Dr Moses Tofa: The consciousness that will liberate Zimbabwe from ZANU-PF
The discussion on why ZANU-PF is still in power despite its unimaginable failures and unpopularity tends to focus on two factors.
The first factor is that ZANU-PF is a vile, corrupt, kleptomaniac, incompetent, and authoritarian regime that uses all wicked tools to rig elections. This is true because without rigging elections, ZANU-PF could have been removed from power many years ago.
The second factor is that the opposition itself has made some serious mistakes of omission and commission which undermined its ascendancy to power.
This is also true, but despite these mistakes, without election rigging by ZANU-PF, the opposition could have ascended to power many years ago.
In this article, I want to draw your attention to the question of consciousness because I believe that it is the most important factor that is needed for Zimbabweans to remove ZANU-PF and build a new Zimbabwe.
If there is anything that has kept ZANU-PF in power besides the use of fear and brazen election rigging, it is the sheer lack of governance and political consciousness among Zimbabweans.
Simon Muzenda, the former Vice President, captured this tragedy when he said that if ZANU-PF fields a baboon as its candidate in an election, the voters will vote for that baboon.
Of all the forms of poverty that may afflict a nation, the poverty of consciousness is the most tragic one.
Citizens who are equipped with consciousness can imagine possibilities, ask critical questions, robustly and progressively engage with issues of governance, expose lies, corruption, and incompetence, value ideas higher than personalities, elect competent leadership, hold leaders to account, and refuse to be manipulated by corrupt and incompetent politicians.
I believe that there is a minimum level of consciousness that Zimbabweans must have if they are to remove ZANU-PF. This is the consciousness that I discuss in this article.
ZANU-PF is vulnerable, not invincible.
If you want to know that oppressive regimes are always vulnerable and not invincible, you must take stock of the history of oppressive regimes that ruled in this world. The tragic irony of oppression is that the oppressive apparatus of the state is always numerically inferior to the masses it oppresses, but it can overpower the masses who have the power to overpower it, because they do not know that they are the true repository of power.
It is therefore important for Zimbabweans to be conscientized for them to know that they are numerically superior to the oppressive apparatus of the state: the police, the army, the CIO, and the captured judiciary combined.
If the masses are not aware of this reality, they will continue to be oppressed by ZANU-PF through fear. But if they reclaim their power, they can easily overwhelm the oppressive apparatus of the state.
The ZANU-PF regime survives on convincing the masses that power dwells in the oppressive apparatus of the state, but the truth is that the masses are the true geography of power.
Zimbabweans must understand that when ZANU-PF uses the army, police, CIO, and the captured judiciary to silence its political opponents, it is not a sign of power, courage, and invincibility, but of fear, cowardice, and vulnerability.
But if the masses continue to confuse fear, cowardice, and vulnerability with power, courage, and invincibility, they will never liberate themselves from the oppression of ZANU-PF. The Zimbabwean masses are the mountain, and ZANU-PF is a molehill which survives by claiming that it is a mountain and uses fear to convince the mountain that it is a molehill.
The Zimbabwean masses will only liberate themselves from ZANU-PF from the day that they understand that they are the true geography of power.
ZANU-PF goons respond to criticism from citizens with uttermost arrogance and disdain, with the likes of Geroge Charamba calling them “madununu”, because they know that they have convinced the masses that the vulnerable ZANU-PF is invincible and the invincible masses are vulnerable.
Zimbabweans must understand that the oppressive apparatus of the state is not as insurmountable as ZANU-PF wants them to believe, not only because it is numerically too inferior to the masses, but also because it is mostly staffed by hewers of wood and drawers of water who are disgruntled by their wretched conditions.
The system gives them a false sense of power and belonging which yields no material rewards. They must sustain themselves through corruption. These hewers of wood and drawers of water must be conscientized for them to understand that they are being used to oppress the interests of the masses in defence of the egocentric interests of a few political elites.
They must be made to understand that their interests are intrinsically aligned with those of the masses, and not with those of a few political elites who are using them to oppress the masses.
If they realise this, when the masses rise against oppression, they will stand on the side of the masses and not of the political elites. It is high time that oppressed Zimbabweans form a convergence of the oppressed to oppose a convergence of the corrupt political elites.
A struggle that silences critical thought to please sycophantic thought will never bear fruit.
Big ideas must always be at the heart of any struggle for change. Societies are transformed by a leadership that is built on big ideas and the commitment and competence to pursue them relentlessly.
The more a society silences ideas and critical thought, the more it falls into the dungeon of sycophancy, corruption, nepotism, tribalism, toxicity, violence, incompetence, and individualistic arrival.
The opposition movement in Zimbabwe should never silence critical thinkers who desire to see it doing well but have the intellectual courage to criticise it where and when it fails.
Change will come if we shift our minds from lamentation to solutions.
Professor Jonathan Moyo is credited for saying that ZANU-PF will not reform itself out of power. This is true. To those who may not understand what this means, it means that ZANU-PF will never implement genuine electoral reforms because it is so unpopular that a reformed electoral field will take it out of power.
If you do not understand why ZANU-PF does not want to implement electoral reforms, you must understand the antagonism that to the Zimbabwean opposition, electoral reforms mean fairness, integrity, democracy, and gaining access to power, but to ZANU-PF, they mean the perpetual departure of power, wealth, and privilege.
Each time that ZANU-PF thinks about electoral reforms, it shudders at the thought of sacrificing power, wealth, and privilege on the altar of fairness, integrity, and democracy. This is why ZANU-PF does not care about what the opposition and the international community say about it.
I am not saying that the opposition should stop pointing out the vile nature of the ZANU-PF regime, particularly on election rigging, but I am saying that it needs to liberate itself from agonising and lamenting because this will not bring change. Instead of agonising and lamenting, the Zimbabwean opposition must focus on relentlessly demanding electoral reforms, building a formidable force, and devising strategies of removing ZANU-PF from power with or without electoral reforms.
If ZANU-PF will not reform itself out of power, then the fundamental question the Zimbabwean opposition must answer is how to constitutionally remove ZANU-PF from power without electoral reforms.
Every struggle has its own martyrs, but it must be worth dying for.
In the last speech that he delivered on 03 April 1968, Dr Martin Luther King Jr said that “Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter to me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you.
But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord”.
A day after giving this speech, Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. He is one of the towering martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement. I am giving the example of Martin Luther King Jr to show you that no struggle can ever be won by people who are afraid of dying for it, especially those who are in leadership.
The history of struggles across the world has taught us that each struggle demands a price. However, every struggle must be worth dying for, and this is made possible by the unwavering commitment to the collective values and aspirations that undergird that struggle.
If there is anything that Africans must have learnt from both the struggle for independence and the post-independence struggles for democratic change, it is that struggles are not essentially about the capacity to remove a colonial or failed regime, but about the capacity to build a new society as envisioned by the struggle.
All meaningful struggles are built on two components: the hardware and the software. The hardware is the capacity to remove a failed regime, and the software is the commitment and competence to build a new society.
A struggle without the software component is not a struggle because it may succeed in removing a failed regime but fail in delivering a new society.
The liberation movements in Africa succeeded in removing colonial regimes but tragically failed to deliver the promises and expectations of independence. In the same vein, there is no shortage of opposition parties that succeeded in removing failed regimes on the back of huge promises of change but failed to deliver the change they promised. Every meaningful struggle for change is underwritten by two non-negotiable forms of competence: the competence to expose, challenge, weaken, and remove a failed regime using all constitutional avenues, and the competence to build a new society.
One of the tragic failures of the opposition in Zimbabwe is that it has failed to prove to its support base that the struggle for change is worth dying for. From 2000 onwards, thousands of opposition supporters were maimed and killed, only for most of the opposition leaders to use their positions in government to enrich themselves.
Such behaviour discourages people from making sacrifices for the struggle. No struggle can succeed without people making and taking sacrifices. Zimbabwean opposition leaders must be always conscious that it is their responsibility to execute the struggle and conduct themselves in ways that convince the masses that it is worthy to make sacrifices for the struggle.
Zimbabweans who died to corruption, incompetence, and economic mismanagement by ZANU-PF are far more than those who died during the liberation struggle, Gukurahundi, and politically motivated violence combined.
Since independence, ZANU-PF has always used what Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro referred to as “the infrastructure of fear” to oppress the masses and retain power. Zimbabweans are afraid of victimisation, abduction, torture, and violent death and it is mainly this fear that has kept them under the oppressive ZANU-PF regime for so long.
Today, if one asks Zimbabweans to protest, the response is that ZANU-PF will kill them. If Zimbabweans understand that the number of citizens who die every day because of corruption, incompetence, and economic mismanagement by ZANU-PF is far higher than those who died during the liberation struggle, Gukurahundi, and politically motivated violence combined, they will not be afraid of going to the streets and at least die while seeking change.
Let me give you a picture of the number of Zimbabweans who die because of corruption, incompetence, and economic mismanagement by ZANU-PF through the following questions: How many women die every day while giving birth in our derelict hospitals, how many children die every day because of the lack of supplies and equipment in our hospitals, how many victims of accidents die every day when their chances of surviving are high if the emergency delivery system is functioning, how many people die because of the dilapidated state of our roads, how many people die due to unroadworthy vehicles that are allowed to operate on our roads because of corruption by law enforcement authorities, how many people die while crossing flooded and crocodile infested rivers to seek opportunities in other countries, how many people die because of xenophobic attacks and other forms of violence in foreign countries where they went in search for opportunities?
The logic is that if people protest and some of the protestors get killed, the casualties will be far less than the number of Zimbabweans who are dying every day because of corruption, incompetence, and economic mismanagement by ZANU-PF.
It is better for a few protestors to die on the streets while seeking to remove ZANU-PF than for thousands of citizens to die every day because of corruption, incompetence, and economic mismanagement by ZANU-PF. Going to the streets or not, Zimbabweans are dying anyway, and in very large numbers.
True arrival is collective and not individualistic.
One of the reasons why Zimbabweans remain under the corrupt, incompetent, and authoritarian grip of ZANU-PF is that they are resourceful at finding ways of achieving individualistic oriented survival and arrival, including through corruption, what I call the zvangu zvaita mind set. In such a context, those who achieve individualistic arrival tend not to care about collective arrival. In fact, they begin to see their arrival as a privilege which should only belong to them.
When this happens, they do not care much about fighting to remove ZANU-PF so that we can create socioeconomic conditions which are good for us all. Have you ever heard someone saying that there are many people who are happy with the economic conditions in Zimbabwe because they are making money out of them? Africans must always understand that true arrival is collective and not individualistic, and that it is particularly futuristic because it must be bequeathed to succeeding generations.
Africans must always understand that materially successful people who are happy to be surrounded by a sea of poor people are as poor as the poor people who surround them.
It takes extra-conventional methods and actors to remove ZANU-PF.
During one of his lectures at the University of Zimbabwe, the late Professor John MudiwaWashe Makumbe said that “it takes etra-democratic means to remove ZANU-PF from power”. As an undergraduate student at that time, I wondered what the Professor meant by this statement because I thought that it was a treasonous call for the removal of ZANU-PF through violent means. I got to realize that I was wrong when I privately engaged the Prof and asked him the meaning of the statement.
His response was amazing. He explained that those who are seeking to remove ZANU-PF must not only rely on conventional actors and processes because they have several limitations. For example, political parties participate in elections whose rules are directed and manipulated by ZANU-PF, and they seek justice from a criminal justice system that is captured by ZANU-PF.
The struggle for change in Zimbabwe has failed to remove ZANU-PF partly because of its focus on conventional means such as elections and reliance on organised actors such as political parties and civil society. While conventional means and actors are indispensable, Zimbabweans must also expect change to come from unconventional means and actors.
This will allow them to expect and support such means and actors whenever they emerge. It is difficult for organised actors, despite all their strengths, to operate in Zimbabwe’s authoritarian environment because of multiple factors. First, their structures and officials are known by the regime, and this makes it easy for them to be infiltrated and targeted. Despite adopting “strategic ambiguity”, the CCC was infiltrated and hijacked by ZANU-PF.
In the final analysis, what happened to the CCC is testament that it is difficult for organised actors such as political parties and civil society to operate in an authoritarian context and that while they may employ unconventional methods, there are limitations as to the extent they may go on that path.
Second, because of the imperative to remain faithful to democratic values, conventional actors take cumbersome steps to reach consensus-based plans and strategies which are often known by the regime before they see the light of the day. Third, conventional actors may not agree on internal issues such as ideas, values, and strategies and this can cause internal fissures.
Fourth, conventional actors are forced to comply with formal but unfruitful procedures of seeking-change, and they often prefer to err on the side of compliance than defiance. Fifth, organised actors such as political parties and civil society tend to be seen by many of their leaders as vehicles to advance personal enrichment instead of change. This is the case with most opposition and civil society leaders in Zimbabwe.
Sixth, because of their constant interactions and engagements with government officials, the temptation to benefit from the system, and the sense of belonging to the same social class, conventional actors tend to become familiar with regime elements and reduce their resolve to confront the regime. This is what the late Alex Magaisa called elite convergence. According to Magaisa, “in a class-based system, the elites from the ruling and opposition often occupy the same social class, despite their political differences.
They share similar spaces: golf clubs, churches, social clubs, etc. In their localities, they are probably neighbours, living side by side. Their kids go to the same schools and colleges and as parents, they probably sit on the same school boards despite their political differences. They share common friends and there are probably social ties through marriage and other unions…
This might help us to understand why political and military elites converged in November 2017 to remove Robert Mugabe from power despite long-standing political differences. The political elites from the ruling party and the military elites received backing from opposition elites despite the latter’s usually hardline stance against the involvement of the military in political affairs.
These differences were suspended because of the common interest to remove Robert Mugabe and the belief that there might be some coalition arrangement in the aftermath of the coup. This was touted as being in the public interest. However, this convergence between ruling party, opposition and military elites quickly crumbled when the opposition elites were excluded from the post-coup political arrangements”.
In a dictatorship such as Zimbabwe, it is not wise to expect change to come only from conventional processes such as elections and organised actors such as opposition parties and civil society. There must always be room for unconventional and spontaneous players to rise and take the political space by storm, especially in response to seismic political, social, and economic signals. Leadership must emerge from the least expected spaces and sources.
This will make it difficult for the regime to plan and target specific individuals and groups. For example, if it happens that there are Zimbabweans who are being evicted from their ancestral land, spontaneous actors must emerge and mobilise the people to resist and even call for political change.
This will make the dictator restless because resistance and defiance can erupt any time and from any corner of the country. Waiting for a signal from organised actors is not going to bring change to Zimbabwe. There are times when unconventional wisdom prevails where conventional wisdom fails.
Zimbabwe’s opposition politics can only remove ZANU-PF if its support base develops a fluid form of loyalty which can shift from one leadership to another because it values ideas and competence than popularity.
Zimbabwe has no shortage of people who can step up and provide the leadership that is required to remove ZANU-PF. However, the problem with the opposition’s support base is that it is so rigid that if it puts its trust in a particular opposition leadership, it sticks to that leadership even if there are signs that it may not have the capacity to remove ZANU-PF. This problem is largely a result of three key factors.
The first factor is that it takes a gruelling journey for opposition parties to get to the point where they become trusted by the masses and gain popular support. The second factor is that since the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change in 1999, opposition supporters trust an “anointed leadership” because of the belief that it is loyal to the values and ideals of the democratic struggle.
Any opposition leadership that emerges from elsewhere or that is believed to have sold out the struggle stands no chance of being trusted by the masses. The third factor is that opposition supporters tend to place more value on popularity than on ideas, critical thinking, integrity, and competence.
This mindset by opposition supporters has three key disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that it leaves no space for competent and committed opposition leaders to emerge from elsewhere and gain popular support. This discourages competent and committed citizens to put themselves forward as opposition leaders.
The second disadvantage is that an opposition leadership which could have gained the most popular support knows that the masses will continue to trust it despite its weaknesses and this may cause it to take the masses for granted because it is not afraid of losing that support. The third disadvantage is that if the trusted opposition leadership is not capable of delivering, the masses will continue to expect hope to come from a place that offers no hope.
While Zimbabweans should expect help from regional and international actors, their expectations must be minimal because it is not anyone else’s responsibility, except theirs, to remove ZANU-PF.
In any struggle for change, it is essential to gain the moral, material, relational, diplomatic, operational, ideation and other forms of support and solidarity from regional and international actors, particularly heads of state, regional and international organisations, and the diplomatic community. Regional and international actors, particularly SADC, have a huge role to play in helping Zimbabwe to hold free and fair elections. SADC played a critical role in facilitating the formation of the Government of National Unity in 2008/2009.
However, it is common to hear Zimbabweans, including opposition leaders, claiming that SADC and the African Union are useless because they have failed Zimbabwe. This is something that should be said by ordinary opposition supporters, not by opposition leaders. While SADC and the African Union have failed to address the Zimbabwe problem in many ways, they have not failed Zimbabwe.
Always remember that they are not NGOs and that they are guided by the long-standing principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states. SADC and the African Union can only be more useful to Zimbabwe if Zimbabweans themselves create serious conditions of crisis that leave them with no choice but to get involved. Zimbabweans must always understand that they cannot abdicate their responsibility and expect SADC or the African Union to fulfil it.
Each society is a prototype, by omission or commission, of the quality of leadership that emerges from it.
Let me start with the timeless counsel from Steve Biko who said that “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”. Whenever Zimbabweans talk about the problems of Zimbabwe, they put all the blame on ZANU-PF. There is no grain of doubt that ZANU-PF has ruined Zimbabwe because it is a vile, authoritarian, tribalistic, corrupt, kleptomaniac, arrogant, entitled, and incompetent regime that is bereft of ideas.
While it is not wrong for Zimbabweans to blame ZANU-PF for destroying Zimbabwe, we must always remember the crushing truth that each society is a prototype, by omission or commission, of the quality of leadership that emerges from it. What am I saying? I am saying that Zimbabweans should not only blame ZANU-PF, but they must also blame themselves because everything that ZANU-PF does is an image of our mindset as a people.
In other words, I am saying that each society deserves the leadership that rules it. A corrupt leadership cannot emerge from a clean society, but if it does, it will not survive. An incompetent leadership cannot emerge from a society that values competence, but if it does, it will not survive. A leadership without ideas cannot emerge from a society with ideas, but if it does, it will not survive.
Let me take the example of corruption. While ZANU-PF is a grossly corrupt regime, we as a people have also become extremely corrupt. We have been consumed by the search for individualistic arrival. Many of us do not have the moral ground to condemn corruption because we feed from it even in our small ways.
Given the opportunity, we can be as corrupt as ZANU-PF. We are also a people who generally do not value ideas and critical thinking. Why is it that instead of searching for ideas on how the world works and learning how to think critically and change society, we spend our time pursuing useless things and celebrating the worst people among us: empty socialites, corrupt politicians and mbingas, and charlatan prophets who empty us of every fibre of consciousness and fill us with spirituality-based delusions?
Each time that I go on social media and see the empty things that consume the attention of Zimbabweans and the uninformed arguments and insults that accompany debates, I painfully realise that ZANU-PF is a problem that is built on a much bigger problem: the state of mind of the masses. If you follow discussions on social media, you will be shocked with the ignorant conviction and shameless courage with which Zimbabweans argue on topics they know nothing about.
If there is a change of government in Zimbabwe today, the first thing which that government must strive to change is the mindset of the masses because without it, no change will ever come to Zimbabwe. We must always remember that change is a mindset because every change that you see in other civilisations started from the mind.
There must be a limit to what Zimbabweans can absorb and endure from the ZANU-PF dictatorship.
The struggle for change can only succeed in societies whose citizens draw a line in the sand and do not accept oppression, corruption, and incompetency to cross that line. I will give a few examples. On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks got to a point where she could not absorb and endure the Jim Crow racial segregation laws anymore. On that day, she boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
Instead of seating at the back, which was designated for African Americans, she sat in the front which was designated for the whites. As more white passengers boarded the bus, the driver asked Rosa Parks to move to the back. She did not comply. This defiance turned an ordinary day into a repository of history. She was arrested, but her defiance led to the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Supreme Court of the United States eventually ruled that segregation on public transport was unlawful.
In 2011, Mohammed Bouazizi, a market vendor in Tunisia, set himself on fire because he had reached the end of his tether. This led to an uprising that removed the entrenched dictatorship of Ben Ali. There are many other examples but let me limit myself to these two. I am using these examples to show you that change is only possible when the people do not allow oppression, corruption, and incompetence to cross a certain line, when they say that “you can only go this far”.
In 1955, Martin Luther King gave a moving speech in Alabama where he said that “There comes a time when people get tired. We are here this evening to say to those who have mistreated us so long that we are tired – tired of being segregated and humiliated; tired of being kicked about by the brutal feet of oppression”. This is not the case in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, oppression, corruption, incompetence, and arrogance can go as far as they want, without any consequences.
ZANU-PF is still in power despite its incredible failures and unpopularity because Zimbabweans have a strange form of resourcefulness which focuses on finding ways, not of confronting and removing oppression, but of either fleeing from oppression or surviving under oppression. Zimbabweans have an abnormally expanding capacity to absorb and endure the fiery darts of authoritarianism, corruption, failure, incompetence, and arrogance from the ZANU-PF regime.
If you tell people from functioning societies about the failures and absurdities of ZANU-PF, they will not believe that such things can happen in societies that are led by human beings. I was admitted to the Global Forum on Democracy and Development fellowship. The fellowship has four hubs. The Budapest hub in Hungary hosted by the Central European University, the Cape Town hub hosted by the University of Cape Town, the Colombo hub in Siri Lanka hosted by Sri Lanka Social Scientists’ Association and the Bogota hub in Colombia hosted by Universidad de los Andes. I am based in Colombia, and we are eight fellows. We often host workshops where each fellow presents his or her research work for input from other fellows.
My research work is on governance and politics in Zimbabwe. During my presentations, when I told my colleagues about the things that happen in Zimbabwe, they could not believe that there is a society today where such things are happening. I understand them because most of them come from normal societies.
I hate racism to the core, but each time that I tell people from other continents about the failures and absurdities of African governments, I realise that it is unfair to expect other civilisations to respect us as Africans when we do not respect ourselves.
People across the world wonder why Zimbabweans continue to absorb and endure the things that ZANU-PF does. How do you tell the world that at independence in 1980, Julius Nyerere referred to Zimbabwe as the Jewel of Africa, but today, it is the shame of Africa, how do you tell the world that our failed president is completing his second term but is seeking to remove term limits and rule until at least 2030, how do you tell the world that there are exceedingly corrupt people who are connected to the president, including one who is giving out expensive cars and cash like confetti while the country’s roads, hospitals, and education systems are in a state of abandonment, how do you tell the world that in Zimbabwe, development projects and tenders are avenues for the ruling elite to loot national resources, how do you tell the world that close to half a century into independence, Zimbabwe is still relying on infrastructure that was built by the colonial regime, how do you tell the world that close to half a century into independence, the Zimbabwe national team has to play international matches in other countries because Zimbabwe does not have a stadium which is in a condition to host international matches, how do you tell the world that Zimbabweans are being evicted from their ancestral land by Chinese who are linked to ruling elites when the liberation struggle was primarily about the land question, how do you tell the world that the Chinese are destroying the environment, including digging tunnels under roads, residential areas, and schools while the government remains silent because of corruption, how do you tell the world that the Chinese who treat their local workers inhumanely are protected by the government while the workers are victimised and silenced by the government, how do you tell the world that Zimbabwe has a local currency called ZIG and the government claims that it is strong, but you can go to Zimbabwe and spend years without seeing it, let alone transacting with it, how do you tell the world that in Zimbabwe, customers often fail to buy products and services because the suppliers “have no change”, how do you tell the world that a bogus figure called Sengezo Tshabangu emerged from nowhere, claimed that he is the interim secretary-general of the main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change, gave himself and others senatorial posts and recalled its leaders from Parliament, Senate, and Council with the help of the Speaker of Parliament and the judiciary, how do you tell the world that an unauthorised government official woke up one morning and illegally ban tinted car windows, how do you tell the world that Robert Mugabe died in a Singaporean hospital where he was seeking medical treatment because he could not trust Zimbabwe’s health care system after ruling the country for 37 years and that his treatment consumed millions of United States dollars when the country’s public hospitals do not have painkillers, how do you tell the world that in Zimbabwe, a car which carries 5 passengers is made to carry 11 or more passengers because of desperate economic conditions, how do you tell the world that opposition leaders and activists are arrested and convicted under laws that do not exist by goons in the judiciary, how do you tell the world that Job Sikhala spend almost two years in pre-trial detention based on trumped up charges of obstruction of justice, how, how how…?
Zimbabweans need to know that if they continue to absorb and endure these and other absurdities, they must forget about the possibility of removing ZANU-PF and building a new Zimbabwe.
No struggle can remove the oppressor whom it funds.
Oppressing the masses requires a great deal of resources. Zimbabweans must know these two fundamental truths; that no struggle can remove the oppressor whom it funds, and that they are the primary funders of their oppressors, wittingly or unwittingly. For example, when Zimbabweans who are opposed to ZANU-PF buy goods and services from businesses that are owned by ZANU-PF leaders and enablers, they are funding ZANU-PF.
When Zimbabweans who are in the diaspora send remittances home for different purposes, they unwittingly fund ZANU-PF. I am not saying that they should stop sending remittances home but closing the tap for a few days can affect the regime in painful ways. The tragedy is that each of us has a reason why the tap cannot be closed even for one week. The uptake is that the regime will continue to be sustained by our remittances.
What stops Zimbabweans from listing all the businesses that are owned by ZANU-PF leaders and enablers and stop supporting them? When Zimbabweans who are opposed to ZANU-PF attend shows whose artists are known supporters of ZANU-PF, they will be funding the regime. When Zimbabweans who are opposed to ZANU-PF attend charlatan churches whose leaders openly support ZANU-PF, they will be morally funding the regime.
What stops us from drawing a list of ZANU-PF leaders and enablers whose businesses, charlatan churches, and songs must be boycotted? If circumstances will be on my side, I will write a Big Saturday Read titled “The list of regime enablers”. In that article, I will list, as comprehensively as possible, regime enablers, including businesses, charlatan preachers, and musicians with the intention to mobilise the masses to boycott them.
These seemingly small efforts go a long way in fighting oppression. Those who enable the regime must pay a steep price.
Dr Moses Tofa is a Research Leader, political analyst, and self-critical Pan-Africanist. He holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Johannesburg and a PhD in Conflict Studies from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. He is an Investigator at the University of Andes, Colombia. He is an aspiring opposition politician who founded the Zimbabwe Opposition Monitoring and Support Group. He writes in his capacity. He can be reached at [email protected], Twitter handle: @DrDrMTofa.
