adminThe unsigned “communiqué” distributed at the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association meeting in Harare on July 21, 2016 is, in my view, the most errant and destabilising document ever authored by any group of people claiming to be ex-combatants.
It is unimaginable that former freedom fighters could issue such a document which constitutes the most blatant onslaught on the essence and legacy of the liberation struggle.
The style, content and jargon reeks of neo-liberal reactionary sentiments akin to those constantly peddled by regime change charlatans.
It is, thus, unthinkable that given their training, discipline and unity of purpose war veterans could ever indulge in such an irrational and unprocedural act uncharacteristic of their acknowledged understanding of their extolled historical status in the birth of Zimbabwe.
The ZNLWA executive has denied responsibility for the document’s authorship; therefore one cannot rule out the covert entrapment of the Fifth Column.
In liberation parlance, the Fifth Column is a group of people who act traitorously and subversively out of a secret sympathy with an enemy of their country.
The term is credited to General Emilio Mola Vidal during the Spanish Civil War in a radio broadcast on October 16, 1936, in which he said he had una quinta columna (“a fifth column”) comprising sympathisers of General Franco among the Republicans holding the city of Madrid and it would join his four columns of troops when they attacked.
The term was popularised by American author Ernest Hemingway and later extended to any traitorous insiders.
In essence, the Fifth Column is a clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation’s solidarity by any means at its disposal.
A principal technique of the Fifth Column is infiltrating sympathisers into the entire fabric of the nation under attack, particularly into positions of policy-decision and national defence.
It is from such key posts that Fifth Column activists exploit the fears of a people by spreading rumours and misinformation and by employing the more standard techniques of espionage and sabotage.
In analysing the purported veterans’ communiqué, one can decipher the active role of the Fifth Column in constituting the meeting, its agenda and the distribution of the document.
There is sufficient evidence that the revolutionary Zanu-PF party has been infiltrated by reactionary forces whose sole aim is not just to undermine President Mugabe’s leadership, but to completely obliterate and besmirch the legacy of the liberation struggle.
Information at hand indicates that nothing out of the ordinary prompted the ZNLWA leadership to call such a meeting except the need to appraise members on welfare issues.
However, as soon as the meeting began, it became apparent that the whole discourse was being stage-managed by people with ulterior motives of creating a volatile atmosphere in tandem with the planned distribution of the communiqué.
The question that arises is whether the leadership was unaware of the apparent contagion effect of having such a meeting a few days after the frenzied social media agitation from #This flag and Tajamuka movements.
While one can understand the frustrations of war veterans in regard to welfare issues, it boggles the mind why a group of people that regards itself as the vanguard of the revolutionary party could react in such a manner.
It is unthinkable that the former fighters’ frustrations would blight their vision in realising that it is not only retrogressive, but treasonous to be seen supping with the Open Society Initiative funded by George Soros whose destabilising acts in progressive countries are legendary.
It boggles the mind why ZNLWA members were oblivious to the fact that they were being snared into a meeting whose agenda resonated with the Tajamuka effort to force President Mugabe to quit office.
As trained and disciplined cadres, the former fighters should have been skeptical of the direction the meeting was taking and called some members to order.
Structured like the 1975 Mgagao Declaration, which passed a vote of no confidence on then Zanu leader the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, the July 21 document sought to imbue a sense of finality and read like a divorce decree.
It read like the lamentations of a jilted lover muckraking all perceived flaws of his/her partner in a way that disregarded the very foundational ethos that cemented the relationship over the years.
What is clear is that the Fifth Column took advantage of the general anomalous state of the ZNWLA leadership to sow disharmony and create an artificial rift between them, their patron and the revolutionary party.
This kind of infiltration occasionally happens when a ruling party is lulled by internal petty non-ideological factional differences.
Zanu-PF needs serious introspection.
That war veterans are an integral facet of the party can never be overstated.
However, mechanisms must be put in place to ensure the veterans dynamically re-align themselves in providing the ideological dictum and stamina to the post-independence membership.
Pertinent to the survival and sustenance of the revolutionary party is the imminent need for a generational conversation.
The apparent glaring discontent between the new younger membership and the ex-fighters must be re-aligned to a non-antagonistic state. It is a demographic truism of the time that the younger general membership constitute the majority while the ex-fighters’ are daily diminishing in numbers.
However, the two groups need to complement each other instead of being at odds.
The younger generation has a lot to learn from the institutional memory of the surviving freedom fighters in grasping the foundational ethos of the party.
On the other hand, the ex-fighters need also to appreciate the need for continuity and that it is the post-independence membership that bears responsibility of ensuring the liberation ethos will not be sacrificed on the altar of expedience.
Re-alignment of all its critical facets is essential in giving impetus to the fulfilment of liberation aspirations and consolidating its hold on power.
What is at the crux of the current seemingly disharmonious state of affairs is the disconnect between the old and the new membership whose energy must be harnessed in a constructive manner.
The revival of the Chitepo Ideological College is one such way in which the disconnection can be mended.
It is also important that the party decisively weeds members of the Fifth Column whose intent on destroying the party is becoming more and more vicious. — Zimpapers Syndication Unit
Online Reporter