"The
mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song
still in them," warned Henry David Thoreau.
Thoreau
could well have been talking of Zimbabwe, we have become a lost nation living
in quiet desperation and hundreds of thousands of our people have gone to an
early grave and they have never lived. What a criminal waste of humanity!
Zimbabweans
have had the great misfortune in being caught between a rock, in the form of
the regime, and a hard place, in the form of the opposition to whom the people
have turned expecting help and sound advice. The nation is in this economic and
political mess because President Mugabe and his cronies have ridden roughshod
over the people’s freedoms and human rights and dignity people. Instead of doing
something to end the dictatorship and thus get out of the mess the people have
dared to listen to the corrupt and incompetent politicians like Morgan
Tsvangirai and Vince Musewe who have given the people false hope of getting out
of the mess.
"I
don't want to be pessimistic but choose to believe that the only thing that's
constant is change and we must all embrace it. 2017 should be an eventful year
as the country goes into its seasonal political activity as elections draw
near," said Musewe. See “Change imminent more than before” Bulawayo 24.
This
is just Vince Musewe doing what he has been doing all those last few years;
ignoring the reality and the facts on the ground to give his optimistic
predictions based on his wishful thinking.
After
years of denying that the democratic reforms were important for free, fair and
credible elections, it took the rigged July 2013 elections to Morgan Tsvangirai
and his MDC friends to change their minds. They grudgingly agreed that it was
futile to contest any elections without implementing the reforms first. Sadly,
not even one reform has been implemented to date nor is it likely that any will
be implemented before the next elections.
So
where is the justification for Vince Musewe’s optimistic prediction that change
in coming. In his speech at the Zanu PF Masvingo conference last week,
President Mugabe assured his party member that change was NOT coming!
“We
have had all our opponents prostrated, so they are flattened on the ground.
Havana ruzivo rwekuti voenda kupi, kupi – vakubata apa nepapa. (They are
confused they do not where to go – what to do.)” he boasted.
“Externally,
nyika dzokunze (outside countries), countries that have been hostile to us and
all this time expected that Zanu-PF Government shall listen to them and that
there shall be the regime change, have failed to achieve that.
“There
has not been regime change and there shall not be a regime change. They stand
defeated on that one. We have had I think quite some success in that area.”
President
Mugabe and his Zanu PF party blatantly rigged the July 2013 elections and with
no reforms it is clear they will do the same again in 2018. Whilst the national
economic situation has continued to get worse for everyone else, the party’s economic
fortune has never been better. The party took delivery of 350 new vehicles
worth $10 million, paid $4 million the conference and still had cash to buy
each of the conference delegates a Christmas hamper.
Zanu
PF spent $4 billion, at least, bankrolling its vote rigging schemes in 2013;
the regime will set to spend even more in the 2018 elections. Zanu PF is loaded
as contrast to the opposition parties who are broke. When MDC failed to implement
even one reform during the GNU, the party’s donors were so disappointed they
deserted them in drove!
President
Mugabe’s claim that there will be no regime change is founded on concrete facts
as contrast to Musewe’s mirage of imminent change!
"On
my mind is the question of what should we do differently to cause the results
that we want?” continued the deluded Musewe.
“I
am certainly looking forward to a closer working relationship with politicians
community and civic leaders business leaders and social movements to chart an
economic transformational blue print that we must sell to Zimbabweans so they
can vote in their millions especially the youth. I also intend to launch a
re-invent Zimbabwe campaign where we must imagine more and dream bigger and
differently to change our language and expectations about the future."
For
the umpteenth time Musewe; we are not in this economic and political mess
because we failed to produce “an economic transformational blue print”. We are
in this mess because we have a corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship which has usurped
the people freedoms and democratic rights including the right to a meaningful
vote and even the right to life!
Zimbabwe
is a de facto one-party dictatorship in which President Mugabe has boldly and
ruthlessly imposed his no regime change mantra. He has been aided and abated in
this by none other than the country’s corrupt and incompetent opposition
leaders and analysts whose foolishness has the people chasing shadows whilst regime
drags the nation deeper and deeper into the abyss.
“I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I
wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live
deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like
as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close,
to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...” Wrote Henry
David Thoreau.
The
only real change in Zimbabwe will come from the country holding its first free,
fair and credible elections.
If
we, the people of Zimbabwe, still do not know what must do to ensure we have
free, fair and credible elections; 2 500 years after the Greeks instituted
democracy and after 36 years of disastrous experimentation with autocracy; then
we clearly deserve to continue to suffer and die in hopelessness and despair.
Thoreau’s
“live deep and suck out all the marrow of life” is uplifting and inspiring.
Musewe’s delusionary “imagine more and dream bigger” will only encourage those who
have buried their heads in the sand all these years to ignore the fact that throughout
all these years they have not lived!
5 comments:
True, not every Zimbabwean now living outside Zimbabwe is an economic, political refugee or both. Still a significant number of Zimbabweans are economic and/or political refugees and since it is the Zanu PF regime that is responsible for their suffering it is right that Mugabe and his cronies are castigated for it. The Mugabe regime is corrupt, tyrannical and a vote rigging mafia. Of course anyone who loves justice and freedom will find it impossible to support Zanu PF and its supporters.
Jean, just because the Zanu PF regime has never done anything wrong to you does not mean the regime is not a corrupt, tyrannical and a vote rigging mafia!
Of course, you are free to think for yourself and express your opinions freely but just remember with every freedom comes a duty too. Your freedom of expression does not include freedom to deny the truth and belittle other people's suffering and deaths!
I think you are supporting Nick Mangwana for no better reason than to court controversy and draw attention to yourself. Many people, myself included, counted you amongst the thoughtful writers until now; what a shame that your ego has got the better of you!
It is not everyone who will live "deep and suck out the marrow out of life"; only the courageous few. The rest of us who are afraid of our own shadow will live the life of quiet desperation and, as you correctly pointed out, meet our early grave.
With unemployment a nauseating 90% plus and even something as basic as clean running water now a luxury one would have thought this would have finally probed the masses out of their sloth-like slumber. The country has been chaining out 50 000 plus High School, College and University graduate every year and most of them have gone straight onto the growing mountain of unemployed. None of them have ever protested of the injustice of the regime looting billions of dollars whilst them suffer. They have all resigned themselves to a life of quiet desperation!
What Thoreau called a life of quiet desperation Mugabe, in his Animal Farm cynicism, call it "resilience". The tyrant is off to the Far East for his annual one-month long holiday. He will spend millions of dollars, money that could have been used to buy basic life saving drugs for hundreds of thousands of people. His luxury is more important than their suffering and deaths!
In the long run people always get the government they deserve and Zimbabweans, by being so naive and gullible, certainly deserve this Zanu PF dictatorship!
According to News Day, Chinamasa said there was no “quick solution” in sight to the cash problem, as long and winding queues continued to be the order of the day at most banks.
“The central bank will do its best to bring more bond notes, but bond notes will not solve the cash challenges overnight,” Chinamasa was quoted as saying.
There is a quick solution to Zimbabwe economic meltdown which will address the problems of high unemployment, cash crunch, rampant corruptions, etc. - implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
When Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections he thought he will go on to rig economic recovery too. His $27 billion ZimAsset plan was a lead balloon that never took off, no one was prepared to bankroll the hare-brain scheme.
Zimbabwe needs both local and foreign investors and funders to relaunch the national economy. As long as the country is seen as a lawless nation there will be no financial assistance. What better way to demonstrate that the country now respect the rule of law than holding its first free and fair elections!
A French thinker and historian argue that revolutions are moments of explosive births: the delivery of something growing in the womb of the old regime! In our case the womb is that of Zanu PF! He says revolutions are born out of hope of better future and they strongly believe in transformations and they make immense sacrifices even putting their own lives on the line to create genuine democracy for the betterment majority people.
The revolution to end white colonial oppression and exploitation was a total failure in that it failed to end the oppression and exploitation. We swapped the white oppressors for black ones! After a few decades of Mugabe's corrupt and tyrannical rule Zimbabwe was ripe for a another revolution.
I agree that the Zanu PF dictatorship has been ruthless in silencing its political critics but that was not the main reason the people have not revolted. The real reason why the people have not revolted is that no one has ever convinced them that the revolution will deliver real meaningful change as contrast to replacing one oppressive and corrupt regime with another equally corrupt and oppressive.
"My fellow citizens and countrymen, the Zanu PF government has failed. It has shown that it lacks the commitment to implement programmes that better the generality of our people.
"We agree with the sentiments which we gathered from the interactive discussions we had with the people during our nation-wide tour. Your message was loud and clear, that it's time for Mugabe to leave office," Mujuru said.
So it has taken Mai Mujuru 34 years, a national economy is total ruins and over 30 000 murdered in cold blood for her to finally admit that “the Zanu PF government has failed”! She is only admitting this because she was booted out of the party; when she was still a member she played her part in defending the dictatorship and had her lion’s share of the loot.
She is condemning the regime now for no other reason other than to fool the long suffering people into believing she cares about their suffering just to win their political support. If the people are foolish enough to elect her back into office she will reinstitute the dictatorship in her own image, resume the looting from where she left off and the people’s suffering will continue.
Mai Mujuru and her Zim PF is Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF by another name. Only a fool will believe the lie that she did not condemn the corruption and tyranny in Zanu PF for 34 years because it took 34 years to “open her puppy eyes”!
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