Nathaniel Manheru cum George Charamba has latched on, like
binnacle to a rock, to Alexander Noyes’ erroneous assertion that having liberation
war credentials will be the game changer in Zimbabwe’s next elections. Mr Noyes
is the Oxford University scholar who claimed that Joice Mujuru’s war credentials
will help her win the next elections.
“And if liberation war credentials impart a forte to Mujuru,
how do infinitely better liberation war credentials residing in Mugabe who
joins nationalist politics in the 1950s, and Mnangagwa who joins the ranks of
combatants in the early-to-mid 1960s, stand them negatively in the same race?” demanded
Manheru.
Alexander Noyes’s article appeared in the New York Times. The
article was trash; devoid of any intellectual merit. Noyes assumed that the
people of Zimbabwe hold their liberation war heroes and heroines in such revered
regard they have completely failed to see the transformative change from
liberator to corrupt and murderous tyrant. After 35 years of Zanu PF misrule,
there a mountain of evidence that the freedom, liberty and human rights and
dignity the nation had dreamt of have remained a pipe dream as millions have
been forced into a life of abject poverty and despair. The people would have to
be mentally blind not to see the reality of political and economic mess Zanu PF
has dragged them into.
In fact it is our Oxford scholar who ignoring the mountain of
evidence that the people Zimbabwe are not been blinded by the war hero rhetoric,
they are not naïve and gullible as evidence by their rejection of Mugabe and
his thugs. The whole world knows, except Noyes, that Mugabe and his cronies
have stayed in power all these years not because they flaunted their war credentials,
hypnotizing the electorate. They have stayed in power because they have used every
dirty vote rigging trick there is; breaking the law, bribing officials, harassment
and beating voters, they have murdered over 30 000, etc.
Manheru was only too pleased to take up Noyes’ theme of
liberation war credential as the game changer only to further his own
propaganda message that Mugabe is invincible. Mugabe has been harping none stop
about his war credentials and not allowed the nation to talk about anything
else.
If Mujuru and her People First should “win” the next
elections it would be because she was able to counter Mugabe’s dirty tricks;
after all she was in the tyrant’s camp for 34 years, even a simpleton like her
would have learned a few of his dirty tricks. As long as the next elections are
NOT free, fair and credible, it is
possible that Mugabe will lose regardless his “infinitely
better liberation war credentials”; it all depends on whether he is able to rig
the elections, war credentials have nothing to do with it.
@ Wilbert
ReplyDeleteAll those who risked life and limp or contributed in their own small way in the fight to end white colonial rule, freedom and liberty should be proud of their contribution. The 18 April 1980 should have been crowning moment for the nation, marking the dawn of freedom, liber-ty and human dignity for us all.
People like President Mugabe have claimed the honour of being the liberators but only to use it as a stepping stone to impose their own tyrannical rule. Instead of wearing the liberation struggle contribution as a badge of honour it is now a source of shame because the freedom, liberty and justice the struggle promised were never delivered. The most credit people can claim is having meant well; no one can claim in all honest delivering freedom, liberty and justice when none of these things were ever delivered.
What should have been the dawn of freedom and liberty became the dawn of a new night-mare of corruption and brutal political oppression. What is there to be proud of in that?
No amount of denying or Zanu PF propaganda can change the fact that the post 1980 Zimba-bwe is not the Zimbabwe the majority of us had risked life and limp for. The real question is; how long are we going to pretend nothing is amiss whilst those who have robbed the nation its freedom, peace and humanity stand in our midst, to add insult to injury, demanding hom-age from us their victims?
Mugabe, Mujuru, Mnangagwa, Mutasa or anyone of the Zanu PF thugs and usurpers would win free, fair and credible elections; this is why none of them wanted any of the GPA reforms implemented during the GNU or would want them implemented now or ever. They are fighting like wild-cats to the death for the heart and soul of the party, Zanu PF, but they are united on one this they all do not want free, fair and credible elections; not now not ever!
Those who think the election of Mai Mujuru as the first step towards getting a free and dem-ocratic Zimbabwe are naïve and foolish because if elected, she will be fighting to establish her own tyrannical rule modelled on the Zanu PF dictatorship we have today!
We failed ourselves in 1980 by allowing Mugabe and cronies to hijack the struggle for their own selfish gain; we have paid dearly for that and will continue to pay for months or even years to come. But when when change finally come; this time we must make sure it does deliver the freedom, liberty, justice and human dignity and not be yet another false dawn of freedom.
@ Zimvigil
ReplyDeleteSo the situation in Zimbabwe will surely get worse. When we became independent we were second only to South Africa in the region in terms of economic development. Now Zimba-bwe's budget is smaller than those of all our neighbours, including previously pitied Botswa-na.
Zambia gets five times as much foreign direct investment and Mozambique nine times as much. For its part, Botswana hardly needs any investment because it has worked out how to do it itself.
What makes the situation so serious for Zimbabwe is that virtually all the money the govern-ment gets goes on paying the government itself leaving nothing for the country. That things can be done differently is shown by Tanzania's new president John Magufuli. His first move was to cancel independence day celebrations to spend the money on a clean-up campaign.
Yes the economic and political situation is Zimbabwe is set to get even worse that it is today because Zanu PF’s ZimAsset plan is died and the regime has no plan B. The wild-cat fight in Zanu PF is over political power spurred on by the economic meltdown; the economic hard-ships have not spared the ruling elite.
Minister Oppah Muchinguri had her property auctioned for failing to pay her debt and there are many other Zanu PF Chefs in similar financial trouble. Their troubles will increase tenfold plus if they were to lose their generous ministerial salaries, wages and privileges! With so much at stake, no wonder the wild-cat fights in Zanu PF are to the death.
Zimbabwe’s economic situation has resulted in the collapse of basic services like clean run-ning water, unemployment has soared to 90% plus and millions are so poor they are starving. This situation is socially and politically unsustainable.
We do not have the time to waste tinkering around the edges; the only solution is to imple-ment the GPA reforms leading to the holding of free, fair and credible elections. It is not in the DNA of tyrannical regimes to accept they have failed and implement the reforms; we the people will have to demand the implementation of the reforms. If we do not then Zanu PF will be forced to accept change as a result of social uprising or worse because like it or not the present situation cannot go on like this for much longer something must give!
The signs of a coming storm have been there and even now we can still take shelter. We will have only ourselves to blame if the storm breaks out and we are caught in the open!