinet minister told him that Mr. Mnangagwa was responsible for his imprisonment, Ms. Ndlovu says.

She has met Mr. Mnangagwa several times. “Everything I know about him makes me want to stay as far away as possible,” she told The Globe. “Friends who know him well fear him.… One gets the impression of a man who keeps his innermost thoughts to himself and prefers to play a quiet game.”

Since the 1980s, Mr. Mnangagwa has held a series of senior cabinet posts and key positions in the ruling party. Corruption allegations have swirled around him and he is reported to be one of the wealthiest people in the ruling party. In addition to business interests in Zimbabwe, he became embroiled in the illicit trade of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after he led a Zimbabwean military intervention there.

An investigation by the United Nations in 2002 described Mr. Mnangagwa as a “key strategist” for an elite network of Congolese and Zimbabwean officials who controlled the trade of billions of dollars worth of diamonds and other Congolese mineral resources, using Zimbabwe as a diamond-trading centre. The UN investigation recommended that a travel ban and financial restrictions be imposed on him.

At the end of the closely fought 2008 election, Mr. Mnangagwa is widely reported to have orchestrated a campaign of violence and intimidation that killed at least 200 people, forcing the opposition to pull out of the election.

In recent years, he is seen as an economic pragmatist who wants to bring back foreign investment. Yet he retains the old warlike rhetoric. On his first day back in Zimbabwe this week after the coup, his speech to the ruling party included an ominous line in the Shona language: “Death to the enemies.”

Mr. Coltart, the senator, describes Mr. Mnangagwa as an enigma. “While he has been Mugabe’s most trusted lieutenant, and thus responsible for terrible human rights abuses, he now opposes the death penalty, has protected white farmers in his home district, and understands what is needed to transform the economy better than anyone else in ZANU-PF,” he told The Globe.

Mr. Mnangagwa’s inaugural speech on Friday was filled with economic promises, but made no mention of democratic reforms – a worrisome omission in a country where elections have been rigged and opposition members have been terrorized.

He promised that the scheduled 2018 election will go ahead as planned. He said his government wants to “re-engage” with the international community, and he asked Western nations to reconsider their sanctions against Zimbabwe.

He paid tribute to Mr. Mugabe as his “mentor, comrade-in-arms and leader” and a “founding father” of the nation. He showed no interest, however, in seeking justice for the victims of historical atrocities. “Let bygones be bygones,” he said.

Many Zimbabweans are hoping that the new President will loosen the official repression and allow greater democracy. But there was a disturbing sign of fresh abuses on Friday when reports emerged that the military had assaulted and blindfolded Zimbabwe’s finance minister, Ignatius Chombo, a leading member of a ruling-party faction that had feuded with Mr. Mnangagwa.

Reuters

24th November 2017

New President Emmerson Mnangagwa laid out a grand vision on Friday to revitalise Zimbabwe’s ravaged economy and vowed to rule on behalf of all the country’s citizens.

Sworn in days after the overthrow of Robert Mugabe, the 75-year-old former security chief promised to guarantee the rights of foreign investors and to re-engage with the West, and said elections would go ahead next year as scheduled.

In a 30-minute speech to tens of thousands of supporters in Harare’s national stadium, Mnangagwa extended an olive branch to opponents, apparently aiming to bridge the ethnic and political divides exploited by his predecessor during his 37 years in charge.

“I intend, nay, am required, to serve our country as the president of all citizens, regardless of color, creed, religion, tribe or political affiliation,” he said, in a speech that also hailed the voice of the people as the “voice of god”.

Behind the rhetoric, some Zimbabweans wonder whether a man who loyally served Mugabe for decades can bring change to a ruling establishment accused of systematic human rights abuses and disastrous economic policies.

He made clear that the land reforms that sparked the violent seizure of thousands of white-owned farms from 2000 would not be reversed, but promised that those who lost property would receive compensation.

To some political opponents, the speech was a welcome contrast with the habitual belligerence of Mugabe and appeared to be drawing on Mnangagwa’s knowledge and understanding of China as a model for running an economy.

CHINA MODEL?

“His model has been the Chinese,” said David Coltart, a former education minister and MP from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

“He will drive to make Zimbabwe a more attractive investment location, and more efficient, but like China will not tolerate dissent. If you ‘behave’, you will be secure.”

Those skeptical about the new president’s commitment to change question his role in the so-called Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland in 1983, when an estimated 20,000 people were killed in a crackdown on Mugabe’s opponents by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade.

Mnangagwa was in charge of internal security at the time, but has denied any part in the atrocities.

Many Zimbabweans, especially the ethnic Ndebele who bore the brunt of the Gukurahundi slaughter, will see his appeal on Friday to “let bygones be bygones” as an attempt to gloss over his nation’s darkest chapter.

Some critics have alleged harsh treatment by soldiers of opponents of the military intervention last week – a de facto coup against Mugabe, 93, and his 52-year-old wife Grace.

Axed finance minister Ignatius Chombo was in hospital with injuries sustained from beatings during a week in military custody, his lawyer told Reuters. He was blindfolded throughout his time in detention, Lovemore Madhuku said.

Emmerson Mnangagwa swears in as Zimbabwe’s president in Harare, Zimbabwe, November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
“It was a very brutal and draconian way of dealing with opponents,” he added.

Asked to comment, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said she had no information about Chombo.

Separately, High Court Judge President George Chiweshe ruled that the military intervention last week was legal, following an application brought by two citizens who petitioned the court to confirm the military had been right to do what they did.

THE “CROCODILE”

Since his return to Zimbabwe this month after fleeing a Mugabe-led purge, Mnangagwa has been preaching democracy, tolerance and respect for the rule of law.

Along with Mugabe, Grace – Mnangagwa’s sworn enemy – has been granted immunity from prosecution and had her safety guaranteed, part of a deal that led to Mugabe’s resignation on Tuesday, sources close to the negotiations said.

For decades Mnangagwa was a faithful aide to Mugabe, who was widely accused of repression of dissent and election-rigging and under whose rule one of Africa’s once most prosperous economies was wrecked by hyperinflation and mass emigration.

Mnangagwa earned the nickname “Ngwena”, Shona for crocodile, an animal famed and feared in Zimbabwean lore for stealth and ruthlessness.

In his speech, Mnangagwa called for the removal of Western sanctions and said he wanted to “hit the ground running”.

He appeared to have initial support from neighboring states. South African President Jacob Zuma said he hoped he would steer Zimbabwe successfully through the transition from Mugabe’s rule.

The Southern African Development Community, an intergovernmental organization, said it was ready to work closely with Mnangagwa’s government.

Zimbabweans listening to his speech said they were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, but were also realistic about the chances of injecting life into an economy with 90 percent unemployment and banks devoid of cash.

In the last 15 years, an estimated 3 million have emigrated to neighboring South Africa in search of a better life.

“I wanted to see for myself that Mugabe has really gone. He is the only president I’ve known,” said 33-year-old Lenin Tongoona.

“We have a new president who may try something a little different to improve the economy. I’m excited today but tomorrow is uncertain because we don’t know how he will turn out. He talks about creating jobs. How does he plan to do that?”

Bloomberg

24th November 2017

Emmerson Mnangagwa took office as Zimbabwe’s new president with pledges to hold democratic elections on time next year and to revive the economically distressed southern African nation.

“We dare not squander this moment,” Mnangagwa, 75, told supporters at the 68,000-seat national sports stadium in Harare, the capital. “I have to hit the ground running.”

Mnangagwa, who replaced Robert Mugabe after he resigned on Tuesday to end 37 years in power, spoke about the need to revive an economy in free-fall, with a 90 percent jobless rate and a severe cash shortage and crumbling public infrastructure. He vowed to clamp down on corruption and pledged to put the southern African nation back to work.

“We put a premium on creating jobs, jobs, more jobs,” he said. “We welcome mutually gainful partnerships with international investors. The bottom line is we need an economy that’s back on its feet.”

Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s right-hand man for half a century through the liberation war against white-ruled Rhodesia and since independence in 1980 until their rupture in recent months. He described the former president as “my mentor, my father, my leader.”

Mugabe at Home

Mugabe and his wife, Grace, are currently at their Blue Roof mansion in the suburbs of Harare, according to an official close to the former president who asked not to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak to the media. Mnangagwa’s administration won’t prosecute Mugabe or his family and they are free to remain in the country, according to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

“His major challenge will be creating an investment climate and efficiency in government, but he made no real mention of strengthening and rooting democracy,” said David Coltart, an opposition senator. “I suspect he’ll establish a Chinese-style of governance.”

Mnangagwa came to power after a tumultuous three weeks that started with his firing by Mugabe on Nov. 6 following accusations by Grace Mugabe that the former spy chief was plotting a coup. An intervention by the armed forces and a decision by Zanu-PF to back Mnangagwa as its leader and to begin impeachment proceedings against Mugabe prompted the president to resign.

“We must accept that our challenges emanate in part from the way we’ve managed our politics, both nationally and internationally,” Mnangagwa said.

Western Sanctions

Mnangagwa urged western nations that have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe to reconsider their measures and said his government was committed to compensating farmers whose land was taken under a Mugabe-backed expropriation program.

“For the time that I shall be president, I solemnly promise that I’ll do my best to serve everyone, everyone who calls and considers Zimbabwe their home,” he said.

While Mnangagwa made the right noises about democracy, the economy and a re-engagement with western nations, it’s his delivery that will count, said Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at the University of Zimbabwe.

“We must wait and see whether he will carry through on the many nice things he said,” Masunungure said. “The complexion of his government, the people he will appoint in his cabinet, will give us an indication of the direction he intends to take.”

— With assistance by Desmond Kumbuka

Reuters

24th November 2017

HARARE (Reuters) – New President Emmerson Mnangagwa laid out a grand vision on Friday to revitalise Zimbabwe’s ravaged economy and vowed to rule on behalf of all the country’s citizens.

Sworn in days after the overthrow of Robert Mugabe, the 75-year-old former security chief promised to guarantee the rights of foreign investors and to re-engage with the West, and said elections would go ahead next year as scheduled.

In a 30-minute speech to tens of thousands of supporters in Harare’s national stadium, Mnangagwa extended an olive branch to opponents, apparently aiming to bridge the ethnic and political divides exploited by his predecessor during his 37 years in charge.

“I intend, nay, am required, to serve our country as the president of all citizens, regardless of colour, creed, religion, tribe or political affiliation,” he said, in a speech that also hailed the voice of the people as the “voice of god”.

Behind the rhetoric, some Zimbabweans wonder whether a man who loyally served Mugabe for decades can bring change to a ruling establishment accused of systematic human rights abuses and disastrous economic policies.

He made clear that the land reforms that sparked the violent seizure of thousands of white-owned farms from 2000 would not be reversed, but promised that those who lost property would receive compensation.

To some political opponents, the speech was a welcome contrast with the habitual belligerence of Mugabe and appeared to be drawing on Mnangagwa’s knowledge and understanding of China as a model for running an economy.

CHINA MODEL?

“His model has been the Chinese,” said David Coltart, a former education minister and MP from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. “He will drive to make Zimbabwe a more attractive investment location, and more efficient, but like China will not tolerate dissent. If you ‘behave’, you will be secure.”
Those sceptical about the new president’s commitment to change question his role in the so-called Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland in 1983, when an estimated 20,000 people were killed in a crackdown on Mugabe’s opponents by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade.

Mnangagwa was in charge of internal security at the time, but has denied any part in the atrocities.

Many Zimbabweans, especially the ethnic Ndebele who bore the brunt of the Gukurahundi slaughter, will see his appeal on Friday to “let bygones be bygones” as an attempt to gloss over his nation’s darkest chapter.

Some critics have alleged harsh treatment by soldiers of opponents of the military intervention last week – a de facto coup against Mugabe, 93, and his 52-year-old wife Grace.

Axed finance minister Ignatius Chombo was in hospital with injuries sustained from beatings during a week in military custody, his lawyer told Reuters. He was blindfolded throughout his time in detention, Lovemore Madhuku said. “It was a very brutal and draconian way of dealing with opponents,” he added.
Asked to comment, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said she had no information about Chombo.

Separately, High Court Judge President George Chiweshe ruled that the military intervention last week was legal, following an application brought by two citizens who petitioned the court to confirm the military had been right to do what they did.

THE “CROCODILE”

Since his return to Zimbabwe this month after fleeing a Mugabe-led purge, Mnangagwa has been preaching democracy, tolerance and respect for the rule of law.
Along with Mugabe, Grace – Mnangagwa’s sworn enemy – has been granted immunity from prosecution and had her safety guaranteed, part of a deal that led to Mugabe’s resignation on Tuesday, sources close to the negotiations said.

For decades Mnangagwa was a faithful aide to Mugabe, who was widely accused of repression of dissent and election-rigging and under whose rule one of Africa’s once most prosperous economies was wrecked by hyperinflation and mass emigration.

Mnangagwa earned the nickname “Ngwena”, Shona for crocodile, an animal famed and feared in Zimbabwean lore for stealth and ruthlessness.

In his speech, Mnangagwa called for the removal of Western sanctions and said he wanted to “hit the ground running”. He appeared to have initial support from neighbouring states. South African President Jacob Zuma said he hoped he would steer Zimbabwe successfully through the transition from Mugabe’s rule.

The Southern African Development Community, an intergovernmental organisation, said it was ready to work closely with Mnangagwa’s government.

Zimbabweans listening to his speech said they were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, but were also realistic about the chances of injecting life into an economy with 90 percent unemployment and banks devoid of cash.

In the last 15 years, an estimated 3 million have emigrated to neighbouring South Africa in search of a better life.

“I wanted to see for myself that Mugabe has really gone. He is the only president I’ve known,” said 33-year-old Lenin Tongoona. “We have a new president who may try something a little different to improve the economy. I’m excited today but tomorrow is uncertain because we don’t know how he will turn out. He talks about creating jobs. How does he plan to do that?”

(Additional reporting by Ed Cropley in Johannesburg; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Andrew Roche)

BBC

23rd November 2017

The silence of South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC), especially in the hours immediately after the fall of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, was deafening.

It showed the enormous psychological influence the one-time revolutionary wielded over the party – and it was so stunned by his humiliating exit that it was unable to respond to the momentous developments in the neighbouring state.

When the ANC finally commented almost 24 hours later, it applauded the military for ensuring a “smooth transition” and said it continued to respect Mr Mugabe’s role as a “freedom fighter”.

In contrast, the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) reacted swiftly, capturing the mood of many black and white South Africans when it said: “This is a victory for the people of Zimbabwe who have suffered greatly under the latter years of Mugabe’s reign. The story of Robert Mugabe is not a unique one, and is all too familiar on our continent.

“A once liberator of his people, Mugabe brought division, instability, and economic ruin to Zimbabwe as he made the unfortunate transition from liberator to dictator.”

But this applies not only to Mr Mugabe, but to also to the party he led Zanu-PF, which has dominated Zimbabwe since sweeping to power at independence in 1980.

As Zimbabwean opposition politician David Coltart poignantly remarked: “We have removed a tyrant but not yet a tyranny”.

He was referring to the fact that one faction of Zanu-PF, led by sacked Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has ousted another, which had coalesced around Mr Mugabe’s and his wife Grace.

Like Zanu-PF, the ANC, which also took power at the end of minority rule, is wracked by corruption and violence, as rival factions fight to gain positions in government, primarily to enrich themselves rather than serve the nation.

‘Western plots’

A former intelligence chief who has used the state apparatus to tighten his grip on power, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma is a central figure in a faction campaigning to install his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as the next president, leading South Africans to draw parallels with Zimbabwe.

As South Africa’s respected newspaper columnist Max Du Preez wrote: “Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is no Grace Mugabe and isn’t married to Zuma any longer, even if she still [or again?] wears his wedding ring.

“But unfair or not, many South Africans draw parallels between Mugabe wanting his wife to become his successor and Zuma trying to do the same with his ex-wife.”
A delegate of the African National Womens League (ANCWL) chants in support former African Union Chair and current African National Congress (ANC) front runners for ANC President, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma during the Kwazulu-Natal ANC Womens League (ANCWL) Provincial Conference at the Playhouse theatre of Durban on September 3, 2017.

In racially charged rhetoric similar to that of Mr Mugabe, the Zuma-led ANC faction has condemned “white monopoly capital”, has demanded land expropriation from whites without compensation and has warned of Western plots to oust the party.

For the Zuma-led faction, the ANC, under the late Nelson Mandela, made too many concessions to white South Africans to end minority rule, and these have to be reversed.
As Mr Mugabe said in August 2017: “I asked one of the ANC ministers, how come whites have been left with so much power and he said: ‘It was because of your friend Mandela, he is the one who made mistakes.'”

It matters little to them that South Africa’s economy could collapse, like Zimbabwe’s did after Mr Mugabe adopted policies that struck fear in the hearts of white Zimbabweans and Western investors.

This is why ANC youth leader Collen Maine said in December 2016: “We want the rand [South Africa’s currency] to fall, we need those economic turntables. The rand will fall but when it rises, we will be in charge of the economy of South Africa.”

‘Look East policy’

When ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded South Africa’s economic rating some four months later, sending the currency into a tailspin, Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane defiantly responded that “the West can’t dictate to us”.

“These junk ratings have nothing to do with financial ratings. It’s political ratings,” she said, adding: “The rand falls. It fell in apartheid and we will pick it up again now.”

Her comments and those of Mr Maine show that the Zuma-led ANC faction is still steeped in the liberation-era mentality, when the Cold War rivalry between the Soviet Union and the US shaped the party’s thinking.

Like Mr Mugabe, it wants South Africa to pursue a “Look East” policy – a point Mr Maine made when he called on the Youth League to compose a song entitled “Jacob Zuma, Economic Freedom Is In Your Hands”.

“As we compose the song, can you [Mr Zuma] please be the Putin of South Africa?” Mr Maine said, referring to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Mr Zuma himself has gone as far as to suggest that Western powers have tried to kill him, as he forges closer ties with Russia and China.

“I was poisoned and almost died just because South Africa joined Brics [the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa grouping] under my leadership, they said I was going to destroy the country,” he was quoted as saying in August.

The Zuma faction is rivalled by a group backing Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Condemning the widespread corruption in government, he said last week: “There is ample evidence of capture of key state institutions to advance private interests. Efforts to divert public resources into [the] hands of a few families and individuals is continuing.”

But Mr Ramaphosa is not a paragon of virtue either.

A former business tycoon who became phenomenally rich after apartheid ended, he was implicated in the Marikana massacre when police shot dead 34 mineworkers and wounded 78 others in 2012.

It was the deadliest police action in democratic South Africa, with Mr Ramaphosa being a director of the British Lonmin-owned mine where the shooting took place.
A protester raises her fist as others hold up a banner reading ‘Celebrate human rights, End police brutality’ during the commemoration of the third anniversary of the Marikana massacre, at the north beach in Durban, on August 16, 2015.

Although a commission of inquiry cleared him of any involvement in the massacre, his critics took a different view.

“You are the one who wrote emails and instigated the killing of 34 people,” opposition Economic Freedom Front (EFF) leader Julius Malema once told him in parliament.
“And sitting there, your hands have got blood of innocent people who died in Marikana and I think it is important for you to accept that you are responsible for the deaths of 34 people,” he added.

Although Mr Ramaphosa is a lawyer who was the architect of the liberal constitution South Africa adopted after the collapse of minority rule, he praised Zanu-PF in a solidarity message to its congress last year.

“As ANC, we envy Zanu-PF and admire the manner in which the party holds its conferences with so many people gathered here, having serious political discussions on important issues that have to do with your own transformation process,” Zimbabwe’s state-run Sunday Mail newspaper quoted him as saying at the time.

This may be rhetoric, as the ANC, unlike Zanu-PF, is democratic. It has had three leaders since white minority rule ended in 1994, and is set to elect its fourth leader at its congress next month when Ms Dlamini-Zuma and Mr Ramaphosa go head-to-head in the battle to succeed Mr Zuma.

This is in contrast to Zimbabwe, where Mr Mugabe was in power for 37 years.

Nor is South Africa like its northern neighbour.

As Daily Maverick news site columnist Stephen Grootes wrote earlier this year, South Africa is “a very different society”.

“The biggest difference is that we are a proper multiclass society, which means that people vote in different ways, and fight for different things. It is not easy to completely dominate a multiclass society in the way that Mugabe has managed to do for so long. Nothing is really going to change that, even in the medium term,” he said.
Nevertheless, there are worrying signs that the ANC could end up like Zanu-PF if it fails to rediscover its moral compass.

In recent years, rival factions have killed for power.

In Mr Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal, 35 people have been killed since last year, while violence has also marred ANC meetings in other parts of the country.
If this does not end, South Africa’s reputation as a peaceful and stable democracy will be threatened.

As leading South African cleric Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana warned in May, Mr Zuma’s government had “lost the moral radar”.

“We have come to recognise that South Africa may just be a few inches from the throes of a mafia state from which there may be no return, a recipe for a failed state,” he said.

Tens of thousands of South Africans from various political and civil society groups march to the Union Buildings to protest against South African president and demand his resignation on April 7, 2017 in Pretoria.

At the same time, the ANC’s electoral base is becoming increasingly like that of Zanu-PF – mainly rural, as urban voters, and racial minorities, abandon it because of the corruption within its ranks, and its failure to tackle high levels of unemployment.

But as the protests and celebrations of recent days in Zimbabwe showed, the ANC would be well advised to once again become a party which appeals to voters across racial and class lines.

In its editorial after Mr Mugabe’s resignation, Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper noted: “The overwhelming majority of the marchers on Saturday and those in the impromptu celebrations last night were the younger generations, young men and women in their twenties and thirties who had been born and had grown up in a free Zimbabwe.
“The symbols in the marches, the rallies and the street parties were not names of people or pictures on walls. There was just one symbol – the [national] flag.”
It showed the need to transcend the bonds forged in the liberation struggle, and to rally the entire nation to tackle deep-seated economic and social problems.

NewZimbabwe.com

24th November 2017

OPPOSITION Senator David Coltart has said that Zimbabwe’s “president” at large Phelekezela Mphoko has made history, describing him as the only president in the world who never visited the country he led until leaving office.

Mphoko, a key G40 member, was reportedly in Japan last Wednesday when the military launched its so-called Operation Restore Legacy aimed at rooting out the ruling Zanu PF party of criminals said the be causing socio-economic and political havoc in the country.

The “criminals” were claimed to have captured then president Robert Mugabe who dramatically resigned this Tuesday following intense pressure from the military and his own Zanu PF colleagues.

The military vowed to arrest the “criminals” and bring them to justice. Mphoko was thought to be among those targeted by the military operation.

However, legal experts the vice president has technically been acting head of state following Mugabe’s resignation but he has not been seen or heard from since last week’s bloodless coup.

Quipped Coltart on Twitter; “Meanwhile back at the ranch, acting President Mphoko of Zimbabwe looks to go down in history as the only president of a country never to set foot in his country for his entire tenure of office.”

Mphoko was re-called by Zanu PF last Sunday together with Mugabe, his wife Grace and 18 other officials as the ruling party’s succession war came to a head.

According to the local media, the vice president, who was scheduled to return home this Friday, altered his itinerary to land in Mozambique fearing he might be arrested in Harare.

Meanwhile, former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa will be inaugurated Friday as country’s new leader, taking over from Mugabe whose 37-year reign ended in disgrace this Tuesday.

The veteran leader resigned after legislators moved to impeach him.

Mail and Guardian

24th November 2017

On March 5 1983, at a rally in Victoria Falls, Emmerson Mnangagwa delivered a threat, using language that would be echoed 11 years later by the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide.

As The Chronicle reported at the time: “Likening the dissidents to cockroaches and bugs, the minister said the bandit menace had reached such epidemic proportion that the government had to bring ‘DDT’ [pesticide] to get rid of the bandits.”

Mnangagwa’s analogy would have been perfectly comprehensible to
his audience. The cockroaches and bugs were supporters of Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) and, more generally, members of the Ndebele ethnic group.

The “pesticide” would be deployed by the Fifth Brigade, the infamous North Korean-trained army unit that had already begun its crackdown in Matabeleland and the Midlands, home to most of Zimbabwe’s Ndebele population.

The crackdown was named Gukurahundi — meaning, in Shona, “the early rain that washes away the chaff”. It was extraordinarily brutal.

By the time the military operation was over, in late 1984, an estimated 20 000 people had been killed (this figure comes from the International Association of Genocide Scholars, though the death toll is almost impossible to verify). Many more people had been tortured or displaced.

Gukurahundi is the original sin upon which Mugabe’s authoritarian regime was founded, even though it took a few more decades before his glowing liberation hero reputation began to tarnish. As historian Stuart Doran put it, this was the “darkest period in the country’s post-independence history, notwithstanding the bloody notoriety of the last decade-and-a-half”.

And Mnangagwa, who now succeeds Mugabe as president, was allegedly involved in both inciting and executing the violence.

“Mnangagwa played a critically important role. You can’t describe him as the architect of Gukurahundi, because that was Mugabe, but he was a critical component,” said opposition politician David Coltart.

In his 2016 book, The Struggle Continues: 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe, Coltart wrote in detail about the complicity of Mugabe and Mnangagwa in the massacres.

“Mnangagwa was minister of state security at the time, responsible for the Central Intelligence Organisation. The CIO raided Zapu’s offices well before the Fifth Brigade were deployed, and they got the details of Zapu structures — all the names of district chairmen and district committees. So when the Fifth Brigade were deployed, they were deployed with CIO operatives who had these names. And they literally went village by village,” Coltart told the Mail & Guardian.

“In 1983 they just killed people where they found them. And in 1984, when the political heat was too much … they changed tactics and they set up concentration camps. The Fifth Brigade would still go with the CIO, with those lists, and pick up these leaders and then take them to the concentration camp, where they were then murdered or tortured.”

Despite the evidence, Mnangagwa denies involvement in Gukurahundi. In a rare interview with the New Statesman last year, he blames everyone else instead: “How do I become the enforcer during Gukurahundi? We had the president, the minister of defence, the commander of the army, and I was none of that. My own enemies attack me left and right and that is what you are buying.”

But as he prepares to assume the presidency, it is Mnangagwa’s own words from that dark time that must surely come back to haunt him.

From another 1983 speech recorded by The Chronicle: “Blessed are they who will follow the path of the government laws, for their days on Earth will be increased. But woe unto those who will choose the path of collaboration with dissidents for we will certainly shorten their stay on Earth.”