In the
article Cephas Msipa's memoirs highlight gaps in Zimbabwe's history,
Bulawayo24; Farai Mabeza laments the lack of written records, memoirs and
stories about Zimbabwe, especial the pre-independence era.
"Nelson Mandela gave us his
(memoir). Why not Mugabe? The best we have seen of Mugabe are pictures",
wrote Farai.
There is a very simple explanation why
President Mugabe and his cabal will not want their past retold in any detail;
if they did then they will be compelled to either leave out a lot of stuff because
they do not want the world to know it. Or else spin miles of yarn to fill the yawning
gaps in their stories; if they are not caught in their own web of lies, they
will be caught is someone else’s web. The nation will not glean much about the
past from the speeches of people like President Mugabe either.
President Mugabe is well known for
his long, long speeches be it at the UN, at Heroes’ Acre, in parliament
(reading the same speech twice for good measure) or wherever he can get a captive
audience. All his speeches have one thing in common, they are about other people;
“the British imperialists and their evil Western allies” plotting regime change
and their Zimbabwean puppet proxies, the opposition, being his hot favourite
theme. If he has to say something about Zanu PF or himself and the past then it
will be in very general terms.
After all the many speeches
President Mugabe has given at Heroes’ Acre all the nation will ever extract
from them is that he and his Zanu PF friends made great many sacrifices and endured
many hardships without ever knowing what exactly what these are.
The only way the nation will extract
the truth from people like President Mugabe about what really happened before
and after independences, especially after independence when greed got the
better of them, is in a court of law!
National Heroes’ Acre in Harare if
filling up fast, the place should be called Heroes’ Acres! In 36 years of our
independence, Zimbabwe has more declared national heroes than countries like
Britain in 2000 years. For all its heroes and heroines Zimbabwe has been a
sorry tale of wasted opportunities, tragic human misery and barbarism of vote
rigging and political murders. The many of those interred at Heroes’ Acres have
played a major role in the despair, destruction and deaths of the nation,
making a complete mockery of the word hero!
William Shakespeare (now there is a true hero
worthy of the name, honour, admiration and quoting) captured the very essence
of our situation in Zimbabwe in his epic play Macbeth.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
After hearing that his wife has died, Macbeth was taking
stock of his own indifference to the event. Death—our return to dust—seems to
him merely the last act of a very bad play, an idiot's tale full of bombastic
nonsense.
Who would ever doubt that since
independence our way has been to dusty death socially, economically,
politically and every which way? A tale told by an indifferent corrupt, incompetent
and murderous tyrant full of lies and denials “signifying nothing”.
It has been prevaricating on its bonus pledge, and is wont to avoid public embarrassment by con-cealing that it does not have the wherewithal to meet its commitment.
ReplyDeleteSources said highlighted that public medical facilities – including major referral centres like Pariren-yatwa, Harare and Mpilo hospitals – had failed to get adequate budgetary allocations for drugs and other commitments, as government lurched deeper into financial quandary.
Reports from major referral hospitals indicated that the situation was drifting towards a crisis, with one report suggesting hospital management at one facility was already contemplating closing a few of its wards to limit the effect of an impending funding crisis.
The country’s worsen economic situation has not been like a harmattan with howling winds dumping buckets and buckets of rain but more like rising water of a flooding river slowly but surely creeping up on you. The rising waters have forced everyone, man and beast, to move up to higher ground creating islands which have in turn have been getting smaller and smaller. Many people are now standing in water and soon they will be trading water.
Just how long this regime think this situation can continue like this beggars belief!
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is a man-made problem; three and half decades of mismanage-ment, corruption and lawlessness have taken their toll, the chickens have finally come home to roost in their millions like red billed quelea. The only way out is political reform followed by free and fair elections! There is no other way out!
President Mugabe can accept political reform now or be forced to by people drowning in the flood caused by the worsening economic meltdown. He will be called upon to account for the lost lives, he saw the rising waters but elected to do nothing about!
The regime must accept that it has failed and stop holding the nation hostage it the insatiable greed of the ruling elite.
ReplyDeleteI can see President Mugabe's problem here; should he take the initiative and purge the Mujuru loyalist MPs or allow them to undermine Zanu PF and then resign en mass to inflict the most damage on Zanu PF. He purged Mujuru and other under the pretext they were plotting to assassinate him so what will be the pretext this time?
ReplyDeletePresident Mugabe is in a hole and he is making things worse; some one should have warned him; when you in a hole, stop digging.
“What we are seeing is an implosion of failure, hatred but no thought leadership. That 36 years after independence we have over 91% unemployment while the majority of the people are surviving on less than $0.35c per day and per capita income is below $200 is unaccepta-ble,” Biti said.
ReplyDelete“We are concerned by the lack of leadership. The Indigenisation and Empowerment Act must be repealed as it is a policy that is only serving Robert Mugabe and his cronies. The country is facing serious food shortages and over 1, 5 million will be in need of food aid but even up to now the government is not declaring a national food disaster so that the international food agencies are able to mobilise food aid.”
“An implosion of failure, hatred but no thought leadership”? That is rich coming from the MDC leader who is July 2012 was leading the MDC chorus in praise of President Mugabe! Mr Biti said Mugabe is “the unflappable father of the nation”! Worse of all the breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent Tendai Biti and his MDC friends were so preoccupied with singing Mugabe praises the village idiots failed to implement even one democratic reform hence we are in this mess.
People like Tendai Biti have already proven beyond all doubt that they are corrupt and in-competent this nation will be foolish to ever elect such idiots back into office! He is seeing Mugabe’s failed leadership just as he did in 2008 when he wanted our vote but when he was in the GNU he saw Mugabe differently through the rose tinted ministerial Mercedes Benz! We want leaders who will not be corrupted by power!
Nigeria has really set the new standards many African leaders will now have to follow or know they have not measured up by going going after those who have robbed the nation all these years. Now that they have been arrested the truth about how the looted, with whom, how much, etc. will come out.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe must leave no stone unturned to discover what has been happening in the country. I have a feeling that many of those now taking a lot of space at Heroes' Acres (with an s) will be found to be self-assured thieves, not even the humble thieves much less heroes!
@ Mara
ReplyDeleteWe both know that President Mugabe has been robbing the nation blind with all this wholesale looting and plundering of diamonds and other resources, he has many skeletons in the artic, basement, abandoned mine shafts, etc. This is the story the nation wants to hear and they will hear it!
You have every reason to be jumpy, you did the dictator's dirty work!