Perspective Stephen Mpofu
Zimbabweans who are desperate for power and turn a blind eye to the political sagacity of povo by turning themselves over as black horses for white riders, look dead set for a rude awakening. Bishop Abel Muzorewa and his ill-fated United African National Council and other black sell-outs tried it but failed on March 3, 1978, with rebel Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith and his white racist and oppressive Rhodesia Front party regime. This was at a time that Africans, hungry for real freedom and independence, scented the revolution advancing closer to home from free Africa — like the wind of change that first blew across West Africa bringing in its wake independence to Nigeria and Ghana as it gusted towards other African states under colonial bondage then — and pressed on with the freedom struggle.

But the “good” bishop and his cronies did not gallop far enough and the relics of the political history of this country, as immortalised in archives, succinctly demonstrate that partnerships of a black horse and a white rider will not work in Zimbabwe or in any other country where liberation, freedom and peace came via an armed struggle.

Yet tragically, there are many power hungry wolves prowling the political landscape in this country today in defiance of the validity of the truism that, “history repeats itself”. Otherwise how do you (yes, you) explain a political leader who says — obviously to court foreign funding for his organisation — that he will return land acquired for redistribution to peasants under the land reform programme, to whites who previously owned it?

Can such a leader traverse the country in an election campaign and truly expect a cheer from people whose hearts have been swollen with joy and pride and their bellies filled as a result of their empowerment through the provision of land, some of it acquired by force by white settlers at the onset of the colonisation of this country as Rhodesia, but now under threat of starvation by the same politician?

The mind boggles.

But let some people disabuse themselves of any notion that this pen is playing self-anointed critic, because it is not. The pen is humbly and simply reminding political mischief-makers that to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

The truth is that, as the sun rises from the east and sets in the west, political leaders who ride rough shod over the aspirations of Zimbabweans to continue to enjoy their hard won independence and freedom, including the freedom to own land stolen but now reunited with them, are launching their boats in campaigning for power on sulphuric acid waters.

Ironically, it is these same opposition political people who appear inescapably to be Trojan horses for contemporary imperialism. For instance, we have Britain, a former coloniser of this country silently but loudly pushing for succession, if their media reports are anything to go by, before businesses from that country can invest in Zimbabwe.

The impression given off here is that a new leader who is not like President Mugabe, seen by imperialists as their nemesis, when in power may not oppose the exploitation willy-nilly of Zimbabwe’s natural resources, unlike the incumbent leader.

Then you have some of the Western countries that imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe pontificating to this country about what it should and should not do to revive the economy, with closed industries being reopened. They say the government should change this or that Act to attract direct foreign investment.

There can be no worse exhibition of an obscene Big Brother, god-father mentality than that. In this way those countries want to force an impression on the world that the Zanu-PF government, and not the illegal sanctions, is responsible for ruining this country’s economy.

On the contrary, those who imposed the economic embargo in a failed bid to exact regime change and reverse land reform, ought to apologise to the people of this country if a new relationship is to come into effect, and to the wider world for punishing the country with the sanctions that dried up foreign capital inflows. In addition, they should pay reparations for ruining the economy and with that, causing hunger to the many families whose breadwinners lost jobs as a result of company closures.

As a result, the countries in question seem to believe that Zimbabweans, or blacks in general, are cursed with short memories and a naivety that in extreme cases such as the one in point will say: “Thank you, boss, for a kick in our chops.”

But, as anyone should know, nothing could be further from the truth. Actually the Zimbabwean government is already taking measures to reform the relevant Acts to make the environment for both investors and local businesses favourable as a fillip for growing the economy.

Which suggests that the interplay between the dynamics of the legislative reforms and of the country’s policies on the one hand and the economic dynamics on the other should engender, rather than retard the progression of the armed revolution that secured this country from foreign rule so that Zimbabweans may continue to see themselves as proud participants and overseers of the development of their economy.

Now, the American government through its embassy in Harare has been fingered for making frantic efforts to unite opposition political parties in this country into a grand coalition, apparently in readiness to challenge Zanu-PF in the 2018 general election.

If such a grand coalition gets into power, its engineers should not be expected to wean their baby and sit back on the terraces with arms folded, instead of changing nappies when the baby soils itself as it grows up.

The truth is that the king-maker will impose policies on the new government and make sure that they succeed.

To be sure, such policies will foreshadow a titanic tug-of-war between a foreign hegemonic economy and a democratised one that the former will seek to shove in the shade.

If the former economy supersedes its rival the new ethos of industrialisation in the Sadc region will have suffered a final blow as Zimbabwe’s rich mineral resources, for instance, will be exploited and carted out of the country to be refined abroad and then sold with value addition for the benefit of foreigners while back home surviving industries may leap frog but not for long and, as a result, the economy will receive no fresh new breath to grow for the benefit of the nation.

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