(NEWZIMBABWE) Tsvangirai a psychiatric case: Chiwenga
05/05/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

ARMY commander, General Constantine Chiwenga, has dismissed reports security chiefs have held meetings with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, dismissing the MDC-T leader as “psychiatric patient” suffering from “hallucinations”.

Local media recently claimed Tsvangirai was holding meetings with top army generals and other security services chiefs to discuss their futures ahead of elections expected later this year. But Chiwenga told the Sunday Mail that he had no time for meetings with “sell-outs”.

“I and fellow ZDF generals are not missionaries and will never meet with Tsvangirai; we have no time to meet sell-outs, mapuruvheya,” he told the state-run weekly

“Clearly Tsvangirai is a psychiatric patient who needs a competent psychiatrist. There is nothing like that, we never met Tsvangirai, Giles Mutsekwa or anyone from the MDC-T. Why would we do that? We have no time for sell-outs.”

Chiwenga warned the MDC-T against spreading “such nonsense because it will never help anyone.”

He said: “It’s a figment of his imagination that he met us. I think he was dreaming and that dream should remain a dream and never be reality because we have better things to do than to meet with sell-outs.

“It’s just not possible for me to entertain the MDC-T leader, we are different. Just like oil and water, we cannot mix. As the defence forces we will not respect or entertain people who do not value the ideals of the liberation struggle.

“Meeting such people will be a mockery to the thousands of people who sacrificed their lives fighting for the country’s independence. Who the hell does Tsvangirai think he is? No one can make us turn our back on the ideals of the liberation struggle.”

Police chief Augustine Chihuri also denied meeting the MDC-T leader saying "I have no business talking to individuals of no substance.”

Several security services chiefs have warned that they would not allow leaders who did not participate in the liberation struggle to take over power even if they won elections, in a barely veiled reference to the MDC-T leader.

And on Sunday Chiwenga said veterans of the independence struggle would not work with leaders who did not respect their sacrifices.
“Thousands of people died for this country and you cannot change that nor wish it away,” he said.

“This country was liberated courtesy of a protracted struggle, some of us we carry severe scars from that struggle and its unimaginable of us to spit on that struggle through meeting sell outs.”

Tsvangirai pulled out of the 2008 election run-off, claiming generals, seen as fiercely loyal to President Robert Mugabe, launched a brutal crackdown against his supporters after he edged the Zanu PF leader in the first round of the ballot.

The MDC-T is now demanding security sector reforms before new elections are held this year with officials saying this would help prevent a repeat of violence experienced in 2008.

But Zanu PF has said the country's security services will not be tempered with.