Mutsvangwa: The train has left the station

By Professor Ken Mufuka

I was minding my own business, doing injury to no one, enjoying my life, when I got an urgent communication from Brother William Muchayi. The message was in Shona. Mumori wehuchi (Chris Mutsvangwa) wakoromoka mumuti.

The dismissal of Brother Mutsvangwa and Sister Monica (his wife) from Cabinet and suspension from party office does not provoke interest in me, except that I had promised to burn my shirt when and if these stalwarts met the same fate they planned for Supreme Sister Joice Mujuru.

It amazes me that after 35 years in power, Mutsvangwa never realised that his attacks on Sister Mujuru were a set up. I said so at the time. But Mutsvangwa and his wife Sister Monica were walking on water.

Mutsvangwa, like Johannes Tomana, suffers serious self-delusion. I will refer to Brother Tomana later. Called to the carpet, he was lulled into reminiscing about the liberation times and got the impression that he could survive a recall because of his revolutionary contributions and his “capabilities stemming from the sustained hostility by government even though he (Mukuru) showed partiality to me”.

The lesson these stalwarts have failed to learn is that the method requires complete humiliation. A few days later, Mutsvangwa and his wife were both deprived of their positions in a public show of strength. His wife loses her senatorial position as well.

Prosecutor General Tomana is fighting to retain his dignity and his high office. He too, like Mutsvangwa, suffers from serious delusions. For 20 plus years, the brother has used his high office as an instrument of terror against young human rights lawyers, thus gaining them sympathy and prizes from the West.

When he was transported to a courthouse in an open truck, charged by officers who fell under his jurisdiction, he failed to grasp the obvious lesson. Such events do not take place without authorisation from the highest office. The aim is utter humiliation.

Now Tomana cannot face the Judiciary whose services he abused for so many years. He thinks he will escape the trap which he himself set for Beatrice Mtetwa.

Iwe Mutsvangwa, newe Tomana, the sooner you face up to the fact that the train has left the station without you the better. In saw English, you have been used. A tragedy for these brothers, it is only half the story.

IMF story book

My previous life in Jamaica and Malawi changed my outlook on how the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) work. They are the new imperialists. Their methods have not changed since Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere realised that the IMF will prefer that Tanzania’s children go hungry as long as he pays the debts to United States predator banks.

To their credit, these two institutions always wait until they are called to rescue a corrupt bankrupt country like Zimbabwe. Two years ago, the Zimbabwe government committed itself to some protocols as part of the “conditionalities” for receiving aid.

These protocols are informal in order to avoid unnecessary publicity that will attract nationalist reaction. Some of the intra-party squabbles in ZANU-PF are due to the gradual take-over of Zimbabwe’s financial institutions.

Finance and the Reserve Bank, guided by shadow IMF and WB are gradually subsuming responsibility for the management of Zimbabwe’s affairs. A general cleaning up of the system is required and people like Mutsvangwa and Tomana fall under the general rubric of lawlessness. They are regarded as a public nuisance and interfere with the atmosphere of congeniality and security of foreign investment.

A rare introspection came from the ZANU-PF youth leaders suspended from the party. They claimed to have been recruited to do a “Mujuru on Mnangagwa.”

In the new environment emerging from the supervision of the IMF and the WB, the activities of these youths and the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association fall into the category of creating a hostile economic atmosphere.

They too, are regarded as a public nuisance.

The methods used to destroy the old party and recreate it anew, comply with Mukuru’s preferred modus operandi. Again, the youths revealed a rare moment of wisdom. Mukuru sets the chickens to fight among themselves while he maintains a cool and impartial attitude. Truth comes from the mouth of babes.

The final blow to Zimbabwe’s sovereignty and struggle is the eventual sale of all national assets. The stage has been set, through the office of chief government auditor. Those audits revealed widespread corruption through-out all quasi-government enterprises, the Premier Service Medical Aid Society, ZESA Holdings, and even the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company.

A memo accepting the principle of compensation to white farmers is the coup de grace. In his address to Jamaican students in 1962, Nyerere told us nothing short of re-colonisation was being asked of him. Nyerere resigned his presidency rather than face the music.

Recycling the old guard in Cabinet positions will not meet the requirements of the IMF and the WB. Loud mouth talk by Mutsvangwa and Tomana makes them out of step with the direction we are taking. They ran a stupid race, fought even a more stupider fight (black English) and now they face humiliation and irrelevancy. I told them so.

Sending “strong signals and reducing perceived country risk” to Foreign Direct Investment, makes ZANU-PF ideology irrelevant. The moment of truth has come. Iwe Tomana newe Mutsvangwa, get some religion before it is too late.

Professor Ken Mufuka can be reached on [email protected]. This article was first published in the weekly Financial Gazette