Advice to a grieving Widow

I can imagine the thoughts and the pain when a woman is told that her husband has died in a fire. I can also imagine the horror and the drama when she learns that her husband has been burned mostly to ashes, she won't be able to view his body for the last time, she won't be able to dress him and she won't be able to kiss him goodbye.

To Joyce Mujuru, the Vice President of Zimbabwe, my imaginations have actually been a reality and above all, the pain is still tearing her heart apart, the memories are fresh in her minds. Her husband the now late General Solomon Mujuru died in a fire at a farm house, a farm house in a farm the Mujurus grabbed from a white commercial farmer during the popular land invasions in Zimbabwe sometime between 2000 and 2004. There is a lot of speculation that the fire was no accident, but instead it was an assassination by his rivals in the brutal dictatorial Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party, the party to which Mujuru himself belonged to and was a major role player, a power broker as some can say.

Although many people are sympathizing with Joyce Mujuru, some are not moved at all. ZANU PF, the party in which General Mujuru belonged to, has killed or tortured or burned thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans fighting for their rights. Some feel that those close to General Mujuru have received a taste of their own medicine. "They have finally felt the pain they inflict or stand by whilst it is being inflicted on ordinary Zimbabweans" many can be heard saying. In the hands of ZANU PF, the economy has been destroyed and many people have been stripped of their fortunes and loved ones. As we speak

ZANU PF is planning to destroy what's left Zimbabwe`s economy by gabbing companies owned by foreigners. In the end those who will suffer are the people of Zimbabwe.

Nothing that we do from now on will bring General Mujuru back; we can only hope that justice prevails and that those who are responsible will face the full wrath of the law. As far as the future is concerned, it is up to Vice president Mujuru to ensure that no one in Zimbabwe dies through a similar death as her husband. The same feelings that she is feeling are the same feelings, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, friends and relatives feel when someone dies in a brutal death in the hands of ZANU PF. Even worse, the pain when someone dies a brutal death is much less than the pain when someone dies a brutal death in the hands of those who are meant to protect them or in the watchful oversight of those who are meant to protect them. Vice president Mujuru should fight for the people; she should fight for their freedom.

Vice President Mujuru is a power broker on her own. The death of her husband must not make her weak but it must make her stronger. She now has something in common with the people of Zimbabwe. The Mujuru camp must regroup, must unite and must honor General Mujuru by ensuring that democracy prevails in Zimbabwe. Whatever respect the now late General Mujuru commandeered in the army, Vice president Mujuru can still command it.

The Writer,
The Promises Of My People
Letters with A Tear Drop