Spot ON Dabengwa!

Zapu President Speech in Jotsholo over the weekend attracted all sorts of comments some of which included individuals that just oppose whatever he says. It's a deliberate ploy trying to prevent the people from hearing it as it is from him or to pour any dirty water on whatever he says.

One calls it a "usual mistake".  A mistake to whom and by whose definition?  Is it a mistake to talk to the people about their experience, the things that they saw, the dreams and visions that they had when they supported the struggle and participated in it sacrificially to remove colonialism? Is it reasonable to ignore the fact that there was and there is still a clear tribal based hatred and marginalisation for the people of the region where he was by the Government?  Sometimes one wonders why people can be so hypocritical. People want those who tell lies and say "do not talk about Gukurahundi. It is dividing the people" Rubbish! The people in that region want decent burials for their relatives who were brutally murdered for the crime of being who they were, in the false pretence that they were all supporters of dissidents. This included even the yet to be born babies whose mothers wombs were just cut open. Come on. You want Dabengwa to go to those areas and say nothing about this yet the genocidal acts were done to "crush ZAPU?" What mistakes?

Let the people of Manicaland be allowed to attend a ZAPU rally. He will tell them exactly how this brutally corrupt regime has condemned them to be beggars in South Africa; where they have suffered all sorts of humiliations, being called all sorts of names yet their Province is one of the richest spots in Africa. Let them dare to allow just one ZAPU rally that Dabengwa will address. Certainly he won't talk about Gukurahundi there. He will point to them how their dreams have been shuttered as they are made to stampede to support one individual in the name of unity yet they are being hypnotised to render blind loyalty to a non-functioning system. I bet some of these people will not be able to defend this level of stupidity to their own descendants in future!

Then there is this ridiculous and even babish one saying "he was Minister of Home affairs". Who has never been something in Mugabe's regime at one point? Usually it is the MDC-Ts who put up this one. They ride rough shod over the fact that their own leader Tsvangirai was once a youth leader in the Zanu-PF Jongwe during the period when Zanu-PF youths were terrorising every one. The brutalising of Muzorewa's UANC was at this stage. Gukurahundi was carried out during this same period. Yes, Dabengwa was Home Affairs Minister soon after the Unity Accord and he told everyone that he saw the futility of dining with murderers all his life. He rejected this and left. Those who care about the truth know this very well. Leaving meant that he was not agreeing. He could not just go on, but to these political Lilliputians or grasshoppers, they are saying he must be crucified. He was a Minister. Tsvangirai was a youth leader during the Gukurahundi but he left and formed MDC. Dabengwa followed Nkomo's orders after the signing of the now dead Unity Accord but he left. Where is the difference? The difference is there and it is Dabengwa's TRIBE!

Dumiso Dabengwa left Zanu-PF on his own accord and he preferred to be with the real victims and survivors of Gukurahundi. Remember, he was imprisoned and charged for treason a charge carrying a death penalty during that period. It is ZAPU that was hunted down. It is those who were accused of supporting ZAPU who were taken from churches and are never to be seen again up to today. It was for ZAPU that villagers were driven into huts that were set ablaze. Dumiso Dabengwa is refusing to abandon their screams to death just to eat cakes every February.  The cries for freedom from Zimbabweans who are not tribalists are too loud for Dabengwa to ignore hence, his call for genuine devolution of power. It is a nationwide rejection of this heinous politics of patronage that will usher in a new political hope in our country. Dabengwa leads a party with that vision. Transfer power to the regions. This is giving the people of Zimbabwe the freedom that they sacrificed for. Since 2010 we hear and read "he was he was" It makes one remember Zanu-PF's accusation of Joshua Nkomo that he left the country putting on a lady's dress". This is a very shallow argument indeed.

As for the genuine ZAPU cadres they understand that a revolution cannot be destroyed. It can only be delayed. It can suffer even long, costly and painful setbacks but it will survive as it is nurtured by the very evils of exploitation of man by man. Evidence is there on the ground for those who have not allowed tribalism to shut their eyes to see why Zanupf is failing to deliver. It will fail forever as it thrives on reactionary tendencies such as tribal superiority and militarism over an unarmed population.

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Mkhululi Zulu <mkhululiszu333@gmail.com