A big nothing for the people

Teddie Bepete
When Runaida Mugari alias Teurai Ropa nee Joice Mujuru became a Cabinet minister at Independence, she was 25. Achieving such a political feat at such a tender age, she must have played an unusual role in the armed struggle.

Fast forward 35 years: Dr Joice Mujuru leaves Government in disgrace.
Having had exchanged her iconic image with the lust for power, her political family disowned her.
When people fall from grace for their own misdeeds, they tend to blame other people for their misfortune.
This is exactly what Dr Mujuru did.
The former Vice-President was dismissed from both Zanu-PF and Government for being the fulcrum of a putchist conspiracy to remove President Mugabe from power.
A year down the line, it is evident that the party and Government were justified in expelling her as it is clear she has been plotting to unseat our President for a while now.
One would wonder why and how a seemingly passionate revolutionary could easily mutate into a reactionary. This paints a clear portrait of the fact that the revolutionary-turned-reactionary had always been an imposter.
After publication of her shallow Build manifesto, the world witnessed reactionary forces competing for turf.
MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu blasted Dr Mujuru as a copycat of Morgan Tsvangirai.
He queried why Build appeared to be a silhouette of their Agenda for Real Transformation and Juice.
And the name People First is self-contradictory. Just like the MDCs, it has never prioritised the people.
But this is hardly surprising seeing as Dr Mujuru’s political career has always been based on opportunism and patronage.
Opportunistic leaders can never claim to be principled. They quickly fall into the vice of political adultery, largely becoming puppets of alien interests.
We meet such leaders when we look at Tsvangirai and Mujuru.
In their political careers, the two have never been innovative. They have no principles and merely work to advance the interests of those who have money. Third World puppets suckle at the breast of mother West, even though we all know that the West only cares about its permanent interests.
Western funding has never developed Africa. Africa can only advance on the back of empowerment and indigenisation.
Where religion used to be the opium of the people, filthy foreign funding has become the opium of the spineless modern politician.
Dr Mujuru’s project has never been about the people, but a few fat-cats intent on protecting ill-gotten wealth.
If she is sincere, she can start by telling us how her family acquired the vast wealth that it has.
In a revolutionary country such as ours, a country born out of a protracted armed struggle, a struggle waged not by a gang of bandits, but by the universal will of the entire populace, such opportunistic politicians cannot thrive.
The people know what kind of leaders they need and they will not fall for projects such as these.
They understand that to go back to the past is not permissible. They are knowledgeable that People First represents not their aspirations, but the narrow interests of power hungry individuals.
After all, if Dr Mujuru really does not like Zanu-PF, why did she wait to be fired?
Why did she and her acolytes like Rugare Gumbo try to fight their dismissal?
Theirs is not a struggle. Rather it is a reaction to a reality that they cannot bear. They simply want to protect their own selfish interests.
Besides, from the onset it is clear that Dr Mujuru certainly lacks the mental and strategic capacity to organise and execute a political movement.
This is why everything she achieved politically she owed to President Mugabe. Without his patronage, she is a nobody.
People First is a bhasikiti of delusions.
Who in their normal senses would offer governance of a country to the likes of Kudakwashe Bhasikiti and Kudzai Mbudzi?
Dr Mujuru and her colleagues should learn from history, if they can read, to know that a personified reaction has never been successful in capturing State power.
Mohamed Khider, is an Algerian example. He was the ruling FLN secretary-general during the early years of independence.
He was dismissed for indiscipline by his party. Khider reacted by stealing US$14 million party funds and fleeing to Switzerland in 1963.
In his European hideout, he led his last life campaigning for reaction and vilifying the presidency of Ahmed Ben Bella and Houari Boumedienne.
Nothing came of his efforts.
Andre’ Matade Matsangaissa was a Frelimo officer who after being imprisoned for stealing from government also resorted to reaction.
His reactionary rebel movement, Renamo, was sponsored and organised by Rhodesian and South African handlers.
He was killed in action in Sofala in 1979. Despite a long, bloody and brutal civil war, Renamo failed to dislodge the faith of Mozambiqueans in Frelimo.
Mujuru was expected to behave like someone who was exposed to the reality of politics. She must remember Cde Edgar Tekere and the sad fate of ZUM.