Jane Fields: Robert Mugabe consults with Zimbabweans over controversial programme

TO MANY Zimbabweans, the bloody chaos surrounding a controversial programme meant to garner citizens' opinions on a new constitution is sickeningly familiar.

The programme was suspended in Harare this week after at least one Movement for Democratic Change activist was killed and several injured in attacks by suspected supporters of President Robert Mugabe.

Mr Mugabe agreed to the crafting of a new constitution under the terms of a power-sharing deal signed with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in September 2008, after election violence left 200 MDC supporters dead.

After many hiccups, the outreach programme kicked off in June. More than 3,900 meetings have been held: independent monitors report that Zanu-PF has hijacked at least 40 per cent of them, intent on making sure the 86-year-old president's powers remain unchallenged.

The former guerrilla party launched Operation Shut Your Mouth, forbidding all but properly coached villagers to air their views. Witnesses remarked upon the large number of participants repeating: "We want the executive president (Mr Mugabe]. We don't want prime minister (Mr Tsvangirai]."

Last weekend youths and Apostolic sect members were bused to outreach meetings in Harare's suburbs, where scuffles broke out. Whites were chased from a meeting in affluent Mount Pleasant. A Zanu-PF activist pulled a gun when he didn't approve of the opening prayer. Another sparked a furore by praying against the "demonic British spirits" that possessed participants.

After a meeting in Mbare township, 23-year-old Crispen Mandizvidza was battered with iron bars by a gang. Despite emergency surgery, he died of his injuries. A female MDC supporter was also beaten on the head and received hospital treatment. Four MDC supporters who reported attacks to police were arrested.

Should anyone be surprised?

Zimbabwe's last constitutional referendum was in February 2000. Mr Mugabe did not expect his draft - which empowered the government to legally seize white land - to be rejected by voters, as it was. He turned his vitriol on the fledgling MDC and white farmers, precipitating Zimbabwe's ten-year descent into chaos.

Recent doublespeak from the MDC hasn't helped. This week Mr Tsvangirai called the violence a "stark reminder of our dark past" and bemoaned the militarisation of the outreach programme. But earlier this month in Johannesburg he lauded Mr Mugabe as a "hero".

The MDC co-minister of home affairs, Theresa Makone, this week complained Zanu-PF was holding the police "captive." But three weeks ago, she claimed the force was no longer partisan.

Zanu-PF has exploited that fumbling. The party's Paul Mangwana told a radio phone-in programme that it wasn't Zanu-PF activists who burned down MDC houses in rural Bikita: it was husbands of unfaithful wives. As for the MDC supporter beaten to death in Mbare: according to police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena, he was mugged on his way home from work.

Mr Mugabe has his eye on elections next year. This time he is determined to win outright. Unbelievably, he has secured a commitment from Mr Tsvangirai not to challenge the outcome. This week one Zimbabwean subscriber to a Harare online newspaper warned: "We are still to experience the bloodiest of all elections."

Already Police Chief Augustine Chihuri has ordered officers to register as voters. In 2008, prison guards voted in front of their superiors, guaranteeing thousands of votes for Zanu-PF.

Many outside Zimbabwe are desperate to believe that, 20 months into the coalition, things are finally getting better. But well-stocked supermarket shelves and power cuts three times a week instead of five do not real change make.

Shortly after the outreach programme began in June, a woman knocked at our gate. She is a contact of an MDC MP. She spoke then of violence that had already broken out: MDC supporters abducted in Marondera, huts burnt down. "You ain't seen nothing yet," she finished angrily.

Those whispers at the gate made me think of news gleaned from scared passers-by during the worst of the 2008 violence. Last weekend's chaos has shown how Mugabe can marshal his thugs at a snap of his fingers.