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Jim kunaka's testimony: an epiphany of society's rupture

25 Nov 2018 at 08:33hrs | Views
Zimbabwe is struggling to establish common ground on conflict resolution where even the formations of conflict-resolution institutions have turned to be spaces of ideological contest and score settling, instead of serving their Commissioning purposes.

In the testimonies witnessed; what more can a disgruntled machine of violence want when those he decimated are evidently gullible and celebrate his tyranny.

Apart from so far being conspiracies, Japa Japa and Jim Kunaka's sentiments are nothing besides a plea to be readmitted into a party which can no longer accommodate the vicious comrades, over ambitious enough to derail the national intentions of rebuilding the country. I learnt with sadness how our vulnerable society is broken to the extent that it habitats blood-curdling men who are terrifying to the survivors of their assaults.

New national "bae"

When Jim Kunaka, a former Zanu-PF Provincial youth leader-cum-frustrated National Patriotic Front leader took to the stand, many were certain of their pathological hate for the violent man who is the reason their families are horrified.

Suddenly, like many who have been overnight "national baes" during his speech, he became a darling, "one of us" even in the process of interring himself in confirmations of allegations levelled against him.

Listening to a misplaced Zanu-PF history by Kunaka who told of many spine chilling acts he did then, left wondering why people celebrated violence, regardless of who is at its behest. It dawned to me how feeble the kudirwa jecha idea in its growth is. It institutionalises failure - failed thinking, feeble minds and habitats violence.

To the abstemious minded, hesitancy is always a guard; and as expected, they did not celebrate a narration of violence whose contents are only known to Kunaka and had nothing to do with August 1. These are the contemptuous me and you who do not prematurely revel in anything lest it is patchiness.

The horror in the bae's character

Listening to Kunaka's opening remarks that denounced the presence of one Commissioner as if he did not know the composition of the commission is a classical act out of a poorly rehearsed scene in an extremely cheap play. He sounded as if he learnt of Professor Manyeruke's presence when he strode into the room, and at that, the room went into frenzy. Of note in his charade of attacking Professor Charity Manyeruke, allegations best known by him, he stated that he will not respond to his shefu as he is a foot soldier and here I am wondering, is Kunaka confirming that he is violent beyond remorse and operates on command? Is he confirming that he incited violence on August 1 upon a command as alleged by other witnesses? These are just but two of the many questions burst by his testament.

Unequivocally, Kunaka narrated his past horrific expeditions in the First Republic. With a bold face, emphatic and glowing facial expressions depicting no remorse but delight, his body language screamed gloating of how a machine he has become.

The tone of his voice said nothing besides violence, violence, violence, and still I wondered how his victims felt, but then, again, I was reminded by one who said he lost his brother in the First Republic who celebrated Jim Kunaka. Justice and truth is only regarded at their convenience not for the purposes of building peaceful institutions by not celebrating kingpins of horror.

Kunaka's narration further told of his own version, divorced from many who have testified and given unofficial statements on who was protesting. He tells the commission and the world that his "violent" thoughts tell him that it is Zanu-PF youths who masqueraded as MDC Alliance protesters demanding the premature release of election. Such a conflicting rendition of events; classical enough to disparage the Alliance's position about the protesters. Again, I am reminded that the protestors have been called the "S" word by their leader.

The dangers of institutionalising Schizophrenia

Instead of celebrating Kunaka and his failure to respond to key allegations levelled against him let us feel sorry for our nation that was reduced by Kunaka to a lawless State. He belongs to an era which haunts all of us both in and outside Zanu-PF. He tormented those in Zanu-PF equally as he was brutal to those outside the party. Celebrating Kunaka is affirming that being violent is fine, only if you want us to bank on your repentance word. Those who find him amusing because of his testimony should not read him as a person but an institution extremely deplorable illuminating the breakage of our society. Celebrating him sets a precedent to those who have wronged society that hurting the innocent is acceptable as long as you tell them that you are now part of them. It is that heinous system that we should see in Kunaka who like many is angry that a revolved Zanu-PF is no longer home to them.

Politics; failed politics is feeding on unlimited airtime and the victims are being turned to accomplices of their victimhood when they celebrate failure to respond to basic questions but a character assassination that has nothing to do with the general you and me but a personal vendetta best known by the "sayer" and perhaps the "said".

I am talking about the characters that have provided "testimonies" at the Motlante Commission and in no seconds, private and social media has set the agenda that Zanu-PF has lost and Jim Kunaka, has won "their" battle, leaving many to wonder if truth about August 1 will ever be comprehensively established and redressed.

To many, and myself who had an exhaustive discussion about Kunaka's "celebrated" testimony we found that Zimbabwe's applied mechanisms of resolving conflict will not adequately contribute to peace-building in a country where schizophrenic analysis of events is dominant. The masses are selective when it comes to the need for justice and what it means to providing closure that guarantees non-repetition of past horrors.

There are two groups of people involved in the national project of peace building: those with preconceived outcomes who celebrate a narrative that augments their hypothesis, no matter how skewed it is and those who are objective, sieving through testified evidence, interested in arriving at the truth post analysis of all evidence in order to arrest philosophies that inform violence, dismantle incentives of violence and provide roadmaps for sustainable peace.

The latter is the ideal citizen who wants justice, not payback because they understand that August 1, like any other violent phenomena is not an event but a process whose stages should never be accommodated in a sanguine state interested in building a nation.

Phambili ngeZimbabwe

Source - sundaynews
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