Zimbabwean
22 June 2011
By Vusimusi Bhebhe
Desperate Zanu (PF) hardliners could be forced to assassinate a high-profile figure in order to justify the holding of elections this year, Education Minister David Coltart warned this week as a key ally of embattled President Robert Mugabe threatened that “all hell will break loose†over a poll roadmap being spearheaded by SADC.
Addressing law students at the University of Cape Town, Coltart said the situation in Zimbabwe was very fragile. He warned that cornered Zanu (PF) hardliners would stop at nothing in their attempt to force an election this year, including the possibility of staging an assassination of a senior political figure in order to create chaos and trigger a state of emergency.
“There is no guarantee of a happy ending… There are hardliners trying to subvert the status quo – those behind the increasing violence seen this year – and they could be pushed to the assassination of a high-profile person in order to ensure an election this year while Mugabe can be its figurehead,†said Coltart.
He did not say which high-profile individual could be targeted for assassination although previous reports have hinted at a plot by Zanu (PF) hardliners to kill Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Other reports have cited key Tsvangirai ally and Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Tendai Biti as another possible target for assassination by Zanu (PF)-aligned security forces.
Coltart’s fears were confirmed this week when Zanu (PF) chief propagandist Jonathan Moyo threatened that “all hell will break loose†unless South African mediators shelve the proposed roadmap to guide the conduct of Zimbabwe’s next polls.
Coltart’s note:
This is a distortion of what I actually said when I spoke at UCT on the 19th May 2011 (see my post of the summary of the speech posted on that day). I was speaking in the context of Chris Hani’s assassination in South Africa in the early 1990s and simply said that the same scenario was possible in Zimbabwe. I have no intelligence of any such plot today but ti remains a possibility that some of the hardliners who are determined to break the GPA could resort to extreme measures.