An ambassador to SA from the official opposition political party in Zimbabwe says all indications are that Zimbabwe is heading to military rule.

While the Zimbabwean Defence Forces was at pains to reassure the world that the country was not in the midst of a coup, political experts and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change disagree.

“There are mixed reports‚ we are not really sure what is happening‚” said Austin Moyo‚ the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) shadow ambassador.

There was frenzied speculation of a coup but Maj-Gen Sibusiso Moyo said in a televised address in Harare that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces would guarantee the safety of Mugabe and his family, and was only “targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice”.

Denying that the action was a military takeover, Moyo said “as soon as we have accomplished our mission we expect the situation to return to normalcy.”

But in the past week the country’s war veterans and its white farmers have come together as unlikely allies in a new battle: to unseat President Robert Mugabe (93) and curb the ambitions of his wife, Grace.

Together with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) — led by the recently sacked vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa — and with what is thought to be the backing of the armed forces, the farmers and war vets have vowed to form a transitional government whose aim will be to return Zimbabwe to its past glory.

An intervention is sorely needed. Zimbabwe stands once again on the brink of hyperinflation and economic collapse, amid the disastrous introduction of a new currency, foreign exchange shortages, a spike in food prices, a spiralling deficit and an unpayable public sector wage bill.