via We need to know our real enemies | The Zimbabwean 29.10.13 by Vince Musewe
Our number one enemies are blacks who are hiding behind the pretense of empowering the masses – all they are really doing is accumulating personal wealth.
The rag-tag unemployed youths who were ululating and dancing about Zanu (PF)’s election “victory” are nowhere to be seen. Now all you see are young girls fetching water in the early mornings in Harare some wearing yellow party t-shirts that say “indigenize, empower, employ, develop”. What a joke!
Around 10 in the morning, you can see the same youths playing pool or gambling to while away the time. Some recently died from drinking “Zed”, a lethal cane spirit imported from Mozambique that costs only a dollar. There is erratic power so bathing is not a priority for them.
Against this backdrop at home, President Mugabe flew to New York with a plane load of 80 cohorts not only to shop, but to insult the Americans and the British. The new ministers will no doubt be getting their flashy Mercs soon to maneuver around Harare’s potholed roads.
The masses are a truly sorry lot!
Listening to Julius Malema’s recent campaign down south sent some chills down my spine and I hope I am not alone. The habit of creating exaggerated anticipation among the poor masses during electioneering continues to work. Here in Zimbabwe those rural folk who were allocated peri-urban land before the elections are now being evicted. They have delivered the vote. Their usefulness is complete.
Progressive black South Africans must be very worried. The masses are ignorant and have no inkling of what it takes to run a successful economy. All they want is better salaries, better houses, social grants and jobs today. But these can come only through intelligent economic management and not through the outright repossession of land and companies by politicians and their cronies.
Ownership alone has been overplayed here in Zimbabwe. Some of our chefs and their cronies own multiple farms and yet we can’t feed ourselves. An estimated two million people face starvation in Zimbabwe this year. Most state enterprises are sitting idle or are being run into the ground as those political hangers-on appointed to run them earn obscene salaries and perks.
As Malema demands economic freedom through the repossession of assets, South Africans who want a future must fight this buffoonery with all they have. The fight cannot be waged on twitter or facebook. It must be on the ground in the townships and rural areas. The poor masses will sell themselves short as they always do, so they must be educated and informed about what Malema is falsely promising them.
Here in Zimbabwe, air time vouchers, goats and exaggerated promises of jobs and indigenisation at political rallies are nowhere to be seen and the masses have returned to their poverty.
The black middle class poses a serious danger through its lack of participation in politics. If Africa is to develop we must all be activists every day. We must educate the masses to question how year after year they deliver their vote to political parties and individuals who cannot deliver to them.
Malema will not deliver economic freedom through his rantings at rallies simply because he seeks to use the same methods that decimated our economy. There is no depth in what he is promising and I question his appreciation of economics.
I urge all progressive black middle class Africans to fight these lies; the lie that taking over assets owned by whites creates wealth; the lie that we are entitled to reap where we have not sown. This does not work; it actually destroys wealth and investments as we have seen here in Zimbabwe. Nothing can replace hard work and patience.
The emerging picture in South Africa is pretty worrying to us progressive Africans who know that Africa will never develop by taking from others, but only by building new economies and wealth while educating the masses so that they make better life decisions and choices.
We must all work to reject that narrative that we are victims and someone out there owes us. We must reject being continually duped by clever politicians who continue to re-frame how imperialism is our enemy. Yes it may be, but our real enemies are those who take advantage of the ignorance and poverty of the masses and make promises that they can’t meet.
Unfortunately, Julius Malema is doing just that and must be stopped!
Vince Musewe is an economist ba1sed in Harare; you may contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com
COMMENTS
Agree totally Vince however for Zimbabweans the key struggle is to take control of the electoral roll and process to prevent future election theft. How can that occur under the present regime?
Brilliant article Vince. That’s telling it as it is, for sure.
My bro you have said it as it is. Who ever is hurt by this article he or she belongs to our current oppressors who s evil doing will be exposed and loose everything. Its a matter of time.
Well done Vince. I would vote for you anytime.
Time for you to venture into politics good Sir!
Great article Vince well done, wouldn’t it be a good day when we see headline news naming with pictures of the infamous 8 or so who are oppressing us.
Well articulated article. I also like the comment about the voters being made available to all to reduce the chances of election rigging.
Well said Vince, a depiction of animal farm African style! THE ENEMY IS WITHIN! How can the progressive middle class come together?
Our real enemies are those who suppress the masses in the name of fighting imperialism, those who think we can vote them into office but not out, those who want to define our enemies and want to select friends for us, those who thrive on the demise of other tribes/race, those who cannot survive in a free political market, those whose failed economic policies are blamed on offshore enemies where they hold offshore accounts, those whose nation is highly literate but conviniently uneducated, and so on.
Lest i be percieved as anti-zanu pf, this befits many gvts in Africa after the fall of white oppression and the rise of black tyrants.
I’ll echo… Excellent thoughts… very Astute… well Articulated.
So, how is voter education accomplished? How do you get the rural folk to be reminded of failed, unrealistic promises? How do you teach them to think for themselves, rather than allow themselves to be frog-marched to the polls to vote according to the bought chef’s or bribed headman’s instructions..?
These are serious questions, not merely rhetorical thoughts. Who has a plan… and who will implement it? Where is the opposition leadership, except in articles such as this one..? Someone needs to step forward and take command on the ground to begin the process. The next four years are going to be quite busy, because if the opposition can’t take control at the next election, it could be well too nlate to avoid Chinese control.
Unfortunately, It’s foolish to think it can happen without meeting ZANUPF vitriol and violence… but then, nothing worth having, nothing worth being valued, comes without a price. As they say, freedom ain’t free.
the bitter fruits of apartheid will haunt us for years to come