Opinion / Columnist
Mnangagwa's response an insult to victims of State violence
13 Feb 2019 at 08:38hrs | Views
THAT our very own dearest President has chosen to confess ignorance about the killings and gross human rights abuses perpetrated by security forces last month, in the wake of violent protests over a 150% fuel hike, is not only shocking, but horrifyingly provocative, to say the least.
Many of us are now wondering what exactly is happening in the corridors of power. The fuel protests that rocked Zimbabwe on January 14 and beyond happened days after the President had left the country for a whirlwind trip to Eurasia, Russia being his first stopover. We naturally thought that, after cutting short his foreign sojourn and came back home to address the crisis in the country, our beloved leader would be very much interested in getting to the bottom of the issue and heal the festering wounds that keep gnawing our troubled society.
We thought he had very able advisers and informers, who would take the time to brief him on the potentially explosive situation in the country so he could take an informed position. But, lo and behold, our President has slipped into such a dangerous denial mode and we are beginning to wonder: Who exactly is talking to our President and feeding him with all the information that he is currently using to reach certain conclusions, particularly that there was no shred of evidence to the effect that people were killed by the military during the January protests.
The President has actually demanded that he be shown the graves of those killed and their distraught relatives, as well as all those who were assaulted and raped so he could believe. We sincerely believe that there is no way our dearest President could have come to such a conclusion on his own, without someone feeding him some misinformation.
Once upon a time in November of 2017, we were told: "The President, of the Republic of Zimbabwe and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, RG Mugabe and his family are safe and sound and their security is guaranteed. We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country, in order to bring them to justice."
Just over a year later, we honestly fear that the incumbent has also been surrounded by some "criminals", who are feeding him with poisonous information. More proof that our Dear President is being misled is that he is now convinced that a regime change agenda is being executed against him.
In the last two decades of Mugabe's rule, the regime change agenda mantra became more popular than the national anthem. The position that our President has taken is dangerous for our nation and only serves to alienate our already troubled country. His pronouncements only serve to turn him into a rogue leader, who refuses to see the truth and reason. Damning reports with proof have been produced about what transpired last month and it is unfair for the President and those around him to dismiss them contemptuously, and hope that the world and Zimbabweans will just forget about it and move on.
Many of us are now wondering what exactly is happening in the corridors of power. The fuel protests that rocked Zimbabwe on January 14 and beyond happened days after the President had left the country for a whirlwind trip to Eurasia, Russia being his first stopover. We naturally thought that, after cutting short his foreign sojourn and came back home to address the crisis in the country, our beloved leader would be very much interested in getting to the bottom of the issue and heal the festering wounds that keep gnawing our troubled society.
We thought he had very able advisers and informers, who would take the time to brief him on the potentially explosive situation in the country so he could take an informed position. But, lo and behold, our President has slipped into such a dangerous denial mode and we are beginning to wonder: Who exactly is talking to our President and feeding him with all the information that he is currently using to reach certain conclusions, particularly that there was no shred of evidence to the effect that people were killed by the military during the January protests.
Once upon a time in November of 2017, we were told: "The President, of the Republic of Zimbabwe and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, RG Mugabe and his family are safe and sound and their security is guaranteed. We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country, in order to bring them to justice."
Just over a year later, we honestly fear that the incumbent has also been surrounded by some "criminals", who are feeding him with poisonous information. More proof that our Dear President is being misled is that he is now convinced that a regime change agenda is being executed against him.
In the last two decades of Mugabe's rule, the regime change agenda mantra became more popular than the national anthem. The position that our President has taken is dangerous for our nation and only serves to alienate our already troubled country. His pronouncements only serve to turn him into a rogue leader, who refuses to see the truth and reason. Damning reports with proof have been produced about what transpired last month and it is unfair for the President and those around him to dismiss them contemptuously, and hope that the world and Zimbabweans will just forget about it and move on.
Source - newsday
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