WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-04-04 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
by Susan Njanji
Harare – Zimbabwe’s hitherto impeccably loyal armed forces, whose chief of staff has vowed to withhold the salute from opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, are seen as key to Robert Mugabe’s survival hopes.
Analysts say Mugabe might have already agreed to stand down after his poor showing, according to unofficial returns in weekend elections were it not for a hardline clique of security chiefs who were central to the campaign for a sixth term in office.
“If it was according to him he would have… accepted that he has lost, and be ready to go,” said political analyst Brian Kagoro.
| ‘All presidents are hostage to social classes’ |
“But all presidents are hostage to social classes that surround them so they become pawns for the battle of social classes… and they put pressure on them not to go, they will appeal to his ego.”
A senior party source said on Tuesday Mugabe had agreed in principle to stand down but some military chiefs of staff were trying to dissuade him.
“There is only one person still blocking him, the army chief of staff,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Major-General Constantine Chiwenga said in the run-up to the election that he would not take the salute from anyone who had not fought in the country’s 1970s liberation war in an apparent reference to Tsvangirai.
Kudzai Mbudzi, a former army major who is a senior advisor to another presidential candidate, former finance minister Simba Makoni, said Mugabe had allowed the army to take the lead role in his campaign.
| ‘There is only one person still blocking him’ |
“The army formed the pivot of Mugabe’s election machinery,” Mbudzi said.
“The election was literally run by the army, from management of the presidential campaigns, working out strategies, to forming part of the campaign teams.”
Mugabe, who is the commander-in-chief, has made sure the army has escaped the worst of the fallout from Zimbabwe’e economic meltdown since the start of the decade.
Some of the senior army figures have been beneficiaries of the controversial land reform programme under which the government expropriated white-owned farms. The programme was meant to benefit landless blacks, but the property has often ended up in the hands of Mugabe’s cronies.
While teachers and doctors have had to go on strike to secure pay rises to keep pace with the galloping rate of inflation – which now officially stands at more than 150 000 percent – Mugabe has given priority to the military in awarding increases.
In return, the army has been prepared to crush nascent civil unrest, including riots over food shortages in the late 1990s.
The army has also been sent to augment the police onto the streets on occasions to crush anti-regime demonstrations.
In most government institutions, retired senior officers hold the key positions, such as in the national railways board and the national oil company.
According to Mugabe’s ex-protege and former information minister Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe has become a “securocracy” rather than a democracy.
Results of the weekend presidential elections are still to be officially released, but the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has already proclaimed its leader Tsvangirai the rightful winner.
Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba had said on Sunday that any formal declaration by Tsvangirai that he was now president would be regarded as tantamount to an attempted coup.
But a Western diplomat based in Harare played down the prospect that troops would be sent onto the streets.
“What we know for a fact is that the armed forces are divided. Lots of junior officers and low-ranking soldiers are in for a change, even at the top level, but other military chiefs might have a different approach.”
Harare-based political analyst Takura Zhangazha also said it was unlikely Mugabe would be saved by a massive show of force.
“The good thing is that it’s just a small pocket of the army, especially the top brass, that are die-hard loyalists,” said Harare-based political analyst Takura Zhangazha.
“Without them he would have been long gone.” – Sapa-AFP
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20080403190848916C987345