Nera demonstrations expose Mujuru

The involvement of the Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) in the barbarous protests that rocked Harare recently exposed the true stripes of that party's founding fathers and mothers.

For a while, Dr. Joice Mujuru has been pretending to a mother figure who is "not a fighting character." During an interview after her dismissal from Government and Zanu PF, Dr Mujuru said: "Mind you I am a Christian, a true Christian. I don't believe in killing, I don't believe in hating, I don't believe in making somebody suffer."

For the greater part of the year 2015, Dr. Mujuru struggled to live a life commensurate with the invented character she claimed to be. As a ‘true Christian who doesn't believe in making somebody suffer,' the ZPF leader remained mum when volleys of attack were thrown at her at Zanu PF rallies. Of course, the silence was a political gimmick to attract political sympathy. We all knew she could not sustain a life of pretense forever.

While some were duped into believing her, one person who certainly dismissed her make-believe character is Eliot Pfebve, a UK based MDC-T activist. He knows very well that Dr Mujuru has an amazing fondness for violence that many of us might not be privy to. Pfebve has been accusing Dr Mujuru of having a hand in the killing of his brother, Mathew Pfebve during the run-up to 2000 elections.

"At the time of the murder of my brother, Mujuru was the highest ZANU PF authority in Mashonaland Central. As head of an organization, the buck stops with you! Not only that but my brother was murdered in Joice Mujuru's constituency by her supporters wearing her Zanu PF regalia, being part of torture camps she setup in her area to eradicate MDC, this was synonymous with her pronunciations at rallies that Mash Central was a no go area to opposition and a common slogan, "asingazive ngaadzidziswe,"  said Pfebve.

Pfebve even gave a tear-jerking narration of how Mujuru plotted to kill him. He alleged that she was so fixated with his death such that she even allegedly ordered in person the person who failed to kill him to be killed. True or false, nobody knows but that's the background of a woman who claims to be a peaceful character.

When citizens lost their valued properties in an inferno caused by riotous demonstrations at Beitbridge, the ‘peaceful mother' chose to be mum for a while.  Didn't Martin Luther King Jr warn that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remained silent when witnessing a wrong doing? In fact, the civil rights activist said these people are worse than those who commit the transgression.

Dr. Mujuru could have at least condemned the barbaric destruction of properties and looting if she wanted people to take her as a serious peaceful mother. The households whose goods were in the burnt ZIMRA warehouse suffered losses that they will not be recovered soon. When Dr. Mujuru eventually broke her silence on the demonstrations, she unexpectedly defended the riotous protestors.

As if she felt that defending violent demos through public statements was not enough, she decided to join forces with the violence masters in the MDC-T. Dr. Mujuru and her ZPF was part of the parties which grouped under the banner of National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) to unleash terror on Harare residents. Properties were destroyed, shops were looted and residents who were doing their day to day business were beaten and harassed.

Can anybody still believe that Dr. Mujuru is not a fighting character? Taking into account the magnitude of suffering that residents and businesspeople were subjected to by Mujuru-Tsvangirai led demonstrations; does she still measure up to her claim of a virtuous woman who does not believe in making somebody suffer?

We must feel for the commander of NERA, Mr. Didymus Mutasa, for they only want to use the old man for their political expediency. At a public seminar hosted by the Mass Public Opinion Institute, ZPF National Spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire was so blunt about ZPF's plans on Mr. Mutasa.

"We do not keep Mutasa for nothing. As a former minister of state security, he definitely knows how Zanu PF rigged elections. We are not lost to his tainted image but we just want to use him specifically to unearth how they used to steal elections," said Mawarire.

Hopefully, the old man is not also lost to the grand scheme of using and dumping him like a diaper. Mr. Mutasa was sidelined to a marginal pool of elders, only to be recently promoted as a convener of a violent project. There are some promotions one has to question before accepting. Suppose a cruel man as ugly as sin is needed for a security job, one must ask questions when that job is eventually given to you rather than gleefully accepting it. It's unfortunate that the old man accepted the promotion with all honour. Little did he know that they were exploiting his dented background as a violent guru of Manicaland province.

Mr. Mutasa was infamous for sponsoring political violence in his former constituency of Headlands. He was also known for fanning factionalism in Manicaland to an extent of unleashing violence to fellow comrades who belonged to rival factions. His experience in violence is all that NERA wants in Mr. Mutasa and his own party wants him to expose the imagined electoral tool that Zanu PF allegedly used to rig elections. After that, Mr. Mutasa becomes a political has been.

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Tafara Shumba <tafieshumbaz@gmail.com