IT PAYS IN THE END TO GET THE BEST IN THE BEGINNING

“It pays in the end to buy the best in the beginning!” a work mate of mine in Zimbabwe, James, used to say. He was repeating a jingle of a local Clothing Store with a reputation of selling quality clothes. It showed; he was always smartly dressed. Nowhere is this truer than in politics.

In 1980 the people of Zimbabwe voted to end the war. The fear that the civil war, stopped following the 1979 Lancaster House Talks, would restart should Zanu PF lose the election was real. Of course, Mugabe and his party wanted to end the injustice of white colonial rule. Yes they also believed their brand of government would bring peace and prosperity to all, “gutsva ruzhinji”. But above all they had their eyes on the price- to be the new political master. It was not power to the people they wanted but absolute power to them. Mugabe and his follow Zanu PF leadership want a one party state and made no secrete of it. And the war of independence was waged to achieved that single objective above all else. The populous understood that well enough, the point was rammed home during the all night vigil rallies, ”pungwe”, Zanu PF operatives held in the last years before the 1979 Seize Fire.

Mugabe’s love of power knows no limit there can be little doubt his instinct would have been to shoot his way into power if he had lost the 1980 election. Instinct is one thing but whether he would have seen it through another. His political position then was not the same as after he assumed power.

Soon after independence Mugabe faced his biggest political challenge of his rule when PF Zapu withdrew from his unit government and some Zipra cadres took up their arms. They were doing exactly what Mugabe and Zanu PF had threatened. As the dually elected government, Mugabe was able to mobilise the national army to deal with the insurrection. He also saw the insurrection as the opportunity to quash once and for all his main political rivalry, PF Zapu and thus pave the way for a one-party state. He used the now infamous Fifth Brigade to do his dirty work. And 20 000 to 30 000 innocent civilians lost their lives.

This year Mugabe managed to use his political muscle to hold back the public announcement of the 29 March elections results and delay the date of presidential run-off. He wanted time to deploy his war veterans and other state operatives throughout the country to mount the campaign of terror and murder that have swept the country in the last three months.

Once in power, Mugabe was able to use the army to achieve his own selfish end in the mid 1980s, now to intimidate the opposition and a lot more beside to stay in power. Before his swearing in April 1980 Mugabe was sitting cross legged on the floor and his political opponents, the white regime, were standing with a loaded gun over him. A significant proportion of the Zanu PF leadership including Mugabe himself would have been rounded up and thrown in prison or killed within days if the party had lost the vote and had tried to win power using force.

When most people talk of politics being a “dirty game” they mean politicians do not keep their promises. With dictators like Mugabe who, unlike all other politicians, are NOT accountable to anyone for their broken promises or political excesses term assumes a new meaning. Here is a man who would sell his own mother for a price and be proud they had a mother to sell! The rights, freedom, suffering and the very lives of others mean absolutely nothing to them.

Dictatorship is like a noxious weed which once allowed will take root and thrive and will soon spread and choke everything good round it. Before independence many people described the key people close to Mugabe and his dictatorship as honourable men and women with integrity. These people have been at a total loss as to why no one within Zanu PF has ever spoken out against Mugabe’s madness. Indeed many of them not only failed to speak but went further to assume dictatorial tendency of their own.

Even those who have spoken against Mugabe and the opposition their motive for doing so has been purely selfish. All they seem to care about is for Mugabe to go so that they can take his place.

Zimbabwe’s biggest chance to stop Mugabe’s nearly thirty years dictatorial rule was by making sure he never ever got into power. Having elected him in 1980 he dug in making subsequent elections a meaningless charade justifying his own claim that “Only God would get him out of office!” We have paid dearly for failing to get the best regime back in 1980.

No doubt James is sporting the calico shirt with Mugabe’s face and/or a Zanu PF slogan! It is the “must wear” political fashion in Zimbabwe today; that is, if you value your life.

After the dust has settled this time round, one only hopes there will be no more innocent blood shed now that Tsvangirai has withdrawn from the run-off, Zimbabwe will not settle for nothing else but the best!