Outcry as Zimbabwe military makes music for Mnangagwa’s bid to keep presidency




Presisent Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Constantine Chiwenga
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The Zimbabwe Defence Force on Friday launched a music album for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s election campaign.

The nine-track album’s cover song is “Garwe Rauya” a chiShona phrase meaning “the hero has arrived”.

The army’s Crocodile Sounds band‚ stationed at Inkomo barracks‚ “will be live at Josiah Magama Tongogara Barracks [the army and air force’s headquarters] on 25 May”‚ says local radio personality Tichafa “Tich Mataz” Matambanadzo in the album’s promo.

Ironically Mnangagwa’s moniker is “The Crocodile” and his faction in Zanu-PF is called Lacoste‚ drawing its name from the French clothing label whose trademark sign is a crocodile.

There will also be a civilian launch of the album‚ which is in the popular sungura genre that arose in the 1980s as an offshoot to Congolese rumba‚ at the Old Hararians Sports Club‚ in Harare.

Music follows Mnangagwa everywhere. When he ascended to power with the help of the military – and saw Robert Mugabe deposed as president – in November last year‚ local musician Jah Prayzah’s song “Kutonga Kwaro”‚ aptly meaning “how the country should be run”‚ was adopted as Mnangagwa’s unofficial theme song by his supporters.

The army keeps popping up indirectly as a stakeholder in the July watershed elections.

Early this week‚ Deputy Finance Minister Terence Mukupe declared that the army would not cede power should Mnangagwa lose his presidential bid.

The government issued a strong worded statement castigating the Mukupe.

But a day later Josiah Hungwe‚ minister of state for Masvingo‚ boldly declared at a Zanu-PF rally that Mnangagwa is a soldier and “If you want to run away from him he can shoot you so you should always know that who can shoot people who do not want to listen to him and want to run away from him.

“Do you know that I am the leader of the new dispensation here in Masvingo and I say ichi chinhu chedu chatakaita (this is our thing that we did). Our leader Mnangagwa is a soldier and you know that a soldier is always equipped with a gun to do whatever he wants.”

The opposition MDC Alliance’s Tendai Biti is on record saying that the army did not take over from Mugabe to easily lose power at the general elections. – Timeslive