The nuisance of self-betraying politics Patrick Zhuwao
Patrick Zhuwao

Patrick Zhuwao

Reason Wafawarova On Thursday
In his June 14 piece titled “A Poisoned Chalice, Pyrrhic Victory,” Patrick Zhuwao painted a grim picture of the perceived Zanu-PF political success story, and he questioned why I write in general terms about the shortcomings of Zanu-PF, without taking direct aim at the sinning leadership. This is quite a

fair question deserving a satisfactory answer.

He went on to write in detail about his own experience as someone within the Zanu-PF leadership, and also as a businessperson who has met first hand with the menace of patronising politicians, the predatory kleptomaniacs that often thrive on raiding shares in other people’s business initiatives.

On December 27 in 2013, I took direct aim at some corrupt members of Zanu-PF leadership in a piece titled “Do we have a revolution betrayed?” published by this paper, and this is not to provide an answer to Zhuwao’s demanding question.

There are a number of issues that I raised in that article, and this week we will recap and look at these in the context of where the country is with the leadership of Zanu-PF, perhaps enjoying uncontested or incontestable power at the moment, thanks to the highly confused opposition politicians in the country.

Political supremacy should never be allowed to be a monopoly of a few people, and this is one of the greatest challenges African politics face today. When this is allowed to happen, it becomes inevitable that the masses will face a slow and painful starvation.

It is hard to imagine that we have allowed our country to degenerate into this jungle where hard work and merit no longer reward as much as blind loyalty, crime and corruption.

Democracy by its very nature must not breed condescending politicians who survive on manipulating the behaviour of all in order to enlarge their own tentacles. Zimbabwe must rid itself of the vote politician who sees nothing beyond the defeat of an opponent for political office.

We would be a lying nation if we do not accept that there are genuine concerns over matters of accountability in our country. We had the massive media exposures of 2013, where egregious malfeasance was exposed in many public owned companies like PSMAS, ZBC, Air Zimbabwe, NRZ among others, and this time we are reading about breathtaking conning of the masses through unscrupulous “house cooperatives”.

Instead of celebrating two years of the election-winning ever-glorious Community Share Ownership Schemes; we are now confronted with gruesome grilling of people suspected to have benefited from the scheme in an unbefitting manner. One would think by this time our communities would be counting the number of clinics, roads, water sources, or schools benefited from this election-winning superhero programme.

We cannot go far with people out there who owe their luxurious lifestyles to profligacy derived from perfidious obedience to the powerful and have very little regard for the people.

It is hard to believe that a simpleton like Godwin Gomwe could con so many people for such a long time unnoticed, like it was hard to believe that Happison Muchechetere could millionairise himself unnoticed at the ZBC, as was reportedly doing Cuthbert Dube at PSMAS and those two convicted Air Zimbabwe cretins whose names I will not bother to remember.

I am hardly convinced that anything has significantly changed at NetOne, NRZ, Zesa, GMB or any of the parastatals after the media exposures of 2013. We dramatise our politics and look away before we have hardly corrected anything.

I have written this before, and I will repeat it. We cannot for our own sake keep blaming imperial games for our own shortcomings and mistakes, even if that was the only pathway to secure the vote.

If the truth were to be told, Western sanctions, devastating as they have been, now stand like a pea next to the mountain when compared to the scandalous conduct from some of the people in our leadership, be it in industry or in politics.

We cannot expect the dedicated and well-meaning citizen to continue to camouflage the stinking ways of some looters and cretins in our leadership. It is about time we put a stop to patronage and protection politics in the republic.

We cannot continue to utter principles of people-oriented policies for the sole object of keeping the masses enslaved in the myopia of sweet populism. Zimbabwe cannot be allowed to degenerate into a country where our people start to consider it a miracle that life is beautiful.

Our political community harbours monstrous brutes obsessed with the demon of self-aggrandisement, and the scourge smites across the political divide.

It is time our generation cleanses the country of evil, corruption, abuse, and all forms of violence. We are an independent and free country and we must live up to the expectations of such a status.

For the end to justify the means, the end must be justifiable in itself; and to this end our land reform programme and our economic empowerment policy must deliver prosperity to the people. I hope Zim-Asset will ensure this.

If we fail to produce on the land we have occupied, we are sending a clear message out there that we are so obsessed with the black skin that for its sake we are even prepared to resettle poverty on our fertile lands. That kind of racial bigotry does not have a place in today’s society.

There is no better justice for the people of Zimbabwe than the economic success of a black-controlled economy, but we must understand that mere dispossession of the colonially privileged will not in itself bring freedom and happiness.

Our politicians must always remember that people are like war — they will have their way.

We stand today in the face of Africa as that country still led by a revolutionary founding father of African independence, and frankly the man is highly admired by most of the people across the continent.

Is it not sad that the same man now seems to be holding together what appears to be a treacherous lot of outrageous malingerers? That perception is dangerous for Election 2018, as Patrick Zhuwao kept repeating in his piece.

Stopping a treacherous opposition from turning the country into a smelly imperialist barrack is quite plausible from any angle, but surely that alone does not suffice in the running of a country.

This is what Zanu-PF politicians need to grasp in their heads.

A revolution that breeds wrecking poverty for its people is to the masses a tripartite party to the threesome evil that includes slavery and imperialism.

The ruling party must not rejoice so much in sweeping electoral victories. Rather the party leadership must spend sleepless nights hunting more for economic solutions for the country, not displaying unquestionable expertise in providing swift solutions to the chaos in the internal politics of the revolutionary outfit.

We as a country cannot allow a situation where the crumbs from the table of imperialism come across as more appealing than the rewards of independent nationalism. That is betrayal to the revolution and it is demeaning.

A revolution is not made more powerful by bickering and infighting, and there is absolutely no dignity or wisdom in the dwindling of numbers in the game of politics. Those within Zanu-PF that are taking advantage of the Joice Mujuru politics to settle personal differences with personal enemies must realise that the nation deserves better than being exposed to such empty jokes.

We need learners in this revolution, we must from the actions of our detractors learn our survival, and it is not a sign of strength or cleverness to give as an excuse for our failures the actions of our enemies.

Economic sanctions were not put in place so we can have an excellent reason for canvassing for sympathy and votes, or so that we can exonerate ourselves from our own shortcomings.

ZDERA to us must be a sign of our strength as a country, not of our weakness. The United States fears independent nationalism, and ZDERA is the United States’ statement of fear in the face of our pro-people economic policies.

It is not by any means a statement of strength. It is a cowardly act from a terrified falling emperor, and it must inspire us to instil through our success more fear into the enemy, if I were to borrow from the often-misinterpreted yesteryear statement from President Mugabe.

We cannot keep applauding the crybaby politician who never stops bellyaching about the ruin of economic sanctions. Rather we must hunt for and applaud the politician of solutions, the politician that will inspire us as a country to render the sanctions economically ineffective.

So far we have celebrated our bravery and strategies in making the sanctions politically ineffective, and that is fine, but not an end in itself.

Anyone that trembles before the precepts established by the enemy cannot dream of vanquishing the same enemy, and that is why the politician bent on convincing us of the devastating strength of sanctions cannot be hailed as a hero.

Some politicians in our Government do not get along with the mirror, because they are very much aware of the scary image they know will confront them.

But it is the duty of the responsible citizens to keep the mirror gazing in the faces of public officials, whether they like it or not.

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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