Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, vowed yesterday to press ahead with his presidential candidacy despite renewed police harassment and a warning from President Mugabe that he regarded the election campaign as “total war”.
Speaking from Harare, Mr Tsvangirai said that his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was determined to end Mr Mugabe’s two decades in power through the ballot box at the elections that are to be held by March. “Mugabe has never abandoned violence and we will see more of it before the campaign,” he said. “But we have the support of the people and they are determined to see irrevocable change take place in this country.”
At the weekend Mr Tsvangirai spent a second day at a Harare police station where he was charged with using an unlicensed two-way radio. The opposition leader said that the device did not belong to him and did not require a licence.
But if convicted he could face two years in prison and a fine of more than £2,000. “This is just an inconvenience. They want to distract me on this matter to divert my attention,” he said. He was more concerned about Mr Mugabe’s outburst on Saturday, which could signal more intimidation by the Zanu (PF) party, whose activists used violence against the opposition and white farmers last year during parliamentary elections which were marked by murders, land seizures and rapes.Mr Mugabe, 77, told his supporters at a Zanu PF conference in Victoria Falls, that the authorities would be even more ruthless this time. “It is not like the June 2000 parliamentary elections, which was like a football game where I was the central striker,” he told cheering party members.
“We will have a command centre, unlike last year. This is war, this is not a game. This is the third chimurenga (uprising). You are soldiers of Zanu PF for the people.” “When we come to your province, we must see you ready as the commanders, when the time comes to fire the bullet, the ballot, the trajectory of the gun must be true,” he said.
At one point he shouted “Death to the tea boy” – an apparent reference to Mr Tsvangirai, who has been accused of being too accommodating to white interests. Some members of the ruling party played down the threatening language, insisting that Mr Mugabe was referring only to the need of his supporters to be prepared for the election. Others seemed to take his message more literally.
“The enemy has been identified and we are ready to crush it,” Elliot Manyika, a Zanu PF MP told state television. “Our machinery is now sharpened and we are saying to the MDC: “Here we come, we are going to attack you. We are raring to go.”" Mr Mugabe signalled that he wanted to use race as an issue, in particular the seizure of white-owned farms. “We shall prove that indeed we can do without the white man in this country,” he said, promising to give the land to the people.His outburst could provoke a response from abroad.
The US Congress has already passed measures to impose sanctions against Mr Mugabe, his family, and his closest advisers. Similar steps are being considered by the European Union. Commonwealth foreign ministers are meeting in London this week. African countries are particularly infuriated with Harare after the regime agreed earlier this year at Abuja, the Nigerian capital, that it would respect the law and halt its campaign of violence. The agreement, brokered by the Nigerians, has been largely ignored.
