THOSE the gods want to destroy they
first make mad, so goes the old adage. Could Zimbabweans be witnessing this
tragic spectacle, a crumbling ZANU PF party which appears determined to consume
everything good in its headlong plunge to self-destruction?
How else could any sane person explain the unprecedented mob rule tactics
that have been adopted by the ruling party to win support, whatever the cost to
itself and Zimbabwe, ahead of crucial general elections later this year?
So desperate to win the plebiscite has ZANU PF become that its government has
jettisoned all civilised norms of behaviour because the means justify the end
results.
First, the party unleashed destitute war veterans onto productive and private
farms to try to divert the nation's focus from a rapidly gathering political and
economic storm.
When Zimbabwe's courts ordered the invaders off the farms, President Robert
Mugabe led his government in openly rejecting the judgment by condoning the
seizures.
The countrywide incidents of political violence pitting supporters of ZANU PF
against those of its chief rival, the Movement for Democratic Change, need no
further amplification.
Then at the weekend ZANU PF lifted the crescendo of its reign of terror by
ordering the veterans to bludgeon innocent Zimbabweans marching in Harare to
back the nation's anguished cries for peace, justice and fairness in the polls.
The police, civil servants paid by hard-pressed taxpayers, watched stoically
as the veterans rampaged through the streets of the capital beating up unarmed
citizens, some of them elderly.
The police, when they finally acted, teargassed the marchers and arrested
their leaders who had been given court approval for the peaceful protest.
On the other side of the city, police erected roadblocks on the main roads
which prevented virtually all traffic from entering Harare, this ostensibly to
check against crime and unathourised weapons - weapons which the police allowed
the veterans to carry openly and use on innocent marchers!
In fact, many of the armed veterans could be seen running side by side with
the police as they confronted the marchers. No single ex-fighter was arrested.
These double standards and the use of police as a partisan instrument lift
Zimbabwe into new heights of mob rule and anarchy.
ZANU PF and the government seem to be repeatedly taunting the people to take
the law into their own hands in self-defence in the face of either deliberate
inaction or paralysis by those charged with the enforcement of basic law and
order.
We have asked this question before, but we repeat it: has the government
decided to create and promote generalised anarchy in Zimbabwe so it can impose
martial law to prolong its tenure and save itself from a crushing defeat in the
polls?
Far from winning itself sympathy and support, these desperate actions openly
show even die-hard supporters of ZANU PF that the party's time to go has come.
Never before in the recent history of any civilised nation has a government
done so much to accelerate its demise by undermining the very basic tenets upon
which governance is anchored.
It is as if the government wants to bequeath a shattered land when it leaves
power, just as dictator Mohamed Siad Barre did hours before fleeing Somalia in
1991, plunging the country into gun rule by disparate and competing warlords.
The images of state-sponsored violence being beamed across the globe - it
matters little that the state media has decided to black out the tragic events -
can only reinforce the belief of most Zimbabweans and the international
community that no free and fair elections can be held under chaos.
Even if ZANU PF steals the ballot through such measures, most democratic
countries will refuse to deal with the government, thus subjecting a nation
already on the brink to further economic and political turmoil.
When is enough enough in Zimbabwe? Chikuza Edson, Harare. EDITOR - April 1 2000 was fools' day.
In schools, homes and institutions, people light-heartedly made fools of their
friends and everyone enjoyed the banter.
Sadly the war veterans also decided to join the fun, but foolishly by
indiscriminately attacking anyone who unknowingly crossed their path.
A pregnant woman walking besides me was one of the unlucky ones - they beat
her on the face, back and head with their batons. She only managed to escape by
jumping into someone's car.
I also had to take to my heels to save limb and soul.
As if that was not enough madness for one morning, the national police also
joined the melee - teargassing everyone, including babies.
We, of course, did not doubt their patriotism. We, however, question their
rationality, ethics, professionalism and sense of humanity.
In my opinion, fools' day is not for people to behave stupidly and harm
innocent citizens - moreso people who receive $2 000 monthly gratuities from
state coffers. Stanley Tapera, Harare. EDITOR - In a letter titled ''Marriage
of convenience'' (Financial Gazette, March 30- April 5 2000), Chivimbiso Ndewere
asked for an explanation why whites were flocking in ''droves to the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC)''.
The writer suspected that whites were rallying behind the MDC because they
saw an opportunity to regain their privileges lost with the death of white
minority rule in 1980.
This is not so. The truth is that political interest in this country is
higher than in the past years not only among the white community of this country
but among all other races in Zimbabwe.
The reason for such heightened political interest is that the level of
misgovernance has reached intolerable depths.
Opposition politics has arisen out of misrule by the sitting government and
not at all out of a desire or need to return the country to its political or
economic condition of 20 years ago.
The evidence is there for all to see - the fuel crisis, the farm invasions by
the so-called ex-combatants, the government and the police's inaction on the
matter, disregard of High Court orders and the country's constitution by the
government, high levels of unemployment and inflation, shortages of foreign
currency . . . the list is endless. Concerned Zimbabwean, Harare.
EDITOR - The President was quoted in
your paper as having said that he does not know of anyone who could have run the
economy better than him.
You do not have to run into a dictionary to find out the meaning of what he
said. He admitted that he does not know. He really meant it!
I would have thought the Eric Blochs, the John Robertsons or even the Herbert
Murerwas and the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Leonard Tsumba) would
have advised him of what is happening to our economy. Unfortunately, none of
these economists did bother to tell our President that the economy is
nose-diving.
Nothwithstanding that I am not an economist, I still believe that there are
many intellectuals who can run our economy better than the President.
I only hope that by the time this letter appears in your paper, somebody will
have told him the truth about the state of our economy. I am sure that he (the
President) will be grateful for such advice so that at least he will know that
there are many people in this country - be they black or white - who can run the
economy better than him.
You have to sympathise with the President for his lack of knowledge.
As for Masipula Sithole, please keep up the good work you are doing in the
Financial Gazette. Your articles are super! Reverend
N M Pashapa, Concerned Christian Network Zimbabwe. EDITOR - I write to commend High Court
judge Justice Paddington Garwe for upholding the integrity of the justice system
and the rule of law and order by ruling that farm invasions by war veterans are
illegal and a threat to civility.
The executive has misinterpreted the judge's caution against its interference
in contradiction to the abandonment and cessation of the invasions for political
expediency and mileage.
It is true that some civic organisations and political activists have
suddenly found it fashionable to condemn the violation of human and property
rights and challenge the actions of the war vets in the courts when there has
been loud silence from their quarters over the monopoly of under-used productive
farming land by a white minority in Zimbabwe at the expense of millions of black
people languishing on overpopulated, over-used and barren land.
It is true that the 30 to 40 million British pounds earmarked for land
redistribution earlier on in our independence was mismanaged through corrupt
practices and poor planning by government leaders, officials and their friends,
resulting in this politically volatile issue being delayed for this long.
It is high time somebody somewhere was leader enough to accept responsibility
for such past errors or else people should not be condemned for thinking that
the requisite levels of responsibility for this God-given resource is still
wanting where it would make the required difference.
It is true that the land issue is one among many national agendas, including
good governance, restoring our economy to a sound footing, democratising
institutions of governance, levelling the political playing field through
democratising the electoral laws and regulations, democratising parliament
through removal of de facto one-party statism, curtailment of endemic corruption
and recovery of national wealth siphoned off by a greedy few, adoption and the
practise of servant leadership and professionalism by business and political
leaders, etc.
Addressing these challenges and many more necessitates that we uphold
institutions that already exist that will empower us to progress towards
logically advantageous win-win corrective measures and solutions.
One such institution that is not without its natural fair share of
shortcomings is the justice system. But in the 20 years of independence in
Zimbabwe when the legislature, the executive, the civil service, including the
police and the army, increasingly got co-opted into de facto one-partism, the
justice system, especially the high courts, has remained largely non-partisan
and committed to justice.
It is my view that such a system, perhaps not all functionaries within it,
should be respected and protected by all and sundry. It is in the interest of
Zimbabwe that we do so.
Respecting and honouring our courts, founded as they are on the law of the
land and supportive as they are towards orderly progress and not anarchy or
ungovernability, is, in my view, a critical indicator of who is a good leader
worthy of my vote at the polls come May 2000. The Elected Few (MM), Harare.
EDITOR - Jonathan, we all know that
you are troubled, having sleepless nights and continuously pretending things are
okay.
Jonathan, this time round we want you to know that Zimbabweans are made of
pure courage, intelligence, power and do persevere during hard times.
Your alliance with dead wood surely will prove costly very soon. The choice
is at stake for you to abandon the gravy train and use your education wisely and
for the betterment of your family, rural origins and country.
Remember kadutu ke"No" vote nezidutu re"Yes" vote pa referendum?
Honestly, the once mighty Goliath is touching the ground face down. No one
can now stop the mighty David from taking the reins from Saul. Who on earth can
stop the hand of God - you? April Lunatics' Day?
People are merely reacting to misrule
Mugabe surely doesn't know
Good leaders respect the law
You will get lost in the dead wood