Securocrats fool themselves

It is clear from such utterances that the Brigadier General is living in yesterdays world, where Mugabe is viewed as invincible and infallible for all time. Nothing can be further from the truth. The 2008 harmonised elections clearly demonstrated that Mugabe has long lost his shine among the electorate. He was soundly beaten by Morgan Tsvangirai and his party was walloped by the MDC-T.

There is no way Mugabe and Zanu (PF) could win any future elections in this country. Nyikayarambas misguided comments are meant to intimidate the people of this country into submission to the dictatorial regime of Mugabe and Zanu (PF). Fortunately, the people have now developed a thick skin and will keep on fighting for their rights and for true democracy.

The military has no place in the governance of a democratic state. Their role is that of defending the country against external enemies and not against the citizens of the country. For the military to repeatedly say they will not salute anyone who does not have credible liberation war credentials is to fool themselves.

The time has come for the people to demonstrate that they can resist all the machinations of the securocrats through the support that this country is receiving from the Sadc and the rest of Africa. We challenge Mugabe to continue to defy the Sadc in relation to the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

The old man knows that to do so would result in the most severe isolation – to the extent that we will be thrown back to the year 2008. This will result in the complete destruction of this country.

The Brigadier Generals utterances are clear testimony that no meaningful progress can be made in resolving the Zimbabwe crisis without reforming the security structures of this country. Indeed, one of the most effective ways of reforming our security structures is to retire most of the senior military personnel since they are totally impervious to change.

People like Nyikayaramba will never be convinced that this country can be better governed by anyone else except Robert Mugabe. They need to be retired from service and allowed to go into full-time farming since they have all been allocated commercial farms. It will be fruitless to try and retrain such people and expect them to accept change. They are too ignorant of the benefits of change. They are totally blind to Mugabes inadequacies. It will be a mammoth task to make such people respect the will of the people in an election in this country.

The Sadc could help this country considerably by insisting at the June meeting in Johannesburg that all parties to the GPA accept the drafted roadmap and work towards its implementation in the shortest possible time. They should insist that all the stipulated bench marks be met to the satisfaction of all the parties in the GNU, and that any departure from the roadmap be unacceptable to the regional body.

If Zanu (PF) insists that the security structures remain unformed and partisan, that should constitute a breach of the agreement and the roadmap, resulting in further delays to the holding of elections in this country.