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President Mugabe

Stephen Mpofu Correspondent
Many decades after African countries successively romped home in independence elections to break the yoke of colonialism, it could take many more decades for the European colonial master to admit, if at all, that it has been rendered a dinosaur on critical issues affecting African independence and sovereignty.

Which is quite implicit in a bold statement by the Angolan government saying no to European monitors in that country’s forthcoming elections and also stating unequivocally that Angola defers to election monitoring by the Southern African Development Community of which she is a member, as well as to the continental body, the African Union.

The absence of any open support for Angola’s bold decision by other African states is no indication of whether or not Africa as a whole or some of the countries are comfortable with European election monitors having a big say on the conduct of general elections.

What is, however, possible is that after the European colonial master’s god fatherly ego has been injured by Angola’s no-holds-barred statement, former African colonisers may individually or collectively come up with a position reinforcing a belief that they are still a force to be reckoned with in the affairs of Africa.

Press reports suggest that a conspiracy theory under which the West working with the so-called independent Press, which is in reality the opposition Press are clutching at straws through information obtained to discredit those in power in Angola in the run up to the election, with a similar sabotaging strategy to be used in Zimbabwe prior to next year’s harmonised elections and possibly in other future elections on the African continent.

But after so many elections since independence, African states should surely have gained vast experience to eschew negative effects likely to discredit elections on the continent.

President Dos-Santos

Of critical importance in that respect is the unity by both ruling and opposition political parties against violence which might discredit the freedom, fairness and credibility of elections, thereby leaving the political standing of a country in a state of flux.

This is precisely what President Mugabe and other leaders tried to hammer home to all and sundry by saying Zimbabweans should avoid violence prior to elections since any instability created robs the country of a good image locally and internationally.

So the call for peace before, during and after elections should be viewed as a universal challenge to the ability and maturity of Africans to manage their own affairs without foreigners standing behind the backs of African leaders and pointing out the way forward for them.

Equally important is for people elected to positions of responsibility to shun corruption by not developing hanging bellies filled with political spoils, while the stomachs of povo keep on shrinking with no benefits accruing to the poor souls that put those political gurus into power.

It becomes imperative therefore that all leaders appointed to Government or party positions declare their assets to show the political stuff of which they are made.

A general warning to Zimbabweans against foreign machinations is that our people should refuse to be used as Trojan horses by foreign enemies making unrealistic promises for support given to the enemy.

Our people should question the generosity, materially or politically, made by the enemy for whom personal rather than general gain for a whole nation is promised, so that they avoid stumbling headlong into the enemy’s trap.

Of course, effective political education will act as a safeguard for our people against being duped by political mischief makers into shooting themselves in the foot and other body parts by blindly swallowing hook and sinker what the enemy orchestrates before them.

The political education that this pen suggests might have to be provided in schools under appropriate programmes to “catch them young” those in whose hands the future destiny of our country lies.

The freedom that our country has continued to enjoy for decades did not come on a platter, and so it is imperative that the revolution that vanquished a foreign ruling culture should in appropriate ways nurture Zimbabwe’s present and future generations in order for the Uhuru that came in April 1980 to continue in perpetuity for the good of the state of Zimbabwe.