Troubled MKD "leader" Dr Simba Makoni. Will he back his sokesman's claims and take advantage of them to gain waning political relevane?Mavambo Kusile Dawn spokesman Denford Magora has stumbled upon compelling evidence of the whereabouts of the missing MDC activists and illegal diamond miners widely rumored to have been murdered by the Zanu PF Junta.
An “authoritative” article posted on http://www.denfordmagora.blogspot.com/ titled “Chiyadzwa diamond massacre and June 27 runoff victims buried in Chitungwiza”? claims among other things that the MKD spokesman has it on good authority that the victims have been interred at the Unit “L” cemetery by prisoners on an unspecified date in April this year.
The prisoners who carried out the mass burial of the 85 victims in 37 shallow graves at the cemetery were provided with masks and surgical gloves which they later discarded into another shallow hole that remained uncovered to date and was there for Magora to see when he investigated the allegations of the grisly act.
According to Magora each of the 37 shallow graves contains two or three corpses of the illegal diamond diggers and missing presidential runoff campaign activists from the MDC.
It is not evident how Magora established the facts about the depth of the graves and the identities of the people interred therein as well as the numbers in each grave except that within two days of the burial taking place the cemetery neighbourhood was as he puts it “filled with the stench of rotting human flesh.”
According to the MKD spokesman there are plans to construct a tarred road over the two rows on which the 37 shallow graves are situated in the middle of the cemetery disguised as an access road flanked by graves on either of its verges when it is in reality an intentional cover up of the evidence of the grisly murders.
The MKD spokesman claims he has it on very reliable sources that Mayors of Mutare and Marondera declined requests to have the corpses buried in cemeteries within their jurisdiction and MDC-T members in Chitungwiza’s Unit “L” are now up in arms against their Party appointed Mayor for consenting to the burials taking place in the town.
It is not clear how Mayors have been involved in determining who gets buried where in the cities under the jurisdiction a function normally carried out by the home Affairs ministry which issues burial orders when approached by the bereaved who would have secured burial space through a normal transaction of buying grave space from local authority offices.
The MKD spokesman says he has it on good authority from MDC officials in the area that they fear that among the 85 corpses are the 40 missing party members the State is failing to account for their whereabouts after being abducted by State security agents.
He holds the hope that the MDC will channel its energies to push for an explanation of the incident.
But Doreen Mutemeri in an article titled http://www.nehandaradio.com/zimbabwe/opinionwriters/mutemeri/magora180509.html“Denford Magora the art of extending the truth,” published on 18 May 2009 has some timely warning for those relying on the MKD spokesman’s blog for news from Zimbabwe.
“We all know Simba Makoni is the source of all his ‘so called scoops’. Given the dynamics of last year’s CIO vs Army infighting over Makoni’s presidential aspirations it is pretty clear even for those with half a brain that the Central Intelligence Organisation is providing Magora via Makoni most of these ‘scoops’ from the corridors of power,” she disclosed.
The intention of the disclosures is arm MKD with information to discredit the MDC-T at every turn with half truths and in many instances fabricated lies.
It is hoped the MKD spokesman who says the MDC-T is a toothless appendage in the coalition government bereft of any ideas as to how to run the country’s turnaround programmes through employment creation rather than relying on donations and aid did not have in mind investigation of Unit L cemetery graves as a viable employment creating exercise deserving MDC-T urgent attention.
How about MKD investigating the matter and using the evidence to discredit the incompetent coalition government and thereby gaining real political mileage out of that emotional area for a change.
While at it the MKD has disclosed that the MDC-T National Council marooned Party president Morgan Tsvangirai at the Masvingo meeting on 17 May 2009 and forced him to concede to their request for outstanding GPA issues to be referred to SADC for arbitration forthwith against his wish as to avoid him facing an imminent vote of no confidence on his leadership of the party.
Hitherto the MKD spokesman had indicated that Tsvangirai’s stranglehold on the party leadership was under threat from hardliners pushing for his ouster from the party for his softly softly approach in dealing with Mugabe’s breaches of the GPA clauses.
On the other hand he claims MKD self imposed leader Dr Simba Makoni currently fighting running battles in court with the movement’s national executive council that has seen the launch of the movement into a political party deferred for the third time within a year is in total control of developments in the movement and comfortable to delay the launch a little pending the outcome of the legal dispute.
How ironic?
Tsvangirai is the face of the MDC as much as Dr Makoni is for the MKD except that where Dr Makoni refuses to be guided by the movement’s national council- dictatorial style- Tsvangirai is subservient to the MDC national council consensus and avoids the trauma of political litigation which in the end achieves nothing for the party or movement’s cause.
It is not only Tsvangirai who has the distinction of being the face of a revolution but all revolutionary leaders share the same trait in keeping the cause for which they stand for alive. The only distinction in them is the level of their achievement.
Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, Robert Mugabe, Dr Joshua Nkomo, Jonas Savimbi and yes General Nkundah of the DRC share the trait but with different adulation.
Remove them from the struggle and the movement dies or recedes into oblivion. The democratic among them choose to groom successors and voluntarily leave office while the autocratic hang on that much longer than their sale by date.
The MKD spokesman must always remember that the esteem with which he holds the MKD leader Dr Simba Makoni is equaled if not exceeded by similar feelings within many MDC supporters and he will not be easily pushed out unless he willfully consents to calls for him to step aside in the interest of the struggle.
If with a year at the helm, Dr Makoni is already proving to be that much harder to oust for his movement’s national council what more of Tsvangirai with 10 years at the helm?
No comments:
Post a Comment