SundayView: How Mugabe turned the Zim revolution on its head

Obituaries
  The word revolution in simple terms means a change in ways of doing things either politically, economically or socially. In African politics the word revolution has been commonly used to describe the uprising against colonial governments in favour of majority rule.

 

The early 1960s were the early years of revolutionary movements by the people of the then Southern Rhodesia against colonial rule. The revolutionary era saw the brutal assault, oppression, injustice and unlawful detention of political activists. Those who pioneered the revolution promised milk and honey through democracy, the rule of law and other elements of good governance on attaining independence in 1980.

 

Robert Mugabe was one of those nationalists who fought for the end of colonisation in Zimbabwe but has betrayed the ideals of the struggle.

 

Regrettably, Mugabe and his Zanu PF party have over the past three decades failed to deliver even one of the promises they made to the majority of Zimbabwe despite the untamed propaganda that they always dish out to the people through state media.

 

Mugabe has turned from a hero to a villain because of his failure on the political front coupled with confusing economic policies which saw the country being reduced to one of the worst economies in the world. The emergence of the Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was Mugabe’s acid test on his party’s purported democratic values.

 

Mugabe inherited and even expanded the repressive, oppressive and undemocratic style of ruling imposed by Ian Smith on the black majority. The last decade saw fierce oppression, assassination attempts, arrests on baseless allegations and prosecutions being levelled against Tsvangirai and his followers in an attempt to avert the existence of real democratic change.

 

What Mugabe is failing to take into account is the fact that the political gimmicks and tactics he is using were used by some politicians in the past and ended in tragedy hence they are now deposed. Mugabe, just like Smith, is now banking on his oppressive machinery in the name of the security forces and the judiciary to suppress revolutionary movements by banning MDC rallies, arresting and prosecuting party officials in a desperate attempt to avoid real change.

 

Mugabe is unnecessarily rewinding the sad memories of the liberation struggle through the so-called exhumations and Chimurenga files using the public media in an attempt to regain lost glory. The events of June 2008 leave many people wondering whether the exhumed bodies are indeed a result of the Rhodesian brutality of the 1970s or Zanu PF brutality of June 2008. The ageing politician does not seem to understand the meaning of the term “reconciliation” which he propounded in 1980.

 

He is still preaching the brutality of the Rhodesia today as if they never sat down and agreed to set aside past political differences. The extent to which Mugabe and his party are preaching about the brutality of the Rhodesian regime appears as if Zimbabwe is the only country that was under British colonial rule. Many former British colonies are working harmoniously with other countries and their economies are flourishing. Zanu PF and Mugabe want to use the past as justification for their failed policies.

 

The general outcry over anarchy, political and judicial injustice, unfair land distribution and autocratic governments levelled against the Smith regime are still evident in the Mugabe regime. So it is new wine in old bottles.

 

Having realised that he has lost grip on the political front to Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe is left with no option than to introduce terror to gain fear and not support.