Luke-ing the Beast in the Eye: Zimbabwe on the eve of a revolution

By Luke Batsirai Tamborinyoka

The price of bread and the extravagant lifestyles of the monarchy precipitated a revolution in France in 1789. 

Indeed, so too will bread price and extravagance of this our regime, among many other factors including the slow genocide currently taking place in our hospitals, ignite a revolution in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s staple food is maize but that too is in short supply. Just as in France, the price of bread that has shot through the roof and the extravagant lifestyle of the illegal Mnangagwa regime have all become a matter of public record.

With his penchant for the high life, even in the middle of this poverty, it is being rumored ED is building a runway at his Kwekwe farm to enable the private jet he hires for every one of his frequent domestic and international trips to fly him to his farm for weekend braais with his close associates.

And just as the voluble Gucci Grace and her lavish tastes caused the downfall of Robert Mugabe, so too will extravagance amid national penury bring down this clueless lot in government.

The ingredients for a revolution are all firmly in place now: an inept leadership, unmitigated poverty in the length and breadth of the country, an underpaid civil service, disgruntled uniformed forces, a worthless currency, the threats in Goromonzi against innocent people from both Chiwenga and Mnangagwa during their party conference and a restless nation bracing for action.

Only missing is the spark that will tear down these walls of Jericho.

The regime itself recently confirmed the imminence of revolution in a highly revealing letter that it issued while turning down a proposed gathering by the MDC. The police letter openly stated that the nation is on tenterhooks, that people are acutely suffering and that the nation is on edge.

As such, the regulating authorities said they would not allow the gathering to proceed as the agitated citizenry could easily set the nation ablaze with their fury.

And yet the flagrant and brazen provocation for action continues. The middle finger that I wrote about a few weeks ago has been stuck up once again by this plush Goromonzi festival in the middle of national suffering.

This week, the tummied lot gathered in my home province of Goromonzi at a lavish ZANU PF conference where those that eat on our behalf partook to large quantities of beef, chicken, gazelle and other delicacies, even in the middle of this unmitigated national penury.

That they could come to my home district to flaunt such heartlessness is an affront not only to my person but also to my kinsmen; especially after the regime turned down a rally that I had slated for Chirodzero township in Goromonzi District, my home area where the majority of the ordinary people can barely survive.

And Constantino dared issue desperate threats from their conference in Goromonzi, in a vain attempt to scare us away from exercising our democratic rights to demonstrate.

As a hungry and desperate lot from Tamborenyoka village and 22 other villages in Shumba ward in Goromonzi West trooped for food handouts at Nyaure business center on Friday the 13th of December 2019, a lorry-full of toothpicks was turning into Goromonzi High school, the venue of ZANU PF’s provocative bash.

Yet our hospitals have become death chambers as a debilitating health crisis envelopes an entire nation. Against the backdrop of the lavish jaunt at Goromonzi High school, basic health care has become a luxury as the few staff still tending our infirmaries are now resorting to using condoms in place of gloves!

And as desperate staff at Makumbi hospital in the same Goromonzi district tore off and wore condoms in their hands to save lives, a van full of toothpicks for the country’s well-heeled was driving through the gates of Goromonzi High school.

What cheek!

Zimbabwe is on edge. We have become a nation of grievances and very soon, there will be a fatal rebound from this pressed spring.

The weather-beaten people of this heroic country will soon be Luke-ing right into the retina of the eye of this heartless beast. It is remiss in our culture to party at a funeral and this feast in Goromonzi, just adjacent to my dying relatives in the nearby Yafele village, is a brazen taunt.

And the main day of Zanu PF’s provocative feast was Friday the 13th, that ominous and unlucky day, especially for the despondent people of Zimbabwe.

Chiwenga thinks we are now lily-liveried in the wake of his meek threats.

Yet the country is on the eve of a revolution.

Be warned!

Luke Batsirai Tamborinyoka is the Deputy National Spokesperson of the MDC. He is a multiple, award-winning journalist and an ardent political scientist who received the Book Prize when he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science at the University of Zimbabwe. You can interact with him on facebook or on the twitter handle @luke_tambo.