The Nightmare that Faces Zanu PF

Opinion — By admin on July 28, 2009 12:51 am

By Eddie Cross, MP 

Zanu was launched in a small home in Highfield, a high density township on the outskirts of Harare. The small group of activists and intellectuals that took that fateful step that day could hardly have imagined the journey that lay ahead of them. In the next half century they were to be imprisoned and exiled, driven into the arms of war in 1972 and then forced by regional and international pressure to negotiate a deal with their enemies. 

They took over a battered, but functional economy in 1980, had the backing and admiration of the whole world and access to massive resources. They were the cream of our emergent indigenous community – many with good degrees from great universities, many with the scars of conflict. To get there they had suffered great sacrifices – family, freedom, and a normal life in suburbia or academia. 

They held fine beliefs – they were the defenders of the poor and the marginalised, they sought freedom and equal rights for their people. They were fighters for democracy and human rights; they were the custodians of African pride on a continent that was still unsure of itself and fearful of failure. 

Many were fine people – George Nyandoro, Nathan Shamuyarira and many others. They wanted the best for their country but somewhere along the path of history they got lost. Perhaps the temptations were just too great, perhaps the simple lust for power and privilege overcame their finer senses, but after a brief honeymoon they led Zanu into a dark jungle of dark secrets. In vain they pulled a curtain across the secret rooms they were in but were unable to keep the light from the world outside. 

First came Gukurahundi – a savage campaign to crush Ndebele opposition to Zanu led government. Tens of thousands died and hundreds of thousands were beaten and imprisoned and driven from their homes. The campaign marked the first tide of human economic and political refugees from post conflict Zimbabwe. 

This was followed by less dramatic but equally savage attacks on any fledgling opposition, the Centre Party, ZUM, the Forum Party and others. Victims of national programmes of intimidation and subversion conducted in secret by State agencies. During this phase there were many extra legal killings – now long forgotten by all but their families. 

While Zanu fought these political battles to maintain its dominance of the political playing field, they lost their way in other areas. Corruption and the abuse of State resources began slowly at first – a bit of a margin on State purchases and contracts then gradually the systematic looting of the country. Great wealth was acquired, not by business people with energy and acumen, but people with powerful connections who used their power and influence to secure assets and in many cases secreted them abroad. 

Men and women who became independently wealthy and powerful by the simple application of their skills and acumen were recognised as dangerous and many were vilified and driven out of the country. It became the norm that if you were to enjoy success or even financial security, you needed to pay tribute to Zanu in some form. 

When this happened many who had started out on this road with Zanu, quietly packed their bags and left. Stopped paying their dues to Zanu and grieved for hopes lost and visions dimmed. They did not immediately join the opposition, but hibernated and grieved. 

Then came the Movement for Democratic Change, led by working men and women, the poor and disadvantaged, who had held so much hope for Zanu in the early days. They had nothing so had nothing that could be taken from them except their lives and families. Initially Zanu treated the new movement with distain – the President was a train driver and its Secretary General a man with two years of formal education. “How can these people hope to lead the nation” Mugabe scoffed, Tsvangirai retorted “at least Sibanda keeps his trains on the track.” 

When this motley collection of workers defeated Zanu in February 2000, the gloves came off and all the niceties of Zanu’s ideological and political beliefs were brushed aside and a “total onslaught” on the MDC and its supporters launched. Commercial farmers and their 350 000 workers were identified as having supported the MDC. Zanu simply destroyed the industry, handing over to those responsible for the violence and mayhem, the fruits of their plunder. 

When it became apparent that the population of the towns and cities was growing fast and that the demographic balance between the urban (MDC) and rural (Zanu) areas was being reversed, they launched Murambatsvina – an astonishingly efficient programme to destroy the homes and livelihood of the urban poor. In a period of three months, watched by an aghast world, they destroyed 300 000 homes and the informal businesses of over a million people. Then they simply carried the visible evidence of this atrocity and dumped then in remote villages along the side of the road with the threat that should not go back to town. 

The collapse of the economy and the battles being fought in all contested areas of the country led to the next wave of human migration – eventually swelling to 5 million people in the diaspora. With the majority of skilled and experienced people joining in the migration, social services collapsed and death rates rose steadily eventually leading to 3 million deaths from TB, Malaria, Aids and a myriad of other diseases. Our population slumped by nearly half to 9 million people, our GDP, in 1997 standing at three times the GDP of Botswana fell to US$2 billion while that for Botswana rose to US$14 billion – seven times the GDP of Zimbabwe with 15 per cent of our population. 

While these horrific human statistics were being generated, the government slipped into the role of a straight kleptocracy, its members concentrating of the accumulation of vast fortunes in looted wealth to the exclusion of all other considerations. Zanu had abandoned it last remaining shred of respectability and accountability to the people. 

For the veterans of Zanu, the remnants of those who started out on that journey all those years ago in Highfield it is the final humiliation and disgrace. How do they face their children and more importantly their grandchildren? What do they say, how do they excurse their behaviour? 

The answer is that they cannot and this is the nightmare that now faces Zanu. They are on a train into the future, designed and built by the region, from which there is no exit and when it reaches its destiny, they will be forced to embark and face the nightmares they themselves have created. On the platform, witnessed by the whole world will be their victims and those they distained. But worst of all there will be the people they failed. I actually feel quite sorry for them; it’s not an experience I would want. At least I can look my grandchildren in the face and tell them what I did with pride, because it was the right thing to do, no matter what the cost to us personally has been. 

Eddie Cross

Harare, 25th July 2009

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