Mugabe warns against political violence

Mugabe warns against political violence
By George Chellah in Harare, Zimbabwe
Sunday May 18, 2008 [04:00]

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has said genuine support for the ZANU-PF will not come through coercion and violence. And President Mugabe has warned of a possible demise of the ruling party in the forthcoming presidential runoff. Addressing the 73rd ordinary session of the ZANU-PF Central Committee at the party’s headquarters on Friday, President Mugabe warned against political violence.

"Our fist is against white imperialism, it is a fist for the people of Zimbabwe, never a fist against them. Support comes from persuasion, not from pugilism. Let us build genuine support for the party and such support cannot come through coercion or violence,"

President Mugabe said. "In the same vein, I want to warn the MDC and its white supporters because we have disturbing evidence of motorized gangs trained and equipped by the MDC and of returning white farmers who have been visiting terror on villages and party supporters. The MDC and its supporters are playing a dangerous game."
And President Mugabe said the ZANU-PF went into the elections a bickering and divided party.

He said the party was not united and that it dangerously operated at cross-purposes.
"What was amazing was that a party facing such formidable external enemies, a party which had upset such powerful interests, a party therefore whose very survival was under threat, could afford to bicker and indulge in internecine squabbles.

We were either bravely mocking a horrible destiny or simply foolhardy. Either way, we were quoting doom," President Mugabe said. "It should have been clear, as it must now, that as ZANU-PF, our fate is one and inextricable, our fortunes, the very fortunes of this collectivity we call Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. ZANU-PF is no phoenix: that legendary Arabian bird said to set fire to itself before rising anew from its ashes! If we allow ourselves to go, we are gone! We have enough examples all around us to draw useful lessons on the fate and aftermath of strong liberation movements and their anti-imperialist governments once they are ousted."

President Mugabe said during the harmonised elections ZANU-PF structures were in deep slumber in circumstances of an all-out war.
"Comrades, the March 29 harmonised elections delivered mixed results to our party. For the first time in our history, we have lost our majority in Parliament, although we retained it in the Senate. Local government election results indicate we may have just an edge over the opposition," President Mugabe said. " Although the presidential result did not yield an outright winner, it was indeed disastrous. Nevertheless we are set for a second
round, called a run-off, which now must decide the winner."

He said it was terrible to see the party structures so embattled.
"As leaders we share the blame from the national level to that of the branch chairman," President Mugabe said.

He said it was clear, as it has always been that a ZANU-PF defeat is a victory for the Rhodesian settler and not the MDC, which is a mere instrument for disguising that overriding interest.

"It is a victory for the British and Americans who arch over their white kith and kin here, themselves beachhead of Western imperialism," President Mugabe said. "The fall of ZANU-PF, therefore, is the fall of Zimbabwe as a sovereign nation, indeed the displacement of our people's interests by those of imperialism. We have to be alive to our responsibilities as leaders of a party of liberation."

President Mugabe also took some time to hint on his succession.
"Succession is a fact of biology, of life. No one individual lives forever. No one individual governs forever. I have to be succeeded. But we should never mistake the succession of individuals with the succession of ZANU-PF by the Rhodesian Front, however disguised. ZANU-PF cannot be succeeded by a Rhodesian opposition. Zimbabwe cannot be succeeded by Rhodesia," he said.

President Mugabe said there was a crucial run-off ahead hence the party must use it to repair the damage and shortcomings which it suffered in the harmonized elections.
"The bitter rivalry of the party primaries must make way for unity of purpose. All party members, whether defeated or triumphant in the party primaries or national elections, must work for the victory of the President," said President Mugabe. "Whether you won or lost at whichever level of contest, today the hope of your future political career lies in ZANU-PF winning Presidency. Let's go back to work."