Zimbabwe army chief will not salute Makoni, Tsvangirai: report

Feb 29, 2008, 13:48 GMT

Harare - One of Zimbabwe's top defence forces chiefs says he will not salute former finance minister Simba Makoni or opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai if either wins the March 29 presidential poll, it was reported Friday.

In a chilling echo of a similar threat made by service chiefs ahead of polls in 2002, retired Major-General Paradzayi Zimondi said he would not recognise any winner but President Robert Mugabe, reports the state-controlled Herald newspaper.

And Zimondi, the Commissioner of Prisons, ordered his officers and staff to vote for Mugabe, who has been in power in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

He told them they would 'go to hell' if they failed to vote in the former guerrilla leader.

'I am giving you an order to vote for the President,' Zimondi told senior army officers at a ceremony in Harare on Thursday.

The opposition immediately denounced his comments as treasonous. With two serious challengers, Mugabe, 84, is fighting for his political survival.

Both Tsvangirai, the head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and former finance minister Makoni say they are confident of winning the polls because so many Zimbabweans are fed up of the hardships they are facing.

Analysts warn that the dire state of the economy may prove Mugabes nemesis in the polls. Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate is the highest in the world at more than 100,000 per cent, and there are critical shortages of food and fuel.

There are reports still not officially confirmed that soldiers have been given a pay boost ahead of the polls, a move said to have angered other public service workers like teachers who are still struggling on meagre pay packets.

Zimondi said that in the event of an opposition win 'I will be the first one to resign from my job and go back to defend my piece of land.'

The army chief said that Mugabes rivals intend to hand back land seized from white commercial farmers under a controversial land reform programme launched in 2000.

'We shall not let it go. If you let the country go, God will not help you anymore; and when you die, you will go to hell for failing to defend your land against your enemies,' said Zimondi.

'We still remember the blood and graves of our gallant sons and daughters who died for this country and we shall not sell them out to imperialists forces,' he added.

The opposition reacted angrily, saying Zimondis comments were 'reckless and unmeasured.'

'The MDC believes it is a flagrant affront to the constitution of Zimbabwe for a service chief to tell uniformed officers to vote for a particular candidate in an election,' said a statement from the party's department of information and publicity.

'There is no shadow of doubt anymore that we have become a banana republic where the collective will of the people is not respected.'