Opinion / Columnist
Zanu PF infighting is not light at the end of the tunnel but run-away train
19 Feb 2016 at 20:03hrs | Views
Many Zimbabweans are of the opinion that the dog-eat-dog fighting going on in Zanu PF is a good thing; it is true some of the militant war vets who have terrorized the people "got a taste of their own medicine" when they were teargased by the Riot Police on Wednesday.
"Only God through his way of doing things can do it and we are seeing it happening the-se days with the revolutionary party turning into a counter-revolutionary party, eating its own children. Remember when God caused confusion in the camp of those who wanted to fight the Israelites?" commented one, Maita.
People like Maita are pleased with the immediate, Zanu PF thugs tearing each other to pieces; on its own a great thing for all those who have suffered under the incompetent, corrupt and murderous regime and cannot see to the back of the regime. But we must not be naïve and gullible that we should only be concerned with what we can see and not consider what awaits us just round the corner!
We should be worried about the dog-eat-dog fighting going on in Zanu PF for two rea-sons:
1) The infighting has weakened Zanu PF but there is no reason to believe that there will be no faction left standing when the fighting is done. Those hoping that there will be no Zanu PF faction left are day-dreaming; these guys have guns, not nu-clear weapons to wipe each other out.
The next elections will not be free, fair and credible because no GPA reform were implemented during the GNU and, since the rigged July 2013, still nothing has been done to implement the reforms. Whichever Zanu PF faction that will still have the control of the state institution will have the clear advantage to rig the vote.
With no democratic reforms the challenge to the Zanu PF faction still in power will come from Zanu PF factions out of office, be it G40, Mnangagwa or Mujuru with or without help from the opposition. So whichever government emerges out of the elections, it will be wholly a Zanu PF or else dominated by former Zanu PF ca-dres. These Zanu PF in all but name will be as keen as mustard to re-establish themselves and consolidate their political power base along the same lines as the present Zanu PF dictatorship.
So, because we do not have a democratic electoral system in place to stop vote rigging, the best we can expect from the present infighting in Zanu PF is a change of the present dictator for another; the dictatorial system itself will remain untouched.
It is naïve for the goats to think that they are safe just because the hyenas are fighting!
2) Some people have argued that the ordinary people must stay out of the Zanu PF infighting but that is easier said than done. For a start whilst these Zanu PF thugs have been fighting each other they have completely neglected their government duties. The nation is facing a serious drought, for example, it is the ordinary peo-ple who will pay with their very lives for the regime's failure to source food.
If the factional wars heat up the ordinary people will be lampooned and forced to take sides; we all know the Zanu PF thug mentality "Those not with us are against us!" There are reports that the G40 faction has instructed weapons to be removed from Masvingo province, for example, with the worsen drought it will not be surprising to hear that all food relief in the province has been stopped too!
If the factional wars were to escalate even further to physical violence and, worse still, gun fights; there will be many, many graves of innocent Zimbabweans!
"Only God through his way of doing things can do it and we are seeing it happening the-se days with the revolutionary party turning into a counter-revolutionary party, eating its own children." said Maita.
What people like Maita think is the light at the end of a tunnel is in fact the headlamp of a run-away train or worse, the blind faith of one looking for the light down the barrel of a gun!
Blind faith is looking down the barrel of a gun to see the flash and expect to tell the tale!
By the time this El Nino drought blows over (another nine months still to go) and there is a clear winner in Zanu PF's factional wars (that could be another year given G40 is too weak to deliver the knock-out punch and yet remains untouchable as long as Mugabe is still alive) Zimbabwe will be in economic ruins, political chaos, hundreds of thousands dead and facing a grim and hopeless future. It will be entirely our fault because we are so myopic we refused to see nothing beyond the tip of nose.
God gave us the chance to get out of the tunnel safely during the GNU, only we had to do then was to implement the GPA reforms; we wasted that chance.
Zimbabwe's political and economic mess is man-made and therefore within our power to solve it. Those evoking the help of the Almighty are doing so out of sheer laziness; God does not do for mankind what mankind can do for himself!
"Only God through his way of doing things can do it and we are seeing it happening the-se days with the revolutionary party turning into a counter-revolutionary party, eating its own children. Remember when God caused confusion in the camp of those who wanted to fight the Israelites?" commented one, Maita.
People like Maita are pleased with the immediate, Zanu PF thugs tearing each other to pieces; on its own a great thing for all those who have suffered under the incompetent, corrupt and murderous regime and cannot see to the back of the regime. But we must not be naïve and gullible that we should only be concerned with what we can see and not consider what awaits us just round the corner!
We should be worried about the dog-eat-dog fighting going on in Zanu PF for two rea-sons:
1) The infighting has weakened Zanu PF but there is no reason to believe that there will be no faction left standing when the fighting is done. Those hoping that there will be no Zanu PF faction left are day-dreaming; these guys have guns, not nu-clear weapons to wipe each other out.
The next elections will not be free, fair and credible because no GPA reform were implemented during the GNU and, since the rigged July 2013, still nothing has been done to implement the reforms. Whichever Zanu PF faction that will still have the control of the state institution will have the clear advantage to rig the vote.
With no democratic reforms the challenge to the Zanu PF faction still in power will come from Zanu PF factions out of office, be it G40, Mnangagwa or Mujuru with or without help from the opposition. So whichever government emerges out of the elections, it will be wholly a Zanu PF or else dominated by former Zanu PF ca-dres. These Zanu PF in all but name will be as keen as mustard to re-establish themselves and consolidate their political power base along the same lines as the present Zanu PF dictatorship.
So, because we do not have a democratic electoral system in place to stop vote rigging, the best we can expect from the present infighting in Zanu PF is a change of the present dictator for another; the dictatorial system itself will remain untouched.
It is naïve for the goats to think that they are safe just because the hyenas are fighting!
If the factional wars heat up the ordinary people will be lampooned and forced to take sides; we all know the Zanu PF thug mentality "Those not with us are against us!" There are reports that the G40 faction has instructed weapons to be removed from Masvingo province, for example, with the worsen drought it will not be surprising to hear that all food relief in the province has been stopped too!
If the factional wars were to escalate even further to physical violence and, worse still, gun fights; there will be many, many graves of innocent Zimbabweans!
"Only God through his way of doing things can do it and we are seeing it happening the-se days with the revolutionary party turning into a counter-revolutionary party, eating its own children." said Maita.
What people like Maita think is the light at the end of a tunnel is in fact the headlamp of a run-away train or worse, the blind faith of one looking for the light down the barrel of a gun!
Blind faith is looking down the barrel of a gun to see the flash and expect to tell the tale!
By the time this El Nino drought blows over (another nine months still to go) and there is a clear winner in Zanu PF's factional wars (that could be another year given G40 is too weak to deliver the knock-out punch and yet remains untouchable as long as Mugabe is still alive) Zimbabwe will be in economic ruins, political chaos, hundreds of thousands dead and facing a grim and hopeless future. It will be entirely our fault because we are so myopic we refused to see nothing beyond the tip of nose.
God gave us the chance to get out of the tunnel safely during the GNU, only we had to do then was to implement the GPA reforms; we wasted that chance.
Zimbabwe's political and economic mess is man-made and therefore within our power to solve it. Those evoking the help of the Almighty are doing so out of sheer laziness; God does not do for mankind what mankind can do for himself!
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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