After hearing the news of the two war vets who are now being incarcerated by the Mugabe regime for demanding freedom, I went to bed and gave my mind the task to answer the question- should we support the arrested war vets just as we have supported Evan Mawarire and Lynda Masarira and many others arrested for demanding our freedom?
It was not until I read Alex Magaisa’s opinion piece this morning on the matter when the penny dropped. In his piece which you can find on his blog, he articulates well why we must separate rule of law and our emotion or personal opinions on the matter.
True, it is the most difficult thing to do, to begin to think about supporting war veterans given their ghastly deeds against us citizens in support of the dictator who has now turned on them. It requires us to seek the higher ground against our immediate emotions and, whether its comfortable or not, that is what we must force ourselves to now do.
I therefore have the answer now, thanks to Alex, who I think is an excellent thought leader. You see, the enemy wants us to be like them and in that way it vilifies their nature. However we the progressive citizens of Zimbabwe who want to create a better society must reject the predictable tendency of wanting those who have caused us suffering to suffer too regardless of circumstances or the rule of law.
Incidentally, this would mean that if President Mugabe were to be wrongfully arrested, we would also have to apply this same principle. I however do not want to imagine that at this juncture. It’s rather unpalatable but I digress.
My message to the war vets is therefore that if anything, this is the time to pull together and support that which is right. It is time we deliver one message and one massage only- enough is enough and we want our freedom from ZANU (PF) and Mugabe back right now. We must demand it and stop negotiating for it. It is ours by right and not some favour being done for us.
Zimbabwe has certainly changed for the better and we must now carry the burden together for challenging and changing our circumstances. I am glad that we are now together as citizens and we must take things a notch up.
I therefore plead with our political parties, churches, labour, war vets, civic bodies, social movements and all progressive democrats to unite as a matter of urgency to cease the day. There is no need to wait.
The future is no longer what it used to be!
Vince Musewe is an economist and author based in Harare. He is also the Secretary for Finance and Economic Affairs for PDP. You may contact him directly on vtmusewe@gmail.com
Post published in: Featured
Has Vince already forgotten the violent harassment, beatings, rapes and even murders carried out by these rogue war veterans in the name of no-regime-change to keep Mugabe in power? Or has he swept those historic facts under the carpet, as he has done with MDC leaders’ incompetence, etc. all in the name of political opportunism.
Now that Mugabe has fallen out with the war veteran thugs Musewe is jumping at the opportunity to have them join PDP and use their vast experience to force the people to vote PDP and get him into power. Like Mugabe, Musewe does not care how he gets into power.