Opposition party, MDC, leader Morgan Tsvangirai has today announced that he will pull out of the presidential election runoff which was meant to take place of Friday 27 June in Zimbabwe. “We in the MDC cannot ask them to cast their vote on the 27th when that vote would cost them their lives,” Tsvangirai told reporters. The news comes as a shock to many who had expected Tsvangirai to challenge Mugabe in the runoff and hope to take over as president of the country. But now that Tsvangirai has pulled out of the race, what is going to happen? Read the rest of this entry »
It seems like everyone right now wants to take up arms. First we had Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe saying that he would not accept defeat in the upcoming presidential election and that if he were to loose he would ‘take up arms’ and fight to remain in power. Now yesterday, ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema was in Thaba’Nchu in the Free State in his first Youth Day address and he said that the Youth League was ready to ‘take up arms’ and kill for Jacob Zuma if Zuma was found to be guilty of the charges he is facing. Read the rest of this entry »
“We are prepared to fight for our country and to go to war for it.” These were the words of Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe at a rally last week in the build up to the presidential run-off on June 27. These words have struck fear in the hearts of many as it is a clear sign of intent that Robert Mugabe will not accept defeat in the vote and if he somehow looses he will wage a war in Zimbabwe.
Is this just a political tactic by Mugabe or is he being actually serious that he would ‘take up arms’ again against his own people so that he can remain in power? Mugabe may just be saying this so that he can scare millions of people in Zimbabwe who surely do not want a war. So in Mugabe saying this, he is hoping that the majority of the country will instead vote for him than face the possibilities of a war. If he can scare the people of Zimbabwe then they will vote for him come June 27 and he will remain as president. But will Zimbabweans be scared? Read the rest of this entry »
As Zimbabwe edges close to the runoff presidential vote on 27 June, one can not wonder if that day will arrive anytime soon for millions of Zimbabweans. It is interesting how news just switches all of a sudden. In the last few weeks, all eyes were on the xenophobia attacks in South Africa but now a bit of the spotlight has been taken off South Africa now that the xenophobia attacks have eased down and instead the focus is back on Zimbabwe. Read the rest of this entry »
The front page of yesterdays Sunday Times made for interesting reading. The headline was ‘If you go on like this, there will be no country left’. These are said to be the words contained in a letter that the leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the MDC, wrote to President Thabo Mbeki. It is clear that the MDC is not happy at all with what President Mbeki has done to try ‘help’ the Zimbabwe situation and Tsvangirai seems to be placing a lot of blame on Mbeki.
Is Mbeki to blame for what is happening in Zimbabwe? Some circles would say that Mbeki has his own country to run in South Africa and thus he should not be blamed for what is happening in his neighbouring country. These same circles would also say that Zimbabwe should take care of its own mess. But then there is the other side of the coin which is what is incensing the majority of Zimbabweans and has been highlighted in this alleged letter from the MDC to President Mbeki; this side feels that Mbeki has failed dismally as being a mediator between the MDC and ruling ZANU PF party. Read the rest of this entry »
The 30 man squad for the South Africa national rugby team was announced today and included in that list of 30 were three Zimbabwean born players: Tonderai Chavhanga, Brian Mujati and Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawirira. These three young men are highly talented rugby players and they deserve their chance to play at the highest level. With all the talk currently being about xenophobia in South Africa, it is refreshing to see that there is no xenophobia in selecting the national rugby team. Read the rest of this entry »
We now know that MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, will contest in the presidential runoff against Mugabe. But the million dollar question is, “When will this runoff take place?” Your guess is as good as mine. By law the runoff has to take place within the next 2 weeks but chances of that happening are almost zero. The current ruling party will try as best as it can to delay this runoff vote so that they get their house and strategies in order. Read the rest of this entry »
The drama in Zimbabwe continues. It is now official that Morgan Tsvangirai beat Robert Mugabe in the Zimbabwe presidential elections but he did not win by more than 50% so there has to be a run-off vote between Tsvangirai and Mugabe to determine who the winner is. In soccer terms it would be like, the two are now going into a penalty shoot out to decide who the winner will be. Read the rest of this entry »
The elections were held on March 29 in Zimbabwe and it is now almost one whole month since then and no one still knows what the results of the presidential elections were. Surely it does not take one month to count and verify results? It does not take a brain surgeon to see that Mugabe clearly lost the vote and in delaying the release of the results he and his government are figuring out a way to rig the poll so that they stay in power.
Unconfirmed reports today say that the presidential results have now been released and the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai won 47% of the vote with Mugabe winning 43%. Read the rest of this entry »
The drama in Zimbabwe seems to continue. Now there is a ship wondering around the oceans of Africa with tonnes of weapons and ammunition meant to be delivered to Zimbabwe. It seems that Mugabe is scrambling around to get as much ‘fire power’ together to help protect himself and his troops and at the same time use those weapons to start terrorising Zimbabweans in the build up to a potential presidential vote run off. Read the rest of this entry »
