When Pastor Mawarire left Zimbabwe
in the middle of his #ThisFlag street protests many people accused him of giving
them the courage to protest against the injustices in the land but when the confrontation
heated up he deserted the protesters and escaped to America. Some people called
him coward.
It is sad to note that the some of
the Pastor’s critics are still calling him a coward even though he has returned
to Zimbabwe and is now in jail. He has since been charged with "subverting a constitutional government"
and could face 20 years in jail if he is convicted. (Considering Zanu PF blatantly
rigged the 2013 elections and therefore per se cannot be a constitutional
government – but that is another matter).
It must be state here and now
that Pastor Mawarire did not commit any crime, the right to peace protest is a
universally accepted democratic right. True, Zimbabwe is not a democracy, it is
a de facto one-party state, but the more reason for the protest.
If Pastor Mawarire is convicted
and sentenced to a lengthy jail term, maybe that will satisfy his critics. They
will have had their pound of flesh!
Remember the money
lender Shylock in The Merchant of Venice who agrees to loan Antonio some money
but asks for a pound of Antonio's flesh as a
guarantee. When Antonio failed to repay the loan by the agreed day, the money
lender refuses to be repaid thrice the agreed amount insisted on the pound of
flesh! Shylock, the bloodthirsty, vengeful and inflexible!
I think Pastor Mawarire’s pay heed
to Trevor Ncube’s humble, philosophical and introspective comment. “I will not
judge Pastor Evan at all nor call him a coward. I say so because I myself have
no guts to do what he has done & continues to do,” he tweeted.
Just to add to what Trevor Ncube said, what Mawarire
achieved in those few weeks before he left for America, was more than what many
of us will ever do in a life time! He gave hundreds of thousands if not
millions of Zimbabweans hope, courage and a voice to say no to the tyranny of
Zanu PF. This is why the regime is mad at him and would want him locked at
Chikurumbi Prison a.s.a.p. and throw away the key.
Having given us the hope, courage and the voice; it was up
to us to carry the protest forward and not stop until the regime addressed out
concerns. We did not need Mawarire to hold our hands every step of the way!
I would not be surprised that the most vocal of Mawarire’s
critics are in fact the mean- spirited Shylocks of this world. How many of
those calling Mawarire a coward have ever said or done anything critical of the
corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship much less took part in even one
street protest?
Imagine having a flat tyre in a cold rain night. There are
those who will never lift a finger to help and expect others to get out in the
mud and cold and all the dangers of the night to sort out the problem. I think
people like Pastor Mawarire are some of those people who will risk their own
person comfort for the good of all.
As for Pastor Mawarire’s critics, they are the selfish
individuals who, from the comfort of the car, will wind down the window to
scream “Get on with it, I am freezing in here!”
6 comments:
President Mugabe speaks about Morocco’s readmission to the AU after being excluded over its claim of West Sahara territory.
President Mugabe must go; he is really struggling to speak much less say anything coherent.
The country’s failure to stop the excess of President Mugabe, his 37 years stay in power for one thing, is one of the many deplorable failures of our post-independence era! We not only showed lack of foresight of this happening but also lacked the nerve to deal with the problem when it was apparent. Julius Malema is right, we are indeed a nation of cowards!
I wonder how many of Mawarire's tough critics are jealous opposition members who have never forgiven the Pastor for stealing the lime-light last year. The Pastor had more public attention than the opposition has been able to get.
There is no doubt that CIO and all the other Zanu PF regime's apologists having the opening they so desperately needed for attacking Mawarire. They could not really attack him for calling for an end to the economic hardships or arresting corrupt leaders. They can attack him for having chickened away and gone to America. His leaving the battle field has now become the biggest crime; far bigger than the economic crimes of mismanagement and corruption and far worse than Zanu PF's the over 30 000 political murders.
It is disappointing how many ordinary Zimbabweans have been fooled by these Zanu PF stooges and opposition wannabes into believing Pastor Mawarire has done something wrong by going to America. It is total nonsense that only those who have remain in Zimbabwe are the true fighters for change. There are many outside Zimbabwe whose contribution to the fight has been just as important as the contribution by those in the country.
Pastor Mawarire could have made as much contribution to our fight to end this Zanu PF dictatorship when he is in America as he made when he was in Zimbabwe. There are many routes to freedom and not just one! We must be careful not to be fooled by those keen to criticize for their own selfish reason!
@ Jennings
CIO and all the other Zanu PF apologist are stiff-necks; we do not need to worry about "stiffening their necks". What we must do is expose them and their hidden agenda. If they are going to criticize Pastor Mawarire then they must tell us what it is he has done wrong.
It Pastor Mawarire's decision and his alone to go to America and, as far as I know, he did not commit any crime!
Bindura South Constituency – (30,940 as per 2013 voter’s register) – Zanu PF Votes “won” 21,297
Anomalies of identical or almost identical voting numbers at different polling stations in the same/different ward within the same constituency:
Ward 8 – Ruwanga Farm (Tent) – 410 votes
Ward 8 – Burnside Primary – 413 votes
Ward 14 – Musana Primary School – 413 votes
Ward 15 – Nyava Primary – 453 votes
Ward 15 – Nyava Secondary School – 456 votes
In this constituency three (3) seems to be the magic number again, i.e. if numbers were identical, this would easily be identified, so by setting a difference of +1 to +3 the voting numbers look less suspicious and it is harder to find such anomalies.
Constantly keep in mind that 500 to 600 is the maximum number of votes physically possible at each polling station for a 10 to 12 hour voting period. The following number of votes for Zanu PF candidates alone means that there was double voting, ballot stuffing or double counting at constituency levels in these cases:
Ward 7 - Chiwaridza Farm Tent – 813 votes
Ward 12 – Masembura Primary – 779 votes
Two days before polling day, Zanu PF increased the number of polling station from 2 000 to 9 000. The opposition learned of some of these polling station on the day of voting and it was these additional polling stations that had the same number of cast votes.
We know some of these voters who hopped from one polling station to the next, the hooded Zanu PF youths we saw on YouTube. Google “Tendai Biti witnesses vote rigging in Zimbabwe” or go to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjDzqU-itgA
Tendai Biti went on to win in his constituency and the panic he had shown at the sight of the bussed Zanu PF youths disappeared and he accepted the result and the whole process as flawless!
Yes, Zanu PF are lying that they do not rig elections but what makes it worse is that the opposition politicians themselves who pretend not to know this in the hope they will, nonetheless go on and win and get their seat on the gravy train. Only the defeated opposition leaders have complained of vote rigging but no one listened since these losers were warned of the vote rigging but ignored the warning. Beside the call never carry much weight when the few opposition candidates who did win pointedly refuse to back the losers.
“Young people must rally behind the pastor. What is the opposition doing? Waiting to participate in elections in 2018 which have already been rigged. They will be beaten again. Evan Mawarire is at least offering us a different route,” Mapfumo said.
Mukanya is right, opposition parties are participating in the 2018 elections they know would be rigged for the sake of winning the few seats Zanu PF gives away during such elections. They are telling the people they are forming coalitions although they know the coalitions will make no difference to the result.
In the 2013 elections, MDC were warned by SADC, amongst many others, not to contest the elections without implementing the reforms first but they would not listen. Senator David Coltart admitted in his book that a few months before the elections it was evident Zanu PF was rigging the elections and the “obvious” option was to boycott the elections. Still MDC leaders went on to contest the elections out of greed, the Senator admitted.
We are in this economic mess because Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections to stay in power. The country is now in serious economic trouble with millions out of work and living in abject poverty. We cannot afford another rigged election in 2018 and that is why the people must stop following Tsvangirai and the other opposition leaders who want to drag the nation into another election with no reforms in place!
@Brooks
But is the over dependence on one or two leaders not the very essence of our present problem?
We are fighting to end the Mugabe dictatorship and yet are hanging on to the idea that without a strong leader we are totally helpless. We want to remove one dictator and creating another!
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