Unleashing military on citizens unmerited, overstepping bounds of Statemanship
HIS Excellency, unleashing the military on citizenry was unmerited aggression. It was a brazen assault that inevitably impelled me to inflict myself on you. As I see it, the repression machinery you set blazing on civilians was as unwarranted as it was disproportionate.
Running foul of democracy is bothersome to me. It grieves me like bereavement. Methinks you overstepped the bounds of Statemanship. It was despotic for government to go overboard in its determination to thwart the July 31 public demonstration.
It was overly heavyhanded to militarily barricade all entry points into cities and towns nationwide. It was despicable, to all intents and purposes, that government thundered on citizenry under the guise of enforcing coronavirus lockdown measures.
Obviously, government was consumed by hurtful emotions than by public goodwill in its zeal to stamp out the protest. With all due respect, it was far-fetched for Zanu PF and government to be convinced that the objective of the demonstration was to effect regime change.
It warrants derision for a government which stormed to power courtesy of a concerted military-aided operation to subscribe to the blatant fallacy that it could be dislodged by the demonstration. This hallucination is evidence of a government doubtful of its legitimacy.
My heart grieves over the resultant mayhem. A great deal of beatings and arrests occurred. Ordinarily, a Presidency confident of its legitimate mandate to rule does not deploy the armed forces against civilians. It does not employ anarchy and brutality on citizenry.
It dares not loosen hounds. Rather, it endears itself by safeguarding civil liberties. It strives to protect fundamental rights. It endeavours almost on bended knees, like a suitor, to earn adoration and acceptance by being tolerant to alternative perspectives.
It is injudicious for government to justify its heavy-handedness on the lame belief that the demonstration was meant to topple it. Essentially, freedom to demonstrate is so basic a human right that to deny it is akin to admit to running a dreadful iron curtain government.
After all, if it is a settled matter that the voice of the people is the voice of God, they must be allowed unfettered right to speak through demonstration. His Excellency, the brand of party and government politics must be humane and public spirited for it to be progressive.
However, a lot of tongue lashing was bound to go on during the countdown to July 31. Predictably, it was destined to be dominated by government, Zanu PF politburo and party structures, taking turns to pant on national television. Actually, true to expectations, they did rant and rave on end.
And, when the day came, it was not surprising, even to intermittent officers of the court of public opinion that July 31 arrived minus basic human freedoms. It was a maddening day on which bane prevailed over boon, with all towns and cities forlorn, like ghost centres.
As I see it, the government line of reasoning that the demonstration was not successful lacks sincerity. Given the attention that party and government paid to it, and the repressive apparatus it rolled out, methinks government conversely made the event a success.
Be that as it may, with the ordeal of the arrested journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume already been sufficiently reported, it suffices to mention that oftentimes the late deposed former President Robert Mugabe caged opponents accusing them of attempting to overthrow a “legitimately elected government.”
Several opponents, among them liberation struggle veterans, the late commanders Lookout Masuku and Dumiso Dabengwa endured the bitter sting of persecution and detention during the first republic. Since then, Zimbabwe has been a dreadful deathbed for democracy.
It cannot be coincidental that a likewise repression prevails in the second republic. Recently, a youth league leader accused of undermining the authority of the President was punished by expulsion from the party. Yet, his supposed crime was to speak out against corruption.
His Excellency, the ongoing clampdown on democratic space overlaps into dictatorship territory. With intolerance now brewing like that of Emperor Nero who tormented Christian converts, it has become impossible to differentiate the second republic from the first.
Currently, prospects of economic recovery are remote. If ever there was time probity was needed, it is now. Although the coronavirus has added woes, it is not the source of challenges affecting Zimbabwe. It is foolhardy to blame COVID-19 for the free-falling economy.
All things being equal, Zimbabweans should be effervescent; energetic and contented citizenry. Theirs is a country that is endowed with bountiful resources. Her merits as the breadbasket of the region and the jewel of Africa are self evident.
She has plentiful comparative advantages over the entire region. Consequently, colonial masters purposefully made her the hub of the then three nations that constituted the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, with then Salisbury built on the blueprint of London.
She was the regional country of choice. Nationals from the federation streamed for training at such institutions as the then Andrew Flaming Nursing School, now Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and the then University of Rhodesia, now University of Zimbabwe.
Citizens of neighbouring countries would salivate on meeting a Zimbabwean.
His Excellency, given that you are on the verge of your second childhood phase, it is my fervent prayer that your memory of the ticking economy we inherited at independence is still clear.
Yet, it is now an irony of the Zimbabwe sovereignty that even children of national heroes also fled into the diaspora. They are scattered across the globe just as their parents were scattered in the bush. They are viewed as a basket case throughout the region and beyond.
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