Opinion / Columnist
No sacred cows in Mugabe's kraal
22 Nov 2014 at 13:32hrs | Views
For starters this is not 1982 when President Robert Mugabe was sleeker and nimbler and besides Joice Mujuru is not July Moyo.
Her liberation war record is impeccable and the fact that she holds the distinction of being the first female Zanla commander, the first Women's League boss makes her a person of no ordinary constitution.
She still holds sway in the court of public opinion. Her name has something to contribute in the matrix of local politics.
She cannot be wished away as if she were an Amos Midzi.
That Mugabe has not taken her head-on like he has done with all others in the past instead preferring to delegate the trinity of Dr Grace, State-controlled media and Justice Mayor Wadyajena is in itself quite telling.
Mujuru clearly understands that the removal of a constitutional vice president is a zero sum game and as William Shakespeare said, "Those breaking the law in pursuit of power can only be justified if the endeavour succeeds."
She will certainly not deliver them that success on a silver platter. She has seen many a battle in her life.
Remember, she downed a French manufactured Alouette 111 helicopter gunship using only her AK 47 rifle. Chris Mutsvangwa says otherwise though.
Be that as it may, it still remains a fact that Mujuru knows exactly when and how to fully gird her loins in readiness for mortal combat. Let us wait and see what she puts on the table. Time is of essence in this winner-take-all game called politics.
We turn to the architect of this unfolding drama, Mugabe himself.
In an interview carried by a local paper on Monday, November 17, 2014, Wadyajena says he does not attack the office of the vice president but attacks the occupier following revelations of her malfeasance by the Head of State.
I wonder what the president hopes to achieve by broadcasting the impropriety of his second in command to the citizenry.
He should instead take action and rid his administration of such malcontents and it is well within his power to so act.
Why should the country slide into a myriad of uncertainties all because the president is hell bent on proving that his deputy is not fit for purpose?
Just across the border in South Africa, when the then president Thabo Mbeki realised that his deputy Jacob Zuma was no longer fit to hold office, he simply asked him with civility to leave and due process was allowed to take its course.
Why the president as chief executive with the mandate of the people cannot deal directly with his deputy beats me to the bone.
Just last week, there was a gathering of multitudes at Zanu-PF headquarters. For the first time and in true innocent confession that the centre can no longer hold, Mugabe came out to address the youths. What did not occur to the president was what all those youths mostly between the ages of 19 and 40 were doing gathered to condemn a vice president on a Wednesday mid-morning.
Ordinarily these are people who should have been in industry breaking their backs and sweating at machines for the greater good of us all.
Instead, they were paraded brandishing well-printed placards whose production had outlaid a considerable sum and yet a greater number of those youths obviously did not know where their supper would come from.
Most of those poor young souls were drawn from Epworth, Mbare, Mufakose and my dusty home town of Mabvuku-Tafara where we have not had running water for the better part of the past 10 years.
Those youths do not give a hoot what happens to either Mujuru or anyone else for that matter.
What they are sure of is there are no jobs, corruption has reached endemic levels and that our political leadership in Zimbabwe is greedy and selfish.
They are unlike some who drive the latest vehicles emblazoned with Grace's face. They are beneficiaries and as such galvanised and inspired to act the way they do.
My impassioned plea would be for Mugabe to carry the mandate for which he was elected and act on all those he deems unfit to be in office and by the way it is the entire Cabinet except maybe for 3 or 4 of their number.
As it stands, only Patrick Chinamasa and Walter Chidhakwa seem to be genuinely concerned about carrying out their ministerial mandates.
I repeat, there are no sacred cows in the Kraal of Gushungo.
This is a revolution which is simply devouring its children after it has nowhere else to turn to for fodder.
Firstly, it was war veterans gratuities, then farm invasions, then indigenisation and 51 percent. Now that all options have been exhausted, it is time to look inside for food.
It is my sincere hope that the new team will work honestly so that at the end of it all we will still have something to call our beloved Zimbabwe to bequeath our children, their children and their children's children.
I rest it for now.
Her liberation war record is impeccable and the fact that she holds the distinction of being the first female Zanla commander, the first Women's League boss makes her a person of no ordinary constitution.
She still holds sway in the court of public opinion. Her name has something to contribute in the matrix of local politics.
She cannot be wished away as if she were an Amos Midzi.
That Mugabe has not taken her head-on like he has done with all others in the past instead preferring to delegate the trinity of Dr Grace, State-controlled media and Justice Mayor Wadyajena is in itself quite telling.
Mujuru clearly understands that the removal of a constitutional vice president is a zero sum game and as William Shakespeare said, "Those breaking the law in pursuit of power can only be justified if the endeavour succeeds."
She will certainly not deliver them that success on a silver platter. She has seen many a battle in her life.
Remember, she downed a French manufactured Alouette 111 helicopter gunship using only her AK 47 rifle. Chris Mutsvangwa says otherwise though.
Be that as it may, it still remains a fact that Mujuru knows exactly when and how to fully gird her loins in readiness for mortal combat. Let us wait and see what she puts on the table. Time is of essence in this winner-take-all game called politics.
We turn to the architect of this unfolding drama, Mugabe himself.
In an interview carried by a local paper on Monday, November 17, 2014, Wadyajena says he does not attack the office of the vice president but attacks the occupier following revelations of her malfeasance by the Head of State.
I wonder what the president hopes to achieve by broadcasting the impropriety of his second in command to the citizenry.
He should instead take action and rid his administration of such malcontents and it is well within his power to so act.
Why should the country slide into a myriad of uncertainties all because the president is hell bent on proving that his deputy is not fit for purpose?
Just across the border in South Africa, when the then president Thabo Mbeki realised that his deputy Jacob Zuma was no longer fit to hold office, he simply asked him with civility to leave and due process was allowed to take its course.
Why the president as chief executive with the mandate of the people cannot deal directly with his deputy beats me to the bone.
Just last week, there was a gathering of multitudes at Zanu-PF headquarters. For the first time and in true innocent confession that the centre can no longer hold, Mugabe came out to address the youths. What did not occur to the president was what all those youths mostly between the ages of 19 and 40 were doing gathered to condemn a vice president on a Wednesday mid-morning.
Ordinarily these are people who should have been in industry breaking their backs and sweating at machines for the greater good of us all.
Instead, they were paraded brandishing well-printed placards whose production had outlaid a considerable sum and yet a greater number of those youths obviously did not know where their supper would come from.
Most of those poor young souls were drawn from Epworth, Mbare, Mufakose and my dusty home town of Mabvuku-Tafara where we have not had running water for the better part of the past 10 years.
Those youths do not give a hoot what happens to either Mujuru or anyone else for that matter.
What they are sure of is there are no jobs, corruption has reached endemic levels and that our political leadership in Zimbabwe is greedy and selfish.
They are unlike some who drive the latest vehicles emblazoned with Grace's face. They are beneficiaries and as such galvanised and inspired to act the way they do.
My impassioned plea would be for Mugabe to carry the mandate for which he was elected and act on all those he deems unfit to be in office and by the way it is the entire Cabinet except maybe for 3 or 4 of their number.
As it stands, only Patrick Chinamasa and Walter Chidhakwa seem to be genuinely concerned about carrying out their ministerial mandates.
I repeat, there are no sacred cows in the Kraal of Gushungo.
This is a revolution which is simply devouring its children after it has nowhere else to turn to for fodder.
Firstly, it was war veterans gratuities, then farm invasions, then indigenisation and 51 percent. Now that all options have been exhausted, it is time to look inside for food.
It is my sincere hope that the new team will work honestly so that at the end of it all we will still have something to call our beloved Zimbabwe to bequeath our children, their children and their children's children.
I rest it for now.
Source - dailynews
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