Mufuka: Zimbabwe and the false gods

via Mufuka: Zimbabwe and the false gods – NewZimbabwe 08/01/2016

MY theory is that while the internecine war among Zanu PF stalwarts is important, it is a symptom that worship of false gods has its limitations and that voodoo economics has now been exposed for what it is-a system of looting the country’s resources.

The bitterness of the internal fights is brought about by the fact that almost every institution of state has been looted dry; the plantation has been slashed and burned. The Garden of Eden is dry and parched. The bacchanalians, faced by this possibility, must now face the wrath of the people. That is the proper interpretation of the violence and viciousness of these internal fights. They see what we have all seen all along, voodoo economics and Bacchanalian hero worship is self-negating.

They are representatives of a dying breed of false politicians. These two, our readers will remember, were used as lead architects and spokespersons in the downfall of Supreme Sister, Vice President Joice Mujuru.

These two minions are but minor players in a bigger drama, the unfolding of the bankruptcy of the Zimbabwe. The Chris and Monica Mutswangwa saga has exercised our minds to no end, but these are only the best state. The economy was managed by a Mafioso, who, even to my surprise, had only one aim, the destruction of all the institutions that buttressed the Zimbabwe economy. I shall illustrate this new theory below beyond any reasonable doubt.

In order to achieve this, they raised the figure of Robert Mugabe to that of a god, thus becoming voodoo worshippers themselves. Any sensible person would have known that their economic policies were destructive, but being voodoo worshippers, they covered their stupidity for three decades by holding on to a false faith, as long as there were bananas in the Garden to share.

Chris, a former director of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation left that outfit under a cloud pointing towards malfeasance. Adhering tothe Mafioso economy, we now know that the directors of that outfit paid themselves sinful salaries while their workers went for months without pay. To be fair, Chris had left ZBC when an audit revealed that while five directors paid themselves $500,000 a month in inflated salaries and allowances, workers at ZBC had gone for six months without pay. Further, a director confessed to receiving a package of $100,000 per year plus allowances.  We shall return to that issue later. For instance, the Chief executive received an allowance of $2,000 for garden-boy services. With such larceny on a grand scale, there was only one aim, to break the institution. To this theme, we shall return later, because it forms the heart of my argument.

Chris has some pretense to learning and consideration to the title of rhetorician of a high degree. Addressing Didymus Mutasa, who for 35 years stood by Mugabe’s side, Chris said these words to the Herald: “Mutasa will soon realize that party discipline will put him in a proper place. There is also the prospect of showing him the door. As a political persona from the margins of revolutionary party, he is devoid of any noteworthy credentials. As such he won’t be missed as he falls by the wayside.”  Mutasa and his ilk, “dream of a vault o high office whence they sconce themselves to corrupt influence as a prelude to the restoration of a post-colonial Rhodesian order.”

While we begrudgingly admit that his verbosity will impress the novice, the paragraph lacks truth and grace. Mutasa was the co-founder of Cold Comfort farm ideological school long before Chris joined the struggle. Mutasa walked in the corridors of power, all his life, having been a close advisor to Joshua Nkomo at Cold Comfort Farm and later to President Mugabe for 35 years.

Likewise, Sister Monica’s verbal abuse of Mutasa, alleging that he is an “enemy of progress and aplastic leader of personal gain” is false. Mutasa was indeed the god-father of Manicaland, and as the leader of the Mafioso, of which Chris and Monica were once members, he ruled the roost and allowed many people in that province to become very rich.

It was Chris who sought to rewrite the history of the struggle by removing a page which describes Sister Joice Mujuru’s “last stand” at Chimoio. Pregnant with child, she found herself trapped in the camp which was being strafed with gunfire by low-flying Rhodesian helicopters. Taking a machine-gun from a fallen comrade, she shot down a helicopter. This singular exploit is recorded in the researches of Professor Gordon Chang.

Of course Mutasa is associated with many deadly acts in Manicaland, but Chris was himself a competitor.

After his defeat in the Norton Constituency in 2008, Chris set up two tents, to which he brought his rival MDC party activists for punishment. A former Central Intelligence Agent, he was above the law. The most famous cases were those of Gibson Nyandoro, Chris’s former colleague who had defected to the MDC. After a “clear and unmistakable warning” which Nyandoro refused, he was abducted; his body was later found floating in a dam. John Kwangware, another MDC activist was assaulted and his left eye gauged out by Zanu PF militants under confessed loyalty to Mutswangwa. Chris Kakanga, yet another MDC activist in that area had his leg broken by a steel bar.

An intelligent fool

Having achieved the great feat of expelling Sister Joice from the Vice Presidency and in the same breadth uplifting Mugabe’s wife to the presidency of the Women’s League, Chris and wife Monica, those horrible matrimonial twins, basked in the sun.

Rather than get cushy ministerial positions that they felt were due to them, they were left in the wilderness. Chris was sent to Veterans Affairs, a penniless portfolio. Monica accompanied Grace Mugabe on her tours of Manicaland, exuberant about the battles just won against Mujuru and Mutasa. She was accused of disrespecting Supreme Sister Grace, expelled, disgraced and banished. That was in July 2015. As November approached, an audit of Veterans Affairs found that the Department was badly run, penniless and that Chris was largely to blame. Further, Chris was instrumental in defeating a resolution to appoint Grace to the presidium at the Victoria Falls Conference. Fools have been known to speak truth to power without realizing the import of their words. To appoint Grace, wife of President Mugabe, to a Vice presidency, would be “to conflate the state of marriage with that of state.” Chris was accused of defaming the First Family.

That statement is brilliant, it cut to the quick and is philosophically correct. Conflating is marrying two separate matrices into one. Chris argued logically that the physical marriage of Grace and Robert Mugabe was being transformed into a marriage of state, inseparably.

A December 14th Herald statement simply reads: ‘Latest: Mutswangwa suspended.” Nor were those who moved for his suspension without some book learning. They argued, succinctly that Mustwangwa’s statement that “we will always respect the institution of marriage and that (Kasukuwere in advancing a case for Grace’ ascendency) is confused (because) it conflates the situation of marriage and that of the state.” This statement has exactly the same meaning and import as the outrageous “bedroom coup” statement by former Veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda.

The beauty of the story is that among the voodoo worshippers, there is not even the pretense of a commission of inquiry, nor a judicial hearing; an accusation is enough and sentence is passed by the prosecutor, dispensing with the services of a judge.

My brothers, William Muchayi and Dr. C.Z. at Financial Gazette end here.
“If one decided to ride on a crocodile’s back, one must have a Plan B” wrote Muchayi. Dr. C.Z. was surprised that Mutswangwa did not foresee that the words he had aimed as ammunition against Mutasa would now be used against him. “Life is so very unfair,” wrote the compassionate Dr. C.Z.

I discussed the issue with Brother Muchayi. Why it is that a goat riding on a crocodile’s back does not ask why it is taking so long to cross the river, or why it is that the crocodile’s parlor shows all the signs of a dinner in preparation.  My mentor, Dr. Solomon Mutswairo used to say: “Kenny my boy, the trouble with you is that you do not understand the law of nature. In the long run, it does not pay to be bad.”

It is in human nature that those who are powerful believe that they can circumvent natural law, what goes around comes around. Their success in the short term comforts them, as indeed it must have done to the voodoo worshippers who had raised Mugabe to the level of a god-like figure.

In the book by Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon, Rubachov, the main character in Stalin’s Russian purges, sold out a young and loyal comrade, in order to please his masters. When Robachov was himself imprisoned on a false charge, to his horror, the prisoner in Room 402, his neighbor, was there because of his false accusations. The answer is very simple, when the Mutswangwas were riding the crocodile’s back, they were enjoying their day in Disney World. Though they knew that their day would come, as Robachov had done, they postponed the day of reckoning, and enjoyed the flitting moment of glory.

At least on two occasions, I was asked to write as a propagandist for the Zimbabwe government. They were willing to pay three times what my present pay was. I wondered how long my moment in the sun would last.

Similarly the whole Zanu PF apparatus took a ride on a crocodile’s back. As they seized white owned property, demanded tithing from company directors, they saw that life was good. Like Mai Shuvai Mhaoffa, when they sway their benefactor, Robert Mugabe at the 6th Zanu PF Conference, they danced until they fainted.
But like Rubachov, they hoped against hope, that the day of reckoning will be postponed.

Worshiping false gods

Since independence, the Zanu PF annual conferences have never taken seriously the possibility of allowing an open challenger to President Mugabe to test the waters in an open vote. Mugabe provided the justification at his birthday party. “But why should it be discussed when it is not due? Is it due? The leadership still exists that runs the country. In other words, I am still here.”

By allowing Mugabe to make his own rules, to change the party constitution to suit his particular whims at the time, has raised him to a god-like status in Zanu PF. In 2004 Mugabe created from thin air the “female equity” clause in order to thwart Emmerson Mnangagwa’s election to a Vice Presidency. In the same year, in order to exclude a growing outside threat from the MDC, Mugabe approved General Vitalis Zvinvashe’s claim that the military does not allow non-liberation politicians into the office of presidency. If Mnangagwa felt secure under that doctrine, he will be surprised to find that his god wears a coat of many colors. Now Mugabe is sponsoring Senate President Edna Madzongwe, under the female parity clause, in order to undermine Mnangagwa’s Vice Presidency.

The problem with worshipping false gods is that the gods are capricious and unpredictable; they do not keep their ordinances and covenants. All those who worshipped Mugabe, now find themselves thrown out of heaven into utter darkness: Vice President Joice Mujuru, Didymus Mutasa, Monica and Chris Mutswangwa, the late Amos Midzi and now the arch-angel of that god is knocking on the door of Oppah Muchinguri and even the most faithful disciple Vice President Emmersn Munangagwa. The list goes on. Their god has feet of clay.

Voodoo economics

All this would be irrelevant if the economy was producing at full steam and there was full employment. This, I think is the Achilles Heel in Zanu PF story. The elevation of humans into little gods is usually accompanied by voodoo economics. The two seem to be intertwined.

The gods and their worshippers, once given the keys to the Garden of Eden proceed to disrespect all the gardeners that cultivated bananas, pine-apples, sugar, corn as well as the conservationists that protected the forests and animals from which they harvested venison and collected tourist fees.

Jamaica’s Prime Minster Michael Manley dispossessed Tate and Lyle sugar barons. In three years, Jamaica began to import sugar and vegetables from Florida. The story is the same in Zimbabwe. After self-sufficiency in corn (maize) and sugar for 50 years, now there is a chronic shortage of these products. The new cell phone farmers are, to all intents and purposes, financially broke.

But they look up to their god for miracles. Thus Mai Charwe, a leading voodoo priestess turned geologist, convinced Mugabe of the presence of a diesel oil well within the sacred Chinhoyi caves.

In their voodoo economy, printing of money on toilet paper “was a hell of a good idea” I was told. The four governors at the Reserve Bank are said to have doctoral degrees in voodoo finance. Ten years later, they have devised another voodoo scheme called bond-issue which purports to borrow money from the public on “trust” in return for “interest remuneration” at a later date. These are the voodoo doctors who crashed our savings accounts and have now come up with a reimbursement plan of U$1 per account.

These schemes are a symptom of desperate times. Voodoo worship enables them to deny reality and to live in a make believe world. Faith does that to people.

Our readers must be reminded that while they concoct all these voodoo schemes, they meet regularly in their praise houses at Zanu PF head-offices where they begin their worship with these magic words.

Mugabe-woye –woye
Mugabe is the only one
Mugabe ndiye woga anotonga
Mugabe is the only divine ruler
Anotonga kusvika madhongi amera nyanga (Vice President Muzenda)
He will rule until donkeys grow horns

The worshippers also wear Mugabe’s image on their worship garments. Worshippers not properly wrapped are thrown out of the worship service. These worship services are accompanied by great dancing before their god.

This is the context in which Mai Shuvai Mahoffa danced before Mugabe until she fainted.

Some of the worshippers were singing:

Ishe wedu haatsike pasi (Our Lord does not place his foot on the soil)

One of these worshippers, Tendai Mahachi, suspended Harare Town Clerk, clearly demonstrates one characteristic definition of corruption, an intention to break institutions. Mahachi, after suspension from Harare’s payroll, demanded that the following terms, already part of his package as Town Clerk be extended for the rest of his natural life.

He claimed the use of a Jeep Cherokee Overland, a second vehicle Land cruiser V8, a Belvedere mansion that he was already in his occupation, but belonged to the City, a commercial stand for free, cell phone handset, relocation allowance even though if he was granted the mansion he would not be moving, a life-time pension, funeral cover just in case he went to meet his maker, school fees for his three children, service allowance for his vehicles, the city to pay his taxes, and all these payments to be made into his private bank account before he can agree to a “mutual separation” (his words). These payments can cost the city as much as $3 million. While private negotiations are going on, city pensioners, whose monthly allowance is $60 per month, have suffered quietly since 2011. The city has targeted 1,000 workers for pink slips since discovering that its 2015 revenue shortfall will be $69 million. Mahachi is not the only Bacchanalian determined to destroy a Zimbabwean institution.

Another Bacchanalian worshipper is Dr. Cuthbert Dube, director of the government run health insurance company, PSMAS. During a period when PSMAS owed creditors and service providers $119 million, 11 executives paid themselves $22 888 281 million on a short space of 12 months, outside their normal salaries. These same executives also shared another $24 million in allowances and $7 million in bonuses when the company was in the red. In all this, they failed to pay taxes. Surely theses Bacchanalians had only one aim, to break up the institution.

In researching the Hwange Colliery saga, it came as a shock to find out that the Bacchanalian Board of Trustees could only have had one aim, to destroy the colliery. In one incident, $160 million in short term loans was secured in order to pay workers who had gone without regular wages for three years. At times they were given vouchers for mealie-meal. Some of the money went to buy 8 heavy specialized trucks at $1 million each. After checking in at Durban, all but one truck did not reach Hwange. “Chef, gonyeti rakangoita masaramusi.” The $160 million loan also went into some “masaramusi.” My judgment is that the money was used to pay “going away fees” to members of the Board of Trustees, who were prematurely retiring. “Chef, hatingende takabata maoko edu,” I was told. We cannot leave without some compensation.

When the managers of Air Zimbabwe found out that their insurance policy cost $300,000 a year, they concocted a scheme which paid $3 million per year. In a few years, Air Zimbabwe was prejudiced in the amount of $10 million. When the Sister Accountant was thrown in jail for ten years, she shouted with a great voice. “Maiwe, nhasi ndoita zvinpi, ndofira vamwe.” She was an appendage of Vice President Joice Mujuru and had been assured of support. So the airline, awarded a prize-winner in 1980 as Africa’s best little airline is bankrupt to the tune of $150 million. Surely the Sister Bacchanalians had only one aim, to break the airline.
It is under these circumstances, that Minister Patrick Chakaipa and the Zimbabwe government, through its ZimAsset dream program, hope to raise $27 billion for development projects while at the same time clearing indebtedness of $10, 2 billion owing to international institutions.

There is no example in history where such predatory Mafioso has relinquished power voluntarily. Unless and until Zimbabweans drive the Bacchanalians away, they will continue to sing and dance their voodoo dances with complete abandon. I do not blame them. But their dance cannot go much longer, there is virtually nothing left to steal, except from each other. This explains the ferocity of the internecine intra-party warfare.

The voodoo worshippers are known by their use of long words, chants full of emotions but empty of meaning. In this way, they commit self-delusion, believing that their many voodoo words will magically cover their nakedness.

I, Ken Mufuka, can see the nakedness of their policies and their voodoo tricks to cover them up. My brother Ken Yamamoto has said that there is nowhere to hide.

Ken Mufuka acknowledges assistance from William Muchayi (UK) and Ken Yamamoto (Japan)