Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Mudenda, confess to witnessing
the Gukurahundi atrocities.
“I went there with
other politicians and found soldiers beating up people. I asked them why they
were beating people and they told me that they were looking for dissidents,” he
said. But why now?
Jacob Mudenda was the Matabeleland North provincial governor,
appointed by Mugabe on a Zanu PF ticket. In terms of political support PF Zapu
was the dominant party in the province. Gukurahundi targeted PF Zapu supporters
and therefore the political gains to Zanu PF and governor Mudenda himself were
obvious.
Mudenda said he asked senior politicians, among them the late
Vice-President Joseph Msika, to help stop the massacre, but they refused.
No doubt Mr Mudenda is now keen to recast his own role in
this tragic story as the good guy who tried to stop the beatings and murders.
It is all nonsense, he did not even try.
The murders were not a one day affair involving a few people;
the beatings, rapes and murders happened over a period of four years and 20 000
people were murdered, to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands beaten and
raped. If Mudenda could not stop this madness in all this time as governor then
he should have done the only sensible thing then – resign in protest!
“The wounds are there and they need reparation. We confess as
the government and this is the reason why Mugabe has said it was a moment of
madness,” continued Mudenda. “We don’t want that to happen again.”
But Mr Speaker, you have allowed this to happen again and
again and again! What do you think Zanu PF has been doing by rigging elections
if not denying the people their basic human right to a meaningful say in the
governance of the country.
The main aim of the Gukurahundi massacres was to destroy PF
Zapu, and to send a warning to any other opposition party that might follow, so
there will be no political threat to Zanu PF’s political ambition of ruling
until “donkeys have horns” as Simon Khaya Moyo has so aptly put it. The
political intimidation, threats, beatings, rapes, murderers and vote riggings
have continued even after Zanu PF and PF Zapu signed their unity accords.
The people of Zimbabwe have paid dearly for established and
maintained this de facto one-party dictatorship – they paid with the denied
basic freedoms and rights, stolen hopes and dreams of having even the bare
necessities of life, broken limbs and with many human lives. Mugabe and Zanu PF
have continued to extort more from the nation to feed their insatiable
appetites for power and wealth.
“We must confess our wrong doings and if we haven’t admitted
to them, it is impossible to achieve peace. As the State, there are things that
need to be confessed,” Mudenda told his listeners.
If Mr Mudenda is sincere in wanting to confess then he should
start by confessing what is relevant here and now. Was last year’s election
free, fair and credible?
As the Speaker of Parliament, does he not see it as his duty
to the nation to have this important, urgent and critical matter of free, fair
and credible elections addressed properly?
Assuming you have tried (no doubt you will confess that at
some convenient date in the future) but after a year and given the critical
importance of free, fair and credible elections (Nothing, absolutely nothing,
of any substance will ever be accomplished as long as those in power remain
accountable to no one else but themselves!) should you not resign now in
protest over the rigged 2013 elections?
Jacob Mudenda airbrushing the image of the fat, mean, corrupt
and indifferent Jacob Mudenda, Matabeleland North provincial governor, we all
know so well off our collective memory to replace it the completely fictitious
meek and peacemaker Jacob Mudenda. One thing is clear; the Zanu PF ship is
sinking and the rats are hightailing ashore! The nation must be careful not be
fooled and overwhelmed by the antics of these very late-day saint Jacob
Mudenda.
14 comments:
@ Vince
“I can’t believe some opposition parties, academics, including some infamous Pentecostal churches, who are saying this will disrupt the economy,” you said.
I agree; it is a frivolous and, indeed, nonsensical argument to say people should not protest against a system that has allowed unemployment to soar to the very peak of the Mount Everest heights of 90% plus and counting. In progressive countries the people will get restless if unemployment stayed at 9% for more than a few months, they will be on the streets demanding government action it was 15% and there will be regime change long before it reached 25%!
If Zimbabweans had been even half as diligent and assertive as they should be then unemployment would have never reached the 50% mark. Now it the highest in the world and has been stuck there for decades and yet someone still argue people should not protest for fear protest “would disrupt the economy”. This is like a wife who would not cry night after night when her husband beat her for “fear her crying would make him angry!” Madam, he is angry already and crying might save you from being killed!
The people should not be on the street demanding Zanu PF honour its promise to create the 2.2 million jobs it promised in its manifesto, we have gone far beyond that. If the regime was capable of creating any jobs did it have to wait for unemployment to reach these nauseating Mount Everest peaks and there for decades before it finally decided to bring the people down to acceptable levels where they can breathe and live?
The people of Zimbabwe should be on the street demanding free, fair and credible elections. We all know last year’s elections were rigged; Tsvangirai has said so himself but not before his usual blundering and dithering, which meant the opportunity for a meaningful court challenge of the election result was lost.
Tsvangirai and MDC are not demanding free, fair and credible elections because that demand must be preceded with the demand to get all the democratic reforms must be implemented first. As we know these are the reforms MDC should have implemented in the five years of the GNU; they failed to get even one reform implemented.
Tsvangirai and MDC would rather demand jobs, something they know Zanu PF is not able to deliver but can pretend to until the cows come home than demand reforms which is what the country needs desperately to move forward because they fear being reminded that they should have implemented the reform if it was not for their blundering incompetence.
This Zanu PF regime is going to respond with the usual brutality to any public demand for anything it cannot deliver, that is clear. So if we are going to ask people to risk a beating and some may be even be killed then let it be for the right cause and not some wishy-washy one!
If there are going to be public protest then it must be to demand implementing the reform followed by fresh elections; I would strongly recommend all Zimbabweans to join in the street protests and would join the protests myself if I can!
@ Moyo Tongie
What are you wittering about you village idiot?
“As Zimbabweans right now we are heavily burdened and we need Jesus to take it away and give us his peace which is everlasting,” you say!
Was it not Jesus himself who reprimanded those who did not use their God given talents in Matthew 25 verse 14 to 30.
"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' "His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
"'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
The good Lord has given Zimbabwe rich soils and good climate so we can grow all we need with plenty to export. The nation is starving only because Mugabe and his cronies seized the farms but have failed to use them productively. The country is rich in diamonds, platinum and other minerals and yet 2 million Zimbabweans are living in abject poverty because the wealth is being looted.
Zimbabwe’s problems are man-made and per se it is within our powers to end all this corruption, looting and political oppression. It is only out of laziness that we have failed to stop this criminal waste of our God given talents and resources.
You and your growing army of village idiots masquerading as pastors and prophets are cashing in on the people’s suffering by promising heavenly salvation to all their problems and you as the conduits that heavenly bliss will flow. Changing the people an arm and a leg for your conduit service!
“Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him,” said Jesus. Well you and your follow prophets like Makandiwa have been doing you best in fleecing the poor of the little they have, that is for sure! Makandiwa was showing off his $300 000 Benz the other day, all paid from selling the poor false hope!
“Can someone join me this morning by surrendering himself or herself to Jesus this morning and he is ready to give you hope!” Is that you catch phrase before you pass the collecting plate?
Zimbabwe's curse of the growing army of false pastors and prophets is second only to the bigger army of tyrants and incompetent village idiots masquerading as politicians.
Mugabe has been a total disaster for Zimbabwe and his own party Zanu PF. The country is in this political and economic mess because Mugabe of a corrupt and murderous tyrant. Zanu PF is unelectable and has to rely of rigging elections to stay in power, How anyone with any brain could even suggest that anyone would "plot" to have such a failed leader out of of office is preposterous because it shows the accusers has failed to see Mugabe for the corrupt and murderous tyrant he is!
But for the preposterous to be coming from Grace Mugabe is not really surprising; this is not just family rallying to support each other but she is genuinely a very foolish woman.
It is a great comfort that Mugabe and Zanu PF are having their final hours upon the country's political stage and they will be heard no more.
@Djoser
Economic recovery? When exactly did the economy fall ill and suffering from what?
If, I according to me, it is suffering from rampant corruption, then it will not recover because the regime has done nothing to end the corruption. It is still in denial over that.
If, according to Mugabe and you, the economy is sick from the sanctions then it will not recover since the sanctions are still in place.
Your buying into the sanctions affecting the economy but when it suits your propaganda narra-tive you buy into the economic recover regardless of the sanctions. You are a confused idiot.
The economy will continue to meltdown because the corruption and lawlessness behind it have not been addressed! Your denial and those of the tyrants in Harare will not have any effect. You will buy into the economic meltdown like it or not because it is the reality!
@BBC
Any prediction that does not acknowledge that the Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown, that Zanu PF does not have the foggiest idea what to do and that Zanu PF is so unpopular in the country it has now to rely on vote rigging to stay in power; misses the reality here. Zanu PF is in its final stage of self-inflicted paralysis and death. How can you have a political dynasty from a party that is dying?
@ Chinotimba
2 million Zimbabweans are living in abject poverty today how many more have to be condemned to hope-lessness and despair before you wake up to the reality that whilst you wait for Mugabe to have his fill of power and wealth there are real people who are paying dearly with their very lives!
"Regedza Gushungo nemhuri vatonge kusvika vaona chakanaka nechakaipa!" Mugabe has not even no-ticed one of the 2 million living in abject poverty because he does not care! He happily blames the eco-nomic collapse on sanctions whilst vehemently denying the real cause of corruption. He and his cronies continue rob the nation clean of all its resources through corruption. 100 children are dying every day of preventable diseases because there is no money to buy the medicine and the next day he is spending $1 million on a birthday party and $5 million on a wedding!
The tyrant has ruled and ruined the nation for 34 years and yet you still want him to rule? Your mental incapacity is really amazing. No wonder the country is in a mess with an electorate that is brain dead, what else!
@Piers Pigou
"Zimbabwe is an insolvent and failing state, its politics zero-sum, its institutions hollowing out and its once vibrant economy moribund," you wrote. Well said.
What I find impossible to agree with the rest of your analysis is that the same incompetent, corrupt and ruthless oppressive Zanu PF regime and the equally incompetent MDC can, somehow be the ones to get the nation out of this hell-hole. They are the ones who have landed us into this mess, for Pete's; it they were competent, then they would have never landed us here!
Zimbabwe has a population of 12 million and there must be a lot more competent individuals than the failed Zanu PF and MDC leaders. What the nation needs is to create a political environment that will allow competent leaders to emerge. Mugabe create a political system design to suffocate the nation and individual within his own party into believing that Zanu PF is the only party and he is the only man capable of ruling the country. We need to breakout of this political box! We will never achieve anything of any meaning or value until we rid ourselves of this Zanu PF regime and the claustrophobic system.
Manheru claims that the US is going to impose fresh sanctions on Zimbabwe for signing the platinum deal with Russia.
Manheru and Zanu PF are fishing for a new angle to give the threadbare "the illegitimate sanctions imposed by the evil West are responsible for all the country's problems" mantra new life!
Zimbabwe is the highest taxed nation in Sub-Sahara Africa according to the Labour and Economic Research Institute of Zimbabwe.
So we are the highest taxed people and the collected tax is wasted on $1 million birthday parties and $5 million weddings whilst 100 children die a day of preventable diseases!
@ Rafique 702
The economic meltdown is real and it is getting worse and will continue to do so as long as Mugabe and Zanu PF remain in power. The economic meltdown will deliver what MDC failed to deliver - regime change!
@ James Bond
Having his bits hanging out in summer is one thing and hanging them hanging out on bitterly cold night is another! The economic meltdown has forced the political temperature to drop considerably and Mugabe will find it impossible to ignore that reality.
When even Zanu PF grandees like the late Nathan Shamuyarira and Enos Nkala lived in abject poverty it shows that the economic reality has reached the inner most sanctuary of the party. We do not have to tell them about abject poverty; they are living. Shamuyarira and Nkala should have told Mugabe themselves years ago that Zanu PF had failed they did not do so because they were intellectual midgets and cowards.
If party grandees like Shamuyarira and Nkala were grovelling in the dust before the country's new god, poverty; be rest assured that ordinary Zanu PF members are paying daily homage to poverty. Sooner or later they will acknowledge Zanu PF has failed.
Yes even in these hard core Zanu PF loyalist who have been totally brainwashed into believing everything Mugabe tells them and ignore the reality before their own eyes; the penny will drop. The ever worsening economic situation will force them to open their eyes!
@Craig M
Our Captain probable does go to church just as Mugabe himself does. Why a corrupt and murderous tyrant like Mugabe bothers to go to Church is a part of his hypocritical mystique! "It is not all those who say Lord! Lord! Who will enter the Kingdom of God," Christ said. Frankly I do not see how Mugabe and many of whose thugs whose hands are red with the blood of the over 30 000 the regime has murdered over the years can enter the Kingdom of God!
@Django Dube
"Fellow countrymen, fear is the worst enemy of any revolution," you say. I agree fear is certainly an enemy (not sure about being the worse) of any revolution or whatever else one sets out to achieve in this world. I do not agree with what you insinuations that our past revolutions failed because of fear.
The nation showed great courage throughout the war of independence but sadly the freedom, liberty and human dignity the nation had hoped awaited them post 18 April 1980 never materialised. Why? Because in our euphoria we failed to see people like Mugabe we were putting forward as the leaders for the corrupt and murderous tyrants they are. Fear had absolutely nothing to do with it, it was simply stupidity and being too lazy to think.
People did overcome their fear of Zanu PF thugs to vote for Tsvangirai and MDC in the last 15 years, Zanu PF dictatorship was punished the people for this with many even losing their very lives. But again the democratic changes the nation was after never materialised because of the breath-taking incompetence of Tsvangirai and the MDC leadership. Again the nation had been naive not to see MDC leaders for the shallow leaders they are.
To suggest that the nation should join in street protest led by the same breathtakingly incompetent MDC leaders on a vague defined platforms shows that you have not learnt anything from the past, you are showing the same laziness and naivety that got us nowhere!
Zimbabwe is only going to get out of this political and economic hell-hole Mugabe has landed us by following a well thought out plan of action and not blundering from pillar to post in the name of fearlessness!
@Zimba
The question here is not one of cause but what to do and more pointedly who should lead the fight. After what he has done in the past there is no doubt that Tsvangirai is only interested in getting back on the gra-vy train. We would not be in this mess if he had implemented the democratic reforms when he had all the time to do so.
The only way out of this mess is for the nation to hold free, fair and democratic elections and what makes you think Tsvangirai can be trust to get the reforms implemented this time.
If there is anything we should have learnt from the last 34 years then it has to be that we have to select our leaders with care and attention. To select the same breathtakingly incompetent leader who has proven beyond all doubt that he is indeed breathtakingly incompetent again shows that you have not learnt this very important historic lesson.
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