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Third force speculations in Zimbabwe
Judith Todd,
June 04, 2008

http://www.idasa.org.za/index.asp?page=output_details.asp%3FRID%3D1526%26OTID%3D4%26PID%3D54

Bearing in mind Zanu (PF)'s propensity to attribute their crimes to their opponents, Bright Matonga's recent statements make riveting reading.

In a telephone interview reported 27 May by The Zimbabwean, Zimbabwe's former, but still acting, deputy information minister attributed xenophobic violence in South Africa to the Movement for Democratic Change which, he stated, "has exported violence to South Africa to fuel anti-Zimbabwe sentiments in that country and the region as a whole." This, he claimed, was to force Zimbabweans to return home and vote for Tsvangirai.

"The MDC knows it will lose the election and is resorting to desperate means. I am talking from an informed position and the government has gathered intelligence that the thugs, paid by the MDC, are saying this is not your fault, it is the fault of Zanu (PF); go back home and vote to remove Zanu (PF)."

Unfortunately for Zimbabweans displaced in South Africa there is little chance of returning home to vote in the approaching 27 June presidential run-off between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. Documentation enabling them to travel was probably lost during the recent attacks. Many, anyway, are "illegal immigrants" without documentation. There is, moreover, the very real threat that anyone going home now would be regarded as opposition supporters with dire consequences.

Rightly or wrongly, victims of Mugabe's Zanu (PF) regime regard today's South African authorities as complicit in repression on both sides of the border. When South Africa signed defence and intelligence pacts with the Mugabe regime in November 2005 it was difficult to imagine who the common threat was perceived to be, other than those Zimbabweans who had voted against Zanu (PF) in successive elections, many of whom had already fled to South Africa. One of the signatories, minister of state Didymus Mutasa, was reported as saying "The greatest threat to the stability of the region and Zimbabwe in particular is the threat of exogenous influences whose aim is to effect regime change especially in regards to my country".

Charles Nqakula, South African safety and security minister, reassured his guests, Mutasa and Zimbabwe's defence minister Sydney Sekeremayi, that "we are not going to do anything based on some of the populism chants that happen on our soil and elsewhere that is going to upset that programme" which included the sharing of information on security issues; the training of Zimbabwean pilots and instructors in South Africa; and co-operation to better enforce immigration laws "as thousands of Zimbabweans seek refuge in more affluent South Africa" reported the Independent Online.

The true nature of Mugabe's government was, of course, well known despite the observations on that occasion by intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils. 'They have very daunting challenges. They are very frank about the kind of problems they have to deal with. We agree with them fully when they situate these problems within a context related to the colonial status of Zimbabwe, which for so many years had the name Rhodesia thrust upon them'.

However, probably even their best friends in South Africa didn't expect the public declarations later by heads of Zimbabwe's defense, intelligence, police and prisons' establishments that they would never accept a victory for anyone but Mugabe and his Zanu (PF), thus signaling a coup even in advance of elections.

Now the attacks on and displacement of Zimbabweans in South Africa have dealt a devastating blow to those at home who depend on remittances of food and funds from outside Zimbabwe. Lifelines between those earning in South Africa and their dependents have been severed, vastly increasing the vulnerability of those whose fingernail hold on life in Zimbabwe is already so tenuous. As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, has said: "For some of the Zimbabweans being chased from their homes and jobs in South Africa, this isn't simply a serious economic issue. They now face a potentially life-threatening situation in both countries".

So it seems ever more possible that Zanu (PF) security and intelligence vipers harbored in South Africa's bosom have bitten, and bitten hard, intentionally refocusing attention from terror in Zimbabwe to xenophobia in South Africa. As Zimbabwean refugees in Alexandra told Mrs.Winnie Mandela, unwittingly echoing Bright Matonga's statements, violence could have been started by Zimbabweans apparently driving their countrymen home to vote in Zimbabwe. "That is what Zimbabweans themselves told me," Mrs. Mandela states in the current Mail & Guardian. "They said this violence was started by fellow Zimbabweans..."

Operations Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina, MaVhoterapapi , Xenophobia. What more should be anticipated from Zimbabwe's desperate operatives? Who can remove their sense of impunity and how?

It has long been apparent, increasingly so, that Mugabe's regime would rather ignite civil war and regional conflict than relinquish power. They will not stop until they are stopped.

*Judith Todd is author of Through the darkness: A life in Zimbabwe (Economist Books of The Year 2007)

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