Headlands: The little boy who wrote MDC Manifesto
Friday, 01 March 2013 23:47
Nathaniel Manheru The Other Side
As I write this piece, my heart bleeds for the Maisiri family which lost a 12-year-old son in a horrific inferno last Saturday. I have seen images of the little boy’s charred remains sticking out to form an ugly silhouette against a dim backdrop of charcoal.
You saw what remained of the torso, some burnt and bloated little thighs of a soul that once breathed, lived, walked, but now so haplessly prostrated by an ugly fire. It looks like he expired face downwards, as if giving his back not just to the world that would not keep him, but to all those fated to lift his burnt remains for interment.
I am a father. I have sons. It is very easy to slide into the shoes of Shepherd Maisiri, the father of this ill-fated boy whose name — Christpower — seem like a mockery or a cynic’s view on Divinity itself.
My deep condolences to the Maisiri family, and all those related to the same. My humble tribute to the family is my decision to devote this Saturday to a reflection on this tragic incident.
When facts become so rare
Yet here is one death which has afforded us a rare glimpse into the nature and depth of our own humanity: as a people, as a nation, indeed as a culture. How a people create death, grant death, receive death, handle death, read into death, gives them a character. Instances of human end reveal a lot about human nature, and this is the subject matter I wish to grapple with. First some basic facts. Christpower was in primary school.
Christpower had some congenital handicap. We are still to hear whether this was fits or down syndrome. The Maisiri family is, like most peasants, agricultural. In their case, they grow tobacco, and Headlands is known for that crop. The curing facilities were within the precincts of their homestead.
For all his disabilities, Christpower, alongside his siblings, performed some of the chores surrounding this crop, including starting the fires for curing.
Or stoking them. And in curing tobacco, lots of fire is made, is used. From what I have seen, the Maisiri family has slender means, like most of our rural families. There is no electricity at their homestead which comprises basic structures which one paper, obviously straining to make sense to its imagined readers abroad, termed “apartments”.
The term sounds like some cynically misapplied description of opulence that the Maisiris can only meet in dreams. That is always the tragedy of news: to be written from the angle of the reporter, not of the subject!
Naked fire, naked lies
Like all of us who grew up in rural homes, the Maisiris rely on naked fire to beat darkness, to cook and to cure their tobacco. For lighting, they use chibani, a makeshift paraffin lamp made from used jam bottles, with an improvised wick lit above the bottle top. The wick coils beneath, inside the bottle soaked with paraffin.
It emits thick carbon, whose dark soot one always scoops out each morning after, using your curled small finger, itself the last born child of your palm, and thus the one most abused. Most of us relied on this form of lighting, until recently when better times finally came. On that fateful Saturday night, something went terribly wrong, leading to the death of this incapacitated child.
It is still not clear whether the fire that extinguished Christpower’s life was started outside or smouldered within. The tenuous claims of explosions by persons who were also asleep cannot simply settle matters. Let us be serious. In any case the fact that Christpower’s siblings had to escape or pulled out when the house was already aglow suggests help only came well into the tragedy.
What is the rush about?
All his other siblings made it to safety, which might suggest that Christpower’s incapacities played some part in his tragic end. And this adds to one’s sense of grief. A mishap fed by incapacity.
These are the facts I can bring up for the attention of you, gentle reader. How these facts interacted or didn’t interact, to give us this tragic story,
I cannot say. I am no expert and would rather wait for those with requisite competencies to guide my understanding.
I don’t have the boldness of those in certain newsrooms who handled the matter with the profoundness of forensic scientists, a capacity far exceeding what my little diploma in journalism from Harare Polytechnic will ever permit.
I am sure the good Lord and Christpower will still find room to grant these men and women from my professional tribe the grace of forgiveness.
In the meantime I counsel that we wait for a full report from the Police, which should tell us what happened.
The day grief bowed down to slogans
I said death reveals our nature. That surely it does. Upon seeing the headline, my own little humanity was tickled. I sought to find out whose son the dead boy was; what ugly circumstances had caused his death. Equally, I sought to hear original grief groaning from the loins and womb of those that bore the ill-fated boy.
Grief is always big, gripping story, good copy in the pidgin of my profession. And this is where the despairing side of things started hitting me, triggering this existential question on who we are, when measured against sorrowful circumstances.
From news reports, I sought in vain to vicariously meet and condole with Christpower’s parents: his father, his mother especially.
But I could not find these two key characters in this story of profound grief. In their place I met raging activists from a political party, characters pouring out slogans of a party, than plaintive sobs of heartbroken parents haltingly sharing the story of their tragedy with the rest of the world. What I met was a political story, never a human interest story in a story so profoundly human.
Where is mom, dad?
Today I know Shepherd Maisiri more as MDC-T’s deputy organising secretary, and as an aspiring candidate for Headlands, than I know him as heartbroken, pitiful father of the late departed, father of Christpower. Today I know Beauty not as that writhing womb that carried Christpower for a long nine months, but as a woman activist sober enough to say: “He (Christpower) has been made to be a sacrificial lamb for the MDC and this constituency will definitely go to the MDC”.
Not quite words of a grieving mother, certainly words of an activist seeking mileage from a tragedy. Not quite words that unite us in common grief, but words that invite us to ask whether or not you are eligible, strictly on grounds of your political side and choice, to concern yourself with this tragedy.
Or even to see it as one. In all this, Christpower is orphaned by the very world he has trusted with his charred remains. What is worse, his death is extinguished by political calculation. I hear him cry, where is mom, where is dad, from the high heavens.
So we can condole with them . . .
Mai Maisiri goes further: “I delivered this son in a mountain because I was fleeing from Zanu-PF activists who wanted to kill me.... I was raped in 2008 by a Zanu-PF election agent, Lovemore Manenji, my house was burnt eight times by Zanu-PF supporters. I want Mutasa to come out clean in this matter or else the blood of my son will not rest until the truth is known about those behind the killing.”
I immediately thought of Betty Makoni and her fund-raising confessionals; thought of Grace Kwinjeh and Beatrice Mtetwa baring their inner portions to display Zanu-PF’s well-marketed brutality. Here is a grieving mother savaging her own demeanour and standing, which is what rape does to womanhood. Here is a grieving mother making key political connections - causal connections - between her son’s death on the one hand, and politics and key political players for Headlands, one of whom is her own husband, on the other.
This is how far we have come. We cull politics out of cadavers, even hold for show claims of violation of our very dear bodies, our own wombs, indeed Christpower’s home before he came into this burning world some 12 or so years ago. I want to grieve for Christpower; can Christpower’s parents stand up please, ndivabate maoko!
Skills of a dip tank attendant
What is the significance of the figure “nine” in the tragic life of this family?
Beauty, Christpower’s mother says “nine” counts the number of times her “house” has been burnt for political reasons. An unnamed neighbour says “nine” counts the number of times her husband was attacked in politically motivated violence. Here is one family whose homestead has been burnt on nine successive occasions, without the story hitting headlines! More is claimed, this time by the father of Christpower: “Since the MDC was formed, these mountains have been my home.
They have burnt my houses nine times since 2000. I lost two children to the cold weather while I was hiding in the mountains. In 2003, they stabbed my younger brother to death after mistaking him for me. They have also been attempting to take away my fields.” Again quite an extraordinary story already, before we factor in Christpower. Yet unwritten, unknown, unheard.
Would it not be more helpful for our all-knowing reporters to do simple cross-checking for us, readers, so we grieve better with the Maisiris, than delving into the esoteric area of forensic science with the exquisite skills of a dip tank attendant? And with such stalking tragedy, why until now hasn’t the propaganda-hungry MDC-T profiled this family for maximum effect? Could they resist such an awful story, they whose appeal is founded on artful victimhood?
Hatching lies
Let me move on, away from the family whose grief I still wish would one day find clean expression. The MDC-T. The key actors are Biti, Mwonzora, Eddie Cross and Timba, well before the party president, Morgan Tsvangirai, comes in.
On Sunday, a day after Christpower’s death, Biti tells the world Zanu-PF has hatched plots to assassinate MDC leadership: “I have been informed today by our friends in the security forces that they have a plot to assassinate our leadership to instill fear into our supporters.
“They cannot win any elections without using violence but we are not afraid of anyone”. This key claim frames Headlands, just before the death becomes news. It does much more. It girds the nation for more horrors.
In other words it inaugurates a psychosis of tension, violence and death in the country, leaving a brooding sense of uncertainty to do the rest. Above all, it projects MDC as the brave victim, ironically yelping for SADC and international rescue from the impending “mini-genocide”. And Biti is a lawyer.
The dossier that was already ready
Enter Mwonzora, another lawyer. He finds Zanu-PF guilty until proven innocent! He says: “The callous murder unquestionably bears the signature of Zanu-PF. It is high time people put an end to Zanu-PF hegemony by voting them out of power”. Yet he still speaks of giving the police names of suspects!
He adds: “We are going to push for observers from the UN, the African Union, Sadc as well as other groups.” Then something extraordinary happens. The MDC-T produces a brand new dossier recording 120 cases of political violence against its supporters, barely one working day after the death of Christpower!
It is also armed with wads of pictures of the charred remains of Christpower. And Biti widens the vista of his charge against Zanu-PF: “The MDC-T is extremely enraged at the increase of politically motivated incidents of violence taking place throughout the country at the instigation of the chaos faction of Zanu-PF.
“As we speak, some people are being trained in Israel for that task”. Zanu-PF and Israel? He ropes in what he terms attack on NGOs, alignment of institutions, security sector reforms and of course the need for international monitors, all this heaped on the lifeless, charred body of little Christpower. And a manifesto begins to take shape!
Christpower the game-changer
But it is Morgan Tsvangirai who clinches the point, as indeed he should as head of the party. He says: “What confronts us requires global attention if Zimbabwe is to move away from dinner-table discussions, where it has been dominant, clearly for wrong reasons, for the past few years. Zimbabwe is today standing at a crossroads.” Worse came on the day of Christpower’s funeral. Tsvangirai spoke of being given a “matchbox” with which to burn this country, although he would not accept it. This was after the car crash in which his wife perished. He added that Christpower’s death “was a game-changer”. I spoke about the dossier which is whipped out, thanks to this death. More drama. Incidents, we are told through self-serving leaks of Cabinet deliberations by MDC ministers, are recorded in Cabinet. The President is said to have been shown images of the charred remains of Christpower. Minister Mutasa, we are again told, is accused of murder of the boy by Minister Tendai Biti. The same drama spills over into Parliament before its recess. Above all, we are told that Tsvangirai has despatched Jameson Timba to selected SADC capitals, all to plead for an extraordinary SADC Summit on the matter! This is the extraordinary turn of events, including indications that the MDC-T is mulling boycotting the forthcoming harmonized elections they have been battling to prevent, or at the very least delay. Elections whose likely outcome their own people predict are likely to go against them. All this and much more is the whirlpool around Christpower’s tragic death. How are we to make of it, to make of ourselves as a people?
I now hate us
Firstly, Christpower’s death has become both incidental and integral. This sounds paradoxical,itself arguably the best description of ourselves in, and with, grief. The Headlands incident proves we have ceased to be a people in grief, to become a people who ask what grief does for us, what death does for us, when it occurs. This is why Christpower has been far outrun by his own death. Incapacitated in life, he is now once more incapacitated in his death: a creature fated to be left behind, including by those who bore him. Far more painful than meeting an incinerating fate in a collapsing compound is his lonesome stillness amid the noisy cymbals of native politics.
The dictates of politics have marginalized him, made his funeral and burial incidental and mechanical, while the centre gets stolen by princes of power or the search of it, whose calculated language begs the very humanity which pretends to inform their outrage. We are fast descending into a society that can no longer mourn, that no longer handles death as a sorrowful departure of loved ones, but as sacrifices made to this heartless god of vaulting ambition. This is what makes Christpower incidental to his own death, yet such an integral driver to politics he was yet to understand, yet to sensibly believe in, beyond genuflecting to his parents’ convictions and choices. This turn in the national heart truly hurts. This cast in our politics makes one despair, creates a sense of a humanity which is slipping away, between our fingers. I hate us.
Offering cadavers
What does it say of us as a people when we keep dossiers in readiness for a death that might come? A people ready for a campaign that only awaits a bit of gore to trigger it? An empty manifesto which awaits the gruesome death to write itself? A people who will not seek for the whys and wherefores, who will not wait for facts, for truth, but will happily swim away with slanderous conjectures? A collective psyche pointing to an eagerness for gruesome tragedy, gratitude for it even? How do we look after our children, they whose death elicit the most pity and thus a death most wished for our politics to move, they whose tragic departure assure us of “global attention” we so seek, they who guarantee us of a factor that changes our game of politics? It redefines politics as some ogre, some Dracula craving for sacrificial blood of one’s own. We crave for sympathy for ourselves and our politics, yet spare none for those whose tragic departure we wish and require to trigger that craved-for sympathy for our political cause. And to belong to a party, to be of service to your party means to offer the charred body of your own son to that party for politicking?
Adding colour to our tragedy
Dossiers are ready. Pictures are taken and circulated. Larger political demands are made by big men and women standing on the charred and disintegrating remains of Christpower. Is that our new pedestal, our new podium from which we expound lofty theories of democratic change? Enter Eddie Cross. That white Rhodesian who has been with us from God-knows-when as a believing and active instrument of settler land policy here way back in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. A good thirty-something years after we overthrow the very system he so diligently served, he joins us, all in fake, politically calculated grief, and we feel consoled in this most synthetic, white way? He is no Guy Clutton-Brock, that lonely white African nationalist who rests at Heroes Acre, presumably still wondering why no other has joined him yet. He is Eddie, a mere cross we bore in colonial servitude.
How many black children died in Rhodesia? How many of these did he bury, this white man of MDC-T? He stays in Bulawayo, but is prompt, punctual enough to be in the right place, down there in rural Headlands, when the cameras snap, standing side by side with the grieving family, face contorted with learnt grief. I suppose it adds color to our tragedy as a people. Yet is leaves one with an overbearing sense of choreography, all in tragic circumstances. Is this what we have made of death, of our own dying? Why is Christpower so blest, even to gain a whole casket in his death, he who huddled in one room with his three other siblings while he lived?
When Tsvangirai meets Cameron
The hard truth is that Christpower is the little boy who wrote an election manifesto for a party that had none. God willing, he might be the trigger that MDC was looking for in order to start a train of events that might incinerate this country, and whose hoped-for endgame is an MDC ascendancy to power, amidst its ashes. Not by ballot, not by Zimbabweans, but by invasion and violent regime change led by outsiders. You get a sense of a Tsvangirai who craves for an Ivorian scenario in Zimbabwe. You get a sense of a Cameron who is craving for an opportunity to outclass France’s Hollande is his own backyard. Imperialism has grown an interventionist reflex and we carve our own political careers out of it, hoping to wade to the throne, last charred bodies. This is why Biti is so keen to shunt in a UN-mission here, on the pretext of election funding, disregarding all protocol. It is to internationalize our little, narrow politics, never to nationalize the international imperative as does nations that have grown great.
When virginity can’t save
But this little boy may have made him to give away the game, too soon. Indeed Christpower is a game-changer. The speed with which the MDC has jumped onto this tragedy has raised eyebrows. Their game is now known and shall soon falter. The MDC-T seeks power without a manifesto, without a platform. After the Inclusive Government, its “chinja”mantra has lost resonance. It cannot mobilize on opposing ZANU(PF) it has partnered, it has grown enamored of, in the years of inclusive politics. It cannot deny sanctions it has, itself acknowledged and even asked to be retained as some leverage against ZANU(PF). And as I have repeatedly said, it no longer pretends virginity after such a long night with a virile man who is known to tear down hymen in the village. It has governed and in doing so, it has misgoverned for all to see. Repeatedly, it has searched for a galvanizing idea, repeatedly it has drawn a blank. We have had restarts, promised slimy juices, yet we still wait. Herein comes Christpower.
Playing the last card
The little boy is that emotion which MDC needs to move western mountains, that powerful impulse that by-passes so many rational questions the MDC must answer from a disheartened, alienated electorate. They can only put forward a sympathy manifesto, which is why death and dying is so key to their survival as a party. You get a sense of an overdrawn tragedy. You get a sense of a party so fearful that Christpower’s tragic mishap might perchance become a mere death, not a murder, not a political killing, not a craved-for-assassination. It must have deep connotations. And in its stampede to keep this a murder, the party has shown some very fatal, ungainly steps which are sure to rob it of even this sympathy card, its last tramp card. This little boy who gave a party a manifesto, he might just take it away. And the trick is so clear- garner maximum publicity against ZANU(PF) while investigations continue, such that by the time the results come, facts will be at the mercy of contrived prejudices.
America first labels
I have made reference to regime change forces. They have come in mainly in two forms. First, the American Embassy here. This Warthog guy, sorry Wharton, why would he rush to issue an incriminating statement well ahead of investigations? Has he come here as a reporter under USIS or a whole, dignified and qualified ambassador serving a old democracy that must know better, behave better in the host country? It betrays a predisposition, does it not? A readiness to blame, convict and attack which is remarkably comparable to the MDC dossier craving for some death to be validated and galvanized. And of course those whom American seek to destroy, America first labels. Could that be why a man associated with Cold War-time disinformation has been deployed here at this time in the life of our Nation? Is America seeking facts and understanding, or bellicosity? Let him redeem himself. Today I express fears, raise questions on motives and purpose; soon I, too, shall judge.
Sleep well, the one who couldn’t be mourned
The second form is by way of a negative campaign against indigenisation and economic empowerment. I see it assuming an institutional form by way of a sustained media coverage. Interestingly, the so-called NIEEBGATE is the only other story that has been vying with that of Christpower for the first page. Correctly so. In the absence of a manifesto, the natural recourse of a beaten political party is to seek to rubbish the unrivaled policy of the winning party. And where you cannot attack the core tenets of the policy, you seek to cast aspersions on its implementation.
As a matter of fact in the wake of this debate on the Zimplats deal, Biti quietly made contact with Implats in South Africa to stiffen their back against indigenisation. Let him deny it if he dares. The hope is to attack one case of empowerment in the hope that by extension, the policy itself becomes a hard sell in actual elections. That way MDC will have got a pairing partner in running for office on empty. That is the beauty about elections. You get to know who is who. In the meantime, sleep peacefully Christpower, the one who couldn’t be mourned or buried.
Icho!
nathaniel.manheru@zimpapers.co.zw
Labels: CHRISTPOWER SIMBARASHE MAISIRI, MDC, NATHANIEL MANHERU, POLITICS
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COMMENT - This woman is actually a member of the Zimbabwean government. This is typical 5th column activity. SW Radio Africa and VOA/CIA are propaganda outfits that slant and give only one side of the story, in only one way. Like vultures, they are just trying to milk the death of 12-year old Christpower Masairi for all it is worth.
Interview: Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone
05/03/2013 00:00:00
by Violet Gonda I SW Radio Africa
Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone was recently a guest on SW Radio Africa’s Hot Seat programme. She tells interviewer Violet Gonda she anticipates “unprecedented violence” in forthcoming elections.
Broadcast: February 28, 2013
VIOLET GONDA: Let me start by asking you for your thoughts on the general state of affairs in the country regarding security.
THERESA MAKONE: Until very recently we had all bought into the idea of a peaceful Zimbabwe, especially after all the pronouncements that the President has been making. Without fail we were all convinced that this was going to be an election with a difference and what has been happening of late has been a rude awakening for all of us gullible Zimbabweans.
It is quite clear that the kind of violence we are going to see this time is probably going to be at an unprecedented scale. I’m saying this because this is the very chance that the two MDCs and Zanu PF were supposed to be campaigning together, preferably on the same platform for a YES vote at the referendum, but it would look like the referendum is not going to happen; that the other party has already gone into its default position which is power at all costs, never mind that we have got something that we have in common.
I personally would not be surprised to hear that we won’t have a referendum after all and everybody is now being catapulted into a rushed election, which would have had to follow a referendum.
So, if you ask me what I think – I think I am in a state of hopelessness, a state of disappointment and a feeling of betrayal because I think that when people have shared a cabinet room for four years, you must be in a position to look at each other in the eye and tell each other the truth.
The role that the police played is dictated by the role that Zanu PF plays in different areas. To me it looks like - yes instructions were given to teach people in the considered area that is criminal to support MDC but at the same time, I strongly believe that the Zanu PF leadership in that constituency (Headlands) would put pressure on the police not to act or react and try to downplay the death of a person as if it is nothing.
[Gee, do you have any hard evidence of anything, Minister, or are you just opining? - MrK]
GONDA: By the death of a person, you are talking about 12-year-old Christpower Maisiri, who was allegedly killed in Headlands?
MAKONE: Yes. While we speak free and fair elections by day, at night we are talking win at all costs, even if it means repeating or exceeding the violence of 2008.
[So the MDC is going to milk this death for all it is worth, of course without evidence that a crime and not an accident even took place. - MrK]
GONDA: How bad is the situation in the police force exactly?
MAKONE: The rank and file takes instructions from the top but how far to the top do you go because the Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri on matters of operations, he answers to the President of the country and the ministers only pronounce policy.
[She means that the Attorney General answers to the President, therefore... - MrK]
So between the two of them I don’t know who is not doing their job because if I was the state President I would insist on knowing why we are having these pockets of violence with no-one really being arrested or tried.
GONDA: As Home Affairs Minister, what have you done to find out where these instructions are coming from?
MAKONE: Well, we have meetings with the police and only last week we called the Commissioner General in and we talked to him – when I say we I mean Kembo Mohadi [Second Home Affairs Minister] and myself – we talked to him about the perception out there of police brutalising civilians, possibly under political pressure and we cited Matabeleland North and Lupane in particular. This was following the arrest of people who had come to register for voting and he gave us an undertaking that this was going to be his best policing, that there would be no nonsense as happened in 2008.
But within a few days we get a child being burnt to ashes because his father is an MDC official and it took the police more than eight hours to get to the scene and yet the police station is not far away.
So I think that in line with the Zanu PF position, which is that the party is bigger than the state, the instructions from the party are taken more than those from government. So if the policy is ‘don’t arrest’, they won’t arrest. As long as the person who gives the instruction is more senior and in this case the senior person of the constituency is Didymus Mutasa, so obviously what he says is what goes. So all the denials and all the threats of suing to me mean nothing. They will only make sense when Zanu PF switches off its violence machinery. We have come a long way, four years later to be still doing this sort of thing.
GONDA: If this is the case, as Minister of Home Affairs can you take legal proceedings against people like the Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri or even Didymus Mutasa the Minister of State in the President’s Office – as you said he has also been accused of being a perpetrator of violence?
MAKONE: It is unprecedented; in fact there are no such procedures that a Minister will take their own ministry to court because if I sue the Commissioner General and the police, I’m literally suing myself because I am the person responsible and if anyone else in the state of Zimbabwe is suing Commissioner General, the ministers are the first and second respondents and then the Commissioner General is the third respondent, so technically it’s not even a possibility. Those people who are aggrieved can sue us, but there is no way I can go and put my case against myself.
GONDA: But isn’t that the worst kind of insult though for the victims? You have already said one of the culprits is Minister Didymus Mutasa and you are then seen working with him in government? So how do you respond to people who ask why you keep working with people you know are perpetrators of violence?
MAKONE: What would they be expecting us to do at this stage, two months before a general election?
GONDA: This has been going on for a very long time and…
MAKONE: It has, it has, I agree with you except that we cannot every day that we come out of cabinet tell you the kind of wars and battles that take place in there almost on a daily basis, it would be too tedious. Because of the secrets of cabinet, as a cabinet minister you cannot go out and start saying all the things that you say in the cabinet but I can tell you it has never been a pleasant place to be in. It’s been a war zone from day one to this day.
GONDA: So what would you say you have achieved if you are powerless and would it not have been better to step down in protest?
MAKONE: Because that is exactly what they expect me to do. I’m expected to walk away and to surrender because Zanu PF has no conscience, it won’t stop anything. If I am given the two options – stand and fight or to turn and run - I would sooner stand and fight because by running away you’re just giving them free play. There are so many things that could have happened that didn’t happen because I’d taken a stand. They are violent and everyone knows it. And if we had not stared at them in their eyes and stood our ground, things could be much worse than they are now.
GONDA: Well we’ve received quite a lot of emails from Zimbabweans who are concerned that the situation seems to be volatile right now. If I can just read to you one particular email from one of our listeners, Simudzai, and basically he says ‘I want to check with you if Theresa Makone made any comment or condemned this incident regarding the 12 year old boy? She is said to be related to Didymus Mutasa, the alleged sponsor of violence in Headlands. Is this true?’
MAKONE: Well for a start I’m in my hospital bed right now as I’m speaking to you. I had an operation done on Monday before that incident took place. It’s only today I’ve started following things because I’ve been heavily sedated and as I’m speaking to you, I’m still in my hospital bed, I only leave on Friday. So there’s only so much one woman can do but I know that my colleagues went to cabinet, did whatever needed to be done and I’m sure that now that the President is talking about having those perpetrators found and arrested, it is as a result of that fight
[Thou shalt not reap where thou did not sow. Claiming credit is very cheap indeed. - MrK]
but whatever his name is, you can tell him that the minister said I’m just a normal being like anybody else. When I’m sick I’m sick and I can’t be in two places – on the theatre table and fighting the police at the same time. What was the last part of his question?
GONDA: About being related to Didymus Mutasa.
MAKONE: I don’t know how many times I’m going to say this – I have no relationship of any kind with that man except that he was in Birmingham at the same time as Ian and I were in Birmingham, and we had our daughter at Birmingham Hospital and his wife helped me with the delivery. That’s the end of the relationship.
What I did when Mutasa’s son was arrested is what I should have been able to do in all the things that followed afterwards, including the arrest of the 31 MDC activists, but I was not able to do it anymore because of this big outcry about Mutasa’s son – ‘because they are related and whatnot’ - but that was nonsensical because it’s not every day that you get a Zanu PF person being arrested. So the public made it very clear that they were agreeing with the Police Commissioner General who said that I had no business in the police station. So I stay away from now on. Now what do they want me to do?
GONDA: Obviously a lot of people want the violence to stop and… (Interrupted)
MAKONE: So do I.
GONDA: …especially as we have two major ballots coming. So in terms of trying to find ways of stopping this violence as Home Affairs Minister, what role does the Human Rights Commission for example, play in this kind of situation?
MAKONE: Well the aggrieved parties are expected, if the police don’t act, to go and report their case to the Human Rights Commissioner. For me it’s a very circuitous route. By the time you get redress it will be long, long after the action has been taken. What to me, in these circumstances would be better is – once something like that happens, the police immediately react, the people are apprehended and put before the courts.
It’s going to take forever for Mr. Maisiri to go and find where the officers on the Human Rights Commission. Has the Human Rights Commission started work at all? Do they have offices and if so where? By that time you will just be expending yourself for a very, very little result. So I don’t know. We must think before we act sometimes and people make the ministers lives very difficult.
When the police don’t respond it’s my fault and I take that because it’s my department but when I do respond, then I’m interfering with the course of justice - so I don’t know how this is supposed to work.
GONDA: So how do you think you can force the police to respond, especially when they don’t even listen to you?
MAKONE: It’s not a question of they don’t listen to me because no minister in any government talks to people below their departmental head, it’s just not done, nowhere in the world does that happen. It’s our legislation, which was made purposefully for that purpose so that the President has got the power to act on a daily basis in direct communication with the Commissioner General - excluding the Minister of Home Affairs. This is why in the past, even before the formation of the GNU, you never heard Mohadi making a statement or talking to anybody because the legislation is such that the ministers are not even in the loop.
Suddenly we have started talking because I deliberately made a point of circumventing that and making comments when I shouldn’t; making myself very unpopular with the police. But at the same time not following that procedure because you have got to make sense once in a while. You can’t just sit and watch but the legislation is made like that and it is for all the security ministers.
So all the security ministers are just ministers who pronounce policy but don’t get involved with the day-to-day process, they don’t give any direct command and you can’t say a particular ministry, minister is powerless, actually he is disempowered by the law. That is the constitution of this country as of now.
GONDA: So basically at the end of the day the buck stops with the president?
MAKONE: Exactly, exactly. That’s where the people should be getting their answers because he is the one who directs day-to-day operations according to the law.
GONDA: Well the president has called for peace – what do you make of those statements?
MAKONE: Oh well, that’s where we want a new constitution to start with. It’s one thing having a constitution and quite another following that constitution and we want people to be spared the roughness of the previous elections so that they are allowed to actually vote in peace and see which party they would rather have in a government. Under this three-headed animal, as the president calls it, it’s not going to be possible; it is not going to be possible. But we were rather naively expecting Zanu PF to be embarrassed to continue killing people that they sit with in cabinet.
We thought at some stage they would examine their conscience and do the right thing and to be quite honest with you - I said it two years ago and I’ll say it again - this election is going to be bloodier than 2008. The makings of a horror election are there in front of us for all to see. The odd place is bombed, the odd place is into raping, murder, arson – this is meant to prime people to remind them of what they are capable of doing.
GONDA: If you are saying that the violence is going to be worse than the 2008 elections violence, why are you putting up with this? You can easily walk out for example, walk out of cabinet or… (Interrupted)
MAKONE: And how would that help the country?
GONDA: Or why not name and shame them then? Why don’t you name and shame the perpetrators?
MAKONE: We did all the time.
GONDA: So in government are you saying that Didymus Mutasa is the only one who is doing it? Because so far he is the only one you’ve mentioned in this interview for example.
MAKONE: Yah it’s only because this particular one happened in his constituency and happened at this particular moment but there’s so many other things that Zanu PF ministers are doing which we are confronting them with on a daily basis in cabinet…
GONDA: Can you give us an example?
MAKONE: I cannot and the reason I cannot is because it has not gone public. We are required to keep state secrets so if it has not been publicized the only other person who can reveal that is the prime minister.
GONDA: The organization Aids Free World say the South African government has opened investigations into rape allegations leveled against Zanu PF supporters – you know those people who are said to have raped during the 2008 elections, what are the implications of this from an MDC point of view?
MAKONE: We welcome it and we encourage it. This is going to tell people, the resilience of the party, what we’ve had to put up with to be where we are, nowhere in the world do people go as far as Zanu does and now that the South African government, through its courts has been forced to reveal and investigate because they are signatories to the ICC, Zimbabwe is not, and they are required to take certain actions. We are looking forward to those actions being taken because it is about time people started behaving like people not barbarians when you are going into an election. This happens because the security sector has been forced into a situation where they have to support even the unsupportable and I think this investigation should be followed to its bitter conclusion whether Zanu PF likes it or not, people should be arrested and the necessary steps should be taken.
GONDA: But I understand that in calling for peace the prime minister appealed to Zanu PF ministers - during that explosive cabinet meeting we heard about - and I understand that he actually appealed to the Zanu PF ministers to stop the violence telling them that the MDC will not have a retributive agenda. So he was basically appealing to them to stop the violence if they were thinking that they were doing it to stay in power. So with what you’re saying, isn’t there a contradiction here?
MAKONE: When I was not in the said cabinet meeting, I was just giving you my personal thoughts. If the prime minister doesn’t want them prosecuted then that’s his position. I was giving my personal reaction to this and I will say it again – if anyone raped, if anyone killed and the ICC require South Africa to act then they should follow the signatures to the papers that they signed as members of ICC.
As far as I’m concerned because I’m a woman, if I was raped I would want justice – make no mistake about that. The only time I would think maybe let’s push this thing into the past is if this election was different, was handled differently by Zanu PF and do all the things that we have agreed should be done, then I would say well maybe there is merit for not taking this issue forward. But what we are seeing now are the tell-tale signs of even more horrors coming and in the face of that, how do we then say to people keep on murdering but we will not be taking you to court.
I mean for me it defies logic but it doesn’t mean that everybody in that party is bad, there are quite a few MPs that one can mention and in their particular constituencies, there were no deaths, nothing happened, they just won the election freely. So we know who the perpetrators of violence are. We can’t possibly say that the whole party is violent. Look at what happened in Mashonaland East and see how many people were killed in Marondera. Look what happened in Mash Central…You can literally look at the map of the country and see where, but I don’t want to be forced to start naming names right now because I don’t think that was the purpose of this interview. What I’m saying if you want to know who are the perpetrators just look at that list and it will tell you.
GONDA: So how do you respond to critics who say that there is nothing that can actually be done about violence in Zimbabwe given what we have seen in the last elections but that what you have to do is to develop strategies to combat it? Do you agree?
MAKONE: Well I don’t know what plans they have of combating. We definitely know that we have one particular agenda and ours is a non-violent method of responding to the murderers, to the arsonists, to the rapists, which is to expose their actions and hope that our neighbours in SADC and African Union in general, begin to force Zanu PF to behave like modern democracy.
GONDA: You say the African Union should force Zanu PF to stop the violence but how can they do that?
MAKONE: Well in the same way they refused to accord Robert Mugabe the presidency in 2008 after the elections. They simply refused to accept the result from Zimbabwe and that was enough to de-legitimise a stolen election forcing the three parties to come together and thrash it out at the negotiating table and for a whole year this country went without a cabinet. If the African Union had not reacted the way it did, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
GONDA: But that was a reaction after a violent election so I’m asking what can they do right now before.
MAKONE: Right now they should be talking to the president of Zanu and telling him to stick to the letter and spirit of the GPA, failing which they would have to pronounce what kind of steps they are going to take because obviously Zimbabwe cannot operate like an island; we are part of a continent, we are landlocked. All sorts of actions can be taken against this government and if need be then that is what should be done and that should be done by the Africans themselves, not waiting for people from Spain and Italy to come and fight our wars.
GONDA: But as the MDC what can you do outside what the international or regional community can do?
MAKONE: Well as MDC we can fight in court, we can fight via the public media and you know very well that there’s been issues to do with radios and phones – this is their way of stopping us from communicating with our followers in Zimbabwe and for us it was a way of countering Zanu Broadcasting Corporation and this has not worked. And then this week I think the minister in the Prime Minister’s Office did a letter scheduling all the actions of Zanu PF in the recent past, and we wait for their reaction. And quite honestly apart from talking directly to your people and telling them what they are setting themselves again by voting Zanu PF back and talking to your neighbours, the only other option is fighting and for us that is not an option. It’s not even on our agenda.
GONDA: What’s your reaction to statements that were made by vice president Joyce Mujuru saying that Zimbabwe will not allow international observers from hostile countries?
MAKONE: I personally and I know that the whole party does not subscribe to that. We have nothing to hide as MDC, there is nothing that cannot be open to scrutiny so people can come from any place on earth and observe.
GONDA: But at the end of the day isn’t it true that Zanu PF will have the final word on this whether or not the MDCs agree.
MAKONE: Well the rule in this country and the constitution in this country says that the president of the country is the one that controls the security sector and that is in black and white. It’s not meant for MDC only, it’s meant for the whole country and if the president of this country says no, then it’s a no. It doesn’t matter whether the president is Tsvangirai or Mugabe. And if the president has got a party with something to answer I do not see him allowing people to come and observe him.
GONDA: With just a few months before general elections, do you think this coalition government was worth it especially given what you have told us in this interview?
MAKONE: It was never going to be 100%. There were things that we badly needed to come out of this. Some we got, some we didn’t get. As far as I’m concerned, what we pushed for – a constitution – we got that constitution which as far as we are concerned, if implemented, will change the character of this country beyond recognition and that is if there is a government, which is constitutional in behaviour. But if we have got a government that has never been following constitutionalism then it won’t make a difference because for us fighting was never an option.
The very first few days after the formation of this government, we walked out and there was a big outcry of ‘why did you walk out, go and fight, we know that it is not easy but it’s better that things are done and you are present and you are defending us than to stay outside’, and we responded and we went back into government. So towards the end of term you can’t then say I wish I had not said no. We walked out and our party told us to go back in and we are there because the people that elected us wanted us to be in that playing field and we played the ball as well as we could and we hope that the few changes that have happened – having medicine in hospital, having food in the shops, having a few doctors, specialists – I’m here because not because I can’t afford to go anywhere – as a minister of the Republic I could have gone anywhere for treatment but I opted to be treated at home because all our experts are beginning to make their way home and some are already here.
And we tried to control inflation and the economy is ticking somewhat, better than zero growth, better than negative growth so those are the things we feel we have managed to do for the country. We have stopped it going over the precipice just in time and if that was not enough for people then people should have to remember that when this thing falls apart and the government falls back into violent hands and the world shuns us, we are going to be exactly where we were in 2007 if not worse.
GONDA: Thank you very much Mai Theresa Makone for talking to us on the programme Hot Seat especially as you are in hospital. Hope you feel better soon.
MAKONE: Thank you very much Violet.
To contact this reporter email violet@swradioafrica.com or follow on Twitter. Hot Seat is broadcast on SW Radio Africa every Thursday from 7:30pm to 8pm Zimbabwe Time on 4880khz shortwave or you can listen online www.swradioafrica.com
Labels: CHRISTPOWER SIMBARASHE MAISIRI, MDC TREASON, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, THERESA MAKONE, VIOLET GONDA
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MDC-T slams Headlands fire ‘cover-up’
04/03/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
THE MDC-T has accused police of a cover-up after they ruled the death in a house fire of a 12-year-old son of a district official an accident.
The party
hit out at the police findings into the fire and vowed to carry out a “national and international” campaign to ensure that those responsible for the attack are arrested.
Police said Monday that an official investigation into the fire had revealed that the inferno was likely sparked by a paraffin lamp positioned next to four bags of fertiliser which contain the combustive ammonium nitrate.
“There is high probability that ammonium nitrate and tobacco chemicals exploded during the fire. No foul play is suspected. Forensic experts did their analysis combined with police investigations and no foul play is suspected,” national police spokesperson Charity Charamba said.
But MDC-T dismissed the police investigation as a cover-up.
Said party spokesman Douglas Mwonzora: “There is evidence that there were murderers; there were intruders at this house on that day. They were repelled by dogs first time but later came back and succeeded in lighting the house.
“The people responsible are known; they are mentioned by name by eye witnesses and by the Maisiri family and they have not been arrested. This is not the first time the Maisiri family has been attacked by Zanu PF and this is not the first time that fire has been used against them.
“This boy had scars from wounds he sustained when the house he was in was torched again (previously) and he had a broken leg which he sustained when some well-known Zanu PF people were raping his mother.
"So there is a history of attacks on the Maisiri family. We are going to make sure that this murder does not go unpunished; that the murderers are brought to book and we are going to go both nationally and internationally to bring the murderers to book.
“If the government of Zimbabwe was transparent they should have allowed international investigators into this matter.”
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, his deputy Thokozani Khupe and other senior officials attended the burial of young Christpower Maisiri after deciding that he was the victim of a politically-motivated attack.
Zanu PF has denied any involvement in the fire and accused the MDC-T of trying to use tragedy to bring international spotlight on the country ahead of elections expected later this year.
State media reports also accused Christpower’s dad, Shepherd, said to be keen to represent the MDC-T in parliamentary elections, of turning the incident into a political campaign.
"He is now using the death of his son, which is not even politically motivated, to get political mileage. Recently he was boasting that some of the donors who are sympathising with his family were going to build a bigger house for him," the Herald newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying.
Meanwhile, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai expressed concern over what he described as “trivialisation” of the incident by Zanu PF and the police.
Tsvangirai’s secretary for transitional affairs, Alex Magaisa, said the MDC-T leader had also raised concerns over the differential treatment by the police in arresting political activists.
“They are not decent to use such language. The issue of violence should be looked into. The manner in which the death of Christpowers has been handled by both the police and state media raises a lot of questions,” said Magaisa.
He said the MDC was concerned by swiftness shown by the police in arresting MDC-T members citing the example of the 31 MDC members who were arrested in 2011 on false charges of murdering a police officer in Glen View, Harare.
“In the meantime Zanu PF supporters who have carried out acts of violence are roaming free. Tsvangirai is expected to hold a meeting with Mugabe over the death of Christpowers,” Magaisa added.
Labels: CHRISTPOWER SIMBARASHE MAISIRI, MDC PROPAGANDA, POLITICAL VIOLENCE
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COMMENT - The MDC want to fool the world into thinking that the only way you can convince people that they should have their land back and that they should benefit from their own natural resources is through political violence. They are way too arrogant to ever admit that they cannot convince enough of the electorate of the benefits of neoliberal economics, especially because their policies were
tried from 1991-1996, and are broadly hated.
Don't lie about violence: President
Sunday, 03 March 2013 00:00
Kuda Bwititi in Bindura
President Mugabe has castigated the MDC-T for peddling falsehoods that Zanu-PF is leading a trail of violence ahead of the harmonised elections adding that the revolutionary party is committed to winning the forthcoming polls peacefully.
Speaking at the 21st February Movement celebrations in Bindura yesterday, the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces said the MDC-T was acting against
the spirit of the inclusive Government by making outrageous accusations without seeking dialogue.
He said the recent death in an inferno of 12-year-old Christpower Maisiri of Headlands exposed MDC-T’s dirty tricks of trading fabrications about the political situation in the country.
“Vamwe vanhu vava nechirwere chekuti wese wese wafa awurayiwa neZanu-PF. (Some people are now fond of blaming Zanu-PF for the death of anyone),” he said.
“They are ever keeping their ears to the ground, tracking funerals in order to blame the death on Zanu-PF. Even when one gets killed by a cow; they blame it on Zanu-PF. If one falls off a moving vehicle, the same people also blame it on Zanu-PF. Sections of the Press then splash the stories, running with the falsehoods.”
Cde Mugabe said the MDC-T compiled dossiers for the Americans and British alleging a Zanu-PF hand in the death of Maisiri, but failed to discuss the matter with fellow inclusive Government members.
He criticised US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Bruce Wharton for taking a position despite preliminary police investigations showing the absence of foul play.
“If you suspect Zanu-PF, then why don’t you discuss the matter with this Zanu-PF? Instead, they write dossiers and take them to the US and Britain, saying Zanu-PF killed people in a trail of violence.
“What does America have to do with our unity and our people? The American ambassador even went to the extent of making a statement even before police investigations were yet to be completed.
“The preliminary police report was that there was no foul play in the death that occurred in Headlands. But he goes on to condemn Zanu-PF. If he wants to support the MDC-T on the basis of dishonesty let him tell us that is what he wants to do because we know that in his country, they have done worse things.
“…Bush committed atrocities in Iraq. And just yesterday, they killed Gaddafi. They hounded and hunted Gaddafi and they killed him for his oil.”
The President said Zanu-PF would romp to victory in the harmonised elections in spite of such unsavoury tactics. He emphasised that unity was critical to a resounding electoral success.
“Of course, in the forthcoming elections, we are going to win. We are not going to win violently, but, peacefully. We want peaceful elections.
“We should be reminded that above all things unity is crucial. Let us be united in all facets of life, whether be it in church, cultural communities or whatever aspect of life. Unity, unity, unity.
“This is the basis of our strength and this will be the basis of our victory tomorrow. If we want to succeed in the forthcoming elections, we should be united.
“But you cannot say you are united if you fight amongst yourselves. There must be harmony and peace amongst us.”
Cde Mugabe challenged Zanu-PF leaders in Mashonaland Central to drum up support for the party and ensure the province retains its position as a party stronghold.
Turning to agriculture, he said farmers who are not making full use of farms allocated to them under the land reform programme should surrender their land to capable farmers.
He also took a swipe at farmers subletting their land to white ex-commercial farmers.
“Some people have become shadows of white people. We do not want our people to be fronts. Be a genuine farmer. Tell us honestly if you have failed.
“However, not many can do that. All some people want to do is boast about being farm owners. I am happy with the efforts being made by A1 farmers who are making maximum use of their land despite having just six hectares.”
The 21st February Movement celebrations are held every year to mark President Mugabe’s birthday, which falls on February 21. The event also seeks to encourage young Zimbabweans to emulate Cde Mugabe’s ideals.
Yesterday’s celebrations drew thousands who packed Chipadze Stadium. The celebrations were held under the theme, “Youth for Indigenisation, Empowerment, Development and Employment Creation”.
Labels: CHRISTPOWER SIMBARASHE MAISIRI, MDC PROPAGANDA, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, ROBERT MUGABE
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No proof of foul play: fire death cops
27/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporters
POLICE have ruled out foul play in the fire death of a 12-year-old Headlands boy which has stoked political tensions in the country with
the MDC-T accused of turning the tragedy into an election campaign event.
The party confirmed that its leader and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai would attend Thursday’s funeral of Christpower Maisiri (12) whose dad is the party’s local organising secretary. The youth died when
a fire gutted a thatched hut in which he slept with siblings last Saturday.
The MDC-T was said to have barricaded the Maisiri family home in Headlands, near Rusape, ahead of Thursday’s funeral with campaign posters featuring Tsvangirai posted around the area.
The party blames Zanu PF for the attack which dominated Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting amid fears of renewed violence ahead of fresh elections later this year.
“(On Tuesday) we spent four hours in cabinet deliberating … the resurgence of all the bad habits that were there before the inclusive government. The tragic and horrifying murder of this young boy is perhaps the most traumatic but every day we have such issues,” MDC leader Welshman Ncube told a public meeting in Harare Wednesday.
"President (Robert) Mugabe repeatedly said these things should not be happening. (He said) if it’s Zanu PF people doing it they must be dealt with. The police are told again and again but it doesn’t stop.
"(But) one of the most interesting things to come out of the Cabinet meeting was that ministers thought to be sponsoring violence were (confronted) accused directly and told that ‘you are a merchant of violence’. That opportunity was not there in 2008.”
Zanu PF has denied any involvement in the attack as police revealed that preliminary investigations had ruled out the possibility of foul play.
“At the moment we cannot point fingers at anyone. This emanates from our preliminary investigations so far which indicate that no foul play had taken place,” deputy national police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka said.
“Basing on our preliminary investigations there is no pointer or clue to suggest that the incident was politically motivated.
“Right now investigations are in full swing. We have embarked on thorough investigations because we need to get to the bottom of the incident by all means.”
Information Minister Webster Shamu said the Cabinet had ordered the police to establish the cause of the tragedy.
“The nation may wish to know that Cabinet has directed the Co- Ministers of Home Affairs to institute thorough investigations through the relevant arms so that the nation gets full facts surrounding the incident and for justice to be done,” he said.
“Our society is founded on the principle of sanctity of life and any actions that are shown to undermine this sacred principle will attract the full weight of the law.”
Zimbabwe will later this year hold elections to end the uneasy coalition between Mugabe and Tsvangirai and both leaders have repeatedly appealed to supporters to ensure there was no repeat of the violence experienced in 2008.
Labels: CHRISTPOWER SIMBARASHE MAISIRI, MDC PROPAGANDA, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, PROPAGANDA, WEBSTER SHAMU
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Political violence: Mugabe demands arrests
26/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has expressed concern over the increase in incidents of political violence and demanded police arrest the perpetrators as tensions increases ahead of next month’s constitutional referendum and fresh polls later in the year.
“The President told the Commissioner-General of the Police (Augustine Chihuri) that police must account for all cases of politically-motivated violence regardless of the status of those involved,” Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba said Wednesday.
“The President said he does not tolerate violence as the country prepares for the referendum. He warned parties and some individuals against drawing easy conclusions to incidents of violence ahead of police investigations.”
Mugabe’s remarks come after an arson attack on the home of an MDC-T official in Headlands, near Rusape, the politician's 12-year-old son.
The MDC-T has blamed Zanu PF for the attack, claiming it was one of 120 incidents of violence against its supporters recorded so far this year.
Zanu PF denies its supporters were involved and Mugabe warned against hasty decisions as police investigations continue.
“The President said it does not always follow that whoever was responsible for violence was sent by a political party. Some people perpetrate violence without being sent by anyone,” Charamba said.
Mugabe, who has not hidden his annoyance at sharing power with the MDC-T after violent clashes rendered the 2008 vote inconclusive, has repeatedly called for peaceful campaigns ahead of this year’s elections.
But MDC-T secretary general and Finance Minister Tendai Biti claimed that a faction in Zanu PF wanted to intimidate and instil fear in the electorate.
"Zanu PF intends to harvest fear in the 2013 elections," he told reporters on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, deputy national police spokesman, Oliver Mandipaka said investigations into Headlands attack were continuing.
“It would be premature for us as police to say it was politically motivated or political violence in the absence of concrete evidence that we can have at our disposal after thorough investigations,” he said.
“We have since summoned our forensic scientists to attend the scene to establish the cause of the fire. (But) there is a high possibility that the bags of fertilizers and tobacco chemicals (which were in the hut) could have exploded during the burning process.”
Labels: AUGUSTINE CHIHURI, CHRISTPOWER SIMBARASHE MAISIRI, GEORGE CHARAMBA, MDC PROPAGANDA, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, PROPAGANDA, ROBERT MUGABE, TENDAI BITI
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Boy's father speaks, Zanu PF denies killing
26/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
ZANU PF said Tuesday that it had “nothing to do with” the death of a 12-year-old boy in what the MDC-T says was an arson attack, even as Christpower Maisiri’s father laid the blame squarely at the door of President Robert Mugabe’s party.
Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said the claims that militants linked to the party started the fire in a small village in Headlands, Manicaland, were “baseless, offensive and malicious”.
The MDC-T claims the real target of Saturday night’s fire was Shepherd Maisiri, described as the party’s district deputy organising secretary.
Fire gutted a hut in which five children were sleeping, and four escaped but young Christpower was burnt to death after the roof caved in.
Zanu PF, which holds the Headlands parliamentary seat through Didymus Mutasa, said it was satisfied that none of its members could have carried out the attack, saying in a statement that “if anything, we have received reports of the existence of a cordial relationship between our supporters and Maisiri’s family.”
Gumbo added: “Police are now investigating the matter and we are confident there they will get to the bottom of it as timeously and as diligently as possible because it is in the public interest that they do so.
“Zanu PF as a party does not condone violence. Our leader, President Robert Mugabe, has relentlessly called for tolerance and non-violence and we have no reason to believe that our members would so openly defy his genuine efforts to make sure we have a peaceful referendum as well as free and fair elections.”
Gumbo accused the MDC of “relying on violence as a campaign strategy”, adding: “We believe that this particular incident, like several others before it, was staged to try and put Zimbabwe in the international spotlight with a view to discrediting what is now an imminent and inevitable Zanu PF victory in the coming elections.
“It is a well known fact, as confirmed by the three independent opinion polls so far released, that the MDC-T has lost considerable support and that it has no real prospect of winning in the forthcoming elections.”
Christpower, who was a Grade 4 pupil at Ruura Primary School, had survived previous fire attacks, according to his father.
“This is the ninth time they have burnt my house down. My son who died on Saturday survived another such attack in June 2008. He already had burn marks on his back from the previous fires,” Shepherd Maisiri is quoted as saying by the NewsDay newspaper.
Maisiri said local Zanu PF activists had been threatening to “deal” with him for causing the incarceration of their leader, Lovemore Manenji, who was convicted for various counts of politically-motivated crimes, including public violence and rape. He was sentenced in 2009 to 52 years and is presently in jail.
“Since the MDC was formed, these mountains have been my home,” Maisiri said. “They have burnt my houses nine times since 2000. I lost two children to the cold weather while I was hiding in the mountains.
“In 2003, they stabbed my younger brother to death after mistaking him for me. They have also been attempting to take away my fields.”
Christpower will be buried at Dzikiti Village, also known as Village 55, on Thursday, the MDC-T said in a statement.
A post-mortem was due to be conducted on his body at Harare’s Parirenyatwa Hospital on Tuesday following which the body will be taken to Rusape Hospital mortuary before burial.
MDC-T officials say party leader Morgan Tsvangirai will likely attend the burial along with other senior party figures.
Police investigating the fire say they have so far found no evidence of arson, and have appealed to the public for help to uncover the truth.
Labels: 2013 ELECTIONS (ZW), CHRISTPOWER SIMBARASHE MAISIRI, PROPAGANDA, SHEPERD MAISIRI, ZANU-PF
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Boy's father speaks, Zanu PF denies killing
26/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
ZANU PF said Tuesday that it had “nothing to do with” the death of a 12-year-old boy in what the MDC-T says was an arson attack, even as Christpower Maisiri’s father laid the blame squarely at the door of President Robert Mugabe’s party.
Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said the claims that militants linked to the party started the fire in a small village in Headlands, Manicaland, were “baseless, offensive and malicious”.
The MDC-T claims the real target of Saturday night’s fire was Shepherd Maisiri, described as the party’s district deputy organising secretary.
Fire gutted a hut in which five children were sleeping, and four escaped but young Christpower was burnt to death after the roof caved in.
Zanu PF, which holds the Headlands parliamentary seat through Didymus Mutasa, said it was satisfied that none of its members could have carried out the attack, saying in a statement that “if anything, we have received reports of the existence of a cordial relationship between our supporters and Maisiri’s family.”
Gumbo added: “Police are now investigating the matter and we are confident there they will get to the bottom of it as timeously and as diligently as possible because it is in the public interest that they do so.
“Zanu PF as a party does not condone violence. Our leader, President Robert Mugabe, has relentlessly called for tolerance and non-violence and we have no reason to believe that our members would so openly defy his genuine efforts to make sure we have a peaceful referendum as well as free and fair elections.”
Gumbo accused the MDC of “relying on violence as a campaign strategy”, adding: “We believe that this particular incident, like several others before it, was staged to try and put Zimbabwe in the international spotlight with a view to discrediting what is now an imminent and inevitable Zanu PF victory in the coming elections.
“It is a well known fact, as confirmed by the three independent opinion polls so far released, that the MDC-T has lost considerable support and that it has no real prospect of winning in the forthcoming elections.”
Christpower, who was a Grade 4 pupil at Ruura Primary School, had survived previous fire attacks, according to his father.
“This is the ninth time they have burnt my house down. My son who died on Saturday survived another such attack in June 2008. He already had burn marks on his back from the previous fires,” Shepherd Maisiri is quoted as saying by the NewsDay newspaper.
Maisiri said local Zanu PF activists had been threatening to “deal” with him for causing the incarceration of their leader, Lovemore Manenji, who was convicted for various counts of politically-motivated crimes, including public violence and rape.
He was sentenced in 2009 to 52 years and is presently in jail.
“Since the MDC was formed, these mountains have been my home,” Maisiri said. “They have burnt my houses nine times since 2000. I lost two children to the cold weather while I was hiding in the mountains.
“In 2003, they stabbed my younger brother to death after mistaking him for me. They have also been attempting to take away my fields.”
Christpower will be buried at Dzikiti Village, also known as Village 55, on Thursday, the MDC-T said in a statement.
A post-mortem was due to be conducted on his body at Harare’s Parirenyatwa Hospital on Tuesday following which the body will be taken to Rusape Hospital mortuary before burial.
MDC-T officials say party leader Morgan Tsvangirai will likely attend the burial along with other senior party figures.
Police investigating the fire say they have so far found no evidence of arson, and have appealed to the public for help to uncover the truth.
Labels: CHRISTPOWER SIMBARASHE MAISIRI, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, PROPAGANDA, RUGARE GUMBO
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COMMENT - More grandstanding over a tragic death. There is no way to know who is responsible, but you can rest assured that the MDC will try to use this incident to justify their loss in the coming elections. And they will lose, because more and more people start to realize how evil they are.
US calls boy's house fire death an 'atrocity'
25/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
THE United States of America on Monday described the death of a 12-year-old boy in a suspected arson attack in Headlands as an “atrocity” while calling for a swift and professional police investigation.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) said Christpower Simbarashe Maisiri died in the fire on Saturday after “Zanu PF gendarmes” targeted the home of Shepherd Maisiri, whom the party says is its district deputy organising secretary.
But Zanu PF has countered the MDC-T claims by insisting that Maisiri is one of its members, implying that it could not target its own.
Didymus Mutasa, the MP for Headlands, said: “I know Maisiri... he is a member of my party. He comes from Chief Makoni’s area and resides in headmen Dzikiti’s village, but he is not an MDC supporter.”
In a statement on Monday, the MDC-T said it was “enraged” by the incident, adding: “This is the ninth time Maisiri’s house has been attacked by Zanu PF gendarmes, but typically no arrests have ever been made.”
And the United States embassy in Harare identified Christpower’s father as a “Manicaland local official of the MDC-T party”, adding in a statement: “This tragic death presents an opportunity to the government of Zimbabwe... to demonstrate their commitment to justice by swiftly and professionally investigating the circumstances that led to the death of this child.
“If this was a case of arson, particularly if it was politically motivated, swift professional law enforcement work to bring the perpetrators to justice is vital to reassuring Zimbabweans that their political leaders sincerely want, and will insist on, peace and peaceful elections in 2013.”
The Daily News reported on Monday that unidentified individuals attacked Maisiri’s homestead shortly after 7PM on Saturday while he was away, but were repelled by dogs.
The alleged arsonists are said to have returned between 11PM and midnight – this time targeting a hut in which young Christpower and four other children were sleeping.
Maisiri, who was sleeping in another house, woke up to find the hut ablaze.
An unnamed neighbour is quoted as telling the Daily News: “Maisiri’s eldest son smashed the door to the hut and rescued four of the children, but then the roof caved in, trapping the last of the five, who happened to be Christpower.”
Zimbabweans vote in a referendum on a new constitution on March 16, which is expected to be followed by general elections.
President Robert Mugabe and his MDC rivals Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube have been united in calling for violence-free elections, but rights groups say the calls are hollow with persistent reports of intimidation largely blamed on Mugabe’s followers.
And the United States is urging the police to send out a message to political thugs by bringing Christpower’s alleged killers to book.
“We call on the Zimbabwe Republic Police to conduct a thorough investigation of this case and, it if is determined to be arson, to hold all responsible for this atrocity to account,” it said.
“As Zimbabwe brings its Global Political Agreement to an end, non-partisan, efficient, and professional law enforcement is critical to gaining the confidence of the Zimbabwean people, neighboring countries, and the international community.
“Respect for the rule of law and apolitical policing are also essential for creating the conditions for credible and non-violent Zimbabwean elections later this year.”
Labels: 2013 ELECTIONS (ZW), CHRISTPOWER SIMBARASHE MAISIRI, POLITICAL VIOLENCE
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