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Panganai Kahuni Correspondent
THE waving of an open palm in a church sermon is a sign of an evangelical message of peace; a Godly message denoting faith and respect for the Lord.

An open palm is a Christian symbol which denotes submission to God, which shows Him our willingness and readiness to be spiritually served, healed and forgiven.

Thus an open palm is used internationally in churches, bus-stops, airports, road sides and at the end of family yards to bid farewell to friends on a journey; indeed on a good, peaceful, non-violent and well-intended journey for that matter.

The open palm is also used when welcoming or greeting loving friends as people shake hands and hug. An open palm is used to receive special and well-intended gifts and any other goodies given to the receiver in good faith.

However, this symbol that denotes hospitality, peace and stability in both the general and Christian communities, has been hijacked from places of worship, places of bidding farewell, places of welcoming, places of peace and greetings, to the streets of violence by the MDC-Alliance, who have used it in a violent fashion in an effort to bid farewell to our sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

Imagine Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa and Dewa Mavhinga going to the United States of America to ask for the tightening of sanctions.

Imagine the same people blaming the British for giving Zimbabwe $100 million to ease economic sanctions.

The open palm has been used to symbolise the loss of culture, “hunhu hwedu”, as the MDC-Alliance regards violence as a human right. It is now an open secret the MDC Alliance use every peaceful and democratic environment to use their violent slogan “Chisa mbama Chisa” to threaten peace-loving citizens, particularly ZEC with violence and war. Such a practice is against freedom of expression and the rule of law which they claim to uphold.

The open palm, instead of being used for welcoming well-intended visitors, the MDC-Alliance continues to use it to welcome visitors who rubbish Zimbabwe for the sake of pleasing their Western founders and funders. The MDC-Alliance in its lack of wisdom is now littering ZEC with frivolous legal cases. In the hope of rubbishing ZEC, the MDC-Alliance has teamed up with VERITAS in creating ungovernable situations in Zimbabwe, particularly targeting ZEC. What a garbled use of an open palm of violence.

The MDC-Alliance, instead of using the open palm for receiving legitimate legal advice that promotes the themes of democracy, rule of law, and human rights, they seem to use the open palm of violence to receive human rights and legal advice that only supports the interests of their paymasters, the USA.

This treacherous political formation in Zimbabwean history could not use their open palms to welcome Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights to give them (MDC-Alliance) legal advice for suing the British for murdering innocent refugees in Chifombo, Nyadzonia, and Chimoio. Instead, the MDC-Alliance used the open palms of treachery to coin a slogan which instigates violence.

The MDC-Alliance slogan “Chisa mbama Chisa” is a violent slogan which instigate fighting. “Chisa mbama Chisa” in Shona means “rova munhu nembama zvakasimba”.

One can argue that their violent slogan is the main reason behind intra-party violence that rocked the MDC factions in Buhera and Bulawayo recently.

Notwithstanding the human rights successes in Kenya, which were ably fronted by the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, forcing the British to agree to compensate the brutalised Mau Mau elders, the MDC-Alliance is using the open palm of violence to welcome the American Senators to give them what clearly can be said to be treacherous political advice.

The MDC-Alliance, in their passion to remain reactionary political formation, use open palms of treachery to receive dirty money from the Western-funded VERITAS and quasi-political partners (civil societies) to pay their legal teams for a treacherous job well designed to undermine ZEC.

Imagine $2 billion invested into MDC-Alliance through civil societies during period 2008-2013, but the country has no economic activity to show. The claim that zanu-pf is corrupt when this huge amount of money cannot be counted for is malicious.

Dear reader, do you know of any good that the open palm of violence has been used for by the MDC-Alliance? I bet all my horses if anyone gets a dot of any good that the reactionary forces used the open palm for.

After using the open palm of violence to welcome the heinous illegal economic sanctions that brought the three-headed inclusive or is it a monstrous government, the MDC Alliance continued with their treachery by forming parallel government structures. Sadly, the open palm of treachery invited foreign security agencies whom they welcomed to run the parallel structures. This clearly demonstrates their hypocrisy when they call for security and media reforms while they invite CIA and MI5 to run Government affairs.

The other reason that might fail the violent coalition is the fact that people are no longer interested in the politics that never bring food to the table.

The open palm of violence, which won the majority seats in Bulawayo in 2008-2013, treacherously neglected the people from that region. Instead of making Bulawayo a political rallying point, MDC-Alliance failed the majority of people from Bulawayo by allowing industries to close.

Remember former ministers Ncube and Biti played a cat-and-mouse game when it came to releasing distressed companies’ funds. The funds were supposed to help Bulawayo industries to re-open and in some cases sustain production that would protect people from losing jobs. Today they are teaming up to attack the good zanu-pf mantra which says “Zimbabwe is open for business”.

The fact is that the two ministers hail from the open palm of violence, which for the past decades neglected the people of Bulawayo by not appointing a meaningful number in cabinet while not caring for their livelihood as they allowed industries to close. People in Bulawayo must know that these are the two reactionary ministers who, as lawyers crafted the American sanctions bill, which resulted in people in Zimbabwe, particularly in Bulawayo to suffer due to industrial closures caused by sanctions. Today they continued in their comfort zone needlessly colliding in attacking investors being invited to come and invest for the good of every Zimbabwean, including MDC supporters.

However, the revolutionary party’s use of a fist is widely used globally for good intentions. Globally, a fist, regardless of its harmer shaped outlook, is used in various circumstances to signify victory. It is an open secret that footballers use clichéd fists to celebrate a score. Any success is signified by a clinched fist. Ironically, even those that oppose zanu-pf, clinch fists from terraces of the stadiums, approving a good move in the game of soccer. I have yet to see anyone who waves an open palm to celebrate a good move in any game; be it soccer tennis or volley.

zanu-pf has recast itself from years of isolation by doing the correct thing of opening up for business and by removing the barriers created by G40 that was aimed at destroying the economy. MDC-Alliance continues to put spanners in the works by inviting VERITAS and American Senators to help it to preach hate speech and carry out personality attacks on political opponents.

Fellow Zimbabweans, what will be your role in the forthcoming harmonised elections? Is it to wave the open palm of violence which is voting for Western interests, or you would rather defend your Independence by voting wisely. Remember what happened in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Ivory Coast. People in Libya and Iraq were fooled by the Americans and their Western allies to change their governments and are now in perpetual violence. Is this not what the MDC-Alliance, with its open palm of violence, is advocating for? Be warned!

Dr Panganai Kahuni is a political socio-economic commentator, a researcher and a diplomat in the Sadc region writing on his personal capacity.