Why Mugabe should go now!

By Pius Wakatama

When someone is sick the doctor looks for signs and symptoms to identify the disease the patient is suffering from.

These may be ailments like a rash, coughing, bleeding, vomiting, an abnormal temperature or heartbeat. Once he has identified the disease, he does not bother about the signs and symptoms but goes for the real problem — the disease.

If it is a tumour, it is removed by an operation or if it is tuberculosis medication is prescribed. Once that is treated, all the uncomfortable and painful ailments vanish.

Zimbabwe is now very sick. It is suffering from something worse than Ebola and is supposed to be in an intensive care isolation ward surrounded by a team of qualified doctors.

Unfortunately, it has all manner of fake doctors around it who are insisting that Zimbabwe is not sick at all. Others are admitting that it is indeed sick but are prescribing medicines which will definitely kill it.

These are in the form of greedy political propagandists, fake prophets and all manner of con-men posing as political analysts in the pay of corrupt politicians.

They are not interested in the well-being of the country but in remaining in power so that they can continue to enjoy and protect their filthy lucre.

They are shameless in their lies about the real state of the country and paint such a rosy picture of Zimbabwe that one can only conclude that they are affected by some mental sickness and are now hallucinating (kubvotomoka).

To the others, all the country’s illnesses are caused by sanctions. Recently, a journalist who was part of a Danish government delegation to Zimbabwe asked minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa what measures the Zimbabwean government was putting in place to stop corruption and protect foreign investors.

With a straight face, Chinamasa told the journalist that were it not for sanctions and destabilisation by Western countries, Zimbabwe would not be corrupt, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Is this not hallucinating? One does not have to be a psychiatrist to know that such hallucinations are symptomatic of a fatal sickness called greed.

Zimbabwe’s disease is now in the open, for all to see, like a burst tumour (mota raputika).

The whole country, and indeed the whole world, knows that the disease plaguing Zimbabwe is a cancerous tumour called Robert Gabriel Mugabe now joined by his wife Grace.

Zanu PF has just been a tool he has used to satisfy his insatiable greed and unquenchable thirst for power. It’s system of governance, and its selfish policies, brought hunger, death and desolation to our beautiful country, which was once the breadbasket of the region.

Zimbabwe rejected Mugabe long ago. He has only managed to stay in power through corruption, violent intimidation and outright vote rigging with the connivance of his South African and Sadc cohorts. The recently released South African Moseneke and Kampepe report exposed this connivance clearly.

Unfortunately, most Zimbabweans who are enlightened and could help by standing up and speaking out are timid citizens who have given up hope that anything can be done to save Zimbabwe.

They advise their colleagues to also give up on the patient. An example is a close friend who said to me, “Museyamwa, siyanai nezvepolitics izvi. Unofira mahara. (My brother, leave politics its dangerous). There is nothing you can do. Politicians are not interested in people at all; they are all crooks. Let us just enjoy our sadza, mazondo and braai (traditional meals) in these, our last days on earth. Everything is in God’s hands.”

The rest of the population are the masses or povo who are ignorant of what real democracy is and are susceptible to propaganda and clever manipulation.

They are just like the German masses who worshiped Adolf Hitler, sang his praises and killed those who opposed him. Like sheep, they were led to their destruction.

Civil society groups who dare educate them about democracy and constitutional governance are harassed and intimidated by the Zanu PF government.

In Zanu PF, most leaders are compromised and live their lives in fear. They know the real cause of Zimbabwe’s problems but they dare not tell the truth.

They are compromised by the fact that they benefited from Mugabe’s largess.

In Zimbabwe, one is not appointed to any influential government position without his say so. Your only qualification for the job is that you become 100 percent loyal to him, personally.

Today, key government departments and parastatals are headed by such ill-qualified and inept political appointees who have run down the economy.

They plundered the country while Mugabe looked aside and he even pardoned some who had murdered fellow Zimbabweans in cold blood.

They now live in fear because they know how ruthless Mugabe is with those who benefited from him but don’t slavishly do his bidding. After all, as the first lady said, they owe all that they are to him. Without him they are nothing.

Those Zanu PF leaders who go against the wishes of Mugabe and his wife suffer dire consequences. This is what is happening to those who openly came out on the side of Vice President Joice Mujuru when she was unjustly and savagely attacked by Mugabe’s wife, Grace.

Today they have lost their powerful positions and are in danger of losing their farms, businesses and wealth.

A good example of their fear was demonstrated by the fun-loving, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Chief Executive, Karikoga Kaseke.

From what I hear, he joined the party as a driver and steadily rose up to the influential position he holds today.

When the media revealed that the tourism chief was in the camp of those opposing Grace Mugabe in her fight against Mujuru, Karikoga went ballistic.

Cringing with fear, he said, “I want to be clear. I respect the First Family. I don’t just respect, I respect and fear the First Family.” The grovelling and self-degrading drivel which followed revealed a really pitiful specimen of a human being, indeed.

Former Zanla freedom fighter and Zanu PF, member of Parliament, Margaret Dongo called these grovelling cowards, Mugabe’s wives. What is so pitiful about them is that they sing Mugabe’s praises in public during the day and curse him in private after dark.

One has to take one’s hat off to the likes of Rugare Gumbo, Cephas Msipa, Ray Kaukonde, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Dzikamai Mavhaire (for the second time) and all those who were purged from provincial Zanu PF structures, for saying to Mugabe, enough is enough.

They must thank God for giving them another chance to turn around and take the real road to freedom.

However, for the likes of Jim Kunaka, the leader of Chipangano, which terrorised Mbare Township, Jabulani Sibanda, the war veteran leader and others who violently forced people to join Zanu PF and intimidated opposition party members, I have nothing but contempt.

To them I say, “Tsvatuwaro. Chamakadya chamuka. Nhasi chiripenyu. (You authored your own problems). You had it coming.”

However, I am not God. His forgiveness is unconditional, extending even to murderers like Saul who killed Christians but turned around to become their leader.

Patriotic Zimbabweans who dared to stand up and tell the truth that Robert Mugabe is the cause of Zimbabwe’s sickness have suffered and are still suffering harsh and sometimes fatal consequences.

Among these are yours truly, many fellow writers and journalists and ordinary citizens who believe that for evil to triumph, it is enough that good men do nothing.

Zanu PF’s weapons have been intimidation, violence and incarceration. Itai Dzamara was brutally beaten up by Zimbabwean police for daring to demonstrate peacefully, in a Harare park, against the continued rule of President Robert Mugabe.

The tumour burst when the Grace made her grand entrance into politics when she was nominated to lead the Zanu PF Women’s League.

She immediately made it clear that she belonged to the faction led by Mnangagwa and that Mujuru was her number one enemy.

In a whirlwind tour of the country’s provinces, she publicly accused the vice president of corruption and disloyalty to the President. She asked the former guerrilla fighter to resign from the vice-presidency if she knew what was good for her.

What left everybody aghast, however, was her use of unladylike gutter language in hate-filled speeches filled with spurious accusations and virulent personal insults directed against the Vice president.

She definitely is no role model for Zimbabwean women. Veteran nationalist Cephas Msipa called her attacks on Mai Mujuru, un-African.

She definitely is no role model for our young Zimbabwean women. Mugabe endorsed his wife’s views and thus left everybody in no doubt that he is the instigator of the factionalism which is now threatening to plunge Zimbabwe into civil war. He is the tumour which the doctors must remove.

For Zimbabwe to be saved, all well-meaning and patriotic Zimbabweans, of all political persuasions, must now forget their differences and personal political ambitions. They need to unite and seriously strategise to ensure Mugabe goes now before the country plunges over the precipice.

It is now or never, especially for those aligned to the beleaguered Mujuru. Their personal futures, the future of Zanu PF and indeed the future of Zimbabwe are at stake.

Recently, political analyst Ibbo Mandaza said: “The problem in this country is Robert Mugabe. He is more interested in staying in power than in anything else, least of all the welfare of Zimbabweans.

“As long as he is in power things will just get worse. He must be removed from the presidency of the country. ” He, who has ears to hear, let him hear.