EDITOR – The June 27, 2008 Zanu (PF) so-called manifesto is very clear. Anything evil can happen with Zanu (PF) in power – Gukurahundi, Murambaswina, project wavotera ani? (Whom did you vote for?), logging you to death, torture, rape, murder, property plunder and destruction of entire homes and the economy without fear, apology or compensation.

Gideon Gono is asked by the emperor to be everything: Father Christmas for Zanu (PF) and its beneficiaries and the junta, a banker, Reserve Bank Governor, businessman, politician, miner and a farmer, building expensive (US$143,000) silos at his New Donnington farm, some 10km away from Norton’s big, empty GMB silos. It’s casino economics at play.

Robert Mugabe and Gideon Gono pretend there is no gross conflict of interest in their greed for wealth and self-enrichment without sweat among the brainwashed Zanu (PF) poverty-stricken followers.

The Amnesty International report is actually moderate compared to what happens on the ground. Zanu (PF) is preparing for more violence through the current re-structuring into clusters. Border Gezi and Eliot Manyika restructured Zanu (PF) into command centres, no-go areas, and secret murder houses.

The new clusters are just military tactics for enclosing all Zimbabweans in the so-called protected villages like the Ian Smith keeps of Madziwa, Bushu, Chiweshe, Matepatepa and Mukumbura.

The Army wants to officially run Zimbabwe by declaring a curfew and no-go areas for MDC-T and PF Zapu.
The arrest of a Robert Mugabe, the murderer, in Malawi is a true pointer of the real origin of Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his in law Zhuwao.
Zimbabwe needs a moderate, Zimbabwean, sober leader from a stable background and not extremist pretenders.

Zanu (PF) thrives where there is chaos and violence. Go to Zanu (PF) forced rallies in rural areas and hear the usual slogan of “Down with MDC and its Tsvangirai”, nothing has changed out there. The CIOs, police, militia and brigadiers are still intimidating the peasants.

Clusters will enslave Zimbabweans to work in the farms of the service chiefs, so they can become richer than they are now.
Zanu (PF) continues to gain lost ground through Zanu (PF) Reserve Bank governor, Zanu (PF) attorney-general, Zanu (PF) permanent secretaries,  Zanu (PF) army, Zanu (PF) police, Zanu (PF) CIO, Zanu (PF) Green Bombers, Zanu (PF) traditional chiefs and Zanu (PF) judges.

Zanu (PF) has all the money from gold and diamonds hidden in caskets to finance the next civil war. Zanu (PF), supported by SADC, has become so bold that Gideon Gono and Robert Mugabe officially display instant wealth without sweat to King Mswati, showing how grab and loot can bring them joy; flashy, extravagant, careless lifestyles of milk and honey in a desert of impoverished masses without apology.
Robert Mugabe will not go without pressure or even force. The service chiefs have guns from North Korea and China and cannot be removed by word of mouth alone. MDC is being swallowed and infiltrated. Parliament seems to be made up of mostly imposed MPs with no idea of why they are there, except for cars. Robert Mugabe should go back to Malawi, his mother country, and leave us alone. Aluta continua.

THE STREET KID, by email

Why Gono should go

EDITOR – Allow me to try and inform Zimbabweans why I and many others think that Gono should go. It is not a secret that Gono does not have the people at heart. He is only trying to fatten his own pockets at the expense of us Zimbabweans.
Gono is using the bank employees to buy gold in the informal market for his personal use. The financial intelligence evaluation and security is the team behind the whole operation.

The gold bought from the informal market is not benefiting the country, but individuals. Gono is benefiting from private mines, which the bank is helping out with cash, security and equipment. Carlson Gold mines are said to be owned by other people, but Gono has bigger shares.

Gono also recently purchased mining equipment from South Africa to mine diamonds at a mine near Treetop, seven to ten kilometres along the Gweru-Bulawayo highway.
My fellow Zimbabweans, I don’t think we need such a man running the country’s finances. I, for one, would not trust the country’s money in his hands, because it is indeed in his pockets.
Zimbabweans, let’s work together and see this man go.

ANON, by email

Kombayi deserves to lie at the Heroes Acre

EDITOR – It is with a sad heart that I learnt of the death of Senator Patrick Kombayi. He was indeed a true son of the soil. He fought for the liberation of Zimbabwe and deserves to lie at the Heroes Acre, just like other gallant sons and daughters at the shrine.

It really boggles the mind as to who exactly determines the status of all the heroes that will lie at the shrine. Kombayi deserves to rest at the shrine.
If there is anyone out there who is the decision-maker, please consider Kombayi as a Zimbabwean hero who deserves the hero status.

He was there during the struggle to liberate Zimbabwe from colonial rule and he was there again trying to democratise Zimbabwe.
Rest in peace Comrade Kombayi. We, the children of Zimbabwe, will always remember you for your strength and courage.

ANON, by email

Stop complaining – come up with answers

EDITOR – Some people at Southwark Cathedral shouted down the Prime Minister. Some people on the internet blogs are saying it sounds in London interviews like he is being too accommodating to President Mugabe.
They are angry, some even feeling betrayed. Without doubt, many are true victims and may God bless them.

But let’s be honest with ourselves: if we wanted real dramatic change, when the election was stolen in 2002 or 2008, then we could have done what the people in Iran have done.

But we didn’t. A few people like WOZA get arrested time and again for peaceful public activities. Sometimes NCA does, too. I don’t know who else, not many images of Zimbabweans on the streets protecting their stolen vote.
So I say, if we aren’t going to be part of the solution, like the people of Iran, then really, what good does it do to be part of the problem by picking away at leaders who have pragmatically committed to reconciliation? Including President Mugabe. Enough already.

Things are not perfect. My friends are still struggling mightily. 150 days cannot undo 150 months.
When I hear the heckles, I think we are actually saying to the Prime Minister: “I want the stores empty again, as a matter of principle. And since things aren’t perfect, why not let’s close the schools again, until they are. Why? Because we just think you are being too nice to the President and we all want to suffer, suffer, suffer until things are perfect. Perfect or else!”
Friends, we could have marched through Harare with signs saying ‘where is our vote?’ We didn't. I for one was too scared. Now I see on TV every minute these brave people. But that is not the path we took, is it? No. We were too afraid, or too something. I don’t know what. We thought somebody would solve our problem for us. And when they didn’t, we started fighting and fingerpointing amongst ourselves. (Never pointing the finger at our own selves.)

Politics in Zimbabwe doesn’t need to be a zero-sum game. When we, the people, change the constitution, it does not have to be winner-take-all like it is now. It can be a proportional representation like in South Africa. I’ss better for stability; worse for accountability. Is anyone talking about this?

I’m sorry, people, but it seems like we always are acting like victims for this reason or that reason. “The old government is bad”, we said. “The new government is bad”, some say now. These people in London. How rough is life for them there? Maybe that’s one reason they heckled the PM. I bet they don’t want to return because they have got used to being in England. Some might be afraid, true enough, but let’s be honest, it might be expensive but it’s an interesting life.

In closing, I ask these people who fled to the streets of London (who complain to each other in bars and on safe street corners far from danger) about our leaders and their cars and so on and so forth, I ask all Zimbabwean citizens with so many complaints in their mouths: Where were you on March 30, 2008? Or on March 12, 2002? Were you on the streets?

Right. So, let us try to honour the spirit of peace and reconciliation and quit being permanent victims. Yes, we were victims. Beaten, tortured, lost our livelihoods, family members. I write from experience. But for now, comrades, let’s come up with solutions. I am so tired of hearing people think they can do better than this government. But no one ever says how! What is the alternative?



Disappointment and fury at Southwark

Why didn’t Morgan Tsvangirai tell us the truth at Southwark Cathedral last weekend, writes author PAULINE HENSON?

Southwark Cathedral has strong ties with Zimbabwe and the Bishop of Southwark is himself clearly in sympathy with the Movement for Democratic Change and has links to many parishes in Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans had travelled from all over the UK to be present to hear Morgan Tsvangirai address them. The vast cathedral was crowded with over a thousand Zimbabweans.

After two weeks of travel to various capitals and being feted by heads of state, including President Obama of the US, Morgan Tsvangirai arrived in London. Perhaps the Zimbabwean Prime Minister was a touch complacent about the welcome he would receive from his own compatriots but whatever the reason he was certainly ill-prepared for what happened.

It started so well; he entered the cathedral to a warm welcome from the huge crowd. So what happened, where did it all go wrong?
There had been press reports all week that the Prime Minister was going to urge the people to go back to Zimbabwe.

That was Morgan Tsvangiral’s biggest mistake. He totally failed to gauge the mood of his audience and he failed to understand the strength of feeling among his compatriots, many of whom had lost everything and been brutalised and tortured by the Mugabe regime.

By the time he was telling the audience that peace and stability prevailed in Zimbabwe, that schools and hospitals were open again and that there were goods in the shops, Morgan Tsvangirai had completely lost his audience.

He was hit by a wave of highly vocal anger and he stood apparently bemused by what he was hearing. Instead of raising his voice and reasserting his authority he simply left the pulpit; that was the very worst thing he could have done.

When he returned some minutes later, he made things even worse by asking in a rather aggrieved way: “Did I say start packing now? No, I said you should be thinking about going home.” As if we don’t think about that all the time, the audience muttered angrily.
The questions from the floor, apart from being very badly organised, were direct and to the point. “What is there for us to go back to while Mugabe is still there?” And that was the focal point for the crowd’s anger; a huge shout went up: “Mugabe out, Mugabe out” but, of course, Tsvangirai couldn’t respond to that. After all, he sits in partnership with the same man who has given and is still giving the orders to continue the oppression of all dissenting voices.

I spoke to lots of people and I heard nothing but intense disappointment. What should have been an occasion for renewed hope and belief in the future had turned into a miserable fiasco. One woman, shaking with anger, said: “I was raped, my children were beaten and traumatised and Morgan Tsvangirai tells me to go back, go back to what?” she demanded.

I had the distinct feeling that he had given little thought to what he was going to say. Perhaps, after weeks of international adulation he just could not believe that his harshest critics would be his own countrymen and women?

Just the day before the Prime Minister made that nonsensical claim, the WOZA women were savagely beaten by the police and the violent farm invasions were continuing, but the Prime Minister made no mention of those unpleasant truths.
As they left the Cathedral, people were asking why could Morgan Tsvangirai not just have told them the truth; that things were not yet right at home, but that he and his fellow MDC ministers were working hard to rectify the situation?

Instead, he was assuring them all was well. He forgets that all of us in the diaspora are in regular communication with families and friends back home. We understand very well the reality on the ground. He also forgets that without the hard-earned cash contributions from Zimbabweans in the diaspora, thousands of families at home might never have survived.
Yet, still, he tells us to go home. Go home to what? To a country where there is, on Tendai Biti’s own admission, 94 per cent unemployment and NGOs are feeding an estimated five million people, expected to rise to seven million next year.
Instead of an honest and realistic assessment of the situation, the truth was distorted and the man we trusted, the man who was our hero, has shown himself no more honest than any other politician.

Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF) will be laughing all the way to the ballot box.  
Pauline Henson is the author of Going Home and Countdown, political detective stories set in Zimbabwe.