Opinion / Columnist
Moment of truth for Mawarire
13 Sep 2016 at 15:59hrs | Views
SOCCER fans on Sunday snubbed Pastor Evan Mawarire of the infamous #ThisFlag campaign all but proving the clergyman's is a chancer who has been basking in the false glory of once shutting down the country. The pastor had called on soccer fans going for the epic match between arch rivals Dynamos and Highlanders Football Clubs to sing the old national anthem Nkosi Sikelel'i Africa in defiance of the Government.
Mr Mawarire's calls came after violent protests in Harare fronted by opposition parties under the banner of the so called Nera and shadowy groups like #ThisFlag and #Tajamuka among others.
In the run up to the game, Mr Mawarire posted a video on social media urging soccer fans attending the match to sing Nkosi Sikelel'i Africa in the 36th minute of the game in a protest against the Government and to show them that "we are fed up."
"Highlanders and Dynamos fans, let's unite and show that we want to build this nation. We can't let this to continue happening," he said in the video posted from his new base in the United States of America.
Mr Mawarire wanted to hijack the Bosso versus DeMbare duel in the same fashion that he had done the July 6 civil servants strike giving the false impression that he had organised "a historic shut down of the country."
However, events prior to the 6th of July show that the civil servants had given notice to stage a strike protesting salary delays but Mr Mawarire hijacked the already organised exercise to make it seem as if he was the brains behind it.
This was the basis that Mr Mawarire got international fame albeit from a false grounding which the private and international media conveniently overlooked.
They had to present this daring pastor who had become so powerful and influential over night to shake the Zanu-PF establishment to its core.
However, Mr Mawarire on Sunday failed to maintain the manufactured fame leading to his desperate attempt to try and remain in the minds of the people and even his creators from which he is fast slipping away.
In his typical hijacking tactics, Mr Mawarire thought that he could influence supporters of the country's soccer power houses to act in defiance not only of their national anthem but their country.
He wanted to cash in on the history of the two clubs' rivalry to give the impression that he had influenced the 13 000 people who had come to watch the match yet it is a well documented fact that the two teams always record bumper crowds every time they meet.
Just like the June 6 civil servants strike, Mr Mawarire wanted to ride on the popularity and the rivalry of the two teams to try and smuggle his political agenda into the beautiful game of football.
What many soccer loving Zimbabweans saw as a day when the country's biggest clubs clash and a football treat, Mr Mawarire saw a window of opportunity to try and extricate himself from apparent obscurity.
However, when the game reached 36 minutes of play, none of the soccer fans heeded Mr Mawarire's calls throwing his plot into a spectacular tailspin.
Fans stayed glued to proceedings on the pitch, the duel between the two soccer giants that they had come to watch.
Importantly, the snub by soccer fans shows that Mr Mawarire has believed his own lies that he was solely responsible for the July 6 strike yet it is a verifiable fact that the downing of tools on the day was an exercise by the civil servants who had a different agenda from that of the pastor.
He then built a false sense of bravado from that illusion to think that he can just snap his fingers and the rest of the Zimbabweans jump and religiously follow his orders to the point of believing that he could influence a people to denounce their own national anthem by reverting to the old Nkosi Sikelel'i Africa.
The snub therefore was a moment of truth for Mr Mawarire as it confirmed his status as a political fraudster who has been riding on the wave of false adulations.
What is true however, is that Mr Mawarire, more than anything, rattled the opposition parties with his #ThisFlag and jolted them into action as they felt that his campaigns were a threat to their relations with their Western handlers.
To the opposition parties who depend on funding from the West to carry out a regime change agenda, Mr Mawarire was an irritant who wanted to shift the attention of their Western masters.
And their reaction was telling. All of a sudden they engaged in violent demonstrations and wilful breach of the law starting with the Harare protests whose objective was to push the security forces to react in a way that would attract international attention.
Some even went to the extent of making structural adjustments within their political organisations to counter what they felt was Mr Mawarire's rising popularity not among Zimbabweans but the Western holders of the purse.
However, the Government has long seen into those machinations.
Mr Mawarire should know that in any case, these chaotic demonstrations will not be successful especially in Bulawayo where the province has been orphaned in terms of leadership since the formation of the MDC in 1999.
The MDC-T, which has had a stranglehold on the province until last July's by-elections, has failed dismally in carrying the aspirations of the people despite being ushered to both Parliament and the Bulawayo city council.
Perhaps, Zimbabwe Football Association president, Mr Phillip Chiyangwa, had an apt description of Mr Mawarire's conduct when he said, "Football and politics do not mix and I want to warn Mawarire and his cabal to stay away from football. I came to Bulawayo to see for myself if football had succumbed to these malcontents, but I am happy that people ignored these nonsensical calls.
"He must know that football will not welcome him. I am Zanu-PF myself, but I never come to the stadium clad in party colours simply because I respect the game. If I want to do my political business, I go out there; I don't take advantage of the pulling power of football. Mawarire leave our beautiful game in peace; we don't want this nonsense."
The truth that faces Mr Mawarire now is that he had his two minutes of fame grounded on false impressions and that he is on a one way journey to obscurity. The 13 000 crowd at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday all but emphatically confirmed this.
Mr Mawarire's calls came after violent protests in Harare fronted by opposition parties under the banner of the so called Nera and shadowy groups like #ThisFlag and #Tajamuka among others.
In the run up to the game, Mr Mawarire posted a video on social media urging soccer fans attending the match to sing Nkosi Sikelel'i Africa in the 36th minute of the game in a protest against the Government and to show them that "we are fed up."
"Highlanders and Dynamos fans, let's unite and show that we want to build this nation. We can't let this to continue happening," he said in the video posted from his new base in the United States of America.
Mr Mawarire wanted to hijack the Bosso versus DeMbare duel in the same fashion that he had done the July 6 civil servants strike giving the false impression that he had organised "a historic shut down of the country."
However, events prior to the 6th of July show that the civil servants had given notice to stage a strike protesting salary delays but Mr Mawarire hijacked the already organised exercise to make it seem as if he was the brains behind it.
This was the basis that Mr Mawarire got international fame albeit from a false grounding which the private and international media conveniently overlooked.
They had to present this daring pastor who had become so powerful and influential over night to shake the Zanu-PF establishment to its core.
However, Mr Mawarire on Sunday failed to maintain the manufactured fame leading to his desperate attempt to try and remain in the minds of the people and even his creators from which he is fast slipping away.
In his typical hijacking tactics, Mr Mawarire thought that he could influence supporters of the country's soccer power houses to act in defiance not only of their national anthem but their country.
He wanted to cash in on the history of the two clubs' rivalry to give the impression that he had influenced the 13 000 people who had come to watch the match yet it is a well documented fact that the two teams always record bumper crowds every time they meet.
Just like the June 6 civil servants strike, Mr Mawarire wanted to ride on the popularity and the rivalry of the two teams to try and smuggle his political agenda into the beautiful game of football.
What many soccer loving Zimbabweans saw as a day when the country's biggest clubs clash and a football treat, Mr Mawarire saw a window of opportunity to try and extricate himself from apparent obscurity.
However, when the game reached 36 minutes of play, none of the soccer fans heeded Mr Mawarire's calls throwing his plot into a spectacular tailspin.
Fans stayed glued to proceedings on the pitch, the duel between the two soccer giants that they had come to watch.
Importantly, the snub by soccer fans shows that Mr Mawarire has believed his own lies that he was solely responsible for the July 6 strike yet it is a verifiable fact that the downing of tools on the day was an exercise by the civil servants who had a different agenda from that of the pastor.
He then built a false sense of bravado from that illusion to think that he can just snap his fingers and the rest of the Zimbabweans jump and religiously follow his orders to the point of believing that he could influence a people to denounce their own national anthem by reverting to the old Nkosi Sikelel'i Africa.
The snub therefore was a moment of truth for Mr Mawarire as it confirmed his status as a political fraudster who has been riding on the wave of false adulations.
What is true however, is that Mr Mawarire, more than anything, rattled the opposition parties with his #ThisFlag and jolted them into action as they felt that his campaigns were a threat to their relations with their Western handlers.
To the opposition parties who depend on funding from the West to carry out a regime change agenda, Mr Mawarire was an irritant who wanted to shift the attention of their Western masters.
And their reaction was telling. All of a sudden they engaged in violent demonstrations and wilful breach of the law starting with the Harare protests whose objective was to push the security forces to react in a way that would attract international attention.
Some even went to the extent of making structural adjustments within their political organisations to counter what they felt was Mr Mawarire's rising popularity not among Zimbabweans but the Western holders of the purse.
However, the Government has long seen into those machinations.
Mr Mawarire should know that in any case, these chaotic demonstrations will not be successful especially in Bulawayo where the province has been orphaned in terms of leadership since the formation of the MDC in 1999.
The MDC-T, which has had a stranglehold on the province until last July's by-elections, has failed dismally in carrying the aspirations of the people despite being ushered to both Parliament and the Bulawayo city council.
Perhaps, Zimbabwe Football Association president, Mr Phillip Chiyangwa, had an apt description of Mr Mawarire's conduct when he said, "Football and politics do not mix and I want to warn Mawarire and his cabal to stay away from football. I came to Bulawayo to see for myself if football had succumbed to these malcontents, but I am happy that people ignored these nonsensical calls.
"He must know that football will not welcome him. I am Zanu-PF myself, but I never come to the stadium clad in party colours simply because I respect the game. If I want to do my political business, I go out there; I don't take advantage of the pulling power of football. Mawarire leave our beautiful game in peace; we don't want this nonsense."
The truth that faces Mr Mawarire now is that he had his two minutes of fame grounded on false impressions and that he is on a one way journey to obscurity. The 13 000 crowd at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday all but emphatically confirmed this.
Source - chronicle
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