Moyo objective only when bitter

Obituaries
AFTER reading Jonathan Moyo’s article (Sunday Mail, February 14) one feels compelled to conclude that the professor is apparently objective only when bitter. To conclude any other way would be a clear disregard of Moyo’s reasoning. 

AFTER reading Jonathan Moyo’s article (Sunday Mail, February 14) one feels compelled to conclude that the professor is apparently objective only when bitter. To conclude any other way would be a clear disregard of Moyo’s reasoning. 

No doubt, Moyo’s exposition of the politburo in its current form and the limitations thereof provides one with an unprecedented damning indictment of Zanu PF by one of its very own cadres, the kind of which came only from Joshua Nkomo before the unity accord.

What ramifications there are to follow, if any, are not of consequence for present purposes.

What Moyo has sought to do, and has done successfully, is explain to Zanu PF that indeed times are changing and that the party had better correspondingly change with them.

Perhaps this is one amongst the many early signs of the coming of democracy to Zimbabwe for not only was Moyo’s article made available through internet sites, it was, in fact, first published in the Sunday Mail — one of the very few articles critical of President Robert Mugabe to have emanated from the state mouthpiece in a very long time.

Whatever speculation there was about the internal troubles of Zanu PF, Moyo puts them to rest in his article when he brazenly explains that factionalism has become the order of the day in that party.

Apart from Mugabe superficially denouncing factionalism and downplaying its extent, no other person to my recollection had been on record until Sunday confirming that factionalism existed, let alone on the scale portrayed by Moyo.

All this while we were made to believe that factionalism was a term unique only to the MDC and that Zanu PF did not need to be reminded of the truism that anything anywhere was better off united than divided.

In my opinion, unless something is done and done with the expedition it requires, that Zanu PF will soon be history is a foregone conclusion.

I am not sure how Mugabe must feel right now but there can be nothing worse than facing fierce opposition not only from without but also from within.

Yet there is a general disinclination within his party to do things the democratic way.

It is becoming increasingly clear that just as Mugabe has instilled sustained fear in the ordinary man and woman on the street he has also done the same with those around him who might occasionally find it instructive to question the status quo.

Instead of owing it to the people to salvage whatever there is left of Zimbabwe and work to better what could otherwise have been a worse situation, Mugabe continues to exhibit stunning detachment from the welfare of the nation.

What we seem to get a lot of these days is the unashamed compulsion to have sanctions targeted at otherwise unforgivable individuals relaxed.

What is worse the relaxation of those sanctions is made a prerequisite for any concession aimed at making Zimbabwe self-sufficient, democratic, safe and God fearing.

By maintaining such a ludicrous stance, what Zanu PF is effectively saying is: provided those sanctions abroad remain in place, we, back home, will likewise keep our sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe in place.

Zanu PF must be told without equivocation that the destiny of the majority of Zimbabweans is not and cannot be inextricably linked to that of the evil few in our midst. Everyone knows that power corrupts but let it not corrupt even the conscience for there is nothing more left of any human being if their conscience is gone.

The indigenisation legislation is a preposterous measure, and one that should not even be considered a possibility in circumstances such as ours. South Africa, for instance, can afford to enact and implement the Black Economic Empowerment Act (BEE) but not even they would encourage BEE to have sweeping consequences of the type contemplated by Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere. The Act is some kind of a joke and must be loathed for what it is: a dry joke! Hazvisekesi.

I am not sure what policies the global political agreement has come up with but whatever they are I am certain this type of legislation is discernibly against the policy framework relevant to the Zimbabwe of today and should, accordingly, be set aside in sync with the country’s present needs.

If there is one thing that is most remarkable about the people of Zimbabwe it is that they are an enduring lot.

Meanwhile Mugabe remains the unpopular, beleaguered, indifferent despot who caused and continues to cause his own people’s suffering of frightening proportions. From Gukurahundi to Murambatsvina to the June 27 2008 polls, he has often resorted to methods that served him well in the past: violence and indifference.

In the circumstances, it is mischievous and rather presumptuous of Moyo to conclude that every Zimbabwean, knowingly or unknowingly, is Zanu PF at heart. If anything, there is now more reason to conclude that every Zimbabwean, and I mean every Zimbabwean, consciously or otherwise is anti-Zanu PF!

Psychology Maziwisa is the interim president of the Union for Sustainable Democracy.