Mbeki will not apologise to Tsvangirai over Khampepe report - not that the upstart deserved one!

Former SA President Thembo Mbeki gives a plausible explanation why he did not want the Khampepe report made public and why he will not apologise for not making the report public. The MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been calling for the apology certainly does not deserve the apology!

President Mbeki explained that the two SA judges were asked to look at the legal framework in Zimbabwe’s election process and not on the contact of the 2002 elections. There were other bodies like South African Parliamentary Observer Mission (SAPOM), constituted and deployed by Parliament without any intervention by the South African government and an essentially civil society 50-member South African Observer Mission (SAOM) from SA alone tasked to observe the elections. They all gave favourable reports contrary to the Khampepe report. The later had also exceeded their brief in an area others had more direct involvement than them.

The SA government had based its position to accept the elections as free and fair on the basis of the reports from all other observer groups rather than Khampepe report.  

The SA government had resisted realising the Khampepe report because it was never meant for public consumption from the start.

On the basis of the reasons above, the former President said he would not apologise.

“We owe and will make no apology to anybody whatsoever both about resisting the publication of the Khampepe report and respecting the determinations made by the SAPOM, the SAOM and the other African observer missions about the 2002 Zimbabwe presidential elections,” he said.

Ever since the release of the Khampepe report after a court ruling compelling the SA government to do so, Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has demanded an apology from SADC and SA, accusing them undermining democracy in Zimbabwe by failing to realise the report.

"When the genocide in Rwanda was taking place, the majority of African leaders remained silent about it. Likewise, when violence flared up in Zimbabwe with innocent civilians being butchered in broad daylight, Sadc countries turned a blind eye,” charged Tsvangirai.

"To an extent, the spirited efforts to hide this report shows that South Africa has wittingly or unwittingly aided the subversion of democratic processes in Zimbabwe, wantonly violating official Sadc guidelines on the conduct of free and fair elections, which they helped to create."

In the face of all the other Election Observers from SA , SADC and AU giving their thumbs up to the 2002 elections it was not unreasonable for President Thembo Mbeki and SADC to go with the finding of the other bodies. It is therefore unreasonable of MDC to ask him to apologise for having made what is a rational decision.

Would making the Khampepe report public back in 2002 have made any difference to Zimbabwe’s politics? It is hard to see how since the main political player, MDC, was well aware of Zanu PF’s political culture of intimidation, rape, vote rigging and even murders. Sure Tsvangirai did not need a report by SA judges to tell him Zanu PF rigged elections.

It is preposterous that Tsvangirai of all people should be the one accusing SADC Heads of State of “wittingly or unwittingly aided the subversion of democratic processes in Zimbabwe” when they are the ones who reminded him again and again to implement the democratic reforms throughout the GNU years and he ignored them. If MDC had implemented the reforms then Mugabe would not have rigged the 2013 elections.

SADC Heads of State said of Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders that they were “enjoying themselves whilst in government and forgetting why they were there”; out of sheer frustration at MDC’s failure to implement even one democratic reform.

It is Tsvangirai who should be apologising to SADC and, most important of all, to the people Zimbabwe for failing to implement even one democratic reform and thus allowed Mugabe to rig the elections and landing the nation in this mess!

It is bad enough that neither Tsvangirai nor any of his MDC colleagues has ever apologised to the people of Zimbabwe for wasting the best chance this nation has ever had in 34 years to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. It is an insult to the nation that Tsvangirai should seek to blame SADC for his and MDC’s breath-taking incompetence.     

To be forewarned is to be forearmed: Mugabe has ruthlessly crashed Mujuru, a cde-in-arms, he will do a lot worse to povo!

Nothing could illustrate more graphically just how hopeless, powerless and helpless the ordinary person is in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe than the political machinations that have resulted in the political downfall of VP Mujuru and her supporters. One minute she is sizing her bum on the throne and the next minute, quick as a flash, she is being dragged by her bum in the gutter! What happened?

VP Mujuru was accused of many things, her principle accuser by Grace Mugabe, and let me say here and now that none of those charges made any sense in the context of Zanu PF. I will go through some of those:

·         She was accused of being lazy: she is VP to a psych phonic tyrant and control freak who has never allowed anyone else chair a cabinet meeting all the many times he is out of the country. Like everyone else in his regime, the poor woman was not allowed to say, do or even touch anything!

·         She was accused of being incompetent: Mugabe wanted her as his deputy precisely because she was not a full-shilling. Was not that the same reason he appointed Simon Muzenda, before her? She has been VP for a decade now and this had not come up until now? Nonsense!

·         She was accused of being corrupt: of course she is corrupt and has been involved in corrupt activities for donkey years. He late husband was a billionaire in his own right and so is she; they did not make their fortune in one or two deals or over the last year but instead had their fingers in many pies, not just trading in illicit diamonds, over the last decades. She and her husband are not the only Zanu PF leaders who are corrupt.

Grace Mugabe has just hosted a $ 5 million wedding for their daughter Bona; Grace owes, by her own admission, the biggest dairy farm in the country; Mugabes live in a palatial mansion worth $ 20 million at least; etc. She does not expect the nation to believe that she made all her fortune from investing her former typist wages wisely.

What is heart-breaking about the ruling elite becoming multimillionaire and billionaires is that it is happening at a time total economic meltdown sending unemployment to soaring heights of 90% plus causing tragic human suffering. 16% or 2 million Zimbabweans are already living in abject poverty and the situation is getting worse with each day nothing is done to end this criminal waste of the nation’s resources through rampant corruption.

·         Mai Mujuru is accused of wanting to be president: well what she is being accused of to be more precise is keeping her current post as VP which would have made her favourite to take over when Mugabe goes. Mnangagwa has been doing his uttermost to muscle in and so too has Grace herself. “Why can I not be president?” she asked in deadly earnest.

This was the cardinal sinner, Mai Mujuru was charged of, swiftly tried in a kangaroo court, found guilty and now, just as swiftly, is being punished. It is the way the whole process has been handled that sends a chill down every thinking Zimbabwean’s spine.

·         When Mugabe accused Mujuru and others of plotting to kill him; that in Zanu PF dirty politics was a Fattah on all the plotters. Mugabe has once again elevated canvasing for political support into plotting to murder, just to stir up the murderous passions of Zanu PF thugs.

Hyenas roll in game dung to mask their scent for better hunting. When the hyena clan want to evict one member they pretend the target is game looking like a hyena to fool them and, of course, they will not be easily fooled. Mugabe has just soaked his political challengers in goat blood and the Zanu PF clan is baying for their blood.

There are a number of things that are worryingly wrong with the way Mai Mujuru and her faction supporters have been dealt with and chief amount them are:

1.    If a position is an elective position, how is one supposed to garner for support if no one is allowed to have followers?

2.    On what basis did Mugabe decide to call Mai Mujuru faction divisive and therefore not acceptable and not do the same with the Mnangagwa faction.

3.       Whatever Mujuru and her supporters had done they were surely entitled to be brought before a properly constituted disciplinary hearing and due process followed giving them a chance to defend themselves of the charges.

4.       The way one faction has carried out a campaign of intimidation to force elected officials belonging to Mujuru factions out of office smacks of the same tactics of intimidation and lawlessness that has become a hallmark of Zimbabwe’s elections.

5.    The way the politburo has been bullied into changing the party’s constitution to facilitate a desire electoral outcome for Mugabe is too symptomatic of what has happened repeatedly in national elections.

Mai Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo, Didymus Mutasa and many, many others are Zanu PF grandees of the party and not just ordinary card carrying members. If they are being treated so contemptuous without any consideration for their freedoms and basic human rights it is little wonder the ordinary Zimbabwean with even more contemptuous.

If Mugabe can rig his own party’s election and cheat his own former comrades in arms there is no question of him not doing even worse to the ordinary Zimbabweans whom he has always treated as subjects, not citizens worthy of the freedoms and human rights other people the world over take for granted.

The ruthlessness with which Mugabe and Mnangagwa have dealt with Mai Mujuru and others shows that they will stop at nothing to get power. If any ordinary Zimbabwean should dare stand in the way he or she will be mercilessly crashed into the dust.

The 34 years of mismanagement and corruption has resulted in total economic meltdown sending unemployment into nauseating heights of 90% plus, 16% or 2 million are already living in abject poverty. The situation it set to get even worse as long as Zanu PF remains in power. Mnangagwa and his faction, who are now set to take over from Mugabe will be more determined than ever to hang on to power at all cost. Mnangagwa will have the crown superglued to his head in a “Until death do us part!” oath.

So the scene is set with the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans in a desperate, desperate bid for political change to alleviate their tragic economic suffering on the one hand. On the other hand a newly crowned ruling elite desperate to maintain the status quo. The Zanu PF regime emerging from the on-going dog-eat-dog fight will be weaker numerically than the old Zanu PF but it will make-up for than in sheer ruthlessness.

In the clash of the titans, the ordinary defenceless Zimbabweans against Zanu PF it must be remembered it a murderous tyrannical regime we are dealing with! Mugabe and Mnangagwa took off the velvet glove hiding the iron fist to crash Mujuru, Gumbo and others; they will now using the fists to silence the populous groaning from the ill effects of the economic meltdown! To be forewarned is to be forearmed!

MDC using Khampepe report as scapegoat just as Zanu PF have used sanctions

The trouble with people with little or nothing to offer is that they easily get carried away; MDC – T is getting carried away with the Khampepe report just as Zanu PF got carried away with the sanction. What we must not allow these narrow minded people to think they are carrying us away with them!

The Zimbabwe economy was already in serious trouble after the two five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes of 1990 to 1995 and 1995 to 2000 failed to produce any meaningful economic recovery. The violent seizure of white owned farms by Mugabe and his cronies that started in 2000 was more like the avalanche that buried the camel. The farm seizures destroyed the agricultural sector, the engine of the Zimbabwe economy, sending the economy into a spiral free fall from which it has never recovered.

The Western countries imposed target sanctions on Mugabe and a few in his inner circle in protest at his regime’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections in 2002 when the economy was already in free fall. Mugabe took the sanctions as God-sent, the regime and its propaganda machine swung into action and for the last 12 have blamed all, and I mean ALL, Zimbabwe’s economic problems on “the illegal sanctions imposed by the British imperialists and the western allies”.

Ever since last year’s rigged election MDC-T led by Tsvangirai, MDC led by Ncube and the break-away MDC-Renewal have all been at sixes and sevens as to what to say about the elections. Tendai Biti is on record denouncing the elections as fraudulent only to revise his statement to say Zanu PF won because they had a better campaign. Everyone knows that Mugabe rigged the elections, what has made it so difficult for MDC leaders to come out and admit it is that they will also have to admit that they failed to implement the reforms necessary to stop Mugabe rigging the vote!

The last release of Khampepe report has been as God-sent scapegoat as sanctions were for Zanu PF.

The Khampepe report concluded that the 2002 Zimbabwe elections were not free and fair. Successive SA governments have refused to make the report public until know. MDC – T led by none other than Tsvangirai himself – no doubt with one eye for another Usan Bolt dash to the Netherland Embassy at the first sign of trouble – have seized on this delay and now blame it for the rigged 2013 elections as if to say if MDC had known Mugabe rigged elections they would have implemented all the reforms. Nonsense!

All the Election Observers to Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections released their reports within days after the presidential run-off elections and their findings were unanimous – the election were not free, fair and credible. Mugabe and Zanu PF accepted that and it was the basis for the GPA to which Tsvangirai as leader of one MDC faction and Arthur Mutambara as the leader of the other faction are the other two parties in the agreement. The GNU was tasked, above all else, to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure the next elections would be free, fair and credible.

So the GPA shows MDC leaders knew, if they did not know already, that Mugabe and Zanu PF will rig the elections again just as they had done in 2008. After 2008, the Khampepe report, would not have added anything new that the world did not know already.

Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the 2013 elections because MDC leaders failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in all their five years in the GNU. Mugabe granted MDC leaders a seat on the gravy train and they promptly forgot about the reforms.

“MDC vadzidza kudya vanyerere!” as one Mugabe crony cynically remarked at the time. (MDC have learnt to enjoy the gravy train good life and not rock the boat!) Ever since Tsvangirai got his $ 4 million Highlands mansion to which he has now superglued himself like a binnacle to a rock he never said or did anything to upset Mugabe for the rest of the GNU. Talking about implementing the reforms would have send Mugabe into volcanic rage!

Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friends believed that even without one reform implemented they would still win the elections and so they confident went ahead disregarding SADC’s advice not to. Within hours of voting starting, MDC leaders and supporters were running around like headless chickens; the vote rigging was massive and blatant. In failing to implement the reforms MDC leaders showed that they are breathtakingly incompetent!

MDC leaders owe the people Zimbabwe and our SADC friends an apology for failing to implement the democratic reforms which allowed Mugabe to rig the 2013 elections landing the nation into this mess.

“SADC turned a blind eye when innocent civilians were being butchered in broad daylight and is therefore to blame for the current economic meltdown in Zimbabwe - the result of an illegitimate regime derived from yet another stolen election in 2013, with the full complicity of SADC, and with South Africa as the chief sponsor of the "free and fair" verdict,” said MDC-T UK and Ireland press statement. They are just following Tsvangirai and MDC-T SA in this.

No amount of propaganda by Mugabe has changed the fact that the Zimbabwe’s economy is in a mess because of mismanagement and corruption and not sanctions. Indeed by burying its head in the sand the regime has allowed these cancerous problems to grow and spread and today they are as big as tennis balls and are killing the economy.

Similarly, no amount of scapegoating by MDC will change the fact that their breath-taking incompetence has costed Zimbabwe the best chance in a generation to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Indeed these MDC leaders and their supporters’ continued barking up the wrong tree if not just annoying it is costing the nation support. The world would like to help Zimbabwe end this Zanu PF dictatorship but first the nation has to demonstrate that it is serious; how can anyone think we are serious if we endorse stupid statements from Tsvangirai blaming others for his own incompetence!  

All Mugabe's powers are gone with the demise of Mujuru faction to counter balance Mnangagwa faction.

The Mujuru faction is finished so what next? That is the billion dollar question that will engage the nation now.

Mugabe's political strength up to now was bases on his ability to play one faction of Zanu PF against the other(s) in which he, with no faction of his own, was then seen as the compromise candidate capable of uniting the warring factions. Sitting on the fence in calm weather is one thing but do so in the tabulate times, arising from his advanced age and ill health and thus the real possibility that he may drop dead any minute, is another matter.

You will never see a monkey sitting on a fence with gale force winds blowing.

Full marks to Mugabe he did pick the winning Mnangagwa faction when push came to shove but he is not naïve not to know that within the new political set up he is now weak and powerless. He and his wife have been trying to bolster their own positions in the new political reality by Mugabe almost desperate attempt to rehabilitate the likes of Didymus Mutasa from the discredited Mujuru factions so Mugabe can have other power base still left in the central committee and politburo to counter the Mnangagwa block.

It is widely believed that it is Grace Mugabe who is pushing had for Edna Madzongwe to be appointed VP to replace Mujuru ahead of Oppah Muchinguri just to take some sting out of the Mnangagwa-Jonathan Moyo-Oppah Muchinguri (3M) axis of power that has now emerged.

Most members from the former PF Zapu grouping have sided with the Mujuru faction but except for one or two like Jabulani Sibanda most have been careful to take no sides. The likes of Simon Khaya Moyo have been careful to follow where Robert Mugabe led them with as much passion as a turkey in a Christmas Dinner planning committee. The ascendency of the 3M axis has made Professor Moyo the most powerful political leader from the Matebeleland region eclipsing Simon Khaya Moyo. The only thing the two share in common is the ambition to be VP and the surname!

The best solution for the nation would for Mugabe to announce he will step down and hand over power to Mnangagwa in say two months, at the most. Mnangagwa will there emerge out of the party congress as the elected new party leader with Muchinguri and Professor J Moyo as his two VPs. It would be good for the party to have some people with some brains for once after all the decades of deadwood VPs!

Mnangagwa will allow Grace to take up a seat in parliament or senate and appoint her into some ministerial positions. He will let the Mugabes keep all their looted including the Blue Roof Palace and whilst Mugabe is still alive his wife will have some space and time to bed in consolidate her position.

The solution Mugabe would want and is stubborn enough to try to impose is for him to still remain leader of the party and government with Edna Madzongwe and Simon Khaya Moyo as his two VPs. The prospect of another year or more of the 3M axis playing second fiddle to yet another Mujuru type brainless busy-body in the form of Edna Madzongwe must be as appealing to them as a dish of dog vomit!

The two biggest problems with Mugabe remaining in power are that it still does not answer the big central problem of succession uncertainty, the root cause of this political crisis in the first place. The centre of political power has definitely shifted in favour of the 3M axis and for Mugabe to shut all three out of the presidium is sheer madness. The 3M will be scrutinising every move Mugabe makes for fear he is up to some last minute dirty trick to shoulder them out of power.

A lot has happened in Zanu PF in these last few months and the party and the nation it has ruled with an iron fist all these decades are yearning for some certainty, end all this uncertainty of a corrupt and tyrannical dotting old man hanging on to power. The nation has reached the point where many people now feel the nation will never move on until Mugabe is dead and buried; they are literally praying for his death!

There is a time for everything, there is a time to stand and fight and a time to turn and run; a wise man knows what is called for! If Mugabe plays hard ball now, when he is weak and feeble, then the 3M may well decide enough is enough; instead of pitching the normal cricket ball they may well fire a cannon ball!

The root of Zimbabwe's lawlessness is that Zanu PF is an illegitimate government!

The Zimbabwe Social Democrats condemn the fragrant disregard of the law and all human decency as shown by Grace Mugabe in secretly recording VP Mujuru in her own home and bedroom. This is happening because there is no rule of law governed by an illegitimate regime.

There is no doubt that last year’s elections were rigged and it is now nearly two years since the day this regime was legally obliged to release the voters roll, the smoking gun to the rigged elections, but still it has not done so. There is conclusive evidence to show Mugabe and Zanu PF rigged the 2002 and 2008 elections.

In a report that the SA government has refuse to realise for the last six year but which the Mail and Guardian has final forced the President Zuma’s regime to handover. High Court Judges Dikgang Moseneke and Sisi Khampepe concluded that Zimbabwe’s 2002 elections were NOT free and fair.

All the foreign election observers of Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections condemn the wanton violence Mugabe and Zanu PF visited upon the people of Zimbabwe and all agreed that the elections were not free and fair.

Last year’s elections were marred by the blatant vote rigging in the form of bussed in voters, the deliberate posting of voters names in different constituency than the voters expected and the refusal by the regime to realise the voters rolls so the world could not uncover the truth, etc. The AU observer mission dwelt on the elections being free of violence as if that was the only requirement for free, fair and credible elections and thus concluded the elections were “reasonably” free. Countries like USA and others condemned the elections and refused to accept the results as a true reflection of the democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe.

We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats are determined to see a full judiciary inquiry is set up as soon as possible to investigate the truth behind Zimbabwe’s rigged 2013 elections.

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s seemingly intractable political and economic problems is the nation’s failure to produce a legitimate government with the electoral mandate to address the nation’s chronic problems like mismanagement and corruption. A legitimate government that can command international respect and donors and would-be investors can trust to uphold the rule of law.

Zimbabwe has been a rogue state shunned and despised by all because it has become a lawless nation ruled by the whims of a dictator and tyrant. We must restore the rule of law in Zimbabwe and the legitimacy of those who govern it; there is nothing that can ever be accomplished until this is done.  

Rigging elections is treason and all those found guilty of committing this heinous crime must and will be punished. This is the message that must be sent out across the land loud and clear from those in the palatial Blue Roof to those in the pole and mud huts in Zimbabwe’s rural backwaters!

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s lawlessness is the illegitimacy of this Zanu PF regime. The only way to restore the rule of law is by restoring the legitimacy of the government which is only done by holding free, fair and credible elections!

Sympathy for Mujuru is the Zimbabwe syndrome of victims of tyranny pining for the tyrants!

The out pouring of sympathy by ordinary Zimbabweans for what Mugabe and Mnangagwa are doing to VP Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo and many others in her faction is totally misplaced in that it fails see her and her supporters as an integral party of the Zanu PF dictatorship that has landed us, the ordinary people, into this hell-hole. We are the victims of the dictatorship who have suffered broken careers, broken limbs, broken lives and many paid the ultimate price of lost lives. Over 30 000 have been murdered by the regime for selfish political gain.

The harassment of Zanu PF provincial chairmen out of office, the firing of Jabulani Sibanda out of the party, suspension of Rugare Gumbo from the party for five years and the coup de grace to be delivered to VP Mujuru at the party congress to all these erstwhile Zanu PF members in nothing but a mosquito bite compared to broken limb or lost we, the ordinary Zimbabweans have suffered. Indeed Mai Mujuru and others are getting a taste of their own medicine and we are the innocent victims.

It is nonsensical and demeaning that we should be moved to tears over Gumbo and Mujuru’s mosquito bites when they have been totally indifferent and irreverent to us whose limbs and lives they broke.

VP Mujuru, for example, was not elected VP to “WAU!” the cabinet meetings with her looks (not that she is so much to look at) but to serve the people and nation from the corruption and oppression that have become the hallmarks of this Zanu PF dictatorship. If anything she has led the corruption from the front!

So those feeling sorry for her political demise are sorry that she not be able to continue with her corruption and looting. The same people have had very little sympathy for the 2 million Zimbabweans now living in abject poverty or the 30 000 the regime has murdered. I have heard of the Stockholm syndrome but this takes the biscuit!

“Stockholm syndrome, or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with them,” according to Wikipedia.

This is something worse than Stockholm syndrome; this is the Zimbabwe syndrome in which the victim of corruption and ruthless oppression pine for the tyrant to remain in power so he/she can inflict even more pain and misery on them.

When Mugabe squandered $5 million on his daughter’s wedding many Zimbabweans were speechless with owe and pride. The country has had no clean running water in all the cities and towns right across the land for decade; but what of it. They were beaming with pride that the tyrant’s daughter was having a wedding befitting that of a Hollywood Superstar at the nation’s expense – a nation that could not afford something as basic as clean running water to millions of its people!

No doubt the day Mugabe dies the nation will go into deep morning lasting a month, at least; just like the Russians did when the tyrant Stalin died.

At the heart of the Zimbabwe syndrome is the people’s sub-zero low self-esteem. Deep down many Zimbabweans have never ever believed that they too would enjoy freedom, liberty, peace and all the human rights the nation was fight for in the war of independence. The people aspired for freedom, etc. and hoped for the best which a totally different matter. They never believed that Mugabe and his fellow nationalists would deliver freedom, liberty, mass prosperity and all the rest and so when indeed they did fail the people were disappointed but not surprised.

Deep down the people expected the liberation war heroes and heroines to betray them and they have never really protested about the betrayal because, deep down, they have never viewed themselves as worthy recipients of the freedom, liberty and all those things the nation had aspired for before independence.

Unless and until the people of Zimbabwe start seeing themselves as full members of the human race, not mere voiceless and helpless subjects of a tyrannical regime, and worthy of all the rights in UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights this nation will never ever get out of this hell-hole.

Mai Mujuru is not worthy our national sympathy, after all she is suffering are minor inconveniences at the hands of the Zanu PF monster she helped create. The real victims here are us whose limbs and lives the monster has broken for the last 34 years. All the nation’s tears and sorrow must be saved for the ordinary Zimbabweans at the coal face of the Zanu PF corruption and brutal repression and none for those who, until now, were part and parcel of the tyranny. 

Goodbye and good riddance to Gumbo and his contrived concern for povo!

The net is closing in on the Mujuru faction of Zanu PF; they are losing ground to the Mnangagwa faction fast. Rugare Gumbo, in a panic over lost ground, is trying to recast the factional war as a threat to the whole nation.

"We don't understand where this is coming from. All this shows that there is no discipline in the party. It's unZanu-PF-like. Zanu-PF does not behave that way," Gumbo said. "The party has been infiltrated and compromised as true Zanu-PF supporters don't behave that way. It's unheard of."

Zanu PF has always been a party of thugs united by their common desire to loot regardless of the consequences of their corruption and looting. Well one of these consequences was that someday there will be little left to loot and that day is upon us! Party members are fighting like wild cats amongst themselves over the little wealth left.

That Rugare Gumba should project this Zanu PF factional warfare as a national one is to be expected given the party’s warped mentality in which selfish Zanu PF party interests have been placed way above national interests. The regime has never had any qualms about riding roughshod over the people’s basic human rights including rigging elections and even murder in pursuit of its ‘no regime change’ mantra. To Zanu PF what was in the party’s interest must necessarily be in the nation’s interest as the party was the nation. And so the reverse is also true that what threatens the party threatens the nation.

Mr Gumbo the demise of you and your fellow Mujuru faction supporters pose no threat to the nation per se; it is great for the nation be getting rid of corrupt and oppressive tyrants, even if it be only one half – still it is a good start. Getting rid of the Zanu PF dictatorship, be it one half or the whole thing, poses a serious threat to the nation but only because state institutions have been corrupted to serve the party and not the nation.

Mugabe has corrupted the country’s security institutions, the Judiciary, etc. so it is hardly surprising that the country is easily become ungovernable as the Zanu PF party factional fighting spills over into these state organs too. There are elements in the Police, for example, with very strong allegiances to the Mujuru faction of the party, they know that the demise of politicians in the faction will sooner or later end their own demise.

It is intolerable that we have a corrupt and highly partisan Army, Police, etc. but to have members in these institution fighting each other is a fearful thing particularly since they all have access to guns and many of them have twitchy fingers!

One can only hope that the rank and file in the Army, Police, etc. will finally realise that the days of Zanu PF dictatorial rule are over and so are the days of partisan Army, Police, etc. Their allegiances from now on are, to the rule of law, to the people and to the country, Zimbabwe; and should have never been to Mugabe and to the party, Zanu PF.

Still, what people like Rugare Gumbo must understand is that Zanu PF was doomed to fail because no nation can ever sustain the party’s looting and wasteful culture. The dog-eat-dog taking place in Zanu PF is of the party’s own making; the people have played no part in it.

Still the people are grateful to see an end to the corrupt, murders and tyrannical repression that the Zanu PF dictatorship has come to represented. The regime dragged us into this political and economic hell-hole and there was no getting out of the hole as long as the regime remains in power. And so the nation is pleased to see the regime crumble and go.

Rugabe Gumbo’s threats of the defeat of the Mujuru faction having catastrophic consequences for the nation will not stop Mugabe and Mnangagwa finish off the faction; the people have no say in that. As far as the nation is concerned the job is only half done; after the Zanu PF the party congress the nation will have to get rid of the last half of the dictatorship.

As for now, good bye and good riddance to you Mister Rugabe Gumbo; save us from all your belated speeches of contrived concern for the long suffering povo!