An issue
that seem to elude Swazis, especially Swazi democracy activists is that what
ZANU PF is pursuing at present might be an antithesis of what Swazi
“progressives” are supposedly pursuing; or rather, that ZANU PF’s rhetoric is
in disagreement with the obtaining reality in Zimbabwe.
President Robert Mugabe |
Not to single out President Robert Mugabe, but to adopt the premise that all he articulates in office is ZANU PF’s pursuit and therefore its policy or maybe it’s intended policy.
It beats reason why Robert Mugabe should
receive such specialised applause when such should be the expected resolve from
African leaders and not the exception. It is more or less the case of
applauding the father’s child for paying child-maintenance.
To say Zimbabwe is democratic just
because it is democratic on paper would be like saying Swaziland is
constitutional just because it has a constitution.
Maybe trying to count the cost of “The
fight against the imperialist” by ZANU PF would reveal who has been the biggest
loser in ‘the war against the West”. And that ZANU won the previous elections
because of its years of influence, and because of MDC’s tendencies of overly
bedding “the enemy” might be more the reality than the insinuation that it is
loved by the people; it is more the case of the lesser evil, and that there is
a fear among Zimbabweans that if ZANU PF might lose any elections, harsh might
be the retaliation from the “people’s party”, as ZANU has previously let loose
the violent tendencies of its rogue youth on the populace.
That ZANU PF won the previous elections
is something that the West should accustom itself to because it is actually the
mostly likely outcome in appreciation of the complacency that the MDC fell into
after the Government of National Unity and its disillusionment within its own
ranks.
The exodus of Zimbabweans into South
Africa caused by the destabilisation of Zimbabwe by the proxy war-on-Britain,
(otherwise known as the Land Reform Programme) is staggering. Such reality can
be appreciated if one were to see the length of the line of Zimbabweans queuing
on Pritchard Street in Johannesburg trying to partake of the overwhelmingly
inadequate charity that the Methodist Church has offered to the mostly displaced
Zimbabwean people, while the South African government has mostly watched in
disinterest. Or maybe to visit Diepsloot that has absorbed Zimbabweans to such
saturation that the conditions have regressed to a point where there are
sporadic Shona/Ndebele feuds.
Appreciating the sheer number of
Zimbabweans in South Africa and how establishments like Steers, Checkers,
Debonairs, BP filling station and many other retailers, have come to generously
employ the affordable, hassle-free Zimbabwean labour, maybe it wouldn’t be an
untruth to insinuate that the-war-on-the-Britain (otherwise known as Counter
Colonial Therapy) should shoulder the bigger blame for the Xenophobic attacks
that began in Alexander township, and continue to be a constant bubbling-under time-bomb that threatens to go
off every time any establishment retrenches employees in South Africa.
The propaganda is that Zimbabweans now
own land and the food production is growing by leaps and bounds, year on year.
Maybe so, but the reality is that there is a reluctance of the expatriates to
repatriate and logic has it that where one is reluctant to return, the
conditions are not conducive for progressive habitation.
The question still remains that, if the
war was on the Britain (otherwise known as Show Them The Appropriate Finger) or
the fight against the residue of the West that missed the wagon “home”, why is
it that that it is mostly black Zimbabweans that have absorbed the greater part
of the onslaught? Has anyone ever bothered to compare the number of affected
black Zimbabweans in relation to white Zimbabweans because I am sure that main
stream media hasn’t?
I guess the biggest question would be to
ask if ZANU PF is pursuing a better life for Zimbabweans or if it is on some
vengeance mission to show the West if it is “my Zimbabwe” or “your Britain”
that has more natural minerals under the ground. Because many are the “African
Heroes” within ZANU PF and much is the shoulder-patting for a job well done on
unequivocally informing the imperialist on exactly where to shove it, and such
ego trips are the prime suspect on the main reason for the sometimes
counter-productive policies at the expense of the welfare of the people.
It then becomes an issue of intrigue as
to where Swazis - especially Swazi democracy activists - find space to
unashamedly sing praises of Robert Mugabe in a narrative splattered all over
the abuse of human rights. Is it not human rights abuses that are perpetrated
in Swaziland that Swazi democracy activists should applaud such in Zimbabwe
just because the human rights abuser has shown the middle finger to the
Imperialist? That because my enemy is your enemy, then we should be friends
even though you perpetrate that which I fight against? …because there are well
over two million walking talking and suffering reasons in South Africa why that
which is happening in Zimbabwe is abuse on fellow humans, on ZANU PF’s watch.
Not to insinuate that ZANU PF or Robert Mugabe
is devoid of virtue, but to question the wisdom to applaud one human being or a
grouping of human beings when millions have been uprooted with an uncertain
future, in a foreign land, while their leaders back home claim it is them they
fight for. If political activist are cheering the few, then who is mourning the
millions that have suffered for years and continue to suffer? It comes across
as a counterintuitive case of verbal ill of politicians and political activists
because common sense would have it that if the Land Reform Project was to have
collateral, it would have been white Zimbabweans, but the reality is that those
that have suffered the most have been black Zimbabweans, and thereafter it was
a standing ovation for the perpetrators of the suffering.
It may seem like we applaud those with
the prerequisite rhetoric without really taking stock of the impact they have
made to human development.
The Human
Development Index (HDI) measures the quality of life-experience people in
a given country experience overall in areas such as how long people live,
access to education; and how much money individuals make in a year. Even though
it is not a watertight method but it gives a more or less reasonably reliable
pointer on a given country’s direction of development.
The much sold level of education even
though having grown steadily since 1980 (the Human Development Index (HDI) in
income was worse off in 2012 than it was in 1980) shows that the education has
not resulted in a better standard of living and more money in the pocket of the
average Zimbabwean. And that ZANU PF might not have earned the hero status
after-all, because even life expectancy of the average Zimbabwean was lower in
2012 than it was in 1980.
The curious thing is that even the
education that is lauded as one of the best in Africa is what could be
considered as average globally, because when compared with the HDI in education
of countries like Finland, then Zimbabwe’s education is left wanting and when
further compared in income (GDP per capita) and health, it fades into
insignificance.
The question is what has ZANU PF done
that political activists should whistle in hearty cheer when President Mugabe
stands up? Are we now going to be a continent that cheer the most for those who
throw the best insults at Western Imperialists? Are we to be a continent that
award and honour those that pursue vengeful policies instead of Human
Development policies?
That ZANU PF has been shamefully quiet
on the dictatorship obtaining in Swaziland is a reality we ponder on when we
try to reason the role of ruling former liberation movements in Africa. And
that ZANU PF is a cause for the suffering of a lot of Zimbabweans should shame
any Swazi political activist who even ponders on the act of cheering that shame
that is taking place in Zimbabwe, because there is a similar shame taking place
in Swaziland.
That the then ZANU is yet to give humane
reasons why the death of twenty thousand in Matabeleland was the better option because
it would be curious to know if the leaders at ZANU had so run out of ideas at
the time, and that wholesale murder of civilians was really the last option.
It may seem like we are cheering our very
demise, but didn’t we cheer to the point of hoarse voices when a boy of
eighteen years was crowned to be a leader of one of the most developmentally
challenged countries in the world. It may seem that we never learn.
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