The story of the British planning to invade Zimbabwe should be dismissed as far fetched.
The Sunday Times, citing a leaked National Security Document, said Williamson "ordered military chiefs to draw up plans for intervention by the armed forces in at least five African countries, including Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt."
"This sabre-rattling sacked British Defence Secretary thinks Africa is still a place where British invasions are acceptable ways of conducting international relations? It's an embarrassment to have someone with such imperialistic nostalgia so highly placed,” twittered Nick Mangwana.
I do not know about the other four African countries but I believe many Zimbabweans will be out in the streets to welcome the British soldiers in greater numbers as those who welcomed the 15 November 2017 military coup. The very fact that Zimbabweans should even welcome a coup is a measure of just how desperate the people are for meaningful democratic change.
I, for one, did not support the 15 November 2017 coup because I never believed for a minute that any good could ever come out of the replacement of one dictator with another. What the country needed was the dismantling of the dictatorship, that entailed the implementing of the democratic reforms designed to strip Zanu PF of its carte blanche dictatorial powers, restructuring the country’s institutions and appointing clean people, etc.
However, I would not have joined the mob welcoming the British soldiers but for a more subtle reason. I am sure that the British would have seen to the complete dismantling of the Zanu PF dictatorship. My worry would be how long the new system the British will leave behind last?
I believe the country’s chaotic political system and the economic mess that it has caused have cause serious human suffering but out of all the tragic suffering and deaths the people were learning that they must be masters of their own destiny.
In 1980, when the country attained her independence, the biggest mistake the people of Zimbabwe made was to let Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs deny them their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life. The people should have fought for their freedoms and rights and never give an inch. They did not and have paid dearly for their folly. One hopes that the people were waking up out of the slumber and reclaiming their freedoms and rights.
The British invasion would have helped secured their freedoms and rights but will the people not be tempted to let the regime that takes over when the British leave systematically rob them of their freedoms and rights once again just as happened in 1980? Will the people not be tempted to believe the British will invade the country again and rescue them?
If the people of Zimbabwe had foreseen the sorry state of rot and decay 39 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule has brought many would have refused independence. We are an independent nation now, we cannot turn back the clock, the challenge is for us to make independence work for all Zimbabweans and not just for the sabre-rattling filthy rich ruling elite few.
No single Zimbabwean with half a brain is proud that Zimbabwe has become the basket case of a failed state. Still, by invading the country the British will be sending out the message that the country is not just a failed state but one incapable of self-government beyond the pale. Not even one Zimbabwean with half a brain will accept that characterisation.
I, for one, has no doubt that the country has competent men and women far endowed with common sense and humanity beyond the brain-dead Zanu PF thugs and MDC sell-outs who have ruled the country this far!
4 comments:
There is no denying that 39 years of Zanu PF tyrannical rule has reduce this nation into a basket case banana republic. The British army was deployed in Sierra Leone to help end the chaos in the country. The majority of the people welcomed the British then and I would not be surprised if Zimbabweans did the same.
There is no doubt that Zimbabweans have had many golden opportunities to stop the Zanu PF dictatorship from taking root and to uproot it when it did but have wasted everyone of those opportunities. Many people do not even realise they are the masters of their own destiny and have learnt nothing from the last 39 years of blundering from pillar to post.
We have just had an election last year and many Zimbabweans have failed to decide whether the elections were free, fair and credible even with all the mountain of evidence of blatant vote rigging. ZEC failed to produce some thing as basic as a voters’ roll and many people saw nothing wrong with that! If we are really this shallow, thick and slow then we need help to save ourselves from ourselves!
Pride comes before a fall!
MDC leaders are copying what Zanu PF leaders are doing. How many millions has Mnangagwa wasted on hired luxury jets alone since he took over from Mugabe in the military coup in November 2017? Go on tells us Nick!
MDC councillors were elected by the people, the same cannot be said about the Zanu PF thugs. Mnangagwa and his junta rigged last year's elections, they are illegitimate. Mabvandiripo!
@ Luke Tamborinyoka
“Facts are stubborn. It is trite to state that the story of this country cannot be written without according veneration to the name of Morgan Richard Tsvangirai,” you said.
“For there is no debate he deserves his own space in the national narrative for the significant role he has played in shaping the country’s post-liberation politics.
“Fate is a capricious woman and the whole journey was never planned, as he often said. It was mother fate that often tended to throw him to the deep end.”
You are being sentimental but the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who are languishing in abject poverty and despair because MDC sold-out will not be so sentimental or forgiving. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship and they failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
@ Luke Tamborinyoka
“Facts are stubborn. It is trite to state that the story of this country cannot be written without according veneration to the name of Morgan Richard Tsvangirai,” you said.
“For there is no debate he deserves his own space in the national narrative for the significant role he has played in shaping the country’s post-liberation politics.
“Fate is a capricious woman and the whole journey was never planned, as he often said. It was mother fate that often tended to throw him to the deep end.”
You are being sentimental but the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who are languishing in abject poverty and despair today because MDC sold-out will not be so sentimental or forgiving. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship and they failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
Mugabe bribed they with the trappings of power and the rest is history!
Yes there are hundreds of thousands of MDC supporters who have remained loyal to Tsvangirai and MDC regardless of the party's pathetic performance record. The Zimbabwe electorate is known for being naive and gullible and none more so than MDC supporters. But do not make the mistake of falsifying history and portray Tsvangirai as a democrat, he was a corrupt and incompetent leaders who sold out big time. We are not all blind or sentimental like you!
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