"Our country has been brutalised at the expense of satisfying Mugabe and a handful of evil, self-interested, murderous, parasitic and dictatorial sycophants" Maziwisa

By Psychology Maziwisa 

ZANU PF as led by Robert Mugabe has not the slightest intention to allow Zimbabweans to freely express their political will especially if it has the potential to eventuate in a change of government. 

Their culture of violence has sabotaged every election since 2002. It is now being shamelessly brought to bear on the current constitutional outreach programme even with the unity government in place. 

The simple reality is that Mugabe is not interested in any process whose outcome might result in Morgan Tsvangirai succeeding him as President. He will, therefore, stop at nothing in his quest to stay in power.  He believes not in the democratic process but in tyranny as the tried and tested and, therefore, the only means to attaining and staying in power. He does not believe in free and fair elections let alone their results. 

Consequently, to believe that, simply by virtue of the institution of the inclusive government and his denunciations of violence, Mugabe has become more disposed to democracy than dictatorship is to be fooled by him. 

Our country has been brutalised at the expense of satisfying Mugabe and a handful of evil, self-interested, murderous, parasitic and dictatorial sycophants who have neither the desire nor the conscience to reflect on the extent of their unbelievable destructiveness. 

Reports so far compiled across the country about the three-month long constitutional outreach programme paint an extremely sad and disturbing picture. They are a reflection not just of the breathtaking level of shamelessness and willingness on the part of ZANU PF to intimidate, torture and even kill innocent citizens but also of their frightening determination to do anything and everything, however unthinkable it may be, simply in order to confirm Mugabe as President for life. 

That soldiers whose duty should be to safeguard the nation against any threat to the safety and security of its civilian citizens are ordered to march on that very civilian population with arms of war is outright terrorism. That they do so chanting the slogans of a specific party and, therefore, declaring their allegiance not to the nation in keeping with their oath but to that party, speaks to the character of Zimbabwe as a failed state. 

Instead of promoting peace and security they sow terror and strife. Across the nation, whatever sense of security was engendered by the advent of the inclusive government, is fast giving way to considerable apprehension and alarm. 

Newly established military camps in the Manicaland and Masvingo provinces are an ominous presence. In Karoi, for instance, soldiers have become a menacing and disturbingly common sight. In Bindura residents have been told that if they fail to support the Kariba draft which guarantees Mugabe’s excessive powers they do so at their own peril. 

Sadly, there is absolutely nothing new in this behaviour. It has happened too often before to come as a surprise to anyone. If anything, it has come to be regarded more as normal than abnormal in Zimbabwe. The onus is not on Mugabe but on Tsvangirai to show it in a different light. 

Thus far, he has not succeeded in doing so and the inevitable danger is that a lot more innocent lives will be lost, whatever progress has been achieved so far derailed, and the country will plummet further into the depths of dictatorship from which it may never emerge. 

Any honest analysis of the MDC post September 15, 2008 would indicate that apart from unsuccessfully declaring unilateral appointments by Mugabe as ‘null and void’ the MDC as we have known it over the years: courageous, confrontational, uncompromising and proactive has become alarmingly ineffective and compromised. Indeed, there might just well be some justification for the view that many in the MDC have become ‘comfortable’ in government and are more focused on enjoying the privileges of office than on challenging Mugabe and ZANU PF. 

How many people had limbs chopped off, relatives tortured and or killed in the fight for democracy during the infamous 2008 presidential election? They endured their sufferings because they were filled with hope and, while they did not expect direct assistance from the MDC at the time, many now rightly expect Tsvangirai and the MDC, as partners in the inclusive government with a say in controlling the police force, to do more to protect not just its supporters but all peace loving Zimbabweans who continue to be terrorised by ZANU PF thugs.  

There is a looming danger that, if the MDC does not have the audacity to ward off the terror, victory will go to those intent on having things their way as more and more Zimbabweans give in to their demands. 

Whenever reports of calculated and deliberate violence have surfaced, this writer has given voice to the legitimate expectation of the people of Zimbabwe that Tsvangirai and the MDC should do more than just deplore the violence and actually take some decisive action. Zimbabwe relies on Tsvangirai, not Mugabe, to save innocent lives. 

Intimidatory military camps across the country must be closed immediately and troops returned to barracks. That will not happen if all Tsvangirai does is to wring his hands. Tsvangirai must physically go to those camps to ensure that they are closed down. 

Psychology Maziwisa, LLB, Union for Sustainable Democracy

Psychology Maziwisa on Jonathan Moyo

Moyo's sickening sycophancy

Psychology Maziwisa

June 04, 2010

If there is one individual in Zimbabwean politics who will say anything and everything at the click of a finger simply in order to win his master's accolades, it is, unsurprisingly, that charlatan Jonathan Moyo.

Apparently the duty Moyo owes to his dictatorial master is one that he is prepared to fulfil even if it only serves to cheapen himself in the eyes of the people of Zimbabwe.

Surely, our hearts have to go out to the unfortunate and poor people of Tsholotsho who must certainly by now hate themselves for having elected such a weak sycophant as their parliamentary representative.

Throughout his career Moyo has developed and embraced such a sickening propensity to abruptly switch from an entirely sensible point of view to one that is totally outrageous.

He has only to be convinced that it is politically expedient. Everything else can be flagrantly ignored. There is not a single person familiar with Zimbabwean politics who would honestly profess ignorance of the fact that each time Moyo has fallen out of Mugabe's favour he has criticised him.

Indeed, they would equally confirm that whenever the opportunity to put a smile on the old man-s face has presented itself, Moyo has profusely sung the dictator's praises.

In his piece, The cancer of politics of personalities, published in The Herald on 27 May 2010, Moyo, in typically desperate fashion, took pains to pay homage to the controversial and controversially appointed Judge President George Chiweshe - apparently in an attempt to appeal to the latter's ear ahead of his day in court for allegedly defaming Roy Bennett.

The truth of the matter is that Moyo has every reason to be terrified because, if brought before an impartial Judge, the case against him is a compelling one. No doubt he takes consolation from ZANU PF's intrinsic conviction that anything that is associated with Mugabe is beyond the reach of the law.

However, what really prompted this writer to comment on a piece otherwise deserving of no comment at all was Moyo's ridiculous and patently untrue description of Mugabe as 'an iconic African leader with a towering global stature'. Such toadyism is simply sickening.

If that is what it means to be a politician then, rather than becoming one, I would much rather stick to being a commentator committed to 'keeping the bastards honest'!

A few examples will serve to illustrate Moyo's alarming inconsistency.

Just before the 2008 harmonised elections Moyo went on about how 'Mugabe should go now' because it was in his own best interest and in the national interest as well.

He argued that Mugabe's standing had plummeted both 'in and outside the country' and that his continued presence in office had become 'such an excessive burden to the welfare of the state and such a fatal danger to the public interest of Zimbabweans'.

Moyo correctly further argued that Mugabe lacked 'the vision, stature and energy to effectively run the country, let alone his party'.

Of Operation Murambatsvina he wrote that that evil exercise attested to the fact that Mugabe is 'without compassion'.

One wonders what really has changed between then and now for Moyo to now consider it a 'privilege' for anyone to serve in a Mugabe-led government.

In his recent unsuccessful attempt to sell Mugabe's presidency as one that promotes and protects the rule of law, Moyo unashamedly referred to Tsvangirai's justified calls for an end to Bennett's continued persecution as 'the most blatant and most outrageous attack on the rule of law since 1980'.

If Moyo wants clear examples of what really amounts to grave attacks on the rule of law he needs only to look at his master's monstrous political record.

It was Moyo's master and not Tsvangirai who arbitrarily detained, cruelly assaulted and devilishly tortured thousands of innocent Zimbabweans in Matabeleland during the years 1985 and 1986.

It was his master and not Tsvangirai who, in a 1982 speech to Parliament, said of Gukurahundi: 'An eye for an eye and an ear for an ear may not be adequate in our circumstances. We might very well demand two ears for one ear and two eyes for one eye'.

Indeed it was the dictator and not Tsvangirai who, in perhaps the clearest expression of his contempt for the rule of law, said: 'The government cannot allow the technicalities of the law to fetter its hands. We shall, therefore, proceed as government in a manner we feel as fitting; and some of the measures we shall take are measures which will be extra-legal.'

More recently, several Zimbabweans have either been prosecuted or threatened with prosecution for 'insulting the person of the President' simply for exercising what is recognised elsewhere as their inalienable right to free speech.

Rule of law in its purest form envisages that no one is above the law and everyone is subject to it. It is Mugabe and his cronies who have set themselves above the law.

Accordingly, no one can take seriously anything that charlatan Moyo ever says without causing their beloved ones a great deal of anxiety about the soundness of their mind.

Mugabe has not only wrought great evil on the people of Zimbabwe but his evil has infected those around him as is evidenced when we see the keenness with which Moyo licks his master's boots.

Psychology Maziwisa is Interim President of the Union for Sustainable Democracy (USD) and can be contacted at leader@usd.org.zw