A lie cannot live forever

Dr Martin Luther King, the late American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement was on the nose when he noted that "a lie cannot live forever."

Indeed no lie can live forever. As Abraham Lincoln also noted, you can fool some people all the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time. During the recently staged violent protests and stay away which shadowy groups and social media activists dubbed 'national shutdown,' a lot of mendacity was peddled through the social media. Of course and as usual, a few gullible fell hook, line and sinker for the falsehoods.

 Of course that is expected.  Even Egypt Dzinemunenzva, a Hwedza politician has had his religious followers since the formation of his African National Party in 1990. There are such people who can be duped into following clowns like flies that follow a corpse into the grave.

Political activists masking themselves as civil rights activists and ecclesiastics, attempted to commandeer a peaceful stay away by civil servants who protested over the delay in payment of their June salaries.  

Upon realizing that their job action was being skyjacked and politicized, the civil servants representatives distanced themselves from the vicious protests. The Apex Council leader, Mrs Cecilia Alexander said: "The council informs the employer and the nation that the current civil service job is completely non-political and non-partisan and should be in no way be associated with the cause by other political and social groups whose agendas have nothing to do with our labour disputes with Government."

She also said that civil servants were staying at home not in the streets. Thus, those who allegedly destroyed infrastructure and burnt tyres in the streets were political malcontents who were pushing their own agendas. The Western pawns who included Western embassies, wanted to cause mayhem in the country. Fortunately people did not heed their call to go into the streets and cause the anticipated anarchy. It was then that cunning strategies were devised to spur people into action and these devices included the propagation of falsehoods through the social media.

The social media was awash with images of infrastructures on fire. It was falsely reported that a National Railway train was torched in Bulawayo. The images were cleverly photo-shopped to evade suspicion. It was also maliciously reported that two Choppies supermarkets were razed to the ground in Bulawayo and Chitungwiza.  The chain of supermarkets is owned by Vice President Mpekhekezela Mpoko and the imagined arson was ostensibly intended to push him out of the Rainbow Towers Hotel where he has been staying since his appointment in 2014.

A Zimbabwe Revenue Authority building in Bulawayo was reportedly burnt down by the riotous protestors. Reports of people being stoned to death on their way from work on Wednesday were not uncommon on social media. The country was sent into panic as the shadowy groups propagated deceptions and disinformation. Heart-rending images of gruesomely battered people from war torn zones were downloaded from the internet, contextualized and circulated as victims of police brutality.

The police, after a meticulous investigation had to dismiss the subversive materials on these social media as hoax. Police chief spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba assured the nation that they must not lose sleep as the reported chaos was nothing but a prank.

The dismissal exposed the regime change agents. They thought they would sustain their lies but as King Luther observed, these lies could not live forever. They had hoped that by generating and spreading falsehoods, it would spur other protestors from all angles of the nation to join the bandwagon. Alas, Zimbabweans are a learned lot. They can see through where political machinations are at play.

It's a folly for the regime change pundits to fool themselves and carelessly believe that since the social media played a key role in the Arab Spring, it can also work in Zimbabwe. That does not follow. Zimbabweans are a peaceful lot which does not believe in unconstitutional ouster of Governments. A constitutional Government cannot be removed through social media in Zimbabwe.

The civil servants might have a reason to act the way they did and so were the kombi crews. Regime change agents took advantage of the touts' demonstrations to incite violence. Similarly, demonstrations by cross border traders over misconceptions over the import of Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 was hijacked by putschist under the tag of #Tajamuka protestors who are itching for anarchy in the country.

There were really no political nuances in these protests. We did not even hear slogans denouncing Zanu PF or President Mugabe. It is therefore puzzling to hear politicians such Joice Mujuru saying the people have made a statement that calls for fresh elections. The opposition political parties thought they could seize that opportunity to push for their agenda. The Shona wise elders would say akanyangira yaona (they shouted in a whisper).

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John Sigauke <johnsigau@gmail.com