Economic looters replacing each other in Zim

Mmegi Editor | Wednesday November 22, 2017 18:13

This happened after Mugabe’s overly ambitious and reckless wife Grace, influenced the President to fire the VP, Emmerson Mnangagwa. Chiwenga made it clear that the army does not support the purging of struggle veterans in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

It was a matter of days before the army took over the running of Zimbabwe in what they called “bloodless correction”. It seems the intervention of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) in an operation termed ‘Operation Restore Legacy’ is supported by powerful western countries and United States of America, which are conspicuous by their silence.

We must hasten to add that a coup regardless that it has been christened ‘Operation Restore Legacy’ or “bloodless correction” is still a coup. And rational being person should not support any coup. Although Mugabe’s time is up, those who support this coup within the army and ZANU-PF are equally guilty of so many atrocities. We have not forgotten the crimes against humanity they perpetrated on the poor Zimbabweans for decades, by the ZANU PF government and the army.

We cannot just accept Chiwenga et al as Zimbabwe savours, as some docile poor masses believe. The world cannot forget the atrocities he and the army committed after Mugabe’s ZANU-PF lost 2008 election against Morgan Tsvangarai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Chiwenga is on record saying that he will never salute Tsvangarai as he lacked struggle credentials.

This military coup is nothing but a bogus factional struggle within the ruling party to replace the nonagenarian Mugabe who should also be disabused from his misguided notion that he has the divine right to rule Zimbabwe until he dies. Mugabe is still ruling Zimbabwe as a result of the army. The army played a crucial role to keep Mugabe in power before and after 2008 and Chiwenga cannot be said to be saint or the people’s voice.

In this war for power a faction is spending sleepless nights to replace another. The war has nothing to do with the struggle for economic and social emancipation that the patriotic Zimbabweans waged against the minority white rule before 1980. The poor man in the street will benefit nothing economically from the factional war.

This is nothing to suggest that economic status of an average Zimbabwean will improve after Mnangagwa inherits power from the dictatorship of Mugabe. After all, Mnangagwa and Mugabe are birds of same feather. They flock together. Don’t they? They both benefitted from the mismanagement of Zimbabwe for decades.

Today’s thought

“The measure of a man is what he does with power.” 

 - Plato