Opinion / Columnist
Not My President - I am an Urbanite
04 Aug 2018 at 06:51hrs | Views
Our hearts bleed with those who were slain by the trigger-happy military on Wednesday. What is more flabbergasting is the lack of sensitivity by those responsible of arming the soldiers with live bullets. And so, the butchers of Zimbabwe decided to sing the same chorus- denial and crocodile tears. And as usual, Mr Mnangagwa missed the opportunity to show statesmanship by piling the blame on the MDC and not reprimanding those who pulled the trigger.
Rural Party and Rural President
For as long as I remember, Zanu PF has been voted for by the rural folks. It has continuously been rejected by all urban areas. The sombre mood in all urban areas is testimony to a deeply aggrieved people who feel cheated by a small elite who want to hold to by any means. In the words of ANC's Blade Nzimande, Zanu PF is now a rural party. It has bludgeoned the rural folks into submission through extreme violence, intimidation, abuse of state resources and deliberate misinformation. Yes, rigging is a major part, but the above is so true. Village heads, chiefs and other rural leaders all worship the rural party. They commit voter fraud by frog marching people to polling stations in groups.
The Rural Party (Zanu PF), has lost all the urban working class, the academics, professionals, the middle class and urban organisations and groups. It sees all urbanites as enemies. The rogue "war veteran" Douglas Mahiya was quoted saying that Mugabe will not be buried at the Heroes' Acre because he betrayed the party by pledging to vote for the MDC Alliance. He said Mugabe's betrayal was worse than that of Ndabaningi Sithole. That is the thinking within the rural party- any opposition is viewed with disdain, an enemy that must be crushed.
Mnangagwa himself is a master of torture, intimidation and outright violence, having been the Minister in charge of stitching together the notorious CIO. Imagine how many times, Masvingo State Minister, Josiah Hungwe uttered this to the rural folks on the campaign trail "if Mnangagwa could shoot his way into power in November last year, then there was nothing to stop him from doing the same to keep himself in office."
"Our leader Mnangagwa is a soldier and you know that a soldier is always equipped with a gun to do whatever he wants. If you want to run away from him he can shoot you, so you should always know that," Hungwe said.
When such statements have been repeated during the campaign trail, it suggests a scared rural electorate. The parliamentary results announced by ZEC support this fact. After the violence in 2000, 2002, 2008 and 2013, Zanu PF only needed to remind the rural folks that the man in charge now will not hesitate to shoot them should they not vote for the rural party. The shootings in Harare will remind everyone that this junta thrives on human blood.
Naïve
Perhaps those in opposition were naïve to think that the junta would give up power after they had resigned from their lucrative uniform jobs. Imagine if they had allowed ZEC to announce the correct results- Chiwenga, Sibusiso Moyo and Perence Shiri would have no jobs today.
Quoting his own words, I will say to Mr Mnangagwa, "the voice of the people is the voice of God." Those of us living in towns, cities and some peri-urban areas as well those whose relatives you helped butcher in Matebeleland and the under developed Manicaland have spoken. You are not their president. You represent the rural folks- perhaps you should take over from Chief Charumbira as the President of the Chiefs Council.
May I suggest you go to your supporters and collect tax from them. We the urbanites are tired of feeding your extravagant lifestyles. We were even forced to contribute towards the building of your rural party headquarters- the Shakeshake building. Our income tax is probably sixty to eighty percent of the government's money. You and your ilk drive expensive cars paid for by the very people who have repeatedly rejected your rural party.
You send soldiers to shoot the urban citizens, you send riot police to disrupt the true people's party, you even chase and harass local and international journalists. New dispensation my foot. Perhaps, the rural party should go to its supporters for financial support and let the urban folks be. If we the hardworking urban dwellers stop paying income tax, that would mean much less money for your government, which already runs substantial deficits. Your government would have to borrow a lot more money from your supporters in the rural areas. Stop raiding our hard-earned savings, pensions and foreign currency bank accounts.
The Rural President's Credentials
Our people in the rural areas perish because of lack of knowledge. Perhaps they don't know that most urban people and the majority in the diaspora hate what the rural party has put them through and yearning for change. The more informed urban folks know that:
Mnangagwa has been complicit in the manipulation of the ZANU-PF election process by promoting violence, intimidation and repression as well as illegal administrative strategies to ensure ZANU-PF election success. He has also long faced allegations of corruption and diamond looting in both Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In 2012, the NGO Global Witness released an investigative report that revealed how ZANU-PF (the rural party and the military elite used the proceeds from looted diamonds to fund human rights abuses. The report specifically points to the complicit conduct of Mnangagwa and his ally Constantino Chiwenga.
Mnangagwa has also been accused of playing a pivotal role in the Matabeleland and Midlands massacres of 1982-1987. The violence that was both politically and ethnically motivated. The satanic pack of Mnangagwa, Sekeramayi, Perence Shiri and Chiwenga with Mugabe as head, organised relentless and persistent state-orchestrated violence that massacred 20,000 people and tortured, raped, beaten many hundreds of thousands of others. These were our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters. It is very easy for those living in the three Mashonalands to detach themselves from these atrocities and continue to vote for the evil rural party. The rural president Mr Mnangagwa has denied involvement and has blamed the army (the same army that will go to any length to ensure their rural president remains in power).
Yet, on March 4, 1983, at a rally held not far from Lupane in Matabeleland North, Mnangagwa publicly conflated being a citizen of Matabeleland with being a political dissident. According to news reports at the time, he told his audience the government had "an option" of "burning down … all the villages infected with dissidents", saying "the campaign against dissidents can only succeed if the infrastructure which nurtures them is destroyed".
He described dissidents as "cockroaches" and the Fifth Brigade as "DDT" brought in to "eradicate" them. In short, he made it clear that the destruction of the civilian population of Matabeleland was part of a deliberate state policy – and the very next day came the country's worst massacre yet, on the banks of the Ciwale river, when 62 people were killed.
The rural president and his band of murderous should be charged with crimes against humanity. Sorry Mr Mnangagwa, you are not the president of a nation. Maybe the rural folks will accept you with your corrupt and murderous background.
Rural Party and Rural President
For as long as I remember, Zanu PF has been voted for by the rural folks. It has continuously been rejected by all urban areas. The sombre mood in all urban areas is testimony to a deeply aggrieved people who feel cheated by a small elite who want to hold to by any means. In the words of ANC's Blade Nzimande, Zanu PF is now a rural party. It has bludgeoned the rural folks into submission through extreme violence, intimidation, abuse of state resources and deliberate misinformation. Yes, rigging is a major part, but the above is so true. Village heads, chiefs and other rural leaders all worship the rural party. They commit voter fraud by frog marching people to polling stations in groups.
The Rural Party (Zanu PF), has lost all the urban working class, the academics, professionals, the middle class and urban organisations and groups. It sees all urbanites as enemies. The rogue "war veteran" Douglas Mahiya was quoted saying that Mugabe will not be buried at the Heroes' Acre because he betrayed the party by pledging to vote for the MDC Alliance. He said Mugabe's betrayal was worse than that of Ndabaningi Sithole. That is the thinking within the rural party- any opposition is viewed with disdain, an enemy that must be crushed.
Mnangagwa himself is a master of torture, intimidation and outright violence, having been the Minister in charge of stitching together the notorious CIO. Imagine how many times, Masvingo State Minister, Josiah Hungwe uttered this to the rural folks on the campaign trail "if Mnangagwa could shoot his way into power in November last year, then there was nothing to stop him from doing the same to keep himself in office."
"Our leader Mnangagwa is a soldier and you know that a soldier is always equipped with a gun to do whatever he wants. If you want to run away from him he can shoot you, so you should always know that," Hungwe said.
When such statements have been repeated during the campaign trail, it suggests a scared rural electorate. The parliamentary results announced by ZEC support this fact. After the violence in 2000, 2002, 2008 and 2013, Zanu PF only needed to remind the rural folks that the man in charge now will not hesitate to shoot them should they not vote for the rural party. The shootings in Harare will remind everyone that this junta thrives on human blood.
Naïve
Perhaps those in opposition were naïve to think that the junta would give up power after they had resigned from their lucrative uniform jobs. Imagine if they had allowed ZEC to announce the correct results- Chiwenga, Sibusiso Moyo and Perence Shiri would have no jobs today.
Quoting his own words, I will say to Mr Mnangagwa, "the voice of the people is the voice of God." Those of us living in towns, cities and some peri-urban areas as well those whose relatives you helped butcher in Matebeleland and the under developed Manicaland have spoken. You are not their president. You represent the rural folks- perhaps you should take over from Chief Charumbira as the President of the Chiefs Council.
May I suggest you go to your supporters and collect tax from them. We the urbanites are tired of feeding your extravagant lifestyles. We were even forced to contribute towards the building of your rural party headquarters- the Shakeshake building. Our income tax is probably sixty to eighty percent of the government's money. You and your ilk drive expensive cars paid for by the very people who have repeatedly rejected your rural party.
You send soldiers to shoot the urban citizens, you send riot police to disrupt the true people's party, you even chase and harass local and international journalists. New dispensation my foot. Perhaps, the rural party should go to its supporters for financial support and let the urban folks be. If we the hardworking urban dwellers stop paying income tax, that would mean much less money for your government, which already runs substantial deficits. Your government would have to borrow a lot more money from your supporters in the rural areas. Stop raiding our hard-earned savings, pensions and foreign currency bank accounts.
The Rural President's Credentials
Our people in the rural areas perish because of lack of knowledge. Perhaps they don't know that most urban people and the majority in the diaspora hate what the rural party has put them through and yearning for change. The more informed urban folks know that:
Mnangagwa has been complicit in the manipulation of the ZANU-PF election process by promoting violence, intimidation and repression as well as illegal administrative strategies to ensure ZANU-PF election success. He has also long faced allegations of corruption and diamond looting in both Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In 2012, the NGO Global Witness released an investigative report that revealed how ZANU-PF (the rural party and the military elite used the proceeds from looted diamonds to fund human rights abuses. The report specifically points to the complicit conduct of Mnangagwa and his ally Constantino Chiwenga.
Mnangagwa has also been accused of playing a pivotal role in the Matabeleland and Midlands massacres of 1982-1987. The violence that was both politically and ethnically motivated. The satanic pack of Mnangagwa, Sekeramayi, Perence Shiri and Chiwenga with Mugabe as head, organised relentless and persistent state-orchestrated violence that massacred 20,000 people and tortured, raped, beaten many hundreds of thousands of others. These were our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters. It is very easy for those living in the three Mashonalands to detach themselves from these atrocities and continue to vote for the evil rural party. The rural president Mr Mnangagwa has denied involvement and has blamed the army (the same army that will go to any length to ensure their rural president remains in power).
Yet, on March 4, 1983, at a rally held not far from Lupane in Matabeleland North, Mnangagwa publicly conflated being a citizen of Matabeleland with being a political dissident. According to news reports at the time, he told his audience the government had "an option" of "burning down … all the villages infected with dissidents", saying "the campaign against dissidents can only succeed if the infrastructure which nurtures them is destroyed".
He described dissidents as "cockroaches" and the Fifth Brigade as "DDT" brought in to "eradicate" them. In short, he made it clear that the destruction of the civilian population of Matabeleland was part of a deliberate state policy – and the very next day came the country's worst massacre yet, on the banks of the Ciwale river, when 62 people were killed.
The rural president and his band of murderous should be charged with crimes against humanity. Sorry Mr Mnangagwa, you are not the president of a nation. Maybe the rural folks will accept you with your corrupt and murderous background.
Source - Dr Gus Manatsa
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.
