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Deliberate coincidences - the Indigenisation Act and the ban of food aid
Phil Matibe
February 14, 2010

http://www.zimtelegraph.com/?p=5918

Zimbabweans are akin to Plato-s "Allegory of the Cave", a people dwelling in a dark cave analogy: a group of people living in a dark cave chained all of their lives and facing a blank wall. The only form of activity they see are shadows projected on the wall by objects passing in front of a fire behind them. The people in Zimbabwe are not seeing reality but only a shadowy representation of it.

As in Zimbabwe, the people deep inside of a dark cave have begun to believe whatever the government and ZANU (PF) tells them is true. The few brave men and women who have escaped from this vortex of propaganda, and have seen the real democratic world, are struggling to come back to the dark cave. They have seen life as it truly is and not as how it is said to be by Mugabe and his peddlers of misinformation.

The most successful economies and democratic societies thrive on tolerance and cultural pluralism, are not homogeneous, but embrace diversity. These progressive societies reward work with wealth and encourage entrepreneurialship which invariably creates businesses that are a source of vitality. There is honour in achievement and work. Economies are driven by citizens who only invest their hard-earned capital and impart their skills when guaranteed that their property, civil liberties, and business rights are protected by unbendable laws cast in stone.

ZANU (PF) criers have gone hoarse, bleating the mantra that sanctions hurt the ordinary masses and must be removed as a condition for the land audit to occur and for outstanding issues on the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to be resolved. The shutdown of extra-terrestrial radio stations, which give dissenting voices a platform, has now been thrown in as a pre-condition for ZANU (PF) to adhere to the rule of law. It is no coincidence that the mere suggestion of an election triggers a response that is tantamount to callous food depravation for poor rural voters. ZANU (PF) and its ministers have unilaterally sanctioned the rural poor for political expediency.

Joseph Made, the Minister of Agriculture, announced through the government tabloid Manica Post, that the government has banned food handouts by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO). This heartless directive affects two million starving villagers whose crops failed due to the bungling government failing to supply fertiliser, seeds, and draught power on time. Or was it deliberate? ZANU (PF) is now introducing the Juche (North Korean) style food-for-work programme and if its past programmes are the barometer, a ZANU (PF) card and voter registration card are prerequisites for food aid.

Skilled exiled Zimbabweans who eventually want to return from the Diaspora will find it difficult to function in a dark cave again. The leaders of the dark cave will prosecute anyone inside the cave who does not believe that what they are told is true.

After independence, the international community and the populace were first told that the killing of innocent civilians in Matebeleland during Gukurahundi was an internal operation against armed bandits known as dissidents. 20 000 innocent women and children of Ndebele ethnicity were brutally murdered by men led by Robert Mugabe.

A decade later, Mugabe announced that land from whites would be taken and given to landless peasants in order to redress a colonial imbalance. Instead, land was taken from white farmers and given only to ZANU (PF) officials, with Mugabe grabbing as many as twelve farms for his family. The few handpicked smallholder farmers who support ZANU (PF) received plots that are predominantly in marginal agricultural regions.

The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, announced by Kasukuwere, a minister responsible for the dreaded youth militia, is now in place to strip, not only from whites, but Asians (maIndiya) and other non-indigenous business owners, of their companies. Mugabe is embarking on his winner-take-all campaign to reward his loyal followers, whom he relies upon to buttress his unpopular regime.

If, as a nation we are to split hairs over what constitutes an indigenous citizen, then Mugabe-s disputed foreign parentage becomes a genuine topic for national debate. It is glaringly obvious to any anthropologist or genealogy novice that Mugabe-s nephews with last names like Zhuwao are of Mozambican origin (Machukunda), and yet are in the forefront of dispossessing genuine Zimbabweans of their birthrights.

Zimbabweans must understand that a vindictive law that makes a wealthy person poor, will never reverse poverty—nor make the indigent prosperous.

The credulous Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leadership, which should never have abandoned its own democratic policies and popular stratagem of removing tyranny via the ballot, has been outmaneuvered by a cunning dictator. Mugabe is now stronger, thanks to the political immaturity, gullibility, naivety and avariciousness of the MDC leadership-"Makateyewa nedovi segonzo"- lured to a trap with peanut butter like a mouse.

The MDC leadership is being treated like mushrooms in the Government of National Unity (GNU). Mushrooms are kept in the dark fed cow manure and grow only to be eaten later by the same persons who were feeding them bovine excrement.

Soon it will be difficult for real revolutionaries to distinguish friend from foe, as the MDC leadership-s posture is a clone of that of the tyrants. They now enthusiastically sing from the same verse of the same hymn.

The few fearless and probing persons with the gumption to seek the truth, have sneaked out of the dark cave and discovered a different world in which people live with plenty of light, freedom and contentment. The time has arrived to enlighten and free the rest of the people still yoked to the prehistoric and abusive leadership of the cave.

* Phil Matibe was born in Zimbabwe in 1967. He is a father, an entrepreneur, and a farmer who now lives in exile in Texas, USA, banished by his own government and charged with treason for allegedly threatening the life of Robert Mugabe. Phil is a keen student of military history and an avid Pedigree Brahman Breeder - www.madhingabucketboy.com

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