Words spoken too soon indeed! Exactly a week later, the nation was left shell-shocked by the demise of one of the true liberation war heroes in an inferno. A trained soldier of the liberation struggle who survived gunfire during the war was reduced to ashes by a fire that engulfed the farmhouse.
Mujuru is one person who appealed to almost every citizen of our polarised nation. Unlike the current crop of so-called liberation war heroes, military officers who hold the nation to ransom by threatening war on people they are supposed to have liberated if they ‘sell-out’ by voting for any party but Zanu PF, Mujuru was a notch above in his conduct with the civilian populace.
Not that the man was a saint, but he remained a professional soldier and never issued a statement that undermined the will of the people. He vied for political office only when he had left the military and never issued threats of war to any opponent.
That there is talk in political circles of a Mujuru faction and a Mnangagwa faction in Zanu PF shows the kind of power the late General wielded. These factions that have been a thorn in the flesh for the old dictator Mugabe. The circumstances surrounding his death which have left more questions than answers will surely cause more division to the cornered party. The power matrix has changed with Mujuru’s death. His now widowed wife, vice-president Joice, is left to face-off with the Mnangagwa faction, which includes Jonathan Moyo has recently been complaining about resistance against change by the Zanu (PF) old guard.
Sleepless is the head that wears the crown (Mugabe). He sowed the wind by refusing open debate and resorting to bully tactics, and now he is going to reap the whirlwind with the turn of events. Like the second witch in the famous Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth somebody is saying ‘…something wicked this way comes’. No prizes for guessing who that is. – Hasani Hasani, JOHANNESBURG
Post published in: Letters to the Editor