Opinion / Columnist
Gukurahundi issue: Mujuru seeking political relevance
12 Feb 2016 at 10:21hrs | Views
For the past thirty-four years the proponents of the People First project led by Dr Joyce Mujuru the former Vice President of Zimbabwe, were in government enjoying the benefits that come with one being in top echelons of the ruling elite. They enjoyed their stay in government without problems.
They saw nothing wrong with anything that the government in general and ZANU PF in particular was doing. From their point of view being in government was the best ever chance that have happened in their lives. Enjoying government perks and driving state of the art vehicles made the Mujuru cabal to see nothing sinister about anything in government until the December 2014 ZANU PF Congress that resulted in cabal being thrown out of ZANU PF and government altogether.
Surprisingly the same individuals especially former VP Mujuru wants to make people believe that her People First project would be a blessing to the relatives and friends of those who perished during the Gukurahundi era. Mujuru wants to seek political relevance by bringing the issue of Gukurahundi atrocities to the people as a campaign tool. Her thrust that the Gukurahundi era should be revisited and solutions sought is an effort by her to seek the Matabeleland and Midlands regions votes. Mujuru wants the public to take her as a saint yet everything happened in her full view doing nothing to avert that. She was there enjoying herself in government and also celebrating the massacre of innocent people during that unfortunate era of Gukurahundi.
Addressing some alleged PF leadership from Matabeleland North in Harare recently, the PF project leader Joyce Mujuru told them that the Gukurahundi victims should be compensated and those who lost their parents should be assisted to get the identification documents. Mujuru sought again to put herself in a good standing to the Matabeleland regions by going against President Mugabe's assertion in 1999 that the Gukurahundi era was "a moment of madness", saying that it was wrong to refer that period as such. Mujuru wanted to appear good to her Matabeleland North audience by disowning what she also supported during her time in government that the time of Gukurahundi was "a moment of madness" as espoused by President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
In fact Mujuru needs to realise that the issue of Gukurahundi is something which cannot bring her votes as she failed to denounce that when she was still in government. It is an open secret that Mujuru has no people at heart because she failed to act with sympathy to those who were in need of help when that was necessary for her to assist. Actually those who suffered a lot during that time with a lot of people losing their lives know quite well that everything happened under Joyce Mujuru's watchful eye as her fallen husband General Solomon Mujuru was the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. If Mujuru is genuine with what she wants people to believe today that she has heart and feeling sorry for what happened during that time, she could have told her then influential husband General Mujuru to stop that brutality against the innocent individuals. Instead she saw nothing wrong about that because she enjoyed that era as if she was watching a horrific movie on her flat TV screen.
Mujuru is not qualified to tell the nation that the Gukurahundi solution can only be solved by letting people talk about it nearly more than three decades of her silence over that calamity. The People First leadership should be aware that cheap politicking has no room in the modern day Zimbabwe and people need bread and butter issues that can sustain their livelihood.
It is naïve and uncalled for that the People First leader, Joyce Mujuru kept quiet when the people of Matabeleland and Midlands regions were facing the brutal civil war that left some of them without parents and guardians. The same Mujuru now wants the people from the same regions to believe that she can rescue them from the dilemma of losing when she kept quiet for such decades. She further wants people to believe that she can be their saviour yet she had nothing to show which can equate her as a good candidate for the Matabeleland region saviour.
Actually, while Mujuru in government, she was not someone who thought she can get any advice from that Matabeleland region. Today Mujuru sees good from the same people of Matabeleland in where she despised the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo as she called him "senile" when the late Vice President simple questioned her why she was hell bent on denying Mr Strive Masiyiwa's Econet a licence to operate in the country. From her point of view she thought herself being powerful and failing to respect her elders like the late VP Joshua Nkomo. Now she is calling for support from the same people whom she had insulted one of their exalted and respected nationalist, the revered Father Zimbabwe.
To make matters worse, Mujuru has never come to realise that she needs to apologise for insulting the man of Dr Joshua Mquabuko Nkomo's stature. Today she thinks that she can mislead the people of Matabeleland and the whole country into believing that she can compensate them for the loss they incurred during the Gukurahundi era. Mujuru now is calling for the government to apologise to the Gukurahundi victims of what happened yet she is also failing to apologise to Dr Joshua Nkomo's family and people for the insult she did to the late Father Zimbabwe.
People should not be misled by mischievous politicians who always want to use their political gains by abusing the status of other people. The reality is that Mujuru has no people at heart but she is now trying to come back in the political limelight by bringing into the agenda the Gukurahundi issue. She knows quite well that for her to get sympathy from people in Matabeleland region, she must bring forward the issue of the Gukurahundi into the political agenda.
If Mujuru and her People First project are genuine messiahs of the suffering people, they should also look at the disadvantaged people who failed to get compensation for their involvement in the war of liberations. Quite a number of some individuals lost their parents and guardians during that period but Mujuru is only focussing on the Gukurahundi era alone as a matter of seeking the Matabeleland region support failing to see the importance of the victims of the armed struggle. A lot of people lost their livestocks and even their savings during that era and for Mujuru to ignore that is something that boggles the mind.
Such a hypocritical approach by the PF project shows that they are not here for the betterment of ordinary people but they want to replenish their depleted wallets that have been affected by their demise from government in which they have been enjoying a lot for more than three decades.
They saw nothing wrong with anything that the government in general and ZANU PF in particular was doing. From their point of view being in government was the best ever chance that have happened in their lives. Enjoying government perks and driving state of the art vehicles made the Mujuru cabal to see nothing sinister about anything in government until the December 2014 ZANU PF Congress that resulted in cabal being thrown out of ZANU PF and government altogether.
Surprisingly the same individuals especially former VP Mujuru wants to make people believe that her People First project would be a blessing to the relatives and friends of those who perished during the Gukurahundi era. Mujuru wants to seek political relevance by bringing the issue of Gukurahundi atrocities to the people as a campaign tool. Her thrust that the Gukurahundi era should be revisited and solutions sought is an effort by her to seek the Matabeleland and Midlands regions votes. Mujuru wants the public to take her as a saint yet everything happened in her full view doing nothing to avert that. She was there enjoying herself in government and also celebrating the massacre of innocent people during that unfortunate era of Gukurahundi.
Addressing some alleged PF leadership from Matabeleland North in Harare recently, the PF project leader Joyce Mujuru told them that the Gukurahundi victims should be compensated and those who lost their parents should be assisted to get the identification documents. Mujuru sought again to put herself in a good standing to the Matabeleland regions by going against President Mugabe's assertion in 1999 that the Gukurahundi era was "a moment of madness", saying that it was wrong to refer that period as such. Mujuru wanted to appear good to her Matabeleland North audience by disowning what she also supported during her time in government that the time of Gukurahundi was "a moment of madness" as espoused by President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
In fact Mujuru needs to realise that the issue of Gukurahundi is something which cannot bring her votes as she failed to denounce that when she was still in government. It is an open secret that Mujuru has no people at heart because she failed to act with sympathy to those who were in need of help when that was necessary for her to assist. Actually those who suffered a lot during that time with a lot of people losing their lives know quite well that everything happened under Joyce Mujuru's watchful eye as her fallen husband General Solomon Mujuru was the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. If Mujuru is genuine with what she wants people to believe today that she has heart and feeling sorry for what happened during that time, she could have told her then influential husband General Mujuru to stop that brutality against the innocent individuals. Instead she saw nothing wrong about that because she enjoyed that era as if she was watching a horrific movie on her flat TV screen.
Mujuru is not qualified to tell the nation that the Gukurahundi solution can only be solved by letting people talk about it nearly more than three decades of her silence over that calamity. The People First leadership should be aware that cheap politicking has no room in the modern day Zimbabwe and people need bread and butter issues that can sustain their livelihood.
Actually, while Mujuru in government, she was not someone who thought she can get any advice from that Matabeleland region. Today Mujuru sees good from the same people of Matabeleland in where she despised the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo as she called him "senile" when the late Vice President simple questioned her why she was hell bent on denying Mr Strive Masiyiwa's Econet a licence to operate in the country. From her point of view she thought herself being powerful and failing to respect her elders like the late VP Joshua Nkomo. Now she is calling for support from the same people whom she had insulted one of their exalted and respected nationalist, the revered Father Zimbabwe.
To make matters worse, Mujuru has never come to realise that she needs to apologise for insulting the man of Dr Joshua Mquabuko Nkomo's stature. Today she thinks that she can mislead the people of Matabeleland and the whole country into believing that she can compensate them for the loss they incurred during the Gukurahundi era. Mujuru now is calling for the government to apologise to the Gukurahundi victims of what happened yet she is also failing to apologise to Dr Joshua Nkomo's family and people for the insult she did to the late Father Zimbabwe.
People should not be misled by mischievous politicians who always want to use their political gains by abusing the status of other people. The reality is that Mujuru has no people at heart but she is now trying to come back in the political limelight by bringing into the agenda the Gukurahundi issue. She knows quite well that for her to get sympathy from people in Matabeleland region, she must bring forward the issue of the Gukurahundi into the political agenda.
If Mujuru and her People First project are genuine messiahs of the suffering people, they should also look at the disadvantaged people who failed to get compensation for their involvement in the war of liberations. Quite a number of some individuals lost their parents and guardians during that period but Mujuru is only focussing on the Gukurahundi era alone as a matter of seeking the Matabeleland region support failing to see the importance of the victims of the armed struggle. A lot of people lost their livestocks and even their savings during that era and for Mujuru to ignore that is something that boggles the mind.
Such a hypocritical approach by the PF project shows that they are not here for the betterment of ordinary people but they want to replenish their depleted wallets that have been affected by their demise from government in which they have been enjoying a lot for more than three decades.
Source - Mukachana Hanyani
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