by Elijah Mangwengwende via email 10 January 2014
As 2013 came to an end I am speaking to villagers at Murambinda Growth point in Buhera and all seem to have spent the better part of the last few days reflecting on the tragedy that befell us on 31st July leaving an indelible mark on democracy. The question has always been why and how did it happen but John Makumbe would have said ‘did we not see it coming?’ Well Kitsiyatota and Clive Mwale will defend it as a black revolution waiting to deliver its fruits with the coming of the rain season. ‘The earth is moaning’ sekuru Ndunge exclaims. Buhera has produced eminent politicians both in mainstream ZANU PF and the opposition parties – Morgan Tsvangirai, Kumbirai Kangai, Paul Madzore, the late Professor Makumbe, Solomon Madzore, Eric Matinenga, Joseph Chinotimba, Gideon Gono, George Charamba, etc yet the curse of twumakangai still haunts the area. I can see people unable to stand upright and walking frail with little hope for tomorrow all hope seems to have faded on the 2nd August 2013.
Oh Sekuru Ndunge’s rib cage is now more visible with bones protruding as if curved by a sculpture of note’s hand. The shattering news came on the 2nd August when all and sundry – villagers and their livestock -were waiting for our popular buses Munava and Vazungu to deliver the news that a new beginning had dawned in Harare and twumakangai would be migwagwa. The coming of the rain season is no longer coming. Everyone is grappling with a seemingly easy to answer but difficult to experience e question – what next. The answer is there yet we are traumatised; we have a phobia to answer it. We prefer to live in the manacles of gradualism and the just-world hypothesis is our only hope.
While the villager is obviously bearing the brunt to basic economic survival determined by a political order very few seem to understand why and how ZANU PF won the election ‘resoundingly’ when yet all signs were indicating an end to ZANU PF and the beginning of a new dispensation under an MDC T led government. The height of change on the eve of the election at Cross Over will always haunt us as we try to understand why we were ‘Crossed Out.’ Did comrades sleep on duty, did they lose ground, did they sell the struggle, did they, did they, did they… All this is talk that now dominates social and conventional media, rural shebeens, bars and market places. Of course attempts to paper around the issue with the mantra of sanctions and government’s success through land reform and the indigenisation drive will not stop calls for reform and a better present and future.
What I want to highlight today is the unfortunate escalating blame game in the MDC i.e. Cdes slept on duty. Yes Sekuru Ndunge is in agony over his weight loss as much as John Makumbe is turning in his grave at Makumbe Village in agony over what is becoming or unbecoming of the people’s project. Cdes have been preoccupied with finger pointing each other over the 31st July loss. Others have even called for a recalling of the entire National Executive of the MDC with the President of the MDC being the main target while Welshman Ncube’s MDC lies in limbo. But is Sekuru Ndunge calling for an ouster of Morgan Tsvangirai or Tendai Biti or Nelson Chamisa or a regrouping and critical reflection of what went wrong. Fortunately my roots do not know of Nikuv or Baba Jukwa they want bread, butter and milk on the table, stable electric power for the irrigation project at Murambinda, jobs for the grandson who recently completed his O’Levels, a know-how of how daughter Rebecca died in prison, why Maidei died giving birth to a babbling daughter. But why did Musokeni die from the Aids pandemic. Oh by the way Xmas was horrible. Getting RSA R5.00 to grind mealie meal is a nightmare we now have to resort to traditional means. As this blame game gathers momentum I ask myself as I hear mai Rusere’s emotional bursts that the people voted for the wrong candidate.
No Cdes we are missing the point, we won the people but lost the election because Mugabe undermined the electoral process, SADC’s best electoral practises and the voices of villagers across the country…youth included. The election was rigged. Now the unfortunate part is that cdes found comfort in a gradual tranquilising drug of blemish games and character assassination. Those that seem to be calling for leadership renewal are bent on realising the ZANU PF dream of a total wipe out of the MDC through infiltration which is a betrayal of the villagers from Buhera to Dotito, Chendambuya to Manana with whom their hopes of a new Zimbabwe lie in the MDC. This is the time to regroup, provide leadership and take charge of the revolution. Cdes Fall, the Revolution Beckons and motherland spills hopes for mankind.
Elijah Mangwengwende is an Political Analyst in the UK and can be contacted on mangwe263@yahoo.co.uk or on his mobile: 00447727209715
COMMENTS
All very fair comment. The blame game does not give us the answer.
To catch a thief you need to know their are items
not accounted for ! We Zimbabweans have been led by the nose for
the last couple of elections which set the trap for Mugabe
to think he can do it again. Convincingly , No !
Yes, he stole the 2013 election, but as a result we are now
playing out the economiccollapse of Zimbabwe once again.
It’s not who votes that matters. It is who counts the vote.
Leaders ignored this one fundamental fact.
From what I have been told, certain Leaders also ignored all advice from their advisors and took the nation into that election without any checks and balances, not even inspection of the voters roll.
It is the Leaders who took the gamble that lost the election.
Are the people going to continue to allow Leaders to lose elections through sheer stupidity on their behalf?
If they do, the people have the government they deserve.
If they don’t, they need to bring about REAL CHANGE by firstly CHANGING to a leadership that is stronger, leaner and hungry for freedom, justice, prosperity and democracy.
This means that those leaders who live in luxury, have become soft and think that they do not have to account for their repeated failures, must be shown the door.
If moaning was a revenue generating industry Zimbabwe would be the wealthiest country in the world. We have taken the victim culture to the absolute apex and so our moaning replaces action and we stand waist deep in the mud as ZANU pisses on our heads expecting someone else to help us.
We are pathetic and this article is just a more eloquent form of the self pitying moan.