Only few heads have to roll in Midlands for sanity to prevail

In the 2018 elections ZANU PF lost in Kwekwe to a G40 kingpin the late Blackman Matambanadzo. It was not the campaign of Matambanadzo or the idiocy of Chebundo which lost the plot for ZANU PF. It was because few big wigs mistook their closeness to the president to be a licence to be untouchable. It is not a secret anymore that two senior trusted ministers in the President's cabinet have betrayed the trust the president has bestowed in them. They actually have forgotten that it was  the president's pleasure not their input. Having been appointed to the high office they are then repaying the president by soiling his name and causing mayhem and havoc in the Midlands province. It is high time that these too good for nothing must be reminded that the party does not evolve around them. The party is not their personal property and that they are serving at His Excellences pleasure. In this time of DCC elections, a lot of hero-worshipping and name dropping within the party is rife. Many people are abusing the name of the president in order to gain momentum. In Midlands there are those creating their own line up in the vain effort of trying to control the party.  The party is seeing the politics of a partisan and self realignment, the province is sprouting up candidates who are barren of ideas and exhibit total absence of a policy and ideology of the party. A lot of bribery vote-buying and cronyism has dominated our party politics Kwekwe in particular. The aspiring MP for Kwekwe central had tried to put his nose in Shurugwi North. He tried to disturb the peaceful party business by campaigning for 2023 boasting that a senior minister his uncle was baking him. But his head shot up in Kwekwe which clearly shows that he is not out to serve the people but he is just after power.

It is important to note that Shurugwi town is the only town with hundred percent ZANU Pf in the council and it was that area this guy had set to destabilise.

Unprecedented inter-party violence has surged its ugly head.
We have had an embarrassment in Kwekwe where political heavyweights hired machete wielding thugs to assault and disturb the peaceful primary election process. There are people who took different paths from reason and believe in the politics of intimidation. Violence has replaced their thinking capacity and they compensate the lack of popularity with  violence and surrounding themselves with paid mobs to create a sense of popularity. This politics has to change or we are doomed.

One of the biggest tests of a democracy is whether it can ensure a peaceful transfer of power. After all, what is the point of a democratic mandate if it invites vendetta? If there is one province in ZANU PF which has historically violated this principle, it is Midlands. Violence of the worst form, including extermination of political opponents, has often been employed by few people especially the one in a high office who is abusing his ministry to punish his perceived enemies as a political tactic. The magnitude of this problem increases when there is a political churn in the province.

Again it is not a secret that the mines are being used as a payment and motivation for violence. The man has rewarded the people he use to commit violence by giving the mines to mine gold. This means the violent mongers are well oiled. This is an insult to the reasoning people of Zimbabwe. Instead of using provincial resources for devolution they use the resources for empowering and funding their violent activities.

It was an insult when these malcontents organised people to come and demonstrate against the arrest of Muto who is suspected of being a murderer and the perpetrator of the violence against the party leadership in Kwekwe last month during the aborted primary elections.

The fact that there was no clear rebuke or rather there was no public rebuke these criminals have felt empowered to publicly boast and bask in the infamous glory of their violence.

This has come as a jolt to the disciplinary action anticipated. As a result, political violence has engulfed the province and public praising and boasting of violence has flooded the social media. The point is no one can claim a moral high ground vis-a-vis the mess that has been created this must be dealt with right now and right here.
What is to be done? The province and the ruling party need to get their house in order. As law and order is a state subject, there cannot be any excuses for what is happening in the Midlands right now. Victims of violence and their kin have often argued that the police have not done its duty to protect them from being attacked.  Obviously the backers of this provincial violence are senior ministers they make it their business to be around the president. This then gives them an  uncontested right to lie to the people in the name of the president. The president has given them a long rope but their heads and necks are too big so they are expecting a longer rope.

People in Kwekwe are telling stories of horror they face everyday from the self claimed AlShabab which is headed my one senior minister. Youth who are making a decent living in gold mining are told that allegiance to this man is a passport to gold digging. Because this is a lucrative business they have no choice but to indulge in the violence in order to please the thugs in regalia.   People are praying for any person found to be failing in their duty should be given exemplary punishment and made an example of.  So it is an embarrassment that the minister calls a meeting at his lodge and organise a demonstration against court. Against due process. This demonstration was meant to hive the violent youth a false belief that they are untouchable.

The party must punish those used and those using. If there is no improvement on this front, the judiciary should step in and take charge by taking a strong stance against the political violence.
Having said this, it needs to be underlined that the problem in the Midlands is not an administrative one alone it is a crime which needs stern measures to be taken. Unless the political leadership are willing to shun violence as a political tool, things will not improve. The more the party tries to handle this quietly the more the culprits feel vindicated.

The events of Friday when some thugs purporting to be
ZANU PF youths rallied behind Tapiwa Muto, who faces charges of assault, public violence and murder is deplorable. Never in ZANU PF does any one protest agains the process of court. It is called due precess. The demonstrations by these Artisan miners who were forced to demonstrate or lose their mining rights was not only an embarrassment but obstruction of Justice.

Muto (36) was arrested Tuesday in an afternoon raid by some police and military intelligence officers while coming from the party's Kwekwe District offices.

Kwekwe Magistrates court released him on bail on Friday, the day the youths brought Kwekwe Central Business District to a standstill. His release was due interference by this minister it is alleged. If this is true he should be put in the right path. It is these actions which work against the party.
This man and his gluttons are a liability to the party and they will continue destroying the party unless they are called to order.

Following his release and addressing party supporters at Kwekwe Zanu PF District Offices, Muto said he was unmoved by his arrest on allegations he described as fabricated. He said:
Muto who is known to be a foot soldier of this bigwig and some party youths are being accused of causing public violence during a Zanu PF primary election that was prematurely abandoned after fierce clashes between rival camps last month. They assaulted party leaders destroyed their cars and forced the elections to be stopped. They feel vindicated by the fact that they never received a public rebuke. They are feeling like heroes and this is destroying the support the party is trying to gain.

Muto and his handler are directly fighting the National Political Commissair cde Victor Matemadanda whom they attack in some whatsapp groups. They are even attacking the Province's chairman and his deputy. Instead of growing up they are too blinded by power that they are now destroying the party and soiling the name of the president.
When political change is about old actors changing camps rather than new actors replacing the old, existing vices are likely to remain. The violent people are labelling everybody G40 instead of uniting they are sowing seeds of destruction.

Muto who still is very close to the bigwig faces serious charges against his own party members.
The state alleges that on December 11 2020, Muto and his accomplices namely Tafadzwa Rodgers, Wiseman Ngwenya, Raymond Chiriga, Petros and other two who are still on the run, intentionally caused the death of Andrew Moyo, by taking turns to beat him with switches and open hands all over the body."

Moyo was rushed to Kwekwe General Hospital after the assault and was pronounced dead upon admission.
The state also alleges that on the 6th of June 2018 Muto, in the company of others who are still at large, approached Kennedy Tumwe at Mvuda's Corner Sports Bar Mbizo 4 Shopping Centre, Kwekwe whom they assaulted after an argument over political issues.

Muto is also accused of assaulting Terrence Jabangwe. All this is violence meant to impose dominance by few people. A great disaster is to give power to those with no education. Thats why we have ministers who demand a senior officer to drive from Harare to Kwekwe just to deliver a copy of the herald Newspaper.

The party must  use its freshly earned political reforms brought by the new dispensation.
The President said to tjis writer one day" people must learn to work together for the good of the party. In my Cabinet there are some people i do mot like but I have to work with them. Do you think all of them I like them?"He asked.

Considering the wise words of the President this minister minister, must accept the reverses as a political mandate rather than peddle conspiracy theories? Midlands's harmony is contingent on these two people to become reasonable. They are too drunk with power and they must sober up for the good of the party. If the party does not act on them now we are doomed.

The people of Kwekwe must  distance themselves  from the influence of these problematic bigwigs and focus on the good of the party.

We must note that any trace of affiliation might trigger election violence, saying this could be detrimental to democracy and credibility of democratisation processes in the country.

We must note that the role of the party as an umpire in the election process, is to enforce the rights of the members to participate freely in the DCC's or any elections without violence through a transparent process from the standpoint of a truly democratic way. We need to support the NPC and his team.

The party members must be taught to support and respect the party leadership.
While speaking at the We must realise that the integrity of election management is critical for allaying fears of members that they would not be rigged out in elections.The party must therefore, task relevant security agencies to be more professional and non-partisan in investigating, arresting and prosecuting those sponsoring killings ahead of the elections.

Without efforts in this direction, politicians, with no access to formal security, would deepen their private arrangements for violence as a matter of waging war against their rivals.
It is sad that instead of decreasing, violence  has become more valued by the political class under a strict clandestine political relationship for the purpose of securing victory ahead of elections and in trying to gain control of the province.

We therefore, beckon all stakeholders in Midlands to play a more bipartisan peace-building role and become less adversarial in matters that have to do with life and death.

We must work to remove partisanship around killings and other forms of violence that have degraded the political process, this should be seen as inimical to the democratization process.

When a senior party member uses the advantage of seniority to deny the others access to justice, there is a likelihood of legal, optical or counter-violent response. This should not be what defines our party.
This binary view of action and reaction is tantamount to a dying democratic experiment.

It is even worse, that scarce monetary resource is a key determinant of who gets what and how from elections.
Those who invest money in violence by all means, would want to win by violence. But violence must not be a defining factor. This suggests a sense of desperation that influences the risk of violence in the electoral process. ZANU PF is above this nonsense and keeping these thugs in the party is detrimental.

"When a politician wrongly or rightly perceives a bigwig to be desperate to keep power, response is likely to be violent. Both the cost and fear of losing elections pose a risk of violent response. What it means is that, the electoral process becomes unduly pressured towards violence with any available violent group becoming prey in the hands of politicians.

"The trend, which suggest a love affair between some politicians and armed groups, implies class oppression of the downtrodden who need to wake up from a seeming slumber and break free. Politicians, who support activities of cult groups to rig elections, intimidate or kill opponents, should be resisted and rejected by the party irrespective of level of influence.

As party leaders we must make an effort at making election processes more peace-building, confidence- building, and conflict sensitive is critical.

ZANU PF has been doing very well with development and can not afford to have its name dragged into mud by glory seeking powerful thugs.  2023 should be in our bag now and we can not afford hole diggers to dig a hole for the party in Midlands.

Our Zimbabwean democracy is the one party led race with only a shaddow calling itself opposition. The inefficiency and stupidity of the opposition must not make us relax and soil our party reputation. We must not have a party which is not tested or corrected which has no fear of its future and the one which can not see danger coming its way.  We as a party must never relax because the opposition is not threatening to wrestle the power off the incumbent hands in any election.

Instead we have an opposition which fights to remain opposition and indeed their democracy is to remain the opposition. This is a God given blessing to allow the party to develop the country but it is never a time to relax.

ZANU PF has discharged itself perfectly well such that we have become the only party with the skills to run a country. As usual the opposition come with all excuses and are afraid of their shadows. They  never dream of power and thus they are useless and an insult to democracy.  So ZANU PF must never allow those who are bent to achieve their own glory to soil the good name of the good party.

Vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk