It will take two days to remove Emmerson Mnangagwa from power. The first day of voting, the second day of vote counting and he is history.
By Grace Kwinjeh
I write this piece in view of dismantling retrogressive notions that smooth power transfer, through elections, is alien to post-colonial African states including Zimbabwe, still struggling with the last vestiges of colonialism.
In the case of Zimbabwe, there exists a complex Zanu PF – military conflation, as witnessed in the 2017 coup that removed former President Robert Mugabe from power, whose consequences we are suffering from today and can only be cured through a free and fair election.
For the sceptics it should be noted that the dynamics surrounding this historical conflation from our liberation struggle days, are unravelling in a rather dynamic way that favours the masses – watch the space.
I argue here that it is possible without blood-shed for Zimbabwe to transition from a Mnangagwa era to a new one – lots of examples around us.
Upon departure, Mnangagwa will join the list of former presidents in the SADC region; who include Botswana’s Ian Khama, South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, Zambia’s Edward Lungu, and Tanzania’s Jakaya Mirisho Kikwete, among others.
In the above instances, there was smooth power transfer – therefore Zimbabwe is no exception.
Meaning that there is absolutely nothing unique or should be problematic about Zimbabweans, demanding a free and fair election that will usher in new leadership. An elected leadership that brings in new ideas to allow the country to heal and move forward with dignity and pride with the rest of the region and continent.
It is demonstrably foolhardy, for anyone to argue that Zimbabweans wanting change, and deliverance from Mnangagwa’s rapacious state of mind, are unpatriotic or agents of imperialism to reverse the gains of independence.
Silly blackmail, by fake Pan-Africans who are in violation of everything that the ideology stands for, as they internalise and project the very racist views and attitudes, against fellow Africans.
The assumption is that as black Zimbabweans, we lack the consciousness or capacity to think for ourselves, but rather we are subjects of white influence, to rebel against the oppression around us. That we black people lack the capacity to reason or analyse how Mnangagwa has failed us and must go.
It is disheartening that the very people who are aiding and abetting, the continued plunder of our resources, by foreign interests, from the East and West, stripping the very black masses of dignified lives – should claim to be champions of Pan African ideals. This maintenance and perpetuation of colonial ideals by Mnangagwa and crew, in post-colonial Zimbabwe is in actual fact an indictment of them and their leadership, as Frantz Fanon argues, “Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land but from our minds as well.”
One can further argue that just like the administrators in the old slave plantations, Mnangagwa is just a puppet, of the very capitalist forces – indeed opening Zimbabwe for business – the business of looting and plunder.
There is nothing foreign or imported when Zimbabweans demand what is rightfully theirs, their right to choose leaders of their choice without fear or favour.
Smooth transfer of power has taken place in several SADC countries, instances in which nationalist leaders, who made great sacrifices to liberate us from colonial rule, respected the will of the people, be it within their own movements or in national politics.
Namibia’s former President Dr Sam Nujoma recently celebrated his 93rd birthday, with good wishes from Namibians across the board, including a message to honour him from President Hage Geingob.
Mnangagwa’s body language negates every ‘Ubuntu’ value that should make us proud as Zimbabweans.
Mugabe’s memory is daily trashed – a tragic comedy.
Furthermore, just because America has torture bases in Guantanamo Bay, or the West has colonised, oppressed us and taken us through the most cruel experiences of slavery, does not justify us sinking with them and lowering our standards.
Why emulate the worst standards to justify primitive black on black violence and exclusion? We realise a problem here that the elites in Harare in power today also need to have their minds decolonised. They need special deliverance and the next election will do that.
Never mind the exemplary leadership from within the region.
Mnangagwa is afraid of Mugabe’s ghost.
We watch as he daily victimises the former President’s family, unwittingly thrashing the very liberation struggle ethos he pretends to be a champion of. Only recently he failed to exhume Mugabe’s grave, but, more sinister is that young Bob junior is hospitalised under unclear circumstances.
Unlike other liberation movements, scared Mnangagwa refuses democracy even within his own Zanu PF party. As I write a young Zanu PF activist Sybeth Musengezi, is in police custody over trumped-up charges that he misrepresented his home address to the ruling party in 2012.
The young generation under Advocate Nelson Chamisa is also regrouping, rebranding opposition politics in Zimbabwe to give Mnangagwa a run for his money. The pressure comes from all angles.
The game in town is fast-changing, two days only and Mnangagwa is history.
