Joice Mujuru, Mount Darwin is not your statue garden

Over the weekend I was excited to follow VP Mujuru in Mount Darwin West where she made a trailblazing campaign among the docile Korekore people who have been loyal to the revolutionary party ever since 1980 but have nothing to show for it. This has been a Zanu-PF stronghold and the party has been followed like a life-saving religion that gurantees anyone of a seat in Heaven. From Mudzengerere school to Nembire School, all the way to Dotito business centre, I followed the VP as I wanted to hear the tone and theme of her new message. I wanted to see what it was this time that would make a difference for me an ordinary Korekore person of humble village standards who grew up knowing Teurai Ropa as a home girl that was born and raised in my home but who had abandoned her village to opt for other regions and spearhead their good cause and development.

I wanted to know where she had been all these years when the situation in Mount Darwin was going out of control. I wanted to know what she had been doing all the 32 years as the Karanda bridge remained a dangerous strip without any rails, serving as a death trap for so many people riding Chawasarira and Kukura Kurerwa buses. I also wanted to know why we had no dip tanks, dams or tarred roads after so many years of loyalty to her party. I also wanted to know why she had kept mum when violence in Mount Darwin made headlines in the media, putting Mount Darwin on the map for the wrong reasons. I also wanted to know why she would be a snow bird that only came to Mount Darwin at the opportune moment to get votes and disappear into Greystone Park where she would only read about her village issues in the Herald as she would sip her coffee in the rose garden of her beautiful mansion, wondering if such backward places like Dotito ever existed under the sun.

So here she was finally. She never minded the dust and the squalor surrounding the very sheepish people that bellowed slogans in epiphany to demonstrate loyalty and outward love that was totally the opposite of their inward burning feelings of disgruntlement. Most of us would have loved the party but had nothing to show for the loyalty. We suffered enough during the liberation struggle, supporting the war, feeding the Freedom Fighters and enduring the bullet sounds and landmines as Mount Darwin was the war front. As we fed the Freedom Fighters at night, at day time the Rhodesia Front descended on us like a tonne of bricks to punish us for any suspicious acts of support. We were torn apart and became common targets and victims of the war. Many of us today have no life or proper limbs. Where the war left us is where we still stand in terms of development. Each election, Zanu-PF deploys wild youths to burn our houses and torture our people just to ensure victory. Once they win, just like Mai Mujuru, they pack their seats, load them onto their convoys with Mai Mujuru in her bullet proof state of the art Mercedes Benz limousine as she heads to the city to celebrate her victory. Four more years later she resurfaces and tells us the same heap of lies.

Instead of being rewarded for our loyalty, we are made to endure fear, terror, pain and tears. Mount Darwin is the worst place for blood bath in every election. It is a no go area for the opposition. Once Zanu-PF wins, we are abandoned and forgotten that very day the election is announced. When the Zanu-PF leaders emerge to solicit for votes, they bring more stories of promise, hope and unity as they talk like they are coming from Sweden or Canada, a situation that places them in a total stranger's seat.

The poverty, the bad roads, the poor schools, the hunger, the bad infrastructure is forgotten. Just because the podium area is swept clean, all is deemed well. Zanu-PF has been using us for the last 32 years as a scoring board or a ladder to get to the top. We don't get anything to show for our support or loyalty. All we have are nightmares, graves, wounds, scars and pain.

I was surprised Mai Mujuru blamed sanctions for our poverty in Mount Darwin.  She was too embarrassed to highlight what good things she has ever done to the area ever since she got into power even before the so called sanctions came. She forgot to tell us that she only wanted the sanctions removed so she could go and shop at the Galleria Mall in America. Otherwise, there was nothing to show for it. She also forgot to mention that Zimbabwe has diamond money that is being plundered at individual level and not being used to improve the national conditions. So she still went on to blabber about false promises, unity and hope as she encouraged people to vote for her so she could have yet another term to feed well and get richer. In other words she was preaching, "Vote for us so we can feed for you and dance for you as we rule and fool you."

This time, forget about the force-marched numbers that gave you false hope Mai Mujuru. You can fool some people sometimes but not all of them all the time. People are tired of lies and fiction. This time, Zanu-PF will go without doubt. Those who attended the rallies did so to hear your new lies but already know who you are. 32 years is a long time to know who loves or hates you. Nothing has been happening in Mount Darwin except people being burnt alive in their homes, women being raped at the slightest suspicion of belonging to the opposition. Now we the people of Mount Darwin are tired of abuse. What we will do is to put on Zanu-PF t-shirts to prevent abuse, go to the polls where we shall do the complete opposite of what our t shirts stand for. We cannot be fools forever.  Zanu-PF and Mai Mujuru have taken us for granted in so many ways. They think the Korekore people are so foolish and gullible that no matter how abused they get, they will still remember Zanu-PF.

Just wait and see.

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The article was sent by Chido Wilcox e-mail address chidowilcox@yahoo.com