Three decades of brainwashing by
Zanu PF apologists and propagandists has done some serious damage to many of
our people; people like Jabulani Sibanda and his lick of war vets that
terrorized the nation from 2000 to 2014 were so mentally damaged they could not
see right from wrong. Ever since his booting out of Zanu PF together with Joice
Mujuru and many others one had hoped that the forced sabbatical from politics
had given him time to sober up and recover his mental faculties. Sadly the
brain damage inflicted on him by the decades of Zanu PF brainwashing has been
permanent, at least there is no sign of him recovering as yet.
“Sibanda said war veterans were not
seeking to monopolise the country by reminding people they fought for
independence. He said the war veterans were simply identifying with the
idea of sovereignty and self-determination which they fought for,” reported
Nehanda Radio.
“Mr Sibanda said such fundamental
tenets of the liberation struggle were now under threat from certain elements
with sinister agendas.”
The fundamental tenets of the
liberation struggle were freedom, liberty and human rights and dignity for all
Zimbabweans. President Mugabe and his Zanu PF apologists have since independence
blatantly disregarded all these tenets in pursuit of their selfish agenda to
establish and retain at all cost a de facto one-party dictatorship. Zanu PF has
systematically denied the people their basic freedoms and rights including the
right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life.
Zanu PF has brainwashed people like
Sibanda into helping the party impose its no-regime-change mantra. No doubt
that the 1997 $50 000 one-off grant allowance paid to all war vets, a generous
pension, a farm for war vet leaders like Sibanda, etc. all helped in blinding
Sibanda and his overzealous war vet to the obvious contradiction in war vets
forcing the people to vote for Zanu PF and yet still pretend to up hold the
principle of national “sovereignty and self-determination”.
In 2014 President Mugabe falsely
accused then VP Joice Mujuru of plotting to assassinate him, amongst many other
charges, as cover to justify booting her and many of her supporters including
Jabulani Sibanda out of Zanu PF. The booted out members looked at President
Mugabe and Zanu PF not through the tinted glass of the privileged party member
but through the naked eye of ordinary Zimbabwean. One had hoped that people
like Sibanda saw President Mugabe for who he is – an incompetent, corrupt and murderous
tyrant. And that his no-regime-change agenda people like Sibanda had helped
defend did not promote nation sovereignty and self-determination but undermined
them by usurping the people’s democratic freedoms and human rights.
But listening to Sibanda it is clear he would
take up his campaign of terror and intimidation of ordinary Zimbabweans from
where he left it when he was booted out of Zanu PF in pursuit of the
no-regime-change mantra if he was to find a new master! He fell out with Mugabe
but does not see anything wrong with a de facto one-party dictatorship!
According to the Nehanda Radio
report the G40 Zanu PF faction is trying to lure Sibanda and his band of war
vets into their corner.
“Mr Sibanda on Thursday confirmed
that certain individuals linked to G40 had approached him. Although, he
declined to reveal names, he said the group was in the deep end desperately
seeking the support of war veterans,” said the report.
“Mr Sibanda said as a war veteran,
he dismissed the group’s overtures as “they betrayed the founding principles of
the liberation struggle.”
Nonsense, Sibanda is the one who
betrayed the founding principles of the liberation struggle, assuming he ever
understood them in the first place. Given the right sweetener, Sibanda will
jump ship.
“Yes, they are trying (to lure me)
and they will be phoning even now,” said Mr Sibanda.
“They are under pressure. They are
in the deep and I am not. There are some who believe that I must be holding a
grievance against (Cde Chris) Mutsvangwa on how he treated me when I was
chairman of the war veterans.”
Sibanda is right there; the G40
faction is in deep trouble, it was made a lot of noise but has failed to deal
the Mnangagwa faction a decisive blow and time is running out. The Mnangagwa
faction has not been able to hit back because President Mugabe has been protecting
the G40. Everyone knows that without him G40 is nothing and the day he kicks
the bucket, he is a frail old and sick man now; G40 members will in serious
trouble.
The reader should is reminded that
Sibanda was booted out of Zanu PF without being afforded the chance to defend
himself before a disciplinary hearing after he accused Grace Mugabe of a “bedroom
coup”. It is no secret that President Mugabe is a hen-pecked husband and that
is why the jibe hurt Mugabe like a sword thrust. But the G40’s need to deal
Team Lacoste a decisive blow is so urgent Sibanda will be forgiven if he can
deliver the goods!
Beside Professor Jonathan Moyo, a
leading member in G40, was himself the mastermind of the attempted 2004
Tsholotsho coup to ouster him. Mugabe forgave Moyo because he needed him to
mastermind the vote rigging in 2008 and thereafter. Even if President Mugabe did
not want to forgive Sibanda, he has been overruled by Grace!
The war vets were corrupted by Mugabe to forsake the liberation war agenda of freedom, liberty and human rights for all Zimbabwean and not just the war vets and the ruling elite. Mugabe drilled them into believing that the war vets are special and will have special treatment and the war vets in return agreed to be regime's storm troopers pushing the no-regime-change agenda.
ReplyDeleteThe infighting in Zanu PF has split the war vets in that those who supported Mai Mujuru like Jabulani Sibanda have found themselves shut out. Many were forced to readjust their political allegiance. With the emergency of the G40 many war vets have found themselves having to readjust their allegiance yet again, this second readjustment has been problematic.
What made it very difficult for war vets to show G40 the same blind allegiance as that shown to Mujuru and Mnangagwa is that the G40 faction is composed of leaders who did not fight in the war of independence. It was Mugabe himself who forced the security sector and war vets to rule out the idea the country could be ruled by anyone else other than those who fought in the war of independence; that was when he did not want Tsvangirai elected president.
The security chiefs announced that they would not salute anyone who has not fought in the liberation war. The war vets were granted carte blanche clearance to hold public demonstrations, invade white owned farms, harass and beat the opposition as the war vets saw fit in support of Zanu PF’s no-regime-change agenda.
Everything changed with the emergency of G40; Mugabe wanted his wife Grace to succeed him as president and so he denounced the idea that only those with liberation war credentials could aspire to be president. Grace and the other G40 members jointed in dismissing the idea that war vets were special. Of course war vets like Chris Mutsvangwa were quick to defend their privileged position, Mugabe restated his position and denounced war vets who “flaunting their liberation war credentials”. Teargasing the war vets rubbed salt into their eyes because it showed the regime will now ill treat them just as it has ill-treated everyone else.
The idea that war vets are the only ones fit to aspire to be president is a nonsense given the fact the country is in this political and economic mess precisely because for the war vets, the Zanu PF ruling elite, who have ruled the nation these last 36 years have already proven beyond doubt that they are as fallible as any other mortal. The present no-regime-change mantra fostered on the nation by Mugabe must end there is no if or but about that one.
People like Sibanda and Mutsvangwa should have realized Mugabe had elevated the war vets to this privileged status for his selfish reasons and they had been naïve and selfish to go along with this. Now for the good of the nation this arrangement must be terminated forthwith.
@ Yemurai Choto
ReplyDeleteThe failure to have a strong party constitution and the fact that Mugabe has abused even the rough and ready constitution the party has created a situation where everyone else has come up with all excuses to justify why they are the ones who must now rule. The solution is for the country to go back and implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed the 2008 GPA and hold free, fair and credible elections.
The present electoral system be it within Zanu PF's party system or at national level will never settle the issue of who is the right ruler because both systems are open to rigging. The more the nation tries to ignore the GPA reforms the more it is forced back to the reforms. If there was ever a time for this nation to do the right thing, it is now and the right thing is to implement the democratic reforms!
@ yithilabo
ReplyDeleteWe have enough problems as it is without making things worse by starting tribal wars which will settle nothing at the end of the day. The same war vets who terrorized the people pushing Mu-gabe's no-regime-change agenda are the ones who are itching for a fight because Mugabe used them and is now discarding them like used toilet paper. The war vets did not care about the ordinary person then but they now want us to support them in their stand-off with Mugabe.
The ordinary people must have nothing to do with this crazy idea of banning Mugabe out of Masvingo!
America's relationship with Zimbabwe is very simple, the Americans see us as just another African nation led by an incompetent, corrupt and murderous tyrant with a foul mouth. As for Tsvangirai former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell summed him up beautifully when he said he "is a flawed and indecisive character"!
ReplyDeleteIf you are looking for confusion and chaos then look no further than Zanu PF, the party you have defended all these year. Half the members were kicked out of the party after they were falsely accused of plotting to assassinate President Mugabe but before the dust had settled another faction emerged and the fighting raged on.
You George Charamba you have had you public tiff with Professor Moyo, Minister Mutsvangwa, G40 faction and God knows which faction you belong to today or does that depend on the colour of shirt you happen to be wearing.
Exactly! In fact the people of Zimbabwe did not elect Zanu PF, they rigged the election as the twat, George Charamba, was quick to remind Mutsvangwa when the latter started boasting too much about being elected representatives of the people.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe's worsen economic crisis has its roots in the international community that has lost faith in the present regime; by rigging the elections Zanu PF proved that they have no respect of the law and rule of law and, naturally, no one trusts the regime. The only way out now is to implement the GPA reforms and hold fresh elections! There is no other way out!
It is true that the political field "is heavily slanted in Mugabe's favour" but it must also be said MDC had the chance to change that during the GNU and chose to do nothing. The world has lost patience with Zimbabweans bitching about rigged elections and yet we do nothing to stop the rigging even when we have a golden opportunity to do so.
ReplyDeleteSince the rigged 2013 elections Zimbabweans should have focused their energy on making sure that the GPA reforms are implemented this time. They have been wasting time on electoral law reforms that will do nothing to level the political playing field. Even writers, like our friend here, is content to bitch about uneven playing field and quickly move on to talk about trivial matters!
If we want free, fair and credible elections then we must implement the GPA reforms and stop wittering about rigged elections and uneven playing fields!