The late Vice President John Nkomo is declared a national hero and Zanu PF and MDC political leaders trip over each other to sing his praise. Everyone that is except MDC’s Roy Bennett; he dismissed the whole charade as “occasions for all sorts of nonsense and stupidity”.
“Excuse me. We may not like to speak ill of the dead, but let's not tell lies,” stormed Bennett. “How can anyone with any sense say that John Nkomo dedicated his life to Zimbabwe's prosperity? Since the 1980s, he has sat at the heart of the beast that has destroyed Zimbabwe's economy. He has held the hand of the dictator that has obliterated our hopes and freedoms.
“He must now be remembered by the choices he made. He chose to oppose the people, rather than serve them. He walked around in tailor-made suits while Zimbabweans walked in rags. He received private medical treatment in South Africa, while Zimbabweans in South Africa were dying in the townships.”
Facts are stubborn!
Every time one of these Zanu PF thugs dies or during Heroes’ Holiday Zimbabweans agonize over who is a true national hero and who is not!
Everyone knows before independence these Zanu PF leaders did put their own lives on the line, at least some of them, in the fight for independence. But it is no secret that all these Zanu PF leaders have played their part in destruction of the nation’s economy after decades of mismanagement, corruption and looting. The promise of freedom, liberty and human dignity of the pre-independence days have remained a mirage as Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs have brushed all these aspirations aside to establish the de facto Zanu PF dictatorship which has ruled the nation all these years with an iron fist!
If someone like the late Vice President John Nkomo cannot be held accountable for all the misrule of this Mugabe regime then who are we to hold accountable?
Zimbabweans have to stop pretending the nation’s independence heroes and not the tyrants and thugs who have ruled the country since independence. And when the latter die they assume their old heroic past effortlessly and discard the unsavory yesterday like a cloak. In this real world one’s recent past is even more important than their distance past. A murderer will not enter the Kingdom of God because in his youth he helped an old lady cross the street.
The late John Nkomo was a senior member of this Zanu PF dictatorship for many years; he got his fair share of the loot and so he must take his share of the heinous crimes the regime has committed. How can anyone who caused so much suffering and the loss of so many innocent lives be a hero?!
I have disagreed with Roy Bennett over many issues, especially his failure to see MDC’s many blunders, but have to agree with him on this one; those Zimbabweans tripping over each other to praise John Nkomo as if he was not part and parcel of this murderous Zanu PF regime are being disingenuous!
6 comments:
The culture is meant to serve the people and not the people serving the culture. The problem is corruption and political oppression is real and still choking the whole nation to death. We must deal with it.
People like the late John Nkomo should have come clean years ago and denounce what this Za nu PF dictatorship has been doing and save the nation. Instead he continued to glorify the system because he was benefiting from it. If his family and friends have any sense of honour then they must admit his guilty and greed and give up the wealth he looted. Millions of Zimbabweans are living and dying inabject poverty because of what he did! Some one must think of these people, they are the real victims here!
Five ZAnu PF talked two companies mining diamonds in Chiadzwa to handover over US$750, 000 “party activities” but are now being accused of diverting the money to person use. The ease with which they were able to raise such mouth-watering sums is worrying!
Zanu PF is swimming in money and the party will have all this money to finance if terror machine, buy vote by bribing village heads, chiefs, etc.
MDC has underestimated the money Zanu PF is getting from Marange much less the mischief the party will do with all this money!
Everything points to the fact the coming elections are NOT going to be free and fair, that is simply impossible.
The only logical thing is now is to delay the elections until the reforms are implemented because only then will the nation have a chance to ensure political party funding is transparent, amongst many other things.
@Muprofitta
I agree that the late John Nkomo can not redeem himself but there many in Chibuku House who can. These things are being said for them to know that they can no longer hide behind what they did before independence hoping the nation will disregard what they have been doing since 1980. They should know that what they have been doing since independence in murder and what they did before independence is the equivalent of helping an old lady cross the street in comparison!
John Nkomo is dead, he is history still there is a lot to be learnt from history and those who will not learn are bound to repeat the same mistakes over and over again until they do. Do not hide behind African culture; because culture is there to serve the people and not the people to serve culture. It is not African culture to steal food from the hungry and feed it to one's dog!
@ Muprofita
Wafawanaka! What nonsense! We are facing the reality of hundreds of innocent civilians being killed in Zanu PF motivated violence, the same violence that allowed John Nkomo to keep his posh job all these years. Are you going to tell the relative of the murdered "wafawanaka" too? Are you now saying exercising one's right to vote is a crime punishable by death?
Nkomo and his fellow Zanu PF fiends are murderers and must not be glorified for what they have done and are still doing to this nation! It is idiots like you who are encouraging them!
If A saves a girl from being raped by B but then A goes on to the girl. Do you think A should be judged on from what he did to save the girl, exclusively from what he did after saving the girl or what he did both to save the girl and what he did after? Suppose I say to you he saved the girl from rape only to rape and murder the girl.
From what people like Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have done since independence there can be no doubt they fought the war of independence not as liberators by rather as mercenaries. After independence, it was payback time as far as they were concerned. They even denied the people the freedom, liberty, human dignity and life itself; they very things they were supposedly fighting to secure for the people.
The whites denied the blacks the vote period. Zanu PF could not deny them that right but has beaten and raped millions of blacks and murdered over 30 000 others to deny them a meaningful vote. Not only did John Nkomo like everyone else in Zanu PF know about the brutal repression he benefited from it.
If we cannot hold someone who was Vice President in the regime accountable for what the regime has been doing then who the hell are we going to hold accountable? His gardener? The victims of the oppression? Who?
Some Zimbabweans have elevated those who fought in the war of independence way above all other mortals; it is no surprise these people have struggled to accept these Demigods can do any wrong even with the mountain of evidence of the corruption and brutality they committed. Tyrants like Mugabe took full advantage of this weakness to commit even more outrageous human rights violations.
Bury one’s head in the sand has no doubt help these murderers sleep easy at night still it has been a great disserve to the nation. We must stop living a lie whilst millions continue to suffer and hundreds die under this brutal dictatorship!
After independence people like Mugabe, Nkomo and the rest of the Zanu PF thugs chose out of their own free will to extort the mercenary’s ransom price in the form of absolute political power and unfettered access to the nation’s resources and wealth. They are therefore then mercenaries and it is nonsensical to treat them as national heroes as well! When you are a mercenary you cannot and will never be a hero too, especially when you are still hanging on to your mercenary extortionist loot!
@Guest O G
I deal with reality and the truth and the reality is Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs are mercenaries who have stolen the nation's wealth, denied millions of Zimbabweans their basic and fundamental rights including the right to have a meaningingful say in the governance of this country including the right to life itself. The truth is there are many Zimbabweans who are stupid and sentimental about Mugabe and these thugs and have have allowed themselves to be ruled by their emotions and not by reason and thus allowed these thugs to ride rough shod of the most helpless of our people.
I have very close relatives who fought in the war of liberation and who have supported Mugabe throughout the years. They have never occupied as high positions in the party as people like John Nkomo, still they have played theior party in this Zanu PF dictatorship. I have told them exactly what I think about what Mugabe and Zanu PF has been doing. I know some of them have read my criticism. Even if Mugabe was my own father or brother it would not change the fact that he is a murderous tyrant. I may deny that, everyone out there may deny it: still that will not male any difference.
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