It was the best thank you for Mozambique to fight an insurgency group that was created by the Smith regime. I also remember a Zimbabwe that empathised with Mozambique after President Samora Moises Machel’s plane crashed under mysterious circumstances in apartheid ruled South Africa.
However, some pictures in the private media this Tuesday have given that false impression that maybe and maybe — Zimbabweans are still able to show their appreciation to Mozambique. But it was the exact opposite when I saw some women and a few men under the banner of the non-governmental groups WOZA doing some grandstanding on the streets of Harare. The way they would kneel on the roads, was a caricature of women kneeling and saying, “Yes baas” on roads a lot of the elderly women in their midst were forbidden to freely walk on some three decades ago.
Have we thrown away the baby together with the bath water? I hear that the women were demanding the inclusion of devolution in the new constitution. In the evening, I asked my 76-year old mother what she knows about devolution, and she drew a blank. I wondered how many of the people in the two groups I saw knew what devolution is all about. Did they speak about it when Copac did its outreach programmes?
This is the toned down backdrop I present to Zanu-PF. I wrote about Mozambique and all the liberation movements in another publication, but the long and short of it is that Frelimo, Swapo of Namibia, MPLA of Angola and the ANC of South Africa just like Zanu-PF have been around for half a decade and more. While Frelimo celebrated its golden jubilee, the ANC hit a century. And, just like Zanu-PF, they fought protracted liberation wars against the settler colonialists. When they gained independence, the challenges were always there — fighting imperialists. In Mozambique, it was Renamo and in Angola we had Unita led by Jonas Savimbi.
But the question that Zanu-PF has to ask itself is why a revolutionary party of its stature is the only one in a power sharing arrangement, an event that happened before it clocked fifty years. And, who now says that Zanu-PF is not a democratic party when it is the only one to incorporate other political parties in a power-sharing deal? And how unsettling the term is — power sharing!
We say this lest some people have forgotten that naked truth and would want to claim their pseudo revolutions and victories over that which was waged by the people. The amnesia and malaise that settles in some people is very worrying. You can’t believe it that when all sorts of strategies are being formulated in order to destroy Zanu-PF, instead of seeing a spirited and united front to fight it, everyday you hear about factionalism and fighting for political positions.
When President Mugabe always says, “Unity, unity, unity”, what does Zanu-PF need to realise that if it had been a deck of cards, it would have never won that war of liberation and all the stringent measures placed on it for working for the people’s cause? Some in Zanu-PF have never wondered why all the political violence is always put on their doorstep, and are only willing to accept responsibility. The bigger picture in all these strategies is either blurry or non-existent.
As some people argue, Zanu-PF has become so accommodating and compromising, but the end result is that the enemy they fought yesterday will emerge as their master wearing a black mask, if they continue like this.
My argument has always been what Zanu-PF members have done towards advancing the national cause, and not what a Zanu-PF government has done for them, for when a government is in power, it caters for all citizens. Embarking on the most controversial and revolutionary policies in the early part of this century was not going to earn it friends, but lots of enemies. But, a critical question is how many among those seeking political office from cell level know just a fraction of what Zimbabwe has?
We cannot aspire for leadership positions unless we know how well endowed the country is. How many times have we heard how the country’s mineral resources have been creamed off, because we don’t even know what is in our land’s bowels? I advance the same argument towards the MDC parties and others who call for security sector reforms — endangering the country’s national security — that if they do not have the liberation struggle credentials, the least they can do is to visit Mkushi, Tembwe, Nyadzonia and Chimoio in Zambia and Mozambique, respectively. If they have a conscience, they would be able to understand that this freedom did not come on a silver platter. Monday, was another day to remember that Mozambique and other nations made huge sacrifices for this nation and Africa?
Today you hear former Rhodesian soldiers boasting about these genocide killings on videos posted on the Internet. Why has this issue become so critical? When I listened to United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of State James Baker talk about how they incisively implement their will in different parts of the world: from Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Latin America, I told myself that it’s time Zanu-PF realised that fighting for positions is not the be end and end all.
The land reform programme is sacrosanct. It is the golden medal for waging that struggle, but a medal should have positive results. In the age of the Internet, how many Zanu-PF cadres have conscientised the world about this important milestone? Why not use the spaces and platforms they created to spread nuggets of this empowering move? Thousands of Zanu-PF cadres go on the Internet every day. Some use social media.
Has it been used to advance national interests? Everyday I go on various websites and what has surprised me is that there are certain active buttons like “Tengesa Zimbabwe”.  If one has low level Shona understanding, they would easily conclude that this is about selling off Zimbabwe — a treasonous act — to willing buyers. They look like adverts, but the moment you activate them they lead you to countless documents and their links. In most cases, I end up reading because you realise that someone is working hard to ensure that their agendas remain visible, active and relevant.
Despite the efforts made by President Mugabe in realising an e-Zimbabwe for all, the most surprising indictment you hear about Zanu-PF is their disinterest in embracing the new ways of doing business in the age of the Internet. You also hear many level-headed analysts saying that Zanu-PF has very good policies, but they need to be packaged properly. They need savvy marketers and advertisers who understand all the footprints. Renowned lawyer Jonathan Samkange who was also a student leader during his days at the University of Zimbabwe is a respectable man. I asked myself what Samkange was seeing in Zanu-PF and its future, which many are not seeing. He is probably aware that the MDC combinations and non-governmental organisations are getting lots of funding to oust Zanu-PF, but in my view, he has held on to his student days activism, and remained committed to the ideals of this country.
It educated me.

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