Nobody has come to his defence about his right to listen to the music he likes. And yet President Robert Mugabe last Friday sprang to the defence of soldiers who have been making seditious statements about how they will not allow the people’s choice to take over after the next elections.
Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba has said he only wants Mugabe to rule Zimbabwe. He regards Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as a “security threat”. This is a political statement by a public servant who has taken an oath to serve the nation.
Mugabe says Parliament should not exercise its right to examine the role of the security forces in our country. He claims that because the leadership in the armed forces had taken part in the liberation war “nobody can teach them about democracy”. We beg to differ.
From their pronouncements, it would appear that the current leadership of the defence forces has no idea what democracy means. They have lost their way – together with the leadership of Zanu (PF) – in the murky world of greed and corruption.
Zanu (PF) no longer mentions one man one vote. Yet this was the nationalist parrot cry of the 1960s and 70s.
Ever since 2000, Zanu (PF) – with the connivance of the defence forces – has done everything to subvert the will of the people, by rigging elections, disenfranchising millions, and beating and raping tens of thousands of others.
Ian Smith’s oppressive laws are still on our statute books. The hated Law and Order Maintenance Act was only amended after the Supreme Court threw out most of its provisions as being ultra vires the Constitution.
The legislation introduced by Zanu (PF) to replace this Act was even worse. How anybody can defend soldiers who do not want to see the will of the people honoured is mystifying.
It is a fact that the security forces have lost the respect and confident of most Zimbabweans. In a true democracy the people revere those who protect them – they don’t fear them. Zimbabwe has a long way to go.
Post published in: Editor: Wilf Mbanga