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Zimbabwe: Dabengwa Dumps Mugabe for Makoni
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Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)
2 March 2008
Posted to the web 2 March 2008
Kholwani Nyathi
Bulawayo
Zanu PF politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa yesterday ended speculation of his links to former finance minister Simba Makoni when he joined him at the high table at a rally in White City Stadium.
Dabengwa, a former Home Affairs minister and Zipra intelligence chief during the liberation struggle was unveiled at the official launch of Makoni's campaign, as one of a number of key Zanu PF heavyweights backing him, in his challenge to replace Robert Mugabe as president.
The war hero was joined at the table by the former Speaker of Parliament, Cyril Ndebele, a highly respected lawyer who featured in the talks which finally led to the Lancaster House agreement.
A number of former senior ZIPRA commanders stood in solidarity with the civilians.
Their virtual defection from Mugabe's splintering Zanu PF sounded the beginning of a death knell to the Unity Accord between PF Zapu and Zanu PF.
The former Zipra commanders included Roma Nyathi, a deputy to the late commander of ZIPRA, Lookout Masuku.
Nyathi is co-ordinating Makoni's presidential election campaign in Matabeleland.
Observers cite Dabengwa's defection as effectively delivering a share of the crucial Matabeleland vote to Makoni in the 29 March election.
Makoni, whose defection shocked Mugabe into resorting to foul language, has emerged as the 84-year-old veteran politician's main challenger, along with the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai.
"The media has been coming up with all kinds of speculation and mistruths about where I stand, the latest being The Chronicle," Dabengwa told a well- attended meeting of business leaders ahead of the rally at the stadium. "I have never responded to any of the allegations.
"I am doing it today the 1st of March in launching this Kusile/Mavambo/Dawn, Simba Makoni campaign."
Dabengwa said for a long time he had tried to work with fellow politburo members to facilitate a "smooth transition" after realising that the Zanu PF leadership "was getting old". Dabengwa is 69.
He said one such discussion was in Cape Town, where he met Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister and Makoni and they agreed that it had become urgent to replace the aging leadership.
But their efforts came to nothing, frustrated by Mugabe's unwillingness to give way.
Dabengwa said Mugabe had betrayed the trust of his colleagues after making a u-turn on his pledge to retire after encouraging them to openly discuss his succession.
"It's not regime change, it's leadership change," he said. "We are saying they have played their role and we wish to thank them for what they have done for the country and it's now time they gave way to new leadership, that is up to the challenges facing the country."
He said they had tried to "drum up the message" to Mugabe during the Zanu PF special congress in December, which endorsed him as the party's presidential candidate.
Dabengwa said: "We were defeated and ended up with a presidential candidate we felt should be replaced. We came up with this rescue operation, to say we could not have our leadership failing to the likes of Tsvangirai, which will see us going back to the Zambian situation where out of desperation they replaced Kenneth Kaunda with Frederick Chiluba."
Mugabe, facing probably his greatest electoral challenge since independence says Makoni is a "political prostitute", who would lose the election because he did not have a party.
But Dabengwa said they would not respond to the "insults" because it would be disrespectful to "answer back an old man".
Dabengwa refused to accept any government appointment after he lost his in the 2000 parliamentary elections to Gibson Sibanda, the pro-Senate MDC's vice-president.
Last year, he reportedly questioned the way Mugabe was endorsed as the party's candidate, which he felt violated the Zanu PF constitution.
During the Gukurahundi military campaign that claimed the lives of more than 20 000 civilians in Matabeleland and the Midlands, Dabengwa was jailed on trumped up treason charges.
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He has criticised the 1987 Unity Accord, saying it favoured the original Zanu PF and has called for compensation for the survivors of the 20 000 victims.
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Dr. Dabengwa's announcement of support for Dr. Makoni goes a long way to clarifying the situation for the upcoming election. With two candidates for President, instead of three, there would be less danger of a protracted and more devisive outcome.
I hope President Mugabe will take this opportunity to drop out of the race for President and quietly leave the country.
Under good leadership, Zimbabwe can be back on its feet in a matter of a few years. We are a peaceful, creative, and hardworking people. Given opportunities, we can be the African Economic Tiger.
Our infrastructure is... [Read Full Text]
I hope that this year may see a return to normalcy in Zimbabwe. It will take many years and capital to rebuild Zimbabwe's infrastructure to meet Zimbabweans' aspiration. Zimbabwe is a rich country - lot of minerals, agricultural land, sunshine (for solar energy!!), tourist potential and still a large educated population, though a large number are outsided Zimbabwe (hopefully can be attracted back). The challenges are huge: HIV, crumbling infractucture and education but they are not insurmountable. The saddest thing in the last few years has been to watch the meteoric rise in global commodity prices and Zimbabwe missing on... [Read Full Text]
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