Opinion / Columnist
Zanu PF mercenaries', masquerading as heroes, hunger for power in insatiable to distraction as nation burn to ashes.
22 Jun 2023 at 08:09hrs | Views
Heroes fight because they believe in the cause, mercenaries fight for a reward. Zanu PF thugs are mercenaries not heroes.
As much as Robert Mugabe and many of his fellow Zanu PF cronies love to portray themselves as the nation's liberations heroes fighting for freedom liberty and human dignity for the oppressed black majority, they always had their eyes on the reward - to be Zimbabwe's next absolute rulers.
What Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have been good at these last 43 years was to come up with a narrative to cover their mercenary drive.
Zanu PF's 1980 election campaign position was the party would not accept the results if it lost; the bush war would continue. Of course, the position was a blatant violation of "One man, one vote!" and free and fair elections. Zanu PF argued that they were forced to do this because they did not trust the British and the white Rhodesians to hold free, fair and credible elections. And rightly so too. After all had the two not connived to exploit and oppress the black majority all these last one hundred years!
The people of Zimbabwe voted to end the war and, per se, gave up their right to free, fair and credible elections! A right they were denied from the start and have yet to taste 43 years and counting after independence.
The litmus paper test for Zanu PF's commitment to the liberation war values of freedom and liberty was whether, now in position of power and authority, the party would indeed up hold the rule of law and the people's freedoms and rights. It failed the test. Within three years of independence, Zanu PF dragged the nation into the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi Massacre whose primary purpose was to force PF Zapu leaders and supporters to join Zanu PF.
PF Zapu leaders and supporters were accused of supporting "dissidents" seeking to remove the Zanu PF government by force. Over 20 000 innocent civilians were murdered by government operatives, the very people whose sacred duty is to protect the people, and yet only a few hundred "dissidents" were uncovered. "It was a moment of madness!" Mugabe later admitted.
Gukurahundi madness ended with PF Zapu merging with Zanu PF with the signing the 1987 Unity Accord. This paved the way for Zanu PF to impose the de facto one party state. And from 1987 to 2008 Zanu PF has denied the people their right to a meaningful vote under the pretext multi-party democracy threatened the "hard won unity of 1987"!
By the late 1990s Mugabe was running out of loot to give to his very demanding wasteful cronies and so he turned to the one asset the nation still had - land. Zanu PF's narrative that the white own farms were seize to give to the landless peasants was the cover story. The farm seizures were accompanied by gratuitous violence itself a cover for violence visited on MDC, Zanu PF's main political opponents, who were accused of siding with the white farmers.
For the 2008 elections, SADC forced Zanu PF to implement many democratic reforms, effectively forcing the regime to switch off its vote rigging juggernaut; these are the nearest the nation has ever come to holding free and fair elections. The people voted for change but before the results were announced, Zanu PF switched back on its vote rigging juggernaut. ZEC was ordered to recount the votes.
It took six weeks to recount five million votes. Tsvangirai's 73% votes were whittle down to 47%, enough to force a runoff. The runoff was about punishing the voter for having dared to reject Zanu PF in the March plebiscite.
Not even SADC and AU could pretend the 2008 elections were free and fair given the blatant cheating and wanton violence and for the first time ever both the regional and continental bodies refused to grant Zanu PF political legitimacy.
SADC forced Zanu PF to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the need for Zimbabwe to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure the people's basic freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. The 2008 to 2013 GNU was tasked to implement the reforms.
Alas! not even one meaningful reform was implemented in the five years of the GNU. Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends who were supposed to implement the reforms and the rest is history.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were chuffed to bits the party had emerged out of the GNU with all its dictatorial powers untouched. The party could continue running its vote rigging juggernaut but to avoid the punishment of being denied political legitimacy, the party was forced to abandon the de facto one party state to embrace the multi-party democracy facade.
Since the 2013 elections, the post 2008 to 2013 GNU era, Zanu PF has tolerated the opposition winning a few gravy train seats in parliament, senate and local government to maintain the multi-party democracy facade. A small price to pay for political legitimacy!
The bottom line is Zanu PF thugs have always believed they have the divine right to rule Zimbabwe as the heroes who vanquished the white colonialists and their have viewed the demands for free, fair and credible elections, upholding rule of law and all the other human rights and freedoms as contrived for the purpose of denying them claiming their conquering heroes' reward.
"If the British and their Western allies were so hot on free and fair elections, etc. why then did they deny blacks the vote, etc. during the colonial days?" Zanu PF thugs have often argued. "It is us, Zanu PF, who extended universal suffrage to the black majority!"
This is just a feeble excuse for denying the ordinary Zimbabwean their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote. As much as Robert Mugabe and his cronies admired the economic prosperity, freedoms and social and political stability the western democratic system of government offered they still gravitated towards the one-party autocratic system of China and Russia. Even today Zanu PF still strut around as liberation heroes but when push comes to shove they are mercenaries who fought for absolute power and they knew to secure absolute power they needed autocracy not democracy.
Like it or not, Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies' hunger for political power has always been insatiable they would rather burn down the whole country than see some one else rule. After 43 years of absolute the Zanu PF ruling elite and their progeny are now addicted to power, giving it up is simply unthinkable. Four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corrupt and tyrannical rule left the country in economic ruins and political paralysis, the varying stages to decay and rot! The burning down Zimbabwe to ashes, has started in earnest. And yet still Zanu PF thugs' hunger to rule is as keen as mustard.
Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections and, unless we mount a concerted campaign to denied the regime political legitimacy, Mnangagwa would be sworn in as President of the Republic of Zimbabwe for a new five year term. And the looting will continue.
As much as Robert Mugabe and many of his fellow Zanu PF cronies love to portray themselves as the nation's liberations heroes fighting for freedom liberty and human dignity for the oppressed black majority, they always had their eyes on the reward - to be Zimbabwe's next absolute rulers.
What Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have been good at these last 43 years was to come up with a narrative to cover their mercenary drive.
Zanu PF's 1980 election campaign position was the party would not accept the results if it lost; the bush war would continue. Of course, the position was a blatant violation of "One man, one vote!" and free and fair elections. Zanu PF argued that they were forced to do this because they did not trust the British and the white Rhodesians to hold free, fair and credible elections. And rightly so too. After all had the two not connived to exploit and oppress the black majority all these last one hundred years!
The people of Zimbabwe voted to end the war and, per se, gave up their right to free, fair and credible elections! A right they were denied from the start and have yet to taste 43 years and counting after independence.
The litmus paper test for Zanu PF's commitment to the liberation war values of freedom and liberty was whether, now in position of power and authority, the party would indeed up hold the rule of law and the people's freedoms and rights. It failed the test. Within three years of independence, Zanu PF dragged the nation into the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi Massacre whose primary purpose was to force PF Zapu leaders and supporters to join Zanu PF.
PF Zapu leaders and supporters were accused of supporting "dissidents" seeking to remove the Zanu PF government by force. Over 20 000 innocent civilians were murdered by government operatives, the very people whose sacred duty is to protect the people, and yet only a few hundred "dissidents" were uncovered. "It was a moment of madness!" Mugabe later admitted.
Gukurahundi madness ended with PF Zapu merging with Zanu PF with the signing the 1987 Unity Accord. This paved the way for Zanu PF to impose the de facto one party state. And from 1987 to 2008 Zanu PF has denied the people their right to a meaningful vote under the pretext multi-party democracy threatened the "hard won unity of 1987"!
By the late 1990s Mugabe was running out of loot to give to his very demanding wasteful cronies and so he turned to the one asset the nation still had - land. Zanu PF's narrative that the white own farms were seize to give to the landless peasants was the cover story. The farm seizures were accompanied by gratuitous violence itself a cover for violence visited on MDC, Zanu PF's main political opponents, who were accused of siding with the white farmers.
For the 2008 elections, SADC forced Zanu PF to implement many democratic reforms, effectively forcing the regime to switch off its vote rigging juggernaut; these are the nearest the nation has ever come to holding free and fair elections. The people voted for change but before the results were announced, Zanu PF switched back on its vote rigging juggernaut. ZEC was ordered to recount the votes.
Not even SADC and AU could pretend the 2008 elections were free and fair given the blatant cheating and wanton violence and for the first time ever both the regional and continental bodies refused to grant Zanu PF political legitimacy.
SADC forced Zanu PF to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the need for Zimbabwe to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure the people's basic freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. The 2008 to 2013 GNU was tasked to implement the reforms.
Alas! not even one meaningful reform was implemented in the five years of the GNU. Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends who were supposed to implement the reforms and the rest is history.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were chuffed to bits the party had emerged out of the GNU with all its dictatorial powers untouched. The party could continue running its vote rigging juggernaut but to avoid the punishment of being denied political legitimacy, the party was forced to abandon the de facto one party state to embrace the multi-party democracy facade.
Since the 2013 elections, the post 2008 to 2013 GNU era, Zanu PF has tolerated the opposition winning a few gravy train seats in parliament, senate and local government to maintain the multi-party democracy facade. A small price to pay for political legitimacy!
The bottom line is Zanu PF thugs have always believed they have the divine right to rule Zimbabwe as the heroes who vanquished the white colonialists and their have viewed the demands for free, fair and credible elections, upholding rule of law and all the other human rights and freedoms as contrived for the purpose of denying them claiming their conquering heroes' reward.
"If the British and their Western allies were so hot on free and fair elections, etc. why then did they deny blacks the vote, etc. during the colonial days?" Zanu PF thugs have often argued. "It is us, Zanu PF, who extended universal suffrage to the black majority!"
This is just a feeble excuse for denying the ordinary Zimbabwean their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote. As much as Robert Mugabe and his cronies admired the economic prosperity, freedoms and social and political stability the western democratic system of government offered they still gravitated towards the one-party autocratic system of China and Russia. Even today Zanu PF still strut around as liberation heroes but when push comes to shove they are mercenaries who fought for absolute power and they knew to secure absolute power they needed autocracy not democracy.
Like it or not, Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies' hunger for political power has always been insatiable they would rather burn down the whole country than see some one else rule. After 43 years of absolute the Zanu PF ruling elite and their progeny are now addicted to power, giving it up is simply unthinkable. Four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corrupt and tyrannical rule left the country in economic ruins and political paralysis, the varying stages to decay and rot! The burning down Zimbabwe to ashes, has started in earnest. And yet still Zanu PF thugs' hunger to rule is as keen as mustard.
Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections and, unless we mount a concerted campaign to denied the regime political legitimacy, Mnangagwa would be sworn in as President of the Republic of Zimbabwe for a new five year term. And the looting will continue.
Source - zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
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