via Zanu PF reversing gains of the struggle – DailyNews Live 2 June 2015
HARARE – Ever since Zanu PF romped to power, it has employed unpleasant deceit in its invocation of the people whenever it is convenient to embark on an outrage in pursuit of its endless self-interest.
All sorts of cruelty, calumny and kleptomania have been done in the name of the people. Zimbabwe was considered the jewel of Africa at independence in 1980.
We had the most literate populace by Third World standards, a manufacturing industrial base second only to that of South Africa in the sub-continent and well advanced communication systems.
The Zanu PF government opted for a command economy and, in the process, vandalised the country in an escapade that led to only one destination: economic ruin for the country and obscene wealth for those in power.
Even when everyone else, including the Russians, the archetypal exponents of communism, were abandoning that ideology, President Robert Mugabe was busy declaring himself the most faithful “disciple” of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy.
It was only when the government realised that it was heading for a balance of payments cul-de-sac that it abandoned its command economy in favour of a free market economy and trade liberalisation, which was the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s sine qua non for financial aid to Zimbabwe. But nothing has ever — and probably never will — expose Zanu PF’s deceit as clearly as its current so-called pro-poor indigenisation policies.
In the name of empowering the people, Zanu PF has spooked foreign investors, destroying the economy. In fact, Zanu PF has almost totally destroyed the country’s entire mining, manufacturing and tourism industries.
The direct effect of that has been record high unemployment and abject poverty. It must be seen as the highest form of cruelty and heartlessness that the ruling party should now be so shamelessly and openly exploiting that plight.
What the party is doing offering the hordes of jobless youths unlimited alcohol and niggardly stipends in exchange for terrorising their parents and other elders whose consciences will not allow them to support the ruling party’s insane policies in the forthcoming June 10 by-elections.
Nothing that Zanu PF is doing supports the claim that it is putting people first, particularly in scheming to use traditional chiefs to shepherd their subjects to ballot booths and also use ballot serial numbers to steal the special vote.
One of the main objectives of the fight for independence was to create one-man, one-vote, to create a society in which there was complete justice, freedom and total equality before the law. Thirty-five years after independence, no one is safe. Even the splinter Zanu PF, going by the moniker, People First, is not safe.
Even the People First is now being accused of being hell-bent on reversing the gains of our hard-won independence.
But the truth is that what the ruling party has been doing is what has reversed all the gains of our independence.
COMMENTS
One of the most succinct summaries of the tragedy we find ourselves in. The slow realisation by ordinary people of what has actually happened is, however, encouraging.
The evidence of the destruction of our beloved country is everywhere to be seen. It is embarrassing for those of us who are proud to have been born and to have lived here for our whole lives.
The people responsible for the ruin are lacking the pride to even look at the ruin and do something, however small. Instead, self aggrandisement continues to be the order of the day.
Future generations will erase this chapter from the history books out of pure shame. Either that, or hold up the last 35 years as an example of precisely what NOT to do when handed an entire country.
A detailed reply is requested:- What exactly are the gains of the struggle?
Detailed answer requested:- What exactly are the gains of the struggle?