Opinion / Columnist
Mujuru vows to 'fight unjust (Zanu PF) system' evoking Tongogara on/off record duplicity
05 Mar 2016 at 08:23hrs | Views
"We are fighting against a system, it is that system which is unjust," said Joice Mujuru at the Press Conference on 1 st March 2016. She was quoting the late General Josiah Tongogara. "This system has stolen any hope for the people of Zimbabwe!"
By the time Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980 many people had heard that repeated many, many times by Tongogara, President Mugabe, Hebert Chitepo and many other liberation war leaders as well as other nationalist leaders. It was the standard answer repeated over and over again, especially to allay white fears that the liberation struggle was a race war and the blacks were hot intent on driving all the white out of the country.
It was only at Zanu PF members only meetings or "off the record" one to one discussions that many of these leaders would tell you in no uncertain terms that the struggle was to replace white domination with black domination and take back all the white had stolen from the blacks.
The reason why the violent white farm invasions of 2000 onward had such a strong appeal to many blacks especially the war vets is this was fulfilling the pre-independence promise that blacks will have their revenge and settle old scores with the whites.
After independence, President Mugabe has reaped huge political capital by upholding the "on the record" position that Zanu PF was fighting "the system" and not a racial war. He was knighted by the British, a singular honour bestowed on very few nationalist leaders who fought to end British colonial rule. Mugabe reverse his position to the "off the record" position of going out of one's to punish the whites. There is no doubt that Zanu PF leaders and their thugs on the ground derived a lot of gratuitous pleasure from the harassment and wanton violence and mental stress that inflicted on the white farmers and their friends.
Mai Mujuru and her Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party followers know Zanu PF is an in-competent, corrupt and murderous regime that lost the support of the ordinary people years ago. But since she and many of her ZPF party members like Didymus Mutasa, Rugare Gumbo, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Jabulani Sibanda and many others were Zanu PF members until 2014, the new party desperately needs to convince the Zimbabwe public that it is as different from Zanu PF as chalk and cheese. And what better way of underlining the difference between Zanu PF and ZPF than evoking the same pre-independence sentiment of fighting an "unjust system"!
How ironic that people like Mai Mujuru and many other ex-Zanu PF members now calling the dictatorship an "unjust system" and undertaking to "fight" to end it have spent the last 34 years creating it and then ramming it down the nation's throat. Are they just playing the old game again of "on the record" fighting the unjust system and "off the record" making sure the dictatorship is not dismantled?
Joice Mujuru and ZPF's agenda to end the dictatorship and deliver free, fair and credible elections or is the party interested in ending the Zanu PF dictatorship and removing the dictator Robert Mugabe only to install in its place a ZPF dictatorship headed by a new dictator Joice Mujuru.
Anyone who believes even for one second that Mujuru has ever cared about democracy, freedom, human rights, free and fair elections, etc. is very naïve or dishonest. All she has ever cared about is absolute power and as soon as her position on the feeding trough was secured she never lifted a finger to fight for any of these things in all her 34 years in power. When she lost her position on the feeding trough she has, once again shown interest in democracy, justice, etc. but only as the only means for her to regain her position on the feeding trough.
Our aim should be to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and remove the dictator Mugabe and re-place it with a healthy and functional democracy and accountable and competent leaders. We must not allow ourselves to be fooled by Mujuru and her ZPF into settling for a half-way house of replacing the Zanu PF dictatorship with a ZPF dictatorship!
By the time Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980 many people had heard that repeated many, many times by Tongogara, President Mugabe, Hebert Chitepo and many other liberation war leaders as well as other nationalist leaders. It was the standard answer repeated over and over again, especially to allay white fears that the liberation struggle was a race war and the blacks were hot intent on driving all the white out of the country.
It was only at Zanu PF members only meetings or "off the record" one to one discussions that many of these leaders would tell you in no uncertain terms that the struggle was to replace white domination with black domination and take back all the white had stolen from the blacks.
The reason why the violent white farm invasions of 2000 onward had such a strong appeal to many blacks especially the war vets is this was fulfilling the pre-independence promise that blacks will have their revenge and settle old scores with the whites.
After independence, President Mugabe has reaped huge political capital by upholding the "on the record" position that Zanu PF was fighting "the system" and not a racial war. He was knighted by the British, a singular honour bestowed on very few nationalist leaders who fought to end British colonial rule. Mugabe reverse his position to the "off the record" position of going out of one's to punish the whites. There is no doubt that Zanu PF leaders and their thugs on the ground derived a lot of gratuitous pleasure from the harassment and wanton violence and mental stress that inflicted on the white farmers and their friends.
Mai Mujuru and her Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party followers know Zanu PF is an in-competent, corrupt and murderous regime that lost the support of the ordinary people years ago. But since she and many of her ZPF party members like Didymus Mutasa, Rugare Gumbo, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Jabulani Sibanda and many others were Zanu PF members until 2014, the new party desperately needs to convince the Zimbabwe public that it is as different from Zanu PF as chalk and cheese. And what better way of underlining the difference between Zanu PF and ZPF than evoking the same pre-independence sentiment of fighting an "unjust system"!
How ironic that people like Mai Mujuru and many other ex-Zanu PF members now calling the dictatorship an "unjust system" and undertaking to "fight" to end it have spent the last 34 years creating it and then ramming it down the nation's throat. Are they just playing the old game again of "on the record" fighting the unjust system and "off the record" making sure the dictatorship is not dismantled?
Joice Mujuru and ZPF's agenda to end the dictatorship and deliver free, fair and credible elections or is the party interested in ending the Zanu PF dictatorship and removing the dictator Robert Mugabe only to install in its place a ZPF dictatorship headed by a new dictator Joice Mujuru.
Anyone who believes even for one second that Mujuru has ever cared about democracy, freedom, human rights, free and fair elections, etc. is very naïve or dishonest. All she has ever cared about is absolute power and as soon as her position on the feeding trough was secured she never lifted a finger to fight for any of these things in all her 34 years in power. When she lost her position on the feeding trough she has, once again shown interest in democracy, justice, etc. but only as the only means for her to regain her position on the feeding trough.
Our aim should be to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and remove the dictator Mugabe and re-place it with a healthy and functional democracy and accountable and competent leaders. We must not allow ourselves to be fooled by Mujuru and her ZPF into settling for a half-way house of replacing the Zanu PF dictatorship with a ZPF dictatorship!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.co.uk
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