Letter from America: Death of a dream!

By Ken Mufuka

I was minding my own business, as is my custom, clearing some grasses in preparation for a spring garden. I have a three-acre “grab” farm and like most Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, I grow some corn (maize) as was the custom in my ancestral home.

I was engaged in this dream that one day I will see Zion when a caller told me that Dr Joice Mujuru has dismissed Didymus Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo from the Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party.

It really does not matter what crimes these two have committed, it is common sense that a hired servant cannot dismiss the two principals who hired her.

The implosion of ZPF marks the death of my dream.

ZANU-PF cannot reform itself from within without outside pressure. Political parties, because they are human formations, institutionalise themselves; institutions perpetuate themselves at the expense of their followers. ZANU-PF is corrupt because it is human and lacks outside checks and balances.

The same was the case with the United States Democratic and Republican parties. They morphed into one, half a dozen in one and six in the other; that is, until billionaire Donald

Trump smashed both parties.

For many decades, ZANU-PF has benefitted foreign countries with brain-drain, illicit financial outflows and subsidised armies of other countries in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique, while allowing a sad depletion and degradation of our roads and railways.

As a researcher in Malawi in 1991, I was told that after graduating, Malawians seek out their relatives in Zimbabwe, their first stop in search of jobs. Revisiting the country in 2011, I was surprised that taxi drivers and vendors in Blantyre spoke Shona, a result of the exodus of Zimbabwean entrepreneurs.

An unstable economic system attracts predatory fly-by-night enterprises, particularly in the extractive industries. Former US secretary of State, Henry Kissinger advised Angolan corporations, in a memo in 1971 to give themselves a maximum five-year window. Such companies have no time for social responsibility and building communities of love. They keep an eye on the exit window.

All our great companies such as Hwange Colliery Company have fallen victim to the predatory political system. Mutasa shed light on this predatory political system in 2008. “We would be better off with only six million people (half the population) who supported the liberation struggle. We don’t want all these extra people.”

Death of a dream

Mutasa, a kingpin in ZANU-PF, was one of the architects of a predator State. Once ZANU-PF had morphed into a predator organisation, he was responsible for the enforcement of the MIATA (silence). Legal documents show that activists Shepherd Maisiri, and Itai Dzamara and many others were brutally murdered or caused to disappear into thin air.

Mutasa’s presence in the ZPF was important, not because he commanded a virtuous reputation, but precisely because he knew where the skeletons were buried. His humiliation at the hands of Mukuru was total. The possibility of repentance, and exposure of the internal workings of ZANU-PF was invaluable to a new party.

If the accusations are anywhere near the truth, that at heart Mutasa was in love with ZANU-PF and yearned for an embrace from Mukuru, there are only two conclusions.

ZANUPF stalwarts drink a special muti which turns them into zombies unto death. Secondly, no party has been spared infiltration. This leaves Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) with only a remnant to fight another day.

Organisations cleanse themselves only under threat from external forces. Democracies therefore need two parties in order to self-correct. The implosion of ZPF, coming at this time, brings into question the timing. There is very little time left to repair the damage before the election. If at all Mujuru has lost negotiating leverage with the MDC-T.

A weakened People First and a weakened MDC are not likely to dislodge ZANU-PF.
British researcher, Ian Scoones, has shown that, even without coercion, 300 000 resettled families translate into one million votes. My estimate is that there are 5 000 chefs who enjoy the fat of the earth on account of their positions in the party and government. A chef’s influence in his immediate family translates to at least 100 people. That translates to 500 000 votes, by hook or by crook.

Add the fact that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission employs a turtle to count the votes if Mukuru loses, and a rabbit if Tsvangirai loses. Whether it is half a dozen or six, the opposition loses.

This method of infiltration was used to destroy Margaret Dongo and Kempton Makamure’s party. It originated in Kenya. A key opposition figure is bribed. A week before elections, that figure denounces his own party, guarantying loss of the election.

Without an alternative to ZANU-PF, the economy will continue on its predatory path; serving only the chefs.

South Africa has given notice that 200 000 Zimbabweans under special dispensation will lose their status come December 31. There is a new mindset throughout the world that foreigners who cannot be absorbed pose insoluble problems. Zimbabweans fleeing negative economic downturn have few opportunities abroad.

Only a madman would consider standing for election under these conditions.

Similarly, no party in power ever gave up power voluntarily. To play and abide by rules written and refereed by one’s opponent and arbitrated by a judge chosen by that opponent is futile.

We are in the same situation we were in 1965 when the late Ian Smith refused to negotiate.
My dream is dead.Financial Gazette