MDC MAJORITY IN PARLIAMENT DWINDLES AS...

The well-orchestrated plot to persecute MDC MPs continues, with the latest purge on the MPs being the sentencing to two years in prison of Zaka North MP, Hon. Ernest Mudavanhu, on Tuesday. Hon. Mudavanhu was convicted by a Harare magistrate on trumped-up charges of abusing subsidised farming inputs distributed under the Government’s Farm Mechanisation Programme.

Hon. Mudavanhu’s conviction brings to five the number of MDC MPs convicted of various crimes while several others continue to face various trumped-up charges that are still before the courts.

The plot to convict the MPs is a well orchestrated plan by Zanu PF and other mischievous conspirators in the inclusive government to decimate the party’s majority in parliament.

In its latest plot, Zanu PF, assisted by the Attorney-General’s office, has also targeted five other MDC MPs on spurious charges ranging from kidnapping to public violence.

As a party of excellence, the MDC does not condone any form of corruption. We believe that the guilty should face the music but we remain concerned that only MPs from the MDC are criminals.

The bedrock and home of corruption is in Zanu PF but the wheels of justice have never moved in that direction. Moreover, even though it is public knowledge that Zanu PF was at the centre of the political violence that rocked the nation after the 2008 elections and led to the death of over 500 MDC members, no one from Zanu PF has been arrested.

This selective application of the law is clear testimony that the conviction of MDC MPs is politically motivated.

ZANU PF ACCUSES MDC OF PLOTTING A COUP

HARARE,

There is intensifying infighting in Zimbabwe’s unity government with President Robert Mugabe’s party accusing its coalition partners of trying to use the uneasy marriage to topple the veteran ruler, state media reported today.

The state-owned Herald newspaper, which is still a mouthpiece of Mr Mugabe’s Zanu PF said the principals in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that include Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Professor Arthur Mutambara had a tension filled meeting on Monday.

“This was after MDC (led by Mr Tsvangirai) on Sunday issued a statement saying Zanu PF was on a journey to oblivion while their path was irreversible,” the paper said.

It said negotiators who hammered the deal that led to the formation of the coalition in February had to be called in to discuss issues affecting the inclusive government.

Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC has been complaining that President Mugabe was not committed to the full implementation of the agreement signed on September 15 last year.

The party referred a number of outstanding issues in the GPA including the appointment of the central bank governor and the attorney general to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for arbitration.

SADC and the African Union are the guarantors of the agreement.

But Zanu PF turned the tables and accused the MDC formations of failing to meet their part of the bargain because they had failed to campaign for the lifting of sanctions and the closure of pirate radio stations.

Monday’s meeting showed that the parties were drifting further apart with the claims that the MDC wants to topple Mr Mugabe from power, the paper said.

It said the MDC stood accused of “approaching the inclusive government as a vehicle for President Mugabe’s ouster and not as an opportunity to rebuild the country.”

“Zanu PF believes that MDC has displayed insincerity for sometime now,” the Herald quoted an unnamed source. “They say MDC officials held a rally in Manicaland at the weekend in which they told their supporters that they would use the inclusive government to remove President Mugabe.