'Harare, think again'

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Zim: A long way to go

Zimbabwe's coalition government still has many challenges to face.

Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday said onetime protégé and information minister Jonathan Moyo would be clobbered in this month's key parliamentary vote, which he is contesting independently.

"The real Tsholotsho does not belong to this man," Mugabe said, referring to the western constituency which doubles up as Moyo's native region and is home to the country's Ndebele people, the second largest ethnic group after the majority Shonas.

"The chiefs there don't even know him. When we asked the chiefs they said: 'We do no know this man. You are the ones who brought him to us saying he will represent the party'," Mugabe said at the funeral of a former minister in Harare.

Mugabe, a Shona, dismissed Moyo, the architect of Zimbabwe's tough media laws, on February 19 following his decision to register as an independent candidate for key parliamentary elections on March 31, which will be closely watched as a test of Zimbabwe's commitment to hold a free and fair vote.

Mugabe speaks at funerals

Zimbabwe's ruling party had barred Moyo from contesting in the ballot as a candidate for Tsholotsho after he attended an unsanctioned meeting which allegedly went against Mugabe's directive for party leaders to nominate a woman as one of the two vice-presidents.

Mugabe, who has turned out to use funerals as political platforms to attack his critics, called on Harare residents to "think again" and vote for his Zimbabwe African National African Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) party.

"In Harare if you had changed and said you now belonged to (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair, you should change again," Mugabe told thousands of mourners, targeting once again the British leader, one of his pet hates.

All the seats in Harare were won by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe's 2000 parliamentary elections.

"You are Zimbabweans... you belong to Zimbabwe which was brought by the blood of our heroes lying here and others scattered throughout the country," Mugabe said.

"Should we give it away to sellouts here in Harare? This is our capital city. You are sons and daughters of revolutionaries...

"What wrong have we done you? Harare ... think again, think again, think again." - AFP

- SAPA