"Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! (will rule and rule)" Mnangagwa recited, the dictator's creed.

“Today we are witnessing the beginning of unfolding democracy in our country.” Mnangagwa said.

Here is a man who has no sense of shame. None! He has been at the very heart of this Zanu PF regime for 37 years and has no shame in admitting the nation has been forced to wait until today for “the beginning of unfolding democracy”. He is right that until now the country had not seen democratic freedom, liberty and peace under this corrupt, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF regime. He knows all these evils were happening because he was for the great many of them the one perpetuating the heinous acts. 

He has also been on the receiving end of the barbarism as he readily testified. 

“Within two hours of me being dismissed I got a report that they were planning to eliminate me and that’s when I decided that I cannot wait for that to happen,” he said.

“On the 12th of August this year, I was poisoned which resulted in me being airlifted to South Africa for treatment.” 

However he is mistaken to think the country is now on a democratic path. The Zanu PF dictatorship, the instigator of all the lawlessness and mayhem that has haunted the nation to this day, is alive and strong as demonstrated by its ability to hold Mugabe hostage and force him to resign. 

“Pamberi neZanu PF! Pasi nemhandu!” (Forward with Zanu PF! Death with the traitors!) chanted Mnangagwa at the beginning and end of his speech on his return from exile. 

So, even now, 37 years after independence with Mugabe finally booted out of office, he still believes that there are traitors who must be hunting down and killed! He did not have to say it, we all know, that he and the Zanu PF dictatorship considers all those daring to challenge Zanu PF’s undemocratic strangle hold on the State Institutions like the Police, Army, ZEC, etc. and demanding the implementation of democratic reforms as the only way to end the country’s lawlessness and chaos. 

“Vachahukura! Vachihukura! Zanu PF ichitonga! Igotonga!” (They will bark! And bark! Whilst Zanu PF will rule! And rule!) He told his audience referring to those calling for democratic reforms and free and fair elections. 

Many people have nursed the fervent hope that Robert Mugabe was not just the dictator but the embodiment of the dictatorship itself and his demise therefore mark a new dawn. “The real independence day!” many people had greeted his announced resignation. It was a fervent hope doomed to end in disappointment because it ignored the facts on the ground. 

Mugabe, the dictator, was the public face of the Zanu PF dictatorship; there was no excuse for assuming the demise of the dictator was the demise of the dictatorship. Indeed, it was one arm of the dictatorship, the securocrats who stage the coup and force the dictator to resign. The public who joined in the march to demand Mugabe’s resignation had their own agenda, they wanted the dictatorship to go to but that was not the coup plotters’ agenda. 

The coup plotter surgically removed the dictator from the dictatorship and replaced him with another figure head. The dictatorship itself has emerged out of the last two weeks’ events largely untouched; there will be some individuals who will be booted out and others brought in but otherwise the dictatorship is well and thriving. 

The new dictator, Emerson Mnangagwa, wanted to assure the Zanu PF dictatorship that he was totally committed their most cherish life-long political goal – that Zanu PF must hold on to absolute power at all cost! 

“Vachahukura! Vachihukura! Zanu PF ichitonga! Igotonga!” That was music in the ears of General Chiwenga, coup ringleader, Chris Mutsvangwa, the leader of the rogue war veterans, and all the other die-hard Zanu PF members in dictatorship fraternity! 

Mnangagwa was clearly the right choice as the next dictator to succeed Mugabe, all the decades he had spent at the feet of the ruthless tyrant had not been wasted. He had learnt from the grandmaster and learnt well! 

Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal  Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India and the other leaders fighting to end British rule of India considered waging an armed struggle against the British. They decided against the armed struggle.

“What kind of leaders would the armed struggle throw up?” they asked, rhetorically. “Are those the men and women we would want to rule India!”

If any has ever wanted to know what kind of leaders an armed struggle can throw up – they should look at Zimbabwe. 37 years and counting after our independence we are still regretting we wage the war to end white colonial rule! 

Zimbabweans are today the poorest nation on earth with 72.3% of the population living on US$ 1.00 or less a day. Life expectancy, the qualitative and quantitative measure of the standard of living has plummeted from 68 years in 1980 to 34 year in 2004, the last time there was accurate data. 

On the political front the only right the ordinary person, povo, can lay claim to in the right to vote, if they are lucky, and this is countered by those who fought in the liberation war who have a veto. 

If one could turn back the clock then Zimbabweans would certain opt for Gandhi’s peaceful protest and not an armed struggle to end white colonial rule. Getting the democratic reforms implemented to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship is the nation’s holy-grail quest and proving just as illusive! 

“Today we are witnessing the beginning of unfolding democracy in our country.” Said President-elect Emerson Mnangagwa.

No it is not! You are a dictator and are in office today thanks to the Zanu PF dictatorship, which you are there to serve and not democracy much less the ordinary people, povo. 

“Vachahukura! Vachihukura! Zanu PF ichitonga! Igotonga!” Is your catch phrase, you cherish it, very proud of it and live by it! For us, povo, the phrase is your reaffirmation of your refusal to accept democratic change, it is the very embodiment of the dictatorship, our curse; we are suffering and dying because of it!