EDITOR – It is shocking that the majority of our citizens will not have a happy Christmas. Gone are the days when this once-rainbow nation used to be a heaven when the festive season approaches.
November was the month when our fathers used to receive a thirteenth cheque and our households would be awash with groceries and new clothes for Christmas, and it would be merry in most townships. Some opted to spend the Christmas holidays in the rural areas with their parents, and they could still afford to buy them groceries as well.
But this year, Christmas is different – no chicken, no bonus, no sugar, no beer, no sweets, no electricity, no cooking oil, etc.
All these problems have been caused largely by our ‘dear’ leaders who are clinging to power like wounded tigers. I wonder how their children are going to eat this Christmas.
The country is facing its worst economic and political crisis since independence. Failed policies by the blue-eyed Gideon, who keeps lying to us that inflation is going down. As if that’s not enough, the governor is still fooling us that their failed bio- diesel project will end the fuel crisis. This also goes to show why they were duped by that ‘diesel nyanga’.
Promises that our shelves will be full also show how this man is playing with the suffering people of Zimbabwe. We certainly hope that the Lord’s hand will save this nation.
V BLESSING, Bulawayo Â
Let’s stop Mugabe now
EDITOR – Our cup of rage has been filled and I think this is the opportune moment to pour the cup’s contents onto Mugabe and his accomplices, as repercussion for taxing our patience for so long.
We have been telling him in no uncertain terms to vacate the presidency peacefully, but to no avail.
We did this through the ballot box, and he responded with massive rigging. We also staged a myriad demonstrations, sending him the same message, and he reacted by heartlessly torturing and killing people.
Now that the rigging process is in place for next year’s elections, we are left with no options except ‘other means’ that will culminate in everlasting tranquillity.
I have always likened the crisis to a critically ill person who may be prescribed an injection. The injection causes short-term pain but provides eternal therapy. So the injection is a necessary evil.
We now need people with the power to create the necessary turmoil that will galvanise the masses into action, to stop Mugabe from hallucinating about life presidency.
For how long shall we be under Mugabe’s yoke? I believe no condition is permanent. Let’s work as a united force with a sense of camaradarie. We will make a triuphant return to democracy, no matter what.
TAPIWA HOVE, MDC organiser, Pretoria
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They’re not democrats
EDITOR – The comments by the South African defence minister, reported in the media recently, should send a chill down the spine of all democrats in Africa. It exposes what is fundamentally wrong with the thinking of those in power in Africa. Once in power, leaders in Africa begin to believe that only they can lead the country and that only their ideas can take the country forward. This explains why some leaders have forced constitutional amendments to extend their hold on power.
It is therefore not surprising that Mbeki’s defence minister thinks like this. Mbeki himself seems to believe that the ANC has no life after him, hence he is trying to remain leader of the party even after serving his two terms.
I fail to understand why, in a democracy, people should not be thinking about changing their governments. To insinuate that the masses in Africa are not capable of contemplating changing governments without being influenced by Western governments is the biggest insult to the intelligence of those in Africa.
Lekota and Sekeremayi seem to think that it is the right of their respective parties to rule forever, even when the people have nothing to show for supporting them.
What should make us afraid is that, in South Africa where the government is still relatively popular, the leaders are displaying this kind of paranoia. This is a bad sign for democracy on the continent because it shows how, when people get to power, they forget that they were elected because they held promise for the people and that at some point the people will lose faith in how they are stewarding the ship of state.
I am disappointed with Lekota not because I consider him a democrat but because, by saying this, he is encouraging Robert Mugabe’s government to bury its head in the sand. He is giving Mugabe and his lieutenants ammunition to use against the people, accusing them of wanting a change of government because they are influenced by Western governments.
The idea of democracy is rooted in the thinking that people should be free to choose their rulers and that, whenever they feel that things are not going right, they change their government.
The reason we have elections is to give people a chance to effect regime change. Therefore, attempts at regime change should not be viewed as a ‘threat’ but an opportunity for those in power to show why they should be given another chance – and for those in opposition to demonstrate why they feel they will do better.
The people of Africa are intelligent enough to know when a change in government becomes necessary. They do not need to be told by anyone.
Everyone in Zimbabwe knows that Sekeramayi and his colleagues have failed us. There is no external force plotting regime change in Zimbabwe. The people want change because they have no jobs, no food, no water, no electricity, no medicines, no nothing. We do not need an outsider to tell us we need to get rid of Mugabe and his government in order for things to return to normal.
NYENGETERAI GIDI, South Africa
Wait for Mugabe’s obituary
EDITOR – The leadership and state media of Zimbabwe always use the death of someone as a platform for hate speech, a deplorable habit indeed.
Ian Smith is dead, and they are at it. They are reminding us that many Zimbabweans died at the hands of Ian Smith, that he declared that Africans will never rule.
What will the state media say when Mugabe dies?
MGCINI, Zimbabwe
Where is the freedom?
EDITOR – I want to share my sentiments on our failing tyrant Mugabe. It is with concern that I have noted how this oppressive man fools the majority of Zimbos with half-baked lies, always backed by his subordinates who also want a fair share of what has been despoiled out of this once-beautiful land of ours.
Mugabe claims he has, for the past 27 years, consolidated the freedom of us Zimbos. How then does he explain the Gukurahundi massacres of the ’80s? No historian, no journalist and no politician has been ‘freely’ allowed to cover this period without serious censorship, if not penalty.
If Gukurahundi was a mistake, how then do explain the cruel unleashing of the notorious Green Bombers on innocent civilians going about their businesses? Hundreds of innocent people were bashed while in queues, scouting for food. Hundreds were thumped, tear gassed, jailed and even killed from 2006 to date while demonstrating their displeasure at him.
It is taboo to speak ill, let alone to speak true facts, on the failures of Mugabe. Every Zimbabwean knows this and no one has to warn another of the dangers of ‘profaning the holy name of Mugabe’.
cIO agents swarm the cities like flies; actually anyone can be a CIO agent – from seemingly innocent students or vendors doing their trade in the city, to flamboyant citizens.
In Bulawayo, the stern warning one can get from friends when they dare challenge the failure of Mugabe is, “Uzibambe ngoba uzanyamalala ayisuwe wedwa odubekayo” (watch out lest you disappear, in any case you are not the only one suffering).
How does Mugabe explain this public opinion if his system of administering freedom to Zimbabweans has not failed? How does he justify the death of our brothers? How does he explain the death of Gift Tandare, Learnmore Jongwe, Cain Nkala and many others?
WORLD INTERCESSOR, Harare
Zimbabwe deserves better
EDITOR – Our ship has rocked the seabed; sadly no one wants to be responsible. Everyone talks about the wreck but no one talks about how we damaged the ship and how to rescue it.
We have become a nation of individuals, and always stand in each other’s way. We took Uhuru for mealtime without producing anything.
Even centuries-old conflicts resurface like weeds, that is, Ndebele-Shona or Black-White tensions. A whole set of troubles, bubbling to burst, have blighted Zimbabwe.
Out of desperation to cling to power, or get into power, both Zanu (PF) and the MDC have divided the nation. We never care about the future but remain trapped in history. The hidden truth about us is that we want to make as much money as De Beers diamond dealers yet there is virtually no production, except vandalism and poaching. Zimbabwe deserves better.
R CHAUKE, Zimbabwe