Remembering the bloody June 2008 run-off

Back from the future, today is April 28, 2008, a full month after the March 29, 2008 presidential elections.

The results have still not been announced.

Most of our activists are under violent attack, and hundreds of our supporters are in jail.

Morgan Tsvangirai and I address a joint press conference at Lanseria Airport in South Africa, where he is about to get on a flight to Tanzania.

He is on a mission to meet with that country’s president, Jakaya Kikwete, who is the current chairman of the African Union.

As the opposition, we claim control of the Parliament of Zimbabwe for the first time in our nation’s history.

The initial results (confirmed after a recount in 23 constituencies) for the House of Assembly are that MDC-T obtains 99 seats (47.83%), Zanu PF wins 97 seats (46.86%), and MDC-M’s tally is 10 (4.83%).

As a consequence of the deaths of candidates in three House of Assembly constituencies, voting is postponed in Pelandaba-Mpopoma, Gwanda South and Redcliff.

By-elections for the three constituencies are held on June 27, 2008, the same day as the presidential run-off.

Two seats, Gwanda South and Redcliff, are won by Zanu PF and the third, Pelandaba-Mpopoma, by MDC-T.

This gives MDC-T a final total of 100 seats in the House of Assembly (47.62%), and Zanu PF 99 seats (47.14%), while MDC-M’s tally remains at 10 (4.78%).

This Monday morning of April 28, 2008, at Lanseria Airport I formally and publicly support Tsvangirai.

I am convinced that Mugabe has lost the first round of the presidential election without the need for a run-off election and that Morgan has obtained the required 50% plus one vote.

In any case, if there is a contrived and fraudulent presidential run-off election, I declare my unequivocal support for Tsvangirai in that race.

These utterances incense and enrage Zanu PF and Mugabe, in particular, their military junta which is busy rigging the outcome of the March 29, 2008 presidential elections.

I must pay. I must be neutralised.

My arrest alluded to earlier, on the Sunday morning of June 1, 2008, is quite dramatic.

I am relaxing at home, 118 Gilchrist Road, in the suburb of Marlborough in Harare.

I am preparing to travel to Cape Town for the World Economic Forum on Africa, which starts on the June 4, 2008, ending on June 6, 2008.

Suddenly my house is surrounded by riot police and the police captain through the intercom demands that I open the electric gate.

He shouts: “You are under arrest! Open the gate!” I am alone in the house.

Through the same intercom, I enquire about the charge.

“We will tell you at the police station,” he retorts. I quickly notify my lawyers and colleagues by cellphone.

As I do this, the riot squad is now throwing tear gas into my yard and violently banging the electric gate.

Some of the officers have already jumped the fence onto my property.

I quickly lock up my house, open the gate, a wet towel in hand to deal with the tear gas, and then confront this violent and armed militia.

They refuse to discuss anything.

I am bundled into one of the three police trucks and taken to the notorious lice-infested, filthy, urine-smelling Matapi police cells in Mbare.

The place lives up to its reputation, and since it is June, the jail cell is freezing cold. It is biting. What seems to be the matter? As discussed earlier, the official reason given is that my speech published by The Standard newspaper on April 20, 2008, was highly contemptuous.

In addition to indictment for contempt of court, the Zimbabwe state prefers an additional charge of criminal defamation against me.

I later learnt that the editor of The Standard, Davison Maruziva, had also been arrested for publishing the offending document.

He shared the defamation indictment with me.

However, as already explained, there was more to this than meets the eye.

My arrest on June 1, 2008, after more than 40 days have passed since the wide media coverage of the speech, is suspicious as it occurs during the heat and height of the presidential run-off election, scheduled for June 27, 2008.

It is now a direct political fight

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