Mugabe has dropped any pretence at niceties.

Not that there were very many niceties before.

But now he has made it very clear that in the event that he loses the election on the 27th, not only will he not flee the country, but he will not vacate State House for Morgan Tsvangirai, but his former freedom fighters and many of the armed forces will ‘go back to the bush’.

“Zimbabwean President Robert

Mugabe said Thursday that he would not let the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) take over power, saying that would be “tantamount to giving back the country to the former colonial master and insulting the virtues of the liberation struggle.”

As I have written very many times in the past and with frighteningly increasing rapidity in the last few month, I was always under the impression that inciting violence was a crime in Zimbabwe.

Indeed, does Mugabe’s administration not have members of the MDC in custody, accused of exactly that?

Maybe being a member of ZANU PF gives you licence to make the most astonishing claims and threats – with impunity.

Mugabe’s regime has seen fit to arrest the MDC’s third in command, a lawyer, Tendai Biti.

They are intent on charging him with treason (punishable by death in Zimbabwe) and making statement that are likely to prejudice State security.

These charges arise from a letter allegedly written by Biti in which the MDC lays out their future intentions for the country once they take over, the return of the seized lands to the white farmers and a purge of all the armed forces of members that are sympathetic to ZANU PF.

The MDC has claimed that the letter in question is a forgery.

The charges also arise from the releasing by Biti of the MDC results of the first round of the Presidential election before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) made the official announcement.

In my mind, any announcement by the MDC is immaterial since the ‘authority’ is the ZEC’s - even if they did manage to delay that announcement for a month.

The charges are trumped up, and fabricated - but whilst they keep the MDC number 3 in custody, at least they have one less opposition member to worry about.

Meanwhile, having impounded Tsvangirai’s BMW X5 last week, this week, the ZRP have helped themselves to the MDC’s two campaign busses. They say that there are registration anomalies, whilst the MDC dispute that.

Like the BMW, I expect to hear that the buses are being used by ZANU PF in their campaign for Mugabe. (I do note that no reason for the impounding of the BMW was released.)

Mugabe has made it abundantly clear that he and his party no longer care for the law of the land. That is something to be applied to other people – preferably the members of the MDC.

The law can also be changed to suit.

Mugabe has amended the law so that the possession and use of satellite dishes in Zimbabwe is illegal. While Mugabe’s Minister of Information tells the world that the Mugabe administration is committed to a free flow of information.

What it boils down to, is that if you are ZANU PF you can break whatever laws you wish, whilst the balance of the people have to abide by the existing laws, some non-existent laws and all the new laws.

If you don’t, expect a long stay in Mugabe’s ZPS* hotels… reportedly in very bad nick - or just leave…

Mugabe says. “My way or the highway!”

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man

*Zimbabwe Prison Services