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If Zanu-PF fails to impeach Mugabe before congress - his clenched fist salute will have a practised stiff middle finger!

by Nomusa Garikayi
21 Nov 2017 at 10:03hrs | Views
Last night, many people especially Zimbabweans expected President Mugabe to say he was resigning his position as President of the country. It is an understatement to say many people outraged to hear him rumble on and on about trivial matters and not say the one thing they wanted to hear.

Come to think of it, people would have been surprise if he had resigned. After 37 years of Mugabe's corrupt, vote rigging and murderous rule; we know that his greed for absolute power is insatiable and that, in his pursuit of power, he is ruthless and totally indifferent to the suffering and even deaths of other people. "Moyo wake wakashata seseri kumusha!" (His heart is as dirty and foul as bush lavatory!), as my late mother would say.

So, Mugabe's refusal to resign is in keeping with his dirty and foul as the bush lavatory heart.

University of Zimbabwe students had a huge demonstration, lectures and exanimations were cancelled, demanding Mugabe's resignation. The war veterans led by former Minister Chris Mutsvangwa are calling for a huge public demonstration tomorrow; they too are demanding that Mugabe resign "immediately"!

Zanu PF central committee has met and resolved to expel President Mugabe from the party. The party which has well over the two thirds majority in both houses has resolved to impeach President Mugabe, proceeding to start on Tuesday, tomorrow. Impeachment should have been the coup plotter's plan B and should have been triggered as soon as it was clear that President Mugabe would not resign. The process should take a few days but given Zanu PF's blundering incompetence it could take weeks!

There is nothing to be gained by people staging more public demonstrations calling on Mugabe to resign, especially now that the impeachment process has finally began. Besides the people should now be turning their attention on their own big fight before them, the fight for the implementation of the democratic reforms. The fight to remove Mugabe from office is important but only if it is a stepping stone to achieving our goal of dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship to create a democratic Zimbabwe.

What the people must understand is that the firing of Mnangagwa and the coup that followed are all part and parcel of the factional wars that have been tearing Zanu PF apart, the party is imploding. But whichever faction wins and never mind how much weakened it might be we should not make the mistake of assuming the Zanu PF dictatorship itself is dead too. Indeed, throughout the factional fighting both sides have been very careful not to destroy the dictatorship, it is the bridge both side want retained intact.

The Lacoste faction, staging the coup and now the follow up impeachment is only interested in removing Mugabe from office and replace him with Mnangagwa. The Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its corrupted Police, Army, ZEC, etc. has not changed and will be expected to kick into gear, rig the vote and deliver another Zanu PF electoral victory. Mugabe and the other G40 members know that the Lacoste Zanu PF led government will not seek to recover all their amassed wealth for fear the move will backfire and expose their own looting too.

For ordinary Zimbabwean need the dictatorship dismantle for us to restore our individual freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections and the right to life. We need the bricks from the dismantled dictatorship to rebuild the democratic institutions, the two systems of government cannot co-exist, as long as the dictatorship remains democracy will remain a pipe dream.

The G40 vs Lacoste factional war has taken a heavy toll on both and the Zanu PF dictatorship is at its weakest. This is the most opportune time for the people to press their demand for meaningful democratic change and not be distracted by the side show of the final act driving Mugabe out of office.

Come to think of it, Mugabe and his G40 can stay on stay on in one form or another and harass and hurry Mnangagwa, for the remaining 8 months of this regime's term of office, if that will weaken the Zanu PF dictatorship even more. Unlike the General Chiwenga and his posse of generals who stage the coup whose primary object was to remove Mugabe and replace him with Mnangagwa, our primary objective is to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, the mother ship, itself.

Mugabe's refusal to resign because of his dirty and foul heart may force the Zanu PF's factional war to drag on and on to be bitter end; allowing the Mnangagwa faction no time to settle and regroup and leaving them to inherit a hollowed out Zanu PF dictatorship. This would be very much to our advantage; our drive for democratic change has even better chance of success against an enfeebled Mnangagwa than a well-rested regrouped Mnangagwa.

If we, the people of Zimbabwe, play our cards right we can stay out of the Zanu PF factional war and let Mugabe wear out Mnangagwa and his Lacoste thugs. Mugabe has been dealt a damaging blow with the coup, they are too weak to deliver the coup de grace but smart enough to know they cannot let him off the hook or they are all dead. With the rage swept from under his feet Mugabe cannot cause very little mischief to the nation but he is clearly causing havoc in Zanu PF itself. With each passing day Mugabe remains president he is making Mnangagwa look more and more foolish.

Mugabe has always treated his Zanu PF cronies and thugs with contempt. In his 37 years in power, there was cabinet meeting unless he was there to chair it, for example. Little wonder Margaret Dongo once dismissed Zanu PF MPs, cabinet members and other party leaders as "vakadzi vaMugabe" (Mugabe's subservient concubines)!

There are stories that Mugabe is insisting on serving his full five-year term. If that was to happen, we can be certain of one thing Mugabe will be trying every dirty trick he can think of to ensure Mnangagwa is defeated and never ever become president! So, given time G40 and Lacoste destroy each other completely, and destroy the Zanu PF dictatorship itself too. What better outcome could the nation wish for than that!

If the impeachment was to drag on and Mugabe attends the Zanu PF party congress in three weeks time as President of Zimbabwe; he will salute his erstwhile Zanu PF subservient concubines with the traditional clenched fist but with a practised stiff middle finger!




Source - Nomusa Garikayi