Zapu president Dumiso Dabengwa yesterday challenged President Robert Mugabe to rein in errant security chiefs after they cast aspersions on the person of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Report by Nduduzo Tshuma
Dabengwa, a former Zipra intelligence commander, said Mugabe’s continued silence on the matter would lead to the belief that the generals had the President’s backing.
“It shows in the first place their (security chiefs) failure to listen to what was said by the people in the drafting of the constitution that anyone in the security service should be apolitical,” he said.
“The President should have by now come out and stood against the actions of these security chiefs.
“This is an issue where he should come out and say he does not want to hear such talk just like he did when he spoke against violence.”
The former Home Affairs minister said the statements by the securocrats were contemptuous of the constitution-making exercise, asking whether this meant that the generals should be respected just because they had guns.
Dabengwa said the security chiefs could not deny the will of the people because even when a president was chosen by — and acts on behalf of — the people.
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“He should come out and ban these security chiefs from commenting on political matters unless if he also wants to defy the will of the people,” he said. “His silence can only mean that he endorses what these security chiefs are doing.”
In the past weeks the country’s securocracts have escalated attacks on Tsvangirai with army commander General Constantine Chiwenga labelling the Premier a psychiatric patient in need of a competent psychiatrist.
Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri insinuated that Tsvangirai was a malcontent who did not deserve any attention from him as the chief of police. In a partisan speech on Wednesday, prisons boss Paradzai Zimondi pleaded with senior warders to vote for Mugabe.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition director McDonald Lewanika said the statements by the generals showed that they did not respect, and were not subordinate to civilian authority.
“Whatever the case maybe, as we head towards elections, it is clear that we will get into them with a partisan, unrepentant, and patently unprofessional security sector leadership,” Lewanika wrote.
“I believe that this is a security sector leadership that is smart enough to understand that ultimately it is the people, civilians, who will choose who becomes the next president of this country.”
MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora reiterated that the statements by the generals reinforced calls for security sector reform.
“What these so-called security chiefs have uttered and continue to utter vindicates our demands for security sector reform before elections,” he said.
“These gentlemen are talking and have been talking as if they are members of the Zanu PF politburo.”
