Mandaza says Israel helping Mugabe to rig

(source: Zimbabwe Times -

Mandaza says Israel helping Mugabe to rig

By Raymond Maingire

HARARE, March 20, 2008 (thezimbabwetimes.com) – Dr Ibbo Mandaza, a close ally of independent presidential candidate, Dr Simba Makoni, yesterday urged the United States government to come clean on some of its policies on Zimbabwe.

Mandaza, a leading publisher and academic, claimed that the super power has allowed two countries aligned to it to sponsor covert operations aimed at helping President Robert Mugabe to rig the forthcoming elections. He identified Israel and Pakistan as the alleged culprits, saying both nations had deployed teams to Harare to help the beleaguered Mugabe regime to rig elections.

Mandaza said the group of former Finance Minister, Makoni, was fully briefed on the underhand strategies that the Zimbabwean leader was employing in a bid to influence the crucial vote next week in his favour.

Zimbabweans will go to the polls on Saturday, March 29, to elect a new President as well as parliamentary, senatorial and local government representatives.

“We have to ensure elections are not rigged,” Mandaza told a full house during a public discussion forum in Harare on Wednesday evening.

“We honestly have to do so because the elections are rigged by human beings like us. How is it done, where is it done.

“In fact, we already know there are seven senior CIO functionaries who have been attached to ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) since last week to do the dirty job. We have their names. We have given some of the names to the SADC observer teams last week and to the press.

“Some of them have even asked us to make it be known that this is what has happened because they are also like any other Zimbabweans who are tired of doing this dirty job.”

Mandaza said his group has been informed that a team of Israeli intelligence agents were deployed last week to help President Mugabe rig the election.

“They were seen arriving in Harare last week,” he said, “Their team arrived in Zimbabwe to help in the whole election management. They have also sent a team of Pakistanis who arrived last week for the dirty job.

“The question is, ‘What is the position of the super power, the USA, when two of its surrogates, Pakistan and Israel are involved in dirty business in Zimbabwe or are intending to do so?’”

Mandaza urged the opposition to work together to expose some of Mugabe’s underhand dealings. Tsvangirai, the MDC president, is scheduled to address a press conference today, where he will disclose his own details of the rigging process.

Mugabe’s political opponents and observers have accused him of using unorthodox methods, including the militarization of state institutions, to remain in power.

Mandaza accused Mugabe of instilling fear among Zimbabweans. As publisher of The Mirror newspaper Mandaza was an ardent defender of Mugabe. His cosy relationship with the ruling party ended when his publishing company was seized by the CIO.

“The Zimbabwe of today is enveloped in fear, stress and tension,” Mandaza said. “There is no respect for the law; no human rights. We have been beating up our fellow citizens like animals for nothing other than that they have expressed their view, a view which is obvious - that there is something wrong with the country and that Mugabe must go.”

He said Zimbabwe’s education and health care systems had effectively collapsed because of Mugabe’s mismanagement of the economy.

“We have a population which has been patronized and paternalised by a state which claims it can provide everything, a state which is completely lacking in capacity and completely unable to turn around this economy, other than to drive us deeper, and deeper and deeper into crisis.”

He said he agreed with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s assertions that the forthcoming election was a referendum on President Mugabe’s rule.

“By next week, Tsvangirai, Makoni and all of us should go into the election with one thing, one thing only – get that man out into retirement, then we can start doing real business,” he said.

President Mugabe faces the toughest challenge to his 28-year old iron-fisted rule. His diminishing support has manifested itself in various ways, including serious rifts within the ruling party and the spectre of previously intimidated rural folk thronging opposition rallies. For instance, where Mugabe’s rally in Gweru attracted a paltry 4 000 supporters, most of them children, on Tuesday, Tsvangirai and Makoni addressed crowds of 30 000 and 7 000 respectively over the weekend, and that without any form without coercion.

Fearful of a massive show of support in Harare the police denied the MDC permission to hold a final rally at Zimbabwe Grounds on Saturday, March 22.

They claimed that Zanu-PF had booked the same venue from Friday to Monday continuously. But Zanu-PF may have taken a calculated risk, especially if the small numbers that have become characteristic of the party’s rallies of late turn out.

More than 100 000 supporters turned Zimbabwe Grounds into a solid mass of people on February 27, 1980, when Mugabe heroically led Zanu-PF back from Maputo after years of struggle.

Above all, the Mugabe election campaign appears doomed when those that might normally be relied upon to facilitate any rigging process have become reliable sources of information for the opposition