I am sometimes woken up in the middle of the night by powerful men and women who expect and are used to being obeyed.
“Ken, if you had asked me, I would have given you more information on Saviour Kasukuwere.
“Anyway, look at the other side also.” This is a command.
“Great master, “ I answer, “ I am only a door keeper at Aplha Media House. I do what I am told.”
I calmed down and got down to writing notes on my tablet. “I know you Ken,” the voice threatens, not without some indulgence, “don’t make fun out of this. This is serious.”
Kasukuwere is a false storm.
Brother Saviour Kasukuwere is a former stalwart Zanu PF apparatchik, who served at the Ministry of Youth and later at Local Government. However, in his role as national commissar (2008). There were acts of violence which are well documented in various official election observer reports.
One incident involved two brothers I went to school with at Howard Mission. The Chironga brothers, who were MDC organisers, woke up in the middle of the night to find their 300-strong pig coral had been fire-bombed. They were shot dead.
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That is the point I am making.
When Saviour’s application for entering the presidential election was temporarily rejected by a stalwart judge David Mungota, Saviour was dumbfounded.
"I am advised that at law, a judgement given by a biased judicial officer must be treated as pro non scripto (as not written) and the same cannot be appealed against, but rescinded at law as the same does not appear in the record," Kasukuwere said in an affidavit.
Saviour was referring to the US$400 000 forgivable loans extended to senior judicial officers and other government officers. That is the system he helped create and which enabled him to walk away and say that he did not do anything wrong.
Why is he complaining now about a loaded system?
The Indian dance
The explanation is very simple. In the Indian dance, dancers act, cut up, and show off following a well laid out circle. Occasionally, they step out, pick up a cup, dip into a pot of honey (muti) in the center of the circle, thus renewing their energy.
Life is good.
If the chief touches a dancer’s shoulder, that dancer is out of the circle, he no longer has access to the pot of honey.
Dear readers, do I speak in riddles?
I, son of Eland, maternal grandson of the Rainbird tribe, do not shed any tears when I find that group of sinners consisting of the intellectual prostitute Jonathan Moyo, Patrick Zhuwao and Walter Mzembi complain that the honey if contaminated.
I do not see the Supreme Court as being less ideological and stalwart.
However, I am not a fool. Left to themselves, I would regard them as raising a false storm. But there is another explanation in the Indian dance.
If too many dancers are thrown out of the circle, and they create a critical mass outside the dance, and they raise their voices, thus creating what is called a critical mass, the chief may be in trouble.
The politicians begin by ignoring the fact that they drank from the honey pot but raise issues about the health hazards of drinking the muti.
Do I speak in riddles?
The politicians, judging by the vast amounts of money they have raised, are trying to reach critical mass.
The politicians, enemies of truth, begin by ignoring the fact that ED has done exceedingly well in transportation rehabilitation of the main throughways and freeways, Beitbridge-Harare, and Mutare-Bulawayo.
It is a start.
Further, ED has bolstered black national companies like Masimba, Tagwireyi, Chiyangwa and others. All national companies, Costain of Africa (dam construction), Roberts and Murray (Sky-scrappers) and Sugar Triangle and later Sisco Builders were nursed, financed, and given privileges by the colonial government. In China they call that Shogun (preference).
Please readers, extend the same grace to black companies.
Zimbabwe will be exporting wheat and maize, for the first time in 50 years. He has done well there too.
However, ED has very foolish advisors. Despite a 25% rise in mineral sales abroad in the last five years, and the increase in new registered companies, a serious paradox of high employment and increased poverty has been created.
By depreciating the Zee dollar, one literally trains all the wealth that has been created in the last five years. I challenged my friend Fabian Mabaya, the mathematician, to find me five workers in Masvingo whose wages are sufficient to support a family of two children.
He could not find any. This is ED’s Archilles heel.
Despite their own corruption and violence when they were in power, this group of politicians are trying to build a coalition of the discontented. Virtually everybody I know is living outside the law. It is called “kuwaya-waya.” Teachers are arranging extra lessons, to be paid for in US dollars, outside teaching hours and during summer recess.
The politicians say that ED is responsible for manipulation of tender policies in healthcare, currency, jobs, crony capitalism, Zimra ideological targeting of opponents and worse that investments have benefitted all-weather friends in the Gold Mafia and the Chinese miners.
ED has been very successful in convincing indigenous churches as opposed to missionary churches to support his government. Mapostori, rightly, believe and walk the talk that religion must comfort the weak in their everyday lives and not be subject to serving foreign interests.
A lesson we learn from religion is that before going forward, one must look back, acknowledge mistakes of the last, define them, and then seek repentance. Repentance is the first step towards rectifying past mistakes.
A manifesto allows for reflections on past mistakes. Savior’s manifesto does lay out Zanu-PF past mistakes.
Compensation for white farmers should be discussed side by side with compensation for Gukurahundi victims.
Foreigners should not be allowed to own retail shops. Zimbabweans should mine their own minerals.
Stop importing food items, beginning with ketchup.
These politicians completely ignore the rules of debate.
- Ken Mufuka spent ten years researching on a book: Life and Times of Robert Mugabe, 1980-1920. He writes from the US. He can be reached at [email protected]
