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Brilliant Pongo
A LOT has been said about the elections that were held in Zimbabwe on the 31st of July, but after all has been said and done; the truth is change has come to Zimbabwe. Many have seen it. In fact, a good 61 percent have embraced it and the rest will not know or recognise the change they have been clamouring for even if it were to smack them across the face. This is because sadly for them change has to be delivered by one tea-boy-cum-post-boy Tsvangirai – to them the one anointed to make the delivery, to bring change to our beloved Zimbabwe.
Now that the post-boy could not deliver change packaged with love from our erstwhile coloniser and her sanctions-imposing friends in the West, they are crying foul (null and void they shout from podiums in hotel rooms) as they desperately try to discredit and erase the loud voice that clearly chose Robert Mugabe for President in the just-ended poll.
Well, Zimbabwe does not shut down on account of Morgan Tsvangirai throwing a tantrum.
This is what a lot of simple people seem to be thinking. There seems to be some sort of delusional thinking by some in the MDC-T camp that progress is tied exclusively to their party and Tsvangirai.
These people sadly believe that Zimbabwe is dead without Tsvangirai. They are the same people who believed Tsvangirai when he told us he held the keys to Zimbabwe’s elections, the same people who think Tsvangirai is the embodiment of change (Mr Chinja himself). Well things have really changed now in Zimbabwe, and can someone please whisper into Tsvangirai’s ear that change has come to Zimbabwe and that he is now the former prime minister. Zvatochinja sekutamba (Change has come just like that).
Last week I watched a wildlife documentary and there was a female baboon that had a baby, but somehow the baby baboon died and the mother carried this dead baboon for some time. The mother shook the dead baby, but it did not respond. She carried the dead baby baboon for a long while till maggots were eating away at the decomposing baby baboon. Part of me felt sorry for the baboon. As I watched this documentary, I asked myself, “Does the baboon know the baby is dead or is the baboon in denial?” I felt sorry for the mother baboon and hoped for its sake that it would soon realise that its baby was dead. The sooner it realised, I thought, the better for it because only then would it put this dead baby down and get on with its baboon life and not carry around the dead weight.
I could not help make a comparison of this story to Tsvangirai’s leadership woes. Like the baby baboon, Tsvangirai’s presidential ambition is now dead, and no amount of shaking will revive or bring it back to life. The sooner Tsvangirai puts his “dead baby” (presidential ambition) down and get on with his life as citizen Morgan Tsvangirai, the better it would be for him. Truly speaking, the “baby” that Morgan is carrying is dead.
Tsvangirai is refusing to accept reality. Like mother baboon, he continues to shake and carry a “dead baby”.
Appealing to the Constitutional Court as he has done will not help revive his “dead baby”, but will only serve as a post-mortem report recording the time and cause of death. No amount of crying or consolation from his close friends from the West will revive this baby. Morgan Tsvangirai may never publicly accept that he was defeated, but the fact remains that his political baby is dead.
The 31 July 2013 election did not go his way and that is now recorded for all posterity to see. Tsvangirai’s friends and relatives in the MDC-T will point fingers as to who killed the baby. They may consult all sorts of experts from near and far, but the baby remains dead.
Many of his supporters in his party feel sorry for him. Some are very angry. After all he tried three times and each time he chanted that slogan, “Gwendo guno hazvikoni,” (This time we will win) he could almost see himself kuState House but zvakakona (he lost the election). Morgan, “KuState House kure”. Akaimba wani Chimbetu.
In the last couple of years it had become common practice for many Zimbabweans particularly those in the Diaspora and largely those on social media forums to demonise anyone who does not view the MDC-T as custodian of change in Zimbabwe. They saw Tsvangirai as the one who holds the keys to progress and development in Zimbabwe.
proposed by Zanu-PF, they are seen as the enemy of change.
But it was the people on the ground who voted not the connections in the West.
When it came to indigenous matters and people on the ground, Tsvangirai clearly had less, Mugabe had more. The African Union agreed and Sadc concurred and their reports are the ones that matter for they were on the ground observing the election process.
Sadly, we have some people, Zimbabweans for that matter, who think that the key to a credible election is in the hands of the white man, and as long as the European Union, the USA and Australia have not endorsed our election it is null and void — a belief sadly held by many people who support outgoing Prime Minister Tsvangirai.
They are the people who are shamelessly clamouring “Tongai tione”, those who impudently proclaim that Zimbabwe with Zanu-PF in power cannot govern, cannot manage the economy, and cannot run its own affairs. These are the same Rhodesian elements who joined hands with Tsvangirai to call for illegal sanctions that brought untold suffering to Zimbabweans.
These same people, the Roy Bennetts, are now calling for violence and destabilisation in Zimbabwe. They want to make the country ungovernable. The question then is, “What? Mr Roy Bennet! Mozodii? Why wish for disorder simply because you backed a losing candidate? Is that what this tongai tione is about?”
These are the same people who, not so long ago, thought that the new black farmers could not be great farmers, that only the whites could produce crops on farms. They indeed once said, “Rimai tione”. Today we see the prowess of the new black farmers as they produce tobacco, maize, cotton and a range of other crops not by the bucket, but tonnes and tonnes.
I am against the intellectual bankruptcy that makes some black Zimbabweans believe that progress and success for Zimbabwe is in allowing the neo-colonialist to dictate the way to run Zimbabwe. I am against the idea that makes some black Zimbabweans believe that only the whites could be great farmers, that only the whites are the divinely appointed pace-setters in economic progress. Real change is needed for those who are still trapped in that paradigm.
The tongai tione challenge is one that the Zanu-PF led Government is willing to take up, just like the new farmers who have proved their worth on the repossessed farms.
The new Zanu-PF Government will prove its worth against all odds. It will show all its detractors, all those who doubt its ability to propel not only the nation but its people to a better economic standing, that it can deliver. Indigenisation and empowerment are not just slogans, but real policies that will improve the lives and the outlook of our nation.
Indeed change has come to Zimbabwe and the change is not ushered by the MDC-T, but by Zanu-PF and those Zimbabweans who were crying for change. It is here. Those of you who were praying for change, open your eyes, it is here.
Remember this, the MDC-T and Morgan Tsvangirai do not hold a monopoly on change, neither do they hold a monopoly on the economic progress of the nation of Zimbabwe. Therefore, they should embrace change as it is here.
Even Baba Jukwa who thought Tsvangirai was going to win, has recently been calling for violence to bring about change. Does he not see that change has already come without violence? Don’t be fooled by these Rhodesians and their dzakutsakus (sellouts) masquerading as people from the people’s party Zanu-PF.
Open your eyes Zimbabwe. God has answered your prayers for change.
I will end with a Bible verse: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same” (Romans 13 vs 1-3).
Bongani Ndlovu