"Pasi nemvongamvonga!" says sanctimonious Mugabe waving olive brunch but with a concealed dagga! By Wilbert Mukori.

Mugabe has become the master of the art of “Do as I say and do not dare to do as I do!” and he showed this once again when he spoke to the members of the party’s Central Committee on the eve of the party’s conference.

 

“Cdes and friends, the 15th National People's Conference is guided by the chosen theme: "Consolidating People's Power through Zim-Asset",” he said.

“As the Central Committee, the party leadership with the Politburo, we are expected to be thoroughly conversant with this theme. It goes without saying that the people we lead expect us to have a full grasp of Zim-Asset, its components and practical activities that accrue from Zim-Asset. And then how Zim-Asset can be implemented in order to improve the people's lives as we maintain, remain cognisant that we anchored our 2013.”

 

He is asking Central Committee members to be “thoroughly conversant” with ZimAsset plan and how it has improved people’s lives and yet he, the control freak Captain of the ship who should be even more conversant with the plan than anyone else, failed to name even one aspect of the plan that has been implemented. Why?

 

Simple, Mugabe has failed to get anyone to bankroll the $27 billion plan; not even his “all weather” Chinese friends were prepared to fund the hare-brain scheme! Economic recovery is only possible if the nation bites the bullet and addresses the nation’s thorny problems of mismanagement, corruption and the institutionalized lawlessness that has allowed Mugabe and his cronies to seize white owned farms and then extended to demanding 51% shares of all foreign owned businesses. Mugabe hoped to achieve the same recovery by throwing the $27 billion; confident the flood of cash will overwhelm the wastefulness leaving some cash for development. Talk of a hare-brain scheme, ZimAsset sure takes the biscuit.

 

It is now two and half years into the five years in which Zanu PF promised ZimAsset would create 2.2 million new jobs, it has yet to create one! Indeed the nation has continued to throw more and more workers on the Mount Everest high unemployed heap. Millions of our people are now living in life threatening poverty they cannot afford even one decent meal; where there is poverty and hunger, disease and death are there also.

 

So ZimAsset is dead in the water and economic meltdown is killing our people and yet Mugabe is asking his Central Committee members to tell the rest of the party members and the nation at large that ZimAsset is working and it is consolidating their power!

 

Mugabe had his usual “Do as I say and do not dare to do as I do!” words of wisdom for the members regarding the faction wars tearing the party apart.

 

“Ambition inobvumirwa, munhu anosungirwa kuva ambitious ehee, kuti ndinodawo kuva nechigaro ichi chigaro ngachiuye netsika yakanaka,” he said. “Zvigaro hazviturunurwe sematamba, zvinouya nechimiro chako, nekudiwa kwako nevanhu. Vanhu vanokuda here? Abantu bayakuthanda yini?”

 

(Individuals are allowed to be ambitious and aspire to hold position. Positions must be earned fairly and be the people’s wish.)

 

What a hypocrite, here is the man who masterminded and executed the devious plan to stop Joice Mujuru being elected at last year congress by falsely accusing her and her supporters of plotting to assassinate him! He has failed to produce a shred of evidence of the plot because there was no such plot; the accusation was just a clumsy smoke screen to justify “baby dumping” Mujuru and others.

 

Mugabe then went on to cancel the elections and appointed the two VPs Mnangagwa and Mphoko; he usurped the party members’ right to elect the two and now he pretends that is the people’s wish!

 

Joice Mujuru and her supporters were purged out of the party because she was a threat to Grace Mugabe’s ambition to be the next president and she is not only allowed to be ambitious be ride roughshod over everyone, including making outrageous false accusations; the very things Mugabe is sanctimoniously preached against.

 

Now that Joice Mujuru is out of the way, Grace has now turned her full attention on VP Mnangagwa because he now stands between her and her ambition to be president. No doubt there will be yet another appointment and we will all be expected to accept it as the wish of the people!

 

Zanu PF factional wars were started by Grace Mugabe, whose greed for wealth and ambition for high office knows no bounds; until she gets what she wants or the party implodes –whichever happens decisively first – the factional wars will only get worse.

 

“I want to thank you for having come. I want you carefully to listen to what we have tried to prepare our way to Victoria Falls for the National People's Conference that will begins the day after tomorrow. Phambili lokubambana! Pamberi nokubatana! Pasi nemvongamvonga muparty!” concluded Mugabe. (Forward with unity! Down with factional wars!)

 

For all his over 50 years as the leader of Zanu PF Mugabe has always managed to tell his party members to do one thing and then do the exact opposite himself and get away with it every time. Of course he knows that it is his own wife who started the factional wars his hope is he able to pull off his olive brunch in his raised hand and concealed dagga in the other trick just one last time. The signs are that he might just pull it off; he has easily mollified Mnangagwa and his supporters in the past he can do it again even with everything at stake.