(Last Updated on February 12, 2014 by Editor)
ZIMBABWE – The past few weeks have been intriguing and exciting to follow. First the exposure of the state money laundering machine. Secondly the battle for Tsvangirai’s head by his colleagues who accuse him of abusing party funds and failing to deliver the “Mugabe must go” project.
Thirdly, and quite recently, the lady vice’s president attack on whistle-blowers who are exposing corruption within the state.
George Charamba with President Robert Mugabe and Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa at a press conference last year
What baffled me was something quite different and by Zimbabwe’s standards probably normal. Mugabe remained on holiday as shock news after shock news emerged of rampant abuses of power, money, office and privilege. When he came out he addressed a cabinet meeting in which his “dismay” was to come through a cabinet minister not himself.
In normal countries two things would have happened. First the President would have come out guns blazing sacking everyone involved and those who failed to protect public resources and/or those who covered up. Secondly the ordinary citizens would have gone into riot against the actual , perceived and the system that breeds and protects the criminals.
Because these things did not happen a few conclusions are in order. First Zimbabwe is now a de facto one party- life presidency state. Secondly Zimbabwe has no actual effective fully developed and principled political opposition yet.
This is why the political response to the scandals was never captured as an opportunity for drastic action although one could clearly see that this was not simply a competence issue within a parastatal. The President’s spokesperson for example, can be fingered in two collapsing public funded institutions in which he has key positions and both demand him to have facts and figures as well as direct knowledge at his finger tips. In both situations the C.E.O’s are extremely well paid, well above his own boss, well obscenely paid. He still has his job, the same way Cuthbert is still at ZIFA.
Charamba’s explanation is hilariously arrogant. He says they knew all along but if it had come out sooner Zanu PF (a political party) would have been affected in the elections. So nothing was done to normalise it when it was found out the public continued to suffer and pay. And after the election nothing immediate was done. But all this is hogwash. I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass to have these delusions explained meaningfully. Why would a civil servant, or any man or human being put a political party’s interests before those of his country ? What is the priority here the party, the power, or the state ?
Let us take this small fry, Goreraza , for example who is the stepson of the president and how he treats his workers in this age of indeginisation and black impoverishment. In both situations the President is completely mortally innocent whether his senior workers are cashing in wrongly on a public fund or his son is abusing workers at some farm or mine elsewhere.
I am driving you, reader , to understand that the indifference we face is no longer of normal proportions and its offshoots are telling of an impending danger we will find ourselves in if we think we have seen the worst of these animals.
We face very little danger from ageing Mugabe than we are yet to see under a new, young, greedy battalion of economic mercenaries and brutes who will make Cecil John Rhodes and his pioneer column appear like Christ at the hour of universal forgiveness. Be very warned. We must prepare for the fight of our lives. We must look forward to a complete blood bath with the enemy , a fight that will break the spine of this dictatorship and define new boundaries for the use of state power.
What we need to do is to take very bold steps back to the language of street action. There is no boardroom discussion under circumstances of raw and obvious injustice. How many people lost their lives, lost their parents , their children when PSMAS failed to pay out a few hundreds or thousands of dollars ? What explanation does Charamba and Dube give their grieving orphans ? Is this still about protecting Zimbabwe from Tony Blair or Gordon Brown or a ruthless Obama/Cameron regime change agenda. And if we don’t change this regime what will be the reason for living under this slavery and deprivation?
If we take the political parties out of the equation as we must are we not dealing with a rogue little racket of corrupt people who feel invincible, above the law, above the liberational agenda, above morality and above humanity? Does Charamba’s position as a President’s spokesperson not require him to be morally unblemished yet he remains the official voice of the most important office in our land ? What does that say if not simply to pull a middle finger against all conscience, all hopes of a Zimbabwe for all, the liberation and its pretext and everyone who dreamt of the end of Rhodesia as a minority interest club?
Does Mugabe’s health and advanced age not require him to step aside and leave the office vacant until a leader is chosen ? Is it still worth it flying a grandfather figure to a meeting in which he will see through slumbering, farting and drooling. What is the point ? When will this stop ? How shall we send this message to Mugabe that he is no longer alive or relevant to the present or future needs of our country and we are no longer willing to take the moral guilt of handing over a broken state to our children for fear of torture, intimidation, victimisation or death.
We cannot sit and wait twiddling our fingers for Mugabe to die. We must force him out. We must regroup and take to the streets and force this regime out of power. We must have no business negotiating with people who are unwilling to accept that the lives of our people are at stake. We must hunt down those Dube’s and Muchechetere’s into hiding. We have been victims of chaos for too long . It is time for us to go back to the foundations of our liberation struggle and finish off the project by permanently deleting the idea of minority interest politics from our political pysche however such is achieved.
Amai Mujuru has proved to be no more than a slimy harlot with no moral compass coming out to blame newspapers for exposing corruption. She is in no position to take over. Mnangagwa has never shown any human side or remorse since murdering thousands of our relatives in the areas where most of our Ndebele kith and kin have originated from which remains colonially named “Matebeleland” by this Judas government.
Tsvangirai remains far from being an obstacle to the struggle although his style of leadership remains the single most objectionable approach to leading a popular mass movement. Today he has alienated and broken down trust , cohesion and unity in the mechanical composition of the elements of the pro-democracy movement. He has sought to turn this movement into a top down Bolshevik political structure without alternative arguments or approaches in the process doing within his party the very things he ought to be fighting against outside.
Tsvangirai must give way to Tendai Biti to allow us in other political parties to not lose the value of a well meaning political ally. Tsvangirai has dismembered what was desired to be a policy consistent pro-democracy movement. Whilst it is clear that I may have no business discussing the MDC T version of the MDC which was formed of the NCA it would be dishonest for anyone to argue that the aspirations of the original members have changed .Their betrayal at the hands of Tsvangirai has not altered their resolve for better, focused, energetic leadership. Tsvangirai obsession for the luxury of many wives, exit packages and mansions, allegedly funded by money siphoned from party projects has not tampered the quest for a well meaning alternative form of government.
The Constitutional crisis which gave birth to the MDC still remains. The elections are still undemocratic. The corruption is still rife and the institutions which must act are politically toothless to be effective. The new constitution which the MDC T campaigned for alongside Zanu PF is a dead donkey. It cannot be ridden. But we must move on. The only real enemy here is Zanu PF whatever other factions we may have within the pro-democracy movement and we must as a movement come together and overthrow the present regime and effect a regime change.
Regime change, taking Mugabe out of power by force if necessary is now a reality we must face and a necessity we must embrace. Courage Shumba