Ex-soldier releases stinging anti-Mugabe book

War veteran and former military officer - Kudzai Sevious Mbudzi - has launched a scathing attack on President Robert Mugabe in a no-holds-barred book capturing the current political problems engulfing the country.

The book, entitled The National Grievances, will be launched in Harare in the coming weeks.

"During the liberation struggle, I did a course entitled National Grievances and it captured the reasons which made us wage the war against the Ian Smith regime," said Mbudzi who is now retired from the military where he last served as Lieutenant Colonel.

"Those grievances have not been adequately dealt with and looking back, one is tempted to think that it was better under the Smith regime because the current regime has not catered for the broad spectrum of Zimbabweans.

"I decided that, like what Josiah Tongogara said, it is better to fight the system not an individual. The Mugabe mantra is tired and has been overplayed and it is time to say why he must go and here in this book, I list reasons why he must go," added Mbudzi, who is now with the opposition Zimbabwe People First (ZPF).

In the book, Mbudzi says Mugabe, the only president that Zimbabwe has ever known since independence, has outlived his usefulness.

He lists in the 28 sections the problems which the nonagenarian has authored.

"It seems like a lifetime ago when you delivered a moving speech on the eve of Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, a speech which will go down in the annals of history as one of the most remarkable and befitting a new dawn in a country that had been ravaged by decades of protracted liberation struggle," said Mbudzi in the book's preamble.

"As you correctly stated then, Mr President: 'Our new nation requires everyone of us to be a new-born man, with a new mind, a new heart, and a new spirit. Our new mind must have a new vision, our new hearts a new love that spurns hate and a new spirit that must unite and not divide.

"It is a tragedy that 36 years after this resounding speech, Zimbabwe is still yearning for liberation from a regime that has broken all its promises. Today, all this independence day rhetoric has given way to looting, lying, anger, revenge and other negative emotions. This negativity has permeated throughout Zimbabwe's society and has found manifestation in various forms: the decadence displayed by your family; the Gukurahundi military assault; the Murambatsvina and similar campaigns against white farmers; ongoing persecution of your political foes and anyone perceived to be your possible successor. It is indeed a sorry state of affairs and things are certainly not the same anymore," said Mbudzi.

"The signs of your leadership failures are glaringly obvious for everyone to see, leaving your government to lurch from one crisis to the next with no solution in sight. With paralysis evident everywhere, there is no respite in the ongoing economic and financial collapse as business continues to suffer from a deluge of challenges, including a biting liquidity crunch and a stock market whose value has been totally eroded since the eve of independence in 1980."

The National Grievances' foreword was written by former Energy minister - Dzikamai Mavhaire - who fell out with Mugabe twice for questioning the Zanu-PF leader.

Mavhaire did not miss the opportunity of reminding the world how critical he has been of Mugabe.

"Lieutenant Colonel Kudzai Mbudzi could not have then done a better job of hitting the nail on the head. His presentation and analysis of Mugabe's government and leadership failures and its insidious impact on the very heart and soul of this nation can only be described as thoroughgoing," said Mavhaire.

"The author treads where no one other has dared. He takes potshots at the most vital of the dictator's anatomy. The manner and the pleasure with which he switches from the narrative to the analytical style with captivating ease makes this book one of the most interesting scripts in a class of its own in the modern critically reflective political presentations and representations of bare facts.

"In a nutshell, this book lays bare with rare scholarly valour, the simple message that we are all being held to ransom by one man, Robert Gabriel Mugabe. What makes this booklet most intriguing is that it is the narrative of a true fighter of the liberation war, which, ironically was marshalled by none other than Mugabe himself in its decisive phase."