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Joice Mujuru’s UK adventure has seen her having a meeting with Mr Guy Watson Smith, the former owner of her Ruzambo Farm in Beatrice

Nick Mangwana View from the Diaspora

They say every government makes mistakes. No matter how principled, how democratic, how fair minded or how welfare minded it is, it will make mistakes. So when a government has been in power for a bit and runs a programme or policy which has the word “transformation” in it, it is a polite way of admitting that it has made mistakes along the way which it’s now remedying.

A good government should also be amenable to justifiable criticism and should allow that criticism to influence it and it should make adjustments where necessary. So when a very senior government official leaves that government under whatever circumstances and crosses over to the opposition there are expectations.

One of the expectations is that the said person takes responsibility for their errors of commission and or omission. But if someone who has been in government for 34 years and 10 of those years as the second in command cannot take responsibility for a single action of that government and yet expect people to trust them then they are guilty of political deception. That is the reason why they run into political cynicism.

Our politics has been full of too much rhetoric that it has made the electorate cynical. This could be the reason why we have social movements which have gained more traction than some political parties.

This might also be one of the reasons why Dr Joice Mujuru’s UK adventure was a total disaster.

Opposition politics is looking quite hopeless. It is also clear that the only party that has traction is Zanu-PF because it is relying on tried and tested mobilisation methods and political infrastructural building. Many parties are being formed, but not gaining ground because people are not only sceptical. They are also cynical.

At the heart of this is the painful sentiment that politics now draws only corrupt people as participants or alternatively corrupts all the participants it draws.

This is why some erroneously put their trust in social movements which are just a phenomenon with no end game in sight.

Every time someone asks for an explanation on how the bond notes will work, they should listen to the logic and the mechanics of it.

They will nod their heads in satisfaction at the genius behind the idea. But as sure as the sun rises from the east they would say, “but we don’t trust the government not to abuse the facility.” But I digress. Let us focus on why people are cynical of Dr Mujuru. Why is she facing so much negativism and disapproval?

Cynicism abounds when there is a belief that human conduct is motivated by nothing else, but self-interest. This makes one contemptuous and distrustful of human nature. From there, there is natural disposition towards antagonism.

In short one simply concludes that there is no goodness in human beings. But in one particular example, it appears there is just no honesty in Dr Mujuru.

Clear cases of manipulation of public perceptions will not help build trust in her and her ZimPF project. What manipulation?

Let us start with her much publicised meeting and arrangements with Mr Guy Watson Smith in London. It is clear that the public is being fed distortions and lies.

It is clear her spin doctors have engaged the overdrive to manipulate public perception. The case is simply a legal case she lost and all this political grandstanding is just ostentatious showmanship.

The fact is that, before the land reform programme, Mr Watson Smith ran the farm on which General Mujuru later died.

He ran it under the name Hanagwe Investments. When the Mujurus took the farm they also prevented him from removing his moveable assets which were then listed as 460 head of prime beef, 600 head of wild game, vehicles, 10 000 litres of fuel, 85 hectares of tobacco, fertiliser and the chemicals, state-of-the-art equipment, few hundred tonnes of coal and other improvements.

After this, summons were issued for the recovery of these items or compensation for the value of same. For reasons best known to them, these summons were sat on and the Mujurus did not bother to defend the case until the General’s tragic death.

In 2012, the lawyers for Hanagwe Investments applied for a judgment against the Mujuru estate which was now under the full control of Dr Mujuru.

That judgment was granted in 2015 and she was ordered to pay $1 469 440 and 5 percent interest calculated from August 20, 2004 and costs. This is quite a hefty sum.

Hanagwe Investments and Mr Watson Smith have enough to execute this judgment against the Mujuru estate. Why then are we being subjected to this pontification and political grandstanding?

Here is someone who is making debt resolution arrangements trying to falsely mislead and milk political capital.

Now let us not be contemptuous of the consumers of our information by selling that baloney as an example of ZimPF and its leader’s moral superiority. When the electorate harbours hostile distrust towards politicians it is because of this level of dishonesty and expedient political grandstanding.

It was never Government policy to take someone’s cattle. It was never Government policy to loot someone’s diesel.

It was a land reform programme. It was not about looting.

Alright, there were excesses, but at least if you want to embark on revisionism be honest about it. Tell the people that there are judgments that Guy Watson Smith can execute against you and your assets. You see why some are cynical?

This is probably one of the reasons why she drew only 23 people to her rally in Lupton.

To imagine this included her NERA comrades like Elliot Pfebve and yet she had that pathetic crowd. Clearly because she has chosen a road of deception she cannot be trusted.

This was the gist of every question she was asked at Chatham House. People wanted to know how they could trust her.

Not because she had been in Zanu-PF, but because she did not take responsibility.

She did not stand for something therefore was falling for anything that can pander to her Western audience. How can one say they put the “People First” and then come with the most extreme neo-liberal nonsense that even sworn capitalists like Donald Trump would be ashamed of?

When all that had been said and done, she claims to uphold the ideals of the liberation struggle.

What a gibberish political cacophony? The people are failing to connect with this type of political dishonesty. Didn’t we see this in Bulawayo at her maiden rally?

Instead of simply apologising and like Saul during his damascene moment, she decided again to refuse to take responsibility. Everyone knows she insulted the late VP Dr Joshua Nkomo in the most disparaging way.

Now that the political context is different she could have simply apologised to his family. But no, she did not.

What did she do? She denied it. Some American presidential hopeful called Mitt Romney once said that “leadership is about taking responsibility. Not making excuses”.

This one is making too many excuses and taking no responsibility.

Does she want the nation to believe that she was a hostage in Government for 34 years? A hostage minister of Government for 24 years and a hostage Vice President for 10! As she was being asked these questions at Chatham House, every intonation had a conflation of cynicism and distrust. She should just raise her hands like a normal human being and say, “I made mistakes and I am sorry” Not just “It wasn’t me”.

That is just being contemptuous of the people who have seen your burgeoning financial purse. There is a difference between rhetorical political strategy and downright dishonesty. We are dealing with the latter here.

Politics by its very nature is inherently a dishonesty craft. But the Zimbabwean public are not fools.

They now have political sophistication and realism as well. At the heart of this is cynicism. People are tired of being lied to.

When a rich and unrefined elite comes and stays in one of the most expensive rooms in London and achieves mediocrity and yet says they put “people first” without a hint of irony, one should just nod their heads in appreciating the daring political hypocrisy.

Respecting people and putting them first takes much more than just rhetoric. What about those Tawanda Nyambirai cases?