Rhodesians never die

In one of his many sermons that my memory vividly recollects, the late renowned evangelist, Emmanuel Chiweshe dispelled the wrong conviction that the church is for those who are not smart, uncivilised and poor.

The man of God challenged the proponents of such belief, if they could dare pick him for a fool if their master tasked them to bring one.

He sounded a strong warning that those who dared risked being thrashed by that master.

In the same vein, if the West tasked Roy Bennett to bring a dictator from Africa, he might also risk being thrashed if he picked a revolutionary like the late Cde John Landa Nkomo.

Political posturing aside, the West knows that the likes of President Mugabe or the late vice president Nkomo are not despots.

They know for sure that the names they attach to these revolutionaries are misnomers which are conveniently used for propaganda purposes and political expediency.

The US embassy's recent condolence message to the Nkomos and the Zimbabwean Government is a prime testimony.

There is, however, a danger that some hyper-gullible and daft people like Bennett, end up believing their own propaganda.

It reminds me of what happened during the sanction-induced food shortages in 2008.

A young man, under the heavy influence of marijuana saw people in an endless and winding queue.

He hatched a plan to displace them so that he could be the first to get whatever foodstuff was on offer.

He lied to them that there was sugar and cooking oil at Muhammad wholesale.

Before he even finished announcing his hoax, people were already stampeding towards Muhammad.

On realising that everyone was rushing to Muhammad, he joined the rush, telling himself that it could be true.

In one incident that left even the West shell shocked, Bennet attacked the US Embassy in Harare for praising the late vice president Nkomo.

He alleged that it had become a culture for the US government to tell lies whenever a Zanu-PF bigwig dies. He went further to order the US government to shut up.

The US government, though they funded the formation of the MDC, knows very well that people like Nkomo were true patriots and revolutionaries.

It's only a case of a leopard which firstly accuses its cubs of smelling like a goat whenever it wants to eat them.

The US knows that all the evil tags they attach on revolutionaries like President Mugabe are just a means to depose them and install its pawns who would safeguard their selfish interests.

The problem of living with an artificial conviction is that it's not sustainable.

In that regard, the US government had to finally abandon the political posturing.

Thus, it declared the late vice president a patriot who dedicated his life to Zimbabwe's sovereignty and prosperity.

"Whether as a teacher, a politician, an advocate for Zimbabwe's independence or as a public servant, vice president Nkomo was a patriot who dedicated his life to Zimbabwe's sovereignty and prosperity," the US Embassy said in a condolence message.

This is the statement that riled the ex-Rhodie, who described it as rubbish and construed it as an indication that the US wants to maintain neutrality in 2013.

Bennett exposed his hypocrisy when he said the vice president received private medical treatment in South Africa while Zimbabweans in that country were dying in townships.

Bennett has forgotten so soon that those Zimbabweans are economic refugees who ran away from the effects of the illegal sanctions that he called for.

He is living pretty well in the UK while most Zimbabweans there are living in a sea of poverty.

Villagers that surrounded his Charlsewood Farm in Chimanimani were perishing in abject penury while he enjoyed at the stolen land where he secretly mined diamonds.

He did nothing to improve the villagers' lives save to exploit them on his former farm which was bigger than all their pieces of land combined.

It is our culture Mr Bennett that we mourn our departed kith and kin with utmost reverence.

Even the murders that are hanged are given a descent send off. Bennett's deplorable behaviour has exposed the weakness of allowing people who are alien to our culture, to participate in the governance of our country.

I believe even Tsvangirai was embarrassed because the MDC-T statement and reaction to Cde Nkomo's death were at variance with what Bennett threw up.

Maybe death to Mr Bennett is no longer an issue, considering that he butchered thousands of Zimbabweans, mostly refugees at Nyadzonia and Chimoio camps during the struggle for liberation.

Bennett should show remorse for the atrocities he committed during that sad epoch.

At least the US learnt a lesson that the people they fronted as champions of democracy in Zimbabwe are not so democratic themselves.

It tasted the concoction it made. It was within the US' democratic rights to express its feelings on vice president Nkomo's death. What would really become of this nation if it was entrusted to people like Bennett?

There is a paradigm shift in the West triggered by the realisation that MDC-T, with the likes of Bennett at the helm, will never win an election to safeguard their interests.