Zimbabwe, yet another opportunity gone begging? Possibly?

November, 2018, another heart stopping moment for Zimbabwe. Could that be the long awaited moment? Many wondered. The long dreamed about dawn when the nation would rediscover its soul? Hadn't the nation's travails gone on long enough?

The lies, the deception, unimaginable human rights abuses, the long recurrent and incessant moments of madness and insanity. What god of revenge could allow such retribution on a  people hitherto known for their industriousness, hospitality, courtesy and warmth? Anyone who knew our nation prior to "freedom day" in 1980, appreciates what I am talking about. The nostalgia of yester year when we all saw ourselves as  vana vevhu!

Outcomes in life, our lives courses are wholly dependent on the choices we make. Shakespeare so succinctly puts it thus: "There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries."

November, 2018 appeared to be that seminal moment that the high tide would wash all ashore. Zimbabweans had reached rock bottom. The nation was riven with hate, suspicion and division. The relief available to those who had the ability, lay in the chicken run, out of the mess that the country had become. There was no further down the nation could go, no more crust beneath. Dig any further and break into the magma of reality with the distinct possibility of a gigantic volcanic eruption that would simply engulf and incinerate all, Zanu not excepted.

The masses spewed out into the streets of Harare, emerging from the hideout dark closets in droves to welcome the conquering heroes. Everywhere reverberated with throngs shouting out loud: Free at last, free at last! The echoes resonated far and wide, from America to Australia, from London to Delhi!  That day for unshackling from the bondage chains borne for the biblical forty years had finally arrived. Our eyes had truly seen the coming of the Messiah. Or so they dreamt.

The army with its leader Chiwenga, Lacoste with its leader ED were lofted high as the knights in shining armour! Crown them! All shouted in unison.

But little did they know the cruel fate that awaited them and us all. The power they dreamt of as having finally arrived was a mere mirage. A chamber full of smoking mirrors. All had bought into the grand deception yet again. A nightmare that came to dawn as layer upon layer of the deception peeled away. The great Zanu Houdini had played the masterly card again.

Zanu planned their strategy with the precision of the great con artistry which they perfected over the years of misrule. Their mighty machine had read the tea leaves well: Things must change so they can remain the same! Deft masters at deception! The amazing thing is that parties which had got into bed with Zanu previously and received thorough burns fell for it yet again, hook line and sinker! How gullible we all can be!

The decoy of a sham coup against Mugabe worked to perfection. Dutifully Mugabe accepted the role of sacrificial lamb upon which the very survival of Zanu depended. Of course he named his price. Ten million. In cash. And of course co-conspirators obliged.

When the dust settled and time had come to unveil the cup to the nation, what comes out? Restore Legacy! Truly not! All those efforts, all the braving of real danger! For this? Reminded me of a church group I heard of some years ago. The leader bought a bus and named it: Tinodya zvemarema!

Zanu has shown again and again that it will never indulge in any venture that would seriously threaten its hold on power. Who could blame them? With so many skeletons in the cupboard, losing power in the zero sum politics of Zimbabwe is something which that party could never contemplate. The vision since 1963 was never about what is good for the country but what is good for Zanu and its oligarchs. Anything, anyone who threatens that essence is simply smashed to pieces. The roll call of destruction, starting from Chitepo, ZIPA debacles, Tongogara, Gukurahundi, Mrambatsvina, chaotic land grabs, …….. the tic tac staccato of psychopathic liquidation of people and property with only one aim: Zanu's unchallenged hold on power in Zimbabwe.

How many ghosts of the Patriotic Front, Unity Accord, and governments of National Unity agreements do we have to see to understand how the party that operates? Even in seemingly clearly demarcated processes like the coming national elections, for Zanu the choices are simple: to win or to win resoundingly. To Zanu all ends justify the means. Simply no holds barred!

Back to the opportunities presented by the 2018 coup. All outside Zanu saw the dawn of an era when Zimbabweans would come together in true unity to come together, clean up the mess and set the country on a different trajectory to prosperity.

To any rational mind this would be a win-win formula. The obvious route would be to form a transitional authority embracing all stakeholders tasked with enabling the nation to heal. After allowing Zimbabweans to "find each other", then hold elections in which parties could contest for power guided by what is best for the country rather than the current partisan politics where contesting parties view each other as enemies in mortal combat as is the prevailing climate.

Zanu too would have had much to gain from this. Almost all its front bench are heavily tainted with the gross abuses that they either were at the helm of or heavily implicated in. Transition would allow space to seek conciliation on abuses and excesses, which, assuming they have an ounce of humanity in them, must weigh heavily on them.

My understanding of the Zimbabwean character is that, given space, forgiveness comes easily to the people. Even the languages are replete with expressions of this: Ukukhumisana umlotha! Ayilale ngophondo!
There is a saying that no one sees the world as it is but we see the world as we are. The persuasive argument that Zanu would see an escape route to allow them to gain respectability through a transitional arrangement arises out of the false thinking that the party looks at the world the way most normal people do.

I remember a sad episode when I accidentally knocked down a young person, who unexpectedly dashed across the road as I was driving. Thankfully, no injuries were sustained. That incident, over twenty years ago still haunts me even although no lasting damage to person or property resulted.
How then, does people who carry responsibility for the most gruesome and brutal murder of tens, even hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children find peace with themselves? Where do they find sleep? How do they now, standing on the shallow graves of those whose lives they cut short in the manner they did, raise their voices to say: let bygones be bygones? How on earth do such people operate? If, by any curse of Daemon I had found myself in their shoes, I would certainly have done the only decent thing. Nyagumbo style!

If indeed, the whole reason Zanu's participation was to restore or maintain legacy, and since the only beneficiaries of the coup were the same Zanu co-conspirators with the "deposed", Zimbabwe gained nothing out of the whole exercise.

I know there are those who believe that the country did enjoy a period of calm and prosperity immediately after independence. That was another illusion. That was just the calm before the storm. Zanu used the period to dig in, to loot the state coffers, position operatives throughout the world in preparation for the onslaught on the hapless people of Zimbabwe, wherever they were. That it took as long as it did for the edifice to come crumbling down was thanks to the strength of the economy that the settler regime had left behind.

The country having suffered so much and so repeatedly at the hands of Zanu would be foolish in the utmost to believe that the party had truly undergone a Damascene transformation. As the saying goes, if you repeat the same mistake over and over again, do not be surprised if the outcome is exactly the same.
A friend of mine has another version of the above. Never expect that throwing putrid beef into a freezer will make it fresh again.

Rega Chamisa atonge!