I was born at the height of the liberation struggle. I guess that qualifies me as a war-veteran! Three years later, the white Rhodesians gave in to what they called terrorists and a new Zimbabwe was born. In came the angel Gabriel and called upon all to turn guns, bombs and machetes into plough-shares. The tea-pot shaped country was transformed into a bread basket and all willingly went to school with shining morning faces. Three decades later, the Gabriel in Robert has turned into the real MUGABE.
Depending on which hill one stands, Robert Mugabe has been associated with the following terms:Anarchy,Patriotic,Hurricane,Revolutionary,Dictator or Democrat (the list is exhaustive).What echoes through these words is the blatant fact that Robert Mugabe did abandon his policy of reconciliation and has since replaced it with his policy of retaliation. The recent purge of his acolytes (Mujuru et al ) points out to his cold and calculating tenacity to hold on to power despite economic problems spiralling out of his control. Like a runaway train, Mugabe has ignored all the signs. Yet strangely, the passengers, especially in the economy class (Bombera) grit their teeth with animal joy as they cling to the metal rails of their worn out seats. They shout on top of their voices for the train to accelerate. They ululate at his strange determination to continue to drive the train to the cliff. This is a monumental blunder of judgement from both the passengers and the driver.
Strange!
Why should our people, forever thin, lanky and ungainly, sing praise songs as leaders eat away their only hope of survival? Should we then concur with Ken Mufuka who once wrote that something is very wrong with us as a people? How can one explain Mugabe’s stewardship over Zimbabwe for three decades….or God forbid till 2020! It cannot be in the name of Vision 2020. Anywhere else in the civilised world, Mugabe’s reign would not have seen the light of another day. Put differently, there must be something wrong with our literacy rate. At over 90%, the best in Africa, I fail to understand why we fail to read the ballot paper and place an X on the correct column. We cannot either blame the Nikuv pen for fading our votes in Mugabe’s favour. So how has the nonagenarian managed to single-handedly dominate so effectively despite Zimbabwe’s steep decline over the years? The answer lies in one word:
Fear!
Our dear President and his government, which now includes the learned Dr.Grace Mugabe, has invested in the army ,police and well drilled youth militias. The citizenry live in fear! Fear of the known….unofira mahara. Loosely translated, it means you die in vain! Iam also aware that in writing this piece, I risk to be blacklisted or to be ground into pulp. Indeed ordinary Zimbabweans, from poor rural teachers to voiceless and powerless women and children, have been pounced upon, in the dead of the night, by state sponsored thugs dressed in police and army uniforms. The police have become a law unto themselves. They are beyond reproach. There is also incontrovertible evidence pointing to the crushing of dissent by the Zanu PF government within its own ranks. The police and the army have been used to silence people to the grave, if a finger is raised against the incumbent president. There must be an unwritten rule in Zanu PF ….that the President is always right. Any dissent from within the party is met with purging. Joyce Mujuru et al have recently joined an impressive list of people like Edgar Tekere, Eddison Zvobgo, Simba Makoni and the gullible Jabulani Sibanda, who were viewed as rebels within the party. This entails that Robert Mugabe is always right! Period. Any sign of dissent, will result in your political death.
Certainly the President has proved to be an old hand at the game of political one-upmanship.His knee-jerk policies, premised on political expediency, have left our country as good as war torn Iraq. Wasted and Failed. A few have benefited out of the land reform programme, aptly dubbed the Land Grab Programme. The truth is it has not benefited the mass of agricultural workers and farmers, but instead the Zanu PF cadres and loyalists. The poor people, who had parcels of land cut out to them, have been solely given the land in return for votes. It’s a political gimmick. They sit on unsecured pieces of land with no farm implements to till the land. All they cling to is false hope that the land will be registered in their names and only Zanu PF knows how and when. Like animals in Animal Farm, they are constantly reminded that if Mr Jones comes back, they will lose everything.
Oh, what a talented arch-manipulator!
Please Mr.President; stop insulting the people’s intelligence!
*Shepherd Mutsvara @blakaworld1
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