via Mujuru a Zanu PF making – NewsDay October 1, 2015
Oh God! Whatever sins Zimbabweans committed to deserve such dire socio-economic-political torment ought be forgiven by now. As if the prevailing hardships are not already hitting were it pains the most, news of yet another political pie in the sky concept douses the hope for an improvement on the living standard.
Cyprian Muketiwa Ndawana,Guest Column
With retrenched Vice President Joice Mujuru now offering to BUILD — Blueprint to Unlock Investment and Leverage for Development — it is all but Dutch courage that she masters the guts to stake her intentions. Hence, it has to be stated that she is not motivated by conviction, but by convenience.
If Mujuru had not been dumped out of the Zanu PF bandwagon, she could still been enjoying the ride. Her departure from Zanu PF was not fuelled by differences in policies; but that a tsunami like wave swept her out of the grave train. If it were not for that, she could by now be enjoying her comfty in both party and government corridors.
Given that Mujuru did not part company with Zanu PF on her own conscious judgment, her forming a political party is more out of vengeance than principle. She has no moral obligation to emulate the Damascus conversation, to turn from Saul to Paul.
It is an open secret that Mujuru shared the chalice with President Robert Mugabe since independence in 1980. She paid tribute to him on numerous occasions, expressing profound gratitude for the political apprenticeship she benefited from under his tutelage.
The name of her proposed party, People First (PF), reveals where her heart is. Like a divorced wife who parts company with her husband, but vow to hold on tenaciously to his name, Mujuru’s party name is evident of the fact that her political ambilical cord has not yet been severed from Zanu PF.
By choosing a name that bares close semblance to that of the party which jilted her, Mujuru can be said to be still wearing the Zanu PF regalia, though, in side out. A lack of ingenuity, similar to that of the MDC breakaway factions, leads to the lame tendency of holding on to the name of the party one left.
When some cadres broke away from Zapu, to form Zanu back in 1962, at least they had the nerve to choose a name that was different and distinct from the one they brokeaway from.
Promises, Mujuru makes in her said manifesto do not signal the dawn of a new era. The populace is not so gullible that they would clap hands and stamp feet at the reforms she proposes to make. Although the reforms are meaningful, Mujuru cannot parade herself as one pregnant with solutions. But she has mastered the courage of her convictions to acknowledge and apologise for her part to the problems that robbed Zimbabwe of her breadbasket of the region status.
First things first — Mujuru has a lot of introspection to do. She cannot assume that just because she is now out of Zanu PF, she is automatically exonerated from answering for the ills the regime she was part to caused. It would be the summit of idiocy for her to mistake the public sympathy she has for the uncouth manner she was ejected out of Zanu PF, for support of her party.
In fact, a bun does not change its name to humburger simply for the love of a new name. It has to go through the process of being cut into halves and have cheese, ham, tomatoe and onion stashed. Mujuru too has to go through some social processes for society to approve of her new status.
Public sympathy is not one and the same thing as support. Mujuru ought to know that not all diseases of the mouth are within the domain of the dentist.. Despite shasring close proximity with teeth, tonsels are not attended to by dentist; the analogy holds true to sympathy and support.
An array of obstacles are littered in Mujuru’s route to her regeneration. Ask any marketing practitioner and they would readily admit that relaunching a product is more demanding than the initial launch. Likewise, her relaunch as the centerpiece of PF, is inevitably destined to be a gruelling task.
Gutfill tells me that her primary obstacle is Mugabe. Given that she openly admitted that everything she knows about politics, she learnt it on the lap of Mugabe, it goes without mention that he is a formidable hinderance to her breakthrough.
In katate there is the sensei (master) and student; one critical error many a karate student commits is to assume that by virtue of their being youth, they are agile and fast enough to defeat the master. Yet, to their surprise, the sensei’s experience and wisdom enables him to counter the youth’s agility and swiftness.
Mujuru is predominantly surrounded by people, the likes of Didymus Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo who, like herself, were booted out of the Zanu PF bandwagon. The group faces a serious credibilty challenge, given that they supported and implemented policies that brought ruin to the economy.
It is my heartfelt belief that the court of public opinion is in unison in its thumbs down verdict on recycling politicians, more ones who shared the chalice with Mugabe and perpetuated his rule. By virtue of the principle of collective responsibility, such people, Mujuru included, do not have the moral obligation to exonerate themselves from bringing the country on its economic deathbed.
Although it is essentially their democratic right to form a political party, Mujuru and her colleagues must of necessity apologise and show remorse for their role in ruining the country.
Just as I would not endorse the appointment of a rapist to be girls’ hostel master, People First does not deserve my endorsement. After all is said and done, roses, by any other name, smell and prick the same.
COMMENTS
Very good article, but I feel that sadly many Zimbabweans see her…Majuru as the saviour of our country but forget that she has been baptized in the sewer pit of Zanupf and has had no Damascus road experience other than the satanic cloak of darkness and lies that she has worn for years in zanupf.
We need a fresh start, a fresh face, that we can trust and support as a statesman for the people of Zimbabwe. Let us pray for that!
Cyprian as just hit the nail on the head. A very brilliant article indeed.
To the “Reverend” let me say, don’t worry, people are not too gullible. And as Cyprian already said – sympathy & support are two different things.
Yes, Mujuru may have a ‘significant’ number of people’s sympathy. But, as for support, the same is obviously not true.
Surely, the number of her supporters is ‘insignificant’ and will remain so well beyond 2018, to say the least.
FORGET THE ROSES– A pig with lipstick –I wonder (EVERYBODY is) What the MDC THINK–All 3 or 4 versions of them. Reminds me what ever happened to “chinga chinga”.
Good grief…….do we really want a President with the name Spillblood Nongo? That name alone should give us all an idea of the nature of the beast.
It is not correct that people should always be judged by their past. She is what Zimbabwe needs. After all she was not tainted by Gukurahundi. She may be tolerated by Matabeleland and the Midlands. She did not spill Ndebele blood unlike those that remain in the post congress ZANU. Let her be given a chance.
What chance are you talking about you here when she deputised for more than a decade and yet failed to raise a finger in support of masses but instead sang songs of praise to a leader who created the mess we are drowning into?
Iwe Ndawana, U dont have to like Mai Mujuru or that which you may rightly or wrongly believe she stood for, now stands for and assumedly will stand for. You have stated your problem with her, now what is your proposed solution? Do you have a solution or are you just venting? Finish your piece with your suggested solution. Kungopopota zvisina kwazviri kuenda is a hobby best reserved for your shrink or neighborhood pub. Kana usina solution to your observation or issue uri ku tambisa mweya wevacheche, the challenges we face as Zimbabwe require solutions, not trifling and substance-less venting verbiage.
Ndawana has a valid point in saying that Mujuru only left because she was chucked out of Zanu PF not on her own volition. Contrast this with Makoni.
However, let’s not forget that Mujuru will appeal to people who were once with the ruling party who see her fulfilling some of their aspirations which have been neglected by Zanu PF.
Knowing the nature of Zanu PF it’s very hard for someone to suggest anything contrary to Mugabe’s thinking lest they be called “sellouts”.
I for one will watch carefully what the next step Mujuru takes but if what she does helps dislodge Zanu PF from power then I think the manner of her exit will not count for much in my eyes.
The biggest bottleneck for Zimbabwe today I believe is Zanu PF and Mugabe. These guys are leading the country onto a destructive path and they don’t even care. The country should not continue on this path for much longer or it will take decades to repair the damage.
everything happened for a reason but merely that we dont know what is it all about tomorrow because we are living today, hope should be our key factor of living in any way any time.lets give God time
mujuru must be given no chance to this. we realy need a fresh start not the same gabbage rising from the same dustbin,NO
The sentiments of this article are correct, however it is extremely verbose and the author should try to use spellcheck, on his PC.
Thank you Cyprian for a well written piece and Sungaimbavha for suggesting for asking solutions to the Zim problem. While good analysis ad evaluation are necessary to problem solving, we still need to solve it. What we need is a way forward. The main problem we have is that Zim politics is littered with corpses, some so clearly a result of state genocide and others from unexplained ad unclear circumstances. That is hardly the environment where you can expect really good people to want to be associated with. When you have brutal people in power, only people who are more brutal can dislodge them. Only a person like Mugabe could dislodge Ian Smith and now we want another one more brutal than Mugabe to dislodge him and his cronies.
Forget about peaceful change because it will never happen. Eve Mutasa knows that because I remember clearly when he visited my school in Chimanimani brandishing a pistol and threatening to kill any MDC person he meets toy-toying on the roads. The police officer-in-charge who accompanied him was smiling looking into the eyes of the frightened teachers down below.
So, we need a brutal person, one who is not only prepared, but must kill his way up. When he gets to the top, we hope he will suddenly turn over a new leaf and allow for proper peaceful handover of power, where people are free to campaign and vote for who they like without fear of CIO. When I was at high school that is what I thought Mugabe was trying to do. God knows the atrocities committed by ZANLA in the name of ‘liberation’ are too ghastly to contemplate. But the povo of Zimbabwe prepared to forgive because we thought in any war there is collateral damage. Now I am 58 and have lost all hope.