Today is the 44th anniversary of our national independence; that hallowed Uhuru day when we commemorate the gallantry of the living and dead sons and daughters of this land, with more veneration to those who lost life and limb so that the collective whim and aspirations of future generations could walk again.
Indeed,our national independence did not come cheap as some of our valiant sons and daughters paid the ultimate price.
Today, we stand on the shoulders of Sheba Tavarwisa, Alfred Nikita Mangena, Herbert Chitepo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo,Joshua Nkomo and the many ordinary villagers across the vast plains of our land who expended both sweat and blood to irrigate the tree of independence in what they believed would be true freedom and happiness for everyone.
Today, we remember them. We salute them.
This year’s Uhuru day comes at a time when it has now become apparent to everyone that we ought to wage a fresh struggle to liberate ourselves from Vene , the new “owners” of the country.
Yes, the new indigenous colonialists who have literally taken over and privatised the State and government for their own selfish benefit.
The Vene brigands comprise Emmerson Mnangagwa, his wife and children, his relatives, clansmen, clanswomen and an array of political and business associates inside and outside the country who have literally taken control of all the country’s economic sectors especially mining and other strategic State entities.
This new colonial lot has run the country aground and are looting State resources for their own private benefit.
As Zimbabwe showcases her nudes through her bare savannah bottom that has been stripped naked and deflowered by ED’s family and inner circle to whom he has granted mining concessions to loot the country’s vast extractive wealth, this country cannot claim to be independent when clanist brigands have literally taken over what should belong to all of us .
More importantly, our purported independence can only be trite and vacuous now that the United Kingdom, our former colonial master, has admitted to poisonously lending her hand in imposing Mnangagwa via the 2017 coup. This means we are are still a vassal State as the naive British have now confirmed they helped in the ouster of Robert Mugabe and in foisting the murderous Mnangagwa all in the false and misguided belief that the Karanga tribalist was a pragmatist and a reformist.
The UK’s former Minister for African Affairs Rory Stewart, has made the revelations in his memoirs, Politics on the Edge — A Memoir from Within .
Stewart was the first foreign minister to visit Mnangagwa after the coup.
The revelation that what we have in Zimbabwe is a British puppet regime is a very big story but for another day.
Rory Stewart has basically confirmed what we have always known, which is the British government’s hand in ED’s rise to power through Catriona Laing, the then UK envoy in Zimbabwe who betrayed a startling naivety in believing the murderous ED could ever be called a reformist and a pragmatist.
As we commemorate our purported independence today,we must do so cognisant of the fact that what we have is essentially a puppet regime in Zimbabwe, never mind that it has now betrayed the naive optimism of its masters.
Forget the propaganda that Nelson Chamisa and other opposition figures are puppets of the West. The epic revelation by Rory Stewart puts paid to that needless propaganda that has been peddled all these years and answers the grand question of who is the real puppet in Zimbabwe and whether our”independence” is really worth celebrating today.
But like I said, that is a big story for another day.
Today, celebratory helicopters will fly over Buhera’s desolate landscape: a lavish Uhuru ceremony will be held and the chefs will enjoy sumptuous meals, with the weather-beaten ordinary folk watching while sitting in the scorching sun.
The people of Buhera and Manicaland have nothing to show for their independence. As confirmed by former President Robert Mugabe, billions of dollars worth of diamonds were looted in Marange in the same province where the chefs will today be showcasing their personal wealth to impoverished villagers.
The irony could not have been more cruel.
Today’s celebrations are being held in Buhera where the iconic and indefatigable Morgan Tsvangirai was born and raised. Tsvangirai, the man who for almost three decades stridently fought against this regime and its brutal excesses until his untimely death on St. Valentine’s day in 2018.
Apart from the iconic Tsvangirai, the province of Manicaland, where today’s lavish ceremony for the chefs will take place, is also the home of the legendary Herbert Wiltshire Chitepo, Edgar Zivanai Tekere and Ndabaningi Sithole—gallant men of valour who this regime humiliated and persecuted unto death and in whose demise the regime certainly had a very active hand.
Independence? What independence? Whose independence?
The number 44
Today marks exactly 44 years after independence. In the realm of numerology, 44 is supposed to be a master number because it is a compound of the same figure with the same value.
Numerologists say 44 is a number that must be avoided like a plague because it foretells misfortune and loss of wealth, reason and love.
This is well in sync with the spirit of poverty and desperation that has been engendered by this regime in a supposedly free country that must be bravely marching forward with grace, growth, unity, love and happiness.
The number 4 also represents completeness and ultimate power and authority because it symbolises all the four elements of air, fire, and the earth.
And indeed, Mnangagwa has become a complete dictator, an all-powerful, omnipotent demi-god who has usurped the powers of Parliament and is now governing the country through unConstitutional Presidential powers and Statutory instruments.
Vene, the new colonialists
Today, Zimbabweans ought to seriously reflect on the new struggle that we must now wage against the new colonialists who go by the mantra of Vene ; the small parasitic inner circle around Mnangagwa that is looting this country dry while the rest of us suffer.
Among many others, this circle of the new colonialists includes ED, his foreign political and business associates in Belarus, China and the Arab world as well as murky figures such as Kuda Tagwirei, Scott Sakupwanya, Delish Nguwaya, Wicknell Chivayo, dubious prophets such as Uebert Angel and Passion Java, as well as relatives and friends that have been deliberately and strategically deployed across the sectors.
These include his relatives such as the corrupt Henrietta Rushwaya, RBZ governor John Mushayavanhu, John Mangudya, the former central bank chief now seconded to the equally murky Mutapa Investment Fund as well as ED’s children and nephews that he has appointed into government as Ministers.
Dear reader, kindly note that while cousin and business associate John Mushayavanhu holds forte at the country’s central bank, there is a Tongai Mushayavanhu who was last week appointed as the country’s envoy to the United Nations in New York.
Given the deployment of family and friends to key party and government positions, this essentially means on an eerie evening over roasted nuts at a family funeral in Chivi or Mberengwa, these kinsmen could well decide on the fate of the entire country and its citizens.
Dear reader, I have warned you before that ED and the ruling political elite have since finished eating the fruits of independence. They are now eating the very tree of independence itself, including the roots, bark and stem!
The return of the Undertaker
Mnangagwa has a history of plundering huge corporates and running them aground.
It is common knowledge that as Zanu PF secretary for Finance, Mnangagwa, with his allies the Joshi brothers, looted and ran down several once-thriving Zanu PF companies.
It was a huge empire that Mnangagwa the Undertaker literally ran aground.
I have told you this before, dear reader, that on April Fools day in 2004, after being disturbed by the way companies and party finances were being managed under Mnangagwa, the Zanu PF central committee set up a special investigation committee to probe the collapse of its business empire.
Upon the mere setting up of the probe committee, ED’s cohorts, the Joshi brothers, immediately skipped the country. All we know is that the internal report of the investigation committee was swept under the carpet, never to see the light of day.
ED therefore ran down the party’s once-thriving business empire under the M and S syndicate that included Catercraft, Tregers, ZIDCO Holdings, Jongwe Printing and Publishing, Mike Appel and Fibrolite. Zanu PF also had interests in National Blankets, Woolworths and Ottawa building which were all disposed of in murky unclear circumstances.
ED had taken party members for fools through the committee that was set up on 1 April 2004, a probe team whose report went nowhere, assuming there was ever a report in the first place.
The investigating committee basically became a Fool’s Day prank!
Today, Mnangagwa, the legendary corporate undertaker wants us to put all the country’s strategic entities into an empire of similar scope called the Mutapa Investment Fund, run by himself, his son at the Ministry of Finance, his two nephews John 1 and John 2 at the RBZ and the MIF respectively and obviously what is set to be a pliable and surrogate MIF board that has yet to be appointed.
What ED did to his party’s business empire he now wants to do to the country’s strategic entities.
The Undertaker has definitely struck again.
Conclusion : Let My People Go
In the wake of the revelation by the UK government that they had a hand in the violent investiture of ED as President in 2017 and in the wake of Mnangagwa’s control and privatisation of the nation State as his personal fiefdom, it is trite to claim that we are an independent, sovereign State.
We are a beholden people that must be set free from his Vene brigade and be allowed to enjoy true freedom and independence.
As we plot a huge people’s movement that will mark Zimbabwe’s exodus from the current tyranny, perhaps a new rendition of Exodus 5:1 should read:
‘ ED and your Vene , please let my people go so that they may hold a festival in this wilderness .’
Luke Tamborinyoka is a citizen from Domboshava . He is a journalist and an ardent political scientist by profession . You can interact with him on his Facebook page or on the X_ handle @ luke_tambo
