Opinion / Columnist
So Mnangagwa will finally Resign?
14 Aug 2019 at 07:48hrs | Views
On August 16 some people of Harare high density suburbs will yet again brave the wind and toyi-toyi the streets to exert pressure on a constitutionally elected and military backed government to resign en masse and hand over power.
Most of the shops will prefer to rather close than risk losing their wares that no one still affords to buy. Public transporters will also resist the lure of making a likely killing to a from the protest points. Banks too will keep their ears to the ground and newsrooms will be empty, with every reporter deployed to every corner of the city to fetch each little piece of the grand event. This is indeed the biggest event on the political calendar, the president will be forced out by the people, and not by the camouflage men this time. It is history, the world is watching in awe.
Hundreds of degreed vendors will give up their day's pickings and jog their part in solidarity with the "people's cause." The few briefcase political outfits which enjoyed dialogue table mazoe orange crush will be green with envy. The opposition Alliance will finally do what the great Napoleon could not do, they will dethrone the dukes of Munhumutapa buildings and destroy fortresses without the barrel of a rifle!
The government is shaken to the core, those in the army and ruling party top ranks are making calls at ungodly hours negotiating for their own amnesty after the fall of the second republic rooted in an ancient system. The establishment has finally accepted that power is not in the maxim guns, the power is not in their perceived legitimacy comfort, the power is in the vendors on the streets of Harare. The water cannons of the police and the ever-alert artilleries of the army are now of no use, the people's spirit will prevail.
The government knows that the people of Harare are an angry lot, without patience anymore. These people have watched prices of basic goods soaring to alarming levels, joblessness now undeniable, poverty becoming commonplace, and to them the government seems clueless. Why do the corruption busting crusades seem all smoke screen and not measuring to the extent of the underhand dealings that crippled the country's service thrusts before and after the infamous Willowvale disgrace? Why do taxpayers clap hands when an MP builds a clinic with the very same taxpayer's money? Why are basic human, political and economic rights now on sale to the highest bidder?
The stalwarts at Jongwe House, those at Munhumutapa offices, they are afraid. They are burning the midnight candles taking stock of their pickings during their long political careers since the country attained independence. The stock taking is, behold, not to hide in offshore accounts, but to return to the state and its new rulers before same is forfeited and channeled back into the economy for the benefit of all.
The mother of all protests is here, they have better ideas that the founding leader of the main opposition smiles about with pride beyond the grave. The engine is well oiled, brains are plenty, what with the cockpit full of a bunch of clever Harare lawyers. These men and women have advised each other that the strongmen in the government will wet their pants and resign, MP after another, minister after one, right till the top echelons of power. Their fortress, those who once physically came out of the barracks more than once to influence the electoral and political order of the day, seeing the youths from Unit 3 in Chitungwiza coming after them with slings and stones, will abandon their artilleries and run for their lives. One by one they will surrender themselves at nearest police stations. Those lucky, will skip the porous borders into friendly nations and seek asylum. Who can ever forget that a whole Mugabe and his government were shaken by a lone and few Dzamara followers sitting in Africa unity gardens vowing not to eat until Mugabe finds time off his busy schedule and replies to ink on cheap paper!
This is when the 6am cold morning alarm rings wake up.
Have the Harare people thought of who keeps voting Zanu PF come every election? Have the Harare people pondered why those who do vote Zanu PF keep doing so every election? Are those people not seeing the suffering of others? Are they themselves not suffering?
There are hundreds of thousands, millions, who believe that Zanu PF, in all the glaring difficulties, are a reward of their unwavering effort to remain resolute and true to Pan-Africanism. This number of people, believes that the state the country finds itself in is the response of the West to the pan African stance of Zanu PF, and this view is not entirely incorrect. The argument has been that why would a whole America enact Zidera that is not effective in pinching Zanu PF? Why would a whole Europe put sanctions that do not pinch enough? This is the biggest undoing of the West and the argument was lost in this way. They were supposed to let Zanu PF grovel in its own failures, not speed up the process which then turned out to be the propaganda used by the ruling party to justify the mess. The opposition still barks wishes of democracy while Zanu PF makes strides and always has a solution for every menace, no matter how laughable but they believe in every fibre of it its own. It is more evil actually for the opposition leaders to continue using tried and failed strategies to force Zanu PF into a coalition bed, by putting people's lives on the line as happened when the same protests ended up with coffins. On their own, the actions of the opposition point to defeat on the hands of Zanu PF as they have utterly failed to bring the ruling party down blow by blow on an intellectual level. Democracy and constitutionalism themselves prescribe that regime change can only be both legal and legitimate at the ballot, not through street protests. Reproach for high prices, unemployment and demand for justice can be voiced and achieved by effective opposition strategies, which the Alliance has failed to do. Resorting to protest action points to an inner DNA of hooliganism as it is well known that it is not only criminal, but convenient for the partakers to loot and plunder. A proposition was made some few years back by a now well-known fugitive of justice that maybe it is time that government considers a policy to require that instigators of protest actions pay some form of security for the damages that will be done by their followers. The innocent shop owners whose wares will be destroyed deserve justice and protection of the law too.
Robert Sigauke is a Legal professional, political and social commentator based in Cape Town. He can be contacted on WhatsApp +27713348876.
Most of the shops will prefer to rather close than risk losing their wares that no one still affords to buy. Public transporters will also resist the lure of making a likely killing to a from the protest points. Banks too will keep their ears to the ground and newsrooms will be empty, with every reporter deployed to every corner of the city to fetch each little piece of the grand event. This is indeed the biggest event on the political calendar, the president will be forced out by the people, and not by the camouflage men this time. It is history, the world is watching in awe.
Hundreds of degreed vendors will give up their day's pickings and jog their part in solidarity with the "people's cause." The few briefcase political outfits which enjoyed dialogue table mazoe orange crush will be green with envy. The opposition Alliance will finally do what the great Napoleon could not do, they will dethrone the dukes of Munhumutapa buildings and destroy fortresses without the barrel of a rifle!
The government is shaken to the core, those in the army and ruling party top ranks are making calls at ungodly hours negotiating for their own amnesty after the fall of the second republic rooted in an ancient system. The establishment has finally accepted that power is not in the maxim guns, the power is not in their perceived legitimacy comfort, the power is in the vendors on the streets of Harare. The water cannons of the police and the ever-alert artilleries of the army are now of no use, the people's spirit will prevail.
The government knows that the people of Harare are an angry lot, without patience anymore. These people have watched prices of basic goods soaring to alarming levels, joblessness now undeniable, poverty becoming commonplace, and to them the government seems clueless. Why do the corruption busting crusades seem all smoke screen and not measuring to the extent of the underhand dealings that crippled the country's service thrusts before and after the infamous Willowvale disgrace? Why do taxpayers clap hands when an MP builds a clinic with the very same taxpayer's money? Why are basic human, political and economic rights now on sale to the highest bidder?
The mother of all protests is here, they have better ideas that the founding leader of the main opposition smiles about with pride beyond the grave. The engine is well oiled, brains are plenty, what with the cockpit full of a bunch of clever Harare lawyers. These men and women have advised each other that the strongmen in the government will wet their pants and resign, MP after another, minister after one, right till the top echelons of power. Their fortress, those who once physically came out of the barracks more than once to influence the electoral and political order of the day, seeing the youths from Unit 3 in Chitungwiza coming after them with slings and stones, will abandon their artilleries and run for their lives. One by one they will surrender themselves at nearest police stations. Those lucky, will skip the porous borders into friendly nations and seek asylum. Who can ever forget that a whole Mugabe and his government were shaken by a lone and few Dzamara followers sitting in Africa unity gardens vowing not to eat until Mugabe finds time off his busy schedule and replies to ink on cheap paper!
This is when the 6am cold morning alarm rings wake up.
Have the Harare people thought of who keeps voting Zanu PF come every election? Have the Harare people pondered why those who do vote Zanu PF keep doing so every election? Are those people not seeing the suffering of others? Are they themselves not suffering?
There are hundreds of thousands, millions, who believe that Zanu PF, in all the glaring difficulties, are a reward of their unwavering effort to remain resolute and true to Pan-Africanism. This number of people, believes that the state the country finds itself in is the response of the West to the pan African stance of Zanu PF, and this view is not entirely incorrect. The argument has been that why would a whole America enact Zidera that is not effective in pinching Zanu PF? Why would a whole Europe put sanctions that do not pinch enough? This is the biggest undoing of the West and the argument was lost in this way. They were supposed to let Zanu PF grovel in its own failures, not speed up the process which then turned out to be the propaganda used by the ruling party to justify the mess. The opposition still barks wishes of democracy while Zanu PF makes strides and always has a solution for every menace, no matter how laughable but they believe in every fibre of it its own. It is more evil actually for the opposition leaders to continue using tried and failed strategies to force Zanu PF into a coalition bed, by putting people's lives on the line as happened when the same protests ended up with coffins. On their own, the actions of the opposition point to defeat on the hands of Zanu PF as they have utterly failed to bring the ruling party down blow by blow on an intellectual level. Democracy and constitutionalism themselves prescribe that regime change can only be both legal and legitimate at the ballot, not through street protests. Reproach for high prices, unemployment and demand for justice can be voiced and achieved by effective opposition strategies, which the Alliance has failed to do. Resorting to protest action points to an inner DNA of hooliganism as it is well known that it is not only criminal, but convenient for the partakers to loot and plunder. A proposition was made some few years back by a now well-known fugitive of justice that maybe it is time that government considers a policy to require that instigators of protest actions pay some form of security for the damages that will be done by their followers. The innocent shop owners whose wares will be destroyed deserve justice and protection of the law too.
Robert Sigauke is a Legal professional, political and social commentator based in Cape Town. He can be contacted on WhatsApp +27713348876.
Source - Robert Sigauke, Political Commentator, Cape Town
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