Chief Murinye is the man of the year

gret, demanding a seat among the righteous?

Murinye says that he witnessed a Gonyenti (18-wheeler truck) carrying top-up fertilizer supplies back to Harare for disposal on the black market. He says that he warned the PROPO (Police Commander) and gave the details of the truck. Murinye did not get satisfaction.

In another case, his assistant, named Chiremba, observed fertiliser bags being off-loaded through classroom windows in the middle of the night, obviously purported for a clandestine destination.

He reported this incident but was not given satisfaction.

The reason he was not given satisfaction is that he came with dirty hands. He confesses that he was a beneficiary of a “grab farm” on the well water-shed slopes of the Great Zimbabwe escarpment. The geographical faults in that escarpment make room for perennial springs that were used by white farmers for wheat growing. His children also benefitted from “grab plots”.

In our research on the

Murinye, in our reading, comes far short of a princely status among the looters. His cutting up and acting out is therefore aimed at raising his status among the looting princes. He feels that he has not been properly rewarded for his hard work and sacrifices as a “devil commissar in Masvingo Province” for Zanu PF.

We must also mention that those acolytes who are at the bottom of the ladder and far away from the princely personages are worked literally to death. They willingly take this position and do the most horrendous deeds, foul and deadly, in the hope of being noticed and raised in rank up the ladder to a princely status. Unfortunately, without renewable leadership, and geriatrics in their eighties holding their positions well into the twilight zone, their careers in the looting business become riskier by the day.

The punishment for rebellion, or for exposing their secrets are well known. Murinye has accepted that: “They may kill me if they want. I am already dead anyway.” The punishments for exposing the party are well known. Are these not written in the chronicles of Joost Fontein in his book: