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Perspective with Stephen Mpofu

CLEAR battle lines appear drawn between, on the one hand imperialism’s cats’ paws, or agents of regime change, and on the other hand, the Zanu-PF government.

Zanu-PF is the ruling party that felled the Goliath of racist and oppressive white rule in 1980 to herald the independence, freedom and peace on which some Zimbabweans have become so constipated as to lose sight of the revolution that must continually guarantee this country’s sovereignty in a world that imperialist hegemony remains a roaring, hungry lion on the prowl especially in developing nations such as Zimbabwe.

But is the disenabling confrontation between the forces of progress and those of political retrogression the kind of culture that must surely characterise the lives and the future of an otherwise gallant and patriotic people who were prepared to lay down their lives, when that need arose, to liberate the motherland from a foreign ruling culture?

Yes or no, but lines of confrontation are already drawn between our government and some opposition political parties fronting foreign powers that seek to exact regime change through the forced removal of the government, as a reprisal for introducing land reform programmes in 2000 under which some farms were repossessed from owners of European stock for redistribution to blacks who needed that national asset the most.

Fractured and with little chance of winning a general election outright, some of the political entities apparently see regime change as offering them the only possibility for acceding to power as things stand today.

Of course, Zimbabweans have a constitutional right to employ any peaceful demonstration as a statement to vent legitimate grievances. However, when such demonstrations assume violent proportions, as they did in Harare and elsewhere in the country earlier this week, they become anarchical and no democratic government anywhere in the world will condone anarchy as a way to express genuine concerns.

In Harare earlier this week the opposition MDC-T party urged its members to join hooligans who were blocking roads in various suburbs there ostensibly to protest what they claimed to be too many police roadblocks in the capital.

The party’s spokesman, Mr Obert Gutu, declared at a press conference; “as MDC we have no shame to say here and now that we fully support the peaceful demonstrations that disgruntled Zimbabweans have since embarked upon . . .” He said his party would support any sector embarking on “peaceful demonstrations” and added; “As a party we urge all our members to join any legitimate demonstration that is meant to bring pressure on this regime”.

Therefore, for Mr Gutu or any other politician to choose linguistic niceties such as “peaceful demonstrations” and “legitimate demonstrations” to describe hooliganism experienced in Harare in particular and elsewhere certainly makes the mind boggle.

Of course, no law abiding and reasonable people will condone the violent acts either in Harare or at the Beitbridge border post where demonstrators burnt down a Zimra warehouse, destroying property held in there, among other barbaric actions as being “legitimate demonstrations”.

[A mob torched the Zimra warehouse in protest against the implementation of Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 which tightens screws on the importation of a wide range of commodities including some food items, building material, furniture and toiletries.

[SI 64 is intended to protect Zimbabwean industries from inundations of those goods that can be produced locally. The Government has since reviewed the goods affected by the statutory instrument]

Everybody knows that MDC-T invited the economic embargo that virtually brought this country’s economy to its knees and so that party should not use escapist terminology like “legitimate demonstrations” to make the opposition party appear law abiding and patriotic to the core.

You do not invite doom and gloom upon your own people, but MDC-T did so no doubt in hopes of sneaking into power itself riding on the back of imperialism with its insatiable hegemonic appetite as demonstrated everywhere in Africa and in smaller countries elsewhere on the globe. So

Zimbabweans should not be baited by any verbal niceties to swallow what the party would like law abiding and patriotic Zimbabweans to believe concerning the acts of lawlessness in point and which resulted in many arrests being made.

It would be naïve of anyone to believe that the Zimbabwe Republic Police would go out in force  as it did to arrest people engaged in lawful demonstrations.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, which,  given off by the acts of lawlessness, suggests the presence of the enemy’s hidden hand to destabilise the country and make it ungovernable as a recipe for regime change.

But perhaps the most explicit support for regime change through the violent activities by lawless and directionless young people in particular came from Joice Mujuru, former Vice-President in the Zanu-PF government and now leader of Zimbabwe People First Party who came through live on the Voice of America radio between 5AM and 6AM Zimbabwean time on Wednesday, calling on President Mugabe to dissolve the government and call fresh elections in hopes, no doubt, that she might accede to power herself as president of this country, replacing her former boss.

Many and all astute political analysts will no doubt agree the barbaric activities of hooligans who must have been loosed by some power hungry opposition leaders – with perhaps even the moral or financial support of foreign powers — do not warrant or justify any general election to put a new government in power in this country, especially with the next general election due in 2018.

And anyway, are the opposition parties in this country telling the Zimbabwean electorate that each time hooligans go on the rampage looting and burning property, elections should be held in future to replace the government of the day?

What clearly appears to come through the political hullabaloo by the opposition in this country is their unmitigated hunger for power and power by any means and at any cost whatsoever.

This apparent political confusion is due to the fact that Zimbabwe’s political system is still far, far from maturation with a plethora of some fly by night political groupings being driven by rags-to-power-to riches beliefs, and not even being ashamed of rendering themselves up as willing mounts in a partnership of black horses and white riders.

In the prevailing circumstances and in the interest of peace and stability and unimpeded social, political and economic development, Zimbabweans should stand warned against embracing any itinerant political Pied Pipers who happen by in their lives to fleece them of their money and support.