Vince Musewe, you used to write wonderful pieces guided by
one thing and one thing only the truth but ever since you took unto yourself
the task of midwife to this Tsvangirai –Mujuru coalition you have written one
rubbish article after another. Your latest article Zimbabweans not yet
hungry enough for total freedom is no different. The choking
chlorine gas fog that have been whirling in your head like Jupiter’s “red-eye” storm
ever since you took up the midwife duties is making you see what is not there,
come up with confused conclusions or worse.
“It was Thomas Jefferson who said that the tree of liberty
must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots,” you started
Vince. What you have failed to understand is that Thomas Jefferson was sure America
had planted a tree of liberty; we have planted a tree of tyranny and you want
more innocent Zimbabwean blood to be shed to water corruption and tyranny.
Of course Zimbabweans are hungry for freedom, liberty,
justice, good governance, human rights and dignity. Indeed, they are starving
to death of hunger for freedom because their never ever tasted freedom let
alone eaten their fill.
You want the people to join Tsvangirai’s street protest,
risking life and limp; that will be “blood of patriots” and proof they are “hungry
for total freedom”. What you forget is the people did risked all in the fight
to end white colonial rule and thousands paid the ultimate price with their
very lives – a historic fact many, especially Mugabe and his cronies, have
actively down played.
By the time the nation attained her independence 18 April
1980 the people found much to their surprise and disgust that their right to
free, fair and credible elections had been removed by Mugabe and his cronies.
Over the years the tyrant has striped the people more and more their freedoms
and rights including the right to life!
In his 35 years of tyrannical rule Mugabe has already
murdered over 30 000 Zimbabweans whose only crime was that they dared to demand
their freedoms and human rights including the right to a meaningful vote.
In 2008 the people of Zimbabwe mounted a concerted effort to
end this Mugabe dictatorship by once again risking all to elect Tsvangirai and
his MDC. MDC promised to bring democratic change. The price of getting MDC into
the GNU was homes and livelihood destroyed, millions harassed, hundreds of thousands
beaten and/or raped and over 500 murdered.
But once again the people were in for yet another
disappointed; GNU failed to deliver free, fair and credible elections. This
time it was Tsvangirai and his cronies who conspired to betrayed them. Mugabe
bribed the MDC leaders the gravy train lifestyles, plus the $4 million
Highlands Mansion for Tsvangirai in return for GNU ignoring SADC calls to
implement the GPA reforms. Tsvangirai and friends accepted the bribes and not
even one reform were implemented. Not one!
Whilst it is true that for the millions of ordinary
Zimbabweans their lives are a hell lot worse now than it was under Ian Smith
and so they will be even hungrier for freedom and for economic security and a
share of the nation’s bounty. But after years of risking all for freedom and
human rights and being betrayed by the very people who promised them freedom
and change; it is wise to ignore those for more patriot blood to water the tree
of liberty and check what tree the nation has planted.
We do not have a tree of liberty but rather a tree of
tyranny. If there is to be any patriot blood to be shed then is must be in
making sure we uproot the Zanu PF dictatorship tree and replace it with the
democratic tree. The Zanu PF dictatorship is not confined to just elected
public officials, the dictatorship has far reaching rhizomes in every state or
public institution or façade of human activity forcing them all to abandon their
set public good to serve the regime’s no-regime-change agenda at all cost.
The 2008 GPA has already established raft of democratic
reforms that must be implemented to destroy the dictatorship. We do not need to
reinvent the wheel, we demand the implementation of the 2008 GPA democratic
reforms; this is the only fight worth the candle!
“Some of our brothers and sisters in the
Diaspora continue to protest and demand political reforms from a regime which
knows that it will be suicidal to do so,” argued Musewe. “Their calls for
comprehensive reforms will never be heeded because ZANU (PF) knows that it is
hugely unpopular especially amongst those who had to make the choice to leave
the country. Allowing them to vote, for example, would sound their political
death knell and they will do whatever it takes to make sure that Zimbabweans in
the Diaspora do not vote. That is the truth.”
There are Zimbabweans inside the country and outside who
agree and differ on this issue like on many others issues. The false claim that
no Zimbabwean in the country wants the reforms implemented is, of course,
nonsense. The innuendo that we all defer to Zimbabweans inside the country because
they know best must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserves.
The country is in fact in this mess because of the twisted
Mugabe logic claiming that only those with liberation war credentials were
competent to rule. So of the generation old enough to fight, all of the competent
individuals went to war. And all the other generations have failed to produce
anyone remotely competent. There is no doubt that it was Mugabe himself who coerced
security sector chiefs to publicly say they would not salute anyone with no war
credentials – a treasonous statement.
Now that it is clear Grace Mugabe is gunning for the
presidency Mugabe is telling the war vets and security sector top brass alike
that they are not special and must stop flaunting their liberation war credentials.
So Grace has now acquired the mental intellect denied everyone else of her
generation! This is no ordinary “bedroom coup”; there must be something more magical
than Aladdin’s flying carpet about that bed!
To come back to the subject of reforms; our Mr Know-Best
Musewe tells we should not demand the implementation of the GPA reforms because
implementing the reforms will be “suicidal” for Mugabe. Good Lord, grant me
patience!
So we must demand the implementation of the electoral laws (Tsvangirai’s
National Electoral Reform Agenda) which will change nothing and keep the Mugabe
dictatorship intact. We are to condemn millions of our people whom Mugabe has cheated
and betrayed these last 35 years already by denying them their freedoms, human
rights, dreams and hopes, to suffer and die in dumb anguish forever since implementing
the GPA reforms will always be “suicidal” for Mugabe or his future successors.
As for the ever worsening economic meltdown we are truly stuck with it because
there will be no economic recovery without political reform.
Of course Mugabe would try his ruthless best and use every
dirty trick there is to avoid implementing the 2008 GPA reforms but is to be
expected of a tyrant. It was infinitely easier to implement the reforms during
the GNU years because Mugabe had tied his own hands then by signing the GPA. Still
the worsen economic situation and the dog-eat-dog situation in his own party has
weaken Mugabe’s grip on power it is self-evident regime change is coming
regardless of what Mugabe wants it or not!
Musewe wants the nation to forget demanding the tough 2008
GPA reforms in favour electoral law, NERA, knowing fully well whether or not
they implementation will have no effect in stopping Zanu PF rigging the
elections. Tsvangirai will take part in the next elections even if not even one
electoral reform in implemented.
The only logical reason Tsvangirai continues to talk about
NERA is having accepted that the last elections were rigged he has to be seen
to be addressing that point. Besides NERA has now provided one issue round
which to rally together other opposition.
This Mugabe is already failing to pay civil servant wages, Finance
Minister Chinamasa’s kiya-kiya is not the way to run a business let alone a
nation. Every soon Mugabe will be forced to start digging deep into what he and
his cronies have been looting to prevent economic collapse.
In 2012 Partnership Africa Canada said Mugabe pocketed $2
billion from his share of the looting and plunder going on in Marange. The
national budget from “kiya-kiya” Minister Chinamasa was $3.8 billion so Mugabe’s
loot will pay 53% of the national budget. Even Mugabe will know this is not
sustainable.
Musewe is pinning his hopes on his brainchild, the MDC-T and
People First coalition, winning the next elections regardless all the inbuilt
political defects in Mugabe’s favour. Musewe’s greatest selling point is that
people should support his project for the sake of stopping Mugabe getting back
into power and forget about dismantling the dictatorship, leave that for
another day.
As long as the State President; whoever it happen to be, be
it Mugabe, his wife, Mujuru or whoever; has dictatorial powers to control state
institutions and rig elections as is the case now, he/she will never want to
give up those power. Whoever wins the next elections will be more interested in
consolidating their own power by taking advantage of the existing dictatorial
powers; they will not want to dilute those dictatorial powers by implementing
the 2008 GPA reforms.
The people of Zimbabwe lost the golden opportunity of ending
the Zanu PF dictatorship by implementing the GPA reforms during the GNU. We
have another chance now with Mugabe being squeezed hard on the economic front
by the worsening economic situation and on the political front from Zanu PF
imploding. We can pile on the pressure by demanding the implementation of the
GPA reforms.
Even if Mugabe was to rest implement the GPA reforms and was
to go on and rig the next elections the economic pressure on him will only be
even worse then because by then even his looting from Marange will no longer be
enough to pay for everything! And if we maintain our demand for the implementation
of all GPA reforms, it will not be long for him or his successor realise there
is no way out.
We have been cheated of our freedom and our rights for the
last 35 years. Last time is was Tsvangirai et al who sold-out to deny us our
rights after we elected them into power on the promise they will delivery
change. Musewe wants us to elect the same corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai,
Mujuru and their respective party into power in the hope that once in power
they will give up the dictatorial powers still inherent in the system out of
pity and love of us their follow men and implement all the GPA reforms! Believe
that and you too, like Musewe, must have the Jupiter red-eye storm whirling in
your empty head!
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