Wilbert Mukori | Zanu PF is a party of thugs and ever since the coup the party has been bending over backwards to portray itself has a transformed party keen to embrace the democratic values and even hold free, fair and credible elections next year. What the party members have been saying and doing, however, has revealed that bad habits die hard. And inbreed habits are impossible to forget, a thug will always be a thug.

“Your Defence and Security Services would like to remind all Zimbabweans to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious objects and individuals to law enforcement agents,” said Commander of the Zimbabwe National Army, Lieutenant General Phillip Valerio Sibanda.

“This is because some of the members of the G40 cabal that had surrounded the former Head of State are now bad mouthing the country from foreign lands where their intentions to harm the country have been pronounced.

“It is therefore the duty of every Zimbabwean to ensure that these malcontents and saboteurs and others of like mind are not allowed to succeed.”

A few days ago, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, the new Zanu PF chairperson shamelessly stood up to say “Pasi, pasi naJoice Mujuru!” (Death, death to Joice Mujuru!)

For the last 37 years the nation has been force fed the Zanu PF ethos that these with liberation war credentials are the only Zimbabweans worthy of the human freedoms, liberties, rights including the right to govern the nation and a lion’s share of the nation’s riches. The rest of us had no such freedoms and rights, not even the right to life. We must be content with whatever scraps the ruling elite throw at us. Now the ethos has been revised, all those expelled from Zanu PF have not just lost their membership of the party but worst of all they have been stripped of their humanity too.

The irony is that President Mnangagwa and many of those around him today were booted or were going to be booted out of Zanu PF themselves. They have had to resort to the desperate measure of staging a military coup otherwise it would be them and Jonathan Moyo, Kasukuwere and the rest in the G40 faction who will be on the run for dear life!

Whether Commander Sibanda, Oppah Muchinguri President Mnangagwa or anyone else in Zanu PF care to admit it or not; the fact of the matter is Mujuru and all the other former Zanu PF cadres and the rest of us povo are all Zimbabweans and, per se, have very right to all the freedoms and all the basic human rights the rest of the world take for granted. We claim the right to free, fair and credible elections as a right and not a privilege to be granted to some and denied others.

Commander Sibanda, it is not for you or the army to label Zanu PF’s political opponents “malcontents and saboteurs”. If you know of any crimes Moyo or Kasukuwere have committed then report the details to the appropriate authority for investigation. It is totally unacceptable for the army to be arresting and detaining anyone, as happened with Ignatius Chombo, much less making politically loaded threatening remarks.

If President Mnangagwa is serious about holding free and fair elections next year then why has he kept the obnoxious Ministry of Information whose sole purpose is to stifle freedom of expression and free media. He has not implemented even one democratic reform, he knows that with no meaningful reforms, it is impossible to have free and fair elections.

Zanu PF is a party of thugs and all efforts to present themselves as democrats is a waste of time because their thug persona comes out each time they open their mouth or do anything. You can soak the skunk in channel 5 but the minute it flicks its tail, there is no mistaking it for anything else!