News / Press Release
Lieutenant General Sibanda is Offside - PDP
30 Sep 2015 at 09:15hrs | Views
The People' Democratic Party (PDP) notes with concern the reckless and dangerous utterances attributed to the Zimbabwe National Army Lieutenant General Philip Valerio Sibanda in a statement read on his behalf during a 'Workshop on Raising Awareness of Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis' held in Bulawayo on 29 September 2015.
In his statement, General Sibanda bragged that the 'Army is ready for war'. This is an irresponsible and vacuous statement. Sibanda should be reminded that Zimbabweans do not want war, they want peace. People are not expecting the government to be preparing to attack a non- existent enemy but to be preparing for the forthcoming agricultural season. Zimbabweans want employment, education, health facilities, industry, development and democracy and not war.
The General's statement tends to signal where the priorities of the Mugabe led government are. It shows that government and it's military alliance are not concerned about human security but their preoccupation is state security. It boggles the mind that the General who in reality spoke on behalf of the ruling executive-military alliance ( the joint operations command-JOC) canvasses for war when currently the majority of Zimbabweans are ceaselessly haunted by starvation, hunger, poverty, unemployment and disease. Clearly, the priorities of the Mugabe-administration are misplaced and wrong- headed.
General Sibanda should know better. Wars are very expensive in both material and human terms. In the tail end of the 1990s, the Mugabe-administration got Zimbabwe National Army involved in a senseless military adventure in the DRC. In that war, Zimbabwe was using approximately USD$ 1 million per day to sustain the troops. Of course the military bosses used the advantage to loot the mineral resources and timber for their own personal advantages. While the DRC war benefited the ruling cabal it left thousands of families of the fallen soldiers without their bread winners and they have been neglected by government to this day.
Moreover, the DRC war contributed towards the triggers of the on-going economic disarticulations in Zimbabwe.It is therefore puzzling for the General to motivate for paradigms of war at a time when the soldiers - I mean the rank and file are living in squalid conditions, with erratic food supplies and inadequate salaries. In fact, the ordinary soldier, like the majority of Zimbabweans, is living in penury. Hence the military bosses and their civilian counterparts should stop hallucinating about phantoms of war and start provisioning services to the rank and file soldiers and the generality of the people.
PDP would like to categorically state that Zimbabweans do not want war, do not need war and do not believe in war. Instead, people want a government that is ready to provide jobs,create conditions for investment, resuscitate industry, provide social security nets for the elderly and for the vulnerable. They want a government that will prioritise development and democracy and not a saddist government that fantasizes about war and delights in human sufferings like what the Mugabe- administration is currently doing.
In his statement Sibanda also stated that 'the Defence of a nation involves taking active participation in ensuring that it's people are protected from psychological harm'.PDP would like to remind Sibanda and his cabal that indeed people need protection from psychological harm inflicted on them by the security establishment whose commander in chief is none other than Mugabe himself. Most Zimbabweans have psychological wounds inflicted on them during various self-styled military operations inclusive of Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina, Operation akudzokwi, Operation wavhotera papi and the most recent disappearance of Dzamara. Ironically, Sibanda's very statement about the readiness for war is aimed at causing psychological traumas to Zimbabweans.
PDP believes that Zimbabwe actually needs protection from the state president. Mugabe currently poses as the greatest national security threat compared to a non-existent external threat imagined by Sibanda and his clique. Reading wrong statements, sleeping and snoaring in front of regional and international cameras, falling in public and changing cabinet ministers like diapers are signs of an individual who is nolonger in control of all his mental faculties. Such an individual is dangerous to the public. It's worse when that kind of an individual is a head of state charged with serious national duties including the declaration of war. To spare Zimbabwe from being entrapped in political uncertainty, the commander in chief to whom General Sibanda reports to should resign. A clarion call for Mugabe's resignation makes better sense than readiness for war. PDP joins a dine of voices that are calling for the resignation of the commander in chief before he declares war against phatomic enemies and in the process destroys the future of our beautiful country.
Sibanda's statement also reveals that the military is intending to take an active interest in what he called 'the effect of certain information, ideas and concepts that can infiltrate into a people'. This was the most bizzare part of the General's statement. His statement reveals that the army is planning to control the media, information outlets as well as the thinking of the populace. This attitude of the army is known to exist in authoritarian states such as North Korea, Iran as well as Nazist German and fascist Italy of the 1st half of the 20th Century. Of course Zimbabweans have always drawn parallels between ZANU PF and the Nazis Party and between Mugabe and Hitler and between ZANU PF successive information ministers and Gobbels.
In the light of all this, PDP would like to draw the attention of General Sibanda and his cabal to the constitution of Zimbabwe Chapter 11 Article 208 (1), (2), (3), and (4) which provide for the conduct of the members of security services. In terms of these constitutional provisions, the security services should not imagine themselves as the servants of ZANU PF rather they should view themselves as the servants of the state and the people of Zimbabwe. We know that the ruling party has succeeded in buying the loyalty of the military officers through selective material payments and privileges but this should now come to an end.
Finally, PDP would like to call upon government and military officers to stop directing national resources towards the preparation for war and redirect them towards education, health, infrastructure development and towards serving life than towards ending life. More importantly, PDP calls for peace and tranquility to prevail over the paradigms of war pushed by the joint operations command (JOC)
In his statement, General Sibanda bragged that the 'Army is ready for war'. This is an irresponsible and vacuous statement. Sibanda should be reminded that Zimbabweans do not want war, they want peace. People are not expecting the government to be preparing to attack a non- existent enemy but to be preparing for the forthcoming agricultural season. Zimbabweans want employment, education, health facilities, industry, development and democracy and not war.
The General's statement tends to signal where the priorities of the Mugabe led government are. It shows that government and it's military alliance are not concerned about human security but their preoccupation is state security. It boggles the mind that the General who in reality spoke on behalf of the ruling executive-military alliance ( the joint operations command-JOC) canvasses for war when currently the majority of Zimbabweans are ceaselessly haunted by starvation, hunger, poverty, unemployment and disease. Clearly, the priorities of the Mugabe-administration are misplaced and wrong- headed.
General Sibanda should know better. Wars are very expensive in both material and human terms. In the tail end of the 1990s, the Mugabe-administration got Zimbabwe National Army involved in a senseless military adventure in the DRC. In that war, Zimbabwe was using approximately USD$ 1 million per day to sustain the troops. Of course the military bosses used the advantage to loot the mineral resources and timber for their own personal advantages. While the DRC war benefited the ruling cabal it left thousands of families of the fallen soldiers without their bread winners and they have been neglected by government to this day.
Moreover, the DRC war contributed towards the triggers of the on-going economic disarticulations in Zimbabwe.It is therefore puzzling for the General to motivate for paradigms of war at a time when the soldiers - I mean the rank and file are living in squalid conditions, with erratic food supplies and inadequate salaries. In fact, the ordinary soldier, like the majority of Zimbabweans, is living in penury. Hence the military bosses and their civilian counterparts should stop hallucinating about phantoms of war and start provisioning services to the rank and file soldiers and the generality of the people.
In his statement Sibanda also stated that 'the Defence of a nation involves taking active participation in ensuring that it's people are protected from psychological harm'.PDP would like to remind Sibanda and his cabal that indeed people need protection from psychological harm inflicted on them by the security establishment whose commander in chief is none other than Mugabe himself. Most Zimbabweans have psychological wounds inflicted on them during various self-styled military operations inclusive of Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina, Operation akudzokwi, Operation wavhotera papi and the most recent disappearance of Dzamara. Ironically, Sibanda's very statement about the readiness for war is aimed at causing psychological traumas to Zimbabweans.
PDP believes that Zimbabwe actually needs protection from the state president. Mugabe currently poses as the greatest national security threat compared to a non-existent external threat imagined by Sibanda and his clique. Reading wrong statements, sleeping and snoaring in front of regional and international cameras, falling in public and changing cabinet ministers like diapers are signs of an individual who is nolonger in control of all his mental faculties. Such an individual is dangerous to the public. It's worse when that kind of an individual is a head of state charged with serious national duties including the declaration of war. To spare Zimbabwe from being entrapped in political uncertainty, the commander in chief to whom General Sibanda reports to should resign. A clarion call for Mugabe's resignation makes better sense than readiness for war. PDP joins a dine of voices that are calling for the resignation of the commander in chief before he declares war against phatomic enemies and in the process destroys the future of our beautiful country.
Sibanda's statement also reveals that the military is intending to take an active interest in what he called 'the effect of certain information, ideas and concepts that can infiltrate into a people'. This was the most bizzare part of the General's statement. His statement reveals that the army is planning to control the media, information outlets as well as the thinking of the populace. This attitude of the army is known to exist in authoritarian states such as North Korea, Iran as well as Nazist German and fascist Italy of the 1st half of the 20th Century. Of course Zimbabweans have always drawn parallels between ZANU PF and the Nazis Party and between Mugabe and Hitler and between ZANU PF successive information ministers and Gobbels.
In the light of all this, PDP would like to draw the attention of General Sibanda and his cabal to the constitution of Zimbabwe Chapter 11 Article 208 (1), (2), (3), and (4) which provide for the conduct of the members of security services. In terms of these constitutional provisions, the security services should not imagine themselves as the servants of ZANU PF rather they should view themselves as the servants of the state and the people of Zimbabwe. We know that the ruling party has succeeded in buying the loyalty of the military officers through selective material payments and privileges but this should now come to an end.
Finally, PDP would like to call upon government and military officers to stop directing national resources towards the preparation for war and redirect them towards education, health, infrastructure development and towards serving life than towards ending life. More importantly, PDP calls for peace and tranquility to prevail over the paradigms of war pushed by the joint operations command (JOC)
Source - Dr Gorden Moyo Secretary General People's Democratic Party (PDP)
