Opinion / Columnist
A warning from history: time is running out for Mugabe and his hardliners to accept regime change
02 Jul 2015 at 21:24hrs | Views
When former ambassador and deputy minister, Amos Midzi, reportedly committed suicide last month it was no secret that he was up to his eyes in debt. That had not been a problem whilst he remained a senior member of Zanu PF; the situation completely changed as soon as he was kicked out of the party, in the on-going purge of former VP Mujuru supporters.
Mai Mujuru herself is now being sued by a little known banker who wants to recover some farm the Mujurus took away from him. Whilst she was VP, he did not dare sue her but now that she has been kicked out of the party, she is fair game!
The truth of the matter is the economic meltdown is hitting everyone including the Zanu PF chefs. However, unlike the rest of us, the chefs - as long as they remain in their senior party position - have access to all manner of direct and indirect assistance and they have the gravitas to tell their creditors to buzz off.
The chefs are like the boy scouts who pack up all the troubles in the old kitbag and smile but on one very strict condition, they retain their senior Zanu PF position! It was this strict conditionality that prompted the The Sunday Mail columnist, Bishop Lazarus, to comment that Zanu PF chefs cannot survive without the party.
"Can Zanu-PF politicians who hold high offices in the party survive outside Zanu-PF?" asked Lazarus. "Can Zanu-PF members who were fortunate to be appointed as Ministers, Deputy Ministers and so on survive outside Government?"
These were rhetorical questions for we already know the answer to both questions is a resounding no.
So the economic meltdown is affecting everyone including the senior Zanu PF leaders, they are not suffering yet but only because they are on pain killers. The rest of us including ordinary Zanu PF members and party hardliners, do not have access to the pain killers, are really suffering now.
Unemployment has reached a record 90% and yet even more companies are set to close; 76% of the population are living on $200 or less per month; etc. All these things point to irrefutable conclusion - the present situation is not socially and politically sustainable. The Zanu PF dictatorship is not socially and politically sustainable; regime change is the only way out.
But after 35 years of enjoying absolute political power and all the social and economic benefits that it brought; it is not surprising that Mugabe, the lucky few senior party members with access to the pain killers and the party's hardliners are more determined than ever to resist regime change. In their futile effort to hang on to power Mugabe et al have turned the heat on all those purged out of the party whom they now consider to be their greatest political threat, particularly with the likes of Didymus Mutasa spilling the beans of the party's dirty secrets!
"These guys have now employed scotched earth tactics in their desperate bid to completely destroy Mai Mujuru and all her allies so that they are not a political threat come 2018. They are afraid of the knowledge that these liberation struggle stalwarts have of Zanu PF.
"It has not helped that (opposition leader Morgan) Tsvangirai now says he could work with Mai Mujuru, while the likes of (former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus) Mutasa and others are threatening to spill the beans on Zanu PF. They (Zanu PF hardliners) want to decapitate the whole group (Mujuru camp)."
It's very sad," a senior Zanu PF official said.
The real tragedy here is their blind determination to retain this unsustainable corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship, Mugabe et al are dragging the whole nation deeper and deeper into hell just as the Japanese hardliners did in 1945.
By the Spring of 1945 the Japanese had effectively been defeated, at sea, in air and had been routed out of all the countries they had controlled until then. Japan was nothing but a sitting duck totally at the mercy of the American military might and yet the Japanese hardliners would not condescend surrender!
"There is still time, but little time, for the Japanese to save themselves from the destruction that threatens them," US President Harry Truman warned in ultimatum.
"The loss of one day relative to this matter (ignoring the ultimatum) may result in a thousand years of regret," warned the voices of reason amongst the Japanese.
A month after President Truman's ultimatum all hell broke loose, for the Japanese that is, when the nuclear bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Mugabe and his hardliners are wasting time fighting the purged Zanu PF members because they are but a spend force; the real big threat to the nation is from the havoc the economic meltdown is causing. The economic meltdown is the nuclear bomb that threatens all Zimbabweans today and, irony of all ironies, it is Mugabe himself after 35 years of unrelenting mismanagement and corrupt who made this bomb!
There is still time, but little time, for Mugabe and his hardliners to accept regime change and save this nation from the consequences of that change being forced down their throats. Because one way or the other they will ultimately have to accept the reality that this Zanu PF dictatorship is unsustainable!
Mai Mujuru herself is now being sued by a little known banker who wants to recover some farm the Mujurus took away from him. Whilst she was VP, he did not dare sue her but now that she has been kicked out of the party, she is fair game!
The truth of the matter is the economic meltdown is hitting everyone including the Zanu PF chefs. However, unlike the rest of us, the chefs - as long as they remain in their senior party position - have access to all manner of direct and indirect assistance and they have the gravitas to tell their creditors to buzz off.
The chefs are like the boy scouts who pack up all the troubles in the old kitbag and smile but on one very strict condition, they retain their senior Zanu PF position! It was this strict conditionality that prompted the The Sunday Mail columnist, Bishop Lazarus, to comment that Zanu PF chefs cannot survive without the party.
"Can Zanu-PF politicians who hold high offices in the party survive outside Zanu-PF?" asked Lazarus. "Can Zanu-PF members who were fortunate to be appointed as Ministers, Deputy Ministers and so on survive outside Government?"
These were rhetorical questions for we already know the answer to both questions is a resounding no.
So the economic meltdown is affecting everyone including the senior Zanu PF leaders, they are not suffering yet but only because they are on pain killers. The rest of us including ordinary Zanu PF members and party hardliners, do not have access to the pain killers, are really suffering now.
Unemployment has reached a record 90% and yet even more companies are set to close; 76% of the population are living on $200 or less per month; etc. All these things point to irrefutable conclusion - the present situation is not socially and politically sustainable. The Zanu PF dictatorship is not socially and politically sustainable; regime change is the only way out.
But after 35 years of enjoying absolute political power and all the social and economic benefits that it brought; it is not surprising that Mugabe, the lucky few senior party members with access to the pain killers and the party's hardliners are more determined than ever to resist regime change. In their futile effort to hang on to power Mugabe et al have turned the heat on all those purged out of the party whom they now consider to be their greatest political threat, particularly with the likes of Didymus Mutasa spilling the beans of the party's dirty secrets!
"These guys have now employed scotched earth tactics in their desperate bid to completely destroy Mai Mujuru and all her allies so that they are not a political threat come 2018. They are afraid of the knowledge that these liberation struggle stalwarts have of Zanu PF.
It's very sad," a senior Zanu PF official said.
The real tragedy here is their blind determination to retain this unsustainable corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship, Mugabe et al are dragging the whole nation deeper and deeper into hell just as the Japanese hardliners did in 1945.
By the Spring of 1945 the Japanese had effectively been defeated, at sea, in air and had been routed out of all the countries they had controlled until then. Japan was nothing but a sitting duck totally at the mercy of the American military might and yet the Japanese hardliners would not condescend surrender!
"There is still time, but little time, for the Japanese to save themselves from the destruction that threatens them," US President Harry Truman warned in ultimatum.
"The loss of one day relative to this matter (ignoring the ultimatum) may result in a thousand years of regret," warned the voices of reason amongst the Japanese.
A month after President Truman's ultimatum all hell broke loose, for the Japanese that is, when the nuclear bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Mugabe and his hardliners are wasting time fighting the purged Zanu PF members because they are but a spend force; the real big threat to the nation is from the havoc the economic meltdown is causing. The economic meltdown is the nuclear bomb that threatens all Zimbabweans today and, irony of all ironies, it is Mugabe himself after 35 years of unrelenting mismanagement and corrupt who made this bomb!
There is still time, but little time, for Mugabe and his hardliners to accept regime change and save this nation from the consequences of that change being forced down their throats. Because one way or the other they will ultimately have to accept the reality that this Zanu PF dictatorship is unsustainable!
Source - Wilbert Mukori
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
