SW Radio Africa (London)
Tichaona Sibanda
12 September 2008
A senior advisor to Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday said that they expect the country's service chiefs to follow the laws of the country and support the government of the day and the new political dispensation, or resign.
The heads of the country's army, police, air force, CIO and prison services have often repeated statements that they will not salute the MDC leader. Tsvangirai is expected to be confirmed next week as the new Prime Minister of the country. Meanwhile, Defence Forces Commander General Constantine Chiwenga was opposed to making Tsvangirai sit on the Joint Operations Command, which according to the deal agreed on Thursday will be renamed the National Security Council. Chiwenga remains fiercely opposed to any elevation of Tsvangirai.
But the MDC MP for Lobengula-Magwegwe in Bulawayo, Sam Sipepa Nkomo said there was a very reasonable answer to that problem.
"As a party, we strongly believe that those that really do not want to salute anybody who is properly placed to a position democratically to be Prime Minister, President or Minister should simply resign," he said.
Speaking to Newsreel a day after ZANU PF and the MDC agreed to a deal that would see the country's political parties share power, Nkomo, who is also the party secretary for Home Affairs, said they cannot claim they got everything they wanted from the talks.
"In any negotiation, you win some and lose some. I believe we could have got 65% of what we wanted, so the mood in the party is that our negotiators did a sterling job because they constantly consulted us," Nkomo said.
Turning to Matebeleland, a region marginalised by the regime over the last 20 years for voting for the opposition, the MDC legislator said they hope the new government would be fair in its distribution of wealth and job creation.
"The region needs urgent support from the government. In the short term, we need seeds and fertiliser to prepare for the planting season but in the long term, we will look at reviving the city's industry," he said.
Nkomo explained that Bulawayo used to be the industrial hub of the country but 'bit by bit' companies started relocating to Harare because of political reasons.
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Prem, I thought you would be out of this website by now...on to Swaziland! What happened?
Prem, you give civil society and NGO's a bad name by your "Gestapo" attitude to "Law and Order"
Phiri, it is not "Gestapo attitude to law and order". It is accountability which you and all your Mugabe thugs do not aspire to. As men all you lot should have fastened your belts tighter each day to allow your women and children to eat but instead you greedy Mugabe fat slobs have loosened your belts many notches and belched for having gorged yourselves whilst the children and the elderly starved. On top of that you hail Mugabe when he stops foreign aid forcing villagers to sustain themselves on wild fruits like animals. It is all just cruel shameful… [Read Full Text]
Well said brother. you see some of us are less human or can I say inhuman. We have no shame at all. Hey I think we ahave no capacity to think of the suffering of our own people. We need to be emotional about what we are doing to those who look upon us to deliver a better well being for them. We shall all die and Almighty GOD will bring to book and on that day we will pay our dues (HELLFIRE WILL BE ABODE FOR ALL THOSE WHO DO WRONG A FINAL RESTING PLACE)
My dear Phiri, I am planning to come to Harare soon to lend support on a voluntary basis to the activists of the Zimbabwe Exile Forum (ZEF)to build a monument in front of the Parliament to honour Mugabe's thousands of victims, that is, those killed, maimed, raped, terrorised to exile themselves. In other words, the monument will also serve to SHAME those people who have praised Mugabe for having killed less people than did the colonialists!!. The monument will furthermore serve to remind our kids that they should never shy away from denouncing dictators killing innocent people for their opinion,… [Read Full Text]
Prem and your cronies, why cant you just be happy that some sort of solution has been reached? You are still in your child -like state, GROW UP!
Hi kubatana6 ! Where were you when Mugabe was terrorising innocents? Hey, Praising him?? Just like trying to tackle me when you ought to concentrate on ensuring Tsvangirai gets all the support from the public to counter Mugabe thugs who are trying to derail the agreement!! They are already talking of "embedded enemy" referring to MDC-T. Why do you continue to act like the coward ? Is it for the sake of some crumbs falling over from Mugabe's table?
the problem in zimbabwe and other ex colonial countries seems to be that the ones ushered in after liberation do not want to relinquish their power.
i call them those old fuddy-duddies who should be put out to pasture. let younger ones be elected. and of course, greed and corruption. there are many of them in this world, still hanging on till they croak.
See all comments (27).
Whatever the compromise concerning pardon to the highly placed Mugabe thugs, civil society groups have complete data compiled against each of them for crimes against humanity. The successor of Tsvangirai, be it after five years, will be under intense pressure to reopen the criminals' files in view of prosecuting the thugs.
Tsvangirai signed under duress while his successor will have a free hand.
Time flies, and patience we all have!!
They better resign now!