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Perspective Stephen Mpofu
FULMINATIONS, if not outright consternation, are certainly galore in Washington and in London as well as in the frail little hearts of imperialism’s chola-boys  (which in a foreign language means briefcase) particularly in Harare, at the resoundingly successful state visit of President Mugabe to China.

Local quislings of foreign nemesis’s of Zimbabwe’s economic success story are known to have been ranting that Zim-Asset would be a damp squib and not an economic and social renaissance on the ashes of illegal Western sanctions – which are sure to begin to smoulder with God’s intervention on this country’s behalf sooner rather than later because Zimbabweans have done nothing wrong by embarking on a programme of self-realisation and self-fulfilment to deserve the iniquitous economic embargo meant to make our economy “scream” for the enemy to exact regime change — without  the involvement  of their more, monied Western friends.

As it is, Cde Mugabe’s Chinese visit must have demonstrated to all and sundry that the Chinese people are comrades for all seasons, having been counted on our side in Zimbabwe’s armed freedom struggle, and now crossing the same bridges of friendship built together with us, by providing much needed financial and technical assistance to make Zimbabwe’s revolution a dream come true.

News from China during the President’s week-long visit have told of China’s unflinching determination to stand by Zimbabwe in the revolutionary Zanu-PF government’s various developmental initiatives under the blueprint Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Social and Economic Transformation rolled out after the party’s resounding electoral victory in July last year. For instance deals were struck with Chinese companies in the areas of power projects, road dualisation and railway line construction.

A consortium of private Zimbabwean and Chinese companies, China Africa Sunlight Energy, signed an integrated project worth more than $2 billion that will see the firm constructing a 600-megawatt thermal station in Gwayi by 2017; produce 2,4 million tonnes of underground coal per year; construct the Gwayi- Shangani Dam as well as construction of Gwayi-Insukamini Power Station transmission line.

Add to that, a $24 million pledge by China for a huge facelift of rural resettlement areas with the construction of schools and hospitals in those areas where economic sanctions have made the lives of the people a nightmare.

China will also partner Zimbabwe in migrating from analogue to digitalisation in order to meet the deadline of June 2015 in the telecommunications switch over.

Of course, there is no doubt that China, an all weather friend, will respond positively to any further need for assistance Zimbabwe might ask to give the people of this country a bold new future in face of animosities from Western imperialists who are wont to discredit the consolidations of relations with China by claiming that this country is “going more communist and turning itself into a client state of China’s”

Apart from such pejorative pronouncements Zimbabweans should probably prepare themselves to brave more Double Speak from America so that they are not confused or sent to sleep and not take measures to navigate US sanctions which are likely to be intensified.
Britain’s insistence that Zimbabwe should pay pensions to its citizens, rebel Ian Smith’s soldiers who fought the people now in power, describing them as “terrorists” is laughable and should be ignored.

Moreover, why should the British government which reneged on a pledge at Lancaster House to pay compensation for white settler farmers “whose land” the Zimbabwean government would acquire for the resettlement of peasants, expect the Zimbabwean “terrorist” government to run cap in hand with payments for the people who massacred Zimbabwe’s young men and women who fought for freedom, independence and peace for everyone resident in the country.

Does this suggest that Britain’s refusal to honour its own pledge is holier than Zimbabwe’s own so-called pledge? No, for nothing can be further from the truth.

But while Zimbabwe’s revolutionary friends are prepared to go the extra mile in making our country reap the full rewards of the revolution, our own people, particularly leaders in the ruling party, should be strongly warned against pulling the success rug from underneath our own feet through infighting and promoting of factionalism.

As former Midlands governor and thoroughly seasoned politician by any measure Cde Cephas Msipa warned, these anti-patriotic activities will in the final analysis haemorrhage national unity and with that scupper national development efforts however noble these might be.

An example of this primitive political behaviour in other countries should bring home to every Zimbabwean a fear of dismembering our unitary state with precious blood flowing as a result.

Look (yes, you look) at Africa’s newest independent state, South Sudan, now virtually ungovernable as the people there line up behind two Sudanese leaders and  fire at fellow citizens, at the behest of one particular leader driven by power hunger to use factionalism as a doorway to power.

Surely, 34 years of freedom is too short a period to have wiped out bitter memories of the protracted war fought between those standing for freedom for the majority and those who sought to entrench their satanic rule in this country against God’s will for peace and stability for all.

It is no exaggeration for this pen to suggest that those who support factional gurus are the very people, the grass, that suffer when elephants fight. To be forewarned is therefore to be forearmed against forces of destabilisation possessed by demons of power, power at any cost.

To be sure, Zimbabweans should be careful enough and not be lured into following any political pied piper who happens around them; otherwise they might be reduced to cat’s paws after power by the crooks who, should they somehow worm their way into power will only be too eager to preside over façade – democracy as long as it takes.

Actually, it is futile of anyone to mount rooftops while stacking claim to leadership of the masses. This is because only a track record of patriotism, a burning desire for national coercion, an indefatigable anti-corruption crusade, etcetera, will endear a person well to the public as the ideal – typical leader to support.

To re-cap, this pen says kudos are due to China  as a friend of Africa always seen to be always  willing to go the extra mile in helping to go the  extra mile in helping with solving social  and economic challenges bedevilling some countries on the continent.