Staff Writer
Details have emerged on how late President Robert Mugabe achieved longevity in power which include working with prominent opposition figures and leftist organisations.
Robert Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe for nearly four decades.
He served as Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. His rule ended in November 2017 after a military coup.
Sources have told this publication that during the period the National Constitutional Assembly was formed, RG Mugabe was facing three major problems which are revolt by War Veterans regarding abuse of the war victims’ compensation fund; a strong ZCTU, organising national strikes and proposals for a new Constitution with a limited term of office.
“RG Mugabe solved the war veterans’ problem by paying them a gratuity of $50 000 per person. This money was unbudgeted for, and it therefore caused a sharp rise in inflation.
“This made ZCTU stronger due to an aggrieved national labour force due to a severe erosion of their buying power, thus this caused the ZCTU to organise periodic strikes,” said a source.
The source said opposition figure Tenda Biti and Mugabe schemed to manipulate the NCA to spearhead the formation of a political Party, the Movement for Democratic Change led by the ZCTU to offset the growing muscle of the ZCTU.
This literally destroyed the power of the labour movement and thus solved RG Mugabe’s second problem (that of a strong ZCTU).
On 21 May 1999, RG Mugabe appointed a Constitutional Commission chaired by Chief Justice Chidyausiku to come up with a draft constitution that would be subjected to a referendum. This was to solve problem three.
The two main issues raised by people on the outreach programs were: That the Lancaster House Constitution granted excessive powers to the President which should be curtailed and That the Presidential term should be limited to only two 5-year terms.
“To override these problems, Biti and Mugabe used their MDC project to reject the draft constitution. This party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was formed on 11 September 1999.
“The Constitutional Commission completed their draft which included the clause on the limited term of office of the President. As part of the scheme and on advice from Tendai Biti, R.G Mugabe inserted in the final draft a clause on the compulsory acquisition of land from white farmers without compensation from the Zimbabwean Government. This amended draft was passed through Parliament,” said the source.
The NCA reportedly held a meeting at the Zimbabwe Women’s Bureau to consider whether to accept the amended constitution.
It was agreed in this meeting that the NCA should support the amended draft constitution as it was far better than the existing Lancaster House constitution. Central to the decision was the limited term of office of the President which ensured that RG Mugabe would leave office at most in 2010 even if he won elections in 2000 and 2005.
The land clause affected 4300 white farmers, and this was to be weighed against what was good for the entire country of over 15 million people. The meeting therefore agreed to support the adoption of the draft constitution.
“The amended draft was subjected to a referendum in 2000, Biti through the MDC campaigned for the rejection of the draft Constitution. The draft was rejected at the referendum thereby solving R G Mugabe’s problem of a limited term of office (which he didn’t want).
The rejection of the draft constitution with a limited term of office meant that R G Mugabe was to revert to the Lancaster House Constitution which allowed him Life Presidency. This could not be what most of the people of Zimbabwe wanted.
The white farmers supported the rejection of the draft Constitution at the cunning advice of Biti in the mistaken belief that they were protecting their land. Subsequent events proved them wrong.
“Biti formed the MDC for nefarious purposes, these are: Blocking entry of new genuine opposition parties. Rejection of the draft Constitution which would have removed R G Mugabe from office in 2010.
“Destroying an effective labour movement. Playing a key role in the rigging of future elections to prevent opposition parties from winning the Presidency. The so-called presidential elections petitions are stage managed and fake. Examples are Presidential election petitions of 2002 and 2018,” said the source.
In 2008, the Presidential election failed to produce a winner (there was a 50 percent + 1 vote requirement of the total votes cast for declaration of an outright winner), as a result there was need for a run-off between the ZANU PF and MDC Presidential candidates.
Tendai Biti devised a scheme by which he hired thugs to beat up MDC supporters particularly in the urban areas, he then used this as an excuse to get the MDC Presidential candidate to abort participating in the run-off resulting in the ZANU PF candidate winning uncontested.
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