|
|
Zimbabwe: Mugabe Chickens Out of 5 Rallies
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Bulawayo
President Robert Mugabe was forced last week to cancel five rallies scheduled for Matabeleland after being advised they would be boycotted by supporters switching to one of his main challengers, Simba Makoni.
Observers say Makoni staged a major coup against Mugabe when he convinced Zanu PF politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa to back his bid for the presidency. The former ZIPRA intelligence supremo is still regarded as a hero in Matabeleland.
Since launching his campaign for a sixth term, Mugabe has not held rallies in major urban centres. He held his first rallies in Harare yesterday.
Mugabe has cancelled rallies in Gwanda, Binga and Bulawayo at the last minute.
The latest cancellation was on Thursday where the Zanu PF provincial executive was only informed a day before Mugabe was billed to visit two schools and Stanley Square in Makokoba to hand over grinding mills, computers and buses as part of his campaign.
Sources said the rallies were cancelled after meetings called by Women’s Affairs minister, Oppah Muchinguri last week to prepare for Mugabe’s rallies were poorly attended.
This reportedly led to the conclusion that the party structures had been infiltrated by Makoni’s supporters who were allegedly sabotaging Mugabe’s campaign.
To save face, Mugabe has reportedly assigned trusted war veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda to lead the mobilisation of party supporters.
After the embarrassment of the cancellations, a meeting was reportedly held on Thursday between 46 officials whose suspension from the party was recently lifted, and the McLoud Tshawe provincial executive, to try to patch up the divisions that have thrown the Zanu PF campaign into disarray.
The officials were suspended last year for supporting Sibanda during his campaign to have Mugabe endorsed as the party’s presidential candidate.
Mugabe will now be expected to address two rallies, at Stanley Square and Inkanyezi primary school today, amid fears of a poor turnout. Zanu PF provincial spokesman, Effort Nkomo yesterday confirmed Mugabe would be in the city today.
But sources said Mugabe no longer trusted the Zanu PF leadership in Matabeleland as he believed they were Dabengwa sympathisers.
Sources said Dabengwa draws a lot of sympathy from a number of Zanu PF candidates and officials in Matabeleland who are openly campaigning for Makoni.
This has been confirmed by Industry and International Trade minister, Obert Mpofu who recently told Mugabe that a number of Zanu PF heavyweights were “decampaigning” him in the region.
Recently, Mugabe was forced to cancel a rally at Tinde Secondary School in Binga after his party failed to convince the villagers to attend.
Last week, Matabeleland North governor Sithokozile Mathuthu told Vice-President Joice Mujuru during a rally in Binga that several members of the Zanu PF district co-ordinating committee had been suspended for campaigning for Makoni and failing to organise Mugabe’s so-called star rally.
“We have discovered that they were working with us during the day, but during the night they would be busy campaigning for Makoni,” Mathuthu said.
Yesterday, Zanu PF provincial chairman Headman Moyo refused to comment on the cancellation of the Binga rally.
Mugabe is scheduled to address a rally in Hwange tomorrow, after indications that Binga had “already been taken by Makoni’s people”, sources said.
|
After cancelling another rally in the Gwanda South constituency Mugabe had been billed to visit Gwanda town on a date yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, Dabengwa who has been on a whirlwind tour of Matabeleland campaigning for Makoni, has attracted substantial crowds.
In Binga last week, he reportedly attracted an average of 2 000 people at campaign meetings while Mujuru addressed less than 200 people at Lisulu in Binga. On Thursday, Mujuru postponed a rally by more than five hours in Dete after another poor turnout.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Zimbabwe Standard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
