Be wary of political trickery

OUR country is going through interesting times that have drawn the attention of our detractors.

There seems to be elaborate efforts aimed at derailing any efforts by ZANU PF in its quest to ensure that people of this great nation are emancipated. However, all such efforts have time and again resulted in failure on the part of our detractors and this is less pleasing to them.

All manner of tricks known to men have been aimed at dislodging ZANU PF from power, but still, the mighty people’s party stands.

As once stated by H.L. Mencken, “the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobglobins, all of them imaginary”.

In my readings of many books and other publications over the many years I have been blessed to be on Mother Earth, I have never encountered a truer statement. It has taken me a while, but I have finally put my finger on it and have deciphered the true meaning of these wise words that have been at the back of my mind for many years.

The illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe more than two decades ago were designed for the purpose of alarming the people, have them turn against their liberators and use puppets to govern. The whole notion of independence still remains alien to our detractors. Worse still, how we have held the ship steady over murky waters bothers them even more.

In their superior wisdom or lack of it, they decided to engineer and create a puppet opposition movement to dislodge ZANU PF and reverse the gains of our hard-won liberation. Now, the wheels are coming off and the opposition continues to disintegrate while the colossal ZANU PF holds steady.

You see, the whole aim of whatever opposition politics in Zimbabwe is to startle the masses, make them panic and purportedly lead them to some imagined safety. There is no safety that can be delivered by the puppets or their would-be saviours.

The puppet opposition parties serve only their masters at the expense of the people. Fake promises and some delusional utopia are all they have been able to serve to the people in an attempt to entice them while ZANU PF has delivered on its promises and more.

Of note is how, in the past few years since the coming in of the New Dispensation, there has been an increase in terms of productivity across all sectors of the economy.

Now that the summer cropping season is upon us, we should be able to build upon the gains made thus far, wherein Zimbabwe has for the first time achieved food security and sufficiency. This has been the direct result of the land reform programme. It might have taken time, but President Mnangagwa’s Government has revitalised our agriculture sector and we are no longer a basket case. In fact, we have now reclaimed our position as the bread basket of the region.

So impressive have been the works of President Mnangagwa and the ZANU PF party that over 1 million Zimbabweans who left the country in previous years have since moved back home, with quite a number of them venturing into the agriculture sector, which is the mainstay of our economy.

I, therefore, ask: If things were as bad as our detractors would want to paint them, then would all these children of this beloved country be making their way back home? Certainly not!

Be wary of political trickery and mischief designed to alarm the populace. I say to you, do not be alarmed for Zimbabwe is on its way up under the capable stewardship of President Mnangagwa and ZANU PF.

With Vision 2030, future generations will not only have something proud of to inherit but also something to build upon. Let us all remember the good works of my party, ZANU PF, and its capable leader President Mnangagwa as we head to by-elections on December 9.

Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is an academic and the Secretary-General of ZANU PF. He writes in his own capacity.