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Zimbabwe's Elections 2013 - Index of Articles
The
lies my President told me
Tanonoka
Joseph Whande
August 26, 2013
http://www.swradioafrica.com/2013/08/26/the-lies-my-president-told-me/
One more time,
Robert Mugabe finds himself the centre of attention after
“winning” an election.
One more time,
Mugabe cherishes being on the pedestal, hurling insults at imaginary
foes at home and abroad but, at the same time, offering some form
of reconciliation as if he means it.
His speeches
no longer mean anything because, after 34 years of listening to
utter trash from this man, we have become such experienced listeners
that we know how easy it is for Mugabe to lie.
Mugabe has climbed
on his high pedestal and is spouting a lot of nonsense about the
great things that he and his government are going to do for Zimbabwe.
We should be
excited about this. After 34 years of failing to just improve on
what we inherited from the colonial government, Mugabe suddenly
has ideas that he wants to implement to get Zimbabwe back where
it once was.
I listened to
his gruesome inauguration speech which, in essence, was not much
different, in terms of agenda, hope and expectations, from the speech
he gave after being elected Prime Minister in 1980.
This is the
much hailed speech in which he lied about “beating swords
into ploughshares” and in which he lied about reconciliation.
Said Mugabe
at that time: “While my Government welcomes the mandate it
has been freely given and is determined to honour it to the letter,
it also accepts that the fulfillment of the tasks imposed by the
mandate are only possible with the confidence, goodwill and co-operation
of all of you…But you have to assist us by being patient and
peaceful.”
Can anyone tell
me if Zimbabweans were never at any time patient and peaceful? Did
the people ever beat up the government or it is Mugabe’s government
that teargassed, maimed and beat up people?
Hardly three
years into independence, Zimbabweans woke up to find themselves
in the midst of armed conflict between the government and a section
of disgruntled citizens.
It took Zimbabweans
20 years to finally send a message to Mugabe that they no longer
believed in him and were not going to jump and do as he wished anymore.
Thus, in 2000,
Mugabe tried to sneak past the people a constitution tailor made
for his own personal survival. And a national referendum was called
to either accept or reject the proposed constitution.
By 54.7 percent
to 45.3 percent of votes, Zimbabweans rejected the constitution
and Mugabe took it personally because, for the first time, the people
had voted him down – something he did not expect.
It was made
worse by the fact that a fledgling political party, the Movement
for Democratic Change, had been launched hardly five months earlier
on September 11th, 1999.
The MDC campaigned
hard for the rejection of the proposed constitution and that triggered
the coming out of the hibernating devil in Robert Mugabe.
Just as much
as he had been surprised by a rebuff from the nation, Mugabe, once
again, surprised all and sundry when he took the microphone and
gave a speech, reminiscent of his first speech as Prime minister
on April 17, 1980.
He was graceful
in defeat and told the nation that he would abide by the will of
the people.
Of course, he
did not.
Just like the
lies he had told in his 1980 speech, a few days after the humbling
speech, the first farm was invaded by the Svosve community of Mashonaland
East Province. A day or two later, a couple of farms were invaded
in Masvingo Province and, like they say, the rest is history. The
trend continues to this day.
Since the first
year of independence, we cannot forget the brutality with which
the nation was governed; we cannot forget the thousands of unnecessary
deaths.
We cannot forget
Entumbane and the resultant Gukurahundi.
Never can we
forget those who were abducted only for their decomposing bodies
to be found in some bushes.
Never can we
forget those who disappeared and thrown into disused mine shafts.
We cannot forget
those who were killed for participating in electioneering just because
they were suspected of supporting political parties of their choice.
And for this
SADC gives Robert Mugabe a standing ovation!
It is a shame
that while other African leaders are making genuine efforts to improve
their nations, we have an aged dictator who has fallen out of step
with trends of humanity.
Many African
presidents can never dream of emulating Zimbabwe’s approach
to indigenisation or land reform.
I dare the overly
enthusiastic Jakaya Kikwete to try it; even Jacob Zuma, Uhuru Kenyatta
and all those presidents who cheer Mugabe on while he is wreaking
havoc on the nation and on his own people.
Why is it necessary
for Mugabe to kill a farmer so as to “repossess” the
farm; a farm or immovable property which could simply be acquired
by the stroke of a pen?
There is no
doubt that Zimbabwe, just like all countries in the world, requires
land reform but Mugabe’s land reform programme was not ignited
by genuine necessity to redistribute the land and benefit the people.
After all, he,
at that time, had had about 20 years to sort out a clear programme
to redistribute the land, Lancaster House Constitution not withstanding.
Farm invasions
were set off as revenge after the humiliating defeat of the proposed
constitution and that explains the brutality with which it is being
executed.
And while we
are at it, if Mugabe denies you a 20kg bag of maize meal, what makes
you think he will resettle you on a fertile compulsorily acquired
farm? He won’t because those farms and properties are for
his associates and relatives not for the so-called ordinary Zimbabwean.
So much for
land reform.
His speech on
Thursday was a shameful attempt to rekindle lost glory when the
world believed in this man; when everyone wanted to give us a chance
to prove ourselves. The problem, however, was that in 1980, we did
not know Mugabe and believed him when he extended the hand of reconciliation
to the white community and to political opponents.
Said Mugabe
on Thursday: “With the elections now behind us, we can now
focus on rebuilding our nation which has been ravaged by illegal
sanctions imposed on us by the West. If yesterday the pretext for
imposing those sanctions was to do with a deficit of democracy here,
today we ask those culprit nations what their excuse is now?”
What a pathetic
old goat!
He wants to
focus on rebuilding the nation but does not acknowledge who destroyed
the nation in the first place.
Secondly, what
is “illegal sanctions”? Illegal to who? If Mugabe refuses
to trade with a country somewhere, why should that be “illegal”,
even if the reasons proffered are silly? Who decides illegality
and based on whose law?
At least Mugabe
is aware of one thing: deficit of democracy. He should also be aware
that the same deficit of democracy he is talking about is the reason
those targeted sanctions were imposed in the first place.
The heart of
the matter is that the reason there is so much acrimony in Zimbabwe
is because something is terribly wrong. Zanu-PF became too self-centered
to be fair to our citizens and the last elections were just another
milestone in the continuing misery of Zimbabweans coming from its
own leaders.
And, by the
way, has anyone seen Morgan Tsvangirai? Is it really the right time
to go into retreat? Shouldn’t he be assuring his followers
and telling them to hang in there while the party leadership is
doing this or that?
Leadership qualities
emerge when a leader finds himself in a hopeless situation…he
has to think on his feet, act fast while encouraging his followers
to continue moving or to take a tactical retreat. He is there with
them and the followers never have to guess what should be happening.
And we were
asked to choose between Mugabe and Tsvangirai? God have mercy!
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