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Jan 21, 2010
Looking for messiah among men who condemned themselves
Robert Mugabe takes political opponents as enemies.
He insults political opponents, arrests them, jails them and incites the nation against them.
From as far back as the liberation struggle, Mugabe specialised in the social politics of polarization.
In the long-distance education and correspondence courses that reportedly took most of his early life, he came across something called “divide and rule” and pursued it vigorously.
He could afford to be jailed by the colonialists and still come out of prison with a university degree.
Yet today, this contraption of a political dinosaur with a demented mind peppered with senility now takes our children, whom he maliciously and deliberately failed to provide with education such as was provided him by the same colonialists that he eloquently denounces in their language today, trains them to turn against their families and urges them to kill relatives and compatriots.
Every facet of our existence in Zimbabwe today is imbued with malicious and unnecessary polarization because that is what Mugabe wants; it benefits him plenty.
Because of Mugabe, our people cannot live or work together peacefully anymore.
We are identified by who we support and not by what we think or want from our government.
Because of Mugabe, we now have ZANU-PF versus the MDC, yet they are supposed to work together for the nation.
Because of Mugabe, it is now Mugabe versus Morgan Tsvangirai, yet they are supposed to put their heads together to heal the nation.
And there now is Tsvangirai versus Tendai Biti, Emerson Mnangagwa versus Joyce Mujuru, Mujuru versus Oppah Muchinguri, War veterans versus the people, War veterans versus war veterans, MDC versus the NCA, Welshman Ncube versus his party members, Faction versus faction, Even Nolbert Kunonga thinks he has divine purpose to go versus the rest of the Anglicans in our nation.
All the factions are going after the other factions.
Fellow Zimbabweans, my greatest worry, in all this hate-filled, murderous mayhem, is: who really has time to run the country?
Do these politicians care about the state of the nation at all?
Clearly, they are more energetic within their political parties than in government. It appears to me that party politics takes center stage at the expense of running the country.
Our politicians are fighting hard to maintain a foot in the door, for their own self-preservation because most of them have no professions to fall back on should they lose their positions in the party, Parliament or in the Cabinet.
Don’t be fooled; Mugabe introduced factions to protect himself and it is working for him.
ZANU-PF has had factions for years, making Mugabe, the great divider, stupidly appear as if he is a uniting force in his party and the nation.
We have witnessed how ZANU-PF continues to mutate into smaller factions to the extent of shamelessly accommodating mad dreamers like Jonathan Moyo.
This leaves Mugabe standing still while morons run around to clean the shoes on his feet.
Mnangagwa, what the hell do you think you are doing?
Didymus Mutasa appears to be politically late.
There must be a reason why Oppah Muchinguri wants to stay in the limelight despite whatever university education she got in Canada at a time when it was necessary for her not to be available when Josiah Tongogara was snuffed out. Unfortunately, murder has no statute of limitations; Zimbabwe is waiting for the big bang, with or without Muchinguri.
Meanwhile, however, top ZANU-PF people have staked their positions in factions and this has seen almost all departments in the party and government manned by people from opposing factions, stagnating progress.
The government itself is a classic example of this polarization pioneered by Mugabe.
Today, the government is unnecessarily made up of three political parties that agree on nothing but today’s date.
Mugabe has never been a builder but has always been a divider.
Even the inglorious war veterans that he used to destroy our economy have now unsheathed their knives against each other, ready to fight for the dominance of their faction and faction leader. Yet the ultimate patron (whatever that is) of all the war veterans’ factions is Mugabe.
And, Oh God, look at ZINASU!
Composed of young sharp minds, we expected better leadership from them.
After all, they are our future protectors and leaders.
But they too surrender their fresh, independent thinking to politicians, causing factions amongst themselves as they support discredited ideologies older than their great grand-parents.
Factionalism cost Simba Makoni’s Mavambo its umbilical cord to the nation even before word of its impending birth reached the midwives.
Dumiso Dabengwa’s ZAPU, a practically dead party that is being fondled for resuscitation, has sprouted factions that are suspending each other before they even sell the first party card to prospective members.
Meanwhile, the MDC is internally nursing dangerous, high intensity political maneuverings of its own.
Does any one of these parties and party leaders truly represent the Zimbabwean people?
Deny it as they may, factions have definitely emerged within the MDC.
A few weeks ago, the MDC reportedly suspended its entire MDC-UK provincial executive over corruption reports involving an unaccounted for amount of
£57 000.
But the accused executive members countered, telling SWRadioAfrica that there is “serious factionalism within the top echelons of the party”.
They alleged that the MDC is divided into two main factions: one led by party President Morgan Tsvangirai, Vice President Thokozani Khupe and Lovemore Moyo; the other led by party Secretary General Tendai Biti, Treasurer General Roy Bennett and his Deputy Treasurer, Elton Mangoma.
They accused Biti, Bennett and Mangoma of working to ‘dislodge the structures’ that are perceived to be pro-Tsvangirai, “so as to influence decisions in the external structures”.
Bennett denied this, calling it “hogwash”.
They further alleged there is a longstanding grudge within the MDC leadership that started when Lovemore Moyo was elevated to National Chairman.
“This meant Moyo, who had been Deputy Chair, became senior to Biti and was now controlling external assemblies, making the Tsvangirai group strong.
The divisions widened also when another Biti supporter, Lucia Matibenga, was suspended and Teresa Makoni, a Tsvangirai ally (and wife to Tsvangirai’s Chief of Staff, Ian Makone), became the women’s chair. This grudge is not over. It’s a battle for control,” said one member, who, naturally, refused to be named.
Meanwhile, three MDC cabinet ministers, Energy and Power Development minister, Elias Mudzuri, co-Home Affairs Minister, Giles Mutsekwa, and Mines deputy minister, Murisi Zwizwai, are reportedly being probed by their own party for allegedly engaging in corrupt activities.
The MDC is denying the story.
An official in the MDC said: “Currently there are three ministers under probe. We have received several reports on the three and we are investigating to get to the bottom of the matter.”
And, “a person close to” the named ministers is quoted as saying the probe is “a stage-managed inquiry by individuals on the national executive who want to get rid of certain persons, whom they perceive as threats to the succession issue in the party”.
Aaah! Now I understand. Mugabe is not a patient man for nothing; he knows the power of greed and uses it very well.
“The three individuals (under probe) are perceived to be close to the Prime Minister,” the official continued. “This move seems to confirm the succession agenda. The three have for a long time been labeled part of the kitchen cabinet and it now appears that the ‘succession kitchen cabinet’
is going full throttle to obliterate the kitchen cabinet.”
While some versions of the MDC succession story say Mudzuri leads his own faction, Nelson Chamisa, MDC spokesperson, immediately and vehemently denied the story implicating Mudzuri, Mutsekwa and Zwizwai.
But the named ministers appear to be aware of the impending investigations.
The heart of the matter is that Zimbabwe has been abandoned by those we voted for. They are now conniving with those we rejected and we can’t tell the difference between them anymore. They are all using endless, useless talks to keep us hopeful for situations that they know will never come.
I condemn all of them as birds of a feather.
I am not surprised by the likes of Welshman Ncube and Arthur Mutambara and their gang of chancers and shameless electoral thieves but, I must say, what the hell does Tsvangirai think he is doing?
I want to believe Tsvangirai stayed in school long enough to be taught about someone who sold Zimbabwe for a packet of sugar. Tsvangirai’s mandate is to extricate us from that mess, which was worsened by Mugabe, not for him to seek two packets of sugar.
MDC is to hold its next congress next year and knives are being sharpened.
Where does this leave us Zimbabweans?
Are we looking for a messiah among condemned men, condemned only by themselves?
The light we are told is at the end of the tunnel might be nothing but the headlight of an oncoming train!
Our knees and elbows are bleeding from crawling on their behalf while they joyfully ride on our backs and we can’t take it anymore.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and I am mad as hell, pardon my French, but then, that, my compatriots, is the way I don’t want to feel today, Thursday, January 21, 2010.
Someone, please, give me hope; night then.
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