After ruthless purge of Mujuru, Mugabe talks of 'transcendental unity'

After months of haunting VP Mujuru just as he haunted Dr Joshua Nkomo in the mid 1980s Mugabe was back to talking about unity.

"Our survival as a nation... lies in our transcendental unity," Mugabe, 90, told mourners at the state funeral of a senior member of his Zanu-PF party.

"Only with unity can we succeed," he added, speaking 15 hours after he ended a marathon Zanu-PF congress that saw him confirmed as party leader and candidate for the next elections in 2018.

They say the devil speaks with a forked tongue and I understand exactly what that means; Mugabe, himself the devil incarnate, has mastered the art of speaking with a forked tongue. He is the one who, when his hold on power is threatened, will destroy the entire basis for peace, unity, justice, trust, everything. Once he has secure his autocratic powers, he comes back with olive branch in one hand and peace-pipe in the other offering peace, unity and cooperation; making a big song and dance about the benefits of unity, etc.

Mai Mujuru had amassed popular support from nine out of the ten party provinces, which others like Mnangagwa had tried to do but failed. It was clear that Mai Mujuru was going to retain her VP position at the elective congress and would have many of her supporters in the central committee too. This was a situation Mugabe, a seasoned megalomania whose love of absolute power knows no bounds just as his hatred and mistrust of the democratic will of the electorate are pathological.

So Mugabe decided to deny Zanu-PF members' their democratic right to elect leaders of their own choice. He criminalised the democratic process that had help Mai Mujuru garner her support by creating a new crime called "factionalism". This is just as nonsensical variation to the "regime change" charge the tyrant has brandished against all who have dare campaign for free, fair and credible national elections.

If the only accepted result of an election is a predetermined "no regime change" then there is really no point in holding the elections.  

Mugabe had done here to Mai Mujuru is a rerun of what he did to the late Joshua Nkomo in the mid 1980s. He unleashed the murderous Gukurahundi on-PF Zapu for the sole purpose of destroying that party by beat its leaders and supporters into accepting Zanu-PF dominance. He wanted Zimbabwe to be a de facto one-party dictatorship with Zanu-PF as that one party and that is what he got regardless the fact that the country's constitution said Zimbabwe was a multiparty democracy.

Mugabe promised the nation the same success as in "Only with unity can we succeed," he is promising today back in 1987 when he sign the unity accords with Dr Joshua Nkomo. No one in their right mind would consider what has happened to this nation "a success".

With no real political challenge and the electorate powerless to hold Mugabe and his Zanu-PF thugs to account in the de facto one-party dictatorship with no regime change; it is little wonder corrupt and oppressive have become the byword for the regime. Mismanagement and corruption have grown and spread unchecked destroying the nation's economy and forcing millions into a live of abject poverty and hopeless despair.

Mismanagement and corruption are not the forerunners of success but failure. Zimbabwe, under Mugabe, has been an endless story of total failure. There has not been an success stories that Mugabe keeps wittering about.

The type of unity Mugabe has been offering the people of Zimbabwe is a hollowed out version of the real thing. It is unity own his very strict terms and conditions - that the people gave up their democratic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaning vote and even the right to life itself and accept his de facto one-party dictatorship and  no regime change mantra. This is nothing more than an egg emptied of the nourishment by cleverly marketed as the real thing.

Mugabe must stop insulting our intelligence by denying us a meaningful say in the governance of the country in the name of unity, no regime change, etc. We want unity of equals not one between an all-powerful tyrant whose voice and veto alone are heard and count and powerless and voiceless serfs who tremble and quiver in fear of him.

Unity, like peace, must be based on justice, fairness and mutual respect for it work and bear the fruit of success for all parties. When unity is an imposition with no regard for justice and the rights and dignity of others is will never last much less bring success.

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Wilbert Mukori can be contacted at zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com