Opinion / Columnist
Zanu-PF will be a different creature in next elections
08 Dec 2024 at 09:27hrs | Views
If you grew up in the village as Bishop Lazi did, you learned to trust your instincts and nature.
You also learned to appreciate that human beings have an innate biological alarm that is triggered by danger.
For instance, if you felt the heebie-jeebies or your hair standing on end while walking in the bush, this was obviously an instinctive sign of imminent danger.
Often, such a manifestation meant you were not supposed to be anywhere near that place.
And, in cases where you felt such sensations in areas where dense thickets camouflaged a termite mound, you always knew that you were likely in the company of a very big snake.
But snakes did not always choose thickets as convenient habitats.
The thickets actually developed and became dense simply because no human being or animals dared to tread in areas favoured by these reptiles.
You often got signs that you were wandering in a dangerous area from the lifeless — but frightful — coil that would have been left behind when the snake shed its skin.
Not only did this mark the snake's territory, but it flagged the danger that lurked beyond the thickets.
You see, snakes periodically shed their skins in a process scientists call ecdysis, sloughing or molting.
It allows the reptile to grow further; at the same time, removing parasites that would have attached to the old skin.
Apparently, the skin does not grow when the snake grows.
Instead, a new layer grows underneath.
When they are ready to shed the old layer, snakes create a rip in the old skin, usually in the mouth or nose area, by rubbing against a rough, hard object.
Once the old skin layer has been breached, the snake slithers away.
They say an average snake will shed its skin two to four times per year.
This, however, differs with species.
Shedding the old skin
The need for renewal in all spheres of life cannot be overemphasised, as the world is constantly evolving.
As Greek philosophers Heraclitus and Plato rightfully observed, the world is in a constant state of flux.
Mark 2:21-22 tells us: "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins."
Over the past couple of weeks, Bishop Lazi has gone to extraordinary lengths to highlight that 2024 was no ordinary year, particularly for Southern Africa, where South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and, lately, Namibia went to the polls in watershed elections that were always going to consequentially shape the politics of the region.
All these countries, except Botswana, had — and still have — the distinction of being governed by liberation movements, which have come under renewed attacks from neocolonial forces that see them as stumbling blocks to their interests and designs in the region.
In an era of great-power rivalry, especially between the West and East, competition for critical and strategic resources, which we have in abundance in the region, is hotting up.
And this is not mere conjecture.
This is why a senile and doddering Joe Biden, even as the sun sets on his warmongering presidency, flew close to 11 000 kilometres from Washington to Luanda, Angola, last week — revealingly, his first trip to Africa as president — to push through the US$550 million Lobito project designed to refurbish an existing railway through Angola and extending to the Democratic Republic of Congo's mining heartland.
To all intents and purposes, the Lobito Atlantic Railway is simply meant to give the United States access to the Congo's copper and cobalt.
What folks in these shores sometimes fail to understand is the fact that competition for supremacy in cutting-edge technology, digitalisation and transition to renewable energy primarily hinges on six select minerals — lithium, cobalt, copper, graphite, nickel and rare earths.
For the US to maintain its hegemony and status as the pre-eminent global power, which also entails thwarting the rise of China, it obviously has to have access to these minerals.
This might help explain the perennial bouts of conflict in the scandalously mineral-rich DRC; the insurgency in Mozambique, which curiously coincided with the commencement of exploitation of fabulous gas deposits that had been discovered; and, most relevantly, the interference in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Like Mozambique, Namibia's material fortunes might take a fortunate turn after huge gas and oil discoveries in the past five years, which have attracted companies such as TotalEnergies, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Galp to that country.
It is not by mere coincidence that these mineral-rich countries are governed by liberation movements.
Most of them were among the last countries to become independent on the continent, having to do so by force of arms, emphasising the determination of colonial forces not to let go for obvious reasons.
Now, the Bishop would like to clear something up: The Botswana Democratic Party (BPD), which recently lost power, was not, and is not, a liberation movement.
Its application to join the Former Liberation Movements of Southern Africa (FLMSA) — made up of ZANU-PF, South Africa's ANC, Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania, Mozambique's FRELIMO, Angola's MPLA and Namibia's SWAPO — was only acceded to at the group's 11th meeting for secretaries-general in Victoria Falls in March this year.
However, the invaluable role it played to support our liberation struggle cannot be overemphasised.
Of the parties that make up FLMSA, MPLA maintained its grip on power in 2022, ZANU-PF triumphed last year, while ANC, FRELIMO and SWAPO asserted their dominance this year.
Next year, it will be Chama Cha Mapinduzi's turn.
Suffice to say, by this time next year, Madame Samia Suluhu Hassan will become the second woman president to be elected Head of State in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
This highlights the changing face of liberation movements in the region, as they shed old skin, renew and redefine themselves to adapt to changing and evolving demands, circumstances and threats.
In the recent election, FRELIMO gave us a 47-year-old Daniel Chapo, who became the first president to be born after the country's independence from Portugal in 1975.
In Namibia, SWAPO gave us a woman president, who marginally improved the party's winning margin from 56,3 percent in 2019 to 57,3 percent.
Mutating
So, it might be a long wait for those who entertain the thought of dislodging liberation movements from power, as they are constantly mutating in the wake of new existential threats.
Nowhere is this transition more apparent than in Zimbabwe, where the ruling party, ZANU-PF, which has the happy distinction of waging a brutal and bloody 14-year armed struggle, probably the longest in Africa, has shifted from combativeness that characterised a party ferociously fighting to effect a seismic change in land ownership in the First Republic, to the pro-business outfit spearheading transformative development projects in the Second Republic.
So, while comrades used to wear fatigues in the First Republic, they now wear suits, albeit Mao suits.
President ED has now clearly set out to prosecute the new phase of the revolution — economic emancipation.
Bit by bit, Zimbabwe is changing, in terms of new highways, the breathtaking Mbudzi Interchange, the new Parliament building, the refurbished international airport, new power stations, new industries, et cetera.
But the biggest changes are taking place in the countryside, where the majority of our people live.
Life-changing projects, driven by new and rehabilitated waterbodies and boreholes, are springing up in villages and schools as an empowering tool.
Rising rural incomes will likely eventually banish poverty. This will make rural communities the growth nodes of a new economy.
You just have to move around rural communities dotted around the country to see the modern new properties that are being built, which even rival urban dwellings.
This is a silent revolution that will likely make ZANU-PF a new formidable creature come the next elections.
Delivering on the economy, which translates to an improved wellbeing for the people, is the new frontier for liberation movements for them to remain relevant and guarantee longevity.
Bishop out!
You also learned to appreciate that human beings have an innate biological alarm that is triggered by danger.
For instance, if you felt the heebie-jeebies or your hair standing on end while walking in the bush, this was obviously an instinctive sign of imminent danger.
Often, such a manifestation meant you were not supposed to be anywhere near that place.
And, in cases where you felt such sensations in areas where dense thickets camouflaged a termite mound, you always knew that you were likely in the company of a very big snake.
But snakes did not always choose thickets as convenient habitats.
The thickets actually developed and became dense simply because no human being or animals dared to tread in areas favoured by these reptiles.
You often got signs that you were wandering in a dangerous area from the lifeless — but frightful — coil that would have been left behind when the snake shed its skin.
Not only did this mark the snake's territory, but it flagged the danger that lurked beyond the thickets.
You see, snakes periodically shed their skins in a process scientists call ecdysis, sloughing or molting.
It allows the reptile to grow further; at the same time, removing parasites that would have attached to the old skin.
Apparently, the skin does not grow when the snake grows.
Instead, a new layer grows underneath.
When they are ready to shed the old layer, snakes create a rip in the old skin, usually in the mouth or nose area, by rubbing against a rough, hard object.
Once the old skin layer has been breached, the snake slithers away.
They say an average snake will shed its skin two to four times per year.
This, however, differs with species.
Shedding the old skin
The need for renewal in all spheres of life cannot be overemphasised, as the world is constantly evolving.
As Greek philosophers Heraclitus and Plato rightfully observed, the world is in a constant state of flux.
Mark 2:21-22 tells us: "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins."
Over the past couple of weeks, Bishop Lazi has gone to extraordinary lengths to highlight that 2024 was no ordinary year, particularly for Southern Africa, where South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and, lately, Namibia went to the polls in watershed elections that were always going to consequentially shape the politics of the region.
All these countries, except Botswana, had — and still have — the distinction of being governed by liberation movements, which have come under renewed attacks from neocolonial forces that see them as stumbling blocks to their interests and designs in the region.
In an era of great-power rivalry, especially between the West and East, competition for critical and strategic resources, which we have in abundance in the region, is hotting up.
And this is not mere conjecture.
This is why a senile and doddering Joe Biden, even as the sun sets on his warmongering presidency, flew close to 11 000 kilometres from Washington to Luanda, Angola, last week — revealingly, his first trip to Africa as president — to push through the US$550 million Lobito project designed to refurbish an existing railway through Angola and extending to the Democratic Republic of Congo's mining heartland.
To all intents and purposes, the Lobito Atlantic Railway is simply meant to give the United States access to the Congo's copper and cobalt.
What folks in these shores sometimes fail to understand is the fact that competition for supremacy in cutting-edge technology, digitalisation and transition to renewable energy primarily hinges on six select minerals — lithium, cobalt, copper, graphite, nickel and rare earths.
For the US to maintain its hegemony and status as the pre-eminent global power, which also entails thwarting the rise of China, it obviously has to have access to these minerals.
This might help explain the perennial bouts of conflict in the scandalously mineral-rich DRC; the insurgency in Mozambique, which curiously coincided with the commencement of exploitation of fabulous gas deposits that had been discovered; and, most relevantly, the interference in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Like Mozambique, Namibia's material fortunes might take a fortunate turn after huge gas and oil discoveries in the past five years, which have attracted companies such as TotalEnergies, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Galp to that country.
It is not by mere coincidence that these mineral-rich countries are governed by liberation movements.
Most of them were among the last countries to become independent on the continent, having to do so by force of arms, emphasising the determination of colonial forces not to let go for obvious reasons.
Now, the Bishop would like to clear something up: The Botswana Democratic Party (BPD), which recently lost power, was not, and is not, a liberation movement.
Its application to join the Former Liberation Movements of Southern Africa (FLMSA) — made up of ZANU-PF, South Africa's ANC, Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania, Mozambique's FRELIMO, Angola's MPLA and Namibia's SWAPO — was only acceded to at the group's 11th meeting for secretaries-general in Victoria Falls in March this year.
However, the invaluable role it played to support our liberation struggle cannot be overemphasised.
Of the parties that make up FLMSA, MPLA maintained its grip on power in 2022, ZANU-PF triumphed last year, while ANC, FRELIMO and SWAPO asserted their dominance this year.
Next year, it will be Chama Cha Mapinduzi's turn.
Suffice to say, by this time next year, Madame Samia Suluhu Hassan will become the second woman president to be elected Head of State in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
This highlights the changing face of liberation movements in the region, as they shed old skin, renew and redefine themselves to adapt to changing and evolving demands, circumstances and threats.
In the recent election, FRELIMO gave us a 47-year-old Daniel Chapo, who became the first president to be born after the country's independence from Portugal in 1975.
In Namibia, SWAPO gave us a woman president, who marginally improved the party's winning margin from 56,3 percent in 2019 to 57,3 percent.
Mutating
So, it might be a long wait for those who entertain the thought of dislodging liberation movements from power, as they are constantly mutating in the wake of new existential threats.
Nowhere is this transition more apparent than in Zimbabwe, where the ruling party, ZANU-PF, which has the happy distinction of waging a brutal and bloody 14-year armed struggle, probably the longest in Africa, has shifted from combativeness that characterised a party ferociously fighting to effect a seismic change in land ownership in the First Republic, to the pro-business outfit spearheading transformative development projects in the Second Republic.
So, while comrades used to wear fatigues in the First Republic, they now wear suits, albeit Mao suits.
President ED has now clearly set out to prosecute the new phase of the revolution — economic emancipation.
Bit by bit, Zimbabwe is changing, in terms of new highways, the breathtaking Mbudzi Interchange, the new Parliament building, the refurbished international airport, new power stations, new industries, et cetera.
But the biggest changes are taking place in the countryside, where the majority of our people live.
Life-changing projects, driven by new and rehabilitated waterbodies and boreholes, are springing up in villages and schools as an empowering tool.
Rising rural incomes will likely eventually banish poverty. This will make rural communities the growth nodes of a new economy.
You just have to move around rural communities dotted around the country to see the modern new properties that are being built, which even rival urban dwellings.
This is a silent revolution that will likely make ZANU-PF a new formidable creature come the next elections.
Delivering on the economy, which translates to an improved wellbeing for the people, is the new frontier for liberation movements for them to remain relevant and guarantee longevity.
Bishop out!
Source - The Sunday Mail
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