GARIKAI MAFIRAKUREVA, SOUTH AFRICA – The Southern Africa Human Rights Lawyers (SAHRL) has claimed that there are 296,519 Zimbabweans who illegally voted in the Mozambican national elections held last month and therefore called for a rerun of the plebiscite.
Other reports on this subject - 12th November 2024 {CLICK HERE}
The figure which forms a significant percentage of the total number of voters in the election is contained in the organisation’s executive report released this week, titled Zimbabwe’s Interference With the 2024 Mozambique Harmonised Elections. A significant number of votes were cast in the Mozambique elections. The country has a population of over 34 million people.
It says that the voters were mobilised by President Mnangagwa and Zanu PF to give an upper hand to the ruling Frelimo which faced tough competition from the opposition PODEMOS Party. This was one form of rigging elections in Mozambique and there were several other strategies by Frelimo including depriving ballot papers in areas where the opposition had an upper hand, stuffing ballots in certain areas and barring observers from carrying out their duties. The report which was confirmed by Southern Africa Human Rights Lawyers High Commissioner, Professor Talent Rusere accused Zanu PF of carefully co-ordinating a process of rigging the Mozambique elections and named at least nine senior party officials including Cabinet Ministers tasked to run the process in each province.
Comment: ""Considering that Mnangagwa is the {nominal} Chair of the regional SADC - this interference has directly attributed to the riots in Mozambique and the deaths of those suffering from this Election Manipulation. The Coruption of the SADC region under Mnangagwa has not gone unoticed by the International Community - perhaps that is why he and 281 acolytes are at the COP29 in Azerbaijan {see link}""
SAHRL carried out investigations and allegedly established that there were - as table below
| Mozambican Province | Zanu PF Vote Rigging Numbers |
| Duma in Bikita | 53,122 |
| Murehwa | 36,872 |
| Maud Muzenda Training Center in Masvingo | 41,213 |
| Mutare/Rusape | 76,519 |
| Harare | 69,019 |
| Chegutu | 19,774 |
| TOTALS | 296,519 |
Asked for comment, Zanu PF spokesperson, Chris Mutsvangwa said all the people who voted in Zimbabwe were Mozambicans {!!} who acquired dual citizenship at independence and were being given an opportunity to exercise their political rights. He accused The Mirror of building mountains out of molehills.
However, an investigation by The Mirror showed that people who voted were non-Mozambicans and this included a number of undercover Zimbabwean journalists. Mutsvangwa said the Zanu PF Ministers and Parliamentarians mentioned as co-ordinators of the voting process are all dual citizens of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Zanu PF secretary for National Administration Dr Obert Mpofu said that the accusations that President Mnangagwa was interfering in the elections of countries in the region was a ploy meant to tarnish his name and that of Zanu PF.{!! See previous comentary about destabilising the region under SADC}
He denied that his party interfered with elections of other countries although there have been complaints from Botswana, South Africa and Namibia.
In Botswana, senior Zanu PF official, Patrick Chinamasa openly declared at a rally in Botswana that his party supported the then ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that went on to lose the elections.