Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is implementing a de facto military coup to keep himself in power but will be ousted with the help of other African countries, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said.
“We’ll manage to get Mugabe out. Mugabe is being deserted. No one wants to touch Mugabe in the region now. Eventually, we will ease him out,” Tsvangirai told Time Magazine.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) accuses Mugabe, 84, of prolonging the delay in issuing the results of a March 29 presidential election while he plans a violent response to his biggest defeat since taking power in 1980.
Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party lost control of parliament for the first time in an election on March 29 but no results of the parallel presidential vote have been issued.
“This is, in a sense, a de facto military coup. They have rolled out military forces across the whole country, to prepare for a run-off and try to cow the population. It’s an attempt to try to create conditions for Mugabe to win,” Tsvangirai said.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Friday the ruling party was preparing for a runoff after its tallies showed neither Tsvangirai nor Mugabe won the required absolute majority.
The MDC rejected both a runoff and ZANU-PF attempts to have at least 14 seats recounted in the parliamentary vote. It says Tsvangirai has won and should immediately end Mugabe’s 28-year rule.
The regional body SADC, concerned at the increasing possibility of violence because of the election deadlock, has called an emergency summit in Lusaka on Saturday.
Tsvangirai said he would try to persuade the regional leaders to put pressure on Mugabe to step down.
SADC has been criticised in the past for failing to pressure Mugabe despite the economic collapse in Zimbabwe, now suffering the world’s highest inflation, chronic shortages of food and fuel and a near worthless currency.
Reuters
Mugabe mudala!!retire honorably and live able bodied people to lead Zim.you’ve brought alot fo misery down there.go and rest in peace.
This is ridiculous!!!!!!!!
Mugabe in life there is time for everything,time to be born and time to die,time to rise and time to fall’bamudala please your time to go go is now’. If it was in accounts your scrap value has now gone to over negative -50%.
Doesnt somebody have a gun to shoot that old man
Mugabe please, Zimbos and the world need the Presidential poll results of the March 29 election.
I know you are human, but please you can do better than we have seen in the past 11 or so days.
Mugabe says he is coming for the talks on Saturday.Mabala he wants to bring ichitinya in the meeting.How can the other Leaders discuss with him there.
Spare us from the likes of FTJ (Morgan). We don’t want puppets of the west in Africa. As Zedians we’ve leant a lesson from this so called democracy from the west. The black man’s traitors are the white man’s best friend. Traitors have been used in the colonization of Africa. We no longer need the whites to determine our destiny. Let a black man rule in Zimbabwe. I can love to have MAKONI for presidency. This is my personal view. Good day.
Any efforts to bring sanity are welcome. I hope it will not be just another window dressing exercise by SADC. It is time for action and not empty rhetoric.
kapaso (4),
Young man i doubt if you know what you are talking about. The Guns you are asking for could instead take you and your family hideously off the radar one by one.Death and life are in a human tongue. Often, the reversal is true to what man asks for at a hundred fold against self.It could be your days that are numbered instead.I always avoid to wish any evil against anybody that i will fend never to visit my beloved children.In my life,its that principle that has been the basis of the hundred fold blessings at hand.Enemies like you stumble & fall in struggle with life time disdain while the hated gain in increase of mercies.
In africa, we break records, only problem is that we break records for all the wrong things. Longest period before an election result is announced, highest inflation rate in the world, highest HIV rates, i mean what the F is going on here!!! Do we really care for our continent???
The biggest barrier to Bob quitting is that all the atrocities committed against his people will be brought against him and he will not have a peaceful retirement.However,these are issues he has brought on his self and he has to face the law.Bob must realise that for every action, there is a reaction.And that reaction is dependent upon who gets the chance the react.His post-presidential situation should not in any way become a hindrance to the quick recovery of a once great country.The quicker he realises this, the better for all, including himself.He has not tasted the wrath of paid to wound imbeciles like he did on opposition leaders, so this will be actually be a good lesson to him.
Ba Lungu(1),
Seriously….I hope this level of sheer unadulterated dillusion you are exhibiting exists on the blog only.It is not democracy.I do not see your brother in crime Tsvingirai ever ruling Zimbabwe. He has always been running away from the struggles of the country ever since.During the liberation struggles when here in Zambia we were sharing the toll with our black Zimbabweans brothers t the wrath of evil smith that took away our late legend Alick Nkhata,your partner Tsvingirai ran away but engaged some mole to feed him on the Chinumunenga ops to keep Smith briefed remotely at a fee.During the second Chinumunenga he has bought out at US $20million.
Tsavingirai is in a self delusion over-drive.His is self comforting fantasy .Who in the SADC region has a heart for him that would put his men in the harms way for Tsavingirai to get in and surrender the nation to his pay masters in a contract? SADC leaders all hate puppets and are educated leaders without a heart for a Grade seven drop out known for having signed up to give up the gains of his country that got its self rule after 200 years of humiliation.While all leaders have refused the USCOM, Tsavingirai is pledged to do so in Zimbabwe without an understanding of the consequences.
13 Observer
You are right Tvingarai is the wrong person to lead Zimbabwe. I remember Nelson Mandela warning us about Chiluba in 1990 when he visited Zambia after coming out of prison. He said ‘”when there is strife in a national only those with nothing to contribute to the development of the country rise to positions of leadership”‘
Anyway, whatever the case in Zimbabwe Mugabe lost the elections. Why is he keeping quiet and not announcing the presidential elections? If he had won definitely he would have announced without any delays. Ba mudaala maanu a kulela bantu amana amukalyookezye. Do you see how Zimbabweans sell their biscuits at Inter-city bus terminus in Lusaka? They have even gone as far as Lumwana mine to sell their biscuits and others crossed over to Angola. Some of us have relatives in Zimbabwe who are now beggars. It is high time Mugabe stepped down with dignity.The days of fighting your own skin is all gone. You are no longer being ruled by a white man. Mugabe is too old.
Mugabe is like a drunk who can’nt leave the bar after closing time and resorts to wrestling keys from the barlady.God have mercy on my former hero.He can’nt see it should be over now.
I am afraid Morgan does not have what it takes to lead ZIM
why the hell did he call for elections when he didnt want election results, hes fake
FYI, President Mugabe will attend the Lusaka emergency summit
The President will attend an emergency meeting of southern African leaders in Zambia, a Zimbabwean government spokesman has said.
The meeting on Saturday will discuss the political deadlock in Zimbabwe where results of the presidential election held 11 days ago is yet to be announced.
“Because of the deepening problems in the country, I felt that this matter should be dealt with at presidential level,” said Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president.
Mwanawasa said that resolving the crisis required a concerted effort by the region’s leaders.
The move to hold a summit came as a Harare judge said he would deliver his judgement on Monday on an opposition petition demanding the release of election results.
A lawyer for Zimbabwe’s electoral commission earlier said that it would be “dangerous” for the high court to order the release of presidential election results as demanded by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The MDC has said its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the March 29 vote outright and accused Mugabe of delaying the results to orchestrate a run-off election.
Mugabe, our proud nationalist hero is disgracing himelf by clinging on to power when he lost. I hope he doesn’t want another Kenyan before sense is pumped into his head.
Mugabe also knows what he did to the mathebeleland people. He slaughtered over 20,000 people when he unleashed the military on his own people. He will come to the Hague to face the law once he is unsettled from power. African leaders should realise that they need to act responsibly when in power: And the ICC is doing a good job in promoting governance and justice.
viva levi but don’t tremble when you see him please just tell him in his face to step down. you African leaders you always disapoint us by not telling off mugabe to step down coz he is now mud
OK, Mugabe has serious senile dementia and he has placed that country’s economy at the edge of the deep sea almost sinking but the question is who is to deliver zimbabwe to the promised land? Makoni is a product of Mugabe’s failing rule and Morgan is a man who want to take the people of zim some steps backwards to the White rule? a luzibi sha ku shwa mutu.
#22, mwanawasa has told mugabe off before, i think he will do it for the sake of SADC.
Thanks #9 for those words of wisdom. Although I wouldn’t write such things myself, I know how easily such thoughts dominate. Hate only breeds more hate while love turns the heart around. The Bible says the Power and the Glory belongs to God alone, so Mugabe can’t rule Zimbabwe for eternity. That is certain.
I do not want Mugabe to stay in power, neither do i want Tsvangarai to go into power. We have to look at our own history. In 1990, though Zambia was a poor country, it was considered “one of” the most developed and modern countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. After Chiluba got his hands on the country, it all changed in 2000 where it was considered one of the poorest countries in Africa. In 1990, the GDP per Capita was $1450, this dropped to $850 in 2000. Unemployment in 1990 was at 22%, in 2000 it was 50% and now running at around 70%-80%. All because Chiluba was listening to IMF and World Bank policies which put the country in the bad economy you see today.
cont…
The textile industry was hit the hardest. Mr Patel says, “we used to have a lot of industries all over Ndola, we had 2000 employees and we where producing 2.5 thousand tonnes of clothes. Now the industries are gone, we only have 20 employees and are producing 300 tonnes of clothes”. You might wonder how that happened. Generally the IMF told Chiliba to drop taxes of imported goods and Chiluba listened. This made the Zambian market have cheap low quality products flood in, making it hard for our industries to keep up. Since the industries could not make profits, they had to close down or fire people.
cont…
Even with debt forgiveness, the IMF gave LPM a condition that they’ll council some of the debt if he sold the mines. Same thing with ZNCB, where LPM never wanted to sell but was given a condition of “either sell or we wont council a debt of $1 billion”. I see the same happening in Zim where Morgan will just be a puppet. Plus Morgan is planning on giving the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe’s central bank) to Germans. And they are stories of white farmers going back to the farms saying “when Morgan wins, we are getting back this farm”. FACT: Morgan is wrong for Zim and he is a puppet. Like our own FTJ.
#26-#28 You sure are a Crazy_Zambian. The Zambian economy got into a mess, not because of IMF or World Bank or white farmers. It got into a mess because its own leaders were stealing all the money that was meant to develop the country and they are still doing it today. Its called corruption and it is a way of life in Zambia. When someone says “We do it the African way” they usually mean “We do it the corrupt way”
Since everyone needs good neighbours, all you guys in Zed should stage a peaceful demonstration on Saturday to show sympathy with the opposition MDC. The MDC needs all the help, regardless how big or small to remove Bob from power.
#29
I do admit corruption was in play in the destruction of the Zambian economy. But that does not mean the IMF or World Bank policies never came into play. Lets say you’ve got two products (X-Zambian AND Y-Malawian). Product X costs $2 and Product Y costs $1.50 without taxes and $2.25 with taxes. This will mean (putting quality aside) that human nature coming into play, people would prefer the Zambian product to the Malawian product because its cheaper. However the IMF tells the govt to drop import taxes and product Y drops in price to $1.75. People will stop buying the Zambian product and go for the Malawian product. Killing the Zambian products industries since no one is buying it anymore
#31 This is called Free Market Economy. The idea is, if you can buy it fo $1.75, why waste your time making it for $2.25. Why not spend your time doing something more profitable, like producing more copper (which Malawi does not have).
At the end of the day the consumer is the winner, because he gets his stuff for ther best possible price, instead of paying a price which has been artificially inflated by government taxes
#32
Then what happens if the copper runs out. You just cant rely on raw materials. You have to produce finished goods. Raw material economies always fluctuate. If the copper price is high, the economy is booming, if the copper price goes low, the economy is in slumps. You have to think of finished goods. Weather its free market, the govt has to put in measures to protect local industries. Its either they increase import taxes or drop industrial taxes for the local industries so they can be employment.
#33 Bottom line is …Why waste your time making something for $3, if you can buy it for $2. That is like asking someone to dig a hole and fill it up again, just to keep them employed. Competition is healthy.
WHEN WILL AFRICAN LEADERS STOP BEING SELFISH,HOW CAN AN 84 YEARS OLD GRAND FATHER STILL CLING TO POWER AFTER 28 YEARS OF
BRUTAL RULE.THIS IS A BIG CHALLANGE TO SADC LEADERS,WE ARE
WATCHING TO SEE IF AT ALL YOU PRESIDENTS GOT TEETH TO BITE.
EXIT SEKURU,ENTER MORGAN!!!
Ba mudala ba Robert, ala kuya bebele.
Why don’t you want to leave the seat for others also to come and taste the sweetness of that seat you are clinging to? ALA TWALAMILUKA MWE!
Bamudala suminenifye. Lekeni abaice baleteko new ideas. Namukota fye. Abanenu bonse balisumina.
Maybe i should sleep with Grace Mugabe!
It will be very interesting to have President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai at the Lusaka summit.SADC must organize a good shona interpreter to deduct from Morgan Tsvangirai’s broken Grade seven English characterized with shona. With Morgan Tsvangirai’s serious natural communication deficiencies, it will be interesting to be pitched with the master of rhetoric Mugabe who Blair and Gordon fear to take on in debates.
Shua in Zim no1 can take one for the team and get rid of Bob? im sure he’d be pardoned by the next pres. Elo is Morgan he next best alternative.. awe fya shupa ku Zim..lol. Remeber when they used to look down on us Zambians?
im glad our pres. has taken initiative by hosting SADC meeting on Zim. well done ba Mwanawasa
Crazy Zambian #26.The people who stood to be elected for president of Zim are three and you know them.Zimbos voted for what was on offer.Elections are over. We are now awaiting release of results.Wishful thinking wo’nt help.The ‘good’ thing about the Zim situ is that no party has absolute majority to override other parties as was the case with Zed in 91.So we could expect a balanced approach to national issues…hopefull? Again bravo Levy for coming in handy.Yo’ve told Old Bob before that his spade is not a big spoon!