Déjà vu —Mugabe's same old plots with new names as the victims.

As I silently watch how Zimbabweans are suffering amid a run away hyper-inflation and a dollarised economy when most of them are paid in Zimbabwean dollars, my memory keeps on taking me back to the political happennings in this country over the years.

Mugabe has been in power in Zimbabwe for 28 years now, albeit against the majority of Zimbabweans' wishes most of the years. During all these years he has been using the same old tactic over and over again to discredit any form of opposition, so that he maintains a one-party state system. It is the same tactic he is using in accusing Tsvangirai of the insurgency case. Accusing his opposition of treason is not a new tactic for Mugabe. It started in February 1982 when Nkomo and three of his ZAPU colleagues were dismissed from the cabinet. These dismissals were said to have followed the discovery of large quantities of arms in several caches in Matabeleland which the Government alleged had been hidden by guerrillas loyal to Nkomo in preparation for a military coup against Mugabe's ruling ZANU(PF) party. In July 1982 Joshua Nkoma was implicated by Mugabe in a gun attack on Mugabe's home. He was acquitted, but was placed under house arrest without charges. A wave of unrest in Matabeleland resulted, and several hundred people were killed as from 1982-1987 as Mugabe's government cracked down on dissident activities until 22 December 1987 when Nkomo and Mugabe signed the Unity Accord.
So that was how Nkomo's political rivalry to Mugabe was eliminated.

That left Zanu Ndonga as the only other political party in Zimbabwe besides Zanu-PF and because of Mugabe's obsession with a one-party state system he decided to eliminate Zanu Ndoga even though it wasn't much of a threat to his party. ZANU-Ndonga had two seats, including one occupied by Sithole, in a 150-member parliament in which Mugabe's ZANU-PF party controlled the remaining 148. I remembered that in October 1995 Mugabe came up with trumped up charges against the party's leader, Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole. Zimbabwean Police arrested veteran opposition leader Ndabaningi Sithole in a pre-dawn raid on the 14th of October 1995 in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. The state news agency ZIANA quoted police as saying the 75-year-old leader of the right-wing ZANU-Ndonga party was helping police investigate a Mozambique-based Zimbabwe rebel group involved in the alleged coup plot. Police said Sithole was being held in connection with the arrests of two men accused of plotting to kill Mugabe in August of the same year. According to the state prosecutor, these two men had placed a landmine beneath a road on which the presidential motorcade was due to pass. Sithole's wife, Vesta, said the allegations were false, "These are trumped up charges, Mugabe has a personal vendetta against my husband and (Mugabe's ruling party) ZANU-PF is pursuing this grudge," she said. Police declined to give details on what charges Sithole would face, saying this would prejudice investigations but Vesta Sithole said her husband stood accused of organising a private guerrilla army to overthrow Mugabe's government. In Dec 1997 Rev. Sithole was convicted of plotting to assassinate President Mugabe and overthrow his government in October 1995.
So that was how Sithole's political rivalry to Mugabe was eliminated. Déjà vu-Mugabe's same old plot that he used to eliminate Nkomo with a new name, Sithole, as the victim.

The next serious opposition to Mugabe and his Zanu PF came in the 2002 when Tsvangirai was the only serious contender to Mugabe during the March 2002 presidential elections. To discredit Tsvangirai before the elections Mugabe contracted a Canadian political consultancy, Dickens and Madson, headed by former Israeli intelligence officer and Mugabe lobbyist, Ari Ben-Menashe. On a videotape, repeatedly broadcast on Zimbabwean state television, Tsvangirai was shown allegedly discussing ways of eliminating Mugabe with consultants. But there were suggestions that the videotape was heavily edited. Tsvangirai, and his two associates Welshman Ncube and Renson Gasela denied the allegations. The Canadian firm is on record as having been hired by the Mugabe government to improve its image, therefore its evidence against Tsvangirai was questioned as unreliable. Tsvangirai said the firm offered to help the MDC buff up its image in the west, it was a trap. These three MDC leaders were charged with treason and faced the death penalty if found guilty. They were saved by well-known South African attorney, George Bizos, who defended Nelson Mandela between 1963 & 1964 in the Rivonia trial during his fight against the apartheid regime. The MDC leader said the charges were fabricated by the authorities to try to remove him from the political scene.
Déjà vu-Mugabe's same old plot that he used to eliminate Nkomo & Sithole with a new name, Tsvangirai, as the victim, but this time it failed to eliminate Tsvangirai.

Five years later, starting late last year, in early December 2007, after the March & June 2007 caricature of elections were over and done with, after the GNU agreement had failed to come to fruitition, which Mugabe thought would have the same effect as the Zanu PF and Zapu, Unity Accord of 1987, that is unite the three parties and by so doing kill all the opposition in the country, kill democracy, he decided to come up with insurgency and banditry training charges against the MDC leader. This is the case that Jestina Mukoko is said to be involved in which led to her abduction.
Déjà vu-Mugabe's same old plot that he used to eliminate Nkomo & Sithole with a new name, Tsvangirai, as the victim.

Could somebody please tell the old man that the same tactic used over and over again becomes a cliché and it is his credibility that is beginning to come into question and not the credibility of his opposition like he intended his plots to do. His repeated plots to kill democracy in this nation have lost originality and effectiveness through overuse and they are now revealing to Zimbabweans just how predictable and superficial he is. The old dictator seems unable to learn new tricks and it is such weaknesses that the opposition parties should take note of and use to strategise how to out manouvre him.