Zimbabwean security forces are on high alert ahead of Friday’s expected verdict in the treason trial of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said, warning that outbreaks of violence will not be tolerated.
Police will be deployed countrywide to quell any unrest when the Harare High Court hands down its judgement on Friday on Tsvangirai, who has been on trial for charges of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe and stage a coup, Mohadi said on Thursday.
If convicted, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) could face the death penalty.
Mohadi said he has received intelligence reports that ”some malcontents and mischief-makers, whatever the decision of the court, are determined to ensure that there is lawlessness within the vicinity of the High Court and in other parts of the country.
”Those with an inclination towards disorder are strongly warned against such behaviour … any breakdown in law and order will not be tolerated.”
The MDC on Thursday started putting up posters around Harare and distributed pamphlets inviting people to come to the High Court to ”witness the verdict”.
”On trial for our country” was the caption on the posters bearing Tsvangirai’s portrait.
”I don’t think the courtroom is a stadium where people are going to be addressing rallies,” said Mohadi.
”Whoever is … inviting people to come to witness that [verdict], we are not going to allow it as a police force, because we are here to see to it that there is law and order in this country.”
He said police will control the number of people who enter the courtroom.
”The courtroom can only sit a specified number of people and this number will not be exceeded for any reason whatsoever,” he said.
He said police will not allow large numbers of people to gather outside the courtroom, because ”we are not assured of what will actually happen”.
Security forces are on alert around the Southern African country, not just in the capital, where the verdict is to be announced.
”We will be on standby countrywide,” he said.
Tsvangirai allegedly sought help from Canadian-based political consultant Ari Ben-Menashe to organise Mugabe’s ”elimination” and a military coup ahead of the 2002 presidential polls, which returned Mugabe to power.
The MDC leader has denied the charges.
Tsvangirai trial a ‘farce’
Meanwhile, South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance said on Thursday that if Tsvangirai is convicted of treason on Friday, it will serve as final proof that the South African government’s policy on Zimbabwe has failed miserably.
Tsvangirai’s treason trial ”is a farce”, DA Africa spokesperson Joe Seremane said in a statement.
This belief is shared by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Constitutional Court Judge Richard Goldstone.
”The DA believes the trial is simply a political trial, where flimsy charges have been used to ensure that Mr Tsvangirai is effectively neutralised as a political threat against the 24-year-old rule of President Mugabe.
”The farcical nature of the proceedings is highlighted by the fact that the charges against Mr Tsvangirai are solely based on allegations by Mugabe’s Canadian publicist Ari Ben-Menashe,” he said.
Ben-Menashe, a paid Mugabe supporter, was an unreliable witness at best. Any evidence presented by him should be treated with circumspection, the DA said.
Many observers believe the evidence being used against Tsvangirai ”is a ruling-party trick, as the video material in question is alleged to have been recorded by a government-paid agent”.
The Mugabe regime’s determination to jail the MDC leader and therefore effectively rule him out of contesting the 2008 presidential elections is further illustrated by the fact that even if Tsvangirai is found not guilty on these treason charges, he still has to face a second set of treason charges.
”The second batch stem from his role in organising a democratic, mass-action campaign against the Mugabe regime’s despotic rule,” Seremane said.
Both of these treason charges are punishable by death, a consequence too ghastly to contemplate for Tsvangirai and his family as well as for the future of Zimbabwe.
”The DA sincerely hopes that the spurious charges against Tsvangirai will be dismissed. Should Tsvangirai be convicted, this could have serious consequences for stability in Zimbabwe, with a possibility that the country could plunge into chaos.”
In view of this impending crisis, the South African government should urgently change its policy towards to Zimbabwe and use all its available influence to halt Zimbabwe’s continuing political and economic implosion.
”The African National Congress must wake up to the reality that Zimbabwe’s democracy has collapsed and that the Mugabe regime is intent on clinging on to power regardless the cost.
”South Africa’s own history serves as a grim reminder of what happens when political trials are used to neutralise threats to an authoritarian government.
”If Mr Tsvangirai is convicted tomorrow, it will serve as final proof that the South African government’s policy on Zimbabwe has failed miserably,” Seremane said. — Sapa, Sapa-AFP