Zanu PF has to lose and MDC can’t afford to lose

By Simon M Tozvireva Chete

August 2007 was an amazing month and I don’t think I will ever fully recover from it. For 4 weeks everything seemed surreal, a sort of out of body experience. Things were bad, very bad and it was hard to imagine things could get worse.

The super markets’ shelves were empty, well not quite empty. They were full of dried fish, matemba, and toilet rolls. Row after row of two commodities, disappointing but somehow quite photogenic. And I witnessed the human spirit at its best.

How the people survived the melt down is still a mystery and haunts me to this day. Sitting in a shade by some shopping centre and watching shoppers come out with their purchases was heart wrenching.

Zimbabwe has got no real plastic shopping bags and all their meagre purchased goods would be in one hand while the other was grappling with bundles of useless Zim. dollars. Over the month I never saw any locals with a wallets or purses.

They kept soldiering on under enormous pressures and one assumed wrongly, that an Egyptian style mass uprising was inevitable. It was just a matter of time, one thought. The pain, guilt and relief I felt just before take-off on the return journey is indescribable.

It was the pain, hopelessness and guilt for the misery left behind. One felt so powerless and angry, and if truth be said, one was indeed powerless and great praise to all those who had no choice but to sweat it out. My heroes because they did not have an escape route.

For nearly a month a thought, maybe selfish on my part, had kept popping in my mind. Cows eat grass and shrubs yet the country did not have beef for months on end because of ‘sanctions’, they said.

Yet two years later ,those same ‘sanctions’ still in place, the coalition government managed to fill the shelves within weeks and inflation was in retreat. What was going on?

The crocodile, ngwenya, garwe, rules the warm rivers of Africa and many poor villagers perish each year as they try to eke a living by the river banks. But at the time the tables were turned, literally, and the rules of engagement had changed.

The shortage of meat products meant the croc became the main source of protein especially for those who loved gochi gochi, barbecues, at watering holes. It was now fashionable to say, ‘A pint beer and croc tail please.’

Who would have thought the mighty croc could be laid on a table with a bit of salt and sauce on the side? It was a shocking spectacle to watch. Because crocodiles start basking in the early morning heat some punters used to refer to these croc treats as ‘late warming breakfast’.

How did we ignore or disregard the unwritten rules of our fore fathers which they had followed since time immemorial? Carnivores such as lions, hyenas, crocs or dogs are a no no as a form of food for humans.

No matter how hungry lions are, they will kill their competitors like hyenas but never consume them and maybe we could learn something from them. Without treading into dangerous territory, has our ‘look East policy’ gone too far because anything goes in some parts of the world?

It is also worth noting that at the turn of the century it cost the British government billions of pounds when their farmers started feeding sheep to cows, cows to cows and offal from abattoirs to cows to maximise profits. BSE had been born and up to now the human cost, health wise, is still not ascertained.

Those cows hit back hard! While we had our rabid Zanu they had their own mad cow disease. And where were these crocs coming from in Zimbabwe anyway? Was it really croc meat?

Africa, Zimbabwe and especially Zimbabweans cannot afford Zanu winning the next Zimbabwe elections. It is unthinkable and scary! If one wants to know the definition of darkness wait until the results are out and someone declares that Zanu has won.

Zimbabweans have been serving a life sentence since 1980, no review and without parole. For people born after independence, that great book, the bible comes to mind. You were born with an inherited sin, Zanu, but tough on you because you can’t confess or repent to anyone to cleanse yourself.

Zanu wins again and the nation needs an exorcism. With due respect, Zanu has nothing left in the tank in terms of ideas. One can actually somehow feel pity for them because they don’t know that they don’t know what the country needs.

Among that gluttonous lot if only they had one individual with vision for the next 33 weeks Zimbabwe would have a chance. We have had 33 years of darkness and lunacy.

There may be Young Turks within the liberation party who think they can take the organisation forward but can they be given a chance by the old guard? The rot has set in stone for too long.

MDC have a massive job at hand one of which is to make sure Zanu has a final rendezvous with history because the nation cannot afford that Zanu be resurrected like last time. Despite the hardships faced by the nation a few opposed the formation of the coalition and hence the GNU.

Zanu lost the 2008 elections outright and MDC managed to pull them out of a deep hole. In spite of having seen the misery almost two years earlier I was one of the peasants opposed to the GNU. The reasons for that opposition were justified, relevant and clear as they are still today.

With a few weeks to go before the polls open Zanu has a simple plan. Besides their public proclamations that they are ready for the elections it is a con trick. First things first. Upset Zuma and SDAC as a pretext to ban all the observers during the campaign. Then they will be ready.

At the moment the MDC are still lucky unlike during the last campaign. They can still at this stage, with relative safety campaign in all parts of the country because the dogs haven’t been unleashed yet. The recently approved constitution, though great, has proved just, as predicted, one thing.

A piece of paper and before the ink has dried Mugabe has ignored the very heart of it. The election still goes ahead at the end of the month and Maputo, June 2013, now seems like many many moons ago.

Every other important outstanding issue is still pending and to rub salt into the wounds the public service broadcaster, ZBC, wants the MDC to pay if their campaign rallies are to be aired. At the launch of the MDC campaign in Marondera ZBC demanded $160 000 to cover it.

While Zanu has a simple plan MDC has a big problem. Faith. Too much of it. Zanu and even SDAC have let them down several times over the years yet MDC always assumes that Mugabe and his lot can’t sink any lower. They always do with no shame. Too much faith negates a need for plan B.

Think of those misguided idiots who strap explosives round their bodies and blow themselves up to receive seventy virgins in the afterlife and you have an idea why reliance on faith alone is dangerous. In our case it is giving Zanu a free run every time.

As an example, MDC should be making it clear to Zanu failures like Mnangagwa that there will serious consequences if they join forces with misguided army general in an army takeover if Zanu loses at the ballot box. MDC have always been worried of rocking the boat and as a result seem to be reacting to events and not making them.

In between the short campaign Mugabe will find time for his peregrination to the Far East for check-ups. Down south, curtains are being drawn as Mandela takes his last bow hundreds pay vigil praying outside the hospital where he is being treated hoping for a miracle.

One wonders if Mugabe was in the same situation somewhere in Malaysia how many Zimbabwean are prepared to undertake the long journey to make sure the oxygen supply is permanently restricted? He has been the architect of so much misery among his subjects.

The gamble the MDC took four years ago has to pay off otherwise those crocs will be back and this time with a wily smile.

Now for something to cheer us all up and prove it is not all doom and gloom. But first, who is he? Who is she? Who are they? A few years ago I thought WikiLeaks was the best thing which hit the world since, well, the invention of the bra. Now Zimbabwe has its own Julian Assange in the form of Baba Jukwe.

In a few weeks he has been a revelation and some of the juicy stuff has just been too incredible to take in. It has been like being taken into Zanu pf Big Brother house and I have seen men of sound mind greet each suspiciously because Baba Jukwa is still out there.

Remarkable and brilliant! Whoever and wherever you are please do not relent because you are making history and it is on your side and, us.