Zimbabwe at 32 - toasting to looting, lies and hunger

Zimbabwe's 32nd anniversary of independence is sadly no cause for celebration as it comes at a time of deeper crisis of governance and the rule of law.

It is sad that Zimbabwe is toasting to "looting, lies and hunger" thanks to the self-seeking opportunists who are bent on a voracious primitive accumulation.

Of course, there were some achievements from the liberation struggle and from gaining independence such as one-person one-vote, the right to self-determination, sovereignty and the feeling of freedom.

Those good old days are yearned-for by many including Mugabe's spin doctors who have dusted the former Prime Minister's 1980 Independence speech and uploaded it online.

"The wrongs of the past must now stand forgiven and forgotten. If ever we look to the past, let us do so for the lesson the past has taught us, namely that oppression and racism are inequities that must never again find scope in our political and social system," said Mugabe.

He added: "It could never be correct justification that because whites oppressed us yesterday when they had power, the blacks must oppress them today because they have power."  He did not stop there.

"I must admit that I was one of those who originally never trusted (the late Lord Soames, Governor of pre-independence Zimbabwe), and yet I have now ended up not only implicitly trusting but fondly loving him as well," Mugabe said.
 
Unfortunately all that rhetoric gave way to looting, lying and revenge. Gukurahundi massacre was soon ruthlessly executed with military precision. And revenge was also awaiting white farmers.

Speaking at a rally in April 2000, President Robert Mugabe promised to fight white farmers who opposed his plans to confiscate their farms.

"If they (whites) want to go, we will open the borders for them. We will give them a police escort," he told supporters in Bindura, North East of Harare (BBC, Mugabe threatens white farmers, 07/04/12).

He also accused the 4,500 white commercial farmers, of bankrolling the MDC ahead of an election in May 2000.

In 2002 Mugabe threatened to take retribution against white Zimbabweans if Britain and other countries continued to exert pressure on his government.

"We saw who they were (white farmers), what they were and we realised we had nurtured enemies among us, so we started treating them as enemies, enemies of our government, enemies of our party, enemies of our people."

Despite the signing of the Global Political Agreement and the formation of a coalition government in 2009, state backed farm seizures have continued with white farmers being murdered, beaten, jailed and bankrupted as MDC watches helplessly not even issuing a statement of condemnation.

A case in point is that of the late Kobus Joubert (67) who was shot dead and his wife Mariana (64) was assaulted by assailants who also robbed them of US$10,000 in cash in October 2010.

At independence, few ever thought that an ordinary Zanu-pf supporter like Shuvai Mahofa would have eight farms under her belt by the time of celebrating 32 years of boom and bust.

Shuvai Mahofa allegedly grabbed the following farms for herself and despite the coalition government:

Spring Spruit farm in Masvingo owned by O.H. Kahn; Lothian Farm of Masvingo owned by A.R. Millar; Lochinvar Farm of Masvingo owned by G. Olds; Eyre Farm of Gutu owned by H.S. Veldman; Lauder Farm of Gutu owned by H.S.Veldman; Wrangley Farm of Gutu owned by H.S. Veldman and recently Save Consevancy: Savuli and Zaka Scheme.

While indigenisation is not an issue in principle, it is the implementation - the timing, and the partisan criteria which are problematic.

Dr Ibbo Mandaza aptly described African nationalists saying:

"So, left to themselves, the African nationalists â€" and their agenda and ideology â€" had no loftier goal than one of stepping into the colonizer's shoes, by inheriting the State and the (bourgeois capitalist) economy and, in general, the pursuit of embourgeoisement, albeit in the vain hope that the majority, if not all the people, would find the fullest fulfilment in the post-colonial dispensation," Tekere A lifetime of struggle, p 6.

Please note that I know that the liberation struggle was for land and that we thought that it would be distributed fairly but that did not happen. For speaking up against Mugabe's false assurances of reconciliation at independence, I have received two death threats from his foot soldiers but that won't stop me from criticising.

I have said in the past, Zimbabwe would not be having 90 percent unemployment and hunger if Mugabe had not gone back on national reconciliation. Government could have simply taxed the unutilised land rather than embark on a bloody ethnic cleansing campaign.

We could still have distributed land fairly and transparently using donor funds for compensation and would be still the bread basket of Africa, not a basket case as is the case now.

I have been described as a sell-out and other un-printables but that does not bother me. The struggle for the Diaspora Vote, true freedom, justice and peace, human rights, the rule of law, a free press and real empowerment continues.

Contact author: zimanalysis2009@gmail.com