Sunday 24 July 2016

If Mugabe is not accountable to even the all powerful rogue war veterans then who! By Patrick Guramatunhu


The statement by rogue war veterans, madzakutsaku aMugabe (for those not familiar with the name dzakutsaku, this is derogative name given to Smith rogue black soldiers who would not fight the freedom fighters but terrorized unarmed civilians instead, sadly history is repeating itself with these soiling the good name of real committed liberation war freedom fighters), calling on President Mugabe to resign raises an very important political point – Who in Zimbabwe today can vote President Mugabe out office? These war veterans, dzakutsaku or not, clearly thought that had the power and authority to do so given their elevated position in the nation and so they did.

 

When President Mugabe realized that his popularity with the electorate was sinking fast in the late 1990s he instituted his no-regime-change mantra whose sole purpose was to deny the masses their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. He corrupted the war veterans in the security sector and those who had been disbanded to abandon their liberation war commitment to freedom, liberty and human rights to become the principal enforcers of his tyrannical mantra. He turned respected liberation war heroes and heroines into the despised dzakutsaku.

 

President Mugabe knew the people would resist his authoritarian rule and so he granted carte blanche powers to the rogue war veterans to harass, beat, rape and even kill opposition politicians, their supporters and innocent Zimbabweans alike; beating the nation into submission. After decades of exercising this carte blanche power and successfully keeping President Mugabe and his cronies in power by denying the masses a meaningful vote the rogue war veterans claimed credit for themselves since those in power were not doing it.

 

The rogue war veterans made it clear early this year that they “were the stockholders of Zanu PF and Zimbabwe” and everyone else including the President himself was a “stakeholder who can come and go”.

 

“The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did,” wrote Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart.

 

Our dzakutsaku lizards have effectively denied the masses the vote and felt it was now them who had the veto on who ruled the nation; when they reminded all that they were the stockholder of the party and the country, this was just the lizard praising himself! When they released the statement last week demanding that President Mugabe must resign, it was them exercising their veto!

 

If we put to one side for one moment the inherent injustice in President Mugabe’s no-regime-change mantra and the foolishness of madzakutsaku aMugabe one is left with the intriguing question; If the ordinary Zimbabweans have no vote and the rogue war veterans’ veto can itself be vetoed then who is(are) the individual(s) with the super-veto?

 

Everyone knows that President Mugabe has ruled the party and country with an iron fist, his word is law. His follow leaders in the party and in government have been reduced to cowing subservient minions, “vakadzi vaMugabe” as Margaret Dongo so aptly put it. So the one person wielding this super veto, the mother of all vetoes is President Mugabe.

 

"I watched ZBCtv (on Friday and learnt) that they made a statement, but I haven't read it. If they said the President must resign, then that is nonsensical. If they are true war veterans, the President is their Commander-in-Chief and they must be loyal and committed,” commented VP Mnangagwa.

"I don't think those who say such things are loyal or genuine war veterans. They must be loyal."

Is this VP Mnangagwa being his usual self of deliberately coy and obtuse? This is a very serious matter and demands to be treated as such. If President Mugabe is not accountable to the ordinary people, to his subservient harem and now we learn that he is also not accountable to the rogue war veterans too. He is accountable to absolutely no one but himself this is clearly a very dangerous scenario no nation in its right mind can tolerate especially when we have hen-pecked president whose wife’s insatiable greed for power and wealth knows no limit.

The prospect of President Mugabe appointing his wife to succeed him is real and I shudder to think what new depths of despair and depravity she will take us!

If VP Mnangagwa had any sense at all then he must surely see dangerous situation the country is in right now because President Mugabe has enjoyed absolute power all these donkey years. The situation is now so dangerous that there is no excuse whatsoever for allowing this situation to continue even for one more day; be it out of ignorance, selfish greed, political expedience, subservient nature gone nuts somukadzi mukuru waMugabe (as the most senior member in the Mugabe harem).

All those who thought that removing Mugabe now and replacing him with Mnangagwa was a strategic move must now review their position. If today Mnangagwa is asking loyalty to tramp over the urgent need to end this destructive culture of absolutism out of feigned loyalty to President Mugabe will he not do so again with ruthless resolve tomorrow to consolidate his own hold on power!

We must soldier on and demand the full implementation of the democratic reforms designed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. The rogue war veterans’ demand for President Mugabe to resign so they can appoint another tyrant is just a clever way of preserving the dictatorship by giving the illusion of change. It is not a half-way pit-stop some people think; neither Mnangagwa nor his rogue war veterans backers will ever concede to give up their veto if they ever got into power.

7 comments:

  1. "One voice that keeps coming into my eardrums with irritating shrill is the demand by the hashtag generation for two million jobs promised by Zanu PF in 2013 polls.

    "Even the MDCs have joined in demanding those jobs as if Zanu PF owes them a living. You want two million jobs from a minus vote input? Who did you vote for? And why should a Zanu PF government govern to your benefit?" Manheru wrote.
    The implications of Manheru's statement is intriguing; is he tacitly admitting that Zanu PF rigged the elections because with unemployment sitting at 90% plus and the party having failed to create even one job because none of the unemployed voted for Zanu PF then the party must has rigged the vote. In other words none of the 62% of the voters Zanu PF claims voted for the party are unemployed because they are party of the 10% employed and the rest are fictitious voters who do not need a job!

    Of course Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections thanks to the incompetence of MDC who failed to im-plement even one democratic reform and thus made vote rigging such an easy thing to do.

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  2. GOVERNMENT says 70 percent of pupils who sit for Ordinary Level examinations fail to garner five subjects, including Mathematics, Science and English making it necessary to adopt a skills-based training system as a way of creating employment for them.
    This is a criminal waste of human resources. If it should be proven, I believe it can be proven, that Zanu PF has been rigging elections to stay in power and think all those who have had their lives destroyed by the regime one way or the other will be entitled to sue the regime’s leaders and demand compensation! If individuals cannot sue at least a class action case must be carried out.

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  3. The very fact that so many former freedom fighters have readily teamed up with Mugabe to establish and retain this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for all these last 36 years and many still continue to support the regime regardless of the regime's corrupt and murderous records speaks volumes of what kind of nation we are. It is clear that our sense of right and wrong has never really developed, it was choked like the seed that fall amongst the thorns.

    Before independence there is no doubt that leaders like Mugabe, Mnangagwa, Mutsvangwa, etc all believed in freedom, liberty, justice and their flame to end the injustice of white colonial oppression and exploitation burnt in the hearts. But as independence loomed and the powerful position they could command in the new country and the influence and wealth and comforts they will get became clear, the primeval greed choked to idealism of seeking to do what is right. The flame to fight injustice was extinguished.

    Mugabe and his cronies have continued to looted even to the point of looting billions of dollars whilst hundreds of children die for lack of something as basic as an incubator. The tyrant and his cronies have shed the blood of over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain this corrupt and tyrannical regime and there is no outward sign that it is bothering them. Their conscience is not even troubled because they have no conscience!

    "If today Mnangagwa is asking loyalty to tramp over the urgent need to end this destructive culture of absolutism out of feigned loyalty to President Mugabe will he not do so again with ruthless resolve tomorrow to consolidate his own hold on power," you said. Of course he would, like I said the man has no conscience or sense of right and wrong and all he cares about is his feeding his insatiable greed power and wealth!

    There is a simple reason why some Zimbabweans have welcomed these dzakutsaku war veterans without a moment's hesitation one would expect from some one who remembers what these thugs have been doing only a few months ago - they have forgotten and do not care. This is typical of an electorate do are desperate for a solution to their problem, so desperate they will not think of the consequences down the road. They are so desperate to have Mugabe out they do not care whether replacing him Mnangagwa only be remove one tyrant to get another!

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  4. After decades of doing as they pleased and making sure that Zanu PF remained in power regardless what the rest of the people thought, these rogue war veterans thought they were the king-makers in Zimbabwe. What they did not realize was that they were a law unto themselves on condition that they remained doggedly loyal to President Mugabe who granted them all they power they had. They minute they declared themselves "the stockholders of Zanu PF and Zimbabwe" the tyrant did not waste time in reminding the war veterans he is boss and they are the dust under his feet!

    President Mugabe was wrong in granting these rogue war veterans super duper Mafia powers to terrorize the masses for his selfish gain. Now that the Mafia thugs are openly defying him, he has no one but himself to blame for it.
    The rogue war veterans should have never allowed themselves to be used as Mugabe's thugs to impose the tyrant on the nation. There is restorative justice in his turning on them and force them to accept his continued corrupt and tyrannical rule using the same dirty tactics they had used to subdue the masses!

    Those who live by the sword will die by the sword! Both Mugabe and his rogue war veterans have lived by the sword and now the scene is set for them to kill each other with the sword! "Kurera ngwa, mangwana inofuma yokuruma!" as they say in Shona!

    I am really disappointed by the Zimbabweans who have embraced the rogue war veterans for demanding that President Mugabe must resign not making the demand per se but for being so naïve and gullible. Both President Mugabe and the war veterans are the enemies of democracy and good governance just because the two are at each other's throat now does not make the rogue war veterans our bosom buddies.
    The war veterans' demand for Mugabe to go must be seen is its context, it is the rogue war veterans exercising their veto to decide who rules Zimbabwe. We cannot accept the outcome without necessarily accepting the process because the two cannot be separated. If the rogue war veterans succeed in forcing Mugabe out of office indeed even if the tyrant is forced out by other factors like the worsen economic meltdown, these rogue will see it as conclusive proof that they are indeed the all-powerful stockholders of Zanu PF and Zimbabwe. Of course they will not want to give up their new found powers.



    All the nincompoops who have been praising the rogue war veterans as the new found liberation heroes and heroines who are ending Mugabe's reign of terror will have no leg to stand on in demanding that the rogues give up their veto which they must do for free, fair and credible elections.

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  5. It is tragic that people like President Mugabe, VP Mnangagwa and the other leaders who have played their part in creating this corrupt and tyrannical regime, still see nothing wrong with what they have done. Many of them have shed innocent blood to create the satanic regime and yet they still all that as perfectly normal.


    What makes the situation worse is that the people themselves have resigned to having corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical leaders. When President Mugabe admitted that $15 billion had been looted the people were not up in arms as it they had expected that to happen and it was therefore just water off a duck's back!


    The people's willingness to accept leaders like Joice Mujuru and now these rogue war veterans forgetting that until yesterday these individual were the very pillars of the Zanu PF tyranny shows just how reckless and naïve we are as a people.



    As long as our people continue to be naïve and gullible, so naïve and gullible they will follow failed leaders like Mujuru and Tsvangirai regardless of their well documented track records as corrupt and incompetent sell-outs then this country no chance of ever getting out of the hell-hole we are in. None!

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  6. Soon after President Mugabe met the war veterans in April this year General Chiwenga issued a statement confirming the earlier statement by war veterans that too saw the service chefs as "the stockholders of Zanu PF and Zimbabwe". Chiwenga and all the other service chefs are naïve and stupid - they have proven that beyond all doubt in allowing themselves to be the willing tools in the tyrant's hands - still they are not that stupid not to know that the tyrant now wants them thrown out to the wolves.



    President Mugabe has already passed a law staging all service personal will retire at 50 unless asked to stay on by him as the CIC. At the last party congress in Vic Falls Mugabe warned service chiefs to stay out of politics. Of course Chiwenga and company will be disposed of as soon as it is convenient for the tyrant to do so and the village idiots concerned know it.

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  7. MDC-T youths plan to ditch @thisflag for their own campaign.

    These MDC youths correctly noted the country's worsening economic situation and have rightly blame Zanu PF for it. But I have yet to hear anyone of them acknowledge the role MDC leaders played in allow-ing Mugabe to rig the last elections. This is important because they would have been pushing the party to implement the reforms or remove the corrupt and incompetent leaders and get new leaders who would implement the reforms.

    These MDC youths have not yet realized that not even one reform has been implemented since the 2013 rigged elections. So it is almost certain Mugabe will rig the next elections.

    Yes street protests will increase the pressure on Zanu PF but come the elections the regime will once again rig the vote and retain into office!

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