Why the popular #ThisFlag power must be entertained

By Professor Ken Mufuka

The last call before the curtain falls for the ruling party was made by the war veterans. In my book, Life and Times of Robert Mugabe, the State has only one purpose, to serve the powers-that-be.

I was enjoying my farewell party, with old friends, the iconic Professor George Kahari, Reverend Pius Wakatama, S Muchemwa (Brigadier Felix Muchemwa’s brother), John Sanyanga and two others to make a circle of 10.

That group last met two years ago on my last visit.

Kahari has the gift of expressing the inner thoughts of the group in a way that causes laughter. “You Ken (well, Ken is our guest) I don’t know how you sneaked in with this book of yours. Be careful, Mazezuru havazi vokutamba navo.”

Loosely translated, he meant that “you don’t play with the Zezurus”, one of the powerful clans in Zimbabwe. We all laughed but the message was sinister.

It carried more weight the next day when I went to lunch at the Quill Club, the club house for mostly journalists in Harare.

“You are still in the country,” was the greeting on everybody’s lips.

This is what the ruling party has turned Zimbabwe into and called it paradise. I got daily calls which began with these words: “Ken is that you? Are you alright?”

The government has reached a point of diminishing returns and the people have reached a point of no return. The country is like Texas tinder dry grass in late July. Any friction in the heavens will start an uncontrollable grassland fire.

Yet the likes of Jonathan Moyo, George Charamba and Patrick Zhuwao, who are pretending to walk on water, suggest that the party can still cope with the vicissitudes of a 21st economy.

They are pretending that they can make money out of toilet paper (bond money), that they can borrow from Lazard Bank (New York) in order to pay their debts and the mother of all stupidities, they cannot count up to US$15 billion worth of diamonds in their backyard.

Wakatama reminded the group that perhaps we should pray that the days of tribulation be shortened. My take was that we should pray for the perpetrators that the retribution to come be applied with mercy. We do not know what shape or form the wrath would take.

A transitional authority

If elections were held today, we could very well come up with the same outcome we are in today. The electoral commission, the judges and the whole system is designed to preserve the status quo.

A transitional authority should not include any members of the present political parties. They are too naïve and can be manipulated with gifts of gold and diamonds to return the same outcome.

The alternative therefore would be either a Southern African Development Community judge, or a Commonwealth official with only one mission, to prepare and hold free and fair elections.

ZANU-PF has been accused of not having won any election since 2000 and will therefore have to be dragged into such an arrangement.

No government ever gives up power until there is a real possibility of popular retribution that includes public hanging. That is why the popular #ThisFlag power must be entertained.
The possibility that those who trampled on human rights may face the noose must not be hidden away from them.

In my opinion, Sister Joice Mujuru is in a very unique place to save our nation.

ZANU-PF’s Achilles heel

ZANU-PF is already bleeding to death. Run by Philistines, they looted everything they could find, what they could not carry they burned to the ground.

The massive railway stockyards which carried billions of rolling stock and employed 10 000 workers now looks like the home of Hurricane Hugo.

I was the guest of beloved Mrs Mabhena, whose husband (Alvord) was the former chairperson of the railway board. I could not mention that I had taken a private tour of the now ghost town. If you fail to cry, you are not human.

In South Africa, I was hosted by an Eskom (the electricity commission) boss. They were planning to cut Zimbabwe off the grid. I learned that Zimbabwe’s brand stinks around the world.

“They talk big nationalist talk, but they don’t pay anything, you understand,” he said.

The devastation of the country is complete. Whatever the ruling party’s Philistines have touched, it has gone sour. If they touched a virgin, she would instantly became a whore just by their touch. A brother Philistine grabbed an orange groove on the South Africa-Masvingo Road. The oranges produced sour product.

Three ancestral springs which had supplied water on Chigudu-Charumbira turn off dried up after the Philistine brother grabbed them. The land which made farmers Collins and Brown (now Colbro Transporters) is now a desert.

Having stolen everything, they now post policemen every three miles to fleece the population of their hard earned dollars. Change has come. They have nothing to offer except more violence. The writing has been on the wall for some time now.

You can reach Ken Mufuka on [email protected]