Is Tsvangirai an enemy of progress?

Is Tsvangirai an enemy of progress? Or does he just hate anything that advances the lives of Zimbabweans?

If not, where did he get the audacity to tell his supporters at a rally at the Zimbabwe Grounds that "he will reverse the land reform when he assumes power?"

Why wish to reverse a policy that has helped bring not only livelihoods to more than 300 000 families but also helped address a long standing grievance of the people of Zimbabwe.

The land pushed sons and daughters of the soil into waging a bitter liberation war.

It was disempowerment that compelled Zimbabweans that to engage the might of the settler regime. A host of successive colonial laws like the Land Apportionment Act and

Animal Husbandry Act stripped Zimbabweans of their right to the means of production. The liberation struggle was fought to remove an oppressive and discriminatory system that reduced Zimbabweans to mere beggars in their own land. The Government of Zanu-PF has been fighting to correct that but PM Tsvangirai hates that and wishes the programmes be abandoned.

Zimbabweans fought for total independence, they sought political and economical independence and that is what Tsvangirai hates. So when he says his party will remove "peasant farmers" from the land, he is saying he does not approve of the empowerment programmes.

The land is part of the economy and thus can never be traded for anything less. When Zanu-PF introduced these empowerment programmes (the land reform and community share ownership schemes), the party was continuing with the liberation agenda and was addressing the colonial imbalances that had pushed our people away from the means of production.

In that case, why does Tsvangirai have the temerity to ask the people to endorse dependency among the people by wishing to reverse the land reform and the indigenisation and empowerment programmes initiated by the previous Government? Sure one might disagree with the way the indigenisation and economic empowerment have been undertaken but that is no reason to seek to reverse them. In earnest you may only seek to improve on them.

Surely Tsvangirai's needs to be disabused of the thinking that Africans cannot do things on their own. How can Tsvangirai label all the new farmers as peasants? Perhaps to him commercial farmers are defined by the white skin colour he worships and adores so much. Is he telling the country that Zimbabwe has no successful new farmer? What is happening at the tobacco auction floors is not significant to him and his party in as much as it is in the eyes of his western masters.

It is clear that the man does hate empowerment of the indigenous people and want Zimbabwe to continue to be beggars and workers in white factories.

His critics are now being vindicated. The man stands for no good for Zimbabwe's wish to own their land, minerals and industries. Efforts to dismiss the economic and empowerment drive championed by Zanu-PF have been fruitless as it has got the blessing of the people who are now getting involved in mainstream activities of the economic.

While it was possible in 1998 and 1999 to lead the workers onto the streets to destroy property, that is no longer possible as the factories are empty. The workers that were retrenched following the illegal sanctions invited by the MDC are busy vending for survival or have own companies making it impossible for them to be hood winked into spending time running onto the streets.

While in the early 2000s, it was easy for MDC and Tsvangirai to dismiss the land reform programme, it no longer makes any sense now as thousands of Zimbabweans are reaping the rewards of the exercise. Those who have gone into the sector have made commendable strides that the land redistribution exercise is no longer a campaign gimmick but a reality for Zanu-PF.

Thus PM Tsvangirai hates the achievements of the indigenous farmer as it rubbishes MDC political appeal among the people.

Tsvangirai knows how central the land is to the politics of the country and wishes to whip up emotions by accusing the programme of promoting hunger and stagnation of the economy.

He rubbishes the empowerment policy as he cannot agitate people whose bellies are full to go onto the streets or go into a protest vote. With the empowerment programmes running full steam, Tsvangirai knows he can no longer get support from the poor on the pretext of wanting to address poverty.

It is only by flawed reasoning that someone can say the country was self-sufficient when agriculture was in the hands of the white farmer. Statistics show that the country's bread basket status was anchored not on the white commercial farmers but on the smallholder and rural farmers who supplied the bulk of grain to the national reserve. The sanctions have worked against that.

That is why Zimbabwe cannot produce enough.

As Zimbabweans head for elections, they are doing so without a choice. They have nothing to choose as the option stands for their impoverishment.

The so-called MDC-T policy on jobs (Juice) is unworkable in Zimbabwe. Who does the PM want create jobs for Zimbabwe than the indigenous Zimbabweans themselves? The people have already seen the beauty of being employers and will not bear the pain of working in the whiteman's factory again.

That will be reversing 33 years of black empowerment that we have achieved.

Who in his or her right senses would desire or aspire to abdicate his/her farm or business to work in that same farm and business as an employee?