“Harare – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is promising to
give more land to the country's former freedom fighters, telling those who have
not yet benefitted from his land programme to "indicate" which farms
they prefer, ahead of next year's elections,” reported News24.
“War collaborators, former political detainees and
restrictees are also set to benefit.”
Of course, this is bribe; Mugabe want the war veterans back
in his camp to do his dirty work of intimidating povo into voting for him in
return for a piece of land.
Millions of Zimbabweans today live in abject poverty, with
unemployment a nauseating 95% it obvious that poverty affects everyone,
professionals and labourers, well educated and uneducated, the army of the
urban street vendors as well as their rural peasant counter parts, liberation
war veterans and povo, everybody right across the social and economic divide.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and poverty
is the decades of Mugabe’s incompetent, corrupt and tyrannical rule. The first
two have resulted in the criminal waste of the country’s material and human
resources causing the economic ruin and it is the vote rigging and political
repression that has made it impossible for the nation to remove Zanu PF from
power even when it was self-evident the regime had failed the nation.
Since the late 1990s Mugabe has singled out the war veterans
offering them a Z$50 000 down payment plus more bribes to come if they helped
him impose his de facto one-party cum one-man dictatorship. This is:
1) Cynical
in that Mugabe is the one who has caused the poverty with his misrule and is
now it to enslave the nation. It is now nearly 40 years since independence, why
has the regime failed to give these individuals the land all these years.
Why this drip feed of state
assistance? Many war veterans has long since died in poverty and many are now
too old and/or too poor to put the land to productive use.
2) Obnoxious
in that Mugabe is forcing these desperately poor war veterans to betray the
people by becoming his party thugs, denying povo their freedoms and basic human
rights and dignity – the same values these men and women had their very lives
during the war to fight for.
Like it or not rogue war veterans
like Jabulani Sibanda and Joseph Chinhotimba who have shed innocent blood after
independence in pursuit of Mugabe’s no-regime-change mantra have tarnished
their war hero image for all time!
3) Tragic
Mugabe should be abusing the nation’s human (war veterans) and material (land,
diamonds, etc.) resources to help him retain absolute power and thus help him
extend his corrupt and tyrannical rule.
Of course, all the war veterans who are languishing in
abject poverty with nothing to their name will all put their names forward;
they will be foolish not to as this is the only asset of value they will ever
have. They know that they will be expected to campaign for Mugabe and Zanu PF
in the coming elections if they are to have any hope of being given that piece
of land.
The irony is that helping Mugabe rig the coming elections
will not help the war veterans end their suffering because as long as Zanu PF
remains in power there is no chance of a meaningful economic recovery because
the regime is the root cause of the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption.
There is no doubt that many of the war veterans will be
promised land now but will never get any; how many times has Mugabe promised
them the moon on a silver platter but only to deliver hell-on-earth. The lucky
ones who get the land will lose it at the drop of a hat if they are ever
suspected of supporting the opposition.
The rogue war veterans who have terrorised povo to impose
the Zanu PF dictatorship mat think they are free but where is their freedom,
liberty and human dignity when they too live in poverty and in constant fear of
being label an opposition supporter as if daring to criticised in any way Zanu
P, even when there is reason to do so, is a cardinal sin!
The rogue war veterans helped Mugabe create and retain this corrupt
and tyrannical one-man dictatorship and they must now play a constructive role
and demand the implementation of the democratic reforms to ensure the next
elections are free, fair and credible. This is the only way we are ever going
to break Mugabe and Zanu PF’s strangle hold on power and the cycle of poverty!
5 comments:
It is sad that the overwhelming majority of our political leaders, on both sides of the political divide, have all turned out to be corrupt. President Mugabe has bribed the leaders with the trappings of power and wealth and after that he has done as he pleased.
Joice Mujuru was telling Stephen Sackur on BBC HardTalk of "executive orders" with the same unquestioning finality as that show by the Nazis in Germany. She even had the cheek to say she was forgiving President Mugabe for the corruption and murders and that the nation should move on. Stephen Sackur was right to put her in her place by reminding her that it was not for her to neither forgive the anyone in Zanu PF nor to sweep what happened under the carpet since she was the beneficiary of the corrupt and tyranny. The victims want the truth of what happened to be told and those responsible to face justice.
If Mugabe easily bribed those at the top of the social pyramid, whom one would ordinarily expect to be more forward looking than those at the bottom who care about the here and now, it is hardily surprising that simpletons like Sibanda and Chinhotimba have been puppies in the tyrant’s hands!
“On 15 March, 2017, the Parliament of Zimbabwe conducted National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) Bill public hearings in Plumtree and Marondera. The hearings are part of the National Assembly’s public consultations on the national healing and reconciliation legislation. The countrywide consultations are taking place between 13 & 18 of March 2017,” said Heal Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF masterminded the Gukurahundi massacres as well as all the politically motivated violence and murders that have occurred since independence to establish the de facto one party dictatorship for the party's selfish gains. Zanu PF leaders must be held to account and made to pay the victims of all these crimes. It is a waste of time and money to expect the Zanu PF regime to hold itself to account. Zanu PF members cannot be the judges in cases where they are the accused!
CZ, it is not true that Western media fear you and your Zanu PF cronies. Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa was on BBC HardTalk not so long ago and he too made a complete fool of himself when he tried to explain what happened to the $15 billions in diamond revenue that government admitted had been swindled. No one believe his hen teeth story that the money was lost due to "mispricing"!
“And as naturally expected, she only did her very best to embarrass her foolish self in these interviews, resulting in Steven Sucker, one of those that interviewed her asking: "Joice Mujuru if you are so ignorant of what happens in Zimbabwe, what use are you to the country?" you said.
Of course, Stephen Sackur was right, Joice Mujuru is just a corrupt and incompetent simpleton who was promoted way above her level of competence. One can only speculate of the foolishness of the idiot who promoted her and kept her in his cabinet for 34 years!
When President Mugabe said said Zimbabwe is his, "my Zimbabwe", few people would have guessed that he meant literally. Ever since the country attained her independence he has given out jobs in government, council, industry, army, embassies, parastatals, contracts, etc. and now land with an air of one who is being very generous.
However, he is the type who gives grudgingly so the recipient is left in no doubt they did not earn whatever it is he is giving them and that he will take it all away if he is not pleased with them. We all contributed in the liberation of Zimbabwe but to hear President Mugabe talking one would be forgiven to think he did all the hard work. He does not believe in all the sentimental nonsense of freedoms and basic human rights for all; it is for him to doll out these freedoms and rights as he sees fit!
As a freedom fighter is annoys me that President Mugabe is forcing war veterans to have to earn the Z$50k gratuity payment in the 1990s and now the land. What makes it even worse, is that he is forcing these war veterans to help him impose his dictatorial will on the nation. We risked life and limp to end white colonial oppression and exploitation and now we are being harangued to being the storm troopers of a corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship!
It is a great pity that war veterans have had the great misfortune of having useless leaders like Chenjerai Hunzvi, Jabulani Sibanda, Chris Mutsvangwa, etc. who have always seen themselves as tyrants’ like President Mugabe’s running dogs instead of seeing themselves as human beings with rights, freedoms and self-respect. No self-respecting man or woman would ever accept being ill-treated the Mugabe has ill-treated the war veterans and the rest of the populous!
@ Sandura
I agree with you there! Indeed, whilst he has spent millions of dollars on his health needs he has allowed the country's health system to collapse so that thousands of our people are dying unnecessarily. He has already send hundreds of thousands of our people to an early grave and millions more will follow before the nation ever recovers. Such is President Mugabe's legacy to the nation!
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