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SEVERAL TANKS HAVE been seen moving near the Zimbabwean capital Harare, a day after the army warned it could intervene over a purge of ruling party officials.
The sightings came as uncertainty swirls in Harare due to President Robert Mugabe’s decision to fire his vice president last week, prompting a warning of possible military intervention from the army chief.
The reason for the military presence was not immediately clear, but the vehicles may have been on routine manoeuvres.
The military spokesman was not available to comment.
“I saw a long convoy of military vehicles, including tanks, about an hour ago. I don’t know where they were heading,” a fruit seller near Westgate shopping centre, about 10 kilometres from central Harare, told AFP.
Another by-stander at the shopping centre also said she had seen the convoy, while other witnesses took to social media to confirm the reports.
Zimbabwe’s army chief General Constantino Chiwenga yesterday warned Mugabe to “stop” purges of the ruling Zanu-PF party after Mugabe abruptly sacked vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa last week.
“We must remind those behind the current treacherous shenanigans that when it comes to matters of protecting our revolution, the military will not hesitate to step in,” he said at a press conference.
Mnangagwa had clashed repeatedly with First Lady Grace Mugabe, 52, who is widely seen as vying with Mnangagwa to succeed her husband as president.
‘Upping the ante’
Mugabe, 93, is the world’s oldest head of state and has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, but his frail health has fuelled succession talk as potential replacements jockey for position.
“We very rarely see tanks on the roads. They don’t normally move around very much,” Derek Matyszak, an analyst at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, told AFP.
Chiwenga threw down the gauntlet to Mugabe … Mugabe hasn’t responded immediately but it would make sense for Chiwenga to organise some military manoeuvres to up the ante.
In speeches this year, Mugabe has often slurred his words, mumbled and paused for lengthy periods.
His long reign has been marked by brutal repression of dissent, mass emigration, vote-rigging and economic collapse since land reforms in 2000.
The main opposition MDC party today called for civilian rule to be protected.
“No one wants to see a coup … If the army takes over that will be undesirable. It will bring democracy to a halt,” shadow defence minister Gift Chimanikire told AFP.
Zanu-PF’s influential youth league, which supports Grace Mugabe as a future president, said in a statement that army chief Chiwenga must not be allowed to choose Zimbabwe’s leaders.
Speculation has been rife in Harare that Mugabe could seek to remove Chiwenga, who is seen as an ally of ousted Mnangagwa.
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It sometime feels like there are 42 million on it at the same time.
They need to build an underground line from the city centre to sandyford with option to upgrade later to further out or find an above ground option to link all the way to bray or shankill. This should skip most stop and essentially be an express to the city. Have a stop at say dundrum, charlemont and also Oconnell st. The luas should stay as an alternate option. It is how most big cities work. There is no doubt that it would be heavily utilised and would dramatically reduce road usage as well as relieving pressure on passengers using the luas for smaller journeys.
Shutting the luas for several years to put a heavy rail in its place really isn’t an option anymore
@thephantomshit:
most cities have more than one line going north-south and east-west.
The pizza needs to be split into more than just quarters. Interestingly, bus-connects is exactly this plan if we could allow it to proceed. These dedicated transport corridors could be upgraded to tram and eventualy metro once the demand rises.
@thephantomshit:
and metro is not heavy rail, its light rail, same as tram.
@Tim Pot: metro is classed as heavy rail
@joe: well it depends who you ask (as usual)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_rail_terminology
But it seems metro is probably not considered light rail either, so I am equally wrong.
Dublin is crying out for better transport infrastructure. Areas such as Knocklyon, Templeogue, Rathfarnham and Terenure badly need a metro (or at least a Luas line). Taking an hour and a half to get into the city centre on the 15 bus is a joke.
@Kev: or a dedicated high frequency bus lane as is proposed…
@Kev: Same story for me in Rathcoole. An hour and a half to travel 12 miles. I lived in Dusseldorf 20 yrs ago. Used to make a 35 mile journey in 50 mins.
@Tim Pot: you cannot compare a bus lane to a metro line or a tram line. Have you had your first morning coffee yet?
@Kev:
High freqency transport on a dedicated lane is the exact same concept for bus, tram, metro and commuter rail. The only difference is capacity.
All Southside green LUAS should terminate in Bride’s Glen. In the mornings every 2nd tram arriving at Sandyford is full of people. This extra capacity is available right now at minimal cost.
@Stuart: Or have a few that start only a Bride’s Glen. People from Sandyford obviously created the demand required for the service.
@Ashling Fenton: the original terminus was Sandyford due to the presence of the old Harcourt rail line and ease of construction. The line starting to wind over bridges after that. Once Cherrywood starts filling out, the LUAS will lag demand by about 2 years further exacerbating all the problems. Unless they move “non-location sensitive” office jobs from town out to Cherrywood. Lots of banks in town have thousands of staff who don’t need to be on the Liffey.
Does that include rogue luas surfers?
The core issue as always with public transport is population density. Dublin is spread out and by any criteria is not a high density city. It’s a chicken and egg situation. People move further out to get “affordable” housing. This makes providing decent public transport much harder. The State needs to take a large leap of faith and invest in public transport – knowing that in time the city will in-fill as people choose to live in areas with good public transport. But this needs to go hand in hand with a good planning and housing policy. Chicken and egg. Planning and investment is the name of the game. If we can’t get it right in Dublin the rest of the country has no chance.
Does that include the lovely chaps. Hanging around the luas stops, looking for change and shooting up?
An insane amount of passengers on just two lines and the Red’s dinky Tallaght branch. 15 years and basically the same as we had in the beginning. Start building more lines, get Metrolink started asap and get the DART expanded to Drogheda, M3 Parkway, Maynooth and Hazelhatch by 2025 at the latest.
Great service just a pity it doesn’t cover more area’s at this stage
If ever this proves that we need a citywide underground system. Forget bus corridors and get on with a metro system and stop stalling!
@Arthur FitzPatrick:
if you are lucky you will get a bus corridor in less than 5 years. You would be waiting 15 years for any metro..
The Luas is also becoming very unreliable. There’s issues with signalling every other day, not to mention incidents with cars/passengers/pedestrians.
Is the Luas Irelands only light rail system?
@thesaltyurchin: yep
@Darren Bates: figured. *gets back in car.
What a very successful company. Proud of an Irish success. Pity our Government TD’s weren’t as diligent in their jobs.
@Me Darlin’ Dublin: the luas owned by a French Company
@Tadgh carley: it’s in public ownership actually. Owned by the state, run under licence by Transdev.
@Tadgh carley: the Government owned by Builders and Vulture funds and German French and British banks. Give the Irish workers some credit.
@Tadgh carley: They dont own it. They manage it. The company is called Transdev.
When the m50 was getting a extra lang was a time to run the tram from red cow to airport.
Start the metro now. Forget the moaners at Beechwood get the metro out to Sandyford.
That line needs a capacity upgrade!
We need an orbital underground for Dublin, NOW no just a mickeymouse line in from the airport to someone near Dublin central
How about a Luas or Metro to the Airport and beyond and not just to Swords. It almost as if towns out that way are non-existent
Looking forward to a long winter of trying to squeeze onto already jam-packed Luas’ at Heuston only for it to stop at multiple junctions and traffic lights and barely speed up all the way to the IFSC *sigh*
Are the fare dodgers included in these figures one wonders!!
have your say