By Dr Masimba Mavaza | After the address of a rally in Kwekwe by the honourable vice President Chiwenga the CCC made frantic calls to their British handlers complaining about the choice of words by the vice president. In actual fact they complained nit to ZEC or police but to Britain that the VP was inciting violence. Lord Oates then cried more than the bereaved and triggered a debate in the English parliament. The nature of the debate which was short of threats addressed to Zimbabwe were anchored on the semantics. Funny the British all of a sudden became masters of teaching us our shona idioms.
To make their complaint hold water the CCC created a violent provocative incident which ended in one person losing his life. If the truth is to said the incident was created literally provoked to get the results needed.
If at all sixteen spear and machete wielding men attacking thousands of unsuspecting rally attendees there would have been total bloodshed. Hundred would have been injured and we would have had thousands of deaths. This was a stage managed event which went wrong.
Linking this incident to Chiwenga’s speech is a desperate move to soil the peaceful stage presented by the new dispensation. The new dispensation has presented a healthy democratic space and indeed the outbursts by the British legislators was misguided
Lord Oates did not know whether the words attibuted to the VP were said by him. For the sake of responding I will assume his informers Tweeted him such.
In their very nature and essence the words refer to crushing of a political party the CCC. That is what was expressly said. What angered the British legislatures is that their baby was to be crushed.
If you want to see who owns a puppet just touch it you will see the owner howling from a distance but very loudly.
There is a world of difference between crushing members of a party and crushing the party. Making an idiom a barometer of democracy and a rule of law is pathetic and desperate.
It may, in a certain context, be appropriate to interpret alluding to crushing members of another party to imply violence where the context allows the interpretation. However, to import the same interpretation to crushing a political party is preposterous, to say the least.
Crushing a party, on the face of it, simply means totally out-smarting it with political ideas, making it irrelevant. It means beating it resoundingly in elections and making it extinct. This is what frightened Lord Oates and howling started.
The VP Chiwenga had a right to assert that his party will out-wit, out-smart and out-do CCC. In fact he has history on his side to support this. Where is MDC now in all its formations as a political party? Where are the parties that contested the last elections? Where are their political leaders? Were they not crushed like flies? Was there any violence in rendering them obsolete.
It is astonishing how a politician in a distant continent can impose, out of context, an adverse meaning and out of context, on a political speech.
Here is a case where a person , the VP is mischievous judged without being given the opportunity to explain or to hear his own side.
Political debate is robust in any country. It is not for the faint-hearted. If politicians resort to tiptoeing, then there is no way of exposing those who are fake.
The violence and loss of life must be condemned in the strongest of terms. Our hearts goes out to the families and friends of the deceased.
No one must use a tragic event to score cheap political points. There is no link between the actions of the killers and the remarks of the VP directed at a political party.
It is sad that each time there are elections in Zimbabwe some political parties in the UK and US forgets that they are not Zimbabweans. They chose to have a debate on an election campaign. This is total external interference which must never be allowed.
Zimbabwean opposition politicians must learn to be united outside the borders of our political space and indeed fight internally. It does not make sense as opposition members to try and destroy the country only because you are losing in elections.
Conveniently Lord Oates did not mention violence perpetrated by the drunken CCC youth in Gokwe. He conveniently did not see the violence spread in Kwekwe by the CCC.
He did not find it necessary to condemn the violence which was urged by Bvondo and Chamisa on the podium.
To the British Parliament violence is only deplorable if it is believed to be coming from ZANU PF. If ZANU PF is on the receiving end no one finds it bad.
Zimbabwe is not a colony of the UK anymore.