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Stephen Mpofu
Curiosa and curiosa.

Die hard patriots and connoisseurs of nationalist politics can with equanimity be said to be filled with curiosities about shadowy foreign figures ensconced in their cushy seats at home or in their embassies here and calling the tune as paymasters for their pipers, opposition political parties, to croon a discord to the revolution that brought independence and freedom to the motherland.

Leaders from the other side of the political isle in Zimbabwe are charging opposition political parties with pushing the interests of their foreign paymasters to destabilise the country, witness recent events of political hooliganism in various parts of the country and with calls for President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF government to stand down.

Representatives of some diplomatic missions in Harare even had the audacity to openly support political thugs and their parties campaigning for a shutdown of the country to try to exact regime change.

Still, one might say, the full nitty-gritties of the Machiavellian manoeuvres behind the scene partially came to light in the political feuding that is wreaking havoc in Mr Morgan Tsvangirai’s opposition MDC.

The opposition leader in disposition with colon cancer can be said to have flung the window open, albeit not completely open, with reports that a faction opposed to him wanted Sweden the opposition party’s financier to pay Mr Tsvangirai a retirement package to get him out of the way for a coalition between that faction and the People First party led by former Zanu-PF Vice-President, Dr Joice Mujuru, who would then stand as a coalition president in the 2018 general elections with Ms Thokozani Khupe who has fallen out with Mr Tsvangirai as her deputy.

The United States government is also implicated through its State Department personnel and its embassy in Harare in the alleged plot to ditch Mr Tsvangirai.

Mr Tsvangirai’s factional opponents reportedly tried in vain to steal his medical files when hospitalised in South Africa for presentation to the party’s financiers, mostly European envoys, to prove that he was “so sick and likely to be killed by cancer by 2017” hence the need to give him a golden handshake.

These clock-and-dagger operations give rise to curiosities among patriotic Zimbabweans about just whom opposition political parties in this country actually serve: the people of this country or foreigners who fork out dirty money with which to oil the wheels of opposition politics?

Furthermore, whose agenda will the opposition parties implement should they come to power – that of their paymasters or an agenda for national development as well as the protection of the country’s independence and sovereignty?

The answer appears crystal clear and it is that he who calls the tune pays the piper.

This suggests, therefore, that the financiers of opposition parties to whom these organisations kowtow to the very soul will say how this country should be run and how much of its resources they will demand and the pipers will have no option but to croon the tune.

Under the circumstances opposition parties have a gargantuan task before them to prove to the people of Zimbabwe that they are for the people and are with the people, instead of being used to cause political mayhem by their imperialist paymasters who spend sleepless nights thinking about how to rewrite the history of this motherland for which precious blood was shed by the sons and daughters of the soil as a sacrifice for cleansing it of white racism and oppression of the black people.

The above should paint a picture to all and sundry of the vulnerability of freedom and independence in a country where the political system remains far, far from maturation with many political cooks spoiling the broth, or work of an incumbent government, however, much it endeavours to improve the lot of the people.

But the onus rests squarely on the shoulders of Zimbabweans to ensure that their independence and freedom and sovereignty are not hijacked by political gangsters.

They, the masses, wield the trump-card as voters to remove the weeds from the genuine crop, or political system, for the latter to flourish and continue to nourish the people. The foreigners may have their dirty money to use but the ultimate goal for imperialists is not to benefit the country, but rather to ripen it for exploitation politically and economically.

The ballot paper in the hands of Zimbabweans is mightier than the money with which the imperialist’s corrupt faint-hearted politicians who think not about a secure future even for their own children and children’s children, but are hell bent on swelling their own bellies and nothing more as long as they live.

In the wake of the above, it is incumbent for the Church, God’s people, to pray without seizing for the almighty’s intervention so that this country remains peaceful and stable – an environment under which God’s word will be preached to all the four corners of the country without let or hindrance.

But there is also a proviso to the above and it is that those of our people holding down political positions as well as those other leaders in the private sector should lead incorruptible lives as an example to be followed by all other citizens.

This is not an impossible price to pay when compared with the absolute necessity for the Zimbabwean revolution to run its full course, by otherwise avoidable human frailties.

The present generation of leaders should consider itself duty bound – in fact impelled by God who put them in those positions – to leave behind a legacy for generations to come, not a proverb as a curse on us who live today and have an opportunity, even the wherewithal, to lay a strong foundation for future Zimbabweans on which to build their lives.