My four year old nephew, nicknamed Bob (did not say it out
loud because my sister would have been mad at me) got a battery operated toy
car for Christmas. His baby brother got a toy car too but a much cheaper
version. Bob was quick to notice that his baby brother was quite content
playing with the empty toy box and so the little brother ended up with the two
empty toy boxes whilst Bob had the two toy cars.
I nicknamed the four year old Bob because he reminded me of a
certain Bob I know only the latter is the embodiment of evil hence the reason
any parent would be mad to have their child compared to him.
When Zimbabwe attained her independence in 1980 everyone
thought they would enjoy freedom, liberty, justice, human rights and human
dignity the white colonialists had until then denied them. But before the
ordinary people even got to open their independence day gift Robert Mugabe had
stolen from their boxes the most valuable item of all – the right to free, fair
and credible elections.
When the people of Zimbabwe went to cast their vote in 1980
few had any illusions this was about electing leaders they believed are best
able to rule the nation. They knew this was about voting to end the civil war;
Mugabe had it known that if Zanu PF did not win the party will not accept the
results and the civil war would continue.
In 1980 Zimbabweans voted “to end the civil war”, said
Professor Jonathan Moyo in his book Voting for Democracy. He was a man
of the people then but ever since he became a minister he has served the
dictator with all his heart and soul.
As soon as Mugabe got into power in 1980 he has worked
tirelessly to undermine the independence and professionalism of state
institutions like the Police and Judiciary to establish and retain his de facto
one party dictatorship. The systematic denial of the people’s freedoms and
basic rights, including the right to a meaningful democratic vote and even the
right to life itself, has now been institutionalized. Mugabe has legalized his
taken the pearls and everything of value out of our independence box, keeping
them for himself and the ruling elite; whilst the rest of us have to be content
with nothing.
35 years of absolute power have left Mugabe and his cronies
filthy rich; Mugabe is getting as much as $2 billion a year from the looting
and plunder in Marange alone. Meanwhile 35 years of misrule have destroyed the
nation’s economy many companies have closed forcing unemployment to soar to nauseating
heights of 90% plus. The majority of the people now live in abject poverty they
cannot afford even one decent meal a day.
People can see that the Mugabe regime has failed them and in
a healthy democratic country they would have been able to remove the regime and
replace it with one more responsive to their needs and aspirations. Zimbabwe is
not a democracy, Mugabe has ruthlessly imposed the no-regime-change mantra on
the nation and the people have never had the free and democratic vote. Never ever!
We are stuck with Mugabe and his corrupt and tyrannical
dictatorship. As long as he remains in power, as long as there is
no-regime-change, there will be no end to our economic misery.
When the nation attained her independence in 1980 povo got
the present but without the single most valuable thing, the right to a
meaningful vote; Mugabe stole that away beforehand. In the years to follow
Mugabe has stolen one thing after another from the people, so that today he has
absolute political power and unfettered access to the nation’s assets and
resources to loot and plunder as he please. Meanwhile the populous languish in
poverty and despair but have no political muscle to stop the criminal waste.
For how many more years are Zimbabweans going to pretend the
Zimbabwe Mugabe has delivered is the same they dreamt of and wanted?
Zimbabweans have yet to realize that it is not in the nature
of tyrants to give up power. If the people want their freedom, liberty, justice
and human rights independence bestowed on them then they must demand the
restoration of their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the
country. Without the free vote nothing can be done to end the misrule and
criminal waste of the nation’s human and material resources.
It is one thing for a two year old boy to fail to distinguish
the true value of a toy from that of the empty box; it is most disconcerting
that a whole nation fails to see the critical importance of the right to a
meaningful vote in securing one’s independence, humanity and even the right to
life itself.
@ Patrick
ReplyDeleteI have just been watching Shaka Zulu, the 1986 Epic with Henry Cele as Shaka. In one of the scenes the white doctor nurses an African lady whom the blacks thought was died back to life. The white adventurer leading the expedition encouraged the white doctor to keep up the lie that he had raised her from the dead. The white doctor then remarked how a ruthless individual with no morals could easily turn himself into a God in this land!
Well many ruthless individuals with no morals, like Robert Mugabe, have indeed turned themselves into Gods!
The way even very senior leaders like Simon Muzenda, the late Solomon Mujuru, Joice Mu-juru, Mnangagwa, Dabengwa, Makoni, Tsvangirai, Biti, everyone of them all grovelled to President Mugabe even when the tyrant was doing something wrong showed they all accept-ed him as some demigod. If the senior leaders grovel up to the tyrant what more of the ordinary villager from the rural back waters!
You talking of povo losing their right to a meaningful vote, even the Zanu PF bigwigs lost their vote too. There is not one single occasion anyone in Zanu PF can say they exercised their free and democratic vote.
Last year President Mugabe denied the party member vote in his usual ruthless way of disre-garding the law and, surprise, surprise no one in the party thought much of it. After 35 years of doing as he pleased, President Mugabe is still at it even with all the evidence of his failures and murders and frailty.
Mugabe has definitely made himself into a demigod and the greatest devotees are those men and women holding high offices in the land. If this nation is serious about changing this nation then we must not only get rid of Mugabe but the hundreds if not thousands of leaders like him.
The tragedy is that Zanu PF Chefs who are groveling to Mugabe they not only expect the rest of us to grovel not just to their demigod Mugabe too, but they expect us to grovel to them too. They expect us to worship them for worshiping Mugabe! They have given up their basic human freedoms and rights including the right to think for themselves and they demand of us to do the same.
DeleteOn Monday Mugabe hosted a lavish Christmas party for the nation's political leaders. Many of them are feeling the ill effects of the economic meltdown big time; many like Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri have debtors on their tail. Of course they all know Mugabe and a few others are drowning in money and riches, Mugabe was treating them before he disappear to the far east multi-million annual holiday.
Many of them had to wear old suits eaten by moths to the party because they cannot afford any-thing else to eat and drink costing more than what they will have for their whole extended family for a month. But having eaten the expensive food Mugabe knew he was buying their silence. "Vhara muromo!" We are talking of people here who think with the stomach!
The biggest mistake people have made is to expect people like Mujuru, Mnangagwa, Tsvangirai, etc. to champion freedom and human rights. Who can they champion something they neither understand nor appreciate?
People like Mugabe, Mujuru, Mnangagwa, Tsvangirai and the other leaders will talk about democracy and free debate but the minute they are in power they expect everyone to stick to the traditional believe where elders and leaders are not to be questioned, out of respect. They are just hiding behind their little finger because respect for the truth tramps all other considerations.
DeleteKilling debate in the name of unity is nonsense because it is through open and honest debate that the truth is found and to be used round a lie for unity's sake is stupid!
Throughout history tyrants have always had excuses for imposing their will on others; President Mugabe’s excuse is a classical one, he denying the people the vote because they will make a big mistake and elect someone who is not competent. The irony is that he has already proven to be corrupt, incompetent and a murderous tyrant himself.
We must demand our democratic right to a meaningful say in who rules the nation for precisely that reason – having elected a corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant we should be able to remove the tyrant and not be stuck with him for 35 ruinous years as has happened here.
I have not learnt anything of substance from all this rumbling other than VP Mphoko does not have a clue what he talking about.
ReplyDeleteHe, like other Zanu PF idiots confuses unity with totalitarian domination born out of intoler-ance of others and their right to hold a different point of view. So after signing the unity ac-cord people like Mphoko did not see anything wrong Zanu PF with rigging elections and us-ing wanton violence against the opposition, after all the opposition were not really "our peo-ple" since the unity accord does not recognize anyone else outside that accord.
Zimbabwe is in this mess because it had the misfortune of having corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical leaders like Mugabe, Mujuru, Muzenda, Mnangagwa, Mphoko, etc. who cared about power and looted wealth than they cared about the people!
What a shallow analysis, typical of someone who has no clue what the nation's priorities are. The nation is looking for competent and visionary leaders who will take the country out of this mess. Only an idiot would consider Grace Mugabe or Joice Mujuru competent and visionary leaders.
ReplyDeleteGrace is getting credit for her charitable work and the idiot fails to point out that she is paying for it from the $ 2 billion her husband is looting from Marange and Chiadzwa! If the bounty from Marange was used for the good of the nation, it should be our ticket out of this hell. Instead the blessing has been turned into a curse because Zanu PF is using the looted wealth to rig elections. And some idiot even sees that as a plus for the looters! Whatever Grace is giving away at these rallies is but a fraction of what her husband is looting!
Yes Mugabe would sell his wife to some voters on the grounds that she is a woman but that is hardly surprising given how malleable some people are. After 35 years of corrupt and incompetent leadership one would expect the people to get their priorities right; the nation is dying for good leaders regardless of their gender, tribe, coulor, etc.
@ Eddie Cross
ReplyDelete“During the GNU, the MDC demanded a full professional audit of the Civil Service, convinced that it was loaded with political appointees and ghost workers. Zanu PF resisted but eventually conceded and allowed a partial audit – but excluded the Armed Forces, the Police and the Secret Service. We found perhaps 10 per cent of the regular Civil Service were people without real jobs, political ap-pointees or simply ghost workers who did not exist. Even so nothing was ever done to down size,” wrote Eddies Cross.
You were tasked to implement a raft of democratic reforms during the GNU and you failed to get even one reform implemented. If you had focused on the reforms first then other things like this audit of the civil service then you would have got a full audit and have the findings implemented too!
I have to say, you and your MDC friends are one of the greatest curse to befall our country is the last ten years. How we elected village idiots like you, I will never know!
"I think you must read the script well, people can change and as far as I'm concerned, i don’t think Mai Mujuru was ever a bad person but was working under a bad person & political sys-tem hence she has come out now to tell the whole of Zimbabwe the truth and try to lead us away from the dictators of this nation called Zimbabwe," said Obert Mundevere Ncube.
ReplyDeleteSure and for 34 years she did not realize she was being led by a dictator and so she did noth-ing to end the dictatorship. Throughout those 34 years she benefited from the vote rigging and thuggery that helped Zanu PF remain in power and she took her share of the looted na-tional treasures.
Ever since her booting out of Zanu PF, Mai Mujuru has done what only she knows best – sit and do nothing. So our friend Ncube is clearly hallucinating talking “she has come out now to tell the whole of Zimbabwe the truth”! She and some of her supporters like Mutasa would have told the truth about how Mugabe rigged elections; they have said nothing because they are too dumb to pick up what was happening under their own noses!
People like Ncube should go and help skin the goat and not waste the nation’s time talking of matters they clearly have no clue!