Zimpapers Logo

Opinion, Nduduzo Tshuma
THE campaign by #ThisFlag front man Pastor Evan Mawarire and a handful of shadowy characters at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States, not only spectacularly failed but was largely ignored by the local media.

Mr Mawarire was joined by Mr Patson Dzamara and other protestors in demonstrating against President Mugabe as he attended the General Assembly in a bid to attract international attention but all those plans came crumbling down.

CNN, the American propaganda mouth piece that the group was hoping would give them coverage rather concentrated on the US President, Mr Barack Obama’s last address at the UN ahead of the country’s presidential elections in November.

Instead, they faced a moment of truth when the December 12 Movement, an organisation of people of colour living in the United States, exposed the folly behind the planned demonstrations by Mr Mawarire and his friends.

And that lesson was recorded, ironically, by the Voice of America, which had covered the story hoping to flash images of a successful demonstration against President Mugabe and the Zimbabwean government, a demonstration that failed dismally.

In an interview with VOA’s Marvellous Mhlanga Nyabuye, the D12, who outnumbered Mr Mawarire’s handful of demonstrators and were better organised, insisted that the problems in Zimbabwe have roots in the illegal sanctions imposed by the West and the misdirection of the western-funded opposition.

Interestingly also, the D12 demonstrators in their responses made no distinction between Mr Mawarire, his friends and the VOA.

“I’m representing (President) Mugabe and the Zimbabwean people because there is an African struggle all over the world, the capitalists want everything and they want every country, they want everything in Africa and they plan to take it and you people are helping them, “ said a D12 member after being asked whom he was representing.

“They (West) are angry that (Cde) Mugabe took the land back that was stolen at the beginning and he gave it to the people who were struggling in the revolution, that’s why the United States and Britain are angry at (Cde) Mugabe because he won’t let them take over the country like they want to.”

Another demonstrator concurred in the interview adding: ‘‘The cause of the problem is the sanction giver who put sanctions on a little country that’s trying to survive, who put sanctions on Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela.

“Attack the sanction giver first, the people who put sanctions on you, attack them first and we will be with you but you are attacking the man who brought freedom to your country.”

When the VOA reporter asked him if he was aware of the situation in Zimbabwe at the moment, the demonstrator shot back, “I know that if you go back to England it’s going to be worse, I know that when Zimbabwe was Rhodesia, Ian Smith gave hundreds of thousands of acres of land to one family while all of you had nothing.

“Look at Cuba, 50 years of sanctions on that country, look at Haiti, look at what they did to Haiti, they destroyed Haiti because they defeated the French, now they are going against Zimbabwe, leave Zimbabwe alone.

‘‘They put sanctions on that country for how many years, how many years did they promise to give back the land at the Lancaster Conference but they changed.

“I’m supporting a man that says take back the land from the Europeans, they have no business coming here taking the land saying they were sent by God.” The third D12 demonstrator finished the argument off saying: “Zimbabwe is having problems but the problems are not because of the leadership of President Mugabe, the problems come from the sanctions that were put in place by the people supporting your being here and those are the same people who oppress us here.

“That’s the principal problem that the western countries have decided that President Mugabe is going to have to pay for returning the land to the Zimbabwean people otherwise they had no contradiction with him until the land reform programme”.

He added: ‘‘He was their model of the great post colonial President but once he instituted the land reform programme, he went from Angel to a Devil, he became the black Hitler over night and the US and Britain reneged on the Lancaster Agreement in terms of the land question.

“That’s what the problem is, it’s the sanctions which are designed to create an opposition that you all represent because they have people misunderstanding and misdirecting their activities when the activities must be on ending sanctions and not against President Mugabe and Zanu-PF.”

The above quotations in verbatim were deliberate to illustrate the depth of knowledge exhibited by the D12 movement on issues that Mr Mawarire should know more by virtue of being a resident of Zimbabwe but conveniently chooses to ignore.

The failure of the UN campaign by Mr Mawarire all but confirms the end of his manufactured legacy of a hero Pastor with bravery of unimaginable proportions, who stood up against the Government of Zimbabwe and organised the mother of all stay aways in July.

In his mind, Mr Mawarire thought the UN General Assembly was the greatest stage to alert the world to his campaign and most importantly attract the pullers of strings and holders of the purse.

He has flown to the very turf of the imperialists to lay bare his credentials, albeit false, of a giant feller.

The result was not what Mr Mawarire expected.Instead of splashing headlines of his demonstration, he got none but only the VOA coverage which did not help things as it served as testimony of how the power of his cause and movement has been exaggerated from day one.

The VOA clip was a lesson to Mr Mawarire and like minded members of the opposition that you can’t manufacture stories and expect people to believe you because they live thousands of kilometres from Zimbabwe.

The D12 Movement gave Mr Mawarire that lesson in a way he will never forget in his life. In an act of desperation, Mr Mawarire posted a picture on Twitter with Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote and in the caption said he had dissuaded the business mogul from investing in Zimbabwe over unsubstantiated claims of corruption in  government.

What is apparent is that Mr Mawarire is yet to free himself from the clutches of deception and illusion.

He still believes the lie that he successfully organised the July 6 stayaway when in actual fact, he hijacked the civil servants strike that did not in any way share his agenda.

An attempt to organise “another’’ stay away by Mr Mawarire failed the same way as the Barbourfields campaign where he tried to smuggle destructive politics into the beautiful game of soccer at a recent encounter between local giants Highlanders and Dynamos Football clubs. He took his campaign beyond borders hoping for different fortunes but that was not to be.

The New York campaign is enough reason therefore, going forward, to totally forget about Mr Mawarire.