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Stephen Mpofu
WEDNESDAY, July 31, is D-Day and Zimbabweans must think twice before putting an X against the name of their chosen presidential or other candidate. The elections next week are certainly not for voters to indulge themselves blindly in some kind of political experiment by electing people who have been promising them jumbo planes when they have not in the three decades of independence demonstrated a capacity or ability to achieve such goals.
The elections should be a revalidation of the success of the revolution that brought freedom and independence to this country 33 years ago after a protracted armed struggle. The elections should be viewed as a means to repair bridges sabotaged by the enemy and its local running dogs along the economic development road marked by shiny milestones which should see many more of these development sign posts added to them along a freedom and independence road that should be without end.
This pen humbly views the main goal of the harmonised elections as that of consolidating the gains of the revolution so that the people of this country may march forward resolutely without let or hindrance by political hyenas now roaming the political plain in the country, salivating after the liver of people who brought about Uhuru to the motherland.
Some people will say a sudden prolification of political parties – some of them fly-by-nights – epitomises multi-party democracy. Yes they probably have the right to think the way they do in a democratic society that Zimbabwe is, yet the kind of political plurality this country is suddenly burdened with has the potential to confuse voters to the extent of posing a risk to an outright victory by any one political organization.
Moreover, the sudden marriages of convenience in the form of impromptu coalitions might be mistaken by some people, rightly or wrongly, as sponsored by this country’s common enemy as being aimed at effecting regime change. If that is not so, the political parties that have suddenly appeared on the scene, or rushed into each other’s embrace as coalitions, have as their main objective a desire to reap debt money that some foreign powers are always wont to bankroll people ready to execute foreign agendas even though these might be to the disadvantage of both themselves and their country.
Of course, that is the stuff of which sell-outs are made of, or is it not? This pen contends that these people are made not of gold but of bronze – and bronzed politicians are to be seen strutting around the Zimbabwean political landscape and waiting to feed on any political spoils within easy reach. The contents of various manifestos by the contending political parties make one wonder whether the organisations selling themselves to the unsuspecting public are serious or whether they want to lure voters to their side by brandishing artificial carrots in order to get into power by any means possible. For instance, are the frenzied demands for “devolution” not likely to create regional if not tribal fiefdoms unconnected to central government by political umbilical cords? In fact, is the concept “devolution” not being used by some political hawks as a euphemism for secession which is being peddled by the so-called Mtwakazi Liberation Front?
If the structures under the much talked about devolution do not resemble those in a human body – itself a system where, while the different parts operate independently yet the sum total of their functions is the sustenance of the human being – then such an experiment might prove disastrous to Zimbabwe as a unitary state and to her people as a national family.
Thus, voters should be guided in their choice of a political organisation to form the next government after July 31 not by well articulated promises that may tend to be false but, rather, by track records that guarantee continuity in a political party’s endevours to improve the lives of the people of this country through economic and social development.
Yes, promises are daily being made to the effect that if a such and such political party gets into power it will invite foreigners – basically the same people who imposed sanctions that have virtually ruined Zimbabwe’s economy – to pour in their money to revive the economy. People who make such promises are either ignorant of international political dynamics or simply want to make voters believe that these leaders have the clout to deliver on their promises.
However, the country is the case here because imperialists will bring their capital for a price and that will be a nullification of the economic indigenisation programme as the foreign investors will repossess the means of production from indigenous Zimbabweans and nothing could be a worse epitomy of contemporary imperialism than this.
This pen’s advice to voters is: look before you jump for your own safety and that of this country’s sovereignty; otherwise they might plunge themselves and the country into a fire. For in an apparent bid to curry more favour with their foreign political backers for financial aid, all albeit tied to ropes, some political zealots appear hell bent on turning Zimbabwe into a society of homosexuals as is the case in some decadent societies in the West and elsewhere in Africa which have Sodom and Gomorrah as their model.
These politicians ignore or are ignorant of the demise of Sodom and Gomorrah where men with inverted sex demanded and tried in vain to rape angels sent by God to rescue Lot and his family before fire and sulphur reigned down from heaven and incinerated the two wicked towns and their entire populations.
It looks like humanity has entered a straight towards the end of the world and a nearer summary judgment by the Creator to close a chapter of human existence.
Stephen Mpofu is former editor of the Chronicle, and the Sunday Mail
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