The fight Zanu-PF can't afford to lose

ZIMBABWEANS celebrate this Heroes and Defence Forces holiday more divided than the country has ever been since Independence.

And the most divided institution in the country is the governing Zanu-PF party. Because recently a group of anonymous war veterans wrote what was purported to be a strong communique renouncing membership of Zanu-PF.

The "war veterans" did not have the courage to disclose their identity, fuelling unhealthy speculation about the authenticity of the document.

And in public, the entire war veterans leadership has disowned the unusual and uncharacteristic statement.

But these developments are likely to put a huge damper on the usually boisterous commemorations of the country's mothers and fathers who sacrificed so much for our freedom.

Perhaps a period of too long suffering has the effect of sapping our energies, and even our zeal, towards the most fundamental causes.

Zimbabweans have been to hell and back since a decision was made to embark on the fast-track land reform programme in 2000, itself a key issue around which young people were mobilised to go to war.

Let us never forget that fact. Yet its execution sorely divided the nation because there was a lot of moral ambivalence about it.

After 20 years people (black and white) seemed to have forgotten about the driving force behind the liberation war.

The programme was embraced with enthusiasm by many, and, as one would expect, in the end it was spearheaded by the same freedom fighters who had fought for the liberation of the country.

To those who opposed the programme, itself the most defining in who we are and what a nation is, the war veterans became the most hated members of our society.

To those for the programme, the war veterans were merely completing a historical imperative.

It is sad to see these gallant sons and daughters so bitterly divided as the nation commemorates their day.

The Lancaster House talks to end white minority rule in 1979 ended in the nature of most negotiations.

You rarely get all you want. Zimbabweans did not get the independence they had been fighting for. But still 1980 opened the way to complete the task.

That serious engagement in self-definition was to come a whole 20 years later in 2000. The war veterans were some of the major beneficiaries.

They own farms; there are challenges of skills and resources, but most of them remain on the land. They are making a living out of the land.

We are one of the few African nations to achieve such a feat, especially when we compare with French colonies where 14 African nations still pay so-called Colonial Tax for the benefit of having been colonised and enslaved by France post-Berlin 1884.

Former French president Jacques Chirac was frank enough to admit that, "Without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third world power."

Because it controls who can do business in those countries, it is in charge of their central banks and decides whether or not it wants to be involved in the exploitation of a particular natural resource and trains their military officers who regularly deployed to remove undesirable political leaders.

It is a form of slavery or colonial status Zimbabweans are fighting to end. That fight centres on the control of natural resources, all of which can only exist in the land.

This is the message the children of Zimbabwe should carry in their hearts and minds as we solemnly commemorate our heroes.

No nation can proudly claim to be independent when it has no power to decide who, when, where and for whose primary benefit its natural resources can be exploited.

But the past 16 years have taught us that such a decision comes at a cost if you are a poor, developing world nation.

Such a decision challenges the ethos of colonialism and imperialist domination of the globe. That is why Zimbabwe is being punished severely.

The sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe in 2001 and still burden us are a warning to those who dare. And they have had the desired, chilling effect.

Let no one tell me black South Africans and Namibians don't want their land; that they are happy with the egregious economic inequalities based on racial privilege, worse still, that they were better off under apartheid rule (like we are often cynically told here).

South Africans have the best constitution in the world because it legitimises colonial loot.

It is a disease Zimbabwe has been cured of without being able to share the medicine. We should be proud of that milestone in Africa.

For that we should be forever mindful of those who risked their lives to make Zimbabwe unique. Heroes and Defences Forces commemorations are only second in national importance to April 18.

A day too that harks to the sacrifices of the same men and women we honour next week.

The apparent divisions in the rank of war veterans, whether as an association or in their relationship with Zanu- PF, has been a major cause for celebration in some quarters.

Some have gone to the extent of calling it a long overdue damascene moment. Others have called for repentance, yet more have challenged the war veterans to ask the people of Zimbabwean for forgiveness.

Ask for forgiveness for spearheading the land reform programme; for that is the only crime which they have singlehandedly been accused of committing.

That in itself should worry genuine war veterans. The classification of war veterans as either hardliners or reformist revolves around their perceived attitude in relation to the land reform programme.

Those whose attitude towards all empowerment programmes is lukewarm are the good guys.

Those who say the land is a primary birthright of every black Zimbabwe are the bad guys, the hardliners who must be punished.

And those who lost the land have the connections and alchemy either to bless or to curse.

Let us not confuse issues. There is a huge chasm between the need and necessity for land reform on the one hand and the corruption which accompanied its execution on the other.

There is a cardinal principle which cannot be faulted: apologising for land reform is no different from those unfortunate francophone Africans being made to pay in perpetuity for the sins of being colonised by France.

{And the good guys now talk repeatedly about compensating those who lost farms from 2000, as if 90 years of looting and self-enrichment were not a crime grievous enough against the indigenous people.}

Let people not confuse the principle underpinning land reform and man's susceptibility to avarice and corruption.

For me, Zanu-PF's failure to deal decisively with corrupt officials has been its major undoing. There are enough cadres who can fight in defence of the land reform.

There is none ready to defend corruption. The enemies or those who have always opposed the land reform and other black economic empowerment initiatives have taken advantage of Government's failure to fight corruption to gain moral support for agendas which seek to demean the spirit of independence and the sacrifices of the men and women buried at the National Heroes' Acre.

That should be a cause for concern to genuine war veterans. When you are a war veteran owning a piece of land and you suddenly find yourself being hero-worshipped by the same forces opposed to the land reform, ask yourself if you haven't been trapped.

Who benefits from divided war veterans, from a weakened Zanu-PF?

And one of the main divisive issues lately has been the matter of future Zanu-PF leadership, a matter which has been very badly handled, leading to current avoidable divisions (a subject for another day).

Suffice to say the fight to defend the land reform and to feed the nation is far greater than any leadership position. It is a fight Zanu-PF cannot afford to lose. It is a fight from which war veterans cannot withdraw. It is a fight Zimbabwe must win.

That should be the biggest honour Zimbabwe can bestow on the people who lie at the national shrine.