“Should we have empathy for those we hate?” asked Taruberekera Masara.
“Yes we have a moral obligation to. It was a heartwarming experience to read MDC Alliance communique on the demise of the political leaders from their nemesis.
“The eulogy reminded many that there's still empathy in our so broken country. This was albeit against a backdrop of callousness, the lack of empathy, lack of sympathy, lack of emotion, the lack of humanity that was highlighted by many people on various social media platforms.”
Why are you surprised at MDC A’s “heartwarming” message of condolence over the death of a Zanu PF bigwigs and the indifference of the ordinary Zimbabweans on the matter? You are surprised because you have no clue what is going on in Zimbabwe.
Ordinary Zimbabweans are aware of the country’s ruling elite’s indifference to povo’s long sufferings and deaths. Right now the country is drowning in this corona virus pandemic which Zanu PF has made worse by under reporting the cases and deaths to bury its blundering incompetence.
The corona virus has hit the poor very, very hard because they live in crowded homes where it is not practical to exercise social distancing and many have no access to clean running water with which to wash their hands regularly. Except for just a few cases, the ruling elite; cocooned in their five star homes, five star health care services, five star everything; have largely escaped unscathed.
It is condescending to expect the poor to cover themselves in ashes and weep buckets of tears over the death of the few ruling elite, when the poor have no tears left to shed over so many of their own who are dying like flies everyday!
The MDC leaders are not one with povo any close relation they had was cut during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. MDC leaders went into the GNU as the people’s champions fighting for democratic change, as the party’s name implied. They failed to implement even one democratic change because they suffered a their Soul to Damascus transformative moment.
Robert Mugabe saw to it that Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were given the ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowances, a US$ 4 million mansion for Tsvangirai; everything to make the MDC leaders feel they were fulled paid up members of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite.
Of course, MDC leaders knew the democratic reforms were designed to take away the ruling elite’s many privileges and, most important of all, to make them accountable to the people. MDC leaders abandoned all intentions of implementing the reforms and loose their newly acquired privileges and creature comforts.
“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train lifestyle offered to the ruling elite, they will never rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing any reforms.
Zanu PF has learnt from the GNU years that the party can keep its keep its tyrannical dictatorial powers including those to rig elections as long as it gives away a few gravy train seats to entice the MDC to participate in elections to give the results legitimacy. This is the cosy relationship that has existed between Zanu PF and MDC since the end of the GNU in 2013.
It is the ordinary people who have come out of the GNU the loser because not only has MDC leaders failed to implement any democratic reforms but no plans to do so in the future. Sadly the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans do not realised MDC leaders sold-out big time and continue to follow them blindly like sheep to the slaughter.
”We note with sadness the passing on of Dr SB Moyo and Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba. We extend our condolences to both the Moyo and Gwaradzimba families. Our sympathies are also with Cdes Mukudzei Mudzi, Moton Malianga's families, both Cdes sacrificed everything to free our beloved country,” said MDC Alliance president Nelson Chamisa.
There is no denying that the nation owes a debt of gratitude to all those who played a role in the fight for Zimbabwe’s independence, especially those suffered prison term and/or fought the bush war.
But there is no deny that not everyone who risked all for independence believed in the cause, they are many who were mercenaries and they have since demanded their “a pound of flesh” reward and more, much, much more!
Even with the country now facing an existential threat with economy in total meltdown and over 50% of our people living in heart breaking abject poverty; it is totally unacceptable that Zanu PF ruling elite should be allowed to deny the people their freedoms and rights in pursuit of their pound of flesh reward!
It is one thing for Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends to be blind to reality Zimbabwe is being ruled and ruined by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs whose greed for power and looted wealth know no bounds. After all the MDC leaders are now Zanu PF thugs’ acolytes and are enjoying the spoils of power.
The ordinary Zimbabweans have to fight these ruling elite mercenaries, have to demand democratic reforms to gain their long lost freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life itself!
After 40 years of rigged elections, gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and ruthless oppression; no ordinary Zimbabwean in his or her right mind would still call these Zanu PF thugs a hero much less mourn for them!
How can anyone with half a brain have empathy for those who have made one’s life hell-on-earth to gratify their insatiable greed for power and wealth!
Cheeseman is professor of democracy at the University of Birmingham and founding editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia.
ReplyDeleteHe co-authored a book, "How to rig an election without getting caught”.
In the case of Zimbabwe Professor Cheeseman will have to write another book entitled “How to WIN rigged elections!” because since 2013 that is exactly what MDC leaders have been trying to do.
Indeed, MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office and, with their snout in the feeding trough, Tsvangirai and company forgot about the reforms.
MDC leaders have given up implementing the reforms and now expect to win flawed and illegal elections. “MDC A has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!” boasted Nelson Chamisa before the 2018 elections.
By participating in rigged elections MDC leaders are giving Zanu PF legitimacy. Zanu PF has been giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate in these flawed elections.
As for the opposition leaders being arrested, some of them are courting such arrests as a way of grabbing headlines and keeping ahead of their opposition challengers. None of the opposition leaders have been arrested for pushing reforms, they are all carefully avoiding that subject!
Ngoni Muzofa is a Canada-based Zimbabwean journalist.
ReplyDeleteAS the world is transfixed with the intrigue and civil war engulfing American politics, the repercussions of the Trump administration’s wilful surrender of its global leadership role will linger beyond its short-lived tenure.
From the onset in January 2017, the Trump administration gained infamy for its full-frontal attacks on facts. The embrace of fact-free narratives in the Trump era was epitomised by the audacious whopper by then White House press secretary Sean Spicer that his boss’ inauguration had “the largest audience ever … both in person and around the globe”.
Overwhelming evidence to the contrary did not deter Donald Trump’s mandarins from spewing fib after fib, which Trump’s senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, described as “alternative facts”.
Any excellent read and thought provoking. Thank you.
Whilst there is no deny that in Zanu PF we do indeed have a corrupt, incompetent and ruthlessly tyrannical regime, still it cannot be denies that in the last 40 years the country has had many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship only to waste them all. The best chances ever to end Zanu PF rule was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and MDC leaders sold-out big time.
Except for Tendai Dumbutschena in SA and one or two other journalists who have admitted to MDC leaders selling out; the rest have remained faithful to this day to the narrative that Zanu PF is bad and MDC are the innocent victims. By failing to admit to MDC’s incompetence the nation has had to endure even more MDC blunderings.
The Zimbabwe electorate is one of the most naive and gullible in the world and they have given MDC leaders their blind support even after the MDC leaders sold-out during the GNU. Have an equally naive and dishonest private media has only made our situation worse!
Fighting via proxy or through entirely new theatres of warfare such as cyberspace, the US and at large most states are capable of influencing decisions and actions of adversaries in numerous ways never before seen to humanity.
ReplyDeleteThe National Security Advisor to then-US President Trump, Robert Charles O'Brien Jr, quipped that Zimbabwe, alongside Iran, Russia and China, poses a threat to the national interests of the US and as such, the incoming Biden administration is not expected to tweak the national interests of the US as they practise their foreign policy in favour of such adversaries, Zimbabwe included.
Cyberwarfare, itself a domain of war after land, sea, air and space, will escalate due to advantages it brings as regards attribution and lack of deterrence. Irregular wars inspired by a rekindled version of the Bush Doctrine will sprout across the globe while the US Defence budget might probably top US$1 trillion under the Biden Administration.
For Zimbabwe and similar ideological poles to American national interests, the reality is everything will remain the same!
The Chinese dragon has laid her eggs; diamonds, gold and other precious resources, in Zimbabwe; China will fight to protect those eggs and the only sure way to do so is by ensuring there is no regime change in Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF leaders are corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs and they have dragged the nation deep into the abyss. Zimbabwe is in economic, social and political chaos and as much as the ordinary Zimbabwe have been desperate for change it has never happened because China did not want change.
Mugabe thought he could get rid of China and within a year China had got rid of him!
China is already settled in Zimbabwe, if the USA hopes to change anything in Zimbabwe then it must first drive the Chinese dragon out of Zimbabwe!
As soon as some one gets into a position of power and authority, even if it is be hook and crook, some people immediately elevates the individual to the position of infallible demigod. This is a very common thing in Zimbabwe. And the nation’s leaders have all taken full advantage of this weakness, like a duckling to water.
ReplyDeleteWe all know of how condescending and arrogant Mugabe was.
Ever since the day Tsvangirai was sworn in as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe I do not think he ever listened to anyone not even President Barack Obama. The USA President and other Western leaders told Tsvangirai they were not going to fit the sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leaders because there have been no meaningful democratic changes. Tsvangirai insisted he knew best and wanted the sanctions lifted. The western leaders ignored him.
As we know, Mr know-it-all and his MDC friends failed to implement even one reform in the five years of the GNU and the golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship was lost.
To have empathy for someone who is crashing you like a bug into the dirty is the extreme case of respecting those in positions of power and authority; here one has accept they are a bug and deserved to be treated like a bug.
It is said that when Joseph Stalin died many Russian mourned him more than they mourned for the millions of their brothers, fathers, mothers, sisters, etc. the dictator send to Siberia to suffer and die although they had committed no crime. Yes, some people have been thoroughly brainwashed into believing they must have empathy for the tyrant whose big boot is on their throat and they are choking to death!
@ Ndoe Ndazi
ReplyDelete“That’s utter nonsense! Despite politics, suffering, and persecution we still remain human beings, Zimbabweans. Our tradition and upbringing taught us values. As a nation, the poor, we still find it in our hearts to show sympathy even to our enemies, oppressors. Life comes from God and thus we don't rejoice at death of a fellow Zimbabwean. God is the one who judges and punish. So, Patrick encouraging people not to forgive even at death is completely wrong. Otherwise encourage the living to learn from their mistakes because after death there's no turning back.”
Listen to yourself! You are more concerned about the comfort of the tyrant whose boot is on someone’s throat, choking them to death but have nothing to say about the victim. It is sickening to listen to your foolishness. Surely your sympathy should be directed to the victim of this dehumanising treatment. No one should treat another human being like a bug; denying them their freedoms and rights and dignity; and crashing them under foot!
When someone is choking the live out of you the rational thing to do is to fight off the tyrant not to forgive the tyrant!
The God, I know gave mankind the Ten Commandments and preached of “Do unto others as you want them to do unto you!” If He did not care how we on earth treated each other and wanted to do all the judging and punishing Himself then why both giving us the rules!
By ignoring the suffering masses are you not judging and punishing them too - their sin and crime before the tyrant and you is that they are poor and powerless! You are seduced by the rich and powerful; they are the gods on earth and do as they please and for the rest of mankind we must bow and submit to the rich and powerful’s whims and desires, no questions asked.
Man is supposed to be a creature of reason; it is clear that decades, possibly generations, of idleness have turned some people’s brain into fat! I do have empathy for you my friend, it must be hard to be braindead. Still it is a curse to the nation that village idiots like you have a vote because tyrants derive their power from fools like you!
@ Ndoe Ndazi
Delete“Mukori forgiveness is not the same as being ignorant and oblivious of the sins one has committed in his lifetime. To extend condolences to the bereaved is a duty as living humans. We don't solve anything by keeping quiet. The MDC/MDCs committed mistakes in their tenure of the GNU, but it's not a passport for anyone to lambast them whenever they open their mouths to talk some sense. The way forward is to offer solutions rather than lean on their past.”
You still do not get it!
As a third party, it is wrong to have empathy for the tyrant who have his boot on the throat of his victim. It is the the victim you should feel sorry for.
It is not unknown for victims of tyrants to mourn the death of their oppressor. Look what happened in Russia after Joseph Stalin’s death.
What is happening in both cases is these people are reacting to those in positions of power and authority and the value the life of the tyrant more than they value the life of his long suffering victim.
Stalin’s death was natural and that of the millions he shipped to Siberia was punishment and yet even relatives of his victims shed buckets of tears when he died. Of course the mourners had been brainwashed into believing Stalin’s life was more valuable than that of everyone else and he could do no wrong. Their reaction had nothing to do with forgiveness, humanity or all the other sentimental nonsense.
Like it or not Zanu PF thugs have their heavy boot on the nation’s throat and many Zimbabweans have suffered and died and many more are suffering and many will die unnecessarily until we end the Zanu PF dictatorship.
Zanu PF thugs who are succumbing to the corona virus are victims of their own misrule; my sympathy is with the hundreds of thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans who too are suffering and dying from the virus and are victims of the 40 years of Zanu PF tyrannical rule!
Whilst Zanu PF thugs have their heavy boot planted on the nation’s throat they will never ever have my sympathy. Never ever! My heart bleeds for the millions whose lives Zanu PF has made hell-on-earth and whose only crime is that they are poor and powerless!
@ Masara
ReplyDelete“Do we stop being people because someone else hurt us. Like what Nelson Chamisa once said "you don't hiss just because someone has called you a snake.” The world has a famine of empathy. And the power of our collective outrage is failing to unlock the problems we face. Look at Yemen what are we doing? It is through empathy that hard questions begin to be asked.”
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and thus dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship once and once for all. They failed to implement even one reform in 5 years.
Whatever empathy they had for the long suffering Zimbabweans was forgotten throughout the 5 GNU years because Chamisa and company were mesmerised by the rich and powerful. MDC leaders’ empathy switched from the povo choking to death under the tyrannical regime’s oppressive boot to the tyrants themselves.
Implementing the reforms would dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, this would break Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies’ hearts, it is their life time’s work. MDC leaders were not that heartless, especially now when they had just been admitted into the ruling elite club and taken their seat on the gravy train!
So you think MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform during the GNU because someone had called them “snakes!”
What are you wittering on about Yemen! You have failed to understand what the 2008 to 2013 GNU was about and you think you understand the complexities of what is happening in a far off land!
THE Covid-19 pandemic has paralysed government amid reports that Vice-Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi are unwell, while President Emmerson Mnangagwa spent 14 days in self-isolation in Harare after his close security details, cabinet ministers and top bureaucrats tested positive.
ReplyDeleteThis means that the country was left on auto-pilot as there was no acting President. Mnangagwa had to cut short his annual leave.
Information gathered by the Zimbabwe Independent from senior government and intelligence sources indicates that Mnangagwa's co-deputies are ill. Top businessman and presidential advisor, Kuda Tagwirei, is also battling the deadly virus.
The ruling elite, their families and cronies are less susceptible to the corona virus infection because they are cocooned in their 5 star homes with food, clean running water, access to all their health care needs, etc., etc. The long suffering povo are not so luck living in crowded accommodation, with no clean running water and have to venture out into the crowded world to get basic necessities or else starve to death.
Still the number of ruling elite succumbing to corona virus has soared, proof the virus is widespread and the rich and powerful in the cocoons have not been spared. There is no doubt the grim riper is taking a heavy toll on the poor and utterly helpless povo.
Officially, Zimbabwe has 30 047 corona virus cases and 917 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic a year ago. Officially! Of course, no one believes the official figures any more, everyone knows the real figures are a lot higher than what government admits.
The regime has been under reporting the seriousness of the virus to hide its blundering incompetence in handling the pandemic. By failing to test and isolate, for example, the regime has allowed many infected people to remain in society spreading the virus far and wide and fast. The chickens have come home to roost!
Whether the regime is able to maintain the official corona virus lies is now academic; it is the reality that matters and the reality is that many, many people have the virus and many have died. The tragedy is in trying to hide its blundering incompetence in the handling of the virus Zanu PF has made the situation worse, much worse!
One of the measure totalitarian regime use to secure their iron grip on power is to brainwash the ordinary people into believing the ruling elite are special and infallible whilst the masses adding to the numeric quantity and nothing more.
ReplyDeleteAnd so the life of the ruling elite is worth a lot more than the life of hundreds if not millions of povo. For povo to suffer so that the ruling elite can live in comfort is therefore perfectly acceptable and, indeed, povo should even feel proud to be doing this as a very patriotic sacrifice.
Many Zimbabweans were not outraged to see Mugabe splashing US$ 2 billion building his Blue Roof mansion, a four storey building the size of a provincial hospital; whilst Parerenyatwa Hospital, the country’s biggest referral hospital, was starved of funds it had regularly ran out of pain killers and even clean running water! Mugabe and his cronies, most of them have their own mansions of course, stopped using the local health service for 5 star overseas ones. To these Zimbabweans it was all water off a duck’s back.
Whatever these Zanu PF chefs are facing in suffering and death because of corona virus or whatever is nothing compared to what povo are facing. Of course, the ruling elite have their heavy boot on the throat of the poor economically, politically and every which way you look at their relationship.
The only rational explanation why any one would have empathy for the tyrant under those condition is because they consider the life of the tyrant more valuable than that of the victim he is crashing under foot! Period!
The latest 100 percent fare increase on ZUPCO buses approved by government is a testimony that our government continues to turn blind attention to the plight of the poor majority especially in these complex Covid19 times.
ReplyDeleteEarly January the Government through SI 10/2021 locked down the informal sector largely comprised of vendors in an effort to reduce the spread of Covid19.
While the lockdown measures were necessary, the specific targeting of the sectors that provide a living for the poor left many vulnerable.
There was no rational reason why the government created the monopoly in public transport sector by imposing ZUPCO as the only operator. Whatever corona virus restrictions Government wanted to be observed surely any of the other operators could impose them as well as ZUPCO.
Indeed, the ZUPCO monopoly was counter productive, at least as a measure to slow down the spread of corona virus because the people were forced to wait for hours for the buses. When the buses finally came the people would be so desperate to get on the bus all the talk of social distancing was thrown out of the window.
It really does not make any sense to maintain the monopoly and then hike the bus fare!
This is a regime that has no clue what it is doing and is obsessed about wanting to control every aspect of the people's lives it is making life hell-on-earth with each passing day!
The sooner this nation get rid of this dictatorship the sooner the nation can finally start on the important task of rebuilding the nation. As long as Zanu PF remains in office nothing of substance can ever be accomplished. Nothing!
Don't forget that corona virus is killing more povo in the crowded homes with no clean running water, no food, etc. than it is killing the ruling elite in their 5 star cocoons with 5 star facilities, food, health care, everything.
ReplyDeleteIt is disconcerting that anyone should consider their own life of less value than that of a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrant who is only in his position of power and authority because he has his boot on your throat!
Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa is the chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association.
ReplyDeleteEven now with the country in total economic ruins, more than 50% of our people living in heart breaking abject poverty and over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans murdered for selfish political gain by Zanu PF; you still fail to see Zanu PF rule for what it is - a tragic disaster that must be stopped for the good of the nation. All you can think of and care about is power and wealth.
Zimbabwe needs to implement the democratic reforms designed to restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life itself as a matter of great urgency. The Zanu PF madness has lasted 40 years to long and must be brought to an end before the thugs drag the whole nation beyond the point of no return - assuming they have not done so already.
“Hon Sibusiso Moyo, ZNLWA is ever indebted to you. You are the epitome of the finest cadre from the crucible of the Zimbabwe revolution,” you say.
“A freedom fighter comrade, a cadre, a scholar, a soldier, an office, a general, statesman, a diplomat. You had all that endorsement of talent and capability in one man.”
Zimbabwe belongs to all of us and not just ZNLWA and the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans out there have nothing to think S B Moyo for. Nothing!
Indeed, the ordinary Zimbabweans are sick and tired of being treated like s***t by you Zanu PF thugs!
He said Chiwenga's overworking has been made worse by the demise of a few of his relatives and associates.
ReplyDelete"Made worse by a few of his relatives and associates who have succumbed to COVID-19, alongside many other Zimbabweans A few days ago, he looked worse for wear and the President ordered him to take some deserved rest," Charamba added.
The rest, however, came two days before he had assumed the role of Acting President, taking over from Mohadi.
"He would have wanted to be with the President at yesterday's sorrowful burial event, in fact insisted to do so. The President restated his order and the Vice-President had to watch proceedings from home. He will resume work shortly...," Charamba added.
Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo yesterday said the ruling party was working tirelessly to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and blasted opposition MDC Alliance vice-president Tendai Biti for blaming them for the pandemic. He said a wartime approach needed to be taken in the fight against COVID-19.
"A wartime approach needs to be applied in battling this deadly pandemic. That is indeed the way to go," he said.
After nearly a year of Zanu PF deliberately under reporting the seriousness of the corona virus outbreak in Zimbabwe, to hide the regime’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic, the continued to spread far and wide regardless. The chickens have now finally come home to roost.
In a country of 16 million with 30 000 corona virus cases and 979 death since the outbreak VP Chiwenga will be very unlucky to have two close relatives and/or associates succumbing to corona virus out of 979! The real figure of corona virus deaths is of course much higher that the official figure and hence many of VP Chiwenga’s relatives and associates are among the many chickens coming home to roost.
The official figures of corona virus cases and deaths have all been lies and the truth is only now coming out and it is shocking! Some day someone must be held to account for this costly lie!
@Lane
ReplyDelete“With the devastation being wreaked in ZANU PF by the corona virus, your way of thinking is currently way out of date! Nature is doing for citizens of this country in a matter of days, that which they have failed to do in 40 whole Years. Do you remember the popular North American anthem of the Martin Luther King era in the 1960s called " We shall overcome "? Well its time for Zimbos to take up the strains of that meaningful song.”
In case you have not noticed, corona virus is taking an even heavier toll on the ordinary people. The virus is spreading faster and more widely among the poor because they live in crowded places, with no clean running water, food, health care, etc. The ruling elite are better shielded in their five star cocoons!
So be careful what you wish for; you could well find after hundreds of thousands even millions of dead Zimbabweans the ruling elite still have their iron grip firmly on the wheels of power!
The trouble with some people is that they have been brainwashed so thoroughly that they believe they are worthless bugs compared to those in power. They look at Mugabe and his US$ 2 billion Blue Roof mansion and his lifestyle of luxury when even the country's biggest referral hospitals are so poorly funded they regularly run out of something as basic as pain killers and even clean running water and they do not see anything wrong with that.
ReplyDeleteCorona virus is killing everyone but make no mistake about it, the poor are dying in greater numbers than the ruling elite who are shielded in their five star mansions whilst the poor have to do the best they can in their overcrowded dwellings with no clean running water, no food, no medicine, etc. And lest we forget, it is the ruling elite who have made corona virus worse than it need be by under reporting the cases.
The ruling elite certainly have their big boot on the poor's throats. Why the poor should be expected to go to town over the thugs' sufferings and deaths is foolish to say the least!