"ED thinks I am an idiot," fumes Mugabe - prove you are not, reveal how ED is rigging 2018 elections P Guramatunhu

It is not that Robert Mugabe ever forgot the basic reasons of freedom, justice, fairness, which the nation risked life, limb and so much treasure for in the liberation war when he got into power in 1980. He did not, as we can see from all his ranting and raving even since the November 2017 coup that forced him out of office.

“He (Mugabe) said to me: "ED thinks I am an idiot. How does he think I believe their claim that they are about upholding the legacy of the president, my legacy, when I'm down because of them and when they have been dragging me in the mud?" The leader of the new political party, National Patriotic Front and former Zanu PF minister, Ambrose Mutinhiri, told Everson Mashava in a recent interview.

“People, especially in Zanu-PF, want honest holders of the legacy of the president and they condemn hypocrisy, they condemn military brutality against the people.

“He went on to say: "ED says he wants me to endorse him, what will I be endorsing? Hypocrisy? Brutality against the people?

"The killing and battering of children (CIO and police officers) who worked with me? No, no, no; I'm not an idiot.

"The political and illegal arrests must stop if the military regime is true to its claims that it is about upholding the legacy of the president. Why is it doing these injustices?"

Mutinhiri maintains that the new political party, which Mugabe has given his backing, is about making sure there are free, fair and credible elections.

“Fundamentally, there must be a restoration of constitutional order, normalcy, democracy, legitimacy and demilitarisation,” said Mutinhiri.

“The over 2 000 soldiers that are now embedded in villages and streets must be withdrawn through a credible programme.”

Actually, what President Mnangagwa and the military Junta are doing including ruthlessly silencing the people, the corruption, the vote rigging underway already including the military coup (the regime staged its first coup in 2008 to stop MDC getting into power) are nothing new. They have been doing all these things all along since independence.

Robert Mugabe has never objected to what the regime is doing. Indeed, he planned and approved the lawlessness and thuggery, he even promoted many of the Junta members himself to reward them.

Mugabe is objecting the Junta regime’s lawless thuggery now because he is not the beneficiary and hence the reason he is back to fighting for freedoms and human rights.

For 37 years Mugabe has destroyed this nation’s economy with all the mismanagement and corruption that have been the hallmarks of his regime. The nation could not remove him and his cronies from office because he instituted a political system that has allowed him and Zanu PF to ride roughshod over our basic freedoms and human rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life.

Over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans have paid the price with their very lives for Mugabe to establish and retain his de facto one-party, Zanu PF, cum one-man, Robert Mugabe dictatorship. He was deposed as the dictator in the coup last November, Mnangagwa is the new dictator, but the dictatorship itself is very much alive and thriving.  

Mugabe’s corrupt and tyrannical rule was not a mistake but a deliberate and calculated thing to gratify his and his cronies’ insatiable appetite for absolute political power and the influence and fabulous wealth it brought. Mugabe’s mistakes were born out of greed; he sold-out on the freedoms, human rights, hopes and dreams the nation had risked-all to secure for all.

Someday, when the nation has real and meaningful regime change (what happened following the November coup has left the nation still stuck with the dictatorship or being it under new management) the nation must institute a full investigation into the looting, vote rigging and murders that have taken place these last nightmare decades under Zanu PF rule.

President Mnangagwa got away with calling the November coup “a military assisted transition”. He is clearly hoping that he can rigging the coming elections and get away with calling them free and fair elections. Mugabe knows all there is to know on how Zanu PF has been rigging elections in the past and he is not going to let Mnangagwa get away with another rigged election.

“The theory or assumption that the so-called G40 members make up the core of NPF is just a spin. The core of NPF is made up of the core that made up Zanu-PF before the November 15, 2017 military coup that unconstitutionally deposed president Mugabe and illegally imposed Mnangagwa,” said Mutinhiri.

“That core of Zanu-PF as it was before the coup has joined hands with a cross-section of other Zimbabweans from across the political divide to found and establish NPF whose immediate objective is to restore constitutional order, normalcy, democracy and legitimacy in Zimbabwe. You must understand that the military coup left Zanu-PF in tatters.”

Mutinhiri is right, the military coup has indeed left Zanu PF in tatters. Nothing will please Robert Mugabe more than be the one to have the last laugh over Mnangagwa and his coup cabal by being the one to tell the world how the Junta rigged the elections. He will deliver the coup de grace on Mnangagwa’s Junta regime!