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Election Watch Issue 11 - 2012
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
November 02, 2012

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Chinamasa 'coup' threat provokes outrage in the media

Remarks by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa that his party and the military would not accept Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as president in the event that he wins forthcoming national elections attracted condemnation from a wide cross-section of the Zimbabwean society in the month.

Chinamasa, who is also ZANU PF's chief negotiator in the Global Political Agreement (GPA), was seen on BBC World Television making these comments in an interview with the corporation's Africa Correspondent, Andrew Harding.

Notably, the official state media censored Chinamasa's utterances, in what appeared to be an attempt to conceal information that has the potential to damage ZANU PF's image ahead of elections.

The private media widely reported Chinamasa as having told the BBC that ZANU PF and the army would not accept a "foreign-sponsored" victory for Tsvangirai because the MDC-T leader had allegedly promised to reverse the gains of independence (NewsDay & Daily News, 15/10).

Chinamasa hinted that the military would stage a coup if Tsvangirai won the elections: "Now if anyone is going to say: 'When I come into power I'm going to reverse that', they (the military) have every right to say: 'Please, you are asking for trouble'. You will be asking for trouble".

Asked to clarify his use of the word "trouble", Chinamasa told the BBC to make its own interpretation: "He (Tsvangirai) will be asking for trouble to seek to reverse the land reform programme. There is no one who is going to accept any enslavement. And if those countries impose for him (Tsvangirai) to win, that result will not be acceptable. We will not accept it. We will just not accept it. Isn't that clear?"

The private media viewed Chinamasa's utterances as not only a threat to democracy, but also a reflection of ZANU PF's contempt for Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party.

These media warned that such comments had the potential to spark a civil war and urged Mugabe to accept any poll outcome to preserve his legacy.

The private media also reported the MDC-T, civic groups, and several political commentators expressing outrage over Chinamasa's comments, arguing that such utterances vindicated their demand for security sector reform before the next elections.

In one such case, the private media reported the PM's spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka, saying his boss would take steps to force Chinamasa to retract the "coup" threat (Daily News & NewsDay, 15/10). Tamborinyoka declared: "Chinamasa will regret that statement for the rest of his life. Chinamasa should know that there is nothing that is bigger than the people's mandate. The ballot will always be superior to the bullet. It is a treasonous statement as it implies that the people's will amounts to nothing".

Even worse, the private media considered Chinamasa's threat to be reminiscent of those made by top military officials in the past, especially the one expressed in the run-up to the 2002 presidential elections - that Zimbabwe's state security chiefs would not salute anyone without liberation war credentials, in apparent reference to Tsvangirai (Daily News & NewsDay, 15/10).

Barely a week after Chinamasa expressed his intolerance of an MDC-T election victory, the private media reported ZANU PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo telling South Africa's e-News Channel Africa that it would be "messy" if Tsvangirai won the elections, warning that "hardliners" would find it difficult to hand over power to the MDC-T leader (Daily News, NewsDay & The Standard, 18, 19 & 21/10).

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