“I am Grace Mugabe jr”, says VP Mphoko screamed the
headlines. When Phelekezela Mphoko has plucked out of political obscurity and
appointed second Vice President he was not so naïve as not know he would be
called upon to sing for his supper. Still even in his worst nightmares he never
found himself doing so much grovelling as he is doing right now.
“I want to correct a misconception once and
for all. Myself and Vice President Mnangagwa are just Vice Presidents and must
only be addressed as Honourable but the first lady is as good as the President
and must be addressed as her excellency,” he found himself explaining.
“We must correct these naughty
newspaper writers who claim that I am being belittled when I am being asked to
introduce the First Lady. When I took oath as Vice President I swore to be
loyal to President Mugabe and that does not end with him only but his wife and
family. I am serving at the mercy of the President and his wife and so am bound
to respect her in that order,” said VP Mphoko.
Yes,
and when you are “serving at the mercy” of a merciless tyrant and ever
demanding wife you are in double trouble!
VP
Mphoko has been co-opted into Grace Mugabe’s faction and so has had to drop
everything and attend her factional rallies and not just introduce her but
grovel and belittle himself before her and, worst of all, pretend he is duty
bound to do so. Of course that is nonsense.
We
have the State President who is also Commander-In-Chief of all the armed
services; he holds the highest office in the land. He is assisted by first Vice
President, who holds the second highest position in the land and when the State
President is out of the country he assumes all the powers of State President.
The second Vice President is the third most senior member of government and so
on. This is all enshrined in our constitution.
The
First Lady and the President’s family are not even mention in the constitution.
Grace
is not a cabinet member, an MP or a civil servant; so why state resources such
as two helicopters should be put at her disposal with a VP, 12 cabinet members,
50 MPs and God knows how many thousands of civil servants abandoning their
tasks to attend her Zanu PF party rallies beggars belief! To understand what is
going on here one has to understand that Zimbabwe is a lawless nation ruled by
the whim of a tyrant.
When
you live in a lawless society at the mercy of a tyrant we have to learn to
predict his whim because there are dire consequences for getting it wrong as
former VP Joice Mujuru would readily testify.
In
2004 Joice Mujuru was the beneficiary of Mugabe’s dictatorial whim in the he
unilaterally and constitutional change the Zanu PF constitution to demand that
one of the top four posts in the party must be occupied by a woman. Emmerson
Mnangagwa who was poised to win the vacant position of VP then lost out.
Ten
years later it was Joice Mujuru who was poised to win the VP position in the
2014 elective congress. She was accused of being “divisive and leading a
faction”, all nonsense because all she had done is solicit support from party
member same as everyone else would have done in the circumstance. In a lawless
party like Zanu PF where Mugabe’s whim constitute the law and he and he alone
constitute the judge, jury and executioner; Mujuru was accused, summarily tried
and punished.
A
tyrant’s whim is like the wind one cannot always be sure which direction it is
blowing. Mai Mujuru benefited from the lawlessness in 2004 but come 2014 the
wind suddenly changed direction and she was caught and blown off her perch.
No
one in the party elected Emmerson Mnangagwa or Phelekezela Mphoko into their
respective positions as first and second VP; Mugabe used his dictatorial power
to assume the power to appoint whoever he pleased into those positions. This
exactly what VP Mphoko meant when he said he is “serving at the mercy of the
President and his wife”. And the two are merciless task masters.
Having
accepted Mugabe’s lawlessness in 2004 because it helped her secure the VP
position Joice Mujuru was powerless to complain when the same lawlessness was
being used against her in 2014. Mnangagwa and Mphoko did not see anything wrong
with taking away the voting rights of party members in the selection of the
first and second VP; they got the posts and that is all that mattered, so they
thought.
Grace
Mugabe is going after VP Mnangagwa’s supporters harassing them and accusing
them of factionalism and he is helpless to defend them; he cannot call for an
end to this lawlessness now since he is the beneficiary of the same
lawlessness. Mnangagwa is just a seating duck at the mercy of whatever Grace
chooses to throw at him, at least whilst Mugabe is alive.
As
for VP Mphoko he has to sit next to Grace cheering, applauding and grovelling
knowing fully well that he is being used and when the time comes he too will be
abused and discarded in like fashion.
In
a lawless society like Zimbabwe one has to lick one’s finger every day and read
the direction the political wind blows. It is very dangerous to have the wind
blowing in your face and be the one accused of division and factionalism. But
with the succession race hotting up the ruthless tyrant and his ambitious
wife’s whims are like a whirlwind, it is near impossible to keep one’s back to
buffeting the wind.
No
one in Zanu PF is safe from becoming the next victim of its lawlessness!
4 comments:
@ Mbanje
It is the tragic reality of our nation that absolute power has been exercised by irresponsible men and women, whose blind loyalty to the tyrant has turned them into murderous fanatics. Ac-cording to Didymus Mutasa we have CIOs everywhere and they know everything say and do.
Just before the end of the GNU Mugabe force the useless parliament to approve the building of a $200 million state of the art Spy University!
Zimbabwe is a Police State on par with North Korea and the former East Germany. We probably has more Police and CIOs than we have teachers, nurses and doctors put together.
The CIOs have done a great job keeping Mugabe and Zanu PF in power but even they have failed to stop the economic meltdown. Indeed they have done their bit to encourage the mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness - the three cancers behind the economic meltdown. Their task was never to stop the corruption but rather to extend the Godfather's protection to the corrupt Mafia style. After 35 years the mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness have grown and spread to every sector of the economy. The economy is now in terminal decline and poverty is knocking at everybody's door be they povo, CIO and Zanu PF Chefs; no one is being spared!
Poverty is killing our people, that is a fact that even the CIOs themselves cannot deny. They can throw all the mud, all stones on Mt Inyanga and fire all the bullets in the armoury that will not change the reality on the ground - poverty will not stop killing our people.
Until we face up to the political reality that our political system has failed and we need to change it poverty will rule this land just as fear has ruled the last 35 years!
@ Patrick
Many Police Officers cannot afford to buy boots to go to work in and even Police Commissioner Chihuri is being forced to wear old tight fitting boots so tight he passed out because no one can stand in dead feet throughout Mugabe's long speech! The CIOs are not over paid, that much is obvious; you can tell from their moth ravished suits and their cheap sunglasses - they used to wear designer ones but not anymore!
@ Patrick
The Zimbabwean people have absolutely no excuse this time for supporting MDC's dead-end reforms because they have all the evidence that the reforms will not bring about any meaning democratic changes!
We were very slow off the mark in 1980 and thus allowed Mugabe to establish this Zanu PF dictatorship that has brought nothing but political paralysis and economic ruin. We had the opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the GNU but, once again, we were slow off the mark and failed to realize that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had sold-out.
We now know that Tsvangirai and Mujuru will never deliver the democratic changes the nation is literally dying for; the question is - are we going to be caught napping again and allow this to happen?
Youth and Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao has warned he would use radical measures to counter his critics if they continued to throw spanners in the works.
Zhuwao is nothing but a paper tiger; all the power he has was given to him by his uncle Mugabe whose power in waning like the setting sun in winter; one is better off going indoors and sit by the fire that basking in its feeble rays.
Zhuwao is holding the whole nation to ransom to make a name for himself will the dwindling Zanu PF hardliners who stand to gain from owning these illusive 51% share from the imaginary foreign investors! Foreign investors are no that stupid to knowingly jump in the crocodile infested waters. Zhuwao can afford to be stubborn on this matter he is gainfully employed as Minister, ZESA Board Member, plus all his other business interest; it is the 90% plus out of work who have paid dearly for this stupid law. It is not right or just that they should continue to pay for this, especially given that this policy is being pushed by a regime that imposed itself on the nation.
Mugabe did not win the 2013 elections, he rigged the vote!
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