Government official demands Tsvangirai arrest

A senior Zimbabwean government official has called for Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to be arrested and charged with treason. Treason carries the death penalty in Zimbabwe.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, speaker of parliament, made the demand in response to a speech by Tsvangirai at the weekend in which the MDC leader told party supporters that if President Robert Mugabe did not resign he would be “removed violently”. “What we want to tell Mugabe today is to please go peacefully. If you don’t want to go, we will remove you violently,” Tsvangirai told supporters attending a rally to celebrate the MDC’s first anniversary. In his response to Tsvangirai’s speech Mnangagwa said: “I have no doubt that the police and the attorney general’s office will act on this unconstitutional deed.”

At a press conference after the rally, Tsvangirai, who was abroad this week, told journalists that he merely issued a “friendly warning” to Mugabe.

Meanwhile the ministers of defence and national security on Monday issued a stern warning to the MDC saying that there would be “catastrophic consequences” if the MDC became involved in any violent means to remove Mugabe. Defence Minister Moven Mahachi and National Security Minister Nicholas Goche were speaking to journalists accompanying Mugabe to Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

“We in the security department will not allow Morgan Tsvangirai to succeed to use violence to overthrow the government because violence means assassination, it means killing, and we have a responsibility to protect our head of state. We have the responsibility to protect innocent Zimbabweans. The situation will not be good for anyone,” Mahachi said.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was quoted as saying: “Any threats of violence are unlawful. There are legitimate claims for police to act and moves are already in place.” Welshman Ncube, MDC secretary general has meanwhile described Tsvangirai’s words as a “slip of the tongue” which when placed in context “did not contain any threat of opposition-sponsored lawlessness”.