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President Mugabe and the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe

Rev Andrew Wutawunashe, Special Correspondent
THE Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front), under the inspired leadership of His Excellency, President Mugabe, during the 2013 general election, shocked all its detractors both local and foreign, by gaining a resounding mandate from the people of Zimbabwe to lead the nation. Certainly, the people centred vision which Team Zanu-PF enunciated so well during the campaign played a critical distinguishing role which restored the party’s umbilical cord with the people of Zimbabwe.

Yet it was also clear, particularly to people of spiritual perception, that a divine mandate continues to rest on Zanu-PF and its leader, President Mugabe, to serve the people of Zimbabwe by leading them into their own economic, political, social and even spiritual “Promised Land”.

While the words ‘divine mandate’ might lead many to think that we are talking about some senseless determinism, let me hasten to say that the Almighty has always had very sound rationale in His elevation of leaders.

God has always favoured those who lift up the poor and the policies of President Mugabe and his party Zanu-PF to redistribute land and to empower people economically through indigenisation clearly reverberate with His own vision for a nation as reflected in the Bible in His journey with His people from Egypt to the Promised Land, through the leadership of such “political Prophets” as Moses, who was succeeded by Joshua.

Moreover, God clearly elevates leaders who openly espouse values which are in agreement with His Word. Zanu-PF was consistent and alone in rejecting such vices as homosexual practices, in distinctly listing freedom of worship as one of its pillars and even waxed so bold as to define itself during the campaign as the party of Christian values, led by an avowed Christian leader, President Mugabe.

This stance was not lost to God nor to the predominantly Christian people of Zimbabwe.
It was my privilege to be invited as a servant of God to share a message from God and to give a prayer of dedication at one of the President’s rallies in 2013. I felt genuinely spiritually impressed that God wanted the people of Zimbabwe to give President Mugabe a resounding mandate to fulfil his mission to empower the people and I was truly elated to see the people re-elect this illustrious African founding father on the wings of a mission to serve the people that has not deviated from its course.

I continue to be fully persuaded that Zimbabwe is God’s own country, and that our fortunes will continue to be determined not by dark clouds of the doom continually conjured by its detractors and gainsayers, but by the good promises of God for a Godly, prosperous, peaceful and united nation of 1 Kings 4 v 20,24-25.

Despite indicators to the contrary, we are getting in the churches clear indication as we pray, that in the spirit of Joseph, the nation is entering into a period of such plenty, that if managed well, will hedge the nation for many generations from future adversity.

Let me encourage Cde Chinamasa that the goals of Zim-Asset are not a crazy dream, but will, just like Joseph’s dreams, come to pass with the help of divine wisdom.
It is also important to say to the party of Afro-Christian values that with divine favour comes the burden of RESPONSIBILITY AND STEWARDSHIP.

As the party approaches one of its most critical congresses, there is a virtue which every member and every leader must fight to restore to the soul of the party — the virtue of LOYALTY, DISCIPLINE AND RESPECT towards God ordained leadership.

The state of well-being of Zanu-PF is critical for the present and future well being of the nation. Not only must the party remain strong, disciplined and united — it must ensure the preservation of the vision, goals and characteristics that gained it favour with God and man. This is a strategic time and situation to recall divine principles of stable nationhood and leadership.

With these principles, the future of the nation will not be bedevilled with uncertainty and speculations fraught with pitfalls for both politicians and the violence-prone people they lead. The future must needs be, and will be, predictable, safe and secure.

In God’s model, a nation’s welfare is vested in the LEADER He ordains and gifts that nation with and on that nation’s good stewardship, that is, respect and loyalty to that leader. This is the only explanation for the resilience of President Mugabe in the face of onslaughts from even powerful nations that have toppled better fortified leaders.

First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe has been on the mark in her “Meet the People” tour in continually pointing out: “Hutongi hunobva kuna Mwari”, and in calling for Godly servanthood to the people in national and party leadership. Underpinning this has been her clear call for loyalty, discipline, respect and deference to the leadership of President Mugabe which many might be undiscerning enough to underestimate.

In the book of Samuel, God gave the nation a leader and the distinction of the attitude of the discerning and the undiscerning to that leader earns them respective and differing identities: “And Saul (the leader) also went home to Gibeah, and there went with him a band of men whose hearts God had touched. But the children of Belial said: “How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and they brought him no presents. But he held his peace” (1 Samuel 10 v 26-27). There is no doubt that President Mugabe is not only a divinely ordained leader, but also that he has excelled even when measured against the benchmark of meritocracy to the extent that even his former detractors are now recognising the importance of his vision.

This is why it is a reproach to the party of Christian values that we hear that there have been voices even in places of leadership despising and undermining such a proven leader to the extent of some using such derogatory terms as “kamudhara aka”. Much more dangerous than such language are myopic ambitions to subvert his God-given vision of empowering the people.

Zanu-PF is a democratic party, but that democracy must be premised on Afro-Christian values of dignity, discipline and respect for our leader, not on aping the treacherous and belittling politics of Western nations that leave leaders needing eyes both in front of and in the back of their heads, and has caused much fraternal blood-letting in Africa.
The issue of factionalism which has come nigh unto destroying the party would never be able to rear its dangerous head if we could simply recognise that our proven leader, Robert Mugabe, who has been such a faithful steward of the vision, rising as he did from the very roots of the pioneers of the African Dream, deserves our deference.

That deference would inspire us to allow him to mentor us to enable a leader like him to emerge from our midst.
My prayer is that instead of squabbling over who of us might be next in line, God would help us invest our best efforts in all of us being enabled to carry the empowering vision that God gave him into the future.

Indeed, God’s instructions to the leader Moses were: “But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land you have seen” (Deuteronomy 3 v 28).

In President Mugabe we have the visionary. What we need for this hour is for the Joshua spirit to rise among us.
Should in His wisdom God show our leader a Joshua in the party of Christian values, we must have the sensitivity, maturity and grace to both recognise and support that wisdom. I for one do not see anything wrong in suggestions that our leader is the best to identify both character and talent in defining our future path, but it is important that we accept that he would make such important selection and identification under God and in God’s time. In this way our future emerges from proven divine principle, not from dark conniving.

The present, seeming upheavals in the party are simply a cry from the hearts of many that our political leaders should return to the principle of respect for and deference to our President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF, the party of Christian values, Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe, and should as loyal cadres embrace the spirit of discipline and loyalty.
Even in cases where some might feel wronged, it is important to prove their bona fides by continuing as loyal members of the party.

The unity of the party of Christian values is critical for the nation.
We have faith for the nation.

Rev Andrew Wutawunashe is Faith for the Nation Campaign Chairman.