Opinion / Columnist
The dictator is just the dominant snake on Medusa, the monster, the dictatorship
23 Feb 2016 at 15:23hrs | Views
The people of Zimbabwe are making one big mistake in pinning their hopes of getting out of this political and economic hell-on-earth the nation finds itself on the on-going factional wars destroying Zanu PF and the evil party being buried with President Mugabe on his death. As long as anyone in Zanu PF continues to have a firm hand on unreformed state machinery the Zanu PF dictatorship will continue to rule and ruin our lives!
The dog-eat-dog fighting in Zanu PF shows we are dealing here with individuals who have got used to absolute power and a life of luxury and leisure. They all know Mugabe's days as the top-dog are numbered and each one of them wants to be the new top-dog and will fight to the death for it. Whichever faction emerges with the sceptre of office firmly in its hands will use the existing dictatorial powers to consolidate its power and assert its authority on vanquished factions and the nation at large.
The victorious Zanu PF faction to emerge out of the dog-eat-dog fight tearing the party apart will have the mean-spirit of a one-eyed dog punishing friend and foe in advance for laughing at its physical deficiency.
Whilst Zanu PF is preoccupied with its factional wars the populous should have been busy building a formidable concordat to confront the one-eyed dog with demands for the full implementation of the 2008 GPA democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship Zanu PF imposed on the nation. As it is, only a tiny minority of Zimbabweans are aware of the critical importance of the reforms as the key to open the only door out of the hell-on-earth Zimbabwe is in.
Most of the country's opposition politicians are wasting time their demanding that the regime must implement electoral law reforms which will do nothing to reduce the dictatorial powers of whoever inherits Mugabe's post.
As for the majority of the people, they are hoping that the death of Mugabe will be the transformative moment the nation has been waiting for. Of course this is naïve because the death of the dicta-tor does not equate to the death of the dictatorship.
So the nation is remorseless matching on to the next elections, set for 2018; still with not even one democratic reform in place as was the case in 2013. The one-eyed Zanu PF dog will once again use violence and use its dictatorial powers to blatant rig the elections. The opposition and the populous will raised their voices and complain about the violence and the vote rigging and the whole world will turn a deaf ear to the complaining.
Zimbabweans complaining about violence and vote rigging is now a tedious theme; since we will not take the cure, implement the GPA democratic reforms out of sheer laziness, we should not complain incessantly of the ailment!
Think of the Zanu PF dictatorship as the mythological Greek monster, the Gorgon, Medusa with snakes growing out of its head like hair. President Mugabe is not Medusa but, for the last 36 years, was the dominant snake. The other snakes can see President Mugabe, due to old age and ill health, is losing his bite creating room for a new dominant snake to emerge and they are all swelling around fighting for dominance.
The dictator is but the dominant snake on Medusa, the monster, the dictatorship!
Our task is to kill the monster that has held the nation captives for the last 36 years. Hoping that the snakes will kill each other is naïve because fighting cobras wrestle each other, they do not bite each other otherwise there will be no poisonous snake left in the world. Cutting of one snake, even if it should be the dominant one, will solve nothing because another snake will grow in its place.
Whilst Medusa is distracted by the swelling mass of snakes wrestling each other for dominance it is time to cut off the monster's head. Implement all the GPA democratic reforms and we will cut all the undemocratic control the regime has over the Police, CIO, Judiciary, ZEC, etc., etc.
During the GNU we had five years to implement the GPA democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship we wasted that chance because Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out. President Mugabe offered them seats on the gravy train and they forgot about the reforms. Since the rigged elections of 2013 Zanu PF has been distracted and weakened by the infighting in the party and the country's worsening economic meltdown due to the decades of misrule; we have yet another golden opportunity to demand the implementation of the GPA democratic reforms. We must not waste this chance too!
The dog-eat-dog fighting in Zanu PF shows we are dealing here with individuals who have got used to absolute power and a life of luxury and leisure. They all know Mugabe's days as the top-dog are numbered and each one of them wants to be the new top-dog and will fight to the death for it. Whichever faction emerges with the sceptre of office firmly in its hands will use the existing dictatorial powers to consolidate its power and assert its authority on vanquished factions and the nation at large.
The victorious Zanu PF faction to emerge out of the dog-eat-dog fight tearing the party apart will have the mean-spirit of a one-eyed dog punishing friend and foe in advance for laughing at its physical deficiency.
Whilst Zanu PF is preoccupied with its factional wars the populous should have been busy building a formidable concordat to confront the one-eyed dog with demands for the full implementation of the 2008 GPA democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship Zanu PF imposed on the nation. As it is, only a tiny minority of Zimbabweans are aware of the critical importance of the reforms as the key to open the only door out of the hell-on-earth Zimbabwe is in.
Most of the country's opposition politicians are wasting time their demanding that the regime must implement electoral law reforms which will do nothing to reduce the dictatorial powers of whoever inherits Mugabe's post.
As for the majority of the people, they are hoping that the death of Mugabe will be the transformative moment the nation has been waiting for. Of course this is naïve because the death of the dicta-tor does not equate to the death of the dictatorship.
So the nation is remorseless matching on to the next elections, set for 2018; still with not even one democratic reform in place as was the case in 2013. The one-eyed Zanu PF dog will once again use violence and use its dictatorial powers to blatant rig the elections. The opposition and the populous will raised their voices and complain about the violence and the vote rigging and the whole world will turn a deaf ear to the complaining.
Zimbabweans complaining about violence and vote rigging is now a tedious theme; since we will not take the cure, implement the GPA democratic reforms out of sheer laziness, we should not complain incessantly of the ailment!
Think of the Zanu PF dictatorship as the mythological Greek monster, the Gorgon, Medusa with snakes growing out of its head like hair. President Mugabe is not Medusa but, for the last 36 years, was the dominant snake. The other snakes can see President Mugabe, due to old age and ill health, is losing his bite creating room for a new dominant snake to emerge and they are all swelling around fighting for dominance.
The dictator is but the dominant snake on Medusa, the monster, the dictatorship!
Our task is to kill the monster that has held the nation captives for the last 36 years. Hoping that the snakes will kill each other is naïve because fighting cobras wrestle each other, they do not bite each other otherwise there will be no poisonous snake left in the world. Cutting of one snake, even if it should be the dominant one, will solve nothing because another snake will grow in its place.
Whilst Medusa is distracted by the swelling mass of snakes wrestling each other for dominance it is time to cut off the monster's head. Implement all the GPA democratic reforms and we will cut all the undemocratic control the regime has over the Police, CIO, Judiciary, ZEC, etc., etc.
During the GNU we had five years to implement the GPA democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship we wasted that chance because Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out. President Mugabe offered them seats on the gravy train and they forgot about the reforms. Since the rigged elections of 2013 Zanu PF has been distracted and weakened by the infighting in the party and the country's worsening economic meltdown due to the decades of misrule; we have yet another golden opportunity to demand the implementation of the GPA democratic reforms. We must not waste this chance too!
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
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