African leaders, especially those of the SADC, are so hypnotized by president Robert Mugabe’s kleptocratic spell. Judging by their propensity to superimpose the authoritarian’s brand of democracy on their idea of governance, it remains a daunting task for the region, especially our motherland Zimbabwe, to ascend the pedestal of the brotherhood of progressive nations.
Robert Mugabe’s tyrannical rule does not require a rocket scientist expose, yet African leaders seem set on seeking answers from a galaxy of political naivety. South Africa’s deputy president Mlambo-Ngcuka’ s notion that suitors for political office in South Africa, and by extension, our continent, lack the necessary revolutionary “sophistication” brings to the fore the source of the African problem. This myopic school of thought is what distorts the perception of most African leaders that ‘regular’ citizens like Arthur Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai are not only appreciated by naïve Zimbabweans, but also incapable of running a country. What Mugabe does is to feed on this primitive predisposition to nourish his appetite for political dominance by successfully diverting African leaders from the simple and obvious facts at the core of Zimbabwe’s crisis to the romantic ideas of skewed pan Africanism.
Mugabe’s toolbox of political chicanery has an unlimited supply of crude instruments to perpetuate dictatorship: the Central Intelligence Organisation, Zimbabwe National Army, Zimbabwe Republic Police, War Veterans, Youth Militia disguised as the National Youth Service, The Herald, The Chronicle, The Manica Post, Zimbabwe Broadcast Holdings, Traditional leaders and the Zimbabwe Election Commission. These institutions work like a well-oiled mechanical monster against the opposition and the civil society groups to safeguard Mugabe’s selfish political interests. This heartless monster sees no credence in human rights violations and has no morsel of appreciating disastrous policies like the unbudgeted for war veterans payouts of 1998 that became a signal tune to the free fall of Zimbabwe’s economy. It is the same monster that presided over Mugabe’s disastrous fast track land grab in 2000, then Operation Murambatsvina, and now the arbitrary take over of multinational mines, all in the name of ‘indigenisation’. These seemingly ‘noble’ acts are nothing but symptoms of greed and thirst for more power that benefits only Mugabe and his ZANU-PF cronies. The proximity of this monster to the very hearts and minds of opposition and civil society not only significantly narrows democratic space, but also ensures the average citizen sings the tune of synonymy of ZANU-PF and State. Any resistance attracts spontaneous retribution, imprisonment and in extreme but common cases, ultimate death.
Their short memory betrays African leaders or is it another case of selective amnesia? Mugabe dazzled the continent with his clever speeches on reconciliation and African brotherhood in the 1980s and gullible African leaders drank to his high sounding clever speeches while his Perence Shiri-controlled Gukurahundi fifth brigade mercenaries wiped twenty-thousand Ndebeles off the face of the earth allegedly for arms catches found in Matabeleland and a subsequent ‘war’ against armed gangsters. Ever since the so-called 1987 ‘unity agreement’ – perceived by progressive Zimbabweans more as Joshua Nkomo’ s surrender document – president Robert Mugabe has not apologised in public. At the height of electioneering in 2000, the closest the ageing fascist dictator came close to showing any form of remorse was when he referred to that black era as a ‘moment of madness’. Sadly for opposition, civil society and democracy as a whole, that moment has evolved into eternity in Zimbabwe.
African leaders should see Mugabe’s deception for what it is, rather than get carried away by his anti-imperialist rhetoric. Although he claims that the 1979 Lancaster Agreement tied his political hands, his I-will-not-talk-about-land-reform-for-the-next-ten-years idea from 1990 to 2000, including his blessing of the IMF-brokered Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP), went a long way in pacifying the West. Joshua Nkomo was largely left out in the governance discourse, routinely racked in to endorse meaningless legislation. But when the Movement for Democratic Change [MDC] came into the political bigger picture, Robert Mugabe watched with disbelief as citizens began to challenge the establishment. This was the birth of Zimbabwe’s problems that have escalated to the crisis we see today.
On any other clear day, Mugabe’s brand of vicious dictatorship should naturally make our African brothers stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe. But no, it has to take the Gordon Browns, John Howards and George Bushes of the world to do what is right. Mugabe is an extraordinarily rare breed of a megalomaniac who could not have been a product of the same stencil of sober liberation politicians like Nelson Mandela. The man who postures as a democrat, a pan-Africanist, a populist and campaigner against Western imperialism has deceived African leaders. Wake up Africa!
President Robert Mugabe is on cloud nine, seemingly untouched by the forces of political gravity that are plodding his space ship. The man is so detached from Zimbabwe’s reality that what he sees is a spectacular panorama of praise singers lying prostrate at the footstool of his political empire. What Zimbabweans are desperate for is change, and this is where African leaders come in. Rather than ululate, applaud and lay wreaths at Mugabe’s altar of demagoguery, African leaders must join the band of Zimbabwean activists to fire salvos at the dictator’s ship to bring it back to earth. My appeal is that we consider the enlightened observation of one of our own, former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anna, who noted: "The ever downward spiral of Zimbabwe, for example, is both intolerable and unsustainable; we all have a stake in resolving the crisis... Africans must guard against a pernicious, self-destructive form of racism that unites citizens to rise up and expel tyrannical rulers who are white, but to excuse tyrannical rulers who are black."
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
No new dawn in the piece meal amendments of POSA, AIPPA.
No new dawn in the piece meal amendments of POSA, AIPPA
By Witness Dube
20 December, 2007
Cosmetic amendments of POSA, AIPPA and the Broadcasting Services Act by an unrepentant megalomaniac and crafty despot in the mould of Mugabe are nothing more than his trademark pseudo-democracy antics. His dramatic right posturing is meant to signal his SADC choir of praise singers to start rehearsing their “free and fair elections” chorus.
The amendments do not take away the sweeping state powers. Section 27 of POSA empowers the Zimbabwe Republic Police, a pillar in Mugabe’s power hold, to prohibit all public gatherings for a period of three months if ,in their opinion, there is a threat to public order.
The new Zimbabwe Media Commission will have a chair person and eight other commissioners appointed by the president. These Mugabe anointed will then appoint a Media Council which will develop, define, and enforce a code of conduct and ethics to be observed by journalist and Mass Media Services. Talk of a cat watching a mouse. Nearly the same goes for the Broadcasting Services.
POSA amendments are nothing to remove the Act from being Mugabe’s number one choice window for new episodes in his, “…moment of madness…’ series. Ian Smith sought to quash the black people’s revolution in the name of POSA. Mugabe’s Gukurahundi (Trash Washing Rain) crushed 20 000 innocent Ndebeles civilians in the name of POSA. The opposition formations continue to be bashed as was evidenced by Tsvangirayi’s skull that was “moved” by the Police according to Mugabe. What new political environment can honestly be ushered in by piece meal amendments? What is Mugabe noising to the world now because that noise can not be meant for Zimbabweans? Zimbabweans are listening to each other’s yells of pain and cries of hungry children because his self confessed “degrees in violence” are upon our door steps.
The principal context of engaging Zanu pf through talks was necessitated and defined by the people of Zimbabwe ’s quest for a free and fair election as a mid-wife to the re-birth of our short lived freedom and democracy. At their most positive tone the reforms neither mute any assurance of being significant tools to a free and fair election as a result of their existence, nor do they make a clear call to the political compass in Zunamiland to shift a single degree towards democracy. Zanu pf merely wants to snap survey the opposition formations’ support base during an election while they romp to victory via the apathy that will surely be the biggest candidate if the elections go ahead under the prevailing conditions.
In the interest of freedom, democracy, peace, stability and development after the elections, the electioneering process must be opened up further through enacting a dozen pro democracy laws to be supported by mutually negotiated and agreed upon political deals for the period after the elections. This should be before talk of any elections. Without that the MDC owes it to the people who have hitherto stood the distance in the long walk to freedom and democracy to totally refuse any appeasement amendments from Zanu pf. What is posing as reforms before us is nothing but another of Mugabe’s political dilemma skits aimed at hoisting his empire above the sky.
I wish to implore my friends in our opposition formations that a new Zimbabwe constitution is not only an imperative before any further elections but also importantly one of the unifying agendas that has hovered the Zimbabwean political arena for a long time. Its is the clean pool into which every peace, democracy, unity and development loving Zimbabwean should want to be baptized in to wash the absurdly monopolized ideas of patriotism and sovereignty on the one hand, and clumsily construed self serving arguments on deliverance of democratic principles on the other. Zanu pf has to leave the bedrock of a sum total of fraud, desperation, and insatiable power hunger that the current Zimbabwe constitution rises on. This agenda should never be compromised in the interest of accommodating emerging career politicians now threatening the mobility of our struggle.
Since political deals seem to fail to convince Mugabe to convert to democracy in the foreseeable future we the Zimbabweans must agree that we have it all to do the NCA and Lovemore Madhuku style of a permanent presence in the streets except that we should be more creative, strategise many times better, coordinate well and execute an artistic non-violent war against tyranny. It is time Zimbabweans learned once again to see the beauty in sustaining a vigorous campaign against oppression.
Any engrossment by the opposition formations of the POSA monster now trying to hide its tail should be viewed as a grave insult to the fallen comrades of the people’s struggle like Talent Chiminya and Mthokozisi Ncube whom POSA burned and butchered through the hands of Zanu pf. It should be foolishness and must be viewed as such that papers like The Daily News will be romantically brought back by Mugabe to churn out truths without any Zanumi time bomb in their printing machines.
My humble submission to the opposition formations and my fellow Zimbabweans is that there is no new day sun in the form of legislative amendments to bask in. These are the usual window dressing election gimmicks Mugabe and Zanu pf always instinctively engage at the dawn of every election. The difference is that this propaganda horse is meant to be fed by president Mbeki on behalf of the by-standing SADC so that Zanu pf can once again out run the true freedom and democracy of the people of Zimbabwe .
By Witness Dube
20 December, 2007
Cosmetic amendments of POSA, AIPPA and the Broadcasting Services Act by an unrepentant megalomaniac and crafty despot in the mould of Mugabe are nothing more than his trademark pseudo-democracy antics. His dramatic right posturing is meant to signal his SADC choir of praise singers to start rehearsing their “free and fair elections” chorus.
The amendments do not take away the sweeping state powers. Section 27 of POSA empowers the Zimbabwe Republic Police, a pillar in Mugabe’s power hold, to prohibit all public gatherings for a period of three months if ,in their opinion, there is a threat to public order.
The new Zimbabwe Media Commission will have a chair person and eight other commissioners appointed by the president. These Mugabe anointed will then appoint a Media Council which will develop, define, and enforce a code of conduct and ethics to be observed by journalist and Mass Media Services. Talk of a cat watching a mouse. Nearly the same goes for the Broadcasting Services.
POSA amendments are nothing to remove the Act from being Mugabe’s number one choice window for new episodes in his, “…moment of madness…’ series. Ian Smith sought to quash the black people’s revolution in the name of POSA. Mugabe’s Gukurahundi (Trash Washing Rain) crushed 20 000 innocent Ndebeles civilians in the name of POSA. The opposition formations continue to be bashed as was evidenced by Tsvangirayi’s skull that was “moved” by the Police according to Mugabe. What new political environment can honestly be ushered in by piece meal amendments? What is Mugabe noising to the world now because that noise can not be meant for Zimbabweans? Zimbabweans are listening to each other’s yells of pain and cries of hungry children because his self confessed “degrees in violence” are upon our door steps.
The principal context of engaging Zanu pf through talks was necessitated and defined by the people of Zimbabwe ’s quest for a free and fair election as a mid-wife to the re-birth of our short lived freedom and democracy. At their most positive tone the reforms neither mute any assurance of being significant tools to a free and fair election as a result of their existence, nor do they make a clear call to the political compass in Zunamiland to shift a single degree towards democracy. Zanu pf merely wants to snap survey the opposition formations’ support base during an election while they romp to victory via the apathy that will surely be the biggest candidate if the elections go ahead under the prevailing conditions.
In the interest of freedom, democracy, peace, stability and development after the elections, the electioneering process must be opened up further through enacting a dozen pro democracy laws to be supported by mutually negotiated and agreed upon political deals for the period after the elections. This should be before talk of any elections. Without that the MDC owes it to the people who have hitherto stood the distance in the long walk to freedom and democracy to totally refuse any appeasement amendments from Zanu pf. What is posing as reforms before us is nothing but another of Mugabe’s political dilemma skits aimed at hoisting his empire above the sky.
I wish to implore my friends in our opposition formations that a new Zimbabwe constitution is not only an imperative before any further elections but also importantly one of the unifying agendas that has hovered the Zimbabwean political arena for a long time. Its is the clean pool into which every peace, democracy, unity and development loving Zimbabwean should want to be baptized in to wash the absurdly monopolized ideas of patriotism and sovereignty on the one hand, and clumsily construed self serving arguments on deliverance of democratic principles on the other. Zanu pf has to leave the bedrock of a sum total of fraud, desperation, and insatiable power hunger that the current Zimbabwe constitution rises on. This agenda should never be compromised in the interest of accommodating emerging career politicians now threatening the mobility of our struggle.
Since political deals seem to fail to convince Mugabe to convert to democracy in the foreseeable future we the Zimbabweans must agree that we have it all to do the NCA and Lovemore Madhuku style of a permanent presence in the streets except that we should be more creative, strategise many times better, coordinate well and execute an artistic non-violent war against tyranny. It is time Zimbabweans learned once again to see the beauty in sustaining a vigorous campaign against oppression.
Any engrossment by the opposition formations of the POSA monster now trying to hide its tail should be viewed as a grave insult to the fallen comrades of the people’s struggle like Talent Chiminya and Mthokozisi Ncube whom POSA burned and butchered through the hands of Zanu pf. It should be foolishness and must be viewed as such that papers like The Daily News will be romantically brought back by Mugabe to churn out truths without any Zanumi time bomb in their printing machines.
My humble submission to the opposition formations and my fellow Zimbabweans is that there is no new day sun in the form of legislative amendments to bask in. These are the usual window dressing election gimmicks Mugabe and Zanu pf always instinctively engage at the dawn of every election. The difference is that this propaganda horse is meant to be fed by president Mbeki on behalf of the by-standing SADC so that Zanu pf can once again out run the true freedom and democracy of the people of Zimbabwe .
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