My Country is Bleeding

Chihuri followed it up with receiving vehicles from dictator Robert Mugabe and passing the cars to selected members of the police force. 

It’s something called ‘bribery.’ Chihuri then cancelled leave for police officers and recalled those who were already on leave so that these civil servants can campaign for Mugabe.

 Then this week, Army commander General Constantine Chiwenga threatened to stage a coup if Mugabe lost the forthcoming elections because, he said, the army would not support an opposition-led government.  “Elections are coming and the army will not support or salute sell-outs and agents of the West before, during and after the presidential elections,” Chiwenga is quoted as saying, adding that Mugabe had sacrificed a lot for the country and deserved support.

 Obviously, the army general has been blind for decades if he cannot see the sacrifices the people continue to make against his master’s voodoo economics, politics of patronage, stolen elections, disregard for human life, starving old men, women and children, corruption, absence of human and  property rights and the mysterious disappearance of political opponents.

 Chiwenga has his muzzle so deep in the feeding trough that, when questioned about the role of the army in protecting a democracy, he burst out, “Are you mad? What is wrong with the army supporting the President against the election of sell-outs?”

 And during this verbal altercation, a woman thought to be Jocelyn Chiwenga, the general’s wife, is reported to have grabbed the phone and growled, “We can come and take you, and deal with you.”  But why? 

Jocelyn, the one time bar-room waitress, is no stranger to mindless controversy. In 2002, she was quoted as having told a white Zimbabwean  farmer, whose farm she coveted, that she had not tasted white blood in years. She has shamelessly assaulted lawyers and journalists all the while moronically singing Mugabe’s praises and that is why she has never appeared in court to answer to her crimes.

 Where else in the world would you find an army commander openly telling the press that he is going to stage a coup if certain things don’t happen? Only in Zimbabwe! Because there is no rule of law. Threats of a coup are coming from the same people who grounded a planeload of alleged South African coup plotters on their way to toppling another notorious son of Africa, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, of Equatorial Guinea. 

Mugabe made the South African adventurers serve prison terms saying coups must be discouraged on the African continent. Today, a bootlicking general  ignorantly proclaims his intention to commit treason if things don’t go his way. And Mugabe smiles. A coup, for whatever reason, is a crime against the people and the constitution. What further evidence is needed to show that Zimbabweans are being asked to participate in an electoral charade whose results are not going to be honoured anyway?

What further evidence is needed to prove Ian Smith’s proclamation that Mugabe and ZANU-PF are gangsters? Mugabe’s government is nothing less than organised crime. And as if that were not enough, Zimbabweans are irked that the notorious do-nothing organisation called the Southern African

Development Community (SADC) has staked its presence in Zimbabwe “to monitor the elections.” And the big fish himself, Tomaz Salomao, SADC  Secretary-General, went there in person.

 Why is he not saying anything about the bad political climate in Zimbabwe? For sometime now, people have been harassed, refused permission to hold rallies, bullied, arrested and some have started to disappear. It’s a typical Robert Mugabe electioneering practice.

“As we come and observe elections in Zimbabwe, we do so with confidence thatthe tradition of peace encapsulated in the unquestionable political maturity and tolerance shall, once again, guide Zimbabweans as they go to the polls,” Salomao said at a news conference in Harare two days ago. How nauseating, pathetic and insulting to Zimbabweans! Can anyone in their right mind, let alone Salomao and his rancid organisation, ever talk about Zimbabwe’s “tradition of peace”, “unquestionable political maturity” and “tolerance”?

And some people say my criticism of SADC and its leaders is unwarranted? Does Salomao read news reports at all? Why is he lying? He knows fully well that the scheduled elections in Zimbabwe are submerged in circumstances that do not meet any of his organisation’s requirements, so what is he going to monitor? Why is Salomao and his SADC playing such a sickening an immoral role in the continued oppression of Zimbabweans?

This leads me to one conclusion: Salomao is only in Zimbabwe so as to be the first to congratulate and endorse General Chiwenga’s coup d’état while relaxing at Victoria Falls. Paradzai Zimondi is a retired major and is the Zimbabwe Prisons Service chief. Last week, he vowed he would resign and ‘go back to defend my piece of land’ if Mugabe lost the election. He ordered his officers to vote for Mugabe and announced his intention to resign if the opposition won the elections.

 “I am giving you an order to vote for the President,” Zimondi said at a ceremony at which he was conferring new ranks on senior officers, making one wonder if the promotions were rewards for the votes.n  Does Salomao care?

 Meanwhile, another clown, deposed Anglican Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, Mugabe’s spiritual midget and partner in futility who was recently thrown out of the Anglican Church, is urging Zimbabweans to vote for Mugabe.

 Kunonga, who, like Mugabe, has lost the knack of civilised discourse, is refusing to give up his position as Anglican Bishop of Harare. He went to court using parish funds to stop parishioners from worshipping at the famed Anglican Cathedral in Harare. He lost and now sleeps and lives in the church to make sure that only those people who support dictator Mugabe have access to the vicary.  Any comment SADC?

 Mugabe has provided Kunonga with a band of the feared CIO agents to protect him at the commandeered Cathedral as he soils God’s name and that of the church and tries to justify evil to please a murderous tyrant.

Kunonga continues ‘to rely on state security for protection and continues to receive immunity from arrest despite violating three court orders governing the use of the cathedral.’ “As the church, we see the President with different eyes,” says Kunonga. “To us he is a prophet of God who was sent to deliver the people of Zimbabwe from bondage.”

 Imagine an ordained bishop of the church using words like ‘anointed’ and ‘prophet’ to describe a murderer. A bishop claiming that a man with blood on his hands is actually our Loving God’s messenger “to deliver Zimbabweans from bondage” while it is Mugabe himself who has wreaked bondage, deaths and misery on the people of Zimbabwe. Talk about blasphemy!

Were Kunonga a Moslem, he would be a prime candidate for the fatwa. As I try to organise the kaleidoscope of images in my head, confused and betrayed, one evident and recurrent sad observation among these political morons appears to be their total disdain and disregard for the people’s lives and wishes. To survive, these bloodsuckers must keep democracy away. To keep Zimbabwe, they have to destroy it. To maintain their oppressive and corrupt lives, they must stand behind Mugabe. Have those who have been killed died in vain? No! As Zimbabweans, we can’t undo the past but we can and must reconsider the future.

 If history repeats itself with us, it is us who should get the blame. When I see the company that SADC keeps, I am afraid for our nation and continent but, again, ‘to be alive is to be afraid because to not be afraid is to be dead.’ And, as somebody said, I am secure in my sanity; I am guilty only of running away from pain. My country is bleeding.