Reason Wafawarova On Monday
President Mugabe hails from the school of nationalists that brought down the colonial empires, and he has obviously dedicated his entire life to independent nationalism. For people like him, a comparison can be made to someone who after surviving a perilous disease, chooses to devote all his life to vaccine research. Listening to President Mugabe’s outgoing

speech as the 2015 AU Chairperson, one gets the impression of a man whose political career is rooted in the response to the immense effect of colonial injustices.

There is no doubt that the veteran politician sees a greater threat in imperialism and neo-colonialism than is envisaged by his contemporary younger colleagues. The President is evidently still driven by the conviction of the founding nationalists from whose efforts Zanu-PF emerged.

Policies like land redistribution and economic empowerment are simply an extension of the founding principles of nationalism in Zimbabwe.

The message the Under 50 runners fronting the direction of the ruling party today must get clear and loud is that the organisation carrying the name Zanu-PF is a lot more than a mere political party. This is an organisation defined by a lasting legacy of immense historical achievement — an indelible legacy whose relevance can never be erased, not even by any amount of failure or downfall.

Zanu-PF has a lasting founding identity. It is a statement of unyielding conviction, and a testimony of social justice. True the party has been infiltrated today by some unprincipled and cretinous characters with neither direction nor conviction, and resultantly injustice within the party has somewhat become law.

The party is probably at its worst organisational status since the Nhari rebellion era, but even then, it still remains the only organisation carrying the nation’s emancipation hope.

We have a young Zanu-PF leadership that seems to derive a lot of happiness from delusion – a group of self-hyped illusionists who practically live in their own heads, believing that Zanu-PF is a stand-for-nothing outfit that needs crafty minds for direction and vision. Some even believe the party can be directed and given impetus via social media.

We have a dire economic situation in the country, and no amount of sugarcoating can mitigate the crisis. However, Zanu-PF has unflinching control of the country’s political space, and no coalition dream by the opposition has either potential or capacity to tilt the status quo.

Zanu-PF does not need to worry much about the noisy minority from the opposition at the moment. What the party needs is a viable and practical way of alleviating the deadly effects of the monstrous economic situation facing the nation.

The panacea cannot be a political one, and that is why allocating urban residential stands to young people will not exactly wash, attractive as the idea might be from a political viewpoint.

Pragmatic economic realities require pragmatic economic solutions, and these rarely come from the feel good factor that comes with sloganeering and political banter.

Zanu-PF is a revolutionary party, and there are rules and guidelines to any successful revolution. Firstly people have to understand fully the things they are fighting about, not only to understand the things they are fighting against.

We have these Under 50 cadres who understand so well the art of revolutionary posturing — masqueraders who so much enjoy posing as gallant fighters against imperialism; when in fact they have no idea what the concept of imperialism is all about. These are people who believe imperialism can be scared away by mobilising party supporters to self-hyping rallies.

Imperialism is a complicated economic ideology that will not go away at the sight of singing and sloganeering political crowds.

There is a legendary disconnect between Zanu-PF’s often well-articulated policies and the party’s notorious ill implementation of the same policies. It is like the President is either surrounded by unrepentant crooks, or he only has at his disposal well-meaning patriots so afflicted with blissful ignorance.

When President Mugabe articulates himself so eloquently and resolutely against the forces of imperialism, most young elitist cadres in Zanu-PF only stand with his utterances purely from the viewpoint of political correctness. In reality they hardly ever see anything so fundamentally wrong with imperialism, which at any rate they hardly comprehend from an ideological perspective.

It is important that one is convinced that they are fighting for a just cause. We cannot continue to have these opportunists who just trudge along with Zanu-PF’s people-oriented policies when deep down their hearts they are not convinced the policies actually work.

They have given land to the homeless, only to take away that land whenever they just feel like they want to change their mind.

These are the same people who vilified the land reform program in 2000, only to be at the forefront of taking the best of the mass occupied farms.

Unscrupulous miscreants who have no idea what the policy is meant to achieve for the collective good of the nation have adulterated our indigenisation policy.

These people have seen nothing in the indigenisation policy beyond the golden opportunity to loot and accumulate for self-gain. Others have seen in this policy no more than an effective vote mobilisation tool – a fooling and hoodwinking tool for our youths.

We have taken far too long in attaining meaningful utilisation of our acquired agrarian land, and this is despite the fact that significant resources were availed to support the new farmers immediately after land reclamation. In many cases the inputs were resold for short term gain, some hoarded beyond their use expiry dates; and yet others simply abandoned their farms midway the farming season, motivated by pure lack of interest.

The economic empowerment drive must be a genuine struggle fought in true faith for national development. It is futile to wedge a struggle as a pretext, as a lever, or as a weapon to acquire power.

Such a mask cannot last, and its demise is unavoidable. The time we are living in at the moment is not the time for Zanu-PF to seek what it already has — power. The national outcry to Zanu-PF is not to relinquish power, but to use its power to better the lives of Zimbabweans.

Zimbabweans want a better Zimbabwe, not exactly without Zanu-PF, unless of course Zanu-PF does not cherish the idea of being part of a better Zimbabwe.

Social justice is not necessarily defined by vindictive actions against former colonisers. It is defined by the benefits of emancipation for the ordinary person. Our people cannot, will not, and do not feed on the bitterness of imperial opponents.

We must discredit and abandon this dogmatic habit where all political meaning is hyperbolically drawn in stark shades of black and white, or far left and far right. Governance is far more complex than this village rally rhetoric.

It is time we define our policy standing between realism and idealism, diplomacy versus confrontation, compromise versus absolutism, and prudence versus plunging.

There is this danger we face when we pursue people-oriented policies. We tend to push idealism over realism, sometimes we prefer confrontation ahead of diplomacy, and often we frown upon compromise in favour of absolutism. We have cheered plunging without prudence, and we have been paying quite heavily for this kind of recklessness. It is high time we sober up, and face the reality before our nation.

We have defended the homeland politically, and we now need to defend our economy. Let us not elevate the directionless attention seekers in our midst to a threatening national crisis. We all know the Tajamukajokers stand no chance of effecting any regime change. What needs to be tamed is this excruciating economic crisis, not these excitable clowns.

We cannot continue to be bullheaded with this economic crisis.

It will not work. We need a sober strategy out of this deadly predicament — for our own good.

Our economic policies are sound in principle, and hardly any rational person would argue otherwise. But we are not resourced for our policies, and even the President is well alive to that fact.

People-oriented policies need adequate funding, popular as they may sound. We may have to appreciate the politics of realism, compromise, diplomacy and prudence.

We cannot for colour’s sake continue to celebrate the rise of a small black capitalist elite that will take advantage of each of our policies to enjoy the benefits of our natural resources on our collective behalf, while we all languish in misery.

This is our reality at the moment. We have Ministers and their cronies helping themselves to our resources in the name of indigenisation.

It is disgusting for someone to get involved in a struggle alongside the masses for the sole purpose of acquiring a position of power, or for the end result of self-aggrandisement. Leadership must be defined by the ability to organise for the betterment of all, not by the capacity to annihilate political opponents.

Zanu-PF is a revolutionary party whose criteria for leadership is a straitjacket. One needs to be convinced that they are capable of fighting, that they are courageous enough to fight, not only for themselves, but above all for all others. This is the modus operandi of the revolutionary party that wedged Southern Africa’s most successful liberation war ever.

There has been, there is, and there will always be those people that come to the revolutionary party showing great determination to wage a fight, and they impressively show that they know how to go about it, only to falter once the personal benefits stop coming their way.

When the efforts of committed revolutionary cadres are sidelined by the pretentious dramas of masqueraders we begin to have a problem. It is heartbreaking to see hard work and honest sacrifice being rewarded with breathtaking ungratefulness.

Zanu-PF must of necessity be wary of its internal politics. It is dangerous to allow a situation where genius is viewed as dangerous, and mediocrity is elevated to heroism.

I do not understand people who fall over each other for positions in Zanu-PF as if the party were a sea of opportunity. There is something attracting people to political positions today, and that thing is not leadership or development.

Only those leaders who have bothered to immerse with the masses know how to answer the questions that arise in a revolution.We have a dire economic crisis and some in leadership seems to have no answers.

Villagers, women, children, and the elderly are all waiting for answers.

Harare is no longer coherent. The heartbeat of the nation is under the grip of looting brigades. Anyone can now wake up parceling pieces of land to whomever they may so wish, and anytime a more powerful don can just pop up and reverse the whole process.

Our leadership must come to understand that there is no one with a right to turn his or her back on the governed.

The people of Zimbabwe are not mere voting objects at the disposal of politicians. They have entitlement to fundamental human rights, and these are inalienable rights that cannot be explained away by simply blaming foreigners.

Our political culture must promote development ahead of any other ideals. Patriotism that vindicates poverty and suffering cannot be good for any people. We must have economic solutions for Zimbabwe if our patriotism is to be credible.

It is easy for anyone within the power corridors of our country to be complicit to the injustice facing the expectant voter.

There is this disgusting acquiescence that reduces the problems faced by the people to a verbal and theoretical sparring match between rival politicians.

The future of Zimbabwe is in the success of the country’s economy. The pro-people policies are well in place, but they need a serious leadership ready to make the sacrifices that come with implementation, including compromises where need be.

Out of the injustice of yesteryear we can invent a good future for Zimbabweans, and to do so we must stop entertaining leaders who want to give to us happiness derived from delusional rhetoric.

Gone must be the day political failures get glorified for scapegoating on the sanctions card to cover up for their own shortcomings.

If one cannot succeed in delivering in the wake of sanctions then they have no business in the Zimbabwe politics of today.

Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!!

· REASON WAFAWAROVA is a political writer based in SYDNEY, Australia.

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