Opinion / Columnist
Mnangagwa has perfected art of repression
30 Mar 2022 at 02:23hrs | Views
THE birth of Zimbabwe and many other African States came as a result of violent confrontations.
Negotiations such as the Lancaster House Conference took place after violent confrontations between the guerilla fighters and white supremacists. Among the issues at the centre of the Second Chimurenga was the land question, totalitarian rule by the whites and oppression of the black populace.
Images of the late former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith's police officers unleashing dogs on black people were well documented by the media.
It is also important to note that the regime's oppressive nature did not go unnoticed as Britain and the United Nations globally imposed sanctions on Rhodesia.
Fast forward to 2000 and beyond, Zimbabweans found themselves in a similar situation. The issue of land became the crux of the battle. Words like terrorists and puppets began to be thrown around with reckless abandon against the opposition; dissenting voices were and are still being treated with disdain.
Draconian laws such as Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act were promulgated.
As we speak, the government has gazetted the Private Voluntary Organisations Bill to silence "critics" in the NGO sector.
Citizens Coalition for Change rallies have been banned under a cloud. Just like what used to happen during Smith era, on August 1 2018, six innocent citizens were fatally shot at point blank for exercising their democratic right.
The so-called new dispensation has failed to cut the umbilical cord of oppression. It has become a replica of the Smith regime.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has perfected the art of oppression, using violence and maintaining a tight grip on State machinery.
Given that most people in government fought for the liberation of the country against the oppressive Smith regime, we can safely conclude that leaders in our government copied the oppressive rule of the very system they fought against.
It is ironic that Mnangagwa is becoming a black version of Smith. As a generation, we have a generational mandate, a generational obligation to dismantle the system. We have to demand accountability, good governance and respect of the rule of law. There is much that unites us than divides us.
We should never engage in violence because that is what the regime we are fighting wants because violence is their turf.
They have survived and thrived through violence, that is their forte. But we are smarter than them, we are an enlightened generation.
Where they use weapons, we use ideas, the modern age has provided us a platform to meet, a convergence zone of ideas, where we share ideas and make our future and that of the generations to follow bright.
We have to be a better generation than the one which preceded us. We should not breed cult leadership because it has contributed immensely to the present catastrophe.
Negotiations such as the Lancaster House Conference took place after violent confrontations between the guerilla fighters and white supremacists. Among the issues at the centre of the Second Chimurenga was the land question, totalitarian rule by the whites and oppression of the black populace.
Images of the late former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith's police officers unleashing dogs on black people were well documented by the media.
It is also important to note that the regime's oppressive nature did not go unnoticed as Britain and the United Nations globally imposed sanctions on Rhodesia.
Fast forward to 2000 and beyond, Zimbabweans found themselves in a similar situation. The issue of land became the crux of the battle. Words like terrorists and puppets began to be thrown around with reckless abandon against the opposition; dissenting voices were and are still being treated with disdain.
Draconian laws such as Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act were promulgated.
As we speak, the government has gazetted the Private Voluntary Organisations Bill to silence "critics" in the NGO sector.
Citizens Coalition for Change rallies have been banned under a cloud. Just like what used to happen during Smith era, on August 1 2018, six innocent citizens were fatally shot at point blank for exercising their democratic right.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has perfected the art of oppression, using violence and maintaining a tight grip on State machinery.
Given that most people in government fought for the liberation of the country against the oppressive Smith regime, we can safely conclude that leaders in our government copied the oppressive rule of the very system they fought against.
It is ironic that Mnangagwa is becoming a black version of Smith. As a generation, we have a generational mandate, a generational obligation to dismantle the system. We have to demand accountability, good governance and respect of the rule of law. There is much that unites us than divides us.
We should never engage in violence because that is what the regime we are fighting wants because violence is their turf.
They have survived and thrived through violence, that is their forte. But we are smarter than them, we are an enlightened generation.
Where they use weapons, we use ideas, the modern age has provided us a platform to meet, a convergence zone of ideas, where we share ideas and make our future and that of the generations to follow bright.
We have to be a better generation than the one which preceded us. We should not breed cult leadership because it has contributed immensely to the present catastrophe.
Source - NewsDay Zimbabwe
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