By Professor Ken Mufuka
Two brothers, Elton Mataruse in Zimbabwe and Tichaona Mutangi, a patriot living in Australia, took exception to my story about Sister Joice Mujuru, the stone that ZANU-PF threw away.
While I was alluding to the fact that opposition leaders are wending their way to Sister Joice’s mansion, the thrust of the story was that Heaven chooses leaders for a particular time, for a particular purpose.
There is only one purpose at this time, to reconcile all opposition parties for the purpose of counter-acting an overbearing regime. My observation was that Joice, the stone that ZANU-PF threw away, may become the cornerstone of that movement.
The Psalmist (22) says that the breaking of the stone was deliberate. “The Lord has done it this day, let us rejoice and be glad.”
In order to appreciate the significance of Sister Joice’s expulsion from ZANU-PF one must appreciate that opposition parties have all along missed the point that they are not fighting against normal human beings who have moral restraints.
The regime is made up of Philistines; they loot, whatever they cannot carry they burn.
Their lust for fleshly enjoyments have no limits, it is not accidental that they drive in Range Rovers, that they assume that the loss of US$15 billion in diamond revenues is not enough cause to leave power in disgrace.
One of the chief Philistines, writing in the Herald, reveals his inner thoughts. Zimbabweans have no right to oppose his government.
The Philistine holds Bashar Hafez al-Assad of Syria in high esteem as his model.
He wrote: “Assad, moved in decisively to crush it (opposition). He may not have succeeded. He may not have saved the country, some of his people. Assad may have lost the peace, lost development, but he saved a country. And don’t waste time, for to decide is to govern.”
Zimbabwe, under the rule of these Philistines, has become one long story of vendor penurious life.
From Beitbridge to Harare, every advantageous space has been taken up by vendors selling Chinese trinkets, US$0,50 for a tooth brush, US$0,10 for a candy; there is not a family which has not seen its fortunes reduced to some humiliating circumstance. But the Philistines speak words filled with fire, while they walk on water, and drive super cars.
I enquired discreetly how much the veteran Victor Matemadanda, secretary-general of the War Veterans, earns a month — US$236 after three decades in the service of ZANU-PF.
It was Matemadanda who made the comparison between his penurious life and the life Mukuru’s mafikizolo. And he saw that life was not fair.
A quarter of the population has fled the country, further to work abroad as makwerekwere (those without permanent abode). But they once called Zimbabwe their proud home.
The connection with Sister Joice is revelatory. Sister Joice was one of them; she was counted as an heiress in the House of Ashdod. She speaks their language.
She lost her husband from an enhanced cigarette fire. She was undressed in public. I have told you that among the Philistines, there are no rules, no shame and no loyalty, one to another. Matemadanda knows it very well. His farm has been invaded, his teacher son faces dismissal.
These are the Philistines we are dealing with. Brother Tichaona argues that the change agenda is “spearheaded by the former middle class who are always talking (of jobs rather than talk about a concept or belief in a new way of doing things. We must not return to the old way of doing things.” More to the point, those who fell off from ZANU-PF are more “bent on revenge, and they spend their time expressing what ZANU-PF does bad.”
Mujuru is important to the liberation of Zimbabwe precisely for the reason that she was a heiress among the Philistines. So was Moses a prince in Egypt. So was Matemadanda a gate-keeper among the Philistines. That Mujuru and Matemadanda may entertain a spirit of revenge is not disagreeable to me.
The Philistine writer says that: “Mujuru has a lot to be thankful for the man she now vilifies.” This sentence reveals the unalterable nature and pathos of these Philistines.
Joice and Matemadanda are under no illusions as to the nature of the Hydra they are pitted against. There are no rules in the fight, no prisoners are taken, no lives are spared, and even pregnant women passing by are fair game.
Tichaona, the issue is not returning to colonialism. It is about fairness, even to our white brothers, who have opted to live in Zimbabwe. If you scout the railroad yards that once were Rhodesia Railways in Bulawayo, and a life-line to 10 000 workers, if you fail to cry, you are not human.
Philistines are reprobate, they cannot be redeemed. The Philistine writer has already said so. “Assad may not have saved the country.”
Elmon has a point. While opposition parties emphasise the birth of a new Zimbabwe. “It is more important, if not disastrous, when the band that holds the opposition parties is broken, without putting in place a pre-planned structure.”
In Elmon’s A Manifesto for a Second Republic, he points out the superfluity of 63 ministers and their duplicates. Surely, Zimbabwe cannot afford more than one dozen.
Will Mujuru and Matemadanda ever apologise for their sins? Be patient, my brothers, first comes the revelation, then the confession. For each there is a season.
Professor Ken Mufuka can be reached on [email protected]
