Opinion / Columnist
Mugabe's rob drops at Brethren in Christ Church
01 Jan 2017 at 11:18hrs | Views
ZAPU President Dr Dumiso Dabengwa undressed ZANU PF and Mugabe at Adv Senda burial service when he came out guns blazing telling them point blank that they were not sincere mourning Advocate Lot Senda who was buried on Thursday in Bulawayo.
Dr Dabengwa, who referred to himself as a prisoner, in reference to his arrest on trumped up treason charges in the early 1980s, was addressing mourners gathered for the late Advocate Lot Senda burial service at Brethren in Christ Church.
Against everyone's expectations, Adv Senda was not accorded the national hero status but was infact given a state assisted funeral by a regime that has been on an agenda deleting ZAPU and ZPRA history and legacy of Zimbabwe's liberation in favor of that of ZANU and ZANLA.
Dr Dabengwa told a packed Brethren in Christ church, which included ZANU PF politburo and central committee members, ZANU PF MPs, Government officials, the military and Resident Minister how ZANU PF have dispossessed Adv Senda of his farm in Solusi yet they on Thursday shed crocodile tears over his passing on.
"It is surprising to us how you today come here and pretend you cared so much about Adv Senda. The man was a ZANU PF member yet your very own ZANU PF supporters unlawfully invaded and are occupying his farm which he bought using his hard earned money. What kind of people are you? ", thundered the miffed ZAPU President to a rousing applause from the congregating mourners.
"To you Hon Malaba, I challenge you here and now, if you are really sincerely mourning this man, go right away from here and remove your supporters who invaded and are occupying Adv Senda's farm. You should not come here and pretend what you are not." said Dabengwa.
He also told ZANU PF to stop the lie they were propagating that Adv Senda had been declared a hero by Mugabe's regime, challenging them to tell the people and family the truth that he was merely given a state assisted funeral, as has become the norm whenever former ZAPU/ZPRA heroes pass on. This was in reference to the habitually recurring incidences where former ZAPU/ZPRA liberation heroes are constantly denied national hero status in favor of their little known and insignificant counterparts from ZANU/ZANLA who are lie buried at the national shrine.
Dr Dabengwa also highlighted the double standards being practiced by Robert Mugabe, the dictator leader of both ZANU PF and Zimbabwe. He narrated how he was arrested and dragged to trial on trumped up charges of treason in the early 1980s at the behest of dictator Mugabe who felt ZAPU and its leadership were a stumbling block t his ill thought idea and outrightly mad dream of a one party state as he finally achieved in 1987, albeit temporarily.
President Dabengwa narrated how Adv Senda represented Dr Dabengwa, Gen Lookout Vumindaba Masuku and others in court, which acquitted them of the frivolous charges. The madness in Mugabe came to unprecedented peaks when he ordered the detention of both Dr Dabengwa and Gen Masuku, even after the courts of law found them innocent and discharged them. This, Dr Dabengwa said, led to Gen Masuku's illness and subsequent death at the hands of the notorious regime of ZANU PF. This happened in the five year detention stint, just as tens of thousands ZAPU supporters were being butchered by the Fifth Brigade in Midlands and Matabeleland Provinces.
According to President Dabengwa, what followed was the Unity Accord, whose contents, negotiations and aims he knew nothing of as the whole process of coming up with it was done while he was inside the notorious Chikurubi walls. He said he only got to know and understand the piecemeal arrangement after reading Cephas Msipha memoir released just before his passing on.
Dr Dabengwa questioned the sincerity of self contradicting Mugabe who recently was complaining about his and Mandela's arrests at the hands of white minority governments, saying he has no moral standing to complain since he adopted and is practicing the same repression tactics as practiced by Ian Smith. Dr Dabengwa said he found it unbelievably weird and ironic that the minority Rhodesian government never put chains on him and fellow liberation fighters like Masuku, only to be arrested and falsely detained by a majority black government in a country he had just liberated.
The rap by President Dabengwa forced ZANU PF to change in the last minute their main speakers from Cl Tshinga Dube to Ms Angeline Masuku. This was after sensing that Cl Dube would not be able to measure up to Dr Dabengwa. However, Masuku did not help matters as she stummered on her speech, resorting to the usual and tired rhetoric of "unity and peace for development", as has become the hymn specially penned for so called Matabeleland leaders in ZANU PF.
Dr Dabengwa, who referred to himself as a prisoner, in reference to his arrest on trumped up treason charges in the early 1980s, was addressing mourners gathered for the late Advocate Lot Senda burial service at Brethren in Christ Church.
Against everyone's expectations, Adv Senda was not accorded the national hero status but was infact given a state assisted funeral by a regime that has been on an agenda deleting ZAPU and ZPRA history and legacy of Zimbabwe's liberation in favor of that of ZANU and ZANLA.
Dr Dabengwa told a packed Brethren in Christ church, which included ZANU PF politburo and central committee members, ZANU PF MPs, Government officials, the military and Resident Minister how ZANU PF have dispossessed Adv Senda of his farm in Solusi yet they on Thursday shed crocodile tears over his passing on.
"It is surprising to us how you today come here and pretend you cared so much about Adv Senda. The man was a ZANU PF member yet your very own ZANU PF supporters unlawfully invaded and are occupying his farm which he bought using his hard earned money. What kind of people are you? ", thundered the miffed ZAPU President to a rousing applause from the congregating mourners.
"To you Hon Malaba, I challenge you here and now, if you are really sincerely mourning this man, go right away from here and remove your supporters who invaded and are occupying Adv Senda's farm. You should not come here and pretend what you are not." said Dabengwa.
He also told ZANU PF to stop the lie they were propagating that Adv Senda had been declared a hero by Mugabe's regime, challenging them to tell the people and family the truth that he was merely given a state assisted funeral, as has become the norm whenever former ZAPU/ZPRA heroes pass on. This was in reference to the habitually recurring incidences where former ZAPU/ZPRA liberation heroes are constantly denied national hero status in favor of their little known and insignificant counterparts from ZANU/ZANLA who are lie buried at the national shrine.
Dr Dabengwa also highlighted the double standards being practiced by Robert Mugabe, the dictator leader of both ZANU PF and Zimbabwe. He narrated how he was arrested and dragged to trial on trumped up charges of treason in the early 1980s at the behest of dictator Mugabe who felt ZAPU and its leadership were a stumbling block t his ill thought idea and outrightly mad dream of a one party state as he finally achieved in 1987, albeit temporarily.
President Dabengwa narrated how Adv Senda represented Dr Dabengwa, Gen Lookout Vumindaba Masuku and others in court, which acquitted them of the frivolous charges. The madness in Mugabe came to unprecedented peaks when he ordered the detention of both Dr Dabengwa and Gen Masuku, even after the courts of law found them innocent and discharged them. This, Dr Dabengwa said, led to Gen Masuku's illness and subsequent death at the hands of the notorious regime of ZANU PF. This happened in the five year detention stint, just as tens of thousands ZAPU supporters were being butchered by the Fifth Brigade in Midlands and Matabeleland Provinces.
According to President Dabengwa, what followed was the Unity Accord, whose contents, negotiations and aims he knew nothing of as the whole process of coming up with it was done while he was inside the notorious Chikurubi walls. He said he only got to know and understand the piecemeal arrangement after reading Cephas Msipha memoir released just before his passing on.
Dr Dabengwa questioned the sincerity of self contradicting Mugabe who recently was complaining about his and Mandela's arrests at the hands of white minority governments, saying he has no moral standing to complain since he adopted and is practicing the same repression tactics as practiced by Ian Smith. Dr Dabengwa said he found it unbelievably weird and ironic that the minority Rhodesian government never put chains on him and fellow liberation fighters like Masuku, only to be arrested and falsely detained by a majority black government in a country he had just liberated.
The rap by President Dabengwa forced ZANU PF to change in the last minute their main speakers from Cl Tshinga Dube to Ms Angeline Masuku. This was after sensing that Cl Dube would not be able to measure up to Dr Dabengwa. However, Masuku did not help matters as she stummered on her speech, resorting to the usual and tired rhetoric of "unity and peace for development", as has become the hymn specially penned for so called Matabeleland leaders in ZANU PF.
Source - Iphithule Thembani KaMaphosa
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.