Gukurahundi will not translate into votes

There have been frantic efforts by the opposition, civil society organisations and some section of the media to politically profit from on the Zanu PF internal tiff. They have overdone it to an extent that they have forgotten to deal with their own affair.

Acres of pages have, since last week, been dedicated to stories that berated President Mugabe over his statement on war veterans during his address to the Central Committee last Thursday in Harare. Some of the headlines that were subsequently awash in the private media were as follows: Mugabe Gukurahundi threats revealing, Mugabe evokes Gukurahundi memories, ZimPF, MDC slate Mugabe Gukurahundi threats on war vets, Peace watchdog worried by Mugabe Gukurahundi threats, Parties rip Mugabe over Gukurahundi threats, Most irresponsible for Mugabe to evoke Gukurahundi and so many other sensationalized headlines that did not tally the content in the body of the stories.

While addressing the Central Committee, President Mugabe said: "The dissidents tried it. They were war veterans, fighters and you know what happened. Lots of trouble, lots of fighting, lots of suffering caused to our people and dissent activities cannot be allowed again."

This is the statement that triggered the hullabaloo. We saw for the first time the private media shedding crocodile tears for the war veterans. The Shona elders would say inyasha dzei tsvimborume kubvisa mwana wemvana madzihwa.  There is nowhere in the speech where the President threatened Gukurahundi on war veterans or whoever.

The President's statement was a reaction to allegations that the war veterans had threatened to spill blood if anyone dared block the ascension of their preferred candidate to presidency. The war veterans vehemently refuted that statement. President Mugabe has also refuted that he never said he wanted to crush the war veterans, arguing that he was also a war veteran, making it impossible for him to crush himself.

The rebuttals by both the President and war veterans are quite telling. They only serve to tell us that the private media is exaggerating on statements given by any Zanu PF official to fuel antagonism. Their agenda is to see a disintegrated Zanu PF that will be effortlessly thrashed by MDC-T or ZPF in the 2018 polls. Zanu PF officials must be careful, lest they fall into the detractors' trap. As officials fight each other over the exaggerated media reports, they are in a way assisting the fulfillment of their agenda. These media are on cloud nine as they see Zanu PF officials fighting.

As the President always say, Party cadres must avoid entertaining the private on party issues. Now that these officials are being deliberately misquoted, it is hoped that the officials have learnt, the hard way though, that these media are not to be trusted.

There is nothing sinister in what the president said about Gukurahundi. He only reminded the war veterans that if they are indeed plotting to spill blood, that would definitely lead to what happened with dissidents. When national security is threatened as what happened in the 1980s, the normal reaction by any responsible government is to do what President Mugabe's government did. Who would want to see the dissident activities again? This is exactly what the President is saying when he said "dissents activities cannot be allowed again."

He said nothing but facts. There were lots fighting, lots of trouble and lots of suffering caused to the people.

Instead, those sensationalized headlines are the ones that are unnecessarily revoking Gukurahundi memories. Gukurahundi is a closed chapter that only those with sinister motives continue to harp on. That part of history ceased to be on the national agenda when the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo and President Mugabe joined hands and put their hearts together and made commitment that the fighting would never happen again. People must respect that Unity Accord of 1987 and this is exactly what the President was telling the war veterans. Nobody is qualified to end that unity except those who appended their signatures on it.

In any case, the opposition political parties and their sympathizers in the media and civic society must come to the realization that Gukurahundi issue will never help them win the election. It is now a fated and tired campaign trump card that will not take them anywhere.

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John Sigauke <johnsigau@gmail.com