Panganai Kahuni

“Comrades! Zimbabwe needs sacrificial men, women and youths. We all need to be ‘man’ of candour, courage, devotion, bravery and uphold the spirit of oneness, forthrightness, respecting the values and ethos of our revolution and always keeping in mind the sacrifices of our gallant fallen heroes.

“The youths are always the vanguard, for they shall continue to defend our freedoms and independence from generation to generation,” goes one of General Josiah Tongogara’s famous commentaries. 
In the Bible we are divinely told that the prodigal son asked for forgiveness from his father who passionately gave it to him. Before forgiveness was rendered, the prodigal son had forsaken his culture and family morals of growing a sound economy that would leave a legacy of inheritance.
The prodigal son had taken all his possessions to a foreign world and squandered it with foreigners before coming back penniless and poor. Still in the bible, we are told that sinners who committed various sins were forgiven once they confessed whole-heartedly.

In Zimbabwe, we have our own prodigal sons such as the MDC formations who perhaps, because of neo-liberalism and greed, chose to call for illegal sanctions, wanting people to revolt and thereby use western assistance to grab state power.
Sadly, the devastating negative effects of the illegal sanctions that were imposed, at the behest of the MDC formations, are also affecting their supporters.

Unfortunately, those in the MDC formations’ hierarchy are the ones who suddenly have become rich at the expense of their followers. There are just a few in the MDC formation executives who are believed not to own properties in South Africa.
One wonders why these well educated, fine academics have chosen the unethical route of eroding our own culture, social amenities and economy.
Interestingly, Gabriel Chaibva let the cat out of the bag by informing the nation that he, together with Biti and Ncube, drafted ZIDERA, which the USA subsequently put into law. Shame! He further told the nation that he was part of the treachery group which included Biti, Tsvangirai, and Ncube that was involved in vigorously campaigning for the imposition of the illegal sanctions.

The MDC formations have, on several occasions, talked about fighting a struggle. Most urban population believes the MDC formations are engaged in a democratic struggle.

However, what remains unclear is whose struggle is it? In my installation last week, I talked about “The last battle of the colonised” where I unraveled the involvement of those ex-Rhodies in the MDC formations. The ex-Rhodies, who oppressed and ill-treated Africans for more than 100 years, are now said to be fighting a democratic struggle together with MDC formations.

Surprisingly the ex-Rhodies who now claim to be revolutionaries did not want to practice democracy, rule of law and human rights during their hundred year old rule (1890-90). These are the people who practiced, for 100 years — racism.
They are the same people who did not want to go to school, walk, drive, drink and live together with Africans. These are the people who called us kaffirs, bobjaan or mabhoyi for 100 years. These so-called revolutionaries like advocate Matinenga, Bennett, Cross and Coltart ganged up to suppress Africans from gaining any freedom.

These neo-democrats are the same who for hundred years, drove with a dog in the front passenger seat while an African was seated at the back whether in rain, cold or heat. The questions that arise are: what has critically changed in less than 20 years for them to be called democrats since the year 2000? Have the urban population searched its soul before going back to rally with these murderous and genocidal characters of yesteryear? Hatisi kurara nezamu mumukanwa here?

For those in rural Manicaland, Masvingo, and Matabeleland, have you forgotten so quickly how these Selous Scouts used to torture you. The scars they inflicted on you using rifle butts have healed to the extent that you now see Zanu-PF as your worst enemy?  Are we not throwing the child away with the bath water?
It seems memories die quickly, which is against our Shona adage “chinokanganwa idemo kwete muti watemwa”. What we see now is that the urbanites and those in

the aforementioned rural areas have forgotten the ill-treatment, the wanton harassment and the undemocratic rule the ex-Rhodies did to us. The neo-liberal

academics, those with the ability to critically analyse the intention of tears of a lion and smiles of a crocodile have fallen to a bait of money. The Maguwus, Lewanikas and Madhukus have fallen pray to the money bait of our erstwhile colonisers.

In Shona, we say “kwadzinorohwa matumbu ndiko kwadzino mhanyira”, but not in this modern day. It is disheartening to note the amount of energy people of professorial and doctoral academic stature invest in wanting to be courted by Europeans and Americans for only 20 pieces of silver.

How dare any reasonable person claim that Bennett is better than President Mugabe and Zanu-PF. When did traitors and murderous characters start to be democratic? Let me warn you fellow citizens against carelessly taking our freedom too far to the extent that we make our peaceful and stable nation ungovernable.

The brutal truth is that while it is a democratic right for individuals to exercise their vote, it is also undemocratic for movements to use illegal sanctions and bribes to grab state power.

People must understand that Zimbabwe is bigger than any political party. Thus, our differences must always remain at political party level and not to the extent of driving the whole nation into neo-colonial rule.
If Biti could easily equate President Mugabe to Zimbabwe he then cannot accommodate ex-Rhodies to destroy what the President built over the last 32 years of our

independence. If Biti can, on his own volition, confess that Mugabe is a statesman, then he does not need to do things that destroy that national symbolism.

While there could be some mistakes or wrongs that Zanu-PF may have done, that should never warrant taking our freedom back to the times of colonial rule.  It is not true that the British and Americans do not like this country as a colony as was said by Biti.
They may not want it as a straight colony, but as a neo-colony as has happened to Guatemala and the Philippines. If Americans and British were not endeared to our resources why impose illegal sanctions which they failed to enforce during the Smith regime?

Why fund the MDC formations in the same manner they funded the Smith regime? Why hate Zanu-PF in the same manner they did during the Chimurenga war? Fellow Zimbabweans, the British and Americans have never supported liberation governments of Southern Africa. They have always been on the side of Renamo in Mozambique, Savimbi in Angola, MMD in Zambia and MDC formations in Zimbabwe. 
Thus, Biti’s confessions in The Sunday Mail must be treated with a pinch of salt. Biti, as the secretary-general of his party, needs to make an honest confession to the nation, detailing the evils his party has caused by calling for illegal sanctions and engaging in unethical violence.

For Zanu-PF, straight-forwardness is of great importance. There is need for self-introspection where individuals who endeared themselves with the revolutionary party will look back and ask whether their actions have been of any value to the party. How many of us worked towards unity of purpose? Are we not only Zanu-PF in colours and by heart we are something else.

The party commissariat, together with the war veterans, should unravel and unpack characters that have been on the forefront dividing the party. This year’s elections are a “watershed” and time for people to confess their evil doings is now.
People must understand that those who pretend to be Zanu-PF, but are on the “fence” are known. It is therefore time for the rank and file to openly say it with an objective of re-aligning individuals and strengthening the party.
The commissariat department should urgently find lasting ways of mitigating factionalism while, at the same time, making people understand the party ideological concepts.
These ideological concepts must be supported by a package of cultural and behavioural discourse that obliges party cadres (rank and file) to embrace norms and values of the party.
This, in my view, will bring sanity and discipline that will make Zanu-PF a revolutionary party that it has always been.

l Panganai Kahuni is a political socio-economic commentator.