Professor Ncube vs. Professor Mutambara

The battle of Professors rages on over the control of a hopeless political faction.

After staging what apparently looked like a model democratic takeover of the leadership of the elitist and tribalist political formation that owes its place in Zimbabwe’s political landscape to Mugabe and Zanu PF’s violent electoral coup after the humiliating defeat of Mugabe by Tsvangirai in March 2008 that opened the door for then South Africa President Thabo Mbeki to implement the SADC recovery plan for Mugabe garnisheed  by the resuscitation of the MDC-M formation in disarray Professor Ncube –the defacto leader of the renegades now finds himself against the wall after his apprentice turned formation front man  Professor Arthur Mutambara has grown a thick skin and defied his mentor.

On 7-8 January 2011 Professor Ncube asserted himself as the manifest and defacto leader of the renegade faction that he wanted to move out of the looming shadow of its MDC origins.

Four misguided Professors on MDC-M leadership saga and role in Government

One would naturally be expected to benefit from reading comments from distinguished scholars especially on subjects they profess and have been academically recognised as fundis but alas not in Zimbabwe.
Political comments by Zimbabwe’s eminent political science academics must be read with extreme caution as they are not academic or scientific postulations but rather political innuendoes aimed at persuading opinions in one direction or another.

Dr Simba Makoni cashing in on Zimbabwe misplaced infatuations

MKD leader Dr Simba Makoni overrated and ambitious

Zimbabwe is generally a trendy nation. The origin of the insatiable appetite for the in thing or any craze among the populace is difficult to trace but it is evident in every facet of life in the country.

The appetite knows no season nor bounds.

Gibson Sibanda’s death closes definition of Zimbabwe heroism debate

Premier Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC-M Vice President Gibson Sibanda

MDC-M vice President Gibson Sibanda passed away at Bulawayo’s Mater Dei hospital on Monday night, 23 August 2010. He was 66.

Immediately thereafter the MDC-M faction wrote to President Robert Mugabe recommending that the late Sibanda be considered for conferment of National Hero status

President Mugabe hit the nail on the head

Zimbabwe President Apostle Robert Gabriel Mugabe at the Johanne marange Passover after snubbing invitation to Rumbidzai's wedding to Calvin Nyarota. Rumbidzai is premier Tsvangirai's daughter.

Addressing mourners gathered at the discredited National Heroes shrine to witness the interment of his late sister Sabina Mugabe, President Robert Mugabe hit the nail on the head when he said;

“They cannot be good to us today, when they were not good to us yesterday. They detained us, jailed us, shot at us, bombed us and slaughtered us in our hundreds. We bore the brunt of their cruelties and shall never forget.”

How true except that he was pointing at a past offender he personally and voluntarily pardoned in 1980 and got our total support for the magnanimity he had shown in victory.

The British colonists did all that to us and we pardoned them when they surrendered to our demand for self rule on that momentous day of 18 April 1980 when Prince Charles lowered the Union Jack and neatly folded it before taking it back to the United Kingdom.

Simultaneously our Zimbabwe Flag was hoisted and the wind merrily blew it in all directions as if to confirm the merriment that characterised the mood of the thousands that packed into Rufaro Stadium and many more across the length and breadth of our freed nation.

Sadly none other than President Mugabe has failed us in our desire to continue reveling in the joy of our freedom from colonial rule

Temba Mliswa, Didymus Mutasa and Theresa Makone can of worms

The recent arrest of Zanu PF foot soldier from Mashonaland West province TEMBA Mliswa for allegedly seizing shares worth US$1 million in a local company is slowly but surely mothballing into a can of worms Zanu PF never wished to be opened.

Mliswa (38), Mliswa is currently on bail on yet another charge of fraud for which he is jointly charged with Presidential Affairs Minister Didymus Mutasa’s son Martin Mutasa (47) and George Marere (36).

By: Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

MDC President and Zimbabwe Premier setting milestones on how to manage under performers in government

On to numerous occasions political rabble rousers and respected opinion leaders alike have got it wrong when it comes to the political acumen in MDC-T President and Zimbabwe Premier Morgan Tsvangirai.

A common denominator in MDC-T critics that have had to eat humble pie when the MDC-T President proved them wrong is the superiority complex that underpins their assessment of the Premier’s leadership suitability.

All Tsvangirai detractors think he is not his own man and survives on charity from his so called “Kitchen Cabinet.”

All political leaders globally heavily rely on advice they get from inner circle advisers they constantly consult before taking a political stand yet none has ever had their circle of advisers ridiculed to the extent that the premier’s team has been.

Amazingly the most ridiculed advisors to the Premier appear to have defied all odds and directed him to the most advantageous political position.

Tsvangirai reshuffles MDC-T Ministers in the Coalition government

MDC-T President and Zimbabwe Premier Morgan Tsvangirai reshuffles his party's Cabinet Ministers to re-energise the party in the coalition goverment

Prime Minister and MDC-T President announced a reshuffle that a leader under siege would not naturally contemplate.

"Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, I am here today to announce a ministerial reshuffle. This reshuffle is about the MDC delivering to the people of Zimbabwe what they are looking for – real change.

Bring back Zimdollar: Zanu PF zealot wails

The worthless currency that Zanu PF zealots were availed by Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and they in turn used to buy fortune and fame is now yearned for as the zealots find that money does not grow on trees.

By: Matthias Kufandirimbwa,

To show how fearful Zanu PF is at the prospect of impending elections to wind up the coalition government the Herald has been publishing letters from Zanu PF supporters like Matthias Kufandirimbwa who is infamous for his vicious campaigns for the party in Kuwadzana but whom the Herald would like to sell as a property market analyst.

We reproduce the masterpiece he wrote to the Herald on Saturday 19 June 2010 to Party President Robert Mugabe pleading for postponement of the elections and reintroduction of the invalidated Zimdollar that brought him fame and wealth he is now dreaming of as loopholes for black marketing have been closed by the multicurrency fiscal regime currently obtaining in the country.

Political party leadership cannot be bought by wealth

By: Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai is at present the face of the party's struggle for power and is unlikely to be unseated at congress unless he personally decides to quit as the current formation he leads only became a party under his leadership in 2006 
 

While money can exert tremendous influence on politics, the reality is that political leadership has no coloration with wealth ownership. If anything the only coloration between political leadership in so far as wealth is concerned is that politicians increase their wealth dramatically as they gain political clout and power.

In Zimbabwe there are two fundamental constituencies that wield immense power that drives politics in the MDC-T/Zanu PF divide. The MDC-T’s strength is in the Workers while Zanu PF strength is in the Miltia.

There has been speculation that some business mogul will shortly take over leadership of the MDC-T party and transform it into a successful private enterprise.

MDC-M in danger of being swallowed by Zanu PF

By: Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

MDC-M President Professor Mutambara is unwittingly leading his formation into the Zanu PF clutches from which it will never come out the same if ever it will

The Zimbabwe political formation that claims to be the most strategic and enlightened is in real danger of going under.

The formation that emerged from the infamous MDC split on 12 October 2005 promising to rebrand not just itself but also the politics of the country has found it difficult to sustain its elitist ideology and strategy as envisaged at its formation.

The Professor Mutambara fronted formation whose anchor and key driver is former MDC Secretary General Professor Welshman Ncube, has tried to forge lasting alliances with other pro-democracy institutions without any success.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai drives George Charamba bonkers

By: Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

Has Charamba finally bitten mopre than he can chew and swallow?


It has always been coming and now it has arrived. The simmering and intriguing political contest between Premier Morgan Tsvangirai and Permanent Secretary for Media Information and Publicity as well as Presidential Spokesman George Charamba aka Nathaniel Manheru has exploded.

They may hail from the same District and have grown up eating the same Majekuchenene from the Mwerari River, fishing bream and cat fish from the Nyazvidzi river and herding the same goats, cattle and donkeys together but there is certainly no love lost between them politically.

President Mugabe and not MDC or Zanu PF is spurning chances for judicial reform

President Mugabe in undisguised failure to uphold constitutional amendment No 19

The opinion by Tererai Mafukidze a President Mugabe apologist masquerading as a local lawyer in the Zimbabwe Independent on Thursday, 10 June 2010, under the misleading header ‘MDC spurned chance for judicial reform,’ cannot be allowed to go unchallenged for its lack of merit.

The “learned” Mafukidze either does not know the meaning of the word spurned or alternatively chose the word to justify the political mischief that he intended to sell to the nation to discredit the MDC.

By using the word spurned in his header Mafukidze implied that the MDC scornfully and contemptuously rejected the opportunity that Sadc mediated negotiations presented the party to agree meaningful and irrevocable judicial reforms with Zanu PF.

After reading the facts on which he premises his wayward conclusion it becomes evident that the word was cynically used to discredit the MDCs political acumen as nothing he relied on supports his conclusion

To the contrary all the legal statutes he relied on clearly indicate that the MDC tried its best to legislate for legal reforms but for President Mugabe and not Zanu PF intransigence this once, the good intentions in the 15 September 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) have been deliberately scuttled from ill-conceived advice the President is getting from legal minds of Mafukidze’s ilk.

Mugabe abused insult and defamation laws

Zanu PF President Robert Mugabe is not not one and the same person as Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe for the purpose of defamation and insulting laws against the President

President Laws against insulting or defaming the nation itself, the head of state, as well as foreign heads of state and diplomats, public institutions and bodies, and public officials, either while they are exercising official functions or because of those functions are on the statutes of most countries.

Yet prosecution for such crimes is in most such countries are rarely resorted to and where there has been evidence of enthusiasm in pursuing felons in this category convictions have been rare and far between and sentences have been restricted to fines rather than confinement in prison.

Zimbabwe merits its rogue status in Law enforcement

By Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

Zimbabwe President Mugabe is by far the single highest complainant in Zimbabwe's criminal courts over the ludicrous crime of citizens demeaning or insulting his person or his office.

There are evident signs that Zimbabwe is still controlled by law enforcers who are compromised in favour of Zanu PF.

Recent arrests and arraignments of MDC-T MP’s and activists for breaching the notorious section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] suggest that the harassment of Zanu PF political opponents by law enforcement officers will be increasingly relied upon by Zanu PF to disturb political cohesion in political formations with the greatest potential to unseat Zanu PF in any constituency.

Return Mutumwa Mawere’s assets

De-specified Zimbabwe business mogul Mutumwa D Mawere being victimised by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa for declining the 2003  Zanu PF Masvingo Provincial offer of a seat in his absentia

The recently de-specified Zimbabwe business mogul now domiciled in South Africa Mutumwa Dziva Mawere must be ruing the fateful day in 2003 when he politely declined to accept his election in absentia as secretary of economic affairs of the then ruling Zanu-PF's Masvingo Province.

He has paid heavily for committing the "cardinal sin" of distancing himself from a party that does not take kindly to anyone it claims to have liberated from colonial bondage showing any sign of ingratitude of the kind Mawere displayed.

Despite his protestations that he was a victim of Zanu PF political vindictiveness for having declined political office in a party he was never a member of in the first instance not few if any bought into his pleadings of innocence given his history of close association with the party stalwarts in Zanu PF such as Emmerson Mnangagwa, President Mugabe, John Mapondera, Jonathan Moyo, Phillip Chiyangwa and others too numerous to mention.

Zimbabwe Laws

The chief law abusers Patrick Chinamasa (Minster of Justice) Augustine Chihuri (Police Commissioner General and Johannes Tomana (Attorney General) all of Zanu PF. How they love these repressive clauses in our laws!

Here are some of the repressive sections of our laws that are dear to Zanu PF and the Law enforcement operatives with an affinity to the party of geriatrics.

Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [Chapter 9:07].
121 Appeals against decisions regarding bail
(1) Subject to this section and to subsection (5) of section 44 of the High Court Act [Chapter 7:06], where a judge or magistrate has admitted or refused to admit a person to bail—
(a) the Attorney-General or his representative, within seven days of the decision; or
(b) the person concerned, at any time; may appeal against the admission or refusal or the amount fixed as bail or any conditions imposed in connection therewith.
(2) An appeal in terms of subsection (1) against a decision of—
(a) a judge of the High Court, shall be made to a judge of the Supreme Court;
(b) a magistrate, shall be made to a judge of the High Court.
(3) A decision by a judge or magistrate to admit a person to bail shall be suspended if, immediately after the decision, the judge or magistrate is notified that the Attorney-General or is representative wishes to appeal against the decision, and the decision shall thereupon be suspended and the person shall remain in custody until—
(a) if the Attorney-General or his representative does not appeal in terms of subsection (1)—
(i) he notifies the judge or magistrate that he has decided not to pursue
the appeal; or
(ii) the expiry of seven days; whichever is the sooner; or
(b) if the Attorney-General or his representative appeals in terms of subsection (1), the appeal is determined.
(4) An appeal in terms of subsection (1) by the person admitted to bail or refused admission to bail shall not suspend the decision appealed against.
(5) A judge who hears an appeal in term of this section may make such order relating to bail or any condition in connection therewith as he considers should have been made by the judge or magistrate whose decision is the subject of the appeal.
(6) Subsections (2) to (6) of section one hundred and sixteen shall apply, mutatis mutandis, in relation to any appeal in terms of this section.
(7) Any order made by a judge in terms of subsection (5) shall be deemed to be the order made in terms of the appropriate section of this Part by the judge or magistrate whose decision was the subject of the appeal.
(8) There shall be no appeal to a judge of the Supreme Court from a decision or order of a judge of the High Court in terms of paragraph (b) of subsection (2), unless the decision or order relates to the admission or refusal to admit to bail of a person charged with any offence referred to in paragraph 10 or 11 of the Third Schedule, in which event subsections (3) to (7) shall apply to such appeal.
(9) This section shall apply in regard to a private prosecution as if references to the Attorney-General were references to the private party instituting the prosecution.
Law and Order (Maintenance) Act [Chapter 11:07].

46 Undermining authority, etc. of President
(1) Subject to subsection (2), any person who, without lawful excuse, the proof whereof lies on him, utters any words, or does any act or thing whatsoever which—
(a) is likely—
(i) to undermine the authority of; or
(ii) to engender feelings of hostility towards; or
(iii) to cause hatred, contempt or ridicule of; the President, whether in person or in respect of his office; or
(b) is likely to expose the President, whether in person or in respect of his office, to hatred, contempt or ridicule; shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
(2) It shall be a sufficient defence to a charge of contravening subsection (1) to show that the words, act or thing on which the charge is based were uttered or was done, as the case may be, in good faith and with the intention of fairly, temperately, decently and respectfully criticizing any opinion expressed or held or any measure taken or proposed to be taken by the President.

Public Order and Security Act [Chapter 11:17].

(2) Any person who, whether inside or outside Zimbabwe—
(a) organises or sets up or advocates, urges or suggests the organisation or setting up of, any group or body with a view to that group or body—
(i) overthrowing or attempting to overthrow the Government by unconstitutional means; or
(ii) taking over or attempting to take over Government by unconstitutional means or usurping the functions of the Government of Zimbabwe; or
(iii) coercing or attempting to coerce the Government;
or
(b) supports or assists any such group or body in doing or attempting to do any of the things described in subparagraphs (i), (ii) or (iii) of paragraph (a); shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twenty years without the option of a fine.

6 Insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism

(1) Any person who, for the purpose of—
(a) causing or furthering an insurrection in Zimbabwe; or
(b) causing the forcible resistance to the Government or the Defence Forces or any law enforcement agency; or
(c) procuring by force the alteration of any law or policy of the Government; commits any act accompanied by the use or threatened use of weaponry with the intention or realising that there is a risk or possibility of—
(i) killing or injuring any other person; or
(ii) damaging or destroying any property; or
(iii) inflicting financial loss upon any other person; or
(iv) obstructing or endangering the free movement in Zimbabwe of any traffic on land or water or in the air; or
(v) disrupting or interfering with an essential service; shall be guilty of an offence, whether or not any purpose referred to in paragraph (a),
(b) or (c) is accomplished, and be liable—
A. where the act of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism results in the death of a person, to be sentenced to death or to imprisonment for life;
B. in any other case, to imprisonment for life.
(2) For the avoidance of doubt, where any act of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism does not result in any of the consequences referred to in subparagraph (i),
(ii), (iii), (iv) or (v), the competent charge shall be one of attempting to commit an
offence in terms of subsection (1).

15 Publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State
(1) Any person who, whether inside or outside Zimbabwe, publishes or communicates to any other person a statement which is wholly or materially false with the intention or realising that there is a risk or possibility of—
(a) inciting or promoting public disorder or public violence or
endangering public safety; or
(b) adversely affecting the defence or economic interests of Zimbabwe; or
(c) undermining public confidence in a law enforcement agency, the Prison Service or the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe; or
(d) interfering with, disrupting or interrupting any essential service; shall, whether or not the publication or communication results in a consequence referred to in paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d), be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding $100,000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
(2) Any person who, whether inside or outside Zimbabwe and whether with or without the intention or realisation referred to in subsection (1), publishes or communicates to any other person a statement which is wholly or materially false and
which—
(a) he knows to be false; or
(b) he does not have reasonable grounds for believing to be true; shall, if the publication or communication of the statement—
(i) promotes or incites public disorder or public violence or endangers public safety; or
(ii) adversely affects the defence or economic interests of Zimbabwe; or
(iii) undermines public confidence in a law enforcement agency, the
Prison Service or the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe; or
(iv) interferes with, disrupts or interrupts any essential service; shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding 100 thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

16 Undermining authority of or insulting President
(1) In this section—
“publicly”, in relation to making a statement, means—
(a) making the statement in a public place or any place to which the
public or any section of the public have access;
(b) publishing it in any printed or electronic medium for reception by the
public;
“statement” includes any act or gesture.
(2) Any person who publicly and intentionally—
(a) makes any statement about or concerning the President or an acting President knowing or realising that there is a risk or possibility of—
(i) engendering feelings of hostility towards; or
(ii) causing hatred, contempt or ridicule of; the President or an acting President, whether in person or in respect of his office; or
(b) makes any abusive, indecent, obscene or false statement about or concerning the President or an acting President, whether in respect of his person or his office; shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

25 Regulation of public gatherings
(1) If a regulating authority, having regard to all the circumstances in which a public gathering is taking or is likely to take place, has reasonable grounds for believing that the public gathering will occasion—
(a) public disorder; or
(b) a breach of the peace; or
(c) an obstruction of any thoroughfare; he may, subject to this section, give such directions as appear to him to be reasonably necessary for the preservation of public order and the public peace and preventing or minimising any obstruction of traffic along any thoroughfare.
(2) Without derogation from the generality of subsection (1), directions under that subsection may provide for any of the following matters—
(a) prescribing the time at which the public gathering may commence and its maximum duration;
(b) prohibiting persons taking part in the public gathering from entering any public place specified in the directions;
(c) precautions to be taken to avoid the obstruction of traffic along any thoroughfare;
(d) prescribing the route to be taken by any procession;
(e) requiring the organiser to appoint marshals to assist in the maintenance of order at the public gathering.
(3) Whenever it is practicable to do so, before issuing a direction under subsection (1) a regulating authority shall give the organiser of the public gathering concerned a reasonable opportunity to make representations in the matter.
(4) A direction given under subsection (1) shall have effect immediately it is issued and may be published—
(a) in a newspaper circulating in the area to which the direction applies; or
(b) by notices distributed among the public or affixed upon public buildings in the area to which the direction applies; or
(c) by announcement of a police officer broadcast or made orally.
Provided that, where practicable, the regulating authority shall ensure that the direction is reduced to writing and served on the organiser of the public gathering to which it relates.

At face value some of the laws sound rational but it they have been applied so selectively against Zanu PF opponents that they have become synonymous with repression.

Section 121 of CPEA[CAP 9:07] has been a favourite of the AG in denying freedom for accused MDC activists and has never been invoked against the granting of bail to any known Zanu PF connected criminal since it was legislated.

Section 46 of the LOMA [CAP 11:07] and or POSA [CAP11:17] that criminalises the undermining or insulting of the President and or his office including the Acting President for whatever reason is outrageously repressive.

There are political reasons that an active political player like a President who calls opponents puppets, frogs, tea boys, chematamas, harlots, tsuro mageng’a’s, ignoramuses’ and any derogatory terms he can think of for political expediency cannot be legally protected when competitors for his office hit back at him with derogatory name calling of equal or greater measure.

In any event by contesting for and accepting appointment to the highest public office in the country and drawing income from taxpayers’ funds the President must accept accountability to the taxpayers and their expression of public indignation with his performance including the chiding all other employees get from their employers.

An abusive employee cannot expect his/her employers to take the abuse in silence and worse craft sign work rules barring the employers from evaluating his/her performance.

POSA [CAP11:17] section 15 that criminalises publication of falsehoods has been used against journalists from privately owned media houses yet it is the State owned media that churns out shameless lies and falsehoods in each and every issue.

It cannot be disputed that each and every Zanu PF MP has at some point shouted the party slogan;
“Pasi ne zvimbwasungata zveMDC (Down with the MDC puppets)” and thus incited public violence.

But none have been arrested for that obvious breach of this section of the law.

The recent indigenization regulations published by the Minister of Youth Indigenization and Empowerment have been admitted to be erroneous and needing of amendment yet they have caused economic alarm and despondency globally and damaged the reputation of the country yet he is still walking free after the false and alarming publication.

Jonathan Moyo and his renowned team of Zanu PF propagandists planted in State Media houses have been dishing out damaging open lies through ZBH and Zimpapers yet none have been arrested for that.

Only the Freelancers and Privately owned Scribes have been arrested and incarcerated for long periods without trial only to be exonerated by the courts whenever their cases make it to the courts.

The other clauses we all know against whom they have been applied don’t we?

Dr Simba Makoni, Mr Job Sikhala, Mr Dumiso Dabengwa, Prof Arthur Mutambara and Pastor Timothy Chiguvare show that Zimbabwe poised for another election

By Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

MDC99 interim leader Job Sikhala and PPP leader Pastor Timothy Chiguvare. Are these the latest ponies in the Zimbabwe political landscape willing to further divide the democratic movement against the conservative Zanu PF party?


It is easy to determine the imminence of an election in Zimbabwe. The panic behaviours of political weasels and opportunists is the most consistent barometer on which to measure when elections are likely in the country.

Current and prospective leaders of the minor political formations that often mushroom or are resuscitated at each election only to vanish into obscurity immediately thereafter, indicate when elections are likely in the country.

It appears Zimbabwe is closer to elections than most of us suspect if the scramble for publicity in the minor parties and the emergence of new political formations is anything to go by.

The more resilient and most fortunate of the mediocre formations has been the MDC-M led by Professor Arthur Mutambara.

Following the split of the MDC national council on 12 October 2005 a faction loyal to then MDC Secretary General (SG) Professor Welshman Ncube felt it was academically and ideologically more sophisticated to be led by founding Party President Morgan Tsvangirai now Prime Minister and broke away.

The renegade faction invited Professor Mutambara who hitherto was not even a member of the party to take over its leadership and retained the name, emblem, regalia and slogan of the original party promising to rebrand after consolidating its position in the disputed Senate elections.

Unfortunately it did not perform as well as it thought it would and the rebranding initiative was shelved to until after the next general elections where the renegades leadership felt the formation had a better chance of gauging its strength and consolidate its grassroots support and lay claim of owning the goodwill of the divided party.

They were humiliated by the faction that remained behind the founding President’s leadership and all talk of rebranding was shelved as it became evident that without the name MDC the faction was a nonentity.

Despite the humiliating defeat it suffered in the March 2008 the faction of renegades now referred to as the MDC-M or MDC- PF to link it to its leader and its alliances and reliance on Zanu PF for political relevance, the formation remained visible courtesy of its invitation to the inter-party talks that produced the coalition government that over rewarded the faction with Ministerial positions and the 2nd Deputy Premiership now occupied by its leader.

With his insider knowledge of the coalition government Deputy Premier and MDC-PF leader Professor Mutambara was the first to panic at the realisation that both Zanu PF and MDC-T were in advanced preparedness for the elections to foreclose the coalition government tenure of office.

He slammed both the MDC-T and Zanu PF leaders for embarking on the elections course to wind up the coalition government citing continued existence of the un-conducive and uneven political and electoral landscape as well as opinion polls pointing to a landslide 88% victory for MDC-T if free and fair elections are staged.

He was forced to recoil and announce his formation’s preparedness for the elections by a barrage of accusations that he was bent on prolonging the lifespan of the coalition government for political expediency as he realised his formation had no chance of winning any seats in the next Parliament.

Taking a cue from that revived Zapu interim leader Dumiso Dabengwa joined the fray and demanded the holding of elections to wind up the Sadc and AU imposed coalition government that he accused of failing to deliver on its agreed targets and endless power bickering within its ranks.

The Zapu message resonates well with public sentiment in the country where hopes
that were raised by the reduction to near cessation of violence and stabilisation of the economy following the formation of the coalition government have been dampened by the failure to improve the economy and living standards due to unfulfilled GPA promises.

But the same public is all too aware that Zapu has no chance whatsoever of winning the elections and is just there as a spoiler party.

Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD) formation that has been dogged by its leader’s failure to make a clean break with his Zanu PF origins and the squabbles for control of party assets that saw Dabengwa withdrawing his crucial support for the formation and crossing over to revive Zapu as well as the delay in the party’s launch has also come out with guns blazing.

Like the Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa, the disputed MKD leader Dr Simba Makoni has added his overrated political voice to the call for the winding up of the coalition government and the holding of elections to allow the Zimbabwe electorate to settle the leadership paralysis in the coalition government once and for all.

He even went further to suggest that people must engage in orange style protest marches against the coalition government for its failure to address bread and butter issues confronting the generality of the populace while the parties involved concentrate on fights for power consolidation.

The MKD and Zapu leadership has a long association with Zanu PF at very senior levels and deeply mistrusted by the majority of impoverished Zimbabweans who are at a loss as to why they never stood up for the ordinary people when their former party went on a rampage against innocent citizens.

The duo is also remembered for voting in favour of draconian legislation that centralised power in the Presidency and criminalised economic entrepreneurship, freedom of expression and association and the rights to demonstrate against government excesses.

It is this reputation that makes them sound disingenuous and hard to believe when they attack the MDC-T for being power mongers when they are known to have abused power in the past.

But perhaps more telling about how close the country is to the next elections is the emergence of two rag tag political formations MDC99 and People’s progressive
Party (PPP) led by Job Sikhala and Pastor Timothy Chiguvare respectively.

Most Zimbabweans are used to the mushrooming of these hazy political outfits whenever elections are about to be staged and are not surprised at the development and even expect more to emerge shortly.

The problem these fly by night opportunistic political formations face is that the Zimbabwe electorate is no longer that easy to dupe and confuse as MDC-PF and MKD will vouch.

The Zanu PF strategy of sponsoring new parties to split the opposition vote which has always exceeded the Zanu PF popularity vote is nothing new to the electorate and the scramble for visibility gripping the obscure party formations is indicative of the intense competition for Zanu PF support in the fringe parties.

The more they denounce Zanu PF the greater their chance of receiving gagging funding from the party to tone down and direct opposition at the MDC-T to split its vote.

Announcing the formation of a new political formation in Zimbabwe at this time is ill advised and naive.

The next election is unlikely to be fought so much over issues and ideologies as it is going to be a dogfight for survival by Zanu PF.

Zanu PF refused to accept the verdict of the people in the last election and bulldozed itself into a commanding role in the coalition government none of the other two partners wanted to share with it.

After that the party has consistently thumped its nose at the electorate by deliberately refusing to implement crucial clauses of the GPA and grabbing whatever power it could even when such power was logically supposed to be under MDC-T nominees to the cabinet to exercise.

Zanu PF will have to find new methods of compelling people to vote for it given its intransigence in the coalition government and the likelihood that traditional reliance on violence may be curtailed by the restructured electoral commission, re-oriented Police Force whose loyalties may have shifted away from Zanu PF invincibility and an electorate that is better prepared to deal with the violence.

Added to this the fact that the other parties that will contest the elections have been in government during which time they have developed acquaintances with key law enforcers and will have a real say in the management of the electoral system may just prove disadvantageous for Zanu PF used to monopolising the electoral system and rigging it unsupervised.

The issues that have dominated the past elections like sanctions, national sovereignty, economic meltdown, land ownership, constitutional reforms have been significantly reconfigured by developments during the tenure of the coalition government and will not feature as highly as they did in last elections.

One issue that will come to the fore is the indigenisation of the economy and it is a battle Zanu PF is unlikely to win given its performance on the land question.

Whenever the election will be held which appears not to be in the not too distant future Zanu PF appear to have a steeper slope to climb than the MDC-T.
As for the mushrooming opportunistic formations the crumps from the main political table will be too little to give them any significant gains.

Certainly none will fare any better than the MDC-PF did in the March 2008 elections and most will not even salvage their deposits.

.

The lamentations of Professor Jonathan Moyo and George Charamba

By Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

Media information and Publicity Secretary George Charamba and Zanu PF Thsolotsho North  MP Jonathan Moyo trying their best to justify  lost causes.

IF there is one thing that is going to seal the fate of the Zanu PF, it is the association it has with egghead Professor Jonathan Moyo and Presidential Spokesman and Information and Publicity Secretary George Charamba aka Nathaniel Manheru.

For some unknown reason Professor Moyo still behaves as the Zanu PF national spokesman. For all we know Professor Moyo is the Zanu PF (MP) for Tsholotsho North Constituency by default and Central Committee Member by adoption following his decision to rejoin the Party that had parted ways with him in 2005.

Since rejoining Zanu PF Professor Moyo has been given the insurmountable task of proving his loyalty to the Party he left in acrimonious circumstances that saw him throwing brickbats at the Presidium which require some form of restitution on his part for him to be pardoned.

Professor Moyo’s readmission to the Zanu PF ranks was made conditional on him undertaking never to show public disrespect or opposition to the Party elders and delivering the promised split of the MDC-T before the next elections.

The second test is proving much harder to overcome for the egghead Professor who thought he had infiltrated the party enough during his stint as a pseudo Independent MP.

He had forged links with MDC-M rebels that had won him their trust to the point of them joining him in a frivolous and vexatious legal petition to nullify the election of MDC-T’s Lovemore Moyo as the Parliamentary Speaker.

He was also in talking terms with several MDC-T MP’s whom he believed he could count on to help him saw seeds of disunity in the MDC-T that would result in the 2005 style split that rocked the MDC following infiltration by the CIO.

That support has not been forthcoming. Unrestrained access to the State Media that he prioritized as the only tool he required to divide the MDC-T was granted and has given him all the space he requires to execute his task of dismantling the MDC-T unity to no avail.

Professor Moyo’s obsession with media propaganda as a tool for political power acquisition and consolidation is legendary and knows no bounds.

As Information and Publicity Minister from 2000 to 2005 he managed to abuse his authority and shut down several privately owned and foreign media houses from broadcasting from the country.

He also crafted the most repressive laws and regulatory infrastructure that the State has and is still using to gag free dissemination of information.
The one person professor Moyo failed to get the better of through the raft of laws and vitriolic propaganda he churned on State Media was Roy Bennett’s Legal Counsel Beatrice Mtetwa.

The duo clashed in courts and on the streets of Harare with Professor Moyo intending to silence the Humana Rights defender and at each turn coming a cropper.

Professor Moyo’s political debauchery always came to nothing each time he came face to face with Mtetwa and as if fate had it, Beatrice Mtetwa’s and Professor Moyo’s ex-wife were of Swazi origins adding an extra dimension to the duels between the duo.

Instead of openly admitting that he loathes anything that attracts Beatrice Mtetwa’s support or intervention Professor Moyo has always presented his personal vendetta against Mtetwa as political discourse between MDC-T and Zanu PF which is outrageous.

That Professor Moyo’s politics is steeped in the personality syndrome he always accuses the MDC-T of being preoccupied with and not ideology can be gleaned from his obsession with the Mtetwa personality.

Despite his accusations that the MDC-T is preoccupied with personality syndrome and bereft of ‘a coherent and homegrown ideological framework,’ because of as he puts ‘the embattled party’s rather crazy reaction to the appointment of Justice George Chiweshe as Judge President of the High Court of Zimbabwe and its continuing subservience to Roy Bennett and his sickening antics,’ facts on the ground tend to be to the contrary.

Ever since he jumped onto the sinking Zanu PF ship in 1999 Professor Moyo has been on a solo mission to save the political fortunes of one man in Zanu PF that is President Mugabe.

For his personal protection from criminal activities that forced him out of the Ford Foundation in Kenya and the Wits University in South Africa Professor Moyo realised that his last safety enclave was in Zanu PF under the stewardship of President Mugabe and his scorched earth mantra against western nations he had swindled of funds and were baying for his blood.

When Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai led the MDC party to oppose the Zanu PF excesses that had bankrupted the country and impoverished 90% of the citizenry Professor Moyo rallied behind Mugabe’s leadership of Zanu PF and the country notwithstanding the catastrophe the government had caused to the country that even the illiterate were able to see and wanted reversed .

While the MDC was agitating for Mugabe to go as it is still doing to date to pave way for the reconstruction of the country’s democratic governance and economic resuscitation Professor Moyo was and is still crafting legislation to suppress citizens and pushing for Mugabe to remain in office to derail implementation of policy programmes to benefit ordinary people.

It was the MDC-T that in the national interest to stop the economic hemorrhaging that Zanu PF had subjected the nation, decided to surrender an election victory and work with the vanquished Mugabe and Zanu PF in a coalition government that was imposed by SADC and the AU following refusal by Zanu PF apologists to concede electoral defeat.

The MDC-T realised that in order for the country not to slide into military dictatorship and Junta rule it had to accept working with the defacto Junta leader Mugabe and make his involvement part of the solution to avert a bloodbath for political power in the country that was economically ravaged and where the majority of the people were left with no other solution than to fight for survival.

Oblivious of this people centered consideration on the part of the MDC-T, Professor Moyo believes the MDC-T acknowledges Mugabe as a solution to the country’s problems because of his leadership skills when to the contrary he is being acknowledged or his reckless and uncaring vindictiveness that could cause more harm than good if he is excluded from an undeserved political seat.

The pragmatic ideology that guides the MDC-T in accepting to work with a failed President Mugabe in a transitional period such as the coalition government is ample evidence of the political depth in the party as it has managed to weigh consequences of refusing to accommodate the ruthless dictator to the lives of ordinary citizens of the country.

The reason why the majority of MDC-T cabinet ministers now openly admit that it is a privilege that history has been kind to give them the rare opportunity to work under an iconic African dictator with a towering global disrepute of Mugabe is because they now have insider knowledge of how he became a dictator and who is behind his ruthlessness and more importantly how they can push him out without exposing the populace to danger.

After the formation of the coalition Government last year, Zanu PF relying on advice from morons like Professor Moyo’s Patrick Chinamasa, Tofataona Mahoso, Johannes Tomana, Godfrey Chidyausiku, Mariyawanda Nzuwah, George Chiweshe, Godfrey Chidyausiku and George Charamba etal tried everything possible to cause the MDC-T to pull out of the coalition government that was beginning to make a positive difference to the lives of the ordinary citizens by breaching the transitional Constitutional amendments.

President Mugabe has been and is still being ill advised to act unilaterally in making appointments of failed performers like Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, Attorney General Johannes Tomana and the Provincial Governors notwithstanding that the party entered into an agreement that is tacit and unambiguous on what he should do during the tenure of the coalition to ensure proper winding up of the SADC and AU transitional arrangements for the country.

m ’s negative politics of personalities and positions shifted away from President Mugabe and focused on the positions of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Attorney-General respectively with cacophonic calls that "(Gideon0 Gono must go" which the party alternated with "(Johannes) Tomana must go".

Provincial Governors are not are part of the coalition government President’s office in terms of our Constitution, relevant laws and practice but rather as a result of their inclusion in Constitutional Amendment No 19 which removed their seats from Parliament to the Senate and required the president to make the appointments in terms of the coalition agreement which restricts him to consulting and agreeing with the other principals before effecting such appointments.

But because Professor Moyo is obsessed with the personality that is the President and has a mission to accomplish to achieve total acceptance in Zanu PF he still believes albeit wrongly that the President is above the law and can act unilaterally in such appointments even when the appointments are unconstitutional and there is no precedent coalition government practice to fall back on.


What has reduced outstanding GPA issues, to ‘a pathetic discourse about personalities and positions with nothing in it for the struggling masses,’ is not because they are MDC-T afterthoughts since signing the GPA on 15 September 2008 but rather the distraught the refusal by Zanu PF to live by the spirit and letter of the agreement has caused by delaying realisation of the quick recovery of the economy the population was hoping would accrue from the agreement.

Indeed many elements now regret that they squandered their vote on Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the MDC-T party on March 29, 2008 but not because the Premier and the MDC-T has failed them but rather because they have accommodated an ungrateful and ruthless dictator and Zanu PF to do as he pleases in the coalition government that is supposed to make their lives better but failing because of the Zanu PF intransigency.

That is why many are eagerly waiting for the Constitution reform initiative to be completed and give them a chance to vote against the undeserving Zanu PF delinquents in the coalition government.

Unlike Zanu PF, MDC-T politics is not about prescriptive, unworkable and outmoded Marxist socialist ideologies, policies and like minded personalities and their positions but rather globally compliant democratic practices that permit the citizens to direct the government towards the goals that will benefit the populace.

No wonder that the party has a zero tolerance on unilateralism and rewarding of total and fatal incompetents as epitomized by the scandalous manner in which President Mugabe unconstitutionally appointed George Chiweshe to the position of Judge President of the High Court on the recommendation of the Judicial Services Commission without consulting the two other coalition government principals which is required of him by CA No 19.

Whatever requirements the law imposes on the Judicial Services Commission to discharge its functions without any influence from any authority, they do not override or preclude the amended Constitutional requirement for the President to consult his other principals before effecting such appointments.

As it stands the recent unilateral appointment of Judges by President Mugabe remains unconstitutional regardless of the numbers he so appointed.
Professor Moyo’s obsession with the politics of personalities and not the MDC-T’s becomes evident in the homage he pays President Mugabe for appointing George Chiweshe and the flowery praise he showers on Chiweshe’s suitability for the position of Judge President of the High Court.
.
“It’s just personal about Chiweshe in the typical fashion of MDC-T politics of personalities and positions.

The unacceptably ridiculous message from MDC-T is that Justice Chiweshe should not be Judge President because he is a former Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

It is common cause that before serving as Chairperson of ZEC, Justice Chiweshe was a judge of the High Court of Zimbabwe based in Bulawayo and that he served in that capacity with distinction. This means he is a qualified and experienced judge with no blemish on the bench. Full stop.

The record will also show that it is Justice Chiweshe who presided over the March 29, 2008 general election, which arguably stands as the freest and fairest election ever held in Zimbabwe.

There is no serious minded person who can challenge this fact in terms of what happened in the run up, the organisation and the conduct of that election and still hope to be taken seriously.

Yes, there were problems after the March 29, 2008 election but they had nothing to do with ZEC or Justice Chiweshe.

In the main, the post March 29, 2008 election problems emanated from the fact that the founders and funders of the MDC-T wanted ZEC under Justice Chiweshe to unlawfully declare Tsvangirai as the winner of the presidential election when everyone, including idiots, who observed knew only too well that there was no outright winner in terms of the law requiring the victor to have 50 percent plus one; meaning that a runoff election had to be held by law.

The idea that Tsvangirai should have won an election that he did not contest is so absurd that it is better left without any comment.

So what then is the MDC-T’s fuss over Justice Chiweshe’s appointment all about?

Well, you do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.

As a foreign founded and funded political party, the MDC-T does not want an independent minded judge who is wholly grounded in the Zimbabwean national experience and who is above brown-envelope justice to administer the High Court.

The truth of the matter based on his professional experience is that Justice Chiweshe, whose qualification as a judge is beyond question, is incorruptible and the MDC-T does not like people like that because its British and American founders and funders foolishly believe that their dirty money can buy anything, everything and everyone in Zimbabwe, especially in the judiciary, the media and security organs of the state which have been targeted as brick walls against regime-change.

The fact that Tsvangirai took the advice of the founders and funders of his party to violate our electoral law by ‘‘boycotting’’ the June 27, 2008 presidential runoff election cannot rationally be blamed on Justice Chiweshe or ZEC. There comes a time when we must all carry our own crosses and that applies to Tsvangirai, his MDC-T and its founders and funders.

In the meantime life must go on.

The irreversible reality done without prejudice is that Justice Chiweshe is the Judge President of the High Court of Zimbabwe as an expression of a selection by the Judicial Service Commission, which President Mugabe has accepted and implemented. That is the end of that story, the rest is the future,” eulogized Professor Moyo for a personality called George Chiweshe.

Anyone as good as the egghead Professor projects George Chiweshe would be an asset that the country can ill afford to put to waste and thus deserving the appointment.

So why did the President decide not to take this unrivalled candidate to his co-principals with these arguments and seek their endorsement of his appointment?

George Chiweshe was appointed to his position on the recommendation of a Judicial Services Commission whose neutrality is questionable. What with the likes of self confessed Zanu PF functionaries like AG Johannes Tomana, public Service Commission Chairman Mariyawanda Nzuwah and Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku pulling strings in the Commission that is complimented by two others from the Law Society whose names are not disclosed.

The position he has been appointed to is not about qualifications alone but also his relevant experience in dealing with national issues that require the incumbent to have demonstrated unbiased leadership.

It is that experience that disqualifies Chiweshe regardless of how well academically qualified he was for the position.

The relevance of his experience as an army Brigadier in an army whose commanders relied on his legal advice to pronounce that they will only accept a straight jacket President with Liberation War credentials is a major stain on his reputation.

The admission that under Chiweshe’s stewardship at ZEC Zimbabwe held peaceful elections whose results could not be announced because of a participant party’s foreign handlers interferences is the very reason why he should never be made a crucial gatekeeper of our sovereign institutions like Judge President of the High Court if he cannot make decisions in the face of foreign interferences.

If the election was as peaceful and as well managed as professor Moyo credits George Chiweshe why did it take him and his ZEC 35 days to count less than 5million ballots and announce the outcome?

Why was it not possible to stage the Presidential runoff in the stipulated 21days after the initial election and how legal was the Statutory Instrument that set aside an Act of Parliament that he allowed to be used in staging the June 28 presidential runoff election?

What distinguished him as a Bulawayo High court Judge when it is known that he sentenced MDC political activists for trivial cases while he never sentenced the violent Zanu PF mobsters who assaulted opponents in the 2001 and 2005 elections?

If his distinguished service is measured in terms of selective application of justice then we must agree with Professor Moyo.

But it is obvious that President Mugabe and his advisors were aware of the unsuitability for the key post in the coalition government and decided the best remedy was to ignore the Constitution and appoint thereby creating a constitutional impediment in the coalition government that will buy time for Zanu PF to think ways of regrouping.

That is why Professor Moyo and George Charamba are now in overdrive with propaganda in support of the illegal appointment of George Chiweshe and the other judges and can afford to publish drivel like;

“The irreversible reality done without prejudice is that Justice Chiweshe is the Judge President of the High Court of Zimbabwe as an expression of a selection by the Judicial Service Commission, which President Mugabe has accepted and implemented. That is the end of that story; the rest is the future,”

As for Professor Moyo’s preoccupation with the personality that Roy Bennett is we can only conclude that it is in defence of his friends Chinamasa and Tomana’s source of income as well as his fear of Beatrice Mtetwa that drives him to insanity.

Both Professor Moyo and George Charamba are literate enough to understand the meaning of this preamble to Schedule 8 of our constitution and must stop displaying the kind of public ignorance they are projecting in the name of defending the indefensible.

For the avoidance of doubt we repeat the preamble to schedule 8 hereunder;
“For the avoidance of doubt, the following provisions of the Interparty Political Agreement, being Article XX thereof, shall, during the subsistence of the Interparty Political Agreement, prevail notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Constitution-“

Zanu PF Panic and pandemonium

By Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

The Zanu PF supreme leader has gone to sleep and is implementing dreams he has for his party forgetting he has Constitutional responsibilities to execute

As some of the political gains of the MDC-T’s entry into the coalition government start to bear fruit Zanu PF finds itself in the unenviable position where it has to find a way to avoid an imminent crashing defeat at the polls likely to be held in the next 18 months.

This is no mean task for a party that has hitherto known no other means of winning elections other than through electoral rigging and violence.

The Constitutional reform juggernaut that the party has tried everything possible to derail is likely to roar into action on June 2010.

There will be huge boulders rolled into its path by desperate Zanu PF supporters wishing away the most threatening coalition government initiative to their Party’s 30 year hegemony on power.

Unfortunately regardless of how intense and well coordinated they will be, the Constitutional reform initiative has gathered enough momentum to crush through any resistance that Zanu PF will mount to its completion.

The Zanu PF party leadership has long resigned to that reality as it has been made clear to them that Sadc and AU will not countenance any attempt by Zimbabwean political parties to derail or defer the democratization processes underway in the country aimed at restoring electoral credibility.

This message was made clear and unambiguous at the meeting of former African Liberation Parties held in Dar es Salaam, from 5 - 7 May 2010.

Ever since that meeting Zanu PF has realised that its days in government are numbered unless it mounts a credible and convincing violent free election campaign.

Preferably Zanu PF would like to get to the polls as the sole party in government such that it will have the monopoly of staging elections and advantages of unsupervised rigging thereof.

Zanu PF believes the reconstituted Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) will not be in efficient enough to detect its established and complex election rigging methodologies other than violence and media space denials for opponents.

Zanu PF is not unduly worried about the raft of changes in the Media and Electoral Commissions that are under the ministries headed by its Ministers who will neutralize them if need be.

The Zanu PF focus is on how to weaken the MDC-T structurally and project it as an ideologically bankrupt party in the eyes of its multitudes of supporters.

On the legal side of matters it has been resolved that the Electoral Court must be onside for Zanu PF and the Judge President being the head of that Court will play a crucial role as witnessed in past electoral challenges hence the appointment of Justice George Chiweshe to that position.

Other unilateral appointments and vitiations of Constitutional Amendment No19 are in the grand scheme of the Zanu PF campaign to divert the MDC-T attention from pursuing the democratization agenda as its hands are tied with disputes in the coalition government power sharing modalities.

Zanu PF wants the disputes to cause the MDC-T to pull out of the coalition now that the transitional political arrangement is heading into the home stretch of what it was conceived to achieve and there will be no time to replace it other than through a Zanu PF managed election.

On its part the MDC-T is fully aware of this Zanu PF strategy to exclude it from managing the staging of the next elections and is working behind the scenes to ensure that election rules will not give Zanu PF sole responsibility for staging elections.

The fact that the President is mandated to set the next election date in consultation with the coalition government principals is causing butterflies in Zanu PF who would rather the President retains previous monopoly in fixing election dates.

That is why Zanu PF has now thrown all caution to the wind and is openly breaching the coalition government constitution to test the waters ahead of the planned unilateral election decisions the President will be asked to make.

If the MDC-T is not careful and does not act with speed to stop the current wave of unilateral actions on the part of the President it will be face with the reality that the President will call for an election next year the results of the constitutional reform process notwithstanding.

Forget all these sidelining events emerging from the coalition government because they are Zanu PF political ruse that can be corrected by the next government.

What is critical for now is for the MDC-T to keep Zanu PF as occupied with its decoy politics of unilateralism while the party works hard to craft laws and rules that will govern the conduct of the next elections and close the Zanu PF rigging avenues.

In that regard Gorge Chiweshe’s appointment as Head of the Electoral Court must be fought on every turf available and he should never be allowed to have a role in managing elections again after his failure in 2008.

All the noises about unilateralism are justified from the MDC-T but more importantly it is the action that will show the nation that President Mugabe is not as free to act as he has hitherto portrayed himself to be and there is no better signal than a Parliamentary challenge of his unilateralism of late.

That will exacerbate the panic and pandemonium gripping the party of geriatrics at present.