SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
Tanonoka Joseph Whande Monday 16 December 2013 Yet another ZANU-PF congress has come and gone and, as usual, nothing happened except the same thing that has always happened every time these people gather to rubber stamp Mugabe’s whims and wishes. I am so ashamed of Mugabe and I wonder from what tree ZANU-PF adherents come from because they never go in step with the people of Zimbabwe but, rather, collectively inflict untold suffering on the people. They gathered in Chinhoyi over the weekend to worship a devil who has made their lives miserable since thirty-four years ago. Even Satanists could have come up with a better congress and meaningful resolutions. How a congress can bring together hundreds of people from across the nation, among them lawyers, doctors, engineers, educationists and other professionals, to actually elect Robert Mugabe as their leader is satanic, to put it mildly. And they cheered as Mugabe insulted people in and outside Zimbabwe. It is such a shame that Mugabe is known more for insults than for caring for his people. I wonder if ZANU-PF people are masochists. Do they love pain that much? Do the people in ZANU-PF think or they long turned into zombies who gave their brains to Mugabe for “safe-keeping”? There does not seem to be independent thinkers in that party. It is now a party of people whose only ambition is to steal from the nation as much as they can. Their only desire is to perch themselves in good positions to rape the country. Mugabe succeeded in turning his party supporters into unthinking robots who give unquestionable blind loyalty to him. The party specializes in the abuse of the nation. And now when the banks no longer have cash to give to those who want to withdraw their savings, when companies are folding up and have, once again, started to close down and to relocate, when the government cannot pay civil servants and Members of Parliament, when government is chasing women selling tomatoes and vendors so as to share their meagre profits with the government and when Mugabe’s government is invading churches to take away what the faithful put together for their orphanages, Mugabe stands up to tell his ignorant followers that he finally has an economic solution and waves a piece of paper he calls ZimAsset; and they applaud. Our economy has become stagnant since the so-called elections and there is once again talk about re-introducing the Zim Dollar because it allows Mugabe and his thieves to short circuit economic practices and bring back unpronounceable inflation at a time when people have no formal employment. A glance at the ZANU-PF leadership tells a sorry story of how imbeciles and none achievers actually hold the nation to ransom. The list of the top ZANU-PF leadership resembles an inventory of mentally stagnated recycled citizens. They are, indeed, mentally stagnated, if the last 34 years have shown us anything. Robert Mugabe, Joyce Mujuru, Simon Khaya Moyo, Emerson Mnangagwa Didymus Mutasa etc. It is a shameful line-up. Gifted with unequalled greed, vindictiveness and a curious hatred of Zimbabweans, Mugabe has become synonymous with cruelty, murder, arrogance and, yes, evil. Joyce Mujuru has got to be the worst of the lot and owes her position to a combination of tribalism and marriage to the late Solomon Mujuru. She has never been out of the cabinet since independence and I would love to scan her resume just to see what lies she tries to tell even her own children. Simon Khaya Moyo is a pathetic survivor who also climbed to the party chairmanship, not because of intellect, but because of tribal balancing. Moyo stopped thinking when Vice president Joshua Nkomo passed away. What can Zimbabweans expect from these people who have been in and out of government for the last 34 years and who have landed us in the mess that we find ourselves in? Recycling might be good for plastics and paper but not for failed leaders like these. Meantime, my home boy Emerson Mnangagwa continues to dream that one day he might actually take over the presidency. This man has been used so often and for so long. He was never a popular man even in his home area of Zvishavane. He had to run for elected office in Kwekwe, where he was finally booted out. It is this unpopularity, which persists from as far back as the liberation war days, that has caused him to connive with snakes like Jonathan Moyo. An alleged lawyer who never set foot in a court, Mnangagwa’s patience borders on stupidity. Now that Mugabe himself appears to be playing peekaboo with the succession issue, Mnangagwa is doomed, unless, of course, he does something illegal and grabs the reigns. He should never for one moment believe that all those people in what he thinks is his camp will let him ascend to the presidency. And, when it comes to this issue, Mugabe is not a fool. It is amazing that, after all these years, Mnangagwa has not even noticed that he was being used. They kept him incapacitated by regularly and deceptively pushing him forward as a possible Mugabe successor, when the puppet masters knew that he was not going to go anywhere. I hope this time he can see beyond his misguided ambitions and return to earth. ZANU-PF people, barren of any meaningful and encouraging foresight, stood up and cheered when Mugabe lied about Nelson Mandela refusing to meet with former US president George Bush. Mugabe is mired in negativity. While other people are busy trying to mend fences, care for their people, set development and political agendas for their nations, Mugabe, like an escapee from Engutsheni Mental Hospital, uses his time to insult people and cause mayhem like a hyena which cannot feed in the absence of chaos. Mugabe pioneered reconciliation. He did it long before Mandela did the same thing and he was believed to such an extent that he was muted for a Nobel Peace Prize at independence. His reconciliation fell apart. It was fake. After killing and beating up white members of our society and taking their properties Mugabe then turned his vengeance on his own people. Just look at what he is doing to us. When Mandela came out of prison, he preached reconciliation to include every citizen of South Africa. He was genuine and to this day the foundation laid down by his reconciliation efforts is the one that is holding South Africa together. Is Mugabe not ashamed that F.W. de Clerk of “apartheid South Africa” won the Nobel Peace Prize which he himself failed to win as a liberator? Would it not have been nice for Mugabe to set the stage by winning the Nobel before Mandela did, then we would have had Mugabe and Mandela in the same camp? While the liberator continues killing his own people, de Klerk, a man we considered an enemy, has a Nobel Peace Prize to show for his willingness to compromise and accept inclusiveness. It was sickening to see Mugabe at Mandela’s memorial service. The heart of the matter is that this Chinhoyi gathering should have been the time ZANU-PF followers took control of their party and laid down the rules, chief among which being that Mugabe should step down and let younger people run the party. ZANU-PF followers showed a great deal of irresponsibility by allowing themselves to be coaxed into keeping Mugabe as leader. I do not believe for one moment that all those ZANU-PF people honestly believe that there is still something good that Mugabe could surprise his party, let alone the nation, with. Unless if we were talking about more deaths of innocent citizens. In that, Mugabe excels. In electing to keep Mugabe, ZANU-PF adherents did not vote for the well-being of the nation or party, they voted for an opportunity to continue with all the bad things that ZANU-PF has been doing with Mugabe’s blessing. Party congresses are important undertakings because the nation’s leaders come from such party meetings. Now, ZANU-PF supporters have sentenced Zimbabwe to more years of hard labour. I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Monday, December 16, 2013.