Opinion / Columnist
Sibanda and Mliswa call for a new revolution - never make democrats out of these thugs!
12 Jul 2015 at 14:31hrs | Views
A man is often judged by the company he keeps. Morgan Tsvangirai shared the political platform with Jabulani Sibanda and Themba Mliswa at the Itai Dzamara prayer meeting on Saturday. The two former Zanu PF thugs did not waste time in showing why they had been such influential figures in Mugabe's Zanu PF dictatorship; just as the leopard does not lose its spots, they had no lost their zeal for using violence to get what they want.
The ease with which Tsvangirai accepted the two Zanu PF "amigos" with their rubble rousing messages goes to show how political naïve, gullible and even dangerous Tsvangirai.
"The question is, for 35 years we never knew we are Zimbabweans, for 35 years we never stopped to imagine how the next person felt," said Sibanda.
Sibanda never said to whom he was referring to in the "we" but one assumes he meant his former Zanu PF thugs who "never stopped to imagine how the next person felt" and not the rest of us ordinary Zimbabweans who were on the receiving end of the brutal repression. It is the axe that forgets and not the tree that was cut down!
If any of Jabulani's listeners thought that purge from Zanu PF had opened his eyes and heart turning him from a ruthless foot-soldier of the Zanu PF dictators to a peace loving democrat he did not waste time in ending that illusion.
"We are going after pain killer after pain killer, pain killer after pain killer, pain killer after pain killer, pain killer after pain killer, pain killer after pain killer, pain killer after pain killer; bvisa zvinoda kubviswa! (remove what needs to be removed!)" he said to the deafening applause of his listeners.
"God says you are sleeping too much ... macomrades zvandinoreva apa ndeizvi (Comrades what I mean is that), this is the time for people to unite countrywide …"
"People like Tongogara refused to be oppressed," said Themba Mliswa, when he took the stage; pressing home the message. "Why are you sitting idle in the face of similar oppression?"
There is no doubt that their revolutionary zeal will deliver the political change just as the armed struggle end white colonial oppression; it is what comes after that worries every forward thinking man and woman.
"What kind of leaders will the armed struggle throws up?" asked Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1940s when India was fighting to end British colonial rule. "Will they be the kind of leaders whom we would want to rule India?"
India wisely chose not to go down the armed struggle route and the country had leaders who embraced democracy and Nehru became the first Prime Minister of Independent India. Zimbabwe chose, as we know, to use the armed struggle to end white colonial rule and we had the Mr Know It All kind of leaders Nehru dreaded. And for the last 35 years we have been stuck with corrupt and oppressive regime.
Jabulani Sibanda and Themba Mliswa are the archetype armed struggle leaders who, having fought in the armed struggle believed they had the right to rule as they see fit as the two have shown during their days in Zanu PF. One will have to be really naïve to think that the two and similar minded individuals were to use force to get Mugabe and Mnangagwa out of office they will accept "a ballot can change what a bullet achieved," as Mugabe has often boosted.
What is interesting here is that Tsvangirai had the chance to end the Zanu PF dictatorship peacefully during the GNU by implemented the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA. He was too corrupt and incompetent to seize on this golden opportunity and now he is teaming up with known thugs and rubble rousers whose mission will be to end the present Zanu PF dictatorship but only to replace it with another dictatorship.
"I have never imagined sharing a platform with a Zimbabwean son called Jabulani Sibanda," said Tsvangirai approvingly.
"This is unprecedented in Zimbabwe. I want to thank you Itai whether you are dead or alive for uniting the children of Zimbabwe in the spirit of fighting dictatorship and the suppression of the people of Zimbabwe."
Tsvangirai failed to achieve democratic change by peaceful means - implementing the reforms - and now would seek to do so using thugs.
Zimbabwe is in this hell hole because before independence we, as a nation, failed to consider the certainty, in our case, the armed struggle thrusting tyrants into leadership positions; we have paid dearly for oversight and will continue to do so for generations to come, even if we ended this dictatorship tomorrow.
It would be an act of unforgivable folly if we should seek this dictatorship with yet another violent revolution and fail to consider that process producing tyrants and thugs too.
There GNU presented us with a golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship we wasted it because we had corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders. There will be another chance to end the dictatorship our first priority this time must be to ensure we have competent opposition leaders to implement the democratic reforms. Tsvangirai and his two former Zanu PF thugs will never constitute the competent opposition we are after!
The ease with which Tsvangirai accepted the two Zanu PF "amigos" with their rubble rousing messages goes to show how political naïve, gullible and even dangerous Tsvangirai.
"The question is, for 35 years we never knew we are Zimbabweans, for 35 years we never stopped to imagine how the next person felt," said Sibanda.
Sibanda never said to whom he was referring to in the "we" but one assumes he meant his former Zanu PF thugs who "never stopped to imagine how the next person felt" and not the rest of us ordinary Zimbabweans who were on the receiving end of the brutal repression. It is the axe that forgets and not the tree that was cut down!
If any of Jabulani's listeners thought that purge from Zanu PF had opened his eyes and heart turning him from a ruthless foot-soldier of the Zanu PF dictators to a peace loving democrat he did not waste time in ending that illusion.
"We are going after pain killer after pain killer, pain killer after pain killer, pain killer after pain killer, pain killer after pain killer, pain killer after pain killer, pain killer after pain killer; bvisa zvinoda kubviswa! (remove what needs to be removed!)" he said to the deafening applause of his listeners.
"God says you are sleeping too much ... macomrades zvandinoreva apa ndeizvi (Comrades what I mean is that), this is the time for people to unite countrywide …"
"People like Tongogara refused to be oppressed," said Themba Mliswa, when he took the stage; pressing home the message. "Why are you sitting idle in the face of similar oppression?"
There is no doubt that their revolutionary zeal will deliver the political change just as the armed struggle end white colonial oppression; it is what comes after that worries every forward thinking man and woman.
"What kind of leaders will the armed struggle throws up?" asked Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1940s when India was fighting to end British colonial rule. "Will they be the kind of leaders whom we would want to rule India?"
India wisely chose not to go down the armed struggle route and the country had leaders who embraced democracy and Nehru became the first Prime Minister of Independent India. Zimbabwe chose, as we know, to use the armed struggle to end white colonial rule and we had the Mr Know It All kind of leaders Nehru dreaded. And for the last 35 years we have been stuck with corrupt and oppressive regime.
Jabulani Sibanda and Themba Mliswa are the archetype armed struggle leaders who, having fought in the armed struggle believed they had the right to rule as they see fit as the two have shown during their days in Zanu PF. One will have to be really naïve to think that the two and similar minded individuals were to use force to get Mugabe and Mnangagwa out of office they will accept "a ballot can change what a bullet achieved," as Mugabe has often boosted.
What is interesting here is that Tsvangirai had the chance to end the Zanu PF dictatorship peacefully during the GNU by implemented the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA. He was too corrupt and incompetent to seize on this golden opportunity and now he is teaming up with known thugs and rubble rousers whose mission will be to end the present Zanu PF dictatorship but only to replace it with another dictatorship.
"I have never imagined sharing a platform with a Zimbabwean son called Jabulani Sibanda," said Tsvangirai approvingly.
"This is unprecedented in Zimbabwe. I want to thank you Itai whether you are dead or alive for uniting the children of Zimbabwe in the spirit of fighting dictatorship and the suppression of the people of Zimbabwe."
Tsvangirai failed to achieve democratic change by peaceful means - implementing the reforms - and now would seek to do so using thugs.
Zimbabwe is in this hell hole because before independence we, as a nation, failed to consider the certainty, in our case, the armed struggle thrusting tyrants into leadership positions; we have paid dearly for oversight and will continue to do so for generations to come, even if we ended this dictatorship tomorrow.
It would be an act of unforgivable folly if we should seek this dictatorship with yet another violent revolution and fail to consider that process producing tyrants and thugs too.
There GNU presented us with a golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship we wasted it because we had corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders. There will be another chance to end the dictatorship our first priority this time must be to ensure we have competent opposition leaders to implement the democratic reforms. Tsvangirai and his two former Zanu PF thugs will never constitute the competent opposition we are after!
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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