Army chief rallies support for ZANU

Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) commander Constantine Chiwenga has toured army barracks urging soldiers to rally behind the ruling ZANU-PF to thwart a possible Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) victory in the presidential election next year, the ‘Financial Gazette’ reported on Thursday. Chiwenga allegedly told soldiers at special meetings described as “ZNA political rallies” that the army could not allow MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to govern Zimbabwe. “He is asking soldiers to think seriously about the possibility of saluting Morgan Tsvangirai as leader of Zimbabwe. He has been describing Tsvangirai as a deserter of the war of liberation who the army should never allow to rule Zimbabwe,” the newspaper quoted a soldier who attended one of the meetings as saying. The ‘Financial Gazette’ said it had established that Chiwenga had already addressed rallies at Three Brigade in Mutare, Four Brigade in Masvingo, Llewellin Barracks in Bulawayo, the army engineers training school at Pomona Barracks, Two Brigade at Cranborne and Presidential Guard barracks at Dzivaresekwa, the last three all in Harare. He was scheduled to continue with his mission to address soldiers at the ZNA headquarters at KG6 Barracks in Harare on Tuesday but this was postponed because he had to leave for the Congo at the weekend.