By Khulani Ndlovu| Revolutionary greetings comrades. The Gukurahundi issue is a very sensitive matter that needs to be treated with great care. What is an insult is having a president who is a perpetrator appointing his friends into the reconciliation commission. His abuse of the army to rise to power makes him a constitutional delinquent, unfit for that office. Thus, his candidature is suspicious and dirty.
The then Minister of State of Security, Emmerson Mnangagwa in 1983 pronounced that: “Blessed are they who will follow the path of the Government laws for their days on earth will be increased. But woe unto those who will choose the path of collaborators with dissidents for we will certainlly shorten their stay on earth.”
This is a very strong statement which is pregnant with all sorts of evil and hatred. It defines who Mnangagwa is. The statement confirms that Gukurahundi was well ochestrated and was supported by the then government. The argument that Mnangagwa was not involved in Gukurahundi is vague, ludicrous and an insult to the victims. It is deficient imperical justification. Archival sources point to his active involvement in the massacres hence it is a valid criticism that he consciously killed Matebeleland and Midlands he suspected supported Zapu. It was a clear ethnic cleasing meant to silence oppostion.
He threatened to shorten the lives of dissidents and those who allegedly collaborated with dissidents. What is clear from his assertion is that all the Ndebele and sister tribes that supported Zapu were perceived as dissidents, their families and friends as collaborators. In achieving his objective of punishing dissidents and their collaborators, he killed more than 20 000 unarmed civilians.
Perhaps the greatest service a student of history and politics can do to himself in attempting to study the Gukurahundi massacres, is to dismiss completely from his mind the notion that the 5th brigrade was aimed at punishing dissidents and collaborators. The student can then have some chance of realising that the dissidents and collaborators could not amount to 20 000 (the number of killed civilians) and therefore Gukurahundi was an act of ethnic cleansing meant to silence Zapu.
It is now apparent that Mnangagwa uses force to achieve his political dreams and aspirations. His abuse of the army to rise to power also confirms that he can do anything and everything to consolidate his power. In his world constitutionalism is a limitation that can eliminated willy nilly. He has no respect for the constitution hence he is an illegitimate president. The whole world knows that. He therefore desperately needs elections to sanitise the coup.
It is clear that Mnangagwa perpetrated Gukurahundi massacres and committed a coup to rise to power. Zimbabwe is today a military state because of Mnangagwa. Dear Zimbabweans, is this the kind of a president we want? If we seek to retain democracy and constitutionalism in Zimbabwe, then we must vote Zanu PF out of power because it is a bullwark of the rule of law.
I therefore submit that Mnangagwa is a constitutional delinquent, unfit to be the state president. Comrade Joice Mujuru is the only candidate that can give us a break from Zanu Pf misrule. Dear Zimbabweans, if we want to restore our country to the committee of nations and the rule of law, let us vote for Dr Joice Mujuru. Her attractive and healthy political CV makes her the ideal candidate to take us to the promised land. As NPP and PRC, we are wholly behind Mujuru and we have hope that she will take down Mnangagwa and lead the country to a new dawn.
Victory is certain, alluta constinua