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War vets besmirch popular politics
Marko Phiri
October 24, 2007

The current political events surrounding Zimbabwe-s veterans of the 1970s war of liberation marching across the country in the most vocal support so far of President Robert Mugabe-s controversial bid as Zanu PF-s candidate next provide intriguing insights about Zimbabwe-s post-independence politics.

Others however will insist there is nothing totally new or fascinating about what is viewed as what has become typically belligerent loyalty, therefore nothing intriguing about these developments which for the first time have thrust the ruling party in the public eye as a divided house.

Never before has it been an issue that the ruling party emerges publicly divided on who will chart the way forward as the party-s presidential candidate.

The fate of those men who attempted to be some kind of mavericks and changed lanes from parroting the official party mantras to making overt proclamations that Zanu PF was in dire need of new blood is already known.

Recent history has recorded the suspension of men alleged to have attempted to change the Zanu PF script in what has come to be infamously known as the Tsholotsho Declaration. And we have one of them now leading the marches that have raised the ire of many within the party ranks, including the so-called old guard who in the past would be have been expected to rally behind the marches without raising hell about whoever is leading them.

We have the mayhem in the farms under leadership of Hunzvi as a pointer to the endorsement of policies inimical to the ideals of national growth and prosperity.

No one questioned the doctor-s mandate, no one distanced themselves, he was virtually the party-s spokesman.

However, the script appears to have been re-authored and no one within those same usually jingoistic ranks will endorse a movement which has only succeeded in providing enough proof there are deep divisions within the ruling party.

What is recalled as one of the earliest but eventually useless calls for Mugabe to step down was when the man who become a virtual "come-back-kid" Dzikamayi Mavhaire famously called for his boss to step down. Of course we know what happened to him thereafter: he was cast into the political wilderness only to bounce back as a "loyal cadre" who then found his way to the Senate singing praises to the same establishment which only a few years ago he thought had long passed its best before date.

While no one within the party ranks has come out in the open with guns blazing in the present internal politics and dared repeat what many believe would be foolhardy, what the war veterans are telling a crisis-weary nation is that, sure this has been whispered within the party ranks.

The majority of Zimbabweans have shown their dislike of the ruling party, and now that the party-s own ranks are divided about their leadership this ought to say something about the direction the country is taking. It certainly is not the route to Damascus.

These folks marching on the streets bullying all and sundry even "the godfathers" of the revolution make a mockery of the whole idea of popular politics where the people are the vanguard of the movement, not a clique largely seen as seeking to freeze time despite the political and economic crisis the nation finds itself in.

The ruling party-s concept of democracy and popular politics has always been questioned, even long before the emergence of a powerful political opposition, and the founding fathers did flirt and try to force a one-party state on a bamboozled nation.

The search for solutions to the crisis is not being helped by men and women largely seen as out of touch with Zimbabwe-s harsh reality and whose claim to fame is not considered by some as what they stand for today, but rather the sacrifices they made three decades ago.

The whole obsession with having brought democracy to the country still falls outside the gamut of the precepts and fundamentals of democracy when these powerful positions - not financiers as has occurred in other democracies - choose leaders when we are told that what Africa needs are people-centred policies, not mere chants and slogans from quarters that have usurped electoral clout from the people and confined it to their own parochial interests.

Yet is has been observed even in the world-s so-called kosher democracies that the poor have virtually been disenfranchised as powerful businesses have influenced the policies, thrust and hue of political landscapes. However, the disenfranchisement in Zimbabwe is occurring on a level were the imposition of public officers is done through ways and means such that the ordinary people are browbeaten not by financial clout, but with cudgels.

In fact, the marching vets have adopted the Bushism: those opposed to what we are doing are traitors. And this in pugilistic parlance would be called hitting below the belt. Everybody knows who these aspersions are aimed at: those men and women who are reportedly resisting the old guard-s quest for eternal rule.

However, it is another cog in the Zanu PF machinery previously assumed to be powerful which has brought to the fore the power dynamics of ruling party politics. War vets leader Jabulani Sibanda has shown the location of former Zapu heavyweights in Zanu PF-s power games. They apparently have no place at all.

There were reports that the Matebele warriors allegedly reminded Mugabe of the Unity Accord. Why would they do that if they felt they were not being pushed to the periphery of Zanu PF-s internal politics? Some writers have opined that the race for Zanu PF-s leadership is confined to men and women from the country-s dominant dialectal loyalties without any mention of men and women the war veterans have riled with their solidarity marches.

All these questions have been asked before about the men from Zapu ever taking over the leadership of Zanu PF and with the enquirers being accused of stoking tribal emotions. The tragedy of Zimbabwean politics - and this has emerged even within the opposition - is that there is never room for reformists. War veterans are telling the world just that, and it is obvious then that even the electorate remains emasculated amid such circumstances.

If war veterans can stand up to men celebrated as fathers of the revolution but somewhat lost the plot when they were swallowed by the voracious mouth of the ruling party, imagine the fate of anyone of us who dares chant a different slogan?

The next obvious stage is to take the campaign to an electorate that needs to be convinced who to vote for next year. And post-2000 campaigns provide ample proof of what that entails, and who will forget the notorious "re-education camps" with surgeries reportedly being turned into torture chambers. That people have lost faith in Zimbabwe-s electoral system is only cemented by activities such as those of war veterans which seek to ignore the basics of popular democracy where the people ultimately decide their own course.

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