Opinion / Columnist
Revolution is pseudo, Mat'land never forced to take part, says Nkala! A smart way to rid oneself of collective responsibility
03 Sep 2016 at 14:02hrs | Views
Ask any true revolutionary comrades who fought in the war or who took part in any action that demanded sweeping rebellious, radical new situation, demanding change in its absolute totality, demanding change for the betterment of the majority, he/she will tell you that there is nothing as noble as, as self fulfilling as to engage oneself in a revolutionary process. Those people who have engaged in revolutionaries will always remain visionary, fearless and selfless. We see this selflessness and fearlessness in Itai Dzamara and his brother, Sternford Zvorwadza, Linda Masarira, Promise Mkhwananzi, and Pastor Ewan Mawarire today. These people should be celebrated as heroes of our time. Their actions are beyond established procedures of courage and therefore heroes. It is these actions that should be complemented by all of us Zimbabweans from all corners of the land and in the Diaspora.
Since the turning of the Millennium Zimbabwe has been a mass of confusion. Just to recap what we already know; Zanu was losing its grip on power and government. He was seriously challenged by the young turkTsvangirai and his new emerged labour party became overnight the popular alternative to reckon with. MDC won the referendum against the ruling government! Mugabe could have none of it. His anger instead was directed on the white farmers, whom he thought bankrolled the red revolution: MDC.
The birth of MDC was made possible because of serious misdemeanours the Zanu PF government blindly and unknowledgeable engaged into the previous decades of 80s and 90s. The Gugurahundi atrocities of the 1980s the corruption scandals after the unity accord declaration of 1987, the continuous borrowing of money from the world lenders without clear processes on how to repay state debt. ESAP was introduced as a result of failure plans of the government to lift itself from the debt that accumulated since independence. The international money lenders thought it better to manage the Zimbabwean economy themselves just like they have done in other countries north of us by introducing austerity measures.
As if it's not enough, Zanu PF sends Zimbabwean army to Congo to fight a war that had nothing to do with Zimbabwe; the daily expenditures preceded a million US dollars a day. Which African country can afford such economic stupidity except Zanu PF? So many hundreds of soldiers died in Congo, those who were lucky were brought back in bags for burial, and unlucky ones were eaten by wild life in the jungles of Congo. No one was accountable for the loss of life. What we know is that many elite in the government Zimbabweans became rich in this war. Illicit diamond trading was done behind the back of the Zimbabwe fighting soldiers.
The magnitude of hate and vitriol from President Mugabe and the ruling party Zanu PF made most whites packing to neighbouring countries and sent many black farm labours to destitution. Hundreds of people: black and white, lost their lives and livelihoods, most blacks and to some extent white became homeless. The failure of land reforms is openly known to all even the Zanu PF government itself. It should them as an embarrassment, but no. It was a land reform to polish one person's ego. They have the land in abundance and they do not know what to do with it. Pearls cast before swine! The swine does not know what to do with the pearls!
We press fast forward because we all know these events in our vein running; they are still as fresh as yesterday. The Murambatsvina left three quarters of a million people without homes as they were cynically demolished, that painful and indelible experience was in almost all towns and cities in Zimbabwe: demolitions meted on the lowest, the most struggling niche of the societies. So many people perished because their livelihoods and their lives in general were turned upside down by the very government that purports to serve its people. Thousands of lives were lost in 2008 elections, people were forced to vote for Zanu, frog matched to polling stations to vote for a party they never believed in or supported. The 2013 elections were rigged, no reforms to effect free and fair elections in a political chaos environment that was wholly uneven.
As if it's not enough evils bedevilling the nation, the government is bankrupt, no money. But since 2005 Zimbabwe discovered that it had diamonds in abundance. The De Beers Consolidated Mines of Oligarch Oppenheimer offers deals with the government, but that was declined stupidly, no foresight: if Botswana was doing well with De Beers as 70/30% corporate partnership, was it not going to be better than getting looted, cheated daylight 15 billion US revenues from the national diamonds? The people of Zimbabwe are genuinely asking for their share of diamonds returns. They are saying it loud: #Tajamuka!
Be it east or west, nobody can trust the government of Zimbabwe with money in their treasury. The culture of looting since independence is wholly prevalent and smelly. Dubious contracts meant to develop the infrastructure of country are given to those in the bubble, in the corridors of power that loot with impunity. They travel to far eastern countries just for an eye treatment and giving birth to a child: must be in a foreign country, building mansions with blue roofs and 56 bedrooms from the very money they got from the friendly Look East countries. These "Look East" countries cannot even afford extravagancy that the ruling elite of Zanu PF is affording itself with their families.
Now let's look at our dilapidated schools, dilapidated hospitals, roads, dilapidated townships, unemployment soaring to 95%, vendor economy, prostitution as means to survive, hunger: 5 million need food aid, disease the list is too long. When people have been accustomed themselves to vendor economy, the only means to survive in Zimbabwe, the government insensitively steps in and puts a ban on imports goods. This is when the people reacted and said "we have had enough: enough is enough. #Hatichatya, #Tajamuka, #Asisesabi. According to Thulani Nkala this is a pseudo revolution, no people of Mathebeleland should take part in the struggle to remove Mugabe and Zanu PF on power!
In 2016 Zimbabwe people who have had to endure so many hardships in their lives: there seem no solutions in the near future, everything in Zimbabwe points to desperation: we have had enough of Zanu and its shenanigans. We want a change of government, we want regime change. We want Mugabe to go. Where is our freedom and where are our resources going, to benefit who? This is the beginning of yet another revolution in our life time and nobody, it does not matter how fine tuned one is politically, will tell when it will end, however it has ignited and there is not going back. If you are politically and economically affected by the government of Zimbabwe you will join the revolution without thinking twice, without any invitation. But if you are tucked up in very safe places like Europe or America or anywhere else and not in Zimbabwe, it is easy to dismiss the revolution taking place at home you can afford to call it pseudo revolution. Thulani Nkala can afford to say the revolution that has started is pseudo because he is physically and economically safe where he is staying and living, UK.
Thulani Nkala was once an aspiring Zapu candidate to replace Comrade Dumiso Dabengwa. I remember reading his very promising presidential ambitious plans, his well thought through manifesto, why Zapu should elect him as the new President of Zapu. We all thought his age indeed is the generation of global young leaders who are to replace old guards like ourselves. I am afraid his utterances regarding the current revolution that is at its beginning, at its teething age are not inclusive. I personally have not given up on Thulani Nkala because of this just one article he wrote on Bulawayo24 and I disagreed with his line of thought. I am sure there are other areas of thought we can easily agree on.
However, the elected President Dr. Dumiso Dabengwa has cleared the air regarding Zapu stand on the current political developments, I personally embrace this newly established revolution too just like Zapu and we shall nurture and support it as much as we can possibly. We are pleased that DD and Mawelitshi (Welshman Ncube) will be leading the demonstrations that demand electoral reforms.
The Zapu youth has gone even further: Godknows Sibanda says in his article of 2nd of September 2016 on Bulawayo24: To all the Zimbabwe youths, it is essential for us to act now; we are therefore calling all the youths in Zimbabwe and abroad to throw away the velvet kids gloves with the iron fist. We are inviting all the youths to come and join us in our fight for true freedom and democracy. Let's all rattle our spears against these pathetic excuses of political leaders." Said Mr. Sibanda. I doubt if I could have advised the youth of Zimbabwe better than what Mr. Godknows Sibanda has already said.
"There is no written template on how a revolution must be conducted," said Godknows, it is true for Zimbabwe too. It is just too early to call the unsettling developments in Zimbabwe pseudo revolution. These are early stages of radical new and innovative means to remove Zanu from power. Together we can defeat Zanu PF but if we think Mashonalands should fight the rogue regime of Zanu PF on their own because they are the people that voted for Zanu and Mugabe, then we are not talking in a revolutionary spirit. Would that same logic work if Great Britain said: All Zimbabweans should leave the UK because you fought the British colonialism and you won your freedom, what do you want then from us?
#Tajamuka #Asisesabi #Hatichatya #Asikijiki
Since the turning of the Millennium Zimbabwe has been a mass of confusion. Just to recap what we already know; Zanu was losing its grip on power and government. He was seriously challenged by the young turkTsvangirai and his new emerged labour party became overnight the popular alternative to reckon with. MDC won the referendum against the ruling government! Mugabe could have none of it. His anger instead was directed on the white farmers, whom he thought bankrolled the red revolution: MDC.
The birth of MDC was made possible because of serious misdemeanours the Zanu PF government blindly and unknowledgeable engaged into the previous decades of 80s and 90s. The Gugurahundi atrocities of the 1980s the corruption scandals after the unity accord declaration of 1987, the continuous borrowing of money from the world lenders without clear processes on how to repay state debt. ESAP was introduced as a result of failure plans of the government to lift itself from the debt that accumulated since independence. The international money lenders thought it better to manage the Zimbabwean economy themselves just like they have done in other countries north of us by introducing austerity measures.
As if it's not enough, Zanu PF sends Zimbabwean army to Congo to fight a war that had nothing to do with Zimbabwe; the daily expenditures preceded a million US dollars a day. Which African country can afford such economic stupidity except Zanu PF? So many hundreds of soldiers died in Congo, those who were lucky were brought back in bags for burial, and unlucky ones were eaten by wild life in the jungles of Congo. No one was accountable for the loss of life. What we know is that many elite in the government Zimbabweans became rich in this war. Illicit diamond trading was done behind the back of the Zimbabwe fighting soldiers.
The magnitude of hate and vitriol from President Mugabe and the ruling party Zanu PF made most whites packing to neighbouring countries and sent many black farm labours to destitution. Hundreds of people: black and white, lost their lives and livelihoods, most blacks and to some extent white became homeless. The failure of land reforms is openly known to all even the Zanu PF government itself. It should them as an embarrassment, but no. It was a land reform to polish one person's ego. They have the land in abundance and they do not know what to do with it. Pearls cast before swine! The swine does not know what to do with the pearls!
We press fast forward because we all know these events in our vein running; they are still as fresh as yesterday. The Murambatsvina left three quarters of a million people without homes as they were cynically demolished, that painful and indelible experience was in almost all towns and cities in Zimbabwe: demolitions meted on the lowest, the most struggling niche of the societies. So many people perished because their livelihoods and their lives in general were turned upside down by the very government that purports to serve its people. Thousands of lives were lost in 2008 elections, people were forced to vote for Zanu, frog matched to polling stations to vote for a party they never believed in or supported. The 2013 elections were rigged, no reforms to effect free and fair elections in a political chaos environment that was wholly uneven.
As if it's not enough evils bedevilling the nation, the government is bankrupt, no money. But since 2005 Zimbabwe discovered that it had diamonds in abundance. The De Beers Consolidated Mines of Oligarch Oppenheimer offers deals with the government, but that was declined stupidly, no foresight: if Botswana was doing well with De Beers as 70/30% corporate partnership, was it not going to be better than getting looted, cheated daylight 15 billion US revenues from the national diamonds? The people of Zimbabwe are genuinely asking for their share of diamonds returns. They are saying it loud: #Tajamuka!
Be it east or west, nobody can trust the government of Zimbabwe with money in their treasury. The culture of looting since independence is wholly prevalent and smelly. Dubious contracts meant to develop the infrastructure of country are given to those in the bubble, in the corridors of power that loot with impunity. They travel to far eastern countries just for an eye treatment and giving birth to a child: must be in a foreign country, building mansions with blue roofs and 56 bedrooms from the very money they got from the friendly Look East countries. These "Look East" countries cannot even afford extravagancy that the ruling elite of Zanu PF is affording itself with their families.
Now let's look at our dilapidated schools, dilapidated hospitals, roads, dilapidated townships, unemployment soaring to 95%, vendor economy, prostitution as means to survive, hunger: 5 million need food aid, disease the list is too long. When people have been accustomed themselves to vendor economy, the only means to survive in Zimbabwe, the government insensitively steps in and puts a ban on imports goods. This is when the people reacted and said "we have had enough: enough is enough. #Hatichatya, #Tajamuka, #Asisesabi. According to Thulani Nkala this is a pseudo revolution, no people of Mathebeleland should take part in the struggle to remove Mugabe and Zanu PF on power!
In 2016 Zimbabwe people who have had to endure so many hardships in their lives: there seem no solutions in the near future, everything in Zimbabwe points to desperation: we have had enough of Zanu and its shenanigans. We want a change of government, we want regime change. We want Mugabe to go. Where is our freedom and where are our resources going, to benefit who? This is the beginning of yet another revolution in our life time and nobody, it does not matter how fine tuned one is politically, will tell when it will end, however it has ignited and there is not going back. If you are politically and economically affected by the government of Zimbabwe you will join the revolution without thinking twice, without any invitation. But if you are tucked up in very safe places like Europe or America or anywhere else and not in Zimbabwe, it is easy to dismiss the revolution taking place at home you can afford to call it pseudo revolution. Thulani Nkala can afford to say the revolution that has started is pseudo because he is physically and economically safe where he is staying and living, UK.
Thulani Nkala was once an aspiring Zapu candidate to replace Comrade Dumiso Dabengwa. I remember reading his very promising presidential ambitious plans, his well thought through manifesto, why Zapu should elect him as the new President of Zapu. We all thought his age indeed is the generation of global young leaders who are to replace old guards like ourselves. I am afraid his utterances regarding the current revolution that is at its beginning, at its teething age are not inclusive. I personally have not given up on Thulani Nkala because of this just one article he wrote on Bulawayo24 and I disagreed with his line of thought. I am sure there are other areas of thought we can easily agree on.
However, the elected President Dr. Dumiso Dabengwa has cleared the air regarding Zapu stand on the current political developments, I personally embrace this newly established revolution too just like Zapu and we shall nurture and support it as much as we can possibly. We are pleased that DD and Mawelitshi (Welshman Ncube) will be leading the demonstrations that demand electoral reforms.
The Zapu youth has gone even further: Godknows Sibanda says in his article of 2nd of September 2016 on Bulawayo24: To all the Zimbabwe youths, it is essential for us to act now; we are therefore calling all the youths in Zimbabwe and abroad to throw away the velvet kids gloves with the iron fist. We are inviting all the youths to come and join us in our fight for true freedom and democracy. Let's all rattle our spears against these pathetic excuses of political leaders." Said Mr. Sibanda. I doubt if I could have advised the youth of Zimbabwe better than what Mr. Godknows Sibanda has already said.
"There is no written template on how a revolution must be conducted," said Godknows, it is true for Zimbabwe too. It is just too early to call the unsettling developments in Zimbabwe pseudo revolution. These are early stages of radical new and innovative means to remove Zanu from power. Together we can defeat Zanu PF but if we think Mashonalands should fight the rogue regime of Zanu PF on their own because they are the people that voted for Zanu and Mugabe, then we are not talking in a revolutionary spirit. Would that same logic work if Great Britain said: All Zimbabweans should leave the UK because you fought the British colonialism and you won your freedom, what do you want then from us?
#Tajamuka #Asisesabi #Hatichatya #Asikijiki
Source - Nomazulu Thata
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